[aiz-rour] ORIGIN OF THE TOTEMISM OF THE ABORIGINES 15 
of the sélia or dream totem; but as the serious differences in their 
respective accounts of the northern totems show that one or other of 
them has not fully understood this difficult and perplexing subject, and 
that much remain yet to be learnt concerning it, I am disposed to 
think that when fuller and more detailed investigations have been made 
we shall find that szlia-ism underlies much of the totemism of the 
Haida-Tlingit and Tsimshian as of the tribes which border them. How- 
ever, whether it does or not, there is no doubt that the totems of this 
region arise in one or other of the two ways I have pointed out, and 
that the members of them do not regard themselves as descendants of 
their totem prototypes as appears commonly to be the case in other 
regions and amongst other peoples. 
It would be interesting to continue our subject further and consider 
the reasons which lead to the amalgamation of gentes into clan groups 
and phratries which are sometimes endogamic, at others exogamic, and 
why in one tribe we find two clans, in another three and in another 
four. But the data bearing on some of these subjects are yet too imper- 
fect and contradictory for any satisfactory results to be obtained from 
the attempt, more detailed and systematic investigation being necessary 
before we shall be in a position to undertake such a task. 
