372 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



also, as a rule, unconnected with crests. So accustomed have the 

 West Coast Indians, particularly those of the north, become to the 

 representation of crest animals in carving and painting, that they 

 introduce them even in objects that are not as a rule connected with the 

 exercise of privileges. Among such objects are the beautifully orna- 

 mented dishes, boxes, batons, spoons, rattles, clubbers, and gambling- 

 sticks that are so often admired in ethnological museums. We see 

 here how the elaboration of the crest system has fostered among these 

 Indians the development of plastic art. It has also been suggested, 

 and I believe with justice, that the tendency to artistic and dramatic 

 representation in turn reacted upon the development of the crest 

 system, a development that was strengthened by the ever-present 

 desire for new privileges and for novel ways of exhibiting the old ones. 



The origin of the crests need not have been the same in all cases. 

 In some cases, for instance, it can be shown that they were obtained by 

 marriage or as gifts in return for a service. These new crests would 

 of course be handed down along with the old inherited ones. Such 

 methods of obtaining crests, however, must be considered as purely 

 secondary, and the real problem of accounting for their origin still 

 remains. The most plausible explanation that has been offered is, 

 on the whole, that which considers the clan crest as an extension of the 

 personal manitou or tutelary being. Among practically all Indians 

 we find the practice of seeking supernatural protection or power by 

 fasting and dreaming of certain animals or objects that are believed to 

 be endowed with such power. If we suppose that a personal guardian 

 thus obtained is handed down by inheritance, we can readily under- 

 stand how the manitou of an ancestor may gradually become trans- 

 formed into a clan totem or crest. The main difficulty with this 

 theory is that personal guardians or medicines do not normally seem 

 to be inheritable. On the other hand, the legends related by the 

 West Coast Indians to account for the origin of crests do bear an un- 

 mistaken resemblance to tales of the acquisition of supernatural 

 guardians. It is not difficult to understand how the religious element, 

 which must have been strongly emphasized in the manitou, gradually 

 faded away as the manitou developed (or degenerated) into a crest. 

 At any rate, the problem is far from being satisfactorily solved. 



Even more fundamental than the clans are, among the northern 

 tribes, the phratries which include them. Their origin also is far 

 from clear. Whether they resulted from the amalgamation of a 

 number of clans into larger units, or whether, on the contrary, the 

 clans within the phratry are to be considered as local off-shoots from it, 

 is often difficult to decide. On the whole, however, the latter alterna- 

 tive seems the more typical one. This is indicated, first of all, by the 



