204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. IV. 



With the exception of Tsa-yu, which means " Beaver-medicine," those 

 words are untranslatable and are probably imported from among the 

 heterogeneous tribes from which the whole system is undoubtedly derived. 

 The first gens, qt'samsc-yu, is by all odds the most powerful among the 

 Carriers, while the two last named are considered as having a sort of 

 affinity which entitles the members of each to mutual consideration and 

 protection. The name of the latter, Tam'ten-yu in Babine, is changed 

 to YJWdn-pa-Jiwd te7ine * among the Carriers proper. 



In great native festivals, the totem of the celebrating clan was carved 

 and exposed at the door of the lodge so that every exogentile incomer 

 may have an opportunity of presenting it with anything of value which 

 he may intend for the givers of the feast with the tacit, but well-known, 

 understanding that it be subsequently paid for by a donation of at least 

 equal worth. Even the public naming of one's gentile totem by a 

 member of a different clan demanded the gift of a blanket, a piece of 

 dressed skin, or any article of wearing apparel, so that the crest may not 

 remain ignored and the whole gens thereby dishonoured. 



An important sociological peculiarity which I have nowhere else noted 

 -claims attention in this connection. The clan totem is called ndtsi in 

 Carrier. But beside the natsi there existed here another kind of totem 

 which I have named the "honorific totem." It was personal and did not 

 pass to one's descendants, though it differed from that revealed in dreams- 

 Its native name was shdn-koh, a compound word which may be freely 

 translated by "rite." It was voluntarily assumed with an accompaniment 

 of befitting ceremonies by any titled or untitled individual who wished 

 to advance in social standing. It entitled the owner to special con- 

 sideration, though the latter could on that account lay claim to the 

 possession of no hunting grounds nor to the exalted rank which was the 

 strict property of the " noblemen " or tdneza\ In a word, those honorific 

 totems created a sort of middle class, the bourgeoisie of the Carriers. 

 They were many and varied, and, with the exception of one, they 

 followed the clan in such a way that those proper to one could not be 

 assumed by a member of another. Here are those now remembered by 

 the natives : — 



To the qt's3m3c-yu belonged the Owl, the Moose, the Full Moon, the 

 Weasel, the Wind, the Crane, the Wolf, the " Darding Knife," the " Rain 

 of Stones," and the Brook Trout. 



Of those pertaining to the Tsayu or Beaver gens, only the Mountain 

 Goat is now remembered. 



* " Inhabitants of the fireside." 



