86 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



him in case of infidelity to his wife. Her vigilance 

 implies residence after marriage with her or in her 

 neighbourhood. In the traditional stories, residence 

 with the wife's kin is very common, if not usual. 1 It 

 would seem therefore that it was the former practice. 

 Probably it still is, even in case of formal marriage. 

 The Haida are divided into two exogamous clans. 

 These clans are subdivided into families, settled in 

 towns, each town being inhabited by several families 

 generally belonging to both clans. Certain special 

 families and towns are in the habit of intermarrying. 

 The daughter of a man's maternal uncle therefore 

 might be the wife who would ordinarily be chosen for 

 him ; 2 and in many cases he might reside at his uncle's 

 house or town in the double capacity of nephew and 

 son-in-law. Thus, even though he had gone through 

 the ceremony of formal marriage there would be no 

 removal of the bride, at least from her father's town 

 and perhaps not from his house. On the whole, 

 however, an examination of the traditions and practice 

 of the Haida and of the neighbouring peoples of 

 British Columbia mentioned in the following pages 

 gives ground for the conclusion that the formal 

 marriage is a comparatively recent innovation on the 

 original custom, namely, that of the informal marriage, 

 and is part of the social evolution already in progress 

 before the white man came upon the scene. 



The marriage customs of the StlatlumH of British 



1 Swanton, op. tit. 223, 236, 249, &c. 



2 This is borne out by traditional tales. Indeed, according to 

 a tradition of the Masset Haida a man had an indefeasible claim on 

 his uncle's daughter, and took care to exercise it (Swanton, x. 

 op. '/., 654. cf. 717, 719). 



