*| RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 87 



Columbia differ among the upper and lower classes. 

 A chief or a notable took his bride home or had her 

 brought to him. With the other classes the accepted 

 suitor made the formal offering of firewood to his 

 prospective father-in-law. This signified that he was 

 subject to the latter. It placed him in the position of 

 "younger" man whether he was actually so or not; 

 and among all the Salish tribes age, real or imputed, 

 confers authority. On entering the house "he is made 

 welcome and invited to sit down with the family along- 

 side of his bride. It is this formal inclusion in the 

 family circle of the bride that constitutes the marriage." 

 The bridegroom stays there at least four days, and 

 then is free to go or stay as he chooses. Sometimes 

 he continues to live in the family of his father- 

 in-law. Mr. Hill-Tout, whose report I am quoting, 

 adds : " This inclusion of the son-in-law within the 

 family circle gives him all the rights of son- 

 ship and his offspring are regarded as belonging to his 

 wife's family just as much as to his own. This and 

 other customs would seem to point to an earlier social 

 organisation, to a time when [mother-right] prevailed," 

 though now the kin is reckoned on both sides. The 

 eldest daughter was always the first to marry, and 

 her husband usually married all her sisters. 1 The 



1 Hill-Tout, /. A. I. xxxv. 131. Mr. Hill-Tout writes mainly 

 of the branch of the tribe occupying the upper reaches of the 

 Lillooet Valley. His opinion just quoted seems to be confirmed 

 by another investigator, who deals more particularly with a branch 

 of the tribe seated further down the Lillooet River. He says : 

 " Generally the wife followed the husband to his village, although 

 cases in which the husband lived with the wife's clan are very 

 common, and may have been the rule, at least among the Lower 

 Lillooet" (Te[t t jesup Exped. ii. 255). 



