boas] TSIMSHIAN SOCIETY 499 



The chief 1 seems to have been able to wield almost autocratic power, 

 provided his personality was strong enough. He always decided 

 when the tribe were to move, and when to begin fishing and other 

 operations in which the whole tribe were concerned. 



The chief has to carry out the decisions of the councd; more par- 

 ticularly, he has to declare peace and war. His opinion must be 

 asked by the tribe in all important events. He decides when the 

 whiter village is to be left, when the fishing begins, etc. The first 

 fish, the first berries, etc., are given to him. It is Ms duty to begin 

 all dances. He must be invited to all festivities; and when the first 

 whistles are blown in winter, indicating the beginning of the dancing- 

 season, he receives a certain tribute. People of low rank must not 

 step up directly to the chief, whose seat is in the rear of the house, 

 but must approach him going along the walls of the house. 



Captives taken in war became slaves, who stood entirely outside of 

 native society. They were the absolute property of their masters, 

 who were allowed to kill them, sell them, or to give them their liberty. 

 Children of slave-women were also slaves. It seems that members 

 of one of the exogamic groups would not keep as slaves members of 

 another tribe belonging to their own group (or to one considered as 

 identical with it), but this is not certain. 



When a chief dies, the chieftaincy devolves upon his younger 

 brother, then upon his eldest nephew, and, if there is none, upon his 

 niece. The chief's four counselors become the counselors of his 

 successor. When a woman becomes a chief's successor, she also takes 

 his name. This happened quite recently when a girl sixteen years i ild 

 assumed the name of the highest chief among the Tsimshian, LEg - e'°x. 

 When she died childless, her younger brother took her place. If a 

 chief's family dies out, the noblest man of the subdivision of the 

 exogamic group concerned becomes chief, provided he can raise his 

 rank sufficiently by attaining wealth and by his largess <o chiefs of 

 his own and of other tribes. 



Property — embracing a man's hunting-ground, fishing-ground, his 

 house, canoes, slaves, etc., as well as his name, the dancing-privileges, 

 traditions, songs that belong to the same — is inherited first by the 

 nephews; if there are none, then by the deceased's mother or aunt. 

 A woman's property is inherited by her children. When a man dies, 

 his widow keeps her children and her own personal property; while 

 the personal property, as well as the family property of the deceased, 

 goes to his own family. 



On pp. 426 and 427 I have stated that the evidence of Tsimshian 

 mythology shows that children grew up in the houses of their parents, 

 and that the newly married couple lived with the young husband's 

 parents. For this reason the children in a village that was the 



1 See alio pp. 429 e t seq. 



