boas] TSIMSHIAN SOCIETY 515 



A number of years ago, when describing the use of the chief's rattle, 

 Mr. Tate wrote about this subject as follows: 



This rattle is used in the " throwing-dance. " in the house of some other chief, and 

 alter each dance he received pay. It was also used in a dance in the house of a 

 member of his own tribe. 



In describing the potlateh, he says: 



On the fourth night all the different chiefs are assembled in the house of the head 

 chief to perform what is called the throwing-dance. Then each chief of each tribe 

 dances by himself with his own mask. The first chief, after the dance of his own 

 mask, will dance with his dancing-garment and his carved headdress inlaid with 

 abalone, wearing his dancing-apron with the bills of beautiful puffins, leggings of the 

 same kind, and carrying the welcome rattle. Then, while the chief's own people are 

 singing, and while he is dancing, he catches his supernatural power in the air and goes 

 towards the child of the chief, holding the supernatural power between the palms of 

 his hands, and throws it into the chief's child or into his niece or nephew. Then all 

 the chiefs who are guests have each one night for their own throwing-dance. Each 

 has the name of a supernatural power, besides his own chief's name. So, when they 

 call one of these chiefs to dance, they call him by his sacred name. The dances end 

 when it is nearly daylight, and then all the princes and princesses have supernatural 

 powers and have become dancers. Therefore after four days have passed and all the 

 children have dances, their father kills some slave or gives away much property or 

 breaks a costly copper. The head chief pays each chief who performed the throwing- 

 dance with three or four elk skins. If there are seven or ten children in a chief's 

 family, then each of the visiting chiefs perforins his dance seven or ten times, once 

 for each of the children. (See also pp. 540 , 1 s,q. i 



Comparative Notes ox the Social Organization of the 



TsiMSHIAN 



In the numerous discussions of totemism published during the last 

 few years much has been said about the "American theory" of 

 totemism, — a theory for which I have been held responsible conjointly 

 with Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mr. Charles Hill-Tout. This theory 

 is based on the idea that the clan totem has developed from the 

 individual manitou by extension over a kinship group. It is true 

 that I have pointed out the analogy between totem legend and the 

 guardian-spirit tale among the Kwakiutl. and that 1 have suggested 

 that among this tribt there is a likelihood that under the pressure of 

 totemistic ideas the guardian-spirit concept has taken this particular 

 line of development. 1 Later on Mr. Hill-Tout 2 took up my sugges- 

 tion and based on it a theory of totemism by generalizing the specific 

 phenomena of British Columbia. In a similar way Miss Fletcher 3 

 has given a wider interpretation to her observations among the 



1 Bastian-Festschrift, Berlin, 1896, p. 139; Report on the North- Western Tribes of Canada (British Asso- 

 ciation for the Admna ment ofScienct . 1898, Reprint p. 48); see also Report on the North- Western Tribes of 

 Canada, 1889, Reprint pp. 24 el ti q : "The Si ei .1 Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl 

 Indians" (.Report V. S. National Museum for 1895, Washington, 1897, pp. 332,336,662). 

 - Transactions of the Royal So, ■:■-, ,: < ,: ado, 1901 .' "I TO, ■■'■ n,pp Setseq 

 ' The Import of the Totem, a Btudy from Che Om iha Tribe (Salem, Mass., lsn7>. 



