BOAS] TSIMSHIAN SOCIETY 529 



are personified dangers of the sea. These are almost all associated 

 with the Raven side, because the killer whale is their symbol and at 

 the same time the most prominent crest of the Ravens. 



There is one point in the organization of all these tribes that deserves 

 further mention . The villages are generally described as belonging to a 

 certain exogamic group. This would mean that all the houses were the 

 property of members of one group, and probably also of one of its sub- 

 divisions. In describing the organization of the family (p. 426) I have 

 stated that married sons generally live with their fathers, and later on 

 return with their wives to her parents, which, in the case of cross-cousin 

 marriage, would locate the young man in his uncle's village. It must 

 therefore be recognized, that, even if in early times the houses were the 

 property of members of one exogamic group only, nevertheless a great 

 many families of other groups must have Uved in the same village. 

 Furthermore, Haida stories refer frequently to the relations between 

 uncle and nephew in such a manner that the two must be supposed 

 to live in the same village. Nevertheless there is ample evidence 

 showing that the young married people Uved with the young man's 

 pareuts. I have also pointed out that in a few cases at least the 

 chief's house in the Tsimsliian village stood in the middle, and the 

 houses of his brothers in-law on both sides. It seems quite certain, 

 that, even if villages were the property of a single exogamic group, 

 villages of different groups stood very near together, sometimes on 

 opposite sides of a river. It seems to me likely that the conditions 

 may have been the same as among the Kwakiutl, where a continuous 

 -village site is divided into sections, each being the property of a sub- 

 division of the tribe. Under present social conditions, an absolute 

 separation of the exogamic groups in distinct villages would seem to 

 be almost impossible. 



Finally a few words on the question whether the modern crests are 

 degenerate forms of totems. In this connection we must remember 

 that none of these tribes possesses any authentic well-recorded talc 

 that accounts for the origin of the exogamic groups, excepting the 

 obscure remarks in the TsimshianGau'6 tale which I quoted on p. 524. 

 There is no tale of descent from the eponymic animal, where such an 

 animal exists. To the Indian the exogamic group and its name are 

 units that have always been in existence. Swanton quotes a remark 

 made by a Masset Indian, that Raven was the grandfather of the 

 Raven side; ' and that Raven and Eagle are considered as grand- 

 fathers of the two sides, 2 but no myth is on record that will allow lis 

 to interpret these statements. 



I pointed out in 1898 3 that there is a marked difference in this 

 respect between the three northern tribes and the Kwakiutl, in so 



> Swanton 2, p. 111. « Ibid., p. 104. s Boas 1 , 1898, p. 671 . 



50633°— 31 eth— 16 34 



