XVIII BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



short or slov/, and, in any event, relatively slight, demotic 

 development. In the second place, it was ascertained that the 

 tongues of the several tribes are in exceptional degree held as 

 esoteric or sacred. It is common among all primitive peoples 

 to surround personal names and ceremonial terms with more 

 or less secrecy or mystery, but it is not common to similarly 

 guard and sanctify ordinary speech; but the Califoriiian tribes 

 subjected to study apparently hold as sacred not merely 

 personal names, but tlie name of the tribe and many if not all 

 the common terms of their language; indeed, it would appear 

 that they regard language as forming the primary basis of their 

 social organization, or at least as a tangible and definite expres- 

 sion of consanguineal relation. A third factor in the organi- 

 zation of the Californian aborigines grows out of their industrial 

 status. Since their chief food source is the acorn, and since the 

 oak trees never grow in continuous forests, but are somewhat 

 sparsely distributed among other trees or over the openings 

 of the valleys, the native population was necessarily sparse 

 and scattered, and each tribe tended to remain permanently 

 attached to a definite range; and this sparse distribution per- 

 mitted and promoted the retention of tribal dialects corre- 

 sponding to each range. A fourth factor appears in cerenionial 

 observances, apparently growing out of the industrial condi- 

 tion, notably the affiue tabu which prohibits communication 

 between sons-in-law and mothers-in-law, and among some of the 

 tribes between daughters-in-law and fathers-in-law and other 

 connections by marriage. The linguistic, industrial, and cere- 

 monial factors all operate as repulsive forces tending to pre- 

 vent aggregation of population and intercommunication of 

 tribes, and hence to retard cultural development; and it would 

 appear that the several factors, interacting with cumulati^'e 

 effect, h'Axe combined to produce the singular concentration of 

 linguistic stocks in the Pacific coast region. Mr McGee also 

 noted a hitherto uegieoted factor tending toward the actual 

 difterentiation of speecli, i. e., the custom of dropping from 

 daily use all terms connoting the names of decedents (which 

 obtains also among the Kiowa and some other tribes) ; and it 

 is significant that this custom tends to produce lexic rather 



