61' LL. 30] 



TOTEM 



Y91 



quian otenaiv noted above. In this tribe 

 there are ten ruling geutes, which are 

 exogamous; they trace the descent of 

 blood through the father only; they pos- 

 sess a particular name which refers di- 

 rectly or symbolically to the patron or 

 tutelary of the gens; they have a gentile 

 patron being, whose cult is marked by a 

 taboo; they possess a gentile list of per- 

 sonal names peculiar to itself, of which 

 one is given when the hair of a child is 

 first cut, the form of which symt)olizes 

 the tutelary until he reaches the age of 7 

 j'ears. This "cut" and the taboo are 

 enforced under the threatened penalties 

 of blindness, bodily deformity, and dis- 

 ease for any failure to observe faithfully 

 these obligations. Each gens has obliga- 

 tory cultural rites, in which its members 

 offer respectful homage to the gentile 

 patron spirit These observances, how- 

 ever, do not imply ancestor- worship. 

 The symbol of the gentile guardian spirit 

 is borne through life and is placed on 

 the dead for identification by the kindred. 

 The gentile patron being, however, gives 

 no immediate hold on the superhuman, 

 as does the personal tutelary. It may be 

 questioned whether the suggested de- 

 velopment of a social organization Ijy the 

 establishment of distinct groups of per- 

 sons who should be bound together by the 

 ties of blood kinship, based on the pat- 

 tern and experience of existing religious 

 cults, is not a rather too conscious work- 

 ing-out of such ideas of a semi-barbaric 

 people. It would seem to be a reversal 

 of the usual course of social development. 



According to Boas, the social organiza- 

 tion of the Salish tribes of the interior of 

 British Columbia is very loose, there being 

 no recognized tribal unit. Village popu- 

 lation among them undergoes frequent 

 and considerable fluctuation, and there 

 were no exogamic groups, no hereditary 

 nobility, and no ritualistic societies. 

 Nevertheless, the acquisition of guardian 

 spirits at the age of puberty is an essen- 

 tial feature of their religious beliefs, and 

 these tutelaries are obtained through pre- 

 scribed ceremonials. However, only afew 

 shamans are believed to have inherited 

 their guardian si)irits from their parents. 



Hill-Tout says that the most char- 

 acteristic feature of the social side of 

 the religious activity of the Salish tribes 

 of the coast and of the lower Fraser 

 delta is "their totem or kin-group crests," 

 and that these kin-grouj)8 are not com- 

 monly called by animal or plant names 

 as among the Haida and the Tlingit. 

 They are, however, distinguished one 

 from another by crests, "each family of 

 etandingpossessing its owncrestor crests." 

 These are plastic or pictographic emblems 

 of the supposed ancestral "totems of the 

 family or kin-group," and are regarded as 

 the guardian spirits of the household. 



Among the Vancouver id. tribes, these 

 inherited crests largely replace the per- 

 sonal tutelary of the interior Salish 

 which is there acquired by means of 

 dreams and visions — not the ordinary 

 dream or vision, but one superinduced 

 l)y long and special ceremonial prej)ara- 

 tion. As the tutelary usually has only 

 specific or specialized functions or spheres 

 of action, the initiate may not be satisfied 

 with the first one thus received, and so 

 enters upon a second, a third, and even 

 a fourth ceremonial preparation for a 

 dream or a vision; and so he may be 

 years in seeking what is satisfactory to 

 him (Ontario Arch. Rep., xviii, 229, 

 230, 1905). Hill-Tout adds that be- 

 tween the tutelary and the person a very 

 mystic relationship is supposed to exist. 

 Prayer in the usual sense was not offered 

 to the tutelary, but its aid and protection 

 were rather expected as its duty in warn- 

 ing the obsessed person by dreams and 

 visions of approaching danger in all the 

 issues of life. 



Teit (Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., An- 

 thr., I, 354, 1898-1900), writing of the 

 Thompson River Indians (Ntlakyap- 

 amuk), says that every person had his 

 own guardian spirit which was obtained 

 during the puberty ceremonies, and that 

 none except a few shamans inherited 

 without these rites their parental tute- 

 lary spirits which had been regarded as 

 particularly powerful. He also states 

 that "there were no tott ms, except at 

 Spuzzum, where two families, who were 

 descendants of members of the coast 

 tribes, claimed the totems of their an- 

 cestors," but that "blood relationship 

 was considered a tie which extended 

 over generations, both in the male and the 

 female lines," a statement which clearly 

 indicates that blood kinship with what 

 it implies is above all others the great 

 cohesive force in savage life. 



Father Morice says that among the 

 western Dene there were several kinds 

 of tutelary or patron spirits or beings — 

 the clan patron, the fetish (his honorific), 

 and the personal tutelary, to which may 

 be added those local deities which pre- 

 side over some rock, cave, or consecrated 

 spot. Father Morice believes that the 

 cult of the clan patron and the fetish (his 

 honorific) came to the Den6 from the na 

 tives of the Pacific coast. He states that 

 the honorific was assumed with appro- 

 priate rites by any person desirous of 

 gaining social rank, to which they could 

 not otherwise aspire owing to certain re- 

 strictions of the laws of heredity. This 

 authority does not relate how the clan 

 tutelary is acquired among these people, 

 but he says that the "personal totems" 

 are those primary spirits which occasion- 

 ally manifest themselves to man, are per- 

 sonified in the earthly individuals of the 



