68 
ICAI NOG IA 
| NOVEMBER 15, 1906 
directed to the rather long list of errata for this volume 
given at the beginning of the report. 
In vol. xx., part i., of the Indian Meteorological 
Memoirs, we have the first instalment of what we hope 
will be a series of valuable contributions to the meteorology | 
of the upper air in India. 
Up to the present time Indian meteorologists have been 
considerably hampered in dealing with the air circulation 
over India, as the only fact which existed from which 
they could form any idea of the air currents in the upper 
strata was the movement of clouds. 
A systematic investigation of the upper air began, how- 
ever, last year, and the chief points of the inquiry in 
the first instance are to determine the distinctive features 
of the monsoon currents as regards their depths, tempera- 
ture and velocity gradients, and humidity distributions. 
In the present memoir, written by Mr. F. H. Field, 
deputy meteorologist, and published under the direction 
of Dr. G. T. Walker, reference is naturally made more 
to the instruments employed and the methods of using 
them, than to the observations recorded. Advantage has 
naturally been taken of the experience of other workers 
in the field, and the English, American, and German 
systems have all received careful study. 
The greatest height as yet reached is 1380 metres, and 
some details are given as to the records of the self-register- 
ing instruments employed during the flights made in 
August and September last when this elevation was 
reached. 
The importance of this method of investigation will at 
ence be seen when it is noted that accurate measure- 
ments can be made of the elevation of the stratum of 
saturated air day by day. Thus we read that ‘‘ a nearly 
saturated stratum of air from the sea extended from the 
ground surface (about 10 metres above the sea) upwards 
to a level which rose from 500 metres on August 27 
through 800 metres on August 28 to 1130 metres on 
August 31. From that day onward till September 9, its 
limiting height was not reached by the kite, but probably 
exceeded 1000 metres; its upper limit fell again by 
September 12 to 600 metres.’’ 
The reader is referred to the memoir itself for details 
regarding the apparatus used and the various interesting 
meteorological curves given relative to the numerous flights 
made. 
FURTHER RESULTS OF THE JESUP 
NORTH PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 
THE recently published memoirs of the Jesup North 
Pacific Expedition maintain the excellence both as to 
matter and illustration of the previous volumes. Mr. 
Swanton’ gives an account of the religious ideas and 
social organisation of the Haida Indians, who, to the 
number of about 600, occupy the towns of Skidegate and 
Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands. The whole Haida stock 
is divided into two “‘ clans,’’ the Raven clan and the Eagle 
clan, the significance of the division being purely social. 
Each is strictly exogamic, a Raven man being compelled 
to marry an Eagle woman, and an Eagle man a Raven 
woman, while the children always belong to their mother’s 
clan. A man of the Raven clan was reckoned in that clan 
wherever he might go, and the Ravens among whom he 
settled were his uncles, elder and younger brothers, sisters 
and nephews. The members of the opposite clan were 
frequently considered downright enemies. ‘‘ Even husbands 
and wives did not hesitate to betray each other to death 
in the interest of their own families. At times it almost 
appears as if each marriage were an alliance between 
opposing tribes; a man begetting offspring rather for his 
wife than for himself, and being inclined to see his real 
descendants rather in his sister’s children than in his own 
(p. 62). 
The Raven and the Eagle do not seem to have been 
deities or deified ancestors. ‘‘ A West Coast man said that 
the people sometimes left food for a raven on the beach, 
and, when it got near them, told it to give them some- 
thing.’’ Another man, however, said ‘‘ they did not sacri- 
1_“*Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida.” By J. R. Swanton. 
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. v. part i., 1905- 
NO. 1933, VOL. 75] 
fice to it or pray to it, because it stole too much as itr 
was.’’ And although Eagle was called ‘* grandfather ’’ by- 
men of the Eagle clan, as Raven was called ‘‘ grandfather ’” 
by the Ravens, this was not because either was regarded 
as a direct ancestor, “‘ but because they had been prominent 
heroes of the mythical period, and belonged respectively to 
the Eagle and Raven clans.” 
The clans were divided into an indefinite number of 
““families,’’? and the ‘‘ family ’’ is the fundamental unit 
in Haida society. These usually take their names from. 
towns or camping grounds, and are simply local groups. 
The ‘‘ family” was divided into households, and there- 
were thus house chiefs, family chiefs, and town chiefs. 
The families had certain prerogatives which they guarded 
jealously, such as the right to use certain personal, house, 
and canoe names, and the right to wear certain objects or 
representations of objects, and to carve them upon their 
houses or property. ‘‘ These latter I have called ‘ crests.” 
They were generally representations of animals; but trees, 
shells, and figures of objects used in daily life also occur.. 
They were originally obtained from some supernatural 
being or by purchase from another family.’’ The author 
is wise in refraining from the use of the word totem in 
this connection, for, as he justly remarks, ‘‘ they have. . . 
no proper totemic significance, their use being similar to- 
that of the quarterings in heraldry, to mark the social 
position of the wearers ’’; but the name ‘‘ totem-pole ’’ has- 
crept in beneath the illustrations of the poles, carved with 
crests, placed on front of the houses (Plates i—iii.). 
The author is of opinion that the ‘* crest system ’’ was. 
rooted in religion,’’ and that it may have developed from 
the “‘ personal manitou ”’ (p. 112). 
The study of the Haida social organisation is of peculiar 
interest, since it is possible to view the conflict actually 
going on between the purely maternal family organisatiom 
and the paternal property laws, and the complexities result- 
ing therefrom. It is to be hoped that future observers will 
apply Dr. Rivers’s genealogical methods to the investigatiom 
of the sociology of these and other American tribes, as it 
would be sure to yield important results. This method, 
however, was not published in time for Mr. Swanton to 
utilise it. 
Turning to religious beliefs, the Haida world is peopled 
with supernatural beings of the air, sea, and land; the 
sun is of comparative unimportance, and the moon belongs 
to the Raven clan. The chief of the Haida deities is: 
Power-of-the-Shining-Heavens, who gives ‘‘ power’ to alf 
things; he is prayed to in sickness or sorrow, and the 
clouds are his blankets. Owing to the character of the 
country, the entanglement of land and sea, and the 
impenetrable nature of the interior, all communication must 
be by sea, and the supernatural beings of the sea have 
thus attained an exaggerated importance; but a super-— 
natural being can be destroyed ‘‘ by cutting its body in two 
and throwing a whetstone between the severed portions. 
In their endeavours to coalesce, the two parts then grind 
themselves to nothing.’’ 
The shaman was “ possessed ’’ by a supernatural being, 
and became for the time being the supernatural being him- 
self. The calling was generally hereditary in the family, 
descending from maternal uncle to nephew, but the youth 
had to qualify himself by training. ‘‘ Spirits would come 
and look around a village to find ‘one who was clean” 
through whom they would act.’’ To become “‘ clean’’ a 
man had to abstain from food for a long time. A spirit 
once, looking through the smoke-hole of a house, saw a 
youth lying almost dead, ‘‘ but he was so ‘clean’ that 
he looked transparent ‘like glass.’ So the spirit entered 
him.”” 
The volume, which is profusely illustrated, deals also 
with secret societies and potlatches, or the ceremonial 
giving away of property, and contains nearly 200 Haida 
stories. 
The third and last part of the volume of the Kwakiutl 
texts' collected by Dr. Boas and Mr. Hunt is now pub- 
lished. These folk-tales form a mine of treasures for the 
folklorist, and are especially valuable as giving unbiased 
and unconscious evidence concerning custom and_ belief. 
ve 
1 ‘*Kwakiutl Texts.” By Franz Boas and George Hunt. 
Jesup North 
Pacific Expedition, vol. iii. part ili., 1905. 
