ON THE NORTH-WESTEKN TRIBES OF CANADA. 237 



are divided into two groups — the raven and the wolf among the Tlingifc, 

 the raven and the eagle among the Haida. The Tsimshian have four 

 totems, the raven (called Kanha'da), the eagle (Laqski'yek), the wolf 

 (Laqkyebo'), and the bear (Gyispotue'da). The Heiltsuk and their northern 

 neighbours have three totems; the killer (De7jo/mms orca) (Ha'nq'aiZ/tenoq),. 

 the raven (Ko'i/ttenoq), and the eagle (Wik'oaq/ttenoq). It is a very 

 remarkable fact that among the other tribes of Kawkiutl lineage no 

 totemism, in its strict meaning, is found. The tribes enumerated above 

 have the system of relationship in the female line. The child belongs 

 to the mother's crest, and, although the wife follows her husband to his 

 village, the children, when grown up, always return to their mother's 

 tribe. I conclude from the fact that the Kwakiutl, south of Rivers Inlet, 

 have the system of relationship in the male line, or, more properly 

 speaking, in both lines ; that the Heiltsuk adopted their system of totems 

 from the Tsimshian. I have not heard a single tradition to the eS'ect 

 that the gentes consider themselves the descendants of their totem ; the 

 Tlingit and Haida, as well as the Tsimshian and Heiltsuk, have certain 

 traditions referring to ancestors who had encounters with certain spirits 

 or animals who gave them their crests. It is true that the Haida and 

 Tlingit claim to have been created by the raven, but the legend has no 

 reference whatever to the totem. The Kwakiutl and Salish tribes are also 

 divided into gentes, but these are not distinguished by animal totems, but 

 derive their origin each from a man who was sent down from heaven by 

 the deity, and who, in some way or other, obtained his crest from a 

 spirit. These legends are of the same character as the corresponding 

 ones of the Tsimshian. The crest of the family is represented on paint- 

 ings on the house fronts, on the 'totem posts,' and on tattooings. The 

 latter are probably not used by the Tlingit, while the Haida tattoo 

 breast, back, arms, and legs. The Tsimshian tattoo only the wrists, 

 according to their crest. Tattoo marks are also used by the Nutka. The 

 figures on posts and houses have always a reference to the being encoun- 

 tered by the ancestor, but sometimes also figures of the father's crest are 

 used by the owner, the father having the right to permit his child to use 

 them. The posts do not represent a continuous story, but every figure 

 refers to one tradition. Each gens has also names of its own, which 

 among the Tsimshian must have a reference to the father's gens. Thus, 

 on hearing a name a Tsimshian knows at once to what gens both the 

 bearer and his father belong. Among the Salish and Kwakiutl the child 

 follows, as a rule, the father's gens, but he may also acquire his mother's 

 gens. By marriage he always acquires the prerogatives of his wife's 

 family. It is only here that such prerogatives are connected with the 

 gentes. They refer generally to the use of masks and certain ceremonies 

 of the winter dance, the most important of which is the Ha'mats'a, the 

 man-biter. But the accession to these privileges is not only a right of 

 the young man, it is also his duty to accept them. Among the Salish 

 tribes of the Gulf of Georgia the division into gentes is not as clearly 

 defined as farther north. Here a group of gentes forms a tribe, each 

 gens inhabiting one village. In removing the village from one place to 

 the other they retain the same name, which, however, is not the name of 

 the people, properly speaking, but that of their village. Bach gens derives 

 its origin from a single man who descended from heaven, and whose sons 

 and grandsons became the ancestors of the gens, the child always be- 

 longing to his father's gens. While among the northern tribes marriages 



