616 F REPORT—1890. 
to obtain food he may send anyone hunting or fishing, and his orders 
must be obeyed. Only during dances’ and feasts the uninitiated are 
admitted to the taboo house. If anyone intends to invite the mé’emkoat 
to a feast the ha'matsa’s wife may enter the house and deliver the message 
after having publicly announced that she will go there. The mé/emkoat 
are not permitted to touch their wives, but nowadays this custom is 
mostly restricted to the hd’mats’a. 
The k-ué'k'utsé are subdivided into seven societies : 
1. Maa'mq’énog (killer whales), the young men. 
2. D’d'd@op’z (rock-cods), men about thirty to forty years of age. 
3. Tlé tlaqan (sea-lions), men forty to fifty years old. 
4. K-oé'k-oim (whales), old men and old chiefs. 
5. Kékyaqala'k-a (crows), girls. 
6. K-a'k-akao (chickens), formerly called wa'qwaqoli (a small species 
of birds), young women. 
7. Md smos (cows), old women,.! (This name was recently adopted, 
but I did not learn the old name.) 
During the Ts’étsd’ék'a all these societies wear ornaments of the animals 
which they represent. They are opponents of the mé’emkoat. The 
mé'emkoat and each of the groups of the k-ué’k-utsé give feasts to each 
other ‘in order to keep their opponents in good humonr.’ Nevertheless 
the k-ué'k'utsé always attempt to excite the mé’emkoat, as will be described 
presently, and the latter will attack the k-wé'k-utsé. The natives consider 
these festivals not purely from a religious point of view, although the 
latter is their principal character, but it is at the same time the social 
event of the year, in which merry-making and sports of: all sorts are en- 
joyed. . Even the attacks of the mé’emkoat, which will be described here- 
after, are considered as part of the ‘fun.’ 
The mé'emkoat are subdivided into a great number of classes which 
have different rank. I give here the list of the divisions of the mé’emkoat 
arranged according to rank : 
1. Ha’mats’a. 8. M@'itla. 
2. No’ntsistatl. 9. Nod’/ntlem. 
3. K’’0é’k-oastatl. 10. Kyimk”’alatla. 
4, Nu’tlmatl. 11. Tlokoa’la. 
5. Na/né. 12. lakwiata’latl. 
6. To’q’uit. 13. K’’d/malatl. 
7. Ha/ilikyilatl. 14. Hawi'nalatl. 
Then follow a number of dances, which are all of equal rank: © 
Ha/maselatl, Ha/okhaok’, Ku’nqulatl, K’6'lus, and many others. The last 
is the Lolo’tlalat], which is as high in rank as the Ha'mats’a, but is opposed 
to him, and therefore stands at the other end of the dancers. 
1 This peculiar custom of suspending the gentes on certain occasions, and intro- 
ducing a class system instead, seems worthy of attention. Although this fact is far 
from being a proof of the former existence of such a system among the Kwakiutl, 
still its correspondence to the Australian class system is certainly suggestive, and may 
point to a development of the social institutions of these tribes. The idea of the 
possibility of suspending all gentes points out that the latter are either of compara- 
tively recent origin or that they are degenerating. The former alternative appears 
more probable, as in religious festivities, such as the 7s’@tsa'ck a. Generally ancient 
institutions are preserved. It is hardly necessary to mention that similar class sys- 
tems are found east of the Rocky Mountains. 
