408 REPORT — 1902. 



When Sk-wElse'lE7n IV. was living a severe and prolonged famine 

 decimated the tribe. This famine was caused by a great snowstorm of 

 unusual duration. It lasted for many weeks. It may be incidentally 

 remarked here that the Sk-qo'mic have similar traditions of a devastating 

 flood and a destroying famine caused by a prolonged snowstorm.' It was 

 during the sla'm-ship of Sk-wElse'lem that the KwI'kwitlEm were sent away 

 from their very desirable camp on the slopes of the hill upon which the 

 city of New Westminster is built to the marshy flats opposite, across the 

 river. These they were compelled by the Kwa'ntlEn to till in with stones 

 and gravel and convert into fishing grounds for them. 



Sociology. 



The social organisation of the Kwa'ntlEn in prre-trading days seems to 

 have been much tlie same as that of the contiguous 8alish tribes. They 

 had the common threefold division of the tribe into chiefs, notables, and 

 common folk. They lived in the communal long-house, but their meals 

 do not appear to have been of the communistic order, as among the 

 Tcil'Qe'uk. It is clear from the genealogical lists of their chiefs that the 

 oflice of sla'm was practically hereditary among them. 



In their marriage customs they appear to have departed in some 

 respects from the customs usual among the river and coast 8alish. Among 

 them the choice of a wife or a husband was never left to the son or 

 daughter, but was always made by the parents themselves. When a 

 young man's future wife had been chosen for him by his parents he would, 

 after the manner of the Sk-qo'mic youth, go to the house or apartment of 

 the girl's parents and squat down near the entrance for a longer or 

 shorter time. But the Kwa'ntlEn suitor never stayed at night. He 

 always returned to his own home at nightfall. If he were a youth of 

 rank he would not be kept waiting long by the girl's parents. Sons of 

 poor parents had sometimes to wait many days before they were accepted 

 by the girl's relatives. When the suitor was acceptable, and his period 

 of waiting was over, the father of the girl would call together the elders 

 of the tribe, and desire them to select from among themselves an inter- 

 mediary to acquaint the youth of his success and lead him to the girl. 

 The suitor must reward this old man with gifts of blankets. He must 

 also now make presents of blankets to the girl's father. After this the 

 father of the youth calls his friends together, and they all go to the house 

 of the girl's father and present him with blankets. This ceremony was 

 called s't'EfdJtuQ. AVhen this ceremony had been performed, the father of 

 the bride, if he were a wealthy man and a person of rank, hired the 

 sqoi'aql to precede his daughter as she walked from the house to the canoe 

 to go to her husband's home. The father of the youth, if he had a good 

 store of venison on hand, now gave a feast. If his stock of provisions 

 were short, he hired some of the skilled hunters of the tribe to procure 

 fresh game and fish for him. These he took to the house of the bride's 

 parents, and they held a feast there. This concluded the marriage 

 ceremony. 



certain chief in theirmythology who possessed a house decorated with Abelone shells, 

 the term, according to Dr. Boas, meaning ' Abelone.' Among the Kwa'ntlEn the 

 signification of PelQeli is forgotten. 



' See the writer's Notes on the Cosmogony and History of the Squamish Indians 

 of British Columbia, Trans. Jtoy. Soc. Can., vol. iii., sect, ii,, 1897-9§, 



