410 EEPORT— 1902. 



membership in one or more of these societies. Unless he were a member 

 of some society he was little better than a slave ; he possessed no social 

 status whatever. The social organisation of the river HalkOme'lEm tribes 

 had not reached to the secret society stage, though it was clearly on the 

 point of doing so when its course was interrupted by our advent. It was 

 just at the point where the pei'sonal and family totem passes into the 

 gentile totem, and brotherhoods and privileged societies arise. The totem 

 of the sqoi'aqi makes this quite clear. 



"When the totemism of this coast is viewed in the light thrown upon it 

 by a study of the tribal organisations of the different Salish tribes, it ceases 

 to appear strange that it differs in some characteristic features from 

 totemism as found elsewhere. The totem arising here out of a mythic 

 adventure — in other words, out of the imagination of its owner, or that of 

 his ancestors, or from individual su'lla acquired in dreams or visions — it 

 is not surprising that our Indians do not regard themselves as descended 

 from the prototypes of their totems. And when it is remembered that 

 they all believed that animals and many other natural objects were only 

 transformed men and women, and that the relation between tliese and 

 themselves was of an intimate nature, the significance of this feature 

 becomes the greater. If their totems had not been evolved from their 

 earlier su'lla, nothing would have been more natural than for them to 

 regard themselves as descended from their totem prototypes. But they 

 do not ; and in this all competent observers agree. It may be that among 

 those peoples that regard themselves as related to, or descended from, their 

 totem prototypes nothing equivalent to su'llaism existed. Without this 

 intermediate stage it is possible, as many primitive races look upon animals 

 as only transformed human beings, that the totem possessor regards him- 

 self as related to it by descent. Personally, my experience does not extend 

 to such races, and I have no knowledge of such concepts ; but I can well 

 understand, knowing, as I do, the extreme difficulty of getting at the inner 

 thoughts, beliefs, and conceptions of races on different planes of culture 

 from our own, that a hasty or superficial observer would conclude that 

 our Indians believed themselves to be descended from their totem proto- 

 types. Indeed, I have seen and heard it so asserted. It is clear, there- 

 fore, that the totemic question is one requiring great care, much patience, 

 and an open mind for its study. 



I have said of the Tcil'c^c'uk sla'm that he was also the tribal high- 

 priest. Among the Kwa'ntlEn he was pre-eminently so. No religious 

 ceremony or observance could be carried on without his officiating pre- 

 sence. His religious functions must not be confounded with those of the 

 SQEla'm. They were quite apart and different from those of the shamans. 

 On the occasion of any public calamity, such as a widespread sickness, 

 times of famine and want, during meteorological disturbances or abnormal 

 celestial and terrestrial phenomena, such as violent storms, prolonged 

 droughts, earthquakes, and eclipses, he it was who led and conducted the 

 prayers and confessions of the people and invoked the pity of tE tcltcil 

 sid'm, or 'the Sky chief,' whom he addressed as Cwai' EtsEn, i.e., ' parent,' 

 or ' Father,' or 'Creator.' He would bid the people come together on 

 these occasions and pray and dance ; the latter action being regarded as 

 propitiating and honouring in their estimation. As they danced the 

 people would hold their hands aloft. At the close the chief would bid 

 them place them on their br§^§ts ftnd repent of their evil deeds a,x\^ 



