ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 415 



represent. Every time the sacred objects of a ^ens are aliowa to the 

 people a potlatch is given. The sacred objects, although the property of the 

 various gentes, must nevertheless be acquired by each individual. That 

 is to say, everj'' free person has the right to acquire a certain group of 

 carvings and names, according to the gens to which he or she belongs. 

 Slaves and slaves' children, also illegitimate children, could not become 

 Sisau'kH. A person cannot take a new carving, but mnst wait until it is 

 given to him by his relatives- — father, mother, or elder brother. Nusk'E- 

 lu'sta, to whom I owe my information regarding the gentes, and who is 

 a member of the gens lalo'stimot of the Talio'mH, stated that he had 

 received the raven when he gave his first potlatch. At his second potlatch 

 he received the eagle. He hopes that his mother will give him the whale 

 at his next potlatch, and will at the same time divulge to him the secrets 

 connected with it. In course of time, he said, he might get even others 

 from his brother ; but if the latter's children should prove to be very 

 good, and develop very rapidly, his bi'other would probably give his secrets 

 to his children. At festivals, when a person acquires a new secret, he 

 'ihanges his name. Each person has two names, a Ku'siiit name, which 

 remains the same throughout life ; and a Qe'mtsioa name, which is changed 

 at these festivals. Thus, Nusk'Elu'sta's (which is his Ku'siiit name) 

 present Qe'mtsioa name is Atl'itlEmnE'lus'aiH, but at his next potlatch he 

 intends to take the name of Kalia'kis. These names are also the property 

 of the various gentes, each gens having its own names. In the list of 

 gentes given above, the names enumerated are the Ku'siiit names of the 

 ancestors. In two cases only the Qe'mtsioa names have been ascertained 

 (see p. 409). When a man possesses several Sisau'kn secrets he will dis- 

 tribute them among his children. When a girl marries, her father or 

 mother may, after a child has been bora to her, give one or several of 

 their Sisau'kn secrets to her husband, as his children make him a member 

 of the gens. When a person gets to be old he gives away all his Sisau'kn 

 secrets. After any secret has been given away the giver must not use it 

 any more. The crest and the Sisau'kn carvings must not be loaned to 

 others, but each person must keep his own carvings. The only exceptions 

 are the carved headdresses and the raven rattles, which are not the 

 property of any particular gens. 



The laws regarding the potlatch are similar to those of the Kwakintl. 

 The receiver of a present becomes the debtor of the person who gave 

 the potlatch. If the latter should die the debts become due to his 

 heirs. If the debtor shoald die his heirs become responsible for the 

 debt. Property is also destroyed at potlatches. This is not returned, 

 and serves only to enhance the social position of the individual who 

 performed this act. It is not necessary that all the property given 

 by a person in a potlatch should be owned by him. He may borrow 

 part of it from his friends, and has to repay it with interest. I was 

 told, for instance, that a man borrowed a large copper-plate and 

 burnt it at a potlatch. When doing so he had to name the price which 

 he was going to pay to the owner in its stead. Since that feast he died, 

 and his heirs are now responsible for the amount named at the potlatch. 



The Ku'siiit is presided over by a female spirit, called Anaulikutsai'H. 

 Her abode is a cave in the woods, which she keeps shut from February 

 till October, remaining all the while inside. In October she opens the 

 door of her cave and sits in front of it. A woman is said to have been 

 the first to find her. Anaiilikiitsai'H invited her into her cave and taught 



