,548 KEPOKT — 1892. 



is pointed out in my remarks introductory to the Sixth Report (1890), 

 on the authority of missionary records and official documents, is fully con- 

 firmed by Dr. Chamberlain's observations. The contrast between the 

 very complex social system of the coast tribes and the simple organisation 

 of the Kootenays is particularly striking. The whole social life and frame 

 of government of the coast stocks are wrapped up in their totem or clan 

 systems and their secret societies. Among the Kootenays, according to 

 Dr. Chamberlain, ' totems and secret societies do not exist, and probably 

 have not existed.' 



It is satisfactory to be able to add that both Dr. Brinton and Major 

 Powell, in their recent publications, have referred to the reports presented 

 to the Association by our committee as records of the best authority. I 

 may venture to affirm that they will retain this authority vrith a consfeintly 

 increasing reputation, not merely from my knowledge of the talents and 

 experience of the authors of these reports, but from the fact that they 

 have based their researches and classifications on the only scientific 

 foundation, that of language — or, more strictly speaking, of comparative 

 philology — a basis which in modern anthropology is too often dis- 

 regarded. 



Two points of minor importance, but still of much interest, in 

 Dr. Chamberlain's report seem to merit notice. His statement that, ' as 

 compared with white men, the Indians, with rare exceptions, must be 

 considered inferior physically,' may be misunderstood. As regards those 

 Indians to whom it was intended to apply, namely, the Kootenays and 

 their neighbours, it is undoubtedly correct ; but the author had certainly 

 no purpose of including in his statement all the aborigines of America. 

 He is well aware that these, like the communities of the eastern continent, 

 vary physically as well as intellectually, not only from stock to stock, but 

 from branch to branch. Of the Iroquois Dr. Brinton, in his ' American 

 Hace' (p. 82), states: — 'Physically the stock is most superior, unsur- 

 passed by any other on the continent, and, I may even say, by any other 

 people in the world ; for it stands on record that the five companies (500 

 men) recruited from the Iroquois of New York and Canada during our 

 civil war stood first on the list among all the recruits of our army for 

 height, vigour, and corporeal symmetry.' The other recruits, it should 

 be remembered, comprised great numbers of emigrants from almost all 

 the nations of Europe. 



In the First and Third Reports of the Committee (1885 and 1887) 

 are given the reasons for believing that the Kootenays formerly lived east 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and were driven thence by the Blackfoot tribes 

 in comparatively recent times. Dr. Chamberlain's account of the 

 Kootenay traditions confirms this opinion, and adds a curious and signi- 

 ficant circumstance. ' The Kootenays,' he states, ' believe that they came 

 from the east, and their myths ascribe to them an origin from a hole in 

 the ground east of the Rocky Mountains.' My early studies of the myths 

 of the Pacific islanders disclosed the true origin and meaning of the 

 legendary stories which have been common among many peoples in 

 ancient and modern times, from the early Athenians to the Marquesans 

 and Iroquois, who have ascribed to their ancestors an autochthonous 

 origin, briuging them literally from underground. These legends origi- 

 nate in the double, or we might rather perhaps say the threefold, meaning 

 given in most languages to each of the words ' above ' and ' below.' This 

 point is fully explained in an article contributed to the ' Journal of 



