ON THE NORTH-WESTEKN TRIBES OF CANADA. 675 



Kwakiutl we find a mixture of paternal and maternal institutions, but 

 the son is not allowed to use his father's totem ; he acquires the right 

 to his totem by marriage, receiving at that time the totem of his wife's 

 father. When, later on, his daughter marries, the right to the totem 

 descends upon her husband. In this manner the totem descends in the 

 maternal line, although indirectly. Each clan has a certain limited 

 number of names. Each individual has only one name at a time. The 

 bearers of these names form the nobility of the tribe. When a man re- 

 ceives the totem of his father-in-law, he at the same time receives his 

 name, while the father-in-law gives up the name, and takes what is called 

 ' an old man's name,' which does not belong to the names constituting the 

 nobility of the tribe. 



Among the Kwakiutl and Bilqula this social organisation holds good 

 during the summer, while during the winter ceremonials it is suspended. 

 During this time the secret societies take the place of the clans. Accord- 

 ing to tradition, these societies have originated in the same manner as the 

 clan originated. One of the ancestors of the clan met the presiding spirit 

 of one of the societies, and was initiated by him. This seems to be the 

 general form of tradition explaining the origin of secret societies among 

 all North American tribes. All those who have been initiated by the 

 same spirit, and who liave received from him the name, privileges, and secrets 

 of the ceremonial, form a secret society. The most important among the 

 societies on the North Pacific coast are those of the cannibals, the bears, the 

 fools, and the warriors. The number of names composing a secret society 

 is limited in the same manner as the number of names compo.sing the 

 clan. Membership in a secret society may be obtained in two ways : by 

 marriage, in the same way as the acquisition of the totem ; and by killing 

 the owner of a certain name. Totem and secret society are not connected 

 inseparably ; but the one may be transferred to one person, the other to 

 another. 



In order to understand this curious system clearly we must i-emember 

 that the Salish tribes which are found south of the Kwakiutl are divided 

 into village communities ; while their northern neighbours — the Tsimshian, 

 the Haida, and the Tlingit — are divided into maternal clans. The 

 Kwakiutl have been strongly influenced from both sides. 



The traditions explaining the totems and the secret societies refer, as 

 stated before, to the initiation of the ancestor of the clan. They are 

 analogous to the traditions of the acquisition of the Manitou. All the 

 tales referring to this subject have approximately the following incident : 

 A youth undergoes a ceremonial fasting and purification, and thus acquires 

 the faculty of seeing a spirit, who becomes his protector. The traditions of 

 the coast tribes explaining the origin of clans have the same contents. There 

 is only one difference : the protecting spirit has appeared to the ancestor of 

 the clan, and is now inherited by their descendants without personal initia- 

 tion. In this respect the similarity between the traditions of the secret socie- 

 ties and those referring to the Manitous is much closer, since it is necessary 

 that each new member be initiated by the presiding spirit of the society. 

 Therefore every new member has to undergo the same ceremonies which 

 other Indians undergo at the time of reaching puberty. The beliefs of 

 the Chinooksof Columbia River are similar to those of the northern tribes, 

 although among them the idea of the acquisition of the totem has been 

 more clearly preserved. They believe that a man can acquire only that 

 spirit who belonged to his ancestors in the paternal line, but the relation 



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