24(l REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1«88. 



jectj owiDg to the ai^parent want of agreement of any two writers. The 

 tendency to generalize from a study of one tribe alone has added to the 

 confusion. Thorough and systematic collection of data at each village 

 can alone give a reliable groundwork for generalizations. This work 

 must be undertaken soon, or it will prove either incomplete or too late 

 altogether. 



The exceedingly imperfect data given here will at least serve as a pre- 

 liminary sketch of the tabulation. 



CONSANGUINEAL ORGANIZATION. 



Totems. — From their nature, totems are in a state of flux. Clans tend 

 to become phratries split up into sub-phratries ; sub-phraties decay and 

 finally disappear. An individual distinguishes himself,becomes wealthy, 

 and hence a leading man in the village. His totem, or indeed his in- 

 dividual crest or sub-totem, may have been an obscure one. As he 

 rises, its importance in the tribe rises with him. Under his successsor, 

 the totem widens its numbers and influence, and finally eclipses other 

 clan totems, which eventually melt away or are incorporated with it. 

 In the course of time, either by the accession of other totems or else by 

 its splitting up into sub-totems, it came finally to be ranked as a 

 phratry, then a sub-phratry. In this evolution we see the sub-totem 

 grow into a clan totem, then into a phratry or sub-phratry, when decay 

 sets in, and it " melts into the vast reservoir of nature from which it 

 sprang." 



On the northwest coast we see only a few of the stages in this evolu- 

 tion, but by a study of totemism as it exists in all parts of the world 

 the curve of the rise and fall of totems has been so accurately plotted, 

 that there will probably be found in this region no wide variations 

 from the general system. 



Tlingit. — Amongst the Tlingit two exogamous groups of gentes exist, 

 that is, they are divided into two phratries. The individuals composing 

 the gentes in one phratry can only marry individuals in any gentes of 

 the other. These phratries are popularly called the Raven and the 

 Wolf. Much confusion arises from the fact that in the Wolf phratry 

 we have the Wolf totem, and in the Eaven phratry the Eaven totem. 

 Frazer says of this : 



Considering tte prominent parts played in Tlingit mythology by the ancestors of 

 the two phratries, and considering that the phratries are also names of clans, it 

 seems probable that the Raven and Wolf were the two original clans of the Tlingits, 

 which afterwards by sub-division became phi'atries*. 



Through popular misapprehension the origin of these two phratries 



*Frazer, Totemism, p. 62. This seems to be further borne oat by the testimony of 

 Lisiansky, Voyag., p. 242, Sitka (1805). " The tribe of the wolf are called the 

 Coquebans, and have many privileges over the other tribes. They are considered 

 the best warriors, and are said to be scarcely sensible to pain, and to have no fear of 

 death. If in war a person of this tribe is taken prisoner he is always treated well 

 and is generally set at liberty." 



