248 Kl':POK'r of national museum, 1888> 



the above named totems luto tlie two groups is not known deli uitel^' 

 enough by the writer to warrant giving the list. Enough is known 

 however to illustrate several anomalous groupings. For instance, the 

 Eaven and Bear totems belong to the Eagle phratry, whilst amongst the 

 Tlingit they belong to the opposite or Eaven phratry. In consequence 

 of this, when, for instance, a Kaigani of either of these totems goes to 

 Fort Wrangell (Stikiue) or Tongass (Tunghoash), he becomes a member 

 of the opposite phratry, and can only marry in what, in his own village, 

 would be his own phratry. This illustrates very forcibly that it is the 

 gens or totem which counts. Once a Bear always a Bear; whereas the 

 phratry is in one sense limited or local. The obligations attaching to 

 a totem are not, therefore, confined to tribal or national limits, but ex- 

 tend throughout the whole region. In childhood a transfer can be 

 made from one totem to another. Supposing a chief desires his son to 

 succeed him and to belong to his own totem ; the babe is transferred 

 to his sister to suckle, and is figuratively adopted by her. In this way 

 the son acquires the totemship of his father, and at an early age is taken 

 back by his own mother to raise. Dawson cites these cases of transfer 

 as often effected among the Haida to strengthen the totem of the father 

 when its number has become reduced and there is danger not only of 

 loss of prestige but of extinction. The ties of the totem or of the 

 phratry are considered far stronger than those of blood-relationship. 

 A man can not marry in his own totem whether within or without his 

 own tribe, or his own phratry within his own tribe. There is nothing to 

 prevent a man from marrying his first cousin, and much to prohibit his 

 marriage to a most remote connection or an absolute stranger. The 

 children always take the mother's totem amongst the Tlingit, Kaigani, 

 Haida, and Tsimshian, unless transferred to the father's by a fiction. 

 Thus " mother-rule," or matriarchy i^revails. Wealth and chiefship 

 descend in the female line in a most curious way, as explained hereafter 

 in dealing with the subjects of chiefship and inheritance. Dawson, 

 speaking of the intertribal relation of totems, says : 



Au Indian on arriving at a strange village where lie may apprehend hostility would 

 look for a house indicated by its carved post as belonging to his totem and make for 

 it. The master of the house, coming out, may, if he likes, make a dance in honor of 

 his visitor, but in any case protects him from all injury. In the same way, should an 

 Indian be captured as a slave by some warlike expedition and brought into the vil- 

 lage of his captors, it behooves any one of his totem, either man or woman, to pre- 

 sent themselves to the captors, and, singing a certain sacred song, offer to redeem the 

 captive. Blankets and other property are given for this purpose. Should the slave 

 be given Tip, the redeemer sends him back to his tribe and the relatives pay the re- 

 deemer for what he has expended. Should the captors refuse to give up the slave 

 for the property offered, it is considered rather disgraceful to them. This, at least, 

 is the custom pursued in regard to captives included in the same totem system as them- 

 selves by the Tsimshians, and it is doubtless identical or very similar among the 

 Haidas, though no special information on this subject was obtained from them.* 



* Dawson, Report, B, p. 134. 



