THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 249 



This is also the custom amongst the TliDgit aud. Kaigaui. Langs- 

 dorfif (1805) cites the custom about Sitka, aud says that the ransom was 

 usually paid in sea-otter skins.* 



Raida. — Dawson states that — 



A single system of totems (Haida, Kwalla) exteucls tlironghout the different tribes 

 of the Haidas, Kaiganis, Tsiinshlans, and neiglaboriug peoples. * * <f The totems 

 found among these peoples are designated as the eagle, ivolf, croiv, hlack bear, andfin- 

 ivJiale (or killer). The two last named are united, so that but four claus are counted 

 in all. The Haida names for these are, in order, hoot, koo-ji, kit-si-naxa aud sxa-nu-xa. 

 The members of the different totems are generally pretty equally distributed in each 

 tribe. Those of the same totem are all counted, as it were, of one family, and the 

 chief bearing of the system appears to be on marriage.! 



According to Boas, the Haida are divided into numerous totems aud 

 into the two phratries, Eagle and Eaven, the same as the Kaigani.|: 



In the absence of any other information the subject must rest in this 

 unsatisfactory condition. 



Tsimshian.— Amongst the Tsimshiau there are four gentes or totems, 

 the Eaven, the Eagle, the Bear, aud the Wolf. A person of any totem 

 may marry into any other than his own indifferently. In the strict sense, 

 therefore, there are no phratries amongst the Tsimshian. Boas states' 

 that the totems of the Kwakiutl are the Eaven, Eagle, and Bear, and 

 that he believes that the Tsimshian have in general modified the cus- 

 toms of northern Kwakiutl. § 



Origin of Totemism. — Some idea has been given of the systems of 

 totems amongst the northern tribes of the northwest coast. Its prac- 

 tical workings will be given later on, in treatiug of the habits, customs, 

 and traditions of these tribes. It may, in one sense, be out of place 

 here to deal with the theory of totemism in a work of this nature, but 

 something may be added to the general fund of speculation. No satis- 

 factory theory has yet been advanced in explanation of the origin of 

 totemism. Mr. Herbert Spencer finds it (1) in the primitive custom 

 of naming children after natural objects from some accidental circum- 

 stance or fanciful resemblance or in nicknaming later in life ; (2) the 

 confounding of or misinterpretation _of such metaphorical names or 

 nicknames with the real objects, that is, confusing these objects with 

 their ancestors of the same name, and reverenciug them as they 

 already reverenced their ancestors. Sir John Lubbock takes his stand 

 on the ''supposed resemblance" theory. Totemism can not be traced 

 from ancestor worship directly, because it actually exists where there 

 is the most unsatisfactory recognition of ancestry, that is of paternity 

 or maternity, or even both. The confusion of natural objects with their 

 known ancestors of the same names and reverenciug them as they rev- 

 erence such ancestors is in itself quite plausible enough, but the ex- 



* Langsdorff", Voyages, part ii, p. 130. 



t Dawson. Eeport, p. 134, B. 



t Correspondence, also Science, Oct. 26, 1888. 



^S Science, Vol. xii, No. '299, p. 195. 



