372 KEPORT.OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



a. youth of good family approaches man's estate it becomes his duty to 

 accumulate all the property possible, and, with the help and material 

 contributions of his mother's people, to make a grand feast and potlatch 

 from his own house. Practically it is simply a house- building " bee," in 

 which the young man erects his carved column and the rafters of his 

 house, takes on himself the name of an ancestor (usually maternal) ; 

 and becomes a petty chief or man of influence in the village. It is on 

 this occasion that the tattooing of the young Haida is finished and 

 when the aspirant for honors drinks down the oil from the great wooden 

 spoon as shown in Fig 27 and Plate Li. These ceremonies are no- 

 where accurately described, and the writer gathered but a meagre out- 

 line of them at Port Simpson, British Columbia. The significance of 

 the affair is similar to that of the "bringing out" of girls, in that it 

 marks the arrival of the youth at man's estate. At the conclusion of 

 the grand feast and potlatch, the young man is known by his newly 

 adopted name. 



Chieftaincy — Chieftaincy is to a certain extent hereditary, but as it de- 

 pends upon wealth, any freeman who can accumulate property may, by 

 erecting a house and giving potlatches and feasts in honor of his ances- 

 tors, come finally to be the head of a household and be regarded as a 

 petty chief or one of the principal men of the village. Good birth and 

 wealthy and influential family connections are the first requisites of an 

 aspirant for the highest rank. To be a petty chief in the village a man 

 must practically be at the head of a household, hence the necessity for 

 building a house and for marrying. To build a house the united labor 

 of many people is required, hence the house-bitilding "bees." To re- 

 ward those who participate and to gain the good will of others, feasts 

 must be given and presents distributed ; hence the potlatch. To retain 

 the respect and esteem of others these feasts and potlatches must be re- 

 peated at intervals. By an alliance with medicine men, whose influence 

 9 is purchasable, various deceits and tricks may be resorted to in order 

 to impose on the credulity of the vulgar herd and increase the respect 

 they have for the rank and power of the aspirant for honors. In order 

 to strengthen this feeling of respect it is necessary to brush up the coat- 

 of-arms, so to speak, and give a grand feast in honor of some departed 

 ancestor. This is called " glorifying the dead," and may take place a 

 few years after the decease of the relatives or many years afterwards. 

 Finally, by dint of giving feasts, potlatches, and " bees;" by intrigue, 

 display, and prowess ; by push, energy, and enterprise, the aspirant 

 finris himself in the front rank of the chiefs, a respected and influential 

 elder in the village. 



Glorification of the dead. — In Chapter xii the mortuary customs of 

 the different tribes of this region were discussed. On the death of a 

 chief, or other very important personage, the body, after lying in state 

 for a year or more, is finally interred with great ceremony, or, as amongst 

 the northern Tlingit, burned on a funeral pyre. It then devolves upon 



