22 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 10. 
If we include the nicknames, and then the birth names, we 
have five distinct systems of individual names. Remembering 
that every individual had three names, a birth name, clan name, 
and nickname, of co-ordinate importance, we must not exaggerate 
the importance of the clan name, especially in its social signifi- 
cance. An individual is known by his birth name or nickname, 
generally, however, by the former, which sufficed absolutely as 
a mark of identification under normal conditions. The clan 
name was rarely known by a member of another clan or even 
to all members of the clan. A marked religious symbolical 
flavour clung about it, and this was enhanced and elaborated by 
the shaman and principal members of the clan. The way was 
thus open for the development of specific interpretations such as 
the dream, symbolical, and notably the ancestor-episode type. 
The ancestor-episode type seems to have been the last. The 
uniformity it brought about in the interpretation of individual 
names was all the more easily accomplished in view of the fact 
that this esoteric interpretation was not disturbed by the influ- 
ence of any popular system, since, as has been pointed out, 
the nature of the clan name prevented it from having any 
distinctively social-political value. Many such reinterpretations 
must have taken place in the history of the tribe, and we may 
thus obtain some idea of the insurmountable difficulties in the 
way of a proper understanding of names. Psychologically two 
processes are always active in these changes in name connota- 
tion: first, the reinterpretation of the old names according to 
some definite system of classification ; and, secondly, the formation 
of new names on this basis. Interpreting a name, probably 
merely descriptive of the bear’s manner of walking, like Re- 
traces-her-footsteps, into an incident connected with the origin 
of the clan, and, on the other hand, giving a name like Scatters- 
flowers-as-he-walks, are two examples of the two processes, 
which must have occurred at every change. In the case here 
cited, reinterpretation in no way does injury to the name itself. 
It frequently happens, however, that the significance of a word 
is lost and that, in the process of reinterpretation, names are 
interpreted in a characteristic folk-etymological manner. Tcoy- 
anke, given above, is a case in point. In addition to the possible 
