4 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 19. 
leges descend from a man to his sister’s son ; one's predecessor in 
the holding of any title or right is thus not his father, but his 
maternal uncle. The phratries are the laxfecbo’'* "on the wolf,” 
generally referred to simply as Wolves (cf. kcbo ,,u "wolf”); the 
laxsfer'k 1 “on the eagle,” generally referred to simply as Eagles 
(cf. xc%d'k l "eagle”; xsgi-k • is the Tsimshian proper dialectic 
form); the %cspo‘ u dwt'd9, a name of unknown meaning; and the 
qana'da, also of unknown meaning. The name qana'da was 
said by Chief Derrick to be derived from qana’'* u "frog,” one of 
the crests of this phratry; it is more than likely, however, that 
this is merely a folk etymology to explain an otherwise meaning- 
less term. The main crest of the Wolves is the wolf, of the 
Eagles the eagle, of the kcspcr u dwc'd9 (at least in part) the 
killer- whale (’ne’ql), of the qana'da the raven (qa'q f ). 
As far as present distribution is concerned, these phratries 
are found well scattered among the four Nass River tribes, 
though not all of them are represented in each tribe. 1 The 
Wolves are found in all four tribes, but they do not occupy the 
same rank in each; they are the head phratry among the 
fed’anwrl'kctfedgigc'ncx, and ]$dxate' n , but the third and last 
among the fedwanckt'lk u . The Eagles are found represented 
in three of the tribes, being absent among the kdgig€ t 'nc$. 
The %tspo' u dwt'dd phratry again is absent among the fedgige'ntx, 
but represented in the other three tribes. The qana'da phratry, 
finally, is found to be lacking among the kdwankct'lk u only. The 
relative importance of a phratry seems to depend on the number 
of members it counts. 
The phratries are subdivided into smaller groups that may 
be termed clans or, perhaps preferably, families. The Indian 
term for these subdivisions is wd'ndid'l , though the more in- 
clusive term p'tc*q lt seems also to be used to apply to them; 
wrt’ndtd'l may be translated as "being together with one another” 
(cf. Tsimshian reduplicated na-tdlta'l "company”), i.e. "group 
of kinsmen dwelling together.” The clans have their definite 
order of rank within the phratry of a particular tribe and are 
characterized by the ownership of special crests, legends, songs, 
Ut is quite likely, as Mr. Barbeau points out, that the facts of distribution as given in this 
paper apply only to the nobles. 
