SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE NASS RIVER INDIANS 
7 
of “wolves moving about,” the black-bear crest also as “black- 
bear prince” (the epithet “prince” is found also with other 
crests, e.g., “killer-whale prince” and “mountain-goat prince,” 
and seems to indicate that the crest as used by the particular 
family stands higher in rank than the simple unqualified crest 
of other families) and “son of black-bear.” In many cases the 
modified crest name indicates clearly the type of ceremonial 
object shown as a representation of the crest. Thus, we not 
only have the eagle crest, but also “stone eagle,” "wooden eagle,” 
“abelone-covered ea ;le,” and “eagle garment.” Similarly, the 
raven crest appears also in the special forms of “abelone-covered 
raven” and “two ravens,” the mountain-goat crest also as 
“mountain-goat hat.” It is significant to note that while 
the mountain-goat is primarily a %cspo‘ u dwrdd crest, the special 
“mountain-goat hat” was given as one of the crests of a qana'da 
clan. The tendency towards a concrete interpretation of the 
crest idea comes out still more strongly in the case of crests which 
refer not to animals or celestial bodies but to peculiar ceremonial 
objects connected with legends. Thus, one of the crests of an 
Eagle clan is a ceremonial ladle bearing the name of “small 
coffin,” and a Wolf clan has as one of its crests the “foolish 
grease-dish.” There can be little doubt that crests of this 
type are of lesser age than the typical animal and celestial crests, 
as they seem in every case to be peculiar to special clans and thus 
to have arisen, on the whole, subsequently to the splitting up of 
larger groups into the present clans. It is not probable that 
historically they are strictly comparable to the more general 
crests; it seems quite likely that they are to be explained as a 
result of the ever-increasing tendency to identify the crest with 
a specific representation of it. Psychologically it is important 
that the same term, ayu'k u s, is applied to both types of crests, 
as well as to the privilege of using a distinctive house name. 
We shall now give the ranking of phratries and families in 
each of the four tribes, beginning with the £ U' anw t'l'kc and 
proceeding down stream, also the crests used by each family, 
so far as they have been ascertained. I can naturally not claim 
completeness in this outline of clans and crests and so would 
like to emphasize the caution that too much must not, in most 
