28 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 19. 
CEREMONIAL DANCES. 
One or two incidental facts were obtained in regard to the 
ceremonial dances of the secret societies, and are here given for 
what they are worth. Among the ceremonial dances whose 
performance was regarded as an inheritable privilege are: 
1. 'crldld', in which the performers practised cannibalism. 
2. , in which the performers ate dogs. 
3. ho'nd'nd''l, in which the performers broke objects with 
a long club, later paying for the property destroyed with objects 
of greater value. 
Chief Derrick claimed that the 'o'ldla' and Icr'hm were the 
two head dances and that the ho m nd’nd‘'l was used only by 
princes. He claimed to have the right to the performance of 
the lo''lcm and ho'nti’na-'l but not to that of the ' o’lald '. l 
CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 
A few scanty notes were obtained on the classes of society 
formerly recognized among the Nass River Indians. Chief 
Derrick recognized three main classes: 
1. C9m%i%d't “nobles, chiefs.” 
2. wa'V'Vw “common people.” 
3. Itlr'ngU “slaves.” 
The term Itlr'nget is evidently the reduplicated plural of 
Ir'ngti (cf. Tlingit Irngc't ), the Tlingit word for “people.” It 
implies that the main source of the slave class among the Nass 
River people was constituted by captives taken in war with the 
Tlingit Indians to the north. 
The common people, as well as the nobles, were represented 
in all four of the phratries or They were allowed to show 
the less important crests in potlatches, but not the main crests. 
‘A relatively full account of the secret societies of the Nass River Indians is given by F. 
Boas in his report on The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians 
(Report of U. S. National Museum for 1895). pp. 651-659. 
