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speaking only the nobles of closely related families recognizing the same 
crest or totem dwelt in the big communal houses; the commoners erected 
smaller dwellings in the immediate vicinity. Descent and inheritance 
now followed the maternal line instead of the paternal, although the 
actual status of the women seems to have remained about the same. 
Change in Religious Doctrines 
Even if no other changes had occurred this great revolution in the 
structure of society would have had far-reaching effects on the education 
of the children. But it was accompanied by an equally great revolution 
in religious doctrines and ideas. The western Carrier still devoted the 
greater part of the year to hunting, and he still preserved his early faith 
in the intelligence of animals, an intelligence he believed to be similar and 
sometimes superior to that of man. But this simple faith he now con- 
verted into a ritual; instead of soliciting the favour of the animals and 
obtaining their aid by prayer and fasting, he sought to coerce them and 
to gain their power by the use of spells, magic herbs, and rigid self-dis- 
cipline, that is to say, by the ritual commonly known as xal. Simultaneous- 
ly there arose, or became more prominent, a belief in a luminary deity, the 
sky-god Sa who in more recent times has been reinterpreted as the God 
of the Christians, Utakke , “He who dwells on high.’’ Violations of the 
moral code, and violations of the numerous taboos and injunctions that 
had sprung up in increased numbers, were direct offences against Sa, 
who would be certain to punish the offender before many moons rolled by. 
A third change in the religion of the western Carriers, and one which also 
had great influence on the upbringing of the children, was the growth of a 
belief in certain vague supernatural forces which could smite a man at a 
moment’s notice and make him the medium of supernatural power. Not a 
year passed, probably, in which some member of the community, man or 
woman, was not stricken with a kind of hysteria, the “medicine” sickness, 
that could be cured only by nightly drumming, singing, dancing, and 
the exorcisms of other medicine men. Every child that watched these 
performances knew that sooner or later, but probably in early life, he 
might himself be stricken in the same way and called upon to become a 
medicine man. All the more likely was this to happen if a parent or an 
ancestor had been a great medicine man before him; though medicine 
power was not a direct inheritance and many legends are told of poor and 
despised orphans who rose to rank and influence through its acquisition. 
Development of New Educational System 
The western Carrier was now living in a new world. Both society and 
religion had been changed and systematized, and the education of the 
children was bound to undergo a similar revolution and development. 
Not that there was any change in its fundamental purpose; the results it 
sought to obtain were the same as under the old order of things. Every 
boy was trained to be a successful hunter, so that he could provide for all 
the needs of his household and community; and every girl to become a 
