26 
his story and stress the punishment meted out by Sa, the sky-god, or by 
the animals, for this breach of the customary law. Men still surviving 
state that the shame and humiliation inflicted by this method were harder 
to endure, and more efficacious, than the most severe corporal punishment. 
Rank, that new institution borrowed by the Carriers from their west 
coast neighbours, was a very potent factor in the educational sphere. For 
rank carried its obligations — noblesse oblige. A child of noble rank (and 
we must remember that the nobility formed a much larger proportion of 
the population than with us) was given an hereditary name at birth, and 
a more important title at the age of ten or twelve. These names were 
bestowed at potlatches in the presence of most of the people. They pub- 
licly established the child's place in the community and marked out the line 
of its future advancement. In return the boy (or girl) owed it to his kins- 
folk to live up to his position. He should be respectful to his elders, and 
especially to the widowed, the aged, and the infirm, whether of equal or 
of lower rank; Orion’s belt in the sky stood as a perpetual warning of the 
efficacy of an old woman’s curse. Misfortune should never be mocked 
nor sorrow ridiculed. When a widower mourned his loneliness, weeping 
inside his hut, the boy should softly draw near and ask in low tones whether 
a little food would be acceptable, or a few sticks of wood to replenish the 
fire. He should never ridicule the animals, or gloat over success in hunting; 
the mountain sheep destroyed a whole community because a few youths 
had cruelly tortured a little lamb. In his play he should never be uproarious, 
but observe a certain dignity and moderation; Sa, the sky-god, carried a 
whole village into the sky and dropped the lifeless bones to earth again 
because the children had refused to heed the warnings of their parents 
and raised a tumult around their homes. Regulations such as these, 
promulgated by the old men at night through folk-tales, had to be observed 
by every child, but especially by the nobler born, because their parents 
had expended much property in potlatches to give them high standing. 
Filial obligation demanded obedience. Not seldom had the degenerate 
son of a noble father been eclipsed in fame and honour by some poor orphan 
who drank in the words of his elders through the half-open door. 
Special rules of etiquette were laid down for girls. For example, a 
high-born girl should look straight ahead as she walked, turning her head 
neither to right nor left; girls of lower rank should keep their eyes modestly 
fixed on the ground in front of them. The stone labret worn by the noble 
maiden was a perpetual reminder to her that she should speak slowly and 
with deliberation. It reminded her, too, that her kinsfolk had expended 
much wealth upon her, that she was an asset to the whole community, 
that she must, therefore, guard her words carefully and never speak ill of 
any one. A growing girl was fraught with mighty powers for good or evil 
and this was borne in upon her during a period of two years’ seclusion. 
The special clothing she wore at this period, and the numerous taboos 
which hedged her round, all educated her to a knowledge of her social 
status, and the lesson was driven more deeply home by stories handed 
down from one generation to another. 
