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all the inhabitants of sueh a connnunity (except, of course, the 
slaves) could trace their origin to a single family, but through wars 
and migrations other people came to settle in the same place, so 
that in course of time every village contained representatives of 
several genealogical families. Each genealogical family, that is to 
say, each group of families that claimed descent from a common 
ancestor, occupied with its retainers, commoners and slaves, one of 
the large plank houses so typical of this coast; sometimes, also, 
a second large house and a number of smaller dwellings when the 
original home became overcrowded. Every village of any size con- 
tained several such genealogical families, or “houses”^ as we may 
conveniently call them; and, conversely, a single “house” often had 
representatives in several villages. 
The union of two or more “houses” produced the clan, originally, 
it would seem, a geographical unit synonymous with village, but 
later, like the houses, distributed over several villages. Its distribu- 
tion probably arose in various ways; by an increase of population 
that forced some of the individual families to seek new fishing- 
grounds; by wars and civil disturbances; and, most often perhaps, 
by intermarriage between the different villages. The community 
feeling that had sprung up while the clan was still a strictly 
geographical unit persisted after its dispersion, finding expression, 
for example, in the use of a common designation for all its members, 
and, in many districts, the emi)loyment of a special heraldic crest.- 
North of Vancouver island, among the Haida Indians of the Queen 
Charlotte islainls, the Tsimshian of the Skeena and Nass rivers, the 
western Carrier adjacent to the Tsimshian, the Tlinkit along the 
Alaskan panhandle, and the Tahltan on the Stikine river behind 
them, the clans were grouped into still larger units or phratries, but 
this further systematization did not find favour among the Nootka, 
Kwakiutl, and Coast Salish peoples to the southward. 
Among the three southern peoples just mentioned, marriage 
depended solely on the degree of kinship; neither the clan nor the 
village community entered into its regulation, although a small 
village might be practically exogarnous because all its inhabitants 
belonged to the same kin. Property (using that term to include not 
1 In the same sense as the exi:»res.siona “House of York," “House of Lancaster.” 
2 Just as the Highland clans, the Macrlonalds, tlie Argyles, etc., preserve their surnames and tartans 
in every part of the world, and retain a feeling of kinship with clansmen still living in the ancient glens. 
