348 
but the differences in culture call for two divisions only, the village 
groups north of the city of Vancouver, including those on Vancouver 
island, and the inhabitants of the Fraser Kiver delta. Both these divi- 
sions separated the population into the usual three classes, slaves. 
2(1518 
Coast Salisli <liii;'-outs at Victoria, ICC. fl'lioio hf/ R, Maijiiiinl.) 
commoners, and nobles, and some villages even recognized a fourth 
class of “ rt)yal ” families as among the Fsimshian. Both divisions, 
too, had exogamous clans witli descent exclusively in the male line 
and with the chieftainship passing from father to eldest son. But the 
delta people separated their three classes much less rigidly than the 
rest of the Coast Salish, and often passed over the son of a chief if 
another relative seemed more woiihy of the jmsition. Furthermore, 
they seldom carved the crests of their clans on their house-posts, 
regarding ancestral crests as less important tlian the acquisition in 
youth of a guardian spirit ; and their secret society was only a pale 
reflection of the Kwakiutl society, which the more northern Coast 
Salish closely imitated. Carving anrl painting became less frequent, 
less conventionalized, and less grotesque, the nearer one approached 
the United States boundary. Although ceremonial life remained 
fairly rich throughout the entire territory of the Coast Salish, there 
