family. They call the figure at the top the "thunder bird," but it is not so much a nature divinity as it is a tribal God. If it personifies the thunder or any power of nature it at the same

time represents the animal divinity. The bear is also a totem and this animal is sometimes carved on the totem posts and sometimes painted on boards or woven into blankets. See Fig. 5.

There is a picture of a chief lying in state, in which there are blankets with bears woven in them on the bed, the image of a stuffed bear is beside the bed, the same or similar figures are seen ornamenting the walls above the bed and every where in the room are animal semblances. These were undoubtedly the symbols which expressed the tribal connection of the chief. They show the clan emblems as well as the personal totem of the chief.

Fig. 5.-THE THUNDER BIRD.

It seems to have been a peculiarity of the people of the northwest coast, that they symbolized their clan history by animal figures, but their family history by human figures. We do not know that they were very different from the other American tribes except in this. It is however probable they were older or at least had continued their tribal existence longer than many of the tribes farther east.

There were certain tribes, such as the Dacotahs, who had almost reached the same stage that these had. It appears from the researches of ethnologists, and notably those of Rev. J. O. Dorsey, that the Dacotahs had not only tribes and clans, but subclans, as if they were approximating to the condition where the family would be recognized as constituting a separate line. In these tribes the mother-right had disappeared, and the father had come to take the place of the mother in giving the name and inheritance to the clan. We need only to carry the subject a little further, to see how tribes like those on the northwest coast might set up the family name and genealogy as still more important than the clan name and seek to symbolize this fact by their to*See Century Magazine-also West Shore for 1881.

tems. In this way we might suppose that a people would easily pass out from animal worship to ancestor worship, the first having been correlated to the clan, and the last to the family. The totem posts of the northwest coast are suggestive objects for our study on this account. These were always expressive of the family honor and the family history, but they suggested at the same time the clan system, the family name being symbolized by the human figures and the clan by the animal, as we have said. There is one point further in this connection. These tribes of the northwest coast were undoubtedly descended from the tribes of the northeast coast of Asia. Their totem system is to be studied in connection with the Asiatic tribes. We know that the peculiarity of Mongolian races, and especially of the Chinese is that they were given to ancestor worship. The same is true of the tribes situated north of the Chinese wall, such as the Samoyedes, Tungus, and Ostyaks; ancestor worship was very common among them. We may suppose that the American tribes on the northwest coast derived their system from the same source. We find in the totem posts, not only the record of the tribal history, but we may trace in them hints as to their line of migration. These tribes undoubtedly had passed through the various stages of animal worship, and reached the early stage of ancestor worship.

They, however, retained the symbols of both systems in these carved posts, and so we have in them a book which we may read as full of significance.

The cuts which we present will illustrate the point, it will be noticed that quite a difference exists between these totem posts. The smaller figures however represent the posts which were erected inside of the house while the larger figures represent those which are on the outside of the house. In reference to the former Rev. M. Eells says, generally these sticks are posts which are used to support the roof of their feast houses, but sometimes are in private houses, and occasionally are placed near the head of the bed, as protectors. See Figs. 6 and 7. These represent posts which are set on large cross beams to support the' ridge pole, in a large communal house, No. 7 having been unveiled with great ceremony. (In the engravings the black portions represent red, the horizontal shading blue, and the vertical black. The unshaded portions represent white paint.) Figure 9 was a board in another large house, where several hundred Indians gathered for a week's festival. At this time a few persons gave to their invited

Figs 6 and 7.

Fig. 8.

friends several hundred dollars in money and other valuable things and it was said that the spirit which dwelt in it really gave away the presents. The principle of idolartry was in all this superstition; but still the sticks were of such a shape that they could not properly be called idols. 1 had been here for years before I saw what could be called by this name and have never seen but this one. As I visited them at one of their religious gatherings in 1878 I saw Fig. 9, which represents a post about four feet long, roughly carved, with the face and body of a man, but with no legs or feet, the lower part being set into the ground and around this they performed their incantations. The eyes were silver quarter dollars nailed to it, and at the time it had no, clothes on except a necktie of red cloth, white cloth and beaten cedar bark. It is said to have been made by the father of a very old man and was kept secreted in the woods when not wanted. I saw it several times after they were done with their performance, and the Indians willingly allowed me to make a drawing of it. It has since been carried off to the woods again.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

There are many such figures among the tribes of the Northwest coast. We present a figure, see Fig. 10, which came from this region. Very little is known concerning it. It is described in one of the Smithsonian Catalogues. It, however, probably represents a totem or a genealogical record of some private person. It will be noticed in this post that the animal totems are quite distinct from the human image. Crocodiles are here the tribal totems, but the knife-feathered image is the totem or emblem of the family.

d

VI. This leads us to another part of our subject, the modifi

cation of the totem system. We have traced the growth of the system from the primitive picture-writing, in which animals were conspicuous, and have found that totemism and symbolism began at about the same stage. It was not used by the fishermen but came into vogue among the hunter races; it continued among these races going through the different stages of growth until it finally reached a stage where ancestor worship came in to modify it. It is noticeable, however, that totemism continued among the agricultural tribes, and to a certain extent among the Pueblos or village Indians.

It is probable that a modified form of totemism existed among the civilized races, but the symbols among them became changed. There are, to be sure, many animal figures among these symbols but along with these figures certain symbols which are significant of a primitive stage of sun worship and others which are significant of a primitive ancestor worship and so on until we come to the elaborate and complicated symbols of the civilized races. The modification of the totems is then an important point for us to study because we may find in it a history of the changes through which native society in America passed, and may possibly trace the line of their migrations. This is a task which the Archæologists must set before themselves. We have said that totemism was characteristic of hunter races mainly, and that it was confined to a certain stage of society, that stage which is represented by the term animal worship. We, however, have taken the position that the totem system was perpetuated in ancestor worship. To reconcile these two points we must consider that there were modifications of the totem system. These modifications may be seen, 1st. In the combination of animal figures and human forms, which we have seen in the genealogical tree. 2d, In the fetiches and prey gods of the Zunis. 3d, In the carved pipes and other figures which prevailed among the Mound Builders. 4th, In the effigies which we trace in the emblematic mounds. 5th, In the adornments and decorations which were common among the native tribes, especially at their feasts and religious ceremonies. 6th, In the various myths and traditions which clustered about the heroes, ancestors and prehistoric divinities. 7th, In the superstitions which prevailed in reference to certain haunted places, especially those where a resemblance to animals was recognized in the forms of nature.

The first modification which we shall consider is that which appeared in the personal adornments, decorations, and habiliments of the natives. It is a remarkable fact that there was not only a symbolism in these adornments, but that the personal names and exploits, and tribal connection, were thus symbolized; in other words, that totemism was embodied in the official costumes.

Animals are frequently seen suspended to the dress or hair of