a

64 . REPORT—1890.

to obtain food he may send anyone hunting or fishing, and his orders
must be obeyed. Only during dances and feasts the uninitiated are
admitted to the taboo house. If anyone intends to invite the mé’emkoat
to a feast the hd’matsa’s wife may enter the house and deliver the message
after having publicly announced that she will go there. The mé'emkoat
are not permitted to touch their wives, but nowadays this custom is
mostly restricted to the ha'mats’a.
The k-uék-utsé are subdivided into seven societies :

Maa! mq’ énog (killer whales), the young men,

D’d'@ op’z (rock-cods), men about thirty to forty years of age.

Tle tlaqan (sea-lions), men forty to fifty years old.

K-oa'koim (whales), old men and old chiefs.

Kékyaqgala'ka (crows), girls.

K-a'k-ak'ao (chickens), formerly called wa/qwagqoli (a small species
of birds), young women.

Ma'smés (cows), old women.’ (This name was recently ado ted,.
but I did not learn the old name.)

AER eo ee oe

During the Ts’ étsd’ck-a all these societies wear ornaments of the animals
which they represent. They are opponents of the mé/emkoat. The
malemkoat and each of the groups of the k-ué/k-utse give feasts to each
other ‘in order to keep their opponents in good humour.’ Nevertheless
the k-ué'k-utsé always attempt to excite the mé'emkoat, as will be described
presently, and the latter will attack the k-wé'k-wisé. The natives consider
these festivals not purely from a religious point of view, although the
latter is their principal character, but it is at the same time the social
event of the year, in which merry-making and sports of all sorts are en-
joyed. Hven the attacks of the mé/emkoat, which will be described here-
after, are considered as part of the ‘fant

The méemkoat are subdivided into a great number of classes which
have different rank. I give here the list of the divisions of the mé’emkoat
arranged according to rank :

1. Ha’ mats’a. 8. Mé@itla.

9. No/ntsistatl. 9, No’/ntlum.

3. K’oe'/k‘oastatl. 10. Kyimk~alatla.
4, Ni’tlmatl. 11. Tlokoa’la.

5. Na’né. 12. Jakuiata’latl.
6. Td’q’uit. 13. K:’0/malatl.
7. Hailikyilatl. 14. Hawi’nalatl.

Then follow a number of dances, which are all of equal rank:
Ha! maselatl, Ha’ok‘haok’, Ku/nqulatl, K’o'lus, and many others. The last
+3 the Lolo’tlalatl, which is as high in rank as the Ha’ mats’a, but is opposed
to him, and therefore stands at the other end of the dancers.

1 This peculiar custom of suspending the gentes on certain occasions, and intro-
ducing a class sysiem instead, seems worthy of attention. Although this fact is far
from being a proof of the former existence of such asystem among the Kwakiutl,
still its correspondence to the Australian class system is certainly suggestive, and may
point to a development of the social institutions of these tribes. The idea of the
possibility of suspending all gentes points out that the latter are either of compara-
tively recent origin or that they are degenerating. The former alternative appears
more probable, as in religious festivities, such as the Ts tisi'ék'a. Generally ancient
institutions are preserved. It is hardly necessary to mention that similar class sys-
tems are found east of the Rocky Mountains.