i

ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 5

councils, and is without consideration or influence. The greater the
number of secret societies to which any man belongs, the higher is his
standing in the community. As there are several of these societies in
every tribe, it is evident that no person whose character would make him
a desirable member of one of them is likely to remain outside of the
burgess class. The lowest class, or rabble, is therefore a veritable
residuum, composed of feeble-minded or worthless individuals, with, of
course—in those tribes which practise slave-holding—slaves and their
descendants. Grotesque as this system seems at first thought, further
consideration shows it to be by no means ill-contrived for keeping the
government of the tribe permanently in the worthiest hands, and bringing
men of the first merit into the most influential positions.

Connected with this system is that of the ‘ potlatch,’ or gift-festival,
a custom which has been greatly misunderstood by strangers, who have
regarded it as a mere parade of wasteful and ostentatious profusion. It is
in reality something totally different. The potlatch is a method most
ingeniously devised for displaying merit, acquiring influence, and at the
same time laying up a provision for the future. Among these Indians, as
among all communities in which genuine civilisation has made some pro-
gress, the qualities most highly esteemed in a citizen are thrift, forethought,
and liberality. The thrift is evinced by the collection of the property
which is distributed at the gift-feast ; the liberality is, of course, shown
in its distribution; and the forethought is displayed in selecting as the
special objects of this liberality those who are most likely to be able to
return it. By a well-understood rule, which among these punctilious
natives had all the force of a law of honour, every recipient of a gift at a
potlatch was bound to return its value, at some future day, twofold. And
in this repayment his relatives were expected to aid him; they were
deemed, in fact, his sureties. Thus a thrifty and aspiring burgess who,
at one of these gift-feasts, had emptied all his chests of their accumulated
stores, and had left himself and his family apparently destitute, could
comfortably reflect, as he saw his visitors depart in their well-laden
canoes, that he had not only greatly increased his reputation, but had at
the same time invested all his means at high interest, on excellent
security, and was now in fact one of the wealthiest, as well as most
esteemed, members of the community.

We now perceive why the well-meant act of the local legislature,
abolishing the custom of potlatch, aroused such strenuous opposition among
the tribes in which this custom specially prevailed. We may imagine the
consternation which would be caused in England if the decree of a
superior power should require that all benefit societies and loan companies
should be suppressed, and that all deposits should remain the property of
those who held them in trust. The potlatch and its accompaniments
doubtless had their ill effects, but the system clearly possessed its useful
side, and it might perhaps have been better left to gradually decline and
disappear with the rise and diffusion of a different system of economy.

The nature of the civilisation and industry which accompanied it may
be shown by a brief extract from the report of Dr. George Gibbs, already
referred to. In 1858 he visited a village of the Makahs, a Nootka tribe,
near Cape Flattery. It consisted of two blocks of four or five houses
each. These houses were constructed of hewn planks, secured to a strong
framework of posts and rafters. The largest was no less than 75 feet
long by 40 in width, and probably 15 feet high in front. In chests of