r
|

56 FRANZ BOAS ON THE

into animals, and killed malignant beings which infested the country. I mentioned
above that the ancient beings, who were neither men nor animals but similar to both,
were transformed into real men and animals at the time of the great flood. This myth is
found from southern Alaska to the northern parts of Vancouver Island, while farther south
the transformation by the wanderer takes its place. I am not quite sure whether the
wanderer legend is known to the northern tribes of the Kwakiutl. It seems, however, to
be less important than it is farther south. The Kwakiutl proper consider the wanderer
as identical with the raven, but I believe that this idea also originated in consequence of
a mixture of northern and southern mythology, and that these two all-important mytho-
logical persons, who originally belonged to two distinct mythologies, are combined in
one person here. |

Unfortunately I do not know whether the legends of the great transformer are known
to the Bilqula; but, even if they exist, they cannot be of great importance as I did not
hear him mentioned once, when collecting a considerable number of myths.

This comparison of the myths of the various tribes shows that they spread from
three centres. This conclusion is corroborated by a comparison of customs. We may
consider the Tlingit the representatives of the northern centre. The raven is the chief
being of their mythology. We find here the origin of the remarkable copper plates
which are used as far south as Fraser River. These tribes are divided into clans or
gentes, the child belonging to thé mother’s gens. The dead are not buried but burned.
A comparison of the carvings shows that those of the Tlingit are far less conventional
than those of the southern tribes. The most southern people belonging to this group is
the Tsimshian. |

The mythology of. the tribes belonging to the central group 1s characterized by a
mixture of the raven myths, the sun myths, and those of the wanderer and the mink.
Here the child belongs to the father’s gens. One of the most remarkable customs of these
tribes is the cannibalism which is connected with their winter dances. Only members
of certain gentes can become cannibals, but each of these must be properly initiated. The
Kwakiutl believe a certain spirit to live in the mountains, and that by encountering it
the member of a certain family will become cannibal. The latter has certain prerogatives
during the season of the winter dances, and during two months is entitled to bite who-
ever displeases him. These customs are also practised by the Bilqula; but they have
evidently been adopted from the Kwakiutl, as the allied tribes farther south do not prac-
tice them. The same ceremonies are in use among the Tsimshian, who borrowed them
from the Kwakiutl.

The characteristics of the southern group are sun-worship, the less extensive use
of carvings, and the small degree of art displayed in their manufacture. While the
houses of the northern tribes are square, and beautifully carved and finished, the tribes
of the southern group live in wooden houses which are about five or six times longer
than they are wide.

Common to all these groups are a considerable degree of skill, a comparatively high
state of art, the general mode of life, the great winter festivals, and the donation feasts,
the so-called potlatches.

We conclude our brief review, which is presented more to call attention to the impor-
tant problems which the ethnology of the Northwest Coast offers than as a contribution

ee