THE ALKATCHO CARRIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 361

was directed to give some property to one of his age group from
another village of the same social status as himself. This began
a potlatching rivalry that continued for years.

Social rank was not static. Under conditions of status rivalry
the noble who attempted to rest upon the record of his past
achievements would soon be forgotten. It was necessary for a
noble to seek every opportunity for public notice. Thus they be-
came very sensitive to insult and by wiping out that insult with
a property distribution achieved still greater prominence. At
every potlatch the nobles displayed their songs and dances and
validated the display with the distribution of small gifts to the
assembly. Nobles systematically paid for the food they had eaten
at potlatches. The greatest of the potlatch chiefs made a point
of slighting a host by coming late.

The type of rivalry so fully developed on the Coast—the crush-
ing of a rival with property—was not as prominent a feature of
Carrier potlatching, at least in effect. Yet the greatest meotihs
were those “whom nobody could beat.’’ So long as the rival,
really a “friend,” did not “talk too high tone” the exchange of
property with return of some increment continued on a fairly
amicable level. But as soon as an individual became too boastful
and arrogant his rival gave him property, which was as thrown
into the fire. It could not be returned, and the potlatch relation-
ship was terminated.

A Carrier Indian would say:

That meotih with whom I potlatch all the time is like my friend. Now
that fellow talks bad talk to me. He talks high tone. Now I get mad.
If I say tsaxmeduts (meaning unknown) then that fellow can’t pay me.
I beat him. He can’t potlatch with me. He can potlatch with someone
else. It is as though I had thrown away my friend.

If I see a meotih who talks too much high tone talk but doesn’t pot-
latch good I go to beat him. Suppose he had given me two blankets, now
I give him ten blankets. It is like I shoot him. I say, “Put this in the
fire.’”” Now he is ashamed.

When a noble has been unable to repay with increment a pot-
latch present and still continues to talk boastfully, he is rebuked
sharply by his rival, who says, “You slave! How dare you talk to
me like that. Have I not given you much property which you
have not yet returned?”