Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/72

 62 cedar-tree, the bird tried to peck him, but missed him, because he jumped to the other side of the tree. The bird failed to kill him, and when he got home "he carved the crane out of yellow cedar, and now it is the carving of his clan." The clan is called by a name signifying "going through," which is quite different from that of the bird. All that is here recorded is a successful evasion of an attack by a supernatural being. But there is probably something more in the story. What is hinted at, and what, if we had the tale in a perfect form, we should perhaps find, is that the man conquered and killed the bird. Among these curious peoples "names and all the privileges connected with them," like the ancient priesthood of Aricia, "may be obtained by killing the owner of the name, either in war or by murder. The slayer has then the right to put his own successor in the place of his killed enemy." Now the crest is a very special privilege; and although the name of this clan does not now correspond with the crest, it belongs to a class called by Dr. Boas "names of honour," which "there is a decided tendency to substitute for" older names. It may be, therefore, that the present name of the clan has quite recently succeeded to that of the mythical bird.

Again, there are instances of a clan bearing the name of one animal and the emblem of another. "The crest," says Dr. Boas, "is used for ornamenting objects belonging to a member of the clan; they [that is to say, the crests] are carved on columns intended to perpetuate the memory of a deceased relative, painted on the house-front, or carved on a column which is placed in front of the house, and are also shown as masks in festivals of the clan. It is impossible to draw a sharp line between the pure crest and figures, or masks illustrating certain incidents in the legendary history of the clan." As an example, he gives