organization often taking its name from an animal or a bird, as the Elks, the Moose, the Buffaloes, the Eagles, and the Orioles. An important part of the ritual may center around this animal or bird, and the tooth or some other part or symbol of the animal may be a coveted possession. There is little doubt that the rise of the relatively modern secret society, more especially in America, is due to a "throwback" to earlier and more simple cultures. The drabness of some of our present conditions covets color, form, and symbolism. Honorific titles flatter, and elaborate raiment gratifies man's craving for something he cannot have in everyday life. One writer has noted that the secret society is a glorified "method of ego enhancement." 8 It was the man in primitive society, not the woman, who usually wore the gaudy headdresses and the elaborate costumes. The love of ritual and of mystery is world-wide in distribution, as regards both time and place. A secret is always something to conjure with. Someone has remarked that we find in modern fraternal organizations all the things we have ejected from our religion, and that our lodges are crowded while our churches are empty. The language and symbolism which is common to all mankind, to all creeds, and to all races, have been taken out of our religion and installed in the fraternal orders. The phenomena of the modern secret society are worthy of more attention and should be studied from the point of view of psychology.

RANK AND SOCIAL CLASSES

The third type of social stratification is based upon property and occupation, and less frequently upon birth. Rank is entirely absent in the lowest grades of early

society. We shall see later, in considering government, that the monarchial system found in Polynesia and in some parts of Africa are exceptional when taking the primitive world at large. Rank and the inheritance of power are rarely found together. Polynesia is the most striking exception to this rule. In the lower stages of culture there is, in general, no such thing as a division into social classes. The difference inherent in persons is one of prestige only, and this depends primarily on personal ability and character. The savage is judged by his companions in the same way as we judge our fellow men. There is a social estimate made of the hunter, the fighter, the member of the council, the craftsman, and even the shaman or medicine man. The criteria for a high grade of estimation paid to an individual differ according to the character of the community and the nature of the need felt for superior ability. A good hunter may be a poor fighter, a brave warrior may be a bad councillor. Every man in his own milieu is classed as good or bad.10

There are several factors which may lead to differentiation of the social status: war, the development of property, occupations, and religion. From war and the capture of prisoners who are not put to death may come the development of slavery. But this is by no means inevitable, as we find in aboriginal America adoption into the tribe is often employed in the case of prisoners of war. Frequent hostilities may give rise to a warrior class. The acquisition of wealth may result in a social distinction between the rich and the poor. But property in land, in houses, and in food is very often held in common by a clan or some other unit, and there is thus a check placed on the development of a class composed of

the rich. Individual possessions may be limited to a man's clothes and implements.

From the division of labor in occupations may arise. class distinctions. India is, of course, the best example of the caste system. In northern India this came to be based upon occupations, with no contact allowed among the different castes. In southern India, where there were many aboriginal peoples, the racial question was the main basis of the division into castes. In Polynesia special honor was paid to the canoe-builder; in Africa the smiths and metal-workers formed an endogamous unit. On the Northwest Coast, whales could be captured only by the chiefs, and there was often some classification in fishing for codfish and salmon.

Religion may furnish a sort of centrifugal force that causes the development of a class of shamans or priests. But here again inheritance is only one of the factors in the choice of a medicine man. Personal ability, suggestibility, a neurotic nature, are more important criteria for the selection of a shaman.

In North America there are only two regions where there has been any development of definite rank and social classes, among the Natchez of Mississippi and in the tribes of the Northwest Coast of British Columbia and southern Alaska. The peoples of this latter region are hunters and fishermen, with practically no development of agriculture, and yet we find a form of social organization, ideas of property, and social classes which are most commonly associated with peoples of a mode of life characterized by occupations higher than those of hunting and fishing.

The Haida and Tlingit tribes of this coast conform in general to a single pattern,-a division into clans and

these divided into two exogamic phratries.11 Each clan and each phratry are commonly named after an animal, a bird, or some supernatural creature. The tribes are also divided into nobility, common people, and slaves. A certain number of families are recognized as superior. Each of these has a tradition, quite distinct from the general clan legend and, by reason of it, each group has special privileges and the right to the use of certain crests. This tradition descends according to the custom of the tribe, usually in the maternal line, and only one man in each family can impersonate his ancestor, who is responsible for the legend. These individuals form the nobility. The number is fixed and the families are not all equal in rank. They are graded in the same manner as their forefathers were supposed to have been ranked, and at all the festivals a precedence is strictly maintained. The legend states that the order of seating was given by a god at the festival of the tribes, when all the animals could speak. Members of the clan, with no special supernatural ancestors, formed the common people, and the slaves were usually captives in war or were purchased from neighboring tribes. They were not considered members of any clan.

The whole basis underlying society in the Northwest Coast is rank, the right to use certain crests, usually an animal, bird, or some supernatural creature. These insignia are carved upon totem poles and on boxes, painted on the houses and on canoes, and sometimes tattooed upon the face.

The most interesting feature of the social system of these peoples is the potlatch. This word has the meaning "giving" or "a gift." The feasts at which goods are exchanged come in winter. It is a system of interest

bearing investment and property, a regulated giving of presents, with the knowledge that gifts equivalent in value will be returned with interest at the end of a certain length of time. The potlatch may occur when a child is given a name, at initiation, when the son takes his father's seat in the council, at marriage, on the erection of a house, or before a war expedition.

The gifts are usually blankets, now a cheap white woolen affair. All values are measured in terms of this commodity. At a feast a certain number of blankets are distributed to those present. Everyone to whom they are offered is obliged to accept. The recipients are bound to repay these gifts at the end of a definite time, with interest.

A boy receives a name when he is born, another when he is a year old, and a third when he has arrived at the age of ten or twelve. At this time he borrows blankets from other members of his family or clan. He must repay these within a year with 100 per cent interest. He distributes these blankets which he has had loaned to him, giving them to every member of the tribe, with a few more to the chief. Everyone to whom he has given the blankets makes a point of paying him within a month, and he receives 300 per cent interest on his gift; so that if he borrows one hundred at 100 per cent interest he has gained one hundred blankets in the transaction. At the end of the year he repays his debts at a festival in which he takes part for the first time. His father gives up his seat or place in the council which he has received in trust from his wife, to his son, to whom it rightfully belongs.

It is thus a method of acquiring rank and prestige. The person who distributes the greatest number of blankets