700 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899
sometimes happens that children change clans and, consequently, their totemic names.
When the men of a clan go out to hunt or fish, to make a boat or build a house, or to do any other work together, the oldest man of the clan is the director of the enterprise, the chief. All Indians hold that superior age gives authority ; and every person is taught from childhood to obey his superiors and to rule over his inferiors. The superiors are those of greater age ; the inferiors, those who are younger. It is the law of tribal society that supe- rior age gives authority, and that inferior age imposes a duty. But the people of a tribe do not know their age; for they do not keep a record of time. How, then, can they carry out this law ? Well, they have a very simple device, by which every person in the clan may know that he is older or younger than other per- sons in the clan. Besides the totem name they have kinship names. Thus, there is a name for " father " and another for " son " ; and the son always knows that he is younger than the father, and must obey him. Similarly the father always knows that he is older than the son, and that he has the right to com- mand him. The same is true of mother and daughter. But there may be two or more brothers ; so they have two names for " brother," one meaning " elder brother," and the other " younger brother." In the same manner they have two words for " cousin," one signifying "elder cousin," and the other "younger cousin." They have also two words corresponding to "uncle" and "nephew"; but the word meaning "uncle" is always applied to the elder, and the word which means "nephew" is always applied to the one who is younger. Thus in the Ute language there are two words: am and aitsen. At'n applies to the one who is the elder, whether he be uncle or nephew ; and aitsen applies to the younger, whether he be uncle or nephew.
So long as the tribesmen live together in clans they have a simple method of keeping in memory their relative ages : for the names by which they address one another always express the
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