The origin of these family names is attributed by the natives to different causes, but I think that enough is not yet known on the subject to enable us to form an accurate opinion on this point. One origin frequently assigned by the natives is that they were derived from some vegetable or animal being very common in the district which the family inhabited, and that hence the name of this animal or vegetable became applied to the family. I have in my published vocabulary of the native language, under each family name, given its derivations as far as I could collect them from the statements of the natives.
But as each family adopts some animal or vegetable as their crest or sign, or Kobong, as they call it, I imagine it more likely that these have been named after the families than that the families have been named after them.
SECOND COINCIDENCE.
A certain mysterious connection exists between a family and its kobong, so that a member of the family will never kill an animal of the species to which his kobong belongs, should he find it asleep; indeed he always kills it reluctantly, and never without affording it a chance to escape. This arises from the family belief that some one individual of the species is their nearest friend, to kill whom would be a great crime, and to be carefully avoided. Similarly a native who has a vegetable for his kobong may not gather it under certain circumstances and at a particular period of the year. The North American Indians have this same custom of taking some animal as their sign. Thus it is stated in the Archaeologia Americana:* "Each tribe has the name of some animal. Among the Hurons the first tribe is that of the bear; the two others of the wolf and turtle. The Iroquois nation has the same divisions, only the turtle family is divided into two, the great and the little." And again, in speaking of the Sioux tribes:** "Each of these derives its name from some animal, part of an animal, or other substance which is considered as the peculiar sacred object or medicine, as the Canadians call it, of each band respectively." To this we may add the testimony of John Long, who says,*** "one part of the religious superstition of the savages consists in each of them having his totem, or favourite spirit, which he believes watches over him. This totem they conceive assumes the shape of some beast or other, and therefore they never kill, hunt, or eat the animal whose form they think the totem bears."
(*Footnote. Volume 2 page 109 quoting from Charlevoix volume 3 page 266.)
(**Footnote. Ibid page 110 quoting from Major Long's Exp. volume 1 chapter 15.)
(***Footnote. Voyages and Travels page 86.)
Civilized nations, in their heraldic bearings, preserve traces of the same custom.
BETROTHMENTS AND MARRIAGES.
Female children are always betrothed within a few days after their birth; and from the moment they are betrothed the parents cease to have any control over the future settlement of their child. Should the first husband die before the girl has attained the years of puberty she then belongs to his heir.