When I was engaged in investigating the social organization of the Tlingit, one of my informants volunteered the information that his people, who were Ravens, married into the Wolf phratry "to show respect" to them; and he added that this was why they always obtained their assistance in conducting a funeral, and invited them to a feast. Although a clan and phratry system has been established too long for any memory of the original sentiments which brought it about to survive, it seems to me that this remark may, after all, contain a clue to the true explanation. If we suppose a number of bands of similar customs and related speech to occupy continuous areas, a certain amount of contact is bound to take place, and a sort of intertribal etiquette to arise.2

2Swanton, J.R.n/an/an/an/a, "A Reconstruction of the Theory of Social Organization," in , 174 (G. E. Stechert & Company. By permission).