Potlach

That night there was a grand wedding and a potlach; so that for two days to follow there was no fishing done by the village.

The chief was permitted to meet his many creditors and return the goods he had received at previous feasts on the distinct understanding, however, that no gifts were to be "potlached" i.e., donated with the usual custom of having them returned.

After giving them a feed and potlaching some grub for their back trip, we paid the Indians off, after making arrangements with them to return at a certain date.

Natives were potlaching during the best of the run. No occasion here for any shortage if no salmon were caught, as the Nulato River has a big run of trout and whitefish.

While girls are married as soon as they mature, the men marry much later, for custom dictates that a man to be eligible for marriage must have potlached at least once and preferably three times. This rule is gradually breaking down, but even now public opinion frowns on early marriage by young men.

When they describe, for example, payment of cattle for a bride in East Africa, offering a gift in India to earn spiritual merit, exchanging favors between compadres in Middle America, giving a ceremonial necklace in return for an arm shell in the Trobriand kula ring, and potlaching each other by Kwakiutl chiefs, ethnographers are assuming the operation of some reciprocal principle.