ands, and was often remarked upon by the early discoverers, in whose
minds it was apt to implant idyllic notions that were afterward rudely
disturbed. The prevalence of hospitality among uncivilized races has
long been noted by travellers, and is probably in most cases, as it
certainly was in ancient America, closely connected with communism in
living.

[Sidenote: Structure of the clan.]

The clan, which practised this communism, had its definite organization,
officers, rights, and duties. Its official head was the "sachem," whose
functions were of a civil nature. The sachem was elected by the clan and
must be a member of it, so that a son could not be chosen to succeed his
father, but a sachem could be succeeded by his uterine brother or by his
sister's son, and in this way customary lines of succession could and
often did tend to become established. The clan also elected its
"chiefs," whose functions were military; the number of chiefs was
proportionate to that of the people composing the clan, usually one
chief to every fifty or sixty persons. The clan could depose its sachem
or any of its chiefs. Personal property, such as weapons, or trophies,
or rights of user in the garden-plots, was inheritable in the female
line, and thus stayed within the clan. The members were reciprocally
bound to help, defend, and avenge one another. The clan had the right of
adopting strangers to strengthen itself. It had the right of naming its
members, and these names were always obviously significant, like Little
Turtle, Yellow Wolf, etc.; of names like our Richard or William, with
the meaning lost, or obvious only to scholars, no trace is to be found
in aboriginal America. The clan itself, too, always had a name, which
was usually that of some animal,--as Wolf, Eagle, or Salmon, and a rude
drawing or pictograph of the creature served as a "totem" or primitive
heraldic device. A mythological meaning was attached to this emblem. The
clan had its own common religious rites and common burial place. There
was a clan-council, of which women might be members; there were
instances, indeed, of its being composed entirely of women, whose
position was one of much more dignity and influence than has commonly
been supposed. Instances of squaw sachems were not so very rare.[77]

[Footnote 77: Among the Wyandots there is in each clan a
council composed of four squaws, and this council elects the
male sachem who is its hea