POLITICAL FORMS AND FORCES. 625 



been proved by experience, will form the smaller part, who carry on 

 the discussion, while the larger part, formed of the young, the weak, 

 and the undistinguished, will be listeners, who usually go no further 

 than to express from time to time assent or dissent. A further infer- 

 ence may safely be drawn. In the cluster of leading men there is 

 sure to be some one whose weight is greater than that of any other 

 some aged hunter, some distinguished warrior, some cunning medicine- 

 man, who will have more than his individual share in forming the 

 resolution finally acted upon. That is to say, the entire assemblage 

 will resolve itself into three parts. To use a biological metaphor, 

 there will, out of the general mass, be differentiated a nucleus and a 

 nucleolus. 



These first traces of political structure, which we infer a priori 

 must spontaneously arise, we find have arisen among the rudest peo- 

 ples ; repetition having so strengthened them as to produce a settled 

 order. When, among the aborigines of Victoria, a tribe plans revenge 

 on another tribe supposed to have killed one of its members, " a coun- 

 cil is called of all the old men of the tribe, . . . The women form an 

 outer circle round the men, . . . The chief [simply * a native of in- 

 fluence'] opens the council," And what we here see happening in an 

 assemblage having no greater differences than those based on strength, 

 age, and capacity, happens when, later, these natural distinctions have 

 gained definiteness. In illustration may be named the account which 

 Schoolcraft gives of a conference at which the Chippewas, Ottawas, 

 and Pottawattamies, met certain United States commissioners, School- 

 craft being himself present. After the address of the head commis- 

 sioner had been delivered, the speaking on behalf of the Indians was 

 carried on by the principal chiefs ; the lead being taken by " a man 

 venerable for his age and standing." Though Schoolcraft does not 

 describe the assemblage of undistinguished people, yet that they were 

 present is shown by a passage in one of the native speeches : " Be- 

 hold ! see my brethren, both young and old the warriors and chiefs 

 the women and children of my nation." And that the political 

 order observed on this occasion was the usual order, is implied by its 

 recurrence even in parts of America where chiefs have become marked 

 off by ascribed nobility ; as instance the account quoted by Bancroft 

 of one of the Central American tribes, who "have frequent reunions 

 in their council-house at night. The hall is then lighted up by a large 

 fire, and the people sit with uncovered heads, listening respectfully to 

 the observations and decisions of the ahiiales men over forty years 

 of age, who have occupied public positions, or distinguished them- 

 selves in some way." Among peoples unlike in type and remote in 

 locality, we find, modified in detail but similar in general character, 

 this primitive governmental form. Of the Hill tribes of India may 

 be instanced the Khonds, of whom we read that " assemblies of the 

 whole tribe, or of any of its subdivisions, are convened, to determine 

 VOL. xriii. 40 



