POLITICAL FORMS AND FORCES. 631 



to render service to his neighbors, and the popularity which follows 

 it, is at once the foundation and the measure of his authority." If 

 a Dakota " wishes to do mischief, the only way a chief can influence 

 him is to give him something, or pay him to desist from his evil in- 

 tentions. The chief has no authority to act for the tribe, and dare 

 not do it." And among the Creeks, more advanced in political organi- 

 zation though they are, the authority of the elected chiefs " continues 

 during good behavior. The disapproval of the body of the people 

 is an effective bar to the exercise of their powers and functions." 

 Turning to Asia, we read that the bais or chiefs of the Kirghiz " have 

 little power over them for good or evil. In consideration of their age 

 and blood, some deference to their opinions is shown, but nothing 

 more." The Ostiaks " pay respect, in the fullest sense of the word, 

 to their chief, if wise and valiant, but this homage is voluntary, and 

 founded on personal regard." And of the Naga chiefs Butler says, 

 " Their orders are obeyed so far only as they accord with the wishes 

 and convenience of the community." So too is it in parts of Africa ; 

 as instance the Koranna Hottentots : " A chief or captain presides 

 over each clan or kraal, being usually the person of greatest property ; 

 but his authority is extremely limited, and only obeyed so far as it 

 meets the general approbation." And even among the more politi- 

 cally organized Caffres, there is a kindred restraint. The king " makes 

 laws and executes them according to his sole will. Yet there is a 

 power to balance his in the peojile : he governs only so long as they 

 choose to obey." They leave him if he governs ill. 



In its primitive form, then, political power is the feeling of the 

 community, acting through an agency which it has either informally 

 or formally established. Doubtless, from the beginning, the power 

 of the chief is in part personal : his greater strength, courage, or cun- 

 ning, enables him in some degree to enforce his individual will. But, 

 as the evidence shows, his individual will is but a small factor ; and 

 the authority he wields is proportionate to the degree in which he ex- 

 presses the wills of the rest. 



While this public feeling, which first acts by itself and then partly 

 through an agent, is to some extent the feeling spontaneously formed 

 by those concerned, it is to a much larger extent the opinion imposed 

 on them or prescribed for them. In the first place, the emotional na- 

 ture prompting the general mode of conduct is derived from ancestors, 

 being a product of all past activities ; and, in the second place, the 

 special motives which, directly or indirectly, determine the courses 

 pursued, are induced during early life by seniors, and enlisted on be- 

 half of beliefs and usages which the tribe inherits. The governing 

 sentiment is, in short, mainly the accumulated and organized senti- 

 ment of the past. 



It needs but to remember the mutilation to which, at a prescribed 



