736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



can lay no claim to his power except that of personal merit and the 

 consent of his former equals ; and his death is instantly followed by 

 the disruption of his dominions." Even when there has arisen a head- 

 ship of the compound group which lasts beyond the life of its founder, 

 it remains for a long time not equal in stability to the headships of the 

 component groups. Pallas, while describing the Mongol and Calmuck 

 chiefs as having unlimited power over their dependents, says that the 

 khan had in general only an uncertain and weak authority over the 

 subordinate chiefs. Of the Caffres we read : " They are all vassals of 

 the king, chiefs, as well as those under them ; but the subjects are 

 generally so blindly attached to their chiefs that they will follow them 

 against the king." Europe has furnished kindred examples. Of the 

 . Homeric Greeks Mr. Gladstone writes : " It is probable that the subor- 

 dination of the sub-chief to his local sovereign was a closer tie than 

 that of the local sovereign to the head of Greece." And, during the 

 early feudal period in Europe, allegiance to the local ruler was stronger 

 than that to the general ruler. 



In the compound group, as in the simple group, the progress toward 

 stable headship is furthered by the transition from succession by choice 

 to succession by inheritance. During early stages of the simple tribe, 

 chieftainship, whennot acquired by individual superiority tacitly yielded 

 to, is acquired by election. In North America it is so with the Aleuts, 

 the Comanches, and many more ; in Polynesia it is so with the Land 

 Dyaks ; and, before the Mohammedan conquest, it Avas so in Java. 

 Among the hill-races of India it is so with the Nagas and others. In 

 some regions the transition to hereditary succession is shown by differ- 

 ent tribes of the same race. Of the Karens we read that "in many 

 districts the chieftainship is considered hereditary, but in more it is 

 elective." Some Chinook villages have chiefs who inherit their powers, 

 though mostly they are chosen. 



Similarly, the compound group is at first ruled by an elected head. 

 Sundry examples come to us from Africa. Bastian says that " in 

 many parts of the Congo region the king is chosen by the petty 

 princes." The crown of Yariba is not hereditary " the chiefs invari- 

 ably electing, from the wisest and most sagacious of their own body." 

 And the King of Ibu, says Allen, seems to be " elected by a council of 

 sixty elders, or chiefs of large villages." In Asia it is thus with the 

 Kukis : " One, among all the rajahs of each class, is chosen to be the 

 Prudham or chief rajah of that clan. The dignity is not hereditary, 

 as is the case with the minor rajahships, but is enjoyed by each 

 rajah of the clan in rotation." So has it been in Europe. Though 

 by the early Greeks hereditary right was in a considerable measure 

 recognized, yet the case of Telemachus implies " that a practice, either 

 approaching to election, or in some way involving a voluntary action 

 on the part of the subjects, or of a portion of them, had to be gone 

 throuizh." The like is true of ancient Rome. That the monarchy was 



