COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 199 



by a council of elders, the litigants voluntarily submitting to their 

 arbitration. But, correctly speaking, there is not the shadow of a con- 

 stituted authority in the Naga community, and, wonderful as it may 

 seem, this want of government does not lead to any marked degree of 

 anarchy and confusion." Similarly among such peoples, remote in type, 

 as many of the warlike tribes of North America. Speaking of these 

 Indians in general, Schoolcraft says that "they all wish to govern, 

 and not to be governed. Every Indian thinks he has a right to do as 

 he pleases, and that no one is better than himself ; and he will fight 

 before he will give up what he thinks right." Of the Comanches, as 

 an example, he remarks that " the democratic principle is strongly im- 

 planted in them"; and that for governmental purposes "public coun- 

 cils are held at regular intervals during the year." Further, we read 

 that in districts of ancient Central America there existed somewhat 

 more advanced societies which, though warlike, were impelled by a 

 kindred jealousy to provide against monopoly of power. The govern- 

 ment was by an elective council of old men who appointed a war- 

 chief ; and this war-chief, " if suspected of plotting against the safety 

 of the commonwealth, or for the purpose of securing supreme power 

 in his own hands, was rigorously put to death by the council." 



Though the specialities of character which thus lead certain kinds 

 of men in early siages to originate compound political headships, and 

 to resist, even under the stress of war, the rise of single political head- 

 ships, are innate, we are not without clews to the circumstances which 

 have made them innate ; and, with a view to interpretations presently 

 to be made, it will be useful to glance at these. The Comanches and 

 kindred tribes, roaming about in small bands, active and skillful horse- 

 men, have, through long-past periods, been so conditioned as to make 

 coercion of one man by another difficult. So, too, has it been, though 

 in another way, with the Nagas. " They inhabit a rough and intri- 

 cate mountain-range"; and their villages are perched "on the crests 

 of ridges." Again, very significant evidence is furnished by an inci- 

 dental remark of Captain Burton to the effect that in Africa, as in Asia, 

 there are three distinctly marked forms of government military des- 

 potisms, feudal monarchies, and rude republics ; the rude republics 

 being those formed by " the Bedouin tribes, the hill people, and the 

 jungle races." Clearly, the names of these last show that they inhabit 

 regions which, hindering by their physical characters a centralized 

 form of government, favor a more diffused form of government, and 

 the less decided political subordination which is its concomitant. 



These facts are obviously related to certain other facts with which 

 they must be joined. Already evidence has been given that it is rela- 

 tively easy to form a large society if the country is one within which 

 all parts are readily accessible, while it has barriers through which 

 exit is difiicult ; and that, conversely, formation of a large society is 

 prevented, or greatly delayed, by difficulties of communication within 



