576 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



this legal consecration to enjoy the largest liberty. She comes and 

 goes, visits her distant friends, is absent for long periods without 

 anyone's concern. She has all the right and authority to take care 

 of herself and this care is completely devolved on her. 



Order of descent. — Among the Lolos as among most peoples, it is 

 the male line of descent that ranks first. Inheritance is thus trans- 

 mitted to the son or in case there is no offspring to the nearest rela- 

 tion in the male line, never to daughters or females, not even to the 

 mother or the wife. 



Marriage. — The Lolotte family is based on a formal union con- 

 secrated by the parents alone. There are certain traditions on the 

 choice of a fiance or fiancee which have nearly the force of law in all 

 the tribes, one is that a young man should by preference seek his wife 

 from his maternal grandmother's family, although the young girl 

 can not make her choice in her own clan; the marriage is thus 

 exogamous. The marriage consummated, the young wife returns 

 to her family near her mother. So custom demands. She may 

 remain there some days or weeks or months before returning to Jier 

 husband's home. The wife is highly respected; if she is ill-treated 

 she flees to her own home, and the husband is severely censured by 

 all the clan, and if he pushes his companion to suicide he may pay 

 for his brutality with his own life. 



Social life — Feudal system. — The constitution which governs the 

 clans much resembles the old feudal system of Europe. The tribe is 

 ruled by a seignor, who has his vassals and serfs paying him rent and 

 compulsory service. Each vassal is further required to furnish in 

 time of war a certain number of armed men, the number being deter- 

 mined in advance. 



It would seem as if this system would be burdensome to the 

 majority of the people, but it is not at all so. The serfs enjoy a liberty 

 that in the Middle Ages was never known by Europeans. Although 

 they are really slaves, yet when once settled in a clan by marriage, 

 their condition becomes difficult to distinguish from that of a serf 

 properly speaking; they enjoy nearly the same independence. Feudal 

 power is hereditary; election in any degree does not exist. 



Castes. — Socially, the different members of a clan are divided into 

 three classes or castes: (1) The He Y (Os noirs), which represents the 

 aristocracy; (2) the Os blancs or middle class; (3) the slaves. The 

 Os blanc remains such through centuries and the slave can never 

 attain his freedom. As to the He Y, there is no social decadence 

 possible for him, he can never fall into the middle class. It is proper 

 to add that a marriage under any circumstances can effect no change 

 in caste. 



Justice and penalties. — There is no written criminal code no more 

 than there is a civil one. It is tradition, custom, certain ancestral 



