LOCAL GOVERNING AGENCIES. 459 



but also where the system of descent through females con 

 tinues, this development of the family into gens, phratry, 

 and tribe, is found. It was so with such ancient American 

 peoples, as those of Yucatan, where, within each town, tribal 

 divisions were maintained ; and, according to Mr. Morgan 

 and Major Powell, it is still so with such American tribes as 

 the Iroquois and the Wyandottes. 



After its inclusion in a political aggregate, as before its in 

 clusion, the family-group evolves a government quasi-political 

 in nature. According to the type of race and the system 

 of descent, this family-government may be, as among ancient 

 Semites and Ayrans, an unqualified patriarchal despotism ; or 

 it may be, as among the Hindoos at present, a personal rule 

 arising by selection of a head from the leading family of the 

 group (a selection usually falling on the eldest) ; or it may 

 be, as in American tribes like those mentioned, the govern 

 ment of an elected council of the gens, which elects its chief. 

 That is to say, the triune structure which tends to arise in 

 any incorporated assembly, is traceable in the compound 

 family -group, as in the political group : the respective com 

 ponents of it being variously developed according to the 

 nature of the people and the conditions. 



The government of each aggregate of kinsmen repeats, 

 on a small scale, functions like those of the government of 

 the political aggregate. As the entire society revenges itself 

 on other such societies for injury to its members, so does the 

 family-cluster revenge itself on other family-clusters included 

 in the same society. This fact is too familiar to need illus 

 tration ; but it may be pointed out that even now, in parts of 

 Europe where the family-organization survives, the family 

 vendettas persist. &quot; L Albanais vous dira froidement . . . 

 Akeni-Dgiak? avez-vous du sang a venger dans votvo 

 famille ;&quot; and then, asking the name of your tribe, he puts his 

 hand on his pistol. With this obligation to take vengeance 

 goes, of course, reciprocal responsibility. The family in all 

 its branches is liable as a whole, and in each part, for the 



