244 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



coining overlarge, had subdivided. 14 Originally, mar- 

 riage was not allowed between the members of the same 

 phratry; but the members of either could marry into 

 any clans of the other. Morgan regards this prohibition 

 as an indication that the clans of each phratry were sub- 

 divisions of an original clan, and that, therefore, the pro- 

 hibition against marrying into a person's own clan had 

 followed to its subdivisions. The phratry was partly 

 for social and partly for religious purposes. At the 

 tribal council of chiefs and sachems members of each 

 phratry usually seated themselves on opposite sides of 

 an imaginary council-fire, and the speakers addressed 

 the two opposite bodies as the representatives of the 

 phratries. While blood feuds were ordinarily the con- 

 cern of the two clans involved, it often happened that 

 the clan of the murdered person called upon the other 

 clans of their phratry to unite with them in avenging the 

 deed. The phratry participated in funeral ceremonials 

 and was also concerned in the election of the sachems 

 and chiefs of several clans. In ball games the Senecas 

 played by phratries, one against the other ; and they bet 

 against each other upon the result of the game. 



As to the religious ideas of the Iroquois Indians, we 

 know now that their conception of a " Great Spirit" has 

 been misunderstood by those who first described them as 

 believing in a single all-powerful deity identified with the 

 Christian concept of one God. The Indian word "Mani- 

 tou," which has been considered by many as an Indian 

 name for God, does not mean the "Great Spirit" in the 

 sense of an all-powerful ruling spirit ; it is merely an ad- 

 jectival concept containing the idea of the "big," the 

 ' ' powerful. ' ' Manitou means strange, wonderful ; it does 



n Morgan, op. cit., ch. iii ; Giddings, op. cit., p. 461. 



