Chap. I.] THE IROQUOIS. H 



Other possession — that by the Indian custom of 

 descent in the female line, which among them was 

 more rigidly adhered to than elsewhere, the office 

 of the sachem must pass, not to his son, but to his 

 brother, his sister's son, or some yet remoter kins- 

 man. His power was constantly deflected into the 

 collateral branches of his family ; and thus one of 

 the strongest temptations of ambition was cut off.^ 

 The Iroquois had no laws ; but they had ancient 

 customs which took the place of laws. Each man, 

 or rather, each clan, was the avenger of its own 

 wrongs ; but the manner of the retaliation was 

 faed by established usage. The tribal sachems, 

 and even the great council at Onondaga, had no 

 power to compel the execution of their decrees ; 

 yet they were looked up to with a respect which 

 the soldier's bayonet or the sheriff's staff would 

 never have commanded ; and it is highly to the 



i The descent of the sachem ship in the female hne was a custom 

 universally prevalent among the Five Nations, or Iroquois proper. Since, 

 among Indian tribes generally, the right of furnishing a sachem was 

 vested in some particular totemic clan, it results of course that the descent 

 of the sachemsliip must follow the descent of the totem ; that is, if the 

 totemship descend in the female line, the sachemship must do the same. 

 This custom of descent in the female line prevailed not only among the 

 Iroquois proper, but also among the Wyandots, and probably among the 

 Andastes and the Eries, extinct members of the great Iroquois family. 

 Thus, among any of these tribes, when a Wolf warrior married a Hawk 

 squaw, their children were Hawks, and not Wolves. With the Creeks 

 of the south, according to the observations of Hawkins ( Georgia Hist. 

 Coll. HI. 69), the rule was the same ; but among the Algonquins, on the 

 contrary, or at least among the northern branches of this family, the 

 reverse took place, the totemships, and consequently the chieftainships, 

 descending in the male line, after the analogy of civilized nations. For 

 this information concerning the northern Algonquins, I am indebted to 

 IVIr. Schoolcraft, whose opportunities of observation among these tribes 

 have surpassed those of any other student of Indian customs and char- 

 acter. 



