XXVI BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



the system reaches every member of the tribal confed- 

 eracy and each is entitled to command or bound to obey 

 any other according to the relationship expressed in the 

 form of salutation and constantly kept alive in conversa- 

 tion. True, uncertainties and differences of opinion may 

 arise, especially between the remoter individuals and 

 groups ; commonly these are settled by more or less pro - 

 longed deliberation and discussion, or "council," though 

 some of the bloodiest wars of Indian history grew out of 

 su,ch misunderstandings; yet even the appeal to force 

 and arms but serves as a means of settlement of the dis- 

 pute, for the conquerors thereby become the elder and 

 the • conquered the younger in primitive thought. So, 

 too, when stranger tribes meet, both are constrained by 

 universal tribal law, and proceed to council or war, as the 

 case may be, for the purpose of fixing the relative "age," 

 with the consequent right of command, and in some cases 

 the question may remain open for centuries (as between 

 the Apache and the Papago) and lead to interminable 

 warfare. Now, the conquered tribe may merely retire 

 from the field of dispute, leaving what both conceive to 

 be the verdict of superhuman potencies beyond reach of 

 continuous execution ; but if the.contestants are actually 

 related, or if the conquest is complete, they commonly 

 remain in association, the survivors of the conquered 

 families being absorbed or more formally adopted into 

 the conquering tribe, and perhaps distributed among the 

 families of that tribe, whereupon all the captives become 

 subordinate to each and all of the conquerors, to whom 

 thenceforth they owe obedience. Commonly it is this 

 condition of obedience on the part of a certain class or 

 gi'oup to the commands of another class or group which 

 impresses observers and leads to the records of slavery 

 among primitive folk, though the institution involves no 

 ownership of human chattels, no rights or duties save 

 those connected with a system of rank correlated with 

 relative age, actual or imputed. The institution might 

 better be styled wholesale adoption, or collective adop- 

 tion, than slavery. Among the American aborigines the 



