XCVIII ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT [eth. ann. 20 



I have already explained the adoption into other elans of 

 infant children whose chui kindred have become extinct. 

 Such cases seem to be infrequent, but there are other cases of 

 adoption which are more common. Children, and even adults, 

 ca])tured in war are usually adopted into some clan. Our 

 European ancestors observed a curious custom among the 

 tribes of this country, that of running the gantlet. A pris- 

 oner was compelled to run between two lines of his captors 

 armed with sticks and other missiles. This was formerly sup- 

 posed to be a method of torture. On investigation it is proved 

 to have had quite another purpose The prisoner was given 

 an opi)ortunity to show his mettle, his courage, and his ability 

 to fight his way through a line of clubs. If he acquitted 

 himself manfully, any woman among the captors might claim 

 him for her child. Children ran the gantlet of children only, 

 but adults ran the gantlet of men, women, and children. 

 Female children were rarely submitted to this ordeal. The 

 adoption of a captive was his new birth into the clan, and his 

 official age dated from his new birth. If he proved himself 

 skillful, useful, and especially wise, he might be promoted from 

 time to time, until at last the captive might become a chief 



Captives taken from tribes that are hereditary enemies and 

 with wliich there have grown historic feuds, and who are held 

 to practice monster sins, such as cannibalism, are given a fixed 

 status from their birth into the clan, which they can not pass 

 without promotion ; for all persons naturally born into the clan 

 may call them younger and have authority over them. This 

 is the primal form of slavery, but by good beliavior the rules 

 of such slavery may be greatly relaxed, and captives from 

 hated enemies ma}" ultimately become promoted kindred. 



A person may not marry another of the same clan, but 

 usually he must marry some one of the tribe not in his own 

 clan. Before the marriage customs of the tribes of America 

 were properly understood, a theory of endogamy and exog- 

 amy was developed by McLennan and others, which has 

 played quite a role in theories of ethnology. There are a 

 great number of langtiages spoken by the tribes of America; 

 so that the terms used to signify the clan and the tribe are 



