MORGAN. ] PHRATRIES COMPOSED OF KINDRED GENTES. 11 
kinship of the gentes of which it was composed. After their subdivision 
from increase of numbers there was a natural tendency to their reunion in 
a higher organization for objects common to them all. The same gentes 
are not constant in a phratry indefinitely, as appears from the composition 
of the phratries in the remaining Iroquois tribes. ‘Transfers of particular 
gentes from one phratry to the other must have occurred when the equi- 
librium in their respective numbers was disturbed. It is important to 
know the simple manner in which this organization springs up, and the 
facility with which it is managed as a part of the social system of ancient 
society. With the increase of numbers in a gens, followed by local sep- 
aration of its members, segmentation occurred, and the seceding portion 
adopted a new gentile name. But a tradition of their former unity would 
remain and become the basis of their reorganization in a phratry. 
From the differences in the composition of the phratries in the several 
tribes it seems probable that the phratries are modified in their gentes at 
intervals of time to meet changes of condition. Some gentes prosper and 
increase in numbers, while others, through calamities, decline, and others 
become extinct; so that transfers of gentes from one phratry to another 
were found necessary to preserve some degree of equality in the number 
of phrators in each. The phratric organization has existed among the Iro- 
quois from time immemorial, It is probably older than the confederacy 
which was established more than four centuries ago. The amount of dif- 
ference in their composition, as to the gentes they contain, represents the 
vicissitudes through which each tribe has passed in the interval. In any 
view of the matter it is small, tending to illustrate the permanence of the 
phratry as well as the gens. 7 
The Iroquois tribes had a total of thirty-eight gentes, and in four of 
the tribes a total of eight phratries. 
The phratry among the Iroquois was partly for social and partly for 
religious objects. Its functions and uses can be best shown by practical 
illustrations. We begin with the-lowest, with games, which were of com- 
mon occurrence at tribal and confederate councils. In the ball game, for 
example, among the Senecas, they play by phratries, one against the other; 
and they bet against each other upon the result of the game. Each phra- 
