16 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
reunite in a confederacy. Such a confederacy is a growth, through the 
tribe and phratry, from a pair of gentes. 
The Chickasas are organized in two phratries, of which one contains 
four and the other eight gentes, as follows: 
I. Panther Phratry. 
Gentes.—1. Wild Cat. 2. Bird. 3. Fish. 4. Deer. 
Il. Spanish Phratry. 
Gentes—5. Raccoon. 6. Spanish. 7. Royal. 8. Hush-ko’-ni. 9. Squir- 
rel. 10. Alligator. 11. Wolf. 12. Blackbird. 
A very complete illustration of the manner in which phratries are 
formed by natural growth through the subdivision of gentes is presented 
by the organization of the Mohegan tribe. It had three original gentes, 
the Wolf, the Turtle, and the Turkey. 
Each of these subdivided, and the subdivisions became independent 
gentes ; but they retained the names of the original gentes as their respective 
phratric names. In other words, the subdivisions of each gens reorganized 
in a phratry. It proves conclusively the natural process by which in course 
of time a gens breaks up into several, and these remain united in a phratric 
organization, which is expressed by assuming a phratric name. ‘They are 
as follows: 
I. Wolf Phratry. 
Gentes—1. Wolf. 2. Bear. 3. Dog. 4. Opossum. 
Il. Turtle Phratry. 
Gentes—5. Little Turtle. 6. Mud Turtle. 7. Great Turtle. 8. Yellow 
Eel. 
IL. Turkey Phratry. 
Gentes.—9. Turkey. 10. Crane. 11. Chicken. 
It is thus seen that the original Wolf gens divided into four gentes, 
the Turtle into four, and the Turkey into three. Each new gens took a 
new name, the original retaining its own, which became by seniority that 
of the phratry. Itis rare among the American Indian tribes to find such 
plain evidence of the segmentation of gentes in their external organization, 
followed by the formation into phratries of their respective subdivisions. 
