138 BULLETIN OF THE 



and the council of the tribe is composed of four women and one 

 male chief from each gens, and this council selects a sachem of the 

 tribe. The herald of the tribe is the chief of the Wolf clan. 



One of the functions of the gentile council is to select names for 

 the young members of the clan. A list of names is made up, each 

 being founded upon mythical stories of the bear, wolf, or other 

 totemic animal, and once a year, at each green corn feast, the coun- 

 cil meets to make up the list from which the names of children are 

 selected. 



Crime among the Wyandottes is divided into several classes of 

 which the most important are theft, maiming, murder, and adultery. 

 The mother punishes the daughter for fornication, or the four 

 women counsellors condemn the culprit to whipping, or to have the 

 hair shaved. Adultery is not punished by the husband, since the 

 wife is not a member of his clan, but the punishment is inflicted 

 by members of her own clan, and consists in cutting off the hair or 

 the ears, and in disinheritance. Theft must be followed by res- 

 toration and compensation. Murder is sometimes compounded and 

 sometimes is punished with death by strangling, or by the toma- 

 hawk before the council of the tribe. The herald of the Wolf clan 

 selects one man from each gens, whose duty it is to perform the 

 execution. Witchcraft is also a crime, and the Indian notions con- 

 cerning it, bear a striking analogy to those of former generations 

 of our own race. The accused person has the right of appeal 

 which is salutory in its nature, consisting of wager or appeal to the 

 Gods. The Wyandotte appeals to fire, and runs through it first 

 from north to south, and then from east to west, and if he is burned 

 he is guilty. 



In the North American Indians the tribal organization had its 

 origin in government by kinship. In no case does it originate in 

 patriarchy. The lowest form of organization hitherto discovered is 

 not found among them. This lowest form is where a body of men 

 marry a body of women, as among the primitive Austi'alians, and 

 there are indications that this form of marriage once prevailed 

 among the North American Indians. Probably the object of it 

 was for purposes of defence. 



Mr. W. B. Taylor suggested that the abstinence of certain 

 gentes from eating certain animals or parts of animals, may have 

 had a bearing upon the development of moral sentiments. Where- 

 ever we find man, we find " taboo" This may perhaps spring from 



