American Association. 295 



these Indians, and lie had ascertained from Mr. Kane that, though 

 possessing the aesthetic faculty to a high degree, as shown by 

 sculptures, they were in other respects far below other tribes, who 

 were probably quite incapable of any such works of art. He had 

 one other curious remark to make with respect to these Babine 

 Indians, for it appeared that in their customs of sepulture they made 

 a marked difference betweon the females and the males. The 

 female bodies were all scatiolded, being placed in a canoe and 

 then raised on a stage, while the male bodies were all burned. 

 These facts might serve as useful indications to guide researches 

 into the question of the origin and migrations of the inhabitants 

 of the American continent. He had also been a good deal inte- 

 rested by the information afforded by Mr. Kane with respect to the 

 Flatheads. He desired to know whether their custom of com- 

 pressing the head into what seemed to be a degraded shape 

 was accompanied by any degradation of intellect. On the con- 

 trary it appeared that these people were so superior to their 

 neighbors, as to be capable of making slaves of the surrounding- 

 tribes. The flat head was considered a mark of aristocratic origin, 

 and it was therefore prohibited to all slaves to give their children 

 this peculiar formation of the skull." 



LAWS OF DESCENT AMONG THE IROQUOIS INDIANS. 



Mr. L. H. Morgan read a paper on this subject, describing the 

 singular and complicated method of the descent of property and 

 titles among the North American Indians, the inheritance always 

 passing by the female instead of the male line. " He mentioned se- 

 veral causes, which might be considered to account for this peculiar 

 institution ; but one was probably paramount — the desire for inde- 

 pendence, and the wish to prevent any family from becoming strong 

 enough to attain to sovereignty — a thing altogether alien to the 

 manners of the hunter state of mankind, and which had never in 

 fact been discovered among the Indian inhabitants of the continent, 

 all of whom were governed by oligarchies maintained, but limited 

 in power by means of this form of inheritance, and by the confede- 

 ,racy of several tribes — a form of polity which existed everywhere 

 in North America. — Mexico might be cited as an exception ; but 

 if the institutions of the Mexicans had been thoroughly investigated, 

 it would probably be found that they were identical with those 

 of the Iroquois. Institutions of this kind were remarkably per- 

 manent, and it would be very useful, in order to determine ques- 



