POLITICAL HEADS CHIEFS, KINGS, ETC. 353 



of their vassals, and for this reason their authority is less pre 

 carious than that of the higher officers &quot; the central rulers. 

 Of the Kaffirs we read : &quot; They are all vassals of the king, 

 chiefs, as well as those under them; but the subjects are 

 generally so blindly attached to their chiefs, that they will 

 follow them against the king.&quot; Europe has furnished kindred 

 examples. Of the Homeric Greeks Mr. Gladstone writes : 

 &quot; It is probable that the subordination of the sub-chief to his 

 local sovereign was a closer tie than that of the local sovereign 

 to the head of Greece.&quot; And during the early feudal period 

 in the West, allegiance to the minor but proximate ruler was 

 stronger than that to the major but remote ruler. 



In the compound group, as in the simple group, the pro 

 gress towards stable headship is furthered by transition from 

 succession by choice to succession by inheritance. During 

 early stages of the independent tribe, chieftainship when not 

 acquired by individual superiority tacitly yielded to, is ac 

 quired by election. In North America it is so with the Aleuts, 

 the Comariches, and many more ; in Polynesia it is so with 

 the Land Dyaks ; and, before the Mahommedan conquest, it 

 was so in Java. Among the hill-peoples of India it is so with 

 the Nagas and others. In sundry regions the change to heredi 

 tary succession is shown by different tribes of the same race. 

 Of the Karens we read that &quot; in many districts the chieftain 

 ship is considered hereditary, but in more it is elective.&quot; 

 Some Chinook villages have chiefs who inherit their powers, 

 though mostly they are chosen. Similarly, the com 



pound group is at first ruled by an elected head. Several 

 examples come to us from Africa. Bastian tells us that &quot; in 

 many parts of the Congo region the king is chosen by the 

 petty princes.&quot; The crown of Yariba is not hereditary: 

 &quot; the chiefs invariably electing, from the wisest arid most 

 sagacious of their own body.&quot; And the king of Ibu, says 

 Allen, seems to be &quot; elected by a council of sixty elders, or 

 chiefs of large villages.&quot; In Asia it is thus with the Kukis. 

 &quot;Oils, among all the Eajahs of each class, is chosen to be the Prudliani 



