CHAPTER VII. 

 COMPOUND POLITICAL HEADS. 



483. In the preceding chapter we traced the development 

 of the first element in that tri-une political structure which 

 everywhere shows itself at the ontset. We pass now to the 

 development of the second element the group of leading 

 men among whom the chief is, at first, merely the most con 

 spicuous. Under what conditions this so evolves as to sub 

 ordinate the other two, what causes make it narrower, and 

 what causes widen it until it passes into the third, we have 

 here to observe. 



If the innate feelings and aptitudes of a race have large 

 shares in determining the sizes and cohesions of the social 

 groups it forms, still more must they have large shares in de 

 termining the relations which arise among the members of 

 such groups. While the mode of life followed tends to gene 

 rate this or that political structure, its effects are always com 

 plicated by the effects of inherited character. Whether or 

 not the primitive state in which governing power is equally 

 distributed among all warriors or all elders, passes into the 

 state in which governing power is monopolized by one, 

 depends in part on the life of the group as predatory or 

 peaceful, and in part on the natures of its members as 

 prompting them to oppose dictation more or less doggedly. 

 A few facts will make this clear. 



The Arafuras (Papuan Islanders) who &quot; live in peace and 



