The San Francisco call., 1896-05-06

deed, in the lower forms of life he plays incon-
splcuous part, and in the ascending scale his
power does not depend upon his sex. but upon his
stages OF growth progressed more slowly than
woman's-as the comparative advancement OF
female and male children up TO a certain period
does still.
For very long period there could be ne ac-
cumulation of property, hence no laws concerning
OF some simple forms had been invented, certain
animals had been tanned to provide food ana
clothing, and houses of some sort had supereded
the skin tent, the principle of ownership ana
barter became a motive for consideration and
female line, property went with descent, as
among the Crows of the Rocky Mountains the
property acquired by the wife was the inheritance
OF her children. while that of the husband
descended to his kindred in his own gems The
the Delawares a woman of the Wolf gems, being
married 10 chief of the Turtle gems. her husband
dying their SON could not inherit the chleftains :
ship, but the office went to the of sister OF
the CHER. The succession being in the turtle
gems, and through the mother, the son OF Won
mother was debarred, not because she was a
woman, but because she was of another gems The
rule was the same among the Iroquois. If chief
had no sister with son. the son OF the nearest
female relative of the same totem succeeded.
Taking the Greeks, who stand for the highest
culture ever attained, a unit, we find their
system of early government was in almost all re-
spects the same as that of the aboriginees OF this
continent
The point at which property became lever to
move society forward in the upper stage OF
| barbarism. In savagery the amount OF property
of individuals limited TO personal belongings,
or at the most to the Joint possession of residence
OF very temporary kind, with, perhaps, garden.
Personal property was buried with the deceased
owner and any other became the Inheritance of
the gems 10 which he belonged This was the
Athenian custom down to the lime Of Soon. The
| ancient graves OF Central America and Peru reveal
the existence of the same custom near the equator,
while we witness the prevalence OF this practice
among northern native races at the prese mt time.
If woman died leaving property to be inherited,
IL went to her children or her sisters children her
brothers being excluded. If man left property
his children took nothing, because, according 10
gentle law, they belonged to the gems OF their
mother.
Their primitive laws of marriage and inheritance
seem to have had little regard to the rights of men
Association of California; But the man was only
| lying in wait TO take ample reprlsal. No sooner
| did the acquisition of property become common
| than the Greeks changed the custom OF descent
and limited it to the male line, permitting also in
termarriage In the gems in the cases of orphan
daughters and heiresses.
Among the Greeks with marriage women now
lost their family name and were transferred with
their children 10 the gems of their husbands An
| other cause may have operated to suggest this
alteration in fundamental rule of society, namely,
| the capture and taking TO wife of foreign women
from whom they would not like to trace the de
scent of their children. Further, with increasing
knowledge and taste the Greeks changed the fam
lily name from that OF some animal totem, and as
sumed that the women from whom they were de-
scended had been embraced by some of their gods,
! from whom, or from some circumstance connected
with the event they derived their patronymic.
The change in the system of marriage ultimately
| led to great abuses Women became the properly
or the slaves of their relatives and suffered ac-
cordingly. Yet out of this new condition resulted
finally the redemption OF the woman from the
promiscuous sexuality in which she had lived for
| thousands OF years. The wife being the property
OF her husband was strictly guarded such; her
proprietor according TO some authorities, sitting
by his door, club in hand, drive away intruderS.
Not only was she carefully guarded but terribly
held her 20 be guilty, while the partner OF her
/ fault went free.
The rights, privileges and obligations of tribal
life in its most advanced stage were these: Com
mon religious life, common burial place; mutual
rights OF succession TO property of deceased mem
bers; reciprocal obligations of help; defense and
redress OF injuries; the right to ntermarry in the
| gems in cases of orphan daughters heiresses;
possession OF community property; OF officers and
| magistrates with certain powers, including a
treasurer; limitation of descent 10 the male line:
the obligation not TO marry in the gems except in
specified cases: the right to adopt strangers in the
| gems and the right to elect and depose chiefs.
| The possession of real property landed es-
| tates unknown in tribal life. From COM
munity-houses and walled towns OF Notifications
| some tribes advanced to townships with bound
ary, but without affecting the regulations under
| which this progress had been made. Having no
written laws, the people carried these rules of
| ernment, as the American Indians say, "In their
| hearts" The only way by which tribe held a
title to land by erecting upon it affairs to their
gods by using Ii burial-place for their dead.
| do not wish 10 be understood saying that a
people did not hold territory by any other title.
| They did so by the right of possession or occupa-
| was only by fighting that possession main
tanned. After the township invented, which
was not until the higher stage of barbarsm, lands
allotted individuals. AilOtmeQtS were