702 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [s. s. t I, 1899
deposed. Or an individual may disgrace himself, when he will be reduced in rank. When a man is deposed the Amerinds will say that his horns have been knocked off, or that his paint has been wiped off, or that his feathers have been plucked.
In a similar manner tribes and confederacies are governed by reckoning kinship in different ways, and making kinship by legal fiction. All such governments are patriarchal. It will readily be seen that such government is not possible in civilized society. What man can know the names of all the persons living in a county or a state ; or who can learn all the names of the peo- ple who live in a city; and how can one trace out the kinship of the people of a city into clans? Tribal society, or kin- ship government, is therefore impossible in civilization, and is possible only where the group of people thus united in gov- ernment is very small, and the members know one another as kindred.
I have already explained the adoption into other clans of in- fant children whose clan kindred have become extinct. Such cases seem to be infrequent ; but there are other cases of adoption which are more common. Children, and even adults, captured in war are usually adopted into some clan. Our European ancestors observed a curious custom among the tribes of this country — that of running the gantlet. A prisoner was compelled to run between two lines of his captors armed with sticks or other missiles. This was formerly supposed to be a method of torture. On investiga- tion it is proved to have had quite another purpose. The prisoner was given an opportunity to show his mettle, his courage, and his ability to fight his way through a line of clubs. If he acquitted himself manfully, any woman among the captors might claim him for her child. Children ran the gantlet of children only; but adults ran the gantlet of men, women, and children. Female children were rarely submitted to this ordeal. The adoption of a captive was his new birth into the clan ; and his official age dated from his new birth. If he proved himself skilful, useful, and
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