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Show i9oo] INDIAN SOCIETY 199 character. In certain groups the condition was cleverly met by first formally outlawing or expelling the murderer from the clan, after which he could legitimately be hunted down and put to death; 1 in other places the tendency seems to have been rather to condone the offence, as if in bewilderment as to the appropriate action. 2 J£ he civil functions of the clan are more important than those more purely social. 8 In most of the tribes chieftainship and special governmental privileges resided permanently in certain clans. .^ There were ordinarily among the Indians chiefs of two kinds, who have come to be termed " sachems" and ordinary '' chiefs.'' The sachem was essentially a civil offirar and his Hutifig and authority were. confined to times, of p^ a ™ *; wViiia th* nhirf might have duties concerned with ^ ar or A^ y of hot- o f f o^ for which he was peculiarly fitted. The sachem was primarily an officer of the clan, and the position was hereditary in that group; a vacancy in the office was filled by election as often as it 6ccurred. In tribes with maternal inheritance a brother or a sister's son was usually chosen to succeed a deceased sachem, though any male member of the clan was regarded as eligible. This right of election, and the corresponding right of deposition for cause, 1 Cf. Powell," Wyandot Government" ( Bureau of Ethnology, First Annual Report, 67). 1 Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, 274. * For a masterly discussion of this whole subject and the topics which follow, see Morgan, Ancient Society, 62 ff. |