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Show 206 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1500 children were also doomed to slavery, and the consequence was the formation of a class in the community as distinct as that of the nobility and nearly as permanent. While these slaves were the absolute property of their owners, and could be sold or put to death at will, their life does not appear to have been particularly hard except in unustaal cases. The every- day life of the owners was not such as to permit much lowering without extinction, and the slave had about the same food and shelter as his master. vSlavegr of a sort also existed in the southeast; and in more modern times certain of the Muskhogean tribes, imitating the whites, became the owners of negroes. x The clans of any given tribe were ordinarily gathered into two or more classes known as phratries, which were also exogamous groups and still further restricted the choice of the individual in marriage. The phratry was probably an overgrown clan which had become unwieldy, and upon subdivision the constituent groups still retained a memory of their mutual relationship and consequent inability to intermarry. The functions of the phratry are somewhat indefinite but are distinctly social and ceremonial rather than governmental. It is seen at its best among the tribes of the east and in Mexico, but is also present in Alaska and British Columbia as well as in certain parts of the western United States. |