warfare. Fighting was limited to the surprise, the ambuscade, the massacre; and military strategy consisted of cunning and treachery. Quarter was rarely asked, and never granted; those who were spared from the fight were only reserved for a barbarous captivity, ransom, or the stake. In the torture of his victims all the diabolical ferocity of the savage warrior's nature burst forth without restraint. In times of peace the Indian character shone to a better advantage. But the Red man was, at his best estate, an unsocial, solitary, and gloomy spirit. He was a man of the woods. He communed only with himself and the genius of solitude. He sat apart. The forest was better than his wigwam, and his wigwam better than the village. The Indian woman was a degraded creature, a drudge, a beast of burden; and the social principle was correspondingly low. The organization of the Indian family was so peculiar as to require a special consideration. Among civilized nations the family is so constructed that the lines of kinship diverge constantly from the line of descent, so that collateral kinsmen with each generation stand at a still greater remove from each other. The above diagram will serve to show how in a European family the lines of consanguinity diverge until the kinship becomes so feeble as to be no longer recognized. It will be observed that this fact of constant divergence is traceable to the establishment of a male line of descent. In the Indian family all this is reversed. The descent is established in the female line; and as a consequence the ties of kinship converge upon each other until they all meet in the granddaughter. That is, in the aboriginal nations of North America, every grandson and granddaughter was the grandson and granddaughter of the whole tribe. This arose from the fact that all the uncles of a given person were reckoned as his fathers also; all the mother's sisters were mothers; all the cousins were sisters and brothers; all the nieces were daughters; all the nephews, sons, etc. This peculiarity of the Indian family organization is illustrated in the annexed diagram. Civil government among the Indian na- composed them. Sometimes a sachem would arise with such marked abilities, warlike prowess, and strength of will, as to gain an influence, if not a positive leadership over many nations. But with the death of the chieftain, or sooner, each tribe, resuming its independence, would return to its own ways. No general Indian Congress was known; but national and tribal councils were frequently called to debate questions of policy and right. In matters of religion the Indians were a superstitious race, but seldom idolaters. They believed in a great spirit, everywhere present, ruling the elements, showing favor to the obedient, and punishing the sinful. Him they worshiped; to him they sacrificed. But not in tem |