Family for the woman in South America means continual work, the men either doing nothing or being enraged in war (p1. 46, fig. 5), hunting, or roaming (pl. 48, fig. 4). A glance at the family life of the North Americans is more cheerful, although the woman is badly treated, having to perform hard work, even to building the huts (the men, how ever, construct the skiffs) and carrying everything; sometimes she is exposed to the most barbarous abuse. Love between parents and chil dren is strong. The manner in which children are carried is shown on Plate 42 (fig. 3), Plate 45 (fig. 8), Plate 47 (fig. 6), Plate 4S (fig. 4), Plate 49 (figs. 2, .5). The Athabascas have particular little chairs for the chil dren (p1. 31, jig. r5). The Algonkin and related tribes have leather cradles, which are fastened to a board and carried on the back (p1. 36, jig. 6).
The children are rarely educated. The giving of the name is cele brated with a feast, and the feast of puberty is of the greatest importance, for at it the youth receives his "medicine;" that is, by means of a dream, the "dream of life," lie seeks to find out the animal in which his guar dian spirit has been incorporated. The skin of that animal is considered an amulet. It is carried by the Indian on Plate 33 (fig. r) in the white bundle on his shield.
is easily contracted and easily dissolved; polyg amy is permitted, but is not frequently practised on account of its cost; and adultery is rare and severely punished. Although perfect freedom is allowed the females before marriage, their life is generally moral. But cases of passionate love are not infrequent, and the favor of women is duly appreciated: young men among the Dakotas, for instance, carry bundles of rods corresponding to the number of their successful love-adventures (p1. 32, jig% to).
government seems to have been based on the family. Among the Eskimos and the Kolushes each family is independent, hut among the latter people we find several families united into a clan which has some animal for its guardian spirit and sign or coat of arms. Such coats of arms, or " totems," are shown on Plate 3S (fig. 11): b is the so called "man-fish," a being partly fish, partly man, which the Chippeways' myths represented as living in the upper lakes. The bird (p1. 32, jig. 2) also seems to be a totem.
The so-called "hands" or associations, with certain laws, customs, and signs, which are found among the American peoples, have probably derived their origin from these clans. Such a hand among the Mandrills were the " Dogs," whose festive costume and ensign (clapper) are por trayed on Plate 33 (Ar. 2). Certain dances are performed exclusively 1w these societies; as, for instance, the buffalo dance by the Buffalo Band (p1. 3.1), at which particularly famous heroes wear the head of a buffalo.
Another society-badge is shown on Plate 36 41. The different socie ties had also signal-pipes of different shapes and tones, which the members wore, together with the badges, around the neck OM 32, fig. Li; pi. 33, Several tribes often united in confederacies as a check upon excessive division. The same conditions obtain in South America. In the north great councils or assemblies of the people are held with much solemnity, but in the south they are more lax.
the Eskimos the dead are buried. The corpse is never carried out through the door, but through the window or the wall of the tent, while the inmates shout after it, " No one else to be had here "—a custom which we shall also find among the Chip peways of the upper lakes. They fear that the deceased might draw the liv ing after him, and they believe that his path should not be trodden by the living. When he is buried all his effects are put on his grave, and the lamentations for him are frequently repeated during the space of about one year. The practice of making offerings at the grave existed among the Kodyaks, who buried the dead in the manner shown on Plate 30 (fig. 11), and among the Aleutians, who, as did many North American Indians, embalmed the corpses and suspended them in boat-like coffins or interred them in caves or in painted tomb-boxes. The latter manner of burial also prevails among the Kolushes (61. 31, fig. to); coffins in the shape of ships are used by the Kenais (Athabascas, 3t, fig. 14); many other tribes east of the Rocky Mountains lay out the dead on scaffoldings, either simply wrapped in cloths or placed in coffins (pi. 37, fig. 2); others bury prominent individuals, especially great warriors, in a sitting posture; and the Aleutians inter all males in that manner („6/. 37, fig. 8). This prac tice is now steadily vanishing. The bones are collected by many tribes and put in large charnel-houses which belong to the tribe in common.
We have already considered the old grave-mounds (p. 216; ,61. 37, fig. 8; 39, fig. 5); they are at present used preferably by the Indians for their graves, which are built in various ways, often quite artistically. Such a superstructure of the simplest kind, and reminding us in a meas ure of Plate 30 (fig. t t), is shown on Plate 37 (fig. 7). Cremation of corpses occurred rarely. Often the grave was decorated with a pole carrying the totem of the deceased (pi. 37, fig. 2, to the left; IV. 34, to the left, the pole with the skin, with which compare pi. 20, fig. 9). In some places lamentations for the dead found very singular expression: offerings to the dead were plentiful, and chiefs of high rank, when dying, often partook of their own funeral meal. Similar customs pre vailed throughout South America.