[Footnote 14: These three leading clans so put into the shade all the others that in some old writers these alone are recognized. Thus Colden says (vol. i, p. 1): 'Each of these nations is again divided into three tribes or families, who distinguish themselves by three different arms or ensigns, the tortoise, the bear, and the wolf.' A full account of the Iroquois organization is given by Parkman in the first chapter of the _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, and in the introduction to _The Jesuits in North America_. See also the chapter on Canadian and Iroquois Indians in Sir J. G. Bourinot's _Canada_, in the 'Story of the Nations' series. It will be seen from the note to the Introduction, p. lv, of _The Jesuits in North America_ (1885 ed.), that the number of the clans as given above, and their presence in each tribe, is not absolutely certain.] [Sidenote: _The Iroquois in some respects resembled the Spartans._] In their organization they had advanced beyond the stage {60} which is outlined in the Iliad. They were far more democratic than the Greeks of Homeric time. In savage sort they framed and kept a polity of the kind which Aristotle tells us is the most perfect type of constitution, being a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. The hereditary principle was strong, but chieftainship did not pass from father to son owing to the rule of female succession. The councils of the nation found place for all whose qualifications were for the public good. High standing, age, experience, eloquence, strength of arm, all were recognized in this strange community. To Sparta Colden likens the confederacy of the Five Nations, in that, in either case, the national customs trained the minds and the bodies of the people for war;[15] but the likeness extends to other points as well. As far as a Greek state and a band of North American savages can be compared, in their social and political training, in their inflexible rules, in their recognition of merit combined with unswerving adherence to the principle of priority of families and clans, no less than in their heartless indifference to pain whether inflicted on themselves or others, the Iroquois Indians resembled the citizens of the famous Greek state. But whatever comparison may be made with either ancient or modern communities, the story of the Five Nations presents the curious problem of a group of savages of the very worst type, who yet in some sort solved the difficulties which the most civilized peoples find so great--those of reconciling democracy with hereditary privileges, and federal union with local independence.