could not intermarry; and, most important of all to our present purpose, it was by the female line that descent was traced and that property descended. Such is a brief sketch of the American tribal organization. This, however, was the organization in theory only; when it came to the matter of practice, it is very rarely, indeed, that we find the theory preserved immutable. On the contrary, there were so many exceptions that we must regard the rule only as one to be kept in sight for the purposes of generalization. For example, the law of descent in the female line was very often abrogated, even where the gentile system was in force; and consanguineous marriages, and even incest,--rare though this is among primitive peoples, probably because, as Darwin points out, familiarity is not inducive of affection,--were not unknown. However, there is enough stability in the theory to warrant the deduction of certain general statements dependent upon it. We are now prepared to take a view of the status of woman among the tribes of primitive America. It is the general belief that she was a mere chattel, having no rights whatever, existing merely upon the sufferance of her husband, and in all ways a slave, a creature without rights or privileges. Such a picture is far from the truth, even though it contain many aspects of partial truth. As a matter of fact, the matriarchal system prevailed in the majority of the American tribes; and this alone is sufficient to show that woman had some rights. These were not precisely personal, but rather gentile; yet they acted in many ways as personal. For example, where the matriarchal system was in force, all property rights, as between husband and wife, vested in the latter; she alone could dispose of property,--and that at her discretion--, and it was to her relatives and not to his that the property passed on the death of the pair. Moreover, in the tribes wherein prevailed the theory of maternal descent, the children did not look upon the father as a relative; he was not of their gens, and they owed him no duties whatever. So far was this theory carried in many cases that the children would not provide for their fathers when these became disabled by sickness, accident, or age, but sent their unfortunate sires for assistance to the gentes from which they came. Again, the life of a woman was in many cases rated as of higher value than that of a man. We have Father Ragueneau's authority for the statement that among the Hurons thirty gifts was considered sufficient compensation for the death of a man, but the blood-money exacted for the killing of a woman was forty gifts. Such a condition of affairs as that mentioned by the old Jesuit is strong argument for the theory that woman was held by the primitive Americans in higher esteem than has been generally thought, while her control of the property must have won for her--judging from modern civilized instances--at least some consideration from her husband.