influence within her tribe.
Long before the dawn of the last century, the aboriginal woman had lost
all little power that had once been hers. That this loss was largely due
to her own failure to advance, and her consequent retrogression, we have
already seen, but circumstances were also largely responsible for the
lapse of feminine prestige.

It may be that one of the causes for the lost influence of women among
the Indian tribes was the lowering of the standard of morality. This is
a matter upon which it is difficult to pronounce, since morality, always
comparative in its standards and to be judged only by the racial creeds
which govern it in local applications, was peculiarly variant among the
Indian tribes of North America. Judged by the rules of modern
civilization, it might be broadly stated that morality was always at a
very low ebb among the Amerinds; but such a statement would be entirely
unwarranted by the true laws of morality. Polygamy, for example, is by
modern white races held to be immoral; but it was a very common custom
among the Amerinds, and that which is sanctioned by custom is assuredly
not immoral, though it may be counted _un_-moral. Again, as already
noted, there were tribes among which the exchange of wives, temporarily
or permanently, was held to be entirely legitimate; and, while such a
custom is very far from being in accord with Caucasian standards, it is
the custom only, and not the practisers thereof, which is to be blamed
by the just moralist. On the other hand, it may be set down as a rule of
Indian social life that adultery was severely punished. Even here the
point of view was not invariable, some tribes holding the man the more
guilty, while others visited punishment chiefly or entirely upon the
woman; but the sentiment concerning the crime in the abstract was almost
universal. It is very probable--though no authority can be found for
the statement--that it was among those tribes where the descent was in
the male line that the woman was held chiefly criminal in adultery,
since thus the purity of descent was contaminated and diverted, while
among those nations where descent was in the female line, the woman was
held less guilty than he who shared her crime. However this may be, and
there is too much confusion of statement, as well as too many diverse
laws, for us safely to generalize in the matter, certain it is that
adultery was in general looked upon as a heinous crime, usually to be