series of names, which no
other gens in the whole tribe could use, so that the name of the
individual indicated to what gens he belonged. A gentile name at the
same time bestowed gentile rights.

7. The gens may adopt strangers who thereby are adopted into the whole
tribe. The prisoners of war who were not killed became by adoption into
a gens tribal members of the Senecas and thus received full gentile and
tribal rights. The adoption took place on the motion of some gentile
members, of men who accepted the stranger as a brother or sister, of
women who accepted him as a child. The solemn introduction into the gens
was necessary to confirm the adoption. Frequently certain gentes that
had shrunk exceptionally were thus strengthened by mass adoptions from
another gens with the consent of the latter. Among the Iroquois the
solemn introduction into the gens took place in a public meeting of the
tribal council, whereby it actually became a religious ceremony.

The existence of special religious celebrations among Indian gentes can
hardly be demonstrated. But the religious rites of the Indians are more
or less connected with the gens. At the six annual religious festivals
of the Iroquois the sachems and chiefs of the different gentes were
added to the "Keepers of the Faith" and had the functions of priests.

9. The gens had a common burial place. Among the Iroquois of the State
of New York, who are crowded by white men all around them, the burial
place has disappeared, but it existed formerly. Among other Indians it
is still in existence, e. g., among the Tuscaroras, near relatives of
the Iroquois, where every gens has a row by itself in the burial place,
although they are Christians. The mother is buried in the same row as
her children, but not the father. And among the Iroquois the whole gens
of the deceased attends the funeral, prepares the grave and provides the
addresses, etc.

10. The gens had a council, the democratic assembly of all male and
female gentiles of adult age, all with equal suffrage. This council
elected and deposed its sachems and chiefs; likewise the other "Keepers
of the Faith." It deliberated on gifts of atonement or blood revenge for
murdered gentiles and it adopted strangers into the gens. In short, it
was the sovereign power in the gens.

The following are the rights and privileges of the typical Indian gens,
according to Morgan: "All the members of an Iroquois gens were
personally free, and th