by mutual consent the members of one gens were transferred in a
body from other phratries. Hence we find the gentes of the same name
differently grouped in the phratries of the different tribes.

"The phratry, among the Iroquois, was partly for social and partly for
religious objects." 1. In the ball game one phratry plays against
another. Each one sends its best players, the other members, upon
different sides of the field, watch the game and bet against one another
on the result. 2. In the tribal council the sachems and chiefs of each
phratry are seated opposite one another, every speaker addressing the
representatives of each phratry as separate bodies. 3. When a murder had
been committed in the tribe, the slayer and the slain belonging to
different phratries, the injured gens often appealed to its brother
gentes. These held a phratry council which in a body addressed itself to
the other phratry, in order to prevail on the latter to assemble in
council and effect a condonation of the matter. In this case the phratry
re-appears in its original gentile capacity, and with a better prospect
of success than the weaker gens, its daughter. 4. At the funeral of
prominent persons the opposite phratry prepared the interment and the
burial rites, while the phratry of the deceased attended the funeral as
mourners. If a sachem died, the opposite phratry notified the central
council of the Iroquois that the office of the deceased had become
vacant. 5. In electing a sachem the phratry council also came into
action. Endorsement by the brother gentes was generally considered a
matter of fact, but the gentes of the other phratry might oppose. In
such a case the council of this phratry met, and if it maintained its
opposition, the election was null and void. 6. Formerly the Iroquois had
special religious mysteries, called medicine lodges by the white men.
These mysteries were celebrated among the Senecas by two religious
societies that had a special form of initiation for new members; each
phratry was represented by one of these societies. 7. If, as is almost
certain, the four lineages occupying the four quarters of Tlascala at
the time of the conquest were four phratries, then it is proved that the
phratries were at the same time military units, as were the Greek
phratries and similar sex organizations of the Germans. Each of these
four lineages went into battle as a separate group with its special
uniform and flag and its own leader.