political
institutions of this ancient nation. As no people remains stationary,
and as degeneracy has been the rule with surrounding countries, we may
not expect to find among the people of Oman a true representation of
ancient conditions, yet, as has been observed, we may still be able to
note some of the facts relative to the organization of society and their
governmental institutions.

In a description furnished by Palgrave, Oman is termed a kingdom, yet it
is plain from the observations of this writer that the existing form
of government is that of a confederacy of nations under a democratical
system, identical with that developed during the later status of
barbarism. This writer himself admits that Oman is less a kingdom than
an aggregation of municipalities, and that each of these municipalities
or towns has a separate existence and is controlled by its own local
chief; but that all are joined together in one confederacy, and
subjected to the leadership of a grand chief whom the writer is pleased
to term "the crown," but why, as is evident from the description given,
bears no resemblance to a modern monarch. The chiefs who direct the
councils of the municipalities are limited in their powers by "the
traditional immunities of the vassals," the decision of all criminal
cases and the administration of justice being in the hands of the local
judges. In the descriptions given of their governmental proceedings,
it is stated that the whole course of law is considered apart from the
jurisdiction of the sovereign, who has no power to either change or
annul the enactments of the people.

Here, it is observed, exists almost the identical form of government
which was in use among the early historic nations, before governments
came to be founded on wealth, or on a territorial basis(67); or, in
other words, before the monied and aristocratic classes had drawn to
themselves all the powers which had formerly belonged to the people.

67) See The Evolution of Woman, p. 238.

We must bear in mind the fact that under these earlier democratical
institutions, the term "people" included not only men but women, and as
the grand chief, the local rulers, and the judges held their positions
by virtue of their descent from, or relationship to, some real or
traditional leader of the gens, who during all the earlier ages was a
woman, we may believe that the power of women to depose their political
leaders so soon as their conduct