or
civil chief-magistrate; but a military commander was indispensable, and,
curiously enough, without being taught by the experience of a Tarquin,
the Iroquois made this a dual office, like the Roman consulship. There
were two permanent chieftainships, one in the Wolf, the other in the
Turtle clan, and both in the Seneca tribe, because the western border
was the most exposed to attack.[83] The chiefs were elected by the clan,
and inducted into office by the General Council; their tenure was during
life or good behaviour. This office never encroached upon the others in
its powers, but an able warrior in this position could wield great
influence.

[Footnote 83: Somewhat on the same principle that in mediaeval
Europe led an earl or count, commanding an exposed border
district or _march_ to rise in power and importance and become
a "margrave" [_mark_ + _graf_ = march-count] or "marquis."
Compare the increase of sovereignty accorded to the earls of
Chester and bishops of Durham as rulers of the two principal
march counties of England.]

[Sidenote: The "Long House."]

Such was the famous confederacy of the Iroquois. They called it the Long
House, and by this name as commonly as any other it is known in history.
The name by which they called themselves was Hodenosaunee, or "People of
the Long House." The name was picturesquely descriptive of the long and
narrow strip of villages with its western outlook toward the Niagara,
and its eastern toward the Hudson, three hundred miles distant. But it
was appropriate also for another and a deeper reason than this. We have
seen that in its social and political structure, from top to bottom and
from end to end, the confederacy was based upon and held together by the
gentes, clans, communal households, or "long houses," which were its
component units. They may be compared to the hypothetical indestructible
atoms of modern physics, whereof all material objects are composed. The
whole institutional fabric was the outgrowth of the group of ideas and
habits that belong to a state of society ignorant of and incapable of
imagining any other form of organization than the clan held together by
the tie of a common maternal ancestry. The house architecture was as
much a constituent part of the fabric as the council of sachems. There
is a transparency about the system that is very different from the
obscurity we continually find in Eu