nd
Common Sense.

(3) Ibid., iii. 362.

(4) Catlin, ii. 17.

(5) In Schoolcraft, iv. 402.

(6) Pond, in Schoolcraft, iv. 647.

(7) Auckland, 1863.

(8) Page 148.

Here is the place to mention a fact which, though at first sight it may
appear to have only a social interest, yet bears on the development of
mythology. Property and rank seem to have been essential to each other
in the making of social rank, and where one is absent among contemporary
savages, there we do not find the other. As an example of this, we might
take the case of two peoples who, like the Homeric Ethiopians, are the
outermost of men, and dwell far apart at the ends of the world. The
Eskimos and the Fuegians, at the extreme north and south of the American
continent, agree in having little or no private property and no chiefs.
Yet magic is providing a kind of basis of rank. The bleak plains of ice
and rock are, like Attica, "the mother of men without master or lord".
Among the "house-mates" of the smaller settlements there is no head-man,
and in the larger gatherings Dr. Rink says that "still less than among
the house-mates was any one belonging to such a place to be considered
a chief". The songs and stories of the Eskimo contain the praises of men
who have risen up and killed any usurper who tried to be a ruler over
his "place-mates". No one could possibly establish any authority on
the basis of property, because "superfluous property, implements, etc.,
rarely existed". If there are three boats in one household, one of the
boats is "borrowed" by the community, and reverts to the general fund.
If we look at the account of the Fuegians described in Admiral Fitzroy's
cruise, we find a similar absence of rank produced by similar causes.
"The perfect equality among the individuals composing the tribes must
for a long time retard their civilisation.... At present even a piece of
cloth is torn in shreds and distributed, and no one individual becomes
richer than another. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand
how a chief can arise till there is property of some sort by which he
might manifest and still increase his authority." In the same book,
however, we get a glimpse of one means by which authority can be
exercised. "The doctor-wizard of each party has much influence over his
companions." Among the Eskimos this element in the growth of authority
also exists. A class of wizards called Angakut have power to cause fine
weather, and, by