iction.[53] If a husband and a wife could not agree, they
parted amicably, or two unhappy pairs would exchange husbands and
wives. An early French missionary remonstrated with a couple on such a
transaction, and was told: "My wife and I could not agree; my
neighbour was in the same case, so we exchanged wives and all four
were content. What can be more reasonable than to render one another
mutually happy, when it costs so little, and does nobody any
harm."[54] It would seem that these maternal peoples have solved many
difficulties of domestic and social life better than we ourselves have
done.

[52] Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 324. Heriot, _op.
cit._, pp. 323, 329. Schoolcraft, _op. cit._, Vol. III, p.
191.

[53] Heriot, pp. 231-237. See also Report of an Official of
Indian Affairs on two of the Iroquoian tribes, cited by
Hartland. _Primitive Paternity_, Vol. I, p. 298.

[54] _Charleroix_, Vol. V, p. 48, quoted by Hartland, _op.
cit._, Vol. II, p. 66.

The Wyandots, another Iroquoian tribe, maintained the maternal
household, though they seem to have reached a later stage of
development than the Senecas. They camped in the form of a horse-shoe,
every clan together in regular order. Marriage between members of the
same clan was forbidden; the children belonged to the clan of the
mother. The husbands retained all their rights and privileges in their
own _gentes_, though they lived in the _gentes_ of their wives. After
marriage the pair resided, for a time, at least, with the wife's
mother, but afterwards they set up housekeeping for themselves.[55]

[55] Powell, _Rep. Bur. Ethn._, I, 63.

We may note in this change of residence the creeping in of changes
which inevitably led in time to the decay of the maternal family and
the reassertion of the patriarchal authority of the father. This is
illustrated further by the Musquakies, also belonging to the
Algonquian stock. Though still organised in clans, descent is no
longer reckoned through the mother; the bridegroom, however, serves
his wife's family, and he lives in her home. This does not make him
of her clan, but she belongs to his, till his death or divorce
separates her from him. As for the children, the minors at the
termination of the marriage belong to the mother's clan, but those who
had had the puberty feast are counted to the father's clan.[56]

[56] Owen: _Musquakie Indians_, p. 72.

The male authority was