functions, as the gens tribe and confederacy possessed them but it
was endowed with certain useful powers in the social system, from
the necessity for some organization larger than a gens and smaller
than a tribe and especially when the tribe was large. The same
institution in essential features and in character, it presents the
organization in its archaic form and with its archaic functions. A
knowledge of the Indian phratry is necessary to an intelligent
understanding of the Grecian and the Roman.

The eight gentes of the Seneca Iroquois tribe were reintegrated in
two phratries as follows:


First Phratry
Gentes--1 Bear 2 Wolf 3 Beaver 4 Turtle
Second Phratry
Gentes--5 Deer 6 Snipe 7 Heron 8 Hawk


Each phratry (De da non da a yoh) is a brotherhood as this term also
imports. The gentes in the same phratry are brother gentes to each
other and cousin gentes to those of the other phratry. They are
equal in grade, character, and privileges. It is a common practice
of the Senecas to call the gentes of their own phratry brother
gentes and those of the other phratry their cousin gentes, when they
mention them in their relation to the phratries. Originally marriage
was not allowed between the members of the same phratry but the
members of either could marry into any gens of the other. This
prohibition tends to show that the gentes of each phratry were
subdivisions of an original gens and therefore the prohibition