against marrying into a person's own gens had followed to its
subdivisions. This restriction however was long since removed except
with respect to the gens of the individual. A tradition of the
Senecas affirms that the Bear and the Deer were the original gentes,
of which the others were subdivisions. It is thus seen that the
phratry had a natural foundation in the kinship of the gentes of
which it was composed. After their subdivision from increase of
numbers there was a natural tendency to their reunion in a higher
organization for objects common to them all. The same gentes are not
constant in a phratry indefinitely, as appears from the composition
of the phratries in the remaining Iroquois tribes. Transfers of
particular gentes from one phratry to the other must have occurred
when the equilibrium in their respective numbers was disturbed. It
is important to know the simple manner in which this organization
springs up, and the facility with which it is managed as a part of
the social system of ancient society. With the increase of numbers
in a gens, followed by local separation of its members, segmentation
occurred, and the seceding portion adopted a new gentile name. But a
tradition of their former unity would remain and become the basis of
their reorganization in a phratry.

From the differences in the composition of the phratries in the
several tribes it seems probable that the phratries are modified in
their gentes at intervals of time to meet changes of condition. Some
gentes prosper and increase in numbers, while others, through
calamities, decline, and others become extinct; so that transfers of
gentes from one phratry to another were found necessary to preserve
some degree of equality in the number of phrators in each. The
phratric organization has existed among the Iroquois from time
immemorial. It is probably older than the confederacy which was