in the main, while filiation through achievement is a function of historical conditions.  This advantage of maternal organization in point of time embarrasses and obscures the individual and collective expression of the male force, but under the veil of female nomenclature and in the midst of the female organization we can always detect the presence of the male authority.  Bachofen’s conception of the maternal system as a political system was erroneous, as Dargun and others have pointed out,[123] though woman has been reinforced by the fact of descent, and has so figured somewhat in political systems.

A most instructive example of the parallel existence of descent through females and of male authority is found in the Wyandot tribe of Indians, in which also the participation of woman in the regulative activities of society is, perhaps, more systematically developed than in any other single case among maternal peoples.  Major Powell gives the following outline of the civil and military government of this tribe: 

The civil government inheres in a system of councils and chiefs.  In each gens there is a council, composed of four women, called Yu-wai-yu-wa-na.  These four women councilors select a chief of the gens from its male members—­that is, from their brothers and sons.  This gentile chief is the head of the gentile council.  The council of the tribe is composed of the aggregated gentile councils.  The tribal council, therefore, is composed one-fifth of men and four-fifths of women.  The sachem of the tribe, or tribal chief, is chosen by the chiefs of the gentes.  There is sometimes a grand council of the gens, composed of the councilors of the gens proper and all the heads of households (women) and leading men—­brothers and sons.  There is also a grand council of the tribe, composed of the council of the tribe proper and the heads of households of the tribe, and all the leading men of the tribe....

The four women councilors of the gens are chosen by the heads of households, themselves being women.  There is no formal election, but frequent discussion is had over the matter from time to time, in which a sentiment grows up within the gens and throughout the tribe that, in the event of the death of any councilor, a certain person will take her place.  In this manner there are usually one, two, or more potential councilors in each gens, who are expected to attend all the meetings of the council, though they take no part in the deliberations and have no vote.  When a woman is installed as a councilor, a feast is prepared by the gens to which she belongs, and to this feast all the members of the tribe are invited.  The woman is painted and dressed in her best attire, and the sachem of the tribe places upon her head the gentile chaplet of feathers, and announces in a formal manner to the assembled guests that the woman has been chosen a councilor....  The gentile chief is chosen by the council women after consultation with the