The Principal Occupation, Indeed, Of Parties When They Meet, Is To Give And Receive Information Relative To Neighbouring Families Or Tribes.

In cases of sudden danger or emergency, the scattered groups are rapidly warned or collected by sending young men as messengers, or by raising signal smokes in prominent positions.

In an assembly of the tribe, matters of importance are generally discussed and decided upon, by the elder men, apart from the others. It not unfrequently happens, however, that some discontented individual will loudly and violently harangue the whole tribe; this usually occurs in the evening, and frequently continues for hours together; his object being generally either to reverse some decision that has been come to, to excite them to something they are unwilling to do, or to abuse some one who is absent. Occasionally he is replied to by others, but more frequently allowed uninterruptedly to wear himself out, when from sheer exhaustion he is compelled to sit down.

Occasionally the tribe is addressed by its most influential members in the language of admonition or advice, and though at such times a loud tone and strong expressions are made use of, there is rarely any thing amounting to an order or command; the subject is explained, reasons are given for what is advanced, and the result of an opposite course to that suggested, fully pointed out; after this the various members are left to form their own judgments, and to act as they think proper.

In their domestic relations with one another polygamy is practised in its fullest extent.

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