consanguinity. Individuals are not at liberty to change their totems,
or disregard the restraint imposed by it on intermarriages. It is
stated in Tanner's narrative, that the Indians hold it to be criminal
for a man to marry a woman whose totem is the same as his own; and they
relate instances where young men, for a violation of this rule, have
been put to death by their nearest relatives. Loskiel, in his history
of the Moravian missions, says, the Delawares and Iroquois never marry
near relatives. According to their own account, the Indian nations were
divided into tribes for the sole purpose, that no one might, either
through temptation or mistake, marry a near relation, which is now
scarcely possible, for whoever intends to marry must take a person of a
different totem. Another reason for the institution of these totems,
may be found in their influence on the social relations of the tribe,
in softening private revenge, and preserving peace. Gallatin, on the
information derived from a former Indian agent[C] among the Creeks,
says, "according to the ancient custom, if an offence was committed by
one or another member of the same clan, the compensation to be made, on
account of the injury, was regulated in an amicable way by the other
members of the clan. Murder was rarely expiated in any other way than
by the death of the murderer; the nearest male relative of the deceased
was the executioner; but this being done, as under the authority of the
clan, there was no further retaliation. If the injury was committed by
some one of another clan, it was not the injured party, but the clan to
which he belonged, that asked for reparation. This was rarely refused
by the clan of the offender; but in case of refusal, the injured clan
had a right to do itself justice, either by killing the offender, in
case of murder, or inflicting some other punishment for lesser
offences. This species of private war, was, by the Creeks, called, 'to
take up the sticks;' because, the punishment generally consisted in
beating the offender. At the time of the annual corn-feast, the sticks