7. The Bektashi in the District of Strumica (Macedonia)Author(s): Milenko S. FilipovićSource: Man, Vol. 54 (Jan., 1954), pp. 10-13Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2795497Accessed: 18/08/2009 03:53

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Nos. 5-7 Man JANUARY,

I954

The lecturer closed with illustrations of three classes of defixiones, those used in sport, love and litigation. Examples were quoted from Rome and Carthage of the ancient equivalent of nobbling the favourite, and particular reference was made to the use of magic in silencing witnesses and even lawyers in the law court. To this latter class of legal defixionies belonged the leaden curse tablet in the Greek Museum of Reading Universitv (published in Harvard Theological Review, Vol. XLIV, I95 I,

pp. 25-34)- The discussion was opened by Professor Raymond Firth,

F.B.A., President of the Royal Anthropological Institute, who presented an evaluation of SirJames Frazer, his reputation and his limitations, as viewed by the social anthropologist to-day. He congratulated Professor Cormack on having read a paper in the spirit of Frazer. H.E. Madame Stibandrio dealt briefly with black and white magic and with sorceryr as practised in her own country, Indonesia. The disctussion was continued by Dr. E. 13. Stra uss; Dr. E. J. Dingwall, Honorary Vice-President, Magic Circle; Dr. Michael Fordham; Dr. G. C. R. Morris; Mr. Dickson Wright; Dr. Harold Avery; Professor V. Gordoni Childe, Director, Institute of Archcology, London; and Dr. Green- Armytage. Professors Cormack and Firth briefly replied.

Reference to the Dead among the Penan. By Rodniey Needham, M.A., Ph.D., Institute of Social Anthropology, University of

6 Oxford Among many peoples of the world the personal name or style of a dead person is avoided, and some other term is employed when such a person is spoken of. An ancient and well documented usage is that of reference to a deceased Malay ruler by means of a marhumii title. 'When the king dies his name is dropped, and he receives the title of "Marhum," the late or "deceased," with the addition of an expression alluding to some prominent fact in his life, or occasionally to the place of his decease' (Skeat, I900, pp. 3sf.). Marhunt comes from the Arabic and means 'that has found mercy' (Wilkinson). In the type of reference indicating where the person died, niarhum is followed by mangkat, 'to be borne aloft,' a euphemism for death when speak- ing of princes (Wilkinson). The reference may be to a topo- graphical feature, as in Marhunm Mangkat di Baroh, 'he who died by the riverside' (Maxwell, I882, p. 102). More importantly, in this paper, it is most commonly to a particular locality or area, as in Marhum Mangkat di Kota Lama (Maxwell, p. ioo) or Marhuim Mangkat di Pahang (Maxwell, p. 98).

Tlhis last mode of reference, applied to Malay rulers, is also used by the Eastern Penan, one of the two tribes of the Penan people, forest nomads of the interior of north-western Borneo. The Penan in general believe that to mention the name of a dead person, particularly when he has been dead for less than about a year, is to incur his displeasure and to provoke through his agency certain misfortunes. This applies not only to his personal name but also to his teknonymic style. The Eastern Penan, therefore, when they wish to refer to a dead person, use the term dulit. I do not think it is used in any other context, and I could not extract from the Penan any meaning of the word other than its use in reference to the dead. It has no connexion in Penan culture (as distinct from etymologically) with the Malay duli, dust.

It is used prefixed to the name of the river area in which the individual died, so that if a man dies in the valley of the Tebenyi he is referred to afterwards as 'Dulit Tebenyi,' and another who dies in the valley of the Liwen is known as 'Dulit Liwen.' If two people die in the same river area they may be referred to either by the names of minor tributaries, or, if they died in the same place, by the same name. The latter event occurs so extremely seldom that the Penan do not regard it as a possible source of confusion.

The other tribe, however, the Western Penan, express the same avoidance in a different way. When they refer to a dead person they use the term mukun. This normally means 'aged,' not merely 'old'; it implies weakness and decrepitude. This word is prefixed to a term indicating the relationship of the deceased to the speaker. Thus the word for a sibling is padi, and a person referring to a dead sibling speaks of 'Mukun Padi.' (This does not literally mean 'aged sibling,' which is padi mukun.) A parent's sibling is referred to as 'Mukun Vi,' and a cousin as 'Mukun Sak,' from [padi pe]sak, cousin. Other kin are referred to similarly, the term Mukun being prefixed to the kinship term of reference. All Penan are regarded as kin, and any dead person is known by such a term. The smallest deceased baby is also known as Mukun, without the literal mean- ing of 'aged' causing the Penan any sense of incongruity. The use of one term to refer to two persons in the same kinship category is said to lead to no confusion: if narrower identification is re- quired the deceased person can be specified by the river area in which he died or by his relationship to some living person.

I can offer no explanation why the tribes use different terms. The Western Penan do not recognize dulit as the equivalent of their mukun in referring to the dead; and the Eastern Penan use the word inukun merely to mean 'aged.' Why the Penan so avoid a dead person's name and fear his spirit is a complex matter of Penan religion that I cannot deal with here.

That a similar usage should be found at opposite ends of a cultural scale in south-east Asia, among Malay princely rulers and Bornean nomads, is a matter of some ethnological interest; but a sociological comparison seems likely to prove baffling and un- profitable. What is needed is information about the forms and principles of ways of referring to the dead among other peoples of Borneo.

References

W. E. Maxwell, 'The History of Perak from Native Sources,' J. R. Asiat. Soc., Malayan Branch, Vol. IX (1882), pp. 85-Io8.

W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, London, I900. R. J. Wilkinson, 'An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary,'

LondoIn, I948.

The Bektashi in the District of Strumica (Macedonia). By ProfessorMiletuko S. Filipovic, Uniiversity of Belgrade 7 There are still considerable numbers of Turks in the District of Strumica, although many emigrated to

Turkey after the Balkan Wars, 19I2-19I3, and after the First WorldWar, 19I4-I9I8. The Strumica Turks are not, however, homogeneous, but are composed of two main groups. The first, and more significant, is represented by the Yourouks, inhabiting several villages on the southern slopes below Mt. Ograzden. This group of villages is therefore known as Yourouklouk. In Mt. Elenica, whiclh is merely a peak of Mt. Belasica, there are also two Yourouk villages (&epeli and Zle6evo), but these belong to the Doiran Yourouk zone. The second Turkish group in the district of Strumica are the Citaks, the Turks in the villages in the Strumica Plain and between the two Yourouk zones. The Yourouks accuse the Citaks of being descendants of Islamized Slavs. There are indeed some differences in dialect and in way of life: the Yourouks were previouslv nomadic herdsmen, and the Citaks settled farmers. A special Turkish group among the Citaks are the Bektashi in the following villages: Banjsko, Svidovica, and Makrijevo in the region of Podgorija, beneath the northern slopes of Mt. Belasica. The village of Svidovica is their centre.' Although members of this group form a community merely on the basis of their sectarian principles and practices, they are treated in this region also as a separate ethnic group, and not without reason, since they differ from other Turks in the District

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JANUARY, I954 Man No. 7

of Strumica in both their origins and their ways of life. It may be added that there are many Bektashi in the village of Zleovo (District of Radoviste).

The Bektashi are a well-known Muslim dervish order, founded, according to their own tradition, which is known also among the Strumica Bektashi, by Hadji Bektash (in the fourteenth century); the written records of the order, however, date only from the sixteenth century.

In Bektashi tradition are to be found Sufi ideas on the basic equality of all denominations and on the worthlessness of all external cult activities. Protected by dervishhood, many Christian, gnostic and heathen elements have been preserved among them. The Bektashi usually claim to be Sunnites, but, in so far as they can in general be held to be adherents of Islam, they are in fact ardent Shiites and worship Ali.2 The order was in its time closely connected with the Janissary organization. Among the Balkan Muslims the Bektashi order had most adherents in Albania. Even today there are many Bektashi in Albania. It is significant that the Bektashi in Albania have latterly ceased to be considered adherents of Islam and are regarded as an independent denomina- tion. It is not difficult to explain how Bektashism spread so widely in Albania. The Janissary army and the Bektashi order were formally abolished, in i826, but the abolition could be enforced only in Istanbul and in provinces where the Turkish central government had direct authority and power, and Albania remained outside such territory. The authority of the central Turkish government was already quite insignificant at that time in Albania, and the Bektashi there continued their existence and activity completely undisturbed. Bektashism in Albania probably did much to create and preserve the remarkable religious toler- ance which is so peculiar to the Albanians. It is probable that Bektashism spread from Albania among the Muslims in Macedonia itself, especially in more recent times, and probably also among other Muslims in Yugoslavia.

There were many dervishes among the Turks in the District of Strumica, most of whom belonged to the Melami and Halveti orders, while the Bektashi lived only in the villages mentioned and in the town of Strumica. The other Turks condemn the Bektashi, considering them not to be orthodox Muslims, and the Bektashi do the same in regard to other Turks. While all the Turks in Svidovica are Bektashi, there are both Bektashi and Melami adherents in Makrijevo and Banjsko. But not every Turk considering himself a Bektashi is necessarily a genuine Bektashi, since even among those observing the Bektashi religious principles and rituals there are only a few Bektashi dervishes actually ordained in the order by the prescribed ritual. In I93 5 only about 30 such dervishes were to be found in Svidovica. As I have been told by them, only men of genuine devotion and charity enter the order as dervishes, since a Bektashi dervish must live strictly in accordance with the rules of the order which demand a high standard of honour. In I935 there was only one such genuine Bektashi (dervish) in Makrijevo, but all the Turks in this village observe the fast in the month of Moharrem-and this is one of the chief characteristics of the Bektashi-in addition to the fast in the month of Ramazan. Several aged people in the Yourouk village of Amzali, where there are no Bektashi, also observe the Moharrem fast.

The Bektashi dervishes in Svidovica claim that the Bektashi are the oldest dervish tarik (order), all the remaining orders being merely branches of it. They say also that the Bektashi originate from the Inkiaronlar, i.e. from the Christians in Constantinople before its capture by the Turks.

The ceremony of ordination in Svidovica involves offering a sacrifice (kurban), consisting of a ram at least three years old. The Strumica Bektashi take pride in this, since-so they assert-

among the Melami a cock can be used for sacrifice, and the ordination may even take place without sacrifice.

The Svidovica Bektashi informed me that the headquarters of their order was in 'Antep' (perhaps the town of Ghazi Anteb in Asia Minor), and that the nearest local Bektashi centre was at Maya Dagh, a large Turkish village south of the town of Gevgeli (the village is actually in Greece). However, the main Bektashi tekke for the Eastern Vardar area and the District of Strumica is at gtip. It is to be emphasized that the Bektashi in the District of Strumica also revere the Bektashi saint, Sari Saltik, who is wor- shipped especially by the Bektashi in Albania and in parts of Yugoslavia adjacent to Albania.

The Bektashi are distinguished from other Muslims by the fact that they worship the saints Hasan and Husain, the sons of Ali the Imam (Azreti Ali). Consequently, they are representatives of Shia Islam in Yugoslavia.

According to the Bektashi tradition, both Hasan and Husain were murdered after horrible torture: Hasan was poisoned, and Husain beheaded. Their executioners tortured themn especially by not allowing them to drink water. In memory of that torture the Bektashi fast for the first I2 days in the month of Moharrem and during that period do not drink water even at night and use as a beverage only sherbet or buttermilk. The Melami assert that the Bektashi drink buttermilk even during the daytime when fasting. When fasting in Moharrem the Bektashi do not arrange any entertainment. When the fast is over-and this is the only fast considered compulsory for the genuine Bektashi-they prepare, first in the local tekke, the arife feast, and later separate families prepare the arife in their own homes if they so wish. The ashure has to be prepared for the arife: a little of each kind of grain, mostly of wheat, is taken and boiled together. Both the Imam and the attendants pray collectively and perform the duva, the prayer, then they dine and divide the ashure with other families. The arife is prepared on three other occasions yearly.

Unlike other Muslims, the Bektashi in the District of Strumica do not eat the flesh of cocks or rabbit. While other Muslims are obliged to bathe the whole body after sexual intercourse, the Bektashi teach that it is sufficient to wash the sexual parts. The Bektashi believe that it is permitted to drink alcoholic beverages; they drink spirits but not wine. I have been told in Makrijevo that there are two kinds of Bektashi: those drinking spirits (called Bektashi Shabani) and those abstaining from them. The Bektashi did not so strictly observe the custom of female seclusion and veiling as th6 other Turks in the same region (veiling has recently been prohibited by law in Yugoslavia). They held that women could also be dervishes. Such women do not avoid the company of male dervishes and meet together with them for prayer and conversation. The other Turks accuse the Bektashi of not praying in mosques, although they have mosques in their villages; the tekkes are their main places of worship.

Bektashism further contains some Christian traits which include the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and a form of communion and confession. In the District of Strumica the Bektashi observe some rituals and customs in the same way as the Slavs in that region. Primarily they celebrate Badnik, Christmas Eve. In Turkish times (before I9I2) every Bektashi used to fire shots on that day. The head of each household visits his cattle on Christmas Eve, carrying an axe and, threatening his sheep with it, asks whether they will breed. He goes also to his barn asking whether it will fill itself with grain. Another man, accompanying him, asks him not to kill the sheep, as they will breed, and affirms that grain will be abundant. On that day they prepare cakes, and a cake (kolak) is put on the ploughshare, and walnuts are brought out, as among the Orthodox peasants. The Bektashi also celebrate New Year's Day (i January) in the same way as the Orthodox Slavs. They also

II

No. 7 Man JANUARY, I954

celebrate Krklar (Turkish: forty, in the Orthodox Church the day of 40 Martyrs, on 9 March old style): they do not work, they visit friends, arrange picnics and the like. The Bektashi, except the ordained dervishes, go on that day to the river. Three days later they celebrate Sultan Mejruzlar (i.e. Nevruz, the Persian New Year's feast, but postponed for two days); no work is done on this day either. On Maundy Thursday or Good Friday the Bektashi in Svidovica and Makrijevo prepare Easter eggs, dyeing them only in one colour. These are given to children. St. George's day (Adrlez) is an important holiday with the Bektashi when they gather from the villages, men and women in separate groups. On St. George's Eve women take an earthenware vessel to the spot where they intend to gather, filling it with water. Each woman then places in the vessel as many flowers as there are members of her family, marking each flower. The next day, after the midday meal, they sing, and each woman takes out her flowers and wears them for some time. Those who wish take water from the vessel and sprinkle sheep in order that mosquitoes may not bite them. On St. George's Day everybody weighs himself. The Bektashi also observe St. Demetrius' day (Kasum, Kasim, 26 October old style) as a holiday, when they prepare a festive supper; it is customary to visit the village sheikh on that day. Such a visit is called ziyaret (visit, pilgrimage).

These numerous correspondences with neighbouring Orthodox Slavs in the performance of rituals and customs can be explained only by assuming that the ancestors of the Strumica Bektashi, in so far as they were not immigrants, were islamized autochthonous Slavs who retained certain of their old customs and beliefs. This was not difficult as they came under the influence of the Bektashi, known as friendly towards Christians and having both in their religious tolerance and their doctrine much in common with them. It may be mentioned that the Citak dialect contains many Slavonic elements.

Tekke are the main meeting places of the Bektashi. They had a tekke, in Banjsko close to the thermal springs, which was destroyed in the Balkan wars (I9I2-I9I3). A turbe (mausoleum) still exists in the same village. In the mausoleum the body of Ismail-baba is preserved. According to tradition, he died while sitting on Iuka (hill) and looking at the fair below Banjsko. Tradition says that Ismail-baba came from the town of Doiran, lived in a tent 'like a Turkoman' and died some I20-I5o years ago (recorded in 1932). After his death a pasha came to the village; when the pasha saw Ismail-baba's body a flame rose from it. The pasha had the mausoleum built for Ismail-baba and he also founded the tekke with a hospice for travellers. Others say that Ismail-baba appeared in a dream to the kadi (judge) of Doiran, and that the kadi erected the mausoleum. Every evening a candle is lighted in the mausoleum and fresh water with a towel is brought in. The sick, looking for help from the dead sheikh, bring and deposit in the mausoleum kerchiefs, money, animals, etc., as offerings.

It is related that Ismail-baba was a Bektashi and this is actually a Bektashi tekke. I had no opportunity of learning by whom the tekke was founded, but Professor Tihomir R. Djordjevic recorded, in Strumica, that the tekke in Banjsko was founded by Sinan-baba, originally from Albania. The last sheikh in the tekke was Mehmed- baba, who died about 19I3; he was preceded by Moharrem-baba Arnaut (i.e. Albanian), about I870. Moharrem-baba was perhaps a descendant of Sinan-baba.

Banjsko, a village which is remarkable for its very hot springs, was a significant place in earlier times, but is now unimportant. The village possessed remarkable Muslim buildings, connected with the name of Messi-pasha, who was, according to local tradition, a son or brother-in-law of the famous Ghazi Evrenos Bey, an early Ottoman ghazi (buried at Yenidje Vardar, in Greece). There were also some Christian places of worship.

There are many stories about an ancient monastery close to the thermal springs, but that place is actually within the borders of the village of Gabrovo. The brook, Klisse Deresi (i.e. Church Brook), runs through the village, and people tell that close to the brook there once existed a church dedicated to the Forty Martyrs, and that another church, that of St. Theodore, respected also by the Turks, was on the plain below the village. The village suffered from a plague and the church was ruined at that time. I mention and stress these legends, since the Bektashi are especially known for the fact that they frequently settled close to ancient places of worship, adopting them in that way, and it is most likely that the same occurred in Banjsko: Bektashi tekke and the mausoleum succeeded ancient Christian sanctuaries. From this point of view it is very significant that Christians in the District of Strumica believe that Ismail-baba, who is buried in the maus- oleum, was really St. Charalambos, a saint much esteemed in Strumica. They believe that a monastery of St. Charalambos existed in earlier times on the site of the mausoleum and so they bring to the mausoleum offerings dedicated to St. Charalambos.

Several turbe (mausolea) existed round the village of Svidovica: Ali-baba, Kara-baba, Ziimbiil-baba (a woman!), Durgut-baba, Aljo-baba, Dervish Ibrahim-baba, and one anonymous turbe. All these have been destroyed except that of Ali-baba. Ali-baba is said to have come from Kutahia in Asia Minor, and Durgut from Durgut (perhaps also in Asia Minor). Dervish Ibrahim-baba was from Albania. The other babas were natives of the region. The Bektashi gather at Ali-baba's turbe on St. George's on Krklar's (Forty Martyrs) and on Nevruz Days.

Only a few of the former Turkish residents remained in Banjsko. It is significant that among them is a family of Albanian origin, from the region of Ljuma. In I93I, in Svidovica, I met the Bektashi sheikh Hussein, aged 85, whose great-grandfather, Dervish Ibrahim, came from Alb-ania. Seven families in the villages trace their origin from him. There is also a family of Albanian origin in Makrijevo. Families of Albanian origin are also to be found in Strumica and in other places. The Kargali family, who ruled for some time in the nineteenth century in Strumica and its vicinity, was also of Albanian origin.

The ties between Albania and Albanians on the one hand, and the Strumica population on the other, were very strong until I9I2.

The Albanians came to know the Eastern Vardar area first as herdsmen coming with their herds for winter pasture there. The wanderings of these herdsmen stimulated Albanian robber bands to make frequent incursions, while others infiltrated as servants and village policemen and remained as settlers. As I have shown, this Albanian immigration started in the eighteenth century. These data prove at least that the Strumica Bektashi had close connexions with the Albanian Bektashi, if indeed Bektashism itself did not come from that country. But it is most likely that Bektashi existed in regions of the Eastern Vardar even before the Albanians started-in the eighteenth century-to come and settle in the area: the Turkish traveller, Evliya Chelebi, in the middle of the seventeenth century, tells of the existence of a Bektashi tekke near Dupnica in Bulgaria (not far from Strumica). Meanwhile the main difftusion of the Bektashi and their survival during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was doubtless under influence from Albania, which is their refuge in the Balkans. There were certainly Bektashi among the Albanians who immigrated in to Macedonia and they were followed by the Bektashi dervish missionaries, who found a very fertile soil for their propaganda work among the population recently converted to Islam and Turkicized in the villages below Mt. Belasica. We may assume that the landlords (Kargali and several other Albanians) actually invited and assisted Bektashi dervishes to settle there.

I2

JANUARY, I954 Man Nos. 7, 8

Notes IDealing with the spread of the Bektashi in general, F. W.

Hasluck, one of the best authorities on Islamic life in ancient Turkey, mentionis only the Bektashi tekke with Ismail-baba's grave

in the neighbourhood of Strumica; he learned of it from an Albanian dervish (Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, Oxford, I929, Vol. II, p. 525.)

2Tshudi, s. v., Bektash, in Encyclopddie des Islam, Vol. I, pp. 720f.

REVIEWS AMERICA

The Comanches, Lords of the South Plains. By Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel. Norman (U. of Oklahoma P.), I952.

8 Pp xvii, 38I, I9 plates, map. Price $5 Wallace and Hoebel have made an important contri-

bution to the literature on North American tribes. Here in one compact volume is an all-round description of the Comanches, the people who dominated the Southern Plains for a good I50 years. The authors declare that their purpose has been 'to present in a single piece the salient facts of Comanche history and culture in a way that will satisfy the interests and curiosity of the general reader and also the anthropologist and the historian.' They have used in- formation from many sources: their own field work, published and unpublished data collected by other investigators, and published and unpublished historical documents. Historian and anthropologist have collaborated to good purpose.

They recount how the Comanches emerged from amongst other Shoshonean-speaking peoples to develop into one of the great tribes of the Plains, horsemen without peers, raiders and warriors who ventured far into Mexico and held the frontier against French- and English-speaking colonists. Then they describe the culture of these people as it existed in the great days of the tribe. Technology, economic organization, recreation, the life cycle of the individual, religion, kinship, government, law, and warfare-each receives due attention. Two final chapters complete the story. One traces the wars with the whites which ended in disastrous defeat after the buffalo had been shot out and the large Comanche herds of horses had been destroyed by United States troops. Another describes the bitter years of life upon the reservation when the Comanches turned to the Peyote cult for consolation. The authors close their account with the alienation of the reservation in I907, for 'The Comanches had entered the White Man's Road. They were Lords of the Southern Plains no longer.'

The Comanches were aberrant among the tribes inhabiting the Great Plains in the nineteenth century in that they never developed a single tribal unit into which the various bands were integrated. Perhaps we should be grateful for this, since we here for the first time have a good discussion of the organization of a Plains band. Writers on tribes with a central political organization have concen- trated their attention on this and given us little or nothing on the organization of the smaller units or bands of which the tribes were composed.

The common Plains tribal pattern was one of a fluctuating num- ber of semi-autonomous bands which gathered together during the summer months in one large encampment. During the period of the summer camp, the tribe engaged in the communal hunt for buffalo and also carried out large-scale rituals such as the Sun Dance which dramatized the unity of the tribe as a whole. The men of the various bands were brought together in military societies which usually had political functions. They policed the communal hunt, main- tained order in the large encampment, and had official duties during the tribal rituals. The police function rotated among the societies.

When winter approached, and it became impossible for many people with their horses to remain together, the camp broke up into its constituent bands which wandered off to pass the winter in sheltered spots. The Comanches had none of this superstructure of the summer tribal gathering. 'The tribe consisted of a people who had a common way of life. But that life did not include political institutions or social mechanisms by which they could act as a tribal unit. There was in the old days no ceremonial occasion or economic enterprise that pulled all the far-flung bands together for a spell, be it ever so brief There was no chieftain or group of

chieftains to act for the tribe as a whole. There was no tribal council' (p. 22). Instead the Comanche were organized only into family groups and bands. They lacked the formal military societies, and they appear not to have had any arrangement to police the com- munal hunt and see that its rules were obeyed. The bands seem to have come together for the first time in i875 when the Comanches organized their first Sun Dance in an attempt to obtain power to overthrow the whites who had defeated them.

Wallace and Hoebel seem prepared to trace the absence of the tribal organization, of military societies, and of police sanctions against violation of the rules of the communal hunt to the Sho- shonean background of the Comanche. They comment, 'Ralph Linton has suggested that a superabundance of bison on the Southern Plains made formal police sanctions functionally unnecessary for the Comanches; however, the historical evidence cited earlier indicates that food was not always easily come by. However this may be, it is quite evident that the Comanches felt no need to make a crime of the violations of the rules of the communal hunt. Furthermore, unlike the other Plains tribes, who felt the need and also had an admirably suited mechanism at hand for fulfillment of the need, the Comanches with their Shoshonean background possessed no military societies. They let the matter ride' (p. 235).

I am not at all certain that all Plains tribes which had military societies in the nineteenth century had anything in their backgrounds which made them susceptible to the idea. The Comanches, from evidence in this book, seem to have been capable of a considerable degree of organization when this was necessary. Each band had its officials. These were the peace chiefs who seem to have been the heads of the family groups. One was recognized as head chief of the band while the rest acted as his counsellors. 'An important peace chief had his personal herald or camp crier, who served as the chief's mouthpiece in announcing the daily news and comments of the chief. Each chief kept a staff of young men to serve him as aides and counselors' (p. 2I2f.). The council of chiefs considered such matters as 'moving the camp, undertaking a tribal [sic!] war, making peace, seeking an alliance with other tribes for the purpose of pro- ceeding to war against a common enemy, the selection of the time and place of the summer hunt, community religious services, the disposition of spoils belonging to the band (but not of spoils acquired by a raiding party), the allocation of supplies to widows and the needy, and the regulation of trade with outsiders' (p. 2I5). Each band also had its war chiefs.

Now it seems feasible that there were perfectly good reasons why the Comanches did not develop the summer tribal unit complete with military societies and legal penalties for infringement of the hunt rules. In the Northern Plains, winter conditions were severe, and only small bands could persist as units. The summer buffalo hunt was of prime importance for provisioning the people for the year. The herds, more concentrated in the north than in the south, offered a focus for the efforts of many bands, drawing them close together. Possibly the winter bands were too small to undertake successfully a large-scale communal hunt on their own, and larger units also offered greater protection against the raids of outsiders. But with the drawing together of a large number of different bands, some political organization that countered band loyalties was necessarv. The summer tribal organization with its military societies was the answer. Members of the societies were recruited in such a way that each society was composed of men drawn from various bands, and the men of each band were divided amongst the different societies. As members of the societies, they acted as officials of the tribal unit, and their punishment of offenders against tribal rules

I3