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badly had not re-inforcements arrived in time on the field from Fort Mohave which had just been established upon the recommendation of Lieutenant AW. Whipple who was the first regular officer to bring the Mohaves into notice by publishing some curious details of their customs and idioms. 
Customs of the Mahhaos.
The [[government??]] of the Mahhaos is hereditary - a duality composed of the War and Peace Chiefs. In times of peace the last is supreme, a sort of reigning legislative power.
War once resolved upon and declared, however, the War Chief becomes the untramelled and absolute executive power whose mandates must be obeyed unquestioningly.
In war as well as in peace the deliberations and conclusions of a permanent Senate - composed of the old and experienced men of the tribe materially influence the decisions of either chieftain. 
The tribe is divided into small bands, each under its own Captain, feudal barons without Magna Charta, owing blind obedience to the head chief ruling at the time. 
These bands - large families whose strength depends upon the number of their relatives - generally abide together in small villages apart from one another - very much like the States in the Union minus the doctrine of State sovereignty.
These villages are composed of winter and summer huts, as shown in the sketch, in each of which a family abides. Although the customs of the Mahhaos warrant polygamy it is but seldom practiced, many squaws having lived with the man of their choice for some thirty or forty years and raised large families of children who grow up around them. 
As a rule these squaws are chaste, prostitution existing only of late years