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Primitive Marriage: An Enquiry into the Origin of the Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies

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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

BOOK IS ONR OF A COLLECTION MADE BY

THIS

BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919

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Cornell University Library

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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924101874190

PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE.

PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE

AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF THE FORM OF CAPTURE IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.

BY JOHN

F.

M'LENNAN,

M.A.,

ADVOCATE.

EDINBURGH: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK. 1865.

PREFACE.

In the course of some

which

.inquiries

I

had been making into the early history of civil society, the

of the

Form

Ceremonies

of

fell

to

meaning and origin

Capture in

Marriage

be investigated.

The

subject being in itself curious, as well as

obscure, and one which has never Jiitherto,

so far as

I

am

aware, been handled,

venture to lay the result of

my

I

investi-

gation before the public, hoping that

it

may to some extent interest by its novelty. To the philosophic reader, I humbly submit tific

my

little

history.

book as an exercise If I

am

right in

in scien-

my

con-

— PREFACE.

vi

elusions as to the origin of the symbol of

my

capture,

essay must be accepted as

throwing new light on the primitive

For

will

it

peculiar to

be seen that the symbol

currence

is

;

and the frequency of

incline to believe

some time

where. into

or

it

—that the phase

originated existed,

almost

other,

Indeed, so far as

early

tended,

I

its oc-

such as strongly to suggest

of society in which at

not

any of the families of mankind.

and Semitic

I

is

once Indo-European, Turanian,

It is at

what

state^

social

my

every-

inquiries

phenomena have

ex-

have found such similarity, so

many

correspondences, so

in the

forms of

life

much sameness

prevailing

among

the

races usually considered distinct, that

have come to regard

the

I

ethnological

differences of the several families of

man-

PREFACE. kind as of

little

vii

or no weight compared

with what they have in common.

most that can be attributed rences

(Xhe

to those diffe-

that they have affected the rate

is,

of development of the families, and the character of the development

some of

its

secondary aspec^

Apart from the the

Form

in

itself,

interest attaching to

of Capture as pointing out

what most probably wa s the primitive Torrn of human association^ it_will be

fomi3'ToTiave an important bearing on several

social

problems

which

have

hitherto

remained

that the

most important portions of

work

are

unsolved.

I

think

my

Chapters VIII. and IX., in

which the solution of some of these problems will

is

attempted.

be seen, are

These chapters,

it

strictly pertinent to the

PREFA CE.

viii

main subject of

In order to

inquiry.

Form

of

Capture among endogamous peoples,

it

explain the appearance of the

was necessary that

examine

should

I

the systems of kinsh ip which ancie ntly prevailed,

and

their

on

influence

structure of the primitive groups to obtain a true

view of the

,

the

so as

rise of ca ste

and o fendogamy.^ ought to mention

I

cases,

have

I

much

had

ascertaining the proper

For

instance,

that,

in

difficulty

names of

Munniepore

is

In every such case

I

glace.

have

I

cite in

places.

Manni-

have followed

the authority which I have had

quent occasion to

in

sometimes

written Munipur, and sometimes poor.

some

most

fre-

regard to the

have farther to notice, that

discarded

the

use of

I

the signs

PREFACE.

"_.'"', and

so on,

ix

commonly em-

ployed to indicate the orthoepy of foreign words.

Such signs

unlearned learned

;

are of no use to the

and, in the run of cases, the

may be presumed

their assistance.

not to require

Besides,

I

have not

found much agreement, among writers, in the use of such signs.

mayana,

The word RaRdmdy-

for example, is written

ana by Professor Monier Williams, Ra-

mayana by Dr. Muir, and Rdm^yana by Professor

Max

Miiller.

simply Ramayana,

I

In writing

it

follow Mr. Tagore, '

Vivada

as

in the

in his recent translation of the

Chintamani,' in which work,

present, the signs referred to are wholly

discarded.

Edinburgh, Jan.

6,

1865.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER

I.

Page

Legal Symbolism and Primitive Life

CHAPTER The Form

of the

Form

On

19

III.

of Capture

CHAPTER

5

II.

of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies

CHAPTER The Origin

-

43

IV.

the Prevalence of the Practice of Capturing

Wives, de facto

59

CHAPTER Of the Rule

V.

against Marriage between

bers of the of- this rule

same Tribe

mem-

— Of the coincidence

with the Practice of Capturing

Wives, de facto, and with the Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies

93

CONTENTS.

xii

CHAPTER

VI. Faoe

On

-

-

132

Exogamy its Origin Comparative Archaism of Exogamy and Endogamy

136

the State of Hostility

CHAPTER

VII.



:

CHAPTER

VIII.

Ancient Systems of Kinship, and their Influence

on the Structure of the Primitive Groups

CHAPTER The Decay

of

Exogamy

CHAPTER Conclusion

-

...

IX.

266

X.

-

-

151

287

APPENDIX. Note

A.

—Additional

of Capture

Note B.— On the for

Wives

-

Examples of the Form -

-

.

.

293'

Practice of Capturing Women -

-

.

.

302

CHAPTER

I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Legal Symbolism and Primilive

The

Life.

chief sources of information rega rd-

ing the early history of c ivil society a re, first,

th e study of races in

condition

;

t heir

primitive

and, second, the study of the

symbols employed by advanced nation s in the constitution rights. 'gether,

or exercise of

civil

From these studies pursued we obtain, to a large extent,

to-

the

phenomena

power of classifying

social

more or

and thus of connect-

less archaic,

ing and arranging stages of

None

in

their

as

order the

human advancement. of the usual methods of his-

torical inquiry

conduct us back to forms B

LEGAL SYMBOLISM of

life

many that our own times.

so nearly primitive as

have come down into

The

geological record, of course, exhibits

races as rude as

any now

haps even more

so,

living,

but then

farther than to inform us ate,

some it

per-

goes no

what food they

what weapons they used, and what

was the character of

More than

this

was not

from that record, nature

to

those aspects of

philosopher

for

preserve

ornaments.

their

to be expected

was not

in

its

any memorials

of

it

human

life

in

which the

chiefly interested

is

— of the

family or tribal groupings, the domestic

and

political

organisation.

Again, the

by philology

as to the civil

facts disclosed

condition of the Indo-European race before its dispersion

quarters,

— the

from

earliest,

considered, which

we

its

original head-

chronologically

possess respecting

the social state of mankind,

—cannot be

AND PRIMITIVE said to

LIFE.

us anything of the origin or

tell

early progress of civilization.

Assuming

the correctness of the generalization by

which philologers have attempted construct

the

Aryans,

we

known

date

dition,

of

find

of

the

that people, at an un-

dawn

the

before

of

tra-

occupying nearly the same point

advancement as that now occupied

by the

pastoral hordes of Kirghiz Tar-

and leading much the same

tary,

of

economy

social

to re-

sort

They had marriage laws

life.

re-

gulating the rights and obligations of

husbands and wives, of parents and dren

;

they recognised the

through both parents flocks

and herds,

in

;

ties of

chil-

blood

they had great

defence of which

they often did battle, and they lived under

a patriarchal government with monarchical

features.

time ago

It is

—a

interesting

we should have

short

said surprising

LEGAL SYMBOLISM



to find that such progress

But

early made.

had been so

in all other respects this

so-called revelation of philology is void of

Those Aryan

instruction.



-to

institutions are

use the language of geology

pliocene, separated

—post-

by a long interval from

the foundations of civil society, and throw-

ing back upon them no light. laws, agnatic relationship,

vermnent,

me nt,

hel ongf, in the

to recent

For the

Marriage

and kingly go-

order of deve lop-

t imes.

features of primitivejife,

we

must look, not to tribes of the Kirghiz type, but to those of CentraLAiricaJiiejwilds of I

'

America, the hillsoflndia, and the islands QfjHeTac ificiwith some of

whom we find

marriage laws unknown, the family system undeveloped, and even the only acknowledged

blood-relationship

mothers.

These

sense, the

most ancient

that through

facts of to-day are, in a

history.

In the

AND PRIMITIVE

LIFE.

sciences of law and society, old

means not

old in chronology, but in structure: that, is

most archaic which

lies

nearest to the

beginning of human progress considered as a development,

and that is most modern

which

removed from that be-

is

farthest

ginning.

And

since the historical nations were

so far advanced at the earliest dates to

which even philology can lead us back, the scientific investigation of the progress of

mankind must not first

of

deal with them, in the

instance, but with the very rude forms

life

still

existing,

and the rudest of

which we have accounts. The preface of general history must be compiled from the materials presented

we may abundant. So pily, if

say

by barbarism.

Hap-

so, these materials are

unequally has the species

been developed, that almost every conceivable phase of progress may be studied,

LEGAL SYMBOLISM

lo

somewhere observed and recorded. And thus the philosopher, fenced from mistake,

as

as to the order of development,

by the

in-

terconnection of the stages and their shad-

ing into one another by gentle gradations,

may draw

a clear and decided outline of

the course of

human

progress in times

long antecedent to those to which even philology can to philology;

make

All honour

reference.

but in the task of recon-

structing the past, to which

its

professors

declare themselves

to be devoted,

must be contented

to

they

act as assistants

rather than as principals.

We have said ral

that the preface of gene-

must be compiled from matepresented by barbarism. Some may

history

rials

account

it

illogical to prefix

a scheme of

early progress formed ties all,

on view of societhat have not yet advanced far, if at

from savagery,

to a

scheme of further

AND PRIMITIVE

LIFE.

ii

progress deduced from the written histories of nations whose origin and early training

we

are unacquainted with.

of

fact, it is

not

It is

so.

But, in point the best proof

—as well

of the propriety of such a course as of the continuity ter of

human

and uniform charac-

progress

— that we can

trace

everywhere, disguised under a variety of

symbolJcaLforms civilization,

in the higher layers -of

the rude

modes of

life

and

formi of law with which the examination of the lower

makes us

familiar.

Indeed,

were these remarks not merely general and introductory to the investigation of the origin of one particular symbol,

many

in-

stances of this correspondence between

higher and lower levels might be

the

show

cited, to

in

the

tive

light of a

life,

history.

that the

is

the

symbolism of law

knowledge of primi-

best

key

to

unwritten

LEGAL SYMBOLISM

12

Of

the value of that

symbolism

that reverence for the past to its

origin

—there

something

will

serve that, Wherever

we

that in the past

owes

it

be occasion to say

Meantime, we ob-

hereafter.

'bolical forms,

which

—of

we

discover sym-

are justified in inferring

of the people em-

life

ploying them, there were corresponding

among the primitive races which we examine, we find such realities realities |\and

as

if,

might naturally pass into such forms on

an advance taking place

we may

in civility, then

safely conclude (keeping within

the conditions of a sound inference) that

what these now

are,

those employing the

symbols once were.

made

History

is

thus

to ratify conclusions derived

from

the observation

of

rude tribes

such observation, again, nish the key to history.

many

is

made

;

while to fur-

of the enigmas of

AND PRIMITIVE LIFE. For

it

13

not as regards unwritten

is

history merely that the two sources of

information specified at the outset are of

Apart from the

importance. afforded

by the

minute

tests of truth

knowledge of

modes of life and their classification as more or less archaic, nothing could be more delusive than written his-

primitive

tory

Roman

In

itself.

Confarreatio has

venient, example,

foremost place

law, to take a con-

among

stituting marriage.

the

Usus

the

modes of conis

just

men-

tioned in the twelve tables, which contain

a provision against the wife coming into the

Manus

of her husband through Usus.

Coemptio does not appear of

Rome

of

it

at

earlier

all,

nor

is

in the old

there

law

any mention

than that by Gains.

But

it

can easily be shown that Usus and Co-

emptio come

first

Confarreatio later

;

in

order of age, and

that

is to say,

the two

LEGAL SYMBOLISM

14

former are more archaic than the

Yet have recent learned

latter.

writers, overlook-

ing this fact and the meaning of legal

symbolism, represented

Usus and Co-

emptio as forms invented and introduced

by the

Rome, whereby

legislators of

plebeians might have their wives in

the

Manu,

and enjoy the other advantages of Justae Nuptise

Usus

;

fictitious sale

as an invention

Coemptio as merely a

in

The

device of legislative ingenuity.

explanation

of

the

both Usus and the

Roman

law,

was not

that of the

is

and the

;

this

late

true

appearance of

fictitious sale in the

—that the law

at first

whole people but of a

limited aristocracy, who, with a Sabine

king and priesthood, adopted the Sabine religious

law

ceremony of marriage

long

totally

ignored

the

;

that the life

and

usages of the mass, and that their modes of marrying and giving in marriage be-

AND PRIMITIVE gan

and

to appear,

make

15

mark

their

only on the popular element

in the law, in the city

to

LIFE.

becoming of importance.

In-

stead of marriage per coemptionem being the

invention

of

legislators,

it

was of

spontaneous popular growth, and must

have been as old as the establishment of peaceful relations between tribes and fami-

All fictions, or nearly

lies.

germs

their

in facts

all,

became

;

have had

fictions or

merely symbolical forms afterwards. that the fictitious sale

was

And

originally an

actual sale and purchase, cannot be doubted

by any one who knows that marriage by form of actual

the

almost universally

sale

among

has prevailed

rude popula-

tions.

We how

see in the case of the

Roman

law

incomplete must necessarily be the

history of the law of a country, as written

on the face of

it.

The law

is at first

that of

LEGAL SYMBOLISM

i6

the dominant and presumably the most

vanced classes statesmen

beyond

When

;

its

—the

literates, warriors, and^

the rest of the pale,

ad-«

community

are

a law unto themselves.

the levelling processes, by which

the lower classes succeed in the long run in

acquiring rights more or less equal, have

gone on

for

some

time, then the ruder cus-

toms followed by them before and the

commencement

since

of the State appear in

a modified form in what

is

now

for the

time really becoming the law of the

first

people.

sume

Civility

seems suddenly to

the garb and the

the gutturals cesses are

and

air,

of barbarism

;

as-

to use

legal pro-

gone through with the

frantic

howls and gesticulations of armed Ojibe-j

ways

;

and while

all this, to

those

who

are

ignorant of primitive times, seems mere

pantomime, sometimes

silly,

some-

times odd, sometimes puzzling by

its in-

idle

AND PRIMITIVE those

to

tricacy,

who

LIFE.

are

17

prepared to

receive their suggestions, the forms

em-

ployed are pregnant with meaning and instruction,

^fortunately

all

the nations in

the world have not advanced in civility

pari passu ; and what

is

pantomime with

one people, we discern to be grimmest reality

Were

with another/

it

not for this

inequality of development, in what mysteries

would the history of the

enveloped!

What

Michelet

race be

the

calls

poetry of law would have to be received as such simply

;

as so

many

grotesqueries

or graces introduced into the ways of to

satisfy the popular fancy.

As

it

life is,

however, ^he so-called poetry of law, the symbolic forms that appear in a code or in

popular customs,

tell

us as certainly of the

early usages of a people, as the rings in the

transverse section of a tree

The

tell

of

its

ag^

Libripens, with his scales, ofh-

LEGAL SYMBOLISM. elating at a will or act of adoption, seemsi

out of place

;

but his presence

the source whence

illustratesj

ideas of formal dis-

all

positions were derived

—the

sale of fun-

So does an old form of process preserved by Gains the Legis Actio.

gibles.



Sacramenti of the

Romans

—prove

that

people to have been at one

cultivated

time in pari casu as regards the administration of justice with

we

many

races which

find ignorant of legal proceedings, and

dependent for the settlement of their

dis-

putes on force of arms or the good offices of neutral parties interfering as arbiters.

So

far,

briefly,

of the importance of

the symbolism of law and of the study of races in their primitive condition.

follows

is

an attempt

plification in a

new

at a practical

What exem-

direction of the aid

derivable from these sources in the task

of unveiling the past.

FORM OF CAPTURE.

CHAPTER The Form of Capture

19

II.

Marriage

in

Ceremonies.

In the whole range of legal symbolism there

is

no symbol more remarkable than

that of capture

—the origin to

marriage ceremonies

in

of which

investigate

— nor

it

is

far

we know,

as

extent to which

it

any

there

is

meaning of which has been

So

our purpose

less studied.

neither has

prevails been

the subject of inquiry

;

nor

its

indeed,

the

symbol could not

the

way

Greece or

to

But, naturally,

attention. in

occurrence

fail

to

of

the

some

did not

of the historians

Rome

made

signifi-

receive it

the

In two

cance the subject of thought. cases,

the

lie

of either

examine the matter

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

20

very minutely, or to follow up the sugges-

upon examination,

tions which,

it

might

have yielded, as to the early condition of the Dorians or Latins.

Accordingly,

the custom has been accepted as meaning

no more than Festus said

it

Romans, than Muller says the Spartans

Rome

;

did it

among the did amdng

as indicating nothing at

but the popular appreciation of the

good fortune of Romulus

in the rape of the

Sabines ;* as indicating, at Sparta, the feeling that a young render her

woman

freedom

" could not sur-

and virgin purity

unless compelled by the violence of the

stronger sex."t

It

surprising

is

that

writers so acute should have rested content with

such

their views should * Festus,

and

explanations,

have been so gene-

De Verborum

t Muller's " Dorians,"

that

Significatione

Book

iv.,

see "Rawlinson's Notes," Herod.,

c.

—Rapi.

iv.,

Book

sec. 2

vi.

65.

;

and

:

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. rally adopted.

shall

The

theory of Festus

21

we

have occasion to notice hereafter

of that of Muller

we can

we

observe that before

it,

we must suppose

entertain

that in the exceedingly lax

community

of

the Spartans, or at least within certain of the tribes

composing that community,

there had been an early period of austere virtue, the tradition of influential as to

which was

still

so

compel the Spartans to

observe in their marriages this custom

shadow of

as the

Now,

of the existence of such a period

of prudery

or

among

there

their former delicacy.

is

among

the ancient Dorians,

the Pelasgi, or the Achaeans,

not a

tittle

of evidence.

contrary, such evidence as to the

we

On

the

have, points

Lacedaemonian customs as having

been an improvement on ancient practice.

Savages are not remarkable

for

delicacy of feeling in matters of sex, and

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

22

who

the wandering hordes,

in succession

overran the Peloponessus, were no better

than savages when they

our observation.*

come under

first

Again, no case can be

cited of a primitive people

the seizure of brides

is

among whom

rendered neces-

On

sary by maidenly coyness. trary,

it

might be shown, were

the conit

worth

while to deal seriously with this view, that

women among

ally depraved,

rude tribes are usu-

and inured to scenes of

depravity from their earliest infancy. this state of the facts,

that

it

is

In

remarkable

any one should have been

satisfied

with so improbable an explanation. Rejecting, then, the primitive prudery

hypothesis, which requires for

its

basis

a declension from ancient standards of *

with

They were

whom

requiring

certainly as savage as the Khonds,

they agreed

human

sacrifices.

in

cultivating

a

religion

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.

.23

purity—of the existence of which we have no evidence we proceed to examine the



various phases in which the symbol of capture

is

presented.

We shall

find

it

in

places far from classic ground, and pointing, in all its varieties, so steadily to the

true theory of

exhibition of

its origin, its

that the

phases will lead

reader to anticipate

much

facts

what

is

with which

the

of what

have to say on the subject. to see

mere

we

In order

the precise state of the

we have

to deal,

it

is

necessary to say something of the nature of the symbol, and to adduce at

length such accounts of

it

as

we

some

find in

our authorities.

The symbol

of capture occurs when-

ever, after a contract of marriage,

it

is

necessary for the constitution of the rela-

husband and wife that the bridegroom or his friends should go through tion of

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

24

the form of feigning to steal the bride,

or carry her off from superior force.

her

The marriage

upon by bargain, and the

by

friends is

agreed

theft or

abduc-

tion follows as a concerted matter of form, to

make

then, of the presence of the

case is

that the capture

is,

The

valid the marriage.

is

symbol

test,

in

any

concerted, and

preceded by a contract of marriage.

there

is

no preceding

contract, the case

If is

one of actual abduction.

So

We its

far of the nature of the symbol.

proceed to examine the instances of occurrence.

That the form was ob-

served in the marriages of the Dorians,

and was, equally with site

betrothal, requi-

as a preliminary of marriage, rests

chiefly

on the authority of

and Plutarch.* dotus

is

Herodotus

The evidence

indirect,

and

is

of Hero-

contained

* MuUer's " Dorians," ut supra.

in

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.

25

the well-known passage in which he explains

how Demaratus robbed

Lestychides

whom

of his bride Percalus, to

he had

been htivoi\].td—forestalling him in carry-

The

ing her off and marrying her.*

was one of

actual

abduction

;

case

but the

language of Herodotus implies that

remained for

make Percalus

Lestychides,

in

order to

his wife, that he should

go through the form of carrying her

With

this

it

off.

must be conjoined the express

statement of Plutarch,! that the Spartan

bridegroom always carried

by feigned

violence.

violence ; but at the ,

,

that

the seizure

He

off the bride

says, indeed, by

same time he shews

was made by

concert between the parties.

friendly

These pas-

sages must be held sufficiently to prove that the

equally certain that

is

*

custom existed

"

Herodotus," B. vL, 65.

it

f

at

Sparta.

It

was observed " Life of

Lycurgus."

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

26

Rome,*

at

the

in

marriages

plebeian

which were not constituted by ConfarThe bridegroom reatio or Coemptio.

—the time agreed upon having arrived — invaded the house of the and his friends

with feigned

bride,

and carried

force

from the lap of her mother, or of

off the lady

her nearest female relation

the mother

The

were dead or absent. vividly described

if

seizure

by Apuleiusf

is

the

in

story of the Captive Damsel, in which

he

is

beian

understood to have had the ple-

form of marriage

lady, narrating off,

how

in view.

The

she had been carried

says that her mother having dressed

her becomingly in nuptial apparel, was

loading her with kisses, and looking for-

ward to a future

line of descendants,

* Festus, ut supra

App., Title

II.

t Apuleius,

book

— Rapi

:

when

Pothier, Pandectae,

xxiii.

de Asino Aureo, Book

iv.

etc.,

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.

27

on a sudden a band of robbers, armed rushed in with glittering

like gladiators,

made

swords,

chamber

straight for her

compact column, and, without any

in a

struggle or resistance whatever on the part of the servants, tore her

away

half

dead with fear from the bosom of her trembling mother. still

is

said

among do so, for we

to prevail to a great extent

the Hindus.* find

The custom

what must,

to be the

may well as we shall

It

show, be held

form of capture, prescribed as a

marriage ceremony to the Hindus in the Sutras.f

among the Khonds of Orissa. The marriage

It prevails

in the hill tracts

being agreed upon, a

feast, to

which the

families of the parties equally contribute, * M'Pherson's "Report upon the Khonds of the districts of

t

"

Weber.

Ganjam and CuUack,"

Indische

Studien,"

Berlin, 1862.

p.

p. 55.

325.

Calcutta, 1842.

Edited by Dr.

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

28

is

prepared at the dwelling of the bride.

"To "

the feast," says

Major M'Pherson,*

When

succeed dancing and song.

night

far spent, the principals

is

the

in the

scene are raised by an uncle of each upon shoulders,

his

dance.

and borne through the

The burdens

are

suddenly ex-

changed, and the uncle of the youth dis-

The assembly

appears with the bride. divides

into

two

parties

;

the friends of

the bride endeavour to arrest, those of the

bridegroom to cover her

women, and conflict,

lengths."

"

mingle

children,

which

On

is

flight,

and men, in

mock

often carried to great

one occasion," says Major-

General Campbell,! "

I

heard loud cries

proceeding from a village close at hand.

Fearing some quarrel, *

I

rode to the spot,

M'Pherson's " Report," ut supra.

t " Personal Narrative of Service, istan,''

1864,

p. 44.

etc., in

Khond-

— IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.

29

saw a man bearing away upon his back something enveloped in an ample covering of scarlet cloth he was surand there

I

;

rounded by twenty or thirty young

fel-

and by them protected from the desperate attacks made upon him by a

lows,

party of

young women.

On

explanation of this novel told that the

man had

seeking an

was

scene, I

just been married,

and his precious burden was his blooming bride, whom he was conveying to his

own

as, it

village.

appears,

is

Her

youthful friends

the custom

—were

seek-

ing to regain possession of her, and hurled stones and

bamboos

at the

head of the

devoted bridegroom, until he reached the confines of his

own

village.*

Then

the

The hurling of old shoes, etc., after the bridegroom among ourselves, may be a relic of a similar carrying It is a sham assault on the person custom. *

off the

lady

;

and

in default of

any more plausible

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

30

were turned, and the bride was

tables fairly

won

and

;

off her

young

friends

scampered, screaming and laughing, but not relaxing their speed their

own

presumed

village."

to prevail

till

they reached

The custom may be among the Koles, the

Ghonds, and the other congeners of the

Khonds

;

but

we

are without authority on

the subject.

According to capture the

is

De

Hell,* the form of

observed in the marriages of

noble or princely class

The

Kalmucks.

among

the

price to be paid for the

bride to her father having been fixed, the

bridegroom

sets out

on horseback, accom-

panied by the chief nobles of the horde

explanation, and

we know

of none such,

be considered as probable that

it is

it

may

fairly

the form of capture

in its last stage of disintegration.

Xavier Hommaire de Hell, "Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea." Lond. 1847, 259. *

P-

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. to "

which he belongs,

A

sham

to carry her

resistance

a

richly

describes it

caparisoned

feux de

horse,

with

loud

Dr. Clarke

Joie."

the ceremony differently, and

possible that

is

in spite of

not to be borne away on

fails

shouts and

ofif.

made

always

is

by the people of her camp,

which she

31

assumes

it

different

forms in the different nations of the Kal-

mucks.

among

"

The ceremony

marriage

the Kalmucks," he says,* "

A

formed on horseback.

mounted, who rides

Her

of

lover pursues

;

in

off if

girl

is is

full

perfirst

speed.

he overtakes her,

she becomes his wife, and the marriage

is

consummated on the spot returns with him to his

it

after this she

;

tent.

sometimes happens that the

woman

not wish to marry the person by

she

is

pursued

;

But

does

whom

in this case, she will not

* " Travels," etc., vol.

i.,

p.

433-

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

32

him

suffer

We

overtake her.

to

were

assured that no instance occurs of a Kal-

muck

girl

being thus caught, unless she

have a partiality to the pursuer.

If she

dislikes him, she rides, to use the language

of English sportsmen, until

she

has

'

neck or nought,'

completely effected

her

escape, or until her pursuer's horse be-

comes exhausted, leaving her return,

and

at liberty to

to be afterwards chased

some more favoured admirer." for a wife is never

undertaken

by

This

ride

till

after

the price for her has been fixed between the friends of the parties, the lover hav-

ing to pay for as well as to catch

The custom

her.

not mentioned in the ac-

is

count of the Kalmucks by Pallas, who

knew

of

their

by hearsay.

marriage

But

it

customs only

favours the

position that there are varieties

form

in

use

among

this

sup-

of the

people,

that

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. Bergman * what

De

describes the ceremony some-

differently

The

Hell.

from both Clarke and necessity for the appear-

ance of using force to

is satisfied,

Bergman, by the

according

act of putting the

bride by force upon horseback is

33

when she

about to be conducted to the hut pre-

pared for her by the bridegroom. indeed,

we

minimum Thus

in

find the

form reduced

And, to this

of pretence in not a few cases.

North Friesland,t a young fellow,

called the bride-lifter, lifts the bride

and

her two bridesmaids upon the

waggon

which the married couple are

to travel

in

to their

home.

Among

the

Tunguzes and Kamcha-

* Bergman's " Streifereien."

Riga 1804,

vol. 3, p.

145, ^/ seq.

Weinhold, pp. 250, 25 1 and see the other authorities for like cases noted by Dr. Weber, "Indische ,t

Studien," ut supra.

;

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

34

matrimonial engagement

dales, a

is

not

considered to be definitely concluded until the suitor has overcome his force,

and torn her clothes

beloved by

—the

maiden

being bound by custom to defend her to

liberty

the

utmost.

the

Bedouin Arabs

it

*

is

Also among necessary for

the bridegroom to force the bride to enter his tent.f

among

A

similar custom existed

the French, at least in

some

vinces, in the 17th century. J

In

pro-

all

the

cases just mentioned the form assumed

by the custom was analogous prescribed in

the

to the* rule

Sutras, where

it

was

provided that at a certain vital stage of

* "Travels in Siberia,"

Erman,

vol.

ii.,

p.

442—

1848 (Cowley's trans.)

t Burckhardt's

"

Notes on the Bedouins and Lond. 1830, vol. i., p. 108. \ " Marriage Ceremonies," etc., Gaya, 2d ed. Lond.

Wahabys."

1698, p. 30.

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.

35

the marriage ceremony, a strong

man and

the bridegroom should forcibly

draw the

bride and

make her

down on a

sit

red

ox-skin.*

There

is

good ground

that the form of capture

is

for believing

observed in

the marriage ceremonies of the Tartars.

muck

The

rule

Nogay

which prohibits a Kal-

bride from entering the

yurt of

her parents for a year or more after her marriage, and which

is

undoubtedly con-

nected with the form of capture,

among among the

vails

find the

the Nogais, as

does also

At any

Kirghiz.

custom

it

in the

pre-

rate,

we

Caucasus in the

immediate neighbourhood of the Nogais.

The form which

it

assumes among the

Circassians, indeed, closely resembles that

observed in ancient Rome. is

celebrated with

noisy

The wedding feasting

* " Indische Studien," ut supra.

and

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

36

midst of which the bride-

revelry, " in the

groom has

to rush in,

and with the help

young men, to carry off the lady by force; and by this process she becomes his lawful wife."* The cus-

of a few daring

tom

also

Wales.

in

prevailed

till

a recent

date

Lord Kamesf says that

the

following marriage ceremony was in his day, or at

had

least

till

shortly before

been customary among the Welsh.

morning of the wedding day,

the

On

"

the

bridegroom, accompanied with his friends

on horseback, demands the friends,

who

are likewise

Her

bride.

on horseback,

give a positive refusal, upon which a mock

The

scuffle ensues.

* Louis Moser, "

bride,

mounted

The Caucasus and

its

be-

People."

Lond. 1856, p. 31 and see Spencer's "Travels in Circassia." Lond. 1837, vol. ii. p. 375 and "Bell's Journal," vol. ii. p. 221. Lond. 1840. ;

;

f 6, p.

"

Sketches of the History of Man," Book

449.

Edin. 1807.

i.,

sec.

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. hind her nearest kinsman,

and

is

his

friends,

not

uncommon on

see

37

carried

is

ofif

pursued by the bridegroom and with loud shouts.

It

is

such an occasion to

two or three hundred sturdy Cambro-

Britons riding

and

jostling

ment of the

at

to

his bride.

When

spectators.

the bridegroom

He

and the scene

and

festivity."

is

amuse-

they have

their

away

in triumph,

concluded with feasting

Some

should have had from

the

we

such picture

De

Hell had he

expanded his account of the mock

among

horses,

suffered to overtake

leads her is

crossing

speed,

the no small

themselves

fatigued

and

full

scuffle

Kalmucks of the hordes of

the

bride and bridegroom.

We

have now found the custom

various parts of Europe and Asia occurs also

Lord

in

;

in it

Africa and in America.

Kames vouches D

for

the

custom

38

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

among

the

the

preliminaries

"When

Negroes.*

Inland

of

the

marriage are

adjusted, the bridegroom with a

number

of his companions set out at night and

surround the house of the bride as tending to carry her off by force

;

if in-

she and

her female attendants pretending to

make

possible resistance, cry aloud for help,

all

but no person appears." tions an incident

which he observed

Karague, and which sequel

to

says, " I

Spekef men-

may have been "

a capture.

At

in

the

night," he

was struck by surprise

to see a

long noisy procession pass by where

I sat,

by some men who carried on

their

led

shoulders

blackened

woman skin. On a

covered up

in

inquiry, however,

a I

heard she was being taken to the hut of * " Sketches," t

"

etc.,

ut supra.

Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the

Nile," 1863, p. 198.

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. where

her espoused,

bundling

she would be put to bed

but

;

with virgins they take so

39

fashion

it

much

only

is

trouble."

Traces of the custom are indeed frequently

met with

in Africa, but in so distinct

marked a form

as that mentioned

Kames, we have not found

it.

by Lord

His

lord-

He

ship has not given his authority.

merely

mentions the custom, however, for its singularity,

norance of

its

and apparently

connecting

itself

and

in ig-

with any

wide-spread practice of mankind, which

demanded

investigation.

Among the

pri-

mitive races throughout the whole continent of

America

capture (that significance,

is,

traces of the

form of

customs seemingly of no

except in the light of this

form) are of frequent occurrence.

Among

the people of Tierra del Fuego, however, the form itself appears almost in perfection.

"

As

soon," says Captain Fitzroy,

THE FORM OF CAPTURE

40

Speaking of the Fuegians,* able to maintain a wife

" as

by

in fishing or bird-catching,

a youth

is

his exertions

he obtains the

consent of her relations, and does

some

piece of work, such as helping to

make

a canoe, or prepare seal-skins, her parents.

canoe for

Having

himself,

opportunity,

and

etc.,

for

built or stolen a

he watches for an

carries

off

his

bride.

If she is unwilling she hides herself in

the woods, until her admirer tired of

is

heartily

looking for her, and gives up

the pursuit, but this seldom happens."

These are among the best marked

in-

Form with which we are acThe instances fix our attention

stances of the

quainted.f

* " Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle." ii.,

p.

182

;

Vol.

1839.

t The reader will find in the Appendix A, a marked example of the Form, occurring in Ireland, and several other examples occurring elsewhere,

IN MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. especially

41

upon a few geographical points;

But nothing

by

in nature stands

Each example

of the

Form

itself.

leads us to

contemplate a great area over which the

custom once prevailed, just as a fish in

fossil

rock on a hill-side forces us to con-

ceive of the whole surrounding country

as at one time under water.

Were we

enumerate and examine

the customs

which seem

to

all

to

us connected with the

Form, we should be

led into discussions

foreign to our purpose, and there would

be few primitive races with which

should that the

not

have to

Form which

Suffice

deal.

we it,

of old appeared so

well defined in the peninsulas

of Italy

and Greece, may be traced thence, on the one hand, northwards through France

and

Britain,

south-westwards

which the author has not thought corporate in the text.

it

through

necessary to

in-

42

THE FORM OF CAPTURE, and

Spain,

Prussia

;

north

-

eastwards

ETC.

through

on the other hand, northwards

through ancient Thessaly and Macedonia, into the

mountainous regions on the Black

Sea and the Caspian form which

is

;

perfect

mucks shades away

again,

among

into faint

that

the

the Kal-

and

fainter

traces throughout almost all the races of

the Mongolidae

;

that

we may assume

of frequent occurrence

unquestionably was of America;

that

in Africa,

among it

occurs

as

the red

among

it it

men the

may be assumed to have been common among the aboriginal inHindus, and

habitants of the plains of India, of

we have Khonds

whom

a well-preserved specimen in the of Orissa.

THE ORIGIN OF FORM OF CAPTURE.

CHAPTER

43

III.

THE ORIGIN OF THE FORM OF CAPTURE.

The

question

now

arises,

meaning and what the

mony

what

is

the

origin of a cere-

so widely spread, that already on

the threshold of our inquiry, the reader

must be prepared

to find

it

connected

with some universal tendency of mankind

?

Those who approach the

subject with

minds undisturbed by the views of Festus and Muller the

first

will

most naturally think,

in

instance, of an early period of

lawlessness, in which

it

was with women

as with other kinds of property, that he

who had the power, and he should keep who could. And it is a trite fact, that women captured in war have

should take

— THE ORIGIN OF

44

universally, in barbarous times

been appropriated as wives, or as

tries,

worse. But

for

;

little

consideration

is

needed to

symbol implies much more than

see that the this

and coun-

is

it

impossible to believe that

the mere lawlessness of savages should

be consecrated into a legal symbol, or to assign a reason

why in

—could

this

be believed

a similar symbol should not appear

transferences of other kinds of pro-

To

perty. first

a certain extent, indeed, the

impression must be held to be a cor-

We

rect one.

sion that there of tribes

cannot escape the conclu-

was a stage

in the history

observing this custom

when

wives were usually obtained by theft or force.

And

ting wives

where

it

unless the practice of get-

by theft or

force

prevailed that

almost invariable,

it is

was so general

we may say

it

was

incredible that such

an association should be established in the

— THE 'FORM OF CAPTURE.

45

popular mind between marriage and the act of rapine, as

would afterwards require

the pretence of rapine to give validity to the ceremony of marriage.

It

must have

been the system of certain tribes to capture

—necessarily — wives.

women

other tribes

for

women But we may the

of

be

sure that such a system. could not have

sprung out of the mere instinctive desire of savages to possess objects cherished

by a foreign deeper source

tribe



circumstances,

to

;

it

must have had a

be sought for in their

their

ideas

of

kinship,

their tribal arrangements.

The

fact that

among savage

tribes

whose normal relations with each other a man could get a are those of war



woman

of a foreign tribe for his wife only

by carrying her off, cannot, by itself, explain a symbolism which is so well established, so invariable, where it occurs at

THE ORIGIN OF

46

Where

all.

own whom

women

of their

they might marry,

captive

savages had

women would

become slaves or

naturally

concubines rather than wives

would

find

their

wives, within the tribe

of

women

or

wives,

;

the

their

men chief

and the capture

;

could never become so impor-

tant in connection with marriage as to

furnish a symbolism for

a later time. in the

It

all

marriages to

may be doubted

circumstances supposed, the form

of capture would, in a great cases,

whether,

number

of

be bequeathed to more peaceful and

friendly generations, even in the case of intertribal marriages



in

which only the

form could be expected to appear

any

rate these,

when

first

made

;

and

at

subjects

of friendly compact, would be too infre-

quent for their ceremonies to override those which were indigenous, and to be transferred into the general marriage law.

THE FORM OF CAPTURE.

Much more

likely is

it

47

that indigenous

marriage forms should be employed in the celebration of intertribal

when they

occurred.

in the circumstances

It is

—those of

among

tribes

among which the law of

peoples,

civilized

marriage

a fortiori, that

which we have been

considering as

marriages

— no

mafrimoniMm liberum

is

system of capturing

women

wives

for

could have arisen.

What

circumstances then, what social

idea, existing

among

rude

tribes,

produce a system of capturing the of foreign tribes for wives

convenient,

answer we have

we should

before

that

?

could

women

It will

we make

be the

to offer to this question,

consider the condition, in re-

spect of marriage, of a class of tribes with

which we believe

.

this

system did not

originate. It is clear, that if

members

of a family

THE ORIGIN OF

48

or tribe are forbidden to intermarry with

members free to

of other families or tribes, and

marry among themselves, there

is

not room for fraud or force in the consti-

The bridegroom and will live together in amity among common relatives. With the con-

tution of marriage.

bride their

sent of her relations, a

come

woman

will be-

the wife of a suitor peaceably.

a suitor forces

or carries

her,

If

her off

against her will or that of her friends,

he must separate from these to escape their vengeance.

It

tribes of this class,

follows that,

which we

among

shall call

endogamous tribes* betrothal followed by *

As

the words

endogamy and exogamy

are new,

an apology must be made for employing them. stead of

endogamy we might,

have used the word

caste.

ideas besides that on which

On 387

mani," Calcutta, 1863, Preface,

" ;

p. 45.

Vivada Chinta-

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE. ing the origin, meaning, and

Of

institution. its

effect

district there

of this

old each clan inhabited

and had

particular strath or glen,

own well-defined

107

hill

its

In the Aird

ranges.

were none but Erasers about ;

Moy were none but M'Intoshes. The members of the clans are

now

in the country districts,

Inverness or Dingwall bers of

all

interfused even

and

in

towns

may be found memNow, suppose

the clans.

like

that

man was not allowed to marry woman of his own clan, and that, sub-

originally a

a

sequent to the interfusion of the clans, that ancient prejudice remained

of

Menu.

the rule

—the question of degrees be the apart—would

for enforcing

of affinity

;

it

just

rule

So, in considering the origin of

not remanded from the

that rule, are

we

social state in

which

to an earlier state, in

it

was

fixed in a code,

which the population

consisted of distinct clans or tribes organ-

£XOGAMY AND THE

io8

on the principle of exogamy, and

ised

ing apart from one another, as

do

liv-

all tribes

in early times, until they are brought,

by conquest or otherwise, under a common government ? We have already had examples of tribes with this

so that,

rule,

in this conception of the early state of the

Indian population,

we

are

On

probable supposition.

not only probable in

it is

making no imthe contrary,

itself,

but

it

is

the only supposition that will explain the fact

;

and

if

we

accept

origin of the rule of

it

as indicating the

Menu,

it

gives us

such an idea of the prevalence of this law of incest as

we

could never reach by the

contemplation of the

among which

it is

collected that the

among

individual

the law.

It will

form of capture

is

the Hindus.*

* Ante, p. 27,

and see Appendix A.

tribes

be

re-

found

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE.

We believe

may

it

still

be possible, in

some communities

the case of

109

in

which

marriage between persons of the same family

name

population

and

tribes,

law of

this

is

prohibited, to analyse the

into

its

constituent

incest.

In one case, in par-

seems

The Munnieporees, and tribes inhabiting the hills

—the

Koupooees,

be courted.

to

the

following

round Munnie-

the

Mows,

the

—are each divided into four families— Koo-

Murams, and the and

had

to prove that the tribes

ticular, investigation

pore

(stock)

all

mul, Looang,

member

Murring

Angom, and

Ningthaj^.

of any of these families

A

may

marry a member of any other, but the intermarriage of members of the same family tion,

is strictly

so

far,

prohibited.

In explana-

of these family divisions,*

"Account of the Valley of Munniepore and of the M'CuUoch, 1859, PP- 49-69Hill Tribes." *

EXOGAMY AND THE

no

we have in

the

authenticated

well

fact,

the history of Munniepore, that the

Koomul and Looang formerly distinct

and powerful

Koomul,

tribes,

particular, at

in

ponderated in the valley.

existed as

and that the

one time pre-

Presuming

that

these tribes held intermarriages of their

members

to be incestuous, the origin of

two of the family marriage law, so far as the it

is

in

is

divisions,

and of the

plain enough, at least

hill tribes

are concerned

;

and

the hills alone that the law

is

Most of the members would remain in the valley

strictly enforced.

of the tribes

and mix with the

Meithei,

by whose

prowess they were vanquished

;

can conceive that bands of the

and Looang might escape

to the hills,

mix with each other and with of the

Angom

we Koomul but

and

the tribes

and Ningthajjl, whose ex-

istence in former times

we must

postulate.

1

FA CT &

FORM OF

CA P TURE.

1 1

in explanation of the family divisions of

the

same names.

Is

it

beyond hope that

the farther examination

tradi-

of local

tions, or exploration of the wilds to the

south and north-east of Munniepore,

may

yet furnish us with information regarding

the

Angom

and Ningthaja, or with data

from which their existence

may be

legitimately inferred, apart from

the present speculation

The rived

Menu,

in former times

?

conclusion at which

as

to

the

origin

we have

of the

rule

ar-

of

will also explain the case of the

native populations of Australia,

North

and South America, and the islands the Pacific.

In these quarters

light regarding the causes

we

in

obtain

which lead to

the break up of the primitive exogamous

groups, and to the intermixture in local tribes of people recognised as being of dif-

ferent bloods.

Let us

first

attend to the

EXOGAMY AND THE

112

whom we

Australians,

small

tribes

named

which they inhabit

;

find divided into

the

after

for

districts

though they are

nomads, their wanderings,

like those of

the nomadic agriculturists of the Indian hills,

are circumscribed within well-defined

bounds.

It

appears that the tribe inhabit-

ing a particular district regards the

owner

thereof,

itself as

and the intrusion of any

other tribe upon that district as an invasion to be resented

and punished

;

and that

within the district individuals have portions of land appropriated to them.*

the tribal system

is in

force,

Thus

with an ap-

parent perfect separation and independ-

ence of the tribes.

But, on close exami-

nation, the tribes are found to be fused

and welded together by blood-ties

most extraordinary manner. * Letter, Dr.

in the

According

Laing to Dr. Hodgkin, 1840.

ports of the Aboriginal Protection Society."

"

Re-

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE.

113

to credible accounts,* the natives of different tribes extending over a great por-

tion of the continent, are divided into a

few families, and

all

a family, in whatever

may

be, bear the

members of

the local

tribes they

same name

as a second

or family name.

These family names

and divisions are perpetuated and spread throughout the country by the operation of two laws

:

first,

that the children of

name

either sex always take the

of the

mother; and second, that a man cannot

marry a woman of his own family name.

The members

of these families, though

scattered over the country, are yet to

intents as

much

united as

if

they formed

separate and independent tribes ticular, the

bound * "

some

;

in par-

members of each family

are

to unite for the purposes of de-

Grey's Journals,"

etc., vol.

ii.,

chap.

xi.

;

EXOGAMY AND THE

114

and vengeance, the

fence

consequence

being that every quarrel which arises be-

tween the tribes

young men

is

a signal for so many-

to leave the tribes in

they were born, and occupy

which

new hunting

grounds, or ally themselves with tribes in

which the families of

may happen tain their

call

is

it,

to be strong, or

own and This

relatives.

their mothers

which con-

their mother's nearest

secession, if

we may

not always possible, but

it

so is

of frequent occurrence notwithstanding

where

it is

impossible, the presence of so

many of the enemy within the camp affords ready means of satisfying the

geance

;

it

is

ven-

being immaterial, according to

the native code, by

feud

call for

satisfied,

whose blood the blood-

provided

the offender's kindred.

it

be blood of

Thus, as the Aus-

tralians are polygamists,

and a man often

has wives belonging to different families,

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE. it is

not in quarrels

uncommon

115

to find chil-

dren of the same father arranged against

one another

or,

;

father himself, for

indeed,

by

against their

their peculiar law

the father can never be a relative of his children.*

Among the

Kamilaroi, a nume-

* Mr.

Maine has been unable to conceive how human beings could be grouped on any principle more primitive

be bound

than

that of the

together

patriarchal

by any ruder

system, or

blood-ties than

those of agnation derived from the patria potestas.

We think

from a too exclusive

his mistake has arisen

attention, in his researches, to those systems of an-

Roman, and

cient law which, like the Hindoo,

belonged to races which were .

far

Jewish,

advanced at the

which their history goes back. Had he examined the primitive races now extant, he cerearliest dates to

tainly

would not have written the following passage:*

" It is

obvious that the organisation of primitive so-

cieties

would have been confounded

if

men had

called

The themselves relatives of their mother's inference would have been that a person might be relatives.

subject to two distinct patriae potestates

;

but distinct

patriae potestates implied distinct jurisdictions, so that '

"Ancient Law," 1861,

p. I49-

;

EXOGAMY AND THE

ii6

rous tribe residing to the north-west of

Sidney, the rules in force are very complex

and

These tribesmen

peculiar.

fall

into

anybody amenable to two of them at the same time would have lived under two dispensations. As long as the family was an imperium in imperio, a community within the commonwealth, governed by its own institutions, of which the parent was the source, the limitation of relationship to the agnates was a necessary security against a conflict of laws in the

Here we see the ingenious thinker

domestic forum."

Roman

trammelled by notions derived from dence.

Among the Australian

selves to a single instance

Blacks

to confine our-

—we have seen that men are

relatives of their mother's relatives,

and that



jurispru-

and of none other

their societies are, aliunde, held together,

notwithstanding the conflict of laws in the domestic forum, engendered kinship.

venience.

by polygamy, exogamy, and female

Kinship depends,

The

first

kinship

in fact, is

the

not at

first

all

on con-

—that

possible

through mothers, about whose parental relation to children there can be no mistake.

And

the system

of kinship through mothers only, operates to throw difficulties in

the

way of the

rise

of the patria potestas,

and of the system of agnation. after.

But of

this

here-

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE. divisions

resembling castes, and at the

same time observe the riages

117

between

rule against

members

of

the

mar-

same

family.*

Our information is so imperfect that we do not know whether there exist anywhere tive

in Australia tribes

names

whose

distinc-

are those of the families into

which the population

is

divided.

we should not expect to find such The constant tendency of groups to

pieces,

and of the parts

to

But tribes.

to fall

separa-

and independence of one another, and the practice of naming groups from tion

their lands,

would tend

to obliterate the

traces of the original stock-groups, except

so far as they have been preserved in the names of families to keep the blood pure

by avoidance

of marriage between

* Mr. Ridley's account quoted,

p.

mem-

491. vol.

ii.,

Pritchard's " Natural History of Man." Norris' edition. I

EXOGAMY AND THE

ii8

same

bers of the

But we cannot

stock.

doubt that such stock-groups at one time existed, organised

on the principle of exo-

gamy, and were the germs of the native

Whencesoever

population. derived,

was

it

were

they

inevitable, that the

law

which recognised blood relationship as existing only through females, conspir-

ing with the primitive instinct of the race

members

against marriage between

same

of the

stock, should tend in the process of

time to transfuse the blood of each stock

through

men

all

of the group

the group

B all

B

marrying

;

A

marrying

women

the

women

of

B

and

women

counted of the stock of

have

so

many

B's

A

of the group

counted of the stock of of

women

of

and the men of the group

the children of the

children

The

the tribal divisions.

A

within

;

of ;

B

and

being

all

A

we

;

the

being at once

A, and

so

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE.

many

A's within B.

And

119

so on, until in

time A's from the northmost point appear in the

homes

Z's in the

of

Z

homes

at the

southmost

Each

of A.

would thus contain within between

of,

local tribe

itself

members

whom there was connubium

original tribal divisions

and

;

;

the

would be lost sight

and nothing would remain of the stock-

groups but the family names to which they gave birth.

Should the process of

transfusion go far enough, the state of

matters which would lead to the practice of capturing wives would be modified, but

not extinct. itself,

The system

of polygamy of

and any want of balance between

the sexes of different families within a tribe,

would long tend

to maintain this

practice; which, moreover, like every other

practice connected with marriage or reli-

gion,

must be

credited

tenacity of existence.

with a special

As we have

seen.

EXOGAMY AND THE

120

there prevails

system

of

among

the Australians a

—always between stocks —along with

betrothals

persons of different

an extensive practice of capturing wives.

This

is

what might be expected

just

if

our theory of the origin of capture be a

sound one.

Since the tribes of Austra-

while exogamous in principle, con-

lians,

who

tain persons

different descent

regard each other as of

and

marriage can be, and

free to intermarry, is,

made

Again, habits formed in pre-

of bargain.

vious times of necessity occasional

up the

We

the subject

necessity

—and

still

no doubt

—keep

existing

practice of capture.

now

take the case of the Ameri-

— North

can

Indians

have

political

and

and South.

They

district divisions;*

besides these the nations

but

among them

* " Archseologia Americana," vol.

ii.

p. 109.

;

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE.

121

have had from time immemorial divisions into families or clans. till



very lately"

^we

"

At

present, or

quote from the Ar-



chaeologia Americana

" every nation

was

divided into a number of clans, varying in the several nations from three to eight or ten, the

members

of which respectively

were dispersed indiscriminately throughout the whole nation.

It

has been fully

ascertained that the inviolable regulations

by which these clans were perpetuated

amongst the southern nations were, that no man could marry in his own

first,

clan

secondly, that every child should belong to his or her mother's clan.

Among

Choctaws there are two great each of which clans,

is

the

divisions,

subdivided into four

and no man can marry

in

any of

the four clans belonging to his division. The restriction among the Cherookees, the Creeks, and the Natches, does not extend

EXOGAMY AND THE

122

beyond the clan

There are

to

which the man belongs.

sufficient proofs that the

same

division into clans, commonly called tribes, exists

among almost But

tive nations.

all

it is

the other primi-

not so clear that

they are subject to the same regulations

which prevail amongst the southern In-

At

dians."

the root of these divisions and

we

prohibitions lia,

the

feeling

find here, as in Austra-

that

marriage between

persons of the same blood

"They

profess to consider

minal for a

man

to

men,

it

highly

is

the

relate instances

same as

put to death by their

Rochester,

his

when young

for a violation of this rule,

* From a circular

cri-

marry a woman whose

totem (family name)

own, and they

incestuous,

is

have been

own relatives."* The

by Mr. L. H. Morgan of New York, issued by the United States

Government to

its

foreign countries,

letter

diplomatic agents and consuls in

and which contains much interesting

— FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE.

123

Indian nations, they say, were divided into tribes just lest

any one might, through

information regarding the laws of primitive relation,ship,

we quote

the following passage as the most

recent and authoritative statement regarding the tribal divisions of the red "

Nearly

all, if

men

not

:

all,

upon

of the Indian Nations

this continent were anciently subdivided into Tribes

or Families.

named

These

tribes,

after animals.

subdivided.

It

is

with a few exceptions, were

Many

of

them

are

now

thus

so with the Iroquois, Delawares,

lowas. Creeks, Mol^ves, Wyandottes, Winnebagoes, Otoes, Kaws, Shawnees, Choctaws, Otawas, Ojibewas,

Potowottomies,

"The

etc.

known

following tribes are

to exist, or to

have existed in the several Indian Nations number ranging from three to eighteen in each .

Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron,

— the

The Hawk, :

Crane, Duck, Loon, Turkey, Musk-rat, Sable, Pike, Cat-fish, Sturgeon, Carp, Buffalo, Elk, Rein -deer, Eagle, Hare, Rabbit, and Snake ; also, the Reedgrass, Sand, Water, Rock, and Tobacco-plant. is the same to enumerated— the present day in most no man is allowed to marry a woman of his own tribe, This was consanguinii. all the members of which are

"

Among the Iroquois—and

the rule

of the nations

EXOGAMY AND THE

124

temptation or accident, marry a near relation,

which "at present

is

scarcely-possible,

It follows that hus-

unquestionably the ancient law.

band and wife were always of

The

different tribes.

children are of the tribe of the mother, in a majority

of the nations

;

but the

rule, if

not so at the present day.

female line prevailed,

it

anciently universal,

Where

is

descent in the

was followed by

several im-

portant results, of which the most remarkable was the perpetual disinheritance of the male titles as

line.

Since

well as property descended in the female

and were hereditary,

in strictness, in

the tribe

son could never succeed to his father's

title

for example,

must remain

was of the Wolf

in that tribe,

and

line of succession

;

tribe,

If the

the

title

neces-

would be out of the

but the brothers of the deceased

Sachem would be of the Wolf tribe, being

of the

mother, and so would the sons of his sisters

we

a

of Sachem,

who was

his son,

sarily of the tribe of his mother,

line,

itself,

nor inherit even his medal or his tomahawk.

Sachem,

all

find that the succession fell either

of the deceased ruler or upon a nephew.

tween several brothers on one

:

same hence

upon a brother

brother of the deceased, and the son of a

was no law establishing a preference

:

Between a sister,

there

neither as be-

side, or several sisters

on the other, was there any law of primogeniture.

— FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE. for

whoever intends

marry must take a

to

person of a different

tribe,"*

feeling has been remarked

and the same

by Dobuzhof-

South America. +

fer in

What we have may be assumed one time at

least,

The Curse

In "

125

said of the Australians to have been true, at

of the

New Zealanders.

of Mania"| and several

New Zealand legends we have

other of the

evidence that the wife never belonged to the tribe of her husband,

and that the children

belonged to the family of their mother. So

among

the Feejees,

They were came vol.

all

appear to count

equally eligible, and the law of election

in to decide

iii.,

who

second

between them."

Cambrian yournal,

series, p. 149.

* Tanner's "Narrative,"

p.

313, quoted in

Arch.

Amer., and by Grey, ut supra.

"

)

"

Account of the Abipones,"

\

"

Polynesian Mythology," ui supra, p. 162.

The Curse

of

vol.

Mania" the reader will

of children fleeing

from the

the mother's kindred.

i.

p. 69.

find

In

an instance

tribe of birth to that of

EXOGAMY AND THE

126

through the mother

blood

relationship

only.

In the system of vasu-ing, which

determines the claims of children upon

we have

the tribe of their mother,

evi-

dence that the mother always belongs

from the

to a different tribe

father,

and

that the children are held to be of the

family or tribe of their mother.* rate,

vasu-ing

is

a

relic

At any

of a stage in the

development of the Feejees wherein that

was the

rule.

Curiously enough, there believing that the Picts

;

exogamy

is

reason for

prevailed

among

in other words, according to

the most approved doctrine,

Gael or Highlanders

;

which

among

the

fact bears at

once on the rapes of the Cruithnians, the

Welsh and French customs, and the plebeian marriage-ceremonies of Rome,

old

for

the

Celtic

element was strong in

* Erskine's "Pacific," ut supra pp. 153-215. ^

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE. Rome. in their

127

That the Celts were anciently lax morals, and recognised relation-

ship through mothers only, are facts well

vouched;* and of such usual

concomitant,

facts

that

is

it

the

children

should be named after the mother. facts

the

The

brought out by the distinguished

antiquary, Mr. Skene, from a study of the list

of Pictish kings

Bede says

that

some

to 731,

when

the law of succession

through females was to

down still

in force,

may

extent be explained by the sons

taking the names of their mothers; but they point to something beyond favour of Mr. Skene,

we

this.

By

are at liberty to

give here the results at which he has arrived,

and which have not hitherto been

published. * Caesar,

Monum. liv.

"De

Bello Gallico,"

Histor..lxi.

lib. v.

Solinus, idem.

§

14.

Xiphiline,

Irish Nennius,

EXOGAMY AND THE

128

\st,

That brothers always succeeded

each other. 2d,

That

in

ceed a father

;

no case does a son sucafter the

brothers have

new family comes in. That the names of the

reigned a %d,

and of the sons are quite

fathers

In

different.

no case does the name borne by any of the sons appear

among

the

the fathers, nor conversely instance of

a father's

among the sons. 6fth, The names

is

names

there an

name appearing

of the sons consist of a

few Pictish names borne by sons of ferent fathers.

These are

—6

name

dif-

Drusts, 5

Talorgs, 3..Nectans, 2 Galans, 6 naidhs, 4 Brudes.

of

Gart-

In no case does the

of a father occur twice in the

list

of

fathers.

5/^, In the

list

there are two cases of

sons bearing Pictish names whose fathers

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE.

129

are known to have been strangers, and these

are the only fathers of whom account.

we have any

— i.Talorg Macainfrit.

They

are

His father was undoubtedly

King

of Aethelfrith,

took refuge

among

Ainfrit, son

of Northumbria,

who

the Picts, and after-

wards became King of Northumbria;

Brude Mac Bile. His

father was a

2.

Welsh-

man, King of the Strath-Clyde Britons. In an old

poem Brude Mac

son of theKingof Ailcluaide,

by the

ton; and when,

says, " to-day

i.e.,

is

called

Dumbar-

battle of Drunichen,

he became King of the

poem

Bile

Picts,

Brude

another old

fights a battle

about the land of his grandfather."

The fact

that the only fathers of

we have any been

whom

known to have especially when taken other facts which we pos-

account are

strangers

along with the



sess about the

Picts—raises a strong

sumption that

all

the fathers were

pre-

men

of

EXOGAMY AND THE

130

At any

Other tribes. the

fact,

rate there

remains

after every deduction has

been

made, that the fathers and mothers were in

no case of the same family name.

— We

have now, by an

irresistible array

of instances, established the fact of exo-

gamy being

a

most widely prevailing

principle of marriage-law among primitive races.

We

have found the areas

for the chief part,

to be,

conterminous within

which exogamy and the practice of capturing wives de facto prevails. all

the

modern instances

symbol of capture

is

in

Farther, in

which the

most marked, we

have found that marriage within the is

prohibited

as

incest,

as

tribe

among

the

Khonds, the Fuegeans, the Kalmucks, and Circassians; also that in several cases where

traces of the

symbol appear,

as

among the Nogais and the Kirghiz, exogamy is more or less perfectly observed.

;

FACT & FORM OF CAPTURE.

We

have seen good reason

that

exogamy and

for thinking

the practice of capture

de facto, co-existed

and that

131

among

the old Celts

in that co-existence lies the ex-

planation of the symbol

among the French,

the Welsh, and the plebeians of

Of ih^Jus connubii

Rome.

of the Muscovites and

we have no Magnus is silent on

Livonians in former times direct information.

But

the subject. rative that

it is

implied in his nar-

husband and wife invariably

belonged to different kinships and village communities.

We

have found exogamy

and the symbol co-existing in ancient Not to dwell on the slighter and India.

more doubtful

instances,

now be admitted

that

we

think

we have

it

must

sufficiently

proved both the existence of exogamous tribes,

and that among such

prevails,

capturing

tribes there

or has prevailed, a system of

women

for wives.

^

ON THE STATE OF HOSTILITY.

132

CHAPTER

VI.

ON THE STATE OF HOSTILITY.

The

state of hostility is a

theme which

requires no research to illustrate

a

fact too familiar to require

war

is

life, it

is

If

tion.

human

it.

It is

demonstra-

a lamentable feature of not quite so ugly

among

savages as when waged by civilized men. In proportion to their masses and the

weight of the interests at stake, the advanced

nations

are

frequently embroiled

barous

;

also in

beneficence



if

perhaps as

impulse to feud

is

most

the

their case

we may

quite

as bar-

the natural

so call

it

—of the

not always apparent.

In the lower stages of society we recognise

war

as a condition of the rise of govern-

ments, of the subordination of classes, of

— ON THE STATE OF HOSTILITY.



civility

its

133

agonies as the growing pains

of civil society

;

in the higher

it

appears

too often as a mere scourge of mankind, de-

forming and impairing,

if

not destroying,

the precious results and accumulations of

long periods of peace and industry. If the

wars of savages are petty, they are

While

habitual.

are

little

the domestic affections

pronounced, the social are con-

fined to the smallest fraction of humanity.

Whoever is foreign to a group is hostile Even in comparatively advanced to it. stages of savagery, groups rarely combine for

common

purposes

;

when they do

the object of the combination being ac-

complished

—they return

independence.

combined

And when

in nations,

become polite,

to their isolated

it is

tribes

have

and the nations have

yet

some time

before a

drawn between strangers No wonder if the disand enemies. K

distinction

is

ON The state of hostility.

134

tinction be not

ever

—a

made by

not with them

is

rival

in

Who-

savages. is

against them

the competition

food,

for

camp and Lay out the

a possible plunderer of their ravisher of their

women.

map

of the world,

find

populations

and

wherever

you

by

the

unrestrained

strong hand of government there you find

will tribe,

perpetual

feud,

against

tribe

and family against family.

It

would

be

superfluous

particular districts from

which

to

to illus-

trate this truth, exemplifications of

we have

to see.

the normal

early times.

ration

which

many instances, The state of hosti-

already, in so

had occasion lity is

select

state of the

race

in

It is incidental to the sepa-

and independence of men

in small

communities; and, while the arts are as yet in their infancy, small communities are a necessary result of the conditions of

ON THE STATE OF HOSTILITY. Thus Lot

subsistence.

Abraham.

estrangement



from

Jacob goes one way and Esau

goes another.

habits

separates

135

And with



separation comes

differences of language

hostility.

Till

blood relations are as

in

a short time

much

ferent races

and

states.

—as

apart

—as people of

foreign to one another

and

dif-

,

EXOGAMY AND

136

CHAPTER EXOGAMY

:

ITS ORIGIN

VII.

— COMPARATIVE

ARCHAISM OF EXOGAMY AND ENDOGAMY.

At

the outset of oi^r argument

seen that

gamous

if it

it

was

could be shown that exo-

tribes existed,

and that the usual

relations of savage tribes to each other

were those nf f

ound a

hnt;ti]ity^

w^ should

social condition in

which

it

have_

was

Jnpvif:ahle that wives should svstemati-

xallv be procured by capture.

peared that

if

either

tribes

the existence of actually

It also ap-

exogamous

capturing

their

wives, or observing the symbol of capture in their marriage ceremonies, should

be established in a reasonable number of cases,

it

would be a legitimate inference

ENDOGAMY. that

exogamy has

find a

137

prevailed wherever

system of capture, or the form of

capture, existing.

We

now

confidently

submit that the conditions requisite this

we

inference

amply

been

have

for

esta-

blished in the three preceding chapters

so that

we may conclude

;

that wherever

capture, or the form of capture, prevails,

or has preva iled, there prevails, or has prevailed,

Conversely,

exogamy.

we may

|

say

that,

wherever exogamy can be found,

Iwe

may

confidently expect to find, after

(due investigation,

at

least

We

^system of capture.

of a

traces

have traced the

law and the corresponding practice among tribes scattered over a large portion of

What

the globe.

rude tribes it

now

would be

farther

existing

knowledge of

may show

idle to conjecture;

to us

but

it

might be plausibly maintained, upon the facts already

known

to us, that the prin-

EXOGAMY AND

138

ciple of

exogamy has

in

fact prevailed,

and the system of capturing wives

in fact

been practised at a certain stage

among

every race of mankind.

Perhaps there

is

no question leading

deeper into the foundations of ciety than that

of exogamy,

civil so-

which regards the origin

unless

it

be the cognate

question of the origin of caste, which admits, however,

more

readily of ingenious

surmises, and what mathematicians singular solutions. stric tion

on marri ag-e

call

W£_hdieYe-_this_rer to he

rnnnprfH

^^

^^f

th e^ practice in early times of female jnfanticide. which, rep derinor

kd

at

onre tn pnl^^anHr^r

wnmpn

wjfli in thp tn'hp

and the capturing of wnmpn frnm

Female savages

grarr-P

.yi'thont

— common among everywhere — prevails as a sysinfanticide

tem, and has been customary from time

immemorial amongst many of the races

ENDOGAMY.

139

that exhibit the symbol of capture.*

some of

the

exogamous

races

With

appears

it

to be the rule to kill all female children,

except the first-born

when a

To

female.

surrounded by enemies, and, un-

tribes

aided by

art,

contending with the

culties of subsistence, sons

diffi-

were a source

of strength, both for defence and in the

quest for food,

daughters a source of

Hence

weakness.

the

custom

cruel

human hordes with very few young women of occasionally with nonef their own

which,

leaving

the

primitive





* there

The is

Circassians have

sparing their daughters

market

not the practice.

But

reason to believe that they only commenced

for them.

when they found a

profitable

For an explanation of the

the law of blood-feud on the practice of see the end of chap.

eifect

of

infanticide,

viii.

t In one village of the

Phweelongmai, on the

eastern frontier of India, Colonel Macculloch found in

1849 that there was not a single female

child.

— EXOGAMY AND

I40

any

and, in the

balance

of

the

them

hordes, forced

would

among

judice

within

sexes

the

prey upon one

to

another for wives. necessity,

disturbing

seriously

case,

Usage, induced by

in time establish a pre-

the tribes observing

a prejudice strong as a principle of

it

reli-

gion, as every prejudice relating to marriage

is

women

apt

be

to

of their

—against

own

stock.

marrying

A survey of

and the break-

the facts of primitive

life,

down

advancing commu-

of

exogamy

in

exclude the notion that the law

nities,

originated in any innate or primary feel-

ing against marriage with kinsfolk. deed,

we

shall

hereafter

probable that necessity

see that

may have

Init

is

estab-

lished

the

women

of the group even before the facts

prejudice against

made any deep human mind. At pre-

of blood-relationship had

impression on the

marrying

— ENDOGAMY. sent

it

may

141

be observed that the exist-

ence of infanticide, so wide-spread in self,

how

indicates

blood-ties

was

in

it-

slight the strength of

To

primitive times.

form an adequate notion, on the other hand, of the extent to which tribes might,

by means of

infanticide,

selves of their

deprive them-

women, we have only

to

bear in mind the multitude of facts which testify to the thoughtlessness

men during human mind.

vidence of of the

To show

and impro-

the childish stage

that the analysis

by which

the true solution of the questions respect-

ing

endogamy and exogamy

obtained,

is

is

be

to

the analysis of a series of

phenomena which appears to form a progression, we notice the following as the divisions into which the less advanced

portions of

mankind

fall

when ranked

cording to their rules as to connubium

ac:

EXOGAMY AND

142

Exogamy Pure.— i. system.

—Tribes

Tribal (or family) All the

separate.

bers of each tribe of the

same blood, or Marriage

feigning themselves to be so. prohibited between the

mem-

members

of the

tribe. 2.

Tribal system.

—Tribe a

congeries

of family groups, falling into divisions, clans,

thums,

No connubium

etc.

tween members of same division

bium between 3.

all

be-

connu-

:

the divisions.

Tribal system.

—Tribe a congeries

of family groups embracing several village

communities or nomadic hordes

:

mem-

bers of families (or primitive stock groups)

somewhat

interfused.

No connubium

be-

tween persons whose family name points

them out 4.

as being of the

Tribal system.

No connubium

same

—Tribe

stock.

/

in divisions.

between members of the

same divisions connubium between some :

— ENDOGAMY. of the divisions

143

only partial connubium

;

may marry a woman of another, but a woman of the former may not marry a man of the

between others

latter. 5.

e.g.,

Approach

man

of one

to caste.

Tribal system.

No connubium

a

—Tribe

in divisions.

between persons of the

connubium between each same stock No connubium division and some other. between some of the divisions. Caste. Tribal (or 6. Endogamy Pure. :



family) system.

—Tribes

separate.

All the

or feigning themselves to

same blood, be so. Connu-

bium between members of

the tribe

members

of each tribe of the

riage without

the

tribe

mar-

forbidden and

punished. 7.

:

Tribal system indistinct.

— Mem-

bers of primitive (stock) groups interfused, (i.)

Marriage forbidden except between

persons whose family

name

points

them

EXOGAMY AND

144

out as being of the same stock.

(2.)

riage forbidden except between the

Mar-

mem-

bers of particular families. Persons having

connubium marked

as a caste, old tribal

divisions being lost sight

Although these

tribal

of.

systems

may be

arranged as above so as to seem to form

a progression, of which the extremes are pure exogamy on the one hand, and en-



dogamy transmuted into caste of Mantchu and Hindu types on other, we have at present no right to



that

these systems

anything

were developed

the the

say in

like this order in tribal history.

They may represent a progression from exogamy to endogamy, or from endogamy to exogamy or the middle terms, ;

so to speak,

may have been produced by

the combination of groups severally or-

ganised on the one and the other of these principles.

The two

types of organisa-

ENDOGAMY.

may

tion

145

Men must

be equally archaic.

originally

have been

of

free

any pre-

judice against marriage between relations

—not

necessarily endogamous,

/.

e.,

for-

bidding marriage except between kindred, but to

still

more given

to such unions than

unions with strangers.

primitive indifference they

vanced,

some

to

From this may have ad-

endogamy, some

to exo-

gamy.

The

separate

endogamous

tribes are

nearly as numerous, and they are in

some

respects as rude, as the separate exoga-

mous that

tribes.

It

may be

endogamy appears

noted, however, in

populations

formed by the fusion of many

tribes, as

the almost uniform characteristic of the

dominant

how

race.

Hereafter

we

shall see

a tribe organised on the principle of

endogamy might be developed from one organised on the principle of exogamy,

EXOGAMY AND

146

with the law against

in perfect consistency

the

intermarriage

of

And

relations.

while the existence of tribes like those

Mantchu

of the

Tartars,

who

prohibit

marriages between persons whose family

names are

different, is of great

favour of

endogamy

of

organisation

castes

those of

like

members

as a primitive type

on

;

weight in

the

other

India,

hand,

embracing

of several different families, and

with a marriage law like that of Menu,

many endogamous

strongly suggest that tribes

have been developed from tribes

on

organised

the

Since, moreover, caste or of an

exogamous

opposite

the reconversion of a

endogamous

tribe

principle.

is

tribe into

inconceivable

an

— we

have no experience of caste disappearing except in advanced communities, and then only on a revolution of sentiment being

produced

by

political

influences

— the

ENDOGAMY.

147

choice seems to be between regarding the

two classes of initio

the

on

organised ab

distinct principles,

exogamous

We

as

tribes

may

to be the

more

or holding archaic.

notice as strange, that fre-

quently tribes thus oppositely organised are

On

found the

the

inhabiting

same

sub-Himalayan ranges,

ample, are the Sodhas,

who

area.

for ex-

intermarry

with the Rajputs, not with each other; the Magars,

who

prohibit marriages be-

tween members of the same thum again, the Kocch, Bodo,

;

and,

Ho, and Dhumal,

who are forbidden to marry except to memAnd, in bers of their own tribes or kiels. some districts—as

in

the hills

on the

north-eastern frontier of India, in the Caucasus,



and the hill ranges of Syria

^we find

a variety of tribes, proved, by physical characteristics

and the

affinities

of lan-

guage, of one and the same original stock,

EXOGAMY AND

148

yet in this particular differing fo^o ccelo

from one another

—some forbidding mar-

riage within the tribe,

ing marriage without

What that

and some proscribit.

has been said

is

question of

the

enough

the

to

comparative

archaism of exogamy and endogamy difficult as it is interesting.

the next chapter lead

up

show is

as

We shall

in

to a fuller dis-

cussion of that question, while investigat-

ing more minutely than

we have

hitherto

done the conditions of the form of capture

being

evolved.

We

shall

there

endeavour to establish the following propositions

:



I.

That

the

most

ancient

system in which the idea of blood-relationship

was embodied, was the system

of kinship through females only.

2.

That

the primitive groups were, or were as-

sumed

to be,

homogeneous.

3.

That the

system of kinship through females only

ENDOGAMY.

149

tended to render the exogamous groups heterogeneous,

and

thus

supersede

to

the systerti of capturing wives. in the

That

4.

advance from savagery the system

of kinship through females only was suc-

ceeded by a system which acknowledged kinship through males also in

most cases passed

;

and which,

into a system

which

acknowledged kinship through males only. 5.

That the system of kinship through

males tended to rear up homogeneous groups, and thus to restore the original condition of

mous

affairs

—-where

prejudice survived

exoga-

the

—as regards both

the practice of capturing wives and the evolution of the form of capture.

a local

tribe,

6.

under the combined

That influ-

ence of exogamy and the system of female kinship, might attain a balance of persons

of different sexes regarded as being of different descent,

and that thus

its

mem-

EXOGAMY AND ENDOGAMY.

ISO

bers might be able to intermarry with

one another, and wholly within the consistently with

gamy.

7.

reached

the principle of exo-

That a

this

tribe,

stage

through success

in

local

tribe,

having

and

grown

proud

war, might decline

intermarriage with other local tribes and

become a coming tribe

caste.

agnatic,

might yield

That on kinship bethe members of such a 8.

to the universal

tendency

of rude races to eponomy, and feign themselves to be all derived

from a

common

and so become endogamous^ That there is reason to think that

ancestor,

And

9.

some endogamous

gamous

in this

tribes

manner.

became endo-

SYSTEMS OF KINSHIP.

CHAPTER ANCIENT

SYSTEMS

151

VIII.

OF

AND

KINSHIP

THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE STRUC-

TURE OF PRIMITIVE GROUPS.

The

earliest

human groups

We

no idea of kinship.

can have had

do not mean

say that there ever was a time

to

when men

were not bound together by a feeling of

The

kindred. tions

may

filial

be instinctive.

viously independent kinship,

its

and

fraternal affec-

They

of any

are ob-

theory

origin or consequences

;

of

they

are distinct from the perception of the

unity of blood upon which kinship de-

pends before

;

and they may have existed long kinship

thought.

became

an

What we would

ideas of kinship

object

say

is,

of th^t

must be regarded as

ANCIENT SYSTEMS

152

growths

—must have grown

like all other

ideas related to matters primarily cogniz-

able only by the senses fact of

and that the

;

consanguinity must have long re-

mained unperceived as other as obvious, have done.

facts,

quite

In other words,

at the root of kinship is

a physical

fact,

which could be discerned only through

—a

fact, there-

for a time

have been

observation and reflection fore,

which must

No advocate of innate ideas,

overlooked.

we should imagine, existence on relationship

A

a subject

is

maintain their so

concrete as

by blood.

group of kindred

ignorance gined.

will

in that stage of

the rudest that can be ima-

Though they were

chiefly held

together by the feeling of kindred, the

apparent bond of fellowship between the members of such a group would be that they and theirs had

always been com-

OF KINSHIP.

153

panions in war or the chase

—joint-tenTo one

ants of the same cave or grove.

another they would simply be as com-

As

rades.

other

distinguished from

men

they would

of

groups,

group, and

named

after

be

of the

it.

Hence, most naturally, on the idea of blood-relationship arising, would be

formed the conception of Stocks. ously individuals had been to persons, but to

Previ-

affiliated

some group.

not

The new

idea of blood-relationship would more readily demonstrate

the

composed of kindred than

group it

to

be

would evolve

a special system of blood-ties between certain of the individuals in the group.

The members

of a group would

become brethren.

men of other is

distinguished from

groups, they would be of the

group-stock, and * It

As

now have

named

after the group.*

a question for philologists

how

far the

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

154

The development relationship

into

of the idea of blood-

a system of kinship,

must have been a work of time

—at

least

the establishment over any great area of

any such system as an

institution of cus-

tomary law must have been slowly fected.

most improbable that that

It is

when

idea,

ef-

first

formed, was anywhere at

once embodied in a well-defined system of kinship.

We I.

endeavour to show

shall

That the most ancient system

in

which the idea of blood-relationship was earliest

words which denote a human group involve

the idea of blood.

done

so.

In one case they seem not to have

Grant, in his "Origin and Descent of the

Gael," says that teadhloch

Gaelic names for family,

mon The

residence

;

and cuedichc or coedichc,

mean

the

the second those

first

who

having a comeat together.

Gael had, however, the more general terms finne

and cinne stock,

—the

and the

former meaning born of the same

latter

denoting the

tribe.

— THROUGH FEMALES ONLY. embodied,

was

a

system

of

155

kinship

through females only.

Once a man has perceived the

fact

of consanguinity in the simplest case

namely, that he has his mother's blood in his veins, he is

may

quickly see that he

of the same blood with her other child-

A

ren.

him

little

more

reflection will enable

to see that he is of

one blood with

the brothers and sisters of his mother.

On he

further thought he will perceive that is

of the

same blood with the

dren of his mother's

sister.

And,

chil-

in pro-

cess of time, following the ties of blood

through his mother, and females of the

same blood, he must

arrive at a system

of kinship through females. ties

The

blood-

through females being obvious and

indisputable, the idea of blood-relationit

was formed, must have

to develop,

however slowly, into a

ship, as

begun

soon as

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

IS6

What

system embracing them.

development whether

it

idea

this

might

further

have

would simultaneously have a

development in the direction of kinship

— must

through

males

on

circumstances

the

paternity.

have

depended

connected

with

If the paternity of a

child

were usually as indisputable as the maternity,

we might

expect to find kinship

through males acknowledged soon after

But however

kinship through females.* * It has been through the

doubted

father

is

through the mother. tion

whether the blood-tie

entitled

may be

It

between father and child

that between mother

and

to

is

rank with that that the connec-

less intimate

child as regards the trans-

mission of characteristics, mental or physical. the former

tie

is

than

unquestionably

less

And

obvious than

latter. It is, however, an undoubted blood-tie, and must have been thought of soon after that

the

through mothers. the text

is,

that

All that

when the

could only receive

it

concerns us to show in

idea of

it

was formed

it

development into a system of

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY. natural

it

157

might be that men should think

of blood-ties as possible to be propa-

gated through fathers, blood-ties through fathers could not find a place in a system

of kinship, unless circumstances usually

allowed of some degree of certainty as to

who

the father of a child was, or of

certainty as to the father's blood.*

A

system of relationship through fathers could only be formed that a system

of

—as

relationship

mothers would be formed deal of reflection

we have

nity.

And

fathers

known

before

men

through



after

upon the

seen

a good

fact of pater-

must

usually

be

will think of relation-

ship through fathers

—indeed, before the

kinship on certain conditions, which were not easily satisfied.

*

It will

be seen that there

may be

as to the father's blood (as where fathers are brothers) without

as to the father.

all

certainty

the possible

there being certainty

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

158

There

idea of a father can be formed.

could be no system of kinship through

males

if

paternity

was

usually, or in a

great proportion of cases, uncertain.

The

requisite degree of certainty can be

had

only

when

the mother

a particular

man

appropriated to

men and when women

as his wife, or to

of one blood as wife,

thus

is

appropriated

are

usually

found

faithful to their lords.

Considering that the history of the races of men, so far as is

the

;

it,

from the

history of a progress

savage state

considering the social con-

dition of rude tribes

—remembering

still

which

upon the

that the races

be traced in history had history,

we know

all

remains

all

earth,

which can a previous

unwritten,



it

cannot seem a very strange proposition that there has been a stage

in

the de-

velopment of human races when there

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY.

159

was no such appropriation of women

to



men when, in short, marriage, as it exists among civilized nations, was not practised. We believe we shall particular

show, to a sufficient degree of probability,

when

that there have been times

marriage, in this sense, was yet undreamt

Wherever

of.

of children

paternity

uncertain

this has

;

been the case the

must

have been

conditions

the

essential

to

a system of kinship through males being

formed would therefore be wanting; no

such

system

would

be

would

— there

be

formed

could

be

;

there

— kinship

through females only.

Not

to

assume

various races of

that the progress of the

men from savagery has

been a uniform process, that

all

the stages

which any of. them has gone through have been passed in their order by

be

justified in believing that

all,

we

shall

more or

less

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

i6o

of promiscuity in the connection of the sexes,

and a system of kinship through

females only have subsisted

among

races

men among which no traces of them remain, when we have shown their exist-

of

ence in a considerable if in these

number of

cases

there appear nothing exceptional.

After what has been said above,

it

must

be plain that kinship through females only, if it

exist at

all,

must be a more archaic

system of relationship than kinshipthrough males

—the product of an

stage in

earlier

and ruder

human development than the latter

—somewhat more than a step

farther back

in the direction of savagery.

To prove

existence on such a scale as to entitle

it

its

to

among the normal phenomena of human development, is, we may now say, rank

to prove

kinship.

most ancient system of As customs tend to perpetuate

it

the

themselves and die hard,

it

will not in

any

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. make

degree

i6i

against our explanation of

the origin of kinship through females only, that

it

should be found in some cases

along with marriage relations which allow of certainty as to fathers.

It is inconceiv-

able that any thing but the want of certainty

on that point could have long pre-

vented the acknowledgment of kinship

through males shall

;

and in such cases we

be able to conclude that such cer-

tainty has formerly been wanting

more or

less

—that

promiscuous intercourse be-

tween the sexes has formerly prevailed.

The

connection between these two things

—uncertain paternity and kinship through females seems so necessary— that of cause and —that we may confidently only,

effect

infer the

one where we find the other.

Let us

see, then,

the proposition

what can be said

that

there has

stage in the progress of

men

in

for

been a

which a

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

i62

woman was a particular

not usually appropriated to

man

as his wife.

All the evidence

we have goes

to

show

men were from the beginning gregarious. The geological record distinctly that



them in groups naked hunters or feeders upon shell fish leading a preexhibits

carious

life

testimony

We

squalid

This

misery.

confirmed by

all

history.

hear nothing in the most ancient

times

of

members perty

is

of

individuals

The

of groups.

as

being

history of pro-

the history of the development of

is

proprietary rights

were at

except

first

inside groups,

which

the only owners,* and of

all

—even including the offspring— may be said that

other personal rights right in

it

their history is that of the gradual asser-

tion of the claims of individuals against

the traditional rights of groups. * "

Ancient Law," ut supra,

p. 268.

THROUGH FEMALES ONL V. We,

of course,

163

know nothing about

the

co-ordination of the sexes in the earliest

The

groups.

knows already what

reader

must be our conjecture as

We can far

trace the line of

to

what

human

back towards brutishness

;

it

was.

progress

finding as

we go back the noble faculties peculiar to man weaker and weaker in their manifestations,

producing

last scarcely

any

less

and

less effect,

effect at all



—upon

As we go more and more in men the

at

his

we

position and habits.

back,

find

traits of

gregarious animals indications

among

of

other

;

slighter

operative

gregarious

and slighter

As

intellect.

animals,

the

unions of the sexes were probably in the earliest

times,

loose,

transitory,

and

in

some degree promiscuous. arts,

and

habits,

the

Before the invention of the the formation

of provident

struggle for existence

must often have be-

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

i64

come very serious. preservation,

The

instincts of self-

must have

therefore,

quently predominated and features of society freely, as fish affections

nature.

shaped

None

the

the unsel-

if

had no place

fre-

in

of the races of

human

mankind

can have been spared the cruel experience of

this

initiatory

stage;

or can have

escaped the effects of that experience on its

Even those must have had

character and customs.

most favourably situated long periods of

trial,

and have

suffered

from the incessant hostility of neighbours. So, without supposing the course of human

events to have been uniform, conceive of early

human

we must

society as having

been throughout affected by influences of the

same

general, unfriendly, character,

and as having been determined, though perhaps by unequal pressures, toward^s.

one uniform type in

all its parts.

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. Foremost among the early struggle for food

have been an

ble, its

be

and

must

security,

braves and hunters were

required and valued, terest of every

results of this

upon the balance of

effect

As

the sexes.

165

it

would be the

horde to

rear,

when

healthy male children.

It

possi-

would they

less its interest to rear females, as

would be

less capable of self-support,

of contributing,

common

good.

by

in-

and

their exertions, to the

In this

lies

the only ex-

planation which can be accepted of the origin of those systems of female infanti-

cide

still

existing, the discovery of

from time to time, places,

in

races

who

fend

the

practise

among

an institution of

It

is

by what theories the infanticide

now

de-

There can be no

practice.*

* Often, as

way

out of the

so shocks our humanity.

of no consequence

which

the Khonds,

religion.

M

it is

found to be

1

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

66

doubt that ferable

origin

its

time

that early

to

ever3rwhere re-

is

of

struggle

and necessity which we have been contemplating.

What of

all

is

now

true in varying degrees

may

the rudest races

have been true of

all

be assumed to

the earliest groups.

We may predicate of the primitive groups that they were

all

or nearly

all

marked by

a want of balance between the sexes

males being in the majority. will

have

little difficulty in

we may do

so

when he

The

—the

reader

granting that

reflects

on the pre-

valence of exogamy, the origin of which

must be

referred to that

And we

think he will be

to

make

the concession

have surveyed the polyandry

—the

referred to the

What

want of balance.

facts

still

more ready

when we

connected with

origin of which

same

shall

must be

cause.

diminished the number of the

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

167

female sex would increase the importatnce of

The

women.

first result

of the balance

of the sexes being against the females,

must have been more than

one,

Apart from sexes,

it

to

give every

might be several wooers.

any disproportion

we might

woman of

the

expect the more engag-

ing females of a horde to be surrounded

by

Savages are unrestrained by

suitors.

any sense of delicacy from a copartnery in

sexual

enjoyments

;

and,

indeed, in

the civilised state, the sin of great cities

shows that there are no natural restraints sufficient to hold men back from grosser

But within a horde possessing few women, such copartneries would

copartneries.

be a necessity. for themselves a

ence,

it

is

And

as savages assert

high degree of independ-

obvious that grave

difficulties

must have surrounded the constitution and regulation of such copartneries.

And

1

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

68

to

we

the consideration of these difficulties

we

are led, the instant

conceive of

the primitive groups as containing fewer

women

than men.

The men

of a group

about

quarrelled

must

their

either have

women and

se-

parated, splitting the horde into hostile sections

the spirit of indifference,

or, in

;

That

indulged in savage promiscuity.

quarrels and divisions were of frequent

OQCurrence cannot

were the

went

first

wars for women, and they

form th^ habits which established

to

And whether

exogamy. or not,

These

be doubted.

we

quarrels arose

are led to contemplate groups

—the horde or

its

sections

—indulging

a promiscuity more or less general. quarrels

in

The

must have been between sections

of the hordes rather than between individuals.

No

individual at that stage could

well carry off a

woman,

isolate

himself.

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY.

However brave and

and found a family. strong, he

could

169

maintain his

scarcely

independence for any time against numerous

went

length

the

tegrating the

the

completely disin-

of

groups

gregarious

prevent

to

Unless these quarrels

assailants.

—a

nature

— we

arrive

at

last

harmony was

groups within which

at

men tended

of

must

which

result

maintained through indifference and promiscuity.

These groups would hold like their other goods, in

their

women,

common.

And

the children, while attached to mothers,

would belong *

The

tie

to

the

horde.*

between mother and

child,

as a matter of necessity during infancy,

We

find

which exists is

not unfre-

among savages on the age of independence being reached. The liability of mothers to be carried off would, among exogamous quently found to be lost sight of

races, simplify the general filiation of dhildren to the

group, rather than to mothers.

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

I/O

traces of the former existence of

of this description

and

;

it

groups

probable

is

that before the rise of kinship, all the

human groups were

of that model.

On

the rise of kinship, the difficulty due to the scarcity of

women would more

be overcome.

The

general promiscuity

ence less

first

advance from a

—assuming

—would naturally be

easily

its exist-

to a promiscuity

general— to arrangements between

small sets of

men

to a particular

to attach

woman.

themselves

Previous to the

establishment of a system of kinship

when men were bound by the

tribal tie



it is

would constantly be

to each other only

obvious that there difficulties

in

the

way of their forming such combinations. When, however, the system of kinship through females only, had been firmly established, every into

a number of

group stood resolved small brotherhoods.

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY. composed of sons

each

mother.

And

same

within these, the feeling

of close kinship

of

stitution

the

of

171

would simplify the con-

the

polyandrous

arrange-

ment.

Now,

we

here, at length,

firm ground of

fact.

We

of general promiscuity

upon the

are

have examples

and examples of

;

modified promiscuity, in which, with a pretence of marriage,

the

woman may

bestow her favours upon any one, under certain restrictions as to rank

We

and family.

have numerous examples of poly-

andry, and they are such as to

show

that

polyandry must be regarded as a modification of

We

and advance from promiscuity.

have examples of polyandry in which

who are and very many

the wife has several husbands,

not necessarily relatives

;

examples of polyandry in which the hus-

bands are

all

brothers.

We

often find

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

172

these two forms of polyandry in the district, in different sections of

lation

here, the

:

no relations

the popu-

husbands as a

there, the

;

same

rule, are

husbands as a

rule,

Farther, where the hus-

are brothers.

bands are not brothers, we

find the

system

of relationship through females only; and,

so enduring that

is

custom,

we very

often find

system where marriage has

long

been so regulated as to permit of kinship through males. find

of

traces

through

the

many

In

system

females only,

cases

we

of kinship

lingering about

the laws of marriage and succession to estates

and

titles,

even where male kinship

has been long established. nearly

all

the cases in which traces are

to be found of kinship

only,

traces

through females

of polyandry also

Thus, what we find to be

Moreover, in

expected

if

is'

just

the account

remain.

what was

we have

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

173

of the origin of polyandry were

offered correct.

We

showing the pre-

repeat, that in

we

valence of polyandry,

shall be

showing

the prevalence of a modification of pro-

This

miscuity.

manifest as regards

is

the ruder species of polyandry, in which the husbands equally,

the

are

though rude

less

not relations.

less

polyandry in which the

which polyandry

we

shall

is

obviously, true of

husbands are brothers. in

It

is

From

the

way

presented to us,

have a proof that the

rude

less

polyandry was developed from the ruder

by the help of the system of kinship

—was superinduced,

through females only

upon a promiscuity

that

is,

fied

than

itself.

cing uncertainty of

less

Promiscuity, fatherhood,

quali-

produled

to

the system of kinship through mothers only.

This kinship paved the way for

;

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

174

we commonly

polyandry such as

and

this

male

it

form of polyandry introduced along with the

That,

kinship.*

ruder polyandry,

we always

find the sys-

tem of kinship through females where the

that

find

less

and

only,

we

rude form prevails

more-

can generally trace that system,

is

over a proof a posteriori of what

we have

shown must be

the case, that the origin

of kinship through females only

is refer-

able to uncertainty of male parentage.

We

shall not concern ourselves

with

the direct evidence which might be ad-

duced to show that there once prevailed *

We shall see farther on how numerous the known

cases are in which the progress to

patriarchal system

was a progress having

of polyandry for one of

highway

of progress

system of confining tablished wives.

male kinship and the

its

stages.

must have

women

—a

by exogamy and the

The lain

this

kind

other main

through the

system probably

es-

practice of capturing

THROUGH FEMALES ONL V. among men than

fied

ever

polyandry. the

recall

found

a promiscuity

fact,

quali-

less

We

175

may howtradition

that

everywhere pointing

to

a

is

time

when marriage was unknown, and to some legislator to whom it owed its institution among the Egyptians to Menes the Chinese to Fohi the Greeks to Cecrops the Hindus to Svetaketu.* And we shall proceed to show how much :

;

;

;

evidence remains to give verisimilitude

Passing over com-

to these traditions.

munities in which, according to ancient historians,

something

miscuity prevailed getae,

tans races

;

like

—such

a general proas the Massa-

Agathyrsi, and the ancient Spar-

passing over also

now

modern

the

numerous

existing, which, according to

travellers,

have no conception

* See Muir's Sanskrit Texts, i860.

Part

ii.

p. 336.

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

1/6

of conjugal

fidelity*

—we

now go

shall

on to consider the regulated promiscuity * It

may

be as well to append some modern ex-

amples of promiscuity, and of practices which have the

same

effect

in

rendering uncertain male parentage.

The Ansarians have their wives in common

the people

;

of Martawan, of the tribe of Ansarians, let out their

wives and daughters (Volney, " Travels," chap, xxvii.)

The Keiaz (Paropamisans) lend guests (Latham, "Des.Ethn.," vol.

—Elphinstone,

Eimauk (Caubul), we are informed, do

their wives to their ii.

p.

246)

18 15,

;

p.

so do the

483;

so,

The Mpongme

the Kandyans.

(Africa) lend wives (Reade, " Sav. Afr.,"

p.

259)

;

so

do the Koryaks and Chukchi, who lend out daughters as well (N. E. Siberia) Erkman, vol. ii. p. 531, and V. Cochrane's "Journey," 1825, vol.i. p. 336. The Koryaks are also polyandrous. The same disregard



of conjugal fidelity appeared in Caindu, Cascar (Turkistan Tartary),

and

in

Cumana

Polo, ut infra, p. 258).

Aimaks ("Des. tomary 1

10).

in

We

Ethno.," vol.

Kamul (Marco

Montesquieu,

b.

16,

licentious

wantonness of the

which the

men had

tion.

to

(Gaya,

find i.

it

p.

p. 333).

Polo,

104

;

Marco

now among It

was

the cus-

Bohn's edition,

p.

viii.,

remarks on the

women

of Patan, against

c.

adopt measures of self-prdtec-

Mr. Wilson of Mussoorie,

in

an admirable report

THROUGH FEMALES ONL V. known tent

and what traces of

exists,

former existence

the Himalayas,"

q. v.

garees and Perbuttees

thing incredible

even where

we

:

Summer Ramble says of the Gun-

p. 182),

"Their immorality

— chastity

being

does exist."

it

little

find practices fatal to certainty of

"

Notes,"

upon

agreed

term

Such

marriages

Felix

(Hamilton's

Indies," vol.

i.

p.

I.

e.

g.,

1 1 1

appreciated,

;

the Bedouins,

and marriages

usual

in

Siam

of

(Id., vol.

an

short.

Arabia

the

East

p.

279).

ii.

In China such marriages are said to be

tomary.

for

usually

Sounan,

"New Account 51); in

male parentage,

among

endurance,

of

were

some-

is

In various other quarters

such as frequent divorces, Burckhardt,

its

remain.

still

on the Puharies of Gurwhal ("A in

what ex-

as polyandry, and see to

it

177

still

cus-

In a recent report of the proceedings of

the Society of Sainte-Enfance in China, in the Esper-

ance of Nancy,

it

is

said that, in

many

parts,

China-

men may repudiate their wives, and marry again, every year. As a result, the children belong to the mother, who has over them the power of life or death. The same must have been the case Polo,

ut

supra, p. 99).

("Travels," p. 394), marriage in

known

—an

in

Turkistan (Marco

According to Livingstone

Loando

unsettled concubinage.

is

And

almost unsee Idem,

;

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

178

Let US

first

see

what

which polyandry now

the

Kashmir

p.

and

common

is

Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan

regions adjoining Tibet

in

It pre-

prevails.

vails universally in Tibet, in

the area over

is

among

;

Kistewar

436, for an

;

in the valley of

the Spiti,

and

Sirmor.

example of savage

Ladak

in

occurs

It

indifference as to

In the Polynesian Mythology,

marital purity.

we

have an excellent casual proof of the uncertainty of male parentage, even where there is marriage (polygamous).

A

young man

distinguishes himself, and

turns out to be the chief's son.

He was

" a

young

man, the name of whose father had never been told by his mother." The lady was one of the chief's wives! loch's "

And see Turner's "Tibet," p. 10, and M'CulMunniepore," for examples of a system of

pawning wives.

See

also, for similar or

worse cus-

toms, Buchanan's "Journey from Madras," 1807, vol. pp. 129, 492,

and

vol.

iii.

p.

66

;

Krusenstern's

age," 18 1 3, vol. ii.p. 24s

(Kamschatka)

Voyage," 1798,

p.

Maundeville, "Travels," vol.

vol.

chap, ii.

ii.

195

xxiii.

p. 142,

Nat.

;

La

(Island of

(Chatay)

;

Illus. Lib.

ii.

"Voy-

Perouse's

Maouna)

and

;

Hue's

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY among

Telingese

the

;

existence

till

re-

Gurwhal, Sylhet and Cachar.

cently in

Farther south in

andry

its

Sivalik

There are un-

mountains, and in Kasia. mistakeable traces of

the

in

179

among

India

we

poly-

find

Tudas of the Nil-

the

gherry Hills, the Coorgs of Mysore, and the Nairs, the

We

Malabar. coast strike

Maleres, and Poleres of find

Ceylon

in

on

it

it

the

off

and going

;

and

in

eastward

as an ancient though

now

New

Zea-

almost superseded custom in land,

Indian

one or two of the Pacific

Going northward we meet

Islands.

again in the Aleutian Islands

;

it

and taking

the continent to the west and north of the

we

Aleutians

find

to the north of the

it

among

the Koryaks

Okhotsk Sea.

Cross-

ing the Russian Empire to the west side

we

find polyandry

Cossacks

;

among

the Saporogian

we thus have

traced

it

at

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

i8o

Polyandry

however.

all,

is

found

in

have the authority of Humboldt for

among

prevalence

its

not

and of America.

several parts of Africa

We

is

This

points half round the globe.

the tribes on

and he also vouches

Orinocco,

the

for its

former prevalence in Lancerota one of the Canary Islands.*

Vigne's " Kash-

* Turner's " Tibet," 1800, p. 348. mir,"

1S42, vol.

1854,

p.

vol.

ii.

vol.

i.

Buchanan's

306.

185.

1859, vol.

i.

"Journey,"

Archer's

pp. 408-412. p.

Cunningham's "Ladak,"

37.

p.

i.

"Upper

etc.,

1807,

India," 1833,

Latham's "Descriptive Ethnology,"

pp. 24-28

;

vol.

ii.

pp. 398, 496, and 462.

Humboldt's "Personal Narrative" (William's Translation), p.

1

8 19, chap,

Indies," "

vol.

i.,

Hamilton's "

549.

1727,

Savage

Siberia,"

vol.

Africa,"

voL

ii.

p.

i.,

1698,

"Ceylon," 1859,

vol.

Grey's

p.

43.

p.

531.

Seignior Gaya,

i.

ii.

and

p. 84,

274 and

Erkman's

in

v.,

of 308. "

part

the

ii.,

East

Reade's

Travels

in

"Marriage Ceremonies," by Tennent's pp. 70 and 96. p.

429.

"Legend

"Polynesian Mythology,"

Summer Ramble

vol.

New Account

1854, p.

the Himalayas,"

of Rupe," 81.

"A

i860, p. 202.

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. From

we

ancient history

i8i

learn that

polyandry at one time existed over even a Traces of

greater area.

the time of Tacitus

And

remained

it

among

in

the Germans.*

while in certain cantons of Media,

according to Strabo,t polygunia was authorised

every

by express law which ordained

inhabitant

seven wives posite rule

;

in

was

to

maintain

at

least

other cantons the opin force

:

a

woman was

many husbands, and they looked with contempt on those who had

allowed to have

less

than

five.

Caesar informs us that in

his time polyandry prevailed

Fisher's

"Memoir of

Soc, Bengal, p.

13.

Sylhet,

etc.," in

vol. ix. p. 834.

among

the

Journal of Asiatic

" Asiat. Res.," vol. v.

Our information regarding the Saporogian

Cossacks has been obtained from Sir John M'Neil. * " German." xx., Latham's Edn., p. 67, et seq. t Lib. vi. c.

ii.

p.

798

;

and see Goquet,

i.

N

vol.

iii.

book

1

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

82

We find

Britons.*

existence

among

direct evidence of its

Irish

the Picts in the

NenniuSjt not to mention traces of the

Pictish

ther

we

Laws

Hindus!

— especially

And we

puts.

find

it

among it among

in

Fur-

of Succession.

find traditions of

it

among

the

Raj-

the

the Getes

of Transaxiana (the Yuti or Yuechi of the Chinese historians).! else

it

prevailed

To

see

where

we must go back upon

our authorities and examine the various phases of polyandry which they present,

and obtain a

test for detecting

sence where historical existence

De

Bello Gallico,"

t

Appendix

I

Tod's "Annals,

and see

Max

evidence of

of polyandry, as lib. v., c.

Tod's

we

xiv.

LI. etc.,

of Rajasthan,'' 1829,

Milller's " Hist,

p.

48

;

of Sans. Anc. Lit." pp.

45, et seq.; Tod's "Travels," 1839, p. 464. §

its

awanting.

is

The ruder form * "

pre-

its

" Travels," ut supra.

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. have

which the husbands

said, is that in

are not brothers

the less rude

;

183

is

that in

The polyandry

which they are brothers.

of the Kasias, the Nairs, and the Saporo-

gian Cossacks, appears to be purely of the ruder sort, and

attended by the

is

system of kinship through females only. doubtful what

It is left

institution in

some

the form of the

instances, as in

Aleutian Islands, and

But

is

the

among the Koryaks.

in all the other cases in

which poly-

andry occurs, the authorities show that the

among the lower

ruder form occurs

wherever the

less

classes

rude occurs, except in

Tibet, where polyandry

is

universal and

the husbands are always brothers

;

except

where polyandry is universally practised by all classes, saving the Brah-

in Malabar,

mans

only, but

among less

is

of the ruder species

the high caste Nairs, and of the

rude

among

the lower castes, the

1

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

84

Teers, Maleres, and Poleres.

nature of the case that

all

forms of polyandry must or be embraced

in,

the

It is in

the possible

between,

lie in

the Nair and Tibetan

forms.

we

Let us attend then to the accounts

Of

have of these two forms.

the Nair

polyandry we have three accounts.

The

account in the "Asiatic Researches"*

among one woman that

the Nairs " to

it is

is

the custom for

have attached to her two

males, or four, or perhaps more, and they

cohabit according to rules."

With

this

account that of Hamilton agrees,! excepting that he states that a Nair

woman

could have no more than twelve husbands,

and had to

select these

strictions as to *

Vol.

re-

On

the

rank and

caste.

V. p. 13.

t "Account of the East p. 308.

under certain

Indies," ut supra, vol.

i.

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY. Buchanan

other hand,

women

after

number

restrictions

certain

It

caste.

is

accounts, and ton, that a

that the

states*

free

to co-

of men,

under

marriagef are

habit with any

as

185

and

tribe

to

consistent with the three is

directly stated

by Hamil-

Nair may be one in several

combinations of husbands

may have any number

that

;

is,

he

The

of wives.

accounts, however, differ in regard to one

important particular.

Buchanan

repre-

sents the wife as living in family with

her mother or brother, while

Hamilton

represents her as having " an house built for her

own conveniency" on being mar-

ried to the first of her husbands.

*

Buchanan's "Journey,"

f

In the "Asiatic Researches"

vol.

ii.

In the

p. 411.

it is

said,

"The Nairs

may be

implied

from their tying a thread round the neck of the

woman

practice not marriage, except as far as

on the

first

occasion."

— 1

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

86

"AsiaticResearches"thewifeisrepresented

The

as living with her mother or brother.

probability

is

occasionally

that both arrangements are

the

adopted,

more

usual

course being for the wife to remain in the family of her mother and brothers.

In

Ceylon, where the higher and lower poly-

andry

co-exist,

marriage

is

of two sorts

—according

Deega or Beena

as the wife

goes to live in the house and village of her husbands, or as the husband or hus-

bands come to

live

with her in or near

And among

the house of her birth.*

Kandyans the

the

rights of inheritance of a

* See Forbes' "Ceylon," 1840, vol. i. p. 333. Mr. Starke, late Chief-Justice of Ceylon, says that " some-

times a deega married

returned to her parents'

girl

house and was there provided with a beena husband who lived with her in family" (private letter). The

beena husband's tenure of very insecure. are

now under

lated

by a

office

seems to have been

See Forbes, ut supra. British rule,

and

special ordinance.

The Kandyans

their marriages regu-

— THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. woman and

187

her children are found to de-

pend on whether the woman

is

a beena or

a deega wife.

The

three accounts which

we have

of

the Nair polyandry are agreed that the

Nair husbands are usually not brothers usually not relatives

—and that the

tion leaves male parentage

blood quite uncertain. of this

and the

institufather's

"In consequence

strange manner of propagating

"no Nair

the species," says Buchanan,*

knows his father, and every man looks upon his sister's children as his heirs.

He

indeed looks upon them with the

same fondness

that fathers in other parts

of the world have for their

own

children,

and he would be considered as an unnatural monster were he to

show such

signs of grief at the death of a child,

which from long cohabitation and love Ut

supra, vol.

ii.

p.

412.

;

1

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

88

with

its

mother, he might suppose to be

his own, as he did at the death of a child

of his sister. his family sister

;

A

and

man's mother manages

after her death his eldest

assumes the

Brothers

direction.

almost always live under the same roof but if one of the family separates from the rest

he

is

always accompanied by his

favourite sister.

A

man's movable pro-

among

perty, after his death, is divided

the sons and daughters of

and

if

falls to

all

his sisters

the eldest male of the family."*

Now

here,

polyandry,

is

derived

from the ruder

an exceedingly rude, the

rudest, form of family system with

we

are acquainted.

And

family system which less

is

modified in some of

several

;

management

there are lands, their

cases,

where

See Buchanan,

it

is

a sort of

found, its

ii.

p.

more or

features, in

marriage vol.

which

594.

is

now

either

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY.

189

monogamous

Its

or polygamous.

chief features are the absence of a paternal head,

and the system of female suc-

cession.

Among

marriage

is

the

the Kocch, with

whom

now monogamous, we

same system,

excepting

that

find

the

family circle includes the daughter's hus-

band, as a subordinate

A

family.

riage, like

member

Kocch man goes, on his marthe beena husband of Ceylon,

to live in family with his wife

mother is

;

of the

on his marriage

made over

all

to his wife

;

and her

his property

and on her

death her heirs are her daughters.*

we conclude

Here

that the advance from the

ruder polyandry to

monogamy

took place

some way consistent with the preservation of the main features of the

in

family system peculiar to the ruder poly-

andry

— consistent

with

* " Des. Ethn.," vol.

the i.

p. 96.

mother's

I

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

go

maintaining her position as the head of the family, and with an increase of the influence of in

the

We

women

social

as connecting links

and proprietary systems. advance

shall presently see that the

in this direction

tional

;

at the

must be counted excep-

same time

it

cannot well be

doubted that such a family system as find

among

the

Kocch had

its

we

origin in

the ruder species of polyandry.

What,

then,

We

was the normal

progress

?

able to

show what

think that it

was

we

line of

shall

—that

it

be lay

between the lower and higher polyandry. In the accounts stages

of

we

have,

preparation

we can

for

the

detect

change

from the former species of polyandry to the

latter.

We must regard

as the rudest

cases those in which the wife lives not

with her husbands, but with her mother or brothers.

In these cases a woman's

— THROUGH FEMALES ONLY.

191

children are born in and belong to her

In the cases next in

mother's house.

order of rudeness, the wife passes into

according to

cohabitation,

fixed

rules,

with the husbands, in a house of her

own

—becoming thus

family,

though

detached from her

connected with

still

it

through the right of her children to be-

come

heirs

to

children would

the family estate. still

Her

belong to her mother's

— the

want of a community of blood and interests among the husbands family

preventing the appropriation of the child-

Such

ren to them.

taching the

woman from

would prepare the way marriage

woman

however

cases,

still

less

her family

for

rude,

—de-

a species of

in

which the

passed from her family, not into

a house of her own, but into the family of her husbands, in which her children

would be born, and

to

which they would

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

192

This could only happen when

belong.

the husbands were

all

of one blood, and

had common rights of property

when they were This

last



in short,

brothers.

was a most important step

The girl of a house no longer remained at home with her mother and in advance.

brothers

—aiding

in

and succeeding to the

management; she passed

into

another

family, associating with the. sons thereof

as wife

;

while her place at

—as

assumed by a stranger

home was

wife to her

There being now a commu-

brothers.

nity of blood

and

interests in the hus-

bands, there was nothing to prevent the

them of her children appropriation which would dis-

appropriation to

— an

qualify the children for being heirs to

the property of her mother and brothers.

To

give

effect

succession,

now

would

be,

to the old

law of

not to keep pro-

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. perty

in

but

families,

to

193

introduce a

system of exchanges of family

estates.

Moreover, when this form of marriage

became lity

general,

and when conjugal

was secured by

fide-

we should

penalties,

expect to find that the system of kinship

through males would appear



this species

of marriage allowing of certainty as to the father's blood, though not of certainty

A woman's

as to fathers.

become the in

children

would

heirs of the husband's family

which they would be born, and

to

which they would belong.

Now

it is

this highest

development of

polyandry, and of the family system which

polyandry admitted

of,

which we

find in

Tibet. " Here,"

Tibet,* "

andry

we

says

Turner,

speaking

of

—that of poly-

find a practice

— universally

prevailing

;

* Turner's "Tibet," 1800, p 348.

and see

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

194

one female associating her tune with

all

and

fate

the brothers of a family,

without any restriction of age or of bers.

The choice of

a wife

is

is not,

num-

the privilege

The number

of the elder brother of husbands

as far as

could learn,

I

defined or restricted within any limits

sometimes happens that there

is

but one male

perhaps,

for-

may seldom

;

it

in a small family

and the number,

;

exceed that which a

native of rank, during

my

residence at

Teshoo Loomboo, pointed out

to

me

in

a family resident in the neighbourhood, in

which

were then living

five brothers

very happily with one female, under the

same connubial compact.

Nor

is

this

sort of league confined to the lower ranks

of people alone

:

it

is

found also

fre-

quently in the most opulent families."

Let us

now

see to

what extent poly-

andry of the Tibetan type can be traced

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY. elsewhere than in Tibet

dence there

is

of

its

;

and what

evi-

being an advance from

the Nair species of polyandry. rities

195

The autho-

already cited* exhibit the Tibetan

as the prevailing species of polyandry in

nearly the whole of the Himalayan and

sub-Himalayan regions: Kashmir, Ladak, Kinawer, Kistewar, and Sirmor.

It

is

the general form of polyandry in Ceylon. It

is

Humboldt found

the form which

among

"

red -men.

the

Avaroes and the

Among

Maypures," he says,

"brothers have often but one wife." is

the form which Caesar found "

the Britons.

the

It

among

Uxores habent deni duo-

maxime parentes cum

denique inter se communes, et

cum

fratres liberis

;

sed

habentur

fratribus, si

liberi

qui sunt ex his nati, eorum

a quibus

quseque ductae sunt."t * Ante,-

p. 180.

et

t

"

De

primum virgines And to show that

Bello Gallico,"

v. xiv.

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

196

the two forms of polyandry are stages in

we

a progress,

repeat that almost every-

we

where, outside Tibet,

find the lower

In some

form accompanying the higher. quarters the lower only

Kasia and

among

— Kooloo,

for

is

prevalent

but

;

the

Ceylon

;

in Tibet,

we

% Archer,

lower form

the higher* also

235-6,

they sal.

known,

the general form,

some

— as

"Upper India"

rules

form

(1833), v.

(Kooloo)

i.

pp.

"

Here one and four men, and :

even be all brothers ; this practice

was informed of the

in

quarters, as

lose sight of the lower

cohabits with two, three,

may I

is

says of the Grooah

woman

is

Again, in numerous

lastly, in

in his

in

— the

example

lower the exceptional

and

—as

In others

quarters the higher

and

known

the Nairs.

exceptional.

is

is

is

univer-

and modes of

inter-

course, all evincing a state of society least beholden to civilization, or less sophisticated than any yet

known."

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

The higher polyandry has

altogether.

become a national

And

197

institution.

finding the higher polyandry a

we observe that we show that most pro-

national institution, are in a position to

bably polyandry formerly prevailed over a

still

vaster area than that within which

we have

found

hitherto

it.

We

have

seen that with polyandry, of the Tibetan type, wherever

it

was long and generally

established, kinship through males

have been introduced

though

not

the

;

the father's blood,

father,

where the wife was

must

being

faithful.

certain,

We

have

also seen, in the case of the Britons, that

the children of the to belong to the

poused her

;

woman were accounted husband who first es-

and that

in Tibet, the right

of choosing the wife belongs to the eldest brother, to

whom,

also,

the children of

the marriage are held to belong-

o

We

;

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

198

must now,

to obtain

—a

in search of

of polyandry

We "

find

it

test of the

—look

of polyandry

what we have been

in

in

former presence

at the

Tibetan form

a state of

decadence.

such a state in

In Ladak," says Moorcroft,*

eldest son marries,

Ladak.

"when an

the property of his

father (more properly the family estate)

descends to him, and he the

is

charged with

maintenance of his parents.

parents

may

continue to live with him,

he and his wife please dwelling

is

younger son

Should there

;

if not,

provided

for

a separate

A

them.f

usually

inferior

husbands

the to

juniors

the wife

* Moorcroft's and Trebeck's "Travels," 1841, i.

if

made a Lama. be more brothers, and they is

agree to the arrangement,

become

The

v.

p. 320.

t See M'Culloch's " Munniepore," pp. 8 a similar custom among the Loohoopas.

and

67, for

;

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. all

199

the children, however, are considered

as belonging to the head of the family.

The younger

brothers have no authority

they wait upon the elder as his servants,

and can be turned out of doors without

pleasure,

upon him

it

being

at his

incumbent

to provide for them.

On

the

death of the eldest brother, his property, authority,

and widow,

next brother."

And

devolve upon his that whether

younger brother has agreed androus arrangement or

not.

the

to the poly-

He

has a

a customary right of succession to his brother's property,

and

to his

widow, and

he cannot take the one without taking the other.

Here we are brought to consider the meaning and origin of the legal obli-

we find laid on younger among certain peoples, to marry turn the widow of their de-

gation which brothers, in

their

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

200

There can be no

ceased elder brother.

doubt that that obligation was

in

its

origin the counterpart of a legal right of succession.

It

is

so with the Kirghiz,

Aenezes, and Mongols

—the next brother

being heir even where the elder leaves issue.

When

history begins, the

Hebrew law

preferred the issue to the next brother;

but when he or the next of kin succeeded, it

was on the old

This

footing.

is

clear

The hereditatis

from the book of Ruth.*

emptor of the deceased took to wife the

same time

the

name

tance."

his

widow,

" to raise

at

up

of the dfead upon his inheri-

The

widow was

obligation

to

marry the

the counterpart of the right

of succession.

And we

can see the con-

nection between the obligation and heir-

* Chap.

iv.

ver. 6.

— THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

201

ship dropping slowly out of view.

Deuteronomy* husband's

provided that the

is

it

brother

In

shall

"

perform the

duty of an husband's brother" to the

widow, only when the brethren dwell together,

The as it

and one of them dies

obligation

a duty

here presented pure

is

on the brother, which

falling

was disgraceful

to neglect.

In India, by the time stitutes of

ligation

Menu were

was

laid

childless.

when

the In-

compiled, the ob-

on the brother only

case the deceased

no son.

left

in

Grave

doubts had arisen as to the extent and propriety of the obligation, the

number

of sons to be begotten on the widow, f

and the terms on which the should live with her.

"

The

brother

first

object

of the appointment being obtained, ac-

* Chap. XXV. ver. 5-10.

+ Chap.

ix. ver. 61, 62.

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

202

cording to law, both the brother and the

widow must

together like a father

live

and daughter by

Again,

affinity."

it

is

doubted whether the obligation extends "

to the twice-born classes.

Such a com-

mission to a brother or other near kins-

man

is

nowhere mentioned

texts of the Veda.

only for

cattle, is

Brahmans

;

yet

.

.

in the nuptial

This

.

practice,

fit

reprehended by learned it

is

declared

been the practice even of

men

had sovereign power."*

to

have

while Vena

Yet elsewhere

in the code the obligation is

contemplated

as legal, and provision

made

is

for the

rights of succession of the issue of the

Levirate union.

"

Should a younger bro-

ther have begotten a son on the wife of his deceased elder brother, the division (of the estate)

must then be made equally Chap.

ix. ver. 66.

;

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. between that son,

represents the de-

and his natural father

ceased,

the

who

law

settled."

203

We

thus

is

that

in

:

repeat,

Menu's time the obligation had not only

some

been, to

extent, dissociated

from the

corresponding right of inheritance, but

was also

falling falling

Hebrews.

into

disrepute.

We

into

desuetude

among

see

it

the

In the earliest age the Levir

had no alternative but

widow

to take the

indeed she was his wife without any form

of marriage!^ By the Mosaic Law, however, he might get quit of her if he chose

by submitting

to the

ceremony of

" loos-

ing the shoe." is

impossible not to believe that

we have

here presented to us successive

It

stages of decay of one and the ginal institution

* Lewis'

"Hebrew

;

same

ori-

impossible not to con-

Republic," 1725, vol.

iii.

p.

268.

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

204

nect the obligation, in

its

several phases,

with what we have seen prevailing in

Ladak

;

impossible not to regard

as

it

having originally been a right of succession, or the counterpart of

such a right,

derived from the practice of polyandry.

Regarded as

in

succession,

exhibits the next younger

brother as

it

its

origin

a right of

succeeding to the universi-

—taking up

tas of the elder

and obligations

all

his rights

inter alia, his

widow.

But how came the right of succession to open, as

in the ruder

cases,

to

the

brother in preference to the son of the

deceased

?

We repeat,

that the only ex-

planation that can be given of this that the law of succession

from polyandry.

The

is,

was derived

succession of bro-

thers to one another, in order of age, feature of the law of succession

both forms of polyandry.

is

a

under

Under the

"

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

205

ruder, brothers succeed one another failing brothers, the sister's children in

:

under the

;

and

come

less rude, brothers succeed

and

comes

one another

;

in the eldest

son of the brotherhood.

failing brothers,

nowhere, excepting where there

And or has

is

been polyandry, have we such a system of succession

— brothers

succeeding in

preference to sons.

The same

conclusion

is

forced

us from another point of view.

upon

In the

lowest cases of polyandry the children

belong to the mother

;

in the

more ad-

vanced to the eldest brother (an approach towards agnation). of the obligation

is,

was an obligation to

the

elder

Now

the peculiarity

in all cases, that " to

raise

brother.

The

it

up seed children

begotten by the younger brother were

accounted the children of the elder deceased.

It is

obvious that

it

could more

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

2o6

easilybe feigned that the children belonged to the brother deceased, if already, at a

prior stage, the children of the brother-

hood had been accounted the children of the eldest brother,

i.e., if

we suppose

the

obligation to be a relic of polyandry.

Curiously enough, Dr. Latham would invert the order of development

ducing the ruder

fact

by pro-

—polyandry—from

the less rude obligation.

But, clearly,

an inversion of the order of nature

this is

—which

progressive

is



in

which the

ruder gives birth to the less rude, not the less

rude to the ruder.*

Assuming

the correctness of this view

of the origin of that obligation,

*

The

lessly, it

enough

we must

subject of polyandry has been most care-

seems to

us,

to refer to "

handled by Dr. Latham.

Des. Ethn.,"

where he recklessly lays per umbilicum

is

it

down

vol.

ii.

p.

It is

463, et

seq.,

that the descensus

part and parcel of polyandry.

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

207

hold that polyandry in the Tibetan form prevailed at one time throughout India.*

Among

the race from which the ancient

Hebrews were descended Moabites

Among in Syria

and

all

the

Persians, t

ancient

the

the Druses and ;

among

;

the

Arab

tribes

the Mongols, Ostiaks, Kirghiz

\

Turks,

and

Among

the Makololo, and,

of

tribes

Caucasus.

the

we may

§

be-

many other peoples in Africa.! It is needless to repeat that we must also conclude that among the peoples just enumelieve,

rated the Tibetan form of polyandry

preceded by the Nair, and, at a date,

by

and § 182

XXV. 5-1 1 iii.

;

i.

X "

Menu,"

c.

iii.,

" Asi. Res.," vol.

;

Ruth

p. 226.

Burckhardt's vol.

earlier

utter promiscuity.

* " Institute of

57-58,

still

was

i.

Volney's

Notes," vol.

pp. 312, 346,

Caucasia," p. 403.

Zendavesta,"

" Travels," vol. 1

i.

and 455 II

"

12. ;

ix., §

+ Deut.

p. 35.

Kleuker

11- 13;

and c

§ 173, iii.

§ "

ii.

p.

807

;

Des. Ethn,,"

Hanthausen, "Trans-

Livingstone,

p. 185.

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

2o8

We have found lands,

among

so

polyandry in so

many

races,

and

many such

in

phases of progressive development, that

we are the

surely justified in classing

phenomena most

most

it

among

—the

distinctive of

—the

likely to occur at

earlier stages

of the progress of any race of men.

Its

origin can only be ascribed to a scarcity

of

women

as

compared

vast area over which

it

to

men.

And

the

anciently prevailed,

can leave no doubt in the mind that in

former times the balance of the sexes must

have been seriously disturbed

(artificially),

and that we were right in predicating of the primitive groups that they usually contained fewer women than men. the

phenomena of exogamy

a scarcity of

women

—are

When

—also due

to

contemplated

along with the phenomena of polyandry, the impression of this fact produced on the

mind

is

almost as strong as the

feel-

ing

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

209

by demonstration.

To

produced

whatever extent a want of balance between the sexes prevailed, to that extent certainty as to male parentage

was

stages of progress excluded.

andry point. is

itself there is

in the earlier

With

poly-

uncertainty upon this

In the lower cases the uncertainty

And

absolute.

regarding, as

we must

do, the higher as an advance from the lower,

we

are

forced to conclude

that

wherever we have found polyandry, or traces of

it,

there

must anciently have .

prevailed the system of kinship through

females only.

In a preceding chapter

we found

the

system of kinship through females only,

among the Ausprevailing among the

universally prevailing tralian

Blacks;*

majority of the nations of the American

* Ante, p. 113.

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

210

Red-men

;

and among the South Sea

*

That

Islanders.f

peoples

now

we found

is,

it

among and

practising polygunia,

which have advanced archal system.

We

far

towards the patri-

infer that with these

peoples the unions of the sexes were originally

With

promiscuous or polyandrous.

regard to the Red-men, indeed, there little

all

room

for

doubting that they formerly

practised polyandry.

sionally to be their for its

is

found

now

It is

among

system of relationship



occa-

them, and their

kinsmen and kinswomen

names

—point

to

having been their universal custom.

Morgan of Rochester, New York, whose account of the Indian nations we Mr.

have already had occasion to gives

the following as

radical

refer

to,

features

of the system of relationship prevailing

Ante,

p. 124.

f Ante,

p. 126.

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY. among them:

i.

211

"All the brothers of a

father are equally fathers to his children (this

where there

is

now no

polyandry).

All the children of several brothers

2.

are brothers

and

to each other;

sisters

the grandsons of a man's brothers

all

These

are his grandsons."*

bear the stamp of a poly-

the system

androus

features of

they are

origin ;t

features

of

the system of relationship which might * -f-

Camb. It

Journ., i860, pp. 144, 145.

may be

now have

asked

why

the

Red-men should not

kinship through males

if

they have passed,

as they appear to have done, through the stage of

Our answer is, that and that pro-

polyandry of the Tibetan type. in

some

cases they have male kinships,

bably in Australia, and

among

the majority of the

nations of the red-men, the earlier species of kinship

has been perpetuated by the system of capturing wives.

We

shall hereafter see that the

system of

capture introduces uncertainty as to male parentage,

independently of the causes of such uncertainty which

we have been all

considering.

polyandrous peoples

We

may

shall also see that

not have been exoga-

2

THE S YS TEM OF KINSHIP

21

be expected

accompany the higher

to

The schedules returned to Mr. Morgan show that among the Tamul

polyandry.

and Telugu, peoples of Southern India,

numbering about twenty-four " all the brothers of

millions,

a father are usually

called fathers, but in strictness, those

who

are older than the father are called great

fathers, and those

fathers." are

still,

who

are younger, little

And both the Tamul and Telugu as we have seen, to some extent

The same system of relationfound among the Puharies, a peo-

polyandrous. ship ple

is

on the

skirts of the

Tibetan region,

and that manifestly practised polyandry a late date.

till

With

the Puharies,

all

the brothers of a father are equally fathers to his children.* mous, while

all

exogamous peoples must have been

polyandrous. *

Report of Mr. Wilson, ut supra.

THROUGH FEMALES ONLY.

We

213

have seen that the Kasias, the

Nairs, and the Saporogian Cossacks, have

system of kinship through females

the only.

We find

that system in Tulava, in

"Among

the neighbourhood of the Nairs.

the Buntar in

—the highest rank of Sudras

"

— "a man's children," says Buch-

Tulava

anan, " are not his heirs.

During

may give them money

time he

which he dies possessed goes

and

;

his life-

but

all

of

to his sisters

The cause must be

to their children."

the same in either case, though marriage in

Tulava has

polygunia.*

from polyandry to

shifted

Among

the

Rajputs

we

have traces of the system of female kin-

The Kocch have kinship and

ship.f

succession through females only

have the But *

Buchanan, ut supra,

t Tod's " Annals," X

"Des. Ethn.,"

P

vol.

etc.,

vol.

we

Farther,

{^Q)^6).i

i.,

iii.,

and so

;

p. 16.

ut supra,

p.

pp. 96, 109.

48^

find

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

214

that system among the Banyai,* in Ashanti,

Aquapim, and Congo, and are assured that traces of

Africa.f

are to be found

it

all

over

We have already had occasion to

notice its occurrence

Let us

now

see

among

the Chinese.^

what evidence there

is

of the former existence of the system of

We

kinship through females only.

the fact that, in an earlier chapter,

reason to believe that

among

the Celts. §

the Celts there

it

we saw

anciently prevailed

We

infer that

was anciently no

of male parentage.

recal

We

now

we

find traces of such a

in

the Sutras of Gautama.

among

certainty

notice that

system in India In these,

marriage with the daughter of a maternal uncle

2i



cousin on the mother's side

is

emphatically prohibited as being clearly * Livingstone's "Travels," pp. 617-622. + Reade's " Savage Africa," p. 43. J Ante, p. 177.

§

Ante,

p.

127.



;

THROUGH FEMALES ONL V.

215

against the principles of the sacred writprohibition, found with

Such a

ings.*

an exogamous race

—and

Indian races were and seen,

exogamous

the system

And

only.

almost

the

we have

are, as

—can be

all

referred only to

of kinship through females it is

impossible to avoid con-

necting with this the tradition that the five

Pandava princes

—brothers

were husbands of one asks

Max

wife.

so called "

How

is it,"

Muller.f in discussing the cha-

racter of the Mahabharata, "that the five

Pandava princes who

are at first repre-

sented as receiving so strictly Brahmanic

an education, could afterwards have been married to one wife?

This

is

in plain

opposition to Brahmanic law, where said *

'

they are

Max

many wives

of one

MuUer's "Hist, of Anc. Sans.

P- 53.

t Idem, p. 46.

it is

man

Liter.," 1859,

6

THE S YS TEM OF KINSHIP

21

not

Such a can only be accounted for by

many husbands

contradiction

of one wife.'

the admission that in this case epic tradition in the

mouth of

the people

was too

strong to allow this essential and curious feature

in

changed."

its

heroes to be

In other words,

we have here among whom

the

life

of

the tradition " that the races

the five principal heroes of the rata were born

This

polyandry. is

and

related of the

is

Mahabha-

fostered," practised

confirmed by

Pandava

princes.

were the reputed sons of Pandu, fact,

three of

all



that

They but, in

them were sons of one of

his

wives by three different gods, and the other two were sons of another wife by the Aswini-Kumaras.*

is

Pandu himself was

* Williams' "Indian Epic Poetry," 1863, p. 17. It worthy of notice that in a passage of the Maha-

bharata, lated

by

Book Dr.

w. 4719-22, which has been transMuir ("Sanskrit Texts," Part ii. p. 336), i.,

THR O UGH FEMA LES ONL V.

217

the son of a marriage with a brother's

widow.

When

the five princes married

one wife, the eldest was

by the family

to her

priest,

married

first

and then the

other four in their order, according to priority of birth.

The

princes are repre-

sented as living in family with Kauli, their

—the

mother

we have the women in the

head of their house.

following account of the freedom of early world.

"

Women

were formerly

unconfined, and roved about at their pleasure, in-

dependent (within their respective in

youthful innocence they abandoned their

their

husbands, they were guilty of no offence

was the

Though

castes).

rule in early times.

;

for such

This ancient custom

is

even now the law for creatures born as brutes, which are free from lust and anger.

by

authority,

still practised

and

is

This custom

is

supported

observed by great Rishis, and

among

the

Northern Kurus!'

it is

In a note.

Dr. Muir adds that the practice of promiscuous inter-

course was, according to the legend, abolished

by

who was

in-

Svetaketu, son of the Rishi Uddalaka,

censed at seeing his mother led away by a strange

Brahman.

Svetaketu established conjugal

fidelity.

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

2i8

In the poem, Bishma, their granduncle



grandfather's brother

often styled their

is

grandfather ; and though Bishma was really

uncle

the

Pandu, he

is



brother

father's

— of

sometimes styled his father *

All these circumstances point to a system of polyandry of the Tibetan type.

The

very terminology

and

is

that of polyandry,

which polyandry has

left

behind

it

among

the Tamul, the Telugu, the Puharies, and the red-men of America.

In short, though

the original tradition has obviously been

tampered with, enough of oblige us to acknowledge tradition of a stage of

it

remains to

as a genuine

it

Aryan

civilization,

when the marriage system was polyandrous as it is now in Tibet. It is almost needless to point

out that

we

have, in this

tradition, a confirmation of

our view of

* See Williams' "Indian Epic Poetry," 1863, pp. 93, 99,

and

1

14.

— THROUGH FEMALES ONLY.

219

the origin of the obligation which, in the

code of Menu,

on brothers

is

recognised as imposed

in turn to

marry the widow

We

of a brother deceased.

shall find

a

further confirmation of that view in the

case of the Hebrews.

We

are not without evidence of the

existence in early times of the system of

female kinship It

among

the Semitic races.

would appear that while Abraham

lived,

his

tribesmen as

still

recognised

yet

only that primitive kinship in some important relations in

life

e.g.,

the right of intermarriage.

times of

Abraham and

as affecting

Between the

the promulgation

of the Levitical law, a complete revolution took place in Jewish custom.

The

patriarch himself married his sister-ger-

man, or by the same father brother

Nahor married

* Genesis x j. 26-29

!

his

;

and his

niece,*

^"'^ ^^^ ^^'

' 2-

the

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

220

So Amram,

the

Moses and Aaron, married

his

daughter of a brother. father of father's

sister

women were

(Exod.

vi.

not relatives, in a

sense, of their husbands.

was

full legal

They were con-

nected with them through

and through males

These

20).

males only,

in those times there

not, as yet, a perfect kinship.

We

have similar evidence of the existence of the system of kinship, through females only,

among

Among

the Phoenicians.*

the Greeks, traces of this early

To

law remained in historic times.

pass

over the tradition that in Greece before

Cecrops children always bore the names of their mothers,+ at

we have

the fact that

Athens a brother might marry a * " Achilles Tatius,"

+ Varro,

Suidas, voce vol. 2.

lib.

i.

apud August: de wjo^^tf, t. 3, p.

sister-

189

Civ. Dei, ;

and

v.

1.

18,

c.

Goquet, B.

9. i.,

;

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

221

german, but not a sister-uterine or con-

Here again we have a

sanguineous.

relic

of the doctrine that a child had no paternal

A

relatives.

sister-uterine

was a

near kinswoman, but a sister-german was

no kinswoman

at

Montesquieu*

all.

ascribes this Athenian rule to a device of

the legislature for regulating successions

but he belongs to the class of philoso-

who make more

phers

enactments

of

As Bunsenf

than of popular usages.

has

pointed out, there can be no doubt that the true

meaning and origin of the

rule

were what we have indicated.

There cited to

is

one case which might be

throw doubt upon some of the

conclusions at

chapter.

in

this

of

Philo,

*

Book

+

De

which we

v.,

that c.

This the

have arrived is

the

Spartans

report

allowed

5.

Jure Hered. Athen.,

p.

148

;

Gottingen, 1813.

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

222

a

man

marry

to

his

not his

sister-german, or

father.*

This

by the same

may have been

sented to Athenian custom

hold

to

it

be incredible

circulated

which

for the sake of the contrast

we

but

sister-uterine,

;

at

it

any

prerate,

—as discordant

with old law as with- the habits of the

Lacedaemonians.

was

that there father's

is

beyond

this superior regard for the

was so loose that men

tie

their wives

to

whom

by

children were begotten,

they turned

healthy.

It is incredible, that in

munity where any

strict

text,

The

reader

may

agnatic law.

we hold

lent

one another, and cared

provided

*

belief

blood in ancient Sparta, where the

marriage

little

It

out

and

strong

a com-

sort of importance suspect that this

But

is

a

was

relic

of

for the reasons stated in the

that view to be excluded.

The system

of relationship, through males only, has never, in

any

well authenticated case, been developed into such a rule as this.

THROUGH FEMALES ONL V.

223

the unquestionable

attached

to

blood

between children of the same

tie

blood,

mother should be so disregarded. are to credit the report at

all, it

If

we

must be

on the supposition that the Spartans were exceptional in their development like the

whom the Druses customs). And we do not

ancient Persians (from

derived their

regard the case of the

weight

against our reasoning,

The

contrary.

customs were

who

consecrated an

promiscuity into

incestuous

but the

Persian

just those of hordes

If

Persians as of

a system.

they allowed the marriages of brothers

and

consanguineous,

sisters

sanctioned

the

unions

they also

sons

of

and

mothers, and of fathers and daughters,

and

in

some

cases required

them

for the

purposes of religion.* See a

full

account of the Persian customs

den's "Jus Naturale,"

iit

supra, chap.

xi.

in Sel-

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

224

At that

if

the

system of kinship through

shown

females only could be

have existed,

to

argument we saw

the outset of our

it

to exist, or

must be accounted a

more archaic system of kinship than the system of relationship through males, the product of an earlier and ruder stage

human development

in its it

of it

;

and that

to prove

existence on such a scale as to entitle

among

to rank

the normal

phenomena

human development would be

most ancient system of kinship.

the

We

to prove

now submit

we have amply

our proposition.

established collected

that

We

have

abundant evidence of the non-

existence in

many

places of the conditions

necessary for the rise of kinship through

males

them

;

in

many

cases

of

—some of populations —we

of these cases

great

have been able to adduce evidence of the existence of the system of kinship through

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

We

females only.

225

have seen that poly-

andry must be accepted as a stage in the towards marriage proper and

progress

The lower forms

the patriarchal system. of polyandry

we have found

to be

accom-

panied by the system of kinship through

We

females only.

change

its

form

have seen polyandry

till it

allowed of kinship

through males, and then die away into

an obligation

on younger brothers

in

widow of the eldest brother; and in some cases, Indo-European as well as Semitic, in which we found that relic of polyandry, we have turn to espouse the

found, or found traces

of,

the system of

kinship through females only. facts

Had

the

bearing on our inquiry ever been

systematically observed, noted, and collected,

made

it

is

probable our case might be

to appear

But as

it

is,

stronger than

we submit

that

it

does.

we have

— THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

226

done quite enough to establish the truth of our proposition.

Before leaving this subject

observe

that,

we would

whether the system

of

kinship through females only prevailed universally at the

first

or not,

it

must

have prevailed wherever exogamy prevailed

— exogamy

and

practice of capturing

as to fathers

is

the

consequent Certainty

wives.

impossible where mothers

are stolen from their first lords,

and

liable

to be re-stolen before the birth of child-

And

ren.

as

are referable to

exogamy and polyandry one and the same cause

a want of balance between the sexes

we

are forced to regard

all

the

exogamous

races as having originally been polyan-

While polyandry supplied a method whereby the want of balance might be drous.

and may thus have retarded,

the less

felt,

and

some

in

cases prevented, the estab-

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y.

227

wherever

exo-

lishment

gamy

exogamy,

of

took

been practised. it

to

polyandry must have

root

we must hold that among exo-

Therefore

be beyond dispute

gamous races the was that which

first

system of kinship

recognised

blood-ties

through mothers only.

We may be pardoned

for here advert-

ing to the views of ancient kinship ad-

We have already

vanced by Mr. Maine.

pointed out* that Mr. Maine seems not to

have been able to conceive of any

social

more primitive

order

And

patriarchal.

—or —to

than

the

as he found agnation

kinship exclusively through males

be a

common

patriarchal

system,

concomitant of the

he

has

committed

himself to the opinion that that was the

only kinship

known

to primitive times.

* Ante, p. 115.

THE SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

228

He

argues, indeed, against the possibility

of kinship through females in early times as being inconsistent with social order

and

stability.

writer

The

learned and ingenious

must be held

to

have taken up the

threads of legal history where they be-

gan

to

unwind themselves, of new,

after

the completion of a social revolution. is

It

quite undoubted, as he says, that few

indigenous bodies of law belonging to

communities of the Indo-European stock

do not exhibit referable

to

peculiarities

agnation.*

vance of society^-the riage laws

sex must

—the

With

growth of mar-

everywhere

establish that system.

tended

to

But, before that

many stages of be traversed. And while

be reached,

progress had to

the ad-

superiority of the male

have

result could

which are

See post,

p.

235.

THROUGH FEMALES ONL Y. traces of agnation are to be

early

customs

European

races,

found in the

most of the

of

we have

229

Indo-

seen that the

indigenous customs of most early com-

—^whether of the Indo-European, Turanian, or Semitic race— exhibit pecumunities

liarities intelligible

only on the supposi-

tion that kinship and succession through

females were the rule before the rise of

we have

Farther,

agnation.

seen that

wherever non-advancing communities are to be

found

— isolated in

islands or main-

taining their savage liberties in mountain fastnesses

—there

to this

day

exists the

system of kinship through females only.

The

state of old, says

nised as families.

its

units

True.

we must conclude

Mr. Maine, recog-

not individuals, but

But

at a yet older date

that neither the state,

nor the family, properly speaking, existed.

And

at

that earlier time

Q

the

unnamed



— THE STRUCTURE OF

230

species of kinship

complement of

—the

counterpart and

agnation —^was

the chief

determinant of social phenomena.

We II.

now go on

show

That the primitive groups

or were assumed to It

to

were,

homogeneous.

be,

appeared at the outset that indivi-

duals must have been primarily affiliated not to persons but to groups, and that the first effect

of the rise of the idea of kin-

ship must have been to give birth to the

conception of stocks

;

farther,

that the

establishment over any great area of the

system of kinship through females only

must have occupied a considerable period of time.

Until that system was firmly

established, there could be

ference

with

no such

the homogeneity

inter-

of

the

groups as to be worth consideration.

An

amount of heterogeneity short of that

THE PRIMITIVE GROUPS. which would introduce

at least the

may

of a system of betrothals

overlooked.

While

231

germ

fairly

be

was no

as yet there

system of kinship, the presence of captive

women

in a horde, in

whatever numbers,

could not introduce a system of betrothals.

\Heterogeneity as a statical force can only lave

come

into play

when a system

ship led the hordes to look )f

their foreign

women

of kin-

on the children

as belonging to the

stocks of their mothers

;

that

is,

when

the

sentiments which grew up with the system of kinship became so strong as to over-

master the old its

filiation to the

group (and

stock) of the children born within

We

may depend upon

it

stage of progress which reach,

and thus that

it

that this it

it.

was a

took long to

was long before

the original homogeneity of the groups

was

substantially impaired.

stage of progress

we

That

in the

are contemplating,

THE STRUCTURE OF

232

adoption was practised (the adoption of

one group by another to which

some

writers ascribe such great effects),

alto-

gether unlikely.

probably

— as

If

it

was,

it

in later times

is

would most

—proceed

on

the fiction that the uniting groups were

of the

same

to the state of hostility

the stage

we

But looking

original stock.

between groups at

are consid enhgT^nd the de-

gree^r~advahce ment implied in th e^conception of adoption,

we cannot believe that

the "groups then tended to amalgamate, howe-ver. J:hey_inayLJia¥e^tended to d i vide.

We

conclude that

we must

regard the

primitive groups as having been, or hav-

ing been assumed to be, homogeneous up to

that stage when, through

operation of

exogamy and

the

joint

the system of

kinship through females only, foreigners recognised as such began to be systematically

born within them.

— THE PRIMITIVE GROUPS.

233

The system of kinship through

III.

females only tended

mous groups

to render the exoga-

heterogeneous,

and thus

to

supersede the system of capturing wives.

We may here be very brief. We have already seen* the effects of the joint operation of

kinship

what

exogamy and

among

this

system of

the Australians.

Indeed,

must have been

their effects

Owing

ceedingly obvious.

to

is

ex-

exogamy^

the mothers in each horde were foreigners,

and, owing to the system of kin-

ship, the children

born to them were es-

teemed foreigners

also.

the system of

Thus, so

infanticide

far as

allowed,

the

men and women stocks, who might

hordes contained young

accounted of different

with

exogamy.

Hence grew up a system of

betrothals.

intermarry consistently

*

Ante,

p. 118.

— AGNATION.

234

and of marriage by

In Australia and America

is

betrothals

we saw

that in

law of blood-feud, the hetero-

spite of the

geneity

and purchase.

sale

now such is

that the system of

well established, and that of

the original stock-groups the

names alone

appear to remain.

As

IV.

civilization

advanced,

the

system of kinship through females only

was succeeded by a system which acknowledged kinship through males also

:

and

which in most cases passed into a system which acknowledged kinship through males only. It

is

obviously needless to say any-

thing in support of the proposition. as

The

we have done

in this chapter,

first

branch of this

difficulty

in

our

was

first

to show,

proposition

was a more archaic system which did not acknowledge that

there

AGNATION.

23s

With

kinship through males.

the fact of

kinship through males in advanced communities, every reader is familiar. Farther, as to the second branch of the proposition,

it is

unnecessary to adduce evidence,

or to do more than give some explanations.

Those who

Mr. Maine's

(in

are acquainted

many

with

respects admirable)

chapter on primitive society and ancient law, will see position,

from the terms of our pro-

we have

that

not

altogether

adopted his view that agnation at one time or other prevailed everywhere in the 'advancing communities dispute that general.

its

;

but

it is

prevalence

beyond

was

most

As it will be convenient hereafter

to speak of agnation as a familiar system,

we must

here say something of

This system, as

may be

it

nature.

long prevailed in Rome,

best explained

minology of

its

Roman

by using the

ter-

Jurisprudence

— to

AGNATION.

236

which

indeed

general

description

only the

But

it

its

name is

that

of blood

ties

be well to see

will

included in the kindred.

by

ties

Its

belongs. it

embraced

through males.

who were

thus

Those united

of blood through descent from the

same married

pair being called cognates

the agnates were those

;

who

cognates

traced their connection exclusively through

By

males.

and

a

fiction,

descendants

their

adopted

persons

through

were within the agnatic bond.

males All the

children of a married pair were agnates, as well as sons,

the grandchildren through'

all

but

the

grandchildren

through

daughters were not in the number of agnates.

by

The

different

children of the

legal effect.

father

mothers were kindred, but

the children of the ferent fathers

same

same mother by

dif-

were not relations to any

The sons

of brothers were

AGNATION.

237

kinsmen, but the sons of sisters or of brother and sister were no relations

for

;

a woman's children were held to be not of the kin of their mother but of their father.

And

no case was there a

in

between a woman's

tie

and

her

was an

af-

children

natural relatives unless there

between her and her husband.

finity is

of kinship

needless to say that the cognates

remain over, are those

after

It

who

deducting the agnates,

who would be

relatives

under

the system of kinship through females If the

only.

malies so

one system involved ano-

female kinship prevails, a

become a hodman his

mother

sister

—a

—taking

the state of

—while the son of the Rajah's The nephew

mounts the throne.

sister's

child



Rajah, but his son

more

Where Rajah's son may

did also the other.

is

is is

a relation of the

none

his brother's son

;

at

for

all.

No

through

THE GROWTH OF

238

a male under that system there

no

is

blood-tie.

Under each system, while

it

prevailed,

the effects of kinship were confined

those

And

who

often

according to it is

it

were

to

relations.

in the laws of succession

we find the best evidence of the former existence among a race of either system. The rule preserved in the customs of Northat

mandy, which prohibited uterine brothers from succeeding to one another's lands, attests

the

agnation

;

former prevalence and, in

some

there

of

quarters, as in

Congo, the descent of the crown from the uncle to the sister's son

is

nearly

all

that

remains to witness to the former prevalence of the system of kinship through females.

It will

history which

be a curious chapter in

successfully narrates

the

progress of the revolution by which the

passage from the earlier to the later of

AGNATION. these systems

was

effected

239

;

exhibiting the

stages in the development of the family

system, as based upon the patria-potestas,

and of agnatic kinship as deduced therefrom.

Let us see whether sentences suggest that progress.

the progress

through the

we cannot

some of

in a

few

the steps in

The reader must suppose to commence as soon as, joint operation of exogamy

and the system of female kinship, the groups have been rendered so

far hetero-

geneous as to permit of marriage within the group.

Children

having been

to

affiliated

mothers instead of to groups, the

first

approach to a family system would be



through a separation of residences^ of a group having no longer a

haunt or dwelling, but at

all

common

first all

of the

same- stock within a group associating as

THE GROWTH OF

240

a gens or house

and

next,

mothers and

occupying separate homes.

their children

With

;

this separation of residences

come a

closer

kindred

first

in

would

knitting together of the the gens,

and next of

mothers and children in the family

— rude

proprietary rights distinct from the tribal, distinct

from the gentile



in the

common

home, weapons, and garnered food. There

would be introduced such a species of family system as

we find among

the Nairs

—the rudest that can be imagined. from to

And

this to the family system, peculiar

polyandry of the

Tibetan type, we

have seen the stages of development. In the Nair stage, kinship would be of

importance chiefly in two respects as

determining the

riage';

(2),

succession.

right of



(i),

intermar-

as determining the right of It

might be expected that

the system of kinship through females

;

AGNATION. only would

first lose

241

importance in regard

to successions.

While the Nair family system lasted, we may assume that the common home of the brothers and mother would not often be such as to permit (conveniently)

of

a

general

brothers

— of

succession the

all



failing

sister's

children,

where there was more than one

and that the

first

the

sister

advance to a restricted

system of succession would be through the limitation of the right of succession,

primo sister.

loco, to

the children of the eldest

We have seen the practice* grow-

ing of fathers making to

gifts,

inter

"vivos,

women's children whom they had reason

to think their

own

;

and as

grew with the number of there

was a degree of

this practice

cases in which

certainty of male

Ante, p. 213.

THE GROWTH OF

242

parentage, there would be a farther practical restriction

of the right of succession

through females. of

And

gifts, inter vivos, to

with the practice putative children,

would grow a feeling against allowing tates to pass

to that of,

the

of,

es-

from the house of the brothers or to the putative children

polyandrous husbands of their

and a corresponding disposition towards a system of marriage which would sister,

allow of the property passing to the brother's

own

would suggest system



to

The system which

children. itself

would be the Tibetan

have a wife

house of their mother.

in

common

in the

This system would

produce certainty of the children being of their own blood; they would be born in the house, and would

become

its heirs.

The next step in advance is obvious. The succession of the younger brother to the elder

was a

feature of the earliest law

AGNATION.



sister's

243

sons only succeeded failing their

Now, everything conspired to invest the eldest brother, when he came into the succession, with some of the attriuncles.

butes of a paterfamilias.

only on

the death

drous fathers.



But

younger brothers the

first to

of

This he did

all

the

polyan-

in his relation to his

— in respect of his being

marry, reaching puberty

first,

and choosing the future wife of himself

and brothers



in respect of the first-born,

and frequently more than one of the

child-

ren of his marriage being unquestionably his offspring



it

was natural

that the

fic-

tion should be formed that his were all

the children. in

Women

the recourse

to

had already, and

Tibetan

polyandry,

been deposed from the sovereignty and management of families and now, with ;

additional guarantees for the wife's fidelity,

parentage was either become certain.

THE GROWTH OF

244

or feigned to be so

;

the elder brother

was

a sort of paterfamilias, the right to succeed him being in his younger brothers in their order

son.

;

after

them, in their eldest

Thus, the idea of fatherhood



formed under the system of Nair poly-

andry

—attained something

like maturity

under the Tibetan, and took customary law.

And

so far as

step towards, or accompanied

through males,

it

its

place in it

was a

by kinship

was a step away from

kinship through females, and especially as regards rights of succession.

Apart from such certainty of fatherhood as was incidental to the marriage of eldest sons, the earliest

married

examples of such

would give certainty of male parentage would probably be furnished by the chiefs of tribes, who might life

as

have the power to secure to themselves one, or perhaps several wives. In Kan-

— AGNATION. dya, Ceylon, where polyandry

245

is

universal

among

the lower and middle classes,

chiefs

are

strictly

the

monogamists, appa-

rently regarding polyandry as a low prac-

unworthy of men

tice,

As

in their position.

settled habits arose, as property accu-

mulated, and the sexes became more evenly balanced, the example of the chiefs would find

more and more

cases

imitators,

would furnish a model

proved system of succession. arise a practice of

gamy.

monogamy

Brothers would not

be co-husbands

;

andry would die

and

for

an im-

Thus would or of poly-

now always

the Tibetan form of polyout,

and the marriage

of a brother to his elder brother's

would become

their

first

widow

an act of succession

necessary for the assumption of the brother's place as

head of the family; next, as

the succession of sons

was introduced as

in right prior to the brother of a father

R

— THE GROWTH OF

246

through the brothers leaving the

chiefly

house and contracting separate marriages



it

would become an obligation founded

on usage, and which, being unproductive of material advantages, would not unfrequently, from men's other marriages,

found irksome and inconvenient. the obligation itself

bfe

Finally,

would die out under

the influence of ideas of propriety, which

grew up with the improved marriage system.

In the Institutes of

Menu

the ob-

ligation is seen in a state of decadence

under the influence of such Paternity having

ideas.

become

certain,

a

system of kinship through males would arise with the

practice

of

growth of property, and a

sons

succeeding,

direct, to the estates of fathers

the system of arose, that chiefly

as ;

heirs

and as

kinship through

through females would

males

—and

under the influence of property

— agnation: The

die away.

cases of

247

Abraham and

Nahor, however, show that

would be

it

long before that system ceased as

influential

that

it

some

regards

be

to

intermarriages

;

might, as regards them, linger to

effect

even after

the patriarchal state.

men had reached From the patri-

archal state, with such a customary law

as prevailed in Abraham's time, to the

system of agnation as

Rome, step in

still

is it,

prevailed

it

a long progress.

we may be

was

sure,

in

Every affected

by considerations derived from

property.

While wives were

there

captured,

any sense of property

at

all,

be regarded as property. later stage they

came

if

was

wives would

When

at a

from the

to pass

houses of their birth into alien houses

by purchase perty.

And

property,

—they

would

still

be pro-

with the wives considered as

it is

easy to conceive

how

there

THE GROWTH. OF

248

would have arisen a sense of property

in

Hence, additional features of

children.

And when

the patria potestas.

woman

a

had been sold to her husband by her

and had thus come

father,

to

sidered the husband's property, to see

how

be conit is

easy

neither her original family, nor

able to

which she had married, should be inherit any property through her.

But the

right of inheritance, as property

that into

became abundant, tended

to become,

did become, the test of kinship.

and

And

in

course of time, the notion of kinship derived through

among a

females would disappear

people

who

cared nothing for a

kinship barren as regarded patrimonial advantages.

The

would be the

result

system of agnation. It is

not necessary

more than repeat

that

foi*

we

us here to do

have, in

nume-

rous cases, found agnation, or at

least

AGNATION.

249

kinship through males, preceded by the

system of kinship through females only. It

was so

in the cases of the

Hindus, Celts, and Greeks;

sumably so

we

find

it

Hebrews,

was pre-

in all those cases in

which

kinship through males accom-

panied by that

relic

—the

of polyandry

obligation laid on younger brothers in

turn

to

marry the widow of the elder

brother deceased.

And

since

we have

shown special cause for believing that all the exogamous races had originally the system of kinship through females only, we are entitled to assume that it was so

among

those

exogamous

peoples with

which, as with the Khonds, the Circassians,

and the Kalmucks, we

find

rela-

tionship to be agnatic.

system of kinship through, males tended to rear up homogeneous

Y.—The

THE EFFECTS OF

2SO

groups,

and thus

condition races,

to restore the original

of affairs among exogamous

as regards both the practice of

capturing wives

and

form of capture. The first effect

the evolution of the

through

of kinship

males must have been to arrest the progress of tion of

heterogeneity.

women

foreign

longer brought into foreigners

;

it

The

introduc-

into a tribe

no

children accounted

for either the children

were

no longer of the mother's stock, but of the father's, or,

if

were yet of the

of the mother's, they father's

also.

Where,

then, in a tribe, a balance of persons of different stocks

was

henceforth

had not been reached, unattainable.

it

Farther,

with kinship through males would arise

common descent from some distinguished man a fiction which would lead in many cases to the de-

the habit of feigning a



AGNATION.

such heterogeneity as

nial or neglect of

Of

existed.

251

new groups

the

that were

formed, the homogeneity was

The

secured.

grow

into

now tended

family

the

tribe

perfectly to

The

of kinsfolk.

children born to a polygamist husband

were

all

their

mothers

brothers,

'

of different stocks,

addition

were

all

as well

of

women And were kinsfolk. increased

generations,

by the

members

its

within the kindred.

And

perished.

it

women

no mates within

Where

of a family could its

bounds,

marrying into other groups would low,

and

that,

where the exogamous prejudice

survived the

find

children of

they married

family

survived as where it

The

were.

though

however the

whatever stocks

of

kinsfolk,

their children

fol-

with them, the

kindred of their husbands.

be out of the group.

and

They would

Thus, within such

— THE EFFECTS OF

252

exogamous groups as were remodelled, and within such new exogamous groups as

were formed, under this species

of

kinship there could be no marriage with-

There would be no place

in the group.

for a

where

system of betrothals; and except friendly

subsisted

relations

be-

tween the groups to allow of marriage

by purchase,

more be able turing them. stage, the

members would once get wives only by cap-

their to

Thus, even

if,

in the first

system of capture had

—as we

see in Australia that

it

been superseded, the

exogamous

in entering

partially has races,

on a new phase of advance-

ment, had reserved for them a farther experience of that system, to confirm or re-establish the old association

between

marriage and the act of rapine.

we cannot doubt

that

And

many exogamous

peoples have had this twofold experience.

AGNATION.

We

know

of several

253

exOgamous

races

which, after having had kinship through females, had kinship through males

we cannot doubt

that the

case with the other

and

;

same was the

exogamous

races that

have had the form of capture and agnatic

the

And

relationship. later

stage,

the

indeed,

as in

experience

must

have been more uniform and continuous, there being nothing, in the absence of friendliness between the groups, to interfere

with the system of capture, so

it

is

observable that the form of capture

is

now most distinctly marked and impressive just among those races which have It

might be doubted, but

for the case of the

Fuegians and traces of

the symbol, as

of a thing decayed, oc-

male kinship.

if

curring in America, whether the

expe-

rience of the earlier stage could generate

the form.

There

is

no doubt

it

can,

and

— THE RISE OF

2S4

has frequently done so

whether

it

;

but the question

could have done so, might, on

mere general reasoning, have been decided in the negative.

VI.

Under the combined

influence of

exogamy and the system of female kinship, a local tribe might attain a balance of persons regarded as being of different descent, and its members might thus be able to intermarry with one another,

wholly within the

in

tribe,

and

consistency

with the principle of exogamy.

This has

sufficiently appears

preceded

;

from what has

and

it

from what

farther

preceded,

appears

that

such

a

balance of the sexes as would render a

group independent of other groups the

matter

speedily

be

of

marriage

reached

practice of polyandry.

in

would respect

in

more of

the

— CASTE.

A

VII.

local tribe

255

having reached

the stage contemplated in the last proposition,

and having grown proud through

successes in war, It is

might become a

caste.

obvious that the feeling of supeother tribes, concurring with

riority to

independence of them as regards marriage,

might lead a

and then

to decline

tribe first to avoid,

and

prohibit, inter-

marriage with the tribes which

teemed

inferior.

And

it

es-

a tribe with a

marriage-law restricted by such a prohibition

a caste, or has made an ap-

is

proach towards being a caste. have, in is

fact,

That

castes

been produced in this way,

rendered certain by the fact already

referred to castes,

— that

nearly

all

the Indian

from the highest to the lowest, are

divided into gotrams or families, and that

marriage of the

is

prohibited between persons

same gotram, who, according

to the

THE RISE OF

256

Menu, are shown by

rule of

name

We

to be of the

hold

same

that this at

caste to have been

their

common

original

stock.

once shows the

composed of members

of different original stocks, and the stocks

themselves to have been originally exo-

There can, we think, be

gamous.

doubt that

all

little

castes of this description

were formed by the processes which we have been

among a

explaining.

The Kamilaroi

the Australians appear to be such

caste.

tralia

And were

to

be

left

the natives of Austo

themselves,

their

system of kinship remaining what

we might

expect hereafter to find

them numerous

caste

it

is,

among

tribes of this de-

scription.*

* It is

tribes in

worth mentioning that many of the rude caste the hills of India,—such as the Kocch,— have

the blood-tie through mothers only. riage

is

Whether mar-

subject to any, or what, restrictions within

— CASTE. It

is

257

a rider on what has preceded

that caste

may

appear at that stage of a

people's progress while they are yet poly-

androus.

And

that stage

we have

VIII.

On

of caste

among

people at

several instances.

kinship becoming agnatic,

members of a caste, formed as above explained, might yielding to a common the



tendency of rude races—feign themselves to be all descended from

a common an-

and thus become endogamous.

cestor,

On

the appearance of kinship through

these caste tribes,

we have no

information.

The

reader will understand that, in speaking of castes,

we distinguish between

castes proper

a people as determined

by the

-

—and

—the divisions of

right of intermarriage

the classical subdivisions of castes proper,

which are often met with, and which are also frequently called castes.

We

believe with Dr.

Roth that the and

vision into classes resulted from the growth

di-

es-

tablishment of professions, and was of later date than the division into castes proper.

THE RISE OF

258

males,

much

confusion must for a time

have prevailed in the application of the

Some

exogamy.

principle of

would be-

that were formerly allowable

come

illegal

:

as, for instance,

of brother and

marriages

the marriage

sister-german, or of the

children of brothers

;

on the other hand,

some marriages that were before illegal would become allowable, as for instance the marriages of sisters' least the marriages last

children.

At

mentioned would

be consistent with exogamy where tionship became agnatic.

And

rela-

as the old

became inapplicable new rules would be formed, which in some cases might ignore the principle upon which the rules thus

old proceeded. that,

At any rate

it is

manifest

while the application of the principle

new circumstances was in dubio, fiction of a common descent from an

in the

the

illustrious ancestor,

should

it

be put

for-

ENDOGAMY.

259

ward, would come in aid of the confusion

destroy or render obsolete the

to

principle of

exogamy.

The members

of

the caste already restricted to marriages

among

themselves,

themselves

all

to

now

and

feigning

be kindred, would be-

come endogamous. Indeed,

all

that is

necessary for the

production of an endogamous tribe a caste tribe composed of ferent stocks should,

is,

members

anyhow,

at

that

of dif-

any time,

eponomy.

yield to the tendency to

We

see,

however, that in the stage of transi-

tion

from the system of female kinship to

agnation, or to a system of male kinship, there

must have been a time highly favour-

able for the introduction of the fiction of a

common

descent,

and of the destruction

thereby of exogamy.

Of

rude races to employ that necessary that

we should

the tendency of fiction, it is

say anything

un;

it

THE RISE OF

26o

is

familiar to

Nothing

students of early history.

more common than

is

belief in a

all

to find the

common descent among peoples

obviously heterogeneous

sometimes the

;

found even in communities which

belief is

are not only heterogeneous, but the

position of which

known

is

to

com-

be entirely

artificial.*

And capture

we anywhere find the form of among an endogamous race, as we if

do among the Bedouin Arabs, and appear to do among the Hebrews, it is not, we think, too

much

the form

is

to say that the presence of

confirmatory of the supposi-

tion that the

race

became endogamous

through employing this processes which ing.

At

fiction,

we have been

least this is the

which we can

"

and by the

offer

of

explain-

only explanation the appearance

Ancient Law," 1861,

p.

263.

ENDOGAMY. among an endogamous

261

people of the form

of capture.*

We have

now gone

over the ground

laid out at the close of the last chapter. It will

be seen that some of the proposi-

tions mutually support one another.

example,

the

certain castes rule of

As

observed heterogeneity of

which are subject to the

exogamy, goes to show that their

ancestors *

must have had the system of

to the unity of physical characteristics ob-

served in most castes,

when exogamy

is

we

notice that even in the stage

yet observed, they were, owing to

their intermarriages

mitted

For

by a system

and the

close connections per-

of kinship which ignored half of

the natural blood-ties, steadily advancing to one type,

Where the caste became properly endogampus the circumstances were only just more

as consanguinii.

favourable to the production of that type.

There

is

nothing in the observed unity discordant with the as-

sumption of original heterogeneity; nothing, especially

when we

consider the periods of time at our disposal,

among a among themselves.

to allow for the production of a uniform type

people strictly limited to marriages

S

THE LA W OF

262

kinship through females only

gamy, by

itself,

explain

not

will

for exo-

;

the

welding together, in a group, of persons

And

of different original stocks.

to those

who, from the earlier chapters, have formed the opinion that

we are

right in our theory

of the origin of the form of capture, the

appearance of the form

gamous

among an endo-

race will strengthen the supposi-

many endogamous races, which have not or which we do not know to have the form, may originally have been tion that





exog'amous.

We may

fitly

some surmises are worth early

which

—as

close this chapter with

—thrown out to

for

some of the

society of the

effects

on

law of blood-feud

exists everywhere, so

know, among rude

what they

races,

far

as

we

and which of

course grew up with, and out of kinship.

So

far as the

law of blood-feud retarded

BLOOD-FEUD.

of heterogeneity within

the production the groups

in

any

friendly to progress.

of view

district,

From

appears that

it

263

it

it

was un-

another point

must have

fa-

voured progress, especially among exo-

gamous races, at that stage when kinship was through females only. It bound all the kindred to avenge the death of any one,

and the obligation was a point of

At

religion.

tion

to

forded

probably, the protec-

first,

the person which this law af-

may have

extended only to adults,

came

to be extended even

but in time

it

to infants.

This extension indeed was a

necessity.

logical

And

when

infants

came within the benefit of the law, their lives must often have been spared to avoid the blood-feud with their mother's kin-

dred

—a

body of

protectors, as

seen, usually living outside

to the

gens or house of

we have

and foreign

birth.

Thus

the

THE LA

264

W

OF

law of blood-feud must be credited with a mitigation, perhaps

in

some

cases with

the suppression, of infanticide, male as well as

female, in

at that

stage

when kinship

And by

mothers only. practice

it

exogamous is

societies,

through

checking

this

tended to restore the balance

of the sexes, to allow of the rise of poly-

gunia and the decay of polyandry. a curious

fact that

are aware

of, is

nowhere now, that we

infanticide

exogamy and the

It is

earliest

a system where

form of kinship

co-exist.

When, however, with

agnation, groups

became homogeneous, containing none but kindred, and containing in fact all the kindred,

this

blood-feud

beneficial

must have

necessity or convenience fanticide

action ceased.

of

Where

prompted

among agnatic groups,

the

to in-

the law of blood-feud opposed no impediment to the

BLOOD-FEUD. practice.

at the

265

If the children perished

hands of their kindred.

it

was

Accord-

ingly the most impressive systems of in-

— fanticide—now

fanticide

systems of female

chiefly

exogamous

existing,

races

occur

in-

among

which have male kin-

ship.

On

the one hand, then, the law of

blood-feud would seem to have played an

important part in introducing monogamy, polygunia, and the patriarchal system the other hand,

it

would seem

at

;

on

a later

stage to have favoured the perpetuation of

exogamy, and of systems of

infanticide.

266

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

CHAPTER

IX.

THE DECAY OF EXOGAMY

IN

ADVANCING

COMMUNITIES. It will complete the view of early society, to

which we have been

led

by our

investi-

gation of the origin of the form of capture, if

we

point out the principal causes

of the breakdown of

ing communities.

exogamy

We

in

advanc-

have seen

liability of the principle to

the

decay in the

confusion incident to the growth of the

system of kinship through males

have found reason to think that place to

endogamy

in

many

it

tribes

and

;

gave

which

had, previous to the revolution in kinship,

— the purposes of marriage— of persons nearly attained a balance

counted of different stocks.

sufficient for

It

ac-

remains.

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES. then, that

we should

267

consider the causes

of the neglect of the principle where

it

perished gradually, and without the people

becoming endogamous.

To will

indicate

be

the causes in any case

sufficient for

select the cases of

our purpose.

We

Rome

Greece and

as

>being those which, to the generality of readers,

most

are

That the

familiar.

Greeks and the Romans were originally

exogamous may be

inferred

distinct grounds, separately,

bination,

(i).

They

from three

and

in

com-

present us with the

Form of Capture in marriage ceremonies. are (2), Many of their mythic traditions incapable of a rational explanation, except

on the hypothesis that they anciently had the system of capturing (3),

women

The composition and

their tribes

for wives.

organization of

and commonwealths cannot

well be explained, except on the hypothe-

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

268

sis that

they resulted from the joint ope-

ration,

in early times, of

exogamy, and.

the system of kinship through females

The two

only.

already noticed

now new

;

grounds we have

first

on the

dwell somewhat.

It

its

we must

not only affords

evidence of the prevalence of exo-

gamy, but introduces us of

third,

to the chief causes

decay in advancing communities.

The States,

old theory of the composition of

was based upon the tendency of

families to multiply round a central fa-

mily,

whose head represented the

original

The

family,

progenitor

of

them

all.

under the government of a

assumed

to be the

father,

primary group

elementary social unit

;

in

it

was

—the

were found at

once the germs of the State, and of sovereign authority.

commended than

its

Many

circumstances re-

this theory,

and none more

apparent simplicity.

It

was easy

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES. abundant analogies

to find

269

for the pro-

longation of the family into the State.

A family tends to multiply families around it,

as

just

the banyan

it is

tribe,

tends to surround

with a forest of

itself

And

becomes the centre of a

it

till

its

own

offshoots.

obvious, to follow up this figure,

by remarking that the

feelings of kindred

which hold families together

in

tribes,

tend to bind together, in nations, tribes

which, like the Greek races, trace back their descent to kinsmen.

The is

origin of the State on this view

so simple, that a child

But

it.

it

is

may comprehend

very easily shown that the

theory cannot be supported. place,

it is

tribes are

to

not borne out by history.

first

The

numerous whose members claim

be descended from a

tor.

In the

common

progeni-

Inquiry, however, everywhere dis-

closes the fact, that the

common

progenitor

THE DECA V OF EXOGAMY

270

is

a fiction

—a

hero or god, called into

being to explain the tribe the tribe did not derive

many when

it

whom

being.

its

In

not only the fact that the

cases,

genealogy

—from

is fictitious,

but even the time

was invented, can be shown

nowhere can

tribes or nations

back to individuals.

Also,

;*

and

be traced

the theory

turns on a fundamental error as to the primitive state.

It postulates that

human

history opens with perfect marriage, con-

jugal fidelity, and certainty of male parentage-^that, from the

the necessary

first, all

conditions of the rise of a perfect family

system

were

history did

not so begin

demonstrably,

family

the

unit of the theory unit *

it

is

Demonstrably,

satisfied.

assumed

This can be done



is

and hence,

— the

social

not the primary

to be. in

;

Farther, and

regard to the Greek races

which traced their descent to the sons of Helen.

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES.

271

apart from these objections, the theory is

wanting

in

this

a good theory,

essential

that

viz.,

appear to explain, the acute thinkers the

at

as they

made to The more

felt

which

facts.

who have adopted

same time have

groups

in

early

of entertaining especially

rejected,

principle

times

on

united,*

difficulties in the

the

seems

pressed with these

a

as

have discerned serious

Maine

and

it,

constrained to do, the prin-

of contiguity,

ciple

way

should ex-

or be capable of being

plain,

who

it

quality of

to

theory.

Mr.

have been im-

difficulties,

and

to

have

been unable to find any proper solution of them.

* Aristotle

kept clear of

many

of the difficulties

which surround the theory of the derivation of the state from the family,

by making the combination

of families of different stocks depend on contiguity of residence,

and on convenience.

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

272

" In

most of the Greek States, and

Rome," says Mr. Maine,*

" there long re-

mained vestiges of an ascending

series of

groups, out of which the State first

The

constituted.

in

was

family, house,

at

and

Romans, may be taken as the type of them and they are so described tribe of the

;

to us, that

we can

scarcely help conceiv-

ing them as a system of concentric

circles,

which have gradually expanded from the

same

point.

The elementary group

family connected by to the highest

common

male ascendant.

is

the

subjection

The ag-

gregation of families (which elsewheret he calls the fictitious

extension of the family)

The aggregation of houses makes the tribe. The aggregation of tribes forms the commonforms the gens or house.

wealth."

*

"Ancient Law,"

p. 128.

t

P. 200.

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES. Obviously, this

is

273

not an explanation

of the growth of the commonwealth.

It

does not show how, consistently with the

assumption of the family as the elementary unit, the various aggregations spoken

of were effected.

which occurs look,

was

elsewhere,

The gens,

clan, or house,

in early tribes

in India, Greece,

composed of

all

wherever we

and Rome, as the persons in

the tribe (included in families, of course),

bearing the same name, and accounted of the

same

stock.

Were

the gentes

names

really of different stocks, as their

would imply, and as the people believed If so,

to

how came

?

clans of different stocks

be united in the same tribe ?

The pro-

duction of a tribe of one stock

homogeneous agnatic group



is

—of a

readily

on the family hypothesis. But how came a variety of such groups

conceivable

^—of

different

stocks— to coalesce

in

a

;

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

274

local

On

tribe?

came a clans

tribe of descent to

situated

how came such

a tribe to be at

all

common

divided

?

we know, been

supposition

is,

given.

brought about by the

The

that the hetero-

geneity of the local tribes was

is

tribes

these questions no proper answer

has, so far as

It

how

be divided into

in different local

into clans or houses

To

hand,

the other

somehow

fiction of adoption.

supposed that the agnatic groups

must have united through

this fiction,

the one adopting the other on the pretence of kinship;

union,

although,

they preserved

after their

their

distinctive

Mr. Maine does not expressly

names. say that

the

observed combination

heterogeneous elements

in

tribes,

hence in the commonwealth

—often

of

and as-

sumed

to be

composed wholly of kindred

—was

due

to

the

employment of the

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES. fiction

275

of adoption; but he leaves that

conclusion to be drawn by his readers. " If,"

he

" adoption

says,

had

never

do not see how any one of the

existed, I

primitive groups

(?>.,

the agnatic brother-

hoods, for he contemplates none other),

whatever were their nature, could have absorbed one another

;

on what terms

or,

any two of them could have combined, except those of absolute superiority on the one side, and absolute subjection on the other,"

Here the

tinctly perceived

What

is

;

but,

difficulty is is

dis-

overcome

it

?

the evidence that the fiction of

adoption was ever employed on so grand a scale as

we must

suppose, to explain

the heterogeneity of such groups as the tribes of

Rome,

say that there error,

Greece, or India?

is

none.

induced by the

effectum."

As

the

It is

maxim

"

We

a case of

causa aequat

fiction of

adoption

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

276

was the only cause conceived

of,

that

might have produced the observed phenomena,

it

has been assumed to have been

employed on the scale required by supposed is

effects.

But,

no evidence that

And

there

is

it

we

its

repeat, there

was so employed.

no likelihood that

it

was so

Our belief is, that adoption has been much more extensively employed

employed.

by philosophers

to explain, than

it

was by

rude races to produce, heterogeneity. is

of no consequence

how

It

families and

gentes were adulterated by the practice of

The.

adoption.

does not

lie

so

difficulty to

much

in

be got over

any want of purity

of the so-called stocks, as in the union of different

the

same

stocks—admittedly different— in tribe.

The phenomena we have been contemplating offer no difficulty when regarded from the point of view to which

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES.

we have been

To

by our

led

investigation.

satisfy the reader of this,

some

277

we must

We

extent recapitulate.

to

started in

the last chapter from the conception of populations,

the

units

homogeneous groups or

of

were

which

tribes,

which, on

the introduction of kinship, became the

stock groups of each particular district or country, and gave their

names

to

the

known to Arid we saw

variety of stocks subsequently

the district or country.

how, into the groups, and into their sections,

they

if

divided,

exogamy con-

jointly with the system of kinship through

females only, while cally

it

endured, systemati-

imported strangers, and

thus

in

time rendered the groups heterogeneous,

and the general population

to'

*

That

a

much

is

to the

same

to the

same*

recognised extent, but really

greater, half the blood-ties being over-

looked.

T

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

278

We saw how thus

extent homogeneous.

every local tribe came to consist of per-

sons of different stocks

same

the

stock, in each,

how

also

;

all

were bound

of

to-

gether by rights and obligations spring-

ing out of kinship united

also effect

—to

whatever

;

and how they were

— though

all

less

to

others of the

practical

same stock

local tribes residing.

in

Farther,

we saw that, when kinship became

agnatic,

the character of the local tribes

became

stereotyped, the causes of heterogeneity

ceasing to operate.

In each local tribe

all

the

men

of the

same stock and name were bound by

common action, in against the men of other

stocks,

both in the tribe and elsewhere.

Here

kinship cases,

to

we have

And

certain

the gentes in the local tribe.

gentes of the same stock and

would

exist

in

different

name

neighbouring

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES.

how

We

tribes.

local

shall

279

learn from this

the causes which led to the diffusion

of the stocks throughout the population,

favoured the union of the population in the commonwealth.

Most probably con-

tiguous tribes would be composed of precisely the

same stocks

— would

contain

gentes of precisely the same names, and

thus be in the strictest sense akin dred.

There

is

no

—kin-

difficulty in conceiv-

ing equal unions taking place between such tribes under the influence of kin-

and

struc-

and convenience.

And

ship, similarity of elements ture, contiguity

on the union of several local tribes under a common government, the gentes of each stock in the combination would be recogdenised as forming together a tribe of scent, as in reality they

the

tribes

of descent

would in

the

do.

Thus,

common-

gentes wealth would each embrace several

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

28o

which had taken shape, and

and property

special rights

tribes in

acquired

in the local

which they respectively were,

As

before the union in the State.

gens

(or the

germ

would

thereof)

the

arise

under the influence of female kinship,

—probably long

would precede

it

precede^

agnatic kinship and the family system as

they existed in

Rome.

And we have

already seen something of the processes

by which the gentes would be resolved into rude family groups,

and the family

system gradually advance into the patriarchal,

till

the gentes

would be resolved

into a series of families of the type.

The

Roman

order of social development,

in our view, is then, that the tribe stands first all,

;

the gens or house next

the family.

;

and

We are satisfied

last of

that the

more the reader studies the phenomena of early tribal composition

—the phratries

;

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES.

281

and such-like unions of persons in ferent tribes

—the

more he

dif-

will be con-

vinced that this was the order of the genesis of tribes, gentes, and families

and that

mena

in

no other way can the pheno^

of the composition of early states

be satisfactorily explained.*

Assuming *

We

that

recommend

we have given

the true

to the reader a perusal of the

Translator's Preface to the Oxford translation (1830)

of C. O. MuUer's " History and Antiquities of the Doric Race"— the translators being Henry Tufnell

and Sir George Cornwall Lewis. If the reader keeps in view that we have good evidence of the existence at one time of the system of kinship through females only among the Dorians, we believe he will not be translated able to peruse the passage of Dicaearchus in that preface,

and the Editor's comments thereon,

are without being strongly impressed that our. views early of phenomena the only views on which the

Doric communities can be

he farther study Chap, "

History of Greece,"

we

correctness of our views

made

x..

intelligible.

Part

ii.

of Mr.

And

if

Grote's

believe his impression of the will

be deepened.

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

282

account of the origin of clans of different

names and stocks

in local tribes,

and of

the appearance of distinct houses of the

same name

in tribes of descent, in ancient

commonwealths, we might greatly extend the area of exogamy.

But

We

our present purpose. the breakdown of

to

exogamy

do so

is

not

observe that in

advancing

communities must have been most

inti-

mately connected with this evolution of clans

and

families,

estates within

already had

and of clan and family

the tribe.

As we have

occasion to point out, the

only species of property

known anywhere

originally

have

perty in

appears

common.

to

been

Everywhere

it

pro-

would

appear that the groups were at the first the only owners. And the history of the right of property, as that of the

we have

it,

is

just

growth mstc^e groups of proprietary rights distinct from the tribal.

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES. It

was an advance when clan

estates

283

were

recognised as distinct from the tribal

was a

farther advance

;

it

when family estates

were recognised as distinct from those of

Barbarism was already

the clan.

when

the rear its

far in

individual property

made

appearance.

Now, when

Rome

begins, marriage-laws had not only

become acter,

the authentic history of

stringent,

but modern in char-

conjugal fidelity had become com-

mon, and, as the consequence, relationship

had become

agnatic.

The

tribal system,

moreover, had been stripped of several of its

leading features.

Property had long

been localized in families as distinct from gentes and this localization had cut the ;

families off from one another,

and

large extent from the gentes.

Families

were

still

associated in gentes

in tribes, for political purposes

to a

the gentes

;

;

and there

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY

284

remained to the gentiles the right and spes successionis to family estates, failing

But already the laws of

legitimate heirs.

had sprung up

succession which

family property

—which

with

were springing

—^were

up with individual property

train-

ing the people to consider a few persons

only as their

And

sense.

kinsmen

in

any

special

the course of decadence of

the recognition of extended kinships in

Greece followed

much

the

same

path.

However strongly implanted the principle of exogamy may have originally been, it must have succumbed to the influences which

tlius disintegrated the old

kinship.

So complete was

tion, that in

Rome

cession

remained

still

the disintegra-

while the right of

isuc-

in the gentiles as

evidence of kinship, and obligations,

bonds of

its

rights and

having been originally co-

extensive with the gens,

we

find this so

IN ADVANCING COMMUNITIES.

285

far lost sight of in the nebulosities of

the lawyers de-

legal terminology, that

clared that all consanguinity ended with their

names

degrees—names

for its seven

invented with a view to the regulation of successions

;

ended

there, "

quia ulteriuS

per rerum naturam nee nomina inveniri

nee vita succedentibus prorogari potest."*

A

maxim, by the way,

which proved

very convenient to those pontiffs

who

maintained that the Levitical rule problood all marriage between hibited relations,

and which

very convenient

Greek church

now

still

the Levitical rule.

probably found

is

in

Russia where the

asserts that

For the

view of

rest, it

must

be enough to say that exogamy died out with the blood-ties on which its existence depended, and that the process

* Paulus, Senten. Recept., Lib.

iv.,

Tit

ii.

THE DECA Y OF EXOGAMY.

286

of destruction of those ties which the laws of succession inaugurated,

was

carried on

and completed by the law of Testaments. If to this general

added, perhaps

view anything should be

it is

tions of the rule of to

that the earliest viola-

exogamy would appear

have been called for in the case of

male

heiresses.

Such

ladies, if

they

fe-

made



proper marriages according to old law that stage of progress

when a

at

wife was

usually what they call in Ceylon a deega

own

family into

the family and village of her

husband-

wife,

i.e.,

passed from her

must have

carried their estates into other

tribes or gentes,

and so have cut

off their

own gentiles from the prospect of succeeding them. Numbers xxxvi. contains an account of the origin among the Israelites of the rule prohibiting a female heiress

from marrying out of the tribe of the family of her father. is

not

uncommon.

And the prohibition

CONCL USION.

CHAPTER

287

X.

CONCLUSION.

Here

our argument ends.

Apparently

simple as was the problem to be solved, it

has

now

time.

received a solution for the

That solution opens a new

first

series

of problems for the consideration of the

philosopher; of some of which, indeed,

we have

offered solutions, which, in the

fervour of the

first

may have

conception,

been put forward in too sanguine a It will

be something, however,

if,

spirit.

in pro-

posing and trying to solve such problems,

we have

at least succeeded in

their importance,

showing

by displaying them on

the level of the foundations of civil society. The chief of these questions respect the origin of

exogamy and

of endogamy.

As

CONCL USION.

288

to the origin of the former,

marked

it

will be re-

we have not spent time on

that

the consideration of the question, whether it

may not have been due

to a natural feel-

ing against the union of near kinsfolk.

Its

general description\might dispose one to

think that

it

might have been due

But, owing to the nature of

a feeling.

ancient kinship, as

gamy

to such

we have

seen

it,

exo-

afforded no proper security against

the intermixture of persons near of kin. It permitted, in reality,

many

which we now disallow. that were

they were

of blood

vaguely perceived

And,

existent.

—were the

in

that

half-blood

should

might marry

—though

that

must have been practically nonfirst

stages

of

was agreeable to brothers and sisters of the

ihuman development,

exogamy

Ties of blood

not recognised ties

marriages

it

marry, while

nieces,

uncles

^nd nephews aunts.

CONCL USION. unions

Afterwards, as

we

289

equally incestuous,

should say, were allowable in con-

sequence of the limitation in blood-ties

One thing

derived from agnation.

very

that in

clear,

is

ancient times such

questions as have been raised by modern science, as to the propriety of the

mar-

riages of near relatives, were never consi-

On

dered.

the whole, the account which

we have given

of the origin of

The

scarcity

within the group led to a stealing the in

time

it

women came

proper, because to

it

of

women

practice

of other groups,

to be

of

and

considered im-

was unusual,

marry a woman of

,

will bear

appears the only one which examination.

exogamy

his

for a

own

man

group.

Another important question respects the universality of kinship through, females only.

tions

The in

strong a priori presump-

favour

of that,

as the most

CONCL USION.

290

system

archaic

of kinship,

backed

by

so

much

to

adduce, seem to us satisfactorily to

evidence as

the

establish

labour

position

On

taken up.

and

we have been

able

which we have

the other hand,

investigation

will

much yet

be

needed to show clearly that that kinship

was not merely a concomitant of exogamy and polyandry, should cases occur must be held that neither polyandry nor exogamy was primitive custom. in

which

it

Assuming the universality of that the

question remains

:

What

kinship,

were the

stages of development of the family sys-

tem, founded on the principle of agnation,

Rome ?

Some of these questions we have grappled with; at others we have done little more than glance. Are we too as at

sanguine their

if

we venture

to predict that

solution will yet be reached, and

will exhibit early

human

history in a very

CONCL USION. different light

from that

hitherto been regarded,

Stewart

which

in

291

which

has

by what Dugald

calls " that indolent

refers to

it

philosophy

a miracle whatever ap-

pearance both in the natural and moral

worlds

it is

unable to explain "?



APPENDIX Note A.

Additional Examples of the

Form of Capture. It

is

the

Form

which

to

be remarked of the

examples of

of Capture in the text, as of those

they

that

follow,

have never

before

been collated or made the subject of serious

They

speculation. curiosity

are just noted as matters of

where they

occur, the authorities ven-

turing no explanation, except

meaning or

cases, of their

some

in.

origin

;

one or two

and only

in

cases noticing similar customs as having

prevailed elsewhere than in the district reported

upon.

They

are thus presented to us

in

a

trustworthy shape as materials for an induction. It

may be

added, as regards the additional

examples of the that,

Form of

Capture here appended,

like the examples in the

text, they,

with

two exceptions, show that the central idea in the symbol was the carrying off of the woman,

u

APPENDIX.

294

her kindred and of their efforts

in defiance of

The

protect her.

to

examples of the form

of the following

first

in

is

some

respects the

most striking of any of which we have an account. I. "In their marriages," says Sir Henry Piers of the Irish, " especially in those countries where

cattle

side

be

abound, the parents and friends on each

meet on the side of an

some place of

cold, in

between both dwellings.

hill, or, if

shelter,

If

the weather

about midway

agreement ensue,

they drink the agreement bottle, as they

which

is

call

it,

a bottle of good usquebaugh, and this

For payment of the

goes merrily round.

—which of cows— tion

is

little

por-

generally a determinate number care

is

taken.

The

father or

next of kin to the bride sends to his ndghbours

and friends sub mutucB vicissitudinis obtentu, and every one gives his cow or heifer, and thus the

portion

caution

day

is

is

quickly paid.

Nevertheless,

taken from the bridegroom on the

of delivery for restitution of the cattle, in

case the bride die childless within a certain day, limited

man's

by agreement

own

beast

is

;

and, in this case, every

restored.

Thus, care

is

APPENDIX. taken that no marriages.

man

On

shall

grow

29s

by frequent

rich

the day of bringing home, the

bridegroom and

his friends ride out

and meet

the bride and her friends at the place of meet-

Being come near each

ing.

of old to

other, the

cast short darts at the

custom was

company that

at-

tended the bride, but at such distance that seldom

Yet

any hurt ensued.

memory

of

man

such an occasion casting

darts

it

that the lost

is

an

now

is

not out of the

Lord of Hoath on

eye.

This custom of

obsolete."

—Vallency's

de Rebus Hibernicis," vol. i. p. 122, 1786, No. I, Description of Westmeath, by

" Collectanea

Sir

Henry 2.

Piers



^written a.d. 1682.

We have an account from

constitution of marriage

among

M. Hue of the the Mongols of

After stating that marriage is with the Mongols a matter of sale and purchase; that this is clearly expressed, in their language, the Ortous.

have bought for my son " our the daughter of So-and-so ;" We have sold

in such phrases

as—"

I

that daughter to such-and-such a family;" -and sale remains the lady for some time after the say that with her family, M. Hue proceeds to " bridegroom sends the day having arrived, the

— APPENDIX.

296

morning a deputation

early in the girl

who

whom

to fetch the

has been betrothed to him, or rather

When

he has bought.

near, the relations

themselves in

a

the envoys

and friends of

draw

the bride place

circle before the door,

as if to oppose

the departure of the bride, and then begins a feigned fight, which of course terminates in the

She

bride being carried

off.

and having been

thrice led

house, she

is

round her paternal

then taken at

is

placed on a horse,

full

gallop to the

tent which has been prepared for the purpose,

near the dwelling of her father-in-law. time,

all

relations

Mean-

the Tartars of the neighbourhood, the

and

friends of both families, repair to

the wedding-feast, and offer their presents to the newly-married pair."— Hazlitt 's Translation

of Hue's "Travels," vol.

i.

p.

185, illustrated

library edition. 3.

We find

stitution of "

the following account of the con-

marriage among the Toorkomans

The most

:

singular customs of these people

Toorkomans) relate to marriage. The Toorkomans do not shut up their women, and (the

there being no restraint on the social

inter-

course between the sexes, as in most Mussul-

APPENDIX. man

countries, love

297

girl

man

they

;

are mutually attached, and agree to marry the young

A

matches are common.

youth becomes acquainted with a

;

but

does not dare to breathe his

wishes to the parents of his beloved, for such not etiquette, and would be resented as an

What

sult.

girl

and

does he do

carries her to

where, such

is

man and

;

in-

elopes with the

some neighbouring obah,

the custom, there

a kind reception live as

He

?

is

is

no doubt of

and there the young couple

wife for

some

six weeks,

when

the Reish-suffeeds, or elders of the protecting obah, deem it time to talk over the matter with the parents.

Accordingly they represent the

wishes of the young couple, and, joined by the elders of the father's obah, endeavour to reconcile

him

to the union, promising

on the part of

the bridegroom, a handsome bashlogue, or price, In due time the consent is given, for his wife.

on which the bride returns

to her father's house,

for six where, strange to say, she is retained years, months or a year, and sometimes two

according, as parent's

will,

appears, to her caprice or the having no communication with

it

her husband, unless by

stealth.

The meaning

— APPENDIX.

298

of this strange separation

never could ascer-

I

Afterwards the marriage

tain

presents and price of the wife are interchanged,

and she goes

finally to live

with her husband."

— Eraser's "Journey" (1838), "

vol.

ii.

p.

372.

Matches are also made occasionally by the

parents themselves, with or without the inter-

vention of the Reish-suffeeds, but the order and

ceremonies of the nuptials are the same. is

There

a regular contract and a stipulated price

;

the

young people are permitted to enjoy each other's society for a month or six weeks and the bride ;

then returns, as in the former case, to spend a year or more with her parents."

Idem., vol.

ii.

P- 375-_

This c^se

illustrates

a stage of transition

from the system of actual capture to a symbolism, of which stage traces remained in Sparta in historic times.

In Sparta the young wife was not,

immediately after the marriage, domiciled in her husband's house, but cohabited with him for

some time clandestinely, till he brought her, and frequently her mother also, to his home. (Xenophbn, Rep. Lac. 1-5). And the same custom prevailed

in

Crete.

(Strabo,

x.,

p.

APPENDIX.

299

In example No. 7 we shall again see 432.) these peculiarities in combination with the Form of Capture.

Among

4.

"when a girl man runs away with

the Soligas (India),

consents to marry, the

her to some neighbouring village, and they live

honeymoon is over. They then return home, and give a feast to the people

there until the

of their village."

Madras," vol.

The

5. "

among

ii.

— Buchanan's

"

Journey from

p. 178.

marriage ceremony

the Aenezes.

.

is

The

.

very simple

marriage-day

being appointed (usually five or six days after the betrothing), the bridegroom comes with a

lamb

in his

and there nesses.

arms

to the tent of the girl's father,

cuts the lamb's throat before wit-

As soon

as the blood falls

upon the

ground the marriage ceremony is regarded as The men and girls amuse themcomplete. selves with feasting sunset, the

him

for

and

bridegroom

singing.

his

runs

the camp;

at a distance from

bride.

The

after

retires to a tent pitched

he shuts himself up, and of

Soon

there

awaits the arrival

bashful

girl

from the tent of one friend

meanwhile to another

APPENDIX.

300

she

till

caught at

is

women

triumph by a few tent

;

and conducted

it

;

the

to the bridegroom's

women who had accompanied

her then depart."

— Burckhardt's " Notes,"

vol.

p. 107.

6.

Burckhardt, after noticing that,

Bedouins of Mount sale

and purchase,

Sinai,

marriage

is

the Arabs of Sinai the the evening with

distance from the

among

the

a matter of

which the inclinations of

in

the bride are not consulted, proceeds

in

in

he receives her at the entrance, and forces

her into

i.

last,

:

— "Among

young maid comes home

At a

the cattle.

camp she

is

short

met by the future

spouse and a couple of his young friends, and

by force to her father's tent. If she any suspicion of their designs, she defends herself with stones, and often inflicts wounds on the young men, even though she carried off

entertains

does not dislike the lover; custom, the cries,

and

more she

strikes, the

ever after by her

for,

according to

struggles, bites, kicks,

more she

is

applauded

own companions." She

taken to her father's

tent.

is

then

There follows the

throwing over her of the abba, or man's cloak,

and a formal announcement of the name of

— APPENDIX. her future husband in

apparel,

bridal

"although

;

after this she is dressed

and mounted on a camel,

continuing

still

301

to

struggle in a

most unruly manner, and held by the bride-

She is and three times round, and

groom's friends on both sides."

way

this into,

to,

The

the bridegroom's tent.

continued

till

ends in a

the

feast,

and presents

Burckhardt's " Notes," vol.

p.

i.

finally

resistance is

The marriage,

last.

led in

of course,

to the bride.

263.

Among the

Mezeyne, marriage appears to be a matter of sale and purchase,. and to be constituted, as among the Aenezes, through capture 7.

as

a form.

It

is

attended,

we have

peculiar custom, which

though not

269), " prevails

Burckhardt

among

already met, "

a shape.

in so striking

custom," says

however, by a

the

("

A singular

Notes," vol.

Mezeyne

tribe,

i.

p.

within

the limits of the Sinai peninsula, but not among girl having the other tribes of that province.

A

been wrapped

in the

abba at night

(?. e.,

after

the capture as in the preceding case), is perthe mitted to escape from her tent and fly into The bridegroom goes neighbouring mountains .

in search of her next day,

and remains often

APPENDIX.

302

many days

before he can find her out, while her

female friends are apprised of her hiding-place,,

and furnish her with provisions. finds her at last (which

is

If the

husband

sooner or later, accord-

made upon consummate the open country, and to pass the

ing to the impression that he has the

he

heart),

girl's

the marriage in

is

bound

to

The next morntent, that she may

night with her in the mountains.

ing the bride goes

have some food

;

home to her

but again runs away in the

evening, and repeats these flights several times,

she

go

to live in her husband's tent

finally returns to

advanced

in

pregnancy

pregnant she a

full

;

She does not

her tent.

till

if

may not join

till

she

is

far

she does not become her husband

year from the wedding-day."

till

after

Burckhardt

same custom is, observed among the Mezeyne Arabs elsewhere.

says the

Note

B.

— On the Practice of Capturing Wives.

I.

An

nal,"

anonymous

October

writer in

"

Chambers* Jour-

22, 1864, gives the following ac-

— APPENDIX.

303

count of the position of women, and of the practice of capturing wives,

The

lian Blacks.

among

the Austra-

writer would appear to have

had good opportunities of being acquainted with the native customs "

more

In nothing clearly

is

:

the brutality of their nature

shown than

in their treatment of

Amongst them, women

their females.

sidered as an inferior class, as beasts of burden

;

are con-

and are used almost

so that

it is

not at

all

un-

meet a huge black fellow travelling merrily along with no load but his spear or war-

common

to

whilst his unfortunate leubra

club,

is

panting

under the weight of their goods and chattels, which she is compelled to carry from camp to Courtship, as the precursor to marriage, unknown amongst them. When a young

camp. is

desirous of procuring a wife, he geneexchange for her rally obtains one by giving in relative of his a sister, or some other female

warrior

own

;

is

but

if

there should happen to be no

eli-

tribe to which gible damsel disengaged in the the encamphe belongs, then he hovers round other blacks until he gets an op-

ment of some

their leubras, portunity of seizing one of

whom

;

APPENDIX.

304

perhaps he has seen and admired when attend-

His mode

ing one of the grand corroborries.

of paying his addresses

With a blow

is

simple and efficacious.

of his nulla-nulla (war-club), he

stuns the object of his 'affections,'

her insensible body

away

to

some

and drags

retired spot,

whence, as soon as she recovers her senses, he brings her

home

to his

Sometimes two join

own gunyah

in

in triumph.

an expedition

for the

same purpose, and then for several days they watch the movements of their intended victims, using the utmost

When

sence.

skill

in concealing their pre-

they have obtained the know-

ledge they require, they wait for a dark, windy night

;

then quite naked, and carrying only their

long 'jag-spears,' they crawl stealthily through the bush until they reach the immediate vicinity

of the camp-fires, in front of which the girls

they are in search of are sleeping. silently,

Slowly and

they creep close enough to distinguish

the figure of one of those leubras

then one of

;

the intruders stretches out his spear, and inserts its

barbed point amongst her thick flowing locks

turning the spear slowly round,

some of her

speedily becomes entangled with

it

;

hair

then, with

APPENDIX. a sudden jerk, she

is

305

aroused from her slumber,

and as her eyes open, she feels the sharp point of another weapon pressed against her throat. She neither faints nor screams she knows well ;

that the slightest attempt at escape or alarm will

cause her instant death,

woman, she makes a rising silently,

away

lead her

her to a

tree,

so, like

a sensible

virtue of necessity,

she follows her captors.

to a considerable distance, tie

and return

victim in like manner.

to ensnare their other

Then, when they have

accomplished their design, they hurry their

own

and

They

off to

camp, where they are received with

and highly honoured for Occasionally an alarm is their gallant exploit. given, but even then the wife-stealers easily escape amidst the confusion, to renew their

universal applause,

attempt at some future period. When a distinguished warrior carries off a bride from a strange tribe, he will frequently volunteer to undergo 'the trial of spears,' in order to prevent in his the necessity of his people going to war ten of defence then both the tribes meet, and smartest and strongest young men are ;

their

picked out by the aggrieved party.

These are

;

APPENDIX.

3o6

each provided with three reed-spears, and a

wommera, or throwing-stick and the offender, armed only with his heiliman (a bark-shield eighteen inches long by six wide), is led out in ;

front,

and placed at the distance of forty yards.

Then, at a given

signal, the thirty spears are

launched at him in rapid succession receives ful

and parries with

;

Having

is

skil-

own wea-

are the blacks in the use of their

pons, that very seldom

these he

and so

his shield,

any wound

inflicted.

successfully passed through this ordeal,

the warrior his leubra,

is

considered to have fairly earned

and

to

have atoned

for his offence in

carrying her off; so the ceremony generally

concludes by the two tribes feasting together in perfect harmony." It is impossible, in

the Australian

of capturing

women, not

what Plutarch says of the ceremonies

to recall

of

mode

reading this account of

Roman

marriage, apropos of the

Sabines — :

" It is

a custom

still

Rape of the

observed for

the bride not to go over the threshold of her

husband's house herself, but to be carried over

(compare additional example of the 5, p.

Form No.

300), because the Sabine virgins did not

APPENDIX. go

in voluntarily, but

307

were carried

in

by

vio-

Some add that

lence.

the brides hair is parted with the point of a spear, in memory of the first marriages being brought about in a warlike

manner." Probable Origin of the

2.

—We

saw

(pp.

80-81)

Menu, one of the eight

Name

that, in

Racshasa.

the

code of

legal forms of the mar-

riage ceremony was that

by capture de facto, and called Racshasa, and that this marriage was permitted to the military class. It is curious that the

name

of this species of marriage

should be that of a race of beings shasas part,

—whom

we

find

—the

Rak-

playing an important

and that connected with a legend of a

capture, in the mythic history of the Hindus.

The

story of the

Ramayana may be

that of the carrying off of

Rama's

said to be

wife, Sita,

by

the Rakshasa, Ravana, and of the consequent

war

by Rama against the Rakshasas, their defeat and the recovery of Sita.

carried on

ending in

(See Williams's " Indian Epic Poetry," pp. 7476.)

Wilson

("

Ago;" Bombay,

India Three Thousand Years 1858, p. 20)

speaks of the

APPENDIX.

3o8

Rakshasas as

"

a people, often alluded

to,

from

whom, the Aryas suffered much, and who, by were transferred in idea to the most distant south, and treated by them as He ranks them a race of mythical giants.*' their descendants,

with the Dasyus, Ugras, Pishachas, and Asuras, as indigenous barbarian races or tribes, which

had

be overcome before the Aryans could

to

effect

a settlement in part of Hindustan.

same view.

takes the

says (Lassen, vol.

Muir's

"

i.

The Ramayana," he we quote from 535

p.

;

Sanscrit Texts," vol. ii. p. 425) "contains

the narrative of the

first

attempt of the Aryans

to extend themselves to the south

but

it

Lassen

"

by conquest;

presupposes the peaceable extension of

Brahmanical missions

having taken place Rakshasas,

who

in the still

same

earlier.

direction as .

.

.

The

are represented as disturbing

the sacrifices and devouring the priests, signify here, as tribes sition

often

elsewhere, merely the savage

which placed themselves to

in hostile

the Brahmanical institutions.

only other actors

who appear

oppo-

The

in the legend, in

addition to these inhabitants, are the monkeys,

which

ally

themselves to

Rama and

render him

;

APPENDIX.

309

This can only mean

assistance.

Arian Kshatriyas

made

first

that,

when

the

hostile incursions

were aided by another portion of the indigenous tribes." Dr. Muir can find no authority for saying that the word Rakshasa into the south, they

was time

name

originally the ("

Texts," vol.

the descriptions

ii.

p.

of a tribe.

At the same

434), he inclines to hold

we have of them as having more

probably originated in hostile contact with the savages of the south, than as the simple spring of the poet's imagination.

He

off-

notices

426) that, even in the Vedic period, the Rakshasas " had been magnified into ("

Texts," vol.

demons and

ii.

p.

giants

by the

poetical

and

supersti-

tious imaginations of the early (Arian) bards."

He

quotes from the

represents

them

Ramayana a passage which

as cannibals

men-devouring, changing

and another,

in

—feeding on blood,

their

shapes,

etc.

which they are described as

fearful swiftness

and unyielding

Ravana, the most

" of

in battle;" while

terrible of all the Rakshasas,

stigmatised as a " destroyer of religious duDr. of others." ties, and rayisher of the wives

is

Muir adds, that the shasas in the

description of the

Ramayana "corresponds

X

in

Rak-

many

APPENDIX.

3IO

respects with the epithets applied to the class of beings

(whether

or for demons)

who

we

same

take them for

men

are so often alluded to in

the Rigveda," and that

it is

quite possible that

Ramayana may have borrowed therefrom many of the traits which he

the author of the

ascribes to the Rakshasas.

But how came the name of a legal mode of marriage to be that of such a race of beings ?

The



only answer that

viz.,

we

make

is

a surmise

that while the system of capture

as yet died out

among

rior caste of the

applied

it

was

perfect

among

name Rakshasas was

and that what was

;

had not

the Kshatriyas, or war-

Aryans,

the races to which the

its

can

their

system gave

designation to the exceptional, although per

by capture among the Kshatthe more probable, since, so far

mitted, marriage

This

riyas.

as

we can

is

ascertain, there

— Rakshasa—

itself,

is

nothing in the name

descriptive of the

mode

of

marriage.

From

another point of view,

it

may be

ob-

served that the Rakshasas hold nearly the same place in trolls

Hindu

occupy

in

tradition that giants, ogres,

and

Scandinavian and Celtic legends.

APPENDIX.

311

—robbers and plunderers of human habitations —men-devourThey ers

are

supernatural

and women-stealers.

beings

The

giants

and ogres

of the north share the characteristics of Ravana.

The

cruel

monsters are always carrying

As Rama's

kings' daughters.

off

exploits culmi-

nate in the recovery of Sita, so the northern giant-slayer is crowned with the greatest glory

when he has rescued them

restored father's



Are we to hold

palace.

king's—their

safety to the

in



the captive princesses and

giants, ogres, trolls, etc.

all

such beings

—wherever they

occur,

as representing savage races, between whom and the peoples in whose legends they appear, as supernatural beings, there

was chronic hos-

tility ?

3.

Africa.

—The

following

is

the

account

Queen of which poor Speke received from the :— "There are Uganda regarding marriage there Uganda there no such things as marriages in If any Mkunto it. are no ceremonies attached :

pretty daughter committed might give her to the king as a

gu possessed of a an

offence,

he

peace-offering

;

if

any neighbouring king had a

APPENDIX.

312

Uganda wanted

pretty daughter, and the king of her,

she might be demanded as a

fitting tribute.

The Wakungu in Uganda are supplied with women by the king, according to their merits, from seizures

in battle abroad, or seizures

from

The women are not regarded as property according to the Wanyamii^zi practice, though many exchange their refractory officers at home.

daughters ours,

;

and some women,

for

misdemean-

are sold into slavery; whilst others are

flogged, or are degraded to

services of the

1863, p. 361).

do

house"— (Speke's

all

the menial

"Journal,"

etc.,

INDEX. -000-

Abipones, DobuzhofFer's account of the, 125 Abraham married his sister-german, 219 Achaeans, 21 Achilles Tatius, 220

Adoption, Libripens present

at, 18; fiction of, 236; supposed explanation of the heterogeneity of primitive

groups, 274 Aenezes, form of capture, 299 Affghanistan, practice of capturing wives, 67 Africa,

form of capture, 38

;

defective information respect-

marriage in Equatorial, 311 Agathjnrsi, said to have had wives in common, 175 Agnation, system of, explained, 234 ; the growth of the ing,

92

;

240 ; effect on the structure of the primitive groups, 250 Aimaks, absence of conjugal fidelity, 176 system

of,

Aleutian Islands, polyandry, 179, 183

Americari Indians, traces of the form of capture, 39 ; practice of capturing wives, 59-66 ; exogamous, 120 ; system

of kinship through females only, 124, 211; anciently polyandrous, 211

Amram

married his

father's sister,

220

" Ancient law," Maine's, 115, 152, 227, 235

Ansarians, said to have wives in Apuleius, De Asino Aureo, 26

common, 176

Aquapim, kinship through females

Y

only,

214

.

INDEX.

314

Arabs, Bedouin, form of capture, 34, 300 " Archselogia Americana," 1 20 Archer's " Aristotle,

Upper India," 180, 196 Theory of the origin of the

State, 271

Asiatic Researches, 181, 185, 207

Aryans, earliest account

of, 7

;

anciently polyandrous, 207,

214 Ashantee, kinship through females only,

2

14

Aswini-Kumaras, 216 Australian Elacks, system of capturing

303; exogamous, females only, 115 ship,

118

j

caSte,

113; ;

women

for wives, 73,

system of kinship

effects of

through

exogamy and female

kin-

256

Avaroes, polyandry, 195

Banyai, system of kinship through females only, 214 on the Amazons," 62 Bedouin Arabs, form of capture, 34, 300 ; frequency of

Bates' " NaturaUst

divorce, 177.

Beduanda Kallung, exogamous, 103 Beena husband, 186. Bell, James Stanislaus, " Journal of a Residence

in Cir-

cassia," 101

Benjamin, tribe of, tradition respecting, 88 Bergman's " Streifereien," 33, 98 Betrothals, 74, 120, 252

Blood feud, the law tive groups, 1

of, effect

1 4,

on the structure of the

262

Bodo, endogamous, 147 "

Book of Days," 71 Boreas and Orithya, the

story, of,

83

Britons, ancient, polyandry, 182, 185

primi-

INDEX.

315

Buchanan's " Journey from Madras," 178, 180, 185, 187, 213, 299

De Jure Hereditario Atheniensium," 221. Buntar, Talava, system of kinship through females only, 213

Bunsen "

"

Burckhardt,

Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys,"

34,

177, 207, 300, 302

But (Bodo), the system of kinship through females only, 213

Cachar,

traces of polyandry, 179

Cagsar de Bello Gallico, 127, 182

Caindu, absence of conjugal fidelity, 176 Journal," 125, 211

"Cambrian

Campbell, Col. Walter, " Indian Journal," 67 Campbell, Major-General, " Personal Narrative," 28 of. See Form of Capture. Capture, system or practice of capturing

Capture, form

women

for wives,

59-92-

Capture.

Affghanistan, AusSee under following heads Caribbean Tribes, Coin-men, Deccan, :

tralian Blacks,

Feejees,

Fuegians, Greeks, Hebrews,

Manaos, Muscovy,

uania, Livonia,

Hindus, Lith-

New

Zealanders,

Patagonians, Picts, Poland, Prussia, Romans, Scandinavians.

Capture.

Instances of the system of capture in transition

towards a symbolism, 67-70, 298. Caribbean tribes, system of capture, 63-65 Cascar, absence of conjugal fideUty, 176 Caste, 255, 257, 261

Caucasus, tribes

of,

Cecrops, tradition Celts,

anciently

have the Levirate obligation, 207 175, 220

of,

had kinship through females 126.

214; anciently exogamous, among the Kandyans,

Ceylon, polyandry

179.

only,

127,

1

INDEX.

3i6

Cherookees, 121 Chinese, their tradition regarding the origin of marriage,

17s

;

among the, 177 ; infankinship through the mother only, 177, 214

the frequency of divorce

ticide,

177 ; Choctaws, 121 Chukchi, system of lending wives, 176 Caucasians, form of capture, 35; exogamous, 100; capture de facto, 72 Clarke, Dr., « Travels," 31

Cochrane's " Journey," 176 Coemptio, Roman form of marriage, 13 Coin-men, practice of capturing women, 61 Comparative archaism of coemj)tio and confarreatio, 13; of exogamy and endogamy, 136-150 Confarreatio, Roman form of marriage, 13 Congo, system of kinship through females only, 214, 238 Continuity of

human

progress,

1

Coorgs of Mysore, polyandry, 179 Creeks, 121

Crukhnians, the, 86

Cumana, absence of conjugal

fidelity,

176

Cunningham's " Ladak," 180

Decay

of Tibetan polyandry, 19&; of exogamy in advancing

communities, 266.

Deccan, practice of capturing women, 67 Deega wife, 186 De Hell, Xavier Hommaire, " Travels," 30 Demaratus, 25 Deuteronomy, Levirate obligation, 200, 207 Dhumal, caste or endogamous, 147 Dorians, ancient state

Doric hordes, 85

of, 22,

267

;

form of capture, 24

INDEX.

317

Druses, Levirate obligation, 207 Duan Gircanash, 86

EiMAUK, system of lending wives, 176 Elphinstone's "Caubul," 176 Egyptian tradition respecting the origin of marriage, 175 Eponomy, tendency to, 259

Erkman's "Travels

in Siberia," 34, 176,

180

Erskine's "Islands of the Western Pacific," 80, 126

Endogamy

defined,

48

Endogamy, the growth of, 257, 261 Exogamous peoples. See American Indians, Australian Blacks, Beduanda Kallung, Circassians, Hindus, Kafirs, Kalmucks,

Kirghiz,

Khonds,

Koupooees, Magars,

Mows, Munnieporees, Muraras, Murfing, New landers, Nogais, Sodhas, Somoyeds, Warali

;

Zea-

and see

267

Exogamy Exogamy,

defined, 48, 53 its decay in advancing communities, 266

Exogamy and Endogamy, comparative archaism

of,

136,

150 Feejees, practice of capture, 79

;

system of kinship, 126

Female infanticide, 165 Females only, system of kinship through, Fisher's "

Memoir

Fitzroy, "

Adventure and Beagle," 40, 60

154, 230

of Sylhet," 181

Fohi, tradition

of, 175 Forbes's "Ceylon," 186

Form

of capture, definition

of,

23

;

the origin

of,

43i S^ j

its

coincidence with exogamy, 93, 131 See Aenezes, Africa, of capture, examples of Bedouin Arabs, Circassians, Doria»s, France, Friesland,

Form

INDEX.

3i8

Fuegians, Hebrews, Hindus, Irish, Kamchadales, Kal-

Khonds, Mezeyne Arabs, Toorkomans, Tunguzes, Soligas mucks,

Mongols, Rome,

Eraser's "Journey," 298

Friesland, form of capture, 33 Fuegians, form of capture, 40 facto,

;

practice of capture de

60

Gaius, 18

Gaya "Marriage Ceremonies,"

69, 180

Generalization respecting the early Aryans, 7 Geological record, 6

Getes of Transaxiana, 182 Goquet, "Origin of Laws," 181, 220 Gotrams, Indian, 106, 255

Grant "Origin and Descent of the Gael," 154 Greeks, tradition of the origin of marriage, 175 Grey's "Travels in North-Western Australia,"

75,

113;

"Polynesian Mythology," 79, 180 Grote, " History of Greece," 281 Groups, men in earliest times found in, 162 Grooah (Kooloo) polyandry, 166 Gurwhal, traces of polyandry, 179 «

Hamilton's "

New Account

of the East Indies," 180, 184 Hanthausen, "Trans-Caucasia," 207

Hebrews, form of capture among the, 88 Hebrews, traces of the system of capture, 82, 87 Hebrews, Levirate obligation, 207 Helen, capture

of,

84

Hercules, traditions respecting, 83

Herodotus, 25 Heterogeneity of the primitive groups,

how produced, 233

INDEX. Himalayan

tribes,

147

Hindus, form of capture among, traditions

319

respecting

polyandrous, 207

ancient

;

27,

34

;

exogamous, 105

175, 182

marriage,

Hindu

;

;

anciently

kinship, 20"],

et seq.

Ho, the, endogamous, 147 Homogeneity of the primitive groups, 230 Homogeneity of the primitive groups destroyed by exogamy and female kinship, 233 Homogeneity of the groups restored by agnation, 250 Hostility, the state of, 132

Hue's "Travels," 178, 295 Humboldt, Alex. Von, " Personal Narrative," etc., Hurling shoes at bridegroom, the custom of, 29

63, 180

Husaby, Gothland, traces of the practice of capture, 71 Hyllus, 83

" INDISCHE Studien,"

Dr Weber,

27

Indo-European race, 6 lole, capture of, 83 Irish, the form of capture, 294 " Irish Nennius," 85, 127, 182

Jews, 82, 87, 88, 260

Kafirs, exogamous, 103

Kalmucks, form of capture, 30, 3i

5

exogamous, 99

i

Poli-

tical system, 97 rA/r",/; « Sketches of the History of Man, 36 Karnes's, Lord, Kamilaroi, exogamous, 115, 256

Kamul, loose morality, 176 Kamschatka, 178 polyandrous, 186 Kandyans lend wives, 176 ;

monogamists, 245

,

,

.

,

their ch.ets

INDEX.

320

Karague, 38 Kashmir, polyandry, 178, 195 Kasias, polyandrous, 179, 183, 196

Keiaz system of lending wives, 176 Kinship, ancient systems

females only,

154,

of,

151, et seq.;

et seq.;

system of through

instances of the system

of kinship through females only, 209, etseq. Kirghiz, 35, 78, 207 Kistewar, polyandry, 178, 195 Khonds, form of capture, 27

Khonds, exogamous, 94 Khonds, female infanticide, 165 Kinship through males, conditions Kleuker, " Zendavesta," 207

of,

158, 161

Kocch, peculiar family system, 189, 213 Kocch, endogamous, 147, 256 Koryaks, lend wives, 176 ; polyandrous, 176, 179 Koupooees, exogamous, 109 Krusenstern's " Voyage," 178

Ladak, polyandry, 178, 195, 198 Laing, Letter to Dr. Hodgkin, 112 Lancerota, Canary Islands, polyandry, 180 Perouse's " Voyage," 178 Latham's "Descriptive Ethnology," 67, 176, 180, 189, 206 Legis Actio Sacramenti, 18

La

Lestychides, 25

Lewis'",Hebrew Republic," 203 Libripens at act of adoption^ 18 Lithuania, transitional form of capture, 67 Levir,

originally co-husband with,

and heir

brother, 203

Livingstone's " Travels," 177,

207, 214

of,

deceased

INDEX.

321

Livonia, transitional form of capture, 67 Loanda, low state of marriage, 177 Loohoopas, peculiar custom, 198

Lycurgus, 25

Macculloch, Col., "Account of Munniepore," etc., 109, 198 Macpherson, Major, " Report on the Khonds," 27 ; " Religion of the Khonds," 95 Magar tribes exogamous, 104

Magnus Olaus, " Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus," 67 Magnus Johannes, " History of the Goths," 70 Mahabharata, tradition of polyandry, 215 Maine, " Ancient Law," 115, 235 Maine, on kinship through the mother, 115, 227 Makololo, brother must marry brother's widow, 207 Malabar polyandry. See Nairs, Maleres, and Poleres Maleres of Malabar, polyandry, 179 "Mania, the Curse of," 125 Manaos, the, 61

Marco Polo, 176, 177 Marriage, fulness of the idea

of, 62 Martawan, tribe of Ansarians, lend wives, 176 Maypures, polyandry, 195 Massagetse, said to have practised promiscuity, 175 Maundeville, 178 Media, polyandry, 181

Meithei, the,

Menu,

no

Institutes of, 80, 105, 201, 207

Mezeyne, form of capture, 301 Mongols, form of capture, 295 levirate obligation, 207 Montesquieu, "The Spirit of Laws," 176, 221 :

"Monumenta

Historica," 127

Moorcroft and Trebeck's " Travels," 198

7

INDEX.

322

New

Morgan, Mr. L. H., Rochester,

York, circular

letter

from, 123, 211

Moser, Louis, " The Caucasus and Mows, exogamous, 109

its

People,''

36

Mpongme

lend wives, 176 Muir's " Sanskrit Texts," 106, 175, 216 Mailer's " Dorians," 20, 281

Max, " History of

Muller,

Ancient Literature,

Sanscrit

182, 215

Munnieporees exogamous, 109 Murring exogamous, 109 Muscovites, transitional form of capture, 67 Mysore, polyandry, 179

Myths

referable to system of capture, 83, 84

Nahor

married his brother's daughter, 219

Nairs, Malabar, polyandry, 179, 184, 196

Natches, the, 121

New

Zealanders exogamous, 125

Nogay Tartars, 35 Normandy, old law

;

practice of capture, 79

of succession, 238

Obligation on yoimger brother

to

marry widow of

elder,

Levirate, 200, 207

Oens

or Coin-men, practice of capture, 61

Orinoco, practice of capture, 63 Orissa, form of capture, 27

;

pol)randry, 180

Ostiaks, brother marries brother's widow, 207.

Outline

may be drawn

of the course of

human

Pallas, " Voyages dans Plusieurs Provinces,"

Pandava

princes, wife in

Pandu, son of a

levir, 2

1

common, 215

progress, 10

etc.,

32, 97

1

INDEX.

S2S

Patagonians, 60, 65 Patan, wantonness of women, 176 Patxia potestas, the growth

of,

246

Paulus, " Sententiae Receptse," 285

Pawning

wives, 178

Pelasgi, 21

Percalus, the carrying off Persians, obligation

of,

25

on brother to marry his

brother's widow,

207 ; Persian incest, 223 Philo, 221 Philology,

its

function in history, 8-10

Phweelongmai, female infanticide, 139 Piers, Sir Henry, " Account of Westmeath," 294 list of, 127 system of capture, 85-87; exogamous, 126-129; polyandrous, 182

Pictish kings, analysis of Picts, tradition of the

Plutarch, 25, 84, 306

Pluto and Proserpine, the story

of,

83

Poetry of law, the, 17 Poland, transitional form of capture, 70 Poleres, Malabar, polyandry, 179 Polyandry, 178 ef se^. Pothier, " Pandectse," 25 Preface of general history, the,

9,

10

Primitive groups, the, were homogeneous, 230 Primitive life, importance of the knowledge of, Primitive prudery hypothesis, 22 Primitive races, 67 Progress of mankind, 158

Promiscuity, the state Prussia, transitional

of,

168, et

se^.

form of capture, 7°

Puharies of Gurwhal, 176

1

1

INDEX.

324 Racshasas, 8o, 307 Rajputs, 213

Rape

of the Sabines, 30, 85

Reade, " Savage Africa," 176, 180, 214 Ridley's account of the Kamilaroi, 117 Roman law, view of its growth, 15, 16 Rome, form of capture, 26, 306 Ruth, book of Levirate obligation, 200, 207



Sabine origin of confarreatio, 15 Sabinfes,

rape of the, 85

Samoyeds, exogamous, 102 Saporogian Cossacks, polyandry, 179, 183 Scandinavians, traces of practice of capture, 7 Selden " Jus Naturale et Gentium,'' 82, 223 Sexes, the union of the, among savages, 167 Siam, marriages for a term, 177 Sirmor, polyandry, 178 Sivalik mountains, polyandry, 179

Note on the Pictish Kings, 127 Sodhas exogamous, 103, 147 Skene.

Solinus, 127

form of capture, 299 Sounan, marriages for a term, 177 Sources of information regarding early Soligas,

Spartans, form of capture among, 24 promiscuity, 175, 222

Speke, "Journal of Discovery,"

etc.,

;

civil society, 5

said to have practised

38,

State, the, theories of the origin of,

269

Stocks, formation of conception

163

Strabo, 181, 298

Struggle for existence, 163, 164 Suidas, 220

of,

312

1

INDEX. "

Summer Ramble

in the Himalayas,"

325

180

Sutias of Gautama, 214 Svetaketu, tradition

of,

175, 217

Sylhet, polyandry, 179

Symbolism of law, 1 System of capture, traces of, in the north, 70, 71 System of kinship through females only, 154, et seq. Tacitus, "Germania," 181 Tamul and Telugu, 212, 218 Tanner's " Narrative," 125 Telingese polyandry, 178 Tennent's " Ceylon," 180 Theseus, traditions

of,

84

Tibet, polyandry, 178, 193

Tibetan type of polyandry, prevalence of, 194 Terra del Fuego, form of capture, 39 ; practice of capture, 60 Tod's "Annals, etc. of Rajasthan," 182, 213 Tod's " Travels," 182 Transitional stages of system of capture, 67-70

Tribal systems, view

of,

142-144

Tudas, Nilgherry hills, polyandry, 179 Tulava, kinship through females only, 213 Tunguses, 33

Toorkomans, form of capture, 296 Turner's " Tibet," 178, 180 TumbuU's " Voyage round the World," 75

Uganda, marriages Usus.

in,

Roman mode

312 of marriage, 13

Varro, 220 Vasu-ing, 126 Vigne's " Kashmir," 180

INDEX.

326

"Vivada Chintamani," io6 Volney's " Travels," 176, 207 Wales, form of capture, 36 Warali, exogamous, 104 Weber, Dr., " Indische Studien," 33 Williams' "Indian Epic Poetry," 216, 218 Wilson, " Report on the Puharies," 176, 212

Xenophon, 298 Xiphaline, 127

THE END.

Printed by R.

&

R. Clark, Edinburgh.