STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 

 STUDIES 
 
 IN 
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 THE SECOND SEEIES 
 
 COMPKISING AN INQUIEY INTO THE 
 OKIGIN OF EXOGAMY 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 JOHN FERGUSON M'LENNAN 
 
 EDITED BY HIS WIDOW AND ARTHUR PLATT 
 
 ILonfcon 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 
 
 NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO. 
 1896 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 THE second series of Studies in Ancient History is now 
 published at so long an interval, not only from the publica- 
 tion of the former series but also from the author's death, 
 that a word of explanation is called for. The delay is 
 owing to a succession of most lamentable misfortunes. 
 Mr. M'Lennan had originally contemplated the produc- 
 tion of a great work on early society, which should have 
 collected and presented in a better form all his pre- 
 viously published investigations, together with the 
 results of his later study, and which should in particular 
 have thrown some light on the origin of exogamy. 
 Despairing, in his state of health, of ever executing this 
 project, he decided to publish an intermediate volume 
 to supply its place, but even this intention was frus- 
 trated by his death. His brother, Mr. D. M'Lennan, 
 then took up the task, for which he was eminently 
 fitted. He completed from Mr. J. F. M c Lennan's 
 posthumous papers, and published in 1885, The Patri- 
 archal Theory, a preliminary and polemical inquiry 
 meant to clear the way, while at the same time em- 
 
 239030 
 
vi STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 bodying positive results. He also brought out a new 
 edition of the first series of Studies in Ancient History, 
 with some notes added by himself (1886). But, while 
 still employed in working on the most important part 
 of his task, he was also carried off, and the work passed 
 into the hands of Professor Eobertson Smith. Unfor- 
 tunately he was already attacked by that long illness 
 to which he finally succumbed, and nothing has been 
 found among his papers which has any bearing upon 
 the work. 
 
 Under these circumstances, we determined to 
 do what seemed to us possible in the way of arrang- 
 ing the mass of material which Mr. M'Lennan had 
 left for the book. This consisted of a great quantity 
 of notes, several chapters partially or entirely finished, 
 and a list of chapter headings, which show clearly 
 the principal lines on which the work would have been 
 developed. One of these papers, that on Agnation, 
 was used by Mr. D. M'Lennan for the Patriarchal 
 Theory. Besides this, there was the " Essay on the Wor- 
 ship of Animals and Plants" (Totemism), published in 
 the Fortnightly Review in the years 1869 and 1870 ; 
 this would certainly have been embodied in the work 
 by the author, indeed parts of it have been used, as it 
 is, in the ninth chapter of this volume. The rest, with 
 some trifling changes, is here reprinted in an Appendix. 
 
 Of the chapters which were written for the new book, 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 vn 
 
 none has hitherto appeared except that on the Origin of i 
 Exogamy, with additions by D. M'Lennan (English His- 
 torical Review, January 1888). They are here arranged 
 in the order indicated by the list of chapter headings 
 already referred to, deficiencies being supplied by short 
 connecting passages, which give a skeleton of what 
 should have been there. But the eighth and ninth do 
 not correspond to any heading in the list, and we have 
 thought it best to place them after the rest to stand 
 independently. Our own additions are in smaller type 
 and in brackets. The whole was to have been arranged 
 in three books, the second of which would have 
 included the evidence for the different races of man all 
 over the globe. It would have come between our third 
 and fourth chapters, according to the list left by the 
 author, but it has swelled to such a size that we pre- 
 ferred to depart in this instance from his arrangement, 
 and to place it separately as Part II. of this volume. 
 The vast collection of matter which had been made for 
 this section of the work was left in a condition of most 
 unequal development. Some parts were completely 
 finished, others were mere heaps of notes either marked 
 in books or copied out, others worked up into shape in 
 various degrees. The most important chapters, which 
 could be printed as they stood, appear here in large type. 
 America should have come first, but the notes for 
 America were so fragmentary for the most part that 
 
viii STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 we prefer to give the precedence to Australia and the 
 Pacific Islands, as being in the most satisfactory con- 
 dition. This is largely due to Mr. D. M'Lennan's 
 having worked at them after his brother's death. He 
 rewrote a great part of, and added to, the chapters on 
 Fiji, Samoa, and Australia. He also did the same for 
 that on Ashantee, and wrote the essay on the Kamilaroi 
 and Kurnai which is printed in the Appendix. Mr. 
 Ralph Cator of Lincoln's Inn has arranged the rest of 
 the African evidence, which was left in a nearly com- 
 plete form, and has given us valuable assistance in 
 other respects. The American evidence, as hinted 
 above, was so fragmentary that little could be done 
 with it, and it seemed better to leave the reader to 
 draw his own conclusions from it than to attempt to 
 give Mr. M'Lennan's. As for the rest of the world, 
 there were notes in abundance, and in particular upon 
 Arabia, but nothing in any approach to literary form. 
 
 It proved quite impossible in this division of the 
 work to carry out consistently any distinction between 
 the author's text and the alterations which it was neces- 
 sary or advisable to make ; and so the brackets had to 
 be generally discarded. What additions have been 
 made were taken from the author's own notes, with 
 only one or two exceptions, the principal of these 
 being the references to Theal in Chapters XXVIII. and 
 XXIX. The nature of the present work sufficiently 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 explains by itself the absence of any reference to recent 
 writers on the subjects concerned, in particular Messrs. 
 Frazer, Letourneau, and Westermarck. 
 
 It remains for us to thank Mr. W. H. D. Kouse 
 for correcting that part of the work where a knowledge 
 of Sanscrit was required, and for adding references ; two 
 notes of his are signed te K." Professor Strong was 
 kind enough to assist us in the Arabic. We have 
 also to thank the proprietors of the Fortnightly and 
 English Historical Reviews for permission to reprint 
 from them the papers above mentioned. 
 
 ELEONORA A. M'LENNAN. 
 
 ARTHUR PLATT. 
 
 With the deepest regret I have to add that while 
 the following pages were in the press Mrs. M'Lennan 
 passed away. During her husband's life she was his 
 untiring assistant and amanuensis, and from his death 
 every moment of her time was given up to the prepara- 
 tion of this book. Despite continual ill -health, she 
 persisted in working at it, and after Professor Robert- 
 son Smith's death determined to complete it herself. 
 It is due entirely to her unceasing devotion and resolu- 
 tion that it now sees the light. 
 
 A. P. 
 

CONTENTS 
 PART I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CASES RAISING THE QUESTIONS FOE INVESTIGATION 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ON THE METHOD OF INQUIRY IN EARLY HISTORY 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE . .27 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 DEFINITION OF TERMS . 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 KINSHIP, TOTEMISM, AND MARRIAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY . . .57 
 
xii STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FEMALE INFANTICIDE ... .74 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CAN EXOGAMY AS MARRIAGE LAW BE INFERRED IN ANY CASE 
 
 FROM THE LAW OF SUCCESSION? . . .112 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOME EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES ADDUCED TO 
 SHOW THE KEADINESS OF MEN IN ALL TIMES TO FABRI- 
 CATE GENEALOGIES . . . . .117 
 
 PART II 
 
 SECTION I 
 THE PACIFIC ISLANDS AND AUSTRALIA 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK'S ISLANDS . .189 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 FIJIAN GROUP . . .206 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SAMOA OR NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS . 232 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 THE TONGAN OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS . 241 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 NEW ZEALAND . . .255 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 AUSTRALIA . . . . . . .278 
 
 SECTION II 
 AMERICA 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH . . . .315 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, WEST . . . . .357 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 NORTH AMERICA, NORTH ..... 367 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA . . . .378 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 PERU . ..... 392 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 GUIANA . tfr .400 
 
 SECTION IllJt 
 AFRICA 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 GUINEA THE KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE . . .405 
 
xiv STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GUINEA THE GOLD COAST . .417 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 GUINEA : SLAVE COAST FID A . . .427 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 LOANGO, ETC. . . .433 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 EQUATORIAL AFRICA . . . .440 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII s 
 SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA . 445 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 KAFFIRS AND ZULUS . . . . . .477 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS 483 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I. THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS . . .491 
 
 II. THE KAMILAROI AND KURNAI. BY D. M'LENNAN . 570 
 
PAKT I 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 CASES RAISING THE QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION 
 
 [FOR the first chapter of the proposed work, Mr. M'Lennan 
 has left nothing but a few hints. He has jotted down notes 
 of certain marriage and succession laws in civilised countries, 
 "France, Iberia (Basques), Wales"; and again in other uncivilised 
 countries, " Australia (Grey, Eyre), America (Lafitau), Africa 
 (Bowdich)." 
 
 It is to be presumed that he would have begun by develop- 
 ing the idea that the law of any country is apt to preserve , 
 many relics of an order of things long passed away, relics unin- 
 telligible in themselves and embedded in a stratum of later 
 formation. As in Primitive Marriage he had started from a 
 custom which has degenerated into a mere symbol, that of 
 capture in wedding ceremonies, so in his later work he appears 
 to have intended to begin by giving some cases of curious 
 survivals from the_past in civilised communities, and to show 
 how intelligible they become .in the light of the knowledge 
 derived from the study of primitive society. 
 
 For the first chapter, then, he had noted under the above 
 heading some cases among uncivilised races of- the law that 
 no man may marry a woman of his own clan, the law to which 
 he has given the name of exogamy, existing along with the 
 law that children, taking their mother's name or totem, are of 
 her clan and succeed as her heirs. The cases are chosen from 
 Australia, America, and Africa, doubtless to show the wide 
 
 B 
 
2 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 prevalence of these customs. He had also made notes of 
 several cases of succession laws in the customaries or codes of 
 races in more highly advanced stages of civilisation, by which 
 the children are their mother's heirs long after male kinship 
 has been recognised in all other respects. These laws would 
 be absolutely unintelligible if we had not the explanation of 
 them as a persistence of the ancient succession law after the 
 C. , V^ marriage law which mustjiave once accompanied it had fallen 
 into disuse and been forgotten. 
 
 The persistence with which such fragments of the laws of 
 inheritance of our savage ancestors hold their place among 
 nations of the highest civilisation is truly remarkable. Thus 
 Chateaubriand, in his Analyse raisonne'e de I'histoire de France, 
 tells us that " dans certaines provinces le ventre annoblissait, 
 c'est a dire que la noblesse etait transmise par la mere." And 
 Baugier says in his Mtmoire sur la Champagne : " Cette 
 noblesse, que la mere transferait a ses descendants dans cette 
 province, ne commenga d'etre attaquee qu'en 1566 ; le pro- 
 cureur de la cour pretendit que cette coutume avait ete toleree 
 par ne"cessite et pour remplir le pays de noblesse ; que, la 
 cause e*tant cessee, Feffet devait aussi cesser." ] 
 
 Again, in Ancient Wales " there are three women against 
 whose issue there are to be no pleas respecting the inheritance 
 of their mother," the third case being that of "a worm 
 whose son shall avenge a man of his mother's kindred, anc 
 lose his patrimony on account of that crime." 5 
 
 Thirdly, among the Basques, Le Play tells us at length 
 that an ancient custom mentioned by Strabo (iii. 165) lasted 
 down to the era of the Code Napole'on, and even beyond that 
 was practised by evasion. " The husbands," says Strabo, 
 " bring a dowry to their wives, and the daughters undertake 
 
 1 These passages were quoted also in the article on the Levirate and 
 Polyandry (Fortnightly Review, May 1877, p. 706), where they illusti 
 the extreme tenacity of laws of inheritance. It may be added that in tl 
 author's opinion we may infer in such a case the former existence of 
 law of exogamy ; see infra. 
 
 2 Ancient Laws of Wales, vol. i. p. 775. 
 
i CASES FOR INVESTIGATION 3 
 
 the business of giving their brothers in marriage." The 
 eldest daughter inherits from her mother, and the husband of 
 the eldest daughter takes her name. 
 
 Customs and laws of this kind have for centuries perplexed 
 all who have met with them. It may be judged by the 
 instances quoted above from Baugier of what value are the 
 attempts to account for these anomalies, when they are looked 
 at by themselves and considered as deliberate expedients of 
 civilised races to secure some rational end. . But recent 
 research into the condition of life and law among uncivilised 
 nations throws abundant light on their real origin. 
 
 To Lafitau first among the moderns, however ridiculous 
 many of his conclusions now appear, is due the credit of 
 having compared civilised law with that of men yjjt .living 
 in the savage state. A man of great acuteness, well acquainted 
 with classical antiquity, he was struck with the resemblance 
 of the customs of the North American Indians, among whom 
 he laboured as a missionary, to those of the ancients. He 
 found, to his surprise, the same state of things there as 
 Herodotus and other classical authors declare to have pre- 
 vailed in Lycia. " Quell e que soit I'origine des Iroquois et 
 des Hurons, ils ont conserve cette forme de gouvernement . . . 
 car outre cette ginecocratie, qui est absolument la meme que 
 celle des Lyciens, et ou le soin des affaires n'est entre les 
 mains des homines, que comme par voye de procuration, tous 
 les villages se gouvernent de la meme maniere par eux- 
 memes, et comme s'ils etoient independans les uns des 
 autres." 1 
 
 We have similar reports from all quarters of the 
 world. Though the form of the family, says Bowdich, 
 would permit of kinship being traced through fathers, yet in 
 point of fact, in Ashantee, it is traced through women only. 2 
 Grey tells the same of Australia : " Children of either sex 
 always take the family name of their mother." 3 
 
 1 Mceurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, torn. i. p. 463. Paris, 1724. 
 
 2 Mission to Ashantee, pp. 234, 254. London, 1819. 
 
 3 Travels in North- Western and Western Australia, vol. ii. p. 226. 
 
4 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 The condition of the family, therefore, in which female 
 kinship prevails is no isolated phenomenon ; if the French 
 noblesse retained it so late, it was as a relic of a very 
 early state of things; the gynsecocracy, as Strabo calls it, of 
 the Basques was a natural result of it, and the Welsh law 
 becomes intelligible at once. For if the son chose to avenge a 
 man of his mother's kindred that is, to take up the blood-feud 
 on the mother's side he thereby elected to remain of her kin, 
 and accordingly had no right to succeed to his father's in- 
 heritance. The statement of the law, that he lost his patri- 
 mony " on account of that crime," is of course another example 
 of a false reason given for an existing fact when the true 
 reason had gone out of sight. The law dates from a time 
 when male kinship was beginning to be understood, and a son 
 might choose which side of the family he would belong to, a 
 period intermediate between a system of female kinship only 
 and the modern system of male kinship. 
 
 But it has been tacitly assumed in all these statements 
 that the child is not only of the mother's kin, but also is not 
 of the father's. This involves another custom equally widely 
 spread that is to say, that the father and mother cannot 
 belong to the same kindred. " A man cannot marry a woman 
 of his own family name," says Grey (loc. cit.) 
 
 Thirdly, we ask how kindred is denoted, what is meant by 
 the family name ? And this raises the question of totemism, 
 which is everywhere found as the mode of marking the stock 
 or blood the kin as first understood. "Each family," con- 
 tinues Grey, " adopts some animal or vegetable as their crest 
 or sign or kobong. ... A certain mysterious connection exists 
 between a family and its kobong" Again : " A most remarkable 
 law is that which obliges families connected by blood upon 
 the female side to join for the purpose of defence and avenging 
 crimes; and as the father marries several wives, and very 
 often all of different families, his children are repeatedly all 
 divided amongst themselves." * 
 
 Thus the problems which particularly interested the author 
 
 1 Travels in North-Western and Western Australia, vol. ii. pp. 228, 230. 
 
i CASES FOR INVESTIGATION 5 
 
 in preparing his new work were these two. " How came there 
 to be a law declaring it to be incest for a man to marry a 
 woman of the same stock or blood as himself, however far 
 removed from him she might be by degree of consanguinity, or 
 how came marriage to be interdicted between persons of the 
 same totem ? " And secondly, How did it come about that 
 there are traces of a system of kinship on only the female side, 
 or of the succession law proper to such a system, in the codes 
 of more civilised nations ?] 
 
 1 Fortnightly Review, 1877, p. 885 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 ON THE METHOD OF INQUIRY IN EARLY HISTORY 
 
 THE common notion is that history begins with monu- 
 ments and literary records that is, when civilisation is 
 already far advanced. On this view some of the earliest 
 stages of human development must, as belonging to the 
 beginnings of civilisation, have been passed through in 
 prehistoric times. Properly speaking, however, no time 
 should be called prehistoric, if, by any means, we can 
 ascertain the general character of the events that took 
 place in it. 
 
 In the earliest times of which we have record, 
 several nations appear in different parts of the world, 
 fairly compacted socially and politically, with arts and 
 sciences well elaborated, and religious faiths and philo- 
 sophies in luxuriance. Each of these nations must 
 have had a long anterior history which is unrecorded ; 
 for, to confine our attention to a single matter, it must 
 have taken the men of every nation an exceedingly 
 long time to acquire the arts of writing, architecture, 
 and monumental sculpture, which made records pos- 
 sible ; and we cannot assume in a scientific inquiry, nor 
 
CH. ii METHOD OF INQ UIR Y IN EARL Y HISTOR Y 7 
 
 is it by any one seriously suggested, that these arts 
 were divinely communicated to men. Before the date 
 of the first records, accordingly, the expejriences-o the? , 
 "earlier generations would have been forgotten, and 
 those records would be almost entirely occupied with! 
 contemporaneous or very recent events. Any anti- ' 
 quities they might contain would be only such as had 
 become the subject of a steady tradition through being 1 
 set in some literary form or otherwise, and even thesej 
 could not possibly be of very old date. The whole of 
 the earlier life of these nations is thus left by their 
 records nearly a complete blank, so that it would be 
 useless to try to compile the early history of mankind 
 from records. 
 
 In these circumstances the question arises whether 
 it is possible for us now to ascertain, in general outline 
 at least, what the early history of mankind must have 
 been. Analogous cases suggest that the obstacle due 
 to the want of records, however formidable, is not in- 
 surmountable. The direct testimony of witnesses and 
 documents is not always the most trustworthy, as we 
 learn in courts of law ; and in many obscure affairs we 
 are accustomed to see the truth established to the satis- 
 faction of all reasonable minds, independently of such 
 testimony, by attention to the import of facts and cir- 
 cumstances ; in short, by what is called circumstantial 
 evidence. It is not chemistry, whose subjects can be 
 pounded in a mortar, or reduced in the crucible, that is 
 the most perfect of ^ the science's,' but astronomy, that 
 owes its completeness to the use of the telescope and 
 
8 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 spectroscope, and to the application of sound methods 
 of reasoning to facts ascertained by their means from 
 great distances. ^Unrecorded time equally with un- 
 visited space may be open to exploration.] 
 
 Though it would have been impossible for the men 
 of antiquity to have explored the history of the past, 
 that is no conclusive proof of our inability to do so. 
 We inherit the records of the ancients, and know much 
 of all of them, whereas they knew little or nothing of 
 one another. Moreover, the facts which they have 
 handed down we see in the light of modern events and 
 of a knowledge of the whole world and of all races of 
 "men, and from this vantage ground we can contemplate 
 those facts in bearings utterly unknown to contem- 
 porary generations. It is mainly in this way that we 
 who come after the ancients may see better than they 
 could what took place before them, because we see all 
 they saw and more. ) 
 
 If for this reason, then, an inquiry into the earl 
 history of man may be hopefully engaged in, the 
 question arises, By what method is it to be conducted ? 
 Does that wider information of ours afford us any_clue 
 by which we may penetrate the unrecorded past ? ( Now 
 one thing we see is, that (the forms of life among the 
 most ancient historical nations, as shown in their 
 earliest records, are not so " primitive " as many such 
 forms which have been quite recently exhibited, or may 
 be even yet observed.' Within the last four hundred 
 years numerous sections of mankind have become 
 known to us, not one of which had when discovered a 
 
 te 
 
ii METHOD OF INQUIR Y IN EARL Y HISTOR Y 9 
 
 fragment of written history ; l in other words, they were 
 all less advanced than the ancient nations were in the 
 earliest historical times. The study of these barbarous 
 peoples has disclosed a great diversity of phases of 
 
 civilisation. > Some of them, like^tne TMlncopies of the 
 Andaman Islands, led almost brutish lives ; while 
 others, like the Mexicans and Peruvians, were com- 
 paratively cultured, were already maturing the arts 
 which give permanency to records, and were, in short, 
 so far as those arts were concerned, but little behind the 
 most distinguished of the ancients. Now it readily \ \ 
 suggests itself, as a comparison of the varieties of life 
 thus brought to view, that the more advanced of those 
 recently discovered peoples had formerly been in the 
 same condition with the others ; and on a comparison 
 of certain of them with the ancient nations, that the 
 latter had come through phases of development similar 
 to those presented by the former. In short, it is sug- , 
 gested to us, that the history of human society is that/ 1 
 of a development following very closely one general 
 law^jand that the variety of forms of life of domestic 
 and civil institution is ascribable mainly to the un- 7 
 equal development of the different sections of mankind. \ 
 If this suggestion is not misleading ; if there has been a"" 
 development of all human powers and habits according 
 to a general law ; and if the phases of the progress 
 arising from inequality of development which have 
 been observed and recorded are sufficiently numerous ; 
 
 1 E.g. the Polynesians, Micronesians, and Indonesians ; Americans, 
 Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, and Mincopies. 
 
 
io STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 if they are interconnected ; still more if they shade into 
 one another by gentle gradations, then manifestly it 
 V may be possible by an induction of the facts and by 
 careful reasoning to draw a clear outline of the whole 
 course of human progress, as well of that part of il 
 which is more remote as of that which is more recent. 
 The preface to general history may be compiled from 
 the materials presented by ^ barbajism._ 
 
 That we are entitled to use these materials for that 
 purpose will be made more plain, if it is shown (1) how 
 inequality of development 1 is capable of producing the 
 existing diversity of social forms ; and (2) what kin< 
 of positive evidence remains to us by which we ma] 
 ? still be able so to connect form with form as to infer 
 f the historical order in which they arose. But before 
 ( proceeding further it may be well, with the view of 
 ) guarding against misapprehension, to explain in a word 
 that the expressions human progress and human de- 
 velopment are here used in an entirely neutral sense, 
 to denote the fact that mankind have undergone a 
 succession of changes, without meaning to convey any 
 judgment as to the quality of the successive changes 
 themselves. Js[p . doubt it follows from the nature of 
 the forces at work that, on the whole, improvement 
 must have been the usual result of change, as it has 
 been the invariable object of men in seeking it ; but 
 still ^changes have not always been improvements?) 
 This, however, is immaterial for the employment of 
 the method of inquiry about to be explained, which, is 
 equally applicable to ascertain any course of positive 
 
ii METHOD OF INQUIRY IN EARLY HISTORY 11 
 
 changes whether it be held to be one of growth or t^. 
 one of decay if only a sufficient number of connected 
 stages be disclosed to view. And there is a conveni- 
 ence in using the word " progress " to indicate any suc- 
 cession of changes and "progression" to express the / 
 circumstance of experiencing successive changes, what- 
 ever their character may be. (In this sense it is 
 assumed in the present investigation that mankind is 
 a progressive community, that is, a community which 
 has been always undergoing change in its institutions, 
 h_abits, and ideas, by virtue of the operation of its own 
 internal forces^ This assumption will be admitted by 
 all save those who hold that the destinies of men have 
 not been dependent on their own powers, but have 
 been influenced from without by revelation. But those 
 who entertain this view will be the readiest to concede 
 that to take account of this faith in a scientific inquiry 
 would be to abandon the inquiry. With these ex- 
 planations I shall proceed to consider the two points 
 above specified. _^^ 
 
 My first proposition is that inequalities of develop- 
 ment result from the conditions under which most of 
 the causes of development operate. They may be 
 observed in every community which is not in a state of 
 stagnation, and the greater the community the more 
 remarkable the inequalities. In the human family, as 
 a whole, they must therefore be more numerous and 
 striking than in any separate tribe or nation, since the 
 human family comprises all communities. 
 
 The progress of a community is to some extent 
 
v, 
 
 12 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 determined by causes which affect all its sections 
 equally, ^o a greater extent, however, and in more 
 important particulars, r it is promoted by causes which 
 affect the sections unequally.^! I do not pretend here 
 to prove this, but merely to illustrate it. The leading 
 spirits in a community, it is apparent, act chiefly on 
 only certain of its sections in the first instance. The 
 men of genius, who by their discoveries add, from time 
 to time, to human knowledge and power, and by their 
 speculations and aspirations dignify our life ; the philo- 
 sophers and critics, who are foremost to purify, amplify, 
 and quicken ideas ; and the favourites of fortune, who 
 are so circumstanced as to be immediately benefited 
 by discoveries, and influenced by new standards of 
 propriety, form a class by themselves in every com- 
 munity. What is gained by the few leaders is first 
 appreciated, taken over, and secured by those who are 
 nearest to them in acquirement and capacity, or who 
 are most immediately, by social connections, under their 
 influence ; from the latter it passes similarly to a wider 
 social circle ; and so on, through ever widening circles, 
 till the whole society is more or less affected by it. 
 Now its transmission from circle to circle, or from rank 
 to rank, to the rear rank, and its adoption and preserva- 
 tion there, are manifestly dependent on the arrange- 
 ments for that end existing ; that is, on the general 
 educational apparatus of the community. This appa- 
 ratus is imperfect in 'every community ; and again, in 
 every community it is less perfect for the lower ranks 
 of society than for the higher; that is, the wider the 
 
ii METHOD OF INQUIRY IN EARLY HISTORY 13 
 
 social rank, the more imperfect the educational ap- 
 paratus. And since, in the greater masses, the force of 
 custom is more decided than in the less, while the 
 means of diffusing new ideas are more inadequate, v the 
 greater masses must tend to^^lmnge Jiessjs^idl^^ha^' 
 jbh^jss/jb^ other wprds,\owing to inequality in gifts 
 and opportunities, ana "the conditions which favour or 
 hinder the discrimination of new ideas and methods, 
 the different sections of every society must present 
 inequalities of development, and the larger the society, 
 the more numerous and remarkable must jthese be._ 
 I We ^should not look For very different modes of life 
 in a small group, and we should be surprised not to 
 find them in a large group, for there, on the view I 
 have been stating to take no other they are normal 
 
 jjid-Jiecessary. ^ -i 
 
 If inSb^alities~of~dev^iDpment necessarily arise in 
 every single community from the causes I have now 
 mentioned, it is a fortiori inevitable that they should 
 appear among mankind as a whole. 1 For while the 
 
 XX CJ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^y ^ 
 
 rationale ~of"their production is the same in the one 
 case as in the other, it is manifest that the inequalities 
 of gifts and opportunities to refer to nothing else 
 must have been indefinitely more numerous for the 
 
 totality of iumanv races- 
 munity. Some of the races have had a much better 
 geographical situation than others. They have been 
 more favoured by climate and soil, and by those in- 
 fluences of locality which have been described under 
 the name of "aspects of nature." Then the cireum- 
 
STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 i 
 
 stances, whatever they were, which determined the 
 variety of human types the assortment of physical 
 features, on the possession of which in common 
 rests the conception of men as belonging to the 
 same race must have exerted a similarly powerful 
 influence on the rate, and perhaps in some respects 
 the character, of the progress of the races exposed 
 
 Jbojtti. -_____ 
 
 It is involved in the conception of a community 
 as progressive that all its sections are moving though 
 not pari passu ; and it results from the nature of the 
 influences that mainly determine the progress, am 
 from the general character of the restraints on thei: 
 action which determine the inequalities, notwithstand- 
 ing that many of those restraints must in every com- 
 munity have been what we call accidental, that al] 
 the sections are moving ir^ the same general direction. 
 If, then, we imagine a progressive community to have 
 been isolated from its origin, and to have develope< 
 entirely by virtue of its internal forces, we may con- 
 ceive a time when the course of development and the 
 >, . ******** 
 
 inequalities commenced, and a condition that was till 
 then, speaking broadly, common to all its members. 
 The majority would remain in this condition, while a 
 favourably situated minority, taking the first step of 
 r progress, left them behind. r ln proceeding, however, 
 the minority could not but retain in their new life 
 marks and traces of the old., The same thing would 
 take place throughout in every advance of a section, 
 down to the lowest and least favourably situated, as 
 
ii METHOD OF INQ UIR Y IN EARL Y HISTOR Y 1 5 
 
 \ \ 
 
 the progress went on through its various stages, and I \ 
 included section after section in its scope. 1 
 
 It will be admitted to be conceivable that [long 1 
 after the commencement of the progress supposing 
 the - community ^o be very-4afger-and composed of 
 many sections^-the inequalities of various sorts observ- 
 able in the sections should be so numerous^ and the 
 stages of the development so linked together by the 
 
 f " *' **'*- ** 
 
 traces of preceding changes forming c a continuous chain 
 from the highest to the lowest, as that the series should 
 afford a disclosure ^ at once of almost the initial condi- 
 tion of the community and of the whole subsequent 
 progress of its most advanced section. r Now the 
 method of investigation I adopt is founded on the 
 assumption that mankind presents us with the case 
 of a communit in the situation 
 
 -xoneeivable._/ The lowest forms of life of which we 
 have accounts enable us confidently to judge of the 
 primitive state of man, and a study of the highest 
 forms yields evidence that they have grown up from 
 the lowest. fThe stages of the growth, moreover, can 
 be made surprisingly clear. The species has been : 
 unequally developed that almost every phase of pro- 
 gress may be studied as a thing somewhere observed 
 and recorded ; and the philosopher, fenced from mis- 
 take by the interconnection of the stages and by their 
 
 1 I am contemplating evolutions that are in their nature exceedingly 
 slow ; such as are accomplished only in great periods of time. Every 
 phase, I suppose, would last long enough to stamp an enduring impress 
 on the forms of life it affected, and of this influence at least traces 
 would long remain in these forms as modified in subsequent stages. 
 
 I/ 
 
16 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 shading into one another through gentle gradations, 
 may draw a clear and decided general outline of the 
 whole course ~of human history. It will be made 
 
 apparent hereafter that it is not merely the unrecorded 
 portion of history, but the recorded also that must have 
 the light of primitive facts thrown upon it to make it 
 - intelligible. 
 
 Granting the inequalities of development to be as 
 numerous as I allege, and the stages of development 
 to toe interco^jiejctejd^jih_e__^[uestion arj^e^/How are we 
 ceed in order to ascertain^thVseries of stages ? 
 
 It follows from all I have said that |the first thing 
 to be done is to inform ourselves of the facts relating 
 to the least developed races 1 r To begin with them is 
 begin with history at the farthest-back point of tim 
 to which, x except by argument and inference, we can 
 reach. JTheir condition, as it may to-day be observed, 
 is truly the most ancient condition of man^J It is the 
 lowest and simplest, and, as I have elsewhere observed, 
 in the science of history old means not old in chrono- 
 logy but in structure. That is most^ ancient which 
 lies nearest the beginning of human progress considered 
 as a development, and that is most modern which is 
 farthest removed from it. 1 
 
 1 In Colonel Lane Fox's admirable collection, illustrative of the 
 development of the boomerang, no one could hesitate as to where the 
 series of stages began, nor, indeed, as to the succession of stages between 
 a common stick and the boomerang. Again, a stone picked off the 
 ground at random for the purpose of throwing, and a stone prepared in 
 the best shape for slinging are at immediately recognisable extremes 
 of progression. The sling and slinging stone, however, compared with 
 the Henry rifle and Boxer-Henry cartridge are as manifestly at opposite 
 
ii METHOD OF INQUIRY IN EARLY HISTORY 17 
 
 -, \ 
 
 Having acquainted ourselves with the more primi- 
 tive forms of life, we must proceed to compare them \ 
 with the more advanced, and to study their inter- 
 connections with a view to 'their classification. We 
 shall find that our power of arranging in their order 
 the stages of human advancement depends as a rule on 
 the interconnections, and thatl;the commonest way in 
 which the lower prolongs itself into the higher is of the | 
 nature of a symbolism^ The persistence of the lower in 
 the higher, however, takes place also in a variety of 
 other ways, as, for example, when some law^ institu- 
 tion, or custom being displaced by a new one, there is 
 yet left remaining in the latter some unmistakable 1 ' 
 secondary feature of . the^J^rjner.,. Valuable assist- 
 ance is, moreover, occasionally obtained in the work 
 of classification from < general considerations which 
 co-operate with other evidence to support a judgment 
 that one form of life is essentially ruder than another ; 
 and sometimes the most useful of all aids is available, 
 r cases being found which illustrate the phases of transi- 
 tion from one stage to another in such a way as to 
 exclude doubt regarding their mutual relations. 
 
 A power of distinguishing the comparative degrees 
 of rudeness of forms of life, apart from any induction 
 and minute analysis of structure, seems to be implied 
 at the outset in selecting the races to be in the first 
 instance studied. There may exist some tests of degrees 
 
 extremes of a progression. We shall hereafter see many social states that 
 are as readily capable of being discriminated as being the one higher and 
 the other lower, as any phases of mere mechanical developments. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 of rudeness which would command general assent, but 
 it would be most hazardous to rely upon them if 
 unsupported by a certain amount of other evidence. 
 Should we find anywhere tribes of men herding 
 together without clothing, almost without tools or 
 weapons, using nature-provided shelters, without laws, 
 government, or religion, improvident and trusting for 
 subsistence to fruits, roots, and shell-fish, we may 
 believe that no condition could well be at once human 
 and lower. There are not a few tribes that have been 
 said to answer pretty closely to this description, but, 
 truth to tell, the accounts are not very trustworthy, 
 nor, except as indications of the condition from which 
 men may have emerged, could such ca'ses be instructive 
 r in a scientific view, even were they established. 1 f When 
 I speak of the least advanced races as falling to be 
 studied in the first instance, I mean all the least 
 advanced races indiscriminately ; and in selecting from 
 these the type of group to start from in any investigation 
 one may be making, any experience is that 'the inquirer 
 must be guided by the circumstance that the group 
 presents to him forms of life which, in casting about 
 for origins, he has become trained to perceive to be 
 
 1 I know of no groups of men from evidence that can be counted 
 trustworthy that are not in the strictest sense groups of men gifted with 
 speech and speculative, in the sense of being metaphysical ; that is, in my 
 opinion we have no accounts of man as a mere brute to be handed over 
 as a proper subject of study to the naturalist. "On the other hand, it will 
 be found that we have the means of historically tracing back the condition 
 of man, by a series of irresistible logical inferences from well-established 
 facts, to a stage where his earlier history belongs not to the historian, but 
 to the natural historian. 
 
ii METHOD OF INQ UIR Y IN EARL Y HISTOR Y 19 
 
 germal. To test his impression that they are of this\ 
 nature he must compare them with kindred forms, 
 studying their differences and correspondences till he 
 learns whether or no the differences are of the character 
 of growths from, or modifications of, a germal form. 
 Having lighted upon such a form, he must trace its 
 subsequent modifications from point to point. Very 
 frequently this is not a difficult process, as r one stage 
 grows so obviously out of another as to suggest what 
 preceded it a suggestion which, it is manifest, no 
 mind could receive except as having already a know- 
 ledge of the main features of the earlier stage. Indeed, 
 not a few of the most instructive germal forms have 
 been actually lighted upon under the guidance of such 
 a suggestion ; and it is only what should be expected 
 that in inquiring into a subject so perplexed, and the 
 facts respecting which have only so recently begun to 
 be systematically collected, the selection of the start- 
 ing-point is, as a matter of necessity, determined by a 
 judgment on the whole facts brought before the mind 
 during years of research. 
 
 The importance of a minute study of the whole 
 body of facts gleaned from observation of the ruder 
 races cannot be exaggerated. These facts are at once 
 the materials from which the earlier chapters of general 
 history must be compiled, and an essential requisite 
 in rendering intelligible many events recorded in 
 written histories; that is, they are of primary import- 
 ance to general history throughout. It is not too much 
 
20 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 to say that v there is no phase even of our modern 
 civilised life but has some feature which, when pointed 
 out, will appear puzzling and strange to one ignorant of 
 primitive facts, but which becomes suddenly significant 
 .when these facts are explained. It is chiefly to a want 
 of knowledge of these that we must ascribe the failure 
 of what pretends to be "comparative jurisprudence" to 
 explain ancient institutions, as well as the failure of 
 philology to penetrate any depth into the past. We 
 must also ascribe to the want of this knowledge the 
 errors of philologists and others in handling the ancient 
 mythologies, the worship by the ancients of animals 
 and plants, and the gods compounded of bestial and 
 human forms that appear in systems of faith in course 
 of being worked over into a consistent anthropomor- 
 phism; to mention no other failures. 1 To the same 
 also must be attributed frequent misapprehensions of 
 the order of succession, as well as of the meaning, of 
 events occurring within the period of records a species 
 of misapprehension so common as to show that written 
 history may be not only meaningless but delusive, when 
 read apart from a knowledge of primitive modes of life 
 
 1 I have dealt with these in another place, and hope to recur to 
 them hereafter. Here I wish to point out how things may be recorded 
 and the record mean nothing, be unintelligible, how, in short, to infuse a 
 meaning into much of ancient history, it must be approached after 
 forming the preface to it. With regard to the failure of philology in 
 ethnology as well as history, it is interesting to recall its high preten- 
 sions : " The evidence of language is irrefragable, and it is the only 
 evidence worth listening to with regard to ante-historical periods." 
 Professor M. Miiller, " Last Results of Sanskrit Researches," quoted in 
 Muir's Sanskrit Texts, part ii. p. 309. 
 
ii METHOD OF INQUIRY IN EARLY HISTORY 21 
 
 and their classifications. Of this kind of misapprehen- 
 sion I have elsewhere given examples. They might be 
 given in any number. The student who would exercise 
 his mind in seeking them for himself could not do 
 better than read Ortolan's History of Roman Law, or 
 the Ancient Law of Sir Henry Maine. Nor need I 
 here show, what I have elsewhere shown, liow necessary 
 a knowledge of primitive life is, as a preparation of the 
 mind to profit by the suggestions which symbolic forms 
 afford as to the connection of stages, and therefore as a 
 preparation for the work of classification generally, since 
 a symbol is the commonest trace of itself which the lower 
 form of life leaves in the higher that supersedes it. 
 
 The symbolism is probably due to reverence for the 
 past ; it is due at least to r our incapacity whatever 
 may be its cause to drop all at once any mode of 
 proceeding which has long been customary. This 
 incapacity the student of history may be allowed to 
 think fortunate, since but for it there could be no high 
 degree of certainty attained in penetrating the secrets 
 of unrecorded time. The inequalities of development, 
 into however perfect a series they might fall, could 
 not per se impress the mind as they do when by means . 
 of this symbolisinstage isjiinked to stage. As it is,__ 
 we are aMe to trace everywhere, frequently under 
 striking disguises, in. the higher layers of civilisation, 
 the rude modes of life with which the examination of 
 the lower makes us familiar, and are thus made sure 
 of the one being a growth from the other. 
 
22 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 The causes which produce the symbolism are 
 j active now as ever they were ; symbols are every da 
 arising and attesting the continuity of human affairs. 
 Feudalism is practically dead in Scotland, but the 
 Scotch law still teems with feudal ideas and forms, 
 and should the ideas die and be forgotten, many of 
 the forms or traces of them will certainly long remain. 
 The instinct or incapacity which secures their pre- 
 servation knows no bounds in its application, and 
 may be illustrated as easily from the sewage system- 
 of a country as from its jurisprudence. By means 
 i of these symbols which replace extinct practices we 
 are able to trace out old customs in districts in 
 which they have gone into disuse." I shall cite 
 two illustrative instances. It is said to be a custom 
 in Borneo in building a house that holes are made 
 to receive the posts, and men are killed and placed 
 in the holes, " so that the house being founded in 
 blood may stand." According to the Eev. Mr. Taylor, 
 a similar custom once prevailed in New Zealand. It 
 is now extinct, but the ancient practice is symbolised 
 on the building. The wall-plate of the verandah is 
 carved to represent the prostrate figures of the victims 
 on whose bodies stand the pillars that support the 
 house. 1 We get a different case from Captain Cook 
 in his account of human sacrifices, in his time, in 
 Otaheite. "It were much to be wished," he says, 
 "that this deluded people may learn to entertain the 
 same horror of murdering their fellow -creatures in 
 
 1 Te-Ika A-Maui, p. 388. By the Kev. R. Taylor. 1855. 
 
 * 
 
ii METHOD OF INQ UIR Y IN EARL Y HISTOR Y 23 
 
 order to furnish an invisible banquet to the god (the 
 sacrificed were buried by the altar, and the notion 
 was that the god fed on their souls), as they now 
 have of feeding corporeally on human flesh themselves. 
 And yet we have good reason to believe there was a 
 time when they were cannibals. We are told (and, 
 indeed, partly saw it) that it is a necessary ceremony 
 when a poor wretch is sacrificed, for the priest to 
 take out the left eye. This he presents to the king, 
 holding it to his mouth, which he desires him to open ; 
 but instead of putting it in, he immediately withdraws 
 it. This they call ' eating the man 7 or ' food for the 
 chief/ and perhaps we may observe here some traces of 
 former times, when the dead body was really feasted 
 on." 1 Knowing that cannibalism was a practice of 
 some of the congeners of the Otaheitians, we cannot 
 doubt the correctness of the inference that the practice 
 of cannibalism was here symbolised. 
 
 In cases like these the presence of the symbol, if 
 supported by collateral evidence, the requisite amount of 
 which must vary from case to case, would enable us to 
 arrive at a knowledge of a precedent practice in a super- 
 seded order of things, even had we no direct evidence of 
 such an order having existed among the people possess- 
 ing the symbol. For since numerous cases exist in which ^ 
 there is direct evidence of symbols arising out of pre- C 
 vious practices, we are fairly entitled to assume, on finding 
 a symbol in use among a people, that there was in an /A 
 earlier period a reality corresponding to it, of which i/o 
 
 1 A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 44. London, 1874. 
 
24 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 remains as the shadow, especially if we know of such a 
 reality prevailing elsewhere. Usually it will suffice as 
 collateral evidence that we know a practice to be com- 
 mon of which the symbol is the natural relic. This 
 condition I have shown, in Primitive Marriage? 
 satisfied in regard to the Eoman marriage by coemptio. 
 We seem to be justified in inferring that a section at 
 least of the Koman people had had experience of the 
 system of procuring wives by actual sale and purchase ; 
 that is, had been, in regard to marriage, as rude as races 
 we esteem barbaric. So also the Libripens in Eome, 
 officiating with his scales at the making of a will or act 
 of adoption, seems to illustrate the source whence all 
 ideas of formal dispositions were derived ; while the 
 formalities in the Legis Actio Sacramenti may be con- 
 sidered to prove that the citizens of Eome were anciently 
 ignorant of legal proceedings and dependent for a settle- 
 ment of their disputes on the force of arms or the good 
 offices of neutral persons interfering as arbiters. 
 
 Enough, I hope, has now been said to convey a 
 general idea of the mode of proceeding I propose to 
 adopt. The method is not new, though perhaps the 
 I rigid application of it to history has never been 
 ' attempted on any great scale. It is as ..old at least 
 as Thucydides, who has recourse to it in the introduc- 
 tion to his history, in which occasion arises for consider- 
 ing the ancient condition of Greece. The following 
 passage shows that this historian appreciated the 
 instructive significance of inequalities of development. 
 
 1 [Studies in Ancient History, first series, p. 6.] 
 
ii METHOD OF INQUIR Y IN EARL Y HISTOR Y 25 
 
 " In the old times/' he says, " on navigation becoming 
 common, the Greeks as well as the barbarians on the 
 sea-board and in the islands turned pirates under their 
 leading men as captains, some of them seeking gain, 
 others a maintenance ; they fell upon open and unfor- 
 tified towns, on the plunder of which they mainly 
 subsisted ; a degree of glory rather than disgrace 
 attaching itself to such conduct. The correctness of 
 this statement appears from some dwellers on the 
 continent still regarding acts of piracy cleverly per- 
 formed as honourable ; also from the ancient poets 
 representing men as asking navigators who reached 
 their shores whether they were pirates, in a way imply- 
 ing that the employment was one the questioned were 
 not ashamed of, or their interrogators disposed to 
 reproach them with. A system of mutual plunder 
 also prevailed on the continent, and the Greeks to this 
 day in many districts continue the system ; as the Locri 
 Ozolse, the JEtolians and Acarnanians, and others in that 
 part of the continent, among whom also the fashion of 
 wearing arms continues from their persisting in piracy. 
 The whole of Greece, indeed, used to wear arms, owing 
 to the insecurity of their dwellings and communica- 
 tions ; the people, like the barbarians, even wore their 
 weapons when engaged in their ordinary avocations ; 
 and we have a proof of the universality of this custom 
 in Greece at one time in its still surviving in certain 
 parts." This interesting passage is a fair example of the 
 application of the method, for the tradition of the former \ 
 
 1 Thucydides, book i. 2. 5. 
 
26 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP, n 
 
 order of things is sustained by a reference to persist- 
 ing instances of it on the one hand, and by an inference 
 from the tone of the ancient poets on the other; the 
 causes of the persistence at points being specified, and 
 their ceasing to operate at other points being assumed 
 in explanation of the disappearance on the whole of the 
 ancient barbarities. Were this the place for doing so, 
 numerous instances might be cited of the survival to 
 this day of the order of things Thucydides described as 
 having before his time prevailed in Greece. 1 
 
 If within the scope of my inquiry I can connect the 
 ancient civilisations with forms of civilisation existing 
 among barbaric races of which we have trustworthy 
 accounts ; and the latter with lower forms prevailing 
 among neighbouring races more barbaric than them- 
 selves ; and these again with still lower forms in use 
 among peoples counted by common consent to be 
 savages ; and if I succeed in showing the connections 
 throughout the series of connected stages to be con- 
 fections of growth and development the higher to 
 \ have in every case passed through the lower in be- 
 J^ coming itself then I shall be entitled to conclude (1) 
 that the doctrine of development is established as 
 applicable to human society, and (2) that in the series 
 of stages investigated I have, so far as my subject is 
 ^concerned, the Preface to General History. 
 
 1 One notable case appears among the tribes round Munniepore as 
 described by M'Culloch. (Records of the Government of India. For. Dep. 
 No. XXVII.) i 
 
CHAPTEK III 
 
 THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 
 
 IN making an induction of facts, the first essential is to 
 ascertain that the facts we use rest on good evidence. 
 A false fact is much more mischievous than a false 
 theory, for it eludes detection more easily, and it not 
 only vitiates the argument it is employed in, but often 
 stands in the way of reaching a better. A false argu- 
 ment, says Mr. Darwin, is sure to be taken to pieces in 
 the course of subsequent investigation, but a false fact 
 often perplexes speculation for ages without there being 
 any means of getting rid of it. Facts become of import- 
 ance exactly in proportion as the system they are used in 
 is a reasoned system. A single erroneous fact may then 
 prove fatal to a whole series of logical inferences, and 
 no ingenuity can save the author from error. But for 
 the fact of the earth going round the sun Ptolemy's 
 ingenuity had dispensed with Newton. jjtn~an investi- 
 gation like the present, the accuracy of the individual i \) 
 data is a matter of even greater consequence than usual, / 
 on account of the cumulative nature of the argument by | 
 
28 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 which our conclusions are reached. The whole argument 
 is built on circumstantial evidence, and in circumstantial 
 evidence, if a single link is unsound, the whole chain 
 ives way. "J For example, a full explanation of the 
 origin of exogamy requires it to be made out that 
 wherever exogamy prevailed, totemism prevailed ; that 
 where totemism prevailed, blood -feuds prevailed ; that 
 where blood-feuds prevailed, the religious obligation of 
 vengeance prevailed ; that where the religious obliga- 
 tion of vengeance prevailed, female infanticide pre- 
 vailed ; that where female infanticide prevailed, female 
 kinship prevailed. A failure to make good any one of 
 tie&e--particulars would be fatal to the entire argument. 
 
 tit belongs to the nature of such an^argument that it 
 cannot be conclusively established while even the most 
 inconsiderable of the parts that compose it is insuf- 
 ficiently supported, and the issue may often turn on 
 the truth or falsehood of a single fact. Philo, for 
 instance, says that in Lacedsemon a man might marry 
 his sister by the same mother but not by the same 
 father, whereas we know that at Athens and in most 
 other places all over the world at the same period, a 
 man might marry his sister by the same father but not 
 his sister by the same mother. Is Philo's statement 
 true ? We have no means of knowing ; but it is 
 manifest how the statement, if true, would affect specu- 
 lation. Again, the singular phenomenon of the couvade 
 used to be explained on the principles of agnation, but 
 Mr. ; Brett, in his book on the Arawaks, has pointed 
 out the couvade in coexistence with kinship through 
 
in THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 29 
 
 women only. 1 In mentioning the circumstance, Mr. 
 Brett had in his mind no thought of the origin of the 
 couvade, but if his statement is true and there is no 
 reason to doubt it it upsets all the speculations on the 
 origin of the couvade which had preceded it. In this 
 case, however, unlike that of Philo, we have some means 
 of judging of its accuracy, for the result of all recent 
 research has been to show that agnation rarely got itself 
 established anywhere, and the couvade is very general 
 in cases where we do not know the form of kinship. 2 
 
 Now, in an inquiry where single facts may carry so 
 much weight, it is indispensable to make sure, before 
 accepting them, that they are well authenticated. It is 
 not enough to find a thing stated, and the statement 
 ever so often repeated. Account must be taken of the 
 authority of the first narrator, and inquiry made as to 
 whether the subsequent statements are not of the nature 
 of mere echoes. The original authority must be weighed 
 by considering what opportunities he possessed for cor- 
 rect observation, how far he had capacity and willing- 
 ness to make good use of his opportunities, and to what 
 extent, if at all, he was disposed to mix up with his 
 statements of fact any element of speculation or 
 
 1 [The Indian Tribes of Guiana. London, 1868, pp. 98, 101.] 
 
 2 [It may be as well to observe that the statement in the text must 
 not be taken to mean that Brett's statement offers any difficulty to the 
 theory that the couvade was a sign of transition from female to male kin- 
 ship ; agnation, of course, means a great deal more than the recognition 
 of fatherhood. The couvade is now generally admitted to have been a 
 method of establishing paternity and acquiring some rights over the 
 child ; it follows that it must have begun in a state of things where 
 female kinship was still the rule.] 
 
30 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 opinion of his own. In short, as far as possible, th< 
 witness must be cross-examined respecting the evidenc< 
 he tenders, at least as closely as he would be in a coui 
 of justice, so that the true value of his evidence may 
 ascertained. For we must keep in view not merely thai 
 all men are apt to be untruthful, but that very man] 
 of the witnesses we shall have to deal with have what 
 astronomers call personal errors, for which reckoning 
 must be made, not to mention the rarity of the gifts of 
 correct observation and of correct expression and literary 
 form. 
 
 f The data for our investigation are supplied to us 
 from sources of various kinds.) For tl^e ancient world, 
 our chief authorities will be its own literatures, i1 
 sacred books, like the Bible and the Vedas, its codes 
 law, its epic and dramatic poems, its philosophic; 
 treatises, which contain constant references to past an< 
 existing conditions of society, its geographical and his 
 torical works, written sometimes by men who wei 
 themselves also travellers, such as Herodotus, Pau- 
 sanias, and Strabo. ("This class of evidence is in no wise 
 limited to the more prominent nations of antiquity, like 
 the Chinese, the Hindoos, or the Greeks, but it is 
 available even for such peoples as the Finns and the 
 Peruvians, and in large quantity for the Scandinavians\ 
 What the Homeric and Hesiodic poems are to us for the 
 Greeks, what the Zendavesta and the Shah Nameh of 
 Firdusi are to us for the Persians, what the Vedic 
 literature and other ancient books are to us for the 
 Hindoos, what the Chinese sacred books are to us for 
 
in THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 31 
 
 the Chinese, that the Kalevala is to us for the Finns, 
 the Popol-vuh for some of the Americans, the Nibelungen 
 for some of the Germans, and the Sagas of the North 
 for the Scandinavian races generally. They bring 
 vividly before us ancient institutions and manners of 
 thought, feeling, and action, and present them in such a 
 way as to leave no doubt that we have evidence for 
 them above all suspicion. Another source of evidence 
 for the nations of antiquity lies in the monuments and 
 inscriptions belonging to them which still remain to us, 
 and whose record has at last, in the cases of Egypt and 
 Assyria in particular, become intelligible in recent 
 times. The evidence as to the past which is afforded 
 by the collections of folklore and popular tales so 
 frequently made in the present day such as Grimm's 
 Tales, Grey's Polynesian Mythology, Schoolcraft's Algic 
 Researches, and Campbell's Tales of the West High- 
 lands is certainly valuable, but perhaps not so 
 trustworthy as that derived from the sources already 
 mentioned. 
 
 As regards those countries which have become 
 known to us only within the last few hundred years, 
 and which taken together constitute more than three - 
 fourths of the whole inhabited world, the evidence we 
 possess is furnished mainly by soldiers of fortune, 
 traders, and missionaries, who have lived or travelled in 
 those parts, and have put on record the results of their 
 observations. Owing to many different causes, the 
 immense record which has been thus obtained is very 
 imperfect. We find the earliest accounts exceedingly 
 
32 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 uninformed, because, on the one hand, the observers 
 knew not what to look for, and, on the other, they were 
 only too anxious to excuse their own rapacity or cruelty 
 by depicting the tribes they conquered as mere brute 
 beasts whom it were charity to sweep off the face of 
 the earth. Nothing is more common in these old 
 narratives than to find the peoples who were being 
 sacrificed to European cupidity described as living in 
 purely animal state, without government, laws, or r< 
 ligion, and yet the student will sometimes be able 
 spell out from these very narratives themselves that tl 
 peoples so described were intensely religious, and thi 
 ; they dwelt under the constant pressure of a rigid bod] 
 of customary law, and what we would call a highl; 
 developed system of constitutional government. This 
 disposition of the first explorers to depreciate th< 
 natives of the countries they invaded has often bee] 
 made the subject of comment. Dr. James, for example 
 in his interesting narrative of Tanner's captivity amon^ 
 the North American Indians, says (p. 12): " In tl 
 writings of the early historians, particularly of th< 
 Puritanical divines of New England, we find the* 
 people commonly described as a brutal and devil-drw 
 race, wild beasts, bloodhounds, heathen demons. N< 
 epithet was considered too opprobrious, no execration 
 too dire, to be pronounced against them." Even Acosta, 
 a man of much sense and learning, discovers endless 
 proofs of the all - pervading influence of the devil in 
 every place he visited, and even among the Peruvians, 
 the most advanced of the American races, he finds no 
 
in THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 33 
 
 religion, but much idolatry everywhere. (The narratives 
 of the early explorers, therefore, are on the whole of 
 little value to us,) since they are pervaded by a spirit of 
 bitter hostility to the peoples they describe, and by a 
 love of detraction entirely unrestrained by any percep- 
 tion of philosophic truth. It is impossible to take as 
 trustworthy authorities men like the Jesuits of West 
 Africa, who, exercising the power of the sword over the 
 natives, baptized them by the thousand with a hose, 
 and destroying their idols wherever they found them, 
 erected crosses and cheap madonnas on their vacant 
 sites. They had a strong interest to vindicate the fury 
 of their religious zeal by blackening the character and 
 condition of the tribes on whom they poured it. 
 
 Another circumstance which in some cases diminishes 
 the value of the earlier evidence we possess, is that the 
 manners and religious feelings of the peoples it relates 
 to had been considerably corrupted by the influence of 
 European traders before any writers undertook to 
 describe them. An example of this is furnished by the 
 North American Indians. Our first knowledge of these 
 tribes is supplied by the Jesuit fathers, but English, 
 Dutch, and French merchants had been already nearly 
 a hundred years at work among them before the Jesuit 
 fathers began to have any understanding of their social 
 life and customs. Their trade was mainly a barter of 
 European products for fur, and it is impossible but that 
 any traditional religious regard for animal life which 
 the natives may have possessed should have largely 
 
 broken down under the prolonged influence of a trade 
 
 D 
 
34 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 in which they could procure for the skins of animals, 
 not only whisky, rum, and brandy, but the still more 
 tempting commodities of powder, shot, and muskets, 
 which had come to be indispensable necessaries for all 
 the tribes in the state of mutual war which was their 
 ordinary existence. ( A corruption of manners, and a 
 decay of many primitive feelings and customs, must in 
 this way have taken place among these Indian tribes in 
 the long interval between the time of their first dis- 
 covery and the time when their modes of life W T < 
 made, /as they at last were, the subject of intelligei 
 and highly interesting study on the part of the fathei 
 It is happily still possible, however, in some cases, 
 e.g. in that of the Iroquois, to supply the informatioi 
 which has been thus lost, perhaps for ever, regarding 
 their religious feelings, by inference from accounts 
 kindred tribes who have always remained outsidi 
 European influences, and have become the objects oi 
 observation since explorers have learnt what to seek for. 
 A further cause of much loss of valuable evidence 
 on our present subject is one which has operated from 
 the very first, and which operates still the expurgation 
 ad usum gregis of such missionary reports as were from 
 time to time made to the ecclesiastical authorities. The 
 college of the Jesuits supervised the Relations des 
 Jesuites, so as to strip them of such contents as were 
 esteemed likely to be prejudicial to the cause of 
 European civilisation and religion, and even works like 
 those of Charlevoix, which are more of the nature of 
 compilations than works of personal observation, were 
 
in THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 35 
 
 treated in a similar manner. The same thing is true of 
 the reports made by missionaries of Protestant churches, 
 a notable example being Williams's Fiji and ike Fijians, 
 which is a small work as we have it, but the materials 
 for which were furnished to the editor in enormous 
 MSS., the labour of long years, and then boiled down to 
 make them suitable for ecclesiastical purposes. We 
 learn from the published text how frequently accounts 
 of native practices or beliefs, as prepared by the author, 
 were omitted by the editor as being disagreeable and 
 disgusting. In this respect, indeed, ordinary books of 
 travel are not one whit better than ' missionary records. 
 They are, as a rule, publishers' ventures, scrupulously 
 dressed for the drawing-room table, and very rarely put 
 into final literary form by the travellers whose name 
 they bear as authors. It is impossible to overestimate 
 the amount of evidence which has been lost in this way 
 for the purposes of science. In one case known to me, 
 mention of the system of Thibetan polyandry as the 
 marriage system of a people was omitted in a work of 
 travel, because the editor thought no notice should be 
 taken of so disagreeable a subject. 
 
 Other causes sometimes lead to a suppression of 
 evidence. Pausanias and Herodotus, for example, often 
 tell us that they knew things regarding the religious 
 and social customs of the peoples they describe, which 
 they could not relate because they had received them 
 from the priests under seal of secrecy. And it is very 
 common for writers to withhold a fact or to describe 
 it erroneously through opmionativeness and through 
 
36 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 ignorance of the meaning of terms. Sometimes the 
 candour of the writer leads him at some stage to disclose 
 that he has substituted his own opinion for the informa- 
 tion he had received. In one account of the natives of 
 Australia the author states that the people he was 
 describing had eight totems, but in a later passage of 
 the same book he owns that he had said eight because in 
 his view they could not do with fewer, but that they 
 themselves had said they had only four. It is very 
 frequently stated in certain works of travel in Africa, 
 that the family system of the people was patriarchal, 
 while the details of it given by the writers themselvc 
 show that in reality the kinship that prevailed wj 
 kinship through women only, and the father was 
 comparative nonentity. Of late years, and especially 
 since the publication of speculations on the history oi 
 society, the confusion has become even worse con- 
 founded. Tribes are represented as being at once 
 exogamous and endogamous, and the marriage system 
 to be monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry all in 
 combination. It is for this reason that I propose in the 
 following work to cite no book of travels or missionary 
 report published within the last twelve years. They 
 are absolutely untrustworthy as sources of evidence, 
 because they have been written under the influence of 
 prevailing theories. Works written before that date 
 see no reason for treating with suspicion. They are 
 for the most part furnished by missionaries who were 
 quite ignorant of the scientific significance of the facts 
 they supplied. Their authors often mention, in describ- 
 
in THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 37 
 
 ing particular forms, that they have no knowledge of 
 anything like them existing elsewhere ; they treat them 
 as purely local customs ; and usually their sole motive for 
 putting them on record is that they seem strange and 
 curious. They have rarely any explanation to suggest 
 of their meaning and origin, and they are in general 
 entirely free from the bias of any theory or hypothesis. 
 It may be laborious to have to pick up the facts here 
 and there in separate books of travel, but there is 
 certainly a countervailing advantage in the circumstance 
 that being presented to us as single phenomena, un- 
 connected by any shade of theory, they may be accepted 
 as unsophisticated statements of reality. On the whole, 
 it is a most fortunate thing that the evidence was so 
 long accumulating before any one thought of making 
 the facts in question the subject of speculation. 
 
 I propose to select one or two witnesses in each case 
 whoseem, from their length of residence among the 
 people they describe, to have had ample opportunity of 
 becoming acquainted with the facts of the case, and to 
 spell out from their narratives, as a whole, the import 
 of what they have to communicate, when they have not 
 themselves made their communications very distinct. 
 I shall inform the reader in bibliographical and bio- 
 graphical notes how the case of those writers stands in 
 respect to their opportunities for observation and their 
 skill in observing, and I shall confirm or modify their 
 views by reference to the other authorities we have on 
 the same subject. For, as Eobertson says, "When 
 obliged to have recourse to the superficial remarks of 
 
38 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 vulgar travellers, of sailors, traders, buccaneers, and 
 missionaries, we must often pause, and comparing 
 detached facts, endeavour to discover what they wanted 
 sagacity to observe." 
 
 Besides these sources of evidence, there are various 
 aids to knowledge of which it is proper to say some- 
 thing here. There is, in the first place, a great variety 
 of collections of books of travel, such as those of 
 Pinkerton and De Bry. So far as these books are 
 unabridged in the collection they require no special 
 characterisation ; when they are abridged I shall of 
 course not cite them. Then there are various com- 
 pendious works founded on the accounts given by books 
 of travel, such as Dapper's Africa, and Walckenaer's 
 Collection des Relations de Voyage en differentes 
 Parties de I'Afrique (Paris, 1842), in which a work 
 is sometimes given at full length, but more frequently 
 in abstract or abridgment. Works of this sort are 
 mainly valuable to the student as catalogues of books, 
 simplifying his researches by enabling him more 
 swiftly to determine which books he must read and 
 which he may overlook. I shall have occasion to use 
 Walckenaer in some cases where I could not get access 
 to the works he abstracted from, but I have tested the 
 accuracy of his abstracts in cases where I possessed the 
 books he abridged, and I can confidently say that in my 
 opinion his work is an exceedingly well-executed one. 
 Then there are compilations of other kinds. There are 
 the ancient lexicons of Suidas and Festus, which must 
 be used with caution, yet on many points they are our 
 
in THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 39 
 
 only authorities. Of modern compilations, one of the 
 best known is Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and 
 Prospects of Indian Tribes, published by authority of 
 Congress in six huge quarto volumes. Writing some 
 twenty years after Dr. Galletin, who was a most careful 
 compiler, and who drew special attention to the law of 
 exogamy, Schoolcraft does not make a single allusion 
 to the subject in the course of his six volumes, except 
 in a single footnote towards the end of the fifth. 
 Omissions like that are characteristic of this book, 
 which is a singularly unsatisfactory one. I entirely 
 agree with the judgment formed of it by one of the 
 author's own countrymen. Mr. Francis Parkman says, 
 in his Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth 
 Century (Boston, 1875) : " Of recent American writers 
 no one has given so much attention to the subject as 
 Mr. Schoolcraft ; but in view of his opportunities and 
 his zeal, his results are most unsatisfactory. The work 
 in six large quarto volumes, History, Condition, and 
 Prospects of Indian Tribes, published by Government 
 under his editorship, includes the substance of most 
 of his previous writings. It is a singularly crude and 
 illiterate production, stuffed with blunders and con- 
 tradictions, giving evidence on every page of a striking 
 unfitness either for historical or philosophical inquiry, 
 and taxing to the utmost the patience of those who 
 would extract what is valuable in it from its oceans of 
 pedantic verbiage." 1 A work of a similar character is 
 that of Mr. Brough Smyth on the Aborigines of 
 
 1 Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p. 80. Boston, 1875. 
 
40 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 Australia, issued under authority of the Government 
 of Victoria. With regard to the statements of this 
 work concerning flints, tools, and weapons, I express 
 no opinion, but I am perfectly satisfied, after careful 
 study, that it is absolutely misinformed respecting 
 the structure of Australian society. The authorities ar< 
 unintelligent, and often give out as facts what are 
 only their own speculations, or their own modes of 
 reconciling the facts with the speculations of other 
 persons, like Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, when they have 
 never actually seen the things they describe, but know 
 of them only by letters received from clergymen on 
 the subject. There is one compilation of this order, 
 however, to which I shall occasionally" refer, and which 
 strikes me as on the whole a valuable and carefully 
 executed work, viz. Bancroft's Native Races of the 
 Pacific States of North America. The passages cited 
 from the authorities are often of such length as to 
 enable the student to judge of the matter in hand as 
 well as if he had the book before him. As an example 
 of this, I may point to the account given of Muller's 
 ingenious hypothesis of the development of the Mexican 
 war-god. I shall have occasion to make use of this 
 work without having been able in every instance to 
 verify the information it supplies by reference to the 
 original authorities from which that information has 
 been taken. I had hoped to be able to carry on 
 throughout the plan of personally sifting all the 
 evidence, but circumstances have lately made it 
 apparent that this would be impossible for me now. 
 
in THE MODE OF HANDLING EVIDENCE 41 
 
 I regret exceedingly being obliged to depart from this 
 course, especially as in several cases where I had access 
 to the books cited by Mr. Bancroft as authorities, or 
 had either knowledge of their authors or pretty full 
 bibliographical information about them, it has appeared 
 to me that the value of the authorities has not been 
 justly estimated by Mr. Bancroft's compilers. Of 
 course I shall not adduce from his work what for any 
 reason I count bad evidence ; and where I cite his work 
 at all without having verified its information, I shall 
 draw the reader's attention to the second-hand character 
 of the evidence. 
 
 Lastly, we have various compendious works in which 
 more or fewer of the facts are gathered by the labour 
 of one man and strung together by some thread of 
 theory or principle of description permitting of some 
 degree of orderly arrangement. Such books, of which 
 Waitz's Anthropologie is a good example, may be of 
 value to the student as catalogues of references to guide 
 his reading, but they are almost uniformly compilations 
 at second hand, and should never be trusted for a fact. 
 Mr. Lewis H. Morgan's Systems of Consanguinity, 
 published under the auspices of a great institution, 
 is a work of much apparent importance, but I shall 
 hereafter show, on evidence putting the matter beyond 
 all dispute, that the classificatory system set forth in 
 that book is not a system of consanguinity at all, but a 
 system of modes of salutation. It is almost incredible 
 how the author should have fallen into such a mistake, 
 considering that he borrowed from Lafitau (without 
 
42 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, in 
 
 acknowledgment) his account of the Iroquois, from 
 which he started his inquiry, and that Lafitau distinctly 
 mentions that among the Indians the expression " my 
 brother," "my father," "my child," were conventional 
 modes of salutation severally addressed to people in 
 proportion to the distinction in which they were held. 
 They indicated not degrees of relationship, but simply 
 degrees of respect. 1 
 
 1 " The savages, however, commonly do not like to hear themselves 
 called by their name, and to ask them what it is, is a sort of affront 
 which would make them blush. In speaking to each other they all use 
 the names of relationship, brother, sister, nephew, uncle, observing exactly 
 the degrees of subordination and all the proportions of age, unless there be a 
 real relationship by blood or adoption, for then a child will find himself 
 sometimes the grandfather of those who, according to the order of nature, 
 might easily be his (grandfather). They practise the same civility with 
 regard to strangers, to whom they give, in speaking to them, names of 
 consanguinity, as if there was a real tie of blood, nearer or more distant, 
 in proportion to the honour that they wish to do them, a custom which 
 Nicolas of Damas relates also of ancient peoples of Scythia " (Lafitau, 
 vol. i. pp. 75, 76). 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 DEFINITION OF TERMS 
 
 IT will be convenient in entering on an inquiry into the 
 earlier history of one great branch of marria,ge law to 
 define with some precision what marriage is ; to point 
 out its principal varieties, and the tests available for 
 determining, in any case, whether what, in common 
 parlance, is called marriage is properly so called. 
 
 Let us put on one side that strict view which re- 
 presents marriage as a sacrament establishing an indis- 
 soluble union of a man and woman as husband and 
 wife ; and on the other hand, that lax view which has 
 permitted the word " marriage for a month," to obtain 
 currency in certain seaports in the East ; and let us 
 see if it be possible to find between these some middle 
 term where all the essential ideas of wedlock shall be 
 found united. 1 
 
 1 It is hardly necessary to say that the term marriage is absolutely 
 inapplicable to the consortships of individuals of different sexes of any 
 other species than man. To speak of a gorilla and his " wives " is a 
 mere literary license ; and although much light may hereafter be obtain- 
 able from a study of such consortships in what is called the brute creation, 
 in elucidating the variety of marriage systems among men nothing but 
 
44 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 Marriage, then, as a general term, denotes the 
 union of a man and woman in the legal relation of 
 husband and wife, as the same may be defined by the 
 local law or customs. Where there is no law on the 
 subject no custom of the country establishing any 
 requirements as to the constitution of the relation of 
 man and wife, its endurance, and the rights and 
 obligations it confers and infers there is neither 
 marrying nor giving in marriage. 
 
 When we study the various marriage laws and 
 customs of the world, we find that no two systems 
 are exactly agreed. They differ more or less as to who 
 may marry at all ; as to whom a man may marry 
 when free to marry ; as to the manner of constituting 
 marriage where it is permissible ; and as to its effects 
 the mutual rights and obligations of husbands and 
 wives. Lastly, religion almost everywhere appears 
 consecrating the local usage as to marriage, whatever 
 it may be. The formula all the world over nearly has 
 come to be that marriage is a divine institution. Even 
 marriages by capture are, in the Bible and Koran, 
 made the subjects of divine revelation and regulation. 
 
 (But in this diversity of laws and customs, it is 
 possible to perceive certain main points of agreement, 
 and it is at these points we must look for the essentials 
 of marriage.) Otherwise, and to begin, the essentials 
 may be separated from the unessentials thus : where 
 
 confusion could arise from calling them, or thinking of them, as marriages. 
 This will presently appear so clearly that I need not here say more 
 the subject. 
 
iv DEFINITION OF TERMS 45 
 
 there is an undoubted marriage system, any feature of 
 it not present in another undoubted marriage system is 
 not an essential of marriage. 
 
 The noble Roman Jurisprudence, which did more 
 than all the religions put together to improve and 
 beautify human life, has given us the idea of marriage 
 as the union of one man and woman in a consortship 
 for the whole of life an " inseparable consuetude " of 
 life between husband and spouse, with interests the 
 same in all things civil and religious. That idea, 
 despite all woman's rights movements to the contrary, 
 is that destined to prevail in the world. 
 
 [Here unfortunately the note breaks off, nor does it seem 
 possible to continue it with any certainty of walking in the 
 author's footsteps. Another note gives brief definitions of some 
 varieties of marriage.] 
 
 1. Monogamy. Marriage of one man to one woman, ex- 
 cluding legality of either having another spouse at the same 
 time. 
 
 2. Monandry. Marriage of one man to one or more 
 women. Includes monogamy and what is usually called 
 polygamy hereinafter called polygyny. It excludes the 
 idea of there being more than one woman in the marriage 
 union. 
 
 3. Polygyny, commonly called polygamy, implies that 
 more than one woman may be in the marriage union, but 
 only one man. 
 
 4. Polyandry implies that there are several men in or 
 admissible into the marriage union, but only one woman. 
 
 [Another note begins : " Where several men and women 
 consort in a union." No name, however, is put down for such 
 a union, and Mr. M'Lennan does not indeed appear to have 
 believed that any unions of the kind were ever in accordance 
 with law in any country. If, however, it can be shown 
 
46 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP, iv 
 
 that such a connection was anywhere legitimate, we may 
 reasonably conjecture that he would have called it polygamy, 
 and would have restricted his use of the word to this sense. 
 
 As a matter of fact, however, " polygamy " is used con- 
 tinually throughout his notes as a synonym for "polygyny," 
 and we have not considered ourselves justified in changing the 
 word. 
 
 It may be advisable here to reprint some remarks on the 
 words exogamy and endogamy from Mr. M'Lennan's article on 
 the subject in the Fortnightly Review for 1877 : "The former 
 is the law prohibiting marriage between persons of the same 
 blood or stock as incest often under pain of death and the 
 latter the law prohibiting marriage except between persons of 
 the same blood or stock." It is, therefore, impossible for both 
 laws to exist together in a clan. " If a man must not under 
 the pains of incest marry a woman of his own stock or 
 blood, and is forbidden, under the pains of law, to marry a 
 woman of any other stock or blood, it would appear that 
 marriage is forbidden to him altogether. If in any tribe 
 exogamy and endogamy should indeed coexist, then indeed in 
 that tribe marriage would be absolutely interdicted. This is 
 manifest if by " tribe " a tribe of descent or body of kindred 
 is intended. It is equally manifest if by "tribe" a local 
 tribe which may contain portions of several tribes of descent 
 be intended. The phrase applied to a local tribe could 
 only acquire a meaning short of an interdict on marriage 
 on the supposition that the local tribe had come to comprise 
 several clans of different stocks, one or more of which had 
 followed the rule of exogamy, while one or more followed the 
 rule of endogamy. But that would truly be a case of juxta- 
 position, not of coexistence, of the two principles."] 
 
CHAPTEK V 
 
 KINSHIP, TOTEMISM, AND MARRIAGE 
 
 [AT this point would have followed, according to the author's 
 scheme, a discussion of (1) Early conceptions of kindred; (2) 
 Female kinship, its origin and distribution ; (3) Blood-bond ; 
 (4) Fact of capture. Such are the headings which he left for 
 the chapter, and he also left an indication that it would have 
 corresponded to the eighth chapter of Primitive Marriage. 
 (Strictly speaking, as all familiar with his writings will 
 remember, it is only the first three points to which this 
 applies ; the fact of capture is discussed in the fourth chapter.) 
 How far the views expressed in Primitive Marriage would 
 have been recast and remodelled it is impossible to say, but 
 there is no doubt that their substance would have remained 
 practically the same. It may be hoped that the reader will 
 refer to the original source, but still it may be useful to give 
 here the briefest sketch possible of the views in question. 
 
 Though most of Mr. M'Lennan's work after the publication 
 of Primitive Marriage was but amplifying, strengthening, and 
 completing the theories and the evidence for them which were 
 therein put forth, yet one important branch of primitive 
 history, which is closely connected with them, is not touched 
 upon in it. We mean, of course, totemism. He came to see 
 later that the account of development given in Primitive 
 Marriage was incomplete without this element, and that it is 
 absolutely necessary to his theory of the origin of exogamy. 
 
48 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 We have accordingly endeavoured to include it in the following 
 sketch, going on the lines of the later work. 
 
 In the first place, then, the idea of kinship is not an 
 innate idea of the human mind, but has been slowly developed 
 in different forms. The earliest groups of men would have no 
 j]y bond to unite them except the fact that they lived together. 
 So soon as they began to speculate on their relationship they 
 would conceive themselves to be all descended from one 
 common ancestor, and from what we know of savages it is to 
 be presumed that this ancestor would be a plant or an animal. 
 For example, a clan of the Moquis believed themselves 
 descended from the tobacco-plant, and the Ngo-taks in 
 Australia were ducks before they were changed into men. 
 The group takes the name of this " totem," and is marked oi 
 by it from all other groups, believing itself to be homo- 
 geneous. 1 
 
 So far the only idea of kindred is " the conception ol 
 Stocks" 2 The way in which the idea was further limited 
 by the perception of consanguinity with the mother, henct 
 developing into the system of female kinship. 3 That this 
 in fact the earliest form of kinship known is shown 
 evidence from all parts of the world. A child took his 
 mother's totem and believed himself related by blood to all 
 others who had the same totem, wherever he might find them. 
 But he did not assume his father's totem, nor recognise any 
 blood-relationship upon that side, the cause being presumably 
 the uncertainty of paternity in so rudimentary a stage of 
 development, and the fact that the mother is most concerned 
 in bringing up the children at first. 
 
 In the very earliest state of things it may be presumed 
 that simple .promiscuity prevailed between the sexes. "Marri* 
 f ^ was at first unknown ; " 4 and the earliest form of it was, h< 
 maintained, polyandry. " It gives men wives." 5 Its origii 
 
 1 Studies in Ancient History, p. 127. N.B. The word " tribe " is used 
 loosely in Primitive Marriage for "stock-group," as well as for "1( 
 group." 2 Ibid. p. 84. 3 Ibid. p. 85. 
 
 4 Infra, p. 57. 5 Infra, p. 55. 
 
v KINSHIP, TOTEM ISM, AND MARRIAGE 49 
 
 can only be ascribed to scarcity of women as compared with 
 men, and this scarcity was due upon his view chiefly to female 
 infanticide. " Under the pressure of want the numbers will 
 adjust themselves to the available food." 3 And the weakest 
 will go to the wall ; as the old are deserted and left to perish, 
 so the girls are got rid of as " useless mouths." 
 
 Of this form of marriage there are two principal kinds 
 which may with advantage be distinguished. The earlier and 
 ruder form was called Nair by Mr. M'Lennan, from the Nairs of 
 Malabar. The husbands in Nair polyandry are not necessarily 
 of the same clan with one another, and the wife remains with 
 her own -people, and there reeei^eajhe husbands.J Thus she 
 is not in their power, and the children belongto her or to her 
 clan ; to no other, indeed, can they be affiliated, inasmuch as 
 not only the individuality but even the clan of the father is un- 
 certain. The ..niore_advanced form, as Mr. M'Lenimn ^nn aidp.rp.fi 
 it, despite the fact thatjjs peculiar characteristics are especially 
 distasteful-tcupjir^ ideas, was called by him Tin' bet a n ; in. this 
 the Imsbands are of the same family and 
 as _in_ Thibet "gucJ^- ai^dvaiice -ttpuii Naim 
 naturally made whenever a. group nf p.la.np^p.n bring 
 their home, instead of her remaining with her own kin. And 
 it is more advanced not only because it succeeded the Nair 
 system, and imposed a further restriction on the right to marry, 
 but also, and especially, because it enabled the first step to be 
 taken in the change from female to male kinship. For though 
 the individual father still remains undetermined, yet the clan 
 of the father is decided, or at least presumed. This transfer- 
 ence of the child from the mother's to the father's side was 
 effected by different nations in a variety of ways which cannot 
 here be entered into; at the same time, while becoming 
 possible, the change did not become necessary, and as a matter 
 of fact female kinship often succeeded in retaining its hold 
 long after not only Thibetan polyandry, but .even monogamy or 
 polygyny, had been firmly established. 
 
 It may be as well to observe that it is not to be supposed 
 
 1 Infra, p. 80. 
 E 
 
50 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 that the evolution of marriage took place everywhere on 
 exactly the ame lines and passed through precisely the same 
 stages. " I take it," writes the author, " polygyny, monogamy, 
 and polyandry (or its equivalents) must have occurred in 
 every district from the first, and grown up together into 
 systems sanctioned by usage first and then law." 3 Again he 
 says that jjor the pw:pose_of ^m^g_we_may take^the Nair 
 polyandry as the jgrimitive type, jlU-ether-^ossible 
 arrangements grouping themselves-- naturally 
 s~to sayy4hat--the^e"culiar feature of Nair 
 polyandry, the wife remaining in her own house and receiving 
 her husbands there, is not essential to the first stage ; the only 
 really essential point is that the husbands are not of the same 
 totem. And so also the essential point of the second stage, 
 the Thibetan, is that the husbands are of the same totem. 
 For all other details a great margin of fluctuation must 
 allowed. But, owing to female infanticide, polyandry, not 
 polygyny or monogamy, has been the normal method ol 
 development, and thus female kinship has everywhere beei 
 the first system of kinship. 
 
 Here may most conveniently be introduced a letter of the 
 author's to Mr. Darwin, dated 3rd February 1874.] 
 
 Your scheme of the development of marriage systei 
 is (1) Polygyny and monogamy ; (2) Polyandry ; (3) Pro- 
 miscuity ; (4) Polygyny and monogamy in recurrence. 
 
 Jealousy, you conceive, determined the first stage 
 infanticide the second ; polyandry, undermining 
 natural jealousy or regulating it, brought on more 0] 
 less promiscuity ; and finally, a feeling of property ii 
 women growing up in aid of natural jealousy, re- 
 established polygyny and monogamy. 
 
 You ask me whether I see any fatal objection to 
 looking at polyandry as having preceded promiscuous 
 
 1 Infra, p. 53. 2 Infra, p. 57. 
 
 
v LETTER TO DARWIN 51 
 
 intercourse, and, indirectly, what I understand by 
 promiscuity and think of the statements often made as 
 to its ancient prevalence. 
 
 Before submitting to you the few observations I 
 have to make, I should like you to read my little book 
 from p. 162 to p. 170, 1 where there is a very imperfect 
 thinking out of the initial stage. The inquiry is, 
 remember, a human one ; and man not only a creature 
 with natural jealousy, but a combining, conspiring 
 creature. The strongest gorilla may be free to conquer 
 the weaker in detail, and thereafter be supreme in his 
 group ; gorillas not being developed up to the point at 
 which the weaker can by combination for a sexual 
 purpose subdue the stronger. Man alone exhibits this 
 capacity for combination, and, I am sorry to say, our 
 criminal records even in this country in late times show 
 him capable of combinations for sexual purposes 
 several men joining to secure a woman and force her in 
 turn. So far as at the initial stage women were got by 
 capture at the hands of more than one they would be 
 apt to be common to their captors. 
 
 And now a word as to what I understand by 
 promiscuity. You will see I have guarded myself 
 somewhat against alleging its general prevalence. The 
 import of my reasoning is that more or less of it and of 
 indifference must appear in the hordes or their sections 
 or some of them. I have nowhere defined it, but use it 
 as a general term to denote the general conduct as to 
 sexual matters of men without wives. Now, unless we 
 
 1 [Pp. 88 to 93 in the edition of 1886.] 
 
52 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 assume that the nature of man has much changed, we 
 may see in our own time and towns what this conduct 
 has always been. The men in that situation, or very 
 many of them, just do as they can, and are neither 
 over-nice nor over-scrupulous as to the manner. As we 
 go back in time I see no reason for thinking men were 
 more nice or more scrupulous. On the contrary, they 
 were less so ; and I know no more instructive fact- 
 disagreeable as it is, it is of high scientific interest 
 than that one practice (to denote it by the general 
 term I have been using), paiderastia, in many countries 
 became systematised. Thus in Greece the relation 
 between a man and his youthful lover was constituted 
 by a form of marriage after contract between the 
 relatives on both sides. To allege, then, that there was 
 a time when there was general promiscuity would be 
 merely to say there was a time before marriage com- 
 menced before any man had a wife. At that time 
 there would be no uniform behaviour of all men ; their 
 indulgence would be as passion prompted and oppor- 
 tunity offered. We may see in the behaviour of other 
 animals at that stage how various the behaviour may 
 have been. 
 
 The object, I take it, is to ascertain what from that 
 stage were the normal stages in the evolution of modes 
 of marriage, or marriage systems. In the brute stage 
 we may see analogies to marriage systems, e.g. the 
 gorilla may be said to keep a harem and to be poly- 
 gynous, but it would be a misuse of terms to speak of 
 him as married to his females, or of his females as his 
 
v LETTER TO DARWIN 53 
 
 wives. ^Marriage began with the first consortships of 
 men and women, jprotected by group opinion. 
 
 Now I agree with you that from what we know of 
 human nature we may be sure each man would aim at 
 having one or more women to himself, and cases would 
 occur wherein for a longer or shorter time the aim 
 would be realised, and there would be instances of what 
 we may call polygyny and monogamy your first stage ; 
 but, observe, every case of polygyny would cause a case 
 or cases of men without women. That is, supposing 
 you correct in thinking that a policy of female infanticide 
 was later than marriage I incline to the opposite 
 opinion, but it is a point that cannot be well settled 
 there would yet be a disturbance of the balance of 
 the sexes caused by a practice of polygyny ; so that 
 the reasons which move you to conceive there must 
 have been polygyny at the first, are also reasons for 
 conceiving that there was alongside of it polyandry (or 
 its equivalents). Nay, the presumption is that the 
 latter would be on a larger scale than the former, and 
 it certainly would be so, so far as the men were con- 
 cerned; and their training probably was more im- 
 portant than that of the women, so far as the future 
 of marriage was concerned. 
 
 The first stage, then, if marked by polygyny and 
 monogamy, must have also been marked by polyandry 
 or its equivalents. 
 
 I take it, polygyny, monogamy, and polyandry (or > 
 its equivalents), must have occurred in every district i' 
 from the first, and grown up together into systems ) 
 
54 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 sanctioned by usage first and then law. But I would 
 put them in this order 
 
 I Polyandry . . . the more common. 
 
 Monogamy . . . less common. 
 V Polygyny . . . still less common. 
 I think I can show monogamous systems to be, on the 
 whole, post- poly androus systems; that the normal 
 development was through the forms of polyandry and 
 through the break-down of polyandry. 
 
 As to polygyny, it is to be observed that it is 
 necessarily everywhere the privilege of the few, not the 
 practice of the commonalty. As time passed monogamy 
 would tend in advancing communities in which the 
 tendency inevitably is towards an equal distribution of 
 the means of well-being among the members of society 
 to become the common practice ; and sentiments 
 springing from it as the common lot would be un- 
 favourable to, and in time lead to the condemnation 
 and prohibition of polygyny. The countries in which 
 polygyny is said to prevail are really only countries in 
 which it is still permitted. As a system it can have 
 had less to do than any other with the history of 
 marriage on the whole. 
 
 Your most important suggestion, viz. that the 
 policy of infanticide may have been of late adoption, I 
 shall carefully consider. At present I see no grounds 
 for it ; but I am forced by your throwing it out to 
 think of fresh inquiries in one or two fields that have 
 always been a puzzle to me, e.g. the native Australians. 
 
 Since I wrote my book I have accumulated much 
 
LETTER TO DARWIN 
 
 55 
 
 information about the so-called promiscuity of savages. 
 Perhaps some day we may talk of it. 
 
 My remarks are put hurriedly before you at what 
 they are worth, and I must send them in all the de- 
 formities of a first expression. 
 
 * 
 
 P.S. In re -reading I notice I have not made 
 myself quite distinct, though you will probably catch 
 enough of my meaning. Polyandry, in my view, is an 
 advance from, and contraction of, promiscuity. It gives 
 men wives. * Till men have wives they may have tastes, 
 but they have no obligations in matters of sex. You 
 may be sure polygyny in the early stage never had the 
 sanction of group opinion. They would all envy and 
 grieve at the good of their polygynous neighbour. 
 Polygyny, then, did not at first give men wives. JWife- 
 dom begins with polyandry, which is ; ji contract. If I 
 had time I would re- write this, and try and make it 
 more worth your while reading. I should say I have 
 not _ been on this branch ,of my subject for some time, 
 
 I have been trying to feel my way back to the state of 
 the primitive groups by a variety of avenues apart from 
 marriage ; notably through the totem and its extensive 
 connections. 
 
 l 
 
 [To come to the blood-bond and blood-feud. We have 
 seen that the stock at first considers itself to be homogeneous, 
 all being descended, it is supposed, from a common ancestor, 
 and the sign of this connection being the totem. Now this 
 recognition of blood-relationship always carries with it among 
 savages the duty of avenging the blood of all members of the 
 same clan, that is co say, the blood-feud. And if every 
 
STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. V 
 
 member of a totem clan is bound to exact vengeance for every 
 other who has been slain, it is also an imperative duty to him 
 not to shed the blood of any of his own totem kin, any more 
 than he would kill the totem animal itself. To " shed the 
 blood " is a phrase to be taken literally as well as metaphori- 
 cally, and indeed to the savage mind the peculiar associations 
 of blood, which in the Hebrew phrase is the life, actually over- 
 ride the idea of death. At least in cases of infanticide a 
 savage often puts to death one of his or her own kin, but is 
 very careful to do it by some method which will avoid blood- 
 shed. But (apart from infanticide) he who sheds the blood 
 of one of his own kin becomes an outlaw, he loses the right 
 of protection by his own clan, for he has broken the covenant, 
 the blood-bond, which holds the clan together ; nay, he incurs 
 the blood-feud himself with every single member of his clan. 
 This is a most important point to remember and hold fast in 
 connection with Mr. M'Len nan's theory of the origin of 
 exogamy. 
 
 Exogamy as a law, according to that theory, arose out of 
 a practice of capturing women for wives, and this brings us 
 to the fourth heading set down for the present chapter. It 
 must be enough here to say that such capture in the savage 
 state is an every-day occurrence, and is shown by the symbolism 
 of many civilised peoples to have been a custom of their 
 ancestors. The reader may be referred to Primitive Marriage, 
 chap, iv., as well as to the evidence given in the second part 
 of this volume. 
 
 If we wish to understand the following chapter on the 
 origin of exogamy, we must remember that the author's theory 
 involves three different details : first, stock-groups held together 
 by the religious regard for the totem ; secondly, the blood-feud, 
 making it impossible to go against other members of the group ; 
 thirdly, a scarcity of women caused by female infanticide, and 
 causing in turn polyandry and a habit of capturing women for 
 \ wives.] 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 
 
 MY hypothesis, so far as concerns the present purpose, 
 is in outline as follows. The primitive groups were, of I 
 were by their members, when consanguinity was first 
 thought of, assumed to be all of one stock. Marriage 
 was at first unknown. In time the special attachments 
 of children to mothers led to the subdivision of the 
 groups into rude family groups of the Nair type, and 
 made possible the rise and consolidation of the system 
 of kinship through women only. Whatever other 
 family, or rather household, groups there were, it is 
 attested by the system of kinship that those of the Nair 
 type largely preponderated, and approximately, for the 
 purposes of thinking, we may assume them all to have 
 been of this type. While things were in this situation 
 a practice of capturing women for wives having its 
 root in a want of balance between the sexes arose, and 
 was followed by the rise of the law of exogamy. It is 
 the manner in which the one might give rise to the other 
 which is now to be investigated. By the joint operation, 
 again, of the system of capture, exogamy, and female 
 
 --JL- 
 
58 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 kinship, the original homogeneity of the groups was 
 destroyed. They lost their character as stock-groups 
 and became local tribes, each having within it as many 
 gentes of different stocks as there were original stock- 
 groups within reach that it habitually plundered for 
 wives. It is of course an almost necessary inference 
 that many groups disappeared in the struggle for 
 existence. 
 
 Whatever else may be disputable in connection with 
 this hypothesis, it will be admitted, I think, to be 
 beyond dispute that the account it gives of the presence 
 of gentes of precisely the same stocks in the various 
 local tribes inhabiting an extensive country, like 
 Australia, is correct. Assuming it to be so, we obtain 
 a series of inferences as to the state of the original 
 stock-groups just before the commencement of the 
 processes by which they were finally interfused, and 
 every such inference, it will be seen, throws light on 
 the rise of exogamy. 
 
 It is found that every gens of any stock is connected 
 with every other gens of the same stock, in whatever 
 local tribes they may be, (1) by the religious regard for 
 the totem, which marks the stock ; (2) by the obligation 
 of the blood-feud, springing out of community of blood. 
 This obligation must have followed the blood from its 
 source wherever it went, as surely as the religious 
 regard must have done so. And unless the totem bond 
 had been fully established in the stock-groups before 
 they became to any great extent interfused in local 
 tribes, it could not have been established at all. It is 
 
VI 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 
 
 59 
 
 the test, and, apart from the memory of individuals, the 
 only test, of blood-relationship among the lower races; and 
 without it, as far as we know, there is absolutely nothing 
 which could hold together, as a body of kindred, persons 
 descended from the same stock-group, but living in 
 different local tribes, or even the same persons living in 
 the same local tribe. We have, then, the inference that 
 the religious regard for the totem, the blood-feud, and 
 of course the system of female kinship without which 
 no commencement of the transfusion could have taken 
 place were firmly established in the original stock- 
 groups, before the appearance of the system of capture 
 or exogamy. 
 
 When we reflect again on the internal structure of 
 the groups, it becomes apparent that each of them must 
 have become subdivided into so many great families of 
 the Nair type holding on to primitive mothers such 
 as (in magnitude at least) are at a later time and in 
 connection with male kinship derived from common 
 male ancestors ; and that within these great families 
 there would be subdivisions again into smaller groups 
 of mothers and their children, or brothers and their 
 sisters or their children. Now whether we imagine 
 these great family groups, of which the stock-groups 
 were made up, to hold together as settled residents 
 on the same lands, or to be nomadic and separated 
 usually, ranging within the same district of country, 
 we may see that they would tend to become ultimately 
 so many separate bands. The men of each would 
 most conveniently find their wives within their own 
 
60 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 band ; and they would more frequently act together for 
 some band purpose than in concert with the men of 
 other bands for the stock-group's purposes. But the 
 bands, while thus acquiring separate interests and 
 having residences more or less apart, would be firmly 
 united by the bonds of common blood, civil and 
 religious. They would truly be so many septs, all of 
 one blood. 
 
 If now we imagine some cause to initiate a practice 
 of capturing women for wives in a district occupied by 
 several stock-groups, each subdivided, as above con- 
 ceived, into bands united by a common faith and the 
 law of the blood-feud, we may see instantly one leading 
 result that would follow. There would be no limitation 
 on capture as regards capturing the women of any sub- 
 division of a different and therefore hostile stock-group ; 
 but from the first there would be a positive limitation 
 on the practice as regards capturing the women of 
 any band of the stock-group to which oneself belonged. 
 Of course in attempting any capture, as from a hostile 
 group, the captors would be taking their lives in 
 their hands in the adventure as an act of war. But a 
 capture from one of the kindred bands would be more 
 than an act of war ; it would be felt to be an outrage or 
 a crime ; more than that, it would be felt to be a sin 
 ' a violation of the religious obligation which the blood- 
 feud imposed, for it could not well be accomplished 
 without the shedding of kindred blood. Moreover, all 
 of the stock would be bound to avenge it, and we 
 may well see how from the first it might well not 
 
VI 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 
 
 61 
 
 only be a capital offence, but regarded with a degree of 
 horror. 
 
 Here, then, in a law prohibiting the capturing of 
 women of one's own stock for wives, we have every 
 
 note of the subsequent law of exogamy. If we can 
 j. / 
 
 show that this limitation on the right of capturing 
 women for wives could be transformed into a limitation 
 on the right of marriage, we shall have accounted for 
 the origin of exogamy. ^The difficulties at this point 
 are immense. Instead of its being possible to believe, 
 with some thinkers, that the step was taken at a 
 bound by "a natural confusion" of the two things, it 
 seems almost impossible to see how it could have been 
 taken at all. Let us see if we can ascertain how the 
 change might become possible^) 
 
 The question is, how the ancient custom of wiving 
 within the kindred (l) went into desuetude, and (2) 
 came to be under the prohibition that originally applied 
 only to capturing women of the kindred. 
 
 So far as there was an association between capture 
 and marriage, the limitation on the right of capture 
 would operate from the first as a limitation on the 
 exercise of the right of marriage among kindred. If 
 now we conceive, as required by my hypothesis, that 
 the cause of the practice of capture was a scarcity of 
 women, we shall see how the exercise of this right 
 would be further restricted. The kindred bands in a 
 group would be unwilling, and unable even if willing, to 
 furnish one another with wives ; for, on the hypothesis, 
 women were scarce with them. Kindred wives would 
 
62 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 then be unattainable from without, by favour or pur- 
 chase, and we have seen that they would be unat- 
 tainable by capture. So far, then, as the men of a 
 band were in need of women, they would be obliged to 
 obtain them by capture from groups of a stock different 
 from their own. Thus the men would think more of 
 foreign women in connection with wiving than of 
 kindred women, and so marriages with kindred women 
 would tend to go into desuetude. On the other hand, 
 the ideas of marriage and capture thus becoming more 
 intimately associated, there would be a further approach 
 to exogamy. 
 
 But it is a long way from disuse of an ancient right 
 to the rearing up of an absolute interdict on its exercise. 
 In the present case we may believe that so long as there 
 were in a band women of the men's stock, the men 
 would marry them. Can we feign for ourselves how 
 men could come to be without women of their own 
 stock ? We may believe, to give what mathematicians 
 call a singular solution of the problem, that often, where 
 there was a system of capture, the men of a band might 
 be robbed, in their absence or in open fight, of their 
 women and female children. 1 'Thereafter for these men 
 capture and marriage would mean the same thing. 
 The exercise of the right of marrying kindred women 
 would be for them impossible, and the right itself 
 therefore dead. Capture and marriage would be- 
 come for them synonymous. The women they might 
 
 1 See Wallace, Travels on the Amazon [p. 516, also p. 362]; and The 
 Malay Archipelago, vol. i. pp. 144, 145. 
 
VI 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 
 
 subsequently capture being necessarily of some foreign 
 stock, and the children of their mother's stock, there 
 would never again be within the band women of their 
 own stock. Such an experience, lasting for the re- 
 mainder of the lifetime of the men of one generation in 
 a band, might well establish exogamy as the marriage 
 law for the band. Could we imagine that such an 
 experience as this was not uncommon, that it was 
 perhaps frequent in its recurrence, with the bands of 
 the various stock-groups of a country, we should have a 
 condition of things in which, for long periods at least, 
 marriage and capture would be practically synonymous, 
 and whatever limitation applied to the one would apply 
 to the other. Exogamy would become the marriage 
 law. 
 
 (But it is not necessary to make any so violent a 
 supposition. ) A general cause may be shown to have 
 been in operation which would only require assistance 
 from such experiences as I have referred to, to complete 
 the connection between capture and marriage. This 
 cause is to be found in the absolute change in the 
 relations of husbands and wives that must have followed 
 upon the institution of a system of capturing women 
 for wives. 
 
 I have called Nair polyandry a mode of marriage 
 because, in a juridical view, any relationship of persons 
 of different sexes resting on contract and approved by 
 public opinion by custom or law is marriage. But it 
 may well have been that the rude men of whom we are 
 thinking matured the idea of marriage for the first 
 
64 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 time when the Nair species of polyandry began to decay, 
 and give place to a mode of marriage which put the 
 men in the first place, and women in an absolutely 
 subordinate place in families. Under the Nair system 
 a wife would live in the house of her mother, and under 
 the special guardianship and protection of her brothers 
 and mother's brothers. She would be in a position of 
 almost absolute independence of her husbands, free 
 within the limits of her engagements to show and act 
 upon her preferences, and almost certain to treat her 
 husbands rather as favoured suitors than as lords. On 
 a practice of capture arising all this would be changed. 
 The captives would be the slaves of their captors would 
 be owned by them, and under their protection and 
 guardianship. The new mode of marriage would give a 
 sudden extension to the form of the family resting on 
 monandry or Thibetan polyandry. There would be the 
 cohabitation of husbands and wives, and for the first 
 time the idea of a wife as a subject of her husband or 
 husbands would become general. Now the new idea of 
 marriage which would thus be introduced is the idea 
 that was everywhere destined to triumph that has in 
 fact triumphed among all exogamous races, so far as I 
 know. And it was natural and inevitable that it should 
 triumph. It is easily conceivable how, once men had 
 experience of this new marriage system, unions of 
 kindred on the old model should not only go into 
 desuetude but not be accounted marriages at all. If, 
 then, we conceive that some time after the rise of a 
 practice of capture the name of " wife " came to be 
 
vi THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 65 
 
 synonymous with a subject and enslaved woman in the 
 power of her captor or captors, and the name of marriage 
 to be applied to a man's relation to such a woman as 
 possessor of her, the origin of exogamy becomes apparent. 
 Since a subject and enslaved wife would, in the circum- 
 stances of the time, be attainable only by capture, 
 marriage would be possible only through capture, and 
 the prohibition which, as we have seen, would apply to 
 capture, would apply to marriage. Marriage with a 
 woman of the same stock would be a crime and a sin. 
 It would be incest. 
 
 [On the view as to the movement from capture to exogamy 
 stated above, exogamy was in the first instance a prohibition of 
 marriage only between persons of the same blood. There is 
 evidence now forthcoming from Australia which helps the 
 theory at this point, since it tends to show that exogamy is 
 not necessarily anything more, and therefore that it was 
 nothing more at first. The absence of such evidence, however, 
 could not of itself make against the theory, so easy and almost 
 inevitable does it seem that, with marriage thoroughly 
 established, and strictly forbidden between persons of the 
 same blood, the history of the prohibition being unknown, 
 irregular relations should come to be forbidden between persons 
 of the same blood ; especially when, as often happens even 
 with female kinship, marriage has become, more or less 
 completely, a bar to irregular relations. 
 
 The Australian evidence above referred to is as follows : 
 1. Speaking of tribes about Port Lincoln in South Australia, 
 Mr. Wilhelmi tells us 1 that they "are divided into two 
 i separate classes, viz. the Matteri and the Karraru " ; that " no 
 | one is allowed to intermarry in his own caste, but only into 
 the other one " ; and that children belong to the caste of the 
 
 1 The Aborigines of Victoria, by K. Brough Smith, vol. i. p. 87. 
 
 F 
 
66 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 mother. Of Mr. Wilhelmi's phraseology nothing need here 
 be said ; it is enough that he conveys to us that the tribes 
 which were made up of Matteri and Karraru were exogamous 
 and took kinship through the mother. As regards marriage 
 their exogamy was strict. " There are no instances," he tells 
 us, "of two Karrarus or two Matteris having been married 
 together." And yet, he adds, " connections of a less virtuous 
 character which take place between members of the same caste 
 do not appear to be considered incestuous." Irregular con- 
 nections, then, did occur between persons whose marriage would 
 not have been tolerated, and, so far as Mr. Wilhelmi could 
 learn, they were not objected to. 
 
 2. We are told on the authority of the Eev. W. Julius 
 Klihn l the statement apparently is not in Mr. Kiihn's own 
 language that the Turra tribe, also in South Australia, con- 
 sisted of two great divisions, Wiltu (eagle-hawk) and Multa 
 (seal), the former of which contained ten, and the latter six, 
 separate totems ; that the divisions or sub-tribes were exogamous, 
 but that any totem of the one might intermarry with any 
 totem of the other ; and that children belonged to the totem 
 of their father, and therefore to his division or sub-tribe. 
 Faithfulness in marriage, we are told, was expected of both 
 husband and wife. At grand corrobborees, nevertheless (the 
 account proceeds), " the old men took any of the young wives 
 of the other class [sub-tribe] for the time, and the young men 
 of the Wiltu exchanged wives with those of the Multa, and 
 vice versa, but only for a time, and in this the men were not con- 
 fined to any particular totem." The statement that the men were 
 not confined to any particular totem seems to be made with 
 reference to a theory of Mr. Fison's, which it does not support ; 
 it was made, no doubt, in answer to a special question. For 
 the rest, the statement leaves us to understand that the old 
 men were free in their choice, and the younger men in their 
 exchanges that no exogamous restriction bound them. There 
 is nothing to suggest that they were debarred from women of 
 
 1 Kamilaroi and Kurnai, by Lorimer Fison and A. W. Howitt, pp. 
 285-287. 
 
vi THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 67 
 
 their own totem who had passed by marriage from their 
 original sub-tribe into the other; indeed, so important an 
 exception, had it been possible to make it, could not have 
 escaped mention. And, at any rate, the men were all free 
 from the restriction which is said to have bound them in 
 marriage as Wiltu and Multa respectively. 
 
 The practice of the Turra people at corrobborees was, no 
 doubt, a tradition from less advanced predecessors. 
 
 3. It now seems worth while to refer to what Mr. Eyre 
 tells us of tribes in the Adelaide district. 1 He says that in 
 most of the tribes the utmost license prevailed among the 
 young, and that there was unbounded license for all on 
 solemn occasions. It is clear that he believed there was no 
 restriction whatever. But Mr. Eyre knew nothing of the 
 marriage law. 
 
 Mr. Gideon Lang, however, 2 makes a somewhat similar 
 statement, and Mr. Lang was aware that the tribes which had 
 been under his observation were exogamous in marriage. 
 
 Eeference may also be made to what Mr. Beveridge has 
 said of the tribes of the Eiverina district; 3 and to a fact 
 reported of the Kunandaburi a tribe of the Barcoo river, 
 living within the Queensland boundary by Mr. A. W. Howitt 
 on the authority of a Mr. O'Donnell. 4 It may be suggested, 
 
 1 Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia in the years 
 1840-41. 
 
 2 The Aborigines of Australia, p. 38. 
 
 3 Journals, etc., of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 1884, p. 24. 
 
 4 Australian Group Relations, p. 8, reprinted from the Smithsonian 
 Keport for 1883. Jus primes noctis is allowed "to all the men present at 
 the camp without regard to class or kin." If this be received (and a 
 person who had lived for some years among the people could scarcely be 
 mistaken about it), it shows clearly that the exogamy of the Kunandaburi 
 was limited to marriage, and gives weight to all the indications or 
 suggestions of exogamy being so limited which are got from the other 
 cases mentioned. The objection to founding on it is that, while the fact 
 is new for the Australians, no detail is given as to the order of marriage 
 among the Kunandaburi. It may here be said that there is a reason why 
 exogamy, if limited to marriage at first, might remain so limited among 
 
68 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 too, that certain well-known statements about the Kamilaroi 
 need to be carefully considered with reference to the bearing 
 they may have upon the limits of exogamy among that people. 
 Unfortunately, Mr. Howitt gives us the bare fact he has to 
 mention only, and the name of his authority, with the state- 
 ment that he had lived some years among the Kunandaburi. 
 And Mr. Beveridge's knowledge of the marriage law of the 
 Riverina tribes was, no doubt, imperfect. What he says of it 
 is, that the very slightest blood-relationship was a definite bar 
 to marriage. But he knew there was a prohibition which 
 applied to marrying, and that it was strictly enforced. And 
 he assures us that, apart from marrying, there was simply no 
 restriction whatever. He had been for twenty-three years in 
 contact with the Eiverina tribes from 1845 to 1868. 
 Perhaps he proves too much ; a less unmeasured statement 
 could be more easily received. But what he says has to be 
 taken along with the impressions of Mr. Eyre and Mr. Lang, 
 and the more definite information given by Mr. Wilhelmi and 
 Mr. Kiihn. 
 
 If the foregoing evidence raises a doubt as to the original 
 scope of exogamy, it is enough for the purpose for which it has 
 been adduced. And it seems at least sufficient to raise such a 
 doubt. With a distinct statement from Mr. Klihn that in the 
 Turra tribe men were not debarred from their own totem at 
 the corrobborees, one might go further. For that would leave 
 no room for the suggestion that exogamous feeling, still in its 
 original strength as regards each totem, had, by means of the 
 totems, been weakened between the larger divisions, the Multa 
 and Wiltu, the Matteri and Karraru no room for the 
 suggestion that the facts show us, not exogamy operating 
 within its original limits, but exogamy in a state of decay. 
 As to that, however, Mr. Howitt (who procured the information) 
 appears to have made inquiry as to a much smaller matter 
 whether particular totems of the sub-tribes of the Turra 
 
 Australians a reason consistent with the theory now submitted. It 
 is that among many, perhaps most, of the Australian tribes a wife is 
 prized chiefly for her services as a drudge. 
 
vi THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 69 
 
 people were confined to each other at those meetings and he 
 cannot have neglected to satisfy himself upon a question of the 
 first importance, which is plainly raised by the statement 
 which he has published, and in which Mr. Fison and he 
 have, throughout their work, shown themselves to be deeply 
 interested. 
 
 In speculating on the influence of two such factors as 
 capture and female kinship, it is unavoidable, though the two 
 may have acted concurrently throughout, that the attempt 
 should be made to follow the operation of each separately, 
 combining the results ; or (which comes to ;fche same thing) 
 that the effects of the one should first be traced, and then 
 those of the other added on to them. It was necessary in the 
 preceding essay to deal with the kinship first ; but it may be 
 easily seen that there would be ample time for its development, 
 and for tribes which had grown too large to subdivide in the 
 manner supposed, before capture could have any effects which 
 need be taken into account. Capture may have been 
 practised before there was any thought of relationship ; it may 
 have been practised, more or less, all the time that kinship 
 through females was growing up. And stranger women, 
 captives of a hostile totem, must from the first have been in a 
 worse position than the native-born ; while their position must 
 have grown relatively worse and worse as the growth of kinship 
 gave the latter protectors and helped their numbers to secure 
 them some consideration. For long, their children, being 
 regarded as of some hostile totem, would not be allowed to 
 live ; and we may be guided in some very small measure in 
 judging how they would compare with the women through 
 whom the tribe and its totem were propagated, by observing 
 the low position assigned to captive wives wherever we find 
 capture practised in supplement of a regular system of 
 marriage by contract. But it is unlikely (as the analogy of 
 the case just mentioned shows us) that, by their numbers 
 merely, they could sensibly lower the position of native-born 
 women ; and there appears to be no other effect which, in the 
 state of things supposed, could follow upon their presence in a 
 
yo STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 tribe. Men cannot have for wives (even in a polyandrous way) 
 women who are doomed to childlessness; and (though a 
 gradual preparation for foreign wiving would no doubt be 
 going on) not until manners had so far softened, and hostile 
 (that is, different) stocks grown to be so far tolerant of each 
 other that the men of a totem could let the children of 
 foreigners grow up in their midst, could there be a beginning 
 of the competition between native and foreign marriage. 
 
 We may believe that the children of captive women would 
 come to be spared at length by a sort of tacit agreement 
 between neighbouring tribes arrived at gradually, and no doubt 
 very slowly. At first, and, indeed, for long after it became 
 common to spare them, each tribe might remain of one stock 
 or totem, so far as the men were concerned. The blood-feud 
 would, at any rate, tend to drive the sons of captives to their 
 mothers' relatives. The daughters, such f them as were 
 spared, would succeed to the lot of their mothers and by and 
 by would form a nucleus of women available for the lot of 
 foreign wives who could be had without capture. The main 
 source of supply of such wives, however, would almost neces- 
 sarily be in capture until there was, within each stock, so 
 much tolerance of foreign elements that the sons of its 
 captives or women of foreign stock could continue to abide 
 with it, and their daughters had as good a chance of being 
 allowed to live as those of the native-born. That involves a 
 great relaxation of the hostile feeling between different stocks ; 
 it would change each separate body, from being a stock of a 
 single totem, into a more or less heterogeneous local tribe. It 
 might give time for a long practice of getting wives by capture; 
 and it need not be doubted that, once a preference for foreign 
 wives had become general among men, understandings would 
 be arrived at between tribes or methods devised (such as occur 
 in known examples) with a view to their making captures easy 
 for each other understandings or methods such as might lead 
 in time to contract with the form of capture. "With tribes 
 become heterogeneous, of course, the need for captures might 
 cease ; men might find within their own borders wives enough 
 of different blood from their own wives obtained at length by 
 
vi THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 71 
 
 friendly bargain, but who would succeed to the subject lot 
 proper to captive women and their daughters. 
 
 It scarcely need be said that either monandry or Thibetan 
 polyandry might exist along with female kinship. This 
 kinship must have lasted at least till after local tribes had 
 become heterogeneous, if, with exogamous (that is, foreign) 
 marriage, it furnishes the only adequate explanation of the 
 heterogeneity. And, with the totem relationship already 
 founded on it (as, by hypothesis, it was), it could not be: 
 superseded all at once or at the will of single individuals or 
 brotherhoods, nor until the minds of people living together, 
 and even of their neighbour peoples, were generally prepared 
 for the change. Moreover, capture, so long as it was practised 
 to any considerable extent (since it would render fatherhood 
 still in many cases uncertain), would tend to keep it up ; and 
 so also would the liberty of intercourse between people of the 
 same stock, so long as that subsisted. 
 
 The supposition that a stock-group would subdivide into 
 bands composed of persons specially related to each other, 
 though obviously useful, does not seem to be indispensable to 
 the theory of the essay at any rate, a little of such sub- 
 division suffices for it. Without that, we may see that the lot 
 of native women must have been very different from the lot 
 of captive women, and that one of the former could not be 
 treated like the latter without outrage, and no more is in- 
 dispensable. Nevertheless, the conditions of subsistence would, 
 in early times, almost necessarily make each separate band a 
 very small one, and such subdivision as is supposed might be 
 of frequent occurrence. 
 
 As to the use made of capture in the essay, (though it 
 should not be necessary,) it seems to be necessary to say that 
 it is assumed that what men are known to have done in a 
 certain case prehistoric men in the same or a similar case 
 would do. Within times known to us, men have practised 
 capture (though they have done so also without necessity, no 
 doubt) when women have been scarce with them, whenever 
 they could not otherwise get wives. And, in particular, men 
 have practised capture (or got their wives after a form of 
 
72 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 capture, which shows that their predecessors had to capture 
 their wives) because they have been exogarnous in marriage. 
 On the theory stated in the essay, men, having begun to 
 capture chiefly because their own women were few, formed in 
 time through their relations with captive women a preference 
 for subject wives, and got them by capture because at first and 
 for long they could get them by capture only ; while the 
 exemption of their own women from the fate of the captive, 
 so far as each stock was itself concerned, formed, when a 
 marriage system founded on capture had come to prevail, a 
 limitation on marriage, which was exogamy in its earliest form. 
 How exogamy may force men into a system of capturing wives 
 is excellently illustrated by the case of the Mirdites. 1 The 
 theory assumes that the desire for subject wives, once it had 
 become general, would have effect given to it in the same way, 
 while the exemption of women living among their own people 
 from the lot of captive wives would make marriage in fact 
 exogamous. The Mirdites get their wives by capture because 
 exogamy is they know not why a law with them. Pre- 
 historic men, be it observed, would be, as regards marriage, in 
 precisely the same position as soon as the reason for their not 
 taking their own women in marriage ceased to be thought of. 
 Exogamy in marriage would then, at latest, be fully established. 
 And after that the limitation upon marriage might easily grow 
 into a prohibition of all connections between persons of the 
 same blood. The occurrence of the form of capture along with 
 female kinship shows, however, that the association between 
 capture and marriage was in some cases not easily or quickly 
 lost sight of. There are some peculiar Australian facts, too, 
 which suggest that among certain Australians, after exogamy 
 had been established for people of the same totem, and local 
 tribes had been made heterogeneous by it, capture of wives 
 was practised so extensively that it even availed to give a 
 wider scope to exogamy in marriage. The principle that if it 
 is wrong to capture a woman it is wrong to marry her will at 
 any rate account for marriage being forbidden (as it is in most 
 
 1 Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, by the Rev. H. J. Tozer, vol. 
 i pp. 318 et seq. 
 
vi THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY 73 
 
 of the cases referred to) between persons of the same local 
 tribe, even when they are of different totems, and also for it 
 being forbidden (as it is in one or two cases) between all 
 persons of those neighbour tribes who speak the same dialect. 
 Comity and the fear of consequences (especially the latter) 
 would make capture as impossible in the small Australian 
 local tribe as it would be in a body of people all of one totem; 
 and might make it, even as between neighbour tribes having 
 dealings with each other, much too troublesome not to be very 
 seriously disapproved of. And marriage is forbidden within 
 the limits within which a capture might thus have been 
 deemed an outrage. 
 
 A statement made towards the close of the essay makes 
 it proper to add (and no more can now be done) that no case 
 of beenah marriage not even an exclusive practice of it by 
 exogamous tribes, the only case of it which is not easily 
 intelligible makes any difficulty for the theory therein sub- 
 mitted. D. M'L.] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 FEMALE INFANTICIDE 
 
 PLUTARCH, in his dialogue on the question whether the 
 lower animals have the use of reason, ^ makes Gryllus 
 point out that in several ways these animals lead their 
 lives more decently, respectably, and, so to speak, 
 humanely, than man himself. Had the knowledge of 
 Odysseus, one of the interlocutors in the dialogue, 
 equalled his craft, he might have confounded Gryllus 
 \by showing that the practices^ he referred to as odious 
 tin man, Attest the terrible struggles Jor_existerLce--which 
 ibhirhuman xace T^s^passed~jh^ugh, and whieh-^o-other 
 species could have survived ; and are_so_many proofs 
 therefore of man's superior intelligence. Shocking- 
 pven horrible as some of thesepractices areT^Ee human 
 race has probably ow.ed to them itsjreservation. It is, 
 moreover, an ample compensation for the degradation 
 iey imported into our life, that while they are every- 
 where disappearing, the moral and legal principles that 
 'were simultaneously developed with them, out of the 
 same circumstances, remain, increasing in vigour, the 
 
CHAP, vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 75 
 
 glory and triumph of man, separating him by an im- 
 passable gulf from the brute creation. 
 
 Curiously enough Plutarch makes no reference in 
 this dialogue to the practice of infanticide, though he 
 must have been familiar with it as prevailing in Greece. 
 Yet it was in infanticide that the whole group of dis- 
 creditable practices which he does mention, must have 
 had their origin. None of them, moreover, sets man in 
 so unfavourable a light as compared with the brutes. 
 " Even the tiger," says a Chinese poet, " knows the 
 relation of parent and child. Though by nature cruel, 
 it spares and rears its young. Shall man, who is the 
 spiritual part of all things, be inferior to the tiger ? " 
 The higher he is, the more astonishing in him is so 
 cruel a stifling of the promptings of nature. 
 
 When, however, we think of the systems of in- 
 fanticide as contrivances for the preservation of the 
 species when imperilled like the cannibalism support- 
 ing life, on rudely constructed floats, of shipwrecked 
 sailors we may admire their ingenuity, while moved 
 with pity for men in the terrible circumstances which 
 constrained them to have recourse to such expedients. 
 
 What extremities men must have been in when > 
 such systems began to be customary we may see by / 
 attending to the circumstances under which infanticides, / 
 as crimes, occur in modern societies, and then throwing \\ 
 out of view the circumstances now acting which cannot j 
 have affected men in early societies. 
 
 Such crimes are not infrequent among ourselves. 
 Murders of illegitimate children in particular, or con- 
 
76 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 cealments equally fatal to the children, are painfully 
 common. We have been made familiar of late with 
 systems of baby-farming in connection with the larger 
 towns; and this is but a mode of infanticide. We 
 have had before us also the idea, at least, of systematic 
 child-murder in connection with burial societies. 
 
 The causes of such crimes are familiar pinching 
 poverty or insupportable shame shame too often in- 
 supportable only because of its seeming to threaten the 
 life through the character. The circumstances attend- 
 ing their commission may vary from case to case, but 
 in every case the cause of the crime is expressible in 
 the same general terms a pressure of circumstances 
 under which the instinct of self-preservation overmasters 
 that which guarantees the perpetuation of the species. 
 
 Where infanticide is a crime it is of course abhorrent 
 to the sentiments of the people. Where with any 
 people it is not only not a crime, but systematic and 
 approved as a custom of the country, we must believe 
 that the people were so long subjected to a pressure of 
 the general description given above as to have their 
 love of offspring deadened and replaced by sentiments 
 springing from the habit of destroying infant life. 
 
 No temporary pressure of this sort could, however 
 sharp, effect so radical a reversal of the feelings ^hich 
 man must at first have shared with other animals. JLThe 
 pressure may have varied from time to time in amount, 
 but we must think of it as steadily applied to a series 
 of generations!, of any people in order to understand its 
 establishing among them sentiments so contrary to 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 77 
 
 t 
 
 nature, as we may say, as those which approve the 
 systematic slaughter of infants. 
 
 Now there are various peoples among whom in- 
 fanticide is an approved system. They must, therefore, 
 at some stage in their history, have been subjected 
 during the lifetime -of a series of successive generations 
 to a pressure of the sort referred to. Let jis ask more 
 particularly what the nature of the pressure must have 
 been. 
 
 The slightest survey of the facts excludes the idea 
 that shame can have been a factor in that pressure. 
 The standard of propriety which attaches an indelible 
 disgrace to a woman because of a lapse from virtue is 
 unknown to many of them now ; and there is nothing 
 to indicate that their moral standards were anciently 
 higher than they are now. The pressure then must 
 have been a direct pressure of circumstances threatening 
 the life; and there are but two main sources from 
 which such a pressure could spring Want or War, or 
 Want and War in combination. 
 
 But when we think of a steady, long -enduring 
 pressure exercised for a series of successive generations 
 on a people, and springing from want or war, two ideas 
 are instantly excluded the idea of want in the form of 
 famine, and the idea of war waged with the sharp 
 desolating effects of modern warfare. Famine is like a 
 sudden inundation. The bulk of a people may perish 
 in the wave of want, but it passes, and immediately for 
 the survivors there is a recovery for a time of the 
 normal conditions of subsistence ; nay, it may be of 
 
78 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 superior comfort, their numbers being now fewer in 
 proportion to the normal supply of food. We may see 
 the truth of this by looking either to Ireland or to 
 Orissa, that more recently had its population suddenly 
 reduced by millions in consequence of famine. The 
 famine which now threatens the Dekkan, my friend, Sir 
 David Wedderburn, ascribes to a year of drought a 
 casualty not infrequent in all oriental countries. A 
 drought in the Dekkan, he says, implies not pecuniary 
 loss to a few, but want and misery to millions who can 
 only just manage in ordinary years to earn a bare sub- 
 sistence. " Under former regimes" he remarks, " when 
 famine visited a district, the people either died or 
 migrated, the population was reduced to a number 
 proportionate to the local means of subsistence, and 
 the risk of scarcity was at an end for one generation at 
 least." Mutatis mutandis, what is here aptly said of 
 famine in the Dekkan may be said of famine every- 
 where. It works its own cure, and its effects on a 
 population are strictly temporary. So also with War. 
 A country may be overrun and desolated, its population 
 decimated ; but Victory must declare itself on one side 
 or the other ; and then comes Peace, and with it plenty 
 and security once more. 
 
 Want that would yield a steady grinding pressure 
 capable of continuing to act on a people for generations 
 must be consistent with the people continuing to live, 
 if they will but just be very careful. I have seen it 
 food enough for two, but not for three. Food enough 
 got with the utmost exertion for five, just enough to 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 79 
 
 support life, and there are seven in the family ! How 
 well known is this condition of things, even in Merry 
 England, in certain sections of society. Such want as 
 this is distinguishable from famine, as diffused galvanism 
 is from electricity in the thunderbolt. 
 
 War that would yield a steady pressure capable of 
 continuing to act on a people for generations, is simply 
 the State of Hostility. Whoever is not with you is 
 against you. All who are not of your immediate group 
 are your enemies. It is not so much that there are 
 frequent and sanguinary encounters as that at any 
 moment there may be an encounter. There is a total 
 absence of security. Men search for food stealthily, 
 warily, ever on the watch for enemies armed ; they 
 cultivate their fields armed ; and actual combats are 
 just frequent enough to sustain perpetual distrust and 
 fear. 
 
 Of the state of hostility I have written briefly else- 
 where, and it would be to no purpose to enlarge on that 
 subject here. Man has long been his own worst enemy, 
 but when we go back in thought to the state of things 
 to which Colonel Lane Fox's wonderful collection of 
 weapons points so distinctly, and think of man as yet 
 naked and without weapons, we may see that for him 
 then there must have been numerous and terrible 
 enemies in the brute creation as well. Indeed, it is to 
 this stage of man's life that we are relegated also when 
 we think of him as subjected to the steady pinching 
 pressure of want. Until, under the stimulus of 
 
8o STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 necessity, he provided himself with weapons for attack 
 and defence, his life must have been passed in constant 
 insecurity from failing food and enemies everywhere 
 threatening him in the search for it. But by the time 
 that man had armed himself had pointed the spear 
 and invented the throwing-stick or the bow he was 
 already man in the full possession of his faculties. 
 
 Kecurring then to question how a system of infanti- 
 cide could arise, remembering that such systems have 
 arisen, and recalling the conclusion we reached, namely, 
 that no such system could possibly have arisen except 
 among a people that had been subjected, in the sense 
 just explained, for successive generations, to the pres- 
 sure of want, or of war, or of want and war in com- 
 bination, let us proceed to consider more particularly 
 how such a system could arise, and the form it would 
 most likely assume. 
 
 Under the pressure of want the numbers in a group 
 will certainly adjust themselves somehow to the avail- 
 able food. Only so many can live as the food suffices 
 for ; the rest must die. 
 
 Under the pressure of war the combatants of a group 
 would feel the non-combatant members to be of the 
 nature oljmpedimenta.^ 
 
 The non-combatants would almost certainly be the 
 persons in the group who consumed food without finding 
 any the aged and the infirm, the very old and the very 
 young. 
 
 A group that was, as a condition of its existence, 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 8r 
 
 nomadic, obliged to pass from one district, on the 
 exhaustion of the food supply, to another, would further 
 find the aged and the infirm, and the very young a 
 burden. They might carry the very young. When 
 an adult ceased to be able to support himself, there 
 would be nothing for it but to leave him behind. No 
 more touching stories are told of savage life than those 
 relating to desertions of this description. 
 
 We may imagine that the first infanticides were of 
 the nature of desertions also. A child born on the 
 march would be specially apt to be abandoned. Many 
 cases, indeed, are recorded in which in such a case the 
 weakened mother gladly bore the burden of the newly- 
 born, but, lagging a little in the march, received orders 
 to throw the child away. Assuming the first infan- 
 ticides to have been of this sort, they would be casual 
 rather than premeditated ; but we may see how they 
 might prepare the way for the premeditation of such 
 murders. The exposition of infants on the march would 
 prepare the way for their exposition at home. 
 
 The moment infanticide was thought of as an ex- 
 pedient for keeping down numbers, a step was taken, 
 perhaps, the most important that was ever taken in the 
 history of mankind. 
 
 But the moment we think of infanticide as a, device 
 forced upon a group of men to adjust their numbers to 
 the available food, or for security against enemies, we 
 may see what forms a practice of it would at first 
 assume. The first victims would be those born 
 deformed, maimed, or otherwise imperfectly suited, if 
 
 G 
 
82 STUDIES IN, ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 reared, to aid in the quest for food and in war, and 
 since women are less available in the quest for food 
 in war than men, female children would be the next 
 victims ; but it requires some consideration to see how 
 far a practice of female infanticide could be carried out 
 consistently with the motive for the practice the 
 desire for self-preservation. 
 
 There are groups of men who kill all children born 
 in the group and recruit their ranks by capturing boys 
 and girls from other groups, thus dispensing entirely 
 with the troubles of rearing offspring. In these robber 
 bands the love of offspring is absolutely overmastered. 
 They are of course most exceptional, and were they not 
 so the species must have perished. They are interest- 
 ing, however, as exhibiting one solution that was 
 possible of the problem raised by the state of want 
 and war. The solution that was reached we know 
 was very different from this, for the various races of 
 men have survived the sharp struggle for existence 
 which raised that problem. 
 
 It was a complicated problem. There were two 
 instincts in conflict, both deeply rooted in human 
 nature. On the one hand the instinct of self-preserva- 
 tion, on the other hand the instinctive love of offspring 
 and the need of women for wives. The rearing of some 
 female children as wives for the men of the group 
 would be indispensable to the continued existence 01 
 the group. And, so far as war was a factor in the 
 pressure causing infanticides, every man would fee] 
 his security to depend on that of the group and 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 83 
 
 the maintenance of its effective for fighting. This 
 would set a limit to the range of female infanticide, 
 but it would also set a limit to, if not proscribe, any 
 practice of male infanticide in supplement of it ; and 
 hence, supposing the double pressure of want and war 
 to be felt, it would supply an impulse to arrangements 
 economising women or dispensing with them. And 
 we may see that the moment such arrangements were 
 once well established, the range of the practice of 
 female infanticide might, consistently with maintaining 
 the groups effective, receive a considerable extension. 
 We may further see that arrangements of the sort 
 referred to would operate per se as a check on 
 population and tend to supersede the practice of in- 
 fanticide so far as it depended on scarcity of food. 
 Owing to the persistence of custom, the arrangements 
 that had this effect might well long survive the state of 
 things out of which they grew. 
 
 Put in this point of view, a system of infanticide 
 appears as embodying a policy of despair, developed 
 from point to point, through trials and errors that no 
 doubt were sometimes fatal to the groups making them, 
 but which contributed to forward the thinking out by 
 men of what was the best form of the policy, its best 
 practical expression. We may believe that no animal 
 below the rank of man in the full possession of his 
 reasoning powers could have thought out such a policy, 
 and for the credit of human nature that such a policy 
 would never have been thought out or acted upon 
 except in the most desperate circumstances. 
 
84 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 Let us now ask what traces of itself such a system 
 of infanticide might be expected to leave behind it with 
 the representatives of any people with whom it had 
 long prevailed. As the pressure that instituted the 
 system was removed we should expect the features of 
 the system to disappear in the reverse of the order in 
 which they had appeared. Any practice of male infan- 
 ticide would cease first ; next the practice of female 
 infanticide would be limited in its range till it finally 
 disappeared ; and lastly would remain only the practice 
 of putting to death the deformed or otherwise imperfect 
 infants. The state of the moral sentiment where 
 children are put to death, with public approval, at all, 
 is not easily to be accounted for, except as a remainder 
 of a more general form of infanticide, for births of 
 deformed children are rare. In attempting however 
 as I now propose to do to ascertain the range of the 
 practice of infanticide amongst the various races of 
 men, I shall not assume such a limited practice as 
 that last mentioned to be indicative of a preceding 
 more general practice, unless I find it in connec- 
 tion with the arrangements for economising women, 
 or dispensing with them, that I have referred to. 
 In that case it may, I think, be fairly assumed as a 
 remainder of a previous more general system of which 
 female infanticide was a feature. 
 
 The arrangements referred to fall under two descrip- 
 tions. Those of the one sort have been classed under 
 the name of polyandry, those of the other under a 
 variety of names one drawn from Hebrew history, 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 85 
 
 one from the scene of recent Turkish atrocities, and 
 another, paiderastia (which let us call it), from the 
 Greeks. Both have the widest possible distribution, 
 and neither can be well accounted for, apart from a 
 practice of female infanticide for long destroying the 
 balance of sexes. Of the facts relating to polyandry a 
 partial induction has already been made, but only a 
 pressing necessity in the interests of science would 
 justify an induction of the other class of facts to which 
 I shall refer only so far as it may appear indispensable 
 to do so. 
 
 For reasons to be hereafter given, I take first the 
 cases of infanticide occurring among peoples having 
 male kinship. 1 
 
 I. INDIA. To pass by the evidence of the former 
 prevalence of infanticide in India, I note the following 
 examples of systems of female infanticide still, or till 
 very recently, existing there. 
 
 (1) The Klionds. Major Charteris Macpherson says 
 of them in his Memorials of Service in India, p. 132 : 
 
 1 [See Studies in Ancient History, first series, pp. 145, 146. When 
 female kinship and exogamy are the law, if the father has to provide for 
 the family, the wife living with him instead of with her own kindred, 
 he may be unable to kill his children, for fear of bringing on himself 
 the blood-feud with his wife's kin. 
 
 An objection might possibly be raised that this is against a theory 
 which bases exogamy on female infanticide at a time when female kinship 
 was the only kind recognised. It must be remembered, however, that 
 with Nair polyandry the child lives with its mother's kindred, who would 
 consequently have the trouble and expense of rearing it, and would have 
 no scruple about putting it out of the way. The father not being akin 
 to it, they would have no fear of the blood-feud from that quarter.] 
 
86 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 " The practice of female infanticide is, I believe, not 
 wholly unknown amongst any portion of the Khond 
 people, while it exists in some of the tribes of the sect 
 of Boora to such an extent that no female is spared 
 except when a woman's first child is a female, and that 
 milages containing a hundred houses may be seen with- 
 out a female child" 
 
 (2) The Rajputs. The female infanticide of the 
 Rajputs is well known. It was their custom to rear 
 but one or two females, at the most, in a family, and 
 usually but one. Our Indian Government has long 
 exerted itself to put down the practice, but it still 
 continues in a modified form. From a" recent census of 
 British India it appears that as late as 1870 an Act was 
 passed for its suppression, putting under special police 
 supervision every district where girls were found to be 
 fewer than 35 per cent of the whole number of the 
 children. 
 
 (3) The Cutch. A similar system prevailed among 
 the Cutch. " The number of female children who are an- 
 nually murdered among this people, Captain MacMurdo 
 supposes, cannot be less than one thousand/ 71 
 
 (4) The Todahs. Major Walter Campbell, in The 
 Old Forest Ranger, says of the Todahs : " They 
 destroyed all the female children but one, who was 
 reared to supply the place of the mother." It is well 
 known they are polyandrous. 
 
 (5) The Hill Tribes round Munniepore. A similar 
 system prevailed among some of these tribes, and Col. 
 
 1 Asiatic Journal, vol. ii. p. 42. 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 87 
 
 M'Culloch, who was long Political Agent there for our 
 Government, relates that in one of the villages of the 
 Phweelongmai he found not even one female child. 
 The system is worked among these tribes through the 
 custom of "Namoongee," equivalent to the "Thola" of 
 certain African tribes, of which hereafter and though 
 this custom merely gives certain indications challenging 
 the act of murder, it is readily so worked as to operate 
 in effect as a system of female infanticide. 
 With these cases I may connect that of 
 (6) The, Biludii. - - They put to death all their 
 illegitimate female children, which may be taken as a 
 system of female infanticide in decay. 1 
 
 II. CHINA. The Chinese Penal Code contains 
 (section 319) the following provision: "If a father, 
 mother, paternal grandfather or grandmother chastises 
 a disobedient child or grandchild in a severe and un- 
 customary manner, so that he or she dies, the party so 
 offending shall be punished with 100 blows. When 
 any of the aforesaid relations are guilty of killing such 
 disobedient child or grandchild designedly, the punish- 
 ment shall be extended to sixty blows and one year's 
 banishment." Sir George Staunton has a note on this 
 article of the code to the effect that it shows that "the 
 crime of infanticide, however prevalent it may be 
 supposed to be in China, is not, in fact, either directly 
 sanctioned by the government or agreeable to the 
 general spirit of the laws and institutions of the empire." 
 But I cannot see how the article touches the subject, 
 
 1 Burton's History of Scindh, pp. 244 and 411. 
 
88 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 for the offence it constitutes appears to be that of 
 slaying a disobedient child that has been allowed to 
 grow up. There is no offence under the first branch of 
 the article if the chastisement causing death is inflicted 
 in a customary manner ; and it is remarkable as to the 
 second branch that the killing, though intentional, is 
 not murder, but punished very lightly. And this is 
 the more remarkable that by the immediately pre- 
 ceding article, the killing of a father, mother, paternal 
 grandfather or grandmother, even "purely by accident" 
 is punished much more severely i.e. "with 100 blows 
 and perpetual banishment to the distance of 3000 lee" 
 
 It seems to me, then, that infanticide, i.e. the 
 slaying of a child at the birth, is not touched by the 
 code. Any way, it would appear that if it is, the code 
 has never had effect, that custom has been too strong 
 for it. Staunton himself immediately proceeds indeed 
 to admit this, and to apologise for it. " This practice," 
 he says, "must certainly be acknowledged to exist in 
 China, and even to be, in some degree, tolerated. . . . 
 Even the dreadful crime of a parent destroying its 
 offspring is extenuated by the wretched and desperate 
 situation to which the labouring poor in China, to 
 whom the practice of infanticide is admitted to be in 
 general confined, must, by the universal and almost 
 compulsory custom of early marriages, often be reduced, 
 of having large and increasing families ; while, owing to 
 the already excessive population of the country, they 
 have not the most distant prospect of being able to 
 maintain them." This is a sufficient disclosure of the 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 89 
 
 pressure of want in an old community on a scale to 
 cause a system of infanticide to appear, and the infor- 
 mation I have received from credible witnesses is that 
 it has appeared accordingly, and that it is not only, 
 "in some degree," tolerated, but that it is openly 
 provided for by the authorities. I have been told of 
 publicly provided receptacles in certain country districts 
 for the newly slain infants, and Mr. Abel, in his 
 Journey to China (1816-17), says it is one of the 
 duties of the police in Pekin to go round every morning 
 and empty the receptacles of the newly-born cast into 
 them during the night. Moreover, a lady writing a few 
 years ago in the Esperance of Nancy, not only attested 
 to the openness of the practice, but to its being in the 
 main a practice of female infanticide. "There are 
 women here," she wrote, " who carry on quite a trade 
 in this sort of murder. . . . They (the infants) are not 
 indeed given to the pigs, but that is the case farther in 
 the interior." And that the system is mainly a system 
 of female infanticide is further attested by the ode 
 already referred to, 1 " On the Drowning of Female 
 Infants." " Hwang-le-ye says that the drowning of 
 infants, though it is the work of cruel women, yet 
 arrives from the will of the husband." The poet pleads 
 against the practice (see Asiatic Journal, vol. v. p. 
 575). He says, "I have heard that when female 
 children are killed the state of suffering is beyond com- 
 parison. It cries in the tub of water, long suffering 
 before it dies. ... I would advise my people not to 
 
 1 [Supra, p. 75.] 
 
90 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 kill their daughters." And in all the pleading there is 
 not a hint of the practice as unlawful, it is not even said 
 to be wrong; it is objected to mainly as distressing 
 in its incidents and questionable in its economies. 
 
 Of course the balance of the sexes is destroyed in 
 China wherever this custom prevails, but as to the 
 extent of the disturbance we have no trustworthy infor- 
 mation. Mr. Cameron, in his British Possessions in 
 the Malayan Archipelago, says the Chinese in Singa- 
 pore, in his time, were as fifteen males to one female, 
 and the sexes may be equally out of balance in California 
 and Australia. These facts, however, may be mere 
 incidents of their peculiar system of emigration, and no 
 direct inference can be carried over from them as to the 
 state of the home population. Since, however, poly- 
 andry and paiderastia are distinctive of the life of the 
 Chinese as emigrants, wherever we find them, we have 
 the indirect inference that the system of infanticide has 
 indeed in China disturbed the balance of the sexes up 
 to the point at which such a want of balance establishes 
 arrangements for economising or dispensing with 
 females. 1 
 
 III. In the Islands of the Southern Pacific we have 
 a new series of phenomena of the same sort in conjunc- 
 tion with practices which are fatal to the lives of 
 children of both sexes indiscriminately. Mr. Williams 
 says of Vanua Levu (Fiji group), "The extent of 
 
 1 [Compare Gordon-Cumming's Wanderings in China, vol. i. p. 195 ; 
 Hamilton's East Indies in Pinkerton, vol. viii. p. 491. Many more 
 authorities might be easily added.] 
 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 91 
 
 infanticide in some parts of this island reaches nearer 
 two-thirds than one-half." It is reduced to a system 
 with professors in every village, and " all destroyed 
 after birth are females, because they are useless in war, 
 or, as some say, because they give so much trouble " 
 (see Fiji and the Fijians, Rowe's edition, p. 155). 
 Admiral Wilkes represents a somewhat similar state of 
 matters as existing in the Hawaian group (United 
 States Exploring Expedition, vol. iv. pp. 45-75), and, 
 according to Ellis, the numbers there killed are about 
 two-thirds of the numbers born (Hawaii, p. 299). Ellis 
 thinks that the system as practised in Tahiti and the 
 adjacent islands could not consistently with the main- 
 tenance of the population have anciently been carried 
 on on the scale on which he found it (see Polynesian 
 Researches, vol. i. pp. 249-258). The traditions of the 
 people, however, exclude the notion that the system is 
 of recent origin. When the missionaries pleaded 
 against it, they were told that " it was the custom of 
 the country," and the first missionaries have published 
 it as their opinion that not less than two- thirds of the 
 children were murdered by their parents. "In the 
 largest families more than two or three children were 
 seldom spared, while the numbers killed were incredible. 
 The very circumstance of their destroying instead of 
 nursing their children rendered their offspring more 
 numerous than it would otherwise have been." Ellis 
 knew a number of parents who admitted having killed 
 "four or six or eight or ten children, and some even a 
 greater number." 
 
92 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 And the universality of the crime, he says, was no 
 less painful than its repetition by the same persons. 
 Mr. Nott on one occasion told him that during thirty 
 years he had spent in the South Sea Islands he had 
 never, that he recollected, known a female unconverted 
 to Christianity who had not killed a child. He gives 
 some details of the modes of disposing of infants and 
 the causes of killing them. As to the latter, he says 
 pointedly (p. 257): "Their sex was often, at their 
 birth, the cause of their destruction. . . . The circum- 
 stance of its being a female child was often sufficient to 
 fix their determination on its death." The general 
 answer to the question why they preferably killed 
 females was, "that the fisheries, the service of the 
 temple, and especially war, were the only purposes for 
 which they thought it desirable to rear children ; and 
 that in these pursuits women were comparatively use- 
 less." The results show how far the system was a 
 system of female infanticide. In the adult population 
 of the islands, he says, " there were probably four or 
 five men to one woman." It is needless to add that he 
 indicates as a consequence other practices among the 
 people not fit to be mentioned. 
 
 The practice is said to be common in New Zealand 
 (see Angus's Australia and New Zealand, p. 312) ; 
 and " very prevalent " in Madagascar (Ellis's History of 
 Madagascar, vol. i. p. 154) ; but I am without the 
 details of Australia. Mr. Darwin says that female 
 infanticide is still common there. " Sir G. Grey," he 
 adds, " estimated the proportion of native women to 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 93 
 
 men as one to three ; but others say as two to three " 
 (Descent of Man, 2nd ed. p. 592). 
 
 A custom called " Thola " prevails among certain 
 tribes in Africa. To " thola " is to transgress, and 
 every child that does this is put to death. Among the 
 people of Kuruman Albinos are put to death, and 
 Livingstone suspected that this was the case also in 
 Londa. Deformed children of course were killed. 
 " e Thola/" says Livingstone, "is ascribed to several 
 curious cases. A child who cuts the upper teeth before 
 the under was always put to death among the Bakuas, 
 and I believe among the Bakwains. Of twins one is 
 put to death." And no doubt in Africa as round 
 Munniepore the females have the worst of it in the 
 working of this code of slaughter. For the rest my 
 knowledge of the system in Africa is too scant to make 
 it worth stating. It is indicated by Moffat as occurring 
 among the Bushmen. In many quarters such a note of 
 it occurs as is indicated by praying for and rejoicing 
 over the birth of male children and caring nothing for 
 female children. I cannot doubt, however, but that 
 facts showing its prevalence will yet be brought to our 
 knowledge. Sir Samuel Baker says of the tribes " from 
 Gonookoro to Obbo " that they do not kill their women 
 prisoners, for which the reason is supposed to be that 
 women are scarce, a fact which could not well be 
 explained apart from a practice of female infanticide 
 ( The Albert Nyanza, vol. i. p. 355). 
 
 When one reads Andrew Battel's account of the 
 Gagas (Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 326), who put to death 
 
94 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 all the children born to them, thus evading the whole 
 trouble of rearing children, and then recruited their 
 ranks by systematic stealing from other tribes of boys 
 and girls of thirteen to fourteen years of age for warriors 
 and wives, we feel we are on territory where infanticide 
 must be common. The tribe was of course Gaga only 
 in name. " In the camp," says Battel, " there were but 
 twelve Gagas, and those were captains." And the same 
 impression is derived from M'Kenzie's account of the 
 Matebele " a warlike people, every able-bodied man of 
 whom is a soldier, and (for whom) every year is a year 
 of war." This people, who can hardly be called a 
 tribe, consisted of a few Zulus and for the rest " a 
 heterogeneous assemblage of every tribe " through 
 which the chief of the Matebele had forced his way 
 north. The middle-aged and full-grown men were Bechu- 
 anas, captives taken in the Transvaal ; the young men 
 Makalala and Mashona captives taken in the country 
 now inhabited by the Matebele, and grown up under a 
 sort of Lacedaemonian discipline accustomed to strife 
 and bloodshed. As they grow up they in their turn 
 become the captors of others. Of course they have no 
 marriage properly so called. " The voice of the infant," 
 says Mackenzie, "the song of the mother, are almost 
 unknown there. Only after some signal service does 
 the chief bestow, as a great reward to the soldier, a 
 captive girl to be his wife, who has no choice in the 
 matter, but is delivered over to her new owner as an 
 ox is given to another man whose deeds have been less 
 meritorious" (Ten Years North of the Orange River, 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 95 
 
 p. 329). In these cases Mr. Spencer may see the rigid 
 logic of infanticide pressed to the extreme tribes rear- 
 ing no children and recruiting themselves from their 
 enemies. 
 
 Turning to America, we find the Eed-men usually 
 very affectionate to children and careful of rearing 
 them. But they everywhere present us with those 
 practices which elsewhere we have seen as incidents and 
 accompaniments of female infanticide, and which seem 
 wholly inexplicable apart from a long -established want 
 of balance at some time between the sexes. They 
 have, moreover, some customs which seem to be re- 
 mainders of a system of infanticide, and in some 
 quarters we have positive records of the prevalence 
 of the system. For instance, Azara, as cited by Darwin 
 (Descent of Man, 2nd ed. p. 592), says that "some 
 tribes of South America formerly destroyed so many 
 infants of both sexes that they were on the point of ex- 
 tinction." Humboldt relates that the savages of Guiana 
 had a custom resembling " thola," " when twins are 
 produced one is always destroyed" (Macgillivray's 
 Abridgment, vol. i. p. 241), and they kill any child 
 that is " deformed, feeble, or bothersome " ; on which 
 Humboldt exclaims at the seemingly trivial provocations 
 to murder to avoid travelling more slowly, in fact to 
 avoid a little inconvenience. The inadequacy of the 
 motive suggests that the deed was easier in respect of 
 moral sentiments inherited from a prior practice. 
 
 Among the Dacotahs or Sioux of the Upper Mis- 
 sissippi infanticide is occasional, and " the lives of 
 
96 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 female children are held in less estimation than the 
 male children" (Schoolcraft, vol. iii. p. 243). The 
 Indians of south - western Texas are not prolific, a 
 woman having seldom more than three children, which 
 if male are nurtured with care, whilst the females are 
 abused and often beaten unmercifully. Lubbock says 
 infanticide was common with the North American 
 Indians, but gives no authority (Prehistoric Times, 
 2nd ed. p. 510). 
 
 [So far the author's MS. It may be observed that the 
 first three regions taken by him India, China, Polynesia 
 are the seats of the three great systems of s infanticide with 
 male kinship. After them he proceeds to different parts of 
 the globe without making any observations on the kinship, 
 which indeed is often mixed ; e.g. in Australia female kinship 
 prevails as a rule, but male is found alongside of it. 
 
 We will now give from his notes a number of quota- 
 tions to show further the extent of the practice, and to illustrate 
 his views on some points not yet noticed. 
 
 New Zealand. "Infanticide was formerly very common. 
 It was generally perpetrated by the mother. ... A woman of 
 the Thames destroyed seven of her children; the reason she 
 assigned for such unnatural cruelty was that she might be 
 light to run away if attacked or pursued by the enemy ; this 
 was especially the fate of female children " (Taylor, Te Ika a 
 Mani, 1855, p. 165). 
 
 Australia. " Infanticide is very common. . . . The first 
 three or four are often killed ; no distinction appears to be 
 made in this case between male or female children" (Eyre, 
 Discoveries in Central Australia, 1845, vol. ii. p. 324). Com- 
 pare Bon wick's Wild White Man and Blacks of Victoria, 2nd 
 ed. p. 48, where Eyre is fully confirmed, and there are some 
 good remarks on the subject. Bonwick also declares that 
 " abortion was not uncommon, especially after a quarrel 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 97 
 
 between man and wife." " One female was pointed out to 
 Mr. Wedge as having destroyed ten out of eleven of her 
 children " (quoted from Dr. Eoss). In cases of extremity a 
 man will kill his child to satisfy his hunger (Journal of 
 Anthropological Institute, vol. i. p. 78). 
 
 " Infanticide appears to have been very prevalent among 
 the Aborigines before the commencement of this colony. I 
 have been assured by Narrinyeri that at that time more than 
 one -half of the children born fell victims to this atrocious 
 custom. One intelligent woman said she thought that if the 
 Europeans had waited a few more years they would have 
 found the country without inhabitants. She herself had de- 
 stroyed one infant. I know several women who have put 
 to death two or three each of their new-born children. . . . 
 Infanticide is not prevalent among the Narrinyeri at the pre- 
 sent time. Thirteen years ago one-third of the infants who 
 were born were put to death. Every child which was born 
 before the one which preceded it could walk was destroyed, 
 because the mother was regarded as incapable of carrying 
 two. All deformed children were killed as soon as born. 
 Of twins one, and often both, were put to death. . . . This 
 terrible crime is covered up and concealed from the observa- 
 tion of the whites with extreme care." l The Narrinyeri have 
 male kinship. 
 
 Papuans or Negrittos. Apart from Fiji we have not 
 found any notes of the author's on infanticide among this 
 race, except Turner's statement that Mr. Gordon thought there 
 were some cases of infanticide in Erromango, and that an 
 infant was buried alive with its mother on her death. But 
 the Rev. J. G. Paton says of the New Hebrides : " Polygamy, 
 with all its accompanying cruelties and degradations, univer- 
 sally prevails. Infanticide is systematically practised ; and 
 even the despatch of parents, when they grow old and help- 
 less. Widows are put to death on almost every island, to 
 
 1 The Narrinyeri: an account of the tribes of South Australian Abori- 
 gines inhabiting the country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and 
 Coorong, and the lower part of the river Murray. The Eev. George 
 Taplin. 1874, pp. 10 ff. 
 
 H 
 
98 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 bear their husbands company into the spirit world. There is 
 not an unmentionable vice hinted at in Eomans i. which is 
 not unblushingly practised in those islands, wheresoever the 
 Gospel has not dawned " (Autobiography, Appendix B). 
 
 Africa. The Fans kill all sickly children (Win wood 
 Eeade, Savage Africa, p. 244). Among the Wanika infanti- 
 cide of misshapen children is authorised by the chiefs and 
 executed on their orders (Krapf, Travels in Eastern Africa, 
 1860, p. 193). "The children belong not to the parents but 
 to the mother's eldest brother, who not unfrequently sells 
 them into slavery in times of scarcity " (Lieut.-Col. Playfair, 
 Letter of 9th April 1864. See p. 229). Compare Mungo 
 Park's Travels (Chambers, Edinburgh, no date), pp. 238, 239. 
 In Arebo twins are killed, though in the rest of the Benin 
 territories they are esteemed a good omen (Bosnian's Guinea, 
 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 526). The Galles", a robber horde, 
 " every eighth year carry their wives with them, and expose 
 their children without any tenderness in the woods, it being 
 prohibited on pain of death to take any care of those which 
 are born in the camp" (Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia, Pinker- 
 ton, vol. xv. p. 7). The Wa-Kurafi in a famine had to sell 
 their children; the same tribe show a preference for boys 
 (Thomson, Through Masai Land, pp. 417, 419). The people 
 of Senjers sell females as slaves, but never males (Krapf s East 
 Africa, p. 68). For infanticide among the Bushmen, Hotten- 
 tots, and Zulus, see infra, pp. 482, 487. Munzinger testifies 
 that among the Bedouins in or near Massua, " If a girl bears 
 a child it is killed by its grandmother, without justice inter- 
 fering." Again : " As among the Marea, getting a maiden with 
 child, whether she be noble or not, must be atoned for with 
 blood ; the two guilty ones and the child are slain by their 
 own brothers without exception. For a widow or divorced 
 wife the man only pays a fine, but the child is buried alive." 
 In Eunama, " The eldest brother takes the place of the dead 
 father. The power of the father goes no further ; the life of 
 the child and its freedom belong to its uncle on the mother's 
 side" (OstafriJcanische Studien, pp. 145, 322, 477. Schaff- 
 hausen, 1864). 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 99 
 
 North America. The Koniagas " prize boy babies, but 
 frequently kill the girls" (Bancroft, i. 81). "Loucheux 
 mothers had originally a custom of casting away their female 
 children, but now it is only done by the Mountain Indians " 
 (Simpson's Narrative, p. 187). Among the Haidahs "abor- 
 tion and infanticide are not uncommon" ; the Nootkas " fre- 
 quently prevent increase of their families by abortion " ; 
 "infanticide and abortion are of frequent occurrence" among 
 the Chinooks (Bancroft, i. 169, 197, 242). The inland 
 tribes of California practise abortion often, and " although 
 children and old people are as a rule kindly cared for, yet so 
 great the straits to which the tribes are reduced by circum- 
 stances, that both are sometimes abandoned if not put to 
 death" (i. 279); and in a note is added that it was not 
 uncommon for the Pend d'Oreilles to bury the very old and 
 very young alive, " because, they said, these cannot take care 
 of themselves and we cannot take care of them, and they had 
 better die." There is no abortion among the Central Cali- 
 fornians, but "it is stated that many female children are 
 killed as soon as born" (i. 390). Among the South Cali- 
 fornians the woman retires to be delivered alone near some 
 stream or hole of water. As soon as the child is born, sheH 
 throws it into the water, whence " if it rises to the surface and '. 
 cries, it is taken out and cared for ; if it sinks there it \ 
 remains, and is not even awarded an Indian burial" (i. 413). / 
 The Lower Californians sometimes abandon or kill a child 
 when food is scarce (i. 566), and there are more men than 
 women among them (Smithsonian Report, 1863, p. 367). Aban- 
 donment of the aged is extremely common in North America. 
 See, e.g. Catlin, Letters and Notes, 3rd ed. vol. i. p. 217 : "The 
 tribe were going where hunger and dire necessity compelled 
 them to go, and this pitiable object . . . who was now too 
 old to travel . . . was to be left to starve. . . . This cruel 
 custom of exposing their aged people belongs, I think, to 
 all the tribes who roam about the prairies, making severe 
 marches, when such decrepit persons are totally unable to go. 
 ... It often becomes absolutely necessary in such cases that 
 they should be left." A particularly horrible story is told in 
 
ioo STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 the Relations des Jtsuites, 1640, p. 33. A woman killed her 
 brother and made his son kill his sister because she could not 
 save more than one besides herself in her canoe. Similar 
 instances are to be found in the same collection, 1636, p. 29 ; 
 1637, p. 17; 1641, p. 25. "Us font ordinairement mourir 
 1'enfant quand la mere le laisse si jeune, croyans qu'il ne fera 
 que languir apres son deceds " (Ibid. 1634, p. 5; cf. 1636, p. 
 59; 1657, p. 48). 
 
 The Indians of Central America are said to have gone to 
 extremes in the use of abortives, but this is stated to have 
 been in connection with habits of great licentiousness. 
 " Among the Acaxees (New Mexico), if a woman dies in child- 
 birth, the infant surviving is slain as the cause of its mother's 
 death." In Central America " it is suspected that infant 
 murder has something to do with the rarity of deformed 
 people" (Bancroft, i. 590, 714, 773). 
 
 Paiderastia occurred among the Apaches. "According 
 to Arlegui, Eibas, and other authors, among some of these 
 nations (i.e. the New Mexicans) male concubinage prevails to 
 a great extent; these loathsome semblances of humanity, 
 whom to call beastly were a slander upon beasts, dress them- 
 selves in the clothes and perform the functions of women." 
 " Gomara says that in the province of Tamanlipas there were 
 public brothels where men enacted the part of women " (often 
 1000 inmates or so, according to size of village). Paide- 
 rastia was practised by the nations of Cueba, Careta, and 
 other places (Central America). " The Caciques and some of 
 the head men kept harems of youths, dressed as women." 
 Among the same people we also find abortions. " In Tlascala 
 and the neighbouring republics this (Quecholli) was the month 
 of love, and many young girls were sacrificed to the goddesses 
 of sensual delights. Among the victims were many courte- 
 sans." They were volunteers, and before sacrifice they were 
 privileged to insult their chaster sisters. " It is further said 
 that a certain class of young men addicted to unnatural lust 
 were allowed at this period to solicit custom on the public 
 streets" (Bancroft, i. 515, 585, 635, 773; ii. 336). 
 
 In Mexico sodomites were hanged; in Tezcuco, put to 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 
 
 101 
 
 specially horrible death. " In Tlascala the sodomite was not 
 punished by law, but was scouted by society, and treated 
 with scorn and contempt by all who knew him." Bancroft 
 (ii. 467) remarks: "From the extreme severity of the laws 
 enacted by the later sovereigns for the suppression of this 
 revolting vice, and from the fact that persons were specially 
 appointed by the judicial authorities to search the provinces 
 for offenders of this class, it is evident that unnatural love 
 had attained a frightful popularity among the Aztecs. Father 
 Pierre de Gand, or, as he is sometimes known, de Mura, 
 bears terrible testimony to this ; he writes, ' Un certain 
 nombre de pretres n'avaient point de femmes, sed eorum loco 
 pueros quibus abutebantur. Ce pe"che etait si commun dans 
 ce pays que, jeunes ou vieux, tous en etaient inf cote's ; ils y 
 e*taient si adonnes que memes des enfants de six ans s'y 
 livraient.' Las Casas relates that in several of the more 
 remote provinces of Mexico, unnatural vice was tolerated, if 
 not actually permitted. 1 And it is not improbable that in 
 earlier times this was the case in the entire empire." 
 
 All the Maya . nations had strict laws against paide- 
 rastia ; but Bancroft seems to think they were not enacted 
 till they were much needed. " Las Casas says that sodomy 
 was looked upon as a great and abominable sin in Vera Paz, 
 and was not known until a god (variously called Chin, 
 Cavil, and Maran) instructed them by committing the act 
 with another deity. Hence it was held by many to be no 
 sin, inasmuch as a god had introduced it among them. And 
 thus it happened that some fathers gave their sons a boy to 
 use as a woman ; and if any other approached this boy, he 
 was treated as an adulterer. Nevertheless, if a man com- 
 mitted a rape upon a boy he was punished in the same 
 manner as if he had ravished a woman. And, adds the same 
 author, there were also some who reprehended this abomin- 
 able custom" (ii. 677). 
 
 1 See footnote in Bancroft, the point of which is that M. de Pauw 
 states that this paiderastia was common among the Mexicans, while 
 Oviedo testifies that it was prevalent in Tabasco. 
 
102 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 In Nicaragua sodomites were stoned to death. " In 
 Guatemala, Las Casas tells us, the men never married until 
 they were thirty, notwithstanding he had previously made 
 the extraordinary assertion that the great prevalence of un- 
 natural lusts made parents anxious to get their children 
 wedded as early as possible." The tradition is that the 
 Quinames, who preceded the Olmecs in Puebla, were addicted 
 to paiderastia, " a vice which they refused to abandon even 
 when they were offered the wives and daughters of the new 
 comers," the Olmecs (ii. 664, 678; v. 198). 
 
 Peru. "There were sodomites in some provinces, though 
 not openly and universally, but some particular men, and in 
 secret. In some parts they had them in their temples, because 
 the devil persuaded them that their gods took great delight in 
 such people." Paiderastia also prevailed in coast valleys of 
 the province of Camana ; severe measures were taken against 
 it by the Yncas. "A law was issued that if hereafter any 
 one should fall into this habit, his villages should be destroyed 
 for one man's crime, and all the inhabitants burnt." We find 
 it again in the province of Huayllas. " Such a crime had 
 never been known or heard of before amongst the Indians 
 of the Sierra, although, as we have before mentioned, it has 
 been found to exist in the coast valleys." There were " many 
 sodomites among the Chinchas," and the coast tribes (near 
 Tunpiz) at Sullana "practise the infamous crime." "The 
 natives of Manta and its district, particularly on the coast 
 (but not the Serranos), committed sodomy 'more openly and 
 shamefully' than any other nation that we have hitherto 
 mentioned as being guilty of this vice " (Royal Commentaries 
 of the Yncas, i. 59, 245; ii. 132, 154, 425, 441). 
 
 The Peruvians even after their intercourse with the 
 Spaniards continued to put to death feeble, deformed, or 
 defective children (Eobertson, Hist, of America, 2nd ed. 
 1778, vol. i. p. 471). 
 
 Common as unnatural vice is throughout every part of 
 America, and many more cases might be adduced from that 
 continent, it does not seem that it is at all an exceptional 
 phenomenon there. We have already seen it alluded to in 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 103 
 
 Polynesia and China ; indeed it prevails over the whole of 
 the East. In Kamtschatka it is common (Klemm, ii. 207). 
 The ancient Germans had to repress it (Tacitus, Germ, xii.) 
 Africa is the only quarter of the world from which the author 
 had no notes on the subject. 
 
 South America excluding Peru. Divorce is free to the two 
 sexes of the Guanas, and the women are much given to it. 
 " Cela vient de ce que leur nombre est beaucoup raoins con- 
 siderable que celui des hommes. Cette inegalite* ne vient 
 point de la nature. . . . Elles (les femmes) de*truisent la 
 plupart des filles dont elles accouchent" (Azara, Voyage dans 
 I'Amdrique Mdridionale, Paris, 1809, vol. ii. p. 93). The 
 custom is so strong that the women kill the girls even though 
 offered money for them, their theory being that it is " pour 
 faire rechercher davantage les femmes et pour les rendre plus 
 heureuses." Of the Mbayas Azara observes: "J'ai deja dit 
 qu' elles se prostituaient aisement ; mais ce qu'il y a de plus 
 singulier, c'est qu'elles aient adopte la coutume barbare et 
 presque incroyable de n'elever chacune qu'un fils ou une fille 
 et de tuer tous les autres " (ii. 115). He says they ordinarily 
 preserve only the last born when they expect no more, and if 
 they are mistaken in their calculation, they rear none at all or 
 kill any subsequently born. He reproached them for thus 
 arranging to exterminate their nation, and was answered that 
 men had no business to meddle with women's affairs. The 
 method was abortion. The Guaicurus had once been a proud 
 and fierce nation, but Azara found only one man left with 
 three wives. " L'extermination deplorable de cette courageuse 
 et superbe nation ne vient pas seulement de la guerre con^ 
 tinuelle qu'elle n'a cesse" de faire aux Espagnols et aux Indiens 
 de toute espece, mais aussi de la coutume barbare adoptee par 
 leur femmes, qui se faisaient avorter, et ne conservaient que 
 leur dernier enfant" (ii. 146). The Lenguas also were on the 
 point of extinction, only fourteen males and eight females 
 being left. " La destruction de cette nation provient egalement 
 de ce que toutes les femmes ont adopte la coutume de detruire 
 leurs enfans en se faisant avorter, a 1'exception du dernier, et 
 de la meme maniere que les Mbayas" (ii. 148). 
 
104 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 This practice of abortion, which is so widely spread 
 throughout the whole of America, must have supervened on a 
 practice of infanticide. 
 
 For killing feeble or defective infants, and for female 
 infanticide, compare Gumilla, ii. 233, 238. 
 
 The Fuegians, " when pressed in winter by hunger, kill and 
 devour their old women before they kill their dogs : the boy, 
 being asked why they did this, answered, ' Doggie catch otters, old 
 women no'" (Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle^ 18*76, p. 214). 
 
 Desertion or killing of the old and infirm shows of course 
 the same tendency as that which causes infanticide, the rule 
 being simply that the stronger must survive and the weaker 
 go to the wall. 
 
 Dobrizhoffer in his account of the Abipones in Paraguay 
 (3 vols., London, 1822) tells us that he has known some who 
 killed all their children. " Mothers spare their female offspring 
 more frequently than the male, because the sons when grown 
 up are obliged to purchase a wife, whereas daughters at an age 
 to be married may be sold to a bridegroom at any price " 
 (ii. 97). The natural result was that there were more women 
 than men among them. Here the usual practice is reversed, 
 but the tendency is the same, to kill the useless and preserve 
 the useful. Such a state of things could only be found in a 
 comparatively advanced and peaceful population, and certainly 
 would not be found among the most primitive and savage 
 groups. Compare Studies in Anc. Hist., first series, p. 75, 
 note. For killing and eating the sick see a Voyage to Congo, 
 in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 152 ; and Nieuhoffs Brazil, in 
 Pinkerton, vol. xiv. p. 876. 
 
 India. "The number of females (children) sacrificed in 
 Cutch and Guzerat alone (for it is practised in several other 
 provinces) amounted, by the very lowest computation, in 1807 
 to 3000 annually" (Col. Walker's Eeport). "For many years 
 past none of the Jarejah tribes have reared their female 
 offspring" (Letter of the mother of Jehajee to Col. Walker, 
 1807). Another letter states the period to be 4900 years 
 that the Jarejahs have killed their daughters. Mr. Duncan, 
 governor of Bombay, was instrumental in abolishing the crime 
 
FEMALE INFANTICIDE 
 
 105 
 
 among the tribe of the Eaj-kumars, in Juanpore, near Benares, 
 in 1789 (C. Buchanan, Christian Researches, pp. 48 ff. and 56). 
 
 The Padaei in India killed and ate the old (Herodotus, iii. 
 99). "The same custom," adds Eawlinson, " is said to have 
 prevailed among the Massagetae (i. 216) and the Issedonians 
 (iv. 26); and a similar one is mentioned by Strabo as existing 
 among the Caspians (xi. p. 753) and the Derbices (Ibid. p. 756). 
 Marco Polo found the practice in Sumatra in his own day." 
 Compare Asiatic Researches, vol. x. p. 203, where it is par- 
 ticularly stated that the Battas in Sumatra eat their own 
 relations when aged. 
 
 Tonquin. Infanticide must have formerly prevailed here, 
 as Eichard speaks of a law "which forbids the exposing or 
 strangling of children, let them be ever so deformed " (Hist, 
 of Tonquin, in Pinkerton, ix. 757). But it appears from p. 723 
 that exposure was still common enough when he wrote. 
 
 Japan. Miss Bird denies that infanticide is now practised, 
 but it was till recently. Deformed children were reared or killed 
 according to the father's pleasure. Abortion also was common 
 (Recollections of Japan. London, 1819, pp. 95-97, 222). 
 
 Ceylon. Infanticide was practised among the Kandyans, 
 "but never, I think, to any great extent. I have, however, 
 seen two persons who, when infants, were buried alive by their 
 mothers and rescued " (Bailey, Transactions of the Ethnological 
 Society, 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 293). 
 
 The hill tribes of North Aracan expose children born before 
 the marriage of the mother, a sign of infanticide in decay 
 (Journal Anthrop. Inst. vol. ii. p. 239). 
 
 Siberia. The Yakutz abandon the old and sick, and often 
 sell their children to the Eussians (Bell's Travels in Asia, in 
 Pinkerton, vii. 344). One may feel sure that such a people 
 must have committed infanticide freely enough, though it is 
 not distinctly stated. 
 
 The Tschuktsches in North-Eastern Siberia kill all children 
 bom with any defect. The son also kills his father as soon as 
 he can no longer be of use to the family, from old age or sick- 
 ness. Indeed it often happens that the sick man begs to be 
 put an end to, and not to be left to die an unheroic, natural 
 
106 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 death (Sarytschew, Achtjahrige Eeise im nordostlichen Siberien, 
 ubersetzt von J. H. Busse. Leipzig, 1805, part ii. p. 107). 
 
 Kamtschafka. Several methods of abortion are practised, 
 and new-born children are throttled and thrown to the wild 
 beasts or dogs. There were particular women charged with 
 killing children. Steller found some who had killed three or 
 more, and had not the least remorse (Klemm's Allgemeine Cultur- 
 GeschicUe der MenschJieit. Leipzic, 1843, vol. ii. pp. 208, 296). 
 
 Greenland. Many boys are forsaken in youth because it is 
 expensive to provide a boat for them, but still more girls perish 
 from nakedness and starvation (Crantz's History of Greenland, 
 Eng. Tr. London, 1820, i. 1*7 7). 
 
 Nog ay Tartars. " In the plague and famine (in 1558) the 
 Nogay Tartars came to seek relief from their enemies the 
 Eussians, who bestowed their charity so ill that they died in 
 heaps over the island; the rest the Eussians sold or drove 
 from thence. The author could have bought thousands of 
 pretty boys and girls from their parents for a sixpenny loaf a 
 piece, but had more need of victuals at that juncture " 
 (Jenkinson's Voyages and Travels, in Pinkerton, ix. 387). 
 
 Mingrelia. " When they have not wherewithal to main- 
 tain them, they hold it a piece of charity to murder infants new- 
 born, as also they do such as are sick and past recovery." The 
 bishops " permit the mothers to bury their new-born children 
 alive" (Chardin's Travels, in Pinkerton, ix. 144, 145). 
 
 The Svans "were in the habit of saving themselves any 
 little trouble or expense incidental to the maintenance of 
 female children by filling the mouths of their hungry girl- 
 babies with a handful of hot ashes " (Phillips- Wolley, Savage 
 Svdnetia, vol. ii. p. 92). They consequently practised marriage 
 by capture regularly. 
 
 For Arabia it is unnecessary now to do more than refer to 
 Professor Eobertson Smith's Kinship and Marriage in Ancient 
 Arabia, note 6 on chapter iv. 
 
 Europe. " The story of the old men ' tired of the feast of 
 life ' is obviously based on a tradition of customs which once 
 existed in the north. Even in comparatively modern times 
 the Swedes and Pomeranians killed their old people. . . . 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 107 
 
 Perhaps a tribe of poor and hungry men would easily fall into 
 the habit of killing the useless members of the family, and the 
 practice may have survived long after the dreadful necessity 
 had ceased. We find a notice of the custom in the Saga of 
 Gottrek and Eolf : ' Here by our home,' says the hero, ' is 
 Gilling's Kock. We call it the family cliff, because there we 
 lessen the number of the family when evil fortune comes. . . . 
 The old folk have free access to that happy spot, and we ought 
 to be put to no further trouble or expense about them. The 
 children push the father and mother from the rock, and send 
 them with joy and gladness on their journey to Odin.' The 
 situation of some of these ' Valhalla cliffs ' is still well known 
 in Sweden. The lakes which stretch below were called 
 ' Valhalla-meres,' or ' Odin-ponds.' ' The old people, after 
 dances or sports, threw themselves into the lakes, as the ancients 
 relate of the Hyperboreans ; ' but if an old horseman became 
 too frail to travel to the cliff, his kinsmen would save him from 
 the disgrace of ' dying like a cow in the straw/ and would 
 beat him to death with ' the family-club.' l ' Similar stories 
 are told of the Heruli in the dark forests of Poland ; ' and 
 among the Prussians 'all the daughters except one were 
 destroyed in infancy or sold, and the aged and infirm, the sick 
 and the deformed, were unhesitatingly put to death/ 2 practices 
 
 1 Geijer, Hist, of Sweden, pp. 31, 32. One of the family-clubs is still 
 preserved in a farm in East Gothland. For the Heruli, see Procopius, 
 De Bell Goth., ii. 14 ; and Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 39. For instances 
 among Icelanders, Westphalians, Slavs, and Wends, see Grimm, Deut. 
 Alterth., pp. 486, 489, " Die Kinder ihre altbetagte Eltern, Blutfreunde 
 und andere Yerwandten auch die so nicht mehr zum Krieg oder Arbeit 
 dienstlich, ertodten, darnach gekoeht und gegessen, oder lebendig 
 begraben" (Ibid. 488). 
 
 2 Maclear, Conversion of the Slavs, p. 166 ; Keysler, Antiq. Septent., p. 
 148, cites several curious instances of this custom in Prussia, from writers 
 of local authority. A Count Schulenberg rescued an old man who was 
 being beaten to death by his sons at a place called Jammerholz . . . 
 and the intended victim lived as the count's hall porter for twenty years 
 after his rescue. A Countess of Mansfield in the fourteenth century is 
 said to have saved the life of an old man on the Liineberg Heath under 
 similar circumstances. 
 
io8 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 as remote from the poetry of the Greek description as from the 
 reverence which might have perhaps been expected from 
 descendants of the Aryan household " (Elton's Origins of 
 English History, p. 90). 
 
 Dasent (Introduction to the Story of Burnt Njal, p. 
 xxv.) says of the ancient Norsemen : " It was the father's 
 right to rear his children or not at his will. As soon 
 as it was born the child was laid upon the bare ground ; 
 and until the father came and looked at it, and heard and saw 
 that it was strong in lung and limb, lifted it in his arms and 
 handed it over to the women to be reared, its fate hung in 
 the balance. ... If it were a weakly boy, and still more 
 often, if it were a girl, no matter whether she were strong or 
 weak, the infant was exposed to die by ravening beasts, or 
 the inclemency of the climate. Many instances occur of 
 children so exposed." 
 
 And when Christianity was introduced into Iceland, 
 Thorgeir pronounced that the beginning of their laws should 
 be "that all men shall be Christian here in the land, and 
 believe in one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
 but leave off all idol- worship, not expose children to perish, and 
 not eat horse-flesh" (Story of Burnt Njal, ii. 79). 
 
 A remnant of the feelings which prompted female infanti- 
 cide is to be found in the following extract from Tozer's 
 Highlands of Turkey, ii. 120. It refers to the Christian 
 population of the most civilised part of European Turkey : 
 "At Zagora and elsewhere the value set on women is so 
 small that when a female child is born there is weeping and 
 mourning in the house, so that with regard to one sex they 
 actually realise the custom of the ' Thracian wives of yore.' 1 
 A girl is considered an expense and unremunerative ; for if 
 she marries she must have a dowry, and if she does not she 
 becomes a permanent burden to her family. In consequence 
 the parents endeavour to get their daughters married extremely 
 early." 
 
 For the exposure of children among the ancient Greeks 
 
 1 Herod, v. 4. 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE 109 
 
 and Bomans, and for the prevalence of habits resulting from a 
 scarcity of women, it would be superfluous to give much 
 evidence. It is enough to say that Plato and Aristotle both 
 advocate infanticide, and that Christianity alone stopped it in 
 the Eoman Empire. That this was especially female infanti- 
 cide appears from the prohibition to kill male children and the 
 eldest female (Mommsen's Hist, of Rome, English Translation, 
 vol. i. p. 61). 
 
 The Vendidad forbids abortion (Fargard xv.), as does the 
 Code of Manu (viii. 37), from which it appears to have been 
 at one time common among the Persians and Aryan Hindoos. 
 The same conclusion may be drawn for the Franks from the 
 Loi Salique, cinquieme texte, ch. xxi. art. 4 : " Celui qui aura 
 donne des herbes a une femme pour qu'elle ne puisse avoir des 
 enfants sera pumj^^-amerrdre de 2 5 CTTteniers." 
 
 From the~foregoing survey of the facts the following pro- 
 positions stand out clearly as results : 
 
 1. When hard pressed by want savages will kill their 
 children without pity. If the want is chronic, they will do 
 so regularly and it will become a system. In the same way 
 they will desert or kill the aged and infirm, and this habit also 
 has often grown up into a system. 
 
 2. Such a system will often last on being consecrated by 
 long usage, even when there is no longer any actual pressure 
 of want. But if the want is removed by any cause, so that 
 it is possible to rear children, the practice will often be dis- 
 continued. 1 Hence it is that in so many places we find traces 
 only of such a system in decline, the killing of deformed 
 children or of one of twins, or the burial of a child with its 
 dead mother. 
 
 3. If it becomes more profitable to keep children than to 
 kill them, they will be kept ; it is simply a question of demand 
 
 1 Thus, if the missionaries taught the people of Aitutaki to give up 
 killing the old, they made it possible to preserve useless mouths by in- 
 troducing the prolific pig. " The pigs I brought to your island on my 
 first visit here," said John Williams to them, " have multiplied so greatly 
 that all of you have now an abundance." 
 
1 10 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 and supply. Hence a great system of slavery, as in Africa, 
 checks infanticide because it is worth while to rear children 
 for the purpose of selling them. 
 
 4. Therefore female infanticide is the rule, because it is 
 more profitable as a rule to savages to rear up boys than girls. 
 But if by any chance it should become more profitable to keep 
 girls than boys, the female infanticide will be replaced by male, 
 as among the Abipones, or at least be stopped, as in Circassia. 
 
 o. Abortion has sometimes replaced, or is found along 
 with, infanticide. In such a case the proportion of the sexes 
 must obviously tend to be more equalised. Also any difficulty 
 about the blood -feud would be got over. But it is very 
 seldom that abortion has completely prevailed over infanticide. 
 
 6. Where the balance of the sexes is upset and there is 
 a scarcity of women, savages will satisfy their instincts as 
 they_can. 
 
 Other causes besides infanticide give rise to a scarcity of 
 women. The widely-spread habit of killing widows at the 
 funeral of their deceased husbands, best known in the case of 
 the Indian suttee, 1 but also common in Africa, New Zealand, 
 China, North America, acts in this way. The rule that widows 
 may not re-marry is the same in effect. " Young widows of the 
 higher castes in this country (India) cannot marry again, and 
 they are very numerous ; for matches between old men and 
 children are common," says Francis Buchanan (Journey, vol. i. 
 p. 260). And it is a common rule in India that a girl must 
 marry before puberty, so that she is probably left a widow 
 at an early age or else can never marry at all. So again 
 the virgins dedicated to the sun in Peru were very numerous, 
 and were not available as wives except indeed to the Inca. 
 And religious prostitution in temples, when marriage did not 
 terminate it, also cut off many of the women, as the bayaderes 
 in India. But all these arrangements are found only in 
 advanced civilisations ; what is much more important in 
 savage communities is the polygamy practised by the chiefs 
 
 1 In 1803 there were 275 women so burnt within thirty miles round 
 Calcutta ; in six months of 1804 in the same area the number was 115 
 (C. Buchanan's Christian Researches in India. London, 1811, p. 39). 
 
vii FEMALE INFANTICIDE in 
 
 and great men, who go a long way to monopolising what 
 women there are, and compel the common people to resort 
 to polyandry, etc. Any customs of the above-mentioned kinds 
 help to increase the scarcity of women. 
 
 The custom, of which several instances out of many have 
 been given, of killing and of eating the old, is further evi- 
 dence of the former existence at some time of a period of 
 great scarcity of food, even if that scarcity does not still exist. 
 Cannibalism in general appears to be probably due to the 
 same cause, and is still more widely spread. Such customs, 
 therefore, point to a condition in which we may confidently 
 infer that the female children would have been got rid of.] 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CAN EXOGAMY AS THE MARRIAGE LAW BE INFERRED IN 
 ANY CASE FROM THE LAW OF SUCCESSION? 
 
 I PROPOSE to consider whether exogamy and the law of 
 succession peculiar to female kinship are in any cases so 
 connected that, the one being stated to be present, we 
 may infer the presence of the other. 
 
 With the Nair family system we have the said law 
 of succession, but clearly under circumstances that 
 exclude an inference as to the law of intermarriage. 
 The husband may be of any stock even, so far as we 
 know, of the stock of the wife but he must be a 
 member of a different family : there is no cohabitation 
 between the husband and wife, who respectively continue 
 to be members of their mothers' households. 
 
 But let us ask what could prevent the succession of 
 children to their father in the case of the wife being in 
 cohabitation with the husband in his home. It will be 
 said it is prevented in respect of the force of custom 
 and the ancient system of kinship developed in the 
 Nair stage. But how does that operate in cases per- 
 mitting certainty of fatherhood ? By declaring that 
 
CHAP, viii SUCCESSION AND EXOGAMY 113 
 
 his children, however certainly they may be his children 
 and no one else's, are not of his kindred, but of the 
 kindred of their mother. When the step is taken 
 which destroys the force of this declaration, and a son 
 is permitted to be counted the kinsman of his father, 
 it will at once be apparent that he is nearer of kin than 
 either the father's brother or the son of his sister, and 
 under every system it is the nearest of kin that is the 
 heir. The instant effect, then, of the change in kinship 
 is to alter the succession law. 
 
 Let us recall one or two cases illustrating the pro- 
 position. There were in New Zealand two sorts of 
 marriage in the one the man entered the wife's family, 
 and was counted of her hapu and totem, renouncing 
 his own to that extent that he was obliged to fight 
 against his own real blood relations. In these cases, 
 the son being of the hapu of his father, there was 
 succession of sons to fathers ; there being an artificial 
 incorporation of the man in the clan of the wife, his son 
 was acknowledged as being his nearest of kin. 
 
 In the other sort of marriage the wife was procured 
 either by capture or purchase. She went into cohabita- 
 tion with her husband in his clan. The children were 
 counted of her clan, and they were not the heirs of the 
 father. His heirs were in his own clan, who alone were 
 his kindred. Might we infer from the system of female 
 succession in this case, supposing we did not know that 
 the husband and wife were of different clans, that, in 
 fact, they must have been of different clans to permit of 
 
 such a succession law ? I think we might. 
 
 I 
 
1 14 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 Let us take another case. In Guinea a man had 
 a first or chief wife no doubt of a different totem 
 from himself and a second wife who had come to be 
 the most honoured, who was obtained by purchase 
 and consecrated to his totem or bossum. Being dedi- 
 cated to his totem formally, no doubt with the same 
 formalities as elsewhere in Guinea and in most places 
 in Polynesia were employed in the dedication of a child 
 to its god and determined the clan -connection, the 
 bossum wife became artificially or by a fiction of the 
 same totem with her husband. The totem being taken 
 through the mother, a man's son by that wife would 
 now be his kinsman, and his nearest of kin, and almost 
 certainly therefore his heir. It is not surprising, then, 
 to read that in that case the husband anxiously guarded 
 the fidelity of his bossum wife, while on the whole 
 indifferent to the conduct of the others. She alone 
 had the honour of being strangled at his grave. The 
 children of the other wives, we know, were not his heirs 
 at all, but the heirs of their mother's brothers. 
 
 I cannot doubt but that we have in the bossum wife 
 an indication of one main way in which was introduced 
 the succession of sons to fathers. 
 
 It will occur to every one that in Greece and Eome 
 within the historical time, in which we find male kin- 
 ship and the succession of sons to fathers, the wife on 
 her marriage gave up her own gentile or family gods, 
 and adopted those of her husband's family or gens. 
 Why was this uniformly done ? By the ancient law, 
 the children would have been of the mother's clan. 
 
vin SUCCESSION AND EXOGAMY 115 
 
 Was this a device or fiction by which, the mother 
 joining the father's clan, the kinship between son and 
 father was reconciled with the ancient system of kin- 
 ship, and superseded the ancient succession law ? 
 
 The fiction would serve another purpose. It has 
 involved in it, of course, that the husband and wife 
 have different gentile gods, so that their marriage would 
 be permissible under exogamy. May we not imagine 
 that fact as steadily visible through the fiction that 
 veiled it ? and the presence of the fiction, as in general 
 use, a strong suggestion, if not a proof, that exogamy 
 was the law ? 
 
 Eecurring to the subject of inquiry since, where 
 there is cohabitation of husbands and wives, and hus- 
 bands are the heads of houses in which their families 
 are born, the law of succession, in certain cases, cuts off 
 a man's children, and prefers to them his brothers 
 uterine and sisters' children as his nearest of km, we 
 have the unavoidable inference that, in such cases, a 
 man's children are not esteemed to be of his kin ; and 
 since they are of their mother's kin, we have the in- 
 ference that husbands and wives must be of different 
 kins wherever such a succession law prevails, i.e. there 
 is exogamy observed in practice if not prescribed by 
 law. And we may be sure that the law and the senti- 
 ments relating to marriage will correspond with the 
 facts. 
 
 It seems to me this argument stands proof against 
 any observation on the uncertainty of fatherhood, or, 
 at any rate, will stand proof against any such observa- 
 
1 16 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP, vm 
 
 tion in any country where wives are jealously guarded, 
 and death is the punishment of adultery ; but, of course, 
 it would not apply where, as it is said is sometimes 
 the case, men deliberately traffic in the intrigues of their 
 wives. I have not, however, as yet found a case of that 
 description so well attested as to be credible of the bulk 
 of any population. 
 
CHAPTEE IX 
 
 SOME EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES ADDUCED 
 TO SHOW THE READINESS OF MEN IN ALL TIMES TO 
 FABRICATE GENEALOGIES. 
 
 ALL students of history are familiar with the legendary 
 genealogies of Greece. Every deme, gens, and phratria 
 had its own, which was rehearsed at its periodical 
 festivals. None of them had any real element in it of 
 historical tradition, none was quite consistent with itself 
 or in agreement with any other. Yet were the Greeks 
 quite contented with them, as we have been with the 
 genealogies from Adam to Noah, notwithstanding their 
 marvellous nature, and the genealogies deducing the 
 nations of men from Noah and his sons. The motive 
 of most of these genealogies was to account for the 
 origin of the various groups they referred to, and in 
 each case the local distribution of the sections of the 
 group ; the origin was usually found in the local or 
 group-god, or in some man sprung from the Earth, the 
 divine mother of all ; the persons connected in the 
 pedigrees were personified districts, nations, tribes, 
 gentes, towns, mountains, springs, lakes, and rivers, 
 
1 18 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 connected as fathers and sons or daughters, or as 
 brothers and sisters, etc., a narrative of the personal 
 adventures of the more prominent of these "persons" 
 completing the pedigree. It is difficult for us now to 
 realise how such genealogies could ever have been 
 devised or have obtained currency ; except indeed as 
 concerns the absence of scruple all the world over in 
 regard to pedigrees, and the readiness of men to credit 
 anything that it does not specially interest them to 
 deny. As to some of the peculiarities of these gene- 
 alogies, we must remember that the whole fabric of 
 society has been changed since they were invented, and, 
 what is even more important, that there has been a com- 
 plete change in religion and the standpoint from which 
 we have to contemplate the past history of mankind. 
 
 So far as these genealogies trace descents from father 
 to son, they are proofs, notwithstanding their falsity, 
 that at the time they were invented the family system 
 was characterised by descents from father to son. Un- 
 fortunately it is almost impossible in any number of 
 cases to say when they were invented ; but in most 
 cases it can be shown that they were of an antiquity 
 lower than that of the earliest literary records belonging 
 to the people they refer to. When again we study 
 these records, we find that the older they are, such 
 pedigrees as they set forth have the fewer human 
 fathers interposed between the subject of the pedigree 
 and the godfathers of origin. That is, the number of 
 what we can believe to be known human descents 
 diminishes. Once the pedigree gets to a god as father, 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 119 
 
 or to a supernatural or mythical person allied to the 
 gods, it is free to assume any shape the fancy of its 
 fabricator may dictate. We are entitled, I think, to 
 assume that known descents were a restraint on the 
 free fabrication of pedigrees ; and e converso, that where 
 such fabrication appears unrestrained there were few 
 known descents or none making obstacles to fabrication. 
 The inference from the facts, in short, would seem to be 
 that, at the commencement of the genealogy-manufac- 
 turing period, pedigrees tracing descent from father to 
 son were more or less of a novelty; in other words, "N 
 since we are everywhere forced to believe in a long 
 history antecedent to the genealogy - manufacturing ( 
 period, that the family characterised by descents from ) 
 father to son was not primitive. As regards the ancient 
 Greeks, I have elsewhere shown, 1 to a high order of 
 probability, that most anciently they traced descents 
 through mothers and not fathers. It is a minor point 
 made in my argument on ancient Greek kinship that 
 the majority of the divinities of immemorial Greek 
 worship five out of eight were female : Here, Perse- 
 phone, Athene, Demeter, and Aphrodite, and that the 
 number of the Greek eponymse was also remarkably 
 great considering the disposition of the later Greeks 
 to substitute male for female pedigrees. Among the 
 eponymse are Salamis, Corcyra, JSgina, and Thebe, 
 Messene, Sparta, Athene, and Mycene all belonging to 
 the prehistoric period ; whereas it has been proved that 
 
 1 " Kinship in Ancient Greece," in Studies in Ancient History [first 
 series, pp. 195-246]. 
 
120 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 many of the eponymi of the genealogists were invented 
 within historic times. Sparta, for example, is older 
 than Spartus ; Mycene than Myceneus. Mycene as an 
 eponyma is mentioned by Homer ; Myceneus, who sup- 
 planted her, is, as Mr. Grote has pointed out, the 
 creation of post-Homeric Greece. 
 
 Hereinafter, in dealing with genealogies similar to 
 the old Greek, I shall indicate from case to case what 
 proof we have of kinship through women being earlier 
 of date than the pedigrees traced through fathers. 
 
 To show the nature of the social and religious 
 changes which make it so difficult to sympathise with 
 the fabricators of these genealogies, and the people who 
 were so well contented with them, is beyond my 
 purpose ; but I propose to enable the reader to realise 
 the enormous scale on which such frauds have been 
 perpetrated. Perhaps, however, the word fraud is too 
 strong for the occasion. Of that I shall leave the reader 
 to judge. In many cases the genealogies are un- 
 doubtedly frauds and nothing else. In other cases their 
 character is more doubtful. The dreams of a poet, the 
 amusing inventions of a skilled raconteur, even the 
 foolish hypotheses of " a great philosopher," may have 
 been prompted by no intention to mislead. Should 
 they ever be generally accepted as true, the explanation 
 may be that they were first remembered as interesting 
 and afterwards credited as being creditable or pleasing 
 to those to whom they were addressed, notwithstanding 
 that they were incredible in themselves and however 
 untrustworthy the original authorities. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 121 
 
 As to the readiness of men to fabricate genealogies 
 there can be no doubt. It is constantly being exhibited 
 in our own days. 
 
 A novus homo desires a noble pedigree. He will 
 surely have it if he will pay for it. Coulthard, of 
 obscure origin, having become rich, found himself de- 
 scended from a distinguished Eoman general. The 
 lineage found a place as authentic in standard works 
 until Mr. Burnett demonstrated its falsity. The excep- 
 tional thing here was the suddenness and completeness 
 of the exposure. Such fabrications have gone on in 
 all time. Plutarch says that in his day some Eoman 
 families traced their genealogies by documentary 
 evidence up to Numa, notwithstanding the complete 
 uncertainty of that mythical person's marriages and 
 family, and that the archives of the city had been 
 destroyed when Eome was sacked by the Gauls. 1 Then, 
 as now, there were men whose business it was to make 
 pedigrees for those who would deduce their lineage 
 from ancient and illustrious houses. Families, like in- 
 dividuals, are born and die ; a new family, a new man ; 
 and for the new man sooner or later a history of 
 respectable antiquity. And if this be so under the 
 modern family system, how must it have been with the 
 gentes under the ancient tribal system, seeking to 
 account for their origin in circumstances altogether 
 
 1 Some say Numa had no wife but Tatia, and but one child, Pompilia ; 
 others that he had four sons, the eponymous ancestors of the Pomponii, 
 Pinarii, Calpurnii, and Mamercii. " A third set of writers," says Plutarch, 
 "accuse the former of forging these genealogies from Numa to ingratiate 
 themselves with particular families." 
 
122 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 different from those in which the resolution of great 
 tribes of descent into gentes took place ? 
 
 The Stewards were a great family in the time of 
 David I. of Scotland. What was their origin ? No one 
 knows. Yet they have a pedigree with Bern for first 
 father, Bern with " ears like a bear," and, indeed, the 
 son of a bear by "a certain Princess of Denmark." 
 Bern begat Siward, Earl of Northumberland ; Siward 
 
 begat ? But here discrepancies begin. Walter, 
 
 the first Steward of Scotland, was, according to one 
 account, Siward's grandson ; according to another, his 
 great-grandson. Walter begat Alan, the Steward of 
 Scotland ; but Hailes has shown there" is no evidence 
 that this Alan ever existed. 1 There was a Walter, 
 Steward of Scotland, in the reign of Malcolm IV., whose 
 father was said to be Alan ; but Hailes says he can only 
 answer the question, Who was this Alan 1 by asking, 
 Who was the father of Martach, Earl of Marre, in the 
 reign of Malcolm III. ; of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus, in 
 the reign of Alexander I. ; of Fergus, Lord of Galloway, 
 in the reign of Malcolm IV. ; or of Friskinus de 
 Moravia, ancestor of the family of Sutherland, in the 
 reign of William the Lion ; or, to keep in the supposed 
 line of the royal family of Stewart, who was " the father 
 of Banquho, Thane of Lochaber " ? It is implied that 
 none of these men had ascertainable fathers. As to 
 Banquho, his father, by one account, was a son of 
 Core, King of Munster ; by another, he was the son of 
 Ferquhard, son of Kenneth III. ; while by a third 
 
 1 Annals of Scotland, vol. iii. pp. 53 ff. Edinburgh, 1797. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 123 
 
 account, he was fifth in direct descent from Eth, King 
 of Scotland. Thus is it with old families as with new. 
 When we go back far enough we reach a time when 
 they were new and their pedigrees false and fabricated. 
 There may have been, in the case of the Stewards, a 
 tradition of gentile connection with the royal house of 
 Denmark. There is at least a common Totem mark, 
 and the inhabitants of a petty village in the Outer 
 Hebrides on such a tradition, as I believe, trace back 
 their descent to Danish kings. 
 
 The readiness with which men have been used to 
 fabricate pedigrees is none the less historically mis- 
 chievous that sometimes the fabricators have really 
 believed in at least the goal to which they worked 
 back. I suppose the inventors of the earlier fabulous 
 race of Scots kings were in good faith after a fashion. 
 That was a case of fabrication prompted by historical 
 confusion, the more interesting that it is connected with 
 a change in succession law. Loarn More, King of 
 Dalriada, was succeeded not by a son but by a brother, 
 Fergus the Great ; but till the sixth century the suc- 
 cession among the Scots was not from father to son, 
 but similar to that established among the Turks in the 
 house of Othman a species of succession referable to 
 polyandry as its origin. The change in the law came 
 under the influence of Christianity in Fergus's time, 
 and had effect in favour of his family ; so that he be- 
 came the father of a dynasty. This Fergus, Mr. John 
 Hill Burton observes, may be identified with Fergus II., 
 the fortieth king of Scotland according to Buchanan and 
 
124 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 the older historians. 1 " A Fergus was still the father of 
 the monarchy, but to carry back the line to a respectable 
 antiquity, a preceding Fergus was invented who reigned 
 more than 300 years before Christ much about the 
 time when Babylon was taken by Alexander. To fill 
 up the intervening space between the imaginary and the 
 actual Fergus, thirty-eight other monarchs were devised, 
 whose portraits may now be seen in the picture-gallery 
 at Holyrood" a fact full of evil suggestions as to 
 the value of the best evidence we have of the series 
 of kings in some ancient Egyptian dynasties. Still 
 more interesting is it, as touching the present purpose, 
 that of the thirty-eight successions seventeen are repre- 
 sented as being from father to son or grandson, the rest 
 being usurpations or successions of brothers or nephews 
 consistent so far as appears with the general succession 
 of sons to fathers. 2 After this example of fabrication 
 the reader will not be surprised to learn that the mother 
 of the Scots, as a nation, was Scota, a daughter of the 
 Pharaoh, whose line, if I recollect rightly, somewhere 
 crossed that of the pious ^Eneas before her race finally 
 settled in the north. 3 
 
 1 History of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 286 ff. Second Edition. Edin- 
 burgh, 1873. 
 
 2 See Haydn's Dictionary of Dates. 
 
 3 When Fenius sent his disciples to learn all languages, it was Cai, a 
 Hebrew, who went to Egypt and to Pharaoh its king. On the dispersing 
 of the Fenians over the world, it was Cai who went with Pharaoh's 
 messengers to fetch Fenius. " And the reward which they got was that 
 Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, was given in marriage " to Nel, son of 
 Fenius, according to one account, but " ^Eneae filium nomine Nelum," 
 according to another. " Hence the Scuit are called Scoti." The plagues 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 125 
 
 The succession law, no less than numerous facts I 
 have elsewhere adduced, explain why this Celtic people 
 referred their origin to a first mother. 
 
 The genealogies of Greece merit attention as being 
 specially instructive. The facts respecting them have 
 moreover been well made out and are accessible to all 
 readers, while presently we shall have to do with facts 
 neither so familiar nor so easily put to the test, the 
 books containing them being somewhat rare. I shall 
 attempt no more than to state the facts in the briefest 
 way, following, on the whole, the authority of Mr. 
 Grote. 
 
 The pedigree of Hellen, the eponym of the Greeks, 
 Hellenes, is variously stated. One account makes him 
 son of Zeus by a nymph ; another the grandson of 
 Prometheus and Pandora, with Deucalion for his father, 
 and Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, for his mother. 
 One story again runs that he had three sons, Dorus, 
 Xuthus, and ^Eolus. Dividing Greece between them, 
 he gave Thessaly to JEolus, the Peloponnesus to Xuthus, 
 and to Dorus the country lying opposite the Pelopon- 
 nesus, on the northern side of the Corinthian Gulf. 
 Xuthus had again two sons, Achseus and Ion. Thus 
 the .ZEolians, Dorians, Achseans, and lonians are made to 
 appear as descendants of a common ancestor. Though 
 
 coming on Egypt, Fenius and his friends took to studying with the 
 Israelites, and afterwards put to sea and avoided the Ked Sea disaster. 
 Cai, meantime, crossed the desert with Moses, and afterwards went to 
 Greece and settled in Thrace. (See Senchus Mor., vol. i. p. 21, and 
 footnote, p. 20.) 
 
1 26 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 is represented in the above genealogy, which 
 is taken from Apollodorus, as son of Hellen, yet the 
 legends concerning the Solids, far from being dependent 
 on this genealogy, are not all even coherent with it. 
 The name of ^Eolus in the legends is older than that 
 of Hellen, inasmuch as it occurs both in the Iliad and 
 the Odyssey. Odysseus sees in the under-world the 
 beautiful Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus and wife of 
 Kretheus, son of ^Eolus. According to Euripides, again, 
 Ion was the son of Kre'usa by Apollo, the real sons of 
 Xuthus being Dorus and Achseus ; but Xuthus is in this 
 scheme the son of ^Eolus the son of Zeus, and Hellen is 
 left out, i.e. in the drama called Ion; but elsewhere 
 Euripides mentions Hellen as the father of ^Eolus. 
 According to the statement which we find in Dionysius 
 of Halikarnassus, Achseus, Phthius, and Pelasgus are sons 
 of Poseidon and Larissa. They migrate from Pelopon- 
 nesus into Thessaly, and distribute the Thessalian terri- 
 tory between them, giving their names to its principal 
 divisions : their descendants in the sixth generation were 
 driven out of that country by the invasion of Deukalion 
 at the head of the Kuretes and the Leleges. 1 This was 
 the story of those who wanted to provide an eponym 
 for the Achseans in the southern districts of Thessaly. 
 Pausanias accomplishes the same objects by different 
 means, representing Achseus the son of Xuthus as having 
 gone back to Thessaly and occupied the portion of it to 
 which his father was entitled. Then by way of explain- 
 ing how it was that there were Achaeans at Sparta and 
 
 1 Dionysius of Halikarnassus, A. J?., i. 17. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 127 
 
 at Argos, he tells us that Archander and Architeles, the 
 sons of Achseus, came back from Thessaly to Pelopon- 
 nesus, and married two daughters of Danaus. They 
 acquired great influence at Argos and Sparta, and gave 
 to the people the name of Achseans, after their father 
 Achseus. 1 
 
 Enough of Greek genealogies. They were all of a 
 piece. When a tribe or gens sought to account for its 
 existence, it invented either a first man, sprung from 
 the soil, or offspring of a god, or a hero of unquestionable 
 repute ; and having regard to the local distribution of 
 its sections, it invented a genealogy such as would in- 
 clude them all in a common chain of connection with 
 the first father. Hercules is thus, as Mr. Grote observes, 
 as a progenitor, placed at the head of perhaps more 
 pedigrees than any other Grecian god or hero ; and in 
 this respect there was no difference on the Asiatic side 
 of the Greek sea. Hector and the pious JEneas were 
 made the first fathers of numerous tribes and gentes. 
 More than a dozen places claimed that ^Eneas lived and 
 died in them, and founded families. He was claimed as 
 an ancestor in Thrace, in Delos, in Arcadia, the isles of 
 Kythera and Zakynthus, on the Salentine peninsula, 
 and other parts of the south region of Italy, in Sicily, 
 at Carthage, Cumse, Misenum, and in Latium to 
 which enumeration of Mr. Grote's it may be added, 
 that not a few Scotch families trace back to him their 
 ancestors. 
 
 1 A History of Greece, etc., vol. i. p. 99. By George Grote. Fourth 
 Edition. London, 1872. 
 
128 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 It may suffice to say of the Roman genealogies, 
 which Sir Henry Maine admits to have been for the 
 gentes generally fictitious, that by especial preference 
 for the same pious ^Sneas, they connect their general 
 name of Latins with him by marrying him to Lavinia, 
 the daughter of Latinus, King of Latium. 
 
 Let us pass to less familiar countries. The gene- 
 alogies of India make the brain reel by their bewildering 
 complications and audacity. 1 We see them in the 
 process of being fabricated as we pass from the oldest 
 Vedic literature to that of the Puranas. The descents 
 are from father to son as a rule, but "here and there 
 tradition appears too strong for the fabricators, and 
 they have to invent fables to explain how the father 
 was a woman, or at once father and mother, in the 
 genealogy. 2 It would, of course, be the cue of the 
 Brahmans, who held the oral literature in their power to 
 a large extent, to make it square with the most recent 
 proprieties and best approved system of descents. 
 
 In the early Yedic period the distinctions and attri- 
 
 1 In the Vishnu Purana, Vena, son of Anga, is the descendant in the 
 ninth generation of the first Manu Svayambhuva. Muir points out 
 that he belongs to a mythical age preceding by five Manvantaras, or 
 periods of 308,571 years each, the beginning of the existing Manvantara, 
 to which belong the descendants of Manu Vaivasvata ! 
 
 2 Manu is sometimes male and sometimes female, and so is Ila. 
 Desirous of a son, Manu performed sacrifices, but owing to an error in 
 the invocation, a daughter was born. She was turned into a man by 
 certain gods, but again into a woman by Mahadeva, when she was got 
 with child by a son of Soma. Then she became a man again. Her son 
 by the son of Soma (according to the Vishnu Purana) is represented in 
 the Mahabharata as having her both for father and mother. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 129 
 
 butes of the men of different castes are not yet fully 
 defined, and much of the literature relates to the 
 struggles of families to get recognised as Brahmans ; or 
 of acknowledged Brahman families to wrest from the 
 Kshattriyas the priestly functions which had anciently 
 been exercised by them. "Where a family claimed to be 
 Brahman it would have a motive to connect itself with 
 acknowledged Brahman families by a genealogy going 
 back to a common ancestor ; and Professor Wilson is of 
 opinion that this motive was the main source of the 
 multitude of genealogies and origins of castes, gods, 
 men, and animals occurring in the literature ; while, 
 according to Muir, there was in the majority of cases no 
 closer bond between the families so fictitiously connected 
 than that of a common gentile origin. It seems to me, 
 indeed, that the feeling of stock, which everywhere is 
 disclosed in the origins of caste, was stronger than any 
 other feeling of the time. Various as are these origins, 
 they have all one feature in common. The animal 
 religiously regarded by the writer as the totem of his 
 stock is always the animal next produced after man, 
 and therefore is not to be eaten, which other animals 
 might be. The sheep, goat, horse, cow, etc., have in 
 turn this preference shown to them, and we may infer, 
 indeed, the gotra of the writer from the preference. 
 He is willing to go ever so far back for a common 
 ancestor to connect his own with some already acknow- 
 ledged high caste family, but subject always to fidelity 
 to his totem. 
 
 The first fathers, or Prajapatis, and their progeny 
 
130 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, 
 
 vary, of course, in number and origin from case to case. 
 The great Rishis, or " mind-born sons " of Brahma, are, 
 according to different passages in the Mahabharata, six, 
 seven, and twenty-one in number ; 1 they are seventeen 
 in one place in the Ramayana, nine according to the 
 Vishnu Purana, and ten according to Manu's account 
 of the origin of castes. And even the same documents 
 give contradictory accounts of their progeny. 2 Daksha, 
 for example, had but thirteen daughters according to 
 one account in the Mahabharata, while according to 
 another he had fifty. "Daksha, the glorious Rishi, 
 tranquil in spirit and great in austere fervour, sprang 
 from the right thumb of Brahma, arid from his left 
 thumb [note of Exogamy] sprang that great Muni's 
 wife on whom he begot fifty daughters." : These 
 daughters in turn " had valorous sons and grandsons 
 innumerable." They became, in fact, the first mothers of 
 great houses. Did they represent gentes in local tribes, 
 and did the men they are represented as having married 
 represent stock tribes summing up a variety of such 
 gentes ? There are some suggestions of an answer in 
 the affirmative. 4 
 
 According to one account, ten of Daksha's fifty 
 daughters were given to Dharma, twenty-seven to Indu, 
 and thirteen to Kagyapa. Now we know something of 
 Ka9yapa. He was the incarnation of the Tortoise, or 
 the god Tortoise. Muir 5 says this incarnation seems to 
 be foreshadowed in the Qatapatha Brahmana : " As to 
 
 1 Muir, vol. i. pp. 116, 122. 2 Ibid. pp. 124, 126. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 124. 4 Ibid. p. 126. 5 Ibid. p. 54. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 131 
 
 its being called kurma (a tortoise). Prajapati having 
 taken this form created offspring. That which he 
 created he made (aJcarot) ; since he made, he is (called) 
 Kurmah. The word Kacyapa means tortoise; hence 
 men say all creatures are descendants of Kayapa. 
 This tortoise is the same as Aditya." In the Kamayana, 
 Kacyapa is the grandson of Brahma, father of Vivasvat 
 the sun, and grandfather of Manu ; * while, according to 
 another account, Kayapa and Vivasvat are contem- 
 poraries, and not related as father and son ; and Kacyapa 
 marries eight (not thirteen) of the sixty daughters of 
 Prajapati Daksha, one of these eight wives being Manu ! 
 In these contradictions does there not seem to be 
 indicated an assortment (not well defined, it is true) of 
 families, gentes, or gotras of the Tortoise stock con- 
 necting themselves with one another through descent 
 from the Tortoise as first father, and the Kishi's 
 daughters as first mothers ? For the filiation through 
 first mothers there may have been tradition, or it also 
 may be pure invention ; the only substratum of fact 
 being the common totem stock, and the recognised 
 gentile subdivisions of that stock in a variety of local 
 tribes. Any number of Greek genealogies occur in 
 which such would appear to have been the only facts 
 guiding the inventor. 
 
 The statement that the gotras were gentes with 
 totems, and that that fact can be inferred from the 
 Vedic Hymns, can, I think, be easily substantiated. 
 For this purpose it will be convenient to deal with a 
 
 i ii. 110, 2, ed. Schl. 
 
132 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 few of the principal totems under separate heads, 
 premising that everywhere, as men -gods appear to 
 supersede the totems, the first step in the success of 
 the missionaries is to get the tribesmen to identify their 
 totem with the man-god. Of the tortoise we have 
 already seen enough. Let us consider next 
 
 (1) THE HORSE. There is a controversy as to 
 whether Agni was not a horse ; he was certainly a goat, 
 as we shall see. MM. Bohtlingk and Eoth say that, in 
 certain Yedic passages, " he (Agni) himself appears as 
 a red horse." An Agni Hippius should no more create 
 wonder than a Hippius Poseidon. (See Miiller's 
 Rigveda Sanhitci, pp. 14-18 ; and see p. 27.) 
 
 In the Pad ma Pur ana, Krishna in the form of a 
 horse is represented as rescuing the Vedas when " the 
 worlds " were burnt up (Muir's Texts, iii. p. 28, 2nd 
 ed.); and in the Vishnu Purana we have the Sun 
 as a horse teaching a horse- tribe men called Vajins 
 (i.e. horses), from being instructed by the Sun-horse 
 (Muir's Texts, iii. p. 51 ; and see p. 52, 2nd ed.). 
 The Sun (Aditya) appears again as a horse in the 
 ^atapatha Brahmana (ii. 3, 6, 9 ; iii. 5, 1, 19-20, trans, 
 in Sacr.Bks. of the East, i. 447; ii. 115 ; and see Muir, 
 vol. i. pp. xii. and 12, where the horse is also identified 
 with Yama and Trita). Since, as we shall see, there 
 was a Brahmanic gotra named from the horse, we may 
 well believe that these partial contributions to ancient 
 Indian literature were made by men of the horse stock. 
 
 (2) THE SWAN. It is said in the Bhagavata Purana 
 (ix. 14, 48) that at one time there existed but one 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 133 
 
 Veda, one God Narayana, one Agni, and one caste. This, 
 we learn from the Commentator, was in the Krita age, and 
 the one caste, he tells us, was called " Hansa " the 
 Swan. The Hansas again are, in the same Purana, said 
 to be one of four castes or tribes existing in a district 
 exterior to India (v. 20, 4) ; and finally, we learn from the 
 Lin'ga Purana (i. 17) that Hansa was a name of Brahma 
 himself i.e. Brahma was called the Swan. How this 
 god, reputed among some tribes to have been the 
 Creator, came to be so named is explained at length 
 in the last-mentioned Purana. When he and Vishnu 
 had grown hot in controversy as to which of them 
 had made all things, there suddenly appeared before 
 them a luminous Lin'ga " encircled with a thousand 
 wreaths of flame, incapable of diminution or increase, 
 without beginning, middle, or end, incomparable, in- 
 describable, undefinable, the source of all things." What 
 happened on this appearing Brahma thus recounts : 
 "Bewildered by its thousand flames, the divine Hari 
 (Vishnu) said to me (Brahma), who was myself be- 
 wildered, c Let us on the spot examine the source of 
 (this) fire. I will go down the unequalled pillar of 
 fire, and thou shouldst quickly proceed strenuously 
 upwards.' Having thus spoken, the universal-formed 
 (Vishnu) took the shape of a boar, and I immediately 
 assumed the character of a sivan. EVER SINCE THEN 
 MEN CALL ME HANSA (SWAN), for Hansa is Viraj. 1 
 
 1 Viraj appears to be the first -begotten of the male and female 
 divisions of the Procreator (Muir, i. 36). We shall presently see that 
 according to another set of the Vedic writers Viraj was a cow ! 
 
CHAP. 
 
 134 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 Whoever shall call me ' Hansa Hansa ' shall become 
 a Hansa." There follows an account of their respective 
 expeditions to explore the Lin'ga, which occupied them 
 for a thousand years. The one found no top to it, the 
 other no base. Bewildered, they both bowed to it, 
 saying, " What is this ? " in answer to which the 
 Lin'ga is reported to have said, " OM." 
 
 It is reasonable to conclude that we have a Swan- 
 tribe in the Indian Kansas : the tradition that Brahma 
 was a Hansa is not likely to have originated except 
 with Swans. 
 
 (3) THE GOAT. I appeal to the following passage 
 from the Taittiriya Sanhita (Black Yajur-veda, vii. 1, 1, 
 4 if.) as conclusive evidence of the soundness of the 
 views I propound so far as the Vedic races are con- 
 cerned. If any one will furnish a different and satis- 
 factory explanation of the passage, I shall abandon my 
 hypothesis. 
 
 " Prajapati (the Procreator) desired ' may I pro- 
 pagate/ He formed the Trivrit (stoma) from his 
 mouth. After it were produced the deity Agni, the metre 
 Gayatri ... of men, the Brahman ; of beasts, the goats. 
 Hence they are the chief, because they were created 
 from the mouth. From his breast, from his arms, he 
 formed the Panchadaca (stoma). After it were created 
 the god Indra, the Trishtubh metre ... of men, the 
 Kajanya (Kshattriyas) ; of beasts, the sheep. Hence 
 they are vigorous, because they were created from 
 
 1 Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. i. pp. 158, 498 ; vol. iv. pp. 388-391, 
 2nd ed. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 135 
 
 vigour. From his middle lie formed the Saptadaga 
 (stoma). After it were created the gods (called) the 
 Vicve-devas, the Jagati metre ... of men, the Vaigya ; 
 of beasts, kine. HENCE THEY (KINE) ARE TO BE EATEN, 
 because they were created from the receptacle of food," 
 etc. etc. Along with Qudras, in the lowest place, was 
 produced the horse. The narrative is that Agni, the 
 Brahman caste and the goat, were first created ; next 
 Indra, the Kshattriya caste and sheep ; thirdly, the 
 Vaigya caste and kine ; lastly, the Qudras and horse. 
 And the kine, as having come from the middle, were 
 to be eaten; which, by implication, goats and sheep 
 were not to be ! If the reader will look at Muir's 
 Texts, vol. i. 16, he will see that in another account 
 (i. 26) kine were the first creatures produced after 
 men, and it is familiar that in later times the 
 cow came to be in India the most sacred thing on 
 earth, next to a Brahman (see Manu, c. xi. 60, 79, 
 80) not to be eaten or injured, while goats and 
 sheep might be. What, then, is the explanation of 
 this? It is that the cow-stock came slowly into the 
 first place ; that the contributories to the Vedic 
 literature, even subsequently to the establishment of 
 castes, were still so far in the Totem stage as to retain 
 their Totem preferences ; that men of the goat, sheep, 
 horse, and serpent tribes were contributories to the 
 Vedas, as well as, or even more prominently than, men 
 of the cow, ox, or bull tribes. It is in accordance with 
 our hypothesis that Indra should be identified with the 
 horse by men of the horse-stock, similarly that the 
 
136 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 sheep-tribe, taking him up, should make of him a ram 
 as Mr. Muir assures us some Vedic writers did. As 
 with Indra, so with Agni, and the other gods specula- 
 tively produced ; the god, whoever he was, that was 
 put in the first place by a tribe, was identified with its 
 totem. On this view Agni, being represented as pro- 
 duced along with Brahmans and goats, may be believed 
 to be, in the writer's opinion (clearly a man of the goat- 
 stock), foremost of the gods. He should therefore be a 
 goat. Accordingly it did not surprise us when we 
 found that Agni, as connected with the creation, was a 
 /le-goat, and, in a procreative view, a she-goat } " the 
 unborn female," the mother, we presume, of all 
 creatures. 1 The goat, we shall see, gave its name 
 to a Brahmanic gotra. 
 
 (4) THE Cow. Every one knows that the cow is 
 now religiously regarded almost universally in India 
 is the creature next most sacred to a Brahman. It 
 was not always so, however. It was the totem of one 
 stock only, and had to fight its way up slowly to its 
 present prominent position. It would take a book to 
 treat fully of the worship of the cow. The reader who 
 would understand its position in India may consult 
 Muir's Sanskrit Texts at the points under noted : 
 Part I. (2nd ed.) pp. 96, 217, 285, 287, 325, 374, 
 and 390. At p. 217 he will find that Manu and 
 
 1 See Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. i. p. 16, 2nd ed. ; and vol. iii. 
 pp. 166, 310, 311, 2nd ed. That Agni should turn out to be a 
 goat was a prediction made by me on reading the above passage. The 
 passage showing him to be a goat was then untranslated in Mr. Muir's 
 work. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 137 
 
 Yama were descendants of the divine cow Viraj, 1 
 and at p. 325, "the cow with thrice seven names," 
 too sacred to be divulged; Part III. (2nd ed.) pp. 
 248, 249, 253-254, 264, 266, and 282 ; Part IV. pp. 
 59, 63, 70, 77, and 145. Perhaps the most striking 
 manifestation made by the celestial cow is that noted 
 in Part I. p. 391, from the Mahabharata. The cow 
 being incensed, discharged firebrands from her tail, 
 arid created from that member and her sweat, etc., 
 eleven tribes of armed men to fight for her ! 
 
 (5) THE BEAR. The King of the Bears occurs in 
 the ancient literature of India. He occurs also in 
 Lapland, and every student knows him in Arcadia. 
 
 Krishna appears in the Mahabharata as married to 
 Jambavati, daughter of the King of the Monkeys, a 
 lady who in the Vishnu Purana is daughter of the king, 
 not of the monkeys, but of the bears. Jambavat, the 
 lady's father, appears again in the Bhagavata Purana, 
 and there he is not only the King of the Bears, but 
 a celestial personage. Hari having gained a victory, 
 the gods assemble to do homage to him, and celebrate 
 his triumph, which is proclaimed by Jambavat. " Jam- 
 bavat, King of the Bears, swift as thought, proclaimed 
 this victory, the occasion of great festivity, with sound 
 of kettledrums, in all the regions ! " a proceeding 
 competent to a celestial only, we should say. 2 The 
 Bear, we shall see, gave its name to a Brahmanic gotra. 
 
 1 The reader will see ante, p. 133, that it was the swan (Hansa) that 
 was Viraj. 
 
 2 Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. iv. pp. 146 and 189. 
 
138 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 As proofs and illustrations of my propositions the 
 above examples should suffice. We must not, how- 
 ever, dismiss the subject of totemism in India without 
 reference to the early history of Vishnu. In the Eig- 
 Veda, according to the Commentary, he is a representa- 
 tion of the sun, with powers derived from Indra, is not 
 as yet among the Adityas, and, so far from being the 
 Lord of Creation, is not even a god of the first rank. 
 He and Brahma, indeed, as Muller observes, properly 
 belong to a secondary, post-Vedic formation of the 
 gods. 1 In the Brahmanic period we see him strongly 
 impressing the popular imagination, and the germs of 
 those legends appearing that reached their full develop- 
 ment in the Epics and Puranas, and through which he 
 attained a first rank, nay, even became the supreme 
 god, as he appears in some parts of these works. These 
 legends relate to his incarnations, of which, in the 
 generally received account, the first was in a fish, the 
 second in a tortoise, the third in a boar, and the 
 fourth in a man-lion. The fish legend, among other 
 details comprised in the form it finally assumed, re- 
 presents the fish as instructing Manu in all wisdom. 
 The legend wanting this detail is in the Mahabharata, 
 and there the fish is Brahma ; and we have its original in 
 
 1 Vishnu and Brahma may have been tribal gods for any length of 
 time. The meaning of Miiller's statement must be that they were of low 
 rank in the group of tribes that comprised the chief contributories to the 
 Veda. Probably they rose into importance, like other gods, with the 
 tribes that possessed them. In what follows we have a hint of coalitions 
 of tribes, which would explain their advancement. The history of Vishnu 
 is ably traced in Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. iv., and in Chamb. Encyc., 
 s.v. " Vishnu." 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 139 
 
 the White Yajur-veda (Muir, i. 180 ; Qatap. Brahm. i. 8, 
 1), where the fish represents no god in particular, and the 
 legend is introduced merely to explain certain sacrificial 
 ceremonies. The legend of the tortoise-incarnation of 
 Vishnu, again, is post-Vedic, while the idea of the Lord 
 of the Creation becoming a tortoise is Yedic. It occurs in 
 the Yajur-veda. In the Kamayana and Lin'ga-Purana 
 (Muir, iv. 33, 39) it is Brahma, not Vishnu, who, as 
 Creator of the Universe, becomes a boar. This belief 
 first appears in the Black Yajur-veda, and there it is the 
 Lord of Creation who is the boar, and not either Vishnu 
 or Brahma. The original legend of the incarnation, 
 moreover, represents it as cosmical ; it is emblematical 
 according to a later conception ; while a third form of 
 the legend has Vishnu for some time incarnate in the 
 boar. During the avatara the gods, their very existence 
 being threatened by an enemy, implored the aid of 
 Vishnu, who "at that period was the mysterious or 
 primitive boar." He slew the invader, which was but 
 one of his many exploits in this character. As a man- 
 lion he was of fearful aspect and size ; as a boar he was 
 gigantic ; as a tortoise he was gigantic ; as a fish he 
 filled the ocean. 1 In his fifth and subsequent avataras 
 he was incarnate in men -gods, such as Krishna and 
 Buddha, whose histories have been traced, the intention 
 of the incarnations being obvious, namely, to effect a 
 compromise with other religions, and, if possible, draw 
 
 1 Muir, i. 206. Will any one venture to suggest that Vishnu, a 
 man-god who had an avatar as a tortoise, has degenerated into a totem of 
 the Delawares ? 
 
140 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 their adherents within the fold of Brahmanism a policy 
 that altogether has been highly successful. Was this 
 the policy of the earlier incarnations ? We at once 
 recognise the fish and man-lion totem gods, and can see 
 how the policy that dictated an avatara in Buddha, and 
 is now suggesting an avatara in Christ, to reconcile 
 Brahmanism with Christianity, should have dictated an 
 incarnation in the fish and man-lion. What, then, of 
 the tortoise and the boar ? We say they were totem 
 gods, and their avataras dictated by the same policy. 
 Of the tortoise in mythology, except in this case, the 
 present writer is almost ignorant ; 1 but he is a totem 
 in America, and figures, as does the turtle, on coins of 
 ^Egina of ancient date, ranging from 700 B.C. to 450 or 
 400 B.C., and was presumably a Totem god. Of the 
 boar there is no doubt. He is worshipped now in 
 China, and was worshipped among the Celts ; is a 
 totem, and figures on the coins of many cities, and the 
 crests of many noble animals with whose genealogies 
 legends connect him. 2 Since the Vedic legends show 
 
 1 The Greeks had a few tortoise names and one nymph, Chelone, 
 who was turned into a tortoise for not attending the nuptials of Jupiter 
 and Juno. 
 
 2 For pig- worship in China, see American Expedition to Japan, p. 161. 
 New York, 1856. Of the sacred pigs, in sacred styes at Canton, the 
 writer says : " It was something of a curiosity, though somewhat sadden- 
 ing in the reflections it occasioned, to behold the sanctified pork and the 
 reverence with which it is worshipped." For Celtic pig-worship, see 
 Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. v. p. 62, 1860. The Celtic 
 legends of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland are pervaded by " the primitive, 
 mysterious boar," and the Irish scholars connect him with the sacred 
 swine of the ancient Celts, who, they suppose, had a " porcine worship 
 which was analogous to, if not identical with, the existing worship of 
 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 141 
 
 the fish, tortoise, and boar to have been earlier than 
 Vishnu ; to have had to do with the creation with 
 which he only lately came to be connected ; and since 
 we have the key to the fictions by which each of them 
 was at the later time made out to have been Vishnu, 
 and so robbed of its primitive character by him, 1 we 
 cannot doubt but that we possess in this case so many 
 illustrations of the manner in which Zeus, Poseidon, 
 Demeter, Athene, and others of the Egyptian and Greek 
 gods superseded the totem gods of the earlier time, 
 derived names from them, and came to be worshipped 
 under their forms. 
 
 As to ancient polyandry and female kinship among 
 the Vedic Aryans, I must refer the reader to the 
 argument on the Levirate. I shall here, however, 
 adduce in conclusion some further evidence as to their 
 having come through the totem stage, some of which 
 also bears on their polyandry. 
 
 The reader will find in Miiller's History of Sanskrit 
 Literature (pp. 380-385) a list of the names of the most 
 ancient Brahmanic gotras. A fact bearing on the ancient 
 polyandry, it seems to me, appears ex facie of this list ; 
 
 Vishnu in his avatar as a boar." Their boar, they may rely on it, was 
 much more ancient than Vishnu, and worshipped over a wider area. 
 He occurs on coins of various cities of Gallia, Hispania, and Britannia ; 
 of Capua in Campania, Arpi in Apulia, Paestum in Lucania, JStolia in 
 genere ; of ancient Athens, of Methymna in Lesbos, Clazomenae in Ionia, 
 Chios in Ionia, and on several other classical coins all of date B.C., besides 
 being figured on many ancient sculptured stones. 
 
 1 An instructive fact is that in Fiji two gods, who will naturally 
 hereafter turn into men-gods, lay claim to the Hawk. 
 
142 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 and it is a fact which also bears directly on our present 
 subject. Of the forty -nine gotras, only one has a single 
 ancestor for certain. In two cases the ancestors may 
 have been one or three. The remaining forty-six have 
 all a plurality of ancestors. The significance of this 
 appears when we recall the hints we have of the ancient 
 form of the family in India the five Pandu brothers 
 married to one wife ; the ten brothers, called Prachetas, 
 that were married to Varkshi, the daughter of a Muni ; 
 and " Jatila, of the family of Gotama, that most ex- 
 cellent of mortal women, who dwelt with seven saints," 
 all commemorated for us in the Mahabharata. 1 
 Another fact which only Sanskrit scholarship could 
 deduce from it, is that the bulk of these gotra names 
 are names of animals and plants. There were so 
 many indications in the Vedas that this must be so, 
 and the marriage law, which was exogamy, gave such 
 promise of the preservation from a high antiquity of 
 the ancient gentile names, that I thought it worth 
 while when I began investigating totemism, to ask 
 the late Professor Goldstticker to examine the list to 
 see how far the etymons could be ascertained. The 
 following is Professor Goldstiicker's report. It was 
 put into type in 1869, from his MS., revised by him 
 in proof, and is here printed from his re visa!. 2 
 
 " Amongst the names of gotras and their ancestors, 
 
 1 See Westminster Review, April 1868. The article therein on the 
 Mahabharata is from the pen of the late Professor Goldstiicker. 
 
 2 I had hoped that the distinguished scholar would have completed 
 for me an examination of the ancient stock-names of India, a task of love 
 which he readily undertook. But it was not to be. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 143 
 
 there are several which unquestionably are names of 
 animals or plants. Others may or may not designate 
 such objects, since names of colours or qualities, for 
 instance, also pass into those of animals or plants. 
 
 " A third class, however, belongs to a different cate- 
 gory, e.g. Jamadagni, ' fire - eater ' ; Sdvarni, from 
 savarna, of ' the same colour ' ; Dlrghatamas, ( having 
 great darkness'; and a fourth contains names which, with 
 our present means, would not yield an intelligible 
 etymon e.g. Ydska, Jaimini, Bddhaula, Garga, 
 Kdnva, Gdlava, Kata, etc. 1 
 
 "The subjoined names are those the etymon or 
 sense of*which, in my opinion, is safe. 
 
 " N.B. In the list which Max Miiller quotes from 
 A9valayana, the gotra names are given in the plural, 
 e.g. Biddli, Qunakdh, this being the way in which 
 the descendants of a celebrated man, collectively, are 
 designated. In the following enumeration, of course, 
 the base alone of such plurals had to be considered : 
 
 Page 
 
 380. "1. Vatsa, a calf. 
 
 2. Anupa (ancestor name), a buffalo. 
 
 381. 4. Mauka, a descendant of Muka, dumb; or 
 
 a fish. 
 
 5. Qyaita, a descendant of Qyeta, white ; or 
 perhaps a hawk. 
 
 7. QunaJca, a dog. 
 
 8. Gotama, an excellent bull. 
 
 1 [In the St. Petersburg Diet. Garga is said to mean a bull, Gdlava 
 and Kataha are names of trees. K.] 
 
144 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 Page 
 
 382. 14. Prishadaqva, a spotted horse, or having 
 
 speckled horses. 
 Ashtddanshtra, having eight large teeth 
 
 (perhaps the name of an animal). 
 15. Riksha, a bear. 
 
 383. 22. Harita, green ; a lion. 
 
 Pin'ga, tawny ; a rat. 
 25. Kapi, a monkey. 
 
 27. Qyflvagwi, a brown horse, or possessing 
 such a horse. 
 
 384. 31. Dhanamjaya, the name of a Naga or 
 
 snake-demon. 
 
 32. Aja, a goat. * 
 
 41. Kaqyapa, a kind of deer or fish. 1 
 
 385. L. 9 (below), Pain'galdyana, descendant of 
 
 Pin' gala, tawny ; a monkey ; an ich- 
 neumon; a kind of serpent; a small owl. 
 L. 8 (below), Vdlmiki, from Valmlka, an 
 ant-hill. 
 
 381. 11. SomardjaJci, descendant of Somardja, 
 
 probably the soma plant. 
 
 382. 19. Mudgala, probably the same as Mud- 
 
 gar a, jasmin. 
 
 383. 22. Darbhya, descendant of Darbha, the 
 
 sacred grass (Poa cynosuroides). 
 23. Putimdsha, a sort of kidney-bean. 
 29. Kuyika, the sal tree, or from Kuga, Poa 
 
 cynosuroides. 
 
 1 [This word also means a tortoise ; see above, p. 130, and B. and E. 
 s.v. R] 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 145 
 
 Page 
 
 384. 39. Venn, a bamboo. 
 
 383. 22. Can'kha, a univalve shell. 
 
 384. 38. Renu, dust, but also the name of a medi- 
 
 cinal plant ; the former meaning is the 
 usual one. 
 
 383. 24. Ajamllha, descendant of Ajamilha, 
 goat's urine." 
 
 Several of the names here appearing, e.g. the goat, 
 bear, bull, horse, and soma, are names of stocks one 
 would infer must have existed, from studying the pre- 
 ferences, already referred to, shown to certain animals, 
 etc., by the contributors to the Vedas. It is confir- 
 matory of the view that the preferences were really totem 
 preferences that the etymological evidence showed, after 
 such inference had been made from such a study as the 
 sole means of information, that among the ancient 
 Vedic peoples stock-groups named after the animals 
 did really exist. But with totemism and exogamy we 
 should expect female kinship as an accompaniment, and 
 descents traced through mothers instead of fathers. 
 
 Let us now take an example or two from the races of 
 Africa and Asia. The Berbers are a very ancient people. 
 Herodotus makes some mention of one division of them, 
 the Kabeyles. Another great division inhabits Morocco, 
 and many less important are widely distributed over 
 Africa. Ibn Batouta, early in the fourteenth century, 
 found Berbers on the African coast opposite Aden. 1 
 
 1 Voyages d'Ibn Batouta. Texte Arabe, accompagn d'une Traduc- 
 
 L 
 
146 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 He also found them established at several points in the 
 Soudan. They are a flourishing race, and have been 
 long under Islam, without, however, having fully 
 adopted Mohammedan law. 
 
 About the origin of the name Berber there cannot be 
 two opinions. The Arabs call them Breber or Berbers. 
 According to all appearance they borrowed the term 
 from the inhabitants of the Koman towns, who treated 
 as barbarians every people who did not speak Latin or 
 Greek. They are called at present Amazirg in the 
 empire of Morocco, and Kabeyles in Algeria. They are 
 undoubtedly the same people who passed anciently 
 under the general name of Libyans and Moors, if 
 indeed they ever had a common name. The Greeks 
 who knew them in the East gave them the name of 
 Nomads, which was converted by the Eomans into 
 Numidians. Their language has not the least analogy 
 to Arabic, and their customs also differ from those of 
 the Arabs. 
 
 On the principle upon which the Greeks invented 
 Hellen, and made of him a son of Deucalion, the Berbers, 
 under the influence of ideas derived from Mohamme- 
 danism, invented a first father Berr and connected him 
 with Noah. We have a pretty full account of the 
 genealogies framed to support this derivation from Ibn 
 Khaldoun, a good Mussulman, who wrote in Arabic in 
 the sixteenth century. 1 We have Ibn Khaldoun's work 
 
 tion par C. Defremery et le Dr. B. E. Sanguinetti. 4 vols. Paris, 
 1853-58. Vol. ii. p. 180. 
 
 1 Histoire des Berbfrres. Ibn Khaldoun. 4 vols. Trad, par le 
 Baron de Slane. Alger, 1852. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 147 
 
 in a French version by the Baron de Slane, who enables 
 us by some notes to understand the deficiencies in the 
 genealogies. He shows that one of the names given to 
 a main branch of the Berbers, El Bko, is of Arabic 
 origin, and that Arabic was already widespread in 
 Mauritania before the Berber savants began to fabricate 
 their genealogies. The genealogists again differ widely 
 from one another, sometimes as to their starting-points, 
 other times along the line. Madjhis and Bernes, two 
 eponymous persons, are both called sons of Berr, but the 
 genealogists are not agreed whether there was not more 
 than one Berr. Bernes was, of course, the eponymus of 
 the Beranes, of whom there were sundry tribes, whose 
 first fathers should of course be sons of Bernes, but 
 there must have been some obstacle in tradition to this 
 being made out, for some genealogists refer two of the 
 tribes, the Sanhadj and Lant, to a common mother and 
 an unknown father; while Ibn-el-Kelbi, one of the 
 genealogists, declares that the Sanhadj a and the 
 Ketama did not belong to the Berber race at all, 
 but were branches of the population of Yemen. The 
 other tribes are run back, purely by an effort of the 
 imagination, to first fathers of a very early date, the 
 genealogies being here and there supported by the 
 citations of morsels of ancient literature, which, De 
 Slane points out, are in very bad Arabic, showing that 
 they were fabricated by ill -educated Berbers, with a 
 view to glorify the nation by giving them an Arab 
 origin. As a specimen of the mode of working, it may 
 be mentioned that one of the genealogies starts not 
 

 148 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 from a Berr, but from a Berber, as eponymus. This 
 Berber was son of Temla, son of Mazigh, son of 
 Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah (see Ibn Khaldoun, 
 vol. i. pp. 167 ff.) 
 
 Ibn Khaldoun's contribution to the subject is to 
 show that all these genealogies, as given by the Berbers, 
 are erroneous, except so far as that the Berbers "are 
 the descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah, as 
 we have already announced in treating of the great 
 divisions of the human family" (vol. i. p. 182). 
 
 Can it be doubted that if the Berber genealogists 
 had gone to work under the influence of the cos- 
 mogonies of Greece or Kome instead of Islam, their 
 pedigrees would have run back to Deucalion, Numa, 
 or the pious ^Eneas, or some other celebrity ? 
 
 Here again, as in the case of Greece, investigation 
 discloses the fact that the Berbers anciently traced 
 their descents through mothers and not through fathers. 
 They to some extent do so to this day in some parts of 
 the Soudan, as Dr. Barth attests (vol. i. pp. 337, 340 
 ff. ; and see vol. ii. pp. 273 ff.) The Kanuri, for example, 
 call people in general, but principally their kings, after 
 the name of their mother, and the mother's tribe is 
 almost always added in the chronicle of descents. 
 Again the Bedjahs, of Berber origin, according to 
 Macrizi, " comptent leurs genealogies du cote des 
 femmes. Chez eux I'heritage passe aux fils de la 
 sceur et a celui de la fille, au prejudice des fils du 
 mort." l 
 
 1 Macrizi's History of Nubia as translated by Quatremere. " M^moires 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 149 
 
 The succession law again in various Berber states 
 gave the throne not to the king's sons, but to his sister's 
 sons. Ibn Batouta 1 found that law of succession in 
 force at Tacadda, in the fourteenth century. Dr. Barth 2 
 says that he found the law of succession mentioned by 
 Batouta " in full operation even at this present moment " 
 among the Berbers of Tacadda, and that "it must be 
 supposed to have belonged originally to the Berber 
 race, for the Azkar, who have preserved their original 
 manners tolerably pure, have the same custom." Barth 
 adds that it may be doubted whether in the mixed 
 empires of Ghanata, Melle, and Wulata, it was not the 
 Berbers who introduced this custom. We may be sure, 
 however, it belonged to the black natives as well as the 
 Berbers. He mentions one noble Berber tribe that 
 counted the custom shameful, as indicating mistrust of 
 the wife's fidelity, " for such is certainly its foundation." 
 Batouta also mentions, as a peculiar fact, that the pro- 
 tection given to caravans by the Berber women might 
 be more trusted than that given by the men, 3 a fact 
 attesting the high position of women, which is true to 
 this day of the Kabeyles, as General Daumas attests in 
 his work on Algeria. 4 We can see in this case how 
 
 Geographiques et Historiques sur 1'Egypte, etc., recueillis et extraits 
 des MSS. Copies, Arabes et de la Bibliotheque Imperiale." 2 vols. 
 Paris, 1811. 
 
 1 Vol. iv. p. 442. 
 
 2 Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, 1849-55, vol. i. 
 p. 337. 5 vols. London, 1857. 
 
 3 Vol. iv. p. 437. 
 
 4 Mceurs et Coutumes de TAlgerie. Paris, 1855. See pp. 225-227. 
 That we have here a note of the system of kinship through women only 
 
1 50 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y CHAP. 
 
 misleading it would be were we to trust the patriarchal 
 genealogies of the Berbers for an inference as to their 
 ancient condition, manufactured as the genealogies were 
 on a foreign type, after their conversion to a religion 
 which must have largely remodelled their manners and 
 laws. 
 
 I have made several attempts to obtain the etymons 
 of the Berber tribes as given by Ibn Khaldoun, to see 
 whether they were named after animals or plants, but 
 hitherto without success. I am not without hope, 
 however, that the tribal names will soon be examined. 
 Barth has interpreted one or two. Among the 
 " sections," i.e. sub-tribes, of the Kel-owi, for example, 
 are the Kel-ulli, or people of the goats, and a sub-tribe 
 of the same name occurs among the Awelimmiden, 
 which looks towards totemism, exogamy, and female 
 kinship ; but the facts are too few to justify more than 
 a surmise. We have two facts from Macrizi (l) 
 "Among the Berber Bedjahs there are some [it must 
 mean a gens] qui s'arrachent les dents de devant, ne 
 voulant pas, disent-ils, ressembler a des anes." 1 The 
 mutilation would indicate a people of the cow stock. 
 (2) " Chacun d'eux adore ce qui lui plait, une plante, 
 un animal, ou un mineral,"' which is indicative of 
 totemism imperfectly observed. 
 
 we may see in the case of the Beni Amer. Among them " who ever 
 recommends himself to the protection of a woman is safe, much safer 
 than under the protection of a man." See Ost-Africanische Studien, 
 p. 327. By Von Werner Munzinger. Schaffhausen. 1864. 
 
 1 Quatremere, I.e. vol. ii. p. 122. 
 
 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 188. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 151 
 
 The Arabs have been divided into the ancient and 
 modern. The ancient Arabs are gone, leaving no traces 
 behind, so nothing need be said about them. The 
 modern Arabs are divided into the pure and the 
 naturalised ; and we have genealogies for them tracing 
 them up to Adam. The pure Arabs are the descendants 
 of Kahtan. the Joktan of Genesis x. 28 ; the naturalised 
 are the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham, who 
 (i.e. Ishmael) it was that, with the help of the angel 
 Gabriel, built the original temple at Mecca. 
 
 The descendants of Joktan settled in the south ; 
 those of Ishmael in the 'Hejaz. Those of both stocks 
 that settled in towns became in a measure what we call 
 civilised, and fell away from their primitive customs. 
 The wandering Arabs, who kept to life in the deserts 
 and who are called Bedouins, are believed to have 
 preserved for us these customs in comparative purity, 
 notwithstanding their acceptance of Islam. Of course 
 an eponymus has been found for the whole race 
 Ya'rab, son of Yoktan, after whom the people were 
 called Arabs. Ya'rab's grandson, again, was Saba, after 
 whom the southern Arabs were called Sabseans. 
 Himyar was one of Saba's sons, and for 2020 years the 
 government of the Sabaeans rested with the family of 
 Himyar, whence it came about that the Sabaeans were 
 also known as the Himyarides. Belkis, or Balkis, queen 
 of the Sabseans, was of Himyar's line, if indeed she was of 
 human origin. She has of course been identified with the 
 Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. How came it that 
 there was a queen of Sheba under the patriarchal system? 
 
152 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 Joktan, Ishmael, and the Queen of Sheba are not 
 the only biblical personages referred to in the Arabian 
 genealogies. What the Arabs were to the Berbers, the 
 Jews were to the Arabs. One of their genealogical 
 epochs is marked as the time when Nebuchodonosor 
 ravaged Arabia. On this Percival remarks, " On 
 pourrait soupgonner que, comme d'autres recits du 
 meme genre, dans lesquels figurent des personnages 
 bibliques, il a ete je ne dis pas forge, mais arrange au 
 temps ou les Arabes ont commence a etudier les livres 
 desJuifs." 1 
 
 I follow Percival in saying that the Arabs have no 
 writing older than the Goran, except some morsels of 
 poetry of date about the birth of Mahomet, and some 
 inscriptions on stones in Yemen, the sense of which has 
 not yet been ascertained. It was some time after Islam 
 that the first attempts were made to give form to the 
 uncertain oral traditions of the people, and the books in 
 which these attempts were made have come down to us 
 only in disorderly fragments. These traditions, or 
 legends, again are often contradictory and usually mixed 
 with fable ; only as one approaches the era of Mahomet, 
 " on voit dans les traditions s'effacer peu a peu la teinte 
 fabuleuse, et apparaitre la caractere historique de plus 
 
 1 Essai sur VHistoire des Arabes avant I'Islamisme, pendant VEpoque de 
 Mahomet, et jusqu'a la Reduction de toutes les Tribus sous la Loi Mussul- 
 mane. Par A. P. Caussin de Percival, Professor d'Arabe au Coll. Koy. 
 de France, etc. Three vols. Paris, 1847-48. Vol. i. p. 31. [This is 
 our chief authority for the history of Arabia before Islam. When the 
 author had, after years of labour, become familiar with all the Oriental 
 MSS. in Paris, he was promoted to the chair of Belles Lettres at Rouen, 
 and so lost to research.] 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 153 
 
 en plus prononce." 1 Notwithstanding this, Percival 
 has taken the trouble to form for us genealogical tables 
 for the people, going back to the earliest times, and I 
 fancy we can see in what he has done the modus 
 operandi of the ancient (honest) fabricators of genea- 
 logies : " Je les [the fables, etc.] ai exposes, en cherchant 
 a les concilier, a les expliquer, ou plutot, j'ai fait un 
 choix de celles qui m'ont paru meriter le plus d'interet." 2 
 It is as if he thought it possible that the genealogies, 
 which exhibit the relations of the various tribes and 
 trace them all back to Adam, might have some founda- 
 tion in the traditions of the people, instead of being 
 borrowed from Hebrew and other sources. As Professor 
 Eobertson Smith has pointed out, on the authority of 
 Noldeke, the Arabs had no such wonderful historical 
 memory, since already by Mahomet's time they had 
 no longer any trustworthy traditions of great nations 
 who flourished after the time of Christ. 3 But indeed 
 Percival himself admits that his materials fail him 
 almost absolutely even in Adnan's line, about 130 B.C. 
 
 I propose first to show the nature of the uncertain- 
 ties surrounding the Arab genealogies, and next to show 
 the numerous traces they contain of descents through 
 women, and generally of female kinship ; and lastly, 
 the strong reasons we have to believe that the Arabs 
 
 1 I.e. vol. i. pp. vi. vii. 
 
 2 Elsewhere, speaking of the tables he formed, he says, " Avec d'aussi 
 faibles elements pour reconstituer, on ne peut aspirer de parvenir a la 
 ve*rite. Peut-etre n'est-il pas impossible d'atteindre a la vraisemblance." 
 
 3 Journal of Philology, vol. ix. p. 80. 
 
154 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 before Islam were in the Totem stage, and the filiation 
 of their groups purely gentile. 
 
 I. A profound uncertainty is admitted to exist as to 
 the pure Arabs, or Sabaeans, the descendants of Joktan, 
 our " information " respecting them consisting only of 
 vague traditions, lists of kings which do not agree with 
 one another, and which present manifest lacunes, and 
 genealogies broken and incredible. 1 We have an 
 example of the uncertainty in the case of Chourahbll. 
 He is " fils d'Amr-Dhou-1-Adhar, ou fils d'Amr, fils de 
 Ghalib, fils de Mentab . . . fils de Sacsac ; ou enfin fils 
 de Malik, fils de Kayyan . . . fils de Himyar." : Here 
 are three choices for his parentage. His name varies 
 like his genealogy. There are in fact four names for 
 him, which it were needless to quote here. A similar 
 uncertainty exists as to the father of Balkis ; there are 
 at least two choices, while they say her mother was 
 not a woman at all, but a being of the order of the 
 genii. 3 As to the Arabs of Ishmael's stock, the irruption 
 of the troops of Nabuchodonosor II. into the Hedjaz 
 again is said to have occurred in the time of Adnan ; 
 but no computation can put the birth of Adnan farther 
 back than 130 B.C., so that the irruption must have 
 taken place, if at all, four centuries before his time. 4 
 One can see that no proper materials exist even for 
 tracing the descent from Adnan. 5 Percival, trying hard 
 
 1 Percival, I.e. vol. i. p. 47. 2 Ibid. p. 74. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 75. 4 Ibid. p. 183. 
 
 5 Percival, p. 185, and see p. 196, vol. i., for proof of uncertainty in 
 this genealogy ; also p. 208, vol. i., for uncertainty in the genealogy of 
 Codhaa ; p. 216 for complete uncertainty as to the origin of the Khozaa ; 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 155 
 
 to make something of his materials, and I think 
 believing in them somewhat, finds himself forced to 
 choose between Ishmael and Maadd, son of Adnan, as to 
 which of them must be relegated to myth. He decides 
 in a way against Ishmael "Dans ces faits doubles, 
 Ismael est sans doute un mythe : Maadd est probable- 
 ment la realite." The "double facts" are products of 
 his own ingenuity, and there is probably as much reason 
 to believe in Maadd as in Ishmael. If the credibility 
 of this genealogy is to depend on the credibility of the 
 main facts related in connection with it, there is 
 an end of it. The stories of the building of the 
 temple at Mecca, and of the visits of Abraham to 
 his son's wives in Arabia somehow Ishmael was 
 always out when his father called belong to a most 
 interesting, though utterly incredible, order of fable. 
 
 II. The number of descents traced through women 
 is great, and can be explained only through the force 
 of some traditions so strong that they could not be 
 resisted. The mothers, moreover, are not only, as in 
 the case of the Berbers, prominent in the genealogies, 
 but they give their names to their lines. 
 
 (a) I take first the case of Chakika. The tradition 
 here might well be strong, for the facts were still 
 
 also p. 228, vol. i., as to the genealogy of Holayl, ancestor of Mahomet. 
 For the easier testing of these uncertainties, of which I shall say little 
 more, I give here the following further references : id. vol. ii. p. 27, 
 Amr's genealogy ; id. vol. ii. p. 54, Neman's ; and see note, vol. ii. p. 74, 
 as to disagreement of authors ; and p. 74 itself for Percival's principles 
 of reconstructing genealogies from his materials ; and see further id. vol. 
 ii. pp. 135, 186, and 267. 
 
156 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 recent when the genealogists set to work. Moundhir 
 III., who flourished 513-562 A.D., is called by Pro- 
 copius, "descendant of Chakika." 1 He is also so de- 
 signated by Theophanes ; and it is admitted, as sure, 
 that this designation was borrowed from the Arabs of 
 the time. Moreover, as Percival tells us, many Eastern 
 historians declare that this Chakika was the head of the 
 house of the Moundhirs ; was the mother of Noman le 
 borgne, the father of Moundhir L, so that all the 
 Moundhirs were " descendants of Chakika." Percival's 
 attempt to set aside this view rests wholly on a conjec- 
 ture of his own, which I shall consider presently. 
 
 (b) Moundhir III. was not only called " descendant 
 of Chakika," but he was also called by Arab historians 
 " son of Ma-essema," after Ma-essema, his mother. To 
 name men of the same name after their mothers might 
 be convenient where they were of the same father 
 (or of fathers of the same name) by different mothers, 
 but there is here obviously something more than that. 
 The Moundhirs are named after their mothers, and 
 grouped as descended from a first mother. The son of 
 Ma-essema is also the " descendant of Chakika." Why 
 not of Noman le borgne ? 
 
 (c) Percival's conjecture, to set aside the conclu- 
 sion that all the Moundhirs were of the issue of 
 Chakika, was that Chakika was the mother of Noman 
 II., and the first wife of Moundhir L, and that this 
 Moundhir also married Hind, daughter of Harith, so 
 that in the princely family there were two lines ; that 
 
 1 Percival, I.e. vol. ii. p. 77. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 157 
 
 of Chakika, mother of Noman II., and that of Hind, 
 mother of Moundhir II. But in another place we find 
 that this Hind was the wife of Moundhir III. (562-574 
 A.D.), and mother of Amr III. 1 Moundhir, son of 
 Ma-essema, left several sons, of whom Amr, the eldest, 
 succeeded to the sovereignty. The Arab authors, it is 
 said, ordinarily call him " son of Hind." It is not 
 conceivable that Hind, wife of Moundhir III., can have 
 been also wife of Moundhir I. and mother of Moundhir 
 II. ; and it is nowhere stated that Moundhir II. was 
 called by the Arabs " son of Hind," as Amr III. was. 
 The conjecture, therefore, on which Percival tries to 
 avoid recognising the race of Chakika seems without 
 foundation. But in considering it we have found another 
 case of a king with a designation taken from his mother. 
 I may as well add here a few other examples of 
 Arabs being called sons of their mothers : 
 
 1. Among the Khazodj, of the branch of Middjar, 
 we find "Auf and Moadh, sons of Afra." Afr& was 
 their mother ; their father's name was Harith. 2 
 
 2. In the pedigree of Amr, son of Colthoum, are 
 given the names both of his mother and grandmother. 
 His mother was Layla, and the mother of Layla was 
 Hind, daughter of Badj. 3 
 
 3. The Benou-Maddjar, a Khazradjite branch, were 
 commanded by an old man called "Amr, son of Zholla." 
 Zholla was his mother ; his father was Mo&ura. 4 
 
 (d) There are some cases of tribes being named 
 
 1 Percival, I.e. vol. ii. p. 115. 2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 2. 
 
 3 Ibid, vol. ii. p. 373. 4 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 655. 
 
158 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y CHAP. 
 
 from women, and they are of date sufficiently recent 
 to have possibly left a trustworthy tradition that they 
 actually occurred. 1 
 
 1. Mention is made of the arrival in the Hejaz of 
 two Arab tribes, "Aus and Khazradj," about 300 B.C. 
 The authors of these families were two brothers. Their 
 mother was Cayla. Aus and Khazradj (the brothers) 
 are often designated Ibna- Cayla, children of Cayla, 
 which denomination extends also to the tribes of 
 which they were fathers. Here though first fathers 
 were found for the tribes, yet the tribes took their 
 name from a first mother, whose place in tradition was 
 too well settled to be disturbed by the genealogists. 
 
 2. The tribe of Mozayna, settled in the Hejaz, are 
 said to be descended from Amr, son of Odd, son of, etc. 
 They were called Mozana, from the name of their 
 grandmother Mozayna, daughter of Kelb, "son of 
 Walra," wife of Odd, and mother of Amr. 2 
 
 3. One of the four Maaddique tribes, named Ad- 
 wan, was so named after Ad wan, wife of Modhar. 3 
 
 4. The Beni Chindif are expressly said to bear the 
 name of their mother, "not mentioning their father 
 Ilyas." 4 
 
 It would be tedious to adduce more of this sort of 
 evidence here. The genealogies abound in indications 
 of the system of female kinship. 5 The position of 
 
 1 Percival, vol. ii. pp. 646-647. 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 527. 
 
 3 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 259. 
 
 4 Abulfeda, p. 196, 1. 4, cited by Professor Eobertson Smith, Journal 
 of Philology, vol. ix. p. 88. 
 
 5 A striking note of this is the frequent appeals for protection, and 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 159 
 
 women is exceedingly high and influential, the position 
 of the maternal uncle resembles that of the mother's 
 brother among the Iroquois or ancient Germans, and 
 tribes are not only named from women, but fre- 
 quently they are governed by them. The details of 
 this evidence must remain over for handling in its 
 proper place, and so must the evidence as to ancient 
 Arab polyandry of both the Nair and Thibetan types. 
 Professor Smith, who has lately been studying this 
 subject, adduces some evidence to show that many 
 centuries after Mahomet polyandry practically survived, 
 "at least in South Arabia, in a grosser form than 
 that described by Strabo." 1 Strabo is an authority 
 for polyandry of the Thibetan type only as occurring 
 in Arabia. Such marriage customs must necessarily 
 have been accompanied at some time by the system of 
 female kinship. It is, of course, needless to say that 
 the polyandry again (and exogamy, which also pre- 
 vailed) had its roots here as elsewhere in systematic 
 female infanticide; and that this savage usage again 
 had its roots in the smaller importance of women in 
 hordes struggling for existence. As Percival puts 
 it, the Arabs were "pousses a cet acte barbare [the 
 slaughter of female children], les uns par la misere 
 qui leur faisait craindre de partager leur nourriture avec 
 un 6tre incapable de les aider; les uns par une fierte 
 
 frequent adjurations in the name of mothers. The student of African 
 tribes knows this as an infallible test of the system of kinship. Where 
 men say, " my mother," instead of " O my father," kinship is invari- 
 ably found to be traced through the mother only. 
 1 Journal of Philology, vol. ix. p. 87. 
 
160 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 feroce et un sentiment exagere de 1'honneur," 1 i.e. the 
 motive to kill their female infants connected itself, on 
 the one hand, with the scarcity of food and the need 
 of warriors, and on the other, with the fear of attacks 
 in which their girls if allowed to live would be cap- 
 tured by other tribes as wives. 
 
 III. I pass now to the subject of totemism among 
 the Arabs. We saw in the case of Greece how the 
 genealogies were truly designed to account for the 
 origin of local tribes and their subdivisions, and the 
 origin of tribes of descent, and of the distribution of 
 the sections of such tribes in different local tribes. We 
 shall find that the same was the purpose on the whole 
 of the Arabian genealogists. They are shown by 
 Sprenger to have ascribed gentile unity to mere 
 [political] confederations. 2 We shall presently see 
 reason to believe that their local tribes, instead of being 
 each composed of the descendants of one man, in which 
 case the tribesmen would be of one stock, were com- 
 posites of various stocks, like the local tribes of the 
 Mohawks or Delawares ; and that the stocks composing 
 such tribes were mostly named after animals, and had 
 been brought into conjunction in the manner I have 
 elsewhere explained 3 by the joint operation of exogamy 
 
 1 See Percival, Lc. vol. i. p. 357, and pp. 373-374 ; and see Ibid. vol. 
 iii. p. 2. In the first oath of Acaba, administered by Mahomet to his 
 disciples, the disciples swore not thereafter to kill their children. 
 
 2 Sprenger I have not seen. The statement is made on Professor 
 Kobertson Smith's authority (Journ. Phil., voL ix. p. 81). 
 
 3 Studies in Ancient History [first series, pp. 60, 128]. 
 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 161 
 
 and the system of female kinship. I had brought 
 together numerous indications of this from the pages 
 of Percival and other writers which seemed conclusive 
 to my mind, though they might appear faint to others, 
 and may, therefore, be omitted here. Since I did so, 
 Professor Smith's paper, to which I have already more 
 than once referred, has been published, and a good 
 commencement made of a research in the Semitic field, 
 which I trust will be followed up. It is only by skilled 
 labour of the sort by many workers in many fields that 
 the truth can be surely ascertained. Professor Smith, 
 premising that a very great number of tribes or families 
 named after animals is to be found among the Arabs, 
 writes as follows: 
 
 "The following examples are gathered from the 
 Lubbu-l-lubab (Suyuti's dictionary of gentile names), 
 and make no pretence to completeness. 
 
 " Asad, lion ; ' a number of tribes/ Aws, wolf ; ' a 
 tribe of the Angar,' or defenders. Badan, ibex ; ' a 
 tribe of the Kalb and others.' Tha'laba, she -fox ; 
 e name of tribes/ Jwrdd, locusts ; ( a sub- tribe of the 
 Tamim/ Beni Hamama, sons of the dove ; ' a sub- 
 tribe of the Azd/ Thawr, bull ; 'a sub-tribe of 
 Hamdan and of 'Abd Manah/ Jahsh, colt of an ass ; 
 ' a sub-tribe of the Arabs/ Hida ', kite; c a sub-tribe 
 of Murad/ Dhib, wolf; c son of c Amr, a sub-tribe of 
 the Azd/ Pubey'a, little hyaena ; ' son of Qays, a sub- 
 tribe of Bekr bin Wail, and Dubey'a bin Kabi'a bin 
 Nizar bin Ma'add.' Dabba, lizard ; ' son of Udd bin 
 
 Tabicha bin Ilyas bin Modar' (eponym of the Ben! 
 
 M 
 
162 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 Dabba or sons of the Lizard). Also the ancestral name 
 of families in Qoreysh and Hudheyl. Dibab, lizards 
 (pi.); 'son of Amir bin Ca^a'a/ Dabab, a subdivision 
 of the Ben! Harith and of the Qoreysh, is perhaps the 
 same thing. 'Oqdb, eagle; ' a sub-tribe of Hadramaut.' 
 'Anz, she-goat; 'son of Wa/il, brother of Bekr.' The 
 tribe of the ' Anaza, whose eponym is represented as the 
 uncle of Wa'il, are probably not different in origin. 
 Ghordb, raven ; ' a sub-tribe of the Fazara.' Qonfudh, 
 hedgehog; 'a sub-tribe of Suleym.' Kalb, dog; 'a 
 sub-tribe of Qoda'a and of the Beni Leyth and of 
 Bajila.' Kuleyb, whelp ; c a sub-tribe of Tamim and 
 of Choza'a and of NachaV Kildb, dogs (pi). Two 
 eponyms of this name are given. The Ben! Kilab, 
 who are Qaysites, are quite distinct from the Kalb, 
 who are Yemenites. Leytli, lion. Two eponyms of 
 this name. The Beni Leyth have been mentioned 
 under Kalb. Yarbu', jerboa; 'a sub-tribe of the 
 Ben! Tamim and of the Hawazin and of the Dhubyan.' 
 Namir, panther ; ' a sub-tribe of Eabfa bin Nizar, and 
 of the Azd, and of Qoda'a.' Anmar, panthers; 'sub- 
 tribes of the Arabs.' Anmar, son of Nizar, is the eponym 
 of a Ma'addite tribe that settled in Yemen. Anmar 
 is also a son of Saba', the eponym of the Sabaeans 
 (Tabarl, i. p. 225, 1. 9). To the same source belong, 
 no doubt, Numara, 'a subdivision of the Lachm and 
 others/ and Nomeyr (little panther) among the 
 Qaysites. 
 
 "In these and numerous other cases the animal 
 name is undisguised. In some cases we find 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 163 
 
 termination dn, which is noteworthy, because the same 
 thing occurs in Hebrew gentilicia. Thus : 
 
 " Zabydn (from ^&> gazelle), a subdivision of the 
 Azd'; 
 
 " Wa'lan (from Jcj ibex), ' a subdivision of Murad '; 
 
 " Labwdn (from x^A lioness), { a subdivision of 
 Ma'aiir.' 
 
 "Finally, I add what seems to be the case of a 
 mongrel. The Arabs have many fables of the Sim' 
 (f<+*), a beast begotten by the hysena on the wolf, 
 and so we find Sim 1 , ' a subdivision of the Defenders 
 (the Medinites).' Here we seem also to have the 
 form in an, for Sam'an is a subdivision of the 
 Tamim." 
 
 I have quoted so far to include all the subdivisions 
 of the Azd for which animal names have been found. 
 This tribe then included doves, wolves, panthers, and 
 gazelles. It also (Journ. Philo., I.e. p. 81) included a 
 tribe of the sun stock ; and a sub-tribe called Ghanm 
 (not translated), but said to be the name of a god. 
 Every sub-tribe, we may be sure, had its own god. 
 Percival (vol. iii. p. 255) mentions Dhou-1-Caffayn as 
 adored by a fraction [sub-tribe] of the Azdites. Were 
 the animals after which so many gentes of the Azd 
 were named their totems or totem gods ? Professor 
 Robertson Smith shows some reasons for believing 
 that they were. The student of primitive races can 
 scarcely doubt it. 1 
 
 1 It will be seen that the Ibex occurs as a tribe [sub-tribe] of the 
 Kalb, i.e. of the Dog tribe. It also occurs in other tribes. This might 
 
1 64 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 The genealogists refer all these names to some 
 ancestor who bore the name ; but Professor Eobertson 
 Smith declares this to be inadmissible, because often 
 the tribal names have a plural form. " Panthers, dogs, 
 lizards are originally the names of tribes, each member 
 of which would call himself a panther, a dog, a lizard. 
 The idea of an ancestor bearing the plural name is 
 plainly artificial, invented in the interests of a 
 system." l 
 
 In one case Professor Eobertson Smith has been 
 able to show the ideas of god, animal, and ancestor 
 all in connection. The Qaysites, or Beni Qays, trace 
 their genealogy to 'AyMn, son of Modar. Qays, it 
 appears, was a god. As to 'Aylan, some say he was 
 son of Modar [as above]. " Others say that 'Aylan 
 was his horse, others that he was his dog." The con- 
 fusion occurs at the link in the genealogy where the 
 ancestor is a god ; and Professor Eobertson Smith 
 suggests that the two-fold animal interpretation of 
 'Aylan must be referred to, there being in the great 
 Qaysite tribes gentes of the horse and dog stocks 
 respectively. The suggestion is ingenious, and most 
 probably correct. Many facts of the same kind must 
 lie, he thinks, behind the genealogies in their present 
 
 seem inconsistent. But in numerous instances Samoa alone furnishes 
 several such instances a local tribe or town is found named after its 
 chief division, the others being named again as of the town, and as if they 
 were divisions of a division. 
 
 1 Of. with the plural names of ancestors in India, ante, p. 130. If 
 what I have there said of the plurality of the ancestors will not hold, we 
 have here an alternative view in favour of the totemism of the Vedic 
 Aryans. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 165 
 
 form. Sprenger (Geog. Ar., p. 225) is said to have 
 shown that Kinda, ancestor of the Kindites whose 
 real name was the Bull is a mythical character. None 
 the less he figured as ancestor of a line of seventy 
 kings, ending in the time of the prophet. 
 
 To sum up, we have now seen that the genealogists 
 of Arabia were entirely without records ; that while 
 they freely pass from son to father up to Noah in the 
 earliest times, they have to contend in the times nearer 
 to them with numerous traditions pointing to women 
 as the heads of families, and to descents traced through 
 mothers ; that there is reason for believing that in the 
 earliest times descents were really so traced among the 
 Arabs ; that their gentes were of the totem type and 
 their local tribes composites of different stocks, not- 
 withstanding which, they assign to them a common 
 father. 
 
 If the Jews preserved their genealogies with great 
 care, how have we two versions of the genealogy of the 
 putative father of Jesus, which differ so much from one 
 another? They disagree as to Joseph's father; as to 
 several of the ancestors ; and even as to the number 
 of the descents (or generations) from Abraham to 
 Joseph. The pedigree in Matthew goes no farther 
 than Abraham ; in Luke it is traced back to Adam. 
 Both declare themselves to be pedigrees of Joseph. 
 
 Adam was "the son of God," according to Luke. 
 But already in Genesis there are what seem to be 
 
166 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 conflicting versions of the origin of men. (1) The 
 earth having, in obedience to command, produced all 
 living things, God next created man "male and 
 female created he them." This account is repeated in 
 Genesis v., "male and female created he them, and 
 called their name Adam, in the day when they were 
 created." (2) God made a man of the dust of the 
 ground, and thereafter, having made the animals, he 
 directed the man to give them names. Then per- 
 ceiving that it was not good for the man to be without 
 a female companion, he threw him into a sleep, and 
 abstracting one of his ribs, made of it a woman. 
 According to the first account there was no bond of 
 blood between the first man and the first woman to 
 prevent their freely intermarrying. According to the 
 second, the woman was " bone of the man's bone and 
 flesh of his flesh." In this there is no hint of exogamy. 
 In several cosmogonies skill is shown in producing the 
 first man and woman so that they should not be so 
 related, or in producing the first children so that 
 they should not be uterine relations. Mr. Cameron, 
 in his excellent work on Our Tropical Possessions 
 in Malayan India (London, 1865), draws attention 
 (p. 113) to one exogamous tribe, who give the follow- 
 ing account of the origin of the race. God having 
 made a man and woman, the woman in time became 
 pregnant, not however in her womb, but in the calves of 
 her legs. "From the right leg was brought forth a 
 male, and from the left a female child. Hence it is 
 that the issue of the same womb cannot intermarry. 
 
jx EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 167 
 
 All mankind are the descendants of the children of 
 the first pair." 
 
 The story of the fall follows. 
 
 The Talmud, which is quite as authentic and credible 
 as Genesis, represents, in agreement with the second of 
 the above accounts of the origin of man, that the first 
 man was for some time without a wife. During that 
 time he suffered much from " succubus," and became 
 the unwitting father of a variety of demons. That is 
 the origin of demons. Next he wedded Lilith, 1 of the 
 serpent stock, whose love " turned into hate " led to the 
 fall; the god of her stock helping to avenge Adam's 
 desertion of her for Eve. That is the origin of the fall. 
 Between Adam and Noah intervene but a few genera- 
 tions of marvellous men, some of whom lived more than 
 nine hundred years. 
 
 The story of the universal deluge follows. God 
 repented of having made men because of their wicked- 
 ness, and determined that life on the earth should be 
 destroyed and recommenced. 
 
 After the deluge God was so gratified with the 
 smell of a sacrifice of animals Noah made to him that 
 he established the rotation of the seasons ; seed-time 
 and harvest ; summer and winter ; and came under a 
 promise not to destroy the world again, placing in the 
 clouds the rainbow in token of that covenant. Thus 
 are explained the origins of the seasons and of the 
 rainbow. A rapid step forward in the narrative, and 
 
 1 Lilith is mentioned in Scripture, but always in our version as the 
 screech-owl. 
 
168 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 we reach the Tower of Babel, the dispersion of man- 
 kind, and confusion of tongues, for till then "the whole 
 earth was of one language." The scattering of men in 
 nations arid the varieties of speech are thus accounted 
 for. Such is the setting in which we find the ancient 
 genealogies of Israel. As a collection of " origins " the 
 narrative is unsurpassed even by the marvellous history 
 of Te-Ika-a-Maui. 
 
 If the reader will look at Arrowsmith's Bible Atlas 
 it is the edition of 1835 I have before me he will 
 see on the first map (right-hand corner) the Eastern 
 Hemisphere with the world as known to the genealogist 
 of Genesis marked upon it in red. The" extent of land 
 is much less than that of Australia, and the larger maps 
 show that even of this skirts or fringes only were 
 known. More striking still is the map of the world, 
 as known to these genealogists, given in Nott and 
 Gliddon's Types of Mankind, p. 552 j 1 where also 
 the ethnological divisions of men in Genesis x. are 
 translated and found to be district and tribal epony- 
 mous names. It is indisputable that this is a true 
 account of that settlement of the world by the families 
 descended from Noah, "according to their tongue and 
 in their nations." Can it be doubted that, had the 
 genealogists known more districts and nations, they 
 would have had to hand the necessary descendants of 
 Noah from whom to name them ? 
 
 It can be shown to a high order of probability that 
 
 1 Philadelphia, 1854. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 169 
 
 the people who had these genealogies had anciently the 
 system of kinship through mothers only, and accordingly 
 could not have had genealogies with descents from father 
 to son. 
 
 (1) There is a suggestion of female kinship in 
 Genesis ii. 24 : " Therefore shall a man leave his 
 father and mother, and cleave unto his wife/' etc. 
 This points to what in Ceylon is called Beena marriage. 
 The man enters the family of the woman instead of the 
 woman entering his family ; and by consequence, the 
 children, where this arrangement prevails, belong to the 
 house and family of their mother. Laban, it will be 
 remembered, claimed his daughter's children as being 
 his : " These daughters are my daughters, and these 
 children are my children," etc. 1 
 
 Abraham's commission to the servant entrusted with 
 procuring a wife for Isaac shows that Beena marriage 
 was then common. The servant asks whether, in the 
 event of the maiden declining to leave her home, he is 
 to conduct Isaac to her, as if it was the most natural 
 and probable thing that she should decline. The 
 negative answer turned on no slight consideration. It 
 was that Isaac's descendants were to inherit Canaan, 
 and that there he must remain. In the course of the 
 
 1 Elsewhere he upbraids Jacob with carrying them off " like captives 
 taken by the sword." This points to some experience of marriage by 
 capture. We shall hereafter see reason to believe that marriage by 
 capture introduced a new idea of marriage, which indeed in time came 
 to be the only idea the word contained. It was that of consortship 
 between husband and wife in the house of the husband or his kindred, 
 with the wife in subjection to the husband instead of the husband being 
 in a way the subject of the wife's father or mother's brother. 
 
i;o STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 negotiation for the marriage, the woman had to be 
 expressly consulted as to whether she would go. 
 
 (2) Numerous marriages mentioned in the Old 
 Testament can only be explained as permissible on 
 the supposition that kinship through women only still 
 regulated the right of intermarriage. 
 
 The first Old Testament facts as to marriage occur 
 in the genealogy of Abraham. No wives are mentioned 
 in the descents from Seth to Noah or from Shem to 
 Terah. And the first marriages we are told of are, as 
 we should say, incestuous. Abraham married Sarai his 
 sister, and Noah married his niece. 
 
 With regard to these marriages, I s have elsewhere 
 expressed the opinion that the women were not 
 relatives in a full legal sense of their husbands. 1 
 Abraham's plea to Abimelech seems to justify this : 
 " And yet indeed she is my sister ; she is the daughter 
 of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and 
 she became my wife." It seems implied that had they 
 been connected through the mother they could not 
 marry. Nahor's case is similar. The niece he married 
 was a brother's daughter. Had she been a uterine 
 sister's child, my plea is he could not have married her. 
 So in the case of Amram, the father of Moses; he 
 married a father's sister, but she was connected with 
 him on the male side only, and therefore not in the full 
 sense a relative. Still later we can see this distinction 
 having effect in the story of Amnon and Tamar. She 
 was his half-sister by the same father, yet they were 
 
 1 Studies in Ancient History [first series, p. 121]. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 171 
 
 marriageable. " Speak to the king ; for he will not 
 withhold me from thee" (2 Sam. xiii. 13). 1 
 
 It would be an answer to this if a marriage between 
 near kindred connected by both father and mother could 
 be adduced. But we have none such. Abraham, in- 
 deed, directs his servant to go to his country and to his 
 kindred and take a wife for Isaac. But ex hypothesi 
 Isaac was not kindred of Abraham, and might marry 
 in Abraham's kindred. Again, suppose Abraham and 
 Nahor to have had the same mother, yet there would 
 not be full kinship between Abraham and Bethuel, for 
 Bethuel would be of Milcah's kindred. We know not 
 who was Bethuel's wife ; but his daughter would be of 
 her mother's kindred as concerned the law of marriage. 
 So as regards Jacob's marriage. We do not know, but 
 we may believe, that Laban was Rebecca's brother 
 uterine ; still as his daughters would be of their 
 mother's stock and not his, Jacob, supposing him of 
 Laban's stock, would be free to marry them. 
 
 (3) The independent indications of female kinship 
 are numerous. 
 
 (a) To any one acquainted with the usages of exist- 
 ing races in the stage of female kinship, one fact alone 
 
 1 Lafitau (Mwurs des Sauvages Ameriquains compares aux Mceurs des 
 Premiers Temps, vol. i. p. 548. Two vols. Paris, 1724) ingeniously 
 suggests that Sarai may have been Abraham's cousin merely. The 
 indications of a system of addresses similar to that prevailing among the 
 Iroquois are indeed numerous, but the plea, as we have it, is in a form to 
 exclude the suggestion. Lafitau very justly infers from the plea that 
 marriages of half-brothers and sisters by the same father were permitted 
 in Egypt. 
 
172 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 would be conclusive. The " price " of Kebecca was 
 paid to her mother and brother. 
 
 (6) The duties of revenge and protection lay with 
 the kindred of the mother. Absalom, having revenged 
 the rape of his uterine sister, fled to the kindred of his 
 mother (2 Sam. iii. 3 ; xiii. 37). See also Judges viii. 
 19, and Genesis* xxxiv., to which Professor Eobertson 
 Smith has called attention. 
 
 It may be thought that these facts may be explained 
 by the polygamous marriages prevalent among the 
 Hebrews, but as I have elsewhere shown, though poly- 
 gamy tends to sustain the system of female kinship, 
 once it has been established, it cannot possibly originate 
 such a system. (See Fortnightly Review, 1877. " Le- 
 virate and Polyandry.") 
 
 (c) We have, I think, an undoubted indication of 
 kinship through women only, as the ancient system of 
 the people, in the institution of the Levirate. On 
 this subject, however, I must beg the reader's attention 
 to an argument. 
 
 Polyandry having been traced, on the testimony oj 
 witnesses, as still existing over a wide area, as having 
 till recently existed in various places from which it has 
 now died out, and as having existed among several of 
 the ancient nations, it became a question whether to 
 regard it as abnormal or as normal in the development 
 of marriage. If the area of its former prevalence could, 
 on any good evidence, be extended much beyond the 
 limits fixed for it on the testimony of witnesses, it 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 173 
 
 would unquestionably have to be regarded as normal, 
 as a form which the marriage systems of the world, 
 speaking broadly, everywhere at some time or other 
 passed through. But where was such evidence to be 
 looked for ? Assuming that polyandry had anywhere 
 prevailed formerly, it seemed to me that we might 
 expect evidence of the fact first, in the local laws of 
 inheritance, and secondly, in the perpetuation of 
 practices and moral sentiments derived from polyandry. 
 And it seemed worth while to consider whether any 
 such evidence was to be found. 
 
 On a discrimination of the cases, existing or recorded, 
 of polyandry, it appeared that it presented itself chiefly 
 under one or other of three forms the Nair, the British, 
 and the Thibetan. In British polyandry a father or 
 fathers and the sons of the house lived in consortship 
 with the same woman. In Nair polyandry the several 
 husbands of a wife are unrelated to one another by 
 blood ; in Thibetan the several husbands are brothers. 
 British polyandry, though common, seemed abnormal ; 
 but on evidence that seemed sufficient, the conclusion 
 was reached that Nair polyandry was a preparation for 
 Thibetan ; Thibetan polyandry an advance from Nair ; 
 and that both these forms might be normal. The 
 inheritance law is the same for both forms, with a 
 difference. In connection with Nair polyandry brothers, 
 speaking broadly, succeed as heirs to one another, and 
 the last surviving brother is succeeded by his sisters' 
 children the succession law proper to the system of 
 female kinship. In connection with Thibetan poly- 
 
174 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 andry brothers succeed as heirs to one another, and the 
 last surviving brother is succeeded by the eldest son of 
 the brotherhood, this son being, like the rest of the 
 children, accounted as in a special sense the son of the 
 eldest brother the rudest form of succession law proper 
 to a system of male kinship. In the special case of a 
 Nair family being decomposed into sub-groups com- 
 posed of a man and his favourite sister and her children, 
 it would seem as if these children alone succeeded to 
 the man's movable estate direct, a fact illustrating the 
 operation of the motives that at a later stage estab- 
 lished the succession of sons to fathers. But in the 
 case of heritable estate, its administration or possession 
 in trust for the family was always among the Nairs in 
 the oldest male of the family. 
 
 Here, then, was a peculiar law of inheritance con- 
 nected with polyandry, brothers succeeding in preference 
 to sons ; and, in connection with Thibetan polyandry, 
 an equally striking fiction by which the eldest brother 
 in a group of brother-husbands was accounted to be, 
 in a special, sense, the father of all the children. The 
 Thibetan inheritance law is, of course, easily intelligible 
 from two points of view. First, the succession of 
 brother to brother originating in the Nair stage, 1 and 
 necessitated by the system of female kinship, would 
 simply, because it was established, long persist in the 
 Thibetan stage ; and, again, were there no other reason 
 
 1 In the Nair stage the right of administration was in the oldest male. 
 His successor was the next oldest ; all of a generation were counted to be 
 brothers, and usually, where daughters had separate houses, the succession 
 would open to the next brother uterine. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 175 
 
 for it, the copartnery of the brothers in marriage would 
 exclude the idea of their children succeeding in prefer- 
 ence to any of them. The fiction which accounted the 
 children as specially belonging to the eldest brother is 
 probably attributable in part to his superior position as 
 ruler of the house and administrator of the family pro- 
 perty, and in part to his being the first to marry and 
 beget children. The name of " father " or protector, 
 unconnected at first with the idea of begetting father, 
 had been taken over from the Nair into the Thibetan 
 family system ; and it is consistent with all the brothers 
 being " fathers " to the children, and the children being 
 to them severally " sons and daughters," that the 
 children, in a special sense, should belong to the eldest 
 brother. 
 
 Could such an inheritance law as we find with poly- 
 andry be derived from any form of the family founded 
 upon monandry ? It seemed indisputable that it could 
 not ; that such a law, wherever found prevailing, must 
 be taken as a proof of the former existence there of 
 polyandry. Accordingly I concluded that wherever the 
 law of inheritance constituted the brothers of a deceased 
 person his heirs in preference to his sons, we had 
 evidence of the former existence of polyandry. 
 
 What, then, of the fiction which made the children 
 to be accounted the children of the eldest brother ? It, 
 of course, at once suggested the Levirate. Was the 
 Levirate to be accounted a remainder of polyandry ? 
 
 There are two main features of the Levirate (1) 
 the obligation laid on a brother to marry the widow 
 
176 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 of an elder brother who has died childless ; (2) the 
 purpose of the obligation, namely, to " raise up seed 
 upon the inheritance " of the deceased brother. Judg- 
 ing by these signs, we infer the existence of the 
 Levirate wherever we know that a man must marry 
 the widow of his next elder brother deceased without 
 issue, and that the children of this marriage are ac- 
 counted the children of the deceased brother. And 
 going on these tests, we find numerous cases of the 
 Levirate. It happens, however, that, except in regard 
 to the two main cases of the Indians and Hebrews, we 
 have not full accounts of the Levirate as an operative 
 law. 
 
 The obligation laid upon brothers by old Hebrew 
 law to marry the widow of a brother deceased without 
 issue is a remarkable exception to the spirit of the 
 Levitical prohibition of marriages between persons 
 related by blood or affinity. The earliest recorded 
 example of it is in the story of Judah and Tamar. 
 Tamar had successively been wife to Er, Judah's eldest 
 son ; and to Onan, who was disinclined to perform the 
 duty of the Levir, as the children he might have by 
 Tamar would be accounted the children of Er. There 
 remained another brother, Shelah, to whom Tamar was 
 entitled as husband, but he was a youth, and for pru- 
 dential reasons his marriage to the widow was post- 
 poned. After a time the widow, who had meanwhile 
 been staying in her father's house, felt aggrieved at this 
 postponement, and planned an incident through which 
 she became the mother of twins to Judah himself. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 177 
 
 Judah, on hearing that she was with child, ordered 
 her to be brought to him to be burned ; but ascertain- 
 ing the true state of the facts, he confessed himself in 
 the wrong. "She hath been more righteous than I, 
 because I gave her not to Shelah my son." The posi- 
 tion of the issue of her connection with Judah is 
 shown by the event. Her son became the head of the 
 family, obviously succeeding in the name of Er. 
 
 Now the story of Tamar connects itself with inherit- 
 ance law only through this fact. The son of the 
 Levirate union succeeded to the inheritance of Er, and 
 cut out Er's brother Shelah from that inheritance ; and 
 he would have done the same thing even had Shelah 
 been his father. For the rest, the story is simply this 
 that the woman having married an eldest son, was in 
 law entitled, so long as she was childless, to have the 
 other brothers of her husband as husbands in succession. 
 The brothers, it may be, were entitled to claim her ; but 
 Onan at least was disinclined to make such a claim. 
 Regarding the duty laid on him as disagreeable, he 
 failed to discharge it ; " and the Lord slew him." It is 
 similarly as a duty that in Deuteronomy xxv. 5, in the 
 case of brethren dwelling together, and one of them 
 dying childless, a brother of the deceased (obviously the 
 next brother) is required to marry her, and " perform 
 the duty of an husband's brother unto her." "And it 
 shall be" says the text, " that the first born which she 
 beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which 
 is dead." Here we have a reference to inheritance, and 
 its meaning is obvious. The child of the Levirate 
 
 N 
 
1 78 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y CHAP. 
 
 marriage succeeded in the name and as the son of the 
 deceased brother to his putative father's property. The 
 Levir gained nothing by the transaction. If by taking 
 the widow he had got the estate and united it to his 
 own, for the benefit of his children at large, he would 
 have gained ; but he did not get the estate. The estate 
 was held apart from his, and lost to his family, through 
 its destination to a child counted the child of his dead 
 brother. His business was merely "to raise up the 
 name of the dead upon his [the dead's] inheritance." In 
 the circumstances, and the Levirate having much about 
 it revolting to sentiments that had grown up with 
 monandry, and which have since destroyed the Levirate, 
 it is no wonder that the law came to provide a process 
 by which the Levir might evade the obligation. At 
 first he had no choice : the woman was his wife de jure 
 and without form of marriage a fact easily compre- 
 hensible if the Levirate had its origin in Thibetan 
 polyandry. Afterwards under the growing influence, 
 no doubt, of ideas of propriety derived from a practice 
 of monandry a formal marriage between the Levir and 
 the widow became indispensable. The case of Kuth 
 and Boaz, I may say, is not, strictly speaking, a case of 
 Levirate at all. "Where a kinsman, other than a brother 
 of the deceased husband, took the widow, he took her 
 not as Levir, but as a Goel, or redeemer of the inherit- 
 ance of the dead ; and there was no law requiring him 
 to marry her as a condition of the redemption, though 
 no doubt he usually did so. At the same time we may 
 see, from the opening chapter of the Book of Ruth 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 179 
 
 (verses 11-13), the position of the Levir. The widow 
 could claim her husband's brother, the Levir, as 
 husband, even were he unborn when she became a 
 widow. 
 
 The Indian case is on " all fours " with the Hebrew. 
 On a man dying childless, the law provided for the 
 begetting on the widow, by his brother, or, in the event 
 of the brother being incapable, by some other relation 
 authorised to act for him, of at least one son. There is 
 no mention of marriage in the Code of Manu as entered 
 into between the Levir and the widow ; and possibly, as 
 in the Hebrew case in the oldest times, the widow was 
 pro re his wife de jure. His relations to her, however, 
 were regulated by both law and religion. " Sprinkled 
 with clarified butter, silent, in the night, let the kins- 
 man thus appointed beget one son, but a second by no 
 means, on the widow or childless wife" (Manu, ix. 60). 
 Here again the duty of the Levir appears pure ; and he 
 took no advantage from its performance, for the law 
 provided as follows : " Should a younger brother have 
 begotten a son on the wife of his deceased elder brother, 
 the division of the estate [the estate, that is, of the 
 father of the two brothers] must then be made equally 
 between that son, who represents the deceased, and his 
 natural father : thus is the law settled." So that the 
 son of the Levirate union carried away the deceased's 
 estate in the name of his putative father from the family 
 and children of his real father. Meantime, and till this 
 heir was born, the estate of the deceased if already 
 there had been a partition made of the father's property 
 
i8o STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 was vested in the widow. (See the Vivada Chinta- 
 manij pp. 261 and 289.) The Levir's obligation, then, 
 appears to have been unconnected either with marrying 
 the widow or inheriting his brother's property. The 
 Levirate was, in fact, a process for cutting off the Levir 
 and his family from the succession. It is needless to 
 say that in the Indian case, as in the Hebrew, the 
 Levirate is seen from the first as in decay under the 
 influence of sentiments growing up with the practice of 
 monandry. Already it had fallen into desuetude among 
 the twice-born classes, and was in use only among the 
 servile classes; but the same text that declares it a 
 practice " fit only for cattle " discloses that, anciently, 
 even the twice-born classes had had the practice. 
 
 The Levirate, as seen in these two cases, is obviously 
 one and the same thing; its effects and intention are 
 the same. By the obligation laid on the next brother, 
 it cuts off that brother and his family, and the brothers 
 generally, from the inheritance of the deceased brother, 
 and gives it to that brother's reputed son. It is an 
 institution, then, which from its nature must have been 
 posterior to the law of succession of sons to fathers 
 being firmly established, so firmly that even a fictitious 
 son was preferred to a real brother. 
 
 In both the Hindu and Hebrew cases there are notes 
 of Thibetan polyandry, and they are the same in both. 
 The appointment of a brother to perform such a duty as 
 the Levir's would be nowise abhorrent to a people who 
 had had recent experience of a practice of Thibetan 
 polyandry ; and moreover, among a people who had had 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 181 
 
 such an experience, it would not be surprising to find 
 the fiction that a child begotten by one brother was 
 truly the child of an elder brother deceased. It will, I 
 think, at least be conceded that the origin of so strange 
 an arrangement must have been the same or similar in 
 the Hebrew case and in the Indian. 
 
 But in the Indian case we can prove, aliunde, the 
 ancient prevalence of Thibetan polyandry. One text in 
 the Code of Manu seems to me conclusive on this point 
 (ix. 182): "If among several brothers of the whole 
 blood, one have a son born, Manu pronounces them all 
 fathers of a male child by means of that son, so that if 
 such nephew would be the heir the uncles have no 
 power to adopt sons." But I shall not dwell on this 
 text, as we have in the case of Draupadi the fact 
 independently proved. 
 
 It is familiar that in the great epic, the Mahabharata, 
 the heroes, the five Pandava princes, had but one wife 
 between them Draupadi. The authorities hold that 
 the Brahmans who compiled this epic from old materials 
 found the tradition of this marriage so strong that they 
 could not suppress it ; and that, since the marriage was 
 repugnant on the whole to Vedic, and altogether to 
 post-Vedic ideas, the story must be referred to the pre- 
 Vedic period. 
 
 The father of Draupadi (as I have said elsewhere) is 
 represented by the compilers of the epic as shocked at 
 the proposal of the princes to marry his daughter. 
 " You who know the law," he is made to say, " must 
 not commit an unlawful act, which is contrary to usage 
 
182 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 and the Vedas." The reply is, "The law, king, is 
 subtle. We do not know its way. We follow the path 
 which has been trodden liy our ancestors in succession." 
 One of the princes then pleads precedent : "In an old 
 tradition it is recorded that Jatila, of the family of 
 Gotama, that most excellent of mortal women, dwelt 
 with seven saints ; and that Varski, the daughter of a 
 Muni, cohabited with ten brothers, all of them called 
 Prachetas, whose souls had been purified by penance." 
 The tradition being too stubborn for the Brahmans, they 
 thus tried as much as they could to palliate it. 
 
 It is a clear tradition of Thibetan polyandry ; 
 it is confirmatory of the supposition s that what seem 
 notes of that kind of marriage found in the Code of 
 Manu are truly notes thereof; and accordingly it serves 
 to show that what seem notes of polyandry in the 
 Levirate in India are truly notes thereof. But having 
 thus connected the Levirate and pre-existing polyandry 
 in India, we cannot refuse to connect the Levirate 
 and pre-existing polyandry among the Hebrews. The 
 general inference, of course, is that the Levirate, wher- 
 ever found, is a remainder of Thibetan polyandry. 1 
 
 The foregoing argument differs from that which I 
 stated in Primitive Marriage fifteen years ago in two 
 particulars only, and neither of them affects its force. 
 I was not aware of what Selden had pointed out, 
 namely, that the author of the Book of Kuth and 
 
 1 Since the above was written, Professor Eobertson Smith has drawn 
 attention to express mention of Hebrew polyandry in the eighth century 
 B.C. : Amos ii. 7. 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 183 
 
 Josephus were both in error in regarding the case of 
 Boaz and Kuth as a case of the Levirate. Accord- 
 ingly, I assumed the Levirate to be the counterpart of 
 a right of succession, an error possible only through 
 inattention to the operation of the law in the un- 
 questionable cases of the Levirate. Owing to this 
 error, again, I connected the Levirate and the law of 
 inheritance preferring brothers to sons, as if they had 
 something more in common than being both of them 
 remainders of polyandry. I may be permitted to say 
 that I do not owe the knowledge of these errors to 
 criticism. 
 
 But if the Levirate is a remainder of Thibetan 
 polyandry, it is at one remove more a remainder of 
 Nair polyandry, and therefore a proof of the ancient 
 prevalence of the system of female kinship among the 
 people. 
 
 I now pass to the evidence of totemism among the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 In the papers I published on totemism in 1869-70, 
 I drew attention to some of this evidence, to which I 
 need not here further refer. 1 The only evidence since 
 brought forward is that adduced by Professor Eobertson 
 Smith. He has found gentes of the Hebrews and their 
 congeners in some number to be named after animals, 
 and in several cases has shown the local tribes to have 
 
 1 "The Worship of Animals and Plants," Fortnightly Review for 
 October and November 1869, and February 1870. [Reprinted at the end 
 of this volume.] 
 
1 84 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 been composites of gentes of different stocks named 
 after animals, which cannot, that I know, be explained 
 independently of totemism, exogamy, and female kin- 
 ship ; and, not to attempt to produce the evidence 
 here, he has drawn special attention, in connection with 
 their totemism, to the singular evidence given by the 
 prophet Ezekiel. 
 
 "Our most definite information as to animal wor- 
 ship in Israel is derived from Ezek. viii. 10, 11. There 
 we find seventy of the elders of Israel that is, the 
 heads of houses worshipping in a chamber which had 
 on its walls the figures of all manner of unclean creep- 
 ing things and quadrupeds, even all "the idols of the 
 house of Israel. ... It appears also, that though the 
 prophet in vision saw the seventy elders together, the 
 actual practice was that each elder had his own chamber 
 of imagery (ver. 12). We have here, in short, an 
 account of gentile or family idolatry, in which the 
 head of each house acted as priest. And the family 
 images which are the object of the cult are those of 
 unclean reptiles and quadrupeds. The last point is 
 important. The word ppoj is, in the Levitical law, the 
 technical term for a creature that must not be used 
 as food. That such prohibitions are associated with 
 the totem system of animal worship is well known. 
 The totem is not eaten by men of its stock, or else is 
 eaten sacramentally on special occasions, while con- 
 versely to eat the totem of an enemy is a laudable 
 exploit. Thus in the fact that the animals worshipped 
 were unclean in the Levitical sense, we gain an ad- 
 
ix EXAMPLES OF FABRICATED GENEALOGIES 185 
 
 ditional argument that the worship was of the totem 
 type. And finally, to clinch the whole matter, we find 
 that among the worshippers Ezekiel recognised Jaaz- 
 aniah the son of Shaphan that is, of the rock badger 
 (E.Y. coney), which is one of the unclean quadrupeds 
 (Deut. xiv. 7 ; Lev. xi. 5), and must therefore have 
 been figured on the wall as his particular stock-god and 
 animal ancestor." 1 
 
 1 Professor Kobertson Smith adds : " It so happens that the totem 
 character of the Shaphan, or, as the Arabs call him, the wabr, is 
 certified by a quite independent piece of testimony. The Arabs of the 
 Sinai peninsula to this day refuse to eat the flesh of the wabr, whom 
 they call ' man's brother,' and suppose to be a human being transformed. 
 . . . The close connection which we have found to exist between Arab 
 tribes and southern Judah, and the identity of so many of the stock- 
 names among the two, give this fact a direct significance." 
 
PART II 
 
 SECTION I 
 
 THE PACIFIC ISLANDS AND AUSTRALIA 
 

CHAPTEE X 
 
 HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK'S ISLANDS 
 
 THE Hervey group, or Cook's Islands, consists of seven 
 inhabited islets, lying between the 19th and 22nd 
 parallels of S. latitude and 157th and 160th of W. 
 longitude: (1) Earotonga, (2) Auau or Mangaia, (3) 
 Aitutaki, (4) Atiu, (5) Mauki, (6) Mitiaro, (7) Manuae. 
 The inhabitants of these islands seem to have direct 
 connections, on the one hand, with the Friendly Isles, 
 the Samoan and the Sandwich group to the west, with 
 the Society Isles to the N.E., and with New Zealand 
 to the S.W. ; and Mr. Gill (p. 166) shows reasons of 
 a philological sort for believing that the first three 
 original tribes of Mangaia came from Hawaii, and that 
 at least one tribe in the same island was of Tongan 
 origin. Many of the myths prevailing in the Hervey 
 group are the same as or mere variants of myths prevail- 
 ing in New Zealand, and several of the leading gods of 
 the Hervey Isles may be traced throughout the whole 
 series of islands mentioned. Our chief information 
 respecting the Hervey group has been drawn from 
 Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, by the Eev. 
 
190 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 W. Wyatt Gill, who was for twenty-two years a mis- 
 sionary in these islands. Little of it is of the nature of 
 direct statement, and the view of Mangaian society 
 which follows may be taken as resulting from the 
 piecing together of statements and allusions scattered 
 through the Myths and Songs. 
 
 As to the structure of Mangaian society for to the 
 people of these islands we shall mainly confine ourselves 
 we learn that the population was under something 
 like kingly government, the authority being invested 
 in the chief of some tribal league that had proved 
 victorious in war. When there was war there was no 
 king, but the leaders of tribes in council on the one 
 side guided their forces against the tribes leagued on 
 the other side. Mr. Gill uses the word tribe in a way 
 to cause very considerable perplexity : sometimes the 
 word clearly means a local tribe, as at p. 290, where 
 the tribe of Tongans included the clans of Teipe and 
 Tongaiti, but usually the word means clan and no more. 
 The tribe of Tane, for instance (p. 175), is called the 
 clan of Tane at p. 278, in which we find the "clan of 
 Tane was cut up by the shark worshippers"; and again 
 we find, "Tiairi is filled with the tribe of Tane"; Mr. 
 Gill explaining in a footnote that Tiairi is a warrior's 
 paradise, "in which the clan of Tane is supposed to 
 have a large share," so that on this page the words clan 
 and tribe, which occur each twice, are clearly inter- 
 changeable. The word family is also sometimes used 
 in a sense broad enough to include clan. 
 
 The family, properly so called, seems to have rested 
 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK^S ISLANDS 191 
 
 on monogamous, possibly occasionally polygamous 
 marriage, but the clan does not appear to have been 
 formed of the members of families definitely according 
 to the law of descent through either males or females. 
 The test of clanship was before everything else religion, 
 the having the same god; and in the devotion of 
 children to the gods, sometimes the god of the father 
 of the child was preferred, and sometimes the god of 
 the mother. Usually, says Mr. Gill, the father had the 
 preference, but occasionally, when the father's family 
 was devoted to furnish sacrifices, the mother would 
 seek to save her child's life by getting it adopted into 
 her own tribe, the name of her own tribal divinity 
 being pronounced over the baby. As a rule, however, 
 the father would stoically pronounce over his child the 
 name of his own god Utakea, Teipe, or Tangiia 
 which would almost certainly ensure its destruction in 
 after years. According to this statement (p. 36), it 
 was a matter of arrangement whether the child should 
 belong to the father's or the mother's clan ; the state- 
 ment implying, as does indeed every hint on the subject 
 scattered through the w^hole Myths and Songs, that the 
 father and the mother were of different clans, and that 
 exogamy was the practice at least, if not the law. An 
 illustration which Mr. Gill gives of the way in which 
 arrangements as to the clan of a child were come to, 
 contradicts his statement that the child belonged to the 
 mother's clan only as a means of saving it from being 
 sacrificed, and shows that the name of the mother's god 
 was sometimes pronounced over the child, even at the 
 
192 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 risk of the child being sacrificed. " A deacon still liv- 
 ing," says Mr. Gill (p. 37), " told me that his god was to 
 have been Teipe, but when half-way to the Marae of that 
 unfortunate god his father resolved to break his promise 
 to his wife, and actually turned back and presented the 
 knife to his own god. ' Had my father not done so, I 
 should long since have been offered in sacrifice.'* It 
 is inconceivable that a mother should desire the child 
 to be of her clan in such a case, except under the force 
 of a feeling which must have been in common action. 
 
 Any way the clan was not composed wholly of 
 persons connected through fathers only or mothers only, 
 like either the patriarchal clan or the totem -clan of 
 Australia or America. Kinship is seen in a state of 
 transition. That it was formerly traced through women 
 only may be believed on all the facts of the case. That 
 it was in the course of becoming a system of male 
 kinship only is equally apparent. At present let us 
 notice that while the blood-bond was in uncertainty, 
 owing to the transitional stage of kinship, the totem, 
 here elevated to the rank of a god, determined all the 
 obligations which we have seen in so many cases were 
 determined by blood simply. Your clansman is your 
 kinsman in what has become an indefinite sort of way 
 owing to the break up of the ancient simple rule of 
 descents. He is your fellow-worshipper, however, and 
 it is as such you are bound to him. "The greatest 
 possible sin in heathenism," says Mr. Gill (p. 38), "was 
 ta atua, i.e. to kill a fellow -worshipper by stealth." 
 " In general it might be done in battle ; otherwise such 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK'S ISLANDS 193 
 
 a blow was regarded as falling upon the god himself 
 the literal sense of ta atua being god-striking or god- 
 killing. Such crimes were generally the consequence of 
 ignorance," and accordingly special arrangements were 
 made for securing that every one should have full know- 
 ledge of his fellow-clansmen. The public naming of 
 the young people was a religious act, superintended by 
 the principal king of Mangaia, assisted by the priest of 
 Motoro, at the shrine of the god to whom the young 
 people belonged. " Namings," which were always 
 followed by feasting, were held at intervals : of course, 
 bringing all of the clan together, they made them 
 acquainted with one another. We shall presently also 
 see that tattoo marks were probably a better safeguard 
 against ignorance than even the "namings." 
 
 It will serve to show the completeness of the bond 
 between the fellow-worshippers that in the Myths and 
 Songs the name of the god is frequently used instead of 
 the name of the clan, as in the Axe dirge " twice has 
 the god Turanga thus served our clan/' "where," as 
 Mr. Gill observes, "the god Turanga is put for the 
 Tonga tribe." It is also worth noting that the bond of 
 common worship which held them together in life still 
 held them united after death. On the mysterious Bua- 
 tree, which rises in the world of spirits to receive the 
 dead, each clan had a special branch reserved for itself, 
 and on to which its members would be doomed to step. 
 The worshippers of Motoro had a branch to themselves ; 
 the worshippers of Tane another ; and there were as 
 many branches as there were principal gods in Mangaia 
 
 o 
 
194 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 one great branch, however, sufficing for the whole 
 batch of the lesser Tanes. 
 
 The facts which suggest that kinship was anciently 
 through women only are not numerous, but are suffi- 
 ciently striking. In the performance of death-dirges the 
 clan of the father of a deceased warrior took precedence 
 of the clan of the mother in performing the eva; but 
 the mother's clan separately performed an eva specially 
 composed for the dead ; and in some evas performed 
 by the father's clan will be found episodes in the history 
 of distinguished members of the mother's clan, as 
 specially connected with the dead, and as specially 
 qualified to stimulate a cry for vengeance (see pp. 274, 
 276). In some cases the dead were buried not with 
 the father's deceased relatives but with the mother's, 
 but whether this was only in cases in which the 
 dead was of the mother's clan does not appear. Eecur- 
 ring to the mythology of the tribes, we find that the 
 three tribes of the Ngariki, literally the royal house, 
 the kingly tribe, represented as being the three original 
 tribes of Mangaia, deduced their descent from a common 
 mother, Tavake, and her three illegitimate sons, Eangi, 
 Mokoiro, Akatauira ; while all the tribes throughout the 
 Hervey group trace their origin back each to one of a 
 series of gods, who were the offspring of Vatea and 
 Papa, and ultimately of a woman of flesh and blood, 
 Vari-mate-takere, or " The Very Beginning.' 7 
 
 We now proceed to consider who were the gods 
 from whom the various clans derived themselves, and 
 through the worship of whom they were as clans con- 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK'S ISLANDS 195 
 
 stituted. The woman Vari having formed from a bit 
 of her right side, which she plucked off, a man Vatea, 
 tore off another bit from the same side, and it became 
 Tinirau. She then formed a third, fourth, and fifth 
 child from her left side, who do not appear to be 
 specially connected with the tribes, and finally a sixth, 
 a girl, who is represented as remaining with her mother. 
 Vatea, her first produced, and the father of gods and 
 men, was half -man and half -fish. The one eye was 
 human, the other a fish eye ; his right side had an arm, 
 the left a fin ; one foot was proper, and the other half a 
 fish-tail the fish incorporated with the human form 
 being a porpoise. His brother Tinirau had also a fish- 
 form, the fish which was compounded, as in the case of 
 Vatea, with his human part being of the sprat kind. 
 As already mentioned, Vatea, marrying Papa or founda- 
 tion (the daughter of Nothing-more and his wife Soft- 
 bodied), begot twin children, Tangaroa and Eongo, then 
 Tongaiti, then Tangiia, and lastly Tanepapakai. It is 
 needless to say that each of these sons of Vatea and 
 Papa represents a clan in Mangaia, and that the story 
 which thus connects them by descent from the common 
 parents is a mere illustration of the kind of fiction by 
 which nations try to establish ties of consanguinity 
 between all their sections. In point of fact, Mr. Gill 
 is probably correct in surmising that the so-called three 
 original tribes, the Ngariki, who claimed to be earth- 
 born and descendants of Eongo, were truly the first 
 inhabitants of Mangaia, and that the tribe of Tongans 
 were the first immigrants reaching the Hervey Isles 
 
196 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 from Tonga, the tribe of Tane coming from Tahiti at a 
 later time. Be this as it may, it would be very curious 
 if there had been in Mangaia or in the Herveys any 
 general agreement as to the genealogy of the tribes 
 deduced from Vatea and Papa. We find there was no 
 such agreement ; one account makes Eongo to be the 
 elder born of the twins, and not Tangaroa. Another 
 account makes Tongaiti to be not the third son of Vatea 
 and Papa, but the husband of Vari. Also Vatea and 
 Tongaiti are found disputing as to the parentage of the 
 firstborn of Papa (see pp. 10 and 45). Thus it will be 
 seen that the tribe of Tongans claimed^ precedence over 
 their hereditary foes, the descendants of Eongo. At 
 Atiu, and also at Eaiata, Eongo was even represented 
 as a son of Tangaroa. The scheme of descents of course 
 covers the Herveys, each god being represented as 
 settling in the island where his clan was strongest. 
 Thus Eongo is said to have settled in Mangaia, and 
 Tangaroa in Earatonga and Aitutaki. 
 
 One or two further observations as to the composi- 
 tion of the clan seem called for before disclosing the 
 nature of the clan-gods. We find in Africa not a 
 few examples of the clan of the children being matter 
 of arrangement between husband and wife, or their 
 relations, before the marriage a common adjustment 
 being that the boys shall belong to the totem of the 
 father, and the girls to the totem of the mother. This 
 arrangement is the same that is so familiar in marriages 
 between Eoman Catholics and Protestants. One can 
 see how, as the religious regard for the totem developed 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK^S ISLANDS 197 
 
 into regular worship with a ritual, the man should 
 desire his children to be all of his own religion, and, the 
 family system permitting it, should even insist on their 
 being so. Thus religion is seen to come in aid of 
 property considerations the desire of a man to find 
 heirs to his wealth in his own house to subvert the 
 system of kinship through females only, and establish 
 exclusively a system of kinship through males. In the 
 dirge of Koroa for a pet-child, given by Mr. Gill (p. 
 215), we find the following : 
 
 Thy god, pet-child, is a bad one. 
 
 Ah ! that god, that bad god ! 
 
 Inexpressibly bad, my child. 
 
 The god Turanga is devouring thee 
 
 Although only partially his own. 
 
 I am disgusted with the god of thy mother. 
 
 One can understand also how, as in the case of the 
 Greeks and the Eomans, and in numerous other cases, 
 on the family system settling to the patriarchal and 
 agnatic type, not only the children should be all of the 
 father's faith, but even their mother should be required 
 on her marriage to forsake the god of her fathers, and 
 accept as her god that of her husband and his family. 
 But what shall we say of a system where religion over- 
 rode other considerations, and the clan of a child was 
 liable to be determined by a predilection of the mother 
 for some one of the more eminent gods, not necessarily 
 her own ? Yet this appears to have been the case 
 among many of the Polynesian tribes. It is not said 
 that it was the case in any tribes of the Hervey group ; 
 
198 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 but the Rev. John Williams (Missionary Enterprises, 
 London, 1840, p. 142 l ) says, in his general account of 
 the religion of the Polynesians, that it was very general. 
 " Many mothers dedicated their children to one of these 
 deities (class deities, such as the god of the fisherman, 
 god of the husbandman, etc.), but principally to Hiero 
 the god of thieves, and to Oro (identified by Mr. Gill with 
 Kongo) the god of war. Most parents, however, were 
 most anxious that their children should become grave 
 and renowned warriors. This appears to have been the 
 very summit of a heathen mother's ambition, and to 
 secure it numerous ceremonies were performed before 
 the child was born, and after its birth it was taken to 
 the Marae and formally dedicated to Oro." It is obvious 
 that a clan based on the notion of its members mainly 
 being fellow-worshippers, and recruited by dedication of 
 children, occasionally on the choice of the mother to her 
 clan-god, occasionally on the choice of the father to his 
 clan-god and occasionally, let us suppose, on the choice 
 of both parents to the god of some clan to which neither 
 of them belonged would more resemble what among 
 Dissenters is known as the congregation than any clan 
 founded upon blood-relationship that we have hitherto 
 had cognisance of. We shall have reason to see that 
 the clans or tribes of the Hervey group maybe suspected 
 to be more or less of this nondescript kind. 
 
 The common mother of all beings, whom for brevity 
 we have called Vari, had no temple (Marae), no worship- 
 
 1 Williams, I.e. p. 146, says infanticide was unknown at the Hervey 
 group or the Samoas. Turner says abortion prevailed at the Samoas. 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK^S ISLANDS 199 
 
 pers, and no clan ; nor had Vatea, half-man, half-porpoise, 
 any Marae or clan. Some of the sons, however, of Vatea 
 had their temples and clans. Eongo had for worshippers 
 the so-called three original tribes who claimed to repre- 
 sent him as descendants of his three illegitimate grand- 
 sons, children born to him by his own daughter, Tavake. 
 Of course this is mere fable, worked into a genealogy 
 to explain some connection of consanguinity acknow- 
 ledged as existing between these three tribes, who had 
 the common name of the Ngariki. The three brothers 
 to whom they trace their descent go in the account for 
 nothing. What we know for certain respecting them, 
 on Mr. Gill's authority, is that the gods they worshipped 
 were Kongo and Motoro. 
 
 It will be remembered that the earlier creations of 
 Vari were not of perfect human form. Mr. Gill says of 
 Tangaroa and Kongo, the first-born twin children of 
 Vatea, " that these boys were the first beings of perfect 
 human form, having no second shape" (p. 10) ; but the 
 correctness of this as to Kongo at least may be doubted. 
 Kongo's special title, and in fact the meaning of his 
 name, is "The Kesounder" (p. 14), and in the Pantheon 
 of Mangaia he had but one representation, and it is con- 
 sistent with this title. " On entering (the god-house of 
 the king) the dwelling-place of the chief divinities of 
 Mangaia, the first idol was Kongo in the form of a 
 trumpet-shell (Triton variegatus) ; " so that the form 
 of the god absolutely answered to his description, and 
 to the fishy character of his ancestry, and of the whole 
 Pantheon, as we shall presently see. Kongo had a large 
 
200 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 stone image in Mangaia, but I can find no account of 
 the shape of it. Three small rocks united at the base 
 close to the Marae of Kongo were the symbols of his 
 reputed grandchildren, the ancestors of the Ngariki. 
 
 2. Tongaiti, reputed the third son of Vatea, was an 
 object of worship in the Hervey group, his visible form 
 being the white-and-black-spotted lizard (p. 10). It 
 was worshipped under the name of Matarau, the sharp- 
 sighted, and had a regular Marae at Taruarua. 
 
 3. There was another lizard god, Teipe, who also had 
 a regular worship. The Teipe clan appears in union 
 with that of the lizard-god, Matarau, as forming to- 
 gether the Tongan tribe. It does not appear in what 
 respect the lizard Teipe differed from the other. In one 
 place (p. 306) the whole of the Teipe clan is represented 
 as being in hiding in time of war with the ancient tribe 
 of the Ngariki, inside a grand and almost inaccessible 
 cave named Erue. 
 
 4. The tribe Amama were worshippers of Tiaio, 
 under the double form of shark and eel. The shark- 
 god, like the lizard, seems to have been the god of more 
 than one clan, unless the different names under which 
 he is referred to are merely various titles of one and the 
 same god. It is interesting to note that Mr. Gill in his 
 introduction states, that a large portion of his work was 
 derived from Tereavai, the last priest of the shark-god 
 Tiaio. 
 
 5. Tuna was the eel-god ; but whether there was an 
 eel-clan is not so clear. We shall consider this matter 
 presently. 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK'S ISLANDS 201 
 
 6. Motoro, called the living -god, was in Mangaia 
 the next most important god to Kongo, and as he and 
 Tiaio both have certain claims to being men-gods, while 
 in connection with the animal forms, it is worth while 
 attending for a moment to their histories. 
 
 Until 1824, Kongo and Motoro were conjointly wor- 
 shipped as the supreme deities of Mangaia. The Ngariki, 
 and the kings, who belonged to their clan, invariably 
 worshipped them ; and all the other clans were con- 
 tinually laid under contributions in that worship, 
 which involved frequent human sacrifice, the victims 
 being chosen from the other clans. The history of 
 Motoro is as follows : Kangi, the eldest of the three 
 grandsons of Kongo, and therefore of the ancestors of 
 the Ngariki, had for his god in the day, Kongo being 
 his god in the night, the god Tane, with whom he was 
 dissatisfied ; and he applied to Tangiia at Karotonga to 
 give him one of his sons as a god. Mr. Gill explains that 
 this Tangiia was a real man who lived some five hundred 
 years ago, and is not to be confounded with the god 
 Tangiia, the fourth son of Vatea. Be that as it may, it 
 appears that no less than three sons of Tangiia of Karo- 
 tonga became gods at Mangaia. We have a brief account 
 of the deification of one of them only, Motoro. Tangiia, 
 on the request of Kangi, sent Motoro to him to be his 
 god, and with him two of his elder brothers as an 
 escort. The elder brothers on the voyage, quarrelling 
 with Motoro, threw him into the sea, where he miserably 
 perished. It was well known, says Mr. Gill (p. 27), 
 that Motoro's body was devoured by sharks, but then it 
 
202 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 was asserted that his spirit floated on a piece of hibiscus 
 (in the native language called Au, whence it is, say the 
 sacred men, that this word came to mean reign or rule), 
 " over the crest of the ocean billows until it reached 
 Mangaia, where it was pleased to inhabit or possess 
 Papaaunuku, and driving him to a frenzy, compelled him 
 to utter his oracles from a foaming mouth." The god 
 thus arrived on a piece of hibiscus at the court of Eangi, 
 was just what that king wanted. The king recognised 
 him at once as his own god, and Papaaunuku and his 
 descendants as his priests. It appears (p. 25) that the 
 name Motoro may have a phallic signification, and we 
 learn from Mr. Gill (p. 33) that phallic worship de- 
 veloped itself in the Hervey group. 
 
 We are brought into contact with the hibiscus again 
 in the story of the deification of Tiaio. Mr. Gill says 
 (p. 29) that Tiaio' s history is well known, and that he 
 was led through pride of successful exploits to defile 
 the favourite haunts of the gods, by wearing some 
 beautiful scarlet hibiscus flowers in his ears. For this 
 he was slain by a blow on the head by Mouna, priest of 
 Tane, the man-eater. " The blood of Tiaio mingled with 
 the waters of the brook running past the Marae of 
 Motoro, and eventually mixed with the ocean. Thence- 
 forth that stream was held to be sacred, and it was 
 fabled that a great fresh-water eel, Tuna, drank up the 
 blood of the murdered king, whose spirit at the same 
 time entered the fish. Tuna made its way to the dark, 
 deep fissure running underneath the rocks into the sea. 
 The indomitable spirit of Tiaio having thus succeeded 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK^S ISLANDS 203 
 
 in reaching the ocean forsook the form of the eel, and 
 took possession of the large white shark, the terror of 
 these islanders. The new divinity had a Marae set 
 apart for his worship, close by the more sacred grove 
 of Motoro, and but a few yards from where he fell by 
 the hand of the jealous priest." 
 
 Now there is abundant evidence in the Myths and 
 Songs of shark worship as widely distributed throughout 
 Polynesia, and of the shark-god pre-existing therefore 
 as a god before this pretence of the spirit in him being 
 that of the man and king Tiaio. The man-god, in 
 short, is the creation of priestcraft and perhaps family 
 affection, and was only possible through conjoining the 
 man-spirit with that of a god already recognised as 
 existing. The same remark applies to the eel, in which 
 Tiaio is represented as having temporarily taken up his 
 residence. The myth of the cocoa-nut tree, as given by 
 Mr. Gill, is proof of this, while it illustrates the fictions 
 through which a fusion of savage deities, and so of clans, 
 was made possible in primitive times. Ina was surprised 
 one day to see an eel she had been looking at assume 
 the appearance of a handsome youth. " I am Tuna-eel, 
 that is, the god and protector of all fresh-water eels. 
 Smitten by your beauty, I left my gloomy home to 
 win your love. Be mine." From that day he was her 
 attached lover as a man, becoming an eel only when he 
 left her ; but an occasion came for their parting for ever. 
 Tuna, foretelling a mighty flood, told Ina that he would 
 visit her in his eel-form at her house, when she was to 
 cut off his head, and bury it at the back of her hut. A 
 
204 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 flood came, and Ina did to Tuna as he had directed ; and 
 from the two halves of the buried head sprung the two 
 principal varieties of the cocoa-nut, which it would 
 surprise no one to find religiously regarded (pp. 77, 78). 
 
 " In the year 1855, at the place indicated in this 
 story, an enormous eel, measuring 7 feet in length, was 
 caught by daylight in a strong fish-net. In heathenism 
 this would have been regarded as a visit of Tiaio, and 
 the dainty morsel allowed to return under rocks un- 
 molested. As it was, it furnished several families with 
 a good supper" (p. 79). From this we make two 
 inferences : (1) that in heathenism the clansmen did 
 not eat their totem in Mangaia, a fact which may 
 be proved independently ; and (2) that the possession 
 of the eel by Tiaio was not, strictly speaking, temporary, 
 but that the promoters of the worship of this man-god 
 maintained that it was truly his spirit that was in both 
 the eel and the shark. 
 
 One word in conclusion : it was from the hibiscus 
 that the inspiration reached the first priest of Motoro, 
 and it would be agreeable with all we know that the 
 hibiscus was a plant god or totem before the thought 
 was formed of displacing the spirit in it by that of a 
 man. 
 
 As illustrating the ancient pre-eminence of women 
 in the Hervey group, it may be noted that Makea, of 
 the family of Karika, king of Earotonga, worshipped a 
 goddess as his special divinity. We also have a note of 
 totemism in the formula contained in the mythical story 
 
x HERVEY GROUP, OR COOK'S ISLANDS 205 
 
 of the submission of Tangiia to Karika. Tangiia, ac- 
 cording to one formula literally, Yours is the long- 
 legged, or man belongs to you made over the political 
 supremacy. According to another formula literally, 
 Yours is the short-legged, or the turtle belongs to you 
 he made over the spiritual supremacy. The turtle, 
 according to Mr. Williams, as the most sacred fish, was 
 considered the emblem of supremacy in religious affairs 
 (Williams, I.e. p. 51). 
 
 Another indication of the position of woman is this. 
 Mr. Williams (I.e. p. 56) points out, that while in the 
 Tahitian and Society groups females had a share of 
 their father's possessions, no share of these went at 
 Rarotonga to the daughters, on the ground, as they 
 alleged, that their person was their portion. Whatever 
 may have been the explanation, there is no doubt that 
 the women of Earotonga were in a position to be fastidi- 
 ous in the choice of husbands, and, as Williams says, 
 however great a man's possessions might be, no woman 
 would have him unless he were personally attractive to 
 her, which shows a marked independence in regard to 
 marriage. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 FIJIAN GROUP 
 
 THIS great group of islands was discovered by Tasman, the 
 Dutch navigator, in 1643, after which they were un visited 
 till Cook's time. It was not till 1806 thai they began to be 
 visited by traders, and the first appearance of the missionaries 
 in the islands was as recent as 1835. The islands have now 
 been annexed to the United Kingdom. The natives were 
 speedily converted first, and slowly extinguished afterwards. 
 Comparatively few of the natives remain, and our chance of 
 knowing well what were their laws and customs is perhaps 
 gone for ever. 
 
 The chief authority on the manners and customs of the 
 Fijians is undoubtedly Mr. Thomas Williams. 1 Mr. Thomas 
 Williams seems to have been a man of more than ordinary 
 intelligence, but absolutely untrained in juridical notions 
 Like other missionaries, too, he employed a very loose ter- 
 minology in describing Fijian society; "tribe" means almost 
 anything in the way of a group, and he has no term for clan. 
 Again, he seems not to have attended to the jus connubii, and 
 found nothing remarkable in it; at any rate he never once 
 
 1 Fiji and the Fijians, edited by George Stringer Rowe. Vol. i. The 
 Islands and their Inhabitants, by Thomas Williams. Vol. ii. Mission His- 
 tory, by James Calvert. London, 1858. There is another edition dated 
 London 1870, "extended with notices of recent events by Sir James 
 Calvert." The references are all to vol. i., except when otherwise men- 
 tioned. 
 
CHAP, xi FIJIAN GROUP 207 
 
 mentions it. It may be, however, that he is not to be charged 
 with this oversight. The history of the book is curious. A 
 missionary, Mr. Calvert, returning to England in 1856, brought 
 with him "a copious manuscript on The Islands and their 
 Inhabitants" which had been prepared with great care and 
 skill " by Mr. Williams, a brother-missionary." The MS. was 
 handed to Mr. George Stringer Eowe, who " re- wrote most of 
 what was supplied to him, he apparently having no special 
 knowledge of the subject." ] So the picture is not at first 
 hand ; it is moreover professedly incomplete. No doubt it is 
 Mr. Eowe who at p. 132 says, " But here, even at the risk of 
 making the picture incomplete, there may not be given a 
 faithful representation" of the licentious sensuality of the 
 Fijians, i.e. practically of the relations of the sexes among 
 them. It is Mr. Eowe as editor who signs the note at p. 214, 
 intimating that "much detail and illustrative incident" fur- 
 nished by Mr. Williams have been omitted. Fortunately this 
 note refers to cannibalism specially, though it is appended to 
 the chapter on manners and customs. We may assume that 
 Mr. Eowe's discretion was exercised throughout to make the 
 book a good readable and saleable record of missionary work. 
 But with what a minute omission might evidence of the highest 
 scientific value disappear. May not even the vague term 
 "tribe," used in all sorts of senses, have been an editorial 
 " neatness " of expression, substituted for clumsier phrases of 
 Mr. Williams struggling to be accurate in his way " with great 
 care and skill " ? However, the MS. has long disappeared, and 
 we must make what we can of the re'chauffe'. One point in its 
 favour is that it belongs to the pre-speculation period, and so 
 far may be trusted. So do our other chief sources of informa- 
 tion as to Fiji Erskine's Pacific (Lond. 1853), and the Narra- 
 tive of the United States Exploring Expedition (Lond. 1845). 
 
 It has been said that Thomas Williams is our chief autho- 
 rity as to Fiji, and that he used a vague terminology. If, then, 
 
 1 Some additions were also made of facts which had " transpired since 
 Mr. Williams gathered and arranged the fruit of his own personal observa- 
 tions and inquiries." 
 
208 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 we would be instructed by him we must reach his meaning by 
 comparing his various statements, and by sifting and analysis 
 of statements where we have no means of reducing them by 
 comparison to their real elements. It is a tedious process for 
 reader and writer alike ; but there is no way of helping it. 
 To condense into a brief statement one's views of what he had 
 really to say without exhibiting the grounds for them, might 
 make one sometimes seem to be flying in the very face of our 
 authority unless, indeed, the reader was to take the trouble 
 involved in examining the evidence for himself. 
 
 There are no fewer than 225 islands and islets in the 
 Fijian group, about 80 of which were inhabited when 
 Williams wrote. Some of these were very small, with but 
 one village and from 50 to 100 inhabitants (p. 5); others 
 larger, with 200 to 400 inhabitants; others again, from 15 
 to 30 miles in circumference, had from 1000 to 7000 in- 
 habitants. Mbau, " a small island scarcely a mile long, joined 
 to the main Viti Levu by a long flat of coral, which 
 at low water is nearly dry and at high water fordable " (p. 5), 
 was when "Williams wrote the chief political power of Fiji. 
 The town covered a great part of the island, and it is noted 
 that its tall temples (so that there were a number) helped to 
 give it a striking appearance. " Its inhabitants comprised 
 natives of Mbau and the Lasakau and Soso tribes of fisher- 
 men " (p. 7). This little island was when Williams wrote the 
 centre of political power in Fiji. As to the larger islands, Mr. 
 Williams estimated that Kandavu had from 10,000 to 13,000 
 inhabitants; Vanua Levu (the great Land) 31,000; Na Viti 
 Levu (the great Fiji) at least 50,000. 
 
 I. TRIBES AND CLANS 
 
 We may omit notice of Williams's speculations as to what 
 the government of Fiji was " before the last hundred years." 
 What it was in his day is described as follows : " There are 
 many independent kings who have been constantly at war with 
 each other ; and intestine broils make up, for the most part, the 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 209 
 
 past history of Fiji. Still, though to a much less extent, civil 
 dissensions abound, and it is not vmcommon for several garrisons 
 on the same island to be fighting against each other. The chiefs 
 have been ever warring among themselves " (p. 18). Here are 
 kings : of what ? Here are chiefs : of what ? 
 
 The kings, of course, had kingdoms. Mbau was the 
 capital of the chief kingdom. 1 There were kingdoms subject 
 to it but only nominally. " The other leading powers (king- 
 doms) were Eewa, Somosomo, Verata, Lakemba, Naitasiri, 
 Mathuata, and Mbua" (p. 20). But what sort of kingdoms 
 were there that so many of them could exist, amongst a total 
 population variously estimated at from 133,000 to 150,000 ? 
 and besides the leading kingdoms above mentioned, there were 
 many smaller ones. In fact a single village might constitute 
 a kingdom (see p. 24), and its headman be called king. 
 
 The kingdoms clearly were only local tribes or village com- 
 munities. 
 
 What, then, were the " tribes " ? This is more puzzling. 
 The puzzle faces one early in the book, and confronts one 
 steadily to its close. Of the small island of Mbau (scarcely a 
 mile long) we are told that "its inhabitants comprise natives 
 of Mbau and the Lasakau and Soso tribes of fishermen." 
 There were therefore two tribes of fishermen. Were the 
 " natives of Mbau " other than the fishermen in tribes also ? 
 At p. 20 we have this information : " The name of the tribe 
 from which the kings of Mbau are taken is Kamba. The four 
 chief personages or families in this state are the Eoko Tui Mbau, 
 the Tuni-tonga, the Vusar-andavi, and the Tui-Kamba." Now 
 Tui means king (see p. 33), and we have here four persons 
 named. They represent families, of which they are chiefs. But 
 one of these families is Kamba, and in the first branch of the 
 statement Kamba is a tribe. Therefore tribe seems to be equi- 
 valent to family, in this statement. But this may be mere matter 
 of style on the part of the editor, and we must not be too sure. 
 
 We soon find reason for hesitation. At p. 3 3 we have the 
 
 following statement : " Tribes, chief families, the houses of 
 
 chiefs and the wives of kings have distinctive appellations, to 
 
 1 Williams, vol. i. p. 105. 
 
 P 
 
2io STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 which great importance is attached." Unfortunately this is 
 not illustrated, except it be counted an illustration that we are 
 told that the hereditary title of the king of Mbau was Vu-ni- 
 valu (the root of war). Had examples in each of the 
 enumerated cases been given, we might have known (what the 
 statement leaves doubtful) whether " tribes/' " chief families," 
 and " the houses of chiefs " were synonyms or different things. 
 But for wives of kings being enumerated in the list, it might 
 be supposed that these terms were here synonymous. 1 
 
 Let us try again. There is to be a great feast, and this is 
 the manner of it : " The food prepared by each tribe and family 
 [of the entertainers] is presented for inspection, and in some 
 cases collected and piled before the house of the king. . . . 
 The food having been divided into as many portions as there 
 are tribes [among the visitors], the tui-nara [a sort of master 
 of the ceremonies], beginning with the first in rank, shouts out 
 'The share of Lakemba,' or whichever [tribe] may take pre- 
 cedence. This is met by a reply from that party, ' Good, 
 good,' or 'Thanks, thanks,' and a number of young men are 
 sent to fetch the allotted portion. The tui-nara goes on calling 
 the names [of the tribes] in succession until his list is ex- 
 hausted. . . . When each tribe has received its share a 
 re-division takes place, answering to the number of its towns ; 
 these again subdivide it among the head families, who in their 
 turn share what they get with their dependants, and these 
 with the individual members of their household, until no one 
 is left without a portion " (p. 148). 
 
 Here as regards the visitors tribe = kingdom = local tribe 
 comprising as many towns or villages ; town or village again 
 appears as comprising and represented by several head families ; 
 while the head families are exhibited to us as having dependants, 
 and these as having households, so that each head family gives 
 
 1 By houses of chiefs, moreover, their dwelling-places may be meant. 
 The name of the house of the king of Somosomo is separately given it 
 was JSTasima. It is stated that the chief wife of that king would have 
 been saluted as the lady from Nasima. The names of one or two oth 
 houses of kings are mentioned in Jackson's narrative appended to Erskin 
 Southern Pacific. 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP in 
 
 us, besides the family of a headman, a series of other families 
 connected with him, using family in the sense of household. 
 As regards the entertainers, it is obvious that tribe is used in 
 a different sense, since it necessarily refers to some portion or 
 subdivision of the local tribe where territory is spoken of as a 
 kingdom. Nevertheless this account of a feast gives us in a 
 rough way (and to a certain extent) the constitution of society 
 among the Fijians. The head family with its dependants 
 formed the unit of this town or village population in general 
 (for possibly one such body sometimes had a town to itself), 
 several head families with their dependent households made up 
 a town or village population, and an aggregation of connected 
 towns made up the kingdom. It cannot be doubted that head 
 families so different from each other were regarded as being of 
 different kinships, and it is at once suggested that each head family 
 and its dependants formed a clan a point upon which no doubt 
 will remain if it appear (as it will do by and by) that there 
 was a religious connection between them. There is nothing to 
 show whether the same families appeared in the several towns 
 of a district, but the chief families spoken of at p. 33 must 
 have been, at any rate, of the same sort as the head families 
 which appeared in each town population; while in Mbau, 
 where a single town covered a great part of the island, the 
 head families of the town are necessarily the same with those 
 which are spoken of (p. 20) as the chief families of the king- 
 dom, and whose headmen or chiefs were its chief personages. 
 
 The kingdom of Lakemba is mentioned in the passage just 
 commented on, and some casual notices in Mr. Calvert's part 
 of the book (for the form of which also Mr. Eowe is responsible) 
 throw further light upon the constitution of the town popula- 
 tions of Lakemba. Of Yaudrana, " the most populous town on 
 Lakemba " (but not the king's town), we are told at one place 
 (vol. ii. p. 117) that " Lua, the head chief of the town, with 
 three other of the principal men [chiefs] and a few others, met 
 in a heathen temple as representatives of the four tribes be- 
 longing to that settlement." It is quite clear that by settlement 
 the town is meant, and that the four tribes spoken of constitute 
 the town population ; so that the head family to which, no 
 
212 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 doubt, the chief or " principal man " belonged, with its depen- 
 dent households, is here spoken of as a tribe, a term which 
 would be strictly correct if they formed a tribe of descent or 
 clan. Again, the king of Lakemba having resolved to turn 
 Christian, to the great delight of the majority of his subjects, 
 " a meeting of the principal chiefs and people [probably of the 
 whole island] was held in the king's house. . . . Among 
 other things it was agreed that the common people [dependent 
 households] should be respectful to their own chiefs and to the 
 king, and that all should be industrious " (vol. ii. p. 139), where 
 again the people appear grouped together as if they were clans 
 under their respective chiefs. The opening of a new chapel in 
 the town of Lakemba, the king's town, celebrated by a gathering 
 of the population, at which Wetasau, a chief of the town and 
 the next in rank to the king, presided, is described further on 
 (vol. ii. p. 149). " In the afternoon we assembled again to 
 receive the contributions of the people, who entered the spacious 
 chapel according to their tribes. The king, leading the way 
 with a few of his principal men, presented his free-will offering 
 and sat down. Then the people, each tribe accompanied by its 
 chief, chanting as they moved slowly onwards, brought their 
 gifts." Here also we have the head family and its dependent 
 household spoken of as a tribe, and we see the tribe acting 
 together in worship under its chief, and offering its gift as a 
 tribe ; so that the population was made up of bodies under 
 chiefs closely united together, which had every appearance of 
 being clans. That they were so will appear more clearly when 
 the religious notions of the people are examined. 
 
 It will be easy for the reader to discover for himself many 
 proofs that such bodies were the units of the town populations, 
 and that the term tribe is applied by Williams equally to them 
 and to the local tribe which, taken together, they constituted ; 
 that is, the whole population which was under the same govern- 
 ment. Where tribe is used by him to denote something more 
 than the former, but less than the latter, the meaning is always 
 uncertain ; but it may mean the aggregate of those bodies con- 
 tained in the several towns of a kingdom, which were united 
 by relationship and worship. In Mr. Calvert's narrative the 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 213 
 
 term appears not to be applied to the whole of a town 
 population. 
 
 II. TOTEMS 
 
 The religions system of the Fijians presents the clearest 
 signs of a totem origin. Most of their gods were, plainly, 
 developed totems. Certain " birds, fish, plants " were supposed 
 to have deities " closely connected with or residing in them " ; 
 one god was " supposed to inhabit the eel, and another the fowl, 
 and so on, until nearly every animal became the shrine of some 
 deity" (pp. 219, 220) ; and while these were real gods, and had 
 temples and priests whom they inspired, through whom they 
 thus communicated with their worshippers and were propitiated 
 with offerings and sacrifices, the " shrine " itself also received 
 worship from the people, the animal which a god inhabited was 
 never eaten by the worshippers of that god, and it comes out 
 casually that some at least of the worshippers regarded them- 
 selves as descended from that animal. It appears, too, that 
 those who worshipped the same god regarded each other as 
 relations, and treated each other accordingly, even when the 
 districts to which they belonged were far apart, and there was 
 scarcely any intercourse between them. There were gods who 
 presided over districts and islands, and gods who presided over 
 tribes and families, " their influence never reaching beyond 
 their own special jurisdiction " ; and while a superiority of rank 
 is claimed for Ndengei, the serpent, each district is said to have, 
 with this exception, contended for the superiority of its own 
 divinity. As each " tribe and family " had its own god, it is 
 clear (though that, indeed, could not have been doubted) that 
 the head families which were found in every town were of 
 different kinships, and that the tribe consisting of a head 
 family and its dependent households had its own god, and 
 therefore that it was a clan, the successor, with such change as 
 time had brought about, change especially in the relation of 
 the chief and his family to their people, of the totem kindred 
 of an earlier period. The higher chiefs claimed almost to be 
 gods ; and it may be that it was for chiefs and their families 
 only that a claim of descent from the totem could be preferred 
 
214 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 in Williams's time. The benignant totem protector of the 
 kindred at any rate appears to have been completely lost sight 
 of. Fijian religion afforded no conception so respectable. We 
 are not told anything definite of the district or island divinities, 
 but it may be believed that the clans of a district, while each 
 holding by its own god, allowed the superiority, or the supremacy, 
 of the god or totem of its ruling clan, which would thus be 
 regarded as presiding over the tribal territory. The same deity 
 was worshipped under different names in different localities, the 
 " shrine," that is, being the same ; the god supposed to inhabit 
 it was variously designated. " At Lakemba," we are told, " Tui 
 Lakemba, and on Vanua Levu Eavuravu, claim the hawk as 
 their abode. Vivia and other gods the shark" (p. 219). Mr. 
 Williams gives casually (p. 21) a curious tradition which 
 shows how a god might continue to be thought of as identified 
 with the animal out of which he had been developed, and as 
 hampered by his animal form. One of the chief gods of Somo- 
 somo was a rat, and he had a good, loud-sounding, man-god 
 name, Ng-gurai. Having resolved to pay a visit to Mbau, 
 Ng-gurai " entered into a rat, took his club [like a man-god], and 
 started " ; but, being a rat, he narrowly escaped devouring by 
 the way, and fared so badly as a rat that, as a result of his 
 adventures, Somosomo became tributary to Mbau. The people 
 could not rid themselves of the impression of his rat nature. 
 In another district tradition makes the rat determine that men 
 should die. " Ea-Vula (the moon) contended that man should 
 be like himself disappear awhile, and then live again. Ea 
 Kalavo (the rat) would not listen to this proposal, but said, 
 'Let man die as a rat dies.' And he prevailed" (p. 205). 
 But Mr. Williams shows us more directly how the animal 
 which was the " shrine " of a god was regarded by his followers. 
 "The land-crab," he tells us (p. 220), "is the representative of 
 Eoko-Suka, one of the gods formerly [i.e. before the conversion 
 to Christianity] worshipped in Tiliva, where land -crabs are 
 rarely seen, so that a visit from one becomes an important 
 matter. Any person who saw one of these creatures, hastened 
 to report to an old man who acted as priest that their god had 
 favoured them with a call. Orders were forthwith given that 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 215 
 
 new nuts should be gathered, and a string of them was formally 
 presented to the crab, to prevent the deity leaving with an 
 impression that he was neglected, and visiting his remiss 
 worshippers with drought, dearth, or death." 3 Similarly in the 
 Hervey group, the appearance of a large eel even in the nets 
 would have been regarded as a visit from the eel-god Tuna, 
 who was a man-god as well as an eel. 
 
 Again : " The heathen sailors are very superstitious. . . . 
 The common tropic bird is the shrine of one of their gods, and 
 the shark of another ; and should the one fly over their heads 
 or the other swim past, those who wore turbans would doff 
 them, and all utter the word of respect. . . . Canoes have been 
 lost because the crew, instead of exerting themselves in a storm, 
 have quitted their posts to soro [i.e. give atoning or propitiatory 
 offerings] to their god"; for example, to the shark, if they 
 happened to see one (p. 89). Not all the divinities were gods, 
 however. In the island of Vatulele the divinity, or one of the 
 chief divinities, was a goddess. 2 Mr. Hunt, we are told (vol. 
 ii. p. 256), went to see the place of her residence with one of 
 the chiefs of the people who worshipped her. " The objects of 
 the superstitious veneration of these poor creatures," he says, 
 " are nothing more than a number of red crustaceous fishes, 
 larger than a shrimp. There is abundance of them in Fiji. 
 . . . The mother of the fish is said to be of immense size, and 
 to reside in a large cave by herself, and her children leave her 
 when called by their name, which in Fijian is Ura." He pro- 
 ceeds to describe the cave and its surroundings, and then bears 
 this testimony to the sincerity of the faith that so amused him : 
 " The chief stood at the mouth of the cave and called with all 
 his might, ' Ura, Ura, come, that the chief from England may 
 
 1 There were no idols. There was nothing for the people to worship 
 except the "shrine" of the god. The god communicated with his people 
 by inspiring the priest, which he did when properly propitiated with 
 sacrifices and gifts. As among peoples merely in the totem stage, " gods 
 are supposed to enter into some men while asleep." 
 
 2 Mr. Williams tells us little about goddesses, but there must have 
 been something to tell ; for he says (p. 110) that "the arithmetical skill 
 of goddesses is an article of Fijian faith." 
 
216 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 see you.' There was no answer, however, and but few of the 
 fish appeared. They took no notice of their worshipper. ... I 
 tried to convince him of the folly of considering such things as 
 these to be gods." 1 
 
 As to the other unmistakable signs of totemism already 
 briefly referred to : 
 
 1. The worshipper of a god was prohibited from eating the 
 species of animal to which the god belonged, or which he 
 inhabited. " He who worships the god dwelling in the eel 
 must never eat of that fish, and thus of the rest ; so that some 
 are tabu from eating human flesh, because the shrine of their 
 god is a man " (p. 220). In this paradise of totems, the men- 
 gods, to rank as gods at all, had to do as the earlier gods did, 
 and to class in all respects with them. The observance of the 
 tabu against human flesh must have been a real trial of faith 
 among a people who relished that food so much. 2 
 
 1 The following is from Jackson's narrative of a residence in Fiji, 
 appended to Erskine's Western Pacific (p. 434) : " One day while I was at 
 a place called Vusaratu, the natives gave me some eels to eat, and asked 
 me if we had any in ' Papalangi ' (white man's country). When I said 
 we had, they asked me if there were any king eels amongst them ; I 
 answered, No ; when they straightway conducted me to a fresh-water hole 
 with a temple erected at one end. In this hole there was an immense- 
 sized eel \ his body at the thickest part was as big round as a stout man's 
 thigh, and his head was enormously large and frightful, but his whole 
 length I could not tell ; they said he was two fathoms long. I inquired 
 the meaning of the temple ; they said it was his, and that he was a kalvu 
 (or spirit). I thought I would prove the veneration they held him in, so 
 I pointed my musket at him and cocked it ; they seemed extremely 
 agitated, and begged me to desist, and then ran off to fetch some cooked 
 breadfruit to propitiate him for the insult offered, which he took from 
 their hands. They told me that he was of great age, and that he had 
 eaten several infants, which they had given him at different times 
 children of prisoners taken in war." The king eel may have been of a 
 different variety from the eels given to Jackson to eat, or these may have 
 been given him by persons who were not worshippers of the eel-god. It 
 will be seen immediately that such worshippers would have been prohibited 
 from eating the eel. 
 
 2 Mr. Williams tells us that besides birds, fish, and plants (he might 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 217 
 
 2. Having the same god implied being of the same stock, 
 i.e. being relations. Several casual proofs of this occur. " It 
 is remarkable that the people of Ono, the most distant island, 
 say that they originally belonged to this locality [place near 
 Na Sava, Vanua Levu] ; and it is still more remarkable that 
 there exists a dialectic similarity between these extremes ; and 
 the inhabitants of each are tauvu, worshippers of the same god, 
 and in virtue of this may take from each other what they like, 
 etc." (pp. 253, 254). Does this suggest an ancient community 
 of property in the clan ? It establishes that relationship was 
 admitted between those who were fellow-worshippers, beyond 
 a doubt. 
 
 Take another case, also quite casually mentioned like the 
 preceding, which is entirely disconnected from Williams's 
 exposition of the social structure and religion of Fiji. It puts 
 the relationship of fellow - worshippers beyond doubt. In 
 Gal vert's Mission History (vol. ii. p. 94) we find the following : 
 " The people of this island (Vanuambalavu) and the Oneatans 
 were related, and had the same gods ; and, therefore, according 
 to Fijian custom, enjoyed the privilege of pilfering each other's 
 goods with impunity." l 
 
 have added animals, since the rat was the shrine of a god), " some men " 
 were supposed to have deities closely connected with or residing in them 
 (p. 2 1 9), but he does not explain or illustrate the statement. But that he 
 did not pretend to have fully mastered the mysteries of the system of faith 
 about him, appears from the following statement : " Some priests are tabu 
 from eating flesh. The priest of Ndau Thina has assured me, that neither 
 he nor those who worshipped his god might eat it, nor might the 
 abomination be brought into the temple. Probably the shrine of Ndau 
 Thina is a man, and hence the prohibition. To the priest of second rank 
 in Somosomo, I know that no greater delicacy could be presented than 
 hashed human flesh " (pp. 231, 232). We are told in another place (p. 218) 
 that Ndau Thina was a god who stole women of rank and beauty by 
 night, or torch-light. It may be taken that he was not one of the totem- 
 gods, and that he was known only by description and as inspiring his 
 priest. 
 
 1 Ratu Nggara, king of Rewa, while at war with Mbau, which had 
 become Christian, being urged to become Christian, refused, saying, " If we 
 
2 1 8 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 3. There remained among the Fijians even a claim of 
 descent from the totem that is, from the " shrine " inhabited 
 by the god whom they followed. Toki, a chief of Ravi-ravi, 
 we are told (p. 123), " used to speak of himself as the offspring 
 of a turtle, regarding all other chiefs as the progeny of inferior 
 fishes," the meaning of which is unmistakable. We are told 
 elsewhere (p. 24) that " in some instances, Fijian monarchs 
 claim a divine origin, and . . . assert the rights of deity, and de- 
 mand from their subjects respect for those claims." This, Mr. 
 Williams adds, "is easily yielded, for the pride of descent 
 which runs so high among the chiefs is equalled by the admira- 
 tion in which their lofty lineage is held by the people, who are 
 its sincere and servile worshippers." Claiming a divine origin 
 is, of course, claiming what Toki claimed, a descent from the 
 totem, and it may be inferred from Toki's words that they all 
 did as much as that. The assertion of the rights of deity is 
 probably what occurred only "in some instances." It may 
 well be, too, that the claim of the chiefs was the more readily 
 allowed because the people claimed descent from the totem for 
 themselves, but as to that there is no evidence. 1 
 
 Mr. Gill got his information as to the gods of the Hervey 
 group from the priest of the shark-god. It is not said who 
 instructed Mr. Williams, but it may be suspected that it was 
 an ex-priest of Ndengei, the serpent, who has supreme rank 
 assigned to him in the theogony as taught to Mr. Williams. 
 As a matter of fact, the serpent whose clan we must suppose 
 
 all lotu [become Christian] we must give up fighting ; as it will not do to 
 pray to the same god and fight witli each other " (vol. ii. pp. 85, 86), which 
 also shows that it was proper for followers of the same god in different 
 districts to be friends with each other, to treat each other as relations and 
 never as enemies. 
 
 The people of Namuka and Mbau also, according to Mr. Seemann 
 (Viti, London, 1862, p. 229), had the same gods, in consequence of which 
 " the people possess mutual rights similar to those of the Yasus, visitors 
 being allowed to take whatever articles they choose." 
 
 1 " When at Lakemba I was told by Moses Vakaloloma that, in their 
 heathen state, they did not address their little ones as children, but would 
 say, ' Come here, you rats ' " (p. 1 7 7). 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 219 
 
 to have been at one time very powerful had when Williams 
 wrote but few worshippers : " Except about Eakiraki he has 
 scarcely a temple " (p. 217). But here is a sample of 
 the boasting of the serpent-priest, inspired by and speaking for 
 his god : " Great Fiji is my small club ; Muaimbila is the head; 
 Kamba is the handle. If I step on Muaimbila I shall sink it 
 into the sea, whilst Kamba shall rise to the sky. If I step on 
 Kamba it will be lost in the sea/' and so on (p. 225). The 
 reader will find, however (p. 231), a suggestion that the chief 
 of the serpent clan had sufficient authority to regulate the 
 worship of the god. Human sacrifices were the delight of 
 Ndengei, and the chief in disgust stopped them. What Mr. 
 Williams has to say of the other gods would certainly not 
 prepare us to find undisputed supremacy allowed to Ndengei. 
 " The rank of the gods below Ndengei," he says, " is not easily 
 ascertained, each district contending for the superiority of its 
 own divinity" (p. 219). " Tokairambe and Tui Lakemba 
 Eandinandina," he adds, "seem to stand next to IsTdengei." 
 Now Tui Lakemba was a hawk-god of Lakemba (p. 219). 
 Did the people of the hawk admit the inferiority of the hawk 
 to the serpent ? One must doubt it much. And would Toki, 
 the Eaviravi chief, who "used to speak of himself as the 
 offspring of a turtle, regarding all other chiefs as the progeny 
 of inferior fishes," have admitted the serpent to be superior to 
 the turtle ? An account of the origin of the human race, given 
 by a chief from the Kauvandra district, assigned a more 
 important part to the hawk than the serpent. The hawk 
 having produced two eggs, Ndengei hatched them, and they 
 yielded two human infants, a boy and a girl (p. 251). Since 
 hatching goes for nothing, mankind is here represented as of the 
 hawk stock. 1 
 
 1 The priesthood was hereditary, but a man who could " shape well " 
 might get himself accepted as the priest of the god by whom he professed 
 to be inspired (who, perhaps, could only be one of the newer non-totem 
 gods). The priest took rank from his god, from the number and power, 
 that is, of the followers of the god. There were priestesses also (it has 
 appeared that there were goddesses), but all we learn of them is that few 
 were of sufficient importance to have a temple. We are told of "strangers" 
 
220 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 We have now seen that the population of Fiji (1) was 
 comprised in local tribes, variously called by Mr. Williams 
 kingdoms and tribes ; (2) that the local tribes were composed 
 of various clans, spoken of sometimes as tribes and sometimes 
 as head or chief families, and their dependents ; (3) that eacl 
 of these clans had its god of the totem type an animal, fish, 
 reptile (but sometimes perhaps a man) ; (4) that the clansmei 
 dared not eat of the animal, etc., which represented their god 
 and (5) that being " fellow- worshippers " meant being clansmei 
 and relatives, and, as appeared in the case of the chief of th( 
 turtle stock, being of the stock of the god. We must 
 
 wishing to consult a god ; and we are told also that, while every island 
 had its own gods, and each locality its own superstitions, " almost every 
 individual had his own modifications of both." It may be believed that 
 there was much disposition to propitiate any god who was reputed power- 
 ful at any rate, when not the god of a particular tribe ; and this indeed 
 was the secret of the conversion of the islanders to Christianity. In their 
 conversion, though the clan seems to have generally followed the chief, 
 individuals did not wait for him. 
 
 The Fijians, we are told, " reverence certain stones as shrines of the 
 gods, and regard some clubs with superstitious respect." Of the clubs we 
 learn nothing further ; the stones were phallic. "We are told that one of 
 them was the abode of a goddess. But possession of them seems some- 
 times to have been contested. A man who was inspired by Tanggirianima 
 said, " I and Kumbunavanua only are gods. I preside over wars, and do 
 as I please with sickness. But it is difficult for me to come here, as the 
 foreign god fills the place. If I attempt to descend by that pillar, I find 
 it preoccupied by the foreign god. If I try another pillar, I find it the 
 same. However, we two are fighting the foreign god ; and, if we are 
 victorious we will save the woman." Who Tanggirianima was does not 
 appear, but the phrase, "a man who was inspired by Tanggirianima," 
 suggests that this person was not one of the hereditary priests, and there- 
 fore his god was not one of the ancient gods. 
 
 Besides the gods proper (Kalou Vu) Mr. Williams says there were 
 deified heroes (Kalou Yalou), into whose number admission was not 
 difficult for any one who found a priest to take him up. 
 
 Of the non-totem gods, one came from the centre of a large stone, and 
 may therefore have been phallic ; another was a giant in human form, 
 sixty feet high ; another was the one-toothed lord, a man with wings. 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 221 
 
 inquire what was the system of kinship, and whether there is 
 reason to think that anciently the Fijians were organised in 
 clans on the totemic principle, such as we find among the 
 Iroquois. 
 
 III. KINSHIP 
 
 The subject of kinship is not touched upon by Mr. 
 Williams. As it is only owing to accidents in his narrative 
 that we know that there were clans in Fiji, it is needless to 
 say we are not told whether a child was held to belong to his 
 father's or his mother's clan, or whether fathers and mothers 
 
 There were also the wooden-handed god ; the eight-armed, the two-bodied, 
 the miracle-spitter ; the leper ; a war-god, "worshipped at Na Vanindoaloa" ; 
 the adulterer, the woman-stealer, the rioter, the brain-eater, the murderer, 
 and " a host besides of the same sort." We have found it stated casually 
 as to one of these gods, that he had a priest and a temple ; and we have 
 just seen that another is mentioned in connection with the pillars (pp. 
 216-227). Two others of the non- totem gods at least are mentioned as 
 having priests and regular worship Nva-Kandiote, the war-god of Na 
 Vanindoaloa (whose priest was entitled to all one-eared pigs born in that 
 district), and Kanusimava (spit-miracles). No doubt they all had. On 
 the occasion of the priests being consulted at Somosomo as to whether the 
 "tribe" should go out to battle, we are told (p. 226) that "a long list of 
 deities " was enumerated by the chief priest, and all the priests who were 
 present shared in the offering more or less. The oracle was propitious, 
 but the priest of the miracle-spitter being dissatisfied with his share a 
 very small one brought out an oracle of his own next morning and 
 stopped the war. We find Thakombau (vol. ii. p. 313) going to consult 
 the priest at his own " small family temple " before going to the chief 
 temple of Mbau for the general consultation. The family priest promised 
 Thakombau the protection of his god, but would not go further. " Yes, 
 you have always protected us," the chief replies ; " that we expect. But 
 now we require the destruction of our enemies." 
 
 Wilkes's United States Exploring Expedition (vol. iii. p. 84) refers to 
 the totem gods as " the tribal gods that have no authority except over the 
 tribe." He calls them " the distant relatives of Ndengei," and says "they 
 are all benignant," as totems ought to be. According to Wilkes (ibid. p. 
 83), some say Ndengei had but one son, Mautu, the bread-fruit ; others 
 say that he had two sons in the form of men. 
 
222 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 were usually of the same or of different clans. If we can 01 
 his testimony learn anything on these subjects it must be 
 argument on, and inference from, casual statements made 
 him on other subjects. 
 
 That kinship had shifted in Fiji from the female to th( 
 male side when Williams wrote, might be confidently inferre< 
 from the terrible prevalence of infanticide chiefly fei 
 infanticide to which he and others bear witness ; a prevalence 
 which, considering the operation of the law of blood-feud, 
 would be absolutely incompatible with the system of kinship 
 through women only. 1 And it is in connection with infanticide 
 that we find the only express statement made by him from 
 which a sure inference as to the system of kinship in Fiji 
 can be made. A reason for killing a child is suggested as 
 follows : " Perhaps the parents belong to two tribes that are at 
 enmity, in which case the mother, rather than multiply the 
 foes of her tribe (clan), will destroy her progeny" (p. 180). 
 This implies that the child belonged to the father's clan, and 
 not to the mother's. 2 But that kinship was formerly counted 
 through women only may be inferred from the following con- 
 siderations : 
 
 (1) " Bank," Williams tells us, " is hereditary, descending 
 through the female " (p. 32). Though this is illustrated and 
 
 1 See ante, p. 85. As to the prevalence of infanticide, this practice, 
 it is stated (pp. 180, 181), seemed to be universal, on Vanua Levu quite a 
 matter of course ; " the extent of infanticide in some parts of this island 
 reaches nearer to two-thirds than half. ... I know of no case after the 
 child is one or two days old ; and all destroyed after birth are females, 
 because tliey are useless in war, or, as some say, because they give so much 
 trouble. But that the former is the prevailing opinion appears from such 
 questions as these put to persons who may plead for the little one's life. 
 * Why live ? will she wield a club, will she poise a spear ? ' When a pro- 
 fessed murderess is not near, the mother does not hesitate to kill her own 
 child." 
 
 2 " It is a common practice to name the first child after the man's 
 father, and the second after the mother's father. In the first case, the 
 friends of the man make the wife a present, and in the other her friends 
 offer the gift to the husband " (p. 176). 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 223 
 
 its origin explained (by the polygamy of the chiefs and the 
 widely different grade of their numerous wives) in reference 
 to the chieftain class only, yet the statement is in the most 
 general terms, and follows immediately the enumeration of the 
 six recognised ranks or classes in Fiji. It is possible, no doubt, 
 to press such a statement too far. But it may, nevertheless, be 
 taken as a note of the system of kinship through women only 
 having formerly prevailed in Fiji, that children should take 
 rank from the mother and not from the father, there being 
 nothing in the marriage system to prevent effect being given to 
 paternity. Polygamy is in the nature of things too rare in 
 any population to be made an explanation of any of its general 
 laws. In Fiji it must have been confined to the chieftain 
 class. 
 
 (2) "When rule is strictly followed/' says Mr. Williams 
 (p. 24), "the successor of a deceased king is his next brother; 
 failing whom his eldest son, or the eldest son of his eldest 
 brother, fills his place. But the rank of mothers and other 
 circumstances often cause a deviation from the rule." 
 
 This will be recognised as the succession law (somewhat 
 imperfectly stated) peculiar to or immediately derivable from 
 the family system as founded on Thibetan polyandry and 
 this may be taken as a further suggestion of the prevalence at 
 one time of the system of female kinship. 1 
 
 (3) This suggestion receives irresistible force from the 
 system of Vasuing which prevailed throughout Fiji. We 
 have accounts of Vasuing from Erskine, Williams, and Wilkes, 
 and they are substantially in agreement. 
 
 " The word [Vasu]," says Williams, " means a nephew or 
 niece, but becomes a title of office in the case of the male, who 
 in some localities has the extraordinary privilege of appropri- 
 ating whatever he chooses, belonging to his uncle or those 
 under his uncle's power. Yasus are of three kinds : the Vasu 
 taukei, the Vasu levu, and the Vasu : the last is a common 
 
 1 At p. 181 we read of a man, whose brother liad died leaving a son 
 and an infant daughter, taking these children as his own, and that the 
 infant might get proper care, arranging with his wife, who was just then 
 confined, to murder their own baby. 
 
224 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 name belonging to any nephew (sister's son) whatever. Vasu 
 taukei is a term applied to any Vasu whose mother is a lady of 
 the land in which he is born. . . . No material difference exists 
 between the power of a Vasu taukei and that of a Vasu levu, 
 which latter title is given to every Vasu born of a woman of 
 rank and having a first-class chief for his father. A Vasu 
 taukei can claim anything belonging to a native of his mother's 
 land, excepting the wives, home, and land of a chief. . . . 
 However high a chief may rank, however powerful a king may 
 be, if he has a nephew [sister's son], he has a master. . . . 
 Kesistance is not thought of, and objection only offered in 
 extreme cases. A striking instance of the power of the Vasu 
 occurred in the case of Thokonauto, a Eewa chief, who during 
 a quarrel with an uncle used the right of Vasu and actually 
 supplied himself with ammunition from his, enemy's stores. . . . 
 Great Vasus are also Vasus to great places, and when they 
 visit them at their superior's (say the king's) command they 
 have a numerous retinue and increased authority." 
 
 After an account of the reception at Somosomo of the Vasu 
 levu (great Vasu) of that district, who was from Mbau, Mr. 
 Williams makes a statement which shows that this right of the 
 sister's son ran against every head of a family. 1 " Descending 
 in the social scale, the Vasu is a hindrance to industry, few 
 being willing to labour unrewarded for another's benefit. One 
 illustration will suffice. An industrious uncle builds a canoe, 
 in which he has not made half a dozen trips when an idle 
 nephew mounts the deck, sounds his trumpet shell, and the 
 blast announces to all within hearing that the canoe has that 
 instant changed masters" (pp. 34-37). 
 
 Here again we may be excused for wishing that we had 
 the very account of Vasuing that Mr. Thomas Williams wrote. 
 What precedes, though seemingly clear and in a literary view 
 excellent, is obviously very incomplete. At what age, and on 
 what conditions, if any, did the nephew acquire his right as 
 Vasu ? The context suggests that the statement is very in- 
 complete. For example, Mr. Williams says elsewhere (pp. 
 201, 202) : "Some women, it is said, submit to be strangled 
 1 Perhaps this was only in some localities. 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 22$ 
 
 [when their husbands die], that they may prove thereby the 
 legitimacy of their children. This particularly refers to such 
 children as are Vasus." And we are told in Erskine's work l 
 (the statement is Jackson's) that a man's right as Vasu was 
 open to doubt until his mother had proved her fidelity as wife 
 by dying with her husband, and would be denied if she failed 
 to do so. It is hard to see any connection between the two 
 things, but so it is stated, and if correctly stated, the rights of 
 a Vasu were not fully acknowledged (though they might be 
 admitted previously) till after the death of a man's father and 
 mother. It is left somewhat uncertain too against whom they 
 lay. Against "a native of his mother's land," says Mr. 
 Williams, speaking specially of the Vasu taukei ; while by his 
 definition of Vasu taukei the mother had to be a lady of the 
 land in which the Vasu was born. Does this limit the rights 
 of the Vasu to the people of the land in which he himself was 
 born ? Were that the whole matter, the right to take the 
 highest case of which Mr. Williams seems to have been think- 
 ing would in effect be a mere anticipation by the heir pre- 
 sumptive of the powers of his father ; for being born in the 
 land of his father, in which his mother by definition was a 
 lady, his rights would lie against his father's subjects. The 
 case of the Mbau chief already mentioned, however, shows us 
 the right exercised by a Vasu levu against a foreign power, 
 and the same thing occurs in all the other concrete examples 
 of Vasuing which are casually given. These occur in Mr. 
 Calvert's part of the work, relating to mission progress. 
 
 The king of Somosomo, for example, had two sons. In dis- 
 cussing the advantages of establishing a mission in Somosomo 
 the following consideration had its weight : 
 
 "The king's territories were very extensive. The [his] 
 two sons were not only of high rank on their father's side, 
 but their mother was a Mbau lady of highest family, which 
 made them Vasus to all the chiefs and dominions of Mbau " 
 (vol. ii. p. 35). 
 
 Here the point is that the mother belonged to the highest 
 family in the land from which she came, not in the land in 
 1 Erskirie's Western Pacific, 1853, p. 448. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 which the Vasu was born, and the Yasu's rights lay against 
 her kindred and their dependents. 
 
 Tanoa, again, was the old king of Mbau, and his son 
 Thakombau was acting king. Thakombau took deep offence 
 on a certain account against Eewa. But Eewa was a power- 
 ful state, and there were reasons for not instantly taking ven- 
 geance. " The mother of the old king of Mbau [Tanoa] was a 
 lady of the highest rank from Eewa, and related to most of 
 the principal chiefs of Eewa. Furthermore, Thakombau's rival 
 brother Eaivalita was a high Vasu to Eewa, his mother being 
 sister to the reigning king [for the same reason Tanoa also was 
 in his time Yasu of Eewa]. He would therefore as a matter 
 of course be favourable to his mother's relatives, since the law 
 of the land permitted him to claim and take their property as 
 he saw fit" (vol. ii. p. 175). 
 
 Here, again, the point is that the mother of the high Vasu 
 must be a lady of the land to which she belonged by birth, 
 and that the Vasu's right lay against her kindred and their 
 dependents. 
 
 The definitions then are totally wanting in clearness. What 
 a Vasu taukei was, is left especially uncertain ; but the 
 examples show, as far as they go, that the great or high Vasu's 
 power was always exercised over a foreign country, and arose 
 out of his mother having come from the ruling family in that 
 country; and this seems at any rate to have been what is 
 most important in Vasuing. 1 The case last cited appears to 
 
 1 Thokonauto, a brother of the chief of Eewa, who has been already 
 mentioned, was Vasu of Mbau, and Wilkes describes his exercise of the 
 right of Vasu against Tanoa, king of that island, when he was the most 
 powerful chief of Fiji. With reference to what follows above it may 
 be said that this Thokonauto sided with the Mbau people (to whom he 
 was Vasu) against Rewa in the war in which the latter kingdom was for a 
 time completely subjugated, and was afterwards set up by them as king 
 of Eewa. While Eaivalita, above mentioned, was Vasu of Eewa, Mara, 
 another of Tanoa's sons, was Vasu of Lakemba, and, according to Jackson 
 (statement appended to Erskine's Western Pacific, p. 458), a third brother, 
 older than Thakombau, was Vasu of Somosomo. All three are styled 
 Vasu levu by Jackson. Who Thakombau's mother was is nowhere men- 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 227 
 
 show that there were duties as well as rights attaching to 
 the Vasu. We read (vol. ii. p. 178) that Eewa was obstinate 
 in the war with Mbau, "resting in hope of assistance from 
 Eaivalita, their Vasu, who had engaged to kill his brother 
 Thakombau on condition that Eewa should become tributary 
 to him on his assuming the government of Mbau." This hope 
 was defeated by Thakombau anticipating his brother and 
 murdering him. And then it was felt that this murder of the 
 Vasu of Eewa would make a reconciliation between the two 
 kingdoms very difficult. The suggestion here is that the 
 murder of Vasu would create a blood-feud between them. 
 
 The view just deduced from Williams is confirmed by 
 what Erskine says of Vasuing, though probably Erskine's state- 
 ment is too narrow in its scope. He says the right of Vasu 
 
 tioned in Fiji and the Fijians, but Jackson says (Lc. p. 458) that 
 Thakombau used to boast that " his mother was the greatest woman, as 
 his father was the greatest man in the greatest place of the Fijis, and 
 belonged to Mbau." He is nowhere spoken of as being a Vasu. Wilkes 
 (United States Exploring Expedition, vol. iii. p. 63), after stating that there 
 are three kinds of Vasus, says that " Vasu Togai " is the highest title, and 
 "is derived from the mother being queen of Ambau [Mbau].' 5 But 
 he speaks of Thokonauto of Eewa, who was the son of Tanoa's sister, and 
 therefore not of a queen of Mbau ; indeed he says she was not even queen 
 of Kewa, but the king's second wife the first wife being a descendant of 
 a family which had previously reigned at Mbau as being Vasu Togai 
 of Mbau. This appears to have been a Mbau term, at any rate. 
 
 Tanoa, as is shown above, was Vasu of Kewa, and after he succeeded 
 his brother at Mbau, he is said to have got into trouble through helping 
 the Rewans. Wilkes (Lc. pp. 63-65) says that the encouragement, and 
 even assistance which he gave them, while the Mbau chiefs were at war 
 with Rewa, caused much discontent among the chiefs, and that when, on 
 a truce being made, he presented the Rewans with a large and much 
 admired canoe, they conspired against and dethroned him. After his 
 restoration, though Mbau and Rewa were frequently at war, "Tanoa 
 takes no part in these contests," Wilkes says, " but when he thinks the 
 belligerents have fought long enough, he sends the Rewa people word to 
 1 come and beg pardon,' after the Feejee custom, which they invariably 
 do, even when they have been victorious." He was near his end when the 
 incidents above spoken of occurred. 
 
228 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 belonged often to sons of female members of a reigning family, 
 even when married to chiefs of dependent states. Such son is 
 nephew or Vasu "to all the members of his mother's tribe/' 
 and as such has certain rights against them (Lc. p. 215). 
 
 Williams seems to have thought the " office " of Yasu an 
 invention of some chiefs to extend their influence (perhaps 
 meaning only that they had adapted the right of the nephew 
 to state purposes), and remarks how often they were "griped" 
 by their own contrivance (p. 35). But this sort of thing is 
 not of the nature of an invention. It is an obvious relic of an 
 earlier social phase. When Williams wrote there were signs 
 on all hands of the decay of the ancient rule of succession 
 which preferred brothers to sons; sons had often succeeded to 
 their fathers, and probably in humble life always did so, the old 
 rule lingering longest about the succession to chieftainries and 
 kinships. 1 But there was a still older succession law than that 
 which preferred brothers to sons, and failing brothers, preferred 
 the eldest son of the eldest brother. That was the law which, 
 failing brothers, preferred the sister's son, and we have in 
 Vasuing an obvious relic of that most ancient of succession 
 laws. 
 
 The curious thing so regarding it, is that the right should 
 lie against the uncle. That it should open against his son 
 would be proper enough. On the failure of brothers the 
 legitimate first heirs to a throne or chieftainry the eldest 
 sister's son was the rightful heir. Over and over we are told 
 by Williams that the kings and chiefs claimed their rank 
 from the gods, and some of them even claimed to rank as gods. 
 Eeligion then would concur with ancient law to point out th( 
 sister's son as de jure the king or chief, and perhaps the god, 
 of her country and clan, whoever might hold the office de 
 facto; and in these circumstances one can imagine a larg< 
 power over the people conceded to the Vasu without disput 
 
 1 "On Yanua Levu, on the announcement of a man's death, th< 
 nearest relatives [of the deceased] rush to the house to appropriate all thej 
 can seize belonging to those who lived there with the deceased " (p. 187] 
 an assertion apparently of the right they would have had under tht 
 earlier succession law. 
 
XI 
 
 FIJIAN GROUP 229 
 
 So also in the case of the sister's son of the humblest person as 
 well as of a chief; the area of power, and materials for using 
 it upon, contracting as the status lowers. As Williams states 
 the matter, however, the right lay against the mother's brother. 
 He never speaks of it as lying against the brother's son after 
 the death of his father ; so that the heir under the old law 
 was allowed to appropriate in his uncle's lifetime what no longer 
 came to him at his uncle's death. 
 
 Erskine limits Vasuing to the case of royal families; 
 and Mr. Williams's description is said to apply, or to apply in 
 its fulness, to some localities only. If it existed generally, as 
 described by Williams, in any locality, no more curious relic of 
 ancient times than Vasuing can well be imagined. 1 
 
 The most limited view of its prevalence is enough to show 
 us clearly that the totem clans of the Fijians were anciently 
 continued through the mother ; while the succession law 
 suffices to prove that they arrived at male kinship through 
 Thibetan polyandry. 
 
 IV. EXOGAMY 
 
 Of the law of intermarriage among the Fijians, not one 
 word is said by Williams, nor by any of our authorities ; and 
 indeed the subject has been commonly passed over by writers 
 about the Polynesians no doubt because until lately its im- 
 portance was not known. The curious failure of Schoolcraft, 
 in his voluminous work upon the tribes of North America, to 
 notice the law which prohibits marriage within the clan, except 
 in a single instance, that, too, mentioned casually in a footnote, 
 warns us that that may happen where exogamy is everywhere 
 prevalent. The fact, nevertheless, leaves us uninformed as to 
 the actual marriage law of the Fijians. But from the structure 
 of their local tribes and the occurrence of the form of capture 
 among them, we may infer with something like confidence that 
 they were anciently exogamous. 
 
 We have seen that the local tribes or nations are composed 
 
 1 Compare with Vasuing the position of the Tammahas in the Tonga 
 Islands, see p. 252. 
 
230 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP 
 
 of clans, and that the clans had their several totems, or toten 
 gods ; we have seen also that the same totem or god wa 
 worshipped in more districts than one. The hawk, we are 
 told, was the " shrine " of a god in Lakemba and also in Yanua 
 Levu, the shark in various districts ; while a god of Mbau (wh< 
 must have been a totem god) is mentioned who was worshippec 
 under another name at Somosomo, and under a third name at 
 several other places. It appears casually, too, that the people 
 of Na Lava, in Vanua Levu, and the people of Ono were 
 worshippers of the same god ; and so also the people of Vanu- 
 amba-lavu and the people of Oneata ; and that accordingly 
 they could treat each other like relations, and that different 
 peoples who had this connection between them were said to be 
 taivou to each other which suggests that the connection of 
 which we hear in a few cases only was no uncommon one. 
 These facts give us an interfusion of totem clans in every 
 district, and the appearance of the same totem clans in various 
 districts. Consistently with this we find that nearly every 
 town or village had one or more temples, and that some had 
 many (p. 221) each clan of the town having its own, no 
 doubt. We find too that in time of war " relatives within a 
 garrison are often bribed to befriend the besiegers by burning 
 the town or opening the gates" (p. 52) a further trace of 
 interfusion, which suggests plainly that the defenders of a 
 besieged place often included some clan which was found also 
 among the besiegers. Of interfusion like this among any 
 people, the joint operation of exogamy and the system of kinship 
 through females only is the sole adequate explanation ; and we 
 may infer from it in this case that when the Fijian totem 
 clans were continued through women, they were exogamous also. 
 Again, marriage commonly followed upon betrothal, 
 marriages of very young girls to elderly men being very 
 frequent (pp. 167, 168). According to Mr. Williams, wives 
 were not got by purchase. And yet women were "treated 
 as a sort of property in which a regular exchange is carried 
 on" (p. 168). On the large island, however, he tells us, "is 
 often found the custom prevalent among savage tribes of 
 seizing upon the woman by apparent or actual force in order 
 
xi FIJIAN GROUP 231 
 
 to make her a wife" (p. 174) which shows that there was 
 on the large islands some observance of the form of capture, 
 as well as some practice of forcible abduction. A practice of 
 capture by the people of a certain district (combined with 
 cannibalism) is also mentioned in Erskine's work. 1 Men get 
 wives by capture only from other clans than their own, and 
 of the association between the idea of capture and marriage 
 which appears in the form of capture, there has never been 
 offered an adequate explanation except that which derives it 
 from a general practice or system of capture in times when 
 friendly contracts could not be made, and exogamy had 
 become the marriage law. 
 
 V. BLOOD-FEUD 
 
 The reader may consult under this head Williams, pp. 
 109, 110, 126, 129, and 186. At pp. 31, 32 he wiU find an 
 account of the institution of Soro (which for all the world 
 answers to the Irish eric) a contrivance, no doubt, for 
 mitigating the effects of revenge among a people by nature 
 terribly revengeful and bloody. At p. 30 he will find distinct 
 indication of the institution in operation in New Zealand under 
 the name of Mum the " taking up of the sticks " of the 
 Cherokees. " Some offences are punished by stripping the 
 house of the culprit. In slight cases much humour is displayed 
 by the spoilers : the sang-froid of the sufferer is an enigma to 
 the Englishman." No doubt the sufferer felt, as the New 
 Zealander did, that the spoilers were only doing what was 
 proper. At p. 32 it is said that the Soro worked badly, 
 many crimes being committed after a calculation balancing 
 the fruit of the crime against the Soro. This reminds one of 
 the Irish chief who, on being told that a sheriff was to be sent 
 to his district, remarked, " Well, you must tell us his eric, that 
 we may know what we shall have to pay when we kill him." 
 
 1 I.e. p. 425, Jackson's narrative. It is stated that the people of 
 Male " commit great depredations on the mainland, taking the women as 
 prisoners and killing the men for food." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SAMOA OR NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS 
 
 THIS group consists of eight principal islands, and is situated 
 between the parallels of 13 and 15 degrees of south latitude, 
 and 168 and 173 degrees west longitude. The inhabitants 
 are of the same race with the New Zealanders, the Kanakas of 
 the Sandwich Islands, the Tongans, and the inhabitants of the 
 Hervey Islands. The largest of the islands are Savaii, Upolu, 
 and Tutuila. These are about 150, 120, and 80 miles 
 respectively in circumference; but Upolu, though second in 
 point of size, is the first in point of importance, being more 
 fertile and more populous than Savaii. The small island of 
 Manono, which lies so close to Upolu as to be virtually a part 
 of it, was one of the most important districts in the group. 
 Scarcely anything was known of Samoa (as the whole group 
 was called by these islanders) until after 1830, in which year 
 the Eev. John Williams of the London Missionary Society paid 
 his first visit to the islands. Mr. Williams has given in his 
 well-known work l a most interesting account of the Samoans. 
 The islands were surveyed in 1839 by the United States 
 Exploring Expedition, and are described at some length by 
 Captain Wilkes in the narrative of that expedition ; ten years 
 later they were visited by Captain Erskine, and some account of 
 them is given in his Journal published in 1853. The work 
 of the Eev. George Turner, published in 186 1, 2 is for the most 
 
 1 A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands. By 
 John Williams. The references which follow are to the edition of 1838. 
 
 2 Nineteen Years in Polynesia. London, 1861. 
 
CHAP, xii THE SAMOA OR NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS 233 
 
 part devoted to Samoa, where from 1843 onwards the author 
 was settled as a missionary of the London Missionary Society. 
 Mr. Williams tells us (p. 542) that the religious system of 
 the Samoans differed essentially from that which obtained at 
 the other Polynesian Islands then known to us. They had 
 "neither maraes, nor temples, nor altars, nor offerings, and 
 consequently none of the barbarous and sanguinary rites, 
 observed at the other groups " " no altars stained with human 
 blood, no maraes strewed with the skulls and bones of numerous 
 victims, no sacred groves devoted to rites of which brutality 
 and sensuality were the most obvious features." l They were 
 accordingly considered an impious race, and their impiety 
 became proverbial with the people of Earotonga; for when 
 upbraiding a person who neglected the worship of the gods 
 they would call him "a godless Samoan." The objects 
 worshipped by the Polynesians, he proceeds, were of three 
 kinds : their deified ancestors, their idols, and their etus. 
 Many of the deified ancestors, as he explains, were not real 
 ancestors, but fabulous persons who were believed to have 
 conferred benefits on mankind, one being worshipped because 
 (p. 544) he, by a most absurd process, "created the sun, moon, 
 and stars " ; and another, the elevator of the heavens, because 
 with the help of a myriad of dragon-flies he severed the 
 heavens from the earth and raised them up ; while " besides 
 this class they had the god of the fishermen, of the husband- 
 men, of the voyager, of the thief, and of the warrior," all of 
 whom were " said to have been men who were deified on 
 account of their eminence in such avocations." 2 The idols, 
 
 1 Turner, however, speaks of temples and priests in Samoa, but it 
 appears from his account that the temples were nothing but the family 
 house " where they were all assembled," and that the person officiating as 
 high priest was the father of the family. The god often spoke through 
 the mouth of the father, or some other member of the family, telling 
 them what to do (p. 239). 
 
 2 "Men had but one pair of primitive ancestors," viz. Rangi and 
 Papa, or heaven and earth ; and by these were begotten the heads (each 
 called god and father) of the different families of living things. Thus 
 Tangaroa (Samoan Tangaloa) was the god and father of fish and reptiles. 
 
234 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 again, were not so much gods as god-boxes for making the 
 deities portable ; they were different in almost every island 
 and district ; Mr. Williams had seen no two precisely similar 
 representations of the same deity, except those placed on the 
 fishing canoes (p. 546). The etu "was some species of bird, 
 fish, or reptile in which the spirit of the god was supposed to 
 reside" (p. 436). In so far as it was worshipped there was 
 no need of any idol. And it was through their worship of 
 the etu that the religion of the Samoans differed so materially 
 from that of the other islanders known to Williams. This 
 form of idolatry prevailed much more at the Samoas than at 
 any other islands. Here innumerable objects were regarded 
 as etus, and some of them were exceedingly mean. It was by 
 no means uncommon to see an intelligent chief muttering some 
 prayer to a fly, an ant, or a lizard which happened to alight or 
 crawl in his presence (p. 547). Mr. Williams says that, "in 
 addition to these objects of adoration, the Samoans, like the 
 islanders generally, had a vague idea of a supreme being whom 
 they regarded as the creator of all things, and the author of 
 their mercies." They called him Tangaloa. Mr. Williams 
 was informed that at their great feasts, prior to the distribution 
 of the food, an orator arose and, after enumerating each article, 
 exclaimed, " Thank you, great Tangaloa, for this." But he does 
 not seem to have known whether Tangaloa was otherwise 
 worshipped. That the etu was truly a totem god appears 
 clearly from incidents narrated by him. 
 
 In general, on the natives of any island renouncing their 
 paganism, they gave proof of the sincerity of their conversion 
 by surrendering their idols to be burnt, or otherwise destroyed, 
 or to be conveyed to England. In Samoa, " as the people 
 generally have no idols to destroy," some other proof had t( 
 be given, and what was the proper substitute appeared as sooi 
 as a single convert had been made. It consisted in the 
 convert eating his etu that is, one of the species to which 
 the etu belonged an act regarded as one of absolute dese- 
 
 See Grey's Polynesian Mythology , pp. 1-15. "Tangaroa signifies fish 
 every kind " (p. 1 2). 
 
xii THE SAMOA OR NAVIGATORS^ ISLANDS 235 
 
 cration. A chief, who had resolved to become a Christian, 
 first returned to his district and held a consultation with his 
 people; and then invited the teachers to be present at his 
 renunciation of his former worship. " On their arrival they 
 found a large concourse of people, and after the usual saluta- 
 tions the chief inquired if they had brought with them a 
 fish-spear. They asked why he wanted that, when he replied 
 that his etu was an eel, and that he wished one to be caught 
 that he might eat it, in order to convince all of his sincerity. 
 An eel was therefore caught, and being cooked was eaten by 
 many who had formerly regarded it as their etu" (p. 437). 
 The eel, therefore, was the etu of many in the district besides 
 the chief. This was repeated when, Malietoa, a distinguished 
 chief and titular king of Savaii, having been converted, his 
 son resolved to follow him, and " not only his relatives, but 
 nearly all his people abandoned their heathen worship " ; and 
 it was thenceforth the sign of conversion throughout Samoa 
 the liberty of eating the etu, indeed, becoming (as Mr. Turner 
 tells us) a strong motive for becoming Christian as soon as 
 the people found that the desecration of the etu was followed 
 by no bad consequences. " The etu of Malietoa's sons was a 
 fish called Anae ; and on the day appointed a large number 
 of friends and relatives were invited to partake of the feast. 
 A number of Anae having been dressed and laid upon newly- 
 plucked leaves, the party seated themselves around them, 
 while one of the teachers implored a blessing. A portion of 
 the etu was then placed before each individual, and with 
 trembling hearts they proceeded to devour the sacred morsel. 
 The superstitious fears of the young men were so powerfully 
 excited lest the etu should gnaw their vitals and cause death, 
 that they immediately retired from the feast and drank a 
 large dose of cocoa-nut oil and salt water." The onlookers 
 expected "that the daring innovators would have swollen, or 
 fallen down dead suddenly" (p. 438). It appears that the 
 etu so eaten was not the god of an individual, but of a family, 
 and that it was the god of many outside relatives of the family 
 as well; also that the consequences expected to follow upon 
 those who had been worshippers eating it were those which 
 
236 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 would have been expected to follow upon the eating of the 
 totem by one of the totem kindred. 
 
 Mr. Williams goes on to tell how Papo, a god of war, 
 represented by " a piece of rotten old matting," which was 
 regarded with great veneration, was soon after sentenced to 
 drowning, and thereafter handed over to the teachers. But 
 he says nothing further about Papo. He was aware that, just 
 before his arrival in Samoa, the chief called Tainafaingo was 
 believed to have the spirit of a god residing in him, was 
 actually worshipped as if he were a god, and had in con- 
 sequence become all-powerful throughout the islands; and 
 that, as he grossly abused his powers, the people of Aana 
 killed him. But he does not dwell upon the peculiarity 
 involved in the case of Tamafaingo. From Captain Wilkes 
 we learn that the god who was believed to ^reside in this chief 
 was a war-god of the same name, and that there had been two 
 successive Tamafaingos (United States Exploring Expedition, 
 vol. ii. p. 107). Mr. Williams mentions by the way that 
 vampire bats abound in Samoa, while they are unknown at 
 the islands to the eastward of Samoa, except Mangaia, where 
 also they are numerous ; and that the Samoans venerated 
 them as etus (and therefore did not eat them), while the 
 Savage islanders not far off consider them a great delicacy 
 (p. 499). Turtle, he says, were far more numerous at the 
 Samoas than at Tahiti or the Hervey group ; but the Samoans 
 used them, while " the turtle was considered most sacred by 
 the Rarotongans and the Tahitians" (p. 502). 
 
 That the etu was a totem also appears from the little 
 Captain Wilkes has to tell us about it. A chief of Tutuila 
 told him that his etu had been fresh-water eels, and that 
 these he used constantly to feed in former days in the brook 
 near his village; and that then if any one had touched, 
 disturbed, or attempted to catch one, he would have killed 
 him immediately. Having turned Christian he had himself 
 taken to eating them, and all of them had been caught and 
 destroyed (I.e. p. 77). They all, this chief said, had had their 
 etus, and had felt themselves obliged to do everything the etu 
 commanded (of which by and by). Captain Wilkes mentions 
 
 
xii THE SAMOA OR NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS 237 
 
 a lake in Savaii which was believed to be inhabited by spirits 
 in the form of eels, which were worshipped, and a cave sacred 
 to the god " Moso " (who, from what is stated, may have been 
 a swallow). He found that the pigeon was considered sacred 
 and was not eaten, and that in one district (apparently Aana) 
 to kill a king pigeon was thought as great a crime as taking 
 the life of a man (I.e. p. 122). The people of Aana justified 
 their regard for the pigeon by affirming that when they were 
 driven from their homes eight years before the pigeons also 
 abandoned the district, returning afterwards when they had 
 returned. Consistently with this, he tells us that there were 
 many gods of the etu kind, who watched over particular 
 districts. He mentions besides three war-gods (one of them 
 Tamafaingo, another a goddess), and also, besides Tangaloa 
 (who was less worshipped, he says, than the war-gods), a god 
 of earthquakes, a god who supports the earth, and gods of 
 lightning, rain, whirlwind, etc., who were supposed to live in 
 an island to the westward, the quarter from which their bad 
 weather came. Like Williams, he thinks that Tangaloa was 
 a supreme god, though not much worshipped; but in the 
 account given him of the creation he found that Tangaloa 
 worked under the guidance of his daughter Tuli, a snipe, through 
 whose instrumentality it was that worms became men and 
 women (p. 182). 
 
 Turner confirms the evidence of Williams, saying that the 
 dog, some birds, and fishes were sacred to particular deities, 
 and might not be eaten. Thus a man would not eat a fish 
 which was supposed to be under the care and protection of 
 his household god, but would eat without scruple fish sacred to 
 the gods of other families (p. 196). Besides his family god, 
 every Samoan individually was supposed to be taken at birth 
 under the protection of some tutelary god. Every village had 
 its god, which was not the same as the household god, but 
 had some particular incarnation, just as the household god 
 had, appearing as a bat or a worm or an owl (p. 238, etc.) 
 
 The people were made Christians by Mr. Williams and 
 others fifty years or so ago, but no one will be surprised to 
 find most of the ancient superstitions and customs in force. 
 
238 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 A correspondent of Mr. A. Lang furnished in 1874 some 
 curious information concerning the Samoans. He had diffi- 
 culty in finding out the real nature of their ways and beliefs, 
 partly through imperfect acquaintance with the language, and 
 partly through the variety of their dialects. He says he was 
 much as a very deaf and rather dumb stranger in England, 
 collecting information, would be. What he learned would be 
 subject to numerous qualifications which he would miss, and 
 he would lose all the finer touches. Mr. Lang's correspondent 
 had long searched in vain for any trace of totemism in the 
 Samoans. He says, " I had given up the idea as almost 
 impossible In an island where so few animals exist ; however, 
 one day while talking with two natives, Charlie and Jericho, 
 a half-caste boy brought me a lizard cut in two with a spade, 
 to put in spirits of wine; to my surprise, ^Charlie ran hastily 
 up, took the creature, and in a reproachful tone asked the boy 
 why he had killed it. 'Do you not know that he is my 
 father ? ' ! After this Mr. Lang's friend found many traces of 
 totemism, including the belief that if they were to eat the 
 totem they would surely break out into sores, and the fact 
 that the commands of the totem are given to them in dream. 
 " Their belief in dreams is extraordinary ; dream is as real to 
 them as waking life." 
 
 Marriage. Williams mentions it as a remarkable fact, 
 distinguishing these islanders from all the others, that with 
 them marriage is by purchase (I.e. pp. 91 and 140). "One 
 young woman was introduced to me for whom her husband 
 gave the amazing price of upwards of 200 pigs, besides a 
 quantity of siapo, or native cloth." Turner (p. 185) tells us that 
 the consent of the father or brother had to be asked, the woman's 
 consent being secondary, but that an elopement might take 
 place if there was any probability of a refusal on the part of 
 the lady's relations (p. 188). Marriage by capture also occurs, 
 but the notion of marriage is developed beyond the point where 
 possession by capture makes marriage. Williams (p. 114) 
 cites the case of the daughter of a chief being captured by 
 another chief in war, and declining to become his wife ; where- 
 upon he slew her to prevent her becoming the wife of any one 
 
xii THE SAMOA OR NAVIGATORS* ISLANDS 239 
 
 else in his tribe. The lady was the favourite daughter of 
 Malietoa. Her captor, Tangaloa, "Williams says, wished her, 
 the captive, to become his wife, but to this she would not 
 consent ; and it was also opposed by his own people, who said 
 it was a base thing in him to take by force the daughter of so 
 great a chieftain. This, of course, led to a terrible revenge ; 
 the clansmen of the murderer even protesting against the act 
 of their chief, that capture was not the legitimate mode of 
 obtaining a wife of such distinction which intimates an 
 approval of capture as a mode of wiving for the poorer sort. 
 In dividing the spoil of a conquered people, the women were 
 not killed, but taken as wives (Turner, p. 320). Both forms 
 of marriage, that by purchase and that by capture, point to 
 the parties belonging to different kindreds, if not clans. Mr. 
 Williams (p. 91) says that when a sufficient price had been 
 paid to the relatives of the lady, she seldom refused to marry 
 the man; and (p. 92) that the law was, that if the new wife 
 could run away home, her lord would have to repurchase her. 
 
 Stronger evidence is forthcoming from Turner (p. 185), 
 who says that care was taken to prevent the marriage of near 
 relatives. As to kinship, it seems latterly to have been well 
 settled that there was succession of sons to fathers at least in 
 chieftainries. Anciently, however, the succession must have 
 been universally according to the system of kinship through 
 females only ; for we learn from Dr. Litton Forbes l that the 
 inheritance to land is according to the system of kinship through 
 females only. 
 
 Polygamy occurs, modified by a rule, which is said to work 
 well, of giving each wife supremacy for three days in turn. The 
 brother of a deceased husband took his widow (Turner, p. 189). 
 
 Village Communities. Turner says that in Samoa there 
 are village communities of from 200 to 500 people, which 
 consider themselves perfectly distinct from each other, and 
 act as they please on their own ground and in their own 
 affairs. Eight or ten of these unite by consent and form a 
 district with some particular village for capital; of old, the 
 
 1 Paper on the Navigator Islands. Proceedings of the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society i 6th March 1877. 
 
240 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP, xn 
 
 head of that village had the title of king, and a parliament 
 "of the heads of families" was held there (Turner, p. 287). 
 In case of war these districts combine in twos or threes 
 (Turner, p. 290). Each village has its chief (Wilkes, p. 274) ; 
 and from ten to twenty titled heads of families. Chiefs trace 
 pedigree to the ancient head of some clan, and there may be 
 twenty persons besides the chief tracing their origin to the 
 same stock, and called chiefs also, any one of whom may succeed 
 to the title (Turner, p. 280). The land belongs to families, 
 and is managed by the head of the family. Members of a 
 family can depose their head, and the heads of families can 
 take the title from the chief, and give it to his brother or 
 uncle, or some other member of the chief family (Turner, p. 
 284). A proof of the strict unity of the clan is that it is a 
 disgrace to a man to have it said that he paid his carpenter 
 shabbily, and it is not only a disgrace to him, but to the whole 
 family or clan with which he is connected. The entire tribe 
 or clan is his bank ; being connected with it by birth or 
 marriage, he has an interest in its property (Turner, p. 262). 
 
 Blood-Feud. For proofs of the irresistible force of the law 
 of blood-feud in these islands, see Williams, I.e. pp. 34, 64, 
 87, 138. He found that not even Christianity could dimmish 
 the force of the obligation of the Ono, or systematic revenge, 
 which prevailed through the whole of the Pacific Islands, a 
 legacy descending from father to son for generations. 
 
 Wilkes (I.e. vol. ii. p. 150) bears witness to the same fact, 
 the right of retaliation vested in the friends and relatives of 
 the slain, and extended against the relatives and friends of 
 the guilty. Wilkes further mentions that the eric had been 
 introduced to qualify vengeance, and that among the Samoans 
 the tombs of chiefs were regarded as places of refuge. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE TONGAN OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS 
 
 THESE islands consist of the island of Tonga or Tonga- 
 taboo, which gives its name to the group, the cluster 
 called the Hapai, and the island of Vavaoo. We have 
 scattered notices of the inhabitants in various works, but 
 the principal authority respecting them, before they 
 came under the influence of the missionaries, is a Mr. 
 William Mariner, who was one of the crew of the Port- 
 au-Prince that was captured by the natives, the bulk 
 of the crew having been treacherously murdered. Mr. 
 Mariner spent four years in the island as the adopted 
 son of the king Finow, and his account of the natives 
 we have as compiled and arranged for him by Dr. 
 John Martin. 1 
 
 Mr. Martin's book, which I shall hereafter cite as 
 Mariner, is most orderly and interesting, and, as far as 
 it goes, apparently trustworthy. It leaves us, however, 
 without any information on many essential points. 
 Society in the Tongans is represented as divided into 
 
 1 An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, etc. London, 1817. 
 Two vols. 
 
 R 
 
242 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 several distinct classes, which may be called respectively 
 the families of Tooitonga and Veachi; the families of 
 the How, or king, and the Egi, or nobles ; Matabooles, 
 Mooas, and Tooas. 
 
 The name Tooitonga means chief of Tonga, and the 
 name of the family in which Tooitonga was hereditary 
 was Fatafehi, a name of unknown meaning. The family 
 claimed descent from a great god who formerly visited 
 the islands of Tonga. So does the family of the Veachi, 
 but whether their original mothers were goddesses or 
 merely natives of Tonga, is a question which they do 
 not pretend to decide. It is one, however, which we 
 shall have to consider (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 82). 
 
 The rank of Tooitonga, and also of the Veachi, 
 seems to have been wholly of a religious nature. It was 
 superior to that of the king himself, as was the rank 
 of several families related to Tooitonga and Veachi. 
 
 Many ceremonies show the veneration for Tooitonga. 
 Once a year offerings were made to him of the first 
 fruits of the year. There were special ceremonies con- 
 nected with his marriage and his burial ; also with 
 mourning for him when dead. He was the only 
 Tongan not circumcised or tattooed, and a peculiar 
 language was used in addressing him and in speaking 
 of him. He was the greatest of the Egi, but his power 
 was limited chiefly to his own family and attendanl 
 The next to him, as already explained, was Veachi. 
 whose name has no meaning that Mr. Mariner was abl< 
 to discover. After Veachi ranked the priests, but 
 at times when they were possessed by some god wer< 
 
xin THE TONGAN OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS 243 
 
 in short, god-boxes. At other times they took only the 
 rank to which their standing as chiefs (usually they 
 were of the lower order of chiefs), or as Matabooles, en- 
 titled them. The king himself, however, has been 
 known to become a god-box, the god being the chief 
 of the gods. When a god was in a priest, the priest 
 ranked according to the rank of the god. 
 
 The How, or kingly family, came next. Mr. 
 Mariner seems to think that the office of king was 
 hereditary, and descended from father to son but he has 
 produced only one example of this, and in that there 
 might have been a contest for the succession, but for 
 good management on the part of the dead king's son, 
 and the adherence to his cause of his father's brother. 
 Finow, his father, got the throne by murder and 
 usurpation. The Hows before him were relations of 
 Tooitonga, and it was not recorded what, during the 
 four or five generations during which they reigned, the 
 law of succession was. It may be doubted, however, 
 w r hether unless the king married his own sister, or 
 other female relation representing the principal line of 
 female descent in the royal house, his son could succeed 
 to him. " In every family," says Manner, speaking of 
 the whole noble class without exception, "nobility 
 descends by the female line, for where the mother is 
 not a noble, the children are not nobles ; but supposing 
 the father and mother to be nearly equal by birth, the 
 following is the order in which the individuals of the 
 family are to be ranked, viz. the father, the mother, the 
 eldest son, the eldest daughter, the second son, the 
 
244 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 second daughter, etc. ; or if there be no children, the 
 next brother to the man, then the sister, the second 
 brother, the second sister, etc. ; but if the woman is 
 more noble than the man, then her relations in like 
 order take precedence in rank. But they do not inherit 
 his property, as will be seen in another place. All the 
 children of a female noble are, without exception, 
 nobles" (vol. ii. pp. 89, 90). Elsewhere he states that 
 " the right of succession to property in the islands is 
 regulated by the order of relationship as given under 
 the head of nobles (p. 89), and so in like manner is the 
 right of succession to the throne." pise where he says 
 that " children acquire their rank by inheritance from 
 the mother's side ; if she be not a noble they are not, 
 and vice versa. If a man, however high his rank, have 
 .a child by a woman who is only a Tooa, no matter 
 whether they are married or not, that child would not 
 be a noble, though it were known that his father was a 
 noble. . . . On the contrary, if a woman who is a 
 noble were to have a child by a Tooa, the child would 
 be noble" (p. 101). 
 
 Hence we see that in no case could the father trans- 
 mit his standing or quality. The god-fatherhood, 
 therefore, of the families of Tooitonga and Veachi, 
 stated apart from any knowledge or belief as to the 
 original mothers of the families, appears in contradiction 
 to the established law of succession. The pedigree 
 must either have been invented at a time when descem 
 was through fathers a hypothesis which may be pul 
 aside as untenable or subsequent to a strong movemenl 
 
xni THE TONGAN OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS 245 
 
 having set in to alter the succession law, and enable 
 fathers to transmit their dignities and titles to their sons. 1 
 
 Next to the Egi were the Matabooles, a sort of 
 honourable attendants upon chiefs, their companions, 
 counsellors, and ministers. They managed all cere- 
 monies. The rank was inherited, but no man could 
 assume the title of Mataboole till his father died. The 
 heir to a Matabooleship was then the eldest son or, 
 failing a son, the next brother. All the sons and 
 brothers of Matabooles were Mooas. As the sons and 
 brothers of Matabooles were only Mooas, the sons and 
 brothers of Mooas were only Tooas. 
 
 There was a further division of Tongan society into 
 classes, according to trades or professions. Some trades 
 Mariner represents as hereditary, others not. 
 
 Mr. Mariner neither uses the term tribe nor clan, 
 nor does he use the word family in any very extended 
 sense, yet I think we can spell out the fact that the 
 people were divided into clans, and that each clan had 
 its own god or totem. For example, after the men of 
 Chichia vanquished the people of Pau, the chief of 
 Chichia resolved to give a great feast before the de- 
 parture of one of his principal allies in the war, Cow 
 Mooala. The day opened with a grand war-like dance, 
 followed by the drinking of cava ; after which the cooks 
 brought forward the feast. ( ' Immediately they advanced, 
 two and two, each couple bearing on their shoulders a 
 
 1 I have been unable to find the " other place " referred to at p. 90 
 showing who would inherit a man's property in the case of the woman 
 being more noble than himself. 
 
246 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 basket in which was the body of a man barbecued like 
 a hog. The bodies were placed before the chief, who 
 was seated at the head of his company on a large green. 
 When all these victims were placed on the ground, hogs 
 were brought in in like manner, after that baskets of 
 yams, on each of which was a baked fowl. These being 
 deposited in like manner, the number of dishes was 
 counted and announced aloud to the chief, when there 
 appeared to be 200 human bodies, 200 hogs, 200 baskets 
 of yams, and a like number of fowls. The provisions 
 were then divided into various portions, and each de- 
 clared to be the portion of such a god, after which they 
 were given to the care of as many principal chiefs, who 
 shared them out to all their dependants, so that every 
 man and woman in the island had a share of each of 
 these articles (vol. i. p. 345). 
 
 I think there can be no missing the meaning of this. 
 Each chief and the members of his clan have for their 
 share the portion of their god as the same had been 
 publicly assigned to him. 
 
 When we come to Mr. Mariner's account of the 
 religion of the Tongans, and take it in connection with 
 scattered indications of the real meaning of the system 
 elsewhere found, we find that fancy and metaphysic had 
 been at work in the Tongans to explain the origins of 
 things and of good and evil in the world, and had pro- 
 duced a vague jumble of gods, with names but almost 
 devoid of attributes ; had pictured a heaven in the imagin- 
 ary island of Bolotoo abounding with all good things, 
 and creatures all immortal, in which the Tongan Egi 
 
[ xni THE TONGAN OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS 247 
 
 with their Matabooles took high rank after death, the 
 lower class of people being shut out. The system of 
 god-boxes we have seen, and how a man might for a 
 time become important by feigning to be possessed by 
 one of the primitive gods speaking through him, or even 
 the spirit of a dead noble. But these were not the only 
 god-boxes. Mr. Mariner says (vol. ii. p. 106) that the 
 primitive gods also came into the living bodies of lizards, 
 porpoises, and a species of water-snake, whence these 
 animals were much respected; and (p. Ill) that these 
 primitive or original gods were supposed to be rather 
 numerous, " but the names of very few of them were 
 known to Mr. Mariner." He says that only those whose 
 attributes particularly concerned this world should be 
 much talked of, and for the most part " the others are 
 merely tutelar gods to particular private families." We 
 may believe that the gods of the families were the gods 
 of the clans also to which the families belonged, and 
 that whatever confusion had arisen as to these clan gods 
 in the island of Vavaoo, they had at least retained their 
 pre-eminence in the island of Chichia. 
 
 Among the indications of totemism may be taken 
 the following : All the turtles in the world had their 
 origin in a turtle that sprung from the head of the 
 goddess-daughter of the sky-god Langi, which the god 
 had in a rage severed from her body and thrown into 
 the sea. " This story obtains almost universal credit at 
 the Tongan Islands, and in consequence turtles are 
 considered as almost a prohibited food, and there are 
 many that will not eat turtle on any account " (vol. ii. 
 
248 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP 
 
 pp. 130-133). Elsewhere (vol. ii. p. 233) lie says, 
 " Certain kinds of food, as turtle and a certain species of 
 fish, from something in their nature, are said to be 
 taboo, and must not be eaten until a small portion be 
 first given to the gods." Again, as showing the superior 
 antiquity of the animal gods, we have the following 
 (vol. ii. p. 139): "It has already been stated that the 
 gods are believed sometimes to enter into the bodies of 
 lizards, porpoises, and water- snakes, but this power 
 belongs only to the original gods, not to the souls of 
 chiefs." The spirit of an Egi may make a god-box of 
 any priest in the Tongas, but it is beyond him to enter 
 appearance in one of the ancient totems of the country. 
 It will be remembered that the Tongan tribe which we 
 found settled in the Hervey group had for their god the 
 lizard. It is a fact not a little remarkable that we 
 should owe to the myths and songs of the Hervey 
 group, which show the lizard-god with his temples and 
 priests, the fact that in some of the Tongan islands, 
 before metaphysic had elaborated its theogony of 
 shadowy semi-human divinities, animal-gods must have 
 been the principal deities of the country. 1 
 
 We have a confirmation of Mariner's statement as to 
 the water- snake from the Eev. J. Williams in a story 
 which shows that the snake was not a god-box, but the 
 god himself. " While walking on one occasion," he 
 
 1 At the island of Tofooa, which was sacred to Tooitonga, shark 
 worship seems to have prevailed (Mariner, vol. i. p. 251), and a suggestion 
 that the shark was religiously regarded may be had at vol. i. p. 252. In 
 the United States Exploring Expedition (vol. iii. p. 1 1 ) there is a mention 
 of pigeons as sacred at Tonga. 
 
 
xiii THE TONGAN OR FRIENDL Y ISLANDS 249 
 
 says, " across a small uninhabited island in the vicinity 
 of Tonga-taboo, I happened to tread upon a nest of sea- 
 snakes. At first I was startled at the circumstance, but 
 being assured that they were perfectly harmless, I 
 desired a native to kill the largest of them as a specimen. 
 We then sailed to another island where a number of 
 heathen fishermen were preparing their nets. Taking 
 my seat upon a stone under a Tou tree, I desired my 
 people to bring the reptile and dry it on the rocks ; but 
 as soon as the fishermen saw it they raised a most 
 terrific yell and, seizing their clubs, rushed upon the 
 Christian natives, shouting, ' You have killed our god ! 
 You have killed our god ! ' With some difficulty I 
 stayed their violence. . . . This incident shows not 
 only that they worship these things, but that they 
 regard them with the most superstitious veneration" 
 (Williams, I.e. p. 547). In this case, again, we may see 
 that the god belonged to the people of a small island 
 constituting most probably a tribe of descent ; and, on 
 the whole, though the evidence is purely circumstantial, 
 we may infer that the Tongans were divided into clans 
 on the totemic principle ; while from the force still 
 preserved by the system of female kinship, we may 
 infer that anciently they had kinship through women 
 only. We have a note of this in a fact furnished by 
 the Eev. J. Williams. He says that at the island of 
 Lefuga in the Hapai group, the principal chief, who 
 indeed exercised authority all over the group, was 
 Taufaahau. This chief, having embraced Christianity, 
 destroyed the gods and the Maraes first at his own 
 

 250 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 island, and next as far as he could throughout the 
 group. The fact which Mr. Williams brings out with 
 emphasis is, that the deposed gods were not gods at all, 
 but goddesses, of whom he observed, in one place, five 
 hanging by the neck, one of which he obtained and sent 
 to England (Williams, I.e. p. 84). 
 
 I can find no evidence whatever bearing on the 
 question of the jus connubii among the Tongans, nor 
 any grounds for an inference, however faint, as to what 
 it was. There appears to have been erected a religious 
 obstacle to communication of any sort between brother 
 and sister, 1 and from that we may infer that the marriage 
 of brother and sister was impossible. There are none of 
 the usual hmts even as to whether they permitted or 
 forbade marriages between near relations. It is possible 
 that the knowledge may exist, but the search I have 
 made has not enabled me to find any record of it. We 
 may believe that, where notes of totemic clanship are 
 present, the law of exogamy, which, in so many quarters, 
 among races of men so diverse, we have always found 
 connected with them, cannot have been wanting. One 
 circumstance that makes in favour of the position that 
 they were not given to practices which we should call 
 incestuous, is to be found in the fact that in the elaborate 
 enumeration of the crimes which were with them habitual 
 and not regarded as crimes, there is not a single hint of 
 incest. Cannibalism, murder, theft, revenge, systematic 
 rapes, were not held to be crimes. Everything that 
 could be charged against a people has been set down 
 
 1 Mariner p , vol. ii. p. 155. 
 
xiii THE TONGAN OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS 251 
 
 without extenuation against them by Mr. Martin in his 
 account of Mr. Mariner's experiences, but not one word is 
 said to suggest that they ever contravened what is usually 
 regarded as one of the most sacred laws of nature and 
 morality, the law of incest. (See Mariner, vol. ii. chap, xix.) 
 
 Marriage appears to have been usually monogamous, 
 but polygamy prevailed to some extent. The women 
 appear to have shown great conjugal fidelity. On the 
 other hand marriage, which might be constituted without 
 any ceremony, seems to have been dissolvable at the 
 pleasure of the man. A woman often had in succession 
 many husbands. When unmarried, or during periods of 
 divorcement, custom set her perfectly free to have 
 her lover or lovers. Most women seem to have been 
 betrothed by their parents to some chief Mataboole or 
 Mooa, that is, some elderly man. Mr. Mariner estimated 
 that about one-third of the married women had been so 
 betrothed. The marriages mentioned in his work, so 
 far as the details are given, were between persons of 
 different clans ; but that goes for nothing, as only the 
 marriages of chiefs are mentioned. "It was thought 
 shameful for a woman frequently to change her lover " 
 (vol. ii. p. 174). 
 
 The women are tender, kind mothers, he says 
 (p. 179), and take care of the children, for "even in a 
 case of divorce the children of any age requiring parental 
 care go with the mother." Domestic quarrels are seldom 
 known; no woman entertains the idea of rebelling 
 against her husband's authority, and if she should, even 
 her own relations would not take her part, unless the 
 
252 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 conduct of her husband was undoubtedly cruel. (See 
 vol. ii. chap, xix.) 
 
 The Maui myth is found in this group, but the goc 
 who fished up the dry land was not Maui among the 
 Tongans, but Tangaloa (vol. ii. p. 116). 
 
 From Cook we may gather that Vasuing, or some- 
 thing very like it, was known in the Tonga Islands 
 We have seen that the king was not of the highest rank 
 and Cook observed with astonishment that Latoohbooloo 
 and three ladies were of higher. They are called 
 Tammaha, i.e. chiefs. " We were told that the late 
 king, Poulaho's father, has a sister of equal rank and 
 older than himself; that she [by a Fijian] had a son and 
 two daughters ; and that these persons, as well as their 
 mother, rank above the king. We endeavoured in vain 
 to trace the reason for this singular pre-eminence of the 
 Tammahas ; for we could learn nothing besides this of 
 their pedigree." The king could not eat in their 
 presence. Latoohbooloo had the privilege of taking 
 anything from the people even if it belonged to the 
 king. (Cook's Voyages to the Pacific Ocean. Voyages 
 in years 1776-1780. London, 1784. Vol. i. p. 413.) 
 
 As to blood-feud, Mariner (vol. i. p. 69) says, "It 
 was the Tonga custom not only to kill an enemy, but 
 also all his friends and relations if possible." Vol i. pp. 
 140-147 : " It will be recollected that Toobo Neuha was 
 the chief that assassinated Toogoo Ahoo ; ever since 
 which period Toobo Toa's desire of revenge was most 
 implacable, and he had made a vow never to drink the 
 milk of the cocoa-nut out of the shell till he had accom- 
 
xiii THE TONGAN OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS 253 
 
 plished it. He did actually slay him, taking an oppor- 
 tunity of lying in wait for him when he was unarmed, 
 and knocking him on the head. At this moment a young 
 warrior, whose name was Latoo Ila, and whose father 
 had formerly been killed under strong suspicions of con- 
 spiracy by Toobo Neuha, came up to the spot, possessed 
 by a spirit of implacable revenge. He struck the body 
 of the dead chief several times, and exclaimed, ' The 
 time of vengeance is come ! . . . thou murderer of my 
 father ! I would have declared my sentiments long ago 
 . . . but the vengeance of my chief, Toobo Toa, was 
 first to be satisfied. ... It was a duty I owed to the 
 spirit of my father to preserve my life as long as possible, 
 that I might have the satisfaction to see thee thus lie 
 stinking (dead) ! ' A spirit of vengeance singled out in 
 the subsequent war those who had been engaged in kill- 
 ing Toobo Neuha." " It is not at all extraordinary that 
 most of those who had assisted in the assassination of 
 Toobo Neuha should fall victims in this battle to the 
 vengeance of the enemy" (p. 194). 
 
 In the account of the war between Hapai and Vavaoo 
 under the leadership of Finow on the one side and his 
 aunt on the other, we find that Finow was advised by 
 the gods that he should first proceed to Vavaoo with 
 three canoes only and with such men as had few or no 
 relations at Vavaoo (Mariner, vol. i. p. 173). Afterwards, 
 before the siege commenced of the queen's fortress at 
 Vavaoo, an armistice was made that " each party might 
 take leave of what friends and relations they might have 
 among their opponents" (p. 188). On the armistice 
 
254 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. XIII 
 
 being granted, many of the garrison came out to take 
 farewell of their relatives. " Many tears were shed on 
 both sides, and many a last embrace exchanged. The 
 affecting scene had lasted about two hours when it was 
 casually terminated ; how long it might have lasted but 
 for the incident which made an instant challenge to fight 
 there is no knowing." What this discloses is a singular 
 interfusion of relations on the two sides. Was it due to 
 exogamy and cross marriages, or is Mariner's explana- 
 tion sufficient, that an old custom obliged every man in 
 honour to fight for the chief on whose island he happened 
 to be when war was declared ? 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 NEW ZEALAND 
 
 THERE are several valuable works on New Zealand. The 
 Eev. Eichard Taylor's Te-Ika-A-Maui, or, New Zealand 
 and its Inhabitants, was published in 1855, long prior 
 to the speculations which have given the facts he dis- 
 closes their principal importance. His testimony there- 
 fore may be accepted as beyond suspicion. Sir George 
 Grey's Polynesian Mythology was published in the same 
 year, and is accordingly subject to the same observation. 
 Unfortunately, Sir George has not exhibited the same 
 care in the use of terms in this work that he had shown 
 in his earlier work on North- Western Australia. More- 
 over, his versions of the myths are confessedly made up 
 from portions got in different places from different per- 
 sons, so that the versions are patchworks, and do not 
 necessarily correspond with any forms of the myths that 
 ever had acceptance among New Zealand tribes. Not- 
 withstanding this, it is possible, I think, to make some 
 use of this work as furnishing evidence of a supplementary 
 sort. Lastly, there appeared in 1876 Old New Zealand, 
 by a Pakeha Maori, with an introduction by Lord Pern- 
 
256 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 broke. No one can read this most amusing and instruc- 
 tive book and suspect the Pakeha of being hampered by 
 any speculations other than such as he fully discloses, 
 and he certainly has none as to the origin or history of 
 human society. No evidence could be more trustworthy, 
 and for myself, I rely on it the more that it is mainly 
 indirect and incidental, and of a sort that no ingenuity 
 could fabricate, even could we imagine a sufficient 
 motive in the case for the fabrication of false evidence. 
 There are other works on the subject which I have 
 examined, but with distrust, as influenced by specula- 
 tions, and shall accordingly take no account of. 
 
 What I propose here to do is (1) to give an idea of 
 the structure of New Zealand native society as described 
 by the Pakeha in Old New Zealand, and to do this by 
 an analysis of the passages in his work in which the lead- 
 ing terms relating to social structure are employed, such 
 as tribe, clan, family, etc. ; (2) to corroborate, by the evi- 
 dence furnished by Taylor and Grey, the inferences thus 
 reached as to the state of society in New Zealand, partly 
 by way of notes and partly in a separate exposition ; (3) 
 to sum up all the inferences derivable from the evidence. 
 
 The New Zealanders being obviously of one race with 
 the bulk of the inhabitants of the Polynesian islands, any 
 facts well made out as to them have a first-rate value 
 outside the New Zealand group, as helping us to inter- 
 pret aright the facts respecting kindred populations when 
 they seem to be obscure. 
 
 The Pakeha is often loose in the use of words. With 
 
xiv NEW ZEALAND 257 
 
 him " tribe " and " family " are sometimes interchange- 
 able terms (e.g. pp. 79, 124, 200); sometimes "tribe" 
 and "clan" are interchangeable; compare pp. 194 and 
 211, where the Ngapuhi are first spoken of as a hapu, 
 or clan, and again as an iwi, or local tribe. But on the 
 whole, and taking all his statements together, the mean- 
 ings of his terms work themselves out clear as follows : 
 
 1. Iwi = local tribe or nation (e.g. p. 217). The 
 natives are represented as believing that the English 
 sailors " were quite a different hapu, though belonging 
 to the iwi of England, and in no way ' related ' to the 
 soldiers." 
 
 The inference that being of a different hapu they 
 were therefore no way related must not be drawn, 
 although we may conclude that being of the same hapu 
 implied relationship, e.g. in Heke's war, when the 
 rockets were fired at Heke's pa, the natives taking part 
 with England held their breath, and were in great fear. 
 Why ? Because Heke and his men were, " although 
 against us, all Ngapuhi, the same iwi as ourselves, and 
 many of them our near relations." This, no doubt, refers 
 to the cross connections by marriage between the several 
 hapus, or clans, within the iwi. Again (pp. 229, 230), on 
 a victory over Heke's men and capture of killed and 
 wounded, " some of our young men, being hot with the 
 fight, cried out to eat them raw at once ; but this was a 
 foolish proposal, for although we were fighting Heke, 
 we were all Ngapuhi together, and more or less related," 
 and to eat a relation was a deadly sin. 1 Again (p. 221), 
 
 1 In the legend of Maui, as given by Grey, it appears that when Maui's 
 
 S 
 
258 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 one native calling another slave, because his great grand- 
 father had once been made a prisoner of war, the other 
 softened the accusation by saying that even if his an- 
 cestor had been made prisoner, it was by a section (i.e. 
 hapu, or clan) of his own tribe (iwi), and consequently 
 by his own relations he had been defeated." These 
 references show that a sort of relationship, fainter than 
 that of clanship, was supposed to bind together all of the 
 same iwi, or local tribe. As already suggested, it was 
 due to the cross-connections of all the clans by marriage. 
 
 2. Hapu clan, Iwi = & number of clans. When 
 old Lizard-skin came to die, there was a concourse of 
 people from far and wide to his obsequies. " Though 
 this old rangatira was not the head of his tribe, 1 he 
 had been for about half a century the recognised war- 
 chief of almost all the sections, or hapu, of a very 
 numerous and warlike iwi, or tribe, who had now 
 assembled from all their distant villages and pas to see 
 him die." The iwi, then, was in sections, and these 
 were hapu; but hapu is clan (see pp. 154, 162, et 
 ubique). 
 
 Now were the hapu interfused as among the Iro- 
 
 ogre ancestress was on the point of devouring him, she suddenly per 
 ceived that he was a relation, " and her stomach, which was quite large 
 and distended, immediately began to shrink and contract itself again 
 (Grey, I.e. p. 34). The catastrophe, again, in The Dissensions a 
 Hawaiki, turns on the eating of relations. "Then, indeed, a grea 
 crime was committed by Hou and his family and his warriors in eating 
 the bodies of these men, for they were near relations, being descendec 
 from Tamatea-kai-ariki." Cowardice and fear fell on the tribe of Hou 
 and they became fit for nothing in consequence of this sin (ibid. p. 131) 
 1 It is not clear what is here meant by tribe. 
 
xiv NEW* ZEALAND 259 
 
 quois, or separate and localised apart as among some 
 Algonquins ? The first impression is that they were 
 separate. " Native tradition affirms that each of these 
 hills was the stronghold of a separate hapu, or clan, 
 bearing its distinctive name," i.e. the fortress bore the 
 clan's name. 1 The clan on this view was a village com- 
 munity ; but we have yet to see its interior structure. 
 Was it homogeneous ? I incline to think that the word 
 hapu is used by the Pakeha in a double sense, to mean 
 sometimes a group of kindred, forming a clan, con- 
 sidered apart from the places of residence of its mem- 
 bers, sometimes to mean a village community. In both 
 senses hapu would be a section of an iwi, but the senses 
 are quite different. 
 
 (1) Take the case of Lizard-skin, p. 145 : "This old 
 gentleman was not head of his tribe. He was a man of 
 good family related to several high chiefs. He was the 
 head of a strong family, or hapu, which mustered a 
 considerable number of fighting men, all his near rela- 
 tions." Here hapu = family = clan in the sense of a 
 group of kindred claiming to have a common descent. 
 And it included all who were of the same descent. 
 But- 
 
 (2) All relations, nay even all near relations, did 
 not live in the same village (p. 133). Further, in the 
 same village there would appear to be distinct families 
 (Ngnati) (p. 134), for the one had concealments from 
 
 1 Compare Grey, I.e. pp. 115, 122, 221, and 73. Every New 
 Zealand group is with Grey a tribe. There can be little doubt that the 
 groups in the passages referred to were either clans or families. 
 
260 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 the other inconsistent with the idea of consanguinity. 
 Again, in the account of " the calling up " of the spirit 
 of a chief who had been killed in battle, we find (p. 
 122) " the priest (Tohunga) was to come to the village 
 of the relations, and the interview was to take place in 
 a large house common to all the population," implying 
 the presence in the village of others besides the 
 relations. 
 
 Of course often the members of a hapu or the 
 greater part of them might inhabit a village by them- 
 selves, or a pa, or even a single large house. Such a 
 case appears, indeed (p. 161), "a hapu, in number just 
 forty persons." 
 
 (3) But even when the whole of the hapu resided 
 in one village, and no other whole hapu inhabited it, 
 yet all in the village were not of one and the same 
 hapu, as may be seen in the working of the institution 
 of Muru, which shows that in some districts at least a 
 man's children were held to belong not to his hapu, 
 but to their mother's. " A man's child fell in the fire, 
 and was almost burnt to death. The father was im- 
 mediately plundered to an extent that almost left him 
 without the means of existence : fishing nets, canoes, 
 pigs, provisions, all went." How and why? Here is 
 the Pakeha's explanation (pp. 85 if.): "The tract of 
 country inhabited by a single tribe (iwi) might be, say, 
 from forty to a hundred miles square, and the different 
 villages of the different sections [hapu] of the tribe 
 would be scattered over this area at different distances 
 from each other. We will, by way of illustrating the 
 
XIV 
 
 NE W ZEALAND 261 
 
 working of the muru system, take the case of the burnt 
 child. Soon after the accident it would be heard of in 
 the neighbouring villages; the family of the mother 
 are probably the inhabitants of one of them ; they have, 
 according to the law of muru, the first and greatest 
 right to clean out the afflicted father a child being 
 considered to belong to the family of the mother more 
 than to that of the father in fact it is their child, 
 whom the father has the rearing of. The child was, 
 moreover, a promising lump of a boy, the makings of a 
 future warrior, and consequently very valuable to the 
 whole tribe (iwi) in general, but to the mother's family 
 [? hapu] in particular. 1 ' A pretty thing to let him get 
 spoiled.' Then he is a boy of good family, a rangatira 
 by birth, and it would never do to let such a thing pass 
 without making a noise about it. That would be an 
 insult to the dignity of the families [lhapu] of both 
 father and mother. Decidedly, besides being robbed, 
 the father must be assaulted with the spear. True, he 
 is a famous spearsman, and for his own credit must 
 1 hurt ' some one or another if attacked. But this is of 
 no consequence, a flesh wound more or less deep is to 
 be counted on ; but then think of the plunder ! It is 
 against the law of muru that any one should be killed, 
 and first blood ends the duel." We cannot cite in full 
 the delicious narrative, and must abridge it. The taua 
 muru war-party seeking compensation is probably 
 
 1 This occurs at p. 85. It is at p. 154 that the Pakeha uses the 
 term hapu = clan for the first time obviously under a sense, developed as 
 he went on, of the need of greater precision in the use of terms. 
 
262 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 headed by ike, brother of the mother of the child. The 
 father hears of the taua coming. When it appears, 
 " then the whole fighting men of the section [hapu\ of 
 the tribe [iwi], of which he is an important member, 
 collect at his back, all armed with spear and club." 
 The taua comes on and dances the war- dance; the 
 father's party dance the war-dance also. Then follows 
 a fight with spears, apparently desperate, between the 
 father and mother's brother, ending in both being 
 slightly wounded. Then on the cry of murua, the 
 father's place is completely sacked, the sack ending in a 
 feast prepared ungrudgingly, since all the provisions 
 were to disappear in any case for the robber relations. 
 
 Strictly speaking, then, no whole hapu could live 
 together. Members of it were in as many families in 
 other villages as it furnished to these villages daughters 
 for wives. In short, the clans were in some districts 
 of New Zealand at least interfused as they were among 
 the Iroquois, and that, too, owing to the same cause, 
 viz. women marrying out of their own clans, and 
 children being held to belong to the clans of their 
 mothers. 
 
 (4) Lastly, under the head of hapu, I notice that a 
 strong force of one and the same hapu might exist in 
 different villages within the territory of the iwi. 
 
 This appears from the Pakeha's statements as to the 
 voluntary slaughter of one of the same iwi as the 
 murderer. He says (p. 91) the murderer usually went 
 unpunished, by fleeing from the village or scene of the 
 offence to "some other section of the tribe where he 
 
XIV 
 
 NEW ZEALAND 
 
 263 
 
 had relations, who, as he fled to them for protection, 
 were bound to give it, and always ready to do so ; or 
 otherwise, he would stand his ground and defy all 
 comers by means of the strength of his own family or 
 section \hapu], who would defend him and protect him, 
 as a mere matter of course." 
 
 3. Family. We have seen the word used as = tribe ; 
 also as = clan. In a more restricted sense, it seems to 
 mean the members of a man's household, including con- 
 nections by marriage living with him, and his slaves. 
 
 (1) P. 195. "So Heke went with his own family 
 and people, and those of his elder relation Kawiti and 
 the Kapatoe and some others, altogether about 400 
 men." 
 
 (2) P. 200. " Then many men came to join Heke, 
 but no whole hapu came, for most of the Ngapuhi chiefs 
 said," etc. 
 
 The whole hapu could go only under the chief, but 
 heads of families were free to go without the chief with 
 their own people. 
 
 (3) P. 200. " Thomas Walker called together his 
 family and all his friends ( = relations), and said he 
 would fight against Heke." 
 
 Ibid. " Te Tao Nui . . . brought with him all his 
 family and relations, many fighting men ; only one man 
 of the family [probably a marriage connection] did not 
 come that man went to help Heke." 
 
 Ibid. " The tribe [here again the meaning of tribe 
 is not clear] of Ngnati Pou came to help Walker." . . . 
 They brought forty men. 
 
264 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 (4) P. 201. " I, your friend, went also with my 
 two younger brothers, my four sons and my daughter's 
 husband, 1 and nine cousins and three slaves twenty 
 men of us. ... I went [like all the others] because 
 when the ancestors of Heke fought against mine, the 
 ancestors of Walker came to help my forefathers, because 
 they were related to each other ; so I and Walker are 
 relations ; but I don't know exactly what the relation- 
 ship is, for eleven generations have passed since that 
 ancient war, but Walker and I are aware that we are 
 related, and always come to each other's help in war." 
 
 On which the Pakeha observes that a war-party is 
 always composed of relations, and that "to be a man of 
 many cousins " is to be a great chief. 
 
 4. Marriage. On this subject the Pakeha fails us 
 entirely, if we except what he says as to wives hanging 
 themselves, almost as a matter of course, when their 
 husbands died, and husbands " very commonly " com- 
 mitting suicide when their wives died (p. 135), which 
 shows that marriage was a serious matter, whatever else 
 it was. 
 
 1 That the son-in-law a Beena husband who went to live with his 
 wife in her father's house, was bound to fight for his father-in-law, is 
 stated by Taylor, I.e. p. 164, who says that a Beena husband in New 
 Zealand was " looked upon as one of the tribe or hapu to which his wife 
 belonged, and in case of war . . . was often obliged to fight against his 
 own relations." He states, also, that this sort of marriage was common. 
 The children would of course be of the mother's Jiapu, and by fiction 
 of the father's also. We may be sure we have here a step in the transition 
 to male kinship and descent through fathers. In the legend of Tawhaki 
 (Grey, I.e. p. 59) it appears that that god went on his marriage to live 
 with his wife's family. 
 
xiv NEW ZEALAND 265 
 
 I need not point, however, to the significance of the 
 case of the burnt child, employed by the Pakeha as 
 typical, to illustrate the working of the system. It is 
 for all the world " the taking up of the sticks," as we 
 find it among the Cherokees, Creeks, and other of the 
 southern nations of America, and full of suggestions of 
 totemism and exogamy, as it is demonstrative of female 
 kinship. 
 
 I find the following citation from Thomson's New 
 Zealand, in Spencer's Descriptive Sociology : " Marriage 
 among the New Zealanders was both endogamous and 
 exogamous ; in the latter case the permission of both 
 nations was required, and the neglect of this often led to 
 
 war." 
 
 I have not seen Mr. Thomson's book, and do not 
 mean to consult it. Supposing the citation correctly 
 made, it shows that he wrote since speculations on such 
 subjects ^began, and has failed to comprehend them. 
 An exogamous marriage, as the reader knows, is a 
 marriage between persons of different clans or kinships, 
 not entered into fortuitously, but because of law declar- 
 ing it to be incest for a man to marry a woman of his 
 own clan. If we find a case of marriage between persons 
 of the same clan, we may safely conclude that there 
 exogamy was not the law ; but we could not infer, from 
 any number of marriages between persons of different 
 clans, that exogamy was the law. It is needless to say 
 that exogamy has no relation whatever to nations (local 
 tribes, i.e. in New Zealand itvi), and that a universal 
 practice of marrying within the nation would be con- 
 
266 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 sistent with the law being exogamy, provided the nation 
 was composed of several clans, and the marriages were 
 between persons of different clans, though of the same 
 nation. Similarly, we should not be able to infer the 
 existence anywhere within the nation of an endogamous 
 group, with endogamy for law, because of an entire 
 absence of international marriages. The only proof of 
 the presence of endogamy would be evidence showing 
 that some clan prohibited as an offence marriages except 
 between members of the clan. All this of course has 
 been misunderstood by Mr. Thomson, w r hose evidence 
 accordingly goes for nothing. 
 
 Have we, then, any evidence on the subject? Not 
 much ; but what there is points to exogamy as having 
 anciently been Maori law, and as still being uniformly 
 observed in practice, so far as my search has led me. 
 
 (1) All the marriages mentioned in Grey's Poly- 
 nesian Mythology are between persons of different 
 clans, but this does not count for much, for they are the 
 marriages almost entirely of chiefs or heroes. The 
 chieftain-class, forming a sort of caste, and seeking to 
 unite their clans by marriage connections, might, on 
 mere policy, wive among themselves the marriages 
 always being between persons of different clans, but the 
 reasons for them unrelated to exogamy. There is one 
 cousin -marriage in the Mythology (p. 254) ; such a 
 marriage, however, would be permissible, supposing exo- 
 gamy the law. It is a point scored, then, that there is 
 an absence of mention of any marriage between persons of 
 the same clan. It is open to us to believe that exogamy 
 
xiv NEW ZEALAND 267 
 
 'may have been the law. The only suggestion of a doubt 
 on this point is derived from the Legend of Tuwhakaro. 
 This hero's sister was married to the son of the chief of 
 the Ati-Hapai tribe [? = iwi, or hapu : hapu, I think]. 
 He went to visit his sister at her new home, when " the 
 young sister of his brother-in-law, whose name was 
 Maurea, took a great fancy to him and showed that she 
 liked him, although at the very time she was carrying on 
 a courtship with another young man of the Ati-Hapai 
 tribe." Were we to take this as a serious element of 
 the story, we might doubt whether the "courtship" 
 did not imply that the parties were marriageable. But 
 we have reason for believing that, in Australia, court- 
 ship, though carried as far as intrigue, would not imply 
 the jus connubii between the parties. Also, the " young 
 man of the tribe " might truly, though counted in it and 
 of it in a way, be legally a member of another hapu, 
 viz. that of his mother, and it would be by that that his 
 capacity for marriage would be regulated. On the 
 whole, I see nothing in this story to detract from the 
 value of the negative point that we have no mention 
 of marriage between persons of the same clan. 1 
 
 (2) The Mythology has some suggestions of capture 
 of women for wives, and of elopements, but beyond this 
 it is silent on the subject of marriage, except that it 
 states one point in Maori marriage law which is interest- 
 ing. It occurs in the story of Hine-Moa, who stole 
 away from her people, and swam across a strait to join 
 
 1 See Grey, I.e. pp. 54, 59, 67, 99, 100, 163, 200, 206, 244, 247, 
 260, 262 ff, 296, and 310. 
 
268 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y CHAP. 
 
 the man she loved. " They proceeded to his [the lover's] 
 house, and reposed there ; and thenceforth, according 
 to the ancient laws of the Maori, they were man and 
 wife " l good old law, not only of the Maori, but of 
 all peoples who had much experience of marriage by 
 capture. I have elsewhere taken account of the case 
 of Thibetan polyandry, recorded in the Legend of 
 Kupe. 2 
 
 (3) Had the Maories a system of actual capture of 
 women for wives, and had they in any of their districts 
 the form of capture ? If they had, then we shall have an 
 inference that they were anciently exogamous, as strong 
 as the reader may suppose to be the connection I have 
 elsewhere established between Exogamy and the Form 
 of Capture. Not to appraise the strength of this con- 
 nection overmuch, it will, I think, be likely to satisfy 
 many minds that, all the other social circumstances 
 being such including totemism, as w T e shall see as 
 usually are accompanied by exogamy as marriage law, 
 exogamy was anciently the law of the Maories. 
 
 But I am able to show that they had both the system 
 of actual capture and the Form of Capture, and this on 
 evidence of a date ten years earlier than the first attempt 
 to explain the origin of the Form of Capture the first 
 occasion indeed of attention being called to capture at all 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Taylor says in his valuable work (with 
 which I was unacquainted when I wrote Primitive 
 Marriage) : 
 
 " The ancient and most general way of obtaining a 
 
 1 Grey, I.e. p. 243. 2 Ibid. p. 81 [Studies, first series, p. 98]. 
 
xiv NEW ZEALAND 269 
 
 wife [in New Zealand] was for the gentleman to summon 
 his friends and make a regular tana, 1 or fight to carry 
 off the lady by force, and oftentimes with great violence. 
 Even when a girl was bestowed in marriage by her 
 parents, frequently some distant relative 2 would feel 
 aggrieved, and fancy they had a greater right to her as 
 a wife for one of their tribe. 3 Or if the girl had eloped 
 with some one on whom she had placed her affection, 
 then her father or brothers would refuse their consent, 
 and in either case would carry a tana against the husband 
 and his friends to regain possession of the girl, either by 
 persuasion or force. If confined in a house, they would 
 pull it down, and if they gained access then a fearful 
 contest would ensue. The unfortunate female, thus 
 placed between the two contending parties, would soon 
 be divested of every rag of clothing, and then would be 
 seized by her head, hair, or limbs ; and as those who 
 contended for her became tired with the struggle, fresh 
 combatants would supply their places from the rear, 
 climbing over the shoulders of their friends, and so edge 
 themselves into the mass immediately round the woman, 
 whose cries and shrieks would be unheeded by her savage 
 friends. In this way the poor creature was often nearly 
 torn to pieces. These savage contests sometimes ended 
 in the strongest party bearing off in triumph the naked 
 
 1 Taua = war-party, composed, as we have seen, of " relations," directed 
 necessarily against an unrelated hapu. 
 
 2 " Relative," used loosely, may mean connection by marriage ; may 
 also mean a relation of the same hapu with a son for whom he wants a 
 wife of a different hapu, namely, his mother's. 
 
 3 " Tribe " = hapu. 
 
270 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 person of the bride. In some cases, after a long season 
 of suffering, she recovered, to be given to a person for 
 whom she had no affection, in others to die within a few 
 hours or days from the injuries she had received. But 
 it was not uncommon for the weaker party, when they 
 found they could not prevail, for one of them to put an 
 end to the contest by suddenly plunging his spear into 
 the woman's bosom, to hinder her from becoming the 
 property of another. Even in the case where all were 
 agreeable, it was still customary for the bridegroom to 
 go with a party and appear to take her away by force, 
 her friends yielding her up after a feigned struggle. A 
 few days afterwards the parents of the lady, with all her 
 relatives, came to the bridegroom for his pretended 
 abduction. After much speaking and apparent anger, 
 the bridegroom generally made a handsome present 
 of fine mats, etc., giving the party an abundant 
 feast." 1 
 
 Here we have a practice of capture so described that 
 the picture might be supposed to be drawn from such 
 natives of Australia as present us with capture in marriage 
 in the highest perfection. There is alongside of this 
 the Form of Capture, indicating that anciently capture 
 was the chief incident associated with marriage, and, of 
 course, that the wife was always obtained from enemies, 
 i.e. not relations. I infer from such a persistence of 
 capture in practice as to establish the form, that the 
 captures were rendered, at some stage, a necessity 
 through the operation of the law of exogamy. 
 
 1 Te-Ika-A-Maui, p. 163. 
 
xiv NEW ZEALAND 271 
 
 As already stated, Mr. Taylor explains that beena 
 marriages were common, the man becoming a member 
 of the wife's clan. He says (p. 163) " so common is this 
 custom of the bridegroom going to live with his wife's 
 family, that it frequently occurs, when he refuses to do 
 so, his wife will leave him and go back to her relatives. 
 Several instances have come under my own observation 
 where young men have tried to break through this 
 custom and have so lost their wives." 
 
 On this evidence the proposition that the Maories 
 were anciently exogamous, and till recently continued 
 uniformly to observe the law of exogamy in practice, 
 must meantime be allowed to rest. I may mention that 
 I have not in my reading found a single thing to 
 suggest that any Maori group ever had the law of 
 endogamy. 
 
 5. Totems. We have found among the Maories the 
 local tribes divided into clans, kinship and the clan taken 
 from the mother, and strong suggestions, if not proof, of 
 exogamy as the marriage law. Had the clans their 
 totems? I shall content myself with adducing the 
 evidence. 
 
 (1) A girl being carried off by a ship-captain, her 
 relations applied to the Tohunga to get the atua to 
 recover her. The Pakeha was witness to the proceedings 
 of the Tohunga. " About midnight I heard the spirit 
 (atua) saluting the guests [i.e. the girl's relations]. I 
 also noticed they hailed him as 'relation,' and then 
 gravely preferred the request that he would drive back 
 the ship that had stolen his cousin. This establishes a 
 
272 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 kinship between them and the Atua or god, believed in 
 at least by them a manifest note of totemism. 1 
 
 Atua, aitu, etu we have seen what these in Polynesia 
 usually are. The Pakeha says that the Tohunga called 
 the Atua, who spoke through him, " the boy," and in 
 that case the Atua may have become a man-god ; but 
 the term of address may have meant no more than the 
 phrase "old one" among ourselves. 
 
 (2) We have another fact from the Pakeha, quite 
 casually recorded. It occurs in his humorous account of 
 his purchase of a piece of land, and of the numerous 
 claims put in for participation in the price. " One man 
 said his ancestors had killed off the first owners ; another 
 declared his ancestors had driven off the second party ; 
 another man, who seemed to be listened to with more 
 respect than ordinary, declared that his ancestor had 
 been the first possessor of all, and had never been ousted, 
 and that this ancestor was a huge lizard that lived in a 
 cave on the land many ages ago" (I.e. p. 61). Here we 
 have a man who, and of course his family, if not his 
 whole hapu, deduced their descent from a lizard. That 
 of course is totemism. From Mr. Taylor we learn that 
 lizards and sharks were among New Zealand gods ; and 
 of one lizard god we get from him the name Moko-titi 
 (Taylor, I.e. p. 33). But of course it is impossible to 
 connect this particular lizard god with the lizard ancestor 
 of the claimant on the Pakeha. 
 
 (3) This inability is of less consequence, as we have 
 a distinct statement on the subject from the Kev. K. 
 
 1 Old New Zealand, p. 120. 
 
xiv NEW ZEALAND 273 
 
 Taylor : " There were ancestors who became deified by 
 their respective tribes \liapu\, and thus each tribe \hapu\ 
 had its peculiar gods." After mentioning the gods of 
 war, Tu and Maru, he mentions Kongomai, " the chief 
 god of Tanpo ; ' (who, he tells us, p. 41, "was a god in 
 the shape of a whale "), and proceeds to say, " There were 
 also gods who had human forms, and others who had 
 those of reptiles. . . . Whilst Tawaiki was of the 
 human form, his brethren were lizards and sharks ; and 
 there were likewise mixed marriages amongst them. 
 These ancestral gods still hold their places in the genea- 
 logical tables of the different tribes \]iapu] " (Taylor, 
 I.e. pp. 32, 33). 1 
 
 We might here close the proof as conclusive, on 
 evidence above all suspicion, that the ancient Maori 
 were in clans organised on the totemic principle with 
 female kinship and exogamy as marriage law ; but one 
 or two further facts furnished by the authorities are 
 worth noting, as they will help us hereafter in our 
 inquiry into the structure of societies of which we have 
 but partial records. 
 
 The Kev. E. Taylor seems to have been impressed 
 with the fact that the reptile gods of New Zealand were 
 older than the men gods. " There were gods," he says, 
 
 1 See further as to clan-gods, "the curse of Manaia" (Grey, I.e. pp. 
 163, 164), where is also a proof of kinship being through the mother only. 
 I may here cite, as a further note of totemism, the fact that the Maori 
 had a pigeon-god (Rupe) ; and the Rev. R. Taylor mentions that some 
 Maori dare not eat the pigeon (pp. 110, 168). Taylor mentions another 
 of their gods Tuparaunui, "a large fly and an ancient god" (p. 121). It 
 is impossible to doubt that we have here a demonstration of the totem 
 stage. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 " who had human forms, and others who had those oi 
 reptiles. As in geology there is a reptile age, so th< 
 was one in the mythology of New Zealand." As me1 
 physic worked on the basis of the mythology, it triec 
 to invert this order of genesis, and assigned to the mei 
 gods the earlier place. In the genealogy of Tawaiki 
 which starts from a woman, we find one of his ancestoi 
 (p. 37) was Kaiaia, a sparrow-hawk; while we have 
 marriage, in the genealogy of descent from this commo] 
 mother, between Punga [anchor of canoe] and Karil 
 [net sinker], of which the offspring were the lizard, the 
 shark, and the dog-fish, cousins of the man-god Tawaiki. 1 
 It is very obvious that the promoters "of faith in Tawaiki 
 would not have put him into this connection but for the 
 necessity of finding a place for him among acknowledged 
 gods. The root of the genealogy in a common mother 
 is another note of the primitive state of female kinship, 
 the value of which cannot be too much insisted upon. 
 Its occurrence in New Zealand mythology is most 
 frequent. The Taninhas, great lizards, who play in 
 New Zealand the part of dragons in European mytho- 
 logy, trace their genealogy to a female progenitor. Tane, 
 whom we found in the Hervey group, appears in New 
 Zealand, according to some, as the mother, not the father, 
 of Tui, and of birds in general, and of trees. Accord- 
 ing to this account Tane was the wife of Parani, and 
 Parani was the father of Tui. But Tane was a tree first, 
 and a woman after. Among the first offspring of Eangi 
 and Papa were first the Kumara (sweet potato), next 
 
 1 lc. pp. 35-37. 
 
xiv NEW ZEALAND 275 
 
 the fern-root, next Tane. 1 Next after Tane, Tiki was 
 born, "from whom man proceeded," 2 but here again 
 there is a dispute. Some traditions say Tiki is a 
 woman (p. 23), so that we see the female idea in conflict 
 in the traditions with the male idea. It was finally- 
 overridden, as it was bound to be among people who 
 had so extensive a practice of marriage by capture ; and 
 the female progenitors were displaced on the whole by 
 a long list of creative fathers, i.e. fathers supposed to 
 have made nature in her different departments. 
 
 6. Blood-Feud. For instances of the operation in 
 New Zealand of the blood-feud, the reader may consult 
 Grey's Mythology (pp. 61, 98, 108); but, indeed, the 
 whole mythology is full of it. The Rev. E. Taylor 
 mentions the law of blood, in the appendix to his work, 
 as one of the points of correspondence between the 
 Maori and the Hebrews. As we have already seen in 
 the account of the Muru, the law of retaliation, as its 
 working is described by the Pakeha Maori, was so 
 constantly in operation as in effect, in connection with 
 minor offences of one member of a liapu against another, 
 to keep movable estate continually shifting from one 
 hand to another. The Pakeha says : " As the enforcers 
 of this law were also the parties who received the damages 
 as well as the judges of the amount, which in many cases, 
 such as that of the burnt child, would be everything they 
 
 1 That Tane was a tree is proved by the legend given by Taylor, 
 p. 21. "He [Tawhirimatea] placed his mouth to that of Tane-mahuta, 
 and the wind shook his branches and uprooted him." 
 
 2 Taylor, I.e. p. 18. 
 
276 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 could by any means lay hands on, it is easy to perceive 
 that under such a system personal property was an 
 evanescent thing altogether" (p. 84). These executions 
 were never resisted. In the more serious cases of homi- 
 cide, the operation of the law of Muru had full swing 
 only in the case of the homicide being accidental. In 
 that case the penalty was the wholesale plunder of the 
 criminal and his family. Where the slaughter was not 
 accidental, the Pakeha observes that in nineteen cases 
 out of twenty it would either be a meritorious action, or 
 an action of no consequence, and the law of Muru was 
 inapplicable. The explanation of this is, that where a 
 man killed another by accident, the slain man would be 
 in most instances, as a matter of course, one of his own 
 tribe. Where the slaughter was intentional, the victim 
 would usually be either a slave or a man of another 
 tribe. A slave's death was nobody's affair. As to the 
 man of another tribe, the slayer had but to declare that 
 he killed the man in revenge for some aggression, either 
 recent or traditional, when his whole tribe would support 
 and defend him to the last extremity. The Pakeha says 
 that murder, i.e. of a man of the same tribe \iwi\ y was 
 comparatively rare, and went in most cases unpunished. 
 "The murderer in general managed to escape to some 
 other section of a tribe where he had relations, who, as 
 he fled to them for protection, were bound to give it, and 
 always ready to do so. Or otherwise, he would stand his 
 ground and defy all comers by means of the strength of 
 his own family or section, who all would defend him and 
 protect him as a mere matter of course" (p. 91). In 
 
XIV 
 
 NEW ZEALAND 
 
 277 
 
 this passage, for section of the tribe, we must read clan, 
 as we have seen ; and then no statement of the obliga- 
 tions of blood could be more complete. The case is not 
 put of a man murdering a member of his own clan ; but 
 in that case he would no doubt among the Maories, as 
 elsewhere, suffer swift death at the hands of his own 
 kinsmen, or be obliged to wander far from his relatives, 
 a homeless outlaw. 
 
CHAPTEE XV 
 
 AUSTRALIA 
 
 THE Australians have commonly been represented as of a 
 uniform type of savagery; but Australia is in magnitude 
 about equal to all Europe, and it is not surprising that con- 
 siderable diversities are found to occur in its population. To 
 ascertain these, we must localise our information from point 
 to point, to see to what tribes and districts it applies. 
 
 Grey's account l is briefly as follows : " One of the most 
 remarkable facts connected with the natives [of Australia] is 
 that they are divided into certain great families, all the 
 members of which bear the same name, as a family or second 
 name. . . . These family names [they occasionally assume 
 local form, and seven principal totem names and eight local 
 variants are mentioned] are common over a great portion of 
 the continent ; for instance, on the western coast, in a tract of 
 country extending between four and five hundred miles in 
 latitude, members of all these families are found. In South 
 Australia I met a man who said he belonged to one of them, 
 and Captain Flinders mentions Yungaree [one of the variants] 
 as the name of a native in the Gulf of Carpentaria [i.e. on the 
 north-east of the continent]. These family names are per- 
 petuated and spread through the country by the operation of 
 two remarkable laws : (1) that the children of either sex 
 
 1 Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western 
 Australia, during the years 1837 and 1839. By George Grey, Esq. 
 [Now Sir G. Grey.] Vol. ii. pp. 225 et seq. London, 1841. 
 
CHAP, xv A USTRALIA 279 
 
 always take the family name of the mother; (2) that a 
 man cannot marry a woman of his own family name." Every 
 family has "as its crest or sign" (kobong = totem) some 
 animal or vegetable, between which and the family there 
 exists a certain mysterious connection. A most remarkable 
 law again " is that which obliges families connected by blood 
 upon the female side to join for the purpose of defence and 
 avenging crimes ; and as the father marries several wives, and 
 very often all of different families, his children are repeatedly 
 all divided among themselves ; * no common bond of union 
 exists between them." As their laws are principally made up 
 of sets of obligations, due from members of the same great 
 family towards one another which obligations of family 
 names are much stronger than those of blood it is evident, 
 Sir George continues, " that a vast influence upon the manners 
 and state of this people must be brought about by this 
 arrangement into classes." 
 
 Instead of classes he should have said families or clans. 
 The description is that of a population of local tribes made up 
 of exogamous totem kindreds the kindreds necessarily inter- 
 fused in such a case being greatly interfused owing to the 
 prevalence of polygamy, and being the same in all the local 
 tribes throughout a great area. The clans or kindreds were 
 named after the totem ; those of the same totem were bound 
 together by the blood-feud and debarred from intermarriage ; 
 
 1 We may infer the operation of the blood-feud in connection with 
 female kinship in New South Wales from the following passage in the 
 report of the United States Exploring Expedition (vol. ii. p. 187) : 
 " The natives [of New South Wales] have not, properly speaking, any 
 distribution into tribes. In other conflicts, those speaking the same 
 language, and who have fought side by side, are frequently drawn up in 
 battle array against each other, and a short time after may be seen acting 
 together." The bond of blood is stronger than the connection with the 
 local tribe. There could be no better illustration than this of the kind 
 of error into which observers are liable to fall in regard to primitive 
 societies ; somewhat similar observations have not unfrequently been 
 made in regard to tribes on the north-west Pacific shores of America by 
 untrained observers. 
 
28o STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 and they alone were bound together by all the obligations 
 and restrictions of blood-relationship. Marriage within the 
 totem kindred was held in the greatest abhorrence as being 
 incestuous. And no individual of the species of the kobong 
 or totem was ever killed without reluctance or without being 
 allowed a chance of escape. The old men, it appears, managed 
 to keep the women pretty much to themselves by means of a 
 system of betrothing and exchanging daughters, which drove 
 the younger men into stealing women. Sir George concludes 
 by intimating that he had devoted much study to the " obliga- 
 tions of family names," but was unable to bring out the results 
 more fully when his book was published. His observations, 
 he takes care to notice, 1 " can be only considered to apply, as 
 yet, to the natives of that portion of Western Australia lying 
 between the 30th and 35th parallels of south latitude, 
 though," he adds, " there is strong reason to suppose that they 
 will in general be found to obtain throughout the continent." 
 
 Mr. Gideon S. Lang, who lived long in Australia in con- 
 stant contact with the native population, declares that Sir 
 George Grey's account of the natives confirms his own observa- 
 tions in almost every particular. " One of the most remark- 
 able facts connected with the aborigines," he says, 2 " is that 
 over the entire continent, from Swan Eiver to Sydney, from 
 Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, they are so exactly 
 similar in appearance, complexion, customs, and language, in 
 their weapons, and manner of fighting and hunting, that it 
 would almost appear as if they were all descended from one 
 canoe-load of people, and these again from the same tribe." 
 " Of course there are points of difference between them, but 
 they are only such as might be expected from difference of 
 circumstance and locality. . . . The native inhabitants of the 
 whole continent form, in fact, one people, all governed by the 
 same laws and customs." 
 
 Could we believe this, and have perfect confidence in 
 Grey's statements, there would be an end of inquiry as regards 
 Australia. We shall soon see, however, that Mr. Lang's 
 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 231. 
 
 2 The Aborigines of Australia, pp. 1 et seq. Melbourne, 1865. 
 
xv AUSTRALIA 281 
 
 statement must receive some qualifications. More important 
 than his general statement is the evidence he gives on in- 
 formation. "The Moreton Bay blacks," he says (p. 10), "led 
 me to understand that they were divided into four clans. 
 All the children take after the clan of their mother, and no 
 man can marry a woman of the same clan, although the 
 parties be born of parents in no way related according to our 
 ideas." This is a fact as to some tribes on the east coast of 
 Australia, adjoining the Kamilaroi, of whom hereafter, and 
 it is in perfect agreement with Grey's observation of the 
 tribes on the west coast. How the clans are named Mr. 
 Lang does not say, but he must be understood as acquiescing 
 in Grey's statement as to their being named after animals and 
 plants. A casual observation at p. 21 discloses the fact that 
 some natives in the Moreton Bay district name the con- 
 stellations after animals, which may be taken as a hint of 
 totemism. 
 
 Another fact corroborative of Grey's general statement is 
 obtained from the Kev. E. Fuller, missionary for some years 
 in Frazer's Island, off the east coast of Australia, to the north 
 of Moreton Bay. 1 This island, Mr. Fuller tells us, is eighty- 
 five miles long by twelve broad. Since contact with Euro- 
 peans the population has rapidly decreased in numbers, and in 
 1872 he estimated that there were not more than three 
 hundred blacks surviving. The ancient framework of the 
 society, however, still survived, for this " handful " of people 
 were comprised in no fewer than nineteen distinct tribes. 
 As to the marriage law, Mr. Fuller is most explicit. " A man 
 cannot," he says, "marry a woman belonging to his own tribe, 
 and the children are supposed to belong to the mother's tribe." 
 Of totemism in the island he gives no hint. The islanders 
 were naked cannibals. 
 
 Mr. James Bonwick in his little work, The Wild White 
 Man and the Blacks of Victoria (Melbourne, 1863, p. 58), 
 recognises as prevailing among the blacks to some extent a 
 
 1 Letter dated 15th August 1872, to a friend of the missionary in 
 Ipswich, printed in the Brisbane Queenslander, 7th September 1872. 
 
282 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 taboo on the use of the kobong or totem such as, according to 
 Grey, existed on the west coast, but much cannot be made of 
 his evidence on this point. "There is in some places," he 
 says, " a sort of taboo of things selected by a tribe or family 
 as a kind of badge, called a kobong. Governor Grey declared 
 that the kobong had elements in common with the taboo of 
 other people. Men cannot marry women of the same kobong." 
 It is clear that we have not here a mere echo of the state- 
 ment of Grey. But, at any rate, Bonwick does not seem to 
 have been in a position to declare Grey's statement inapplic- 
 able to the blacks of Victoria. 
 
 Mr. Taplin's account of the " Narrinyeri " is more satis- 
 factory, and it shows at once that Grey's statements must be 
 taken as subject to qualifications and exceptions, while con- 
 firming them in the essential points. 1 The name of these 
 people means men, which they take pride in calling them- 
 selves, as distinguished from other aborigines, whom they call 
 wild black fellows. They occupy a tract of country which 
 would be included within lines drawn from Cape Jervis to a 
 point about thirty miles above the place where the river 
 Murray discharges itself into Lake Alexandrina, and from 
 thence to Lacepede Bay. " They are divided into eighteen 
 tribes, and each is regarded by them as a family, every member 
 of which is a blood relation, and therefore between individuals 
 of the same tribe no marriage can take place. Every tribe 
 has its Ngaitye, or tutelary genius, or tribal symbol, in the 
 shape of some bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, or substance." 
 Elsewhere he says of the Ngaitye " that the tribe regard it as 
 a sort of good genius who takes an interest in their welfare 
 something like the North American Indian totem." 
 
 Mr. Taplin gives the Ngaitye, or totems, of the eighteen 
 tribes. They are as follows, viz. : 1. Black duck, and black- 
 snake with red belly ; 2. Black swan, teal, and black-snake 
 with grey belly ; 3. Black duck ; 4. Leeches, cat-fish (native 
 
 1 The Narrinyeri; an Account of the Tribes of South Australian Abori- 
 gines, inhabiting the Country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and 
 Coorong, and the Lower part of the River Murray. By the Eev. George 
 Taplin. Adelaide, 1874. 
 
xv AUSTRALIA 283 
 
 pomerey) ; 5. Whip-snake ; 6. Wild dog, light colour ; 7. 
 Wild dog, dark colour; 8. Mountain duck (chocolate shel- 
 drake); 9. Mullet, called Kanmeri; 10. Kangaroo - rat ; 11. 
 Butter-fish (native kungulde) ; 12. a kind of coot called Turi ; 
 13. Tern, a small kind of gull; 14. Bull-ant, and a kind of 
 water- weed called by the natives Pinggi; 15. Whale (native 
 kondarli) ; 16. Pelican; 17. Wattle-gum; 18. Musk-duck. 
 
 Of the eighteen " tribes," all except the first, second, fourth, 
 and fourteenth would appear to be pure families or tribes of 
 descent; it is disclosed that three of them are directly 
 named from the totem. The Whales (15) are Kondolin- 
 yeri, from Kondarli = Whale, and inyeri, belonging to; the 
 Coots (12) are Turarorn, from Turi, Coot ; and the Mullets (9) 
 are Kannierarorn, from Kanmeri, Mullet. Nos. 1, 2, 4, 14, 
 on the other hand, would seem to be local tribes in which two 
 (and in one case three) distinct families or tribes of descent 
 are united. No. 3, it will be seen, has for totem the black 
 duck, which is one of the totems of No. 1, and no other. Both 
 Nos. 1 and 3 reside on the river Murray. 1 Mr. Taplin has 
 not mentioned whether marriage was permitted as freely 
 between the Snakes and Ducks within a compound local tribe 
 like No. 1 as between the same Snakes and the Ducks in No. 
 3. He shows, however, that the prohibition of marriage 
 between those of the same tribe was not the sole limitation 
 on the right of marriage. " The aversion of the natives to 
 even second cousin marriages," he says, " is very great. They 
 are extremely strict in this matter. The first inquiry with 
 regard to a proposed marriage is whether there is any tie of 
 kindred between the parties, and if there be, it prevents the 
 match, and if the couple should cohabit afterwards they will 
 
 1 No restriction on marriage is spoken of beyond the prohibition of 
 marriage within the tribe which in fourteen cases out of eighteen meant 
 only prohibition of marriage between persons of the same totem except 
 that (as is immediately hereafter stated) there was a device for preventing 
 marriage between persons who, though not of the same totem, were con- 
 sidered to be near blood relations. That an expedient was needed for 
 preventing marriage in such cases shows, of course, that originally there 
 was prohibition of marriage within the totem kindred only. 
 
284 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 be always looked on with dishonour." Elsewhere (p. 26) he 
 explains an artifice by which persons of different tribes, but 
 too nearly related to be allowed to marry, are prevented from 
 ever marrying, viz. by " Ngia-ngiampe " being established 
 between them, whereby they are prohibited from ever approach- 
 ing or touching each other. A man's children (p. 10) belong 
 to his tribe and not to their mother's. Property always 
 descends (p. 38) from father to son, and from a man who dies 
 childless, to his brother's children. 
 
 We have here the same kind of totemic families and the 
 same marriage law (speaking broadly) on the south of 
 Australia which Grey found on the west, with two differ- 
 ences : (1) kinship is no longer counted through the mother, 
 but through the father. (2) As might in consequence be ex- 
 pected, the tribes of descent, excepting in four cases, are no 
 longer interfused ; all the men of the same "totem have drawn 
 together, and groups have been formed which are homogeneous, 
 which are at once local tribes and tribes of descent. The 
 locality which each of the eighteen local tribes inhabits is 
 mentioned by Mr. Taplin, and it appears that, except in the 
 case of the Black Ducks, all of the same stock are together in 
 the same locality ; while it would be reasonable to expect that 
 the Black Ducks of No. 1 and No. 3, alike dwellers on the 
 Murray River, would, if time were given, amalgamate and form 
 a homogeneous local tribe, leaving tribe No. 1 composed of the 
 people of Black-snake with red belly only. There would then 
 remain three exceptional local tribes No. 2 with three totems, 
 No. 4 with two totems, and No. 14 with two totems. 
 
 The interfusion of kindreds in these tribes goes to show 
 that the Narrinyeri formerly counted kinship through females 
 only, as most of the Australian tribes continued to do. With 
 kinship through females only a man being of a different 
 totem from his wife or wives, and children being of the totem 
 of the mother there would necessarily be such interfusion. 
 The care taken to prevent marriage with relations on the side 
 of the mother and grandmother relations whom civilised 
 people may marry is another indication of the former pre- 
 valence of this system of kinship. If it may be taken that all 
 
XV 
 
 A USTRALIA 
 
 285 
 
 the Narrinyeri totems were formerly interfused, more or less, in 
 the local tribes, it is easy to understand how the actual consti- 
 tution of the local tribes was arrived at. With kinship 
 counted through the father, all the men of a family would 
 be of the same totem, and would be united for the purposes of 
 the blood-feud, which would then be a far more serious thing 
 than it could have been while (with the totem taken from 
 the mother) it might array members of the same household 
 on different sides. The more serious it was, the more need 
 would there be of cohesion between those whom it united, and 
 the men of the same totem would draw together until they 
 formed a true clan within the local tribe or rather a portion 
 of a clan, the other portions being in other local tribes. 
 Here things might have rested, but among the Narrinyeri, in 
 most cases, there has been a further drawing together of the 
 men of the same totem, until in fourteen cases out of eighteen 
 they have all coalesced in separate local tribes. In one case 
 more (that of the Black Ducks) the segregation of the totem 
 kindred had not been completed. In the remaining three 
 cases the people of the same totem had all come to be together, 
 but did not form separate local tribes. 
 
 If, as seems clearly to have been the case (see note, p. 317), 
 there was originally prohibition of marriage only between per- 
 sons of the same totem among the Narrinyeri/the clans united 
 in these three tribes would have originally been, and, with 
 male kinship they might have continued to be, free to inter- 
 marry with one another. But association in the same local 
 tribe, with male kinship, and with such association become 
 uncommon (and perhaps a frequency of the relationships they 
 now acknowledged outside the totem), may have led to the 
 prohibition being extended from the totem to the local tribe 
 (the statements of Taplin and Meyer, however, do not make it 
 clear that this was the fact). In this case two of the Nar- 
 rinyeri clans would have been cut off from marriage with one 
 clan besides its own, and one of them from marriage with two 
 clans besides its own. 
 
 Each of the Narrinyeri tribes had a chief (called Eupulle, 
 which means landowner), elected by the heads of families, 
 
286 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 apparently from the family of the preceding chief. Wives 
 were commonly got among them by exchange, and the brother, 
 according to Mr. Meyer, gave a woman away more frequently 
 than the father. It was considered disgraceful for a girl to 
 elope. Polygamy was practised. The Narrinyeri did not kill 
 the Ngaitye (Taplin, p. 48) unless it was an animal good for 
 food, and when they did kill and eat it, they were careful to 
 destroy the remains, " lest an enemy should get them, and by 
 sorcery cause the Ngaitye to grow in the inside of the eater and 
 cause his death." 
 
 Mr. Taplin (p. 8) quotes the Eev. H. E. A. Meyer, who 
 resided among the Narrinyeri before they had much inter- 
 course with Europeans, as corroborating his own account 
 at various points, and inter alia as to their exogamy. The 
 evidence as to these tribes having exogamy in operation in 
 conjunction with male kinship may, therefore, be accepted as 
 being above suspicion. 
 
 As to the law of blood-feud and the solemn obligation laid 
 on the avenger of blood among these tribes to avenge it, by 
 slaying the supposed murderer, or one of his relatives, see 
 Taplin, pp. 16, 17, 22, and 89. At p. 89 Mr. Taplin pictures 
 a small group of natives prowling about the bush at night in 
 order to surprise some enemy or his relatives, "acting upon the 
 native principle, if you cannot hurt your enemy, hurt his 
 nearest relatives." 
 
 Of the Adelaide district we have some information from 
 Mr. Eyre, but it is rather negative than positive. All he says 
 as to limitations on marriage is that "relatives nearer than 
 cousins are not allowed to marry, and this alliance does not 
 generally take place." 1 Elsewhere he quotes from Grey the 
 passage in which it is said that children take the family name 
 of their mother, and that persons of the same family name 
 cannot marry. He does not expressly say so, but it is plainly 
 implied that he had never heard of anything like this limitation 
 on marriage, or of any limitation on marriage, other than that 
 already quoted from him. And in a Latin note he says, 
 1 Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia in the years 
 1840-41. By Edward John Eyre, vol. ii. p. 319. London, 1845. 
 
xv A USTRALIA 287 
 
 " Apud plurimas tribus, juventutem utriusque sexus sine 
 discrimine concumbere in usu est " ; and that when the 
 " Mooyum-karr " a machine in the shape of an egg, with 
 mystic sculpturing had been produced and rattled, " liber- 
 tatem coeundi juventuti esse turn concessam omnibus indicat " ; 
 from which it seems that he thought there was no restriction 
 upon the intercourse of the sexes of the kind declared by 
 Grey, or of any other kind. 1 Again he says nothing of the 
 
 1 Mr. G. S. Lang (I.e. p. 38) has a few remarks in Latin to much the 
 same effect as the Latin note of Eyre. He says, " Ut antea animadverti, 
 senioribus pertinent mulieres permultae, junioribus vel perpaucse, vel 
 nullae. Connubium profecto valde est liberum. Conjuges, puellse, 
 puellulee cum adolescentibus venantur. Pretiuin corporis paene nullius 
 est. Vendunt se vel columbae vel canis vel piscis pretio. Inter Anglos 
 et Aborigines nihil distat." Yet Lang tells us that among the tribes 
 under his observation, marriage was forbidden between persons of the 
 same totem. Are we to surmise that this could be so, and intercourse 
 without marriage free of restriction. 1 ? are we to take it that such inter- 
 course as is vouched for by Eyre and Lang was subject to restriction, 
 though a traveller might think it promiscuous ? 
 
 From the nature of the case it is almost impossible to get evidence on 
 the point raised in the preceding paragraph. In Kamilaroi and Kurnai 
 (by the Eev. Lorimer Fison and A. W. Howitt, Melbourne, 1880) it is 
 repeatedly asserted that intercourse never took place between natives who 
 were not free to marry ; but for proof of this the authors appear to rely 
 a good deal on the fact that, in lending a wife to a guest, a woman for- 
 bidden to the guest would not be given, which is almost a matter of 
 course, and should go for nothing. Of the statements from correspondents 
 which they publish on this matter, only two or three appear to be in any 
 degree trustworthy, and these are of course limited to the practice of 
 particular tribes. And these statements are not all of the same tenor. 
 The Kev. W. Julius Kuhn, writing of the Turra tribe (York's Peninsula, 
 South Australia), says distinctly that at grand corrobborees the restric- 
 tions observed in marrying were put aside, and, though less distinctly, he 
 conveys that there might be intercourse between persons of the same 
 totem (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 286). "The men," he says, "were 
 not confined to any particular totem ; " and as they were not confined to 
 any particular totem at any time, he must have meant that the totem 
 put no limit upon intercourse. 
 
288 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 relationships of the natives, as if he presumed them to be the 
 same as those of white people. He has some observations, 
 however, which bear upon kinship. The South Australian 
 native, he tells us, adopts " some object in creation as his crest 
 or tiende " ; and he thought it apparent there was very little 
 difference between this and the kobong described by Grey, 
 though he did not observe the unwillingness to kill the animal 
 of which Grey had spoken. The same tiende seemed to de- 
 scend from father to son, but he had heard occasionally of 
 instances where this was not the case. And so far as his 
 observations and inquiries had enabled him to ascertain, 
 among the numerous tribes frequenting the Murray Eiver, 
 the people had not family names or surnames " perpetuated 
 through successive generations on the mother's side." Mr. 
 Moorhouse, too, assured him that he had been equally unable 
 to detect anything of the kind among the tribes frequenting the 
 district of Adelaide. 
 
 Evidence of this sort is not worth much. As regards 
 certain tribes on the river Murray, however, we have already 
 seen, on the authority of Taplin and Meyer, that names were 
 not perpetuated on the mother's side, but on the father's. On 
 the same authority we have seen, what Mr. Eyre failed to 
 observe, totemism and exogamy, as described by Grey, in full 
 force among these tribes, though in connection with male 
 instead of female kinship. 
 
 What we are told by Mr. Wilhelmi of the tribes about 
 
 It will be found that Mr. Wilhelmi, who is quoted on the next page, 
 says of the Port Lincoln tribes that intercourse between persons who 
 were forbidden to marry was not considered incestuous even on ordinary 
 occasions. There seems to be no further evidence to this effect. But 
 Mr. Wilhelmi had much experience of those tribes ; and the fact he 
 mentions was more easily ascertainable than the practice at corrobborees. 
 
 As to the practice at corrobborees, if we trust the statement that the 
 totem restriction was always disregarded in the Turra tribe, it will carry 
 us far towards a conclusion as to ancient Australian practice. Nor would 
 evidence that the totem restriction was in recent times generally observed 
 by unmarried people in Australian tribes (were it forthcoming) make any 
 obstacle. 
 
xv A USTRALIA 289 
 
 Port Lincoln, in South Australia, is also, as far as it goes, in 
 full accordance with the statements of Sir George Grey. 
 These tribes, Mr. Wilhelmi says, 1 "are divided into two 
 separate classes, viz. the Matteri and the Karraru. This 
 division seems to have been introduced since time immemorial 
 and with a view to regulate their marriages, as no one is 
 allowed to intermarry in his own caste but only into the 
 other one. . . . This distinction is kept up by the arrangement 
 that the children belong to the caste of the mother. There are 
 no instances of two Karrarus or two Matteris having been 
 married together; and yet connections of a less virtuous 
 character which take place between members of the same 
 caste do not appear to be considered incestuous." 
 
 For caste read "family," gens, or tribe of descent, and we 
 have here Grey's system realised except that there is no 
 mention of totems, and subject to the Latin notes of Eyre 
 and Lang. 2 
 
 "We now come to the Kamilaroi-speaking tribes of Eastern 
 Australia, the first accounts of which represented them as 
 having a marriage system entirely different from that with 
 which we have been hitherto meeting a system, moreover, 
 to the last degree strange and perplexing. The history of 
 the evidence relating to those tribes will have to be considered 
 at some length. 
 
 The first statement as to the social organisation and the 
 marriage law of the Kamilaroi (so to call them) was made by 
 the Eev. W. Eidley in a lecture delivered by him in Sydney in 
 November 1853. Mr. Eidley stated that the Kamilaroi were 
 divided into castes, the castes being distinguished by peculiar 
 names. " There are four names," he said, " of men Ippai, 
 Murri, Kubbi, and Kumbo ; and four of women Ippata, Mata, 
 Kapota, Buta. Every black has one of these names by birth." 
 
 1 Quoted in the Aborigines of Victoria, by K. Brough Smith, vol. i. 
 p. 37. 
 
 2 Mr. Wilhelmi adds that there are besides " certain degrees of relation- 
 ship within which intermarrying is prohibited." But these, unfortunately, 
 he had not been able to trace. 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 " In one family all the sons are called Ippai, the daughters 
 Ippata ; so that if you find a black man's name is Ippai, you 
 may be sure all his brothers are Ippai, and his sisters Ippata. 
 In another family, in like manner, all the sons were Murri 
 and all the daughters Mata ; in a third the sons all Kubbi and 
 daughters all Kapota ; in a fourth the sons all Kumbo and th( 
 daughters all Buta." 
 
 These being the family or caste names, " the following rules 
 
 of intermarriage," said Mr. Eidley, " are most strictly observed : 
 
 1. Ippai may marry an Ippata (of another family) or any 
 
 Kapota. 2. Murri may marry only Buta. 3. Kubbi mai 
 
 marry only Ippata. 4. Kumbo may marry only Mata." 
 
 Any attempt to infringe these rules, he said, would be re- 
 sisted even to bloodshed. Polygamy was allowed and was common. 
 
 The rules governing descents were given by Mr. Eidley as 
 follows : " 1. The children of Ippai by Ippata. are all Kumbo 
 and Buta. 2. The children of Ippai by Kapota are all Murri 
 and Mata. 3. The children of Murri are all Ippai and Ippata. | 
 4. The children of Kubbi are all Kumbo and Buta. 5. The 
 children of Kumbo are all Kubbi and Kapota. By tracing out 
 the effect of these rules you may perceive," he said, " that 
 descendants of every family come, in the course of a few 
 generations, into the privileged class of Ippai, while the sons 
 of these aristocrats inherit not their father's rank, but belong 
 to the Kumb or Murri caste." 
 
 Mr. Eidley further mentioned that the Kamilaroi had 
 " commonly distinctive names added to their family titles " ; 
 and that these distinctive names were often taken from animals. 1 
 
 According to this extraordinary statement the tribe among 
 the Kamilaroi was, structurally, unlike any other tribe that 
 had ever been described. Taking its divisions, as determined 
 by the names of its members, to be truly castes, it was uncertain 
 whether one should count four or eight castes within the tribe. 
 The Ippais, however, were represented as being the aristocratic 
 or highest caste, and except in their case the caste of children 
 was represented as depending on that of their father. There 
 
 1 SQePritchaTd's Natural History of Man, vol. ii. pp. AQOetseq. Norris's 
 edition. London, 1855. 
 
xv AUSTRALIA 291 
 
 was no suggestion of the tribe being divided into elans or 
 gentes each with its animal totem, or of the marriage law being 
 related to exogamy. The law of intermarriage was, according 
 to the statement, dependent on the caste names solely ; and 
 the caste name was inherited being directly determined by 
 that of the father, indirectly by that of the mother whom he 
 was confined to marry children, nevertheless, being never of 
 the caste either of their father or of their mother. Murri, for 
 example, because he was named Murri, could marry only a 
 Buta ; if he took ever so many wives, as he might do, they 
 all had to be Butas ; and his children were neither Murri nor 
 Buta, but Ippai and Ippata. 
 
 In the Journal of a tour made by Mr. Eidley among the 
 aborigines of the western interior of Queensland in the year 
 1855, which is printed in the Appendix to Dr. Lang's work 
 on Queensland, the foregoing statements are repeated in general 
 terms ; and it is suggested that the peculiar classification of 
 the people, and the marriage law connected therewith, were the 
 invention of sagacious and comparatively civilised men among 
 the remote forefathers of the Kamilaroi. The fact of there 
 being similar " family or clan names " among the tribes at 
 Moreton Bay is also here disclosed. 1 
 
 At some time before May 1871 Mr. Eidley made a fresh 
 statement on the Kamilaroi marriage law to the Kev. Lorimer 
 Fison, then a missionary in Fiji. This also agreed with that 
 made in 1853, except at one point. Ippai was now repre- 
 sented as by law free to marry Kapota and no other ; while 
 the privilege of marrying Ippata (of another family), which had 
 been assigned to him by the first statement, was now declared 
 to be " an infringement of rule, allowed in favour of some 
 powerful Ippai, and so continued." Apart from this little bit 
 of theorising, the extraordinary character of the original state- 
 ment remained unqualified in the early part of 1871. 
 
 Before August in that year, however, Mr. Eidley had fresh 
 occasion to visit the interior of Australia, and he now obtained 
 new light on this subject, and thereupon made a further com- 
 munication to Mr. Fison. He had now discovered that the 
 Australia, by J. D. Lang, D.D. London, 1861. 
 
292 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 Ippais and Ippatas were in three s^&divisions, namely, Emus, 
 Blacksnakes, and Bandicoots ; and the Kubbis and Kapotas 
 likewise in three m&divisions, namely, Opossums, Paddy-melons 
 (a sort of kangaroos), and Iguanas. Among the Kumbos and 
 Butas, however, he found only two subdivisions, namely, Emus 
 and Blacksnakes ; and also only two among the Murris and 
 Matas, namely, Iguanas and Paddy-melons. By this date the 
 term "caste " had disappeared from Mr. Bidley's exposition. It 
 was replaced by a term even more inapplicable, namely, " class," 
 used in the sense which that term has in connection with the 
 classificatory system. And instead of the father's " caste " 
 determining that of the children, Mr. Eidley was now able to 
 state that both the " class " name and the subdivisional name 
 (which the reader must have recognised as that of the totem, 
 clan, or gens) were taken through the mother. Ippata's 
 children, for example, were Kumbo and Buta, whether their 
 father was a Kubbi or whether he was an Ippai ; and they 
 were of the totem or clan of their mother, and not of the totem 
 of their father. Moreover, Mr. Bidley had now found that 
 the privilege of marrying within the " class " (a woman of the 
 corresponding female name but of a different family, that is, 
 totem) which he had supposed to be peculiar to the Ippais, and 
 to have been obtained by them through an infraction of rule, 
 was possessed by the other " classes " as well as by the Ippais, 
 so that this was not a privilege but a common right. And a 
 man's sons were not necessarily, as had been stated, all of the 
 same " class." As none of the Kamilaroi were restricted to 
 marrying in one " class," and polygamy was common, and the 
 " class " of children was determined by that of the mother, 
 when a man had wives of different " classes," his children by 
 them were of different classes. And, indeed, all the four 
 " castes " or " classes " might be represented in a single house- 
 hold. 
 
 This statement, which upset so much of what had been 
 previously announced, and disclosed so much that was new, 
 was yet itself obviously imperfect. There being three sub- 
 divisions of the Ippais and Ippatas, it was impossible that there 
 should not have been three of the Kumbos and Butas, the 
 
xv AUSTRALIA 293 
 
 children of the Ippatas. There being Bandicoots among the 
 former, it was impossible there should not have been Bandicoots 
 among the latter. The children of Ippata Bandicoot must 
 have been Kumbo and Buta Bandicoot, according to the rules 
 by which the gens and class names were said to be transmitted ; 
 and Buta Bandicoot only could have been, according to those 
 rules, the mother of Ippata Bandicoot. Similarly there being 
 three subdivisions of the Kapotas, it was impossible that there 
 should not have been three of the Murri and Mata ; as there 
 were Opossums among the former, there must have been 
 Opossums among the latter. And further research has since 
 disclosed that the representation that the Kumbos and Butas, 
 the Murris and Matas had each two subdivisions only resulted 
 from an error of observation. 
 
 In 1872 a further communication (giving the results of 
 the same journey) from the pen of Mr. Eidley appeared in the 
 Proceedings of the Anthropological Institute. 1 The errors of 
 observation above noticed appeared in this also ; and it was, 
 moreover, vitiated by the incorporation of inferences made by 
 Mr. Fison from the statement of 1853. It gave, however, 
 some further information as to the clan divisions. 
 
 On the river Marron the Murri and Mata were said to be 
 subdivided into Iguanas, Paddy-melons, and Opossums, while 
 among the Kubbis and Kapotas there were Iguanas and Paddy- 
 melons only. The Kumbos and Butas, again, were said to be 
 subdivided into Emus, Blacksnakes, and Bandicoots, while 
 among the Ippais and Ippatas there were Emus and Black- 
 snakes only. The errors or inconsistencies already noticed 
 were thus repeated, but with the " classes " reversed. 
 
 Among the Wailwun tribes (below the junction of the 
 Namoi and the Barwan rivers) the Murris and the Matas, and 
 also the Kubbis and Kapotas, were found to have a fourth 
 totem, namely, the Guru, a species of bandicoot. The Ippais 
 and Ippatas, again, also the Kumbos and Butas, were found to 
 have three totems, but only two of them the same as those 
 previously noticed, viz. the Emu and Blacksnake, the Bundar 
 (kangaroo) taking the place of the bandicoot. 
 
 1 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. ii. p. 257. 
 
294 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 In other parts of the country about the Balonne, the 
 Kumbos and Butas were stated to be Emus and Wombats, 
 while the Ippais and Ippatas, instead of being Emus and 
 Wombats (as they ought to have been if they were the children 
 of Buta Emu and Buta Wombat), were Kangaroos and Black- 
 snakes. The Murris and Matas, again, were here Opossums 
 and Paddy-melons, while the Kubbis and Kapotas were Opos- 
 sums, Paddy-melons, Iguanas, and Gulu, a species of bandicoot. 
 On the Macintyre, among some tribes, the Ippais were either 
 Emus, Blacksnakes, or Yuluma, which is untranslated. 
 
 While the clans into which the so-called castes or classes 
 are subdivided thus varied from district to district, the " class " 
 names themselves are found to vary from district to district. 
 Mr. Eidley, in one of his communications to Mr. Eison, had 
 already stated that among tribes speaking the Balomer lan- 
 guage, all the men bore one of the following four names, 
 viz. : 
 
 1. Urgilla ; 2. Wunggo ; 3. Obur ; 4. Unburri ; and all 
 the women one of the following four names, viz. : 
 
 1. Urgillagun ; 2. Wunggooun ; 3. Oburugun ; and 4. 
 Unburrigun ; he had also previously mentioned that four names, 
 different from any of the preceding, were in use as applicable 
 to the males among the Moreton Bay aborigines, and four 
 corresponding names formed from the male names by adding 
 gun or un, as applicable to the females. Among the Wide 
 Bay aborigines, he found five names different from the pre- 
 ceding in use for the males, and five corresponding names for 
 the females. It was suggested, though not expressly stated, 
 that laws of marriage and descent similar to those of the 
 Kamilaroi occurred wherever these male and female names 
 were stated to occur. 
 
 Let us here pause to note some results obtainable from the 
 foregoing statements. Whatever may be the meaning or 
 importance of the so-called class names, this much is certain, 
 that they are not exceptional among the Kamilaroi, but occur 
 among tribes ranging over a wide area of south-eastern Australia ; 
 and that the names of the women among the Kamilaroi may 
 be assumed to be in all cases feminine forms of the men's names 
 
XV 
 
 AUSTRALIA 
 
 295 
 
 in each class. Further, we see that the names form themselves 
 in two distinct sets as follows : 
 
 Female. 
 Buta. 
 Ippata. 
 
 FIRST SET. 
 
 SECOND SET. 
 
 Male. Female. 
 
 Male. 1 
 
 1. Murri . . Mata. 
 
 3. Kumbo 
 
 2. Kubbi . . Kapota. 
 
 4. Ippai . 
 
 TOTEMS. 
 
 TOTEMS. 
 
 Iguana. 
 Paddy-melon (a sort of kangaroo). 
 Opossum. 
 Guru, or Gulu (a species of bandi- 
 coot). 
 
 Emu. 
 Blacksnake. 
 Bandicoot. 
 Bundar = kangaroo. 
 Wombat. 
 Yuluma. 
 
 It will be seen that each set is, so to speak, self-sustaining. 
 Mata's children are Kubbi and Kapota ; Kapota's children are 
 Murri and Mata. Whatever husband any one of these women 
 takes, the children belong to her set and totem. Similarly of 
 the second set. Next, let us observe, the totems in the two 
 sets are absolutely different. Not one that appears in the one 
 set appears in the other unless Guru, or Gulu, means the same 
 thing as Bilba (bandicoot), which is not suggested, and Bundar 
 (kangaroo) the same thing as Paddy -melon, which is not 
 suggested. With reference to this, it must be remembered that 
 the minutest difference in the type of animal makes an absolute 
 difference in a totem. Two gentes might each have a dog for 
 a totem ; but if the one had a terrier and the other a collie, 
 the gentes would be thereby marked as absolutely distinct. 
 
 We now come to Mr. Eidley's last communication on 
 this subject, dated July 1874, which appeared in Nature on 
 29th October 1874. It is mainly directed to controverting 
 Dr. Long's statement, 1 that among all the tribes, exogamy, pure 
 and simple, is the marriage law, i.e. that no man can marry a 
 woman of the same gens, clan, or totem with himself. " It is 
 true," says Mr. Eidley, " that no man may marry a woman of 
 
 1 This statement is not accessible to me. 
 the writer referred to.] 
 
 [Mr. Gideon Lang is clearly 
 
296 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 the same names as his sisters. But it is by no means true, as 
 Dr. Long stated, on imperfect information, that no one can 
 marry a woman ' of the same clan/ taking the word clan in the 
 common sense of the term as equivalent to gens. The rule 
 that restricts marriage is founded on an exact law of pedigree 
 and class names. It is as follows among the aborigines of the 
 Namoi ; and other tribes have rules similar in the main, though 
 the names differ widely. 
 
 " The men are all divided into four classes [classes named]. 
 The Murri are regarded as the most important ; the Kubbi 
 are the lowest in esteem. [The women are similarly divided.] 
 There is also another classification marked by totems, in which 
 a second name is given to every one according to birth. Thus 
 there are the Bundar [kangaroo], Meite [opossum], Duli 
 [iguana], Nurai [blacksnake], Dinoun [emu], and others. 1 On 
 these classifications are based the laws of marriage and descent. 
 A Murri may marry Buta of the same totem, and of any other 
 totem he may take a Mata though she bears the name of his 
 own sisters, who are all Mata. So Ippai Dinoun [emu] may 
 marry Ippata Nurai [blacksnake] but not Ippata Dinoun. But 
 Ippai Dinoun may marry Kapota Dinoun." 
 
 " Children always bear the second name (or totem) of 
 their mother, and the first name of the child depends on the 
 mother's." 
 
 The effect of this is that 
 
 (1) Between persons of the same " class " name the totem 
 makes the only bar to marriage, and the "class" name does 
 not bar marriage. A man may marry a woman of his own 
 "class" provided she be not of his totem or clan. And, 
 within the " class," the law is simple exogamy. 
 
 1 Mr. Ridley originally said that the Ippai were the aristocratic caste. 
 Afterwards (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, ut supra) lie stated 
 that, in some places, people affirmed that the Ippai were the highest class ; 
 that, in other places, the first place was given to Kumbo, but that the 
 most trustworthy witnesses said that the Murri stood first, the Kumbo 
 next, the Ippai third, and the Kubbi lowest of all. Did his interlocutors 
 and he understand each other ? There appears no reason why one class 
 should be esteemed higher than another. 
 
xv AUSTRALIA 297 
 
 (2) Between the persons of different " class " name who 
 are free to intermarry the totem makes no bar to marriage ; 
 such persons may marry though they are of the same totem or 
 clan. And, in this case, the law is not exogamy. 
 
 To set forth the second point was, as appears above, Mr. 
 Kidley's object in this communication. He has conveyed it by 
 means of illustrative instances. Murri, he says, may marry 
 Buta of the same totem. Ippai Emu may marry Kapota Emu. 
 If, however, the table on p. 295 be looked at, it will be seen 
 that there is no Buta of the same totem with any Murri, and 
 that Kapota Emu does not exist. 
 
 And, unless Mr. Eidley's previous statments were wrong 
 altogether, the marriage between persons of different " classes " 
 which he says are permitted, are all marriages which exogamy 
 would permit. For there is no Murri of the same totem with 
 any Buta, no Ippai of the same totem with any Kapota, no Kumbo 
 of the same totem with any Mata, no Kubbi of the same totem 
 with any Ippata. The totem can make no bar to marriage 
 between these pairs, because the man and woman in each are 
 never of the same totem. And there is nothing to make one 
 doubt (for Mr. Eidley's statement to the contrary is evidently 
 the result of an oversight) that in this case, as in the case of 
 marriage within the " class," the law is simple exogamy. 
 
 Mr. Eidley, no doubt, had in his mind the fact that there 
 was no restriction on the marriage of Murri and Buta, of Ippai 
 and Kapota, and so on. His first impression, formed in ignorance 
 of the Kamilaroi totems, that the " caste " or " class " names had 
 been devised for the regulation of marriage remained with him. 
 And the totem, in fact, made no bar to marriage in these cases. 
 Then he happened not to think of the distribution of the totems. 
 And accordingly he concluded that they were in these cases 
 overridden by the " class " that " class " was everything and 
 totem nothing in the marriages of two " classes " which were 
 free to intermarry. But it is quite clear that he came to this 
 conclusion through inadvertence, and that all the marriages 
 which are certainly permitted among the Kamilaroi are 
 marriages between persons of different totems. 
 
 Mr. Eidley's statements still leave each " class " cut off 
 
298 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 from marriage with two other "classes." Ippai may marry 
 Ippata, and he may marry Kapota; but he may not marry 
 Buta nor Mata. Murri may marry Mata, and he may marry 
 Buta, but not Kapota or Ippata. And so on in the other 
 cases, every man being cut off from the " classes " to which 
 (according to Mr. Eidley) his wife's mother or his daughter 
 may belong. 
 
 In a case where the facts have so slowly been disclosed, 
 so far as yet disclosed, in their true light a case in 
 which they were at first so thoroughly misunderstood in 
 essential features one must use discretion as to accepting the 
 form in which for the moment they are cast. And that the 
 facts in regard to the restrictions just spoken of are now 
 fairly before us may most reasonably be doubted. Tor there 
 is nothing to show that Mr. Eidley has ever made such 
 inquiry about them as (circumstances having prompted him 
 thereto) he made in regard to the totems and to marriage 
 within the " class " with the result of shattering his own 
 earliest statement. For anything that has appeared he has, 
 as regards those restrictions, been content with his first 
 impression. And it may well be that, on further inquiry, 
 they will dwindle into rules or arrangements for restraining 
 marriage between persons of different totems but of close 
 family connection father and daughter, uncle and niece, son- 
 in-law and mother-in-law, and perhaps also brother and 
 sister. It is even highly probable the whole history of the 
 evidence considered that something like this will yet be 
 found to be the basis for Mr. Eidley's statement ; that, subject 
 to some restraint of the kind suggested, Murri (to take one 
 example) may marry Kapota, if of a different totem, as freely 
 as he may marry Mata, if of a different totem ; and, by con- 
 sequence, that the " class " names have nothing to do with 
 the marriage law, and that that law is simply exogamy 
 qualified by the restraint aforesaid. It is no reflection on 
 Mr. Eidley to think he has been misled by appearances at this 
 point, as he was at other points as to the " class " name 
 being determined by the father instead of by the mother ; as 
 to its being in virtue of an exclusive privilege, contrary to 
 
xv A USTRALIA 299 
 
 law, that some Ippais could marry some Ippatas, whereas we 
 know now that any man in any " class " may marry a woman 
 of his " class " if of a different totem ; as to the Ippais being 
 the privileged and most important " class," which he now says 
 the Murris are; as to the importance of the totems, over- 
 looked by him altogether when he first formed his view about 
 the " classes " and Kamilaroi marriage. And, however that 
 may be, unquestionably every student, on the contrary, must 
 feel grateful to Mr. Eidley for his perseverance in investiga- 
 tion, and for his frankness and promptitude in rectifying errors 
 of observation. The wonder is, looking to the circumstances 
 including limited knowledge of the language under which 
 his inquiries were conducted, as we see them disclosed in 
 his journals, that he has been able to ascertain so much. 1 
 
 1 It was a Mr. Lance who first told Mr. Ridley of the Kamilaroi 
 marriage law as he originally explained it. Mr. Lance, however, was 
 aware (as appears from a subsequent communication made by him to 
 Mr. Fison) that he did not thoroughly comprehend the matter. He 
 had found (as appears in this communication) that the marriage system, 
 as he conceived of it, was " crossed and complicated " by arrangements 
 which he did not understand. Every black fellow was called after 
 some animal, " implying some incomprehensible relationship " Kumbo 
 being as a rule an emu, Ippai a blacksnake, Kubbi an iguana. And 
 he had sometimes come across a man and wife whose names were not 
 suitable (according to the impressions he had got) for the connection ; 
 and, on inquiring how this could be, they would reply, " This Ippai is 
 not a blacksnake, as most Ippais are, but an opossum ; that explains it." 
 Something of this (very little, however) appeared in Mr. Ridley's first 
 account of the Kamilaroi. Mr. Ridley thought he had come upon a 
 division into castes, and that it was evidence of " an extinct and long- 
 forgotten civilisation" which had existed in Australia. But had Mr. 
 Lance or he been acquainted with the facts of totemism, should we ever 
 have heard of Kamilaroi castes or classes ? 
 
 That marriage was permitted between persons of the same " class " 
 name who were not of the same totem was unmistakenly suggested by 
 what Mr. Lance had noticed. That at least. He had at first magnified 
 the fact that certain Ippais could not marry certain Ippatas, certain Murri 
 certain Matas, into the much greater fact that no Ippai could marry any 
 Ippata, no Murri any Mata, and so on. What is suggested in the text is 
 
300 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 Since the above was written, a further statement on the 
 subject just dealt with has appeared in the February number 
 of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for 1878. 
 This is a communication from Mr. Eidley to the Colonial 
 Secretary for New South Wales, dated in July 1873, and it 
 contains, inter alia, Mr. Eidley's account of information 
 supplied to him by a Mr. Honery, respecting the Wailwun 
 tribes who live near the junction of the Namoi river with the 
 Barwan. It is much to be regretted that what Mr. Honery 
 wrote has not been given as he wrote it, so that we might 
 judge at once of the man and of his statements. 
 
 These Wailwun tribes have the same family names (male 
 and female) as the Kamilaroi. But the persons having these 
 names are all divided, according to Mr. Honery, into " Kang- 
 aroos, Emus, Brown-snakes, and Opossums." There are there- 
 fore four classes of Ippai, namely [dropping the native names], 
 Ippai Kangaroo, Ippai Emu, Ippai Brown-snake, and Ippai 
 Opossum ; and so of the others, making sixteen classes of men 
 and sixteen of women. 
 
 that he made the same error in other cases, and that Mr. Ridley's 
 inquiries never extended to these cases. (He inquired as to the totems, 
 and as to marriage within the "class," at the instance of Mr. Fison.) 
 Passing that by, however, had it been seen that marriage was permitted, 
 subject to the totem restriction, between all people of the same name, the 
 idea of such people being a caste must forthwith have been rejected. 
 And the idea of their being a "class" appointed to intermarry with 
 another "class" could never have been entertained. That, with exogamy 
 for marriage law, they in other respects married one another freely, 
 would have been enough to exclude this ; marriage among savage or bar- 
 barous peoples is scarcely ever found freer. And to this by and by would 
 have had to be added the fact that the people with whom they were 
 known to intermarry without any restriction the supposed "class" 
 with which they intermarried were all people whom exogamy allowed 
 them to marry all people not of their totems. The theory of the 
 Kamilaroi being in " intermarrying classes," which has been maintained 
 by Mr. Fison and Mr. Morgan, has been founded on Mr. Lance's (no 
 doubt very pardonable) misapprehension. It has appeared above that Mr. 
 Lance's knowledge of the Kamilaroi was very limited, and that he was 
 wrong in his facts at every point at which they have been tested. 
 
xv A USTRALIA 301 
 
 " When tribes go to war," this statement proceeds, " each 
 carries its own representative animal stuffed, as a standard." 
 
 " According to Mr. Honery, the only rules observed as to 
 marriage and descent are these two : that a man cannot take 
 a wife of the names corresponding with His own, and that 
 parents may not give their children their own names. Thus 
 Murri Opossum may not marry Mata Opossum, but he may 
 marry Mata Brown-snake, or Ippata Opossum, or any woman 
 except Mata Opossum. Ippai Brown-snake may marry any 
 woman but an Ippata Brown-snake. The children of the 
 Opossum and a Brown -snake must be either Kangaroo or 
 Emu. It is likely enough that in some families the rules are 
 more or less relaxed. The two rules above given are carried 
 out in the more complete system which has been described in 
 former reports. Mr. Honery also states that brothers and sisters 
 have different animal names. Thus all the brothers of Ippai 
 Brown-snake are also Ippai Brown-snake ; but his sisters are 
 not Brown-snake, though they are all Ippata. Sometimes the 
 brothers are Ippai Brown-snake and the sisters Ippata Opossum. 
 
 "When Ippai Brown -snake marries Kapota Kangaroo, 
 their children are Murri Opossum and Mata Emu ; when 
 Kumbo Emu marries Mata Opossum, their children are Kubbi 
 Brown-snake and Kapota Kangaroo." 
 
 It is needless to say that we have here a fresh addition 
 of perplexity to this already over -perplexed subject. This 
 statement (1) represents the totems of the Kubbis and 
 Kapotas, Murris and Matas, as being the same as those of 
 the Ippais and Ippatas, Kumbos and Butas. At least it is 
 silent as to their being different. (2) It represents a Murri as 
 being as free to marry a Kapota of a different totem, as he is 
 to marry a Buta or Mata of a different totem. (3) It repre- 
 sents the children as taking the totem neither of their father 
 nor of their mother, but, in accordance with some rule not 
 stated, the one or the other, according to sex, of the other two 
 totems known in the group. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say I attach no value to this 
 statement, not even where it supports one of my own surmises. 
 It will be seen that Mr. Ridley himself has attached no 
 
302 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 importance whatsoever to it. His letter in Nature, dated a 
 year after he had sent in this statement to the Colonial Office, 
 contradicted it in every leading point. 
 
 The conclusion to be arrived at on the evidence is that 
 the Kamilaroi tribes and the tribes related to them, like the 
 Australian tribes that had previously been noticed, consist of 
 totem families or clans ; that female kinship prevails, so that 
 children are of the clan or totem of their mother ; and that 
 the marriage law is exogamy qualified if at all qualified in 
 some way not yet ascertained by limitations on the marriage 
 of persons nearly connected by family or blood, though not of 
 the same totem or generally acknowledged blood connection. 
 
 A brief account of the Brisbane district to the south of 
 Moreton Bay (Queensland) has been given by Dr. Lang, 1 and 
 it contains one point which must not be passed over. This 
 throws light on some observations casually made by Eyre on 
 a practice which he found among some tribes in the Adelaide 
 district. Many of the Adelaide tribes, Eyre tells us, have no 
 tattooing, but they are marked on the breast by singular- 
 looking scars, occupying a space of six or eight inches each 
 way upon the chest. These are called Renditch, and are made 
 by fire. They are confined to particular tribes ; i.e. all tribes 
 have not got them. Eyre had no opportunity of inquiring 
 into their origin, but he expresses his opinion that they could 
 not have been accidental. 
 
 If we can trust Dr. Lang, these scars are the emblems or 
 totem marks of the clans to which those having them belong. 
 Tattooing, he explains, is unknown to the black race of the 
 Western Pacific, to whom it would be of no service as an 
 ornamant, from the colour of their skins. " But in lieu of this 
 process, they make those singular scars which, although un- 
 known among the lighter race, are universal among the 
 aborigines of Australia." " The aborigines of Australia," he 
 says at another place, " never mention the name of a deceased 
 native, and they seem distressed when any European happens 
 to do so ; but at Moreton Bay they usually carve the emblem 
 
 1 Queensland, Australia, by J. D. Lang, D.D. London, 1861. See 
 pp. 316, 367, and 337. 
 
xv A USTRALIA 303 
 
 or coat of arms of the tribe to which he belonged on the bark 
 of a tree close to the spot where he died. The first of these 
 affecting memorials of aboriginal mortality which I happened 
 to see, was pointed out to me near Breakfast Creek by Mr. 
 Wade, on our return to Brisbane from the Pine Eiver. The 
 rain was pouring down in torrents at the time, but I imme- 
 diately reined up my horse to the tree, and remained fixed to 
 the spot for a few minutes, till I fancied I could identify the 
 rude carving on the bark with the raised figures on the breasts 
 of the aboriginal tribe of the Brisbane district." 
 
 This, if it can be trusted, is very interesting, and Eed 
 American all over. Nothing could prove more clearly the 
 structural importance of the totem. Dr. Lang tells us nothing 
 further, however, of Australian totemism, marriage law, or kin- 
 ship, except that marriage is generally contracted " with the 
 consent of the relatives of the parties and the sanction of the 
 tribe, and is never contracted between near relatives." 
 
 To resume. We have now found in every district of 
 Australia of which we have distinct accounts that the local 
 tribes are composed of clans on the totemic principle. The 
 accounts cover the whole west coast, the whole south coast, 
 the east coast as far north as the Bay of Carpentaria, and the 
 central portions of the continent, so far as explored sufficiently 
 to be reported upon. In some cases, no doubt, the evidence 
 goes no further than to suggest the totemic composition of 
 the local tribes. Again, in the great majority of cases we 
 have found the marriage law to be exogamy pure and simple, 
 accompanied by the system of kinship through women only. 
 In one case we have seen exogamy and totemism along with 
 male kinship, with the usual result of the clans being drawn 
 away from one another and localised more or less completely. 
 Lastly, in all cases in regard to which we have information, 
 we have seen that people of the same totem were bound 
 together for common action for the redress of injuries; in 
 fact, that the obligations of blood followed the totemic tie 
 which thus was stronger than either the tie of family or the 
 obligation which a man owed to his local tribe. 
 
304 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 THE KAMILAROI NAMES AND THE CLASSIFICATORY SYSTEM 
 
 I have already quoted Mr. Darwin's remark that a false 
 argument, however seemingly strong and convincing, does no 
 harm as compared with a false fact. The systems of doctrine 
 which men build up will surely be sifted and examined by 
 other men, and, if false, will perish under criticism. But the 
 false fact, put forward on what seems excellent authority, 
 defies criticism. Because it cannot be included in a system 
 with genuine facts, it arrests speculation ; or it may happen 
 that it is itself made the special subject of speculation, 
 which, having no basis in reality, cannot but be futile and 
 pernicious. 
 
 Now, in Mr. Eidley's original statement about the Kami- 
 laroi, there were two leading false facts. The one was as to 
 the marriage law. It represented Murri as bound to marry 
 Buta and no other ; Kubbi as bound to marry Ippata and no 
 other, and so on. The other was as to the relation of the father 
 to the children. It was Mr. Eidley's first impression that the 
 "caste" of the children depended upon that of the father. 
 That would indeed have followed from the marriage law if 
 that law had been as he conceived it. If Murri could marry 
 only Buta, his children would always be Ippai and Ippata, 
 and so on. But now we know for certain that he may also 
 marry Mata, and that when he does so his children will be, 
 not Ippai and Ippata, but Kubbi and Kapota. And if, as 
 seems most probable, he can marry both Kapota and Ippata 
 when of different totems from himself, it will be seen that his 
 children may be of any "caste" or "class." In fact, we now 
 know that the " class " and the clan are both taken from the 
 mother. 
 
 Upon Mr. Eidley's original statement, thus unwittingly 
 false, the Eev. Lorimer Fison has founded a proof of the 
 prevalence among the Kamilaroi of the Tamilian form of what 
 Mr. Morgan has called the classificatory system of relation- 
 ships, and his conclusions have been endorsed by Mr. Morgan, 
 who has further discovered in the statement a proof of ancient 
 
xv A USTRALIA 305 
 
 wholesale communism of men and women ; in short, of the 
 reality of his " communal family." x 
 
 A single example of the process of discovering the 
 Tamilian system among the Kamilaroi will suffice. Here it is : 
 
 " Tamilian Characteristic. I, being male, the children 
 of my brothers are my sons and daughters, while the children 
 of my sisters are my nephews and nieces; but the grand- 
 children of my sisters, as well as those of my brothers, are 
 my grandchildren. 
 
 " Take any male Kubbi. 
 
 " (a) I, being male, am Kubbi. My brother is Kubbi. 
 His son is Kumbo ; but Kumbo is my son ; therefore my 
 brother's son is my son. 
 
 " So it may be shown that his daughter is my daughter. 
 
 " (b) My sister is Kapota. Her son is Murri. But Murri 
 is not my son, for my son is Kumbo ; therefore my sister's son 
 is my nephew. 
 
 " So it may be shown that my sister's daughter is my niece. 
 
 " (c) My grandsons are Kubbi, son of my son Kumbo, and 
 Ippai, son of my daughter Buta. My sister's (Kapota's) 
 grandsons are also Kubbi and Ippai, sons of her son Murri 
 and daughter Mata respectively. But Ippai and Kubbi, as 
 already shown, are my grandsons. In like manner it may 
 be shown that her granddaughters are my granddaughters. 
 Therefore my sister's grandchildren are my grandchildren." 
 
 By similar reasoning all the Tamilian characteristics are 
 discovered in the Kamilaroi " classes." 
 
 It is almost certain that the classificatory system in some 
 form, if not in several forms, exists in Australia, but Mr. Fison's 
 proof of it is based upon misapprehensions, and therefore goes 
 for nothing. The extraordinary thing is that this argument 
 should have been published after it was well known that 
 Ippai's right to marry Ippata was not an exceptional 
 privilege, and that his son was not necessarily Murri, nor 
 Kubbi's son, Kumbo ; after it was well known, in fact, that 
 
 1 This is named in Morgan's last work, Ancient Society (after having 
 been expanded to the dimensions of a tribe or body of kinsfolk herding 
 together), the Consanguine Family. 
 
 X 
 
306 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 the whole basis of the argument was erroneous. It will be 
 found that to the facts for which Mr. Eidley was primarily 
 responsible others are added, by assumption, for which Mr. 
 Fison and Mr. Morgan are alone responsible. It is assumed 
 that all Kubbis are brothers, all Kumbos brothers, and so on ; 
 that every Kapota is sister of every Kubbi, and every Buta 
 sister of every Kumbo, and so on. But Mr. Eidley's state- 
 ments, made after his visits to the Kamilaroi, justified no such 
 assumption ; and we know from him that Kubbis, Kumbos, 
 and the others are found in several distinct totem clans. Mr. 
 Eidley had overstated the fact looking to the existence of 
 polygamy in saying that all the sons in the same family are, 
 say, Kubbis, and all the daughters Kapotas. But of any 
 brotherhood or sisterhood between all the Kubbis or Kapotas 
 comprised in all the different families in the districts inhabited 
 by the Kamilaroi,'' he gave not a hint. No thought of this 
 seems even to have entered his mind till he had seen Mr. 
 Fison's argument. But that unauthorised assumption is as 
 vital to Mr. Fison's argument as the fact that Kubbi must 
 marry Ippata and no other, or the fact that his son must be 
 Kumbo and no other. 1 
 
 1 See Australian Kinship, Pro. Amer. Acad. Arts, etc., vol. viiL p. 
 412. Fison and Morgan. In Kamilaroi and Kurnai (by the Rev. L. 
 Fison and A. W. Howitt, Melbourne, 1880) Mr. Fison has not repeated 
 the attempt to deduce the Tamilian terms from facts taken from the 
 Kamilaroi. In this work he has substituted for the Kamilaroi a tribe 
 the constitution of which, and its system of naming, are different from 
 those of the Kamilaroi (and about which less is known all that has 
 ever been heard of it being stateable in a sentence or two) a tribe which 
 is said to be in two divisions, each comprising several totem clans which 
 do not intermarry with each other, while intermarrying freely with the 
 clans in the other division; and in which children take a divisional name 
 (of which there is a form for males and a form for females), as well as the 
 totem name, from the mother. He applies the term class in this work, 
 primarily, to the divisions of such a tribe. In this sense, it is prima facie 
 altogether inapplicable to the people of the same name the Murris, 
 Ippais, etc. among the Kamilaroi, and Mr. Fison recognises this; but he 
 endeavours, by means of a theory, to show that it is applicable. His 
 theory, however, proceeds upon the same basis of error as his argument 
 
xv AUSTRALIA 307 
 
 Whatever the Kamilaroi names mean, they are obviously 
 unrelated to the classificatory system. All the members of 
 these tribes, as Mr. Eidley has told us, have three names one, 
 which is individual and of no importance, for example, Eed 
 feather ; one, which denotes the clan or totem, about which 
 there is nothing unusual ; and a third, that which has been 
 called the " class name," which belongs to a man or woman 
 in respect of the so-called " class " of his mother. Now this 
 " class " name is not of the nature of a term of address such 
 as is applied to persons of the same class in the classificatory 
 system. It is not relative, that is, but absolute ; and attaches 
 to the individual for his life as an essential part of his designa- 
 tion. A man is not Murri to one person, and Kubbi or 
 Kunibo to another. He is once for all, and to all comers, 
 Murri by name, as if he were by name John or Peter. But 
 in the classificatory system every appellation is in its nature 
 relative, not absolute is not a name at all, in short, but a 
 term expressive of relation. The person who in the Hawaian 
 system is Makua Kana to me his Keiki, is Kupuna to my 
 son, who to me is Keiki, and to whom in turn I am Makua 
 
 noticed above. He again treats the mistaken impression which Mr. 
 Eidley received from Mr. Lance as if it were the truth about Kamilaroi 
 marriage. 
 
 For the purpose of deducing the Tamilian, or Turanian, terms, Mr. 
 Fison now subdivides his class or division into groups or classes consisting 
 of all the men and of all the women of the same generation ; and he 
 assumes that all the men and women of the same generation in each 
 division are brothers and sisters. He ignores the descent through the 
 mother in existence of totem groups, and the few other facts stated about 
 his tribe, except that of its being in two divisions which may intermarry 
 with each other, and within which marriage is forbidden. He assumes 
 also that marriage is (or was in the hypothetical state upon which he 
 reasons) confined to the tribe, which is by no means the case now. And, 
 within the tribe, the group or class consisting of all the men of the same 
 generation in one division marry the group or class consisting of all the 
 women of their generation in the other division, and are debarred from 
 all women younger or older. What he tries to show is that the Tamilian 
 or Turanian terms would embody the marriage relations which he has 
 supposed to exist in his hypothetical tribe. 
 
308 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 Kana ; while in relation to one whom I call father, my son 
 is not Keiki, but Moopuna. In fact, the Kamilaroi names 
 are true personal names, like Tom, Dick, or Harry, while 
 the classificatory names belong to classes only as relative to 
 other classes above or below them, so that to an elderly person 
 with a relative surviving in an earlier generation, every class 
 name in the whole gamut of names must in turn be applied 
 by persons of the different classes in addressing him. 
 
 But, further than that, the names Murri, Mata, etc., do not 
 belong to persons who fall into classes, properly so called, as 
 names do in the classificatory system, which appropriates a 
 common term to all of one generation in relation to all of 
 some other generation. The Kamilaroi names alternate in 
 successive generations in houses not specially connected with 
 each other by blood or marriage, so that the same name 
 belongs to persons related in every conceivable way or even 
 unrelated, except by their being of one or other of several 
 clans scattered over a wide area. 
 
 Let us consider what the state of a single household may be. 
 
 Murri Opossum marries Mata Iguana and Mata Paddy- 
 melon. The children are Kubbi Iguana and Kapota Iguana, 
 Kubbi Paddy -melon and Kapota Paddy -melon. At the same 
 time, Mata Opossum, sister of Murri Opossum, marries it 
 does not matter whom and has children, Kubbi Opossum and 
 Kapota Opossum. 
 
 There are now possible six legitimate marriages (or sets of 
 marriages), Kubbi marrying Kapota, and Kapota marrying it 
 matters not whom, which would yield a series of Murris and 
 Matas of all the three totems which have been mentioned; and 
 these Murris and Matas again may similarly, through their 
 marriages, be followed by a series of Kubbis and Kapotas of 
 the same three totems. Girls marrying, as they do among 
 the Australians, before the age of puberty, there may be 
 alive of one household at one time persons of five generations, 
 all in each generation being alternately named Murri and 
 Mata, and Kubbi and Kapota. 
 
 Let us see which of those persons will be Murri and Mata 
 by name. They will be : (1) The children last born in the 
 
xv A USTRALIA 309 
 
 house ; (2) the grandparents, and grand uncles and aunts of 
 these children ; (3) the great-great-grandparents, and great- 
 great-grand uncles and aunts of these children. The Kubbis 
 and Kapotas again will be (1) The parents and uncles and aunts 
 of the children last born in the house ; (2) the great-grand- 
 parents, and great-grand uncles and aunts of these children. 
 
 That is, those named Murri and Mata, instead of being a 
 class, in the sense of the classificatory system, comprise persons 
 related as grandparents to grandchildren, and in a variety of 
 other ways, besides persons related as brothers and sisters, as 
 first cousins, and so on ; and those named Kubbis and Kapotas 
 also comprise persons necessarily related in a great variety of 
 ways. It is, however, absurd to argue the matter further. 
 The persons having those names not only do not form classes, 
 but it is most extraordinary that they should have ever been 
 regarded as being in classes. Still more extraordinary is it 
 that they should have been regarded as forming castes. 
 
 Mr. Eidley's misapprehensions as to the Kamilaroi may in 
 some sort be illustrated by a supposition as to the errors into 
 which an investigator might have fallen who visited the High- 
 lands of Scotland two hundred years ago, and reported on the 
 family system there prevalent on information which he had 
 gleaned from persons who knew Gaelic only very imperfectly. 
 He might have gone from glen to glen and found in every 
 household (that had a sufficiency of members) such names for 
 males as, say, Donald, Sandy, Malcolm, and Kory, and no other; 
 and such names for females as Kursty, Kate, Maggie, and 
 Mary, and no other. 1 He might have found those names in 
 every home over large districts ; and, if fanciful, might suppose 
 that this implied some systematic division of the people. 
 Going back to clear his ideas, he might at a second visit 
 have ascertained that the persons holding those names were 
 subdivided in a peculiar manner. He would certainly be 
 
 1 He might have been long at home in a glen without knowing that 
 any man or woman had any other name than one of those mentioned, 
 unless it might be a name taken from a colour, e.g. Donald Roy (Red 
 Donald), Sandy Bain (White Alick). 
 
3 io STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xv 
 
 told that the Donalds and Sandys were not all of one clan, 
 and might gather that they were subdivided into Macdonalds, 
 Grants, and Erasers ; while the Eories and Malcolms were, in 
 most districts, subdivided into Macleods, Mackenzies, and 
 MacLennans. Every one will see how absurd that sort of 
 misapprehension would be. Yet truly apart from the in- 
 formation which misled him into thinking the Kamilaroi 
 names connected with the marriage law Mr. Eidley's 
 misapprehensions were of the same order. Eemembering that 
 Kubbi, Murri, etc., are truly personal names, like Tom or Jack, 
 or Tomson or Jackson, it is hardly possible to maintain one's 
 gravity on its being discovered that the Murris are subdivided 
 into three clans, with totems X, Y, Z, and the Kumbo also 
 into three, with the totems P, Q, E. 
 
 Of course the Kamilaroi naming system as described is 
 most peculiar, and such as might from its nature prepare one 
 for surprises. Looking to either set of clans, 1 we see that 
 there are two male names for the set, and two female, the 
 latter being manifestly feminine forms of the male names. In 
 this per se there is nothing surprising : what is surprising is 
 that the names appear in all the families of the set. Short of 
 this we could match the system by the Scandinavian system of 
 naming, as Mr. Elton has pointed out. Thus Per, son of Ole, 
 is Per Olesen. His sister Serena is not Olesen by name, but 
 is Serena Olesdatter. In turn Per's son Ole is Ole Persen, 
 and his sister Serena is Serena Persdatter, and Ole and Per 
 being always in use in the family, the successive generations 
 are alternately all Olesens, Olesdatters, Persens, and Persdatters. 
 
 But how come supposing any connection to exist between 
 these cases all the lines to be covered by Oles and Pers ? 
 I can throw no light whatever on this subject. It may merit 
 investigation, however, and the first step, if it can be taken, 
 should be to ascertain the etymologies of the different names. 
 
 1 See p 295. 
 
SECTION II 
 
 AMERICA 
 
PLAN OF THE EXPOSITION 
 
 FOR convenience in handling the evidence as to the 
 organic structure of the native tribes on the Continent 
 of America, I shall divide the continent into sections, 
 and deal with them separately. The sections may be 
 regarded as arbitrary, though they have in some cases 
 been suggested by affinities between the tribes inhabit- 
 ing them ; and the division of the whole area to be 
 examined will thus be seen to resemble that which 
 served Mr. Bancroft so well in his compilation of facts 
 relating to the tribes of the Pacific States of North 
 America. Could the tribes have been dealt with in 
 natural groups of sufficient magnitude, it would have 
 been better ; but such groups are not to be found. It 
 will be seen, however, that within the several areas the 
 orderly presentment of the facts has been facilitated by 
 giving them as relative to the tribes in natural groups 
 where they can be found. 
 
 The sections I have made of the continent are as 
 follows : 
 
 I. NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH. 
 
 This section includes the whole of North America 
 lying east of a line which is roughly given on the map 
 
314 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 by the course of the Mississippi from the Gulf of 
 Mexico northwards to its source ; thence northwards 
 by the course of the Eed Kiver to Lake Winnipeg ; 
 thence northwards in the line of the lake till it cuts the 
 course of the Missinippi (or Churchill) Kiver, and thence 
 along the course of that river to its mouth in Hudson's 
 Bay ; but the Esquimaux portion of Labrador is excepted 
 from the section. 
 
 II. NORTH AMERICA, WEST. This area comprises 
 so much of British America and United States territory 
 as lies between the Pacific, west of the rough northernly 
 line of the Mississippi as above described, and south of 
 the parallel of N. latitude (about 57), which passes 
 through the point where the Missinippi enters Hudson's 
 Bay. This section includes, of course, British Columbia 
 and a great portion of Kupert's Land. 
 
 III. NORTH AMERICA, NORTH. This area comprises 
 the whole of North America north of the parallel of 
 latitude just mentioned, and not included in Section 
 No. I. It includes the Esquimaux portion of Labrador. 
 
 IV. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 V. PERU. 
 
 VI. SOUTH AMERICA, EXCLUDING PERU. 
 
 In dealing with Sections IV. and V., I shall 
 endeavour to combine modern and ancient accounts, 
 so far as I know them. As to South America, other 
 than tne Peruvian section, the information I possess, 
 relating chiefly to the tribes on the Orinoco, Amazon, 
 and those inhabiting the peninsula south of the Bio 
 Negro, can quite conveniently be presented in block. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 
 
 I. THE SOUTHERN NATIONS 
 
 ALL the tribes within this area may be considered as 
 having been comprised in four main groups the 
 Muscogee, the Cherokee, the Iroquois, and Algonquin. 
 These, again, may be taken together in sets of two, as 
 follows : 
 
 1. The Muscogees and Cherokees may together be 
 considered as the Southern nations. 
 
 2. The Iroquois and Algonquin may together be 
 considered as the Northern nations. 
 
 Tribes or bands of tribes foreign to these were 
 found within this area about A.D. 1600, but they have 
 either become extinct without any account of their 
 customs being preserved ; or they may for our purposes 
 be described in connection with one or other of the 
 groups above mentioned ; or they represent tribes the 
 main bodies of which will hereafter have to be described 
 as belonging to some other area. Numerous local tribes 
 of Florida, for example, seem within the period of our 
 
316 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 knowledge of the peninsula to have been exterminated 
 by the Seminoles. We know nothing of their structure. 
 The Natches, again, and other small nations of which 
 we have accounts, though speaking languages radically 
 different from the Muscogee, may yet be dealt with 
 along with the Muscogees with whom they were in 
 confederacy. Lastly, various local tribes or bands of 
 the Dacotah stock, found east of the Mississippi, will be 
 more conveniently examined along with the Dacotahs 
 as a whole. And they on the whole lay west of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The Cherokees, and the MuscogeesJ and tribes united 
 with the latter by blood, or in the Creek Confederacy, 
 constitute then together The Southern Nations of this 
 part of North America. These nations had as terri- 
 tory the whole of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Missis- 
 sippi, Tennessee, and parts of North and South 
 Carolina. The Cherokees held the northern and north- 
 eastern portions of this territory ; the rest of the 
 area was occupied by tribes which, so far as we are 
 concerned, were related to, in league with, or one 
 with the Muscogees. Beyond this, geographical detail 
 would, I think, rather embarrass the mind than clear 
 ideas. 
 
 The accounts we have of the organic structure oJ 
 the local tribes or nations of this area, as it has been 
 usual to call them, apply, broadly speaking, to all oJ 
 them. We shall take them, therefore, together. 
 
 " The Cherokees," says Schoolcraft, " do not appear 
 to have put forth any branches, and have come down 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 317 
 
 to our times as a distinct people." It was not so with 
 the Muscogees. In confederacy with them, or related 
 to them by blood and language, we have the following 
 tribes : 
 
 1. Hitchittees 4. Coosadas 
 
 2. Uchees 5. Seminoles 
 
 3. Alibamons 6. Natches 
 
 Of these the Seminoles were pure Muscogee, while the 
 Hitchittees spoke a dialect of Muscogee. Of the same 
 race were the Yamasses and Catawbas, who are now 
 extinct, and respecting whom but little information has 
 been preserved. We learn, again, from Dr. Gallatin 
 that the Chickasas and Choctaws were but two nations 
 of one stock ; and from Mr. Schoolcraft, that the 
 Choctaw and Muscogee were radically one and the 
 same language, while he confirms what Gallatin says 
 of the sameness of the Chickasas and Choctaws. " The 
 Chickasas," he says, " are a scion of the Choctaws, as 
 the Seminoles are of the Muscogees." On the whole, 
 then, we seem entitled to add to the list of tribes in 
 the Muscogee connection, now so recently existing, the 
 following local tribes : 
 
 7. The Choctaws 
 
 8. The Chickasas. 
 
 Of the numbers in all the southern nations, about 
 1835, we have an estimate made by the United States 
 War Department, as follows : 
 
318 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 The Cherokees 15,000 
 
 The Choctaws, 18,500 } 24 Q00 
 The Chickasas, 5,500 J 
 
 The Muscogees, Seminoles, and Hitchittees . 26,000 
 
 The Uchees, Alibamons, Coosadas, and Natches 2,000 
 
 Dr. Gallatin has inferred, from an examination of 
 De Soto's marches, that these nations were located in 
 De Soto's time much where they were when he wrote, 
 and, on all the evidence, that till lately their habits and 
 customs were much the same as they were at that 
 earlier time. 1 
 
 Now we have from Dr. Gallatin "a full and most 
 interesting account of the structure of society through- 
 out the whole of this series of local tribes or nations. 
 He says that, independently of political or geographical 
 divisions, they were all divided " from time immemorial " 
 into families or clans. " At present, or till very lately, 
 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 indis- 
 criminately throughout the whole nation. It has been 
 fully ascertained that the inviolable regulations by which 
 those clans were perpetuated amongst the southern 
 nations were, first, That no man could marry in his 
 own dan; secondly, That every child belongs to his or 
 her mother's clan. Among the Choctaws there are two 
 great divisions, each of which is subdivided into four 
 clans ; and no man can marry in any of the four clans 
 
 1 Arch. Amer., Cambridge, U.S. 1836, vol. ii. pp. 94, 98, and 101 ; 
 Algic Researches, vol. i. pp. 13 and 14. New York, 1839. 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 319 
 
 belonging to his division. The restriction among the 
 Cherokees, the Creeks ( = Muscogees), and the Natches 
 does not extend beyond the clan to which the man 
 belongs." 1 
 
 This distinct statement by so careful an investigator 
 is conclusive as to exogamy and female kinship prevail- 
 ing universally among the southern nations ; but, oddly, 
 just as Schoolcraft constantly mentions even hints for 
 totems, and never mentions marriage law except in a 
 footnote once, so it is in a footnote, and quite casually, 
 that we learn from Gallatin that any of these southern 
 clans had totems for their emblems. In explaining 
 the operation of certain checks put, as he fancied, on 
 the operation of the law of blood-feud, it appears inci- 
 dentally that some Muscogee clans were named after the 
 Wolf, Tiger, Bear, etc., and in a note (I.e. p. Ill) that 
 the seven clans into which the Cherokees were divided 
 were " the Deer, the Wolf, etc." From Mr. Schoolcraft's 
 work, however, we can complete the list, at least for 
 the Muscogees. Their totems were the Tiger, Wind, 
 Bear, Wolf, Bird, Fox, Boot, Alligator, and Deer. The 
 Choctaw totems I find nowhere mentioned, but we may 
 believe one of them was the Deer, if we may trust 
 Bernard Romans (cited by Gallatin), " that one-half of 
 the Choctaws have never killed a deer during their 
 lives." Of the totems of the Natches, again we have 
 information which is at once partial and casual. All 
 we know is, that they were divided into four clans, and 
 that the totem of the chief clan was the Sun, and a 
 
 1 Arch. Amer., vol. ii. p. 109. 
 
3 2o STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 note of totemism never to be lost sight of that the 
 members of this clan claimed to be descended from the 
 Sun, like other clansmen from their totem, whatever it 
 may be. They were Suns, and their chief was the 
 Great Sun. " The principle of clanship or totemism" 
 says Mr. Francis Parkman, " existed in full force among 
 the Natches, combined with their religious ideas, and 
 developed into forms of which no other example equally 
 distinct is to be found." The same, he says, was the 
 case with another people (now extinct), the Taensas. 
 With both the chiefs of the Sun clan had the attri- 
 butes of demigods. "As descent was through the 
 female," he continues, " the chiefs son never succeeded 
 him, but the son of one of his sisters ; and as she, by 
 the usual totemic law, was forced to marry in another 
 clan that is, to marry a common mortal her husband, 
 though the destined father of a demigod, was treated by 
 her as little better than a slave. She might kill him if 
 he proved unfaithful ; but he was forced to submit to 
 her infidelities in silence." Beyond this we have no 
 direct information as to the totems of these southern 
 nations. On much scattered and indirect evidence we 
 might conclude that every clan had its totem, and even 
 in some cases determine what the totems were. But 
 the exposition is not advanced enough to justify such 
 an attempt at present. 1 
 
 1 Gallatin, in Arch. Amer., vol. ii. pp. 109-111 ; Hawkins's Sketch of the 
 Creek Confederacy, coll. Georgia Hist. Soc., vol. iii. part 1, p. 69, Savannah, 
 1848, quoted in Antiquities of the Southern Indians, C. C. Jones, New 
 York, 1873, pp. 14, 67 ; Discovery of the Great West, Francis Parkman, 
 Boston, 1869, p. 279 ; Schoolcraft's Tlie Indian Tribes of North America, 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 321 
 
 The general prevalence among the southern nations 
 of clans organised on the totemic principle, with exo- 
 gamy as marriage law, and kinship traced through 
 women only, may be taken as well established on the 
 evidence above adduced. It remains to point out, that 
 all who belonged to the same clan were in these nations 
 bound together by the bond of blood, for common action 
 to avenge injuries or repair wrongs sustained or in- 
 flicted by any of their number. However scattered they 
 might be, this bond united them as if they had never 
 ceased to be the members of one family contained in 
 one household. 1 
 
 Dr. Gallatin, indeed, thinks that the object of "the 
 unknown legislator," who arranged the southern nations 
 on the totemic principle, was to prevent or soften the 
 effects of private revenge by transferring the power and 
 duties of revenge from " the blood relatives," whoever 
 they may have been anciently, to a more impartial 
 body, the clan. The notion of society being so strangely 
 constituted for a purpose by a legislative act need not 
 at present be examined. But it illustrates the import- 
 ance of the law of blood-feud among these tribes, that 
 so able a writer should imagine that the very bases of 
 
 Philadelphia, 1851, vol. i. pp. 275 and 282 ff. The information collected 
 by Schoolcraft is, so far as it goes, confirmatory of that supplied by 
 Gallatin, but adds little to it except as stated in the text. 
 
 1 It is not stated whether the clan, for the purposes of revenge and 
 reparation, was confined to all of the same totem within the same local 
 tribe (or nation), or comprised as well all of the same totem in whatso- 
 ever local tribes they were, provided the local tribes were federated or 
 friendly. Most probably the clan for these purposes consisted of all of 
 the same totem and local tribe. 
 
 Y 
 
322 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 society should have been reconstituted with the view of 
 affecting its operation. 1 
 
 " According to the ancient custom," says Gallatin, 
 speaking of the Cherokees and Creeks, "if an offence 
 was committed by one on another member of the same 
 clan, the compensation to be made on account of the 
 injury was regulated in an amicable way by the other 
 members of the clan. Murder was rarely expiated in 
 any other way than by the death of the murderer ; the 
 nearest male relative of the deceased was the execu- 
 tioner ; but, this being done as under the authority of 
 the clan, there was no further retaliation. If the injury 
 was committed by some one of another clan, it was not 
 the injured party, but the clan to which he belonged, 
 that asked for reparation. This was rarely refused by 
 the clan of the offender ; but, in case of refusal, the 
 injured clan had a right to do itself justice, either by 
 killing the offender in case of murder, or inflicting some 
 other punishment for lesser offences. This species of 
 private war was by the Creeks called " to take up the 
 sticks," because the punishment generally consisted in 
 beating the offender. At the time of the annual corn- 
 feast, the sticks were laid down, and could not again be 
 taken up for the same offence." But this rule had 
 exceptions. The Wind clan could take them up four 
 times, and the Bear clan twice for the same offence. 
 
 A further proof of the working in these southern 
 nations of the law of blood-feud, is to be found in what 
 are unquestionably arrangements for checking the spirit 
 
 1 Gallatin, I.e. 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 323 
 
 of revenge, I mean the institution of cities of refuge 
 which existed as well with the Cherokees as with the 
 Hebrews, and the clothing of certain persons with such a 
 degree of sacro-sanctity that blood could not be shed in 
 their presence. Temporary asylums were thus found 
 for those who had become subject to the vendetta, and 
 these asylums, by suspending vengeance, no doubt 
 would have in time introduced compensations in money 
 or goods in lieu of blood for blood, which primitive law 
 everywhere demanded. It is not part of Gallatin's 
 statement, that the punishment for an offence could if 
 the offender evaded it be legitimately made to fall on 
 any of the clan to which he belonged. But " the taking 
 up of the sticks " implied this in the case of a refusal 
 of redress. 
 
 II. THE NORTHERN NATIONS 
 
 The Iroquois and Algonquin nations are for our 
 purposes the northern nations of the area we are 
 examining. It is not very material to know what, 
 within this area, were the districts they respectively 
 occupied. Their wars were constant, and the borders 
 of their domains constantly shifting. 
 
 According to an immigration hypothesis framed, so 
 far as I know, by Mr. Schoolcraft, the Algonquins were 
 the first Indian occupiers of the soil east of Mississippi. 
 They crossed that river at a point in the south-west 
 which he thinks can be fixed, and spread their settle- 
 ments far and wide, eastwardly towards the Atlantic, 
 
324 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 and north-easterly to the land between the southern 
 spurs of Hudson's Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 1 
 Some time after they were followed by the fierce and 
 predatory Iroquois, by whom many of their tribes were 
 not only conquered but exterminated. Some Iroquois 
 tribes advancing up the valley of the Ohio, which they 
 occupied and named, took up a commanding and central 
 position in western New York, and cut off all communi- 
 cation between the northern and southern Algonquins ; 
 other Iroquois tribes, turning in a south-easterly direc- 
 tion from the Ohio, settled in the Carolinas, to the south 
 of the most southern Algonquin settlements. What we 
 know is that, at the time of our first certain knowledge 
 of them, the more northern Iroquois were surrounded 
 on all sides by Algonquin tribes, and were separated 
 from their more southern congeners by several Algon- 
 quin Lenape tribes that are now extinct. 2 
 
 THE IROQUOIS NATIONS 
 
 The more northern Iroquois nations were the 
 Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, 
 who were known as " The Five Nations " ; the Hurons ; 
 the Neutral Nations ; the Erigas or Eries ; and the 
 Andastes. Of the last three sets we know little except 
 that they were Iroquois, and suffered terribly at the 
 hands of the Five Nations. Of the Five Nations and 
 
 1 They found the country already inhabited, if their traditions may 
 be believed, and exterminated and dispersed the earlier inhabitants to 
 make way for themselves (Schoolcraft, vol i. p. 307). 
 
 2 Algic Researches, Introduction; Gallatin, ut supra, vol. ii. p. 22. 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 325 
 
 of the Hurons, however, we have full and trustworthy 
 accounts. The more southern Iroquois nations were 
 the Tuscaroras, the Toteloes, Nanticokes, Conoys, and 
 Nottoways. In the years 1714-15 the mass of the 
 Tuscaroras, after suffering terribly in war, were 
 admitted as a sixth nation into the League of the 
 Five Nations, and we have a full account of them 
 accordingly. The Nanticokes and Conoys (making one 
 nation), and the Toteloes, seem for a time to have been 
 admitted into the same League, but we have no special 
 accounts of them. Their organic structure may, how- 
 ever, very safely be assumed to have closely resembled, 
 if not to have been precisely the same, as that of 
 the Tuscaroras and the other nations in the League. 
 The Tuscaroras, it may be mentioned, were far the most 
 powerful and important of the southern Iroquois nations. 
 
 What, then, was the structure of an Iroquois local 
 tribe or nation ? This question is answered most fully 
 for the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, 
 and Tuscaroras, by Lafitau, Golden, and Morgan. I 
 shall hereafter have occasion to refer somewhat minutely 
 to their evidence, but meantime the results are briefly 
 as follows : 1. The local tribes were all divided into 
 clans or families on the totemic principle. 2. No man 
 could marry a woman of his own clan or totem. 3. 
 Every child belonged to the clan of his or her mother, 
 and all the inheritances were determined by the system 
 which traced kinship through women only. 
 
 As to the totems of the different tribes, the Mohawks 
 and Oneidas had but three, the Turtle, Wolf, and Bear 
 
326 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 and in these clans the Sachemships, assigned by the 
 League to these nations, were hereditary. The Senecas, 
 Cayugas 3 and Onondagas had each eight totems, and 
 the Tuscaroras had seven, according to Mr. Morgan. 
 The eight totems were the Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, 
 Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk, but the existence of 
 all these in any one local tribe may be doubted. The 
 list of Sachemships furnished by Mr. Morgan show 
 that, so far as known, those of the Onondagas were 
 hereditary in the clans of the Bear, Wolf, Turtle, Snipe, 
 and Deer; those of the Cayugas in the clans of the 
 Bear, Turtle, Heron, Deer, and Snipe ; s and those of the 
 Senecas in the clans of the Bear, Wolf, Turtle, Snipe, 
 and Hawk. Thus the Sachemships furnish a proof that 
 seven totems at least existed within the League, while 
 they do not show that more than five totems were to be 
 found in any one nation. It is consistent with this 
 evidence, of course, that there may have been eight 
 totems in some of the nations. If the Beaver clan held, 
 as Mr. Morgan states, one of the Sachemships of the 
 Onondaga, we should have a proof of there having been 
 eight distinct totems altogether within the confederacy, 
 and six in at least one nation. 1 
 
 We shall hereafter see reason for believing in the 
 accuracy of the earlier statements we have, to the effect 
 that the three original totems of the Iroquois were the 
 Wolf, Bear, and Turtle. These were, at any rate, the 
 only totems of the Hurons (Wyandots), who early 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, etc., vol. ill pp. 184 ff.; vol. v. p. 73. 
 Morgan's League of the Iroquois, book i. chaps, iii. and iv. Kochester, 1854. 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 327 
 
 separated from the main body of the Iroquois, as they 
 were the only totems of the Mohawks and Oneidas ; 
 and every Iroquois nation, so far as we know, had these 
 three, whatsoever other totems they had in addition. 
 The Hurons, being pure Iroquois, and with clans on 
 the totemic principle, we should expect them to have 
 exogamy as marriage law, and the system of kinship 
 through females only, and this is what we find. 1 Of 
 the Hurons, Parkman says (Jesuits, p. 52) : " The Huron 
 nation was a confederacy of four distinct contiguous 
 nations, afterwards increased to five . . . ; it was 
 divided into clans ; it was governed by chiefs whose 
 office was hereditary through the female," etc. See 
 Jesuit Relations prior to 1650, and Champlain, Sagard, 
 and Bressani. Lafitau and Charlevoix knew the Huron 
 institutions only through others (Jesuits, p. 111). 
 
 The totem seems to have established among the 
 Iroquois, as among the Cherokees and Creeks, a bond of 
 brotherhood between all of the clan. They were bound 
 to one another alike for obtaining and giving repara- 
 tion for injuries. In cases of murder, the murderer 
 was given up to the private vengeance of the kindred 
 of the slain. They could slay him wherever and when- 
 ever they found him, without being taken to account. 
 It was customary for the kindred of the murderer, and 
 even the " tribe " (? local tribe) to which they belonged, 
 to interfere with efforts to appease the kindred of the 
 
 1 Charlevoix, cited by Gallatin, Arch. Amer., vol. ii. p. 189 ; Johnston's 
 Indian Tribes inhabiting Ohio (Arch. Amer., voL i. pp. 271 ff.), and see 
 specially p. 284. Johnston's statements apply to the Wyandots and other 
 Iroquois, and some Algonquins. 
 
328 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 slain. " In a doubtful case," says Johnston, speaking of 
 the Hurons, Senecas, and other tribes inhabiting Ohio 
 in 1819, "or an old claim for satisfaction, the family 
 [? clan] consult the tribe [local tribe], and when they 
 have resolved on having redress they take the guilty, if 
 he is to be found, and if he flies, they take the nearest 
 of kin. In some cases the family who have done the 
 injury promise reparation, and in that case they are 
 allowed a reasonable time to fulfil their promise ; and 
 they are generally quite earnest of themselves in their 
 endeavours to put the guilty to death in order to save 
 an innocent person. This right of judging and taking 
 satisfaction being vested in the family or tribe, is the 
 sole cause why their treaty stipulations never have been 
 executed. A prisoner taken in war is the property of 
 the captor, to kill or save at the time of capture, and 
 this right must be purchased" (Arch. Amer., vol. i. p. 
 28 2). * Mr. Morgan gives some detail as to the action 
 of the tribes to which the parties belonged among 
 the Five Nations, to appease "the family" of the 
 murdered person, and to induce them to accept a pre- 
 sent of white wampum, not as compensation for the 
 crime, but as a regretful confession of it and prayer for 
 forgiveness. If, he says, the wampum came too late, or 
 was refused, " the family then either took upon them- 
 selves jointly the obligation of taking what they deemed 
 a just retribution, or they appointed an avenger, who 
 resolved never to rest until life had answered for life." 
 There is the same ambiguity in the term " family " here 
 
 1 Cp. Lafitau, vol. i. pp. 490 ff. 
 
I xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 329 
 
 1 as in the previously cited statement of Mr. Johnston as 
 
 ( to the tribes of Ohio. I think it can mean nothing but 
 
 j the clan the brotherhood of the totem of the slain. 
 
 | But may it have meant merely the immediate relatives 
 
 through the mother of the slain his brothers uterine, 
 
 mother's brothers, etc. ? We shall see that it would be 
 
 I contrary to all primitive law thus to interpret a term, 
 
 used with obvious thoughtlessness as to its precise 
 
 meaning being important. " In the eyes of an Iroquois," 
 
 says Mr. Morgan, " every member of his own tribe, in 
 
 whatever nation, was as much his brother or his sister 
 
 as if children of the same mother." It would be hard 
 
 to reconcile with this statement any interpretation of 
 
 the term " family " in regard to vengeance that fell short 
 
 of including at least all of the same tribe i.e. totem 
 
 included within the same nation? 
 
 THE ALGONQUIN NATIONS 
 
 These have been arranged by Gallatin under four 
 heads, the Northern, North-eastern, Eastern or Atlantic, 
 and Western. 
 
 (1) The Northern division of the Algonquins com- 
 
 1 See Morgan, Iroquois, pp. 81 and 331 ff. As illustrating the 
 reasoning in the text, let me cite Mr. Warren's account of the Chippeway 
 warrior, Ba-be-se-gun-dib-a. " His totem was a Crane, one of the oldest 
 families in the tribe now residing mostly at Lake Superior." Here 
 " family " clearly means " clan," and tribe means local tribe, band, or 
 nation. Schoolcraft, Indians, etc., vol. ii. p. 162. Another illustration 
 in point occurs in Schoolcraft's Algic Researches, vol. ii. p. 146. " All the 
 individuals of a particular family," says Schoolcraft, speaking of the 
 Algonquins generally, " such as tha Deer, Crane, Beaver, etc., when called 
 
330 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 prised the Crees, the Algonquins, Chippeways or Ojib- 
 ways, Ottawas, Potowotamies, and Mississagues. 
 
 It is uncertain whether "Algonquin" was not a 
 generic term. 
 
 (2) The North-eastern division comprised the Algon- 
 quins of Labrador, the Micmacs, the Etchemins, and the 
 Abenakis. 
 
 (3) The Eastern or Atlantic division comprised the 
 New England Indians, the Long Island Indians, the 
 Delawares and Minsi of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
 the Nanticokes of the eastern shore of Maryland, the 
 Susquehannocks, the Powhattans of Virginia, and the 
 Pamlicos of North Carolina. 
 
 (4) The Western division comprised the Menomonies, 
 the Miami and Illinois tribes, the Sauks, Foxes, Kicka- 
 poos, and, finally, the Shawnoes. 
 
 I have set forth this extensive array of tribal names 
 that the extent of my ignorance of their social structure 
 may be frankly confessed. The only "nations" of which 
 the works accessible to me have yielded information, 
 after a careful search, are the following : 
 
 (a) In the Northern division, the Chippeways or 
 Ojibways, and the Ottawas. 
 
 (6) In the North-eastern division, none. 
 
 (c) In the Eastern division, the Delawares and 
 Minsi. 
 
 (d) In the Western division, the Sauks, Foxes, and 
 
 upon for the signatures, affix their respective family marks without regard 
 to specific names." The family marks here are distinctly stated to "be 
 the totems, and so family = clan. 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 331 
 
 Shawnoes. There is, indeed, abundance of information 
 respecting the others, the boundaries of their territories, 
 their wars, their villages and population, and in some 
 cases their alliances, and what may be called their 
 political system. But of the form of the. family, the 
 gentile bond, the blood ties and obligations, I find 
 nothing but general statements or surmises. As an 
 example, take the following as to the Illinois : " The 
 Illinois were an aggregation of distinct though kindred 
 tribes [it is not said whether tribe here means clan or 
 local tribe]. Their general character and habits were 
 those of other Indian tribes," and so on, the account 
 disclosing some of their improper habits, telling us in 
 what direction they traded and sold their captives, and 
 beyond that nothing. 1 In some cases the evidence 
 comes provokingly near to touching the subjects of our 
 inquiry, and suddenly leaves them unexplained. Not- 
 withstanding, it is possible that we have a sufficient 
 number of examples, casually presented, to give us an 
 assurance that all the " nations " in the group were of a 
 type, without pressing inference to the limit ex uno 
 disce omnes. 
 
 Of the Miamis, we know that they were divided into 
 clans, from a casual mention of their cannibalism, for 
 there was, it seems, a clan of the Miamis whose heredi- 
 tary duty and privilege it was to devour the bodies of 
 prisoners burned to death. 2 
 
 Totemism, the division of clans on the totemic prin- 
 ciple, we should expect as common, if not universal, in 
 
 1 Parkman, I.e. p. 206. 2 Id. p. xl. 
 
332 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 this group. The very name Totem = Dodaim = town- 
 mark, is Algonquin, furnished by the common language 
 of the group, as has been already explained. It may 
 be remarked that it has not been, perhaps, a fortunate 
 circumstance that this term, having such an origin, 
 should have come into common use to denote the 
 emblem of a clan, apart from the common residence 
 of the clansmen in the same village or town. It is 
 like any other term, however, if we allow it to mean 
 no more than it actually does in the run of cases. Up 
 to this point we have applied it to denote the clan, 
 though the members of the clan have been dispersed 
 in a variety of villages and even in a variety of nations. 
 
 It occurs then, at once, that in coming to the 
 birth-group of the term, we have now reached a 
 case where totemism has some distinctive accompani- 
 ment. What this was is not difficult to guess. We 
 have reached tribes at last where kinship is traced 
 through males, and not through females, and where in 
 consequence, the gentile bond remaining as before, and 
 being no longer counteracted by cross ties of family 
 between the different gentes, the gentes tend to separate 
 and each to assume for itself its own home, village, or 
 town, or one or more villages or towns in vicinity to 
 each other. 
 
 To comprehend the cohesive force of clanship 
 operating with exogamy as marriage law, and the 
 system of female kinship, let us consider the case of a 
 local tribe like the Mohawks with three totems the 
 Wolf, Bear, and Turtle. A Wolf man marries, say, a 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 333 
 
 Bear woman ; his son and daughter are Bears. Suppose, 
 now, his son to marry a Turtle and his daughter a 
 Wolf, in a household in two generations there will be 
 family ties binding together persons of the three clans, 
 and tending to counteract any tendency of the clans to 
 sever through a conflict of their duties and interests 
 such as, we saw, the blood - feud might on occasions 
 bring on. As every household would in its composition 
 resemble every other, would be, in short, a true epitome 
 of the nation, we may see how the family affections, 
 giving stability to the family group, directly resisted 
 the disintegration of the nation. The clans were 
 doubly and triply jointed into one another, and bound 
 together not only by marriage ties, but by the parental, 
 filial, and fraternal affections. However weak we 
 may suppose these to have been, compared with the 
 feelings of gentile kinship, we see their whole force 
 would go to soften clan conflicts when they arose, and 
 support clan cohesion. In fact, when we think of all a 
 separation of clans thus welded together implies, we 
 see it is almost impossible that it should ever take 
 place, or be more than temporary for the accomplish- 
 ment of some definite clan purpose. Mr. Parkman has 
 aptly likened the bonds that united the clans to cords 
 of indiarubber. " They would stretch, and the parts 
 would be seemingly disjointed, only to return to their 
 old union with the recoil. Such was the elastic strength 
 of those relations of clanship, which were the life of the 
 League" (Jesuits, p. 337). 
 
 Suppose, now, with clanship and exogamy remain- 
 
334 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 ing, that the system of kinship undergoes a change. A 
 Wolf man marries say a Bear woman : his son and 
 daughter now are Wolves and not Bears. When his 
 son marries, his children shall be Wolves, whether he 
 marries a Bear or a Turtle. His daughter must marry 
 a Turtle or Bear. Whichever she marries, her children 
 will be Turtles or Bears, as the case may be, in another 
 household. Every household will now become homo- 
 geneous comprising Wolves alone, Bears alone, or 
 Turtles alone, excepting the mothers, who through the 
 change of kinship have lost importance and go for 
 nothing. When in a course of generations the house- 
 holds of a nation have been transformed, have become 
 homogeneous, should conflicts arise between the clans, 
 there will be nothing to assuage them in the constitu- 
 tion of the family. In the constant shiftings of village 
 settlements, incident to the wandering life of the people, 
 nothing would be more natural than that all the Wolves, 
 Bears, and Turtles, should establish their homes near 
 one another respectively. Whether this separation 
 took the form of wards or quarters in the same town or 
 village, or of separate villages, it is apparent that a 
 condition of things would now have arisen favourable 
 to a final separation of the clans. In " the taking up 
 of the sticks " for redress which was refused, the enemies 
 would find themselves confronted with one another in 
 an antagonism from which there would be no force to 
 withdraw them and resettle them in the nation. A 
 clan beaten in a conflict might take up a residence 
 permanently apart from, though perhaps near to, that 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 335 
 
 of the other clans; or even in disgust and enmity 
 separate itself from them for ever, and wander away in 
 search of a new territory. 1 
 
 We may see how separation in another form might 
 take place, through bands from the different clans 
 setting out on some expedition under a popular 
 leader, and remaining independent on experiencing 
 success under his leadership. Such conjunct bands 
 would resemble, however, the parent group in their 
 composition, and their settlement in one village or town 
 never could introduce for them a common totem. At 
 least it would so appear prima facie. 
 
 Such separations must have been frequent among 
 the Algonquins, and the chief cause of their weakness 
 compared with their immediate enemies of the Iroquois 
 stock. They were far more numerous than the Iroquois, 
 but such were their subdivisions that they could no- 
 where oppose a sufficiently solid front to their enemies. 
 That the subdivisions were due to such separations as 
 we have been explaining, appears from the case of the 
 Delawares. They were in three clans the Turtle, 
 Wolf, and Turkey. The Wolf clan separated itself from 
 the Delawares so completely that the Wolves, though 
 maintaining an intimate connection with the other 
 Delaware clans, spoke a different dialect. The Turkey 
 and Turtle clans remained united. From this case we 
 should be bound to infer that the Delawares had male 
 kinship, though the fact were not recorded. 
 
 1 The Algonquins have numerous traditions of the separations of 
 clans and bands from their various nations, e.g. Schoolcraft, vol. ii. p. 139. 
 
336 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP 
 
 (a) The Chippeways or Ojibways and Ottawas. 
 
 Dr. James represents the Chippeways as divided int< 
 numerous clans on the totemic principle, and a list o 
 eighteen of their totems which he had made fell far shor 
 of being a complete list. It is not accessible to me, bu 
 a pictorial Petition presented at Washington in 184 
 by a delegation of Chippeways from Lake Superior tc 
 the President of the United States, which has beer 
 analysed by Schoolcraft, discloses the following as the 
 totems of the chiefs who formed that delegation 
 namely : 1, Crane ; 2, Marten ; 3, Land -Tortoise ; 4 
 Black Bear; 5, Man-fish; 6, Catfish; 7, Brant; 8 
 Subterranean Bear ; 9, Sturgeon; 10, Springduck; 11 
 Eagle; 12, Loon; 13, Elk. 1 Elsewhere we seem 
 have evidence of other four, viz. : 14, Turtle ; 15, Swan 
 16, Crow; 17, Woodpecker, and yet want one to com 
 plete 2 such a list as Dr. James had formed. It may b 
 seen in Schoolcraft, casually mentioned, that the Chippe- 
 ways had the Loon the totem of the royal family 
 the Bear, of the family of the war -chief; the Crane 
 and the Marten the latter imported by adoption from 
 the Munduas, whom the Chippeways had nearly exter- 
 minated. 3 
 
 That the Ottawas were divided into clans on the 
 totemic principle, appears incidentally in the course oi 
 an Ottawa myth, given by Schoolcraft in his Algic 
 Researches. The old spirit being in need of tobacco, 
 managed to have captured and brought to him a mori 
 
 1 Indians, etc., vol. i. p. 419. 2 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 491. 
 
 3 Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 138, 139, 140, 141. 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 337 
 
 named Wassamo, to whom he gave his daughter in 
 marriage, on the condition of his procuring a proper 
 supply of the weed. Wassamo being allowed to return 
 to his people, disclosed the need of the god, whereupon 
 tobacco for him was immediately forthcoming to such 
 an extent that it took two sacks " of dressed moose 
 skin to hold it." " On the outside of these skins the 
 different totems of the Indians who had given the 
 tobacco were painted, and also those of all persons who 
 had made any request." On this Schoolcraft, in a note, 
 takes occasion to discourse on the meaning of totems, 
 carefully avoiding of course, as usual, all reference to 
 their connection with marriage law, and mentioning 
 the Deer, Crane, Beaver, etc., as totems ; but he does 
 not say that they were totems of the Ottawas, and it 
 does not follow that they were, though mentioned in an 
 illustration of an Ottawa myth. 1 
 
 If we may trust Algonquin traditions, given by 
 Schoolcraft, the Chippeways, Ottawas, and Potowotamies 
 formed originally one nation, and so we may hold as 
 true of the Potowotamies whatever we have ascertained 
 as true of the Chippeways and Ottawas. 2 
 
 Dr. James is Gallatin's authority for exogamy as 
 marriage law among the Chippeways. " Dr. James 
 informs us," he says, " that no man is allowed to change 
 his totem, that it descends to all the children a man 
 may have, and that the restraint upon intermarriage 
 which it imposes is scrupulously regarded." This is 
 
 1 Algic Researches, vol. ii. p. 146. 
 2 Indians, etc., vol. i. p. 308 ; and vol. ii. p. 139. 
 
CHAP. 
 
 338 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 confirmed by Tanner (Narrative, p. 313) : "They prefer 
 to consider it highly criminal for a man to marry 
 woman whose totem is the same as his own ; and the; 
 relate instances where young men, for a violation oJ 
 this rule, have been put to death by their own nearest 
 relatives." 
 
 Johnston's statement regarding the Ottawas is les 
 direct. He says, " A man seldom or never marries 
 his own tribe." 1 As this statement was thought bro; 
 enough to cover exogamy in the case of the Huron* 
 and Seneca Iroquois, whose case it also covers i] 
 Johnston's account, of which we have direct and in- 
 dependent evidence, we must hold it to imply exogam; 
 in the case of the Ottawas. The traditions that 
 these Algonquin tribes had been anciently one peopL 
 point to the same conclusion. 
 
 As to kinship, Dr. James's statement points out thai 
 children took the totems of their father among th< 
 Chippeways ; and several of their traditions point t< 
 succession of son to father as the rule. It may not, 
 however, have become the rule among all the tribes oJ 
 Algonquin stock. I find no express statement 01 
 the subject as to the Delawares, but I have already 
 indicated that I infer the Delawares had male kin- 
 ship like the Chippeways. What Johnston says 
 however, of the Ohio tribes, would make one doubt 
 this inference. 
 
 The tribes he directly deals with are the Delaware!- 
 Wyandots (Hurons), Shawanoese, Senecas, and Otta^ 
 
 1 Arch. Amer., vol. i. p. 284. 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 339 
 
 of which the Hurons and Senecas are Iroquois, having 
 the system of female kinship, and the rest Algonquin. 
 Now the statement he makes as applicable to all of 
 these is, that in their marriages the brothers and uncles 
 of the woman on the maternal side are consulted as to 
 a proposed match, " and sometimes the father, but this 
 is only a compliment, as his approbation or opposition 
 is of no avail " ; and elsewhere he states that marriage 
 gives no right to the husband over the property of his 
 wife, "and when they part, she keeps the children and 
 the property belonging to them and to her. Not un- 
 frequently they take away everything the husband 
 owns, his hunting equipage only excepted." 
 
 This is a state of things consistent with kinship 
 being traced through females only, and children being 
 accordingly counted to belong to the tribe of their 
 mother taking of course her totem ; but it is incon- 
 sistent with male descent, and children taking their 
 father's totem. 
 
 Mr. Johnston was, when he wrote, agent for Indian 
 affairs at Piqua, and his account is official. It comprises 
 a population table (I.e. p. 270), from which we have the 
 Indian population as follows : 
 
 Men, Women, 
 and Children. 
 
 Wyandots or Hurons . . . . 542 
 
 Senecas . . . . . .551 
 
 Mohawks 57 
 
 Total of Iroquois stock . . . 1150 
 
340 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 Men, "Women, 
 and Children. 
 
 Shawanoese . 
 
 Ottawas (settled and migratory) . 377 
 
 Delawares . . . . 8 
 
 Total of Algonquin stock . .1257 
 
 We have already seen the correctness of his state- 
 ments respecting this population, so far as regards 
 the Iroquois portion of it. There is no doubt as to 
 that. But it must be assumed that the same state- 
 ments were applicable on the whole to the Algon- 
 quin, or major part of the population, and this fact is 
 interesting as showing that some Algonquins who 
 according to tradition, had anciently been united with 
 the Chippeways, continued in Ohio to have female 
 kinship after kinship had shifted among the Chippe- 
 ways to the male side. It yields of course the infer- 
 ence that the Chippeways also had originally th< 
 system of female kinship. But while it is inconceiv 
 able that his account did not apply on the whole to 
 the Algonquin population, it may well have been 
 inapplicable to the "mere handful," as he calls them 
 of Delawares living at Upper Sandusky, of whom there 
 cannot have been more than say sixteen families. There 
 were among them in all but twenty-one women. I do 
 not hold his account, therefore, as conclusive against 
 the inference that the Delawares had male kinship 
 But further inquiry may clear up the doubt. 
 
 (c) The Delawares and Minsi. We have already 
 seen that the Delawares at first consisted of three clans 
 
i NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 341 
 
 or tribes, with the totems of the Turtle, the Wolf, and 
 the Turkey respectively, and that they say that the Wolf 
 clan, or Minsi, who were originally mixed up with them 
 in the "nation," separated from the others and became, 
 though remaining intimately connected with them, a 
 separate local tribe or nation the Minsi, or Wolves ; 
 the composite local tribe of Turtles and Turkeys retaining 
 the title of Delawares proper. We might be sure, were 
 there only indirect evidence, that the Minsi intermarried 
 with the Delawares, and that the law of the whole 
 " nation " was exogamy. The fact is, however, not left 
 to inference. It rests on the most direct and distinct 
 evidence. Loskiel is quoted by Gallatin as saying : 
 " The Delawares and Iroquois never marry near relations. 
 According to their own account the Indian nations were 
 divided into tribes for no other purpose than that no 
 one might ever, either through temptation or mistake, 
 marry a near relation, which at present is scarcely 
 possible, for whoever intends to marry must take a 
 person of a different tribe." 
 
 I have already examined the evidence as to kinship 
 among the Delawares. Does it make for my view or 
 against it, that they were subdivided into numerous 
 small tribes, distinguished by local names ? 2 
 
 (d) Of the Shawnoes in the Western division we 
 have an account by Mr. Johnston, who calls them 
 Shawanoese. It is singularly interesting, as introducing 
 us to a man-totem. 
 
 1 History of the Moravian Missions, Part I. p. 56. 
 2 Gallatin, ut supra, p. 46. 
 
342 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 The Shawnoes were in four tribes or clans : 
 
 1. "The Piqua Tribe, which they say originated 
 as follows : In ancient times they had a large fire, 
 which being burnt down, a great puffing and blowing 
 were heard in the ashes ; they looked, and behold 
 a man stood up from the ashes ! hence the name 
 Piqua a man coming out of the ashes, or made of 
 ashes." 
 
 2. " The Mequachake Tribe, which signifies a fat man 
 filled a man made perfect, so that nothing is wanting. 
 This tribe has the priesthood. They perform the 
 sacrifices, and all the religious ceremonies of the nation. 
 None but certain persons of this tribe are permitted 
 even to touch the sacrifices." 
 
 3. The Kiskapocoke Tribe. The signification of the 
 term is unknown, at least it is not given. 
 
 4. "The Chillicothe Tribe. Chillicothe has no 
 definite meaning. It is a place of residence." 
 
 The statements of Mr. Johnston as to the other 
 tribes in Ohio, in 1819, apply to the Shawnoes, and 
 ascribe to them exogamy as marriage law, and the 
 system of kinship through females only. 1 
 
 Blood-Feud. Johnston's statement may be taken 
 as giving the law for the Algonquin and Iroquois 
 stocks. It is, as might be expected, the same for 
 both. ? 
 
 "'If murder be committed, the family [ = clan or 
 
 1 Arch. Amer.j vol. i. pp. 275 and 284. 
 
 2 In regard to his statement, note his use of the terms nation, tribe, 
 and family, e.g. (p. 273) of the Shawanoese. ..." The people of this 
 nation [ = local tribe] have a tradition that their ancestors crossed the 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 343 
 
 tribe of descent] of the deceased only have the right of 
 taking satisfaction ; they collect, consult, and decree. 
 The rulers of a town, or of the nation, have nothing to 
 do or say in the business. The relations of the deceased 
 person consult first among themselves, and if the case 
 is clear, and their family [ clan] not likely to suffer by 
 the division, they determine on the case definitively. 
 When the tribe [ ? nation] may be affected by it, or in 
 a doubtful case, the family [ = clan] consult the tribe 
 [ = nation], and when they have resolved on having 
 redress they take the guilty, if he is to be found, and if 
 he flies they take the nearest of kin. In some cases the 
 family [ = clan] who have done the injury promise re- 
 paration ; and in that case they are allowed a reasonable 
 time to fulfil their promise, and they are generally quite 
 earnest of themselves in their endeavours to put the 
 guilty to death, in order to save an innocent person. 
 This right of judging and taking satisfaction being 
 vested in the family or tribe, is the sole cause why 
 their treaty stipulations never have been executed " 
 (p. 281). 
 
 sea. They are the only tribe [ = nation = local tribe] with which I am 
 acquainted, who admit of a foreign origin." 
 
 Again (p. 275) : "All the Indian nations [ = local tribes] are divided 
 into tribes [ = clans, families, or tribes of descent] after the manner of the 
 Jews." 
 
 Again (p. 280) : "War is always determined on by the head warrior 
 of the town which feels itself to have been injured. ... If ... he goes 
 out he is followed by all who are for war. It is seldom a town is unani- 
 mous : the nation [ = all the clans] never is ; and within the memory 
 of the oldest men among them, it is not recollected that more than one 
 half of the nation have been for war at the same time." 
 
344 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 TOTEMS OF THE IROQUOIS THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE 
 
 Lafitau, in his work on the Ked Indians, published 
 in 1724, gives us the following tradition of the Iroquois, 
 as to the origin of the earth, and as to their own 
 origin : 
 
 "This is how the Iroquois relate the origin of the 
 earth and their own origin. In the beginning there 
 were, they say, six men (the people of Peru and Brazil 
 have also the like number). Whence came these men, 
 then ? This they did not know. There was as yet no 
 earth, they wandered about as the wind wafted them. 
 They had also no wives, and they felt that their race 
 was about to perish with them. At last they learned, I 
 know not where, that there was a woman in heaven. 
 Having held a council they resolved that one of them, 
 named Hogouaho or the Wolf, should transport himself 
 thither. The enterprise appeared impossible, but the 
 birds of the air agreed together and raised him up, 
 making a seat for him with their bodies supporting one 
 another. When he arrived, he waited at the foot of a 
 tree till this woman should go out as usual to draw water 
 at a spring near the spot where he had halted. The 
 woman did not fail to come according to her custom. 
 The man who was waiting for her entered into con- 
 versation with her, and made her a present of bear's 
 grease, of which he gave her some to eat. A curious 
 woman who likes chatting and who receives presents is 
 soon overcome. This woman was weak even in heaven ; 
 she allowed herself to be seduced. The master of heaven 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 345 
 
 perceived it, and in his anger he turned her out and 
 precipitated her, but in her fall the Tortoise received 
 her on its back, on which the otter and the fish, drawing 
 some clay from the depths of the waters, formed a little 
 island, which increased in size ; by degrees it extended 
 itself into the form in which we see the earth at the 
 present day. This woman had two children who fought 
 together. They had unequal arms, of which they did 
 not know the strength ; those of the one were offensive 
 and those of the other were incapable of doing harm, so 
 that the latter was killed without difficulty. 
 
 " From this woman are descended all the other men 
 through a long series of generations ; and it is such a 
 singular event which served, they say, as a foundation 
 for the distinction of the three Iroquois and Huronese 
 families, the Wolf, the Bear, and the Tortoise, the names 
 of which are like a living tradition, which keeps before 
 their eyes (recalls to them) their history of the earliest 
 time" (vol. i. p. 93). 
 
 Here we have a distinct and comparatively early 
 attestation, in Iroquois tradition, to the existence from 
 the first times they knew of, of the tribes of the Wolf, 
 Bear, and Tortoise (or Turtle, as it is more commonly 
 called) among them and the Hurons, and the suggestion 
 that, whatever other tribes were included from the first 
 in the Iroquois nation, these three were the most pro- 
 minent. Indeed, it may be believed, on the analogy of 
 like cases, that if any other totem, other than that of a 
 tribe in a position of thorough insignificance, had existed 
 in the nation at the time this legend took shape, a place 
 
346 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 and part would have been found for it to play in the 
 story. 
 
 Mr. Cadwalader Golden, who, we are informed by 
 Mr. Schoolcraft (vol. iii. p. 195), had often been a com- 
 missioner to the Iroquois during the reign of George II., 
 and was familiar with their history and customs, gave, 
 in 1747, an account of the Iroquois in perfect agreement 
 with that just cited from Lafitau. Enumerating the 
 nations in the League Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, 
 Cayugas, and Senecas he says (Schoolcraft, vol. iii. p. 
 184) : " Each of these nations is divided into three tribes 
 or families who distinguish themselves by three different 
 arms or ensigns the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf ; 
 and the Sachems, or old men of these families, put this 
 ensign or mark of their family to every public paper when 
 they sign it." Such a statement as this, from an officer 
 who must have had with the Iroquois numerous public 
 transactions, should be conclusive. It is confirmed by 
 what Schoolcraft says of Joseph Brant, the celebrated 
 Mohawk leader ("who," says Morgan (p. 74), "from his 
 conspicuous position and the high confidence reposed in 
 him, had conceded to him by some writers the title of 
 Military Chieftain of the League;" "but this," says 
 Morgan, " is entirely a mistake, or rather a false asser- 
 tion "), that he signed with a triune badge of a bear, 
 turtle, and wolf. Also, by the separate testimony of 
 Charlevoix, writing in 1744 (Histoire de la Nouvelle 
 France, Paris, 1744, vol. iii. p. 266; cited by Dr. 
 Gallatin, Arch. Amer., vol. ii. p. 109), who says, 
 4 'Among the Hurons the first tribe is that of the Bear ; 
 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 347 
 
 the two others of the Wolf and the Turtle. The Iroquois 
 nation has the same divisions, only the Turtle family is 
 divided into two, the Great and the Little." It is further 
 confirmed by the fact that certain of the Iroquois nations 
 have not now any other than these three totems, and 
 assert that they never had more. " The descendants 
 of the ancient Oneidas and Mohawks," says Mr. Lewis 
 Morgan, 1 "affirm that their ancestors never had but 
 three tribes, the Wolf, Bear, and Turtle, and on old 
 treaties with these nations, now in the state department, 
 these titles appear as their only social divisions/' 
 
 Charlevoix's authority may be a mere repetition of 
 Lafitau, but the authority of Golden must be accepted 
 as independent, and the evidence of the public documents 
 in the state department agreeing with the other evidence 
 would appear conclusive. More recent researches by 
 Mr. Schoolcraft, representing the United States Govern- 
 ment, confirm what precedes. He says (vol. iv. p. 666, 
 pub. 1856): "The Iroquois originally appear to have 
 had but three totems, the Turtle, the Bear, and the 
 Wolf." And elsewhere (vol. v. p. 73), " There appear 
 to have been originally three totems that received the 
 highest honour and respect, i.e. the Turtle, Bear, and 
 Wolf. These were the great totems of the Iroquois. 
 The other totems appear of subordinate, secondary, and 
 apparently newer origin." If further proof of this were 
 wanted, we have it in the fact that all the Sachemships 
 in the Mohawk and Oneida nations were held by the 
 Turtle, Wolf, and Bear tribes, while of the forty-seven 
 
 1 League of the Iroquois, p. 81. 
 
348 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAl 
 
 Sachemships in the League, of which the line of descent 
 is alleged to be known, thirty-four were hereditary in 
 the families of the Turtle, Bear, and Wolf, against 
 thirteen of the families of the Snipe (six), Deer (four), 
 Heron (two), and Hawk (one). Moreover, while the 
 Sachemships vested in the three first -named tribes 
 included all the most dignified titles, there is no evi- 
 dence to support the proposition that the thirteen 
 Sachemships belonging to the minor tribes were con- 
 ferred upon them at the time of the formation of the 
 League, and not subsequently, as these tribes were 
 developed within the nation and became of importance. 
 Moreover, the Turtle, Wolf, and Bear are the only tribes 
 that appear in all the nations ; while from the fact that 
 no tribe of any totem but one of these three ever formed 
 itself within the nations of the Mohawks or Oneidas, 
 conjunctly with the law which deduced descents through 
 females, and counted children to be of the tribe of the 
 mother, we are constrained to believe that the three 
 primary tribes of the Mohawks and Oneidas, at least, 
 must have intermarried among themselves agreeably to 
 the law of exogamy, which we know to be now their 
 marriage law, and to have declined marriage with women 
 of the inferior totems. If they had married with women 
 of such totems, it must have infallibly happened that 
 gentes of the Snipe, Deer, Heron, and Hawk totems 
 must have appeared as subdivisions in the nations of the 
 Mohawks and Oneidas. 
 
 Before producing Mr. Morgan's account of the nature 
 and origin of the League of the Iroquois, it is well to 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 349 
 
 note the sources from which he has drawn it. It is 
 mainly founded on the tradition that the League, with 
 every feature of it, was fully formed by an act of legisla- 
 tion, at a single congress of the chiefs of the different 
 nations entering into it, and thereafter continued with- 
 out the smallest change of importance down till near 
 the end of last century ; so that an account of the League 
 as it was at any time in its history would be true for 
 the moment of its origin. 
 
 As to when it originated, Mr. Morgan says (p. 8), 
 that some circumstances tend to show that it was a 
 century old at the date of the Dutch discovery, 1609. 
 That would refer the origin to about the year 1500. On 
 the other hand, Mr. Morgan says that the principal 
 Iroquois traditions indicate a period far more remote. 
 If we assume this not to exceed a hundred years, we may 
 have the origin given by tradition about the year 1400. 
 
 We are asked to believe that the constitution of the 
 Iroquois League, matured at all points from the first by 
 a single legislative act, remained unchanged for four 
 hundred years, so that we can entirely trust an account 
 given of it by Mr. Morgan in 1851, founded on state- 
 ments made to him by Seneca Indians when he was a 
 young man. It may be remarked that the fact here 
 alleged, if true, would be absolutely without parallel in 
 the history of mankind. Fancy a constitutional history 
 of England in the fifteenth century written in the nine- 
 teenth, on the authority of a Welsh peasant ! Let us 
 now proceed to consider what this marvellously un- 
 changing constitution was, and how it was founded. 
 
350 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 Mr. Morgan says (p. 7) that the original Iroquois 
 group having been disrupted into the five nations, " the 
 severance was followed by a gradual alienation, finally 
 resulting in a state of open warfare, which continued for 
 an unknown period." Up to the moment when this 
 League was formed, then, the nations who formed it 
 were open and inveterate enemies. The project of the 
 League, it is said, originated with a wise man of the 
 Onondaga nation. This man must have been a far- 
 seeing statesman, and the most thorough draftsman 
 that the world ever knew. He propounded the League 
 to the nations as a scheme already matured. The 
 confederation, says Morgan (p. 60), if we may trust 
 Iroquois testimony, was not of gradual construction under 
 the suggestions of necessity. The plan of the League, 
 which the wise Onondaga had projected for the union 
 of the hostile nations, was considered at a place on the 
 north shore of Lake Onondaga, " where the first council- 
 fire was kindled, around which the chiefs and wise men 
 of the several nations were gathered, and where, after a 
 debate of many days, its establishment (i.e. that of the 
 League) was effected." The plan of the wise Onondaga 
 was of the most extraordinary sort, to propose to nations 
 at war with one another. In the first place he proposed 
 to divide each of them into eight tribes, as a device for 
 creating new relationships by which to bind them all 
 more firmly together (p. 91), and he proposed with the 
 same view, and to make these relationships operative in 
 the best manner, that it should be a law of the League 
 that descent should be counted in the female line, and 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 351 
 
 the children accordingly be. " in perpetuity " of the tribe 
 of their mother. Then with a view to making the 
 division of the people in each nation into eight tribes 
 more effectual the most perfect union, Mr. Morgan 
 says, of separate nations which was ever devised by the 
 wit of man (p. 81) the wise man of the Onondagas 
 planned the division of each of the eight tribes into five 
 portions, and planned the distribution of these portions 
 throughout the several nations. " In effect the Wolf 
 tribe was divided into five parts, and one-fifth of it 
 placed in each of the five nations. The remaining tribes 
 were subjected to the same division and distribution." 
 And it must be assumed, as part of the plan of the wise 
 man who invented these tribes and subdivisions of tribes, 
 that, by a law of the League, all of the same tribe should 
 count themselves as brothers and sisters, bound to each 
 other by the ties of consanguinity. It is easy to see, 
 assuming it possible to create by enactment sentiments 
 of brotherhood, and to effect such a marvellous series of 
 transplantations of sections of newly-created divisions 
 of hitherto hostile nations, how thoroughly well welded 
 together the nations would become in respect of the 
 newly-created cross relationships. " If either of the 
 five nations," says Mr. Morgan, "had wished to cast 
 off the alliance, it must also have broken this bond of 
 brotherhood. Had the nations fallen into collision, it 
 would have turned hawk tribe against hawk tribe, heron 
 against heron, brother against brother. The history of 
 the Iroquois exhibits the wisdom of these organic pro- 
 visions, etc." 
 
352 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 The reasoning by which our admiration is claimed 
 for these organic provisions would force us, even if we 
 were not expressly told, to think of them as novelties 
 and devices of the wise man of the Onondagas, since 
 the nations are represented as having been continually 
 at war with one another before the League. If we 
 think of them as being before the League divided into 
 tribes of the same name, we see that we should have, in 
 case of war, hawk against hawk, heron against heron, 
 etc., which it is suggested could not be, and certainly 
 could not be if a common totem implied common blood. 
 The tribal distribution, then, must have been, as Mr. 
 Morgan says, an organic device; and at p. 91 it is 
 expressly stated that "the Iroquois claim to have 
 originated the idea of a division of the people into 
 tribes, as a means of creating new relationships by 
 which to bind the people more firmly together. The 
 fact that this division of the people of the same nation 
 into tribes does not prevail generally among our Indian 
 races, favours the assertion of the Iroquois." The plan 
 of the wise man of the Onondagas proposed not only 
 an entire reconstruction of the whole of the five nations 
 socially. It proposed, further, a scheme of political 
 government in perpetuity for each of them ; a scheme 
 of government for the whole of them in their union 
 as a League ; the creation and distribution of a variety 
 of noble offices, and solemn methods of "raising up" 
 from time to time successors to the various national 
 and League functionaries. No wonder that it was only 
 after a debate of many days that its establishment was 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 353 
 
 effected. The Iroquois traditions, which have guided 
 us so far, say, indeed, that the wise man of the 
 Onondagas met the chief opposition to his scheme 
 from a Sachem of his own nation. Tododa'ho (p. 67) 
 was an Onondaga ruler who had become very powerful 
 in war. "Tradition says that he had conquered the 
 Cayugas and the Senecas. It represents his head as 
 covered with tangled serpents, and his look when angry 
 as so terrible that whoever looked upon him fell dead." 
 This terrible person, of the reality of whose existence, 
 as harmonising with the rest of the narrative, we can 
 have no doubt, " was reluctant to consent to the new 
 order of things, as he would thereby be shorn of his 
 absolute power and be placed among a number of 
 equals." He was bribed into acquiescence by naming the 
 first Sachemship after him, and dignifying it above the 
 others by special marks of honour. Two facts, true to 
 this day, support the tradition respecting Tododa/ho. 
 His name is to the present day among the Iroquois 
 the personification of heroism, forecast, and dignity of 
 character; and the Mohawk Sachem who, when the 
 League was formed, combed the snakes out of Todo- 
 da/ho's hair, is still called Ha-yo-went'-ha, the man who 
 combs (p. 68). 
 
 The Iroquois traditions would not appear to have 
 been very consistent with one another, or Mr. Morgan 
 has sifted them, inclining sometimes to one form of 
 them and sometimes to another. For instance, we saw 
 that they claim to have originated the division into tribes 
 as a means of welding the people together, and that 
 
 2 A 
 
354 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHA1 
 
 Mr. Morgan inclined, though not without some hesita- 
 tion, to favour this view (p. 91). Elsewhere the trib* 
 divisions are assumed as existing before the Leagui 
 "The founders of the Iroquois Confederacy," say* 
 Mr. Morgan, "did not seek to suspend the tribj 
 divisions of the people, to introduce a different soci; 
 organisation ; but, on the contrary, they rested th< 
 League itself upon the tribes, and through them soughl 
 to interweave the race into one political family" (p. 79). 
 
 "In each nation," he says, "there were eight tribes 
 which were arranged in two divisions and named 
 follows: Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle; Deer, Sni] 
 Heron, Hawk " (p. 79). 
 
 " Tradition declares that the Bear and the D< 
 were the original tribes, and that the residue wer< 
 subdivisions" (p. 80). 
 
 " All the institutions of the Iroquois have regard to 
 the divisions of the people into tribes, originally with 
 reference to marriage. The Wolf, Bear, Beaver, and 
 Turtle tribes being brothers to each other, were no1 
 allowed to intermarry. The four opposite tribes 
 being also brothers to each other, were likewise pi 
 hibited from intermarrying. . . . Whoever violate< 
 these laws of marriage incurred the deepest detesta- 
 tion and disgrace. In process of time, however, th< 
 rigour of the system was relaxed, until finally th< 
 prohibition was confined to the tribe of the individual, 
 which among the residue of the Iroquois is sti] 
 religiously observed. They can now marry into 
 tribe but their own. Under the original as well 
 
xvi NORTH AMERICA, EAST AND SOUTH 355 
 
 modern regulation, the husband and wife were of 
 different tribes. The children always followed the 
 tribe of the mother" (p. 83). 
 
 It will be seen that the ultimate facts are totemism, 
 exogamy, and female kinship. Assuming that there is 
 anything in the tradition that anciently there were 
 among the Iroquois eight tribes in each nation, and 
 that these were arranged in two divisions of four 
 tribes each, within which marriage was interdicted, we 
 see in these divisions nothing inconsistent with simple 
 exogamy ; for the one of them contains the Bear and 
 the other the Deer, and Mr. Morgan gives the tradition 
 that the others were mere subdivisions of these stocks. 
 If the Wolf, Beaver, and Turtle were truly of the Bear 
 stock, marriage among them would by that fact be 
 interdicted according to the law of exogamy. So, if 
 the Snipe, Heron, and Hawk were truly of the Deer 
 stock, would marriage be interdicted between them by 
 the same law ; and the phenomena of such divisions 
 touch not the question of the origin of exogamy. They 
 exhibit a phenomenon posterior to the establishment of 
 exogamy, the formation of bands on the totemic model, 
 mindful for a time of their being of one stock with 
 one another, as well as with the group from which they 
 sprung, and for long obeying the law of exogamy on 
 that footing ; but in the lapse of time, the memory of 
 their origin growing feeble, or it may be falling under 
 doubt, or being overridden by new notions of origin, 
 treating one another as if they were of different stocks. 
 That a tribe which for many generations had passed for 
 
356 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. XVI 
 
 Wolves, albeit they were derived from Bears, should in 
 time come to regard themselves as being really Wolves 
 and not Bears, is what might be expected ; and they 
 would apply the marriage law accordingly. Mr. Morgan's 
 account, then, is of importance in connection with the 
 origin of exogamy only so far as it ascribes it to a 
 legislative device ; and we have already seen how 
 absolutely incredible it is that it had such an origin. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, WEST 
 
 THE MOQUIS 
 
 GOVERNMENT among the Moquis is hereditary, but does not 
 necessarily descend to the sons of the chief, if the people 
 prefer any other blood -relation. They give the following 
 account of their origin : " Many years ago their great mother 
 brought from her home in the West nine races of men, in the 
 following forms. 1. The Deer race. 2. The Sand race. 3. 
 The Water race. 4. The Bear race. 5. The Hare race. 6. 
 The Prairie-wolf race. 7. The Eattlesnake race. 8. The 
 Tobacco-plant race. 9. The Eeed-grass race. Having placed 
 them in the spot where their villages now stand, she trans- 
 formed them into men who built the present Pueblos, and the 
 distinction of races is still kept up. One told me he was of 
 the Sand race, another of the Deer, etc. They are firm 
 believers in metempsychosis, and say that when they die they 
 will dissolve into their original forms, and become bears, deer, 
 etc., again. The Chief Governor is of the Deer race." (Re- 
 ported by Dr. Ten Broeck, Assistant-Surgeon United States 
 Army.) They say that the great mother gave them all the 
 domestic animals they have. They keep up a sacred fire; 
 the women propose marriage to the men ; polygamy is unknown 
 among them. 1 
 
 [A different list of totems among the Moquis is given by 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, voL iv. pp. 85, 86. 
 
358 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP 
 
 Bourke; besides animals and plants, it includes Water, Fire- 
 wood, Sun, and Cloud. " My informant said he himsel: 
 belonged to the Butterfly gens, that his wife and children were 
 of the Eagle, his father a Deer." This proves female kinship 
 among them, and suggests exogamy. Both are distinctly 
 stated further on : " When a man marries he goes to the 
 house owned by his wife ; the act of marriage does not sever 
 the connection with his own clan, but his children follow their 
 mother's clan. Women exercise the right of choosing their 
 own husbands. Property owned by the wife descends, upon 
 her death, to her daughters. Marriage must be exogarnous as 
 concerns the gens, i.e. a man and woman belonging to the 
 same gens or clan cannot enter into the marital relation. A 
 Badger man cannot marry a Badger woma'n. . . . The women 
 have the management, control, and ownership of the houses. 
 A man will never sell anything in the house unless his wife 
 consent, and then she pockets the money. This feature of 
 domestic life is noticeable among the Pueblos generally." l ] 
 
 THE NAVAJOS 
 
 These are nomadic tribes; they have no chiefs, but are 
 organised on a somewhat patriarchal type, each wealthy man 
 owning a band composed of retainers and servants, called his 
 family, and resembling a Scottish Highland clan. 2 
 
 They tell this story of their origin : Many years ago they 
 all lived under ground, along with the Pueblos and other 
 tribes. Among the Navajos were two dumb men who played 
 the Indian flute. One of them accidentally touching one day 
 the top of the cave, there was heard a hollow sound, and 
 immediately the old man conceived the idea of boring through 
 to see what was inside. Then follows a story in which the 
 Racoon, Moth- worm, and four great White Swans figure. The 
 four Swans, on a Moth-worm boring a hole through the roof, 
 attacked him, the first piercing him with an arrow ; then 
 
 1 The Snake-Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, pp. 116, 135, 248. 
 London, 1884. 2 Schoolcraft, vol. iv. pp. 89, 211. 
 
xvn NORTH AMERICA, WEST 359 
 
 saying, " He is of my race," and retiring. After a variety of 
 adventures, the men and animals came up ; the Navajos first , 
 after them the Pueblos and other Indians. The old men of 
 the Navajos made the sun ; the old men of the other tribes 
 made the moon, heaven, and stars. The scattering of the 
 stars about anyhow was the work of the Prairie-wolf. The 
 few constellations show how the Navajos would have em- 
 broidered them had the Prairie-wolf let them alone. Corn 
 was brought to them by a Turkey-hen from the morning star ; 
 also, at a later time, white corn and wheat; in fact, all the 
 seeds they possess were brought to them by this benevolent 
 bird. This all savours of totemism, and further proof is that 
 they "never eat the flesh of the grey squirrel, nor could I 
 (Major Backus) induce them to give any reason for declining 
 it; yet they eat the Prairie-dog, which is in no respect pre- 
 possessing." 1 
 
 Another account of their origin runs thus : " At the first 
 twelve Navajos, six men and six women, came out of the 
 earth in the middle of the lake which is in the valley of 
 Montezuma. They were preceded in their ascent by the 
 Locust and Badger, the Locust being the foremost, and boring 
 the hole for the others; but, as he was not very successful, 
 the Badger made the hole larger, so as to enable the Navajos to 
 come out. On arriving at the surface of the earth, the Navajos 
 were provided with fire in the following manner. The animals 
 now found on the earth were already in existence. The 
 Coyote, Bat, and Squirrel were the special friends of the 
 Navajos, and agreed to aid in procuring fire for them. The 
 animals, neither Deer nor Moose being yet created, were 
 engaged in playing mocassin or shoe-game, having a fire to 
 play by. The Coyote stole a light and ran off with it. The 
 Bat in time relieved him, and when tired made the fire over 
 to the Squirrel, who conveyed it to the Navajos." They think 
 the Americans may be descended from twelve other Navajos, 
 who came up after the first twelve. After a time there were 
 but three Navajos, an old man and woman, and young woman. 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, vol. iv. pp. 89, 91, 211, 212. 
 
STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 The young woman had a son by the Sun, and after that they 
 increased in numbers. 1 
 
 Marriage. Girls are considered the property of their 
 parents till they marry ; the husband makes a contract with 
 the father, the usual price being five or six horses. Navajo 
 wives are " very independent of menial duties, and leave their 
 husbands upon the slightest protest of dislike." *' 
 
 Kinship among them appears, therefore, now to be male, 
 but to have been once female, to judge from the myth quoted 
 above, wherein they trace their descent to a legendary 
 ancestress and the Sun. 
 
 THE DACOTA GROUP 
 
 Under this head are here included the Omahas, Otoes, 
 Winnebagoes, lowas, Dacotas proper or Sioux, Quappas. 
 
 The tribal organisation appears to be totemic. The Iowa 
 and Sac tribes have the notion that they are descended from 
 animals or birds, and bear the title of the particular animal 01 
 bird from which they sprung. " They have eight leading 
 families, though some of them are now extinct. These are the 
 Eagle, Pigeon, Wolf, Bear, Elk, Beaver, Buffalo, and Snake. 
 These families are known severally in the tribe by the parti- 
 cular manner in which their hair is cut. The other families 
 with their peculiar badges are lost." It is only the male 
 children who have their hair cut in this manner, and it is done 
 once a year. " They pay a kind of religious adoration to som< 
 animals, reptiles, and birds. There is a species of the hawk 
 which they never kill, except to obtain some portions of it 
 body to put with their sacred medicine." 3 
 
 The Osagees attribute their origin to a snail and a beaver. 4 
 The Hidatsas or Minnitarees, a branch of the Dacotas, a 
 their divisions ddki ; " In the Hidatsa daki," says Matthews 
 "we have apparently a modification of the totem system." 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, vol. iv. pp. 218, 219. 2 Id. vol. iv. pp. 214, 217. 
 3 Id. voL iii. pp. 261, 268, 273. 4 Id. vol. iv. App. H. 
 
 5 Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians, p. 139. "Wash- 
 ington, 1877. 
 
xvii NORTH AMERICA, WEST 361 
 
 " Meats forbidden are strictly observed by the Indians 
 (Dacotas), but all differ in the different kinds of meat for- 
 bidden," x a clear sign of totemism. But the Dacotas possess 
 a somewhat elaborate hierarchy of gods, of which there are 
 several classes. One class is called Onkteri ; they resemble the 
 ox in form, but are very large, and " subordinate to the Onkteri 
 are the serpent, lizard, frog, leech, owl, eagle, fish, spirits of 
 the dead, etc." Another class is called the Wakinyan or 
 " fliers," which are in bird form, and are the Dacota war-gods. 
 Thirdly, there is a god who is " invisible and ubiquitous. He 
 resides in the consecrated spear and tomahawk, in boulders 
 (which are hence universally venerated by the Dacotas), and 
 in the ' Four Winds.' " Subordinate to him, again, are the 
 " buzzard, raven, fox, wolf, and some other animals of a similar 
 nature." There are many other kinds of gods besides. 2 
 
 The Winnebagoes have a cosmogony full of suggestions of 
 totemism. Their Great Spirit dreamt, waked, took a piece of 
 his body and of earth, made a man, then other three, talked to 
 them, and made a woman, the earth, grandmother of Indians. 
 The four men are the four winds. The earth was unsteady, 
 and so he made four beasts and four snakes to steady it. 
 From a piece of his heart he made a man. He gave to man 
 tobacco, and to woman grains. The Great Spirit invented 
 fighting 118 years after, to prevent men dying of old age. 
 He tried to make an Indian and made a negro ; he then tried 
 to make a black bear and made a grisly bear. Another version 
 runs : " The Great Spirit then made a man from a he-bear, 
 and made a woman from a she-bear. After these men were 
 created, they held a council, and it was agreed that the second 
 man that came down from heaven should be a war-chief, and 
 that the man made from a bear should be his second in com- 
 mand." A distinct statement of totemism follows. " This 
 tribe was anciently divided into clans or primary families, 
 known by the names of Bird, Bear, and Fish families. The 
 clans have not at the present day any badges designating their 
 order or rank." 3 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, vol. iii. p. 243. 2 Id. vol. iv. pp. 643-645. 
 
 3 Id. vol. iv. pp. 236, 239. 
 
362 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 The Omahas are divided into two principal sections, which 
 are again divided into eight and five clans respectively. Each 
 of these derived its name from some animal, plant, or other 
 natural substance, and was not allowed to eat it. 1 
 
 MAERIAGE 
 
 Very little evidence under this head is forthcoming. It 
 is, however, definitely stated that among the Omahas " even a 
 very remote degree of consanguinity is an insuperable barrier 
 to the marriage union," 2 and as we have found them to possess 
 the totemic organisation, there can be no doubt that this means 
 exogamy. 
 
 " In the Omaha nation numbers of the females are 
 betrothed from their infancy ; and as polygamy is extremely 
 common, the individual who weds the eldest daughter espouses 
 all the sisters successively, and receives them into his house 
 when they arrive at a proper age." After marriage the young 
 wife remains some time with her parents, occasionally visited 
 by her husband, before she goes to reside in his lodge. 3 
 
 Polygamy is the rule also among the Dacotas. 4 
 
 The Omahas have the levirate. " If the deceased has left 
 a brother, he takes the widow to his lodge after a proper 
 interval, and considers her as his wife without any preparatory 
 formality. If the deceased has not left a brother, the relations 
 of his squaw take her to their lodges." 5 
 
 Though polygamy now prevails among the Hidatsas, a 
 man often marrying several sisters, yet there is some evidence 
 of former polyandry of the Thibetan type in a legend " said 
 to belong originally to this tribe, and to have been known to 
 it from time immemorial." Two demigods, Long -Tail and 
 Spotted Body, lived together in a lodge ; " a woman lived with 
 them, who took care of their lodge, and who was their wife 
 and sister; and these three were at first the only beings of 
 their kind in the world." 
 
 1 James, Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, vol. ii. 
 p. 47. 1823. 
 
 2 Ibid. vol. i. p. 213. 3 ftfa vo i i p . 209. 
 
 4 Schoolcraft, vol. iii. p. 240. 5 James, vol. i. p. 222. 
 
NORTH AMERICA, WEST 363 
 
 Marriage by purchase and marriage by elopement are both 
 recognised among them, but the latter is looked on as undigni- 
 fied, and they have different terms for the two kinds. Divorce 
 is easy, but rare among the better class of people ; the women 
 are as a rule faithful. "A man usually takes to wife the 
 widow of a brother, unless she expresses an unwillingness to 
 the arrangement, and he may adopt the orphans as his own 
 children." A man may not talk with his mother-in-law, a 
 custom which holds with other western tribes ; " but this 
 custom seems to be falling into disuse." Hence it may be 
 inferred that it was once lawful to marry a mother and 
 daughter, which is still common in parts of California; the 
 prohibition even to speak to the mother is the result of an 
 excessive rebound in the opposite direction. They have the 
 classificatory system of relationship, according to the common 
 American type. 1 
 
 Blood-Feud. The death of a relative is commonly avenged, 
 sometimes two or three being killed for one, but compromises 
 are frequently made by the offender giving large presents. He 
 often flees from justice, and may be killed years after the 
 offence. They have no cities of refuge. 2 
 
 Succession. The Dacotas seem to know nothing of heirship 
 in property, or if they do, they have no chance of leaving it to 
 their children. Most of it goes to medicine men, in death-bed 
 expenses, and what remains is taken by the other Indians. 3 
 
 COLUMBIANS AND CALIFORNIANS 
 
 The Columbians dwell between the 43rd and 55th parallels 
 of latitude on the north-west American coast. The " Nootka 
 Columbian" tribes are: 1. Haidahs, etc., Queen Charlotte's 
 Islanders ; 2. Nootkas, Vancouver's Islanders ; 3. Sound 
 Indians, Puget Sound area; 4. Chinooks, on the banks of the 
 Columbia and along the coast both north and south. The 
 Cascade Mountains run north and south ; on the coast side lies 
 
 1 Matthews, pp. 63, 52, 53. 2 Schoolcraft, vol. ii. p. 184. 
 
 3 Id. vol. ii. p. 194. 
 
364 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 a strip 1000 miles long full of noble forest game, etc. On 
 the inland sides are plains or table -lands. The chief nations 
 of the Haidahs are the Massets, Skiddegats, and Cumshawas 
 (all Queen Charlotte's Islanders) ; Kaiganies (Prince of Wales' 
 Archipelago) ; Chimsyans, Nass, and Skeenas, Sebassas, Hailt- 
 zas, Bellacoolas. These are further subdivided " into numerous 
 indefinite tribes." ] 
 
 The Calif ornians. Between 43 and 32 30' and back 
 irregularly to Eocky Mountains. Divisions Northern, Central, 
 and Southern, and 4th, the Shoshones inland beyond the 
 Sierra Nevada. 
 
 For toternism among these tribes see the article on 
 totemism, infra, pp. 368 ff. 
 
 BLOOD-FEUD 
 
 Among the Nootkas, Northern, Central, and Southern 
 Californians, blood-feuds are mentioned as continually raging ; 
 thus among the Nootkas "private, family, and tribal feuds 
 continue from generation to generation." Among the Northern 
 Californians the eric is sometimes substituted for vengeance. 
 The temple was a refuge for the murderer in South California, 
 but vengeance was only deferred, and was exacted later on by 
 the descendants of the murdered man either from the murderer 
 himself or his kindred. Among the Acagchemem nations 
 every vanguecli or temple of Chinigchinich was a city of 
 refuge. "Not only was every criminal safe there, whatever 
 his crime, but the crime was as it were blotted out from that 
 moment, and the offender was at liberty to leave the sanctuary 
 and walk about as before ; it was not lawful even to mention 
 his crime ; all that the avenger could do was to point at him 
 and deride him, saying, 'Lo, a coward, who has been forced to 
 flee to Chinigchinich ! ' This flight was rendered so much a 
 meaner thing in that it only turned the punishment from the 
 head of him that fled upon that of some of his relatives ; life 
 went for life, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, even to the third 
 and fourth generation, for justice' sake." 2 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 155. 
 2 Id. vol. i pp. 91, 134, 207, 348, 386, 409 ; vol. iii. p. 167. 
 
xvii NORTH AMERICA, WEST 365 
 
 CAPTURE 
 
 Capture is continually going on throughout the whole 
 district west of the Eocky Mountains. " Some of the smaller 
 tribes at the north of the island (Vancouver) are practically 
 regarded as slave-breeding tribes, and are attacked periodically 
 by stronger tribes." ] " Although by no means a bloodthirsty 
 race, the Chinook tribes were frequently involved in quarrels, 
 resulting, it is said, from the abduction of women more 
 frequently than from other causes." '* A similar statement is 
 made of the Northern, Central, and Southern Californians 
 alike. 3 The Eogue Kiver Indians " kill all their male 
 prisoners, but spare the women and children." In the middle 
 of this century the Yosemite Indians were nearly exterminated 
 by the Monos, and all their women and children carried off. 
 The Southern Californians, who are always at war, spare no 
 male prisoners, and sell the females or retain them as slaves. 
 At Clear Lake " rape exists among them in an authorised form, 
 and it is the custom for a party of young men to surprise and 
 ravish a young girl, who becomes the wife of one of them." 4 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 Exogamy we have seen already to be the rule among the 
 Nootkas. Indirect evidence may be found in the statement 
 that in Southern California, " if a man ill-used his wife, her 
 relations took her away, after paying back the value of her 
 wedding presents." " The Spokane husband joins his wife's 
 tribe " (Columbia). 5 Apart from these two cases, there appears 
 to be no evidence for exogamy. 
 
 Polygamy is the rule among the chiefs of the Nootkas and 
 throughout California. Among the Chinooks only the very 
 rich have several wives. "Eich old men almost absorb the 
 female youth and beauty of the tribe " in Northern California, 
 
 1 Sproat in Bancroft, vol. i. p. 195 note. 2 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 235. 
 
 3 Id. vol. i. pp. 343, 380, 412. 
 4 Id. vol. i. pp. 344, 401, 407, 389 note. 5 Id. vol. i. pp. 277, 413. 
 
366 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xvn 
 
 " while the younger and poorer men must content themselves 
 with old and ugly wives." Yet " polygamy is almost universal, 
 the number of wives depending only on the limit of a man's 
 wealth." The common people of the Nootkas and South 
 Californians have only one wife apiece, and among the Cahrocs 
 there is no polygamy. In Central California a man often 
 marries a mother and all her daughters. Polygamy is every- 
 where practised by the Haidahs. 1 Polyandry is said to be 
 forbidden among some of the Central Californians. 2 
 
 Marriage is generally by purchase among all the above 
 nations, despite the capture which exists beside it. 
 
 Incest is very common. Among some Central Californians 
 " parentage and other relations of consanguinity are no obstacles 
 to matrimony." Of the Haidahs it is said that the women 
 " cohabit almost promiscuously with their own tribe, though 
 rarely with other tribes." 3 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. i. pp. 168, 196, 197, 241, 349, 351, 388, 410, 437. 
 
 2 Id. vol. i. p. 388 note. 
 
 3 Id. vol. i. pp. 168 note, 389 note. 
 
CHAP TEE XVIII 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, NORTH 
 
 THE tribes of this district are grouped in five principal 
 divisions: 1. Esquimos ; 2. Koniagas, or Southern Esquimos; 
 
 3. Aleuts; 4. Thlinkeets ; 5. Tinneh. 
 
 Their time is spent in a continual struggle for life, their 
 daily food depending on daily battles with beasts, birds, and 
 fishes. 
 
 The Koniagas are divided again as follows : 1. Koniagas 
 proper on the Archipelago; 2. Chugatshes; 3. Aglegmutes ; 
 
 4. Keyataigmutes ; 5. Agulmutes; 6. Kuskoquigmutes ; 7. 
 Magemutes; 8. Kwichpagmutes ; 9. Chagmutes; 10. Anlyg- 
 mutes; 11. Kaviaks; 12. Malemutes. 
 
 Of the Aleuts there are two tribes, the Unalaskans and the 
 Atkhas. 
 
 The Thlinkeets live along the coast and in islands from 
 Mount St. Elias to the river Nass, or to Columbia river, accord- 
 ing to Holmberg. They comprise : 1. Yakutats; 2. Ugalenzes; 
 3. Chilkats ; 4. Hoodsinoos ; 5. Takoos ; 6. Auks ; 7. Kakas ; 
 8. Sitkas; 9. Stikines ; and 10. Tungas. The Sitkas on Bara- 
 noff Island are dominant. They are warlike, and settle tribal 
 quarrels by trial by combat. La Perouse says they are 
 more advanced than the South Sea Islanders, except as to agri- 
 culture. 
 
 The Tinneh consist of four great families of nations: 1. 
 Chepewyans ; 2. Tacullies ; 3. Kutchins ; 4. Kenai. 
 
368 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 TOTEMS 
 
 The notices of totems in Bancroft's compilation are casual 
 and fragmentary; but probably they contain all the information 
 the authorities have to furnish. It is certain that the liabilities 
 to errors of observation are enormous in regard to this class of 
 facts. A traveller meets a Thlinkeet, for example. The Thlin- 
 keet is of the Bear clan, and declares his horror at the idea of 
 either killing a bear, or eating his flesh. The record is in 
 general terms, " The Thlinkeets will not kill bears or eat bear's 
 flesh." This is of course misleading ; but, making due allow- 
 ance for errors of this class, it will be often possible to spell 
 out from the records, more particularly when there are several 
 of them, the true state of the facts. An example may be seen 
 in what is said of the tribes grouped in the compilation as 
 " Southern Calif ornians." It is noticed by Schoolcraft l that 
 superstition forbids them to eat " the flesh of large game." 
 They believe " that in the bodies of all large animals the souls 
 of certain generations, long since passed, have entered." But the 
 statement in the text of Bancroft's compilation is, " Bear meat 
 the majority refuse to eat from superstitious motives," 2 from 
 which we infer that some will eat bear meat. Others, we are 
 directly told in the text, will eat deer. So that we have the 
 general statement instantly qualified, and are free to infer that 
 it had no other foundation than that some of these natives 
 abstained from one species of large game, others from another, 
 and that the abstention in each case was as regards the 
 sacred animal or totem of the clan to which they respectively 
 belonged. 
 
 The cases of totemism that are directly given are few 
 indeed. They are as follows : (1) The Thlinkeets, who are 
 represented as being divided into totem clans in two main 
 divisions, Wolf and Eaven, with exogamy as marriage law. 3 
 (2) The Kutchins, a great nation included under the more 
 general term Tinneh, who are said to be in three " castes " 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, vol. v. pp. 215, 216. 
 2 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 405. 3 Idm volt i p . 109< 
 
xvm NORTH AMERICA, NORTH 369 
 
 clans obviously being intended ; and the marriage law, again, 
 being exogamy. " Two persons of the same caste cannot 
 marry, but a man of one caste must marry a woman of 
 another." The mother, it is stated, gives " caste " to the 
 children, i.e. descent is through females. 1 (3) The Nootkas 
 in Vancouver's Island and on the adjoining mainland. The 
 family (clan) is indicated by some animal adopted as the family 
 crest (totem), and exogamy is the marriage law. Persons of 
 the same crest must not marry. The child takes its crest 
 from the mother, and, as a rule, descent is traced from the 
 mother and not the father. 2 (4) The people of Cueba counted 
 among the Isthmian Indians. It is directly stated that they 
 have totems, but their case appears as one of transition from 
 descent in the female to descent in the male line, and a dis- 
 tinction is taken between the "ancestral" totem and an 
 adopted totem, which indicates a break-up of the ancient 
 sacredness of the sign and a shifting of kinships from the 
 female to the male side. 3 (5) Certain Utah Indians. The 
 text of the compilation says nothing of totemism among them, 
 but in the description of their boundaries there is a casual 
 disclosure of its existence in a citation which has no bearing 
 on the matter of boundaries. It appears that the different 
 " bands " another term often used for clan of the Pah Utes 
 are named after " some article of food not common in other 
 localities " an obvious guess of the traveller. Thus Ocki, 
 the name of one band, means " Trout." 4 
 
 While the direct information as to the prevalence of 
 totemism is thus sparse, the indirect is overwhelming, and 
 will be best appreciated if we recur to the cases above specified 
 and consider some at least of them in detail, and the kind 
 of legends and beliefs connected with totemism which they 
 present. 
 
 The Thlinkeet nation, inhabiting the coast and islands 
 from Mount St. Elias near the Copper Eiver on the north 
 to the river Nass on the south over about five degrees of 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 132. 2 Id. vol. i. p. 197 note. 
 
 3 Id. vol. i. p. 753. 4 Id, vol. i. p. 466. 
 
 2 B 
 
370 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 latitude is represented as being in two great divisions, which 
 are named respectively after the Wolf and the Eaven. The 
 clans comprised in the Wolf division are named after the 
 Bear, Eagle, Dolphin, Shark, and Alca respectively the Wolf 
 clan, or Coquotans, being dominant in the division. The clans 
 comprised in the Raven division, again, are named after the 
 Frog, Goose, Sea -lion, Owl, and Salmon respectively the 
 Eaven clan being dominant in the division. Between members 
 of the same clan war is interdicted and so is marriage. On 
 the other hand, all of the same clan are bound to stand by one 
 another in quarrels ; and the young Wolf who to-day marries 
 a Eaven may be called upon to-morrow to fight his father-in- 
 law over some hereditary feud. 1 
 
 Some casual entries in portions of the Bancroft compilation 
 illustrate though feebly the totemism of the Thlinkeets. 
 Tor example, we are told that the Thlinkeet will kill a Bear 
 only in case of great necessity, " for the Bear is supposed to be 
 a man that has taken the shape of an animal " a statement 
 true, no doubt, of the Thlinkeets of the Bear clan. 2 Again, 
 there are the conflicting cosmogonies of the Thlinkeets. Those 
 of them with whom the Eaven is in the first place as the 
 totem of the dominant clan believe Yehl, the Crow or Eaven, 
 
 1 See Bancroft, vol. i. p. 109; and the footnote. There is no con- 
 formity between the authorities cited in the footnote and the statement 
 in the text. When Lisiansky (Voy., pp. 238, 242) says the Thlinkeets 
 are divided into " tribes," lie means clans, for he proceeds to enumerate 
 them, viz. " the tribe of the Bear, of the Eagle," etc. His " tribes " are 
 then genuine clans, or gentes, and not local divisions. When he says, 
 " The tribe of the Wolf has many privileges over the other tribes," we 
 must read, " The Wolf clan or gens has many privileges," etc. ; whence it 
 appears that the Wolves form a clan like the Bears and Eagles, and are 
 not, as stated in Bancroft's text, a "trunk" or division of the nation 
 subdivided into Bears, Eagles, etc. In the text again the word " tribe " 
 is used without thought. Thus, " tribes of the same clan may not war 
 on each other," which makes nonsense. I interpret it to mean that the 
 bond of a common blood and religion restrain men of the same clan from 
 conflicts with one another. 
 
 2 Id. vol. iii. p. 129. 
 
xvni NORTH AMERICA, NORTH 371 
 
 to be the Creator of all things, and in particular to have 
 furnished the world with light, fire, and fresh water. The 
 adherents of the Wolf, on the other hand, claim these honours 
 for the Wolf, Khanukh, the progenitor and totem of the Wolf 
 clan and they assert not only his superiority to Yehl, but his 
 priority. A story, invented no doubt by the priests of the 
 Wolf division, represents Yehl himself as having been con- 
 strained to admit this inferiority. It runs that Khanukh had 
 all the fresh water, and the Kavens and their allies had none. 
 Yehl having determined to procure water for his people, pro- 
 ceeded to Selka, an island in which the water was stored, and 
 was there confronted by Khanukh, when the following con- 
 versation took place between them. "How long hast thou 
 been in the world ?" asked Khanukh. Yehl proudly answered, 
 "Before the world stood in its place, I was there." "But 
 how long hast thou been in the world ?" asked he in turn of 
 Khanukh. " Ever since the time that the liver came out from 
 below." This allusion, to us incomprehensible, was clear to 
 Yehl, who instantly confessed, " Then art' thou older than I." 1 
 The story which has a parallel in the Lin'ga Purana proceeds 
 to show how Khanukh then terribly frightened Yehl, notwith- 
 standing which the latter managed to steal some of the fresh 
 water, and flying back to the mainland with it, scattered it as 
 he flew in all directions, " and wherever small drops fell there 
 are now springs and creeks." 
 
 The rivalry of the gods which this story reveals could not 
 but be unfriendly to national unity ; and the tendency every- 
 where as a condition of peace and quiet within a nation 
 is, in the long run, towards a harmonising of the claims of 
 rival divinities through co-ordinating them somehow in a 
 system. Equally certain is the universal tendency to anthropo- 
 morphise the original animal gods, and more often than not, 
 to establish amities among them by ties of kinship. Thus 
 when we come on a new version of the story of Yehl and 
 Khanukh, which represents them as men and brothers sons 
 of one mother and accepted as the two leading gods of the 
 Thlinkeets with separate domains Khanukh being god of war 
 1 Bancroft, vol. iii. pp. 98-102. 
 
372 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 it is only what we should have looked for. On this step 
 being taken, Yehl is a man-god named after his " favourite " 
 bird the Eaven ; and Khanukh a man-god named after his 
 " favourite " animal the Wolf. At first neither had any trace 
 of humanity. 1 
 
 To the north and west of the Thlinkeets are the tribes 
 grouped together in Bancroft's work as the Koniaga nations, 
 and extending from Behring Straits to the strait of Alaska. 
 In the direct account of these tribes no mention is made of 
 totemism among them. Their mythology however, as else- 
 where disclosed, enables us to infer it one portion of them 
 having the Eaven and another the Dog in the place of honour 
 in Olympus. They will not eat pork, moreover, and have a 
 festival to an owl with a man's head, a sea-gull, two partridges, 
 and bladders of animals. 2 
 
 The Koniagas proper, who inhabit the island of Kadiak, 
 claim descent from the Dog, i.e. those, as we may believe, that 
 belong to the Dog clan do so ; but the form of the descent is 
 not disclosed. We are told, however, of the form of this 
 descent believed in by their neighbours the Aleuts. 3 
 
 Some Aleuts trace their origin to a dog and bitch as first 
 parents, and are thus Dogs on both sides of the house ; others 
 have it that they are sprung from a bitch and a man father ; 
 while a third account represents their first father as having 
 fallen from heaven in the shape of a Dog the maternity in 
 this case being undisclosed. Other neighbours of the Koniagas, 
 again, on their north-east the Tinneh furnish a fresh variant 
 of the myth. The Dog clan of this great nation refer their 
 origin to a woman and a male Dog, who yet was a man, and 
 from whom indirectly they derive not only all human beings, 
 but the fishes, birds, and animals. This completes all the 
 possible variations that could be played on the canine and 
 human elements in their ancestry. One clan of the Tinneh, 
 it may be noted, have a bird presumably the Eaven as a 
 totem. But the clans would appear not to be interfused, if 
 we can credit the statement that the bird has no place in the 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 149 note. 
 2 Id. vol. i. pp. 75, 85 ; vol. iii. p. 104. 3 Id. vol. iii. p. 104. 
 
xvin NORTH AMERICA, NORTH 373 
 
 northern Indian branch of the Tinneh. The statement is 
 however most probably incorrect. Among the Tinneh we 
 have a further note of totemism. They will not eat the Dog, 
 and abominate all that do so. This is most probably true of 
 all the Dog clans among these northern nations, but we have 
 the fact for some Tinneh only. 1 
 
 Of clan distinctions, or totemism, among the tribes of 
 California not a word is said. We are told, however, that the 
 Californians describe themselves, in most cases, as originating 
 from the Coyote (i.e. the Prairie-wolf), which would indicate a 
 Coyote clan ; and there are indications that they have Hawk, 
 Crow, Duck, and Bear clans at least as well. One tribe, the 
 Potoyantes, give a metaphysical account of the transformation 
 of the first Coyotes into men. " There was an age in which 
 no men existed nothing but Coyotes," and the account is 
 made to explain the origin of cremation. Another Californian 
 myth tells of a great flood, when only a Coyote survived he 
 and a single feather tossed on the water. As he looked at it, 
 this feather became an Eagle and joined the Coyote on " Keed 
 Peak," and after a time, the two, feeling lonely, created men. 2 
 
 Among the Acagchemem, inhabiting the valley and neigh- 
 bourhood of San Juan Capistrano, California, the Creator is 
 Chinigchinich, whose image is the skin of a Coyote, or that of 
 a Mountain Cat, stuffed with feathers, so as to look like the 
 live animal. The same people have the great buzzard in 
 veneration, and a special ritual connected with it. They kill 
 it with religious ceremonies and bury it, mourning over it, and, 
 strange to say, they believe " that the birds killed in one same 
 yearly feast in many separate villages were one and the same bird." 
 But, strangest of all, this bird, which they called the Panes, 
 was not the Creator but a metamorphosis of him. It was 
 Chinigchinich and at bone a Coyote ! 3 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 105. 2 Id. vol. iii. pp. 87, 88. 
 
 3 Id. vol. iii. pp. 166, 168. In Oregon we have the Coyote anthropo- 
 morphised as Italapas, the Coyote and creator of the human race and first 
 instructor. It was the Coyote who stocked the rivers with salmon for 
 the Cahrocs (vol. iii. pp. 137, 155). Boscana, in Kobinson's Life in 
 
374 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 Among the Cahrocs in North California, we again meet 
 the Coyote as the benefactor of men, in conjunction with the 
 Cougar, the Bear, the Squirrel, and the Frog, while a special 
 legend explains the superior cunning of the Coyote and his 
 friendship for human beings. 1 But in North California, in 
 the neighbourhood of Mount Shasta, it is the Bear that is in 
 the first place, the master of all animals, and a terror even to 
 his Creator, the Great Spirit. This Great Spirit had his 
 wigwam on Mount Shasta, and lived there with his little 
 daughter. A great storm blew the daughter away to the 
 land of the grisly bears, who at that time walked and talked 
 like men. She was brought up in a family of the bears, and 
 married the eldest son. " Their progeny w T as neither grisly 
 bear nor Great Spirit, but man." When- the Great Spirit 
 heard of this he was enraged, and doomed the race of grislies 
 to perpetual dumbness. " No Indian, tracing his descent from 
 the spirit mother and the grisly, will kill a grisly bear ; and if, 
 by any evil chance, a grisly kill a man in any place, that spot 
 becomes memorable, and every one who passes casts a stone 
 there till a great pile is thrown up." 2 
 
 Before leaving the Californians, I notice that the Spaniards 
 of Vizcaino's expedition in 1602 found the Indians of Santa 
 Catalina Island venerating two great black crows, which, 
 according to Seiior Galan, were probably a species of bird 
 known in Mexico as king of the Turkey-buzzards ; he adding 
 that these birds are still the objects of respect and devotion 
 among most Californians. 3 
 
 Among the Ahts we meet a variety of totems birds, 
 animals, and fishes. Among these it is the Cuttle-fish that 
 holds the place of honour. He alone of all creatures possessed 
 fire. The other animals in vain tried to steal fire from the 
 Cuttle-fish. The Deer at last succeeded in stealing some, and 
 brought it into general use. Not all animals were made at 
 once the Loon and Crow were metamorphosed men. In 
 
 California, p. 169, describes certain other Californians as worshipping 
 their chief god in the form of a stuffed Coyote. 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. iii. pp. 90, 115. 
 
 2 Id. vol. iii. pp. 90-93. 3 /^ vo i t ^ p 134 
 
NORTH AMERICA, NORTH 375 
 
 Queen Charlotte's Island, however, men are deduced from crows 
 not crows from men. The Haidahs "gravely affirmed and 
 steadfastly maintained " their descent from crows. " Certain 
 owls and squirrels are regarded with reverence and used as 
 charms." * 
 
 Shift the district, shift the gods. On the Palouse Eiver 
 certain Cayuses, ISTez Perces, Walla Wallas, etc., refer their 
 origin to a miraculous Beaver. The Cayuses sprung from 
 the heart of this Beaver, and for this reason they are more 
 energetic, daring, and successful than their neighbours. In 
 British Columbia, again, among the Tacullies, it is the Musk- 
 rat that has the place of honour. Some Navajos, again, unite 
 the Coyote, Bat, and Squirrel as benefactors. Others, again, 
 have traditions of origin which mix up the Moth-worm, Swan, 
 Eacoon, and the Prairie-wolf the Coyote. Among all the 
 tribes visited by Mr. Low, from the Eraser Eiver on the west 
 to the St. Lawrence on the east, the Owl " was portentously 
 sacred." 2 
 
 The Greenlanders ascribe their origin to the transformation 
 of dogs into men. Torngarsuk, their good spirit, is described by 
 some of them as a bear. 3 Female kinship is evidenced among 
 them by the fact that a man's goods go to his sister's children. 4 
 In case of divorce children always follow their mother, and even 
 after her death will not help their father in his old age. If a 
 husband divorces his wife she goes back to her relations. 5 This 
 certainly points to exogamy, and it is clear, taking all these 
 details together, that the Greenlanders have come through the 
 stage of totemism and its usual accompaniments, although there 
 is no evidence that they still keep up the clan system. The 
 Kamschatkans, who are allowed on all hands to belong to the 
 same race of mankind, have animal dances, and regard the 
 Walrus, Orca, Bear, and Wolf with reverence. 6 They speak to 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 171 ; vol. iii. p. 96. 
 
 2 Id. vol. iii, pp. 81, 95, 98, 117, 128. 
 
 3 Cidmtz' s Greenland, voli.p. 188. Eng. Tr. London, 1820. Klemm, 
 Allgemeine Cultur-Geschichte der Menschheit, vol. ii. p. 3 1 6. Leipzig, 1843-52. 
 
 4 Crantz, vol. i. p. 176. 
 
 5 Id. vol. i. p. 148. 6 Klemm, vol. ii. p. 329. 
 
376 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 the animals with respectful forms and never name their names, 
 nor will they kill and eat any land or sea beast without first 
 excusing themselves to it, and asking it not to take it ill. Also 
 if a man kills an otter, he will eat it, but it is a sin. 1 
 
 MAREIAGE 
 
 The Esquimos are devoid of jealousy and lend wives com- 
 monly ; polygamy is practised among them, but polyandry also 
 if women are scarce. The Koniagas have no idea of morality ; 
 "the Kaviaks practise polygamy and incest; the Kadiaks 
 cohabit promiscuously, brothers and sisters, parents and 
 children." The Malemutes have only one wife at a time, 
 but no marriage ceremony, and divorce at pleasure. " Two 
 husbands are also allowed to one woman ; one the chief or 
 principal husband, and the other a deputy, who acts as 
 husband and master of the house during the absence of the 
 true lord; and who, upon the latter's return, not only yields 
 to him his place, but becomes in the meantime his servant." 
 The Aleuts also have no marriage ceremony, but are poly- 
 gamous. "Wives are exchanged by the men, and rich women 
 are permitted to indulge in two husbands." 2 
 
 Other authorities give more interesting details. A very 
 peculiar form of marriage is found among the Esquimos, 
 according to Boss. A man has never more than two wives, 
 so far as he observed, but the more able and useful of these 
 two maintains a second husband ; despite this mixture of 
 polygyny and polyandry, the greatest harmony reigns in the 
 establishment. 3 As a rule among the Polar races the wife is 
 brought to live with her husband's family, and the form of 
 capture is observed. 4 Among the Aleutians, owing to wife- 
 lending and similar habits, the husbands cannot claim the 
 children of their wives with any certainty ; the mother alone 
 has full power over them, and even the uncle on the mother's 
 
 *. 
 
 1 Klemm, vol. ii. pp. 328, 329. 
 
 2 Bancroft, vol. i. pp. 65 ft, 81, 82, 92. 
 
 3 Apud Klemm, vol. ii. p. 204. 4 Id. vol. ii. p. 205. 
 
xvm NORTH AMERICA, NORTH 377 
 
 side has more importance with them than the father. Children 
 of different women married to the same husband are not 
 accounted to be brothers and sisters, and are allowed to marry, 
 whereas those of the same mother are not allowed to do so 
 even if the fathers be known to be different. 1 Here female 
 kinship and exogamy are still more clearly denoted than they 
 were above among the Greenlanders. 
 
 1 Sarytschew, Reise, erster Abschnitt, pp. 166, 167. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX 
 
 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 
 
 THESE nations are divided into the Aztecs to the north ; Mayas 
 to the south; Chichimecs to the north of the Aztecs. The 
 Aztec empire was a confederation of the Acolhuas, Aztecs, and 
 Tepanecs, whose respective capitals, all near each other, were 
 Tezcuco, Mexico, and Tlacopan or Tacuba. The federation 
 was made a hundred years before the advent of the Spaniards. 
 The Aztecs were at first a small tribe, but gradually acquired 
 the predominance. The annals of the confederation go back 
 to the sixth century, and are divided into three periods the 
 Toltec, the Chichimec, and the Aztec. 
 
 Toltec was for five centuries a confederacy like the later 
 Aztec. It was ruined by civil wars, which were also religious. 
 The kings were overthrown in the middle of the eleventh 
 century, and probably went south with the nobles, priests, etc., 
 and played a part in the history of the Maya Quiche nations. 
 
 The Chichimec empire lasted till early in the fifteenth 
 century ; there were two main divisions of them, a line of kings 
 at Tezcuco, and wild tribes to the north. After the Chichimecs 
 the valley was entered by the Matlaltzincas, Tepanecs, Acolhuas 
 (the Chichimecs par excellence), Teo- Chichimecs (Tlascaltecs), 
 Malinalcas, Cholultecs, Xochimilcas, Chalcas, etc., and Aztecs. 
 
 The third empire, that of the Aztecs, lasted till the Spaniards 
 came. The legends of the pre-Toltec period declare that Votan, 
 a serpent, divided the land, taught the people, built the great 
 city Nachan, i.e. city of the serpents, and finally wrote a book 
 
CHAP, xix MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 379 
 
 with proof of his claims to be considered one of the Chanes or 
 serpents (Bancroft, vol. v. pp. 159 ff.) 
 
 Quetzalcoatl found food for men and gods (vol. v. p. 193). 
 " At that time Azcatl, the ant, going to Tonacatepetl (mount of 
 our subsistence) for maize, was met by Quetzalcoatl, who said, 
 ' Where hast thou been to obtain that thing ? Tell me.' At 
 first the Ant would not tell, but the Plumed Serpent insisted, 
 and repeated, ' Whither shall I go ? ' Then they went there 
 together, Quetzalcoatl metamorphosing himself into a black 
 Ant." The yellow Ant accompanied him respectfully, and 
 they got maize. Then the gods got maize and gave some to 
 men. According to the Popol Yuh, he got maize by aid of 
 "the Coyote"; and according to the same authority men 
 were changed into monkeys after the Flood. In the Popol 
 Vuh is a Bat legend of origin of Fire. Zotzil = a bat. " But 
 one family stole the fire, the family of Zotzil of the Cakchiquels, 
 whose god was Chamalcan, and whose symbol was the bat." 1 
 According to the Codex Chimalpoca men were changed into 
 " dogs," i.e. Chichimecs, after the Flood. Bancroft says (vol. ii. 
 p. 103) that the Chichimecs were called " dogs " by their more 
 polished neighbours. 
 
 These legends suggest totemism strongly, and there is l '' 
 plenty of more direct evidence. The etymology of some of the 
 civilised nations of North- West America, so far as known, is 
 thus given by Bancroft (vol. ii. p. 125). 
 
 Acolhuas one meaning, from Colhua". . . chose courbee. 
 Dela le nom de la cite* de ColJvuacan, qu'on traduit indirTerem- 
 ment, ville de la courbe, de choses recourbe'es (des serpents) et 
 aussi des ai'eux, de coltzin, aieul." Aztecs from Az, an ant, 
 according to Brasseur de Bourbourg; but Buschmann rejects 
 this view. Chalcas jade, according to Brasseur. Cheles 
 a species of bird, according to Brasseur. Chichimecs 
 Chichi = dog ; Mecatl = race race or line of the dogs. Cocomes 
 Cocom " est le pluriel de cohuatl = serpent." Huexotzincas, 
 from Huexotla, willow forest. Itzas " suivant Ordonez, le 
 mot itza est compose de itz, doux, et de M, eau." Mayas 
 " Mai," a divinity or ancient person after whom the country 
 
 1 P. 548. 
 
380 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 was called Maya ; also said to mean earth, or earth without 
 water. Mizquicas an acacia. Miztecs Mixtli = clouds. 
 Olmecs probably from Olli, people of the gum. Pokomams 
 Pokom, white tufa. Quiches tree or forest. Tlahuicas cinna- 
 bar. Toltecs people of Toltan and others, from Tolin = willow, 
 reed, according to Buschmann. Tutul-Xius Totol, a bird. 
 
 "Each nation [of the Aztecs] had its own standard, on 
 which were painted or embroidered the armorial bearings of the 
 state. That of the Mexican empire bore an eagle in the act 
 of seizing a tiger or jaguar. That of the republic of Tlascala 
 a bird with its wings spread as in the act of flying, which some 
 authors call an eagle, others a white bird or crane. Each of 
 the four lordships of the republic had also its ensign ; Tiratlan 
 had a crane upon a rock, Tepeticpac a wolf with a bunch of 
 arrows in his paws, Ocotelulco a green bird upon a rock, and 
 Quiahuiztlan a parasol made of green feathers. Each com- 
 pany had also a distinct standard, the colours of which corre- 
 sponded to that of the armour and plumes of the chief" (vol. ii. 
 p. 411). 
 
 Among the Zapotecs "it was customary to assign some 
 animal or bird to a child as its nagual or tutelary genius." 
 The days of the Aztec month are named as follows : 1. Sword- 
 fish ; 2. Wind ; 3. House ; 4. Lizard ; 5. Snake ; 6. Death ; 
 7. Deer; 8. Babbit ; 9. Water; 10. Dog; 11. Monkey; 12. 
 Brushwood; 13. Cane; 14. Tiger; 15. Eagle; 16. Vulture; 
 17. Movement; 18. Flint; 19. Bain; 20. Flower. Like the 
 signs of the Zodiac, these names suggest totemism. According 
 to a legend of the founding of Mexico Tenochtitlan, it was 
 built where an eagle with a serpent in its beak and a nopal 
 (a kind of tree) were found together. Diaz noticed in the 
 temple at Mexico idols " half human, half monstrous in form, 
 and found the rooms blood-stained," i.e. they sacrificed to these 
 idol sphinxes. " Among other divinities (of the Zapotecs) a 
 species of parroquet with flaming plumage, called the Ara, was 
 worshipped in some districts" (Bancroft, vol. ii. pp. 211, 277, 
 511, 560, 583). 
 
 Idols, etc., are found in Guatemala, as also in Copan. " In 
 one the human figure has a head-dress, of which an animal's 
 
xix MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 381 
 
 head forms a prominent part, while in another the head is half 
 human and half animal" (vol. iv. p. 113). 
 
 " Statues in stone representing human beings, but in some 
 cases animals and monsters, also have been found (in the 
 Chontal Province), and described to the number of about sixty." 
 The island of Zapatero yielded some seventeen idols of great 
 size. Ten are figured : 1. Human and a cross. 2. Huge tiger. 
 3. Human. 4. Human. 5. Head of a monster surrounding 
 head of a seated human form (said to be " a common device 
 in the fashioning of Mcaraguan gods"). 6. Human. 7. 
 Crouching human figure, on whose back is a tiger or other 
 wild beast grasping the head in its jaws. 8. Human. 9. 
 Human with animal mask. 10. Something like human (vol. iv. 
 pp. 40, etc.). 
 
 From the island of Pensacola come three idols of stone. 
 1. Human face surmounted by a monster head, and by its side 
 the open mouth and fangs of a serpent appear. 2. Animal 
 clinging to the back of a human being (alligator, I think). 1 
 3. Hideous monster with eyes of owl or bird of prey (vol. iv. 
 pp. 48-51). 
 
 " At the Indian Pueblo of Subtiava, near Leon, many idols 
 were dug up. ... The natives have always been in the habit 
 of making offerings secretly to these gods of stone, and only a 
 few months before Mr. Squiers' visit a stone bull had been 
 broken up by the priests " (vol. iv. p. 54). 
 
 Observe how, as by an accident, Bancroft notices totems 
 among the Cuebas. The chief on getting the title chose a 
 certain device "which became that of his house." If his 
 son adopted " the ancestral totem," he could not afterwards 
 change it on becoming chief. " A son who did not adopt his 
 father's totem was always hateful to him during his lifetime " 
 (vol. i. p. 753). 
 
 Among the Zunis " the Frog, the Turtle, and Eattlesnake 
 are minor gods" (vol. iii. p. 132). 
 
 The ancient monuments of this region are full of indica- 
 tions of totemism. In the department of Guanacaste, near the 
 Gulf of Mcoya, was found a little frog on grey stone. A hole 
 1 An alligator's head from the ruins of Copan is figured at p. 101. 
 
382 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 near the fore-feet would seem to indicate its use as an orna- 
 ment or charm. At Tollan was a temple to the goddess of 
 water or the Frog-goddess. Mendieta says that the Mexicans 
 painted the earth-goddess as a frog with a bloody mouth in 
 every joint of her body (Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 351 note ; vol. iv. 
 p. 24; vol. v. p. 265). 
 
 In Nicaragua are found carvings representing the monkey 
 and the coiled feathered serpent, the Aztec Quetzalcoatl or 
 Quiche Gucumatz, and other animals (vol. iv. pp. 37, etc.). 
 
 In Yucatan a row of turtles is sculptured on an ancient 
 building. From Uxmal comes a double-headed stone animal. 
 The serpent is everywhere in Yucatan; serpent -heads are 
 found in decorations. There was a serpent temple. "Two 
 serpents, each with a monster's head, between the open jaws 
 of which a human face appears, and the tail of a rattlesnake, 
 almost entirely surround the front above the lower cornice " of 
 a temple at Uxmal. Serpents are found again in a " stone 
 ring" at Chichen (vol. iv. pp. 166, 168, 183, 185, 186, 231). 
 
 A coiled serpent from Mexico is figured at vol. iv. p. 498. 
 Eelics found in the valley of Mexico are (inter alia) a crouching 
 monster of stone, a lizard of stone, a Maltese cross, a flat-fish, 
 a coiled serpent in red porphyry, a rabbit in low relief on stone. 
 At Tepeaca have been found a serpent and a monster eagle. 
 At Cuernavaca (this word means " place of the eagle ") an eagle 
 is carved on an isolated rock (pp. 467, 482, 497). "In the 
 city of Mexico I continually saw serpents carved in stone in 
 the various collections of antiquities . . . two feathered serpents 
 among them. ... On the benches [of the museum] around the 
 walls and scattered over the floor are numberless figures of dogs, 
 monkeys, lizards, birds, serpents" (Bancroft, vol. iv. p. 5 54, quoted 
 from Mayer's Mexico as it was). "On the slope of the hill four 
 leagues north-west of Santiago, at the foot of Lake San Juan, 
 was found a crocodile of natural size, carved from stone, together 
 with several dogs or sphinxes, and some idols, which the author 
 [Senor Eetes] deems similar to those of the Egyptians " (Ban- 
 croft, vol. iv. p. 575). In the volcanic region south-west of the 
 city of Durango was found among other things " a very small 
 stone turtle, not over half an inch in diameter, very perfectly 
 
xix MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 383 
 
 carved from a hard material." A series of boulders are found in 
 Arizona and New Mexico, covered with the usual totem marks 
 and writing familiar among the Eed men. Eock-paintings and 
 rock-inscriptions of precisely the same character are found in 
 Utah (vol. iv. pp. 600, 620, 641, 716, 717). 
 
 Suggestions of totemism are found also among the modern 
 tribes in this region. The Apaches and Navajos will not eat 
 or kill bear or rattlesnake. "The Papagos stand in great 
 dread of the coyote, and the Pimas never touch an ant, snake, 
 scorpion, or spider." The wild tribes of Central America 
 usually give a child the name of some animal, " which becomes 
 its guardian spirit for life." In Guatemala "the Itzas hold 
 deer sacred," and again, " certain natives of Guatemala, in the 
 province of Acalan," kept tame deer, holding them sacred (Ban- 
 croft, vol. i. pp. 491 note, 553, 703, 707 ; vol. iii. pp. 131, 132). 
 
 In the more civilised nations of this region we find a 
 jumble of tribal gods and metaphysical refinements. Thus 
 J. G. Muller wonders that Acosta did not know of Teotl, the 
 highest invisible god, " he through whom we live," and " he who 
 is all things through himself" (Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 183). This 
 pantheistic idea is manifestly a late development; no prayers 
 were made, no offerings or feasts given in honour of this god ; 
 in fact, he was not a god of the common people at all. As 
 a general rule, the Mexican gods are only emerging from the 
 totem stage. Some of them " were shaped like men, some 
 were like women ; . . . some were like wild beasts, as lions, 
 tigers, dogs, deer, and such other animals as frequented the 
 mountains and plains ; . . . some like snakes of many fashions, 
 large and coiling; . . .of the owl and other night- 
 birds ; l and of others, as the kite, and of every large bird, or 
 beautiful, or fierce, or preciously feathered they had an idol. 2 
 But the principal of all was the sun. Likewise they had idols 
 of the moon and stars, and of the great fishes, and of the water 
 lizards, and of toads and frogs, and of other fishes ; and these, 
 
 1 In the Aztec mythology figures an evil genius called the " Owl-man." 
 
 2 The "Menagerie" at the palace was then a real Olympus an 
 assembly of the living gods. 
 
384 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 they said, were the gods of the fishes. . . . They had for gods 
 fire, water, and earth, and of all these they had painted figures. 
 ... Of many other things they had figures and idols, carved 
 or painted, even of butterflies, fleas, and locusts " (Motolinia, 
 in Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 196). 
 
 The image of Quetzalcoatl had the body of a man but the 
 head of a bird, the sparrow with a red bill. But he was also 
 a snake-god. 1 He was adored in Yucatan as " Cuculcan," that 
 is, "snake covered with god-like feathers." The entrance to 
 his temple at Mexico represented the jaws and fangs of a tre- 
 mendous snake. And he was also worshipped as a stone. 
 
 At Achiuhtla, " in a cave the interior of which was filled 
 with idols, set up in niches upon stones dyed with human 
 blood and smoke of incense, was a large transparent chalchiute, 
 entwined by a snake whose head pointed toward a little bird 
 perched on the apex. This relic, worshipped since time im- 
 memorial under the name of the ' heart of the people,' has all 
 the chief attributes of Quetzalcoatl, the stone . . . the snake, 
 and the bird " (Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 449). It was said to be 
 Votan as well as Quetzalcoatl. If Mliller is right, Votan was 
 a pure snake-god to whom the bird attribute was given at 
 a later time. 
 
 The god Huitzilopochtli was the anthropomorphic god of 
 the Aztecs, as Quetzalcoatl was of the Toltecs. His name 
 signifies " on the left side a humming-bird," and his image had 
 feathers of this bird on the left foot. This was not the only 
 decoration. The god had also a green bunch of plumage upon 
 his head shaped like the bill of a small bird. The shield in 
 his left hand was decorated with white feathers, and the whole 
 image was at times covered with a mantle of feathers. He 
 had a spear or a bow in his right hand, and in his left some- 
 times a bundle of arrows, sometimes a round white shield. 
 
 As the sparrow head in Quetzalcoatl's case, so the hum- 
 ming-bird in Huitzilopochtli's points him out as an original 
 animal god. " The general mythological rule that such animal 
 attributes refer to an ancient worship of the god in question, 
 
 1 Schoolcraft (vol.v. p. 105) says that Quetzalcoatl seems to mean " great 
 serpent." Humboldt says, " serpent clothed with green feathers." 
 
xix MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 385 
 
 and in the form of an animal, points out this in his case," l 
 and the myth of Huitziton confirms this. 
 
 This Huitziton (literally "small humming-bird") led the 
 Aztecs from Aztlan as the Picus led the Sabines to Picenum. 
 He, according to the fable, was a man, " and heard the voice 
 of a bird which cried ' Tihui,' that is, ' Let us go/ " Therefore, 
 Huitziton and Huitzilopochtli were originally one, which is the 
 conclusion arrived at by the learned Italian Boturini. " Previous 
 to the transformation of this god by anthropomorphism, he was 
 merely a small humming-bird, huitziton ; by anthropomorphism 
 the bird became, however, merely the attribute, emblem or 
 symbol, and name of the god" (Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 305). 
 
 But Huitzilopochtli is also a snake-god, and is connected 
 by myth and image with numerous snakes (vol. iii. p. 321). This 
 attribute, added to the original humming-bird attribute, gave 
 rise to a compound animal god such as is familiar in many 
 religions. 
 
 SUCCESSION 
 
 Among the Pimas it is said that a man's property is 
 divided up among the tribe at his death. In the provinces of 
 Cueba, Comayagua, and other parts of Darien, the eldest son 
 succeeded to the government on his father's death. It is said 
 generally of the tribes of Guatemala, Salvador, and Nicaragua, 
 that sons inherit " equally " their father's property. " Goods 
 and lands are equally divided among the sons." The sons 
 were heirs among the Southern Mexicans (Bancroft, vol. i. 
 pp. 508, 545 note, 664, 700, 769). 
 
 Eight of Succession to the Throne. The succession in Mexico 
 is said to have been collateral and elective. " Zurita states 
 that in Tezcuco and Tlacopan and their dependent provinces, 
 1 Le droit de succession le plus ordinaire e"tait celui du sang 
 en ligne directe de pere en fils ; mais tous les fils n'he'ritaient 
 point, il n'y avait que le fils aine" de 1'epouse principale que 
 le souverain avait choisie dans cette intention. Elle jouissait 
 d'une plus grande consideration que les autres, et les sujets la 
 respectaient davantage. Lorsque le souverain prenait une de 
 1 Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 304/ 
 2 c 
 
386 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y CHAP. 
 
 ses femmes dans la famille de Mexico, elle occupait le premier 
 rang, et son fils succedait, s'il etait capable.' " He goes on 
 to say that in default of direct heirs the succession became 
 collateral. If there was no heir the successor was elected by 
 the nobles. " In a previous paragraph he writes : ' L'ordre de 
 succession variait suivant les provinces; les memes usages, a 
 peu de difference pres, etaient regus a Mexico, a Tezcuco et a 
 Tacuba.' Afterwards we read: 'Dans quelques provinces, 
 comme par exemple a Mexico, les freres Etaient admis a la 
 succession, quoiqu'il y eut des fils, et ils gouvernaient suc- 
 cessivement.' " " Prescott affirms that the sovereign was 
 selected from the brothers of the deceased sovereign, or in 
 default of them, from his nephews." According to Clavigero 
 (Storia Ant. del Messico, torn. ii. p. 112), s they established by 
 law, that one of the brothers of the dead king should succeed 
 him, and, failing brothers, one of his nephews, and if ever there 
 were none of these, one of his cousins. The electors had only 
 choice between the brothers, etc., in their order. That the 
 eldest son could put forward no claim to the crown by right 
 of primogeniture is evident from statements made by Las 
 Casas (Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 135 note). 
 
 The following is the order of actual succession of nine 
 Mexican kings from Codex Mendoza : 
 
 No. 1. Son. Acamapichtli, succeeded by his son, Hui- 
 cilyhuitl. 
 
 No. 2. Son. Huicilyhuitl, succeeded by his son, Chimal- 
 pupuca. 
 
 No. 3. Father's brother. Chimalpupuca, succeeded by 
 Yzcoaci, son of No. 1, i.e. uncle, father's brother. 
 
 No. 4. Brother. Yzcoaci, by his own brother, Huehue- 
 moteccuma. 
 
 No. 5. Grandson. Huehuemoteccuma, succeeded by 
 Axayacaci, grandson of No. 4. 
 
 No. 6. Son. Axayacaci, succeeded by his son. 
 
 No. 7. Succeeded by brother. 
 
 No. 8. Succeeded by brother. 
 
 This list gives four cases of collateral, and four of direct. 
 It would agree with succession to " eldest male of the family." 
 
xix MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 387 
 
 Bancroft states the law thus : " Eldest surviving brother was 
 generally elected, and when there were no more brothers, the 
 eldest son of the first brother that had died." " The father of 
 Montezuma II. had 150 children, of whom Montezuma killed 
 all his brothers." The tenant or feuar of crown lands was 
 succeeded therein by his eldest son ; so the lands of the nobility 
 were transferred by inheritance from father to son. Herrera, 
 however (Hist. Gen., dec. ii. lib. vi. cap. xvii.), says that 
 brothers inherited estates, and not sons. " Throughout Zapo- 
 tecapan and Miztecapan landed property was transmitted from 
 male to male, females being excluded." This means from 
 father to son. In the province of Panuco the eldest son was 
 the sole inheritor of the land (Bancroft, vol. ii. pp. 135, 183, 
 224, 228, 230). 
 
 TJie Maya Nations. The order of succession to the Quiche* 
 throne, all are agreed, preferred the brother to the son. " Padre 
 Ximenez implies, perhaps, that the crown descended from 
 brother to brother, and from the youngest brother to a nephew 
 who was a son of the oldest brother." This would seem the 
 sense of the authorities as cited by Bancroft. At Mayapan, 
 according to Brasseur de Bourbourg, the king's brother suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. " Ce n'etaient pas ses fils qui suc- 
 ce'daient au gouvernement, mais bien Faine' de ses freres." But 
 Bancroft says there is no text for this, and that the eldest son 
 succeeded, the brother ruling only during minority. "At a 
 man's death his property, in Yucatan, was divided between his 
 sons equally." As a general rule the daughters got nothing ; 
 a son who had helped his father might get more than a 
 share (Bancroft, vol. ii. pp. 634, 639, 653). 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 The New Mexicans are polygynous; they acquire their 
 wives by purchase ; in case of separation the children follow 
 the mother. The Pueblos also get wives by purchase, but 
 are monogamous ; " if dissatisfied," they divorce them, and in 
 that case, " if there are children, they are taken care of ly 
 {heir grandparents, and both parties are free to marry again." 
 
388 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 But it is not stated which grandparents are meant. Among 
 the Papagos " polygamy is not permitted," but " they often 
 separate and marry again at pleasure." The Lower Californians, 
 described as houseless wanderers, have no marriage ceremony, 
 and no word to express marriage. " Like birds or beasts, they 
 pair off according to fancy." Among the Pericuis, a tribe now 
 extinct, a man married as many women as he pleased ; among 
 the Guaicuris and Cochimis polygyny is less common than it 
 was among the Pericuis, because they have more men than 
 women (Bancroft, vol. i. pp. 512, 548, 549, 565, 570). 
 
 The Tahus buy their wives ; the chief or high priest has 
 jus primae noctis. The Southern Mexicans (Zapotecs, Miztecs, 
 Mayas, etc.) are far advanced in laws, government, manufactures, 
 and agriculture. They have monogamy and male kinship, and 
 practise " marriage within the rancho or village." This is not 
 a clear case of endogamy, however, for we find it said that 
 they are " all relatives since reduction by cholera," so that 
 previously they were not all relatives. Brothers and sisters 
 could not marry (Bancroft, vol. i. pp. 584, 657 ff., 663). 
 
 The wild tribes of Central America were all polygamous 
 at the time of the Conquest. They marry early, and " usually 
 within the tribe," but " the tribe " is not defined, and seems to 
 mean nothing here but a local tribe. Chiefs consult as to the 
 expediency of any marriage between different tribes. " Several 
 tribes in Guatemala are strictly opposed to marriage outside of 
 the tribe, and destroy the progeny left by a stranger." Does 
 this imply endogamy ? They " remain under the parents' roof 
 until married, and frequently after, several generations often 
 living together in one house under the rule of the eldest" 
 (Bancroft, vol. i. pp. 633, 702, 703, 704). 
 
 In Nicaragua it is stated that " no one might marry within 
 the first degree of relationship, but beyond that there was no 
 restriction." The Caribs have a separate house for each wife ; 
 widows belong to the husband's relatives (vol. i. p. 731 ; vol. 
 ii. p. 666). 
 
 Among the Aztecs the men married from twenty to twenty- 
 two, girls from eleven to eighteen. " Marriages between blood 
 relations, or those descended from a common ancestor, were not 
 
xix MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 389 
 
 allowed." This is a clear note of exogamy and male kinship. " A 
 brother could, and was enjoined to, marry his deceased brother's 
 wife, but this was only considered a duty if the widow had off- 
 spring by the first marriage, in order that the children might not 
 be fatherless." This seems extremely improbable, for elsewhere 
 the levirate is instituted to meet the case of a widow who has 
 no children. Bancroft, moreover, contradicts himself on the 
 point by elsewhere quoting Las Casas as an authority to the 
 effect that " it was customary for a man to raise up seed to his 
 deceased brother by marrying his widow" (vol. ii. pp. 251, 466). 
 Concubinage was permitted throughout the Mexican empire. 
 Prostitution was tolerated, the law taking cognisance of the 
 women (vol. ii. pp. 2 64, 2 6 6). It is stated that " the Toltec kings 
 could only marry one woman, and in case of her death could 
 not marry again, or live in concubinage with any woman." 
 Among the Chichimecs " marriage with near relatives was 
 never permitted, and polygamy strictly prohibited," but we 
 are not told what "near" means. Although marriage was 
 early contracted, there could be no legitimate intercourse till 
 the wife was aged forty (vol. ii. pp. 2 6 5, 2 6 1, 2 6 2). The Guate- 
 malans recognised no relationship on the mother's side only, 
 and did not hesitate to marry their own sister provided 
 she was by another father. Thus if a noble lady married an 
 inferior or slave, the children belonged to the father's order. 
 Torquemada says they sometimes married their sisters-in-law 
 and step-mothers. " Among the Pipiles of Salvador an ancestral 
 tree, with seven main branches, denoting degrees of kindred, 
 was painted upon cloth, and within these seven branches or 
 degrees none were allowed to marry," except as a reward for 
 services. " Within four degrees of consanguinity none on any 
 pretext might marry." "In Yucatan there was a peculiar 
 prejudice against a man marrying a woman who bore the same 
 name as his own, and so far was this fancy carried, that he 
 who did this was looked upon as a renegade and an outcast. 
 Here also a man could not marry the sister of his deceased 
 wife, his step-mother, or his mother's sister, but with all other 
 relatives on the maternal side, no matter how close, marriage 
 was perfectly legitimate." Here we find exogamy and agnation. 
 
390 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 " In Nicaragua no one might marry within the first degree 
 of relationship, but beyond that there was no restriction " [?]. 
 Among the Maya nations the widow was regarded as the pro- 
 perty of the family of her deceased husband, to whose brother 
 she was invariably married, even though he might have a wife 
 of his own at the time. If there w T as no brother, then the 
 nearest relative on the husband's side married her. Yet it is 
 also said that monogamy seems to have been the rule among 
 the Maya nations, and many say polygamy did not exist. 
 Prostitution was " tolerated, if not encouraged " among these 
 nations. There were public houses, and parents were in the 
 habit of sending daughters on town to earn marriage portions 
 (vol. ii. pp. 664-676). 
 
 " According to the system of relationship in use amongst 
 the Indians of Yera Paz, it frequently resulted that brothers 
 must marry sisters, of which the reason was as follows. 
 They were accustomed not to make marriages between the 
 men of one village and the women of the same village, and 
 they sought the women of the other villages, because they 
 did not count as belonging to their own family sons born in a 
 foreign tribe or lineage, even though the mother might have 
 issued from their own lineage ; and the reason of this was 
 because relationship was counted through the men alone. So 
 that if any chief gave his daughter to another of another 
 village, even if the chief had no heirs except his grandchildren 
 (sons of his daughter), he did not recognise them as grand- 
 children, or as relations, so as to make them his heirs, on account 
 of their being sons of another chief of another village ; and 
 so there was sought for such [? the latter] chief, a wife who 
 belonged to another village, and not to his own. And on 
 account of their (the kindred) being in another village, thus it 
 came about that they did not hold the sons of these women as 
 related to the kindred of their mother. And this must be 
 understood as applying to marriages with them (women of 
 other villages), which they considered lawful, although, in other 
 respects, they recognised the relationship [literally, they recog- 
 nised one another]. And because the reckoning of relationship 
 was through the men alone, and not through the women, on 
 
xix MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 391 
 
 this account they did not consider that there was any impedi- 
 ment to marriages with such relations ; and so they married in 
 all degrees of consanguinity, because they considered any 
 woman of their own lineage (although the relationship might 
 be very remote, and though they had no recognition of the 
 degree of relationship) more as a sister than they did the 
 daughter of their own mother who might have had a different 
 father ; and through this mistake they married their sisters 
 through the mother, but not through the father " (Torquemada, 
 Monarq. Ind., vol. ii. p. 419 ; apud Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 664).^ 
 From this confused statement it appears that in Vera Paz 
 the Indians lived in clans in distinct villages (Pueblos) with 
 male kinship and exogamy. Marriage with a half-sister on 
 the mother's side would therefore be lawful, and naturally 
 must have happened often enough. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 PERU 
 
 THE authority used for the empire of the Yncas was : " The 
 First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, by the 
 Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega. Translated and edited by C. E. 
 Markham. London, printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1869. 
 Two volumes. 
 
 TOTEMS 
 
 Stripped of his explanation of the origin of the different 
 cults, the statement of Garcilasso is as follows : 
 
 Before the times of the Yncas each province, each nation, 
 each house (gens ?), had its gods different one from another. 
 They (i.e. some of them) worshipped herbs, plants, trees, high 
 hills, great rocks, chinks in rocks, caves, pebbles, and small 
 coloured stones, such as jasper. Some adored the emerald, 
 particularly in the province now called Puerto Viejo. They 
 (i.e. some of them) worshipped different animals, such as the 
 tiger, lion, and bear ; if they met them they went down on 
 the ground to worship them instead of flying for their lives. 
 They (i.e. as ante) adored foxes and monkeys, the dog, the cat, 
 the bird called the cuntur, and some of them the eagle, " be- 
 cause they thought they were descended from it as well as 
 the cuntur." Others worshipped falcons, others the owl, others 
 the bat, others serpents, as among the Antis ; others snakes, 
 lizards, toads, and frogs. " In fine, there was not an animal 
 that they did not look upon as a god . . . merely differing 
 
CHAP, xx PERU 393 
 
 one from the other as to their gods." On the coasts some 
 worshipped the whale ; others sardines, others the dogfish ; 
 others the golden fish, the crawfish, and the crabs. If their 
 gods were birds or beasts, they offered to them in sacrifice 
 what they usually saw them eat, and what appeared to be 
 most agreeable to their tastes (vol. i. pp. 47, 48, 49, 53). 
 
 The Huancas, a warlike people, " pretend descent from 
 one man and one woman, who came out of a fountain." They 
 live in small fortified villages, and often dispute over their 
 boundaries ; yet are said to be of one race. " Before they 
 were conquered by the Yncas these people worshipped the 
 figure of a dog, and had it in their temples as an idol, and 
 they considered the flesh of a dog to be most savoury meat." 
 " They also had an idol in the form of a man, from which 
 the devil spoke." They were allowed by the Yncas to retain 
 this, but the dog idol was destroyed. Head-dresses of different 
 colours were instituted by the Ynca in their three provinces. 
 In the province of Chucurpu they worshipped the tiger. In 
 that of Huamachucu they worshipped stones such as jasper ; 
 kept them in houses, and offered human sacrifices to them 
 (vol. ii. pp. 128, 129, 131, 137). 
 
 The Chunchus went about almost naked, but wore great 
 plumes on their heads composed of the feathers of macaws 
 and parrots. The Chachapuyas worshipped serpents, and had 
 the bird Cuntur as their principal god ; near them the Huacra- 
 chucu worshipped serpents, " and had them painted as idols in 
 their temples and houses" (vol. ii. pp. 264, 322). 
 
 In the large and populous province of Huancapampa, 
 " each tribe worshipped many gods, each household having its 
 own." These gods were animals, plants, hills, fountains, etc. 
 The inhabitants of the province of Canaris worshipped trees 
 and stones, e.g. jasper. In Quitu the gods were "deer and 
 great trees." In Caranque various people worship tigers, lions, 
 goats, serpents, " offering human hearts and blood to them as 
 sacrifices." The victims were captives, and were eaten. On 
 the shore near Tumpiz they worshipped lions and tigers, and 
 sacrificed human hearts and blood. The Manta nation 
 " worshipped the sea and fishes ; also tigers and lions, great 
 
394 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 serpents, and other reptiles ... a great emerald as large as 
 an ostrich egg." They sacrificed to it from far and wide, and 
 offered little emeralds to it (vol. ii. pp. 329, 330, 335, 344, 
 350, 425, 441). 
 
 Chimu, chief of all the valleys from beyond La Barranca 
 to the city now called Truxillo, was conquered by the Ynca, 
 who forgave his resistance on the condition that he should 
 adore the sun, and cast his idols to the ground, "being the 
 figures of beasts and fish" (vol. ii. p. 195). 
 
 As a general rule the Indians of the coast, over 500 
 leagues, from Truxillo to Tarapaca, which are at the north and 
 south extremities of Peru, worshipped the sea in the shape of 
 fish (in addition to the special idols which were peculiar to 
 each province). Fish was used both as sfood and manure. 
 " They also generally worshipped the whale . . . and besides 
 this, some provinces adored one kind of fish, and others 
 another." It appears that some Yuncas worshipped the fox, and 
 had an image of it with other gods in a temple to Pacha- 
 camac the invisible the only temple he had in Peru, where 
 human sacrifices were sometimes offered to him (vol. ii. pp. 
 147, 186). 
 
 The people of the province of Aymara sent messages to 
 the Curacas (chiefs) of Uma-suyu. They were told by the 
 Ynca " that their own idols, which they called the gods of 
 their land, were merely the figures of vile and filthy animals!' 
 The gods of tribes in the coast valleys of the province of 
 Camana were fishes (vol. i. pp. 237, 245). 
 
 The Chancas of the province of Antahuaylla were rich and 
 warlike, and claimed descent from a lion. "Wherefore they 
 adored the lion as a god." They used to dress as Hercules is 
 painted, "covered with lions' skins, and their heads thrust 
 into the skulls of lions." Under the name of Chancas were 
 several tribes, who all boasted their descent from various 
 fathers, such as a lake, a hill, or a fountain. One of these 
 tribes is noted by Markham as occupying a wild part of the 
 Cordillera (vol. i. p. 323). 
 
 The Indians called Antis " usually worshipped the tigers 
 as gods. Also the serpents that they called Amaru. . . . 
 
xx PERU 395 
 
 They also adored the herb called cuca or coca" (vol. i. p. 
 330). 
 
 " The Collas consist of many different nations, and believe 
 themselves descended from various things ; e.g. some from the 
 lake Titicaca, whom they adored as a mother, offering sacrifices 
 on its banks ; others drew their lineage from a fountain ; 
 others from caves and recesses in rocks places in all cases 
 sacred and sacrificed to ; others from a river, as their father 
 the fish in it their brothers." "There was only one deity 
 which all the Collas united in worshipping and holding as 
 their principal god." This was a white sheep, "and they 
 offered to it lambs and grease as sacrifices" (vol. i. p. 168). 
 
 In the times before the Yncas, a beetle was worshipped in 
 Chuquisaca, but this was prohibited by the Yncas (vol. i. p. 121). 
 
 The Yncas established the worship of the sun everywhere, 
 and tried to put down the totemistic religions. 
 
 "After subjugating a province, the first thing the Ynca 
 did was to take the principal idol as a hostage and send it to 
 Cuzco, ordering it to be kept there in a temple until the chief 
 and people . . . were taught the idolatry of the Yncas." 
 Among other things there were offered to the sun images of all 
 the animals in the provinces, each imitated from nature in 
 gold and silver. Collections were made in and near Cuzco of 
 the various sacred animals of the provinces, e.g. Garcilasso 
 names the part of the city where the Amarus were kept, 
 called Amaru cancha. Markham notes a huge stone lintel 
 with two serpents in relief upon it, in a house still in that 
 district (vol. ii. pp. 30, 35, 160). 
 
 Though the Yncas called themselves children of the sun, 
 and insisted on all their subjects becoming worshippers of the 
 sun, it is clear enough that they had once belonged to another 
 totem themselves. For the Ynca bore the device of two 
 wing-feathers of a bird called Coraquenque, a bird looked on as 
 sacred. And " in the time of the Yncas each Indian was known 
 by his head-dress, which showed to what tribe and nation 
 he belonged" (vol. ii. p. 334, and compare p. 179). It seems, 
 therefore, that at some time the Yncas were known by this 
 sacred bird, and the presumption is that, when they became 
 
396 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 the rulers of the empire, they took the sun for their totem 
 instead as being more dignified. The Ynca Manco, who is 
 said to have first established solar worship, was readily be- 
 lieved by the Indians to be descended from the sun, because 
 the Indians believed similar stories about themselves, " though 
 they did not comprehend how to select ancestors as well as 
 the Ynca, but adored animals and other low and earthy objects" 
 (vol. i. p. 83). Manco also distinguished the tribes by ear- 
 holes and ornaments " signs intended to prevent confusion 
 between one tribe and another," and extended the name Ynca 
 "to principal vassals." In the temple of the sun at Cuzco 
 was a cloister with five halls, four of them respectively dedi- 
 cated to the moon, stars, lightning, and rainbow, and the fifth 
 set apart for the high priest. Thus a full-blown nature-religion 
 reigned over the previous totemism. And the " philosophers " 
 of Peru went still further, maintaining that Pachacamac 
 (creator or sustainer of the world) was invisible and could 
 only be adored mentally ; the sun was not identical with him, 
 but put by him above all, to be adored by all as a god (vol. i. 
 pp. 101, 106). 
 
 SUCCESSION 
 
 The name Ynca = person of blood royal, was applied to 
 all who were descendants " in the male line, but not in the 
 female line." Queen = Ccoya. Concubines of the king, being 
 his relatives, and all other women of royal blood were called 
 Palla. Succession to the throne was from father to son ; but 
 note the marriage law. 
 
 If the Ynca had no child by his first sister, he married the 
 next, and so on till he had children. Failing sisters, he 
 married the most nearly related cousin, or niece, or aunt in 
 the royal family, and on the failure of male heirs, " she might 
 have inherited the kingdom as in the laws of Spain." In 
 defence of sister marriages they pleaded that the heir should 
 be legitimate by both father and mother, " for otherwise they 
 affirmed that the prince might be bastardised through his 
 mother." Failing sons by the legitimate wife, the eldest 
 legitimate relative of pure blood inherited. " It was on 
 
xx PERU 397 
 
 account of this law that Atahuallpe (not of pure hlood) destroyed 
 the whole royal family" (vol i. pp. 95, 96, 159, 309, 310). 
 
 Among the Curacas (chiefs), who were lords or vassals, 
 various customs prevailed as to inheritance of estates. 1. In 
 some provinces the eldest son inherited, and succession was 
 from father to son. 2. In others a son succeeded, but there 
 was election among the sons. 3. In others sons "inherited 
 according to their respective ages." When the father died the 
 eldest son succeeded him, then the second, and so on ; when 
 the sons all died the succession went to the sons of the eldest, 
 and afterwards to those of the others. 
 
 Some Spaniards allege this (3) as the succession law in 
 Peru, but Garcilasso stands to it as above (vol. i. p. 311). 
 
 These customs were prior to the Yncas. 
 
 As to Atahuallpe, King of Quitu, murdering all the blood 
 royal, (1) it was necessary that the inheritor of the kingdom 
 of Cuzco should be the son of a legitimate wife, who must be 
 a sister of the king, " the inheritance of the kingdom being 
 derived as much from the mother as from the father." (2) In 
 default of such an heir the inheritor ought to be at least of 
 the legitimate blood royal son of a Palla of untainted descent. 
 He had neither qualification ; therefore he met the difficulty 
 " by the cruel destruction of the whole royal blood," not only 
 of possible heirs, but of possible claimants with such qualifica- 
 tions as he had himself. " This is the remedy usually resorted 
 to by all those kings who have usurped power by violence, 
 for they have believed that if there is no legitimate heir to 
 whom the vassals can turn, they will be secure in conscience 
 and justice. Both ancient and modern history give full 
 testimony to this. ... It will suffice to allude to the bad 
 custom of the house of Othman, which is, that the successor to 
 the empire shall bury all his brothers with their father, that he 
 may be safe from them" (vol. ii. pp. 515, 516). 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 According to tradition, in the old times, men and women 
 cohabited like beasts ; there was no law of incest, but men 
 
398 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 lived with their sisters, daughters, and mothers. Others 
 excepted their mothers. " In other provinces the nearest 
 relations of the bride and her most intimate friends had 
 connection with her, and on this condition the marriage was 
 agreed to, and she was thus received by her husband." Among 
 the Collas license was allowed to women before marriage, and 
 "the most dissolute were most sought in marriage." The 
 Ynca Manco Ccapac taught the people to live in villages, to 
 cultivate the land, build houses, construct channels for irriga- 
 tion, etc., to respect the wives and daughters of others ; decreed 
 death to adulterers, homicides, and thieves ; instituted mono- 
 gamy, " and that marriages should take place between relations 
 so as to prevent confusion in families " ( = endogamy). A 
 native of one province might not marry the native of another, 
 or remove from one province to another. " All were to inter- 
 marry in their own village, and with members of their own 
 families, in order that the lineages and tribes might not be 
 confused and mixed" (vol. i. pp. 58, 81, 169, 308). 
 
 " Besides the legitimate wife, these kings had many concu- 
 bines, some of them being relations of and within the fourth 
 degree, and others no relations." It seems that relation beyond 
 the fourth degree was not taken into account at all. "All 
 those of the blood royal married with their relations to the 
 fourth degree, but they reserved the daughter, whose marriage 
 to a brother was only permitted in the case of the king" 
 (vol. i. pp. 310, 311). 
 
 Though the assertion that there had been " no law of incest " 
 previous to Manco Ccapac is no doubt a gross exaggeration, 
 owing to the ignorance of tradition as to what the law really 
 was, still it is clear that the highly advanced form of marriage 
 we find in Peru had been developed out of a savage state of 
 things. Endogamy is represented as a comparatively recent 
 institution. If there is no clear relic of exogamy, the evidence 
 for its accompaniment, totemism, is plain enough. That female 
 kinship had once been the recognised form of kinship is shown 
 by the sister-marriages of the Yncas, "that the heir might 
 inherit the kingdom as much from his mother as from his 
 father" (Garcilasso, vol. i. p. 93). 
 
xx PERU 399 
 
 CLASSIFICATION 
 
 The general language of Peru had two names for a son. 
 The father said Churl, and the mother Huahua. Both words 
 meant a child, including those of both sexes and numbers. . . . 
 The parents could not misuse the words without making a male 
 female, and a female male. To distinguish the sexes they had 
 the words which signify male or female. ... There were four 
 words to express brothers and sisters. The male to the male 
 said Hua/uque for brother. The female to the female Nana 
 for sister. But if a brother said Nana to his sister he would 
 be making a woman of himself. In like manner if a sister said 
 Huauque to her brother, though it means brother, she would 
 be making a man of herself. The brother said to his sister 
 Panci, and the sister to her brother Tom. But a brother 
 could not say to his sister Tora, nor a sister to her brother Pana. 
 " Thus there are words of the same meaning appropriated some 
 to the use of men, and others to the use of women" (vol. i. 
 p. 314). 
 
 A further note of the classificatory system is found at vol. 
 ii. p. 345. Huayna Ccapac "never refused a request made to 
 him by a woman, whatever might be her age, rank, or condi- 
 tion, answering each one according to her age. To those who 
 were older than himself he said, ' Mother, do that which you 
 desire.' To those who were about his own age he said, ' Sister, 
 let it be as you wish ' ; and to those younger than himself he 
 said, ' Daughter, let it be as you would have it.' " The system 
 seems to have fallen into disuse by the time of Garcilasso, who 
 evidently does not understand the bearing of what he says. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 GUIANA 
 
 THE Arawaks of Guiana show the whole totemic system in a 
 very perfect form, though Mr. Brett 1 thinks their organisation 
 " was probably much more perfect in former times than it is 
 at present. They are divided into families, each of which has 
 a distinct name, as the Siwidi, Karuafudi, Onisidi, etc. Unlike 
 our families, these all descend in the female line, and no indi- 
 vidual of either sex is allowed to marry another of the same 
 family name: Thus, a woman of the Siwidi family bears the 
 same name as her mother, but neither her father nor her 
 husband can be of that family. Her children and the children 
 of her daughters will also be called Siwidi, but both her sons 
 and daughters are prohibited from an alliance with any indi- 
 vidual bearing the same name, though they may marry into 
 the family of their father if they choose. These customs are 
 strictly observed, and any breach of them would be considered 
 as wicked." 
 
 [How the families were distinguished otherwise than by 
 their names, and what the names themselves signify, Mr. Brett 
 does not tell us. But that they were genuine totem clans is 
 shown plainly by another work (which Mr. M'Lennan never 
 saw). Mr. Irn Thurn 2 gives a list of forty-six of these family 
 names, with translations ; among these we find grass, rain, 
 deer, ourali, two sorts of wild plantain-tree, black monkey, 
 
 1 Indian Tribes of Guiana, p. 98. London, 1868. 
 2 Among the Indians in Guiana, pp. 176-184. London, 1883. 
 
CHAP, xxi GUIANA 
 
 401 
 
 hyawa tree, red-breasted bird, dakama tree, tortoise, awara 
 palm, rat, three kinds of bee, mocking-bird, wild thorn-tree or 
 white ant (the interpreters differ on this point), a kind of parrot, 
 armadillo, hawk, tree-palm, an insect called the razor-grinder, 
 and a night- jar. They say generally that they are descended 
 from these animals or plants " their fathers knew how, but 
 they have forgotten."] 
 
 Beena marriage is the form commonly practised among 
 the Arawaks. " The wife's father expects the bridegroom to 
 work for him in clearing the forest, and in other things, and the 
 young couple often remain with him until an increasing family 
 renders a separate establishment necessary." 1 It may be 
 inferred from Brett's account that in such cases monogamy is 
 the rule, but that after a man has set up for himself he often 
 has several wives. 
 
 It is among this people that the couvade is found along 
 with female kinship as noticed above. 2 " On the birth of a 
 child, the ancient Indian etiquette requires the father to take 
 to his hammock for some days as if he were sick, and receive 
 the congratulations and condolence of his friends." 3 This of 
 course shows what might have been expected a priori, that 
 the couvade was first instituted before male kinship was 
 actually established, for after it had been established the 
 couvade would have been unnecessary. The ordinary view 
 that it was a means of giving to the father some right over 
 his child is obviously in harmony with this. 
 
 The Caribs may be considered to furnish the classical in- 
 stance of the couvade, but, unlike the Arawaks, have progressed 
 to male kinship, as is evident from the following story given 
 by Brett (p. 354). "A high-spirited Caribi girl, indignant at 
 being given in marriage to an elderly man, who had already 
 other wives (one being her own sister), ran away from him, 
 and bestowed her hand on one of the Essequibo Caribs, a 
 younger man whom she liked better. After a while the old 
 man visited that quarter ... to claim compensation for the 
 loss of her services. It was willingly allowed ; and for a gun, 
 a barrel of salt, or some article of like value, the woman was 
 
 1 Brett, p. 101. 2 Supra, p. 29. 3 Brett, loc. cit. 
 
 2 D 
 
402 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xxi 
 
 left with the man of her choice, who perhaps thought himself 
 secure, and the business well ended. But the next year the 
 old man, who well knew what he was doing, paid them another 
 visit, still, as he said, in quest of compensation. On being 
 reminded by the husband that he had already been paid for 
 the woman, he replied, ' Yes, for the woman ; but she has 
 since borne you a child, you must now pay me for that' The 
 unwritten law of Caribi usage was decidedly in the old man's 
 favour, and he received compensation for that child. For each 
 succeeding birth he could, if he chose, reappear like an unquiet 
 spirit, make a similar demand, and be supported therein by the 
 custom of his nation." The children therefore belonged to the 
 husband, not the wife. In harmony with this is another story 
 of a young Carib who attempted to avenge his father's death. 
 "Whether he considered himself as bound by their fearful 
 custom to be the avenger of blood, we know not" (p. 195). 
 
 Their marriage system was polygamous, and they princi- 
 pally depended upon capture for their wives, insomuch that 
 the women in a group spoke a different language from the 
 men. On this point see Studies, first series, p. 33, with the 
 references to Humboldt. Whether, however, a definite law of 
 exogamy prevailed among them does not seem to be known. 
 
 Polyandry is mentioned as coexisting with polygamy among 
 the Waraus. An old Warau objected strongly to putting away 
 either of his two wives ; " on being asked why a man should 
 have two wives, and a woman not be allowed two husbands, 
 he directly said that his tribe did not consider either practice 
 to be bad ; and that he knew a Warau woman who had three " 
 (p. 178). 
 
 Blood-feud existed in all its force throughout Guiana ; Brett 
 considers the worst feature in the character of the natives to 
 be " their proneness to blood revenge, by which a succession 
 of retaliatory murders may be kept up for a long time." Even 
 if a man dies naturally a sorcerer is employed to point out 
 the guilty cause of death, and " a near relative of the deceased 
 is then charged with the work of vengeance." He is supposed 
 to be possessed by a destroying spirit called Kanaima, and is 
 so called himself. 
 
SECTION III 
 
 AFRICA 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 GUINEA THE KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE 
 
 OF Ashantee, its geography, history, religion, laws, and customs, 
 we have an excellent account from the pen of Mr. T. Edward 
 Bowdich, who conducted a mission from Cape Coast Castle to 
 the capital of that kingdom in 1817. The motive of the 
 embassy was chiefly political, but it was an exploring ex- 
 pedition as well. Mr. Bowdich's report was published in 
 London in 1819. 1 
 
 Little is known about the Ashantees of earlier date than 
 the year 1700. They are mentioned by Bosnian and Barbot. 
 Their first contact with the English seems to have occurred in 
 1807, when an Ashantee army reached the coast, waging war 
 against the Fantees. Twice thereafter, in 1811 and 1816, 
 they struck at the Fantees, and these wars were the immediate 
 cause of the embassy. 2 
 
 1 Mission from Gape Coast Castle to Ashantee, by T. Edward Bowdich, 
 Esq., Conductor. John Murray, London, 1819. 
 
 2 The Ashantee kingdom is supposed to have been established about 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century. It was founded, and afterwards 
 greatly extended, by conquest. The first king, Sai Tootoo, was one of 
 the leaders of the expedition from a country nearer the coast by which 
 it was established, and became king by election, or war-chief rather, for 
 in civil matters the other leaders remained his peers. The kingly power, 
 however, though still in form controlled in affairs of government by the 
 representatives of these leaders, had become virtually despotic by 1819. 
 The ordinary rule of succession (for which see p. 411 infra) being held 
 
406 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 TRIBES, CLANS, AND TOTEMS 
 
 In Mr. Bowdich's account of Ashantee, the term nation is 
 employed in the same sense in which it is used of the North 
 American Indians. Mr. Bowdich, for example, speaks (p. 231) 
 of the Braffoes as a Fantee nation, as we speak of the Mohawks 
 as an Iroquois nation ; and at p. 146 we are told how Apokoo 
 " had himself conquered five nations since the beginning of 
 his reign," and how twenty -one nations paid tribute to 
 Ashantee. He does not use the word tribe at all, except 
 in the sense of family or tribe of descent, and in this sense he 
 constantly uses it. The word clan he does not use, but it 
 would be the term applicable to each of the branches of his 
 families or tribes of descent which were contained in the 
 several nations. As to the history of the kingdom of 
 Ashantee, the scanty traditions that exist indicate that it 
 arose from the consolidation of several local tribes or nations, 
 under the authority of a nation more warlike and enterprising 
 than the rest. The case of the Iroquois is recalled by the 
 facts disclosed in Ashantee, and had the Onondagas, after 
 having overmastered the Mohawks and the Oneidas, estab- 
 lished themselves under the sovereignty of their war-leader, 
 instead of entering into the Iroquois league, they would have 
 presented us with the nucleus of such a kingdom as Ashantee 
 became. Nor do the conditions under which the Ashantee 
 kingdom formed itself appear to have differed much from 
 those under which the Iroquois league attained its pre- 
 eminence. The Ashantees, to give the term a general mean- 
 good for the kingship, Sai Tootoo was succeeded in turn by three of his 
 brothers. The last of these is said to have been succeeded by his grand- 
 son his daughter's son so that either there was a failure of heirs in the 
 female line (in which case a son would have been entitled to succeed, and 
 a daughter's son was in the same position) or daughter and grandson are 
 in this statement only terms of address denoting a sister's daughter and 
 her son. A younger brother of this grandson or grandnephew was reign- 
 ing at the time of Mr. Bowdich's visit. The family name of all the 
 kings was Sai. 
 
xxii GUINEA THE KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE 407 
 
 ing, were of one stock with the Fantees and people of Akim, 
 Warsaw, Assin, and Aquapim, as the Iroquois were one with 
 the Hurons, the Eries, the neutral nations, and the Tuscarora, 
 and they consolidated their power on the ruins of their 
 kinsmen. Mr. Bowdich states that the Ashantee, Fantee, 
 Akim, Warsaw, Assin, and Aquapim languages were indis- 
 putably dialects of the same language, their identity being 
 more striking than that of the dialects of the ancient Greek. 
 And he adduces curious evidence of the former identity of 
 these peoples and of part of the Ahanta nations in a tra- 
 dition " that the whole of these people were originally com- 
 prehended in twelve tribes or families, the Aquonna, Abrootoo, 
 Abbradi, Essonna, Annona, Yokb, Intchwa, Abadie, Appiadie, 
 Tchweedam, Agoona, and Doomina." In these, he adds, " they 
 class themselves still without any regard to national distinction. 
 For instance, Ashantees, Warsaws, Akims, Ahantas, or men of 
 any of the nations before mentioned, will severally declare 
 that they belong to the Annona family ; other individuals of 
 the different countries that they are of the Tchweedam family ; 
 and when this is announced on meeting they salute each other 
 as brothers. The king of Ashantee is of the Annona family, 
 so was our Accra and one of the Fantee linguists ; Aman- 
 quatea is of the Essonna family." The Aquonna, Essonna, 
 Intchwa, and Tchweedam, he then tells us, " are the four 
 patriarchal families, and preside over the intermediate ones, 
 which are considered as the younger branches. I have taken 
 some pains," he says, "to acquire the etymology of these 
 words [the names of the families], but with imperfect success ; 
 it requires much labour and patience, both to make a native 
 comprehend, and to be comprehended by him. Quonna is 
 a buffalo, an animal forbidden to be eaten by that family. 
 Abrootoo signifies a corn-stalk, and Abbradi a plantain. 
 Annona is a parrot, but it is also said to be a characteristic 
 of forbearance and patience. Esso is a bush -cat, forbidden 
 food to that family. Yoko is the red earth used to paint 
 the lower part of the houses in the interior. Intchwa is a 
 dog, much relished by native epicures, and therefore a serious 
 privation. Appiadie signifies a servant race. Etchwee is a 
 
4 o8 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 panther, frequently eaten in the interior, and therefore not 
 unnecessarily forbidden. Agoona signifies a place where 
 palm oil is collected. These are all the etymologies in which 
 the natives agree" (pp. 229, 230). 
 
 Not to trouble the reader with speculations of Mr. Bow- 
 dich " as to the meaning of these families as primeval in- 
 stitutions," special attention may be drawn to the fact that the 
 Ashantee, Fantee, and other peoples mentioned still class 
 themselves as belonging to these families without any regard 
 to national distinction; i.e. the various families or tribes of 
 descent are distributed throughout the nations in which these 
 people are comprised, and form of course clans within these 
 nations, just as the people of the bear, wolf, and turtle stocks 
 were distributed throughout the Iroquois nations, and formed 
 clans within them. 
 
 Besides the totems above enumerated we seem to have 
 indications of many others as represented in the population 
 when Bowdich knew it. Some of these appear on the stan- 
 dards of the chiefs, or on their umbrellas (which are much 
 the same thing) ; for example, the leopard, the elephant, the 
 common barn fowl, etc. (see pp. 34, 57, 2*76, and the picture 
 of the yam custom). The fowls indeed appear to have been 
 the totem of the royal family, for we are told (p. 266) that 
 " some families never eat beef, others abstain from pork ; fowls 
 and beef are the fetish [totem] of the king's family, 1 and con- 
 sequently never eaten by it." 2 Incidentally (p. 265) we 
 
 1 The state umbrella, however, is surmounted by an elephant in the 
 picture of the yam custom. 
 
 2 It is to be noted here that the puzzling fact of the king's family 
 appearing to have two totems may have its explanation in the marriage 
 law, since the king's children might be bound to abstain from eating 
 his totem because it was his, while they would be bound also to abstain 
 from that which descended to them through the mother. And probably 
 the explanation is of this sort. But it would seem that the family meant 
 was the Sai family to which the king belonged, or to which he had 
 succeeded ; and if it was as a grandson (daughter's son) of a former Sai 
 that he was in the line of succession, this fact may give the explana- 
 tion. He was by his birth debarred from the totem of his mother, and 
 
xxii GUINEA THE KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE 409 
 
 have a light thrown on the totems of the tribes in between 
 Coomassie and the sea. " The different states of the water- 
 side," we are told, " revere different animals as fetish ; the 
 hyena is esteemed so at Accra, the alligator at Dix Cove and 
 Annamaboe, and vultures universally. ... A black man 
 killing a hyena at Accra would incur a serious penalty. . . . 
 In a freshwater pond at Dix Cove there is an alligator about 
 twelve feet long, which always appears on the bank at the call 
 of the fetish men, who then throw it a white fowl." The area 
 of totemism is further extended by this work into the region 
 of the Gaboon. Bowdich found among the negroes there the 
 same limitations on eating as among the Ashantees: "Like 
 other negroes," he says, " different families have different 
 fetish : some will not eat a cock, nor others a hen." 1 
 
 The Ashantees calling all the slaves brought to the coast 
 Dunkos, it had been supposed that there was a country and 
 people of that name, but Bowdich found Dunko meant bar- 
 .barian. He first suspected this from some Dunkos being cut 
 in the face, and some not; and because their languages were 
 various and unintelligible to each other. As to the cuts, some 
 had three on each cheek-bone, and three below, with one 
 horizontal under the eye ; others, three deep continued cuts ; 
 others, three very deep and long, and one under the eye ; 
 others were cut in the forehead ; others still all over the body 
 in fine, small, and intricate patterns. In each case the tattoo is 
 said to have indicated the people of a particular place (p. 183). 
 
 A few words on the religion and superstitions of the 
 Ashantees. They had had long contact with the Moors, and 
 
 lie was also debarred from the totem of the former monarchs. We are 
 told that lie belonged to a fowl family (tribe of descent) the Annona 
 or parrot. While the king's fetishes or totems, which he could not eat, 
 were fowls and beef, it appears (p. 319) that eggs and milk were forbidden 
 to all Ashantees. 
 
 1 And cf. Winwood Reade's account of the initiation to manhood 
 recounted to him by a Mpongwe at which time the injunction to refrain 
 from particular food is laid upon the novice (p. 245), and Reade's 
 description of the gorilla dance among the Mpongwes (p. 194). Savage 
 Africa, by W. H. Reade. London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 1863. 
 
410 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 had heard, of course, of a God of the Universe. They may 
 have got from them also other deities and superstitions. 
 Bowdich says (p. 262) that some of their gods l are supposed 
 to inhabit particular rivers, woods, and mountains. "The 
 present favourite fetish of Ashantee is that of the river Tando. 
 Cobee, a river in Dankara, and Odentee, on the Adirree, are 
 two of the others." These gods were honoured in proportion 
 to the success in predictions of their respective priests. The 
 priesthood was in some cases hereditary in families. There 
 were other priests who took rank, like the god-boxes of the 
 Tongans, in respect of their power of feigning convulsions, 
 and their adroitness in rendering oracles. 
 
 KINSHIP 
 
 Though the form of the family would have permitted of 
 kinship being traced through fathers, in point of fact, in 
 Ashantee, it was traced through women only, and all suc- 
 cessions, honours, and estates were inherited according to the 
 law peculiar to that form of kinship ; except that the king, 
 a despot without scruple, had constituted himself heir to all 
 
 1 " Their fetishes or subordinate deities," i.e. their gods, as distin- 
 guished from the God of the Universe, from whom they were " alienated," 
 the alienation, however, causing them no despondency. After death 
 the spirits of the common people were supposed to inhabit the houses of 
 the fetish, those of superior wisdom being charged with a supervision 
 over the people who acknowledged it. One object of killing men and 
 women at the funerals of people of rank was, as usual in such cases, to 
 provide them after death with attendants suitable to their rank. The 
 hereditary priests dwelt with the fetish. The others lived among the 
 people and were resorted to as fortune-tellers or conjurers, and the 
 number of these are stated to have been " frequently augmented by those 
 who declare that the fetish has suddenly seized or come upon them, and 
 who, after inflicting great severities on themselves in the manner of the 
 convulsionists, are ultimately acknowledged." There were fetish women 
 who belonged to this class. At the coast, a common fetish day was 
 observed (Tuesday) on which men neither fished nor worked in their 
 plantations. In Ashantee different families kept different days of the 
 week as their fetish day ; and every one similarly observed the day of the 
 
xxii GUINEA THE KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE 411 
 
 the gold left by his subjects, a law frequently evaded by 
 means of gifts inter vivos. 
 
 The first notice of the law of succession which occurs in 
 Bowdich will be found in his account of the history of 
 Ashantee (p. 234). " Sai Apokoo, brother of Sai Tootoo, was 
 next placed on the stool (i.e. throne). Had there been no 
 brother, the sister's son would have been the heir. This 
 extraordinary rule of succession, excluding all children but 
 those of a sister, is founded on the argument that if the wives 
 of the sons are faithless the blood of the family is entirely lost 
 in the offspring, but should the daughters deceive their hus- 
 bands it is still preserved." The law thus stated as the law 
 of succession to the throne, Mr. Bowdich declares in his 
 chapter on the constitution and laws of Ashantee to have been 
 universally binding. " The most original feature of their law," 
 he says (p. 254), "that of succession, has been mentioned 
 in the history with the argument on which it is founded. 
 It is universally binding. The course is, the brother, the 
 sister's son, the son, the chief vassal or slave to the stool. 
 In the Fantee country the principal slave succeeds, to the 
 exclusion of the son, who only inherits his mother's property, 
 frequently considerable, and inherited from her family in- 
 dependently of her husband." l The daughters seem to have 
 got for their share only a small part of the " ornamental gold." 
 The stool, it may be mentioned, exists in every house, even 
 the humblest, so that the terms in which the law of succession 
 
 week on which lie was born. Besides denoting the god whom a family 
 acknowledged, the word fetish is used by Bowdich in the sense of a 
 charm ; the things of this sort which were most esteemed by the 
 Ashantees came to them from the Moors (pp. 261-271). 
 
 At the fetish house or cemetery at Bantama, where the kings were 
 buried, human sacrifices, we are told, " are frequent and ordinary, to 
 water the graves of the kings " (p. 289) ; and a ghastly account is given by 
 Mr. Hutchison (pp. 419-421) of the proceedings at an Adai custom when 
 the king " washed the bones " of his mother and sisters to propitiate the 
 fetish. Mr. Hutchison says, " But in such doings we see the germ of 
 ancestor worship." 
 
 1 Throughout Equatorial Africa female kinship is of common occurrence. 
 
412 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 is stated are of general application. There is an independent 
 corroboration of this statement of the law in the diary of Mr. 
 Hutchison, which is appended to Bowdich's report. In con- 
 versation with him Odumata began to boast to Mr. Hutchison 
 of the number of his wives and children as compared with 
 those of Englishmen. " I told him," says Hutchison, " there 
 was a possibility of an Englishman knowing his father, but no 
 black man could tell his. They were all slaves, and rendered 
 incapable of inheriting their father's property. None of his 
 children need to thank him, he neither could give them any- 
 thing while alive, nor leave them anything when dead " (p. 
 416). But this statement of the law of succession appears 
 to be over-pressed. At the time when Bowdich and Hutchison 
 wrote, as their accounts show, adultery was punishable with 
 death, the harem was fenced in every "way jealousy could 
 dictate, and women were sometimes put to death for what we 
 should call slight indiscretions. The people were certainly 
 not wanting in the feeling of jealousy, nor is it credible the 
 family system being monandrous that a father should have 
 been so completely cut off as Mr. Hutchison states, from his 
 children. In fact gifts inter vivos from father to children are 
 mentioned by Bowdich as a means of evading the king's heir- 
 ship in gold. Moreover the wife seems usually to have been 
 obtained either by purchase or gift from the king. Bowdich's 
 statement, too, distinctly sets forth that, failing sisters' children, 
 the son comes in as heir. In the chapter on the laws of 
 Ashantee we have a statement which throws some light on 
 the relation of a father to his children. " If a husband is not 
 heard of by his wife for three years," it is there said (p. 260), 
 " she may marry again, and if the first husband returns, the 
 claim of the second is the better ; but all the children of the 
 after marriage are considered the property of the first husband, 
 and may be pawned by him." It is a fortiori that children 
 by himself should have been his property : they might not be 
 his acknowledged kith or kin, but they were his goods and 
 chattels ; he was entitled to the possession of them ; and that 
 being so, it is not in human nature but that he should have 
 been interested in their welfare, and should seek to further 
 
xxn GUINEA THE KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE 413 
 
 their interests by gifts inter vivos, as fathers do, in like cases, 
 in India and in many other quarters. 1 
 
 We may here note that in the Gaboon, where we have 
 seen already that there were traces of totemism, in the succes- 
 sion to the throne the brother came in before the son. " Kings 
 are numerous in the Gaboon, and scarcely comparable even 
 with the petty caboceers of Fan tee." But while a primitive 
 succession law is thus seen lingering round the succession to 
 chieftainries, it had ceased to be the law of succession in 
 private families. "All children share the property of the 
 father in equal portions, except the eldest son, who has about 
 half as much again as any other" (p. 437). 2 
 
 EXOGAMY 
 There is not one word in Bowdich's report on the right of 
 
 1 A transition in kinship had evidently set in among the Ashantees. 
 Among the Fantees, who were the same people, a son never came in as 
 heir. Among the Ashantees he regularly did, failing sisters' children, 
 and his relationship to his father was to this degree acknowledged, 
 though the older kinship through the female line (formerly, no doubt, 
 the only kinship, as among the Fantees) continued in the first place. 
 
 Bowdich mentions (p. 258) that no one is punished for killing his 
 slave, but is punished for the murder of his wife or child, and that the 
 death of an inferior is generally compensated by a fine to the family ; 
 and at p. 260 he says that if a woman involves herself in a palaver she 
 involves her family but not her husband. Thefts must be compensated 
 by the family of the thief, who can only be punished by his own family. 
 
 2 In the Gaboon, failing brothers, the son succeeded his father in the 
 kingship (and not the sister's son), and sons succeeded father to the 
 exclusion of brothers in all other cases, the eldest son getting a special 
 share. It is stated, too, that " the acknowledged heir to a property may 
 bring a palaver against his father, or whoever may be possessor of it, for 
 killing a slave unjustly, or otherwise injuring the property, and oblige 
 him to make good the injury." There was therefore a thorough establish- 
 ment of family property and of male kinship, with an acknowledgment of 
 special claims for eldest sons, and with a preference of brothers to sons 
 remaining in the succession to dignities all of which would be derivable 
 from Thibetan polyandry. 
 
414 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 intermarriage, and the subject of incest is only mentioned 
 once in the account of Gaboon where the prohibition against 
 a man looking at or conversing with his mother-in-law on pain 
 of a heavy, perhaps a ruinous fine, is given as " founded on the 
 tradition of an incest " (p. 437). Whether prohibitions of this 
 class, which are of frequent occurrence, can be referred to the 
 necessity for rules to prevent marriage or connections between 
 persons nearly related by family ties, who, being of different 
 stocks, would nevertheless be free to intermarry, is a subject 
 to be inquired into separately. 
 
 That the marriage law of the Ashantees and the people 
 allied to them was anciently exogamy may, however, be 
 confidently inferred from the interfusion of the same clans, 
 each forming a stock, throughout their various nations. No 
 hypothesis adequate to explain that kind of interfusion has 
 ever been framed other than that which refers it to the joint 
 operation of exogamy and the system of female kinship. The 
 tradition given us by Mr. Morgan of the Iroquois nations 
 having of set purpose divided themselves into totem stocks on 
 the motion of a wise Sachem of the Onondagas, and then 
 placed a portion of each stock in each of their nations, cannot 
 be taken seriously. And, indeed, no other explanation of such 
 an interfusion has ever been proposed. 
 
 And that the system of kinship is exogamous is shown also 
 by the statement (at p. 437) that if a man kills one of his 
 wives he pays a fine to her family, who, and not the husband, 
 are involved in all her palavers. 
 
 Again there are casual statements made by Bowdich which 
 suggest that, even when he wrote, husband and wife always 
 belonged to different kinships ; and which show that " the 
 family " was firmly held together by joint interests and obliga- 
 tions. If a man committed a theft, it was his family which 
 suffered for it; the family was bound to compensate the 
 accuser, and might "punish their relative or not" as they 
 thought fit (p. 259). If a woman involved herself in a palaver 
 (accusation) it was her family which had to bear the conse- 
 quences ; and the case is mentioned of a famous beauty (p. 259) 
 who, having driven one of her lovers to kill himself in despair, 
 
xxii GUINEA THE KINGDOM OF ASHANTEE 415 
 
 killed herself in turn to save her family from a ruinous palaver 
 with the family of the deceased. And in Ahanta (which is 
 said to have had some peculiar customs) a creditor could seize 
 for debt not only the family of his debtor, but any of his towns- 
 men (p. 257), which shows that all of the same town were liable 
 for each other in Ahanta, and suggests that all of the same town 
 were kinsfolk there ; that they formed a clan (necessarily with 
 male kinship) and that all of the clan were liable for each 
 other. In Ashantee also, however, when a man had brought a 
 frivolous palaver against another, we find that he was bound to 
 give an entertainment "to the family and friends of the 
 acquitted" (p. 259); from which it appears that in Ashantee 
 also the right to compensation, and therefore the liability for 
 injury done, extended how far there are no means of judging 
 to relatives outside the family in our sense of the word. It was 
 her family (whatever its limits) that was answerable in a married 
 woman's palavers ; her husband had nothing to do with them 
 (p. 260) ; and in this it is implied that he could have no 
 responsibility for her as a relative. Moreover, wives were got 
 by purchase (where the wife was not a gift from the king), 
 and it appears that a captain could sell his wife, her relatives, 
 however, having the right to get her back from him on repay- 
 ment of the marriage fee (p. 260); and there clearly could be 
 no kinship between husband and wife where these things 
 could happen. It will be seen immediately that wives received 
 in gift from the king would, in most cases, probably have been 
 foreign women. 
 
 The law allowed the king 3333 wives " which number," 
 we are told, " is carefully kept up to enable him to present 
 women to those who distinguish themselves, but never exceeded, 
 being in their eyes a mystical one" (p. 289). These women 
 were carefully secluded. Some of them were married to the 
 king while still infants at the breast. Others were selected 
 from the slaves taken by the Ashantees in their frequent wars. 
 Many of them the king has probably never seen. Speaking of 
 the women of the upper classes apparently, Bowdich remarks 
 that their beauty is not surprising " when we recollect that 
 they are selected from or are the daughters of the handsomest 
 
416 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xxii 
 
 slaves or captives, or are expressly chosen by their interior 
 neighbours to compose part of their tribute to the King of 
 Ashantee, who retains but a small proportion" (p. 318); and 
 there are other indications that the better sort of people were 
 really to a considerable extent provided with wives by gift 
 from the king. 
 
 In general, however, wives were got by purchase, and there 
 was a system of betrothals. " Infants are frequently married 
 to infants for the connection of families, and infants are as 
 frequently wedded by adults and elderly men" (p. 302). 
 There was a graduated scale of price for a wife, for the rich 
 and for the poor, also a graduated scale of damages for 
 intrigues, for the rich and for the poor. Curiously enough, 
 though the husband bought his wife, and the right to the 
 children she might have, and even, as we have seen, to her 
 children by another husband, he did not get her property, 
 which remained independent of him. If a woman was ill- 
 treated by or disliked her husband, and her family tendered 
 back the marriage fee, the husband had to accept it, when the 
 woman returned to her family, but was not allowed to marry 
 again (p. 260). 
 
 The king's sisters, through whom the royal line was 
 continued, were " not only countenanced in intrigue with any 
 handsome subject, but allowed to choose any eminently so, 
 however inferior otherwise, as a husband." If the wife died 
 first in the latter case, the husband was expected to kill 
 himself, and so also if the only male child died. When a 
 male child was born the father did it homage as vassal in 
 the most abject manner (p. 291). 
 
 Speaking of polygamy " tolerated to such an excess 
 amongst the higher orders " Bowdich tells us that " most of 
 the lower order of freemen have but one wife, and very few of 
 the slaves any" (p. 317). He says also that the slaves form 
 the greater portion of the military force, and he estimates this 
 force as 204,000 men in a population of about a million. It 
 would result from this that the bulk of the adult male popula- 
 tion were without wives. 
 
CHAPTEK XXIII 
 
 GUINEA THE GOLD COAST 
 
 BOSMAN'S work, entitled A Neiv and Accurate Description of 
 the Coast of Guinea, divided into the Gold, the Slave, and the 
 Ivory Coast, was written in Dutch about 1700, and was 
 translated into English, and published in London in 1785. 1 
 William Bosnian was the chief factor for the Dutch at the 
 castle of St. George D'Elmina. He appears to have been a 
 man of much acuteness and learning, and during his fourteen 
 years' stay upon the coast of Guinea he had ample oppor- 
 tunities of studying the habits and customs of the people. 
 These he describes in a very interesting manner, always stating 
 where he thought he knew the matter fully from experience, 
 where he only partially comprehended it, and where, as in regard 
 to some inland negroes, he only wrote on hearsay evidence. 
 
 The condition of things which we have seen in Ashantee, 
 and the country immediately surrounding it, seems to prevail, 
 according to all the representations, throughout Guinea, except 
 that kinship is not uniformly through the mother only. Bos- 
 man represents the negroes on the Gold Coast generally as 
 being in five ranks : kings or captains, which he says are 
 synonymous words ; caboceros, or chief men ; rich men, counted 
 noble ; the common people engaged in tillage, fishing, etc.; and, 
 
 1 His work is contained in Pinkerton's collection, and the references 
 given are to Pinkerton, vol. xvi. (General Collection of Voyages and Travels 
 in all Parts of the World, by John Pinkerton, 17 vols. 4to, 1808-14). 
 
 2 E 
 
418 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 lastly, the slaves " either sold by the relations, taken in war, 
 or come so by poverty" (p. 392). The chiefs are elected from 
 the elders, young men being seldom admitted to the office. 
 Those represented as noble in respect of their wealth are so 
 considered only by foreigners ; they were not truly noble, either 
 by birth or creation. They have no poor, for the reason that 
 at any pinch a man rents himself out. 
 
 TOTEMISM 
 
 In giving an account of the religion of the negroes, 
 Bosnian declares that "it is so various there is no village or 
 town, nay, I had almost said no private family, which doth not 
 differ from another on this head" (p. 396). It is true, he 
 says, they believe in one God, who created all things, but they 
 have no just idea of Him ; they owe the notion of such a God 
 to the Europeans. Two reasons convinced Bosnian of this : 
 first, they neither make offerings to God, nor call on Him in 
 time of need, "but in all their difficulties they apply them- 
 selves to their fetish, and pray to him for success in their 
 undertakings ; secondly, the different opinions of some of them 
 concerning the creation" (p. 396). As to this, Bosnian men- 
 tions that a great part of the negroes believe that man was 
 made by Ananse, i.e. a great spider. Mr. Bosnian gives a 
 description of this spider at p. 469, as follows : " Going to niy 
 chamber at night in order to go to bed, I found a hideous 
 great spider against the wall. We found his body long am 
 his head sharp, broader in the fore than hind part, but nol 
 round as most sort of spiders are ; his legs were as large 
 a man's finger, ten in number, being hairy and the thickness 
 of a little finger. The negroes call this spider Ananse, am 
 believe that the first men were made by that creature, and, 
 notwithstanding some of them by conversation with Europeans 
 are better informed, there are yet a great number that remai] 
 of that opinion, out of which folly they are not to be reasoned. 3 
 
 In his account of their religion he speaks habitually oi 
 fetishes, but it will appear plainly that the fetish is simply 
 the totem. Bosnian says that the negro word is Bossui 
 
xxm GUINEA THE GOLD COAST 419 
 
 which means God. The phrase " Let us make fetish " is the 
 equivalent of " Let us perform our religious worship." Fetish 
 made with a view to the injury of another is of the nature 
 of an incantation. Obligatory swearing is in their phrase, 
 " Confirmation by fetish." Oaths taken with the oath-draught, 
 and an imprecation that the fetish may kill them if they do 
 not keep it, are inviolable. 
 
 Each priest has his peculiar idol. When a negro is to 
 take an oath " the priest asks him the name of his idol, each 
 having a particular one " ; the name being given, the priest 
 calls the fetish by its name, 1 and the oath proceeds. The 
 statement that each negro has his particular fetish is consistent 
 with the notion of the fetish being truly hereditary in the 
 clan. 2 
 
 Bosman mentions public worship of a whole nation or 
 town as customary on a bad season occurring. The chief 
 of the town or nation advises with the priest as to the best 
 course for removing the calamity, and an order is issued in 
 conformity with their determination. The kind of orders 
 given is not disclosed, nor the nature of the "public general 
 religious exercise " on such occasions. When the fishery is at 
 a low ebb, they make offerings to the sea. The public worship 
 is frequently performed in the sacred groves which exist in 
 every village. 
 
 At p. 400 Bosman says that the Bossum is the individual 
 god, answering to the " private medicine " of the Eed Indian, 
 and that the individual worships it on that day of the week 
 on which he was born. Most of the negroes have besides this 
 another weekly day sanctified to their fetishes. 3 These fetishes 
 then are distinct from the individual Bossum; they are wor- 
 
 1 The fetish is supposed to come, on being called, into the god-box, to 
 hear the oatn^ the god-box being a great wooden pipe, filled with earth, 
 oil, blood, etc., making a confused heap in the pipe. 
 
 2 "They have a great number of false gods; each man, or at least 
 each housekeeper, hath one " (p. 400). 
 
 3 As soon as the child is born, says Bosman (p. 423), if above the 
 common rank, it has three names bestowed upon it ; the first is that of 
 
420 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 shipped by sacrifices of a cock or sheep, which is eaten by the 
 sacrificer, " his friends and acquaintance " no doubt his rela- 
 tions. We owe a disclosure of a leading note of totemism to 
 a speculation of Bosnian's, that if the negroes could be con- 
 verted, it would be to popery. " The Eomanists have their 
 allotted times for eating particular sorts of food, or perhaps 
 wholly abstaining from it, in which the negroes outdo them, 
 for each person here is forbidden the eating of one sort of 
 flesh or other. One eats no mutton, another no goat's flesh, 
 beef, swine's flesh, wild fowl, cocks with white feathers, etc. 
 This restraint is not laid upon them for a limited time, but 
 for their whole lives, and if the Komanists brag of the antiquity 
 of their ecclesiastical commands, so if you ask the negroes why 
 they do this, they will readily tell you, ' Because our ancestors 
 did so from the beginning of the world, and it hath been 
 handed down from one age to another by tradition.' The son 
 never eats what the father is restrained from, as the daughter 
 herein follows the mother's example, and this rule is so strictly 
 observed amongst them that it is impossible to persuade them 
 to the contrary" (p. 40 O). 1 
 
 The value of this casual testimony cannot be over-estimated; 
 the disclosure of totemism is complete, as is the disclosure that 
 the fetish is the totem. The last sentence again implies that 
 the father and mother were always of different totems, which' 
 suggests, if it does not necessarily imply, exogamy ; while kin- 
 ship appears in a transitional state, as we saw it in the Hervey 
 group. As in marriages between Protestants and Eoman 
 Catholics, the girls are of the religion of the mother, and the 
 boys of that of the father. 
 
 Bosnian says he could never learn how their gods are 
 represented to them; he thought every head of a house had 
 
 the day of the week on which it is born ; the next, if a son, is generally 
 his grandfather's; if a girl, her grandmother's. And on subsequent 
 occasions other names are added from time to time, so that sometimes a 
 man has as many as twenty. 
 
 1 " Before they eat or drink," says Bosnian (p. 402), " they are accus- 
 tomed to throw away some ... it is for their false god, or sometimes 
 for their deceased friend." 
 
xxin GUINEA THE GOLD COAST 421 
 
 one, and these family gods rewarded good and punished evil. 1 
 They believed in a future life, but it would be useless to study 
 their ideas on that subject. Apparently, they have devils, but 
 whether these be the gods of confederate tribes or a European 
 importation is not clear. The statement is express (p. 403) 
 that " on the Gold Coast the natives are not in the least 
 acquainted with image worship, but at Arbra there are thou- 
 sands of idols." 
 
 Bosnian has no definite idea attached to the word idol. 
 Compare p. 398, where the idol is described as a wooden pipe 
 filled with oil, blood, etc. obviously a mere god-box, into 
 which the fetish is to be brought, and where, in the same 
 passage, the idol is confused with the fetish and p. 499, 
 where he speaks of idol serpents : the serpents not being idols 
 at all, but the living creature which is worshipped, and the 
 species of which he describes. In the same page snakes are 
 spoken of as being reverenced and idolised. 
 
 NATIONS, TRIBES, AND CLANS 
 
 Bosnian makes no direct statement as to the constitution 
 of numerous monarchies in Guinea, i.e. as to their being com- 
 posed of local tribes or nations, as we saw was the case in 
 Ashantee ; but of the monarchies situated near the castle of 
 St. George d'Elmina he says, that when they were at war, 
 " Though each of the two contending armies was composed of 
 five or six several nations, they would not together make 
 25,000 men" (p. 412). That is, the fighting force of a nation, 
 on the average, would be about 2000 men, so that the nations, 
 
 1 " Most of them believe that after the death of any person he goes to 
 another world . . . where he makes use of all the offerings of his friends 
 and relations made here after his death, and that he revisits his dwelling 
 for several nights after his death" (Bosnian, pp. 401, 402). 
 
 " Slaves are sacrificed at the grave of the deceased, with some of 
 his wives, especially the Bossums. The funeral ceremonies are repeated 
 a year after the death, and again some ten or twelve years later " (pp. 
 429, 430). 
 
422 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 we may see, were very small, and strictly speaking local 
 tribes, j 
 
 We must see if we cannot ascertain this more distinctly. 
 In speaking of the kings, he says that some of them have not 
 more land under their jurisdiction than the bailiff of a village, 
 and that the word for king came by a misapprehension into 
 use among the negroes, who by the term Olin, in use before 
 contact with us, understood the commander of a country 
 (? district), or town, or nation (p. 415). These kings led 
 simple lives, and, except as representing their community 
 abroad, had little authority, and were treated with little respect 
 The king would appear, however, to have had a right of hirin< 
 out the forces of his nation to his neighbours, to assist thei 
 in their wars. 
 
 Where, as was sometimes the case, the king was 
 absolute despot, his subjects were bound to fulfil any bargaii 
 he made. In other cases the subjects, or many of them, joint 
 him in a war with a view to the pay, but chiefly with a vie 1 ' 
 to booty. The pay indeed was not much. Bosnian mentions 
 that a four years' war which he had conducted did not cost 
 quite 6000, and yet the Dutch had had successively five 
 nations in their pay. Where the authority of the king and 
 his council was less absolute, it would appear that a free negn 
 went to the war or not as he liked. The Manceros, a kind oi 
 chiefs, had each a fort, but command only over his slaves, as 
 it is stated ; no free negro owning authority, even to the king, 
 unless under compulsion. " If their leader is disposed to 
 march up first towards the enemy, he may, but will not be 
 followed by many." The suggestion is, but it is by no means 
 clear, that within a district or country there might be several 
 nations, and within the nations several towns ; and there is 
 the suggestion, from the law of debt, that within the nations 
 there were clans. 
 
 (1) " One of the leading men in one country hath money 
 owing to him from a person in an adjacent country, which is 
 not so speedily paid as he desires. He causes goods, freemen, 
 or slaves to be seized in the country where his debtor lives, 
 so as to pay himself." This seems to involve the principle of 
 
xxm GUINEA THE GOLD COAST 42.3 
 
 joint liability of the people of the debtor's country for the 
 debts of their compatriot. Where the debt is clear, the goods, 
 etc., which are distrained, are sure to be promptly redeemed by 
 the payment of the debt, but where it is doubtful this sort of 
 proceeding is apt to lead to war. 
 
 (2) At pp. 421, 422 we find that negroes, that is the 
 free negroes, were responsible for their slaves, of whom they 
 often have many ; also for their sons, nephews (sisters' sons), 
 and other relations (these, as we shall hereafter see, are the 
 relations on the mother's side) ; though in this case the rela- 
 tions help each other by a mutual contribution, each giving 
 something towards it according to his circumstances. Here we 
 have reproduced the obligation which lay on the Irish Geilfine 
 tribe, and on the Welsh kindred. If we imagine these relations 
 to have a common fetish or totem, being all forbidden to eat 
 the same animal, we have a clan within the nation on the 
 totemic principle, because, as we shall hereafter see, kinship 
 in Guinea was counted through the mother only. 1 
 
 (3) In Bosnian's account of the inland negroes, which he 
 says is collected from people he could trust, we have several 
 notes of clanship, (a) A negro committing a fault might not 
 only be ruined himself, but his relations suffered with him. (6) 
 A negro, when injured, calls his relations to assist him, " who 
 readily lend him their helping hand," each being sure to get 
 something of the compensation, (c) Bosnian had heard of 
 
 1 " Murder," says Bosnian (p. 406), " is punished two several ways : one 
 is by the death of the murderers, and the other by a pecuniary mulct. 
 If anybody kill a freeborn negro of Axim, and the murder is to be 
 remitted by a fine, the usual sum of 500 crowns is demanded of him, 
 though the whole demand is seldom paid, the murderer generally getting 
 some abatement, according as the relations of the murdered man stand 
 affected, for it is in their choice to be contented with as little as they 
 please, and them only he is obliged to agree with ; quite contrary to what 
 a certain writer affirms, viz. that the fines accrue to the king, which is 
 so false that he has no pretence to the least share, unless he hath been 
 assistant in the getting of them, when indeed he is paid for his trouble 
 only. But if a murderer cannot pay his fine he is executed in a cruel 
 
424 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 fines to the amount of 5000 being paid on account of adultery. 
 He never knew a negro possessed of such a fortune not even 
 a king. The implication is that either the inland negroes were 
 very rich or the fine was raised by assessment of the clan 
 (see p. 422). 
 
 KINSHIP 
 
 At one place (p. 392) Bosnian has stated that the dignity 
 of -captain or king in most countries descended from father to 
 son ; but when he makes in his chapter on marriage a full 
 statement on the subject he has a sentence to the very 
 opposite effect. " The children," he says, " follow the mother, 
 and that in Guinea has passed into an unalterable rule." 
 
 The following is a summary of his statement as to mar- 
 riage law and succession : Marriage is made almost without 
 ceremony or previous courtship. The wife goes to the hus- 
 band's home, and most wives work for their husbands. Poly- 
 gamy is permitted, the chief check on it being the cost of the 
 marriage feast. In a rich polygamous household two wives at 
 least are exempt from labour, the chief wife and " the second, 
 who is consecrated to his god"; from which we infer that the 
 chief wife is not. The second wife is a slave bought with a 
 design to be consecrated to his god, and of her the husband is 
 declared to be specially jealous. " As to his other wives, he 
 doth not watch them so narrowly" (p. 420). The probability 
 is that her children take the father's totem. Married people 
 have no community of goods ; each has his or her own pro- 
 perty. They bear jointly the charges of housekeeping, but 
 the man clothes the family. 1 
 
 On the death of either the man or wife, the respective 
 relations come and sweep away all the property, leaving 
 nothing to the survivor; but this statement must be taken in 
 connection with that as to the law of succession. He says 
 that all along the Gold Coast the children which a man has 
 by his wives never inherit their parents' property, except at 
 Accra only. " The eldest son, supposing the father a king or 
 
 1 The children of rich people are often married in infancy (p. 424). 
 
xxiii GUINEA THE GOLD COAST 
 
 425 
 
 a captain of a town, succeeds him in his office only ; but be- 
 sides his father's shield and sabre he has nothing more to 
 pretend to, so that it is no advantage to be descended from 
 rich parents ; unless, which seldom happens, paternal love 
 obliges him to bestow something on his children in his life- 
 time, which must be done very privately, otherwise the relations 
 after the father's death will oblige the children to return it to 
 the uttermost farthing." 
 
 " As far as I could observe," he says, " the brothers and 
 sisters' children are the right and lawful heirs in the following 
 manner : They do not jointly inherit, but the eldest son of 
 his mother is heir to his mother's brother or his son (?), as 
 the eldest daughter is heiress of her mother's sister or her 
 daughter." Neither the father himself nor his relations, as 
 brothers, sisters, etc. (it is obviously meant, by the same father), 
 have any claim to the goods of the defunct, for what reason 
 they cannot tell. " But I am of opinion that this custom was 
 introduced on account of the licentiousness of the women, 
 herein following the custom of some East Indian kings, who, 
 as authors say, educate their sister's son as their own, and 
 appoint him to succeed to the throne, because they are more 
 sure that their sister's son is of their blood than they can be 
 of their own, for being obliged to trust a woman no way related 
 to them, 1 if she commit adultery the child may be entirely 
 estranged from their blood" (p. 421). 
 
 Bosman here was struggling with the intricacies of the 
 system of succession peculiar to kinship through women only. 
 He is very frank about his difficulties. After stating that, 
 failing the heirs mentioned, the brothers and sisters of the 
 defunct were the heirs, " and failing them the nearest relation 
 to the mother of the defunct," he proceeds to say : " But their 
 account of this subject is so perplexed and obscure that hitherto 
 no European has been able to obtain a clear description of it, 
 as I am certain they never will, notwithstanding that the 
 negroes are so accurately perfect in it, that they never commit 
 any error on this head : not but that great disputes sometimes 
 arise amongst them on this occasion, but these are never owing 
 1 Observe the suggestion of exogamy here. 
 
426 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xxm 
 
 to their ignorance who is the heir, but happen from the next 
 heirs being too potent in men and arms, and therefore stretch- 
 ing beyond the due bounds of inheritance" (p. 421). 
 
 This is a statement, containing one or two obvious errors, 
 of the law of succession peculiar to the system of kinship 
 through women only : one important error being due to the 
 principle of symmetry. It is quite intelligible that the eldest 
 daughter should be heiress of her mother's sister or her 
 daughter, though the particular appointment might be some- 
 what curious ; but that the eldest son should be heir to the 
 son of his mother's brother is contrary to the whole principle 
 of the succession law of which Bosman was endeavouring to 
 give an account. As to the reasons for this law, it is obvioi 
 that, intrigue being punishable with death (p. 422), and the 
 family system allowing certainty of fatherhood, the origin oi 
 the law must be looked for in a different family system fro] 
 that found on the Gold Coast. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 GUINEA : SLAVE COAST FIDA 
 
 THERE are various "kingdoms" on the Slave Coast, of which 
 Mr. Bosnian has given some information, but the kingdom of 
 Fida (otherwise Whidah) is the only one of which he has given 
 a full account. He found the inhabitants of Goto, one of these 
 " kingdoms," to resemble those of the Gold Coast " in politics, 
 religion, and economies," except in the matter of idols ; by 
 which, however, he means living animals religiously regarded, 
 not fabricated images of the gods. They depend on plunder 
 and the slave trade, as did the inhabitants of Popo, an adjoin- 
 ing kingdom. Popo and Goto were continually at war, but 
 both drew their chief supplies of slaves from the inland 
 countries. As to Popo, Bosnian states that his account of 
 Fida applies to it especially as regards the government. What 
 follows is mainly taken from his account of the kingdom of 
 Fida. 
 
 NATIONS, TRIBES, AND CLANS 
 
 Fida is treated of as a single nation or kingdom. There 
 is no mention of tribes or clans, and the families appear to be 
 patriarchal groups, composed of a man and his numerous 
 descendants and co-relatives living together. Kinship was 
 through fathers, with, apparently, a right of primogeniture in 
 the eldest born son (p. 480). I can find absolutely no 
 material in Bosnian's account of Fida from which to infer the 
 existence of local divisions within the population answering to 
 
428 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 local tribes composed of different clans, or of the interfusioi 
 of such clans in the local tribes ; but, as I have explained, ii 
 discussing the case of the Algonquins, and also of the Narrin- 
 yeri in Australia, the almost immediate effect of shifting the 
 kinship from the female to the male side is to undo the 
 primitive interfusion of clans, and to render the population ol 
 the local tribes, towns, and villages homogeneous. 
 
 Fida was very populous. Bosman says that in one village 
 alone, as the king's village, or any of his viceroy's villages, 
 " there were as many people as in a common kingdom on the 
 Gold Coast." These large villages were numerous, the smi 
 ones innumerable, often within a gunshot of one another, " fc 
 those who live out of the great villages or towns build am 
 settle where they please, so that each family builds a si 
 village, which increases as that multiplies" (p. 477). 
 
 The greater men have many wives, and a proportional 
 number of children, and he says he has known men who have 
 above 200 children. The king told him on one occasion that 
 one of his viceroys, assisted by his sons and grandsons, wit 
 their slaves, had repulsed a powerful enemy which came 
 against him, and that this viceroy, with his sons and grand- 
 sons, could make out the number of two thousand, not reckon- 
 ing daughters or any that were dead (p. 481). In such 
 patriarchal group we have the germ of a homogeneous tribe 
 descent, such as was believed to have been the primitive typ( 
 of group. 
 
 KINSHIP 
 
 At p. 479, after having given an account of the Chim 
 like industry of the Fidisians in agriculture, so that all lam 
 not covered by villages, or occupied by footpaths, was unde 
 constant cultivation ; of their excessive ceremonial in sock 
 intercourse, which reminds one of the Tongans and Fijians 
 and of the diligence of the people in the slave trade, whicl 
 enabled them to deliver 1000 slaves per month, he proceec 
 to say : " The remaining customs and manners of the native 
 of Fida not affecting their religious worship are very like the 
 of the Gold Coast, excepting only that these exceed the oth< 
 
xxiv GUINEA: SLAVE COAST FID A 429 
 
 in all particulars of living, for whereas the former content 
 themselves with 1, 2, 3, and the most considerable men with 
 8, 10, 20 wives, they have here 40 or 50, and their chief 
 captains 300 or 400 some 1000, and the king between 4000 
 and 5000." This excessive polygamy is, no doubt, made 
 possible by the slave trade, and the lucrative nature of farming, 
 the work of which is mostly done by the women. The more 
 beautiful women do not, however, work in the fields ; they 
 wait on their lord at home. " No rich negro will suffer any 
 man to enter the houses where his wives reside " (p. 479). Un- 
 like some of the negroes on the Gold Coast, " they are strangely 
 jealous " of their wives, and on the least suspicion sold them 
 to Europeans. The custom of Fida made an intrigue, especially 
 with the wife of a wealthy man, involve the death of the 
 guilty person, and the enslavement of his whole family. It 
 may be presumed that this jealous guarding of the harem grew 
 up with and introduced the new system of kinship through 
 fathers. As Bosman imputed the system of female succession 
 to the licentiousness of the women, so his narrative in the 
 case of Fida connects the system of male kinship with the 
 jealousy of husbands and the law against adultery. 
 
 The law of succession of Fida is stated as follows : 
 " Upon the father's death the eldest son inherits, not only all 
 his goods and cattle, but his wives, which he immediately holds 
 and enjoy eth as his own, excepting his own mother. . . . This 
 custom obtains not only with the king and captains, but also 
 among the commonalty." It will be observed that the custom 
 which excluded the mother implied a law of incest. There is 
 but one other reference in the account of Fida to that subject. 
 The king married two of his own daughters, but they dying 
 soon after, he imagined that the gods punished him that way 
 for his crime (p. 480) an intimation of the connection between 
 the law of marriage and religion. 
 
 As elsewhere, disputed successions to the throne were 
 frequent in Fida. The taking possession of the king's court 
 and wives was looked upon by the common people as like a 
 solemn making-up of a title to the throne ; " and succeeding 
 happily in these particulars the claimant to the throne need 
 
430 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP 
 
 not doubt the remainder, for the commonalty will not easily 
 consent that after that he shall be driven from the throne. 
 This seems somewhat like Absalom's design on his fathe 
 David. To accomplish this design, the younger brother's part 
 are always careful enough that he is near at hand in order 
 take possession of the court" (p. 492). 
 
 TOTEMISM 
 
 Bosnian gives a pretty full account of what he calls the 
 public gods of Fida, i.e. the gods receiving worship from the 
 whole people. He opens his statement as to their religion by 
 representing them as having gods by tfie thousand. An 
 account of the nature of the fetish that has been often quoted 
 represents them, when resolved on any undertaking of import- 
 ance, a3 choosing as their god for the occasion the first creature 
 or thing they see dog, cat, or other animal, or a stone or a 
 piece of wood and making offerings and promises to it, and 
 rejecting it as a useless tool in case of failure. " We make 
 and break our gods daily/' said his informant (p. 493), "and 
 consequently are the masters and inventors of what we sacrifice 
 to them." This account seems to have amused Bosnian, who 
 says, " This divine service is not new in the world, nor were 
 the first men strangers to it"; in saying which he appears as a 
 theorist. What is certain is, that such instability in the 
 relations of worshippers to gods is nowhere else disclosed in 
 the world, and that the report of it here is incredible. In fact, 
 it is instantly disclosed that his informant was making fun, had 
 been educated among the Trench, whose language he spoke 
 perfectly, and had acquired "such a just notion of the true 
 God," and how to worship him, as he could learn from Eoman 
 Catholicism. 
 
 Bosnian proceeds to say that the people of Fida have a 
 faint idea of the true God, but do not pray to Him or offer 
 any sacrifices to Him, saying that He has committed the 
 government of the world to their own gods, and this is their 
 firm belief. The faint idea mentioned they could not but 
 
 
xxiv GUINEA: SLAVE COAST FIDA 431 
 
 acquire from the Dutch, French, and English who carried on 
 among them the slave trade. 
 
 Their principal gods, owned as such throughout the country, 
 are of three sorts. (1) A certain sort of snakes, who possess 
 the chief rank amongst their gods. The species of snake is one 
 streaked with white, yellow, and brown. Bosnian says that 
 the biggest he ever saw was about a fathom long, and the 
 thickness of a man's arm. (2) Certain trees, the nature of 
 which is not disclosed. (3) The sea. These are the public 
 deities worshipped and prayed to throughout the whole country. 
 Each of them has a special jurisdiction or province, but that of 
 the snake includes those of the other two. 
 
 The offerings made to the snake are very valuable, consisting 
 of European and African commodities, all sorts of cattle, food, 
 and drink : it is supposed the priests appropriate them as they 
 do the offerings made to the trees. They little encourage 
 offerings to the sea, as these are not recoverable ; yet, in bad 
 weather, all sorts of goods are thrown into it, so that it may 
 permit of the arrival of ships. The snake, who appears here 
 in the first place among the gods, must have been the totem of 
 the stock to which the kings of Eida belonged. The kings of 
 Eida used to make annual pilgrimages to the snake-house near 
 the king's village, where they offered magnificent presents to the 
 grandfather of all the snakes, who was supposed to reside there, 
 to be as thick as a man, and of immeasurable length. Of 
 course all the snakes of the divine species were religiously 
 regarded, as well as their grandfather. Some Englishmen 
 having found a snake in their house and killed it, in ignorance 
 of this, the negroes killed them all, and burnt their houses and 
 goods. After this, the English for a time having withdrawn 
 their trade, the negroes made a rule of explaining to Europeans 
 that they must not hurt the snakes, because they were gods. 
 Bosnian was of opinion that even when he wrote it would be 
 death for a man even to kill a snake by accident, unless he 
 could instantly procure the protection of the king; and he 
 relates how a pig having devoured a snake that had bitten him, an 
 order went forth for the instant slaughter of all the pigs in the 
 country. The slaughter went on till the race was threatened 
 
432 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xxn 
 
 with extermination, and it was stopped by the authority of the 
 king. 
 
 The snake is chiefly invoked in bad seasons for 
 weather, for the preservation of the cattle, and in all politic 
 difficulties ; the trees seem to be prayed to chiefly for healtl 
 The offices of public religion are celebrated by priests an< 
 priestesses associated together. Their persons are sacred (pj 
 493-500). 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 LOANGO, ETC. 
 
 History of Loango, KaJconga, and other Kingdoms in Africa, by the 
 Abbe Proyart; Paris, 1776. Pinkerton, vol. xvi. 
 
 OUR author was a missionary, and a leading purpose of his 
 history was to make out the people of Loango, etc., to be purer 
 and better in all respects than they had been represented as 
 being in the Histoire G6n6rale des Voyages, which he never 
 mentions except to execrate. The Abb fully states the 
 difficulties of observation in such a country, and the liability 
 to error through misunderstanding, and it is not the least 
 remarkable feature of the case which we shall state upon his 
 testimony that he clearly was not in the least aware that he 
 was stating such a case. 
 
 His work treats of a portion of the West Coast of Africa, 
 extending from the equator about six degrees south, and 
 containing several kingdoms Loango, Kakonga, called also 
 Caconda, lomba, etc., some of the kingdoms having various 
 names. 
 
 NATIONS, TRIBES, CLANS 
 
 In each of these kingdoms the government is represented 
 as being purely despotic, the king being regarded as a demi-god 
 and the people as his slaves ; but within each kingdom appeared 
 to be various states having their own princes, whom the Abbe* 
 regarded as the king's vassals, many of whom were not much 
 
 2 F 
 
434 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 inferior to the king in power, and asserted for themselves a 
 high order of independence. 
 
 Within the several states the people are divided into two 
 classes, freemen and slaves : the latter, so far as they belonged 
 to the king or the princes, were well treated to prevent their 
 running away; the former were the victims of arbitrary 
 exactions unfavourable to agriculture and other forms of 
 industry. 
 
 The people within the states were grouped in towns or 
 villages, each of which had its governor or chief, said to be 
 king's officers, though the statement seems altogether in- 
 consistent with the alleged independence of the princes. It 
 is needless to say that in the Abbess exposition not a single 
 word is said of either tribes or clans. 
 
 FAMILIES AND KINSHIP 
 
 The first impression derived from a perusal of the Abbe 
 Proyart's seventh chapter, on Societies, is that we are in th( 
 presence of a perfect example of what has been called th( 
 patriarchal system; but on reading further the illusion is 
 absolutely destroyed, and we find ourselves in presence of a 
 society of the Iroquois type. " The people of these countries, 
 like ourselves, inhabit towns and villages, and they present] 
 a most striking image of the origin of society. They are not 
 drawn together so much by reciprocal wants as by ties of| 
 blood, which hinder them from separating. The families dol 
 not disperse as with us, so that in the same town, and even! 
 in the same village, you discern an infinite number of little 
 hamlets which are so many families, each having its patriarch 
 for a president. A family which finds itself too crowded, and? 
 does not wish to confound itself with the neighbouring one,j 
 may go and settle on the first piece of land which is not 
 already occupied, and there found a hamlet ; it is the affair 
 of a single day in a country where the father of a family is 
 able, with the help of his wife and children, to carry away at- 
 one journey his house and all his furniture, goods, and chattels. 
 The heads of families are the first judges of them. When any 
 
xxv LOANGO, ETC. 435 
 
 dispute has arisen among them they confront the parties, and 
 after hearing the pleadings on both sides, they pronounce a 
 sort of sentence in juridical form. This domestic tribunal is 
 the model of the other superior tribunals. The laws do not 
 allow a woman to appeal from the sentence of her husband, 
 nor a son from the judgment of his father. Indeed, they 
 never think of doing so. But in the sequel we shall see that 
 from the tribunal of the chief of each village there is an appeal 
 to the governor of the province, and, lastly, to the king " (p. 560). 
 The towns are said to be only great villages. 
 
 Now let us see the facts in the light of which this state- 
 ment must be read. They are all of them casually disclosed. 
 
 (1) If a man wanted a wife, he never applied to the 
 girl's father, but to her mother only, and the presents he made, 
 he made to the mother only : a note of kinship through women 
 only (p. 569). 
 
 (2) Women of the royal stock married whom they liked, 
 and the only case in which a husband is said to have had 
 authority to divorce his wife was where a princess required 
 him to do so, in order that she might marry him. Having 
 married him, the princess kept him under guard as in a harem, 
 and scrupled not to have his head chopped off if he was detected 
 casting eyes on any woman when promenading under escort. 
 The licence of the princesses, recalling Ashantee, is a further 
 note of female kinship (pp. 569, 570). 
 
 (3) " The commonalty of goods between husbands and 
 wives is not held in this country. ... As to successions, the 
 children do not inherit from their father, but only from their 
 mother. The goods of the father are reversible after his death to 
 his eldest uterine brother, if he has one ; in default of brothers, 
 to the eldest son of his eldest uterine sister ; or, lastly, to the 
 eldest son of his nearest maternal relation" (p. 5*71). 
 
 This law of succession, stated for rich and poor alike 
 throughout these kingdoms, is a perfect statement of the law 
 of succession peculiar to the system of kinship through women 
 only, and shows that, as respects heirships at least, a man 
 had no kindred except through his mother. The only limit 
 assigned to the operation of this law is that the heir to lands 
 
436 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 and lordships succeeded only on petition, supported by presents 
 to the government, but the same person was heir of a fief as 
 succeeded to a chattel. 
 
 (4) The position of fathers in relation to the education 
 of their children is so stated (p. 571) as to recall the case of 
 the Iroquois, in which it is said the father had no right either 
 to their nurture or education. 
 
 (5) "Nobility does not descend except by the females, 
 so that all the children of a princess mother are princes or 
 princesses, though begotten by a plebeian father. On the other 
 hand, the children of a prince, or even of a king, are not nobles 
 unless their father has married a princess, which scarcely ever 
 happens" (p. 579). 
 
 The reason for the absence of marriages between princes 
 and princesses is said to be that the man, in order to enter 
 into one of these, would have to renounce the right of poly- 
 gamy. 
 
 (6) In the statement of the powers of the father occurs 
 the phrase, " The heads of families are the first judges of them. 
 When any dispute has arisen among them, they (that is the 
 heads of families) confront the parties." The parties here 
 appear to be within the family, but who are they ? The 
 statement is obviously made in reference to the case detailed 
 at p. 570, viz. the case of a man with many wives. "The 
 husband, in order not to excite jealousy among his wives, 
 uses no familiarity with any of them. He always dwells alone 1 
 in his hut, and each of them in hers with her children. This j 
 separation of dwellings does not prevent differences from arising I 
 among them now and then, which the husband, according to I 
 the usage of the country, has a right to terminate juridically. I 
 On the complaint which has been referred to him he orders I 
 the two rivals to appear before him ; each pleads her cause ] 
 kneeling, while he sits on the ground with his feet crossed. ] 
 Having heard them he pronounces sentence. They retire in 
 silence, testifying the most entire submission to his judgment." 
 What appeared, then, to be a broad statement of the powers 
 of a father, similar to the patria potestas, resolves itself into a 
 right of arbitrating between wives in a quarrel, and is not, 
 
xxv LOANGO, ETC. 437 
 
 either in the leading statement or elsewhere, extended to include 
 a power of any sort over children. Moreover, even this case 
 of arbitration must have been very rare. Proyart thought 
 there were rather fewer women than men in the country he 
 wrote about, " so that a grandee of the country cannot marry 
 twenty women without placing at least nineteen of his fellow- 
 citizens under the necessity of observing celibacy " ; besides, 
 he thought the women preferred the monogamous marriage. 
 Polygamy, in short, he declares to be a privilege used only by 
 the rich ; adding that, as the class of rich persons is far from 
 numerous, all the free men, and even most of the slaves, still 
 find means to marry, i.e. monogamously (pp. 568, 569). It is 
 very obvious after this statement that the general absence of 
 community of goods between husband and wife in the country 
 cannot possibly be referred, as it is at p. 571, to the practice 
 of polygamy : no general law or custom can be referred to the 
 practice of a few. We shall presently see clear reason for 
 believing that the people were united in clans on the totemic 
 principle ; and that being so, we may believe that the system 
 of female kinship which gave the succession law was the only 
 operative system, and that the clans were interfused in the 
 different communities, and bound to a common action by the 
 blood-bond. This being so, it would have been incredible that 
 a father should have had judicial authority over his children 
 without appeal. We may be sure their relations would have 
 something to say to his decisions, by the way of " Muru " or 
 otherwise. 
 
 TOTEMS 
 
 The way in which a disclosure of the totem system of the 
 family is made by the Abbe is simply charming. He opens 
 by saying that the people, in order not to expose their religion 
 to contempt, are very reserved in speaking of it to Europeans. 
 What he found out was that they acknowledged a supreme 
 Being, a just and perfect God meaning his own, and also a 
 god of wickedness, by which he understood their own. " They 
 who know only the theology of the country, persuaded that 
 the good God will be always sufficiently favourable, think 
 
438 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP 
 
 only of appeasing the god of wickedness. Some, to rende 
 him propitious to them, never eat fowls or game, others ea 
 only certain sorts of fish, fruits, or vegetables : not one amon 
 them but makes profession of abstaining all his lifetime fron 
 some sort of nourishment. The only way of making him offer 
 ings is to let die under their feet in honour of him some shrub 
 laden with their fruits. The banana-tree is that which the;; 
 consecrate to him in preference" (p. 594) from which w 
 learn that the " good God " was no god of theirs at all, am 
 not worshipped by them, and that the god of wickedness wa 
 in each case the totem, the benignant protector of the clan. 
 
 From the rest of his statement it appears that the people 
 or some of them, had idols; that they had amulets -anc 
 charms, like other people all over the world ; and that the}/ 
 had priests among them, called Ganga, whom they believec 
 in seriously ; that there was a consecration of children on thei 
 birth to the god, no doubt, of the mother's clan or family, fo 
 it is stated that a result of the dedication was the impositior 
 of some superstitious practice to which they were to be faith 
 ful all their lives, and of which their mothers were bound tc 
 remind them as they grew up. Lastly, we owe to the Abbe' 
 sense of humour the disclosure that one totem, at least, hac 
 obtained universal regard, as the serpent had at Fida, and th( 
 spider on the Gold Coast. 
 
 " The Ganga," he says, " who in other respects do no 
 pique themselves on uniformity in their doctrine, unanimously 
 teach everybody that there would be an extreme danger in 
 eating partridges, and no one dare hazard the experiment' 
 (p. 595). 
 
 The example of the Europeans in killing and eating the 
 partridges seems to have been successful in undermining this 
 scruple, for some of the natives at least were found to kill them 
 with a view to exchange them for ammunition. 
 
 EXOGAMY 
 
 There is not one word said by the Abbe on the law o 
 intermarriage, nor are there any statements made by him from 
 
! xxv LOANGO, ETC. 439 
 
 which it can be surely inferred what the law was ; but does 
 not the law of succession imply that it was exogamy ? and 
 may not the absence of marriage in the princely clans be 
 imputable to exogamy ? 
 
 The Abbe* says : " There is in each kingdom a family, or 
 if you please a class of princes, for they are very numerous, 
 and they know not the order of their genealogy so correctly 
 as to know if they be of a common origin. It is sufficient to 
 be a prince in order to have the right of pretending to the 
 crown, and it must necessarily be so in order to possess certain 
 noble fiefs, which are held more immediately on that tenure " 
 (p. 579). This seems to imply in each kingdom a clan of 
 princely stock whose memberslield the best of the lands, and one 
 or other of whom succeeded to the throne, either as successor- 
 designate of the king, which was permitted in certain kingdoms, 
 or by establishing himself as king by force of arms after a civil 
 war. We are told that marriage between man and woman of 
 this princely stock scarcely ever happened. A king who had 
 the right of nominating his successor might not seek a marriage 
 which would naturally make his son his heir. Were the cases 
 in which such marriages occurred cases where the king or 
 prince had not that right of nomination, and, as despots will, 
 defied the law ? Lastly, was this princely stock the same in 
 all the kingdoms ? Was its totem the partridge, and is this 
 the explanation of the universal religious regard for that bird 
 throughout the kingdoms ? 
 

 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 EQUATORIAL AFRICA 
 
 IT is only casually that a disclosure of facts interesting to 
 the student of history is made in the pages of M. du Chaillu, 
 but though few and far between, they show a sharpness 
 of observation, and care in ascertaining facts, rare among 
 travellers. 
 
 The result of all the observations that he made in Western 
 Equatorial Africa on the structure of tribes is stated in effect 
 as follows. He found tribes with different names considering 
 themselves different nations, though speaking the same lan- 
 guage ; and he found tribes speaking the same language fre- 
 quently separated from one another by tribes speaking different 
 languages. He found all these tribes or nations divided into 
 numerous clans, and the clans independent, and often at war 
 with one another. Sometimes there were several villages 
 belonging to one clan within the same nation, and he found 
 villages of the same clan sometimes at war. Each village had 
 its chief, assisted in the government by elders, each elder being 
 the head of a separate portion of the village. Each clan 
 again had its acknowledged head, in the position of " father 
 to the clan, and in this sense it is that he calls their system 
 of government patriarchal. 
 
 As to the origin of the clan system he writes as follows : 
 " I have never been able to obtain from the natives a know- 
 ledge concerning the splitting of their tribes into clans : they 
 
CHAP, xxvi EQUATORIAL AFRICA 441 
 
 seemed not to know how it happened, but the formation of new 
 clans does not take place now among them." * 
 
 We here have the marriage law in Africa for the first time 
 expressly stated : 
 
 Tribes and clans intermarry with each other, but people of 
 the same clan cannot intermarry. It is considered an abomina- 
 tion that there should be marriage between persons in the least 
 connected by consanguinity. Nevertheless the nephew has no 
 objection to take his uncle's wives, or the son his father's, 
 except his own mother, as to which remark it may be observed 
 that the heir in both cases supposed was of different blood 
 from the wives he succeeded to. 2 
 
 This leads to the succession law and the marriage system. 
 Du Chaillu found the wives of West African chiefs almost as 
 independent as their lords, each with her own plantation and 
 property. 3 In case of polygamy each wife had a separate house 
 built for her. Beyond this the statement that the marriage 
 law was exogamy, that women were on the whole very well 
 treated among the Ashangos, and that formerly it was their 
 custom a species of inverted suttee that when the woman 
 died the man should die also, we learn nothing of their mar- 
 riage customs except what may be inferred from the succession 
 law (see pp. 171, 259, 331, and 394). 
 
 As to heirship the statements are distinct. (1) The palm- 
 trees in the quadrangles are the property of the chief man 
 of each group of houses, and being valuable property pass 
 on his death to his heir, the next brother or the nephew, i.e. 
 sister's son, as in other tribes. (2) A case of succession is 
 stated as follows : 0, the nephew and heir of M, died, leaving 
 two wives, the one young, the other old. One of the widows 
 was taken as a wife by M, the other by O's younger brother. 
 Du Chaillu says: "My notion was that the younger brother 
 ought to have had all the property and the pick of the wives, 
 but I was told that the elder brother inherits the property of 
 
 1 A Journey to Ashango Land, etc., by Paul B. du Chaillu, p. 425. 
 London: John Murray, 1867. 
 
 2 Id. p. 427. 3 Id. p. 171. 
 
442 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 the younger brother. If O's younger brother had died 
 would have taken his wives and property, but O having no 
 elder brother, M, his uncle, mother's brother, had the right of 
 dividing the property as he thought fit." Here we have a 
 system of succession law corresponding to kinship through 
 women only. It was customary, however, and proper that 
 some of the wives should go to the younger brother. (3) Du 
 Chaillu says that the laws of inheritance were the same through- 
 out Ashangoland except among the Bakalai. The reader will 
 readily see that the main difference between the law of the 
 Bakalai and that just stated is that, among the Bakalai, M 
 would not be O's heir in preference to O's younger brother. 
 " The next brother inherits the wealth of the elder, but if the 
 youngest dies the elder inherits, and if there are no brothers 
 the nephew. The headship of the clan or family is hereditary, 
 following the same law as that of inheritance and property. 
 In the case of all the brothers having died, the eldest son of 
 the eldest sister inherits ; and it goes on thus until the branch 
 is extinguished, for all clans are considered as descended from 
 the female side." l Marriage within the clan is prohibited 
 among the Bakalai and other tribes. 2 
 
 The Obongos are disowned by the Ashangos, who will not 
 intermarry with them, and declare that the Obongos intermarry 
 among themselves, sisters with brothers, doing this to keep the 
 families together as much as they can. Du Chaillu says that 
 the communities of these wretched creatures are small, and so 
 isolated as possibly to necessitate close interbreeding, and that 
 this may be the cause of their physical deterioration. 3 
 
 1 A Journey to Ashango Land, pp. 389, 390, 429. 
 
 2 Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, by the same 
 author, p. 388. John Murray. London, 1861. 
 
 3 A Journey to Ashango Land, p. 320. An instance is given of what 
 seems an endogamous tribe on the Niger by E. and J. Lander (Journal of 
 an Expedition to explore the Niger, London, 1833) : "It appears, say they 
 (vol. i. p. 21 3), that the Falatahs inhabiting Acba, though very numerous, 
 are but one family, for we are told that their ancestor separated himself 
 from his friends . . . and travelled hither. . . . The sons and daughters 
 of his descendants intermarry only among their own kindred, and they are 
 
XXVI 
 
 EQUATORIAL AFRICA 
 
 443 
 
 In his Wild, Life under the Equator, London, 1869, Du 
 Chaillu makes of the African clans the general statement : 
 " Every clan has some kind of animal they do not eat " (p. 128). 
 An unmistakable note of totemism, which, being put on record 
 by the traveller prior to the publication of any speculation 
 about totemism, may be taken as satisfactory evidence that the 
 equatorial African tribes, which we have seen to be composed 
 of clans with exogamy as marriage law and female kinship, 
 were altogether composed on the totemic principle, like the 
 tribes of the Iroquois. It is merely as illustrating the curi- 
 osities of the metaphysic connected with totemism that I 
 notice the reasons in one or two cases assigned for the absti- 
 nence from particular kinds of food. The Abonga cannot eat 
 buffalo ; they believe that if they were to eat it disease would 
 creep over them, and they would die. Stranger still, their 
 women would give birth to buffaloes (p. 127), as tradition tells 
 them they did once before. Are we to suppose that Abonga 
 means buffalo, and that the clan were named from the animal ? 
 
 Lastly an infallible sign of a totem we have the belief 
 in what we may call the were-leopard. " Nothing is so terrible 
 as the leopard that was once a man" (p. 254). 
 
 Du Chaillu, writing of the tribes of Equatorial Africa, says : 
 " The Shekiani tribe is divided into clans, and though these 
 families grow very large sometimes, marriage between the 
 members of the same clan is prohibited." 1 The Shekiani 
 would appear to be a general name, like Iroquois or Bechuana, 
 for we are told there are various tribes (nations) of them 
 known by different names. They inhabit between the 9th and 
 10th parallels of N. latitude. 
 
 Among the Bakalai it was customary for the heir to give 
 up some of the wives to one or more of those who would have 
 succeeded had he not been in the way. In the case mentioned 
 in the reference the heir gave two of the seven wives to a 
 
 betrothed to each other in infancy and childhood." These Falatahs are 
 described by the Landers as far superior to their neighbours in manners 
 and intelligence. 
 
 1 Explorations and, Adventures in Equatorial Africa, p. 163. 
 
444 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xxvi 
 
 younger brother and one to a cousin. 1 A village was so much 
 distressed because the heir, being affronted, declined to take 
 any of his brothers' widows, that they came in a body, and 
 begged him to take at least two. 2 The town was agitated all 
 day on this important question. 
 
 As early as 8th January 1866 Du Chaillu, in giving an 
 account of his travels to the Eoyal Geographical Society, says 
 of the peoples he had visited : " The people are divided into 
 clans very much like the Scotch, only a man belongs to his 
 mother's clan." 
 
 Du Chaillu says of the Fans that they buy the dead of 
 other families, i.e. clans, in their own tribe, for food, 3 and else- 
 where he makes the following general statement : " I found 
 the tribes of Equatorial Africa greatly dispersed, and in general 
 no bond of union between parts of the same tribe. A tribe is 
 divided into numerous clans, and these again into numberless 
 little villages, each of which possesses an independent chief. 
 The villages are scattered, are often moved . . . and not unfre- 
 quently are engaged in war with each other." 4 
 
 As to the frequent wars, he says : " Unlawful intercourse 
 with the women of a neighbouring tribe or village is the cause 
 of nearly all the palavers and wars and fights in Africa. If a 
 tribe wants to fight they make this the cause, by getting one of 
 their women to intrigue with a man of the other tribe or village, 
 and if they do not want to fight even, they are often forced 
 into it." ' He repeatedly says that in Equatorial Africa wives 
 and slaves are the only property, there being no cattle and no 
 property in land. Frequently women desert their husbands 
 and run off to another village. It is a point of honour not to 
 give them up. This is a fertile source of war. 6 
 
 1 Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, p. 239. 
 
 2 Id. p. 262. 3 Id. p. 88. 4 Id. p. 329. 
 
 5 Id. p. 51. 6 Id. p. 162. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVII 
 
 SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 
 
 * THE MATABELE 
 
 WE have accounts of this horde, the Gagas of South Africa, 
 from both Mackenzie l and Livingstone ; they are in general 
 agreement. 
 
 Mackenzie spent five months among them, and says he 
 gave some attention to their customs, so that we may follow 
 his account with some confidence. The Matabele were Zulu 
 by origin. But few of them, however, and these old men, 
 were Zulus when Mackenzie knew them; the rest of the 
 10,000 or 12,000 soldiers of the Matabele belonged to every 
 tribe through which the original Zulu band had forced its way 
 north. It is said that the band had detached itself from 
 another Zulu band, the chief of which was Tshaka, whose law 
 was that his soldiers should not be free to marry. The Mata- 
 bele, under their chief Moselekatse, had the same law, so that 
 the horde was recruited by children captured in war. 
 
 It is of no interest to us by what processes the captives 
 are trained to become Matabele warriors. The captive girls 
 had no choice but to be shall we call them wives ? to the 
 warriors. " The Matabele soldier town," says Mackenzie, 2 " has 
 nothing domestic about it : it is not a town, but barracks. 
 
 1 Ten Years North of the Orange River, from 1859 to 1869, by John 
 Mackenzie, of the London Missionary Society. Edinburgh : Edmonston and 
 Douglas, 1871. 2 Mackenzie, p. 329. 
 
446 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 The voice of the infant, the song of the mother, are almost 
 unknown there ; only after some signal service does the chief 
 bestow as a great reward to the soldier, a captive girl to be his 
 wife, who has no choice in the matter, but is delivered over 
 to her new owner, as an ox is given to another man, whose 
 deeds have been less meritorious." Nothing could be more 
 horrible or heartrending than the narrative of the wholesale 
 massacres by which this robber horde, dispensing on the whole 
 with the troubles of rearing children, secure grown-up boys 
 and girls with whom to recruit the ranks. It would of course 
 be absurd to expect in such a horde the germs of civil society, 
 except so far as subdivisions of the horde present themselves, 
 holding together in respect of their common derivation, being 
 captured from the same tribe ; and it would "appear that so long 
 as any of one blood remained in the tribe, they endeavoured 
 to carry out the traditions of their ancestors, so far as they 
 knew them, especially in the matter of funerals. Mackenzie 
 remarks, however, that most of them were captured too young 
 to permit of their native mores or religion being taught to 
 them, and of course received no instruction from the Zulus, so 
 that they were absolutely godless. 
 
 Livingstone in his Zambesi makes mention of more than 
 one Zulu horde of the Matabele type, as ravaging the country 
 along the course of that river, especially the Mazitu. 
 
 It is curious to learn, on the evidence of Mr. Mackenzie, 
 that the chief of the Matabele, who was constantly authorising, 
 directing, or leading in person expeditions which always had 
 for their purpose the wholesale slaughter of men and women 
 who had never offended him, the murder of infants at the 
 breasts of their mothers, in fact of all infant and adult life, in 
 whatever district he struck, was a man of gentle mien and 
 kindly nature ; nay, even of much tenderness, so as to be even 
 moved to tears at the sight of a poor motherless child who 
 happened to be presented to him. He was no fiend, says 
 Mackenzie in effect, but a very good fellow, who was the 
 creature of circumstances, and whose existence, as well as his 
 power and authority, were dependent upon the control of his 
 savage soldiery. 
 
P. I XXVII 
 
 SO UTH AND SO UTH-EAST AFRICA 447 
 
 THE MAKOLOLO 
 
 As a tribe the Makololo have ceased to exist. The notices 
 we have of them are scattered, confused, and confusing, and 
 it would not be worth while to attempt to piece them together. 
 It would be to attempt to make a picture of a whole that never 
 existed, for evidently the ways of these people were various, 
 and frequently changing under the varying conditions of their 
 lives. 
 
 Where they came from seems somewhat uncertain ; their 
 progress, during the forty years of their career, seems to have 
 been on the whole from south to north. Under their vigorous 
 leader, Sebetuane, they conquered a great variety of tribes. 
 Mackenzie l speaks of them as " the mighty people who spread 
 dismay in the neighbourhood of Kuruman, who in their north- 
 ward journey conquered the Bangwakatse, the Bakwena, and 
 other tribes in that region, who drove the Bamangwato before 
 them like antelopes before the lion, whose track can be marked 
 by the usual signs of savage conquest, the wasted towns, the 
 devastated country, the silent grief of the widowed and 
 orphaned captives." 
 
 It appears that it was their practice to incorporate in their 
 horde the captive women and children. In this respect they 
 resembled the Matabele, but the original element in the horde, 
 which seems at one time to have been called the Basotas, never 
 was reduced to so small proportions as the Zulu element among 
 the Matabele. They are spoken of in Livingstone's Zambesi 
 as comprising a great variety of tribes, and it appears that the 
 headmen of the genuine Makololo had entrusted to them in 
 vassalage the various conquered provinces, with the subject 
 races as vassals cultivating the soil and attending to the cattle, 
 all of which was held in property by the Makololo. Their 
 destruction was a consequence primarily of the death of Se- 
 betuane and of the incapacity of Sekeletu, his son, whom he 
 made his heir, whether in conformity to custom or not does 
 not appear. On this man's succession, many of the real 
 
 1 Mackenzie, p. 247. 
 
448 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 Makololo, on various pretences, went or were driven into exile, 
 and when on his death a civil war among the chiefs took place 
 with regard to the succession, their numbers were so reduced 
 that the subject tribes, suddenly rising, were able in one night 
 to put nearly the whole of them to death. Of the few who 
 escaped the majority were subsequently treacherously slain by 
 pretending friends with whom they had taken refuge ; and the 
 Makololo ceased to exist. Similarly, we believe, must perish 
 every organisation founded upon mere brute force : on the 
 enfeebling of the iron will of the leader, or the withdrawal of 
 his iron hand, the various elements held together by mere force 
 must tend to stand apart, and the group to be dissolved. 
 
 The Makololo women are described as being "vastly 
 superior" to any seen by Livingstone in "Africa. The tribe 
 practised polygamy, which Livingstone explains by saying, 
 " The wealthy old men who have plenty of cattle marry all the 
 pretty young girls." l Of course the young men, who had no 
 cattle, had to get on without wives ; a state of affairs, says 
 Livingstone, probably leading to a good deal of immorality. 
 Wives were got by purchase ; the price, when desired, being 
 increased to include the right to the children, which otherwise 
 belonged to the woman's family. We may infer from the 
 system of marriage that a man could not marry in his clan, 
 and from it being necessary to purchase the right to the 
 children, that anciently there was kinship through women 
 only. 
 
 They appear to have been anciently organised in clans, and 
 in a general survey which we shall take of the evidence of 
 totemism in the districts which they inhabited, we shall see 
 reason to believe that the clans had their totems but in 
 Sekeletu's time the clan system would appear to have been 
 practically broken up. We are told 2 that families frequently 
 leave their own headman, and flee to another village, and 
 sometimes a whole village decamps by night, leaving the 
 headman. Sekeletu rarely interfered with the liberty of the 
 
 1 Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries 1858-64, 
 by David and Charles Livingstone, p. 284. John Murray, London, 1865. 
 
 2 Id. pp. 291, 292. 
 
xxvir SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 
 
 449 
 
 subject to choose his own headman : a statement which recalls 
 the arrangements of the Matabele and other Zulu conquering 
 tribes, who allowed the incorporated captives at their will to 
 change their masters, 1 but seems inconsistent with the relations 
 between clansmen and an hereditary clan or chief. 
 
 The Makololo had not only pretty women but many children ; 
 they were both pastoral and agricultural, and made their chief 
 raids for the purpose of lifting cattle. We get some light 
 casually thrown on their marriages. 2 Livingstone says but few 
 good-looking women appear in the first Batoka villages (beyond 
 the Makololo settlements), because the Makololo marry all the 
 pretty girls. 
 
 THE BECHUANAS 
 
 The Bechuanas had a career of some duration as a con- 
 quering tribe in South Africa. Since Livingstone knew them 
 they were struck, and, in a sense, destroyed by the Makololo, 
 and the destruction of the Makololo themselves was afterwards 
 recorded by Mackenzie, as already mentioned. 
 
 From the south-east, Caffraria and Natal, waves of conquest 
 have within our knowledge of the South of Africa repeatedly 
 swept eastwards and northwards, to the destruction of the inland 
 "tribes." These waves have sometimes collided with waves 
 of conquest from the north-west, and the victors of to-day 
 have been the vanquished of to-morrow. While, on the one 
 hand, as the result of this state of perpetual war, the land is 
 strewn with the detritus, as it were, of ancient organisations, a 
 small clan alone representing a once powerful tribe of descent, 
 or a few scattered individuals representing a once powerful 
 clan, on the other hand, we seem to see forming under our 
 eyes new combinations of a tribal sort, absorbing into them- 
 selves the elements of the destroyed communities. The Mata- 
 bele on the Zambesi, and north of the Orange Kiver, are in all 
 respects the Gagas of the West Coast. Originally a band of 
 Zulu warriors, under the command of Moselekatse, being 
 successful in a raid towards the north, they never returned 
 to Zululand ; starting without women, they plundered all the 
 1 Zambesi, p. 385. 2 Id. p. 311. 
 
 2 G 
 
450 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP 
 
 tribes along the route of their young girls and boys, putting 
 to death the old men, women, and children. The young women 
 became their wives, and the young men in time entered their 
 ranks as warriors. Their ranks swelling through constant 
 incorporations of this sort, the forces of the Matabele at last 
 numbered 12,000 warriors, and as they continued to grow on 
 the same principles, it will be seen that the growth and continuec 
 existence of this robber horde was dependent on perpetual 
 massacres of the communities with which they came in contact 
 
 The Eechuanas, or nation of equals, as their name implies 
 constantly remind us by their domestic arrangements, no less 
 than by their use of cow-dung and clarified butter, of the earl) 
 Vedic nations. They were comprised in a great variety o: 
 tribes, the word tribe being by all the authorities used vaguely 
 sometimes to mean local tribe or nation, but more frequently 
 as in the citation which follows from Livingstone, to mean 
 clans. 
 
 " The different Bechuana tribes 1 are named after certain 
 animals, showing that probably they were, in former times 
 addicted to animal worship, like the ancient Egyptians : the 
 term Bakatla means ' they of the monkey ' ; Bakwena, ' they 
 of the alligator ' ; Batlapi, ' they of the fish ' ; each tribe having 
 a superstitious dread of the animal after which it is called 
 They also use the word Bina, to dance, in reference to the 
 custom of thus naming themselves, so that when you wish to 
 ascertain what tribe they belong to, you say, What do you 
 dance ? It would seem as if that had been a part of the 
 worship of old. A tribe never eats the animal which is its 
 namesake, using the term ila, hate or dread, in reference to 
 killing it. We find traces of many ancient tribes in the 
 country in individual members of those now extinct, as the 
 Batau, ' they of the lion ' ; the Bauoga, ' they of the serpent ' 
 though no such tribes now exist." 
 
 Here we have every note of totemism coming together, and 
 cannot doubt that in the passage just cited " tribe " means 
 tribe of descent or group of kindred in the sense of " clan " 
 1 Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, by David Living- 
 stone, p. 13. London : John Murray, 1857. 
 
xxvii SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 451 
 
 among the Iroquois and " family " among the Australians : a 
 fact to be kept in view when we come to inquire into the 
 general social structure of the Bechuana nations. 
 
 I will corroborate the preceding statement cited from 
 Livingstone by casual proofs of totemism in South Africa to 
 be found in Mackenzie. 1 The common goat is stated to be the 
 sacred animal of some Bushmen ; the alligator, as stated by 
 Livingstone, the sacred animal of the Bakwena. There is 
 evidence of the lion and the baboon being religiously regarded, 
 and there are indications of clans of the leopard and zebra. 
 Elsewhere occurs the following statement : 2 " There are many 
 things which occur in the daily life of a Bechuana man to 
 cause him misfortune, according to the old belief. Each tribe 
 has its sacred animal to which it is said to dance ; the ' Puti ' 
 was the sacred animal of the Baniangwato " (or of their chief, vide 
 p. 4 5 4 infra). There is a suggestion of a crocodile clan and pig 
 clan ; 3 in fact all the animals mentioned by Livingstone in his 
 general statement are casually seen in Mackenzie's book to be 
 religiously regarded. 
 
 We have already seen what trust to repose in a general 
 statement made by a missionary that the system of govern- 
 ment among a people is patriarchal. Livingstone and 
 Mackenzie agree in saying that among the Bechuanas the 
 patriarchal system prevails. After examining all the facts, I 
 am of opinion that this at least is true, that the chiefs among 
 the Bechuanas, unlike the chiefs in an Iroquois or Australian 
 group, have despotic powers, and that kinship has shifted from 
 the mother's side to the father's. "The government," says 
 Livingstone, 4 " is patriarchal, each man being by virtue of 
 paternity chief of his own children ; they build their huts 
 round his, and the greater the number of children, the more 
 his importance increases. Hence children are esteemed one of 
 the greatest blessings, and they are always treated kindly. 
 Near the centre of each circle of huts there is a spot called a 
 'Kotla,' with a fireplace. Here they work, eat, or sit and 
 gossip over the news of the day. A poor man attaches himself 
 
 1 Mackenzie, pp. 135, 151, 256, 437. 2 Id. p. 391. 
 
 3 Id. pp. 390, 393. 4 S. A., p. 15. 
 
452 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 to the Kotla of a rich one, and is considered a child of th< 
 latter ; an under-chief has a number of these circles round 
 and the collection of Kotlas around the great one in the middle 
 of the whole, that of the principal chief, constitutes the town. 
 The circle of huts around the Kotla of the chief is compose( 
 of the huts of his wives and those of his blood relations. He 
 attaches the under-chiefs to himself and his government b] 
 marrying their daughters, or inducing his brothers to do so. 
 They are fond of the relationship to great families." 3 
 
 We learn that the chieftainship is inherited. Livingstone 
 says that there are signs of tribes (i.e. groups like that in th( 
 town described above) splitting up. 2 He speaks of an " ori- 
 ginal tribe " breaking up into Bamangwato, Bangwaketse, anc 
 Bakwains, the Bakwains retaining the hereditary chieftain- 
 ship. 3 Again he says that the Basutos arrange the natio] 
 in three divisions : (1) Matabele or Makonkobi ; (2) Bakoni 01 
 Basutos ; (3) Bakalahari or Bechuanas ; and he adds that th( 
 Basutos include a great variety of tribes, as Batau, " they of the 
 lion " ; Baputi, " they of the Puti," etc. 4 The people had a pro- 
 found respect for their legitimate chief. When Sebituane's 
 elder brother, becoming blind, gave up the government, Sebituane 
 continued to call his elder brother Kosi, or chief, and the 
 descendants of the elder brother paid no tribute to the throne 
 It will complete Livingstone's account of the Bechuana towi 
 society to mention that on a child being born boys bein^ 
 always more welcome than girls the birth was duly reporte( 
 to the chief, though whether of the town or Kotla is not 
 stated. 
 
 This is said to be the patriarchal system, but is it ? On th< 
 patriarchal theory families tend to multiply families rounc 
 them, the families of their descendants, as the banyan tends to 
 surround itself with its own offshoots, and the whole collection 
 of related families, all derived from the central one as re- 
 
 1 8. A., p. 45. 
 
 2 His words are : *' There are several vestiges besides of very ancient 
 partitions and lordships of tribes." 
 
 3 S. A., p. 45. The Bakwains are the same as the Bakwena. 
 
 4 Id. p. 201. 
 
xxvii SO UTH AND SO UTH-EAST AFRICA 453 
 
 [presenting the stock, form the tribe, which may include some 
 ;who are relatives of the rest only by a fiction, but on the 
 I whole consists of blood relations derived from a single stem. 
 I The town, the composition of which Livingstone has just ex- 
 plained, is built up on a different principle. The chief at the 
 centre does not represent a stem except within his own, the 
 principal centre, within which are said to be contained his 
 wives and their families, and the wives and families of his 
 relations. It seems to be implied in this that within the circle 
 all were related by marriage or blood, but that the tie of blood 
 did not connect the several circles, which therefore, it is stated, 
 it was the policy of the chief to connect with his own circle by 
 ties of marriage. The town, therefore, while within the several 
 circles it may be composed on the patriarchal principle, is 
 not, on the whole, patriarchal, and the cohesion of the whole 
 of the sub-groups to the centre is seen to depend on the 
 sovereignty, which is despotic, of the principal chief, and the 
 marriage connections dictated by policy. We must inquire 
 further, therefore, before presuming to form a definite opinion 
 on this so-called patriarchal group. 
 
 Let us now turn to the account of the Bechuanas found in 
 Mackenzie's Orange River. Mr. Mackenzie uses his terms 
 vaguely, like the other writers we have had to do with. The 
 Bechuanas are a tribe, they are a race also. Among the 
 Bechuanas are very many tribes, and of these there are often 
 many portions in subdivisions. The term clan is used, but it 
 means tribe, and tribe has no meaning (pp. 128, 177, 209, 
 356, 485). Mr. Mackenzie tells us (p. 356) that the 
 Bamangwato are a tribe of the Bechuanas. So are the 
 Bahurutse, who claim a precedence as to rank among the 
 tribes in 1ST. Bechuanaland. The Bangwaketse and Bakwena 
 are Bechuana tribes, and he says they were originally one 
 people with the Bamangwato. " Tradition contains a glimmer- 
 ing of the circumstances of their separation. The Bakwena 
 included the Bamangwato when they separated from the 
 Bangwaketse, but afterwards a subdivision took place, the 
 Bamangwato being the younger or minor party. We have 
 already seen that afterwards the Bamangwato again divided, 
 
454 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y CHAP. 
 
 the minor party being now the Batowama, at present residin 
 at Lake Ngami." Taking all these as tribes of the Bechuan 
 tribe means group in general, and anything said about it i 
 general reveals nothing as to its internal structure and recurrin 
 to the statement first quoted from Dr. Livingstone, that Bakwen 
 means the Alligators, I ask : Did the names Bangwaketse an 
 Bamangwato have animal meanings also ? If so, when th 
 three were one people they were a local tribe of three clans o 
 the totemic principle. Kinship shifting from the female to th 
 male side, their separation would be facilitated, as we find in th 
 case of the Algonquins in North America, and the Narrinyeri 
 in South Australia ; but on that view the Bamangwato, for 
 instance, would be, however they split up, of one stock and 
 have a common totem, and we saw that Mackenzie declared 
 that the whole tribe had but one sacred animal. The Puti 
 (p. 391), he says, was the sacred animal of the Bamangwato. If 
 we assume this as true, the patriarchal group included in various 
 circles were all of one totem or stock, and the several circles 
 must be regarded as comprehending " kindreds " that had grown 
 up and solidified under their several heads, within the stock- 
 tribe, corresponding to the kindreds of the Welsh and Irish. 
 
 There are difficulties, however, in the way of this view. 
 There is reason to think the Puti was not the totem of the 
 Bamangwato, but of the royal house of Sekhome's clan, and 
 possibly not of his father's but of his mother's clan. The 
 Makololo, says Mackenzie, kill it and dress its skin, but may 
 not wear it in the town. The town referred to is Shoshong, 
 its king Sekhome, and at p. 392 is a proof that the Pu 
 was the totem of Sekhome's clan, and therefore, we ma 
 be sure, religiously regarded throughout the town, so tha 
 Mackenzie might well believe it to be the sacred animal o: 
 the Bamangwato in general instead of being the totem of on 
 of their clans. The Bamangwato may have been, therefore, 
 strictly local tribe, and the various sections of it clans o 
 different descent. The inquiry may not seem worth pursui 
 yet as I have made it, it may be worth while, having examine 
 the facts so far as disclosed, to exhibit them. 
 
 The succession of son to father, so far as disclosed in th 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 455 
 
 case of the chieftainship, and it is not disclosed in any other 
 case, did not give the office to the eldest son of the king, but 
 to the son of his wife of highest rank, whenever born. Sekhome 
 was not the heir, though he was the eldest son of Khari ; 1 he 
 slew one brother who had a superior title to the throne, and 
 tried to slay Macheng, the only remaining rival, who was then 
 child, the undoubted heir. Macheng was saved by his 
 mother, carried into exile to the Bakwena, no doubt to rela- 
 tives of his mother, and ultimately returning to Shoshong, 
 became king. Macheng's father was Khari, but he was a 
 putative father only, for Macheng was not born till some years 
 after his death. He was counted the child of Khari on the 
 principle of being seed raised up to Khari, but this prin- 
 ciple would not have applied unless Khari, when he took 
 Macheng's mother to wife, had paid in cattle the price for her 
 and her offspring. Her child then was his on the same 
 principle on which, as we see elsewhere in Africa, the children 
 born to a wife who had been duly purchased, in the absence of 
 her first husband, whom she believed to be dead, were counted 
 to be the first husband's, though the second marriage held 
 good. Mackenzie says : " Having paid her price in cattle, she 
 and her offspring are to be reckoned to Khari, though the 
 children should be born a dozen years after his death." When 
 Sekhome was vexed, Mackenzie says he used to declare that 
 Macheng was the " child of cattle," meaning that the price 
 paid for Macheng's mother at her marriage with Khari was her 
 son's only title to the chieftainship, "but even Sekhome's 
 warmest supporters could not question the goodness of the 
 title." 2 The same was the rule with the Makololo : marriage 
 was by purchase, but in two ways. The price might merely 
 cover the right to the wife, or it might also be made to cover 
 the right to detain in the husband's family any children she 
 might have, otherwise the children would belong to the family 
 of the wife's father. Even when this price has been paid there 
 is not a complete separation of the children from the house of 
 
 1 " As his mother was not the first wife of Khari as to rank" (Mac- 
 kenzie, p. 359). 
 
 2 Mackenzie, p. 364. 
 
456 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 the mother. On the wife's death the husband has again to pay 
 a price to her family " to give her up," and cause an entire 
 severance of her children from them, a charge which will 
 remind the student of the Mundoo of the tribes round 
 Munniepore. 1 
 
 These are strong notes of the ancient filiation of children 
 to their mother's clan, but what appear to be stronger ar( 
 behind. Sekhorne, for example, lived in the house of his 
 mother, and had there all his private wealth. While even the 
 king again could not transmit his rank, every woman could. 
 Lastly, marriages among the Bamangwato being effected by 
 purchase were in this sense intertribal, that they were between 
 persons belonging to different circles. Within each circle the 
 children whose birth was reported to the chief belonged to the 
 community rather than to the parents ; and the community 
 being, except in the matter of marriage, highly communistic, 
 the very idea of marriage by purchase, as the only marriage, 
 carries with it that the persons marrying were of different 
 communities. 2 Lastly, the youth who were formed into 
 regiments on their initiation into manhood lived, according to 
 both Livingstone and Mackenzie, in different circles in the 
 town, while yet their union under a chiefs son, not by any 
 means always or necessarily a son of the king, must have been 
 made on some principle ; and the only one that occurs is, that 
 however scattered they were throughout the circles they were 
 still, through their mothers, of his clan. Having now, after 
 making every allowance for polygamy in the royal house, seen 
 so many things at variance with the patriarchal system, accord- 
 ing to the ideas of it that have been formulated, let us look 
 more closely at the structure of a Bechuana town. Mr. 
 Mackenzie has given some details as to the town of Shoshong. 
 It contained a population of 30,000, and was in five divisions ; 
 round it there were some small towns, apparently affiliated to 
 Shoshong, all under one chief, and probably altogether ranking 
 as a sixth division. 3 
 
 All Bechuana towns would appear to be built on one 
 
 1 Livingstone, Zambesi, p. 285. 2 Id. p. 126. 
 
 3 Pitsan (says Moffat, p. 388), the principal town of the Barolong tribe, 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 457 
 
 general model, which is thus explained. 1 In laying out a 
 Bechuana town the first thing is to ascertain where the chiefs 
 courtyard, with the public cattle-pen, is to be placed. As 
 soon as this is settled the remainder is simple. As after the 
 tabernacle was placed in the wilderness each one of the twelve 
 tribes knew on which side he had to take up his position, so in 
 the case of a Bechuana town. As soon as the chiefs position 
 is ascertained, one says, " My place is always next the chief on 
 this side " ; another adds, " And mine is always next on that 
 side " ; and so on till the whole town is laid out. The town is 
 called by two words one meaning urbs and the other home, 
 and only freemen are entitled to reside in it. Here the different 
 circles are likened to the tribes of the children of Israel. 
 Presently Mr. Mackenzie speaks of the several circles as towns 
 by themselves, as, for example : 2 " Those headmen whose towns 
 are on the east of the chief, have their cattle-posts and hunting 
 stations on the east side of the country," etc. And again : 3 
 " The headmen have power over their own towns, and over 
 their own vassals and property ; and the chief himself is 
 distinguished from other headmen only by having a larger 
 number of vassals and more live stock," i.e. he has no right 
 over their vassals or property. Thus the town seems to be 
 composed of several towns, each containing a distinct group, 
 and the whole united by confederacy and not otherwise under 
 an hereditary king, who is at once king, general, judge, and 
 high priest or sorcerer to the whole. But the evidence leads 
 us further ; the people in the different circles were distinguished 
 
 included a numerous division of Bahurutse and another of the Bangwaketse. 
 It was under the government of three chiefs (p. 389). "As in all other 
 towns, there were sections composed of the inhabitants of other tribes who 
 congregate under chiefs of their own, and retain the name and peculiarities 
 which distinguish their nations." At p. 353 he gives an address of the 
 king to the Bechuana Parliament, " I command you, ye chiefs of the 
 Batlapis, Batlaros, Bamairis, Barolongs, and Bakotus, tliat you acquaint 
 your tribes," etc. At p. 248 he says that "tribe includes a number of 
 towns and villages " (Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa, by 
 Robert Moffat. J. Snow, London, 1842). 
 
 1 Mackenzie, p. 367. 2 Id. p. 368. 3 Id. p. 373. 
 
458 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 from one another by names, which Mr. Mackenzie says were 
 their old intertribal names. When a Bechuana tribe ad- 
 vanced into a new country, the whole scheme of their social 
 life was gradually redeveloped there. The town was settled 
 in the manner previously described, so as to be a counterpart of 
 the one last left, the divisions in the town keeping up their 
 old intertribal names, which of course apply also to the 
 possessions in the country ; thus one part of the town of 
 Shoshong (or rather a division of its people living together) is 
 called Maloshu; a certain belt of garden ground also goes by 
 that name, as well as a cattle-post and a hunting station. 1 
 
 If we knew what Maloshu meant, should we have a totem 
 name ? Any way the whole of Mackenzie's statements go to 
 show that the town or local tribe of the Bechuanas was 
 composite of independent groups, and it is most probable that 
 these were clans of different stocks. 2 
 
 We conclude this view of the organisation of the Bechuanas 
 by a brief account of their political organisations and of the 
 initiation of their young men to manhood, both of which matters 
 throw light upon the questions we have been considering. 
 
 The chieftainship was hereditary, the king judge, general, 
 and high priest; he decides nothing of importance, however, 
 without its being brought before a public assembly of free- 
 men, to which a herald summons the people from the several 
 divisions of the town. 
 
 In going to such an assembly, the men march under their 
 
 1 Mackenzie, p. 370. 
 
 2 In his general statement on the races of South Africa, Mackenzie has 
 some remarks on the character and disposition of the different tribes. He 
 says : " In a Hottentot or Koranna town the houses are in the middle, sur- 
 rounded by the cattle enclosure. A Zulu town, on the other hand, is 
 built round a cattle-pen" (p. 501). He remarks that the Basutos, Bechu- 
 anas, Mashonas, and Makalakas have better arrangements. "Whilst 
 there is a great cattle-pen close to the public courtyard of the town, each 
 subdivision has its own headman, its own pen for cattle, and fold for 
 sheep and goats " (p. 501). No one can read of the arrangements without 
 recalling the gotras (cow-pens) of the Indians, and the law which made ^it 
 incest for two persons belonging to the same cow-pen to marry. 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 459 
 
 own headmen, and in cases of dispute,- the headmen range them- 
 selves under the chiefs they prefer, and thus march to the council. 1 
 A prompt disclosure is thus made of the relative strength of 
 parties. The chief has in his court as assessors the headmen 
 of the division of the town, and all men of distinction in it. 
 Offences are all capable of being atoned for by payment of an eric. 
 
 The Bechuanas have what we have found nearly all the 
 world over, a ceremony of initiation to manhood, of which 
 circumcision is a feature. It takes place only once in five 
 or six years, when there are a sufficient number of young 
 people ready for it. On the initiation they are formed into 
 what both Mackenzie and Livingstone call regiments, though 
 surely some other term would be more applicable, as the women, 
 who at the same time are initiated to womanhood in a somewhat 
 similar manner, are similarly formed into regiments. Living- 
 stone (S. A., p. 146), after mentioning that all the Bechuana and 
 Kaffir tribes practise circumcision, adds that there is a second part 
 of the ceremony called Sechu, practised only by three tribes. 
 
 The statement of Livingstone is that all the boys of an 
 age between ten and fourteen or fifteen are selected to be 
 companions for life of one of the sons of the chief. They are 
 taken out to some retired spot, where the old men teach them 
 to dance, initiating them at the same time into all the mysteries 
 of African politics and government. After various ceremonies, 
 inclusive of severe beatings of the boys, they are formed into 
 bands or regiments (which are distinguished by different names, 
 as Malsalsi, the suns, Mabusa, the tribes), and though living 
 in different parts of the town, they turn out at the call of, and 
 act under, the chief's son as their commander. They recognise 
 a sort of equality and partial communism ever after. 2 
 
 This statement gives the idea that all the youth ready for 
 initiation at one time were formed into one regiment under a 
 son of the chief, on which view the institution would seem to 
 be mainly political and not ancient, because chiefs' sons are 
 not ancient. Mackenzie's account differs little from the pre- 
 ceding, except that it recalls the initiation into the clan as 
 we have seen it elsewhere where there were no chiefs' sons ; 
 
 1 Mackenzie, p. 373. 2 Livingstone, 8. A. y p. 148. 
 
460 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 and suggests that the ceremony was religious, and of the 
 nature of confirmation or solemn dedication otherwise in the 
 religion of the clan. He says that no youth can marry till 
 after this ceremony ; that it includes instruction in the tradi- 
 tional wisdom of the tribe. He agrees that all initiated at 
 one time are banded under a regimental name, so as to be a 
 compact body for warlike purposes, while, as civilians, owing 
 allegiance to different headmen. The initiation is given to 
 the youth "at the hands of the elders in his own family," 
 who, headed by the priests, march in procession to the camp 
 of the novices. They join in a sacred dance, and afterwards 
 the initiated select their own relatives among the boys for the 
 purpose of severely scourging them. All this is what we 
 should look for on an initiation into the clan. My opinion is 
 that we have here merely that initiation plus a device for 
 strengthening the hands of the chief of the state. When 
 Sekhome's sons declined to undergo the initiation, the chiefs 
 who stuck to the old customs blamed them for refusing to 
 enrol themselves as subjects and to enlist as militia-men, and 
 Mackenzie remarks that if Christianity made progress among 
 them, they would no doubt have to invent a new military 
 organisation. 
 
 THE BANYAI 
 
 The country of the Banyai, called Shidima, as exhibited 
 on the map accompanying Livingstone's Zambesi, is repre- 
 sented as lying south of that river, between the parallels of 
 east longitude 32-34. He seems not to have come in con- 
 tact with them in his Zambesi exploration, but he gives an in- 
 teresting account of some of their customs in his South Africa. 
 
 The government of the Banyai, he says, is rather peculiar, 
 being a sort of feudal republicanism ; the chief is elected, and 
 they choose a son of the deceased chief's sister in preference 
 to his own offspring. When dissatisfied with one candidate 
 they even go to a distant tribe for a successor, who is usually 
 of the family of the late chief or a sister's son, but nev.er his 
 own son or daughter (p. 317). We have here female kinship and 
 a strong suggestion of exogamy. 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 461 
 
 The newly elected chief on taking office acquires as property 
 the wives, goods, and children of his predecessor. 
 
 "The children of the chief of the village," says Living- 
 stone, "have fewer privileges than common freemen. They 
 may not be sold, but they are never elected to the headship." 
 In the village, beneath the class of freemen, are the slaves. 
 The sons of freemen, between twelve and fifteen, live under 
 leaders outside the village, under strict rule, and cannot marry 
 till a fresh batch of the village youths is ready to take their 
 places. 
 
 As we might expect from the form of kinship indicated, 
 the marriage system was peculiar. Livingstone remarks on 
 the great influence of their women, and says that the wives 
 are masters. Marriages are what are called fieena in Ceylon 
 (S. A., p. 622). " When a young man," says Livingstone, " takes 
 a liking to a girl of another village, and the parents have 
 no objection to the match, he must go and live at their 
 village." He there has to serve his mother-in-law for his 
 wife, as Jacob served Laban for Eachel and Leah, but under 
 more disagreeable conditions, for he is allowed only one pre- 
 scribed attitude, and that an uncomfortable one, in which to 
 sit before his mother-in-law. If he wearies of this service, 
 and would return to his own people, he must leave behind all 
 the children : they belong to the wife. This, says Livingstone, 
 is only a more stringent enforcement of the law which pre- 
 vails so very extensively in Africa, known to Europeans as 
 buying wives. Such, virtually, it is, but it does not appear 
 quite in that light to the actors ; so many head of cattle or 
 goats are given to the parents of the girl " to give her up," as 
 it is termed, i.e. to forego all claim on their offspring, and 
 allow an entire transference of her and her seed into another 
 family. If nothing is given the family to which the wife 
 belonged can claim the children even when the marriage is 
 deega, and the payment is made to put an end to this right. 
 Livingstone remarks that among the Banyai there was a 
 preference for having daughters married without a payment, 
 as thereby the village was increased. Of course the whole 
 conception of marriage of this sort involves the idea that 
 
462 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 marriage was what we call intertribal, if not exogamous. As 
 to the village communities, if the marriage was even in the 
 great run of cases beena, they would be groups very much of 
 the Nair type, with the difference that the family circle, as 
 among the Kocch, included the husband. Of totemism among 
 the Banyai, I have found as yet no information. The Banyai 
 lie to the north-east of the land in which were found the 
 tribes of the Bechuanas and the Makololo. 
 
 TRIBES, CLANS, AND CLAN MARKS 
 
 It is needless to say that the same want of precision in the 
 use of terms that we have had elsewhere, meets us in the nar- 
 ratives of exploration in Eastern Africa. s Tribe, clan, caste, 
 order, family, are used indiscriminately as names of groups, 
 without any disclosure being made as to the description of 
 group they were severally designed to designate. 
 
 I shall rapidly put in juxtaposition the main statements to 
 see what will come of them. Livingstone could not find out 
 whether the nudity of the " go-nakeds " was a badge of a par- 
 ticular order among the Bawe. They only referred to custom. 
 The Bawe are in villages. When at strife within the village 
 they are careful not to kill one another. When two villages 
 are at war they are not so particular (Zambesi, p. 226). 
 
 The Batokas, again, are brave hunters of buffaloes and 
 elephants. The Batokas are a tribe, and a body of this tribe 
 was induced to settle near Tette (Zambesi, p. 230). The body in 
 question bore the name of Basimillongwe. Were they a clan ? 
 Eecurring to the " order " of the Bawe, called Baenda pezi (go- 
 nakeds), the Livingstones are found conjecturing whether they 
 might not be an order similar to Freemasons. The hypothesis 
 is rejected, because secret societies cannot be found among 
 native Africans, except perhaps in Angola, where there is a sort 
 of brotherhood, with community of right to food in each other's 
 huts. Had the go-nakeds as much as or more than this ? If so, 
 they were probably a clan, and their nudity a badge. Eecur- 
 ring to the Batokas, a strong clannish feeling exists among 
 them, as among all the other tribes. "In travelling, those 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 463 
 
 belonging to one tribe always keep by themselves, and help 
 one another " (Zambesi, p. 311). The tribe of Batokas therefore 
 contains many " tribes," and each of these " tribes " is animated 
 by a strong clannish feeling of brotherhood. The Batokas, in 
 fact, are in clans. A dense population was found on the shores 
 of Lake Nyassa, in the south, an almost unbroken chain of 
 villages. All the natives are tattooed from head to foot, the 
 figures being characteristic of the tribes, and varying with them. 
 The Balonda were tattooed with small cicatrices (p. 272), and 
 those who came with Sheakondo filed their teeth to a point, as 
 do the Chiboque (p. 342); the people on the Loajima had 
 cicatrices of various forms, some in shape of stars (p. 451). 
 
 The Matumboka raise up little knobs on the skin of their 
 faces, after a fashion that makes them seem covered all over 
 with warts or pimples. Tribes here must mean stock-tribes or 
 clans, for we have too often now seen the true meaning of such 
 skin -marks to doubt their significance in a new case. At 
 p. 437 a people had a bad name even among their own tribe. 
 Were they a clan within the tribe ? In the country of Chonga 
 michi, about eighty miles up the river, were found decent 
 people of the same tribe. Were they another clan? Near 
 them were settled a body of Makoa from the south. They 
 were known by a cicatrix in the forehead, shaped like a new 
 moon, with the horns turned downwards (p. 438). 1 
 
 1 Livingstone (L. /., vol. i. p. 49) says that the marks on the forehead of 
 the Matumbwe seem a sort of heraldic ornament, for they can tell by his 
 tattoo to what tribe or portion of a tribe a man belongs ; and of these people 
 he says that the son takes the father's tattoo. The Makoa have the half 
 or nearly full moon ; others have the cross or wavy lines. One tattoo 
 seems to be a tree. The tribes or portions of tribes seem also to have 
 peculiar tooth-marks. The Banyamwezi, he says (vol. ii. p. 180), derive 
 their name from the new moon, which also provides them with the ornament 
 that they wear round their neck. The Makoa, he is told, have surnames 
 Miraze, Melolo, Chimposolo. "All have the half-moon mark when in 
 the south-east, but now they leave it off a good deal and adopt the Waizan 
 marks." They show, he says, no indication of being named after beasts 
 and birds. At p. 110 he says, " The lines of tattoo of the different tribes 
 are resorted to most by women ; it is a sort of heraldry closely resembling 
 
464 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 Other tribes have as their distinctive mark something done 
 to their teeth. The Batokas, for instance, knock out the uppei 
 front teeth, giving as a reason that they wish to be like oxen, 
 and that otherwise they would be like zebras. The Batimpe 
 knock out both the upper and lower front teeth. Among the 
 Bakaas a child who cut the upper front teeth before the under 
 was, says Livingstone (S. A., p. 577), always put to death, as he 
 believed to be the case also among the Bakwains. In the Last 
 Journals, vol. i. p. 276, he records a practice among Casembe's 
 people and among the Makololo of knocking out the upper front 
 teeth, and says (vol. ii. p. 120) of a boy from the Lomaine, " The 
 upper teeth extracted seemed to say that the tribe have cattle. 
 The knocking out of the teeth is in imitation of the animals 
 they almost worship." The Babisa file their teeth to points ; 
 other Manganja notch each of the upper fore teeth ; the notch 
 is in some cases angular, in others round. The latter style 
 gives the edges of the upper front teeth a semi-lunar shape. 
 Other tribes make an opening of a triangular shape between 
 the upper front teeth. What tribes these may be is not dis- 
 closed, but it appears that the Babisa are Manganja, and dis- 
 tinguished from other Manganjas by the style of their teeth. 
 It appears also at the same place that the Matumboka, who we 
 saw make knobs on the skin of the face, were also Manganjas, 
 and that the only difference between them and the rest of the 
 Manganjas was in the mode of tattooing the face. They have 
 same language, but though the people found higher up the rive 
 call themselves Matumboka, their tattooing differed from that oi 
 people of the same name lower down. " Their distinctive marl 
 consists of four tattooed lines diverging from the point betweei 
 the eyebrows." Have we here confusion within confusion ? Man- 
 ganja, a term for a state, or let us say empire ? The Matumboks 
 a local tribe within it, and that again in clans ? (Zambesi, p. 5 24). ] 
 
 the Highland tartans " (Last Journals in Central Africa, etc., by Dr. D. 
 Livingstone. J. Murray, London, 1874). 
 
 1 The Chipeta, a division of the Manganja, have special ear and toot 
 marks as their tattoo (Livingstone, L. J. t vol. i. pp. 1 30, 1 40). The Balungi 
 are marked by three or four little knobs on the temple, and by distension 
 of the lobes of the ear (Id. p. 201). 
 
xxvii SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 465 
 
 This may be doubted, for though the Babisa are in a sense 
 Manganja, yet they speak a different dialect, though they can con- 
 verse (Zambesi, p. 547), and their relations are not a little difficult 
 to be understood. The travellers noticed a very curious circum- 
 stance at one stage of their journey. " Wherever a Manganja 
 village was placed, a Babisa one was sure to appear in the 
 vicinity." The former are the owners of the soil, but the latter 
 did not appear to be considered intruders, so we are in a 
 puzzle. Are we helped by what is found at p. 592 ? Gangs 
 from one village plunder neighbouring hamlets of their 
 children. " Next comes the system of retaliation of one ham- 
 let against another, to make reprisals, and the same thing on a 
 larger scale between tribes. The portion of the tribe which 
 flees becomes vagrant, attacks peaceful tribes, etc." 
 
 Let us see whether any light can be thrown on the nature 
 of these groups from the character of their chiefs. It were 
 useless to consider a group like the Makololos. We have only 
 a disclosure of their powers in a form to be of use in two cases. 
 Chinsamba was a chief in Mosapo. He had a great deal to do 
 in attending to the affairs of his people. They consulted him 
 on all occasions. He was eloquent in advice, and showed an 
 intimate knowledge of his district. He knew "every rood 
 cultivated, every weir put in the river, every hunting net, loom, 
 gorge, and every child of his tribe. Any addition made to the 
 number of these latter is notified to him, and he sends thanks 
 and compliments to the parents " (p. 5 5 8). Now tribe here must 
 mean a compact little group, such as might live in a hamlet or 
 village, with the chief in the position of protector or father, in 
 short, in loco parentis to all the members of it. Speaking apart 
 from the question of kinship, which we shall consider hereafter, 
 we may safely believe tribe here to mean clan. It must be in 
 reference to this sort of group as the constituent sub-group of 
 African society that Livingstone says (Zambesi, p. 598) that the 
 African form of government is patriarchal, and, according to 
 the temperament of the chief, despotic or guided by the 
 counsels of the tribe. 
 
 " The Manganja generally live in villages, each of which 
 has its own headman, and he may be ruler over several adjacent 
 
 2H 
 
466 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 villages." The people are regarded as Ms children (Zambesi, p. 
 108). Child here means no more than subject or vassal. Thus 
 (Zambesi, p. 198) : "Pangola is the child or vassal of Mpend< 
 Sandia and Mpende are the only independent chiefs froi 
 Kebrabasa to Zumbo, and belong to the tribe Manganja." It 
 is said the Assenga appear to be of the same family as the rest 
 of the Manganja and Maravi. Formerly all the Manganjf 
 were united in an empire extending from Lake Shirwa to th< 
 river Loangwa. It fell to pieces on the death ol Undi, th( 
 chief who had established it, the Banyai, on the south, absorb- 
 ing a large portion of it. 
 
 TOTEMISM 
 
 In Livingstone's Zambesi we find various traces of totem- 
 ism, which may as well be brought together as they occur, 
 without attempting to connect them with particular tribes. 1 
 Many of the indications are no stronger than the prohibition to 
 eat particular food. First, it is said of certain natives of the 
 Zambesi that they have as great a horror of hippopotamus 
 meat as the Mohammedans have of swine's flesh. Livingstone's 
 pilot would not even cook his food in a pot which had con- 
 tained the meat : he would go without food rather ; yet he at 
 with relish the flesh of the foul-feeding marabou. 
 
 At Tette, where a great number of tribes converge, 
 many superstitions converge, but Livingstone does not enu- 
 merate them. The serpent is worshipped ; Morungo, who live 
 above the stars, is not worshipped ; the manes are all go( 
 and they make some offerings to them. There is a wide-spi 
 superstition, shared by the Makololo, that to plant a mango ti 
 would be death the disclosure here referring to Tette. W( 
 come upon both the elephant and the crocodile, with theii 
 respective schools of medicine, whose priests the doctors- 
 drove a trade resembling the Koman Catholic sale of indul- 
 gences. The crocodile doctor, for instance, sold a charm whicl 
 protected its owner from crocodiles. Not enough is disclosed 
 to show the true nature of these cases, but the following is very 
 
 1 Zambesi, pp. 46, 47, 51, 67. 
 

 SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 467 
 
 suggestive : " Unwittingly we offended the crocodile school of 
 medicine while at Tette by shooting one of these huge reptiles 
 as it lay "basking in the sun on a sandbank. The doctors came 
 to the Makololo in wrath, clamouring to know why the white 
 man had shot their crocodile." Again, some Africans in these 
 parts believe that souls at death pass into the bodies of apes. 
 We have already seen the ape as a totem of the Bechuanas, and 
 we find him again religiously regarded at Sinjere, on the Zambesi 
 route. " The monkey is a sacred animal in this region, and is 
 never molested or killed, because the people believe devoutly 
 that the souls of their ancestors now occupy these degraded 
 forms, and anticipate that they themselves must sooner or later 
 be transformed in like manner." At a Kebrabasa village the 
 party were saluted by a man who claimed to be able to change 
 himself into a lion. The Makololo believed that he could, that 
 he was a Pondoro, and could change his form at will. When 
 he takes the lion form he is sometimes absent for a month ; at 
 times the transformed man returning claims to have provided 
 the village with game : " Go and get the game that I have killed 
 for you " (Zambesi, pp. 159,160). They saw another Pondoro at 
 another village, the Pondoro of the village ; and this office we 
 must connect with the belief that lions are sacred, the souls of 
 departed chiefs being in them. 
 
 Livingstone tells an amusing story of one of his men, im- 
 bued with the belief that the lion was a chief in disguise, 
 scolding a hungry one that had come close to the camp, " You 
 a chief, eh ? " etc., the questions being all of the nature of con- 
 temptuous chaff. Another of the men, equally believing that 
 he was speaking to a chief, expostulated with him on the im- 
 propriety of such conduct to strangers who had never injured 
 him (p. 160). Among some tribes (though whether local or 
 clan is not apparent) the dead were given to the crocodiles 
 (p. 231) ; and (p. 232) a man refused to sell a boat, seeing a 
 large serpent on a tree overhead, and alleging that this was 
 the spirit of his father coming to protest against the sale. 
 A donkey having died, Livingstone's men were shocked at 
 the idea of eating him ; " it would be like eating man himself " 
 (p. 335). 
 
468 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP 
 
 In the whole book, if we except the case of the mango 
 which is faint, and that of the fig tree (p. 188), as seeming to 
 have heen held sacred, I find no traces of plant worship, yet 
 (at p. 521) Livingstone makes the following statement: "The 
 primitive African faith seems to be that there is one Almighty 
 Maker of heaven and earth, that He has given the various 
 plants of earth to man to be employed as mediators between 
 Him and the spirit world," and so on. This is qualified by 
 the statement that they do not consider themselves amenable 
 to the Supreme God, from which it must be inferred that they 
 are amenable to the plants. Then this religion of theirs is saic 
 to be mild in its nature, " though in one small corner of the 
 country, called Dahomey, it has degenerated into a bloody 
 superstition. Human blood takes the place of the propitiatory 
 plants which are used over nine-tenths of the Continent. The 
 reckless disregard of human life mentioned by Speke anc 
 Grant is quite exceptional." Now the narrative of the 
 exploration of the Zambesi is, more than anything else, a 
 narrative of massacres and spoliations, and when we recall th< 
 names of the Makololo, Matabele, and Azimus, to say nothing 
 of Zulus and the Christain and Mohammedan slave-traders, it 
 is rather surprising to read this statement. Human sacrifices 
 again, are of frequent occurrence all over Africa. Nor is 
 Dahomey the only place on the West Coast where their extent 
 is appalling. Again, although the opening statement inclinec 
 one to regard the plants as spiritual powers, their being put in 
 contrast to blood shows that they are thought of as things to 
 sacrifice to a power, and not as powers. The general statements 
 unfortunately, are not supported by any detail, except th( 
 statement that the Africans pay no regard to Morimo, which is 
 vouched for on every hand, as fully as it is declared on al 
 hands that the Africans have no idea of who Morimo may be 
 and apparently owe what they have to the missionaries. In 
 his South Africa Livingstone says of the Makololo (p. 199^ 
 that they had no feeling about killing men, their lives from 
 infancy being passed in scenes of blood, while (at p. 159) h( 
 cites the case of a Bushman boasting of having killed five 
 other Bushmen : " Two," said he, counting on his fingers, " were 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 469 
 
 females, one a male, and the other two calves." "What a 
 villain you are to boast of killing women and children of your 
 own nation ! What will God say when you appear before 
 Him ? " " He will say," replied he, " that I was a very clever 
 fellow." For him God meant the chief of the tribe. 
 
 The notices of totemism in the works of Speke and Grant 
 are few. In the mythology of the royal house of Karague* we 
 find that on the death of Kurnanika's successor, the body, 
 sewn in a cow's skin, was left in a boat on a lake for three 
 days, when, decomposition having set in, maggots were en- 
 gendered from the royal person, of which three were taken 
 into the palace and put in charge of the heir-elect. These 
 maggots seem to have symbolised the blood that flowed in his 
 veins. One became a lion, another a leopard, and the third a 
 stick. This miracle over, the dead king was duly put under 
 ground, " with five maidens and fifty cows " (Speke's Journal, 
 p. 221, Edinburgh, 1863). 
 
 Speke's curiosity being roused, he obtained from Eumanika 
 some genealogical disclosures. He related that his grandfather, 
 Eohinda VI., having died, and his body been taken to the hill 
 to be buried, a young lion emerged from the heart of the corpse 
 and kept guard over the hill, from whom other lions came into 
 existence, until the whole place became infested by them, 
 which had since made Karague" a power and dread to all other 
 nations, for these lions became subject to the will of Eohinda's 
 son and heir, who, when attacked by the countries to the 
 northward, instead of assembling an army of men, assembled 
 his lion force, and so swept all before him. How much of 
 this may be pure misunderstanding it would be useless to 
 inquire. 
 
 But one other trace of animal worship occurs in Speke. 
 Eumanika, who yearly sacrificed a cow at his father's grave, 
 also made periodical sacrifices to a large stone on the hillside, 
 and mentioned that if, when leading an army to battle, he 
 were to hear a fox bark, he would retire at once, knowing that 
 that meant evil. Speke adds the general statement, which is 
 of little use to any one, there are many other animals, and lucky 
 and unlucky birds, which all believe in (p. 241). 
 
470 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 It illustrates the nature of the casualties on which infor- 
 mation on such matters depends, that while Speke gives us so 
 little bearing on the subject, Grant, by pure accident, gives us 
 a good deal. At a village of Ukuni he found it was forbidden to 
 eat a particular kind of antelope. Grant was proud of having 
 shot it ; his follower pretended not to be able to carry it, but 
 Grant insisted. When close to the village he began to learn 
 from his attendant that there was something wrong. " M'weeko, 
 i.e. it is not customary ;" it is a " Phongo, never eaten." Grant 
 made an appeal to the Sultan to get his beast secured ; the 
 Sultan flew into a rage. It was finally explained to Grant, 
 " If you eat it, you will lose your fingers a"nd toes, get scab all 
 over, etc." They would not admit even the skin inside the 
 village. The Seedees, who were with Grant, said it was 
 never eaten in their country. Grant says it was as nice an 
 antelope as he ever saw. He sold it to a native caravan, 
 who were glad to eat it. Another animal, he says, which 
 it is not customary to eat, is the N'grooweh, also a species of 
 antelope. 1 
 
 The next note of totemism in Grant occurs at p. 126. 
 Of game-birds, he says, the most plentiful was the guinea-fowl, 
 near the cultivations. The natives of Usui will not eat the 
 fowl, but the Walinga, a class of people who work in iron, have 
 no objection. On the next page we have some marvellous 
 stories about the king of birds and the tippet monkey, with a 
 bird of good omen to Grant's men, called Kong-ot'a. They 
 were certain to have luck after seeing it. 
 
 In Ugogo a lizard would appear to be sacred. There are 
 many species of them, but only one, about twelve inches long, 
 appeared to be religiously regarded (p. 36). 
 
 At another place, among the Wagogo (p. 41) a lizard was 
 also religiously regarded. Grant shot a lizard, and was told 
 he had hurt their feelings, and must pay for his folly. 
 
 Among the Watusi, " a curious and distinct race," in the 
 province of Unyanzembe, Grant found what is common in 
 India, and is an infallible sign of cow worship. These people, 
 
 1 A Walk across Africa, etc., by J. A. Grant, Capt. etc., pp. 90, 91. 
 Edinburgh, 1864. 
 
xxvii SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 471 
 
 previous to milking the cows in the morning, washed themselves, 
 their teeth, and their wooden milk vessels or gourds, with the 
 urine of the animal. Here the men are the milkers (p. 51). 
 We have seen the lion in a religious connection with the family 
 of Kurnanika, and that one of the animals sprung from the 
 body of Eumanika's father ; and at p. 141 is something further 
 of the relation of the leopard to that family. Eumanika hav- 
 ing been consulted as to some strange animals that had come 
 at night to the camp, recommended that should they come 
 again they should be challenged three times, and fired upon if 
 they did not answer. His belief was that they were enemies 
 sent by his rebel brother. Should they prove to be leopards, 
 however, they were not to be molested. For all leopards, says 
 Grant, they have a great reverence, as the late sovereign is 
 believed to be still protected by them, and, on an invading 
 army coming from Uganda, this Sultan had the power to send 
 leopards to disperse them. Leopard-skins were worn only by 
 royalty or its followers. 
 
 Speaking of the religion of Eumanika and his people, 
 Grant says he could not trace any distinct form of it. A 
 sacred signification was attached to a piece of copper, said to 
 represent the horns of cattle. "A tree was considered the 
 greatest object in the creation, not even excepting man." 
 Lions protected the mausoleum of the former Sultan. "No 
 kingdom was so powerful as this ; no one dared attack us. 
 Lions guard us" (p. 145). Apparently an invisible god lived 
 in the lake, and the reason why Speke could not kill any 
 hippopotami there was that he had not conciliated that god 
 by a present. The Sultan of Unyoro could divide the waters 
 of the lake with a rod (p. 145) perhaps the mystic stick of 
 the maggot. The curious thing is that though Eumanika 
 believed that lions garrisoned the country, neither Grant nor 
 Speke saw one in the country, dead or alive. As to the god 
 of the lake, he was possibly the king of the otters, whom the 
 people ^superstitiously regard, saying that the king of the 
 otters is as white as an old man's beard. Eecurring to the 
 subject of religion at Karague, Grant adds to his previous 
 account that he found that there was a belief that certain 
 
472 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 animals were possessed of devils, but were in the power of the 
 soothsayers (p. 186). 
 
 In addition to the notes of totemism already mentioned, 
 numerous others might be cited, as Oxen amongst the Bechuanas, 
 Barolongs, Batokas (where the veneration for cattle is coupled 
 with antipathy to the Zebra), and elsewhere ; 1 the Hare amongst 
 the Hottentots ; 2 the Elephant amongst the Koossas, 3 though 
 there is reason to suppose that the Elephant was only the 
 totem of the chief clan, and that another totem of the Koossas 
 was the Hysena ; 4 the Duck (perhaps) amongst the Maravi ; 5 
 Fish amongst the Banyamwezi, Matabele, and some of 
 the Bechuanas ; 6 the Hippopotamus amongst the Matabele ; 7 
 the Hyaena amongst the Bangwaketse, the Koossas, and the 
 Makoa ; 8 the Leopard also amongst the Makoa and Makonda ; 
 the Wagtail amongst the Bechuanas and elsewhere ; 9 the 
 Whydah Bird, 10 the Snake, 11 a Beetle, 12 the Lion, 13 the Alligator 
 amongst the Bamangwato and Bakwains. 14 
 
 SUCCESSION AND KINSHIP 
 
 There are two reports by officers of the Indian Service 
 on some tribes within the dominion of Zanzibar. Lieutenant- 
 
 1 Moffat, pp. 278, 349, 580; Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 690; Living- 
 stone, L. J., p. 128 ; Id., S. A., pp. 263, 339, 450, 462, 466, 532. 
 
 2 Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa, by Francis Galton, 
 p. 188. Ward and Lock, London, 1852. 
 
 3 Walckenaer, vol. xviii. pp. 187, 199 (Collection des relations de 
 voyages, etc., par C. A. "Walckenaer. Paris, 1842). 
 
 4 Id. pp. 187, 189, 199. 5 Livingstone, S. A., p. 577. 
 
 6 Matabeleland and the Victoria Falls, by F. Gates, p. 111. Kegan 
 Paul, London, 1881. 
 
 7 A Hunter's Wanderings, etc., in Africa, by F. C. Selous, p. 135. 
 Sampson Low, London, 1881 ; and vide Livingstone, Zambesi, p. 39. 
 
 8 Moffat, p. 401. 9 Livingstone, L. J., vol. i. pp. 190, 281. 
 
 10 Id. vol. i. p. 281. 
 
 11 Id. vol. i. p. 281 ; vol. ii. p. 344 ; and cf. Zulu regard for snake, 
 Leslie. 12 Id. vol. ii. p. 27. 
 
 13 Id., S. A., pp. 282, 304. w Id. p. 255. 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 473 
 
 Colonel Rigby's report (Bombay, 1861) relates chiefly to the 
 slave trade and Arab customs. The manners and customs 
 of the Mukhadim, the aborigines of Zanzibar, are not described. 
 They are said to resemble those of the natives of the East 
 Coast of Africa. Lieutenant- Colonel Play fair's official letter, 
 rather than report (Bombay, 1864), relates to the Wanika, 
 a tribe on the East Coast. They keep cattle, and have the 
 phrase cattle-pride. They have ceremonies of initiation to 
 manhood, like those we have everywhere found. They have 
 hereditary chiefs of little or no authority, and the real govern- 
 ment of a group is carried on by the elders. 
 
 Among the Wanika, children belong not to the parents 
 but to the mother's eldest brother, who has absolute power 
 over them. Marriage is by purchase, the price paid to the 
 bride's family. Divorce is frequent : if it is the wife who 
 retires the price must be repaid, but not till she has got 
 another husband. There is a system of betrothals, and 
 marriage takes place early, but the bond is a slight one, and 
 continency is hardly known. Of course this implies that 
 the Wanika have exogamy and a system of female kinship. 
 We find female kinship again on Livingstone's route, and 
 in connection with the Kebrabasa, among whom we found 
 a trace of totemism. A sister's son, says Livingstone of 
 this people, has much more chance of succeeding to the 
 chieftainship than the chief's own offspring, it being un- 
 questionable that the sister's child has the family blood. 
 Again, among some unnamed tribes near the Sinjere, where 
 also we found unmistakable signs of totemism, the position 
 of women is exceedingly high ; they traded in the camp, and 
 seemed both sensible and modest. Perhaps in this particular 
 the women here occupy the golden mean between the Man- 
 ganja hill tribes and the Jaggas of the north. It is said that 
 the Jagga women do all the trading, have regular markets, 
 and will on no account allow a man to enter the market-place. 
 The same sign of women being in the first place occurs in the 
 Upper Shire Valley, which is under the government of a lady. 
 In her dominions women rank high (Livingstone's Zambesi, 
 pp. 108, 192, and 486). Among some Manganja, near the 
 
474 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP. 
 
 village next to Nkoma's, the women were found to assume a 
 superiority over their husbands. " A man was selling a goat " 
 to the explorers (p. 550) "when his wife came in and pulled 
 him up : ' You appear as if you were unmarried, selling a goat 
 without consulting your wife ; what sort of a man are you ? ' 
 The bargain was fairly off. If this was a fair specimen of 
 domestic life, the women here have the same influence that 
 they have in Londa and farther west, and in many parts north 
 of the Zambesi, where we have known a wife order her husband 
 not to sell a fowl, merely, as we supposed, to show us strangers 
 that she had the upper hand. We conjectured that deference 
 was commonly shown to women here, because, as in the West, 
 the exclamation most commonly used was, ' my mother ! ' 
 We heard it frequently some thirty miles east of this, where 
 the inhabitants took us for the Mazitu. South of the Zambesi 
 the exclamation oftenest heard is 'My father!" South of 
 the Zambesi is a wide term. The Bamgi are south of the 
 Zambesi, and we know the position of women among them. 
 Mackenzie notices that as far south as the neighbourhood of 
 Shoshong the Makalaka swore by their mothers and not by 
 their fathers, as it is said the other tribes did. 1 In considering 
 society at Shoshong I omitted to point out, what Mackenzie 
 repeatedly states, 2 that in questions of succession the division 
 of the town to which the mother of a claimant belonged 
 invariably supported the claimant. " mother ! " is the 
 exclamation of the Wangwana, Zanzibar. 3 So it is amongst 
 the Balonda 4 and the Makonde. 5 
 
 Notes of female kinship are in fact abundant, and it is 
 unnecessary to multiply instances ; it is sufficient to refer the 
 reader to various passages where they occur. 6 
 
 On the other hand, in some cases kinship is reckoned 
 through males, as appears to be the practice amongst the 
 
 1 Mackenzie, p. 508. 2 /^ p. 410. 
 
 3 Through the Dark Continent, vol. ii. pp. 34, 264, by H. M. Stanley. 
 Sampson Low, London, 1878. 
 
 4 Livingstone, S. A., p. 298. 5 xd., L. /., vol. i. p. 28. 
 
 6 Id. vol. i. pp. 77, 223, 289 ; vol. ii. pp. 69, 88 ; Id., S. A., pp. 268, 
 273, 281, 309, 502. 
 
xxvn SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST AFRICA 475 
 
 Bechuanas, whose chief Sebituane installed his daughter as 
 chief before his death ; " he wished to make her his successor, 
 probably in imitation of some of the negro tribes with whom 
 he had come into contact, but being of the Bechuana race, he 
 could not look upon the husband except as the woman's lord," 
 so he wanted her to have men as he had women, but not to 
 have a husband. One man whom she chose was even called 
 her wife, and her son the son of her wife ; but the arrangement 
 did not please her, so, as soon as her father died, she made 
 over the government to her brother Sekeletu. 1 This story is 
 not incompatible with the tracing kin through females, but 
 it seems to be fully proved that amongst the Bechuanas, 
 Barolongs, and a good many other tribes the habit exists of 
 paying a higher price for a wife for the purpose of securing 
 her children, who would otherwise belong to the wife's family, 
 showing at once the existence of kinship through women side 
 by side with that through men, and indicating the manner in 
 which the system of kinship may gradually change. 
 
 Among the Bechuanas the son inherits his father's wives, 
 and their children to him are called his brothers ; and when the 
 elder brother dies the next brother takes his wives, as among 
 the Jews, and the children that may be born of those women 
 he calls his brothers also ; he thus " raises up seed to his 
 departed relative." The chief has a head wife or queen, and 
 her children inherit the chieftainship. Some of the wives are 
 given to under-chiefs. 2 
 
 Among the Bangalas of the Cassange valley the chief is 
 chosen from three families in rotation ; a chief's brother inherits 
 in preference to his son. The sons of a sister belong to her 
 brother, and he often sells his nephews. 3 
 
 This is a pretty wide scattering of notes of female 
 kinship. Here and there we must believe kinship has 
 shifted, as in Australia, to the male side, but enough evidence 
 remains to show that anciently the marriage system was such 
 that the children always belonged to the mother's family. 
 We have seen in many cases property in the children acting 
 as a means of destroying the ancient filiation to the mother's 
 1 Livingstone, 8. A., p. 179. 2 Id. p. 185. 3 Id. p. 434. 
 
476 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP, xxvn 
 
 family ; and, as in the case of the Wanika, we see that when 
 one can get at the facts, the mother's family means her family 
 through the mother, her mother's brother appearing as the 
 head of the house. In Speke we seem to see an intermediate 
 stage, which recalls an arrangement prevailing among the 
 polyandrous Todas. Two men at Karagu^ having married one 
 woman laid claim to her child, which, as it was a male one, 
 belonged to the father. 1 That is to say, we find a case of 
 polyandry, with an appropriation of the female children to the 
 mother, and the male to the father, an arrangement which 
 occurs elsewhere in Africa. Polyandry, especially of the 
 Thibetan type, should not surprise us at Karague". Grant (p. 
 186) says that among the Wahuma kings it was lawful to co- 
 habit with a brother's wife, or with an own sister. The latter 
 statement tells directly on the succession law, and to the effect 
 that the succession was according to the system of female 
 kinship. The former statement is all that Mr. Grant has yet 
 published in support of his statement to me personally, that 
 Thibetan polyandry was the marriage system of the Wahuma. 
 
 1 Speke, p. 239. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 KAFFIRS AND ZULUS 
 
 THE term Kaffir, says Theal, is usually restricted to members 
 of the Amaxosa tribe, 1 but he adds that all along the East 
 Coast as far as the great Fish Eiver the country is thickly 
 peopled with Kaffir tribes, each of which has its own title, 
 usually the name of its first great chief. In the year 1683, 
 he says, the country between the Cape and Natal was found 
 to be occupied by four great tribes the Amanipondomsi, 
 Amampondo, Abatembu, and Amaxosa, whose language was 
 the same, though much mixed with that of the Hottentots, 
 owing to the marriage of women after defeating and killing 
 the men, and by the adoption of Kaffir refugees, as was done 
 by the Guanaqua tribe of Hottentots. 2 Other writers use the 
 term Kaffir in a much more extended sense, and sometimes 
 apply it to all the allied races of the Bantu family, such as 
 the Bechuanas and Zulus, who live on the East Coast. The 
 Zulus, who believe that they sprang from a reed, 3 are a typical 
 race of the Bantu family, and we are fortunate enough to 
 possess a fairly complete account of their customs from the 
 pen of David Leslie, who was well acquainted with them. We 
 have a very important statement as to the marriage laws and 
 relationships of the Kaffirs by Theal, who treats the Tembus, 
 
 1 Kaffir Folklore, by G. M. Theal, p. 1. Swan Sonnenschein and 
 Co., London. 2 Id. p. 2. 
 
 3 Among the Zulus and Amatongas, by David Leslie, pp. 76, 207. 
 Edinburgh, 1875. 
 
47 8 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 Pondos, Zulus, and other tribes as all belonging to the Kaffir 
 race. 1 
 
 It appears that kinship is now generally traced through 
 males, 2 but there are indications that female kinship formerly 
 prevailed. Santos says that the king's brother at Quiteva was 
 elected to the throne in preference to any of his sons, 3 and in 
 the Amatonga country on the borders of Zululand, where the 
 women are much better treated than amongst the Zulus, 4 the 
 nephew always succeeds to the chieftainship. 5 
 
 Santos, who wrote in 1684, describes the Kaffirs generally 
 as a nomadic race subject to terrible famines, and, at Tette, as 
 feeding on human flesh. He states that polygamy was prac- 
 tised, and that marriage was by purchase, and that the husband 
 might send the woman back if displeased with her. He men- 
 tions that the inhabitants of some of the islands off the coast 
 of Melinda lived in harmony, but divided into war parties on 
 the mention of religion, and that at the death of the king of 
 Quiteva, who set up to be the only sorcerer in his dominions, 
 his wives devoted themselves to death. 6 
 
 Polygamy is practised, but amongst the Zulus the king's 
 regiments were not allowed to marry without permission. 
 The result of granting such permission to a regiment was that 
 all the marriageable girls were swept up at once. 
 
 The purchase of wives appears to be an universal custom 
 throughout South Africa, and amongst the Zulus, although the 
 form of capture is no longer a part of the marriage rite, there 
 seem to be unmistakable traces that such a custom formerly 
 existed. Leslie, who had attended many Zulu marriages, tells 
 us that the girl, who has been escorted to the kraal of the 
 bridegroom, which may be, and is always feigned to be, at a 
 great distance from 4 her home, always makes several attempts 
 to escape, and if she succeeds in getting out of the gate of the 
 kraal it is a great disgrace to the bridegroom, and the whole 
 ceremony has to be gone through again. 7 Leslie adds that he 
 had heard that formerly the bridegroom went to the bride's 
 
 1 Theal, p. 198. 2 Id. p. 198. * Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 683. 
 
 4 Leslie, p. 125. 5 Id. p. 126. 6 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. pp. 344 (inter- 
 polated after p. 674), 696, 710, 723. 7 Id. pp. 115 et seq., 196. 
 
KAFFIRS AND ZULUS 479 
 
 kraal and took her away. If any cattle paid for the wife die 
 within the year they must be replaced, and if the wife dies 
 the cattle paid for her can be reclaimed, but generally a sister 
 is sent " to raise up the house of her that is dead." l 
 
 The Kaffirs, according to Theal, have a strictly exogamous 
 marriage law. " Marriages," he says, " are absolutely pro- 
 hibited between people of the same family title. ... A man 
 may marry a woman of the same clan (clan must, of course, 
 be used here in the sense of group or village) that he belongs 
 to, provided she is not a blood relative, but he may not marry 
 "a woman whose father's family title is the same as his own, 
 even though no relationship can be traced between them, and 
 the one may belong to the Xosa and the other to the Pondo 
 tribe. . . . Among the Tembus, the Pondos, the Zulus, and 
 many other tribes are people with the same family title. They 
 cannot trace any relationship with each other, but wherever 
 they are found they have ceremonies peculiar to themselves. 
 Thus the customs observed at the birth of a child are exactly 
 the same in every part of the country among people of the 
 same family title, though they may never have heard of each 
 other; while neighbours of the same clan (here again clan 
 evidently means local tribe) but of different family titles have 
 these customs altogether dissimilar. All the children take the 
 family title of the father, and can thus marry people of the 
 same family title as the mother, provided they are not closely 
 related in blood." 2 
 
 In the above statement is a proof that some, if not all, of 
 the South African races are strictly organised in clans upon 
 the totemic principle. Theal mentions one of the family titles 
 Amaywabe but does not give its meaning. 
 
 Theal adds 3 that to the Kaffirs what we term cousins are 
 brothers and sisters, and that this does not arise from poverty 
 of language, for they have words to express shades of relation- 
 ship where we have none. They use the same word for father 
 
 1 Leslie, p. 141. 
 
 2 Theal, p. 198. Theal's evidence is clear in this passage that kin- 
 ship is traced through males, but some of the Bantu races seem to trace 
 kinship through females. 3 Id pp. 210, 211. 
 
480 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 and paternal uncle and father's half-brother. In the same 
 way their word for mother means any of their father's wives. 
 That is to say, the Kaffirs distinguish very clearly between the 
 family of the father and the family of the mother, and when a 
 Kaffir woman marries her husband's parents give her a new 
 name, by which she is known to his family, and on the birth 
 of a child she is frequently described as the mother of the 
 child. 1 Burchell's testimony is in harmony with that of Theal. 
 He says that those who are descended from the same ancestor, 
 however far off, are called brothers and sisters, and conse- 
 quently the chiefs of the Amakoses usually take their principal 
 wives from the Tamboukies, because all the families of rank 
 among them are descended from the same stock. Yet it is not 
 forbidden to marry a deceased wife's sister. 
 
 Amongst the Zulus and some, if not all, of the other Kaffir 
 races it is considered a disgrace to a woman to be seen by her 
 son-in-law, or to mention the name of her father-in-law. This 
 custom is called Hlonipa, and is observed so strictly amongst 
 the Zulus that the worst oath applicable to women is " O'mka 
 ninazala," which means that she does or will bear children to 
 her father-in-law. For a minute account of this custom the 
 reader is referred to Leslie. 2 Leslie says that there are three 
 kinds of Hlonipa the family, the tribal, and, in the case of 
 the Zulus, the national. The tribal Hlonipa is equivalent 
 to " taboo," that is to say, a man will not use the name of 
 his chief or progenitors in everyday conversation. National 
 Hlonipa applies only to words sounding like the name of the 
 king. By stating that national Hlonipa is confined to the 
 Zulus. Leslie seems to imply that family Hlonipa is customary 
 throughout the country. Theal also mentions the custom of 
 family Hlonipa, whereby the wife is prohibited from sitting in 
 the house where her father-in-law is seated, or pronouncing 
 the names of any of their husband's male relations in the 
 ascending line. 3 
 
 Indications of totem worship abound amongst all the Bantu 
 
 i Theal, p. 211 ; Livingstone, S. A., p. 126. 
 2 Leslie, pp. 172 et seq. 3 Theal, pp. 10, 202. 
 
xxvm KAFFIRS AND ZULUS 481 
 
 races. The Koossas, says Lichtenstein, venerate the elephant, 
 and regard the hysena as sacred. 1 Cattle are only killed for 
 food on solemn occasions. 2 The snake is treated with great 
 respect, 3 and the Zulus believe that the dead revisit their 
 old kraals in that form. Every one is supposed to have two 
 snakes, " ehloseY' a good one and a bad one. 4 
 
 The whole Zulu nation, says Leslie (in 1870), is broken 
 up into little tribes, the remnants of those conquered by 
 Chaka. Each tribe has its Esebongo or name of thanks ; 
 for instance, one tribe is called Emtetwa or scolders, and so 
 on. Each of these tribes has its peculiar habits and customs. 
 " One, the Mat-e-enja (dog's spittle), will not eat goat flesh, 
 because they always leave a goat on the grave of their dead." 
 " If they eat any part of a goat unawares they are seized with 
 epilepsy and die. Even the young children in the kraal, who 
 are too young to know anything of this, when a piece of goat 
 flesh is given to them, will not eat it, but carry it in their 
 hands for a little and then throw it away ; and be it remem- 
 bered that meat is their greatest dainty ! " 5 
 
 Theal gives the names of two dances, 6 and it is not 
 uncommon to hear of different dances danced by different 
 " tribes." 
 
 Vengeance appears to rest with the family ; 7 and Barrow 
 says 8 that the Kaffirs did not make war for conquest, but 
 only in revenge for some direct insult or act of injustice towards 
 the whole community or one of its members. 
 
 Nearly all the wars are occasioned by cattle raiding. In 
 other words, we have in South Africa an example of the 
 struggle for existence by mankind in its primitive form. The 
 Matatees, says Moffat, a pastoral people, robbed of their cattle 
 by the Matabele, had nothing left but to die or rob ; and from 
 being wild men became like wild beasts. 9 In South Africa, 
 says Livingstone, most wars are about cattle. Several tribes 
 have no cattle to avoid war. Livingstone had only heard of 
 
 1 Walckenaer, vol. xviii. pp. 187, 189, 199. 2 Id. vol. xviii. p. 198. 
 
 3 Theal, p. 22. 4 Leslie, pp. 47, 120. 5 Id. p. 146. 
 
 6 Theal, p. 197. 7 Leslie, p. 154. 
 
 8 Walckenaer, vol. xvii. p. 310. 9 Moffat, p. 372. 
 
 2 I 
 
482 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xxvm 
 
 one war on another account, namely, amongst the Barolongs, 
 where three brothers fought about a woman. 1 
 
 How keen the struggle must be is apparent from the effects 
 of a prolonged drought, or from the wholesale loss of cattle in 
 war. The Matatees, a great and successful nation, were found 
 to be in a state of starvation. With all their conquests they 
 were dying of hunger, and for hundreds of miles their march 
 might have been traced by human bones. 2 The usual con- 
 comitants of such a state are found in the steps taken to 
 economise food by the destruction of sickly and deformed 
 children and weak and aged persons, and in some cases by the 
 practice of cannibalism. 3 The habit of recruiting a tribe by 
 the seizure of women and children from other communities 
 seems to be universally prevalent. 4 And, as we see every- 
 where, marriage is by purchase ; and in some cases, if not in 
 all, the marriage rites indicate a form of capture as part of the 
 ceremony. Examples recur in these pages, and it is unnecessary 
 to dwell upon the point here. 5 
 
 1 Livingstone, A, pp. 10, 213. 2 Moffat, p. 369. 
 
 3 Livingstone, L. J., vol. ii. p. 189 ; Id., S. A., p. 577. Pinkerton, 
 vol. xvi. pp. 694, 710, 717. Moffat, pp. 57, 132. 
 
 4 Stanley, Dark Cont., p. 253. Livingstone, L. /., vol. i. p. 205. 
 
 5 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 696. Livingstone, L. J., vol. ii. p. 73. And 
 see the Eeport of Bethell's case, Law Keport, 38 Ch. Div. p. 220. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS 
 
 THE Bushmen and Hottentots appear to be members of the 
 same family, and may be said roughly to have occupied what 
 is now Cape Colony when it was first colonised by the Dutch. 
 Mackenzie classes them with the Korannas and Griquas (the 
 Griquas being mostly of mixed blood), as forming a race distinct 
 in language and customs from the Kaffirs and other South 
 Africans. 1 Amongst them the women are milkers of cows, 
 whilst amongst the Kaffirs, Bechuanas, and other tribes of the 
 Bantu family, women are not allowed even to enter a cattle- 
 pen while the cattle are in it. 2 Galton says that there is no 
 difference between Bushmen and Hottentots, and probably it 
 may be safe to treat them as of the same race, although some 
 portions have attained a higher position in the scale of civilisa- 
 tion than others. 3 Moffat, however (p. 6), while treating the 
 Bushmen as part of the Hottentot nation, says that they are 
 distinct peoples, and cannot understand each other's language. 
 Unfortunately confusion may occasionally arise in trying to 
 distinguish these races from those of the Bantu family, owing 
 to the fact that some travellers use the name Kaffir as synony- 
 mous with Hottentot, or do not properly distinguish between 
 the two. 
 
 1 Mackenzie, p. 490. Selous (p. 108) considers they were probably 
 the earliest settlers in this part of the country of whom we know any- 
 thing. 
 
 2 Mackenzie, p. 499. 3 Galton, p. 68 ; Moffat, pp. 3 et se%. 
 
484 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y CHAP. 
 
 The Hottentots, says Mackenzie, may be readily dis- 
 tinguished from the Bantu races by their different manner of 
 housebuilding. 1 The hut of the Hottentot has no wall distinct 
 from its roof, whereas the Zulus and Bechuanas build walls 
 of wattle and clay with a grass roof. Some writers, while 
 admitting a connection between Hottentots and Bushmen, draw 
 a great distinction between them as regards their manner of 
 living, and certainly some accounts of the Bushmen or Bosjies- 
 men represent them as being much wilder and ruder than the 
 Hottentots, or at any rate than those Hottentots at the Cape 
 who had come into contact with Europeans. The Bushmen, 
 says Barrow, 2 differ in several respects from the Hottentots ; 
 they are almost entirely naked and very short, the men not 
 exceeding 4 feet 9 inches in height and the women 4 feet 
 4 inches. They live, says Campbell, 3 apart from each other 
 a nomadic life, and are said to love their children, though there 
 are frequent examples of the women killing their offspring if 
 the fathers will not maintain them. Sometimes a young man 
 steals a woman from her hut while she sleeps, and the theft 
 may be committed without the parents' consent, and even 
 without any information of the man's intention having been 
 given. 
 
 Most travellers concur in placing the intelligence of the 
 Hottentots very low. They seem to be fast dying out. Thun- 
 berg says that they, as well as the Kaffirs, were organised 
 under chieftains who held sway in each village. 4 The few 
 remains of them, he says, that still exist have in some instances 
 retained the names of their tribes, but more frequently those 
 names are retained which formerly distinguished each nation 
 separately, and are applied to the district itself; and he gives 
 the names of several such " tribes " with which he had come 
 into contact, describing their geographical position. 5 
 
 They live together sometimes to the number of several 
 hundreds in a village, and feed on roots and the flesh of wild 
 beasts and of their own herds. 6 Their chief occupation is 
 
 1 Mackenzie, p. 499. 2 Walckenaer, vol. xvii. p. 308. 
 
 3 Id. vol. xviii. pp. 465 et seq. 4 Pinker-ton, vol. xvi. p. 37. 
 
 5 Id. p. 71. 6 Id. p. 83 ; Moffat, p. 54. 
 
xxix BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS 485 
 
 hunting, at which they excel all other South African races. 
 Livingstone describes the Bushmen as thin and wiry, and 
 possessing no cattle or domestic animals but dogs. The Bakala- 
 hari, who live under the same conditions as the Bushmen, he 
 describes as being quite different, owning , ( cattle and tilling 
 land, and belonging to the same race as the Bechuanas. 1 
 According to Thunberg the patriarchal form of government has 
 from time immemorial existed amongst them, and this has been 
 the origin of the many larger and smaller " tribes " and families 
 into which they formerly were, and their survivors still are, 
 divided. 2 
 
 Kolbe' says that all the property of a father descends to 
 the eldest son, or passes in the same family to the nearest male, 
 and never to a woman. The liberty and fortune of a younger 
 son is in the hands of the eldest, if unmarried ; and the eldest 
 son, if unmarried, is bound to provide for his father's wives. 
 If married at the father's death the property is shared between 
 all the brothers. 3 Thunberg says that the eldest son is sole 
 heir to his father's property. 4 
 
 Thunberg's reference 5 to "nations," "tribes," and "families " 
 leaves open the question whether the Hottentots were organised 
 in clans upon the totemic principle. It is difficult to say 
 whether any animals were strictly regarded as totems, though 
 it appears from the testimony of several writers that the 
 Hottentots regard some insect, generally said to be the mantis, 
 and also the hare, with peculiar veneration. 6 Thunberg also 
 mentions the turtle and tortoise as antidotes to poison and the 
 dove as seldom eaten, but whether by the Hottentots or Kaffirs 
 is not clear ; 7 and Livingstone says, " The animal they (some 
 Bushmen under Horoge) refrain from eating is the goat." 
 Kolbe says that they honour the moon, to which they sacrifice 
 cattle, and the stag-beetle; 9 but Walckenaer notes that La 
 Caille says that the Hottentots look on this insect as of evil 
 augury, and that Le Vaillant says it is a mantis, and not 
 
 1 Livingstone, S. A., p. 49. 2 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 139. 
 
 3 Walckenaer, vol. xv. p. 380. 4 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 142. 
 5 Id. p. 71. 6 Id. pp. 37, 97, 142. 7 Id. pp. 11, 37, 74. 
 
 8 Livingstone, S. A., p. 165. 9 Walckenaer, vol. xv. p. 372. 
 
486 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 worshipped by the Hottentots. Kolbe adds that they will not 
 kill their cattle except in case of pressing necessity j 1 but if so, 
 their reluctance can hardly be ascribed to any veneration for 
 cattle, as all the evidence points to their being cattle-eaters. 2 
 The gazelle called duyker was also observed with veneration, 
 and not eaten except in the last extremity. 3 And Kolbe says 
 that ancient traditions force them to abstain from certain food, 
 such as pork and fish without scales, which are forbidden to 
 both sexes. Hares and rabbits are forbidden to men only, and 
 "le pur sang des animaux" and the flesh of the mole are 
 forbidden to women only. 4 On the death of a Hottentot the 
 corpse is taken out of a hole in the hut", after which some 
 animal is killed and eaten. 5 
 
 The Hottentots appear to be a superstitious race, 6 and have 
 a folklore and fairy stories, most of which turn upon the trans- 
 formation of men into animals and birds. 7 They seem to believe 
 in some sort of future existence. 8 
 
 The Damaras have a legend accounting for the origin of 
 themselves and the Hottentots, which is stated by Galton as 
 follows : 9 
 
 "In the beginning of things there was a tree (but the 
 tree is somehow double, because there is one at Omaruru and 
 another near Omutchamatunda), and out of this tree came 
 Damaras, Bushmen, Oxen, and Zebras. The Damaras lit a 
 fire, which frightened away the Bushmen and THE OXEN ; BUT 
 THE ZEBRAS REMAINED. 10 Hence it is that Bushmen and wild 
 beasts live together in all sorts of inaccessible places, while the 
 Damaras and the Oxen possess the land." 
 
 Mr. Galton adds that notwithstanding that everything came 
 out of the tree, men have in some separate manner a special 
 
 1 Walckenaer, vol. xv. p. 323. 
 
 2 Moffat, p. 349. 
 
 4 Walckenaer, vol. xv. p. 324. 
 
 6 Walckenaer, vol. xv. p. 373. 
 
 8 Livingstone, S. A., p. 165. 
 10 This is an obvious error. It should be, " frightened the Bushmen 
 and Zebras, but the Oxen remained. 7 ' [The correction has been made in 
 the later edition, 1889, p. 115.] 
 
 3 Le Vaillant, vol. ii. p. 110. 
 5 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 142. 
 7 Theal, passim. 
 9 Galton, p. 188. 
 
xxix BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS 487 
 
 origin or " eanda." There are six or seven " eandas," and each 
 has some peculiar rites. The tribes do not correspond with 
 the " eandas," as men of every descent are to be found in each 
 tribe. Independently of the tree and the " eanda " there is also 
 Amakuru, hardly to be called a deity, though he gives and 
 withholds rain. He is buried in several places, at all of which 
 he is occasionally prayed to. 
 
 The Hottentots are in the habit of abandoning aged persons 
 of both sexes, and if a mother dies they bury with her her 
 infant child, 1 and women often kill their infants if the father 
 refuses to provide for them. 2 Kolbe* says that they rejoice at 
 the birth of male twins, but if there are two girls, one of them 
 is exposed, as is also the case with the girl if there are a boy 
 and girl ; 3 and, according to him, they plead usage as a justifica- 
 tion for infanticide, while they justify the killing of old people 
 as being humane. 4 Kolbe's statements are substantially corro- 
 borated by Thunberg. 5 
 
 Polygamy is allowed, but is said to be rare. The bridegroom 
 goes to the bride's kraal, and the language used on the occasion 
 of the marriage rather points to exogamy. Marriage, says 
 Kolbe, is not allowed between cousins in the first or second 
 degree, and any violation of the law is punished with death. 6 
 According to Thunberg, polyandry is also practised. 7 The 
 Damaras are in the habit of stealing wives from the Namaquas, 
 which, with the stealing of cattle, cause all their hostilities. 8 
 Klemm says, on the authority of Lichtenstein, that the ideas 
 " maid," " virgin," and " wife," are not distinguishable. 9 The 
 family bonds of relationship are not heeded. A member of a 
 family separates from it and attaches himself to another circle 
 according to caprice. 
 
 Barrow mentions some Bushmen who had two wives each 
 one past child-bearing, the other young and says that relation- 
 
 1 Walckenaer, vol. xvi. p. 103. Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 142. Moffat, 
 
 p. 134. 2 Walckenaer, voL xviii. p. 465. 3 Id. vol. xv. p. 342. 
 
 4 Id. vol. xv. p. 314. 5 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 142. 
 
 6 Walckenaer, vol. xv. p. 339. Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 141. 
 
 7 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. pp. 97, 141. 
 
 8 Walckenaer, vol. xviii. p. 464. 9 Klemm, vol. i. p. 336. 
 
488 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY CHAP, xxix 
 
 ship was no bar to marriage amongst them except between 
 parents and children and brothers and sisters. 1 
 
 Theal says that the ceremony of making youth at a certain 
 age into men is not yet laid aside, 2 a custom also noticed by 
 Thunberg. 3 
 
 1 Walckenaer, vol. xvii. pp. 166, 167. 2 Theal, p. 22. 
 
 3 Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 141. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
THE WOKSHIP OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 1 
 
 [THE matter of the following essay would have been all recast 
 or redistributed had the author lived to complete his work ; 
 indeed some of it has actually been so treated in the preceding 
 pages. Thus those parts of the essay which deal with totemism 
 among the Hindoos have been embodied in the chapter on 
 fabricated genealogies, and are therefore here omitted. And 
 the totemism of e.g. America has been rehandled and put into 
 a new form in the chapters on America. But it appeared 
 better to incur the charge of repetition than to alter the first 
 part of the essay in any way. 
 
 As to the ancients, Mr. M'Lennan was well aware that 
 Bryant was a treacherous authority to rely on. He said him- 
 self that nothing taken from him must be allowed to stand 
 without being verified. And when his brother and Professor 
 Robertson Smith entrusted me in 1885 with the task of 
 supplying references to the ancient authorities, they instructed 
 me to cut out all statements for which no such authority 
 could be found, as well as anything else which might plainly 
 be better removed. However, I have pruned this part of the 
 text as sparingly as I could. 
 
 A great many further notes on relics of totemism among 
 the ancients were left by the author. But in the present 
 state of opinion on the subject it is really unnecessary to add 
 anything. A. P.] 
 
 1 Reprinted from the Fortnightly Review, 1869, 1870. 
 
492 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 PART I. TOTEMS AND TOTEMISM 
 
 Few traditions respecting the primitive condition of man- 
 kind are more remarkable, and perhaps none are more ancient, 
 than those that have been preserved by Sanchoniatho ; or 
 rather, we should say, that are to be found in the fragments 
 ascribed to that writer by Eusebius. They present us with 
 an outline of the earlier stages of human progress in religious 
 speculation, which is shown by the results of modern inquiry 
 to be wonderfully correct. They tell us, for instance, that " the 
 first men consecrated the plants shooting out of the earth, and 
 judged them gods, and worshipped them upon whom they 
 themselves lived, and all their posterity, and all before them, 
 and to these they made their meat and drink offerings." They 
 further tell us that the first men believed the heavenly bodies 
 to be animals, only differently shaped and circumstanced from 
 any on the earth. " There were certain animals which had no 
 sense, out of which were begotten intelligent animals . . . 
 and they were formed alike in the shape of an egg. Thus 
 shone out Mot [the luminous vault of heaven ?], the sun, and 
 the moon, and the less and the greater stars." Next they 
 relate, in an account of the successive generations of men, that 
 in the first generation the way was found out of taking food 
 from trees ; that in the second, men, having suffered from 
 droughts, began to worship the Sun the Lord of heaven ; 
 that in the third, Light, Fire, Flame [conceived as persons] 
 were begotten ; that in the fourth, giants appeared ; while in 
 the fifth, " men were named from their mothers " because of 
 the uncertainty of male parentage, this generation being dis- 
 tinguished also by the introduction of " pillar " worship. It 
 was not till the twelfth generation that the gods appeared that 
 figure most in the old mythologies, such as Kronos, Dagon, 
 Zeus, Belus, Apollo, and Typhon; and then the queen of 
 them all was the IM-headed Astarte. The sum of the state- 
 ments is, that men first worshipped plants ; next the heavenly 
 bodies, supposed to be animals ; then " pillars " (the emblems 
 of the Procreator) ; and, last of all, the anthropomorphic gods. 
 Not the least remarkable statement is, that in primitive times 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 49* 
 
 there was kinship through mothers only, owing to the uncer- 
 tainty of fatherhood. 1 
 
 In the inquiry we are entering upon we shall have to 
 contemplate, more or less closely, all the stages of evolution 
 above specified. The subjects of the inquiry are totems and 
 totem-gods, or, speaking generally, animal and vegetable gods ; 
 and the order of the exposition is as follows : First, we shall 
 explain with some detail what totems are, and what are their 
 usual concomitants ; showing how far they have, or have 
 recently had, a place among existing tribes of men ; and we 
 shall throw what light we can on the intellectual condition of 
 men in what we may call the totejn stage of development. 
 Next we shall examine the evidence which goes to show that 
 the ancient nations came, in prehistoric times, through the 
 totem stage, having animals and plants, and the heavenly 
 bodies conceived as animals, for gods before the anthropo- 
 morphic gods appeared, and shall consider the explanations 
 that have been offered of that evidence. The conclusion we 
 shall reach is that the hypothesis that the ancient nations 
 came through the totem stage, satisfies all the conditions of a 
 sound hypothesis. 2 
 
 1 Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History, by the Eight Rev. R. Cumberland, 
 pp. 2, 3, 23 et seq. London, 1720. Eusebius, Prcepar. Evangel., lib. i. cap. 10. 
 
 2 While the materials we have bearing on this subject are deemed worthy of 
 being submitted for consideration, the investigation is yet far from being com- 
 plete, and its completion will demand the co-operation of many. In the inquiry 
 as here exhibited, it will be seen that several persons have given assistance. 
 Did our hypothesis not seem sound, we should not propound it ; but, be it under- 
 stood, it is submitted as an hypothesis only, in the hope that it may be tested 
 by others better qualified for such investigations. The ancient mythologies have 
 been so often crossed upon one another, interfused, and in appearance confounded 
 with the intermixtures, intercommunications, and varying developments of the 
 tribes of men who initiated them and modified them in successive generations, 
 that it may appear a hopeless task to endeavour to throw new light upon them, 
 still more hopeless to trace them to their beginnings. The only chance of dealing 
 with them successfully, however, is to make them the subject of an hypothesis ; 
 and though some may think the chance too small to justify the labour that 
 this species of inquiry should be excluded from human endeavour we do not at 
 all agree with them. Their opinion is opposed by the lessons taught by the 
 history of scientific discovery. These show that the inquirer who has facts to go 
 upon should never despair ; that in such a case as the present even a failure is a 
 step of progress as demonstrating a line along which the truth does not lie one 
 
494 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 TOTEMS. The first thing to be explained is the totem. 
 The word has come into use from its being the name given 
 by certain tribes of American Indians to the animal or plant 
 which, from time immemorial, each of the tribes has had as 
 its sacred or consecrated animal or plant. A proper under- 
 standing, however, of what the totem is cannot be conveyed 
 in a sentence, or reached otherwise than by studying the 
 accounts we have of totems among different tribes of men; 
 and, therefore, for behoof of those who are not familiar with 
 these accounts, we must go somewhat into details. Unfor- 
 tunately, totems have not yet been studied with much care. 
 They have been regarded as being curious rather than 
 important ; and, in consequence, some points relating to them 
 are unexplained. As it is, we know that they prevail among 
 two distinct groups of tribes the American Indians, already 
 mentioned, and the aborigines of Australia. Many more 
 instances of their prevalence, it may be believed, will yet be 
 brought to light. In the meantime it is some compensation 
 for the incompleteness of the accounts that we can thoroughly 
 , trust them, as the totem has not till now got itself mixed up 
 with speculations, and accordingly the observers have been 
 unbiassed. 
 
 1. Totems or Kolongs in Australia. We have an account 
 of these from the pen of Sir George Grey, who says the 
 natives represent their family names as having been derived 
 from some vegetable or animal common in the district they 
 inhabited. Each family adopts as its sign, or kolong a word 
 which is the equivalent of totem, and means, literally, a friend 
 or protector the animal or vegetable after which it is named. 
 The families here referred to are not families in our sense of 
 the word, but stock-tribes, or tribes of descent, as appears from 
 the following statement: 
 
 The natives are divided into certain great families, all the members of 
 which bear the same name as a family or second name. The principal 
 
 V more key on the bunch, to be labelled as unsuited to the lock. A negative 
 result may forward an investigation. Whether we have hit the truth or not, we 
 trust we have at least been preparing the way for those who in the fulness of 
 time will reach it. 
 
APPENDIX 495 
 
 branches of these families, so far as I have been able to ascertain, are the 
 Ballaroke, Tdondarup, ISTgotak, Nagarnook, Nogonyuk, Mongalung, and 
 Narrangur. But in different districts the members of these families give 
 a local name to the one to which they belong, which is understood in 
 that district to indicate some particular branch of the principal family. 
 The most common local names are Didaroke, Gwerrinjoke, Maleoke, 
 Waddaroke, Djekoke, Kotejumeno, Namyungo, Yungaree. These family 
 names are common over a great portion of the continent ; for instance, on 
 the western coast, in a tract of country extending between four and five 
 hundred miles in latitude, members of all these families are found. . 
 The family names are perpetuated and spread through the country by the 
 operation of two remarkable laws : 1st, that children (boys as well as 
 girls) always take the family name of their mother ; 2nd, that a man 
 cannot marry a woman of his own family name. 
 
 Sir George Grey elsewhere says that "the whole race is 
 divided into tribes, more or less numerous according to cir- 
 cumstances, and designated from the localities they inhabit, 
 for though universally a wandering race with respect to 
 places of habitation, their wanderings are circumscribed by 
 certain well-defined limits." He further notices as " a most 
 remarkable law," that "which obliges families connected by 
 blood on the female side to join for the purposes of defence 
 and avenging crimes." l 
 
 From this statement it appears that we have in Australia 
 certain great family or stock names, represented by persons in 
 various local tribes ; that the marriage law prevents any local 
 tribe coming to consist entirely of persons of one name or 
 stock ; while the law of mutual defence and blood feud com- 
 bines into what we may call gentes, within the local tribes, all 
 who have the same totem and are of the same stock. This is 
 clear from what follows immediately after the words last 
 quoted, namely: "All their laws are principally made up of 
 sets of obligations due from members of the same great family 
 towards one another which obligations of family names are 
 much stronger than those of blood." There are not only 
 gentes within the local tribes, but the gentile bond is such as 
 to constitute, in effect, a stock-tribe of all the gentes of the 
 same family name, totem, or kobong, wherever they are situated. 
 
 1 Grey's Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North- West and Western 
 Australia) vol. ii. pp. 225 et seq., 230. 
 
496 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 In the work just quoted, Sir George Grey refers to his 
 Vocabulary of the, Dialects of South-Western Australia,, as 
 giving under each family name its derivations, as far as he 
 could collect them from the statements oY the natives. 
 Unfortunately, he seems to have been able to collect the 
 meaning in eight cases only, and we have been unable to 
 enlarge the list. 1 Subjoined are the derivations in the eight 
 cases : 
 
 1. Ballaroke. Ballar-wauk, Ballard, is given in the 
 vocabulary as a very small species of opossum, with this 
 note : " Some natives say that the Ballaroke family derive 
 their name from having in former times subsisted principally 
 on this little animal." Balla-ga-ra is also a species of 
 opbssum. 
 
 2. Djin-le-nong-era, a species of duck. "The Ngotaks 
 formerly belonged to this class of birds, before they were 
 changed into men." 
 
 3. Karbunga, a species of water-fowl ; the mountain duck. 
 " The No-go-nyuks are said to be these birds transformed into 
 men." 
 
 4. Kij-jin-broon, a species of water-fowl. " The Didaroke 
 family, a branch of the Ngotaks, are said to be these birds 
 transformed into men." 
 
 5. Koo-la-ma, a species of water-fowl. "The Tdondarups 
 are said by the natives to be these birds transformed into 
 men." 
 
 6. Kul-jak, a species of swan. " The family of the Ballar- 
 okes are said to owe their origin to the transformation of these 
 birds into men." 
 
 7. Nag-harm, a species of small fish. " From subsisting 
 in former times principally on this fish, the Nagarnook family 
 are said to have obtained their name." 
 
 8. Nam-yun-go t an emu ; the local name for the Tdondarup 
 family in the Vasse district. 
 
 In this imperfect list we have eight families, or branches 
 of families, derived from beasts, birds, or fishes ; and in five 
 
 1 The linguists of the United States Exploring Expedition seem not to have 
 paid attention to this subject. 
 
APPENDIX 497 
 
 cases the statement that the tribesmen believe themselves to 
 be of the stock of the bird or beast, and that their progenitors 
 had been transformed into men. We have an Opossum tribe, 
 an Emu tribe, a Swan tribe, a Duck tribe, a Fish tribe, and 
 three water-fowl tribes ; and along with them, we have the 
 general statement that all the tribes have kobongs or totems, 
 animal or vegetable, after which they are named. The 
 Opossums are bound together by what may be called a 
 common faith and numerous mutual rights and obligations 
 thence derived ; so are the Emus, Ducks, and Swans ; the 
 stock names being thereby perpetuated, while the persons 
 having them are diffused throughout the country by the law 
 which makes it incest for an Opossum to marry an Opossum, a 
 Duck a Duck, and so on. 
 
 No one has yet taken the trouble of making the inquiry, 
 but our persuasion is that this totemism, as it has been called, 
 will be found to prevail, or have prevailed, through the whole 
 of Oceania. It is mentioned in the Eeport of the United 
 States Exploring Expedition 1 that the great Deity of the 
 Tahitians, Taaroa, is named from the Taro plant ; and a legend 
 is given which connects the Marquesan and Tahitian traditions, 
 in explanation of the fact of as we infer the prevalence of 
 vegetable names (presumably as tribal) both in Marquesas and 
 Tahiti. The legend is, that the eponymous Oataia "named 
 his children from the various plants which he brought with 
 him from Vavau." The first king on the Tahitian list is 
 Owatea, who is identified with Oataia of the Marquesans. 
 His wife, in either case, is Papa " mother of the islands " 
 and is the same with the wife of the great god Taaroa. 2 The 
 
 1 Vol. vi. p. 133. 
 
 2 This Papa appears in the New Zealand mythology as the mother of all 
 beings. She is the earth ; her Imsband, Rangi, the heavens. The two clave 
 together during 1000 divisions of time, each division a being called Po ; and 
 their children, who "were ever thinking" what the difference might be between 
 dafkness and light, after meditating their murder, resolved at last to rend them 
 apart. In the family were the following gods : the father of forests, birds, 
 insects, and all things that are in woods ; the father of winds and storms ; the 
 father .of cultivated food ; the father of fish and reptiles ; the father of un- 
 cultivated food ; and the father of fierce human beings. They all, in turn 
 except the father of storms essay to rend their parents apart. Success at last 
 
 2 K 
 
498 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 Koyal line is named from the Taro plant in this way : Owat 
 and Papa had a deformed child whom they buried ; from it 
 sprang the Taro plant, whose stalk is called haloa, which nam( 
 they gave to their son and heir. This we must regard as 
 sample of the legends which are formed on an advance froi 
 totemism taking place, in explanation of its origin or relic 
 Names taken from vegetables appear to prevail in the Sandwicl 
 Islands. 
 
 2. Totems in America. Of these we have pretty full 
 accounts. One is to be found in Dr. Gallatin's Synopsis of the 
 Indian Tribes, contained in the Archceolagia Americana. He 
 says : 
 
 Independent of political or geographical divisions [i.e. of divisions of 
 the native races into local tribes or nations], that into families or clans 
 has been established from time immemorial. ... At present, or till very 
 lately, every nation was divided into a number of clans varying in the 
 several nations from three to eight or ten, the members of which respec- 
 tively were dispersed indiscriminately throughout the whole nation. It 
 has been fully ascertained that the inviolable regulations by which those 
 clans were perpetuated amongst the southern nations, were, first that no 
 man could marry in his own clan ; * secondly, that every child belongs to 
 his or her mother's clan. Among the Choctaws, there are two great 
 divisions, each of which is subdivided into four clans ; and no man can 
 marry in any of the four clans belonging to his division. Amongst the 
 Cherokees, the Creeks, and the Natches, the restriction does not extend 
 beyond the clan to which the man belongs. 
 
 There are sufficient proofs that the same division into clans, commonly 
 called tribes, exists amongst almost all the other Indian nations [i.e. all 
 the others as well as the southern Indians east of the Mississippi, of 
 whom he is writing]. But it is not so clear that they are subject to the 
 same regulations. According to Charlevoix, " most nations are divided 
 
 attends the efforts of Tane-Mahuta, father of forests, who, with his head planted 
 on his mother and feet against his father, thrusting, separated them. "Far 
 beneath he pierces down the earth ; far above he thrusts up the sky." On the 
 separation multitudes of human beings were discovered that had been begotten 
 by Rangi and Papa, and lay concealed between their bodies. What follows 
 introduces new gods, and explains the war of the elements. The whole of this 
 mythology is scientific in this sense, that it is a series of hypotheses to explain 
 phenomena. The part assigned to the forest god illustrates this. It may be 
 believed the tree god was highly esteemed considering how much was due to 
 him. Grey's Polynesian Mythology. 
 
 1 What is called the dan here is identical with the Australian family, as 
 will presently appear. 
 
APPENDIX 499 
 
 into three families or tribes. One of them is considered the first, and 
 has a kind of pre-eminence. Those tribes are mixed without being con- 
 founded. Each tribe has the name of an animal. Among the Hurons, the 
 first tribe is that of the Bear ; the two others, of the "Wolf and the 
 Turtle. The Iroquois nation has the same divisions, only the Turtle 
 family is divided into two, the Great and the Little." 
 
 The accounts are not so explicit with respect to the Lenape tribes. 
 Mr. Heckewelder, indeed, says that the Delawares were divided into 
 three tribes, but one of them, the Wolf, or Minsi, had altogether separated 
 from the others, and was a distinct nation or tribe [not ceasing, however, to 
 be a clan in the sense now under consideration]. According to Mr. 
 Johnston, the Shawnoes have four tribes : the Chillicothe, the Piqua, 
 the Kiskapocoke, and the Mequachake. The first two, from having given 
 names to distinct towns, would seem to be living in separate places ; but 
 the fact that the Mequachake can alone perform the religious ceremonies of 
 the nation gives it the character of a clan. Whether the totem or family 
 name of the Chippeways descends in a regular manner has not been 
 clearly explained. But Dr. James informs us that no man is allowed to 
 change his totem, that it descends to all the children a man may have, and 
 that the restraint on intermarriage which it imposes is scrupulously 
 regarded. The Chippeways and kindred tribes are much more subdivided 
 than the other Indians are into clans. Dr. James gives a catalogue of 
 eighteen totems, and says many more might be enumerated. 1 
 
 The totems, and the restraints they impose, are found with 
 the Iroquois as with the Delawares and Sioux tribes. The 
 Omahaws (among the Sioux) are in two great tribes, the one 
 divided into eight, the other into five bands. 
 
 Each of these bands derives its name from some animal, part of an 
 animal, or other substance, which is considered as the peculiar sacred 
 object, or Medicine, as the Canadians call it, of the band. The most 
 ancient is that of the red maize ; the most powerful, that of the Wase-ishta, 
 (" Male-deer "). The Puncas are divided into similar bands. 2 
 
 We have made these long citations because they show us 
 the totems or kobongs, as in Australia, descending as a general 
 rule under the same system of kinship (through mothers only), 
 and attended by the same law of intermarriage, namely, exo- 
 gamy, leading to the interfusion of the stock tribes throughout 
 the country ; and the constitution into gentes in the local 
 tribes of all persons having the same totem. The laws of 
 blood-feud, of mutual rights and obligations between those of 
 
 1 Archceologia Americana, vol. ii. p. 109. 
 
 2 Id. vol. ii. p. 110. 
 
5oo STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 the same stock, constitute stock -tribes of all having the same 
 totem. 1 And we can see in the account cited how, at a stage 
 considerably in advance of the Australian, the solidarity of the 
 gentes in the local tribes has under these laws become so 
 great as to enable the gentes, in some cases, to withdraw 
 from the local tribes, in whic.li they were developed, and stand, 
 like the Wolves of the Delawares, by themselves, in local 
 tribes of one stock. On a change of kinship, which would 
 permit the totem to descend from the father instead of the 
 mother as it is said to do among the Chippeways the 
 gentes would, even supposing exogamy to continue in force, 
 become permanent homogeneous groups after their segregation. 
 Let us obtain a list of the American totems. 
 
 Nearly all, if not all, of the Indian nations upon this continent (says 
 Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, of Rochester, State of New York) were anciently 
 subdivided into Tribes or Families. These tribes, with a few exceptions, 
 were named after animals. Many of them are now thus subdivided [so 
 they have been advancing]. It is so with the Iroquois, Delawares, lowas, 
 Creeks, Mohaves, Wyandottes, Winnebagoes, Otoes, Kaws, Shawnees, 
 Choctaws, Otawas, Ojibewas, Potowottomies, etc. [We can supply from 
 the Archceologia Americana, the Cherokees, Natches, and Sioux.] 
 
 The following tribes [or families'] are known to exist, or to have 
 existed, in the several Indian nations the number ranging from three to 
 eighteen in each. The Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, 
 Hawk, Crane, Duck, Loon, Turkey, Musk-rat, Sable, Pike, Cat-fish, 
 Sturgeon, Carp, Buffalo, Elk, Reindeer, Eagle, Hare, Rabbit, and Snake ; 
 also the Reed-grass, Sand, Water, Rock, and Tobacco-plant. 2 
 
 To this list we may add from the Archceologia and other 
 sources, the Tortoise, the Turtle in two divisions, the Great 
 Turtle and the Little Turtle the Eed Maize, the Male Deer, 
 the Wind, the Tiger, the Bird, the Eoot, the Birch-rind, the 
 Thick-wood, the Sheep, the Brush-wood, the Moose-deer, the 
 Cat, the Trout, the Leaves, the Crow, the Sun, the Eising Sun, 
 and the Grey Snow, the Sun and the Snow being regarded as 
 beings. There are thus forty-eight totems enumerated for 
 American tribes, not counting the Male Deer or the Little 
 Turtle, and we know there were others. 
 
 1 Archceologia Americana, vol. ii. p. 111. 
 
 2 Circular letter issued by Mr. Morgan, quoted in the Cambrian Journal for 
 1860, p. 149. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 501 
 
 The following quotation from the Archceologia illustrates 
 the effect of these names on narratives respecting the tribes 
 and the actions of the tribes-men or tribes-women : 
 
 Some superiority is everywhere ascribed to one of the clans : to the 
 Unamis ("the Tortoise") among the Dela wares ; to the Wase-ishta 
 (" Male-deer ") among the Omahaws ; to the Bear tribe among the Hurons 
 and five nations. Charlevoix says that when the Mohawks put to death 
 Father Jogues, it was the work of the Bear [clan] alone, and notwithstand- 
 ing all the efforts of the Wolf and the Turtle to save him. 1 
 
 Of course the indefinite article would be employed, instead 
 of the definite, in speaking of individuals. The Bear, is the 
 tribe or clan; a Bear, a tribesman. In speaking of their 
 marriages, it would be said, for instance, that " a Bear married y 
 a Wolf," and " a Turtle a Beaver." In cases of nursing, a 
 man's foster-mother might be a She-Wolf, a She-Bear, or a 
 Tigress. 
 
 3. Relations between Men and Totems. Let us now see 
 how those who have totems regard them ; and what, generally 
 speaking, are their rejigious views. Grey says that " there is 
 a mysterious connection between an Australian and his kobong, 
 be it animal or vegetable." It is his " friend " or " protector," 
 and is thus much like the " genius " of the early Italian. If 
 it is an animal, he will not kill one of the species to which it 
 belongs, should he find it asleep ; he always kills it reluctantly, 
 and never without affording it a chance to escape. " The 
 family belief," says Sir George, " is that some one individual of 
 the species is their dearest friend, to kill whom would be a 
 great crime. So a native who has a vegetable kobong may 
 not gather it under certain circumstances, and at a particular 
 period of the year." 2 We previously saw that the belief, in 
 certain cases at least, is that the family were of the species of 
 the totem before they were turned into men. 
 
 It may be asked, What are their views of the power by 
 which these transformations were effected ? We cannot 
 answer this question ; but one thing seems to be clear, that 
 their speculations have not carried them as yet beyond the 
 
 1 Archceologia Americana, vol. ii. p. 113. 
 
 2 Sir George Grey's Journals, vol. ii. p. 229. 
 
502 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 
 
 contemplation of the material terrestrial world they inhabit, 
 and that in that world everything is to them at once material 
 and spiritual, the animate and the inanimate being almost 
 undistinguished. Like many races in Africa, they do not 
 believe in death from natural causes, and think they would 
 live for ever were it not for murderers and sorcerers. The 
 latter they call Boyl-yas. A Boyl-ya gets power over a man 
 if he obtains possession of anything that is his. 1 A Boyl-ya 
 may cause death in many ways ; he may cause a man to be 
 killed " by accident," or he may render himself invisible and 
 come nightly and "feast" on his victim's flesh. He can 
 transport himself through the air at pleasure ; and when he 
 makes himself invisible, he can be seen only by other Boyl-yas. 
 He enters his victim like a piece of quartz, and as such may 
 be drawn out of him by the enchantments of friendly Boyl-yas. 
 Pieces of quartz that have been so drawn out are preserved as 
 the greatest curiosities. As some one is always the cause of 
 death, the law is that when any one dies, some one else must 
 be killed the Boyl-ya, or the murderer, or some relative of 
 the one or the other. Of course the Boyl-yas are objects of 
 great dread. They consume the flesh of their victims slowly, 
 as fire would ; 2 they can hear from afar ; they come " moving 
 along in the sky " ; and they can only be counteracted by 
 other Boyl-yas. Besides the Boyl-yas, there is another object 
 of terror the Wau-gul. It is an aquatic monster, residing 
 in fresh water, and has supernatural powers. It also can 
 " consume " the natives like the Boyl-yas ; but it confines its 
 attacks mostly to women, who pine away almost imperceptibly 
 and die. Nightmare is caused by an evil spirit that may be 
 driven away by muttering imprecations and twirling a burning 
 brand. Shining stones or pieces of crystal, called " Teyl," they 
 respect almost to veneration. None but Boyl-yas venture to 
 touch them. They believe in ghosts ; and on one occasion 
 Sir George Grey was taken by an old lady to be the ghost of 
 her son, who had lately died ! Such is the creed of this 
 \l primitive race. They have no God in the proper sense of the 
 
 1 Sir George Grey's Journals, vol. ii. p. 323. 
 
 2 Id. vol. ii. p. 339. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 503 
 
 word ; and the only benign beings they know are their totems. 
 The Boyl-yas of course practise imposture, 1 but are probably 
 self-deluded as well to a great extent. Speculation has not 
 reached as yet among them to the heavens. Their super- 
 naturals are all naturals, for even the Wau-gul no doubt a 
 convenient fiction of the Boyl-yas for protection under the law 
 of retaliation, and perhaps also in explanation to themselves of 
 deaths they know they had nothing to do with is a living 
 creature, the tenant of a stream or lake. Even their ghosts 
 may return to them, if precautions are not taken to secure 
 them in their burying -places their "houses," as they are 
 called, and in which, even after death, they are not incapable 
 of action. 2 
 
 It will have been seen that the totems are, as we may say, 
 religiously regarded by the Australians, and that the Boyl-yas 
 resemble the genii of the Arabian Nights, excepting that while 
 they are genii they are also men. The Wau-gul might well 
 grow into the water-kelpi, water-horse, or bull. It would be 
 curious to know whether it is a fish or an aquatic kangaroo or 
 opossum ! 
 
 The American Indians, though they occupy a distinctly 
 higher platform, have still much in common with the aborigines 
 of Australia. Dr. Gay, who resided for several weeks among 
 the Omahaws, states that among them the totem of each band 
 "is considered as the peculiar sacred object (Medicine, the 
 Canadians call it) of the band," 3 and all we know supports 
 the view that in every case the totem is religiously regarded. 
 
 1 Sir George Grey's Journals, vol. ii. p. 218 : "The whole tendency of their 
 superstitions is to deprive certain classes of benefits which are enjoyed by others." 
 
 2 Id. vol. ii. p. 336: "After burial, the dead man can insert a mysterious 
 bone into each of three doctors, who sleep on the grave for the purpose. By 
 means of this bone, the doctors can kill any one they wish by causing it to enter 
 into his body." 
 
 3 Archceologia Americana, vol. ii. p. 112. The personification of inanimate 
 objects, the animism, as Mr. Tylor calls it, of the Indians is nearly as complete 
 as in Australia. See Archceologia Americana, vol. ii. pp. 25, 166, 169. No 
 distinction between the animate and inanimate is made in the languages of the 
 Esquimaux, the Choctaws, the Muscogee, and the Caddo. Only the Iroquois, 
 Cherokee, and the Algonkin Lenape have it, so far as is known, and with them 
 it is partial. 
 
504 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 One author, Mr. Long, in a work published in 1791, describing 
 the manners and customs of the North American Indians, 
 holds totemism to be a religious superstition, and says the 
 Indian believes that his totem, " or favourite spirit," watches 
 over him. " The totem," he says, " they conceive, assumes 
 the shape of some beast or other, and therefore they never 
 kill, hunt, or eat the animal whose form they think the totem 
 bears." l In illustration of the truth of this, he relates what 
 once befell an Indian whose totem was the bear. The man 
 dreamed he should find a herd of elks, moose, etc., at a certain 
 place, if he went thither. Having a superstitious reverence 
 for his dream, he went, unaccompanied, as he could get no 
 one to go with him, saw the herd, fired, and shot a bear ! 
 " Shocked at the transaction," says Mr. Long, " and dreading 
 the displeasure of the Master of Life, whom he conceived he 
 had offended, he fell down and lay senseless for some time." 
 On recovering, and finding that nothing had befallen him, he 
 hastened towards his home, when (according to his own report) 
 he was met on the way by a large bear, who (he narrated) 
 asked him what had induced him to kill his totem. On 
 explaining the circumstances and his misfortune, he was for- 
 given, but was dismissed with a caution to be communicated 
 to the Indians, "that their totems might be safe, and the 
 Master of Life not angry with them." "As he entered my 
 house," says Mr. Long, who writes as if he saw the man 
 immediately after his accident, " he looked at me very earnestly, 
 and pronounced these words in his own language, ' Beaver, my 
 faith is lost ; my totem is angry ; I shall never be able to 
 hunt any more.'" Should one be surprised to find that 
 admonitory bear of the man's imagination worshipped as a god 
 further on in the history of Bear tribes advancing undisturbed 
 by external influences, correlated with the Master of Life in 
 the Olympus, or even preferred to, or identified with him ? 
 The Master of Life of this story, we infer from other passages 
 in the work quoted, is Kitcku Manitoo, a high rock in Lake 
 Superior, which is worshipped as a god by the Chippeway 
 Indians, and also by the Mathangweessawauks, whoever they 
 
 1 Long's Voyages, p. 86. 
 
APPENDIX 505 
 
 may be. 1 Is Kitchu Manitoo, it may be asked, the commence- 
 ment of pillar- worship, of Siva-ism ? He is the Master of 
 Life, and, in some tribes, the Great Spirit. The accounts of 
 him are most vague, and show a faith shading up from the 
 " great black man in the woods " of the Fuegians to the Master 
 of Life, with a high rock for his representation, and thence to 
 the Great Spirit who had no representation whose temple 
 the Incas are said to have found standing and deserted on 
 their arrival at Cuzco. In two cases only have we certain 
 information of the ideas of God which the Indians entertained. 
 (1) In Gookin's History of the Christian Indians is preserved 
 a contract in the form of question and answer between them 
 and our Government. It opens as follows : " Ques. 1. To 
 worship the only true God, who made heaven and earth. 
 Ans. We do desire to reverence the God of the English, 
 because we see he doth better to the English than other gods 
 do to others." (2) Of the Pawnees, whose "Great Spirit" is 
 Wahcondu, Dr. Gallatin writes, " Like all other Indians, they 
 put more faith in their dreams, omens, and jugglers, in the 
 power of imaginary deities of their own creation, and of those 
 consecrated relics (the totems) to which tha Canadians have 
 given the singular appellation of Medicine." '" 
 
 The American Indians, like the aborigines of Australia, 
 regarded themselves, we have every reason to believe, as 
 being of the breed of the totem. We know this was the view 
 of the Sun tribes which we shall notice presently and of 
 several Snake tribes. That the Caribs were of the stock of 
 the Serpent we learn from Mr. Brett. 3 And on this point 
 the regular authorities being silent we are entitled, we think, 
 to found on evidence furnished by Mr. Fenimore Cooper. His 
 view appears in The Last of the Mohicans. Magua, a Fox, 
 
 1 Long, pp. 68 et seq., 139. In Long's opinion totemism resembles the 
 idea of Destiny, and he says it is not confined to savages, as " many instances 
 might be adduced from history to prove." Very probably. The one instance 
 he cites is that of a Jew banker, of the court of Louis XIV. of France, "who 
 had a black hen, to which he thought his destiny attached. " They died to- 
 gether. 
 
 2 Archceologia Americana, vol. ii. p. 130. 
 
 3 Brett's Indian Tribes of Guiana, pp. 390-393. 
 
506 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 with a party of warriors, comprising a Beaver, happening to 
 pass a colony of real beavers, the Beaver refused to pass with- 
 out addressing his kinsfolk. "There would have been a 
 species of profanity in the omission," says Mr. Cooper, "had 
 this man passed so powerful a community of his fancied kins- 
 men without bestowing some evidence of regard. Accordingly, 
 he paused and spoke in words as kind and friendly as if he 
 were addressing more intelligent beings. He called the 
 / animals his cousins" and so on, concluding his address by 
 begging them to bestow on his tribe " a portion of the wisdom 
 for which they were so renowned." Uncas; again, Mr. Cooper 
 represents as claiming to be of the stock of the Tortoise, " that 
 great-grandfather of all nations " ; and, indeed, all his Indians 
 appear to regard themselves, and one another, as inheritors of 
 mental and physical qualities from their respective totems. 
 
 One other and last relation between the totem and its 
 owners, both in America and Australia, remains to be noticed. 
 Grey tells us that the Australians use the totem as the family 
 crest or ensign, and expresses the opinion that our heraldic 
 bearings are traces of the totem stage lingering in civilised 
 nations. It is w,ell known that the totem was also used as an 
 ensign by the American Indians, who tattooed the figure of it 
 on their bodies, and, not content with this, painted and 
 dressed themselves so as to resemble it. Every reader of 
 stories about these Indians must be familiar with the fact. 
 Magua, for example, in the beaver scene, from the account of 
 which we have just quoted, wore " his ancient garb, bearing 
 the outline of a fox on the dressed skin which formed his 
 / robe " ; while the Beaver chief " carried the beaver as his 
 peculiar symbol." The accounts we have of the old Mexicans 
 in war show that they had similar badges, every chief having 
 his sign an animal, or animal's head, or a plant; and every 
 company having a similar symbol on its standard. 
 
 4. Traditions of Totems in Central Asia. The totem 
 stage appears to have been passed through by numerous tribes 
 of Central Asia. MM. Valikhanof inform us that a heritage 
 of the nomadic races in that part of the world is a profound 
 regard for, and an abundance of traditions respecting old times, 
 
APPENDIX 507 
 
 preserved by their elders in legends and ballads, and that 
 these traditions refer the origin of their tribes to animals as 
 progenitors. 
 
 The story of the origin of the Dikokamenni Kirghiz (they say 1 ) 
 from a red greyhound and a certain queen with her forty handmaidens 
 is of ancient date. A characteristic feature in Central Asiatic traditions 
 is the derivation of their origin from some animal. According to the v 
 testimony of Chinese history the Goa-qui (Kaotsche), otherwise known as 
 the Tele or Chili people, sprang from a wolf and a beautiful Hun 
 princess . . . who married the wolf. The Tugus (called the Dulgasses 
 by Pere Hyacinthe) professed to derive their origin from a she-wolf; 
 and the Tufans (Thibetians) from a dog. The Chinese assert that Balachi, 
 hereditary chief of the Mongol Khans, was the son of a blue wolf and a 
 white hind. 2 [The authority cited for this is Me'moires relatifs a I'Asie, 
 by Klaproth, p. 204.] ... It is evident from these instances that this 
 kind of tradition in Central Asia and America is the most ancient, and t 
 even seems to be regarded as a descent to be proud of. The outspoken 
 yet exalted tone of the Kirghiz legends, considered indecent by the 
 present generation of Kirghiz, is a strong proof that they have descended 
 in their original form. The tradition of the origin of the ninety-nine 
 Kipebuk branches has been preserved among the Uzbeks and Kaisaks in 
 such an indelicate shape that it is doubtful whether it will ever be 
 possible to present it to the general reader. 
 
 It is accordingly not given ; but surely the essence might 
 have been, though not the shape. We learn from the same 
 authorities that the genealogical tables of the Kaisaks, Uzbeks, 
 and Nogais show that " they are a medley of different Turkish 
 and Mongol tribes." The names of several tribes are given, 
 but none have been examined etymologically to ascertain 
 whether they comprise the names of animals or plants. The 
 interfusion, or "medley," of the tribes (we are without a 
 statement of the origin of it, but nearly all these tribes are 
 exogamous, that is, prohibit marriage within the clan), and the 
 general statement (though it is feebly supported by details) 
 that they draw their origin back to animals, make it probable 
 
 1 The Russians in Central Asia. London, 1865. Translated by the Messrs. 
 Mitchell. 
 
 2 In the Archceologia Americana, vol. ii. p. 112, it is noticed that among 
 the Creeks the villages are divided into white and red, "distinguished from v 
 each other by poles of those respective colours." Query Would a Deer in a 
 white village be a White Deer, and a Wolf in a red village be a Bed Wolf? 
 
5o8 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 that we have in the Kirghiz, Uzbeks, and Nogais a series of 
 tribes that anciently passed through the totem stage. This 
 view is confirmed by what was recently stated at a meeting 
 of the Geographical Society by Captain T. G. Montgomerie ; 
 namely, that round Cashmere, and among the aboriginal hill 
 tribes on the Himalayan slopes, tribes of men are usually (or 
 frequently, we have not the report before us) named, or we 
 think he said " m'c&named," from animals now. If so, we may 
 believe inquiry will bring to light a series of tribes in that 
 quarter still existing in the totem stage. The statement was 
 made in support of the hypothesis that an Ant tribe had 
 existed to the north of Cashmere, put forward in explanation 
 of what Herodotus relates that the gold-fields there were 
 worked by ants. 
 
 5. The Sun as a Totem : Hints of a Totem Olympus. We 
 saw that in the local tribes or nations in America, some one 
 of the tribes of descent had a superiority ascribed to it that 
 the Bear, for instance, was the leading tribe among the Hurons. 
 This superiority infers subordination, of course ; in other 
 words, a political system. It is stated in the Archwologia, 
 that " it is among the batches alone that we find, connected 
 together, a highly privileged class, a despotic government, and 
 something like a regular form of religious worship." The 
 Natches occupied three villages near the town that has pre- 
 served their name, and were in four clans. What their totems 
 were is not stated ; but " the privileged class " and the 
 sovereign had for their totem the sun. This seems a legitimate 
 inference from their being called Suns, and claiming to be 
 descended from the sun the Sun tribe being so far like any 
 other. " The hereditary dignity of Chief, or Great Sun," we 
 are told, " descended as usual by the female line, and he, as 
 well as all the other members of his clan, whether male or 
 female, could only marry persons of an inferior [i.e. another] 
 clan." * That is, the clan or tribe was in the same case with 
 any other, except that it was dominant as the Bear was 
 among the Hurons. 2 A Sun could not marry a Sun any 
 
 1 I.e. vol. ii. p. 113. 
 
 2 Are the accounts incomplete ? and is the dominant tribe among the Hurons 
 
APPENDIX 509 
 
 more than a Beaver could marry a Beaver ; and the Sun 
 name was taken from the mother. 
 
 If the sun could become a totem, why not the moon ? 
 That they were both "beings we can see in numerous cases ; we 
 have distinct proof of it among the Indians in the case of the 
 Chippeways. 1 If they were totems, they will explain for us 
 the solar and lunar races of the Aryans. "We have them in 
 Peru as married persons, and also as brother and sister. The 
 Incas were Suns, as their name and all the traditions imply 
 a Sun tribe, nothing less or more ; their first parents children 
 of the sun, sent to the earth to found society, as the reader 
 may see in Prescott's opening chapters. Acosta tells us the 
 brother of the Inca succeeded in preference to his sons, 2 and 
 if so, this points to kinship among the Peruvian Sun tribe, 
 having been at one time through mothers only a note of the 
 totem stage. The pride of power led the tribe to give up 
 exogamy and become a caste; but then, to keep the stock 
 pure, the Inca always married a sister, and when a son 
 succeeded, it was as heir of the Goya, the lawful sister-queen, 
 showing the lingering preference for the mother's side. We 
 infer the presence of Sun tribes among the Hurons, the Baya- 
 goulas, now extinct, the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and the 
 Caddoes of Eed River, all of whom there is reason to believe 
 more or less formally worshipped the sun. The batches had 
 sun temples and perpetual fires. 3 The Sun tribes may have 
 been very powerful, but it is only what we should expect, 
 
 also the Sun tribe ? The chief of the Hurons, Charlevoix states, is believed to 
 have issued from the sun, and the dignity of chieftainship is hereditary through 
 females only. It is a possible explanation that the chiefs of the Bear tribe may 
 have invented for themselves a solar origin, in which case the chief would be a 
 Bear, and yet a Sun. Peru presents us with an instance of a Sun that is yet a 
 Serpent, for which a similar explanation would suffice namely, that the Snake 
 tribe was dominant, and that its chief families assumed the Sun as their totem. 
 
 1 Archceologia Americana, vol. i. p. 352. The sun and moon were occasionally 
 given to fighting, it appears. 
 
 2 Lib. vi. cap. xii., cited by Prescott. 
 
 3 ArclvKologia Americana, vol. ii. pp. 113, 114. Was Helios, who had herds 
 of oxen on the island of Trinacria, chief of a Sun tribe there ? The Heliades are 
 suggestive of a Sun stock. Max Miiller complains of Mr. Grote's disposition " to 
 insist on the purely literal meaning of the whole of Greek mythology." "We 
 shall see by and by that Mr. Grote's disposition is the right one. 
 
5 10 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 among a race simple enough to believe anything, that a 
 peculiar sanctity, and corresponding privileges, would readily 
 be conceded to those believed to be descended from the great 
 Lord of Day ; and that the supremacy in many groups should 
 on this account be the more readily obtained by the solar 
 stock. It is also apparent that this totem might well com- 
 mand a general veneration the worship of all the tribes in 
 the group ; but it is equally manifest that the Sun would not, 
 any more than the Master of Life, where it took the first place 
 in the State religion, interfere with the allegiance due from 
 the stock tribes composing the nation to their respective 
 totems. The Incas, as Mr. Prescott points out, had the good 
 policy to collect all the tribal gods into their temples in and 
 round Cuzco, in which the two leading gods were the Master 
 of Life and the Sun. In the temples, Mr. Prescott tells us, 
 " there were animals also to be found," but he does not specify 
 them, stating only that " the llama with its golden fleece was 
 the most conspicuous." Were these animals the totems, or 
 their emblems, of our friends the Bears and Beavers ? l 
 
 6. Totem Gods a Totem Olympus. Among the Fijians 
 we find a state of affairs such as may have preceded the con- 
 solidation of the monarchy and the Olympus of the Incas. 
 They are proud of their pedigrees, and Toki, one of their 
 chiefs, claims to be the descendant of a Turtle. Others have 
 fishes for their progenitors. Their greatest god, the Creator, 
 who is omniscient, omnipotent, and so on, in the opinion of 
 
 1 The mythologies of Peru and Mexico have yet to be explored, and may be 
 expected to prove a field worthy to be worked. The few facts we have yield a 
 strong suggestion that the Toltecs, Chimenecs, Aztecs, and Tezucans were groups, 
 compounded, like the Natehes, of tribes with totems the Sun dominant, in 
 Peru at least. The legend of the founding of Tenochtitlan gives a prickly-pear, 
 an eagle, a serpent, and the sun. The Mexicans had the eagle on their standard, 
 and the serpent at least among their gods. The war god, Huitzilopochtli, means 
 literally, " a humming-bird " and "left." He was figured with the feathers of 
 the humming-bird on his left foot. If the humming-bird was a totem, this is 
 the only case, excepting one serpent god in the same Olympus, of a totem be- 
 coming a God of Terror that we are acquainted with. The years in the fifty-two 
 years Mexican Cycle were named from plants and animals a list of them is not 
 accessible. Their law of succession was polyandrous, from brother to brother, 
 and to sister's sons, failing brothers. This demonstrates for them the stage of 
 female kinship. We know nothing of the law of intermarriage. 
 
APPENDIX 5I i 
 
 his special votaries, is Nuengei, " whose shrine is the Serpent." 
 Some of their gods are " enshrined " in birds, fishes, or plants ; 
 some, in the same way, in men. Their second god in import- 
 ance is Tui Lakemla, who claims the Hawk as his shrine ; but 
 another god disputes his right, and claims the Hawk for 
 himself. The Shark is a great god; also the Crab. "One ^ 
 god," says Mr. Williams, " is supposed to inhabit the eel, and 
 another the common fowl, and so on, until nearly every animal 
 becomes the shrine of some deity. He who worships the 
 Eel-god must never eat of that fish, and thus of the rest ; so 
 that some are tabu from eating human flesh because the shrine 
 of their god is in a man. . . . The Land- Crab is the shrine of 
 Eoko Suka, formerly worshipped in Tiliva, where land-crabs 
 are rarely seen." When a land-crab favours them with a call, 
 they make formal presents to him, "to prevent the deity 
 leaving with the impression that he was neglected, and visiting 
 his remiss worshippers with drought, dearth, or death." These 
 gods are tribal, and no one can doubt but they are totems 
 who have made such progress as we above suggested the Bear 
 might make, and are become the objects of a more or less 
 regular worship the Serpent tribe dominant, and the Hawk 
 tribe in the second place. The Men gods are a new element ^ 
 in the Olympus ; but they appear as " shrines " merely like 
 the other animals, and were no doubt arrived at by an exten- 
 sion to man of conclusions speculatively reached as to the 
 nature of totem gods in general. The Fijians have filled the 
 world with spirits and demons. They are incessantly plagued 
 by ghosts, witches, or wizards. Vegetables and stones, nay, 
 even tools and weapons, pots and canoes, have souls that are 
 immortal, and that, like the souls of men, pass on at last to 
 Mbulu, the abode of departed spirits. They worship pillars 
 and rocks ; but, so far as we know, they do not worship the 
 sun unless their men gods are of the solar stock. 1 
 
 7. The Mental Condition of Men in the Totem Stage. The 
 state of mind of men in the totem stage is familiar enough, from 
 the accounts we have of the lower races of men. The absence 
 of scientific knowledge nowise implies an absence of specu- 
 
 1 Fiji and the Fijians, by Thomas Williams, vol. i. pp. 114, 123, 215 ff. 
 
5 1 2 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 
 
 lation ; it rather necessitates the presence of a great amount 
 of it. Some explanation of the phenomena of life a man must 
 feign for himself; and to judge from the universality of it, the 
 simplest hypothesis, and the first to occur to men, seems to 
 have been that natural phenomena are ascribable to the 
 presence in animals, plants, and things, and in the forces of 
 nature, of such spirits prompting to action as men are conscious 
 they themselves possess. So far as we know, this has been at 
 some time or other the faith of all the races of men; and 
 again, so far as we know, it is a faith that has nowhere been 
 given up as unsatisfactory otherwise than gradually on its 
 being perceived, from case to case, that the behaviour of the 
 forces of nature and of the bodies they act upon is not way- 
 ward or wilful, but conformable to law; and until the law has 
 been ascertained. This animation hypothesis, held as a faith, 
 is at the root of all the mythologies. It has been called 
 Fetichism ; which, according to the common accounts of it, 
 ascribes a life and personality resembling our own, not only to 
 animals and plants, but to rocks, mountains, 1 streams, winds, 
 the heavenly bodies, the earth itself, and even the heavens. 
 Fetichism thus resembles totemism ; which, indeed, is Fetichism 
 plus certain peculiarities. These peculiarities are, (1) the 
 appropriation of a special Fetich to the tribe, (2) its hereditary 
 transmission through mothers, and (3) its connection with the 
 jus connubii. Our own belief is that the accompaniments of 
 Fetichism have not been well observed, and that it will yet be 
 found that in many cases the Fetich is the totem. Be that 
 as it may, we may safely affirm that as Fetichism dies slowly, 
 withdrawing its spirits from one sphere after another on their 
 being brought within the domain of science, so it grew slowly 
 through various stages of development, bringing the realms of 
 nature one by one within the scope of the hypothesis which is 
 its foundation. Our information is incomplete ; but from all we 
 know, the aborigines of Australia are, as theorists, far in advance 
 of the Bushmen, Veddahs, Andamans, and Fuegians, while it 
 
 1 Himavat (the Himalayas) was a great Hindu god. He had goddess 
 daughters; one, Ganga (the Ganges), another, Urna, "the most excellent of 
 lesses." See Dowson, Diet. Hind. Myth., s.v. "Himavat." 
 
APPENDIX 513 
 
 appears they themselves have many steps to . take before 
 reaching the fulness of the animism of some American Indians, i 
 They have not yet, for example, so far as we know, vivified 
 the heavenly bodies. The Indians, again, have not yet 
 advanced so far as the New Zealanders, who assign spirits to 
 groves and forests, 1 as did the Greeks and Eomans, while none 
 of the peoples last mentioned reached that perfection of 
 Fetichism allied to an ontology which is Pantheism. 2 
 
 The justification of the statement that there is no race of 
 men that has not come through this primitive stage of specu- 
 lative belief, will [not] be found in this exposition in its 
 entirety. 3 We may here say that such a stage is demonstrated 
 for the Hindoos and Egyptians by their doctrine of trans- 
 migration. It is of the essence of that doctrine that everything 
 has a soul or spirit, and that the spirits are mostly human in \ 
 the sense of having once been in human bodies. All the 
 spirits are of course ultimately divine detached portions of 
 the Deity. 
 
 We find in the Code of Manu that " vegetables, and mineral 
 substances, worms, insects, reptiles some very minute, some 
 rather larger fishes, snakes, tortoises, cattle, shakals, are the 
 lowest forms to which the dark quality leads [the soul of a 
 man]." 4 A man may after death, according to the shade of 
 the dark quality, become an elephant, horse, lion, tiger, boar, 
 or a man of the servile class ; while, in virtue of the good 
 quality, he may rise to the rank of the genii, to be a regent 
 of the stars, or even a god. This implies, of course, the 
 existence of spirits resembling our own of various ranks, from 
 those that dwell in minerals and vegetables up tcwjtjjat of 
 Brahma. We have a similar implication from the Egyptian 
 
 1 See " The Adventures of Rate," and " The Children of Heaven and Earth," 
 in Grey's Polynesian Mythology. 
 
 2 A striking illustration of the graduality of the evolution of Fetichism will 
 be found in Fiji and the Fijians, p. 241. The Fijians are far in advance of the 
 Tongans. 
 
 3 Two papers having a bearing on this matter, written by Mr. E. B. Tylor, i/ 
 the one on "The Early Condition of Man," and the other on "Traces of Savage 
 Thought in Modern Civilisation," both read before the Royal Institution, London, 
 
 are well worthy of being consulted. 
 
 4 Code, chap. xii. w. 42, 43 ; and see chap. i. vv. 49, 50. 
 
 2 L 
 
514 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 doctrine. Let us consider how such a doctrine could have 
 
 arisen. 1 
 
 The doctrine connects itself at once with the Cosmogony 
 and with ethics. Manu's account of the genesis, from the 
 first divine idea to the seed and the golden egg and the 
 waters ; to the Vedas milked out from fire, air, and the sun ; 
 and to the final evolution of all Beings, animals, and vege- 
 tables, will be admitted to be as unscientific, or foolish, as 
 anything the Australians could devise, supposing them to have 
 imagination enough to shape so grand, a theory ; and it is not 
 a whit more ingenious than the Australian view of life, taking 
 success in getting at the truth as the test of ingenuity. The 
 truth, it may be said, is beyond the reach of speculation. No 
 doubt ; this fantastical doctrine, however, may safely be 
 assumed not to contain it. " A transmigratory soul " is not 
 an hypothesis like phlogiston : the latter explained some 
 facts ; the former, none. How then did it arise ? It resulted 
 from ethical considerations, and the theory of the Cosmos. 
 But whence came the latter ? Its source, we think, is in- 
 dubitable. It was a speculation to explain the facts, real and 
 imaginary, of existence. That is, in the order of events, 
 Fetichism, which assigns " souls " to all things, came first, and 
 afterwards the cosmical theory, which explained, inter alia, 
 " the souls of all things," the ethical doctrine regulating their 
 transferences merely. In other words, had the "souls" not 
 been pre-existing we should not have had the theory an 
 unquestionable product of human effort to explain facts nor 
 anything resembling it. This, we submit, is the common-sense 
 view. The doctrine supervened on a system of ideas com- 
 prising all the elements with which it had to deal. The 
 
 1 The systems of transmigration have been various. In the Brahmanic the 
 purified soul returns to Brahma ; in the Buddhistic it attains Nirvana. The 
 Egyptian resembled the Brahmanic, as did the Grecian, which was neither 
 indigenous to Greece nor a popular faith. The Jews may have had their system 
 from the Greek philosophers. It is taught in the Kabbala, and resembles the 
 Brahmanic. The soul of Adam reappeared in David, and was to reappear in the 
 Messiah. Some early Christians held the doctrine, but it was never the creed of 
 the Church. It was the creed of the Manichseans. Origen believed it ; so, 
 lately, did Lessing. It was indigenous in Germany and in ancient Mexico. 
 
APPENDIX 515 
 
 windows in heaven, and the firmament separating the waters 
 above from the waters below them, do not more clearly 
 demonstrate the old theory of rain, than this doctrine demon- 
 strates pre-existing Fetichism. 
 
 That the doctrine of transmigration was invented at a 
 pretty late date in the progress of the Hindu races we may be 
 certain. There is but one sentence in the Rig- Veda (Hymn i. 
 164) which has even been supposed to imply transmigration, 
 and it does not do so, we are assured, when the words are 
 taken literally in their usual sense. Yet the belief in the 
 soul's life after death may be traced in some of the hymns of 
 the Veda. This belief, however, assumes many forms, and the 
 present writer has no certain information as to its Vedic form. 
 Of the forms it assumes many are highly curious. The 
 Australian and Fijian we saw. Among the Tahitians human 
 souls were supposed to be the food of their god, and they 
 offered to him human sacrifices that he might be fed. The 
 Khonds have a limited quantity of soul as tribal property, 
 and they explain their female infanticide by saying that the 
 fewer their women are the more soul there will be for the 
 men. The customs of some tribes in Madagascar show that 
 they think that one man may have several souls ; and not a 
 few tribes, holding that the souls of the dead return in their 
 new-born babies, bury in the houses or near the doors to 
 facilitate the return. 
 
 It is familiar that men everywhere in ancient times be- 
 lieved spirits to inhabit trees and groves, and to move in the 
 winds and stars, and that they personified almost every phase 
 of nature. We have now seen that such beliefs cannot be 
 regarded as having been deduced from the grander doctrines 
 of the ancient religions ; but that the latter must be regarded 
 as having been constructed upon such beliefs as their founda- 
 tions. Demons and genii, and the spirits of plants and 
 minerals, were older than Brahma ; let us hope they will 
 not survive him. They are everywhere lively still, even 
 in the most advanced nations ; and we have not to go very 
 far back in time to find them playing a most important part 
 in our medical theories. Demons a species of disembodied 
 
5 1 6 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 
 
 Boyl-yas were connected with diseases by the Jews and 
 early Christians, and it is familiar how on one occasion when 
 driven out of a man they entered into a herd of swine. The 
 genii of the early Italians so like the totem are familiar, 
 and even more so are the genii of the Arabian Nights. The 
 Mahometans, if they are true to their prophet, must still 
 believe in them. In that very curious book Mishkatu 'l- 
 MasaUh, a record of the sayings and doings of the prophet, 
 bearing to be made by those who knew him best his wives 
 and disciples we find the following, which is pertinent to 
 our subject : 
 
 Ibn-Omer said, " I heard his highness say, * Kill snakes, and kill 
 the snake which has two black lines upon its back, and kill the snake 
 called abter, on account of its small tail ; for verily these two kinds of 
 snake blind the eyes as soon as they are looked at ; and if a pregnant 
 woman should see them, she would miscarry from fright.' " Ibn-Omer 
 says, " Just as I was about killing a snake, Abu-Lababah-Ansari called out 
 to me not to kill it. Then I said, * His highness ordered me to kill 
 them ; why do you forbid ? ' He said, ' His highness, after giving the 
 order for killing them, said, You must not kill the snakes that live in 
 the houses, because they are not snakes, but a kind of genii.' " Abu- 
 Sayib said, " We went to Abu-Said-Khud'hri ; and whilst we were sit- 
 ting, we heard a shaking under his bedstead ; and we looked and saw a 
 snake. Then I got up to kill it, and Abu-Said was saying his prayers, 
 and he made a sign to me to sit down, and I did so. And when he had 
 finished his prayers, he made a sign towards a room in his house, and 
 said, ' There was a youth in my family lived there who had newly 
 married.' Then Abu-Said said, 'We came out of Medinah along with 
 the Prophet, to a trench which was digging for fighting, and this youth 
 would ask the Prophet's permission to return to his house every day at 
 noon, which was granted. Then one day the youth asked his highness's 
 leave, who said, Put on your armour, because I am alarmed about you, 
 from the evil designs of the tribe of Beni-Kuraidhah. Then the youth 
 took his arms, and returned towards his house ; and when he arrived, he 
 saw his wife standing between two doors ; and the youth was about 
 piercing her with a spear, being seized with jealousy at seeing her stand- 
 ing out of her room ; and she said, Withhold your spear, and come into 
 the room that you may see what has brought me out. Then the youth 
 went into the room, and beheld a large snake coiled up sleeping upon his 
 bed, and he struck his spear into the snake ; then the snake attacked 
 the youth, and bit him, and it was not known which of them died first, 
 the snake or the youth. Then I went to the Prophet and mentioned the 
 occurrence, and said, Supplicate God to give life to the youth. Then 
 his highness said, Ask God to forgive your friend ; wherefore do you wish 
 
APPENDIX 517 
 
 a prayer to be made for his life ? After that he said, In these houses 
 are the genii, some of them believers, and some infidels ; therefore when 
 you see anything of those inhabitants turn them out, but 'do not hurry in 
 killing them, but say, Do not incommode me ; if you do, I shall kill you. 
 Then if he goes away, so much the better ; but if not, kill it, because it 
 is an infidel genius. And his highness said to the youth's tribe, Take 
 him away and bury him. And in one tradition it is thus, that his 
 highness said, Verily there are genii in Medinah which have embraced 
 Islam ; then when you see any one of them, warn him three days ; and 
 if he appears after that, kill him, because he is none but an infidel.' " 
 Omm Sharic said, " His highness ordered a chameleon to be killed, and 
 said, ' It was a chameleon which blew the fire into which Nimrod threw 
 Abraham.' "... Abuhurairah 'A.G.S. " An ant bit a prophet, and he 
 ordered the ant-hill to be burnt, which was done. Then God sent a 
 voice to the prophet, saying, ' Have you burnt, on account of one biting 
 you, a whole multitude of those that remembered God, and repeated his 
 name?'" 1 
 
 His highness's scientific views on other subjects were in 
 keeping with his zoology. "The genii," he lays it down, 
 "are of three kinds. One kind have wings and fly, another 
 are snakes and dogs, and the third move about from place to 
 place like men." 5 The third are not so unlike the Boyl-yas. 
 In Mahomet's system the devil and bad genii are at the root 
 of all diseases except fever, which results from the heat of 
 hell-fire, an element of which the Australians are as yet 
 ignorant. He believed, of course, in the evil eye, and in 
 spells and amulets, as so many of us still do ; but perhaps 
 he nowhere appears to more advantage than in his astronomy. 
 Stars, he says, were created for three purposes to embellish 
 the regions, to stone the devil, and for guidance in the forest 
 and on the sea. Our poor Wolves, Bears, Beavers, and 
 Opossums must be tenderly regarded, , and may, we think, 
 be believed to be thoroughly earnest in their faith, when 
 views like these appear as propounded by the founder of one 
 of the greatest existing religions. Of the traces of Fetichism 
 among the Greeks and Eomans, it would be waste of time to 
 say anything. 
 
 We have said enough to prepare the reader for the ex- 
 amination we are about to enter upon, of the evidence of the 
 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 310. Book xviii. chap. iii. Part I. "In explanation of animals, 
 lawful and unlawful, to be eaten." Calcutta, 1809-10. 2 Vol. ii. p. 314. 
 
STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 worship of animals and vegetables among the ancients; 
 to give him the feeling that it is not very improbable 
 that in classical regions we shall find totems, or something 
 like them. 
 
 Let us, however, before proceeding with that examination, 
 state the results we have reached. We have found that there 
 are tribes of men (called primitive) now existing on the earth 
 in the totem stage, each named after some animal or plant, 
 which is its symbol or ensign, and which by the tribesmen 
 is religiously regarded ; having kinship through mothers only, 
 and exogamy as their marriage law. In several cases, we have 
 seen, the tribesmen believe themselves to be descended from 
 the totem, and in every case to be, nominally at least, of its 
 breed or species. We have seen a relation existing between 
 the tribesmen and their totem, as in the case of the bear, that 
 might well grow into that of worshipper and god, leading to 
 the establishment of religious ceremonials to allay the totem's 
 just anger, or secure his continued protection. We have seen 
 in the case of the sun, conceived as a being, and having his 
 tribe like any other animal, a first place acquired and 
 the honours of a regular worship among tribes still in the 
 totem stage, and that it is not improbable the cultus of other 
 totems became regular as sun worship advanced ; and in the 
 case of the Fijians, where the serpent and not the sun in- 
 troduced regular religious observances, we have a more 
 or less regular worship of the other totems as we seem 
 entitled to consider them advanced to the status of gods. 1 
 We have also seen that while the intellectual condition of 
 men that accompanies totemism is well established for all the 
 lower races of men now existing, there is much evidence that 
 the higher races had anciently been in a similar condition. 
 We have totemism in various phases attending that condition, 
 and having reason to think that the higher races had once 
 been in the same condition, we have a probability that they 
 also may once have had totems. 
 
 1 In some quarters in America, images of animals have been found in excava- 
 tions, and one view is that they were idols. It will be remembered there were 
 such images in the Sun Temples of the Incas. 
 
APPENDIX 519 
 
 PART II. TOTEM-GODS AMONG THE ANCIENTS 
 
 We now proceed to examine the cases of the ancient 
 nations. Inasmuch as these had, before the dawn of their 
 histories, advanced far in civilisation (otherwise their histories, 
 which depend on monuments and literary records, could not 
 have commenced), we should expect that in the interval which 
 intervened between their being in the totem stage supposing 
 they were ever in it and the beginning of authentic records, 
 the totems, if they were to become gods, would be promoted 
 to a distinct place as the gods of the tribes that possessed 
 them, and be the objects to them of regular religious worship. ' 
 Looking again to the results of exogamy and female kinship, 
 we might expect that while here and there, perhaps, a tribe 
 might appear with a single animal god, as a general rule tribes 
 and nations should have as many animal and vegetable gods as 
 there were distinct stocks in the population. Some one animal V 
 we should expect to find in a first place among the animal 
 gods of a people as being the god of the dominant tribe ; but 
 we should not expect to find the same animal dominant in all 
 quarters, or worshipped even everywhere within the same 
 nation. Moreover, since if the ancient nations came through 
 the totem stage their animal and vegetable gods must have 
 been of more ancient standing than the anthropomorphic gods, 
 such as Zeus, Apollo, and Poseidon, we should expect to find 
 in the sacred legends some hints of that priority. If we find 
 any great number of such gods worshipped by the ancients, 
 and if we find hints of their priority; still more, if we 
 find tribes named after the sacred animals, and having them 
 for their ensigns ; and, lastly, should we find the worshippers 
 believing themselves to be, or having traditions, such as the 
 Kirghiz have, that they were of the stock or breed of the 
 animal they worshipped, then we think we may safely con- 
 clude that so many concurring indications of the totem stage 
 having been passed through are not misleading that, in fact, 
 the ancient nations had in the prehistoric times been in the 
 same case as that in which we now find the natives of 
 
520 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 Australia. It will be a confirmation of this conclusion should 
 we find the hypothesis that they had been in the totem stage 
 to make intelligible numerous legends that have hitherto 
 appeared entirely without meaning. It will be a further 
 confirmation should we find that there is evidence that the 
 ancient nations had been exogamous, and had the system of 
 kinship through females only. 
 
 What evidence then have we to show that the ancient 
 nations came through the totem stage ? If they did, it was 
 in prehistoric times. About these we have some facts preserved 
 in the signs of the Zodiac, the majority of which are animals, 
 or compounds of human and animal forms. We have another 
 set of facts in the fanciful forms of those constellations which 
 were figured, prehistorically, in animal forms. 1 
 
 Some of the stellar groups, we know, were named after 
 gods or deified heroes. Were the animal groups named after 
 gods also, or how was it the animals came to be promoted to 
 the heavens ? There is nothing in the grouping of the stars 
 to suggest the animal forms : no one can seriously pretend to 
 perceive materials for any such suggestion. The stars, we 
 must believe, were long familiar objects of study and observa- 
 tion before they were grouped and named ; that they were 
 conceived to be beings we may say we know. How came the 
 early students of the heavens to name the groups from animals, 
 and even many of the individual stars ? The probability is, 
 
 1 The Zodiacal constellations figured on the porticoes of the Temples of 
 Denderah and Esne, in Egypt, are of great antiquity. "M. Dupuis, in his 
 Origine des Cultes, has, from a careful investigation of the position of these signs, 
 and calculating precession at its usual rate, arrived at the conclusion that the 
 earliest of them dates from 4000 B.C. M. Fourier, in his Recherches sur la 
 Science, makes the representations at Esne 1800 years older than M. Dupuis. . . . 
 The truth seems to he that nothing is as yet definitely known of these ancient 
 representations ; for the manner in which the investigations have been mixed up 
 with the Biblical question of the antiquity of man has prevented any truly 
 scientific research." Chambers's Encyc. art. "Zodiac." The ancient Zodiacal 
 figures of the Hindus, ancient Persians, Chinese, and Japanese, in some respects 
 resemble those of the Egyptians. Mr. Williams, of the Astronomical Society, 
 informs me that three of the Chinese signs are named from the quail. The 
 symbols of the years in the Aztec Cycle were named after plants and animals. 
 Neither these nor the two hundred gods in the Aztec Olympus have yet been 
 examined. 
 
APPENDIX 521 
 
 that in ancient as in modern times, stars, when named, were 
 given names of distinction, that commanded respect, if not 
 veneration ; and the suggestion therefore is, that the animals 
 whose names were transferred to the stars or stellar groups were 
 on earth highly if not religiously regarded. The legends that 
 have come down to us, explanatory of the transference to the 
 heavens of particular animals, bear out this suggestion. It 
 will immediately be shown that nearly all the animals so 
 honoured were anciently worshipped as gods. 
 
 Let us see what the animals are. There is first of all the 
 serpent in the constellation Serpentarius, which some said 
 represented ^Esculapius ; there are also Scorpio and Draco 
 the scorpion and dragon ; there is the horse Pegasus ; the 
 bull Taurus ; the lion Leo ; the dog Canis (major and 
 minor) ; the swan Cygnus ; the doves (according to some) 
 the Pleiades ; the ram Aries ; the goat Capricornus ; the 
 fishes Pisces ; the bear Ursa (major and minor) ; the crab 
 Cancer ; and the asses' colts the Aselli. There are others, 
 but this selection will suffice for our purposes at present. 
 
 1. The Serpent. We take the case of the serpent first, 
 because for several reasons it has been more studied than any 
 other. The serpent faith was very wide-spread, and it has 
 attracted special notice from the part assigned to the serpent 
 in Genesis in connection with the fall of man. Faber and 
 Bryant have both pretty fully investigated this subject, which 
 has also been treated in a separate work by Mr. Bathurst 
 Deane. 1 Lately (in 1864) M. Boudin handled it in what 
 may be called a large pamphlet rather than a book, 2 and 
 last year Mr. Fergusson's elaborate work 3 threw much light 
 upon it, at the same time that it has done more than any 
 previous work to draw public attention to this extraordinary 
 religion. 
 
 It is unnecessary to adduce the evidence which establishes 
 the prevalence, in ancient and modern times, of this worship. 
 
 1 The Worship of the Serpent. London, 1830. 
 
 2 Culte du Phallus ; Culte du Serpent, fitudes Anthropologiques. Paris, 1864. 
 
 3 Tree and Serpent Worship, by James Fergusson, F.R.S. India Museum, 
 London. 
 
522 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 It is a fact conceded on all hands, and in Mr. Fergusson's book 
 it is demonstrated. That work, also, is very important in this 
 respect, that it abounds in photographic illustrations from the 
 Buddhist Topes of Sanchi and Amravati, which enable the 
 reader to realise the fact that the worship was real worship. 
 Men and women are exhibited in the sculptures in the act of 
 adoring the Serpent God, so that the actuality of the worship 
 is, by the book, as vividly impressed on the mind as it could 
 be by attendance at divine service in a Serpent Temple say 
 at Cambodia. In Cambodia, indeed, one would have found 
 the god to be a living serpent a totem whereas these 
 sculptures show that the living serpent had, among the 
 Buddhists, lost rank, the, god being a heavenly (Ophi-morphic) 
 being whose symbol was a serpent of five, seven, or nine 
 heads, such as never had been seen upon earth. In short, we 
 are enabled to see from Mr. Fergusson's work that the serpent 
 religion, starting from the worship of the living animal as its 
 root, had grown into a refined faith, comprising a belief in a 
 spirit world in which the Serpent God held high rank ; and in 
 an Olympus in which other gods were combined with him, and 
 in which, below the gods, were angelic beings of various orders 
 of standing and power. It is remarkable that the divine 
 nature of these angelic beings in human form is demonstrated 
 by serpents springing from behind their backs or from their 
 shoulders, as the divinity of angels and cherubs in our own 
 symbolism is indicated by their wings. 
 
 Mr. Fergusson's introductory essay shows that the worship 
 of the serpent has, at some time or other, found a place in 
 the religious system of every race of men. It had its place in 
 Egypt and in Palestine, even among the Hebrews ; in Tyre 
 and Babylon; in Greece and Eome; among the Celts and 
 Scandinavians in Europe ; in Persia and Arabia ; in Cashmere 
 and India; in China and Thibet; in Mexico and Peru; in 
 Abyssinia, and generally throughout Africa, where it still 
 flourishes as the state religion in Dahomey ; in Java and 
 Ceylon ; among the Fijians, with whom, as we saw, it still 
 prevails ; and in various quarters in Oceania. Not less well 
 established is the fact that it was a terribly real faith, with its 
 
APPENDIX 523 
 
 priests and temples, its highly-organised ecclesiasticism and 
 ritual, its offerings and sacrifices, all ordered according to a 
 code. The code, the ideas of the divine government, the god 
 himself even, varied from point to point, there being no more 
 uniformity observable here than elsewhere in a matter of faith. 
 In one place the god was a living serpent; in another a 
 collection of serpents, as if the whole species was religiously 
 regarded. Here, again, the object of worship was an image of 
 a living serpent ; there, an image of a creature of the religious 
 imagination a spiritual ideal the five-headed, seven-headed, 
 or nine-headed Naga. The god in some systems stood alone, 
 was the god God; in others he had associates, sometimes 
 equal, sometimes even superior to himself, such as the sun, or 
 fire, an anthropomorphic god, the emblems of the procreative 
 power, some other animal, like the horse, or some tree or 
 vegetable, or the ocean. But under all the varieties the fact 
 is manifest of the serpent having attained divine honours : the 
 character of being a good, wise, beneficent, powerful deity, to 
 adore and propitiate whom was man's duty and privilege. We 
 have cited no authorities in support of these statements, 
 because the facts are indisputable and well known, and a 
 general reference to the works of Bryant and Fergusson is 
 therefore sufficient. 1 Two points, however, must be touched 
 
 1 As to the doctrines of the serpent faith, we have, unfortunately, but meagre 
 accounts. The Dahomans have both an earthly serpent and a heavenly. The 
 earthly serpent (called Danh gbwe) is the first person in their Trinity, the others 
 being trees and the ocean. Burton says of this serpent, " It is esteemed the supreme 
 bliss and general good. It has a thousand Danh-si, or snake wives, married 
 and single votaries, and its influence cannot be meddled with by the two others 
 [trees and ocean], which are subject to it." It is believed to be immortal, 
 omniscient, and all-powerful. In its worship there are solemn processions ; 
 prayers are addressed to it on every occasion, and answered by the snakes in con- 
 versation with the high priest. The heavenly serpent is called Danh, and has 
 for his emblem a coiled and horned snake of clay in a pot or calabash. He is 
 the god of wealth. The priestesses, in this serpent system, are girls resembling 
 the JSTautch girls in the temples of Southern India, and when of age they are 
 married to the god, who himself sets his seal upon them, marking them with his 
 image under circumstances and with mysteries that are undivulged. Ancestral 
 worship is conjoined with that of the snake in Dahomey, as it has been and is in 
 other places, and with it almost certainly, and not with serpent-worship, are 
 connected the horrible human sacrifices that occur on the coast of Guinea. The 
 
524 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 upon before we can advance with our argument. The first 
 respects the antiquity of the faith ; and the second, the 
 relations between the god and his worshippers. 
 
 (1) Of the great antiquity of the faith there can be no 
 doubt. Compared with it, all the religions are modern ; they 
 imply it at their foundations, and their earliest history is the 
 record of its more or less complete suppression or subordination. 
 The cultus prevailed, for example, among the Hebrews before 
 the true faith. " With the knowledge we now possess," says 
 Mr. Fergusson, "it does not seem so difficult to understand 
 what was meant by the curse of the serpent" [in Genesis]. . . . 
 When the writers of the Pentateuch set themselves to intro- 
 duce the purer and loftier worship of Elohim, or Jehovah, it 
 was first necessary to get rid of that earlier form of faith which 
 the primitive inhabitants of the earth had fashioned for them- 
 selves." The curse, of course, was not on the serpent, but on 
 the cultus. We find a similar story in Persia and in India, in 
 both of which places this religion prevailed. "The serpent 
 
 state of our information on the Dahoman religion is to be regretted, as a minute 
 knowledge of the beliefs of the worshippers, and of their traditions regarding the 
 history of their religion, would be valuable in this inquiry. It is equally to be 
 regretted that we are without details as to the beliefs of the snake-worshippers of 
 India, who, we learn from the Indian newspapers, are to be found throughout our 
 Eastern empire. How much have we yet to learn of our contemporaries even under 
 the same Government with ourselves ! As we write, a letter appears from Bishop 
 Crowther, respecting serpent-worship at Brass, a station of the Niger mission. 
 "No poultry," the Bishop says, "can be reared on account of the snake cobra, 
 which is held sacred here. Not to be killed because sacred, they become possessors 
 of the bushes, and prove a great nuisance to the country. They very often visited 
 the poultry coops at night, and swallowed as many as they wanted ; in conse- 
 quence ot which no poultry could be kept, either by the natives themselves, or 
 by the supercargoes in their establishments on shore : neither goats, sheep, nor 
 small pigs escaped them. Thus the country is literally impoverished by them." 
 To support the superstition there are two articles in the treaty made and 
 sanctioned by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Bight of Biafra and the 
 Island of Fernando Po on November 17, 1856, one of which runs thus : 
 
 "Article 12. That long detention having heretofore occurred in trade, and 
 much angry feeling having been excited in the natives from the destruction by 
 white men in their ignorance of a certain species of boa- constrictor that visits the 
 houses, and which is ju-ju, or sacred, to the Brassmen, it is hereby forbidden to 
 all British subjects to harm or destroy any such snake, but they are required, on 
 finding the reptile on the premises, to give notice thereof to the chief man in 
 town, who is to come and remove it away." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 525 
 
 that beguiled Eve," says Max Miiller, " seems hardly to invite 
 comparison with the much grander conception of that terrible 
 power of Vritra and Ahriman in the Veda and Avesta." l In 
 the Avesta there is a great battle between Thra^taona and 
 Azhi dahaka, the destroying serpent. 2 The greatest exploit of 
 Indra was the slaying of the serpent Ahi. " Where, Maruts," 
 he is made to say in one of the Vedic hymns, " was that custom 
 of yours that you should join me who am alone in the killing 
 of Ahi." In another song Traitana takes the place of Indra 
 in this battle ; more frequently it is Trita who fights, but 
 other gods also share in the same honour. 4 
 
 The result of Mr. Fergusson's investigations is to represent 
 serpent-worship as the basis of the religions of India, ex- 
 cepting Sivaism, in which the bull has had the first place. 5 In 
 Africa we most probably have the faith as it existed before 
 the dawn of history. 
 
 We know from the Egyptian monuments (says Mr. Fergusson) that 
 neither the physical features nor the social status of the negro have 
 altered in the slightest degree during the last four thousand years. If 
 the type was then fixed which has since remained unaltered, why not 
 his religion also 1 There seems no d priori difficulty. No other people 
 in the world seem so unchanged and unchangeable ; movements and 
 mixtures of races have taken place elsewhere. Christianity has swept 
 serpent- worship out of what were the limits of the Roman world, and 
 Mahomedanism has done the same over the greater part of Northern 
 Africa. Neither influence has yet penetrated to the Gold Coast ; and 
 there, apparently, the negro holds his old faith and his old feelings fast, 
 in spite of the progress of the rest of the world. It may be very horrible, 
 but, so far as we at present know, it is the oldest of human faiths, and 
 is now practised with more completeness at Dahomey than anywhere 
 else, at least at the present day. 
 
 1 Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. p. 155. 2 Ibid. p. 100. 
 
 3 Miiller's Rig- Veda Sanhitd, vol. i. p. 165. 
 
 4 The Vedic Ahi was three-headed, like the heavenly Nagas in Mr. Fergusson's 
 photographs, or like the Persian Zohak, only one of Zohak's three heads had 
 become human. 
 
 5 This, we shall see, is a very partial view. Besides the serpent and bull, 
 the sun and moon ; the sheep, goat, and elephant ; and the tortoise, fish, boar, 
 and lion, enter (as totems) into the bases of the Hindu mythologies. Fire also, 
 we may believe, was a totem in India. The Piqua tribe (one of the tribes of 
 the Shawanoese) are descended from a fabulous man generated in a fire. 
 Arch. Amer. vol. i. p. 275. 
 
526 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 (2) It was common for those who had this worship to 
 believe that the serpent was their progenitor. They were 
 called, and called themselves, Serpents, after and as being of 
 the breed of their god. Whole peoples, says Bryant, had the 
 serpent-name, and counted themselves as being of the Serpent- 
 breed. 1 " In Phrygia and upon the Hellespont was a people 
 styled 'Oc/>to7ez/et9, or of the Serpent-breed, who were said to 
 retain an affinity and correspondence with serpents." * In 
 Ehodes, an old name for which was Ophiusa ; 3 in Tenos, one 
 of the Cyclades ; 4 in Cyprus, also of old styled Ophiusa and 
 Ophiodes ; 5 in Crete, 6 and in the island Seriphus, 7 it is related 
 there were Serpent-tribes, or, as fable put it, swarms of 
 Serpents, the personality of the tribesmen being lost in their 
 name, as derived from, the god. Similarly at this day in 
 India there are numerous tribes of Nagas on the north-eastern 
 frontier, i.e. literally, Serpents, who were undoubtedly so named 
 from the Serpent- God, as the Snake Indians are named from 
 their totem. The name Nag has passed into a family or 
 stock name among Hindus generally. Colonel Meadows 
 Taylor says, " It is a common name both for males and females 
 among all classes of Hindus, from Brahmins down to the 
 lowest classes of Sudras and Mle'chhas." 8 The Thebans were 
 esteemed Serpentigense ; 9 JEgeus, one of the Athenian kings, 
 was reputed of the Serpent-breed ; 10 and the honour of having 
 been first king of Athens was assigned either to Apd/ccov, a 
 dragon, or to Cecrops, who was half a snake n probably as 
 being on the mother's side not of the Serpent stock. Sparta 
 
 1 Ancient Mythology, vol. i. p. 481. The references to Bryant are to the 
 Second Edition. London, 1775. 
 
 2 See Bryant ut supra ; Strabo, L. xiii. 1, p. 880 ; Pliny, L. vii. c. 2. 
 " Crates Pergamenus in Hellesponto circa Parium, genus hominum fuisse [tradit] 
 quos Ophiogenes vocat." 
 
 3 Strabo, xiv. 2. 4 e K \r)dri '00toO<r<ra, Steph. Byz. 
 5 Ovid, Met. x. 229. 6 Antoninus Liberalis, xli. 
 
 7 Virg. Ciris, p. 477 ("serpentiferam," Scaliger coll. Strabone, x. 5). 
 
 8 Tree and Serpent Worship, Appendix D. We infer from the statement 
 that Nag is the name of a gotra. 
 
 9 Schol. Soph. Antig. 126. 
 
 10 Tzetzes, Schol. Lycophron. 496. 
 
 11 Meursius de Reg. Ath. i. 6 ; Diod. Sic. i. 28 ; Aristoph. Vesp. 438. 
 
APPENDIX 527 
 
 is said of old to have swarmed with serpents ; l and the same 
 is related of Amyclae, 2 in Italy, which was a Spartan colony, 
 the meaning of the tradition being that the inhabitants in 
 either case were what in India would be called Nagas, and in 
 America Snakes. 3 The kings of Abyssinia put the Serpent 
 first on their list of kings as the progenitor of the royal 
 line. In Peru, where the worship of the serpent was 
 conjoined (as in many other cases) with sun-worship, the 
 principal deity in the Pantheon was the Sun-Serpent, whose 
 wife the female Serpent or female Sun brought forth at 
 one birth a boy and girl who became the first parents of 
 mankind. So the Caribs a fact already glanced at relate 
 that the first of their race was half a serpent, being the son of 
 a Warau woman by a river-god. Being slain and cut in pieces 
 by his mother's brothers, the pieces, when collected under a 
 mass of leaves, grew into a mighty warrior, the progenitor of 
 the Carib nation. 4 
 
 The legends of Cashmere throw not a little light on these 
 beliefs. They show us a doctrine resembling that worked out 
 in the story of Elsie Venner the serpent nature in the human 
 body capable of being displaced by a proper human nature. 
 An ancestor of Sakya-Muni, for example, fell in love with a 
 serpent-king's daughter, and married her. She could retain 
 her human body, but occasionally a nine-headed snake sprang 
 out of her neck. Her husband having struck it off one time 
 when it appeared, she remained human ever after. Others of 
 these legends represent a serpent-king (Naga Eaja) as "quitting 
 his tank," becoming converted, and building churches ; and a 
 sinful Brahman as being turned into a Naga, and spending his 
 life for some years thereafter in a lake. 
 
 1 Aristot. de Mirab. Auscutt. 23. 
 
 2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii. 5 ; viii. 29. 
 
 3 It is remarkable how many fables become intelligible when read in the 
 light of this and similar facts which we shall produce. Take, for example, the 
 
 'case of Cadmus as interpreted in this light by Mr. Fergusson : "Cadmus fought 
 and killed the dragon that devoured his men, and, sowing his teeth, raised 
 soldiers for his own purpose. In Indian language, he killed the Naga Raja 
 [Serpent-king] of Thebes, and made Sepoys of his subjects." 
 
 4 Brett's Indian Tribes of Guiana, pp. 390-393. 
 
528 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIEi 
 
 It was a natural consequence of the serpent being believed, 
 where he was dominant, to be the first father, that he should 
 be believed to be the first instructor of men. Accordingly we 
 find that it was " the feathered serpent " who taught the Aztecs 
 a knowledge of laws and of agriculture, and the principles of 
 religion ; and Cecrops (who was half a serpent) that introduced 
 marriage to Greece, and taught the people laws and the arts 
 of life. 
 
 Let us now see the results we have reached. They are 
 1. That the serpent was in numerous quarters of the world 
 worshipped as a god by the most diverse ' races of men. 2. 
 That serpent- worship is of the highest antiquity. 3. That 
 the worshippers, in many cases, believed themselves to be of 
 the Serpent-breed, derived from a serpent ancestor. 4. That 
 the worshippers were in numerous cases named after the god 
 Serpents. We now notice (5) that the serpent was used as 
 a badge in many cases among the tribes that had the cultus. 
 It was so used, for example, in Egypt, where was the sacred 
 serpent Thermuthis. 
 
 The natives are said to have made use of it as a royal tiara (says 
 Bryant) with which they ornamented the statues of Isis. 1 We learn 
 from Diodorus Siculus that the kings of Egypt wore high bonnets which 
 terminated in a round ball, and the whole was surrounded with figures 
 of asps. The priests likewise on their bonnets had the representation of 
 serpents. 2 
 
 Menelaus, a Spartan and Sparta, we saw, was " Ophite " 
 is represented as having a serpent for a device upon his 
 shield. 3 
 
 The deity might also be expected to find his place on the 
 coins of his worshippers, and the ancient coins having the 
 serpent are accordingly numerous. It appears on early Egyp- 
 tian coins of uncertain towns, and also on other early African 
 coins ; on early coins (all of date B.C.) of Heraclea in Lucania ; 
 of Perinthus in Thracia ; of Homolium in Thessalia ; of 
 Cassope in Epirus ; of Buthrotum and Corcyra in Epirus ; of 
 
 1 .Elian, Nat. An. x. 31. 
 
 2 Ancient Mythology, vol. i. p. 475 ; Diod. Sic. iii. 3. 
 
 3 Pausanias, x. 26. 
 
APPENDIX 529 
 
 Amastris in Paphlagonia ; of Cyzicus and Pergamus in Mysia ; 
 of Dardanus in Troas ; of Cos, an island of Caria; and of 
 Magnesia, Nacrasa, and Thyatira, in Lydia. 1 
 
 2. The Horse. The Horse figures in the heavens as 
 Pegasus, and we find him on the coins of numerous cities. 
 
 He is on the coins of various cities of Hispania and Gallia ; of 
 Fanum in Umbria ; Beneventum in Samnium ; Nuceria in Campania ; 
 Arpi, Luceria, and Salapia in Apulia ; Grumentum in Lucania ; Thurium 
 in Apulia ; ^Etna in Sicilia, and also Camarina, Gela, and Panormus, 
 in Sicilia ; of Syracuse ; Melita (malta) ; Panticapeeum in Taurica ; 
 Cypsela, Maronea, ^Egospotami, and Cardia, all in Thracia ; Amphipolis, 
 Bottiaea, and Thessalonica, all in Macedonia. On the coins of Thessalia 
 in genere, and on those of Atrax, Crannon, Demetrias, Elatea, Gyrton, 
 Larissa, Pelinna, Phalanna, Pharcadon, Pherae, Perrhaebia, Ctimene, 
 Scotussa, and Tricca, in Thessalia ; of Alyzia in Acarnania ; Locri- 
 Opuntii in Locris ; Phocians in Phocis ; Tanagra in Bceotia ; Pheneus in 
 Arcadia ; Gargara in Mysia ; Parium in Mysia ; Alexandria in Troas ; 
 Cyme in JEolis ; Colophon in Ionia ; Magnesia in Ionia ; Mylasa in 
 Caria ; Termessus in Pisidia ; Antioch in Cilicia ; Adana in Cilicia ; 
 Aninetum in Lydia ; Phrygia Epictetus ; Larissa in Seleucis ; Cyrene 
 in Cyrenaica; Tarentum in Calabria, and (adds Mr. Sim) perhaps on 
 many others. The coins are all of date before the Christian era. 
 
 Was the horse, who was thus honoured, a god ? In the 
 photographs in Mr. Fergusson's book we have* some evidence 
 that he was a god among the serpent-worshipping Buddhists. 
 The horse first occurs in Plate xxxv. Fig. 1. Mr. Fergusson 
 remarks on it, " In this bas-relief the principal object is the 
 Sacred Horse, richly caparisoned, who heads the procession, 
 and towards whom all eyes were turned ; . . . behind him a 
 chief in his chariot, bearing the umbrella of State, not over 
 himself, but apparently in honour of the horse." It next 
 occurs along with Siddhartha on Plate lix., but the worship in 
 this case seems to be all given to the prince. It occurs 
 again on Plates Ixxx. and Ixxxi. On these Mr. Fergusson 
 observes : 
 
 Figs. 2 and 3 of this Plate (i.e. Ixxx.) and Fig. 3 of Plate Ixxxi., 
 
 1 The lists of coins cited in this paper have been furnished to the writer by 
 an accomplished numismatist, Mr. George Sim, Curator of the Coins in the 
 Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh. 
 
 2 M 
 
530 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 instead of the emblems we are usually accustomed to, contain two 
 medallions, the upper representing the worship of the Horse, the lower, 
 Buddha, seated cross-legged, surrounded by listeners or adorers. As we 
 have frequently had occasion to remark, the Horse plays an important 
 part in the sculptures at Amravati. It is once represented as honoured 
 at Sanchi ; but this form of worship occurs here several times, but 
 nowhere so prominently as in those three Dagobas (and it is to be 
 presumed that there was a fourth). It is not easy to say what we are to 
 understand from the prominence of the Horse in such a position as this. 
 Is it an importation from Scythia, brought by immigrants from that 
 country ? Is it the Horse of the Sun or of Poseidon 1 Is it the 
 Avalokiles'vara of the Thibetan fables ? Some one must answer who is 
 more familiar than I am with Eastern mythology^ At present it will be 
 sufficient to recall to memory how important a part the Horse sacrifice, 
 or As'wamedha, plays in the Mahabharata, and in all the mythic history 
 of India. What is still more curious is, that the worship of the Horse 
 still seems to linger in remote parts of India. At least, in a recent work 
 by Mr. Hislop, missionary at Nagpore, edited by Sir R. Temple, he [Mr. 
 Hislop] describes the religion of the Gonds in the following nine words : 
 " All introduce figures of the horse in their worship." Other instances 
 might, no doubt, be found if looked for ; but the subject is new and 
 unthought of. 
 
 If Mr. Fergusson had looked further in Mr. Hislop's book 
 he would have found that the fact of horse-worship is not left 
 to inference or conjecture. In a footnote at p. 51, Sir E. 
 Temple says : " The god Koda Pen, or Horse-god, is some- 
 times worshipped by the Gonds, and sometimes there are 
 sacred images of this animal." So we have in India a horse- 
 god now. What tribes besides the Gonds have worshipped 
 him? 
 
 The horse occurs again in Mr. Fergusson's plates. In 
 Plate xcv., Fig. 4, he is introduced in mid-air, alongside the 
 wheel (a Buddhist idol l ), as an object of equal reverence ; and 
 on a piece of sculpture, where the wheel just above him is the 
 special object of worship. In Plate xcvi., Fig. 3, he issues 
 from the portal with the umbrella of State borne over him, the 
 hero of the representation. The same subject is repeated on 
 another slab, Plate xcviii., Fig. 2. The opinion formed by Mr. 
 Fergusson is that the bas-reliefs show that the horse was an 
 object of reverence, if not exactly of worship, at Amravati, and 
 
 1 See Ezekiel, chap. x. vv. 8 ff. 
 
APPENDIX 531 
 
 that the reverence paid to him is the counterpart of the worship 
 of the bull Nandi by the Shivites. 
 
 Let us now see what evidence there is of this worship else- 
 where. Mr. Bryant supplies a goodly array of facts. In his 
 Essay l on Metis and Hippa, after disposing of the former as one 
 of the most ancient deities of "the Amonians," represented 
 under the symbol of a beautiful female countenance surrounded 
 with serpents, he proceeds to say : 
 
 Hippa was another goddess of like antiquity, and equally obsolete. 
 Some traces, however, are to be still found in the Orphic verses, by which 
 we may discover her original character and department. She is there 
 represented as the nurse of Dionysus, and seeins to have been the same as 
 Cybele, who was worshipped in the mountains of Phrygia, and by the 
 Lydians upon Tmolus. She is said to have been the Soul of the World 
 H fjiev yap"l7nra TOV Travros ovcra ^vx 7 ? 2 an( l the person who re- 
 ceived and fostered Dionysus when he came from the thigh of his father. 3 
 This history relates to his second birth, when he returned to a second 
 state of childhood. Dionysus was the chief god of the Gentile world, and 
 worshipped under various titles, which at length came to be looked on 
 as different deities. Most of these secondary deities had the title of 
 Hippius and Hippia ; and as they had female attendants in their temples, 
 these, too, had the name of Hippai. What may have been the original 
 of the term Hippa and Hippus will be matter of future disquisition. 
 Thus much is certain, that the Greeks uniformly referred it to Horses. 
 
 Ares was Hippius ; 4 so was Poseidon, although a god of 
 the sea, being so called from raising a horse out of the earth in 
 his contest with Athene for the superiority at Athens ; 5 but 
 Athene herself was Hippia, as were also Demeter and Hera. 6 
 Demeter, styled Hippa, the Greeks represented as turned into 
 a mare ; 7 Hippius Poseidon, in like manner represented as a 
 horse, they supposed in that shape to have had an intimate 
 connection with the goddess. 8 The nymph Ocyroe was changed 
 into a mare, and so was Philyra, whom Saturn, in the shape 
 
 1 Yol. ii. p. 27. 
 
 2 See, in proof of this, Orphic Frag. 43 ; Orpheus Gesneri Lipsise, 1764, 
 p. 401. 
 
 3 Orph. Hymn. 48, 49. 4 Pausan. v. 15. 
 5 Serv. ad Georgic. i. 12. 6 Pausan. 7.c. 
 
 7 Pausan. viii. 25, 5 ; and see Smith's Did. s.v. " Arion." 
 
 8 Ovid, Metam. vi. 118. 
 
532 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 of a horse, followed neighing over the mountains of Thes- 
 saly ! l 
 
 Bryant, who conceived that the ancients knew nothing of 
 their own mythologies, and whose great discovery was that 
 every mythological fact anywhere to be found related either to 
 Noah, the ark, or the deluge, thinks the Greeks were quite 
 wrong in fancying Hippa and Hippus to have had anything to 
 do with the horse. These gods, he says, came from Egypt, 
 and were one with the sun and Osiris, and ultimately with the 
 ark. 2 He tells us, however, that the horse (like the ox and 
 eagle, which we shall see were gods) was a sacred symbol in 
 Egypt, where almost every animal, from beetles to bulls, was 
 worshipped, so that the Egyptians made the mistake equally 
 with the Greeks, if there was one. Mistake or not, there is 
 no question of the reality of the faith that followed on it. 
 The horse -gods and mare -goddesses had their temples and 
 regular worship, and not only gods and goddesses, but places, 
 and presumably tribes of men, were named from the horse. 
 There were the Hippici Montes in Sarmatia ; "ITTTTOV K^firj in 
 Lycia ; "ITTTTOV d/cpa in Libya ; and a town Hippos both in 
 Sicily and in Arabia Felix. 3 The horse-name occurs frequently 
 in composition, as in Hipporum, Hippouris, Hippana, Hip- 
 ponesus, Hippocrene, and many others; and, indeed, horse- 
 names are so frequent in Homer alone a fact observed by 
 Mr. Gladstone as to suggest that there were horse-tribes in, 
 and bordering on, Greece, as there were Nagas and Ophites. 
 One of the twelve Athenian tribes was Hippothoontis, 4 their 
 eponymous progenitor Hippothoon, who was nurtured by mares! 5 
 jEolus and his family were Hippotades, 6 and a village in the 
 tribe (Eneis was Hippotamada. 7 There was a tribe, Hipporese, 8 
 in Upper Ethiopia, and the Hippopodes were a people of 
 Scythia, who had horses' feet ! 9 There was a city Hipponesus 
 
 1 Ovid, Metam. ii. 668 ; Virg. Georg. iii. 92. 
 
 2 Vol. ii. p. 408. That the totem should be identified with the Sun is what 
 we should expect. 3 Agathem. ii. 13 ; Steph. Byz. 
 
 4 Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. Att. 40, 45, 46, 59, etc. ; Pollux, viii. 110. 
 
 5 Hygin. Fab. 187. 6 Horn. Od. x. 2, etc. 
 
 7 Steph. Byz. 8 Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 30. 
 
 9 Dionys. Per. 310 ; Plin. Nat. Hist. iv. 13, 27, etc. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 533 
 
 in Caria, and another of that name in Libya. 1 There were two 
 towns called Hippo in Africa, and a town Hippola jn the 
 Peloponnesus ; also a Hippo in Spain, and a town of the 
 Bruttii, now Monte Leone. 2 
 
 The horse appears on the coins of four cities of Thrace, 
 where were the horses of Diomedes, that fed on human flesh 3 
 a suggestion that these horse-tribes men were cannibals. 
 Bryant says these horses were the priests of Dionysus ; his 
 theory also is that they were men. When we turn to Thessaly 
 equorum altrix on the coins of fourteen towns in which 
 we find the horse, we are in the country of the Centaurs, half 
 men and half horses no doubt men who were yet called 
 horses, after their animal god. Their battle with the Lapithae, 
 springing out of a quarrel at the marriage of Hippodamia, is 
 famous in fable. 4 Chiron, the most celebrated of the Centaurs, 
 was a son of Saturn (by repute), who changed himself into a 
 horse to avoid his wife Rhea. 5 Intimate relations these be- 
 tween the horse and the oldest anthropomorphic gods. He 
 was the instructor of mankind in the use of plants, the study 
 of medical herbs, and the polite arts, having in these even the 
 great serpent ^Esculapius for a pupil. 6 Finally, Jupiter made 
 a constellation of him under the name Sagittarius. 7 
 
 Pausanias says that Demeter, worshipped by the Phigalians, 
 was represented as a woman with the head of a horse. 8 Marus 
 Balus, an old Italian god, who lived three times, was biform, 
 half man, half horse. 9 In Pegasus we have a winged horse 
 sprung from the blood of Medusa, that flew up to heaven 
 immediately on being born. 10 He was the favourite of the 
 Muses, figured in various exploits on earth, and was finally 
 placed among the constellations. 11 He was the special insigne 
 of Corinth, and occurs on ancient coins of that place, of Syra- 
 cuse, and Corcyra. 12 A Gaulish coin belonging to the first 
 
 1 Steph. Byz. 
 
 2 Strabo, xvii. 3, 13 ; Steph. Byz. ; Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 1, 3 ; Pompon. 
 Mela, ii. 4. 3 Lucret. v. 29, etc. 4 Odyss. xxi. 295, etc. 
 
 5 Tzetzes ad Lycophron. 1200. 6 Find. Pyth. iii. 6, etc. 
 
 7 Ovid, Fast. v. 414. 8 viii. 42. 9 .Elian, Var. Hist. ix. 16. 
 
 10 Hes. Theog. 281, etc. u Ovid, Fast. iii. 457. 
 
 12 Spanhemii Numismata. vol. i. pp. 274 et scq. 
 
534 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 century B.C. has the horse with a human head. We have 
 heavenly horses in Homer; the horses, ordinary and winged, 
 of Agni, Indra, and Soma, and the eight-legged horse of Odin. 
 There is a controversy as to whether Agni himself was 
 not a horse. 1 In Max Miiller's Rig- Veda Sanhita (p. 15) the 
 reader will find the distinguished professor combating Messrs. 
 Boehtlingk and Eoth over certain Yedic passages, in which 
 these gentlemen, in their Dictionary, say : " He (Agni) him- 
 self appears as a red horse." We cannot pretend to enter into 
 the merits of the controversy, but the reader may already be 
 satisfied that an Agni Hippius should create no more wonder 
 than a Hippius Poseidon. 2 
 
 We conclude, then, that the horse had been anciently a 
 god in India, in Egypt, in Greece, and many other quarters ; 
 that it was such before most of the deities figuring in the 
 Olympus appeared ; that it became the insigne of many tribes 
 of men ; and that it is certain there were numerous tribes 
 named after it. 
 
 3. The Bull. The Bull figures in the heavens ; and bulls, 
 bisons, minotaurs, and parts of these on coins are too numer- 
 ous for specification. A few will be found figured in the 
 Numismata Sparihemii. As the bull and cow are well-known 
 sacred animals, we may be brief with them. 
 
 The living animal (says Bryant) was in many places held sacred, 
 and reverenced as a deity. One instance of this was at Memphis, where 
 
 1 Whether he was a horse or not, he was certainly a goat, as we shall see. 
 Like the other men-gods, he was in turn identified with the totem, whatever it 
 was, of the tribe that took him up. 
 
 2 See Rig-Veda, Sanhita, pp. 14-18 ; and see p. 27. In the Padma Purana, 
 Krishna in the form of a horse is represented as rescuing the vedas when " the 
 worlds " were burnt up (Muir's Texts, vol. iii. second edition, p. 28) ; and in 
 the Vishnu Purana we have the Sun as a horse teaching a horse-tribe men 
 called Vagins (i.e. horses), from being instructed by the Sun-horse (Muir's Texts, 
 vol. iii. second ed. p. 51; and see p. 52). The horse gives his name to a Brahmanic 
 gotra. The Sun (Aditya) appears again as a horse in the Catapatha Brahmana 
 (Id. vol. iv. p. 62 ; and see vol. i. second ed. pp. xii. and 12, where the horse is 
 also identified with Yama and Trita.) We have no doubt that these partial con- 
 tributions to ancient Indian literature were made by men of the horse stock. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 535 
 
 they worshipped the sacred bull Apis ; l and another was to be found at 
 Heliopolis, where they held the bull MneVis in equal veneration. 2 The 
 like custom was observed in Mo-memphis, Aphroditopolis, and Chusa, 
 with this difference, that the object of adoration in these places was an 
 heifer or cow. 3 
 
 The animal was also worshipped under symbols, or as re- 
 presented by images. We see this illustrated in the case of 
 the Jews, who fell into the idolatry with the sanction of Aaron 
 himself. 4 An apology made for Aaron is, that he adopted this 
 image not from Apis or Osiris, but from the Cherubim having 
 the faces of oxen ! 5 The idolatry was probably never fully 
 suppressed. It was openly renewed under Jeroboam, who 
 made two calves, and set one up in Bethel, the other in Dan. 
 In this case, as in the preceding, the calf was recognised as 
 the god that had brought the people out of the land of Egypt ! 
 The calves of Jeroboam are spoken of by Hosea (x. 15) as 
 young cows ; as also by the Septuagint and by Josephus, who 
 says that Jeroboam made two heifers of gold, and consecrated 
 to them two temples. The Bull Nandi is, at the present day, 
 a quasi-god in India, worshipped by the Shivites ; while by all 
 Hindus the cow is religiously regarded. Of course, in Bryant's 
 system, the bull is Noah, while the crescent on the side of 
 Apis is the Ark. Every one knows what cows are in the 
 Dawn system of Mr. Max Miiller. 
 
 As in the case of the serpent and horse, the religious 
 imagination conjured into existence a variety of spiritual 
 bovine beings bulls with men's bodies, men with bull's 
 bodies, bulls with two heads, and so forth. Astarte, we saw, 
 had, according to Sanchoniatho, a bull's head, and Diana was 
 worshipped by the Scythae, under the title of Tauropolus 6 and 
 Taurione. 7 In the Orphic fragments Dionysus is represented 
 as having the countenance of a bull, and elsewhere as being a 
 
 1 Herod, ii. 153. 2 Plutarch de Is. et Os. 33. 
 
 3 Vol. ii. p. 415. Strabo, xvii. 1, 22 ; ibid. 35 ; Lilian, Nat. Anim. x. 27. 
 
 4 See a curious chapter on this subject in Lewis, Origines, vol. iii. p. 32. 
 
 5 The later Jews say that the insigne of the tribe of Ephraim was an ox. 
 
 6 Eurip. Iph. Taur. 1457 ; Aristoph. Lys. 447 ; Soph. Ajax, 172. 
 
 7 Suidas. 
 
536 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 bull. 1 In Argos he was fiovyevrjs, the offspring of a bull ; 2 
 ravpoyevrfs is one of hfs epithets in the Orphic hymns. 3 
 Poseidon was Taureus 4 as well as Hippius, and so also was 
 Oceanus. 5 The bull-faced people are frequent in the legends 
 of India, where the bull is a god; and in Japan we find a 
 deity, Goso Tennoo the ox-headed prince of heaven. 6 
 
 The people of the Tauric Chersonesus were named, accord- 
 ing to Eustathius, from the bull Taurus ol Se Tavpoi TO 
 eOvos CLTTO rov %o>ov Tcivpov, <acr/, KaKovvTai? So were the 
 following mountains, places, and peoples :-^-Taurus, Taurania, 
 Taurica, Taurenta, Tauropolis, Tauropolium, Taurominium, 
 Tauri, Taurini, and Taurisci. 8 How far the god might be 
 followed as giving names to other places and peoples by the 
 process of etyrnologically analysing the names in different 
 languages, we have not the means of ascertaining. 
 
 We have found the bull figured in the heavens and on 
 numerous coins, and giving his name to numerous tribes of 
 men, worshipped as a god, and regarded as the father and first 
 lawgiver by his worshippers. We have found him also in 
 intimate relations with the earlier gods and goddesses, who 
 either drew titles from him or wore his form, as if they 
 supervened upon a system in which he had been chief, and 
 from which, in the process of time, they displaced him. His 
 case thus resembles that of the two animal gods previously 
 considered. 
 
 4. The Lion. The Lion is in the heaven as Leo, and 
 figures on the ancient coins of many cities, e.g.: 
 
 On coins of Hispania and Gallia ; 9 Teate in Marrucini ; Capua in 
 
 1 Orph. Hymns, 30, 45 ; Lye. Cass. 209 ; et Schol. ibid. 
 
 2 Plutarch de Isid. et Osir. 35 ; Qucestiones Grcecce, 36. 
 
 3 Orph. Frag. 28. 
 
 4 Hesiod, Sc. 104 ; Hesych.; Eustatli. ad Iliad, ii. 381. 
 
 5 "Bull-headed." Eurip. Orest. 1377. 
 
 6 Ksempfer's Japan, p. 418, cited by Bryant. 
 
 7 Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 306. 
 
 8 Steph. Byz. ; Cs. Bell. Civ. ii. 4 ; Strab. vii. 4, iv. 6, 12, etc. 
 
 9 Mr. John Evans, in his work on British Coins, p. 180, says the lion fre- 
 quently occurs on Gaulish coins. 
 
APPENDIX 537 
 
 Campania ; Arpi in Apulia ; Venusia in Apulia ; Paestum in Lucania ; 
 Heraclea and Velia in Lucania ; Rhegium in Bruttium ; Leontini, 
 Panormus, Syracuse, and Messana, in Sicilia ; Chersonesus Taurica (Pan- 
 ticapseum) ; Tomis in Mcesia Inferior ; Abdera, Perinthus, Cardia, Lysi- 
 machia, and the Chersonesus, in Thracia ; Thasos ; Amphipolis, Macedonia ; 
 Thessalia in genere; Corcyra in Epirus ; Heraclea in Acarnania ; Corinthus 
 in Achaia; Gortyna in Greta; Adrianotherae vel Hadrianotherae in 
 Bithynia ; Metroum in Bithynia ; Germe in Mysia ; Magnesia and Miletus 
 in Ionia ; Smyrna in Ionia ; Acrasus, Apollonia, Attalia, Blaundus, Gordus, 
 Hyrcania, Magnesia, Philadelphia, Saettae, Sardes, Silandus, Temenothyrae, 
 Thyatira, all in Lydia, being thirteen towns; Acmonia, Cadi, Cibyra, 
 Peltae, Sala, and Synaus, towns in Phrygia ; Pessinus in Galatia ; Gyrene 
 in Cyrenaica ; in Libya in genere. The coins are all of date before the 
 Christian era. 
 
 Was the lion, who was thus honoured, a god ? He was ; 
 but his worship must have early become obsolete, as we have 
 only one well -vouched instance of it within the historical 
 period, namely, in Leontopolis, the capital of a district of the 
 same name in Egypt. .ZElian and Porphyry both say it was 
 worshipped there was the deity of the place. 1 There is a 
 considerable amount of evidence, however, that this animal 
 had, in prehistoric times, been more generally worshipped, 
 and that tribes of men had been named after him. 
 
 We have become familiar with compounds of human and 
 bestial forms in connection with the worship of the serpent, 
 horse, and bull ; the serpent body with human head ; the 
 female human form with one or more horse - heads ; the 
 Minotaur ; and should expect that if the lion were a god, he 
 should, by the same mental processes, be made to enter into 
 similar compounds. Since we have him in one place as a 
 god, and have him in the heavens and on numerous coins, and, 
 what is familiar, as the symbol of many tribes, should we find 
 such a compound of the human and leonine forms worshipped, 
 venerated, or feared, or with a remarkable hold on the imagina- 
 tions of men, it will not be unreasonable to infer that the 
 compound had an origin similar to the others we have become 
 acquainted with. Now we have such a compound in the 
 
 1 Bryant's Observations and Inquiries, Cambridge, 1767, p. 130. JElian de 
 Animal, xii. 7. Porph. de Abst. iv. 9 ; cf. Strab. xvii. 1, 40. 
 
538 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 Sphinx, which therefore may throw some light on the cultus 
 of the lion. 1 In the Egyptian hieroglyphics, we are told, the 
 sphinx bears the name of Neb or Lord, and Akar or Intelligence 
 the form of it being a lion's body with human head. The 
 Great Sphinx at Gizeh is colossal, and hewn out of the natural 
 rock. 2 It is of great antiquity an age at least equal to the 
 Pyramids. In front of the breast of this sphinx was found, in 
 1816, a small chapel formed of three hieroglyphical tablets, 
 dedicated by Thothmes III. and Kameses II. to the sphinx, 
 whom, it is said, they adored as Haremukhu, i.e. the sun on 
 the horizon. 3 The fourth tablet, which formed the front, had 
 a door in the centre, and two couchant lions placed upon it. 
 "A small lion was found on the pavement, and an altar 
 between its fore-paws, apparently for sacrifices offered to it in 
 the time of the Bonians." 4 In 1852 discovery was made of 
 another temple to the south of the sphinx, built at the time of 
 the fourth dynasty, of huge blocks of alabaster and granite, 
 and which was most probably, like the former, devoted to its 
 worship. Numerous sphinxes have been found elsewhere in 
 Egypt, as at Memphis and at Tanis. That found at the latter 
 place is assigned to the age of the Shepherd dynasty. Sphinxes 
 have also been found in Assyria and Babylonia, and they are 
 not uncommon on Phoenician works of art. Mr. Layard 
 mentions having dug out of the Mound of Nimroud " a crouch- 
 ing lion, rudely carved in basalt, which appeared to have fallen 
 from the building above, and to have been exposed for centuries 
 to the atmosphere " ; also a pair of gigantic winged bulls, and 
 a pair of small winged lions, whose heads were gone. Human- 
 headed lions he found, of course ; also human figures with 
 lions' heads. 5 
 
 1 The reader will find a long treatise on the Sphinx in the Numismata 
 Spanhemii, where also the Sphinx is figured on several coins. It is hardly 
 necessary to say it is common on coins. 
 
 2 It is upwards of 172 feet long and 56 feet high. 
 
 3 " Isis sub forma Leonis itidem et cum facie muliebri occurrit nonnunquam 
 in nummis JEgyptiorum sicuti in quodam Antonini Pii quern seruat Gaza Medicea." 
 Spanhemii Numismata, torn. i. De Sphinge in nummis. 
 
 4 See article "Sphinx," Charnbers's Encyc., and authorities there cited. 
 
 5 Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 463. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 539 
 
 The Egyptian sphinx had the whole body leonine, except 
 the face, and this would appear to be the most ancient form ; 
 the sphinxes with wings are later, and are supposed to have 
 originated with the Babylonians or Assyrians. The Greek 
 sphinxes were still further from the primitive type ; they were 
 all winged, and had other elements in their composition besides 
 the human and leonine. Probably they were unrelated to the 
 Egyptian as an original. The Theban sphinx, whose myth 
 first appears in Hesiod (Theog. 326), had a lion's body, female 
 head, and bird's wings a suitable emblem, we should say, for 
 a composite local tribe comprising lions and, say, eagles or 
 doves. 1 She was a supernatural being, the progeny of the 
 two-headed dog of Geryon, by Chimsera ; 2 or of Typhon, by 
 Echidna. 3 On either view she had lion kindred, for Typhon, 
 although a Naga, had one celebrated lion among his offspring, 
 the Nemean lion to wit, 4 who infested the neighbourhood of 
 Nemea, filling its inhabitants with continual alarms. The 
 first labour of Hercules was to destroy him, and the Nemean 
 games instituted in honour of one who had fallen a victim 
 to a snake 5 were renewed to commemorate the destruction 
 of a lion ! A strong suggestion, this, of the new-comers, the 
 Heraclidse, being alike antipathetical to the snakes and lions, 
 to the tribes, as we read it, who had these animals as gods, 
 and were called after them. 
 
 Lion names were common, and the name remains. We 
 believe the result of inquiry will be to establish, by etymo- 
 logical evidence, that the animal gave its name to numerous 
 tribes. Such evidence as we have to adduce of this fact, how- 
 ever, will be better appreciated when produced further on in 
 this exposition. 
 
 5. The Dog. The Dog gives its name to three constella- 
 tions Canis Major, Canis Minor, and Canicula, as well as to 
 the stars Canis Sirius (Cahen Sehur), the brightest in the 
 heavens ; Procyon and Cynosura, " the dog's tail." It appears 
 
 1 Eurip. Phcen. 1023; Palsephatus de Fabulis ; Schol. Eur. Phcen. 45, 806; 
 Apollod. Bill. iii. 5, 8. 2 Hes. I.e. 
 
 3 Apollod. Bibl. iii. 5, 8. 4 Ib. ii. 5. 5 lb. iii. 6, 4. 
 
540 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 on various ancient coins ; for example, on uncertain coins of 
 Etruria ; on coins of Pisaurum in Umbria ; Hatria in Picenum ; 
 Larinum in Frentani; on the coins of Campania in genere, 
 notably of Nuceria in Campania ; of Valentia in Bruttium ; 
 Agyrium in Sicilia; of Eryx, Messana, Motya, Panormus, 
 Segesta (very many), and Selinus, all in Sicily ; of Chersonesus 
 Taurica ; Phalanna in Thessalia ; Corcyra in Epirus ; Same in 
 Cephallenia ; Cydonia in Crete ; Colophon in Ionia, and Phocsea 
 in Ionia. Besides these, which are all of date B.C., there are 
 coins figured in the Numismata Spanhemii with the legend 
 of the dog Cerberus, and one in Mr. Evans's British Coins, 
 of which that learned author says : 
 
 The reverse is very remarkable, and must be regarded as in some 
 manner connected with the early British mythology, though I must con- 
 fess myself entirely at a loss to offer any satisfactory elucidation of the 
 device. The attitude of the dog [which has one of its fore feet placed on 
 a serpent] is very like that in which it is represented on the small brass 
 coins of Campanian fabric, bearing the name of Roma, but there is no 
 serpent on those coins. The type is hitherto unpublished, and belongs 
 to the third class of the coins of Cunobeline those with the name of his 
 capital upon them. 1 
 
 With such facts before us, and the knowledge we have 
 already attained to of their probable significance, it need not 
 surprise us to find that the dog was a deity. Bryant, after 
 doing all he could to work him into his Ark scheme, has to 
 confess that his view, that the belief in the worship of the 
 dog was derived from Cahen being the Egyptian name for a 
 priest or sacred official, won't meet the facts. 
 
 Though I have endeavoured to show (he says) that the term of 
 which I have been treating was greatly misapplied in being so uniformly 
 referred to dogs, yet I do not mean to insinuate that it did not sometimes 
 relate to them. They were distinguished by this sacred title, and were 
 held in some degree of veneration. 2 
 
 The facts are as follows : Juvenal states that dogs were 
 worshipped in some places, " oppida tota canem venerantur " ; 
 
 1 Evans, British Coins, p. 316. 2 Vol. i. p. 351. 3 Sat. 15, v. 8. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 541 
 
 Diodorus Siculus says the same thing ; l Plutarch relates that 
 in Egypt they were holy, but not after the time of Cambyses, 
 when they misbehaved themselves by devouring the bull Apis, 
 whom that king slew ; 2 and Herodotus informs us they were 
 so regarded by the Egyptians in his own time that when a 
 dog died the members of the family it belonged to shaved 
 themselves all over. 3 
 
 The dog was called Cahen and Cohen a title given by 
 the Egyptians to the animal and vegetable gods they wor- 
 shipped in general (query, an equivalent of totem ?) ; and 
 while the living dog was thus esteemed, there were spiritual 
 dog-beings or gods, such as Canuphis, or Cneph (Anuphis and 
 Anubis of the Greeks and Eomans), some represented as 
 having the human body and dog's head, and others conceived 
 as having the full canine figure, with one, two, or more heads, 
 just as in the case of the heavenly Nagas, bulls and horses. 
 As the animals last named gave titles to the gods who super- 
 seded them, so did the dog ; Hermes 4 was a dog. Hecate had 
 three heads, one a dog's, one a horse's, and one a boar's, 
 which suggests, on the system of interpretation we have been 
 propounding, that she originated in a compromise of a local 
 tribe, which contained gentes of the dog, horse, and boar stocks. 
 The boar will be shown to have been a god, at least a totem. 
 In a temple of Vulcan near Mount ^Etna was a breed of dogs 
 that treated good men gently, and were ferocious to bad men, 
 which is curious, as we have similar fables respecting serpents 
 in Syria (given by Aristotle), 5 and birds in the islands of 
 Diornedes (given by Pliny). 6 On these dog-beings Bryant has 
 some remarks in which we are disposed to concur. " When I 
 read of the brazen dog of Vulcan," he says, " of the dog of 
 Erigone, of Orion, of Geryori [a two-headed dog], of Orus, of 
 Hercules, of Amphilochus, of Hecate, I cannot but suppose 
 that they were titles of so many deities, or else of their priests, 
 who were denominated from their office." 7 
 
 1 i. 18. 2 Isid. et Osir. 44. 3 ii. 66. 
 
 4 Plut. de Isid. et Osir. xi. ; Porphyr. de Abst. iii. 16. 
 
 5 De Mirab. Auscult. 161. 6 Plin. Nat. Hist. x. 61. 
 7 Bryant, vol. i. p. 347. 
 
542 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 There were dog-tribes as a matter of course. Such we 
 must assume the Cynocephali in Libya to have been, whom 
 Herodotus mentions as a race of men with the heads of dogs ; l 
 named, as Bryant observes, from their god fable adding the 
 physical peculiarity in explanation of the dog-name. ^Elian 
 and Plutarch, besides bearing witness to the veneration paid 
 to dogs in Egypt, relate " that the people of Ethiopia had a 
 dog for their king; that he was kept in great state, being 
 surrounded with a numerous body of officers and guards, and 
 in all respects royally treated. Plutarcl} speaks of him as 
 being worshipped with a degree of religious reverence." ^ No 
 doubt they had heard something like this, and misunderstood 
 it. The king was a dog, in the same way that a Naga Eaja 
 is a serpent, and the reference is to a dog-tribe. What the 
 lamented Speke tells of the traditions of the Wahuma in 
 Central Africa suggests to us that inquiry may yet show that 
 there was a tribe in that quarter with the dog for its totem, 
 and it is probably there still. 3 
 
 6. The Swan. The Swan is in the heavens as Cycnus, 
 and figures on the coins of Camarina in Sicilia ; Leontini in 
 Sicilia ; Argissa in Thessalia ; Clazomenae in Ionia ; on the 
 coins of other uncertain cities of Ionia, and of Eion in Mace- 
 donia. The coins of Eion, says Mr. Sim, are of date 500 B.C., 
 while the others having the swan are probably of date about 
 300 B.C. 
 
 We have no direct evidence of the swan having been a 
 god that is, having temples of his own ; but two great gods, 
 Zeus and Brahma, wore his form, and the latter was named 
 after him ; and there is a considerable quantity of myth and 
 fable explainable on the supposition that the bird had been at 
 least a totem. Mr. Evans inclines to think the swan was 
 Phoenician. It is found figured on ancient Phoenician works 
 of art. 
 
 1 Herod, iv. 191 ; Isidor. Hisp. Orig. xi. 3. 
 
 2 Bryant, vol. i. p. 329 ; Julian de Nat. Anim. vii. 40 ; Pint. adv. Stoicos, xi. 
 
 3 Speke's Journal, pp. 252, 257. 
 
APPENDIX 543 
 
 Three persons are named by Ovid as having been changed 
 into swans : a son of Poseidon, who was killed by Achilles 
 before the metamorphosis ; a son of Apollo, who in a fit of 
 vexation committed suicide, and was changed into a swan ; 
 and a son of Sthenelus, of Liguria, who in his affliction for the 
 death of his friend Phaethon was changed into a swan. 1 Of 
 the last story there is another version given by Lucian, who 
 speaks of swans in the plural in his jocular account of an 
 attempt to discover the sweet-singing birds when boating on 
 the Eridanus. 2 In the Prometheus of ^Eschylus, lo is directed 
 to proceed till she reaches the Gorgonian plains, where reside 
 the three daughters of Phorcys in the shape of swans, with 
 one eye and one tooth between them. 3 Socrates is represented 
 as speaking of swans as his fellow - servants, and Porphyry 
 assures us that he was very serious in doing so. 4 Calchas, a 
 priest of Apollo, was called a swan ; 5 and at the first institu- 
 tion of the rites of Apollo, it is said many swans came from 
 Asia, and went round the island Delos for the space of seven 
 days. 6 The companions of Diomedes, lamenting his death, 
 were changed into birds resembling swans. 7 They settled in 
 some islands in the Adriatic, and were remarkable for the 
 tameness with which they approached the Greeks, and for the 
 horror with which they shunned all other nations. 8 Lastly, 
 the singing of swans was very celebrated, and spoken of not 
 only by the poets, but by such men as Plato, Plutarch, Pliny, 
 and Cicero as a thing well known. Their melancholy strains 
 were never so sweet as when they were dying. The only 
 instance of the form of this bird being assumed by a Greek 
 god is in the case of Leda or Nemesis. Zeus, in the form of 
 a swan, deceived the lady. She produced two eggs in con- 
 sequence, from one of which sprang Pollux and Helena, and 
 from the other Castor and Clytaemnestra ! 
 
 Again, the inhabitants of islands who, though in the swan 
 
 1 Ovid, Met. xii. 144, vii. 379, ii. 377. Besides these there are two mythical 
 persons of the name, both sons of Ares. 
 
 2 Lucian de Electro sen Cygnis. 3 ^Esch. Prom. 814. 
 4 Porph. de Abst. iii. 16. 5 Lye. Cass. 426. 
 
 6 Callim. Hymn to Delos, 249. 7 Ovid, Met. xiv. 509. 
 
 8 Plin. Nat. Hist. x. 61. 
 
544 
 
 form, were yet human, like the birds of Diomedes, can only 
 mean a Swan-tribe, we think. The fact of the swan figuring 
 in the heavens and on ancient coins, taken along with the fact 
 that it was a tribal name, makes it probable that the swan 
 was a god, and highly probable that it was at least a totem 
 elsewhere than in Australia, where it is a totem now. 
 
 7. The Dove. The Dove, or Pigeon, is figured on coins, in 
 the Numismata Spanhemii, 1 of Eryx in Sicilia (where we shall 
 see it was worshipped). Mr. Sim states that it is figured on 
 the coins of Scione in Macedonia ; Halonnesus, an island of 
 Thessalia ; Cassope in Epirus ; Leucas in Acarnania ; Seriphus 
 and Siphnus, islands in the ^Egean Sea ; Antioch in Caria ; 
 Side in Pamphylia ; and on uncertain coins of Cilicia, all of 
 date B.C. It is a question whether the Pleiades derived their 
 name from the doves direct, TreXetaSe?, the virgin companions 
 of Artemis, who with their mother Pleione, when pursued by 
 Orion in Bceotia, were rescued, changed into doves, and put in 
 the heavens; or from the word 7rXetz>, to sail, the most favour- 
 able season for setting sail being supposed to be the time of 
 the heliacal rising of these stars. But there is no doubt that 
 omens were taken from doves at the setting out on a voyage, 
 and that the two accounts are reconciled by a third, namely, 
 that these stars came to be called doves from the coincidence 
 of their rising and the seasons esteemed most favourable for 
 taking such auguries, and for setting sail. It is unnecessary, 
 however, to found on the doves being a constellation ; as, 
 whether they were or not, there is abundant evidence that the 
 dove was a deity. The cultus is treated of at some length in 
 Selden's De Diis Syris? and at great length in Bryant's work, 
 the dove being very important to the Arkite scheme of that 
 writer. 8 
 
 That there were persons called TreXetaSe?, or doves, in 
 various places, is agreed upon. They were said to have been 
 the most ancient prophetesses at Dodona, and also at Thebes ; 
 and indeed the oracles at Dodona and in Libya were founded 
 
 1 Tom. i. p. 168. 2 Ed. Lipsise, 1672 ; Syntagma ii. cap. 3, De Dagone. 
 
 3 Vol. ii. pp. 281 et seq. 
 
APPENDIX 545 
 
 by two doves that came from Thebes. Herodotus' account of 
 these black pigeons that flew from Egypt, and settled the one 
 at Dodona and the other in Libya, is familiar. He states that, 
 according to the priestesses of Dodona, the pigeon that arrived 
 there spoke from a beech-tree in a human v.oice, directing a 
 temple to be founded to Zeus ; but that the priests of Thebes, 
 on the other hand, assigned the founding of Dodona to one of 
 two of their sacred women who had been carried off by Phoe- 
 nicians. 1 These women were called doves, as being ministers 
 (says Bryant) to the dove-god. It is thus he explains the 
 several narratives of women being, like the daughters of Anius, 
 turned into doves. 2 They became priestesses. It seems 
 certain that in some temples the deity had no representation 
 but the dove. He was in the shape of that bird. Athenseus 
 states that Zeus was changed into a pigeon, and this notion 
 prevailed in Achaia, and particularly at ^Egium. 8 
 
 It was not merely Zeus, however, to whom doves were 
 "ministers." They were sacred to Venus. "Ejusdem Deae 
 quern admodum ministrse habitse fuerint, docet optime historia 
 ilia de Columbis circa Erycem Montem in Sicilia volitantibus 
 et diebus quas avaywyas et /caraycoyia nominabant incolae." 4 
 A dove, also, was the sole emblem of Semiramis, who was 
 worshipped as a deity. 5 Selden quotes Johannes Drusius as 
 follows : " Samaritanus circumcidit in nomine imaginis Colum- 
 bam referentis, quam inventam in vertice Montis Garizim certo 
 quodam ritu colunt ; " and says, " Aliam quam Semiramidis 
 figuram hie non intelligo ; cujus etiam nomen Syris seu Baby- 
 loniis Columlam Montanam denotare volunt nonnulli." The 
 legend was that, on her death, Semiramis was changed into a 
 dove, and under that form got divine honours ; 6 but Bryant, 
 we think, is right in maintaining that she never existed, and 
 that her title Samarim, or Semiramis, was a stock name. He 
 says that it belonged to the Babylonians, and to all others as 
 
 1 Herod, ii. 54, 55. 2 Ovid, Met. xiii. 674. 
 
 3 Athen. ix. 51. 
 
 4 Selden, I.e. p. 274 ; Athenaeus, I.e. ; .ZElian, Var. Hist. i. 15. This temple 
 of Venus at Eryx was celebrated. 6 Diodor. Sic. ii. 20. 
 
 6 Diodor. Sic. I. c. ; Athenagor. Leg. pro Chr. 26. 
 
 2 N 
 
546 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 well who acknowledged Semiramis, the dove, and took it as 
 their national insigne, i.e. totem. That the Babylonians did 
 this seems to be well made out. One of the gates of their 
 city, Herodotus mentions, was called Semiramis. 1 The Baby- 
 lonians, according to Bryant (and Selden vouches that many 
 have taken that view), were also called lonim, or children of 
 the dove ; and their city lonah, the dove being the national 
 ensign, and depicted on the military standard. 
 
 Hence (says Bryant) the prophet Jeremiah, speaking of the land 
 of Israel being laid waste by the Babylonians, mentions the latter by the 
 name of lonah, which passage is rendered in the Vulgate, facta est terra 
 eorum in desolationem a facie irce Golumbce. In another place the prophet 
 foretells that the Jews should take advantage of the invasion of Babylonia, 
 and retire to their own land, and he puts these words into the mouths of 
 the people at that season : " Arm, and let us go again to our own people, 
 and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword." But the 
 word sword, here is lonah, and [the passage] signifies from the oppression of 
 the Dove the tyranny of the lonim. It is accordingly rendered in the 
 Vulgate a facie gladii Golumbce. The like occurs in the 50th chapter of 
 the same prophet. 2 
 
 Worshippers of the dove existed in Chaldea, among other 
 districts in Babylonia. The Samaritans worshipped it, as the 
 Jews alleged, and had a representation of it in Mount Gerizim, 
 already noticed in a passage cited from Seldeu. The Assyrians 
 worshipped it ; Sio Kal row? 'Acrcrup/ou? rrjv Trepiarepav rifjidv 
 &><? Oeov, says Diodorus, 3 on which passage Bryant remarks, " It 
 was, we find, worshipped as a deity." The worship prevailed 
 in Syria, about Emesa and Hierapolis, 4 and " there were Sama- 
 rim in those parts," says Bryant. The dove, in fact, was very 
 generally received was almost as great a god as the serpent. 
 Pausanias 5 mentions that JEsculapius, when exposed as a child, 
 was preserved by a dove, which thus appears fostering a Naga. 
 It became an emblem with the Hebrews, and is still, as every 
 one knows, a symbol of the Holy Ghost, who once appeared 
 in its shape. We have seen, however, that it was a reality 
 long before it became a Christian symbol. To put this beyond 
 
 1 Herod, iii. 155. 2 Vol. ii. pp. 299 ff. 3 ii. 20. 
 
 4 Lucian de Syria Dea, 14, 54. 5 viii. 25. 
 
APPENDIX 547 
 
 doubt we must cite Clemens Alexandrinus, 1 who says its wor- 
 ship was the basest idolatry, remarking that the people styled 
 Syro-Phoenicians reverenced, some of them doves, others fish, 
 as zealously as the people of Elis worshipped Zeus. 2 Xenophon, 
 long before, noticed that in those parts divine honours were 
 paid to doves. 3 Diodorus says the worship was universal in 
 Syria. 4 It was most marked at Ascalon and Hierapolis, as we 
 know on the authority of Philo Judseus 5 and Lucian, both of 
 whom attest that the veneration of the people extended to the 
 living bird. Lucian relates of the people of the latter city 
 that the pigeon was the only bird they never tasted, as it was 
 held by them to be particularly sacred. 6 We must believe it 
 was so regarded by the Babylonians, who were named from it, 
 and counted themselves to be its offspring; and we must 
 believe that there were tribes elsewhere than in Babylonia that 
 took its name and claimed the like descent. 
 
 8. The Earn. The Earn is in the heavens as Aries. It 
 appears on the coins of many cities, as Panormus in Sicilia ; 
 Perinthus, Hephsestia, and Samothrace, in Thracia ; Halonnesus, 
 an island of Thessalia; Issa, an island of Illyria; Phea in 
 Elis ; Cranii and Same, in Cephallenia ; Clazornense in Ionia ; 
 of uncertain cities of Cilicia ; Antioch in Seleucis ; Damascus 
 in Ccelesyria ; and of some other towns in Africa. These coins 
 are all of date B.C. A coin of Panormus having the ram is 
 very remarkable and suggestive. It is figured in the Numis- 
 mata Spanhemii, torn. i. p. 204, along with the Yoni, at which 
 it is staring. 
 
 The ram was sacred to Jupiter Ammon, and probably had, 
 at the Libyan oracle, a position not inferior to that of the Dove 
 at Dodona. The story is, that Jupiter, in the form of a ram 
 a ram incarnation relieved Hercules, or Bacchus, and his 
 army when they were in straits, from thirst, in the deserts of 
 Africa, who, out of gratitude, erected a temple to the god, re- 
 
 1 What follows here is abridged from Bryant, vol. ii. p. 312. 
 
 2 Clem. Alex. Cohort, p. 12, ed. Sylburg. 
 
 3 Xen. Anab. i. 4, 9. 4 Diod. Sic. ii. 4. 
 
 5 Apud Euseb. Prcep. Evang. viii. 14. 6 Lucian de Syria Dea, 14. 
 
548 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 presented with the horns of a ram. 1 There were some three 
 hundred Jupiters, as we know, 2 and if one of them got a place 
 in a group in which the sheep stock was dominant, it would 
 be a small tribute to the totem of the dominant tribe to give 
 Jupiter ram's horns. So, where a horse or bull tribe was 
 dominant, he might reasonably be Hippius or Taureus, and 
 have, say, the head of a horse or bull, or some other element 
 of the one or the other in his composition. 3 
 
 There are the usual stories indicating that there had been 
 supernatural, if not divine, ram-beings. In the fable of Phrixus 
 a ram with a golden fleece rescued the son and daughter of 
 Athamas from their stepmother, Ino, carrying them through 
 the air. This ram was said to be the offspring of Poseidon 
 and Theophane. 4 The lady being changed into a sheep, the 
 god took the form of a ram to woo her in. 5 The offspring of 
 
 1 Serv. ad <JEn. iv. 196. The god Ammon of Thebes was ram-headed.' 1 See 
 Kenrick's Egypt of Herodotus, p. 44, and the note, p. 67, on the ram-sphinxes 
 of Karnak. See also Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Religion of the Gentiles, p. 45, 
 where the Ram-god is identified with the sun. His worshippers would not eat 
 mutton ! 
 
 2 Tertull. Apol. 14. 
 
 3 We saw in America a considerable number of Suns and Sun-tribes, and we 
 remember the policy of the Incas. There were far more Zeuses in Greek legend 
 than Suns in America. Take the story of Endymion as handled in Miiller's 
 Chips (vol. ii. p. 78). Endymion is son of Zeus and also of Aethlius, king of 
 Elis an Inca who is, of course, himself a son of Zeus. Many cases resemble 
 this. "The same custom," i.e. of taking the Sun for father (or, as we say, 
 totem), says Miiller, ' ' prevailed in India, and gave rise to the two great royal 
 families of Ancient India the so-called Solar and the Lunar races." 
 
 4 Hygin. Fab. 188. 
 
 5 Incarnations of gods in animal forms for such a purpose as we have here are 
 feigned in many mythologies. Perhaps the most curious instance of the fiction 
 is that which occurs in the Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad (Muir's Texts, vol. i. 
 pp. 24 ff.), where Parusha (the Procreator) having divided into male and female 
 parts, the following incidents occurred. " He cohabited with her (i.e. his female 
 division). From them MEN were born. She reflected, ' How does he, after having 
 produced me from himself, cohabit with me ? Ah ! let me disappear ! ' She 
 became a cow and the other a bull, and he cohabited with her. From them 
 kine were produced. The one became a mare, and the other a stallion ; the one 
 a she-ass, the other a male ass. He cohabited with her, etc. etc. The one 
 became a she-goat, etc. etc." The speculation as to the origin of the different 
 
 1 Herod, ii. 42, etc. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 549 
 
 the connection was thereafter by the gods gifted to Athamas, 
 the father of Phrixus, as a reward for his piety. The recovery 
 of the golden fleece from Colchis, as every one knows, was the 
 object of the Argonautic expedition, an expedition of the most 
 famous sort, ranking even with the hunt of the Calydonian 
 Boar. These legends are intelligible if we conceive that there 
 was a sheep-tribe, and an idol of the ram, believed to be a god, 
 and an object of worship, that was stolen and sought to be 
 recovered and restored to its shrine. The reader will remem- 
 ber the Golden Fleeced Llama in the Temple of the Incas. 
 Evidence, beyond what lies in these facts and legends, that 
 the living animal was religiously regarded, we have none, 
 except a few Vedic facts, and the fact that Sheep were wor- 
 shipped in Egypt. There were numerous tribes of men in 
 Egypt a land on which many races impinged ; and, in our 
 view, we have in that an explanation of the multiplicity of the 
 forms in Egypt of animal and vegetable worship. It was 
 not that all Egyptians worshipped every creature, from bulls 
 to beetles, and crocodiles to cats ; but that there were certain 
 of them presumably of distinct tribes, gentes, or stocks, to 
 whom one or other of the animals was sacred, and the others 
 detestable. This is borne out by what Cunseus says (De Rep. 
 He~b. lib. i. c. 4), as quoted by Lewis, in the close of the third 
 volume of the Origines Hebrcece, in explanation of the saying 
 that every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians. 
 " That nation," he says of the Egyptians, " who reverenced, 
 some sheep, some goats, some other four-footed beasts; being 
 persuaded there was in them something of divinity." It is 
 more forcibly borne out by what is stated by Wilkinson. " It 
 frequently happened," he says, " in the worship of the sacred 
 animals, that those which were adored in some parts of Egypt 
 were abhorred and treated as the enemies of mankind in other 
 provinces, deadly conflicts occasionally resulting from this 
 worship and detestation of the same animal." : This is quite 
 intelligible on the hypothesis that the animal gods were tribal, 
 
 species of animals here contained is in several respects more primitive than that 
 of the Khonds on the same subject, as given by Major MTherson. 
 1 Ancient Egyptians, vol. iv. p. 159. 
 
550 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 or, more probably, gentile, i.e. totem -gods ; but how is it 
 explicable on the supposition that they were emblems ? 
 
 9. The Goat. The Goat is in the heavens as Capricornus, 
 and figures on many ancient coins, all of date B.C. ; on coins 
 of Thermae, or Himera, in Sicilia ; JEgospotami in Chersonesus, 
 Thracia; JEnus in Thracia; Macedonia in genere; Issa, an 
 island of Illyria ; Pharos in Illyria ; JSgira in Achaia ; Elyrus 
 in Greta; Syrus Insula; Antandrus in Mysia; Parium in 
 Mysia ; JEgae in ^Eolis ; Ephesus in Ionia"; .ZEgse in Cilicia ; 
 Cyzicus in Mysia ; Augusta in Cilicia ; Tralles in Lydia ; 
 Commagene in genere. It appears on two British coins figured 
 in Mr. Evans's book, and on some coins in the Gaulish 
 
 series. 1 
 
 There is no doubt that the goat was a god, as the reader 
 will find who consults any classical dictionary, art. " Pan." 2 The 
 readiest to the present writer's hand is Lempriere, who has the 
 following : " In Egypt, in the town of Mendes, which word 
 signifies a goat, there was a sacred goat kept with the most 
 religious sanctity. The death of this animal was always 
 attended with the greatest solemnities, and like that of 
 another, Apis, became the cause of a universal mourning." l 
 Pan himself had a body compounded of the human and goat 
 forms was a goat-being of the same order of beings as the 
 Minotaur, Sphinx, Hippa, and others we have seen. Fable 
 represented him as the offspring of various deities Mercury 4 
 and Jupiter 5 in particular. He took the complete form of a 
 goat on some occasions, as once to woo Diana. 6 What form 
 had she ? He was alive in the time of the wars with the 
 giants, and when the gods fled from their enemies to Egypt he 
 assumed the form of a goat, and they all immediately followed 
 his example ! 7 The particular goat whom fable put in the 
 heavens was Amalthsea, the daughter of a king of Crete, who 
 fed Jupiter with goat's milk when he was a child. 8 So there 
 
 1 Evans, I.e. p. 114. 2 See also art. " Lupercalia. " 
 
 3 Herod, ii. 46. 4 Horn. Hymn to Pan, etc. 5 Apollod. Bill. i. 4, etc. 
 
 6 Philarg. ad Oeorgic. in. 391. 7 Hygin. Fab. 196. 
 
 8 Lactant. i. 21 ; Hygin. Poet. Astron. ii. 13 ; Callim, Hymn Jov. 49. 
 
APPENDIX 551 
 
 was a lady who was yet a goat, and a king, who was her father, 
 in Crete when Jupiter was a baby. The goat was no doubt a 
 totem-god long before Jupiter was thought of. 
 
 We saw in Egypt a town named from the goat. Were 
 there tribes named from it also ? It was also a stock name 
 in India. 
 
 Lewis, in his Origines (vol. iii. p. 21), points out that the 
 Hebrews used to offer sacrifices to Seirim, who were demons 
 in the form of goats. His explanation is that they did so in 
 imitation of the ancient Zabii. " It seems more reasonable," 
 he says than another hypothesis, which need not be cited here 
 "to believe the old Hebrews worshipped the Demons adored 
 by the ancient Zabii, who appeared in the shape of goats ; and 
 this practice was universally spread in the time of Moses, 
 which occasions that this kind of idolatry was so strictly for- 
 bidden in his injunctions." In the Olympus of Mohammed 
 are seven regions, and above the seventh, eight angels in 
 the shape of goats. On their backs stands the throne of 
 god. 1 
 
 10. The Fishes. The fishes may be rapidly disposed of. 
 They are in the heavens, and very common on coins. They 
 were worshipped in most places where doves were, as among 
 the Syrians, Babylonians, and Phoenicians. In Egypt the fish 
 had a prominent place in connection with Isis, who was 
 figured with it on her head. The fishes in the heavens are 
 spoken of by Hyginus as persons, and he quotes Erato- 
 sthenes as saying that the fish was the father of mankind : 
 " Eratosthenes ex eo pisce natos homines dicit." 2 The 
 Phoenician god Dagon, also the Assyrian Oannes, was a man- 
 fish, one of our familiar compounds. Dagon invented agricul- 
 ture, of course, and many other arts, and was worshipped in 
 many places. 3 Berosus, as quoted by Eusebius, 4 says Oannes 
 had the body of a fish, and below the fish-head, placed upon 
 the body, a human head coming out under the other. He had 
 a man's feet coming out under the tail, and a human voice. 
 
 1 MishMtu 'l-Masabih, vol. ii. p. 652. 2 Hyginus, Poet. Astron. ii. 30. 
 
 3 Euseb. Prcep. Evang. i. 10. 4 Lewis, Origines, iii. 81. 
 
552 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 He used to come every morning out of the sea to Babylon to 
 teach the arts and sciences, returning to the sea in the evening. 
 Derceto was another such compound a woman to the waist, 
 for the rest a fish. 1 According to some she was human in 
 the face only. 2 She was a Syrian goddess, and the Syrians, 
 according to Diodorus Siculus, would eat no fishes, " but they 
 worshipped fishes as gods." There is a story in explanation of 
 this, to the effect that, ashamed of an indiscretion, the goddess 
 plunged into a lake near Ascalon, where she had a temple, and 
 became a fish. 3 Ovid calls her Dione, and "gives a somewhat 
 different history of the plunge. He represents her as received 
 in the water by two fishes, which afterwards became the 
 Pisces of the heavens. 4 Fish were sacred to Venus. 5 A con- 
 siderable variety of fishes are figured on ancient coins, the 
 cetus and dolphin being the most frequent. We have no list 
 of any number of them, but a few are figured in the Numis- 
 mata Spanhemii. A variety of them will be found figured at 
 p. 339 of vol. iii. of Mr. Campbell's Celtic Tales, being "all the 
 fish figured on the sculptured stones of Scotland." Fish, in 
 Mr. Campbell's opinion, " clearly have to do with Celtic 
 mythology." We have seen fishes giving stock names to 
 tribes of men now existing, and can understand how, having 
 been totems, they should have become gods to the tribes that 
 had them in that character. Of course in Bryant's system the 
 fish is the Ark, while Dagon, Oannes, etc., are the Patriarch 
 Noah. 
 
 As to one fish we are able, thanks to Plutarch, to put his 
 totemship beyond doubt. " The Egyptians in general," says 
 that writer, " do not abstain from all sorts of sea-fish ; but 
 some from one sort and some from another. Thus, for instance, 
 the inhabitants of Oxyrynchus [Piketown] will not touch any 
 that is taken with an angle : for as they pay an especial rever- 
 ence to the pike, FROM WHENCE THEY BORROW THEIR NAME 
 [i.e. they are Pikes], they are afraid lest perhaps the hook may 
 be defiled by having been some time or other employed in 
 
 1 Lucian, de Syria Dea, 14. 2 Diodor. Sic. ii. 4. 
 
 3 Diodor. Sic. I.e. 4 Ovid, Fast. ii. 461. 
 
 5 Athenseus, vii. 18. 
 
APPENDIX 553 
 
 catching their favourite fish. The people of Syrene, in like 
 manner, abstain from the Phagrus, or sea-bream." Can any 
 one doubt that in Oxyrynchus there was a Pike-tribe ? l 
 
 11. The Bear. The Bear is in the heavens as Ursa Major 
 and Ursa Minor, the former distinguished as early as the time 
 of Homer by the name of Arktos. 2 He occurs on various 
 Gaulish coins ; on coins of Urso in Spain, and on a coin of 
 Orgetorix, chief of the Helvetii. 3 He probably occurs on other 
 coins, but we have no list of them. 4 
 
 The constellation connects itself with the names of Callisto 
 and Areas. Callisto was changed into a bear for a fault com- 
 mitted with Jupiter, of which Areas was the fruit. Jupiter, 
 to atone for the metamorphosis, made her a constellation along 
 with her son. 5 This Areas, of the bear stock, reigned in 
 Pelasgia, which from him took the name Arcadia. He taught 
 the people agriculture, of course, and other arts, e.g. the 
 spinning of wool. 6 The Greek name for the constellation 
 enters into Arcturus, and there was another star near the 
 Bear, called Arctophylax. The island of Cyzicus was called 
 Arcton, and the Arctanes were a tribe of Epirus. 7 The 
 suggestion is, that the bear gave its name to a stock, and 
 was a god; that there were bear-tribes in Arcadia once as 
 there are bear-tribes now in America. 8 
 
 The bear, as a god, probably became, in most places, 
 obsolete very early, having no special claim to a place in the 
 Keligion of the Life-powers the first great speculative faith 
 that supervened on the primitive animal and vegetable worship, 
 and with which most of the other animals we have been con- 
 sidering undoubtedly came to be connected. It is curious that 
 
 1 Isis and Osiris, 7. The word translated pike is given in Liddell and Scott 
 as meaning a species of sturgeon. 2 Iliad, xviii. 487 ; Od. v. 273. 
 
 3 Bevue Numismatique, 1860. Plate IV. 
 
 4 Mr. Sim's note is, " Bears are only to be found on uncertain coins of Gallia. 
 Some of these have the wild boar on the obverse. Some have two bears. They 
 are all earlier than Julius Caesar." 5 Ovid, Met. ii. 476-507. 
 
 6 Pausan. viii. 4. 7 Steph. Byz. 
 
 8 We have the bear as an object of worship in Athens, with a strange history 
 in explanation of the fact. See Suidas, s.v. "Ap/crot. 
 
554 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 we have him as an eponymous progenitor elsewhere than in 
 Arcadia. For example, a bear was the progenitor of the kings 
 of Denmark. In Olaus Magnus' History, 1 it is gravely related 
 how this came about, the narrative being quoted, " ex historia 
 charissimi ante-cessoris," of the author the Archbishop of 
 Upsala. It opens thus : " Cujusdarn patrisfamilias in agro 
 Suetico filiam, liberalis formse, cum ancillulis lusum egressam, 
 eximise granditatis ursus, deturbatis comitibus, complexus 
 rapuit." The lady, being carried off by the bear, had by him 
 a son. " Ut ergo duplicis materiae benit/na artifex natura 
 nuptiarum deformitatem seminis aptitudine coloraret, genera- 
 tionis monstrum usitato partu edidit." She gave him his 
 father's name. His grandson begat Ulfo, "a quo Hex Sueno 
 et csetera Danorum Eegum stemmata, ceu quodam derivata 
 principio, longo successionis ordine (teste Saxone) profluxerunt. 
 Quomodo autem similes partus judicabuntur, August, de Civ. 
 Dei plurima dicit de siinili propagine, utri sexui rnagis sit 
 attribuenda." On which Olaus Magnus piously remarks, 
 " Crediderim ego id a vindice Deo effecturn, ut Dani, qui de 
 sanguinis nobilitate plus nimio gloriantur, Suetiamque fre- 
 quentius quam felicius impugnare consueverant, Eegibus a fera 
 Suetica genitis obnixos vertices inclinare cogerentur. Quam 
 acer autem hie Ulpho Sprachaleg Suecus ursi nepos fuerit 
 in bello, quam etiam astuti et vafri ingenii supra videre 
 licet!" 
 
 Joannes Scheffer mentions as one of the primitive gods of 
 the Lapps, " Hyse," whose function it was " lupis et ursis 
 imperare." Whether this king of the wolves and bears was a 
 wolf or a bear, and what was his nature or functions, does not 
 appear. In Scheffer's chapter, De Sacris Magicis et Magia 
 Lapponum, we find the Bear on the Magic Tympanum along 
 with Thor, Christ, the Sun, and the Serpent who were gods 
 to them and some other animals, e.g. the wolf and reindeer ; 
 and in his chapter on the wild beasts of the country, he tells 
 us they call the bear the lord of the woods, "vocant eum 
 dominum sylvarum," which is explained to mean that he is 
 " herus omnium animalium reliquorum " ; so that the king of 
 1 P. 702, ed. Basilese, lib. xviii. c. 30. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 555 
 
 the wolves and bears might well be a bear, and could not well 
 be a wolf. 1 There is no clear evidence, however, of the worship 
 of the animal by the Lapps. 
 
 12. The Crab. The crab stands next. He is in the 
 heavens as Cancer, and on the coins of Cumse in Campania, 
 Butuntum in Apulia, Bruttium in genere, Crotona in Bruttium, 
 Terina in Bruttium, Agrigentum in Sicilia, Eryx in Sicilia, 
 Himera in Sicilia, Panormus in Sicilia, Priapus in Mysia, Cos, 
 island of Caria. The dates of these coins range from 300 B.C. 
 to 100 B.C. There are probably many others having the crab. 
 We do not know much of him in mythology ; but we saw 
 him as a god now worshipped by a tribe in Fiji. The reason 
 assigned for putting him in the heavens is of an intenser 
 degree of silliness than that usually given for so promoting an 
 animal. When Hercules was attacking the Hydra the many- 
 headed Naga "Juno, jealous of his glory, sent a sea-crab to 
 bite his foot. This new enemy was soon despatched, and 
 Juno, unable to succeed in her attempt to lessen the fame 
 of Hercules, placed the crab among the constellations, where 
 if; now bears the name of Cancer." 2 It will be admitted 
 that this story, read literally, is quite ridiculous. If we take 
 Hercules to stand for a tribe the Heraclidae (what does this 
 name mean etymologically ?), the Hydra for a Serpent-tribe or 
 nation, and the sea-crab for a Crab-tribe, the story becomes 
 intelligible. The Crabs, having come to the relief of the 
 Serpents, when attacked by the Heraclidae, were defeated 
 along with their allies. The introduction of Juno into the 
 legend probably was of late date, and had for its object to 
 explain why Cancer was a constellation a fact that would 
 cease to be easily accounted for when, as a totem-god, the 
 crab had become obscure or obsolete. 
 
 1 Schefferi Lapponia, ed. Frankofurti, 1673, pp. 59, 125, and 336. There was 
 a wolf-man in Arcadia (and he was worshipped), namely, Lycaon, as well as a 
 bear-man, who was king of the country ; and Pan's Greek name was Lyceus, 
 from Xtf/cos, a wolf. 
 
 2 Article " Hydra" in Lempriere's Dictionary. This account is substantially 
 the same with that given in the most recent Encyclopaedia. Apollodor. ii. 5 ; 
 Hygin. Poet. Astron. ii. 23. 
 
556 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 We have now examined the list of animals set down for 
 consideration, excepting the Aselli the little asses, and them 
 we must pass over, as they would take much space, and there 
 are more important animals to attend to. The Jews said the 
 Samaritans worshipped the Ass, and the Samaritans said the 
 Jews worshipped it. The Komans and others joined chorus 
 with the Samaritans. The reader who is curious on this 
 subject, will find in Kitto's Encyclopaedia the edition 
 before last sub voce "Ass," some guidance in his inquiries. 
 The story Tacitus gives is well known, 1 and so is the contro- 
 versy between Josephus and Apion as to whether the Jews 
 had the cultus. Some light on the subject is thrown by the 
 book of Zacharias in the Apocryphal New Testament, and in 
 Hallam's Middle Ages, in which there are accounts of the 
 Asinarii and the Festival of the Ass. The reader will recall 
 the asses that helped Bacchus, 2 and that in Egypt the ass was 
 the symbol of Typhon. 3 We may be pretty sure he was the 
 totem of some tribes of men who were of importance, other- 
 wise he would not have been promoted to the heavens. He 
 furnished a stock name to the Arabs. 4 
 
 It would be out of place, even were we able to do it, to 
 attempt to exhaust the subject in an article of this descrip- 
 tion. There are two creatures, however, which it is as well 
 we should notice before going on with our argument. They 
 are the Bee and the Eagle. It is pretty certain, we think, 
 that both of them were totems promoted to be gods. 
 
 13. The Bee. There was a goddess Melitta, or Melissa, 
 who was represented by a bee, and there were tribes named 
 after her, " Melittse," or " Melissse," that is, Bees. "The 
 Grecians," says Bryant, "have sadly confounded the histories 
 where they are mentioned by interpreting the Melissse Bees' 
 
 1 Tac. Hist. v. 3, 4. 2 Hygin. I.e. 
 
 3 Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 124. 
 
 4 See MisMcdtu'l-MasaWi, vol. ii. p. 93, footnote respecting Himar, or the ass 
 (that is, he was surnamed ass), " the last Khalifah of the dynasty of Ommiah." 
 The ass was here in the royal line. 
 
APPENDIX 557 
 
 He admits the bee, however, to have been the hieroglyphic of 
 Melissa. "It is to be found as a sacred and provincial 
 emblem upon coins which were struck at places where she was 
 worshipped (the italics are ours). But the Greeks did not 
 properly distinguish between the original and the substitute, 
 and from thence the mistake arose." The Greeks, we submit, 
 knew quite well what they meant, and it is the moderns who 
 should be reflected upon for misunderstanding them. They 
 called them bees, as we, in referring to American tribes, would 
 speak of bears, wolves, and eagles ; and the bee that had 
 originally been a totem had become a totem-goddess. The 
 following passage, from Bryant, we submit, is almost perfectly 
 sensible when read in the light of our hypothesis : 
 
 Philostratus mentions that, when the Athenians sent their first 
 colony to Ionia, the Muses led the way in the form of Bees. And 
 Herodotus says that all the northern side of the Danube was occupied 
 by Bees. Jove also, upon Mount Ida, was said to have been nourished 
 by Bees. When the temple at Delphi was a second time erected it was 
 built by Bees. 1 
 
 There was, we may conclude, not only a Bee-tribe, but 
 there were gentes of the Bee stock spread over a vast tract 
 of country, as they should be owing to incidents of the totem 
 stage. What Bryant says of the lee coins shows the im- 
 portance of the sort of evidence ancient coins furnish. We 
 have the bee on ancient coins of Athens, whence Philostratus 
 says bees set out ; on coins of Elyrus in Crete, where Melitta, 
 daughter of a king Bee, lived, and helped the goat Amalthaea 
 to nurture Jove ; 2 on the coins of Coressia and Julis, towns in 
 the island of Ceos ; on the coins of Praesus in Crete ; of Sicinus ; 
 of Ephesus in Ionia, whose coins also give the bee and half- 
 stag ; of Cyon in Caria ; Tabse in Caria ; Elseusa, island of Cilicia, 
 and of Acrasus, in Lydia. These coins are all of date B.C. 
 
 14. The Eagle. This bird could perhaps be made as 
 much of as the serpent, horse, or bull. We must dispose of 
 it in a few sentences. Bryant says it was the ensign of the 
 Egyptians, who were named after it; but more probably the 
 
 1 Philostr. Icon. ii. 8 ; Herod, v. 10 ; Callim, Hymn to Jove, 50 ; Pausan. x. 5. 
 2 Lactant. i. 22. 
 
** 
 
 558 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 dominant tribe only was so named. The eagle was Msroch, 
 the god of Nineveh. It was also the symbol of the kings of 
 Chaldsea. Of course it got to be compounded with the human 
 form," to have two and three heads, and so on. Mr. Layard 
 remarks of these compounds of the eagle, bull, and lion, as 
 follows : " It is worthy of observation that wherever they 
 (that is, the human -headed lions and bulls) are represented 
 either in contest with the man or with the eagle-headed 
 figure, they appear to be vanquished." And he adds, "I 
 have already ventured to suggest the idea which these singular 
 forms were intended to convey the union of the greatest 
 intellectual and physical powers ; but certainly their position 
 with reference to other symbolical figures would point to an 
 inferiority (that is, of the lions and bulls) in the celestial 
 hierarchy." 1 Of the emblem hypothesis we shall have some- 
 thing to say presently. Meantime, it suffices, as regards the 
 eagle, to find a tribe named from it, and that in one quartei 
 it was a greater god than the horse or bull. Among the 
 Jewish tribes (the later Jews, say) the eagle was the emble 
 of the tribe of Dan, an ox of Ephraim, and the lion of th( 
 tribe of Judah, 2 the lion here appearing as belonging to the 
 
 1 Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 460. 
 
 2 See Lewis, Origines ; chapter on coins. It is Aben Ezra, says Lewis, wh< 
 gives the tradition which assigns the Lion, Ox, and Eagle to the tribes of Judal 
 Ephraim, and Dan respectively, as ensigns. In the Douay Bible (2nd edition, 
 edited by Haydock and Hamill. Two vols. Dublin. No date) the reader wil 
 see on a plate at p. 180, vol. i. the ensigns of the tribes according to, at least 
 some authority esteemed by Roman Catholics. The plate illustrates v. 2, cap. ii. 
 of Numbers, where the ensigns and standards of the Hebrews are referred tc 
 On Judah's standard is the Lion ; on Dan's, the Eagle ; on Napthali's, the Hin( 
 or Hart ; on Benjamin's, the Wolf ; on Manasseh's, the Horse (or Ass) ; 01 
 Ephraim's, the Bull or Ox ; on Asher's, a Tree ; on Issachar's, the Sun and Moon 
 and on Gad's, a cone on an altar the Assyrian Linga ! In Jacob's dying 
 speech, Genesis xlix., to the eponymous progenitors of the tribes in whicl 
 their fortunes are indicated, Judah is spoken of as "a lion's whelp " ; Issachai 
 as "a strong ass" ; Dan as "a snake in the way" ; Benjamin as "a ravenoi 
 wolf"; Napthali as "a hind (or hart) let loose"; and Joseph as "a fruitf 
 bough." Compare our version with the Vulgate. The wolf, hind, and lion onl] 
 are the same in the speech and in the plate of the Douay Bible. In connectioi 
 with the subject of this note, Ezekiel x. vv. 8-22, is worth looking at, it beinj 
 kept in view what the faces of the cherubims were. And see Seder Olam Rabba, 
 p. 58 ; Trans. Chron. Institute of London, vol. ii. part ii. ; and Carpzov's 
 Apparatus Historico-criticus, etc., Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1748. 
 
APPENDIX 559 
 
 dominant tribe. The Eoman eagle will occur to every one, 
 and in Eome eagle was a gentile name. A great many places 
 were named from the bird, notably Aquileia, known as Roma 
 secunda. We must say no more of the eagle, however. It 
 is everywhere. The coins having it belong to all places and 
 dates, and are far too numerous for enumeration. 
 
 .The list of animals that were totems among the ancients 
 might be extended, by evidence of varying degrees of force, to 
 comprise the tiger, wolf, cat, panther, elephant, 1 stag, boar, fox, 
 rat, and rabbit ; the raven, hawk, and cock ; the ant, butterfly, 
 and grasshopper all the creatures, in short, that figure in 
 heraldry. Strange as it may seem, there is a Lord of tigers 
 now, and he is a good god, as a totem should be. 2 The Bygahs 
 or Jogees regard him so much that they won't eat him a poor 
 compliment, but it is significant. In the Bygahs' mythology 
 a milch tigress was foster-mother to the first man. " Coeval 
 with the creation of the world were created one Naga Jogee, 
 and his wife, Mussumat Naga. One day they went into the 
 forest to dig for roots, and from the earth they dug up a boy- 
 child, who was nursed for them, under the direction of 
 Mahadeo, by a milch tigress." 3 Major M'Pherson, in his 
 paper on the religion of the Khonds, says that people believe 
 " natural tigers to kill game only to benefit men, who generally 
 find it but partially devoured, and share it; while the tigers 
 which kill men are either Tari (a goddess), who has assumed 
 the form of a tiger for purposes of wrath, or men, who, by the 
 aid of a god, have assumed the form of tigers, and are called 
 
 1 The elephant is a totem-god now in Burmah, where the king is styled 
 " King of the Rising Sun, Lord of the Celestial Elephant, and Master of Many 
 AVhite Elephants, and Great Chief of Righteousness." (There is a Rising Sun 
 tribe among the Cheppeyans, in North America, Archce. Amer. vol. ii. p. 18.) 
 It occurs with totem marks in the Catapatha Brdhmana, and is there identified 
 with Vivasvat (the Sun), the son of Aditi (see Muir's Texts, vol. iv. p. 13) a 
 sun -elephant corresponding to the sun-serpent of Peru. Elsewhere we have 
 Gunesh, an elephant-headed divinity, "the mother of the universe," an object 
 of worship at this day. Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet, 1863, 
 p. 311. 
 
 2 He is mentioned in Mr. Justice Campbell's Ethnology of India, p. 9. 
 
 3 "The Bygahs' Mythology," p. 52 of the Report of the Indian Ethnological 
 Committee, 1866-67. Nagpore, 1868. 
 
560 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 ' Mleepa Tigers.' " 1 The way in which the beneficent nature 
 of the totem is here, by fictions, put beyond suspicion, is 
 delightfully simple. 2 " Mleepa " or " Were " wolves are also 
 common, as every one knows ; and it is equally familiar that 
 the wolf has often been a foster-mother, as she was to Komulus 
 and Eemus. The tiger and wolf are totems in America, as 
 are several others on the list above given. It is altogether 
 out of the question, however, to attempt to deal here with 
 such a list. Enough has been said to prove that the most 
 savage animal may be accepted by a tribe, of men as a totem, 
 and be thereafter developed into a great and benign god. 3 
 
 1 Religion of the Khonds, p. 25. 
 
 2 "Mleepa Tigers," Du Chaillu states, are to be found in Africa. They 
 also occur among the Arawaks, who call them "Kanaima Tigers." See Brett, 
 I.e. p. 368. 
 
 3 We may here, in a footnote, dispose of a few facts which, indeed, are those 
 that, now four years ago, suggested this inquiry, though the writer has been 
 unable to work upon it till recently. The fact of Serpent and Bull tribes being 
 known to exist, and to have existed, seemed to offer an explanation of the myth 
 of Cadmus, at Thebes, and of the cow that led him thither. 1 On the same 
 suggestion it occurred that there might have been a Snake-tribe in Rhodes. 
 Phorbas obtained the supremacy by freeing the island of snakes. 2 The myth of 
 the Ants and .ffigina next strengthened the suggestion of the presence of tribes 
 with totems. The ants in the island were miraculously turned into men the 
 /j,6p/jM)Ks into the Myrmidons Ants, that is, quite on the level of the Australian 
 opossums. 3 Then occurred the Calydonian boar hunt there is something like 
 it in the Celtic Tales, and in the Highlands, we have no doubt, inquiry will yet 
 establish the totem stage. It seemed incredible that the slaughter of a boar 
 should have employed the whole chivalry of Greece an army of warriors and 
 that the feat should ever after rank among the proudest exploits of the nation. 
 The question rose, Was there a Boar- tribe ? The Oracle enjoined Adrastus to 
 give his daughters in marriage, one to a boar, and the other to a lion. 4 This 
 was complied with by their marrying Tydeus and Polynices respectively ! 
 Tydeus came from Calydon, and was son of (Eneus, king of the country. He 
 was therefore possibly a boar, if the question above put was to be answered in 
 the affirmative. Was Polynices, then, a lion, and was there a Lion-tribe ? As 
 he was the son of (Edipus, from the land of the sphinx, it seemed not improb- 
 able, on the totem view, that he might be a lion. And so the matter appeared 
 worthy of investigation. The facts here stated will, we think, be felt to add 
 force to those in the text. Most of them were first noted by the writer in 1866, 
 as challenging such an inquiry as the present. 
 
 Since this note was in type the writer's attention has been called to The 
 
 1 Pausan. ix. 12. 2 D iod> Sic> v _ 58> 
 
 3 Hes. Frag. 67. 4 Apollodor. iii. 6. 
 
APPENDIX 561 
 
 We must also dispose of the worship of plants in a 
 summary manner. This matters the less that the worship of 
 a considerable variety of them is established in Mr. Fergusson's 
 recent publication on Tree and Serpent Worship} Among 
 these we have the Pear-tree, Oak, Asclepias a creeping 
 shrub (the Soma, a great Indian god), the Pipal, the Fig- 
 tree, the Bela, the Tulsi plant, the Tamarisk, and the Elapatia 
 and Talok trees. To this list we may add the Olive, Laurel, 
 Lotus, Palm, Pomegranate, and Poppy. A spiritual idea of a 
 tree we have in Yggdrasil. Some of these became great gods, 
 and got a place in the religion of the Life-Powers. In one 
 or two cases the legends that give us the earliest accounts of 
 plant worship, give us also a primitive mother for the tribe 
 having the worship and the suggestion of kinship through the 
 mother only having existed in the tribe. Thus in the legend 
 of Athens, which introduces the Olive, as we have it from 
 Varro (apud August, de Civi. Dei, xviii. 9), we learn that " a 
 double wonder " having appeared springing out of the earth 
 namely, the Olive-tree and Water the Oracle declared the 
 Olive to signify Athene, and the Water Poseidon, and that the 
 citizens must choose from which of the two they would name 
 their town. Men and women voted together, and the latter 
 carried the honour for Athene by a majority. Poseidon was 
 thereon enraged, and to appease him women were deprived, 
 among other privileges, of that of having their children named 
 
 Antiquities of Heraldry, by Mr. W. S. Ellis, which has recently been issued, 
 and which propounds a view which, at first sight, seems to resemble that in 
 these papers insisted on. Some of the points made, and not a few of the facts 
 founded on, in the chapter devoted to the Heraldry of Mythology are the same 
 as those here given. His view of the order, and even of the nature of the 
 evolution, will be seen, however, on a close inspection, to differ essentially from 
 that of the present writer. Had Mr. Ellis more fully studied the totem he might 
 have anticipated what is here being said. 
 
 1 Mr. Fergusson's book is, in our opinion, apt to mislead in several respects. 
 (1) The reader gets the impression from it that the worship of the serpent is an 
 exceptional phenomenon ; i.e. that it has been singular among animals in being 
 worshipped. (2) It gives the impression that there is a special connection 
 between the serpent and tree. (3) Its title gives the impression that trees only 
 were worshipped, whereas its contents prove the worship as well of small shrubs 
 and plants. All this notwithstanding, it is a valuable book, and one of the most 
 beautiful ever issued. 
 
 2 o 
 
562 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 after them. So that anciently, the story bears, children in 
 Athens took their names from their mothers, as they do 
 among the Australians and American Indians. The case of 
 the loxidse again gives us the suggestion of female supremacy 
 in a legend which also informs us that " they reverenced as 
 holy and worshipped," a certain marsh plant, which no doubt 
 was their totem. 1 
 
 With these few observations on plant worship we must 
 pass on to our argument. We shall consider first the explana- 
 tions that have been offered of divine honours being paid to 
 such beasts as the serpent and lion, and to trees, etc. ; and 
 after showing that they are unsatisfactory, we shall proceed 
 to consider the weight of the evidence direct and indirect that 
 goes to show the soundness of our own hypothesis. 
 
 1. The Emblem Hypothesis. Suppose we knew that all 
 men were, as Bryant believed, derived from one family since 
 2348 B.C. the date of the Deluge that writer's Arkite 
 system would still be worth nothing, either as an explanation 
 of animal worship, or as evidence of the Deluge having occurred. 
 He does not pretend to include nearly all the animals or plants 
 that have been worshipped in his list of Arkite emblems ; and, 
 accordingly, to give a reasonable colour to his hypothesis that 
 there had been any Arkite emblems at all that had degenerated 
 into gods, he ought to have excluded the possibility of those 
 he includes having become gods through the operation of such 
 causes as led to the worship of the others. Such causes, what- 
 ever they were, being admitted to have been in operation, 
 will explain all the cases ; and before an hypothesis of special 
 causes in some cases can be entertained, the operation of the 
 general causes as regards them must be shown either to be 
 insufficient or to be excluded. This, however, Bryant has not 
 attempted, or even thought of attempting, to show ; and, the] 
 fore, even could we make the necessary supposition as to the 
 history of human tribes, we must still conclude that this 
 learned and, in a confused sort of way, ingenious man has 
 succeeded in nothing not even in setting up a respectable 
 
 1 Plutarch, Theseus, chap. viii. 
 
APPENDIX 563 
 
 hypothesis. It is simply impossible, however, with our modern 
 information the history of several nations having been 
 carried beyond the point of time assigned to Noah and his 
 family to make such a supposition as Bryant requires to set 
 out with. Moreover his system demands not one, but a series 
 of hypotheses, to support it, and they are all bad. (1) There 
 is the hypothesis that the animals had been emblems. This 
 is bad, as we have shown. (2) There is the hypothesis that 
 the emblems degenerated into gods. This is not supported 
 by one instance adduced of such degeneration having, histori- 
 cally, taken place, or even by a fair analysis of the probable 
 steps through which it could have happened. (3) There is 
 the hypothesis that through the idolatry of some one animal 
 of a species thus induced, a religious regard came to be 
 extended to the species. This is subject to the same remark 
 as we have made on the preceding hypothesis. The far- 
 fetching processes by which even a poor appearance of a case 
 has been made for the emblems as at all probable, we need 
 not remark upon. At the same time, as we have amply 
 acknowledged, we have profited much by Bryant's researches 
 at one point. It was necessary in his scheme, as in ours, that 
 it should be shown that the totems as we say ; the animal 
 emblems, as he says were precedent to the gods of the 
 mythologies. 
 
 Another emblem hypothesis represents each animal as, in 
 some way not now to be understood, typical of the nature of 
 some one or other of the gods. This again is a fanciful ex- 
 planation surrounded by the same sort of difficulties. How 
 came men to think of taking animals and plants to represent 
 their gods ? We can understand the selection only when we 
 conceive their gods as spiritual ideals of animals or plants. 
 Besides, the hypothesis assumes the deities as existing before 
 the animal gods, and this is contrary to the evidence. And 
 why should the selection of an animal to be the type of a god 
 render its species sacred ? "We do not religiously regard the 
 pigeon, though the dove is one of our most mysterious symbols. 
 We can understand, on the other hand, how it decayed into a 
 symbol, knowing it to have been a god that had grown obsolete. 
 
564 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 The fish is a Christian symbol ; but we have not a religious 
 regard for fishes. When the fish-god was a power, however, 
 his worshippers religiously regarded the finny tribe. They 
 would not eat them. It has been true of these as of most 
 symbols ; facts come first, and symbols are facts in decad- 
 ence. 
 
 There is yet another form of the emblem hypothesis. It 
 is that mentioned in a passage cited from Mr. Layard, and 
 which, almost in a sentence, that author states and abandons. 
 This is the hypothesis that the compounds of various animal 
 and human forms " were intended to convey the union of the 
 greatest intellectual and physical powers." This altogether 
 fails to touch the fact of the real worship of living animals. 
 Moreover, as an explanation of the compounds it is untenable. 
 It simply won't hold of the Naga compounds. They are not 
 intended to convey anything of the sort. Will it hold of the 
 dog compounds ? As to the bull, lion, and eagle compounds, 
 we saw Mr. Layard's opinion to be that it will not hold ; the 
 evidence showing the creatures to have a place, and to be 
 subordinated to one another in the celestial hierarchy. The 
 fact is, though we now make use of lions, sphinxes, and so on, 
 to convey such ideas as he refers to, we demonstrate in doing 
 so only the poverty of the modern imagination and the feeble- 
 ness of our art instincts ; inasmuch as being incapable of 
 inventions, we mimic old forms derived from the religious 
 faiths of long past and misunderstood generations. 
 
 While no cases are producible in support of the emblem 
 hypothesis of animals regarded as emblems merely, or illus- 
 trating their transition from being emblems to being themselves 
 objects of adoration, we are not without cases to show that the 
 animal-gods were prolongations of the totems. We have such 
 a case, for example, in Peru. The Peruvians, according to 
 Acosta, worshipped the sun, moon, planets, and stars ; fountains 
 and rivers ; rocks, great stones, hills, and mountains ; land 
 (Tellus) and sea (Poseidon) all these objects being regarded 
 as persons. They worshipped Thunder, believing him to be a 
 man in the heavens with a sling and mace ! Of lesser objects 
 
APPENDIX 565 
 
 on earth, he tells us, they worshipped fruits and roots, some 
 small stones, and the metals ; while among the animals they 
 worshipped he makes special mention of the bear, lion, tiger, 
 and snake. Now we are able from this author to see what 
 were the speculations of a people in the stage in which, having 
 animals as gods on earth, they also worshipped stars in heaven. 
 Of his account of star-worship in Peru, we cite the following 
 version from Lord Herbert of Cherbury : " They particularly 
 adored that constellation which we call Cabrillas, or the goat, 
 and they Colca ; and commanded that such offerings should be 
 made to some stars, and such to others, those being particularly 
 worshipped according as every one's necessity required. The 
 Opisons adored the star Urchuchilly, feigning it to be a Ram 
 of divers colours, who only took care of the preservation of 
 cattle ; and it is thought to be the same which the astrologers 
 call Lyra. Besides these two, they worshipped two others 
 that are near them, and say that one of them is a Sheep and 
 the other a Lamb. There are some who adore another star 
 that ruled over the Serpents and Adders, from which they 
 promised safety to themselves; others who worshipped the 
 star called the Tiger, who they believed to preside over tigers, 
 lions, and bears. They were of opinion that there was not any 
 least or bird upon the earth WHOSE SHAPE OR IMAGE DID NOT 
 SHINE IN THE HEAVENS, by whose influence its similitude was 
 generated on the earth, and its species increased." * Thus we 
 see that the beings in the stars were believed to have the 
 animal forms, and to be powers in the celestial hierarchy. 
 
 This case proves (1) a connection, such as we have been 
 endeavouring to trace, to have existed between the worship of 
 animals and the nomenclature of the heavens ; (2) that the 
 celestial beings were conceived to be in the shape of the 
 animals, and to have special relations to their breed on earth ; 
 and (3) while it indicates the persistence of tribal preferences 
 for particular stars as animal gods, it shows the process to 
 have been in operation by which, on the consolidation of the 
 political system, the divine functions are distributed among 
 
 1 Acosta, Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 1600, pp. 214, 217 (lib. v. chaps. 4 and 
 5) ; Herbert's Religion of the Gentiles, 1705, p. 86. 
 
566 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 the tribal, or rather we should say gentile, gods of 
 group. 1 
 
 Now of two things one. Either the Peruvians, as some 
 maintain, independently achieved the civilisation they had 
 starting from the totem stage in which their neighbours 
 remained, or their civilisation, including the religious doctrines 
 were derived by them from some one or other of those nations 
 we call the ancient. On the former view, of course, the anima 
 gods are the prolongations of the totems ; on the latter we 
 have, in the case of the Peruvians, a reflection of the religious 
 system of some one or other of the ancient nations. So that 
 on the least favourable of the alternatives we have the fact 
 that in some one at least of the ancient nations that wor- 
 shipped animals and they all did the animals were not 
 emblems, but the exact images of the gods. What was true 
 in one case, the presumption is, was true in all. That is to 
 say, there are not only no facts to support the emblem hypo- 
 thesis in any of its forms, but the presumption derivable from 
 the facts we have is against that hypothesis. 
 
 2. Mr. Fergusson's Explanations. So much for the emblem 
 hypothesis. There is no other that we know of except in the 
 special case of the serpent and tree, in regard to which views 
 have been put forward by Mr. Fergusson. Tree worship he 
 conceives to have sprung from a perception of the beauty and 
 utility of trees. "With all their poetry and all their useful- 
 ness," he says, " we can hardly feel astonished that the primi- 
 tive races of mankind should have considered trees as the 
 choicest gifts of the gods to men, and should have believed 
 that their spirits still delighted to dwell among their branches, 
 or spoke oracles through the rustling of their leaves." Of 
 this it suffices to say, it does not at all meet the case of the 
 shrubs, creepers, marsh -plants, and weeds, that have been 
 
 1 "We have seen in numerous cases the disposition of the tribesmen to identify 
 their totem with the sun. It is highly probable that the identification of the 
 totems with particular stars conceived as the sun's inferiors is, like the distri- 
 bution of functions, a late phenomenon, posterior, that is to say, to the settled 
 co-ordination of the tribes in the political system. 
 
APPENDIX 567 
 
 worshipped, and is obviously not the key to the mysteries of 
 plant worship. , His account of the origin of serpent worship 
 is, if possible, even more unsatisfactory. He ascribes it to the 
 terror with which the serpent inspired men ; to the perception 
 of his remarkable nature, the ease and swiftness of his motions, 
 and his powers of quickly dealing death by sudden spring or 
 mysterious deadly poison. To this the objection is, that the 
 serpent religion is not a religion of fear but of love. The 
 serpent, like the tiger and bull, is a benign god. He is a 
 protector, teacher, and father. How came a religion beginning 
 in terror to be transformed into a religion of love ? ' The terror 
 hypothesis will, we submit, not meet the case even of the 
 serpent. Arid no such hypothesis, it is obvious, can be 
 extended to cover the run of cases to explain the worship, 
 say, of the dog, the dove, or the bee. 
 
 The hypothesis we put forward starts from a basis of 
 ascertained facts. It is not an hypothesis explanatory of the 
 origin of totemism, be it remembered, but an hypothesis 
 explanatory of the animal and plant worship of the ancient ,- 
 nations. It is quite intelligible that animal worship growing 
 from the religious regard for the totem or kobong the friend 
 and protector should, irrespective of the nature of the animal, 
 be a religion of love. What we say is, our hypothesis explains 
 the facts. It admits an endless variety of plants and animals 
 to the pantheon as tribal gods; it explains why the tribes 
 should be named from the animal or plant, and why the 
 tribesmen should even, as we saw in some cases they did, 
 esteem themselves as of the species of the totem-god. It 
 explains why in Egypt, Greece, India, and elsewhere, there 
 should be a number of such gods, by showing that there 
 should be as many as there were stocks, counting themselves 
 distinct, in the population ; and it also explains why in one 
 place one animal should be pre-eminent and in another sub- 
 ordinate, the gods following the fortunes of the tribes. It 
 explains, moreover, on rational principles, for the first time, - 
 the strange relations represented by the concurring legends of 
 many lands as having existed between various animals and 
 
568 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 the anthropomorphic gods ; it throws a new light on the 
 materials employed in the so-called science of heraldry, showing 
 whence they were drawn ; and, lastly, it enables us to see 
 sense and a simple meaning in many legends, and in some 
 historical narratives, that appeared to be simple nonsense till 
 looked at in the light of this hypothesis. Since it is so simple 
 and so comprehensive, and has a basis of facts for its founda- 
 tion in existing totem-races ; since we have seen reason to 
 believe that the mental condition of these races and the 
 beliefs they entertain have been at some time the mental 
 condition and beliefs of all the advanced races ; and since 
 the only assumption we make is that all races have been 
 progressive, which in other matters they undoubtedly have 
 been, it seerns impossible to resist the conclusion that our 
 hypothesis is a sound one that the ancient nations came 
 through the totem stage. 
 
 Some facts which make for our hypothesis cannot be too 
 much insisted on. We have found in numerous cases what 
 seems good evidence that from the earliest times animals were 
 worshipped by tribes of men who were named after them, and 
 believed to be of their breed. We have seen in several cases 
 the oldest anthropomorphic gods having titles derived from 
 the animals, or believed to be of their breed, or to have been 
 fostered by them ; and the conclusion seems to be forced upon 
 us that these gods were preceded by the animals as totems, if 
 not as gods, and that the latter bore to them the same kind 
 of relation that we know in India the serpent had to Buddha, 
 and bears to Vishnu. On the rise of Buddhism among the 
 Nagas, serpent worship was for a time repressed or sub- 
 ordinated ; but the serpents were too strong. They reasserted 
 themselves, and the old serpent faith revived with a human 
 figure in the Olympus ! The heavenly Naga is even now the 
 shield and protector of Vishnu. 
 
 The hypothesis that similar occurrences had taken place 
 among Horse, Bull, Earn, and Goat tribes will explain the 
 peculiar relations which we have seen existed between these 
 gods and these animals respectively, and we know of no other 
 
APPENDIX 569 
 
 hypothesis on which they can be, at least so wel}, explained. 
 That Dionysus or Poseidon, for instance, should be ravpoyev^ 
 is a fact presenting no difficulty on our hypothesis any more 
 than that either of them should have been figured as a bull or 
 with a bull's head. To what other hypothesis will the fact 
 not be a stumbling-block ? Since these and all the other 
 gods of their class were false gods that were gradually 
 developed by the religious imagination, the fancy of poetical 
 persons, and the interested imposture that is everywhere 
 promotive of novelties in religion; since the whole of the 
 facts we have been surveying demonstrate a progress in 
 religious speculation from savage fetichism ; and since among 
 the lowest races of men we find no such gods figuring as Zeus 
 and his companions, we seem already, at this stage of the 
 argument, to be justified in arriving at the conclusion that the 
 ancient nations came through the totem stage, and that 
 totemism was the foundation of their mythologies. 
 
II 
 
 THE KAMILAROI AND KURNAI 
 (By DONALD M'LENNAN) 
 
 SINCE the preceding Essay 1 was written, Mr. Howitt has 
 published an account of the Kurnai tribes of Gippsland (South- 
 Eastern Victoria) ; 2 but, though in some other respects interest- 
 ing, this adds nothing that is certain to our knowledge of the 
 structure of Australian tribes. 
 
 The Gippsland natives, like the Narrinyeri, called them- 
 selves men (Kurnai), and the neighbouring tribes, with whom 
 their relations were usually hostile, wild men (Bra-jerak). 
 When the country was first settled, in 1839, they may have 
 numbered (Mr. Howitt says) from 1000 to 1500, but by 
 18*77 there remained of them only 140 ; and their conversion 
 to Christianity and settlement in missions had to a great 
 extent broken down the force of the old customs among this 
 remnant. The old tribal divisions had disappeared ; and the 
 circumstances and mode of living of the survivors were entirely 
 different from those of their predecessors. Mr. Howitt had an 
 official position in Gippsland, and no doubt had good opportuni- 
 ties of gathering such information as was still to be got ; but he 
 had, in fact, very few too few informants, and he relied chiefly 
 on the knowledge of a man who had lived from early youth 
 
 1 [I.e. the chapter on Australia, supra p. 278.] 
 
 2 Kamilaroi and Kurnai. By the Rev. L. Fison and A. W. Howitt. Mel- 
 bourne, 1880. 
 
APPENDIX 571 
 
 among the settlers. 1 Though he had a slight knowledge of 
 the Kurnai language, too, his communications with his inform- 
 ants had to be carried on in the main in English, and the 
 Kurnai English, however fit for other purposes, was not 
 unlikely, without severe testing, to prove misleading or unin- 
 forming in regard to such matters as kinship or tribal structure. 
 Moreover, Mr. Howitt was chock-full of theories ; and it is 
 clear that this helped to divert him from the line of inquiry 
 which might possibly have yielded results of value. 
 
 It follows that one has always carefully to scrutinise 
 Mr. Howitt's facts, comparing them where possible with the 
 slender accounts of the Gippsland natives which have come 
 from other sources ; and (both on account of his theories and 
 for other reasons) it is necessary still more carefully to 
 scrutinise his inferences from facts, and as to the state of the 
 facts in particular cases. In the list of the Kurnai divisions 
 or local tribes, which he has laboriously collected, there appear 
 three tribes or bodies of natives with names taken from men 
 who were living when the country was settled by the whites 
 (e.g. Bunjil Nullung's mob), and he offers these names to us 
 as proper tribal names. This might of itself be enough to 
 show that his facts are to be taken as somewhat doubtful ; 
 and, as to his inferences, observe what his comment upon this 
 mode of naming is. " Each of these divisions," he says, " re- 
 ceived its designation from an eponym, who changed with each 
 generation!' 
 
 The Kurnai, we are told, claimed the whole of Gippsland 
 from near Cape Everard to near Cape Liptrap, there being 
 border lands, however, which were disputed between them and 
 the Maneroo and Omeo tribes, their neighbours. The inhabitants 
 of certain districts were known, as a whole, as Kroatungolung 
 or east- country people ; and, similarly, there were Briakolung 
 or west -country people, and Tatungolung or south-country 
 people. Besides these there were, each with their separate 
 country, the Bra-brolung tribes and the Bra-tauolung, to the 
 
 1 In Brough Smith's Aborigines of Victoria (vol. i. p. 57), Mr. Howitt men- 
 tions that this man, Tulaba, " was caught as a young lad by the Macleods of 
 Buchan, and thus got his name, Billy Macleod." 
 
572 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 meaning of whose names a clue is given in the statement that 
 Bra, like Kura, signifies man. The whole Gippsland popu- 
 lation was comprised in those five divisions. This is what Mr. 
 Howitt tells us ; but it should not pass unnoticed that the 
 east, west, and south country people here spoken of were the 
 Kurnai who lived to the east, to the west, and to the south of 
 the Bra-brolung, among whom he found his chief informants. 
 The Bra-tauolung lived to the south of his south-country 
 people, and rather farther to the west than his west-country 
 people. And while Bra-brolung and Bra-tauolung seem both to 
 be simply variants of Kurnai (meaning men), east and west and 
 south country people may have been designations in use among 
 the Bra-brolung (such designations are so used among ourselves) 
 for people who had besides other names more proper to them. 
 There were diversities of language from district to district ; 
 there were the usual blood-feuds and tribal quarrels, a frequent 
 cause of quarrels being the stealing of women ; but the Kurnai 
 seem to have been ready to unite against their Bra-jerak 
 neighbours ; and the people of four out of the five districts 
 were bound together by the ceremonies for the initiation of 
 youths to manhood, which were performed by them in concert. 
 In these the east-country people took no part. Initiation to 
 manhood was unknown among them a proof this (the Kurnai, 
 notwithstanding differences, being obviously one people) that it 
 was formerly unknown among the Kurnai generally. 
 
 While the whole country was divided (or divisible) into 
 five districts as aforesaid, the population of each district was 
 made up of small local tribes, each of which had its recognised 
 boundaries. The structure or composition of these local tribes 
 is what now concerns us, and, unfortunately, Mr. Howitt has 
 not been able to tell us anything distinct about it. 
 
 It may be said in passing that polygamy was practised 
 among the Kurnai ; that fidelity was expected of the wife but 
 not of the husband ; and that the husband did not give his 
 wife to his guest. In general, too, the tribe had a name said 
 to be taken from the principal place within its territory. 
 There were no chiefs, but the ablest or most forward took the 
 lead when leadership was wanted. The women had a voice, 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 573 
 
 and an influential one, in whatever concerned the common 
 good. 
 
 Mr. Howitt has not ascertained how kinship was taken in 
 the Gippsland local tribe; nor has he collected many facts 
 such as might help us in judging of this for ourselves. The 
 transmission of family (totem) names is, among the Australians 
 as among similar peoples elsewhere, the surest guide in this 
 matter ; but, according to Mr. Howitt, family names were un- 
 known among the Kurnai. He mentions only personal names 
 and nicknames. And he believes that the Kurnai were not 
 divided, as the Australians generally are, into totem clans or 
 families. Eules for inheritance also throw light upon kinship ; 
 but neither are these of any avail as regards the Kurnai. A 
 man's personal property was in general buried at his death ; 
 and there was nothing that could be inherited from him unless 
 it were his wife or wives. The wives, Mr. Howitt says, where 
 there were more than one, went to his brothers in order of 
 seniority, one to each which, with polygamy, if taken literally, 
 would prove male kinship, and might even suggest agnation ; 
 but it is evident that Mr. Howitt did not think of inquiring 
 whether uterine brothers had a preference, or whether it was 
 uterine brothers who could thus inherit. Of the case in which 
 one wife only was left, all he says is that the wife went to the 
 deceased's brother, the statement being in no way particu- 
 larised, and being therefore equally consistent with kinship 
 being through males or through females. Even the blood- feud, as 
 Mr. Howitt has been able to describe it, does not carry us far. 
 The sister's son was foremost in the work of vengeance 
 that is clearly brought out in one case ; and this shows beyond 
 doubt that kinship was at one time counted through females 
 only among the Kurnai (as Mr. Fison has remarked), and that 
 kinship through females was still of importance, whether the 
 exclusive kinship or not. Mr. Howitt's impression is that 
 relatives both on the father's side and on the mother's side 
 took part in the blood-feud, which would show that kinship 
 through the father had come to be acknowledged. Unfortu- 
 nately the cases he gives as examples of the blood-feud (possibly 
 through the facts having been imperfectly explained to him) 
 
574 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 suggest that the persons upon whom it placed a duty usually 
 got all the friends they could to help them. 
 
 Some other facts are given by Mr. Howitt which show the 
 importance of the connection made through marriage all 
 being consistent, however, with kinship through the father 
 being also an established kinship. Marriage made a man free 
 to live with his wife's local tribe as well as with his own. 
 And it was a man's duty to share food with his father-in-law 
 (it may be only when living with him, but it is puzzling to 
 find this spoken of as an every-day matter).^ Young children 
 were never killed (the distinction was made by Mr Hewitt's 
 informants), but abandoned, as happens where the father is 
 answerable for his children to the mother's relatives. The 
 woman herself, too was under the protection of the blood-feud. 
 
 As to the marriage law, Mr. Howitt has not tried to base 
 it upon kinship, or to put it upon any definite basis. He has 
 laboriously gathered information as to the localities to which 
 the men of each local tribe went for their wives, but facts of 
 this class cannot show whether there was any principle by 
 which marriages were governed. It might be believed without 
 them that men sought wives where women whom they were 
 free to marry could be got most conveniently or easily, and 
 that custom counted for a good deal in the matter ; and they 
 do not carry us any further. Since, however, any Kurnai 
 might marry a Bra-jerak or foreign woman, it may be in- 
 ferred that, in general, where there was no kin there was no 
 restraint upon marriage. And there was interdiction of 
 marriage on the ground of kin. A man could not marry his 
 " sister " a term which, as Mr. Howitt defines it, included all 
 first cousins, whether on the father's side or on the mother's. 
 Mr. Howitt does not tell us that it extended beyond first 
 cousins. Nor has he been able to say that the interdiction 
 of marriage on the ground of kin went further in one direction 
 than in another. It was of importance, as it happened, in the 
 case of those cousins only who belonged to different local tribes ; 
 and it prohibited a man from marrying (among others)his father's 
 sister's daughter and his mother's brother's daughter women 
 who, with the totem system, would not have been of his own 
 
APPENDIX 575 
 
 totem, from whom an exclusive kinship either through males 
 or through females would not have cut him off. A man could 
 not marry any woman of his own local tribe. And in some 
 cases, in addition to this, he could not marry any woman of 
 his mother's local tribe. Mr. Howitt does not offer any 
 explanation of these prohibitions. 
 
 His statements might carry us, nevertheless, to a conclusion 
 as to this, and as to tribal structure among the Kurnai also, 
 but for one uncertainty. Mr. Howitt insists that wives were 
 got among the Kurnai (except to a very 'trifling extent) by 
 means of elopement or capture, which were both practised 
 under the same conditions ; indeed, nearly all the information 
 given to him was about elopements ; and one cannot be sure 
 that he has not confounded limitations put by circumstances 
 upon capture and elopement with limitations put by law or 
 custom upon marriage. There might have been women both 
 in a man's own tribe and in his mother's tribe whom he was 
 not debarred from marrying, and yet it might have been too 
 risky a thing or too gross an outrage, especially as the tribes 
 were very small, for him to steal away with one of them, 
 whether without her consent or with it. The Kurnai restric- 
 tions, as stated by him, however, were those which prevailed 
 among the Narrinyeri prohibition of marriage within the 
 tribe, and prohibition of marriage with certain near relations 
 not of the tribe with, in some cases among the Kurnai, the 
 prohibition added of marriage within the mother's tribe. These 
 are all restrictions which may occur where, after kinship 
 through females only, the local tribe has become a proper clan 
 established upon male kinship. The prohibition of marrying 
 in the mother's tribe may be much more easily and completely 
 explained upon this view of them than it can be upon any 
 other view. And Mr. Howitt's facts are all consistent with 
 it. Moreover, with fidelity exacted from the wife, there was 
 no reason why there should not have been among the Kurnai 
 the fullest acknowledgment of kinship through the father. 
 And, on the other hand, the acknowledgment of kinship 
 through the father is the best possible reason for fidelity being 
 exacted from the wife. 
 
576 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 We get incidentally another fact from Mr. Howitt which 
 strongly suggests that the Kurnai were, as to kinship and the 
 composition of their tribes, much in the position of the Narrin- 
 yeri. He has been able to translate for us only a few of the 
 Kurnai tribal names. And there is perhaps only one, the 
 name of a tribe of the Bra-brolung, which he has translated 
 with perfect confidence. But the name of that tribe meant 
 Widgeon (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 227). This is a name 
 of the totem kind ; and if it was a totem name, it would show, 
 consistently with what has otherwise been indicated to us, that 
 one local tribe of the Kurnai was a proper clan with male kin- 
 ship. Why, then, finding it among Australians, should we 
 doubt that it was a totem name ? There would really, all the 
 facts considered, be scarcely any reason for doubting, if any, 
 but that our authority tells us he failed to discover totem 
 divisions among the Kurnai. He had a theory, however, at 
 this point, as will be seen by and by. And he has given us 
 at least one other fact strongly suggestive of totemism, which 
 occurs (where such a fact was likely to occur) in his account 
 of the procedure at an elopement. 1 Moreover, the case in 
 which totemism is most likely to escape discovery is that in 
 which the tribe having male kinship, all the people of the tribe 
 are usually of the same name and totem, while there is also 
 (as there is said to have been, in general, among the Kurnai) 
 a local name by which the tribe is commonly known. 2 
 
 1 "By and by," Mr. Howitt says, in describing an elopement, "one of the 
 eligible young men met one of the marriageable young women ; he looked at her, 
 and said, ' Djeetgun ! ' She said, ' Yeerung ! "What does the Yeerung eat ? ' 
 The reply was, ' He eats so and so, ' mentioning kangaroo, opossum, or emu, or 
 some other game. Then they laughed, and she ran off with him without telling 
 any one " (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 201). Mr. Howitt gives this without any 
 sort of explanation, and totemism may give the explanation. The woman's 
 question, if customarily made, must have been either still necessary or a traditional 
 form ; there must have been a reason for it, whether a continuing reason or not. 
 Now, when women eloped with strangers there might be need for inquiry as to 
 marriageableness ; for the Kurnai men did not scar themselves that is, they 
 did not bear tribal or family marks. The women did bear scars of some sort. 
 And with totemism giving the rule for marriage, the man might marry the woman 
 if he might eat her totem. 
 
 2 Dr. Gallatin was certainly not a less able or a less careful inquirer than Mr. 
 Howitt, and his opportunities were incomparably better than Mr. Howitt's. It 
 
APPENDIX 577 
 
 Mr. Howitt thinks that the inhabitants of each of the five 
 districts into which Gippsland was divided formed a single 
 clan, of which each of the local tribes of the district was a 
 section or division. But there appears to be absolutely nothing 
 to support such a suggestion. On the other hand, with kin- 
 ship through females only (of which it is clear they had had 
 experience), the Kurnai, being exogamous, must have been in 
 the common Australian case of having people belonging to 
 different stocks, clans, or families mixed together, not only in 
 every district, but in every local tribe. And a change in kin- 
 ship need oust none of these clans from the district. It might 
 lead to the people of each clan being collected into a single 
 local tribe, as among the Narrinyeri; and the name of the 
 Waiung or Widgeon tribe may indicate that it did this, to 
 some unknown extent, among the Kurnai. The district names, 
 too, so far as known to us (putting aside those which indicate 
 geographical relation only) Bra-brolung, Bra-tauolung were 
 mere variants of Kurnai, meaning the men or the people ; and 
 are no more likely to have been clan names than Narrinyeri, 
 which has the same meaning, and is, as we know, a general 
 name for the people of many different clans, or than Kurnai 
 itself. It appears, too, that the Bra-brolung, or, at any rate, 
 some of them, could intermarry with one another, which 
 makes against the view that they formed a single clan. Very 
 likely, when not quarrelling among themselves, the inhabitants 
 of each district of Gippsland were ready to unite against other 
 Kurnai ; but from such a fact there can be no inference as to 
 clanship. The Iroquois, notwithstanding their famous league, 
 were made up of several clans or families, in which descent 
 was taken through the mother. 1 
 
 seems, therefore, worth while to mention here, with reference to the scantiness of 
 indications of totemism in Mr. Howitt's work, that Dr. Gallatin, in writing of 
 the Southern Indian nations of North America, while describing them admirably 
 in other respects, disclosed that they had totems only casually and in a footnote. 
 That they were in totem clans is now known on other authority. Dr. Gallatin, 
 however, was able to mention a number of totem names, while Mr. Howitt has 
 given us only one, but with what may fairly be taken as an indication of there 
 having been others. 
 
 1 Mr. Howitt's earliest statement about the Kurnai is to be found in Mr. Brough 
 Smith's Aborigines of Victoria (vol. ii. pp. 323 et seq.), and is confined to the Bra- 
 
 2 P 
 
578 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 Mr. Hewitt's facts which bear upon the tribal system of the 
 Kurnai have now been all dealt with. But there are two 
 other matters which figure largely in his book, and should not 
 be overlooked. 
 
 In a work which will be noticed hereafter, it appears that 
 the natives of the Port Fairy district of Victoria were made up 
 of five clans or families having totem names which were taken 
 through the mother viz. Long-billed Cockatoo, Pelican, Banksian 
 Cockatoo, Boa-snake, and Quail and that, as is usual in such 
 cases, no man could marry any woman of his own totem name. 
 It appears, too, that, like other people in the same social state, 
 the Port Fairy natives had superstitions or practices which had 
 to do with animals from which none of them took their names, 
 and which were common to them all, of whatever totem name. 
 And among other things, the common Bat, we are told, be- 
 longed to the men of whatever totem, who protected it against 
 injury, " even to the half-killing of their wives for its sake " ; 
 so that it was protected by the men against the women. 
 Similarly, the Fern-owl, or large Goatsucker, belonged to the 
 women of whatever totem, and, though a bird of ill omen, 
 creating terror at night by its cry, was jealously protected by 
 them. If a man killed one, they were " as much enraged as 
 if it were one of their children," and would strike him with 
 their long poles ; so that the women protected it against the 
 men. A fact such as this, wherever it occurs, is curious, and 
 no doubt worth inquiring about. Among the Port Fairy people, 
 
 brolung tribes. The name Kurnai is not mentioned in it, and it is not clear 
 whether the Bra-brolung, as a people, called themselves Kurnai as well as Bra- 
 brolung. In this statement Mr. Howitt said that the Bra-brolung were in three 
 "classes," by which he meant local tribes, within each of which marriage was 
 forbidden, while each might intermarry with the other two. Had this state- 
 ment remained undisturbed, there could have been little doubt that the Bra- 
 brolung local tribe was a true clan with male kinship, and exogamous (even 
 without it being known that the name of one of the tribes meant Widgeon). In 
 Kamilaroi and Kurnai Mr. Howitt gives the names of five local tribes of the 
 Bra-brolung, and tells us something of the habits in respect of marriage of three 
 of them. One of the three, he says, took wives from a neighbouring district 
 only ; the second took wives from the Waiung or Widgeon tribe only ; while the 
 Waiung took wives from those two, and also went abroad for them. As to the 
 name Kurnai, it seems to have been added to the name of a local tribe when an 
 individual of the tribe was to be designated. 
 
APPENDIX 579 
 
 whatever its import, it is clear that it had to do with sex ; and 
 it is clear also that it had nothing to do with totem names or 
 tribal divisions. It would not be surprising were one brought 
 to conclude that it was connected with the initiation to man- 
 hood, the effect of which was to take youths from the women 
 and make men of them. 
 
 It is upon a fact precisely the same as this, however, that 
 Mr. Howitt and his collaborates, Mr. Fison, have based their 
 whole view of the history and tribal condition of the Kurnai ; 
 and, naturally, their view is a very extraordinary one. Among 
 the Kurnai the Yeerung, or Emu-wren, belonged to the men, 
 and was protected by the men against the women, just as the 
 Bat was among the Port Fairy people ; and the Djeetgun, or 
 Superb Warbler, belonged to the women, and was protected by 
 the women against the men, as the Goatsucker was among the 
 Port Fairy people. Both figured in the proceedings of the men 
 and women at the ceremonies of initiation, and in these, in 
 connection with the young men, another bird, the Nurt, a 
 species of duck, also played a part. Mr. Howitt seems at an 
 early stage of his inquiry to have become possessed with the 
 notion that the Yeerung and the Djeetgun were all the Kurnai 
 had for totems. (But why did he overlook the Nurt ?) And 
 he concluded that the Yeerung was the totem of the Kurnai 
 men, and the Djeetgun the totem of the Kurnai women. By 
 parity of supposition perhaps the Nurt should have been the 
 totem of Kurnai young men. Yeerung and Djeetgun, how- 
 ever, dominate his book, turning up in the most unexpected 
 places ; and Mr. Fison has devised a theory to account for the 
 totem system being employed among the Kurnai, not to dis- 
 tinguish one body of kindred from another, but to distinguish 
 men from women. 
 
 One need not say much of such an error, or of the ingenuity 
 of theorising expended upon it. It is enough to repeat that 
 the Port Fairy people had precisely similar sex preferences 
 to those of the Kurnai, and had totem names and divisions 
 besides, and that (unless as regards their origin) the two had 
 nothing to do with each other ; and it may be added, for those 
 who are interested in Mr. Fison's theory, that though the former 
 
5 So STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 had somehow to do with sex, it was the latter which regulated 
 marriage ; so that the theory, with all its developments, in- 
 cluding the explanation of " marriage by elopement," is abso- 
 lutely chimerical. Obviously Mr. Hewitt's view could never 
 have been thought of had it been known that the Kurnai had 
 totem names or divisions. And it was just the view which 
 might make the most candid inquirer rather slacken his search 
 for such things. Very likely these (if the totem system pre- 
 vailed among the Kurnai) were not so easily to be heard of as 
 a fact in which all Kurnai men and women were interested. 
 As it is, Mr. Howitt has found for us one Kurnai tribal name, 
 which was an animal name, and has given us indications of 
 others. And without a good knowledge of Kurnai speech, sup- 
 posing that the Kurnai had the totem system, it may have 
 been impossible for any one to do more. It need scarcely be 
 added that, whatever totem names they may have had, we may 
 be sure that Yeerung and Djeetgun were not among them. 
 
 The other matter to be noticed (of which incidentally 
 something has been said already) is the mode in which the 
 Kurnai got their wives. Here once more there is uncertainty 
 as to Mr. Howitt's facts. He tells us that, as a rule, a young 
 Kurnai could get a wife only by running away with her that 
 is, by her freely eloping with him, without the knowledge of 
 her parents. " If the young man was so fortunate as to have 
 an unmarried sister, and to have a friend who also had an 
 unmarried sister, they might arrange with the girls to run off 
 together ; " this is the first illustration of the system of elope- 
 ment which he gives us. In other cases, a young man and 
 young woman ran away together because they happened to 
 fancy one another, and the first advances might come from 
 either. The girl, in all cases alike, went freely, and without 
 the knowledge of her parents ; and their consent, if asked, 
 would be refused as a matter of course. 
 
 By and by it comes out that there was a good deal of 
 capture among the Kurnai, and that the stealing of women 
 was a frequent cause of quarrels between tribes. There is 
 some recognition also of exceptional cases, in which women 
 did not elope, but were given away made, it would seem, 
 
APPENDIX 581 
 
 because a correspondent of Mr. Howitt's who had lived long 
 among the Kurnai, Mr. Bulmer of the Lake Tyers mission, 
 had expressed doubts as to the accuracy of Mr. Howitt's 
 information. 
 
 Mr. Bulmer's own account of marriage among the Kurnai, 
 written some years before Mr. Howitt's, is to be found in The 
 Aborigines of Victoria (vol. i. pp. 82 et seq.). When a girl is 
 thirteen or fourteen, he says (p. 84), a yam-stick is given to 
 her for protection ; " and this precaution is nearly always 
 needed, for it would not be sufficient for her to say ' No ' to 
 an important question. She drives away any young man who 
 is smitten with her charms with her yam-stick." Mr. Bulmer 
 here puts the risk to a young woman from violence into the 
 foremost place, but it was not his purpose to speak of capture. 
 " Matches," he continues, " are generally made up among the 
 young men ; the women never initiate matches, though they 
 have a good deal to say when it is known that a young woman 
 is sought after by some young man. The match is mostly 
 arranged between two young men who have sisters, or some 
 female relative over whose fate they may happen to have 
 control. They follow a system of barter in their matrimonial 
 arrangements. The young woman's opinion is not asked." He 
 speaks, it will be observed, as if this matchmaking, carried on 
 by means of barter, were a common thing, as if it were a 
 system indeed, as if it were the regular thing; and what he 
 describes is marriage by exchange, which is exceedingly preva- 
 lent among other Australians. He goes on to tell how the 
 transaction was carried out. " When the young men have 
 settled the business," he says, " they propose a time when one 
 of them is to take a girl for his wife. The young man marches 
 up to her equipped as if for war, with his club and club-shield 
 in his hands ; and indeed these are needed, if he does not wish 
 to receive a blow on his head from the yam-stick, which would 
 perhaps prevent the further progress of his love-making. After 
 a little fencing between the pair, the woman, if she has no 
 serious objections to the match, quietly submits, and allows 
 herself to be taken away to the camp of her future husband." 
 It is plain that the young man marching up to the woman 
 
582 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 
 
 equipped for war does not go to propose an elopement to her, 
 and that he does not go meaning to put up with a refusal. It 
 is manifest that, in virtue of the bargain made, he goes to 
 take her away, by force if necessary ; and, in short, there is a 
 form of capture. 
 
 Mr. Buhner tells us also that elopements took place, and 
 he speaks as if they were pretty frequent. He shows that 
 elopement was resented much as capture would have been, 
 though, no doubt, in a less degree ; and also that the woman 
 was nearly always brought home again, so s that elopement was 
 far from leading immediately to marriage. After a couple 
 had eloped again and again, however, and been punished for 
 the offence, the girl's friends usually consented to a marriage. 
 The man had got love tokens from her, Mr. Bulmer explains, 
 which, in the hands of a sorcerer, would put her life at his 
 mercy ; she became ill, and her friends grew anxious ; there 
 was pity for the young man, too, who had braved so much for 
 her ; and so, in the end, " the tribe give him to wife the girl 
 for whose sake he has borne so many honourable scars." In 
 the detail just given there is little difference between Mr. 
 Bulmer and Mr. Howitt ; and (besides that the woman was 
 given at last) it scarcely seems descriptive of a mode of 
 getting married to which there was no sort of recognised 
 alternative. 
 
 Mr. Hewitt's admissions about capture show that he made 
 his statement as to elopements much too strong; and, after 
 reading Mr. Bulmer, it cannot be doubted that he mistook the 
 place of exchange in Kurnai marriage. So much, as to 
 exchange, might almost have been inferred, indeed, from the 
 Kurnai having been polygamous. Men do not get many 
 wives by elopement practised under difficulties; men do not 
 get many wives even by capture polygamy cannot get on 
 without more regular means of wife-getting ; and, allowing for 
 inheritance, there can scarcely be any practice of it worth 
 speaking about without wives being obtainable by some form 
 of contract. No doubt the marriages arranged by brothers, 
 which Mr. Howitt classes among elopements, were in general 
 marriages by exchange. 
 
APPENDIX 583 
 
 What proportions, however, the three capture, exchange, 
 elopement bore to each other among the Kurnai does not 
 greatly matter. It is plain that the Kurnai arrived at marriage 
 by exchange in a movement from capture, for what the man 
 got by his bargain was permission to take away or carry off 
 the woman. That elopement also was arrived at in a move- 
 ment from capture is clearly shown by a curious fact, 
 immediately to be noticed, which Mr. Howitt mentions. And 
 if elopement and exchange both grew up upon capture, which 
 of the three was the more in vogue becomes a question of 
 subordinate interest. 
 
 In an account of the capture of women as practised by 
 the Australians, given in Mr. Brough Smith's Aborigines of 
 Victoria (vol. ii. p. 316), it is stated that "in any case, where 
 the abduction has taken place for the benefit of some one 
 individual, each of the members of the party claims, as a 
 right, a privilege which the intended husband has no power to 
 refuse." Where a tribe carried off women from another tribe, 
 it is added, " the unfortunates are common property till they 
 are gradually annexed by the best warriors of the tribe." The 
 general case and the particular agree in this, that, in the first 
 instance, a woman was common to those who had made 
 capture of her ; while she was, in the latter, given immediately 
 after that to the man for whose behoof she had been carried 
 off, and was, in the former, monopolised as soon as some 
 particular man was influential enough to make his own of her. 
 Similarly, Mr. Howitt tells us of a tribe in which (p. 346) 
 "the female war captive was at first common to the men 
 present at the capture, and then became the property of her 
 captor " that is, provided she were a woman he was free to 
 marry. And of a woman who had been taken in war, he was 
 told (Kurnai practice this) that " before she was the wife of 
 Tankli she belonged to all the Yowung men," which coin- 
 cides with the second of the foregoing statements. 
 
 It need not be said that the practice thus disclosed as 
 following upon capture is not peculiarly Australian ; and no 
 far-fetched theory is needed to account for it. With contract 
 for marriage and capture remaining as a form, we sometimes 
 
584 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 find it continued the bride carried off, though the carrying 
 off has been only a form, the bridegroom's party treat her as 
 in like case their predecessors would have treated a captive 
 woman. Now, among the Kurnai, as Mr. Howitt shows us, 
 this practice was a concomitant also of elopement. The man 
 with whom a woman had agreed to elope summoned his 
 friends, and the woman was treated by the party as she would 
 have been if they had carried her off for him by force, or 
 taken her in battle. 
 
 Where we find it with marriage, this s practice reveals to 
 us an association early formed between wife -getting and 
 capture, which, with capture become a form, and possibly 
 reduced to a meaningless formality, continues to manifest 
 itself in marriage doings. It as clearly shows that the elope- 
 ments of the Kurnai in which the man stole away with a 
 woman, and was punishable much as he would have been 
 for stealing her were an aftergrowth of their system of 
 capture. 
 
 Mr. Fison has suggested that this practice among the 
 Kurnai illustrates what Sir John Lubbock has called expiation 
 for marriage. But elopement, though so much akin to capture, 
 and though it might prove a step towards marriage, did not 
 make marriage among the Kurnai ; in general, it was not 
 followed by the appropriation of the woman, and Mr. Fison 
 has been puzzled to say what there was to be expiated. " The 
 man," he says, in the only passage in which he has ventured 
 to speak clearly (p. 303, footnote), "is one of a group each 
 member of which has as much right to elope with the girl as 
 he has. The secret meeting in the forest seems to be a com- 
 pounding for that right." He might have said they had all 
 as much right to capture her without being very paradoxical. 
 And the same could equally well be said of all the men of 
 many groups. But when he speaks of a right to elope with 
 her, it becomes difficult to treat him seriously. In elopement 
 the girl had choice as much as the man ; she was not restricted 
 to men of any particular group ; there was no man who had 
 any right to elope with her. Her consent even can scarcely 
 be said to have given a right even to the man whom she 
 
APPENDIX 585 
 
 favoured, though no doubt it gave him an opportunity. More- 
 over, the " expiation " was not offered to all the men of even 
 one group, but only to those near friends of the man from 
 whom he might have claimed help for her capture, the men 
 who, with regular marriage, would have been his backers at 
 the wedding. 
 
 On Sir John Lubbock's theory, no doubt, a war captive, or 
 foreign woman taken captive, belonged to the captor, and there 
 was no need that her appropriation should be expiated; it 
 was the appropriation of a native woman that needed to be 
 expiated, that infringing a right of the tribe. It seems worth 
 while to add, nevertheless, that before the practice which the 
 Kurnai followed in their elopements, and which some other 
 peoples have had in marriage with the form of capture, could 
 be taken as showing expiation for marriage in any case what- 
 ever, the same practice in all cases of actual capture would 
 have to be explained as expiation for marriage. That fighting 
 men are much the same, with women at their mercy, in early 
 times and in late, and whatever the current views about 
 marriage right may be, seems to afford a simpler view of its 
 origin. But, apart from that, could it be said there was 
 expiation for marriage in the case of those women captured 
 by a tribe, who were common to the tribe at first, but were 
 afterwards appropriated ? Did the women remain unappro- 
 priated until their appropriation was sufficiently expiated ? 
 The fact seems to be that the woman's first position in this 
 case is that of undivided and unallotted booty unallotted 
 because nobody has a paramount claim to it. She is common 
 because she is not anybody's, but everybody's, and she ceases 
 to be common as soon as some one man is able to make his 
 own of her. 
 
 Mr. Howitt gives, in appendices to his work on the 
 Kurnai, some information procured by him respecting four 
 other Australian tribes information too meagre in every case, 
 but still worth a few words of notice. 
 
 The Gournditch - Mara tribe (Western Victoria ; Gourn- 
 ditch being a local name, and Mara = man) is said, on the 
 
586 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 authority of the Eev. J. H. Stahle, to have been composed of 
 four classes, that is, divisions, named Keriip (water), Bum 
 (mountain), Dirck (swamp), and Gilger (river) ; and to have 
 had " no exogamous rule affecting marriage " ; so that, though 
 wives were got from neighbouring friendly tribes, and occasion- 
 ally through capture, there was no rule which restricted 
 marriages within the tribe itself. It is not stated whether 
 the distribution of the tribesfolk into four divisions had any 
 effect or served any purpose, but the names given are of the 
 totem kind ; they may therefore have been totem or family 
 names ; and the blood-feud may have depended upon them, 
 though it is said they did not regulate marriage. Besides the 
 statement as to marriage, the most interesting points in Mr. 
 Stable's information are that children belonged to the division 
 of their father, and spoke his language, when the mother was 
 of another tribe, and not the mother's language (the mention 
 of which seems to show that the mother was often of another 
 tribe) ; and that, there being a headman of the tribe, son suc- 
 ceeded to father in this office. It thus appears that kinship 
 through males was thoroughly established among the Gourn- 
 ditch-Mara. There is nothing to show to what extent there 
 was kinship through the mother. Sisters were exchanged in 
 marriage, that is, girls were bargained away not by their 
 parents but by their brothers a point worth noticing, because 
 the same thing happened among the Narrinyeri, who had male 
 kinship, and among the Kurnai, who appear to have had male 
 kinship ; but the consent of the parents was necessary. Fidelity 
 was expected from the wife, and the husband did not lend her 
 to his guest, both points tending to show a thorough establish- 
 ment of male kinship. There was no objection to polygamy. 
 
 As to the statement about marriage, of course, there is the 
 question whether it can be trusted ; and it does not tell us, be 
 it observed, of any restriction upon the marriage of relatives 
 however near. On reasoning given in Primitive Marriage, 
 however, a practice of polyandry might prevent the rise of 
 exogamy ; and exogamy, where it had arisen, might disappear 
 in the confusion following upon the change from kinship 
 through females only to kinship through males. If the 
 
APPENDIX 587 
 
 Gournditch-Mara had the totem system, and were really not 
 exogamous, the latter is the probable explanation of their not 
 being exogamous. 
 
 Is it still possible to ascertain whether they had any 
 marriage law ? The mere statement that they were not 
 exogamous, marking them as singular among Australian tribes, 
 makes them more worth inquiring about than most of the 
 numerous tribes which are known to have been exogamous. 
 
 The information as to the Geawe-gal tribe (now extinct ; 
 Hunter Eiver, New South Wales) communicated to Mr. Howitt 
 by Mr. G. W. Eusden is so meagre, and has been so evidently 
 supplied from imperfect recollection of facts imperfectly 
 observed or understood, that it would perhaps be best to say 
 nothing of it. Mr. Eusden tells us, however, that "it was 
 absolutely necessary that women should be married according 
 to tribal laws," and he states that these were laws " of forbidden 
 degree or class," which may be taken as an indication of 
 exogamy. He mentions also that "the Geawe-gal had a 
 superstition that every one had within himself an affinity to 
 the spirit of some bird, beast, or reptile," which (error or 
 misunderstanding duly allowed for) may be taken as an 
 indication of totemism. Mr. Eusden has nothing to tell as to 
 the kinship system of the Geawe-gal. 
 
 Some statements as to the Turra tribe (York's Peninsula, 
 South Australia), which are very interesting so far as they 
 go, are given by Mr. Howitt on the authority of the Eev. 
 W. Julius Klihn (but apparently not in the language used by 
 him). Of this tribe, according to Mr. Klihn, there were two 
 main divisions Wiltu (eagle-hawk) and Multa (seal). It 
 will be seen immediately that it is left somewhat in doubt 
 whether these were not really separate tribes. The Wiltu sub- 
 tribe contained people of ten, the Multa people of six, different 
 totems. All the totems are mentioned. We are told that the 
 divisions or sub-tribes were exogamous, but that any totem of 
 one might marry with any totem of the other; and that 
 children belonged to the totem of their father, and therefore, 
 to his division or sub-tribe ; so that here once more we come 
 upon kinship through males in an Australian tribe in con- 
 
588 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 nection with totemism and exogamy. Daughters were given 
 in marriage by their parents, and wives were also obtained 
 by exchange of female relatives. Faithfulness, it is said, was 
 expected both of husband and wife, which tends to show a 
 thorough establishment of the family upon the basis of male 
 kinship. Elopement was not unknown, but the penalties were 
 serious. A girl who eloped would be put to death by her 
 relatives, if they could recover her ; and they would kill the 
 man also if they could, but he was generally protected, it is 
 said, by the division of the tribe to which he belonged. What 
 is mentioned to illustrate this, however, is that if a man of 
 the Wortu (wombat) totem of the Wiltu (eagle-hawk) sub-tribe 
 were to elope with a Multa woman, he would be protected by the 
 Wiltu- Wortu men that is, by the men of his own totem ; and, 
 to illustrate the marriage-law, it is added that a Wiltu- Wortu 
 man would not be allowed to keep a Wiltu- Wortu woman 
 that is, a woman of his own totem even if he captured her ; 
 statements which suggest a doubt whether either the restraint 
 upon marriage or the duty of affording protection really extended 
 beyond the totem. 
 
 We are not told into what small groups or local tribes the 
 Turra people were subdivided, but by the conditions under 
 which they lived they almost must have been subdivided. It 
 might have been expected that the people of the same totem 
 would in general be found living together; nor does the 
 mention of the capture of a Wiltu- Wortu woman by a Wiltu - 
 Wortu man, as if it were a case which might occur, make 
 against this, for (besides that the woman, when married, 
 would be living among strangers) the statement was evidently 
 made in answer to a "leading question," and seems to be only 
 a way of saying that a man might not marry a woman of his 
 own totem in any case whatever. As to the sub-tribes, we are 
 told that when a woman of one was captured in war by a man 
 of the other, her sub-tribe would fight to recover her, and 
 failing in that, would endeavour to capture a woman of the 
 other ; and this tends to show that they lived as separate 
 tribes. Mention is also made of their meeting together for a 
 grand corrobboree. 
 
APPENDIX 589 
 
 In connection with the grand corrobboree, a statement 
 (already referred to in a footnote) * is given which is of the 
 greatest interest in relation to the origin of exogamy. At the 
 corrobboree (though at ordinary times men did not lend their 
 wives to brothers or friends) "the old men took any of the 
 young wives of the other class [sub-tribe] for the time, and the 
 young men of the Wiltu exchanged wives with those of the 
 Multa, and vice versd, but only for a time, and in this the men 
 were not confined to any particular totem." As men were 
 not confined even in marrying to any particular totem, this 
 can only mean that for the time the totem made no restriction ; 
 that a Wiltu man might for the occasion take any Multa wife 
 even a woman of his own totem. The Turra people habitually 
 insisted on conjugal fidelity ; and the men of one sub-tribe 
 were prohibited from marrying (so it is stated) any of the 
 women whom the men of the other would in general have for 
 wives, and, at any rate, they all were strictly prohibited from 
 marrying within their own totem. Was their practice at 
 corrobborees a tradition (observed at extraordinary occasions) 
 of the ordinary practice of their early predecessors ? Did the 
 exogamous prejudice apply at first to wiving only ? 
 
 Of the Wa-imbio tribe, whose territory extended from the 
 junction of the Darling and Murray rivers to the Eufus, a 
 slight account, supplied by the Eev. J. Bulmer, is given by 
 Mr. Howitt. Of the Wa-imbio, Mr. Bulmer says, there were two 
 primary divisions, Muquarra (eagle-hawk) and Kilparra (crow) ; 
 he implies that each of these contained people of several 
 different totems, but he mentions two totems only Karnie 
 (a large lizard), which belonged to the Muquarra division, arid 
 Namba (the bone-fish), which belonged to the Kilparra division. 
 Mr. Bulmer wrote from experience that he had of the Wa-imbio 
 in his early days; he seems to have remembered no other 
 totems, but he is " most confident " that children were always 
 of the same division as their mother, which involves that they 
 were of her totem also, and that kinship was taken through 
 the mother. With respect to the conditions of marriage, he 
 thinks the consent of parents was usually required, elope- 
 1 Supra, p. 287. 
 
590 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 merits also occurring, however ; but beyond this his know- 
 ledge seems to have failed him ; what he says scarcely amounts 
 to more than that there were conditions involving exogamy, 
 and that they were strictly enforced. A man would not be 
 permitted, he tells us, to keep as his wife a woman of his own 
 " class," and the people would not hesitate to kill a man who 
 broke the rule ; but he does not say what " class " means in 
 this statement whether a division of the tribe or the totem 
 kindred only. In an earlier statement l he had said that " a 
 Muquarra could not marry a Muquarra, ^nor a Kilparra a 
 Kilparra " ; but in that statement no hint was given of the 
 existence among the Wa-imbio of any totems except these 
 two. The only marriage mentioned by him is a marriage, 
 which followed upon betrothal, between a Wa-imbio man 
 and a woman of the Tapio tribe. 
 
 To the preceding notices of Australian tribes scarcely any 
 addition of fact can be made from that portion of Kamilaroi 
 and Kurnai for which Mr. Fison is responsible, that being 
 chiefly occupied with theories and controversial matters. The 
 brief citations from correspondents which occur in it (though 
 his theories are mainly founded upon them) are, in general, 
 too meagre to be of any use, even could they be trusted ; and 
 it often seems quite obvious that they are not to be trusted. 
 Of course it has to be borne in mind that Mr. Fison was 
 unable to study Australian tribes for himself; and that the 
 only means he had of adding to our knowledge of these fast- 
 dying Aborigines (a most praiseworthy object, if pursued with 
 proper care and without theoretical bias) was to spread schedules 
 of questions far and wide, among all sorts of people who had 
 been in contact with natives, and do his best with the answers 
 he got. It must be said, however, that (while nearly all his 
 new matter is, to speak mildly, doubtful) he has, in his eager- 
 ness for new information, ignored a great deal that was already 
 known on better authority than it was in his power to have 
 recourse to. He has besides legitimately, no doubt, in setting 
 forth his hypotheses, but to a much greater extent than justice 
 
 1 The Aborigines of Victoria, vol. i. p. 86, 1878. By R. Brough Smith. 
 
APPENDIX 591 
 
 to these demanded used all marriage and kinship terms, as he 
 says himself, in an accommodated sense that is, in a non-natural 
 sense, and in other ways mixed up fact and theory together, 
 often speaking too confidently of his theoretical views, as if they 
 were matter of fact. His work, while it displays an intrepid 
 ingenuity which finds nothing impossible, nothing even difficult, 
 would for those reasons prove misleading and mystifying if 
 taken for a source of information as to the condition of the 
 Australian tribes as they actually have been made known to us. 
 
 Some account, however, must be given of the tribe, or 
 population, by means of which (and not the Kamilaroi, who 
 are, in fact, a difficulty for him, though their name is on his 
 title-page) he has illustrated his principal theory, if only to 
 illustrate his manner of dealing with facts. This tribe, when 
 Mr. Fison received his information about it, consisted of 
 seventeen persons ; twenty-eight years earlier it had num- 
 bered 900. His informant (a Mr. Stewart) regrets that he 
 had not been put upon close inquiry ten years earlier, " when 
 the natives were numerous, when there were old people of 
 intelligence to be found among them, when one might, without 
 hesitation, accept their ideas and expressions as original." 
 
 The name of this tribe is not mentioned, which is curious ; 
 it is spoken of only as the Mount Gambier tribe. It had the 
 totem system, but, as Mr. Stewart understood the matter, with 
 this peculiarity, that while each body of kindred had one 
 animal or plant which was its totem for example, pelican 
 or tea-tree each regarded a number of other things as in- 
 cluded with the totem, which apparently means as on the 
 same footing with it. For pelican (to go on with the examples 
 already given) these are said to have been dogs, black-wood 
 trees, fire, and frost ; for tea-tree, ducks, wallabies, owls, and 
 crayfish. A man did not kill, or use as food, any of the 
 animals belonging to his own totem group (of the same sub- 
 division with himself, are Mr. Stewart's words ; and the totem 
 divisions are his subdivisions) unless compelled to it by 
 hunger, and then with expressions of sorrow for having to 
 eat his wingong (friends), or tuinanang (flesh). " When using 
 the last word, they touch their breasts to indicate the close 
 
592 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 relationship, meaning almost a part of themselves." The 
 totem clan was called tuman. It is natural to suspect mis- 
 conception on Mr. Stewart's part as to portions of this state- 
 ment ; and of this something will be said immediately. The 
 statement, nevertheless, gives unexceptionable evidence of 
 totemism ; and those of the same totem were those of the 
 same flesh, or, as we say, of the same blood that is, they 
 were the body of acknowledged blood-kindred. Accordingly 
 the tuman took "a prominent part in the blood revenge 
 arrangement," " also in cases of uncertain death, the tuman of 
 the slayer (slain ?) appear at the inquest." The life of the 
 tribe was so far based on the totem system. It included 
 eight different totem clans or tumans, the names of which 
 are mentioned. 
 
 So much is clear. There was also a division of this 
 population (for which as a whole we know no name) into 
 Kumite and Kroki (feminine, Kumitegor, Krokigor) ; and 
 five totems are mentioned as having been Kumite, three as 
 having been Kroki. The meaning of these words is unknown; 
 it is not known that they are either totem names or local 
 names. The tribe is described by Mr. Fison as exogamous, 
 and as taking kinship through the mother. Were it worth 
 while to make surmises, it would be not unreasonable to surmise 
 that at Mount Gambier two separate local tribes containing 
 different totem kindreds had, through the operation of exogamy 
 and female kinship, become welded into one community. 
 
 As to the peculiar extension of the totem system in this 
 tribe which has been mentioned, there is a general statement 
 made which goes vastly beyond the particulars which are 
 given for the several totems. Mr. Stewart is quoted as 
 saying that "not only mankind, but things in general, are 
 subject to these [the totem] divisions " ; and to this is appended 
 as a specimen, Mr. Fison says the full list of those " things 
 in general " which Mr. Stewart felt able to mention for each 
 totem (averaging three or four for each). The reference to 
 mankind in that passage is in no way explained, and it is of 
 uncertain meaning; it may mean only that the tribe was 
 composed of totem clans, and yet something more seems 
 
APPENDIX 593 
 
 intended; surely it cannot mean that strangers to the tribe 
 were necessarily considered as belonging to one or other of 
 its clans. Things in general, however, according to the state- 
 ment, were distributed between the clans. On what principle 
 of distribution then ? " I have tried in vain," Mr. Stewart 
 says, "to find a reason for the arrangement." How then 
 did he find out so much as he did ? and did he jump from 
 that to his general statement ? or did the general statement 
 come to him independently of the particulars? Mr. Fison 
 has here left us entirely to our conjectures. He has given 
 us, however, one little glimpse of Mr. Stewart pursuing his 
 inquiries. " I asked," Mr. Stewart says, " c To what division 
 does a bullock belong ? ' After a pause came the answer, ' It 
 eats grass ; it is Boortwerio [tea -tree].' I then said, 'A 
 crayfish does not eat grass [the crayfish had already been 
 described to him as Boortwerio] ; why is it Boortwerio ? ' 
 Then came the standing answer for all puzzling questions : 
 That is what our fathers said it was.' " Here we see the 
 poor savage anxious to please, indifferent to truth, ready to 
 give answers such as are expected of him (so observers concur 
 in describing him) put to the question with a result which 
 perhaps might have been anticipated. He finds a totem or 
 tuman for the bullock on the spot. Mr. Stewart, be it ob- 
 served, was by this time fully possessed of the notion (in 
 whatever way he got it) that things in general were distri- 
 buted between the totems. It may be assumed that he had 
 been put upon his inquiries by Mr. Fison ; and it will be 
 found that Mr. Fison had got a hint of something similar 
 from another quarter (not, however, without warning as to the 
 risk of error; see The Aborigines of Victoria, vol. i. p. 91). 
 
 The only things it seems necessary to say about this re- 
 markable disclosure are, first, that it, at any rate, shows us 
 again very clearly the position of the totem clans in this tribe 
 (as Mr. Stewart understood the matter) that they were the 
 units, or separate components, of the community; and, next, 
 that Mr. Fison should not have published, as illustrating 
 savage speculation, a statement one branch of which, as it 
 stands, looks like mere nonsense, and which may be altogether 
 
 2Q 
 
594 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 a product of self-mystification, without giving the necessary 
 explanations, and not without giving us in some part of his 
 work every word which his correspondent had given to him. 
 We need in such a case all the testimony, and that in the very 
 form in which it has been given, if only to enable us to form 
 our own opinion of the witness and of his actual meaning. 
 
 To complete the account that can be given of the Mount 
 Gambier people, it remains to notice what is disclosed to us as 
 to their marriage law and their system of kinship. This is 
 very brief; it is given as on the authority of Mr. Stewart, 
 but with only a single line cited from that informant to 
 illustrate or support it. Kumite, the male, Mr. Fison tells us, 
 married Krokigor, and the children were Krokigor (that is, 
 of the Kroki division) ; Kroki, the male, married Kumitegor, 
 and the children were Kumitegor (that is, of the Kumite 
 division). Kinship was taken through the mother, according 
 to this statement ; that is clear and need not be doubted. As 
 to the marriage law indicated, when, at another part of the 
 work, we get incidentally, and for a different purpose, a brief 
 citation from Mr. Stewart (that which has already been 
 noticed), we find that Mr. Stewart, with the knowledge he 
 had, had to speak of the totems almost exclusively. It was 
 the totems which were prominent in the blood-feud ; the totems 
 which determined what each man ought not to eat ; the totems 
 between which there was the alleged distribution of mankind 
 and of things in general. Mr. Stewart tells us nothing here 
 of Kumite and Kroki, but that either might eat the other's 
 totems ; and this was probably stated in answer to a question, 
 for it was superfluous coming after what he had said previously 
 of the totems in same connection. This evidence prepares us 
 to find the totems regulating marriages in the tribe, as they 
 did all other things of importance. Now Mr. Fison tells us 
 that they did not affect marriage in any way; but that 
 marriage was prohibited between all Kumite men and women, 
 and between all Kroki men and women, while any man of the 
 one name might marry any woman of the other. It appears 
 that he expected to find the totems affecting marriage by 
 putting a further restriction upon it (pp. 41, 42); he was 
 
APPENDIX 595 
 
 prepared to find that a Kumite totem did not intermarry 
 with all the Kroki totems, but only with one or more of 
 them ; and the single line as to marriage which he cites from 
 Mr. Stewart gives a negative answer to a question on this 
 point. What other inquiries he made, and how far Mr. 
 Stewart's knowledge extended, we cannot know. Though 
 treating this matter of the marriage law as of great import- 
 ance (and it is the sort of matter which necessarily is of 
 interest), Mr. Fison has produced no statement about it from 
 Mr. Stewart except the one line just mentioned ; and so there 
 is nothing more to be said of it. It is clear, at any rate, that 
 the Mount Gambier people had the totem system, and also 
 that they had exogamy and female kinship. 
 
 "What Mr. Fison descries among the Mount Gambier 
 people (and this it is which makes Kumite and Kroki import- 
 ant in his eyes) is a division of the tribe into two intermarry- 
 ing classes having kinship through the mother, by which he 
 does not mean two divisions within each of which marriage 
 was prohibited, but two divisions which intermarried with 
 each other, and at first made no other marriages ; or, to be 
 more accurate, in which the men of one had conjugal rights of 
 a communal sort over the women of the other of their own 
 generation. It need not be said that this is hypothesis merely, 
 and there is nothing adduced to support it for this particular 
 tribe or population. It is as intermarrying classes neverthe- 
 less that Kumite and Kroki are introduced to us ; and by 
 stretching out to sea as far as New Britain, Mr. Fison finds 
 four other tribes fit to be put in the same category as illustrat- 
 ing what he believes to have been the earliest division of 
 tribes among the Australians. Two only of the four are 
 Australian, and Mr. Fison's information about these seems to 
 consist of a few sentences for each division, which, as de- 
 scribed to us, is each subdivided into two, but with a system 
 of naming which suggests that the two are one a system of 
 naming which is a difficulty for Mr. Fison ; not an insur- 
 mountable difficulty, however, for he has been able to offer 
 two entirely different solutions of it. How far imperfect 
 information is the true solution it is bootless to inquire. Of the 
 
596 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 first, the Mount Gambler people, we have already spoken. The 
 other (on the Darling Eiver) is also in totem divisions, being 
 made up of the Muquarra and the Kilparra (eagle-hawk and 
 crow), of which we have learned something already on the 
 authority of Mr. Bulmer. Each division includes several 
 totems, but Mr. Fison's informant, a Mr. Lockhart, has, like 
 Mr. Bulmer, been unable to give a list of the totems, and 
 mentions only three. The little Mr. Lockhart says of marriage, 
 by the way (p. 41), is expressly said to illustrate how the 
 divisions Muquarra and Kilparra are continued through the 
 system of female kinship, but has been unaccountably mis- 
 understood by Mr. Fison, who finds in this the main, if not 
 the only, foundation for a theory of his which has been already 
 referred to, that where a division includes several totems, and 
 there is no marriage within the division, the totem puts a 
 further restriction upon marriage ; so that, for example, a 
 particular totem of Muquarra could intermarry only with a 
 particular totem of Kilparra. For the Banks Islanders and the 
 natives of New Britain, who complete his list, Mr. Fison's 
 information is more scanty still a sentence or so for each. 
 
 Such is the basis of fact for the hypothesis of intermarrying 
 classes on one side ; to note how very slight it is, besides 
 being otherwise very dubious, is all that is here intended. 
 On what basis of fact, then, does Mr. Fison place the other 
 branch of his hypothesis, the communism predicated of the 
 men and women of the same generation ? 
 
 First and chiefly, he relies upon the fact that in a large 
 proportion of Australian tribes a husband lends his wife to 
 his guest. This he takes to be not a part of hospitality, a 
 kindness customarily rendered on the side of the husband, but 
 proof of a right to the woman on the part of the guest, than 
 which there scarcely could be any view more novel or sur- 
 prising. It seems to involve that there was a right to the 
 hospitality to which this was at any rate incident ; and yet 
 Mr. Fison has to admit that by many tribes a stranger might 
 be not entertained but eaten. No doubt the practice referred 
 to was very common. No doubt, too, where it prevailed it 
 was usually ascertained that the men and women might cohabit 
 
APPENDIX 597 
 
 without incest (this is stated, at p. 66, to have been done in 
 one district even in cases of forcible rape) ; and no doubt, that 
 point being clear, the woman was not refused to the guest, 
 but that is a very different thing from the guest having a right 
 to her, which he could assert even in her husband's dwelling. 
 Plainly the facts show nothing more than that the Australians 
 acted on their views of hospitality, when they happened to have 
 conceded it. Mr. Fison relies also upon the license allowed at 
 corrobborees, where the polygamous elders who monopolised the 
 women waived their rights for the time in favour of the body of 
 tribesmen. This license (without which the monopoly of the 
 elders might have been intolerable) he takes to be proof of an 
 ancient right of tribesmen ; but what it discloses manifestly is 
 a state of things in which there is no right. He adds, on the 
 authority of Mr. Lance (of whose competency as a witness we have 
 already had opportunities of judging 1 ), that, among the Kainilaroi, 
 when Kubbi and Ippata met, they saluted each other as spouse ; 
 that the Kubbi thus meeting a stranger Ippata would treat her 
 as his wife ; and that his right to do so would be recognised by 
 her tribe, and this is capped in a footnote by a statement from 
 Mr. Cyrus E. Doyle to the effect (to go on with the same 
 names) that any Kubbi could take any Ippata as his wife and 
 keep her, and that his right to her would not be questioned 
 by her family (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 53). Mr. Doyle's 
 statement, made of a polygamous district where wives must 
 have been eagerly sought for, is obviously sheer nonsense. 
 Mr. Lance's, when his misconceptions of fact are allowed for, 
 may show that considerable license was practised without 
 much objection from the men interested among the Kamilaroi ; 
 based upon essential error as it is, it cannot show anything 
 more. As to the use of the word which is rendered spouse 
 between entire strangers, what it would show is that husband 
 and wife addressed each other by a term which was proper 
 to be used between many other people than husbands and 
 wives, that they had no special term of address for each other. 
 Father and son, brother and sister, all kinsfolk indeed among 
 the Australians, were as to terms of address in this position 
 
 1 Supra, p. 299 note. 
 
598 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 (see Studies in Ancient History, first series, pp. 310, 311). A 
 similar use of the word for husband is noted by Mr. Bulmer 
 in his account of the Wa-imbio tribe (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, 
 p. 289), and in that case it carried no implication of rights or 
 duties, for fidelity was expected from the wife. 
 
 It is clear that Mr. Fison has found no basis in fact at 
 all for this second branch of his hypothesis. He has evidence 
 which, no doubt, is strongly suggestive of ancient promiscuity, 
 by which is meant a social condition in which conjugal rights 
 did not exist, but nothing whatever which indicates the modi- 
 fied communism for which he wanted a basis, which is a com- 
 munism involving marriage right the " communal marriage " 
 of groups of men in the one division (of a tribe in two 
 divisions) to the groups of women which were of the same 
 generation with them in the other division. He has failed to 
 show that men had some right of a conjugal sort over women 
 other than the right which was acquired by marriage, and that 
 is all he has attempted. And he has not, even from Mr. Lance, 
 any suggestion of such a right being limited to women of the 
 man's own generation. Moreover, he has no fact which 
 suggests that marriage (or license either) was ever, among the 
 Australians, confined to the tribe. And it is well known that 
 the Australians, since they have been known to us, have 
 everywhere taken women, by capture or otherwise, from strange 
 tribes as often as they could get them. 
 
 The hypothesis appears, then, to be " in the air." To 
 examine Mr. Fison's method of establishing it would not be an 
 agreeable task, but that seems to be unnecessary. It was 
 devised to account for what Mr. Lewis Morgan has called the 
 Turanian form of the classificatory system of relationships ; and 
 evidence has already been adduced which shows clearly that 
 Mr. Morgan (whom Mr. Fison follows) entirely misconceived 
 that system and its uses. 1 If the misconception has to be 
 admitted, there is no need to take trouble about the theories 
 formed to account for it. And it will be found when the 
 actual use of the classificatory terms is considered that if we are 
 to seek the origin of those terms in some system of marriage 
 
 1 Studies in Ancient History, first series, pp. 305-312. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 599 
 
 and the form of the family consequent upon it, there is no 
 need to think of any forms but those which are well known 
 by observation. It has seemed proper to notice what Mr. 
 Fison adduces as favouring his hypothesis, because, from Mr. 
 Fison's mode of working, there appears to be a little danger of 
 intermarrying classes and the semi-conjugal rights ascribed to 
 men over women whom they were merely free to marry being 
 accepted by the unwary as Australian facts. 
 
 Mr. Dawson's book, 1 which has already been mentioned 
 incidentally, gives an account of the natives of the Port Fairy 
 district, Western Victoria, a considerable population once (for 
 Mr. Dawson calculates that the twenty-one tribes which met 
 together once a year must have numbered 2500, and there 
 were tribes on the coast which did not come to those meetings), 
 but represented in 1880 by only fourteen survivors. Mr. 
 Dawson tells us that he got his information from natives only ; 
 and that he avoided putting suggestive or leading questions 
 as much as possible, because " the natives, in their anxiety 
 to please, are apt to coincide with the questioner, and thus 
 assist him in arriving at wrong conclusions " a fact which 
 many other observers have noted, and which should always 
 be kept in view in reading Kamilaroi and Kurnai. To this 
 work his book, from which theories are absent, offers a striking 
 contrast. Of course it is not to be supposed that all the 
 information he gathered is equally to be depended upon. 
 
 The population consisted of local tribes, which Mr. Dawson 
 believes to have numbered, on an average, about 120 apiece. 
 Throughout all tribes, it was made up of five classes, which 
 took their names from animals the names being Kuurokeitch 
 (long -billed cockatoo), Kartpoerapp (pelican), Kappatch (the 
 Banksian cockatoo), Kirtuuk (the boa-snake), and Kuunamit 
 (the quail). Every one belonged to the class of his mother ; 
 and marriage being forbidden between those who were con- 
 sidered to be of one flesh, no man and woman of the same class 
 could marry one another, however remote from each other 
 their tribes might be. Moreover, the Kuurokeitch and the 
 
 1 Australian Aborigines. By James Dawson, Melbourne, 1881. 
 
6oo STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 Kartpoerapp classes were regarded (on what grounds there is 
 nothing to indicate) as being so closely related that marriage 
 between them could not be permitted ; so also the Kappatch 
 and Kirtuuk classes ; while a Kuunamit was free to marry 
 into any class but his own. The marriage law, therefore, as 
 in all works about Australia except Mr. Fison's, was a law of 
 prohibition only not a law which, while prohibiting men 
 from marrying certain women, gave them rights over certain 
 others. And Mr. Dawson gives a tradition which illustrates 
 it admirably (it may be worth while to compare with this 
 Mr. Fison's Theory of the Kurnai System), and which also 
 shows that it was by exogamy (or prohibition of marriage 
 between persons of the same flesh) and female kinship that 
 these natives explained to themselves the fact that their tribes 
 were made up of persons belonging to several different classes, 
 to use Mr. Dawson's word that is, stocks, or bodies of blood 
 (or flesh) kindred. The tradition ascribed the origin of all 
 their tribes to a Kuurokeitch who had for wife a Kappaheear 
 (feminine of Kappatch), and whose children therefore were 
 Kappatch and Kappaheear, and could not marry each other. 
 This made it necessary to introduce "fresh flesh," and wives 
 were got from a distance ; and, children following the mother, 
 five different stocks came by and by to be represented in the 
 community. 
 
 It is also stated that every person was considered to belong 
 to his father's local tribe, and could not marry within it ; nor 
 could a man marry a woman of the tribe from which his 
 mother came, nor of his grandmother's tribe (by which the 
 mother's mother's tribe seems to be meant), nor of an adjoin- 
 ing tribe, nor of any tribe speaking his own dialect. It may 
 be taken that these prohibitions (some of which may merely 
 indicate what was usual) were accretions which, with time and 
 change, were made to the marriage law, and that the original 
 prohibition was that which is illustrated by the tradition 
 just spoken of prohibition of marriage between persons of 
 the same flesh kindred or female kinship stock. It was the 
 duty of the chief (for there were chiefs, who are said to have 
 had great power, and to have been treated with much observ- 
 
APPENDIX 601 
 
 ance) to ascertain that there was no flesh relationship between 
 persons about to be married or betrothed to one another ; and 
 that, even when this was not doubtful, his permission had to 
 be " rewarded with presents." 
 
 That a process of change had gone pretty far among these 
 people is shown by many circumstances which Mr. Dawson 
 mentions. He tells us, as to children, that " if the infant is a 
 boy, the nearest relative is the father; if it is a girl, the 
 nearest relative is the mother" (p. 38); and agreeably with 
 this, that the first child of either sex is called after its father, 
 and the second, if a daughter, after its mother (p. 41). This 
 would show, what has not been noticed elsewhere in Australia, 
 and is found very rarely anywhere, kinship to have been in a 
 stage of transition a man belonging still to the widely 
 diffused female kinship stock of his mother, and being bound not 
 to marry a woman of its "flesh," and being nearer, neverthe- 
 less, to his father than to his mother (while a woman was still 
 nearer to her mother than to her father) ; and it is consistent 
 with this that the tribal bond should have become so important 
 that he was also forbidden to marry in the tribe of his father 
 (which was his own) on the one hand, and in the tribe of his 
 mother, and the tribe of his mother's mother, on the other. 
 
 What Mr. Dawson tells us of the blood revenge, of inherit- 
 ance, and similar matters, is also consistent with this, but can 
 hardly be made to throw additional light upon the matter. 
 There seems sufficient reason for believing, however, that 
 these natives were in a transitional phase of kinship. 
 
 Children were usually betrothed when just able to walk, 
 the father of the girl making the proposal. After a betrothal 
 the girl's mother and aunts (which aunts not indicated) might 
 not look at, or speak to the boy ; and they used the " turn- 
 tongue " language when they had to speak in each other's 
 presence. The father being dead, the brother could give a 
 girl away with consent of the uncle (father's brother, no 
 doubt) ; while, if a girl had no male relative, the chief could 
 give her away; but it is said there was danger (p. 35) of his 
 keeping her to himself which, if it be taken as correct, would 
 show that the rule against marrying in the tribe might be 
 
602 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTOR Y 
 
 waived, in the case of the chief, though it was enforced by 
 him upon the others. Polygamy was carried so far by the 
 old chiefs that " many young men are compelled to remain 
 bachelors, the native word for which means to look out; 
 while an old warrior may have five or six of the finest young 
 women of the tribe for his wives." 
 
 Both men and women among these people were orna- 
 mented by cicatrices, " arranged in lines and figures, according 
 to the taste and custom of the tribe " ; but Mr. Dawson takes 
 it that these were ornamental merely. The bodies of relatives 
 of either sex who had lost their lives by violence were eaten, 
 " as a mark of affectionate respect, in solemn service of 
 mourning for the dead." The flesh of enemies was never 
 eaten, nor that of members of other tribes. 
 
 Having given a tradition preserved by Mr. Dawson to 
 show that the Port Fairy natives, assuming the existence of 
 totem families or clans, having female kinship, in which 
 marriage, otherwise free, was forbidden on the score of 
 kindred, explained to themselves the composition of their 
 tribes as being the result of their exogamy and their system 
 of female kinship, it seems worth while to point out that it 
 is the same constitution of society which is disclosed in what 
 Mr. Fison has termed the Murdu legend (Kamilaroi and 
 Kurnai, p. 25). This was first published in a pamphlet by 
 Mr. Samuel Gason on the Dieyeri tribe (Cooper's Creek), and 
 is quoted therefrom by Mr. Fison. It sets forth that, " after 
 the creation, brothers, sisters, and others of the closest kin 
 intermarried promiscuously " ; that " the evil effects of these 
 alliances " became manifest ; that a council of chiefs was held 
 to consider how to get rid of them ; and that the result was a 
 petition to the Muramura (good spirit), who ordered " that the 
 tribe should be divided into branches, and distinguished one 
 from another by different names, after objects animate and 
 inanimate, such as dogs, mice, emu, rain, iguana, and so forth ; 
 the members of any such branch not to intermarry, but with 
 permission for one branch to mingle with another. Thus the 
 son of a dog might not marry the daughter of a dog, but 
 
APPENDIX 603 
 
 I either might form an alliance with a mouse, rat, or other 
 family." 
 
 This, like the Port Fairy tradition, is an attempt to account 
 for the constitution of a population composed of totem clans 
 interfused with one another, within each of which marriage, 
 otherwise free, was forbidden. The difference between the 
 two is that this is purely irrational; while the Port Fairy 
 explanation is rational as far as it goes and it was no proof 
 of irrationality to take totem families, with exogamy and female 
 kinship, for granted as a basis to start from. The point to be 
 noticed, however, is that both take account of that structure 
 of society which has been shown above to be the prevailing 
 one in Australia, and which, with variations in kinship and 
 changes consequent thereupon, is found throughout Australia, 
 wherever we have trustworthy evidence. The Murdu legend, 
 equally with the Port Fairy tradition, is dead against the 
 theories of Mr. Fison. It shows us no " intermarrying classes," 
 with a marriage law which, while prohibiting marriage in the 
 one, gave men conjugal rights over the women of the other, 
 which rights, when the " class " came to include totems, were 
 restricted by the totems. It shows us a community made up 
 of totem clans, with a marriage law of prohibition merely, 
 marriage being prohibited between all persons of the same 
 totem. It seems worth while here to repeat our information 
 about the Kamilaroi being still, and being likely to continue, 
 imperfect that it is simply this marriage law which was 
 indicated to Mr. Lance, to explain how an Ippai could have 
 an Ippata for his wife. "This Ippai is not a Blacksnake, 
 but an Opossum ; that explains it," Ippai Opossum might 
 not marry Ippata Opossum, but there was nothing to prevent 
 him from marrying Ippata Blacksnake. It will be found that 
 it is, in general, perfectly clear that what Mr. Fison and his 
 correspondents speak of as " classes " are totem clans or families 
 merely, and that, wherever this is not clear, the constitution 
 of the " class " is involved in obscurity. 
 
 It is interesting to note that Mr. Lewis Morgan found in 
 the opening part of Mr. Gason's story a " basis of probability " 
 for his hypothesis of the consanguine family, taking that as 
 
604 
 
 STUDIES IN ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
 giving " an accepted and perpetuated native legend " of what 
 happened after the creation (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 4). It 
 does not seern, however, to countenance that hypothesis, which 
 is an hypothesis of limited and systematised communism sub- 
 sisting in a body of kindred, all the men and women of the 
 same generation being married to one another " in a group." 
 It is interesting, too, to note that Mr. Fison who does not 
 accept the hypothesis of the consanguine family, upon which 
 Mr. Morgan's other theories are built up, and prefers to begin 
 with " intermarrying classes," having the system of communism 
 which had been thought out by Mr. Morgan inclines towards 
 the Muramura account of the origin of totem kindreds as 
 affording the best explanation of the origin of his " classes " 
 (Ibid. p. 161). 
 
 Mr. Gason goes on to mention that the marriage system 
 shown in the legend was still observed among the Dieyeri, and 
 that the first question asked of a stranger was, " What murdu ? 
 i.e. of what family are you ? " And we learn from another 
 authority (the Eev. H. Vogelsang information procured by 
 Mr. Howitt Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 52) that the question 
 Minna Murdu was connected with " eating and hospitality." 
 " For instance, when a stranger blackfellow arrives here, the 
 question is Minna Murdu ? What are you ? Kangaroo, or 
 Eat, or Mouse, or whatever else it may be. All those of the 
 same name go to the same camp, eat together, live together, 
 even lend each other their women. Even alien blackfellows, 
 from a distance of 300 or 400 miles, are thus hospitably 
 entertained." " Our tribe, the Dieyeri," Mr. Vogelsang con- 
 tinues, "have different names for their Murdus from those of 
 the neighbouring tribes, but they can always understand each 
 other " that is, they do not fail to find out what the Murdu 
 is. It thus appears that, among the Dieyeri, men acknowledged 
 a stranger from whatever distance, and though speaking a 
 strange language, to be of their kindred as soon as it was 
 ascertained that he was of the same Murdu or totem family 
 with them ; that thereupon they entertained him hospitably ; 
 and that the lending of women was a part of hospitality. Of 
 course a woman whom a man of the stranger's totem might have 
 
APPENDIX 605 
 
 for wife was a woman with whom the stranger was free to 
 cohabit. 
 
 It may be added that the tribes consisting of Muquarra 
 and Kilparra (eagle-hawk and crow, each comprising several 
 totems), which Mr. Fison ranks as intermarrying classes, have 
 a rather interesting totem tradition of their own (The Aborigines 
 of Victoria, vol. i. p. 423). "They believe that the beings 
 who created all things had severally the form of the Crow and 
 the Eagle. There was continual war between these two beings, 
 but peace was made at length. They agreed that the Murray 
 blacks should be divided into two classes the Muquarra or 
 Eagle-hawk, and the Kilparra or Crow. The conflict that was 
 waged between the rival powers is preserved in song . . . 
 the meaning of which is : Strike the Crow on the knee ; I 
 will spear his father. The war was maintained with great 
 vigour for a length of time. The Crow took every possible 
 advantage of his nobler foe, the Eagle ; but the latter generally 
 had ample revenge for injuries and insults. Out of these 
 enmities and final agreement arose the two classes, and thence 
 a law governing marriages amongst these classes." It is a 
 tradition, obviously conceived in the Eagle interest, of a state 
 of war between rival powers having been followed by peace 
 and peaceful relations, which has got from the narrator, as 
 most things have done in the work from which it is taken, a 
 tinge of Mr. Fison's theories. But what it suggests is, not 
 that Crow and Eagle agreed to divide one tribe into two, with 
 a view to the better regulation of marriage, but that Crow and 
 Eagle or Eagle-hawk were tribes (and they might have been 
 constituted in the ordinary Australian way) which long waged 
 war against each other, and that at length there came peace, 
 and then their complete interfusion by means of friendly 
 marriages. And, whatever such traditions may be worth, this 
 account of Muquarra and Kilparra seems vastly preferable to 
 Mr. Fison's. 
 
 Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. 
 


 
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