share of the king's property and dominion which each son is to inherit comes to him through the mother, the king's son inherits the fourth share of his mother's brother; other shares may perhaps come to him, but this is his in any case. The uncle may have sons of his own, and may divide his property among them in the usual way, but each son can only receive a part of his father's territory, and the whole finally devolves upon the sister's son. In this way he begins to appear as the true heir in all circles below that of the king. The king's son remains the heir, but he must be the eldest son of the chief wife; and so much weight is given to the mother by this qualification, that in the long-run the kingship is also subject to the female line of descent. A woman may obtain access to the highest command in more than one way. It may either occur through the custom, so widely diffused in Africa, of the king's marriage to his own sister, or there may be some doubt about the hereditary character of the kingly office, and this tends to put forward a family regarded as worthy to be elected; a custom found among almost all the peoples we have mentioned. Men who assert and exercise the right of abandoning their chief and choosing another, are always on the verge of an elective kingship. The promotion of the sister's son to this dignity more usually occurs, however, when the brother of a deceased king is able to set aside his son. The brother is always able to urge the claims of seniority, which constitutes an important advantage in the eyes of primitive men. Among the Bechuanas, when a king dies, each son receives that portion of goods and subjects which had been assigned to his mother, but the supreme command is given to the eldest son. During the father's lifetime the sons bear the names of their respective mothers, but after his death the eldest son assumes his name. In this way the name and rank disappear together, and it becomes easy for the eldest of the surviving brothers to seize for himself the name

and rank of his lately deceased brother, or rather, of the father who died long before.1

In this way the singular mode of succession to names and dignities, which we described above, becomes intelligible to us. While the brother takes possession of the dead king's dwelling in the central square, the sons each inherit a portion of his wealth, and these portions are originally smaller than their uncle's kotla, and tend to grow less, since all the scattered elements of the community are attracted to the chief's kotla. In this way the sons of the deceased king become weaker under the uncle's rule, while, on the other hand, the sister's son is in the ascendant, since his mother's dignity makes him the most distinguished member of his father's circle. Even when the wealth of the king's sons equals that of the king's sister, yet after the death of all the father's brothers they are often set aside, and thus become sinking stars. Then the general tendency towards the female line of descent makes it easy for the sister's son to inherit the kingly power.

We have already said that in many instances the female line of descent is observed with respect to the inheritance of property without including the official dignity; the converse never occurs, except that the children of a slave mother occasionally inherit from their father. This is the necessary development from such a state of things as exists among the Bechuanas; first the property, afterwards official rank, devolve upon the female line. It is, on the other hand, impossible to trace the course of development if the female line is held to be the primitive line of descent in Africa.

When we attempt to classify the African peoples with respect to their civilization, we should place the Bushman and the Hottentot on the lowest plane, then

1 Cameron, Ugogo, vol. i. p. 101: "On the death of a chief, the son is supposed to look upon his father's eldest surviving brother as his new or adopted father."

the other Bantu peoples, and give the highest place to the Negroes. Such a classification compels us to seek for the primitive conditions among the Bechuanas, not among the Negroes. A hasty glance at the Bushmans and Hottentots teaches us that their social order is altogether primitive, since it is so extremely simple. The Bechuana communities can also be easily explained from the fact of their primitive condition. We see tribes or hordes gather round the most conspicuous person as their chief; and since this office depends upon personal advantages, it is not hereditary, although the son inherits his father's property. The wife has a right to the property she has gained for herself, and in the event of a divorce, she retains the young children. A girl who is marriageable, and not yet promised in marriage, cannot, among the Bushmans, be married without her own consent; but girls are, for the most part, promised to some member of the tribe from the time of their birth.3 As soon as property increases in importance, and is less equally distributed, the question with respect to the sons' share in the inheritance leads to testamentary bequests, such as we noted among the Bechuanas, and the office of chief, which is combined with considerable wealth, becomes hereditary. The relatively high position of women may be assumed in this case.

A comparison between the primitive social life of African peoples, as it is found among the Hottentots, and that of the Brazilian tribes, shows that in both countries the single family, with the father as ruler, must be taken as the fundamental type of social development. Differences occur, however, in conformity with the differences which affect the natural conditions of life; some differences also appear during the process of development and

1 Le Vaillant, Voyage, vol. ii. p. 72; Sec. Voyage, vol. iii. pp. 10, 11. Burchell, vol. i. p. 373.

2 Burchell, vol. i. p. 373. Le Vaillant, Voyage, vol. ii. p. 43.

3 Burchell, vol. ii. p. 59.

in the motive forces. The American Indian possesses nothing of value except his daughters, while in Africa the movable property of cattle plays an important part. In America, habit, the fear of their common enemy, the name, dwelling, and tamanuus which they have in common, create the first groups within the tribe; in Africa, men are associated together by their property. In both countries the formation of groups is due, not so much to ideas of descent as to their local boundaries; this principle begins by assigning to the mother a separate hut, placed within the father's kraal, and goes on to establish clans living in distinct quarters of the village. Our imaginative power is associated with objects of sense, and the thoughts of primitive men consist in imaginations; only those things are combined in thought which he has seen in local association, and at first that will appear to him to be hostile of which he fails to see the local connection.

CHAPTER IV.

ASIA.

Malayan Gezin-Semando and Djudur-Indian aborigines-Service and migration of bridegroom-Kasias-Process of development-Promiscuous intercourse of Nairs-Nair development-Limboos and Lepchas-Western Asia.

IN China, and among the other Mongolian races, as well as among the Finns, we find clans, or, at least, clan-like groups of kinsfolk, who also possess the usual characteristic of exogamy. In all cases individuals are distributed into patriarchal families, and no direct traces of the female line of descent exist.

The primitive conditions are maintained in their greatest purity among the Malays of Sumatra, in the kingdom of Menangkabao. This people is divided into tribes (Laras) and subdivided into clans (Sukus). Each village has a chief for every sukus it contains. Each sukus is responsible for all the families of which it consists, and each family (Gezin) is responsible for the debts of its members, and the family holds and inherits property in common. Each individual belongs to his mother's gezin and sukus; even after his marriage, a man cannot form an independent gezin, but he, his brothers and sisters, still belong to that of their mother. He works for the gezin and is bound to provide for it; he is not bound in the same way to his wife, although he usually assists her as far as he is able to do so. These conditions