VIEWS OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 207 



parents at her marriage. And this is very far from being all the ad- 

 vantage they derive from her. Her husband has to feed them in 

 peace, and to fight for them in war. Thus an Australian native di- 

 vides all the game he takes according to certain established rules, 

 and the choicest bits go to his wife's father. That a man has to fight 

 on his father-in-law's side among many tribes who reckon descent 

 through females has been recorded by several observers of savage 

 life ; and it is worthy of note that this duty still devolves upon him 

 in some tribes, which, though they have advanced to descent through 

 males, have not yet been able to free themselves from the traditions of 

 the older line. Thus the Rev. R. Taylor says of the Maori who keep 

 records, carefully carved in wood, of long lines of male ancestors reach- 

 ing up to the JVichts unci Alles that the son-in-law had to go into his 

 father-in-law's hctpu (clan) and " in case of war was often obliged to 

 fight against his own relatives.* The custom was evidently on the way 

 to extinction among the Maori, though still retaining great strength. 

 This is evident from the fact that there was much rebellion against it 

 on the part of tbe young men, some of whom, within Mr. Taylor's 

 knowledge, refused to obey, and lost their wives in consequence ; and, 

 whenever there is as much opposition as this to an ancient custom 

 among savages, we may be sure that a new custom has gained a foot- 

 ing strong enough to afford a sanction to the malcontents. That this 

 custom is likely to be of general prevalence among the lower savages 

 is evident from the fact that it is the logical result of their group- 

 relationships when descent is through the mother. Among them it is 

 not that a man has to leave his own clan and go into his father-in-law's 

 when he marries. He is of his father-in-law's clan by birth. Thus, if 

 Dog and Snake be the totems, or badges, of two intermarrying clans : 

 with descent through females the daughter of Dog is Snake, and the 

 son of Snake is Dog. This Dog, the son of Snake, marries Snake, the 

 daughter of Dog. That is, father-in-law and son-in-law are of the 

 same totem, where there are but two intermarrying gentes ; and a 

 strong probability can be shown that this is the earliest form of a 

 tribe with exogamous intermarrying divisions. 



Therefore, since women are in no respect an incumbrance to the 

 lower savages, but the reverse, it is evident that we do not find in the 

 reasons given by Sir John Lubbock and Mr. McLennan a preferential 

 motive for female infanticide. 



And something more than this can be shown. Another motive for 

 killing female children rather than male is found among agricultural 

 tribes, who have descent through the father, in the fact that a woman 

 can transmit neither the family name nor the family estate. She 

 passes out of the line by marriage. And this with tribes who have 

 that line of descent, and therefore wherever they accept its conse- 

 quences ancestral worship offered to males alone by males alone, this 



* " Te Ika a Maui," p. 337. 



