VIEWS OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 213 



Nair polyandry resolves itself into cohabitation between permitted 

 groups. Mr. McLennan asserts that " the Nair husbands are usually 

 not brothers usually not relatives." But in what sense does he use 

 " brothers " and " relatives " here ? If by " brothers " he means only 

 "children of the same parents," and by "relatives" only "persons 

 who are related according to our own notions of relationship," then 

 his statement is of little weight, for a group of " tribal " brothers may 

 include many persons other than these. 



The Thibetan instance quoted from Turner, where "five brothers 

 were living very happily under the same connubial compact " * seems 

 to be a clearer case. But there is no proof that this is an instance of 

 true polyandry, and not of polyandry combined with polygynia, like 

 the Nair custom, the custom of the Britons as described by Coesar f 

 and all the other instances given by Mr. McLennan where tribal broth- 

 ers hold their wives in common. And, considering how easy it is to 

 mistake instances of group-marriage for polyandry, such proof may be 

 reasonably demanded from one who represents polyandry as an ex- 

 tensive system of marriage. 



The law of the Levirate, which Mr. McLennan considers " it is im- 

 possible not to regard as . . . derived from the practice of polyan- 

 dry," J does not appear to me to have anything at all to do with poly- 

 andry. It was a regulation to prevent the elder branch of a stock 

 from becoming extinct. Its underlying motive is found in the pref- 

 erential claim to the birthright vested in the elder branch ; and this 

 preferential claim is found only in tribes who have descent through 

 males, or at least who, having settled clown to agriculture, are well on 

 their way to that line. The lower savages know nothing of that mo- 

 tive. Mr. McLennan lays stress upon the fact that the widow was the 

 Levir's " wife without any form of marriage." But there is no proof 

 that this is a survival of polyandry ; for, in the first place there is no 

 need for us to look upon it as a survival of anything at all, and, in the 

 second place, it would serve very well as a survival of group-marriage. 

 In many tribes the brother's widow is the Levir's wife " without any 

 form of marriage." He does not even wait until she becomes a widow. 

 He is of the same group with her husband, and her group is " wife " to 

 his group. 



It is not denied that cases of polyandry occur. A few instances of 

 it have come under my own observation. But in every case the men 

 were of a clan which intermarried with that of the woman, the cir- 

 cumstances were exceptional, and the custom was not the general prac- 

 tice not even the frequent practice of the tribe. In full accordance 

 with this is the following account of polyandry at Mota, written to me 

 by the Rev. R. H. Codrington before mentioned : 



"Polyandry exists, but rarely never with young people, but 

 mostly as a matter of convenience, as when two widowers live with 

 * " Studies," etc., p. 155. \ " De Bello Gallico," v., 14. % " Studies," etc., p. 163. 



