8o 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



maxirne f ratres cum fratribus, et parentes cum liberis ; sed si qui 

 sunt ex bis nati, eorum babentur liberi a quibus primum virgines 

 qureque ductaB sunt/' * In the Irish Nennius we also find direct 

 evidence of its existence. . In Media, according to Strabo, in cer- 

 tain cantons polygamy was ordained by law, while in other can- 

 tons the opposite rule was in force: a woman was allowed to 

 have many husbands, and those who had less than five were re- 

 garded with contempt. Polyandry receives a partial sanction in 

 the Institutes of Menu, and it is adverted to without reproach in 

 the epic of the Maha-bharata, the heroine of which, Draupadi, 

 was the wife of five Pandu brothers. It existed among the Getes 

 of Transoxiana, the Guanches of the Canary Islands, and the 

 Caribs of the West Indies, f 



Polyandry thus can not be regarded as exceptional, since we 

 find direct evidence of its existence among so many peoples. But, 

 as has been said, the conditions which alone could have caused it 

 have, in the great majority of cases, passed away : the general 

 rule is for women to be more numerous than men, and it is there- 

 fore to the survivals from polyandry, to the practices derived 

 from it and perpetuated through custom, that we must chiefly 

 trust for indications of its former wide distribution. Now, one of 

 the most remarkable customs connected with polyandry is that of 

 a brother taking to wife a deceased brother's widow, and reckon- 

 ing the children born of the new union as the children of the de- 

 ceased. This custom originates from the practice, in polyandrous 

 unions, of the children always being considered the offspring of 

 the husband who first espouses the wife. The first husband is 

 considered the head of the household, the family property is vested 

 in him, and all the children are feigned to be his. At his decease 

 the brother next in age succeeds to the headship ; but as the 

 children, no matter which of the associated husbands were their 

 true fathers, have always been reckoned the offspring of the first 

 husband, the practice is continued, through custom, even after his 

 death, and children born subsequently are still called his. - Thus, 

 in Thibet, the right of choosing the wife belongs to the eldest 

 brother, to whom also all the children of the marriage are held to 

 belong. In Ladak, when the eldest brother marries, the juniors, 

 if they agree to the arrangement, become inferior husbands of the 

 wife ; all the children, however, being considered as belonging to 

 the eldest brother. Among the ancient Britons the children of 

 the wife were accounted to belong to the husband who first mar- 

 ried her. In Ceylon, the offspring of polyandrous unions are 

 looked upon as the children of the first husband, and that equally 



* Dc Bello Gallico, v, xiv. 



f See Humboldt's Travels, etc., vol. 1, p. 32 ; Desalles, Ilist. Gen. des Antilles, vol. i, 

 p. 197. 



