808 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these cases termed brothers." * That is to say, among the 

 Bechuanas a son succeeds to his fathers wives, and the children 

 born of this new union he feigns to be the offspring of his father, 

 and so calls them brothers. He raises up seed to the- departed 

 relative from whom he inherits. From this there can be no doubt 

 that the custom of inheriting wives is derived from polyandry. 

 The custom of a brother taking a deceased brother's wife is a 

 disintegration of the older obligation of taking the wife and rais- 

 ing up seed; which older obligation still survives in some cases 

 when the system of female descents has disappeared and the suc- 

 cession has opened to the son. The case of the Zulus is a varia- 

 tion. With them the son inherits the property, but the uncles 

 take the widows and raise up seed. "We thus find three phases 

 of the system: (1) Where the succession is from brother to 

 brother, the brother takes the widows and the property, and raises 

 up seed. (2) Where the succession has changed to that from 

 father to son, the son takes the property, but the brothers take the 

 widows and raise up seed. (3) The son takes the widows and the 

 property, and raises up seed. Finally, in all three the custom of 

 raising up seed disappears, and the widows pass to the heir, 

 whether he be brother or son. 



Another survival from polyandry is that system of succession 

 under which property descends from brother to brother and then 

 to the son of the eldest brother. The system of succession from 

 brother to brother, and then to sister's son, is the natural out- 

 come of descent through females, and that from father to son 

 is the natural outcome of descent through males ; but the one from 

 brother to brother and then to son is neither one thing nor the 

 other. It recognizes the blood-relationship between father and 

 son, but excludes the latter from the succession till each brother 

 has succeeded in turn. Now this is the order of succession 

 observed in the Thibetan polyandry : Brothers succeed one an- 

 other in order of age, and* failing brothers, comes in the eldest 

 son of the brotherhood ; and the arrangement is so peculiar that 

 we have no hesitation in affirming that, wherever this order of 

 succession is observed, polyandry has existed. 



We find this system in vogue among the Kirghiz, the Aeneze 

 Arabs, and the Mongols ; the next brother being heir even when 

 the elder leaves issue. We have already mentioned the Kirghiz 

 and the Mongols as observing the levirate. The same order was 

 observed in succession to the throne of Darfour (eastern Soudan). 

 The law was there ascribed to the Sultan Ahmed Bekr, who died 

 about 1750 ; but it is less probable that it was the result of a mere 

 enactment than that it was an established local custom. In Siam, 



* Livingstone, loc. tit. 



