466 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



as fully developed, and that in its principles and structure it is in radical agreement 

 with the Malayan. This fact is immensely significant, if identity of systems 

 proves unity of origin. It suggests the possibility that the ancestors of the Kafirs 

 and of the Hawaiians, once an Eastern Asiatic stock, had divided into branches, 

 one of which ventured upon the ocean and became spread over the Polynesian 

 Islands, whilst the other, holding to continental life, had, through the exigencies 

 and migrations of the centuries, finally reached the southern confines of the African 

 continent. Such a supposition is not improbable in view of what must necessarily 

 have been the rapid spread of mankind in the fisherman age. 



With the Amazulu system the examination of the schedules contained in the 

 Tables is concluded. The contents of these Tables have by no means been ex- 

 hausted, although the more important characteristics of each particular form 

 have been brought into notice. It has been a tedious and unattractive labor to 

 follow the course of these time-worn forms of consanguinity and affinity through 

 so many nations ; and yet, without an investigation and comparison of the details 

 and structure of the system of the several families of mankind, as it now exists in 

 the largest number of nations capable of being reached, it was impossible to secure 

 comprehensive results. The investigation has brought to light a mass of singular 

 and suggestive facts relating to the oldest existing domestic institution of mankind. 

 It also illustrates, in a forcible manner, the power of ideas and conceptions to per- 

 petuate themselves long after the causes which produced them have disappeared by 

 becoming incorporated with our primary necessities, and thus acquiring possession, 

 for their transmission, of the channels of the blood. 



It now remains to gather up and bring together the final results of a comparison 

 of these forms, to test the validity of these results, and to indicate some of the 

 conclusions which they appear to authorize. 



