a ee ee 
heat J 
* and Carian laws; one cuftom however they have peculiar to 
« themfelves, and in which they agree with no other race of 
* men. They call themfelves by the names of their mothers and 
* not of their fathers. If any one fhould afk his neighbour who 
“ he is, he defcribes himfelf by his mother, and recites his ma- 
“ ternal genealogy ; and, if a gentlewoman fhould marry a flave, 
“ the children by that marriage fhall be accounted noble ; but, if 
“ a citizen, or even the firft among them, fhould take to wife a 
foreign woman, or a concubine, the children by that marriage 
* are degraded or ignoble—Nopoim: de re wev Kpryfinoirs, to de Kecpsoure 
© Xpeovjas, &c.” * Plutarch alfo makes mention of this ufage in 
his 
hhufbands, fince the fituation of the man, who had married many wives, and 
was bound to obey them all, is too whimfical ever to have exifted in any country 
whatfoever. We mutt therefore fuppofe that this law, which had been origi- 
nally enacted in honour of Ifis, and in favour of the fex to which fhe be- 
jonged, had, through lapfe of time, and the contradi€tory mamners of the people, 
become obfolete and inoperative. Vide Sophocles. Ogedip. Col, page 282 Edit. 
Stephani, with the note by Camerarius, page 191. 
There is likewife fome reafon to fuppofe that in Attica, before Cecrops, as the 
beft means of civilizing that hitherto favage country, had introduced the practice 
of marriage, the women enjoyed the privilege of voting in the public aflemblies, and 
even that children were named after their mothers. While the connexion between 
the fexes was cafual and unreftrained, who the real father was could fcarcely be 
known with any degree of certainty, and the child therefore took the name of the 
only parent that could be afcertained., 
See for this, and for much other curious information refpeCting the privileges of 
women in various ages and countries, Millars diftin€tion of ranks in fociety, page 
32 to page 37- 
* Vide Plutarch, as quoted in the text, for feveral fabulous accounts of the 
ftery of Bellerophon, one of which contains a circumftance fomething to our 
purpofe 
