WOMAN AS WITCH 



husband and father in the earliest stages are probably 

 not individualised, and where even, in the later stages, 

 they have no position whatever as husband or father in 

 the wife's or child's group ; where the relationship of 

 father and child conveys no inheritance from the one to 

 the other, and is associated with no rights. The closest 

 male relations of the woman are her son and her brother, 

 and she is the conduit by which property passes to and 

 from them. The child's position and its group -rights 

 are entirely determined by its mother, and the maternal 

 uncle is the natural male friend and protector of the 

 child. Such a law of inheritance may be briefly sum- 

 marised as mother - right. It would clearly give a 

 prominent position to the woman in the group. She 

 would be at least the nominal head of the family, the 

 bearer of its traditions, its knowledge, and its religion. 

 Hence we should expect to find that the deities of a 

 mother-right group were female, and that the primitive 

 goddesses were accompanied not by husband but by child 

 or brother. The husband and father being insignificant 

 or entirely absent, there would thus easily arise myths 

 of virgin and child, brother and sister deities. The 

 goddess of the group would naturally be served by 

 a priestess rather than by a priest. The woman as 

 depositary of family custom and tribal lore, the wise- 

 woman, the sibyl, the witch, would hand down to her 

 daughters the knowledge of the religious observances, 

 of the power of herbs, the mother-lore in the mother 

 tongue, possibly also in some form of symbol or rune 

 such as a priestly caste love to enshroud their mysteries 

 in. The symbols of these goddesses would be the 



