468 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



artificial system is not primitive. It must have been 

 preceded by polyandry of the cruder form which Mr. 

 M Lennan names Nair polyandry, and which admits of 

 no kinship but through the mother. And of this there 

 are sufficient traces. Ammianus (xiv. 4) speaks of the 

 temporary marriages of the Saracens (in which, by the way, 

 we find the circumstance that the bride brings the tent). 

 Dozy (Musulmans d Esp. i. 36) cites from Al-Bac.ri a case 

 under the Caliph Omar L, in which an old Arab gave 

 partnership in his wife to a younger man as hire for his 

 services as a shepherd. Both men swore their ignorance 

 that this was illegal. A curious passage from Yakut is 

 cited by Sprenger (Geog. p. 97) with reference to the 

 town of Mirbat. &quot; Die Einwohner sind Araber von der 

 Art der alten Araber. Sie sind gute Leute aber haben 

 abstossende, unvertragliche Manieren und ein starkes 

 Nationalgefuhl. Merkwiirdig ist in ihnen die Abwesen- 

 heit der Eifersucht, eine Folge der Landessitte. Ihre 

 Frauen gehen namlich jede Nacht ausserhalb die Stadt, 

 setzen sich zu fremden Mannern, unterhalten sich und 

 spielen mit ihnen einen grossen Theil der Nacht. Der 

 Ehemann, Bruder, Sohn und Neffe geht voriiber, ohne 

 Notiz zu nehmen und unterhalt sich mit einer andern.&quot; 

 Quite similar is the account given by Ibn Batuta, in the 

 fourteenth century, of the custom of Nazwa, the capital 

 of Oman. &quot; Their women multiply corruption without 

 causing jealousy or offence.&quot; &quot; Under the formal pro- 

 served himself heir to David (2 Sam. xvi. 22) without exciting any 

 horror among the Israelites. And Adonijah on asking the hand of 

 Abishag claimed the elder brother s inheritance (i Kings ii. 22) or at 

 least one part of it (vv. 15, 16). Another point in Strabo s statement 

 may be readily misunderstood. &quot; All are &quot; that is, are called 

 &quot; brothers of all.&quot; They were not brothers in our sense of the word, 

 and so in the anecdote that follows, the fact that the wife is called the 

 sister of her fifteen husbands only proves that she was of the same 7^05. 

 In other words, marriage was now endogamous. Yet marriage with a 

 half-sister (not uterine) occurs in the history of the Arab kings of Hira 

 (Noldeke s transl. of Tabari, p. 133) a well-known consequence of the 

 system of female kinship. 



