THE ETSE OF A PRIESTHOOD. 731 



tomb, a Tansi-no priestess, of blood-royal, offers up to the 

 Ghost a prayer.&quot; Similarly in ancient Peru, a chief priestess 

 who was one of the virgins of the Sun, and who was regarded 

 as his principal wife, &quot; was either the sister or the daughter 

 of the ruler.&quot; On reading that among the Chibchas, with 

 the priests &quot; as with the caziques, the sister s son inherited/ 

 we may suspect that usages of this kind were consequent on 

 descent in the female line. Among the Damaras this law of 

 descent is still in foi-co ; it was manifestly at one time the 

 law among the Peruvians ; and the high political position of 

 women among the Dahomans suggests that it was once the law 

 with them also. Further reason for assuming this cause is 

 supplied by the fact that in Dahomey and Peru, the priestly 

 organization in general is largely officered by women ; and 

 that in Madagascar too, where descent is in the female line, 

 there are women-priests. Obviously the transition from the 

 usage of tracing descent through females to that of tracing 

 descent through males, or the mixture of peoples respectively 

 recognizing these unlike laws of descent, will cause anoma 

 lies ; as instance that shown us by the Karens, whose village 

 priests are males, but who, in their family ancestor-worship, 

 &quot; require that the officiating priest shall be a woman, the 

 oldest of the family.&quot; 



This deputation of priestly functions to members of a 

 ruling family, usual in early stages, may be considered the 

 normal differentiation ; since the god being the apotheosized 

 ancestor, the sacrifices made to him continue to be the sacri 

 fices made by descendants. Even where descent is not real, 

 or has ceased to be believed, it is still pretended; as in 

 Egypt, where the king habitually claimed kinship with a 

 god, and where, by consequence, members of his family were 

 hypothetically of divine descent. 



607. But while this is distinguishable as the usual origin 

 of a priesthood, there are other origins. In a preceding 

 chapter we saw that there is at the outset no clear distinction 



