MOTHERRIGHT 271 



may live in another village." * Among the Papuas 

 about Blanche Bay a man's sons follow their maternal 

 uncle, and oppose their father and his kindred in 

 battle. 2 



Many cases of personal combat between father and 

 son have been collected by Mr. Potter in his book on 

 Sohrab and Rustem from literature and popular 

 tradition in various parts of the world, especially from 

 the older civilised countries of Europe and Southern 

 Asia. The learned author traces them with great 

 probability to the customs involved in the reckoning 

 of matrilineal descent. In most cases, it is true, the 

 antagonists engage one another in ignorance of their 

 relationship. This is natural, since the tales have 

 usually received the form in which they are now told 

 among peoples no longer in the stage of motherright. 

 To such peoples a combat between father and son 

 would seem unnatural, and must be explained away. 

 An archaic custom, to be considered more fully here- 

 after, by which women received transitory lovers, has 

 favoured the prevalent type of explanation. Many of 

 the examples of combat brought forward in Mr. Potter's 

 work, exhibit the combatants as champions on opposite 

 sides in a war between two peoples, and may be 

 referred to customs of the kind just illustrated. There 

 are, however, a certain number defiant of such a classi- 

 fication. Among them is a legend of the Ingush of 

 the Caucasus, not mentioned by Mr. Potter. It 

 relates that a certain Chopa consorted in the forest 

 with a supernatural lady, who bore him two daughters. 

 To put his courage to proof on one occasion she left 



1 Rep. Australian Ass. iv. 698, 706. 



2 Zeits. vergl. Rechtsw. xiv. 352, quoting Hahl. 



