288 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



Moslem law, to which the Suahili of the east coast 

 have nominally submitted, Suahili children are the 

 property not of the parents but of the mother's brother 

 who can sell any or all of his nephews or nieces. 

 Popular opinion, indeed, compels him to do so, if it be 

 necessary. 1 Their neighbours, the still heathen 

 Wanyika who occupy the hinterland of Mombasa, 

 follow the same rule. " Children become the property 

 of their mother, or rather of her brother to be disposed 

 of as he pleases : the only one who has no voice in the 

 matter is the putative father." 2 



We have already seen that the Nayars of Southern 

 India are in the stage of motherright. In theory the 

 ancestral property is indivisible, belonging to the 

 entire family, and no one can acquire individual 

 property, except movables and jewels obtained by gift 

 or otherwise. Division however under modern influ- 

 ences is coming more and more into practice. " The 

 family property is enjoyed by all in common as a kind 

 of commonwealth or civil family, administered by a 

 kdranavan, or head of the family either the maternal 

 uncle or the eldest brother. The common property 

 is vested in him as executive officer or trustee, but 

 without power to make arbitrary alienation. He is 

 authorised to alienate it only to meet necessities, in 

 order to save the property from greater loss, or for 

 some similar purpose." It is the kdranavan who 

 arranges his sister's matrimonial affairs, and subject 

 perhaps to her consent changes her " husband " from 

 time to time. It has been mentioned that the wife 

 has no part in the funeral rites of her husband. The 

 duty of performing funeral rites is always among the 

 1 Burton, Zanzibar, i. 437. 2 Id. ii. 88. 



