MOTHERRIGHT 291 



the deceased ; the male children of a woman succeed 

 to her brother. 1 On the island of Efate in the New 

 Hebrides a kindred or family reckoning descent from 

 the same mother in the female line is called nakain- 

 anga. It has no chief, but the older male members 

 exercise " a kind of parental authority over it." " All 

 the members of a nakainanga in a particular place 

 were to a large extent responsible for the conduct of 

 any one member ; for instance, they had to pay a fine 

 incurred by him, if he could not pay it himself." 

 Hence it was the duty of a man to instruct his sister's 

 son, not his own son, because he was not of the same 

 nakainanga and the father would not be responsible 

 for him. The chief of a village has a right to appoint 

 his successor. He appoints not his own son, "but in 

 preference to all others his sister's son, who by the 

 law of the nakainanga is considered nearer and dearer 

 to him than his own son, and to be his proper heir." 2 

 The claims of a nephew upon his uncle have been 

 carried to extraordinary lengths in some of the 

 Melanesian islands, as in Fiji, where a maternal uncle 

 can hardly deny his nephew anything he chooses to 

 demand. Everywhere the relation of uncle and 

 nephew is more intimate than that of father aod son. 

 Speaking generally a man's property at death descends 

 to his sister's children, usually rather to the male 

 children. There is now a tendency, however, to 

 substitute inheritance from the father.* n the 

 western islands of Torres Straits motherright has 

 given way to fatherright probably within the last 



1 Father Josef Meier, Anthropos, ii. 380. 



2 Rev. D. Macdonald, in'JRtp. Austr. Ass. iv. 722, 723. 



3 Codrington, 34, 59, sqq. ; McLennan, Studie^ ii. 222, sqq. 



