MOTHERRIGHT 323 



provide heirs ; and the children took the estate as soon 

 as they were able to perform the duties to their legal 

 ancestors. 1 The old peasant custumals of Germany, 

 especially of Westphalia, lay it down that an impotent 

 husband shall perform the ceremony of taking his wife 

 on his back over nine fences and then calling a neigh- 

 bour to act as his substitute. If he cannot find one 

 who is able and willing, he is to adorn her with new 

 clothes, hang a purse at her side with money to spend 

 and send her to a kermess, in the hope of finding some 

 one there to help her. 2 Grimm, commenting on these 

 curious prescriptions, admits that there is no historical 

 record of any such actual transaction, but observes that 

 they are plainly and seriously prescribed and that 

 their memory lingers in tradition, instancing an old 

 poem on Saint Elizabeth. He suggests that in the 

 custumals all the details are not mentioned, that 

 probably the rite was only performed where serious 

 detriment would result from the want of an heir, and 

 that the husband's choice of a substitute was not 

 unlimited. In any case he holds the custom to be 

 very archaic, though in the records it appears adapted 

 to the circumstances of mediaeval peasant-proprietors. 

 The foregoing examples are all chosen from peoples 

 among whom fatherright is the rule, or who deduce 

 kinship through both parents with preference for the 

 father, as in the highest civilisations. Where these 

 customs are in vogue the husband cannot be sure of 

 the paternity of the children born of his wife. On the 



1 Plutarch, Solon; McLennan, Studies, i. 223; Seebohm, Greek 

 Tribal Soc. 23. 



2 Grimm, Rechtsalt. 443. The details of the ceremony vary in 

 different places. 



