3 2 4 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



contrary he is often sure that the children belonging 

 to him, reckoned of his kin and inheriting his property, 

 are not in fact heirs of his body. They may even be 

 born long after his death as the result of inter- 

 course between his wives and other men. The list 

 might be indefinitely lengthened if the customs of 

 peoples among whom fatherright though predominant 

 is imperfectly developed were considered. Thus in 

 Madagascar motherright has left much more than 

 traces. The hindrances on marriage of relatives are 

 greater on the mother's side than on the father's. 

 Children of two sisters by the same mother cannot 

 intermarry, nor can their descendants. On the other 

 hand children and grandchildren of a brother and 

 sister by the same mother may intermarry on the 

 performance of a slight ceremony prescribed to remove 

 the disqualification of consanguinity. The royal 

 family and nobles trace their lineage, contrary to the 

 general practice, through the mother and not through 

 the father. Yet so great a calamity is it counted that 

 a man should die without posterity that if an elder 

 brother die childless his next brother must take the 

 widow and raise up seed to the deceased. 1 This 

 involves sexual relations only after the husband's death 

 between the widow and his brother. But the 

 Malagasy customs are further-reaching still ; for all 

 the children of a married woman belong to her 

 husband, whoever may beget them. Divorce is a 

 frequent occurrence and for trivial causes. When it 

 takes place, not only are the children previously born 

 retained by the husband, but any whom the wife may 

 afterwards bear to another man belong to the husband 

 1 Ellis, i. 164 ; Sibree, 246. 



