MOTHERRIGHT 325 



who has divorced her. And he hastens to secure 

 them by taking a present to each one as it is born ; a 

 ceremony which appears to constitute a formal claim 

 to them. In the ceremony of divorce the husband's 

 final word to his wife is an injunction to remember 

 that though she is now at liberty to marry any one 

 else, all her future children will belong to him, the 

 husband divorcing her. 1 



Motherright then is found not merely where 

 paternity is uncertain, but also where it is practically 

 certain. Fatherright on the other hand is found not 

 merely where paternity is certain, but also where it is 

 uncertain and even where the legal father is known 

 not to have begotten the children. Nay, the institu- 

 tions of fatherright often require provision for, and 

 very generally permit, the procreation by other men of 

 children for the nominal father. It follows therefore 

 that the uncertainty of paternity cannot be historically 

 the reason for the reckoning of descent exclusively 

 through the mother. Some other reason must be 

 discovered. 



1 Verbal information to me by Rev. T. Rowlands, L.M.S., 

 Missionary to the Betsileo. The information does not agree with 

 that in Ellis, Hist. Mad. i. 173. Possibly the latter refers to (or 

 includes) children of tender age who are necessarily left with their 

 mother for the time. 



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