io PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



to the husband's clan or not." It is plain that the 

 retention by the widow of her husband's bones is 

 quite exceptional ; and unless she be an old woman 

 it is probably of a very short duration. The husband 

 is usually buried with his own clan, and his wife with 

 hers. With the Khasis however the marriage-bond is, 

 externally at least, of a stronger character. Among 

 them the husband not merely visits, he goes to live 

 with his wife in her mother's house. All the wife's 

 earnings go to her mother, who expends them for the 

 maintenance of the family. " After one or two children 

 are born, and if a married couple get on well together, 

 the husband frequently removes his wife and family 

 to a house of his own ; and from the time the wife 

 leaves her mother's house she and her husband pool 

 their earnings, which are expended for the support of 

 the family." x 



If we compare the customs of the Syntengs and 

 Khasis with those of the Menangkabau Malays of 

 the Padang Highlands of Sumatra mentioned in the 

 last chapter, it will be clear that we have here an 

 example of the evolution of conjugal relations as a first 

 stage in the evolution of kinship. Like the Syntengs and 

 the Khasis the Menangkabau Malays reckon descent 

 through the mother. The suku, or clan, is continued 

 only through her ; and marriage within the clan is 

 forbidden. As Wilken says, " a necessary consequence 

 of this is that the woman at marriage remains in the 

 settlement occupied by her own clan. In fact she 

 never forsakes the house in which she was born 

 and has grown up. But the husband on his side also 

 remains with his own clan in its settlement ; no more 

 1 Gurdon, 76, 82. 



