80 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



There are no old men. Their absence is said to be 

 due to the militant habits of the tribe : the hardships 

 of the chase may help to kill them off. Whatever the 

 cause of the absence, its result is that even the begin- 

 nings of patriarchal rule are impossible. The chief- 

 tainship of a band is determined by the consideration 

 of three factors : the seniority of the candidate's clan 

 in the tribal mythology, its numerical strength, and his 

 personal prowess, which is "always weighed in con- 

 junction with the shamanistic potency " of his consort 

 or consorts. " Yet he is a throneless and even 

 homeless potentate, sojourning like the rest of his 

 fellows in such jacales as his two or three or four 

 wives may erect, wandering with season and sisterly 

 whim, chased often by rumours of invasion or by 

 fearsome dreams, and restrained by convention 

 even from chiding his own children in his wives' 

 jacales save through the intervention of female 

 relatives." * 



The Seri are divided into exogamous totem-clans. 

 The proposal for marriage is formally conveyed by the 

 elderwoman of the suitor's family to the girl's clan- 

 mother. If entertained by her and her daughter- 

 matrons it is discussed at length by the matrons of the 

 two clans involved. The girl herself is consulted ; a 

 jacal is erected for her; and after many deliberations 

 a year's probation of the most exacting character is 

 arranged for the favoured gallant. He leaves his clan 

 and attaches himself to that of his bride. He is ad- 

 mitted to her hut. He " shares the/##/and sleeping- 

 robe provided for the prospective matron by her 

 kinswomen, not as privileged spouse, but merely as a 

 1 McGee, Rep. Bur. Ethn xvii. 275*, 



