ioo PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



the examples adduced in the preceding chapter show 

 that to reckon a child to the stock of its mother's 

 husband it is by no means necessary that the actual 

 paternity be traceable to him ; nor is it even fatal that 

 he is known not to be- physically the father. The 

 conclusion seems irresistible that fatherright is trace- 

 able not to any change in savage or barbarous theories 

 of blood-relationship, but to social and economical 

 causes of the kind suggested in the last few pages. 



by a free woman is of the most limited description. The Ewhe wife 

 can sell or pawn her children without her husband's consent, but 

 only if he refuse to give her what she requires. " If for instance a 

 woman were condemned to pay a fine, and her husband refused to 

 give her the amount required, she would have a right to sell or pawn 

 her children in order to raise the money. In such cases it is not 

 unusual for a mother to sell or pawn the children to their father ; 

 and men often refuse to assist their wives in such cases, in order 

 that they may thus acquire entire control of their children " (Ellis, 

 Ewe, 221. Cf. Cruickshank, i. 321 sqq. as to the Gold Coast). We 

 are not, indeed, told that this transaction transfers the kinship to 

 the father, but the ownership by the father of the children is almost 

 indistinguishable from kinship. Paternal descent is in fact usually 

 described as paternal ownership, and that not merely by European 

 observers but by the people concerned themselves. There is no 

 more reason why a mercantile transaction of this kind should not 

 as easily transfer the kinship of the children as payment of the 

 bride-price. In this connection it will not be forgotten that the 

 payment of the bride-price is often supplemented by a specific 

 payment in respect of each of the children. We may fairly regard 

 this purchase therefore by the father of his children as a step in the 

 transfer of kinship, if not a transfer complete in itself. 



