156 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



origin from one of the recognised gods in the Hindu 

 pantheon ; its chief object of worship is represented 

 as an avatar of one of the great deities ; and its 

 occupation is said to have been ordained by divine 

 decree to commemorate some fact of its mythical 

 history or by way of a curse for a petty imposition 

 on the divine intelligence. By conforming in some 

 measure to Hindu rites and prohibitions it struggles 

 to obtain recognition in the social hierarchy. The 

 struggle brings with it the change from uterine to 

 agnatic descent unless that change have been previously 

 effected. It involves the more complete subjugation 

 of women, infant marriage, the insistence on female 

 chastity, the abolition of divorce, the perpetuation of 

 widowhood. Not every tribe as yet is thus revolu- 

 tionised. Among a large number of the tribes, whether 

 aboriginal Dravidians or later immigrants, relics of the 

 old freedom enjoyed by the female sex are found. In 

 such cases unmarried girls are frequently able to 

 bestow their favours on whom they will, with or with- 

 out the penalty of a feast to the tribesmen, subject 

 usually to the condition that if found pregnant they 

 must be married ; and they have a voice, if not 

 invariably an exclusive or a controlling voice, in the 

 selection of their husbands. After marriage adultery 

 within the tribe or caste is winked at or regarded as a 

 venial weakness ; nor is it a ground for repudiation by 

 their husbands unless habitual or very open and proved 

 by eye-witnesses of the actual fact. Divorce by either 

 party is often easy. Ladies who have left their 

 husbands, or whose husbands are dead, are free to 

 marry again. Their unions, even where they are of a 

 less formal character than that of a woman married 



