1 66 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



to them and the bride, either in the hut of the bride- 

 groom after he has gone through the ceremony by 

 their mother, or in the bride's hut by her mother. It 

 is still the custom for four or five Izhuva brothers 

 to marry a young woman. A vessel of water is kept 

 at the door of her room to serve the purpose of the 

 knife elsewhere. Any of the brothers may marry 

 a wife either for himself alone or to be a common 

 wife of the group. The children of the polyandrous 

 marriage are the children of all the husbands. 1 

 Polyandry is also a custom of the western Kalians ; 

 and among them also the husbands are held to be 

 jointly and severally fathers of any children the wife 

 may bear. 2 Among the jungle Kurumbas of the 

 Nilgiri Hills it is said to be the custom for several 

 brothers to take one wife in common, nor do they 

 " object to their women being open to others also." 8 

 In Ceylon fraternal polyandry is common, especially 

 in the Kandyan country where it is more or less general 

 among all classes. The reason assigned by the poor 

 is poverty, by the wealthy and men of rank that 

 such marriages unite the family, concentrate property 



1 Iyer, 22, 24. The Jlzhuvas inherit according to matrilineal 

 rules in certain disticts, but not in the district referred to (Ibid. 29 ; 

 Ind. Census. 1901, xxvi. 279). 



2 Thurston, 108. As to the Kalians generally, see Ind. Census, 

 1901, xv. 158. 



8 Thurston, 113. It is reported of the Badagas in the Nilgiris, 

 almost in the same terms as of tribe and caste after tribe and caste 

 in the United Provinces and Bengal : " Immorality within the 

 family circle is not regarded very harshly" (Mayne, 75, quoting 

 the Census report of 1891). The Kuravas, a Gipsy tribe found all 

 over the Tamil country, treat their women " in a very casual manner, 

 mortgaging or selling their wives without compunction " (Ind. Census, 

 1901, xv. 164). 



