80 The Growth of the Marriage Relation. 



taken by the marriage relation, there are two kinds of mar- 

 riage, deega and heena. The former is where a woman goes 

 to live in the house or village of her husband or husbands, 

 and the latter where she remains at home after marriage. 

 Polyandry of the Tibetan type is, therefore, of the deega 

 sort. Neither this nor heena marriage is necessarily associ- 

 ated with polyandry, but Dr. McLennan identifies the latter 

 with the curious custom prevalent among the Nairs of 

 Malabar, which may be taken as an example of polyandry 

 of the type (b) where the husbands are strangers in blood. 

 This system, like the ordinary form of polygyny, is 

 associated with plenty instead of poverty, being restricted 

 to the higher classes, and as there is no wife-purchase, the 

 children follow their mothers in descent and are the heirs 

 of their maternal uncles. According to Nair custom, a 

 man is married to a girl of his own caste, but he leaves her 

 immediately after the ceremony and never revisits her. 

 Usually she continues to live with her mother, brothers, 

 and sisters, the head of the household being the mother, 

 and, on her death, the eldest sister. There is no male head 

 of the family, which is perpetuated through the females, 

 who, after their marriage, have the right to receive the 

 visits of certain Brahmins, and of Nairs other than their 

 nominal husbands. By this arrangement each male Nair 

 may have a share in several wives, who answer to the 

 " accessory spouses " of Australian group-marriage, but, as 

 he is not allowed to associate with his own wife, he has 

 not the privileges of the Noa, or marital relation. That 

 curious custom probably originated in the Nairs, who are a 

 military caste of Sudras, taking a vow of celibacy, as was 

 usual among the Christian knights of the Middle Ages. 

 At the same time, the Nair women, after their nominal 

 marriage, Avere permitted, for the purpose of perpetuating 

 the caste, to form irregular associations with the younger 

 Brahmins, who themselves were not permitted to marry. 

 When the vow of celibacy was relaxed the prohibition was 

 continued so far as a Nair's own wife was concerned, but 

 he was allowed to visit other Nair women, the Brahmins 

 still retaining their old privilege. 



We have now to trace the origin of individual marriage, 

 that is, the living together in the marriage relation of only 

 two individuals, who may be said to rei)resent the two 

 primitive intermarrying groups. Various causes have been 



