160 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



for besides this very likely hypothesis, undoubted 

 survivals remain of intermarriage by groups or 

 sexual groups. In the writings of Fison and Howitt, 

 we find the two following instances of this in two 

 tribes which, according to them, severally represent 

 the highest and lowest in the scale of civilization, 

 among those with which they came in contact. 1 



(d) The tribe called Kunanddburi was divided 

 into two exogamous classes : Mattara and Yungo. 

 Theoretically all the Yungos whether male or 

 female were regarded as the males of the Mattaras, 

 and vice versd. In point of fact, however, only 

 one vestige of the primitive communal marriage 

 remained the jus primce noctis which was the 

 prerogative of all the contemporaries of the 

 husband belonging to the same group. 



(e) The tribe called Narrinyeri which repre- 

 sented a more advanced stage of civilization, was 

 equally divided into two sexual groups, but in 

 reality, marriage was strictly individual. One 

 survival remained, however, of the former system. 

 When a man captured an alien bride, all the men 

 of his own generation and belonging to the same 

 group possessed the right of jus primce noctis. 



3. We have seen that instances of survival are 

 rare in some countries because modifications are 

 only effected slowly, and in others because changes 

 are effected very quickly and useless institutions 



1 Fisou and Howitt, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 

 1882, p. 35. 



