134 REPORT — 1867. 



garded as relatives, tliougli at a later period in Jewish history they would have been 

 so. The custom that when a man died childless his brother mamed the widow is 

 another case in point, as also is the touching story of Ruth and Boaz, and the sad 

 history of Tamar. Similar considerations, as Mr. M'Lennan points out in his ex- 

 cellent book on Primitive Maniage, prove that the Romans were " at one time in 

 pari passu as regards the administration of justice with many races, which we find 

 ignorant of legal proceedings, and dependent for the settlement of their disputes on 

 force of arms or the good offices of friends ; " while, as regards marriage, we find 

 customs both among the Greeks and Romans which point back to the time when 

 those polished peoples were themselves mere savages. Even among ourselves a 

 man is, in the eye of the law, no relation to his own children unless they are born 

 in wedlock. He is related to his own offspring not hj blood, but through his mar- 

 riage with the mother. If marriage has not taken place they have no right to his 

 name ; and should he leave them any of his property, the State steps in and claims 

 one-tenth, as in cases where money is left to those who are no relations. Thus, 

 then, we can trace up among races in diflterent stages of civilization every step, 

 from the treatment of woman as a mere chattel to the sacred idea of matrimony as 

 it exists among ourselves, and we find clear evidence that the gradual change has 

 been one of progress and not of degradation. Civilized nations long retain traces 

 of their ancient barbarism ; barbarous ones, no relics of pre-^dous chivalry. As the 

 valves in the veins indicate the direction of the circulation, so can we trace the 

 gradual progress of respect for women, which is one of the noblest features of our 

 modern civilization. Before quitting this interesting subject, I may add that 

 many nations have traditions of the origin of marriage. Among the Egyptians 

 it is attributed to Menes, among the Chinese to Folhi, the Greeks to Cecrops, the 

 Hindoos to Svetaketu. If the idea of marriage had been coeval with our race, 

 if marriage had always appeared as natm-al, I might say as necessary, as it does 

 to us, such traditions could scarcely have arisen. In the publications of the Nova 

 Scotian Institute of Natural Science is an interesting paper by Mr. Haliburton 

 on " The Unity of the Human Race, proved by the universality of certain super- 

 stitions connected with sneezing." " Once establish," he says, " that a large num- 

 ber of arbitrary customs, such as could not have naturally suggested themselves 

 to all men at all times, are universally observed, and we arrive at the conclusion 

 that they are primitive customs, which have been inherited from a common 

 source ; and, if inherited, that they owe their origin to an era anterior to the dis- 

 persion of the human race." To justify such a conclusion, the custom must be 

 demonstrably arbitrary. The belief that two and two make four, the division of 

 the year into twelve months, and similar coincidences, of course, proves nothing, 

 and I very much doubt the existence of any universal, or even general, custom of 

 a clearly arbitrary character. The fact is that many things appear to us arbitrary 

 and absurd because we live in a condition so difterent from that in which they 

 originated. Many things seem natm'al to a savage which to us are unaccountable. 

 Mr. Haliburton brings forward as his strongest case the habit of saying " God 

 bless you," or some equivalent expression, when a person sneezes. He shows 

 that this custom, which I admit appears to us at first sight both odd and arbitraiy, 

 is ancient and widely extended. It is mentioned by Homer, Aristotle, Apuleius, 

 Pliny, and the Jewish rabbis, and has been observed in Florida, in Otaheite, and 

 in the Tonga Islands. That it is not arbitrary, however, jNIr. Haliburton himself 

 shows, and it does not therefore come under his rule. A belief in invisible beings 

 is very general among savages, and while they think it imnecessary to account 

 for blessings, they attribute any misfortime to the iU-will of these mj^sterious 

 beings. Many savages regard disease as a case of possession. In cases of illness 

 they do not suppose that the organs are themselves affected, but that they are 

 being devoured by a god. Hence their medicine men do not try to ciu-e the dis- 

 ease, but to extract the demon. Some tribes have a distinct deity for everj^ ail- 

 ment. The Australians do not believe in natural death. ^Mien a man dies they 

 take for granted that he has been destroyed by witchcraft, and onlj^ doubt who is 

 the culprit. Nolv a people in this state of mind — and we know that almost every 

 race of men is passing or has passed through this stage of development — seeing a 

 .man sneeze, would naturally and almost inevitably suppose that he was attacked 



