200 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



into regular marriages, and the right of inheritance 

 and succession rests in the mother of the brother, 

 or otherwise goes to the sister's son, the father of 

 the child being always considered as uncertain. 



Among the Brahmens, when there are more 

 brothers than one, only the elder or eldest of them 

 marries. The brothers, who thus maintain celi- 

 bacy, cohabit Math Nayr women without marriage 

 in the way of the Nayrs. If the eldest brother 

 has not a son, then the next brother marries. 



Among the Nayrs, it is the custom for one Nayr 

 woman to have attached to her two males, or four, 

 or perhaps more. 



The lower casts, such as carpenters, ironsmiths, 

 and others, have fallen into the imitation of their 

 superiors, with this difference, that the joint con- 

 cern in one woman is confined to brothers and 

 male relations by blood, to the end that no alien- 

 ation may take place in the course of the succes- 

 sion.* 



Montesquieu takes notice of this custom of the 

 Nayrs on the coast of Malabar, and accounts for 

 it on the supposition that it was adopted in order 

 to weaken the family ties of this cast, that as sol- 

 diers they might be more at liberty to follow the 

 calls of their profession : but I should think that 

 it originated more probably in a fear of the poverty 

 arising from a large family, particularly as the 

 custom seems to have been adopted by the other 

 classes.^ 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 14. 

 •j* Esprit des Loix, liv. xvi. c. 5. 



