1892.] S. E. Peal — Communal Barracks of Primitive Baces. 2G5 



a grand feast and general drinking boufc. The " Karsais " or concubines, 

 meanwhile, are kept on, and as before, are practically servants, the Kuri 

 indeed looks on them as indispensible. So that the chiefs are exogarn- 

 ic, and the marriage is a relic of wife capture, the ceremony often 

 a mock capture or fight. But the rank and file of these head-hunting 

 savages are now so closely packed all over these hills, and have been 

 so for, at least 1,500 or 2,000 years that the difficulty of procuring 

 wives, when so often at feud all round, has necessitated endogamous 

 marriages, at first no doubt between different villages of the same 

 tribe semi-independent. As a rule now, the common folk are endogam- 

 ous, and the marriage is arranged by parents or relatives, at times 

 by payment, and at others service, or both. In all cases, however, as 

 amongst all the races having barracks, and sexual liberty, these mar- 

 riages are adult, and not juvenile, as among Hindus and Mohamedans, 

 and the parties themselves have the greatest say in the matter, they are 

 not little puppets. 



Of the three form's of sexual relation the oldest is probably the 

 communal barrack system, which is so generally seen as at the basis of 

 many tribal customs and which underlies the whole social life, a 

 stage of exogamy, following but not superseding it, survives as a relic 

 among the chiefs, while endogamy is apparently more recent, and in 

 turn does not violently displace either of the others. The elastic 

 relations existing between the villages constituting a distinct tribe, 

 give us indeed the clue to the mode of transition from exogamy to 

 endogamy. Occasionally a large Tillage with one or more offshoots, 

 will declare its independence, or two tribes (or clans) at peace agree to 

 found a new settlement, which in time becomes distinct. 



Indeed this has been the normal mode of tribal development over 

 the entire area. Occasionally a single tribe or clan will be comprised 

 in one large village or "chang," and at feud with all others around it 

 for 6 or 8 years, and this has no doubt led to endogamy, especially as 

 so many of these "changs," are at times built on semi-detached peaks, 

 and are practically almost distinct villages. But the transition from 

 exogamy to endogamy among these tribes, has evidently been exceed- 

 ingly slow, possibly not less than thousands of years, judging by their 

 unwritten history, which goes back in some cases about 30 generations, 

 and which unless secured at an early date, will undoubtedly be lost for 

 ever. The remarkable feature in the case is the steady persistence 

 of the "barracks" all through, as a social survival from a period which 

 evidently preceded the origin of these races as we now see them. 



The sociological significance of these singular communal institu- 

 tions, briefly referred to in the foregoing, it is imperatively necessary 



