1880. | Anthropology. 137 
and Rome. The society has for its president Dr. Samuel Birch, 
the Egyptologist, and includes many of the most distinguished 
men in England among its members. The honorable secretary 
‘tr foreign correspondence is the Rev. A. H. Sayce. An 
acquaintance with its publications is indispensable to those who 
wish to pursue the study of Oriental archeology. 
The first number of Vol. 1x of “The Journal of the Anthropo- 
logical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, August, 1879,” 
contains the following papers:. Exhibition of the cranium of a 
Native of one of Fiji islands, -by Prof. Flower; The Primitive 
Human Family, by C. Staniland Wake; On an Echelle de ~ 
Couleurs, published by the Société Sténochromique of Paris, by 
%. W. Brabrook; Remarks on the Geographical Distribution of 
Games, by Edward B. Tylor; On some Rock Carvings found in 
the neighborhood of Sydney, by Sir Charles Nicholson; Rela- 
tionships and the names used for them among the peoples of - 
Madagascar, chiefly the Hovas, together with observations upon 
Marriage customs and morals among the Malagasy, by the Rev. 
James Sebree, Jr.; History of the South-western Barbarians and 
haou-Seén, translated from the “ Tseen Han Shoo,” book 95, by 
A. Wylie, Esq.; Rag-Bushes and kindred observances, by M. J. 
Walhouse (See “ Fetish or Rag-Bushes in Madagascar,” Saturday 
Magazine, Nov. 22). 
Mr. Wake’s paper is a continuation of the author's discussion of 
a kindred subject in Vol. viii, of the Journal. After reviewing Mr. 
McLennan’s theory of the origin of society in polyandry, he adds, 
“We cannot suppose that the primeval group of mankind con- 
sisted only of a woman and her children; and if the woman had — 
a male companion, we cannot doubt, judging from what we know — 
of savage races, that he would be the head and chief of the group. 
* * * Self interest chiefly would govern the father in connec- 
tion with the marriage of his daughter. Whether the marriage _ 
Was to be a permanent or a terminable engagement, he would — 
stipulate that they should centinue to live with or near him, and 
that her children should belong to him as the head of the family 
group. In this case, not only would the children form part of 
the family to which their mother belonged, but the husband him- o 
self would become united to it, and would be required to labor- 
for the benefit of his father-in-law. When the wife left her father’s 
house to reside with her husband, he had to purchase the privi- - : 
lege by giving her father and other relatives handsome presents. 
rw could hardly have occurred at first, when property was not 
eld in severalty. It marks a higher step in culture]. In this 
case the children belonged to their father’s family, and the fact aoo 
the wife going to reside among her husband’s relatives meant thẹ 
loss of the children by ker father’s family. The presents may, 
therefore, be supposed to represent the price given by a man for 
his wife’s. offspring to her relatives. Probably the wide-spread- 
EN: VOL. XIV.—NO. 1. w ; RS aiae i bes woe ae 
