POLITICAL HEADS CHIEFS, KINGS, .ETC. 347 



as in these cases, when no nomination has been made the 

 nobles choose among members of the royal family, and are 

 determined in their choice by eligibility, there may be, and 

 naturally is, a departure from descent in the female line ; 

 and this system of descent once broken through is likely for 

 several reasons to be abolished. We are also intro 



duced to another transitional process. For some of these cases 

 are among the many in which succession to rulership is fixed 

 in respect of the family, but not fixed in respect of the 

 member of the family a stage implying a partial but incom 

 plete stability of the political headship. Several instances 

 occur in Africa. &quot; The crown of Abyssinia is hereditary in 

 one family, but elective in the person,&quot; says Bruce. &quot; Among 

 the Timmanees and Bulloms, the crown remains in the same 

 family, but the chiefs or head men of the country, upon whom 

 the election of a king depends, are at liberty to nominate a 

 very distant branch of that family/ And a Kaffir &quot; law 

 requires the successor to the king should be chosen from 

 amongst some of the youngest princes.&quot; In Java and Samoa, 

 too, while succession to rulership is limited to the family, it 

 is but partially settled with respect to the individual. And 

 the like held in Spain (Aragon) before the 12th century; 

 where &quot; a small number of powerful barons elected their 

 sovereign on every vacancy, though, as usual in other 

 countries, out of one family.&quot; 



That stability of political headship is secured by establish 

 ment of descent in the male line, is, of course, not alleged. 

 The allegation simply is that succession after this mode con- 

 daces better than tmy other to its stability. Of probable 

 reasons for this, one is that in the patriarchal group, as 

 developed among those pastoral races from which the leading 

 civilize 1 peoples have descended, the sentiment of subordina 

 tion to the eldest male, fostered by circumstances in the 

 family and in the gens, becomes instrumental to a wider 

 subordination in the larger groups eventually formed. Another 

 probable reason is, that with descent in the male line there ia 



