348 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



more frequently a union of efficiency with supremacy. The 

 son of a great warrior, or man otherwise capable as a ruler, is 

 more likely to possess kindred traits than is the son of his 

 sister ; and if so, it will happen that in those earliest stages 

 when personal superiority is requisite as well as legitimacy 

 of claim, succession in the male line will conduce to main 

 tenance of power by making usurpation more difficult. 



There is, however, a more potent influence which aids in 

 giving permanence to political headship, and which operates 

 more in conjunction with descent through males than in con 

 junction with descent through females an influence probably 

 of greater importance than any other. 



477. When showing, in 475, how respect for age gene 

 rates patriarchal authority where descent through males has 

 arisen, I gave cases which incidentally showed a further result ; 

 namely, that the dead patriarch, worshipped by his descend 

 ants, becomes a family deity. In sundry chapters of Vol. I. 

 were set forth at length the proofs, past and present, furnished 

 by many places and peoples, of this genesis of gods from 

 ghosts. Here there remains to be pointed out the strengthen 

 ing of political headship which inevitably results. 



Descent from a ruler who impressed men by his superiority, 

 and whose ghost, specially feared, is propitiated in so unusual 

 a degree as to distinguish it from ancestral ghosts at large, 

 exalts and supports the living ruler in two ways. He is 

 assumed to inherit from his great progenitor more or less of 

 the power, apt to be thought supernatural, which characterized 

 him ; and, making sacrifices to this great progenitor, he is 

 supposed to maintain such relations with him as insure divine 

 oid. Passages in Canon Callaway s account of the Amazulu, 

 show the influence of this belief. It is said, &quot; the Itongo 

 [ancestral ghost] dwells with the great man, and speaks with 

 him ; &quot; and then it is also said (referring to a medicine-man), 

 &quot; the chiefs of the house of Uzulu used not to allow a mere 

 inferior to be even said to have power over the heaven; for 



