riage; the
children are counted as the heirs of the maternal grandfather.[173]
Similar survivals are frequent in China. The patriarchate is rigidly
established, but there is evidence to show that the family in this
ancient civilisation has passed through the usual stages of
development, having for its starting-point the familial clan, and
passing from this through the stage of mother-right.[174] The Chinese
language itself attests the ancient existence of the earliest form of
marriage, contracted by a group of brothers having their wives in
common, but not marrying their sisters. Thus a Chinaman calls the sons
of his brothers "his sons," but he considers those of his sisters as
his nephews.[175] Certain of the aboriginal tribes still require the
husband to live with his wife's family for a period of seven or ten
years before he is allowed to take her to his home. The eldest child
is given to the husband, the second belongs to the family of the
wife.[176] The authority which the Chinese mother exercises over her
son's marriage and over his wife can only be explained by mother-right
customs. There are many other examples which I must pass over.

In the Island of Madagascar, with whose interesting civilisation, as
it existed before the unfortunate conquest of the country by the
French, I am personally acquainted, mother-right has left much more
than traces.[177] Great freedom in sexual relations was permitted to
the men, and in certain cases to women also. There was no word in the
native language for virgin; the word _mpitovo_, commonly used, means
only an unmarried woman. On certain festive ceremonies the licence was
very great. The hindrances to marriage were much more stringent with
the mother's relations than with the father's. Divorce was frequent
and easy; the power to exercise it rested with the husband; but the
wife could, and often did, run away, and thus compel a divorce. A
Malagasy proverb compared marriage to a knot so lightly tied that it
could be undone by a touch. Such freedom was due to the great desire
for children; every child was welcome in the family, whatever its
origin.[178] The children belonged to the husband, and so complete
was this possession, that in the case of a divorce not only the
children previously born, but any the wife might afterwards bear, were
counted as his.

Among the ruling classes mother-right remained in its early force. The
royal family and nobility traced their descent, contr