frica descent through women is the rule,[183] though there are
exceptions, and these are increasing. The amusing account given by
Miss Kingsley[184] of Joseph, a member of the Batu tribe in French
Congo, strikingly illustrates the prevalence of the custom. When asked
by a French official to furnish his own name and the name of his
father, Joseph was wholly nonplussed. "My fader?" he said. "Who my
fader?" Then he gave the name of his mother.

The case is the same among the Negroes. The Fanti of the Gold Coast
may be taken as an example. Among them an intensity of affection
(accounted for partly by the fact that the mothers have exclusive care
of the children) is felt for the mother, while the father is hardly
known, or disregarded, notwithstanding that he may be a wealthy and
powerful man and the legal husband of the mother.[185] The practice of
the Wamoima, where the son of a sister is preferred in legacies,
"because a man's own son is only the son of his wife," is
typical.[186] The Bush husband does not live with his wife, and often
has wives in different places. The maternal uncle supplies his place
in the family.

Wherever mother-right has progressed towards father-right, as is the
condition, broadly speaking, in the African continent, the supreme
authority is vested in the maternal uncle. The tribal duty of
blood-revenge falls to him, even against the father. Thus, in some
cases, if a woman is murdered, the duty of revenge is undertaken by
her kinsman.[187] In the state of Loango among the common people the
uncle is addressed as _tate_ (father). He has even the power to sell
his sister's children.[188] The child is so entirely the property of
the kin that he may be given in pledge for their debts. Among the
Bavili the mother has the right to pawn the child, but she must first
consult the father, so that he may have a chance of giving her goods
to save the pledging.[189] This is very plainly a step towards
father-right. There is no distinction between legitimate and
illegitimate children. Similar conditions prevail among the Alladians
of the Ivory Coast, but here the mother cannot pledge her children
without the consent of her brother or other male head of the family.
The father has the right to ransom the child.[190] An even stronger
example of the property value of children is furnished by the custom
found among many tribes, by which the father has to make a present to
the wife's kin when a child dies: this is ca