p. 242.

[149] Hartland, _op. cit._, Vol. II. pp. 156, 157.

[150] Risley, _The Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, Vol. I. pp. 228, 231.

[151] Rivers, _The Todas_; Schrott, _Tras. Ethno. Soc._ (New Series),
Vol. VIII. p. 261.

[152] Letourneau, quoting Skinner, _Evolution of Marriage_, p. 78.

[153] Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_, p. 114.
Polyandry has flourished not only among the primitive races of India.
The Hindoo populations also adopted it, and traces of the custom may
be found in their sacred literature. Thus in the _Mahaebhaerata_ the
five Pandava brothers marry all together the beautiful Druaupadi, with
eyes of lotus blue (_Mahaebhaerata_, trad. Fauche, t. II. p. 148). For
an account of polyandry in ancient India the reader should consult
Jolly, _Gundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde_.

[154] Davy, _Ceylon_, p. 286; Sachot, _L'Ile de Ceylon_, p. 25.

[155] Turner, _Thibet_, p. 348, and _Hist. Univ. des, Voy._, Vol.
XXXI. p. 434; Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 36.

[156] Hartland, _op. cit._, Vol. II. p. 164.

[157] This is the opinion of Bernhoeft, quoted by Iwan Bloch. Marshall
points out that among the Todas group-marriages occur side by side
with polyandry. Bloch also notes that in the common cases where the
husband has a claim on his wife's sister, and even her cousins and
aunts, we find polygamy developed out of group-marriage. The practice
of wife lending and wife exchange is also connected with the early
communal marriage (_Sexual History of Our Times_, pp. 193-194). It is
possible that prostitution may be a relic of this early sexual
freedom. What is moral in one stage of civilisation often becomes
immoral in another, when the reasons for its existing have changed.

[158] Havelock Ellis writing on this subject ("Changing Status of
Women," _Nineteenth Century_, Oct. 1886) says: "It seems that in the
dawn of the race an elaborate social organisation permitted a more or
less restricted communal marriage, every man in the tribe being at the
outset the husband of every woman, first practically, then
theoretically, and that the social organisation which had this point
of departure was particularly favourable to women."

[159] It is a matter of dispute whether a woman may have more than one
husband at a time. The older accounts state this, while later it has
been denied. The probability is that this was the custom, but that it
is dying out under moder