in that case tend to
re-establish rather than weaken the power of the woman's kin, at any
rate in the first instance.

However this may be, the woman's kin exercises, _prima facie_, some kind
of protectorship. At the present day the kinship may be matrilineal or
patrilineal without affecting their right. But if, before kinship was
reckoned at all, this protectorship were exercised for the benefit of
the children, we clearly have a possible cause of matriliny.

For a discussion of the question of the inheritance of the deceased's
wife by his brother we have more facts at our disposal. As a matter of
fact it is a not infrequent custom in Australia for the widow to pass to
the deceased husband's brother[17]; or if she does not become his wife,
he decides to whom she shall be allotted[18]. In no case do the woman's
kin seem to have a voice in the selection of her new husband. On the
whole therefore the proprietary rights found in the Boulia district seem
to be the product of exceptional local conditions. If this is so, it is
clear that in the matter of potestas the rights of the woman's kin are
now absolutely restricted to protecting her from a death which she has
not according to native law deserved and to avenging such a death when
it is inflicted by the husband.

The so-called levirate, or right of succession to the widow, is clearly
of much importance, so far as questions of dominion are concerned; but
as regards the problems of descent the evidence is less easily
interpreted. It has sometimes been assumed that the succession of the
brother and not the son is a mark of matriliny; but it is clear that
where the right of appropriating the widow is concerned, this is very
far from being the case, for the simple reason that the real matria
potestas would put her at the disposal of the kin from whom she
originally came; on the other hand, inasmuch as the son is naturally
debarred from marrying his own mother or his tribal mother, who commonly
belongs to a class into which he does not marry, there might easily
arise in a purely patripotestal and patrilineal tribe a custom of
handing over the widow to the father's brother.

On the whole however it seems simplest to regard the matter as one in
which the rights are determined by no considerations of inheritance or
descent but simply by the rule that the property in the woman remains
vested in the body of purchasers. For it must be remembered that not
only an own but also a t