r's
relatives, the less their influence. Allowance must of course be made
for the opportunities of discussion afforded by the great gatherings of
the tribes; but the wider area of bride-choice must have shaken the
authority of the brother.

It has been remarked above that there is no well-established case of the
right of betrothal being assigned on patrilineal principles in a
matrilineal tribe. The influence of the father's brother is not
necessarily a mark of patrilineal tendencies, except in so far as all
patria potestas is such. That the elder brother has authority in this
case is no more decisive than that the elder brother has authority in
cases of betrothal; it is no more an exemplification of the simple
patria potestas, which has already been shown to be universal and under
but slight limitations so far as the wife is concerned. From the point
of view of potestas, it is a great advance that the father should be
able to dispose of his own daughter in marriage; but if we may judge by
the survival of matria potestas into patriliny, the cases of patria
potestas under matriliny cannot have exercised an important influence in
bringing about a change in the rule of descent.

The case of the power of the girl's own brother is somewhat different.
_Prima facie_ it appears to owe its origin to the fact that it is the
brothers who are mainly interested in the transaction, inasmuch as it is
to them that wives come in exchange for the sisters given in marriage.
Consequently we cannot, as has already been the case with the so-called
levirate, assign the practice definitely either to matripotestal or
patripotestal customs, for father's and mother's authority are alike
overruled.

It has already been stated that we have but few data for estimating the
influence of the right of betrothal on the rule of descent. Clearly the
father has little to gain from the fact that his daughter follows him
rather than the mother, when the inevitable effect of the marriage
regulations is to make her children of the phratry and totem of her
husband, and consequently to make them of a different phratry and totem
from her father. Under matriliny on the other hand there is nothing to
prevent the grandchildren from being of the same totem as the
grandfather, and they are necessarily of the same class in a four-class
tribe. If considerations with regard to the phratry and totem of the
grandchildren played any part in bringing about a change in the r