status of barbarism, showed that his view was too restricted. We do not
get back to primitive society by studying Greeks, Romans, and Jews,
peoples who had nearly emerged from the later period of barbarism when
we first know them.[58] Their patriarchal family was perfected in shape
during the later period of barbarism, and it was preceded by a much
ruder and less definite form of family-group in which kinship was
reckoned only through the mother, and the headship never descended from
father to son. As so often happens, this discovery was made almost
simultaneously by two investigators, each working in ignorance of what
the other was doing. In 1861, the same year in which "Ancient Law" was
published, Professor Bachofen, of Basel, published his famous book, "Das
Mutterrecht," of which his co-discoverer and rival, after taking
exception to some of his statements, thus cordially writes: "It remains,
however, after all qualifications and deductions, that Bachofen, before
any one else, discovered the fact that a system of kinship through
mothers only, had anciently everywhere prevailed before the tie of blood
between father and child had found a place in systems of relationships.
And the honour of that discovery, the importance of which, as affording
a new starting-point for all history, cannot be overestimated, must
without stint or qualification be assigned to him."[59] Such are the
generous words of the late John Ferguson McLennan, who had no knowledge
of Bachofen's work when his own treatise on "Primitive Marriage" was
published in 1865. Since he was so modest in urging his own claims, it
is due to the Scotch lawyer's memory to say that, while he was inferior
in point of erudition to the Swiss professor, his book is characterized
by greater sagacity, goes more directly to the mark, and is less
encumbered by visionary speculations of doubtful value.[60] Mr. McLennan
proved, from evidence collected chiefly from Australians and South Sea
Islanders, and sundry non-Aryan tribes of Hindustan and Thibet, that
systems of kinship in which the father is ignored exist to-day, and he
furthermore discovered unmistakable and very significant traces of the
former existence of such a state of things among the Mongols, the Greeks
and Phoenicians, and the ancient Hebrews. By those who were inclined to
regard Sir Henry Maine's views as final, it was argued that Mr.
McLennan's facts were of a sporadic and exceptional character. But when
the e