Thus slavery becomes
a provision for poverty when relations fail. The clan-family may serve
the same purpose. David Livingstone describes the formation of the
clan-family among the Bakuena. "Each man, by virtue of paternity, is
chief of his own children. They build huts round his.... Near the
centre of each circle of huts is a spot called a 'kotla,' with a
fireplace; here they work, eat, &c. A poor man attaches himself to the
'kotla' of a rich one, and is considered a child of the latter." Thus
the clan-family is also a poor-relief association.

Studies in folklore bring to light many relations between the charity
of the old world and that of our own day.

The early community.

In regard to the charity of the early community, we may take the 8th
century B.C. as the point of departure. The _Odyssey_ (about 800 B.C.)
and Hesiod (about 700 B.C.) are roughly parallel with Amos (816-775),
and represent two streams of thought that meet in the early Christian
period. The period covered by the _Odyssey_ seems to merge into that of
Hesiod. We take the former first, dealing with the clan-family and the
phratry, which are together the self-maintaining unit of society, with
the general relief of the poor, with hospitality, and with vagrancy. In
Hesiod we find the customary law of charity in the earlier community
definitely stated, and also indications of the normal methods of
neighbourly help which were in force in country districts. First of the
family and brotherhood, or phratry. The family (_Od_. viii. 582)
included alike the wife's father and the daughter's husband. It was thus
a clanlike family. Out of this was developed the phratry or brotherhood,
in which were included alike noble families, peasants and craftsmen,
united by a common worship and responsibilities and a common customary
law (_themis_). Zeus, the god of social life, was worshipped by the
phratry. He was the father of the law (_themis_). He was god of host and
guest. Society was thus based on law, the brotherhood and the family.
The irresponsible man, the man worthy of no respect or consideration,
was one who belonged to no brotherhood, was subject to no customary law,
and had no hearth or family. The phratry was, and became afterwards
still more, "a natural gild." Outside the self-sustaining phratry was
the stranger, including the wayfarer and the vagrant; and partly merged
in these classes was the beggar, the recognized recipient of th