an expert to one of
the joint husbands to be regarded as his own.[138]

[134] McLennan, _The Patriarchal Theory_.

[135] _Survey of Canada_, Report for 1878-79, 134 B. Cited by
Frazer, _Totemism_, p. 76.

[136] Turner, _Samoa_, p. 78.

[137] _Das Mutterrecht_, p. 20, quoted by Starcke, _op.
cit._, pp. 126-127.

[138] Wilken, _Das Matriarchat bei den alten Arabern_, p. 26.

These facts throw a strong light on the bond between the father and
the child, which was a legal bond, not dependent, as it is with us,
upon blood relationship. Fatherhood really arose out of the ownership
of purchase. And for this reason the father's right came to extend to
all the children of the wife. It does not appear that the husband
makes any distinction between his wife's children, even if they were
begotten by other men. Chastity is not regarded as a virtue, and in
those cases where unfaithfulness in a wife is punished, it is always
because the woman, who has passed from the protection of her kindred,
acts without her husband's permission. Interchange of wives is common,
while it is one of the duties of hospitality to offer a wife to a
stranger guest. Husbands sometimes, indeed, seek other men for their
wives, believing they will obtain sons who will excel all others. Thus
of the Arabs we are told, there is one form of marriage according to
which a man says to his wife, "Send a message to such a one and beg
him to have intercourse with you." The husband acts in this way in
order that his offspring may be noble.[139] When a Hindu marries, all
the children previously born from his wife become his own; in
Pakpatan, even when a woman has forsaken her husband for ten years,
the children she brings forth are divided between her and her
lover.[140] Similarly in Madagascar, when a woman is divorced, any
children she afterwards bears belong to her husband.[141] Campbell
tells us of children born out of wedlock in the Limboo tribe that the
father may obtain possession of the boys by purchase and by naming
them, but the girls belong to the mother.[142]

[139] Wilken, _op. cit._, p. 26.

[140] Wade, _Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal_, Vol. VI, p.
196.

[141] See _Truth about Woman_, pp. 160-161, for account of
Madagascar.

[142] _Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal_, Vol. IX, p. 603.

I am very certain that it was through property considerations and for
no moral causes that the stringency