ernal-stage, with kinship and inheritance
passing through the mother, has everywhere preceded the second
patriarchal period, it is difficult to be at all certain. Dr.
Westermarck, Mr. Crawley and others have argued against this view. But
(as I have before had occasion to point out) their chief motive has
been to discredit the theory of promiscuity, with which
mother-descent has been so commonly, and so mistakenly, connected. It
does not seem to have been held as possible that the mother-age was a
much later development, whose social customs were made for the
regulation of the family relationships. A number of very primitive
races exhibit no traces, that have yet been discovered, of such a
system, and have descent in the male line. This has been thought to be
a further proof against a maternal stage. But here again is an error;
we are not entitled to regard mother-descent as necessarily the
primitive custom. I believe and have tried to show, from the examples
of the Australian tribes and elsewhere, that in many cases the stage
of the maternal clan has not been reached. If I am right here, we have
the way cleared from much confusion. I would suggest, as also
possible, that there may among some people, have been retrogressions,
customs and habits found out as beneficial, and perhaps for long
practised, have by some tribes been forgotten. There can be no hard
and fast rule of progress for any race. The whole subject is thorny
and obscure, and the evidence on the question is often contradictory.
Still I hold the claim I make is not without foundation. I have tried
to show how the causes which led to the maternal system were perfectly
simple and natural causes, arising out of needs that must have
operated universally in the past history of mankind. And this
indicates a maternal stage at some period for all branches of the
human family. Again the widespread prevalence of mother-right
survivals among races where the patriarchal system has been for long
firmly established lends support to such a view, which will be
strengthened by the evidence now to be brought forward. It will be
necessary to go step by step, from one race to another, and to many
different countries, and I would ask my readers not to shrink from the
trouble of following me.

Let us turn first to ancient Egypt, where women held a position more
free and more honourable than they have in any country to-day.

Herodotus, who was a keen observer, records his astoni