Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/127

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or more properly the bachelors' house, as their outward and visible sign ; and (3) by secret societies and other associations, membership of which is really voluntary, and which therefore diifer in an important respect from the two forms of organisation already mentioned.

After a general introduction Dr. Schurtz proceeds to discuss the main features and the importance of the system of classifica- tion by age, the distribution of which is set forth, together with that of the other customs considered in this work, in a map at the end of the volume. In his view the original purpose of the Altersklasse was to regulate and limit the intercourse of the sexes before and after marriage, and to restrict the freedom pre- viously enjoyed in this respect by compelling a man to marry within his own generation, and by limiting the indulgence of free love to pre-matrimonial days both for men and women, with the intention of securing the married men on the one hand against the competition of the bachelors, and on the other hand against the temptation to continue after marriage the roving life of the unattached Don Juan, and thereby perhaps imperilling the health of the offspring.

In the second place the Aitersklassen, at any rate in their more developed forms, present themselves to Dr. Schurtz as expres- sions of the Geselligkeitstrieb or social instinct of man, and more especially of the male portion of the community It is of especial importance that the bachelors' or men's house, the external expression of this social instinct, has but seldom a girls' house to correspond to it. The strength and activity of the class of young men, who are primarily the hunters and warriors, have the further effect of promoting the solidarity of the married and unmarried men of the group, with the result that the use of the bachelors' house is frequently extended to all male members of the group above a certain age. In another direction the influence of the young men is seen in the elective character of the war chief, who supplants the hereditary peace chief when the warriors assemble for hostile purposes. The influence of both these tendencies was adverse to the disruptive forces of the clan and the local group, and favoured the development of the unity of the larger group and eventually of the nation, as is exemplified by the history of our own Teutonic ancestors.

In the next section, devoted to the men's house, Dr. Schurtz