Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/221

Rh {|align=center width=450
 * In either case the examples cited by Mr. McLennan are valueless; because—
 * 1. If by "tribe" he means the nation or community, then the tribes cited are not exogamous. They marry within their own bounds.
 * 2. If by "tribe" he means the exogamous clans, then the tribes cited are not found under "circumstances in which men could get wives only by capturing them." The clans have peaceful intermarriage with one another.
 * }
 * 2. If by "tribe" he means the exogamous clans, then the tribes cited are not found under "circumstances in which men could get wives only by capturing them." The clans have peaceful intermarriage with one another.
 * }
 * }
 * }

As this statement can be verified by a reference to Mr. McLennan's own account of the tribes which he cites as "exogamous," there is no need to trouble the reader with an examination of more than two or three of them which seem to require special notice. Of these the first are the Calmucks, who are divided into four great tribes or nations, called respectively Khoshot, Dzungar, Torgot, and Derbet (or Tchoro). Their system of marriage seems to have this peculiarity, that the common people can marry within any one of these great divisions, though not within certain prohibited degrees, while the nobles must marry each without his own division. A Derbet noble, for instance, we are told, must marry a Torgot lady, a Torgot noble a Derbet lady, and so on. Each of these great divisions is subdivided into smaller divisions, but we are not told whether these subdivisions are exogamous or not.

I know very little about the Calmucks, and a mission station in Feejee affording no facilities for getting at books of reference, I am not in a position to ascertain more fully the Calmuck system of marriage. We know, however, that the Calmucks call themselves the "Derben Ueirat," which means "The Four Relatives"; and this fact, coupled with the law of marriage among the nobles—who are conservatives almost everywhere, and given to standing in the old paths—seems to point to a time when the four great divisions were simply intermarrying clans, making up one community. But, whether this were so or not, it is evident that the Calmucks will not serve Mr. McLennan's turn, unless we may take it for granted that there was a time in their history when they had no way of marrying save by capturing each other's women.

Let us grant this for the sake of argument, and see what comes of it. Derbet and Torgot, we will say, are two exogamous tribes living in a state of mutual hostility, and so presenting "a set of circumstances in which men can get wives only by capturing them." Now, what is the result? Say that Derbet captures a number of Torgot women sufficient to supply its young men with wives, and Torgot captures Derbet women enough for its wants; we may then ask, "Are all the women on both sides disposed of?" If so, it follows that each tribe has captured all the women of the other.

But, if there be any women left uncaptured, what are they to do