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 IV. The Family among the Naïrs of Malabar.

In the first place, we have to inquire what the family is among the Naïrs of Malabar, whose curious polyandry I have previously described. The Naïrs of Malabar are not by any means savages; they form an aristocratic caste. We have seen how, from a very early age (ten to twelve years), the young Naïr girls, after having been solemnly deflowered by a stranger, who has been paid to perform this task, practised the widest polyandry, without any other restriction than the prohibitions relative to caste and tribe. As is usual and even natural, Naïr polyandry coexists with a system of maternal filiation. Precautions are taken in order that the free and numerous unions of the Naïr ladies should not destroy the family. The Naïr husbands are reduced to the modest rôle of progenitors; and it is to the wife that the fortune of the family belongs. It is not, however, the mother who governs the family, but her brother. To this brother belongs the duty of bringing up his nephews, of protecting them, and of mourning for them, if they happen to die; in reality, he is an avuncular father, and when he dies his nephews inherit his personal property. In the Naïr family the polyandrous mother is much respected, and the next in honour to her is her eldest daughter, who will replace her in her rôle of mother-bee, the producer of children. The Naïr husbands, the fathers, only enter the house of their common wife by turns and on certain days; they have not even the right to sit down by the side of their wife or their children; they are mere passing guests, almost strangers.

If we regard these facts on a certain side, it appears as if we may at last have found among the Naïrs, in a country where the matriarchate incontestably reigns, the legal pre-*eminence of woman over man, or the materna potestas. It is, in fact, the Naïr woman who possesses; it is through her that wealth is transmitted, and, given the régime of free polyandry, it is difficult for Naïr children to know their own father. Moreover, in various polyandric countries of