servations of savage communities and of the social life of the superior animals lead to the conclusion that promiscuity was checked by various conditions, especially the strong feeling of jealousy on the part of the male; and it is extremely improbable that man in his first attempt at an organization of so ciety should have fallen below the level of sexual intercourse existing in the lower ani mal world. At the present time we know of no race so low in the scale of culture as to occupy the level of the most " Primitive Man," the "Urmensch " of the German Anthropolo gist. Among the lowest types of man, now found, there exists an unwritten social code, a system of rules governing the union of the sexes. No existing type of man, however primitive, lives under the system of " pro miscuous " marriage; and the statements of Herodotus, Dio Cassius, Strabo, Plinius, and Xenophon, that in their days " absolute" promiscuous sexual intercourse prevailed among various nations, have to be taken cum grano salts. It appears, however, from various customs, that among several white races a system of communal marriage formerly obtained. The annual prostitution of Babylonian women in the temple of the goddess Mylitta, a similar custom among the girls of Cyprus, and allied usages existing in the Balearic Islands, in ancient .Carthage and Greece and modern India, are instances. The maternal instinct which secures the protection of the offspring, eventually led to that type of the family called the " Matriarchate," in which descent was traced through the mother. No political supremacy of the woman is to be implied from this organiza tion. Considering the position of woman among savages, it is extremely unlikely that she ever asserted any powers over her lord and master. Whatever may have been the political position of woman, the custom of feminine filiation is an established fact. It is to-day a custom prevailing among various races, and we are informed by l lerodotus that
it was the family organization of the Lycians. According to a passage from Varro, quoted by Saint Augustine, it was the custom in ancient Athens for children to take their name from their mother. Recent researches by Dargun show that the " Matriarchate" was the basis of the Aryan family. The constant warfare between the differ ent hordes or tribes must have led to the capture of women from the neighboring tribes. The necessities of life, the difficulty of support also gave rise to a practice very common among savages, — of killing infants, especially girls; and the consequent scarcity of women contributed in a great measure to the custom of wife-capture, or " exogamy." On this practice the institution of " marry ing out of the tribe " is mainly founded. Kxogamy is very common at the present day, being found in many parts of the globe; and the quaint customs still observed among civi lized races lead to the conclusion that at some period in their history they practised wifecapture. ' The laws of Menu mention wife-capture. The familiar legend of the rape of the Sabines is an example; and the Germans stole women. Olaus Magnus informs us that they waged war for the capture of women; "propter raptas virgines," etc. In the course of time the forcible capture became a feigned rape, and in place of the wars which generally ensued to avenge the insult, compensation in property or wifebuying became the rule. Such is the com mon practice among the majority of savage and barbarous tribes, and its survival is seen, together with customs originating in wife-stealing in several of our laws and institutions. All these forms of marriage permitted a plurality of wives; and the organization called the Patriarchate placed no obstacles in the way of polygamous marriages. Monogamy is a later stage in the history of the family. It is the result of necessity, and a conception of a settled family. As the number of men and women in the community approached
