I Mi' 'W f f, ' i \.m!B SEX PREDOMINANCE IN HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. The Evolution of Woman: An Inquiry into the Dogma of her Inferiority to Man. By Eliza Burt Gamble. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. Pp. 356. Whoevbh enjoys an admirable piece of argu- 1 eiT'eatj set forth in an admirably lucid and con- ' vincing manner, wiU take pleasure in Mrs. Gamble's book, even though he should remain in the end sceptical of some of the various in- teresting positions vrhich she defends. Her main thesis, that the change from the coordi- nate, if not superior, power possessed by fe- males in the animal kingdom, and in the early stages of savagery and barbarism, to the sub- jection of the sex which was introduced with the change from the matriarchal to the pa- triarchal form of descent, was a change for the worse, is weU made out. It is possible that she exaggerat eg the feeling forjustioe andLJiU- 'mamty possessed~Ey^women in the earlier ages of th« world, and the consequent gain in pro- gress that would have resulted if the egotism of the males had been held more in check. With reference to the latter point, however — the early divergence of the female from the common type in an altruistic direction — the facts of primitive sex-differentiatiou are cer- tainly very significant. In addition to strictly sexual differences, the male acquires organs of sense or of locomotion of which the female is wholly destitute, or else he has them more high- ly developed, in order that he may find or reach her; or he has special organs of prehension for holding her securely. The female, on the other hand, has organs for the protection or nourishment of her young; and she is fre- quently provided, in addition, with organs for the good of the community. Thus the females of most bees have a special apparatus for col- lecting and carrying pollen, and their oviposi- tor is modified into a sting for the defence of the larvae and of the community ; and many similar cases could be given. While both spe- cies of differentiation act for the good of the race in the end, the modifications of the male do so by way of quick gratification of his self- ish love of pleasure, those of the female by an unselfish devotion to the welfare of others. The mental accompaniments of these two forms of modification are necessarily extreme- ly different, nor has this primitive difference changed its character with the progress of civi- lization. In"describing"tiie status of women in the dif- fer^t periods of savagery and barbarism^ and in early historic times, Mrs. Gamble' makes use, for the most part, of facts Which are well known, but she marshals them in a fresh order, and she has been able to throw much light upon many questions of social development which have long been subjects for discussion. Chief among these are the cause of the change from the matriarchal to the patriarchal form of desert, and the origin of wife-capture and of other later forms of marriage. The theories of othei: writers on these subjects Mrs. Gam- ble shows to have been largely vitiated by their having found it difficult to recognize the great, power which necessarily accrued to the wocQen of a tribe. through the custom of recog- nizing descent only througti the mother. And yet it is easy to find very graphic pictures of the state of things which that custom necessa- rily entails, in the writings of those who have lived among savages in very recent times. Thus, Ashur Wright, for many years missionary to the Senecas, wrote, in 1873: ; ■ " It• note if they suspect it. If it feels wrong, in half a minute they point out the incongruities of the counterfeit." Although throughout the ascending scale of life, the female has been expending all her energy in the perform- ance of her legitimate functions — functions which, as we have seen, are of a higher order than those performed by the male, through causes which will be discussed further on in these pages, within the later centuries of human existence, she has been temporarily overcome by the destructive or disruptive forces developed in the opposite sex — forces which are without the line of true development, and which through overstimulation and encouragement have overleaped the bounds of normal activity, and have therefore become disruptive and injurious. During the past five thousand years, woman's repro- ductive functions have been turned into means of sub- sistence, and under the peculiar circumstances of her THE FEMALE SUPERIOR TO THE MALE. 5 1 environment, her " struggle for existence " has involved physical processes far more disastrous to life and health than are those to which man has been subjected. Owing to the peculiar condition of woman's environment, there has been developed within her more delicate and sensi- tive organism an alarming degree of functional nervous- ness ; yet, with the gradual broadening of her sphere of activity, and the greater exercise of personal rights, this tendency to nervous derangement is gradually becoming lessened. That there is reserve force in woman suffi- cient to overcome the evil results of the supremacy of passion during the last five thousand or six thousand years of human existence, from present indications seems more than likely. Commenting on the subject of nervousness, and the degree in which it is manifested in civilized countries, and especially among civilized women, Dr. Beard says : ' ' Women, with all their nervousness — and in civilized lands, women are more nervous, immeasurably, than men, and suffer more from general and special diseases — yet live quite as long as men, if not somewhat longer ; their greater nervousness and far greater liability to functional diseases of the nervous system being compensated for by their smaller liability to acute and inflammatory disorders, and various organic nervous diseases likewise, such as the general paralysis of insanity."' According to Mr. Maudsley, women " seldom suffer from general paralysis." We are told that this disease is frequently inherited, and that it is sometimes the result of alcoholic and other excesses." ' American Nervousness, p. 207. * Maudsley, Physiology and Pathology of the Mind, p. 360. 52 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Regarding the dangers to which women are exposed by excessive and useless maternity, Dr. Beard remarks : " The large number of cases of laceration at childbirth, and the prolonged and sometimes even life-enduring ill- ness resulting from them, are good reasons for the terror which the processes of parturition inspires in the minds of American women to-day." However, that the dangers incident to parturition, and the excessive ner- vousness which characterizes civilized women, are not necessary adjuncts of civilization, but, on the contrary, are a result of the unchecked disruptive forces developed in man, and the consequent drain on the vital energies of woman, will be seen, so soon as through the cultiva- tion of the higher faculties developed in and transmitted through females, the animal nature of males has finally been brought within its legitimate bounds. CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS AND THE MORAL SENSE. THE human animal is eminently a, social creature, and largely dependent upon its fellows for se- curity and happiness. This dependence upon others is not only observed among his ape-like progenitors, but is clearly manifested all along the organic scale. " It is certain that associated animals have a feeling of love for each other, which is not felt by non-social adult animals " ; many animals " certainly sympathize with each other's distress or danger." ' Mr. Darwin thinks that an animal like the gorilla, which, possessing great size and strength, could defend itself from all its enemies, would not have become social, and therefore would not have advanced ; hence, we ob- serve that although the greater size of males among mammals, man included, is usually regarded as evidence of their superiority over females, it is not owing to this character that advancement has been made ; for, not- withstanding their courage and perseverance, progress would have been impossible without the acquirement of the social instincts. ' The Descent of Man, p. 102. 53 54 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Among monogamous animals the difference in size between the sexes is slight, but among polygamous species the male is considerably larger than the female, this peculiarity being correlated with numberless varia- tions of structure. " All the secondary sexual characters of man are highly variable.'" It is observed that it was customary among primitive races for the males to " struggle for the possession of the females," and as " choice " was still a prerogative of the female, the male doubtless fought desperately to win her favors. These struggles were enacted in the pres- ence of the females, they doubtless choosing the strong- est and best endowed, leaving the weaker members of the group unmated, and consequently unable to propa- gate their misfortunes. We are told that in the contests engaged in by the early races, " bodily strength and size would do little for victory unless associated with cour- age, perseverance, and determined energy," qualities which, as we have seen, are believed to be the direct result of Sexual Selection, and through the possession of which, according to Mr. Darwin, the mental faculties of man have become sufficiently re-enforced to enable him finally to gain the ascendancy over woman. That the perseverance and courage of man are re- garded as a result of the strong sexual instinct developed within him is shown wherever this subject is touched upon in The Descent of Man, and especially in the fact noted by Mr. Darwin that eunuchs are deficient in these ' The Descent of Man, p. 559. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS. 55 characters. Although we are given to understand that it is through Sexual Selection that the greater size of males has been acquired, and that courage, energy, and perseverance have been developed, subsequently, how- ever, Natural Selection comes into play. It is through Natural Selection that the higher mental faculties and the social qualities have been acquired, those individuals succeeding best and leaving the largest number of off- spring to inherit their acquirements in whom the mental faculties and the social instincts were the best developed. If we follow the premises of the scientists to their legitimate conclusions, we shall observe that it is only through that specialization of organs which has resulted in the separation of the sex elements, and the consequent division of functions, that the social instincts have origi- nated, and that it is to processes involved in such special- ization, or differentiation, that the higher faculties and the moral sense have arisen. It is indeed plain from their reasoning that matter, or perhaps I should say the force inherent in matter, had to be raised to a certain dynamical order before the peculiar quality of brain and nerve necessary for the development of these faculties could be manifested through it. "As there are different kinds of matter, so there are different modes of force, in the universe ; and as we rise from the common physical matter in which physical laws hold sway up to chemical matter and chemical forces, and from chemical matter ^ain up to living matter and its modes of force, so do we rise in the scale of life from the lowest kind of living matter with its corresponding force or energy, through different kinds of histological elements, with their corresponding energies or functions, up to the highest S6 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Tcind of living matter and corresponding mode of force with which we are acquainted, viz., nerve element and nerve force. But, when we have got to nerve element and nerve force, it behooves us not to rest content with the general idea, but to trace, with attentive dis- crimination, through the nervous system the different kinds of nervous cells, and their different manifestations of energy. So also shall we obtain the groundwork for a true conception of the relations of mind and the nervous system." ' We have seen that the nervous system not only regu- lates most of the existing functions of the body, but that it has indirectly influenced the development of various bodily structures and certain mental qualities, and that these powers of mind depend on the development of the brain. ■ By our guides in this matter, we are assured that the most important difference observed between man and the lower animals is the conscience ; hence, if we would understand how it has been possible for man to rise to his present position, we must know something of the processes involved in the development of the social in- stincts, through which has originated conscience and a desire for the welfare of others outside of self. The im- portance of these instincts in the development of con- science is thus set forth by Mr. Darwin : " Any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual faculties had become as well, or nearly as well, developed as in man." ' Maudsley, Physiology and Pathology of the Mind, p. 60. DEVELOPMENT OP THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS. 57 Sympathy, we are told, is the foundation-stone of the social instincts. From facts which are everywhere pre- sented among the forms of life below man, it is evident that sympathy was developed at an early stage of ani- mal life. It is doubtless strongly manifested in our ape-like progenitors, and it was probably this instinct which subsequently led to a community of interest and the coherence of the tribe. In a consideration, therefore, of this question of sex development and the origin of the progressive principle, if, as we are. assured, sympathy constitutes the founda- tion-stone of the social instincts, and if it is to these instincts that we are to look for the origin of the moral sense, or conscience — a faculty which constitutes the fundamental difference between the human species and the lower orders of life — the question naturally arises : In. which of the two diverging lines of sexual demarca- tion has arisen sympathy, or an interest in the well-being of others ? For an answer to our question we must look carefully to the facts connected with the development of the sexes, within one of which have been acquired characters tending toward the welfare of society, or of individuals outside of self ; within the other, characters looking only toward selfish gratification. Within the former, the maternal instinct predominates ; within the latter, passion. Mr. Darwin admits that " parental and filial affection lies at the base of the social instincts," and gives as his opinion that this quality is the result of Natural Selection 58 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. — that those individuals which bestowed upon their offspring the greatest care and attention, would survive and multiply at the expense of others in which this in- stinct was less developed. Therefore, in pursuing the inquiry of sex-function and sex development, a question of considerable significance is at this point suggested : Within which parent is observed the greater tendency to bestow care and attention upon offspring ? We are assured that " the animal family is especially maternal." So soon as a female bird has laid her eggs, she is animated only by one desire ; neither the promise of abundant food nor the fear of bullets is able to divert her purpose. Although the males among the more highly developed birds assist in rearing the family, amongst various species it is only the female which cares for the young. The male duck has no interest in his progeny, neither has the male eider. Of the male tur- keys Mr. Letourneau says that they " do much worse : they often devour the eggs of their females, and thus oblige the latter to hide them. Female turkeys join each other with their young ones for greater security, and thus form troops of from sixty to eighty individuals, led by the mothers, and carefully avoiding the old males, who rush on the young ones and kill them by violent blows on the head with their beaks." ' The males of various other species, jealous of the attentions of the mothers during the time that their efforts are directed toward the maintenance of their brood, often kill their ' The Evolution of Marriage and the Family, p. 29. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS. 59 young. Regarding the subject of paternal care, Mr. Le- tourneau observes: " It is important to notice that amongst birds, the fathers devoid of affection generally belong to the less intelligent, and are most often polygamous." By observing the habits of cuckoos the fact has been ascertained that among them the maternal instinct is almost entirely lacking. Of the cuckoo it has been re- marked that it is a " discontented, ill-conditioned, pas- sionate, in short, decidedly unamiable bird." Its note is typical of its habits and character. " The same abruptness, insatiability, eagerness, the same rage, are noticeable in its whole conduct. The cuckoos are notoriously unsociable, even in migration individualistic. They jealously guard their territorial ' preserves,' and verify in many ways the old myth that they are sparrow-hawks in disguse. The parasitical habit is consonant with their general character. ' ' The species consist predominantly of males. The preponderance is probably about five to one ; though one observer makes it five times greater. In so male a species, it is not surprising to find degenerate maternal instincts." ' Regarding spiders and the greater number of insects, we are told that the males entirely neglect their young ; that it is " in the female that the care for offspring first awakens. And this is natural, for the eggs have been formed in her body ; she has laid them, and has been conscious of them ; they form, in a way, an integral part of her individuality. . . . With insects maternal fore- thought sometimes amounts to a sort of divining pre- science which the doctrine of evolution alone can explain." ' Geddes and Thomson, The Evolution of Sex, p. 276. ' Letourneau, The Evolution of Marriage and the Family , p. 22. 6o THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Among the males of mammals below man the love of offspring seems to be almost entirely wanting. " We must here remark, that whatever the form of sexual associa- tion among mammals, the male has always much less affection for his young than the female. Even in monogamous species, when the male keeps with the female, he does so more as chief than as father. At times he is inclined to commit infanticides and to destroy the off- spring, which, by absorbing all the attention of the female, thwart his amours. Thus, among the large felines, the mother is obliged to hide her young ones from the male during the first few days after birth, to prevent his devouring them." " The fact is obvious that among the orders of life below man but little paternal affection has been devel- oped, and with a more extended knowledge of the past history of the human race comes the assurance that under earlier conditions of society, and in fact, until a comparatively recent time, little notice was taken of the paternal relation — that kinship and all the rights of suc- cession were reckoned through the mother. In other words, motherhood was the primary bond by which society was bound together. Although under higher conditions of civilized life, males have at length come to manifest much interest in the well-being of their offspring, yet that paternal affec- tion is not a primary instinct is shown by the fact that such interest, even at the present time, extends only to those individuals born in wedlock ; in other words, men are solicitous only for the welfare of those who are to succeed to their name and fortune ; hence, although in ' Letourneau, The Evolution of Marriage and the Family, p. 34. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS. 6l later times the paternal instinct has been considerably re-enforced, it is plain that the interest of fathers for their offspring has in the past been largely the result of custom, association, pride, desire for self-perpetuation or duplication, or some other form of self-aggrandize- ment or selfishness. Mr. Darwin says : " The feeling of pleasure from society is probably an extension of the parental or filial affections, since the social instinct seems to be devel- oped by the young remaining for a long time with their parents." ' Although Mr. Darwin does not admit it, from his reasoning it is plain that the maternal instinct is the root whence sympathy has sprung, and that it is the source whence the cohesive quality in the tribe originated. Regarding the importance of association or combination in early groups Mr. Darwin remarks : " When two tribes of primeval man, living in the same country, came into competition, if (other circumstances being equal) the one tribe included a great number of courageous, sympathetic, and faith- ful members, who were always ready to warn each other of danger, to aid and defend each other, this tribe would succeed better and conquer the other. . . . Selfish and contentious people will not cohere, and without coherence nothing can be effected. A tribe rich in the above qualities would spread and be victorious over other tribes. . . . Thus the social and moral qualities would tend slowly to advance and be diffused throughout the world."'' Since, then, it is observed that without an association of interests and the coherence of the tribe the social instincts must have remained weak, and without concert ^ The Descent of Man, ^. los. ^ Ibid., -p. 1 30. 62 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. of action the higher faculties, including the moral sense, could not have been developed ; and since furthermore, as we have seen, the influences which have led to this development are those growing out of the maternal in- stincts, may we not conclude that all of those qualities which make man pre-eminently a social animal — his love of society, his desire for the good-will of his kind, his perception of right and wrong, and, finally, that sym- pathy which at last gradually extending beyond the limits of race and country proclaims the brotherhood of man and the unity of life on the earth — all these characteristics, are but an extension of maternal affec- tion, an outgrowth of that early bond between mother and child, which, while affecting the entire line of development, still remains unchanged and unchangeable. CHAPTER V. THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. AN unprejudiced review of the facts relative to the differentiation of the two sexes, as set forth by naturalists, 'reveals not only the primary principles in- volved in human progress, but shows also the source whence these principles originated. These facts serve also to explain that " mental superiority " of man over woman observed by Mr. Darwin and others in the present stage of human growth. We have observed that notwithstanding the superior degree of development which, according to the facts elaborated by the scientists, must belong to the female in all the lower orders of life below mankind, Mr. Dar- win would have us believe that so soon as the human species appeared on the earth the processes which for untold ages had been in operation were reversed, and that through courage and perseverance, or patience, qualities which were the result of extreme selfishness, or which were acquired while in pursuit of animal gratifi- cation, man finally became superior to woman. The following furnishes an example of Mr. Darwin's reason- ing upon this subject. He says : 63 64 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. " The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man's attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman — whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and the hands. If two lists were made of the most eminent men and women in poetry, painting, sculpture, music (inclusive both of composition and per- formance), history, science, and philosophy, with half-a-dozen names under each subject, the two lists would not bear comparison. . . . " Now, when two men are put into competition, or a man with a woman, both possessed of every mental quality in equal perfection, save that one has higher energy, perseverance, and courage, the latter will generally become more eminent in every pursuit, and will gain the ascendency. He may be said to possess genius — for genius has been declared by a great authority to be patience ; and patience, in this sense, means unflinching, undaunted perseverance." ' Doubtless, for the purpose of strengthening his posi- tion, Mr. Darwin quotes the following from John Stuart Mill : " The things in which man most excels woman are those which require most plodding and long ham- mering at single thoughts." And in summing up the processes by which man has finally gained the ascendency over woman, he concludes : " Thus man has ultimately become superior to woman. It is, indeed, fortunate that the law of the equal transmission of characters to both sexes prevails with mammals ; otherwise it is probable that man would have become as superior in mental en- dowment to woman, as the peacock is in ornamental plumage to the peahen." " Notwithstanding this conclusion of Mr. Darwin, in view of the facts elaborated by himself, we cannot help thinking that it is indeed fortunate that the law of the ' The Descent of Man, p. 564. ^ Ibid., p. 565. THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. 65 equal transmission of characters to both sexes prevails with mammals, otherwise it is probable that man would never have had any higher ambition than the gratifica- tion of his animal instincts, and would never have risen above those conditions in which he struggled desperately for the possession of the female. We have seen that all the facts which have been observed relative to the acquirement of the social instincts and the moral sense prove them to have originated in the female consti- tution, and as progress is not possible without these characters, it is not difficult to determine within which of the sexes the progressive principle first arose. Even courage, perseverance, and energy, characters which are denominated as thoroughly masculine, since they are the result of sexual selection, have been and still are largely dependent on the will or desire of the female. In his zeal to prove the superiority of man over woman, and while emphasizing energy, perseverance, and courage as factors in development, Mr. Darwin seems to have overlooked the importance of the distinc- tive characters belonging to the female organization, viz., perception and intuition, combined with greater powers of endurance, the first two of which, under the low conditions occasioned by the supremacy of the ani- mal instincts, have thus far had little opportunity to manifest themselves. A fairer statement relative to the capacities of the two sexes and their ability to succeed might have been set forth as follows : 4 66 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. When a man and a woman are put into competition, both possessed of every mental quality in equal perfec- tion, save that one has higher energy, more patience, and a somewhat greater degree of physical courage, while the other has superior powers of intuition, finer and more rapid perceptions, and a greater degree of en- durance (the result of an organization freer from abnor- malities and imperfections), the chances of the latter for gaining the ascendency will doubtless be equal to those of the former as soon as the animal conditions of life are outgrown, and the characters peculiar to the female organization are allowed expression. Mr. Darwin's quotation from J. Stuart Mill, that the things in which man excels woman are those which require most plod- ding and long hammering at single thoughts, is evidently true, and corresponds with the fundamental premises in the theory of development as set forth by all naturalists. The female organism is not a plodding machine, neither is the telephone nor the telegraph, yet these latter de- vices accomplish the work formerly done by the stage- coach much more rapidly, and in a manner better suited to civilized conditions. So soon as women are freed from the unnatural restrictions placed upon them through the temporary predominance of the animal instincts in man, their greater powers of endurance, together with a keener insight and an organization com- paratively free from imperfections, will doubtless give them a decided advantage in the struggle for existence. While patience is doubtless a virtue, and while during THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. 6y the past ages of human experience it has been of incal- culable value to man, it will not, under higher condi- tions, be required in competing for the prizes of life. Woman's rapid perceptions, and her intuitions, which in many instances amount almost to second sight, indi- cate undeveloped genius, and partake largely of the nature of deductive reasoning ; it is reasonable to sup- pose therefore that as soon as she is free, and has for a few generations enjoyed the advantages of more natural methods of education and training, and those better suited to the female constitution, she will be able to trace the various processes of induction by which she reaches her conclusions. In other words, she will then be able to reason inductively up to her deductive conceptions. It is a well understood fact that neither individuals nor classes which upon every hand have been thwarted and restrained, either by unjust and oppressive laws, or by the tyranny of custom, prejudice, or physical force, have ever made any considerable progress in the actual acquirement of knowledge or in the arts of life. Mr. Darwin's capacity for collecting and formulating facts seems not to have materially aided him in discerning the close connection existing at this stage of human progress between the masculinized conditions of human society and the necessary opportunities to succeed in the higher walks of life ; in fact, he seems to have en- tirely forgotten that all the avenues to success have for thousands of years been controlled and wholly manipu- 68 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. lated by men, while the activities of women have been distorted and repressed in order that the " necessities " of the male nature might be provided for. Besides, it seems never to have occurred to him that as man has still not outgrown the animal in his nature, and as the intellectual and moral age is only just beginning to dawn, the time is not yet ripe for the direct expression of the more refined instincts and ideas peculiar to the female organization, and, as thus far, only that advance- ment has been made which is compatible with the supremacy of passion, woman's time has not yet come. Although women are still in possession of their natu- ral inheritance, a finer and more complex organization comparatively free from imperfections, and although, as a result of this inheritance, their intuitions are still quicker, their perceptions keener, and their endurance greater, the drain on their physical energies, caused by the abnormal development of the reproductive energies in the opposite sex, has, during the past two or three thou- sand years of human existence, been sufficient to pre- clude the idea of success in competing with men for the prizes of life. Although an era of progress has begun, ages will doubtless be required to eradicate abuses which are the result of constitutional defects, and especially so as the prejudices and feelings of mankind are for the most part in harmony with such abuses. If we examine the subject of female apparel, at the present time, we shall observe how difficult it is to uproot long established prejudices which are deeply rooted in THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. 69 sensuality and superstition ; and this is true notwith- standing the fact that such prejudices may involve the comfort and even the health of half the people, and seri- ously affect the welfare of unborn generations. An ex- amination of the influences which have determined the course of modern fashions in woman's clothing will show the truth of this observation. Of all the senses which have been developed that of sight is undoubtedly the most refined, and when in the human species it is cultivated to a degree which enables its possessor to appreciate the beautiful in Nature and in Art, we are perhaps justified in designating it as the in- tellectual sense. In point of refinement, the sense of hearing comes next in order, yet among creatures as low in the scale of being as birds, we find that females not only appreciate the beautiful, but that they are charmed by pleasing and harmonious sounds, and that if males would win their favor it must be accompHshed by ap- peals through these senses to the higher qualities devel- oped within them. Although the female of the human species, like the female among the lower orders of life, is capable of ap- preciating fine coloring, and to a considerable extent the beautiful in form, the style of dress adopted by women is not an expression of their natural ideas of taste and harmony. On the contrary, it is to Sexual Selection that we must look for an explanation of the incongruities and absurdities presented by the so-called female fash- ions of the past and present. The processes of Sexual 70 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Selection, which, so long as the female was the control- ling agency in courtship, worked on the male, have in these later ages been reversed. For the reason that the female of the human species has so long been under subjection to the male, the styles of female dress and adornment which have been adopted, and which are still in vogue, are largely the result of masculine taste. Woman's business in life has been to marry, or, at least, it has been necessary for her, in order to gain her sup- port, to win the favor of the opposite sex. She must, thetefore, by her charms captivate the male. The girl at the ball with the wasp waist and the greatest number of furbelows is never a wall-flower and her numbers never go unfilled. The fashionably dressed young woman in the horse-car is never permitted to stand, and in shops attended by men she never lacks attention. The gaudy dress, the pinched feet, and the pink complexion, although false, of the actress young or old, upon the stage, never fail to attract a host of male admirers. As for thousands of years women have been dependent on men not only for food and clothing but for the luxuries of life as well, it is not singular that in the struggle for life to which they have been subjected they should have adopted the styles of dress which would be likely to secure to them the greatest amount of success. When we remember that the present ideas of becoming- ness or propriety in woman's apparel are the result of ages of sensuality and servitude, it is not remarkable THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. 7 1 that they are difficult to uproot, and especially so as many of the most pernicious and health-destroying styles involve questions of female decorum as understood by a sensualized age. Not long ago I chanced to overhear a conversation between two American girls in Berlin, one of whom had been a resident of that city for several years, and was therefore acquainted with the prevailing ideas of female decorum, as expressed by female apparel. These girls were speaking of dress, and the later arrival on German soil, the younger of the two, remarked : " As for me, I never wear corsets." Whereupon the elder, shocked at such a confession, replied : " Then you certainly can never dance in Germany, for the German officers, who would detect your state of undress, would think you immodest, and would certainly take advantage of the situation to annoy you." This is an illustration of the manner in which male prejudice thwarts any attempt of women to adopt a style of dress better suited to their health, convenience, and taste. The same obstacles have been encountered by those women who have been sufficiently courageous to attempt to free their ankles from the cumbersome skirts so detrimental to health and so destructive to the free use of the legs. Mr. Darwin calls attention to the fact that women " all over the world " adorn themselves with the gay'feathers of male birds. Since the beautiful plumage of male birds has been produced according to female standards of taste, and since it is wholly the result of innate female 72 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. ideas of harmony in color and design, it is not perhaps remarkable that women, recognizing the original female standards of beauty, should desire to utilize those effects which have been obtained at so great an expenditure of vital force to the opposite sex ; especially as men are pleased with such display, and, as under present condi- tions of male supremacy, the female of the human species is obliged to captivate the male in order to secure her support. It would thus appear that the present fashions for female apparel have a deeper significance than we have been in the habit of ascribing to them. We are still living under conditions peculiar to a sensual age, and have not yet outgrown the requirements which condemn women to a style of dress which hinders the free move- ments of the body and which checks all the activities of life. In one way the woman of the present time may be said to resemble the male Argus pheasant, whose decora- tions, although they serve to please his mate, greatly hinder his power of motion and the free use of his body and limbs. When we consider that apparel is but one, and a minor one, of the strictures under which women have labored during the later era of human existence, when we consider all the ignoble and degrading uses to which womanliood has been subjected, the wonder is not that they have failed to distinguish themselves in the various fields of intellectual labor in which men have achieved a limited degree of success, but that they have had suf- l^HE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. 73 ficient energy and courage left to enable them even to attempt anything so far outside the boundary of their prescribed " sphere," or that they have been able to transmit to their male offspring those powers through which they have gained their present stage of progress. With regard to Mr. Darwin's comparison of the intel- lectual powers of the two sexes, and his assertion that man attains to a higher eminence in whatever he takes up than woman — that, for instance, he surpasses her in the production of poetry, music, philosophy, etc., the facts at hand suggest that if within mankind no higher motives and tastes had been developed than those derived from selfishness and passion, there would never have arisen a desire for poetry, music, philosophy, or science, or, in fact, for any of the achievements which have been the result of the more exalted activities of the human intellect. However, because of the subjection of the higher faculties developed in mankind, the poetry, music, and painting of the past betray their sensuous origin and plainly reveal the stage of advance- ment which has been reached, while history, philosophy, and even science, judging from Mr. Darwin's methods, have scarcely arisen above the murky atmosphere of a sensuous age. It will be well for us to remember that the doctrine of the Survival of the Fittest does not imply that the best endowed, physically or otherwise, have always succeeded in the struggle for existence. By the term Survival of the Fittest we are to understand a natural law by which 74 THE THEORY OP EVOLUTION. those best able to overcome the unfavorable conditions of their environment survive and are able to propagate their successful qualities. We must bear in mind that neither the growth of the individual nor that of society has proceeded in an unbroken or uninterrupted line ; on the contrary, during a certain portion of human exist- ence on the earth, the forces which tend toward degenera- tion have been stronger than those which lie along the line of true development. We are assured that the principles of construction and destruction are mutually employed in the reproductive processes, that continuous death means continuous life, — the katabolic or disruptive tendencies of the male being necessary to the anabolic or constructive habit of the female. As it is in reproduction, so has it been throughout the entire course of development. Side by side, all along the line, these two tendencies have been \in operation ; the grinding, rending, and devouring pro- cesses which we denominate Natural Selection, alongside those which unite, assimilate, and protect. As a result of the separation of the sexes there have been developed on the one side extreme egoism, or the desire for selfish gratification ; on the other, altruism, or the desire for the welfare of others outside of self. Hence, throughout the later ages of human existence, since the egoistic principles have gained the ascendency, may be observed the unequal struggle for liberty and justice against tyranny, and the oppressors of the masses of the human race. From present appearances it would seem that the THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. 75 disruptive or devouring forces have always been in the ascendency. The philosophy of history, however, teaches the contrary. With a broader view of the origin and development of the human race, and the unexpected light which within the last few years has been thrown upon prehistoric society and the grandeur of past achievement, a close student of the past is able to dis- cern a faint glimmering of a more natural age of human existence, and is able to observe in the present intense struggles for freedom and equality, an attempt to return to the earlier and more natural principles of justice and liberty, and so to advance to a stage of society in which selfishness, sensuality, and superstition no longer reign supreme. The status of women always furnishes an index to the true condition of society, one or two superficial writers to the contrary notwithstanding. For this phenomenon there is a scientific reason, namely : society advances just in proportion as women are able to convey to their offspring the progressive tendencies transmissible only through the female organization. It is plain, therefore, that mankind will never advance to a higher plane of thinking and living until the restrictions upon the liberties of women have been entirely removed, and until within every department of human activity, their natural instincts, and the methods of thought peculiar to them be allowed free expression. The following is from Mr. Buckle's lecture on " The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge " : 76 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. ' ' I believe and I hope before we separate to convince you, that so far from vifomen exercising little or no influence over the progress of knowledge, they are capable of exercising, and have actually exer- cised, an enormous influence ; that this influence is, in fact, so great that it is hardly possible to assign limits to it ; and that great as it is, it may with advantage be still further increased. I hope, moreover, to convince you that this influence has been exhibited not merely from time to time in rare, sudden, and transitory ebullitions, but that it acts by virtue of certain laws inherent to human nature ; and that, although it works as an undercurrent below the surface, and is therefore invisible to hasty observers, it has already produced the most important results, and has affected the shape, the character, and the amount of our knowledge. " Through the processes involved in the differentiation of sex and the consequent division of functions, it has been possible during the past six or seven thousand years (a mere tithe of the time spent by mankind upon the earth) for women to become enslaved, or subjected to the lower impulses of the male nature. Through the capture of women for wives, through the exigencies of warfare, the individual ownership of land, and the various changes incident to a certain stage of human existence, the finer sensibilities which characterize women have been overshadowed, and the higher forces which originated within them and which are trans- mitted in the female line, have been temporarily sub- dued by the great sexual ardor inherent in the opposite sex ; it is not, therefore, singular that the degree of progress attained should appear to be wholly the result of male activity and acumen. Yet, notwithstanding the degradation to which women in the position assigned theim by physical force have been obliged to submit, THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. yy their capacity for improvement has suffered less from the influences and circumstances of their environment than has that of men. As the higher faculties are trans- mitted through women equally to both sexes, in the im- poverishment of their inheritance on the female side, men have suffered equally with women, while, through their male progenitors, they have inherited appetites and habits (the result of a ruder and less developed structure) which weaken and degrade the entire constitution. Doubtless, so soon as women have gained sufficient strength to enable them to maintain their independence, and after the higher faculties rather than the animal propensities rule supreme, men, through the imperfec- tions in their organization, and the appetites acquired through these imperfections, will, for a considerable length of time, find themselves weighted in the struggle for supremacy, and this, too, by the very characters which under lower conditions are now believed to have determined their success. It is not unlikely, however, that through Sexual Selec- tion the characters or qualities unfavorable to the higher development of man will in time be eliminated. The mother is the natural guardian and protector of off- spring ; therefore, so soon as women are free they will doubtless select for husbands only those men who, by their mental, moral, and physical endowments are fitted to become the fathers of their children. In other words, only those women will marry who hope to secure to 78 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. their offspring immunity from the giant evils with which society is afflicted. In this way, and this way only, may these evils be eradicated. Indeed it is the only temper- ance work in which women may profitably engage. Under purer conditions of life, when by the higher powers developed in the race the animal propensities have become somewhat subdued by man, we may rea- sonably hope that the " struggle for existence," which is still so relentlessly waged, will cease, that man will no longer struggle with man for place or power, and that the bounties of earth will no longer be hoarded by the few, while the many are suffering for the necessities of life ; for are we not all members of one family, and dependent for all that we have on the same beneficent parent — Nature ? We have observed that, although the two principles, the constructive and destructive, are closely allied, the higher faculties have been acquired only through the former — that the highest degree of progress is possible only through union or co-operation, or, through the uniting and binding force, maternal love, from which has been developed, first, sympathy among related groups, and later an interest which is capable of extend- ing itself not only to all members of the human race, but to every sentient creature. Maternal love, from which has sprung the altruistic principle in human society, is divine, uncreated, eternal. There is, therefore, little wonder that for thousands of years of human existence, it was worshipped over the entire habitable THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE. 79 globe as the source of all light and life — the Creator and Preserver of the Universe. We are only on the threshold of civilization. Man- kind may as yet have no just conception of their possi- bilities, but so soon as, through the agencies now in operation for the advancement of the race, the necessi- ties of the male nature no longer demand and secure the subjection of women, and the consequent drain of the very fountain whence spring the higher faculties, a great and unexpected impetus will be given to progress. The fact that a majority of women have not yet gained that freedom of action necessary to the absolute control of their own persons, nor acquired a sufficient degree of independence to enable them to adopt a course of action in their daily life which they know to be right, shows the extent to which selfishness, twin brother to sensuality, has clouded the conscience, and warped the judgment in all matters pertaining to human justice. So closely has women's environment been guarded that in addition to all the restrictions placed upon their liberties, a majority of them are still de- pendent for food and clothing on pleasing the men, who still hold the purse-strings. Yet Mr. Darwin, the apostle of original scientific investigation, concludes : " If men are capable of decided prominence over women in many subjects, the average mental powers in men must be above those of women," PART II. PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. CHAPTER I. METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. IF the theory of the development of the human race, or more particularly that of the two diverging lines of sexual demarcation as set forth in the foregoing chapters, be correct, it is plain that by it a new founda- tion is laid for the study of mankind. If, contrary to the generally accepted idea, within the female organization have been developed those elements which form the basis of human progress, or, in other words, if the higher faculties are transmitted through the mother, henceforth all examinations into primitive conditions and all investigations into the causes which underlie existing institutions must be carried on with refer- ence to this particular fact. Only through a thorough understanding of the principles or forces which govern human development, and a just appreciation of the source whence these principles have sprung, may we hope to gain a clear understanding of the past history of 80 METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 8 1 the race, or to perceive the true course to be pursued toward further development. Through the investigation of facts revealed in the records of Geology, and through the study of comparative Zoology, together with that of Anthropology, man has wellnigh solved the problem of his origin, or has almost proved his connection with, and development from, the lower orders of life ; but, of the countless ages which intervened between the era of our ape-like progenitors and the dawn of civilized exist- ence, little may be known without a correct knowledge of the inheritance received by mankind from creatures lower in the scale of being. Only by a careful study of the constitutional bias acquired throughout the entire line of development, are we enabled to note the motives or forces by which primitive society was controlled, or to form a just conclusion relative to the early conditions of human society and its subsequent progress. Through the attention which in these later years has been directed toward surviving tribes in the so-called middle and latter stages of savagery, and in the three successive periods of barbarism, have doubtless been revealed many of the processes by which mankind have reached their present condition. Much of the informa- tion, however, which has been obtained by these inquiries still lacks that accuracy in detail demanded by exact science ; but, so soon as the array of facts which the last half century has brought to bear upon this subject shall have been correctly interpreted, logically arranged, intelligently classified, and without prejudice 6 82 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. brought into line with the truths involved in the theory of natural development, there will doubtless be approxi- mated a system of truth which will furnish a safe and trustworthy foundation for a more thorough research into the history of the human race. Although the facts relative to existing undeveloped races, which have been laid before the reading public through the patience and industry of investigators in this particular branch of inquiry, have been of incalcul- able value as furnishing a foundation for a correct understanding of the origin of the customs, manners, ceremonies, governments, languages, and systems of consanguinity and affinity of a primitive race, and although without these efforts little knowledge of the early history of mankind could be obtained, yet, as a majority of the theories built upon these observations have been based on long-established prejudices relative to the earliest conditions surrounding human. society and the forces by which it was controlled, many false conclusions have been the inevitable result. We have seen that owing to the ascendency which the masculine element in human society gained during the period designated as the Latter Status of barbarism, the popular ideas evolved since that time concerning the origin and development of government, social usages, religion, and law, have been in accordance with the then established assumption that within the male organization lies not only the active, aggressive element, but the progressive principle as well. It is not, therefore, sin- METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 83 gular that at the present time all the lines of investiga- tion which are being directed toward man in a primitive state, or which are being conducted for the avowed pur- pose of ascertaining the successive steps by which our social, civil, and religious institutions have been reared, should continue to be carried on under the ci priori assumption that the male organization is by nature superior to that of the female. As in all the theories relative to the development of species the male is the principal factor, so in the theories brought forward to explain the development of human institutions the female has played only an insignificant part ; but, as all later facts bearing upon this subject furnish indisputable evidence of the early importance of the female element, not only among the lower orders of life but under earlier human conditions as well, we may reasonably expect from these data the establishment, in the not distant future, of a complete chain of evidence in sup- port of a more rational and consistent theory of develop- ment than has yet been put forth, not only of the origin of the higher faculties, but of the organization of human society and the growth of its various institutions. As, hitherto, all the theories advanced relative to the evolution of the human race and the establishment of society on a political and territorial basis, have been founded on preconceived notions of the superiority of the characters peculiar to the male, it is believed, or at least assumed, that the ascendency gained by man over woman during the Latter Status of barbarism constitutes 84 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. a regular, orderly, and necessary step in the direct line of progress ; and, as under masculine supremacy a cer- tain degree of advancement has been possible, it is as- sumed that the nobler animal, man, having gained the ascendency over the weaker animal, woman, his progress in the future is to increase in a sort of geometrical ratio, while she, still bound by physical disabilities and weighted by the baneful effects of past limitations and restrictions, must continue far in the rear of her better endowed and more thoroughly equipped male mate. However, in this conception of the facts of biology, woman is not left without a crumb of comfort ; for, in the forlorn and helpless conditions to which it con- demns her, she is given to understand that if for many successive generatiohs girls be constantly trained in masculine methods, they may eventually be able to ad- mire, and possibly in a measure to comprehend, some of the less stupendous mental achievements of their brothers ; but, according to the savants, any attempt on the part of women to compete with men in the higher walks of life must result in increased physical weakness, in the immediate degeneration of the female sex, and in disaster and ruin to the entire race. When we remember that investigations into the condi- tions surrounding primitive society have for the most part been conducted under the influence of prejudices similar to those which have prompted the above assump- tions, it is not singular that in a majority of cases in which the early status of women has been discussed, and METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 85 in which the organization of society, the fundamental principles of government, the origin of the institution of marriage, the monogamic family, and the growth of the god-idea, have been the topics under discussion, the conclusions arrived at have been not wholly warranted by the facts at hand. In an investigation of the subject of human develop- ment, we must bear in mind the fact that all the princi- pal existing institutions have sprung from germs of thought which originated under primitive conditions of the race. Government, language, marriage, the modern family, and our present system of the accumulation and distribution of wealth, have all been evolved from the necessities of early human existence, or from primitive ideas conceived according to the peculiar bias which had been given to the female and male organizations prior to the appearance of mankind upon the earth, and which have since been developed in accordance with the laws which govern human growth. With their reasoning faculties still undeveloped, and, according to our guides, wholly destitute of a moral sense, human beings at the outset of their career could have had no guiding principle other than those instincts which they inherited from their mute progenitors. Therefore, in order fully to understand the status of the human race as it emerged from its animal conditions, we must bear in mind the nature of the inheritance which it had received during its passage from a formless lump of carbon, or an infinitesimal jelly dot in the primeval sea. 86 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. to a creature endowed with sympathy, affection,- courage, and perseverance. We must not lose sight of the fact that passion, the all-absorbing quality developed in males belonging to the orders lower in the scale of being, must have been conveyed without diminution or mate- rial change to man. Neither must we forget that those qualities in the female which had been developed for the protection of the germ, and by which she was en- abled to hold in check the abnormally developed ap- petites of the male, were still in operation. That Nature disdains arbitrary rules, and that she pays little heed to the proprieties established by man, are facts everywhere to be observed among the lower orders of life. She nevertheless jealously guards the germ and the young of the species. The mother is the natural guardian of pre-natal and infant life, and as such, under natural conditions, is usually able to control the sexual relation. Failing to note the fact that among the orders of life below mankind the female chooses her mate, and fail- ing also to observe that through the natural adjustment of the sexual relations his instincts are checked by her will, nearly if not all the writers upon this subject have declared that women and men at the outset of the human career lived in a state of " lawlessness " or " promiscuity," similar no doubt to that which at the present time would prevail in a community in which women were utterly de- void of influence, and in which there were no laws regulating the intercourse of the sexes. METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 87 By the most trustworthy writers on the subject of the primitive conditions of the human race, it is beHeved that the most archaic organization of society was that founded on the basis of sex, but, as in the infancy of the race, prior to the inauguration of the system based on sex, and during the long ages which were spent in merely gaining a subsistence, no organized form of society ex- isted, it is held that the order which is observed among creatures lower in the scale of life was suspended, and that the universal law which had hitherto regulated the relations of the sexes, and which throughout the ages of life on the earth had held in check the lower instincts of the male, became immediately inoperative. Here the common ground of belief ceases, and each writer branches off upon his own peculiar line of argu- ment, appropriating and arranging the facts observed by explorers and investigators in the various lines of in- quiry according to his own preconceived notions, or as bests suits the particular scheme of development which he essays to establish. In the following pages the attempt will be made to show that the facts which in these later years have been brought to light concerning the development of the human race are in strict accord with the facts as enunci- ated by scientists relative to the development of the or- ders of life below man, and that together they form a connected chain of evidence going to prove that the female organization is superior to that of the male. CHAPTER II. THE RELATIONS OF THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND. WE have seen that an investigation of the instincts and habits of creatures lower in the scale is necessary to an understanding of the relations which must have existed between the sexes among primitive races. "Among birds and mammals, the greater differentiation of the nervous system and the higher pitch of the whole life is associated with the development of what pedantry alone can refuse to call love. Not only is there often partnership, co-operation, and evident affec- tion beyond the limits of the breeding period, but there are abundant illustrations of a high standard of morality, of all the familiar sexual crimes of mankind, and every shade of flirtation, courtship, jealousy and the like. There is no doubt that in the two highest classes of animals at least, the physical sympathies of sexuality have been enhanced by the emotional, if not also intellectual, sympathies of love." ' It has been observed that among the orders of life below mankind, except among polygamous species, the female chooses the individual which is best endowed — the one whose beauty appeals to her aesthetic taste, or which through his stronger development is best fitted to assist her in the office of reproduction. ' Geddes and Thomson, The Evolution of Sex, p. 266. THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND. 89 Among the more intelligent species of birds, genuine affection has been observed, strict monogamy and life- long unions having been established between mated pairs. Among others, although the conjugal bond is not life-lasting, so long as the mother bird is caring for her brood, constancy to one another is the undeviating rule. We are assured that with the female Illinois parrot, "widowhood and death are synonymous," and that " when a wheatear dies, his companion survives him scarcely a month." ' All eagles are monogamous. Golden eagles live in couples and remain attached to each other for a hundred or more years," without ever changing their domicile.^ The' conjugal unions of bald-headed eagles, although they are under no " legal restrictions," last until the death of one of the partners. Among birds, although incubation rests with the mother, the father usually as- sists his companion. He not only takes her place if she desires to leave the nest for a moment, but also provides her with food." So perfect is the bird family life that Brehm declares that " real genuine marriage can only be found among birds."^ Upon this subject we are assured that " examples of wandering fancy are for the most part rare among birds, the majority of whom are monoga- ' Letoumeau, The Evolution of Marriage and the Family, p. 27. "^ J. G. Wood, Natural History, p. 262. ^Letoumeau, The Evolution of Marriage and the Family. ^Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, p. 11. ' Brehm, Bird-Life. 90 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. mous, and even superior to most men in the matter of conjugal fidelity." ' Concerning mammals, it is observed that although po- lygamy is frequent " it is far from being the conjugal regime universally adopted ; monogamy is common, and is sometimes accompanied by so much devotion that it would serve as an example to human monogamists." ' Bears, weasels, whales, and many other animals choose their mates and go in pairs. Several kinds of monkeys are strictly monogamous.' Chimpanzees are sometimes polygamous and sometimes monogamous. It is stated that when a strong male has succeeded in. driving away the other males of the group, the females, although in a position to subjugate him, are nevertheless kind and even tender toward him. They are doubtless too much occu- pied with their legitimate functions to rebel, but so soon as the young of the horde are grown, the usurper is driven from their midst. A little observation will show us that even among polygamous species, it is affection rather than strength which keeps the members of a group together. Although among most of the lower orders the female exercises a choice in the selection of her mate, still among animals of polygamous habits the female is said to manifest genuine affection for the father of her offspring. " The polygamic regime of animals is far from extinguishing affec- tionate sentiments in the females towards their husband and master ' Letourneau, The Evolution^ etc., p. 27. ' Ibid., p. 35. ^Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 590. THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND. 91 The females of the guanaco lamas, for example, are very faithful to their male. If the latter happens to be wounded or killed, instead of running away they hasten to his side, bleating and offering them- selves to the shots of the hunter in order to shield him, while, on the contrary, if a female is killed, the male makes off with all his troop ; he only thinks of himself. " ' Although among animals a stray male will sometimes drive away or kill all the other males of the group, and himself become the common mate of all the females, they peaceably accepting the situation, so far as I can find, female insects, birds, and mammals, although they generally control the sexual relation, have never been given to polyandry ; the reason for this can be explained only through a careful analysis of the fundamental bias of the female constitution. We must bear in mind that although among the orders of life below mankind the male is ready to pair with any female, she, on the other hand, when free to choose, can be induced to accept the attentions only of the one which by his courage, bravery, or personal beauty has won her favors. We have observed that in the earliest ages of the human race this choice was exercised by women, but we have no reason to be- lieve that anything resembling " promiscuity " ever pre- vailed among primitive races. It is true that under earlier conditions the institution of marriage as it exists at the present time had not appeared ; yet the law which had been impressed on the higher organization of the female, until overcome by males through means which will be treated of later in these pages, had sufficed to ' Letoumeau, The Evolution of Marriage and the Family, p. 32. 92 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. keep the animal instincts under subjection, or at least on a level with those of the lower species which struc- turally had been left behind. From facts to be gathered, not alone from among the lower orders, but from observations among human beings as well, it would seem that any degree of affection for more than one individual at the same time is contrary to the female nature. A female insect, or bird, which feels a preference for a particular mate will pair with no other, hence, among orders where the female instincts control the relations between the sexes, " lawlessness " or promiscuity would not prevail. A little observation and reflection, I think, will show us that the affection of the female is a character differ- ing widely from the passion of the male — that, while selfishness constitutes the underlying principle of the latter, the former involves not only care for the young and the unity of the group, but, when human conditions are reached, it involves also country, civilization, and the ultimate brotherhood of mankind. If we bear in mind the conditions surrounding the orders of life from which the human race has sprung, and if we remember the nature of the characters inher- ited by mankind from these orders, together with the important fact that the lower instincts among them were under subjection to the higher faculties, we shall be enabled to see that the more degraded of the extant savage tribes cannot represent the primitive race as it emerged from the animal type. THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND. 93 Mr. Tylor must have been mindful of the altruistic character of early races when he remarked : " Without some control beyond the mere right of the stronger, the tribe would break up in a week, whereas in fact savage tribes last on for ages." Concerning the relations of the sexes under unorgan- ized society nothing may be known from actual obser- vation, as, at the present time, no tribe or race is to be found under absolutely primitive conditions. Perhaps from no extant people is there so little information in reference to the earliest human state to be gleaned as from the lowest existing races. Among many of these tribes the rules which it has been necessary to establish for the regulation of the relations between the sexes are rigorously enforced, while among others a laxity prevails which would seem to indicate an almost total lack of those higher instincts which are observed among nearly all the lower orders of beings. The following fact, how- ever, in regard to these races, has been observed : the more primitive they are, or the less they have come in contact with civilization, the more strictly do they ob- serve the rules which have been established for the governance of the sexual relation. On this subject Mr. Parkyns says : " I don't believe that there exists a nation, however high in the scale of civilization, that can pick a hole in the character of the low- est, without being in danger of finding one nearly, if not quite, as big in its own. The vices of the savage are, like his person, very ■ Anthropology, p. 405. 94 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. much exposed to view. Our own nakedness is not less unseemly than his, but is carefuUly concealed under the convenient cloak which we call ' civilization,' but which I fear he, in his ignorance, poor fellow, might, on some occasions, be led to look upon as hypocrisy." ' In the West Indian Islands where Columbus landed, lived tribes which are represented as having been " the most gentle and benevolent of the human race." Re- garding these Mr. Tylor remarks : " Schomburgk, the traveller, who knew the warlike Caribs well in their home life, draws a paradise-like picture of their ways, where they have not been corrupted by the vices of the white men ; he saw among them peace and cheerfulness and simple family affection, un- varnished friendship, and gratitude not less true for not being spoken in sounding words ; the civilized world, he says, has not to teach them morality, for, though they do not talk about it, they live in it." ^ The men who with Captain Cook first visited the Sand- wich Islands reported the natives as modest and chaste in their habits ; but, later, after coming in contact with the influences of civilization, modesty and chastity among them were virtues almost entirely unknown. The same is true of the people of Patagonia. Barrow says of the Kaffir woman that she is " chaste and extremely modest," and we are told that among this people banishment is the penalty for incontinence for both women and men. Of the reports which frpm time to time come from the aborigines of certain portions of Australia relative to the lewdness of the women, Mr. Brough Smyth says that they are irreconcilable with the ' Life in Abyssinia^ vol. ii., p. 152. ' Tylor, Anthropology', p. 406. THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND. 95 severe penalties imposed for unchastity in former times amongst the natives of Victoria.' This writer is of the opinion that the lewd practices reported are modern, and that they are the result of communication with the poor whites. We are assured that the women of Nubia are virtuous, that public women are not tolerated in the country." Also that in Fiji adultery is one of the crimes generally punished with death.' Marsden observes that in Sumatra " the old women are very attentive to the conduct of the girls, and flie male relations are highly jealous of any insults that may be shown them." * The same writer says that prostitu- tion for hire is unknown in the country ; adultery is punishable by fine, but the crime is rare. Regarding the conduct of men toward women he remarks : " They preserve a degree of delicacy and respect toward the sex which might justify their retorting on many of the pol- ished nations of antiquity the epithet of barbarism." ' Crantz says that among the Greenlanders single per- sons have rarely any connection." According to the testimony of St. Boniface, the punishment for unchastity among the early Germans was death to the man, while the woman was driven naked through the streets.' ' Quoted by Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, p. 61. '^ Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia, p. 146. ^Seeman, A Mission lo Viti, p. Igl. * History of Sumatra, p. 230. '^ Ibid., p. 226. ^ History of Greenland, vol. i., p. 145. '' Efistle of St. Boniface to Ethelbald. 96 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. Among the Central Asian Turks we are assured that a fallen girl is unknown. Mr. Westermarck, quoting from Klemm, states that although among the Kalmucks and gypsies the girls take pride in having gallant affairs, they are " dishonored if they have children previous to marriage." The same writer quotes also from Winwood Reade, who says that among the Equatorial Africans " a girl who disgraces her family by wantonness is banished from her clan ; and, in cases of seduction, the man is severely flogged." ' Mr. Westermarck adduces much testimony going to show that the " lawlessness " of lower races is due not to inherent vicious tendencies, but to the evil associations of civilized peoples. He is of the opinion that the licen- tiousness among many of the South Sea Islanders owes its origin to the intercourse of the natives with Euro- peans ; and of the tribes who once inhabited the Ade- laide Plains, quoting from Mr. Edward Stephens who went to Australia half a century ago, he says : "Those who speak of the natives as a naturally degraded race, either do not speak from experience, or they judge them by what they have become when the abuse of intoxicants and contact with the most wicked of the white race have begun their deadly work. As a rule, to which there are no exceptions, if a tribe of blacks is found away from the white settlement, the more vicious of the white men are most anxious to make the acquaintance of the natives, and that, too, solely for purposes of immorality. ... I saw the natives and was much with them before those deadly immoralities were well known, . . . and I say it fearlessly, that nearly all their evils they owed to the white man's immorality and to the white man's drink."' ' The History of Human Marriage, p. 62. ''IHd., p. 68. THE SEXES AMONG EARL Y MANKIND. 97 It is observed that wherever certain vices prevail among the lower races in America, Africa, or Asia, they have been carried to them by the whites. Were it necessary to do so, scores of examples could be adduced going to show that among primitive tribes, until cor- rupted by our later civilization, chastity is the universal rule. Although many of the writers who have dealt with this subject have discoursed freely on the laxity of the con- ' jugal bond among so-called primitive tribes, and the lawlessness which characterizes lower races in their sex- ual relations, they have failed to account satisfactorily for some of the customs and usages which appear con- nected with many of the early forms of marriage, — forms which would seem to indicate a degree of modest reserve on the part of these peoples which fails to comport with the popular theory concerning their lawlessness and in- nate indecency. We have seen that although among the orders of life below mankind there are no arbitrary laws governing the relations of the sexes, there nevertheless exists a sys- tem of natural marriage which in no wise resembles promiscuity. Now it was under this natural system controlled by the higher instincts developed within the female organization, that the extreme " lawlessness " in- dicated by the savants prevailed — lawlessness seeming to denote that state of female independence in which women were personally free, or in which they were not held in actual bondage as captive wives. In the reason- 98 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. ing of many of our guides in this matter it is implied, if not actually asserted, that the freedom of women which is now known to have prevailed in earlier times denotes a state of laxity in morals, a condition of society directly contrary to the facts which they themselves have re- corded relative to existing tribes under less advanced conditions of life, and which would seem to argue for these peoples such a sense of decency as among the masses, in civilized countries, is almost entirely wanting. At the dawn of human existence, had no higher instincts been developed than passion, or the desire for selfish gratification, whence could have arisen this reserve, and these ideas of chastity and modesty which are observed among manj' of the less developed peoples, nota- bly those which have not come in contact with the higher races ? Upon this subject Mr. Tylor remarks : " Yet even among the rudest clans of men, unless de- praved by vice or misery and falling to pieces, a stand- ard of family morals is known and lived by." ' Observing the habits of the lower animals, Mr. Darwin cannot believe that promiscous intercourse prevailed among the early races of mankind. " At a very early period, before man attained to his present rank in the scale, many of his conditions would be different from what now obtains amongst savages. Judging from the analogy of the lower animals he would then either live with a single female, or be a polygamist." ° ' Anthropology, chap, xvi, p. 405. ' The Descent of Man, p. 594. THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND. 99 We have much evidence going to prove that the mar- riage contracts among the lower races are well kept. According to Cook, in Tahiti, although nothing more is necessary for the consummation of a valid marriage than an agreement between the parties, these contracts are usually well kept. In case of the disaffection of either party, a divorce is easily obtained. We are assured, however, that although the Tahiti women have the un- disputed right to dissolve the marriage contract at will, they are nevertheless " as faithful to their husbands as in any part of the world." The Veddahs, who are ranked among the most primitive races, are a strictly monogamous people.' Of the extreme modesty of mar- ried pairs among many of the lower races we have much proof. Among the Fijians, husbands and wives do not usually spend the night together, except as it were by stealth, and it is said to be contrary to their ideas of delicacy that they should sleep under the same roof." Wholly from a sense of reserve or modesty, the Arab wife remains for months, possibly for a whole year, with her mother before taking up her abode in her husband's tent. The extreme delicacy of the customs regulating the behavior of married pairs in ancient Sparta are well understood. According to Xenophon and Strabo, it was the custom, not only among the Spartans but among the Cretans also, for married pairs to meet clandestinely. The same custom prevailed in ancient Lycia. Lafitau ' Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 591. ^ Seeman, A Mission to Viti, p. 191. lOO PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. says that among the North American Indians the hus- band visits his wife only by stealth.' It is stated by trustworthy authority that among various tribes, during the period of gestation and lacta- tion, the person of the wife is sacred ; that the rule of chastity, or continence between married pairs, during this season, is absolutely inviolate. In Fiji, women furnish natural nourishment to their children for three or four years, during which time their persons are respected. " The relatives of the women take it as a public insult if any child should be born before the customary three or four years have elapsed, and they consider themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an equally public manner.'' Mr. Seeman says : " I heard of a white man, who, being asked how many brothers and sisters he had, frankly replied, 'ten.' 'But that could not be,' was the rejoinder of the natives, 'one mother could scarcely have so many children.' " When told that these children were born at annual intervals, and that such occurrences were common in Europe, they were very much shocked, and thought it explained sufficiently why so many white people were " mere shrimps." After childbirth, among the Fijians, hus- band and wife separate and live apart for three and even four years, " so that no other baby may inter- fere with the time considered necessary for suckling the children, in order to make them strong and healthy." " ' Quoted by Sir John Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, p. 82. ^ Seeman, A Mission to Viti, p. 191. THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND. lOI Through such wise regulations as these, governing the sexual relations, the^rain on the vital forces observed among the women of civilized countries is avoided, and it was doubtless to these rules and others of a similar character that women, throughout untold ages of human existence, were enabled to maintain a position of inde- pendence and supremacy. We are assured that among the Fijians the birth of a child is cause for a perfect jubilee ; that parental and filial affection are among the manifest virtues of this people. After referring to the truthfulness and honesty of the Dyaks of Borneo, Mr. Wallace says that " in several matters of morality they rank above most uncivilized, and even above many civilized, nations. They are temperate in food and drink, and the gross sensuality of the Chinese and Malays is unknown among them." ' Although the usual checks to population are absent among the Dyaks — namely, starvation, disease, war, infanticide, and vice, — still the women in the Dyak tribe rarely had more than three or four children. In a village in which there were one hundred and fifty families, in only one of them were there six children, and only six with five children. In whatever direction we turn, evidences are abundant going to prove that under simpler and more natural con- ditions, and before corrupted by our later civilization, mankind were governed largely by the instincts developed within the female constitution, and that long after her supremacy over the male was lost, the effects of these ' The Malay Archipelago, p. loo. I02 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. purer conditions were manifest in the customs, forms, and usages of the people. From the evidence at hand it seems more than likely that many of the extant tribes have at some remote period been civilized, and that through some natural catastrophe, the unfavorable conditions of climate and soil, or some other equally disadvantageous cause, they have again sunk to a low plane of existence from which they have been unable to rise. From available facts one is almost led to believe that at a period in the remote past, and while living under purer conditions, a high stage of civilization was reached, a civilization which in many respepts was equal if not superior to that of the present. \ Be this as it may, whenever the environment of a people is such that after having reached a certain stage it IS unable to advance, we are told that it does not remain stationary, but on the contrary that it follows a line of retrogression ; or, whenever the conditions of a race or tribe are such that the higher faculties which tend towards progress lie dormant, the lower forces which incline toward retrogression and which are peculiarly active in low organizations, still continue in operation. Although the social organization of the native Austra- lians seems to be founded on classes based on sex — the earliest form of organized society, still we find them practising polygamy and monogamy side by side, at the same time securing their wives by capture in exactly the same fashion as did the early Greeks and Romans. It THE SEXES AMONG EARL Y MANKIND. IO3 is apparent, therefore, that although this people have not been able to advance in the arts of life, as far as the relations of the sexes are concerned they have taken about the same course as have all the other tribes and races in which the supremacy of the male has been gained. For unknown reasons, during thousands of years, the developing agencies have been quiescent, hence no check to the animal instincts has been inter- posed ; the Australians have therefore departed widely from the conditions which surrounded early human society — conditions under which the maternal instincts developed in the lower orders of life were still suffi- ciently strong to guard the constructive processes and to continue the chain of uninterrupted progress. As among the lowest existing tribes — peoples which during countless ages have been unable to advance — only the ruder elements in the human composition have been developed, it is plain that from these tribes little if any information concerning an earlier or more natural age, when the animal instincts were controlled by the higher characters developed in human nature, may be obtained ; but from those peoples within the several successive stages of development whose environ- ment has been such as to admit of some degree of improvement in the arts of life, and in whom therefore the higher characters developed in their mute progeni- tors have not been in a state of retrogression, may be obtained a clue to many of the processes by which our present social fabric has been raised. Among such I04 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. peoples will be retained certain symbols, habits, and traditions representing former modes of life, from which may be reconstructed much of the previous history of the race. For instance, by means of the symbol of wife- capture, a form of marriage vyhich is universal among tribes in a certain stage of development, has been fur- nished much trustworthy information relative to the institution of marriage and the development of the mod- ern family. It matters not that the origin of these symbols is so remote that their true significance is lost by the peoples who practise them, they nevertheless repeat with unerring fidelity the past experiences of the race and reveal the origin of later institutions. As the various tribes and races of mankind have probably sprung from a common progenitor, and as the " nerve cells in the brain of all classes and orders have had the same origin," their development, although not identical as to time and manner of detail, has been similar in outline and in general results ; so it is thought that a correct knowledge of the development of any tribe or race from savagery to civilization must neces- sarily involve the general history of all the tribes and races of mankind. CHAPTER III. THE GENS— STATUS OF WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. THE earliest organized form of society was that into classes founded on the basis of sex,' under which the right of individuals to intermarry was re- stricted to one fourth of the group. This division of the early race, and the regulations prohibiting conjugal relations with three fourths the members of the related community, is thought to represent the first coercive abridgment or formal restriction of the then existing conjugal rights, and was inaugurated for the purpose of averting the evil effects arising from intercourse between near relations. Of this early organization of society, however, and of the ages during which no organized form existed, little may be known except that which is suggested by the instincts and habits of the highest ani- mals, and that which may be inferred from an investiga- tion of the next higher organization, that into gentes on the basis of kin. Although ages intervened between the ancient division of society into classes founded on the basis of sex, and the higher and more important ' Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 52. 105 I06 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. organization into gentes on the basis of kin, this last- named plan for the further development of mankind became universal at a comparatively early stage of human history. By an investigation of the fundamental principles of the gens, we shall be enabled to observe the similarity existing between the instincts which governed early human action and those which controlled the higher orders of life below mankind. All facts bearing on the primitive conditions of the human race, which in these later times have been brought to light through the inves- tigations directed toward peoples in the various stages of development, only serve to emphasize the importance of the altruistic principle in the formation of organized society and the establishment of human institutions. Although the gens is the earliest form of organized society of which we have any accurate knowledge, still, as the fact is observed that within it were encysted the germs of all the principles of justice and equality which our better human nature is beginning again to recognize, and which must characterize a higher stage of progress, a knowledge of its underlying principles is necessary to a correct understanding, not only of the past develop- ment of the race and all the existing human institutions, but of the course to be pursued toward the future ad- vancement of mankind. Of the gens, Mr. Morgan says : " The gentile organization opens to us one of the oldest and most widely prevalent institutions of mankind. It furnished the nearly universal plan of government of ancient society, Asiatic, European, African, American, and Australian. It was the instrumentality by WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. I07 means of which society was organized and held together. Commen- cing in savagery, and continuing through the three sub-periods of bar- barism, it remained until the establishment of political society, which did not occur until after civilization had commenced. The Grecian gens, phratry and tribe, the Roman gens, curia and tribe find their analogues in the gens, phratry and tribe of the American aborigines. In like manner, the Irish sept, the Scottish clan, the phrara of the Albanians, and the Sanskrit ganas, without extending the comparison further, are the same as the American Indian gens, which has usually been called a clan. As far as our knowledge extends, this organiza- tion runs through the entire ancient world upon all the continents, and it was brought down to the historical period by such tribes as at- tained to civilization. . . . Gentile society wherever found is the same in structural organization and in principles of action ; but changing from lower to higher forms with the progressive advance- ment of the people. These changes give the history of the develop- ment of the same original conceptions." ' Early society as observed under gentile institutions was established on purely personal and social relations, or, in other words, on the basis of the relations of the individual to the rest of the community, a community in which each member could trace her or his origin back to the head of the gens, who was a woman. Under gentile institutions, or until the latter stage of barbarism was reached, each individual, female and male, constituted a unit in an aggregation or community whose interests were identical, and as such, to a certain extent, was held responsible for the safety and general welfare of every member composing the group. Extreme egoism, as it is the outgrowth of a later age, was unknown ; and sympathy, the chief promoter of the well-being of mankind, a sprout from the well-established ' Ancient Society, pp. 62, 63. 108 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. root, maternal affection, was the predominant character- istic of these primitive groups and the bond which held society together. Although the manner of reckoning descent had been changed from the female to the male line, the purely social organization of the gens, on the basis of kin, was, as has been observed, in operation at the beginning of our present civilization, at which time political society supervened, and individuals were no longer recognized through their relations to a gens or tribe, but through their relations to the state, county, township or deme, to which institutions they must hence- forward look for protection and for the redress of in- juries done either to person or property. Although, until a comparatively recent time, the writers who have dealt with the subject of primitive society have been of the opinion that the tribe constituted the earliest organization of society, and that the gens and the family followed, later investigations show conclusively that the gens, next to the remote and obscure division into classes, represents the oldest and most widely spread form of organized society, and that it was through segmentation or division of this archaic group that the tribe was formed. " The natural way in which a tribe is formed is from a family or group, which in time increases and divides into many households, still recognizing one another as kindred, and this kinship is so thor- oughly felt to be the tie of the whole tribe, that, even when there has been a mixture of tribes, a common ancestor is often invented to make an imaginary bond of union." ' ' Tylor, Anthropology, p. 405. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. IO9 The gens, until a comparatively recent time in the history of the human race, was composed of a female ancestor, all her children and all the children of her daughters, but not of her sons. The sons' children and their descendants belonged to the gens of their respective mothers. The family, as it appears at the present time, was unknown. The gens was founded on thoroughly democratic principles, each individual composing the group, both female and male, having a voice in the regulation and management of all matters pertaining to the general government of the community. Any injury done to a gentilis was a wrong committed against the entire gens of which he was a member, hence to his kinsmen each individual looked for protection and for redress of personal wrongs. The fundamental doctrine of tribal life is unity of blood. Although the early groups, under the system of female descent, were united by the actual bond of kin- ship as traced through mothers, later, when descent came to be traced through fathers, kinship was to a consider- able extent feigned. Kinship, under the system of male descent, meant not that the blood of the great father actually flowed in the veins of all the members of the group, but that under a pretence of unity of blood, they were bound together by common duties and responsibili- ties from which no one of them could escape. By the terms of the compact, every member must stand by her or his own clan. In fact, in all their movements, they must act as one individual ; their interests were identical and the no PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. quarrel of any member of the group became the quarrel of all counted within the bond of kinship. If homicide were committed, they judged and punished the culprit, but if one of their number was slain by an outsider, the law of blood-feud, which demanded blood in return was immediately put into execution. Of the gens Mr. Mor- gan says : " Within its membership the bond of kin was a powerful element for mutual support. To wrong a person was to wrong his gens ; and to support a person was to stand behind him with the entire array of his gentile kindred." ' Although, in the later ages of gentile government, all the members of a group were not necessarily bound by blood, from the nature of the rights conferred, and the obligations imposed, the bond uniting them was doubt- less stronger than that which now unites mere kindred. Of this tie uniting early groups J. G. Frazer says : " All the members of a totem clan regard each other as kins- men or brothers and sisters, and are bound to help and protect each other. The totem bond is stronger than the bond of blood or family in the modern sense."' As Arabia, at the time of Mohammed, was still under gentile organization, there is perhaps at the present day no country which affords a better opportunity for the study of several of the successive stages of human de- velopment. At the time indicated, the entire Arabian peninsula was composed of a multitude of groups, vary- ^ Ancient Society, p. 76. ' Totemism, p. 57. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. Ill ing in civilization, which were bound together by a real or pretended bond of kinship traced through males, and by common privileges, obligations, duties, and responsi- bilities. In early Arabia, a group bound together by a real or feigned unity of blood was the type or unit of society. Sometimes a confederation of these smaller groups was formed, but so strong was the bond between the more closely related members that they soon broke up into their original units. The genealogists assert that these groups which are patriarchal tribes founded on male descent, are sub- divisions of an original stock. At the time of the prophet, the Arabians claimed to trace their origin from two brothers, the sons of Wail. Prof. W. Robertson Smith informs us, however, that the name of one of these " brothers " is a feminine appellation and that it is the designation of a tribe and not of a person. He says : " The gender shows that the tribal name existed before the mythical ancestor was invented,'' and adds that " the older poets down to the time of Al-Farazdac personify Taghlib as the daughter not as the son of Wail." " Al- though Taghlib and Bakr represent the heads of two contending tribes, it is not unlikely that they originally signified, also, the two vivifying principles, male and fe- male, throughout nature, which, with the Great Mother, a monad deity, represented the ancient Trinity. Within the traditions of the oldest races of which we have any account, are evidences of a desperate struggle ' Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, p. 14. 112 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. between two races, or between the followers of two prin- ciples. We are told that in all parts of Arabia " these two races maintained their ancestral traditions of bitter and persistent feud." Although in Arabia, in the time of the prophet, descent was traced in the male line, the evidence is almost un- limited going to show that it was not always so, but, on the contrary, that at an earlier age, relationships were reckoned through women, mothers being the recognized heads of families and tribal groups. In his work on Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, Prof. W. R. Smith says : " If a kinship tribe derives its origin from a great father, we may argue with confidence that it had the rule that children were of their father's tribe and kin ; while on the other hand if we find, in a nation organized on the principle of unity of tribal blood, tribes which trace their origin to a great mother instead of a great father, we can feel sure that at some time the tribe followed the rule that the children belong to the mother and are of her kin. Now among the Arabs the doctrine of the unity of tribal blood is universal, as appears from the universal prevalence of the blood-feud. And yet among the Arab tribes we find no small number that refer their origin to a female eponym. Hence it follows that in many parts of Arabia kinship was once reck- oned not in the male but in the female line." In reply to the suggestion that the several families of polygamous fathers might be designated by the names of their several mothers, Mr. Smith observes : " The point before us, however, is not the use of the mother's name by individuals for purposes of distinction, but the existence of kindred groups whose members conceive that the tie of blood which unites them into a tribe is derived from and limited by descent from a common ancestress. That the existence of such a group proves WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. II3 kinship through women to have been once the rule is as certain as that the existence of patronymic groups is evidence of male kinship. In most cases of the kind the female eponym is mythical, no doubt, and the belief in her existence is a mere inference from the rule of female kinship within the tribe, just as mythical male ancestors are inferred from a rule of male kinship. But even if we suppose the ancestress to be historical, the argument is much the same ; for where the bond of maternity is so strong that it binds together the children of the same mother as a distinct kindred group against the other chil- dren of their father, there also we may be sure that the children of one mother by different fathers will hold together and not follow their father. And this is the principle of female kinship." ' We are assured that the designation of tribal unity by a feminine appellation " is not an arbitrary fiction of later facts," but that it is " one of the old standing figures of Semitic speech." In Hebrew, em, which means mother, means also stock, race, or community. In Arabic, Omm is mother. Om was the Great Mother of the Gods in India. The name for a tribal group in Arabia was hayy, a term which indicates life. It is observed that in He- brew and Arabic hayy is used in the same sense. " Hawwa is simply a phonetic variation of hayy with a feminine termination," and " Eve, or Hawwa, is so called because she is the mother of all living, or, more literally, of every hayy." We are given to understand that, origi- nally, there was no rule of reckoning kinship in Arabia except by the female line, and that the change in descent from the female to the male line affected society to its very roots. There seems to be little, if any, doubt that a system ' Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, pp. 26, 27. 114 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. of reckoning descent through women once prevailed throughout all the tribes and races of mankind. In Greece, as late as the historic period, traces of this early custom are to be observed, and, indeed, at the present time, among many peoples, evidences of it are still extant. The fact that throughout an earlier age of human exist- ence descent and all the rights of succession were traced through women, is at the present time so well established as to require no detailed proofs to substantiate it. Not- ing this custom among early races, and observing also the natural conclusions to be drawn from such a state of society, many of the writers who have dealt with the subject of primitive races have taken much pains to show that it does not naturally follow that under these usages the influence of women was supreme ; and their theories to explain this (to them) no doubt singular phenomenon show the extent to which prejudice and long-established habits of thought have influenced their investigations. On this subject C. Staniland Wake re- marks : ' ' There is strong reason for believing that the practice of tracing kinship in the female line was very widely observed from a very early period, but this is very different from the establishment- of the supremacy of women. Where this was found it was due to the development of the gentile institution and the female kinship which accompanied it, and on which, indeed, that institution was founded." ' ■ If, however, during the earlier ages of human exist- ence a system of kinship through women had been established which was able to produce the gentile insti- ' Marriage and Kinship, p. i6. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. II5 tution, or, in other words, if this institution, which was " founded " on female kinship and dependent upon it, subsequently, in various portions of the world, gave rise to Amazonianism or the supremacy of women, it is reasonable to suppose that, prior to the rise of this insti- tution, female influence must have been considerable — especially so when we take into consideration the fact that, according to the authorities, among the orders of life below mankind the female chooses her mate, and must therefore to a considerable extent control the sexual relation. Mr. Spencer's theory to explain the universal system of kinship traced through women involves the same ideas concerning an early state of lawlessness and female dependence as are noted in the efforts of the other writers who have dealt with this subject. Although " the very lowest races now existing — Fuegians, Australians, Andamanese — show us that, however informally they may originate, sexual relations of a more or less endur- ing kind exist," he supposes that among the members of the primitive race promiscuity must have prevailed, and therefore that a larger number of children would be born to unknown fathers than to known fathers. Al- though among the lowest races there are conjugal unions sufficiently permanent to make paternity manifest, and although where the system of female kinship obtains male parentage is known but disregarded, Mr. Spencer supposes that, if there is a larger number of children born to unknown fathers than to known fathers, " as the Il6 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. connection between mother and child is obvious in all cases, there will arise a habit of thinking of maternal kinship rather than paternal." Hence, even in those cases where paternity is manifest, " children will be thought of and spoken of in the same way." Mr. Spencer observes : " Among ourselves common speech habitually indicates a boy as Mr. So-and-so's son, though descent from the mother is as fully recognized ; and a converse usage, caused by prevailing promiscuity among savages, will lead to the speaking of a child as the mother's child, even when the father is known." ' It is doubtless true that for the same reason that under a system of male kinship the child is spoken of as Mr. So-and-so's son, under a system of female kinship he was referred to as belonging to the mother. In the first- named case the father is the social unit and the head of the family, the mother being simply a dependent, while in the latter she represents the social unit, and is there- fore the head of the family or group. The supposition of Mr. Spencer that, as the connec- tion between mother and child is more " obvious " than that between father and child there will arise a habit of thinking of maternal kinship rather than paternal, shows that he ignores the bond of sympathy or of maternal affection which is seen to exist throughout all the orders of life below mankind. Noting the reasoning employed by many writers to prove that in the earliest ages of human existence the ' Sociology, vol. i., p. 665. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. I 1 7 maternal bond was ignored, and that the child was accounted as being related only to the group, Mr. Dar- win remarks : " But it seems almost incredible that the relationship of the child to its mother should ever be completely ignored, especially as the women in most savage tribes nurse their infants for a long time," and as the lines of descent are " traced through the mother alone, to the exclusion of the father." ' We must bear in mind that under archaic usages not only did mothers nurse their infants two, three, and even four years, but that maternity was the bond which held together related groups and the source from which pro- ceeded all property rights and tribal honors ; also, that under the system of female kinship, male parentage was habitually known but disregarded. Sympathy, a char- acter which according to the savants must have been the result of maternal affection, constituted the cohesive element in the group ; yet, notwithstanding all this, Mr. Spencer can see no reason for concluding that in the most primitive groups there were no " individual posses- sions of women by men." " The late Sir A. Smith, who had travelled widely in South Africa and was acquainted with the habits of savages there and elsewhere, expressed " the strongest opinion that no race exists in which woman is considered as the property of the community." ' From Mr. Spencer's reasoning may be observed the ^ Descent of Man, p. 588. ''Sociology, vol. i., p. 665. 2 Descent of Man, p. 588. 1 1 8 PREHISTORIC SOCIE TV. fact that notwithstanding the natural disposition of the male throughout all the orders of 'life to "pair with any female," and the innate desire of the female to pair only with the one for whom she feels affection, he is of the opinion that the enduring conjugal unions of a primitive race were the result of force on the part of the former and absolute subjection on the part of the latter, a condition entirely at variance with those principles laid down by scientists relative to the orders of life from which mankind have descended; orders of life among which the female chooses her mate and con- sequently controls the sexual relations. The fact will be observed that so blinded has man become by the hitherto supposed importance of the male as to be unable to perceive the position which must have been held by women in the earliest stages of human existence. A knowledge of the customs and tribal usages of the Iroquois Indians throws much light on the early position of women. When this tribe first came under the obser- vation of Europeans it was in the first stage of barbarism, and as the manner and order of development of the various races of mankind are said to be substantially the same, and as many of the facts connected with the his- tory of this truly interesting people through nearly three ethnical periods are accessible, it is thought that \)y it, as well as by the Arabians, is afforded an excellent opportunity for the study of the general history of man- kind during these periods. To Mr. Morgan we are WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. II9 indebted for the results' of a thorough research into the customs, manners, and laws of this people. Through a knowledge of the rights, privileges, and obligations which were conferred and imposed on the members of the Iroquois gens while in the second state of barbarism, we are enabled to perceive the principles of true democracy upon which gentile institutions are based ; and this is important, for the reason that later in this work I intend to trace the decline of those prin- ciples of liberty and equality established under female influence, and to show the reasons for the subsequent rise of monarchy, aristocracy, and slavery. The rights, privileges, and obligations of the Iroquois tribe of Indians, as enunciated by Mr. Morgan, are as follows : ' ' The right of electing its sachem and chiefs. The right of depos- ing its sachem and chiefs. The obligation not to marry in the gens. Mutual rights of inheritance of the property of deceased members. Reciprocal obligations of help, defense, and redress of injuries. The right of bestowing names upon its members. The right of adopting strangers into the gens. Common religious rites. A common burial place. A council of the gens." ' As this writer truly remarks : " These functions and attributes gave vitality as well as individuality to the organization, and protected the personal rights of its members." Eligibility to the office of chief was based on personal merit, and continuance in office depended on the acknowledged fitness of the individual occupying it. '^Ancient Society, p. 71. 120 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. The qualifications required for this office were personal bravery, ability to lead, and eloquence in council. The chief exercised no kingly authority over the tribe by which he was appointed ; on the contrary, his personality was respected and his counsels heeded, not because of his official prerogatives, but on account of the qualities by which his character was dignified ; therefore so soon as he proved himself unworthy of the trust confided to him he was deposed by the same agency which had elected him. Hence may be observed the truly demo- cratic character of the gens. Concerning the position occupied by women, and the influence which they exerted in the management of the clan, Ashur Wright, who was for many years missionary to the Senecas, in 1873 wrote to Mr. Morgan the follow- ing : "As to their family system when occupying the old long-houses, it is probable that some one clan predominated, the women taking in husbands, however, from the other clans ; and sometimes, for a novelty, some of their sons bringing in their young wives until they felt brave enough to leave their mothers. Usually the female portion ruled the house, and were doubtless clannish enough about it. The stores were in common ; but woe to the luckless husband or lover who was too shiftless to do his share of the providing. No matter how many children or whatever goods he might have in the house, he might at any time be ordered to pick up his blanket and budge ; and after such orders it would not be healthful for him to attempt to disobey. The house would be too hot for him, and, unless saved by the intercession of some aunt or grandmother, he must retreat to his own clan ; or, as was often done, go and start a new matrimonial alliance in some other. The women were the great power among the clans, as everywhere else. They did not hesitate, when occasion . required, ' to knock off the horns,' as it was technically called, from WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 121 the head of a chief, and send him back to the ranks of the warriors. The original nomination of the chiefs also always rested with them." ' In the Lower Status of barbarism we find intermarriage within the gens prohibited, and the obligation not to marry those accounted as kin as strong as a religious duty. Although during the latter ages of savagery the idea of property was slightly developed, it is thought that it lay nascent until the latter part of the first period of barbarism. Indeed, until the first stage of barbarism was reached, the idea of personal possessions had gained only a slight foothold in the mental constitution of man- kind. Egoism, selfishness, or the desire to better one's individual condition at the expense of the rest of the gens was unknown. All lands were controlled by the group, and as the property of early society consisted for the most part of personal effects and proprietary rights in communal houses and gardens, one of the most fruitful causes for dissensions in more advanced stages of society was avoided. Under primitive condi- tions, quarrels arising over disputed ownership within the gens were unheard of, and liberty, equality, and fraternity, the cardinal virtues and principles of early society, were able to flourish undisturbed by the as yet unheard of vices inherent in the Excessive desire for property. In reference to some of the small uncivilized cojmmu- ^ Ancient Society, p. 455. 122 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. nities which he visited, Mr. Wallace says that each man respects the rights of his fellow, " and any infraction of these rights rarely or never takes place. In such a com- munity all are nearly equal. There are none of those wide distinctions of education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant, which are the product of our civilization ; there is none of that widespread divi- sion of labor, which, while it increases wealth, produces also conflicting interests ; there is not that severe com- petition and struggle for existence or for wealth which the dense population of civilized countries inevitably creates." ' Under the archaic rule of the gens, at the death of a male, whether married or single, his possessions de- scended to his sister's children ; while at the death of a female, her property, including her personal effects, was distributed among her sisters and her children and the children of her daughters, but the children of her sons were not included among her heirs. The sons' children belonged to the gentes of their respective mothers, and as descent and all the relationships to which rights of succession were attached were traced only in the female line, and as property until the middle of the Second Status of barbarism was strictly confined to the gens in which it originated, children could receive nothing from their fathers. Wives and husbands, as they belonged to separate gentes, received nothing from each other. In later times, when tribal honors were ' The Malay Archipelago, p. 597. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 1 23 confined within certain families or groups, as descent and property rights were all traced in the female line, each male was dependent upon his female blood rela- tions, not only for his common inherited privileges in the gens, but for any civil or military distinction to which he might attain. For the same reason that wives and husbands were de- barred from sharing in each other's property, their bodies, or more properly speaking, their bones, were separated at death, as were also the bones of father and child. The bones of the children always rested beside those of the mother. It was impious to mix the bones of unre- lated persons. To such an extent was the Mother-Right recognized under archaic usages that the child belonged exclusively to the mother and her relations, the father having no recognized proprietary right to his offspring. Indeed, so lightly was the paternal relation regarded, that the father was supposed to have little if any in- terest in his own children. Although the bond between a man and his offspring was weak, toward his sister's children, as they belonged to the same gens with himself, a considerable degree of manly interest was manifested ; indeed, it has been stated that about the same solicitude was evinced by him for their welfare, as was shown at a later time by fathers for the members of their own household. Observing the care manifested for a sister's children among certain tribes, many writers have declared that the relationship existing between a child and its mother's 124 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. brother is more important than any other — that the brother is practically the head of his sister's family. However, if we bear in mind the relative positions of the sexes in primitive groups, that women controlled their homes, and that all the rights of succession were traced through them, we shall doubtless be led to the conclusion that mothers themselves were the real heads of their own families, and that although they may have delegated to their brothers, who until marriage were per- mitted to reside with them, certain manly offices, they nevertheless reserved to themselves the exclusive right to the control and management of their own household. The subject of paternity will, however, be referred to again later in this work. As the land belonged to the gens, and as the gentes were controlled by women, mothers were absolutely independent. Each child received a name soon after birth, but at the age of sixteen or eighteen this name was discarded and another adopted. Special rights were thus con- ferred, and specified obligations were imposed. In other words, on receipt of this name, the incumbent took upon himself all the duties and responsibilities devolving upon a member of the group, and by it was entitled to all its rights and privileges. It is observed that the greatest precautions were taken with respect to the adoption of names. The office of naming the different members belonged to the female relations and the chiefs. We are informed that the mother might, if she chose, transfer her child to another gens. This was accomplished by sim- WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 1 25 ply giving it the name of the gens in which she desired its adoption. It is claimed that among the Shawnees and Delawares the mother still claims the right to name her child into any gens she pleases.' It would seem from this, that among certain tribes, the mother, if she desires, may transfer her child to the gens of its father. It is observed, however, that the transference of a child from its mother's gens is a " wide departure from archaic usages, and exceptional in practice." It has been shown that under early usages wealth was never transferred from the gens in which it originated ; but later, when property began to be claimed by indi- viduals, and wealth was amassed in the hands of males, it is not unlikely that mothers, considering only the future welfare of their children, in case the father was rich and powerful, would occasionally take advantage of their established privileges to remove their children to his gens, in order that they might share in his possessions. Something of the humanity practised in early groups may be observed in the custom of adoption, which, at a certain stage in their development, prevailed among them. Under the earlier ages of gentile institutions, women and children taken prisoners in war were usually adopted into some gens. Adoption not only conferred gentile rights, but also the nationality of the tribe. A person adopted into a gens was treated ever after- wards as though born within the group. " Slavery, which in the Upper Status of barbarism became the fate of the ' Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 79. 126 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. captive, was unknown among tribes in the Lower Status in the aboriginal period." ' According to Mariner, " It is customary in the Tonga Islands for women to be what they call mothers to chil- dren or grown-up young persons who are not their own, for the purpose of providing them, or seeing that they are provided, with all the conveniences of life." " According to Mr. E. J. Wood, among the Kaffirs, although the men inherit the property, their influence being in the ascendency, every woman has some one who acts as her father, whether her own father be living or not. Kaffir law provides for the protection of all women, and so long as a male relation lives, a girl has a protector. It goes even farther than this, and protects women who have been bereft of all their male relations. For such as these provision is made for their adoption into other groups, in which case, although they are received as dependants, they are protected as daughters.' This practice of adoption is observed among various peoples. Among certain tribes in which descent is traced through women, a woman offers her breast to the person she is adopting, this being the strongest symbol of the unity of blood. Thus may be observed the fact that the fundamental idea, or principle of tribal life is maternity, or the maternal instinct — that the uniting force which binds a child to its mother is the ' Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 80. ^ Quoted by Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, p. g6. ^ Uncivilized Races of the World, vol. i. , p. 78. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 12/ one which is supposed to unite the various members of a primitive group. So strongly has the maternal instinct, as a binding principle, taken root, that among certain peoples, even where the manner of reckoning descent and the rights of succession have been changed from the female to the male line, whenever an individual •wishes to be adopted into a gens, he takes thfe hand of the leader of the group, and sucking one of his fingers, declares himself to be his child by adoption ; henceforth the new father is bound to assist him as far as he can.' Adoption " by the imitation of nature " was practised by the Romans down to the time of Augustus. It has been observed that under the matriarchal system the mother was the only recognized parent, hence, when the father began to assume the rights and prerogatives which had hitherto belonged only to her, in order to make valid his claim, it was thought proper for him to go through various of the preliminaries attendant on child-birth. Of all the forms practised among lower races there is none, perhaps, which is more singular than is that of putting the father instead of the mother to bed in the event of the birth of a child. Concerning this custom, Mr. Tylor quotes from Klemm the following : " Among the Arawaks of Surinam, for some time after the birth of his child the father must fell no tree, fire no gun, hunt no large game ; he may stay near home, shoot little birds with a bow and arrow, and angle for little fish ; ' Parkyns, Life in Abyssinia, vol. i., p. 174. 128 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. but his time hanging heavy on his hands, the most com- fortable thing he can do is to lounge in his hanimock.'" Mr. Tylor quotes also from the Jesuit missionary, Dobrizhoffer, who gives the following account of the Abipones : " No sooner do you hear that the wife has borne a child, than you will see the Abipone husband lying in bed, huddled up with mats and skins lest some . ruder breath of air should touch him, fasting, kept in private, and for a number of days abstaining religiously from certain viands ; you would swear it was he who had had the child." The custom of putting the father to bed when a child is born is called la couvade, and traces of it are yet to be found in France. It is also practised among the Basques, and according to C. Staniland Wake, was anciently observed in Corsica, among the Iberians of Spain, and in the country south of the Black Sea. It is still practised in Southern India, in Yunnan, in Borneo, in Kamschatka, and in Greenland. It is said also to be in use among the various tribes in South America." The persistency of this practice shows the importance formerly attached to the maternal functions, and, as has been suggested, was doubtless inaugurated at a time when descent was being changed from the female to the male line. It was perhaps in the latter part of the Middle Status of barbarism that descent and the rights of succession ' Early History of Mankind, p. 2g6. '^ -Marriage and Kinship, p. 268. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 1 29 began to be traced through males. When, through causes which will be noticed later in this work, property began to accumulate in the hands of men, children be- came the recognized heirs of their father, and the foundation for the present form of the family was laid. However, long after descent began to be reckoned through males, absolute paternity was not necessary to fatherhood. During the earlier ages of male supremacy, fatherhood, like brotherhood, was a loose term, and signified simply the head of a house, or the " lord " or owner of the mother. It mattered little whether a man had previously lent his wife to a friend, or whether he had shared her favors with several brothers, all the children " born on his bed " belonged to him and were of his family. Later in these pages will be observed the fact that the change in reckoning descent, which occurred at a com- paratively late period in the history of the human race,- is directly connected with the means of subsistence. Sc5 long as land was held in common by the members of the gens, and so long as women were able to manage the means of support, their independence was secure, and they were able to exercise absolute control over their own persons, their homes, and their offspring. Under these conditions men were obliged to please the women if they would win their favors. From facts which have been demonstrated by various writers on the subject of the early conditions of the human race, it is more than probable that women were 9 130 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. the original tillers of the soil, and that, during the first period of barbarism, while the hunters and warriors were engaged in war and the chase, occupations best suited to their taste, women first discovered the art of produc- ing farinaceous food through cultivation, and through this discovery a hitherto exclusive diet of fish and game was changed for a subsistence in part vegetable. It is conjectured also that the first domestication of animals was brought about through a probable " freak of fancy." That individuals among these animals were first caught by hunters, conveyed by them to their homes, and there tamed through the tenderness and sympathy of women, is considered more than likely. There are, however, so far as I know, no actual facts upon which to base such a conclusion. The increase of subsistence through horticulture and the domestication of animals marks an important era in the history of mankind. By this means the human race was enabled to spread itself over distant areas, and through the improved condition of nutrition alone, by which the physical conditions were improved and the mental energies strengthened, the arts of life were mul- tiplied and the course of human activities directed into higher and more important channels. Indeed, through the numerous benefits derived from the one source of increased and improved subsistence, the entire mode of life was changed or materially modified. The religious idea, which subsequently comprehended a complicated system of mythology based on phallic WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 1 3 I worship, at this early age, consisted simply of a recogni- tion of the bounties of earth. The principal office con- nected with the religious ceremonies of the Iroquois tribe of Indians, at the stage of development in which it was first known to Europeans, seems to have been " Keeper of the Faith," a position occupied alike by both sexes. The Keepers of the Faith were chosen by the wise members of the group ; they were censors of the people, with power to report the evil deeds of persons to the council. " With no official head, and none of the marks of a priesthood, their functions were equal." ' For the most part, their religious services consisted in festivals held at stated seasons to celebrate the return of the bounties of Nature. A» notable fact in connection with this subject is, that during the earlier ages of barbarism the religious idea was thoroughly monotheistic, and idolatry was unknown, religious worship, for the most part, consisting of a cere- mony of thanksgiving, with invocations to the Great Mother-Nature to continue to them the blessings of life. As altruism waned and egoism advanced, however, supernaturalism, or a belief in unseen forces, became more and more pronounced, until, in the Latter Status of barbarism, when the supremacy of man had become com- plete, the gens became merely the " centre of religious influence and the source of religious development." " ' Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 82. ' In this connection it is not perhaps difficult to discover the natu- ral relation between the predominance of the animal instincts and the cultivation of the emotions and feelings. Mysticism, like slavery and monarchy, is deeply rooted in sensuality and selfishness ; and the 132 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. The earlier governmental functions were administered through a council of chiefs elected by the gentes. The thoroughly democratic character of the gens may be ob- served in the fact that any member, female or male, who desired to communicate with the council on matters of public interest, might express her or his opinion either in person or through an orator of her or his own selec- tion.' Hence, we observe that government originated in the gens, which was a pure democracy. Regarding the council of the gens, Mr. Morgan observes : "It was a democratic assembly because every adult male and female member had a voice upon all questions brought before it. It elected and deposed its sachem and chiefs, it elected Keepers of yie Faith, it condoned or avenged the murder of a gentilis, and it adopted persons into the gens. It was the germ of the higher council of the tribe, and of that still higher of the confederacy, each of which was composed exclusively of chiefs as representatives of the gentes. . . . ' ' All the members of an Iroquois gens were personally free, and they were bound to defend each other's freedom ; they were equal in privileges and in personal rights, the sachem and chiefs claiming no superiority ; and they were a brotherhood bound together by the ties of kin. Liberty, equality, and fraternity, though never formulated, were cardinal principles of the gens. These facts are material be- cause the gens was the unit of a social and governmental system, the foundation upon which Indian society was organized. ... At the epoch of European discovery the American Indian tribes gener- ally were organized in gentes with descent in the female line. The gens was the basis of the phratry, of the tribe, and of the confederacy of tribes." ^ hold which it eventually took upon the human mind is directly at- tributable to the supremacy gained by the animal instincts over the higher faculties during the middle and latter stages of barbarism. ■ Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 117. "^ Ibid, p. 85. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 1 33 From the foregoing facts it is observed that the gens — the earliest organization of society of which we have any accurate knowledge — was founded on the " Mother- Right " or, on the supremacy of women. We are assured that the gentile organization is not confined to the Latin, Grecian, and Sanskrit-speaking tribes, but that it has been found " in other branches of the Aryan family of na- tions, in the Semitic, Uralian, and Turanian families, among the tribes of Africa and Australia, and of the American aborigines." ' A tribe was composed of several gentes, the chiefs of which formed the council. This council was invested with the power to declare and to regulate terms of peace, to receive embassies and make alliances ; it was in fact authorized to perform all the governmental functions of the tribe. The duties performed by the council of chiefs may be regarded as the first attempt at representative government. In process of time, as the affairs of the tribe became more complicated, a need arose for a rec- ognized head, one who when the council was not in session could lead in the adjustment of matters pertain- ing to the general interest of the group. In response to this demand, one of the sachems was invested with a slight degree of authority over the other chiefs. Hence arose the military chieftain of the Latter Status of bar- barism. That the powers delegated to the incumbent of this office differed widely from those of a modern mon- arch, is shown in the fact that as he had been elected by ' Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 64. 134 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. the members of the group he could by them be deposed. We have seen that the powers exercised by sachem and. chief were alike transmitted through women. The mother is the natural guardian of the family ; so soon therefore as the actions of the leaders of the group were not in accord with those principles of equality and jus- tice which had characterized society since its organiza- tion, they were deposed, or, as in the case of the Senecas described by Ashur Wright, they had their " horns knocked off " through the influence of women. At the head of the family, or gens, producing and controlling the principal means of subsistence, and form- ing the line of descent and inheritance, women, until the closing ages of the Middle Status of barbarism, were without doubt the leading spirits, and thus far the prog- ress of mankind had been in strict accord with those principles which since the separation of the sexes had governed development. In process of time, however, the simple form of govern- ment which has been described was found inadequate to meet the demands arising from the more complicated re- quirements of increasing numbers and the general growth of society ; therefore, during the opening ages of the Latter Status of barbarism, a form of government was evolved which was better suited to their changed condi- tions. When the idea of a coalescence of tribes, or of a. combination of forces for common defence had taken root, and when under such confederation the council of chiefs had become co-ordinated with a military leader for WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. I35 the general management and defence of the community, it is thought that an important step had been taken in pro- gressive governmental functions. Yet, along with the higher development of the governmental idea, is to be observed also a growing tendency toward the usurpation of power. Scarcely was the office of military chieftain created, than we find the people inaugurating measures with which to protect themselves against encroachments upon their liberties, and devising means whereby they might be enabled to check the personal ambition of their leaders. The extreme egoism developed within the male con- stitution was already manifesting itself in the excessive greed for gain, and in the inordinate thirst for military glory ; hence, as a safeguard against usurpation, in the earliest stages of the Latter Status of barbarism, we find the tribe electing two military chieftains instead of one, two leaders invested with equal powers and responsibili- ties and subjected to the same restrictions and limitations in the exercise of authority. The Spartan government upon its first appearance in history, is characterized by the existence of two war-chieftains, who, by historians of later ages, have been designated as kings ; a closer investigation, however, of the functions performed by them shows that they were lacking in nearly all the pre-, rogatives which characterize a modern sovereign. So jealously had the rights of the people been guarded that the basileus or war-chief of the Latter Status of bar- barism, who is said to represent the germ of our present 136 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. king, emperor, and president, had not succeeded in drawing to himself the powers exercised by a monarch of modern times. The selection of a military leader, during the Latter Status of barbarism, doubtless repre- sents the first differentiation of the civil from the mili- tary functions of government, and indicates a virtual acknowledgment of the fact that society had out-grown the primary and more simple form of government admin- istered by the council of chiefs. The third stage in the development of the idea of gov- ernment was represented by a council of chiefs, a mili- tary commander, and an assembly of the people. In this further growth of the administrative functions may be discovered the same solicitude for individual liberty and the rights of the community which had characterized the former stage of development, and also the fact that still greater precautions were deemed necessary to in- sure the people against tyranny and the usurpation of their established rights. The council of chiefs, although representing a pure democracy, and co-ordinated with two military chieftains, between whom was an equal di- vision of power and responsibility, was found to be an insufficient safeguard against despotism ; hence the measures devised for the management of the confederacy must henceforth be subjected to an assembly of the people, which, although of itself unable to originate or propound any plan of government, was invested with the power to accept or reject any measures offered for adoption by the council. WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS. 1 37 It is observed that the gens was able to carry man- kind through to the opening ages of civilization, at which time the council of chiefs was transformed into a senate, and the assembly of the people assumed the form of the popular assembly, from which have been derived our present congress and the two houses of the English Parliament. By a careful study of the growth of government is observed the fact that liberty, fraternity, and equality were the original and natural inheritance of the human family, and that tyranny, injustice, and oppression are excrescences which subsequently fastened themselves upon human institutions through the gradual rise of the egoistic principle developed in human nature. We have seen that until the beginning of the Latter Status of bar- barism, the gens constituted a sovereign power in the tribe ; women controlled the gens, and sachem and chief were alike invested with the authority necessary for leadership because they could trace their descent to some female ancestor who was the acknowledged head of the people, and whose influence and patronage must have extended over all the individuals included within the recognized bond of kinship. With the deposing power in the hands of women and with the precautions which were taken by them against injustice or usurpation of rights, it is plain that unless some unusual or unprecedented circumstances had come into play,they never could have lost that supremacy which, as the natural result of higher organization, had been maintained by females since the separation of the sexes. CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. THE question which presents itself at this stage of our inquiry is : What were the final causes which led to the overthrow of female supremacy, and what were the processes by which man gained the undisputed right to the control of woman's person ? We have seen that prior to the decline of female in- fluence, women taken prisoners in war were not regarded as the legitimate property of their captors. On the con- trary, female captives were adopted into the gens and invested with the same status of personal independence enjoyed by the original members of the group. Later, however, female prisoners began to be regarded as the special booty of their captors, and as belonging exclu- sively to them; and although in primitive times marriage outside the limits of related groups was prohibited, owing to the esteem in which military chieftains came to be held, this claim was at length allowed them. We are assured that any courageous young warrior, conscious of his popularity, might gather about him a band of his clansmen and march against a neighboring tribe, the women taken prisoners during such expeditions being the special prizes of their captors. 138 THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 39 These prisoners were entitled to none of the privileges of the community into which they were taken ; and, as the hostility felt toward unrelated tribes had become so strong as to be shared by women, the captive woman could no longer look for pity even from her own sex. From this time in the history of the race may be traced the decline of woman's power and the subjection of the natural female impulses. As, at this stage, within the limits of their own tribe, women held the bal- ance of power in their own hands, and as they still ex- ercised unqualified control over their own persons, the acknowledged ownership of one woman, who, being a " stranger," was without power or influence, would be an object much to be desired, and one for which a warrior would not hesitate to brave the dangers of a hostile camp. Hence, female captives were in demand, and the women of warring tribes were sought after singly and in groups. In process of time wars for wives became general, and under the new regime, women had the fear of captivity constantly before their view, as a condition more to be dreaded than death. In the Mahabharata of India it is stated that formerly " women were unconfined and roved about at their plea- sure, independent." Finally, marriage was instituted and a woman was bound to a man for life. One of the eight forms of legalized marriage in the code of Menu was that of cap- ture de facto and was called Racshasa. This particular form of conjugal union was practised exclusively by the military classes, among which, the women taken in battle 140 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. were the acknowledged booty of their captors. A defi- nition of this kind of marriage is as follows : " The seizure of a maiden by force from her house while she weeps and calls for assistance, after her kinsmen and friends have been slain in battle or wounded, and their houses broken open, is the marriage called Racshasa." Capture as the prescribed form of marriage for war- riors may be traced through thousands of years and among various peoples. Of the three legalized forms of marital union in Rome, that by capture was the one in use among the plebeians, the patricians at the same time practising Confarreatio and Usus. In Arabia, as late as Mohammed's time, the carrying off of women was recog- nized as a legal form of marriage.' That capture constituted a legal form of marriage among the Israelites, or that women taken captives in war were appropriated as sexual slaves, is shown by their religious history, in which the instructions given to the Lord's chosen people after they had taken a city was to " smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword : But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city " they were to take unto themselves. This, it will be noticed, is to be done " unto the cities which are very far off," and which " are not of the cities of these nations." ' In the 2ist Chapter of Judges it appears that the women belonging to the tribe of Benjamin had been ' W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, p. 73. ' Deuteronomy, chap, xx., 13, 14, 15. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. I41 destroyed, and that the men of Israel had sworn that no man of this tribe should be provided with a wife from among the Israelites ; therefore twelve thousand of the " valiantest " men received a command to smite the in- habitants of Jabesh-Gilead with the edge of the sword, to utterly destroy every male and every married woman. Among the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead were found four hundred virgins who, we are told, were captured and brought into the camp in Shiloh to be utilized as wives by the Benjaminites. Nor do we hear one word which would seem to indicate Jjiat the strange and doubtless unwilling wives were les^cceptable to them than would have been the women of Israel ; but, as the number taken was insufficient for their needs, the elders of the congregation said : " Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly, in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah." There the sons of Benjamin were com- manded to go and lie in wait in the vineyards. " And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. . . . And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught," etc. In Australia, among the North American Indians, the tribes of the Amazon and the Orinoco, in Hindustan 142 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. and Afghanistan, marriage by actual capture is still prac- tised, and many of the details connected with the modus operandi have been given by various writers. The fol- lowing from Sir George Gray relative to this form of marriage as it exists at the present time among some of the native Australian tribes, is quoted by Mr. J. F. McLennan. Although a woman give no encouragement to her admirers, ■ ■ many plots are laid to carry her off, and in the encounters which re- sult from these, she is almost certain to receive some violent injury, for each of the combatants orders her to follow him, and in the event of her refusing, throws a spear at her. The early life of a young woman at all celebrated for beauty is generally one continued series of captivity to different masters, of ghastly wounds, of wanderings in strange families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment from other females, amongst whom she is brought a stranger by her captor ; and rarely do you see a form of unusual grace and elegance, but it is marked and scarred by the furrows of old wounds ; and many a female thus wanders several hundred miles from the home of her infancy, being carried off successively to distant and more distant points." ' In an account describing the search for wives by the natives of Sydney, Collins says : "The poor wretch is stolen upon in the absence of her protectors. Being first' stupefied with blows, inflicted with clubs or wooden swords, on the head, back, and shoulders, every one of which is followed by a stream of blood, she is then dragged through the woods by one arm, vfith a perseverance and violence that it might be sup- posed would displace it from its socket. This outrage is not resented by the relations of the female, who only retaliate by a similar outrage when they find an opportunity. This is so constantly the practice among them that even the children make it a play-game, or exercise." '^ ' Studies in Ancient History, p. 40. * Quoted by Sir J. Lubbock. Origin of Civilization, p. 108. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 143 By various travellers and explorers, the fact has been observed that certain symbols representing force in their marriage ceremonies are in use among nearly if not all extant tribes which have reached a certain stage of growth. To such an extent, in an earlier age, has the forcible carrying-off of women prevailed, that among most of these tribes a valid marriage may not be consum- mated without the appearance of force in the nuptial ceremonies. In reference to these symbols, we have the following passage from Mr. McLennan : "Meantime, we observe that, whenever we discover symbolical forms, we are justified in inferring that in the past life of the people employing them, there were corresponding realities ; and if, among the primitive races which we examine, we find such realities as might naturally pass into such forms on an advance taking place in civility, then we may safely conclude (keeping within the conditions of a sound inference) that what these now are, those employing the symbols once were." ' Among primitive tribes, the area controlled by each was small, therefore vigilance in maintaining their possessions was one of their chief duties, and hostility to surrounding tribes a natural condition. Subsequently, however, when friendly relations began to be established with hitherto hostile tribes, we find them entering into negotiations to furnish each other with wives. It was at this time that marriage by sale or contract was in- stituted, an arrangement by which the elder men in the tribe could be accommodated with foreign wives, at the same time that their own daughters and sisters became to them a source of revenue. ' Studies in Ancient History, p. 5. 144 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. In Uganda many men obtain wives by exchanging daughters and sisters with each other. Of this practice C. Staniland Wake says : " This is not an unusual mode of proceeding in different parts of the world. The perpetuation of the monopoly of women enjoyed to a great extent by the older men of the tribe among the Australians is, according to Mr. Hewitt, encouraged by those interested in it having sisters or daughters to exchange with each other for wives." ' Not unfrequently actual capture is practised side by side with fiction — violent seizure being in active opera- tion among the same tribes at the same time with the symbol, the frequency of actual violence depending partly on the extent to which hostility prevails between the tribes, and partly on the degree of "uniformity established by usage in the prices paid for wives." Among certain tribes, when a dispute arises concerning the price to be paid for a bride, if the man is able to seize the woman and carry her off to his tent, the law recognizes her as his wife and nothing is left for the relations to do in the matter but to accept his terms as to the price. The peoples among which actual capture is at present practised, and those among which wives are procured by sale or contract, represent two different stages in the development of the institution of marriage, and it is owing to this fact that the symbols used among the latter may be traced to the realities in which they originated. Of the Bedouins of Mt. Sinai, Burckhardt says that ' Marriage and Kinship, p. 207. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 145 marriage is a matter of sale and purchase, in which the inclination of the girl is disregarded. "The young maid comes home in the evening with the cattle. At a short distance from the camp she is met by the future spouse and a couple of his young friends, and carried off by force to her father's tent. If she entertains any suspicion of their designs she defends herself with stones, and often inflicts wounds on the young men, even though she does not dislike the lover, for, according to custom, the more she struggles, bites, kicks, cries, and shrieks, the more she is applauded ever after by her own companions." ' In reference to the Mezeyne Arabs the same writer observes that a similar custom prevailed within the limits of the Sinai peninsula, but not among the other tribes of that province. '.' A girl having been wrapped in the Abba at night, is permitted to escape from her tent, and fly into the neighboring mountains. The bridegroom goes in search of her next day, and remains often many days before he can find her out, while her female friends are apprised of her hiding-place, and furnish her with provisions. If the husband finds her at last (which is sooner or later, according to the impression that he has made upon the girl's heart), he is bound to consummate the marriage in the open country, and to pass the night with her in the mountains. The next morning the bride goes home to her tent, that she may have some food ; but again runs away in the evening and repeats these flights several times, till she finally returns to her tent. She does not go to live in her husband's tent until she is far advanced in pregnancy ; if she does not become pregnant, she may not join her husband till a full year from the wedding-day." ' Crantz says that in Greenland " some females, when a husband is proposed to them, will fall into a swoon, elope to a desert place, or cut off their hair. ... In the ' Quoted by E. J. Wood. The Wedding-Day, etc., p. 60. ' Ibid. 10 146 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. latter case they are seldom troubled with further ad- dresses." The refractory bride is dragged " forcibly into her suitor's house, where she sits for several days quite disconsolate, with dishevelled hair, and refuses nourishment. When friendly exhortations are unavail- ing, she is compelled by force and even with blows to receive her husband. Should she elope, she is brought back and treated more harshly than before." ' The fact will be observed that whenever friendly rela- tions have been established between the tribe of the wife and that of the husband, he pays a price to her relatives for the privilege of removing her to his camp. This purchase price, together with the simulated hatred of the woman's friends, signifies a sacrifice on the part of the wife and her family. In Nubia when a man marries he presents his wife with a wedding-dress, and gives her also a pledge for three or four hundred piastres, half of which sum is paid her in case of a divorce. Divorces, however, are very rare." The simulated anger and sham violence connected with marriage ceremonies among friendly peoples, which are so far removed from a time when actual capture was practised as to be ignorant of the true significance of these symbols, show the extent to which marriage is based on the idea of force on the one side and unwilling submission on the other. Among the Circassians, after the preliminaries have ^ History of Greenland, vol. i., p. 146. "^ Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, p. 34. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 47 been settled by the parents, the lover meets his bride- elect by night in some secluded spot, and with the as- sistance of two or three of his best friends seizes her and carries her away. Sometimes the pretended capture takes place in the midst of a noisy feast. The woman is usually conducted into the presence of a mutual friend, where, on the following day, her friends, simulating anger, seek her and demand a reason for her abduction. Although the affair is usually settled at once by the bridegroom paying the accustomed price for his bride, custom requires that there shall be still further manifes- tations of anger on the part of her friends ; so, on the following day, all the relatives of the bride, armed with sticks, proceed to the place where the bride is in waiting, there to meet the bridegroom and his friends who have come to carry off the bride. A sham fight ensues, in which the bridegroom and his party are always victori- ous. Among certain of the Arabian tribes the bride- groom must force his bride to enter his tent, and in France, as late as the seventeenth century, a similar cus- tom existed. In describing a wedding dance in Abyssinia, Parkyns observes : " This dance is performed by men armed with shields and lances, who with bounds, feints, and springs attack others armed with guns, so as to approach them, and at the same time avoid their fire, while the gunners make similar demonstrations, and at last fire off their guns either in the air or into the earth, and then, drawing their swords, flourish them about as a finish." Finally 148 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. the bridegroom fires off a gun and immediately rushes across to where the bride and her female relations are stationed.' Tylor informs us that a Scandinavian warrior gen- erally sought to gain his bride by force, that he conceived it beneath his dignity to win her by pacific means. That the affair might appear more heroic, he waited until the object of his choice was about to wed another, and was actually on her way to the nuptial ceremony, when with his friends he would surprise the wedding cortege, seize the bride and carry her off. It has been said of Scandi- navian marriages that they were matters of deep anxiety to the friends both of the bride and groom, who, until the wedding was over, remained at home in suspense fearing an attack of the kind already mentioned. It was customary for a party of young men to station them- selves at the church door, and, as soon as the ceremony was completed, to carry the news to the homes of the wedded pair. " Within a few generations the same old practice was kept up in Wales, where the bridegroom and his friends, mounted and armed as for war, carried off the bride," and in Ireland they used even to hurl spears at the bride's people, though usually at such a dis- tance that no one was hurt.' In the Amazon valley the bride is always carried away by violence. Among the Zulus, although a pur- chase price is paid for a woman, custom requires that a 1 Life in Abyssinia, vol. ii., p. 49. ° Anthropology, p. 404. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 49 wife, after having been captured, shall make three at- tempts to return to her own home. Of the marriage customs in ancient Sparta, Plutarch says : " In their marriages the bridegroom carried off the bride by violence." ' In Rome we have the familiar ex- ample of the Sabine women, who were captured or carried off by force. A notable fact in connection with the subject of cap- ture is, that the mother of the bride, or, in case the mother is dead, the nearest female relative, is the indi- vidual who assumes the part of the principal defender in this ceremony. She it is who attempts to rescue the bride, and who more than any other mourns the fate of the captured wife. Among primitive peoples, with the exception of the symbol of wife-capture in marriage ceremonies, there is perhaps none more significant than that typifying the hatred of the mother for the captor of her daughter. Customs indicating estrangement or actual aversion to sons-in-law usually if not always ac- company marriage by capture. The fact that the change in the relative positions of the sexes, as indicated by the sadtca and ba'al forms of marriage in Arabia, was not easily or speedily accom- plished, is apparent not only in the symbols of wife- capture everywhere practised among peoples in a certain stage of development, but is strongly suggested also by the aversion found among these same peoples between ' Lycurgus. I50 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. mothers-in-law and sons-in-law, whether appearing as a reality or as a symbol. ' ' Among the Arawaks of South America, it is unlawful for the son-in-law to look upon the face of his mother-in-law. If they live in the same house a partition separates them, and if by chance they must enter the same boat, she must precede him so as to keep her back toward him." Among the Caribs, all the women talk with whom they will, but the husband dare not converse with his wife's relations except on extraordinary occasions.' Mr. Tylor refers to the fact that " In the account of the Floridian expedition of Alvar Nunez, com- monly known as Cabeca de Vaca, or Cow's Head, it is mentioned that the parents-in-law did not enter the son-in-law's house, nor he theirs, nor his brother-in-law's, and if they met by chance, they went a buckshot out of their way, with their heads down and eyes fixed on the ground, for they held it a bad thing to see or speak to one an- other." It is observed by Richardson, an author quoted by Tylor, that among the Crees, while an Indian lives with his wife's family, his mother-in-law must not speak to or look at him. In some portions of Australia, " the mother-in-law does not allow the son-in-law to see her, but hides herself if he is near, and if she has to pass him makes a circuit, keeping carefully concealed within her cloak." Among some of the tribes in Central Africa, from the moment a marriage is contracted, the lover may not be- hold the parents of his future bride. When a young man wishes to marry a girl, he despatches a messenger to ' Quoted by Tylor. Early History of Mankind, p. 290. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 151 negotiate with her parents regarding the presents re- quired and the number of oxen demanded. This being arranged, he may not again look upon the father and mother of his intended wife ; " he takes the greatest care to avoid them, and if by chance they perceive him they cover their faces as if all ties of friendship were broken." We are told, however, that this indifference is only feigned, that they feel the same friendship as before, and in conversation extol one another's merit. Mr. Caillie informs us that this custom extends beyond the relations ; if the lover is of a different camp, he must avoid all the inhabitants of the lady's camp, except a few intimate friends who doubtless are permitted to assist him in his love-making. A little tent is set up for him in the neighborhood, under which he is to remain during the day. If he has occasion to cross the camp he must cover his face. He may not see the face of his intended throughout the day, but at nightfall he may creep silently to her tent and remain with her until the dawn. These clandestine visits are continued for a month or two when the marriage is solemnized. At the wedding festival the women collect round the bride singing her praises and extolling her virtues.' Gubernatis is authority for the statement that, in many parts of Italy, the bride is compelled to go through the process of weeping on her wedding-day, also for the fact that one of the marriage customs prevalent in Sardinia is identical with that which appeared among the plebeians ' Travels Through Central Africa, vol. i., p. 94. 152 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. at Rome, namely, the pretence of tearing the bride from the arms of her mother.' From the facts which have been obtained relative to the practice of wife-capture, it is only natural to suppose that the mother of the captured wife would be her chief ally and defender ; that such has been the case seems to be clearly shown by the symbols of distrust and aversion everywhere manifested between mothers-in-law and sons- in-law among the various existing uncivilized races. The practice of wife-capture exists either as a reality or as a symbol entering into the marriage ceremonies among the tribes of Central Africa, the Indians of North and South America, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Arabia, in the hill tracts of India, among the Fuegians, and in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and wherever this system is found the symbol of hatred between mother- in-law and son-in-law also prevails. As the numerous Arabian clans in the time of Mo- hammed represented the varying stages of advancement from the second period of barbarism to civilization, the constitution of Arab society at that time affords an excellent opportunity for observing the growth of the institution of marriage, and the various processes by which the former supremacy of women was over- thrown. One of the principal objects of war at the time of the Prophet is said to have been the capture of women for wives, and he recognized the practice as lawful. Under ' See McLennan's Studies in Ancient History, p. i8g. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 53 Islam the ' custom of forcibly carrying off women for wives was universal, and was carried on side by side with the system of marriage by capture or sale. The position of the captured woman, however, differed some- what from that of the purchased wife. The former, having been forcibly carried away from her home, lost the protection of her friends, while the purchased wife, although she relinquished the authority which had formerly been exercised by women within the gens, and although she surrendered her person to her " lord," did not forfeit her right to the protection of her own family in case of abuse. Although in Arabia, under the form of marriage by sale or contract, the wife lost the right to the control of property belonging to her own gens, she did not, as in Rome, forfeit her claim to the protection of her kindred. If she received ill treatment within the home of her hus- band, her relatives, who were still her natural protectors, were bound to redress her wrongs. In Rome, on the contrary, under a system representing a later stage in the development of marriage, the wife was adopted into the stock of her husband, whose rights over her person were supreme, at the same time that her kindred re- nounced the right to interfere in her behalf. It is to this fact, that in early Arabia the wife never relinquished her hold upon her own relations, that we are to look for an explanation of the high social position of Arabian women. We are assured that it is " an old Arab sentiment, and not Moslem," that women are en- 154 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. titled to the highest respect, and that as mothers of the tribe they " are its most sacred trust." According to Prof. W. R. Smith, in Mohammed's time, in addition to the two forms of marriage mentioned, namely, that by capture and that by sale or contract, there existed also a more ancient form known as the sadtca — a form of conjugal union which was a remnant of the matriarchal system. By observing the facts con- nected with this last-named institution, we shall be enabled to understand something of the position occu- pied by women during the earlier ages of human existence before wife-capture became prevalent. Among certain tribes just prior to Islam, upon the event of marriage, the man presented the woman with a sum of money, which offering was simply an acknowl- edgement of the favor which she was conferring upon him. The husband went to live with the wife in her tent, and as the contract was for no specified length of time, he was at liberty to go whenever he tired of the conditions imposed on him by his wife and her rela- tions. Any children, however, that were born as a result of this union belonged to the mother, and became members of her hayy. If she desired him to go, she simply turned the tent round, " so that if the door had faced east it now faced west, and when the man saw this he knew that he was dismissed and did not enter." In relation to these marriage customs Prof. Smith says : " Here, therefore, we have the proof of a well-established custom of that kind of marriage which naturally goes THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 155 with female kinship in the generation immediately before Islam." Of this kind of marriage the same writer observes : " The moid marriage was a purely personal contract, founded on consent between a man and a woman, without any intervention on the part of the woman's kin. . . . Now the fact that there was no contract with the woman's kin — such as was necessary when the wife left her own people and came under the authority of her hus- band — and that, indeed, her kin might know nothing about it, can have only one explanation : in mota marriage the woman did not leave her home, her people gave up no rights which they had over her, and the children of the marriage did not belong to the husband. Mota marriage, in short, is simply the last remains of that type of marriage which corresponds to a law of mother-kinship, and Islam condemns it, and makes it 'the sister of harlotry,' because it does not give the husband a legitimate offspring, /. e., an offspring that is reckoned to his own tribe and has rights of inheritance within it." ' Before the separation of the Hebrews and Arameans, the wife remained within her own tent, where she re- ceived her husband, the children of such unions taking her name and becoming her heirs. This kind of conju- gal union is known to have been in existence in many portions of the world. In Ceylon it is designated as the beena marriage. In ancient Arabia, not only did women control their own homes, but they owned flocks and herds, and were absolutely independent of male relations. As late as the fourteenth century of our era, although the women of certain Arabian tribes were willing to marry strangers, they never followed them to their homes. Among the Bedouins it is a rare thing for a woman ' Prof. W. R, Smith, Kinship and Marriage, p. 69. 156 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. at marriage to leave her home and kindred. When a woman marries a man he settles among her kins- men, and, as she presents him with a spear and a tent by way of dowry, it would seem that he is expected to join her relations and assist in the common defence. The marks of authority under gentile rule are the pos- session of a tent and a lance ; yet we find that these are the objects which, under matriarchial usages, the wife tenders her husband when he enters her family ; the first doubtless as a symbol of her protection, the second as indicating her authority and the services which he is expected to render her and her people. Until a late period in Rome it was the custom, during the solem- nities of marriage, to pass a lance over the head of the wife in token of the power which the husband was about to gain over her.' Under the two types of marriage — namely, mota and ba'al, — the positions of women were so diametrically opposed that both could not continue, hence when under the pressure brought to bear upon them, women began to accept the ba'al form of marriage within their own hayy, mota unions were doomed. Of the more ancient form of marriage in Arabia, under which the woman chooses her mate, evidences of which are still extant in that country, and that by capture under which she be- comes the slave of her lord, Prof. Smith says : ' ' There is then abundant evidence that the ancient Arabs practised marriage by capture. And we see that the type of marriage so con- ' Ortolan, History of Roman Law, p. 80. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 57 stituted is altogether different from those unions of which the moti. is a survival, and kinship through women the necessary accompani- ment. In the one case the woman chooses and dismisses her husband at will, in the other she has lost the right to dispose of her person and so the right of divorce lies only with the husband ; in the one case the woman receives the husband in her own tent, among her own people, in the other she is brought home to his tent and people ; in the one case the children are brought up under the protection of the mother's kin and are of her blood, in the other they remain with the father's kindred and are of his blood. "All later Arabic marriages under the system of male kinship, whether constituted by capture or by contract, belong to the same type : in all cases, as we shall presently see in detail, the wife who follows her husband and bears children who are of his blood has lost the right freely to dispose of her person ; the husband has authority over her and he alone has the right of divorce. Accordingly the hus- band in this kind of marriage is called, not in Arabia only, but also among the Hebrews and Aramaeans, the woman's ' lord ' or ' owner,' and wherever this name for husband is found we may be sure that marriage is of the second type, with male kinship, and the wife bound to the husband and following him to his home. " ' It is found that notwithstanding the humane enact- ments of Mohammed in the interest of women, their position steadily declined, such enactments having been overbalanced by the establishment of marriages of do- minion, by the growing idea that sadica or mota mar- riages were not respectable, and that women could not depend upon their relations to take their part against their husbands. The history of religion shows that its growth has always followed the same course as has the growth of the ideas relative to the import- ance of the sexes ; in other words, the god-idea and the fundamental doctrines of religion are always found ' Kinship and Marriage, p. 75. 158 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. to be in harmony with the established principles and ideas relative to sex domination and superiority. The religion of Mohammed was essentially masculine, all its principles being in strict accord with male supremacy ; it is not, therefore, singular that when the weight of re- ligion was added to the already growing tendency toward ba'al marriages that sadica marriages were doomed. In Arabia, as elsewhere, the duties of the purchased wife were specific. The present which under the older form of marriage had been given to the bride as a love- token, or as an acknowledgement of the husband's devo- tion to her, subsequently took the form of a purchase price, and was claimed by her father and brothers as a compensation for the loss sustained by the group through the removal of her offspring, whose services belonged to their mother's people. In other words, the husband paid a price to the wife's relations for the right to raise chil- dren by her which should belong exclusively to his kin — children which should she remain within her own home would belong to her kindred. The wife was therefore removed to the husband's hayy, where, so far as the sexual relation was concerned, his rights over her were supreme. In Matabeleland, when a man wishes to marry, he asks the father of the woman whom he desires for a wife for permission to take her to his camp, giving, if he pleases, nothing in exchange, or, if he so desires, he may settle the affair at once by payment. If no children are born the husband may return the wife to her parents and take THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 159 one of her sisters, in case there is one available. " Should a child be born, however, and the man have given noth- ing to the father of his wife in the first instance, he will now have to pay double her former value and double it again for every other child." ' At a certain stage of human development, the numeri- cal proportion of the sexes to a considerable extent de- termined the form of marriage in use. There is little doubt that polyandry under certain conditions has from time to time been practised in many parts of the world, and that wherever it has prevailed it has been the result of scarcity of women. The earliest form of polyandry was that under which the woman, remaining with her own people, under cer- tain specified rules, received suitors, usually brothers, from a friendly group — brothers, in this sense, meaning members of the same clan. Under such marriages all the children remained with the mother, and were counted with her kindred. A later form of polyandry isJhaLin-w^fcich the woman is removed to a neigMJormg group,_where she becomes the property ^ "wife" of 'several Jtoothers, in which case all the chilidren home bjr^'^p are accournted^'as be- longing to the el the next elder b as membe the part of ibandg?**When he dies the responsibility of children are raised up with no concern on /' E. P. Matheis, famiesia, p. 170 paternity! TKese-two \ l6o PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. forms of marriage, which are frequently practised side by side, clearly represent a time when property was be- ginning to be claimed by the males of the group, and before a system of individual ownership had become general. We have observed that wherever the posses- sions of the gens continued to be the common property of all its members, and were controlled by women, the man at marriage went to live with the woman ; so soon, however, as men began to claim the soil, and property began to accumulate in their hands, the wife went to reside with her husband and his family as a dependent. Among various tribes the form of marriage in use de- pends on the means of the contracting parties ; if the man is able to pay to the woman's father or brothers the full price charged for her, she goes to him as his slave — she is his property as much as is his dog or his gun ; if, however, he is unable to pay the amount charged, he goes to live with her and her family, and becomes their slave. Marsden informs us that there formerly existed three kinds of marriage in Sumatra, the joojoor, in which the man purchased the woman ; the ambel ana, in which the woman purchased the man ; and the Semundo, in which the man and woman unite by mutual consent. Under the joojoor marriage the husband pays a price to the parents of his bride, whose situation in his home differs little from that of a slave to the man she marries and to his family. In cases of ill-treatment the parents have the right to interfere ; the husband is liable to a fine for wounding her. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. l6l Marriage by ambel ana is contracted in the following manner : The father of a virgin makes choice of some young man for her husband from a neighboring family, which renounces all further right to or interest in him. He is at once removed to the home of his father-in-law, who kills a buffalo on the occasion, and receives twenty dollars from the son's relations, after which the " good and bad of him " is vested in the family of his wife. If he murders or robs, they pay the fine. If he is mur- dered, they receive the fine. They are held responsible for any debts which he may contract after marriage, those prior to it remaining with his parents. "He lives in the family in a state between that of a son and a debtor. He partakes as a son of what the house affords, but has no property in himself. His rice plantation, the produce of his pepper garden, with everything he can gain or earn, belongs to the family. He is liable to be divorced at their pleasure, and though he has chil- dren, must leave all, and return naked as he came. The family sometimes indulge him with leave to remove to a house of his own, and take his wife with him ; but he, his children, and effects, are still their property." The semundo, or free marriage, is a regular treaty be- tween the parties on the footing of equality. The agree- ment stipulates that " all effects, gains, or earnings are to be equally the property of both, and in case of divorce by mutual consent, the stock, debts, and credits are to be equally divided. If the man only insists on divorce, he gives the woman her half of the effects. ... If' the woman only claims the divorce, she forfeits her right to the proportion of the effects ; " she has, however, the right to keep her paraphernalia.' ' History of Sumatra, p. 223. 1 62 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. In Japan, among the higher classes, upon the marriage of the eldest son, his bride accompanies him to his pater- nal home ; but, on the other hand, when the eldest daughter marries, her husband takes up his abode with her parents. Eldest daughters always retain their own name, which their husbands are obliged to assume. As the wife of an eldest son becomes a member of her hus- band's family, and the husband of an eldest daughter joins the family of his wife and assumes her name, the eldest son of a family may not marry the eldest daugh- ter of another family. Regarding the younger members of the household, if the husband's family provides the house, the wife takes his name, while if the bride's family furnishes the home the bridegroom assumes the name of the wife.' In the marriage customs of various nations, and in their ideas relative to the ownership and control of the home, may be observed something more than a hint of the principal causes underlying the decline of female power. Wherever women remain within their own homes, or with their own relations, they are mistresses of the situation ; but when they follow the fathers of their children to their homes, they become dependents, and wholly subject to the will and pleasure of their husbands. It is plain, however, that under a system of marriage by sale or contract, although a woman might exercise little influence in the home of her husband, so long as ' Quoted by C. S. Wake from Morgan's System, etc., p. 428. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 163 her relations stood ready to defend her she would enjoy an immunity from abuse. The fact that a woman can count upon her relations for protection against her hus- band, shows plainly that in a certain stage of marriage by contract or sale, women are not the abject slaves which they have been represented to be. Although in the Fiji Islands a man may seize a woman and take her to his home, she does not remain with him unless agreeable to her inclinations.' " Amongst the Abipones, a man, on choosing a wife bargains with her parents about the price. But it fre- quently happens that the girl rescinds what has been agreed upon between the parents and the bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very mention of marriage." ' Among the Charruas of South America, divorce is quite optional. In Sumatra, if a man carries off a virgin against her will, he incurs a heavy fine, or if a man carries off a woman under pretence of marriage, " he must lodge her immediately with some reputable family." ' Although in the earlier ages of marriage by sale or contract, daughters were regarded as the property of their fathers, still that stage had not been reached at which women were accounted simply as instruments for the gratification of men. Although the Arabs practised marriage by sale or contract, they jealously watched over their women, — they " defended them with their lives and ' Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 598, ^ Ibid. ^ Marsden, History of Sumatra, p. 193. l64 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. eagerly redeemed them when they were taken captive." They thought it better to bury their daughters than to give them in marriage to unworthy husbands.' Accord- ing to the testimony of J. G. Wood, Kaffir women are very tenacious about their relations, probably, it is thought, for the reason that husbands are more respect- ful toward wives who have friends near them, than they are to those who have no relations at hand to take their part." Usually among the Kaffirs, according to Mr. Shooter, although a man pays a price to the parents of the woman whom he wishes to marry, the affair is by no means settled ; on the contrary, he must undergo the closest scrutiny by her before she will consent to accept him. Bidding him stand, she surveys first one side of him, then the other, the relations in the meantime stand- ing about awaiting her decision. Upon this subject Mr. Wood remarks : " This amusing ceremony has two meanings : the first that the contract of marriage is a voluntary act on both sides ; and the second, that the intending bridegroom has as yet no authority over her." ' Although under the system of marriage by sale or contract a woman has a voice in the selection of her hus- band, and although she can count on her kinsmen to protect her against abuse, still, practically, the con- tract brings the wife under the same condition as a ' Prof. Smith, Kinship and Marriage, p. 79. " Uncivilized Races, etc., p. 78. ' Uncivilized Races of the World, p. 79. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 65 captured wife ; she follows her husband to his home, where, as a dependent, he exercises control over her person and her children. Although in Arabia prior to the time of the Prophet the wife could claim the protec- tion of her kindred against her husband, the principle underlying marriage by contract and that by capture was the same, except that under the former the husband paid a price for the woman's sexual subjection, while under the latter, not only in sexual matters, but in all others as well, he was her lord and master. The Prophet says : " I charge you with your women, for they are with you as captives {awdni)." Prof. Smith informs us that according to the lexicons otwdnt is actu- ally used in the same sense as married women generally.' For long ages after ba'al marriages had been established, so degrading was the office of wife that women of rank were considered too great to marry. After relating some interesting accounts of certain practices in common with the custom of capture among the Brazilian tribes, Mr. Lubbock says : " This view also throws some light on the remarkable subordination of the wife to the husband, which is so characteristic of marriage, and so curiously inconsistent with all our avowed ideas ; moreover it tends to explain those curious cases in which Hetairte were held in greater estimation than those women who were, as we should consider, prop- erly and respectably married to a single husband. The former were originally fellow-countrywomen and relations ; the latter captives and slaves." " ' Kinship and Marriage, p. 77. '' Origin of Civilization, p. 127. 1 66 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. When selfishness and the love of gain became the rule of action,the protection of her kindred, which in an earlier age a woman could count on against her husband, was withdrawn, and daughters came to be looked upon as a legitimate source of gain to their families. On this sub- ject C. Staniland Wake remarks : " Women by marriage became slaves, and it was the universal practice for a man who parted with his daughter to be a slave to require a valuable consideration for her. Moreover, as a man can purchase as many slaves as he likes, so he can take as many wives as he pleases." ' Thus arose polygamy. In Rome, in the Latter Status of barbarism and the opening ages of civilization, we find that at marriage a woman forfeited all the privileges belonging to her as a member of her own family, while within that of her husband no compensatory advantages were granted her. Even a proprietary right in her own children was denied her, and, from a legal point of view, the wife became the daughter of her husband, and not unfrequently the ward of her own son. After the power gained by man over woman during the latter ages of barbarism had reached its height, it is found that the family was based not on the marriage of a woman and a man, but upon the power of a man over a woman and her offspring, or upon the absolute au- thority of the male parent. A man's wife and children were members of his family not because they were re- lated to him, but because they were subject to his con- ' C. Staniland Wake, Marriage and Kinship, p. 199. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 167 trol. At this stage in the development of the family, the father had the power of " uncontrolled corporal chastise- ment " and of life and death over his children." If it was his will to do so, he could even sell them. Indeed, a son's freedom from paternal tyranny could be gained only by the actual sale of his person by his father. Relating to the control exercised by the father over his children, it is observed that he had the right " during their whole life to imprison, scourge, keep to rustic labor in chains, to sell or slay, even though they may be in the enjoyment of high state offices." " If a father granted freedom to his son, that son was no longer a member of his family. That, with the exception of force, there is no quality in the male constitution capable of binding together the various individuals born of the same father, is apparent from the past history of the human race. Mr. Parkyns, referring to the character of the Abyssinians, observes that the worst point in the constitution of their society is the want of affection among relations, " even though they be children of one father." He says that the ani- mosities which keep the tribes in a constant state of war- fare do not exist among the offspring of the same mother and father, but, as the children of polygamous fathers are more numerous than own brethren, fraternal affection is a rare thing.' A comparison between the family group ' Maine, Ancient Law, p. 133. ' Ortolan, History of Roman Law, p. 107, ' Life in Abyssinia, p. 156. 1 68 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. under archaic usages, at a time when woman's influence was in the ascendency, and the Roman family under the older Roman law, will serve to show the wide difference existing between the altruistic and egoistic principles as controlling agencies in the home and in society. A significant fact in connection with this subject is here suggested, that, although for untold ages women were leaders of the gens, so long as their will was su- preme, no human right was ever invaded, and no legiti- mate manly prerogative usurped ; but, on the con- trary, all were equal, and the principles of a pure democ- cracy were firmly grounded. Liberty and justice had not at that time been throttled by the extreme selfishness inherent in human nature. From the facts of which we are in possession relative to the development of early mankind, it is certain that it must have required centuries upon centuries of time to subjugate women ; and that to bring them into har- monious relations with men while occupying a position of sexual slavery required, first, absolute dependence for the necessaries of life, and second, the crushing out, through physical force, of the last vestige of true wo- manly reserve. This accomplished, the processes were begun which were to rivet the chains by which they had been bound, and through which women themselves were to acquiesce in their own degradation. Religion was the means employed. Apollo, according to the Greek mythology, declared by an edict that man is superior to woman and must rule, and Minerva herself accepted the THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 69 decision. Through religion, or by the systematic culti- vation of the emotions to the exclusion of the reasoning faculties, women came to regard themselves simply as appendages to man, as tools or instruments for his gratification, and as themselves possessing no inherent right to happiness or liberty. The history of human marriage, as gathered from the various tribes and races in the several stages of develop- ment, shows the primary idea of the office of wife to have been that of the vilest slavery, and discloses the fact that it was the desire for foreign women who, shorn of their natural independence, could be controlled, which caused the overthrow of female supremacy. Not- withstanding this fact, all writers who have thus far dealt with the subject of the early conditions of society pretend to believe that • when property began to be amassed in the hands of men, in order to be certain of the paternity of offspring it became necessary to deprive women of their former independence ; and in all the laws and customs which have thus far regulated the monogamic form of marriage, it is assumed that in order to bring the child into the possessions of its father, the wife must first be removed from the home of her family to a house owned and controlled by her " lord," where, hedged about by superstition, and systematically taught false ideas of her position, her actions may be contin- ually guarded and her person " protected " by one who assumes absolute control over her liberties. So mascu- linized have become all avenues of thought and feeling. 170 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. that the characters peculiar to the female organization — those correlated with the maternal instinct — are at the present time constantly misunderstood or wilfully mis- represented. Although our present system of marriage took its rise in the practice of forcibly carrying off women to be utilized as wives, we must remember that this system was not inaugurated for the purpose of establishing monogamy. On the contrary, the privileges of the captor remained the same within his tribe as before the foreign woman had been stolen. The theft therefore was committed for no other purpose than to augment the hitherto restricted range of sexual liberties, and to give to the father absolute dominion over the individuals born in his house. The system of marriage in vogue at the present time has never restricted men to the possession of a single woman. Monogamy, as established under male suprem- acy, means one husband for one woman, while a man may have as many wives as he is able or willing to sup- port. As women are still dependent on men for the necessities of life, the supply of the former is regulated by the demands of the latter. The facts elaborated by scientists, which go to prove that the progressive principle is confided to the female organization, is accentuated by the facts con- nected with the origin and subsequent history of mar- riage. That within the female organization lie the elements of progress is clearly indicated, not merely in THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 171 the position which the female occupied among the orders of life lower in the scale of being than mankind, and during the earlier ages of human history, but also by her career as the slave of man, and in the processes through which she is gradually dignifying and elevating the position of wife. Simply by means of the characters de- veloped within the female nature, without material resources, and even devoid of recognized influence, women as mothers have been able, even while occupy- ing the degrading position of wife, not only to subdue, or tame their less developed mates, but to a certain extent to dignify the family and the home. It is more than likely that in the not distant future even the institution of marriage through which women have been degraded will become so purified and ele- vated, that its results, instead of being a reproach and a menace to higher conditions, will constitute a continuous source of progress and an earnest of still higher achieve- ment. Before this may be accomplished, however, wives and mothers must be absolutely free, and wholly inde- pendent of the opposite sex for the means of support. Although the processes by which women at a certain stage of human growth lost their influence were gradual, they are by no means difficult to trace. We have seen that during the earlier ages of human existence the women of the tribe were absolutely independent of the men, and were therefore able to control their own move- ments. Only foreign women — captives stolen from their home and friends, — taken singly or in groups, could be 172 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. subjugated or brought into the wifely relation. Indeed, until the systematic practice of capturing women from hostile tribes for sexual purposes had been inaugurated, and the subsequent agency of repression — namely, own- ership of the soil by males, had followed as a natural consequence, the usurpation by man of the natural rights and privileges of woman was impossible. The male members of the group had not at that time the power to sell their sisters and other female relations, but, on the contrary, defended them manfully against the assaults of hostile tribes. The foreign captor, the wife-catcher, was an enemy who was both feared and hated, and upon him were showered the maledictions of the entire group upon which the assault had been made. In retaliation for his offense, the men who had been bereft of a sister must in their turn commit a like depredation ; thus, through the removal of women, the men of early groups gradually gained control of the common possessions at the same time that they were being supplied with foreign wives over whom they exercised absolute control. In process of time, when wealth began to accumulate in the hands of men, and when friendly relations began to be estab- lished betw.een neighboring tribes, foreign wives, without influence, were received in exchange for the free-born women of a man's own clan ; henceforward a resort to capture was unnecessary. Distant tribes, however, were still liable to attack. Wars were waged against the men, who were sometimes slain, sometimes taken prisoners, the invaders taking possession of the lands and com- THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 73 pelling the women to accept the position of wife to them. Filially, negotiations were entered into where- by women were uniformly taken from their homes to become wives in alien groups. Later the ba'al form of marriage came to prevail within the tribe. Prof. Smith, quoting from the advice given by an Arab to his son, says : " Do not marry in your own hayy, for that leads to ugly family quarrels," to which he adds, " there was a real inconsistency in the position of a woman who was at once her husband's free kinswoman and his purchased wife. It was better to have a wife who had no claims of kin and no brethren near to take her part. " ' Under earlier conditions of the human race, women as bearers and protectors of the young were regarded as the natural land-owners ; hence, they did not leave their own homes to follow the fathers of their children. The woman who left her own relations for ' the hayy of her husband could no longer exercise control over the pos- sessions of her own gens, neither could she at a later period inherit property from her kindred, for the reason that her interests were identical with those of her chil- dren, and her children belonged to another clan. As property could not be transferred from the group in which it originated, she was disinherited. Through marriage women gave up their natural right to the soil, and consequently to independence. A knowledge of the facts connected with the origin of the institution of marriage, reveals the fact that women lost their ' Kinship and Marriage, p. 105. 174 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. influence and power, not because of their sex, but be- cause they were foreigners and dependents in the homes of their husbands. In process of time, women bound to foreign tribes by the children which had been born to them while in the position of captive slaves, began to accommodate them- selves to the situation, and even to claim an interest in the home of their adoption, whereupon friendly relations began to be established between the tribe of the mother and that of the father. Hence may be observed the fact that maternal affection was the agency by which the barriers between unrelated groups were gradually broken down, and by which a spirit of friendliness was estab- lished between hitherto hostile tribes. As the coherence of the group had been established through maternal love, so the confederacy of tribes to form the nation was accomplished by the same means. Of all the forms of human slavery which have been devised, there has probably never been one so degrading as is that which has been practised within the marital relation, nor one in which the extrication of the enslaved has been a matter of such utter hopelessness. In the primary position of wife we behold woman an alien and a stranger in the hut of her master, with no rights which any one is bound to respect. Torn from friends and home, dependent, and suffering from the assaults of her worse than brutal lord, she wakes to find herself en- tombed in a lazar-house more loathsome and foul than the " reeking cavern of a hundred lepers." She has in- THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 1 75 deed reached the lowest depth of physical degradation to which a human being may descend — she has become the slave of the unrestrained appetites of her keeper. As a sexual slave, weakened by abuse and terrified into obedience, woman lost all chance of independence ; and from a self-sustaining, liberty-loving, free individual, she became a thing, a menial, a mere pensioner on the bounty of a tyrannical lord and master, who, although a detested foreigner, had the power of life and death over her person. In process of time, when vast hordes began their wars of conquest and spoliation, and when the men belonging to the invaded country were either taken pris- oners or slain, the women being utilized as wives, there was no longer any security except in strength of arms. Women had the fear of captivity constantly before them. Their degradation was inevitable. Finally, when friendly relations had been established between hitherto hostile tribes, and women, as depend- ents, began to follow men to their homes, all hope of liberty was gone, their slavery was complete. Thus through the capture of women for wives, and the subsequent control of property by males, the ancient plan of government founded on female supremacy was overthrown, and those altruistic principles which are the legitimate outgrowth of the free maternal instinct, which for thousands upon thousands of years had guided the race on its onward course, finally succumbed to a system based on the dominion of passion and physical force. When we remember the conditions surrounding early 176 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. society we may well believe that civilization was gained, not because of the fact that male power succeeded in gaining the ascendency over female influence, but in spite of it. Given a combination of circumstances involving the supremacy of the lower instincts in mankind, and the individual ownership of land, the subjection of women, monarchy and slavery, with all their attendant evils, namely, over-population, disease, crime, and misery, were sure to follow. When we consider the fundamental bias of the two diverging lines of sexual demarcation, it is not per- haps singular that the strong sexual nature which has prompted males to vigorous physical action should for a time have gained the ascendency over the higher quali- ties peculiar to females ; yet the material progress achieved under the inspiration and direction of agencies like this will not, in a more enlightened stage of exist- ence, be regarded as embodying the results of the best efforts of human activity, or as representing the highest capabilities of the race. Probably no one will deny that the accumulation of wealth by individuals, and the subsequent change in the relative positions of the sexes, were necessary steps toward the establishment of society on a political or territorial basis, or toward the breaking up of kindred groups and the acknowledgment of the idea of the unity of the entire human family. Neither will the proposition be contradicted that the evils attending these THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE. 177 changes, namely, monarchy, slavery, the inordinate love of gain and possibly the growth of superstition, have been unavoidable adjuncts to the development of the race ; yet, who will doubt that under higher conditions, as the animal recedes in the distance, these blots on the records of human history will be regarded not as regular steps in the advancement of mankind, but as by-paths which, owing to the peculiar bias which had been given to the male organization among the lower forms of life, the human race has been obliged to take in order to reach civilization ? CHAPTER V. BACHOFEN'S THEORY TO ACCOUNT FOR THE EARLY SUPREMACY OF WOMEN. AMONG the most conspicuous of the writers who have dealt with the subject of primitive society are Herr Bachofen, Mr. J. F. McLennan, Sir John Lub- bock, and Mr. L. H. Morgan. In 1861, the first named of these writers, a Swiss jurist, pubhshed an extensive work on the early condition of society, entitled Das Mutterrecht (The Mother-right), in which was first given to the world the theory that prior to the establishment of a system of kinship through males, there everywhere existed a system based on female supremacy, under which descent was reckoned through women. Bachofen was first led to a belief in a former state of society in which women were the recognized leaders through the evidence which everywhere underlies the traditions and mythologies of extant nations. Upon in- vestigation he found indisputable evidence going to prove that every family of the human race had under- gone the same processes of development or growth, and that among all peoples female influence was once su- preme. 178 BACHOFEN'S THEORY. 1 79 According to Bachofen's theory, as there were at this early stage of human existence no " laws " regulat- ing the intercourse between the sexes, human beings lived in a state of lawlessness or hetairism. Recognizing the fact that regarding the sexual instinct women are more refined and less given to excesses than men, he says that becoming disgusted with their manner of liv- ing they rebelled, and rising in arms, conquered their male persecutors by sheer superiority in military skill ; and that after they had overthrown the degrading prac- tices of communal or lawless marriage, they established monogamy in its stead, under which system woman be- came the recognized head of the family. Children, although they had hitherto succeeded to the father's name, were now called after the mother, and all rights of inheritance were thereafter established in the female line. Not only did women take upon themselves the exercise of domestic authority and control, but, act- ing under a strong religious impulse, they seized the reins of popular government and completed their title to absolute dominion by wielding the political sceptre as well, thus declaring themselves unconditional masters of the situation. At this juncture in human affairs the belief began to be entertained that motherhood was divine, while the paternal office was regarded only in the light of a human relation. Thus, through religion, women were raised from a state of hetairism, or sexual slavery, to a position of independence and self-respect. But that which was l8o PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. gained through a supernatural impulse they were destined subsequently to lose through the same source ; for, when in Greece, the doctrine was promulgated that the spirit of the child is derived from its father, paternity at once assumed a divine character, and, as under the new order, the functions of the mother were only to clothe the spirit, or simply to act as " nurse " to the heaven- born production of the father, women lost their suprem- acy, and under the new regime, maternity and womanhood again trailed in the dust. According to Bachofen, however, the cause of mothers did not at once cease to be the subject of con- tention and conflict, but ever and anon fresh battles and renewed struggles proclaimed the discontent and un- easiness of women, and heralded the fact that the contest for supremacy had not yet ended. But, in process of time, as resistance proved ineffectual, mothers themselves gradually succumbed to the new idea of the divine char- acter of the father, and, without further murmuring or complaint, accepted gracefully the position of nurse to the children. The father now became the recognized head of the family, and men at once seized the reins of government. Descent was henceforth traced in the male line, and children took the father's instead of the mother's name ; in fact all relationships to which rights of succession were attached, were thereafter traced through fathers only. The complete and final triumph of males having been established by the all-powerful authority of Roman BACHOFEN'S THEORY. l8l jurisprudence, the conflict between the sexes was ended forever. Thus, according to Bachofen, was the su- premacy of women gained and lost. Through a profound study of the traditions and mythologies of antiquity, this writer was enabled to dis- cover the fact that at an earlier age in human history women were the recognized leaders of mankind; that their influence and authority were supreme over both the family and the community, and that all relationships to which rights of succession were attached were traced through them. In attempting to account for this early period of gynecocracy (the existence of which to Bachofen's mind no doubt presented a singular and in- tricate problem) it first became necessary to set forth a theory concerning a former condition of society out of which such a state could have been evolved. But as at the time Das Mutterrecht made its appearance, the theory of the development of the human Bp"ecies from pre-existing orders had not been generally adopted by scientists, and as many of the various means at present employed for obtaining a knowledge of primitive races had not been brought into requisition, even the vast learning of Bachofen did not suffice to furnish a satisfactory solution of the problem. We have seen that in addition to the discovery that at an early age in human experience female influence was supreme, he had arrived at the conclusion that the natu- ral instincts of women are more refined than are those of men ; yet, notwithstanding this, so accustomed had he l82 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. become to the predominance of the masculine instincts in every branch of human activity as to be unable to conceive of a state of society in which the finer charac- ters belonging to females could have controlled the sexual relation. In other words, he was unable to connect these two facts, or to perceive that that tendency or quality required for the protection of the germ and the species, and which so early characterized the female sex, had constituted the most primitive influence by which the human race had been governed. As in the earliest ages of human existence no arbitrary laws regulating marriage and the relations of the sexes had been in operation, he could discern no condition under which society could have existed other than that of " lawlessness " or " hetair- ism '' — a condition under which women were slaves, and men ruled supreme. As Herr Bachofen was doubtless unaware of the fact that the human animal is a descendant from creatures lower in the scale of life, the idea of connecting his history with theirs had probably by him never been thought of ; therefore, judging primitive society, not by the instincts and the natural laws governing them which mankind had inherited from their progenitors, but, on the contrary, measuring them by the standards of later ages, when the grosser or disruptive elements had gained dominion over the finer or constructive qualities in hu- man nature, he was unable to discern any way in which the conditions of female supremacy everywhere indi- cated in the traditions and mythologies of antiquity BACHOFEN'S THEORY. 1 83 could have originated, except in an uprising of women, and a resort to arms for the protection of their womanly dignity. In referring to the military exploits of the women of Lycia, and, in fact, of various portions of Africa and Asia, at a comparatively late stage in human history, Bachofen says that the importance of Amazonianism as opposed to Hetairism for the elevation of the feminine sex, and through them of mankind, cannot be doubted. There seems to be considerable evidence going to prove that there have been times in the past history of the race in which women were brave in war and valiant in defending their rights. Indeed, the accounts given of the struggles of the Amazons in maintaining their independence against surrounding nations — notably, the Greeks — are tolerably well authenticated.' Although the fact seems to be well substantiated that in certain portions of the earth, and at various periods in the history of the race, women have maintained their independence and protected their interests by force of arms, it seems quite as certain that actual warfare carried ' Concerning one of the encounters of this warlike people, the following has been recounted by Plutarch ( Theseus) : "And it appears to have been no slight or womanish enterprise ; for they could not have encamped in the town, or joined battle on the ground about the Pnyx and the Museum, or fallen in so intrepid a manner upon the city of Athens, unless they had first reduced the country round about. It is difficult, indeed, to believe (though Hel- lanicus has related it) that they crossed the Cimmerian Bosphorus upon the ice ; but that they encamped almost in the heart of the city is confirmed by the names of places, and by the tombs of those that fell." 1 84 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. on by them has been confined to peoples among which male supremacy had but recently been gained, and among which a resort to arms represented the last act of desperation to which they were driven to maintain their dignity and honor. We have reason to believe, however, that even these cases have been exceptional ; at least, from the facts at hand, we have no cause for thinking that at any stage in the history of women's career, armed resistance to masculine authority has been uniform or protracted among them. According to scientists, among the lower orders of life, males are considerably in the excess of females, and among less developed races men are more numerous than women. It has been shown in a former portion of this work that the advancement of civilization is charac- terized by a corresponding increase in the number of women among the adult population ; hence their evi- dent lack of numbers among primitive peoples, to say nothing of their probable aversion to war and bloodshed, would at once preclude the idea that their dominion was achieved through armed resistance to a foe so superior in numbers and in fighting qualities. By a natural law governing propagation — a law which determines the numerical proportion of the sexes, and which creates an excess in the number of that sex best suited to its en- vironment, primitive women, had they relied on physi- cal force, would have had little chance to maintain their independence. In a former portion of this work it has been observed BACHOFEN'S THEORY. 185 that it was neither to lack of numbers nor to their want of physical force that women were divested of their power. In other words, it was not through their weak- ness, but through the peculiar course which the develop- ment or growth of males had taken, that under certain conditions women became enslaved. Not merely from the facts laid down by naturalists regarding the peculiar development of the male, but from later researches into the conditions and causes which have influenced progress, it is plain that no re- strictions on the range of sexual liberties could have originated in males. Hence the demand for a more re- fined state of society must have begun with females. This fact seems to have been perceived by Bachofen, but, as according to his reasoning, at an early period of human existence, women were slaves, exercising none of the powers necessary to personal control, it is diiScult to conceive of any manner in which it was possible for them to rise to the social position and moral dignity ascribed to them in Das Mutterrecht. According to the theory set forth by this writer, how- ever, religion was the cause of the important change which at this time took place in the positions of the sexes. Although, according to him, the religion which prevailed during the ages of " lawlessness " was of a low " telluric chthonic " type, it was nevertheless the cause, or at least one of the causes, which led to the abandon- ment of promiscuity and the establishment of the mono- gamic family. It will doubtless be remembered, however, 1 86 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. that this age of lawlessness or hetairism which Bach- ofen has described, represents a very early stage of human existence, in which, according to his reasoning, the baser instincts ruled supreme ; nevertheless, within it, he would have us believe that a religious system had been evolved capable of lifting women from a state of degradation to which they had been consigned by na- ture, or at least to which they had always been commit- ted, to a position of influence and womanly dignity in which they were able to assume supreme control over the forces by which they had been enslaved. With sex- ual desire as the controlling influence in human affairs, and with women in bondage to this power, it is difficult to conceive of any manner in which such a religion could have arisen. As all religious systems are believed to represent growths, and to indicate a result of the degree of prog- ress attained, it is evident that had a religion appeared at this early age which was capable of elevating women from a condition of degradation, as indicated by the early state described by Bachofen, it could not have been the result of natural development, but, on the con- trary, must have proceeded directly from a divine source; in which event it would doubtless have remained upon the earth still further to aid development and bless the race. Such, however, was not the outcome of this remarkable but premature religion ; for it is asserted by this writer that what women gained by religion they afterward lost through the same source — that in Greece, BACffOFEN'S THEORY. 1 8/ the loss first came through the oracle of Dionysos, which declared the father to be the real parent of the child. Bachofen assures us, also, that through the Bac- chanalian excesses which followed the dominion of males in Greece, hetairism was again restored, and through this means gynecocracy reappeared. From this it would seem that although under the earliest stage of hetairism women were without power, and wholly under the control of men, with the return, at a later age, of a like state of society, the basis was at once laid for female supremacy. It is evident that Herr Bachofen's confusion arises from a misconception of the early importance of women. Although, perhaps, more than any other writer upon this subject, he has been able to recognize the true bias of the female constitution, yet, as he has mistaken the rela- tive positions of women and men at the outset of the human career, and as he has been unable to perceive the previously developed influences which governed these relations, he has failed to furnish a satisfactory solution of the problem of the early supremacy of women, which, from the evidence adduced, not only by the traditions and mythologies of past ages, but by later developments in ethnology, may not be doubted. Prior to the appearance of mankind on the earth, had there been developed within the female no higher ele- ment than that which characterized the male, and had she appeared on the scene of human action as the will- ing and natural tool of her less-developed male mate, it l88 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. is plain that she would have been unable to elevate herself to the position of dignity which Bachofen assigns her, and which, until a comparatively recent period in the human career, it is plain that she occupied. As among the orders of creation below mankind the structural organization of the male has been materially changed through his efforts to please the female and secure her favors, it is evident that under earlier and more natural conditions of human life, the appetites de- veloped within him were still largely controlled by her will. From logical conclusions to be drawn from the hypotheses of naturalists, it is not likely that at the outset of human life those restrictions on the nature of the male imposed by the female throughout the animal kingdom were suddenly withdrawn, or that the destructive elements which all along the line of progress had been in abeyance to the higher powers developed in organized matter, were immediately and without good cause put in absolute command over the constructive forces of life. With a better knowledge of the past history of man- kind, comes the assurance that such was not the case, but, on the contrary, that for thousands of years women were the ruling spirits in human society; that the cohe- sive quality — sympathy, which is the result of the mater- nal instinct, and which conserves the highest interests of offspring, was the underlying principle which governed human groups — in fact, that it was the principle which made organization possible and progress attainable. CHAPTER VI. WIFE-CAPTURE— MR. McLENNAN'S THEORY. BECAUSE of the singularity of the symbol of wife- capture, and the extent to which it prevails among extant tribes, it has excited, during the past thirty-five years, no small amount of interest, and much attention has been given to the matter with a view to un- ravelling the mysteries involved in it. As a result of these inquiries various theories have been propounded to account for the origin and significance, not only of wife-capture, but of the system of gynecocracy which is now known to have prevailed up to a comparatively re- cent stage in the history of mankind. Although nearly all the writers who have thus far attempted to solve this problem have presented many valuable facts bearing upon it, none of them, so far as I know, has been able to perceive the true relation exist- ing between the facts which he has set forth. In other words, as they have overlooked the relations which must have existed between the sexes at the dawn of human existence, they have been unable to construct a trust- worthy theory to account for either of these, to them, no doubt, singular phenomena. 189 igO PRE-HISTORIC SOCIETY. Foremost among those who have dealt with the sub- ject of wife-capture is J. F. McLennan, and, as by many persons this writer is regarded as an authority, a review of his theories may not be altogether unprofitable. In order to explain the symbol of wife-capture, and to show its significance as it appears in the marriage cere- monies of the various peoples among which it prevails, Mr. McLennan devotes several pages of his work on Primitive Marriage to the descriptions given of it by various travellers and explorers who have witnessed the strange customs connected with this symbol, and who, having been deeply impressed by their singularity, have recorded the accounts of their experiences. In 1866, although unacquainted with the fact of the existence of Bachofen's work, "by reasoning on the exigencies " of his own former " explanation of the origin of the form of wife-capture," Mr. McLennan was led to the same or similar conclusions regarding the early supremacy of women as had been adopted by the author of Das Mutterrecht, and subsequently incorporated the new doctrine into his work on Primitive Marriage. The avowed object of Mr. McLennan's volume on Primitive Marriage, is to trace the origin of wife-capture — a practice which, as we have already seen, is found to exist either as a legal symbol in marriage ceremonies, or as a stern reality among peoples which have not yet at- tained to civilization. " In the whole range of legal symbolism," says he, " there is no symbol more remark- able than that of capture in marriage ceremonies." WIFE-CAPTURE — MCLENNAN. 19I After setting forth a great many incidents and exam- ples to prove the prevalence of wife-capture among tribes which have not yet attained to civilized condi- tions, and after denouncing as absurd the theories con- cerning the symbol of force in the marriage ceremonies which Miiller said were entertained at Sparta, and which Festus declared were held at Rome, Mr. McLen- nan observes : " The question now arises, what is the meaning and what the origin of a ceremony so widely spread that already on the threshold of our inquiry the reader must be prepared to find it connected with some universal tendency of mankind ?" As an answer to his inquiry we have in substance the following : In the in- fancy of the human race, although women like men were governed by the lower instincts, there must have been a time when wives could be obtained only through force or theft. In the nature of the case, in those times, the practice of wife-stealing must have been general, or to use Mr. McLennan's own terms, it " was almost invari- able," else the association of the idea of force with that of marriage could not have survived in a symbol prac- tised in nuptial ceremonies ages after its original signifi- cance had been forgotten. The mere lawlessness of savages in appropriating that which did not belong to them could, he thinks, never have become thus crystal- lized into a legal symbol, else transferences of other kinds of property would also have become symbolized. It is therefore probable, according to Mr. McLennan, that the practice is due to some early custom, or law 192 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. governing the relations of the group — some binding tribal arrangement which made the possession of wives possible only through stealth or violence. What then was this arrangement ? Mr. McLennan's theory to ac- count for the rise of exogamy, the practice of wife- capture, and that of obtaining wives by contract or sale may be summarized in the following manner. Under the earliest conditions of human society, man- kind lived in a state of promiscuity. He thinks it might be shown that women among primitive tribes are usually depraved from their earliest infancy. Originally, individuals recognized no ties of kinship, but were affili- ated only to groups. To one another they were " simply as comrades." Even the tie between mother and child was ignored. Later, however, as this bond is "more obvious " than any other, kinship began to be " traced through women only." Women were regarded as the property of the tribe, i. e., of the men of the group, males exercising the power to control females as best suited their convenience or pleasure, even to the extent of putting them to death in infancy in case their presence became an encumbrance to them. The primary organization of society was into tribes, and from the tribe was evolved the gens or house, and the family. The tribe was at first endogamous, /. e., members married within the tribal group ; finally, how- ever, exogamy, or marriage without the tribe, prevailed, and men could get wives only from alien communities. As subsistence was scarce, and as war was the natural WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 193 and constant condition of primitive groups, only those of their number would be spared who would contribute to the defence of the tribe, or who would be able to aid in the supply of subsistence. Males were possessed of strength, they were by organization and inclination adapted to war and the chase, and could therefore assist in defending the tribe against the assaults of its enemies and in gaining the necessary food for its requirements. In fact, each male could perform his share of all the duties devolving upon the community of which he was a member. On the other hand, females being worthless in war and in the chase, were regarded as useless appen- dages, and, as they constituted a source of weakness to the tribe, large numbers of them were destroyed at birth. Through .this practice the balance of the sexes was greatly disturbed, and wives could be obtained only through stealth or a resort to force. In process of time, woman- stealing became a legitimate practice, and each warrior depended on his prowess in this particular line to pro- vide himself with a wife. Finally the children of these alien women began to intermarry, and thus, with the rise of endogamy, the necessity for wife-capture no longer existed, and the practice of stealing women for wives was superseded by a system in which wives procured from other tribes were habitually obtained either by gift or sale. Henceforward the symbol of wife-capture was retained in marriage ceremonies. Mr. McLennan is of the opinion that Nair polyandry '3 194 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. — a form of conjugal union under which a woman re- maining in her own home received one or more suitors — was the rudest form of marriage, while the Tibetan form, that under which the woman was removed to the home of several brothers to act in the capacity of sexual slave or wife to them, was a step toward the mono- gamic family, and therefore lay in the direct line of progress. Finally, after the monogamic family had been established with man at its head, through continued suc- cesses in war or through some other cause tending to enhance its importance, a powerful sect or clan, formed on the basis of kin, and bound together by the agnatic bond, would become proud and refuse to intermarry with other individuals than those within their own group, and in this manner the break-down of exogamy would be hastened, a caste would be established, and endogamy in all its primitive vigor would be reinstated as an ele- ment in further advancement. Within such groups the tendency would soon arise for its members to declare themselves co-descendants from some noble and cele- brated ancestor, either divine or human, and thus a fiction would be established, the effect of which would be a " denial or neglect of such heterogeneity as existed." Such was the condition of the Greek and Roman social organization at the beginning of the historic period. The foregoing theories are given by Mr. McLennan as a trust- worthy exposition of the symbol of wife-capture, and the origin and growth of the eponymous structure of society everywhere observed among the nations of antiquity. WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 1 95 Mr. McLennan treats with scorn the idea of Miiller that the symbol of force in marriage ceremonies meant nothing more at Sparta than that a young woman " could not surrender her freedom and virgin purity unless com- pelled by the violence of the stronger sex.'' Such an hypothesis, he declares " requires for its basis a declen- sion from ancient standards of purity — of the existence of which we have no evidence." As Mr. McLennan's avowed object in the preparation of his work on Primitive Marriage was to furnish an explanation to the syipbol of wife-capture which prevails in many portions of the world, and which appears to be almost universal in the marriage ceremonies of peoples in a certain stage of development, its appearance was naturally regarded with no small degree of interest ; and, as it was the first attempt offered toward the solution of this seemingly intricate problem, as it was not entirely wanting in ingenuity, it was for a considerable length of time welcomed as a probable contribution to our fund of information ; but with the increase of facts bearing on the early conditions of the race, his reasoning is seen to be founded on an entirely false hypothesis, and an utter misconception of the early organization of society. Although Mr. McLennan avers that it can be shown that "women among rude tribes are usually depraved and inured to scenes of depravity from their earliest in- fancy," he fails to produce any proof whatever to sub- stantiate his statement. We have seen that by the most trustworthy writers — those whose observations have been 196 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. the most extended — it has been shown that in the most primitive tribes, before they have been corrupted by our later civilization, a condition of morals exists quite equal in excellence to that of civilized countries. After referring to a state of advanced social existence in which every person knowing what is right would feel an irresistible impulse toward right-living, Mr. Wallace remarks that among people low in the scale of develop- ment " we find some approach to such a perfect social state." He observes : " It is not too inuch to say that the mass of our populations have not at all advanced beyond the savage code of morals, and have in many cases sunk below it." ' By Mr. McLennan, as we have seen, the maternal in- stinct as an agency in the formation of primitive groups is wholly ignored. The individual who bears and nour- ishes a child is no nearer to it than any other member of the community ; finally, however, as the tie between mother and child is more obvious than any other, kinship begins to be traced through women only ; nevertheless they are still subject to the pleasure of the men of the tribe. We have observed that from late researches into the history of existing tribes and early historic nations, the fact has been discovered that the entire superstructure of organized society rests on the gens. As this archaic institution represents the unit of primitive society, and as it contains the germ of all subsequent development, it ' The Malay Archipelago, p. 597. WIFE-CAPTURE — MCLENNAN. I97 is plain that in any investigation into the early condi- tions of mankind it should become the primary fact to be considered. In Mr. McLennan's Primitive Marriage, however, the gens as an institution representing a factor in early social development is scarcely noticed, but, instead, the tribe is recognized as the organic unit of society. Therefore, overlooking, or misunderstanding, as he evi- dently did, the primary fact to be considered, his theories to account for wife-capture are of Httle value, especially as it is observed that the conditions which he supposed never could have existed. In his attempt to explain the origin of wife-capture Mr. McLennan observes : " If it can be shown, firstly, that exogamous tribes exist, or have existed ; and sec- ondly, that in rude times the relations of separate tribes are uniformly, or almost uniformly, hostile, we have found a set of circumstances in which men could get wives only by capturing them — a social condition in which capture would be the necessary preliminary to marriage. '" Under the gentile organization of society, marriage within the gens, or within nearly related groups, was forbidden, and from this fact probably arises Mr. Mc- Lennan's exogamy. It must be borne in mind, however, that a gens comprised only a small portion of a tribe, and as the restriction on marriage was confined to this smaller group, marriage between the remaining groups was not forbidden ; hence, Mr. McLennan's ■ Studies in Ancient History , p. 28. 198 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. exogamous tribes are found to be wholly a creation of his fancy. Supposing a tribe to be composed of half a dozen gentes, a man may marry a woman belonging to any of the five remaining groups, but he may not marry within the limit of his own gens ; it is plain therefore that Mr. McLennan's entire theory (as Mr. Morgan has shown) is based on a misconception of the early organization of society and the regulations governing marriage among primitive peoples. Accord- ing to the facts which have recently been brought to light, it is evident that the two principles of exogamy and endogamy, as applied to tribes, and as enunciated and explained by Mr. McLennan, never could have ex- isted ; and thus his entire theory to account for the symbol of wife-capture, since it rests upon this basis, is seen to be worthless. In Mr. Morgan's work, published in 1871, are to be found the systems of consanguinity and affinity of one hundred and thirty-nine tribes and nations of mankind, " representing four fifths, numerically, of the entire human family." These systems show conclusively that exogamy and endogamy as terms to express principles governing early society cannot be applied to tribes taken as a whole, and therefore that their use as desig- nated by Mr. McLennan is not valid. Mistaking an established rule of the gens for a re- striction on the entire tribe, numerous instances are cited by Mr. McLennan to prove that marriage did not, and could not, occur within these related groups — WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. igg evidently gentes ; after which he remarks : "At the outset of our argument it was seen that if it could be shown that exogamous tribes existed, and that the usual relations of savage tribes to each other were those of hostility, we should have found a social condition in which it was inevitable that wives should systematically be procured by capture." From this we observe that Mr. McLennan's exoga- mous tribes constitute one of the principal conditions in his theory of wife-capture. Indeed, the proposition that wives could be procured only outside the tribe made wife-capture a necessity and the stealing of women a legitimate practice : but with the restriction on marriage limited to the gens, the necessity for the use of violence in securing wives seems to be wholly overcome ; hence, for an explanation of this practice, or symbol, we are obliged to look to some other source than that of necessity caused by the lack of women. We have seen that Mr. McLennan, observing the numerical inequality in the sexes at a certain stage of human development, has brought forward female infanti- cide to account for the scarcity of women and the necessity of wife-capture. " We believe,'' says this writer, "this restriction on marriage to be connected with the practice in early times of female infanticide, which, rendering women scarce, led at once to polyandry within the tribe, and the capturing of women from with- out." ' ' Studies in Ancient History, p. 75. 200 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. It is evident that Mr. McLennan, like most other writers who have dealt with the subject of the early con- ditions of mankind, fails to observe the condition of society which must have prevailed under a system where kinship and all the rights of succession were traced through women, and especially is he unable to realize the relative positions of the sexes under such a system. If we bear in mind the fact that women were the recog- nized heads of families, or groups — that paternity though known was disregarded, and that men were dependent upon women, not only for their social privileges and tribal honors, but even for their homes, we shall see that female infanticide never could have prevailed to the extent supposed by Mr. McLennan. The fact has been observed that the sex which controls the home is master or mistress of the situation. Under gentile institutions, with descent in the female line, women constitute the head of the house, and in the management of the group, although the direction of affairs is delegated to the chiefs, female influence is in the ascendency. Among the Kocch tribe, a people among which de- scent is traced in the female line, " a man goes on mar- riage to live with his wife and her mother, of whose family he is a subordinate member." ' In relation to the position occupied by the husband among this people Mr. McLennan remarks : " A Kocch man goes, on his marriage, like the beena husband of Ceylon, to live in the family with his wife and her mother ; on his marriage ' C. Staniland Wake, Man-iage and Kinship, p. 306. iVIFE-CAPTURE— MCLENNAN. 20I all his property is made over to his wife ; and on her death her heirs are her daughters." ' The same is true of the Khasiahs and the Garos ; it was formerly true of the various tribes of North American Indians and the early Arabians. We have observed that in Sumatra and in Japan, whenever a husband goes to live in his wife's home, she and not he is the head of the household and the children belong to her. " Where female kinship prevails, a Rajah's son may become a hodman — taking the state of his mother — while the son of the Rajah's sister mounts the throne." ^ The blood-tie of ancient society which bound to- gether all those born of the women of the group, irrespective of their fathers, must have made the position of woman one of great importance. It is scarcely reason- able to suppose that the law of sympathy which had united the related members of a clan by a bond much stronger than that which binds the members of a modern family, was reversed without some better cause than has thus far been assigned for it. It is indeed difficult to believe, in opposition to all the facts before us, that a practice which involved the loss of the female members of the group would have gained the sanction of the tribe to such an extent that it would have become an established rule among them. Concerning primitive mankind Mr. Darwin remarks : "They would not at that period have partially lost one of the strongest of all instincts, common to all ' Studies in Ancient History, p. 103. " Ibid., p. 131. 202 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. lower animals, namely, the love of their young offspring ; and consequently they would not have practised female infanticide." ' Although the custom of destroying female infants was probably never carried to the extent represented, yet, without doubt, it was at that period in human history when wars against surrounding tribes were carried on for the purpose of obtaining women for wives, that the practice of female infanticide began. Although men depended on foreign tribes for their wives, they never- the less found little pleasure in furnishing their quota of women in return ; and as mothers doubtless preferred the death of their female children to the degradation and suffering which they knew were inevitable in case of capture, female infanticide seemed under certain circum- stances the wisest and in fact the only expedient. Much has been written in the attempt to explain the practice of female infanticide, which to some considera- ble extent seems to have prevailed during a certain stage of human growth ; but, with the exception of those cases in which children of both sexes were slain because of the scarcity of food, the one cause, namely, dread of capture for them, is doubtless sufficient to explain this unnatural practice. With a better understanding of the various races in a less developed stage of human society, it is found that infanticide is much less prevalent than has been supposed ; that when through scarcity of sub- ' The Descent of Man, p. 594. WIFE- CAP TURE — McLENNAN. 2O3 sistence it has been practised, it has not been limited to females, neither has it been carried on among peoples in the lower stages of barbarism. Regarding this custom in Arabia, Prof. Smith says that our authorities " seem to represent the practice of infanticide as having taken a new development not very long before the time of Mo- hammed," but concludes that the chief motive involved " was scarcity of food which must always have been felt in the desert." We have observed that among the North American Indians, during the latter part of the first stage of bar- barism and the beginning of the second, such was the feeling of humanity among them, that women and chil- dren taken in battle, although belonging to hostile tribes, seldom if ever suffered death at the hands of their captors ; neither were they enslaved either for sexual purposes or otherwise, but, on the contrary, were adopted into the various gentes and invested with all the rights pertaining thereto. From these facts, and numerous others of a similar character, it is plain that the practice of infanticide, even allowing that it was confined to females, was in operation at too late a date in the history of human af- fairs to be set forth at the present time as the exciting cause which led to exogamy and the subsequent necessity for wife-capture. Most of the reports which have come to us of the prevalence of female infanticide among certain tribes have been brought by missionaries, who, although un- 204 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. acquainted with the language, customs, and religions of the peoples whose countries they have visited, neverthe- less feel called upon to furnish lengthy and " interesting reports of those barbarous peoples who are utterly destitute of Christian training." If we bear in mind the exalted position occupied by these holy men, we shall see that it would be quite inconsistent with their dignity, no matter how few their resources for information, to ac- knowledge their inability to account for any phenomenon which might present itself. Therefore, female infanti- cide is introduced as a convenient and, to themselves, no doubt, satisfactory hypothesis to account for the numerical inequality between the sexes among barbarous tribes, and Mr. McLennan has but voiced their opinions. Having based his entire theory on a defective hypoth- esis, his positions only go to prove the weakness of his entire argument. He is quite certain that the break- down of exogamy in advancing communities excludes the notion that the law originated in any innate or primary feeling against marriage with kinsfolk ; yet so long as the gens remained the unit of the social system, there never was any break-down of exogamy. The same law forbidding marriage within the gens which was in operation during the later periods of so-called savagery, was in operation in the latter stage of barbarism, or until the social and personal government of the gens gave place to political society. From the facts at hand concerning the earliest organ- ization of mankind, that into classes on the basis of sex. WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 20$ it is evident that it was effected for no other purpose than the restriction of the range of marital rights — a re- striction inaugurated to prevent the pairing of near relatives. Yet Mr. McLennan, led by his false notions regarding primitive society, is positive that the law compelling marriage outside the recognized limit of near relationship, originated in no " innate or primary feeling against marriage with kinsfolk." At the earliest dawn of human life, there probably ex- isted within the female a naturally acquired repugnance to mating with near relatives, yet many ages doubtless elapsed before an idea of kinship sufiSciently definite to be incorporated into an arbitrary law for the governance of the group was formulated ; but, in due order of time, with the further development of the higher characters, the idea of relationship began to take definite shape, whereupon was inaugurated a movement which probably represents one of the most important steps ever taken toward human advancement. Originally, in the tribe, according to Mr. McLen- nan's hypothesis, the fact of consanguinity must have long remained unperceived, " the apparent bond of friendship between the members of such a group would be that they and theirs had always been com- panions in war and in the chase — ^joint-tenants of the same cave or grove," in other words, that a child be- longed only to the tribe ; but, as the relationship between mother and child began to be noted, children came to be affiliated to their mothers, after which there gradually 205 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. sprang up a system of kinship " traced through females only." This system, as it recognized no relationship through males, would declare the offspring of the foreign wives which had been captured, aliens to the tribe in which they were born afid reared, and thus without any de- parture from established usages these children might intermarry. In this manner exogamous tribes acquired elements of heterogeneity ; but, with the " break-down of exogamy," endogamy — a principle as rude as that of exogamy, and which had disappeared under the existing conditions attending normal development — is reinstated, and, although it produces homogeneity, is triumphant in leading the race on to civilization. As we have hitherto been taught by scientists to believe that progress consists in continuous change from the general to the special, from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, we are prepared to accept the doctrine that the change brought about by the introduction of foreign women in the tribe, as its tendency was to pro- duce heterogeneity, might constitute a normal movement in the line of progress ; but, if we keep steadfastly in mind the above general law of development, we shall scarcely expect to find the ruder, more archaic con- ditions of homogeneity reappearing at a late stage of human advancement, or should they return, we would not expect that their reappearance would be heralded as representing a regular step in the onward march of progress ; yet we are given to understand by Mr. Mc- WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 20/ Lennan, that after the Tibetan form of marriage, or that system represented by the wife leaving her own home and relatives and going to reside in the house of her husband or husbands, had been introduced, a system of kinship through males arose (chiefly through the in- fluence of property), and thus was " restored the original condition of affairs among endogamous races, the first effect of which must have been to arrest the progress of heterogeneity." The fact will be observed that a movement which had arrested the progress of heterogeneity, is brought forward as the exciting cause leading to one of the boldest and most essential steps in the legitimate course of human progress. Under the Nair form of polyandry female influence is far in the ascendency over that of males ; under this sys- tem women are pre-eminently the heads of families. Descent is traced in the female line, and all rights of inheritance and succession are transmitted through it. A wife resides in her own home instead of a home fur- nished by her husband or husbands, from whom she may be divorced at will. She is surrounded by her own family and friends, and in this independent position is enabled to exercise absolute control over her own person, at the same time that she claims the exclusive right to the ownership and management of her children. We have observed that this system of marriage is designated by Mr. McLennan as the ruder form of polyandry, while that under which the woman relin- 208 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. quishes her own home rights and goes to live with several brothers is represented as a distinct link in the chain of actual progress. According to him the Tibetan form of polyandry is a degree in advance of the Nair form for the reason that by it a step is taken toward assured paternity. Notwithstanding the facts going to prove that under earlier conditions of the human race, the appetites of males were restricted by the higher instincts developed in females — that women chose their mates and so long as they remained together were true to them, Mr. Mc- Lennan assumes that when property began to accumulate in masses in the hands of men, as women were at that time free, men might not be absolutely certain of the paternity of the children which they were called upon to support ; hence the restrictions on the liberties of women became a necessity. Indeed the fact that women were free seems to him to justify the conclusion that paternity was unknown. When we remember the early indifference of men to the office of father — that the children of brothers, or friends, were as acceptable to them as their own, — and when we recollect that within historic times fathers accounted their children as slaves and even sold them, the plea that women were en- slaved in order to assure paternity, indicates the extent to which prejudice still enters into any discussion of the sex question. It shows also the extent to which the higher instincts acquired by the female, and the effect of these instincts upoa the development of early society, WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 209 have been ignored by most of the writers who have thus far treated this subject. From the facts at hand, it would seem that down to a late date in the history of the race, no feeling for off- spring outside the common interests of the group had been acquired by fathers. Indeed it is to be doubted if at the time the custom was first adopted of the wife leaving her home for that of her husband, fatherhood, in the sense in which it is now understood, had been thought of. As among the less inteUigent classes of birds the paternal instinct has not been acquired, so among human beings, civilization was necessary before the proper relations existing between father and child could be developed. During all the earlier ages the mother was the only recognized parent ; however, as we have seen, the time at length came when males began to claim not only the soil and all the possessions formerly owned by the group, but, in addition to these, the right, also, to the control of offspring. It is plain, however, from facts relative to the subsequent development of the paternal relation, that this right was not claimed because of any feeling of af- fection which had been developed in fathers for their children ; on the contrary, it was the result of that extreme egoism and love of dominion which is one of the prevailing characteristics of the male. So soon as mothers became slaves, children were accounted as the property of their father, and might by him be sold or even slain. 2IO, PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. As under strictly natural conditions, the female is willing to pair only with the one for whom she feels genuine affection, and as under early conditions of society she chooses her mate, although there are no arbitrary rules regulating the relations of the sexes, mated pairs are doubtless true to each other so long as they remain together ; hence, under the matriarchal system, paternity is as well if not better assured than it is under the formulated laws governing marriage at the present time. As it is through the female sex that the sexual instinct has ever been restricted or held in abeyance, and as it was doubtless through the efforts of women that from time to time, during the early history of the race, the range of established conjugal rights were abridged or restricted, it is reasonable to suppose that prior to the introduction of Tibetan polyandry, as female influence was in the ascendency, the paternity of offspring was known, or at least might have been readily determined. We are informed by Mr. Morgan that the " Turanian, Ganowanian, and Malayan systems of consanguinity show plainly and conclusively that kinship through males was recognized as constantly as kinship through females " ; that " a man had brothers and sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers, grandsons and granddaughters, traced through males as well as through females." Although under gentile institutions descent and all rights of suc- cession were reckoned through females, kinship through WIFE-CAPTURE — MCLENNAN. 211 males appears to have been as easily ascertained as it was through females. According to Mr. McLennan, it would seem that under certain conditions, monogamy may spring from the " lowest " form of polyandry, or from that form of marriage under which women remain in their own homes and consequently control the sexual relations. We are assured by the author of Primitive Marriage that among the Kocchs, a people among whom marriage is at present monogamous, nearly all the conditions of the " rudest form of polyandry " still exist. Hence from his own statements it would seem that whenever under the matriherital system the sexes are anywhere nearly balanced, monogamic marriages prevail. Although Mr. McLennan acknowledges that monogamy as it exists among the Kocchs is a direct outgrowth of the Nair form of polyandry, a system under which women are the ruling spirits, he nevertheless thinks this an ex- ceptional instance, and is of the opinion that the normal line of progress lies in the " higher " form of polyandry under which the wife leaves her home and goes to live with several husbands, and under which she becomes practically their slave. It is more than likely, however, that in all countries and among all peoples where polyan- dry has prevailed, had the influence of women continued in the ascendency, upon the sexes becoming anywhere nearly balanced as to numbers, it would, as we are assured that it did among the Kocchs, have gradually merged into monogamy, a form of monogamy, however. 212 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. under which the higher instincts of the female would have controlled the sexual relation, and under which women would have continued to be the recognized heads of families. Sir George Campbell, president of the Anthropo- logical Section of the British Association, while speaking of the Khassyahs, " a very peculiar people of the hill regions, with highly developed constitutional and elective forms of government, who were also specially interesting as exhibiting an excellent specimen of the matriarchal or matriherital system fully carried out under recognized and well defined law among civilized people," says that the result of his observation of them, had been to separate in his mind the two systems of matriheritage and polyandry, and to sugigest that poly- andry was really only a local accident, the result of scarcity of women ; there was no polyandry among them, but there was " great facility for divorce." The women remained within their own homes and were in no wise dependent upon their husbands.' Notwithsta,nding the fact that among the Nairs a man has no family, and no home that he may call his. own, but on the contrary is compelled to reside in the house either of his mother or his mother-in-law, Mr. McLennan assures us that " a man's mother manages his family, and after her death his eldest sister assumes direction." Under this form of polyandry no person knows his own father, but " every man looks upon his ' Popular Science Monthly, vol. xxx., p. 141. WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 213 sister's children as his heirs." The actual truth in the matter is, however, that under the conditions of society represented by the Nair form of polyandry, a man has no heirs ; as he has no possessions, he has nothing to bequeath. Until a man marries he lives in the house of his mother and sisters, after which time he goes to live with his wife and her family. Indeed, under this system, no member of the group, either female or male, is allowed the individual control of property, at least to any considerable extent ; on the contrary, the personal effects of a man — his gun, his fishing tackle, and possibly his dog — constitute all that he can call his own. As has been observed, by a rule of the gens, property originat- ing within its limits could not be transferred, and as in the earlier ages, the gentes were controlled by women, and as all relationships to which rights of succession were attached were traced through them, property be- longing to the group descended to the daughters and their children ; the children of the sons, affiliated as they were only to the gentes of their respective mothers, could claim none of the property within the gens of the father. By Mr. McLennan and other writers who have dealt with this subject, these facts or laws regulating the rights of succession in early communities appear to be tolerably well understood, yet when stating the rule of the gens relative to the descent of property to sisters' children, it seems to have become a favorite diversion with them to pretend that this regulation existed because men were 214 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. unable to recognize their own offspring. The real fact in the case is however that although paternity was known, fathers had nothing to bequeath, neither had they the slightest interest in, or care for, their own children ; in other words, paternal affection had not at that time been developed. Although the change in the form of marriage, as in- dicated by the wife leaving her home to follow the husband, represents an entire reversal in the relative positions of the sexes — a change which involved the absolute loss of female independence, and which, as we are informed, affected society to its very roots — Mr. McLennan offers no suggestion in explanation of the processes by which it was accomplished, except that : " Paternity having become certain, a system of kinship through males would arise with the growth of property, and a practice of sons succeeding, as heirs direct, to the estates of fathers ; and as the system of kinship through males arose, that through females would — and chiefly under the influence of property — die away." ' The fact that it was through capture, or through the forcible carrying away of women, at first singly and later in groups, to foreign tribes, in which as aliens and de- pendents they were shorn of their influence and power, that males were first enabled to arrogate to themselves the individual right to property, Mr. McLennan has not had the penetration to discover. That acute thinkers like Miiller and Festus should ' Studies in Ancient History, p. 136. WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 21 5 have fallen into such foolish errors as are observed in their explanations of the symbol of wife-capture, as it appeared in Greece and Rome, is "surprising" to Mr. McLennan, and that their views upon this subject should have been so generally accepted seems to him a still more remarkable fact. He observes that in order to ac- cept them it is necessary to suppose an " early state of austere virtue among the Dorians, the influence of which, still lingering in their imagination, was able to produce a marked effect upon their customs and manners." The author of Primitive Marriage can see in the ac- counts preserved to us of the customs of the ancient Dorians no indication of such a stage of primitive virtue, but is confident that he can discern in later Lacedae- monian usages an improvement over the more archaic manners of that people. No doubt the earliest Lacedaemonians had already departed a long way from the simpler conditions and purer customs which characterized human society at a still more remote age ; yet, if our judgment be not warped by opinions which are the legitimate outgrowth of sensualized conditions, we shall be able to see that at the time when this people first appears in history, a state of social purity existed nowhere hinted at in the later career of the Greeks. Doubtless it was the absence of prudery among them, and the absolute freedom from restraint enjoyed by the youth of both sexes in their games and athletic sports during the earlier ages of Dorian national life, that 2l6 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. caused Mr. McLennan to discern in later Lacedaemonian usages an improvement upon the earlier customs of that people ; yet we are assured by Plutarch that " every thing was conducted with modesty and without one indecent word or action." ' While it is not to be supposed that the peculiar usages of the Dorians were the cause of their chastity and sim- plicity, it is more than likely that their customs were the result of that primitive purity which in their progress toward civilization they had not at that time wholly outgrown. As "the specimens of savages observed in our own time are not remarkable for delicacy of feeling in matters of sex," and " as the hordes which overran the Peloponnesus were no better than savages when they first came under our observation," the "prudery hy- pothesis" advanced by Miiller to explain the symbol of wife-capture as practised among the Greeks, is untenable and must be abandoned. No theory which has for its foundation " an obvious declension from ancient stand- ards of purity," can assist Mr. McLennan in explaining the wife-capture problem. Observing, as this writer evidently did, that the only reasonable explanation of the symbol of wife-capture is that of early aversion by women to the marital relation, and observing also that this symbol indicates an obvious declension from ancient standards of purity, he has set himself to work to construct a theory more in keeping ' Lycurgus. WIFE-CAPTURE — McLENNAN. 21/ with those ideas concerning the relations of the sexes which have arisen during an age of male supremacy. Although all the evidences of later investigation and research accentuate the fact, that in an earlier and purer age the lower nature of the male was held in check by the higher characters developed within the female, he prefers a belief in " original sin," or in the total depravity of the race ; in other words, he chooses to believe that at the outset of the human career there was an immediate lowering of those standards of law and order regulating the intercourse between the sexes, which had existed since the separation of the sex elements, and which still exist among the lower orders of life from which man has been evolved. Since we are assured that men were never prohibited from marrying within their own tribe— that the restrictions on marriage applied only to the members of closely related groups, it is evident that the capture of women for wives from distant tribes was not practised because of an established law of exogamy, or because of the scarcity of women resulting from female infanticide, but, on the contrary, was carried on because the women of a man's own tribe were free and able to control the situation, while foreign women were absolutely deprived of influence. After having created a false and unreasonable hy- pothesis to account for the symbol of wife-capture, an hypothesis in which exogamy and endogamy — two prin- ciples which, as applied to tribes, never existed — Mr. 2l8 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. McLennan has thrust nearly all the facts which he has presented into false positions, and forced them to do duty in bolstering up his thoroughly imaginative condi- tion of early society ; while the underlying causes of wife-capture which he attempts to explain, remain, so far as his contributions are concerned, as much a mystery as before he attempted a solution of the problem. That Mr. McLennan was unable to perceive that his effort was in any sense a failure, is shown by the follow- ing which appears as an introduction to his concluding chapter : " Here our argument ends. Apparently simple as was the problem to be solved, it has now received a solution for the first time." CHAPTER VII. WIFE-CAPTURE— THE THEORY OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, like J. F. McLennan, as- sumes that the earliest organization of society was that of the tribe, and that a man was first regarded as be- longing only to a group. Subsequently, as the maternal bond is stronger than that which unites a father to his offspring, kinship with his mother and her relations was established. In course of time he was accounted as a descendant of his father only, and lastly he became equally related to both parents. Numerous illustrations are cited by this writer, going to show that among certain peoples descent is still reckoned in the female line, and that all the rights of succession, both as regards property and tribal honors, are traced through women. In his Origin of Civilization the fact is noted that in Guinea, when a wealthy man dies, his property passes by inheritance, not to his sons, but to the children of his sister. He quotes also from Pinkerton's Voyages to show that the town of Loango is governed by four chiefs who are sons of the king's sisters, and from Caillie who observes that in Central Africa the sovereignty remains 2ig 220 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. always in the same family, but that the son never suc- ceeds to his father's position. These and numerous other instances, similar in character, are cited from various parts of the world, going to prove that a system of descent and inheritance through women was once general throughout the races of mankind. With Herr Bachofen and Mr. McLennan, Sir John Lubbock is of the opinion that the earliest conjugal unions of the human race were communal. Communal marriage was founded on the supremacy of males, or, in other words, was based on the undisputed right of men to the control of women. According to this writer, communal marriage was succeeded by individual marriage through capture. Although Lubbock coincides with McLennan in the belief that under certain circumstances infanticide has been practised by the lower races, he does not agree with him as to the extent to which it has prevailed among them ; neither is he of the opinion that it was confined to the female sex. On the contrary, he cites trustworthy authority to prove that boys were as frequently disposed of as were girls. With McLennan, Lubbock recognizes the prevalence of wife-capture and the principle of exogamy ; yet, ac- cording to the theory of the former, marriage by capture arose from exogamy, while, according to the latter, exogamy arose from marriage by capture. Lubbock accounts for wife-capture by the following theory : As under the communal system, women of the WIFE-CAPTURE — SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. 221 tribe were the " common property " of the men of the group, no individual male among them would have at- tempted to, appropriate one of these women to himself, for the reason that such appropriation would have been regarded as an infringement of the rights of the remain- ing males in the community. A warrior, however, upon capturing a woman from a hostile people, might claim her as his rightful possession, and hold her as against all the other members of the tribe. Since the women of the group were so emphatically the common property of the men, the exclusive right to one of them in progressive tribes which had reached a state of friendliness, would involve a symbol of capture to make valid such a claim. This symbol, according to Lubbock, has no reference to those from whom the woman has been stolen, but is intended to bar the rights of other members of the tribe into which she is brought. He thinks that " the exclusive possession of a wife could only be legally acquired by a temporary recognition of the pre-existing communal rights," and cites the account given by Herod- otus of the custom existing in Babylonia, where every woman once during her lifetime must present herself at the temple, there to accept the proposals of the first man who requests her to follow him. Although Lubbock declares that the symbol of violence in marriage ceremonies " can only be explained by the hypothesis that the capture of wives was once a stern reality," he claims not to believe that the early conditions under which men were compelled to capture their wives 222 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. by violence, or do without them, were in any degree the result of feminine will in the matter. In referring to the fallacious theory of Mr. McLennan, that the capture of women for wives arose from the practice of female infanticide, which, by producing a scarcity of women, created a necessity for marriage with- out the limits of the tribe. Sir John Lubbock, although seemingly unable to recognize the actual force which was in operation to prevent the " appropriation " of women by men, has nevertheless shown himself able to perceive the reason why foreign women were captured, and what the tendency in males was which demanded their presence. After referring to the fact that no male could appro- priate to himself a female belonging to the tribe, he says: " Women taken in war were, on the contrary, in a differ- ent position. The tribe, as a tribe, had no right to them, and men surely would reserve to themselves exclusively their own prizes. These captives then would naturally become wives in our own sense of the term." In other words, foreign women would become dependents, their captors having the undisputed right to the control of their persons. Although confronted by the fact that a system of reckoning descent through women once prevailed over the habitable globe, and although, according to this writer's own reasoning, this system presupposes a condi- tion of society under which property rights and all rights of succession were traced through women, still we find him offering the following belief concerning the mat- WIFE-CAPTURE — SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. 223 ter. " I believe, however, that communities in which women have exercised the supreme power are rare and exceptional, if, indeed, they ever existed at all." Were we not already acquainted with the prejudices of most of the writers who have thus far dealt with this subject, in view of the facts everywhere presented going to prove that a system of gynecocracy once prevailed over the entire earth, this " belief " of Mr. Lubbock would be truly remarkable, especially when we learn the reason given by him for his conclusion. He says : " We do not find in history, as a matter of fact, that women do assert their rights, and savage women would, I think, be peculiarly unlikely to uphold their dignity in the manner supposed." ' It is quite true that it is not observed " in history " that women assert their rights. It has been shown, how- ever, that prior to the historic age, through capture and the individual ownership of land, women had become dependent upon men and wholly subject to their control. After thousands of years of subjection to male influence, the movements of women, who are still dependent upon men, furnish little satisfactory information regarding the character of free women at a time before they had suc- cumbed to the exigencies of brute force, and the unbri- dled appetites of their male masters. Slaves seldom assert their rights, or, if they do, of what avail is it ? Were we in possession of no other facts in support of the theory of an early age of female supremacy than ' Origin of Civilization, p. gg. 224 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. that all relationships to which rights of succession were attached were formerly traced through women, the evidence in its favor would be sufificient to prove it true, but this manner of reckoning descent represents only one of the many indications of such an age which Lubbock himself has been constrained to record ; yet, because — during the historic age — an age throughout which the masculine element has ruled supreme, women have not asserted their rights, this writer feels inclined to ignore all the evidence bearing upon the subject, at the same time declaring that women could not have " upheld their dignity in the manner supposed " ; in other words, that the female, on gaining human condi- tions, could not have exercised the instincts inherited by her from her dumb progenitors. If the females among insects, birds, and many species of mammals are able to control the relations between themselves and their male mates, why should it not be inferred that the female of the human species would still be able to uphold the natural dignity of the female sex ? As an argument in support of his theory that the in- fluence of women was never supreme, he alludes to the position of Australian women as being one of " complete subjection," and as the native Australians represent perhaps the lowest existing stage of human society, he doubtless thinks his argument unassailable. However, that the position of Australian women cannot be taken as a reliable guide in estimating primitive womanhood is shown by Lubbock's own reasoning, when he says : WIFE-CAPTURE — SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. 22$ " It must not be assumed, however, that the condition of primitive man is correctly represented by even the lowest of existing races. The very fact that the latter have remained stationary, that their manners, habits, and mode of life have continued almost unaltered for generations, has created a strict, and often complicated, system of customs, from which the former was necessarily free, but which has in some cases gradually acquired even more than the force of law. " ' Yet we find him comparing primitive women to this race which for thousands upon thousands of years, be- cause of its environment, or through some cause which is not understood, has been unable to advance. While this writer perceives clearly that foreign women were much more desirable for wives than those belonging to a man's own tribe, he has not been able to discover the reason why this was so, but, continuing to babble about the " rights '' of the men of the group, overlooks the fact that native-born women were free, and as only those women who had first been torn from their friends and shorn of their independence could at this stage of human existence be forced into the position of wife, it became necessary to secure them by violence from surrounding tribes. He is not blind to the fact that it was a desire to extend the limit of conjugal liber- ties on the part of males which prompted wife-capture ; yet he would have us believe that although women were absolutely independent of men, and although they were the recognized heads of families, and the source whence originated all the privileges of the gens, it was in no degree owing to their influence that the conjugal ' Origin of Civilization, p. 2, 226 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. liberties of males were restricted within the tribe, but, on the contrary, that this restriction was enforced out of regard for the " proprietary rights " of the men of the group. He says : " We must remember that under the communal system the women of the tribe were all com- mon property. No one could appropriate one of them to himself without infringing on the general rights of the tribe." As well might we say of the female bird for whose favors the male fights until overcome by exhaustion and loss of blood, that she belongs to him, or that he may appropriate her, as to say that the men of early grpups could " appropriate " women. From all the facts rela- tive to the condition of early society, it is plain that if either sex could with propriety be designated as property it must have been the male. It is evident that women were stolen from distant tribes for the express purpose of sexual slavery, a position to which free, native-born women could not be dragged ; therefore, when Lubbock assures us that these foreign women naturally " became wives in our own sense of the term," we may be sure that he is neither unmindful of the origin of our present social system, nor of the true significance attached to the position of wife. Indeed, he informs us that the " origin of marriage was independent of all sacred and social conditions," and proves the same by actually producing the evidence. He has no hesitancy in declaring that marriage is a masculine institution, established in the interest (or supposed interest) of males ; that it was WIFE-CAPTURE — SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. 22/ " founded not on the rights of the woman, but of the man," and that there was not on the woman's part even the semblance of consent. In fact he declares that he regards it as an illustration of the good old plan that " he should take who has the power, and he should keep who can." He says also that it had nothing to do with mutual affection or sympathy, that it was invalidated by no appearance of consent, and that it was symbolized not by any demonstration of warm affection on the one side and tender devotion on the other, but by brutal violence and unwilling submission. To prove that the feeling of connection between force and marriage is deeply rooted, Sir John Lubbock, like Mr. McLennan, has furnished numerous examples of peoples among whom marriage by actual capture still prevails, as well as many among which the system has passed into a mere symbol. He is quite certain that the complete subjection of the woman in marriage furnishes an explanation to those examples in barbarous life in which women are looked upon as being too great to marry — and cites the case of Sebituane, chief of the Bechuanas, who told his daugh- ter, Mamochisane, that all the men were at her disposal — " she might take any one, but ought to keep none." This instance, together with numberless others which might be cited, proves that long after the practice of appropriating solitary women for sexual purposes had become general, the position of wife was considered too degrading to be occupied by women of rank. Attention has been called to Lubbock's idea con- 228 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. cerning the " rights " of the males of the group. We have seen that it is his opinion that the exclusive pos- session of a woman could only be legally acquired by a temporary recognition of the pre-existing communal rights, and that the account in Herodotus of the debase- ment of Babylonian women was cited by him as evidence to prove his position. He seems, however, to forget that this custom, which was practised in various nations, is a religious rite, and was inaugurated at a time when the adoration of the sun, as the source of all life and light, had degenerated into the most degrading phallic wor- ship. To those who have given attention to the growth of the god-idea, the supposed cases of " expiation for marriage," cited by Lubbock, are to be explained by the peculiar practices inaugurated under fire and passion worship at a time long subsequent to the establishment of ba'al marriages. In his chapter on " The Origin of Marriage by Cap- ture,'' this writer observes : ' ' That marriage by capture has not arisen from female modesty is, I thinlc, evident, not only because we have no reason to suppose that such a feeling prevails especially among the lower races of man ; but also, firstly, because it cannot explain the mock resistance of the relatives ; and, secondly, because the very question to be solved is why it became so generally the custom to win the female not by per- suasion but by force." ' That female modesty may not account for mar- riage by capture will scarcely be disputed ; it is not ' Origin of Civilization, p, io6. WIFE-CAPTURE — SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. 229 impossible, however, but that disgust, or aversion, on the part of women, may, in a measure, serve to explain it. Sir John Lubbock should bear in mind that " choice " in the matter of pairing was an early prerogative of the female ; that true affection, a character differing widely from passion, the predominant character developed in the opposite sex, was necessary before she could be in- duced to accept the attentions of the male. While the women among primitive peoples abhorred strangers or foreigners, it may scarcely be said of them that they were too modest to accept them as suitors. Evidently, modesty is not the term to be employed in this con- nection. In seeking a reason to explain why force rather than persuasion was used in the consummation of early mar- riages, we have to remember the wide difference existing between the position of free women and that of those who were obliged to accept the ba'al form of marriage. If, as we have reason to believe, as late as the beginning of the second or middle status of barbarism, instead of following the father of her children to his house as his slave, a woman remained in a home owned, or at least controlled jointly by herself, her mother, her sisters, and her daughters, it is plain that a state of female independ- ence existed which was incompatible with female sub- jection. Add to this the fact that a woman's children belonged exclusively to herself, or to her family, and that all hereditary honors and rights of succession were traced through females, and we have a set of circum- 230 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. stances which would seem sufficient to explain why force was necessary to bring women into the marital relation. That the capture of women for wives arose because the independence of free women was a bar to the gratifi- cation of the lower instincts in man, can, in the presence of all the facts at hand, scarcely be doubted ; and that women submitted to the position of wife only when obliged to do so, or when deprived of liberty and dragged from home and friends, is only too apparent. While modesty as a cause for capture may not account for the resistance of the relations, the sacrifice of a daughter may serve to explain even this knotty point. If the capture of a free and independent girl from her mother by a band of ma- rauders from a hostile tribe for purposes of the most de- grading slavery, cannot account for the resistance of the mother-in-law, among most of the so-called lower races, then indeed it is difficult to conjecture any provocation or any set of circumstances which can account for it. This writer's assertion that it is " contrary to all ex- perience that female delicacy diminishes with civilization," proves conclusively that he regards the slight degree of reserve which he is pleased to accredit to women in modern times, as a result of civilization — a civilization, too, which he evidently considers as wholly the result of masculine achievement ; in other words, he doubtless thinks that the degree of self-respect observed among women at the present time is the result not of the innate tendencies in the female constitution, but of masculine tuition and training, an assumption which when viewed WIFE-CAPTURE — SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. 23 1 by the light which in recent years has been thrown upon the development of the two diverging sex columns, is as absurd as it is arrogant and false. Some time will doubtless elapse before Sir John Lubbock and the class which he represents will be willing to admit that civiliza- tion has been possible only because of the checks to the animal nature of the male, which are the natural result of the maternal instinct. With a system, however, under which for three or four thousand years every womanly instinct has been smoth- ered, and under which female activity has been utilized in the service of passion, the outward expression of fe- male delicacy has doubtless diminished ; and, in their weakened mental and physical condition, women, de- pendent not only for all the luxuries but the necessities of life as well, upon pleasing the men, have doubtless given them, blinded as they have become by the condi- tions of their own peculiar development, some reason for believing that within the female as within the male, passion has been the ruling characteristic. Sir John Lubbock, as well 'as other writers who have dealt with this subject, should bear in mind the fact that female delicacy is a subject which can be satisfactorily discussed only in relation to free and independent women ; hence the' degree of its manifestation at any time during the past three or four thousand years may bear little testimony concerning the natural tendencies of women, or the condition of society under a system where female influence was in the ascendency. 232 PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. To those individuals whose minds are not clouded by prejudice, the fact will doubtless be apparent, that the valuable information which has been presented by three of the foremost writers on the subject of the early rela- tions of the sexes and the origin of marriage, instead of serving as evidence to substantiate the fallacious the- ories which they have propounded, is found to lie in a direct line with the facts and principles which have been put forward by scientists in the theory of natural de- velopment. A review of the theories set forth by these three writers shows that about the only point on which they agree is the lawlessness, or promiscuity, of early races. As they have all started out with a false premise, it is not singular that none of them has succeeded in setting forth a consistent and reasonable hypothesis to account either for the symbol of wife-capture, or for the early supremacy of women. PART III. EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. THE result of recent research into the early organi- zation of society, the growth of the governmental idea, and the development of the family, among tribes in the ascending scale, serve to throw new and unex- pected light upon the customs, ideas, institutions, and legends of early historic peoples. Upon investigation it is observed that the construction of Greek and Roman society corresponds exactly with that of existing tribes occupying a lower plane in the scale of development, and that all the institutions of these nations, although in a higher state of advancement, involve the same original principles and ideas. That the Greek and Roman tribes before reaching civilization had passed through exactly the same pro- cesses of development as have been witnessed in the ascending scale among the North American Indians, the 233 234 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. Arabians, and all other extant peoples, is shown not alone by the manner in which early society was organized and held together, but by the similarity observed in their mythoses, institutions, and social usages. Whether or not a more advanced stage of civilization had been attained by the progenitors of the Greeks and Romans is a question that does not here concern us ; for, if at any time prior to the appearance of these peo- ples in history, a higher plane of life had been reached, it is reasonable to suppose that such a state was gained under gentile forms of society, especially as their various institutions at the beginning of the historic period rep- resent them as still to a considerable extent governed by the ideas peculiar to the gens. The earliest authentic accounts which we have of the Greeks represent them as composed of the Doric tribes, who were Hellenes, and the lonians, who were of Pelasgic origin. The Dorians were a conservative people, exclusive in their tastes and intolerant of inno- vations, while the lonians, who occupied the seacoasts and the adjacent islands, were restless, fond of novelty, and not averse to intercourse with surrounding nations. Of the original inhabitants of Rome, it is observed that they consisted of wandering tribes, bands of out- laws, and refugees from various countries. Concerning the true origin of these peoples, however, and of the his- tory of their earliest settlements, they themselves were evidently ignorant, and the fragmentary accounts of them which have been preserved to us, when viewed in- A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 235 dependently of the light reflected upon them by recent investigation, furnish but a dim picture in the outline of which the most prominent figures appear only as indis- tinct shadows or as objects without definite shape. It is true there was no lack of myths and traditions which had come down to the Greeks and Romans as genuine history, and which were doubtless regarded by them as trustworthy accounts of their ancestors. Theseus who united the Attic tribes, and Romulus who founded Rome, were heroes in whom the divine and human were so nicely adjusted and so evenly balanced that the history of their earthly career presents no shade of error either in public or in private life. Indeed, both had sprung from immortal sources, and their exploits were such as might be expected from the mythical heroes of a for- gotten age. Although Greek society when it first came under our observation was under gentile organization, the gens had passed out of its archaic stage. This ancient institu- tion, which had carried humanity through to civilization, was gradually losing its vitality ; in other words, it had lost its efficiency as a governing agency, and was about to give place to political institutions. With the facts at present accessible regarding peoples in the lower and middle stages of barbarism, the various steps in the growth of government as administered in the upper or latter stage of barbarism are clearly ob- served ; also, by close attention to the facts presented among extant peoples in the latter stage of barbarism 236 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. and the opening ages of civilization, the processes in- volved in the transfer of society from gentile to political institutions are easily traced, together with the principal ideas and motives underlying the growth of all the insti- tutions belonging to early historic nations. We have seen that until civilization was reached the gens constituted the unit of organized society. This fact, however, until a comparatively recent time, seems to have been overlooked. Without attempting to explain the origin of the gens and phratry as they existed in Greece, Mr. Grote observes : " The legislator finds them pre-existing, and adapts or modifies them to answer some national scheme." Unacquainted as this writer evidently was with the construction of primitive society, he failed to observe that originally, in Greece, all the powers of the legislator himself were derived from and circum- scribed by the gens. Indeed, that this organization upon which the superstructure of Grecian society rested was the original source whence proceeded all social privileges and all military rights and obligations, is a fact which until a very recent time has not been ob- served. While discussing the relations of the family to the gens, the gens to the phratry, and the phratry to the tribe, Mr. Grote says : " The basis of the whole was the house, hearth, or family, — a number of which, greater or less, composed the gens, or genos." ' Mr. Morgan has shown, however, that the family could not have constituted the basis of the gens, for the reason ' History of Greece, vol. iii. , p. 54. A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 237 that the heads of families belonged to separate gentes. We are assured that the gens is much older than the monogamic family, and therefore that the latter could not have formed the basis of the gentile organization ; but even had the family preceded the gens in order of development, as its members belonged to different gentes it could not have constituted the unit of the social series. In order to gain a clear understanding of the processes and principles involved in the early Grecian form of government, it first becomes necessary briefly to review the various steps in the growth of the governmental functions through two ethnical periods. We have seen that a tribe is a community of related individuals possessed of equal rights and privileges, and bound by equal duties and responsibilities. It has been observed that in the Lower Status of barbarism the gov- ernment consisted of only one power — a council of chiefs elected by the people. During the Middle Status of bar- barism two powers appear, — in other words, the civil and military functions have become separated, the duties of a military commander being co-ordinated with those of a council of chiefs. The military commander, how- ever, has not succeeded in drawing to himself the powers of a ruler or king. In the Second Status of barbarism tribes have not begun to confederate. A single tribe, its members bound together by the tie of kinship and united by common rights and responsibilities, owning their lands in common, and each contributing his share toward the 238 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. common defence, so long as it was able to maintain its independence, had little need for an elaborate form of government. As yet no strifes engendered by envy and extreme seliishness had arisen to disturb the simplicity of their lives, or to check the development of those early principles of liberty and fraternity which were the natu- ral inheritance of the gens. A council of chiefs elected by the gentes and receiving all its powers from the peo- ple had thus far performed all the duties of government. After the Upper Status of barbarism is reached we find confederated tribes dwelling together in walled cities surrounded by embankments, and a state of affairs exist- ing which called for a further differentiation of the func- tions of government, and a redistribution of the powers and responsibilities of the people. In process of time, with the accumulation of property in masses in the hands of the few, and the consequent rise of an aris- tocracy, a government founded on wealth, or on a terri- torial basis, rather than on the personal relations of an individual to his gens, was demanded ; and, finally, those principles, rights, and privileges which constitute a pure democracy, and which had always formed the basis of gentile institutions were gradually ignored ; that per- sonal influence which was originally exercised by each and every gentiUs being transferred to a privileged class — a class which controlled the wealth, and at the head of which was the military commander or basileus. Such was the condition of Grecian society as it first appears in history. A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 239 A comparison instituted by Mr. Morgan between the Iroquois gens and that of the Greeks, shows the former at the time when it first came under European observa- tion to have been in the archaic stage, with descent and all the rights of succession traced in the female line ; while the latter, at the time designated as the heroic age, had not only changed the manner of reckoning descent from the female to the male line, but was evidently about to give place to political society which, instead of being founded on kinship, was based on property and territory, or upon a man's relations to the township or deme in which he resided. While the Iroquois tribe of Indians represents the gens in its original vitality, the Greeks appear to have reached a stage at which the archaic form of government insti- tuted on the basis of kin was found inadequate to meet their necessities ; hence the confusion arising from dis- puted authority, the almost interminable struggle between the various classes which had arisen, and the evident disaffection and unrest manifest among the entire Gre- cian people during the ages intervening between Codrus, nearly eleven hundred years B.C., and Clisthenes, five hundred years later. That degree of jealousy with which individual liberty was guarded during the earlier ages of historic Greece, that thirst for freedom, and that restlessness under tyranny which characterized the Grecian people through- out their entire career, are explained by the fact that prior to the age of Clisthenes they were under gentile 240 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. institutions, the fundamental principles of which were liberty, equality, and justice. From all the facts which may be gathered bearing upon this subject, it is evident that although at the beginning of the historic period the Greeks had lost much of that independence which be- longed to an earlier stage of human development, their institutions still partook of the character of a democ- racy. Of the similarity of the customs and institutions of early historic Greece and those of a more primitive age we have ample evidence. In ancient Greece, as among the Iroquois tribe of Indians, " property was vested ab- solutely in the clan, and could not be willed away from it." " Not only did the members of a clan hold their property in common, but they were obliged to help, defend, support, and even avenge those of their number who required their assistance. Young females bereft of near relations were either furnished with a husband or provided with suitable portions. Descent must still have been reckoned in the female line, for foreigners admitted to citizenship were not members of any clan, neither were their descendants, unless born of women who were citizens. Citizens were enrolled in the clan and phratry of their mother.'' In the administration of the government, however, are to be observed a few important changes. The compli- cations which had arisen as a result of the individual ownership of property, the change in the reckoning of ' George Rawlinson, book v. , essay ii. ' Ibid, A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 24 1 descent from the female to the male line which fol- lowed, and the growth of the aristocratic element, had produced a corresponding change in the control and management of the government. Solicitude for the common weal, although still felt by the great mass of the people, had among the rulers given place to extreme egoism, and that association and combination of interests which since the dawn of organized society had char- acterized the gens, was rapidly giving way before the love of dominion, the thirst for power, and the greed of gain — characters which in process of time came to represent the mainspring of human action. With the changes which took place in the conditions of the people, it is seen that the administrative functions became still further differentiated. Co-ordinate with the Greek basileus or war-chief was to be observed not only a council of chiefs who were the heads of the gentes, but also an assembly of the people, these three governmental functions corresponding in a general way to our President, Senate, and House of Represen- tatives. The Ecclesia or general assembly at Sparta was origi- nally composed of all the free males who dwelt within the city. It is observed that although this body origi- nated no measures, it was invested with authority to adopt or reject any proposed legislation or plan of action devised by the chiefs. " All changes in the con- stitution or laws, and all matters of great public import, as questions of peace or war, of alliances, and the like, 16 242 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. had to be brought before it for decision." ' Thus may be observed the precautions which during the latter stages of barbarism had been taken to guard the rights of the people, and to insure them against individual and class usurpation. Curtius assures us that the Dorian people " did not feel as if they were placed in a foreign state, but they were the citizens of their own — not merely the objects of legislation, but also participants in it, for they only obeyed such statutes as they themselves had agreed to." ' Although Mr. Grote would have us believe that the assembly of the people was simply a " listening agora," ^ it is plain that it was originally invested with sufficient power to protect the people against despotism. In the further differentiation of the administrative functions it is observed that the powers of the subordinate officers are all drawn from the sum of the powers invested in the three principal branches of the government, the ill- defined duties of each giving rise to those unabated dis- sensions and fierce and unrelenting strifes which in course of time became such a fruitful source of devasta- tion and bloodshed. From what is known at the present time regarding Greek society prior to the age of Theseus, it is not at all likely that it was organized on monarchial principles, or that any form of government prevailed in Greece ' George Rawlinson, book v. , essay i. ° History of Greece, book ii. , chap. i. s Vol. ii., p. 348. A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 243 Other than that of a military democracy. It is true that by most of the writers who have dealt with the subject of the government of the early Greeks, the basileus has been designated as king, and that he has been invested by them with all the insignia of a modern monarch. In later times, however, with a better understanding of the principles underlying early society, this view of the mat- ter is seen to be false. Mr. Morgan, a writer who as we have seen has given much attention to the constitution of gentile society, informs us that in the Lower and aJso in the Middle Status of barbarism the. office of chief was elective or during good behavior, " for this limitation follows from the right of the gens to depose from office.'" When descent was in the female line this office descended either to a brother of the deceased chief or to a sister's son, but later, when descent began to be traced in the male line, the eldest son was usually elected to succeed his father. Upon this subject Mr. Morgan says further : "It cannot be claimed, on satisfactory proof, that the oldest son of the basileus took the office, upon the demise of his father, by ab- solute hereditary right. . . . The fact that the oldest, or one of the sons, usually succeeded, which is admitted, does not establish the fact in question ; because by usage he was in the probable line of succession by a free election from a constituency. The presumption on the face of Grecian institutions, is against succession to the office of basileus by hereditary right ; and in favor either of a free elec- tion, or of a confirmation of the office by the people through their recognized organizations, as in the case of the Roman rex. With the ' Ancient Society, p. 262. 244 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. office of basileus transmitted in the manner last named, the govern- ment would remain in the hands of the people. Because without an election or confirmation he could not assume the office ; and because, further, the power to elect or confirm implies the reserved right to depose." ' There is no lack of evidence at the present time going to prove that all these early tribes were originally organ- ized on thoroughly democratic principles, and that there never was any dignity conferred on the leader of the early Grecian hosts answering to the present definition of king ; also that prior to the time of Romulus, no chieftain of the Latin tribes was ever invested with suffi- cient authority to have constituted him an imperial ruler. The term basileus, as applied to a leader of a military democracy in the early ages of Grecian history, doubtless implies simply the war-chief of the primitive tribe, an officer chosen from among the chiefs of the gentes as a leader of the hosts in battle, but as claiming no civil functions, and as possessing no authority outside the office of military chieftain. The Homeric writings, which contain the earliest direct information which we have of the Greeks, and in. which are doubtless mirrored forth a tolerably correct picture of the customs, institutions, and manners of this people, when read by the light of more recently developed facts relative to the early constitution of society, are invested with new interest, and a fresh charm and a new signifi- cance are added to every detail connected with the narrative. As to the extent of authority attached to the ' Ancient Saciely, p. 248. A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GEJVS. 245 office of military leader among the Greeks, Homer has given us a fair illustration in the person of Agamemnon — "shepherd of the people." That the position of this chieftain differs widely from that occupied by the king of succeeding ages is apparent. At the outset we find the injured Achilles after he has taunted the chieftain with being the "greediest of men," addressing him in the following language : " Ha, thou mailed in impudence And bent on lucre ! Who of all the Greeks Can willingly obey thee, on the m^rch, Or bravely battling with the enemy ! " ' Then Pelides takes up the strain and with opprobrious words thus addresses the son of Atreus : ' ' Wine-bibber with the forehead of a dog And a deer's heart. Thou never yet hast dared To arm thyseft for battle with the rest, Nor join the other chiefs prepared to lie In ambush, — such thy craven fear of death. Better it suits thee, midst the mighty host Of Greeks, to rob some warrior of his prize Who dares withstand thee." '' Even the brawler Thersites, " Squint-eyed, with one lame foot, and on his back A lump, and shoulders curving towards the chest," dares to insult this chief — this king as he is represented by most modern writers, and to his face taunt him with his injustice towards Achilles. To Agamemnon he says : ' Tke Iliad, book i., Bryant's translation. ' Ibid. 246 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. " Of what dost thou complain ; what wouldst thou more, Atrides ? In thy tents are heaps of gold ; Thy tents are full of chosen damsels, given To thee before all others, by the Greeks, Whene'er we take a city. Dost thou yet Hanker for gold, brought by some Trojan knight, A ransom for his son, whom I shall lead — I, or some other Greek — a captive bound ? Or dost thou wish, for thy more idle hours. Some maiden, whom thou mayst detain apart 7 111 it beseems a prince like thee to lead The sons of Greece, for such a cause as this, Into new perils. O ye coward race ! Ye abject Greeklings, Greeks no longer, haste Homeward with all the fleet, and let us leave This man at Troy to win his trophies here. That he may learn whether the aid we give Avails him aught or not, since he insults Achilles, a far braver man than he." ' It is true Ulysses smote Thersites as he upbraided him for this insult to Agamemnon. It is plain, however, that- the chastisement was of a private nature. It seems not to have been a crime openly to berate' their chief. In- deed the position of " shepherd of the people " was not one of such dignity but that any warrior among the hosts might with impunity freely speak his mind concerning him, or to his face confront him with improper behavior. When Agamemnon compared unfavorably the valor of Diomed with that of his father, Tydeus, Sthenelus, the honored son of Capaneus, hesitated not to remind the chief of his folly, and to his face upbraid him. "Atrides, speak not falsely when thou knowest the truth so well."" ' Book ji. ' Book iv. A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 247 Regarding the office of " king," Mr. Morgan says : "Modem writers, almost without exception, translate basileus by the term king, and basileia by the term kingdom, without qualifica- tion, and as exact equivalents. I wish to call attention to this office of basileus, as it existed in the Grecian tribes, and to question the correctness of this interpretation. There is no similarity whatever between the basileia of the ancient Athenians and the modern king- dom or monarchy. . . . Constitutional monarchy is a modern develop- ment, and essentially different from the basileia of the Greeks. The basileia was neither an absolute nor a constitutional monarchy ; neither was it a tyranny or a despotism. The question then is, what was it ? " Mr. Morgan's answer to the question is as follows : " The primitive Grecian government was essentially democratical, reposing on gentes, phratries, and tribes, organized as self-governing bodies, and on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity." This writer says further : " Our views upon Grecian and Roman questions have been moulded by writers accustomed to monarchi- cal government and privileged classes, who were perhaps glad to appeal to the earliest known governments of the Grecian tribes for a sanction of this form of government, as at once natural, essential, and primitive." ' We have observed the precautions which during the second and latter periods of barbarism were necessary to keep in check the increasing thirst for power, and it may not be doubted that through the growth of the aristocratic tendency during the later ages of the exist- ence of the gens, the office of basileus gave to its incum- bent a degree of distinction closely allied to that of king. ' Ancient Society, p. 247. 248 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. In the eleventh century B.C., upon the death of Codrus, so necessary had it become to check the continually increasing power of the military chieftains that the office was abolished and the archonship established in its place ; but as an election or confirmation was necessary before the duties of either office could be entered upon, it is plain that at the period referred to a democratic form of government still prevailed. Now archon is the term which had been applied to the chief of the early gentes at a time when fraternity, liberty, and equality were the cardinal virtues of society; and the abolition of the office of basileus, to which had become attached a considerable degree of power, was doubtless an attempt on the part of the people to return to the simpler and purer methods of government which had formerly prevailed ; but the institution known as the Agora, Ecclesia, or Appella, which had proved the great bulwark of safety to early democratic institutions, had, through the strengthening of the aristocratic ele- ment, become gradually weakened, hence the nobles were in a position to draw to themselves not only much of the power originally exercised by the military commander, but that also which had formerly belonged to the assembly of the people. We have observed that not only among the Greeks of the heroic age, but among the tribes and nations which preceded them, as far back in the history of the past as the close of the second stage of barbarism, there had always been an assembly of the people whose duty it was to guard the rights of the tribe, to protect it against usurpation, and to keep down the rising tendency A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 249 toward imperialism. Of this institution, Mr. Rawlinson says : " Thus at Athens, as elsewhere, in the heroic times, there was undoubtedly the idea of a public assembly consisting of all freemen." ' It is observed that Theseus, basileus, or military chieftain of the Athenian tribes, a personage who belongs to the legendary period, was the first to perceive the in- sufficiency of gentile institutions to meet the needs of the people. Although the primary idea involved in the establishment of political society was the transference of the original governmental functions from the gens to a territorial limit, so deeply had the instincts, ideas, and associations connected with the personal government of the gens taken root that several centuries were required to accomplish the change. To establish the deme or township, in which, irrespective of kinship or personal ties, all its inhabitants (except slaves) should be enrolled as citizens, with rights, privileges, and duties adjusted according to the amount of property owned by each, and which should be a unit of the larger and more im- portant institution — the state, — was an undertaking the mastery of which, although seemingly simple, nevertheless involved intricacies and obstacles of such magnitude as to baffle all attempts of the Greeks from the time of The- seus to that of Clisthenes, at which time political society was established, and the gens, shorn of its utility and power, remained only as the embodiment of certain social ideas, or survived as a religious centre, over which their eponymous ancestor, as hero or god, still presided. ' George Rawlinson, book v., essay ii. 250 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. The age of Theseus could not have been later than 1050 B.C., and the final overthrow of gentile government did not, as we have seen, occur until the age of Clis- thenes, five hundred years later. Throughout the inter- vening time between Theseus and Clisthenes little real advancement is noted among the Greeks ; none, per- haps, except that connected with the growth of the idea of government as indicated by the change from gentile to political institutions, and even this growth, when we observe that nearly five centuries and a half were re- quired to establish it, or to substitute the deme or township in the place of the gens as the unit in the gov- ernmental series, can scarcely be regarded as evidence of remarkable genius, or as indicating a notable degree of ingenuity. In the trarlsference of society, however, from gentile to political institutions may be observed a progressive principle, inasmuch as by it the limits of the gens and tribe were gradually broken down or oblit- erated, and the enlarged conception of the state estab- lished in their stead. After the age of Clisthenes an isolated community bound together by kinship, and with interests extending no further than the tribe of which it was a part, no longer constituted the fundamental basis upon which the superstructure of society was to rest ; but, on the contrary, the deme or township, with all its free inhabitants, of whatsoever tribe or gens, was to become the recognized unit in organized society. Prior to the age of Theseus, Attica was divided into petty states, each with a council-house of its own. Ac- A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 25 I cording to the testimony of Thucydides, from the time of Cecrops to Theseus " the population of Athens had always inhabited independent cities, with their own guild-halls and magistrates ; and at such times as they were not in fear of any danger they did not meet with the king to consult with him, but themselves severally conducted their own government, and took their own counsel." ' The basileus or war-chief exercised no civil functions," and his services were never called into requisition ex- cept in times of danger. Theseus upon receiving the office of military chief- tain " persuaded " the people in the adjacent country to remove to the city.' According to Plutarch he " settled all the inhabitants of Attica in Athens and made them one people in one city." * He persuaded them to abolish their independent city governments and to establish in their stead, at Athens, a council-house which would be common to all. Thus, under his direction, the Attic peoples coalesced, or were united under one government. Theseus, we are told, divided the people into three classes, irrespective of gentes, on the basis of property and social position. The chiefs of the several gentes with their families, and the citizens who through their great wealth had become influential, constituted the first class ; the second class were the husbandmen, and the third the ' Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, bookii., 15, '' Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 250. ^ Thucydides, book ii., 14. ■* Theseus, 2S2 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. mechanics. All the principal offices both of the govern- ment and the priesthood were in the hands of the nobles or the moneyed and aristocratic classes. Thucydides refers to the fact that " when Greece was becoming more powerful, and acquiring possessions of money still more than before, tyrannies were established in the cities." ' Upon this subject Mr. Rawlinson says : "All important political privilege is engrossed by the Eupatrids, who consist of a certain number of ' clans ' claiming a special nobil- ity, but not belonging to any single tribe, or distinguishable from the ignoble dans, otherwise than by the possession of superior rank and riches. The rest of the citizens constitute an unprivileged class, per- sonally free, but with no atom of political power, and are roughly divided, according to their occupations, into yeoman-farmers and artisans. The union of the Eupatrids in the same tribes and phra- tries with the Geomori and Deraiurgi,, seems to show that the aristoc- racy of Athens was not original, like that of Rome, but grew out of an earlier and more democratical condition "of things — such, in fact, as we find depicted in the Homeric poems. ■ . . . Thus at Athens, as elsewhere, in the heroic times, there was undoubtedly the idea of a public assembly, consisting of all free-men ; but this institution seems entirely to have disappeared during the centuries which inter- vened between Codrus and Solon." ° During the three hundred years which followed the death of Codrus, nothing of great importance is ob- served concerning the growth of Grecian institutions. Doubtless their development was characterized only by the strengthening of the aristocracy and the stimulation of those egoistic principles which are essential in the estab- lishment of an oligarchy. That in course of time the power attached to the office of archon also became a ' Book i., 13. 2 Rawlinson, book v., essay ii. A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 253 menace to the people's liberties, is shown in the fact that in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, b.c. 752, the life archonship was brought to a close and the term of ofifice reduced to ten years. Although the office was still limited to the family of Codrus, the incumbent be- came amenable to the elders or chiefs for his acts. How- ever, that this movement was not wholly in the interest of the masses of the people is shown in the fact that during the following thirty years the Eupatrids or mem- bers of the aristocratic party had drawn to themselves all the power belonging to the archonship. It is ob- served that during the reign of the fourth decennial archon, a pretext having been found to depose him, the reigning family or gens was declared as having forfeited its right to rule and the office was thrown open to all Eupatrids. Nine archons from among the aristocratic party, with all the powers formerly belonging to the supreme archon conveyed to them, were chosen as a governing board," and were to continue in office for one year. Selected, as we have seen, by and from among the Eupatrids, their legislation was wholly in the interest of the wealthy and privileged classes. . From 684 B.C. to 624 B.C., the aristocratic party exer- cised unlimited control over the Athenian state, and during the entire sixty years used their great power to crush out even a semblance of free institutions. The thirst for power among them was equalled only by their greed for gain ; hence while wielding the former, they ' Rawlinson, book v. , essay ii. 254 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. gratified their cupidity by gathering into their own cof- fers almost the entire wealth of the nation. With the machinery of legislation turned against them, the middle and lower classes were soon robbed even of their means of support. Most of the land was mortgaged, and the persons of the owners held by the Eupatrids for debt. Men sold their children and their sisters to satisfy the demands of creditors,' and such was the inequality exist- ing between various classes that dissensions arose on every hand, and a general state of confusion, disorder, and discontent prevailed. Thus may be observed some of the processes by which the early principles of frater- nity, liberty, and justice were overthrown. At length the sufferings of the people caused by the injustice and rapacity of their rulers became unbearable, and by means of various signs of discontent, notably that of a popular demand for written laws, it became evident that a crisis had been reached. The Eupatrids, pretending to heed the popular demand, elected Draco, one of their number, to the office of archon, with the understanding that a code of written laws defining the rights of the several classes be prepared. As the Greeks of the Draconian and Solonic age were but a few centuries removed from a time when individual liberty and equality had constituted the cardinal prin- ciples upon which society was founded, we may believe that that spirit of personal independence and self-respect which had been inherited from gentile institutions, al- ■ Rawlinson, book v, , essay ii. A DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENS. 255 though it had perhaps slumbered, had never been crushed ; therefore, a condition of subjection or slavery, although for a time endured, could not be willingly accepted as a settled fact. As the laws prepared by Draco tended only to aggra- vate the abuses of which the people complained, it is quite evident that no reform was intended ; the Eupatrids, however, had mistaken the temper of the people, and the fact soon became manifest, even to the members of the governing classes themselves, that certain concessions must be made to the popular demand for justice. An idea of the rapacity, greed, dishonesty, and cupidity which prevailed at this stage of Greek life may be ob- tained from the writings of Theognis, a poet of Grecian Mega, who lived about five hundred and seventy years B.C. Among his Maxims appear the following : " Now at length a sense of shame hath perished among mankind, but shamelessness reigns over the earth. Every one honors a rich man but dishonors a poor : And in all men there is the same mind. . . . No one of the present race of men doth the sun look down upon, being entirely good and moderate. . . . When I am flourishing, friends are many ; but should any calamity have chanced upon me, few retain a faithful spirit. For the multitude of men there is this virtue only, namely, to be rich : But of the rest, I wot, there is no use." The fact is obvious that already in the history of the Greeks the love of property and the rise of the aristo- cratic spirit had gained such a foothold that a pure democracy was no longer desired by the more influential citizens, and that it was the moneyed classes and the 256 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. aristocratic party who were growing restless under insti- tutions which acknowledged the equality of all free-born citizens. Doubtless the power which had been hitherto exercised by the gentes had already been drawn to the moneyed classes ; still, this attempt to organize society into classes on the basis of property and station was perhaps the first regulated movement openly to curtail the hitherto rec- ognized power of the individual members of the gens, and doubtless constituted the first formulated step towards the subsequent removal of this ancient institu- tion from its original position as the unit in the govern- mental series. From accessible facts to be gathered relative to early Greek society, it is plain that individual liberty perished with the gens, and that monarchy, aristocracy, and slavery were the natural results of the decline of the altruistic principles upon which early society was founded. CHAPTER II. WOMEN IN EARLY HISTORIC TIMES. AS it is claimed that the history of the natural growth of society is represented by the extant tribes in the varying stages of advancement from savagery to civilization, and as upon our first acquaintance with the Greeks we find them just emerging from barbarism and preparing to enter upon a civilized career, we may naturally expect to find in their various traditions, cus- toms, forms of marriage, etc., some hint of that influence which but little more than one ethnical period before, had been exercised by women, and some clue to the processes involved in the change from female to male supremacy. From the facts which are gradually coming to light concerning society in the early historic period, it is ob- served that the extant mythoses and traditions of the ancients contain a mixture of history, mythology, and astrology. Until a comparatively recent time no attempt has been made to separate the former from the latter two. Herodotus opens his account of the Greeks with a story of the capture of women. The Phoenicians, the 17 aS7 258 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. great maritime people of that time, had sent ships loaded with merchandise to Argos. When nearly all was disposed of there came down to the beach several women, among whom was lo, child of lanchus the king. As the women were standing by the stern of the ship attending to their purchases, the foreign sailors rushed upon them and attempted to carry them off. The most of them made their escape, but a number were taken away and lo amongst them.' Doubtless beneath this myth is concealed a religious doctrine which had a historical basis. The original version of the legend was that lo who was carried to Egypt by a god became the mother of a race of hero- kings; but, when the true significance of the early physi- ological, religious myths was forgotten, this one of lo, too, after having become mutilated and distorted to suit a more degenerate time, was accepted in a purely literal sense and made to do duty as actual history. Following this narrative in the history of Herodotus is the story of Europa who was carried away by the Greeks. In the next generation was enacted the seizure of Helen by Paris, son of Priam, a deed which, whether committed for revenge or lust, is supposed to have con- stituted the sole cause of the Trojan war — a struggle which continued for nine years. Helen had previously, and while but a child, according to Plutarch, been car- ried off by Theseus, founder of Athens, and borne away to Egypt. Indeed it would seem from the accounts of ' Book i., I. WOMEN IN EARLY HISTORIC TTMES. 259 this hero that his exploits were instigated for the most part by a desire to possess himself of women. Even later in the history of the Greeks we find that Pausanius, King of Sparta, upon the defeat of the barbarians, re- ceived as his share of the booty, ten specimens of the following articles : " women, horses, talents, and camels." The familiar story of the seizure of the Sabine women by the Romans is regarded as a probable myth or as a doubtful fact ; yet, when we remember that not far dis- tant in the past, capture constituted the only form of marriage, the acts of violence committed on women are invested with a fresh interest, for by them we are enabled to trace the identity of the processes of development be- tween historic nations and the tribes occupying a lower position in the scale of advancement. Although Homer traces genealogies through fathers, the fact will doubtless be observed that two generations generally suffice to carry men back to an unknown or divine i^rogenitor. Indeed many of the Greeks of Homer's time sprang directly from gods. Tlepolemus was of the stock of Hercules. Priam and his sons were descendants of Zeus, and many of the noblest Greeks derived their origin from Mars. Helen also was the descendant of Zeus. A tradition from Varro in reference to the decline of woman's power in Athens is as follows : " In the age of Cecrops two wonders sprang from the earth at the same time, one of which was the olive tree, the other water. The king in terror despatched a messenger to Delphi to ascertain what he 26o - EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. was to do in the matter. The oracle in response answered that the olive tree signified Minerva (Athene), and the water Neptune (Posei- don) ; and that it was optional with the Burgesses after which of the two they would name their town. Cecrops convened an assembly of the Burgesses, both men and women, for it was customary then for the women to take part in the public counsels. The men voted for Poseidon, the women for Athene, and as there were more women than men by one, Athene conquered. Thereupon Poseidon became enraged, and immediately the sea flowed over all the land of Athens. To appease the god the Burgesses were compelled to impose a three- fold punishment upon their wives : They were to lose their votes ; the children were to receive no more the mother's name ; and they themselves were no longer to be called Athenians after the goddess." We are assured that prior to the struggle between Athene and Poseidon for the mastery in Athens, children in Attica and Lycia were named after their mothers, and that the women as a body were called after the goddess. Formerly the women were actual burgesses, but after the decision that the office , of father in the processes of reproduction is superior to that of the mother, the women lost their position as burgesses and became only the wives of burghers. It is the vote of Athene herself which decides that the child is the production of the father. It is observed that the ancient Attic traditions are full of references to female supremacy. Indeed, Herr Bachofen is certain that he has found proof of female descent and supremacy not only among the early Greek tribes but in every branch of the Indo-Germanic family. The Grecian tribes were named after women, as were also the ancient cities of Greece. The founders of these cities and the eponymous leaders of the various peoples WOMEN IN EARL Y HISTORIC TIMES. 261 were women who had been " carried off by gods.'' Sar- pedon and Minos who quarrelled over the government of Lycia were the sons of Europa ' who had been carried off from Tyre on the Phcenician coast." Thebd, the eponymous leader of the Thebans, and Egina, the founder of Egina, were sisters. Therefore when the oracle commanded the Thebans to seek succor from their nearest of kin, they applied to the Eginetans,' thereby proving that at that time relationships were still traced through women. The Greek tradition of the Scythian nation is as fol- lows : As Hercules was passing through the country he came to a district called the Woodland. While he slept, the mares which he had loosed from his chariot wan- dered away, and while in quest of them he came to a cave in which dwelt a being with the head of a woman and the body of a serpent, probably a goddess represent- ing the two creative principles throughout nature. Upon being asked by Hercules if she had seen his mares, she replied, " yes," but that " unless he would remain with her she would not yield them to him," whereupon he consented to do her bidding. In after time, as she ques- tioned him as to his wishes concerning the three sons which she had borne him, she said : " Wouldst thou wish that I should settle them here in this land whereof I am mistress, or shall I send them to thee." Hercules placed in her hand a bow with instruction that the son ' Herodotus, booki., 173. " Hid,, book i,, 2, ^ Ibid., book v., 80. 262 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. which when grown to manhood should bend it in a cer- tain way should remain as king of the land. Scythes, the youngest son of the goddess, was the successful com- petitor. From this time it is observed that gods, not goddesses, are in possession of the country.^ Europe, Asia, and Lybia are named after women, and in nearly all the earliest tradition, a woman, either divine or human, appears as the eponymous leader of the people. The tradition respecting the daughters of Danaus ileeing from their native land to avoid the hateful caresses of the sons of Egyptus, doubtless refers to a time when relationships were beginning to be traced through males, and when under the ba'al form of mar- riage they were beginning to claim the right to control the women of their own group. Egyptus and Danaus were brothers, the former of whom had fifty sons, the latter fifty daughters. Upon the sons of Egyptus demanding that their cousins unite with them in marriage, the women immediately fled by sea to Argus and placed themselves under the protec- tion of Pelasgus. Although hotly pursued by their tor- mentors, they reached Argus in safety ; the following is their supplication as set forth by ^schylus : " On this moist shore, drive them into the deep, With all their flying streamers and quick oars, There let them meet the whirlwind's boisterous rage, Thund'rings and lightnings, and the furious blasts ' Herodotus, bookiv., g. WOMEN IN EARLY HISTORIC TIMES. 263 That harrow up the wild tempestuous waves, And perish in the storm, ere they ascend Our kindred bed, and seize against our will What nature and the laws of blood deny." ' After having reached Argus and after having besought Pelasgus to espouse their cause, he says : " If by your country's laws Egyptus' sons, As next of blood, assert a right in you, Who should oppose them ? It behooves thee then By your own laws to prove such claim unjust. " To which they make answer : " Ah ! never may I be perforce a thrall To man. By heaven-directed flight I break The wayward plan of these detested nuptials. Arm justice on thy side, and with her aid Judge with what sanctity the gods demand." The reply of Pelasgus is as follows : " No easy province : Make not me your judge. Great though my power, it is not mine to act, I told thee so, without my people's voice Assenting." . It is plain that these lines refer to a time when woman was not " a thrall to man." It relates also to a time when the basileus or chief could not act without the consent of his people. That in the earliest traditions and accounts of the Greeks, women occupy a much more exalted position than they do four or five centuries later, is a fact which can be explained only by the truths which have been set forth in the foregoing pages ; namely, the capture of ' The Supplicants. 264 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. women for wives, at first singly and finally in groups. We have seen that during the period designated as the Latter Status of barbarism, wars were frequently under- taken upon no other pretext than that of securing women for wives. Cities were attacked and destroyed, the men murdered, and the women carried away captives. Prop- erty both landed and personal was seized and held by the conquerors, and as these captured women were strangers, aliens, and dependents in the countries to which they were taken, they became simply sexual slaves, or wives, and in process of time sank to the position in which we find them under Solon, the lawgiver of Athens. The difference in the sentiments entertained toward women during Homer's time and those which had come to prevail among the Greeks in the sixth century B.C., may be observed in the following lines from ^schylus, and a quotation from the Iliad, which will be given on the following page. At the siege of Thebes, when the women, fearing captivity more than death, appeared be- fore the sacred images to pray for protection, Etiocles the chief, trembling with fear, and himself praying loudly to Jove, to Earth, and " all the guardian gods," being displeased with the attitude of the female suppli- cants, and doubtless eager to exercise his authority over women thus displays his contempt for them : " It is not to be borne, ye wayward race ; Is this your best, is this the aid you lend WOMEN IN EARLY HISTORIC TIMES. 265 The State, the fortitude with which you steel The souls of the besieged, thus falling down Before these images to wail, and shriek With lamentations loud ? Wisdom abhors you. Nor in misfortune, nor in dear success. Be woman my associate : If her power Bears sway, her insolence exceeds all bounds. But if she fears, woe to that house and city. And now, by holding counsel with weak fear, You magnify the foe, and turn our men To flight : thus are we ruined by ourselves. This ever will arise from suffering women To intermix with men. But mark me well. Whoe'er henceforth dares disobey my orders, Be it man or woman, old or young. Vengeance shall burst upon him, the decree Stands irreversible, and he shall die. War is no female province, but the scene For men : hence, home ; nor spread your mischiefs here. Hear you, or not? Or speak I to the deaf?" ' From this -scene pictured by .^schylus five centuries and a quarter B.C., let us return to the siege of Troy and listen to Homer. During the thickest of the fight Helenus, approaching Eneas and Hector, his brother, thus addresses the latter : " But, Hector, thou depart To Troy and seek the mother of us both And bid her call the honored Trojan dames," that at the fane of Pallas they may supplicate for mercy in behalf of the wives and little ones of the defenders of Troy, Whereupon the noble Hector calls aloud: ' The Seven Chiefs against Thebes. 266 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. " O valiant sons of Troy, and ye allies Summoned from far ! Be men, my friends ; call back Your wonted valor, while I go to Troy To ask the aged men, our counsellors. And all our wives, to come before the gods And pray and offer sacrifice." ' After referring to the generally conceded fact that in Europe the spread of civilization has been commensu- rate with the influence exercised by women, Mr. Buckle expresses himself as being unable to account for the seeming inconsistencies which are presented by a com- parison of the position occupied in Greece by the women of Homer's time, and that as pictured by the laws, usages, and social customs in the age of Plato and his contemporaries. Although the Greeks during the ages which intervened between Homer and Plato had made many notable im- provements in the arts of life, and in various branches of speculative and practical knowledge, women had evi- dently lost ground, " their influence being less than it was in the earlier and more barbarous period depicted by Homer." ^ The fact will doubtless be borne in mind that at the time Mr. Buckle penned these words comparatively little concerning the construction or organization of primitive society was known. That one ethnical period and a half prior to the earliest age of the historic Greeks, woman's influence was supreme in the family and in the ' The Iliad, book vi. , Bryant's translation. ' The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge. WOMEN' IN EARL Y HISTORIC TIMES. 267 gens, that descent was reckoned in the female line, and that all rights of succession were traced through mothers, are facts with which this writer was evidently unac- quainted ; hence, we are not surprised that in contem- plating a social phenomenon like that presented by the diminution of woman's influence during the ages between Homer and Plato, he should have been at a loss to ac- count for it, and that he should have declared that the " causes of these inconsistencies would form a curious subject for investigation." Mr. Lecky, also, in referring to the same subject, says : "A broad line must, however, be drawn between the legendary or poetical period, as reflected in Homer and perpetuated in the tragedians, and the later historical period. It is one of the most remarkable, and to some writers one of the most perplexing, facts in the moral history of Greece, that in the former and ruder period women had undoubtedly the highest place, and their type exhibited the highest perfection." ' Of marriage in the legendary period of Greek history, Mr. Grote says : ' ' We find the wife occupying a station of great dignity and influ- ence, though it was the practice for the husband to purchase her by valuable presents to her parents. . . . She even seems to live less secluded and to enjoy a wider sphere of action than was allotted to her in historical Greece. ... A large portion of the romantic interest which Grecian legend inspires is derived from the women,"' From the facts which have been brought to light in relation to the position occupied by women in the age ' European Morals, vol. ii., p. 295. ' History of Greece, vol. ii, , p. 83. 268 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. in which Homer wrote, it may be observed that much of the seeming inconsistency noticed by Mr. Buckle, Mr. Lecky, Mr. Grote, and others, between the picture of Greek life as it appeared at this time, and that noticed six or seven centuries later in the age of Plato, may be easily explained. The triumph of the male over the female in human society as exemplified amongst the earliest Greeks, was of such a recent date that the influ- ence of women was not wholly extinct, and the deference due them had not entirely given place to that lofty con- tempt and biting scorn which characterized the treat- ment of women by Greek men at a later stage of their career. Although later in the history of this people, mothers were not regarded as related to their own children, and although in the age of Homer relationships had begun to be reckoned through fathers, in many places this writer reveals to us the fact that the bond between mother and child was stronger than that between father and child, or that the tie between sisters and brothers of the same mother was closer than that between the chil- dren of the same father. In Apollo's address before the assembled gods, in which he advocates the ransoming of the body of Hector by Priam and his sons, Homer put the following words into the mouth of the oracle : ' ' A man may lose his best-loved friend, a son. Or his own mother's son, a brother dear." ' ' The Iliad, book xxiv. , Derby's translation. WOMEN IN EARL Y HISTORIC TIMES. 269 Numerous illustrations might be drawn from The Iliad as proof of the fact that the tie between mother and child was still regarded as more binding than that be- tween father and child. Homer doubtless represents an age in which the manner of reckoning descent is in dis- pute, certain tribes acknowledging only the tie between children born of the same mother, others only the bond between those of the same father, while still others ac- knowledge both, though with a preference for either one or the other. In the Eumenides of ^^Eschylus the idea of male descent is put forth as a new doctrine. Orestes, who has murdered his mother, Clytemnestra, asks : " Do you call me related to my mother ? " Al- though reproaches and imprecations are heaped upon him for his inhumanity, it is found that the new doctrine, in which the father is represented as the only real parent, has many adherents — that the gods have con- curred in it, Athene herself having succumbed to the new faith. No one, I think, who is acquainted with the recently developed facts relative to human growth, can carefully read The Iliad without observing the similarity existing between the position occupied by the women of Greece in Homer's time, and that of the women among the tribes and races in a somewhat lower stage of develop- ment. On board the " roomy ships " of the Greeks, the prizes parcelled out to the chiefs were women. We ob- serve that even the daughters of influential and wealthy priests, like the oracle of Apollo, might be " carried off " 270 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. — an act for which there was absolutely no redress except perhaps an appeal to the gods. Briseis also was a cap- tured prize assigned to Achilles by the Greek warriors. Notwithstanding the fact that wives were still captured, we frequently find women possessed of both wealth and influence. Helen, although the wife of Menelaus, had vast treasure which she was able to take away with her when she was carried off by Paris — treasure over which neither of her husbands seems to have had any control. Laothoe, the aged wife of Priam, had gold and brass of her own with which to ransom her sons,' and Androm- ache, the wife of Hector, who came to Ilium from " among the woody slopes of Placos," brought with her not only wealth but sufficient influence to secure for her the respect of the king's household." We have seen that in an earlier age, at a time when women were free, wives had to be captured from for- eign tribes ; but later, after the ba'al form of marriage had become established, wives were for the most part selected from the ranks of native-born women, while foreign women were usually utilized as concubines. It is true that in the Homeric age, foreign women some- times became the wedded wives of their captors, but un- less they possessed great wealth, or unless they were the daughters of kings, they were unable to command that degree of consideration due to those who were native- born. The practice, during the early history of the Greeks, of securing foreign women for concubines is ' Book xxii. ' Book vi. WOMEN IN EARLY HISTORIC TIMES. 27 1 doubtless the source whence sprang the custom among the Athenians of later times, of importing all classes of " kept women " from other countries, Athenian women only, being reserved for wives. It is observed that during the latter stage of barbarism a marked change in the government and in the funda- mental principles regulating human conduct had taken place. A review of the facts connected with the history of Greek society during the ages between Homer and Solon shows that coeval with the decline of the car- dinal principles of the gens, namely, justice, equality, and fraternity, there had been also a corresponding change in the relations of the sexes ; that during the time in which egoism or selfishness had gained the as- cendency over the early altruistic principles developed in human society, woman's influence had steadily declined.' ' A careful study of this subject reveals the fact that a similar change had taken place in the god-idea. Jove was no longer the " terrible virgin " who " breathes out on crime, misery, and death,'' but, on the contrary, had come to represent a male god who had given birth to Minerva. This subject, however, will be treated in a later work. CHAPTER III. ANCIENT SPARTA. ALTHOUGH in the writings commonly ascribed to Homer is to be observed a correct picture of many phases of Greek Hfe, the earliest authentic histori- cal accounts which we have of this people are perhaps those of Aristotle and Plutarch. In the accounts given of the Lacedaemonians by the last named of these writers, the fact is shown that male influence among the Spartans of the time of Lycurgus had not reached that state of intense and overshadowing domination in which we find the Athenians of the Solonic period submerged. The fact is observed of the early Dorians that they were ever ready to uphold the ancient customs as opposed to innovations ; that in the management of public affairs they trusted to the ties of relationship rather than to political organization based on property. The policy of the Athenians, on the contrary, as enunciated by Pericles, was that " it is not the country and the people, but movable and personal property, in the proper sense of the word, which make states great and powerful." The one policy was essentially Doric, the other Ionic' The exact time at which Lycurgus occupied the posi- ' Miiller, History and Antiquity of the Doric Race, booki., g, 13. 272 ANCIENT SPARTA. 273 tion of lawgiver to the Spartans is not known, but it is claimed by Xenophon that he lived shortly after the age of Homer. If the accounts of the Lacedaemonians which have come down to us in connection with the name of this legislator belong to that early age, if scarcely one ethnical period had elapsed since woman's influence was supreme in the home and in the group, we would naturally expect to find in their customs, usages, and regulations for the management of society, certain traces of a former state of female independence, and a hint, at least, of those principles of liberty and equality in the establishment of the commonwealth which were the result of female influence ; especially would this be true as we are informed that the Spartans were a conservative people, clinging to the prejudices of more ancient times. A glance at Spartan institutions, at the time indicated, furnishes ample proof of the fact that the Lacedaemonians were still to a considerable extent living under condi- tions which had been established under the archaic rule of the gens. The Spartan senate as reconstructed by Lycurgus was composed of thitty members including the two kings or military leaders.' These chiefs were the heads of the several gentes. The Ecclesia or assembly of the people " contained originally all the free males who dwelt within the city and were of a legal age." '^ Hence may be observed the fact that the constitution of the state ' Grote, History of Greece, vol. ii. , p. 345. ' Rawlinson, book v. , essay i, i3 274 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. was the same as that in the Upper Status of barbarism ; yet the spectacle of a double monarchy (notwithstanding the fact that it has been designated as a kind of irrespon- sible generalship) ' shows that the power attached to the office of basileus had become a menace to the liberties of the people ; hence this equal division of responsibility and authority. The Spartan men were warriors who had subjugated the country, making serfs of the original inhabitants. In the time of Lycurgus these gentlemen soldiers constituted an aristocratic class who spent their lives in the perform- ance of public duties, leaving the cultivation of the soil to the serfs. Helots, the name given to the serfs, sig- nifies " captives.'' They were the slave population of Laconia." The manufacturers and tradespeople of the towns and country districts around Sparta were free, but had been deprived of their political rights. It is evident from these facts that although the constitution of the state had not been changed, the division of the people into classes, a division which since the latter part of the Second Status of barbarism had been threatened, had through spoliation and conquest already taken place. Add to this the fact that property Itad passed into the hands of private individuals, and we shall observe that the conditions had already become favorable for the development of that thirst for wealth and power which characterizes monarchial institutions. ' Aristotle, Politics, book iii., 14, Jowett's translation. ° Rawlinson, book v. , essay i. ANCIENT SPARTA. 275 If we carefully note the early condition of Spartan society, and studiously observe the processes involved in the growth of human institutions, we shall be enabled to perceive the nature of the " load " under which the Spartans " groaned " in the time of Lycurgus. The fact has been noted that, throughout one entire ethnical period, human ingenuity had been taxed to the utmost to subdue or keep in check the growing tendency toward usurpation and tyranny ; and, as has been observed, the spectacle of a double monarchy, or of two military chieftains as they appeared in ancient Sparta, indicates an attempt on the part of the people to divide the power which had become attached to this office, and which was doubtless already menacing the popular rights. In addition to the turmoil and strife engendered by the thirst for power, was the turbulence and frequent insurrections of the serfs, who, it will be remembered, had previously been free, and who were therefore rest- less and impatient under the tyranny of their Spartan masters. Although wealth had greatly increased in Sparta dur- ing the ages immediately preceding the Lycurgan system, yet that the disorders which prevailed were in no wise attributable to luxury and enervation is shown in the fact as given by Aristotle, that the men during their frequent campaigns had become inured to the rigors and hardships of a soldier's life. He says : ' ' For, during the wars of the Lacedsemons, first against the Ar- gives, and afterwards against the Arcadians and Messenians, the men 276 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. were long away from home, and on the return of peace, they gave themselves into the legislator's hands, already prepared by the disci- pline of a soldier's life (in which there were many elements of virtue), to receive his enactments." ' It is indeed plain that the state of disorder which pre- vailed at Sparta in the time of Lycurgus can be accounted for in no other way than that the people were no longer able to keep in check the constantly increasing egoism and selfishness developed within the governing classes. The extent to which all wise regulations are attributed to the governing head is plainly apparent in the view taken of the management of Sparta which Herodotus and Plutarch ascribe to Lycurgus, but which in the very nature of the case must have originated from other sources. It is in no wise probable that Lycurgus instituted any such radical changes in the constitution of the state as have been ascribed to him by the above writers, for, as we have seen, prior to his appearance as lawgiver the government was administered by a military chieftain or basileus, a senate, and an assembly of the people. In order to strengthen their authority, the kings had made common cause with the assembly of the people, and through this means had drawn to themselves nearly all the powers originally vested in that body ; while the senate, destitute of support, had gradually yielded up its functions to them. Before accepting the statements of these writers, at- tributing to Lycurgus that almost unparalleled degree ' Politics, book ii. , g. ANCIEtfT SPARTA. 277 of genius by means of which was originated. an entirely new set of institutions, all the accessible facts relative to these institutions should without prejudice be closely scrutinized, especially as they involve principles and actions which could scarcely have been forced upon a people through an arbitrary stretch of power in the hands of a single individual. Doubtless the principal changes in the government inaugurated by Lycurgus were, first the importance which he caused to be attached to the assembly of the people, and second, the restoration of the senate. By strengthening this body, which, as we have seen, was originally composed of the heads of the gentes, the gentile organization was in a measure restored to its original dignity. The extreme anxiety felt in the time of Lycurgus lest the people's rights be invaded, is shown in the fact that the three administrative functions of the government were supplemented by five ephors chosen annually as agents of the people, whose chief prerogative it was to scrutinize the acts of the chief magistrate and other guardians of the commonwealth. Although the office of the ephors is much older than the Lycurgic legislation,' it had previously been abolished, or had sunk into disuse. The ephors of Lucurgus were " prob- ably appointed for the special purpose of watching over the Lycurgan discipline, and punishing those who neglected it." '' ' Curtius, History of Greece, book ii., chap. i. ' Rawlinson, book v., essay i. 2/8 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. Later, however, when through the greed for gain and the inordinate thirst for power, the ephors in their turn had drawn to themselves the greater share of the powers belonging to the state, the military commander, or so-called king, became responsible to them for his conduct even while directing the army in the field. He received his orders from them, and although in cases of emergency he was authorized to exercise the power of life and death, according to Xenophon, they could accuse the king and compel him to defend his acts or suffer the penalty of death. By a gradual process of usurpation the ephors had, " by the time of Thucydides, completely superseded the king as the directors of affairs at Sparta." The fact has been observed that the authority of the senate, a body which in earlier times had been composed of the heads of the gentes, who were elected by all the people and who held their office only during good behavior, had, in the time of Lycurgus, through the growth of the monarchial and aristocratic party become weakened ; and that, as the kings had drawn to themselves the powers formerly belonging to the popular assembly, the people were no longer represented, but had been obliged to surrender their independence to the authority of the military leaders. It is altogether likely, therefore, that the load under which the Spartans are said to have groaned, and from which Lycurgus is supposed to have released them, was the undue assumption of power by ANCIENT SPARTA. 2/9 the basileus and the aristocratic party ; and that the chief service which he lent to the state was the sanction which he gave to those principles of equality and liberty which had been recognized and practised at a time when the gens as the unit of human society was still in its original vitality and strength, and when woman's in- fluence was therefore in the ascendency. Most modern writers agree in the opinion that Lycur- gus instituted no fundamental changes in the constitu- tion of the state ; indeed all the accessible facts relative to this subject go to prove that the attempt at legislative reform in the time of this lawgiver did not begin with him ; but, on the contrary, that all along the line of development, for an entire ethnical period, there had been a struggle between the people on the one hand and the constantly increasing power exercised by their rulers on the other. Concerning the measures instituted by Lycurgus, and the way in which the political power was distributed by him, we are assured that it was according to a Rhetra of this legislator given under the direction of the Pythian Apollo : " Build a temple to 'j^upiter Hellanius and Minerva Hellania ; divide the tribes, and institute thirty obas ; appoint a council, with its princes ; convene the assem- bly between Babyca and Cnacion ; propose this, and then depart ; and let there be a right of decision and power to the people." ' Here is observed the fact that the assembly was ' MuUer, History and Antiquity of the Doric Race, book iii. , c. v. 28o EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. invested with authority to reject or accept any proposed measures of the council and princes. Later, however, when the chiefs and the military leaders would draw to themselves a portion of the power which had been dele- gated to the people, we find subjoined to the original document of the priestess the following clause : " But if the people should follow a crooked opinion, the elders and the princes shall dissent." Or, according to Plutarch : " If the people attempt to corrupt any law, the senate and chiefs shall retire," meaning that " they shall dissolve the assembly and annul the alterations." ' According to the testimony of Plutarch, when Lycurgus entered upon the duties of lawgiver he went to Crete, and while there examined the laws of that people ; those of them which he considered wise and suited to the needs of a commonwealth based on principles involving the highest interests of the people, he incorporated into his system. Now the Cretans were a branch of the Doric stock,^ and as among them descent and rights of succes- sion were still traced through women, it would seem that they had preserved much of that simplicity of manner which characterizes primitive society. Upon his return from Crete we are assured that Lycurgus made an equal division of the land, and as he could not induce the people to surrender their treasures, he prohibited the use of gold and silver currency and substituted iron in its place. To a great quantity and weight of this metal he assigned a slight value, so that to lay up a small amount ' Lycurgus. '•' Aristotle's Politics, book ii., lo. ANCIENT SPARTA. 28 1 of wealth a whole room was required, and for the removal of a moderate sum of money a yoke of oxen must be employed. When this became current many kinds of injustice ceased in Lacedsemonia. " Who would steal or take a bribe, who would defraud or rob, when he could not conceal the booty, when he could neither be dignified by the possession of it, nor if cut in pieces be served by its use." ' There is little evidence in support of the statement of Plutarch that Lycurgus attempted to establish a community of goods among the Spartans. Although he caused the landed possessions which had been parcelled out to individuals to be returned to the state, too much interest had already become attached to personal possessions to have made a division of this kind of wealth possible. A legislator may not enact laws with the expectation of seeing them enforced which are not in accord with the temper of the people, and the degree of success which attended the legislation ascribed to Lycurgus proves that the great mass of tiie people were in sym- pathy with many of the measures which he proposed for the government of Sparta. It is plain that the object of the person or persons whom history has named Lycurgus, was a return to the simpler manners and purer customs of a more primitive age, which the growth of the aristocratic spirit and the accumulation of wealth in masses in the hands of the few, threatened entirely to subvert ; and, as a community ' Plutarch's Lycurgus, 282 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. of goods was at this time impossible, he, or they, sought to level the distinctions between rich and poor by exalt- ing virtue and moral excellence above the mere posses- sion of wealth and hereditary titles. It is the opinion of some writers that although Lycur- gus did not inaugurate a new set of institutions, nor materially change the constitution of the state, the great service which he rendered to the Spartans was the re- markable system of discipline which he is supposed to have inaugurated. Of this Mr. Rawlinson says : " It must always remain one of the most astonishing facts in history, that such a system was successfully imposed upon a state which had grown up without it." ' Of the fact however, that the state had not grown up without it there is ample evidence. On this subject Curtius re- marks : " It is certain that the Spartan discipline in many respects corresponds to the primitive customs of the Dorians, and that by constant practice, handed down from generation to generation, it grew into the second nature of the members of the community." ° From the facts at hand it is quite evident that Lycurgus did not originate that system of discipline through which it is claimed Spartan greatness was achieved. The fact has been noted that when he entered upon the duties of lawgiver he sailed for Crete, and, " having been struck with admiration of some of their laws," he resolved to make use of them in Sparta.' As the discipline of ' Book i., essay i. " History of Greece, book ii,, chap. i. ' Plutarch's Lycurgus, ANCIENT SPARTA. ' 283 Lycurgus constitutes the principal featur^ of the govern- ment ascribed to hitn, and as his models%rere for the most part drawn from the Cretans, it is l)nly reason- able to suppose that this remarkable system was itself, in part at least, copied from them. It appears that among the Cretans, as among all peoples among whom female influence is in the ascendency, the children be- longed to the mother, and that women owned, or at least controlled, their own households ; they did not, there- fore, follow the fathers of their children to their homes. In Crete, " the young Dorians were left in the houses of their mothers till they grew up into youths." ' As Cretan mothers had charge of their sons until they were grown up, it is reasonable to suppose that the discipline which Lycurgus attempted to copy was a system inaugurated under matriarchal usages, but which in Sparta in the time of Lycurgus may have become somewhat relaxed. However, that the primitive discipline of the Dorian people was not extinct among the Spartans of this time is observed in the warlike character of the males, and in the express testimony of Aristotle that Spartan men had become inured to hardships by means of their frequent campaigns. To restore, or rather to intensify this disci- pline, seems to have been the object of Lycurgus, yet that he lacked greatly in judgment is shown by the meas- ures which he put into execution. We are informed that " at Sparta boys were as early as their eighth year taken into public training, and assigned their places in ' Curtius, Hist, of Greece, book ii., chap. i. 284 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. their respective divisions, where they had to go through all the exercises introductory to military service, and accustom their bodies to endurance and exercise, in exact obedience to the forms required by the state through its officers." ' This interference with the natu- ral development of the Spartan youth was not without its effect upon his character ; and especially so as the policy adopted was such as to narrow his mental horizon, and confine his ideas within the scope of Spartan possi- bilities. From all the evidence to be gathered about the indi- vidual whom historians call Lycurgus, it would appear that he was a fanatic, who, doubtless feeling deeply the disorders which had fastened themselves upon society, attempted to manage not only the affairs of the state, but to impose his authority also upon individual conduct. Of the position occupied by women at the time when Lycurgus is said to have been lawgiver at Sparta, there seems to be much evidence going to show that they were in the possession of a remarkable degree of liberty, and that they were possessed of great power and influence. We have seen that while the men of Sparta were away from their homes engaged in warfare, the country had become wealthy and prosperous. Not only was the land controlled by women, but nearly two fifths of it was theirs by actual possession.'' Therefore, when Aristotle informs us that when Lycurgus " wanted to bring the women under his laws, they resisted, and he gave up the ' Curtius, History of Greece , bookii., chap. i. ''Politics, ii., 9, ANCIENT SPARTA. 285 attempt," ' we are by no means surprised. ■ Indeed, Aristotle himself says that this license of the Lacedsemo- nian women existed from the earliest times, and was only what might be expected." It is altogether likely that in the time of Lycurgus, Spartan women had not been brought under subjection to male authority. According to the accounts given by Aristotle and Plutarch, under regulations made by Lycurgus, the men dined on the plainest fare at the public table, or mess, while the women remained within their own homes. That a considerable degree of success crowned this legislator's efforts to control the conduct and private life of men, from the facts at hand may not be doubted ; among the women, however, the case seems to have been altogether different. Of the Spartans, Aristotle says : " In the days of their greatness many things were man- aged by their women. But what difference does it make whether women rule, or the rulers are ruled by women." " Because, however, the Spartan women preferred to re- main within their own homes, and refused to allow their private affairs to be controlled by Lycurgus, Aristotle accuses them of " intemperance and luxury." He says : " For a husband and a wife, being each a part of every family, the state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women ; and, therefore, in those states in which the condition of the women is bad, half the city may be regarded as having no laws. And this is what has actually happened at Sparta, the legislator wanted to make the whole state temperate, and he has carried out his intentions in the case of the men, but he has neglected the women, who live in every sort of intemperance and luxury." * '/"oAVjVj, bookii., 9. ''Ibid. ^ Ibid. '^ Ibid. 286 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. So far, however, from the Spartan women refusing to concur in those movements which were in operation to make the whole state hardy and temperate, we have ample evidence going to prove that it was women them- selves who in former times had encouraged the healthful and moderate exercise of body and limb among the youth of both sexes. Indeed, from natural inferences to be drawn from the facts at hand, it is altogether probable that these exercises which had originated among the primitive Dorians while under the matriarchal system, had not only been encouraged, but practised, by women while their husbands and fathers were absent on their campaigns. We have seen that, according to Aristotle, women refused to unite in those movements in operation in the time of Lycurgus for the strengthening and general improvement of the youth. Plutarch, on the contrary, ascribes all the physical strength and vigor of mind possessed by Spartan women to the wise regulations of Lycurgus ; and, notwithstanding the fact that, according to his own testimony, they were possessed of great liberty and power, he imputes to this legislator the inauguration of all those practices for the promotion of perfect free- dom among women which were so salutary in producing or continuing a healthful state of public morals. It is plain that the position occupied by Spartan women presented difficulties to the minds of Aristotle and Plutarch which they were wholly unable to explain. With regard to the supposition of Plutarch that the ANCIENT SPARTA. 28/ exercises performed by the young women of Sparta while in a nude or semi-nude condition, were inaugurated by Lycurgus, it is too unreasonable for serious considera- tion. It is to be doubted if there has ever existed, either in ancient or modern times, a legislator, who, unaided and alone, and simply through a stretch of arbitrary power, has been able to regulate the dress, amusements, bodily exercise, and general movements of women in possession of a reasonable degree of personal freedom and liberty of action. Respecting the wise regulations instituted by Lycurgus for the management of women, Plutarch says : " In order to take away the excessive tenderness and delicacy of the sex, the consequence of a recluse life, he accus- tomed the virgins occasionally to be seen naked as well as the young men, and to dance and sing in their presence on certain festivals." ' Perhaps, throughout the entire narrative of Plutarch concerning Lycurgus and his laws, there is nothing so absolutely devoid of reason as this. If, as he assures us, women were possessed of that excessive tenderness and delicacy which are the result of a recluse life ; and if, as he supposes, they had hitherto been trained accord- ing to masculine ideas of female modesty and decorum, it is greatly to be doubted if the laws of Lycurgus, or even the lightnings of Zeus could have driven these virgins into the presence of the opposite sex under the conditions named. ' Lycurgus. 288 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. The facts in the case undoubtedly are that the Spartan people had not at this stage in their career so far departed from the customs of gynecocracy, but that women were able to exercise absolute control over their person under any and all circumstances ; and that being free from the domination and control of the opposite sex, all those exercises and habits of body which were in use for the purpose of increasing the vigor of the race, had been in- stigated by women, or at least had been instituted at a time when female influence was in the ascendency. Concerning the position occupied by the women of Sparta, Plutarch says they had assumed to themselves great liberty and power " on account of the frequent expeditions of their husbands, during which they were left sole mistresses at home, and so gained an undue deference and improper titles." ' It is evident that this writer was unacquainted with the fact that at a time not far distant in the past from the age of Lycurgus, the influence of women in the family and in the gens had been supreme ; hence, like others who have attempted to deal with the subject of primitive peoples, he was unable to conceive of a condi- tion of society in which women's natural instincts played a conspicuous part in regulating the social customs and in formulating the laws by which they were governed. The extreme modesty and sensitiveness which are ob- served as a characteristic of both sexes in the marriage relation, and the reserve of the youths at festivals in ' Lycurgus. ANCIENT SPARTA. 289 which young women are reported to have appeared naked, may not be ascribed to the laws of Lycurgus, but on the other hand appear as direct results of those checks upon the animal instincts in the male which the former strength and independence of women had imposed. ' At a later age, for instance that of Plutarch, the spec- tacle of young maidens appearing on occasions of public festivity in a single garment, loose, and reaching little below the knee, would have been associated with ideas of disgrace and shame ; but, under a condition of society in which the animal instincts had not wholly gained the ascendency over the higher faculties, or in which the characters peculiar to women had not been overshadowed or subdued by the grosser elements developed in human nature, such a proceeding might not, as we have seen, be inconsistent with the purest motives and the highest aims. Something of the extent to which the influence of women was exerted to stimulate bravery and courage in the opposite sex is shown in the description by Plutarch of the festivals in which the young people appeared be- ' As to the exercises of the virgins, and their appearing naked, C. O. Miiller, \-a\iSs, History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, observes : " The female sex underwent in this respect the same education as the male, though (as has been above remarked) only the virgins. They had their avin gymnasia, and exercised themselves, either naked or lightly clad, in running, vprestling, or throwing the quoit or spear. It is highly improbable that youths or men were allowed to look on, sincp in the gymnasia of Lacedsemon no idle bystanders were per- mitted ; every person was obliged either to join the rest, or with- draw." — Book iv., ch. v.-viii, 19 290 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. fore each other in a semi-nude state to practise the popular games of strength and skill. Concerning these festivals this writer remarks that the young women en- gaged in a little raillery upon those who lacked skill, or who had not done their best, while " on such as deserved them they sang encomiums, thus exciting in the young men a useful emulation and love of glory.'' He ob- serves also that " those who were praised for their brav- ery and celebrated among the virgins went away perfectly happy, while their satirical glances were no less cutting than serious admonitions." ' These facts indicate something of the extent to which female influence still survived in ancient Sparta, and re- veal plainly the fact that although in the time of Lycur- gus the coarser instincts developed in human nature had made considerable headway, they had not totally eclipsed the finer characters peculiar to women, as was the case at a later pieriod in Grecian history — more particularly among the Athenians. " As for the virgins appearing naked," Plutarch himself assures us, " there was nothing disgraceful in it, because everything was conducted with modesty, and without one indecent word or action. Nay, it caused a simplicity of manner and an emulation for the best habit of body ; their ideas too were naturally enlarged while they were not excluded from their share of bravery and honor." Regarding the commingling of the sexes among the Spartans, Mr. Grote says : " When we read the restrictions ' Lycurgus, ANCIENT SPARTA. 29 1 which Spartan custom imposed upon the intercourse even between married persons, we shall conclude with- out hesitation that the public intermixture of the sexes led to no such liberties, between persons not married, as might be likely to arise from it under other circum- stances." ' It has been said that it was a Dorian who was the first to throw aside his heavy girdle during the Olympian con- tests and run naked to the goal. In an allusion to this incident, and also to the custom of Spartan virgins ap- pearing in a semi-nude state in the presence of the oppo- site sex during the performance of their gymnastic feats, C. O. MUller says that a display of the naked form when all covering was unnecessary and inconvenient was quite in keeping with the character and temper of the Dorians." Concerning the style of dress adopted by the Doric virgins, we are told that it consisted of a loose woollen garment called a himation. It was without sleeves and was fastened over the shoulders with large clasps. The himation was completely joined only on one side, the other side being left loose and fastened with a buckle or clasp. Doubtless this adjustment of the gown was to enable the wearer to open it and throw it back, thereby securing greater freedom to the limbs while running and wrestling. This simple garment reached only to the calf of the leg, and was worn sometimes with a girdle, some- times without. ' History of Greece, vol. ii., p. 385. ' Hist, and Antiq. of the Doric Race, book iv., ch. ii.. I. 292 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. Without doubt, the pure state of morals in Sparta furnishes an explanation of that peculiar style of dress among women which has elicited so much comment among later writers, and which has stamped the Spartan women as creatures especially " devoid of modesty." True modesty was evidently one of the leading charac- teristics of this people among both sexes, but the simu- lation of it, which, by the way, is usually practised just in proportion as the lower propensities have gained the ascendency over the higher faculties, was doubtless absent in Spartan society.' An illustration of the state of public morals in ancient Sparta may be observed in the following dialogue. A stranger once asked a Spartan what penalty their law attached to adultery. The reply was : " My friend, there are no adulterers in our country.'' Upon being further interrogated, " But what .if there should be one ? " the ' We have the authority of Tacitus respecting the customs, char- acter, and style of dress of the ancient Gerraans. Among this people, as is well known, the influence of womeii was in the ascendency over that of men, and the state of public morals was exactly that which might be expected. Respecting the dress of women, this writer says they ' ' do not lengthen their upper garment into sleeves but leave ex- posed the whole arm, and part of the breast" (Germania, chap. xvii.). It is observed, however, that chastity was the characteristic virtue of this people among both sexes. The marriage bond was strict and severe, and we are informed that among the Saxons the women them- selves inflicted the penalty for adultery. From an epistle of St. Boni- face, Archbishop of Mentz, to Ethelbald, King of England, we have the following : " In ancient Saxony (now Westphalia), if a virgin pollute her father's house, or a married woman prove false to her vows, sometimes she is forced to put an end to her own life by the halter, and over the ashes of her burned body her seducer is hanged." ANCIENT SPARTA. 293 Spartan replied : " Why then, he must forfeit a bull so large that he might drink of the Eurotus from the top of Mount Taygetus." When the stranger asked : " How can such a bull be found ? " the man answered with a smile, " How can an adulterer be found in Sparta ? " ' Commenting on the relative position of Doric and Athenian women, C. O. Miiller says : " The domestic relation of the wife to her husband among the Dorians was in general the same as that of the ancient western nation, described by Homer as universal among the Greeks, and which existed at Rome till a late period ; the only difference being that the peculiarities of the custom were preserved by the Dorians more strictly than elsewhere. "Amongst the Dorians of Sparta, the wife was honored by her hus- band with the title of mistress (a gallantry belonging to the North of Greece, and also practised by the Thessalians), which was used neither ironically nor unmeaningly. Nay, so strange did the import- ance which the Lacedaemonian women enjoy, and the influence which they exercised as the managers of their household, and mothers of families, appear to the Greeks, at a time when the prevalence of Athenian manners prevented a due consideration for national cus- toms, that Aristotle supposed Lycurgus to have attempted, but with- out success, to regulate the life of women as he had that of the men ; and the Spartans were frequently censured for submitting to the yoke of their wives." It has been truly said that nowhere else in Greece do we find traces of that power exercised by women over their sons when arrived at manhood observed among Spartan mothers. When a woman of another country said to Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, " You of Lacedaemon are the only women in the world that rule the men," she replied, " We are the only women that bring forth men." ^ ' Plutarch's Lycurgus. ' Ibid. 294 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. With our present knowledge respecting the influence and independence of the Spartan women, it is folly for certain writers to assert that married women were con- fined within the house and that only virgins appeared in public. There is some evidence going to prove that at Crete, at Sparta, and at Olympia, women were not only spectators at the Olympian games, but that they engaged personally in the chariot contests. According to an in- scription in Delia Cella, it is shown that women presided over the public gymnastic exercises in that town. One very important fact going to show whence pro- ceeded the reforms of Lycurgus is that the mandates of the oracle were supreme. The oracles controlled the rulers, but women always controlled or interpreted the oracles. The celebrated Rhetra of Lycurgus, in which it is observed unlimited authority is given to the people to reject or adopt the proposals of the king, was given according to the direction of the Pythian Apollo, whose mandates were interpreted by women. The fact has been observed that in an earlier age the chiefs of the gentes were elected by all the people, and that they held their office by virtue of their relationship to the leader of the gens, who was a woman. That the honor due to women was still recognized in Sparta is shown in the following from Plutarch in relation to the election of senators. The person who had received the loudest acclamations was declared duly elected, where- upon he was crowned with a garland, and a number of young men followed him about to extol his virtues. The ANCIENT SPARTA. 29S women sang his praises and blessed his life and conduct. Two portions were set before him, one of which he car- ried to the gates of the public hall, where the women were in waiting to receive him. To the one for whom he had the greatest esteem he presented the portion, saying : " That which I received as a mark of honor I give to you." The woman thus honored " was conducted home with great applause by the rest of the women." ' We find that Spartan men were forbidden to marry foreign women, hence, contrary to the customs of sur- rounding nations at this early period, wives as well as husbands were native-born. All were Spartans, which fact probably accounts in a measure for the exalted position occupied by women. Both in Sparta and in Crete the form of marriage was by capture ; thus, although in the time of Lycurgus the Spartan men and women both belonged to the same stock, it is plain that originally they were of different tribes. Of capture as practised in Sparta, Miiller says that it was clearly an ancient national custom, founded on the idea that " the young woman could not surrender her freedom and virgin purity, unless compelled by the violence of the stronger sex."" According to Plutarch, after the arrangements for the wedding had been completed, the bridegroom rushed in, seized the bride from among her assembled friends, and bore her away. ' Plutarch's Lycurgus. ''History and Antiquity of the Doric Jiace, book iv. , ch. iv., 2. 296 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. The Dorian stock alone seems to have preserved the ancient customs, and among these peoples, wherever they are found, woman's influence is in the ascendency. According to Herodotus and Aristotle, the Spartans, the Cretans, and the Lycians were related. As we have seen, the people of Crete still preserved their ancient usages, hence may be observed the reason why Lycurgus visited that country in quest of information before enun- ciating the laws which were to restore order among the Spartans. In Lycia, as in Crete, woman's influence must still have been considerable. Of the Lycians Herodotus says : ' ' Their customs are partly Cretan, partly Carian. . . . They take the mother's and not the father's name. Ask a Lycian who he is, and he answers by giving his own name, that of his mother, and so on in the female line. Moreover, if a free vi'oman marry a man who is a slave, their children are full citizens ; but if a free man marry a foreign woman, or live with a concubine, even though he be the first person in the state, the children forfeit all the rights of citizen- ship." ' On the manner of reckoning descent through women which prevailed in Lycia, Curtius remarks that the usage extends far beyond the territory commanded by the Lycian nationality. It is still extant in India ; it was practised in ancient Egypt, among the Etruscans, and among the Cretans, who were closely related to the Lycians. This writer observes that if " Herodotus re- gards the usage in question as thoroughly peculiar to the ' Book i., 173. ANCIENT SPARTA. ig7 Lycians, it must have maintained itself longest among them of all the nations related to the Greeks, as is also proved by the Lycian inscriptions." ' As the Sabines who united with the Romans in found- ing Rome claimed relationship with the Dorians, we may reasonably expect to find among them somewhat of that womanly influence which characterized the Spartans, and some hint among their customs of an earlier age of female independence. Although the Sabine women did not " voluntarily " assume the position of wives to the Romans but were captured by them, when the two na- tions united, the Sabines were regarded rather in the light of conferring honor upon Rome than as detracting from its dignity. Of the early Romans, Ortolan says : "The connubium, or right of marriage, did not exist between males and females of different cities unless by special agreement between those cities. Thus it was that the primitive Romans, according to tradition, were compelled to resort to ambuscade and force in order to carry off their first wives." " The Roman family, like the Roman state, began with slavery. Of the Romans it has been said that they acquired their territory, their property, and even their wives by the lance. " With them the lance became the symbol of property, and even had a place in their judicial procedure. Their slaves were booty, their wives were ' History of Greece, book i., 3, Ward's translation. ' History of Roman Law, p. 79- 298 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. booty, and their children, begotten of them, the fruit of their possessions." ' The right of fathers, under Romulus, to sell their sons, upon the accession of Numa, the Sabine ruler, to the office of lawgiver, was withdrawn, and the reason given for it was consideration for women. According to Plu- tarch, Numa " reckoned it a great hardship, that a woman should marry a man as free, and then live with him as a slave." ' In the life of Numa by Plutarch we have a hint of a former age of universal freedom. We are informed that it was one of this ruler's institutions, that once a year the slaves should be entertained along with their masters at a public feast, there to enjoy the fruits which they had helped to produce. The same writer assures us that some are of the opinion that this is a remnant of that equality which was in existence in the times of Saturn, when there was neither master nor slave, but all were upon the same footing. Plutarch quotes from Macrobius, who says that this feast was celebrated in Italy long before the building of Rome. From all the facts to be gathered relative to the rela- tions of the sexes in the age of Numa, it is plain that that freedom of action exercised by women in a former age among the Dorians, was rapidly declining, and that the early independence which had characterized the Sabine women was beginning to bring upon them the ' Ortolan's History of Roman Law, p. 42. ' Numa and Lycurgus Compared, ANCIENT SPARTA. 299 condemnation of their Roman lords. This is shown in the fact that it soon became Numa's arduous task to insti- tute certain restrictions on their former liberties. In his comparison between Lycurgus and Numa, Plutarch, in referring to this subject observes : " Numa's strictures as to virgins, tended to form them to that modesty which is the ornament of their sex ; but the great liberty which Lycurgus gave them, brought upon them the censure of the poets, particularly Ibycus." The grossness which had been developed during the four or five hundred years following the age of Lycurgus, and the jealousy with which the movements of women had come to be regarded, are illustrated by the following stanza from Euripides : ' ' These quit their homes, ambitious to display, Amidst the youths, their vigor in the race, Or feats of wrestling, whilst their airy robe Flies back and leaves their limbs uncovered." ' It is evident that not only in private life, but in their desire for public activity also, the independence of the Sabine women failed to comport with the ideas already in vogue among their Roman husbands regarding the " proper sphere " of women. Consequently their behav- ior was thought to be " too bold and too masculine, in particular to their husbands ; for they considered them- selves as absolute mistresses in their houses ; nay, they wanted a share in affairs of state, and delivered their ' Quoted by Plutarch. 300 EARL y HISTORIC SOCIETY. sentiments with great freedom concerning tne most weighty matters." ' A woman even appeared in the Forum to plead her own cause, whereupon the grave senators ordered that the oracles be consulted that the true import of the singular phenomenon might be revealed." Plutarch, who lived in the first century of the Chris- tian era, after having recounted these misdemeanors, assures us that " what is recorded of a few infamous women is a proof of the obedience and meekness of Roman matrons in general." ' Doubtless, in Plutarch's time, Roman women had lost much of that influence which characterized the female sex in an earlier age ; it is not therefore remarkable that by this writer the Sabine women should have been regarded as too forward and as altogether infamous. That their conduct was not all that could be desired by the outlaws and bandits- who founded Rome, and who had stolen them for wives, is evident ; and the regulations of their rulers respecting them show plainly that much judicious training and a vast amount of repression were required before they were fitted for the peculiar duties devolving upon them as sexual slaves. We are told by Plutarch that the regulations estab- lished by Lycurgus, instead of encouraging that licen- tiousness of the women which prevailed at a later period, ' Numa and Lycurgus Compared. 2 Ibid. 8 Ibid. ANCIENT SPARTA. 30I operated to render adultery unknown amongst them ; yet this writer forgets to mention the fact that in Sparta, in the time of this ruler, there was no demand for prostitution by a class who held all the wealth and power, and who were therefore in a position to regulate this matter to suit their own tastes and inclinations. On the contrary, the female sex was free, not only in the matter of the sexual relations, but in the exercise of all their natural tendencies, and in the direction of all their movements. The idea of sex, which among later and more thoroughly sensualized nations became first and foremost, among the Dorians, so far as equal rights, obligations, and duties were concerned, was ignored or left to nature to regulate. Plutarch, like most writers who have dealt with the relations of the sexes, fails to observe the fact that just to the extent in the past history of mankind to which women have been free and independent, licentiousness has disappeared, and that just in proportion as the influence of women has declined, in just such proportion have shame, profligacy, disease, and infamy prevailed. To produce a state of society in which the animal instincts ruled supreme, and in which passion was the recognized god, women had first to become physically dependent and mentally enslaved. For so long a time have women been judged by mascu- line standards, it is not perhaps remarkable that male writers of these later times can discern in the simplicity and chastity observed among the Dorians, in the age of 302 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. Lycurgus, no evidence of a former era of female inde- pendence. Neither is it singular, as for so many ages women have been subject to the pleasure and control of the opposite sex, that we should be repeatedly told by writers who have dealt with the usages of the Spartans, that their women were " permitted " to do this, and " allowed " to do that, although the facts in the case prove that in all their movements they were guided by their own wills, exercised either directly, or through the oracles of the gods. When the customs of the ancient Dorians are viewed without prejudice, the fact will doubtless be observed that they originated not in a depraved and licentious state of society, but, on the contrary, that they were the direct result of that freedom of action which character- izes purity of life and a high .standard of thought and action, CHAPTER IV. ATHENIAN WOMEN. ACCORDING to Wilford, the Greeks were the descendants of the Yavanas of India. This writer observes that the Pandits insist that the words Ydvana and Ydni are derived from the same root, Yu, and that when the lonians emigrated they adopted this name to distinguish themselves as adorers of the female, in opposition to a strong sect of male wor- shippers which had been driven from the mother country.' Under the constantly increasing importance of the male, however, both in human affairs and in the god-idea, they subsequently became ashamed of their religious title and sought to abandon it. Of the aver- sion felt in Greece for this name Herodotus says : " The Athenians and most of the Ionic states over the world went so far in their dislike of the name as actually to lay it aside ; and even at the present day the greater number of them seems to me to be ashamed of it." ' It has been observed that whenever in early historic times a country was subjugated, the conquerors either ' See Hargrave Jennings, PhalHcism. ' Booki., 143. 303 304 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. murdered or enslaved the men, and utilized the women for wives, or sexual slaves. The lonians who, according to Herodotus, sailed from Attica without women, took for wives native Carians whose fathers they had slain ; hence these captives made a law, which they bound themselves by an oath to observe, and which they handed down to their daughters after them, that " none should ever sit at meat with her husband, or call him by his name ; because the invaders slew their fathers, their husbands, and their sons, and then forced them to become their wives.'" The terms of the oaths sworn by them at the time of their capture seem, subse- quently, to have been enforced by their imperious masters. As these women were foreigners, they were entitled to little or no respect from their captors. However, as they were to become the mothers of Greek citizens, they must necessarily be " protected," or, in other words, they must be kept in seclusion. In the time of Solon, rape committed on a free-born woman was punishable by fine." From that stage in the history of Greek tribes, at which through capture and appropriation of the soil by individuals women began to lose that influence which they had exercised under matriarchal usages, to the time of Solon, the lawgiver of Athens, when they had finally descended to the lowest level of misery and sexual degradation, may be observed a corresponding ' Book i., 146. '' Plutarch, Solon, ATHENIAN WOMEN. 30$ tendency gradually developing itself among the people towards selfishness, usurpation of power, and the slavery of the masses. In the age of Solon the limit of human wretchedness seems to have been reached, and as the human race is never at a standstill, it must at this time have either become extinct, or have begun gradually to lift itself from the condition of disgrace and ruin into which it had fallen. The character of Solon, as gathered from the facts at hand regarding him, reflects in a measure the true condition of society at that time. Although vain and morally weak, he was in a certain sense humane ; his humanity, however, extended only to those of his own sex. A large proportion of the women of Athens were imported foreigners, and were therefore so degraded that they had no rights which any one, even a lawgiver, was bound to protect. After his appointment to the archonship, Solon's first act was to cancel the debts against the lands and persons of the Athenians, and to establish a law that in future no man should accept the body of his debtor for security.' Many who had been previously banished or driven out of the country for debt, and had remained so long from their native land as to forget their Attic dialect, were recalled as freemen, while others, who at home had suffered slavery, were released and given their freedom. Perhaps, however, in no position in life will a vain, morally weak man display to better advantage the 20 ' Plutarch, Solon, 306 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. defects in his character than in his attempts to legislate for women ; and under no circumstances will his true inwardness of purpose stand more truly revealed than in his efforts to " regulate " the relations of the sexes. A brief notice of Solon's laws concerning women prove him to have been no exception to the generally observed rule. It is recorded of him that in his extreme solicitude lest their movements should not comport with his ideas of female propriety and decorum, he regulated their journeyings, and laid down rules respecting their mourn- ings, sacrifices, and the number of gowns which they were to take with them when they went out of town. The provision for their journey and even the size of the basket in which it was to be conveyed were subjects not unworthy the attention of the great Athenian lawgiver. Women's mode of travel by night was also prescribed, as was also their conduct at funerals and various places of amusement. In fact all their actions were subjected to that meddlesome espionage and control which char- acterize a weak and sensuous age. Indeed, we have something more than a hint of the degraded position occupied by women, in the fact that a man might not be allowed to sell a daughter or a sister " unless she were taken in an act of dishonor before marriage," in which case her accuser might sell her person for indi- vidual gain ; and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that he, as well as nearly every other man in Athens, was steeped in infamy. The measure adopted by Solon for the regulations of ATHENIAN WOMEN. -ipj prostitution, and his division of women into classes for the convenience of all conditions of men, indicate clearly the disgrace and shamelessness which characterized the Athenians at this stage of their career, and depict with unerring fidelity the depth of horror into which woman- hood had been dragged. The condition of public morals during the seven hundred years preceding the Christian era is plainly indicated not only in the laws but in the mythologies of Greece and Rome. Prostitution was enjoined by religion, and when Draco, suddenly shocked by the degeneracy of his time, afifixed the penalty of death to rape, seduction, and adultery, it has been said that by the performance of the prescribed religious rites within the temple, the " rigor of his edicts was considerably softened." The restraint imposed upon the Athenians by the Draconian regulations was, however, of short duration ; for when Solon, the successor of Draco, assumed the position of archon, he at once legally established a suf- ficient number of houses of prostitution at Athens to supply the demand, filling them with female slaves who had been taken captives in war, or who had been other- wise provided by the munificence of the government. ' ' But you did well for every man, O Solon ; For they do say you were the first to see The justice of a public-spirited measure, The Savior of the State." ' * Philemon. Quoted by Athenseus, book xiii., 25. 308 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. By this time, so degraded had womanhood become, that the traffic in female captives for sexual purposes was regarded as a legitimate business, and the revenue accruing from their Services was considered a lawful source of gain to the state, its use being devoted to the rearing of temples and to the carrying out of the various projects connected with religious worship. That the Athenians of this period were wholly given over to luxury and licentiousness is shown by the fact that at their bacchanalian feasts, the troops of women who were in attendance, and who, as we have observed, had been provided for the occasion by the generosity of the state, performed all their duties under direct and explicit instruction of the government to " disobey no order of a guest " ; for which wise regulations Solon received the praise and commendation of Athenian philosophers. In a former portion of this work the fact has been ob- served, that until well into the Latter Status of barbarism all women were protected ; that among the Kaffirs, the Fiji Islanders, and various other peoples occupying a lower stage in the order of growth, women, although divested of their former influence, are still jealously guarded by the gens to which they belong ; and that when maidens are bereft of home and near relatives, they are adopted into some other gens within the tribe, where they are invested with the same rights as are its own members. Therefore, when contemplating the social condition of the Athenians, five or six hundred ATHENIAN WOMEN. 309 years b.c, we are naturally led to inquire : What was the nature of the causes which during one ethnical period had produced so marked a change in the position of the female sex ? For an answer to our question we must recall the facts set forth in this volume relative to the capture of wives, together with the feeling of hatred entertained by early society for alien women. In the time of Pericles, an age when Athens was at the height of its prosperity, the women of the city were divided into five classes as regarded their duties and uses. The first of these consisted of wives, who, for the most part, were kept in seclusion and allowed to exist solely for the purpose of propagating Greek citizens. These women were without influence, possessing no rights or privileges beyond the will of their " lords " ; while to such an extent were they considered merely in the light of household furniture, that they were not permitted to appear in public, nor to sit at table with their masters. The following dialogue between Socrates and Ischom- achus, a man who had managed his household in such a manner as to be "pointed out as a model for all Athens," perhaps serves as'a correct picture of the rela- tions existing between husband and wife in the Periclean age. " I should like to know this particular from you," said Socrates, " whether you yourself educated your wife so as to make her what she ought to be, or whether you received her from her parents with a knowledge of her duties?" — " And how could I have received her so educated, Socrates, when she came to me iiot fifteen 3IO EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. years old, and had lived up to that time under the strictest surveillance that she might see as little as pos- sible, and hear as little as possible, and inquire as little as possible ? " Of the five classes to which reference has been made, wives only were ilative-born, and as this particular class had specific duties to perform, severe penalties were attached to the crimes of seduction and rape when committed upon Athenian women. The remaining four classes were arranged according to the dignity of their associates, the highest in rank and repute being the hetairai, the members of which comprised the only free women in Athens. Themselves philosophers and states- women, their associates among males were of the same rank or station. They constituted a highly intellectual class, and as such were able to control not only their own movements, but to exercise a remarkable influence upon literature, art, and the affairs of state. Because of the important position occupied by these women, they will be referred to again later in this work. The next in rank were the auletrides, or flute-players. Many of the most fashionable of these were slaves who had been brought to Greece by speculators. We are informed that female musicians were a usual accompani- ment to an Athenian banquet, and that flute-playing became an essential feature in the worship of several of their deities ; hence, the services of this particular class were in demand, not only to heighten the enjoyment of social intercourse, but to stimulate and encourage reli- ATHENIAN WOMEN. 3II gious enthusiasm." At public gatherings, after the dinner was over, and while the wine was flowing freely, these women made their appearance in a semi-nude con- dition, dancing and keeping time to the music by the graceful motion of their beautifully moulded figures. While the enthusiasm was at its height they were sold to the highest bidder. Fist fights, or hand-to-hand en- counters for the possession of these female flute-players, were not uncommon occurrences in the best society in Athens.' The fact will doubtless be remembered that these scenes were performed under the sanction of religion and law ; they therefore serve to reveal the true inward- ness of the Greek character at this stage of development. It is reported that the finest houses in Alexandria were in- scribed with the name of famous Greek auletrides. Of all the flute-players of Greece, Lamia is said to have been the most successful. For fifteen or twenty years she was the delight of the entire city of Alexandria and of King Ptolemy. Finally, when the city was taken by Demetrius of Macedon, Lamia was taken also. When she demanded that an immense tax be levied on the city of Athens for her benefit, it is recorded that although the people mur- mured at the amount, they nevertheless found it to their iilterest to deify her and erect a temple in her honor. According to the testimony of Plutarch, Lamia raised money on her own authority to provide an entertainment for the king." ' Athenseus, book xiii., 86. ' Demetrius. 312 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. The fourth class consisted of concubines, or purchased slaves who were in the service of Athenian gentlemen (?). This appendage to the Greek family was a member of the household of her master, where she was kept with the full knowledge of the wife, the latter occupying a position little if any superior to that of her rival. Indeed, as the purchased slave could be disposed of whenever the fancy or caprice of her master so dictated, and another installed in her place, it is reasonable to suppose that so long as she did remain, she was the object of quite as much attention as was the wife. The lowest class, or those who were allowed the least freedom of action, were those known as the dicteriades. They were compelled to reside at a designated place, and were forbidden to be seen upon the streets by day. Nothing of a personal nature was allowed to interfere with the duties which were imposed upon them by their imperious masters. Their only duty was to obey. By this time we are prepared to appreciate, to a cer- tain extent, the moral aspect of Greek society during the years intervening between the age of Solon and that of Pericles, a period of about a century and a half. That all women, wives and concubines, native-born and foreign, had been dragged to the lowest depths of dis- grace and shame, and that they were classified and arranged to meet the demands of those who through the unchecked tendencies inherent in the male nature had reached the lowest level of infamy to which it is possi- ble for living creatures to descend, are facts which are ATHENIAN W'eMEN. 313 only too plainly shown by those whose duty it has been to record the events connected with the history of the Greeks. Although under Draco, the predecessor of Solon, the political degradation of the citizens of Greece may be said to have reached its height, and although the up- rising of the masses against the usurpation of power by the few marks an era in human advancement, it was not until the dawn of the Periclean age that women had gained sufficient freedom to enable them to exercise any direct influence on thought, or on the principles under- lying human conduct. We must bear in mind the fact that for five or six centuries the inferiority of women had been systemati- cally and religiously taught. Ever since the time of Cecrops, at which time doubtless the manner of reckon- ing descent began to be changed from the female to the male line, woman's influence in Athens had gradually declined. As we have already seen, the physiological doctrine that in the office of reproduction the mother plays only an insignificant part, had not only been pro- claimed by Apollo but had been sanctioned also by Athene. Just here may be observed the key to the gradually declining position of the female element in the deity, and to the finally accepted dogma that the female is inferior to the male. Through the private ownership of land and the consequent dependence of women upon men, the way had been paved for this assumption — an 314 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. assumption which had the effect to create in Ionian men the supreme and lofty contempt for women which is observed throughout their literature and laws. From the age of Solon to that of Pericles, the overwhelming degree of superiority assumed by Athenian men over women had uprooted in the former every vestige of restraint, at the same time that it had deprived them of the last trace of that respect for womanhood which under earlier and more natural conditions had been entertained. It has been frequently remarked that women took little or no part in the intellectual development of Greece; that during the most rapid progress of Greek men, there was no corresponding improvement in. the position occupied by Greek women. For reasons which have already been explained, the foremost women in Greece, and in fact all women who during the Periclean age were engaged in art, literature, philosophy, and states- manship, belonged to the class known as the hetairai, a term which, through the excessive growth of egoism and superstition, subsequently became a term of reproach ; hence, whatever may have been the importance of the services rendered by these women to society, such ser- vices would have been ignored, or, if not altogether ignored, would haye been reflected upon, or appropriated by, the opposite sex. To say that the hetairai were free is equal to saying that they have been misunderstood, hence the calumnies which for more than two thousand years have been ATHENIAN WOMEN. 31S heaped upon them. That the hetairai of Greece in the Periclean age included a class of women who were the intellectual compeers of the ablest statesmen and phi- losophers, is a fact which may not by those who have paid close attention to this subject be denied. That they taught rhetoric and elocution, that they lectured publicly and established schools of philosophy, at the same time that they wielded a powerful influence on the state and on the drift of current thought, are facts too well authenticated to admit of an honest doubt. I think one may not investigate the various schools of philosophy which arose during the fourth and fifth cen- turies B.C., without noting the peculiarly altruistic prin- ciples involved in them, and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that, hitherto, extreme selfishness or egoism had constituted the prevailing character observed in Athenian society. According to the principles of the Cyrenaics, " the virtuous man is not necessarily he who is in the posses- sion of pleasure, but he who is able to proceed rightly in quest of pleasure." Virtue " is the only possible and sure way to happiness." " The most eminent members of the Cyrenaic school were Arete, the daughter of Aristippus, and her son, Aristippus the younger, sur- named the ' mother-taught.' " ' The fundamental doctrine taught by the Cynics seems ' Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, vol. i. , p. 95- We are informed by Ueberweg that there exists an early monograph on Arete by J. C. Eck. (Leipzig, 1776-) 3l6 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. to be that virtue is the only good. The essence of virtue lies in self-control. Enjoyment sought as an end is an evil. Virtue is capable of being taught, and when once acquired cannot be lost. What is good is honorable, and what is bad is disgraceful. On examination it is found that one of the most eminent members of this school is Hipparchia ; and that she is not a mere listener, imbibing the ideas of others, is shown in the fact that she lectured publicly and argued strongly before the philosophers of Athens. The founder of the Cynic school of philosophy is said to have been Antisthenes, the son of a Thracian mother. One of the sayings of this philosopher is, that " virtue is the same in a man as in a woman." ' That the question of the position of women was a theme for discussion in the age under consideration is shown in a " sophism " proposed by Hipparchia to The- odorus. Once when she went to sup with Lysimachus, she said to Theodoras : " What Theodorus could not be called wrong for doing, that same thing Hipparchia ought not to be called wrong for doing." "" When we take into consideration the fact that Hip- parchia was intimately associated with Crates, a man for whom she entertained the tenderest affection, and when we remember that they were both engaged in teaching a philosophy which " recognized virtue as the supreme end of life,'' the conversation at the house of Lysimachus ' Diogenes Laertius, vi., 5. ' Diogenes Laertius, Life of Hipparchia, iii. ATHENIAN WOMEN. 317 between Hipparchia and Theodorus, as set forth by Diogenes Laertius, will scarcely be credited. Of the Epicureans it has been observed that they were a sort of Pythagorean brotherhood, consisting of both men and women. ' ' The scandalous tongue of antiquity was never more virulent than it was in the case of Epicurus, but, as far as we can judge, the life of the Garden joined to urbanity and refinement a simplicity which would have done no discredit to a Stoic ; indeed, the Stoic Seneca continually refers to Epicurus not less as a model for conduct, than as a master of sententious wisdom." Among the most distinguished members of this school were Thero.istia, to whom Cicero refers in his speech against Pisa as a " sort of female Solon," and Leontium the hetaira, who ventured to attack Theophrastus in an essay characterized, as we are assured, by much elegance of style.' The fact will be observed that no school of philosophy arose in Athens with which there was not closely con- nected the name of one or another of the illustrious women of the time. Zeno, the founder of the Stoic phi- losophy, was the pupil of Crates, the husband of Hip- parchia. Crates and Hipparchia were not only husband and wife, but were also companions and co-laborers in the same cause. Aspasia was the clever preceptress of Socrates," the philosopher who " sat for the portrait of the Stoic ' Mayor, Ancient Philosophy, pp. 181, 182. ' Athenseus, book v., 61. 3 1 8 EARL Y HISTORIC SOCIETY. sage." ' According to the Stoic philosophy, the supreme end of life is virtue, i. e., " a life conformed to nature." The degree of self-restraint taught by Socrates is shown in the following lines : " Is it not the duty of every man to consider that temperance is the foundation of every virtue, and to establish the observance of it in his mind before all things ? For who, without it, can either learn any- thing good, or sufficiently practise it ? Who, that is a slave to pleas- ure, is not in an ill condition both as to his body and his mind ? It appears to me, by Juno, that a free man ought to pray that he may never meet with a slave of such a character, and that he who is a slave to pleasure should pray to the gods that he may find well-disposed masters ; for by such means only can a man of that sort be saved." ^ When the ablest statesmen and the first philosophers of Greece united in sounding the praises of Alcibiades, the genius of Aspasia commanded equal recognition. Not only did Socrates and Pericles receive instruction and inspiration from this gifted woman, but we are assured that she lectured publicly and that her " acquaint- ances took their wives with them to hear her discourse." " Indeed " Pericles threw all Greece into confusion on account of Aspasia, not the young one, but that one who associated with the wise Socrates." * "It is not to be imagined that Aspasia excelled in light and amorous discourses. Her discourses, on the contrary, were not more brilliant than solid. It was believed by the most intelligent Athen- ' Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, vol. i., p. 187 (quoted from Noack's Psyche). ' Xenophon, Memorabilia of Socrates, book i., 5. ^ Plutarch, Pericles. * Atheneeus, book xiii. ,56. ATHENIAN WOMEN. 319 ians, and amongst them Socrates himself, that she composed the celebrated funeral oration pronounced by Pericles in honor of thos^ that were slain in the Samian war." ' It is recorded of her that many Athenians resorted to her lecture-room on account of her skill in the art of speaking. Not only did she teach rhetoric, philosophy, and the proper relations of the sexes, but so renowned was she for statesmanship that Pericles is said to have surrendered to her the government of Athens, then at the height of its glory and renown. On this subject Plutarch remarks : " Some, indeed, say that Pericles made his court to Aspasia only on account of her wisdom and political abilities." It has been said that the expedition against the Samians was merely to gratify Aspasia. The Milesians and Samians, who had been at war, were ordered to lay down their arms. When they refused to obey, Peri- cles, in company with Aspasia, sailed with a fleet to Samos, and abolished the oligarchical form of govern- ment. Although he was offered large sums of money, he "treated the Samians in the manner he had resolved on ; and having established a popular government in the island, he returned to Athens." ' Plutarch, quoting from ^schines, says that Lysicles, who was " of a mean, ungenerous disposition, by his intercourse with Aspasia after the death of Pericles, became the most considerable man in Athens." ' Not- withstanding the scandalous reports which have come ' Plutarch, Pericles. ' Ibid. ^ Ibid. 320 EARLY HISTORIC SOCEITY. down to us of this woman's character, in view of the facts which it has been impossible for bigotry to conceal, we are constrained to ask : What manner of woman was this who was able to control statesmen, impart instruc- tion to world-renowned philosophers, and leave a name which even bigotry, envy, and malice may not efface from the history of human events ? In seeking for an explanation of the exalted character of Aspasia, we have something more than a hint in the fact that she is re- ported to have " trod in the steps of Thargelia," a woman who by her exceeding brilliancy had gained the sov- ereignty of Thessaly. Indeed, we have found a key to the entire situation, when we learn that this Thargelia, in whose steps Aspasia trod, " was descended from the ancient lonians," ' a people who, as we have seen, origi- nally worshipped the female principle, and who still preserved the customs peculiar to the matriarchal sys- tem, under which it will be remembered women as aliens did not follow the fathers of their children to their homes. So soon as these facts are understood, we are not in the least surprised to learn that Aspasia discounte- nanced the institution of marriage as it existed in Athens. Neither is it remarkable, when we remember that the underlying principles of this ancient system were justice and equity, that she should be found using her great in- fluence, as in the case of the Milesians and Samians, in substituting democracies in the place of oligarchies ; nor that, in an age when women had come to be regarded ' Plutarch, Pericles. ATHENIAN WOMEN. 32 1 simply as the tools and slaves of men, she should be found teaching the dignity of womanhood to her own^V sex, and the principles of equality and justice to males. According to Xenophon, Aspasia's efforts were to a great extent directed to the duties of husbands and wives ; indeed, her foremost object seems to have been to educate Athenian women. We have many hints of the fact that in Aspasia's time the position of women was one of the leading topics discussed in Athens. Socrates says to his companions that he has been of the opinion " of a long time that the female sex are nothing inferior to ours, excepting only in strength of body or perhaps steadiness of judgment."' The coarse picture painted by Aristophanes, of women with beards going in male attire to the agora, " to seize the administration of the state so as to do the state some good," ^ although a vul- gar attempt to ridicule the female philosophers of Athens, furnishes something more than a hint of the fact that the ideas set forth in Plato's Republic had been openly discussed by the philosophers of the Periclean age. That the word hetaira was originally employed in no mean or compromising sense is plain, since Sappho uses it in the sense of " female companion \iTaipoi\ of the same rank and the same interests." We are assured that these women were able to preserve a friendship " free from trickery." Of them even " Cynulcus does not ven- ture to speak ill." ' They " of all women are the only ' Xenophon, Banquet. " Ecclesianusce. ' Athenaeus, xiii., 28, 322 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. ones who have derived their name from friendship or from that goddess who is named by the Athenians Venus Hetsera." ' " Accordingly, even to this day," observes Athenseus, " free-born women and maidens call their associates and friends their iraipai ; as Sappho does where she says : And now with tuneful voice I '11 sing These pleasing songs to my companions and in another place she says — Niobe and Latona were of old Affectionate companions \kTaipai\ to each other. " ' Notwithstanding the aspersions which have been cast upon the name and fame of the hetairai of Greece, it is doubtful if the intelligent women of the present age who carefully examine the shreds and remnants concerning them which have withstood the envy of mediocrity, and the bigotry of scholasticism, will be brought to believe that the excesses which are foreign to the female nature, and which belong to ruder and less highly developed structures, were practised by these gifted women. We must bear in mind that the hetairai were free, and therefore that they were able to direct their movements according to the natural characters developed within the female,— characters which it will be remembered are correlated with the maternal instinct. The licentiousness, not only of Greek and Roman ' Athenseus, xiii., 28, ' liid. ATHENIAN WOMEN. 323 women, but of those in certain portions of Asia as well, has been the favorite theme of many writers of past ages ; more especially has the lewdness of Lydian and Babylonian women been noted and commented upon. After referring to the annual sales of women in Baby- lonia, Herodotus says that the people " have lately hit upon a very different plan to save their maidens from violence, and prevent their being torn from them and carried to distant cities, which is to bring up their daughters to be courtesans. This is now done by all the poorer of the common people, who since the conquest have been maltreated by their lords, and have had ruin brought upon their families." ' We have observed that the various classes of " kept women " in Greece were foreigners, that they were either bought or captured from surrounding countries. As in the case of the Lydians and Babylonians, they were doubtless carried from their home at a tender age, after having been reared to their profession. We know that many of the maidens thus taken to Greece subsequently became philosophers, statesmen, and scholars, where- upon they abandoned their former calling. Lysias men- tions the fact that Philyra gave up her former course when she was still quite young, " and so did Scione, and Hippaphesis, and Theoclea, and Psamathe, and Lagisca, and Anthea." ^ As special mention is made of a woman who " did not cease to live a prostitute when she began to learn philos- ' Book i., 196. ' AthenKus, book xiii., 51. 324 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. ophy," ' we may reasonably infer that it was usual for these women to abandon the calling to which they had been born and bred, so soon as from such teachers as Aspasia and Hipparchia they began to imbibe principles of self-respect and womanly independence. From the position occupied by the hetairai of Greece it is evident that they were regarded with that respect which is ever due to cultured womanhood ; indeed, from the evidence at hand we may believe that they were the most highly honored citizens in Athens. All women in Greece who prostituted themselves were forbidden to take sacred names ; yet of Nemeas, Athe- naeus says : " And we may wonder bow it was that the Athenians permitted a courtesan to have such a name, which was that of a most honorable and solemn festival." " Of Glycera it is related that Harpalus issued an edict that no one should present him with a crown, unless the donor at the same time presented one to her. He erected a statue to her and permitted her to dwell in the palace of Tarsus where he allowed her " to receive adora- tion from the people " ; he permitted, her also to bear the title of Queen, and " to be complimented with other presents which are only fit for your own mother and your own wife." " Timotheus, who was a general of very high repute in ' Athenseus, book xiii., 53. ^ JHd., xiii., 51. ^ Ibid., xiii., 68. ATHENIAN WOMEN. 325 the Athenian army, was the son of a courtesan ; we are informed, however, that she was " a courtesan of very excellent character." ' The great Themistocles is said to have been the son of Abrotonum, a " courtesan." It is recorded that in response to an order issued by- the people, Praxiteles made a solid gold statue of one of the hetairai, which was consecrated in the temple of Delphi. Certainly the deathless models of Greek art formed by Praxiteles and Phidias are not representations of coarse and sensualized womanhood. ' That these women were a power in Athens during the Periclean age may not, in view of the facts recorded in relation to them, be disputed. Of them it has been said : " None but they could gather round them of an evening the choicest spirits of the day, and elicit, in the freedom of unrestrained inter- course, mt and wisdom, flashing fancy and burning eloquence. What wonder that the hetairai should have filled so prominent a part in Greek society ! And how small » compensation to virtuous women to know their rivals could not stand at the altar when sacrifice was offered, could not give birth to a citizen.'' In this acknowledgment of the exalted position occu- pied by the Greek hetairai may be observed the fact that the author of these lines, like most writers upon the subject of the sexual relations, measures virtue not by its antithesis to vice, but by the established masculine standards which have been set up for women to conform to. A Greek wife's life may have been one continuous ' Athenseus, book xiii., 38. 326 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. scene of subjection to the lowest appetites of a master for whom she may have had not the least degree of re- spect or affection, and who regarded her only in the light of an instrument for his convenience and pleasure ; still such an one would doubtless be accounted as a vir- tuous woman in contradistinction to one of the hetairai whose position enabled her to control her own person, and who was able to exercise her own will-power in pro- tecting it against the excesses of Greek men. It is evi- dent that this class of women more than any other in Greece was able to direct its movements and manage its activities, and, therefore, if we bear in mind the charac- ters correlated in the female constitution with the ma- ternal instinct, we may be assured that among the entire population of Athens, the lives of these women were the most pure and the least addicted to excesses. Aspasia, the philosopher and statesman ; Hipparchia, practical professor of Cynic philosophy, and one of the most voluminous and esteemed writers of her time ; Thargelia, the Milesian, whom Xerxes employed at the court of Thessaly, and many others scarcely less re- nowned, prove that through the exercise of that personal freedom enjoyed by the hetairai, women had at length risen to that position in which they were able to exert a powerful influence, not only on the affairs of state, but upon the intellectual development of the Athenians and the entire world. To say that these women have been written about, in an age in which male power and male influence have been in the ascendency, is to say that ATHENIAN WOMEN. 327 they have been misunderstood and their movements mis- interpreted. Because of the efforts put forth by scholastics for two thousand years to belittle or annul the importance of the services rendered by the hetairai, they will doubt- less for some time continue to be judged not by their intellectual vigor nor by what they accomplished, but by the social position into which, through the exigencies of masculine domination, they had been jostled. The fact has been observed that less than two centuries prior to the age of Aspasia and Socrates, Solon had given to the calling of prostitution the sanction of religion and law ; that he had purchased a sufficient number of young slaves from surrounding countries to satisfy the demands of the men of Greece ; and that he had made the calling of these girls a source of public revenue, for which services he had received the title of " Savior of the State." We would scarcely expect, therefore, to find chastity among the prominent virtues of the Periclean age. I wish to emphasize the fact that by the conditions of society at this time, the class designated as hetairai, although they were in a certain sense free, were practi- cally prevented, no matter what may have been their natural inclinations or aspirations, from rising to a higher plane of moral action, and that the existing conditions were wholly the result of the supremacy gained by the lower propensities over the higher forces developed in human nature. Had these gifted women accepted the position of wife, ignorance and seclusion would have 328 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. been their portion, while their sexual degradation would have been none the less complete or perfec't ; indeed it would have been all the more intolerable, for the reason that the degradation of their persons, which in the posi- tion of hetairai was sued for as a privilege, in the position of wife would have been claimed as a right. By most writers upon this subject the fact seems not to have been observed, or, if observed, has not been ac- knowledged, that licentiousness among women during a certain period of Greek life, about which so much has been written, was governed wholly by the demands of their masters ; in fact, throughout the history of man- kind, since the ascendency of the male over the female has been gained, the class which has controlled the means of support, and within which has resided all the power to direct the activities of women, has ever regu- lated the supply of victims to be offered upon the altar of lust ; and in all these regulations may be observed such an adjustment of women's " duties " to the " neces- sities " of the male nature, that no alternative has been left them but submission. CHAPTER V. ROMAN LAW AND THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY WE have seen that notwithstanding the almost total degeneracy of society in the age of Solon, a century an,d a half later, there appeared in Athens a decided tendency toward mental cultivation and moral improvement. Indeed, at this time, among the various schools of Greek philosophy, the principle of the unity of virtue and knowledge became firmly established. The fact has been observed also that these various systems of philosophy, in which were taught principles inculcating the most austere virtue, and in which were involved the equality of the sexes and the brotherhood of man, arose during the age in which the illustrious women known as the hetairai lived. Although Antis- thenes, who was a disciple of Socrates, is said to have been the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, it is observed that one of the most illustrious names con- nected with this system was that of Hipparchia, and that Zeno, who was the founder of the Stoic philosophy, was the pupil of Crates, who was the companion and fellow- worker of this gifted woman. While the principles involved in the Stoic philosophy 329 330 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. may not have been formulated by the female philosophers of Greece, yet that their development was wholly due to the intellectual liberty enjoyed by these illustrious women, seems altogether probable, especially when we recall the facts connected with the early development of the two sexes and the conditions under which this phi- losophy arose. A glance at the principles involved in this last-named system will show its thoroughly altruistic character. The , sum of its tenets was to " live according to nature's laws," to subordinate one's self to the welfare of one's family, one's country, and the entire race, and to " rise above the gross indulgences and pleasures of the vulgar " to higher laws of thought and action ; in other words, it taught that to be just, and to live according to the dic- tates of reason rather than to be governed by the prompt- ings of blind passion and the desire of the appetites, should be not only the duty but the highest pleasure of mankind. Possibly some of the minor precepts of the Stoic philosophy were absurd ; no doubt in their desire for reform, its founders set up a canon of conduct which was severe and impracticable ; but its fundamental principles, the subjection of the animal in man to the reasoning faculties, as applied to future Roman law, Roman civilization, and Roman character, served to produce the grandest specimens of manhood which have thus far in the history of the race appeared to grace human society. So long as virtue is applauded and true moral great- SOMAN LAW AND THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 33 1 ness is exalted, the names of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius will live, and the enactments of the Roman jurisconsults in the interest of women, prior to, and during the time of the Antonine Caesars, will stand forth throughout the ages as the one single movement, during thousands of years, toward the removal of the legal disabilities of women. When we remember that the Stoic philosophy took root and flourished during an age of almost unparalleled profligacy, which was stimu- lated and encouraged by the example of the most opulent and luxurious personages among the Greeks, and at a time when licentiousness had for centuries been sanc- tioned by religion and upheld by laws made by the men of Greece, it is quite evident that some potent influence, which had hitherto been unfelt, had been in operation to produce it. In order to understand the influence which the Stoic philosophy exerted on civilization, and especially on the legal position of women, we must first understand its effect upon Roman law. An inquiry into the changes which had been wrought in Roman jurisprudence at the time of the Antonine Caesars, by engrafting upon it the underlying principles contained in the Stoic philosophy, discloses the fact that the absolute legal emancipation of women had been accomplished in Rome. Perhaps there is no subject which, at the present time, possesses greater interest for inquiring women than that concerning the status of their sex under the Hindu law, and under the older Roman code ; for, by an under- 332 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. standing of woman's legal status, as fixed under these institutions at a time when man had gained the summit of his power over her, is furnished a key whereby may be unlocked many of the mysteries surrounding the still extant social and legal disabilities of women. The thoroughly egoistic character of the principles underlying the older Roman law has been noticed in a former portion of this work. We have seen that in Rome the father, who was the sole representative of the family, had drawn to himself not only all the authority over the child which under the earlier gentile organiza- tion of society had been acknowledged as belonging ex- clusively to the natural prerogatives of the mother, but, ignoring individual liberty, and all the principles of per- sonal freedom which had been established under the matriarchal system, had proclaimed himself absolute sovereign over all within the agnatic bond. The divine oracle of Apollo, which had enunciated the doctrine that the soul of the child is derived from the father, had at the same time declared that the mother has to do only with furnishing the body. Thus the former, as Creator, becaine the household god ; his authority, as we have seen, being supreme even to the exercise of the power of life and death over its members. Under ancient law, the father, as head of the house- hold, really constituted the family, the remaining mem- bers being merely ciphers which, from the peculiar position in which they were placed, were without signifi- cance except as vassals under the strictest tutelage of ROMAN LA W AND THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 333 their master. The fact will be observed that under this august system of father-worship, males as well as females had become enslaved. The bondage of men, however, differed somewhat from the " perpetual tutelage of women," in the fact that they themselves in time might hope to become heads of families, and in that imperial position to assume the same authority and dominion over others as had been exercised over them. Women, on the contrary, could never become heads of families, and therefore could never hope to be free. So long as they remained single they were under the tutelage of their blood-relations, or were subject to the authority of some individual whom the father, before his death, might choose to appoint over them as guardian. Thus arose the law known as the Perpetual Tutelage of Women. Upon this subject Henry Maine says : " Ancient law subordinates the woman to her blood-relations, while a prime phenomenon of modern jurisprudence has been her subordination to her husband. The history of the change is remark- able. It begins far back in the annals of Rome. Anciently, there were three modes in which marriage might be contracted according to Roman usage, one involving a religious solemnity, the other two the observance of certain secular formalities. By the religious mar- riage of Confarreation ; by the higher form of civil marriage, which was called Coemption; and by the lower form, which was termed Usus, the husband acquired a number of rights over the person and property of his wife, which were on the whole in excess of such as are conferred on him in any system of modern jurisprudence. But in what capacity did he acquire them? Not as Husband, but as Father. By the Confarreation, Coemption, and Usus, the woman passed in manum viri — that is, in law she became the Daughter of her husband. She was included in his Patria Potestas. She in- curred all the liabilities springing out of it while it subsisted, and 334 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. surviving it when it had expired. All her property became absolutely his, and she was retained in tutelage after his death to the guardian whom he had appointed by will." ' On this subject of male supremacy in the family Mr. Maine remarks : "The foundation of Agnation is not marriage of Father and Mother, but the authority of the Father. All persons are Agnati- cally bound together who are under the same Paternal Power, or who have been under it, or who might have been under it if their lineal ancestor had lived long enough to exercise his empire." ' Under this bond would be united all the children belonging to the head of the household and all the descendants of the sons, but not of the daughters ; the daughters' children under this manner of reckoning descent belonged to the families of their respective fathers. Although under this system a man might adopt a stranger into his family, and invest him with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto, no descend- ant of a daughter could claim any of the rights of agnation. It is observed that under Hindu law, which is saturated with the primitive notions of family depen- dency, in the genealogies, the names of women are omitted altogether. We are assured by Mr. Maine that the exclusion of women from governmental functions certainly had its origin in agnation. Thus it is seen that paternity had come to involve the idea of a supreme ruler or potentate, and that the overshadowing predomi- ^ Ancient Law, p. 149. ^ Ibid., p. 144. ROMAN LAW AND THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 335 nance of the male over the female had paved the way to the future worship of one all-powerful male deity. We have seen that the principles involved in the Stoic philosophy were justice, equality, and the subjection of the appetites to the dictates of reason and conscience. So soon as Greece was subjugated by Rome, the ablest of the Romans espoused the principles embodied in this philosophy, and notably among those who became interested in its tenets were the Roman lawyers, who began immediately to reconstruct the civil law upon the principles underlying this system. That it is only through a return to the archaic and natural principles of justice and right living, the ac- knowledgment of which at once establishes the proper relations of the sexes, that women may ever hope to be free, is plain to all those who have given attention to this subject. This fact was evidently observed by the Roman lawyers who, through the persistency with which only those labor who are engaged in establishing a prin- ciple, had so far succeeded in overcoming the prejudice against sex as to have established a legal code wherein was practically recognized the equality of women with men. Doubtless the Romans were as tenacious of their ancient customs, prejudices, and long-established privi- leges as have been the people of any other country ; hence we may perhaps form a faint idea of the obstacles which presented themselves, and of the devices which must have been resorted to by jurists in an endeavor 33G EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. to remove the existing legal restrictions upon the liberties of women. Mr. Maine informs us that Gaius, a celebrated jurist who lived in the age of the Antonine Caesars, devoted an entire volume to descriptions of the ingenious ex- pedients devised by Roman lawyers to evade the letter of the ancient law, and that it was through this source that the fact finally became known that in the age of the Antonine Caesars the legal disabilities of women had been practically annulled. From the facts at hand it is observed that the object of the Roman lawyers was to frame an edictal juris- prudence which should supersede the older law, or which in effect should annul its power. We are informed that the praetor was not only the chief equity judge, but that he was also the common-law magistrate. So soon, therefore, as the edict had passed through the necessary formalities enabling it to become a law, the praetor's court began to apply it in place, or by the side of the civil law, " which was directly or indirectly repealed without any express enactment of legislation." In reference to the legal status of women in the age of the Antonine Caesars, Henry Maine observes : " Led by their theory of natural law, the jurisconsults had at this time assumed the equality of the sexes as a prin- ciple of their code of equity." ' Although the seed sown in Greece during the. Periclean age, when conveyed to Rome, produced a golden harvest, ' Ancient Law I "p. 149. ROMAN LA W AND THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 337 the fact will doubtless be remembered that the Roman lawyers had but just completed their work of establish- ing the legal equality of the sexes when the agencies which for years had been at work to destroy the Empire culminated ; and finally, when Christianity, in the per- son of Constantine ascended the throne, the results of four centuries of civilization were destroyed, or for more than sixteen hundred years were practically annulled. Regarding the changes which had been wrought in the legal status of women in the age of the Antonine Caesars, we are informed that whereas under the older Roman law a woman at marriage came under the patria potestas of her husband, under the later law, as influ- enced by the principles involved in the Stoic philosophy, she remained as a member of her own family, or was placed under the protection of a guardian appointed by her parents, whose jurisdiction over her, although supe- rior to that of her husband, was not such as to interfere with her personal liberty ; thus, the same as under matriarchal usages, the situation of the Roman woman, whether married or single, was one of great influence. Of this freedom exercised by women in the time of the Antonine Caesars Mr. Maine remarks : " But Christianity tended somewhat from the very first to narrow this remarkable liberty. . . . The latest Roman Law, so far as it is touched by the Constitutions of the Christian Emperors, bears some marks of a reaction against the liberal doctrines of the great Antonine jurisconsults. And the prevalent state of religious sentiment may ex- plain why it is that modern jurisprudence, forged in the furnace of barbarian conquest, and formed by the fusion of Roman jurisprudence 338 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. with patriarchal usage, has absorbed, among its rudiments, much more than usual of those rules concerning the position of women which belong peculiarly to an imperfect civilization." ' Concerning the influence of ecclesiasticism on that por- tion of Roman jurisprudence relating particularly to women, Mr. Lecky observes : " Wherever the canon law has been the basis of legislation, we find laws of succes- sion sacrificing the interests of daughters and of wives, and a state of public opinion which has been formulated and regulated by these laws." By means of a formulated ecclesiastical jurisprudence the complete inferiority of the sex was maintained, " and that generous public opinion, which in Rome had frequently rebelled against the in- justice done to girls in depriving them of the greater portion of the inheritance of their fathers, totally dis- appeared." In comparing the Roman law with the canon or ecclesiastical code, the same writer says that the pagan laws during the Empire were constantly re- pealing the old disabilities of women ; but that it was the aim of the canon law to substitute enactments which should entail on the female sex the greatest personal restrictions and the most stringent subordination.' Referring to the common law, a code which forms the foundation of our present system of jurisprudence, an able writer has said : " This imperishable specimen of human sagacity is, strange to say, so grossly unjust toward women that a great writer upon that code has well observed that in it women are regarded ' Ancient Law, p. 150. '^ European Morals, vol. ii., p. 358. ROMAN LA W AND THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 339 not as persons but as things ; so completely were they stripped of all their rights, and held in subjection by their proud and imperi- ous masters."' It has been remarked that in no one particular does the canon law depart so widely from the spirit of secular jurisprudence as in the view it takes of the relations created by marriage. Although the leaven of civilization preserved from Roman institutions was the codified jurisprudence of Justinian, as the chapter of law relating to women was read by the light of canon law, the altru- istic principles which had characterized the later Roman code soon became extinct. Upon this subject Mr. Maine remarks : " This was in part inevitable since no society which preserves any tincture of Christian institutions is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty conferred on them by the middle Roman law." And this is doubtless true for the reason that the entire Christian superstructure rests on the dogma of female weakness and female depravity. The doctrine of Origi- nal Sin, which depends entirely on the story of the fruit- tree of Genesis being taken in a literal sense, had by canonists been accepted. On her first appearance upon the scene of action, woman is laboring under a curse pro- nounced upon her by an all-powerful male God for the mischief she had wrought on innocent man : it is only reasonable, therefore, that human law should unite with the divine decree in establishing her complete and final degradation ; hence, the return to the ancient Hindu law ' Buckle's .fiwoyj. 340 EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY. and the older Roman code for models of legislation concerning her. On this subject Mr. Maine remarks : " I do not know how the operation and nature of the ancient Patria Potestas can be brought so vividly before the mind as by re- flecting on the prerogatives attached to the husband by the pure English Common Law, and by recalling the rigorous consistency with which the view of a complete legal subjection on the part of the wife is carried by it, where it is untouched by equity or statutes, through every department of rights, duties, and remedies." ■ Notwithstanding the efforts which for several centuries were put forth in Rome to secure to women that in- dependence which under the earlier Roman law had been denied them, in the code of Justinian, which was compiled in the early part of the sixth century, no word respecting the remarkable degree of liberty which under the later Roman law was accorded to women appears ; and but for the discovery of the manuscript of Gaius, to which reference has already been made, we would never have become acquainted with the changes which had been wrought in this particular branch of Roman jurisprudence. It is not to be supposed that through the influence of the Stoic philosophy any appreciable change was effected in the appetites or lives of the masses of the Roman ' Ancient Law, p. 154. Note. — As the position of women among the early German hordes was one of great dignity and respect, it may scarcely be argued that the sentiments embodied in the English Common Law relative to wives were in any degree the result of innate Teutonic prejudice against the female sex. ROMAN LA W AND THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 341 people. Centuries of growth can alone work such a change. Only the intelligent, the thoughtful, and those capable of self-control had risen to a realizing sense of the necessity for a change in the laws regulating marriage and the family. This truth, together with all the facts connected with the history of the relations of the sexes in later times, would seem to indicate that a high stage of civilization is necessary before the excessive egoism developed within the male constitution may be sufficiently checked to admit of the proper relations of the sexes. Hypatia teaching Greek philosophy to the Alexandri- ans, and the early fathers in the Christian Church gravely arguing the question " Ought women to be called human beings ? " indicate the two extreme ideas relative to the position of women during the latter half of the fourth century. As is well known, the latter gained the as- cendency. Finally, when Greek philosophy was no longer taught, and when the doctrine of woman's inferi- ority and total depravity became crystallized in religion, in law, and in all the customs of the times, the principles of equality and justice, which originated under gentile institutions, and which were revived during the Peri- clean age, were ignored, if not wholly forgotten. CONCLUSION. AS the existing conditions of human society are clearly the result of past influences and institu- tions, it is but natural, while reviewing the facts con- nected with the history of mankind, that we should desire to sum up the progress which has been made ; or, in other words, that we should wish to gain a clear idea of the degree of civilization which has been attained. No one, I think, may carefully study the facts con- nected with the growth of human society during the historic age without observing the nature of the princi- ples by which it has been governed — that they have been egoistic rather than altruistic. Indeed, one has only to review the conditions of the masses of the people throughout the world less than a century ago, to observe how recently altruism, or the principles of humanity and justice which at the present time are permeating society, began to take root. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, the greater portion of the human race was in a state of bondage. Slavery existed in every quarter of the globe. In Russia in 1855 there were forty-eight millions of serfs, and in Austria and Prussia 342 CONCLUSION. 343 the peasantry were nearly all slaves. In Hungary nine millions of human beings belonged to a subject class. Athough no slaves were owned in England, slavery still existed in her colonies. In the West Indies the whip was freely used, and prior to the year 1820 no voice had been raised against the flogging of women on the plantations. In Scotland, down to the last year of the eighteenth century, colliers and salters were slaves and bound to their service for life, being bought and sold with the works at which they labored. Although America had put down the slave-trade, she still owned slaves, and continued to traffic in them until the year 1863. The history of legislation shows that down to a recent time it has been in the interest of the rich against the poor, the strong against the weak. In France, at the beginning of the present century, liberty was extinct. " The rich man could purchase for money the power to destroy those whom he hated." ' The law-makers of the age which we are considering were gentlemen land-owners, and as su'ch were able to exercise their cupidity in a degree which precluded all idea of justice to the poorer classes. The abuses of government, the corij-laws, the enormous tax on salt and on the various necessities of life, show somewhat of the extent to which the poor were systematically robbed by the rich. The law passed in 1350, at Bannockburn, regulating ' Robert Mackenzie, The Nineteenth Century, p. 9. 344 CONCLUSION. the movements of the British workingmen, and which prohibited combinations among them, was in force until 1824. The evident object of this law was to repress the laborer and deprive him of his just earnings. Although this enactment was known to be oppressive, the working- classes were not possessed of sufficient influence to cause its repeal. In England, women with their children worked in coal pits, and in the darkness, on hands and feet, dragged about wagons fastened to their waists by chains. Of this Mr. Mackenzie says : "Children of six were habitually employed. Their hours of labor were fourteen to sixteen daily. The horrors among which they lived induced disease and early death. Law did not seem to reach to the depths of a coal-pit, and the hapless children were often mutilated and occasionally killed with perfect impunity by the brutalized miners among whom they labored. There was no machinery to drag the coals to the surface, and women climbed long wooden stairs with baskets of coal upon their backs.'' In the factories, also, as late as 1832 children of six years of age worked from thirteen to fifteen hours daily. If they fell asleep they were flogged. Sometimes through exhaustion they fell upon the machinery and were injured — possibly crushed, an occurrence which caused little concern to any except the mothers, who had learned to bear their pangs in silence. These chil- dren, who were stunted in size and disposed to various acute diseases, were also scrofulous and consumptive. In 1832 the recruiting surgeon could find no men to suit his purpose in the manufacturing districts. CONCLUSION. 345 Throughout Europe, the prevailing idea concerning the management of criminals seems to have been ven- geance. One would scarcely believe, except on trust- worthy authority, that at the beginning of the present century the English criminal law recognized two hun- dred and twenty-three capital offences. Indeed, so strong was the feeling in favor of severity that Edmund Burke said he could obtain the assent of the House of Commons to any law imposing the penalty of death. If one shot a rabbit he was hanged ; if he injured West- minster Bridge he was hanged ; if he appeared disguised on a public road he was hanged, and so on. The hang- ing of small groups was a common occurrence — children of ten years being sometimes among the condemned." A visit to the Five-Sided Tower in Nuremburg, in which are still preserved various instruments of human torture, will give an idea of the extreme cruelty prac- tised upon political offenders and heretics less than a century ago. The " Holy Alliance " of Austria, Prussia, and Rus- sia, which was formed, ostensibly, to " protect religion, peace, and justice," but which in reality was entered into to suppress free speech, check the growing liberties of the people, and strengthen the belief in the " divine right of kings,'' shows the obstacles which had to be overcome before the principles of justice and humanity, which at the present time are slowly operating among the nations of the earth, could take root. ' Robert Mackenzie, The Nineteenth Century, p. 77. 346 CONCLUSION. Although in very recent times a decided change for the better has taken place in human society, still within man's one-sided attempts to establish principles of justice may be observed much of that low standard of morals, and that lack of perception in matters pertaining to right living and right thinking, which, during the past three or four thousand years, have characterized human action. Patriotism, not humanity, is still the highest virtue. The spectacle of three millions of men, skilled in all the refinements of modern warfare, and who, awaiting only the orders of a few leaders, stand ready to rush upon and destroy one another, shows the extent to which the lower forces developed in human nature are still in the ascendency over the higher faculties. Notwithstanding the fact that man descants loudly and long on the freedom of his institutions, and although he is pleased to designate a number of his one-sided governments as republics, a great majority of the people are still in a state of mental and physical bondage. The masses, ignorant of the true causes of their distress, are bound in the iron grasp of poverty, and this, too, not- withstanding the fact that each nation boasts of its enormous resources and its almost unlimited degree of prosperity. The fact should be borne in mind that poverty is the direct result of the overstimulation of the lower nature in man, and as poverty breeds crime, disease, and misery, these evils are the natural outcome of the ascendency CONCLUSION. 347 of those characters developed within mankind which tend toward atavism or degeneration. "Only the Mte of the race has yet been raised to a point where reason and conscience can even curb the lower motive forces." ' Although the animal instincts have gained the as- cendency over the higher faculties, and although ages will doubtless elapse before the normal condition of mankind will be restored, still we must bear in mind that misery is not the necessary and unavoidable inheri- tance of the human family. Through causes which are not difficult to understand, the disabilities of women are rapidly disappearing, and as a result of this increased freedom of action, humanity and justice are fast becoming watchwords of the human race ; yet, notwithstanding this, and the fact that because of these higher conditions man has been enabled to wring from Nature many of her hitherto hidden secrets, and to grasp some of the laws which govern the uni- verse, owing to the long-continued supremacy of the animal instincts within him, wives and mothers are by no means free. Add to this that thousands upon thou- sands of women in every country of the globe are still sacrificed, body and soul, on the altar of lust, and we shall observe that the present generation is a long dis- tance removed from a high stage of civilization. Re- garding the present condition of women, a talented ' Prof. W. J. Sumner, WJiat Social Classes Owe to Each Other, p. 75- 348 CONCLUSION. writer ot the present time observes : " We burn incense to our victims, and garland them with roses ; but we do not cease to sacrifice them." ' We have seen that if the facts connected with the evolution theory of development as set forth by the savants be correct, the altruistic principle in human nature has been confided to the female sex, or, more properly speaking, that sympathy, or a feeling of interest for others outside of self, originated in the female organ- ization, and by it is transmitted to offspring. The his- tory of the development of human society accentuates this fact. It has been observed that throughout all the ages of the past, until a comparatively recent time, or until the characters developed in the female which are correlated with maternal affection became subjected to the coarser characters developed in the male, equality, liberty, and justice were the cardinal principles of humanity. When, therefore, we study carefully the facts connected with the historic period of Greece and Rome, and when we reflect that during an age of extreme profligacy and self- ishness, a philosophy arose whose principles recognized virtue as the highest aim of human existence, and which in Rome finally succeeded in uprooting those principles of female dependency and subjection which had become crystallized both in law and religion, we are not sur- prised to find that this philosophy appeared during an age of the greatest intellectual freedom for women 'E. P. Powell, Our Heredity fro7n God, p. 278. CONCLUSION. 349 which the historic world had ever witnessed. Neither is it remarkable that this spark from the dying embers of the past should have kindled into a flame the death- less genius of a Phidias and a Praxiteles, nor that it should have warmed into life those ancient principles of universal brotherhood which the man called Christ doubtless endeavored to promulgate, but which were unsuited to the masses which claimed to have received them. No one, I think, may review the history of humanity up to the present time without observing the fact that the altruistic principles which governed early society, and which, under the influence of the various schools of philosophy, were revived in Greece, are again rapidly gaining the ascendency over the egoistic tendencies in human nature. At the present time, through scientific investigation, woman's place in nature stands clearly re- vealed ; her true position, however, in society and in the family will not be recognized, until, through the moral education of the masses, the animal instincts have been brought within their legitimate bounds, or until the lower nature is subjected to the higher faculties. Then, and not until then, will be established the proper rela- tions of the sexes and a recognition of that law which tends toward universal and uninterrupted progress. Mankind have reached only the threshold of human knowledge and possibility. Behind them lies the dim and sombre past, which, in order to gain some clue to the present, it is their privilege as well as their duty to 350 CONCLUSION. penetrate. Actual seekers after truth neither fear nor tremble at the facts thereby revealed, but, believing that increased knowledge brings increased virtue, they en- deavor to benefit and elevate humanity by processes which, although under the present regime may seem slow, have the advantage of being natural, rational, and sure. INDEX. Abipones, their customs, 128 independence of women among, 163 Abrotonum, 325 Adoption, among early races, 125, 126, 308 symbol of, 126, 127 Affection in primitive groups, 108 Agamemnon, 245 Agnation, 334 Ainos, 40 Altruism, its development in the female, 13, 57, 74 its development in society, 106, 121 Amazonianism, 115, 183 Andromache, 270 Arabia, organization of society in, no, 152 marriage in, 154, 156, 157 Aravi'aks, their customs, 127, 150 Archonship, 248 its close, 253 Areta, 315 Aristippus, 315 Aristocracy, its growth among the Greeks, 241, 253, 255 Aristophanes, his picture of female philosophers, 321 35 Aspasia, preceptress of Socrates, 317 her genius, her teachings, 320, 321 Assembly of the people, 136 development of the, 241 its duties, 248 its disappearance in Greece, 252 its powers.among the Spartans, 280 Atavism, 43 Athene, her decision concerning paternity, 260 Athenian men, their policy, 272 ashamed of their name, 303 their wives Carians, 304 their moral degradation, 308, 3" Athenian women, imported for- eigners, 305 their degradation, 308 their division into classes, 309 decline of influence among, 313 their reputed licentiousness, 322 Auletrides, 310 Australians, 224 352 INDEX. B Babylonian women, 228, 323 Basileus, germ of present king, 135 does not correspond to modern monarch, 135, 245, 247 elected by a constituency, 243 abolition of the office of, 248 Birds, their courtships, 15, 16 aversion of females for certain males among, 15 the female among, chooses her mate, 15, 18, 20, 92 efforts of the male to please the female among, 16 eagerness of the male among, 16, 21, 24 powers of the female among, 22 inheritance of the female among, 24 inheritance among, 24 constancy among, 92 Burgesses, 260 of the male of the female Captives, not enslaved in early groups, 125 as sexual slaves, 139, 264 Chastity of early races, 93, 96, 97, 292 Color-blindness, 46 Common law, the, woman's posi- tion under, 338 Communal marriage, 220 Concubines, 312 Couvade la, its extent, 12B Crates, 317 Cuckoos, character of, 59 Cynic philosophy, the, its princi- ples, 316 D Danaus, daughters of, 262 Deme, establishment of, 249 Democracy, of early races, 109 of the early Greeks, 240, 241 decay of, 252, 253, 256 ■ in ancient Italy, 298 Descent, traced through men, 109, 1 1 6, 268 in Arabia, 112 in Greece, 114 Descent, traced through women, 122, 123, 137, 206 its universality, 222, 296 among the Iroquois Indians, 239 law of, 243 in Lycia, 296 Desires, primary, of the male, 16 Dicteriades, 312 Differentiation, 5, 10, 12, 55 Diseases of women, 51 not constitutional, 45 Dorians, their virtue, 215 their conservatism, 272 Draco, 254 his laws, 307 E Ecclesia, 241 Ecclesiasticism, its effect on the position of women, 337, 338 Egoism, its development in males, 12, 74 not pronounced among earli- est races, 107, 121 its development in later ages, 135 INDEX. 353 England in the igth century, 344, 345 Epicureans, 317 Eupatrids, their cupidity, 253 Evolution, individual and historic, II F Family, the, not the basis of the gens, 236 Female, conditions which produce the, 32 Fijians, their customs, gg, 100 parental affection among, loi Foreign women, as wives, 165, 172, 206 as concubines, 270, 312 323, France, marriage customs in, 147, in the igth century, 343 G Gaius, 336 Gentile organization, the, univer- sality of, 106 principles established by, 106 democratic character of, lOg, iig, 120, 132 unity of, no government under, iig, 132, 136, 237 property belonging to, 121 altruistic character of, 121, 137 in Greece, 235 its decay 24g its final overthrow, 250 in Athens, 251 Genealogies, traced through fathers, 259 Glycera, 324 Government, development of, 238 Greek society, its construction, 233, 235 H Hairy covering for the body, 40, 42 Hand, the female, 50 Hetairai, a term of reproach, 314 their renown, 315 origin of the word, 321 honored citizens, 324 judged by masculine stand- dards, 327 Hercules, tradition of, 261 Hindu law, 334 I Infanticide, McLennan's theory of, igg not practised by early races, 202 Sir J. Lubbock's theory of, 220, 222 Insects, nutrition determines sex, 32 males appear first, 34 Iroquois Indians, 118 Lamia, 311 Lance, symbol of property, 156, 2g7 Leontium, 317 Life, origin of, i earliest forms hermaphrodite, 8, 10 Lydian women, 323 Lysicles, 3tg M Man, shorter-lived than women, 37.45 354 INDEX. Man, imperfections in the organi- zation of, 45, 4g superior to woman, Darwin's theory, 64 assumes the duties of mater- nity, 127 superior to woman according to edict of Apollo, 168 Marriage, origin of, 138, 226, 227 in India, 139 Racshasa, 139 in Arabia, 140, 154, 156, 157 by confarreatio and usus, 140, 333 among the Israelites, 141 in Afghanistan, 142 in Greenland, 145 in Nubia, 146 in Sparta, 149 sadica, 1 54 beena, 155 mold, 155 ba'al, 156, 165, 173 laws of Mohammed, 157, 165 in Sumatra, 160 in Japan, 162 in Rome, 166 present laws concerning, 169 rise of present system of, 170 ceremonies among the Spar- tans, 295 Matabeleland, customs in, 158 Matter, conservation of, 3 Mother-in-law, the, her aversion to sons-in-law, 1 50, 230 N Names, adoption of, 124 Nemeus, 324 O Ontogeny, 3 Oracles of the Greeks, controlled by women, 294 Organization of society, 105 P Pangenesis, 23 Parthenogenesis, 31, 33 Paternal affection, absence of, among lower orders, 58-60 not a primary character, 60, 214 absence of, among lower races, 129, 209 absence of, among the Romans, 166, 167 Pericles, 318 Perpetual tutelage of women, 333 Political society, establishment of, 239, 249, 250 Polyandry, not practised among lower orders, 91 a result of scarcity of women, 159 Nair form of, 193, 207 Tibetan form of, 194, 207 not a feature of matriheritage, 212 Polygamy, rise of, 90, 166 Poverty of the masses in Greece, 254 Primitive races, promiscuity among, 91, 98, 185 chastity of, 93, 94, 96, 99, 292, 293 morality of, 96, 98, loi, 196 humanity of, 125 Property, control of, 121, 214 inheritance of, 122 in early Greece, 240 INDEX. 355 Protection of women in early groups, 95, loo, 126, 153, 163 Quadrupeds, constancy of the female among, 19, 20, 90, 91 unions of, not left to chance, 20 R Religion of Mohammed, 158 Religious idea, 130, 186 Reversion, 39, 43 Rights of Roman fathers, 167, 298 Roman family the, 297, 332, 334, 337 Roman lawyers, 335, 336 Roman society, its constitution, 233 Roman women, 153, 166, 2gg Rotifera, 31 Sabine women, capture of, 297 Selection, natural, 4 Selection, sexual, Darwin's theory of, 13 compared with artificial selec- tion, 29 processes of, reversed, 70 lower characters eliminated through, 77 Sexes, origin of, 8, 10, 11 numerical proportion of, 32, 35, 43 Slavery, 125 its extent in the 19th century, 342, 343 Socrates, 317, 318 Solon, his legislation, 305, 306 his character, 305, 307 Spartans, their government, 135 democratic character of their institutions, 241, 242 their senate, 273 their morality, 288, 2go adultery unknown among them, 2g3, 301 election of senators among the, 294, 295 Spartan women, their power, 284, 293 they controlled the land, 284 they resisted the laws of Ly- curgus, 285 they originated the exercises of the youth, 286, 288 their dress, 289, 2gi their influence, 289, 290, 295 Stoic philosophy, the, its principles, 318, 329, 330 its effect on Roman law, 331 Struggles for mates, 17, 18, 54 Sympathy, development of, 57, 117 Symbols in marriage ceremonies, among the Circassians, 1 46 in Abyssinia, 147 in Arabia, 147 in Scandinavia, Wales, and Ireland, 148 in Central Africa, 150 in Italy, 151 as explained by McLennan, I go in Greece and Rome, Z15 T Thargelia, 320, 326 Theraistia, 317 Themistocles, 325 Theseus, 249, 258 united the Attic tribes, 251 356 INDEX. Timotheus, 324 Tribe, the, its formation, 108, 133 growth of the governmental idea within, 237 Tribes named after women, 260 Tyrannies established among the Greeks, 252 U Union of tribes in Athens, 251 Unisexual forms, development of, II Variability, denotes low organiza- tion, 29 Variations in the human body, 38, 39 Vital force, expenditure of, 26 W Wife-capture, among the Israelites, 140 among tlie Arabians, 152 its extent, 152 McLennan's theory to account for, 189 Lubbock's theory of, 220, 222 among the Spartans, 295 Women, in excess of men, 43 of Greenland, 45 Women, their intuitions, 67 their apparel, 68 of Australia, 94 among the Kaffirs, 94, 126, 164 of early German tribes, 95 of Nubia, 95 of Sumatra, 95 of Tahiti, 99 among the Fijians, 100, 163 among the North American Indians, 120 head of the family, 120, 124, 134 of Arabia, 153, 155, 165 of Rome, 153, 166 in Japan, 162 among the Abipones, 163 among the Greeks, 260, 263, 264, 266, 270 the ancient under law, 333 under law, 335, the middle 337 Y Yavanas, 303 Z Zeno, 317 Zulus, marriage customs 148 Roman Roman among, It was the first taste of the pleasure of hav- ing wives who were slaves that caused the spread of the custom of wife-capture, and pari passu with that custom proceeded the gradual institution of rights of private prop- erty in general. It is true that among some races which are far removed from the institu- tion of the gens, women maintain their inde- pendence; but in aU such cases (among the Tuaregs, for instance, in northern Africa, ai> we have lately pointed out in these columns) i, is only where women freely inherit propertj that they are able to resist the masculine love of domination. Prior to the decline of female influence, W' men taken prisoners in war were not regardt-^^ as the legitimate property of their captors. They were adopted into the gens and invested with the same status of personal independence enjoyed by the original members of the group. Military chieftains were in time allowed to re- tain their female captives as their special booty, and the gradual spread of this custom marked the decline of woman's power. As within their own tribe women exercised un- qualified control over their own persons, the absolute ownership of one woman who was without influence was an object much to be desired, and one for which a warrior would not hesitate to brave the dangers of a hostile camp. In process of time, wars for wives be- came general, and with that came the downfall of woman's independence. There are countries in which the three his- toric forms of marriage have all been in force at the same time. Arabia, at the time of Mo- hammed, when the numerous clans were in various stages of advancement from the second period of barbarism to civilization, presents a good field for observing the growth of the in- stitution of marriage. In addition to marriage by capture and marriage by sale or contract (in which the woman did not forfeit, as in Rome, the claim to the protection of her kindred, and hence was able to maintain a high social posi- tion), there existed also a more ancient form of marriage known as the sadica, which was a remnant of the matriarchal system. In this form of marriage, the man went to live with the wife in her tent, and any children that were born as the result of this union belonged to the mother, and became members of her hayy. Here we have proof of a well-estab- lished ciistom of that kind of marriage which naturally goes with female kinship so late as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. (Among the Bedouins it is stiU a rare thing for a wo- man at marriage to leave her home and kin- dred.) But the other forms of marriage gradu- name of "lord" or "owner." Wherever this name for husband is found, we may be sure that marriage is of the second type, with male ' kinship, and the wife bound to the husband and following him to his home. For long ages after ba'al mari-iages had been established in Arabia, so degrading was the oflice of wife that women of riuik were considered too great_to, marry. An Arab, in later times, gives this I advice to his son: "Do n vt marry in your own ' hayy, for that leads to ugly family quarrels." .[ It was better to have a wife who had no claims of kin, and no brethren near her to take her part. In Sumatra, also, there formerly existed three forms of marriage, side by side, that in which the man purchased the woman, that in which the woman purchased the man, and that in which the man and woman united by mutual cpnsent. In Japan, among the higher classes, eldest daughters retain their own name, which their husbands are obliged to assume. An eldest sou of one family cannot marry an eldest daughter of another. As regards the younger children, if the husband's family pro- vides the house, the wife takes his name; while if the bride's family furnishes the home, the. bridegroom assumes the name of the wife. We have no space to show how much light this guiding principle, that the matriarchal form of descent involved the supremacy of the female sex, throws upon countless mysterious customs that have prevailed among various savage tribes— some of which, like la couvade and the hostile relations of the mother- in-law and the son-in-law, have been of extraordi- narily wide distribution, and also exceedingly difficult of explanation. Mrs. Gamble's book cannot fail to produce a marked effect upon opinion concerning many important questions of primitiv& society. It will also be found ex- tremely interesting by the general reader. iTlie IN^ation. n June 14, 1894]