Sect. 4.]
PLEBEIAN KINSHIP.
13
amongst themselves were often decried as wanting in the effects of lawful marriage, because unhallowed by the religious ceremony to which the higher order was accustomed (p. 26). Gentes they had none during the first four centuries of Rome,—a fact which placed them at a disadvantage in the matter of inheritance and guardianship (§§ 9, 11); but there are indications that for certain purposes the circle of near kinsfolk and connections by marriage held amongst the plebeians the same place that fellow-gentiles did amongst the patricians (p. 35).
