was an ager publicus allotted amongst the members of the clans. Individualism prevailed in the end, as it did everywhere. A certain portion of the common soil, reserved in usufruct for the chiefs, was at last seized by them as individual property; but all the members of a clan were reputed as of kin, and at a man's death his land was allotted by the chief amongst the other families of the clan or sept.[1] These clans, however, were anything but exogamous, if we may believe Strabo, who affirms that the ancient Irish, like the Mazdeans, married, without distinction, their mothers and sisters.[2] Irish marriage had in no way the strictness of the Roman marriage; temporary unions were freely allowed, and customs having the force of law safeguarded the rights of the wife.[3] Other European barbarians, on the contrary, were exogamous, and prohibited under pain of severe punishment, as whipping or drowning, marriage between members of the same clan.[4] The mir of the southern Slavs may be considered as a survival of these ancient barbarous clans, sometimes endogamous, sometimes exogamous.
In becoming subdivided into families, have these little primitive clans adopted maternal filiation? This is possible; but when they came in contact with the Roman world the greater number had already the paternal family. Let us notice, however, that the Irish law, far from subjecting the mother, accorded her a position equal to that of the father.[5] Let us also recall the following passage of Tacitus[6] à propos of the Germans: "The son of a sister is as dear to his uncle as to his father; some even think that the first of these ties is the most sacred and close; and in taking hostages they prefer nephews, as inspiring a stronger attachment, and interesting the family on more sides." We may add to this that in Germany the mother could be the guardian of her children;[7] that the Salic law, non emendata,
- ↑ H. Maine, Early Institutions, pp. 113, 116, 124.
- ↑ Strabo, iv. 4.
- ↑ H. Maine, loc. cit., p. 76.
- ↑ Bell, Journal of a Residence in Circassia, vol. i. p. 347.
- ↑ H. Maine, loc. cit.
- ↑ De moribus Germanorum, xx.
- ↑ Laboulaye, Recherches sur la condition civile et politique des femmes, etc., pp. 166, 167.
