Note 251-4 — Chapter II

Among the Garos and Nairs, as well as among the Cossyahs, in Northwestern Farther India, the children have no father, but consider their brothers on the mother's side their nearest male relatives. Inheritance also takes this direction. (J. Mill, History of British India, I, 395 seq. Buchanan, Journey through Mysore, II, 411 seq. Ritter, V, 390 seq., 753.) Similarly, among the Lycians: Herodot., I, 173. Whether the peculiar custom of many old German people, of which Tacitus, Germ., 20, makes mention, does not point to an original community of wives, quære.