[168] This kind of union for a term is said to have been recognised by Mahommed, though it is irregular by Moslem law. The cases of beena marriage are very frequent among widely different peoples. (See Hartland, Primitive Paternity, Vol. II. pp. 11, 13, 14, 19, 20, 24, 27, 30-36, 38, 41-43, 51, 53, 55, 60-63, 67-72, 76, 77.) Frazer (Academy, March 27, 1886) cites an interesting example among the tribes on the north frontier of Abyssinia, partially Semitic peoples, not yet under the influence of Islam, who preserve a system of marriage closely resembling the beena marriage, but have as well a purchase marriage, by which a wife is acquired by payment of a bride-price and becomes the property of her husband. (Quoted by Ellis, op. cit., p. 392 note.)
[169] Thomas, Sex and Society, pp. 73-74. Quoting Waitz-Gerland, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, Vol. V. p. 107.
[170] McLennan, The Patriarchal Theory, p. 235.
[171] Thomas, op. cit., p. 75, points out that this survival of woman's power after the rise of father-right is similar to the assertion of male-power under mother-right in the person of the woman's brother or male relative.
[172] Letourneau, op. cit., p. 323, who quotes Lubbock, Orig. Civil., p. 177.
[173] Hartland, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 14, citing Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity.
[174] Letourneau, op. cit., p. 323.
[175] Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity ("Smithsonian Contributions"), Vol. XVII. pp. 416-417.
[176] Hartland, Vol. II. p. 45, quoting Gray, China, Vol. II. p. 304.
[177] This is the opinion of Hartland. He quotes Ellis, History of Madagascar, and Sibree, The Great African Island. I am able to speak as to the truths of the facts given in their books from my knowledge of the Malagasy before the French occupation of the island. Madagascar is my birth-place, and my father was a missionary in the country at the same time as Mr. Ellis and Mr. Sibree.