[194] Koenigswarter, Histoire de l’organisation de la famille en France, p. 231.
[195] Code Civil, art. 374.
[196] Ibid. art. 375 sqq.
[197] Ibid. art. 148.
[198] Ibid. art. 151.
The parental authority depends, in the first place, on the natural superiority of parents over their children when young, and on the helplessness of the latter; and for similar reasons the daughter, though grown-up, still remains in her father’s power. Parents are, moreover, considered to possess in some measure proprietary rights over their offspring, being their originators and maintainers;[199] and in various cases, it seems, the father is also regarded as their owner because he is the owner of their mother. Filial duties and parental rights to some extent spring from the children’s natural feeling of affection for their parents,[200] particularly for their mother,[201] and from the debt of gratitude which they are considered to owe to those who have brought them into existence and taken care of them whilst young.[202] The authority of parents is much enhanced and extended by the sentiment of filial reverence, as distinct from mere affection. From their infancy children are used to look up to their parents, especially the father, as to beings superior to themselves; and this feeling, which by itself has a tendency to persist, is all the more likely to last even when the parents get old, as it is based not only on superior strength and bodily skill, but on superior knowledge, which remains though the physical power be on the wane. Among savages, in particular, filial regard is largely regard for one’s elders or the aged. The old men represent the wisdom of the tribe. “Long life and wisdom,” say the Iroquois, “are always connected together.”[203] Throughout all West Africa the aged are “the knowing ones.”[204] In his work on the Algerian natives M. Villot observes:—“Les vieillards, au milieu des sociétés barbares, représentent la tradition qui tient lieu de patrie; la science des coutumes et usages qui remplacent la loi; la connaissance des généalogies qui fixe les degrés de parenté et sert de base à la détermination des titres de propriété. Pour ces causes, aussi bien qu’en raison de leur faiblesse et de leurs cheveux blancs, le respect pour les vieillards est de règle au milieu des indigènes.”[205] Among people who possess no literature the old men are the sole authorities on religion, as well as on custom. In Australia the deference shown to them is partly due to the superstitious awe of certain mysterious rites which are known to them alone, and to the knowledge of which young persons are only very gradually admitted.[206] Moreover, old age itself inspires a feeling of mysterious awe. The Moors say that, when getting old, a man becomes a saint, and a woman a jinnía, or evil spirit—there is something supernatural in both. Among the East African Embe “it is only by means of the rankest superstition that the old men are able to maintain their supremacy over the hot-blooded youths”; they convince the warriors, by presenting them with some magic emblem, that in the hands of the sages alone rest the fate and fortune of those who fight in a battle. And old women, also, are often believed to possess supernatural power, in which case their influence, in spite of the subservient position of their sex in general, is almost as great as that of a medicine-man.[207] According to the beliefs of the natives of Western Victoria, witches always appear in the form of an old woman.[208] Among the Maoris some of the aged women exercise the greatest influence over their tribes, being supposed to possess the power of witchcraft and sorcery.[209] Among the Abipones, says Charlevoix, “the old women take upon them to be great witches; and it would be no easy matter to convert them.”[210] In Arabia, as well as in Morocco, old women are always believed to be skilled in sorcery.[211]
[199] Cf. Vasishtha, xv. 1 sq.; Bandháyana Parisishta, vii. 5. 2 sq.
[200] For instances of filial affection among savages see Catlin, North American Indians, ii. 242; Powers, Tribes of California, p. 112 (Mattoal); Selenka, Sonnige Welten, p. 34 (Dyaks); Seemann, Viti, p. 193; Mathew, ‘Australian Aborigines,’ in Jour. & Proceed. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxiii. 388.
[201] For instances of great affection for the mother, see Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 474 (Barea and Kunáma); Winterbottom, Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, i. 211; Park, Travels in the Interior of Africa, p. 241; New, op. cit. p. 101 (Wanika); François, Nama und Damara, Deutsch-Süd-West-Afrika, p. 251 (Mountain Damaras); Rowley, Africa Unveiled, p. 164; Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 70 sq.; Urquhart, op. cit. ii. 265 sq. (Turks); Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 146, 155. It is said in the Talmud that the child loves its mother more than its father, whilst it fears its father more than its mother (Deutsch, Literary Remains, p. 55).
[202] Hsiáo King, 9 (Sacred Books of the East, iii. 479). Laws of Manu, ii. 227. Plato, Leges, iv. 717.