We may here mention the great difficulty we have at first in understanding their relationships. The modern European family is founded on marriage, but the time was, even in Europe, when it was founded as much on power. The single fact that families may be founded on other grounds than marriage will give the ordinary reader an idea of the difficulty. A native child sees nothing wonderful in claiming to have two or three fathers, and as many mothers. If a man have several younger brothers their children are called his sons, so are his own grandchildren. But the children of a sister are called his nephews. This naming fits very well with their system of inheritance (97). If a man have a brother and a sister, he is called one thing by the brother, but quite a different thing by the sister. Again, we cannot give a literal translation of “Joseph and his brethren”: we require to say “Joseph and his elder brethren and his younger brother”. CHAPTER IX. SOCIAL LIFE. 61. MAN IN SOCIETY. Hitherto we have looked at the native as an individual or as a member of a family and have spoken of his birth, training, marriage, and death. Now we shall view him as a member of society. Rarely does a native live a hermit’s life. We did know of men that forsook their relatives and lived alone, but they were considered mad. Not unfrequently, however, a man and his family live entirely by themselves, independent of the rest of the world. Such cases occur where invading tribes have overrun a country and driven out its people. After the invaders retire, the old inhabitants are afraid to go back, and an enormous tract of country is left desolate. Still, in some inaccessible nook there is often found a solitary family—a remnant either of the invaders or of the invaded. Usually the natives live in small villages containing 10 or 12 huts, occasionally in larger villages containing three times as many. They do not like to pack themselves closely. In times of peace few villages contain more than 100 people. Owing to the native method of cultivation (64), the inhabitants of a large village soon find themselves too distant from their farms. On one small island in Lake Chirwa, people are massed together to the number of 4000, but they subsist by fishing, and are obliged to live there for protection from slavers. 62. FOUNDING A NATIVE VILLAGE.