The objection entertained by peoples of a low degree of culture to the marriage of persons near of kin is a strong ground of objection to Mr. Morgan’s theory that consanguineous unions were the earliest to be formed; in other words, that “promiscuous intermarriage between brothers and sisters and others of the closest kin” was, at one time, customary. Mr. Fison refers to various practices which he thinks point to the former existence of such a state of things among the Australians. In reality, however, they are merely incidents of the group marriage which has been developed by that race, or at most, the result of temporary suspension under special circumstances of the restrictions which that system enforces. They are, indeed, cases of licentiousness similar to what is often met with among many peoples during religious and other festivals. The occurrence of a temporary condition of lawlessness on various occasions, such as the death of a chief or the celebration of an important event, is not unknown even to civilised nations. Mr. Morgan’s opinion as to the former prevalence of consanguineous marriages derives no real support from the fact mentioned by Mr. Fison, and as I have elsewhere[248] shown, marriages of that character are not required to account for the phenomena exhibited in the classificatory system of relationship which exists among the primitive races of mankind. FOOTNOTES: [238] “Kamilaroi and Kurnai,” p. 54. [239] Mr. Fison alludes to the New Zealand practice of a woman’s suitors wrestling for her, which is called _punarua_. This word, he says, is the Hawaiian _punalua_, which denotes the common-right of tribal brothers to certain women (_note_, p. 153). [240] “A Phrenologist among the Todas,” by Col. William E. Marshall, p. 213. [241] Ditto, p. 226. [242] “A Phrenologist among the Todas,” by Col. William E. Marshall, p. 43. [243] “The Abode of Snow,” p. 233. [244] “Ancient Society,” by J. F. M’Lennan, p. 158. [245] _Op. cit._, p. 234. [246] “Tohful-ul-Mujahideen,” p. 63. [247] “Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia,” pp. 128, 235. [248] “Journal of the Anthropological Institute,” vol. viii. (1879), p. 144, _et seq._ CHAPTER VIII. MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE.