196 Lactantius, _Divin. Institut._ i. 20; Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, iv. 7; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vi. 9, vii. 24; D. Barbosa, _Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar_ (Hakluyt Society, 1866), p. 96; Sonnerat, _Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine_ (Paris, 1782), i. 68; F. Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_ (Heilbronn, 1879), pp. 396 _sq._, 511; W. Hertz, “Die Sage vom Giftmädchen,” _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, pp. 270-272. According to Arnobius, it was matrons, not maidens, who resorted to the image. This suggests that the custom was a charm to procure offspring. 197 R. Schomburgk, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte_, 1879, pp. 235 _sq._; Miklucho-Maclay, _ibid._ 1880, p. 89; W. E. Roth, _Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines_ (Brisbane and London, 1897), pp. 174 _sq._, 180; B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 92-95; _id._, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 133-136. In Australia the observance of the custom is regularly followed by the exercise of what seem to be old communal rights of the men over the women. M46 Sacred women in the Tamil temples of Southern India. Such women are sometimes married to the god and possessed by him. 198 J. A. Dubois, _Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des Peuples de l’Inde_ (Paris, 1825), ii. 353 _sqq._; J. Shortt, “The Bayadère or dancing-girls of Southern India,” _Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London_, iii. (1867-69) pp. 182-194; Edward Balfour, _Cyclopaedia of India_3 (London, 1885), i. 922 _sqq._; W. Francis, in _Census of India, 1901_, vol. xv., _Madras_, Part I. (Madras, 1902) pp. 151 _sq._; E. Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), pp. 36 _sq._, 40 _sq._ The office of these sacred women has in recent years been abolished, on the ground of immorality, by the native Government of Mysore. See _Homeward Mail_, 6th June 1909 (extract kindly sent me by General Begbie). 199 Edgar Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras, 1909), iii. 37-39. Compare _id._, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), pp. 29 _sq._ In Southern India the maternal uncle often takes a prominent part in the marriage ceremony to the exclusion of the girl’s father. See, for example, E. Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, ii. 497, iv. 147. The custom is derived from the old system of mother-kin, under which a man’s heirs are not his own children but his sister’s children. As to this system see below, Chapter XII., “Mother-kin and Mother Goddesses.” 200 E. Balfour, _op. cit._ ii. 1012.