Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.112

v1.c6.112

¹ Of this the Liburni were evidently fully convinced. They had a community of wives, and the children were brought up in common until they were five years old. Then they were called together by beating the drum, examined, and assigned to their fathers according to likeness (Starcke, p. 126, after Bachofen, *Mutterrecht*, p. 20). The same is reported from other ancient peoples. Hartland, ii, 131; Ed. Meyer, 24; Welhausen, *Gött. Nachr.* (1893), 462 f. And that woman, of whom we are told in Kirchhof’s *Wendunmut* (ed. Oesterley, Stuttg. Lit. Ver.), i, p. 397 (No. 338), seems to have firmly believed this. She had much to do with the clergy, and once when she was lying in child-bed, a woman caller exclaimed : “The son looks exactly like his father.” The pious dove started up in fright : “Oh! has he got a bald patch, too?” On how strong the Indian belief is in the inheritance of character see J. J. Meyer, *Altind. Rechtsschr.*, 263-265.