The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-08-14

investigation, live along the. coast Of
 the Indian Ocean. from Cape COmorin
 northward to Mangalore, and they are
 the aristocrats of the tribes. They are
 proud; th5y are strong, despising
 wounds. scorning weakness, and they
 are declared by students to be the
 most nearly perfect race physically in
 all the wOrld-graceful, agils hand i handsome. chivalrous, brave. Honor f and gallantry! Love and battle! These
 are their devices.
 l Chrlstain and Mussulman have come
 and won at many points along the ian, but the institute of the matiar- chate has remained unshaken. The
 Mussulmans have adopted the system , after intermarrying and recognized the
 inheritance in the female line, establish ! ing the mother and maternal uncle as
 the heads of the family.
 In the beginning, of course, the
 woman belonged to the males of the
 tribes without distinction except that
 distinction won through the fancing of the Woman-Which are few-or the feat
 Of arms of the males themselves, who fought for the favors of the women.
 The wmen selected-and selected the strongest and best men-and the re- l suit is shown by the testimony of students that the physical perfection of the race is unequaIled. The newly married man drops his own name, ac- cepts ths name of the woman he weds, l turns over all his property to her and asks only support, the privilege of
 working for the support of the family
 and to be suitably inferred.
 Girls are desired by all familiss.
 The wealthy girls never lack partners. They can choose and the chosen one goes to live with his mothsr-in-law, to become member of her family and to obey her rule. With the Nairs freedom for wommen begins with mar riage. Until she is married a girl is nothing, and she marries at the age of
 12 and then becomes free. She may dismiss her husband at once, if she so | chooses, but being a married woman she is at liberty to do as she pleases. The system of inheritance is an in teresting one. The property descends by zigzag lines from mother to daughter, from the uncle to the eldest sisters children.
 The rule of the mother, the practi- cal ignoring of the father, extends
 from palace to hovel. It is the worlds last survival of system declared to
 have been once the general law of the World-the recognition of the mother as the real creator of the races and the
 rightful ruler, and the recognition of the father, if recognized at all, as a
 mere supplemental organism.
 The brothers obey unquestioningly their elder sister and respect their younger sisters. The sons are not obliged to remain under the roofs of their mothers home, but are permit ted to set up establishments of their own, taking with them one of their sisters, who by that act becomes the ruler of the new household. If the son marries the wife owes obedience to her sister-in-law, and if strife arises the husband must stand by his sister against his wife. and his wife,
 in turn, will give up her husband or sacrifice him in any way to her own brother, Conjugal love is light thing, but brothers and sisters remain steadfast to each other.
 The Brahmins and Nairs migled to- gether and found in the matriarchate the solution of their castle problem. The Brahamins, because of their claim to high caste. could not take the Nairs as wives, but as the Nairs only acknow ledge the mother, the Branhmins sup piled the fathers. Indifferent to pater- nifty, of which they are ignorant, the Nafrs accepted the arrangement, which has continued ever since.
 The effect of the mastriarchate sys- tenn on the peace of the land has been wonderful, and it is noticeable that in Malabar peace reigns. During the centuries that the patronymic dynas- ties have been torn to pieces by wars and internal dissension in which brothers have slaughtered brothers and sons have rebelled against fathers in all parts of India there has been peace and plenty and good will among these people who are ruled by their mothers.-Chicago Tribune.