Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-10-17
LAND WHERE WOMEN RULE.
MARS OF INDIA THE WORLDS
MOST PERFECT RACE.

centuries 7dS oCSh III G'SlStSS
Amonq One of the Highest Caste
and Most Exclusive Tribes of All
India.
Members of the Central Counties
Woman Suffrage Association have
sailed from England to investigate
the report to their association on
system of government in which the
mother is the head Of the family and
the recognized ruler.
They are bound for India, TO in
ouire into the workings of the sys-
tenn which for centuries has been IN
existence among the Nairs, one OF
the highest caste and most exclusive
tribes of all India, where maternity
counts for everything and paternity
for practically nothing. They pro-
pose to investigate thoroughly this
system, and if its workings are found
satisfactory, to urge its establish
ment in England and throughout the
world, RELOCATING man to the back
ground and raising woman to her
proper sphere-in short, claiming for
womankind the right to rule thaC
they think belongs to her because Oh
her function in the establishment OF
the human race.
The Nairs. among whom the mid
land counties women will conducI
their 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; they are strong, de-
spising wounds, scorning weakness
and they are declared by students TO
be the most nearly perfect race phy-
sically in all the world-graceful,
agile, handsome, chivalrous, brave
Honor and gallantry! Love and bat
tie! These are their devices.
Christian and Mussulman have
come and won at many points along
the coast from the Chats to the ocean,
but the institute of the matriarchate
has remained mistaken. The Mus
sulmans have adopted the system,
after intermarrying and recognized
the inheritance in the female line,
establishing the mother and the ma
ternal uncle as the heads of the fam
lily.
In the beginning, of course, the
women belonged to the males of the
tribe without distinction, except that
distinction won through the fancies
of the women-which were few-or
.he feass of arms of the males them
selves, who fought for the favors of
the women. The women selected the
strongest and best men, and the re-
suit is shown by the testimony OF stu
dents that the physical perfection OF
the race is unequalled. The newly
married man drops his own name, ac-
cepts the name of the woman he
weds, turns over all his property to
her and asks only support, the priv
lege of working for the support OF
the family and to be suitably inferred.
Girls are desired by all families.
The wealthy girls never lack part
ners. They can choose, and the
chosen one goes to live with his
mother-in-law. to become a member
of her family and to obey her rule.
With the Nairs freedom for women
begins with marriage. Until she is
married a girl is nothing, and she
m.rries at the age of twelve 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 daugh-
ter, from the uncle to the eldest Sis
ter's children.
The rule of the mother, the practi-
cal ignoring of the father, extends
from palace to howell. 1t 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 recog-
nized at all, as a mere supplemental
organism.
The brothers obey unquestionably
their elder sister and respect their
younger sisters The sons are not
obliged to remain under the roof of
their mothers home, but are per-
mitted to set up establishments of
their own, taking with them one of
the new household If the son mar
ries 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 her
turn, will give up her husband or
sacrifice him in any way to her own
brother. Conjugal love is a light
thing, but brothers and sisters re-
main steadfast to each other.
The Brahmins and Nairs mingled
together and found in the matriar-
chate the solution of their caste prob
lem. The Brahmins, because of their
claims to high caste, could not take
the Nairs as wives, but, as the Nairs
acknowledge only the mother, the
Brahmins supplied the fathers. In
different to paternity, Of which they
are ignorant, the Nairs accepted the
which has continued
ever since.
The effect of the matriarchate 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 rebelled against fathers in
all parts of India there have been
peace and plenty and good will among
these peoples who are ruled by their
mothers.-Chicago Tribune
Big Hospital for Animals.