[219] Grimm, _Mythologie_, Vol. I, p. 248.
[220] K. Pearson, _The Chances of Death_, Vol. II, p. 102.
[221] Starcke, _op. cit._ p. 105, citing Dargun and Grimm. See also Letourneau, _op. cit._ pp. 339-340.
It will interest my readers to know that mother-descent must once have prevailed in Britain. Among the Picts of Scotland kingship was transmitted through women.[222] Bede tells us that down to his own time--the early part of the eighth century--whenever a doubt arose as to the succession, the Picts chose their king from the female rather than from the male line.[223] There is an ancient legend which represents the Irish as giving three hundred wives to the Picts, on the condition that the succession to the crown should always be through their females--
"There were oathes imposed on them, By the stars, by the earth, That from the nobility of the mother Should always be the right to the sovereignty."[224]
[222] Giraud-Teulon, _op. cit._ pp. 41-42.
Similar traces are found in England: Canute, the Dane, when acknowledged King of England, married Emma, the widow of his predecessor, Ethelred. Ethelbald, King of Kent, married his stepmother, after the death of his father Ethelbert; and, as late as the ninth century, Ethelbald, King of the West Saxons, wedded Judith, the widow of his father. Such marriages are intelligible only if we suppose that the queen had the power of conferring the kingdom upon her consort, which could only happen where maternal descent was, or had been, practised. These marriages with the widow of a king were at one time very common. The familiar example of Hamlet's uncle is one, who, after murdering his brother, married his wife and became king. His acceptance by the people, in spite of his crime, is explained if it was the old Danish custom for marriage with the king's widow to carry the kingdom with it. In Hamlet's position as avenger, and his curious hesitancy, we have really an indication of the conflict between the old and the new ways of descent.[225]
[225] See Frazer, _Golden Bough_, Part I. _The Magic Art_, Vol. II, 282-283.
The Celtic population of Britain preserved the institution of the clan much longer than the other European races. In Wales and in Ireland, in particular, communism was strongly established. The clan was responsible for the crimes of its members, paid the fines, and received the compensations.[226] There are numerous indications of mother-right. In Ireland women retained a very high position and much freedom, both before and after marriage, to a late period: temporary unions were freely allowed, and customs having the force of law safeguarded the rights of the wife. "Every woman," it was said, "is to go the way she willeth freely."[227]