s
another fact of interest: some women are reputed to be the wives of
the gods, they are called _Amalalieys_ and have a great honour paid to
them, while their children pass for the offspring of the gods.

The reverence paid to the ancestral goddesses is explained by Mr.
Kubary as arising from the importance of women in the clans.

"The existence of the clan depends entirely on the life of
the women, and not at all on the life of the men. If the
women survive, it is no matter though every man in the clan
should perish, for the women will, as usual, marry men of
another clan, and their offspring will inherit their
mother's clan, and thereby prolong its existence. Whereas if
the women of the clan die out the clan necessarily becomes
extinct, even if every man in it should survive; for the men
must, as usual, marry women of another clan, and their
offspring will inherit their mother's clan and not the clan
of the father, which accordingly, with the death of the
father, is wiped off the community."

I quote this passage because it shows so clearly what I am claiming,
that descent through the mother, under the condition of strict
exogamy, conferred a very marked distinction on the female members of
the clan, whose existence depended on them; this cannot possibly have
failed to act favourably on their position. I may note, too, in
passing, the fallacy of Mr. McLennan's view that polyandry (which, it
will be remembered, he held to have been developed from and connected
with mother-descent) arose as a result of female infanticide. Such a
practice is clearly impossible in clans whose existence depends on the
life of its female members; daughters among them are prized more
highly than sons.

The case we are now examining affords the strongest confirmation of
the honour paid to women under the strict maternal system. Take alone
the titles that these Pelew islanders give to their women, as _Adhalal
a pelu_, "mothers of the land," and _Adhalal a blay_, "mothers of the
clan." The testimony of those who know their customs is that the women
enjoy complete equality with the men in every respect. Mr. Kubary
affirms the predominance of female influence in all the social life of
the clan. He asserts, without qualification, that the women both
politically and socially enjoy a position superior to that of the men.
The eldest women in the clans exercise the most decisive influenc