performed its function.

[234] K. Pearson, _Chances of Death_, Vol. II, Essays on the
Mother-age Civilisation, etc. Many of the facts given in this
chapter are taken from these illuminative essays.

[235] K. Pearson, _Ibid._, p. 102.

[236] _The Truth about Woman_, p. 198.

[237] _Ibid._, pp. 109-110.

I cannot leave this subject without emphasising the importance of
these erotic-religious festivals, once of universal occurrence. They
afford the strongest evidence of the early privileged position of
women in the relationships between the two sexes. It is, I think,
impossible to avoid giving to this a matriarchal interpretation. For
it is by contrasting the religious-sex standpoints of the maternal and
the paternal ideals that the inferior position of women under the
later system can be demonstrated. Moreover, in much later periods, and
even to our own day, we may yet find broken survivals of the old
customs. Illustrations are not far to seek in the common festivals of
the people in Germany and elsewhere, and as I have myself witnessed
them in Spain, a land which has preserved its old customs much more
unchanged than is usual.[238] One example may be noted in England,
which would seem to have a very ancient origin; it is given by Prof.
K. Pearson.[239] "The Roman _Lupercalia_ held on February 15 was
essentially a worship of fertility, and the privileges supposed to be
attached to women in our own country during this month--especially on
February 14 and 29--are probably fossils of the same sex-freedom."

[238] See _Spain Revisited_, and _Things Seen in Spain_.

[239] _Ibid._, p. 158.

Passing again to the old legends, we find not a few that attempt to
account for both the rise and the decline of the custom of maternal
descent. I will give an example of each. Newbold relates that in
Menangkabowe, where the female line is observed, it is accounted for
by this legend--

"Perpati Sabatang built a magnificent vessel, which he
loaded with gold and precious stones so heavily that it got
aground on the sands at the foot of the fiery mountains, and
resisted the efforts of all the men to get it off. The sages
were consulted, and declared that all attempts would be in
vain until the vessel had passed over the body of a pregnant
woman. It happened that the Rajah's own daughter was in the
condition desired; she was called upon to immolate herself