brother Er, and is in consequence slain, the widow, Taniar, has a recognized claim upon Shelah, the brother next in age. See also Ruth, i, where, Naomi's two sons having died, she says to her daughters-in-law, "Are there yet any more sons in my womb that may be your husbands?" and "would ye tarry for them till they were grown?" There being no brothers to take these widows, one of them, Ruth, makes overtures to Boaz, a near kinsman of her deceased husband; and this man then takes her to wife, not, however, as levir, but as göel, or redeemer of the heritage of the dead. The göel was not bound by law to marry the widow as a condition of the redemption, but it appears from Ruth, iv, 10 and 17, that when he did so the first child born of the new union was reckoned the offspring of the deceased. With the Makololo, Zulus, and others, the obligation of the levirate holds good whether the deceased had children or not; with the Jews the custom had become modified and the obligation only held good when the deceased brother was childless. This was also the case with the Hindoos at the time when the Institutes of Menu were compiled, and is the case at the present day with the Shushwap Indians of British Columbia, and other peoples.[1] Among the Jews, the son born of the new union, the fictitious child of the deceased brother, became the heir to the property, to the exclusion of his real father, the levir. By the Institutes of Menu the property was divided between the fictitious child of the deceased and his real father.
We have said that it is the practice in polyandrous households for the brother next in age to succeed, at the decease of the eldest brother, to the position of the head of the family, to the family property, and to the wife; and from this practice doubtless arises the wide-spread custom of a brother inheriting a deceased brother's wives. In Ladak we see that the younger brothers are not obliged to be joint husbands of the wife of their eldest brother it is optional for them to be so or not but the property, authority, and wife of the eldest brother devolve at his decease upon the brother next in age, whether he has agreed to the polyandrous union or not. Through the custom derived from polyandry he has a right of succession to his eldest brother's property and widow, and he can not take one without the other. In this case we see the original custom in a state of decay. In earlier times the younger brother would necessarily be a husband of the wife, and as such would, at the death of the elder brother, succeed to the position of head of the family that is, the wife and the property would be vested in him. At the present day it is optional for the younger brother to be an associated husband, but, even if he is not one, he still
- ↑ Northwest Passage by Land, p. 319.
