Sydenham.
For the information of THEOPHYLACT, I transcribe the following passage
from Johnson's _Selections from the Mahabharat_, p. 67. The note is from
the pen of Professor Wilson:--
"Among the Bhotias a family of brothers has a wife in common; and
we can scarcely question the object of the arrangement, when the
unproductive region which these people occupy is considered....
What led to its adoption by the Nair tribe in Malabar is not so
easy to conjecture. At present its object seems to be to preserve
the purity of descent, which it is thought is more secure on the
female than on the male side; and accordingly, the child claims
property, or even the Raj, not through his father, but his
mother."