CO129-211 - Governor Sir Bowen - 1883 [8-9] — Page 149

C

145

the adoption of male children is founded

the religions necessity

of securing representatives to perform the Sacred Wites of the "Family or Clan (geno), the seaora gentilicia of the Romans. "These saera" (to quote the

words of Sir Henry Maine"), "were "the Roman form of an Institution which shows itself wherever society " has not wholly shaken itself free from its primitive clothing. They the sacrifices and ceremonies

by

dre

"which the brotherhood of the family

X

"Sir Henry Maine's "Ancient Law". Chapter 6.

"is

#

is commemorated, the pledge and the

witness of its perpetuity. Whatever be

their nature, whether it be true

"

not that in all cases

کے ہو

are the

they are

ov

worship of some

some mythical ancestor, - they are every

every where employed to ___

"

"

attest the sacredness of the family

"relation; and, therefore, they acquire

prominent significance and importance whenever the continuous existence of

#

the Family is endangered by a change

in the person of its chief. Recordingly,

#

#

we hear most about them in comexion

with demises of domestic sovereignty.

Again

I

!

: