WHERE WOMEN RULE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XXIII, 4 June 1898, Page 711

WHERE WOMEN RULE.

A type of civilisation utterly unknown elsewhere is found among the Naiars, on the Malabar coast of India. Here, according to a recent writer, the husband is only an incident in the social organisation. The Naiars are of Brahmin origin, and much above the average inhabitants of India in intelligence and in the administration of their native government. Better native schools are found here than elsewhere in India, and a surprising degree of domestic contentment, notwithstanding the removal of the usual domestic conditions. Woman's power is autocratic and absolute. She wins or divorces a husband at will. She frames and administers the law by which she lives, and through her is the descent of the property, which he may earn, but not own. The rice field is his native arena, and, if industrious and frugal—proving himself capable of maintaining a family—some Naiajr maid invites him to become her husband.

The successful man of eligible years is wooed and won as is the fortunate and accomplished maiden of our country. The impropriety of manifesting affection for a woman before it is solicited is thoroughly instilled into the mind of the Naiar man, and, while the strife between natural tendencies and national custom may sometimes approach the nature of an irrepressible conflict, to yield is ruin and humiliation irreparable. The eligible bachelor must await an avowal of love and choice, and suffer in silence if it be long withheld.