ABSTRACT
Many African societies know and practise blood-brotherhood of the kind mentioned by Herodotus with reference to the Scythians. The authors who describe the concluding of these pacts are often recording their own personal experiences. Behaviour towards the wives of one's new associate varies according to the degree by which the blood pact links the contracting partners as if they were real brothers or as affines related through women. In fact partners in a blood pact fulfil obligations similar to those due to brothers or brothers-in-law, but they should not be confused with either. In external relations lineages present a united front, a block; within the lineage the elder brother claims his rights and expects mute obedience from his juniors. Kinship, affinity, blood pacts—in each case solidarity is the rule. All aristocratic lineages are keen to be associated with a caste lineage which can fill these indispensable roles.
