Primitive paternity; the myth of supernatural birth in relation to the history of the family

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PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

VOLUME II

%\xt Jfclfe-^ou (Socktg

FOR COLLECTING AND PRINTING

RELICS OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, &c.

ESTABLISHED IN

THE YEAR MDCCCLXXVIII.

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PUBLICATIONS

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THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY

[LXVIL]

[1910]

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

THE MYTH OF SUPERNATURAL

BIRTH IN RELATION TO THE

HISTORY OF THE FAMILY

BY
EDWIN SIDNEY HARTLAND

F.S.A

AUTHOR OF "THE LEGEND OF PERSEUS," ETC.

Gp4,5D

M^

7 .£^'

M3

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VOLUME II

LONDON : DAVID NUTT

AT THE SIGN OF THE PHCENIX

57-59 LONG ACRE

1910

Printed by Ballantyne &' Co. Limited
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London

CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT

The stages through which conjugal relations have passed are not
uniform but dependent on environment and other influences. The
stages to be reviewed therefore are not necessarily consecutive.
Frailty of the conjugal bond. The entertainment of temporary
husbands at the wife's home. Relations beginning with secret
visits by the lover tend to become open and permanent. Cupid
and Psyche. Secret relations between husband and wife. Open
visits by husband. Polygamous visiting husbands. Marriages in
which the husband goes to reside permanently with his wife.
Commutation of the husband's permanent residence in his wife's
family. Husband's probation as a relic of an earlier custom of
visiting. Effect of payment of bride-price. Husband's permanent
residence in his wife's family : its tendency to patrilineal
reckoning. Evolution of fatherright among various peoples of the
Old and New Worlds. Summary: general course of the evolution
of conjugal relations, and reasons for the inevitable decay and
supersession of motherright. The reckoning of kinship through
the father is not founded on blood, but is a social convention.

Pp. i-ioo

CHAPTER VI

MARITAL JEALOUSY

Continence not a savage virtue. Female chastity a slow growth from
the limitations imposed by the masculine sense of ownership upon
the gratification of sexual instincts. In the lower culture jealousy
operates only feebly or within limits. Examination of cases
among matrilineal peoples. Survival of matrilineal freedom into
fatherright. Peoples in a state of transition or where kinship is

CONTENTS

reckoned through both parents : Eskimo. Patrilineal peoples.
Polyandry: the Todas and other peoples of India and the neigh-
bouring countries. Sexual morality. Rehgious and other ritual
observances. Wide distribution of practices implying defective
jealousy. General indifference to the actual paternity of a child.
Value of children. Fatherright fosters indifference to paternity.

Pp. 101-248

CHAPTER VII

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE ON THE SUBJECT OF
CONCEPTION. CONCLUSION

The foregoing considerations lead to the conclusion that paternity was
not understood by early man, and even yet the cause of birth is
more or less of a mystery to some peoples in the lower culture.
Reasons for this ignorance: among others the disproportion of
births to acts of sexual union. Every woman in the lower stages
of culture is accustomed to intercourse. Premature intercourse
very widespread. It is not only unproductive, but it impairs
fertility. Even where the true cause of birth has been discovered
it has been nowhere held invariable and indispensable. In
Australia and a few other countries it is still unrecognised.
Summary of the argument. Pp. 249-286

Bibliographical Appendix Pp. 287-309

Index Pp. 311-328

CHAPTER V

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT

The stages through which conjugal relations have passed
are not uniform but dependent on environment and other
influences. The stages to be reviewed therefore are not
necessarily consecutive. Frailty of the conjugal bond.
The entertainment of temporary husbands at the wife's
home. Relations beginning with secret visits by the
lover tend to become open and permanent. Cupid and
Psyche. Secret relations between husband and wife.
Open visits by husband. Polygamous visiting husbands.
Marriages in which the husband goes to reside per-
manently with his wife. Commutation of the husband's
permanent residence in his wife's family. Husband's
probation as a relic of an earlier custom of visiting.
Effect of payment of bride-price. Husband's permanent
residence in his wife's family : its tendency to patrilineal
reckoning. Evolution of fatherright among various
peoples of the Old and New Worlds. Summary : general
course of the evolution of conjugal relations, and reasons
for the inevitable decay and supersession of motherright.
The reckoning of kinship through the father is not
founded on blood, but is a social convention.

Our creneral consideration of the social organisation
implied by motherright has disclosed that the children
are not recognised as belonging to the kin of the
father, that their position in the community into which
they are born does not depend upon him, consequently
that he has little control over them and takes little

2 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

interest in them, that the authority over them is vested
in the head of the mother's kin at large or (where the
true family has begun to emerge) in the head of the
mother's family — usually the eldest male, her brother
or uncle, — and finally that the chasm between the
father and husband on the one side and the wife and
her kin on the other is so wide that he is liable to them
in the blood-feud, in which even his children join
against him and inflict the extreme reprisal of death or
receive a share of the compensation paid in its place.
As the rights and position of the father are gradually
strenp:thened inroads are made on this social orsfani-
sation, so that all its characteristics are now seldom
found in full force even where descent is still reckoned
in the maternal line. The customs adduced from
various parts of the world are however sufficient to
show what was originally involved in the organisation.
An exhaustive examination of the social condition of
peoples in the lower culture, had that been possible
within the limits of this essay, would have exhibited it
still more clearly without diverging it is believed in
any essential respect from the lines thus laid down.

We next proceed to examine some of the stages by
which fatherright has become dominant over a large
portion of the earth. The way for this inquiry has
been prepared by a consideration of the cause formerly
and sometimes even yet alleged for the reckoning of
descent through the mother only, namely, the greater
certainty. I have proved that this is not the cause.
It is in fact a crude attempt by persons accustomed to
a very different social condition to solve the unexpected
and in their view wholly exceptional problem of
motherright. So far from being exceptional, mother-

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 3

right however is probably the earliest mode of reckoning
kin by descent. It may be said without fear of contradic-
tion that while no case is known where matrilineal
reckoning betrays evidence of having been preceded
by paternal descent, the converse has been observed in
every part of the world. Cases may exist of tribes
reckoning descent through the father in which no trace
remains of reckoning;- throug-h the mother. The mere
existence of such cases is wholly insufficient to disprove
a prior stage of motherright, or even to shift the
burden of proof. We may admit that where the man
takes a wife from among her own kin and brings her
to reside with his, the local community which results
is in effect a patrilineal kin, if the children continue
with the parents. This custom, where it has obtained,
has doubtless been one of the causes contributing to
the rise of fatherright. But it is by no means
universal ; that it is primitive has never been shown ;
and it is usually found qualified with customs and
institutions logically inconsistent with fatherright.
Nor is it sufficient of itself to displace the reckoning
of kinship through the mother. In fact, it is found so
frequently combined with matrilineal reckoning that
even anthropologists who reject the prior claims of
paternal descent have often assumed it to be the original
form of society and have been greatly embarrassed
thereby in their attempts to account for motherright.

A brief consideration of some of the stag-es throuo^h
which the relations of the sexes have passed will, it
is hoped, throw light on the derivation of patrilineal
reckoning. Our inquiry will be limited to those more
or less permanent relations recognised by law or
custom and entailing rights and duties, however feeble

4 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

and limited, upon the parties entering into them. The
stages we shall review are not necessarily successive,
still less immediately consecutive. Anthropological
knowledge does not warrant our laying down any
uniform succession of stages through which conjugal
relations must have passed. On the contrary the
varying environment of humanity has dictated different
modes of life according to the kind of food, its plenti-
fulness and the dangers and difficulties attending its
collection, the enemies human and non-human to be
subdued or at all events avoided, and the general
conditions of climate, soil, land and water. Each of
these different modes of life has necessitated the
adaptation of conjugal relations, not merely for the
satisfaction of physical impulses, but for the gratifica-
tion of the desire for human companionship and for
the preservation of the species. Moreover, these
modes of life once formed are not unchano-eable.

o

They are modified from time to time by the degree of
material civilisation attained, by contact with sur-
rounding peoples and by other influences ; and the
modifications have entailed further adaptation of the
relations between the sexes.

Among most nations in the lower culture the
severance of the matrimonial bond is no difficult matter
— at all events on the side of the man, and frequently
also on that of the woman. The will of the individual
parties to the bond is often the only factor in the case.
Where this is not so, where the birth of children
strengthens the connection of husband and wife, or
where the kindred on either side claim an interest in
its continuance, even there separation is usually a
mere matter of negotiation and arrangement. In

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 5

comparatively few cases is anything like judicial inter-
ference invoked, such as we are accustomed to
associate with the term Divorce. The Semitic nations
are notorious for the frailty of the conjugal relation,
though probably they have not been laxer than many
others. Their ancient civilisations and ancient
barbarism alike have preserved evidence which goes
to show in the words of a recent writer " that the
primitive Semitic marriage-tie was an evanescent
bond."^ The legislation in the book of Deuteronomy
and that of the Arabian prophet were framed under
patriarchal influence. Consequently they witness and
perpetuate the power of the husband to put away his
wife on the smallest pretext, or without any pretext
at all, but they have not taken equal care of the
wife's rights. Enough, however, remains in old Arab
literature and modern customs, and even in the pages
of the Old Testament itself, to render it probable that
originally these rights were correlative to those of the
husband.

The late Professor Robertson Smith collected a
number of instances proving that the primitive Arabs
were matrilineal, and that a husband was little if any-
thing more than a temporary lover who could be
dismissed, or could depart, at pleasure. We may cite
two of these instances. " Ibn Batuta in the fourteenth
century of our era found that the women of Zebid
were perfectly ready to marry strangers. The husband
might depart when he pleased, but his wife in that case
could never be induced to follow him. She bade him
a friendly adieu and took upon herself the whole
charge of any child of the marriage." He goes on to

^ Barton, 45.

6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

quote from another author : "The women in the Jahiliya,
or some of them, had the right to dismiss their
husbands, and the form of dismissal was this. If they
lived in a tent they turned it round, so that if the door
faced east it now faced west, and when the man saw
this he knew that he was dismissed and did not enter.''
"The tent, therefore," he comments, "belonged to the
woman, the husband was received in her tent and at
her good pleasure." And he points out that this
agrees with the account given by Ammianus Mar-
cellinus of Saracen marriages. " According to
Ammianus, marriage is a temporary contract for which
the wife receives a price. After the fixed term she
can depart if she so chooses, and ' to give the union an
appearance of marriage the wife offers her spouse a
spear and a tent by way of dowry.' " Here it is
probable, as Robertson Smith supposes, that what is
meant is that the husband occupies the wife's tent and
is liable to serve in war with her people, so long as he
remains with her. At the end of the term, whether he
depart or she dismiss him, he leaves behind the spear
and tent, just as the Roman dos returned to the wife
upon divorce.^ This kind of union for a term is said
to have been recognised by Mohammed, though it is
irregular by Moslem law. It was apparently intended
to give security to the husband, who usually made a
gift to the wife as the price of consent. It was a
purely personal contract between him and her, without
any intervention by the kin on either side ; and it
seems to have grown out of an earlier stage in which
the woman, dwelling amid her own people, received
and dismissed her lovers at pleasure. Even to-day a
^ Robertson Smith, Kinship^ 64 sqq.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 7

Shiite sectary going on pilgrimage to Mecca frequently
contracts one of these temporary marriages either for
a certain number of days or for the duration of the
visit. At the end of the lime all relations between
him and his temporary wife cease, both parties re-
suming their liberty. A child born of such a
connection is regarded as a blessing for his family ;
"he will be venerated as a saint, for he has been
begotten in the land of the Imams." '

Sometimes the husband, instead of residing with
the wife during the marriage, is a mere visitor who
comes and goes from time to time. Passages cited by
Robertson Smith from Arab literature appear to show
that this arrangement also was not very uncommon
amono- the Arabs. The marriao-e of Samson at
Timnah, which had such tragic consequences for his
wife and her father, is also an example. It was
obviously not intended that she should follow him, but
that she should remain with her own kindred and he
should visit her there. When he goes away in a rage,
having cause to complain of her treachery, she comforts
herself with another man, perhaps under the im-
pression that he has deserted her for good, but in any
case in the exercise of a woman's rights in that stage
of nuptial evolution. The husband's visits in a marriage
of the kind I am referring to are sometimes open,
sometimes secret. In either case they are well under-
stood ; and the secrecy, when they are secret, becomes
more and more nominal. In some cases it continues
until the birth of a child, or for a definite period.
Where a lasting tie is formed the relation tends to
become open and avowed, and the husband is found

^ Anthropos, ii. 418; iii. 186.

8 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

as a permanent, privileged guest. Ultimately, among
some peoples he succeeds to the headship of the house-
hold ; more often he is allowed to remove his wife and
children to his own dwelling.

Before proceeding to illustrate this process it may-
be observed that the story of Cupid and Psyche is
founded on the custom by which a husband visits his
wife only in secret and by night. Breach of the taboo
results in separation and a series of adventures ending
in the open and permanent union of the lovers.
Variants of the story are found all over the eastern
continent and are not unknown on the western. I
do not propose to examine them now. I only wish to
refer to them in o-eneral terms as evidence of the wide
extension of the custom of secret relations between
husband and wife. For though tales may travel very
far from their place of origin, they are unlikely to
obtain any great popularity — still less to root them-
selves in the form of sagas, as many of these stories
have done, among widely sundered peoples — unless
they are in some measure consonant with custom and
therefore capable of being understood in their essential
details.

I have already mentioned the matrimonial arrange-
ments of the Nayars of South Malabar, Among
other examples in the Indian Empire may be cited the
Syntengs of the Jaintia Hills in Assam. The Synteng
husband visits his wife at her mother's house. " In
Jowai," says Major Gurdon, "some people admitted
to me that the husband came to his mother-in-law's
house only after dark, and that he did not eat, smoke,
or even partake of betel-nut there, the idea being that
because none of his earnings go to support this house,

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 9

therefore it Is not etiquette for him to partake of food
or other refreshment there. If a Synteng house is
visited, it is unusual to find the husbands of any of the
married daughters there, although the sons of the
family may be seen in the house when they have
returned from work." Elsewhere the same writer
says that both among the Syntengs and their neigh-
bours the Khasis, whose marital relations we shall
consider directly, there is " no gainsaying the fact
that the husband, at least in theory, is a stranger
in his wife's home, and it is certain that he can take
no part in the rites and ceremonies of his wife's family,
and that his ashes after death can find no place within
the wife's family tomb, except in certain cases among
the Syntengs." The exception is thus stated :
"Amongst the Syntengs occasionally a widow is
allowed to keep her husband's bones after his death,
on condition that she does not remarry ; the idea
being that as long as the bones remain in the widow's
keeping the spirit of her husband is still with
her. On this account many wives who revere their
husband's memories, and who do not contemplate
remarriage, purposely keep the bones for a long time.
If a widow marries, even after the customary taboo
period of one year, whilst her husband's bones are
still in her keeping, she is generally looked down
upon. Her children in such a case perform the
ceremony of handing over the bones of their father
to his clan in a building specially erected for the
purpose. The widow cannot enter therein, or even
go near it, whilst the ceremony is proceeding, no
matter whether xhQj'ing sang, or the price for removing
the taboo after the husband's death, has been paid

lo PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

to the husband's clan or not." It is plain that the
retention by the widow of her husband's bones is
quite exceptional ; and unless she be an old woman
it is probably of a very short duration. The husband
is usually buried with his own clan, and his wife with
hers. With the Khasis however the marriage-bond is,
externally at least, of a stronger character. Among
them the husband not merel}'' visits, he goes to live
with his wife in her mother's house. All the wife's
earnings go to her mother, who expends them for the
maintenance of the family. " After one or two children
are born, and if a married couple get on well together,
the husband frequently removes his wife and family
to a house of his own ; and from the time the wife
leaves her mother's house she and her husband pool
their earnings, which are expended for the support of
the family." ^

If we compare the customs of the Syntengs and
Khasis with those of the Menangkabau Malays of
the Padang Highlands of Sumatra mentioned in the
last chapter, it will be clear that we have here an
example of the evolution of conjugal relations as a first
stage in the evolution of kinship. Like the Syntengs and
the Khasis the Menangkabau Malays reckon descent
through the mother. The sukti, or clan, is continued
only through her ; and marriage within the clan is
forbidden. As Wilken says, "a necessary consequence
of this is that the woman at marriaofe remains in the
settlement occupied by her own clan. In fact she
never forsakes the house in which she was born
and has grown up. But the husband on his side also
remains with his own clan in its settlement ; no more
^ Gurdon, 76, 82.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT ii

than his wife does he forsake his birthplace. Marriage
thus results in no dwelling together of the married pair.
Married life reveals itself merely in the form of visits
which the husband pays to his wife. He comes, that
is to say, by day, helps her in her work in the rice-
fields and takes his midday meal with her. This at
least is the way it begins. Later the visits are more
seldom paid by clay ; the man comes privately in the
evening to his wife's house, and stays there if he be a
faithful husband until the foUowinor morningf." This
is parallel to the case of the Syntenp^ husband ; but it is
instructive to find that the kindred populations lower
down the Indragiri valley, who have come more into
contact with the outside world have more and more
modified these strictly matrilineal customs. Thus
amono- the inhabitants of Tioa Loeroeno- thouQfh the
organisation of the 37^^21 is preserved, the husband
almost universally goes to live with his wife. He
either enters her house or builds a separate dwelling
for her and himself in the settlement of her S24^u.
This is the first step towards fatherright. As yet,
however, the father has little authority over his
children, who still look to their mother's brother.
They inherit a part of any property their father may
leave at his death, in common with his sister's children,
and are liable for half his debts. In case of separation
between husband and wife the children follow the
mother. Still lower down the valley the ties of
motherright are further loosened. Exogamy is not
insisted on. When a marriage takes place between
members of the different sukiis the question where the
married pair are to reside depends on the relative
strength numbers and consideration of their respective

12 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

sukus. If the husband's be the stronger he builds
the home in the kampong, or settlement, of his suku
and takes his bride thither. The children then belongf
to the suku in which they are born and brought up,
and the mother's brothers have no rights over them.
Yet in case of separation the mother takes the children
back with her and they lose all rights in their father's
suku}

In Formosa, according to old Dutch accounts, the
" laws of wedlock were most curious, a married man
not residing permanently with his wife until he was fifty
years old, and it was a great disgrace should a woman
give birth to a child before her thirty-seventh year."
The more recent and exact information of a Japanese
official who has made a study of the natives and is
said to be the foremost authority upon them may
perhaps explain these peculiarities. According to
this gentleman the Tsalisen about Mount Kurayao
in the hiorh central ranoe of the island effect their
marriages thus. " The consent of the parents on
both sides must be obtained, and the preliminary
arrangements must be placed in the care of a middle-
man. After matters have been definitely arranged a
month is allowed to intervene, and on an appointed
day the suitor visits tlie house of his intended and
a simple ceremony sanctions the right of the couple
to come together. The woman remains at the home
of her mother until a child is born, when she removes
to the house of her husband, and the marriage is then

1 Wilken, Verwantschap, 678 ; Bijdragen, xxxix. 43. The Sakais
of the banks of the Mandau and Rokan Kiri in Sumatra have an
organisation and customs similar to those of Tiga Loeroeng {Zeits.
vergl. Recktsw. xxi. 322).

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 13

considered to have been effected. Should she be
without issue, however, her suitor ceases to call, and
all familiarity between the couple comes to an end.
Both parties are now free to seek a mate elsewhere."
Among the Paiwans of the hilly plains of the south
" the young brave goes to the house of his beloved
with fuel and water, which he places before the door.
If the damsel puts them to the use for which they are
intended, it signifies her acceptance. The young hus-
band then takes up his residence among his wife's
family for a few years, performing such duties as
by custom falls to the men. He then removes
his wife to his own house and holds there a festival to
celebrate the event. The various relatives attend
and offer presents of wine and betel-nuts." Among
the Puyumas of the south-east, " if a woman favours
the attention of a certain suitor and marriaQfe is decided
upon, the man transfers himself to the house and
family of the wife. The obtaining of a husband is
thus chiefly under the control of the woman and her
family. It is the wife's family that is responsible for the
young husband. The latter's family have renounced
all further claim to him. As a son he partakes of
what the house offers, but possesses no authority
over the family, nor is the house or property his, until
the death of his wife's parents, when as the husband
of the sole owner he comes into certain rights which
custom grants him." The Amis are neighbours of
the Puyumas. Like them they have come under
Chinese influence. But it has not sufficed to induce
them to abandon their ancient marriage customs,
which are similar to those of the Puyumas.^ Thus
1 Davidson, 15, 573, 575, 577, 579.

14 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

while in the other cases the sojourn of the husband in
his wife's home is of a temporary character, leading
to the removal of his wife and children to his own
home, with the Puyumas and Amis he enters the
wife's family permanently and eventually becomes its
head.

In Japan it would seem that descent was originally
matrilineal. The wife remained with her own rela-
tives and the husband had only the right of visiting
her by night. The word for marriage signified to slip
by night into the house. It was only in the fourteenth
century of our era that the husband's residence became
the centre of family life and marriage became a
regular dwelling together by the married pair. Even
now when a man marries an only daughter he goes to
live at her house and the children take her family
name. There is moreover another type of marriage
in which a man who has daughters but no son adopts
a stranger and gives him one of his daughters in
marriao^e. Children born of this union are considered
as heirs of their maternal grandfather, and their father
has a far from enviable position in the family.^

An interesting relic of marriage in which the hus-
band visited his wife only in secret is found among the

1 VAnnee Soc. viii. 422, citing Kojiro Twasaky, Das Japanische
Erbrechi ; 410, citing F. Tsugaru, Die Lehre von der Jap. Adoption.
See also Ibid. v. 343, citing T. Fukuda, Die gesellsch. und wirtsch.
Entwickelimg in Japan. " En effet, quand Thomme ne pouvait
acheter sa femme ou la capturer, il n'avait pas le droit de 1' emmener
chez lui ; il ne pouvait avoir de commerce avec elle que dans la
maison de ses beaux-parents et les enfants, issus d'une telle union,
appartenaient a la famille de la mere." If Morgan's information be
correct the husband not merely of the only daughter, but of the
eldest daughter goes to her father's house to reside and takes her
family name (Morgan, Syst. Consang. 428).

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 15

wandering Tipperah, or as they call themselves Mrung,
of Bengal. When a match is " made with the consent
of the parents the young man has to serve three years
in his father-in-law's house before he obtains his wife or
is formally married. During the period of probation
his sweetheart is to all intents and purposes awife to him.
On the wedding night, however, the bridegroom has
to sleep with his wife surreptitiously, entering the
house by stealth and leaving it before dawn. He then
absents himself for four days, during which time he
makes a round of visits among all his friends. On the
fourth day he is escorted back with great ceremony,
and has to give another feast to his cortege y^

The Yakuts at present reckon descent through tlie
father ; but there are indications in language in tra-
dition and in existing customs of a more archaic stage.
Among such indications is the rule that a bride is not
given to her husband immediately after the marriage,
even though the bride-price which is always exacted
may have been paid. She is retained at home either
under pretence of getting ready her outfit or of her
youth and inexperience, formerly for four or five years,
but now for somewhat less. Meanwhile the bride-
groom visits her from time to time, bringing in his
hand a substantial present to her parents. If the
bride-price have been paid he is sometimes admitted
to reside with her in her parents' home.^ The Yakuts
are polygamous ; and a man who is obliged to make
frequent journeys has a wife in every place.* The
custom of the Aleutian islanders is to marry a girl
from another village. After marriage the bride

1 Risley, Tribes, ii. 325, 2 j ^^ /, xxxi. 84, 80, 83.

' Potter, 138, quoting de Lesseps. Cf. J. A. I. xxxi. 94,

i6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

remains in her father's house for a certain time or until
the birth of a child. The bridegroom is at liberty to
visit her and to stay for days at a time, but not to
remove her to his own village until the expiration of
the customary period unless a child be born meanwhile.^

Among some of the Turcomans a married daughter
is retained for a year in her parents' house. Mean-
while the husband can have only stolen interviews
with her ; and if caught he is required to give her
parents a considerable present. These proceedings
continue until the birth of the first child.^ In the
Sinaitic peninsula it is usual to capture the bride by
force. The bridegroom flings his mantle (called aba)
over her, saying, " No one shall cover thee but I," and
forthwith carries her off to his own tent. But among
the Mezeyne tribe the flinging of the aba is the signal
for her escape to the mountains, whither her bride-
groom at once pursues her. She allows herself of
course to be caught, and they spend the night together
in the open air. With the dawn she flees again, this
time back to her home. There she abides and meets
her husband only by night until conception has taken
place, when at last she enters her husband's tent.^

In the Caucasus a Cherkess, though he has taken
his wife to live with him, dare not show himself in
public with her. For six or eight weeks he visits her
in secret, entering it is said by the window. It is at
any time a gross breach of propriety to speak to him

^ F. A. Golder, Journ. Am. F. L. xx. 134, translating Veniaminov.

2 Post, Studien, 242, citing Vambery ; McLennan, Studies, i. 186,
citing Fraser.

2 Lobel, 42 ; McLennan, op. cit. 181, citing Burckhardt. A
later stage in the evolution of this ceremony is described by Jaussen,
53 note.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 17

of her as his wife, or to inquire after her health.^
Among the Ossetes the bride is taken to her husband's
abode, but he himself goes to live at his foster-father's
or in the house of a friend. Thence he visits her
secretly and by night. At the end of a year or even
longer she is allowed to pay a visit to her parents,
whom she has not seen since her marriage. It is only
after she returns with gifts from them to her husband's
relatives that she is publicly recognised as his wife. But
no man dare caress his own children in the presence
of other people : he would become such an object of
contempt that nobody would give him his hand, and
any one might without being liable to punishment spit
in his face.^ The Chevsurs, who are strict exogamists,
on the other hand leave the wife for a year at least in
her own family. The relations between her and her
husband are not recognised. They are so far secret
that husband and wife do not speak to one another
nor even look at each other in the presence of strangers,
until at all events the first child is born. The Chechen
. bridegroom has a right to visit his bride between the
betrothal and the wedding ; but he must keep out of
the way of her parents. Both among the Chechens
and the Ingush he must always avoid his mother-in-
law : her glance is of evil omen. Among the Trans-
caucasian Tartars the bridegroom ordinarily visits the

^ Lobel, 70 ; Darinsky, Zeits. vergl. Rechstw. xiv. iS8 \ Potter,
135 note, citing Wake; Kovalevsky, UAnthrop. iv. 268.

■^ Rev, Hist. Rel. xlii, 459, citing Borisievitch ; Darinsky, luc. cit.
The Ossetes who are now in the stage of fatherright with strongly
developed patriarchal institutions, preserve another relic of an
earlier stage in the custom of a married woman to return during
pregnancy to her parents' house and there to be delivered {Globus,
Ixxxviii. 24).

II B

i8 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

bride by night. And he is most soHcitous to keep
these interviews from the knowledge of other people.
For the youth of the village and among them the
brothers and kinsmen of the bride lie in wait for him
and beat him without pity as he comes away from the
house. Customs such as these are in fact found
amonof almost all the tribes of the Caucasus.^

There are substantial reasons, one of which has
been mentioned in the last chapter, for believing that
in prehistoric Greece kinship was counted only through
the mother. According to Plutarch (whose testi-
mony is important though we may reject the cause he
assigns) the relations between husband and wife in
Sparta were at first secret ; the husband's visits were
nocturnal only, and were conducted with precautions
against discovery by the rest of the family. Nor was
this secrecy of short duration. Sometimes it lasted
for years and children had been born before husband
and wife had an interview by daylight.^ A similar
cause to that alleged by Plutarch is still given by the
Albanian population of Turkey for the same custom.
"A romantic reserve," we are told, "surrounds the
interviews between the young couple, who, especially if
the husband be one of a numerous family and have no
private apartments, can only meet in secret until they
have children of their own. The mountaineers cherish
this custom which, they contend, by surrounding with
a halo of romance and mystery the relations of the
young couple tends to keep their love for each other
fresh and warm."^ In both cases doubtless the cause
assigned is a subsequent invention to account for a

1 Kovalevsky, VAnthrop. iv. 272 ; Darinsky, op. cit. 188 sqq.^ 204.

2 Plut. Lycurgus. ^ Garnett, Wont, ii. 257.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 19

custom no longer understood. The story told by
Pausanias about Ulysses' marriage points to a custom
in Lacedaemon of the husband's ooino- to reside with
his wife's family. After Icarius (it runs) had given
Penelope in marriage to the hero, " he tried to induce
his son-in-law to take up his abode in Lacedaemon.
Failing in the attempt he next besought his daughter
to stay behind. And when she was setting out for
Ithaca he followed the chariot, entreating her. Ulysses
stood it for a time ; but at last he told Penelope either
to follow him freely, or if she liked her father better to
go back to Lacedaemon. They say that she answered
nothing, but simply drew down her veil in reply to the
question. So Icarius, seeing that she wished to depart
with Ulysses let her go, and set up an image of
modesty " at the point of the road where she let down
her veil.^ In the island of Kythnos to-day, though the
marriage is public and solemnised with rejoicings, the
bride does not leave her parental home ; the bride-
groom comes to live with her there. On her parents'
death the eldest daughter succeeds to the house ; and
if a girl have not the prospect of this succession another
house must be provided by herself or her family,
otherwise she cannot obtain a husband.^

Among- the ancient Cantabrians the dauohters
succeeded their parents though, Strabo tells us, they
were required to provide wives for their brothers, by
which is doubtless meant that they provided the funds
to enable them to obtain wives, who were probably not
brought home.^ What was perhaps a relic of this rule

^ Pausanias, iii. 20 (10), Frazer's translation.
^ Hauttecoeur, Kythnos, 17.
^ Strabo, iii. 4, 18.

20 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

existed until recent times among the Basques. The
eldest child whether son or daughter inherited. When
the eldest child was a daughter her husband came to
live at his wife's house with her parents. There he
played a very limited part in the family ; the real
power was hers. The eldest son was not allowed to
marry an heiress, nor the eldest daughter an heir/ As
we have seen in a previous chapter, a Transylvanian
Gypsy enters his wife's clan, but his complete union
with it is not recognised until she has borne him a
child.^ Previous to that time his relation is obviously
provisional and probably in earlier times was not
recognised.^

The custom by which the wife continues to live at
her own home and there receives the visits, open or

^ V Annie Soc. iii. 379 ; Simcox, i. 212, 461. Cf. the Japanese
custom, supra, p. 14. There is reason to suspect that a somewhat
similar custom prevailed among the ancient Egyptians. On
succession and on the position of women in general among the
Basques, see A. R. Whiteway, Eng. Hist. Rev. xv. 625 sqq.

2 Potter, 116, citing von Wlislocki. I have not von Wlislocki's
work before me and cannot judge of the exact force of the word
translated clan; but it is unimportant for our present purpose.

2 Secret cohabitation does not appear in all of these modern
examples : but it may be observed that in the north of Europe the
nocturnal visits of an accepted lover are or were until quite recent
years an ordinary part of the courtship. They are reported from
Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, the Lake District
of England, and from Wales. Although the interviews take place
upon or even in the lady's bed the pair are supposed to be dressed
and to confine themselves to innocent endearments. It is only
natural that the hypothesis imperfectly corresponds to the facts.
Little harm is thought of whatever may take place if marriage follow
in due course. So usual is the practice referred to that there are
special verbs in the languages of all the countries named to describe
it. See Potter, 133 sqq.; Liebrecht, 379; Lloyd, 346. Cf. the
North American and other practices, infra, pp. 31, 66, 85, 89, 90.

I

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 21

secret, of her husband is found among many natives of
Africa, and there as elsewhere it is often the pre-
Hminary of a more permanent cohabitation. Among
the Bari of the Upper Nile the bride remains for the
first few weeks of the marriage in her father's house
and there receives her husband's visits/ The
Mohammedan profession of the Beni Amer of
Abyssinia is not unalloyed with many of their earlier
customs. The wife is indeed taken to the husband's
dwelling. But she has the right to return at any time
to her mother's house, where she stays for months at a
time, letting her husband know that he may visit her if
he cares for her. She may on the other hand put an end
to the marriage altogether at her own good pleasure by
simply returning home ; the husband of course has a
similar right to leave her. The most usual form of
marriage is by payment of a bride-price, which is not
retained by the bride's father but becomes a common
provision for the married pair, and of an additional gift
to her relatives. Further, the bridegroom makes a
present to her after the consummation of the marriage.
Virginity is prized in a bride and is secured by an
operation performed at a tender age. After the birth
of the first child the operation is repeated, and requires a
fresh present before it can be undone. A woman as a
rule cares little for her husband and is always ready for
an act of infidelity, especially where there is a prospect of
gain. She tyrannises over him, many a time not stop-
ping short of ruining and then leaving him. But she
prizes her brother above everything."

The people of Sarae, somewhat further to the south,

^ Post, Afr.Jiir. i. 395, citing Brun-Rollet.
2 Munzinger, 324, 3x9, 320, 326.

22 I^RIMITIVE PATERNITY

are nominally Christians. Among them also the
women hold a position of much consideration.
Betrothal is procured by payment and is entered into
very early. At marriage the bride's father must give
the young couple five times the value of the sum
received by him at betrothal. The bridegroom how-
ever is supposed to pay him a small bride-price. The
actual payment is commonly postponed, and separation
renders the claim void. The wife, in addition to the
natural hold on her own family, has a special defender
and sureties to protect her from her husband. In her
earlier married life too she is accustomed to spend a
great part of the year in her father's house, and her
husband visits her there.^

Among the Wakamba the customary bride-price is
paid either in one sum or by poorer people in instal-
ments. Until it is all paid up the bridegroom cannot
enter publicly into possession of the bride. She
remains in the meantime in her father's custody, where
he is at liberty to visit her. Any children already born
are transferred to him by the public celebration of the
marriage.^ So the Mosuto bridegroom after payment
of the first instalment or earnest of the bride-price is
entitled to conjugal intercourse with the bride in her
parents' house. This continues until he fetches her
home ; but any children born before the bride-price is
paid up, belongs to her father or his heirs.^ The
Basuto, albeit in the stage of fatherright, preserve
many relics of matrilineal institutions, to which these
are to be reckoned. On the island of Fernando Po

^ Munzinger, 3S7.
J. M. Hildebrandt, Zeits.f, Ethnol. x. 401.

Id. vi. 39.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 23

the first wife (for the people are polygynists) is obtained
by two years' service. During this period the girl
remains in a hut concealed as much as possible from
public gaze. Though courtship goes on, conjugal
intimacy is not permitted until the two years have
expired. The girl as bride is still further detained in
the hut until unequivocal symptoms of motherhood
appear, or failing them for eighteen months. At last
she makes her appearance in public as wife, surrounded
by a troop of singing and dancing maidens, and a
feast is held.^

For a polygamous people reckoning kinship through
the mother it is almost a matter of course, where the
political conditions permit, that a man who can afford
it should have wives in different places with whom
he lives by turns. Among the Babwende in the
neighbourhood of Stanley Pool on the Congo, the
wife remains at her own town among her kinsfolk ; the
husband sojourns with her for awhile and then goes
on to another, returning from time to time as he feels
inclined. The missionary who records the custom at-
tributes it to the peculiarly excitable character of the
tribe, which renders it dangerous for a woman to live
where she has not the protection of her relatives.^
The custom is found however among; other tribes of
West Africa. Miss Kingsley records it as a charac-
teristic of the native trader, and ascribes it to the
necessity of an alliance in every village he is accus-
tomed to visit. "I know myself," she says, "one
gentleman whose wives stretch over three hundred
miles of country, with a good wife base in a coast town
as well. This system of judiciously conducted alliances
^ Allen and Thomson, ii. 203. ^ Bentley, ii. 44.

24 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

gives the black trader a security nothing else can,
because naturally he marries into influential families at
each village, and all his wife's relations on the mother's
side regard him as one of themselves and look after
him and his interests."^ Such reasons may help to
strengthen and perpetuate a form of marriage which
would otherwise tend to be submerg^ed beneath the
husband's desire for exclusive possession ; but it must
have originated independently in the practice of mother-
right. Among the Wayao and Mang'anja of the Shire
Highlands, south of Lake Nyassa, a man on marrying
leaves his own village and goes to live at his wife's,
though as an alternative he now sometimes pays a
bride-price and takes the bride away. If, as frequently
happens, he has more than one wife, he spends his time
with each of them in turn at her own village. If all
the children of any of his wives die he may leave her
altogether.^ We have already found an example of
this kind of marriage among the Yakuts, and we shall
find others elsewhere. Among the Bassa Komo of
Nigeria visits are paid on both sides. Marriage is
usually effected by an exchange of sisters or other
female relatives. *' Husband and wife do not live in
the same house ; but all the men live in one part of
the village and the women in another. The wife visits
the husband or vice versa. The women look after all
the children, but when four years old the boys go to
work and live with their fathers." The woman's
consent is necessary to the marriage, and she is
supposed to be faithful to her husband ; but he may

^ Kingsley, Trav. 315.

2 Duff Macdonald, i. 136, 140, 146; Werner, 132, 133; Rattray,
116, 202.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 25

marry as many wives as he has sisters or female
relatives undisposed of. The tribe practising this
curious form of conjugal arrangement appears to
reckon kinship through the father.^

The Bororo of Central Brazil obtain their livelihood
chiefly by hunting ; they reckon their lineage through
the mother, and are still in the stage of savagery.
According to von den Steinen the men (except the
heads of households) live together in a common house.
After marriage the husband continues to dwell there
by day when he is not on a hunting expedition : he
visits his wife at her parents' home only by night,
where the young couple are allowed a hearth to them-
selves. This mode of life goes on until the death of
the wife's parents, when the husband becomes the
head of the household and takes up his permanent
abode there.^ A more recent traveller gives additional
details and a somewhat different account. He tells
us that the proposal of marriage always comes from
the woman. After acceptance the man waits for
several days, because he is ashamed to be seen enter-
ing his bride's house. Occasionally her father fetches
him late at night that he may not be hurt by the
gibes and mockery of the men in the bahito (common
house.) "After marriage the man stays in the house
of the bride until he has a family of his own, when he
builds a house for himself."^ These two accounts are
not irreconcilable. The sense of shame spoken of in

1 Jonrn. Afr. Soc. viii. 15, 17.

^ Von den Steinen, 501.

3 J. A. I. xxxvi. 390. The Abipones required payment of a
bride-price ; but the husband lived with his wife's parent:; until after
the birth of a child, or at all events for some time, when he was
allowed to take her to a separate hut (Dobrizhoffer, ii. 208).

26 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

the latter account (which is said to be accentuated
when neither husband nor wife has had sexual inter-
course before) points to secret intercourse as the
ordinary mode of marriage. This inference is con-
firmed by von den Steinen's statement that the con-
sent of parents is not required. They neither give
nor receive anything for the marriage, which is
evidently regarded as a matter concerning only the
contracting parties themselves. If the parents object,
strife ensues and the matter may have to be decided by
force. Residence in a separate dwelling after children
have made their appearance may be dependent on
circumstances. Where for instance there are more
daughters than one in a family it is obvious that the
husbands of all of them cannot ultimately succeed to
the headship of the household, and in such a case
separate dwellings would be necessary.

An interesting counterpart to the practice of the
Bororo is found amonor the Bontoc lo-orot inhabitinor

o o o

the central part of Northern Luzon in the Philippines.
There not the men but the unmarried girls of each
village live in a large building called the oldg. Sexual
intimacy is a preliminary to marriage, which rarely
takes place prior to pregnancy. Infant betrothal is
practised ; but it is subject to the confirmation of the
parties when they grow up, and family quarrels on the
subject are said to be common. When a young couple
wish to marry, if the parents consent, the girl continues
to sleep in the oldg and the youth spends most of his
nights with her ; but they take their meals with the
girl's parents, and the youth gives his labour to the
family. This is the visiting stage. It continues for
some months, until either she becomes pregnant or he

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 27

transfers his affections to another girl. When preg-
nancy occurs the girl's father builds or gives her a
house, and the marriage ceremony takes place imme-
diately on occupation of the dwelling. The preliminary
union is therefore a trial union, the object being to
ascertain whether the marriaore will be fruitful, Durino-
this period it is to be observed that though the girl, as
not yet married, continues to sleep in the old^- both she
and her lover are in fact part of her parents' household ;
and when the period comes to an end it is the girl's
father who provides them with a home.^ The Igorot
now recognise kinship through both father and
mother.

The Molucca islands afford examples of almost all
grades of conjugal relation. In the Luang-Sermata
group the husband enters his wife's family ; and if he
wed a girl in another village he is practically lost to
his kin. A man may have as many as five wives,
each of whom of course lives apart from the others,
besides less regular connections. In such cases he
must be a mere visitor at his wives' homes.^ Like-
wise in the Babar Archipelago the husband follows
the wife and dwells in her house ; and the children
belong to the wife's family. Contrary to the practice
in the Luang-Sermata group a bride-price is paid,
but it seems only to carry the right to cohabitation, not
to removal. When rich enough a man may marry as
many as seven wives, each of whom continues to live
in her maternal home. On the other hand it is a glory
to capture a woman from another village and bring
her away, in which case, whether compensation be
paid or not, the children follow the father.^ On the
^ Jenks, 68. ^ Rigdel, 324. ^ /^_ 251.

28 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

islands of Ambon and Uliase there are two kinds of
betrothal, the secret and the open, preceded both
alike by intimate acquaintance and sexual intercourse.
Secret betrothal ends in elopement. Open betrothal
means a formal offer of marriage made on the bride-
groom's behalf by his relatives. On its acceptance he
establishes himself in his bride's dwelling, helping her
parents in their daily work and contributing to the
expenses of the household. He is not allowed to eat
with his wife or her parents, nor to speak to her in
their presence ; and if he leave the house temporarily
he must let them know whither he is going. But he
cohabits clandestinely with her. This position, which
is practically one of servitude, may last for years ; and
the children born while it lasts belongr to the mother's
family. Sometimes, instead of going to reside in the
family, the bridegroom merely visits his bride once or
twice a week until the time for the formal ceremony,
which is dependent on the payment of the bride-price,
is fixed. When payment is made a feast is held, the
bride is handed over to the bridegroom and conducted
to his dwelling. Elopement is said to have been the
primitive form of marriage in these islands ; but so far
as I am aware the assertion does not rest on any
substantial evidence. It is accomplished by the help
of the bridegroom's relatives. The bride's parents are
then appeased by payment, and the bride enters her
husband's dwelling and family.^ Here it is clear that
the payment of the bride-price effects the transfer of
the wife and her children — at least her future children
— from her family to her husband's. On the island of
Makisar marriage may take place by elopement and

1 Riedel, 67.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 29

subsequent payment of compensation. The children
then follow the father. It seems more usual to con-
clude a formal agreement between the families. The
young couple in this event live for awhile with the
bridegroom's parents, until they set up a house of
their own ; but the children follow the mother. With
permission of the first wife a man may marry as many
as five wives ; and the later wives dwell with their
parents or in separate dwellings, except in case of
poverty, when all the wives live under one roof of
which the first is mistress.^ Conversely on the island of
Wetar the pair live at the wife's home until they get a
separate dwelling ; but a bride-price is paid and divided
between the bride's parents and the other members of
her family. This assures the children to the father.
He is, however, in nowise bound to care for them, but
leaves this duty entirely to their mother.^

On the island of Serang intercourse between
unmarried youths and girls is unrestrained. When a
pair after some experience of one another in this way
determine to live together, the fact is announced to
the girl's parents. If they do not object the youth
enters their house without any formality, and is con-
sidered as a member of the family. Nothing is said
by the girl's parents about bride-price ; but this is
usually paid as soon as she becomes pregnant, or after
a satisfactory trial of married life. An exchange of
presents between the families takes place on the public
recognition of the marriage. When payment of the
bride-price is completed the wife enters her husband's
family ; but this does not discharge him from the duty
of making constant gifts to her parents in order to
^ Riedel, 415. ^ Id. 447.

30 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

keep alive his right to her and her children. In some
districts children born before payment of the bride-
price remain with their mother's parents. If the bride-
price be not paid the husband remains in the wife's
family and the lands of his kindred become security
for the payment. Needy youths work out the bride-
price ; or by agreement some of the children may be
taken by the bride's parents in discharge of it.^ On
the Tanembar and Timorlaut islands marriage is
always preceded by sexual intercourse. A bride-price
must be paid. It is an honour to the bridegroom to
pay it all up at once. Indeed it is more than an
honour : it is a substantial advantage. For although
he is at liberty to marry after payment of one
instalment, he has no right to take the bride away
from her parents' dwelling, and they retain some power
over her. Moreover in case of separation the children
follow her. But payment of the bride-price changes
all that. It enables him to take the bride to his own
dwelling. It gives him full rights over her, and the
children follow him in case of separation, unless he
give her cause by grave ill-treatment. In the latter
event she is empowered to take them with her, as well
as all the property she may have acquired during the
marriage. If by ill-luck he cannot complete the
payment he lives in matrimonium injustuni, or beena
marriage, and once children are born he is bound to
the service of his wife's parents so long as they
survive.^

One way of marriage on the Watubela Islands is by
agreement to which the kin on both sides are parties.
A bride-price is paid, gifts are exchanged and the
^ Riedel, 131. '^ Id. 300.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 3^

bride is formally handed over to her husband in his
home. But side by side with this there is another
way, by which the youth having gained his sweet-
heart's favour comes secretly to sleep with her and re-
mains in her apartment until discovered by her parents.
When this happens, declaring his passion for their
daughter he gives himself wholly up to them to be
dealt with as they decide, or as it is figuratively
expressed "to be marked as their slave." If they are
willing he stays in his wife's house, enters her family
and works for her and her parents. His children then
follow their mother ; but if later he be in a position
to pay the bride-price the children follow him and he
obtains full rights over them as in the more formal
marriage previously mentioned. If the parents are
unwilling for the marriage, the youth on being dis-
covered is compelled to leave the house and pay
compensation equivalent to a sovereign of our money.
Monogamy is the rule.^ In the Romang Archipelago
unmarried girls are allowed unrestricted intercourse
with men. A youth intending to marry pays repeated
visits to the house of his beloved, to whom he offers a
sarong, or scarf, and some glass beads. If these things
are accepted he stays in the house and endeavours to
obtain her utmost favours openly in the presence of
her parents or relatives. When this happens the
latter flare up in a rage, abuse him and demand
immediate payment of the bride-price ; they snatch up
their weapons and rush off to the dwelling of the
youth's parents or relatives as if they will fight them.
The youth's relatives, thus attacked, on their part seize
their weapons and issuing forth inquire what is the

^ Riedel, 206.

32 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

matter, at the same time standing on their guard
against assault. At last one of the assailants asks
whether the bride-price will be paid. On an affirmative
answer being returned both parties separate as friends
and in a higrh state of merriment over the scene
which has taken place. The youth remains in his
wife's house and being incorporated into her family
loses all rights in his parents' house. The first-born
child is yielded to the wife's parents, and in return the
bride-price is repaid. The other children belong to
their mother.^ On the islands of Leti, Moaand Lakor
no bride-price is paid ; the husband lives in his wife's
house until he builds a separate dwelling ; and of the
children the boys follow their mother and are in-
corporated in her family, while the girls belong to their
father.^ The population of the Seranglao and Gorong
Archipelago has accepted Islam. This has naturally
affected the marriage customs ; but an interesting relic
of the earlier conditions is found. As soon as the
marriage is agreed on and before the bride-price is paid
the bridegroom is entitled to resort by day to the
bride's father's dwelling and there to eat and drink, in
which case the bride must serve him. He is further
entitled to pass the nights there, sharing the bed with
his bride, in order, it is said, that they may learn to
know one another. In return he is bound to yield a
portion of his earnings to the bride, and to help her
parents. But apparently he is not supposed to con-
summate the marriage until payment of the bride-price.
This, however, is not always paid at once. Any
children born before payment is completed follow the

^ Riedel, 464. ^ Id. 390, 392.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 33

mother's family ; but subsequent payment secures them
to the father/

In Talauer, Sengir and the other small islands
between Celebes and the Philippines motherright is
the rule. The husband oroes to reside in the wife's
house and becomes a member of her family. The
marriage-bond, however, is loose, for divorces fre-
quently occur. As a bride-price is paid, it is only rich
men who can afford the luxury of frequent change of
wives. In Talauer in case of the wife's adultery her
paramour has to pay a fine not to her husband, but to
her parents.^ On the island of Engano the husband
almost always enters at marriage the family of his
wife ; and so close is the bond thus created that her
death is very far from dissolving it. If he afterwards
contract a marriage in another family that of his
deceased wife is entitled to compensation. The
reason of this is partly, at any rate, economic ; for on
entering a family by marriage the husband works in
the fields of his new relations and thus contributes to
the support of the entire circle. A new marriage
means a transfer of his labour, of the benefit of which
the family of his former wife is thus deprived.^ On

1 Riedel, 171 sqq. The intervention of the imam in the marriage
ceremonies is of course proper, but it seems to be not essential if
the bride-price have been paid.

2 Hickson, /. A. I. xvi. 138.

3 Modighani, Isola, 215. A small payment is made for the bride.
Theoretically a man may have as many wives as he likes ; but mono-
gamy is the rule, the contrary being very rare [Ibid. 211, 212).
Separation however is very common and is usually carried out by
agreement, the parties remaining the best of friends. I cannot
discover definitely from the author's account whether the Enganese
reckon descent through the mother or through the father. It would
seem from the above and certain other customs that they are in the
stage of motherright.

» c

34 PklMlTIVE PATERNITY

the island of Timor there are some very curious regu-
lations. The men belonging to the kingdom of
Bibi9U9u can obtain wives by barter, that is by pay-
ment of a bride-price, from the neighbouring kingdom
of Manufahi ; but the men of Manufahi cannot purchase
wives from Bibicugu. A man of Manufahi who
wishes to marry a woman of Bibi^ucu must come and
live with his wife in her country : no purchase-money
may be paid or accepted for such a marriage. This
rule extends even to the rajah of Manufahi himself.
But there is a further complication. " Saluki and
Bidauk are two districts of the kingdom of Bibi9U9u.
A man of Saluki may marry a woman of Bidauk, and
take her back with him to Saluki ; but he must
purchase her, and it is not in his option to remain in
Bidauk with his wife's relations instead of paying for
her. On the other hand the men of Bidauk can marry
with the women of Saluki ; but the man must go to
Saluki and live in the house of the woman, and he
has not the option of paying for her at all. The
children of the union belong to her, and on her
death inherit all the property, while the husband
returns to his own kingdom [sic: district?], leaving
the children behind him, except in case of there being
more than two, when he is entitled to claim at least
one.

In Borneo the Dyaks and other tribes dwell in vast
houses which accommodate two or three hundred or
even more persons. This population of a house
consists of related families, each family having an
apartment to itself. In Sarawak a Land-Dyak bride-

^ Forbes, ^^j } J, A. I. xiii. 414.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 35

groom "generally betakes himself to the apartment
of his wife's parents or relations, and becomes one of
the family. Occasionally, as for example when the
bride has many brothers and sisters, or when the
bridegroom is the support of aged parents, or of
younger brothers and sisters, the bride enters and
becomes one of the family of her husband." ^ Among
the Balans or Sea-Dyaks of Lingga, " as a general rule
if the bride be an only daughter, or of higher rank, the
husband joins her family ; if he be of higher rank or
an only son, she follows him. . . . If they should be
of equal condition and similarly circumstanced, they
divide the time among their respective families until
they set up house-keeping on their own account."^
Among the Sibuyau Dyaks of Lundu, the Dusuns and
other tribes the rule is that the husband follows the
wife, lives with and works for her parents, and the
children belong to their family.^ The Sea-Dyaks settle
the place of residence of the young pair, whether in
the household of the bride or of the bridegroom, in the
course of the marriage negotiations.'* The natives of the
Barito River basin in British North Borneo often be-
troth their children very young. If this be not done they
marry from inclination when they have arrived at adult
life. In either case they dwell after marriage with the
wife's parents ; although, it is said, the wife is considered
as a member of the husband's family as well as the
husband a member of the wife's family. Marriage is
life-long, and as a general rule the man is content with

1 St. John, i. 162. 2 j^ 22_

*^ Id. 50: Roth, Sarawak, i. 124, 125; Wilken, Vtrwantsckap,
733; Bastian, Indonesien, iv, 24, 26.
^ Anthropos, i, 167,

36 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

one spouse.^ The peculiarities of the marital arrange-
ments of both Timor and Borneo seem to point to a
conflict between the old motherright and the father-
right which is superseding or has superseded it.^

The Wagawaga tribe, on Tauwara, British New
Guinea, reckon kinship in the female line ; and con-
formably thereto the husband goes to live among the
wife's kin.^ ' This is the custom on Ruck, one of the
Caroline Islands ; ■* and concerning the Mortlock
Islands, usually regarded as belonging to the Caroline
group, we are told that the man who marries a woman
of another tribe must go to dwell with her and culti-
vate her land. He does not relinquish his own land
at his own home, but he brings the produce to his
wife's family.^ The natives of the Melaneslan island
of Rotuma are organised in exogfamous clans de-
scendible in the female line, and each dwelling by
itself. On marriage the husband as a rule entered the
wife's clan, or hoag, and came to live with her. In the
case of a big chief or the head of a clan, or if the man

1 Roth, op. cit. ii. clxxix. citing Dr. Schwaner. If we may
believe Dr. Schwaner's report, " Members of the same family are
allowed to contract marriage, nay, even the nearest relations, brothers
and sisters, parents and children.''

2 It is hardly necessary to emphasise the statement already made
or implied that the place of residence of husband or wife during the
marriage is by no means an infallible test of the existence of male or
female kinship. In Australia the prevailing rule, whether the kin be
reckoned through males or through females, is that the woman goes
to live with her husband. There are, however, a few exceptions ;
but they seem to have been insisted on from poUtical reasons
(Howitt, 220, 225, 234).

3 Colonial Rep. No. 131. Brit. Neiv Guinea, 1893-4, So.
^ VAiinc'e Sac. iv. 328, reviewing Globus, Ixxvi. 37 sqq.

^ Bastian, Indonesien, iii, 96, Bastian with his incorrigible
negligence professes to quote but gives no reference.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 37

belonged to a very rich hoag, the bride usually entered
his hoag. The husband who entered his wife's hoag,
however, only remained in it during her lifetime. When
she died, as the corpse was taken out through one door
of the house he was pushed out of the other, signifying
that he had now no rigrht in it. These arrangrements
are undergoing modification, and it is instructive to
compare the process with some of the other customs
already mentioned and to be mentioned hereafter.
During the first three days of marriage a wedded pair
now " remain in the woman's house, but on the fourth
are decked out in big mats and flowers and brought in
procession to the man's house. After the sixth day
they go to whichever hoag they are going to live in ;
a usual arrangement at the present day is for them to
live half a year in each. . . Of course such a method
now often leads to the separation of the pair, the wife
going back to her old home. The husband then
cooks some taro and a pig, which he takes to her,
after which she is bound to let him remain with her,
or go with him, for one night. "^ On the Murray
Islands in Torres Straits the natives were divided into
totemic clans, but fatherright had so far prevailed
that children might take either their mother's or their
father's totem, while inheritance not merely of chief-
tainship but also of property had become hereditary
from father to child. Marriage was by elopement
followed by payment of a bride-price and a formal
ceremony which lasted for some days. On its

^ J. Stanley Gardiner, /. A. I. xxvii. 429, 478, 485, 480.
I gather, though it is not explicitly stated in Mr. Gardiner's
account, that the separation was not final, but that the husband was
entitled to the society of his wife as often as he thought fit to bring
her the gift of the taro and pig.

38 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

conclusion " at first the married couple would live with
the husband's friends, but afterwards would alternate
and sometimes stay [by which I understand make their
pe^'manent abode~\ with the wife's relations." ^ Nauru is
an- island in the Pacific Ocean, west of the Gilbert
group. Its population is derived from the Gilbert,
Marshall and Caroline Islands. Motherrigfht is the
rule here, and accordingly on marriage a man always
goes to his wife's house. When the eldest daughter
in a family marries her parents give up to her their
house and build a new one close by for themselves.
For each other daughter on marriage a new house is
built in the immediate neighbourhood.^ Contrary to
most of the Micronesian islands the population ol
Yap reckon descent through the father ; yet not with-
out remains of an earlier stage. A man makes a
present to his father-in-law on his marriage ; but he
receives a present in return. He does not take his
wife to his home ; he goes to hers. Though mono-
gamy is the rule polygyny is recognised so far that a
man may have as many as four wives at one time.
Each of these wives lives with her own kin ; it would
seem therefore that he must visit them in turn.
Separation is common, and is allowed on almost any
pretext. There must however be some ground, it
only a trivial one. There is no distinction in law, and
not much in social standing, between legitimate and
illegitimate children : if the father will not take an
illegitimate child the mother's family will ; and it then
inherits from her father.^

Among Polynesian peoples it was the custom of

1 Rev. A. E. Hunt,/. A. 1. xxviii. 6, 7, 9, 10.

' Globus^ xci. 76, 57. 3 jbic^^ j^ij 1^2,

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 39

the natives of Bowditch Island that the husband went
to live with the wife's kindred. Inasmuch however as
polygyny was allowed it is to be presumed that where
more wives than one were married this custom only
applied to the first.^ Like most of the Polynesians the
Maori have reached the patrilineal stage ; but many
vestiges of the reckoning of descent through the
mother are to be found. The marriage cerem.ony
consists in a simulated capture of the bride, in former
days a very real and often bloody struggle. A few
days afterwards the lady's relatives appear and demand
reparation. A palaver ensues, ending in a handsome
present by the husband and a feast at his expense.
But sometimes, Mr. Taylor tells us, " the father
simply told his intended son-in-law he might come and
live with his daughter ; she was thenceforth considered
his wife, he lived with his father-in-law and became
one of the tribe, or hap2i, to which his wife belonged,
and in case of war was often obliged to fight against
his own relatives. So common is the custom of the
bridegroom going to live with his wife's family that
it frequently occurs, when he refuses to do so, she will
leave him and go back to her relatives. Several
instances came under my notice where young men
have tried to break through this custom and have so
lost their wives." ^

The influence of Brahmanism on the aboriginal
population of India has been so potent that far fewer
examples of motherright are to be found among them
than might have been expected. Some of the more
complete of these have already been mentioned.

1 /. A. I. xxi. 54.

8 Taylor, -^^-j ; J. A, I, xix. 103,

40 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Several of the Dravidian tribes that have adopted
patrilineal reckoning preserve the relics of mother-
right, especially in the shape of residence by the
husband with his wife's family. It prevails for instance
among the Kharwars and Parahiya and is common
among the Ghasiyas in the United Provinces. In
all three cases the son-in-law is required to pass a
period of probation of one year working for his father-
in-law, during which he is entitled to maintenance, but
he has no right of inheritance in his father-in-law's
property. Further traces of motherright are dis-
coverable among the last-named tribe. Marriage
appears to be an affair of individual choice. ** If a
girl fancies a young man all she has to do is to give
him a kick on the leg at the tribal dance of the
Karama, and then the parents think it as well to hasten
on the wedding. In fact, it seems often to be the case
that the man is allowed to try the girl first, and if she
suits him and seems likely to be fertile he marries
her." The wife too has riorhts inconsistent with
patrilineal custom. She may leave her husband if he
intrigue with another woman, or if he become insane,
impotent, blind or leprous. None of these bodily
disabilities will justify a husband's repudiation of his
wife ; and repudiation for adultery is uncommon,
because adultery within the tribe is little thought of,
while women are so jealously guarded against intrigues
with aliens that they seldom occur. " Besides this,
nothing but the evidence of eye-witnesses to the act of
adultery is accepted." ^ I have already mentioned

1 Crooke, Tribes and Castes, iii. 242 ; iv. 128 ; ii. 414, 412. A
Bhuiya girl has only to kick a young man on the ankle during a
dance and the parents marry the couple forthwith (ii. 83). A

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 41

the marriage custom of the Tipperah of Bengal*
Residence by the husband and service in the father-in-
law's house is also one of the forms of marriage
practised by the Santals. It is resorted to when a girl
is ugly or deformed and there is no prospect of her
marrying in any other way. The husband is expected
to serve for five years. "At the end of that time he
gets a pair of bullocks, some rice and some agricultural
implements, and is allowed," we are told, '* to go about
his business : " by which we are presumably to under-
stand that the marriao-e is at an end/ Amone the
Badagas of the Nilgiri Hills "it is said to be common
for one who is in want of labourers to promise his
daughter in marriao-e to the son or other relative of a
neig^hboLir not in circumstances so flourishinof as
himself ; and these engagements being entered into,
the intended bridegroom serves the father of his

Santal youth by surreptitiously marking a girl on the forehead with
vermilion or indeed any common earth makes her his wife (Risley,
Tribes and Castes, ii. 230). Cf. the Ntlakapamux custom cited
below p. 90.

1 Risley, Tribes, ii. 230. What is called bccna marriage is in fact
not very uncommon in India. For examples, see Crooke, Tribes
and Castes, i. 281 ; ii. log, 218, 434. It is possible that the
custom of Illatom followed by some of the castes, including the
NambUdri Brahmans of the south of India, may be ultimately
derived from the custom by which a husband goes to reside in his
wife's family. By the custom of Illatom a father who has no sons
adopts for certain purposes a daughter's husband, but without the
religious ceremonies necessary to full and complete adoption. It is
probably immediately derivable from, or at least has been influenced
by, the old Hindu custom by which a father without sons appointed
a daughter to bear him issue who could perform the sraddha. But
it is now overlaid by so many legal decisions that the relation of an
illatom son-in-law to his wife's family has become highly artificial.
See Ramachendrier, Collection of Decisions on the Law of Succession,
ficc. (Madras, 1892) 39 sqtj.

42 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

betrothed as one of his own family till the girl comes
of age, when the marriage is consummated and he
becomes a partner in the general property of the
family of his father-in-law." ^ These arrangements
are therefore only employed for special reasons.
They may however be a relic of an earlier social con-
dition of these two tribes.

The Kamtchadals live in small communities or
families, each in its own ostroshock or village composed
of a small number of households. A youth who
marries goes to reside in his wife's ostroshock ; he does
not bring her to his. The marriage used to be made
by means of a very simple ceremony. The lover
went to the hut where his sweetheart dwelt with her
parents and kindred and there played the wooer,
renderinc;' himself officious and offeringr all sorts of
services to the family. These services were accepted
if he had the good fortune to please. He then watched
his opportunity to perform a public act of familiarity
with the pfirl. In doingf this he had to run the risk of
resistance and even serious blows on the part of any
married women who might happen to be present. If
successful the young people thenceforward lived
together without any further formality in the wife's
hut.^ The Kamtchadals have now accepted Russian
Christianity, and it has to some extent modified their
customs. Many of their tales, however, reflect the
former practice by which the husband went to live in
the dwelling of the wife's family ; while others repre-
sent him as taking his wife back after a time to his
own home. The latter probably portray the present

1 Thurston, 33.

3 Georgi, iii. 77, 89. Cf. Post, Studien, 47,

RISE OF FAFHERRIGHT 43

usage. Their neighbours, the Koryak, have for the
most part resisted the efforts of the missionaries to
convert them from their ancient paganism. The
traditional tales current among; them disclose that the
suitor usually serves for the bride and having married
her remains with her in her father's or her brother's
settlement, often making after some time a ceremonial
visit with her to his own home, and subsequently return-
ing.^ Among the Chukchi it was formerly the custom
when persons belonging to different family groups inter-
married that the bridegroom entered the bride's family,
" leaving for ever his own kindred." Latterly this
has been commuted for service during a period of
one or two years. " A young man thus serving his
father-in-law as Jacob served Laban has to perform all
kinds of rough and hard work, and is usually tested by
various trials before the family of the bride allows him
to lead her away. Rich families having many young
women whom they are unwilling to give to strangers
generally select poor young men. These having stood
the test are admitted to the bride and become members
of the family by the performance of certain rites."
Such marriages however, "are not very binding. The
parents and brothers of the woman given away to
the stranger reserve the rig-ht to take her back even
after the lapse of years. ... In the case of accept-
ing a poor young man into the family there have
been instances where the father-in-law, becoming

^ Jochelson, Jesup Exped. vi. passim. The Kamtchadal tales are
comprised in pp. 327-340. The Koryak custom as represented in
the tales is not invariable. Occasionally the wife is at once taken
away to the husband's home ; but I have stated in the text what
appears to be the predominant practice.

44 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

displeased, has suddenly sent the son away, although
he may have been in the enjoyment of his nuptial
rights for several years. In one such case the young
man, rather than leave his wife, took both her life and
his own." No bride-price is paid on a marriage
within the tribe. The marriage rite, we are told, "is
very simple. Its chief feature consists of anointing
with the blood of a reindeer slain for the purpose.
The bride and bridegroom, with other members of his
family, paint on her face the hereditary signs of her
new family, by which she casts off her old family gods
and assumes the new ones. When the bridesfroom is
taken to the family of his father-in-law. his family
totem-marks and gods are discarded and he paints on
his face the totem of the family to which he will hence-
forth belong." ^ The Afghan bride is taken to her
husband's home ; but in a few days she returns and
lives with her husband in her parents' house.^

The commutation of the bridegroom's permanent
residence in his wife's family for a temporary residence
there followed by removal with his wife and children
to his own house, is found among many peoples.
Certain of the aboriginal tribes of China require the
husband to reside for a period of seven or ten years
with his wife's parents, permitting him at the expiration
of that period to return to the home of his fathers
and to take his wife. Meanwhile the eldest child

1 Bogoras, Am. Anthr. N.S. iii. 102 ; Jesiip Exped. vii. 359.
Residence with the wife's family was perhaps the rule among the
pagan Sakai of Perak (Skeat and Blagden, ii. 62, 63). The Manchu
rule is to take the bride to the bridegroom's house ; but the contrary
arrangement is sometimes stipulated for (J. H. Stewart Lockhart,
F. L. i. 491).

2 Post, Studien, 242, citing Kohler, Zeiis. vergl Rechtsw. v. 361.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 45

of the marriao-e has been griven to the husband's
parents and the second to the wife's. Presumably
the rest are retained and follow the husband and
wife.^ In Selangor, one of the states of the Malay-
Peninsula, the people are Mohammedans. But the
bridegroom is "expected to remain under the roof
(and eye) of his mother-in-law for about two years
(reduced to forty-four days in the case of ' royalty '),
after which he may be allowed to remove to a house
of his own." A ritual stealing^ of the brideg-room
by his relatives takes place on the third night after
completion of the wedding. He is brought back the
next day and a grand lustral ceremony is performed.^
The fisher-folk of Patani Bay, also a Mohammedan
people, are divided into families, each of which
reverences a particular species of fish and abstains
from eating it. This cult, if cult it may be called,
appears to be, or to have been originally, descendible
in the female line. A man who marries into one of
these families becomes liable to the prohibitions
attaching to his wife's family ; if himself of a fisher-
family he becomes liable to the prohibitions of both.
It is customary to spend the first fortnight of married
life at the house of the bride's parents. At the end
of fifteen days the bridegroom's parents come and
formally conduct the couple back to his old home,
where they live together until he can afford to have a
house of his own.^ Here an analogous ceremony

1 Gray, ii. 304.

2 Skeat, 384. All brides and bridegrooms are treated as
•* royalty," i.e.^ as sacred, taboo. I ani not quite sure, therefore,
whether Mr. Skeat means that in all cases the term of residence at
the bride's house is reduced to forty-four days,

2 Annandale, Fasc. Ma!, i. 75.

46 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

to that ill Selangor witnesses to the gradual breaking-
down under similar influences of the matrilineal system
formerly in force. Generally in the Patani States
"the bride and bridegroom are expected to take up
their abode in the house of the bride's parents ; but
the custom has now become largely ceremonial, and
as a rule they only stay a fortnight, after which they
are conducted in procession by the bridegroom's
parents to his old home, where they live until he
can afford to have a house of his own." Women,
however, have a very independent position ; and the
bridegroom "cannot force the bride to leave her parents,
though her refusal to do so is considered valid grround
for regular divorce, the man receiving back the wedding
present."^ A similar ceremonial residence in the
bride's home is found among the Kaduppattans of
Cochin in the south of Hindustan. The protracted
marriage rites are begun in the house of the bride's
father and completed in the bridegroom's house.
The bride's father then takes the pair back to his
home, where they remain for twelve days, afterwards
returning to the bridegroom's.^ Service for a bride
is by no means unusual among the tribes of Southern
India ; but such cases when the bridegroom does not
continue to reside after marriage in the wife's family
need not detain us.^

^ Annandale, Fasc. Mai. ii. 75,

2 Ind. Cens. xx. 1901, 166. More protracted is the residence of
the young couple in the bride's father's house among the Mikirs,
where there is no bride-price but the bridegroom after marriage has
to work for his father-in-law for an agreed period (Stack, 18).

^ Examples will be found in Thurston, 2>Z- The custom among
the Shanars of Travancore by which all the bride's expenditure until
her first child is born is supplied from her father's house, where also

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 47

The Chingpaw of Upper Burmah are divided into
patrilineal exogamic kins. On marriage a bride-price
is paid, which is regarded as a compensation to the
bride's parents for the loss of her labour. It is often
considerable, and if the suitor be unable to pay it
he may work it out. In this way he becomes a
dependent of his bride's family for a longer or shorter
period. As no marriage takes place without previous
intercourse, presumably while living in this condition
the bridegroom has access to the bride, if not actually
married. The completion of his period of service
enables him to take away his wife and children to
his own villao^e.^ In Cambodia the negfotiations for
marriage are conducted by the relatives of the young
couple ; and often the latter have not exchanged
a word until after their betrothal. The girl's parents
then make a formal request that their intended son-in-
law shall come to the house to serve for awhile. The
period of service is in fact a period of probation
in which it is the youth's business to render himself
agreeable to the young lady as well as to her parents.
On the day appointed he accordingly comes and
remains under their roof for an indeterminate period,
sometimes longer sometimes shorter, at their orders.
It is the duty of his betrothed to prepare his food and

her first confinement should take place, is probably a survival from
the time when she continued notwithstanding marriage to live in the
parental home (Mateer, io6).

^ Int. Arch. Suppl. xvi. 26 sqq. Off the coast of Tenasserim the
Mergui islanders live in boats. The population of each boat is a
patriarchal community. After marriage the bridegroom is taken into
his father-in-law's boat until he can manage to get a boat of his own
{Globus, xcii. 290). This seems to be merely a temporary con-
venience for the husband ; but that the residence in such a case
should always be with the wife's parents is not without significance.

48 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

betel-nut-quids and to roll his cigarettes. This leads
naturally to a lovers' intimacy between them, and
if the young lady be satisfied to favours of a more
decisive kind. The bridegroom's parents indeed
usually urge him to seek these favours as a guarantee
for his position ; for when once they are granted there
is no withdrawal for either party, and subsequent
infidelity on the part of the girl is treated as adultery.
Although among families in easy circumstances, able
at once to pay the expenses of a formal marriage,
the period of probation is short, in some cases no
longer than fifteen or twenty days, in other cases it is
extended even for years. Nor does the youth always
reside with his parents-in-law : he may live at his
own home, only paying visits and assisting his parents-
in-law in the labours of sowing or harvest, or the like.
It is not very rare to see more than one child, born
during this interval, at the subsequent marriage of its
parents. Such little ones, though not regarded by
the lady's family with any great pleasure, are by
no means a disgrace. They are considered as legiti-
mate, since their parents are betrothed — '' presque
mar ids " — and as such have rights and duties which
the law recoo-nises.^

The real character of the period of probation as a relic
of an earlier form of marriag-e in which the husband
either visited or dwelt with his wife in her own home is
made apparent by comparison with the customs of some
of the tribes of Northern Tonkin. Among the Eastern
Thai, when the bride has been brought to the husband's
house and formally installed there the wedding is far
from being concluded. In fact the bride passes the
^ Aymonier, Excursions, xvi. 197.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 49

night WLth the female friends who have accompanied
her frpm home. Nor do they leave her the whole of
the next day, which is devoted to feasts offered by the
husband's family. The following day husband and
wife go to present themselves before the bride's
ancestors, and the husband returns alone. Only some
time afterwards may the union really take place, and
then in quite a fugitive manner and under pretexts
which mask it as if it ought to be kept secret. In
some places the wife spends alternately fifteen days
at her husband's house and fifteen days at her own.
Elsewhere she only comes to his house if she is called
thither on pretext of helping in the household manage-
ment or in the field-work. This situation, abnormal
from our point of view, continues until pregnancy is
proved, or if she remain barren until the end of the
third year. During the whole period she continues to
preserve the same liberty of intrigue that is permitted
to unmarried girls, and she gads about to fetes and
markets, singing with the lads erotic songs just as the
unmarried girls do. It often happens therefore that
the paternity of her eldest child is more than doubtful.^
The marriao-e customs of the Lolo of the hio-hlands of
Bao-Lac, of which they claim to be the original
occupiers, are similar. The wedding is celebrated at
the bridegroom's house, where the bride remains for
six days. The married pair then pay a visit to the
bride's parents, taking a present of rice and fish.

^ Lunet de Lajonquiere, Ethnog. Tonkin Sept. 154, There are
small variations among the different tribes of the Thai group. The
customs described above are those of the Tho. Among the Ming,
another tribe of the group, the bride returns to her own home after
a cohabitation of some hours {Id. 195); among the Tchong-Kia,
after a few days of cohabitation {Id. 206. Cf. Anthropos, ii. 367).

n D

50 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

They remain there two days, and returning to the
bridegroom's house they spend another night together,
after which the bride goes back to her parents and only
installs herself permanently in her husband's domicile
when pregnancy becomes evident/ Among the various
Man tribes the bridegroom passes an avowedly proba-
tionary period in the bride's house. The period ex-
acted by the Man Tien is a month. After this the
formal wedding takes place. The young couple first
drink rice-spirit together and worship the bride's
ancestors, then proceeding to the bridegroom's home
drink together and worship his ancestors. The bride
is formally presented to the bridegroom's relatives,
with whom they remain.^ The Man Quan Trang
require a much longer residence of the bridegroom in
the bride's home. Formerly it was for six years ; even
now it is for three, unless redeemed by payment. It
begins when the youths are about twenty years of age
and the girls fourteen. No sexual relations ought to
take place between them during this period ; but in
reality such relations always exist without much
importance being attached to them, unless pregnancy
result. In this case the lovers are definitely united
and neither party can afterwards withdraw. So long
as pregnancy does not happen the youth can withdraw
without paying anything ; but if the girl's parents alter
their minds they must pay him an indemnity for the
services he has rendered in their house. After the
formal marriage the young couple must work for seven
years in the husband's paternal home before being
able to settle elsewhere. In this way it is said the parents
of both are remunerated for the care bestowed on their
^ Lunet 339. 2 /^_ 257.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 51

children/ This is no doubt a modern justification for
customs the orioin of which has been forootten. All
these tribes, however, practise also the form of marriage
to which McLennan gave the name of becna marriage
from the word in use in Ceylon for a husband who
was taken to reside in his wife's house or village.^
When a youth among the Tho is too poor to pay the
bride-price, he may renounce his name and enter his
father-in-law's family as an adopted son. Among
other tribes the bridegroom enters the service of his
wife's family for a definite number of years in lieu of a
bride-price. In such cases there is no adoption.^
Chinese influence has been for centuries powerful in
the north of Tonkin. To it we must probably attribute
the fact that fatherright has become the general
custom, though many traces of the reckoning of kin
through the mother remain.

Up to the last quarter of the eighteenth century
there prevailed in Passummah and Rejang, two con-
tiguous districts of the island of Sumatra, two kinds of
marriage. These were known by the respective names
oi J2iJ2tr and ambel-anak. The jujtir, says Marsden,
" is a certain sum of money given by one man to
another as a consideration for the person of his
daughter, whose situation in this case differs not much
from that of a slave to the man she marries, and to his
family. His absolute property in her depends, how-
ever, upon some nice circumstances. Beside the
bLitangjujur{ox main sum) there are certain appendages

^ Lunet, 272. 2 McLennan, Studies, i. loi.

3 Lunet, 156, 207, 242, 293. Among some unspecified Thai
tribes the service is said to be for the lives of the bride's parents
without adoption or compensation of any kind {Authropos, ii. 370).

52 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

or branches, one of which the tali kulo, of five dollars,
is usually from motives of delicacy or friendship left
unpaid, and so long as that is the case a relationship is
understood to subsist between the two families, and
the parents of the woman have a right to interfere on
occasions of ill treatment ; the husband is also liable
for wounding her ; with other limitations of absolute
right. When that sum is finally paid, which seldom hap-
pens but in cases of violent quarrel, the tali kulo
(tie of relationship) is said to be putus (broken),
and the woman becomes to all intents the slave of her
lord. She has then no title to claim a divorce in any pre-
dicament ; and he may sell her, making only the first
offer to her relations." After mentioning the other
two "appendages," namely, the tulis tanggil {yNhich he
cannot explain) and the upah daun kodo (payment for
the marriage feast), Marsden proceeds : " These
additional sums are seldom paid or claimed before the
principal is defrayed, of which a large proportion, as
fifty, eighty, and sometimes an hundred and four
dollars, is laid down at the time of marriage, or in the
first visit (after the parties are determined in their
regards) made by the father of the young man, or the
biijang himself, to the father of the woman. . , ,
Until at least fifty dollars are thus deposited the man
cannot take his wife home ; but so long as the matter
continues dalam rasa-an (under consideration) it would
be deemed scandalous in the father to listen to any other
proposals. When there is a difficulty in producing the
necessary sum it is not uncommon to resort to an
expedient tQrvi\&di mengiring j'ujur.''' By this arrange-
ment the debtor becomes practically a slave, all his
labour being due to his creditor, without it seems any

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 53

reduction in the debt, which must be raised and paid
without deduction. Long credit is then given for the
remainder of the jujur. " Sometimes it remains
unadjusted to the second and third generation ; and
it is not uncommon to see a man suing for xhe.jujuroi
the sister of his grandfather. These debts constitute, in
fact, the chief part of their substance ; and a person is
esteemed rich who has several of them due to him for
his daughters sisters aunts and great aunts. Debts
of this nature are looked upon as sacred, and are
scarcely ever lost. In Passummah, if the race of a
man is extinct, and some of these remain unpaid, the
dusun or village to which the family belonged must
make it good to the creditor ; but this is not insisted
upon amongst the Rejangs." Sometimes instead of
paying a yV^V^r an exchange is effected, by which one
maiden is given for another.

In ambel-anak, on the other hand, ** the father of a
virgin makes choice of some young man for her
husband, generally from an inferior family which
renounces all further right to or interest in him, and
he is taken into the house of his father-in-law, who
kills a buffalo on the occasion and receives twenty
dollars from the son's relations. After this the buruk
baiknia (the good and bad of him) is vested in the
wife's family. If he murders or robs, they pay the
bangtm, or the fine. If he is murdered, they receive
the bangiin. They are liable to any debts he may
contract after marriage ; those prior to it remaining
with his parents. He lives in the family, in a state
between that of a son and a debtor. He partakes as a
son of what the house affords, but has no property in
himself. His rice-plantation, the produce of his

54 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

pepper-garden, with everything that he can gain or
earn, belong to the family. He is liable to be divorced
at their pleasure, and though he has children must
leave all and return naked as he came. The family
sometimes indulge him with leave to remove to a
house of his own and take his wife with him ; but he
his children and effects are still their property. If he
has not daughters by the marriage he may redeem
himself and his wife by paying her y?/;V/r; but if there
are daughters before they become emancipated the
difficulty is enhanced, because the family are likewise
entitled to their value. It is common, however, when
they are upon good terms, to release him on the pay-
ment of one jiijur^ or at most with the addition of an
adat of fifty dollars. With this addition, he may
insist upon a release whilst his daughters are not
marriageable. If the family have paid any debts for
him he must also make them good." ^

It is obvious that these forms of marriao-e are
the adaptation to a comparatively advanced civilisation
of much more primitive arrangements. The jujur
marriage by its elaborate qualifications and conditions
betrays its highly artificial character. The ambel-anak
is simpler. But the husband's subordination among
his wife's relatives has been emphasised by the
growth of a patriarchal form of society. The result
has been that the more archaic form of marriage has
become degraded and been left, as among the Tho of
Tonkin, to youths of a lower class of society or too

1 Marsden, 225, 235, 257, 262. Cf. Bastian, Indonesien, iii. 6,
21, 22, 87. As in Japan, ambel-anak seems to be still used in some
places to continue a family when for want of sons the heirship has
fallen to a daughter (Marsden, 264).

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 55

poor to pay a bride-price. A bride-price is indeed
actually paid, but it is of a nominal amount. It avails
only for the right of cohabitation, and does not transfer
the custody of the bride's person, or the potestas ; still
less does it change the descent from the maternal to
the paternal line as does the jitjiir. The personal
position of the husband, however, is, while the
marriage lasts, better than that of one who, married by
jujur, is unable to pay the whole and who therefore
becomes an enslaved debtor in his father-in-law's
house. Moreover, by custom he can insist on release
if he can pay up xh^jujur and adat ; and in Passummah
if the father-in-law dismissed him he could turn the
tables upon him by paying a hundred dollars, thus
redeeming his wife and family, converting the ambel-
anak into a kulo marriasfe and return! no^ to his former
tungguan (settlement or family), a man of more conse-
quence in society.

The Achehnese at the north-western end of the
island have accepted Islam ; but many of the earlier
customs persist and maintain a by no means unequal
conflict with Mohammedan polity. Among these
are their marriage customs. After the negotiations
are completed, the consent of the head-man of the
kampong alike of the bride and of the bridegroom
must be obtained. A formal betrothal follows as a
preliminary to the long and tedious ceremonies of
marriage. When these are at an end the bridegroom
commences to visit the bride. He sleeps with her
for seven nights under the surveillance of an old
woman, and is not allowed to exercise his conjugal
rights. The following day he returns home, the
feast being now finished. On the ninth day he

>w.

56 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

returns to the bride and stays with her for two or
three nights, going back after the tenth or twelfth
night to his parents' home. An elder is sent to him
generally at the new moon to press him on behalf of his
wife's parents to return to her. He yields to the
invitation and goes to stay with her for about eight
days. His visit then comes to an end, and the next
visit is not made until after an interval of fourteen days.
Thus he continues s^oinsf backwards and forwards for
about six months. Not until then does he become an
habitual inm.ate of his wife's house if his own kampong
be close at hand. " Where the [parental] homes of
the young couple lie at a great distance from one
another it will depend entirely on circumstances
whether the man continues to be a mere occasional
visitor to his wife's house or entirely exchanges the
abode of his parents for that of his wife." An
Achehnese daughter never really quits her parents'
roof According to their means her parents either
vacate a portion of their house in favour of each
daughter who marries, or add to the building or put
up new houses in the same enclosure. In spite of this
a stringent taboo divides the husband from his wife's
family ; and this taboo is only removed to some
extent, and that gradually, after years of wedded life
in the same house. Nor does the wife become imme-
diately on the marriage dependent on the husband in
pecuniary matters. He is required to make her a
certain gift after the consummation of the marriage,
and a monthly present of money amounting on the
average to about four dollars. For every btingkay of
gold (twenty-five dollars) in the wedding gift the
bride is made dependent for a full year on the support

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 57

of her parents. It is only when that period expires
that the husband is bound to support her beyond the
monthly present just mentioned and a gift of meat at
the two great Mohammedan feasts. She is then
committed to the sole charge of her husband ; and if
her father and mother be livinof this is done with
much formality. All the expenses of the first child-
bed fall upon the wife's parents, any contribution
made by the husband being regarded as a voluntary
gift.^

Among the Alfurs of Buru it is forbidden to marry
in the same commune, as perhaps it was originally
among the Achehnese. The rule is that the husband
pays a bride-price and takes his wife away. But he is
called by the name of the commune into which he has
married — "dependent" of such and such a commune.
His wife's family too never addresses him by name,
but always by the title of *' dependent." After the
birth of a child he is called father of that child. The
bridegroom who cannot pay nevertheless marries ;
but he is compelled to reside with the woman and her
kin, to whom the children in such a case belong.^
On the island of Timor the Belunese constitute all
marriages by payment. The word for marriage is
haafoli, which means to buy something. The pur-
chase is made either on the part of the husband or on
the part of the wife. If the price be paid on the wife's
part, then the husband comes to live with her and the
children are hers, not his ; if on the husband's part the

1 Hurgronje, i. 295, sqq.

2 Wilken, op. cit. 707 ; Riedel, 22, 5. Compare the title
dependent with that in use among the Creeks of North America
(Kohler, 59 note).

58 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

converse is the case.^ Comparison of these two cases
is instructive. The Alfur practice obviously looks back
to a time when the husband always came to reside
with the wife's relations: the title of "dependent"
given to the husband is not easily explicable in any
other way. It would seem that the purchase-money
paid on behalf of the Belunese bride on the contrary
has arisen by analogy with the payment made by a
man to obtain the right to take away his wife and to
obtain full paternal authority over his children, in-
cluding the reckoning of patrilineal descent.

The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush, as has been noted
in the last chapter, are a patrilineal people. A bride-
price of from eight to twelve cows is exacted ; but it
seems not to be always paid before marriage.
" Although," says Sir George Robertson, "a man may
marry a woman with the full consent of all concerned,
and although she may bear him children, neither she
nor her children would be allowed to leave her father's
house until the last penny of her price had been paid.
It is not quite certain, however, if sons would not
belong to the father. Daughters certainly would not.
It is paying the full price which gives the man the
right to take his wife to his home for her to work in
the fields."^ Among the Sunuwar of Nepal, "by
Kir4nti custom, if a young man runs away with a girl
and is unable to pay the fine which is appointed for
such cases, his children by her are regarded and may
be claimed as slaves by her parents." The Kirantis,
it is noted by Mr. Risley, look upon a son-in-law
" rather in the light of a servant." There can be

1 Wilken, op. cit. 708. Compare other customs on the island of
Timor, supra, p. 34. 2 Robertson, 535.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 59

little doubt that but for the influence of Hinduism the
children would have been reckoned not as slaves but
as members of their mother's sept. It is at least
suggestive that the proper person to demand payment
of the fine is not the father of the abducted girl but
her maternal uncle/

Residence, temporary or permanent, on the part of
the husband at the bride's home is usual in various
African tribes. The custom of the Edeeyahs of
Fernando Po has already been mentioned. It applies
only to the first wife : the others are probably wooed in
a more summary fashion. The account we have of it
includes little detail ; but apparently the bridegroom
after the public celebration of his marriage continues
to dwell with the bride in the hut adjacent to her
mother's, where she has been confined throughout the
previous period of service and courtship.^ Among the
Baele of the eastern Sahara the bride remains with
her parents. A special hut is erected for the use
of the young couple until the birth of the first
child. If no child be born the father must repay
the bride-price he has received and the marriage
is at an end.^ In Dar-For the bride remains a year
or even two years in her parental home ; and there
her husband lives with her at the expense of her
father. If the husband choose to contribute it is
treated as a gift.* Among the Dinkas of the Bahr-el-
Ghazal the couple remain in the father-in-law's village
until a child has been born and has learned to walk.
They are then permitted to return to the husband's

^ Risley, ii. 282. 2 Supra, p. 23.

^ Ibid. 323, 395, citing Nachtigal.
^ Ibid. 395, citing El-Tounsy,

6o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

home.^ The northern Wanyamwezi are still in the
stage of motherright, but matrilineal customs are in
decay elsewhere. Whether in the north or the south,
however, the husband goes to dwell at his wife's
home.^ Among- the Banyai on the Zambesi "when
a young man takes a liking to a girl of another village
and the parents have no objection to the match he is
obliged to come and live at their village. He has to
perform certain services for the mother-in-law, such as
keeping her well supplied with firewood ; and when he
comes into her presence he is obliged to sit with his
knees in a bent position, as putting out his feet
towards the old lady would give her great offence.
If he becomes tired of living in this state of vassalage
and wishes to return to his own family he is obliged
to leave all his children behind — they belong to
his wife." But it seems that on payment of a bride-
price the right to the wife and children would be
transferred to the husband.^ Among the Bambala as
we have seen fatherright is beginning to supersede the
older organisation. Still a man very often takes up
his abode in his father-in-law's village. The father-
in-law in fact assumes in his life importance para-
mount even over his own father, and he will fight for
him and his village against his own.^ Among the
Hottentots women were treated with high respect. The

1 J. A I. xxxiv. 151.

2 Burton, Lake Regions, ii. 24. Sir H. H. Johnston [Brit Cent.
Afr. 413, 415, 412) reports the custom of the husband's going to
Hve at the wife's village as characteristic of the Atonga and generally
of the tribes of Southern Nyassaland, except the Wankonde, though
marriage by capture is by no means unknown.

^ Livingstone, Miss. Trav. 622.
* /. A. I. XXXV. 410, 399.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 6i

most binding oath a man could take was by his eldest
sister ; his wife ruled supreme in his house ; and she
possessed her own separate property. The first years of
married life were spent by her husband in his father-in-
law's service ; he was the old man's companion in the
hunting-field and in war/ So a Bushman was com-
pelled to accompany his wife's parents everywhere
and to provide them with game ; nor in very many
cases did the marriage last longer than this obligation
was fulfilled.^

In South America, the Bakairi of Central Brazil are
in the stage of motherright, though the dignity of
chief tends to male descent. Ordinarily marriage is
negotiated by the parents of the young couple ; the
bride's father is presented with a stone axe and with
arrows ; the bridegroom works with him in his clear-
ing, and hangs his hammock in the hut above the
bride's. Without more ado the pair are regarded as
man and wife. As little ceremony is there in a
divorce, which takes place at the will of the wife even
though the husband be opposed to It ; probably he has
an equal privilege. Polygamy is not unknown, at all
events among the portion of the tribe living in
Kulisehu valley ; but it is not customary to have
more than one wife in the same villao-e. A recent
traveller was assured that a man could without inter-
ferinof with the g'ood understandino- between himself
and his first wife's relations take another wife in a
neighbouring place ; and if he visited her for a change
quite commonly his first wife, either with or without
her relations, would accompany him. On the death

1 Hahn, i8.

2 Merensky, 68; Post, Afr.Jur. i. 379 ; Fritsch, 445.

62 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

of the wife the widower is bound to marry her sister,
if one be eligible. A close bond unites the children
with their maternal uncle/ Amono;- the Indians of the
Paraguayan Chaco a youth desirous to wed sends a
friend to the young lady's hut. At midnight "he
enters noiselessly, seats himself beside the sleeping-
place, smokes for an hour or two, and then retires as
discreetly as he came, without having spoken one word.
After two or three of these nocturnal visits the father
demands in a brutal tone of voice what business he
has to be in his house at such a late hour. The
intruder explains the object of his visit, and the father
and mother, after having assured themselves that
their future son-in-law will be a good warrior, and
that he will not beat his wife too m^uch, &:c., give
their consent, and without further formality the mar-
riage is concluded. The husband almost invariably
attaches himself to his wife's family, but it is not an
unknown thing for his parents, especially his mother,
to bring such influence to bear upon him that he will
leave his newly wedded wife, and return to his own
home, eventually arranging with his wife to spend one
half of his time at her village and for her to join him
for the other half at his own. The custom of pretend-
ing to carry off the bride by force is sometimes
practised, and may at one time have been rrtore
oreneral." '

In British Guiana the Arawaks are exogamous
and trace descent exclusively through the mother.

^ Von den Steinen, 331 ; Schmidt, Indianersludien, 437. On the
Araguaya a river the Caraja youth builds a separate hut for his
bride ; but if he wed a lady from another village he leaves his own
and takes up his abode in her village. I gather that the Caraja are
matrilineal {Globus, xciv. 237). ^ Qrubb, 61.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 63

Children are often betrothed early. But when the boy-
comes to the age of marriage he may repudiate the
contract and choose for himself on underooino^ certain
tests of courage and endurance. A bride-price is
paid, or the bride is given in requital for some service
done to her parents. " The marriage once arranged,
the husband immediately transports his possessions to
the house of his father-in-law, and there he lives and
works. The head of his family, for whom he is bound
to work and whom he obeys, is not his own father but
his wife's. A complete and final separation between
husband and wife may be made at the will of the
former at any time before the birth of children ; after
that, if the husband goes away, as very rarely happens,
it is considered not lawful separation, but desertion.
When the family of the young couple become too
large to be conveniently housed underneath the roof
of the father-in-law, the young husband builds a house
for himself by the side of that of his wife's father ; and
to this habit is probably due the formation of settle-
ments. And when the head dies, it being uncanny to
live where a man has died, the various house-fathers
of the settlement separate and build houses for them-
selves, each of which in its turn forms the nucleus of
a new settlement." ^ This practice, it is obvious,
might easily develop into fatherright. The Macusis
and other Carib tribes of Guiana marry in the same
way ; and a married woman does not escape by mar-
riage from subjection to her own family, who continue
to claim authority over her." Arawak stories illustrate

1 im Thurn, 186, 221.

2 Ibid. 222 ; Brett, 353. A Macusi marriage is consummated in
the wife's village coram populo (im Thurn, loc. cit.).

64 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

this social condition. The Demar^na, one of the
Arawak clans, trace their descent from a girl, the
daughter of a mythical people who dwelt below the
earth. A young man fell in love with her, and was
only allowed to marry her on condition of going down
to share his bride's home and join her family. The
descendants of this pair have connubimn only with the
clan of the young man in question, namely the Koro-
bohana, whose totem seems to be a species of parrot,^
a custom pointing perhaps to an older rule of acquiring
brides by exchange. Another story does not relate
the origin of a clan ; but it is one of a " great chain of
legends " accounting for the peculiarities of the various
animals of the country, and is therefore part of the
ancient myth-store of the aborigines. It belongs to a
cycle of tales known all over the world. A beautiful
royal vulture, so it runs, was once captured by a bold
hunter. She was the daughter of Anuanima, sovereign
of a race whose country is above the sky, and who
cease there to be birds and assume human form and
habits. Smitten with love for the hunter his captive
laid aside her feathers and exhibited her true form —
that of a beautiful girl. " She becomes his wife, bears
him above the clouds, and after much trouble persuades
her father and family to receive him. All then goes
well until he expresses a wish to visit his aged mother,
when they discard him." After great difficulties he
reaches his home in safety. Then follow his efforts to
regain his wife whom he tenderly loves. With the
assistance of the birds, whose forces he commands, he
invades his wife's country above the sky, where " he is
at last slain by a valiant young warrior resembling

^ Brett, Legends, 178.

RISE OF FATHERklGHt 65

himself in person and features. It is his own son, born
after his expulsion from the upper regions, and brought
up there in ignorance of his father." ^ In this as in
the previous saga, we find the rule definitely insisted
on that the husband must reside with the wife's kin, or
the marriage will be brouo-ht to an end. Here too
father and son take different sides in a war between
their respective clans : an example of the Father-and-
son combat mentioned in the last chapter.

We have already seen that the Algonquian nations
were when Charlevoix wrote in the staple of mother-
right. From what he says we gather that the young
husband lived with his wife for some time in the cabin
of her parents, and that it was then his duty to supply
them with the produce of his hunting. Among the
Iroquois the wife never left the parental home, because
she was considered the mistress, or at least the heiress.
Among other nations, however, after a year or two
of marriage the husband took her to his parents' home.
If this were not done the husband built a house for
her and himself. In the house all the duties fell
on the young wife, who was moreover required in
case of need to look after her parents : this points
to residence with or near them. " Some nations,"
the Jesuit Father tells us, " have wives everywhere
where they sojourn for any period when hunting :
and I have been assured that this abuse has been
introduced for some time among the Huron-speaking
peoples, who had always been contented with on.e
wife. But a much greater disorder reio-ns in the
Iroquois canton of Tsononthouan, namely, the plurality
of husbands." Some of the Algonquian nations had a

^ Brett, Legends, 29.
II K

66 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

custom by which if there were more than one sister
in a family the husband of one took them all. This
does not appear to have been the case with the
Hurons and Iroquois ; but even among them if the
sister first married died the husband was obliged
to marry a surviving sister, or if there were none some
other wife provided by the family of the deceased,
unless he wished to expose himself to insults from the
rejected lady. On the other hand if a husband died
without children his brother had to supply his place.
Marriages were negotiated by the parents, and the
matrons took the lead. The parties most concerned
were indeed consulted, but their consent was a mere
formality. In some places the girls were by no means
in a hurry to marry, because they had full liberty
in their amours, and marriage only changed their
condition to render it harder. The marriage ceremony
was simple. The suitor was required to make presents
to the lady's family. He sought private interviews
at night with her. In some places it was enough
if he went and sat by her side in her cabin ; if she
permitted this and remained where she was it was
taken for consent, and the act sufficed for the marriage.
If husband and wife could not agree, they parted, or
two pairs would exchange husbands and wives. An
early French missionary who remonstrated with a
native on such a transaction was told : " My wife
and I could not agree. My neighbour was in the
same case. So we exchanged wives, and we are all
four content. What can be more reasonable than
to render one another mutually happy, when it costs
so little, and does no harm to any one." ^

^ Charlevoix, v. 418 sqq.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 67

The Senecas, an Iroquoian tribe, dwelt in long-
houses which accommodated sometimes as many as
twenty families, each in its own apartment. '* As
to their family system," writes a missionary, " when
occupying the old long-houses it is probable that some
one clan predominated, the women taking in husbands,
however, from the other clans : and sometimes for
a novelty some of the sons bringing in their young
wives until they felt brave enough to leave their
mothers. Usually the female portion ruled the house,
and were doubtless clannish enough about it. The
stores were in common ; but woe to the luckless
husband or lover who was too shiftless to do his
share of the providing. No matter how many chil-
dren, or whatever goods he might have in the house,
he might at any time be ordered to pick up his
blanket and budge ; and after such orders it would
not be healthful for him to attempt to disobey ; the
house would be too hot for him ; and unless saved by
the intercession of some aunt or grandmother, he
must retreat to his own clan, or as was often done, go
and start a new matrimonial alliance in some other." ^
The Wyandots, another Iroquoian tribe, camp in
the form of a horse-shoe, every clan together in a
regular order. Marriage between members of the
same clan is forbidden, and children belong to the
clan of the mother. ** Husbands," we are told, "re-
tain all their rights and privileges in their own gentes,
though they live with xh^gentes of their wives." On
betrothal the bridegroom makes presents to the bride's
mother. After marriage the pair live for a short
time at least with the bride's mother in her household,

^ Morgan, Contrib. N. Am. Ethn. iv. 65.

68 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

but after awhile they " set up housekeeping for them-
selves," always of course in that part of the encampment
occupied by the wife's clan/ The Musquakies, though
belonging to the Algonquian stock and organised
in clans, no longer reckon descent through the mother.
A Musquaki youth having chosen a lady generally
his senior by several years, negotiations for the
marriage are opened by his mother with the mother of
his beloved. If the preliminaries be satisfactory a
course of courtship follows involving the exhibition
of considerable endurance by both parties. At length
he is admitted to his future mother-in-law's presence.
She hands him a platter of food, and while he is eating
it she haggles with him over the presents she is to
receive. When the barcrain is made she and her
husband dress him in a new suit of clothes and take
him round to present him formally to all the friends
and relatives of both sides. The next day the wedding
ceremony takes place, commencing by the delivery
of his presents to his mother-in-law. He then enters
the wigwam on the invitation of his father-in-law,
where the bride prepares a little bowl of gruel for him.
After eating it he leads her with some little endearments
to a roll of blankets, where they sit the rest of the day
while friends visit the hut. The marriage is then
complete. The bridegroom " lives with his wife's
people, but this does not make him or his children of her
clan — of her people's clan, that is, for she henceforth
belongs to his till death or divorce separates her from
him. As for his children, his death or divorce gives
the minors to the maternal grandmother's clan ; but
those who have had the puberty feast still belong

^ Powell, Rep. Bur, Ethn. i. 63,

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 69

to his." ^ The last detail is noteworthy : children not
yet enfranchised from infancy remain to the maternal
clan.

The Cherokee bridegroom went to live with his
bride. The house belonged to her or her mother,
and if dissatisfied with him they could drive him away."
The Seminoles of Florida reckon descent throuoh the
mother. Marriage within the clan is prohibited. The
consent of the girl and her kindred is required. When
that is oriven the female relatives of the brideg^room
contribute the simple bedding required by the
young pair, and he receives in return a wedding
costume consisting of a newly made shirt. Clad in
this he goes at sunset of the appointed day to his
mother-in-law's home, where he is received by the
bride and henceforth is her husband. He dwells
there until he and his bride set up an independent home,
either at the wife's camp or elsewhere except (and this is
important) among the husband's relatives. Divorce
is easy. " The husband, no longer satisfied with his
wife, leaves her ; she returns to her family and the
matter is ended, ... In fact, marriage among these
Indians seems to be but the natural mating of the
sexes, to cease at the option of either of the interested
parties." The writer from whom I quote adds :
" Although I do not know that the wife may lawfully
desert her husband, as well as the husband his wife,

1 Owen, F. L. Musq. 72. The detailed account of the negotia-
tions and courtship is most entertaining, but too long to quote.

2 This is clear from the tales, i?f/>. Bur. Ethn. xix. 292, 338, 339,
345. As to the Natchez, see Charlevoix, vi. 182, 184. He does
not expressly say, but I think it is to be inferred, that the husbands
usually went to reside in their wives' dwellings. They were
matriUneal

70 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

from some facts I learned I think it probable that she
may." ^

Many of the Indians of the plains have passed into
the stage of fatherright. Traces however of the
older organisation are frequently to be found. Among
the various stocks of the Pawnee the husband goes to
reside in his father-in-law's hut. The morals of the
Wichita maiden were the subject of much concern by
her parents and relatives. In the choice of a husband
she was supposed to take no part. The parents of the
youthful pair arranged the matter, the first advance
coming sometimes from the one side, sometimes from
the other. The young man then went to the girl's
lodge in the evening. If her parents still favoured
him, he remained and was recognised as her husband.
In case of unfaithfulness on the wife's part she was
beaten with a stick by her father — not apparently by
her husband. If on the other hand her parents at any
time changed their mind with regard to their son-in-
law, he was simply sent home : this constituted divorce.
While he remained his duty was to watch over the
property of the family and to provide food. On his
fulfilment of these requirements rested his claim for
favour with his wife's parents — in other words, the
continuance of the marriage.^ To these customs the
mythological and other tales bear abundant witness.
Here too we find the marriage of one man to a band
of sisters.^ Such marriages are common with the
Kiowa of the Southern Plains. The husband generally

1 Maccauley, Rep. Bur. Ethn. v. 496, 508.

^ Dorsey, Myth. Wichita^ 9. Compare (among others) the
customs of the Senecas (p. 67) and the Bushmen (p. 61).

3 Dorsey, Skidi Pawnee, 141, 229, 325; Pawnee Myth. i. 166,
196, 254, 283, 287, 359, 371, 424 J Myth. Wichita, %i, 173, 268.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 71

goes on marriage to live among his wife's people in
their camp, and he who marries the eldest daughter has
the first claim upon her sisters. As the marriageable
age for girls was fourteen he presumably takes the
younger sisters, if he so please, as they grow up. It
would seem however that the girl is always consulted.
Her brother's voice is powerful in the family council
on the subject of her marriage, and even after that
event he continues to claim a sort of guardianship over
her. These customs are evidence of the former
existence of motherright, which is now unknown.^ At
the same time the reckoning of patrilineal kinship is
ensured by their obvious tendency to vest the ultimate
headship of the family in the husband. The Dakota
the Kansas and other Siouan tribes follow similar
customs.^

The Pueblo peoples of the south-west of the
United States are among the most interesting of the
aboriginal tribes of North America. They inhabit
clustered dwellings tier above tier along terraces ledges
and the brows of the bare flat-topped hills, called mesas,
characteristic of that arid region. Invariably they are
organised in exogamous totem-clans. Invariably they
reckon kinship through females, and the husband on
marriage goes to live with the wife's kin and becomes an
inmate of her family. I f the house be not large enough,
additional rooms are built adjoining and connected with
those already occupied. Hence a family with many
daughters increases, while one consisting of sons dies
out. The women are the builders, the men supplying

1 Mooney, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xvii. 232.

2 Riggs, Dakota Cram, 205 ; Dorsey, Rep. Bur. Ethn, xv.
232.

*]2 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

the material and doing the heavy work.^ When a Zuni
girl has come to an understanding with a young man,
and her parents are willing, she takes him home.
Bidden by her mother she offers him food. While he
eats it her parents sit on one side and talk to him about
the duties of a husband to his wife. When
he has finished the father calls him to them and
further admonishes him to work hard, watch the sheep,
help to cut the wood and to plant and cut the
grain for the household ; the mother adding a recom-
mendation to be kind and good to his wife. He
remains at the house for five nights, sleeping
alone outside the general living room where the
family sleep, and working for them during the day-
time. On the sixth morning he goes to his parents'
home and discloses to them where he has been and his
intended match. If they be pleased his mother gives
him a dress for the bride. The bride in return grinds
some flour and the following day accompanied by the
brideofroom takes it in a basket on her head as a
present to her mother-in-law. The latter offers food
to the girl, who eats ceremonially a few mouthfuls.
Her father-in-law gives her a deerskin for moccasins,
and her mother-in-law fills with wheat the basket she
has brought. The young pair then return to the girl's
house, which they make their permanent home ; but
they do not sleep inside the living room for a year, or
until the birth of the first child — a relic, we may
conjecture, of secret cohabitation. The Zufti are
monogamists; but divorce is quite common. ''They
would rather separate," says Mrs. Stevenson, " than

1 Mindeleff, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xiii. 197; Gushing, Ibid. 368 j
Uewett, Am. Anthr, N.S. yi. 634 ; Fewkes, Id. i. 260,

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 73

live together inharmoniously." She bears emphatic
testimony, however, to the happiness of a Zufii
household. "The domestic hfe of the Zunis, "she
says, " might well serve as an example for the civilised
world. . . . The Zuiiis do not have large families, and
the members are deeply attached to one another. The
writer has found great enjoyment in her visits to the
general living room in the early evening after the
day's labours were over and before the elders were
called away to their fraternities or elsewhere. The
young mothers would be seen caring for their infants,
or perhaps the fathers would be fondling them, for
the Zufii men are very devoted to their children,
especially the babies. The grandmother would have
one of the younger children in her lap, with perhaps
the head of another resting against her shoulder, while
the rest would be sitting near or busying themselves
about household matters. When a story was told by
the grandfather or some younger member of the group,
intense interest would be depicted on the faces of
all old enough to appreciate the recital. The Zuni
child is rarely disobedient, and the writer has known
but one parent strike a child or use harsh words with
it. The children play through the livelong day with-
out a quarrek" ^ The keynote of this harmony is the
supremacy of the wife in the home. The house, with
all that is in it, is hers, descending to her through her
mother from a long line of ancestresses ; and her
husband is merely her permanent guest. The
children — at least the female children — have their share
in the common home : the father has none. Like all
the Pueblo peoples the Zufii are above the stage of

1 Jiep, Bur, Ethn. xxiii. 304, 293.

;4 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

savagery. To them the cultivation of the soil is not
unknown ; and their religious rites attest the import-
ance of agriculture in their economy. Probably in
earlier times the husband had no possessory interest in
the fields, and the crops which he is exhorted in the
marriage ritual to tend and gather belonged to his wife
and her family. Even yet the little gardens imme-
diately about the village are owned and tended
exclusively by the women and descend from daughter
to daughter. But modern influences have reached
Zufii ; a man is now capable of owning something
more than his horses and donkeys and his weapons
and personal adornments. If he be at marriage
possessed of any land its produce is brought into the
common stock for the support of the home ; and on the
death of the owner his children, boys and girls, share
his property. Motherright has begun its inevitable
decay. ^

The Hopis are more conservative. With them the
women still own not only merely the houses but the
crops, the sheep and the peach-orchards, everything in
fact relating to the economy of the household but the
beasts of burden. This is an interesting testimony to
the antiquity of the custom. The horses and donkeys
were unknown before the coming of the white man.
They are a new acquisition, and their service lightens
the labour that falls upon the men. Peaches, wheat
and sheep were also the gifts of the Spanish mission-
aries. But the Pueblo peoples were already tillers of
the soil when the missionaries came amonof them.
To this day they plant and irrigate, they hoe and
gather their peach-trees and crops much as they
1 Gushing, 14, xiii. 365 ; Mrs. Stevenson, Id, xxiii. 290.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 75

anciently planted and watered their own maize. The
objects of cultivation — not the method — have changed.
Similarly they were already herdsmen when sheep and
goats were introduced. Flocks of turkeys were kept
for food and for clothino^ Mr. Gushing- tells us that
when he " first went to live with the Zunis their sheep
were plucked, not sheared, with flat strips of band
iron in place of the bone spatulcc originally used in
plucking turkeys ; and the herders always scrupulously
picked up stray pieces of wool — calling it 'down,' not
hair, nor fur — and spinning it, knitting too at their long
woollen leggings as they followed their sheep, all as
their forefathers used ever to pick up and twirl the
stray feathers and knit at their down kilts and tunics
as they followed and herded their turkeys."^

The Hopis, like the Zunis, are monogamists. The
lady exercises the right of choosing her husband. It
is she who must "pop the question ; " or if she be too
shy, her relatives (by preference her mother) open the
negotiations. Often these negotiations are preceded
by intercourse of so intimate a kind that the results
can no longer be concealed. Such conduct detracts in
no way from her good repute if it lead to marriage.
Even if it do not, and if she give birth to a child, she
will be sure to marry later on unless she happen to be
shockingly ugly. Nor does the child suffer, for among
these matrilineal peoples the bastard takes an equal
place with the child born in wedlock. When all
things are arranged the girl goes to the house of her
future husband and remains there some weeks. For
three days she works for the family. On the fourth
the wedding ceremony is performed by the bride-
^ Rep, Bur, Ethn. xiii. 340,

76 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

groom's mother. It consists in taking down the
bride's hair, worn until that moment in maiden-fashion,
washing it and then dressing it as worn by a married
woman. Other rites follow which need not detain us.
The subsequent weeks are occupied by the bridegroom's
family in the preparation of the bride's wedding out-
fit, which is a gift from them. Finally she returns,
arrayed in a part of the trousseau and laden with the
rest, ceremonially in procession accompanied by a
number of her friends to her mother's house. She
pays compensation to the bridegroom's family, consist-
ing usually of maize-flour in such quantity that the
labour of grinding it may occupy her for weeks after
her return. The bridegroom takes up his abode in
her home with her family, in any case to remain there
for the first few years of marriage, until he and his
bride can obtain a separate dwelling. Yet he is a
stranger there, and is often treated as a stranger by
his wife's kin. The dwelling of his own family
remains his proper home. In sickness he returns to
his mother, and stays with her until well again.
Often his position is so unpleasant that he breaks off
all his relations with his wife and family, and goes
back to his own home. On the other hand, the wife
sometimes, when her husband is away from the house,
lays all his goods outside the door : an intimation,
which he well understands, not to intrude himself upon
her again. -^

Lastly among Pueblo peoples let us consider the
matrimonial institutions of the Sia. Like all the others
they are divided into exogamous totem-clans descend-

^ O. Solberg, Zcits. f. Ethnol. xxxvii. 629. Cf. Bourke, Snake-,
dance ^ i35 ^ Voth, Traditions of the Hopi, 67, 96, 133.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT ^^

ible through women only. But from various causes the
once populous pueblo of Sia has lost the greater part
of its inhabitants, whole clans have become extinct,
and the tribe is in imminent danger of dying out. In
these circumstances the rule of exogamy has ceased
to be strictly enforced. It is suggested indeed that the
desire for increase of numbers has caused a general
dissolution of manners. This is a question which does
not concern us in this place. The Sia are at least
nominally monogamous. When a young man desires
to marry a girl he speaks first to her parents. If they
are willing he addresses himself to her. The day of
marriage having arrived he goes alone to her home
carrying his gifts for her wrapped up in a blanket,
his father and mother having preceded him thither.
When the young couple are seated together the
parents address them in turn enjoining unity and
forbearance. This constitutes the ceremony. A feast
is then given to the friends. Tribal custom requires
the bridegroom to reside with his wife's family, the
couple sleeping in the general living room with the
remainder of the family.^

The Eskimo of Cumberland Sound and Davis
Strait are generally betrothed when very young ;
but in any case when the time for marriage comes
the bride must be bought from her parents by some
present. The bridegroom goes to reside with his
wife's parents and must help to maintain them. If
belongrino- to a strang-e tribe he must join that of his
wife. Not until after both his parents-in-law are dead
is he entirely master of his own actions. The consent

1 Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. ig. There are some cases it would seem
in which the husband has after a time provided a separate house.

78 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

of the bride's parents, or if they are dead that of her
brothers, is always necessary to the marriage. Divorce
is easy : the sHghtest pretext is sufficient for a sepa-
ration, and the wife's mother can always command a
divorce. Either party can then re-marry.^ A similar
account is given of the connubial customs of the
Eskimo of Northern Alaska.^

Turning to the Pacific slope of North America let
us first examine the relative positions of man and
woman and the marital relations among the Seri of the
Californian Gulf. They are the wildest and fiercest of
all the aboriginal inhabitants of the continent, and
among the lowest of known peoples in the entire world.
The island of Tiburon, the centre and citadel of the
tribe, has never been visited by any competent ex-
plorer who has succeeded in coming in contact with
the people. It was visited in December 1896 by a
scientific party under the leadership of Dr. W. J. McGee,
but the natives had fled to their fastnesses and could
not be drawn forth. Our information about them is
derived from Dr. McGee's report, based on observation
of members of the tribe on the mainland, which is
Mexican territory, and the statements of interpreters
and officials of that rugged and forbidding tract of
country. The indigenous name of the tribe is Kunkdak
apparently meaning womanhood, or more probably
motherhood. Men count for comparatively little among
this strange people. Their organisation is strictly
maternal. " The tribe is made up of clans defined by
consanguinity reckoned only in the female line. Each

1 Boas, Rep. Bur. Ethn. vi. 578.

2 Murdoch, Id. ix. 410. A slightly different account is given of
the more southerly Eskimo, Nelson, Id, xviii. 291,

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 79

clan is headed by an elder-woman, and comprises a
hierarchy of daughters granddaughters and (some-
times) great-granddaughters, collectively incarnating
that purity of uncontaminated blood which is the pride of
the tribe. And this female element is supplemented
by a masculine element in the persons of brothers,
who may be war-chiefs or shamans, and may hence
dominate the movements of groups, but whose blood
counts as nothing in the establishment and maintenance
of the clan organisation."^ Their dwellings are the
rudest shelters that can be called huts. Such as they
are they are erected by the matrons without help from
the men or boys. '* The house and its contents belong
exclusively to the matron, though her brothers are
entitled to places within it whenever they wish ; while
the husband has neither title nor fixed place, * because
he belonofs to another house ' — though as a matter of
fact he is frequently at or in the hut of his spouse,
where he normally occupies the outermost place in the
group and acts as a sort of outer guard or sentinel."
*' Moreover, his connection with the house is veiled
by the absence of authority over both children and
domestic affairs, though he exercises such authority
freely (within the customary limits) in \ki^jacales (huts)
of his female relatives." ^ The matrons participate in
what may be called legislative and judicial functions ;
many of them are shamans of repute ; and they are
more reverenced than any men. At the same time the
executive power of the family resides in the mother's
brothers in order of seniority, though it seems to be
exercisable only through or in conjunction with her.

^ McGee, Rep. Bur, Ethn. xvii. i68*.
2 Ibid. 269*, 272*.

§0 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

There are no old men. Their absence is said to be
due to the militant habits of the tribe : the hardships
of the chase may help to kill them off. Whatever the
cause of the absence, its result is that even the begin-
nings of patriarchal rule are impossible. The chief-
tainship of a band is determined by the consideration
of three factors : the seniority of the candidate's clan
in the tribal mythology, its numerical strength, and his
personal prowess, which is " always weighed in con-
junction with the shamanistic potency " of his consort
or consorts. " Yet he is a throneless and even
homeless potentate, sojourning like the rest of his
fellows in such jacales as his two or three or four
wives may erect, wandering with season and sisterly
whim, chased often by rumours of invasion or by
fearsome dreams, and restrained by convention
even from chiding his own children in his wives'
jacales save through the intervention of female
relatives."^

The Seri are divided into exogamous totem-clans.
The proposal for marriage is formally conveyed by the
elderwoman of the suitor's family to the girl's clan-
mother. If entertained by her and her daughter-
matrons it is discussed at length by the matrons of the
two clans involved. The girl herself is consulted ; a
jacal'is erected for her; and after many deliberations
a year's probation of the most exacting character is
arranged for the favoured gallant. He leaves his clan
and attaches himself to that of his bride. He is ad-
mitted to her hut. He "shares the/^^^/and sleeping-
robe provided for the prospective matron by her
kinswomen, not as privileged spouse, but merely as a
^ McGee, Rep. Bur. Ethn xvii. 275*.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 8i

protecting companion ; and throughout this'probationary
term he is compelled to maintain continence — i.e., he
must display the most indubitable proof of moral force.
During this period the always dignified position
occupied by the daughter of the family culminates ;
she is the observed of all observers, the subject of
gossip among matrons and warriors alike, the recipient
of frequent tokens from designing sisters with an eye
to shares of her spouse's spoils, and the receiver of
material supplies measuring the competence of the
would-be husband. Through his energy she is enabled
to dispense largess with lavish hand, and thus to
dignify her clan and honour her spouse in the most
effective way known to primitive life ; and at the same
time she enjoys the immeasurable moral stimulus of
realising that she is the arbiter of the fate of a man
who becomes warrior or outcast at her bidding, and
through him of the future of two clans — i.e., she is
raised to a responsibility in both personal and tribal
affairs which, albeit temporary, is hardly lower than
that of the warrior-chief. In tribal theory the moral
test measures the character of the man ; in very fact
it at the same time both measures and makes the
character of the woman. Among other privileges
bestowed on the bride during the probationary period
are those of receiving the most intimate attentions
from the clan-fellows of the groom ; and these are
noteworthy as suggestions of a vestigial polyandry or
adelphogamy P]. At the close of the year the probation
ends in a feast provided by the probationer, who
thereupon enters the bride's /la;^^/ as a perpetual guest
of unlimited personal privileges (subject to tribal
custom) ; while the bride passes from a half-wanton

82 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

heyday into the duller routine of matronly existence." ^
Thus among the Seri the husband takes a permanent
place in the wife's hut with her family, but as a wholly
subordinate personage, without any authority whatever.
In his mother's hut he has rights ; and if I understand
Dr. McGee correctly he may continue to have and
exercise them, notwithstanding his marriage. But in
his wife's hut he has none. Perhaps it is well that
sometimes he is not without a place of refuge. Com-
parison with the institutions of the Hopi and other
Pueblo tribes is obvious.

The Maidu of California lived in village com-
munities ; the clan-organisation and motherright were
unknown. The former existence of motherright may
however be inferred from their customs. In the
Sacramento Valley, among the Northern Maidu the
girl's consent was always necessary to marriage and
was generally secured by the suitor before he addressed
himself to her family. When the marriage was
arranged, if she belonged to his own village the
husband usually went to live with his wife's family.
If she belonged to another village she came to live with
him. But in the latter case the pair would often pay a
long visit to her family about six months afterwards,
and for a period of some months at least the husband
hunted and fished for his wife's family. The mutual
avoidance of mother-in-lawand son-in-law was enforced.
In the foot-hills on the other hand the girl had little
or no choice : the suitor settled the matter with her
parents. When he had paid the price agreed on he
came to the house and lived there with her until she
was old enough to manage a house herself, if she had
^ McGee, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xvii. 279*.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 83

been married very young, or until he could provide a
house for her. Among the North-Eastern Maidu the
suitor pays no bride-price. He comes to the house,
and if the girl permit him to sleep with her the
marriage takes effect at once. He thereupon begins
hunting for the parents, and remains living with
them for some months. Then he takes her to his
father's house, where they live thenceforth unless the
husband be able to build a new house for himself.
For two or three years however he and his wife make
visits of a week or two in length to her parents, and
while there the husband hunts for them. A simple
agreement to separate constitutes a divorce. The
husband of one sister has the first right to the others ;
if he does not avail himself of it it passes to any brother
he may have.^

The Takelma of South-western Oregon pay a bride-
price and take the bride to her husband's house. But
the payment of the bride-price does not exhaust the
husband's indebtedness to his father-in-law. From
time to time he will load his canoe with presents of
dried salmon or the like and go with his wife, though
it may be a considerable distance, for a visit to her
parents. And after the birth of the first child an
additional price, regarded as equivalent to buying
the child, is paid to the wife's father, in the shape of a
deerskin-sack filled with Indian money.^ The Hupa
also exacted a bride-price ; the bride went to live in
her husband's home, and the children belonged to him.
But if a man were unable to pay so large a sum as was
usual he might pay half and go to the bride's home.

1 Dixon, Bull. Am. Mus. ^f. H. xvii. 239,

2 E. Sapir, Am. Anthr. N. S. ix. 275.

84 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

In that case he would have to serve his father-in-law
and all offspring of the union would belong to the
wife's people.^ This custom was not unknown among
other Californian tribes, such as the Yurok and
Patawat, and was called half -marriage. Among the
Lolsel, a branch of the Pat win, " a bride often remains
in her father's house and her husband comes to live
with her, whereupon half the purchase-money is
returned to him." Mr. Powers, who reports these
cases, omits to tell us what is the effect of the
arrangement upon the reckoning of descent. Among
the Yokuts " a man marrying goes to live at his wife's
or father-in law's house, though he still has power of
life or death over her person."^ The Spokanes are
divided into a number of small bands. A girl is at
liberty to make an offer of marriage if she wish ; and
in any case her consent is required as well as that of
her parents and the chief. The husband joins the
band to which his wife belongs, because, it is said, she
can work better in a country to which she is accustomed.
Women are held in great respect ; all the household
goods are considered the wife's property. Either
party may dissolve the marriage at will, but the
children go with the mother. The man who marries
the eldest daughter of a family is entitled to all the
rest ; and parents make no objection to his turning off
one in another's favour.^

1 Goddard, Hupa, 55.

2 Powers, 56, 98, 221, 382. I infer with some doubt from the
husband's power, from the fact that the chieftainship descends from
father to son, and from the value placed on virginity, that the
Yokuts were patrilineal. If so, the husband's residence in the wife's
house was a relic of motherright.

^ Bancroft, i. 315, 277, 278 note. Bancroft uses the word tribe^

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 85

In the last chapter we considered some aspects of the
social organisation of the Haida of Queen Charlotte
Islands. They are still in the stage of motherright.
The wife is the head of the household. She transmits
her name and family crest to her children, though
fatherright has so far made inroad upon the older
organisation that the descent of property has become
paternal. There are two kinds of marriage. One is
an informal marriage, in which the lover simply goes
to the girl's house and spends the night with her.
They are found together in the morning and continue
to live together as man and wife. The other kind of
marriage is arranged when one or both of the parties
are quite young. The boy goes after puberty to live
at his mother-in-law's house until the time for actual
marriage arrives, and works for her family. A feast
and formal exchange of gifts then take place at the
bride's house, and she is brought by the bridegroom's
family to his maternal uncle's house, where his proper
home is.^ The former kind of marriage is often
practised where for any reason the latter is delayed,
as where the husband has been betrothed to a mere
child and has to wait for her until she has grown up.
In such a case he is expected to put an end to the
informal marriage on wedding his previously betrothed
bride ; and his mother-in-law looks sharply after the
morals of the man who is formally married to her
daughter and exacts a large amount of property from

but comparison of his statement and citations with his general
account of the Spokanes renders it clear that band is what is meant ;
I suspect the bands are exogamous.

^ Swanton, Jesup Exped. v. 50 ; Deans, Hidery, 20, 23. Cf,
ante, vol. i. p. 296.

86 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

him in case of infidelity to his wife. Her vigilance
implies residence after marriage with her or in her
neighbourhood. In the traditional stories, residence
with the wife's kin is very common, if not usual. ^ It
would seem therefore that it was the former practice.
Probably it still is, even in case of formal marriage.
The Haida are divided into two exogamous clans.
These clans are subdivided into families, settled in
towns, each town being inhabited by several families
generally belonging to both clans. Certain special
families and towns are in the habit of intermarrying.
The daughter of a man's maternal uncle therefore
might be the wife who would ordinarily be chosen for
him ; ^ and in many cases he might reside at his uncle's
house or town in the double capacity of nephew and
son-in-law. Thus, even though he had gone through
the ceremony of formal marriage there would be no
removal of the bride, at least from her father's town
and perhaps not from his house. On the whole,
however, an examination of the traditions and practice
of the Haida and of the neighbouring peoples of
British Columbia mentioned in the following pages
gives ground for the conclusion that the formal
marriage is a comparatively recent innovation on the
original custom, namely, that of the informal marriage,
and is part of the social evolution already in progress
before the white man came upon the scene.

The marriage customs of the StlatlumH of British

1 Swanton, op. cit. 223, 236, 249, &c.

2 This is borne out by traditional tales. Indeed, according to
a tradition of the Masset Haida a man had an indefeasible claim on
his uncle's daughter, and took care to exercise it (Swanton, x.
op. cit., 654. cf. 717, 719).

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 87

Columbia differ among the upper and lower classes.
A chief or a notable took his bride home or had her
brought to him. With the other classes the accepted
suitor made the formal offeringf of firewood to his
prospective father-in-law. This signified that he was
subject to the latter. It placed him in the position of
"younger" man whether he was actually so or not;
and among all the Salish tribes age, real or imputed,
confers authority. On entering the house "he is made
welcome and invited to sit down with the family along-
side of his bride. It is this formal inclusion in the
family circle of the bride that constitutes the marriage."
The bridegroom stays there at least four days, and
then is free to go or stay as he chooses. Sometimes
he continues to live in the family of his father-
in-law. Mr. Hill-Tout, whose report I am quoting,
adds: "This inclusion of the son-in-law within the
family circle gives him all the rights of son-
ship and his offspring are regarded as belonging to his
wife's family just as much as to his own. This and
other customs would seem to point to an earlier social
organisation, to a time when [motherright] prevailed,"
though now the kin is reckoned on both sides. The
eldest daughter was always the first to marry, and
her husband usually married all her sisters.^ The

^ Hill-Tout, J. A. I. XXXV. 131, Mr. Hill-Tout writes mainly
of the branch of the tribe occupying the upper reaches of the
Lillooet Valley. His opinion just quoted seems to be confirmed
by another investigator, who deals more particularly with a branch
of the tribe seated further down the Lillooet River. He says :
" Generally the wife followed the husband to his village, although
cases in which the husband lived with the wife's clan are very
common^ and may have been the rule, at least among the Lower
Lillooet" (Yt\\.,Jesup Exped. ii. 255).

88 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Kwakiutl, also a Salish tribe, likewise reckon the kin
on both sides. Prof. Boas describes their marriage
customs as " of peculiar interest on account of the
transition from maternal to paternal institutions that
maybe observed here." The suitor pays for his bride
in blankets by two instalments, namely, one half at once
and the remainder in three months. After payment of
the second instalment he is allowed to live with his
bride in her father's house. He gives a feast to the
whole tribe, during which his father-in-law returns him
a part of the bride-price and fixes a time when he will
return the rest. The Kwakiutl are among the tribes
of British Columbia famous for their lavish gifts.
The potlatch, a byword of extravagance, is " the
custom of paying debts and of acquiring distinction by
means of giving a great feast and making presents to
all the guests. . . The foundation of the custom is the
solidarity of the individual and the gens^ or even the
tribe, to which he belongs. If an individual gains
social distinction his ^^/^^ participates in it. If he loses
in respect the stain rests also on the gens. Therefore
the gens contributes to the payments to be made at
a festival. If the feast is given to foreign tribes the
whole tribe contributes to these payments." During
the wedding feast the young wife demands for her
husband her father's carvings and dances. These are
his crest and privileges. The father is obliged to
give them, though they are not actually given at the
time. In fact they are only descendible in this way,
and the bargain for a wife includes the privileges and
crest, which are thus acquired not for the son-in-law
himself but for his successor. Moreover the son-in-law
buys not merely the possession of the girl but the

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 89

right of membership in her clan for their future
children. He continues to live in his father-in-
law's family for three months, and then makes a
further payment of a hundred blankets for the right to
take his wife home. When the father-in-law has
repaid the whole of the bride-price with interest he
has redeemed his daughter, and the marriage is
annulled. She may afterwards, however, remain with
her husband of her own free will, or he may make a
new payment in order to continue his claim upon her.^
The Kwakiutl traditions are quite familiar with the
residence of the son-in-law in the house of his wife's
father, and reflect the customs of a period when the choice
of a husband rested largely with the bride, and when
marriages were made, as among the Haida and various
other American tribes, by sleeping together at night
followed by discovery on the part of the bride's family
in the morning and a formal ackowledgment of the
relationship.^ The elaborate ceremonial incident to a
present-day marriage, and the purchase and re-purchase
of the bride and her father's crest and privileges are
probably comparatively recent. They have not
succeeded in obliterating all trace of an older and
simpler practice, which is still perfectly well understood
as preserved in the tribal tales.

Like the two last-mentioned tribes the Ntlakdpamux,
whose habitat is on the Eraser River and its tribu-
tary the Thompson River (whence they are often
called the Thompson Indians) reckon kinship on both
sides. There are three modes of entering into married

1 B. A. Rep. 1889, 838, 834; Boas, Rep. Nat. Mus. .895, 358,
334. Cf. Dawson, Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, v.
^ Boas and Hunt, Jesup Exped. x. 12, 196, 239.

90 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

life. In one of them the man, in another the girl's
family, takes the initiative. In both cases presents
are exchanged between the relatives. In both cases
the bridegroom on going to claim his bride stays at her
parents' house for several days. Then he brings her
to his father's house. After a few days, or even
a month or more, the young couple are compelled by
custom to return ceremonially to the bride's home.
They stay there for a while and are then brought back
to the bridegroom's father's house ; after which they
are at liberty to live with or visit the parents of either
as they feel inclined. These proceedings are an
obvious compromise, and it will be observed that they
start from the residence of the husband with the wife's
folk, and not vice versa. The third mode of entering
into marriage is now obsolete. Formerly a man was
compelled to marry a girl whose person he had touched,
even if he had touched her accidentally. A man who
touched the naked breasts or heel of a maiden trans-
formed her by that act into his wife, and they lived
together thenceforth as man and wife.^ If a young
man intentionally touched a girl with an arrow, it was
an offer of marriage. Two days afterwards he repaired
to her house, and if her relatives called him " son-in-
law" and treated him well, he knew that he was
accepted. " The man who cut or loosed one string of
the lacing which covered a maiden's breast, cut her
breech-cloth, or lay down beside her had to marry her ;
and she at once became his recognised wife without
further ceremony. Sometimes a young man would
repair to the house of his sweetheart after every one
had gone to bed. He knew where she slept. He
^ Compare the Indian cases cited abore p. 40.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 91

would quietly lie down beside her on the edge of her
blanket. Sometimes she would give an alarm, and he
would have to run out, but often she would ask who he
was. If she did not care for him she told him to leave
or struck him ; but if she liked him she said no more.
He lay this way on top of her blanket, she underneath,
neither of them talking, till near daybreak ; then he
crept noiselessly away, just whispering to her ' Good-
by.' He would come and do likewise for three nights
more. On the fourth and last night she would put
her arm and hand outside the blanket. This was a
sure sign that he was accepted, therefore he took her
hand in his. From that moment they were man and
wife. On the next morning the girl would say to her
parents : ' So-and-so comes to me. He touched my
hand last night.' Then her father would tell the
young man's people, while her mother would prepare
a small feast. The young man and his parents would
repair to the house of the girl's parents, and the young
man would henceforth live with his wife. Sometimes,
if the girl's parents gave no feast, the lad's parents did ;
then the girl's father took her to [the lad's] house, and
she lived with her husband and his people. In this
as in all forms of marriage by touching, as a rule no
presents were given, nor were ceremonial visits
made. . . . The young women also had the privilege of
touching the young men, which they generally did on
either the head or the arm. A man, however, was
not compelled to take to wife the girl who had touched
him, although he usually did so. Some girls who
touched a man and were not accepted felt greatly
ashamed, and committed suicide." ^ From this
^ T eit, Jesup Exped. \. 321, 292.

92 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

account we may infer that the original form of
marriage ceremony among the Thompson Indians was
by " touching," that " touching " involved the residence
or visits first secret and afterwards open of the bride-
groom at the bride's place of abode, and that no further
ceremony was required than the recognition by the
bride's family of the relations between her and the
bridegroom. These are institutions proper to the
stage of motherright. The more formal bespeaking,
either for oneself or for a child whether girl or boy, of
a spouse and the securing of the contract by gifts are
intended to forestall any marriage in the ancient way
which would leave it to chance, to the wayward in-
clination of the parties, or to the dash and cunning of
a rival.

In the foregoing pages no attempt has been made
at an exhaustive enumeration of peoples practising
the different forms of connubial relation under review.
The object has been to illustrate only some of the
stages through which society has passed from matri-
lineal to patrilineal reckoning, or to the reckoning of
parentage on both sides. The illustrations have been
chosen from all parts of the world, so as to bring home
to the reader's mind the fact that the process has not
been confined to any one race, that it is not a local
aberration, but that it belongs to the progressive
organisation of human society and is due to causes
universally operative, though not everywhere fully
wrought out.

While it has not been possible to arrange the illus-
trations in exact progressive sequence, it is hoped that
this has been done sufficiently to enable the general
trend of social organisation to be apprehended, bear-

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 93

ing in mind that we cannot postulate any invariable
series of stages through which it must have passed.
We began with the reception of temporary lovers by
women in their own homes. A connection thus
formed tends v»^ith favouring circumstances to perpe-
tuation ; and the lover (or husband, as he may then be
called) is installed as a permanent guest in his wife's
tent or hut. Often the connection is at first secret. Of
this stage the well-known taboo by the wife's relations
of her husband is beyond reasonable doubt a conse-
quence. It is not merely the result, as Professor
Tylor long ago proved, of the residence of the husband
with the wife's kin : it specifically follows from the
secrecy of the connection between husband and wife.
It is the ceremonial expression of an open secret, and
as such endures long after all pretence at secrecy has
disappeared, and even after residence at the wife's
home has ceased to be practised.

Cohabitation, however, can continue to be ignored
by the woman's kindred so long only as they remain
indifferent by whose assistance their number is in-
creased. The moment they find in their women a
means of purchasing for themselves wives, worldly
goods or the goodwill of surrounding clans, they will
exercise more or less supervision over the permanent
alliances which these women contract. At first, and
for a long time, mere passing amours are not regarded,
or at least they are not interfered with. But by-and-
by virginity comes to have a special market-value, the
stringency of the sexual code is increased, and a
jealous watch is thenceforth kept upon maidenhood.
Long before this stage is reached the woman's con-
nubial arrangements become subject to the recognition

94 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

and consent of her kin. Cohabitation must then of
necessity be disclosed at or before pregnancy. Though
it may ceremonially be still considered secret it is as
a fact known in the wife's family and accepted by
them ; and in the earlier stages its acceptance is often
followed by the husband's prolonged residence with
them. Where the matrilineal clan is in full force, or
where the family has been formed within the larger
organisation of the clan but has not yet succeeded in
supplanting it for effective social government, the
husband remains subordinate to the wife's male kins-
men, her uncles or her brothers. But in the process
of development the clan has in many places been
broken up into families the male members of which
reside permanently in their wives' homes. This process
is often accelerated by circumstances, as in the forests
of Central Brazil. It may result, as it does there, in
the husband's ultimately becoming the head of the
household. In such cases the sons, unless they dwell
in a bachelors' house in the village, sometimes pass to
their uncle's care at an early age, thus quitting the
parental roof even before the occasion arises for seek-
ing mates for themselves.

In desert countries, however, where food is scarce
population cannot cluster together in villages, nor can
children easily pass to another household. Small
groups are dispersed hither and thither in the search
for subsistence. In some instances the inhabitants of
these waste places are degraded peoples driven by
invaders from kindlier soil and climate. But whatever
may be the cause of dispersal its tendency would be to
break down the earlier social organisation. A man
would be unwilling to wander permanently without

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 95

a mate. The weaker members of his tiny horde would
cling about him as their defence and mainstay. Their
relation to him would entail discipline and subordina-
tion ; and his authority would necessarily become
unquestioned and supreme. The effect of this
constant association would be that a far stronger bond
would be felt between father and child than between
the child and his mother's kin, with whom perhaps he
only at rare and irregular intervals came into contact.
The development of fatherright in this way would
be unchecked, unless the wandering for subsist-
ence ceased at regular intervals by the reunion of the
larger community. In the event of such reunion
motherright might long retain its legal force, or as
among the Eskimo kinship might come to be re-
cognised through both parents.

The evolution of human society more commonly
takes a different direction. It is dependent not on
weakness but on strength and prowess. The impulse
to domineer by virtue of physical superiority has
asserted itself in all ages. The capture of women
has doubtless been always going on. Thus side by
side with marriages in which the husband resided with
or visited the wife, arose the practice of keeping one
or more captive women at a man's own home for his
use and benefit. The power in the household given
to him by such an arrangement would be desired by
others who had not the opportunity of making hostile
raids for the purpose of capture. It was obtained by
elopement, by simulated capture, by exchange, by
the payment of what we call a bride-price. In any
one of these ways or by a combination of two of them
marriage is entered into in various parts of the world.

96 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

A bride-price is perhaps the most usual incident of
a marriage, and is found even among peoples where
the husband goes to reside with the bride and her kin.
But as we have seen it is very often the condition
not of marriage itself, but of the transfer of the
bride to the household of her husband and of her
children to his kin. Speaking broadly and subject
to exceptions, the children of a marriage where the
wife continues to reside with her own kin belong to
that kin and not to their father's. The converse is not
so general. Among some nations the wife, though
residing in her husbands dwelling and under his
protection and authority, retains and transmits to her
children her kinship. Even the payment of a bride-
price does not invariably transfer them. The tie of
blood with the mother is recognised, with the father
is ignored, however notorious the paternity may be.
But a local tribe in such a case would, as already
pointed out, be composed of men and their children
who, if kindred were counted through males instead
of through females, would constitute a patrilineal kin :
that is, they would be descended in fact on the male
side from a larger or smaller number of common
ancestors. The affection of a father for his children
is by no means dependent on the reckoning of kinship.
On the contrary it quite commonly precedes it.
Where the father is the head of the household a large
measure of power over the children is in his hands,
even before his kinship with them is legally recog-
nised ; but it is liable to be largely qualified by the
rights of the mother's kin. Paternal affection, the
impulse to domineer and the greed of undivided power
over the children would all alike lead to the desire of

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 97

more complete ownership, such as would be involved
in counting them to the father's stock instead of the
mother's. Self-interest of a more material kind would
concur. The self-interest of the individual father
would seek a means of increasing his wealth and con-
solidating his influence. The common self-interest of
the local tribe would seek to strengthen itself against
competitors and foes. The same reasons indeed would
operate where, as in ancient Arabia, the matrilineal
clan dwelt together. A band of brethren forming a
local matrilineal clan would soon feel their strength.
If faced by formidable foes they would become more
and more conscious of the power of union. They
would be reluctant to separate even for a limited period
to mate with women outside their own home. The
bringing in of strange women might then have led
either to the mixture of clans by the retention of
female kinship, or directly to the reckoning of the
children to the paternal stock. The point that needs
to be insisted on is that the bond of continual associa-
tion founded on daily contact and the authority of the
head of the family and of the local elders and chiefs is
insufficient of itself to gfive that sense of union and
security which the legal tie of kinship carries. We
have had illustrations of this in the preceding chapter.
Where kinship is reckoned through the mother, father
and child are found on opposite sides in quarrels
between clans ; they meet in conflict ; and the duty of
blood-revenge lays upon them the necessity of exact-
ing compensation from one another, and even life for
life. The powerful impression made by such collisions
upon the mind at a certain stage of civilisation is
shown by the wide diffusion of stories founded on the

II G

^B fklMltlVE PATERNITY

theme of the Father-and-Son Combat. The ultimate
tendency therefore of residence by the wife at the
husband's home would be in the direction of patrilineal
reckoning. Moreover, in the progress of culture
property of one kind or another began to be accumu-
lated. It was poor at the best according to our
standard ; but such as it was it was invaluable in the
struggle for subsistence, for maintenance against the
forces of surrounding nature or men, and for advance
in material civilisation. The children of a man who
owned property would during his lifetime share in
its advantages. On the occasion of his death religion
required much of it to be destroyed or abandoned to
the deceased. Under motherright the children had
the mortification to see what remained pass away from
them to their father's relations. Though on the other
hand they were entitled to share in what was left by
their mother's male kin, that perhaps hardly made up
to them the loss of the hunting-grounds, the woods,
the fields, the house, the cattle, the beasts of burden,
the arms and other objects hitherto associated with
their life and of which they had shared in the usufruct.
This motive, partly economical partly sentimental,
for a change of kinship-reckoning was not, it may
be conceded, everywhere potent. That it had its
influence however in bringing about the result is clear
from the fact that even under motherright the father
begins to take care of his children in this respect by
bestowing on them substantial gifts in his lifetime,
and from their claim, as among the Malay population
of Tiga Loeroeng, to a share of his property after his
death : a claim logically inconsistent with mother-

right.

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 99

It is submitted then that while motherright is
founded on blood, fatherright on the other hand had
its origin in quite different considerations. Kindred
with the father is first and foremost juridical— a social
convention. This is rendered clear by the customs of
numerous peoples in transition between motherright
and fatherright. Such are those of the Malays of the
Padang Highlands where the residence of the mother,
whether with her own or her husband's suku, decides the
question ; of the Murray Islanders where the children
have their choice between their father's or mother's clan ;
of many of the Dravidian tribes of India where the
reckoning has been changed by contact with Brah-
manism ; of the Chukchi where the future kin of the
pair and consequently of their children is now a
matter of arrangement at the time of marriage. Still
more evident is it in the effect that so commonly
follows the payment of the bride-price. It would be
easy to multiply the number of instances I have cited,
in which the payment of the bride-price not merely
ensures to the bridegroom the custody of his wife
and children, but transfers the children to his stock.
The artificial character of the kinship thus created is
thrown into strong relief where two kinds of marriage
like those hy jujur and ambelanak coexist, or where the
rights of the wife's kin are compromised for one or
more children of the marriage/ On the other hand,

^ Among the Negro tribes of West Africa even the wife herself
sometimes sells her rights in the children to her husband for money.
We have learned in the last chapter that so absolute is the power
of the head of the family that he can pawn or even sell the children.
Among matrilineal peoples this power is generally vested in the
maternal uncle, but occasionally at least in the wife herself. The
Ewhe are a matrilineal people. The father's power over his children

roo PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

the examples adduced in the preceding chapter show
that to reckon a child to the stock of its mother's
husband it is by no means necessary that the actual
paternity be traceable to him ; nor is it even fatal that
he is known not to be physically the father. The
conclusion seems irresistible that fatherright is trace-
able not to any change in savage or barbarous theories
of blood-relationship, but to social and economical
causes of the kind suggested in the last few pages.

by a free woman is of the most limited description. The Ewhe wife
can sell or pawn her children without her husband's consent, but
only if he refuse to give her what she requires. " If for instance a
woman were condemned to pay a fine, and her husband refused to
give her the amount required, she would have a right to sell or pawn
her children in order to raise the money. In such cases it is not
unusual for a mother to sell or pawn the children to their father ;
and men often refuse to assist their wives in such cases, in order
that they may thus acquire entire control of their children " (Ellis,
Ewe, 22 1. Cf. Cruickshank, i. 321 sqq. as to the Gold Coast). We
are not, indeed, told that this transaction transfers the kinship to
the father^ but the ownership by the father of the children is almost
indistinguishable from kinship. Paternal descent is in fact usually
described as paternal ownership, and that not merely by European
observers but by the people concerned themselves. There is no
more reason why a mercantile transaction of this kind should not
as easily transfer the kinship of the children as payment of the
bride-price. In this connection it will not be forgotten that the
payment of the bride-price is often supplemented by a specific
payment in respect of each of the children. We may fairly regard
this purchase therefore by the father of his children as a step in the
transfer of kinship, if not a transfer complete in itself.

CHAPTER VI

MARITAL JEALOUSY

Continence not a savage virtue. Female chastity a slow
growth from the limitations imposed by the masculine
sense of ownership upon the gratification of the sexual
instincts. In the lower culture jealousy operates only
feebly or within limits. Examination of cases among
matrilineal peoples. Survival of matrilineal freedom into
fatherright. Peoples in a state of transition or where
kinship is reckoned through parents : Eskimo. Patri-
lineal peoples. Polyandry : the Todas and other peoples
of India and the neighbouring countries. Sexual morality.
Religious and other ritual observances. Wide distribu-
tion of practices implying defective jealousy. General
indifference to the actual paternity of a child. Value of
children. Fatherright fosters indifference to paternity.

The position we have now reached is this : While
motherright originates in the consciousness of blood-
relationship, fatherright on the contrary is due to
social and economic causes. It is an artificial system
of the reckoning of kinship ; it is formed by analogy
with the earlier system of motherright, and has in its
origin at all events nothing whatever do with the
consciousness of blood-relationship. This conclusion
will be strengthened by a further consideration of the
sexual relations of peoples in the lower culture.

Savage and barbarous peoples are possessed of
many virtues, in some of which they are often justly
cited as examples to persons in a higher civilisation,

lOI

I02 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Among such virtues sexual continence does not rank
highly unless in cases where marriage brings a sense of
ownership, especially to the husband, which is liable to
be wounded by infidelity on the part of the other
spouse. Even then, however, so little importance is
attached to the wife's purity that, by way of hospitality
and for other causes, relations with other men are
often permitted to her, and the definition of adultery is
limitedfto unlicensed acts. On the highest planes of
culture this sense of ownership has been refined into
the conception of the virtue of chastity ; and both
there and among not a few nations still in barbarism
it has been extended backward so as to forbid to
women sexual intercourse outside the more or less
permanent unions which may legitimately be called
marriage. Hence the value attached to virginity in a
bride married for the first time, a value that in spite of
its generally elevating tendency has undoubtedly
resulted in the infliction of bodily suffering on women
and has probably been one of the factors in producing
the ail-too early marriages usual in many parts of the
world.

The wide prevalence of the opposite practice,
namely, the sexual liberty recognised as the right of
the unmarried both male and female, may be regarded
as evidence of the small social importance attached to
the gratification of the sexual instincts apart from the
limitations imposed by the sense of ownership and the
consequent growth of the ideal of chastity. The sense
of ownership has been the seed-plot of jealousy. To
it we are indebted for the first germ of sexual regula-
tions. To it in the last resort, reinforced by growing
physiological knowledge and sanctioned by religion, is

MARITAL JEALOUSY 103

due the social order enjoyed by the foremost nations
of Europe and America. We have now to consider
conditions in which the sense of ownership if not
absent is imperfect or developed in a manner diver-
gent from ours, jealousy operates feebly or within
limits, and chastity is not yet a virtue. Cases of sexual
liberty before marriage or during widowhood will not
as a rule detain us.

One of the most striking examples is that of the
Sia. So little do they exhibit what we are accustomed
to regard as the ordinary feelings on sexual relations
that, as noted in the previous chapter, it is suggested
that the danger of extinction has caused a general
dissolution of manners. The disappearance of fifteen
clans out of twenty-one which formerly constituted the
tribe, and the reduction of three of the remaining six
each to a single member, a man advanced in years,
while one of the other clans is limited to a single
family, has undoubtedly broken down the rule of
exogamy. Whether the same cause has operated to
produce the state of things about to be described the
reader will be in a better position to judge after the
customs of some other peoples have been examined.
"Though the Sia," we are told, "are monogamists, it
is common for the married as well as the unmarried to
live promiscuously with one another, the husband
being as fond of his wife's children as if he were sure
of his paternal parentage. That these people how-
ever have their share of latent jealousy is evident
from the secrecy observed on the part of a married
man or woman to prevent the anger of the spouse.
Parents are quite as fond of their daughter's illegiti-
mate offspring as if they h^d bt^ejn born in wedlock j

I04 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

and the man who marries a woman having one or more
illegitimate children apparently feels the same attach-
ment for these children as for those his wife bears him."
Some of the women boast of their relations with men
other than their husbands. Young maidens are set
up for sale (by no means necessarily for marriage), and
are often allotted to married men. Every birth is a
subject of rejoicing, especially if a girl, regardless
whether it be legitimate or not.^ It is obvious that no
man can be reasonably sure of the paternity of any child
borne by his wife. The only thing that either party to
the marriage is concerned about is the avoidance of
open collision with the other. The actual practice is
well understood. Against the Hopis, another of the
Pueblo peoples, the dissolution of manners laid to the
account of the Sia is not charged. Yet even there, a
girl incurs no social penalties for admitting her accepted
lover to marital privileges before the formal marriage.
Nor will the birth of a child whose father she does not
marry in the end prevent her from wedding some one
else ; while the child has the same social position and
rights as a child lawfully begotten. Moreover the
facility of separation allows either husband or wife at
will to put an end to the relation and contract a new
marriage.^ If the standard of sexual morality be some-
what higher at Zufii the difference is not unconnected
with the general advance in civilisation characteristic of
that pueblo as compared with others.^

All the Pueblo Indians are matrilineal. Where

1 Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 20. 2 Supra, p. 75.

' Even at Zufii licence is not unknown at the religious festivals,
though now frowned upon {Rep. Bur. Ethn. xxiii. 210); and the
mythical tales contain at least a trace of polyandry (Gushing,
^uni F, T. 127),

MARITAL JEALOUSY 105

descent is reckoned exclusively through the mother
paternity is of no importance ; and until at any rate
the husband has succeeded in establishing himself in a
more secure position than the Sia or the Hopi husband,
the question of lawful marriage is quite secondary, or
is disregarded altogether from the point of view of the
child as well as the mother. It will be convenient in
the first place to restrict our attention to matrilineal
peoples.

Among the Hurons Charlevoix reports that the
young people of both sexes abandoned themselves
without shame to all sorts of dissolute practices, and
it was no reproach to a girl to be prostituted. Her
parents, indeed, were the first to invite her to it.
Husbands did the same with their wives for a trifling
profit. Many men did not marry at all but took girls,
they said, to serve as companions ; and all the differ-
ence between these concubines and legitimate wives
was that with the former no definite contract was
entered into. Their children were on the same footing
as others, which produced no inconvenience in a
country where there was no property to succeed to.^
Their neighbours, the Iroquois, boasted of not being
given to theeccentricity of jealousy, though Charlevoix
roundly denies their claim, declaring the passion to be
equally developed in both sexes. I need only add to
what has been said in the last chapter on the subject
of matrimonial arrangements among the Iroquois that
when the parties were agreed on separation it was
perfectly easy without any reason assigned, but good
reason was necessary when separation was sought on
one side only.^

Charlevoix, vi. 38, Id. v. 420.

io6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

The Illinois and more southerly nations were still
more abandoned, and it was to their example that the
good Father attributed the corruption of Iroquoian
manners. The women were very lascivious. The
prostitution of girls before marriage was a custom
permitted by many of these tribes. To this as well as
the length of time of suckling (during which there was
no cohabitation), the excessive toil to which the
women were subjected and the state of extreme misery
often endured by the whole people Charlevoix ascribes
the fact that female fecundity was small.^ Whether
more is meant here by prostitution than the antenup-
tial licence common among matrilineal and even among
patrilineal peoples may be doubted. Something more
would seem to be asserted of the Natchez. " We
know no nation on this continent where the women
are more dissolute than they are in this. They are
even forced by the king and the inferior chiefs to
prostitute themselves to all comers, and a woman is
none the less esteemed for being common. Although
polygamy is permitted and the number of wives is not
limited, this is a liberty of which few beside the chiefs
make use. Ordinarily a man has but one wife ; but
he can repudiate her when he will. The daughters of
the royal house may only marry men of low birth, but
they have the right to dismiss them when they like
and take others, provided they are not related by
marriage to them. If these husbands be guilty of
infidelity, they may cause them to be tomahawked ;
but they themselves are not bound by the same law.
They may even have as many lovers as they please
without any right on the part of the husband to object ;
^ Qharlgvoix, vi, 4,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 107

this is a privilege attached to the royal blood. The
husband stands upright in his wife's presence in a
respectful attitude ; he does not eat with her ; he
addresses her in the same tone as her servants do.
The sole privilege that an alliance so onerous procures
him is to be exempt from labour, and to have authority
over those who serve his wife." The chiefs had a
right to take any girl they pleased into the number of
their wives. They generally visited them at their
parents' houses. Jealousy was not a national charac-
teristic. The Natchez even lent their wives without
ceremony : whence it was, the Jesuit Father opined,
that it was so easy for them to dismiss them and take
others instead.^ The hospitality which provides a
temporary wife for a guest is mentioned by Captain
John Smith as practised by the natives of Virginia
when it was first colonised. He describes the
ceremonies on the visit of a distinguished stranger, and
concludes by saying; "Such victuals as they have
they spend freely ; and at night where his lodging is
appointed they set a woman fresh painted red with
pocones and oil to be his bed-fellow."^

The Zdparos of Ecuador are addicted to the stealing
of women, even among themselves. '* A man runs
away with his neighbour's wife, or one of them, and
secretes himself in some out of the way spot until he
gathers information that she is replaced, when he can
again make his appearance, finding the whole difficulty
smoothed over. In their matrimonial relations they
are, as indeed in the practice of all their customs, very
loose — monogamy polygamy communism and promis-
cuity all apparently existing amongst them. Entirely
1 Charlevoix, vi, 181, 184. ^ Smith, Worhsy 73.

io8 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

contrary to other neighbouring tribes, they are not at
all jealous, but allow the women great liberty, and
frequently change their wives in the manner above
mentioned, or by simply discarding them, when they
are perhaps taken up by another." ^ Succession in
Porto Rico at the time of the Spanish Conquest was
probably matrilineal. Every bride had to undergo the
jus pjHmcE noctis on the part of the guests of her
husband s rank.^

In Central Brazil the Boror6 are divided into two
classes : those who dwell in family huts, comprising the
heads of families and married men, and those who in-
habit the men's houses. The bachelors who occupy the
latter lay themselves out to catch girls, whom they then
hold in common among smaller groups. The abduction
of these girls is frequently accomplished in open daylight.
All the men are reckoned fathers of any children they
may bear ; nor does this mode of life seem to affect
the social esteem in which they are held.^ The Cafiaris
Indians of Quito traced their descent from a mythical
woman who had commerce with two men who were
brothers, and gave birth in consequence to six children,
the ancestors of the tribe.* The intimate connection
between mythical tales and custom warrants us in
suspecting that, whatever may have been the social
condition of the Cafiaris at the time of the Spanish
conquest, such relations between men and women were
not unknown at an earlier and perhaps not very
remote period.

1 A. Simson,/. A. I. vii. 505. 2 Jigp. Bur. Ethn. xxv. 48.

3 von den Steinen, 500, 502. Rhode records that the Boror6
women on the banks of the Paraguay have little chastity; they
made him and his men frequent overtures (Ploss, Weib^ i. 300).

* Markham, Rit^s and Laws, 8.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 109

The marriage customs of the AustraHan natives
have been the subject of much discussion by anthro-
pologists during recent years. We need not here
concern ourselves with their disputes, for the main
facts I am about to cite are, so far as I am aware, un-
challenged. In the Dieri tribe of South Australia,
when the young women come to maturity there is
a ceremony called Wilpadrina, in which the elder men
claim and exercise a right to them, and that in the
presence of the other women.'^ This, it may be said,
is a puberty rite intended to introduce the girls to the
status of women, and not to be repeated. But it is
not all. The tribe, like other Australian tribes, is
divided socially into a number of groups of men on
the one side and women on the other, the members
of which from birth stand in the relation of noa (that
is, potential spouses) to one another, and marriage
outside the group is forbidden. The potential marriage
may be converted into the tippa-malku relation
(actual marriage) by formal betrothal in childhood or
apparently at any time after. The tippa-77ialku re-
lation is not however exclusive appropriation. It is
qualified by that oi pirrauru, an institution by which
either or both of the spouses may be allotted and re-
aliotted from time to time to a group of secondary
spouses of the appropriate sex, who are noa to them.
The persons who are pirrauru to one another may
always exercise conjugal rights in the absence of
the tippa-malku spouse. On certain occasions a
tirrauru husband may even have prior rights to a
tippa-malku husband ; and he has the duty of protecting
his pirraiiru wife during her tippa-malku husband's
1 Howitt, 664.

no PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

absence. ** When two brothers are married to two
sisters they commonly live together in a group-
marriage of four. When a man becomes a widower he
has his brother's wife as pirraurit, making presents to
his brother " in return. A man will sometimes lend
h\s pirrauru to young men who have none with them
or to whom none have yet been allotted, receiving
in return presents of weapons trinkets and other
things, which he gives away to prominent men and
thus adds to his own importance. A visitor of the
proper exogamous moiety of the tribe and connubial
group {noa) is offered his host's tippa-malku wife as a
temporary /^Vr^/^r/^. Outside the relation oi pirrauru
men have access also to unmarried girls and widows
of the group in which they have connubial rights.
Moreover, there are times when free intercourse takes
place between the sexes " without regard to existing
marriage relations. No jealous feeling is allowed to
be shown during this time under penalty of strangling,"
though it may crop up afterwards. Such an occasion
would be a corrobboree at which the tribe meets
an adjacent tribe, as on the marriage of a member of the
one tribe with a member of the other tribe.^ Women
too are always sent on embassies to neighbouring
tribes to settle disputes. If possible the women chosen
are such as belong to the tribe to which the embassy
is sent. They are accompanied by their pirraurus
as being more likely to be complaisant to their acts
than their tippa-malku husbands would be. For " it is
thoroughly understood that the women are to use
every influence in their power to obtain a successful

^ Howitt, 175-185. Men sometimes exchange their tippa-malku
or their pirraurn wives,

MARITAL JEALOUSY til

issue for their mission, and are therefore free of their
favours," subject always to their paramours being of the
proper connubial class. If the mission be successful,
" there is a time of licence between its members and
the tribe, or part of a tribe, to which it has been sent.
This is always the case ; and if the Dieri women failed
in it, it would be at peril of death on their return.
This licence is not regarded with any jealousy by the
women of the tribe to which the mission is sent. It is
taken as a matter of course. They know it, but do not
see it, as it occurs at a place apart from the camp."
Women of the latter tribe usually accompany the
embassy back to testify the approval of their tribe to
the agreement arrived at ; and though we are not
expressly told we may assume that the same licence
occurs in their case.^

It is clear that while jealousy exists among the
Dieri, it is very imperfectly developed.^ The next
question is how these sexual complexities and licence
affect the children. The answer is : In no way to
their disadvantag-e. Their lineas^e is counted exclu-
sively through the mother. They belong to their
mother's totem and exogamous intermarrying class,
whoever is their father. They call all their mother's
husbands, whether tippa-malku or pirrau7'u, fathers ;
though on close inquiry they would distinguish the
former as their " real father" or " very father," calling
the others "little father." In like manner they call
the pirrauru wives of their mother's tippa-7nalku

1 Howitt, 682,

2 Jealousy, it is right to say, does attach to the pirrauru status;
but apparently not so much in reference to occasional acts as lest
further pirrauru relationships be entered into. And it is very far
from being a specially masculine phenomenon (Howitt, 182).

ti2 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

husband as well as their own mother by the name of
mother, distinguishing them if necessary as "little
mothers." Reciprocally they are called "son" or
" daughter " by their mother's male pirrauru,^ and
probably by her female partners in ih&pirrauru group.
For we read that " in the event of a tippa-malku
wife dying, a pirrauru wife will take charge of her
children and attend to them with affection and not in any
manner as a step-mother. It must be remembered,"
Dr. Howitt goes on to say, " that a man's wives
whether tippa-malku ox pirraurtt are in the relation of
sisters either own or tribal." ^ Here he hits the heart
of the difficulty around which anthropologists are still
disputing. The Australian terms of relationship are
so wide that in the present state of the discussion it is
unsafe to build any argument upon them. One result,
however, emerges : they do not necessarily convey
any assertion as to physical relationship in the same
way that ours do.

The sexual arrangements of the Dieri have been
laid bare in greater detail than those of any other
matrilineal tribe in Australia. To avoid repetition it
may be said there is general correspondence in the
institutions of all such tribes, at all events in the
south-eastern part of the continent. In some it would
appear that the licence is even greater and amounts at
times to absolute promiscuity.^ In New South Wales

^ Howittj/. A. I. XX. 58, We cannot consider it surprising that
" frequently the women say they are ignorant which man, the Noa
or the Pirrauru, is the father of any particular child, or they do not
admit that there is only one father."

2 Id. 184.

^ E.g.^ the now extinct tribe of the Kurnandaburi, Howitt, 192,
193 ; the Wiimbaio, Tatathi and Keramin, Id. 195. Other ex»

MARITAL JEALOUSY 113

where uterine descent generally prevails it is an
almost universal rule that visitors to a neig^hbourinof
tribe having the same class organisation are accommo-
dated with temporary wives. When two brothers (using
that word in the extended sense of Australian relation-
ships) have quarrelled and wish for a reconciliation
one of them sends his wife to the other's camp, and a
temporary exchange is effected. At a grand assembly
of the tribe, or as a magical rite to avert some
threatened calamity, a general exchange of wives
sometimes takes place/ A calamity is not foreboded
every day, and grand assemblies of a tribe are be-
coming constantly rarer : hence this custom is not of
frequent occurrence. The practice of other tribes
may however lead us to suspect that it was formerly
by no means uncommon. At any rate there is a good
deal of sexual licence at all the gatherings for puberty
ceremonies.^

Another district in which matrilineal institutions
prevail is the western side of the continent of Africa.
Many of the tribes both of Negroes and Bantu are
comparable for laxity to the Australians. Thus of the
Bahuana, a tribe inhabiting the banks of the Kwilu,
an affluent of the Kasai in the Congo basin, we are
told that sexual morality is conspicuous by its absence.
" The unmarried indulge as they please from a very
early age, the girls even before puberty. Hence
virginity in a bride is never expected and never found."

amples of more or less restriction are the Kamilaroi {Id. 208), the
Geawegal {Id. 217), the Wakelbura {Id. 224), Compare the
customs of the aborigines of North-West-Central Queensland, Roth,
Ethnol. Stud. 174, 175, 181, 182,

^ A. L. P. Cameron,/. A. I. xiv. 353.

' Mathews, Ethnol. Notes, 68.

II H

114 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Marriage is the result of choice on both sides and is
preceded by the intercourse of the parties. The
women cultivate the land. When the girl goes to
the fields she is followed by her lover. He tells her
that he desires her and wooes her with a gift. If she
succumb to this courtship she admits him to her favours
there and then. This is repeated day after day until
** his heart becomes big" or he has no more of the native
currency of brass rods to bestow upon her. Then he
goes to her mother with a present which includes a
fowl, and tells her that he wants to marry her daughter.
" I don't mind," says the mother ; and he thereupon
takes the girl to his hut without any further fuss.
Divorce it is true is unknown. But marriage makes
little difference in a woman's continence ; " and it may
be said that the only time during which a woman
contents herself with her husband is during pregnancy,
since it is believed that adultery at this period would
prove fatal to the child." Abortion, as might be
expected, is common. Jealousy is so far developed
that the husband considers adultery on the part of his
wife when discovered to be a personal injury, for
which compensation is assessed by the chief. Unless
the mother be his slave the father has very little
authority over the children, who are sent to their
maternal uncle at puberty. There is no difference in
the treatment of legitimate and illegitimate children.
The only prohibited degrees are said to be mother and
and son, and brother and sister.^

In the cataract region there is a secret guild called

1 Torday and Joyce,/. A. I. xxxvi. 285 sqq. Sexual indulgence
by children is not considered in the slightest degree shameful, and
parents do nothing to check it.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 115

Ndembo into which both sexes are admitted. Children
young people and middle-aged men are all to be found
in the vela, or home, where the mysteries are conducted.
Some pass through the mysteries more than once.
When it is decided to initiate a number of persons in a
district the vela is built outside the town. Those who
desire to be admitted feign sudden death. After
awhile the si^ht of these cases " induces a form of
hysteria among the natives, who fall and are actually
carried off in a state of catalepsy." They are all brought
to the vela, where they remain for a term varying
from three months to three years. The details of the
rites do not concern us, except that no clothes are
worn, for "there is no shame in ndembo!' "Both
sexes live tosfether, and the grossest immoralities are
practised. In this respect however," says a missionary,
" some districts are worse than others, but the King
of Congo, long before we went out to him, had pro-
hibited the custom in the town of San Salvador as too
vile to be permitted. For the same reason it was not
allowed in some other towns. These were, however,
but a few exceptions ; the vile and senseless custom was
almost universal." When the novices return fully
initiated, they are supposed to have actually died and
underofone resurrection.^ Mr. Herbert Ward describes
a rite which he calls N' Kimba or Ftta Kongo, but which
appears to be similar to, if not identical with, that just
referred to. According to him it is a sort of mag^ical
rite to increase the fertility of the women. " When
the elders of a village consider that the women are
not bearing the usual proportion of children they
proclaim an ' N'Kimba.' The charm-doctors and
^ Bentley, Pioneering, i. 283.

ii6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

other active agents of the rite take up quarters in an
isolated forest, where they are soon joined by numbers
of voluntary initiates. Boys and men of any age are
eligible, as also girls and women who have not borne
a child. Full sexual licence is permitted." As in the
case of the ndemho death and resurrection are supposed
to be suffered by the candidates, but we are told that
the process " usually lasts five or six years." ^ These
are special observances of a quasi-religious character
and only take place at certain intervals. But Sir
Harry Johnston, speaking in general terms of the
same region, declares that chastity is unknown ; a
woman's honour is measured by the price she costs ;
and but for jealousy of the men there would be
promiscuous intercourse. Even this jealousy is often
easily laid. A trifling fine in many districts is deemed
sufficient penalty for adultery, though elsewhere, as
we have seen in a previous chapter, the punishment is
death. On the other hand the men are far from dis-
playing anything but satisfaction when a European is
induced to accept the loan of a wife either as an act
of hospitality or in consideration of some small pay-
ment. The testimony to the incontinence of the West
African native is in fact universal ; and masculine
jealousy is founded on nothing but the bride-price and
the property in the woman obtained by payment.^

Mr. Monteiro, writing of the Mussurongo Ambriz
and Mushicongo tribes, says : " The Negro knows not
love affection or jealousy. Male animals and birds
are tender and loving to their females ; . . . but in all
the long years I have been in Africa I have never
seen a Negro manifest the least tenderness for or to
^ /. A. I. xxiv. 288. ^ Johnston, Congo, 404.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 117

a Negress. . . . They have no words or expres-
sions in their language indicative of affection or love.
Their passion is purely of an animal description,
unaccompanied by the least sympathetic affections of
love or endearment. It is not astonishing, therefore,
jealousy should hardly exist ; the greatest breach of
conduct on the part of a married woman is but little
thought of. The husband by their laws can at most
return his wife to her father, who has to refund the
present he received on her marriage ; but this extreme
penalty is seldom resorted to, fining the paramour
being considered a sufficient satisfaction. The fine is
generally a pig and rum or other drink, with which a
feast is celebrated by all parties. The woman is not
punished in any way, nor does any disgrace attach to
her conduct. Adultery on the part of the husband is
not considered an offence at all, and is not even
resented by the wives. It might be imagined that
this lax state of things would lead to much immorality ;
but such is not the case, as from their utter want of
love and appreciation of female beauty or charms they
are quite satisfied and content with any woman
possessing even the greatest amount of the hideous
ugliness with which nature has so bountifully provided
them. Even for their offspring they have but little
love beyond that which is implanted in all animals for
their young." ^ Post cites an old Italian writer for the
statement that it was quite customary in Angola
Ginga Cassange and Congo to lend and exchange
wives, and other writers aver the same of the
Mpongwe.^

Islam has made much progress among the peoples
^ Monteiro, i, 243. ^ Post, Afr.Jur. \, 471, 472.

iiS PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

of Senegal. But pagan tribes still exist whose
manners have the ordinary Negro characteristics.
The Mancagnes, for instance, permit antenuptial
licence ; and the birth of a child, especially a girl, in
consequence is received by the mother's parents with
sacrifices of joy and feasting similar to those consequent
on the delivery of a married woman. A bride-price is
paid for a wife, nor is there any regard for her personal
wishes. She ought in theory to be faithful after
marriage to her husband, or her family may be called
upon to repay her bride-price and she herself may be
subjected to corporal punishment. But in reality she is
the butt of attentions on the part of all the young men,
who from the age of fifteen stop short of nothing to
obtain her at every opportunity.^ It is customary
among several of the West African tribes for the wife
to have a recognised lover. Among the Bullams
Bagoes and Timmaneys female chastity is only
valued to the time of marriage. It would be thought
extremely impolite and ill-bred for a married woman
to reject a lover's overtures. True, " she is liable to
severe punishment if discovered, yet it does not at all
affect her reputation," unless she have previously made
a vow to her husband not to go astray for a certain
period, " Almost every married woman has, according
to the country custom, her yange^ canted, or cicisbeo,
whom^ she first solicits. This connection she is at
little or no pains to conceal ; and her husband is often
obliged to be silent, as otherwise he would have reason
to dread worse consequences. For although the laws
of the country are severe against adultery, it requires
the arm of power, even among themselves, to put them
^ Leprince, V Anthropologies xvi. 59, 62.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 119

in force." If pregnancy result from any of these
amours the woman is said to declare the paternity of
the child before it is born.^ A husband among the
Brames, we are told, reckons it a special merit in his
wife to have many lovers.^ The Mbres about Lake
Tchad (if I am right in supposing them to be a
matrilineal people) practise fraternal polyandry.^

Among the Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold
Coast ** chastity per se is not understood. An un-
married girl is expected to be chaste because virginity
possesses a marketable value, and were she to be
unchaste her parents would receive little and perhaps
no head-money for her. It is therefore a duty she
owes to them to remain continent. A man who
seduces a virgin is compelled to marry her, or if her
parents will not consent to the marriage to pay the
amount of the head-money. In the latter case, her
marketable value having been received, any excesses
she may commit are regarded as of no importance.
A married woman is the property of her husband, and
consequently may not bestow her favours without his
permission. But a married man can and does lend his
wife, and the wife submits to be lent, without either of
them supposing that they are committing an offence
against morality. Many husbands, moreover, en-
courage frailty on the part of their wives, hoping to
profit by the sums which they will be able to extract
from their paramours. Throughout, the woman is re-
garded as property. The daughter is the property of

'^ Matthews, Voyage, 119.
2 Post, Afr. Jur. i. 468, citing Waitz.

^ L Anthropologie, xiv. 229, citing and reviewing an article by
Capt. Truffert in Rev. Ge'nerale cies Sciences, Jan. 30, 1902.

120 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

her mother, and the wife in a more limited sense that
of the husband."^ Similar customs are reported of
the Ewhe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast.^ In
both cases it will be observed that the want of chastity-
is regarded purely from the point of view of property.
In an unmarried girl it reduces her market-value ; in a
married woman it is only reprehensible when the act
is committed without the concurrence of the husband.
The moral question is not considered ; and lineage
being counted only through women, there is no question
of a possibility of tainting the descent of the issue.

The customs of the Negro tribes of the Ivory Coast
subject to French rule have been investigated by
government officials for juridical purposes. Among
some of these tribes, although matrilineal, \X\^ potestas
is vested in the father and has attained considerable
development. Yet virginity is not required in a bride,
and marital jealousy is so feeble a passion that adultery
on the part of the wife entails no consequences upon
her, or at most only a few blows. The partner of her
guilt (if guilt it be) pays an indemnity, often quite
small, to the husband, except among the Abrons, where
he pays nothing if he belong to a different clan, though
to avoid reprisals he generally makes him a present of
a few bottles of gin. On the other hand the wife has,
among several of the tribes, something to say to her
husband's extra-matrimonial love-affairs, and does not
forget to exact compensation. Divorce is in general
easy on either side. Adulterine children are regarded
little if any worse than others. They usually rank as
the husband's legitimate offspring : in any case they
belong to the wife's family. Among the Brignan, if
^ Ellis, Tshi^ 286. 2 j(^ Ewe, 201, 202.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 121

the husband divorce his wife for adultery, or refuse to
recognise the offspring, he has no claim against the
paramour for compensation. Some of the littoral
peoples have a curious custom by which a man has a
right to take away any other man's wife on paying her
husband compensation.^

Among the Barea and the Baze of northern
Abyssinia, the pregnancy of an unmarried girl is by no
means a subject of dishonour. Her children are as
welcome to the family as if she were married ; nor has
her lover any resentment on the part of her relatives to
fear. Young people of both sexes have full sexual
liberty, which also extends to divorced women. As
regards married life, however, there is a great differ-
ence between these two tribes. The women of the
latter are described as very free ; the husbands are
accused of lending their wives to their guests ; and all
conjugal fidelity is called in question. This however
is the account given by the Barea and may be in-
tended merely to emphasise their own claim to a higher
morality. The wives of the Barea are everywhere
regarded as being exemplary in their fidelity to their
husbands — a notable exception among East African
women. Yet neither among them nor among the
Baze is adultery treated as a crime. A husband
finding a stranger with his wife has merely the right
to thrash him.^

Among the Wayao and Mang'anja of Lake Nyassa
the girls are taught in their puberty ceremonies that
they must be faithful to their husbands, else the latter

^ Clozel, loi, 97, 149 sgq., loo, 194, T98, 200-203, 398, 436,
439. 458, 460, 459.

Munzinger, 486, 524, 525, 502.

122 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

will kill them. This is a threat which, we learn, "goes
perhaps a little beyond the truth." But the husband
has the right to enforce it, as well as to inflict the same
penalty on the seducer. Yet a native man will not
pass a solitary woman, and her refusal of him would
be so contrary to native custom that he might kill her.
The missionary who reports this assumes that it
would "apply only to females that are not engaged."
But it is obvious that if the native men act in this way
resistance by the women is not common. The
husband of a faithless wife cannot return to cohabita-
tion until another man has had ceremonial intercourse
with her. The identity of the latter man is said to be
concealed from the husband, lest from jealousy he kill
him. Seeing, however, that his act is a ritual per-
formance intended to render future cohabitation by the
husband safe, it may be surmised that the real reason
for concealment is different. It is a wife's duty to
prepare food for her husband. " When a wife has
been guilty her husband will die if he taste any food
that she has salted " in the course of cooking. Here
we perhaps have the real ground of the husband's right
to kill the guilty wife : it is the danger to his own life
arising from causes usually classed as sympathetic
magic, not merely sexual jealousy. A girl who is
betrothed but not yet actually married is liable to the
same penalty. Infant betrothal is common ; and it is
the custom that betrothed girls often cook food for
their intended husbands, who must therefore run the
same risk as if actually married. Two married men
on the other hand will often lend one another their
wives. A man who has committed adultery with the
wife of another and been found out will compromise

MARITAL JEALOUSY 123

the latter's claim on him for compensation by lending
him his own wife. Further, on emerging from the
puberty ceremonies every one whether girl or boy
must find one of the opposite sex with whom to have
ceremonial intercourse : so little virtue is attached to
sexual purity in itself^

The Guanches of Grand Canary and Gomera held it
to be one of the first duties of hospitality for the host
to offer his own wife to a guest ; and refusal of the
courtesy was considered an insult. The people of
Lanzarote, another of the Canary Islands, practised
polyandry. Many of the women had three husbands
"who held the position in turn by months, the one
next to succeed to the honour serving until his time
came to be lord." The Gomerans at least seem to
have been in the stage of motherright : probably the
inhabitants of the other islands were in the same
stage. In Grand Canary the lord of the district had a
his p7'imcB nodis over all girls ; but he might if he
pleased depute it to one of the nobles.^

The tribes inhabiting the Elema district of New
Guinea bordering on the Papuan Gulf still reckon
kinship through the mother. But the development of
the ■<^dX^x:'i\2\ potestas has been considerable, and it is
significant that theft of property and sexual immorality
are by the native law identical and bear a common
penalty, namely, death. This is said to have been
laid down by their original male ancestor Ivu, who
came out of the ground and married a woman whom
he delivered out of the trunk of a tree. The tribal

^ Duff Macdonald, i. 126, 173, 119; Capt. C, H. Stigand,
J. A. I. xxxvii. 122.

2 Cook, Amer. Anthrop, N. S. ii. 479.

124 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

legends turn like the tale of Troy upon the theft of a
woman/ On the north-eastern coast of the island, how-
ever, among the Yassiassi the husbands prostitute all
their women, their wives and daughters alike. They
are great traders and the observer who reports this
custom suggests that it is to be ascribed to their
trading propensities.^

In the Marshall Islands no value is placed on
antenuptial chastity, and sexual intercourse is quite free
until marriage, except in the case of daughters of
chiefs and families of high rank on the island of
Nauru, where the population is Polynesian. It is a
disgrace to bear an illegitimate child on Nauru. To
obviate such an accident abortion is allowed. On the
same island fraternal polyandry exists, though not
common ; and children born of such unions are
reckoned as those of the entire group of husbands. On
the other islands a married woman is by no means
restricted to consort only with her own husband ; but
on Yaluit at least she denies him a corresponding
liberty. On Yaluit there are women who instead of
marrying entertain a succession of temporary lovers.
They are call karrainnteri'- (bushwoman). This mode
of life is not regarded as specially disgracelul, for the
chief's wife will as readily admit to her society a
bushwoman as any other of her sex. Throughout the
islands husband and wife usually separate after a longer
or shorter time ; and a case is reported from Nauru in
which a man of twenty-four had already had eleven
wives, of whom some had left him and others he had
left. On Yaluit the husbands lend their wives in

^ Rev. J. H. Holmes,/. A. I. xxxiii. 127.
2 Dr. Rudolf Poch, Globus^ xcii. 279.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 125

exchange for payment. Not that this occurs against
the woman's will : they are too independent for that :
in most cases it is their inclination that is gratified. It
need hardly be said that adultery is quite customary
and is unpunishable. On Nauru the husband some-
times takes a sterner view, but he has no right to put
his wife or her paramour to death ; and if he divorce
her the latter commonly marries her. Rape is not
punished ; on Yaluit resistance by a woman is
unknown.^

On Ponape, one of the Caroline Islands, exchange
of wives between friends and relations is occasionally
practised.^ At Tonga where, contrary to the general
rule among the Polynesian peoples, descent was traced
through the mother sexual licence was more restricted
than on most of the islands where agnatic kinship
prevailed. Examples of domestic happiness were by
no means uncommon. Yet even there we are told
there was lasciviousness, great licence existed and it
was difficult to designate with certainty the father of a
child. On the other hand the women were kindly and
considerately treated and almost idolised by the men.^

On Guam, one of the Ladrone Islands, it was cus-
tomary for young men to live in concubinage with girls
whom they "purchased" from their parents by presents;
nor did this injure the girls' prospects of marriage after-

1 Kohler, citing official reports, Zeits. vergl. Rechtsw. xiv. 417,
416, 418, 433, 445; Steinmetz, 432, 433; Brandeis, Globus, xci.
76. In Yaluit, however, the penalty for adultery with a chief's wife
is death ; and where a chief is married to a lady of high rank and
exercises his undoubted privilege of an amour with any woman of
his tribe, his wife will not seldom put her to death, which apparently
she has a right to do. In both cases the offence is really a kind of
lese-ntajeste . ^ Christian, 74.

West, 270, 260. Cf. Mariner, ii. 141 sqq.

126 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

wards. Frequently a number of young men and
girls lived together in a large house, probably one of
the bachelors' houses common in the East Indies.
Marriage was monogamic, but divorce was easy and of
frequent occurrence, the children and household pro-
perty being always retained by the wife. If a woman
discovered her husband to be unfaithful, with the aid of
the other women of the village armed with spears he
was chased from the house, his growing crops were
destroyed, the contents of the house were appropriated
and the house itself sometimes pulled down. On the
other hand the husband had no redress against his wife
for her unfaithfulness though he might chastise her
paramour.^

Motherright is the rule on the islands of Leti Moa
and Lakor. Sexual intercourse previous to marriage
is free, but secret. The fidelity of the married women
is renowned. To speak to a married woman save
in her husband's presence is forbidden, and renders
the man who does it liable to a fine to her husband
her family and the chiefs. Divorce however is easy.
It can be obtained for the wife's adultery, or for illusage
on the part of the husband, or to avoid disputes.
A great religious festival is held yearly at the time of
the eastern monsoon to implore from Grandfather
Sun, the chief Nature Spirit, rain and plenty of food
and drink cattle children and riches. It lasts a
month. The nunu-tree is sacred. Grandfather Sun
comes down into it to fertilise Grandmother Earth,
and the people must await his coming and take part
in his enjoyment with dances and saturnalia. In
former years it was an essential part of the rite that
^ W. E. Safford, Amer. Anthrop. N. S. iv. 715,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 127

men and women had promiscuous intercourse in public/
The same festival with the same rite is celebrated also
on the islands of the Babar Sermata and Luanof
group. The men of Luang too go for months to-
gether on journeys, and the wives left behind very
often forget them. Some indeed lay themselves out
to seduce the men who remain, especially strangers,
so as to profit by their fines on their husbands' return.
For on all these islands any jealousy that may be
entertained by a husband is not due to the injury
inflicted on his wife's virtue by her infidelity, or to the
loss of her affection ; nor of course is it the contamina-
tion of the blood of her descendants, since the mother
alone counts as the source of kinship. It is simply
and solely because she is regarded as property.^ The
people of the Timorlaut islands, who are, as we have
seen, on the border-line between motherright and
fatherright, are by no means faithful spouses. The
men make great use of magical means to excite love
on the part of the women whom they desire. The
favourite prescription is a philtre composed of finely
chopped roots mixed with lime prepared by the lover
himself, and believed to "be extremely potent. It
is forbidden therefore to unmarried men to prepare
lime, though it is universally made use of for chewing
with pinang. Inasmuch as sexual intercourse is free
to the unmarried and always precedes marriage, it is
obvious that this prohibition is not aimed at the
seduction of unmarried girls. Husband and wife

1 Riedel, 370, 3S4, 387, 390, 372.

2 Van Hoevell, Int. Arch. viii. 134; Riedel, 314, 325, 323, 335,
351. As to the general meaning of the rite and the festival above
referred to see Frazer, G. B. ii. 205.

128 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

however are said to live on good terms with one
another despite the prevalent infidelity. The wife
may indeed be divorced for adultery, and in that event
the bride-price must be repaid. But she must not be
struck, otherwise her relatives will interfere and
avenge her. She may on the other hand beat her
husband with a stick without being liable to any
penalty. If he illuse her she may leave him and
take the children with her, nor can he obtain repay-
ment of the bride-price.^

On the Poggi Islands off the west of Sumatra it is
said the marriage contract is unknown. The sexes
cohabit at will and the children belong exclusively to
the mother. The father indeed is for the most part
unknown, and in any case has never any right to them.^
This is probably a somewhat highly coloured picture.
But it conveys the idea of a matrilineal society in which
the marriage-tie is extremely weak, and change of
spouse is frequent. With equal emphasis travellers
and others who have come into contact with the
natives of Borneo speak of the dissoluteness of various
tribes of Dyaks. Thus of the Dyaks of the Syang
district Schwaner declares that fidelity in marriage is
in the eyes of both parties a chimera; of the Kampong
of Dengan Kamai in the Katingan river-basin he
reports that the men and women live mostly in promis-
cuous intercouse, and of the Olo Ot in the interior of
Koetei that no marriage contract is entered into. Kater
says that among the Dyaks of Sidin in the western
division of Borneo a woman may have more than one

^ H. O. Forbes,/. A. I. xiii. 20; Riedel, 302.
2 Wilken, Verwantschap, 672 note, citing Tijdschrift voor Ind. T.
L. en Vk. iii. 327.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 129

husband and that the women make use of the privilege
without being the less respected on that account or
without making any secret of it. It is certain, says
Schwaner, that in the districts of Dusun, Murung and
Syang the marriage bond is as lightly broken as it is
commonly entered into without consideration and
merely for the temporary gratification of appetite : a
married pair separate easily and each of them enters
as easily and thoughtlessly into a new bond. The laws
are often strict against adultery ; but they are not used
for the purpose of enforcing chastity by wives, whose
peccadilloes are winked at if not encouraged, in order
that compensation may be extracted from their
paramours.^ The accounts of the natives of Borneo
are often very fragmentary, and all of the foregoing
may not reckon descent through the mother. If not,
they enforce all the more strongly the argument of this
chapter. The Orang Ot, one of the aboriginal tribes,
have never been observed by any European traveller.
Living in the inaccessible mountain-ranges of the in-
terior they are very shy, and we only know them from
reports of the other natives. So far as it is possible
to judge from these reports they are in the stage of
motherright. The girls choose their husbands and
make the first advances ; the nuptial tie is very loose,
"the sexes satisfying their desires as soon as time and
opportunity allow." ^

Divorce is very common among the Khasis and
Syntengs. 1 1 may be occasioned by a variety of causes,

^ Wilken, Verwantschap, 735 note, 748.

^ Ling Roth, ii, cxcvii. transcribing Schwaner's Notes. The
same traveller reports very unfavourably of the sexual morality of
the inhabitants of Melanhoei District in the Kahaijan river basin ;
but his remarks are vague and inconclusive.

II J

130 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

such as adultery barrenness incompatibility of tem-
perament and so forth, or simply by agreement. Easy
though it may be some formalities are necessary, and
among the Khasis public proclamation is made by a
crier through the village in these terms : " Hear, O
villagers, that U. and K. have become separated in
the presence of the elders. Hei ! thou, O young man,
canst go and make love to K. for she is now un-
married ; and thou, O spinster, canst make love to U.
Hei ! there is no let or hindrance from henceforth."
Either party is then free to marry again, but they
cannot re-marry one another. So common are the
divorces that the children are in many cases ignorant
of even the names of their fathers.^

Ancient authors record similar traits in the manners
of the barbarous nations with which they came into
contact. The Massao-etai married each one a wife,
but if we may believe Herodotus they had their wives
in common. When a man desired intercourse with
a woman all he had to do to avoid interruption was to
hang up his quiver in front of the waggon.^ The
historian attributes a parallel device to the Nasa-
monians of Libya. Each man, he says, has many
wives, and they have intercourse with them in
common, each leaving his staff at the door when he
goes to visit a woman.^ According to Strabo the
people of Arabia Felix practised fraternal polyandry,
and the several husbands adopted the same plan to
secure privacy with the common wife.* When a
Nasamonian married for the first time his bride was
required to submit to intercourse with all the guests,

^ Gurdon, 79, 81. 2 Herodotus, i. 215.

^ /«', iv. 172. * Strabo, xvi. 4, 25.

MARITAL JEALOUSY i^t

receiving from everyone in turn a gift. The Augilae,
like the Nasamones a Cyrenaic tribe, and the Balearic
Islanders had the same wedding custom.^ The
Auseans about Lake Tritonis were said not to marry
but to have intercourse like cattle. In regard to the
children Herodotus is obscure ; but we gather that
they were at a certain age brought before an assembly
of the adult men and there one or other of the men
was formally recognised as the father.^ The women
of the Gindanes wore leathern anklets, one, it was said,
for every man with whom she had had intercourse ;
and the more she had the higher she was esteemed,
as having been loved by a greater number of men.^
Strabo following Artemidorus reports that among the
Troglodytae, a nomadic tribe near the east coast of
Africa, the women and children, except those of the
chiefs, were held in common ; the penalty for inter-
course with a chiefs wife was a sheep.'^

Julius Caesar attributes to the Britons a species of
marriage which appears to be a combination of
polyandry and polygyny. Every ten or twelve men,
he says, had wives in common. Usually such men
were brothers or fathers and sons. But the children
born of these unions were reckoned to the husband
who first married the mother as a virgin.^ This
passage has been the subject of discussions into which
we need not enter. The essential thing for our pur-
pose is that the sexual relations of the women were
such that the actual paternity of any of their children

^ Pomponius Mela, i. S; Diodorus Sic. v. i.
^ Herod, iv. i8o. A similar account is given by Mela (i. 8) of
the Garamantae.

3 M 176, * Strabo, xvi, 4, 17.

^ C^sar, De Bell. Gall. v. 14. Cf. D on Cassius, xvi. 12.

132 PHlMiTIVE PATERNITY

must have been difficult to determine, at all events
within a narrower range than ten or twelve men, and
the nominal husband was the reputed father. If this
was the standard of morality in the comparatively
civilised regions of southern Britain we cannot be
surprised to find that in the wilds of Caledonia among
the Picts, a matrilineal people, the women consorted
openly with the best warriors.^ The ancient Irish, if
Strabo's information may be trusted, were laxer still :
he paints them as more abandoned than the Kamt-
chadals or the Koryaks. They had intercourse, and
that openly, with women including their own mothers
and sisters.^ Whether this be strictly accurate or not
(and the geographer intimates his own doubts on the
subject) their voluminous sagas, put into literary shape
in a much later age, testify to morality by no means
exalted. They practised the hospitable custom of
providing a temporary bedfellow for a guest — a custom
not abandoned as late as the sixteenth century.
When Cuchulainn and the heroes of Ulster sougfht the
abode of Maive, queen of Connaught, and her husband
Ailill to have their quarrels adjudged, thrice fifty
maidens were placed at their disposal for the nights ;
and Findabair, daughter of Ailill and Maive, fell to
the lot of Cuchulainn. Before he left, however, Maive
herself was wont to resort to his stead.^ Moreover
Conchobar, king of Ulster, not merely exercised the
pis primcB noctis over the daughters of all his subjects,

^ Dion Cassius, Ixxvi, i6. 2 Strabo, iv. 5, 4.

3 Irish Texts Soc. ii. 69, 81. See the adventure of the Bishop of
Valence, a French emissary to Ireland in the year 1547-8, quoted
by Froude, Hist. Eng. v, 74 note, from Memoirs of Sir James
Melville,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 133

but every man in Ulster gave him hospitality at
night and caused him to lie with his wife. The same
royal right is reported of other Irish monarchs.^
Accounts hostile, it is true, but not altogether destitute
of credibility represent, both in the reign of Henry II.
at the time of the first conquest and at the commence-
ment of the Elizabethan troubles, a state of society
quite inconsistent with the observance of the marriage
laws known to the writers.^

Both Greek and Scandinavian stories of the gods
are full of traces of sexual relations indicating a very
imperfect development of jealousy among those divine
beings, the reflection doubtless of their worshippers' be-
haviour at the times when the stories came into being.
Among the Scandinavians, even in historical times,

1 D'Arbois de Jubainville, V Epopee Celt. i. 7, 29.

2 Girald. Cambr. Topog. iii, 19; Froude, Hist. Eng. vii. 103,
quoting a report to the Council, 1559, preserved among the Irish
MSS. in the Rolls. A curious tale is told by Martin, writing on
the Hebrides in the early years of the eighteenth century, illustrative
of the morality of the islanders of Rona near Lewis. " When
Mr. Morison the minister," it runs, " was in Rona two of the natives
courted a maid with intention to marry her ; and [she] being
married to one of them, afterwards the other was not a little
disappointed, because there was no other match for him in this
island. The wind blowing fair, Mr. Morison sailed directly for
Lewis, but after three hours' sailing was forced back to Rona by a
contrary wind ; and at his landing the poor man that had lost his
sweetheart was overjoyed, and expressed himself in these words : ' I
bless God and Ronan that you are returned again, for I hope that
you will now make me happy and give me the right to enjoy the
woman every other year by turns so that we both may have issue by
her.' Mr. Morison could not refrain from smiling at his unexpected
request, chid the poor man for his unreasonable demand and
desired him to have patience for a year longer, and he would send
him a wife from Lewis ; but this did not ease the poor man, who
was tormented with the thoughts of dying without issue" (Martiq,
PescripttoUy 23),

134 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

the marriage-bond was loose and chastity was not
very seriously regarded. But we have no actual
record of legal polyandry. The case of Greece is
different. According to Polybius polyandry was
customary at Sparta, where three or four men, or
even more if they were brothers, were the husbands
of the same woman. Unlike the British custom, the
children we learn were reckoned to the brothers in
common. The custom by which old men having
young wives lent them to sturdy young men whom
they picked out for the purpose of begetting beautiful
children long continued to be observed. It shows
the Spartans as more anxious to secure for their
children handsome and healthy parents than them-
selves to beget them. According to the current story
Lycurgus went further. He favoured the lending
of wives by others than old men and apparently even
overtures by women, though perhaps not without
marital consent. Thus their very tolerant sexual
code and the complaisance of Spartan husbands were
sheltered beneath the authority of the mythical legis-
lator. Nor, if we may judge by Aristotle's ani-
madversions, were the women at all inclined to allow
his statutes to remain a dead letter.^

^ Polybius, xii. 6; V\n\.., Lycurgus ; Xenophon, Rep. Laced, i. ;
Aristotle, Pol. ii. 9. Aristotle relates that according to tradition
the licence of the women was due to their having successfully
resisted Lycurgus' efforts to control them by law.

In classical times the legend ran that Cecrops first instituted
monogamy at Athens ; before his time connections had taken place
at random, men had had wives in common, and people did not
know who their fathers were because of the number of possible
parents (Athenseus, xiii. 2, quoting Clearchus of Soli). This is
obviously, as Miss Harrison [Prolegomena, 262) says, a confused
tradition of motherright (which we have already found reason to

MARITAL JEALOUSY 135

Customs of a similar character obtained, if we may-
believe classical writers, in other barbarous nations.
It must be remembered that they are not recorded
with anthropological exactitude ; they are told of
nations often imperfectly known to the writer ; in
many cases the statements are founded on reports
by travellers and others incompetent, for various
reasons, to give an accurate account. Yet with full
allowance for all these objections, there emerges a
body of evidence proving that in ancient times the
cultured nations of the Mediterranean basin were
surrounded by peoples, many of which displayed the
same bestial or philosophic indifference to the actu.d
paternity of their offspring as is found among back-
ward peoples in almost all parts of the world. Nor
was this indifference confined to savage and semi-
savao^e tribes. The ancestors of some of the Greeks
were related to have shared it, and we may suspect
that all did so. The customs of Athenians as well as
Spartans, even in historic times, were witness to it.
This is not all. Among the many relics of lower
stagfes of culture found in the luxurious cities of
Western Asia their sexual customs were conspicuous.

believe at one time prevailed at Athens) rather than trustworthy
testimony of polyandry. My argument does not require me to insist
that motherright is always accompanied by promiscuity or even
what we should call laxity of morals. We know that it is not.
But the law attributed to Solon and discussed in an earlier chapter
probably was a survival and a limitation of a more extended freedom
allowed to women. If this be so, light is shed on the tradition
recorded by Clearchus ; and we may therefore be justified in
suspecting th,e primitive Athenians of a social condition in which
women changed their mates at will, and perhaps retained none of
them long : a condition inconsistent, it is needless to say, with any
effective masculine jealousy.

136 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Lucian relates that at Byblus, at the annual mourning
for Adonis, the women performed the well-known
mourning rite of cutting off their hair. Any woman
v/ho refused to do this was required to exhibit herself
on one day of the festival and undergo prostitution
to one of the strangers who resorted thither, handing
over the price to the goddess called by Lucian the
Byblian Aphrodite.^ This was an annual rite.
Presumably at other times the woman preserved
her chastity. But if we may trust the ecclesiastical
historian Socrates the women of Heliopolis (Baalbec)
were, down to the establishment of Christianity,
required by the law to be common, so that the
offspring were doubtful, for there was no distinction
between fathers and children : a social condition
which Constantine abolished.^ If we may believe
Theopompus the historian (who wrote in the time of
Alexander the Great), as quoted by Athenasus, a
similar law governed the relations of the sexes among
the Etruscans. He gives shameful details of their
licentiousness, in the course of which he states that
they brought up all the children that were born,
nobody knowing who was the father of any child, and
that the children imitated their elders in their frequent
feasts and their intimacy with all the women. ^

But it is not only matrilineal peoples who are thus
careless of the chastity of their women or the actual
paternity of their children. Matrilineal freedom has
often survived into fatherright in more or less

1 Lucian, De Dea Syria, 6.

2 Socrates, Htsi. Eccl. i. i8. In more general and rhetorical
terms Eusebius, a contemporary witness, testifies to the same effect,

Vita Const, iii. 58). See my paper in Tylor Essays, 192.
^ Athenseus, Deipnos, xii. 14.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 137

abundant measure. Illustrations of this indifference
have been given in a previous chapter to show that
uncertainty of paternity cannot be the cause of the
reckoning of descent exclusively through the mother.
The special object of those that follow is to show that
the insistence on chastity is not a necessary conse-
quence of the change of reckoning. That alone does
not Impose a higher standard of sexual virtue. It
is the transfer of potestas to the husband (a gradual
process commencing under motherrlght) which autho-
rises him either to keep his women to himself or
to dispose of them to other men at his own pleasure ;
and subject to this they are often free. 11\\& potestas
also is limited among many peoples by religious
motives. What we should consider violations of
chastity are commanded as religious duties ; and
neither the husband nor the woman herself has any
right to withhold her person from sexual intercourse
on special occasions or with special persons.

We may first consider a few cases in which the
reckoning of kinship is undergoing transition or is
made through bpth parents. Of South African Bantu
the Herero are just passing from motherrlght to
fatherright. Before marriage sexual intercourse is
free. Yet some value is placed on virginity, and to
secure it children are betrothed In infancy, after which
on both sides chastity must be observed. The child
of an unmarried girl belongs to the begetter if he
choose to acknowledge it. In such a case It is treated
well but excluded from the Inheritance, No compen-
sation is payable for the seduction of an unmarried
girl. Adultery on the part of a wife is the source of
quarrels. The seducer is liable to pay the husband

138 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

compensation ; the wife may be repudiated but cannot
be punished. On the other hand a husband will lend
his wife in consideration of a present. Sometimes
men will enter into a sort of partnership by which they
hold their wives and cattle in common. The children
however in all cases belong- to the legfitimate husband.
This is a well recognised institution and is known
as Oupanga (friendship).-^

On the Anibon and Uliase Islands two kinds of
marriage exist, depending on the payment or non-pay-
ment of a bride-price, and the children belong either
to the husband's or to the wife's family accordingly.
The people are reported to be libidinous, and, as in
other parts of Indonesia, intercourse regulated strictly
by law is looked upon as something unnatural. Satis-
faction of sexual passion is deemed equally proper with
that of hunger and thirst. Girls have free intercourse
with old and young men, even before puberty, to
such an extent that it is a shame to have few or no
lovers. In this way they make acquaintance which
ends in marriage with one or other of their admirers.
It is true that an adulterer was liable forthwith to be
put to death, but only when caught in the act, a con-
tingency which probably did not very often occur.
Divorce did not exist until European rule forbade the
offended husband this summary vengeance. It is now
decreed by the chief on proof of adultery continual
disagreement ill-usage and the like. Some of the
population are Mohammedans : in free and unlimited
sexual intercourse they surpass all the rest.^ The

1 Kohler, citing various authorities, Zeits, vergl. Recht$'W, xiv. 304,
309, 298; Meyer, 56, 57, 62, 63,
3 Kiedel, 41, 67, 71,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 139

practice of capture (or rather elopement, for it seems
to have been preceded by an understanding with the
bride) and the exaction of a bride-price have, we may
conclude, developed the pairia potestas. Sexual
intercourse is free to the unmarried also on the Keei
or Ewaabu Islands and is usual. The women formerly
lived in polyandry and the children belonged to the
mother ; but women were captured in war and were
regarded as the property of their captors, the children
fellowing the father. This is the traditional manner
of accountinof for the chancre from uterine to agnatic
kinship. At the present time marriage is entered into
either with or without payment of a bride-price ; and
the reckoning of children to the father or mother
depends on the payment. The husband has the right
to send his wife away for adultery : the bride-price
must then be repaid. If this cannot be done, her
family unite to bring the pair together again. Many
of the people are Mohammedans ; but their knowledc:e
of Islam is very defective.-^ Matrimonial institutions
therefore appear to be undergoing a parallel evolution
to those of the Ambon and Uliase islanders.

The Eskimo reckon kindred along both lines of
descent. In spite of the vast extent of shore-line
along the Polar Sea over which they are scattered
their manners have a general resemblance. Infant
betrothal is not uncommon, but as a rule the selection
of a wife is made by a man after attaining puberty and
giving proof of ability to support a family by his success
in hunting and fishing. The lady usually feigns or
feels aversion, and force is used to compel her. Poly-
gamy is recognised, but is perhaps not very common,
1 Riedel, 219, 235, 236, 209,

I40 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

" They conduct their marriage," says Crantz of the
Greenlanders, " with tolerable good order ; at least
they have art enough to conceal the breaches of
conjugal fidelity, so that but little of it transpires.
Yet it never passes over without angry looks and
words on both sides, and sometimes the woman gets a
black eye ; which is the more remarkable, as the
Greenlanders otherwise are not quarrelsome or prone
to strike. Neither is the matrimonial contract so
irrevocable with them, but the man may put away his
wife, especially if she has no children. This he does
with little ceremony ; he only gives her a sour look,
marches forth and does not return home again for
several days. She perceives his meaning directly,
packs up her clothes and removes to her own friends.
Afterwards, in defiance to him, she demeans herself as
prudent and agreeable as possible, to bring an odium
upon him. Sometimes a wife elopes of her own accord
if she can't agree with the other females in the house ;
. . . But neither of these separations often occurs if
they have had children together, especially sons, for sons
are the Greenlander's greatest treasure and the best
security of their subsistence. In case of separation
they always follow the mother, nor are they to be
prevailed on even after her death to return again to
the father to support him in his old age." Discussing
the moral character of the people in a later passage
the same author, perhaps with a missionary's natural
austerity, says: "Neither does their plausible outside
modesty go far. I will not be particular about their
young single people, because among them there are the
fewest open breaches of chastity, though they are as
filthy in secret as other nations ; but as to the grown-

MARITAL JEALOUSY 141

up, It is certain their polygamy does not always spring
from a concern for population, but mostly from lust.
Moreover there are some women that are whores by
profession, though a single woman seldom prostitutes
herself to this scandalous trade. But as for the
married people, they are so shameless that if they can
they break the matrimonial obligation on both sides
without a blush." ^ If we assume, as perhaps we may,
that the *' scandalous trade " referred to had arisen
from'contact with Europeans, the rest of the foregoing
account may well stand for a fairly correct presentation
of native manners. Egede, who was a missionary to
Greenland for several years beginning in 1721, amply
confirms it. He notes with some surprise that "the
most detestable crime " of polygyny, though prevalent,
caused no jealousy among the wives before the
missionaries taught them its wickedness. Nor can
jealousy have had a much deeper hold of the men.
He describes by way of illustration a "game," at
which after feasting singing and dancing, the men one
after another disappeared behind a curtain withf each
other's wives. " Those," he says, " are reputed the
best and noblest tempered who without any pain or
reluctance, will lend their friends their wives. . . .
Especially the women think themselves happy if an
angakok^ or prophet, will honour them with his
caresses. There are even some men so generous that
they will pay the angakok for it ; chiefly if they them-
selves have no children ; for they fancy that an
angakok! s child will be more happy and better qualified
for business than others."^ The game referred to by
Egede is similar to the lamp-extinguishing game
^ Crantz, i. 157, 158, 159, i6i. 2 Egede, 140 sqq.

142 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

described by other writers, one of whom says that a
good host always has the lamps put out at night when
there are g-uests in the house/

Among some Eskimo polyandry has been alleged
to exist, and there seems to be foundation for the
statement.^ "A strange custom," writes Dr. Boas,
concerning the Eskimo of Davis Strait and Cumber-
land Sound, "permits a man to lend his wife to a
friend for a whole season or even longer, and to
exchange wives as a sign of friendship. On certain
occasions it is even commanded by religious law.
Nevertheless I know of some instances of quarrels
arising from jealousy. Lyon states, however, that
this passion is unknown among the Iglulirmiut [of
Baffin Land]. The husband is not allowed to
maltreat or punish his wife ; if he does she may leave
him at any time, and the wife's mother can always
command a divorce. Both are allowed to remarry as
soon as they like, even the slightest pretext being
sufficient for a separation." A friend on a visit for a
seasbn is accommodated with the loan of one of his
host's wives if the latter have more than one. At the
great religious feast of the autumn, the object of
which is to drive away the evil spirits and procure
fine weather for the coming- winter, two oio-antic
masked figures appear. Silently with loi^.g strides
they "approach the assembly, who screaming press
back from them. The pair solemnly lead the men to
a suitable spot and set them in a row, and the women

■•■ Nansen, 169. Is this the same custom as referred to by
Schell, Globus, xciv. 86 ? According to him it would seem too
that the Eskimo of East Greenland are matrilineal.

2 Nansen, 145, cites from Nils Egede a case of a woman who
had two husbands ; but both she and tney were m^gahit.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 143

in another opposite them. They match the men and
women in pairs, and these pairs run, pursued by the
qailertetang [masked figures], to the hut of the woman,
where they are for the following day and night man
and wife. Having performed this duty the qailertetang
stride down to the shore and invoke the good north
wind, which brings fair weather, while they warn off
the unfavourable south wind. As soon as the in-
cantation is over, all the men attack the qailertetang
with great noise." They pretend to kill them.
Presently however they are restored to life and are
consulted as oracles by the men about the future.^

Jealousy is said to be more developed among the
Eskimo of Hudson Bay. '* Monogamy is generally
the rule, but as there are so many counteracting
influences it is seldom that a man keeps a wife for a
number of years. Jealousy, resulting from laxity of
morals, produces so much disagreement that one or the
other of the parties usually leaves with little ceremony.
In rare instances, where there is a compatibility of
temper and a disposition to continence, the pair remain
together for life. Many of the girls bear children
before they are taken for wives, but as such incidents
do not destroy the respectability of the mother, the
girl does not experience any difficulty in procuring a
husband. Illegitimate children are usually taken care
of by some aged woman, who devotes to [them] all
her energies and affections." Elsewhere the same
writer describes the intrigues to which the angakok
lends himself for the purpose of gratifying the desires

^ Boas, Rep. Bur. Ethn. vi. 579, 581, 605 {cf. 606, 608); Bull.
Am. Mus. N. H. xv. 141. The custom of exchanging wives appears
in the traditional tales, e.g., Ibid, 225,

144 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

of men or women for change of spouse, and adds :
" The shaman may do about as he pleases with the
marriage ties, which oftener consist of sealskin thongs
than respect and love."^

With regard to temporary exchanges similar to

those of other Eskimo at festivals, Dr. Boas, writing

of shamanistic performances among the Eskimo of

the western coast of Hudson Bay, says: "It seems

that the incantations of the angahit [pi. of angakok\

are always performed in the evening. After each of

these ceremonies the people must exchange wives.

The women must spend the night in the huts of the

men to whom they are assigned. If any woman

should refuse to go to the man to whom she is

assigned she would be sure to be taken sick. The

man and the woman assigned to him, however, must

not be near relations."^ The more westerly Eskimo

of Point Barrow make a great many changes before

they settle down to a permanent union. They are

also in the habit of exchanging wives for a period.

*' For instance, one man of our acquaintance planned

to go to the rivers deer-hunting in the summer of 1882,

and borrowed his cousin's wife for the expedition, as

she was a good shot and a good hand at deer-hunting,

while his own wife went with his cousin on the trading

expedition to the eastward. On their return the wives

went back to their respective husbands. The couples

sometimes find themselves better pleased with their

new mates than with the former association, in which

case the exchange is made permanent. This happened

once in Utkiavwin to our certain knowledge. This

^ Turner, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 178, 188, 189, 199, 200.
2 Boas, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H. xv. 158.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 145

custom has been observed at Fury and Hecla straits,
Cumberland Gulf, and in the region around Repulse
Bay, where it seems to be carried to an extreme.
According to Gilder it is a usual thing among friends
in that reofion to exchange wives for a week or two
about every two months." The writer from whom I
here quote adds : "I am informed by some of the
whalemen who winter in the neighbourhood of Repulse
Bay that at certain times there is a general exchange
of wives throughout the village, each woman passing
from man to man till she has been through the hands
of all and finally returns to her husband."^

Amono^ the Eskimo about Berina- Strait " a man
may discard a wife who is a scold or unfaithful to him,
or who is niggardly with food, keeping the best for
herself. On the other hand, a woman may leave a
man who is cruel to her or who fails to provide the
necessary subsistence. When a husband finds that his
wife is unfaithful he may beat her, but he rarely
revenges himself on the man concerned, although at
times this may form an excuse for an affray where
enmity had previously existed between the parties.
An old man told me," says Mr. Nelson, "that in
ancient times, when the husband and a lover quarrelled
about a woman, they were disarmed by the neighbours
and then settled the trouble with their fists or by
wrestling, the victor in the struggle taking the woman.
It is a common custom for two men living in different
villages to agree to become bondfellows, or brothers

I Murdoch, Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 412, 413. This writer says,
" We never heard of any of the hcentious festivals or orgies described
by Egede and KumUen " (^Ibid. 375). This negative evidence is
not conclusive in view of the general practice of the Eskimo
elsewhere.

II • K

146 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

by adoption. Having made this arrangement, when-
ever one of the men goes to the other's village he is
received as the bond-brother's guest and is given the
use of his host's bed with his wife during his stay.
When the visit is returned the sam.e favour is extended
to the other ; consequently neither family knows who
is the father of the children. . . . It is frequently the case
that a man enjoys the rights of a husband before living
regularly with the woman he takes for a wife, and
nothing wrong is thought of it, unmarried females
being considered free to suit themselves in this regard."
The same writer describes the pairing at the autumnal
festival in terms slightly different from those already
quoted concerning the Central Eskimo, whence it
would appear that sometimes, at all events, the choice of
partners is not wholly at the will of the shamans.
During the February moon another festival is held in
honour of the dead and to obtain a good supply of
game and food. It is called the Doll Festival, from
a wooden doll or image of a human being, which is
the centre of certain ceremonies in the kaskim, or
assembly-house. '* During the continuance of the
festival the namesakes of dead men are paired with
namesakes of their deceased wives without regard to
age, and during this period the men or boys bring
their temporary partners firewood, and the latter
prepare food for them, thus symbolising the former
union of the dead." ^

A kind of thanksgiving ceremony is performed

^ Nelson, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xviii. 292, 360, 379, 494. The
custom of bond-brotherhood, which is not uncommon in other parts
of the world, generally entails community of wives {cf. Post, Studien,
32).

MARITAL JEALOUSY 147

by the Asiatic Eskimo at certain times. It is
called the "ceremonial of going around" and con-
sists in a number of persons of both sexes turning
sunwise a horizontal wheel fixed to an upright pole
and singing to the beating of the drum. They go
faster and faster until having wrought themselves up
to a pitch of excitement they leave the wheel, and the
men, still running in the same direction, chase the
women all over the house. Every man has the right
to sleep that night with the woman he may have
succeeded in catching.^

In the face of these customs it can hardly be
suggested that the Eskimo in general pay any regard
to the chastity of their wives or the real paternity of
their children. Jealousy, it is true, is more developed
in some communities than others ; but it does not
succeed in preventing or materially reducing libertin-
age. Its only result is to multiply the changes of
mate. On the other hand, the religious festivals and
social observances of the race express and stimulate
the fickle passions of both sexes. The reckoning of
lineage through the father, so far as it obtains, means
no more than the reckoning of patrilineal peoples
through the mother's husband, the actual father being
unimportant for any purpose.

In the greater part of Melanesia descent is uterine
and the people are divided into two or more exogamous
classes. Dr. Codrington, after a full discussion of this
organisation and of Melanesian society, arrives at the
conclusion that there is reason to believe that in the
exogamous divisions there are traces of a communal
system of marriage. In practice on most of the islands,
^ Bogoias, Jesup Exped. vii. 402.

148 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

in spite of the laxity between boys and girls such as
we have found elsewhere, female chastity is more
highly valued than is usual in matrilineal societies.
The islands, however, are not all alike in this respect
It is noteworthy that two of the worst are Ugi and San
Cristoval (two of the Solomon Islands) where uterine
has given way to agnatic descent/

Infant betrothals are very common throughout the
islands among the higher ranks of society, and virginity
is probably preserved in such cases. Adultery was
very strictly punished, yet on several of the islands
compromise by payment was possible. On the other
hand, divorce is easy and common, and is effected at
the will of either party. Cases occur in the Banks
Islands where a husband " connives at his wife's
connection with another man. This is not counted
adultery because it is allowed ; " but it is thought
discreditable. The use of women given by way of
hospitality according to the custom already mentioned
would not of course be regarded as adultery for the
same reason.^ On the Solomon Islands we are told
conjugal fidelity is usually preserved within the limits
of the same community, but the men of Santa Anna
exchange wives with those of San Cristoval for a time
and then take them back, restoring them to their
original position in the home.^ In the Fiji Islands
" all the evils of the most licentious sensuality are
found," though it is fair to add that " voluntary breach
of the marriage contract is rare in comparison with

1 Codrington, 21, 22, 27 sqq., 235; F. Elton, /. //. /. xvii. 93,
95; Guppy, 43 ; R, Parkinson, Int. Arch. xi. 199.

2 Codrington, 237, 243, 244, 246.

3 Guppy, 43.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 149

that which is enforced." A chief sometimes gave up
the women of a town to a company of visitors or
warriors. Compliance was compulsory ; but the wives
were required to disclose it to their husbands, other-
wise they would be punished.-^

In the northern New Hebrides, during the cere-
monies of initiation into the secret society of the Qatu,
" if the women assemble, as they do, to hear the
singing in the enclosure where the neophytes are
being taught it is an allowed custom for men to carry
them off and ravish them." ^ It may be said that this is
punishment for prying ; but if the object were to
prevent prying greater care would be taken, as among
the Australian natives, to keep the women at a
distance. It seems rather to be part of the proceedings.
As such it must be well known to the women and does
not deter them. In the Wainimala District of Viti
Levu, Fiji, fatherright prevails. A secret society (ac-
cording to another account two secret societies) existed
until a few years ago, into which the youths were
initiated with elaborate ceremonies. At one stagfe in
the proceedings the women were summoned and
entered the nanga, or sacred enclosure, which was at
all other times forbidden to them. They entered on
all fours, and after a short ceremony by the chief
priest, returned in the same way. As soon as they
emerged from the nanga the men, who had been
hitherto concealed, rushed upon them with a sudden
yell, and an indescribable scene ensued. " All my
informants agree," says Dr. Fison, "in stating that
the men and women address one another in the
filthiest language, using expressions which would be
^ Williams, F/>V, 115, 147, - Codrington 87.

150 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

violently resented on ordinary occasions, and that

from the time of the women's coming to the nanga to

the close of the ceremonies very great licence prevails."

Nor is this the only occasion. When a chief's son is

circumcised a great feast follows, ushering a period of

revelry. *' All distinctions of property are for the time

being suspended. Men and women array themselves

in all manner of fantastic grarbs, address one another in

the most indecent phrases and practice unmentionable

abominations openly in the public square of the town.

The nearest relationships — even that of own brother

and sister — seem to be no bar to the general licence,

the extent of which may be indicated by the expressive

phrase of an old Nandi chief, who said ' While it lasts

we are just like the pigs.' This feasting and frolic may

be kept up for several days, after which the ordinary

restrictions recur once more. The rights of property

are attain respected, the abandoned revellers settle

down into steady-going married couples, and brothers

and sisters may not so much as speak to one

another."^

The Melanesian husband pays a bride-price for his

wife ; he takes her to his own home ; and his potestas

is highly developed even where motherright prevails.

The woman occupy quite a subordinate position ; and

on the whole it may be said that jealousy on the part

of the husband seems to arise from his sense of

property, rather than from any other cause. His

property is not infringed by the voluntary lending of

1 Fison, /. A. I. xiv. 24, 28. Another account of these cere-
monies by Mr. Adolph B. Joske of Fiji varies in some particulars
from Dr. Fison's account and does not admit the licence {Int. Arch.
ii. 254). Independent inquiry, however, as stated below, confirms
the correctness of Dr. Fison's information.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 151

wives as an expression of hospitality. But it is
suspended at feasts or at the will of the chief in some
of the islands, as part of certain ceremonies in others.
The riiual licence just described in Fiji is expressly
recognised as a suspension of property in women as in
other things. Independent inquiry has elicited the
confirmation of Dr. Fison's account of the circumcision
ceremonies. The details are described as unfit for
publication ; but Dr. Tylor quotes from them an ex-
pressive phrase to the effect that on the fourth day,
when food is no longer tabu but permitted, and the
great feast is prepared, " it is said that there are no
owners of pigs or women." ^

The inhabitants of the Barito river basin in the
south of Borneo are addicted to feasts of a more or
less religious character. They last for several days at
a stretch and are the occasion of much licentiousness.^
The Kenniahs in British North Borneo have a festival
called Bttnut in honour of the fertility of their women
and of the soil. After certain ceremonies, including
auguries and prayers to their God Lak6 Ivong, to come
and bring the soul of the paddy seed, what is described
as "a downright indecent rough and tumble" follows,
in which men and women boys and girls all indis-
criminately join, pelting one another with rice boiled
in soot and with filth. A naked man, with an idiotic
simper on his face, wanders in and out among the
revelling crew and the women are made to touch him
as he passes. This is obviously a fertility charm.

^ Fison, loc. cit., note by Dr. Tylor. It is even stated in one
account that tribal brothers and sisters are intentionally coupled,
thus compelling what at other times would be deemed, incest and
as such deserving of the severest punishment.

2 Ling Roth, Sarawak, ii. clxxiii. transcribing Schwaner's Notes,

152 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

The interpretation is confirmed, if confirmation be
necessary, by the fact that the grossest licence is
permitted during the short period of the orgy. It
comes to an end in about a quarter of an hour. The
verandah in which it takes place is deluged with water
and one or two women, sliding about the slippery floor
with hand-nets, make believe to scoop up the slush for
fear the rice they have wasted may never return to
them again. ^

Among the Land Dyaks of Sirambau the Orang
Kayas, or chiefs, according to St. John have many cases
of adultery to settle, but these do not cause much
excitement in the tribe : whence it is probably fair to
infer that sexual morality is low, adultery common
and easily atoned for. Such in fact seems to be the
case, though they are reported to be more moral than
the Malays. Divorces are very common, effected
upon the slightest excuse ; nor has a woman any
difficulty in replacing a spouse whom she has lost or
herself repudiated. Marriage is a business partner-
ship for the purpose of having children, dividing labour
and providing by means of offspring for old age. It is
therefore entered into and dissolved almost at pleasure.
Either party may, it need hardly be said, put away the
other for adultery ; but if a v/ife who gives this occasion
for divorce be a strong useful woman her husband,
instead of taking advantage of it, may accept from her
lover a fine equal to twelve rupees and thus settle the
matter.^

i.:Ling Roth,| Sarawak, i. 415, transcribing Brooke Low's
notes. /, fj-..*it ^'fi^pf

2 St. John, i. 165, 166.^ Among other Dyaks there is jealousy.
The wife will thrash her unfaithful husband, and the husband will
thrash the paramour of an unfaithful wife. But divorce is effected

MARITAL JEALOUSY 153

Sexual hospitality of the kind already referred to is
provided by the Kyans and probably by some other
tribes of Sarawak/ Amono- the Timorese of Dawan it
is regarded as a great insult for a guest to refuse a wife
or daughter offered to him by his host.^

The Malagasy may be said to have reached the
stage of fatherright, but they retain visible traces of
matrilineal descent. Their sensuality "is universal
and gross, though generally concealed. Continence
is not supposed to exist in either sex before marriage ;
consequently it is not expected and its absence is not
regarded as a vice." Indeed so great is the desire for
children that not merely is sterility regarded as a mis-
fortune or an opprobrium, but a girl who has already
become a mother is looked upon as an advantageous
match. There is no word in the Malagasy language
to express a virgin ; the word mpitovo commonly
used means only an unmarried girl. The negative
evidence of words is proverbially fallacious. If we
had only that afforded by the absence of a word for
virgin we might hesitate to believe in the common
incontinence of unmarried girls in Madagascar. It is,
however, abundantly attested by European observers.

simply by desertion, and on the slightest pretext. Many men and
women marry seven or even eight times before they finally settle
down„ Id. 56.

^ Ling Roth, Sarawak, i. 117, quoting Low. ^diSixdin [Indonesien,
iv. 24), apparently referring primarily to the Tandjoeng Ban tang
Dyak, states that the Dyak makes use of his wife to obtain wealth
by means of compensation for her adulteries. But, as usual, his
authority does not appear. From the interior of Peling he reports
(pp. cit. 43) a practice of hiring the wife to strangers ; but this would
seem rather a case of demoralisation arising from contact with
strangers. Here again no authority is cited.

'^ Post, Stttdien, 345, citing Riedel.

154 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

After marriage a wife is supposed to be faithful, and
one of the many causes of divorce is the suspicion of
infidelity. Yet on the other hand we are told that
every child is welcome in the family without too great
a solicitude about its origin. When the husband is at
home his wife wears no badgfe distinofuishing" her from
an unmarried woman, but during his absence, especially
if in the service of Government, she wears a necklace
of silver ringrs or beads or of braided hair to denote
that she is married and therefore her person is sacred.
In case of prolonged absence however a husband will
give leave to his wife to have intercourse with another
man. There is a special Hova word, saodranto, for
this leave. Its existence affords positive evidence
that the idea expressed is familiar, and consequently
that the practice is relatively frequent. Polygyny is
practised, the first wife being usually consulted before
a second is taken. Her refusal to consent is another
of the many grounds of divorce. A Malagasy proverb
compares marriage to a knot so lightly tied that it can
be undone with the slightest touch. The power of
divorce rests with the husband and may be exercised
on very trivial occasions. On the other hand, by
running away and refusing to return the wife can
practically compel a divorce, though the husband may
impose conditions with regard to property and, as we
have seen in a previous chapter, with regard to
children by a future husband : he can even divorce
her in such a manner as to preclude her from ever
marrying again. Among the Tanala, if a woman of noble
birth marry a commoner he cannot divorce her, but she
can divorce him. This may remind us of the privileges
enjoyed by royal women on the contirent of Africa

MARITAL JEALOUSY 155

and elsewhere. The rights of an unmarried Malagasy
queen resemble them still more. She may have " a
family by whom she may think proper : the children
are recognised as legitimately royal by their relation to
the mother and no question made as to paternity."
On certain festive occasions the licence was shameless.
Such were the periodical times appointed by the Hova
sovereigns for the performance of circumcision, and
the celebration of a birth in the royal family. The
grossest practices on the latter occasion were abolished
by Radama L on the urgent remonstrances of Mr.
Hastie, the then British resident at the capital, who
threatened to publish the facts in the Mauritius Gazette
so that they might be known in Europe to the king's
disgrace.^ Among the Betsileo funerals are accom-
panied by general " prostitution." ^ A French traveller
in the earlier half of the last century gives a graphic
account of the way in which the hospitality of the
Betanimena towards him extended to the offer of a
young girl as temporary consort ; ^ but it does not
appear whether other Malagasy tribes practise this
custom on the reception of strangers. Their opinions
on the subject of chastity would certainly not stand in
the way.

Brahmanism is gradually penetrating the immemorial
practices of the non- Aryan population of the valley of
the Ganges and its tributaries. By a convenient
fiction the tribe is converted into a caste deriving its

1 Ellis, Hist. Mad. i. 137, 167, 172, 150; Sibree, 252, 253,254,
250, 217 ; Father Paul Camboue, Anthropos, ii. 983.

^ van Gennep, Tabou, 158, citing the Antananarivo A.imtat.

^ Id. Taboit, 45, quoting Leguevel de Lacoinbe, Voyage a
Madagascar.

156 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

origin from one of the recognised gods in the Hindu
pantheon ; its chief object of worship is represented
as an avatar of one of the great deities ; and its
occupation is said to have been ordained by divine
decree to commemorate some fact of its mythical
history or by way of a curse for a petty imposition
on the divine intelligence. By conforming in some
measure to Hindu rites and prohibitions it struggles
to obtain recognition in the social hierarchy. The
struggle brings with it the change from uterine to
agnatic descent unless that change have been previously
effected. It involves the more complete subjugation
of women, infant marriage, the insistence on female
chastity, the abolition of divorce, the perpetuation of
widowhood. Not every tribe as yet is thus revolu-
tionised. Among a large number of the tribes, whether
aboriginal Dravidians or later immigrants, relics of the
old freedom enjoyed by the female sex are found. In
such cases unmarried girls are frequently able to
bestow their favours on whom they will, with or with-
out the penalty of a feast to the tribesmen, subject
usually to the condition that if found pregnant they
must be married ; and they have a voice, if not
invariably an exclusive or a controlling voice, in the
selection of their husbands. After marriage adultery
within the tribe or caste is winked at or regarded as a
venial weakness ; nor is it a ground for repudiation by
their husbands unless habitual or very open and proved
by eye-witnesses of the actual fact. Divorce by either
party is often easy. Ladies who have left their
husbands, or whose husbands are dead, are free to
marry again. Their unions, even where they are of a
less formal character than that of a woman married

MARITAL JEALOUSY 157

for the first time, are fully recognised, and their
children suffer no disability. If not allowed to marry,
such ladies are by no means always debarred from
indulging their fancies in a less regular manner.^

It will be sufficient here to mention one of the tribes
least affected by Hinduism, namely, the Santals.
The Santals are a large Dravidian tribe, classed on
linguistic grounds as Kolarian, which is found in
Western Bengal, Northern Orissa, Bhagalpur and the
Santal Pirganas. They are divided into twelve
exogamous septs descendible in the male line. These
septs may be ascribed, though doubtfully, to a totemic
origin. " Girls are married as adults mostly to men
of their own choice. Sexual intercourse before
marriage is tacitly recognised, it being understood
that if the girl becomes pregnant the young man is
bound to marry her." It' is suggested that fraternal
polyandry at one time existed. "Even now," says
Mr. Skrefsrud, a " man's younger brother may share
his wife with impunity, only they must not go about it
very openly. Similarly a wife will admit her younger
sister to intimate relations with her husband, and if
pregnancy occurs scandal is avoided by his marrying

^ The half-Brahmanised tribes and castes are so numerous and
the details so varied that the general results of an examination of
the details given by Mr. Risley relating to the population of Bengal
and by Mr. Crooke relating to that of the United Provinces can
only be stated here. Nor is it possible to compile accurate statistics,
in consequence of the tendency of many of the castes to sub-division
on minute points and the local differences of practice. Reference
should be made to The Tribes and Castes of Bengal and The Tribes
and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and to the
Report of the Census of 1901. A distinct connection -s traceable
between the comparative freedom of women before and after
marriage, though it is not invariable.

158 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

the girl as a second wife." Divorce at the wish of
either husband or wife is merely a question of terms.
It "is effected in the presence of the assembled
villagers by the husband tearing asunder three sal-
leaves in token of separation and upsetting a brass
pot full of water." ^

That curious and interesting people the Todas,
inhabiting the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India, have
long been known to practise fraternal polyandry. A
woman married to a man becomes at the same time
the wife of all his brothers, and even of brothers who
may be born subsequently to the marriage. So far as
the statistics collected by Dr. Rivers go the husbands
are usually brothers in our sense of the word. But
they are sometimes clan-brothers only, that is to say,
men belong-ino; to the same clan and the same genera-
tion. More rarely it seems men of different clans may
have the same wife. When the wife becomes pregnant
the eldest brother performs a ceremony the central
rite of which is the giving to the wife of a miniature
bow and arrow. This constitutes him for all social
purposes the father of the child about to be born and
of all future children until another of the husbands
perform a similar ceremony. So strict is this rule that
he will be regarded as the father of a child born long
after his death if no other man have performed the
ceremony in the meantime. But a woman is by no
means limited to sexual intercourse with her formal
husbands, nor are they limited to intercourse with
their joint wife. Wives are often transferred from one
husband, or one group of husbands, to another in
exchange for a number of buffaloes. Moreover there
^ Risley, i. 228, 229, 231.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 159

is a well-recognised institution by which a woman
becomes the formal mistress of a man who is not her
husband. It is true that the consent of the husbands
is required, but that is usually arranged without
difficulty. A woman may have more than one of
these lovers, and a man may have more than one
mistress. Any children born of such unions are in
law children of the reg^ular marrias^e.

But we have not yet reached the limit of Toda
licence. It is unnecessary here to discuss the dairy-
cult which forms so large a part of Toda life, or to
distino^uish and describe the different ranks of officials
who minister in that cult. Suffice it to say that
althouo-h some of these officials are restricted from
intercourse at certain places or on certain days with
their own wives, on other occasions they are free to
have commerce with any woman, or with any woman
of the Tarthar group, one of the two endogamous
groups or phratries into which the Todas are divided.
Indeed, after the dairyman of a Tarthar dairy has
served the office for eighteen years without a break, it
is an indispensable condition of his continuance that
he have ritual intercourse with a girl or young woman
of the clan. She is brought for that purpose to a wood
near the village whither he goes at the appointed time
to meet her. When he is first inducted into office an
old Tarthar woman takes part in the ceremony. She
must be past the age of child-bearing and must never
have had intercourse with one of her own clan. There
seems some doubt as to the exact meaning of this
qualification ; but at any rate according to the evidence
it is by no means easy to find a woman who fulfils the
requirement. Dr. Rivers, in summing up the results

i6o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

of his inquiries as to the sexual relations of the Todas,
says : " There seems no doubt that there is little
restriction of any kind on sexual intercourse. I was
assured by several Todas not only that adultery was
no motive for divorce, but that it was in no way
regarded as wrong. It seemed clear that there is no
word for adultery in the Toda language. . . . When a
word for a concept is absent in any language it by no
means follows that the concept has not been developed ;
but in this case I have little doubt that there is no
definite idea in the mind of the Toda corresponding to
that denoted by our word 'adultery.' Instead of
adultery being regarded as immoral, I rather suspected,
though I could not satisfy myself on the point, that
according to the Toda idea immorality attaches rather
to the man who grudges his wife to another. One
group of those who experience difficulty in getting to
the next world after death are the kashtvainol, or
grudging people ; and I believe this term includes
those who would in a more civilised community be
plaintiffs in the divorce court." After intimating his
doubts whether the "widespread, almost universal
abhorrence " of incest is shared by the Todas, he goes
on to say : " So far as I could tell the laxity in sexual
matters is equally great before and after marriage. If
a girl who has been married in infancy but has not yet
joined her husband should become pregnant, the
husband would be called upon to give the bow and
arrow at the pursutpimi ceremony and would be the
father of the child, even if he were still a young boy,
or if it were known that he was not the [actual] father
of the child." ^

1 Rivers, 515, 319, 517, 518, 523, 526, 62, 68, 72, 78, 99,
103, 156, 505, 529, 530, 531.

MARITAL JEALOUSY i6i

Polyandry at one time seems to have been quite
common in the south of India, and even now it is not
wholly abandoned by some of the castes. A traveller
at the beginning of the sixteenth century relates that
at Calicut it was the custom for friends among the
gentlemen and merchants to exchange wives ; and
among the other castes one woman had five six or
seven, or even as many as eight husbands, each of
whom spent a night with her by turns. Any children
whom she had she assigned to one or the other of
the husbands, and her word was taken for the fact.^
In the last quarter of the eighteenth century another
traveller reported that on the coast of Malabar, in the
caste to which the braziers belonged, the eldest
brother alone married ; but the others supplied his
place with their sister-in-law when he was absent.^
Tc-day the Kammalans (artisans) of Malabar practise
fraternal polyandry. As part of the wedding ceremony
the bride and her bridegrooms sit in a row, the eldest
brother sitting on the right, the others in order of
seniority, and lastly the bride. A priest of the caste
takes some milk in a vessel and pours it into their
mouths one after the other. The eldest bridegroom
" cohabits with the bride on the wedding day and
special days are set apart for each of the others.
There seems to be a belief among the Kammdlan
women that the more husbands they have the greater
will be their happiness. If one of the brothers, on the
ground of incompatibility of temper, brings a new wife

1 di Varthema, 145. This seems to be the authority made use
of by Munster in his Cosmography translated by Eden in 1553
(Arber, First Three Bks. 1 7). As to polyandry in ancient India the
reader may consult Jolly, 47.

2 Thurston, 113.

II h

i62 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

she is privileged to cohabit with the other brothers.
In some cases a girl will have brothers ranging in age
from twenty-five to five whom she has to regard as
her husbands, so that by the time the youngest
brother reaches puberty she may be over thirty and
the young man has to perform the duties of a husband
with a wife who is twice his age. Polyandry is said to
be most prevalent among the blacksmiths, who lead
the most precarious existence and have to observe the
strictest economy."^

Fraternal polyandry it has been argued is due to
economic causes, such as poverty, and the desire to
keep the family property together. That economic
causes have often had an important influence cannot be
denied. But to attribute any species of polyandry to
these causes alone is to venture upon a very hazardous
theory in the face of the evidence from all parts of the
world of indifference to what the civilised peoples of
Europe generally regard as womanly virtue. It is not
of course asserted that this indifference is universal ;
but the present and preceding chapters show that even
where the chastity of a married woman is insisted on
chastity is often interpreted in such a way that
sexual union with certain persons from time to time
appointed or permitted by the husband or by custom
is not deemed a breach of morals, but on the contrary
is a positive duty. Polyandry is the more or less
permanent union of a woman with several men who
are jointly regarded as her husbands. So far from its
being a hardship submitted to unwillingly and from
the pressure of poverty, in some cases at all events it
is a subject of boasting. Thus the Kanisans, or

1 Thurston, 114; lud. Census, 1901, xx. 167^ M. xxvi. 275.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 163

astrologers, of Malabar, like the Pdndava brothers
(mythical figures in the epos of the Mahdbhdratd) " as
they proudly point out^ used formerly to have one wife in
common among several brothers, and this custom is
still observed by some of them." ^ The carpenters and
blacksmiths too celebrate their polyandrous marriages
" openly according to their caste rules and with much
ceremony and pomp," in no wise as an evil to be sub-
mitted to or ashamed of.^ Among their women, as we
have just seen, polyandry is highly appreciated. A
very pretty Dafla girl once came into the station at
Luckimpur in Bengal, threw herself at the feet of
Colonel Dalton, the officer in charge, who tells the tale,
and in most poetical language besought his protection.
She was a chief's daughter and a prize in the
matrimonial market. Her father had promised her to
a brother chieftain who already had many other wives.
She however would not submit to be one of many ;
and besides she loved, and she had eloped with her
beloved. This was so romantic that the gallant
colonel was naturally interested. His sympathies
w^ere at once enlisted in her favour. When she came
to him she was in a very coarse travelling dress ; but
when he assured her of his protection she took from
her basket fresh apparel and other ornaments, and
there and then proceeded to array herself ; and very
charming she looked as she combed and plaited her
long hair and completed her toilette. Meanwhile the
colonel sent for "the beloved," who had kept in the
background ; and his surprise was great when there

^ Thurston, 115, quoting Logan, Manual of Malabar.
^ Mayne, 75, citing a mem. annexed to the Malabar Marriage
Report, p. 103.

i64 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

appeared not one but two ! She who had objected to
be one of many wives had eloped wuth two young
men ; why should polygamy be the privilege of the
tyrant man ? ^

Something like that very question was argued by a
great lady in Tibet with an Indian traveller a few
years since. The Tibetan custom of fraternal poly-
andry is too well known to need description. The
tyranny of man can hardly be known among the happy
women of Tibet ; the boot is perhaps upon the other
leg. The traveller had cured the lady in question of a
nervous disorder. On one occasion, when he was
dining with her, she asked him many questions con-
cerning the marriage laws of India and Europe.
When he told her that in India a husband had several
wives and that among the Phyling (foreigners) a man
had but one wife she stared at him with undisgruised
astonishment. " One wife with one husband ! " she
exclaimed. " Don't you think we Tibetan women are
better off? The Indian wife has but a portion of her
husband's affections and property, but in Tibet the
housewife is the real lady of all the joint earnings and
inheritance of all the brothers sprung from the same
mother, who are all of the same flesh and blood. The
brothers are but one, though their souls are several. ,,
In India a man marries, well ! several women who are \
strangers to each other." "Am I to understand that
your ladyship would like to see several sisters marry
one husband ? " the traveller asked. " That is not the
point," she replied ; " what I contend is that Tibetan
women are happier than Indian women, for they enjoy the J
privileges conceded in the latter country to the men."^
1 Dalton, 36. - Chandra Das, 161.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 165

The women are thus a powerful influence in favour
of polyandry ; and if not established in the first
instance, at least it is maintained by the help of
their goodwill. In some of the taluks of Malabar
the custom of fraternal polyandry survives among the
Tiyans (toddy-tappers), though it is said to be dying
out. Reasons of an economic nature however support
it, reasons urged not on behalf of the men but of the
women, because it is possible for a man besides sharing
his elder brother's wife to have a wife for himself.
Property devolves through the eldest brother's wife.
A girl will not be given in marriage to an only son,
for her relatives say : " Where is the good ? He may
die and she will have nothing. The more brothers
the better the match," The argument, it is obvious,
will always apply to a monogamic marriage among
a community of artisans. It is said that the Tiyan
wife sleeps in a room and her husbands outside.
When one of them enters the room a knife is placed
on the door-frame as a signal to forbid entrance to
the other husbands.^ In South Malabar and the
northern parts of Cochin the marriage ceremony of
the Tiyans (there called Izhuvas or Thaudans) varies
according as the bride is intended to be the wife of
one or all of a band of brothers. The operative part
of the ceremony seems to be "the giving of sweets,"
similiar to the Kammalan ceremony in Malabar
already described. The bride and bridegroom are
seated on a mat and given milk, plantain-fruits and
sugar. If the marriage is intended to be m.onandrous
the bridegroom's brothers do not share in the sweets.
If it is to be polyandrous the sweets are served
^ Thurston, 112.

i66 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

to them and the bride, either in the hut of the bride-
groom after he has gone through the ceremony by
their mother, or in the bride's hut by her mother. It
is still the custom for four or five Izhuva brothers
to marry a young woman. A vessel of water is kept
at the door of her room to serve the purpose of the
knife elsewhere. Any of the brothers may marry
a wife either for himself alone or to be a common
wife of the group. The children of the polyandrous
marriage are the children of all the husbands.^
Polyandry is also a custom of the western Kalians ;
and among them also the husbands are held to be
jointly and severally fathers of any children the wife
may bear.^ Among the jungle Kurumbas of the
Nilgiri Hills it is said to be the custom for several
brothers to take one wife in common, nor do they
"object to their women being open to others also."'
In Ceylon fraternal polyandry is common, especially
in the Kandyan country where it is more or Itss general
among all classes. The reason assigned by the poor
is poverty, by the wealthy and men of rank that
such marriages unite the family, concentrate property

1 Iyer, 22, 24. The -Izhuvas inherit according to matrilineal
rules in certain disticts, but not in the district referred to {Ibid. 29 ;
Ind. Census. 1901, xxvi. 279).

2 Thurston, 108. As to the Kalians generally, see Ind. Census,
1901, XV. 158.

3 Thurston, 113, It is reported of the Badagas in the Nflgiris,
almost in the same terms as of tribe and caste after tribe and caste
in the United Provinces and Bengal : " Immorality within the
family circle is not regarded very harshly" (Mayne, 75, quoting
the Census report of 1891). The Kuravas, a Gipsy tribe found all
over the Tamil country, treat their women " in a very casual manner,
mortgaging or selling their wives without compunction " {Ind. Census,
1 90 1, XV. 164).

MARITAL JEALOUSY 167

and influence and conduce to the interest of the
children who, having a plurality of fathers, will be
the better taken care of and will still have a father left
even though they lose one. The children call all the
husbands father, distinguishing the eldest as " great
father" the others as "little fathers." "Chastity,"
says a writer of the early part of the last century, " is
not a virtue in very high estimation amongst the
Singalese women, nor jealousy a very troublesome
passion amongst the men. Infidelity certainly is not
uncommon ; and it is easily forgiven, unless the lady
disgrace herself by forming a low-caste attachment,
which is considered unpardonable and always ends
in divorce." ^ Among the Kannuvans of Madura
on the mainland a woman may only have one legal
husband at a time ; but she may " bestow favours
on paramours without hindrance, provided they be of
equal caste with her." ^

Throughout India the proper marriage for a boy is
deemed to be with his father's sister's daughter or his
mother's brother's daughter ; and in the wedding
ceremonies of many tribes and castes among which it
is no longer insisted on vestiges are found of the
custom.^ Some castes, however, are very punctilious
and will even marry together a boy who is a mere
child and a full-grown woman who stands in the
necessary relationship to him. This may, in some
Indian cases, be the origin of the ill-assorted marriages
of the kind referred to in a previous chapter.^ The
Tottiyans or Kambalattars (Telugu cultivators of the

1 Davy, 286; Thurston, 112.

2 Mayne, 74, quoting Madura Manual, pt. ii. 34.

3 W. H. R. Rivers,/. R. A. S. 1907, 611 sqq.
* Supra, vol. i. p. 305.

i68 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

soil) and the Kdppiliyans (Canarese cultivators) are
instances in point. Among the Tottiyans, it is said,
the bridegroom's father takes upon himself the duty of
begetting children to his son. It is customary more-
over for the women after marriage " to cohabit with
their husbands' brothers and near relations and with
their uncles ; and so far from any disgrace attaching to
them in consequence their priests compel them to keep
up the custom if by any chance they are unwilling."
The morality of the women is reported in general
terms to be "loose." Divorce is easy and remarriage
freely allowed.^ The Kdppiliyans extend the man's
right of marriage to include his sister's daughter.
Quite small boys are often married to adult women.
Whether or not the man who -is regarded as the
husband's father normally supplies the husband's place,
it is permissible for a married woman to consort with
her brothers-in-law without suffering any social degrada-
tion. Nor need her favours be confined by any means
to them, so long as those favours are shared only by
members of the caste. As among other castes addicted
to similar practices children of a woman mated with an
infant husband are regarded as his children and inherit
his property, though his paternity may be impossible.'

1 Ind. Census, 1901^ xv. 180 ; Thurston, 108.

2 Ind. Cens. 1901, xv. 141 ; Thurston, 108. It is perhaps not irre-
levant to note here that the tying of the tali, or ordinary Dravidian
badge of marriage, is not necessarily effected among the castes
of Southern India by or even on behalf of the de facto husband.
The practice among the Nayars has already (vol. i. p. 267) been men-
tioned. It may be said generally that at or before puberty every girl
undergoes the ceremony of tying the tali. Once this is done she is
free to contract an alliance intended to be followed by cohabitation.
The ceremony by which the latter alliance is initiated is usually not
regarded as marriage, and bears a different name. The subject

MARITAL JEALOUSY 169

Reference has been made on an earlier page to the
Kolarian tribes. Among these tribes the agricultural
festivals are marked by an outburst of sexual licence.
The Oraons celebrate in the spring a sacred marriage,
like that of the Leti Lslanders, " at which all shame
and morality are laid aside." If not to the Santals,
the same licence is imputed in an extreme form to the
Hos. The Larka-Kols offer sacrifices in January to a
bhut or demon called Deswali, winding up with un-
bridled saturnalia.^ Among the Chingpaw of Upper
Burmah twice a year there is a general holiday and
feasting which is the occasion of much debauchery
and licentiousness. Apart from these festivals the
Chingpaw displays no narrow and puritanical morality.
In the last chapter we saw that no marriage takes
place without previous intercourse. The dwelling-
houses are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
feet long, and are built to accommodate more than one
family. The young men and women have separate
rooms ; but as no restraint is laid on their movements
they frequently pass the night in each other's quarters.
The result is that illegitimacy is very prevalent. It is
not considered a disgrace for an unmarried woman to
be a mother. The father of her child is not bound to
marry her, unless he have been formally betrothed to
her ; and he is only called on to support her until the
child is a month old. An effort, however, is always
made to get a pregnant girl married to the father of
her child ; but a woman thinks it no shame to forsake
her lover and marry some one else. Nor does the fact

requires further consideration than is possible to give here. See
Mayne, 123; Ind. Census, 1901, xx. 170, 174; xxvi. 280, 288,

307. 337.

1 Hahn, KolsmissioH, 92, 99.

I70 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

of her already having a child by one man injure her
prospects of marriage to another.^

The antenuptial freedom of the Tho of Northern
Tonkin and its continuance for a certain period after
marriage have been incidentally mentioned, in dis-
cussing- their form of marriag-e and its relation to an
earlier stage, in which the husband either visited or
dwelt with the wife in her own home. We there saw
that the paternity of her eldest child was often more
than doubtful.^ This may be said to be invariably
the case among the Lolo of Yunnan. After passing a
single night with the bridegroom the Lolo bride quits
her husband's residence, to which she returns no more
until she can do so in a condition of pregnancy.
During her absence the husband does not appear to
visit her, but she has full liberty of intrigue and
conducts herself much in the same way as the Thai
bride. When she returns with the expectation of
issue he asks no questions of her but receives her
with the respect due to her fecundity, being now
assured of offspring by her. He is indeed fully
conscious that he has not begotten her first child, and
it is said that he always considers it in some sort as a
stranger, reckoning the second child as the eldest.
The first child however is brought up with the same
care and attention as the rest and appears to belong
equally to the family. If the wife do not within twelve
or eighteen months exhibit signs of maternity the
marriage contract is rescinded, and the husband pro-
ceeds to look out for a worthier mate.^ In Tonkin

1 Anderson, 123, 127. Cf. Int. Arch. xvi. 28, 36.

2 Supra, p. 49.

3 Rocher, La Province Chinoise du Yun-nan (Paris, 1880), ii. i6.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 171

the Man Coc not only attach, like their neighbours the
The, no importance to virginity in a bride, but in
certain villages the women prostitute themselves to
the passers-by without seriously affecting their reputa-
tion.^ Amonof the Pa-Tene on the watershed of the
Red River and the Clear River antenuptial incontinence
subjects the guilty parties to a light fine ; but in spite
of this the relations between unmarried men and girls
are quite untrammelled. Even adultery by married
women appears to have only a limited importance.^

Our information as to the rule of descent among the
pagan tribes of the Malay Peninsula is defective. But
it would seem that the Besisi reckon through the
father. At the end of the rice-harvest a festival is
held at which a temporary exchange of wives used to
be effected. This was a ritual performance intended
to have "some sort of productive influence not only
upon the crops but upon all other contributing sources
of food-supply."^ Among some of the tribes in the
hills of Assam speaking Tibeto-Burman languages
the festival of sowing is marked by an outburst of
licentiousness, which is probably intended to stimulate
the fecundity of the crops. After the sowing is com-
pleted the village reverts to its usual continence.*
The Tibetans who frequent the Kan-su border in the
north of China set little store on female chastity. In
lamaseries in the district of Kan-su which they call
Amdo a feast is held at different times ; it lasts two
or three days and is known to the Chinese as "the

^ Lunet, 241. 2 /f/^ 292.

3 Skeat and Blagden, ii. 70, 76, 121, 145. Among the Sakai of
Selangor the women were formerly allowed more than one husband
{Ibid. 68). But how did they reckon descent ?

* T, C, Hodson,/. A. I. xxxvi. 94.

172 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

hat-choosing festival." The name is derived from the
custom that a man may during the feast carry off the
cap of any girl or woman he meets in the temple
grounds, and she is obliged to come at night and
redeem the pledge. " Chinese are not admitted to
play at this game of forfeits, nor are they allowed any
of the privileges of \k{\s fite d' amour ^' ^

Among the Maoris antenuptial intercourse was very
common. " As a general rule the girls had great
licence in the way of lovers. I don't think," says a
well-qualified observer, " the young woman knew
when she was a virgin, for she had love-affairs with
the boys from her cradle. This does not apply of
course to every individual case — some girls are born
proud, and either kept to one sweetheart or had none,
but this was rare. When she married it became very
different ; she was then tapu to her husband, and woe

^ Rockhill, 80, It may be well to mention here the customs of
certain Chinese provinces and dependencies recorded by Marco
Polo. In Poim where the people were Mohammedans, when the
husband left home on a journey for twenty days the wife at once
found another man with whom she lived until her husband came
home. In Camul if a stranger came the master of the house went
away, charging his wife to be complaisant in all things to their guest.
The Great Khan tried to abolish this custom, but the people were
too much attached to it. They sent ambassadors representing that
it was the custom of their fathers, that it was pleasing to [their idols
and that they wished to adhere to it. The Great Khan had to give
way. In Chelet men would not marry virgins. Mothers used to
offer their daughters to strangers, who kept them as long as they
pleased and then sent them away with a gift or token. This token
was worn round the neck ; and the more of such tokens a girl had,
the sooner she was married and the more her husband thought of
her. In Caindu the same custom was followed as that attributed
above to Camul. Finally in the city of Lazi it was a matter of
indifference to the men if other men slept with their wives (Marco
Polo, cc. 41, 45, 85, 86, 87).

MARITAL JEALOUSY 173

betide her if she was guilty of light conduct." A man
who had many wives however would lend one of
them to a guest whom he loved to honour — not his first
or chief wife but one of the inferior wives. He could
also let a guest have one of the unmarried girls.^
Divorce is common. The husband puts away the
wife, or the wife returns to her relatives. If the
husband in the latter case take no step to persuade or
compel her by force to return (which he sometimes
does) the divorce is final and both parties can marry
again. Husbands are as a rule less jealous than wives :
probably the result of the polygyny practised by many
who can afford it.^

It may be conjectured that the length to which the
practice of taboo was driven in New Zealand may
account for the chastity of married women, mitigated
though it was by the commonness of divorce. A man
on taking a wife by that act tabooed her to himself. She
was guarded from others by, and subjected so far as
her own acts were concerned to, the awful and
mysterious penalties of tapu. In this condition she
remained so long as she remained a wife. Hence,
though while still noa, or common, she did not hesi-
tate to indulge her desires, once made tapu she would
fear to suffer invasion even by force of her husband's
property in her ; and the same fear and not merely the
fear of material veno^eance would restrain other men
from either tempting or compelling her.

Some such explanation at least is necessary to

^ E. Tregear, /. ^. /. xix. loi, 103, 102; cf. Polack, i. 137, 145;
Taylor, New Zealand^ 167. See a mythological story of fraternal
polyandry, Grey, Polyn. Myth. 81.

2 Polack, i. 159, 146.

174 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

account for the difference in manners between the
Maoris and their Polynesian kinsmen. The observer
just quoted contrasts the sexual ethics of the Sand-
wich Islanders, for instance, with those of the New
Zealanders. ''In Hawaii," he says, "whether the
woman was married or single, she would have been
thought very churlish and boorish if she refused such
a slight favour as " the embrace of a masculine " friend
of the family."^ A missionary quoted by Morgan
declares that the natives of the Sandwich Islands had
hardly more modesty or shame than so many animals.
'* Husbands had many wives and wives many husbands,
and exchanged with each other at pleasure."^ Judge
Lorin Andrews of Honolulu writing to Morgan and
explaining the word punaliia, applied by a man to the
husbands of his wife's sisters, observes : " The rela-
tionship of piinalua is rather amphibious. It arose
from the fact that two or more brothers with their
wives, or two or more sisters with their husbands, were
inclined to possess each other in common ; but the
modern use of the word is that of dear friend or
intimate companion!' ^ The testimony to this posses-
sion in common by small groups of husbands and
wives in the Sandwich Islands seems to put the
custom beyond doubt. I am not concerned now to
discuss the theory of group-marriage based upon it
by the distinguished American anthropologist. For
our present purpose all that is necessary is to point out
that the strict taboo of a wife to a single husband was

1 J. A. I. xix. 104.

2 Morgan, Anc. Soc. 428, quoting Bartlett, Historical Sketch of
the Missions, &'C., in the Sandwich Islands. Cf. 415.

3 Ibid. 427, citing also other testimony to the same effect.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 175

unknown, and despite the fact that the stage of pure
motherright had been passed actual paternity was
neglected. The saturnalia hinted at but not described
by Ellis as occurring on the death of a chief indicate
the same carelessness.^ It is true that the writer tells
us elsewhere that "adultery among the highest ranks
has been punished with death by decapitation,"^ but
he neglects to inform us what the definition of adultery
among the Sandwich Islanders was, or how often or
in what circumstances the punishment of decapitation
was inflicted. His expression indicates that it was
a rare event. Such vague statements cannot be held
to conflict with those I have previously quoted. It
need only be added that, as among the Maoris, " the
marriage-tie was loose, and the husband could dismiss
his wife on any occasion."^ Whether the wife had
a corresponding right does not appear.

In Tahiti, where another branch of this voluptuous
race was settled, antenuptial licence was common, and
fidelity to the marriage-bond was seldom maintained.
The union was dissolved, whenever either of the parties
desired it, to suit their inclinations or their con-
venience ; and though amongst the higher classes it
was allowed nominally to continue, the husband took
other wives and the wife other husbands."* A similar
account reaches us from Samoa. " Chastity was
ostensibly cultivated by both sexes ; but it was more a
name than a reality." From their childhood their
ears were familiar with the most obscene conversation ;
and as a whole family to some extent herded together
immorality was the natural and prevalent consequence.

^ Ellis, Towr, 148. - Ibid. 401 (the italics are mine).

^ Ibid. 414. * Id. Polyn. Res. i. 262^ 273, 274.

176 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

There were exceptions, especially among the daughters
of persons of rank ; but they were the exceptions and
not the rule. In these circumstances we are not
surprised to learn that adultery " was sadly prevalent."
It is said to have been often punished by private re-
venge ; but details are lacking to show how far this
was due to sexual jealousy properly so-called, how far
it was due to resentment at the invasion of a right of
property, and how far public opinion approved the
revenge.^

On the occasion of marriage in the Marquesas
Islands the bride was compelled to undergo public
intercourse with all the masculine guests. In the
families of chiefs however sometimes marriage was
provisionally arranged and entered into between chil-
dren, a practice more recently imitated by the class
below. In such cases the public ceremony was omitted.
The child-wife immediately went to live with her
child-husband. On arriving at puberty she was in
consequence never found to be a virgin. Notwith-
standing this, she withdrew into a special hut erected
near her husband's house for the purpose of observing
the puberty rites. There she was visited by all the
great chiefs of the same, or perhaps a higher rank.
After this, if both boy and girl agreed, the marriage
became definitive. If they did not agree they were
free to separate and marry others ; but in any case the
girl's first child was reputed to be that of the husband
she had espoused in infancy. From the moment of
marriage a man acquired marital rights over all his
wife's sisters. They became secondary wives to him,
though they might themselves have at that time or

^ Turner, Samoa, 91, 94, 97. Cf. Rep. Austr. Ass. iv. 626,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 177

afterwards during the marriage primary husbands.
In the same way all the husband's brothers were
secondary husbands of the wife and had corresponding
privileges. Polygyny and polyandry thus coexisted.
Nor were they limited to the brothers and sisters of
the consort. The husband had a right to provide
himself with other secondary wives. The population,
as might be expected from some of the practices
mentioned, was not very prolific ; and children were
greatly in request, especially by the chiefs. In order
to obtain offspring, a pregnant woman would some-
times be carried off, probably with the consent of
herself and her husband, who followed her and became
a secondary, instead of a principal, husband to her.
The principal wife in her turn could also take a
secondary husband ; and this was done in effect when-
ever she desired it. Well might it have been believed
by Europeans that marriage did not exist in the
Marquesas. As if this were not enough, there was
also a class of women who instead of marrying kept
open house, and had the right of calling in any man
who happened to pass without his being able to refuse.
They were by no means a despised class, and it only
depended upon their volition to marry any man who
pleased them.^

On the island of Yap, one of the Pelew Islands,
agnatic kinship prevails. Yet continence is not
required of man or woman. After the first menstrua-
tion sexual intercourse is free to every girl, and a

I Tautain, VAnthrop. vi. 641 sqq. The revolting and almost
incredible details given by Dr. Tautain of the marriage ceremony
led, as he himself remarks, to physical disorders, which must have
had a detrimental influence on the fertility of the population ; but
he is of opinion that it was not naturally prolific {Id. ix. 420).

II M

178 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

seducer has nothing to pay even though pregnancy
result. It is superfluous to say that virginity is not
expected in a bride. Bastards have no disadvantage
in law, and socially very little. If the father of a
bastard does not take it, it enters into its mother's
family and inherits in due course from her father.
Divorce is easy and without special formalities ; but
some cause must be alleged, though it may be a mere
excuse. Adultery abortion or barrenness is sufficient
for the man to dismiss his wife, or even if she be a
scold. He may sell her if she commit adultery or be
impertinent to her mother-in-law. On the woman's
side her husband's adultery or ill-treatment enables her
to quit him. The definition of adultery however by
no means coincides with ours. No bride-price is paid.
The result is that there is hardly a pair of middle age
who have not been divorced, though it is constantly
observed that after various conjugal changes in the
meantime they ultimately return to one another. A
special custom of the island is that a number of men
form a kind of club and build a club-house called a
falu, where they spend their evenings and nights. In
these houses girls are kept for the use of the members,
each of whom has his appointed day. Girls are
obtained for \h&falu by agreement with their parents
or by force. They are held for a year, or sometimes
for several years, and well rewarded for their service,
and their parents receive presents also. Some reproach
attaches to a girl who voluntarily enters a falu, and
for that reason the capture of a girl is preconcerted
between herself and her captors, in order that though
willing to go she may appear to be forced. Yet once
in ih^falu their social position is little affected : they

MARITAL JEALOUSY 179

are taken freely to public festivities ; they are prettily
dressed and well taken care of ; they have no need to
work ; and they find husbands at once when they have
given up living in the club. If such a girl becomes
pregnant she is married by the man whom she claims
as the father of her child. The married women never
enter a club-house. This avoidance is perhaps not
unconnected with the law by which a wife who com-
mits adultery may be sold to a club. On the other
hand, a husband is not reckoned adulterous though he
belong to a club and have intercourse with the girls
there. The idea of rape does not exist ; a married
woman who is raped is treated as an adulteress.^ If
another and a probable account be correct the girls
kept in ihefalu must in accordance with the laws of
exogamy belong to a different sept from the men of
the club.^

The Yakuts are very tolerant in sexual matters.
They " see nothing immoral in illicit love, provided
only that nobody suffers material loss by it. It is true
that parents will scold a daughter if her conduct
threatens to deprive them of their gain from the
bride-price ; but if once they have lost hope of marry-

1 Senfft, Globus, xci. 141, 142, 149, 153. Reference may be
made to Prof. Frazer's discussion of the sexual relations of the
Pelew Islanders in general [Adonis, 435). He comes to the
conclusion that " a well-marked form of sexual communism limited
only by the exogamous prohibitions which attach to the clans
prevails." Compare with the falu the bachelors' houses of the
Boror6, supra, p. i - 8.

2 Christian, 291. The same writer states that according to his
informant conjugal fidelity is not regarded as a virtue. Less
probable is his assertion, if I understand it correctly, that every girl
has to go through the fabi, and that each man, married or un-
married, takes his turn with her.

i8o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

ing her off, or if the bride-price has been spent, then
they manifest complete indifference to her conduct.
The time which young wives spend with their parents
after the wedding is the merriest and freest time they
ever know. The young men hover about them like
flies, but the parents pretend to take no notice, and
even in most cases take advantage in their household
work of the serviceability of these aspirants. They
only strive that these connections may not be long con-
tinued and may not become notorious ; for this might
bring upon them unpleasant consequences from the
family of the husband and might lessen the quantity of
gifts which they might expect later. Maidens who no
longer expect marriage are not restrained at all ; and
if they observe decorum it is only from habit and out
of respect to custom." A Polish political exile not
long ago dwelt for twelve years among the Yakuts.
He paid much attention to their customs, and to him
we are indebted for the foregoing observations. He
tells us further that a bride-price (which may be con-
siderable) is paid on marriage, and that in former times
parents often paid a bride-price for a girl three or
four years old to be the wife of a son. She was
taken and brought up in the family of her" youthful
husband ; and in fact the two children slept together
from infancy, although the marriage ceremony had not
then been performed. Moreover, an interesting light
is thrown upon the sexual morality of the Yakuts by
their tradition that when God made Adam and his
wife the latter bore seven girls and eight boys. Each
boy therefore as he grew up had a wife, except the
youngest. He asked God what he was to do for a wife.
God answered : " If you cannot get along without

MARITAL JEALOUSY i8i

one, sleep secretly with your brothers' wives." This
legend is not isolated : we are told it agrees with other
current sayings and legends. The Yakuts are patri-
lineal ; but there are not obscure indications that in
former times descent was reckoned through the mother.
The wife resides at the husband's home, and special
rules exist for the avoidance of his male but not of
his female relatives. These rules seem to point to
precautions against the exercise of claims by men
upon the wives of their kinsmen. The old customs,
however, are breaking down under the pressure of
Russian civilisation, such as it is.^

The Chukchi of Eastern Siberia offer to guests,
whether of their own race or not, their wives and
daughters and are said to resent as a deadly affront
any refusal. It was related of them and the Maritime
Kor^aks of the Gulf of Penjinsk in the earlier half of
the last century that they " begged of the Russian
post-carrier in his annual journey through their
country to lie with their wives, and overwhelmed him
on his return with presents because a son had been
born to them from this transient alliance."^ The
Chukchi in particular are stated to compel their wives,
when they want a son, to allow themselves to be im-
pregnated by another man.^ We may doubt whether
much compulsion is usually required. Compound
marriage or *' marriage by interchange " is an

^ /. A. 1. xxxi. 96, 84,:|^88, 86, 93, The argument from
terminology of family relationships is also worth considering ; but it
does not come within my general plan. As to the time spent by
young wives with their parents see supra p. 15.

^ Erraan, ii. 530; Georgi, 98.

^ Post, Geschlechtsgen. 2iZ^ citing Klemm j Georgi, 104; Jesup
Exped. vii. 318.

i82 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

established custom. It " is observed mostly between
first and second cousins. Males enterinof into this
bond acquire the mutual right to the wives of one
another, a right which can be claimed at every meeting.
Nowadays marriage by interchange can be contracted
between unrelated parties — even with people of foreign
tribes with whom close friendship has sprung up. A
bachelor and a widower living in the same camp with
a married man can form a like contract. This style of
marriag^e is only a system of polyandry. Sometimes
more than ten people may be affected by marriage
through interchange within one group, although three
or four are regarded as sufficient. Women gene-
rally are not averse to the custom." After this it
is superfluous to add, as the author quoted does :
" Chastity is not highly regarded." He mentions that
the language has no distinctive term for maiden, which
by itself does not afford an argument of much value,
though it is not without its significance in conjunction
with the facts recited.^

The Tunguz women are not very scrupulous about
keeping conjugal fidelity. They are almost always
alone in the house, for the men are aw^ay hunting or
looking after their cattle; "and how can they avoid
the unexpected visits of wandering hunters who come
and cook at their hearths, and who from politeness
invite them to take a share of the fortune of the chase ?
Then as neither the men nor the women pride them-
selves much on delicacy, the rest easily comes about."
If a husband becomes aware of too frequent visits

^ Bogoras, Amer. Anthr. N. S. iii. 102, 104. Id. Jesup Exped. vii.
400, 455. I am not sure whether I am right in concluding that
aU the following Siberian and Aleutian tribes are patrilineal

MARITAL JEALOUSY 183

of this kind, he gives up the hospitable wife to her
gallant, and contents himself with another from the
family of the latter. This sort of truck is called
Danira, and it is not uncommon. Divorce for other
reasons is very easy. If two married persons cannot
live together in peace they separate.^ The northern
Tunguz, however, are said to consider the marriage-tie
indissoluble. But as they allow a plurality of wives
they make no difficulty about resigning one of them
for the time to any Russian adventurer who may visit
the tundras in the summer and from whom they expect
a share of the proceeds of his hunting excursion in
return.^

The Kamtchadal women make parade of their lovers
and give themselves freely to strangers. " A widow
cannot find another husband unless her sins have been
previously taken away by the highest degree of
familiarity granted to any one who wishes to render
her this service ; and as the natives imagine that this
expiation might cause the expiator to die like the
former husband the poor women would remain widows
without the assistance of the Russian soldiers, who
are not afraid of exposing themselves to a danger so
equivocal." Apparently the first man who has inter-
course with a widow runs the risk of vengeance by the
deceased husband. This posthumous jealousy is
perhaps a continuation of that entertained in life.
Yet if so, it must be because the intercourse is with-
out leave of the deceased, and without the possibility
of a quid pro quo to him such as is obtained by an
exchange of wives between men still living, "There
is no excess of libertinage," we are told with emphasis,
^ Georgi, 47. ^ Erman, ii. 138,

i84 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

"which is not practised among the Kamtchadals.
They pay not the least attention to the degrees of
relationship," except that of parent and child. ^ The
hospitable rite so common among peoples in the lower
culture of offering a temporary consort to a guest is
practised by the Aleutian Islanders. If we may
believe Georgi marriage is merely a provisional
cohabitation in which the partner is often changed.
The women are as much free and mistresses of them-
selves as the men. A wife deserted or exchanged
sometimes returns more than once to her first husband.
"These islanders in the married state are above
jealousy and ignore the rights of an exclusive and
reciprocal property between the spouses. The men
leave their wives in entire liberty, and the latter do as
much for their husbands." Degrees of kinship are
ignored ; they only marry " to find subsistence with
less trouble and to fulfil the end of nature." ^

Returning to the mainland, the great desire of the
Buryats of Southern Siberia is for children. If one
wife be unfruitful a second and a third are married,
and so on. In default of children of their own they
adopt strangers. Nor is this all. Partly to make sure
of children, partly to have a woman in the house to
fulfil womanly duties, they marry their sons at a very
tender age to grown-up women. " I have often," says
Melnikov, " met a youth of fifteen or sixteen who in
answer to my inquiry whether he had been long
married would answer that the knot had been tied
three or four years before. In the wedomstwa of
Unga in the department of Balagan I once saw a
Buryat of sixteen who had been married seven years

^ Georgi, 75, 89, 90. "^ Id. 116, 129, 130. Cf. 128.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 185

before, 'that he might beget the more children,' as his
neighbours told me. In fact he had four children ;
and the eldest son was seven years old. In the
wedomstwa of Uleyi in the same department I saw a
strong woman of twenty carrying a boy in her arms. I
was surprised to be told that this woman and the boy
in her arms were husband and wife. The Buryats
said that formerly still droller marriages took place, in
which the wives had to hold their husbands in their
arms while they were milking the cows." We have
seen how similar social arrangements result among the
Reddies and other tribes of Southern India. Whether
the practice is the same among the Buryats does not
distinctly appear. It is not necessary. The author
whom I have just quoted goes on to illustrate their
dissolute manners by saying: "The girl among the
Buryats becomes a complete wife before the official
union. This fact is known to every one, and nobody
complains of her or despises her on that account. If
before the official union she has had a child she is
married all the more willingly, for her aptitude for
continuing the race is put beyond doubt. Unrestrained
sexual intercourse may be observed, especially at the
Buryat festivals where young people of both sexes
assemble. The gatherings usually take place late in
the evening and may justly be called nights of love.
Bonfires are lighted in the neighbourhood of the
villages, around which men and women perform their
monotonous dance. From time to time pairs of dancers
fall out and disappear into the darkness. Before long
they come back and again take part in the dances,
only to disappear afresh in a little while. But it is
not always the same pairs who now retire, for the

i86 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

partners have changed. Whoever lives among the
Buryats has often the opportunity of seeing and
hearing what happens at a wedding when men and
women are excited by drink." ^ In Chinese Turkestan
the conjugal bond is extremely fragile. For the
slightest reason and even without any reason at all the
wife collects her belongings and returns to her parents ;
and on the other hand there is nothing to protect her
from her husband's caprices. Sometimes she does not
wait for a formal divorce in order to marry again. A
woman of thirty who has not already had several
husbands is therefore an exception. No respectable
man who has to make a journey will spend a few days
in a distant place without entering into a new and
legitimate marriage. Yet all these facilities given by
the law do not prevent either adultery or prostitution.
This laxity of morals is of ancient date : it was noted
as existing in the early centuries of our era.^

Among the tribes of the Caucasus pagan Cheremiss
boys and girls enjoy sexual intercourse without reproof.
Neither religious belief nor the moral code opposes the
freedom of relations between the sexes. The statement
is express that reluctance on the part of the girls exposes
them to forcible violation. Like the Buryats, the
Cheremiss marry their sons when they have hardly
emerged from infancy, and fulfil the part of husbands
to their daughters-in-law. The concubinage of several
brothers with one woman is also not unknown, nor are
traces that it was once usual w^anting either in lan-
guage or custom.^ The Mordvin customs are similar.

I ■^ Int. Arch. xii. 202, 203 ; Zeits. f. Ethnol. xxxi. Verhandl, 441.
^ L'Anne'e Soc. iii. 374, citing Grenard, Le Turkestan et le Tibet.
^ Smirnov, i. 117, 115.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 187

Mordvin girls from the age of fourteen have sexual
relations with the boys of the village, though they
hardly marry before twenty or twenty-five. Kinship
is no obstacle to their amours. Intercourse between
brothers and sisters is not unknown ; between remoter
kindred is frequent. If a girl become pregnant nobody
is shocked ; legitimate or not, a child is always wel-
comed as an addition to the family. The marriage
of mature women to boys with consequences like those
among the Cheremiss and the Buryats has not yet
been wholly put down. Apart from that, a Mordvin
husband is not too exacting about his wife's fidelity.
He is frequently compelled to be absent from home on
military service or public works, and his wife seems to
console herself very well in his absence.^ With Votiak
girls chastity is no virtue, and the want of chastity no
vice. If they happen to have given birth to a child a
much higher bride-price is demanded for them and
their prospects of winning a rich husband are increased.
But they are said, having sown their wild oats, to
become faithful and affectionate wives. These qualities
admit of obedience to the husband when he relin-
quishes the conjugal bed and spouse to a guest whom
it is desired to honour.^ Among" the Ossetes the
father purcliases a wife for his infant son and has
conjugal relations with her. Formerly, if a man for
any reason preferred not to cohabit with any of his
wives he could look out for some one to take his place
• — at all events, with a secondary if not with the
principal wife. The levirate is observed ; and where

1 Smirnov, i. 337, 348.

^ Featherman, Tur. 530; Post, Studten, 345, citing Kohler,
^eiis, vergl. Rechtsw. v. 306,

i88 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

a husband dying left neither brother nor son the widow
was entitled to take any lover she chose. In all these
cases alike the issue reckons as that of the legitimate
husband.^ The testimony to the licentiousness of the
Circassian women and to the indomitable complaisance
of their husbands is overwhelming. Of the Chechen
we are told that the women are rarely faithful to their
husbands. The Pshavs are in the habit of celebrating
yearly a festival in honour of Lasha, the legendary son
of Queen Tamara. This hero appears in the Pshav
imagination in a very mixed character : sometimes as
Saint George, sometimes as the representative of a cult
analogous to that of Bacchus. His saturnalian festival
is signalised by sexual licence.^

The Russian peasants themselves, frequently herded
together, partly from ancient custom and partly from
economic causes, under patriarchal rule in what is
known as a Joint Family, attach but too little im-
portance to the sexual relations supposed to be safe-
guarded by their Church. A sort of promiscuity
results, unhealthy for body and mind. The domestic
autocracy is itself a danger to the chastity if not to the
integrity of the family. The house-father, like the
noble over the female serfs on his domain, sometimes
arrogated to himself a sort of droit de seigneur over
the women under his authority. Officially entitled the
Old One, he, thanks to the moujik's habit of early
marriage, is often hardly forty when his sons bring
home their brides, and it is a common thing for him

^ Kovalevsky, UAnthrop. iv. 274.

^ Ibid. 266, 270, 273, 275; Lobel, 70; Darinsky, Zeits. vergl.
Rechtsw, xiv. 175 sqq. See further as to the sexual customs of
these and other non-Slavonic peoples in Russian territory^ Globus,
xcv. 188.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 189

to levy on his daughters-in-law a tribute which the
youth or the state of dependence of his sons prevents
them from disputing. Writers of credit assure us that
it is by no means rare to see the domestic hearth thus
polluted by the authority which ought to maintain its
purity.^ Among the Southern Slavs the same practice
subsists, and there if not also in Russia boys are
married when mere children.^

Such a condition of family life must in any case
be a survival of the practices of centuries gone by.
A distinguished Russian jurist is of opinion that
the sexual immorality of the Russian peasant has
no other cause than the survival of numerous vestiges
of the early forms of marriage. There is little doubt
that among the ancient Slavs kinship was reckoned
through the mother only. It was often accompanied
by a considerable amount of sexual freedom. If we
may believe the evidence of Nestor, probably a
Russian monk of the eleventh century, the Drevlians,
a Slavonic tribe, '* lived like beasts ; they killed one
another ; they fed on things unclean ; no marriage
took place amongst them, but they captured young
girls on the banks of rivers." The words " no
marriage took place amongst them " may of course
mean that no open formal marriage rite was performed,
but the girl captured was simply taken to the captor's
home. It probably implies much more. It probably
implies that other characteristics of a marriage ac-
cordinof to the notions of a Christian monk were
wanting. Among the characteristics in question

^ Kovalevsky, 64, quoting and adopting the words of Anatole
Leroy Beaulieu, V Empire des Tzars et les Russes, 488.
2 VAnnee Soc. x. 441, citing Krauss.

I90 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

permanence and fidelity would be prominent in his
mind. A similar expression occurs in his account
of three other tribes, the Radimich, the Viatich and
the Sever. They dwelt " in forests like other wild
animals ; they ate everything unclean ; and shameful
things occurred amongst them between fathers and
daughters-in-law " — very much as between the moujik
of to-day and his daughters-in-law. Nestor goes on:
" Marriages were unknown to them, but games were
held in the outskirts of villages ; they met at these
games for dancing and every kind of diabolic
amusement ; and there they captured their wives,
each man the one he had covenanted with. They
generally had two or three wives." The capture here
is preceded by an agreement between the bridegroom
and the lady of his choice. The festival described
is the public and formal recognition of unions which
the writer in spite of himself admits as marriage of
a kind ; though they did not exclude infidelities of
which he mentions a specimen in the relations be-
tween a father-in-law and his daughter-in-law. A
writer of the same century, Cosmas of Prague, says
of the old Bohemians or Czechs : " They practised
communal marriage {connubia erant illis comniunia) ;
for like beasts they contract every night a fresh
marriage, and with the rising morn they break the
iron bonds of love." The anonymous biographer uf
Saint Adalbert, Bishop of Prague towards the end of
tenth century, ascribes the hostility which drove the
saint from his diocese to his attempts to put down
the shameful promiscuity of the Bohemian people.
He testifies moreover to the existence of certain
yearly festivals at which great licence prevailed.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 191

A Russian monk, Pamphil, in the sixteenth century
reports that in the state of Novgorod similar festivals
were held on the banks of rivers, resembling in that
particular, as Professor Kovalevsky points out, the
annual festivals mentioned by Nestor. "Not later,"
the professor says, " than the beginning of the six-
teenth century they were complained of by the clergy
of the State of Pscov. It was at that time that
Pamphil drew up his letter to the Governor of the
State, admonishing him to put an end to these annual
gatherings, since their only result was the corruption
of the young women and girls. According to the
author just cited the meetings took place as a rule the
day before the festival of St. John the Baptist, which
in pagan times was that of a divinity known by the
name of Jarilo, corresponding to the Priapus of the
Greeks. Half a century later the new ecclesiastical
code compiled by an assembly of divines convened
in Moscow by the Czar Ivan the Terrible, took effec-
tual measures for abolishing every vestige of paganism,
amongst them the yearly festivals held on Christmas
Day, on the day of the Baptism of our Lord, and on
St. John the Baptist, commonly called Midsummer
Day. A general feature of all these festivals, ac-
cording to the code, was the prevalence of the
promiscuous intercourse of the sexes." That the
code did not succeed in abolishing these periodical
meetings is clear, since they are still held from time to
time, though perhaps not so regularly. But it does
seem to have b: en effective in purifying them from
most of the sexual corruption. This at all events
is indicated by Professor Kovalevsky 's own experience
of such midsummer meetings. But documents pre-

192 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

served in the archives of some of the provincial
ecclesiastical councils, particularly in the Government
of Kharkov, disclose similar licentiousness at other
evening assemblies of the peasants. These assemblies
are known in Great Russia as Posidelki and in Little
Russia as Vechernitzi. The clergy made war upon
them. More than once they induced the authorities
to dissolve the assemblies by force. It is little
wonder that the priests were often wounded and
obliged to seek refuge in the houses of the village
elders from the stones with which they were pelted.^

The history of the Russian gatherings on Mid-
summer Eve and other festival occasions suggests that
formerly all over Europe such assemblies were of the
same licentious character. Doubtless they were. The
games still played by youths and maidens at these
times, though now for the most part innocent, irre-
sistibly lead to the conclusion that actual sexual inter-
course took place in days of less developed civilisation.^
And if married women frequented the meetings they
must have been included in the sports and in what the
Russian monk stigmatises as the "diabolical amuse-
ments." More than this it is impossible to say in the
present state of our evidence, which may be found in
the pages of Mannhardt Frazer and other writers, but
the full consideration of which would lead us too far
away from our main subject to be entered upon here.

^ Kovalevsky, 6 sqq.

2 For example, the game played in various villages ot the
Luneburg district, in which a girl is allotted to every youth {Zeits.
des Vereins, vi. 363). Compare the Saturnalia of ancient Rome, and
the Holi festival in Northern India, where no act of intercourse
now occurs, but indecency of word and gesture is an essential part
of the rite.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 193

The redoubtable Masai of East Africa inhabit a
district now partly comprised in German partly in
British territory. They are divided for purposes of
internal organisation into " ages," each of these ages
including the boys who were circumcised within a
certain limit of time and the girls who were subjected
to a corresponding operation during the same period.
These operations are performed on batches of children
at or about puberty, and are the occasion of a festival.
A close bond unites all boys or girls of the same
" age." After circumcision the boys enter the warrior-
class, and are taught the profession of arms as it is (or
used to be, before the intrusion of European rule)
practised by the Masai. A man is counted as belong-
ing to the warrior-class until about the twenty-eighth
or thirtieth year of his age, and before he quits it he is
not allowed to marry. The warriors live not in the
villages occupied by the married men, but in separate
warrior-kraals. Each of these kraals is inhabited by
fifty to a hundred warriors with their mothers and
some of their younger brothers. In addition there are
perhaps twice as many young girls as warriors. These
girls, who have not yet undergone the puberty cere-
monies, sleep with the warriors, now with one and now
with another, unless when a raid is in contemplation.
Since it is a disgrace to a girl to bear a child before
she has undergone the puberty ceremonies, pregnancy
is as far as possible averted or abortion practised.
Meanwhile it often happens that the girls are already
in infancy betrothed. Betrothal makes no difference
to their residence in the warrior-kraal ; but if a be-
trothed girl became pregnant it would as a rule put an
end to her engagement to marry. On emerging from

194 PklMltlVE PAtERNltV

the warrior-class each man marries and settles down
as an "old man." A man marries as many wives as
he can afford to purchase. When the marriage takes
place it frequently happens that one or two of the
bridegroom's old companions in arms claim priority
of intercourse with the bride. When this claim is
made the bridegroom must concede it under penalty
of dishonour ; and in case he refuse he will have no
right to complain if during the next few days some of
his cattle are stolen. Divorce is a very rare occurrence ;
it is accompanied with some formality. If a divorced
wife marry again her parents must repay her former
husband the full bride-price which he paid. But he
may decline to receive it ; and in this event all her
future children will belono- to him. Nor if she run
away from her husband and he decline to divorce her
can she legally marry again, and any children she may
have by another man will belong to her husband. As
a rule however he takes the boys only. Adultery is
not a ground for divorcing a wife : it is, in fact, an
idea unknown to Masai ethics. Sexual intercourse is
forbidden between persons belonging to different
" ages." When it takes place, for example, between
a man and a woman of his father's " age," he is cursed.
But the curse may be removed by payment to the
elders of two oxen (or one and a quantity of honey-
wine) for a feast. On the other hand, a man having
intercourse with his daughter or with a girl of her
** agfe " is a more serious offender. The men of his
"age" beat him, pull down his kraal and slaughter
whichever of his cattle they want. But it is not an
offence for a man to have intercourse with a woman
of his own "age." If a husband beat his wife she

MARITAL JEALOUSY 195

promptly seeks refuge with another man of his
"age." Nor is she subject to any punishment for
this escapade when she is returned to her husband ;
for the latter *' fears that he will be cursed by the
members of his ' age,' " which would entail a fine.
A Masai on a visit to another kraal enters the hut
of a man of his own "age." The host relinquishes
his wife to him for the night and goes elsewhere : to
refuse to perform this act of hospitality would be a
disgrace ; he would be cursed by his age-fellows.
Moreover men sometimes make a temporary exchange
of wives. Children borne by a woman while living
with another man belong to her husband, though they
may also call their actual begetter father,-^ Com-
munity of wives would thus appear to be almost
complete between men of the same " age."

The Wakamba, neighbours of the Masai, are
reported neither to expect nor to value chastity among
women before marriage. " After all dances in which
young men and girls unite promiscuous connection is
indulged in and connived at by the parents of the
latter. In the same way all married women have
lovers, which is easily understandable when one bears
in mind that nearly every man has tWo wives and the
average number is three or four to each mutumia or
elder. Rich men with eight or nine or even more

1 Merker, 70, 334, 82, 44, 49, 50; Hollis, 261, 292, 312, 304,
287. The customs of the Wanderobbo are the same; but a wife
finding herself pregnant after a temporary exchange of the kind
above referred to returns to her husband. In any case the
exchange lasts no longer than from six to twelve months (Merker,
222, 231, 232 ; cf, Johnston, Uganda Prot. ii, 824, 825). The
customs of the Nandi are similar (Hobley, 38^ Hollis, Nandi, 16
76, 77). ^

196 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

wives are in the habit of lending a member of their
harem to a friend in cases where no children are born
as a fruit of the marriage.^ The offspring if any-
resulting from this are the property of the husband
and are looked upon as his children."^ But sexual
relations unlicensed by the husband are regarded as
adultery. When a husband catches his wife in the
act at night — but not in the daytime — he may kill her
paramour on the spot. In the same way a thief enter-
ing a kraal at night may be killed. Or the adulterer
may be compelled to pay damages, or to take over the
woman and refund her bride-price to the husband. A
wife may be divorced for persistent adultery or for
refusing to work ; for a simple lapse of fidelity when
caught she is said to be flogged.^ If a girl become
pregnant before marriage her condition " is no bar to
her marriage with another man, but rather a recom-
mendation, since he is sure of at least one child from
her."*

The people of Taveta, the rich and fertile plain at
the foot of snow-capped Kilimanjaro, are like the
Masai of mixed Hamitic and Bantu stock. They are
organised in clans and in " ages " somewhat resembling
the Masai institutions. A girl is usually bespoken as a
child and the arrangement for her marriage is made
with her father, but the formal betrothal is postponed.
After undergoing the puberty rites she passes her

^ Sir A. Hardinge {Report on the East Africa Protectorate,
Parliamentary Paper, Africa No. 7, 1897, 21) says that if a man
have any wives who for any reason have ceased to please him they
are " permitted to cohabit with his poorer relations, but only
within the family circle."

2 H. R. Tate, J. A. L xxxiv. 137.

2 Decle, 487. ■* Tate, loc. cit.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 197

nights in the maniata, " an isolated spot in the woods
on which has been erected a sort of kraal, consisting of
two or three dozen huts about eighteen feet long, three
feet broad and three feet high, resembling dog-kennels.
These huts are only furnished with a single bed of
dried grass, and have no doors. Here the Taveta
youth spend their time when the work for the day is
finished. All children born in this kraal are put to
death at birth." At the age of fifteen or sixteen a girl
is formally betrothed. The ceremonies of betrothal
differ according to the clan of the husband. It is only
necessary to refer here to those of the Ndighiri clan.
A Mndighiri bridegroom is required to capture his
bride by force and hand her over to four stalwart
relations who carry her struggling to her suitor's
dwelling. There it is averred they have all four a
right of intercourse with her. The actual marriage
follows at a later date. A man can obtain a separation
from his wife with the consent of the chief and elders
if she refuse to work or cause trouble by stealing from
a neighbour, or some offence of that kind, but not for
adultery. Adultery is only punishable when the man
who commits it is not of the same "age" as the
husband of the woman. Even if he were to rape the
wife of a comrade of his own "agre" he could at most
be fined one groat for assault. A man lends his wives
to a comrade of his own "age ; " and they court their
lovers under his very eyes. Sexual intercourse with
an unmarried girl is punished by a fine, but only when
the man belongs to a different " age " from that of the

girl.^

1 Hollis, Joto'H. Afr. Soc. i. iio, iii, 117, 124; Johnston,
Kilimanjaro, 430, 433. At Moschi a few miles off among a related

198 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Adultery is punished among the Baganda by-
whipping the male offender. " On no account what-
ever can a woman be subjected to corporal punishment.
A wife is not discarded by her husband on account of
faithlessness. Even if she contracts disease from
promiscuous connection, and temporarily leaves her
husband's house, she is taken back when she wishes to
return, and the husband even brings the influence of
her relatives to bear on her with the object of inducing
her to return." ^ Among the Madi and the Shuli on
the Upper Nile the unmarried girls sleep in huts raised
above the ground like granaries. There the boys

people fraternal polyandry exists. Mrs. French-Sheldon (/. A. I.
xxi. 365), writing before the British occupation, reports that every
Taveta warrior had a girl living with him ; the girls were selected
for this purpose on attaining puberty and before marriage. The
life they thus led did not prejudice their subsequent marriage, nor
was the warrior with whom such a girl might happen to live com-
pelled or expected to marry her. She describes the ceremony of
capture of the bride as if it were that of marriage, but it seems to
be betrothal only ; and in this form it is confined to one clan. The
Wataita, to whom Sir Harry Johnston assigns it, are divided from
the rest of the Wataveta by the river Lumi, and partly (or chiefly
perhaps) belong to the Ndighiri clan (Journ. Afr. Soc. i. 100, 98).
In Teita the host offers his own wives to his guest (Post, A/r. Jur.
i. 472, citing Krapf).

1 Johnston, Uganda^ ii. 553. The king was much stricter
before British rule as regarded his ovm wives. The offending wife
and her paramour were literally " chopped up alive together."
Adultery is now punished with fines in the native courts. By a
custom common among the Bantu north of the Zambezi one of the
royal princesses who was called Lubiiga (king-sister) had royal
precedence. She was never officially married, but she was allowed
to take as many men as she liked : all Uganda was said to be her
husband. The dowager queen in like manner had complete sexual
freedom (Roscoe, /. A. I. xxxi. 122). But neither of these women
was allowed to have children ; hence they practised abortion {Id,
xxxii. 36, 67).

MARITAL JEALOUSY 199

who have reached maturity have free access to them.
If a girl become pregnant her lover is bound to marry
her, paying the customary bride-price. This freedom
is not among the Shuli confined to unmarried girls ;
and husbands are not very sensitive about the vagaries
of their consorts.^ A similar report is made concerning
the adjoining tribe of the Latuka. Among them
women and girls are said to be much more numerous
than men, and it is suggested that this is the reason
why the women are not renowned for chastity, and why
the men are so lenient towards their wives.^

The marriao-e custom of the Nasamonians ot
antiquity, is said to be still in use by the modern
Abyssinians.^ The Beni Amer are Mohammedans.
Among them, as we already know, virginity is assured
until marriage. Wives, however, think everything
permitted to them ; no conception can be formed of
their levity, the motive of which is said to be low
greed.* The people of Kordofan have likewise
accepted the Prophet of Mecca, but Islam has not
improved their sexual morality. Girls have unbounded
licence, surrendering themselves readily even to
strangers : when they have given proof of their fertility
they are more likely to marry. Nor, it is well under-
stood, do married women wholly resign their freedom.
Their husbands of course know how to compensate
themselves. Many a man beyond the wives whom
the Koran allows him has others elsewhere. He
marries and after a few days' sojourn with his bride
takes a journey that may extend over months to

^ Emin Pasha, 103, 108, 271. ^ Id. 225.

3 McLennan, Studies, i. 173, citing Mansfield Parkyns, Life in
Abyssinia, li. 51 sqq. 4 Munzinger, 326,

200 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

another part of the country or to Dar-Fur. In the
course of his travels he marries, if possible, several
more wives. The grass-widows he leaves behind him
swarm in all the villages, making themselves as com-
fortable as they can, and indemnifying themselves for
their husbands' neglect by receiving especially strangers
and travellers with open arms.^ In the Kingdom of
Merine between Bondu and Wulli when a married man
went on a journey his nearest neighbour took posses-
sion of his wife and supplied her husband's place until
the latter returned. This custom was mutually observed
and every one submitted to it.^

More than one traveller testifies to the excessive
freedom of the Monbuttu women. "It is not con-
sidered improper,'* says Emin Pasha, "for a grown-up
girl, though a prince's daughter, to visit her lover at
nights, even should he be a servant. Should lovers
wish to marry, the girl's father is informed of the fact,
and he makes a feeble attempt to obtain payment for
the bride. If the young man is rich, the price settled
upon is immediately paid ; if he is poor, the claim is
not pressed. As a rule the women appear to have
considerable freedom in their amatory proceedings,
but open prostitution is rarely seen. It is possible,
however, that in the interior of the country, at a
distance from the stations, other customs may be in
vogue." ^ Schweinfurth's experience twelve or fifteen
years earlier indicates that this conjecture is hardly in

1 Frobenius, loo. No further away from the civilisation, such
as it was, of his day than Assuan, Benjamin of Tudela accuses the
inhabitants of going naked and indulging in absolute promiscuity.
These were not Negroes {Early Trav. 1 1 7).

2 Post, Afr. Jur. i. 472, citing Rubault.
^ Emin Pasha^ 208,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 201

accordance with the facts. The daily witness of the
Nubians who were with him "only too plainly testified
that fidelity to the obligations of marriage was little
known. Not a few of the women were openly obscene.
Their general demeanour surprised me very much
when I considered the comparative advance of their
race in the arts of civilisation. Their immodesty far
surpassed anything that I had observed in the very
lowest of the Negrro tribes." Towards their husbands
they exhibited " the highest degree of Independence.
The position in the household occupied by the men
was Illustrated by the reply which would be made If
they were solicited to sell anything as a curiosity :
' Oh, ask my wife ; it Is hers.' " ^ The polygyny,
which is practised on a large scale, does not seem to
have reduced these women to subjection, " Wives are
cheap and may be obtained even for nothing," They
are very prolific, " Sterility is a disgrace, and some-
times results in the wife being returned to her father.
Usually, however, the husband prefers to add to his
wives in the hope of obtaining children, . . . Cases of
Hagrant adultery are brought under the notice of the
chief, who confiscates the property of the adulterer and
^Ives two-thirds of it to the woman's father and one-
third to the injured man," The father is required to
provide the husband with another wife, usually a sister
of the guilty woman. ^ A more recent writer speaks
more strongly still, going so far as to say that
" morality Is practically non-existent among the
Mang-bettou." He ascribes this state of things to the
large number of wives monopolised by the chiefs,

1 Schweinfurth, ii. 91.

3 Einin Pasha, 208, 209. The italics are mine.

202 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

" sometimes up to five hundred," so that "there are
no women left for the young men of the village to
marry." ^ This, however, hardly agrees with the
accounts of Emin and Schweinfurth, and cannot
apply universally. The real reason must lie deeper.

Not very different is the report of the Azandi or
Niam-niams, neighbours of the Monbuttu. They
practise polygyny. All women are said to be in
theory the property of the chiefs. " The woman's
feelings do not appear to be consulted very much in
matters matrimonial ; but if she is not happy in her
conjugal life she takes the law into her own hands,
which is usually by eloping with some spouseless man.
. . . Neither the men nor the women are particularly
faithful to one another, and absence from one another
for more than five or six days puts a great strain on
their powers of self-control." A man who had inter-
course with a chiefs wife would be punished severely,
by maiming or disfigurement. But in the case of
ordinary people *'a present of cloth or beads or spears
invariably acts as a salve on the outraged feelings ot
the husband," Syphilis is very common.^ We have
in a previous chapter considered the institutions of the
Dinkas.^

Among the Wadjagga marriage is easily dissolved.
A man will always send his wife away for sterility ;
and her father must then repay the bride-price. It
is however the woman who usually separates from her
husband and betakes herself to another, and that for
the most trifling causes. There are women who have

^ Capt. Guy Burrows,/. A. I. xxviii. 46.
^ MtWdLuA, Journ. Afr. Soc. iii. 240, 242,
2 Supra f vol, i. p. 313,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 203

had as many as ten husbands. The aid of the chief
in such cases can be invoked by either party. The
prevailing polygyny causes a still greater sexual
laxity among the women than among the men.
Many husbands, even men of wealth and rank, regard
their wives' proceedings with so much indifference
that they make no objection to their adultery. Others,
when a lover is caught in the act, only make use of
their rights to extort the payment of a few goats.
In fact it happens again and again that the husband
eggs his wife on, in order to pluck the crow afterwards.
The whole sphere of matrimonial causes is so full
of baseness and fraud that the chief often gives no
damages to either side, being unable to repress his
disgust and characterising the affair as kindo kyesi,
an abominable thing. Husbands, whose moral feeling
is strong enough, a German missionary tells us, simply
to repudiate an adulterous wife and let her go to her
paramour without suing for damages are an excep-
tion,^ Nor is polygyny any better safeguard of sexual
morality among the Ngoni on the west of Lake
Nyassa. " Men with several wives and many of the
wives of polygamists have assignations with members
of other families. I have been told," says a mission-
ary, " by serious old men that such is the state of
family life in the villages that any man could raise
a case against his neighbour at any time, and that
is the reason why friendliness appears so marked among
them — each has to bow to the other in fear of offending
him and leading to revelations which would rob
him of his all." ^ Sir Harry Johnston's testimony
to the same effect is of more general application
1 Gutmann, Globus, xcii. 3I) 32. ^ Elmslie, 59.

204 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

" Adultery," he says, " is extremely common, and
in very few parts of British Central Africa is looked
upon as a very serious matter, as a wrong which
cannot be compensated by a small payment. The
natives regard it with the same amount of emotion
as they would the stealing of their fowls or corn
in lieu of buying them, even though the price charged
for them is very small." ^

The Swahili of the east coast profess Islam, but
they have little of it beside the name and a few ritual
observances. Unmarried girls are free to all men.
After marriage a man is required to maintain his wife
by giving her rations. But "many women receive
no more than five pis /iz o( corn for ten days' allowance.
This being very little they give themselves up to
harlotry for maintenance."^ Chastity is unknown.
" Upon the coast, when an adulterer is openly detected,
he is fined according to the husband's rank ; mostly
however such peccadilloes are little noticed."^ In the
Portuguese province of Sena on the lower Zambesi it
is not common for virginity to be preserved beyond
the age of twelve. After marriage adultery is
common. On discovery the husband may repudiate
his wife and receive from her paramour the amount
paid for her on marriage, together with a solatium

^ Johnston, Brit. Cent. Afr. 412. Between the sentences quoted
are others which appear to be a note interpolated by accident in the
text. They describe the jealousy of the natives with regard to
Europeans. Other observations follow, ascribing to the native
women in general fidelity to the marriage-tie while it lasts. I find a
difficulty in reconciling these with the emphatic words I have
quoted.

2 Krapf, Siiahili Did. svv. Muiida, Posho.

3 Burton, Zanzibar, i. 419.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 205

called zipombo. The adulterine offspring" belongs to
the begetter on payment of the upo77ibo — otherwise
I infer to the husband. Cases are not unknown in
which, for the sake of getting the tipombo, the husband
has induced his wife to commit adultery.^

Among the peoples of the Marotse Kingdom in
Northern Rhodesia marriage, it is said, hardly exists.
A man and woman unite one day and live together as
long as they like and separate even more easily than they
united. A Swiss Protestant missionary declares the
social condition to be the ideal of certain reformers in
Europe — free love. It would be difficult to find a man
of forty who still retained his first wife. There is no
ceremony ; the pair enter into no definite engagement.
Once the chief authorises the man to marry he is
bound to make a few presents to his intended wife,
and then they settle down together without the
slightest fuss. Even for the children of chiefs there is
no ceremony : an ox is killed, or perhaps more than
one, for the purpose of a rejoicing ; but it is not until
the marriage is over. The husband of the king's
daughter is only formally brought to the khotla and
officially recognised the day after the marriage has in
fact taken place. Family life, as we understand it,
has no existence.^

Testimony to the licentiousness of the various
branches of the Bantu race dwelling south of the
Zambesi is unanimous and emphatic from the earliest
writers to the present time. Jakob Francken, who
visited Delagoa Bay in the sixth decade of the
eighteenth century, says that the Kaffir girls of eleven

^ M. M. Lopes, /oM/7/. Afr. Soc. vi. 364, 356, 382.
* B^guin, 113; Bull. Soc. Neuchat. de Cc'og. xi, 99.

2o6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

and twelve years old are usually all lovers and are
reckoned marriageable ; jealousy has no place among
the Kaffirs, for the mother offers herself and her
daughter in the presence of her husband, and some-
times the husband offers his wife ; but the Tembe are
the most disorderly of all, for as soon as one sets foot
in the country the creatures offer themselves, living in
this respect like the beasts/

Alberti, who was on military service in Cape Colony
at the beginning of the last century, reports somewhat
more favourably of the morals of married women
among the most southerly tribes, with which alone he
came into contact. But the unmarried girls and widows
were quite free in their relations with men. It was a
token of hospitality to offer to a guest a girl as bed-
fellow ; and if the offer were not made he easily found
one for himself.^ According to the testimony of other
writers the bedfellow was not by any means necessarily
an unmarried girl, but often among both Basuto and
Kaffirs a wife of the host.^

Fortunately we possess, in the writings of a Swiss
Protestant missionary, an account of the population
about Delagoa Bay, which is the most complete and

^ Rec. S. E. Aft: vi. 496, 498.

^ Alberti, 124, 162.

^ Endemann, Zeits. f. Ethnol. vi. 33 ; Nauhaus, Ibid. xiv. Verh.
210. The latter states in comprehensive terms the Kaffir law of
adultery thus : A married man is never an adulterer as regards his
own wife. A wife is only guilty if she yield herself to another man
against the will of her husband. A man is only guilty who has
intercourse with a married woman without the permission of het
husband. A girl is only guilty who has not been successful in
secretly applying the means of abortion constantly in use. A man
is only guilty who has ravished a girl and been by her denounced
to her father ) but this very seldom happens.

Marital jealousy ^o;

careful monograph ever published on any Bantu
people. In spite of the wars and devastations which
have taken place in South Africa, in spite of the
wholesale slaughter repeatedly committed both by
Bantu and Europeans, the Thonga tribes which now
occupy that part of South Africa are substantially the
same as those of Francken's day. It is understood,
M. Junod declares, that the young people have the
right to make love as much as they like and to go as
far as they will. The only restrictions are that a young
man is to avoid the married women, and that an un-
married girl is not to become a mother. Within these
limits they are free to indulge their passions, and any-
body who is continent is more laughed at than admired.
The girls are even more abandoned than the boys.
The law however is severe on adultery. The adulterer
is condemned to repay the bride-price paid by the
husband, because he has appropriated something
(namely, the wife) belonging to the latter. But the
wife is no more punished than a cow stolen by a
robber, unless she be caught in the act, when the
husband may give himself the pleasure of administering
a good thrashing. The question of purity, of chastity,
does not enter into the matter ; and so indifferent are
the women to their husband's morals that they will
play the go-between for them in their overtures to
other girls.^ Among the relics of uterine descent
found amonor the Baronoa are the close relations
existing between the maternal uncle and his nephew.

^ Junod, Les Baronga, 29, 32, 299, 490, 65, 66. As to
marriage customs, 32, 490 (t/. Endemann on the Bechuana marriage
customs and Griitzner on those of the Basuto of the Transvaal cited
in a note below),

2o8 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

It would be irrelevant here to enumerate their corre-
lative rights and duties. One, however, of such rights
is that of the nephew in certain contingencies to inherit
his uncle's widows. This right he is accustomed to
anticipate whenever he chooses. He calls them wives
and they call him husband. He is entitled to amuse
himself with any of them as a betrothed lover. When
he visits his uncle he deposits his sleeping-mat in the
hut of the wife he prefers, and stays with her while he
remains at the kraal. -^ Such conduct as this does not
come within the Ronga definition of adultery. We
can hardly go wrong in believing, though M. Junod is
silent on the point, that the hospitality which lends a
wife to any other guest is equally outside it. If so,
Francken's description is hardly exaggerated. I have
already exposed at sufficient length the condition of
sexual morality among the Basuto and some of their
neighbours ; ^ if anything, these tribes are more licen-
tious than the Baronga. A missionary of great ex-
perience, writing of the Kaffir tribes of the south as
well as the Basuto, but without specifying more closely,
says : *' Adultery is common, and frequently a woman
allures with the knowledge of her husband, as to him

1 Junod, 77. The term malume, maternal uncle, includes a much
wider circle of relatives than we are accustomed to associate with it.
Among the Mashuna, when an old man has several young wives, a
son or younger brother (to whom they would fall after his death)
frequently anticipates that event by taking and using them in his
lifetime. But this conduct is not viewed favourably by the husband
(S. A. Native Affairs Com. iv. 80). On the other hand, compare stories
of the matrilineal Haidas of Queen Charlotte Islands in which the
maternal uncle expressly puts his wife at his nephew's disposal
(Jesup Exped. x. 604, 746).

2 Supra yo\. i. p. 316. Cf. Endemann, Zeits.f. Ethnol. vi. 39;
Grutzner, Id. x. 82 ; H. E. Mabille, /o?<r«. Afr. Soc. v. 245, 365;
Fritsch, 95.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 209

belongs the fine inflicted by the chief on conviction."
According to the same writer a paramour is "a recog-
nised institution among the younger wives of old
men ; " and there are cases of temporary exchange of
wives. The latter are not common ; they seem to
correspond to the practice already noted among the
Masai, and to be occasioned by " sterility on the part
of one or both wives, it being found that occasionally
an exchange results in children being born." Any
such offspring belong by law to the lawful husband.-^
Further north, among the Matabele, a chaste woman
was almost unknown in the old days. "Even the
king's wives very often misbehaved themselves. When
they were found out of course they were killed ; but
they took very good care not to be found out if it was
possible."^

General licence on the occasion of puberty cere-
monies is found among many of these tribes. The
boys and girls who have passed through the cere-
monies indulge in it freely. Sexual intercourse is,
indeed, often compulsory.^ Nor is it confined to the
newly initiated. In the Zoutpansberg District of the
Transvaal large assemblies are held by the Bavenda
on these occasions. All work is suspended ; singing
dancing drilling and so forth occupy the people ; no
man "is allowed intercourse with his own wife, yet

1 Rev. J. Macdonald, /. A. I. xix. 270, 273, 272 ; Cape Native
Laws Com. Evidence, 106; S. A. Native Affairs Com. ii. 77, 173,
706, 1242, Nauhaus, Zeits. f. Ethnol. xiv. Verhandl. 209, 210.

2 S. A. Native Affairs Com. iv. 171.

3 Cape Native Laws Com. Evidence, 81, 212, 218, 273; App. 20,
408; Campbell, Trav. 514; Hewat, 109, in; Callaway, Tales,
255; Fritsch, 109, in; Kidd, 208 sqq. Cf. the Yao custom,
supra, p, 123. Hewat, 107, explains why conception follows inter-
course more rarely than might be expected,

n o

2IO PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

morals are allowed to become very lax ; prostitution
is freely indulged in, and adultery is not viewed with
any sense of heinousness on account of the surround-
ings." The practices of the Basuto of the same
district are similar : candidates and visitors alike are
encouraged in eating drinking and licentiousness.^
Among- the Kaffirs of the south marriages are similar
occasions of licence.^

A curious purification ceremony is performed by the
Bechuana in the month of January. The exact day is
fixed by the chief and a gathering of all the adult
males is held in the great kraal of the tribe. The
leaves of a species of gourd are crushed in the hand
and the big toes and navel are anointed with the juice.
Every man then goes home to his own kraal and the
ceremony is there repeated, the head of the family
smearing every member with the juice. Some more
leaves are pounded, mixed with milk in a wooden dish
and the dogs are called to drink it. That night every
man ritually sleeps with his chief wife. If the wife
however have been guilty of infidelity during the
year she must first confess it to her husband, and
must be purified. The purification, if necessary, is
performed on the following morning. The husband's
father presides at the ceremony, which is performed
by a witch-doctor. It consists in fumigating the
woman and her husband with the smoke of a bean-
plant placed in a pot between the woman's knees
as she sits on the ground. Her husband sits opposite
her with her knees between his and a kaross of ox-

^ Wheelwright,/. A. I. xxxv. 254, 255; GottschUng, Ibid. 372;
Zeits. f. Ethnol. xxviii. Verhandl. 364.
3 Zeits, f. Ethnol. xiv. Verhandl. 209.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 5ti

skin is thrown over them both. Husband and wife
then make each a sHght perpendicular cut with a razor
under the navel of the other. With the blood which
follows each mixes a little medicine and rubs it into
the cut in the other's abdomen. The purification is
then complete and the ritual coition may be proceeded
with. But if the husband be away from home and
unable to return for the ceremony, the wife is entitled
to proceed to the ritual coition with some other man.
When the husband returns he has to undergo the
purification ; but even after that he cannot have
sexual intercourse with her until the next year's cere-
mony. If, on the other hand, she have ventured to
postpone the ritual coition until her husband's return
it is then performed without the purification ceremony.
The husband appears to have no right to complain of
his wife's performance of ritual coition, in his absence,
with another man : it is he, not she, who is thereby
placed under a ban and until he is purified by fumiga-
tion and the rest of it, his very shadow would be fatal
to her or to his children.^ So far as the meaning
of this ceremony can be read, it seems to be a yearly
renewal ot sexual relations — of marriage — between
husband and wife ; indeed it is wider than that, it is a
yearly renewal of sexual life. Unless the full ceremony
be performed the party omitting it, though involun-
tarily, is subject to the direst supernatural penalties.
Attention may be specially drawn to the fact that not
only is the wife entitled to perform it in her husband's
absence with another man, but that she positively
incurs a risk for her husband's sake in postponing
it until his return. Moreover no penalty is incurred
* Rev. W, C, Willoughby, /, A. I. xxxv, 311.

212 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

by the infidelities she may confess prior to the per-
formance : they are purged by the subsequent purifi-
cation ceremony.

The information which we possess in reference to
the Hottentots is of a contradictory character. On
the one hand Kolben, who visited the Cape of Good
Hope at the beginning of the eighteenth century and
made a personal study of the Hottentot customs,
denies with great emphasis their indifference to the
chastity of married women. He asserts that they
punished adultery with death, and that a woman who
was divorced from her husband by the judgment of
the men of the kraal could not marry again during
her husband's life.^ On the other hand, Sir James
Alexander, recording his journey about a hundred and
twenty years later through Great Namaqualand and
confirming Kolben's statements in some other par-
ticulars, avers that chastity is of small account among
the Namaquas. "The chiefs even, when they go to
the sea, lend their wives to the white men for cotton
handkerchiefs or brandy ; and if a husband has been
out hunting and on his return finds his place occupied
he sits down at the door of his hut and the paramour
handing him out a bit of tobacco the injured man
contentedly smokes it till the other chooses to retire.
This surely," observes the traveller with surprise, "is
the acme of complaisance." ^ It is generally recognised
that Kolben's account of the Hottentots errs, if at all,
on the side of leniency. He gives no definition of
adultery. His description of their wooing, though
antenuptial intercourse is not asserted, leads to the
inference that it took place. And if a divorced woman
^ Ivolben, 157. Alexander, i. 196

MARITAL JEALOUSY 213

might not marry again we may readily surmise that
she did not refrain from the company of men, and that
any children she may have borne in consequence would
belong: to her husband. With reg^ard to Alexander's
evidence the transaction with the white men would
certainly not come within a Hottentot definition of
adultery ; nor doubtless would such transactions occur
only with white men. Alexander himself reports that
sometimes two chiefs would have four wives between
them ; ^ and an earlier traveller says it frequently
happened that a woman married two husbands.^
Alexander's other statement given above finds abun-
dant confirmation. Among the Hottentots, as in other
polygynic societies, the multiplication of wives leads
inevitably to irregular connections the more or less
open recognition of which is not uncommon. We
are therefore not surprised to learn that in some tribes
a woman frequently has " a real husband and a locum
tenens or substitute," and that among the Korana
every wife has a lover. ^ Apart from this their dances
were occasions of sensuality. The pot-dance of the
Hottentots in Cape Colony lasted several days during
which unbridled licence reigned, though it is alleged
that children probably begotten during this period
were all put to death. The nightly dances of the
Korana are also described as distinguished by
lasciviousness. Fritsch's verdict on the Colonial
Hottentots, that they were certainly not remarkable
for excessive chastity, is applicable to all.^

Among the Bushmen, as we saw in the last chapter,
there is little difficulty in putting an end to the con-

1 Alexander, i. 169. 2 Thunberg, ii. 193.

3 Id, 42, 64; Stow, 96. 4 Fritsch, 328, 375, 329.

214 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

jugal relation. An experience related by Alexander
throws further light on the Bushmen's attitude towards
their women. At Great Fountain he had been annoyed
by the Namaqua youth seeking the Bushmen women
at night in the neighbourhood of his camp. Subse-
quently bivouacking near the Orange River, where
also there were Bushmen, he warned the latter and
suggested they should come and put themselves under
his protection to prevent a repetition of the proceedings.
" To my exceeding surprise," he says, " imbued as I
was with notions of oriental jealousy, the Boschmans
said : ' Take the women ; the people may do with
them as they please ; what else is the use of them ? '
Seeing the Boschmans' feeling on this point (beasts
could not have been worse) I now thought that the
occurrences at the Great Fountain were not of so
serious or disgraceful a nature as I had at first
imagined they were." ^

A few of the Bantu tribes on the western side of the
continent may be mentioned. Among the Bambala
sexual morality in our sense of the word can scarcely
be said to exist, and virginity is not considered of the
slightest importance. Polyandry, indeed, as an institu-
tion does not exist ; " but a childless man will secretly
introduce his brother to his wife in order that he may
have a child by her ; such a proceeding is of course, a
secret de polichinelle.'' Polygyny is common.^ The
Fans of French Congo "regard virtue very lightly.
Before marriage a girl can do nearly as she pleases.

1 Alexander, ii. 21.

2 Torday and Joyce, /. A. I, xxxv, 410. The Bambala are in
a transitional state between^ motherright ^nd fatherright, (See
supra t vol. i, pp. 2y6, 282,)

MARITAL JEALOUSY 215

It is absolutely safe to state that it would be almost
impossible to find a maiden in a Fang^ village over
sixteen years of age. Adultery is common and one of
the chief causes of ' women palavers.' Women rank
first in value as goods for trade, next in value are
goats, then guns and cloth." Wives are lent to guests. '^
A French traveller relates, in illustration of the absence
of jealousy and the desire to make money out of their
wives' favours, that a few days before he had seen a
husband posted as sentinel at the entrance of his hut
in order that no importunate man might disturb the
passing amours of a native militia-man in the traveller's
retinue with one of his wives. ^

Among the Bakoko in the Cameroon a bride-price is
paid. If before betrothal a girl be free of her favours
the suitor disregards it with equanimity. A man
frequently bespeaks a girl as soon as she is born and
pays the bride-price by instalments until she arrives at
a marriaoreable acre. If after betrothal and before
marriage the girl have sexual intercourse with another
man the engagement is broken off, and the girl's
family must repay the amount received. Divorce is
easy, at least to the husband, but he rarely makes use
of the privilege. A married woman is not sacred from
her husband's brother and is not backward in recipro-
cating his advances. Any man who fancies his neigh-
bour's wife can hire her from him for a cask of powder
or its equivalent. The desire for the goods will con-
quer any reluctance the husband may feel. But sexual
intercourse with a married woman without the hus-
band's consent entails on both parties a severe thrashing

I A. L. Bennett, Id. xxix. 70, 79.' Cf, Nassau, 6, 10, 370.
Roche, Pahonins, 95, g6.

2i6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

by the husband, if discovered, though the seducer may
escape if willing to pay compensation. No punish-
ment follows the seduction of a maiden who is not
betrothed to some one else ; nor is she dishonoured by
it. If it come to the father's ears the lover pays a sum
of money and the affair is settled. " In general the
Bakoko consider their wives and daughters as a source
of gain. The seducer is in their eyes only a human
being who wants to cheat them of the money that is
due to them."^ Comparatively few brides among the
Banaka and Bapuku are maidens. When a bride-
groom finds his bride a maiden it is a subject of great
rejoicing ; he congratulates her parents, telling them
that he has found a pure wife and thanking them
heartily for so valuable a benefit. When a man has
agreed on the bride-price and has begun to pay it he
is entitled to secret intercourse with his bride. Men
lend their wives, and put them at the disposal of a
guest. Otherwise a man is entitled to compensation
for an infidelity on the part of his wife. A child
belongs to his mother's husband whoever may have
been the father : if begotten by other than the husband
the actual father has no right to him.^

The Haussa Fulba wife is lent by her husband "for
a consideration " to other men ; or he winks at her
love-affairs in order to swoop down upon her lovers for
compensation. But all her children are his ; they
enhance his position in society, and he is proud of them.
Even if he be absent for years from her and on return-
ing find an increase in his family, he makes no fuss

^ Eberhard von Sctikopf,^ Beih-dge ziir Kolonialpolitik, iv. 524.
2 Steinmetz, 36, 38. The accounts differ as to the extent of the
freedom of an unmarried girl.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 217

about it. He accepts it as his own child, or forgives
her : at worst he quietly forsakes her company for that
of his other wives.^

Among the Mande of Kong and Jimini husband and
wife are nominally required to be faithful to one
another. But polygyny without limit is permitted,
and the husband is merely required to pay a sum of
money to a wife whom he forsakes in too notorious
a manner for another. On the other hand, no punish-
ment falls on the wife for adultery. Her accomplice,
if a free man, is fined by the village chief to the extent
of a few fowls ; if unfree he is liable in addition to be put
in fetters. The offspring of adultery does not inherit,
but becomes the property of his mother's brother.
Like other domestic slaves, he cannot be sold and is
always well-treated ; he may marry a free woman, and
his lot is said to be by no means unhappy.^ On the
other hand, among the Mande of Seguela every child
born by whatever father during the marriage is con-
sidered as the husband's child. Husband and wife are
considered to owe a reciprocal duty of fidelity. But
adultery is not in general a cause of divorce on either
side : a pecuniary indemnity is all that the offended
party can demand. Even long absence of the husband
and omission to maintain the wife meanwhile are not
a cause of divorce. The woman in such a case is
authorised, generally at the end of a year, to go and
live with some other man. When the husband returns
he takes her back, together with any children that
may have been born in his absence. Illegitimate
children born before the marriage belong to their
mother who has full parental rights over them ; but
1 Globus, xciv. 61 sqq. 2 ciozel, 318, 319, 320.

2i8 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

if she afterwards marry the father their position is
regularised and they belong to him. Divorces are
pronounced by the head of the family, with the con-
currence of some of the relations or friends, unless
they take place by mutual consent, when it is enough
to declare them in the presence of four witnesses.^ In
Benin very few women are true to their husbands,
many of them having at least one lover. When a
child is born the woman does not declare who is its
father until her husband is dead. Many women live
openly with their lovers. The great majority of law-
suits are for the return of the wife, and many women
prefer prison to returning to their legal husbands.^ In
the neighbouring I bo country there is a yearly festival
called Mbari (beautiful) held in the principal villages,
and the most comely young women take part in it.
During the festival there is absolutely no restriction
placed upon them at night, "and they visit where and
whom they wish. Even women who are married and
live away return to their native villages on these
occasions." The festival lasts for some weeks.^
Among the Yoruba-speaking peoples in general
adultery is intercourse by a married woman with
other men than her husband without his knowledge
and consent ; but husbands lend their wives (and
more frequently their concubines) to their guests and
friends.* The Ewhe-speaking people of German
Togoland have a moral code hardly more developed.

1 Clozel, 331, 329, 330.

2 Dennett, At the Back, 199, 198. See as to the privileges of
the king's daughters, 176.

^ Man, iv. No. 106 ; Joiirn. Afr, Soc, iv. 134,
^ Ellis, Yoruba, 182,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 219

Among the Hos adultery is deemed of less con-
sequence than theft ; and to be found out in theft,
though a disgrace, entails no serious punishment. A
mother, for instance, will comfort a son who has been
discovered in an intrigue, by telling him that after all
it is not larceny and what he has done can be repaired
with a few cowries. A married man usually has " lady-
friends " in his neighbour's harems. If he goes about
to markets or on other business he has mistresses in
all the villages to which his affairs take him. A
husband who discovers an intrigue contents himself
at first with admonishing his wife ; if admonition have
no effect she may be sent away. The matter is
arranged with the disturber of his domestic bliss by
means of a simple warning or at most a trifling fine.
In the case of friendly or related stocks this fine was
until a few years ago no more than sixty pfennings.
It is only in the case of strange or hostile stocks that
it leads to bigger demands or formerly to war. Open
concubinage is also practised with (among others)
widows and wives who have been dismissed by their
husbands. The offspring however, if any, always
belong to the lawful husband, no difference in heirship
or otherwise being made between them and his
undoubted children ; and only the husband dares even
to bury an adulterine child who may happen to die.
Among the Matse unmarried girls have full sexual
liberty. If a girl have a lover and marry any other
man, the latter exacts compensation from the former ;
but if subsequently satisfied that his wife has given up
the lover since her marriage he remits it. A woman
is never punished for adultery, unless her intrigue has
caused her husband's death, probably by witchcraft as

220 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

among the Wayao. She is only punished for obstinate
refusal to live with him.^

The Bassa Komo on the Benue in Nigeria do not
regard adultery as a punishable offence. It may
cause a quarrel — even a fatal quarrel — between the
husband and the adulterer ; but it is no cause of
repudiation of the wife. Indeed the adulterine issue
belongs to the husband, so far as we can gather, just
like his own children.^

Among the Tuareg the freedom of women goes very
far. The dissolution of morals is said to be unpre-
cedented. Though the women largely outnumber the
men their infidelity seldom puts an end to the marriage.
The husband may quarrel with the paramour, scold his
wife or even go the length of giving her a few blows,
but that is all. A murder on that account would entail
the penalties of murder, and is in fact unheard of.
The women practically do what they like with no
interference by the men before marriage, and very
little after. If they are tired of a marriage they put
an end to it without further ado ; it is extremely rare
for a husband to take such a step.^

Among the Berbers a friendly exchange of wives is
said to take place often between two men. The
owner of the less young and plump wife pays money
by way of equality of exchange.^ The Berbers of the
Tunisian oases are reported to hold women in great

^ Spieth, 1 20, 195-197, 1 87, 744. As to ceremonial observ-
ances in connection with the worship of some of the gods. Id. 797,
802.

2 Jourii. Afr. Soc. viii. 15.

3 Globus, xciv. 188.

4 Post, A/r. Jur. i. 471, citing Rohlfs, Beilrdge ziir Entdeckung
und Erforschung Afrikcis, 1876,89.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 221

contempt, "not even doing them the honour of being
jealous of them." In the oasis of Gofsa cuckolds used
to be openly ridiculed and never took serious offence ;
" in fact it was customary to select as kaidono. of those
who had been most compromised in this respect." ^
An interesting relic of the hospitality which lends a
wife to a ouest is found amono- the Mohammedan

o o

Krumirs. A stranger visiting the tribe is received by
one of the tribesmen and lodged in the same tent with
his host's wife. But the husband mounts guard at the
door, gun in hand, and the least movement on the
stranger's part during the night draws upon him the
husband's menaces, and often even death at his hands.
The influence of Islam has not been sufficient to put
an end to the ancient guest-right, though it has reduced
it to an empty ceremony.^

Mohammed imposed no ascetic regard for con-
tinence upon his followers if they belonged to the male
sex, but he displayed less concern towards the desires
and appetites of the women. His modern adherents,
at all events among the Bedouins, however, have
remedied all that. Community of women, rather than
polygamy, Mr. Palgrave who travelled among them
tells us, is their connubial condition. It is emphatically
a wise Bedouin child who knows his own father.
Their current saying with reference to sexual matters
is " dogs are better than we are," and the traveller
from his own observation gives them " credit for
having so far at least spoken the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth." ^ This account is
with all its emphasis vague. A native writer cited by

^ Bruun, 296. ^ Bertholon, Arch. Anthr. Crim. viii. 609,

^ Palgrave, Arabia, i. 10,

22:2 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Sprenger gives further particulars of the customs of the
town of Mirbdt. He states that the women go every
night to the outer part of the city and devote themselves
to strange men, sporting with them the greater part of
the night. Meanwhile the husband brother son or
nephew goes by without taking any notice and enter-
tains himself with another woman.^ On the other side
of the Red Sea the Hassenyeh Arabs of the White
Nile practise a curious form of marriage. The most
respectable people marry for not more than four days
in the week, and sometimes for fewer. During these
days the wife is required to observe matrimonial
chastity. On the other days she is free to receive
whatever man she may fancy ; and husbands appear
pleased with any attention paid to their wives during
their days of freedom ; it is so much evidence that
they are attractive.^ The same people are reported to
place a wife at the service of a guest.^ At Mecca the
old mother-goddess Al-Uzza was worshipped in " the
times of ignorance." She was probably identical with
Semitic goddess of fertility adored under various names
all over Western Asia and carried by the Phoenician
colonies to Carthage and elsewhere. The festivals in
her honour were everywhere licentious, as became her
character. Such festivals are still held at Mecca under
another patronage ; and they are still as of old licen-
tious.* At some of these festivals in Arabia held in

■•• Barton, 44. ^ Id. b^ii citing Wilken, Matriarchaaf, 24.

^ Post, Afr. Jur. i. 472, citing Taylor. Dulaure, 301 note, cites
two examples of the rites of hospitality in Arabia and Syria :
doubtless many more could be added.

^ On the worship of the Semitic goddess see Frazer, Adonis, Bk,
i. passim; Tylor Essays, 189 sqq.; Augustine, Civ, Dei. ii. 4, 26 ;
Barton, 233 sqq.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 223

connection with the circumcision of children, where no
licentious acts are now performed, the original nature
of the rites is unmistakably exhibited in the dances by-
maidens, while the young men stand by and select
their wives from the dancers/

Returninof to the continent of Australia we will con-
sider the sexual relations, so far as they concern the
present argument, of the Arunta and their neighbouring
tribes on either side of the Macdonnell Range. These
tribes are in the patrilineal stage. Their matrimonial
arranofements differ somewhat from those of the Dieri
considered on an earlier page, inasmuch as the relation
of pirraiiru is unknown. But the appropriation of
a woman to one husband is hardly less qualified on
that account. Like the Dieri each of these central
tribes is divided socially into a number of groups of
men on the one side and of women on the other who
stand in the relation of unawa (Dieri, nod) or potential
spouses to one another. When a girl arrives at

^ Barton, 99, 100, no, citing Tyow^\.y, Arabia Deserta, i. 340.
Concerning the manners of tiie Druses of Mount Lebanon the
Spanish rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Palestine in the
twelfth century, relates that fathers committed incest with their own
daughters and that once a year a festival was held at which pro-
miscuous intercourse took place. This was perhaps a calumny
{Early Trav. 80. Cf. Churchill, Mount Lebanon, ii. 1853, 238-241).
The Yezidis, or Devil-worshippers of Asiatic Turkey, are reported to
sanction unions ot a kind that would be called irregular and
adulterous by either their Christian or their Mohammedan neigh-
bours. Indeed, if the admission of an attendant at the principal
Yezidi shrine near Mosul, made to Mr. Badger, can be reUed on
such unions are part of their religious worship, or at least are
ordinary incidents in the precincts of the shrine. The admission
however was vague, was instantly though ambiguously denied by an
elder attendant, and the form of Mr. Badger's examination of the
witnesses as recorded by himself does not carry conviction (Badger,
Nestorians, i. 109).

224 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

maturity she will have been allotted to one of the men
who are unawa to her. Before she is handed over to
him she has to undergo a cruel and revolting rite
which is performed with the cognisance but not, among
the Arunta, in the presence of the bridegroom (if we
may dignify him by that name). The rite is imme-
diately followed by sexual intercourse with the men
who take part in it, beginning with men with whom
intercourse is at ordinary times forbidden and con-
cluding with those who, like the bridegroom, are
unawa to her. She is then adorned with head-bands and
tufts of fur, with necklaces and arm-bands of fur-string,
and her body is painted all over with a mixture of fat
and red ochre. Thus decorated she is handed over to
her husband, who will most likely send her back the
next day to the same men for a repetition of the inter-
course, though it is not, among the Arunta, obligatory
on him to do so. From that time she becomes
exclusively appropriated to him, subject to certain
tribal customs.^ The first of these customs is the
right to lend her when he pleases to men who stand
in the relation of unawa to her. Such loans are usually
made to guests who are visiting the tribe. They are
dependent on the husband's will, and are a mark ot
personal favour by him to the visitor or other friend in
question. But tribal custom, independent of the
husband's will, limits his exclusive ownership of the
woman much more seriously. On the occasion of an
important corrobboree it is every man's duty at different
times to send his wife to the ground, that the men

^ S. and G., Cent. Tribes, 92 sqq. 107 ; North. Tribes, 133 sqq.
There seems some doubt whether after all the Arunta are properly
speaking in the stage of fatherright.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 225

present may have access to her. And as in the rites
preliminary to appropriation by her husband the pro-
ceedings commence with intercourse on the part of a
man who is, except on ceremonial occasions, most
strictly forbidden to her/ During the boys' puberty
ceremonies there is also at one period a general inter-
change of women ushered in by a special dance by the
women, whose decorations and movements are of an
unmistakable character.^ If a woman's allotted husband
die, she is usually handed on to one of his younger
brothers, who first of all lends her for a day or two to
other men. Among the Kaitish, for example, the
first men who thus have intercourse with her are such
as are ordinarily prohibited ; and as in the ceremony
prior to her marriage it is only after passing from the
hands of these that men who are in the relation of
unawa are allowed intercourse with her.^

There are other occasions on which women are lent
either ceremonially or as a token of goodwill, but
we need not here follow the details. It will suffice to
say that frequently the sexual licence amounts to
absolute promiscuity, when men have intercourse with
women whom at other times they dare not touch, under
penalty of death for incest. There is abundant
evidence to justify Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's con-
clusion thrat while jealousy is not unknown among
these tribes it is but feebly developed. " For a man
to have unlawful intercourse with any woman arouses
a feeling which is due not so much to jealousy as to
the fact that the delinquent has infringed a tribal

'^ S. and G., Cent. Tribes, 93, 98, 381, 96.

2 Ibid. 381.

^ Ibid, North. Tribes, 136.

226 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

custom." If the intercourse has been with a woman
who belongs to the class from which his wife comes
he is called a thief ; if with one with whom it is alto-
gether unlawful for him to have intercourse, then he is
called itufka, the most opprobrious term in the Arunta
tongue. "In the one case he has merely stolen
property, in the other he has offended against tribal
law."^ The status of the children does not depend
upon paternity. There is no such thing as an illegiti-
mate or adulterine child. Any child a woman may
have is reckoned to the phratry and class of her hus-
band, and he has presumably some sort of property in
it, though according to native belief he is concerned in
the procreation at most in a wholly subordinate way,
as we have seen in a previous chapter.^

If the central tribes are an extreme example of the
indifference among the patrilineal natives to what we
regard as female virtue, it is certain that a similar
attitude may be traced elsewhere. Among the tribes
about Maryborough in Queensland the unmarried
girls, with perhaps some widows, camped away from
the main camp and there were courted by the young
men. At the end of the puberty ceremonies marriages
were arranged after the fashion of the rape of the
Sabines ; and unless a man kept a good look-out upon
his lubra it was more than probable that she would be
missing after such a raid by the men in want of wives.
Wives were lent to strangers. Women however who
were always laying themselves out to attract men

1 S. and G., Cent. Tribes, 98-100, 106, 3S1.

2 Supra, vol. i. p. 237 ; S. and G., Cent. Tribes, 68, 72 ; North.
Tribes, 96. I use the terms phratry and class for moiety and
subclass.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 227

obtained a bad reputation ; and entertainment was
often provided by their means for visitors.^ The
Narrlnyeri youth, after completion of the puberty
ceremonies, had full licence as to the younger women,
even those of their own class and totem. Marriages
were effected by way of exchange of sisters or other
female relatives. A man had the right to exchange
his wife for the wife of another man, but the practice
was not looked upon favourably by his clan. Mar-
riage by elopement also occurred, but the woman was
regarded with disfavour, because there had been no
exchange of a sister for her. A young man might call
his comrades to help him in an elopement, but they
then had the right of access to the girl ; and his male
relatives would only defend him from the girl's kindred
on condition of access to her.^ Elopement was the
ordinary method of marriage among the Kurnai : it
was effected with the assistance of the bridegroom's
comrades who had been initiated at the same ceremony
as himself, and their help was given on the same con-
dition as among the Narrinyeri. When the Aurora
Australis was seen it was believed to be Mungan's
fire which might burn the people up. To avert this
danger the old men instituted a magical ceremony,
part of which was a general exchange of wives for a
day. Men also lent their wives to guests. Dr.
Howitt further cites a case within his personal re-
collection where a Kurnai, having two wives, lent one
to a friend who was going on a journey by himself,

1 Howitt, 232 sqq.

- Id. 260, 261, 674 ; Taplin, Narrinyeri, 14, The latter also
says (p. 10) "that on some occasions amongst a certain class of
natives a great deal of licentious revelry will take place." He is
speaking of native weddings.

228 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

saying : " Poor fellow ! He is a widower and has a
long way to go, and will feel very lonely."^ The
Yerkla-mining rarely lend women, " excepting to
visitors, but it is occasionally done for a friend who
has no wife ; but in all cases only to one who is of the
proper class-name [that is, to whom the woman might
legally have been married]. The most frequent case
is when one of the Headmen (medicine-men) requests
a loan for some friendly visitor." ^ Among the
Narrang-ga tribes of Yorke Peninsula, "when the
local totem-clans met at some tribal ceremony brothers
exchanged wives for a time, but did not lend them to
strangers." ^ The Yuin lent their wives to guests. A
man who had more wives than he had an immediate
use for would sometimes give one away to a poor
fellow who had none.* This was a thoroughly
businesslike arrangement : he reduced the number
of mouths he had to hunt for and at the same time
secured the attachment of the woman's new husband.
Lastly, among the Yaitmathang a youth after passing
through the puberty ceremonies might choose any
woman of the tribe, his own blood-relations excepted,
for the night. ^ In this case, as among the Narrinyeri,
it would seem that the class-restrictions on mating
were disregarded as well as the rights of husbands.
It is obvious that among the Blackfellows the laxity of
sexual relations was in no way affected by the change
of reckoning from maternal to paternal descent.

1 Howitt, 276, 266. 2 /^, 258.

3 Id. 260. The term brothers must be understood in the wider
sense according to native reckoning.

* Id. 266. On the universality of the practice of lending a wife
to a guest c/. Brough Smyth, ii. 301 ; as to the licence at corrob-
borees and on other occasions, /^. 319. ^ Howitt, 566.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 229

We have in an earlier part of the present chapter
discussed the sexual relations of various American
tribes which reckon kinship through the mother. We
have still to consider those of the tribes which have
advanced to agnatic descent or which recognise kinship
through both parents. Here we find the practice of
offering the wife or other female dependent to a guest
for temporary companionship very widespread, if not
universal. Lewis and Clark's expedition up the
Missouri in the year 1804, was received in a friendly
manner both by the Sioux and the Ankara Pawnees,
and the men were literally persecuted with offers of
squaws for their use. The women besides were
"disposed to be amorous," and the men found no
difficulty in procuring companions for the night. But
while these interviews were among the Sioux chietiy
clandestine and nominally secret from the husband or
other relations, among the Arikara the etiquette was
reversed. "That the wife or the sister should submit
to a stranger's embraces without the consent of her
husband or brother is a cause of great disgrace and
offence, especially as for many purposes of civility or
gratitude the husband and brother will themselves
present to a stranger these females and be gratified by
attentions to them." In other words the unauthorised
embraces were an infringement of the husband's
property, which, on the other hand, he had no hesitation
in offering in the name of hospitality and friendship.^
The Mandans and the Minnetarees welcomed the
expedition with similar demonstrations.^ The Sho-

^ Lewis and Clark, i. 157, 161.

- Id. 189, 215. The white traders of a later date used to enter
into alliances similar to those of the African traders so graphically

230 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

shonees were not indeed so importunate in volunteering
the services of their wives, yet a Shoshonean husband
would for a trifling present lend his wife for a night to
a stranger and prolong the loan in consideration of an
addition to the value of the gift. He would however
regard favours which he had not authorised as '* highly
offensive and quite as disgraceful to his character as
the same licentiousness in civilised societies."^ The
members of the expedition found the persevering
gallantry of the Chinook and Clatsop women par-
ticularly troublesome. Their kindness always exceeded
the ordinary courtesies of hospitality. A man would
lend his wife or daugfhter for a fishhook or a strand of
beads. To decline the offer was to disparage the
lady's charms ; and nothing seemed to irritate both
sexes more than the refusal to accept the favours of
the women. A chief came one day with his two
squaws, whose services he offered to the two chiefs of
the expedition. When they were refused both he and
the whole party of Indians were greatly offended, none
more so than the ladies themselves. The unmarried
girls were their own mistresses ; and, as among all the
other Indians with whom the leaders of the expedition
were acquainted, they were in the habit of soliciting
the favours of the other sex, with the full approval of
their friends and kindred.^

Later inquiries have fully confirmed this account of
the Chinook and resulted in extending it to other tribes
of the neighbourhood. We are told in general terms of

described by Miss Kingsley. These were always of a temporary
character, and did not injure a lady's future prospects when the
connection came to an end (Catlin, i. 120).

^ Lewis and Clark, ii. 119, 2 Id. 331, 291,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 231

the tribes of Western Washington and North-western
Oregon that the idea of chastity is entirely wanting in
both sexes. " Prostitution is ahnost universal. An
Indian, perhaps, will not let his favourite wife, but he
looks upon his others, his sisters daughters female
relatives and slaves, as a legitimate source of profit ;
and this seems to have been a trait of the coast tribes
from their first intercourse with the whites. Occa-
sionally adultery forms a cause of difficulty ; but it is
then only because the woman is reserved for the time
being to the husband's use, or because he fears to be
cheated of his just emoluments. Cohabitation of un-
married females among their own people brings no
disgrace if unaccompanied with childbirth, which they
take care to prevent."^

The Mandans, anotlier of the tribes visited by Lewis
and Clark, are said by later travellers to have punished
adultery on the part of the wife by cutting off her nose. ^
Here as elsewhere adultery means the bestowal of
favours by the wife upon another man without her
husband's consent, which we have seen was often
given. When a certain dance, called the dance of the
half-shorn head, was sold by its Mandan possessors,
they received in part payment the temporary use of
the wives of the purchasers, each woman having the
right to choose her consort.^ With such customs it is

^ G. Gibbs, Contrib. N. Am. Ethn. i. 199.

2 Will and Spinden, Peabody Miis. Papers, iii. 131, apparently on
the authority of Maximilian Prince of Wied. The same punishment
was said to be inflicted by the Ojibways and Blackfeet ; but among
the latter it does not prevent the women from painting their faces as
an invitation to men (Petitot, Traditions, 492).

^ Dorsey, Rep, Bur. Ethn, xi. 505, citing Maximilian, Trav, N,
Airier. 426.

232 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

hardly surprising that, notwithstanding the severe
punishment awaiting adultery, what is technically
called virtue in a woman was rather scarce. The men
boasted their love-exploits and often carried about the
village small bundles of sticks each representing a
conquest, or one big stick with stripes indicating the
number. The Hidatsas had a similar custom.^ In
Montana a Crow husband, with the aid of a party of
his male friends, inflicts condign punishment on a faith-
less wife by compelling her to submit to their embraces,
and erects a monument of stones on the spot as a
witness of her shame. He then dismisses her. But
this does not seem to prevent her remarriage, and
with that event she is restored to social consideration.
Nor does it affect the prevalence of sexual immorality
among both old and young of the tribe.^

Among the northern Maidu of the foot-hills adultery
was said to be very common, and the general moral
status in sexual matters was low. When a grirl amonor
the north-eastern Maidu came to puberty dances were
held during four consecutive nights and great licence
was permitted. Dancing couples would drop out of
the ring or line and wander away into the brush, to
resume their places later in the dance. Young and
old, married as well as single, all took part ; and while
a woman might refuse to yield herself it was considered
evidence of bad temper and was widely commented
on.^ Hunter, who lived in captivity with the Kickapoos
Kansas and Osages during his childhood and early
manhood in the opening years of the last century, tells

^ Will and Spinden, loc. cit.

^ S. C. Simms, Amer. Anthr. N.S. v. 374.

^ Dixon, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H. xvii. 240, 236.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 2^^

us that jealousy was a passion but little known and
much less indulged by those tribes. The principal
causes of divorce were indolence intemperance and
cowardice. He adds to these impotence and sterility,
but takes care to say that he had never known an
instance of either and concludes that they must be
exceedingly rare. Separation of husband and wife
depended upon the wife's will as much as the husband's ;
and if she chose to leave him and return to her parents
she found no difficulty in marrying again. ^ Another
account says of the Osages that a man's concubines
(probably meaning his subordinate wives) were offered
to a guest. The Assineboin in return for hospitality
of this kind used to stipulate for a present.^ We
gather from the traditional narratives of the Foxes
that marriages were easily put an end to, and that the
first night of a marriage, or sometimes more, was not
very rarely given up to a brother or a specially beloved
friend.^

Among the Dene or Athapascans of the north of
Canada the temporary exchange of wives was regarded
as a pre-eminent token of friendship and the greatest
proof of hospitality. The majority indeed of the Dene
have little regard for chastity ; and the lewdness of
the Carrier women is said to be unsurpassed.* To
the south-west of the Ungava district dwells a tribe
of Indians, perhaps related to their neighbours the
Montagnais of the early Jesuit missionaries. It is not
clear from Mr. Turner's account of them whether they

^ Hunter, 247.

"^ Post, Studien, 345, citing Waitz.

Jones, Fox Texts, i, 217, 305, 313.

F. A. G. Morice, Anthropos, ii. 33, 32

234 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

reckon kinship through the father or the mother.
The women are treated well and no notice is taken
of occasional laxity in their morals so long as it is not
notorious. In the Ungava district itself the Nenenot
or Naskopie men exhibit less jealousy than the
women. Their sexual relations are very loose. Con-
tinence on the part of either husband or wife is
unusual, and only notorious unchastity is sufficient
to cause the offender to be put away. The paternal
origin of a child is therefore often obscure. For that
reason we are told the husband at the time of the
child's birth is supposed to be its father.^ While
accepting the facts we may be permitted to doubt the
author's reasoning. The Kwakiutl believe "that the
birth of twins will produce permanent backaches in the
parents. In order to avert this the man, a short time
after the birth, induces a young man to have inter-
course with his wife, while she in return procures a
girl for her husband. It is believed that the backache
will then attack them." ^ Among the Ahts of British
Columbia and the more northern tribes of the coast
the temporary present of a wife is one of the greatest
honours that can be shown to a ouest.^ The Aleuts
of the American islands exchanged wives and a rich
woman was permitted to indulge in two husbands.*
In fact, the custom of lending or exchanging wives
in token of hospitality and friendship, on certain
ceremonial occasions, or as the price of obtaining

^ Turner, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 183, 269-71.
^ Boas, Brit. Ass. Rep. 1896, 575.

3 Sproat, 95. Some of the tribes vaguely alluded to by the
writer are doubtless matrilineal.
* Bancroft, i. 92,

MARITAL JEALOUSY 235

secret knowledge, was very general among the North
American tribes and has been noted by explorers and
other observers from the earliest period.^

Mention has been made of ceremonies in other parts
of the world in which more or less promiscuous ritual
coition is practised. Such festivals are by no means
wanting" amongr the aborigines of North America.
While the expedition of Lewis and Clark sojourned
in one of the Mandan villages a buffalo dance was
performed. The object of this celebration was to
obtain the return of the buffaloes, which had become
scarce. At the appointed hour the old men seated
themselves cross-legged on skins round a fire in the
middle of the lodge with a doll dressed like a young
woman placed before them. Each young man brought
a platter of food a pipe of tobacco and his wife, who
was dressed only in a robe or mantle thrown loosely
around her body. Selecting the old man whom he
intended to honour he spread the food before him,
offered him the pipe and smoked with him. Imme-
diately the old man exhibiting the image threw it on
the ground and stepping out of the circle pretended
to attempt sexual intercourse with it as if with a
woman. The young man's wife at once casting herself
on the elder folded him in her arms, and her husband
humbly prayed that he would honour him by embracing

1 Mooney, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xix. 456. Mr. Mooney's remark is
called forth by a Cherokee tale in which a husband changes shapes
with a buzzard to obtain success in hunting deer. While the
husband in the form of the buzzard flies to locate the game, the
buzzard in the husband's form goes home to entertain his wife. An
Ojlbway tale (Journ. Am. F. L. xix, 229) relates this practice of
another tribe which cannot be identified, but implicitly repudiates it
for the Ojibway. The repudiation can hardly be relied on.

236 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

her there and then. Often the elder at first appeared
reluctant, but at length moved by the youth's perse-
verance, by his prayers gifts and even tears, yielded
to his solicitations, the husband meanwhile standing
by, rejoicing at the honour which was being done him
and at his dignity thus preserved by acceptance of his
offer/ The buffalo was the most important animal to
the Indians of the Plains. When the buffaloes were
absent, want of all the necessaries of life threatened
the people. The presence of a herd and a successful
hunt meant plenty and wealth and whatever an Indian
required to fulfil his ideal of happiness. There can be
little doubt that this strange scene, which amazed the
explorers beyond measure, was a magical process in-
tended to draw ths buffaloes back and with the buffaloes
the prosperity of which they were the symbol and the
substance. Nor was this the only ritual of the kind
performed by the Mandans ; but in the other orgy
witnessed by the explorers it is stated that all the
women taking part were unmarried. In the same
way at the great buffalo medicine-feast of the Hidatsas,
said to have been instituted by the women, when
prayers were offered for success in hunting and in battle,
the men and women indulged in something" like
promiscuous intercourse.^

One other example will suffice. The Arapaho, an
Algonkin-speaking people, were discovered at the
beginning of the last century inhabiting a territory
which now forms the eastern half of Colorado and the
south-eastern quarter of Wyoming. Their principal

^ Lewis and Clark, i, 209.

^ Dorsey, Rep. Bur. Etlui. xi. 505, citing Maximilian, Trav. N,
Amer. 419.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 237

religious ceremony is called the Sun-dance. It is
performed from time to time in compliance with a
vow made by a member of the tribe at some crisis of his
life, such as sickness either of himself or some of
his kindred, lunacy, ominous dreams or for deliverance
from a great danger, as when sorely pressed on the
war-path. The whole community joins in the per-
formance, which consists in an elaborate series of
solemn rites extending over eight days and undertaken
in a deeply religious spirit. A great lodge is built,
every portion of which with its accessories is symbolic.
One of the chief functionaries is the Lodge-maker, and
another is his official "grandfather," the Transferrer.
At a certain point of the performance the Lodge-
maker's wife and the Transferrer leave together the
Rabbit-tipi, a lodge where the secret preparations are
made for the dance. Deliberately and solemnly and
in ritual order they prepare for this duty. The woman
flinging a buffialo robe around her removes all her
clothing, and covered only with a robe she follows the
Transferrer who is similarly clad. While a sacred
song is sung and intense emotion prevails in the lodge,
they pass out by a sunwise circuit over the fumes of
rising incense, and proceed to a spot a short distance
from the lodge. It is midnight. After a few moments'
prayer in which they both emphasise the fact that
they are about to do that which was commanded at
the time of the origin of the ceremony and that what
they are about to do is in keeping with the wish of
their Father, the woman throws her covering on the
ground and lies down on her back. The Transferrer
standing by her side offers her body to Man-above,
the Grandfather, to the Four-Old-Men and various

238 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

minor gods. No doubt can be entertained that
formerly this offering was followed by actual inter-
course between the Transferrer and the Lodge-maker's
wife. But it is averred that this is now prohibited,
and it was not certainly performed when the ceremony
was witnessed by Mr. Dorsey in 1902. During the
act of intercourse, whether really or only in symbol
enacted, the Transferrer places in the woman's
mouth a piece of root which is transferred to the
Lodge-maker's mouth from his wife's on her return to
the tipi. The woman re-entering the tipi addresses her
husband : *' I have returned, having performed the
holy act which was commanded"; whereupon he and the
other dancers thank her and pray for her success.
The rite is repeated with similar formalities on the
second night following, after the great offerings-lodge
is completed, but before the first dance actually com-
mences. In this rite — a dramatic representation in
intimate relation with the myths of the tribe — the
Transferrer represents the Man-above, while the
woman represents the mother of the tribe. The root
placed in her mouth represents the seed or food given
by the All-Powerful (Man-above), "while the issue of
their connection is believed to be the birth of the
people hereafter, or an increase in the population."
The rite is also a plea to all protective powers for
their aid and care.^ It is thus believed to have a
potent influence on the well-being of the people. Nor
is this all. " At the sun-dance an old man crying out
to the entire camp-circle told the young people to

^ Dorsey, Field Columbian Mus. Pub, Anthrop. iv. 173, 10 1.
The neighbouring tribe of the Cheyenne had the same rite at the
Sun-dance (Dorsey, Id. Anthrop. ix. 130).

MARITAL JEALOUSY 239

amuse themselves ; he told the women to consent
if they were approached by a young man, for this was
their opportunity ; and he called to the young men
not to beat or anger their wives, or be jealous during
the dance : they might make a woman cry, but mean-
while she would surely be thinking of some other
young man. At such dances the old women say to
the girls : * We are old, and our skin is not smooth ;
we are of no use. But you are young and plump ;
therefore find enjoyment. We have to take care of
the children, and the time will come when you will do
the same.' " ^

In Central America the sexual morality of the
Mosquito Indians leaves much to be desired from
our point of view. To be sure, a married pair will
seldom separate, though either of them can do so at
pleasure ; for wives are hard to find and to be without
a wife is not only an ignominious but a most distress-
ing plight for an Indian. Whether in consequence of
this or not, the women are allowed complete freedom
and infidelity is common. The husband if he discover
it is usually contented with payment of the customary
fine.^ In Mexico, according to Mr. Lumholtz, the
uncivilised Tarahumare is in the ordinary course of
his existence too bashful and modest to enforce even
his matrimonial rights and privileges. Happily there
are numerous feasts, as well private as public, at which
tesvino, the national intoxicating liquor made from
Indian corn, is offered to the gods and consumed by
mortals, else the race would die out. On these oc-
casions sacrifices are offered, dancing and drink are

^ Kroeber, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H. xviii. 15.
^ Bell, Tangweera, 261. Cf. 197.

240 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

freely resorted to, and the solemnity ends with an orgy.
When it is time to return home the track is strewn
with men and v/omen who, overcome with the effects
of their spree, have lain down wherever they happened
to be to sleep themselves sober. Especially at the
agricultural festivals sexual promiscuity takes place ;
and perhaps it is in some measure at least looked upon
as a ritual performance not unpleasing to the higher
powers.^

In South America among the tribes of the Para-
guayan Chaco very little jealousy appears to exist. A
missionary who records this .thinks it speaks well for
the women ; but, on the other hand, he definitely states
in the next sentence that no punishment is meted out
to the offender for theft fraud or adultery.^ The
women of the Mboyas, one of the Paraguayan tribes,
bestowed their favours on the slightest inducement
being held out to them. Generally among the Para-
guayan tribes it is said that chastity was entirely
unknown ; fathers-in-law freely indulged in sexual
intercourse with their daughters-in-law. The animal
passions were gratified in public without concealment.
A wife could be put away without the least formality ;
no shame or dishonour on either side attached to
repudiation. Among some tribes polygyny was
permitted only to the cacique. He claimed the
privilege of selecting the fairest damsel of the village
as his bride, and he sometimes handed her over to his
ollow ers to be defiowered.^ The Araucanians cele-

1 Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, i. 352. ^ Grubb, 103.

3 Featherman, Giiarano-Mar, 435. There seem to have been
great differences among the tribes in their customs and sexual
norality.

MARITAL JEALOUSY 241

brate at different times a religious festival called
kamarouko. According to the ancient rite it is said
the conductors of the solemnity were to be virgins. A
sexual orgy winds up the festival ; and though it is
possible that alcohol may conduce to the brutality of
the present-day performances it seems improbable that
this feature of the ceremonies is wholly traceable to
drink. ^ Dr. Preuss quotes from von Tschudi a
description of a harvest festival among the Peruvians
taken from an old Spanish ecclesiastic. In the month
of December, we learn, at the time of the approaching
maturity of the fruit z'aXi^A pal" tay or pal' la those who
are to take part in the feast prepare themselves by
abstinence from salt and utsu, a species of capsicum,
and by strict continence. On a certain day designated
at the beginning of the feast (which lasted six days
and six nights) men and women assembled all stark
naked at an appointed place between the fruit-gardens.
At a given signal they started in a race for a fairly
distant hill. Every man who during the race overtook
a woman had intercourse with her on the spot.^

The foregoing survey of practices foreign to our
ethical code, and utterly inconsistent with masculine
jealousy as we understand the passion, might easily be
extended. Accurate statistics are, of course, im-
possible on the subject. The examples I have col-
lected however show that these practices are found
not here and there isolated in a vast ocean of healthier
morality ; they abound in every quarter of the globe

^ Journ. Am. F. L. xiv. 151, reviewing and citing Comte Henri de
la Vaulx, Voyage en Patagonie.

2 Preuss, Globus, Ixxxvi. 358, quoting Pedro da Villagomez, Carta
pastoral from von I'schudi, Beitriige anir Kenntnis des alien Pern
(Vienna, 1891), 26.

" Q

242 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

and in varying degrees of civilisation from the lowest
savagery upwards. Nor are they breaches of the
traditional code of morals : on the contrary, they are
its embodiment and expression. By them not merely
are unmarried women free to dispose of their persons ;
married women bestow their favours at the instance, or
with the consent, of their husbands, or else in obedience
to some religious or social duty, upon strange men
and at times upon men whom they are required in
ordinary circumstances to shun under the severest
penalties of the tribal religion, penalties not the
sanction of a merely conjugal duty but of the wider
social organisation. Even when their favours cannot
be brought within any of these categories, when they
are bestowed without the knowledge or concurrence of
their husbands the transgression is frequently of small
account. It is winked at, or it is deemed no more
than a petty theft for which the husband is willing to
be placated by payment of compensation, in many
cases trifling in amount or according to a fixed tariff,
or else by the castigation of the erring wife or the
partner of her guilt.^

The view thus implied of what we should call
serious offences against virtue is not, it is true, uni-
versal. But it is common enough and distributed
widely enough to lead the student seriously to ask

1 In Northern Queensland, where the husband enjoys the
common rights of lending exchanging selling or divorcing his wife,
while she has no corresponding powers, there seem to be curious
divergencies in the way in which rape of a married woman is
regarded. In some places the culprit exposes himself to death, or
to a severe punishment short of death ; elsewhere, a comparatively few
miles off, the woman's husband or betrothed may not even consider
himself aggrieved (Roth, Bull. viii. 6 (s. 2), 9 (s. 10).

MARITAL JEALOUSY 243

whether the masculine passion of jealousy can be as
fundamental and primitive as it is sometimes asserted
to be. If the answer be, as I believe it must be, in
the negative certain hypothetical reconstructions of the
history of marriage will need reconsideration.

Our immediate business however is not with these :
we are concerned rather with the relation of parent
and child. The evidence before us culminating in the
present chapter proves beyond doubt a general in-
difference in the lower culture to the actual paternity
of a child. It is true that among many nations the
pregnancy of an unmarried girl must be followed by
her marriage ; while among others the alternative of
abortion or infanticide is preferred. Economic causes
are frequently responsible for this : the girl-mother's
family are unwilling to support an additional member
who ought to be dependent on another person. Or
the pressure of social forms is often responsible. The
transfer of the potestas to the husband tends to the
servitude of all women, unmarried as well as married.
A girl's freedom is abridged ; her right to entertain
lovers decays ; she is married by the time she is
mature or as soon afterwards as possible. Often she
is betrothed when a mere child and compelled to
continence until marriage. There is no place in the
social framework for the offspring of her amours ; it
becomes a disgrace for any other than a wife to bring
a child into the world. On the other hand, it is by no
means uncommon that a girl who is pregnant or has
given birth to a child is more readily married ; her
value increases when she is shown to be prolific.
Her husband is sure of at least one child ; and whether
he himself is the begetter or not is a matter about

244 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

which he is quite careless. Nor is the marriage-day
the terminus ad quern of his carelessness. In a con-
siderable proportion of the cases cited the husband, if
he ponder the subject at all, must be aware that
some of the children begotten after marriage have not
been begotten by him, though they may be the result
of other sexual relations by his wife sanctioned by
tribal usage. Even adulterine issue, defined in the
terms of the lower culture as the result of relations not
so sanctioned, is frequently received by the husband as
his own. In the communities in which the practices w^e
have passed in review are found children are as a rule
but little burden ; on the contrary they may be a source of
power and wealth. A husband therefore does not too
curiously inquire into the origin of a child who will
raise his status and add to his influence in society.
Nay, even if he knows that he is not the father, by
recognising it as his child he acquires the benefit of
its birth as if he had been himself the agent in begetting
it. It may be said that this will not apply to cases of
more or less nomadic populations, like the Bushmen
and the Australian blackfellows who wander over a
comparatively barren country. To them children
instead of adding to their power and wealth are a
weakness and an incumbrance. There is a measure
of truth here. The burden and the danger of too
many children is relieved by infanticide, especially of
girls. Yet it is easy to overstate the objection. To
these poverty-stricken populations children are their
greatest asset. Burden though they may be in their
earliest years they quickly learn to help themselves,
and as they grow up they take their full share in
providing for the wants and assuring the safety of the

MARITAL JEALOUSY 245

community. The limits of subsistence may be narrow,
but they are indefinite. Where the principal food is
the flesh of wild animals numbers are often essential
to success in hunting, as they are also in defence
against human and other foes. Nor in the search for
vegetable food and the smaller animals are numbers to
be despised. This is the work wherein children begin
first to help and wherein with their sharp eyes and
agile movements they form a valuable adjunct to the
women. They thus soon become of importance for
their own sakes and not merely as future hunters and
warriors. When the basis of subsistence shifts and
provision for future supplies is laid up by the keeping
of cattle or the sowing of grain, then the value of a
child increases. The boys watch the cattle or the
cornfields ; the girls render material assistance to their
mothers in the various household duties incident to
their condition. After a few years the boys accom-
pany their elders to market or to war, they support
and assist them in their bargains and their quarrels
their hunting and their husbandry, while the girls
often bring wealth in the bride-prices paid for them.
Thus both boys and girls are a source alike of con-
sideration in the community and of material benefit.

Moreover, where a tribe is exposed to hardships,
where food is scarce, skies are inclement and foes are
numerous, where long and painful journeys must be
undertaken, and labour is severe, the women are
usually not very prolific. Some races too are by
nature comparatively infertile. In such cases a birth
may be an event welcomed for its comparative rarity.
The instinct of self-preservation is a social no less than
an individual instinct. We have seen how it is said

246 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

to operate in an extreme case like that of the Sia.
Having in mind the customs of other peoples passed
in review we may well doubt that it has caused all the
promiscuity (for it almost amounts to that) which has
been described as prevalent in that tribe. But it does
assuredly tend to produce disregard of the exact
paternity of a child born to the tribe. For the only
way in which a society with its organisation its tra-
ditions and its corporate life can continue to exist is
by the production of offspring. Children therefore
have their importance independent of the assistance
they may be expected to render in the provision of
food or in warlike efficiency. Where they are rare the
desire for them outweighs a nice consideration of the
manner in which they are obtained.

What is true of the larger community of the tribe is
true also of the smaller community of the family.
Children are its supreme necessity. It matters com-
paratively little whether they are legitimate, or even
whether they have the family blood in their veins.
Carelessness on this point arising under motherright is
in no way diminished — nay, it may become actually
intensified — with the change to agnatic descent. That
change is often accompanied or followed by increased
accumulation of property and by a religious develop-
ment which concentrates the cult of the dead upon the
family manes. When this happens the holder of the
property as the head of the family becomes especially
charged with the religious duties upon which his own
welfare and that of the entire family depend. It is
incumbent upon him to have an heir upon whom shall
devolve his property and the religious obligations
bound up with it. The more children a father has

MARITAL JEALOUSY 247

the more secure he is that the edifice of the family
will stand, and the duties on which tremendous issues
both here and hereafter hang will continue to be dis-
charged. Religion thus unites with economic and
social considerations to emphasise the importance of
children. They are not merely a source of power and
wealth and influence : without them a man's relation to
the invisible beings whose angler he dreads and from
whose favour he has everything to hope is uncertain
and at the peril of every blast. So long therefore as a
child is reckoned to his stock and will carry on his
name and property his traditions and worship, a
husband is content to accept the fact of birth without
making a fuss about the real paternity, provided
public opinion does not oblige him actively to prosecute
an inquiry.

But he goes further. So great is the need for
children that he is not content to leave their produc-
tion to the chance of a guest or of his wives' voluntary
amours. He employs other men expressly to do
what he cannot do for himself. Customs consecrated and
sometimes enforced by tribal law enable him to obtain
children, in his lifetime or even after his death, to
inherit his position and property and to fulfil his duties
to the state or to religion. Examples are endless in
number. Perhaps the most striking is that which has
come most recently to light in the practice of the
Dinkas detailed in an earlier chapter. The post-
humous child of a Dinka husband is not as usual the
child of one of his own wives. It is the child of a
woman specially selected after his death, appropriated
for the purpose by means of a marriage ceremony in
his name and then united to a man with the choice of

248 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

whom he has had no more to do than with the choice
of the woman. And yet in the contemplation of law
the child is his and has no other father. Sonship is
here as obviously fictitious as in the case of adoption.
The widespread custom of adoption which dates from
savagery is another device testifying alike to the
intense desire for children and to the indifference for
the source from which as a matter of fact they come.
By means of a simple ceremony a child or a grown
person is transferred from his native kindred into the
family of the adopter and is thenceforth regarded for
all purposes as the offspring of his new parent. In
this way when the natural means of procuring children
fail, or for some other good reason, the relation of
parent and child is created between persons who are
known to have no natural kinship with one another, a
bond is formed as sacred and enduring as that which
among ourselves unites begetter and begotten or that
still closer bond between the mother and the fruit of
her womb.

Thus fatherright, far from being founded on
certainty of paternity, positively fosters indifference,
and if it does not promote fraud at least becomes a
hotbed of legal fictions. It is a purely artificial
system.

CHAPTER VII

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE ON THE SUBJECT
OF CONCEPTION. CONCLUSION

The foregoing considerations lead to the conclusion that
paternity was not understood by early man, and even yet
the cause of birth is more or less of a mystery to some
peoples in the lower culture. Reasons for this ignorance :
among others the disproportion of births to acts of sexual
union. Every woman in the lower stages of culture is
accustomed to intercourse. Premature intercourse very
widespread. It is not only unproductive, but it impairs
fertility. Even where the true cause of birth has been
discovered it has been nowhere held invariable and indis-
pensable. In Australia and a few other countries it is
still unrecognised. Summary of the argument.

The beliefs the practices and the institutions passed in
review in previous chapters point beyond mistake to
the conclusion that actual paternity is, speaking gene-
rally, of small account in the lower culture. If paternity
carried the value, the social and legal importance,
assigned to it among the highly civilised peoples of
Europe and America, it is inconceivable that husbands
would as a more or less ordinary incident of social life
sanction or submit to the bestowal by their wives on
other men of the favours which ought to be reserved
to themselves alone. Motherright might indeed be
conceivable as the social condition of our earliest
human progenitors ; but it would have been speedily

249

250 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

and everywhere superseded by a mode of reckoning
descent and family allegiance in which paternity would
have had its due consideration ; and it is very doubt-
ful whether any distinguishable relics of the earlier
organisation of society would have remained.

When side by side with these customs and institutions
we place the world-wide and persistent beliefs and
practices which derive the origin of a child from some-
thing else than the natural act of generation, we are
led to the further conclusion that not merely is actual
paternity of small account but, strange as it may seem,
it is even not understood. By this I do not mean that
its processes are not scientifically known : that is a
matter of course. Nor do I mean that everywhere
where these institutions these practices or these beliefs
prevail there is now absolute ignorance on this subject.
What I do mean is that for generations and aeons the
truth that a child is only born in consequence of an
act of sexual union, that the birth of a child is the
natural consequence of such an act performed in
favouring circumstances, and that every child must be
the result of such an act and of no other cause, was
not realised by mankind, that down to the present
day it is imperfectly realised by some peoples, and that
there are still others among whom it is unknown.

Such ignorance is by no means so incredible as at
the first blush it may appear. It is of a piece with
the ignorance and misconception relating to man's
nature and environment and his position in the
universe, prevalent in all but the highest culture.
Comprehension of the process of birth, as of all other
natural processes, can only be attained by close patient
and unprejudiced observation. Observation of that

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 251

kind was for many ages beyond the power of mankind.
The savage hunter who marks down or traps his game
has learned its habits and can detect its presence by
the lightest sound, or by a visible indication which
would pass unnoticed by one less experienced in the
ways of the wilderness. The warrior or the avenger
of blood tracks his victim more unerringly than the
bloodhound. In these cases his mind has been
concentrated and his observation sharpened by the
daily necessities of life, by the contest of skill with his
human and non-human competitors. Here the deduc-
tions from sight and sound are immediately verifiable,
and his reasoning powers are not clouded by axioms
which do not correspond to reality. But the same
hunter who is so keen and certain in his conclusions as
to the movements of his prey believes that he can by
magical or religious ceremonies draw from unknown
distances the herd of bisons which he desires to hunt,
or gather the clouds and bring down the rain upon the
parched and aching land. No failures suffice to con-
vince him of his error, because the process which brings
the bison into his neighbourhood or produces a change
of meteoric conditions cannot be discovered without a
long and complicated induction based upon a much
wider knowledge than he possesses, and because in the
absence of this knowledge he is incessantly misled by
preconceptions of the universe and its government, his
limited experience and reason trained only to deal with
his immediate needs and surroundings cannot correct
or disperse.

The attention of mankind would not be early or
easily fastened upon the procreative process. It is
lengthy, extending over months during which the

252 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

observer's attention would be inevitably diverted by a
variety of objects, most of them of far more pressing
import and many of them involving his own life or
death. The sexual passion would be gratified in-
stinctively without any thought of the consequences
and in an overwhelming proportion of cases without
the consequence of pregnancy at all. When that
consequence occurred it would not be visible for weeks
or months after the act which produced it. A hundred
other events might have taken place in the interval
which would be liable to be credited with the result by
one wholly ignorant of natural laws. If any of these
were once accepted as a hypothetic cause the attention
would be concentrated upon it, the observation would
speedily appear to be confirmed by other real or
imagined occurrences, and the partially developed
reason of primitive man would be caught in the snare
of the fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc. Such a
speculation once germinated would be very difficult
to uproot from the uncultivated soil : it would interlace
and wind itself about the kindred hypotheses equally
false and equally plausible that choked the healthier
growths of the human intellect. Thus the correction
of a mistake, even where the attention was directed to
the subject, would be extremely tardy and gradual,
extending over many generations and leaving traces
perhaps to the end of time. Other blunders of archaic
thought on matters that seem perfectly obvious to us
have become permanent as part of the mental equip-
ment of the race. In this way Animism originating
far back in the ages of childhood is now an enduring
and vital endowment of the thought the poetry and the
religion of the loftiest civilisation. When the notion

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 253

of birth by other than the natural means of fertilisation
has run its course in the beliefs and practices of man-
kind it will remain embedded in the literature and will
lend one more mystic charm to the most exquisite
fairy tales of the world.

It is impossible here exhaustively to discuss the
many causes that may have retarded the discovery
of the truth concerning the mystery of birth. I have
alluded however to one deserving of some further
illustration. Pregnancy only results from sexual inter-
course by the concurrence of favouring conditions.
The nourishment of the parents' bodies, their respec-
tive ages and vital energies, the conjunction of the
critical moment when the womb becomes specially
receptive, and the state of mental emotion which may
so operate as to accelerate, or on the other hand may
altogether prevent, quickening are among the con-
siderations most urgent to be taken into account in
estimating the probability of conception. Unless
these conditions be favourable pregnancy cannot
ensue. This is ground familiar to us and need not be
insisted on. But such nice calculations are not
familiar to the savage ; and savagery and the lower
degrees of civilisation often tend to obscure them.

In these stages every female is accustomed to
sexual intercourse, frequently from a very early age.
But every woman does not bear children, and none
bear at all times. Where polygyny prevails so many
young women are monopolised by the elder or more
powerful men that young or uninfluential men have to
content themselves with widows or women rejected by
their superiors. So, as we have noted in the last
chapter, among the Yuin a poor fellow who had no

254 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

wife received sometimes a cast-off wife from one who
had more than he wanted.^ Where children are much
desired the commonest reason for casting off a wife is
likely to be her barrenness. Whether this be the
reason in a particular case or not, a widow or a cast-
off wife would often be virtually beyond the age of
child-bearing, though menstruation might not have
ceased. In such cases, of course, no offspring would
result from the union.

On the other hand, among many peoples sexual
intercourse begins long before maturity. Premature
intercourse produces children no more than the inter-
course of women who are past bearing. But if
practised by immature girls with adult men, it often
results in such injury to the sexual organs as may
seriously affect the reproductive powers after maturity
is reached. In the last chapter incidental mention
has been made of copulation before puberty among
the Bahuana of the Congo basin, the Maoris, and the
populations of the Marquesas Islands and the islands
of Ambon and Uliase in the East Indies.^ From the
list of other cases of premature sexual relations, it
would seem necessary for our purpose expressly to
exclude the custom of infant marriage which has
grown up among the Hindus under a complexity of
influences not yet wholly understood. In Vedic times
marriage was the marriage of adults. But in the law-
books, the composition of later ages, a father is en-
joined to marry his daughter before she attain
puberty ; and he is held guilty of a grave sin if he
omit to perform this duty. Whatever the causes of
the change it took place in a civilised not in a savage

^ Stipra, p. 228. 2 Supra, pp. 113, 172, 176, 138.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 255

society. Its cruelty has been mitigated in the Panjab
and elsewhere outside Bengal by a custom of deferring
actual consummation to a later date. This however
is contrary to the intention of the sacred laws, which
appear to contemplate marriage with a view to
immediate consummation.^ Infant marriage under these
laws was originally confined to the Aryan-speaking
population. With other practices inculcated by the
Brahmans it is now spreading wherever social distinc-
tion is desired and threatens to become the general
rule in the Indian peninsula. It is quite possible and
even likely that some of the peoples of that vast area
may have practised infant marriage, at all events as
an occasional thing, independently of Brahman in-
fluence. So subtle however is that influence that it
is difficult to point with certainty to a case. The
Todas may be described as untouched by Brahmanism.
The custom of infant marriage is well established
among them, but the girl does not usually join her
husband until she is about fifteen or sixteen years of
age. Shortly before she reaches puberty a man
belonging to the opposite endogamous group to that
of which she is a member, and therefore ineligible for
marriage though not for cohabitation with her, is called
in to perform the ceremony of putting his mantle over
her. He comes in the daytime to her village and
lying down beside her for a few minutes puts his
mantle over her, so that it covers them both. Deflora-
tion is not part of this rite ; the rite is only a pre-
liminary to that. " Fourteen or fifteen days later,"
says Dr. Rivers, "a man of strong physique, who may

^ Ind. Census, i. (1901), 431 sqq. Cf. Sacred Bks. xiv. 91, 314 ;
XXV. 323, 343, 344.

256 . PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

belong to either division and to any clan except that
of the girl, comes and stays in the village for one
night and has intercourse with the girl. This must
take place before puberty, and it seemed that there
were few things regarded as more disgraceful than
that this ceremony should be delayed till after this
period. It might be a subject of reproach and abuse
for the remainder of the woman's life, and it was even
said that men might refuse to marry her if this cere-
mony had not been performed at the proper time."^
The ceremonial defloration thus accomplished is
obviously a puberty rite and nothing more, whatever
causes may have operated to require its performance
prior to the actual attainment of maturity.

But if we look outside India we find the practice
of sexual intercourse before puberty not uncommon in
the lower culture. Among the Chukchi young men
marry early, and sexual relations sometimes begin
before full maturity is reached. Indeed children are
often reared together with a view to marriage. They
sleep with one another from the beginning and the
marriage is consummated on the first impulse of nature,
or even before the maturity of either of them. Such
marriages are considered to be the strongest. How
frequently in these circumstances premature con-
summation takes place is rendered probable from the
innate sensuality of the Chukchi and their enjoyment
of ribald sayings and lewd gestures, which would
familiarise the children with sexual matters from a very
early age. It is true that they have discovered that
an early marriage is injurious to the woman's health
and tends to diminish the number of births, and that

^ Rivers, 503.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 257

consequently it is usually held blamable to have inter-
course with a girl who is not perfectly mature.
Practice however lags behind their precepts at a
considerable distance.-'

Much further to the south the Gold on the lower
reaches of the Amur river before the arrival of the
Russians were in the habit of marrying their children
while still very young. Girls were married as young
as eight or nine years, and boys at the age of ten or
eleven. It sometimes " happened that a ten-year-old
boy had to marry a twenty-year-old girl. Such early
marriages are prohibited nowadays by the Russian
Government, and intelligent Gold have come to under-
stand how detrimental these marriao-es have been to
their people. Although nominally abolished, pre-
mature intercourse still continues and contributes, no
less than epidemics and alcoholism, to the gradual
ruin of the people. Russian physicians who have
become familiar with the people through visits to
hospitals or to their villages assert that incest is not
unusual between brother and sister and among other
relatives."^ Esthonian girls are unchaste before the
age of puberty.^

The girls of the lower classes in Cochin China
sometimes marry in their seventh year.* Turcoman
girls reach puberty generally between fourteen and
sixteen years of age ; but they are very often married
earlier, the usual age being- from twelve to fifteen.^

1 Bogoras, Jesup Exped. vii. 37, 361 ; Amer. Anthrop. N. S. Hi.
102.

- Laufer, Amer. Anthrop. N. S. ii. 318.

^ Ploss, Weib, i. 235.

* Id. 393, vaguely citing Crawfurd.

» Volkov, V Anthrop. viii. 356, citing Yarorsky.

258 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Among the Samoyeds early marriages were formerly
very common. A bride-price was paid, and girls were
disposed of often as young as six or seven years, in
order that the brideo^room might be sure of his bride's
virginity.^ A similar reason is given by Plutarch in
his comparison of Numa and Lycurgus for the Roman
fathers' practice of giving their daughters in marriage
at the age of twelve or under. But in early times
Roman brides were probably taken much younger than
that. As a juridical writer has pointed out, a con-
sideration of the regulations for the profession of
vestal virgins leads to the conclusion that Roman girls
were taken as brides as young as six years of age.
Numa's traditional legislation raised the age to the
twelfth year ; but seeing that the year at that time
numbered only ten months, even that legislation
legalised marriage in the bride's tenth year. It is of
course possible that consummation was postponed ;
but was it always postponed until after puberty ? ^ We
may note that even down to the Reformation and
later girls were sometimes married before puberty.
Illustrations are to be found in all collections of
European laws and all literatures.

Passing to the East Indian Islands, we are told
that in the Dutch possessions long before maturity
children indulge in sexual intercourse, and it is by no
means uncommon for brother and sister to commit
incest at five or six years old.^ On the island of

1 Kahle, Zeits. des. Vereins, xi. 442, citing de la Martiniere, a
traveller of the seventeenth century. It does not appear that
consummation immediately followed; but it probably took place
before maturity.

2 S. Brassloff, Zeits. vergl. Rechtsw. xxii. 144.

3 Ploss, Weib, i. 301, citing vaguely van der Burg.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 259

Engano, according to Modigliani, what we understand
by morality does not exist ; and he gives reasons for
believing that even quite young children {bambine)
could give points to the most abandoned women of
Europe.^ In the Barito River Basin of Borneo chil-
dren are often married at three or five years. After
marriage they are indeed often, but not always,
separated until puberty. At every opportunity how-
ever their mutual relation is revealed to them.
" Besides, they frequently meet each other ; and it is
seen with pleasure when there arises a certain
familiarity not agreeing with our ideas of morality."^
The Banyanese of the same island marry in their
eighth or ninth year.^ Among the Achehnese where
child-marriage is frequent girls of eight to ten, nay even
of seven years of age, are actually handed over to their
husbands even when the latter are adult or elderly men.
So universal is this custom that parents whose
daughter at the age of eight to ten years does not
occasionally share her husband's bed are greatly con-
cerned thereat, unless there are special reasons for her
not doing so, as where though formally married to
a man at a great distance he has not yet arrived to
take possession of her, being prevented by the dis-
tance or by the small local wars so frequent before
the Dutch succeeded in establishing their rule.* In
several districts of the island of Serang girls' teeth are
filed before puberty. When the work is accomplished,
the patient goes to bathe and is clad in festival array

1 Modigliani, Isola^ 139.

2 Roth, Sarawak, ii. clxxix. translating Schwaner.

3 Ploss, op. cit. I. 394, citing vaguely Finke.

4 Hurgronje, i. 295.

26o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

adorned with gold and silver armlets or necklaces,
with gold hairpins and combs. A feast is then pre-
pared and a little of every kind of food is placed in
a bamboo vessel or sieve which an old woman shakes
thrice over the Sfirl's head. The latter must afterwards
taste it all. The women bring forward an earthen
pot filled with spring-water and covered with a fresh
pisang-leaf. One of the old women takes the index-
finger of the girl's right hand and sticks it through the
leaf in proof that she is still a maid, and as a symbol
of the rupture of the hymen or to show that the
possession of virginity means nothing for her. The
leaf is subsequently put on the ridge of the house
between the sago leaves wherewith the roof is
thatched. Thereupon the women present fall to
eating and drinking. When they have finished they
start singing to the accompaniment of drums. The
men are admitted to the house. From that moment
free intercourse with men is permitted to the ddbutante,
even before the menses show themselves. In some
villages the old men have unhindered access that very
evening to her apartment, while the guests amuse
themselves with singing outside. In most places on the
island girls before puberty are accustomed to practise
copulation with adult and old men, the object being,
it is said, to promote their growth : nay, they are
often even married and the marriage consummated.'^

Little importance is attached by the Tami Islanders
off the north-eastern coast of New Guinea to a
girl's unchastity before puberty, though when the
critical period is reached her parents keep her
more to the house and limit her intercourse with
1 Riedel, 137, 96, 134.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 261

her previous playfellows. The object of doing so
however is rather to secure her instruction in her
duties as house-wife than to prevent accidents arising
from sexual indulgence, for she is quite free to sleep in
a small separate hut and there to receive her lovers at
night. She is speedily married, and the husband
troubles very little about her previous life : girls are
said 10 be few, and there is not much choice/ The
same want of women is felt on the Gazelle Peninsula
in the Bismarck Archipelago. To secure a girl the
bride-price is paid for her while she is still a child.
As soon as she is a little bigger she is delivered over
to her husband, and whether she has reached maturity
or not is quite unimportant.^ In the New Hebrides
on the island of Malekula there seems to be no
betrothal, but girls are married when about six or eight
years of age. '^ In New Caledonia little regard is paid
to virginity : a girl loses it in playing about at a very
early age.* On the Murray Islands, Torres Straits,
" absence of the menstrual function was not considered
a hindrance to marriage."^ Across the Straits in
Queensland it is the rule in at least all the northern
tribes that a little girl may be given to and will live
with her spouse long before she reaches the age of
puberty. Outside formal marriage the elder men may in
some tribes tamper with young girls of the proper

1 Kohler, Zeils. vergl. Rechtsw. xiv. 345, quoting report of a
missionary.

^ Meier, Anthropos, ii, 380. A similar report is given by a
missionary writing about the New Britain group in general terms and
giving instances within his own knowledge {J. A. I. xviii. 288).

^- Rep. Austr. Ass. iv. 704.

* Ploss, op. cit. i. 309.

'•' J. A. I. xviii. 11.

262 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

marriageable class with impunity ; indeed quite young
children are handed over to the old men to be " broken
in." ^ Among some of the tribes of South Australia
the girls are said to be accustomed to sexual intercourse
from their eighth year : they marry and cohabit
regularly with their husbands at the age of from eight
to twelve.^ On Easter Island the women are com-
paratively few. It is said that they number only one
third of the population. Whether, as has been sur-
mised, it is attributable to this or not, the girls are
married at ten years old, long before they are suffi-
ciently developed. Their children are consequently
weak and unhealthy ; and there is great mortality from
scrofulous disease in the children and from phthisis in
the adults.^ On Yaluit, one of the Marshall Islands,
we learn, no value was attached to the chastity of the
unmarried girls ; sexual intercourse begins with the
first stirrings of nature before menstruation. It is
universally believed that there is no girl of twelve who
has not been deflowered ; and contagious sexual
diseases have been found among children of ten.*
The Igorots of the province of Benguet and the
sub-province of Lepanto in Luzon, the largest of the
Philippine Islands, betroth their children at a very
early age, and marry them at or even before the age of

^ Roth, Bull. V. 23 (s. 83); viii. 9 (s. 10).

2 Ploss, op. cit. i. 392, citing Hersbach (a second-hand authority).
Ploss {pp. cit. i. 296) states on the authority of somebody, apparently
Eyre, that the Australian girl has intercourse from her tenth year
with youths of fourteen or fifteen. If Eyre be his source he is
doubtless referring to south-eastern tribes.

^ J. A. I. V. 112, 113, summarising Dr. Philippi's work on Easter
Island published at Santiago in 1873.

* Kohler, Zeits. vergl. Rechtsw. xiv. 417, quoting a report by an
official.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 263

puberty.^ Child-marriage is also common among the
Tagbaniia.^ On the Sandwich Islands the girls marry
before puberty ; and according to a writer cited by
Ploss menstruation is held to be the result of coition,
and its appearance in an unmarried girl is taken as a
sign of misconduct.^

In Madagascar, children are betrothed by their
parents while very young, and even married totally
irrespective of their inclinations, and often before they
are able to understand the nature of the engagement
into which they are entering.^ Independently of
this, public opinion tolerated until lately licentiousness
among them. Of the Valave, one of the Malagasy
tribes, it is recorded in particular that the children
copulate at a very early age without any interference
by their parents, who indeed encourage and take a
positive pleasure in watching them. To these customs
the comparative sterility of the women is not without
reason ascribed.^

Precocious intercourse of the sexes is, as might be
expected, very common on the continent of Africa.
At Thebes in ancient times a beautiful grirl of noble
family and tender years was regularly dedicated at the

^ Worcester, Philippine Journ. Science, i. (Manila, 1906) 850.

2 McGee, Amer. Anthr. N. S. i. 172, citing Worcester, Phil. Ids,

' Ploss, op. cit. i. 235. In face of the known character of the
Sandwich Islanders I do not understand how the sexual intercourse
of an unmarried girl can be deemed misbehaviour. Unfortunately,
for reasons already given, I am unable to check Floss's statement.

4 EUis, Hist. Mad. i. 167.

^ Sibree, y. A. I. ix. 39; Ploss, op. cit. i. 301, citing vaguely
Audebert. The latter gives details which I forbear to transcribe.
Sibree, Great Afr. Isl. 248, ascribes the sterility of the Malagasy
partly to the frequent marriages of relations and partly to the cause
mentioned above. Cf. Anthropos, ii. 983.

264 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

temple of the god identified by Strabo with Zeus. She
prostituted herself with any man according to her
fancy until she reached the age of puberty. She was
then mourned for as dead, and doubtless her place was
supplied by another. The life she led does not seem
to have hindered her subsequent marriage/ The
Copts still marry their children as young as seven or
eight years, and mothers are seen among them who
are not more than twelve.^ In Nubia not longer than
a generation or two ago, girls used to be disposed of
and accustomed to intercourse long before their first
menstruation.^ In Abyssinia they are married before
puberty, sometimes as early their ninth year.* Among
the Masai both boys and girls are circumcised. An
uncircumcised boy is not permitted sexual intercourse
with a circumcised woman, but no objection exists to
his intercourse with any uncircumcised girl.^ The
operation is performed on a girl shortly after her first
menstruation. Previous to that as early as eight years
old girls may be taken, as already observed, to live
with the warriors in their kraal, where Sir Harry
Johnston remarks they "have as agreeable a time of
it as can be provided in Masai society." The sexual
relations they sustain with the various inhabitants of
the kraal are "considered in no way to be immoral,
because the girls are under age and therefore cannot

^ Strabo, xvii, i, 46,

2 Ploss, op. at. I. 346, apparently on the authority of Frau von
Minutoli. ^ Ploss, op. cit. i. 399, citing Abbadie.

* Vo5t,Afr. Jur. i. 385, citing Riippell, Reise in Abyssinien, ii. 50.

^ S. Bagge, /. A. I. xxxiv. 169. The Rev. J. Roscoe speaks of
wives who do not menstruate among the Baganda {Id. xxxi. 121;
xxxii. 39, 59) ; but it is not clear whether the absence of menstrua-
tion must be attributed to age or disease.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 265

conceive." If puberty arrive before a girl quits the
kraal precautions are taken against child-bearing,
though that event does not seem to be very seriously
regarded/ The customs among the Nandi are similar.^
The Mpogoro girl in German East Africa reaches
puberty in her tenth year. Long before that she is
probably betrothed, for it is the custom for two
friendly fathers to betroth their children, the son of
one to the daughter of the other, from infancy. When
the boy is able to work, about his seventh year, he
serves his intended father-in-law for a twelvemonth.
During or at the end of that time he builds a hut for
himself and his bride, and there they go to reside
about their seventh or eighth year. They sleep to-
gether and enjoy sexual intercourse until the girl's
first menstruation. They are then separated until
the bride-price be paid, after which the marriage is
definitely concluded. To the European who remon-
strates astonished and disgusted at this premature con-
nection, saying : " But they are both mere children,"
the laconic answer is returned : " But for all that they
are Wapogoro."^

Over nearly the whole of the province of British
Central Africa, chastity is an unknown condition
among little girls under the age of puberty, save
perhaps among the Mang'anja. If not betrothed it is
a matter of absolute indifference what she does before

1 Supra, p. 193; Johnston, Uganda, n. 824; HoUis, xvi. A
story is told by the Masai to account for the custom, the gist of
which is that it was instituted to provide an outlet for the feminine
passions and prevent treachery for the purpose of gratifying them
with hostile warriors (HoUis, 120).

2 Johnston, op. cit. ii. 878; Hollis, Nandi, 16, 58.
^ Dr. Fabry, Globus, xci. 221.

266 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

she has reached maturity ; consequently there is
scarce a girl who remains a virgin after about five
years of age. True, she is often betrothed at birth
or when a iew months old. In that case she will be
delivered to her future husband's family at the age
of four or five ; and although she may not formally
cohabit with him before puberty, it constantly happens
that he deflowers her long before then.^ At the
harvest festival celebrated by the Azimba, a boy and
a girl under the age of puberty are allowed to " keep
house " by themselves during the daytime, and sexual
intercourse often or always takes place. Some of the
girls are betrothed and even married before puberty.
In any case they are required to undergo the puberty
ceremonies. If not previously deflowered, artificial
defloration is then performed by the women. On the
conclusion of the ceremonies a man is hired by the
girl's father to have sexual intercourse with her on the
following night, unless she already have a husband,
in which case the latter performs this rite.^ The
ceremonies of the Wayao take place at an earlier age,
" when the girl is very young, scarcely approaching "
maturity. On her return home "she must find some
man to be with her," otherwise she will die, or at any
rate will not bear children. This ritual coition and
consequently the entire rites are regarded as necessary
to be performed before puberty. But though the
ceremonies antedate that era of her life, she may have
been already married and living with her husband ;

^ Johnston, Brtt. Cent. Afr. 408 note.

2 H. Crawford Angus, Zeits. f. Ethnol. xxx. Verhandl. 480. This
communication was made through Dr. R. Felkin, and may therefore
be considered as stamped with his authority as well as that of the
writer.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 267

for a girl of only five years old may be married and
cohabit with a youth who is much older : at the age
of nine it is likely she will be.^ In fact, on the
Tanganyika plateau and in north-eastern Rhodesia
Nyassaland and Portuguese Zambezia, it is a common
custom for girls to be married and living with their
husbands before puberty.^ In the Transvaal the
smallest Basuto children practise coition in secret ;
boys give the girls beads brass wire and other trifles
as hire.^ Of the people about Delagoa Bay, probably
Baronga, Captain W. F. W. Owen reported in 1823
that both sexes during youth appeared to be without
restraint, commencing their intercourse before their
tenth year.* Hottentot girls were married not seldom
in their eighth or ninth year, Bushman girls still
younger. The latter are sometimes mothers at twelve
or even ten years of age.^

^ Macdonald, Africana, i. 125, 146; Johnston, Brit. Cent. Afr.
410. The latter gives details of the rites, which are not unlike
those of the Azimba except that they are performed on a batch of
girls, whereas from the account cited above it would seem that the
Azimba rites are performed on the girls individually as they arrive
at maturity. He states the age of the Yao girl as from eight to
eleven : at any rate it is before puberty. He implies that they are
not yet married, but Mr. Macdonald's testimony is express.

2 Decle, 293; Capt. C. H. Stigand, /. A. I. xxxvii. 121.

' H. Griitzner, Zeits. f. Ethnol. ix. Verhandl. 83.

* Rec. S. E. Africa^ ii. 478. More than sixty years earlier the
medical officer of a Dutch vessel wrecked on the same coast had
reported that young girls of eleven and twelve were usually already
lovers and were reckoned marriageable. They had, therefore,
doubtless passed through the puberty ceremonies. They often bore
children at twelve or thirteen and ceased by the time they were
thirty (Jacob Francken, Id. vi. 496). Herero girls are married
not older than twelve ; but here again it is probable that puberty
has been attained (Fritsch, 235).

^ Ploss, op. cit. i. 397, citing vaguely Bamberger for the former
and Burchell for the latter.

268 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

If we turn to the forest lands and more richly-
watered provinces of the west of Africa we find among
various tribes a similar condition of infantile morality.
The children of the Bambala indulge in sexual inter-
course from a very early age. The boys begin when
about ten years old, the girls at six or seven, long
before menstruation. Virginity, it need hardly be said,
is not deemed of the slightest importance, and sexual
excess is noted by observers as having an evil effect
upon the mental and physical characters of the race.^
The Bayaka, on the other hand, a neighbouring people
consider virginity essential in a bride, and she can be
repudiated if she be not found a maiden. At the same
time we are told that " females are permitted to have
intercourse at a very early age, even before menstrua-
tion ; males after circumcision." This can only mean
that the stricter morals of the Bayaka regard virginity
as a more indispensable qualification of a bride than
maturity.^ On the Lower Congo there used to be in
most towns bachelors' houses where the young men of
the place slept. Girls under puberty had free ingress
to these houses at night, and were even encouraged
by their parents to go thither, "as it showed that
they had proper desires and would eventually bear
children."^ Among the Bashilanga the bride is be-
spoken early, and her wedding is frequently celebrated
on the same day as the festival following her first
menstruation. But already ere this she has had
sexual intercourse : it is usually begun shortly before
maturity.^ The Shekiani girls are married at seven or

^ Torday and Joyce, /. A. I. xxxv, 410, 420,

2 Id. J. A. I. xxxvi. 45, 51. 3 J. H. Weeks, F. L. xix. 418.

* Mittheil. Afrik. Gesell. iv. 260, from the report of Pogge. There

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 269

eight years of age, before puberty/ Among the
Mbondemos and the tribes about Corisco Bay young
girls, quite children, are often married from political
reasons to old men.^ The sturdy tribe of the Fan
practise the marriage of infant girls.'

The true Negroes present a picture not very
different. Among the Agni of Indeni6 the sole con-
dition requisite for marriage is the consent of both
families. Betrothal often takes place during infancy.
In such a case the bridegroom sometimes makes a few
presents to the bride's family and she goes to live
with him until she attains puberty. Either party may
then refuse to make the marriage definitive on paying
to the family of the other an indemnity of twenty-five
francs.* The Abron law considers impuberty an
absolute bar to the marriage of a free girl ; but
she has a right to a bon ami, and can if he live in
another village go and live with him for a fortnight or
three weeks at a time. It is true that the relations
between them are supposed to be purely platonic ; for
she is as a rule betrothed from birth and her affianced
husband would have a right to impose a heavy fine on
the lover who robbed him of his rights. It is another
question how far the hypothesis usually corresponds to
the fact. Marriage with a slave-girl, on the other
hand, must be consummated before puberty, other-
wise all the children must be put to death. ^ The

does not seem to be any reason for the question raised by the
editor of the report as to the consistency of Pogge's statements.

1 Post, Afr. Jur. i. 384 citing Du Chaillu, Ashango, 162.

2 Id. 366, citing the same, 51.

3 Kingsley, Trav. 404. The Benga and Igalwa are also addicted
to it, but it is said to be a recent innovation {Ibid. 402).

* Clozel, 149. 5 Ibid. 194, 195.

370 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

customs of the Mande of Bonduku are similar. The
girl chooses her bon ami at the age of nine or ten :
she prepares his food and passes every night with him.
In these circumstances, despite the possibility of a
sound thrashing by the bridegroom when he finds that
he has been anticipated, the temptation must be such
as a Negro temperament can hardly resist. Among the
Mande, moreover, although in theory impuberty con-
stitutes a bar to marriage, in practice there is no such
hindrance to it. As among the Abrons, the only real
obstacle is the bride's desire to preserve her freedom
as long as possible ; and means are doubtless found to
overcome her resistance.^ In the kingdom of Bouna
there is no minimum age. A boy is marriageable as
soon as he has been circumcised, and a girl imme-
diately after suffering the corresponding operation.
These rites are performed at different ages according
to convenience.^ Nor in Seguela is there any down-
ward limit of age ; as soon as the bride-price is paid
the husband can have possession. To be sure the
consent of the bride is required by law ; but her father
obtains that by hook or by crook.^ Among the
Alladians the bride must be delivered to her husband
before the first menstruation. In practice betrothal
often takes place while very young. From the
moment it is completed by a small gift to the head of
the girl's family, her father and her mother, the bride-
groom is liable to her maintenance. Naturally there-
fore he expects possession with the least possible
delay ; and it is given as soon as she is deemed strong
enough.^ The Bagos on the River Nunez, unite

1 Clozel, 279, 280. 2 ii)id 209.

3 Ibid. 329. " Ibid. 394, 393.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 271

children of seven or eight years old, and the formal
marriage is celebrated as soon as the girl has lost her
virginity,^ In Sierra Leone girls are betrothed early,
often before birth ; and on the betrothal of an infant
girl she is at once given over to the bridegroom.^

Among several of the American peoples little regard
is paid to puberty in their sexual relations. Child-
marriages are common among the Eskimo between the
lower Yukon and the Kuskokwim. The boy goes to
live at his father-in-law's house and "transfers filial
duty of every kind " from his own father to his wife's
father. In such cases the girl is frequently not over
four or five years of age.^ Among the Indians dwelling
to the south-west of the Ungava district "girls are
often taken as wives before they attain puberty, and
for this reason they seldom have large families," two
three or four children beinsf the usual number. The
Nenenot girls " arrive at puberty at the age of fourteen
or fifteen, and are taken as wives at even an earlier
age. So early are they taken in marriage that before
they are thirty years of age they often appear as though
they were fifty."* Among the Northern Maiduof the
foot-hill region girls were often given in marriage when
only six or eight years of age.^ We have already
studied the Zufii customs. Among them "marriage
usually occurs at very tender years, girls frequently

1 Post, Afr. Jur. i. 366, citing Caillie, i. 243, 244.

2 Ibid. 366, 369, citing Winterbottom, 200; and Matthews, 124.

3 Nelson, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xviii. 291. It is not quite clear from
the author's expressions whether intercourse is permitted below
puberty. It is not at all events distinctly disclaimed, and we are
probably right in assuming it.

* Turner, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 183, 271.

'' Dixon, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. xvii. 240.

272 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

marrying two years before reaching puberty," and as
we have seen they are not prolific.^ The Creeks were
a polygamous people. Every man took as many
wives as he chose ; but they were only married for a
year, the relation being renewable at the end of that
time by the will of the parties. It was common for a
man of position who had already half a dozen wives to
marry a child of eight or nine years of age, if he found
one who pleased him and with whose family he could
arrange the matter. Since she entered his house on
marriage consummation presumably followed without
delay. ^ In one of the Bororo villages in Central
Brazil girls of eight and ten years were found already
married. There is some reason to think this an
exceptional case, due to the scarcity of women. It
shows however that there was no invincible re-
pugnance to such early unions.^ Among the Guatos
about the confluence of the San Lourengo and the
Paraguay rivers it is the practice to marry girls of from
five to eight years, or at least to buy them from their
parents. A traveller quoted by Ploss was witness to
actual intercourse in one such case, while in every
camp little girls were to all appearance thus used.'*

Thus without prolonging the list it would appear
that sexual intercourse before puberty is either fully
recognised by a formal marriage or tolerated as the
gratification of a natural instinct among a great variety
of peoples in all quarters of the world. The acts of
coition in such cases would not merely be unproductive
of children, they would, as noted by several observers

1 Mrs. Stevenson, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xxiii. 303.

^ Bartram, 513. ^ von den Steinen, 501.

* Ploss, i. 399, citing vaguely Rohde.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 273

cited in the foregoing pages, tend to lessen the repro-
ductive power of the race. Other causes operating in
the same direction have also been suggested. What-
ever the cause, when the fertiHty of the race was small
— that is to say, w^hen the number of acts of sexual
union exceeded by an abnormal and overwhelming
proportion the result in child-birth — the connection
between cause and effect would long remain unnoticed.
It mio-ht be thought that the relation between the

o o

menses and the reproductive powers would be speedily

traced. So far, however, is this from being the case

that it has not even yet been discovered everywhere.

The natives on the Tully River in North Queensland

attribute menstruation to the breaking and discharge

of the liver. " What causes the breakage the women

do not know. They maintain however that it has

nothing to do with pregnancy, though they admit its

non-existence during that physiological period." They

declare that they can stop their menses by standing

under a particular kind of gum-tree and allowing some

of its sticky exudation to fall upon them. This

procedure is said to be resorted to in order to enable

them to walk about at all times without inconvenience.

On the Pennefather River the menses are said to be

produced by a kind of curlew operating on the woman.-^

It is needless to remind the reader that the Sandwich

Islanders hold the menses, as stated a few pages back,

to be the result of sexual intercourse. The horror of

blood and especially of menstrual blood is universal in

the lower culture. It usually causes women to be

severed entirely from the men during the flow : a

practice which, to say the least of it, would not

^ Roth, N. Queensl. Ethnog. Bull, v, 22, s. 80.
II S

274 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

tend to elucidate the relation between menstruation
and conception.

In the long run to be sure the true cause of birth
was discovered. But such was the force of tradition
that it has nowhere been recognised without the
important qualification that though sexual intercourse
may now be the ordinary method of fertilisation, it has
not always been a condition precedent to child-birth,
and other causes are still operative to which the same
result is attributable. Even at the present day the
Arunta invariably ascribe birth to a totally different
cause ; ^ and it is important in this connection as show-
ing their ignorance on the subject to note that they
date conception from the time when the woman
becomes conscious of pregnancy — that is to say, from
quickening. In this respect they resemble the Bahau
of Central Borneo, who, according to Nieuwenhuis, have
no notion of the real duration of pregnancy, dating its
commencement only from the time it first becomes

^ Supra, vol. i. p. 238. Mr. Strehlow has not been able to find con-
firmation of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's report that the Arunta
hold intercourse to be merely a preparation of the woman for the
reception and birth of a spirit-child already formed and inhabiting
one of the local totem-centres. Il is possible this report is due to
a misunderstanding. An objection urged (/. A. I. xxxv. 329) to
the Arunta theory of birth, that the Arunta would be much
astonished if a woman not " prepared " for motherhood by inter-
course with men received and gave birth to a spirit-child, is of no
weight. They would indeed be astonished, because every woman
has sexual intercourse. But every woman does not bear in
consequence.

Mr. Strehlow, like Mr. Lang, hints that the Arunta are not so
innocent as they pretend : so difficult is it for a white man to
imagine the ignorance of the savage — a difficulty not confined to
the subject under consideration. But the similar (often virtually
identical) reports concerning the ignorance of other Australian
tribes are strong confirmation of the reports of Arunta ignorance.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 275

visible.^ The Niol-Niol of Dampier Land in north-
western Australia likewise hold birth to be wholly-
independent of" sexual intercourse. A man who has
never had intercourse with one of his wives is not
surprised, and no suspicion is awakened in his mind,
if she give birth to a child. For a child is not begotten
by coition. It is engendered by conveyance into the
mother's body of a previously existing soul called a
Rata which has the power of assuming a body in this
way : a result only to be effected through the in-
strumentality of the medicine man.^

The North Queenslander about Cape Bedford
believes that babies are made in the distant west,
where the sun sets, by nature-spirits living in the dense
scrub, who enter women either in shape of a curlew,
or rather of a spur-winged plover, if a girl, or of a
pretty snake, if a boy, and there return to the human
form which properly belongs to them and so in due
time are born as children. So far from having
attained a true solution of the mystery of child-birth
are these unsophisticated natives that they believe a
child thus conceived to be sent in answer to the
husband's prayer as a punishment to his wife when he

1 Globus, Ixxxvi. 381, citing Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo
(Leiden, 1904), The ignorance of the Bahau extends to other
details of the mechanism of conception. On the other hand so
little is pregnancy understood that among various peoples it is be-
lieved to be often of what we know to be unnatural length. Thus
the Mohammedan law, as we have seen, recognises the possibility of
a very extended gestation (supra, vol. i. p. 321). The Hos of
Togoland affirm that pregnancy in many cases extends for fourteen
fifteen or even sixteen months (Spieth, 198).

^ Father Jos. Bischofs, Anthropos, iii, 35. The beliefs of other
natives of Western Australia to the same effect have already been
discussed, supra, vol. i. p. 243.

276 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

is vexed with her. When at night they hear a plover
crying out they will say : " Hallo ! there's a baby some-
where about." If a woman out huntingf see a snake
of the species referred to she will run away ; her com-
panions will search for the creature — possibly she
herself may join them — and if it cannot be found they
know that it has reached its destination and the future
mother is pregnant. The Pennefather blacks hold
that babies are fashioned out of swamp-mud by a
supernatural being called Anjea and secretly inserted
in the women, who are unconscious of the fact at the
time. Thunder, who in the beginning formed Anjea
himself, also continues his procreative work in the
same manner and from the same material as the latter ;
but there is this difference between his workmanship
and Anjea's that the babies he makes are all left-
handed whereas those which owe their origin to Anjea
are right-handed. On the Proserpine River a super-
natural being named Kunya forms the babies out of
pandanus roots and inserts them into the women while
they bathe.^ He obtains the vital spirit from the after-
birth of the child's reputed human father if the child be
a boy, or if a girl from that of the reputed father's
sister, the hiding-place of which he knows.^ At Cape
Grafton a species of pigeon brings the baby ready
made to the mother in the course of a dream.^ We
have in a previous chapter considered the beliefs of
the Tully River blacks which are equally wide of
the truth.^ In north-west-central Queensland so

1 Roth, N. Oncensl. Etlinog. Bull. v. 23, ss. 82, 83.

2 Id. 18, s. 69a. 2 Id. 22, s. 81.

^ Supra, vol. i. pp. 52, 119. They are aware, however, that the
ordinary means of generation apply to the lower animals ; that it is

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 277

profound is the ignorance of the physiological laws of
reproduction that even the possibility of taking artificial
measures to prevent fertilisation is apparently beyond
the native's comprehension. White managers of
pastoral stations declare that only with great difficulty,
if at all, could the blacks in their employ be made to
understand the object of spaying cattle/

Nor are these the only Australian tribes which
ascribe their little ones to the direct mechanical inter-
vention of supernatural beings. At the other ex-
tremity of Queensland, just across the southern border
in New South Wales, the Euahlayi hold that babies,
perhaps baby-spirits (for this is what they are called
by the lady from whom our information is derived),
are manufactured at special centres. Somewhere on
the Culgoa River baby-girls are made. Bahloo the
moon is their author, assisted by Wahn the crow.
Sometimes however Wahn presumes to make them
on his own account, with the dire result that the
babies he makes always prove noisy and quarrelsome
women. There is in one of the creeks a hole which
is only to be seen when the river-bed is dry. As the

different with human beings is a mark of their superiority (Roth,
Bull. V. s. 81). A similar opinion seems to be held by some of the
Arunta (Strehlow, ii. 52).

1 Roth, Ethnol. Studies, 179, s. 320. They understood abortion,
which is quite a different thing. Attention may perhaps be drawn
in this connection to the general ignorance inithe lower culture on
a kindred subject. It might be supposed that the cause of venereal
disease would be fairly obvious. Yet it is very commonly ascribed, like
many other diseases, to witchcraft. Of many peoples is probably
true what a well-informed observer in the latter part of the eigh-
teenth century asserts emphatically of the natives of Sieppa Leone,
among whom venereal disease was frequent, that they cannot be
"convinced that it proceeds from impure coition " (Matthews, 136).

278 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

water runs along the bed and fills this hole a stone
gradually rises with it from the hole, keeping its top
clear. It is Goomarh, the spirit-stone of Bahloo, which
no mortal would dare to touch ; for from this stone
the baby-girls are launched upon their mission of
incarnation. The wood-lizard Boomayahmayahmul is
the principal artificer of boy-babies, assisted from
time to time by Bahloo. The babies, boy and girls,
when thus made are usually despatched to another
being who rejoices in the name ofWaddahgudjaelwon.
She in turn sends them to hang on coolabah (euca-
lyptus ?) trees until some woman passes under them,
when they immediately pounce on her and enter her
womb. Sometimes two drop from the same branch
and enter the same woman : then she bears twins.
Every child born in this way has a coolabah leaf in
its mouth at birth ; and one of the attendant women
proceeds to remove it. The whirlwind-spirit Wurra-
wilberoo, who seems to have his normal residence
in two dark spots in the constellation Scorpio, some-
times snatches up a baby-spirit and whirls it along to
a woman against whom he has a grudge. Now
and then he seizes two and gives her twins. Bahloo
has also a spiteful way of punishing a woman for
having the temerity to stare at him by sending her twins.
A child who dies young is born again. If this were
all, the theory of the Euahlayi would hardly differ
from that of the Arunta or the blackfellows of Northern
Queensland. But it seems that they do regard a
human father as usual and regular ; for only those
children who are born with teeth are definitely
said to be born without sexual intercourse ; and
such babes are put to death. What part the

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 279

human father exactly plays we are not told. His
power would be naught without the assistance of the
makers and distributors of babies whose complicated
proceedings have been described. On the whole
it looks as if these proceedings embody the earlier
guesses of the people at the mystery of birth, through
which they are dimly beginning to perceive the real
concatenation of cause and effect.^

Of no other people than the Australian blackfellows
have we such definite evidence that reproduction is
held to be independent of coition. The wonder is^
after making all allowance for the slow progress of
knowledge, that any tribe can yet be found ignorant
that the cause of birth is the union of the sexes.
Elsewhere hov/ever traces of this ignorance have
been found. It is questionable whether the Seri of
the Californian Gulf have any clear recognition of
paternity.^ On the Slave Coast of West Africa, "the
Awunas, an eastern Ewhe tribe, say that the lower
jaw is the only part of the body which a child derives
from its mother, all the rest being derived from the
ancestral luwkoo (the Tshi Kra). The father furnishes
nothing."^ Their kinsmen the Hos of Togoland go
further. Though on a higher step of civilisation than
the Queenslanders they attribute as little of the child
as the latter even to the mother. It is their belief

^ Parker, Euahlayi, 50, 51, 52, 61, 98.

2 McGee, Rep. Bur. Ethnol. xvii. 272*. Dr. McGee bases his
opinion, to some extent at any rate, on philological grounds.
Whether he has any direct evidence I do not know. The extreme
rudeness of the Seri and the overwhelmingly preponderant position
of women in their social organisation lend strong colour to the
supposition of their ignorance {supra, p. 78).

^ EUis, Yoruba, 131 note.

28o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

that God makes babies out of the under-jaws of
deceased members of the same family, supplying the
muscles and other fleshy parts from potter's clay, which
he kneads to the right shape, and then secretly inserts
them thus made in the tiniest possible human form
into the womb.^ The Indians on the Amazon River
do indeed recognise paternity as a present phenomenon,
but they account for the various objects of the universe
by motherhood alone : the sun is the mother of the
living beings and the moon of vegetables unassisted
by any masculine power.'' Thus while they have come
to recognise the common course of nature to-day they
still hesitate to attribute the same conditions to the
sacred objects of their faith. The notion of paternity
is absent from the Toda word iox father : ^ hence the
father obtained for the expected child by means of the
bow-and-arrow ceremony is not a begetter but merely a
man who undertakes certain duties with rep["ard to
mother and offspring, and as often as not is not the
real parent. Indeed, while the word for mother in

^ Spieth, 558. It seems to be for this reason that the under-
jaws of fallen foes adorn their sacred ivory trumpets and drums
as trophies of victory, for in this way it may be suggested they
would be kept out of reach of the procreating divinity (H. Klose,
Globus, Ixxxix. 12). Among the Guans, another branch of the
Ewhe, the god appears not to restrict himself to under-jaws of the
same family in fabricating new human human beings {cf. supra, vol.
i. p. 246, where the word goddess is an error for god). The under-
jaw of a dead king of the Baganda used always to be cut off at
burial and preserved in a wooden dish (Cunningham, 226). This
is comprehensible if the jaw were deemed necessary for the con-
tinuation of his posterity.

2 Nery, 250. In the same way a hero of the Narrinyeri is
declared to have no father, only a mother (Taplin, Narrinyeri, 43).
He is now a star.

3 Rivers, Todas, 517 note.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 281

most if not all languages means producer, procreatrix,
it is probable that in very many the word for father
means in its origin no more than elder man/ or
provider, and is quite unconnected with the notion of
begetting. But philological considerations cannot here
be discussed. Enough has been said to prove that
the physiological process of conception is not recog-
nised even yet by various Australian tribes, and to
render it doubtful how far the relation of father and
child is understood by peoples in other parts of the
world.

The argument which I have endeavoured to put
before the reader may now be recapitulated.

We set out to investigate stories found in every
part of the world attributing the birth of a hero to
supernatural impregnation of his mother. These
narratives are not merely ebullitions of the fancy,
tales told for the pleasure of telling. Many of them
are soberly credited by nations in various stages of
civilisation. They frequently form part of the sacred
store of religious tradition, and the main incident has
been taken up into Christianity. Turning to practical
superstitions we found means for producing children,
analogous and even identical with those described
in the stories, actually in use as widely as the stories
themselves. We found, moreover, a number of pre-
cautions against such impregnation, as well as similar
beliefs with regard to the impregnation of certain of
the lower animals.

Among the stories many either explicitly or im-
plicitly identify the hero thus supernaturally born as a
new birth of a dead man or some other animal. The

^ As among the Yakut (Sumner, /. A. I. xxxi. 92 ; </. 80).

282 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

next step of investigation therefore was to inquire
into the range and meaning of stories in which the
hero passes through series of transformations by means
of death and a fresh birth. These tales, like the
others previously examined, were found to be prac-
tically universal in their distribution, and in a very
large number of cases seriously believed. They were
inseparably connected too with widely extended
beliefs, often compendiously but not quite accurately
designated the Belief in Transmigration of Souls and
the Belief in Reincarnation. Both in the tales and in
the creeds (if creeds they may be called) it was by no
means uncommon to find that the new birth took
place independently of procreation by the union of the
sexes, and in no few instances by the mere volition
of the personage thus to be born again.

These stories and beliefs amount together to a great
body of traditional philosophy, confined not to one
race or country but common to mankind. To all
appearance this philosophy must be based on ignorance
of the physiological law of reproduction. Ignorance
so profound however seems to us incredible. We
therefore proceeded to examine social institutions in
order to ascertain whether they gave any countenance
to the hypothesis. It was not necessary to inquire
how kinship first came to be recognised. What-
ever the history of its recognition kinship can only
be reckoned in one of three ways. It may be reckoned
through the father only, through the mother only,
or through both parents. In all the higher civilisa-
tions kinship is reckoned through both parents, but
where the earlier stages of culture have not been
passed kinship is usually reckoned only through one.

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 283

Anthropological research has abundantly demonstrated
that among the lowest races kinship is with some
exceptions reckoned exclusively through the mother,
and where it is reckoned exclusively through the father
there are generally indications of a previous stage in
which it was reckoned through the mother ; whereas the
contrary case of kinship reckoned through the mother
with traces of a previous reckoning through the father
is not known to exist. We are accordingly justified
in postulating the reckoning of kinship through the
mother (called motherright) as the earlier. In strict
motherright the father is not considered as belonging
to the kin of the children, the headship of the family
is vested in the mother's brothers or maternal uncles,
the father does not transmit his name or property
to his children ; on the other hand, he is often placed
by the operation of the blood-feud in an antagonistic
position towards them.

We examined the theory which accounts for mother-
right as founded on the uncertainty of paternity and
rejected it on the ground that while motherright
prevails not only where paternity is uncertain but also
where it is practically certain, the opposite organisa-
tion of fatherriofht is founded on no g-uarantee of
certainty. On the contrary, licence is often as great in
fatherright as in motherright and the legal father may
be perfectly well known not to have begotten the
children. Without pretending to trace exhaustively
the history of the transition from motherright to father-
right, we considered some of its stages and came to
the conclusion that whereas motherright was founded
on the recognition of a common blood, fatherright was
traceable to social and economic causes of a different

284 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

character, that no assertion of a common blood was
implied in fatherright, but that it was an artificial
organisation formed upon the analogy of the organisa-
tion of motherright which it supplanted.

Even where kinship is reckoned through the father
then, as well as ^where it is reckoned through the
mother, the question of actual paternity is little re-
garded. Children have their own value apart from
the question whether they belong in blood to the stock,
provided they can legally be counted to it. That
value often increases rather than diminishes with the
rise of fatherright. The necessity of having issue to
carry on the property and the religious duties of the
family is supreme. It is no objection to a child's son-
ship that he has none of his legal father's blood in his
veins : he is legally his son and has the legal rights of
a son all the same, and even though the father may be
quite conscious that he had no share in begetting him.
The child's sufficient title is to have been born of the
father's legal wife.

But though economic and religious needs may thus
foster indifference on the subject of paternity, this
carelessness could hardly have arisen — at all events it
could not be so widely prevalent — if the relation of a
father had been as well understood as the relation of a
mother to the offspring. The same ignorance which
appears to be involved in the stories of supernatural
birth and the practices correlative therewith, the same
ignorance which is exhibited in the stories of meta-
morphosis by death and new birth and in the belief
in metempsychosis and reincarnation, is thus stamped
upon the social organisation of the lower culture.
Nor does the transition from motherright to father-

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 285

right of necessity imply any change in this respect.
So far diffused is the evidence of ig-norance that such
ignorance must have been universal ; so deeply rooted
is it that it must have prevailed through many ages.
The question of paternity is not one that would have
early engaged the attention of mankind. It needed
close and persistent observation ; it would have been
obscured by subjects more immediately urgent ; and if
savage society still preserve the main lines of primitive
institutions the sexual customs of that archaic period
must have involved it in such complexity as would
have been almost impossible to unravel. Nor even
yet have various tribes, especially in Australia, suc-
ceeded in penetrating the mystery. It is true that
most of the races of mankind have in course of time
attained a rough and elementary knowledge of the
laws of reproduction. But the consequences in the
traditions — whether stories beliefs institutions or
practices — of mankind of the long reign of ignorance
have not disappeared, and it is probable that some of
them are destined to last as long as the human race.
Sexual morality may be improved, husbands may no
longer recognise children whom they are conscious
they have not begotten, kinships may come to be
everywhere formally reckoned through both parents,
the efforts of women to obtain children by magical
means may cease, child-birth from other than natural
causes may be scornfully repudiated as a contem-
poraneous possibility. But conservative prejudice
reliijious awe the delioht in miracle for its own sake
the laziness of mind which prefers to believe what
somebody else has affirmed and will not take the
trouble to examine the evidence are more tenacious

286 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

of their existence than the lowest physical organisms.
They will long continue to accept as actual historical
events some tales of the supernatural birth of extra-
ordinary personages in the far and misty past, or to
insist that after all there may be "something in" the
theory of reincarnation invented to solve the moral
and material problems of the universe at a period when
imagination ruthlessly overtopped reason and know-
ledge was limited indeed. And when even these relics
of primeval ignorance and archaic speculation shall
have been gathered to the limbo of vain and discarded
opinions the stories enshrined in literature, adorned
by genius and entwined with the dearest and most
generous affections of the individual and the race will
survive, imperishable until humanity itself shall pass
away.

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INDEX

Abipones. Marriage customs ii.
25 n

Abraham i. 265

Abyssinia. Marriage customs ii.
21, 199, 264

See Beni Amer, Gallas

Achehn — see Sumatra

Achewa — see Bantu

Admiralty Islands. Impregnation
by sun i. 25

Adoption of children i. 147, 148 ;
ii. 248

Adultery, definition in lower cul-
ture i. 301, 313 ; ii. 148, 150,
160, 178, 194, 196, 197, 2o5n.
207, 218, 231

^neas and the snake i. 168

Agnatic descent — see Fatherright

Ainu. Practices to procure chil-
dren i. 32, 53. Re-birth i. 21 1

Albanians. Marriage customs ii.
18

Aleutian Islands. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 15. Sexual morality
ii. 234

Algiers. Prescriptions for barren-
ness i. 68, 84

Algonkins. Marriage customs ii.
68. Matrimonial life ii. 65.
Motherright i. 263 ; ii. 65.
Names, influence of i. 214.
Organisation i. 298. Roots
prized by i. 47 n. Super-
natural Birth, i. 22, 23
Arapaho. Sun-dance ii. 236
Cheyenne. Sun-dance ii. 238.
Transformation after death
i. 186
Illinois. Licentiousness ii. 106
Kickapoos. Licentiousness ii.
232

Algonkins. Naskopies or Nene-
nots. Sexual relations, ii. 234.
Premature marriages, ii. 271

See Blackfeet, Musquakies,
Ojibways

Ali, i. 18, 173

Aloe on graves i. 162, 163

Amazon River Indians. Cos-
mology ii. 280

Amulets i. 1 18-122

Ancestors. As animals i. 174.
Influence in securing continu-
ance of family ii. 246. Wor-
ship of i. 85, 121 ; in relation
to Illatom ii. 41 n

See Naming, Re-birth,
Transformation

Andaman Islands. Burial of chil-
dren i. 227. Indians as de-
ceased ancestors i. 236.
Naming children i. 210, 226

Anglo-Saxons. Prescriptions for
barrenness i. 54, 62, 233
See Athelstan

Angoni — see Bantu

Annam. Rabbits, belief as to i.
151. Supernatural Birth i.
13, 19. Tree-spirits i. i68n

Annunciation, paintings of, i. 20,
21

Ansairee. Transformation after
death i. 173

Apaches. Supernatural Birth i. 24

Apis i. 26

Apples, Appletree in impregnation
rites and belief i. 36, 40 n. 60,

"3. 134
Arabs. Marriage customs ii. 5-7,
16. Practices to obtain chil-
dren i. 68 115, iig, 124.
Supernatural Birth i. 13, 35

3"

312

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Arabs. Ancient. Sexual morality
i. 312 ; ii. 130, 222
Bedouins. Licentiousness ii.

221
Hassenyeh. Marriage customs
ii. 222
Aracan. Sexual morality i. 312
Arapaho — see Algonkins
Araucanians. Licentious festi-
vals ii. 241
Arawaks. Legends ii. 64. Mar-
riage customs ii, 63
Arianrod i. 1 33

Armenia. Mohammedan mar-
riage custom i. 59. Rite to
obtain children i. 136
Arthur, King i. 187
Ashanti. Husband not respon-
sible for wife i. 275
See Negroes
Assam. Sowing festival ii. 171
Lynngams, birth of ancestress
i. 17
See Mikirs, Syntengs
Aston, W. G., quoted i. 248
Athapascans. Puberty customs
i. 88. Rebirth i. 219
Assineboin, Dene and Car-
riers. Licentiousness ii. 233
Tacullies. Funeral custom i.
220
Athelstan i. 11 n
Athene, segis of i. 108
Attis i. 17, 167, 168
Aubrey, John, quoted i. 159
Augilae. Marriage customs ii. 131
Augustine, St. cited i. 20, 149
Aurora Island. Child as " echo "
of deceased i. 213. Super-
stition i. 37 n^
See Melanesia
Auseans. Licentiousness ii. 131
Australia. Beliefs as to cause of
conception i. 52, 85, 119, 237-
244 ; ii. 274-279. Father re-
born in son i. 198. Jump up
Whitefellow i. 234. Kan-
garoo-flesh given to cause fer-
tility i. 54. Marriage customs
and sexual relations ii. 223-
228. Menstruation, specula-
tions on ii. 273. Organisation
i. 236, 294. Premature inter-

course ii. 261. Puberty
customs i. 96, no; ii. log.
Subjection of girls i. 295.
Transformation after death
i. 164, 184. Twins, how caused
i. 119; ii. 278. Warehouse of
children i. 242, 243, 244.
Wife resides with husband ii.
36 n
Arunta, beliefs and practices i.

238-241
Dieri. Marriage customs ii.

109
New South Wales. Sexual re-
lations, ii. 112

Averrhoes, Case of pregnancy re-
lated by i. 24

Awemba — see Bantu

Aztecs. Children produced in
realm of dead i. 245. Super-
natural Birth i. 11, 17, 21

Bacchus i. 15

Baele (Eastern Sahara). Mar-
riage customs ii. 59

Bakairi. Child called "little
father" i. 209 n. Marriage
customs ii. 61. Supernatural
Birth i. 15

Balearic Islands. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 131

Ballads, cited i. 158

Balochis. Jus Primce Noctis i.
304 n. Supernatural Birth i.
18

Banks' Islands. Sexual morality
ii. 148. Stones, fecundation
by i. 119

Bantu. Amulets, i. 121. Children
of widow reckoned to de-
ceased husband i. 315. Dolls
i. 142, Licentiousness ii.
I95r-2i6. Marriage customs
ii. 22, 23, 24, 113, 122.
Medicine for barren women
i. 39, 68 n. Premature inter-
course ii. 265, 267. Puberty
customs i. 94-96. Raising up
seed to another i. 316. Re-
birth i. 201. Souls, multiple
i. 201, 202 n. Tales i. 23, 72.
Transformation after death
i. 165, 169, 172. Twins i. 163

INDEX

313

Bantu, Angola — see Congo
Angoni and Achewa. Theory

as to spirits of the dead i.

169, 249
Awemba. Amulets i. 120.

Naming children i. 214 n
Azimba. Premature marriages

ii. 266
Baronga. Marriage customs

ii. 207 n. Maternal uncle ii.

207. Sexual morality ii. 207
Bechuana. Purification cere-
mony ii. 210

Fans. Burial of child i. 227.
Premature marriages ii. 269.
Sexual morality ii. 215
Herero. Organisation 1. 275.

Sexual morality ii. 137.
Ondonga. Adultery i. 301
WayaoandMang'anja. Adultery
i. 302 ; ii. 122. Marriage
customs ii. log, 266. Puberty
customs ii. 122, 123, 266.
Sexual morality ii. 121, 265
Wazaramo. Fine husband on

death of wife i. 276
West Coast (see Congo). Pre-
mature marriages ii. 269.
White people as spirits of
dead i. 235

See Basuto, Congo, Loango,
Suahili, Uganda, Wanyika,
Warundi, Zulus
Barea. Maternal uncle i. 287.

Sexual morality ii. 121.
Bari. Rite to obtain children i.
139. White people as spirits
of dead i. 235. Marriage
customs ii. 21
Barotse — see Bantu
Basque. Marriage customs ii. 20
Basuto. Licentiousness i. 316 ; ii.

208, 210, 267. Marriage
customs ii. 22, 208 n. Raising
up seed to another i. 316, 317.
Rites to procure children i.
88, 121, 144. Supernatural
Birth i. 72 n

Bata, hero of Egyptian tale i. 14.

156
Bataks — see Sumatra
Bathing. Conception by i, 23, 24,

67, 75-87

Baze. Maternal uncle i. 287.
Sexual morality ii. 121

Belgium. Prescriptions for ster-
ility i. 62. Priapian statues i,
64
Ardennes. Sacred springs i. 64
Hainault. Nut-trees, prognos-
tication by i. 89 n

Beni Amer. Blood-feud i. 274.
Licentiousness ii. igg. Mar-
riage customs ii. 21

Benin — see Negroes

Berbers. Sexual morality ii. 220

Besisi. Rite to fertilise mangostin
i. ii6n. Rice-harvest festival
ii. 171

Besom. Stepping over i. 133

Bhishma, Raja i. 18.

Birch as fecundator i. 103, 104,
107

Birth Customs. Kwakiutl i. 113,
234. Maori i. 128, 212.
Samoa i. 213

Blackfeet. Adultery, punishment
of ii. 231 n. Medicine men
communicate prolific virtue i.
117. Pregnancy by wish i.
117

Blood-covenant i. 258-262

Blood drunk to obtain children, i.
70, 72, 73. Other practices, i.

73
Blood-feud i. 272-277 ; ii. 97
Bogos. Maternal uncle, i. 287
Bohemia. Drink to obtain chil-
dren i. 39. Licentiousness of
ancient ii. 190
Bonaventura, St., hymn cited i. 20
Bonfires, leaping over i. 98
Bontoc Igorots — see Luzon
Borneo. Licentiousness ii. 128,
I5I-I53- Life after death i.
174. Marriage customs i. 59 ;
ii. 34-36. Pregnancy, opinion
of the Bahau on duration of
ii. 274. Premature marriages
ii. 259. Sacrifices for children
i. 86. Transformation after
death i. 161
Bororos. Licentiousness ii. 108.
Marriage customs ii. 25, 272.
Motherright ii. 25. Trans-
formation after death i. 187

314

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Bosnia — see Slav

Botocudos. Dead children eaten
i. 231

Bowditch Island, Marriage cus-
toms ii. 39

Brames — see Negroes

Brazil. Origin of Manioc i. 166,
229. Transformation after
death i. 186
See Baka'iri, Bororos, Tupis

Bride-price i. 281, 282, 292, 301,
313; ii. 15, 19, 25 n. 27,28,29,

30, 3^, 32, 33. 37) 47. 51, 57,
58, 60, 63, 67, 68, 82, 83, 84, 88,
95. 96, 99, 1^8, 119, 150, 180,
215, 216, 258, 261, 270

British Columbia, tribes of.
Father not akin i. 280. Mar-
riage customs ii. 89. Prac-
tices, magical, to produce
children i. 47, 53, 55, 139.
Puberty rites i. 88, 91. Super,
natural Birth i. 4, 12, 18, 25.
Re-birth i. 218. Sexualhospi-
tality ii. 234. Twins i. 190

See Haida, Lillooet, Kwa-
kiutl, Salish

Britons, Ancient. Sexual relations
ii. 131

Brittany. Contract with Devil i.
36, Priapian statue i. 64.
Sacred wells and springs i. 65,
80, Supernatural birth i. 16.

Buddha. Birth i. 21. Parables

i- 193

Buddhism, Transmigration in i.

192
Burgundy. Story of Baroness de

Montfort i. 189
Burn — see Celebes
Buryats. Licentiousness ii. 185
Bury St. Edmunds, rite at i. 131
Bushmen. Marriage customs ii.

61, 267. Sexual morality ii.

213. Transformation after

death i. 165. Women hide

from rain i. 88
Byblus. Mourning for Adonis ii.

136

Cabbage-bed, Children from i.

41, 42
Cseculus, founder of Prseneste, i. 18

Calabar. Water-serpent born
again as boy i. 189. Old, Re-
birth i. 201

California. Visit to other world i.
222

See Hupa, Maidu, Pimas,
Wishosk, Yana, Yokuts,Yurok

Cambodia. Marriage customs ii.
47. Peahens, fructification
of i. 151. Puberty rites i. 91

Cafiaris. Origin ii. 108

Cantabrians. Marriage customs
ii. 19

Caroline Islands. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 36. Motherright i.
270. Wives, exchange of ii.

125
See Mortlock Islands
Catalonia. Sacred oUa i. 79
Celebes. Marriage customs i.
59 ; ii. 57. Supernatural
Birth i. 22
Celts. Transmigration i. 194
Ceylon. Polyandry ii. 166. Rite
to obtain children, i. 140 n.
Transmigration into buffaloes,
i. 182. Sexual morality ii. 167
Chaco — see Paraguay
Charm, power of verbal i. 28
Chastity, growth of ideal of ii.

102
Chechen. Blood-feud on murder
of son i. 273. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 17
Cheremiss. Licentiousness ii.

186
Cherkess. Marriage customs ii. 16
Cherokees. Marriage customs ii.

69. Shape-shifting ii. 235 n
Chevsur. Blood-feud on wife-
murder i. 274. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 17
Cheyenne — see Algonkins
Chieftainship in motherright i.

283
Children. Birth independent of
sexual union i. 152, 237-240,
254 ; ii. 274-280. Magical
Practices to obtain i. 30-155.
Ndembo ii. 115. Origin of i.
41,42; ii. 274-280. Subject-
ing wife to embraces of other
men i. 307-318; ii. 134, 181,

INDEX

.15

187, 196, 214, 247. Value of
ii. 244-248. Warehouse of i.
242-245

See Re-birth

China. Marco Polo on licentious
customs ii. 172 n. Marriage
customs of aboriginal tribes
ii. 44, Prescriptions against
barrenness i. 36 n. 39, 46, 62,
117, 147. Re-birth i. 210.
Sexual morality i. 311. Still-
born child cut in pieces, i.
228. Supernatural Birth, i. 5,
II, 19, 21 n. 24, 25. Trans-
formation after death i. 180.
Trees growing on graves, i.
62

Chingpaw. Licentiousness ii. 169.
Marriage customs ii. 47. Re-
carnation i. 182

Chinook. Licentiousness ii. 230.
Puberty rites i. 92

Choctas. Maternal uncle i. 299

Christening customs, i. 134, 224

Christmas custom i. 107

Chukchi. Dolls i. 147. Licen-
tiousness ii. 181. Marriage
customs ii. 43, 256. Naming
child i. 211. Re-birth i. 211.
Stone as fecundator i. 119.
Transformation after death i.
180

Circassians. Licentiousness ii.
188

Clothing conveys fecundity, i. 113-
116, 229

Cochin China. Premature mar-
riages ii. 257

Cocoa-nuts given to barren women
i. 34. Origin of tree i, 161

Conall Cernach, birth i. 9

Conchobar, birth i. 9. Exercised
jus primce noctis ii. 132

Congo, tribes. Adultery i. 301.
Father fined on death of child
i. 276. Husband fined on
death of wife i. 275, 276.
Licentiousness ii. 113-117,
214. Life after death i. 235.
Marriage of children of same
father i. 265. Maternal uncle
i. 277, 282-2S4. Medicine for
barrenness i. 39. Motherright

i. 262, 281-284. Premature
intercourse ii. 268. Puberty
rites i. 95. Sacred tree i. 44.
Visiting husbands ii. 23

Contact of magical substance,
fecundation by i. 17

Corpses, portions of, cure barren-
ness i. 13, 15, 75, 77
See Relics

Cosmogonic myths i. 2, 74, 245 n ;
ii. 280

Courland. Marriage customs i.
104

Courtship, nocturnal. Europe ii.
20 n. Moluccas ii. 31. North
America ii. 66, 85, 89, 90

Cow. - Flesh or milk given to
procure offspring i. 34, 61,
62

Creation Legend of Batutsi i. 143.
Of Yakuts ii. 180

See Cosmogonic Myths

Creeks. Premature marriages ii.
272

Creole story i. 161 n

Crows. Licentiousness ii. 232.
Sacred Spring i. 67 n

Cuchulainn. Birth i. 9. Re-
birth i. 196. Visit to Maive
ii. 132

Cupid and Psyche ii. 8

Curse, power of i. 28

Cyrus i. 1 1 n

Daghestan. Blood-feud on wife-
murder i. 273

Dahome — see Ewhe

Dakota — see Sioux

Damascus. Impregnation by
wish i. 27

Danae i. 17, 25

Dandkil. Re-birth i. 232

Dar-For. Marriage customs ii.

59
Dinkas. Adultery i. 313. Divorce
i. 314. Marriage customs i.
314; ii. 59. Paternity i. 313,

315
Dionysus i. 15
Divination to name child i. 199,

205, 206, 207, 211, 212, 213,

224

3i6

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Divorce i. 267, 288, 290, 304, 305,
314, 322 n. 324; ii. 4, 21, 30,
33, 38, 43. 61, 66, 69, 72, 76,
78, 83, 84, 104, 106, 108, 120,
124, 126, 128, 129, 138, 139,
140, 142, 152, 154, 156, 158,
170, 173, 175, 178, 183, 186,
194, 204, 205, 212, 215, 218,
220, 233, 242 n

Drinking, pregnancy from i. 4, 12,
13, 33, 38, 39, 62, 63-73, 75,
114

Druids i. 32

Druses. Sexual morality ii. 223 n

Dyaks — see Borneo

Ear, conception by i. 20, 149, 151

Easter customs i. 107

Easter Island. Premature mar-
riages ii. 262

Easter-smack i. 107

East Indian Islands — see Borneo,
Celebes, Engano, Java, Mo-
luccas, Nias, Papua, Sumatra

Eating or drinking, pregnancy
from i. 4-17, 32-73, 75

Edeeyah. See Fernando Po

Eggs. Marriage customs i. 58-60.
Rites to procure children i.
57-61. Shells, treading on i.
112

Egypt, Ancient. Apis, conception
of i. 26. Gods, identity of
father and son i. 197. Ibis,
impregnation of i. 151. Mar-
riage customs ii. 20 n. Pros-
titution, sacred ii. 263. Re-
birth i. 205. Soul, composite
i. 203, 204. Transformation
after death i. 171. Two
Brothers, story of the i. 13
See Osiris

Egypt, Modern. Premature mar-
riages ii. 264. Rites to obtain
children i. 47, 69 n, 75, 131

Engano. Licentiousness ii. 259.
Marriage customs ii. 33

England. Broomstick or pail,
stepping over i. 133, 134.
Cattle buried under fruit-
trees i. 163 n. Children, ab-
sence of in pre-historic graves
i. 228 n. Children, rjaming i.

225. Children, rites to pro-
cure i. 56, 129. Cradle, rock-
ing empty i, 142. Game of
Old Roger i. 159. Grave,
planting roses on i. 160. Mar-
riage customs i. 109, 133.
Peahens, fecundation of i. 151.
Proverbial expressions i. 70,
113. Rain at vi^eddings i. 89.
Sacred wells and springs i. 65.
Transformation after death i.
187, 188
See Anglo-Saxons

Eskimo. Barrenness, prescription
against i. 115, 147. Eggs for-
bidden to girls i. 57. Festivals
for the dead i. 215 ; ii. 146.
Licentious customs ii. 140-147.
Marriage customs ii. 77, 139,
271. Names, influence of i.
214; ii. 146. Polyandry ii.
142. Puberty rites i. 93.
Re-birth i. 214,218

Esthonia. Premature intercourse
ii.257

Etdin, wife of Cormac King of
Ulaid i. 9

Ethiopic tale of Supernatural
Birth i. 7

Etruscans. Licentiousness ii. 136

Ewhe. Children, origin of ii. 279.
Children, rites to obtain i. 86.
Children, sold or pawned ii.
99 n. Metempsychosis i. 172.
Organisation i. 285. Re-birth
i. 201. Sexual morality ii. 120,
219. Soul, composite i. 201
See Togoland

Eye. Impregnation by glance i.
26, 27, 148

Fanti — see Gold Coast

Fates. Hungarian Gipsy belief i.
48, 72. Aphrodite eldest of,
Athens i. 130

Father and son combat i. 270-
273 ; ii. 64, 97-8

Fatherright. Described as owner-
ship of children ii. 100 n.
Fosters indifference to pater-
nity ii. 246, Rise of ii. I- 100.
Review of evidence ii. 92-

IQO

INDEX

z'^y

Fernando Po. Marriage customs

ii- 23, 59
Fezzan. Prescription for sterility

i. 54
Fiji. Banana planted on child's
grave i. 162. Children, rite to
obtain i. 39. Father responsi-
ble for child's death i. 279 n.
Licentious customs ii. 149.
Maternal uncle i. 291
Finchale Church i. 129
Fir as fecundator i. 103, 104
Fire. Bonfires i. 98. Conception
by sparli i. 18. Oven, v/arm,
cures barrenness i. 98
Fish, Agent in Supernatural
Birth i. 8. Conceive by mouth
i. 151. Swallowing promotes
conception i. 48, 49, 50, 51.
Marriage ceremonies i. 51
Fishes, King of the, marchen i. 8
Flesh-meat, fecundation by, i. 9,

53-57
Flowers given for barrenness 1,

35
Fo-hi, founder of Chinese Empire

i- 5

Foot, conception by i. 19, 112

Footprint. Conception by i. 19.
Of Saint Remade i. 64

Formosa. Marriage customs ii.
12

Foxes — see Musquakies

France. Amulets i. 118. Carrion
buried under tree i. 163 n.
Churches, rites at i. 125, 126,
136. Graves, plants growing
on i. 159. Hedgehog, treading
on i. 112. Marriage supersti-
tion i. 89. Priapian statues
. and connected rites i, 63, 125.
Proverbial expression i. 70.
Rude stone monuments rocks
and trees, rites at i. 125, 126,
127-129, 130 n. Wells and
springs i. 65, 79, 80

Frazer, Dr. J. G. On bonfire rites
i. 100. On the Lupercal i.
102. On Midsummer Day
rites ii. 192 On the sexual
organisation of Pelew Islands
ii. 179 n
Friuli. Marriage custom i. 41

Fruit or herb, fecundation by i. 4-

6, 10, 13, 17, 32-41. 81
Funeral customs. Children i.

221, 226, 227, 228, 231 n.

Dandkil i. 232. House-burial

i. 229 n. 233 n. TacuUies i.

220

Gaboon. Husband not responsi-
ble for wife i. 275

Galelarese beliefs as to twins i. 37

Galicia. Bathing for barrenness
i. 77. Eggs i. 61

Gallas. Aloe planted on grave i.
162. Wife's illegitimate child,
legal child of husband i. 322

Gallinomero. Metempsychosis i.

185

Ganguellas. Husband pays com-
pensation on wife's death i.
276

Garamantse. Sexual relations ii.
131 n

Garmanes. Children procured by
charms i. 1 19 n

Genghis Khan i. 26

Germany. Amulets i. 118, 122.
Barrenness, drinks for i. 39,

67. Bonfires i. 98. Bride must
not give away shoes i. 116.
Burial of foal i. 163. Child,
naming i. 225. Children,
sundry rites to procure i. 113.
Eggshell, treading on i. 112.
Girls refrain from drink after
sour kraut i. 67. Marriage
customs i. 104, 109. Peasant
Custumals i. 323. Pregnant
woman, influence on trees i.
41 n. Sacred trees, children
come from i. 42. Sacred
wells and springs i, 66, 78.
Shrovetide, striking women
i. 103, 107. Transformation
after death i. 166. Twins i.

37

See Pomerania
Gilyaks. Soul and future life i.

179
Gindanes. Licentiousness ii. 131
Gipsies. Amulets i. 118. Barren

women, practices by i. 48, 57,

68, 71, 73, 75, 233- Boy-root,

3'8

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

gathering i. 46. Father, posi-
tion of i. 264. Marriage cus-
toms i. log, 264 ; ii. 20.
Supernatural Birth i. 12
Gold. Premature marriages ii.

257

Gold Coast. Children, right to
pledge i. 278, 286. Children,
rites to obtain i. 137. Fanti
fathers i. 263, 286. Metempsy-
chosis i. 1 72. Re-birth i, 200.
Soul, composite i. 201.
Tshis, sexual morality ii. iig
See Negroes

Greece, Ancient. Death rite, i.
177 n. Hero, worship of i.
idgn. Marriage customs i. 41.
Springs and streams giving
fertility i. 83. Thesmophoria
i. 102 n. Ulysses' marriage
ii. 19
Athens. Children of same
father allowed to marry i. 265.
Marriage customs i. ic8.
Rocks, rites at i. 130. Sexual
relations i. 322 ; ii. 134 n
Sparta. Marriage customs ii.
18. Sexual relations i. 322 ;
ii. 134

Greece, Modern. Impregnation
by wish i. 28. Marriage cus-
toms, Kythnos ii. 19. Trans-
formation, ballad, Lesbos i.
158

Groot, Dr. J. J. M. De, i. 163

Guanches. Sexual morality ii.
123

Guiana — See Arawdks, Macusis

Guinea. Re-birth i. 199. See
Negroes

Haida. Exogamy i. 280. Mar-
riage customs ii. 85. Ma-
ternal uncle ii. 208 n. Organi-
sation i. 296 ; ii. 85, 86.
Puberty rites i. 92. Rein-
carnation i. 186, 196, 219
See British Columbia
Hand, conception by i. 19
Hare's flesh for sterility i. 54
Haussa Fulba. Sexual morality

ii. 216
Hawaii — see Sandwich Islands

Hebrews. Abraham's marriage
i. 265. Divorce ii. 5. Mother-
right i. 265. Samson's mar-
riage ii. 7. Tamar, David's
daughter i. 265.
See Jews

Hebrides. Sexual relations ii.

13311

Hedgehogs, i. 112

Heliopolis. Licentiousness ii. 136

Hephaistos i. 22

Herero — see Bantu

Hiawatha i. 22

Hidatsa. Cavern of children i.
244. Licentiousness ii. 229,
232, 236

Hindus, Ancient. Children, rites
to procure!. 33,61,118,123,124,
141, 307. Mahdbhdrata i. 231 n;
ii. 163. Marriage law ii. 254.
Marriage rites i. 89, 132, 141.
Reincarnation i. 182, ig6

Hindus, Modern. Aboriginal
tribes, adoption of rites by ii.
155. Children, rites to pro-
cure i. 34, 51, 81, 141, 181,

208. Children, stillborn i.

209. Girl, firstborn, put to
death i. 209. Husband and
wife remarried i. 208. Hus-
band's funeral rites on wife's
pregnancy i. 208. Jus Prinice
Noctis i. 304. Marriage law ii.
254. Marriage rites i. 208.
Reincarnation i. 180, 209.
Wife subjected to embraces of
other men i. 307

See India
Homa — see Soma
Hopi (Moqui). Agriculture ii.

74. Marriage customs ii.

75. Metempsychosis i. 185.
Sexual relations ii. 104.
Supernatural Birth i. 4, 18

Hospitality, Sexual, i. 313, 317 ;
ii. 107, 121, 142, 148, 153, 155,
181, 187, 206, 208, 215, 218,

221; 222-224, 227,22s, 233,234

Hottentots. Heitsi-eibib i. 4.
Premature marriages ii. 267.
Puberty rite i. 88. Sexual
morality ii. 212. Women,
position of ii. 60

INDEX

319

Huitzilopochtli i. 17

Hungary. Barrenness, rites to
cure i. 40, 60, 67, 71, 73, 74,
75, 106. Twins i. 2,7
See Gipsies

Hupa. Barren women, rite by i.
I24n. Marriage customs ii.
83. Supernatural Birth i. 27

Hurons. Burial of babes i. 221,
232. Future life i. 186. Licen-
tiousness ii. 105. Marriage
customs ii. 66. Organisation
i. 298. Visiting husbands ii. 65

Ibani — see Niger

Iceland. Naming child i. 224.

Rain at weddings i. 89.

Sterility, remedy for i. 62.

Supernatural Birth i. 7.

Transformation after death i.

^57> 158

Ignorance, Physiological, on con-
ception ii. 249-281. On ve-
nereal disease ii. 277 n

India. Amulets i. 118. Beena
marriage ii. 41 n. Chastity
test i, 135. Children, burial
of (Panjab) i. 227, (Madras)
231 n. Children, rites to ob-
tain 1. 47, 50, 69, 71, 76, 80-82,
90, 116, 123, 124, 229, 230.
lUatom, custom of ii. 410.
Jdtaka i. 18, 193, 307. Li-
centiousness i. 304; ii. 156-
160, 166 n, 167, 169. Mahd-
bhdrata i. 231 n ; ii. 163. Mar-
riage customs i. 109, 208; ii.
15, 40, 41, 46, 58, 161, 165,
167, 168 n. Phallic rites i.
123, 124, 306. Polyandry ii.
158, 161-164, 165. Puberty
rites i. 93, 04. Re-birth and
naming child i. 205-208. Re-
incarnation (Buddhist story)
i. 193. Rukmini, death and
transformation of i. 160.
Supernatural Birth i. 5, 6, 11,
12, 18, 26, 49, 231 n
Dosddhs. Festival i. 35
Gonds. Bringing back soul i. 50
Khonds. Multiple souls i. 206
See Assam, Bhishma, Balo-
chis, Kafirs, Khasis, Kols,

Krishna, Ladak, Manipur,
Manu, Mikirs, Nambutiri,
Ndyars, Oraons, Parsees,
RaJEi Rasalu, Santals
Sikkim, Siva,, Todas,
Vishnu, Visvamitra
Ingush. Tale of Chopa i. 271.
Taboo of mother-in-law ii. 17
Insects &c., taken to procure off-
spring i. 47
Iowa — see Sioux

Ireland. Apple-tree on grave i.
160 n. Licentiousness of
Ancient ii. 132. Marriage
customs of Ancient ii. 1320
Supernatural Birth i. 9

See Conall Cernach, Con-
chobar, Cuchulainn, Saints.
Iroquois. Child, seclusion of i.
98 n. Licentiousness ii. 105.
Marriage customs ii. 66.
Matrimonial life ii. 65, 67.
Organisation i. 298 ; ii. 67.
Re-birth and transformation
i. 220. Souls multiple i. 220
See Cherokees
Italy. Amulets i. 21. Ancient,
burial of children i. 228.
Barrenness, medicines for i.
36, 54. Children, other rites
to procure i. 113, 114. Chil-
dren, where found i. 42.
Naming child i. 225. Pro-
verbial expression i. 70. Re-
birth i. 225 n. Sicilian tale
of magical ox i. 163

See Friuli, Palermo, Peru-
gia, Rome, Siena
Ivory Coast. Adultery and pa-
ternity i. 318, 319; ii. 120.
Dolls i. 142. Licentiousness
ii. 120. Organisation of
family i. 277, 278 n., 284
See Negroes, Niger

Jarrow Church i. 129

Ja-Luo. Belief as to conception
i. 98

Japan. Children, medicine to
obtain i. 39. Children of
same father allowed to marry
i. 265. Children, rites to
obtain i. 113, 135, 147. De-

320

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

scent originally matrilineal ii.
14. Eggshells i. 112. Ghost,
word for i. 248. Marriage
customs ii. 14. Phallic dei-
ties, festival i. 108. Sun,
impregnation by i. 25.
Transformation after death i.
178

Jataka — see India

Java. Child, burial of i. 227.
Children, fish eaten to pro-
cure i. 49. Cult of cannon i.
123. Marriage customs i. 58

Jealousy, marital i. 302 ; ii. loi-
248

Jesus Christ. Mediaeval fancies
respecting birth i. 19-21.
Mohammedan tradition of
birth i 21. Origen's argument
for Virgin Birth i. 151

Jevons, Prof : F. B. i. 15

Jews. Barren women, prescrip-
tions for i. 67, 70, 77, 78, 84.
Childbirth custom i, 40 n.
Mandrake i. 45. Marriage
rites i. 51, 58, 109. Sons,
prescription to procure i. 52
See Hebrews

Jupiter i. 15

Kabyles. Rites to obtain children

i. 131

Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush. Licen-
tiousness i. 303. Marriage
customs ii. 58. Naming child
i. 207

Kaffirs — see Bantu

Kalewala i. 22

Kamtchadals. Children, prac-
tices to procure i. 71. Licen-
tiousness ii. 183. Marriage
customs ii. 42

Kansa. Medicine to produce
pregnancy i. 39. Sexual
morality ii. 232

Kathakoga i. 11

Kavirondo. Burial of child i. 227,
All children of wife belong to
husband i. 318

Khasis. Divorce ii. 129. Matri-
monial relations ii. 9, 10

Kich — see Nilotic Tribes

Kickapoos — see Algonkins

Kinship. Terms in lower culture
i. 293; ii. 112. Originally
traced through one parent
only i. 300. Examination of
reasons for tracing through
mother i. 300-325. Change
of reckoning ii. 2, 92-100
See Motherright

Kiowa. Marriage customs ii. 70

Kirghiz. Birth of Genghis Khan
i. 26. Tree growing on grave
i. 158
Black K. Supernatural Birth

i. 23
Kara K. rites practised by
barren women i. 84, 113

Kordofan. Licentiousness ii. 199

Korea. Amulets i. 119 n

Koran. Magical use of chapters
i. 59, 68

Koryaks. Marriage customs ii.
43. Naming child i. 212.
Re«birth i. 212. Supernatural
Birth i. 11. Wife, subjecting,
to embrace of stranger ii.
181

Krishna i. 160

Krumirs. Hospitality rite ii. 221

Kumiks. Blood-feud on murder
of half-brother i. 273

Kunama. Blood-feud, incidence
of i. 274. Father and uncle
i. 287

Kurdistan — see Armenia

Kwakiutl. Birth customs i. 113,
234. Marriage customs ii.
88. Pregnancy from chewing
gum i. 38. Sexual morality ii.
234. Sun, impregnation by i.
25. Twins i. 190

Kythnos — see Greece

Ladak. Metempsychosis i. 185
Ladrone Islands. Sexual morality

ii. 125
Lapps. Naming and change of

name i. 224
Lenape. Supernatural Birth i.

Lent. Bonfires, first Sunday i.

99
Levirate i. 310, 314, 315, 324 ; ii.
187

INDEX

321

Lillooet. Marriage customs ii.
84. Puberty rites i. 92.
Shamans cause fecundity i.
139 n. Twins i. 190

Linga— see Phallic

Loango. Maternal uncle i. 281.
Puberty rites i. 95
See Congo

Lourdes water, specific for
barrenness i. 66

Lucky Fool — see Wish

Lupercal i. 100-106

Luzon. Bontoc Igorots. Mar-
riage customs ii. 26. Naming
child i. 223. Igorots and
Tagbanua. Premature mar-
riages ii. 262

Luxemburg. Saint Lucia's arm-
chair i. 130

Mabinogion i. 247, 287 n
Macusis. Marriage customs ii.

63

Madagascar. Barren women, rites
by i. 67, 72, 124. Licentious-
ness ii. 153-155. Premature
marriages ii. 263. Social
organisation i. 324. Trans-
formation after death i. 173

Maghribin Saint i. 321

Magyar — see Hungary

Mah^bhjCrata — see India

Maidu. Barren women, rite by i.
124. Burial of stillborn child
i. 228. Cosmogonic legend i.
245 n. Licentiousness ii. 232.
Premature marriages ii. 271.
Oankoitupeh, legend of i. 195.
Organisation and marriage
customs ii. 82. Transforma-
tion after death i. 166

Malay Peninsula. Marriage cus-
toms (Selangor and Patani
States) ii. 45. Metempsy-
chosis i. 177. Polyandry
(Sakai) ii. 171 n
See Besisi, Semang

Man, Isle of. St. Maughold's
well i. 66, 129

Mana i. 28

Manchu. Origin of dynasty i. 5.
Wedding customs i. 41 n.
134

Mandans — see Sioux

Mandrake i. 44-46, 119

Manioc, origin of i. 166, 229

Manipur. Ancestor as snake i.
178. Bone-money paid on
wife's death i. 278

Mannhardt, W. on Bonfires i. 100.
On the Lupercal i. 102. On
Midsummer Day ii. 192

Manu, Laws of i. 182, 196, 208, 308

Maori. Birth customs i. 128,
212. Father responsible for
child's death i. 279. Marriage
customs ii. 39. Sexual mor-
ality ii. 172

Marchen defined i. 2

Mares. Impregnated by wind i.
149. Milk given to barren
women i. 55, 62. Rites to
impregnate i. 33 n

Marquesas Islands. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 176. Puberty rites ii.
176. Supernatural Birth i.
26

Marriage customs. Beena mar-
riage ii. II, 13, 14, 19, 20, 24,

37. 30-36, 38, 41-43. 51, 53, 55.
60-63, 67-72, 76, 77. Boy
seated on bride's lap i. 141.
Bride beaten i. 53 ; seated on
bull's-hide i. 132 ; on man's
coat i. 133 ; in St. Bede's
Chair 1.129. Cabbages, plant-
ing of i. 42. Eggs, use of i.
58-60. Fir, use of i. 104.
Food, ritual i. 39, 41, 42, 53.
Grain, throwing i. 109. Old
shoes i.iog. Rain i. 89. Rose-
mary i. 33. Sun,iexposure to i.
89. Temporary marriages ii.
5. Visiting husbands ii. 7-27,
6r

Marshall Islands. Blood-feud,
settling i. 226. Licentiousness
ii. 124. Motherright i. 278.
Premature intercourse (Ya-
luit) ii. 262

Masai. Barrenness, prescriptions
against i. 68, no, 120.
Death rites and transforma-
tion after death i. 171. Licen-
tiousness ii. 193. Premature
intercourse ii. 264

322

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Massagetai. Sexual morality ii.
130

Masur women, prescription against
barrenness i. 68

Mbondemos. Premature mar-
riages ii. 269.

Melanesia. Chastity, value of
ii. 148. Marriage customs
(Rotuma) ii. 36. Sexual
morality ii. 148-151

See Banks Islands, Fiji,
New Caledonia, New Hebri-
des, Papua, Solomon Islands,
Sulkas

Menangkabau Malays. Matri-
monial relations ii. 10. Super-
natural Birth i. 6

Menstruation, cause of ii. 263,

273

Merine. Sexual morality ii. 200

Mexico. Barrenness, cures for i.
40, 80, 146. Calabash-tree
and tobacco, origin of i. 166.
Mankind, origin of i. 74.
Naming child i. 225. Sexual
relations of Tarahumare ii.
239

Middle Ages. Fancies respecting
birth of Jesus Christ i. 19-21.
Nostrums to obtain chidren i.
55. Peasant Custumals (Ger-
many) i. 323

Midsummer Day rites 1. 99; ii.
191

Mikirs. Marriage customs ii.
46 n. Re-birth i. 212

Milk against sterility!. 55, 62, 118,
120. Human i. 70

Minahassa — see Celebes

Mistletoe 1. 32

Mohammedan law. Kinship i.
287, 321. Marriage ii. 5, 6.
Paternity i. 312, 321

Mojave. Supernatural Birth i,
24

Moluccas. Children, rites to pro-
cure i. 60, 85, 135, 139. Death
in child-bed, rites i. 173.
Licentious festivals ii. 126,
127. Marriage customs ii.
27-33. Sexual morality ii.
126, 138, 259. Star, con-
ception by i. 98. Supernatural

Birth i. 22, 98. Tree of
Sorrow i. 160. Tree planted
on grave i. 162. Transforma-
tion after death i. 174

Monbuttu. Sexual morality ii.
200

Montezuma i. 24

Moon, fecundation by i. 26, 98

Moquis — see Hopi

Mordvins. Barren women, rites
by i. 83. Licentiousness ii.
186. Marriage custom i. 58

Morocco. Amulets i. 119. Barren
women bathe i. 80

Mortlock Islands. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 36. Motherright and
local exogamy i. 269

Mosquito Indians. Sexual mo-
rality ii. 239

Mother-in-law taboo ii. 93

Motherright i. 253-325 ; ii. 1-3.
Bloodfeud in i. 272-275.
Children of same father by
different mothers not akin i.
264, 265. Father, alien posi-
tion of i. 262-300 ; ii. I.
Father and son combat i.
269. Fatherright, transition
to ii. 2, 92-100, 139. Husband
and father, responsibility of
i. 275-279. Paternity, un-
certainty of, as reason for i.
300-325. Potestas in i. 281-
300

Mouth, conception by i. 12, 151.
See Drinking, Eating

Muetter i. 137

Murray Islands — see Torres
Straits

Musquakies. Children, burial of
i. 226, 232. Marriage customs
ii. 68. Sexual relations (Foxes)
ii- 233

Myddfaij Physicians of i. 32

Nambutiri Brahmans. lUatom,
custom of ii. 41 n. Marriage
rules i. 266. Ndyars, relations
with i. 267, 269

Naming child after ancestor i. 205-
207, 211-213, 215, 217, 223-
226. After saint i. 223 n

INDEX

32,

Nandi. Circumcision rites i.
lion. Licentiousness ii.
195 n. Premature intercourse
ii. 265

Nasamones. Marriage customs,
sexual morality ii. 130

Naskopies — see Algonkins

Natchez ii. 69 n. Licentiousness
ii. 106

Nauru Island. Marriage customs
ii. 38. Polyandry, licence ii.
124

Niyars. Inheritance, rules of i.
300. Kdranavan, powers of
i. 288. Social organisation i. 266

Negroes. Adultery i. 319. Chil-
dren, sale of, by wife to
husband ii. gg. Licentious-
ness ii. 118, iig, 217, 218, 220.
Life after death i. 200. Me-
tempsychosis i. 172. Prema-
ture intercourse and mar-
riage ii. 269, 271. Re-birth i.
200. Surinam, Bush Negroes
of i. 286.

See Ashanti, Calabar,
Ewhe, Gaboon, Gold Coast,
Ivory Coast, Niger, Senegal,
Slave Coast

Nenenot— see Algonkins

Nestorians. Supernatural Birth
i. 16

Netherlands. Sexual hospitality

i- 313

New Britain. Premature mar-
riages ii. 261 n

New Caledonia. Barrenness,
prescriptions against i. 147 n.
Fertility of soil, rite to pro-
duce i. Ill n. Premature
intercourse ii. 261

New England. Rocking empty
cradle i. 142

New Guinea — see Papua

New Hebrides. Motherright i.
270, 291. Premature mar-
riages ii. 261. Sexual morality
ii. i4g

See Aurora, Melanesia

New Pomerania — see Papua,
Sulkas

New York. Rocking empty cradle
i. 142

Niam-niams. Sexual morality ii.

202
Nias. Life after death i. 176
Niger, iNligeria. Amulets i. 120,

Burial of children i. 226 n.

Marriage customs i. 320 ; ii.

24. Metempsychosis i. 172.

Re-birth, i. 201 n
See Negroes
Nilotic tribes. Burial i. 233 n.

Children, rites to obtain

(Kich) i. 87 n. , Licentiousness

ii. 198, 199

See Bari, Dinkas, Mon-

buttu, Niam-niams
Norway. Naming child i. 224.

See Scandinavia
Ntlakapamux — see British Co-
lumbia
Nubia. Premature marriages ii.

264

OjiBWAYS. Adultery ii. 231 n.

Shape-shifting ii. 235 n
Oraons. Licentious festival ii.

159. Marriage rites i. 109
Oroino. Rites by barren women

i. 85
Orpheus and Eurydice, Call-

fornian tale i. 222
Osages Licentiousness ii. 233
Oriris, as Bata i. 14 n. As corn

&c. i. 167
Ossetes. Marriage customs ii. 17.

Sexual morality ii. 187

Palermo. Sacred spring i. 66
Palestine, Ancient. Burial of

children i. 228. Modern.

Rites by barren women i. 67,

84, 131
Palm Sunday customs i. 107
Panjab — see Hindus, India
Papua. Maternal uncle i. 289.

Motherright i. 265, 271, 279 ;

ii. 36, 123. Naming child i.

226. Sexual morality ii. 123,

124. Supernatural Birth i. 18.
Bismarck Archipelago. Marital

jealousy i. 302. Premature

marriages ii. 261.
See Sulkas

324

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Papua. Tami Islands. Father
responsible for child's death
i. 279. Premature intercourse
ii. 261.

Paraguay. Sexual relations ii. 240.
Marriage customs (Chaco) i.
go. Premature marriage
(Guatos) ii. 272

Parsees. Marriage rite i. 8g

Parsley i. 41, 42

Parthenogenesis i. 31

Paternity. Indifference to ii. 243,
249, 283. Legal not depend-
ent on physical i. 304-325.
Physical not understood i.
254 ; ii. 250-281. Social
organisation retarded con-
sideration of i. 256 ; ii. 285

Pawnees. Bear re-born as child

i. 189. Marriage customs ii. 70

Arikara. Licentiousness ii. 229

Skidi. Curative roots i. 47 n.

Impregnation by meteor i.

26

Pearl. Fecundation by i. 11

Perseus i. 17

Persia, Ancient. Soma-juice for
barrenness i. 33. Supernatu-
ral Birth i. 12, 23. Zoroaster,
birth of i. 12

Persia, Modern. Amulet i. 119.
Marriage rite i. 89

Perugia. Cure for barrenness i.
66

Peru, Ancient. Cavinna, origin
of, from lake i.222. Licentious
festival ii. 241. Supernatural
Birth i. 12

Phallic amulets i. 121. Images i.
63, 123, 148. Worship i, 122,
148

Philip, Breton legend of St. i. 16

Picts. Sexual relations ii. 132

Pimas. Supernatural Birth i. 24

Pliny on Druids i. 32. Impregna-
tion of partridges and mares
i. 149. Mandrake i. 45.
Phcenix i. 151

Poggi Islands. Licentiousness ii.
128

Poland. Children, blood drunk
to procure i. 70. Transfor-
mation after death, i. 188

Polyandry ii. 104 n. 109-112, iig,

123, 124, 130, 131, 134, 142,

158, 161-167, 171 n. 173 n. 174,

176, 181, 186
Pornerania. Prescriptions for

barrenness i, 62, 70
Porto Rico. Jus prima noctis ii.

108
Potestas in Motherright i. 264,

281-300 ; ii. 120, 123, 137, 139,

150
Potlatch ii. 88
Priapus, Priapian statues — see

Phallic
Proserpine i. 15
Prussians, Ancient. Marriage rite

i-53
Pshavs. Licentious festival ii. 188
Puberty. Rites (Boys) i. no, 287;
ii. 123, 193, 209, 225, 226, 227,
228. (Girls) i. 88, go-98, 1 10;
ii. 109, 121, 123, 176, 193, 196,
20g, 255, 25g, 266. Sexual
intercourse before ii. 113, 116,
138, 172, 176, 193, 254-272
Pueblo peoples. Organisation ii.
71. Supernatural Birth i. 4,
18, 24, 25
See Hopi, Sia, Zuili

Queensland — see Australia

Quetzalcoatl i. 11, 21

Quiche. Supernatural Birth i. 1 9

Rain, pregnancy by i. 24, 88

Rijd Rasdlu i. 5, 6

Re-birth. Belief in i. 50, 195-244
Buddhist doctrine of i. 192.
Children, re-birth of ancestors
i. 195-209, 211-213, 218-226;
ii. 279. Or of members of
same family i. 209-211,221;
ii. 280. Rites to obtain i. 69,
7i>. 75-77. 229-233. Lower
animals and vegetables, re-
born as human beings i. i8g.
Stories i. 11, 15, 156, 195, 196,
210, 218, 222, 231 n

Reinach, M. Salomon i. 103

Relics, fecundation by. Of saints
and martyrs i. 16, 76. Of
executed criminals i. 76
See Corpses

INDEX

325

Rhys, Sir John, i. 248

Rice eaten by barren women i. 35

Rome, Ancient. Marriage customs
i. 124, 133 ; ii. 258

See Caeculus, Lupercal, Sa-
bines, Servius TuHius

Rosemary i. 2^, 103, 107

Rue i. 33 n

Riigen. Rite to procure children
i. 67

Russia. Barrenness, cures for i.
62, 70. Child, burial of still-
born i. 228. Licentiousness ii.
188, 191. Marriage customs
(ancient) ii. iSg, 191 ; (modern)
i. 104, 109, 132-3. Midsummer
Day customs ii. 191. Palm
Sunday custom, i. 107

See Courland, Esthonia,
Mordvins, Samoyeds, Slavs,
Votiaks

Sabinhs, Rape of the i. 105 ; ii.
226

Sagas defined i. 2

Saints. Celtic i. 10, 12. Ethiopic
i. 7. Invoked for and givers
of offspring i. 18, 36, 63, 64,
65, 76, 78, 83, 116, 125, 126,
127, 129, 130, 131, 136. Magh-
ribin i. 321. Tree on grave of
i. 158

Salish — see British Columbia

Saliva, conception by i. 12, 68, 73,
74. Proverbial expression i.
70

Samoa. Birth custom i. 213.
Sexual morality ii. 175. Snipe
fecundated by wind i. 22.
Woman fecundated by sun i.

25

Samoyeds. Premature marriages

ii. 258
Sandwich Islands. Licentiousness

ii. 174. Premature marriages

ii. 263.
Santals. Life after death i. 245.

Marriage custom ii. 41. Sexual

morality ii. 157
See India
Saoshyant, i. 23
Sardinia. Cures for barrenness i.

67

Saxons, Transylvanian. Prescrip-
tions for barrenness i. 50, 54,

67. 77
Scandinavians, Ancient. Doctrme

of souls i. 198 n. Eric Ha-

konsson i. 7. Sexual relations

ii. 133. Supernatural Birth i. 7
See Iceland
Scotland. Women bathe in sacred

wells, &c. i. 78, 79. Trans-
formation after death i. 187
See Hebrides, Picts
Sea-bathing for barrenness i. 67
Semang. Birth ceremonies and

beliefs i. 55. Metempsychosis

i. 177
Semele i. 15
Semen imbibed or inhaled i. 12,

69, 151
Seminoles, Marriage customs ii.

69
Senecas — see Iroquois
Senegal — see Negroes
Serbs. Prescriptions for barren

women i. 39, 71, 83, 106
Seri. Ignorance of paternity ii,

279. Marriage customs ii. 80.

Organisation ii. 78
Servius Tullius i. 27
Shan. Marriage custom i. 59
Sheduir Van, Mongolian tale of i.

249
Shekiani. Premature marriages

ii. 268
Shih-King i. 19, 20 n
Shoshones. Lending wives ii.

230
Shrovetide rites i. 98, 103
Sia. Licentiousness ii. 103.

Marriage customs ii. 76.

Medicine to cause pregnancy

i. 38. Supernatural Birth i. 4
Siam. Impregnation by sun i. 25
Siberia. Brides eat fruit i. 39.

Capercailzie, belief as to i.

152. Turks' marriage rite i.

Chukchi,
Koryaks,

See Buryats,

Gilyaks, Kirghiz,

Tunguz
Siena. Palazzo Pubblico i. 20.

Children where found i. 43
Signatures, doctrine of i. 45

326

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Sikkim. Barrenness, rite to cure
i. ii6. Eggs, an offer of mar-
riage i. 59

Simulation, rite to obtain children

i. 139-147

Sioux. Buffalo dance (Mandans)
ii. 235. Licentiousness ii.
229 ; (Mandans) ii. 229, 231,
235. Marriage customs ii, 71.
More souls than one i, 221.
Organisation i. 299. Re-birth
i. 221. Twins (Tetons) i. 222
See Crows, Hidatsa, Kansa

Siva i. 26, 123. See India

Slave Coast. Vow to obtain
children i. 138

See Ewhe, Negroes,
Yoruba

Slavs. Child, burial of i, 228.
Children, practices to obtain
i- 39, 47. 54 n. 68 70, 71, 83,
106, 114, 233. Marriage cus-
toms i. 1 13 n. Sexual morality
ii. 188-T92

See Bohemia, Russia, Serbs

Society Islands. Licentiousness
ii. 175. Transformation after
death i. 184

Solomon Islands. Metempsychosis
i. 182. Sexual morality ii.
148
See Melanesia

Soma given to barren woman i. 33

Sommonocodon, Siamese deity i.

25

Son, Father re-born in i. 195-199

Soul, composite i. 201-206, 215,
220, 221

Spokanes. Marriage customs ii.
84

Springs, Sacred — see Wells

Star, fecundation by i. 12, 98

Stones, fecundation by i, 4, 11,
119, 121

Stones, Standing and Rocks, rites
at to procure children i. 78,
126, 127, 128, 129, 135

Streams that procure fecundity i.
79, 83, 84, 130

Styria. Prescriptions for barren-
ness i. 39, 62

Suahili. Maternal uncle i. 288.
Sexual morality ii. 204

Sulkas. Marriage custom i. 96.
Rite to cause conception i. 1 12
See Papua

Sumatra. Burial of child i. 227.
Engano, belief concerning i.
150. Husband and wife rarely
dweirtogether (Orang Mamaq)
i. 264. Maternal uncle i. 289.
Marriage customs i. 59 ; ii.
51-57. Motherright, decay of
ii. 98, 99. Premature mar-
riages (Achehnese) ii. 259

Sun. Impregnation by i. 25, 8g.
Puberty customs in relation
to i. 90-98

Supernatural Birth. Stories i.
1-29. World-wide and not
derived from one centre i. 28.
Relation between stories and
magical practices i. 30. Origin
of in physiological ignorance
i. 253 ; ii. 281

Sweden. Marriage custom i. 141

Switzerland. Jocular practice by
women at vintage i. 148.
Jocular tribunal on old maids
i. 80 n

Syntengs. Divorce ii. 129. Matri-
monial relations ii. 8

Tag ALAS. Twins i. 37
Takelma. Marriage customs ii.

83. Puberty rites i. 93
Talaner Islands. Compensation

for wife's adultery i. 278.

Marriage customs ii. 33
Taluti — see Society Islands
Tamar and Amnon i. 265
Tanah - Papua. Supernatural

Birth i. 17
Tartars. Marriage customs i. 89 ;

ii. 17
Taveta. Licentiousness ii. 196.

Marriage customs ii. 197
Teton — see Sioux
Thliukit — see British Columbia
Thompson Indians (Ntlakipa

mux) — see British Columbia
Tibet. Hat-choosing festival ii.

171. Polyandry ii. 164
Timor. Marriage customs ii. 34,

57
Tinneh — see Athapascans

INDEX

I'^l

Tirol. Marriage ceremonies i. 58.
Oven, warm, cures barrenness
i. 98

Todas. Father, word for ii. 280.
Licentiousness ii. 158-160.
Polyandry ii. 158. Pregnancy
rite ii. 158. Puberty rite ii.
255. Supernatural Birth i.
18

Togoland. Pregnancy, duration
of ii. 275 n. Underjaws of
dead, material for children i,
246 ; ii. 279. See Ewhe

Tonga Islands. Sexual morality
ii. 125

Tonkin, tribes of. Adoption of
children i. 148. Licentious-
ness ii. 170. Marriage cus-
toms ii. 48-51

Torres Straits Islands. Children,
women eat pigeons to obtain
i. 56. Marriage customs ii.
37, 261. Maternal uncle i.
291. Metamorphosis after
death i. 183, 189. Puberty
customs i. 96

Totemism and totemic clans i.
257. In Australia i. 237-239,
242

Transference, doctrine of i. 73

Transformation after death i. 13,
156-189, 234-236. Wide dis-
tribution and archaic cha-
racter of belief i. 190. Rela-
tion between, and Trans-
migration i. 246-252

Transmigration of Souls. Bud-
dhist doctrine i. 192. Celtic
doctrine i. 194. Relation
between, and Transformation
i. 246-252

Transylvania — see Gipsy, Hun-
gary, Saxons

Trees, Sacred i. 42, 44, 113, 127,
128,129,161, Burying cattle
&c., under trees i. 163 n.
Planting trees on graves i.
161. Transformation into
trees i. 158-168

Troglodytse. Licentiousness ii.

131
Tuareg. Licentiousness ii. 220
Tunguz. Sexual morality ii. 182

Tunis. Rites to obtain children
i. 130

Tupis. -Father takes new name on
birth of son i. 209 n. Super-
natural Birth i. 8

Turcomans. Marriage customs
ii. 16, 257

Turkestan. Licentiousness ii. 186

Turks — see Siberia

Tusayan. Sacred spring i. 66

Tuscany — see Italy

Twins. Birth i. 113, 163. Legend
of (Hopi) i. 5. Origin of i. 37,
55, 67, 119, 150, 190, 222

Uganda. Adultery ii. 198. Amu-
lets i. 120. Children, naming
i. 214 n. Husband fined on
wife's death in childbed i.
275. King, rites on death of
(Bahima) i. 170. Sexual
morality ii. 198 n
See Ja-Luo, Kavirondo

Ulysses' marriage ii. 16

Ungava, Indians of. Premature
marriages ii. 271. Sexual
relations ii. 233, 234

Vainamoinen i. 22

Virginia. Sexual morality ii. 107

Virginity. Little value in lower
culture i. 31. Valued by
certain tribes i. 302; ii. 21,
119, 137. 258, 268. Growth
in value ii. 93, 102, 243

Vishnu i. 307

Vishnu Purana i. 6

Visiting husbands ii. 7, 11, 12, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25,
26, 27, 38, 48, 61, 65

Visvamitra i. 6

Votiaks. Sexual morality il 187

Votive offerings i. 1 37

Vows for children i. 137

Wales. Galanas and saraad i.

274. Rite at Whitchurch i.

135. Superstitions i. 51, 151
Wanderobbo. Children, rites to

obtain i. 87. Licentiousness

ii. 195 n
Wanyika. Maternal uncle i. 288
Warehouse of children i. 242-245

328

PRIMITIVE PATERNITY

Warundi. Amulets i. 120

Wayao — see Bantu

Wells and springs giving fecundity

i- 63-67, 79. 80, 81, 82, 83, 84,

136
Wichita. Marriage customs ii. 70,

Supernatural Birth i. 17
Wind, impregnation by i. 22, 35,

149
Winnibago — see Sioux
Wish, impregnation by i. 27, 52,

117
Wishosk. Impregnation by wish

i. 27
Wives. Exchange of ii. 66, 113,

122, 142, 144, 146, 148, 171,

195, 2og, 220, 227, 228, 233,

234, 242 n. Partnership in i.

312 ; ii. 109, 130, 133 n. 138,

145, 181
See Polyandry
Women, Isle of i. 35, 150
Wyandots — see Iroquois

Yakuts. Creation legend ii. 180.
Licentiousness ii. 179. Mar-
riage customs ii. 15, 180
Yana. Supernatural Birth i. 19 n
Yap- Licentiousness ii. 177.
Marriage customs ii. 38

Yehl i. 4, 156

Yezidis. Sexual morality ii. 223 n

Ymir i. 2

Yokuts. Life after death i. 185.
Marriage customs ii. 84

Yorubas. Children, rites to obtain
i. 86, Fatherright i. 265 n.
Metempsychosis i. 172. Re-
birth of ancestor i. 199, 202.
Sexual customs ii. 218

Yu, Chinese Emperor i. 11

Yurok. Marriage customs ii. 84

Yurupari. Supernatural Birth i,
23

Zagreus i. 15

Zanzibar. Heretical law of legiti-'
macy i. 321

Z^paros. Licentiousness ii. 107

Zoroaster — see Persia

Zulus. Supernatural Birth i. 23,
72. Transformation after
death i. i6g
See Bantu

Zufiis. Family life ii. 73. Mar-
riage customs ii. 72. Pre-
mature marriages ii. 271.
Sexual morality ii. 104. Super-
natural Birth i. 25

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