236 



takes more than one of his wives when on a hunting trip, but 

 takes them in turn. Those who remain in the camp, procure 

 honey and roots in the near neighbourhood, ready for the husband 

 on his return. They also collect a quantity of lily seeds which 

 they pound up on a flat stone, and with the flour make a kind of 

 "Johnny cake." 



34. A man obtains his wife generally by capture, but sometimes 

 the wife-seeker is allowed to come into camp to select a wife. 

 It is considered far more manly and heroic to steal the wife, and 

 she prefers this mode of being wooed. On the death of a man 

 whose wife has been captured from a distant tribe, the widow is 

 given to another man of her late husband's tribe; but if possible, 

 she contrives to l^e stolen l^y a member of some tribe not 

 originally her own. 



35-36. On capturing a wife, the husband takes her to his 

 country and home. 



37-39. No ceremony whatever is observed at marriage, and tlie 

 bride is not veiled, nor is she ever represented by a dummy or 

 proxy. 



•iO-41. There are no bridesmaids or best men, nor is there any 

 ceremony on the day after marriage. 



42-1:3. As there is no marriage ceremony, the man cohabits from 

 the date of capture without allowing the lapse of any fixed 

 period ; and the custom does not exist of visiting the wife by 

 stealth. In the case of a newly-married man, he is always with 

 her. 



44. It is neither required nor permitted that the wife should be 

 deflowered or have sexual intercourse with another man before 

 her husband. 



45. Men abstain from cohabiting with women during men- 

 struation, for the last few days of pregnancy, and for about ten 

 days after childbirth. 



46. Wives are sometimes exchanged and sometimes given 

 away, and a widow is free to marry whom she chooses. Some- 

 times a woman objects to be mated with a certain man, but as a 

 rule, in their opinion, one man is as good as another. 



47. A woman may look at and speak to her father-in-law, but 

 a man may not look at or speak to his mother-in-law, or his wife's 

 relatives. This is a custom that I have never seen so persistently 

 carried out as it is with these tribes. A man passing a camp in 

 which are seated any of his wife's or wives' relatives, will shroud 

 his eyes, and, in fact, go considerably out of his way to avoid 

 seeing them. I have noticed this particularly in the case of 

 my interpreter. His wife's father and mother are always in this 

 township, and on several occasions I have employed the old man 

 to cut wood and carry water, kc. On one occasion I was 



