118 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



on the part of some British officials in Papua to set 

 their faces against the native marriage customs. 

 Thus I notice a resident magistrate recently reporting 

 to his government 



" Perhaps one of the most repugnant of these 

 native laws or customs is the c Maoheni,' or the 

 marriage betrothal contract, which absolutely rele- 

 gates the native woman to the status of a mere chattel. 

 A native woman or girl has no voice in the selection 

 of her partner, and the matter is simply one of 

 purchase. Children just born are in innumerable 

 instances betrothed, and payment made to the family 

 of the female infant, and, no matter how much the 

 girl dislikes her affianced husband when she attains 

 marriageable age, she cannot protest. When not 

 betrothed in infancy, the father of a young man selects 

 a wife for his son, and approaches the parents of the 

 girl with the payment. If the payment is accepted, 

 the girl takes up her abode in her husband's house, 

 and in many instances she may never have seen or 

 spoken to that husband before entering his home. 

 She is never consulted as to her likes or willingness. 



" Needless to say, numbers of these forced marriages 

 turn out unhappily, and inevitably end in separation. 

 Separation or divorce it is more a divorce, as they 

 seldom become reunited does not free the woman 

 from bondage or guardianship all her life. In spite of 

 the separation, she still belongs to her husband until 

 another man makes him sufficient payment, when she 



