The Evolution of Morality. 245 



But the custom of reckoning kinship through 

 women, and that of men joining the family of 

 their wives, do not imply promiscuous relations 

 between the sexes, of which, as we have already 

 seen, there is absolutely no evidence. Never 

 theless, there are found in the whole area of 

 savagery, side by side with marriage relations 

 and domestic virtues like our own, practices and 

 sentiments wholly unlike, and even opposed to 

 them. Nothing can be more striking than the 

 variety of arrangements in regard to the sexes. 

 Very frequently wives and maidens are distin 

 guished, and while conjugal fidelity is required 

 of the former, no importance is attached to maid 

 enly chastity. Even in marriage some Arab 

 women are bound for only four days of the week, 

 being free to go with anyone they like during 

 the off days. And once a year, on the night of 

 a certain festival, a similar liberty was enjoyed 

 by the wives of the Nicaraguan aborigines. 

 Again, wives, as the property of the husband, 

 might occasionally be put at the service of oth 

 ers ; and Cato s conduct in lending Martia to his 

 friend Hortensius is nothing more than the laws 

 of hospitality require among the Esquimaux, 

 Greenlanders, and other tribes. Still, the rule 

 is that the strictest fidelity is demanded of mar- 



