246 Lax Fidelity. 



ried women. A Peruvian maiden might live a 

 loose life ; but if as wife she were guilt j of infi 

 delity, the punishment was death. A similar 

 fate awaited the unchaste wife in Mexico, where 

 divorce was reserved for such slight faults as bad 

 character, dirty habits, and the like. Farther 

 north, among the Comanches, the wife was pun 

 ished by cutting off her nose. Still, it is not pre 

 tended that infidelity was always regarded as a 

 heinous offence. And, on the other hand, a wife 

 might be divorced for much less weighty reasons. 

 This brittleness of the marriage bond is a very 

 striking characteristic of savage family life. 

 Among the Iroquois and the Tahitians a marriage 

 might be dissolved when either of the parties 

 wished it ; but the right of effecting a separation 

 generally inhered in the husband, who exercised 

 it freely and often most cruelly. In East Africa,, 

 as in !N~ew Zealand, it consisted simply in turning 

 the wife out of doors, to which the American 

 Chippewayans added a &quot;good drubbing.&quot; Prop 

 erty and children remained with the husband, 

 thoughto this rule there may be found exceptions 

 in the customs of the Dakotahs, Samoans, Kar 

 ens, and others. 



AVhile restrictions are generally put upon mar 

 ried women, whose conjugal fidelity is the natural 



