XIX THE NOMAD HUNTERS 183 



members of a band refuses to accept the judgment 

 of the leader and of the majority, he, or they, will 

 withdraw from the community together with wife 

 and children, to form a band which, though in the 

 main independent of the parent group, will usually 

 remain in its near neighbourhood and maintain some 

 intercourse. Fighting between Punans, whether of 

 the same or of different communities, is very rare ; 

 the only instances known to us are a few in which 

 Punans have been incited by men of other tribes to 

 join in an attack on their fellows. 



The members of the band are for the most part 

 the near relatives of the leader, brothers and sons 

 and nephews with their wives and children. Each 

 man has usually one wife. We know of no instances 

 of polygyny amongst them; though we know of cases 

 in which a Punan woman has become the second 

 wife of a man of some other tribe. On the other 

 hand, polyandry occurs, generally in cases in which 

 a woman married to an elderly man has no children 

 by him. They desire many children, and large 

 families are the rule ; a family with as many as eight 

 or nine children is no rarity. 



Marriage is for life, though separation by the 

 advice and direction of the chief, or by desertion of 

 the man to another community, occurs. Sexual 

 restraint is probably maintained at about the same 

 level as among the other peoples, the women being 

 more strictly chaste after than before marriage. The 

 ceremony of marriage is less elaborate than among 

 the settled tribes. A young man will become the 

 lover of a girl generally of some other group than his 

 own, and when she becomes pregnant the marriage 

 is celebrated. There is little or no formal arrange- 

 ment of marriages by the elders on behalf of the 

 young people. 



The ceremony of marriage consists merely in a 

 feast in which all, or most of, the members of the 



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