302 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



virgin. 1 Among the Ondonga therefore in ordinary 

 cases there can be little doubt on the subject of 

 paternity. 



On the other side of the continent the Wayao and 

 Mang'anja of the Shire Highlands trace descent 

 through the mother. Like other Bantu nations they 

 practise polygyny whenever circumstances permit. 

 But the husband requires strict fidelity on the part of 

 his wife. Adultery is looked upon as a very serious 

 crime ; and where the man is not speared or shot, he 

 is made to pay damages, or is sold into slavery. The 

 wife, says Miss Werner, speaking in general terms but 

 with special reference to these tribes, "is frequently 

 let off with a warning the first time, but for a second 

 offence either killed or divorced and sent back to her 

 relatives, who in such a case must return whatever 

 present was made at the marriage. Sometimes she 

 drinks mwavi [i.e., submits to the ordeal of poison], 

 and is of course accounted guilty if she dies." 2 We 

 have already noted the rarity of adultery among the 

 Barea of northern Abyssinia. How easily broken is 

 the conjugal tie on the Gazelle Peninsula of New 

 Pomerania we also know. Yet while it lasts the 

 husband watches over his wife with jealousy. He has 

 all the more need since there is, owing to the pre- 

 vailing polygamy, a dearth of unmarried women. 

 Men who cannot afford to buy a wife seek other men's 

 wives. They lay constant snares for them, make use 

 of philtres and every sort of enticement. The 

 husband therefore if he wish to preserve his wife's 

 fidelity follows her about and takes every means to 



1 Steinmetz, Rechtsverhiilt. 328, 335, 330, 332. 



2 Werner, 265. 



