314 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



The dissolution of a marriage may be effected by the 

 repayment of all the cattle given for the bride-price 

 and all their young. On such repayment the marriage 

 is " broken" and the woman returns to her father. 

 When she marries again all the children of her former 

 husband, except such as may have been left with him 

 by arrangement when the marriage was " broken," 

 are regarded as the children of the second husband. 

 If within two years of a marriage the wife fail to give 

 birth to a child her husband may sue for return of the 

 cattle on the ground that she is unable to conceive, 

 But before doing so he " must have had recourse to 

 the tribal custom of permitting one of his male relations 

 to cohabit with " her, in order to support the allegation 

 of barrenness : that his other wives may have borne is 

 no proof in his favour. It is the duty of a widow to 

 raise up children to her husband by cohabiting with 

 her dead husband's brother or some other of his near 

 relations. Any children born in consequence, or 

 from any other connection, are considered those of 

 the deceased, irrespective of the time that may have 

 elapsed since his death. Even when a man dies 

 childless, leaving only a widow who is past the age of 

 child-bearing, or leaving an only daughter, no sons 

 and no widows capable of bearing, an heir must still 

 be provided. The duty of providing the heir lies upon 

 the widow or daughter as the case may be ; and in 

 default of male relations she holds the property in trust 

 for the future heir. Any children the daughter may 

 have will be reckoned to her husband, not to her 

 father ; and adoption seems to be unknown. The 

 difficulty therefore looks insoluble ; and to us the 

 strangest of all the Dinka customs is that by which 



