RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 25 



marry as many wives as he has sisters or female 

 relatives undisposed of. The tribe practising this 

 curious form of conjugal arrangement appears to 

 reckon kinship through the father. 1 



The Boror6 of Central Brazil obtain their livelihood 

 chiefly by hunting ; they reckon their lineage through 

 the mother, and are still in the stage of savagery. 

 According to von den Steinen the men (except the 

 heads of households) live together in a common house. 

 After marriage the husband continues to dwell there 

 by day when he is not on a hunting expedition : he 

 visits his wife at her parents' home only by night, 

 where the young couple are allowed a hearth to them- 

 selves. This mode of life goes on until the death of 

 the wife's parents, when the husband becomes the 

 head of the household and takes up his permanent 

 abode there. 2 A more recent traveller gives additional 

 details and a somewhat different account. He tells 

 us that the proposal of marriage always comes from 

 the woman. After acceptance the man waits for 

 several days, because he is ashamed to be seen enter- 

 ing his bride's house. Occasionally her father fetches 

 him late at night that he may not be hurt by the 

 gibes and mockery of the men in the bahito (common 

 house.) " After marriage the man stays in the house 

 of the bride until he has a family of his own, when he 

 builds a house for himself." 3 These two accounts are 

 not irreconcilable. The sense of shame spoken of in 



1 Journ. Afr. Soc. viii. 15, 17. 



2 Von den Steinen, 501. 



3 J. A. I. xxxvi. 390. The Abipones required payment of a 

 bride-price ; but the husband lived with his wife's parents until after 

 the birth of a child, or at all events for some time, when he was 

 allowed to take her to a separate hut (Dobrizhoffer, ii. 208). 



