30 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



keep alive his right to her and her children. In some 

 districts children born before payment of the bride- 

 price remain with their mother's parents. If the bride- 

 price be not paid the husband remains in the wife's 

 family and the lands of his kindred become security 

 for the payment. Needy youths work out the bride- 

 price ; or by agreement some of the children may be 

 taken by the bride's parents in discharge of it. 1 On 

 the Tanembar and Timorlaut islands marriage is 

 always preceded by sexual intercourse. A bride-price 

 must be paid. It is an honour to the bridegroom to 

 pay it all up at once. Indeed it is more than an 

 honour : it is a substantial advantage. For although 

 he is at liberty to marry after payment of one 

 instalment, he has no right to take the bride away 

 from her parents' dwelling, and they retain some power 

 over her. Moreover in case of separation the children 

 follow her. But payment of the bride-price changes 

 all that. It enables him to take the bride to his own 

 dwelling. It gives him full rights over her, and the 

 children follow him in case of separation, unless he 

 give her cause by grave ill-treatment. In the latter 

 event she is empowered to take them with her, as well 

 as all the property she may have acquired during the 

 marriage. If by ill-luck he cannot complete the 

 payment he lives in matrimonium injustum, or beena 

 marriage, and once children are born he is bound to 

 the service of his wife's parents so long as they 

 survive. 2 



One way of marriage on the Watubela Islands is by 

 agreement to which the kin on both sides are parties. 

 A bride-price is paid, gifts are exchanged and the 

 1 Riedel, 131. 2 Id, 300. 



