RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 37 



belonged to a very rich koag, the bride usually entered 

 his koag. The husband who entered his wife's hoag, 

 however, only remained in it during her lifetime. When 

 she died, as the corpse was taken out through one door 

 of the house he was pushed out of the other, signifying 

 that he had now no right in it. These arrangements 

 are undergoing modification, and it is instructive to 

 compare the process with some of the other customs 

 already mentioned and to be mentioned hereafter. 

 During the first three days of marriage a wedded pair 

 now " remain in the woman's house, but on the fourth 

 are decked out in big mats and flowers and brought in 

 procession to the man's house. After the sixth day 

 they go to whichever hoag they are going to live in ; 

 a usual arrangement at the present day is for them to 

 live half a year in each. . . Of course such a method 

 now often leads to the separation of the pair, the wife 

 going back to her old home. The husband then 

 cooks some taro and a pig, which he takes to her, 

 after which she is bound to let him remain with her, 

 or go with him, for one night." 1 On the Murray 

 Islands in Torres Straits the natives were divided into 

 totemic clans, but fatherright had so far prevailed 

 that children might take either their mother's or their 

 father's totem, while inheritance not merely of chief- 

 tainship but also of property had become hereditary 

 from father to child. Marriage was by elopement 

 followed by payment of a bride-price and a formal 

 ceremony which lasted for some days. On its 



1 J. Stanley Gardiner, /. A. I. xxvii. 429, 478, 485, 480. 

 I gather, though it is not explicitly stated in Mr. Gardiner's 

 account, that the separation was not final, but that the husband was 

 entitled to the society of his wife as often as he thought fit to bring 

 her the gift of the taro and pig. 



