48 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



betel-nut-quids and to roll his cigarettes. This leads 

 naturally to a lovers' intimacy between them, and 

 if the young lady be satisfied to favours of a more 

 decisive kind. The bridegroom's parents indeed 

 usually urge him to seek these favours as a guarantee 

 for his position ; for when once they are granted there 

 is no withdrawal for either party, and subsequent 

 infidelity on the part of the girl is treated as adultery. 

 Although among families in easy circumstances, able 

 at once to pay the expenses of a formal marriage, 

 the period of probation is short, in some cases no 

 longer than fifteen or twenty days, in other cases it is 

 extended even for years. Nor does the youth always 

 reside with his parents-in-law : he may live at his 

 own home, only paying visits and assisting his parents- 

 in-law in the labours of sowing or harvest, or the like. 

 It is not very rare to see more than one child, born 

 during this interval, at the subsequent marriage of its 

 parents. Such little ones, though not regarded by 

 the lady's family with any great pleasure, are by 

 no means a disgrace. They are considered as legiti- 

 mate, since their parents are betrothed " presque 

 mar its " and as such have rights and duties which 

 the law recognises. 1 



The real character of the period of probation as a relic 

 of an earlier form of marriage in which the husband 

 either visited or dwelt with his wife in her own home is 

 made apparent by comparison with the customs of some 

 of the tribes of Northern Tonkin. Among the Eastern 

 Thai, when the bride has been brought to the husband's 

 house and formally installed there the wedding is far 

 from being concluded. In fact the bride passes the 

 1 Aymonier, Excursions^ xvi. 197. 



