RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 49 



night with the female friends who have accompanied 

 her from home. Nor do they leave her the whole of 

 the next day, which is devoted to feasts offered by the 

 husband's family. The following day husband and 

 wife go to present themselves before the bride's 

 ancestors, and the husband returns alone. Only some 

 time afterwards may the union really take place, and 

 then in quite a fugitive ^manner and under pretexts 

 which mask it as if it ought to be kept secret. In 

 some places the wife spends alternately fifteen days 

 at her husband's house and fifteen days at her own. 

 Elsewhere she only comes to his house if she is called 

 thither on pretext of helping in the household manage- 

 ment or in the field-work. This situation, abnormal 

 from our point of view, continues until pregnancy is 

 proved, or if she remain barren until the end of the 

 third year. During the whole period she continues to 

 preserve the same liberty of intrigue that is permitted 

 to unmarried girls, and she gads about to fetes and 

 markets, singing with the lads erotic songs just as the 

 unmarried girls do. It often happens therefore that 

 the paternity of her eldest child is more than doubtful. 1 

 The marriage customs of the Lolo of the highlands of 

 Bao-Lac, of which they claim to be the original 

 occupiers, are similar. The wedding is celebrated at 

 the bridegroom's house, where the bride remains for 

 six days. The married pair then pay a visit to the 

 bride's parents, taking a present of rice and fish. 



I Lunet de Lajonquiere, Ethnog. Tonkin Sept. 154. There are 

 small variations among the different tribes of the Thai group. The 

 customs described above are those of the Tho. Among the Ming, 

 another tribe of the group, the bride returns to her own home after 

 a cohabitation of some hours (Id. 195); among the Tchong-Kia, 

 after a few days of cohabitation (Id. 206. Cf. Anthropos, ii. 367). 



II D 



