RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 63 



Children are often betrothed early. But when the boy 

 comes to the age of marriage he may repudiate the 

 contract and choose for himself on undergoing certain 

 tests of courage and endurance. A bride-price is 

 paid, or the bride is given in requital for some service 

 done to her parents. " The marriage once arranged, 

 the husband immediately transports his possessions to 

 the house of his father-in-law, and there he lives and 

 works. The head of his family, for whom he is bound 

 to work and whom he obeys, is not his own father but 

 his wife's. A complete and final separation between 

 husband and wife may be made at the will of the 

 former at any time before the birth of children ; after 

 that, if the husband goes away, as very rarely happens, 

 it is considered not lawful separation, but desertion. 

 When the family of the young couple become too 

 large to be conveniently housed underneath the roof 

 of the father-in-law, the. young husband builds a house 

 for himself by the side of that of his wife's father ; and 

 to this habit is probably due the formation of settle- 

 ments. And when the head dies, it being uncanny to 

 live where a man has died, the various house-fathers 

 of the settlement separate and build houses for them- 

 selves, each of which in its turn forms the nucleus of 

 a new settlement." 1 This practice, it is obvious, 

 might easily develop into father-right. The Macusis 

 and other Carib tribes of Guiana marry in the same 

 way ; and a married woman does not escape by mar- 

 riage from subjection to her own family, who continue 

 to claim authority over her. 2 Arawak stories illustrate 



1 im Thurn, 186, 221. 



2 Ibid. 222 ; Brett, 353. A Macusi marriage is consummated in 

 the wife's village coram populo (im Thurn, loc. tit.). 



