76 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



groom's mother. It consists in taking down the 

 bride's hair, worn until that moment in maiden-fashion, 

 washing it and then dressing it as worn by a married 

 woman. Other rites follow which need not detain us. 

 The subsequent weeks are occupied by the bridegroom's 

 family in the preparation of the bride's wedding out- 

 fit, which is a gift from them. Finally she returns, 

 arrayed in a part of the trousseau and laden with the 

 rest, ceremonially in procession accompanied by a 

 number of her friends to her mother's house. She 

 pays compensation to the bridegroom's family, consist- 

 ing usually of maize-flour in such quantity that the 

 labour of grinding it may occupy her for weeks after 

 her return. The bridegroom takes up his abode in 

 her home with her family, in any case to remain there 

 for the first few years of marriage, until he and his 

 bride can obtain a separate dwelling. Yet he is a 

 stranger there, and is often treated as a stranger by 

 his wife's kin. The dwelling of his own family 

 remains his proper home. In sickness he returns to 

 his mother, and stays with her until well again. 

 Often his position is so unpleasant that he breaks off 

 all his relations with his wife and family, and goes 

 back to his own home. On the other hand, the wife 

 sometimes, when her husband is away from the house, 

 lays all his goods outside the door : an intimation, 

 which he well understands, not to intrude himself upon 

 her again. 1 



Lastly among Pueblo peoples let us consider the 

 matrimonial institutions of the Sia. Like all the others 

 they are divided into exogamous totem-clans descend- 



1 O. Solberg, Zeits. f. Ethnol xxxvii. 629. Cf. Bourke, Snake* 

 dance , 135 ; Voth, Traditions of the Hopi^ 67, 96, 133. 



