RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 83 



been married very young, or until he could provide a 

 house for her. Among the North- Eastern Maidu the 

 suitor pays no bride-price. He comes to the house, 

 and if the girl permit him to sleep with her the 

 marriage takes effect at once. He thereupon begins 

 hunting for the parents, and remains living with 

 them for some months. Then he takes her to his 

 father's house, where they live thenceforth unless the 

 husband be able to build a new house for himself. 

 For two or three years however he and his wife make 

 visits of a week or two in length to her parents, and 

 while there the husband hunts for them. A simple 

 agreement to separate constitutes a divorce. The 

 husband of one sister has the first right to the others ; 

 if he does not avail himself of it it passes to any brother 

 he may have. 1 



The Takelma of South-western Oregon pay a bride- 

 price and take the bride to her husband's house. But 

 the payment of the bride-price does not exhaust the 

 husband's indebtedness to his father-in-law. From 

 time to time he will load his canoe with presents of 

 dried salmon or the like and go with his wife, though 

 it may be a considerable distance, for a visit to her 

 parents. And after the birth of the first child an 

 additional price, regarded as equivalent to buying 

 the child, is paid to the wife's father, in the shape of a 

 deerskin-sack filled with Indian money. 2 The Hupa 

 also exacted a bride-price; the bride went to live in 

 her husband's home, and the children belonged to him. 

 But if a man were unable to pay so large a sum as was 

 usual he might pay half and go to the bride's home. 



1 Dixon, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H. xvii. 239, 



2 E. Sapir, Am. Anthr. N. S. ix. 275. 



