84 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



In that case he would have to serve his father-in-law 

 and all offspring of the union would belong to the 

 wife's people. 1 This custom was not unknown among 

 other Californian tribes, such as the Yurok and 

 Patawat, and was called half -marriage. Among the 

 Lolsel, a branch of the Pat win, "a bride often remains 

 in her father's house and her husband comes to live 

 with her, whereupon half the purchase-money is 

 returned to him." Mr. Powers, who reports these 

 cases, omits to tell us what is the effect of the 

 arrangement upon the reckoning of descent. Among 

 the Yokuts " a man marrying goes to live at his wife's 

 or father-in law's house, though he still has power of 

 life or death over her person." 2 The Spokanes are 

 divided into a number of small bands. A girl is at 

 liberty to make an offer of marriage if she wish ; and 

 in any case her consent is required as well as that of 

 her parents and the chief. The husband joins the 

 band to which his wife belongs, because, it is said, she 

 can work better in a country to which she is accustomed. 

 Women are held in great respect ; all the household 

 goods are considered the wife's property. Either 

 party may dissolve the marriage at will, but the 

 children go with the mother. The man who marries 

 the eldest daughter of a family is entitled to all the 

 rest ; and parents make no objection to his turning off 

 one in another's favour. 3 



1 Goddard, Hupa, 55. 



2 Powers, 56, 98, 221, 382. I infer with some doubt from the 

 husband's power, from the fact that the chieftainship descends from 

 father to son, and from the value placed on virginity, that the 

 Yokuts were patrilineal. If so, the husband's residence in the wife's 

 house was a relic of motherright. 



3 Bancroft, i. 315, 277, 278 note. Bancroft uses the word tribe, 



