io6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



The Illinois and more southerly nations were still 

 more abandoned, and it was to their example that the 

 good Father attributed the corruption of Iroquoian 

 manners. The women were very lascivious. The 

 prostitution of girls before marriage was a custom 

 permitted by many of these tribes. To this as well as 

 the length of time of suckling (during which there was 

 no cohabitation), the excessive toil to which the 

 women were subjected and the state of extreme misery 

 often endured by the whole people Charlevoix ascribes 

 the fact that female fecundity was small. 1 Whether 

 more is meant here by prostitution than the antenup- 

 tial licence common among matrilineal and even among 

 patrilineal peoples may be doubted. Something more 

 would seem to be asserted of the Natchez. " We 

 know no nation on this continent where the women 

 are more dissolute than they are in this. They are 

 even forced by the king and the inferior chiefs to 

 prostitute themselves to all comers, and a woman is 

 none the less esteemed for being common. Although 

 polygamy is permitted and the number of wives is not 

 limited, this is a liberty of which few beside the chiefs 

 make use. Ordinarily a man has but one wife ; but 

 he can repudiate her when he will. The daughters of 

 the royal house may only marry men of low birth, but 

 they have the right to dismiss them when they like 

 and take others, provided they are not related by 

 marriage to them. If these husbands be guilty of 

 infidelity, they may cause them to be tomahawked ; 

 but they themselves are not bound by the same law. 

 They may even have as many lovers as they please 

 without any right on the part of the husband to object : 

 -i Ctotevoix; vi, 4, 



