io8 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



contrary to other neighbouring tribes, they are not at 

 all jealous, but allow the women great liberty, and 

 frequently change their wives in the manner above 

 mentioned, or by simply discarding them, when they 

 are perhaps taken up by another." 1 Succession in 

 Porto Rico at the time of the Spanish Conquest was 

 probably matrilineal. Every bride had to undergo the 

 jus primes noctis on the part of the guests of her 

 husband's rank. 2 



In Central Brazil the Bororo are divided into two 

 classes : those who dwell in family huts, comprising the 

 heads of families and married men, and those who in- 

 habit the men's houses. The bachelors who occupy the 

 latter lay themselves out to catch girls, whom they then 

 hold in common among smaller groups. The abduction 

 of these girls is frequently accomplished in open daylight. 

 All the men are reckoned fathers of any children they 

 may bear ; nor does this mode of life seem to affect 

 the social esteem in which they are held. 3 The Canaris 

 Indians of Quito traced their descent from a mythical 

 woman who had commerce with two men who were 

 brothers, and gave birth in consequence to six children, 

 the ancestors of the tribe. 4 The intimate connection 

 between mythical tales and custom warrants us in 

 suspecting that, whatever may have been the social 

 condition of the Canaris at the time of the Spanish 

 conquest, such relations between men and women were 

 not unknown at an earlier and perhaps not very 

 remote period. 



1 A. Simson,/. A. I. vii. 505. 2 Rep. Bur. Ethn. xxv. 48. 



8 von den Steinen, 500, 502. Rhode records that the Boror6 

 women on the banks of the Paraguay have little chastity; they 

 made him and his men frequent overtures (Ploss, Weib, i. 300). 



4 Markham, Rites and Laws, 8. 



