ii4 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



Marriage is the result of choice on both sides and is 

 preceded by the intercourse of the parties. The 

 women cultivate the land. When the girl goes to 

 the fields she is followed by her lover. He tells her 

 that he desires her and wooes her with a gift. If she 

 succumb to this courtship she admits him to her favours 

 there and then. This is repeated day after day until 

 " his heart becomes big" or he has no more of the native 

 currency of brass rods to bestow upon her. Then he 

 goes to her mother with a present which includes a 

 fowl, and tells her that he wants to marry her daughter. 

 " I don't mind," says the mother ; and he thereupon 

 takes the girl to his hut without any further fuss. 

 Divorce it is true is unknown. But marriage makes 

 little difference in a woman's continence ; "and it may 

 be said that the only time during which a woman 

 contents herself with her husband is during pregnancy, 

 since it is believed that adultery at this period would 

 prove fatal to the child." Abortion, as might be 

 expected, is common. Jealousy is so far developed 

 that the husband considers adultery on the part of his 

 wife when discovered to be a personal injury, for 

 which compensation is assessed by the chief. Unless 

 the mother be his slave the father has very little 

 authority over the children, who are sent to their 

 maternal uncle at puberty. There is no difference in 

 the treatment of legitimate and illegitimate children. 

 The only prohibited degrees are said to be mother and 

 and son, and brother and sister. 1 



In the cataract region there is a secret guild called 



1 Torday and Joyce,/. A. I. xxxvi. 285 sqq. Sexual indulgence 

 by children is not considered in the slightest degree shameful, and 

 parents do nothing to check it. 



