120 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



her mother, and the wife in a more limited sense that 

 of the husband." 1 Similar customs are reported of 

 the Ewhe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast. 2 In 

 both cases it will be observed that the want of chastity 

 is regarded purely from the point of view of property. 

 In an unmarried girl it reduces her market- value ; in a 

 married woman it is only reprehensible when the act 

 is committed without the concurrence of the husband. 

 The moral question is not considered ; and lineage 

 being counted only through women, there is no question 

 of a possibility of tainting the descent of the issue. 



The customs of the Negro tribes of the Ivory Coast 

 subject to French rule have been investigated by 

 government officials for juridical purposes. Among 

 some of these tribes, although matrilineal, \hepotestas 

 is vested in the father and has attained considerable 

 development. Yet virginity is not required in a bride, 

 and marital jealousy is so feeble a passion that adultery 

 on the part of the wife entails no consequences upon 

 her, or at most only a few blows. The partner of her 

 guilt (if guilt it be) pays an indemnity, often quite 

 small, to the husband, except among the Abrons, where 

 he pays nothing if he belong to a different clan, though 

 to avoid reprisals he generally makes him a present of 

 a few bottles of gin. On the other hand the wife has, 

 among several of the tribes, something to say to her 

 husband's extra-matrimonial love-affairs, and does nofr 

 forget to exact compensation. Divorce is in general 

 easy on either side. Adulterine children are regarded 

 little if any worse than others. They usually rank as 

 the husband's legitimate offspring : in any case they 

 belong to the wife's family. Among the Brignan, if 

 1 Ellis, Tshi, 286. 2 jd. Ewe, 201, 202. 



