MARITAL JEALOUSY 121 



the husband divorce his wife for adultery, or refuse to 

 recognise the offspring, he has no claim against the 

 paramour for compensation. Some of the littoral 

 peoples have a curious custom by which a man has a 

 right to take away any other man's wife on paying her 

 husband compensation. 1 



Among the Barea and the Baze of northern 

 Abyssinia, the pregnancy of an unmarried girl is by no 

 means a subject of dishonour. Her children are as 

 welcome to the family as if she were married ; nor has 

 her lover any resentment on the part of her relatives to 

 fear. Young people of both sexes have full sexual 

 liberty, which also extends to divorced women. As 

 regards married life, however, there is a great differ- 

 ence between these two tribes. The women of the 

 latter are described as very free ; the husbands are 

 accused of lending their wives to their guests ; and all 

 conjugal fidelity is called in question. This however 

 is the account given by the Barea and may be in- 

 tended merely to emphasise their own claim to a higher 

 morality. The wives of the Barea are everywhere 

 regarded as being exemplary in their fidelity to their 

 husbands a notable exception among East African 

 women. Yet neither among them nor among the 

 Baze is adultery treated as a crime. A husband 

 finding a stranger with his wife has merely the right 

 to thrash him. 2 



Among the Wayao and Mang'anja of Lake Nyassa 

 the girls are taught in their puberty ceremonies that 

 they must be faithful to their husbands, else the latter 



1 Clozel, 101, 97, 149 sqq., 100, 194, 198, 200-203, 398, 436, 

 439, 458, 460, 459. 



Munzinger, 486, 524, 525, 502. 



