MARITAL JEALOUSY 129 



husband and that the women make use of the privilege 

 without being the less respected on that account or 

 without making any secret of it. It is certain, says 

 Schwaner, that in the districts of Dusun, Murung and 

 Syang the marriage bond is as lightly broken as it is 

 commonly entered into without consideration and 

 merely for the temporary gratification of appetite : a 

 married pair separate easily and each of them enters 

 as easily and thoughtlessly into a new bond. The laws 

 are often strict against adultery ; but they are not used 

 for the purpose of enforcing chastity by wives, whose 

 peccadilloes are winked at if not encouraged, in order 

 that compensation may be extracted from their 

 paramours. 1 The accounts of the natives of Borneo 

 are often very fragmentary, and all of the foregoing 

 may not reckon descent through the mother. If not, 

 they enforce all the more strongly the argument of this 

 chapter. The Orang Ot, one of the aboriginal tribes, 

 have never been observed by any European traveller. 

 Living in the inaccessible mountain- ranges of the in- 

 terior they are very shy, and we only know them from 

 reports of the other natives. So far as it is possible 

 to judge from these reports they are in the stage of 

 motherright. The girls choose their husbands and 

 make the first advances ; the nuptial tie is very loose, 

 "the sexes satisfying their desires as soon as time and 

 opportunity allow." 2 



Divorce is very common among the Khasis and 

 Sy ntengs. 1 1 may be occasioned by a variety of causes, 



1 Wilken, Verwantschap, 735 note, 748. 



2 Ling Roth, ii. cxcvii. transcribing Schwaner's Notes. The 

 same traveller reports very unfavourably of the sexual morality of 

 the inhabitants of Melanhoei District in the Kahaijan river basin ; 

 but his remarks are vague and inconclusive. 



n I 



