130 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



such as adultery barrenness incompatibility of tem- 

 perament and so forth, or simply by agreement. Easy 

 though it may be some formalities are necessary, and 

 among the Khasis public proclamation is made by a 

 crier through the village in these terms : " Hear, O 

 villagers, that U. and K. have become separated in 

 the presence of the elders. Hei ! thou, O young man, 

 canst go and make love to K. for she is now un- 

 married ; and thou, O spinster, canst make love to U. 

 Hei ! there is no let or hindrance from henceforth." 

 Either party is then free to marry again, but they 

 cannot re-marry one another. So common are the 

 divorces that the children are in many cases ignorant 

 of even the names of their fathers. 1 



Ancient authors record similar traits in the manners 

 of the barbarous nations with which they came into 

 contact. The Massagetai married each one a wife, 

 but if we may believe Herodotus they had their wives 

 in common. When a man desired intercourse with 

 a woman all he had to do to avoid interruption was to 

 hang up his quiver in front of the waggon. 2 The 

 historian attributes a parallel device to the Nasa- 

 monians of Libya. Each man, he says, has many 

 wives, and they have intercourse with them in 

 common, each leaving his staff at the door when he 

 goes to visit a woman. 3 According to Strabo the 

 people of Arabia Felix practised fraternal polyandry, 

 and the several husbands adopted the same plan to 

 secure privacy with the common wife. 4 When a 

 Nasamonian married for the first time his bride was 

 required to submit to intercourse with all the guests, 



1 Gurdon, 79, 81. 2 Herodotus, i. 215. 



3 Id. iv. 172. 4 Strabo, xvi. 4, 25. 



