152 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



The interpretation is confirmed, if confirmation be 

 necessary, by the fact that the grossest licence is 

 permitted during the short period of the orgy. It 

 comes to an end in about a quarter of an hour. The 

 verandah in which it takes place is deluged with water 

 and one or two women, sliding about the slippery floor 

 with hand-nets, make believe to scoop up the slush for 

 fear the rice they have wasted may never return to 

 them again. 1 



Among the Land Dyaks of Sirambau the Orang 

 Kayas, or chiefs, according to St. John have many cases 

 of adultery to settle, but these do not cause much 

 excitement in the tribe : whence it is probably fair to 

 infer that sexual morality is low, adultery common 

 and easily atoned for. Such in fact seems to be the 

 case, though they are reported to be more moral than 

 the Malays. Divorces are very common, effected 

 upon the slightest excuse ; nor has a woman any 

 difficulty in replacing a spouse whom she has lost or 

 herself repudiated. Marriage is a business partner- 

 ship for the purpose of having children, dividing labour 

 and providing by means of offspring for old age. It is 

 therefore entered into and dissolved almost at pleasure. 

 Either party may, it need hardly be said, put away the 

 other for adultery ; but if a wife who gives this occasion 

 for divorce be a strong useful woman her husband, 

 instead of taking advantage of it, may accept from her 

 lover a fine equal to twelve rupees and thus settle the 

 matter. 2 



1 jLing Roth, ^Sarawak, i. 415, transcribing Brooke Low's 

 notes. bit* . **$$.* 



2 St. John, i. 165, 166. Among other Dyaks there is jealousy. 

 The wife will thrash her unfaithful husband, and the husband will 

 thrash the paramour of an unfaithful wife. But divorce is effected 



