i;o PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



of her already having a child by one man injure her 

 prospects of marriage to another. 1 



The antenuptial freedom of the Tho of Northern 

 Tonkin and its continuance for a certain, period after 

 marriage have been incidentally mentioned, in dis- 

 cussing their form of marriage and its relation to an 

 earlier stage, in which the husband either visited or 

 dwelt with the wife in her own home. We there saw 

 that the paternity of her eldest child was often more 

 than doubtful. 2 This may be said to be invariably 

 the case among the Lolo of Yunnan. After passing a 

 single night with the bridegroom the Lolo bride quits 

 her husband's residence, to which she returns no more 

 until she can do so in a condition of pregnancy. 

 During her absence the husband does not appear to 

 visit her, but she has full liberty of intrigue and 

 conducts herself much in the same way as the Thai 

 bride. When she returns with the expectation of 

 issue he asks no questions of her but receives her 

 with the respect due to her fecundity, being now 

 assured of offspring by her. He is indeed fully 

 conscious that he has not begotten her first child, and 

 it is said that he always considers it in some sort as a 

 stranger, reckoning the second child as the eldest. 

 The first child however is brought up with the same 

 care and attention as the rest and appears to belong 

 equally to the family. If the wife do not within twelve 

 or eighteen months exhibit signs of maternity the 

 marriage contract is rescinded, and the husband pro- 

 ceeds to look out for a worthier mate. 3 In Tonkin 



1 Anderson, 123, 127. Cf. Int. Arch. xvi. 28, 36. 



2 Supra, p. 49. 



3 Rocher, La Province Chinoise du Yun-nan (Paris, 1880), ii. 16. 



