MARITAL JEALOUSY 207 



careful monograph ever published on any Bantu 

 people. In spite of the wars and devastations which 

 have taken place in South Africa, in spite of the 

 wholesale slaughter repeatedly committed both by 

 Bantu and Europeans, the Thonga tribes which now 

 occupy that part of South Africa are substantially the 

 same as those of Francken's day. It is understood, 

 M. Junod declares, that the young people have the 

 right to make love as much as they like and to go as 

 far as they will. The only restrictions are that a young 

 man is to avoid the married women, and that an un- 

 married girl is not to become a mother. Within these 

 limits they are free to indulge their passions, and any- 

 body who is continent is more laughed at than admired. 

 The girls are even more abandoned than the boys. 

 The law however is severe on adultery. The adulterer 

 is condemned to repay the bride-price paid by the 

 husband, because he has appropriated something 

 (namely, the wife) belonging to the latter. But the 

 wife is no more punished than a cow stolen by a 

 robber, unless she be caught in the act, when the 

 husband may give himself the pleasure of administering 

 a good thrashing. The question of purity, of chastity, 

 does not enter into the matter ; and so indifferent are 

 the women to their husband's morals that they will 

 play the go-between for them in their overtures to 

 other girls. 1 Among the relics of uterine descent 

 found among the Baronga are the close relations 

 existing between the maternal uncle and his nephew. 



1 Junod, Les Baronga^ 29, 32, 299, 490, 65, 66. As to 

 marriage customs, 32, 490 (cf. Endemann on the Bechuana marriage 

 customs and Griitzner on those of the JSasuto of the Transvaal cited 

 jn a note below). 



