MARITAL JEALOUSY 209 



belongs the fine inflicted by the chief on conviction." 

 According to the same writer a paramour is "a recog- 

 nised institution among the younger wives of old 

 men ; " and there are cases of temporary exchange of 

 wives. The latter are not common ; they seem to 

 correspond to the practice already noted among the 

 Masai, and to be occasioned by " sterility on the part 

 of one or both wives, it being found that occasionally 

 an exchange results in children being born." Any 

 such offspring belong by law to the lawful husband. 1 

 Further north, among the Matabele, a chaste woman 

 was almost unknown in the old days. "Even the 

 king's wives very often misbehaved themselves. When 

 they were found out of course they were killed ; but 

 they took very good care not to be found out if it was 

 possible." 2 



General licence on the occasion of puberty cere- 

 monies is found among many of these tribes. The 

 boys and girls who have passed through the cere- 

 monies indulge in it freely. Sexual intercourse is, 

 indeed, often compulsory. 3 Nor is it confined to the 

 newly initiated. In the Zoutpansberg District of the 

 Transvaal large assemblies are held by the Bavenda 

 on these occasions. All work is suspended ; singing 

 dancing drilling and so forth occupy the people ; no 

 man "is allowed intercourse with his own wife, yet 



1 Rev. J. Macdonald, /. A. I. xix. 270, 273, 272; Cape Native 

 Laws Com. Evidence, 106; S. A. Native Affairs Com. ii. 77, 173, 

 706, 1242. Nauhaus, Zeits. f. Ethnol. xiv. Verhandl. 209, 210. 



2 S. A. Native Affairs Com. iv. 171. 



3 Cape Native Laws Com. Evidence, 81, 212, 218, 273; App. 20, 

 408; Campbell, Trav. 514; Hewat, 109, in; Callaway, Tales, 

 255; Fritsch, 109, in; Kidd, 208 sqq. Cf. the Yao custom, 

 supra, p. 123. Hewat, 107, explains why conception follows inter- 

 course more rarely than might be expected. 







