2i6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



by the husband, if discovered, though the seducer may 

 escape if willing to pay compensation. No punish- 

 ment follows the seduction of a maiden who is not 

 betrothed to some one else ; nor is she dishonoured by 

 it. If it come to the father's ears the lover pays a sum 

 of money and the affair is settled. "In general the 

 Bakoko consider their wives and daughters as a source 

 of gain. The seducer is in their eyes only a human 

 being who wants to cheat them of the money that is 

 due to them." l Comparatively few brides among the 

 Banaka and Bapuku are maidens. When a bride- 

 groom finds his bride a maiden it is a subject of great 

 rejoicing ; he congratulates her parents, telling them 

 that he has found a pure wife and thanking them 

 heartily for so valuable a benefit. When a man has 

 agreed on the bride-price and has begun to pay it he 

 is entitled to secret intercourse with his bride. Men 

 lend their wives, and put them at the disposal of a 

 guest. Otherwise a man is entitled to compensation 

 for an infidelity on the part of his wife. A child 

 belongs to his mother's husband whoever may have 

 been the father : if begotten by other than the husband 

 the actual father has no right to him. 2 



The Haussa Fulba wife is lent by her husband " for 

 a consideration " to other men ; or he winks at her 

 love-affairs in order to swoop down upon her lovers for 

 compensation. But all her children are his ; they 

 enhance his position in society, and he is proud of them. 

 Even if he be absent for years from her and on return- 

 ing find an increase in his family, he makes no fuss 



1 Eberhard von Schkopf,* Beitrdge sur Kolomalpolitik> iv. 524. 



2 Steinmetz, 36, 38. The accounts differ as to the extent of the 

 freedom of an unmarried girl. 



