218 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



if she afterwards marry the father their position is 

 regularised and they belong to him. Divorces are 

 pronounced by the head of the family, with the con- 

 currence of some of the relations or friends, unless 

 they take place by mutual consent, when it is enough 

 to declare them in the presence of four witnesses. 1 In 

 Benin very few women are true to their husbands, 

 many of them having at least one lover. When a 

 child is born the woman does not declare who is its 

 father until her husband is dead. Many women live 

 openly with their lovers. The great majority of law- 

 suits are for the return of the wife, and many women 

 prefer prison to returning to their legal husbands. 2 In 

 the neighbouring I bo country there is a yearly festival 

 called Mbari (beautiful) held in the principal villages, 

 and the most comely young women take part in it. 

 During the festival there is absolutely no restriction 

 placed upon them at night, "and they visit where and 

 whom they wish. Even women who are married and 

 live away return to their native villages on these 

 occasions." The festival lasts for some weeks. 3 

 Among the Yoruba-speaking peoples in general 

 adultery is intercourse by a married woman with 

 other men than her husband without his knowledge 

 and consent ; but husbands lend their wives (and 

 more frequently their concubines) to their guests and 

 friends. 4 The Ewhe-speaking people of German 

 Togoland have a moral code hardly more developed. 



1 Clozel, 331, 329, 330. 



2 Dennett, At the Back^ 199, 198. See as to the privileges of 

 the king's daughters, 176. 



3 Man, iv. No. 106 ; Journ. Afr. Soc, iv, 134, 

 Ellis, Yoruto, 182, 



