MARITAL JEALOUSY 219 



Among the Hos adultery is deemed of less con- 

 sequence than theft ; and to be found out in theft, 

 though a disgrace, entails no serious punishment. A 

 mother, for instance, will comfort a son who has been 

 discovered in an intrigue, by telling him that after all 

 it is not larceny and what he has done can be repaired 

 with a few cowries. A married man usually has " lady- 

 friends " in his neighbour's harems. If he goes about 

 to markets or on other business he has mistresses in 

 all the villages to which his affairs take him. A 

 husband who discovers an intrigue contents himself 

 at first with admonishing his wife ; if admonition have 

 no effect she may be sent away. The matter is 

 arranged with the disturber of his domestic bliss by 

 means of a simple warning or at most a trifling fine. 

 In the case of friendly or related stocks this fine was 

 until a few years ago no more than sixty pfennings. 

 It is only in the case of strange or hostile stocks that 

 it leads to bigger demands or formerly to war. Open 

 concubinage is also practised with (among others) 

 widows and wives who have been dismissed by their 

 husbands. The offspring however, if any, always 

 belong to the lawful husband, no difference in heirship 

 or otherwise being made between them and his 

 undoubted children ; and only the husband dares even 

 to bury an adulterine child who may happen to die. 

 Among the Matse unmarried girls have full sexual 

 liberty. If a girl have a lover and marry any other 

 man, the latter exacts compensation from the former ; 

 but if subsequently satisfied that his wife has given up 

 the lover since her marriage he remits it. A woman 

 is never punished for adultery, unless her intrigue has 

 caused her husband's death, probably by witchcraft as 



