MARITAL JEALOUSY 225 



present may have access to her. And as in the rites 

 preliminary to appropriation by her husband the pro- 

 ceedings commence with intercourse on the part of a 

 man who is, except on ceremonial occasions, most 

 strictly forbidden to her. 1 During the boys' puberty 

 ceremonies there is also at one period a general inter- 

 change of women ushered in by a special dance by the 

 women, whose decorations and movements are of an 

 unmistakable character. 2 If a woman's allotted husband 

 die, she is usually handed on to one of his younger 

 brothers, who first of all lends her for a day or two to 

 other men. Among the Kaitish, for example, the 

 first men who thus have intercourse with her are such 

 as are ordinarily prohibited ; and as in the ceremony 

 prior to her marriage it is only after passing from the 

 hands of these trfit men who are in the relation of 

 unawa are allowed intercourse with her. 3 



There are other occasions on which women are lent 

 either ceremonially or as a token of goodwill, but 

 we need not here follow the details. It will suffice to 

 say that frequently the sexual licence amounts to 

 absolute promiscuity, when men have intercourse with 

 women whom at other times they dare not touch, under 

 penalty of death for incest. There is abundant 

 evidence to justify Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's con- 

 clusion thst while jealousy is not unknown among 

 these tribes it is but feebly developed. " For a man 

 to have unlawful intercourse with any woman arouses 

 a feeling which is due not so much to jealousy as to 

 the fact that the delinquent has infringed a tribal 



1 S. and G., Cent. Tribes, 93, 98, 381, 96. 



2 Ibid. 381. 



3 Ibid. North. Tribes, 136. 



U P 



