234 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



reckon kinship through the father or the mother. 

 The women are treated well and no notice is taken 

 of occasional laxity in their morals so long as it is not 

 notorious. In the Ungava district itself the Nenenot 

 or Naskopie men exhibit less jealousy than the 

 women. Their sexual relations are very loose. Con- 

 tinence on the part of either husband or wife is 

 unusual, and only notorious unchastity is sufficient 

 to cause the offender to be put away. The paternal 

 origin of a child is therefore often obscure. For that 

 reason we are told the husband at the time of the 

 child's birth is supposed to be its father. 1 While 

 accepting the facts we may be permitted to doubt the 

 author's reasoning. The Kwakiutl believe "that the 

 birth of twins will produce permanent backaches in the 

 parents. In order to avert this the man, a short time 

 after the birth, induces a young man to have inter- 

 course with his wife, while she in return procures a 

 girl for her husband. It is believed that the backache 

 will then attack them." 2 Among the Ahts of British 

 Columbia and the more northern tribes of the coast 

 the temporary present of a wife is one of the greatest 

 honours that can be shown to a guest. 3 The Aleuts 

 of the American islands exchanged wives and a rich 

 woman was permitted to indulge in two husbands. 4 

 In fact, the custom of lending or exchanging wives 

 in token of hospitality and friendship, on certain 

 ceremonial occasions, or as the price of obtaining 



1 Turner, Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 183, 269-71. 



2 Boas, Brit. Ass. Rep. 1896, 575. 



3 Sproat, 95. Some of the tribes vaguely alluded to by the 

 writer are doubtless matrilineal. 



4 Bancroft, i, 92. 



