THE SOCIAL SYSTEM yz 



The Family 



Very few men have more than one wife. 

 Occasionally a chief whose wife has borne him 

 no children during some years of married life, or 

 has found the labours of entertaining his guests 

 beyond her strength, will with her consent, or even 

 at her request, take a second younger wife. In 

 such a case each wife has her own sleeping apart- 

 ment within the chiefs large chamber, and the 

 younger wife is expected to defer to the older one, 

 and to help her in the work of the house and of the 

 field. The second wife would be chosen of rather 

 lower social standing than the first wife, who in 

 virtue of this fact maintains her ascendancy more 

 easily. A third wife is probably unknown ; public 

 opinion does not easily condone a second wife, and 

 would hardly tolerate a third. In spite of the 

 presence of slave women in the houses, concubinage 

 is not recognised or tolerated. 



The choice of a wife is not restricted by the 

 existence of any law or custom prescribing marriage 

 without or within any defined group ; that is to say, 

 exogamous and endogamous groups do not exist. 

 Incest is regarded very seriously, and the forbidden 

 degrees of kinship are clearly defined. They are 

 very similar to those recognised among ourselves. 

 A man may under no circumstances marry or have 

 sexual relations with his sister, mother, daughter, 

 father's or mother's sister or half sister, his brother's 

 or sister's daughter ; and in the case of those 

 women who stand to him in any of these relations 

 in virtue of adoption, the prohibitions and severe 

 penalties are if possible even more strictly enforced. 

 First cousins may marry, but such marriages are 

 not regarded with favour, and certain special 

 ceremonies are necessitated ; and it seems to be 

 the general opinion that such marriages are not 



