RorH] MARRIAGE, POLYGAMY, DIVORCE, WORK 687 
of mankind where the husband has marital rights over his wife’s 
sister or sisters, a primitive form of communal marriage. Records 
of this nature come from the Island Carib (PBR, 251), from the 
Bartica (Essequibo River) Arawak (BE, 108), from the Makusi (SR, 
u1, 318), from the Wapishana (ScF, 214), and others. I myself have 
observed the custom still prevailing among the Pomeroon district 
Carib and Akawai. As already mentioned, Coudreau goes so far as 
to state that among the majority of the tribes one finds Indians hav- 
ing two or three wives, generally sisters (sec. 892). “The mar- 
riage of two sisters to the same husband,” says Rev. Charles Dance, 
“has often been justified by the elder sister as a preventive to family 
jars and conjugal jealousies. ‘ Better,’ she says, ‘take my sister, 
who loves and will obey me, than take a stranger who will hate 
me’” (Da, 101). 
895. The following picture of a polygamous household on the 
Orinoco is painted by Gumilla: As might be expected, quarrels are 
not wanting among the wives, although they do not live together in 
the one house, but each one has her separate habitation together with 
her children and her separate hearth. The fish which the husband 
gets is divided proportionately among all of them according to the 
children which each one has. When mealtime arrives they stretch 
the mat, which is his table, on the ground and each wife, after plac- 
ing in front of him his plate of meat, his cassava cake, or caizu of 
maize, retires. Whether he eats or not, no one speaks to him. After 
the lapse of a sufficient time, each wife brings a drink of beer 
(chicha), which she places in front of him, and, this done, then retires 
to her hut to eat and drink with her children; and so strife is avoided. 
In the field a similar separation is arranged for. The husband di- 
vides the land, which he and his friends have cut into as many por- 
tions as he has wives, each woman sowing, cultivating, and looking 
after her own portion without meddling with the other’s. Neverthe- 
less, it is true that squabbles are not entirely wanting; e. g., over one 
having a better or bigger plot than another, over one wife’s children 
stealing fruit from another wife’s piece of land, etc. (G, m1, 287). 
So also on the islands the Carib built a particular hut for every wife. 
They continued what time they pleased with her whom they fancied 
most, yet so as that the others conceived no jealousy thereat 
(RO, 544). 
896. There is reason to believe that the first, generally the oldest, 
of the wives was specially intrusted with the performance of certain 
duties, the exercise of certain privileges and powers. On the upper 
Rio Negro she is never turned away, but remains the mistress of the 
house (ARW, 346). Similarly, among the Wapishana, etc., though 
the other wives may be young enough to be her daughters, and com- 
