ROTH] MARRIAGE, POLYGAMY, DIVORCE, WORK 689 
11, 447). So with the Makusi, if the husband dies his wife and chil- 
dren are at the disposal of the eldest surviving brother, who may sell 
or kill them as he pleases (BE, 35). As is the case with the Pioje (a 
Betoya stock) of the Rio Napo where a widow often takes her son to 
replace the deceased husband [and a widower his daughter upon the 
death of his first wife] (AS,196), so on the Orinoco among the Carib, 
the eldest son of the deceased inherited the marriageable widows (G, 
11, 286). On the Berbice, Dance gives the example of an Indian, but 
unfortunately the tribe not mentioned, taking to wife his uncle’s 
widow (Da, 107). On the Orinoco, upon an Otomac’s death the cap- 
tains would bestow the widow on a young man, while in other na- 
tions, without any interference on the part of their relatives, they just 
marry as may seem best to them (G, 1, 286). Dance is responsible 
for the statement of the Arawak entertaining the notion that a man 
is not bound to raise up seed to his wife’s former husband and relates 
how he had some trouble once to suppress by threats of law the in- 
tention of an Indian to destroy the child to be born to another man 
whose wife he had seduced from her home to his (Da, 310). 
$98. Divorce is mentioned by Gumilla as having been in full force 
on the Orinoco, but, unfortunately, no particulars are furnished by 
him (G,1, 119). Talking of the Makusi, Schomburgk states that the 
husband is later on free to get rid of his wife, even to sell her, but 
this only happens in very rare cases, because by nightfall she has 
already probably found a new man. If the couple have children, 
such a separation is extremely rare and can only be dependent on dis- 
loyalty (SR, 1, 316). Speaking of the British Guiana Indians gen- 
erally, Im Thurn says that a complete and final separation between 
husband and wife may be made at the will of the former at any. 
time before the birth of children. After that, if the husband goes 
away, as very rarely happens, it is considered not lawful separation, 
but desertion (IT, 222). Brown furnishes an interesting case from 
the Curiebrong River: He [the Indian] told William that he and 
his wife could not agree together and were going to separate, he 
having selected another girl in her place. This latter was of his 
own choosing, while his wife was given him by his parents, who 
now agreed to sanction the separation on the ground of nonagreement 
of the parties (BB, 229). In Cayenne, the man could send his wives 
away when he liked and leave them entirely forsaken. In case of 
repudiation, the fathers minded the children born to them (PBA, 
222). (See Adultery, sec. 733.) 
899. As Joest remarked in Surinam, the Carib woman must work 
extraordinarily hard. Besides her duties as mother, cook, washer, 
spinner, weaver, and beast of burden, she has to keep the cassava, 
banana, pepper, etc., trees and fields in order, while the remainder 
of her time is spent in finishing the pots and baskets (WJ, 84). 
