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SEPARATION AND DIVORCE. 
If the parties mutually agree to a separation the elders of the vil¬ 
lage or neighbourhood are asssembled and a nangsuya or written 
deed is executed in their presence. It is of course according to the 
wishes of the parties, but generally the portion which the woman 
brought is divided. The sons go with the mother, the daughters with 
the father, because the father would else be deprived of that female 
assistance in conducting household affairs which it is not requisite 
that the mother should have, she being herself capable. If Louhere 
was correct “the mother” in his time “took the alternate children 
begining with the eldest; and the husband the rest ” a practice still 
retained in some of the provinces. 
If the husband sues for a divorce he cannot have it unless he 
can prove his wife to have been guilty of adultery. Should he run 
away from her, she takes his estate. 
A wife may sue for a divorce for bad treatment from a vicious 
husband, this term however not being applicable to him as a poly¬ 
gamist. She takes in this case her original dowry. Polygamy may 
be chiefly attributed to the service a man owes his prince, which re¬ 
quires him to have many females to assist Mm in Ms household. 
Barreness is not productive of divorce. 
A man may beat his wife if unruly, and put her in chains if her 
fault be great. A divorce for impotency is proved by an ordeal natu¬ 
rally enough suggested in a case of this kind. 
ELOPEMENTS. 
A man who elopes with a virgin must afterwards endeavour to ef¬ 
fect a reconciliation with her parents and relatives, and should such 
be effected, it is incumbent on him to perform all the ceremonies 
which are preliminary to a regular and open marriage. 
The elders of a distinct or parish generally settle affairs of this na¬ 
ture and reconcile parties. But the man is not obliged to marry the 
girl, he may refuse and in this case should he not have promised 
marriage, a thing not easily admitting of proof in such clandestine 
meetings, he is if poor fined 55.000 cowries, about 81 Rs. A sedu- 
