76 
The Minor Tribes 
two to three Neptunes (caldrons, the old term 
being “Neptune’s pots”), a dozen bars of iron ; 
copper and brass rings, chains with small links, 
and minor articles ad libitum. The “ settlement” 
is the same in kind, but has increased during the 
last forty years, and specie has become much more 
common. 1 
After marriage there is a mutual accommodation 
system suggesting the cicisbeo or mariage a trois 
school ; hence we read that wives, like the much- 
maligned Xantippe, were borrowed and lent, and 
that not fulfilling the promise of a loan is punish¬ 
able by heavy damages. Where the husband acts 
adjutor or cavaliere to his friends “ Omantwe”— 
female person or wife—and the friend is equally 
complaisant, wedlock may hardly be called per¬ 
manent, and there can be no tie save children. 
The old immorality endures ; it is as if the com¬ 
mand were reversed by accepting that misprint 
which so scandalized the Star Chamber, “ Thou 
shalt commit adultery.” Yet, unpermitted, the 
offence is one against property, and Moechus may 
be cast in damages ranging from $100 to $200: 
what is known in low civilization as the “ panel 
dodge” is an infamy familiar to almost all the 
1 Everywhere on the lower river “ hard dollars ” are highly 
valued. The Spanish, formerly the favourite, and always worth 
4s. 2d., command only a five-franc piece at Le Plateau; more¬ 
over, the “ peseta,” like the shilling, is taken as a franc. 
