78 
The Minor Tribes 
fied on the Gaboon by the name of divorce. 
Whenever a woman has or fancies she has a 
grievance, she leaves her husband, returns to 
“ the paternal ” and marries again. Quarrels 
about the sex are very common, yet, in cases 
of adultery the old murderous assaults are now 
rare except amongst the backwoodsmen. The 
habit was simply to shoot some man belonging 
to the seducer’s or to the ravisher’s village; the 
latter shot somebody in the nearest settlement, and 
so on till the affair was decided. In these days 
“ violent retaliation for personal jealousy always 
‘ be-littles ’ a man in the eyes of an African com¬ 
munity.” Perhaps also he unconsciously recog¬ 
nizes the sentiment ascribed to Mohammed, 
“ Laysa bi-zanyatin ilia bi zani,” “ there is no 
adulteress without an adulterer,” meaning- that the 
husband has set the example. 
Polygamy is, of course, the order of the day; it 
is a necessity to the men, and even the women 
disdain to marry a “ one-wifer.” As amongst all 
pluralists, from Moslem to Mormon, the senior or 
first married is No. i ; here called “best wife:” 
she is the goodman’s viceroy, and she rules the 
home-kingdom with absolute sway. Yet the 
Mpongwe do not, like other tribes on the west 
coast, practise that separation of the sexes during 
gestation and lactation, which is enjoined to the 
Hebrews, recommended by Catholicism, and com- 
