Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/268

 reason may we infer that the existence of some kind of marriage is necessary before there can be any widowhood. Widowhood, therefore, does not exist in societies where promiscuity or temporary marriage prevails. No widowhood is possible, for example, in the tribe of the Australian Kamilaroi, where all the women of a class are common to all the men of the same class. It became otherwise from the time that, either by capture, purchase, or any other means, woman became the particular property of one man. Thenceforth it was necessary to regulate in some way the condition of the widow or widows. Generally the solution of the problem has been very simple: the widow, who has been habitually captured or bought by the deceased, does not cease after his death to be regarded as a thing or property; she is part of the inheritance, by the same title as chattels or domestic animals. Sometimes, however, special obligations or troubles are imposed on her; Kolben tells us that in passing to a fresh husband, the Hottentot widow must cut off a joint of the little finger; but to cut off a finger-joint was a common custom with the Hottentots on the death of a relative, and the women did it, or were forced to do it, more often than the men. There is nothing in this particular to the condition of the widow. At the Gaboon a man's wives belonged to his heir, and if the deceased was of importance in the tribe, they must resign themselves to a period of mourning and of widowhood, which lasts a year or two. The end of this mourning is marked by a great festival or orgy, which Du Chaillu has thus described—"The wives of the deceased (he had seven) were radiant they were going to quit their widow's clothes and join the festival like brides. The heir had the right to marry them all, but to show his generosity, he had ceded two to a younger brother and one to a cousin." They drank bumper after bumper (palm wine), and then began to dance. "The wives danced. But what dances! The most modest step was indecent."

In equatorial Africa, the son inherits the widows of his