Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/121

Rh most aristocratic province of Kiriwina seldom marry outside their own district, except into the neighbouring island of Kitava, or into certain eminent families from one or two outside villages (see also ch. xiii, sec. 5).

Even within this limited geographical area, there are further restrictions on the choice of a mate, and these are due to rank. Thus, members of the highest sub-clan, the Tabalu, and more especially their women, would not marry into a sub-clan of very low caste, and a certain correspondence in nobility is considered desirable even in marriage between less important people.

It follows that choice must be made from among persons who are not of the same clan, who are not widely different in rank, who reside within the convenient geographical area, and who are of a suitable age. In this limited field, however, there is still sufficient freedom of selection to allow of mariages d'amour, de raison, et de convenance; and, as with Kalogusa and Isepuna of whom I have spoken, individual preference and love are often the determining factors of choice. And many other married couples, whom I knew well personally, had been governed in their choice by the same motive. This could be gathered from their history, and from the happy, harmonious tone of their common life.

There are also mariages de convenance, where wealth, that is the quantity of yams which a girl's family can provide, or pedigree, or status has determined the choice. Such considerations have, of course, a special importance in marriage by infant betrothal, of which we shall speak presently.

Rh