Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/147



and wife in the Trobriands lead their common life in close companionship, working side by side, sharing certain of the household duties, and spending a good deal of their leisure with each other, for the most part in excellent harmony and with mutual appreciation. We have already visited a native household, while taking a general survey of the relations between the sexes, and have gained this impression from our preliminary inspection. With our present greater knowledge of Trobriand sociology, and better understanding of sexual matters, we must now reconsider the subject of the personal relations between husband and wife.

We left the young couple starting their common life in the hut of the bridegroom's parents; here they remain until the protracted series of marriage gifts and counter-gifts, and the redistribution of every one of these among more distant relatives, has been completed. Only about the time of the next harvest do they build their own home; until then they have to spend a protracted " Rh