Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/178

Rh The outraged wife left the village immediately. A great social upheaval took place in Omarakana, and a permanent estrangement ensued between the father and son. For, though the chief probably knows a good deal of what goes on and condones it, once a scandal becomes public, custom demands the punishment of the offenders. In olden days they would have been speared, or destroyed by sorcery or poison. Now that the chief's power is paralysed, nothing so drastic can happen; but Gilayviyaka had to leave the village for some time, and after his return was always under a cloud. His wife never returned to him. The chief's wife remained with a stain on her character, and in great disfavour with her husband.

I heard many other items of scandalous gossip which space forbids me to retail. It is sufficient to say that the behaviour of the eldest sons of Kadamwasila is typical. The chief's other male children seem to have no such permanent intrigues with special wives, but they are not held in greater public esteem because of that, since they are known to take any opportunity of a temporary affair with any one of their father's wives. Nowadays, when the law and the moral pretence of the white rule have done much to rot away the real morality and sense of what is right among the natives, all these inter-family adulteries are committed much more openly and shamelessly. But, even in the old days, as some of my more ancient informants told me with a reminiscent smile, the young wives of an old chief would never suffer a sad lot in resignation, and would always seek comfort, with Rh