ordinary if we compare the freedom granted to
the bride. "During this period the always dignified position occupied
by the daughters of the house culminates." Among other privileges she
is allowed to receive "the most intimate attentions from the
clan-fellows of the group."[130] "She is the receiver of the supplies
furnished by her lover, measuring his competence as would-be husband.
Through his energy she is enabled to dispense largess with lavish
hand, and thus to dignify her clan and honour her spouse in the most
effective way known to primitive life; and at the same time she enjoys
the immeasurable moral stimulus of realising she is the arbiter of the
fate of a man who becomes a warrior or an outcast at her bidding, and
through him of the future of two clans--she is raised to a
responsibility in both personal and tribal affairs which, albeit
temporary, is hardly lower than that of the warrior chief." At the
close of the year, if all goes well, the probation ends in a feast
provided by the lover, who now becomes husband, and finally enters
his wife's _jacal_ as "consort-guest." His position is wholly
subordinate, and without any authority whatever, either over his
children or over the property. In his mother's hut he has rights,
which seem to continue after his marriage, but in his wife's hut he
has none.

The customs of the Pueblo peoples of the south-west of the United
States are almost equally interesting. They live in communal
dwellings, and are divided into exogamous _totem_ clans. Kinship is
reckoned through the women, and the husband on marriage goes to live
with the wife's kin and becomes an inmate of her family. If the house
is not large enough, additional rooms are built adjoining and
connected with those already occupied. Hence a family with many
daughters increases, while one consisting of sons dies out. The women
are the builders of the houses, the men supplying the material. The
marriage customs are instructive. As is the case among the Seri, the
lover has to serve his wife's family, but the conditions are much less
exacting. Unlike most maternal peoples, these, the Zuni Indians, are
monogamists. Divorce is, however, frequent, and a husband and wife
would "rather separate than live together unharmoniously."[131] Their
domestic life "might well serve as an example for the civilised
world." They do not have large families. The husband and wife are
deeply attached to one another and to their children. "Th