contributed an equal share of
property on marriage, the wife dictated everything, and the
man could undertake nothing without her approval; but if the
woman committed an offence, the man was held responsible and
suffered the punishment. The women could speak in the
assembly; they held property, and if a woman asked anything
of a man, he gave it up without a murmur. If a wife was
unfaithful, the husband could send her home, keep her
property, and kill the adulterer; but if the man was guilty
or even suspected of the same offence, the women of the
neighbourhood destroyed his house and all his visible
property, and the owner was fortunate if he escaped with a
whole skin; and if the wife was not pleased with her
husband, she withdrew, and a similar attack followed. On
this account many men were not married, preferring to live
with paid women."[118]

[118] Thomas, _Sex and Society_, pp. 73-74, quoting
Waitz-Gerland.

A similar case of the rebellion of men against their position is
recorded in Guinea, where religious symbolism was used by the husband
as a way of obtaining control and possession of his wife. The maternal
system held with respect only to the chief wife.

"It was customary, however, for a man to buy and take to
wife a slave, a friendless person with whom he could deal at
pleasure, who had no kindred who could interfere with her,
and to consecrate her to his Bossum, or god. The Bossum
wife, slave as she had been, ranked next to the chief wife,
and was exceptionally treated. She alone was very jealously
guarded, she alone was sacrificed at her husband's death.
She was, in fact, wife in a peculiar sense. And having by
consecration been made of the kindred and worship of her
husband her children could be born of his kindred and
worship."[119]

[119] McLennan, _The Patriarchal Theory_, p. 235.

It will be readily seen that the special rights held by the husband
over these captive-wives would come to be greatly desired. But the
capture of women was always difficult, as it frequently led to
quarrels and even warfare with the woman's tribe, and for this reason
was never widely practised. It would therefore be necessary for
another way of escape from the bonds of the maternal marriage to be
found. This was done by a system of buying the wife from her
clan-kindred, in whic