but if he gives so many cattle to his
wife's parents the children are his.[123] Similar cases may be found
elsewhere. In the Watubela Islands between New Guinea and Celebes a
man may either pay for his wife before marriage, or he may, without
paying, live as her husband in her parents' house, working for her. In
the former case, the children belong to him, in the latter to the
mother's family, but he may buy them subsequently at a price.[124]
Campbell records of the Limboo tribe (where the bride is usually
purchased and lives with the husband), that if poverty compels the
bridegroom to serve for his wife, he becomes the slave of her father,
"until by his work he has redeemed his bride."[125] An interesting
case occurs in some Californian tribes where the husband has to live
with the wife and work, until he has paid to her kindred the full
price for her and her child. So far has custom advanced in favour of
father-right that the children of a wife not paid for are regarded as
bastards and held in contempt.[126]

[122] Macdonald, _Africana_, Vol I, p. 136.

[123] Livingstone, _Travels_, p. 622.

[124] Riedel, p. 205; cited by McLennan, _Patriarchal
Theory_, p. 326.

[125] _Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal_, Vol. IX, p. 603.

[126] Bancroft, Vol. I, p. 549.

Wherever we find the payment of a bride-price, in whatever form, there
is sure indication of the decay of mother-right: woman has become
property. Among the Bassa Komo of Nigeria marriage is usually effected
by an exchange of sisters or other female relatives. The men may marry
as many wives as they have women to give to other men. In this tribe
the women look after the children, but the boys, when four years old,
go to live and work with the fathers.[127] The husbands of the Bambala
tribe (inhabiting the Congo states between the rivers Inzia and Kwilu)
have to abstain from visiting their wives for a year after the birth
of each child, but they are allowed to return to her on the payment to
her father of two goats.[128] Among the Bassanga on the south-west of
Lake Moeru the children of the wife belong to the mother's kin, but
the children of slaves are the property of the father.

[127] _Journal African Society_, VIII, 15 _et seq._

[128] Torday and Joyce, _J. A. I._, XXXV, 410.

The right of a father to his children was established only by
contract. Even where the wife had been given up by her kindred and
allowed to live wi