[193] Athenagoras, Legatio pro Christianis, 33 (Migne, op. cit. Ser. Graeca, vi. 967).
[194] Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ii. 187. Lecky, History of European Morals, ii. 326.
Conjugal fidelity, whilst considered a stringent duty in the wife, is not generally considered so in the husband. This is obviously the rule among savage and barbarous tribes; but there are interesting exceptions to the rule. The Igorrotes of Luzon are so strictly monogamous that in case of adultery the guilty party can be compelled to leave the hut and the family for ever,[195] and among various other monogamous savages adultery is said to be unknown.[196] The Dyak husband “preserves his vow of fidelity with a rectitude which makes jealousy a farce.”[197] The Toungtha, who marry only one wife, do not consider it right for a master to take advantage of his position even with regard to the female slaves in his house.[198] Nay, the duty of fidelity in the husband has been recognised even by some savage peoples who allow polygamy. The Abipones, we are told, thought it both wicked and disgraceful to have any illicit intercourse with other women than their wives; hence adultery was almost unheard of among them.[199] Among the Omaha Indians, “if a woman’s husband be guilty of adultery with another woman she may strike him or the guilty female in her anger,” though she cannot claim damages.[200] In several tribes of Western Victoria a wife whose husband has been unfaithful to her “may make a complaint to the chief, who can punish the man by sending him away from his tribe for two or three moons”;[201] and among some aborigines in New South Wales similar complaints may be made to the elders of the tribe, with the result that the adulterous husband may have to suffer for his conduct.[202] The Kandhs of India deny the married man certain prerogatives which are granted to his wife: whilst constancy to her husband is so far from being required in a wife, “that her pretensions do not, at least, suffer diminution in the eyes of either sex when fines are levied on her convicted lovers,” infidelity in a married man is held to be highly dishonourable, and is often punished with deprivation of many social privileges.[203]
[195] Meyer, in Verhandl. Berliner Gesellsch. f. Anthrop. 1883, p. 385.
[196] Bailey, in Trans. Ethn. Soc. N. S. ii. 291 sq. Hartshorne, in Indian Antiquary, viii. 320 (Veddahs). Finsch, Neu-Guinea, p. 101; Earl, Papuans, p. 81 (Papuans of Dorey).
[197] Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, p. 236. See also Low, Sarawak, p. 300 (Hill Dyaks).
[198] Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 193 sq.
[199] Dobrizhoffer, Account of the Abipones, ii. 138.
[200] Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 364.
[201] Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 33.