[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

166 MALEKULA
through which no woman may go if her husband has not
purchased this privilege for her by celebrating a nelemaw
lughlughizm. This fence, therefore, acts as an effective barrier
against the intrusion of the subsidiary wives into the hut wherein
the chief wife lives. It is said, however, that in any case the
husband would not dare or care to bring one of these lesser
wives into the house in which the principal wife resided, for, were
he to do so, the latter would undoubtedly protest strongly and
make matters very unpleasant for him. It seems, therefore,
that it is really respect for and awe of his principal wife which
makes a man refrain from celebrating the nelemew lughlughizm
for his subsidiary wives and thereby giving them access to his
hut. In many ways the position of a young subsidiary wife
under the dominance of an old chief wife is almost intolerable,
and not infrequently the burden of life under such conditions
leadsvto the younger Woman running away.
The husband of a polygynous marriage has to exercise a
considerable amount of tact and discretion. He visits each wife
in turn and it is considered wrong for him to lie with the same
wife twice in succession or to go out along with her twice running.
At the least suspicion that he is paying excessive or exclusive
attentions to one wife, all her co-wives set aside their own
differences and consult together, after which the chief wife
expresses to the husband their opinion of him, in no measured
terms. If he neglects one woman she wreaks her wrath on him
by telling everyone that " he is no husband, that he is a Mmur
nm nimamogh â€ù (which latter expression is regarded as a term
of some reproach), and that he need not flatter himself that if
he cannot satisfy her others cannot do so. To avoid the public
shame of being incompetent and unable to retain his wives, the
husband will generally forsake his exclusive amour and once
more share himself equally among them. As regards the chief
wife, it is said that she does not sleep or go about with her husband
more frequently than the others do, and it would thus appear
that she receives equal treatment with them. It must be
remembered, however, that she is almost always, if not invariably,
the ï¬Årst and therefore the oldest wife, and that the others have
probably been married when desire for her has somewhat
weakened, and therefore that in continuing to sleep with her,
the husband is making something of a sacriï¬Åce which might