contrary, in letting loose his vengeance the husband will frequently have public opinion and law on his side, when the latter does not take on itself the punishment of the guilty one. But let us listen once more to the eloquent language of facts.
II. Adultery in Melanesia.
In Tasmania and Australia the women were, or are, considered as the property of the men. We have seen that in these countries there is no care for decency or chastity, and that wives are often obtained by brutal rape. Their proprietors also make no scruple of letting them out, lending them, or bartering them; they have the fullest right to use or abuse them. The Tasmanians felt very honoured if a white man borrowed their wives, but they none the less chastised, and very cruelly too, unauthorised infidelities, on the simple ground, as their panegyrist, the Rev. Bonwick, tells us, of their right of ownership.[1] In certain Australian tribes, organised in classes, the women were reputed common to all the individuals of the same class, but all intimate relation with a man of another group was a most grave adultery for both the guilty ones—a social adultery.[2]
In the greater number of New Caledonian tribes the punishment of adultery is left to the care of the injured husband, who kills the thief, if he can, but often contents himself with giving a severe punishment to his wife, sometimes inflicting a sort of scalping. At Kanala, however, adultery has already become a social crime. The man who commits it is led before the chief, judged by the council of elders whom the chief presides over, and executed on the spot.[3] But in one way or another, whether he incurs the social vengeance or that of the offended one—the robbed one, rather—and of his relatives, the New Caledonian who commits adultery risks his life. Sometimes, however, he can get off by paying a fine, after the old German fashion. Often also, in case of adultery committed by a married man, the New Caledonians practise a singular
