The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-12
Whatever dangers may threaten it, shall
stand by it, and maintain it in its integrity, to
the full extent of the obligations imposed and
the power conferred upon me by the constitu-
tion"
Domestic Boycotting.

lrrom the Saturday Review.l
Mr. Lorimer Fison "once saw man of the
Australian tribe of Wangaratta full of the ut
most distress and disgust because his mother
in laws shadow had fallen across his legs He
had been lying at the foot of an enormous
gum tree, which hid him from the old lady's
view as she approached, and so the catastrophe
occurred" Among less scrupulous savages
mothers-in-law are not absolutely Boycotted,
but there must be no tutoiment, they are
respectfully addressed in the dual or plural.
Even so the presence of relations by marriage
(among certain American tribes a man must
strictly Boycott his own father-in-law) ALWAYS
brings chill constraint into the family circle.
This is the more inconvenient because q man
and a hunter is bound to give much of his
game TO these same relations, his wife's par
ents Thus Boycotting stops good way short
OF the Irish system, which chiefly exists for
the opposite purpose of depriving landlords
agents and paying tenants of food. II mar
ried black fellow, aided by an unmarried
black fellow, kills kangaroo, the whole
quarry goes to the father-in-law and mother
in-law, except the left leg, the share of the
married man, and the right leg, the property
OF the bachelor. If a married man is lucky
enough to spear a native bear his parents-in-
law get the left side and two legs, he himself
obtains part of the head, and gives his wife a
portion, while she supplies her sister with the
ears. These negotiations naturally have to be
conducted through the wife, while the hunter
makes his own arrangements with his own
father and mother. When wombat is slain
the father-in-law only gets the backbone, and
the mother-in law some skin. Much ill-feeling
is naturally caused, we may presume, when
hunter is always supplying the camp with
wombat, and never with native bear or kan
garoo. Owing to the simple or salutary rules
OF intercourse, however, the mother-in-law
cannot reproach the bread winner, or rather,
lily. y Wv '''
The Aleutian Islander, says Mr.. Farrar quot
ing Dali, knows nothing of what civilized
nations call modesty," yet the bashful Great
ure positively bushes when he is obliged to
speak to his wife, or to ask her for anything
in the presence of others. Custom compeis
them to assume the attitude of perfect strang-
ers; and 1t Is greatly to be desired that this
rule or modification of it, might be introduced
into Germany, where betrothed people behave
In company as If they were alone in wilder
ness OF space, or possessed the secret of fern
seed. The Hottentots used to have a bad
oioOeOr ior uOIueStlC du6CtlOn, because they
were never seen to speak to their own wives
But the Hottentot is not really cold and indif-
ferent: he was only compelled by the law of his
people to Boycott his wife. The lady may
never enter her husbands room in the hut,
and the husband as among the Spartans, must
never be seen in the neighborhood of the wife.
Among the Yorubas, an African tribe, this do
mestic Boycotting is carried out with the ex-
tremest rigor. A woman is forbidden to speak
| to her husband, and not even to see him II it
can possibly be avoided. Apparently similar
custom existed among the early Sanskrit-
| speaking people for the wife in the famous
| story Of Urvasi and Pururavas, says to her
| lord: Never let me see thee without thy royal
| garments, for such is the manner of women. u,
And when this rule is accidently broken, Ur-
vasi must softly and suddenly vanish away"
like the victims who have looked on the mys-
| terious Boojum. The Circassians are equally
shy. "AICircassian bridegroom must not see his
| wife nor live with her without the greatest
mystery" and the unconverted natives of the
FIJI Islands display the utmost distress of
mind when adventurous missionaries suggest
that there is no real harm in a mans living
| under the same roof with his wife. So far do
| the Hos carry this feeling, and so oppos-
| ite to our own are.their ideas Of decorum, that
| sit is the correct thing for a wife to run away
from her husband" In this case the lady
Boycotts her lord, and it is his duty to try to
make her return to the family tent. Domes-
| tic Boycotting goes even further than this
among the Fijians and other islanders of the
Pacific. The young Kaneka bolts with a wild
scream into the bush If you even mention the
name OF his amiable sister, while in Fiji not
| only brothers and sisters, but first cousins of
opposite sexes, strictly Boycott each other, and
may neither eat together nor speak to each