The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1910-10-14
DIVORCE IN ISLANDS
JUDGES ONLY PASS on RIGHTS
OF CHILDREN.
When . Separation Of an ioarrots
Couple 10 Inevitable. Both the Hus-
band and Wife Share Equal
ly the Property.

"1f you women want equal rights,
you better go out to Luzon- The man
from the Philippines had been listen
/ ing TO the militant suffragist for the
last hour and half and had just got
in his word up in the province OF
Benguet there. where the little Igar-
rotes live, they've got 1t down TO
fine point Remarkable people those
mountain savages.
They've already settled a lot of
things our Socialist friends are trying
now TO get the rest of us advanced
enough to accept. They're so progress
sive in these things that they're clear
back at the beginning again. For in
stance, they've got George Meredith
ten-year trial marriage beat by one
year experiment. It's very success
full, too. And divorce-thats the sim
plest thing in the world with them
and quite fair to the woman. too.
1T doesn't happen very often, but
when it does the community steps in
to see that there's fair play. The
buknans. or chiefs. act as judges in
the matter; not TO decide whether
they have a right to part-that's en-
tirely a personal matter for them TO
settle-but TO see that there's a fair
division of the children and the prop
erty. There was a divorce case on
while l was up there. in a funny little
village of wooden huts. perched up
higher in the mountains than ever the
pines care TO climb.
The couple were separating on the
score OF incompatability- they're
progressive enough for that-and as
the land up so high is pretty arid II
didn't take long to go into the prop
erty question There were four chill
dren. so that was all right. too.
don't know what would happen If
there were three or five in such
case; perhaps they'd resort TO a Solo
mon Judgment.
AT any rate, the hitch came in the
question of the house. There was
only one of ii and naturally both
needed it, OF course, you think the
man should have given way, but wom-
ans equality is too absolute out there
10 have any nonsensical notions about
chivalry.
Well. It ended quite peaceably, at
any rate. In their honeymooning days
they had built the house together, so
now they simply repeated the perform
ance with equal labor. hanging q sec
ond little wooden hut with a shaggy
roof over their perpendicular comote
bed. Whether they were reunited by
this reminder of their youth and early
love is more than I can say. though, of
course, that's the proper sequel to the
tale.
THE women have the same indie
pendent rights of earning money or
food as the men and they go about r.
in the same way. You can see them
any day digging up the sweet pota-
toes that grow in little patches all
over the mountain ridges. or wading
waist deep in the mucky rice fields
that terrace the slopes or climbing up
the paths with a loaded wicker cage
on their backs like any man polista
Sometimes IL is father and some
times mother who looks after the
house after the homework and the fat,
naked babies-sometimes the lean
family dogs. 1t all depends on which
member of the household is the tired
est-that one gets the easy work for
awhile. It's very pretty to see the
way a baby girl is welcomed into a
family. Her Igarrote parents are quite
as delighted with her as if she were a
boy-there's no disadvantage to her in
her sex; that il, as far as her people
are concerned"