Note 320 — Chapter III · THEORY OF THE ORIGINAL PAIRING OR MONOGAMOUS FAMILY
Reading edition
José d'Anchieta, "Informação dos Casamentos dos Indios do Brazil," Revista Trimensal de Hist. e Geog., VIII, 254-62. "At most," he continues, "they beat the one guilty of adultery if they can, and he bears it patiently, knowing what he has done, except in case he is some great chief, and the woman has no father or strong brothers of whom he is afraid." Then the author relates how a "great chief," Ambirem, cruelly put a wife to death for adultery; but this act and others of the same sort he ascribes to the influence of the French, whom the good priest evidently does not like.