Married women who are separated from their husbands are often in a sort of limbo between marriage and non-marriage. One old woman in Sakaltutan and two in Elbashï were living apart from their current husbands with sons who had separated from their father's household. In all three cases, the husband had another wife living with him. All these were regarded as married to their husbands, and were too old to be of interest to widowers and divorcés. One widow in Sakaltutan had two children by her first husband, and maintained a separate household in her father's house, apart from her second husband, who was her first husband's brother. They were not on speaking terms, but she refused offers of marriage from others and by 1952 had become reconciled and returned to her husband. Another girl newly married left her husband for some weeks and was still separate when we left, but people assumed this case to be normal and thus certain to end in reconciliation. No other married women were living alone to my knowledge during my field work. I heard of one or two similar cases in other villages.
If a dissatisfied wife cannot return home, either because she is not acceptable there, or because she has no home to which to return, then clearly she is in a difficult position. One unfortunate man in Elbashï had lost two wives through suicide, of whom the more recent at least took her life because her father had sent her to the man against her will, and she could neither stand him nor return home. Another girl who eloped to escape from an intolerable stepmother only to find that her mother-in-law was just as intolerable, attempted unsuccessfully to drown herself p 193). The only way out is to find a man willing to take her as a wife. Her husband might, in theory, attempt violence, but a woman knows the eriousness of the risk, and she will always move to another village. In such cases, the new