ABSTRACT
Occasionally when a nubile girl is not well treated in her own household, she may join her husband soon after or even before the clitorodectomy rite. Thus a girl Otu of age set XVI in Umor was living in her father's household in the care of a step-mother with whom she got on very badly. The provision of utensils for the new household is as a rule left to the wife and her parents who should supply a set of pots, mortars, head bowls and baskets which she will bring with her on coming to reside in her husband's compound. The provision of farming land for the new household becomes necessary. A husband will during the period of betrothal and in the early months of marriage usually become an intimate of his wife's parents' household. He may talk freely to and before his mother-in-law who will give him food and ask him for gifts.
