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The pota is generally faithful to one man, and prostitution is almost unknown. Unfaithfulness on the part of a betrothed girl, or wife, or even a pota is almost certain to cause serious trouble, and is likely to end in a murder.
The early pledging and marriage of the children has reduced illicit sexual intercourse to a minimum; nevertheless, it sometimes happens that an unbetrothed girl, not a pota, is found to be pregnant. In such a case the man is expected to make a gift of about one hundred pesos to the girl's people, and he must support the child when finally it comes into his keeping.
Her father smoked his pipe of tobacco de pòta; her mother sat in a corner weaving rush baskets; the Little Chaplain peeped out of the door to the broad porch, on which the youthful suitors were silently gathering. Some there were who had been waiting for an hour, for they lived near; there were others who came dusty or spattered with mud, after walking two leagues.
Unfaithfulness on the part of a wife, or a betrothed girl, justifies the aggrieved in killing one or both of the offenders. He may, however, be satisfied by having the marriage gift returned to him, together with a fine and a decree of divorce. A man who has a child by an unmarried woman, not a pota, must give the girl's people about one hundred pesos, and must support the infant.
It was a relic of the ancient haick, or Arabian hood, now worn only on extraordinary occasions. Then the old men drew from their belts their rustic, home-made pipes, filling them with the tobacco of the pòta, an acrid herb which was cultivated on the island.
The pota lives in a house of her own, but she is held somewhat in contempt by the other woman, and is seldom seen in the social gatherings or in other homes. Her children belong to the father, and she has no right of appeal to the old men, except in cases of cruelty. Men with concubines do not suffer in the estimation of their fellows, but are considered clever to have won two or three women.
For his friends received him, till a place the people gave him was furnished with a house, though less stately than his own, where now stands the temple, as it is called, of Vica Pota.
Valerius, indeed, had to be entertained by his friends, until the people gave him a site and built him a house upon it, of more moderate proportions than the other, in the place where at the present day stands the temple of Vica Pota.
The next to be asked was Diespiter, son of Vica Pota, he also being consul elect, and a moneylender; by this trade he made a living, used to sell rights of citizenship in a small way. Hercules trips me up to him daintily, and tweaks him by the ear.
Neither party to such an occurrence loses standing in the community unless the father should fail to redeem the child. Should this happen, he would be a subject of ridicule in the community, and a fine might also result. The usual outcome of such an illicit union is that the girl becomes the pota of her child's father. Death and Burial.
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