Middletown transcript., 1868-07-04


ment to her husband.
On the banks of the Senegal, and among
many African tribes, the matrimonial prize
most sought after is abundance of hesh,-
To obtain corpulcnce is regarded as the
only real comeliness. A female who can
move with the aid of two men is but a
moderate beauty, while the lady who can
not stir, is only to be moved on camel,
is esteemed perfect paragon.
Nor is this queer fancy for obesity in
women confined to the savages of the tor
rid zone, since we read in Wraxalls trav-
els in Russia, that ''in order to possess any
preeminent degree of loveliness, woman
must weigh at least two hundred weight" :"
The Expresses Elizabeth, and Catherine
III. both accounted very fine women, were
of this massive kind
In Italy matches are made with proven
bial levity, and marriage vows, if report
speaks truly, are easily broken. Young
virgins are systematically bartered and sold
by their parents, and young people are
married every day who never saw one an
other before. Concubinage is a constant
remedy for these ill-devised and deceitful
marriages, and the peculiar term cecisbeo
indicates the idemnity which custom pre-
scribes for the fair sex fettered to husbands
unloved.
| In France, as has often been remarked,
women monopolize all the society and a
large share of the business of life. The
coffee houses, the theatres, the shops, ca
barets, or drinking shops, are filled with
women. Women lord it at all assemblies,
and are better informed and more capable
managers than men. Marriage is looked
upon not sot so much as a matter of affec-
ton as of interest, and the sacredness Of
the tic is proportionatoly slender.
Marriage in Sweden is commonly gov
erned wholly by the will of the parents,
and is founded on interest A stolen match
is almost unheard of, and persons of.either
sex seldom marry before the age of twen-
ty-fve or thirty. Divorces are very rare
Russia appears to be the most preposter-
GUS country in Europe in treatment ofwo-
men. The nuptial ceremonies, all and
singular, are based upon the idea of the
degradation of the female. When the pa
rents have agreed upon the match, the
bride is examined by number of women
to see if she has any bodily defect. On
her wedding day she is crowned with 9
garland of wormwood, to denote the bitter.
ness of the marriage state. She is exhorted
to be obedicnt to her husband, and it is 6
custom in some districts for the newly
married wife to present the bridegroom
with whip, in token of submission, anG
with this he seldom fails to show his au
thority. In this cold and cruel country
husbands are known to torture their wives
to death without any punishment for the
murder. If woman proves barren, tn,
husband generally prevails on her to retir,
into convent and leave him at liberty
If he fails in persuations he is permitted tt
whip her into condescension.
Such is the slavery in which the Musco
T vites are kept by their parents and guar
dians, that they are not allowed to disput
any union agreed upon by their elders
however odious or incompatible it may be
This extends so far that officers in the ar
my are not permitted to marry without tn
consent of the sovereign, and wives whom
they do not want are even sometimes fore
ed upon them.
Whether it be the result of this system
. of oppression, or of their savage climate
or of the unnatural hot air of the stove
, heated apartments, it is certain that
more unlovely race of women than til
Russians would be difficult to find The
want, says an English traveller, the gen
uine flavor which only nature can give
That charming frmness and elasticity @
flesh, so indispensably requisite to consti
, tute beauty, and so delicious to the touch
exists not among the Russian females. 0
in very few of them.
f We are told of the Aleutian Islanders
q who form part of our new Russian Anne
. rican acquisition, that they marry one
4 two, or three wives, as they have tn
means of supporting them. The bride
q groom takes the bride upon trial, and ma
/ return her to her parents, should he nc
be satisfied, but cannot demand his pres
ents back again. No man is allowed t
sell his wife without her consent; but h
may, and often does, assign her over I
: another. This custom, it is said, is avail
p ed of by the Russian hunters, who tai,
: Aleutian women or girls to wife for tin
for a trifing compensation.