Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-04-11

The WOrld'G Family-hOIue NSeI"-
ttOns i'm Different COuntrtes-The
Marriage Relation tn Africa and
eWhere-Evidence of Affection
"A Few Extraordinary Facts.
Herbert Spencer remarks that manog-
amy is not the only kind of marriage we
are, indeed, early taught oy our Bible
lessons. But though the conception OF
polygamy is thus made somewhat famll
lar, it does not occur to us that poly
andry is also a possible arrangem ent,
and we are surprised on first learning
that it not only exists, but was once ex-
tremely general. When we contemplate
these marital institutions, unlike our
own, we cannot at first think they can
be practioed with sense of propriety
like that with which we practice ours.
Yet Livingstone narrates that in a tribe
bordering one of the Central African
lakes, the women were quite dlsgusted
on hearing that in England a man has
only one wife. This is feeling by no
means peculiar to them. An intelligent
Kandyan chief, with whom Mr.. Bailey
visited the Veddahs, was scandalized at
the utter barbarism of living with only
one wife, and never parting until sePa-
rated by death. 1t was, he said, "just
like the wanderoos" (monkeys.) Again,
one would suppose that, as a matter OF
course, monogamy, pologamy and poly.
andry, in its several varieties, exhausted
the possible forms Of marriage.
An utterly unexpected form is furn-
ished us by one of the African tribes.
Marriage among them is for so many
days in the week, commonly for four
days in the week, which ia said to be the
custom in the best families;" the wife
during the off days being regarded as an
| independent woman, who may do what
she pleases. We are little surprised,
too on reading that by some of the hill
tribes of India, unfaithfulness on the
part of the husband is held to be a very
grave offense, but unfaithfulness on the
part of the wife, a very trivial one. We
assume, as being self-evident, that good
usage Of wife by husband implies,
i ana oug other things, entire absence OF
violence; and hence it seems scarcely
imaginable that in some places the oppo-
site criterion holds. Yet it does so
among the Tartars. A nurse maid OF
mine, writes Mrs. Anderson in her Tar
tar Steppes,' left ms to be married, and
some short time after she went to the
Natchalnick Of che pisce to make com;
plant against her husband. BE inquired
into the natter, when she coolly told him
her husband did not love her. Be.
cause, 1he replied, che never whipped
her "a statement which might be re-
! iected as incredible, were it not for the
analogous fact that among the South
! African races, a white master who does
not thrash his psn is Fldjcplsd and re-
preached as not worthy to be called mas
ter. El
Among domestic customs, again, who,
il he has been set to imagine all possible
anomalies, would have hit upon that
which is found among the Basques, and
has EXISTED among other races-the Gus
tom that on the birth Of child the hus-
hand goes to bed aud receives the con
ordinations Of his friends, while his wife
retnrns 10 her household work2 Or who,
among the pssults Of having a son bern,
would dream Of that which occurs among
some Bolynegign races, ghere ths father
Is forthwith dispossessed Of hls property,
and becomes simply a guardian OF 1t on
SebaIf eS Of tbe infsbt9 The varieties OF
| 6l;ai relations aud Of accompanying sen
| tlmouts continually shsW US things
esuaiiy strange, and at first sight unac-
eeuutablo. 1t seems hardly credible that
Il should be snywhere thought duty on
the mart of children to bury their parents
alive. Yet il is so thought among ths
Fiiians. Of whom we read also, that the
parents thus out Of the way 60 to then
graves with smiling faces. Scarcely less
incredible does it seem that a man
afeetion shopld be regarded GO lioEe -tJ
shown toward the children OF others tnAi I9.i
towards his own children. Yet the M
tribes Of India supply an example.