Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-08-01
THE PURCHASE OF WIVES.
Countries In Which Legal Marriage Fol
lows the Payment of a Price.

Countries In Which Legal Marriage Fol-
lows the Payment of q Price.
There are many countries in which,
if a man wishes to be legally married,
he has to go out aud buy wife, though
the market prices of that article varies
considerably. In Uganda You can get
what you require for two or three bull
locks, or even for six good sewing
needles, Or perhaps box of percussion
caps, while inferior wives can be picked
up in exchange for coat, and, if one is
Indifferent to health and beauty, for a
pair of shoes. In the Caroline islands
wives are cheap. A father will let you
marry his daughter if you give him a
little fruit or a small present of fish,
while in Samoa matrimony runs you
into pigs and canoes; among the Fijians,
into whales teeth and muskets In
Tartary it is best to marry beneath you
(you can do it ON a few pounds of but
ter), because a man who has lordly no.
tions Of marriage with one of the up
per ten must be an owner of horses. The
aborigines of Australia manage their
marriages upon the most equitable prin-
ciple. If A. wishes to marry B. s sister,
he allows him to marry his own. or, if
B. happens to be widower, then his
daughter will do just as we'll One of
the most Objectionable forms of gaining
wife is to work for her, habit prac-
ticed among many uncivilized nations,
its only advantage being that man can
get a wife on credit, though his father
in-law takes good care that he serves
his time. Among some races you have
to do your work before you get your
wife, as Jacob had to serve for Leah
and for Rachel. Marriage by exchange
and purchase is not customary among
uncivilized nations only. In Central
America and Peru man has to work
forNhis bride
In China present is given by the
father of the bridegroom, the amount of
which is agreed upon by both the fami-
lies. The Japanese make use of SINH
lar custom, though, in their case, the
giving of presents is the most important
part of the whole marriage ceremony,
for after these have been delivered and
formally accepted neither of the con-
tracing parties is able to go back.
Wife purchase appears to have been the
basis of Indo-European marriage before
separation of the peoples took place.
Manu- mentions the Asura form of
marriage as one of purchase. and ac-
cording to Aristotle the ancient Greeks
were in the habit of buying their brides.
for in the Homeric age maiden was
called by name which signifed lone
who brings her parents many oxen.
The old Scandinavians believed that
even the gods had paid price for their
wives, and i'll Germany the expression
''to purchase a wife" was in vogue un-
til the end of the middle ages The old
inhabitants of Ireland and Wales were
accustomed to buy their wives with gold
and silver or land. In Servia, at the be-
ginning of our century, girls had reached
such price that Black George reduced
their value to / ducat
Among many savage nations the
equivalents of wife are varied and
grotesque Poor Bashkirs purchase
theirs with carloads of wood or hay,
the Indian Kisans with two baskets of
rice and rupee, tribe in California
with half string of dentalium shell,
and among the Padams, rude people
of India, the sutton shows his inten-
tions by gifts of field mice and squir-
rels. Pail Mall Gazette.