Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-07-16
rHH PURCHASE on WIVES.
Countries Where Legal Marriage Follows
the IAyment of a Price.

Countries Where Legal Marriage Follows
the IAyment of a Price.
Pail Mall Gazette.
There are many countries in which, If
a man wishes to be legally married, he
has to go out and buy wife, though the
market price of that article varies con-
siderably. In Uganda you can get what
yCu require for two or three pullOcks,
or even for six good sewing needles, or
perhaps box OF percussion caps; while
inferior wives can be picked up in eX-
change for coat, and If one is indiffer-
ent 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 small
present of fish, while in Samoa matri-
mony runs you into pigs and canoes;
among the Fijians, into whales teeth
and muskets. In Tartary 1t is best to
marry beneath you (you can do it on
few pounds of butter), because a man
who has lordly notions of a marriage
with one of the upper ten must be an
owner of horses.
The aborlgines of Australia manage
their marriages upon q most equitable
principle. II A wishes to marry BIS Sis
ter, he allows him to marry his own; or
If b happens to be q widower, then his
daughter will do just as well. One of the
most Objectionable forms of gaining
wife is to work for her, a. habit practiced
among many uncivilized nations, its only
advantage being that a man can get
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 unclvilized ma
lions only. In Central America and Peru
a man has to work for his bride.
In China a present is given by the ia
Their of the bridegroom, the amount or
which is agreed upon by both the fami-
lies. The Japanese make use of SINH
lar custom, though in their case the Civ
ing 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 be-
fore the separation of the people took
place. Manu- mentions the Asura form
Of marriage as one of purchase; accord
ing to Aristotle the ancient Greeks were
in the habit of buying their brides, for in
the Homeric age a maiden was called bA
a name which signified zone who brings
her parents many oxen"
The old Scandinavians believed that
even the gods had paid a price for their
wives, and in Germany the expression
ito purchase a wife" was in vogue until
the end of the middle ages. The old in
habitants of Ireland and Wales were ac-
customed to buy their wives with gold
and silver or land. In Servia. at the be-
ginning of the century, girls had reached
such a price that Black George reduced
their value to one ducat.
Among most savage nations the equiv
alents of wife are varied and grotesque.
Poor Bashkirs purchase theirs with cart
loads of wood or hay; the Indian Kisans,
with two baskets of rice and a rupee;
tribe in California, with half a string of
dentalium shell, and among the Padams,
a rude people of india the sutton shows
his intentions by gifts of field mice and
SQUIRRELS