Among a large number of peoples, a husband not only requires chastity from his wife, but demands that the woman whom he marries shall be a virgin. There can be little doubt, I think, that this requirement owes its origin to the same powerful feeling that keeps watch over marital faithfulness. Among the Ahts, for example, "a girl who was known to have lost her virtue, lost with it one of her chances of a favourable marriage." Among the Chippewas, according to Mr. Keating, no woman could expect to be taken as a wife by a warrior unless she had lived in strict chastity. Statements to the same effect are made with reference to other Indian tribes.3 Again, when one of the Chichimecs of Central Mexico marries, if the girl proves not to be a virgin, she may be returned to her parents. A very similar custom prevailed among the Nicaraguans and Azteks, and exists still among several tribes of the Indian Archipelago and in New Guinea ; whilst, in Samoa, valuable presents were given for a girl who had preserved her virtue, the bride's purity being proved in a way that will not bear the light of description.7 5 "In many parts of Africa," says Mr. Reade, "no marriage can be ratified till a jury of matrons have pronounced a verdict of purity on the bride; "8 it being customary to return a girl who is found not to have been entirely chaste, and to 1 Sproat, loc. cit. p. 95. 2 Keating, 'Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River,' vol. ii. pp. 169, et seq. 3 Heriot, loc. cit. p. 339. Waitz, loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 505. 4 Bancroft, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 632. 5 Squier, The Archæology and Ethnology of Nicaragua,' in 'Trans. Am. Ethn. Soc.,' vol. iii. pt. i. p. 127. Acosta, 'The Natural and Moral History of the Indies,' vol. ii. p. 370. Wilken, in 'Bijdragen tot te taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië,' ser. v. vol. iv. pp. 446-448. Bink, in 'Bull. Soc. d'Anthr.,' ser. iii. vol. xi. p. 397. 7 Turner, Samoa,' p. 95. Wilkes, loc. cit. vol. ii. F. 80. WaitzGerland, vol. vi. p. 127. 8 Reade, loc. cit. p. 547. Cf. Waitz, vol. ii. p. 389; Nachtigal, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 740; Park, Travels in the Interior of Africa,' p. 221 (Mandingoes); Burckhardt, loc. cit. p. 151, note † (Arabs of Upper Egypt). claim back the price paid for her.1 Dr. Grade states that, among the Negroes of Togoland, a much higher price is paid for a bride who is a virgin than for any other. Among the Somals, a fallen girl cannot become a man's legitimate wife; whilst, in the Soudan and other parts of Africa where girls are subjected to infibulation, that incontinence may be made impossible, no young woman who is not infibulated can get a husband.* The Jewish custom of handing "the tokens of the damsel's virginity" to her parents, to be kept as evidence in case of a later accusation, is well known. A practice not very dissimilar to this prevails in China, Arabia, and among the Chuvashes, with whom the signum innocentiae is exhibited even coram populo. In Persia, as also in Circassia,10 a girl who is not a virgin when she marries, runs the risk of being put away after the first night. Among several nations belonging to the Russian Empire, according to Georgi, the bridegroom may claim a fine in case of the bride being found to have lost her virtue; and, among the Chulims, if the Mosaic testimony of chastity is wanting, the husband goes away and does not return before the seducer has made peace with him.12 As to the ancient Germans, Tacitus states that, by their laws, virgins only could marry.1 13 A husband's pretensions may reach even farther than this. He often demands that the woman he chooses for his wife shall belong to him, not during his lifetime only, but after his death. 1 Waitz, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 113. Post, 'Afrikanische Jurisprudenz,' vol. i. pp. 396, et seq. Johnston, 'The People of Eastern Equatorial Africa,' in 'Jour. Anthr. Inst.,' vol. xv. p. 11. Cf. Reade, loc. cit. p. 45. 2 Grade, in 'Aus allen Welttheilen,' vol. xx. p. 5. 3 Waitz, vol. ii. p. 522. 4 d'Escayrac de Lauture, loc. cit. p. 192. 5 'Deuteronomy,' ch. xxii. vv. 15-17. 6 Gray, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 209. 7 Manzoni, quoted by Janke, loc. cit. p. 555. Cf. Burckhardt, loc. cit. p. 63. 8 Vámbéry, 'Das Türkenvolk,' p. 461 10 Klemm, loc. cit. vol. iv. p. 26. 12 Ibid., p. 232. 9 Polak, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 213. The belief in another life is almost universal in the human race. As that life is supposed to resemble this, man having the same necessities there as here, part of his property is buried with him. And so strong is the idea of a wife being the exclusive property of her husband, that, among several peoples, she may not even survive him. Thus, formerly, among the Comanches, when a man died, his favourite wife was killed at the same time.1 In certain Californian tribes, widows were sacrificed on the pyre with their deceased husbands; and Mackenzie was told that this practice sometimes occurred among the Crees.3 In Darien and Panama, on the death of a chief, all his concubines were interred with him. When one of the Incas died, says Acosta, the woman whom he had loved best, as well as his servants and officers, were put to death, "that they might serve him in the other life." The same custom prevailed in the region of the Congo, as also in some other African countries. is no longer possible to doubt," says Dr. Schrader, "that ancient Indo-Germanic custom ordained that the wife should die with her husband." 7 In India, as is well known, widows were sacrificed, until quite recently, on the funeral pile of their husbands; whilst, among the Tartars, according to Navarette, on a man's death, one of his wives hanged herself "to bear him company in that journey." Among the Chinese, something of the same kind seems to have been done occasionally in olden times.9 8 "It Turning to other quarters of the world: in Polynesia, and especially in Melanesia, widows were very commonly killed.10 In Fiji, for instance, they were either buried alive or strangled, often at their own desire, because they believed that in this 1 Schoolcraft, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 133. 2 Ibid., vol. iv. p. 226 ; vol. v. p. 217. 3 Mackenzie, loc. cit. p. xcviii. 4 Seemann, 'The Voyage of Herald,' vol. i. p. 316. 5 Acosta, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 313. 6 Reade, loc. cit. p. 359. Waitz, loc. cit. vol. ii. pp. 192, 193, 419. 7 Schrader, loc. cit. p. 391. 8 In Bali this practice was carried to the utmost excess (Crawfurd, 'History of the Indian Archipelago,' vol. ii. p. 241. Zimmermann, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 19). 9 Navarette, loc. cit. p. 77. 10 Waitz-Gerland, vol. vi. pp. 130, 640, et seq. way alone could they reach the realms of bliss, and that she who met her death with the greatest devotedness, would become the favourite wife in the abode of spirits. On the other hand, a widow who did not permit herself to be killed was considered an adulteress. In the New Hebrides, according to the missionary John Inglis, a wife is strangled, even when her husband is long absent from home. If the husband's demands are less severe, his widow is not on that account always exempted from every duty towards him after his death. Among the Tacullies, she is compelled by the kinsfolk of the deceased to lie on the funeral pile where the body of her husband is placed, whilst the fire is lighting, until the heat becomes unbearable. Then, after the body is consumed, she is obliged to collect the ashes and deposit them in a small basket, which she must always carry about with her for two or three years, during which time she is not at liberty to marry again.3 Among the Kutchin Indians, the widow, or widows, are bound to remain near the body for a year to protect it from animals, &c. ; and only when it is quite decayed and merely the bones remain, are they permitted. to remarry, "to dress their hair, and put on beads and other ornaments to attract admirers." 4 Again, among the Minas on the Slave Coast, the widows are shut up for six months in the room where their husband is buried. 5 With the Kukis, according to Rennel, a widow was compelled to remain for a year beside the tomb of her deceased husband, her family bringing her food. In the Mosquito tribe, "the widow was bound to supply the grave of her husband with. provisions for a year, after which she took up the bones and carried them with her for another year, at last placing them 1 Wilkes, loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 96. Zimmermann, loc. cit. vol. i. pp. 377, 359. Seemann, 'Viti,' pp. 192, 398. Williams, 'Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands,' p. 557. Pritchard, loc. cit. p. 372. 2 Inglis, 'Missionary Tour in the New Hebrides,' in 'Journal of the Ethnological Society of London,' vol. iii. p. 63. 3 Wilkes, loc. cit. vol. iv. p. 453. Cf. Richardson, loc. cit. vol. ii. P. 31. 4 Hardisty, in 'Smithsonian Report,' 1866, p. 319. 5 Bouche, 'La Côte des Esclaves,' p. 218. Lewin, loc. cit. p. 230. upon the roof of her house, and then only was she allowed to marry again." 1 In Rotuma and the Marquesas Islands,2 as well as among the Tartars and Iroquois,3 a widow was never allowed to enter a second time into the married state. Among the ancient Peruvians, says Garcilasso de la Vega, very few widows who had no children ever married again, and even widows who had children continued to live single; "for this virtue was much commended in their laws and ordinances." 4 Nor is it in China considered proper for a widow to contract a second marriage, and in genteel families such an event rarely, if ever, occurs. Indeed, a lady of rank, by contracting a second marriage, exposes herself to a penalty of eighty blows.5 Again, the Arabs, according to Burckhardt, regard everything connected with the nuptials of a widow as ill-omened, and unworthy of the participation of generous and honourable men.6 Speaking of the Aryans, Dr. Schrader remarks that, when sentiments had become more humane, traces of the old state of things survived in the prohibitions issued against the second marriage of widows.7 Even now, according to Dubois, the happiest lot that can befall a Hindu woman, particularly one of the Brahman caste, is to die in the married state. The bare mention of a second marriage for her would be considered the greatest of insults, and, if she married again, "she would be hunted out of society, and no decent person would venture at any time to have the slightest intercourse with her." Again, among the Bhils, when a widow marries, the newly-wedded pair, according to a long-established custom, are obliged to leave the house before daybreak and pass the next day in the fields, in a solitary place, some miles from the village, nor may they return till the dusk. The necessity of 1 Bancroft, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 731. 2 Waitz-Gerland, loc. cit. vol. v. pt. ii. p. 191; vol. vi. p. 130. 3 de Rubruquis, 'Travels into Tartary and China,' in Pinkerton, 'Collection of Voyages,' vol. vii. p. 33. Schoolcraft, loc. cit. vol. vi. p. 57. 4 Garcilasso de la Vega, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 305. 5 Gray, loc. cit. vol. i. p 215. 7 Schrader, loc. cit. p. 391. 6 Burckhardt, loc cit. p. 152. |