neighbours." 1 These neighbours are much superior to the Veddahs in civilization; and the other peoples practising polyandry have left the lowest stages of development far behind them. The Eskimo are a rather advanced race, and so are the polyandrous nations of the Asiatic continent. Speaking of the people of Sirmore, Mr. Fraser observes, "It is remarkable that a people so degraded in morals, and many of whose customs are of so revolting a nature, should in other respects evince a much higher advancement in civilization than we discover among other nations, whose manners are more engaging, and whose moral character ranks infinitely higher. Their persons are better clad and more decent; their approach more polite and unembarrassed; and their address is better than that of most of the inhabitants of the remote Highlands of Scotland; .. and their houses, in point of construction, comfort and internal cleanliness, are beyond comparison superior to Scottish Highland dwellings." On the arrival of the Spaniards, the polyandrous inhabitants of Lancerote were distinguished from the other Canarians, who were strictly monogamous, by marks of greater civilization.3

We have seen that in polyandrous families the husbands are generally brothers, and that the eldest brother, at least in many cases, has the superiority, the younger husbands having almost the position, if the term may be used, of male concubines. It is a fair conclusion that, in such instances, polyandry was originally an expression of fraternal benevolence on the part of the eldest brother, who gave his younger brothers a share in his wife, if, on account of the scarcity of women, they would otherwise have had to live unmarried. If additional wives were afterwards acquired, they would naturally be considered the common property of all the brothers. In this way the groupmarriage of the Toda type seems to have been evolved.

1 Bailey, in Trans. Ethn. Soc.,' N. S. vol. ii. p. 292.

2 Fraser, loc. cit. p. 209.

3 v. Humboldt, 'Personal Narrative,' vol. i. p. 83.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE DURATION OF HUMAN MARRIAGE

THE time during which marriage lasts, varies very considerably among different species. According to Dr. Brehm, most birds pair for life,1 while among the mammals, with the exception of man and perhaps the anthropomorphous apes, the same male and female scarcely ever live together longer than a year.2 In human marriage every degree of duration is met with-from unions which, though legally recognized as marriages, do not endure long enough to deserve to be so called, to other which are dissolved only by death.

There are a few remarkable instances of peoples among whom separation is said to be entirely unknown. In the Andaman Islands, according to Mr. Man, "no incompatibility of temper or other cause is allowed to dissolve the union." 3 The same is said of certain Papuans of New Guinea, and of several tribes of the Indian Archipelago who have remained in their native state, and continue to follow ancient custom.5 The Veddahs of Ceylon have a proverb that "death alone separates husband and wife;" and Mr. Bailey assures us that they faithfully act on this principle.

1 Brehm, 'Thierleben,' vol. iv. p. 20.

3 Man, in 'Jour. Anthr. Inst.,' vol. xii. p. 135.

2 Ibid., vol. i. p. 33.

4 Earl, loc. cit. p. 83. Wilken, 'Verwantschap,' p. 66.

5 Peoples of Watubela (Riedel, loc. cit. p. 206) and Lampong in Sumatra (Wilken, 'Verwantschap,' p. 58), Igorrotes and Italones of the Philippines (Blumentritt, loc. cit. pp. 28, 33). Professor Wilken thinks (pp. 46, et seq.) the same was the case among the Niasians and Bataks. 6 Bailey, in' Trans. Ethn. Soc.,' N.S. vol. ii. p. 293.

As a general rule, however, human marriage is not necessarily contracted for life. The Indians of North America dissolve their unions as readily as they enter into them. The Wyandots had, it is said, marriages upon trial, which were binding for a few days only.1 In Greenland, husband and wife sometimes separate after living together for half a year.2 Among the Creeks, “marriage is considered only as a temporary convenience, not binding on the parties more than one year," the consequence being that "a large portion of the old and middle-aged men, by frequently changing, have had many different wives, and their children, scattered around the country, are unknown to them." Speaking of the Botocudos, Mr. Keane remarks that their marriages "are all of a purely temporary nature, contracted without formalities of any sort, dissolved on the slightest pretext, or without any pretext, merely through love of change or caprice.” In Ruk, it frequently happens that newly married husbands repudiate their wives; and, in the Pelew and Kingsmill Groups, and among the aborigines of Northern Queensland, divorces are of common occurrence. "Tasmanian lords," says Dr. Milligan, "had no difficulty, and made no scruple, about a succession of wives." Again, in Samoa, "if the marriage had been contracted merely for the sake of the property and festivities of the occasion, the wife was not likely to be more than a few days, or weeks, with her husband." In several of the Islands of the Indian Archipelago, "in the regular marriages the parties are always betrothed to each other for a longer or shorter time, sometimes not for more than a month and at others for a period of years."9 Among the Dyaks,

1 Waitz, loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 105.

2 Nordenskiöld, 'Grönland,' p. 508. Cf. Nansen, loc. cit. vol. ii. pp. 319, et seq.

3 Schoolcraft, loc. cit. vol. v. pp. 272, et seq.

4 Keane, in 'Jour. Anthr. Inst.,' vol xiii. p. 206.

5 Waitz-Gerland, vol. vi. p. 634.

'Ymer,' vol. iv. p. 328. Wilkes, loc. cit. vol. v. p. 101. Lumholtz, loc. cit. pp. 193, 213.

7 Quoted by Bonwick, 'Daily Life,' p. 73.

8 Turner, 'Samoa,' p. 97.

9 Crawfurd, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 88.

there are few middle-aged men who have not had several wives, and instances have been known of young women of seventeen or eighteen who had already lived with three or four husbands.1 Among the Yendalines in Indo-China, it is rare for any woman to arrive at middle age without having a family by two or more husbands.2 The Maldivians, as we are informed by Mr. Rosset, are so fond of change that many a man marries and divorces the same woman three or four times in the course of his life.3 Among the Sinhalese, according to Knox, "both men and women have frequently to marry four or five times before they can settle down contented;" and Father Bourien says of the Mantras of the interior of the Malay Peninsula, that it is not uncommon to meet individuals who have married even forty or fifty different times. Among the Munda Kols, Khasias, Tartars, and most Mohammedan peoples, divorces are very frequent. According to Dr. van der Berg, an even more fatal influence is exercised on family life in the East by this laxity of the marriage tie than by polygyny.8 Burckhardt knew Bedouins forty-five years old who had had more than fifty wives. A Sighe" wife in Persia is taken in marriage for a certain legally stipulated period, which may vary from one 'hour to ninety-nine years.10 In Cairo, according to Mr. Lane, there are not many persons who have not divorced one wife, if they have been married for a long time; and many men in Egypt have in the course of two years married as many as twenty, thirty, or more wives; whilst there are women, not far

1 St. John, in 'Trans. Ethn. Soc.,' N.S. vol. ii. p. 237.

2 Colquhoun, 'Amongst the Shans,' p. 75.

3 Rosset, in 'Jour. Anthr. Inst.,' vol. xvi. p. 169.

4 Quoted by Pridham, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 253.

5 Bourien, 'The Wild Tribes of the Interior of the Malay Peninsula,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc.,' N.S. vol. iii. p. 80.

Jellinghaus, in 'Zeitschr. f. Ethnol.,' vol. iii. p. 370. Yule, 'Notes on the Kasia Hills,' in 'Jour. As. Soc. Bengal,' vol. xiii. pt. ii. p. 624. Huc, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 186.

7 Pischon, loc. cit. p. 13. Chavanne, ' Die Sahara,' p. 603.

8 'Das Ausland,' 1875, p. 958.

9 Klemm, 'Cultur-Geschichte,' vol. iv. p. 150.

10 Polak, loc. cit. vol. i. pp. 207, et seq.

advanced in age, who have been wives to a dozen or more men successively. Mr. Lane has even heard of men who have been in the habit of marrying a new wife almost every month. In Morocco, Dr. Churcher writes to me, a terrible state of things springs from the ease with which divorce is obtained; a man repudiates his wife on the slightest provocation and marries again. "One of the servants here," he continues, "is reported to have had nineteen wives already, though he is still only middle-aged." Indeed, among the Moors of the Sahara, according to Mr. Reade, it is considered "low" for a couple to live too long together, and "the leaders of fashion are those who have been the oftenest divorced." 2 Lobo tells us that, in Abyssinia, marriage was usually entered upon for a term of years; and, among the Somals, separation is exceedingly common. peoples marry upon trial or for a fixed time.5 Negroes of Bondo, a man may so often send away his wife and take a new one that it is difficult to know who is the father of the children born. Regarding the ancient Persians, Professor Rawlinson observes that the easiness of divorce among the Magians was in accordance with Eranian notions. on the subject of marriage-" notions far less strict than those which have commonly prevailed among civilized nations." Among the Greeks, especially the Athenians, and among the Teutons, divorce often occurred; and in Rome, at the close of the Republic and the commencement of the Empire, it prevailed to a frightful extent.10

Many negro
Among the

Among uncivilized races, as a rule, and among many advanced peoples, a man may divorce his wife whenever he likes. The Aleuts used to exchange their wives for food

1 Lane, loc. cit. vol. i. pp. 247, 251. 2 Reade, loc. cit. p. 444.

4 Burton, First Footsteps,' p. 122.

5 Waitz, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 114.

6 Das Ausland,' 1881, p. 1027.

7 Rawlinson, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 353.

3 Lobo, loc. cit. p. 26.

8 Becker, loc. cit. vol. ii. pp. 488, et seq. Hermann-Blümner, loc. cit.

p. 264.

Nordström, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 34.

10 Mackenzie, 'Studies in Roman Law,' p. 125.