1. POLYGAMY.--There is a wide difference as regards the relations of
the sexes in different parts of the world. In some parts polygamy has
prevailed from time immemorial.
Most savage people are polygamists, and the Turks, though slowly
departing from the practice, still allow themselves a plurality of
wives.
2. RULE REVERSED.--In Thibet the rule is reversed, and the females are
provided with two or more husbands. It is said that in many instances
a whole family of brothers have but one wife. The custom has at
least one advantageous feature, viz.: the possibility of leaving an
unprotected widow and a number of fatherless children is entirely
obviated.
3. THE MORGANATIC MARRIAGE is a modification of polygamy. It sometimes
occurs among the royalty of Europe, and is regarded as perfectly
legitimate, but the morganatic wife is of lower rank than her royal
husband, and her children do not inherit his rank or fortune. The
Queen only is the consort of the sovereign, and entitled to share his
rank.
4. DIFFERENT MANNERS OF OBTAINING WIVES.--Among the uncivilized almost
any envied possession is taken by brute force or superior strength.
The same is true in obtaining a wife. The strong take precedence of
the weak. It is said that among the North American Indians it was the
custom for men to wrestle for the choice of women. A weak man could
seldom retain a wife that a strong man coveted.
The law of contest was not confined to individuals alone. Women were
frequently the cause of whole tribes arraying themselves against each
other in battle. The effort to excel in physical power was a great
incentive to bodily development, and since the best of the men were
preferred by the most superior women, the custom was a good one in
this, that the race was improved.
5. THE ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN employed low cunning and heartless
cruelty in obtaining his wife. Laying in ambush, with club in hand, he
would watch for the coveted woman, and, unawares, spring upon her. If
simply disabled he carried her off as his possession, but if the blow
had been hard enough to kill, he abandoned her to watch for another
victim. There is here no effort to attract or please, no contest of
strength; his courtship, if courtship it can be called, would compare
very unfavorably with any among the brute creation.
6. THE KALMUCK TARTAR races for his bride on horseback, she having
a certain start previously agreed upon. The nuptial knot consists in
catching her, but we are told that the result of the race all depends
upon whether the girl wants to be caught or not.
7. HAWAIIAN ISLANDERS.--Marriage among the early natives of these
islands was merely a matter of mutual inclination. There was no
ceremony at all, the men and women united and separated as they felt
disposed.
8. THE FEUDAL LORD, in various parts of Europe, when any of his
dependents or followers married, exercised the right of assuming the
bridegroom's proper place in the marriage couch for the first night.
Seldom was there any escape from this abominable practice. Sometimes
the husband, if wealthy, succeeded in buying off the petty sovereign
from exercising his privilege.
9. THE SPARTANS had the custom of encouraging intercourse between
their best men and women for the sake of a superior progeny, without
any reference to a marriage ceremony. Records show that the ancient
Roman husband has been known to invite a friend, in whom he may have
admired some physical or mental trait, to share the favors of his
wife; that the peculiar qualities that he admired might be repeated in
the offspring.
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[Illustration: PROPOSING.]
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