In Abyssinia, which also is not a gynecocratic country, the women enjoy very great liberty; their conduct is very dissolute, and their marriage very easily broken. Bruce, who first made known to us these curious customs, likens them to those of ancient Egypt. “In Abyssinia,” he says, “the women live as if they were common to every one. They pretend, however, to belong, by principle, to one man only when they marry, but they do not act up to it.”[529] Divorce is so easy in Abyssinia that Bruce says he has seen a woman surrounded by seven former husbands.[530] The most distinguished Abyssinian ladies have cicisbei, after the Italian fashion of old times. At their feasts, according to Bruce again, the lovers yield themselves publicly to each other. Their neighbours at table simply take care to hide them very imperfectly by improvising with their cloaks a waving partition.[531] The young women of the province of Samen, says Bruce, came alone to trade with the travellers. “They were hard in their bargains, with the exception of one only, in which they seemed very reasonable and very generous. They agreed to give rather than sell their favours, alleging that long solicitations on one side and refusals on the other wasted time that might be more agreeably employed.”[532] It is clear from this that the monogamic régime of the Abyssinians is more apparent than real, that it is much modified by the extreme cicisbeism, by the use of concubines, of which I have already spoken, and lastly by the abuse of divorce, turning it into a successive polygamy.
V. Monogamy among the Mongols of Asia.
Among the Asiatic Mongols monogamy is also not very strict. In Thibetan Himalaya polyandry seems to predominate. It is not rare, either, in Thibet proper, where, on the other hand, polygamy is not forbidden, for there is no rigid legislation in regard to marriage. Besides, in these countries, as in many others, girls enjoy complete liberty before marriage, and they use it without suffering at all in reputation.[533]
It is singular that in Lamaïc Thibet, in full theocracy, in a country where the prayers and the practices of religion enter into nearly all the actions of civil life, marriage escapes all ecclesiastical interference. In fact, the priests have nothing to do with it, and all the matrimonial ceremony, which is purely laïc, consists in a simple mutual engagement entered into by the interested parties before witnesses.[534]
This laïc anarchy of marriage in Thibet must no doubt be attributed to Lamaïc bigotry itself. The Lamas avoid women, holding marriage in contempt, and all the great functionaries, as well as many Thibetans of the other classes, are of the same opinion.[535] Religion does not concern herself with it; she disdains it, as in Egypt, which seems to show that a sufficient degree of religious madness hinders theocratic legislators from thinking of civil institutions.
But in regard to marriage, both civil and religious laws are always subordinate to the necessities resulting from the social condition and the proportion of the sexes. In Thibet, therefore, in spite of the entire liberty allowed to individuals, the marriage of the greatest number is monogamic quite as much as if the law had prescribed it.[536]
In Tartary the nomad Mongols have adopted for their matrimonial type monogamy tempered by the domestic concubinate. I have spoken previously of their “lesser wives,” of their marriage by purchase with the ceremonial of capture. I need not, therefore, repeat all this. I will only note in passing that their girls have also very loose manners, which are not always corrected by marriage.[537] According to one of the most recent explorers of Mongolia, the proportion of the sexes in that country is the inverse of that in Europe. The women are much less numerous than the men. This may probably be the principal reason of the celibacy of the Lamas, and of the real monogamy of the greater number of laymen who do not belong to the aristocracy.[538]
Chinese marriage essentially resembles Mongol marriage, but with a more settled ritual and a more uniform legislation. It is also monogamic, with the palliative of the concubinate, the “lesser wives” of whom I have already spoken.[539] Besides this, the subjection of women in China is extreme. When a Chinaman has only daughters he is said to have no children.[540] The Chinese woman is submissive in all states, as a daughter to her parents, as a wife to her husband, and as a widow to her sons, especially to her eldest son.[541] (Pauthier, Chine Moderne, p. 239). The young Chinese girl has not even an idea that she may be consulted in the choice of a husband.[542] She is bought from her parents, and a part of the sum agreed on is paid when the contract is signed.[543] As in Mongolia, matrimonial arrangements are often settled, not only from the infancy of the future wife and husband, but even before their birth, on the hypothesis of a difference of sex.[544] These agreements are made by the fathers and mothers, or, in default of them, by the grandparents or nearest relatives.[545] Lastly, the women are excluded by law from inheritance,[546] and kept as much as possible in seclusion, so that they scarcely see any one besides their parents.[547] By marrying, the young Chinese girl simply changes masters. “The bride,” says a Chinese author, “ought only to be a shadow and an echo in the house.” The married woman eats neither with her husband nor with her male children; she waits at table in silence, lights the pipes, must be content with the coarsest food, and has not even the right to touch what her son leaves.[548]
China is a country of very ancient civilisation, where the laws and rites have regulated everything, and consequently there exists a whole legislation with regard to marriage.
To begin with, conjugal union is forbidden between persons having the same family name,[549] and I shall have to return to this circumstance.