This question of widows has evidently been very embarrassing for primitive societies. They have either been kept or sold, according as it might be agreeable or advantageous. But another very simple way of getting rid of the encumbrance has been to sacrifice them on the tomb of the dead husband. Nothing is less rare than such immolations in savage countries, and these atrocious acts are often inspired by affectionate sentiments, by care for the fate which awaits the deceased husband after death. How can they let him travel alone on that dangerous journey beyond the tomb? This is the reason of the widely spread custom of human sacrifices, which chiefly consist of women and slaves. I quote a few facts of this kind, simply as specimens.
In certain tribes of New Zealand the widows were strangled on the tomb of the deceased husband.[827] In equatorial Africa, at Yourriba, when the king dies, four of his wives and a number of slaves are forced to poison themselves. The poison is poured into a parrot’s egg for them, and if it does not produce any effect the patients must supplement it by hanging themselves. At Jenna, on the Niger, at the death of a chief, one or two of his widows must commit suicide the same day, in order to furnish him with pleasant company in the country beyond the tomb, of which he is going to take possession.[828] At Katunga, the chief wife of the deceased king is obliged to poison herself on the tomb of her husband, in company with the eldest son and the principal personages of the kingdom. All these victims must be buried with the dead master.[829]
The massacres by which the death of the king of Dahomey is solemnised are well known, and in them also the wives play an important part as victims. We know that the primitive Germans had analogous customs; for savages of all countries, to whatever race they belong, resemble each other and repeat themselves.
Among various peoples funeral sacrifices are replaced by mutilations more or less voluntary, and especially obligatory on widows. As examples, I may mention the amputation of the little finger by the Hottentots, the Melanesians, and the Charruas; and the gashes which Polynesian widows made on their faces and bodies. These bloody demonstrations were obligatory, and far from corresponding to a real grief. At Noukahiva Porter saw a widow, the funeral wounds still fresh on her neck, breast, and arms, prostitute herself to American sailors.[830]
This review of savage manners and customs in regard to widows has only been a long enumeration of cruelties and iniquities, and these, although much lessened in barbarous countries, do not, by any means, disappear.
II. Widowhood in Barbarous Countries.
The natives of Himalayan Bhootan are sometimes monogamous, sometimes polygamous, and sometimes polyandrous, and these variations naturally affect the conditions of widowhood. Among the monogamous and polygamous, the widows can only marry again after a delay of three years. This regulation, which we have already found among the Redskins, has doubtless been dictated by the same reasons; and taken with many other similarities existing in very dissimilar races and countries, it tends to prove that scientific sociology can be more than a mere name or imagination. In the Himalayan Bhootan, a widow who has no repugnance to polygamy has many chances of marrying again, if she has a younger sister still free, whom the new husband can marry at the same time.[831] In polyandrous families there can hardly be any real widowhood for the woman. Thus, at Ladak, if the eldest brother, the husband in chief, happens to die, his property, authority, and share of the wife pass to the next brother, whether the latter be or not one of the husbands.[832] This is a sort of levirate which naturally exists in polyandrous households, and obviates at once the question of widowhood, so embarrassing to the other forms of marriage. This question of widows has been solved very grossly, and sometimes very cruelly, in the Middle Empire or China proper. Although on certain sides the old Chinese civilisation puts ours to shame, it is very backward in relation to all that concerns widows. We have previously seen that during her whole life the subjection of the Chinese woman is extreme, that she owes obedience first to her parents, then to her husband, then to her son, and that she is married, or rather sold, without being consulted at all. But widowhood does not even set her free, for she represents a value which the relatives of the husband inherit, and which they hasten to profit by. It often happens, therefore, that the Chinese widow is made to marry again, or rather, is sold again, and this time, also, no one dreams of asking her consent. The child at the breast, if there is one, is included in the bargain. In order to moderate the haste of covetous parents, the law has been obliged to intervene, and prevent the sale of the widow before the expiration of the time of mourning. The Chinese widow, if she wishes to escape this traffic in her person, and is without fortune, has no resource except to become a bonzess. Those widows only whose rank or riches place them above the common, are able to pass the rest of their days without being united to a fresh husband;[833] this posthumous fidelity is much encouraged in China by public opinion, whenever interest does not forbid it. The betrothed maiden, who may become a widow before being a wife, is much esteemed if she buries herself for ever in an enforced sorrow; but naturally, a reciprocal demand is not made on the betrothed man who may lose his fiancée. If the rich widow who remains inconsolable is much praised, she who refuses to survive her husband receives greater honour. Tablets are erected in the temples in memory of young girls who have killed themselves on the tombs of their betrothed, and twice a year certain mandarins make oblations in their honour.[834] With much stronger reason is this done for real widows.
In 1857 the Pekin Gazette published a decree, according a tablet to the memory of the wife of a mandarin who had poisoned herself on hearing of the death of her husband in a battle against the rebels. These suicides of widows are performed in public, with great pomp and solemnity. In January 1861 two young widows thus committed suicide at Fou-Chow, in presence of several thousand spectators. Another did the same at the end of December 1860.[835] It would seem, therefore, that these suicides are frequent enough even at the present time. From observations made during the Anglo-French Expedition to China, it appears that they are generally widows without children or relations who thus sacrifice themselves; they do it openly and with much ceremony. A month beforehand, the widow goes in procession through the town, as has been thus described:—“Two executioners headed the procession; then came musicians; then men dressed in coarse linen tunics with hoods, carrying parasols, little pagodas, boxes of perfumes, and streamers. After them came a third executioner, followed by a second group bearing poles, surmounted by figures of fantastic animals. And lastly came a mandarin’s palanquin, surrounded by numerous servants of both sexes, dressed in mourning, which consisted of grey linen. In the palanquin was the heroine of the fête, a young woman dressed in red (the imperial colour), and crowned with a blue diadem. Her red satin robe was ornamented with lace and gold embroidery. This solemn procession had no other object than to announce the suicide to the public, and invite them to attend it on the following moon, day for day. The young widow was exact in appearing at the rendezvous, and tranquilly hung herself at the date fixed.”[836]
With differences of form and mode of execution, India devotes her widows to a similar fate.
It seems, indeed, that in India also the widow is, or has been, considered as the property of the relatives of her dead husband, for a verse of the Code of Manu orders that if she has been sterile, a relative shall endeavour to make her conceive. Very striking and primitive is the inequality of the obligations imposed by Indian law on the widower and on the widow.[837]