This mode of marriage was not uncommon with the Indians of North America. Sometimes the future husband engaged to serve the parents of the girl for a fixed period of time. He hunted for them, hollowed out or constructed canoes, or where agriculture was practised he cultivated the land.[279] Sometimes the husband was not entirely enslaved; he had only to give to his wife’s parents a part of the produce of the chase, and he was not exempt from this tribute till a daughter was born to him, who became, by way of indemnity, the property of the maternal uncle of his wife.[280]
Often during the time of his voluntary servitude the husband remained in the family of his wife, and he actually took the position there of a sort of slave.[281]
In the more civilised societies of Central America the custom of marriage by servitude was nevertheless preserved. Among the Kenaï, the future husband went every morning for a whole year to the house of the parents of his betrothed to prepare the food, carry the water, or heat the bath-chamber; then, when his year of service was over, he took away the daughter.[282] In Yucatan the son-in-law was obliged to serve his father-in-law for two or three years. This manner of acting even became a general custom which it was considered immoral not to follow.[283] With the Mayas, the bridegroom was required to build himself a house opposite that of his future father-in-law, and he lived there five or six years, giving his labour during all that period.[284]
Although more common in America than elsewhere, the custom of marriage by servitude is not confined to that continent. The Limboos and the Kirantis of Bengal often buy their wives by giving a certain term of labour to the father, in whose house they remain until the payment is finished.[285] We know also that marriage by servitude is not peculiar to savages of inferior races, since the Bible informs us that Jacob only espoused Leah and Rachel at the price of fourteen years’ service. Without dilating further on marriage by servitude, I shall remark by the way that it had for its result the placing of the husband in a subordinate position towards the woman, or at least towards the family of the woman, in which he had so long been treated as a servant. A certain independence was gained by the wife who had been acquired in this manner. Thus, with the Kenaï, of whom I was speaking just now, the woman had the right to return to her father if she was not well treated by her husband.[286] Marriage by servitude had therefore, in fact, a moral side; it lessened the subjection, always hard and sometimes cruel, to which woman is liable in nearly all savage or barbarous societies.
III. Marriage by Purchase.
Marriage by purchase is much more widely spread than marriage by servitude or service. All over the world, in all races and in all times, wherever history can inform us, we find well-authenticated examples permitting us to affirm that during the middle age of civilisation the right of parents over children, and especially over daughters, included in all countries the power to sell them. I purpose to consult on this subject all the great races of mankind, and confirmatory facts will not be wanting; I shall, indeed, have to limit myself in giving them.
Among the Hottentots and the Kaffirs, the exchange value of the country being cattle, the daughters are paid for in cows or oxen, and the price of the merchandise varies according to the fluctuations of demand and supply. Among the Great Namaquois Levaillant saw a conjugal affair concluded very cheaply, for a single cow;[287] but this price may be increased tenfold.[288] With the Corannas, the man makes his request leading an ox to the door of the girl. If he is allowed to kill the animal, it means that his demand is granted. In the contrary case, the suitor is sent away and sometimes stoned.[289] Hottentot girls are sometimes sold in their own tribe, and sometimes in a neighbouring one. At the time of Burchell’s travels there was a lively traffic in girls between the Bachapin Hottentots and the Kora Hottentots.[290]
According to Livingstone, among the Makalolo Kaffirs the price paid to the father had also for its object the redemption of the right of ownership which he would otherwise have in the children of his daughter.
In Central Africa, in Senegambia, in the valley of the Niger, with the Mandingoes, the Peuls, etc., marriages are reduced to the sale of the girl by those having the right.[291] With the Timannis, says Laing, the pretendant first brings a jar of palm wine, or a little rum, to the parents. If his demand is favourably received the presents are accepted, and the giver is invited to return, which he does, bringing a second jar of wine, some kolas, some measures of stuff, and some chaplets. All is then definitely concluded, and they announce to the girl that she is married.[292]
With the Moors of Senegambia conjugal sales are effected in nearly the same manner; however, the girl has a right to refuse, but on condition of renouncing marriage for ever, on pain of becoming the slave of her first suitor in the case of an attempt to marry her to another.[293] This right of refusal, limited as it is, already constitutes a notable degree of progress which does not always exist in much more civilised countries. We must place by the side of this some other customs in force here and there in this region of Central Africa, confining ourselves to the Sahara and to where the population is strongly mixed with Berber blood. It is to be remembered that in nearly all Berber countries the subjection of women is or has been a little less severe.