Much more common is the custom of obtaining a wife by services rendered to her father. The man goes to live with the family of the girl for a certain time, during which he works as a servant. This practice, with which Hebrew tradition has familiarized us, is widely diffused among the uncivilized races of America,[2322] Africa,[2323] Asia,[2324] and the Indian Archipelago.[2325] Often it is only those men who are too poor to pay cash that serve in the father-in-law’s house till they have given an equivalent in labour; but sometimes not even money can save the bridegroom from this sort of servitude.[2326] In some cases he has to serve his time before he is allowed to marry the girl; in others he gets her in advance. Again, among several peoples, already mentioned, the man goes over to the woman’s family or tribe to live there for ever; but Dr. Starcke suggests that this custom has a different origin from the other, being an expression of the strong clan sentiment, and not a question of gain.[2327]
According to Mr. Spencer, the obtaining of wives by services rendered, instead of by property paid, constitutes a higher form of marriage, and is developed along with the industrial type of society. “This modification,” he says, “practicable with difficulty among rude predatory tribes becomes more practicable as there arise established industries affording spheres in which services may be rendered.”[2328] But it should be noticed that, even at a very low stage of civilization, a man may help his father-in-law in fishing and hunting, whilst industrial work promotes accumulation of property, and consequently makes it easier for the man to acquire his wife by real purchase. We find also the practice of serving for wives prevalent among such rude races as the Fuegians and the Bushmans; and, in the ‘Eyrbyggja Saga,’ Vîgstyr says to the berserk Halli, who asked for the hand of his daughter Âsdî, “As you are a poor man, I shall do as the ancients did and let you deserve your marriage by hard work.”[2329] It seems then, almost probable that marriage by services is a more archaic form than marriage by purchase; but generally they occur simultaneously.
The most common compensation for a bride is property paid to her owner. Her price varies indefinitely. A pretty, healthy, and able-bodied girl commands of course a better price than one who is ugly and weak;[2330] a girl of rank, a better price than one who is mean and poor;[2331] a virgin, generally a better than a widow or a repudiated wife.[2332] Among the Californian Karok, for instance, a wife is seldom purchased for less than half a string of dentalium shell, but “when she belongs to an aristocratic family, is pretty, and skillful in making acorn-bread and weaving baskets, she sometimes costs as high as two strings.”[2333] The bride-price however, varies most according to the circumstances of the parties, and according to the value set on female labour. In British Columbia and Vancouver Island, the value of the articles given for the bride ranges from £20 to £40 sterling.[2334] The Indians of Oregon buy their wives for horses, blankets, or buffalo robes.[2335] Among the Shastika in California, “a wife is purchased of her father for shell-money or horses, ten or twelve cayuse ponies being paid for a maid of great attractions.”[2336] Again, the Navajos of New Mexico consider twelve horses so exorbitant a price for a wife, that it is paid only for “one possessing unusual qualifications, such as beauty, industry, and skill in their necessary employments”;[2337] and the Patagonians give mares, horses, or silver ornaments for the bride.[2338]
In Africa, not horses but cattle are considered the most proper equivalent for a good wife. Among the Kaffirs, three, five, or ten cows are a low price, twenty or thirty a rather high; but, according to Barrow, a man frequently obtained a wife for an ox or a couple of cows.[2339] The Damaras are so poor a people that they are often glad to take one cow for a daughter.[2340] Among the Banyai, many heads of cattle or goats are given to induce the parents of the girl “to give her up,” as it is termed, i.e., to forgo all claim on her offspring, for if nothing is given, the family from which she comes can claim the children as part of itself.[2341] In Uganda, the ordinary price of a wife is either three or four bullocks, six sewing needles, or a small box of percussion caps, but Mr. Wilson was often offered one in exchange for a coat or a pair of shoes.[2342] In the Mangoni country, two skins of a buck are considered a fair price,[2343] and among the Negroes of Bondo, a goat;[2344] whereas, among the Mandingoes, as we are told by Caillié, no wife is to be had otherwise than by the presentation of slaves to the parents of the mistress.[2345]
The Chulims paid from five to fifty roubles for a wife, the Turalinzes usually from five to ten.[2346] Rich Bashkirs pay sometimes even 3,000 roubles, but the poorest may buy a wife for a cart-load of wood or hay.[2347] In Tartary, parents sell a daughter for some horses, oxen, sheep, or pounds of butter; among the Samoyedes and Ostyaks, for a certain number of reindeer.[2348] Among the Indian Kisáns, “two baskets of rice and a rupee in cash constitute the compensatory offering given to the parents of the girl.”[2349] Among the Mishmis, a rich man gives for a wife twenty mithuns (a kind of oxen), but a poor man can get a wife for a pig.[2350] In Timor-laut, according to Mr. Forbes, “no wife can be purchased without elephants’ tusks.”[2351] In the Caroline Islands, “the man makes a present to the father of the girl whom he marries, consisting of fruits, fish, and similar things!”[2352] In Samoa, the bride-price included canoes, pigs, and foreign property of any kind which might fall into their hands;[2353] and, among the Fijians, “the usual price is a whale’s tooth, or a musket.”[2354]
Among some peoples marriage may take place on credit, though, generally, the wife and her children cannot leave the parental home until the price is paid in full.[2355] In Unyoro, according to Emin Pasha, when a poor man is unable to procure the cattle required for his marriage at once, he may, by agreement with the bride’s father, pay them by instalments; the children, however, born in the meantime belong to the wife’s father, and each of them must be redeemed with a cow.[2356]
Marriage by exchange or purchase is not only generally prevalent among existing lower races; it occurs, or formerly occurred, among civilized nations as well. In Central America and Peru, a man had to serve for his bride.[2357] In China, a present is given by the father of the suitor, the amount of which is not left to the goodwill of the parties, as the term “present” would suggest, but is exactly stipulated for by the negotiators of the marriage; hence, as Mr. Jamieson remarks, it is no doubt a survival of the time when the transaction was one of ordinary bargain.[2358] In Japan, the proposed husband sends certain prescribed presents to his future bride, and this sending of presents forms one of the most important parts of the marriage ceremony. In fact, when once the presents have been sent and accepted, the contract is completed, and neither party can retract. Mr. Küchler says he has been unable to find out the exact meaning of these presents: the native books on marriage are silent on the subject, and the Japanese themselves have no other explanation to give than that the custom has been handed down from ancient times.[2359] But from the facts recorded in the next chapter it is evident that the sending of presents is a relic of a previous custom of marrying by purchase.
In all branches of the Semitic race men had to buy or serve for their wives, the “mohar” or “mahr” being originally the same as a purchase-sum.[2360] In the Books of Ruth and Hosea, the bridegroom actually says that he has bought the bride;[2361] and the modern Jews, according to Michaelis, have a sham purchase among their marriage ceremonies, which is called “marrying by the penny.”[2362] In Mohammedan countries marriage differs but little from a real purchase.[2363] The same custom prevailed among the Chaldeans, Babylonians,[2364] and Assyrians.[2365]
Speaking of the ancient Finns, the Finnish philologist and traveller, Castrén, remarks, “There are many reasons for believing that a cap full of silver and gold was one of the best proxies in wooing among our ancestors.”[2366] Evident traces of marriage by purchase are, indeed, found in the ‘Kalevala’ and the ‘Kanteletar’;[2367] and, in parts of Finland, symbols of it are still left in the marriage ceremony.[2368] Among the East Finnish peoples, marriage by purchase exists even now, or did so till quite lately.[2369]
Wife purchase, as Dr. Winternitz remarks, was the basis of Indo-European marriage before the separation of peoples took place.[2370] The Hindu bride, in Vedic times, had to be won by rich presents to the future father-in-law;[2371] and one of the eight forms of marriage mentioned, though disapproved of, by Manu—the Âsura form—was marriage by purchase. According to Dubois, to marry and to buy a wife are in India synonymous terms.[2372] Aristotle tells us that the ancient Greeks were in the habit of purchasing wives,[2373] and in the Homeric age a maid was called “ἀλφεσίβοια,” i.e., one “who yields her parents many oxen as presents from her suitor.” Among the Thracians, according to Herodotus, marriage was contracted by purchase.[2374] So also throughout Teutonic antiquity.[2375] The ancient Scandinavians believed that even the gods had bought their wives.[2376] In Germany, the expression “to purchase a wife” was in use till the end of the Middle Ages, and we find the same term in Christian IV.'s Norwegian Law of 1604.[2377] As late as the middle of the sixteenth century the English preserved in their marriage ritual traces of this ancient legal procedure;[2378] whilst in Thuringia, according to Franz Schmidt, the betrothal ceremony even to this day indicates its former occurrence.[2379]