[724] For the proof, see, for instance, the numerous writings of Riedel, Wilken, Bastian, Friedrichs, Bernhöft, Post, and Kohler.
[725] Post, Familienrecht, 75-79, 249-65; idem, Anfänge, 20, 21; idem, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, I, 320 ff., 434 ff.; idem, Grundlagen des Rechts, 267 ff.
[726] Post, Familienrecht, 250-58, enumerates six classes of peoples according to the freedom of divorce: (1) the marriage relation loose and dissoluble at the pleasure of either party; (2) marriage indissoluble; (3) divorce only by mutual consent; (4) divorce the right of the husband only; (5) divorce the right of the wife; (6) divorce only on definite grounds, these grounds either being the same for either spouse or different for the man and the woman respectively. In the text examples of the fifth group are given in connection with the cases of divorce at the pleasure of either party; for where the wife has the right to put away or leave the husband when she likes, the husband, unless in very exceptional cases (Post, Grundlagen, 271), appears to have the same privilege with respect to the wife; hence Post's first and fifth groups are practically the same.
In general on the first phase, see Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, I, 433-38; idem, Grundlagen, 267 ff.; idem, Familienrecht, 249-51; Letourneau, L'évolution du mariage, 284 ff., 289, 290; Bernhöft, "Das Gesetz von Gortyn," ZVR., VI, 430 ff., 434; Westermarck, Human Marriage, 518 ff.
[727] Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, I, 436, 437. The husband seems also to have absolute right of divorce: Letourneau, op. cit., 285.
[728] Post, op. cit., I, 437.
[729] Among the Mundingos the wife has an action against the husband for abuse; in Soulimana she may leave him, if the bride-presents are restored; while among the Krus in such cases her relatives must repay double the purchase price; Waitz, Anthropologie, II, 119, 120. Among the Charruas, where polygyny exists, the wife abandons the husband if an unmarried man will take her: Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, II, 75.
[730] Post, Familienrecht, 251.
[731] ibid.
[732] This is the conclusion of Kohler, "Aus der Praxis des buddhistischen Rechts in Birma," ZVR., VI, 389-91, following the interesting decisions in Jardine, Circulars (Civil and Criminal) of the Court of the Judicial Commissioner of British Burma, 1883 (Rangoon, 1884). Cf. also Kohler, in ZVR., VI, 172; Post, Familienrecht, 251; and Westermarck, op. cit., 528.