[733] Among the early Arabians the woman as well as the man had entire freedom of divorce. The nikâh al-mot'a, or temporary contract-marriage, amounted merely to a restriction of the woman's power of divorce during the short term of agreement: Smith, Kinship and Marriage, 59 ff., 65 ff.; Kremer, Kulturgeschichte des Orients, I. 538; Wilken, Das Matriarchat, 18, 9 ff.: ap. Ammianus Marcellinus, Book XIV, sec. iv, 4, Yonge's trans. (London, 1887), 11. By the later Arabian law, after the rise of wife-capture and wife-purchase, divorce became the sole privilege of the husband; and the same is true under the still later law. Cf. in general, Hellwald, Die mensch. Familie, chaps. xxii, xxiii; Kohler, "Ueber das vorislamitische Recht der Araber," ZVR., VIII, 244, 248, 257; Friedrichs, "Das Eherecht des Islam," ibid., VII, 263-69.
[734] Rehme, "Ueber das Recht der Amaxosa," ZVR., X, 38, 39; cf. Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, I, 436. Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrikas, 113, says that in cases of very cruel treatment the wife may abandon the husband and return to her family; to get her back the husband has to make an after-payment.
[735] In two cases wives left their husbands for bad treatment. Occasionally the man repudiates his wife; and sometimes there are several changes or exchanges before a permanent choice is made. When, however, a union is once settled, it is not easily dissolved: Murdoch, in IX. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 411, 412. Similar freedom for both sexes prevails among the Eskimo about Bering Strait: Nelson, ibid., XVIII, Part I, 292.
[736] Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology," III. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 261,262. For further examples of easy divorce among the Indians see Turner, "Ethnology of the Ungava District," ibid., XI, 270 (Nenenot); Report Smith. Inst., 1885, 71 (Pawnees marry and unmarry at pleasure); Anchieta, "Informação," Revist. Trim. Hist., VIII, 254-62 (the woman leaves the man at pleasure in Brazil).
[737] The old Indie law does not recognize a proper divorce, though the husband may "supersede" his wife; but sometimes by the existing custom of Indian peoples it is allowed: Kohler, in ZVR., III, 384, 386 ff.; VII, 236; XI, 169. Cf. Friedrichs, ibid., X, 251; Westermarck, op. cit., 525; Letourneau, op. cit., 301, 302.
[738] Sarasin, Die Weddas von Ceylon, I, 459.
[739] Post, Familienrecht, 251, 252, following the researches of Wilken and Riedel. This rule applies, apparently, only to the Papuas of Geelvinkbai in New Guinea; elsewhere in that island the man may put away the woman at pleasure: Kohler, "Ueber das Recht der Papuas auf Neu-Guinea," in ZVR., VII, 373. In general cf. Westermarck, op. cit., 517.
[740] Post, op. cit., 252. In some instances, however, mutual agreement is only one of several grounds on which dissolution of the marriage is allowed. "So ist z. B. auf Mukuhiva, auf den Marianen, bei den Koluschen eine Trennung der Ehe durch gegenseitige Uebereinkunft gestattet. Ebenso in Birma."—Post, loc. cit., 252, 253.
[741] Dawson, Australian Aborigines, 33-36. Divorce by mutual consent is lawful in Polynesia, but it rarely occurs if there are children: Avery, "The Indo-Pacific Oceans," Am. Ant., VI, 366; the same is true of some American peoples: Waitz, Anthropologie, III, 328.
[742] Munzinger, Ostaf. Studien, 241.