The general marriage laws of Mohammedan countries prevail in the Barbary States. Four wives and as many concubines as he pleases are the limits within which a man is confined, but few men marry more than one woman.
An extensive system of prostitution prevails in all the cities. The low drinking-shops are crowded with women. The public dancers, who all belong to the sisterhood, exist in large numbers, and are very much encouraged. Their society is a favorite recreation with Moors of all classes. A man entertaining a party of friends will send for a company of dancers to amuse them. There, amid the fumes of tobacco, and sometimes of liquor (for the precepts of the Koran are disregarded on such occasions), the women practice the most degrading obscenities, and the orgies become such as no pen can describe. These prostitutes are of various classes, from the low, vulgar wretches who exist in misery, filth, and disease, to the wealthy courtesans who live in luxury and splendor.
A late traveler was introduced by a friend to a “Moorish lady.” He was ushered into a spacious apartment hung with rich-colored silks. Reclining on a splendid divan, with every appliance of wealth around her, was a woman of extreme loveliness. Elegant in her manners and address, she seemed a model of feminine grace, nor did the visitor discover until after he had left her that he had been conversing with a Moorish prostitute.
SIBERIA.
The state of manners to which the population of these snowy tracts has arrived is very low. They are rude, ignorant, and gross. The condition and character of the female sex correspond with that of the male. In the perpetual migration of tribes they bear the heaviest burdens, and in their habitations the man regards his wife as a mere domestic slave, to whom it is unnecessary even to speak a kind word. There are some exceptions to this rule, especially toward the centre of the district, removed from Russia on the one hand and the sea on the other, where more equality of the sexes is observable.
A wife is generally obtained by purchase, and if a man is not rich enough to pay the sum demanded by the parents of a girl for the privilege of marrying her, he hires himself to them for a term ranging from three to ten years, according to an agreement, and his services in that time are considered equivalent to the value of his bride. These contracts are faithfully observed, the woman is invariably given up at the specified time, and the man released from his servile condition, and admitted to all the dignities and rights of a son-in-law. Where the bridegroom is in a condition to pay for his bride, the preliminary negotiations are managed by his friends and her parents; they are very quietly arranged, but the spirit of bargaining is strong on both sides. The stipulated amount must be paid before the marriage is completed; and if a man steals away his bride before he has paid the full cost, the father watches an opportunity and recaptures her, retaining her in pledge until the balance is forthcoming.
The marriage ceremonies vary in different tribes. With some there is no feast or form of any kind; with others every marriage must take place in a newly-built hut, where no impure things can have been. The most detailed account of marriage ceremonies we can find is among the Tschuwasses. They offer a sacrifice of bread and honey to the sun on the betrothal, that he may look down with favor on the union. When the wedding-day arrives, the bride hides herself behind a screen while the guests are assembling. When the party is complete, she walks three times round the room, followed by a train of virgins bearing bread and honey. Then the bridegroom enters, removes her veil, kisses her, and they exchange rings. She is now saluted as the “betrothed girl,” and is again led behind the screen, whence she emerges wearing a matron’s cap. The concluding rite is for her to pull off her new husband’s boots, thus promising obedience to him. In this tribe the husband can divorce his wife by merely taking her cap from her head.
Polygamy is practiced by many, though some prefer to take one wife for another as often as inclination prompts them, rather than take charge of several at the same time.
Jealousy is little known among any of the races of Siberia. Modesty is not a female characteristic, nor is chastity very highly prized. If a wife commit adultery, the husband usually exacts a fine from the paramour for invading his rights “without permission.” Their barbarous manners would not induce us to expect any refined modesty. A traveler was introduced to the family of a rich man, the head of a tribe, and upon entering his low-roofed but spacious habitation, found himself in company with five or six women, wives and daughters, all entirely naked, who appeared excessively diverted at being discovered in such a state. The dancing women are as lewd as can possibly be conceived; indeed, obscene postures are the principal features of their entertainments.
A licentious intercourse between unmarried persons is almost universal. With some, religious dissensions are extremely bitter; but profligacy is more powerful, and a woman who would rigidly refuse to eat or drink with a man of some other creed, will prostitute herself to him from sheer lust. Abandoned women reside in all the towns in large numbers, and are scarcely reprobated by other classes. The education of a Siberian girl appears to be simply telling her that marriage is her destiny, and that her husband will require her to be faithful. With this view she forms acquaintances, is seduced by one and yields to another, until her profligacy becomes so notorious that no one will purchase her as a wife, and she follows, as a means of living, the habits she had resorted to for the indulgence of her vicious appetite. It is said that many prostitutes become so from this cause.