ter to Achilles for a wife; and fays, that he would not demand for her any price. Paufanias reports of Danaus, that no fuitors appearing to demand any of his daughters, he published, that he would give them without dowry. In Homer, there is frequent mention of nuptial gifts from a bridegroom to his bride's father. From terming them gifts, it is probable that the former method of purchase was beginning to wear out. It wore out before the time of Ariftotle; who infers, that their forefathers must have been a very rude people. The ancient Spaniards purchased their wives. We have the authority of Herodotus and of Heraclidest Ponticus, that the Thracians followed the fame practice. The latter adds, that if a wife was ill treated, her relations could demand her back, upon repaying the price they got for her. In the Roman law mention is made of matrimony per es et libram, which was folemnized by laying down a quantity of brafs with a balance for weighing it, understood to be the price paid for the bride. This must have been once a reality; tho' it funk down to be a mere ceremony, after it became customary

for

for a Roman bride to bring a dowry with her. The Babylonians and the Affyrians, at ftated times, collected all the marriageable young women, and difpofed of them by auction. Rubruguis, in his voyage to Tartary ann. 1253, reports, that there every man bought his wife. They be"lieve, he adds, that their wives ferve "them in another world as they do in "this; for which reafon, a widow has

no chance for a second husband, whom "fhe cannot ferve in the other world." Olaus Magnus, remarking that among the ancient Goths no dower was provided on the bride's part, gives a reafon, better fuited perhaps to the time he lived in, than to what he defcribes. Apud Gothos,

non mulier viro fed vir mulieri dotem affignat; ne conjux, ob magnitudinem "dotis infolefcens, aliquando ex placida "conforte proterva evadet, atque in ma"ritum dominari contendat *;" as if the hazard of petulance in a wife would hinder a man to accept a dower with her :

"Among the Goths, a man gave a dowry for "his bride, instead of receiving one with her; to prevent pride and infolence, that commonly accompany riches on the woman's part."

I

a fad doctrine for an heirefs.

There is

preferved in the abbey of St Peter a charter, judged to be 700 years old, in which the Countess of Amiens gifts to the faid abbey land the received from her husband at their marriage," according to the Salic "law," fays fhe, "obliging the husband

to give a dowry to his wife." By the laws of King Ethelbert, fect. 32. a man who committed adultery with his neighbour's wife, was obliged to pay him a fine, and to buy him another wife. Giraldus Cambrenfis, in his defcription of Wales, fays, that formerly they hardly ever married without a prior cohabitation; it having been customary for parents to let out their daughters to young men upon trial, for a fum of money told down, and under a penalty if the girls were returned. This I believe to be a mistake. It is more probable, that in Wales men purchased their wives, as was done all the world over, with liberty to return them if they proved not agreeable. The bride's parents retained the dowry, and her chance for a huf band was as good as ever.

The fame custom continues among barbarous nations. It continues among the Tartars,

VOL. II

E

Tartars, among the Mingrelians, among the Samoides, among the Oftiacs, among the people of Pegu, and of the Molucca islands. In Timor, an Eaft-Indian island, men fell even their children to purchase more wives. The Prince of Circaffia demanded from the Prince of Mingrelia, who was in fuit of his daughter, a hundred flaves loaded with tapestry and other household furniture, a hundred cows, as many oxen, and as many horfes. We have evidence of the fame cuftom in Africa, particularly in Biledulgerid, among the negroes on the fea-coaft, and in Monomotapa. Among the Caribbees there is one inftance where a man gets a wife without paying for her. After a fuccessful war, the victors are entertained at a feast, where the General harangues on the valour of the young men who made the best figure. Every man who has marriageable daughters, is fond to offer them to fuch young men without any price. any price. The purchafing of wives is univerfal among the wila Arabs. When the bargain is con cluded, the bridegroom is permitted to vifit the bride: if the anfwer not his expectations, he may turn her off; but has no

The

claim for the price he paid. In Arabia, fays Niebuhr, a young married woman fufpected of not being a virgin, is fent back to her father, who must restore the price that was paid for her. The inland negroes are more polished than thofe on the coaft; and there is fcarce any remains among them of purchafing wives: the bridegroom makes prefents to his bride, and her father makes prefents to him. There are remaining traces in Ruffia of purchafing wives. Even fo late as the

time of Peter I. Ruffians married without feeing each other; and before folemnization, the bride received from the bridegroom a prefent of fweetmeats, foap, and other little things.

The purchasing of wives, made it a lawful practice, to lend a wife as one does a flave. The Spartans lent their wives to their friends; and Cato the elder is faid to have done the fame. The Indians of Calicut frequently exchange wives.

If brutish manners alone be fufficient to degrade the female fex, they may reckon upon harsh treatment when purchased to be flaves. The Giagas, a fierce and wandering nation in the central parts of AfriE 2

ça,