father in the most humble terms, bowing the knee as if he were introduced to a prince. He ftyles him, the worshipful father, the high and mighty father, the best and most illuftrious father, &c. &c.

In viewing the chain of causes and effects, inftances fometimes occur of bizarre facts, starting from the chain without any cause that can be discovered. The marriage-ceremonies among the Hottentots are of that nature. After all matters are adjusted among the old people, the young couple are shut up in a room by themfelves, where they pass the night in ftruggling for fuperiority, which proves a very ferious work where the bride is reluctant. If fhe persevere to the last without yielding, the young man is difcarded; but if he prevail, which commonly happens, the marriage is completed by another ceremony, not lefs fingular. The men and women fquat on the ground in different circles, the bridegroom in the centre of one, and the bride in the centre of another. The Suri, or master of religious ceremonies, piffes on the bridegroom; who receives the stream with eagerness, and rubs it into the furrows of the fat with which he is covered. He performs the fame ceremony on the bride, who is equally respectful. Marriage-ceremonies among the Kamskatkans are still more whimsical. A young man, after making his proposals, enters into the service of his intended father-in-law. If he prove agreeable, he is admitted to the trial of the touch. The young woman is fwaddled up in leathern thongs; and in that condition is put under the guard of fome old women. He watches every opportunity of a flack guard to uncafe her, in order to touch what is always the most concealed. The bride must resist, in appearance at least; and therefore cries out to fummon her guards; who fall with fury upon the bridegroom, tear his hair, fcratch his face, and act in violent oppofition. The attempts of the lover prove fometimes unfuccefsful for months; but the moment the

touch

touch is atchieved, the bride testifies her fatisfaction, by pronouncing the words Ni, Ni, with a foft and loving voice. The next night they bed together without any oppofition. One marriageceremony among the inland negroes is fingular. So foon as preliminaries are adjusted, the bridegroom with a number of his companions fet out at night, and furround the house of the bride, as if intending to carry her off by force. She and her female attendants, pretending to make all poffible refiftance, cry aloud for help, but no perfon appears. This resembles strongly a marriage-ceremony that is or was customary in Wales. On the morning of the wedding-day, the bridegroom, accompanied with his friends on horfeback, demands the bride. Her friends, who are likewise on horseback, give a positive refufal, upon which a mock fcuffle enfues. The bride, mounted behind her next kinfman, is carried off, and is pursued by the bridegroom and his friends with loud fhouts. It is not uncommon to fee on fuch an occafion two or three hundred sturdy Cambro-Britons riding at full speed, croffing and jostling, to the no finall amusement of the fpectators. When they have fatigued themselves and their horses, the bridegroom is fuffered to overtake his bride. He leads her away in triumph, and the scene is concluded with feafting and feftivity. The fame marriage-ceremony was usual in Mufcovy, Lithuania, and Livonia, as reported by Olaus Magnus (a).

Divorce alfo depends on the nature of the matrimonial engagement. Where the law is, that a man must purchase his wife as one does a flave; it follows naturally, that he may purchase as many as he can pay for, and that he may turn them off at his pleafure. This law is univerfal, without a fingle exception. The Jews, who purchased their wives, were privileged to divorce them,

(e) Lib. 14. cap. 9.

without

without being obliged to affign a caufe (a). The negroes purchase their wives, and turn them off when they think proper. The fame law obtains in China, in Monomotapa, in the isthmus of Darien, in Caribeana, and even in the cold country round Hudfon's bay. All the favages of South America who live near the Oroonoko, purchase as many wives as they can maintain; and divorce them at their pleasure.

Very different is a matrimonial engagement between equals, where a dowry is contracted with the bride. The nature of the engagement implies, that neither of them is privileged to difmifs the other without a just cause. In Mexico, where the bride brought a dowry, there could be no divorce but by mutual confent. In Lapland, the women who have a stock of rain-deer, as above mentioned, make a confiderable figure. This lays a foundation for a matrimonial covenant as among us, which bars polygamy, and confequently divorce without a just cause. And when these are barred in several instances, the prohibition in time becomes general.

I proceed to adultery, the criminality of which depends also in fome measure on the nature of the matrimonial engagement. Where wives are purchased, and polygamy is indulged, adultery can fcarce be reckoned a crime in the husband; and where there are a plurality of wives, found fenfe makes it but a venial crime in any one of them. But as men are the lawgivers, the punishment of female adultery, where polygamy takes place, is generally too fevere. It is however more or lefs fevere in different countries, in proportion as the men are more or lefs prone to revenge. The Chinese are a mild people, and depend more on locks and bars for preventing adultery, than on severity; the punish

(a) Deuteronomy, chap. 24. VOL. I.

C c

ment

ment being only to fell an adulterefs for a flave. The fame law obtains in the kingdom of Laos, bordering upon China. An adulterefs among the ancient Egyptians was punished with the lofs of her nofe. In ancient Greece, a pecuniary penalty was inflicted. on an adulterer (a). An adulterefs was probably punished more feverely. Among the negroes, who have very little delicacy, adultery is but flightly punished; except in the kingdom of Benin. There an adulterefs, after a fevere whipping, is banished; and the adulterer forfeits his goods, which are bestow'd on the injured husband. Among the ancient Germans, a grave and virtuous people, adultery was extremely rare. An adulterefs was deprived of her hair, expelled from her husband's houfe, and whipped through the village (b). In Japan, where the people are remarkably fierce, female adultery is always punished with death. In Tonquin, a woman guilty of adultery is thrown to an elephant to be destroy'd. By the law of Mofes, an adulteress is punished with death, as alfo the adulterer (c). Margaret of Burgundy, Queen to Lewis Hutin King of France, was hang'd for adultery; and her lovers were flea'd alive. Such were the favage manners of thofe times. There is an old law in Wales, that for defiling the Prince's bed the offender muft pay a rod of pure gold, of the thickness of the finger of a ploughman who has ploughed nine years, and in length from the ground to the Prince's mouth when fitting.

Matrimony between a fingle pair, for mutual comfort, and for procreating children, implies the ftricteft mutual fidelity. Adultery however is a deeper crime in the wife than in the husband:

(a) Odyffey, book 8. 1. 384.

(b) Tacitus, De moribus Germanorum, cap. 19.

(c) Leviticus, xx. 10.

in him it may happen occafionally, with little or no alienation of affection; but the fuperior modesty of the female fex is fuch, that a wife does not yield, till unlawful love prevails, not only over modefty, but over duty to her husband. Adultery therefore in the wife, is a breach of the matrimonial engagement in a double refpect it is an alienation of affection from the husband, which unqualifies her to be his friend and companion; and it tends to bring a spurious iffue into the family, betraying the husband to maintain and educate children who are not his own.

The gradual advance of the female fex to an equality with the male fex, is vifible in the laws of female fucceffion that have been established at different times, and in different countries. It is not probable, that in any country women were early admitted to inherit land: they are too much despised among favages for so valuable a privilege. The fiercenefs and brutality of the ancient Romans in particular, unqualified the women to be their companions: it never entered their thoughts, that women fhould inherit land, which they cannot defend by the fword. But women came to be regarded in proportion as the national manners refined. The law prohibiting female fucceffion in land, established in days of rusticity, was held to be rigorous and unjust when the Romans were more polished. Proprietors of land, fuch of them as had no fons, were disposed to evade the law, by ample provifions to their daughters, which rendered the land of little value to the collateral heir-male. To reform that abuse, as termed by the veterans, the lex Voconia was made, confining fuch provifions within moderate bounds and this regulation continued in force, till regard for the female fex broke through every legal restraint, and established female fucceffion in land, as formerly in moveables *. The barbarous

* Justinian, or more properly the lawyers employ'd by him upon that abfurd Cc 2 compilation