congeners, their matrimonial customs are less gross; and the suitor, when accepted by the parents, tries to charm his bride by daily serenades lasting for hours—a rare thing in savage countries.[1]
With the half-civilised tribes of Guatemala and Nicaragua conjugal unions were also determined according to the presents made to the parents, and in Guatemala the young people were both kept in ignorance of the affair until the last moment.[2] In Nicaragua, however, there existed a curious exception in certain towns, where at a particular festival the young girls had the right to choose their husbands freely from among the young men present.[3]
With the Moxos and the Guaranis the price paid to the parents is still the decisive reason of the marriage.[4] However, the Guaranis also exact from the husband proofs of virile qualities in the chase and in war.[5] The struggle for existence is still severe, and in order to keep one or more wives a man must be able not only to feed but to defend them.
The Mongols of Asia buy their wives exactly like the Mongoloids of America, of whom I have just spoken.
Among the nomad Mongols, the Tartars of northern Asia, the parents arrange the marriages with absolute authority, and without consulting the parties more especially interested. The bargain is sharply debated between the parents, and the price to be paid by the husband or his family is very precisely settled; the future couple are not even informed of it, their sentiments, their desires, or dislikes, are not considered in the least. The price of the girl is paid in cattle, sheep, oxen, or horses; in pieces of stuff, in brandy, in butter, in flour, etc. Everything being agreed on, the contract of sale is drawn up before witnesses, but the girl is only delivered to the purchaser after the ceremony of marriage, which, as we have previously seen, takes the form of capture.[6]
