madness hinders theocratic legislators from thinking of civil institutions.
But in regard to marriage, both civil and religious laws are always subordinate to the necessities resulting from the social condition and the proportion of the sexes. In Thibet, therefore, in spite of the entire liberty allowed to individuals, the marriage of the greatest number is monogamic quite as much as if the law had prescribed it.[1]
In Tartary the nomad Mongols have adopted for their matrimonial type monogamy tempered by the domestic concubinate. I have spoken previously of their "lesser wives," of their marriage by purchase with the ceremonial of capture. I need not, therefore, repeat all this. I will only note in passing that their girls have also very loose manners, which are not always corrected by marriage.[2] According to one of the most recent explorers of Mongolia, the proportion of the sexes in that country is the inverse of that in Europe. The women are much less numerous than the men. This may probably be the principal reason of the celibacy of the Lamas, and of the real monogamy of the greater number of laymen who do not belong to the aristocracy.[3]
Chinese marriage essentially resembles Mongol marriage, but with a more settled ritual and a more uniform legislation. It is also monogamic, with the palliative of the concubinate, the "lesser wives" of whom I have already spoken.[4] Besides this, the subjection of women in China is extreme. When a Chinaman has only daughters he is said to have no children.[5] The Chinese woman is submissive in all states, as a daughter to her parents, as a wife to her husband, and as a widow to her sons, especially to her eldest son.[6] (Pauthier, Chine Moderne, p. 239). The young Chinese girl has not even an idea that she may be consulted in the choice of a husband.[7] She is bought from
- ↑ Lettres édifiantes, t. xv. p. 200.
- ↑ Préjévalsky, Mongolia, t. I^{er.} p. 69.—Huc, Tartarie, t. I^{er.} p. 301.
- ↑ Id., ibid. t. I^{er.} p. 71.
- ↑ Huc, L'Empire chinois, t. ii. p. 258.—Sinibaldo de Mas, Chine et puissances Chrétiennes, t. I^{er.} p. 51.
- ↑ Duhaut Cily, Voyage autour du monde, t. ii. p. 369.
- ↑ Milne, Real Life in China, p. 159.
- ↑ Id., ibid. p. 159.
