Then came the daughters of Zelophehad -- and they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes, and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying:
Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons.
Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.
And Moses brought their cause before the Lord.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying:
The daughters of Zelophehad speak right; thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren, and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.
And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die,and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.(13*)In all those German nations which over-ran and subdued the different provinces of the Roman empire, the same notions were entertained concerning the inferiority of the women; and the same rules of succession were naturally introduced.It is probable that, according to the original customs which prevailed in all these nations, daughters, and all other female relations, were entirely excluded from the right of inheritance; but that afterwards, when the increase of opulence and luxury had raised them to higher consideration, they were admitted to succeed after the males of the same degree.
In a country where the women are universally regarded as the slaves of the other sex, it is natural to expect that they should be bought and sold, like any other species of property.To marry a wife must there be the same thing as to purchase a female servant, who is to be entrusted, under the husband's direction, with a great part of the domestic economy.
Thus, in all savage nations, whether in Asia, Africa, or America, the wife is commonly bought by the husband from the father, or those other relations who have an authority over her;and the conclusion of a bargain of this nature, together with the payment of the price, has therefore become the most usual form of solemnity in the celebration of their marriages.(14*)This appears to be the real foundation of what is related by historians; that in some parts of the world it is usual for the husband to give a dowery to the wife or her relations, instead of the wife bringing along with her a dowery to the husband.
'Dotem non uxor marito, sed uxori maritus offert,' is the expression used by Tacitus in speaking of this practice among the ancient German nations.(15*)When Shechem wanted to marry the daughter of Jacob -- 'He said unto her father, and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give.
'Ask me never so much dowery and gift, And I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.'(16*)When David married the daughter of king Saul, he was obliged to pay a dowery of a very singular nature.(17*)This ancient custom, that the husband should buy his wife from her relations, remains at present among the Chinese; who, notwithstanding their opulence, and their improvement in arts, are still so wonderfully tenacious of the usages introduced in a barbarous period.
Sir Thomas Smith takes notice, that, according to the old law of England, 'the woman, at the church-door, was given of her father, or some other man of the next of her kin, into the hands of the husband; and he laid down gold and silver for her upon the book, as though he did buy her.'(18*) In the early history of France we meet with a similar practice; of which there are traces remaining in the present marriage ceremony of that country.
Upon the same principle, the husband is generally understood to have the power of selling his wife, or of putting her away at pleasure.
It may however be remarked, that this is a privilege, which, from the manners of a rude people, he seldom has reason to exercise.The wife, who is the mother of his children, is generally the most proper person to be employed in the office of rearing and maintaining them.As she advances in years, she is likely to advance in prudence and discretion; a circumstance of too much importance to be counterbalanced by any considerations relating to the appetite between the sexes.Nothing but some extraordinary crime that she has committed, will move the husband to put away so useful a servant, with whom he has long been acquainted, and whose labour, attention, and fidelity, are commonly of more value than all the money she will bring in a market.Divorces are therefore rarely to be met with in the history of early nations.
But though the wife is not apt to incur the settled displeasure of her husband, which might lead him to banish her from the family, she may often experience the sudden and fatal effects of his anger and resentment.When unlimited power is committed to the hands of a savage, it cannot fail, upon many occasions, to be grossly abused.He looks upon her in the same light with his other domestic servants, and expects from her the same implicit obedience to his will.The least opposition kindles his resentment; and from the natural ferocity of his temper, he is frequently excited to behave with a degree of brutality which, in some cases, may prove the unhappy occasion of her death.
