Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/786

 77 2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of temper, and I am not his bint'amm (tribeswoman), so that he should respect my consanguinity with him, nor does he dwell in thy country, so that he should have regard for thee ; I fear then that he may not care for me and may divorce me, and so I shall be in an evil case." 1 The Hassanyeh Arabs of the White Nile region in Egypt afford a curious example of the conflict of male and female interests in connection with marriage, in which the female passes by contract only partially under the authority of the male :

When the parents of the man and woman meet to settle the price of the woman, the price depends on how many days in the week the marriage tie is to be strictly observed. The woman's mother first of all proposes that, tak- ing everything into consideration, with a due regard for the feelings of the family, she could not think of binding her daughter to a due observance of that chastity which matrimony is expected to command for more than two days in the week. After a great deal of apparently angry discussion, and the promise on the part of the relatives of the man to pay more, it is arranged that the marriage shall hold good, as is customary among the first families of the tribe, for four days in the week, viz.: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday ; and, in compliance with old-established custom, the marriage rites during the three remaining days shall not be insisted on, during which days the bride shall be perfectly free to act as she may think proper, either by adhering to her husband and home, or by enjoying her freedom and inde- pendence from all observation of matrimonial obligations. 2

We may understand also that the tolerance of loose conduct in girls before marriage, a tolerance which amounts in many tribes to approval, is due to the tribal recognition of the value of children, and children born out of marriage are added to the family of the mother. When, on the other hand, the conduct of girls is strictly w r atched, this is from a consideration that virgins command a higher bride price. Child marriages and long betrothals are means of guaranteeing the proper conduct of a girl to her husband, as they constitute a personal claim and afford him an opportunity to throw more restrictions about her. So

'SMITH, IOC. Clt., p. 101.

a SPENCER, Descriptive Sociology, Vol. V, p. 8, quotes PETHERICK, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa, pp. 140-44.