Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/116

 102 LAWS. these evils have no existence, laws are not thought of. The rigour of the mnrriage-vow, as far as the sex are concerned, is strongly declared in the following law of the ancient Javanese and present Balians : " If a man go on a sea voyage, his wife shall not marry another for ten years ; if he go into the country in quest of employment, she shall not marry {qv four years ; if he go in quest of religious education, she shall not marry for six years. If he absent himself on any other account than these, the wife may, according to the Manawa Sastra, take another husband in four years ; but, accord- ing to the Kuntara Sastra, in tJiree. In any of these cases, the first husband, should he return, cannot claim his wife, for the gods, Dezvata, hare parted them,** This is the only passage, in an ancient manuscript of these people, in which I find distant journeys, or sea voyages, expressly referred to. It must be confessed, however, that it bears some marks of a Hindu origin. The provision made for the wife, in the event of separation, is, among the converted tribes, with some modifications, usually guided by the precepts of Mahomedan law. In Java, when a man wishes for a divorce, he has but to signify his intention to the priest, who " cuts the marriage cord" before witnesses, which simple ceremony dissolves the marriage. The man, as already mentioned, for-