Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/289

 to her by her husband. The wife cannot demand the "innocence fine." If there be children at the time of separation, the father takes the boys, and the mother the girls. If the husband be a man of property, the court may order him to give the divorced wife a certain share of his possessions for the maintenance of the girls. On the other hand, if the wife be possessed of property, she may be required to give something for the maintenance of her sons.

Again, when a marriage is contracted between a man of noble blood and a woman of humble rank, or vice versâ, with the definite understanding that they shall share each other’s good and adverse fortune, their property in case of divorce is to be divided between them according to their faithfulness or guilt, and their amount of mutual presents at the time of union. In cases of divorce between parties who were united at their own wish for the enjoyment of pleasure or merriment, the court should, without regard to the nature of their guilt, divide their property equally between them. In cases of marriage between slaves or serfs, the owner decides their separation or continued union. A man of this class is, for instance, married to a woman who, the owner thinks, might be of some service to him. When the woman is found useless, she is dismissed, being given one-sixth of her husband’s belongings, and her place is supplied by a new wife chosen by the owner.

In Tibet members of the same family are forbidden by law to contract matrimonial alliances with their kindred within seven degrees. This rule is, however, nowadays disregarded by the people, who are known to make alliances with their kinsmen who are distant only three or four degrees of consanguinity. Among the Pobos and Khamba marriage is promiscuously contracted, the brother marrying his sister, the nephew his aunt. Among the common Tibetans, so long as the parties do not claim a common father, there is no objection to the marriage; the uterine brother and sister may be united, and a man may marry his stepmother or aunts.

The custom of several brothers making one woman their common wife, to keep the ancestral property entire and undivided, is said to