Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/349

 commerce with their own mothers. According to Ctesias, marriage between mother and son was a common thing in Persia, and this not from sudden passion, but by deliberate proposal, "by false judgment." Lucian, on his part, says expressly that marriage between brother and sister among the Persians was perfectly legal. Indeed, in various passages of the Avesta, consanguineous unions are recommended and praised. In the eyes of the Mazdeans, whose sacred code expressly forbade all alliance with infidels, endogamy, even when excessive, was evidently moral; and they encouraged it to such a degree as to approve of the kind of incest which is regarded as the most criminal by nearly all other peoples. Neither is there any trace of the matriarchate in ancient Persia, unless we choose to see a vestige of it in the legend according to which, in the time of the mythic monarchies, the eldest daughter of the king had the right to choose her husband herself. For this purpose all the young nobles of the country were assembled together at a festival, and the princess signified her preference by throwing an orange to the man who pleased her best. I mention this tradition that I may omit nothing, but it evidently constitutes a most insignificant proof. Modern Persia, being Mahometan, has regulated marriage and the family in accordance with the Koran. We find, however, by the side of the perpetual marriage which only death or divorce can dissolve, a form of conjugal union less solemn and more ephemeral, and which is not generally recognised by law in countries even slightly civilised. I speak of marriages for a term, or rather the hiring of a wife for a time and for a fixed price. Unions of this kind are legal in Persia. They are agreed on before the judge, and at the expiration of the contract, or rather the lease, the interested parties may renew the engagement if they think well. In a contrary case, the woman can only contract another union of the same kind after a delay of forty days. If before the expiration of the conjugal lease the man desires to break it, he can do so, but only on condition of placing in the hands of the woman the total