WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
certain sum as 'bride-price,' the amount being often handed over in instalments. The bride's father gave her a 'dowry,' which usually, but not necessarily, included the 'bride-price.' The bridegroom might also make his bride a 'settlement.'"
"The status of the concubine is not clear. She does not seem to be necessarily of lower rank, like the Roman, but was a secondary spouse. Like the chief wife she carried bride-price and dowry, and we may assume that she possessed the same rights as the chief wife in regard to maintenance and participation in the husband's estate."
A humane measure for the annulment of marriage on the ground of incompatibility is recorded in the following clause:
"If a woman hate her husband, and say 'Thou shalt not possess me,' the reason for her dislike shall be inquired into. If she be careful, and has no fault, but her husband takes himself away and neglects her, then that woman is not to blame. She shall take her dowry and go back to her father's house."[1]
In the Egypt of ancient days the mass of the people laboured for the mere maintenance of existence, and bowed beneath the stern common lot of the multitude in most civilised nations. Family life among the humble was on a very different plane from the luxuri-
- ↑ "The Oldest Laws in the World."
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