ing; sterility, a curse. Concubinage not reckoned disgraceful: difference between a concubine and a wife; Solomon's concubines much exceeded by by some eastern monarchs. Polygamy, its effects on population and domestic happiness. Divorce; copy of a bill of divorce; formalities used on delivery. Copy of a divorce at the wife's instance. The jus leviratus, or law concerning the brother's widow; its existence before the giving of the law; ceremonies anciently observed; ceremonies observed in case of refusal. The Athenian law similar to the Jewish; also the Circassians, Druses, and Mahomedans. The frequent allusions in Scripture to the marriages of the Jews.

In the pentateuch the laws concerning marriage are particularly enumerated; but as the traditions added much to the original statutes, it may be necessary to consider these, in order to understand the manner in which the Jews entered into the state of wedlock.

The first thing then, deserving of notice, was their espousals. These were entered into sometimes at an early age, with the ostensible purpose of preserving the chastity of their children; but frequently from avaricious or ambitious motives. And hence it happened, that several years would sometimes elapse between the espousals and the public celebration. The marriage of Herod to Mariamne was not till four years after the espousals. In general, however, they were not so distant; one, two, or three months, were allowed to intervene, in order to settle preliminaries, and to prepare the articles which custom had rendered necessary:-As to their manner of espousal, it was different in the different stages of the Jewish history. For, before the giving of the law, if a man and woman agreed on marriage, he brought her to his house, and privately married her: but after the giving of the law, she was commonly espoused before witnesses, in one or other of the following ways: viz. either by giving her two hundred zuzim, equal to 17. 18. 61⁄2d.; or by written contract: a copy of which, as used among

Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 15.

A priest's daughter always got 400. Lightf. vol. i. p. 282.

the modern Jews, Buxtorff has given us in his Synag. Judaic. cap. 39.

In ancient times, before he married, the bridegroom was obliged to make two presents, one to his betrothed wife, and the other to his father-in-law. Thus Shechem, son of Hamor, says to Jacob and his sons, whose daughter he was desirous to espouse, "Ask me never so much dowry and gifts," the dowry, viz. for the daughter, and the gifts for the father-in-law. In 1 Sam. xviii. 25, Saul makes them say to David, who by reason of his poverty had said that he could not be son-in-law to the king, "the king desireth not any dowry." And, in both the cases, we see that the presents were commonly regulated by the father of the bride. This dowry given by the bridegroom to the bride, or her parents, sounds rather odd in our ears, where a contrary practice prevails but it was customary among the Greeks; and it is the practice to this day in several countries of the East; where a numerous family of daughters, in place of being an incumbrance, is often a source of emolument to the parents. For as the present custom does not now confine the dowry to any specific sum, it commonly depends on the ability of the bridegroom, or the value he sets on her charms, or the honour of the intended connexion, or the avarice of the parents. But the love of pomp, and a concern for the honour of the bride's family, often counteracts the influence of avarice, and leads them to restore to their intended son-in-law what he had given; for Dr. Shawd tells us, that "the money they pay for their brides is laid out, at Aleppo, in furniture for a chamber, in clothes, jewels, or ornaments of gold

a Gen. xxxiv. 12.

b Homer, Il, ix. 146. xi. 243-245. Odyss. i. 277. ii. 196. Potter's Greek Antiq. Book, iv. ch. 11. © Gen. xxxix. 12, 13. La Roque, p. 222

4 Vol. i. p. 284, 285.

for the bride; whose father makes some addition, according to his circumstances, which things are sent with great pomp to the bridegroom's house three days before the wedding;" and Maillet tells us, that "the same thing happens in Egypt on the wedding day, when the gifts are carried in grand procession before the bride, carpets, cushions, mattresses, coverlets, dishes, basons, jewels, trinkets of gold, pearls, girdles, plate, every thing down to the wooden sandals, wrought with mother of pearl; and, through ostentation, they never fail to load upon four or five horses what might easily be carried by one in like manner as to the jewels, trinkets, and other things of value, they place in fifteen dishes what a single plate would have held." Young men, in Samson's days, made a feast at betrothing; his lasted seven days, during which they amused themselves with riddles and other amusements. And I ought not to forget, that the practice of serving a certain time for a wife was not uncommon. Jacob served Laban fourteen years for Rachel and Leah; and "the Burdooraunees in Cabul, even at this day, live some of them with their future father-in-law, and earn their bride by their services, like Jacob and Rachel, without ever seeing the object of their wishes.""

But we are now approaching the time when the public celebration of the marriage took place; we must therefore attend to its most striking formalities. Persons in the East have always married very young. Thus Neibuhr, in his account of Arabia, p. 63, says, that he had heard, that in Persia girls are married at nine years of age, and that one of them was a mother at thirteen ; but Dr. Shaw's account is still more remarkable, for he tells us, that they are sometimes mothers at eleven,

→ Lett. 10. Judg. xiv. 10, 12, 17. < Elphinstone's Cabul, b. ii. ch. 3.

grandmothers at twenty-two, and past childbearing at thirty. After all, may it not be doubted whether these early marriages are the effect of climate on the human frame, which should extend to the lower animals? And ought we not to seek it rather in the degraded state in which women are held, the corrupted forms of their religion and government, and the unusual license that is universally given to inordinate desire? As for the short season of fertility which travellers mention, this may be occasioned by their entering so early into the state of wedlock, and the prevalence of polygamy; for the women in the East live as long as those in western climates: the period alluded to bears commonly a certain proportion to the rest of life, and the marriages in Scripture evidently militate against the hypothesis of those who would explain all from the influence of climate. Lady Mary W. Montagu refers the marriages of the East to prudential motives. "Early marriages," says she, "are considered necessary for the preservation of character; for among the Turks there is no remaining honourably a single woman," which also appears to have been the case among the Jews; for a continuance in virginity was commonly connected with the person being a prophetess, or devoted to God. Hence the case of Jephthah's daughter, in Judges ii. 40, of whom Iphigenia is a transcript. 2d, We may remark from Sir John Chardin, that it is a custom in the East for youths that have never been married always to marry virgins, and for widowers, however young, always to marry widows. In the 3d place, on the day of the marriage, the bride was as elegantly dressed as her circumstances would permit; for

■ Travels, p. 241, 242. See also Shaw's Abridgment of Bruce's Travels, p. 299, and Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, book xvi. ch. 2.

b Letters, vol. iii. p. 36.

Adam's Geography, p. 406.

Clarke's Harmer, ch. ii. ob. 81.

a

she was led by the women into the dressing chamber, without her veil, and with dishevelled hair, marriage songs being sung before her as she went: she was there placed on a beautiful seat, where they disposed her hair in ringlets (hence compared to the long curled hair of a flock of goats on Mount Gilead, in Cant. iv. 1.) and ornamented it with ribands and trinkets (hence said to resemble the royal purple in Cant. vii. 5.) They then decked her in her wedding attire, and veiled her like Rebecca, amidst the songs and rejoicings of her attendants. Thus was she prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 4th, A virgin was married on the fourth day of the week, or Wednesday, that if any doubts were entertained of her virginity, they could be settled by the council of three on the Thursday, which was a synagogue and court day; and a widow was married on the fifth day of the week, or Thursday. 5th, A woman that was either divorced, or a widow, neither married nor was espoused, till after ninety days, that it might be ascertained whether she was with child by her former husband; and if two heathens, that had been married, became proselytes to Judaism, they did not cohabit for the same length of time, that it might be seen which of their children were heathens, and which were Jews. 6th, When the hour of marriage arrived, four persons walked before the bridegroom, carrying a canopy supported by four poles, that if the bride intended to walk home to the bridegroom's house after the ceremony, she might walk under it in company with her husband; and in the interim, if either stood before the door, in the street, or was taken into the court, around which the house was built, if the

a Is. lxi. 10. Rev. xxi. 2.

b Buxtorff, Synag. Jud. cap. 39. Lightf. Heb. and Talmud. Exercit. on Matt. i. 18.