pretium emptionis, to employ a term of Roman jurisprudence, passed into the dos or dowry. The custom was the same as that followed by the Germanic tribes. In saying this I have particularly in view Tacitus’s statement about the payment made by the bridegroom at a marriage, and the more recent fact of the conversion of this payment into a dowry given by the bride’s father.
That in former days in Russia wives were regularly bought from their parents is plainly recognised by the wedding-songs still in use among our peasants.
The “bayards”, a term by which people designate the companions or followers of bridegroom, who on his part is called “the duke”, kniaz—“the bayards”, says a wedding- song of the government of Saratov, “surround the yard of the bride’s house on all sides, they bargain for our Douniascha.”
“The bayards have covered the ground with gold,” sing the country people of White Russia.
The bridegroom is very often mentioned in the songs of the peasants of Great Russia as the “merchant”, whilst the bride is spoken of as “merchandise”. In the government of Jaroslav, for instance, the bride, following an ancient usage, complains of the treatment to which she will be subjected, saying that “unknown merchants will take her away from her father and her dear mother”.
Now that we have carefully passed in review the different aspects under which matrimonial relations have been viewed, or still are viewed, by the country people of Russia, we may be allowed to say, that Russian ethnography quite corroborates the theory as to the evolution of marriage which English scholars were the first to establish.
