husband are treated with respect; those of the wife are of no account. To ensure the happiness of the young couple an auspicious reading of the stars[1] under which they were born is indispensable. If the omens are unpropitious, the marriage does not take place.
The bridegroom pays the parents of the bride, according to agreement, sometimes a good sum as purchase-money, either in cattle, clothes, or, more rarely, in coin; the wife provides the yurta, with all its fittings, as her portion.[2] If the marriage turn out unhappily, or even to gratify some whim or caprice, the husband may put his wife away, but the latter may also desert a husband who is not affectionate. In the first case the purchase-money is not usually returned, and the man may only retain part of the dower; but if the wife desert her husband she must repay part of the ante-nuptial settlement. This custom often gives rise to little romantic episodes, enacted in the heart of the steppe, which never find their way into a novel.
The women are good mothers and housewives, but unfaithful wives. Immorality is most common, not only among the married women, but also among the girls. Adultery is not even concealed, and is not regarded as a vice. In the household the rights
- ↑ They reckon their period of twelve years by the signs of the Zodiac. [Surely the Author here means to refer to the Cycle signs (supra, p. 64), not the Zodiac. — Y.]
- ↑ A full description of a Mongol wedding will be found in 'Timkowsky's Travels,' vol. ii. pp. 303-311, and in Huc's 'Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet,' vol. i. pp. 297-301.
