568 at which his life was valued, and which, in the event of his being slain, had to be paid by the slayer to his relatives, and which he himself was condemned to pay if proved guilty of certain offences. It varied with the rank of the individual. This idea of a widow choosing whom she would, as if it were always leap-year with her, has fortunately gone out. In Scotland, in the thirteenth century, if the chosen man de clined to marry his chooser, he was heavily fined, unless he could prove that he was betrothed to another woman. Apparently in Wales, according to the laws of Howel the Good, the marriage fees were lightened on a woman's second attempt in the matrimonial lottery; for we read that the bard, called the Chief of Song, who had to sing whenever the King or Queen desired, was entitled to a bridal present from every maiden when she married, but he was to receive nothing at the wedding feast of women who had been married before.1 In strong contrast to the laws of the early English, is the decision of that old Indian lawmaker, Menu, who said, " Let a woman emaciate her body by living voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruits; but let her not, when her lord is deceased, even pro nounce the name of another man. ... A second husband is not allowed to a virtuous woman." 2 As we all know, the Hindoo laws are hard on women; the Brahminical law yers objected to their succeeding to property, because they were not competent to perform the religious rites required of heirs. One authority, however, points out that a woman might do some acts of a quasi-religious char acter; e.g., she may dig tanks.3 In Bengal Proper a childless widow is entitled to the enjoyment of her husband's property, under certain restrictive conditions, for her life. As marriages among the upper classes of Hindoos are very commonly infertile, a large 1 Dim. Code, B. I. ch. 25. 2 Sir W. Jones, vol. iii., Laws of Menu, ch. ii. §§ 157, 162. ' Mitakshara, ii. I, 22-24.
part of the soil is in the hands of such widows as tenants for life. The Suttee, or widowburning, when the English entered India, was a constant and almost universal practice among the wealthier classes; and as a rule, it was only the childless widow, and never the widow with infant children, who burned her self on her husband's funeral pyre. The widow was made to sacrifice herself, that her tenancy for life might be got out of the way, and the husband's relations succeed to the property. The Brahmins exhorted her to the deed, because they disliked seeing any woman enjoying property; and the relatives because they began to enjoy the possessions as soon as her life was over. According to the Gentoo law, " it is proper for a woman, after her husband's death, to burn herself in the fire with his corpse : every woman, who thus burns herself, shall remain in Paradise with her husband three crore and fifty laes of years {i.e. thirty-five million years: quite enough for most husbands and wives!]. If she cannot burn, she must ever preserve an inviolable chastity." 1 Perhaps we have been a little too previous in taking up the subject of widows in the first place; let us go back and see whom a man might marry in the good old days. King Ethelred said : " Let it never be that a Christian man marry within the relation ship of VI. persons, in his own kin, that is within the fourth degree : nor with the relict of him who was so near in worldly relation ship : nor with the wife's relation, whom he before had had. Nor with any hallowed nun, nor with his godmother, nor with one divorced, let any Christian man marry; nor have more wives than one, but be with that one as long as she may live : whoever will rightly observe God's law, and secure his soul from the burning of hell."2 Menu, in his advice to Ccelebs in search of a wife, says that a man should studiously avoid, among others, the families, be they ever so rich or great, which have thick hair on 1 Halhed's Gentoo Code. 3 Laws of Ethelred. vi. § 12.
