330 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 232. 



valid in his time, although no religious sanction 

 was obtained. 



It appears from Our Lord's remarks, Matt. xix. 

 8., Mark x. 5., that the consuetudinary law of 

 marriage was not wholly abrogated, but was ac- 

 commodated to the Jews by the Mosaic code. To 

 understand this subject, therefore, the ancient 

 usages and existing practices must be weighed, 

 as well from ancient authors as from modern tra- 

 vellers. Whence it appears that the contract of 

 marriage, whereby a man received a wife in con- 

 sideration of a certain sum of money paid to her 

 father, contemplated progeny as its special object.* 

 In default of an heir the Jew took a second wife, 

 it being assumed that the physical defect was on 

 the wife's part. If the second had no child he 

 took a third, and in like default a fourth, which 

 was the limit as understood by the rabbins, and is 

 now the limit assigned by the Mahometan doctors. 

 But the Mosaic law proceeded even beyond this, 

 and allowed, on the husband's death, the right of 

 Iboom, usually called the Levirate law, so that in 

 case of there being no child, some one of the de- 

 ceased's brothers had a right to take some one of 

 the deceased's wives : and their progeny was 

 deemed by the Mosaic code to be his deceased 

 brother's, whose property indeed devolved in the 

 line of such progeniture. It would appear that 

 it was usual for the eldest brothers to marry, the 

 younger brothers remaining single. This was a 

 remnant, as modified by Moses, of the custom of 

 polyandry, several brothers taking one wife, — a 

 sort of necessary result of polygamy, since the 

 number of males and females born is equal in all 

 countries, within certain limits of variation. The 

 best authorities on this subject are the Mishna, 

 Selden, Du Halde, Niebuhr, Siismilch, and Mi- 

 chalis, the last in Dr. Smith's translation, at the 

 beginning of the 2nd volume. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



Stylites says, " On what ground has polygamy 

 become forbidden among Christians ? I am not 

 aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture." 

 In reply to this I venture to say, that the Divine 

 will on this matter was sufficiently indicated at 

 the creation, when one woman was appointed for 

 one man, as expressed in Gen. ii. 24., and quoted 

 by Our Lord, with the significant addition of the 

 word twain : " They twain shall be one flesh " 

 (Matt. xix. 5.). Twain, i.e. two ; not twenty, nor 

 any indefinite number. Moreover, the law of 

 nature speaks, in the nearly equal numbers of 

 men and women that are born, or, as in this 

 parish, by making the men the more numerous. 



But Stylites starts a most interesting question 

 in a practical point of view. It is admitted that 



* In the recent ceremony of the French emperor's 

 marriage, money was presented to the bride. 



the Gospel is not very explicit respecting poly- 

 gamy ; and why so ? Possibly the Gospel was 

 purposely kept silent; and the Church allowed 

 some latitude in judgment upon a very difficult 

 point, because it was foreseen that the custom of 

 polygamy would prove one of the greatest ob- 

 stacles to a reception of pure Christianity. This 

 difficulty is of constant occurrence in heathen 

 lands at the present day. The Christian mis- 

 sionary insists upon the convert abandoning all 

 his wives, except the one whom he first married. 

 This woman was probably childless ; and because 

 she was so, he formed other and legal connexions. 

 But before he can be received as a Christian, he 

 must dissolve all these later ties, and bastardise 

 children who were innocently born in lawful wed- 

 lock. The conditions are very awful. An act of 

 cruelty and injustice has to be performed by one 

 who is on the point of entering the threshold of 

 Christianity ! 



Perhaps these considerations may serve to ac- 

 count for the comparative silence of the Gospel 

 upon a subject which seemed to require the ex- 

 pression of a direct command, whilst they will in 

 no way obscure its universally-admitted meaning. 



Alfred Gatty. 



Ecclesfield. 



POETICAL TAVERN SIGNS. 



(Vol. ix., p. 58.) 



The subjoined lines address themselves to the 

 traveller, as he looks on the sign of " The Rod- 

 ney's Pillar" inn at Criggirn, a hamlet on the 

 borders of Montgomeryshire and this county : 



" Under these trees, in sunny weather, 

 Just try a cup of ale, however ; 

 And if in tempest or in storm, 

 A couple then to make you warm ; 

 But when the day is very cold, 

 Then taste a mug a twelvemonth old." 



Reverse side. 

 " Rest, and regale yourself: 'tis pleasant. 

 Enough is all the prudent need. 

 That's the due of the hardy peasant, 

 Who toils all sorts of men to feed. 

 " Then ' muzzle not the ox when he treads out the 

 corn,' 

 Nor grudge honest labour its pipe and its horn." 



G. H. BlLLINGTON. 



The following, although not a tavern sign, may 

 be worth preserving. I saw it under a painting 

 of an ox, which adorned a butcher's shop at Ischl, 

 in Upper Austria, a.d. 1835 : 

 " Der Ochs besteht aus Fleisch und Bein zum laufen, 



Darum kann ich das Fleisch nicht ohne Bein ver- 

 kaufen." _ 



J. C. R. 



