38 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



when Csesar's legions carried the Roman eagles into 

 Northern Europe, they encountered men who had 

 nothing to learn from their conquerors in point of 

 morality, but, on the contrary, had much to teach them. 

 The German wife, according to Tacitus, was the help- 

 mate of her husband, at home and in the field, in 

 peace and in war. Heroines and priestesses were 

 highly honoured. Each nation of antiquity, it has 

 been remarked, attributed to the gods its distinctive 

 national type, those of the Ethiopians, for example, 

 being black. Northern mythology reflects accordingly 

 much purer types of womanhood than the Greek. 

 The Valkyries of the North were not voluptuous 

 women, but stern and hardy amazons who could only 

 be won by heroic deeds — battle-maidens who wedded 

 none but their conquerors. Their power dwelt in 

 their chastity, for once conquered by passion they 

 became simple mortals. Not only was the German 

 wife not bought or treated like a slave, but on the 

 morning after marriage the husband made her a gift 

 — a Morgengab, the origin of the English jointure.^ 

 The self-respect engendered among Northern women 

 appears to have been very great. When an army of 

 the Teutons was overcome by Marius their wives 



^ Laboulaye's Histoire Civile et Politiqice des Femmes. 



