Adam s Wife 303 



their meanness. A man who has no genuine hom- 

 age for woman, though many have for her influence 

 or money, is the most fitting mark for the contempt 

 of mankind. We have idealized and made pretty 

 rites out of the customs and laws of the old sav- 

 agery. The wedding-ring is a survival of the fetter 

 which fastened her wrist when she was first cap- 

 tured. The bridegroom's "best man" represents 

 the stout warrior who went with the groom to help 

 him steal her and get safely away with her. It is 

 not so very long since all women were owned, sold, 

 traded in, like cattle. The husband was not only 

 privileged, but required by custom, to whip her. 

 An old Welsh law, still existent, provides that three 

 blows with a broomstick on any part of her person 

 except her head is necessary and sufficient; or he 

 might use a stick no longer than his arm nor thicker 

 than his middle finger. It was the custom in Russia 

 for the father to strike the bride gently with a new 

 whip and then hand it over to the groom. In Cro- 

 atia the bridegroom now boxes the bride's ears, and 

 in Hungary he kicks her, after the marriage cere- 

 mony. 



That is nice company for a manly man and a 

 gentleman to be associated with, theologically or 

 otherwise, isn't it? They are not up to the moral 

 standard of the stags and bears. No wild animal 

 will offer violence to his female. The Americans 

 have led in the emancipation of woman, securing 

 for her the rights of a human being, and of a citizen 



