IX MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 91 



customs of the natives, I think the following may be 

 taken as a fair statement of the case. 



Abyssinian marriages are but rarely religious, being 

 generally of a civil character. They are solemnised 

 before a court composed of seven elders. The intend- 

 ing bridegroom having sent his father or other elderly 

 male relative to the girl's father to ask if the latter agrees 

 to the proposed union, inquiries are made into the 

 financial condition of both parties. For this purpose the 

 worldly possessions of the pair are lumped together and 

 made common property, but in the case of a wealthy 

 man and a girl with no dowry, the bridegroom estimates 

 the beauty and virtue of the bride at a certain sum, and 

 reserves the rest of his own fortune for himself. Should 

 the husband subsequently wish to get rid of his wife, he 

 can only do so by allotting to her one half of the com- 

 bined fortune in the one case, or of the sum set aside as 

 the equivalent of her virtue and beauty in the other. 

 Should there be proof that the wife is unfaithful, the 

 injured husband can turn her out of the back door in 

 her dress only, stripped of her jewels and literally with- 

 out a salt {i.e. a sou). Theoretically the wife can claim 

 divorce from her husband for misconduct with other 

 women, but generally for the first offence the court 

 merely remonstrates with him. Should, however, the 

 husband have communicated disease to his wife, the 

 latter is entitled to a divorce and half his fortune. In 

 Shoa about one quarter of the marriages are life con- 

 tracts ; the remainder are really annual arrangements 

 with concubines, the agreement being renewable year by 

 year for a stipulated sum. The children of either of 



