174 PRACTICE OF 



letters to other men, and playing all kinds of 

 mischief." 



This argument seemed unanswerable, so we 

 turned the conversation to the customs in our coun- 

 try in this important matter, and told him, very 

 much to his surprise, that the men among us did not 

 purchase their wives, and that very often the woman 

 brings the most money, and is the richest of the 

 two. This it was exceedingly difficult to make him 

 comprehend, and, like our social system in general, 

 was utterly unintelligible to him. It was of no use 

 to tell him that we did not purchase our wives, 

 because his untutored, and not overburthened, 

 mind would see no difference between our custom 

 of making settlements on wives, and his of going 

 to a woman's father and paying a certain number 

 of piastres ; ^* I pay so much money, and get a 

 wife ; you do the same in your country ; what does 

 it signify to whom the money is paid, if a wife 

 cannot be procured without paying it?" would 

 have been his argument. And would there not 

 have been a great deal of truth in the Turk's ob- 

 servation? We shudder at theideaof a "mariage 

 de convenance;" and the Turkish women, who 

 are bought and sold, are treated no better than 



