70 MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 



husband are treated with respect ; those of the wife 

 are of no account. To ensure the happiness of the 

 young couple an auspicious reading of the stars ^ 

 under which they were born is indispensable. If the 

 omens are unpropitious, the marriage does not take 

 place. 



The bridegroom pays the parents of the bride, 

 according to agreement, sometimes a good sum as 

 purchase-money, either in cattle, clothes, or, more 

 rarely, in coin ; the wife provides the yurta, with all 

 its fittings, as her portion.'"^ If the marriage turn 

 out unhappily, or even to gratify some whim or 

 caprice, the husband may put his wife away, but the 

 latter may also desert a husband who is not affec- 

 tionate. In the first case the purchase-money is not 

 usually returned, and the man may only retain part 

 of the dower ; but if the wife desert her husband she 

 must repay part of the ante-nuptial settlement. This 

 custom often gives rise to little romantic episodes, 

 enacted in the heart of the steppe, which never find 

 their way into a novel. 



The women are good mothers and housewives, 

 but unfaithful wives. Immorality is most common, 

 not only among the married women, but also among 

 the girls. Adultery is not even concealed, and is 

 not regarded as a vice. In the household the rights 



^ They reckon their period of twelve years by the signs of the 

 Zodiac. [Surely the Author here means to refer to the Cycle signs 

 (supra, p. 64), not the Zodiac. — Y.] 



" A full description of a Mongol wedding will be found in ' Tim- 

 kowsky's Travels,' vol. ii. pp. 303-311, and in Hue's ' Souvenirs d'un 

 Voyage dans la Tartaric et le Thibet,' vol. i. pp. 297-301. 



