374 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by H. C. Ellis 



TRUFFLES, USED FOR FLAVORING FRENCH DISHES! THIS HAND- 

 FUL IS WORTH ALMOST 5OO FRANCS 



Pigs and dogs are trained to hunt truffles. Some varieties, how- 

 ever, exhale so powerful an odor that their places of growth beneath 

 the surface can readily be detected by the gatherers of the precious 

 fungi. 



dictates of the heart, but may accept the 

 husband in a manner that would seem 

 curiously business-like and matter-of-fact 

 to the American girl. 



THE DOWRY A TRUST FUND FOR CHILDREN 



I have said that the consent of the 

 family group is generally requested. To 

 the French a marriage means readjust- 

 ment of the entire family group, and 

 obviously, according to French reasoning, 

 all members of the family must be con- 

 sulted. 



And this "round- 

 table" discussion deals 

 often with matters so 

 extremely mate rial 

 that under similar cir- 

 cumstances the Amer- 

 ican girl would feel 

 shocked if not posi- 

 tively insulted ; for ex- 

 treme financial pru- 

 dence enters into the 

 conference. 



In the better-class 

 families a dowry ac- 

 companying the wife 

 will practically be de- 

 manded. What does 

 she bring with her? is 

 the not uncommon 

 question of the young 

 man's parents. 



Extremely pruden- 

 tial it all may seem ; 

 but one should remem- 

 ber that this dowry is 

 not to be used by the 

 husband for his per- 

 sonal use, but as a 

 trust fund for the 

 maintenance of the 

 expected children. If 

 the wife dies childless 

 the dowry will, in all 

 probability, revert to 

 her family ; the theory 

 of the affair is that 

 such property belongs 

 not to the individual — 

 either husband or 

 wife— but to the fam- 

 ily as an institution. 



In some ways such 

 foresight is good, for 

 it prevents hasty and poverty - ridden 

 marriage ; in other ways it is bad, for it 

 deters marriage in a land where children 

 are sorely needed and causes the French 

 family to be small, so that the one or 

 two children, when grown, may possess 

 the proper financial attractions for mar- 

 riage. Hence, too, the unusual impor- 

 tance attached to the child in the French 

 home. He or she is a somewhat expen- 

 sive luxury ; his or her intelligence may 

 be unduly forced; he or she may be- 

 come almost unpleasantly precocious ; he 



