[150] Risley, The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Vol. I. pp. 228, 231.
[151] Rivers, The Todas; Schrott, Tras. Ethno. Soc. (New Series), Vol. VIII. p. 261.
[152] Letourneau, quoting Skinner, Evolution of Marriage, p. 78.
[153] Thurston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 114. Polyandry has flourished not only among the primitive races of India. The Hindoo populations also adopted it, and traces of the custom may be found in their sacred literature. Thus in the Mahäbhärata the five Pándava brothers marry all together the beautiful Drûaupadi, with eyes of lotus blue (Mahäbhärata, trad. Fauche, t. II. p. 148). For an account of polyandry in ancient India the reader should consult Jolly, Gundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde.
[154] Davy, Ceylon, p. 286; Sachot, L'Île de Ceylon, p. 25.
[155] Turner, Thibet, p. 348, and Hist. Univ. des, Voy., Vol. XXXI. p. 434; Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 36.
[156] Hartland, op. cit., Vol. II. p. 164.
[157] This is the opinion of Bernhöft, quoted by Iwan Bloch. Marshall points out that among the Todas group-marriages occur side by side with polyandry. Bloch also notes that in the common cases where the husband has a claim on his wife's sister, and even her cousins and aunts, we find polygamy developed out of group-marriage. The practice of wife lending and wife exchange is also connected with the early communal marriage (Sexual History of Our Times, pp. 193-194). It is possible that prostitution may be a relic of this early sexual freedom. What is moral in one stage of civilisation often becomes immoral in another, when the reasons for its existing have changed.
[158] Havelock Ellis writing on this subject ("Changing Status of Women," Nineteenth Century, Oct. 1886) says: "It seems that in the dawn of the race an elaborate social organisation permitted a more or less restricted communal marriage, every man in the tribe being at the outset the husband of every woman, first practically, then theoretically, and that the social organisation which had this point of departure was particularly favourable to women."
[159] It is a matter of dispute whether a woman may have more than one husband at a time. The older accounts state this, while later it has been denied. The probability is that this was the custom, but that it is dying out under modern influences. Hartland, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 267.
[160] In north Malabar a custom has arisen by which after a special ceremony the bridegroom is allowed to take the bride to live in his house, but in the case of his death she must at once return to her own family.
[161] J.A.I., XII. p. 292; Hartland, op. cit., p. 288. Letourneau, apparently quoting Bachofen, says that the women control property. This was probably an earlier custom, when the power was more truly in the hands of women, and had not passed to their male relatives.
[162] Wilken, Verwantschap, p. 678; Bijdragen, XXXI. p. 40.
[163] Havelock Ellis, Psychology of Sex, Vol. VI. p. 291. A second form of marriage, known as Jujur, was also practised. It was much more elaborate, and shows very instructively the rise of father-right. By it the authority of the husband over his wife is asserted by a very complicated system of payments; his right to take her to his home, and his absolute property in her depending wholly on these payments. If the final sum is paid (but this is not commonly claimed except in the case of a quarrel between the families) the woman becomes to all intents the slave of the man; but if on the other hand, as is not at all uncommon, the husband fails or has difficulty in making the main payment, he becomes the debtor of his wife's family and is practically a slave, all his labour being due to his creditor without any reduction in the debt, which must be paid in full, before he regains liberty. (See Marsden, History of Sumatra, pp. 225, 235, 257, 262, for an account of both marriages.)
[164] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia.
[165] Havelock Ellis, op. cit., pp. 391-392, quoting Robertson Smith.
[166] Barlow, Semitic Origins, p. 45.
[167] Robertson Smith, op. cit., p. 65.
[168] This kind of union for a term is said to have been recognised by Mahommed, though it is irregular by Moslem law. The cases of beena marriage are very frequent among widely different peoples. (See Hartland, Primitive Paternity, Vol. II. pp. 11, 13, 14, 19, 20, 24, 27, 30-36, 38, 41-43, 51, 53, 55, 60-63, 67-72, 76, 77.) Frazer (Academy, March 27, 1886) cites an interesting example among the tribes on the north frontier of Abyssinia, partially Semitic peoples, not yet under the influence of Islam, who preserve a system of marriage closely resembling the beena marriage, but have as well a purchase marriage, by which a wife is acquired by payment of a bride-price and becomes the property of her husband. (Quoted by Ellis, op. cit., p. 392 note.)
[169] Thomas, Sex and Society, pp. 73-74. Quoting Waitz-Gerland, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, Vol. V. p. 107.
[170] McLennan, The Patriarchal Theory, p. 235.
[171] Thomas, op. cit., p. 75, points out that this survival of woman's power after the rise of father-right is similar to the assertion of male-power under mother-right in the person of the woman's brother or male relative.
[172] Letourneau, op. cit., p. 323, who quotes Lubbock, Orig. Civil., p. 177.
[173] Hartland, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 14, citing Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity.
[174] Letourneau, op. cit., p. 323.
[175] Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity ("Smithsonian Contributions"), Vol. XVII. pp. 416-417.
[176] Hartland, Vol. II. p. 45, quoting Gray, China, Vol. II. p. 304.
[177] This is the opinion of Hartland. He quotes Ellis, History of Madagascar, and Sibree, The Great African Island. I am able to speak as to the truths of the facts given in their books from my knowledge of the Malagasy before the French occupation of the island. Madagascar is my birth-place, and my father was a missionary in the country at the same time as Mr. Ellis and Mr. Sibree.
[178] As an instance of the importance attached to children, I may mention the fact that, after my birth my father was not announced to preach under his own name, but as "the father of Kéteka," the Malagasy equivalent of my name.
[179] Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. I. The Magical Art, Vol. II. p. 277.
[180] Father Guillemé, Missiones Catholiques, XXXIV. (1902), p. 16.
[181] Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation, p. 151.
[182] Frazer, Ibid., p. 276.
[183] "Birth," we are told by a keen observer, who has lived for many years in intimate converse with the natives, "sanctifies the child; birth alone gives him status as a member of his mother's family" (Dennett, Jour. Afr. Soc., I. p. 265).
[184] Travels, p. 109.
[185] Hartland, quoting Mr. Sarbah, a native barrister, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 286.
[186] Lippert, Kulturgeschichte, Vol. II. p. 57.
[187] This is done among the Beni Amer on the shores of the Red Sea and in the Barka valley, which is the more remarkable as mother-descent has fallen into desuetude under the influence of Islamism. (Hartland, Vol. I. p. 274, quoting Munzinger, Ostafrikanische studien.)
[188] Bastian, Loango-Küste, I. p. 166.
[189] Dennett, Jour. Afr. Soc., I. p. 266.
[190] Jour. Afr. Soc., I. p. 412. See Hartland, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 275-288.
[191] A similar custom prevails among Maori people of New Zealand. When a child dies, or even meets with an accident, the mother's relations, headed by her brother, turn out in force against the father. He must defend himself until wounded. Blood once drawn the combat ceases; but the attacking party plunders his house and appropriates the husband's property, and finally sits down to a feast provided by him (Old New Zealand, p. 110). This case is the more extraordinary as the Maori reckon descent through the father; it is doubtless a custom persisting from an earlier time.
[192] Macdonald, Africana, Vol. I. p. 136.
[193] Jour. Afr. Soc., VIII. pp. 15-17. This tribe now traces descent through the father.
[194] Torday and Joyce, J.A.I., XXXV. p. 410.
[195] Arnot, Garenganze, p. 242.
[196] Spencer, Descriptive Sociology, Vol. V. p. 8, citing Petherick, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa, pp. 140-144. This case is quoted by Thomas, op, cit., pp. 85, 86.
[197] For fuller information on this important subject the reader is referred to Professor Otis Mason, who gives a picturesque summary of the work done by women among the primitive tribes of America (American Antiquarian, January 1889, "The Ulu, or Woman's Knife of the Eskimo," Report of the United States National Museum, 1890). H. Ellis, Man and Woman, pp. 1-17, and Thomas, Sex and Society, pp. 123-146, give interesting accounts of the division of labour among primitive people, showing the important part women took in the start of industrialism. For direct examples from primitive peoples, the works of Fison and Howit, James Macdonald, Professor Haddow, Hearn, Morgan, Bancroft, Lubbock, Ratzel, Schoolcroft and other anthropologists should be consulted.
[198] It is an entirely mistaken view, founded on insufficient knowledge, that in early civilisations women were a source of weakness to the men of the tribe or group, and, thus, liable to oppression. The very reverse is the truth. Fison and Howit, who discuss the question, say of the Australian women, "In time of peace they are the hardest workers and the most useful members of the community." In time of war, "they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves at all times, and so far from being an encumbrance on the warriors, they will fight, if need be, as bravely as the men, and with even greater ferocity" (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 133-147, 358). This is no exceptional case, and is confirmed by the reports of investigators of widely different peoples. I may mention the ancient Iberian women of Northern Spain, whose bravery in battle is testified to by Strabo: the descendants of these women still carry on the greater part of the active labour connected with agriculture (Spain Revisited, pp. 191-292). In our own day we have the witness to the same truth in the heroic part taken by women in the Balkan army.
The importance of estimating woman's position in the great civilisations of the ancient world—The Egyptian civilisation—Women more free and more honoured than in any country to-day—The account given by Herodotus—The Egyptian woman never confined to the home—No restraint upon her actions—She entered into commerce in her own right and made contracts for her own benefit—Abundant material in proof of the high status of Egyptian women—Marriage contracts—Their importance and interest—Numerous examples—The proprietary rights of the wife—An early period of mother-rule—Property originally in the hands of women—The marriage contracts a development of the early system—The Egyptians solved the difficult problem of the fusion of mother-right with father-right—The statement of Dioderus that among the Egyptians the woman rules over the man—The conditions of marriage dependent on the birth of children—M. Paturet's view the Egyptian woman the equal of man—The high status of woman proved by the fact that her child was never illegitimate—The position of the mother secure in every relationship between the sexes—This made possible by the free conditions of the marriage contracts—Polygamy allowed—This practice in Egypt very different from polygamy in a patriarchal society—The husband a privileged guest in the home of the wife—The high ideal of the domestic relationship—Illustrations from the inscriptions of the monuments—Reasons which explain this civilised and human organisation—The Egyptians an agricultural and a conservative people—They were also a pacific race—The significance of the Maxims of the Moralists—Honour to the wife and the mother strongly insisted on—The health and character of the Egyptian mother—Some reflections in the Egyptian Galleries of the British Museum.
Traces of mother-right in primitive Babylon—The honour paid to women—The position of women in later Babylonian history, though still at an early period—Their rights more circumscribed—The marriage code of Hammurabi—Polygamy permitted, though restricted, by the code—The exacting conditions of divorce—The position of the wife as subject to her husband—The later Neo-Babylonian periods—The position of women continuously improving—They obtain a position equal in law with their husbands—Their freedom in all social relations—They conduct business transactions in their own right—Illustrations from the contract tablets—Remarks and conclusion.
Traces of mother-right traditions in Greek literature and history—The women of the Homeric period—Dangers arising from the patriarchal subjection of women—Illustrations and various reflections—Historic Greece—The social organisation of Sparta—Their marriage system—The laws of Lycurgus—The freedom of the Spartan girls—The wise care for the health of the race—Plato's criticism of the Spartan system—He accuses the women of ruling their husbands—The Athenian women—Their subjection under the strict patriarchal rule—The insistence on chastity—Reasons for this—The degraded position of the wife—The hetairæ—They the only educated women in Athens—Aspasia—She leads the movement to raise the position of the Athenian women—Plato's estimate of women—Remarks on the sexual penalties for women that are always found under a strict patriarchal regime—The ideal relationship between the wife and the husband—Euripides voices the sorrows of women—He foreshadows their coming triumph.
Little known of the position of women in Rome in prehistoric times—Indications of an early period of mother-rule—The patriarchal system formerly established when Roman history opens—The Roman marriage law—The woman regarded as the property first of her father and afterwards of her husband—The patrician marriage of confarreatio—The form known as coemptio—Marriage by usus—The inequality of divorce—The subjection of the woman—The terrible right of the husband's manus—The way of escape—The development of the early marriage by usus—The new free marriage by consent—Free divorce—A revolution in the position of women—The patriarchal rule of women dwindled to a mere thread—They gained increasingly greater liberty until at last they gained complete freedom—The public entry of women into the affairs of State—Illustrations to show the fine use made by the Roman matrons of their freedom—An examination into the supposed licentiousness of Roman women—This opinion cannot be accepted—The effect of Christianity—The view of Sir Henry Maine—Some concluding remarks on the position of women in the four great civilisations examined in this chapter.
"If we consider the status of woman in the great empires of antiquity, we find on the whole that in their early stage, the stage of growth, as well as in their final stage, the stage of fruition, women tend to occupy a favourable position, while in their middle stage, usually the stage of predominating military organisation on a patriarchal basis, women usually occupy a less favourable position. This cyclic movement seems to be almost a natural law of development of great social groups."—Havelock Ellis.
The civilisations through which I am now going to follow the history of woman, in so far as they offer any special features of interest to our inquiry into woman's character and her true place in the social order, belong to the great civilisations of the ancient world, civilisations, moreover, that have deeply influenced human culture. It forms the second part of our historical investigation. There can be no doubt of its interest to us, for if we can prove that women have exercised unquestioned and direct authority in the family and in the State, not only among primitive peoples, but in stable civilisations of vital culture, we shall be in a position to answer those who wish to set limits to women's present activities.
It is necessary to enter into this inquiry with caution: the difficulties before me are very great. Again, it is not in any scarcity of evidence, but in its superabundance that the trouble rests. It is hard to condense the social habits of peoples into a few dozen pages. Nothing would be easier than from the mass of material available to pile up facts in furnishing a picture of the high status of woman that would unnerve any upholders of female subordination. It is just possible, on the other hand, to interpret these facts from a fixed point of thought, and then to argue that, in spite of her power, woman was still regarded as the inferior of man.[199] I wish to do neither. It is my purpose to outline the domestic relationships and the family law and customs as they existed in Egypt and in Babylon, in Greece and in Rome; to touch the features of social life only in so far as they illustrate this, and so to discover to what extent the mother was still regarded as the natural transmitter of property and head of the household. The subject is an immensely complicated and seductive one, so that I must keep strictly to the path set by this inquiry.
Let us turn first to Egypt.
We have so rich a collection of the remains of the ancient Egyptian civilisation, and so careful and industrious a scholarship has been given to interpret them, that we can with confidence reconstruct in outline the legal status and proprietary rights enjoyed by women, which gave them a position more free and more honoured than they have in any country of the world to-day. This is not an overestimate of the facts. The security of her proprietary rights made the Egyptian woman the legal head of the household, she inherited equally with her brothers, and had full control of her own property. She was juridically the equal of man, having the same rights, with the same freedom of action, and being honoured in the same way.
The position of woman in Egypt is, indeed, full of surprises to the modern believer in woman's subjection. Herodotus, who was a keen observer, was the first to record his astonishment. He writes—
"They have established laws and customs opposite for the most part to those of the rest of mankind. With them the women go to market and traffic; the men stay at home and weave.... The men carry burdens on their heads, the women on their shoulders.... The boys are never forced to maintain their parents unless they wish to do so, the girls are obliged to, even if they do not wish it."[200]
There is probably some exaggeration in this account, but it is certain that the wide activities of the free Egyptian women were never confined to the home. An important part was taken by her in industrial and commercial life. In these relations and in social intercourse it is allowed on all hands woman's position was remarkably free.[201] The records of the monuments show her to have been as actively concerned in all the affairs of her day, war alone excepted, as her father, her husband, or her sons.[202] No restraint was placed upon her actions, she appears eating and also drinking freely, and taking her part in equal enjoyment with men in social scenes and religious ceremonies. She was able to enter into commerce in her own right and to make contracts for her own benefit. She could bring actions, and even plead in the courts. She practised the art of medicine. As priestess she had authority in the temples. Frequently as queen she was the highest in the land. One of the greatest monarchs of Egypt was Hatschepsut,[203] B.C. 1550. "The mighty one!" "Conqueror of all Lands!" Queen in her own right by the will of her father, Thothmes I.
The material in proof of this high status of Egyptian women is abundant. It consists partly of the descriptions of Greek travellers, partly of the numerous and interesting marriage contracts, and partly of inscriptions and passages in the writings of the moralists, all of which testify to the beautiful and happy family relationships and usual honour in which women were held, which is further illustrated by incidents in the ancient stories. Of these the marriage contracts are the most important for our purpose.
The fullest information relates to the latest period of independent Egyptian history, when the position of women stood highest, but some of the contracts reach back to the time of King Bocchoris, and there are a few of an even earlier date. I wish that I had space to quote some of these marriage contracts in full: they are very instructive, and open out many paths of new suggestion.[204] I would commend their study to all those who are questioning the institution of marriage as it stands to-day on the rights of the patriarchal family system, by which the woman is considered the inferior, and submits herself and is subordinate to the man as the ruler of the family. The issue really rests at its root upon this—is the mother or the father to be regarded as the natural transmitter of property and head of the family. Our decision here will affect our outlook on the entire relation of the sexes. The Egyptians decided on the right of the mother. Their marriage contracts seem to have been entirely in favour of women. There was no sale of the bride by her parents, but the bride-price went to her; her own property also remained in her own charge and was at her own disposal. The husband stipulates in the contracts how much he will give as a yearly allowance for her support, and the entire property of the husband is pledged as security for these payments, whilst the wife is further protected by a dowry[205] or charge on the husband, to be paid to her in the event of his sending her away.
It will readily be seen how advantageous these proprietary rights must have been to the wife. She was able to claim either the fidelity of her husband or freedom for herself to leave him—and in some cases for both together, her property being secured to her and her children. In one contract by which the husband gives his wife one-third of all his property, present and to come, he values the movables she brought with her, and promises her the equivalent in silver. "If thou stayest, thou stayest with them, if thou goest away, thou goest away with them."[206] The importance of this right of free separation to women can hardly be over-estimated. Nietzold says the wife has absolutely nothing to lose, even when she is the guilty party.[207] Some of the marriage contracts are even more favourable to women; in these the husband literally endows his wife with all his worldly goods, "stipulating only that she is to maintain him while living, and provide for his burial when dead."[208] M. Paturet distinguishes two forms of marriage settlements, one which secures to the wife an annual pension of specified amount—usually one-third of the property of the husband—and the other, probably the older custom, which established a complete community of goods. The earlier contracts are much less detailed, due probably to the fact that the position of the established wife was then fixed by custom; but there seems no doubt that the equal lawful wife, she whose proper title is "lady of the house," was also joint ruler and mistress of the family heritage.[209] There is a very curious early contract of the time of Darius I, in which the usual stipulation of latter contracts are reversed, the wife speaking of the man being established as her husband, acknowledging the receipt of a sum of money as dowry, and undertaking that if she deserts or disposes of him, a third part of all her goods, present and to come, shall be forfeited to him.[210]
The high honour, freedom and proprietary rights enjoyed by the Egyptian wife can only be explained as being traceable to an early period of mother-right. Here the ancient privileges of women have persisted, not as an empty form, but would seem to have been adopted because of their advantage in the family relationship, and been incorporated with father-right. This would account for the last-named contract. Its very ancient date seems clearly to point to this. It is unlikely that, if it were an exceptional form, it should have chanced to be one of the very few early contracts that have been preserved.[211] It would rather seem that property was originally entirely in the hands of women, as is usual under the matriarchal system. The Egyptian marriage law was simply a development of this, enforcing by agreement what would occur naturally under the earlier custom. The interests of the children's inheritance was the chief object of the settlement of property on the wife. In the earlier stage, the daughter inheriting property from her parents, would marry—the husband would then become its joint administrator, but not its owner; it would pass by custom to the children with the eldest as administrator, but if the wife dismissed the husband, as under this system she could and often did, she would of right retain the family property in control for the children.[212] As society advanced this older custom would tend to break up in favour of individual ownership, property would come to belong to the husband and father, and it would then be necessary to ensure the position of the wife and children by contract. The Egyptian marriage may thus be regarded as a development of the individual relationship arising from father-right modified to conform with the mother-right custom of transmitting property through the woman. Under the earlier system the inheritance of the husband would pass to the children of his sister, and not to his own children. The contract was, therefore, made to prevent this. The husband's property was passed over to the wife (at first entirely and later in part) to secure its inheritance by the children of the marriage. Hence the formula common to these contracts by which the husband declares to the wife, "My eldest son, thy eldest son, shall be the heir to all my property present and to come." The only difference to the earlier custom was the prominence given to the eldest child (a son) in the contract.
This gift by the husband of his property to the wife, which made her a joint partner with him in all the family transactions, while at the same time she retained complete control over her own property, clearly placed the woman and her children in the same position of security as she had held during the mother-age; and added to this she gained the individual protection and support of the father in the family relationship. Doubtless it was this freedom and right over property, which explains the frequent cases in which the Egyptian women conducted business transactions, and also their active participation in the administration of the social organisation. Equal partners with their husbands in the administration of the home, they became partners with men in the wider administration of the State. It was in such wise way that the Egyptians arranged the difficult problem of the fusion of mother-right with father-right.
One result of these marriage contracts, giving apparently great power to the wife, arose out of the mortgage on the husband's property as security for the wife's settlement; her consent became necessary to all his acts. Thus it is usual for the husband's deeds to be endorsed by the wife, while he did not endorse hers. In some cases the wife's consent seems to have been necessary even in the case of the initial mortgage, when the only possible explanation is that the wife was regarded as co-proprietor with the husband, and therefore had to be party to any act disposing of the joint estate.[213]
Such a custom was apparently so wholly in favour of the wife, reversing the customary position of the man and the woman in the marriage partnership, that in the light of these contracts we understand the statement of Diodorus, when he says that "among the Egyptians the woman rules over the man"; though plainly he has not understood their true significance, when he goes on to say that "it is stipulated between married couples, by the terms of the dowry-contract that the man shall obey the woman."[214]
If the view is accepted, as I think it must be, that these contracts were made to add the advantages of father-right to the natural privileges of mother-right, and thus to secure the enjoyment of the family property to all its members, it will become evident that, however surprising such an agreement might seem from the one-sided patriarchal view (which always accepts the subjection of the woman), it was entirely a wise and just arrangement. It was certainly one that was entered into voluntarily by both partners of the marriage; there was no compulsion of law. All the evidence that has come down to us is witness to the success in practice of these marriage contracts. No other nation has yet developed a family relationship so perfect in its working as the Egyptians. The reason is not far to seek. It was based on the equal freedom and responsibility of the mother with the father. There was no question, it seems to me, of one sex ruling or obeying the other, rather it was the co-operation of the two for the welfare of both and of the children.
So far we have dealt only with the position of the established wife. All the written marriage contracts refer to the "taking" and "establishing" a wife as two distinct steps, and in some cases the second stage, which seems to have conveyed the proprietary rights, was not taken until after the birth of children. There would thus be wives not necessarily holding the position of "lady of the house," but capable of being raised to such rank by later contract.[215] It is probable, as M. Revillout suggests,[216] that "the taking to wife" was a comparatively informal matter, but needing ratification by contract for any lasting establishment, which commonly would be done after the birth of a child to ensure the rights of the father's inheritance, passing through the mother to the children. All the evidence is in favour of this wise arrangement. There are many examples of contracts being entered into by the husband for the benefit of a woman, who had been "with him as a wife to him." Relations between the sexes of an even less binding character than this were not ignored.[217] It seems clear that little regard was paid to pre-nuptial chastity for women, and in no marriage contract is any stress laid on virginity, which, as Havelock Ellis[218] says, clearly indicates the absence of any idea of women as property. "It is the glory of Egyptian morality to have been the first to express the dignity of woman."[219]
M. Paturet takes the view that it was not so much as the mother, but as woman, and being the equal of man, that the Egyptians honoured their women. Perhaps the truth rather is that there was no separation between the woman and the mother. This is the view that I would take; to me it is the right and natural one. But be this as it may, Egyptian morality placed first the rights of the mother. No religious or moral superiority seems to have attached to the established wife. Even when there had been no betrothal, and no intention of marriage, law or custom recognises the claim of any mother of children to some kind of provision at their father's expense. "Nothing proves the high status of woman so clearly as this: her child was never illegitimate; illegitimacy was not recognised even in the case of a slave woman's child."[220]
There is a curious deed of the Ptolemaic period by which a man cedes to a woman a number of slaves; and—in the same breath—recognises her as his lawful wife, and declares her free not to consider him as her husband.[221] A byssus worker at the factory of Amon promises to the wife he is about to establish, one-third of all his acquisitions thenceforward: "my eldest son, thy eldest son, among the children born to thee previously and those thou shalt bear to me in future shall be master of all I possess now or shall hereafter acquire." Even when such arrangements were not entered into voluntarily, public opinion seems always to have been in favour of the woman. A case is recorded where four villagers of the town of Arsinöe pledged themselves to the priest, scribe, and mayor that a fellow villager of theirs will become the friend of the woman who has been as his wife, and will love her as a woman ought to be loved.[222]
Most significant of all is the well-known precept of Petah Hotep, which refers to the expected conduct of a man to a prostitute or outcast—