was received
there, and at her good pleasure. We find many cases of _beena_
marriage among widely different peoples. Frazer[116] 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 maternal marriage closely resembling the _beena_
form, but have as well a purchase marriage, by which a wife is
acquired by the payment of a bride-price and becomes the property of
her husband.

[115] _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia._ See also
Barton, _Semitic Origins_.

[116] _Academy_, March 27, 1886.

A very curious form of conjugal contract is recorded among the
Hassanyeh Arabs of the White Nile, where the wife passed by contract
for a portion of her time only under the authority of her husband. It
illustrates in a striking way the conflict in marriage between the old
rights of the woman and the rising power of the husband.

"When the parents of the man and the woman meet to settle
the price of the woman, the price depends on how many days
in the week the marriage tie is to be strictly observed. The
woman's mother first of all proposes that, taking everything
into consideration, with due regard to the feelings of the
family, she could not think of binding her daughter to a due
observance of that chastity which matrimony is expected to
command for more than two days in the week. After a great
deal of apparently angry discussion, and the promise on the
part of the relations of the man to pay more, it is arranged
that the marriage shall hold good, as is customary among the
first families of the tribe, for four days in the week, viz.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and in compliance
with old established custom, the marriage rites during the
three remaining days shall not be insisted on, during which
days the bride shall be perfectly free to act as she may
think proper, either by adhering to her husband and home, or
by enjoying her freedom and independence from all observance
of matrimonial obligations."[117]

[117] Spencer, _Descriptive Sociology_, Vol. V, p. 8, citing
Petherick, _Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa_, pp.
140-141.

A further striking example of mother-right is furnished by the Mariana
Islands, where the position of women was distinctly superior.

"Even when the man had