[105]
Male kinship prevails among the Arabs, but Professor Robertson Smith
has discovered abundant evidence that the contrary practice prevailed
in ancient Arabia.
The women of the Jahiliya, or some of them, had the right to
dismiss their husbands, and the form of dismissal was this:
If they lived in a tent, they turned it round, so that, if the
door had faced east, it now faced west, and when the man saw
this, he knew that he was dismissed, and did not enter.[106]
And after the establishment of the male system the women still held
property--a survival from maternal times. A form of divorce pronounced
by a husband was, "Begone! for I will no longer drive thy flocks to
the pasture."[107]
Our evidence seems to show that, when something like regular
marriage began, and a free tribeswoman had one husband or one
definite group of husbands at a time, the husbands at first
came to her and she did not go to them.[108]
Numerous survivals of the older system are also found among the
Hebrews. The servant of Abraham anticipated that the bride whom he was
sent to bring for Isaac might be unwilling to leave her home, and the
presents which he carried went to Rebekah's mother and brother.
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