[145]
So long as a wife remained in her group, she could rely upon her
kindred for protection against ill-usage from her husband, but she
forfeited this advantage when she passed to his group. An Arabian girl
replies to her father, when a chief seeks her in marriage: "No! I am
not fair of face, and I have infirmities of temper, and I am not his
_bint'amm_ (tribeswoman), so that he should respect my consanguinity
with him, nor does he dwell in thy country, so that he should have
regard for thee; I fear then that he may not care for me and may
divorce me, and so I shall be in an evil case."[146] The Hassanyeh
Arabs of the White Nile region in Egypt afford a curious example of
the conflict of male and female interests in connection with marriage,
in which the female passes by contract for only a portion of her time
under the authority of the male:
When the parents of the man and 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 a due regard for 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.
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