he first child on
condition of the woman's consent.

Among the American Indians, if the woman is not a consenting party she
elopes with her lover and thus escapes the would-be-husband. In this
way elopement has gradually become a recognized institution among
certain races. I was told by a Bulgarian that the peasants in his
country buy their wives from the father, generally for two or three
hundred francs, but if the father demands too much, the women are
raped. After this marriage becomes indispensable and the father
receives nothing, for, in Bulgaria, which is not yet spoiled by
civilization, unions apart from marriage are considered as a terrible
disgrace.

In certain races, the woman has a free choice among several men and
her wish becomes law, so that the parents have no voice in the matter;
this occurs among the natives of the Celebes. The bridegroom is
nevertheless obliged to pay the dowry demanded. Similar customs
prevail among other races.

Westermark comes to the conclusion that in the primitive state of
humanity the women had a much freer choice than afterward. Marriage by
purchase developed later and constituted an intermediate stage. When
the first civilizations became more complicated and recognized the
value of woman's labor, the fathers began to sell their daughters, as
we now see savage tribes abandon their women to prostitution with the
white man. But in primitive times, when there was neither
civilization, money, nor labor, properly so-called, each individual
fought for his life and the father had no more possibility of selling
his daughter as a slave than a gorilla or an orang-utan would have
to-day.

Marriage by rape, which occurred after wars when the women were
abducted and married against their will, must not be confounded with
marriage by elopement which takes place with the woman's consent, and
of which the latest fashion is elopement by automobile.

Among savages, the boys are also most often the property of the
father, who has the right to sell them and even to put them to death.
But they become free at the age of puberty and then have the right to
marry according to their inclination without being forced by their
parents.

There existed and still exist many patriarchal races (certain Indians
and Asiatics, for example) among whom the father possesses unlimited
power. The older he is the more he is honored, and the more his power
is uncontested. All the children and grandchildren, with