c_, the sister city of Hamburg. MR. HAWKINS'S etymology
seems to rest on no more substantial foundation than an error of the press
in the work, whichever that may be, from which he quotes.

JAYDEE.

* * * * *

SELLING A WIFE.

(Vol. vii., p. 429.)

The popular idea that a man may legally dispose of his wife, by exposing
her for sale in a public market, may not improbably have arisen from the
correlation of the terms _buying_ and _selling_. Your correspondent V. T.
STERNBERG need not be reminded how almost universal was the custom among
ancient nations of purchasing wives; and he will admit that it appears
natural that the commodity which has been obtained "per aes et libram"--to
use the phrase of the old Roman law touching matrimony--is transferable to
another for a similar consideration, whenever it may have become useless or
disagreeable to its original purchaser. However this may be, the custom is
ancient, and moreover appears to have obtained, to some extent, among the
higher orders of society. Of this an instance may be found in Grimaldi's
_Origines Genealogicae_, pp. 22, 23. (London, 1828, 4to.) The deed, by which
the transaction was sought to be legalised, runs as follows:

"To all good Christians to whom this writ shall come, John de Camoys,
son and heir of Sir Ralph de Camoys, greeting: Know me to have
delivered, and yielded up of my own free will, to Sir William de
Paynel, Knight, my wife Margaret de Camoys, daughter and heiress of Sir
John de Gatesden; and likewise to have given and granted to the said
Sir William, and to have made over and quit-claimed all goods and
chattels which the said Margaret has or may have, or which I may claim
in her right; so that neither I, nor any one in my name, shall at any
time hereafter be able to claim any right to the said Margaret, or to
her goods and chattels, or their pertinents. And I consent and grant,
and by this writ declare, that the said Margaret shall abide and remain
with the said Sir William during his pleasure. In witness of which I
have placed my seal to this deed, before these witnesses: Thomas de
Depeston, John de Ferrings, William de Icombe, Henry le Biroun, Stephen
Chamberlayne, Walter le Blound, Gilbert de Batecumbe, Robert de Bosco,
and others."

This matter came under the cognisance of Parliament in 1302, when the grant
was pronounced to be invalid.