h case she became the property of her husband.

The change did not, of course, take place at once, and we have many
examples of a transition period where the old customs are in conflict
with the new. Both forms of marriage, the maternal and the purchase
contract, are practised side by side by many peoples. These cases are
so instructive that I must add one or two examples to those already
noticed. The _ambel-anak_ marriage of Sumatra is the maternal form,
but there is another marriage known as _djudur_, by which a man buys
his wife as his absolute property. There is a complicated system of
payments, on which the husband's rights to take the wife to his home
depends. If the final sum is paid (but this is not commonly claimed
except in the case of a quarrel between the families) the woman
becomes to all intents and purposes the slave of the man; but if, on
the other hand, as is not at all uncommon, the husband fails or has
difficulty in making the main payment, he becomes the debtor of his
wife's family, and he is practically the slave, all his labour being
due to his wife's family without any reduction in the debt, which must
be paid in full, before he regains his liberty.[120] In Ceylon, again,
there are two forms of marriage, called _beena_ and _deega_, which
cause a marked difference in the position of the wife. A woman married
under the _beena_ form lives in the house or immediate neighbourhood
of her parents, and if so married she has the right of inheritance
along with her brothers; but if married in _deega_ she goes to live in
her husband's house and village and loses her rights in her own
family.[121]

[120] Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, pp. 225-227.

[121] Forbes, _Eleven Years in Ceylon_, Vol. I, p. 333.

In Africa where the _beena maternal marriage_ is usual, and the
husband serves for his wife and lives with her family, it is said that
families are usually more or less willing _for value received_ to give
a woman to a man to take away with him, or to let him have his _beena_
wife to transfer to his own house. Among the Wayao and Mang'anja of
the Shirehighlands, south of Lake Nyassa, a man on marrying leaves his
own village and goes to live in that of his wife; but, as an
alternative, he is allowed to pay a bride-price, in which case he
takes his wife away to his home.[122] Again among the Banyai on the
Zambesi, if the husband gives nothing the children of the marriage
belong to the wife's family,