s husband and to serve Laban for
seven years before he was permitted to marry Leah, and seven years for
Rachel, while six further years of service were claimed before he was
allowed the possession of his cattle.[201] Afterwards, when he wished
to depart with his wives and his children, Laban made the objection,
"these daughters are my daughters, and these children are my
children."[202] Now, according to the patriarchal custom, Laban's
daughters should have been cut off from their father by marriage, and
become of the kindred of their husbands. Such a claim on the part of
the father proves the subordinate position held by the husband in the
wife's family, who retained control over her and the children of the
marriage, and even over the personal property of the man, as was usual
under the later matriarchal custom. Even when the marriage is not in
the maternal form, and the wife goes to the husband's home, we find
compensation has to be paid to her kindred. Thus when Abraham sought a
wife for Isaac, presents were taken by the messenger to induce the
bride to leave her home; and these presents were given not to the
father of the bride, but to her mother and brother.[203] This is the
early form of purchase marriage, such bridal-gifts being the
forerunners of the payment of a fixed bride-price. We still find
purchase marriage practised side by side with _beenah_ marriage in the
countries where the transitional stage has been reached and
mother-right contends with father-right. But there is stronger
evidence even than these two cases. The injunction in Gen. ii, 24:
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife," refers without any doubt to the early form of
marriage under mother-right, when the husband left his own kindred and
went to live with his wife and among her people. We find Samson
visiting his Philistine wife who remained with her own people.[204]
Even the obligation to blood vengeance rested apparently on the
maternal kinsmen (Judges viii, 19). The Hebrew father did not inherit
from the son, nor the grandfather from the grandson, which points back
to a time when the children did not belong to the clan of the
father.[205] Among the Hebrews individual property was instituted at a
very early period,[206] but various customs show clearly the early
existence of communal clans. Thus the inheritance, especially the
paternal inheritance, must remain in the clan "then shall their
inhe