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Of their customs, whereof I shall now proceed to give an account,
the following (which I understand belongs to them in common with the
Illyrian tribe of the Eneti) is the wisest in my judgment. Once a
year in each village the maidens of age to marry were collected all
together into one place; while the men stood round them in a circle.
Then a herald called up the damsels one by one, and offered them for
sale. He began with the most beautiful. When she was sold for no
small sum of money, he offered for sale the one who came next to her in
beauty. All of them were sold to be wives. The richest of the
Babylonians who wished to wed bid against each other for the loveliest
maidens, while the humbler wife-seekers, who were indifferent about
beauty, took the more homely damsels with marriage-portions. For the
custom was that when the herald had gone through the whole number of the
beautiful damsels, he should then call up the ugliest - a cripple, if
there chanced to be one - and offer her to the men, asking who would
agree to take her with the smallest marriage-portion. And the man who
offered to take the smallest sum had her assigned to him. The
marriage-portions were furnished by the money paid for the beautiful
damsels, and thus the fairer maidens portioned out the uglier. No one
was allowed to give his daughter in marriage to the man of his choice,
nor might any one carry away the damsel whom he had purchased without
finding bail really and truly to make her his wife; if, however, it
turned out that they did not agree, the money might be paid back. All
who liked might come even from distant villages and bid for the women.
This was the best of all their customs, but it has now fallen into
disuse. They have lately hit upon a very different plan to save their
maidens from violence, and prevent their being torn from them and
carried to distant cities, which is to bring up their daughters to be
courtesans. This is now done by all the poorer of the common people,
who since the conquest have been maltreated by their lords, and have
had ruin brought upon their families.
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