30

A VIEW OF SOCIETY

retainers, and committed incursion and plunderupon neighbouring nations; and their states distcouraged not a practice which was favorable to themilitary virtues.

In this situation, it is obvious, that no propertycould be possessed by the women ( 2). They hadneither land nor cattle, and could demand no sharkof the booty procured by robbery and depredation.While they remained in their virgin state, theycontinued, therefore, in the families of which theywere descended (3); and, when they passed, bymarriage, into other families, their husbands becamebound to attend to and to provide for thermHence the custom recorded by Tacitus : ‘ Dolem‘ non uxor marito, fed uxori maritus offert. ’ Onthe death of the husband, the wife received thisprovision ; and , it was the object of it to renderher alike independent of the house she had left, andofthat into which she had entered (4).

This provision consisted, doubtless, of goods;and, even in this form, it is to be conceived, itdiscovered itself after the Germanic conquests.When time, however, refinement, and necessity,had taught the barbarians the uses of wealth , andindividuals were proud of acquisitions in land, itassumed more enlarged appearances ; and propertyopening to the women, they acquired a source ofconsideration which they had not formerly known,and which was about to produce consequences ofno less moment to themselves than to society

The dos or dower came to consist in money andin land. It was to arise out of a personal estate,