Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c20.3

v2.c20.3

² Here the Kaffirs, for instance, are quite logical. Among them the son inherits also his father's widows; his mother he does not touch, but may sell her. Usually he lets children be produced for him by her "as everyone's wife". Post, *Einleit. i. d. Studium d. ethnol. Jurisprudenz*, p. 38. So, too, the wives of the dead father fall to the son, and he takes them to wife, among the Batamba in East Africa (*Anthropos*, vi, 378); among the old Persians, Egyptians, and Israelites (Ed. Meyer, *Gesch. d. Altertums*, i, I³, p. 28); among the pre-Mohammedan Arabs (Welhausen, *Gött. Nachr.*, 1893, p. 455); etc. The woman is currency, indeed, in many places in the world; *vasu*, thing, valuable object, she is called times beyond reckoning in the Epic also. The Rājput's wergild is land or a daughter to wife (Tod, *Rajasthan*, i, 194).