BUYING A WIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 60, 12 March 1934, Page 11

BUYING A WIFE

PRACTICE IN YUGOSLAVIA

Members of tlie younger generation in that part of Yugoslavia that is described as" Southern. Serbia are, in levolt against.the continuance of the old custom of buying and selling wives, but their efforts are making little headway against the peasant' conservatism of their elders, states a contributor to the "New York Times." Nor have, the efforts of the authorities to abolish the practice met with greater success, for such transactions are carried on secretly and no one but the strojnik, or marriage broker, and the families interested need be the wiser. The supporters of the old order cannot see anything wrong or imijioral in the custom; they consider it right and just. . Parents hold that in bringing up a-daughter they have been put to a great expense, and that -when she marries her husband gains a \abourer for his household and should tt..srefore compensate them for the loss. ■ The strojnik approaches the parents of the young people in arranging the transaction. Prices vary greatly. Sometimes a girl fetches as much as 30,000 dinars (about £120) and sometimes as little as 2000 dinars, a mere matter of &8 or so. If the suitor cannot find all the money at once, he pays on the instalment plan. If he should fail to meet the payments, he may lose both the maid and'his money, being put aside quickly in favour of a wealthier husband;.. - BARTERED BRIDES. When considering the value of a bride her health.and strength and her knowledge. oi . household affairs and farm work, are the most important coil' sideration, since the suitor is seeking a hard-working assistant rather than a pretty wife. Beauty, however, increases the bride's value. Most of the bartered brides are in their early twenties, as are the husbands. ': Sometimes very young girls are betrothed, to be claimed by their bridegrooms when they reach marriageable age. The marriage of the former King Nicholas of Montenegro and Queen Milena was arranged when the two were, children. The custom of marriage by barter often leads to abductions and these in turn to- blood feuds and vendettas. A disgruntled lover, rejected by his sweetheart's parents because his own people' cannot or will not pay the required price, is sometimes tempted to take the law into his own hands and with a gang of relatives and friends to steal his bride from her parents. To have a daughter snatched by force or stealth is considered a burning disgrace and a humiliation which nothing but blood can efface. Murder follows murder, and the desire of two people to follow their hearts and not be forced apart by their elders brings about a series of tragedies. Sometimes these feuds continue for generations. An ironical story illustrates th« queer consequences of the marriage custom. In a certain .village there was a man in poor circumstances who had two children, a girl and a son. The youth fell in love with a girl whose parents asked a sum which his father could nnfc raise. Rather than see his son deprived of the girl he loved, the father sold his daughter to another man to obtain the price needed for his son's bride.