unreservedly, and generally appear in public unveiled; while in one
respect, at any rate, they have the advantage of many more civilised
Christians than those of Turkey,--that they are permitted, in the matter
of a husband, to choose for themselves, and are wooed in all due form.
Parents there, as elsewhere, are apt to consider themselves the best
judges of the position and income requisite to insure the happiness of
their daughters, and where such decision is at variance with the young
lady's views, elopement is resorted to. Of the amount of resistance
encountered by the bridegrooms on these occasions, I regret that I am
not in a position to hazard an opinion. Polygamy is almost unknown, a
second wife being seldom taken during the lifetime of the first. Since
it is to the expense attendant upon this luxury that such abstinence is
probably to be attributed, it really reflects great credit upon the
Bosnian Benedicts that the meal-sack has been so seldom brought into
play,--that ancient and most expeditious Court of Probate and Divorce in
matrimonial cases. After marriage, the women conceal themselves more
strictly than in most other parts of Turkey. Perhaps in this the
husbands act upon the homœopathic principle, that prevention is better
than cure; for divorces are unheard of, and are considered most
disgraceful. Marriages are contracted at a much earlier age by the
Christian than by the Mahommedan women, and it is no uncommon thing to
find wives of from twelve to fourteen years of age. This abominable
custom is encouraged by the Roman Catholic clergy, whose revenues are
thereby increased.

[Footnote E: Krasinski.]

[Footnote F: See Sir G. Wilkinson's 'Dalmatia,' Napier's 'Florentine
History,' and Sismondi's 'Literature du Midi de l'Europe.']