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Show When Women Ruled. (Victor Rousseau in TTarncr's WVeklv.) Stories in the Old Testament take on a new interest in the light of our present pres-ent knowledge of the ancient period of feminine rule. According to Genesis Gen-esis ii., 24. a man shall leave his father and mother cleave to his wife. Now, this does not mean that they shall set up housekeeping together; it is not a slur upon the primitive mother-in-law. It means that he must leave his clan and enter that of his wife. So, too, we understand the tribulations of Jaooo. When this patriarch stole away with his two wives. Leah and Itachel, from the home of his father-in-law, he was committing the most heinous of all offenses, of-fenses, for his marriage had mad; him a member of his wives-' clan. H-' h -i become their property. And, much later in history, Samson marries a woman in Philistia, and has to go there to visit vis-it her. "Woman.' says Tertullian. "thou art the gate of hell." It is unnecessary to quote the well known opinions of the fathers in this respect. The stern provisions pro-visions of Ihe Christian jurists came into conflict with the milder customs of the barbarians. Among the Visigoths. Visi-goths. Bavarians and Burgundians r.o male kinsman could interfere with tr.e wife's guardianship of her children. According to Manouvric-r, the anthropologist, anthro-pologist, the average cranial capacity in cubic centimeters of men in the stone age was 1,541. as against 1.560 of modern mod-ern Parisians; that of women in the stone age was 1,422, as against on'y 1,338 today. |
