Note 595 — Chapter IV · RISE OF THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

Krauss, Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven, 275 ff. But see especially Turner, Slavisches Familienrecht, 22, 24, who declares that the law of Black George was purely sumptuary, not dealing at all with the price of the bride, but with mere presents from the man's friends. The mistake, he says, originates in a wrong translation by Talvy, Serbische Volkslieder, II, Einleit., 2. Turner in general denies the former existence of wife-purchase among the Slavs, rejecting Schlözer's translation of Nestor, I, chap. 12, 124 ff., which passage is an important source usually cited in favor of former purchase. Kovalevsky, Mod. Customs and Anc. Laws of Russia, 26 ff., however, follows the usual interpretation of Nestor and the law of Black George, giving examples of alleged wife-purchase and its survivals. Cf. Post, op. cit., 182, 183; and Westermarck's chapter on "Marriage and Celibacy," especially, 145.