Note 769 — Chapter V · EARLY HISTORY OF DIVORCE

Kohler, loc. cit. On the other hand, the interpretation of these rules may often be "too elastic" in favor of the man. In one of the old Chinese books, according to Westermarck, op. cit., 524, 525, "when a woman has any quality that is not good, it is but just and reasonable to turn her out of doors.... Among the ancients a wife was turned away if she allowed the house to be full of smoke, or if she frightened the dog with her disagreeable noise": citing Navarette, An Account of the Empire of China (London, 1704), 73.