As long as they continue to live in unity with the first it very seldom happens that they take a second; for the women, though brought up in such perfect subservience and submission, have still the same passions and feelings as ourselves, and can as ill brook to share with another the affections of their husbands. Whether or not the existence of the law, and the knowledge of the right which it confers, may stimulate them to a more attentive observance of their duties, and more constant endeavours to maintain undivided the regard of their lords, I will not venture to say, but I think it by no means an improbable effect ; certain it is, that though a Tatar husband is supreme and absolute, and though he considers his wife most perfectly his slave, still is he affectionate and kind to her, and instances of unhappy marriages are rare.
In cases where husbands have two or more wives, separate apartments and separate establishments must be given them ; they will never consent to live together, and always regard each other with feelings ofhatred, jealousy and pride.
The priest possesses the power of giving a divorce under particular circumstances. If the husband beat or ill use his wife, she may complain to the Mulla, who, attended by the community of the village, comes to the house, and pronounces a formal separation between the parties. The woman goes back to her own relations. Runaway matches, though not common, sometimes happen, and appear to be as valid as those which are sanctified by the priest. No other shame attaches to them, than that which results from the omission of their proud ceremonials and festivities. The woman considers herself as effectually bound to the man, and he as faithfully attaches himself to her, as if they had passed through the long ordeal ofaTatar marriage. An R instance of this happened in the village ofKaragoss, amongst our own labourers.
A Tatar having more than one daughter, will not give the younger in marriage before the elder, even though a higher price be offered for her; therefore, be her beauty or disposition ever so much commended and extolled by her attendants, the girl has no chance of being married sooner than her sisters, or perhaps, if there be many of them, of getting a husband at all. Among the peasantry, however, this rule is possibly dispensed with. The daughter ofa Murza may not marry a peasant, and the number of her own rank is now diminished to a small one. By law, a man may marry the widow of his brother. At the death of the husband the wife inherits one-third of his personal property, and the children divide the remainder.
Guardianship of children is vested in the brothers of the deceased, and widows also become their wards.
In case of landed property, the tribunals of the Russian government have power over the guardians of estates, and a yearly account of income and disbursement must be given, and attested in the provincial courts, in order to prevent the person in trust from appropriating to his own use, that ofwhich he has the charge.
The landed estate descends to the male heir, subject, however, to the maintenance of the family.
The highest points of excellence in the Tatar character are their sobriety and chastity, for both of which they are universally remarkable and praiseworthy. The Tatar law, I have been told, in cases of infidelity, sentences the offender to be placed in a grave dug for the purpose, when, the whole neighbourhood being assembled from many versts round, each person present flings a stone, and the delinquent is thus sacrificed to the rage ofoffended feelings.
The Crim Tatars, however, now living under the Russian government, and subject to Russian laws, are no longer able to exercise their own customs, and this, among the rest, has fallen into disuse.