- "The Mongols are not prohibited from having a plurality of wives;
the first manages the domestic concerns, and is the most respected."
(Timk. II. 310.) Naturally Polygamy is not so general among the Mongols
as when Asia lay at their feet. The Buraets, who seem to retain the old
Mongol customs in great completeness, are polygamists, and have as many
wives as they choose. Polygamy is also very prevalent among the Yakuts,
whose lineage seems to be Eastern Turk. (Ritter, III. 125; Erman, II.
346.)
Of the custom that entitled the son on succeeding to take such as he
pleased of his deceased father's wives, we have had some illustration (see
Prologue, ch. xvii. note 2), and many instances will be found in
Hammer's or other Mongol Histories. The same custom seems to be ascribed
by Herodotus to the Scyths (IV. 78). A number of citations regarding the
practice are given by Quatremere. (Q. R. p. 92.) A modern Mongol writer
in the Melanges Asiatiques of the Petersburg Academy, states that the
custom of taking a deceased brother's wives is now obsolete, but that a
proverb preserves its memory (II. 656). It is the custom of some Mahomedan
nations, notably of the Afghans, and is one of those points that have been
cited as a supposed proof of their Hebrew lineage.
"The Kalin is a present which the Bridegroom or his parents make to the
parents of the Bride.
