Regjistruar: 30/07/2005
Vendbanimi: Ne Jug te Polit te Veriut
Mesazhe: 29

Herodotus on the war for Greek freedom
[1.196]
They (Babilonians) used to have a custom that, in my opinion, was most cleverly devised, and that is shared, I belive, with, the ENETI of ILLYRIA. Every village practiced it once a year. Girls who had reached marriageable age were gathered together in one place, while the men stood aorund in a circle. The herald then called upon each girl to stand up in turn, starting with the most beutiful, and offered her for sale. When she had been purchased for a considerable sum of money, he passed on to the next fairest. Marriage was the purpose of the bargaining. The wealthy Babilonians would bid against each other for the most beutiful brides, while the common folk, for whom beauty in a wife was a luxury they could not afford, were actually paid to take the least prepossessing of the maidens. For when the herald had disposed of all the fairest, he would start on the plainest, perhaps a cripple, and ask who would take the least money to marry her, until she was assigned to the one who demanded the smallest sum. in this way the money accruing from the sale of the most beautiful damsels provided dowries for the ill- favored or cripples. A father was not allowed to marry his daughter to whomever he would, and nobody was permitted to take away a maiden he had bought without providing sureties that he would marry her.

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