[681] LETOURNEAU, _L'évolution du mariage_, 150, 130 ff. KOHLER, in _ZVR._, V, 338 ff.; VI, 342, 343; VIII, 242; XI, 416, 423, appears to take the same position. _Cf._ also his "Indisches Ehe- und Familienrecht," _ZVR._, III, 357 ff.; and LUBBOCK, _Origin of Civilization_, 99 ff.; POST, _Familienrecht_, 201-5; FRIEDRICHS, in _ZVR._, VIII, 377, notes; BERNHÖFT, in _ZVR._, IV, 234; _idem_, _Staat und Recht der röm. Königszeit_, 196 ff. [682] WAKE, _Marriage and Kinship_, 180, 183, 198 ff., holds, against Kames, that even in the case of polygyny the evil effects of purchase may be exaggerated, though they are often bad. [683] WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 223-35, gives a detailed discussion of the paternal power as to the liberty of the son. Very often, though not so generally as the daughter, he is denied freedom of choice in marriage. [684] _Ibid._, 222. STARCKE, _Primitive Family_, 256, 257, emphasizes the importance of female labor in early marriage; and this fact is well established by Grosse in the book already analyzed. In marriage by purchase there is still a chance for the wooer; and the unwilling maiden has many an opportunity to avoid a husband whom she does not fancy.[685] Elopement has its chief significance in this connection. Instead of being necessarily a relic of wife-capture, it is rather the means by which the lovers, particularly the bride, maintain the actual right to dispose of themselves in marriage.[686] Many illustrations of this fact might be presented. Among the aborigines of North and South America, where, as we have seen, wife-purchase and even wife-capture are common, woman possesses a wide liberty of choice. In arctic regions the wife sometimes runs away from the husband forced upon her and joins her lover;[687] and in general the maiden often thus escapes a detested suitor. Such is the case, for instance, among the Greenlanders, Dakotas, Caribs, and Patagonians;[688] while among the Abipones, according to Dobrizhoffer, when a man thinks fit to choose a wife, he must bargain with the parents of the girl about the price. But "it frequently happens that the girl rescinds what had been settled and agreed upon ... obstinately rejecting the very mention of marriage. Many girls, through fear of being compelled to marry, have concealed themselves in the recesses of the woods or lakes; seeming to dread the assaults of tigers less than the untried nuptials. Some of them, just before they are to be brought to the bridegroom's house, fly to the chapel, and there, hidden behind the altar, elude the threats and the expectation of the unwelcome" suitor.[689] In exactly the same way she gains her will in Tierra del Fuego, where the lover serves for his bride;[690] and among the same people "the eagerness with which the women seek for young husbands is surprising, but even more surprising is the fact that they nearly always attain their ends."[691] The