the wife has no longer relatives to receive her, then the seven assigned grounds fail, the divorce is not only forbidden but void, and the husband must retain his wife."[769] This is not the only wise and righteous provision of the Chinese law, however despotic as a rule may be the husband's power. Normally the wife cannot sue for divorce; still practically she enjoys the right of separation in several important contingencies. Under judicial approval, for instance, she may release herself from the marriage bond in case of three[770] years' desertion without word from her husband. So likewise, when she suffers grave insult from the husband's parents, she may return to her own family, reclaim her dotal gift, and demand a contribution for her support.[771] [760] These cases are discussed by POST, _Familienrecht_, 253-55; _idem_, _Grundlagen_, 269; _idem_, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, I, 439-41; LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 286 ff.; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 523, 524; FRIEDRICHS, "Familienstufen und Eheformen," _ZVR._, X, 251. [761] On these so-called "Zeitehen" and "Ehen auf Proben," in addition to the references, chap. ii, p. 49, note 2, see POST, _Familienrecht_, 75-79; _idem_, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, I, 321-23; STARCKE, _Primitive Family_, 258-60; WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 523, 524, who apparently includes these cases under the head of divorce for sterility. "Proof-marriages" are said even now to be customary in Yorkshire: BUNSEN, in _ZFE._, XIX, 376; POST, _op. cit._, 77; and a good example is afforded by the Scotch "hand-fasting" prevalent in the eighteenth century: "Two chiefs agreed that the heir of the one should live with the daughter of the other as her husband for a year and a day; if at the end of that time the woman had become a mother, or, at any rate, if she was pregnant, the marriage was regarded as valid, even if unblest by a priest;" otherwise the connection was dissolved: STARCKE, _op. cit._, 260; SKENE, _The Highlanders of Scotland_ (London, 1837), 166. _Cf._ TEGG, _The Knot Tied_, 222, 223; BRAND, _Popular Antiquities_, II, 87, 88; BULLINGER, _The Christen State of Matrimonye_ (1541), 48, 49; WOOD, _The Wedding Day_, 113, 184, 185; STILES, _Bundling_, 17, 19. For examples of temporary unions among the American Indians see WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 518, 519. Such marriages are found among the Winnebagoes: THWAITES, in _Wis. Hist. Coll._, XII, 427. [762] WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 524: _ap._ KOLBEN, _The Present State of the Cape of Good-Hope_ (London, 1731), I, 157. However, this rule may in practice have little meaning: see POST, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, I, 435, who also cites Kolben. [763] DAWSON, _Australian Aborigines_, 33. [764] For the impediments to matrimony, all of which are diriment, see MÖLLENDORFF, _Das chin. Familienrecht_, 9-20.