"According to the Talmudic Law, the wife is authorized to demand a divorce if the husband refuses to perform his conjugal duty, if he continues to lead a disorderly life after marriage, if he proves impotent during ten years, if he suffers from an insupportable disease, or if he leaves the country forever."--WESTERMARCK, 528; GLASSON, _op. cit._, 149 ff. Consult also AMRAM, _The Jewish Law of Divorce_, 63-77, who gives an interesting discussion of the woman's power of divorce; and, besides the causes just named, mentions also "refusal to support," "apostasy," "wife-beating," when the wife is not at fault, and "false charge of ante-nuptial incontinence." _Cf._ LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 303. II. THE FORM OF DIVORCE The form of divorce, like the rules relating to the right and its conditions, varies greatly among the races of mankind. Very frequently, usually among the lowest peoples, it takes place without any ceremony.[790] Sometimes, however, the procedure is fixed by law or custom. A symbolical act is occasionally sufficient, as with the east African Wazaramo, where the husband by way of divorce hands the wife a piece of holcus reed, on receiving which she must at once leave the house or be driven out.[791] The Unyoro husband observes a similar rite.[792] It is likewise a private transaction in Morocco, where the man rejects the woman by a bill of divorce. The same procedure may be employed in China; and a three-fold proclamation before witnesses is adequate among the Somali.[793] In Dawan (west Timor) it takes place in a council composed of the relations of the man and wife, where the cause is weighed and determined; but in this assembly neither the chiefs nor the eldest have any voice.[794] Similar councils are common among African tribes.[795] In many instances, however, exactly the opposite rule prevails, the decision of the "eldest," the "chiefs," or of some other magisterial, priestly, or judicial authority being requisite for a legal separation.[796] [790] For examples see POST, _Familienrecht_, 258; _idem_, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, I, 452. [791] _Ibid._, I, 452. [792] Here the man divorces his wife by cutting in two a piece of "Rindenstoff, von dem er eine Hälfte behält und eine Hälfte dem Vater der Frau zuschickt."--POST, _loc. cit._ [793] MÖLLENDORFF, _Das chin. Familienrecht_, 33; POST, _op. cit._, I, 452. [794] POST, _Familienrecht_, 259. [795] POST, _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, I, 453. [796] In the Indian Archipelago a priest is necessary, for instance, on the islands of Gorong and Seranglao; among the Buginese; as also with the Makassars, where he receives 3 gulden for his trouble: POST, _Familienrecht_, 259, 260. III. THE LEGAL EFFECTS OF DIVORCE