[835] On the conservative influence of wife-purchase see WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 532, 535, 536; and for curious and instructive illustrations of the effects of purchase read especially the detailed account of the law of divorce among the Kabyles of Algiers in LETOURNEAU, _op. cit._, 292-96. The man has the sole right of divorce. As a condition of setting the woman free he may demand the _lefdi_, or price of redemption, and fix such other terms as he pleases; as that the _lefdi_ shall be double or triple, if she marry such or such a man. The sum may thus be so large as to amount to a prohibition of marriage. On the other hand, a liberal price may be an inducement to free the woman. Among some of these tribes the amount of the _lefdi_ is fixed by law, usually at a sum higher than the _thâmanth_, or purchase price of a virgin or a widow, so as by working upon the cupidity of the husband to induce him to pronounce the triple formula and thus suffer the woman to contract a new marriage. The children under all circumstances follow the father. Here also the results of the genealogical organization must be considered. The blood-feud, paradoxical as it may seem, often acts as a conservative power among primitive men. The wife's kindred may protect her from the vengeance of a brutal husband whom she has deserted; or they may send her back when she has acted indiscreetly or when they dread the wrath of the husband's clan. The organization of society on the basis of kinship has another important bearing upon the effects of divorce. It appears to be practically a universal rule among uncivilized races that the repudiated wife or the woman who legally puts away her husband shall return to her own family or clan, whose duty it is to receive her. Accordingly, the lot even of the savage woman has mitigating conditions not always accorded by the laws of civilized society. "In savages," observes Mason, "where every man and woman and child is billeted somewhere, there is no such thing as thrusting man or woman out into nowhere.... Should the man wish to repudiate his wife, she cannot be sent out into the jungle or forest; she must be returned to somebody."[836] [836] MASON, _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture_, 229, 230. PART II MATRIMONIAL INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND CHAPTER VI OLD ENGLISH WIFE-PURCHASE YIELDS TO FREE MARRIAGE