FOREIGN MARRIAGES.--The courts of Brazil recognize as valid a marriage between two foreigners concluded in a foreign land, provided that such marriage is monogamous, is not between ascendants or descendants, or between persons related collaterally in the second degree, and if such marriage was regularly concluded according to the law of the country of its celebration. A marriage abroad of a citizen of the Republic of Brazil must conform not only to the law of the place of its celebration, but must also be in strict accordance with the law of Brazil. CHAPTER XXX. THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA. A nation may in a day overthrow a dynasty which has ruled for centuries, it may in a few years completely revolutionize its system of government and methods of trading, but its ancient code of marriage will live on unchanged for ages. It is a noteworthy fact that the law of Rome concerning marriage survived the Roman Empire by a thousand years, and even to-day it is the foundation of the law on that subject in all of the Continental countries of Europe and of the entire Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the United States of America and Canada. In the Civil Code of Cuba we can see not only its recent origin from the Spanish Code, but traces of the Law of the Twelve Tables and the Institutes of Justinian. Cuba is to-day a Republic composed of six Provinces. The seat of government is located at Havana, where sit the Senate and House of Representatives, which constitute the national legislature. The Civil Code is the _Codigo Civil_ of Spain, with such changes and modifications as have become effective since Spain lost its sovereignty over Cuba. The statement of Cuban law which follows is, therefore, predicated upon the _Codigo Civil_, which by royal decree of May 11, 1888, was extended to the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines, upon proclamations and orders issued during the recent American military occupation and on the interpretation and construction of the positive law by Cuban courts and jurists. MARRIAGE.--The law considers marriage as a civil contract, which may be concluded by either a civil (_matrimonio civil_) or a religious (_matrimonio religioso_) celebration. A male cannot marry until he has completed his fourteenth year of age; a female until she has completed her twelfth year. Marriages contracted by minors under the legal age become, however, _ipso facto_ legal if a day after having arrived at the legal age the parties continue to live together without bringing suit to annul the marriage, or if the female becomes pregnant before the legal age or before the institution of a suit for annulment. Only such persons as are in the full enjoyment of their reason can contract marriage. Marriage is forbidden to all persons who suffer from absolute or relative physical impotency for the purposes of procreation.