Isaeus(71) mentions that it was thought quite natural for a man to marry his first cousin in order to concentrate the family blood, and prevent her dowry or whatever property might come to her from going outside his οἶκος, and we know that even marriage with a half-sister (not born of the same mother) was not forbidden. There are more instances than one in Homer of a man marrying his aunt, or niece. The nearest resemblance to the levirate in Greece is the occasional custom at Sparta, mentioned already, of a wife being “commissioned” to bear children by another man into the family of her husband. But this exists in Manu, side by side with the above-mentioned custom of levirate proper. (M37) Among the Israelites, the levirate was in full force; the craving for continuance was the same as among the followers of Manu and the Greeks; and the custom with regard to heiresses is so vividly told that it is worth quoting at some length. Deut. xxv. 5. “If brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother [_i.e._ next of kin] shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife and perform the duty of an husband’s brother to her. “And it shall be that the firstborn which she beareth shall _succeed in the name of his brother that is dead_, that his name be not put out of Israel. “And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.’ “Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak unto him: and if he stand to it and say, ‘I like not to take her,’ then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say: ‘So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house (LXX. οἶκος).’ “And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘The house (οἶκος) of him that hath his shoe loosed.’ ”