It was thus in Mexico,[511] where, among the wives of the great men, one alone was called lawful; her children inherited the paternal title and wealth, to the exclusion of the others.[512] In Peru, as in Mexico, the law, with the bold partiality which there is no attempt to disguise in barbarous societies, permitted polygamy to the Inca and to the enormous family of the Incas, while exacting a strict monogamy from the poor. State communism, imposed on the country, regulated the sexual unions somewhat as our rural proprietors regulate the coupling of their domestic animals. Peruvian marriage was a civil act, very comparable to enforced military service in modern Europe. Every year in the kingdom of Cuzco it was the practice to assemble together in the squares of the towns and villages all the individuals of marriageable age, from twenty-four to twenty-six years for the men, and from eighteen to twenty for the women. At Cuzco the Inca himself married the persons of his own family, and always in a public square, by putting in each other the hands of the different couples. In their respective boundaries the chiefs of districts, resembling our mayors, fulfilled the same function for the persons of their own rank or of an inferior rank. We are indeed told that the consent of parents was necessary, but it was not a question of the consent of the interested parties.[513] Besides, it was strictly forbidden to marry outside the civil group of which the individuals formed a part. In this case marriages must often have been contracted between relatives more or less near. As to incest, there was little severity, since the Inca was legally bound to marry one of his sisters, with the reservation that she might not be his uterine sister,[514] and the same rule was at last extended to the nobles of the empire. In sanctioning the civil marriage of the country, the public functionary, the _Curaca_, administered to the couple the oath of conjugal fidelity, which, according to P. Pizzarre, was generally kept; perhaps because, as we shall see later, the Peruvian law was not tender to adulterers. There does not appear to have been the least nuptial ceremony in Peru. In Mexico, on the contrary, marriage was celebrated with much show, and it was religious. The bride was conducted in great pomp to the house of the bridegroom, who came with his family to meet her. The two processions mutually perfumed each other with boxes of burning incense. After this the future spouses sat down on the same mat, and a priest married them by tying the robe of the bride to the mantle of the bridegroom. The precaution had previously been taken to consult the diviners and augurs. Nuptial festivals followed, in which the newly-married couple took no part. They lasted four days, and the marriage was not to be consummated until their termination. III. _Monogamy in Ancient Egypt._