A verse of the Koran shows us that before the time of Mahomet, sons inherited all their father’s wives as a matter of course, in African fashion: “Thou shalt not marry the women who have been thy father’s wives; it is an abomination and a bad practice.”[845] We have seen that this most gross custom, against which Mahomet inveighs, still prevails in various countries, and especially amongst the negroes of tropical Africa. It must have been general at the time of Mahomet, even amongst the Arabs, since the prophet states that his law need not have any retrospective effect: “Let that remain,” proceeds the same verse, “which has already been done.” There is one point, however, on which the Koran is in advance of the greater number of barbarous societies, and even of the Bible. It recognises, in fact, the right of a widow to inherit from her husband; this right gives her a fourth, if there is no child, and an eighth only in the contrary case.[846] But notwithstanding this the widow was often abandoned, or, what is worse, confounded with the heritage. The Bible was less kind to the widow. It specifies indeed that the fortune of the husband is security for the personal effects and the dowry of the wife, but it does not place her among her husband’s heirs. The Jewish widow was a charge on her children, or, if she had none, on her own family.[847] The abandoned widow had no other resource than her share in the offerings and public charity.[848] The injunction is indeed given not to afflict her;[849] it would certainly have been better to grant her some rights. In Judæa, the wife was bought by her husband; it is therefore probable that, in primitive times, she formed a part of his wealth, as is the case now among the Mussulman Afghans and among the Kabyles. In Afghanistan, the widow, being a mortgaged property, cannot re-marry until the price of purchase paid for her by her deceased husband has been reimbursed to the parents of that husband.[850] In a great number of Kabyle tribes, the widow remains “hung” to her dead husband--that is to say, she is counted part of the heritage.[851] Generally she returns to her family, and her father or her relatives sell her a second time.[852] If, however, she has children, especially male children, she cannot be forced to marry again; but then the son redeems her, or she deducts from the property of her children the sum necessary to redeem herself from paternal power.[853] In the tribe of Aït Flik, heirs have, by pre-emption, the privilege of marrying the widow, and that without having to pay the _thâmanth_.[854] It is understood that while awaiting the day when she is to be disposed of again, the Kabyle widow is bound to the strictest chastity. If she becomes with child, she is punished by stoning.[855]