How serenely beautiful and chaste appear the marriage customs of the Bible as compared with some that are wholly of man's invention. The Kamchatkan had to find his future wife alone and then fight with her and her female friends until every particle of clothing had been stripped from her and then the ceremony was complete. This may be called the other extreme from the veil. Something akin to this appears among our own kith and kin, so to speak, in modern times. Many instances of marriage en chemise are on record in England of quite recent dates, the notion being that if a man married a woman in this garment only he was not liable for any debts which she might previously have contracted. At Whitehaven, England, 1766, a woman stripped herself to her chemise in the church and in that condition stood at the altar and was married. There is nothing so degrading to the wife in all Oriental customs as our modern common law ruling that the husband owns the wife's clothing. This has been so held times innumerable, and in Connecticut quite recently a husband did not like the gowns his wife bought so he burned them. He was arrested for destruction of property, but his claim was sustained that they were his own so he could not be punished. As long as woman's condition, outside of the Bible, has been as described by Macaulay when he said: "If there be a word of truth in history, women have been always, and still are over the greater part of the globe, humble companions, play things, captives, menials, and beasts of burden," it is a comfort to reflect that among the Hebrews, whose records are relied on by the enemies of woman's freedom to teach her subjection, we find women holding the dignified position in the family that was held by Sarah and Rebekah. C. B. C. CHAPTER VIII. Genesis xxv. 1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2 And she bare him Zimran and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. 5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, unto the east country. 7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which be lived, a hundred and three score and fifteen years. 8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost. 9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the grave of Machpelah. 10 The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth; there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. 21 And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled she bore twins. I 27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. 28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison; but Rebekah loved Jacob. 29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint.