Page 61 - The Circle of Life

Let me explain that getting engaged to marry is a contract in law but oddly

enough it cannot be enforced if one party wants to walk away from it. Being
forced to marry against your will would be against the good morals of the nation.
It can never be. Thus some law professors refer to it as "semi-binding." To

marry legally both parties must be willing and able. There is nothing wrong with

such a system and an example how neutral the law is.

As said there is no prescribed way in law in how to ask a woman to marry you

but for long haired liberals it may involve two weeks of nonstop begging. Candle
light dinners and being on your knees also help I suppose and through the ages

many traditions arose around betrothal which are not in the law books as such
meaning it is not required in law to fulfil before the legal effects of an

engagement comes into being. Let me explain.

A ring may be given to the woman (usually is) who wears it on her left hand
fourth finger which is seen as the reserve for a wedding ring. It does not matter

if it is gold or silver or even rope but the intention does. In law, if a woman
accepts a ring and wear it in public on her left hand fourth finger it is very strong

evidence that she agreed to be married in the future to the person who gave her
the ring. If she then refuses the fiancé may claim damages from her and usually

she must return the ring and that is called breach of promise or just breach. Nor
does the law care if the ring has diamonds or emeralds in it. As you can see it

has only evidential value on what the parties decided on.

Fascinatingly, that specific ring finger is used because our Roman forefathers
believed it contained the "vein of love" which goes straight to a womans heart.
Before them the ancient Egyptian physicians believed that the same finger has a

nerve to her heart. Apparently our Western way of exchanging rings started in

again in 1477 when Maximilian the First gave Mary of Burgundy a diamond ring
symbolising their relationship.

* She died at the age of 25 when she fell of her horse or the horse on her. It is
tragic but I understand he married again quite soon after that.

The left hand ring finger is not the tradition in continental Europe where the
right hand is seen as the place for the ring. I suppose all arteries go to the heart

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