The dowry, not the wife, is the object of attraction.
The arrows are from her dowry.
I have taken a wife, I have sold my sovereignty for a dowry. [Lat., Uxorem accepi, dote imperium vendidi.]
Wine is a bride who brings a great dowry to the man who woos her persistently and gracefully.
The great virtue of parents is a great dowry.
Any young man, who makes dowry a condition to marriage, discredits his education and his country and dishonours womanhood.
Quarrels are the dowry which married folk bring one another.
Too many people embrace religion from the same motives that they take a companion in wedlock, not from true love of the person, but because of a large dowry.
A great dowry is a bed full of brables. [A great dowry is a bed full of brambles.]