POLYGAMY. Although polygamy is sanc tioned by the laws of the Muliammtulan religion ists, by the customs of the Chinese, the Cochin Chinese, the Siamese. and, in particular circum stances, amongst the Hindus, the people generally are in practice monogamic. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis xii. 15, xxi. ; Esther it. 3) there are notices of a plurality of wives from the most ancient lumen, but the Jews were a truly monogamic race, and it was only with Saul ores] David, followed by Solomon, that numerous wives became usual. Amongd the Muhammadan.. the practice from Mahomed's time till now has been to restrict to four wives, and to the harem or war captives, slaves slams; and in British India the followers of this faith do not deviate from their religious rules, though In general they are monogamic. Opinions greatly differ as to the advantages and 41 aadvainages of polygamy. Though the Christian peoples of Europe are monogamic by law, in practice poly gamy, with many resulting crimes and evils, is not unknown. With the Muhammadan* and ruling Hindu races who permit and practice polygamy, it is a fertile source of intrigue and disquiet in homes. Colonel Tod, writing of the ruling Rajputs, says polygamy is the fertile source of evil, moral as well as physical, in the east. The desire of each wife that her offspring should wear a crown, is natural ; but they do not always wait the course of nature for the attaimnent of their wishes, and the love of power too often furnishes instruments for any (lead, however base. The number of queens is determined only by state necessity and the fancy of the prince. To have them equal in number to the days of the week is not universal; while the number of hand maids in unlimited. It will be conceded that the prince who can govern such a household, and main tain equal rights, when claims to pre-eminence must be perpetually asserted, possesses no little tact. The government of the kingdom is but an amusement compared with such a task, for it is within the Rawula that intrigue is enthroned. Captain Burton, who saw the great polygande system in the Salt Lake City, observes that the nations of Europe have monogamic laws, have forbidden a plurality of wives, and the conse quences are that adulteries and unlawful connec tions prevail to a most fearful extent ; and among some of these nations, sinks of wickedness, wretchedness, and misery are licensed by law. Though polygamy is met with among nearly all the nations of Southern and Eastern Asia, neither amongst the liluhammadans or llindus is it deemed a respectable practice. A Muhammadan by law can marry four wives, and all captives in war can form his harem; but no Muhammadan, how ever deb, no ruling sovereign even, can obtain a second wife from a family of equal social position to his own ; and amongst Indian Mull:1111=41*ns only one wife is married with all the rejoicings and ceremonial display which in most countries are observed when a virgin bride becomes a wife and mistress of a home. In the profligacy of
towns. or in the enforced idleness to which so many Mohammedans in India are now conseramFd. there are in some houses to be found the Legiti mate number of wives, along with Iliudu converts to Muhammadanism, who are styled the Hann ; and occasionally, amongst the poorer men who have been great travellers, and Is married in distant places, more than one wife s in a house. But monogamy is the general rule, and marriage is made with the wife for whom the greater rejoicings arc made. In Muhammadan law, all children born in marriage have equal rights. In India, therefore, where women are married either simply by the Nikkah ceremonial or by the additional display in the Shadi or rejoicings, the Muhammadan law does not recognise any distinc tion in the rights of the children from Nikkah or Shadi wives. But in the social customs of the Muhammadans of Southern India, a great distinc tion is made between the offspring in the two marriages. A Nikkah wife never receives the same amount of respect from her household and from relatives, and never receives from her hus band an equal monthly allowance to that of a Shadi wife. The Nikkah and Shadi children in their father's households receive equal courtesy from relatives, because they are then alike looked upon as the children of the master of the house. But a father never grants to Nikkah children allowances equal to those which he apportions to those of the Shadi descent. When parents are seeking for suitable marriages for their children, Nikkah offspring are regarded as greatly inferior in social rank to Shadi offspring, and the taint of the Nikkah marriage is remembered by all from generation to generation ; and one of the great social injuries from polygamy is that it renders brotherly affection impossible. Among the Mehman sect of Muhammadans, their Pir, or holy men, are of the family called Rashid Shahi (descended from one Muhammad Rashid Shah), or the Rohri-wara Sayyids, remarkable for nothing but excessive polygamy. Rashid, the founder of the house, took unto himself thirty-two wives (instead of four), and justified the practice by the usual sophistical arguments of the Safi order to which he belonged. The Sindi divines pro nounced his tenets to be heretical and his conduct damnable. The Mehman sect, however, did not object to it, and still reverence his descendants.