The one-wife system is confined principally to a few small nations inhabiting Europe, and to those who are of European descent inhabiting America. It is estimated by the most able historians of our day, that about four-fifths of the population of the globe believe and practise, according to their respective laws, the doctrine of a plurality of wives.
Amongst most of the pagan tribes on the north and east'of British India, and with several of the hill tribes nithin the British boundaries, field labour is looked upon by the men as derogatory. It is left to the women ; the number of wives, therefore, as of slaves, indicates the extent of their worldly means, and polygamy results. With the Jat and Gujar, the 11hi1, Mina, and Mhair, the practice of a brother taking to wife the widow of a deceased brother also occasions the presence in a household of more than one wife. With Ilindus, polygamy results from their religion. Ac cording to the usual Hindu belief, the future beati tude of a man solely depends upon the funeral obsequies performed and oblations offered to the manes by his putra or son. The primary object of marriage among the Hindus is to obtain a male issue; and it is chiefly in case of failure of a putra or son that the Hindu law sanctions polygamy.
The Muslim husband provides separate apart ments and a distinct establishment for each of his wives, unless, as sometimes happens, the one be an old woman and the other a happens, International marriages were very frequent among the different tribes that compose the great family of the Selishes in N. America. After the union, the man generally joined the band to which his wife's family belonged. The custom arose from the women being the purveyors of the family ; they were better able to maintain their household in a locality known to them, and where they could find the nutritive roots on which the• tribes chiefly lived. The Indian women's cabins, containing provisions, were completely under their control, and husbands could never touch anything in these without the permission of the mistress of the house. Among the Natchez, the incontin ence of the young girls was for them a title of honour, for they made marriage portions for themselves by means of the most unrestrained intercourse, the importance of their matches depending on their greater or less licentiousness. But when once married, they led a most exem plary life, and became models of conjugal fidelity. The reason of this change being that having solemnly given themselves up to their husbands, they had no right to dispose of themselves to any one else. The marriage at length was a purchase, however, the young man saying, ' Here are thy presents with which I buy thee of thy parents.' Polygamy was restricted among the Indian nations of N. America by their poverty, the system of purchase precluding many being bought, but among the rich several wives were married. The Navajos had a regular haram, the
last married wife being the mistress of the house ; but an Indian generallychose sisters, to have peace.
Colonel Marcy of the United States army mentions that though the custom is now very much abandoned, it was formerly regarded by the Comanche Indians of N. America as an essential part of genuine hospitality, that their guests should have wives assigned to them dur ing their stay in camp. Polygamy was prevalent amongst them, every man having as many wives as he could support. On one occasion, in 1849, when escorting emigrants across to New Mexico, two young girls were brought and offered to him before all the party, but, to the great surprise of the chief Is-sa-kip, they were declined. Among the Mogul Indians of N. America, the young woman selected the young man who suited her fancy, and then her father proposed the match to the youth's father ; this proposal was never refUsed. Polygamy was unknown amongst them, Throughout the South and East of Asia, women, even as first wives, do not take a favourable position in their households until they become mothers, and the presence of sons of their own, or adopted, is longed for by the childless wife, who of ten urges her husband to take another spouse.
Polygamy, in China, is encouraged by the law which compels gentlemen and tradesmen to give their slaves in marriage, and by the custom which compels a husband to live apart from his wife during her pregnancy, and while nursing. Wealthy Chinese are generally very careful to follow this custom. It prevails throughout Central Asia, amongst the Muhammadans of Bokhara, Samarcand, and other khanates, and in British India many Muhammadans re-marry when their first wife becomes beyond the child-bearing age. Of all the women in Southern and Eastern Asia, the wives of the races who have adopted Islam hold the highest social position. A Muhammadan woman can legally hold property, is the owner of her own dower, and each wife has a separate establishment and a separate allowance for herself, and separate visit days. This, indeed, is also a Hindu custom, and is carefully engaged for in the Hindu marriage agreements.—Sinnett's Lady's Voyage, p. 50; Bowring's Siam, i. p. 105 ; Macgillivray's Voyage, i. p. 8 ; P. Vencatroylu Naidu at the Hindu Debating Society ; Cunning ham's Ladakh, pp. 54, 306 ; Rev. II. Moegling's Coorg Memoirs, p. 29 ; Sir TV. Jones, xiii. p. 213 ; Lubbock's Orig. of Civil. p. 100 ; 7'od's Rajasthan, p. 307; Burton's City of Saints, p. 457 ; Bur ton's Mecca, iii. p. 51 ; Strange's Hindu Law ; Iluc's Chinese Empire, i. p. 248 ; Meadows' Chin. p. 538; Ben. As. Soc. Jour., 1877 ; Imp. Gaz.