POLY'GAMY is the name of the custom according to which a moan may have more than one lawful wife at a time, which custom prevails in several tanintries. Polygamy has existed in Aaia from time immemorial, tender the obi religions, and Mohammed:miens adopted and confirmed the custom. Montesquieu pretends that polygamy in the East is the consequence of the palter number of female births in that country ; but Gila surmise ma by no means proved. Aeother and a more plausible reason may be found in the premature old age of the female sex in some countries. Niebuhr, in his Travels in Arabia,' gives a curious conversation which he had with an Arab on the eubject.
The Romans did not practise polygamy, nor did the Greeks. Tho barbarous nations, on the contrary, that is to say, those who were not (Invite or Romans, practised polygamy, with the exception of the Germans, " who alone," says Tacitus, " among all the barbarians, are content with a single German.; 17.) In the Scriptures we find instances of polygamy recorded before the flood. (Genesis iv. 19.) It was common in the patriarchal times, and we have the instance of Jacob marrying two sisters. By the law
of Moses it appears to have been tolerated. (Exodus xxi. 9, 10, and Deuteronomy axis._ 15.) But in the time of our Saviour, no indication appears of its being common among the Jews. Repudia tion, or divorce, however, was frequent, and our Saviour (Matthew xix. 9) reprobates the custom. St. l'aul speaks always of marriage in terms implying the union of one man with one woman. In Christian countries, Polygamy has been long since universally forbidden, both by the church and by the civil law, under severe penalties, which in some countries amounted to death. In England, it is an offence punishable with transportation, or imprisonment for two years, for a married man or married woman to marry another person during the lifetime of the first wife or husband.
The Koran allows a man to have four legitimate wives; but it is only the rich who avail themselves of this permission. Tho Arabs are generally content with one wife.
Polygamy is different from modern concubinagss, which is the coha bitation of man and woman unsanctioned by any legal ceremony or legal form.