But if captives serve or have served somewhat in all countries to supply the domestic concubinate, they were not the only ones reserved for this purpose; female slaves, however procured, were treated as such. The fact is so well known that I shall abstain from establishing it by examples. I only quote one observed at Sackatoo, in tropical Africa, for it proves clearly that in a barbarous country, concubinage, or the domestic and servile concubinate, does not outrage morality in any way, and is regarded merely from a commercial point of view. At Sackatoo, when a married man has intimate relations with one of the female slaves given as dowry to his wife, he need simply replace her the following day by another slave who is a virgin and of equal value. On this purely mercenary condition, the caprice of the husband never occasions any conflict with the legitimate wife.[471]
The relative and so-called Christian civilisation of the Abyssinians accommodates itself very easily to such customs. By the side of the oizoro, the proud and indolent matron, all the great nobles have a troop of pretty servant girls with sprightly looks.[472]
The king sets the example, and naturally he goes further still. If any woman has had the good luck to please him, he sends an envoy to invite her to live in the palace. This distinction is received as it should be: the lady adorns herself as quickly as possible, and obeys without a murmur; but above these concubines there is the wife or queen, the itighe.
As far as they can, ecclesiastical dignitaries imitate laic ones. Bruce found one, the Abba-Salam, guardian of the sacred fire, third personage in authority in the church, who forced women to yield to him by a threat at the same time pious and original—the fear of excommunication.
I have already spoken of the Malagasy concubinage, of the chief wife (vadi-be) having her own apartment and privileges, and ruling over the “lesser wives” (vadi-keli), who live together in equal submission.[473]
In short, the domestic concubinate is largely practised over all central or barbarous Africa.
The ancient half-civilised nations of central America did not disdain it either. In Peru, as we shall see, the monogamic régime was obligatory, but only for the poorer people.
In the Maya nations, the rich and powerful practised the concubinate without any moderation.[474] At Guatemala, the parents were filled with solicitude on this point, and when a young noble married a girl of his own rank who had not yet attained puberty, they were careful to keep him patient by giving him a young slave as concubine, whose children, however, would not be his heirs.[475]
In Mexico the were three kinds of concubines:—
1. Young girls not yet arrived at a marriageable age, and whom the parents usually chose for their sons at the request of the latter. These unions required neither ceremony nor contract, but they were often legitimated later, when they became fruitful.