The polygyny of China is a legalized concubinage, and the law actually prohibits the taking of a second wife during the lifetime of the first.[2772] The wife is invested with a certain amount of power over the concubines, who may not even sit in her presence without special permission.[2773] She addresses her partner with a term corresponding to our “husband,” whilst the concubines call him “master.”[2774] These are generally women with large feet and of low origin, not unfrequently slaves or prostitutes; whereas the wife is almost invariably, except of course in the case of Tartar ladies, a woman with small feet.[2775] A wife cannot be degraded to the position of a concubine, nor can a concubine be raised to the position of a wife so long as the wife is alive, under a penalty in the one case of a hundred, in the other of ninety blows.[2776] But the question upon which the legitimacy of the offspring depends, is not whether the woman is wife or concubine, but whether she has been received into the house of the man or not.[2777] In Mohammedan countries, in households where two or more wives belong to one man, the first married generally enjoys the highest rank; she is called “the great lady,” and is commonly united with her husband for life. But all the children of the man are considered equally legitimate, even those born of female slaves.[2778]
Among the negro peoples, the principal wife, to whom the housekeeping and command over all the rest are intrusted, is in most cases the one first married. She has certain privileges, and in many cases can be repudiated only if she has been unfaithful to her husband.[2779] Among the Edeeyahs of Fernando Po, it was for the first wife alone that a man had to serve several years with his father-in-law.[2780] Speaking of the Eastern Central African tribes, Mr. Macdonald says, “As a rule, a man has one wife that is free, while the other three or four are slaves.... The chief wife is generally the woman that was married first.... The chief wife has the superintendence of the domestic and agricultural establishment. She keeps the others at their work, and has power to exercise discipline upon them.” Generally, it is only by inheriting the possessions of an elder brother that a man procures more than one free wife.[2781] Among the Damaras and other South African tribes, the eldest son of the principal or first wife inherits his father’s property.[2782] Speaking of the Basutos, Mr. Casalis observes, “A very marked distinction exists between the first wife and those who succeed her. The choice of the ‘great’ wife (as she is always called) is generally made by the father, and is an event in which all the relations are interested. The others, who are designated by the name of ‘serete’ (heels), because they must on all occasions hold an inferior position to the mistress of the house, are articles of luxury, to which the parents are not obliged to contribute.” The chief of the Basutos, when asked by foreigners how many children he has, alludes in his answer only to those of his first wife; and, if he says he is a widower, this means that he has lost his real wife, and has not raised any of his concubines to the rank she occupied.[2783] Among the Zulus, the chief wife is the one first married,[2784] and this is often, but not always, the case among the Kafirs.[2785] According to Rochon, polygyny in Madagascar is, in fact, a sort of concubinage.[2786]
Eber suggests that the kings of ancient Egypt, although they might have many concubines, had only one real wife, as there is no instance of two consorts given in the inscriptions.[2787] Professor Rawlinson makes a similar remark as to the polygyny of the Persian kings.[2788] Regarding the Hindus, Mr. Mayne says, “A peculiar sanctity ... seems to have been attributed to the first marriage, as being that which was contracted from a sense of duty, and not merely for personal gratification. The first married wife had precedence over the others, and her first-born son over his half-brothers. It is probable that originally the secondary wives were considered as merely a superior class of concubines, like the hand-maids of the Jewish patriarchs.”[2789] It was necessary that the first married wife should be of the same caste as her husband.[2790] She sat by him at marriages and other religious ceremonies, was head of the family, and entitled to adopt a son if she had no sons at the time of her husband’s death.[2791] The modified polygyny of the ancient Assyrians and Greeks has been already noted. The ancient Scandinavians had almost always only one legitimate wife, though as many concubines as they chose.[2792] Touching the Pagan Russians, Ewers says that of the wives of a prince one probably had precedence.[2793] Among the Mormons, Sir R. F. Burton observes, “the first wife, as among polygamists generally, is the wife and assumes the husband’s name and title.”[2794]
The difference in the position held by the several wives belonging to one man, shows itself also in the demand of various peoples that the first wife shall be of the husband’s rank, whilst the succeeding wives may be of lower birth.[2795]
As just mentioned, there is another way in which polygyny is modified. Among certain peoples the husband is bound by custom or law to cohabit with his wives in turn. The Caribs, when they married several sisters at the same time, lived a month with each in her separate hut.[2796] Among the wild Indians of Chili, according to Mr. Darwin, the cazique lives a week in turn with each of his wives.[2797] The Kafirs have an old traditional law requiring a husband who has many wives to devote three succeeding days and nights to each of them.[2798] A Mohammedan is obliged to visit his four legal wives by turns;[2799] and the same custom prevails, according to Krasheninnikoff, in Kamchatka.[2800] The negroes often follow a like rule in order to keep peace in the family.[2801] And, in Samoa, the system adopted when a person has several wives, “is to allow each wife to enjoy three days’ supremacy in rotation.”[2802] But such arrangements are, no doubt, exceptions, and it is doubtful whether, in these cases, theory and practice coincide.[2803] A marriage may, in fact, be monogamous, though, from a juridical point of view, it is polygynous.
“It is not uncommon for an Indian,” says Carver, “although he takes to himself so many wives, to live in a state of continence with many of them for several years,” and those who do not succeed in pleasing the husband may “continue in their virgin state during the whole of their lives.”[2804] Among the Apaches, the chiefs “can have any number of wives they choose, but one only is the favourite.”[2805] In Bokhara, a rich man generally has two, three, or four wives; yet, according to Georgi, one of them, as a rule, holds precedence in the husband’s love.[2806] Speaking of the modern Egyptians, Mr. Lane says, “In general, the most beautiful of a man’s wives or slaves is, of course, for a time his greatest favourite; but in many—if not most—cases, the lasting favourite is not the most handsome.”[2807] Sometimes the wife who has proved most fruitful and given birth to the healthiest children is most favoured by the husband;[2808] and, among the Indians of Western Washington and North-Western Oregon, according to Dr. Gibbs, the man usually lives with his first wife, at least after his interest in subsequent wives has cooled down.[2809] But it is generally the youngest wife who is the favourite. An Arabian Sheik said to Sir S. W. Baker, “I have four wives; as one has become old, I have replaced her with a young one; here they all are (he now marked four strokes upon the sand with his stick). This one carries water; that grinds the corn; this makes the bread; the last does not do much, as she is the youngest, and my favourite.”[2810] In Guiana, “an Indian is never seen with two young wives; the only case in which he takes a second is when the first has become old.” The first wife certainly retains the management of domestic affairs, but she no longer possesses the husband’s love.[2811] Statements to a similar effect are made regarding the Arabs of the Sahara, Tahitians, Central Asiatic Turks, Mormons, &c.[2812]
Bigamy is the most common form of polygyny, and a multitude of wives is the luxury of a few despotic rulers or very wealthy men. The Eskimo, for example, have rarely more than two wives, and a Greenlander who took a third or fourth was blamed by his countrymen, as we are told by Cranz.[2813] The tribes of Oregon generally confine themselves to a couple of wives.[2814] Bishop Salvado never knew a West Australian native with more than two—“à moins peut-être que par générosité un homme ne prenne sous sa protection la femme de son ami ou parent absent; ou bien que par voie d’hérédité il n’adopte les veuves de son frère.”[2815] Rich Kafirs are stated to have commonly two or three wives;[2816] and Colonel Dalton does not recollect that, among the Khamtis, he ever met with a case in which more than two women were married to one husband.[2817] The Hebrews who indulged in polygyny were generally bigamists.[2818]
Polyandry is a much rarer form of marriage than polygyny. In Oonalashka, one of the Aleutian Islands, according to v. Langsdorf, a woman sometimes lived with two husbands who agreed between themselves upon the conditions on which they were to share her.[2819] Among the Kaniagmuts, two or three men occasionally had a wife in common;[2820] and Veniaminoff tells us that in ancient times a Thlinket woman, besides her real husband, could have a legal paramour, who usually was the brother of the husband.[2821] Among the Eskimo also, “two men sometimes marry the same woman.”[2822] Father Lafitau writes, “Par une suite de la Gynécocratie, la polygamie, qui n’est pas permise aux hommes, l’est pourtant aux femmes chez les Iroquois Tsonnontouans, où il en est, lesquelles ont deux maris, qu’on regarde comme légitimes.”[2823] Among the Avanos and Maypurs, along the Orinoco, v. Humboldt found that brothers often had but one wife;[2824] according to Mr. Brett, the Warraus do not consider the practice of one woman having two husbands to be bad; and he mentions an instance of a woman amongst them having even three.[2825]
In Nukahiva, as we are told by Lisiansky, in rich families every woman had two husbands, of whom one might be called the assistant husband.[2826] In New Caledonia, according to M. Moncelon, polyandry does not seem to have been entirely unknown;[2827] and Mr. Radfield writes to me from Lifu that an old man knew of three cases of polyandrous marriage having occurred in that island, but the husbands were despised by the rest of the natives. In two of these cases the husbands were brothers, in the third they were unrelated. It is said that, among the Tasmanians, “polyandry, or something very like it, existed;”[2828] but this statement, if correct, refers to altogether exceptional cases.