• ^7 - ■ 



But these advantages were counterballanced by many of 

 their customs. Polygamy they practised without any scru-» 

 pie ; and often concubinage, even by the persuasion of their 

 wives. To have children was highly honorable; to have none 

 rendered married women objects of contempt. This misfor- 

 'tune was in some measure remedied by supposititious children, 

 the oflspring of the handmaids of their wives, as these chil- 

 dren were adopted by them, and deemed to be theirs. Wot 

 men therefore always sensible to the point of honour, and 

 subjugated by fashion, of their own accord offered concu- 

 bines to their husbands. The indelicacy of these customs is 

 apparent; matrimony became a brutal commerce, from 

 which all refinement was banished. The jealousy and dis- 

 sentions of the wives and concubines banished peace and 

 comfort from the patriarchs habitation. The brothers sprung 

 from different mothers, and their respective servants were 

 constantly at variance Avith each other. In families thus cir- 

 cumstanced, it is plain that the pleasing emotions of joy and 

 gladness were excited much more rarely than those of sadness, 

 anger and vexation ; instead of conjugal, filial and fraternal 

 •love — jealousy, envy, hatred and discord must have been the 

 prevailing sentiments. Cruelty and oppression of the con- 

 cubines and their children must have been often practised, of 

 which we have an example in the treatment of Hagar and 



her 



