INCONVENIENCES ATTENDING POLYGAMY. 69 
“ How many legitimate wives have you?” 
“T have four, that is to say, the number authorized by 
the Koran.” 
“ Do they live together on a good understanding ?” 
“ Ah, sir, my house is a hell. I never enter it with- 
out finding them at the step of the door, or at the bottom 
of the stairs; then, each wants to be the first to make 
me listen to the complaints which she has to bring against 
her companions. I am about to utter blasphemy, but I 
think that our holy religion ought to prohibit a plurality 
of wives to those who are not rich enough to give to 
each a separate habitation.” 
“ But since the Koran allows you to repudiate even 
legitimate wives, why do you not send back three of them 
to their parents?” 
“Why? because that would ruin me. On the day of 
the marriage the father of the young woman to be mar- 
ried stipulates for a dowry, and the half of it is paid. 
The other half may be exacted the day that the woman 
is repudiated. It would then be three half dowries that 
I should have to pay if I sent back three of my wives. 
I ought, however, to rectify one inaccuracy in what I said 
just now, that my four wives had never agreed together. 
Once, they were agreed among themselves in the feeling 
of a common hatred. In going through the market I had 
bought a young negress. In the evening, when I retired 
to rest, I perceived that my wives had prepared no bed 
for her, and that the unfortunate girl was extended on 
the ground. I rolled up my trowsers and laid them un- 
der her head as a kind of pillow. In the morning the 
distracting cries of the poor slave made me run to her, 
and I found her nearly sinking under the blows of my 
four wives; for once they understood each other marvel- 
lously well:” 
