INCONVENIENCES ATTENDING POLYGAMY. 69 



" How many legitimate wives have you ? * 



" I 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." 



