72 SEX-LORE 



mark of wealth and power, and insures a good social 

 position. Livingstone relates of the Makalolo women : 

 " On hearing that a man in England could only marry 

 one wife, several ladies exclaimed that they would not 

 like to live in such a country; they could not imagine 

 how English ladies could relish this custom; for in 

 their way of thinking every man of respectability 

 should have a number of wives as a proof of his 

 wealth. Similar ideas prevail all down the Zambesi." 

 Examples are even found where the first wife will 

 entreat her husband to take another wife, to lighten 

 her burden, as woman's toil is very heavy among 

 savages, and the addition of another wife will divide 

 the work. 



The number of wives a man is legally permitted to 

 have varies among different people. The King of 

 Loango is said to have seven thousand wives ! In 

 some instances the wives take equal rank, as in the 

 case of Leah and Rachel; but there are many types 

 of polygamy where there is one chief wife, the others 

 taking an inferior position. Thus, in China there is 

 only one chief wife; the others are secondary, though 

 legitimate, wives. In Mohammedan countries, where 

 a man has two or more wives, the one married first 

 generally takes the highest rank and is called " the 

 great lady." The chief or first wife among negro 

 people generally has command over all the house and 

 the rest of the wives. In many cases the children of 

 the first wife have precedence over the other children 

 as regards inheritance and other privileges. 



A much rarer form of marriage is polyandry, the 

 union of one woman with more than one man. This 

 occurs, for instance, in group marriage, mentioned 



