SUMATRA. 
account for the refle£tion thrown on his lifter, Creefes were drawn, but 
the byftanders prevented mifchief. The brother appeared the next day^ 
to take the law of the defamer^ but the gentle oian, being of the recfcw 
caftj had abfconded, and was not to be found. 
The cuftoras of the Sumatrans permit their having as many wives by J^'":^^^" 
jocjcor, as they can compafs the purchafe of, or afford to maintain ; but 
it is extremely rare that an inftance occurs of their having more than 
one, and that only among a few of the chiefs. This condnence they in 
fome meafure owe to their poverty. The dictates of frugality are more 
powerful with them, than the irregular calls of appetite, and make 
them decline an indulgence, that their law does not retrain them from. 
In talking of polygamy, they allow it to be the priv Hedge of the rich, 
but regard it as a refinement which the poor Rejangs cannot pretend to» 
Some 3'oung reefows have been known to take wives in different places, 
but the father of the firft, as foon as he hears of the fecond marriage, 
procures a divorce* A man married hy fimunda cannot take a fecond 
wife, witliout repudiating the firft, for this obvious rcafon, that two or 
more perfons could not be equally cuuxJcd co die ha\S of his efrc&, 
Montefquieu infers, that the law which permits polygamy, is phyfi- q^^^,^^ 
cally conformable to the climate of Afia. The fealbn of female beauty. Polygamy, 
precedes that of their reafon, and from its prematurity foon decays. 
The empire of their charms is Ihort. It is therefore natural, the pre- 
fident obferves, that a man fliould leave one wife to take another ; that 
he ihould feek a renovation of thofe charms which had withered in his 
polTeflion. But are thefe the real circumftances of polygamy ? furely 
not. It implies the cotemporary enjoyment of women in the fame 
predicament ; and I ihould confider it as a vice, that has its fource in 
the influence of a warm atmofphere, upon the pa(Bons of men, which, 
like the cravings of other difordcred appetites, make them mifcalculate 
their wants. It is probably the fame influence, on lefs rigid ncr^^es, that 
renders their thirfl of revenge fomuch more violent, than among northern 
nations ; but we are not therefore to pronounce murder to be phyfically 
conform- 
