46 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
approbation, since a man, whose code of morals is 
loose or limited, may permit what he does not com- 
mend. The fact- is, their apathy renders them in- 
sensible to those active jealousies which rage among 
the fiery temperaments that are warmed by a more 
glowing sun and fanned by more genial breezes. 
They therefore look without emotion upon what they 
probably neither honour nor approve. This indif- 
ference on one side and utter absence of chastity on 
the other, are supposed to be the proximate cause of 
one of the most singular and revolting customs to be 
found in the history of man ; but I should rather con- 
sider them as the effect. These highlanders have almost 
in every district of this vast range of mountains a com- 
munity of wives. The women are in fact polyandrists, 
as the Mahomedans are polygamists. One wife is 
often the common property of several brothers who 
are each legally bound to her by an indissoluble civil 
contract. They live in perfect harmony together, 
and it is surprising how rarely any difference occurs ; 
for notwithstanding this debasing communion, they 
are governed by social laws to which they adhere 
with a scrupulous exactness utterly irreconcilable to 
such lax morality. The first child becomes the pro- 
perty of the elder husband, and so in rotation. 
The general notions of these people regarding female 
virtue may be inferred from their admission of a prac- 
tice so degrading to humanity, but its origin is perhaps 
to be looked for in causes remote and not immediately 
apparent. The practice of female infanticide among 
the Rajpoot tribes must have necessitated the search 
after wives from among those races claiming the 
