Mussulman harem. It was a personal contract, in which her parents did not interfere, and which did not degrade her from the rank of an independent person to the humiliation of merely being a thing possessed. The mot' a marriage indicates, besides, very free manners, as is attested by a number of facts and traditions, particularly certain religious rites of the Canaanites, the Aramites, and the pagan Hebrews, and also the licentious practices of women and girls in the temple of Baalbek. By degrees the mot' a marriage gave place to a definite marriage, the ba'al marriage, by which the young girl went to live with her husband and owed him fidelity. Marriages of this kind were sought at first by the chiefs, to whom they assured alliances. As a consequence these unions became honourable, and dethroned the ancient matrimonial custom.[1] Henceforth the women who continued to live in the ancient mode were dishonoured, and treated as prostitutes, whose dwelling was indicated by a special flag. At the same time the taste for paternity was born in men, and, in case of doubt on this matter, sages whose profession it was, declared the signs by which a man could recognise his own offspring.[2] IV. Polyandry in General.
I have quoted or made a summary of nearly all the information that has reached us on the subject of ancient and modern polyandry. From thence we may conclude that in no way are we authorised to consider this form of conjugal union as having been general. Still it has become a necessity in a good number of gross societies. It has specially prevailed in countries badly supplied with food, where the struggle for existence was severe, where warlike conflicts with neighbouring tribes were incessant, and where, in order to endure, the community was forced to diminish the impedimenta and the useless mouths. In such conditions, men still savage or barbarous have recourse without hesitation all over the world to female infanticide; and as, on the other side, the chiefs and strong men monopolise as many women as possible, the debauchery of unmarried
