especially in what concerns the conjugal relations. Moreover, as her condition is oftenest that of a slave over-*burdened with work, not only does she not resent the introduction of other women in the house of the master, but she desires it, for the work will be so much the less for herself. Thus among the Zulus the wife first purchased strives and works with ardour in the hope of furnishing her husband with means to acquire a second wife—a companion in misery over whom, by right of seniority, she will have the upper hand.[1]
In consequence of this the greater number of the men in Kaffirland have two or three wives, and hence a certain scarcity of feminine merchandise in the country; the young men have difficulty in providing for themselves, and many girls are sold from infancy.[2] The same customs prevail with the Hottentots; and both Kaffirs and Hottentots esteem the monogamic preaching of the Christian missionaries as very impertinent, and on this point both men and women are agreed.[3]
Along the whole course of the Zambesi, says Livingstone, the number of wives are the measure of a man's riches, and the women are the first to find this quite natural.
It is important to observe that in savage societies the woman could not live independently; for her, celibacy is synonymous with desertion, and desertion would mean a speedy death. This is even the reason of the levirate, of which I shall have to speak later.
As for all the negroes of Africa, whatever the degree of their civilisation or savagery, they have not even a suspicion of the monogamic régime. But, in Africa also, sensuality is only one of the secondary causes of the plurality of wives so strongly desired by all the blacks. Their polygamy is chiefly founded on economic motives. At the Gaboon,[4] says Du Chaillu, the supreme ambition of a man is to possess a great number of wives. Nothing is of more value to him, for they cultivate the ground, and their strict duty is to
