at Samoa,[1] at Tonga,[2] in New Zealand,[3] there existed a chief wife, exempted from hard work, and having pre-eminence over the other wives.
Over all the great American continent polygamy is or has been in force. The Ancas or Araucanos of South America—nomads and robbers—buy very dear wives when they can, and make concubines of all the prisoners procured in their razzias, exactly after the manner of the ancient Arabs. The poor or the feeble among them, as elsewhere, are badly provided, and are frequently reduced to remain celibate,[4] or to have only one wife. For the same reasons, the young men among the Otomacs were often obliged to be contented with an old woman,[5] and the Charruas waited till their first wife grew old before procuring a younger one.[6] Herrero tells us also, that in Honduras forced monogamy was general enough, except, indeed, for the chiefs, who appropriated the women by the right of the strongest.[7] In South America, as in Africa, the women were very far from rebelling against polygamy; for there, also, all the hard work fell to them, and the burden of it was lightened in proportion to the number of labourers. In the tribes that were already agricultural, the Guaranis, for example, the men did nothing to the land but clear off the brushwood and timber; then came the women, who did all the sowing, harvesting, prepared the fermented drink for guests,[8] without mentioning other domestic cares. Such a kind of life is necessarily unfavourable to delicacy, and even amongst civilised people habitual overwork is hardly compatible with refined sentiments. In all countries exclusive love and jealousy suppose not only some moral development, but also a certain amount of leisure and of time and capacity, to think. It is therefore quite natural that the savage woman should seldom pretend to possess a man for herself alone,
- ↑ Pritchard, loc. cit., p. 372.
- ↑ Cook (Third Voyage), Hist. Univ. des Voy., t. ix. p. 70.
- ↑ Dumont d'Urville.
- ↑ A. d'Orbigny, L'homme Américain, t. I^{er.} p. 403.
- ↑ Voyage à la Terre Ferme, etc., t. I^{er.} p. 304.
- ↑ A. d'Orbigny, loc. cit., t. ii. p. 89.
- ↑ H. Spencer, Sociology, vol. ii. p. 282.
- ↑ A. d'Orbigny, loc. cit., t. ii. p. 308.
