know, too, that Saint Columban was banished from Gaul only for having blamed the polygamy of King Thierry. Let us resign ourselves, therefore, to confess the truth. The white race has no divine investiture. Like all the others, it has sprung from animality; like all the others, it has been polygamous, and we have only to open our eyes to perceive that, in the present day, in countries reputed to be the most civilised, and even in the classes reputed to be the most distinguished, the majority of individuals have polygamic instincts which they find it difficult to resist.
We are now in a position to form a just opinion of primitive polygamy. Its causes are manifold. The principal one is often the disproportion of the sexes, resulting from the enormous mortality of men which savage life necessitates. The desire of giving the rein to a sensuality that there is, as yet, no thought of repressing, may have a certain share in the matter; but this motive, which is perhaps dominant in the polygamous anthropoid apes, quickly becomes secondary in man.
Even the lowest savage is more calculating, and has more forethought, than the monkey. His first slave, one may say his first domestic animal, is his wife. Even when he is still a simple hunter and nomad, he has always game to be carried, fire to be lighted, a shelter to be erected, without reckoning that wives are very apt at gathering edible fruits and shell-fish, and rendering a thousand services. Besides, they give birth to offspring that can be bartered, sold, or even eaten at need.
It is, therefore, very desirable to possess as many as possible of these beings, fitted for such various ends. If a man is an agriculturist, the wife is then of still greater utility; he puts upon her all the hard work; she digs, plants, sows, reaps even, and all for the profit of her master. She is, besides, a subjected and feeble creature, whom he can treat just as he will, and on whom he can let loose his instincts of brutal domination. By force or by ruse, by capture or by purchase, he therefore procures himself as many wives as possible. He often buys them in the lump; for example, a lot of sisters, or of relations of different ages. This diversity of age has its value; for, in all the numerous uses to which a wife can be put, the younger ones can take
