was dismissed, either for want of evidence, or as he himself believed, because he had "done the state some service" in preventing the escape of another prisoner. No past experience, however, could induce Khourabene to forego the increased importance that he would gain in the eyes of other natives by the possession of two wives, though, perhaps, it is a want of charity to disbelieve his own assertion that he "must marry Polly" to ensure her being treated kindly. "Another black fellow," as he said to me, "would beat her if she lost his pipe."
I was vexed at the introduction of this second wife on Sarah's account, for, though she made no complaints, nothing will ever persuade me that any woman, though a Mahommedan or a savage, who has once been "the better half," is otherwise than chagrined at becoming a third or quarter partner in the matrimonial firm.
The manner, however, in which human beings receive the unavoidable circumstances of their lot varies with the disposition of the individual. A native man and his one wife had worked together so long and so harmoniously for a friend of ours that he had ceased to remember polygamy as one of their national institutions, and felt himself rudely recalled to consciousness of its existence by the return of his man-servant from a short absence, carrying a young native girl upon his back, whom he deposited amidst the family circle, and formally introduced as his spouse number two.
Our friend, much disturbed at the incident, remonstrated against such unworthy treatment of the first good old partner, but receiving no other answer than the repeated assurance—"new womany quorba"—meaning that an
