WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
races practising polygamy. Conjugal affection, as I have endeavoured to show in these pages, is not incompatible with plural marriage. Burckhardt, who is often quoted by Professor Westermarck, says that he doubts whether the Arabs ever mean anything but "the grossest animal desire" when they talk of the passion of love. Westermarck often allows his monogamic bias to colour his inquiry into polygamy. But Sir Richard Burton is more dispassionate. He quotes Sonnini, who, by the way, was no great admirer of Egypt.[1]
This writer speaks of "the generous virtues, the example of magnanimity and affectionate attachment, the sentiments ardent, yet gentle, forming a delightful unison with personal charms in the harems of the Mamluks."
Pinkerton discerned but little difference in the marriage of Christians and Mohammedans; Mrs. Garnett thinks the women of Turkey are, in the main, quite as happy as the women of England; and apparently Miss Margaret Noble would not exchange the life of a Hindu woman for that of an emancipated English sister.
It may be urged that the tending towards equality of the sexes among the Bedouins is attributable to the fact that they are, for the greater number, monogamous. That may be so. But polygamy is not con-
- ↑ Op. cit.
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