WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
demned, and would probably be practised more widely were it not for the poverty of these nomads.
The Bedouins are not a religious people. Nominally they are Mohammedans, but they are not strictly devout. They observe the rule of circumcision and a few other Moslem rites. Their marriage ceremony is simple. Sons are married as soon as the father can afford the bride-price.
The system of concubinage existing in Arabia is a survival of the militarist days, when women were taken captives in battle. It is, in a sense, "free marriage." Letourneau, in "The Evolution of Marriage," writes: "If we interrogate all races, all epochs, and all countries, we see that the concubinate and concubinage have flourished, and still flourish, by the side of legal marriage."
Sir Samuel Baker was told by an Arab chief that he owned four wives. When one grew old, he "replaced her with a young one." He made four marks with a stick in the sand, saying, "This one carries water; that grinds the corn; this makes the bread; the last does not do much, as she is the youngest and my favourite."
Jealousy often exists between wives and concubines. A young girl is purchased as a slave, and her youth and comeliness allure her master. She has been "gazed upon," and in due time she becomes a paramour. The legal wife, or one of the wives, conceives a hatred for
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