WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
faces until the nuptial day. The risks of psychic incompatibility, and of physiological maladaption are at all events lessened when a period of wooing is permitted.
In polygamous unions courtship begins with wedlock. Two strangers unite in the closest of human intimacies. To the Western mind this practice cuts at the very roots of the ideal of romantic affection. We are, however, assured by highly intelligent observers that the system of post-marital courtship has fewer risks of disaster than we imagine.
Courtship before mating is the universal rule among the higher animals. It is a natural process of selection, with a very definite aim. Wooing, love-play, and the exercise of choice would seem to be as natural for men as for animals. Polygamy as generally practised in the East appears contrary to the general law of Nature, in so far as it dispenses with preliminary courtship.
What chance of selection has a Georgian girl of fifteen sold into harem marriage? Virtually she is a serf, though her serfdom may not be irksome. In any case, the human right of freedom of choice of a sexual partner is wholly repudiated, and she is merely a purchased woman, or human chattel.
The thousand devices of Nature for the free play of the selective will in the matings of animals seem a con-
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