Walter Matthew Gallichan

“ The admiration, professed so sincerely by Miss Noble, for the marriage system of the Hindu religion is shared by an English lady known to me, who is the wife of a high-caste Hindu. She considers the unrest of the Western women who are battling so vigorously for rights, freedom, votes, and full equality with men, a tragic spectacle. English women seem to her to miss all that is best in life, all the precious things that lie within their grasp, in their eagerness to take a share in government. ”

“ Here is a beautiful tribute to a woman from her lover :
HALF WOMAN AND HALF DREAM
O, woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men ; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their hearts.
Poets are weaving for you a web with threads of golden imagery ; painters are giving your form ever new immor- tality.
The sea gives its pearls, the mines their gold, the summer gardens their flowers to deck you, to cover you, to make you more precious.
The desire of men's hearts has shed its glory over your youth. ”

“ The bias against polygamy is a phase of the Feminist Movement, which is invading every quarter of the civilised globe. This is not the mere agitation of a disenfranchised sex, but a tremendous, clamant uprising of thoughtful women, aroused, after centuries of repression and inertia, to revolution and to the complete reconstruction of all social opinions, moral codes, and laws affect- ing their sex. In certain aspects, it is a strife for feminine supremacy. Undoubtedly, feminism is, in the main, a revolt against the sexual domination of man. ”

“ The bath-house is like a club, a place of social resort; and women spend several hours, or the greater part of the day, steeping themselves in hot water, undergoing massage and friction, and lounging on divans in warm chambers. The bath is a principal rendezvous for the women of fashion in the higher classes.
Bathing is an almost painful process in Persia and Afghanistan, and foreigners shrink from the immersion in scalding water, the hot douches, and the drastic pounding and pinching of the flesh. ”

“ In England a proportion of married men live in overt marriage, and covertly visit a mistress, or more than one mistress. In Japan there is no secrecy in regard to concubinage. A proportion of well-to-do men may legally and openly maintain a concubine beside the wife. There is no need for clandestine intrigues and hypocritical subterfuges.
It is not easy for the Western mind to probe to the inner souls of our friends and allies of Japan. We are sundered by a wide differentiation in thought, religion, ideal, and aspiration. We cling tenaciously to life, and most of us dread death. ”

“ Even the ikbal of a great and influential pasha, though much petted and lavishly endowed with money and fine jewels, often sighs for a real and romantic love affair. She may have entered the harem at a tender age, knowing very little indeed of the needs of her heart and dormant emotional nature. Her owner may show her much favour and kindness, and treat her with a courteous respect. And yet discontent and restlessness assail her. She may loathe the very hand that caresses her. ”

“ That the wives of the harem possess many rights and privileges is beyond question. Very frequently they are the close companions of their husbands, the advisers, and the arbiters in domestic affairs.
The Moorish wives of the khalifs of Spain were frequently women of character and culture; and we read of their devotion to their husbands. Moon, the spouse of Ibn-Hajjaj, of Seville, wrote to her husband : "In all the West I find no right noble man save Ibrahim, but he is nobility itself. When one has known the delight of living with him, to dwell in any other land would be misery." ”

“ Polygamy is closely connected with the sacred erotic conceptions of the Eastern mind. Woman in India is beloved and desired, as she is in England, for her physical grace and loveliness, as well as for her virtue, sweetness, and gentleness of heart. She is a symbol, a principle, a half-divine being. There is magic in her. Endless are the taboos surrounding her sex. The curse of a woman is terrible. ”

“ But the dear creatures are even more closely disguised than at Constantinople; their bodies are enveloped with a large black silk hood, like a cab head; the fashion seemed to be to spread their arms out, and give their covering all the amplitude of which it was capable, as they beamed and ogled you from under their black masks with their big rolling eyes. The Arab women are some of the noblest figures I have ever seen. ”

“ Polygamy, like monogamy, must be judged by its fruits. In the East, cultured advocates and apologists have explained the biological and racial causes of the practice, and contrasted it with the single marriage custom of the West. Among European and other Western writers, solicitous for the truth, there are those who avow frankly that, from observation and investigation, they are disposed to regard polygamy as an institution with certain distinct advantages for women. Equally sincere critics have condemned this form of marriage, sometimes judicially, and often with passion. ”

“ Purchase-marriage was the custom; the Hebrew parent was allowed to sell his daughter as a wife, concubine, or maid-servant. The purchaser could dismiss the wife or handmaiden at will. Plurality of wives was also maintained, as in Babylon and Egypt, by the capture of women in warfare.
When Moses conquered the Midianites, he commanded: "Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children that hath not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves." ”

“ The ladies of the haremlik can gaze upon the outer world through apertures in the darkened windows, but they are not seen from without. They go out at will, like the women of the Imperial Harem, but always veiled. ”

“ Parents and women are to be held in honour :
"By honouring his father, his mother, and his teacher, all that ought to be done by man is accomplished; that is clearly the highest duty; every other act is a subordinate duty."
"Where women are honoured there the gods are pleased, but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields rewards."
"He only is a perfect man who consists of three persons united his wife, himself, and his offspring." ”

“ Being born a girl is almost a misdemeanour. The penalty overshadows and darkens the whole life until, perchance, redemption comes with the birth of a son. We begin to understand why infanticide was formerly so common in India, and why it still survives in some parts of the country. One writer says that Hindu women often threw their female children into the river, to preserve them from the hard fate awaiting them in life. ”

“ CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE HAREM AMONG the Western nations there are, no doubt, many unreflective and incurious persons who regard the vast institution of polygamy merely as a part of the faith and practice of the ancient Hebrews, the Hindus, and the Mohammedans of former and modern times. The custom is of far greater antiquity than the older religion of the Jews and the birth of Islam. For the origin of polygamy we must seek among the animal ancestry of mankind. ”

“ Women who learn to think begin to feel more deeply; and reflection upon the evils of society leads to action.
The national temper in Turkey is conservative; but, as I have said, the Turk is always a willing listener to the ideas and the reformative proposals of foreigners. Despite tenacious traditions, the women of Turkey are feeling the influence of that fervent feminism that is inspiring the women of the West. There is, perhaps, more hope for Turkish women in this movement than for any of the women of Europe. ”

“ Ages ago the women of Arabia were " a race of heroines. " We cannot suppose that the spirit of those days is dead; that Arabian poets do not voice the emotions of living men, and that the Arab lover of to-day looks upon his bride, or his concubine, as a mere serf. Men do not languish, lapse into despair, and commit suicide for the simple possession of slaves. Yet Letourneau is inclined to class the Arabs with barbarians.
A form of capture-marriage is practised among the Bedouins. ”

“ No sacrifice, no penance, and no feasting allowed to women apart from their husbands ; to pay obedience to her lord is the only means for a woman to obtain bliss in heaven.
A woman who keeps a fast or performs a penance in the lifetime of her lord, deprives her husband of his life, and will go to hell. ”

“ It is hardly necessary to add to the list of great men who have manifested the capacity for loving several women in succession, and not infrequently more than one at the same time.
The masculine bias for plural love must not, how- ever, be over-estimated. There are, without ques- tion, men of the Western races to whom the bare idea of cohabitation, or casual sexual association, with more than one woman is supremely repugnant. Where monogamy is slowly taking the place of polygamy, we notice that men seek a compensation by forming a suc- cession of single unions. ”

“ With the example of ancient Egypt before us, can we assert justly that the position of women has been always debased under polygamous marriage? Moslem polygamy has its evils. But who can maintain that a sense of justice to women and a true regard for her social and personal well-being has always been a conspicuous virtue of the monogamic communities ? ”

“ We find a somewhat higher conception of woman in a Mohammedan saying : "A good wife is as a mother for affection and tenderness; as a slave-girl for content and attentions; as a friend for concord and sincerity." ”

“ Passion is no mere passing incident in their lives. They live for love; it fills their whole emotion. At the same time, they all have work to do, and they are very rarely idle, like so many of the Mohammedan women. They perform men's labour in the fields and in carrying loads. Men in Burma sew and embroider. The women say that the men can do women's work better than a woman.
So hearty and wholesome is the love of life among these joyous optimists that it is difficult to persuade women to enter the religious houses. The Burmese girl does not wish to be a nun ”

“ Barrenness is a grievous trial to a Hindu woman, imposing very serious social disabilities, including divorce. Numberless are the invocations, the spells, the incantations, and the mystical devices resorted to by women of the East as a cure for sterility. So great is the dread of infecundity that, throughout the Orient, women, whether married or single, adopt the most extravagant methods to ensure child-bearing. ”

“ They are the chiefs of the army, the supreme judges, and the kings. Behind the towering white walls of the Imperial Harem at Constantinople live thousands of persons of both sexes, all of them ministers and servitors to the pleasures of the Sultan. There is an army of eunuchs, and several hundred cooks, besides a multitude of slaves. The eunuchs who guard the approaches to the palace are all white men, who are not permitted to enter within. Negroes are the personal attendants upon the ladies of the court and the harem.
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The Chief Master of the Maidens is a dignitary of unique eminence. ”

“ A chandelier, with a hundred coloured wax candles, hangs from the splendid stained-glass roof. Besides this chandelier, there are branching candlesticks on the walls. The drapery of the doors and windows is green velvet and satin, looped up with gold tassels.
Such are the comforts and luxuries of the harems owned by the influential pashas of Egypt. Every device of art is used in the decoration of these palaces, which reflect faintly the joys that await the true believer in the Seventh Heaven. ”

“ The aggressive, virile man, who craved plurality of wives, or sexual consorts, was also undoubtedly a lover of the power yielded by possessions. When he stole or purchased women for his harem, he increased his prestige and dignity in the tribe. The passion of acquisitiveness is one of the sources of modern polygamy; and it is frequently this impulse, in England and America, which accounts for the lavish expenditure upon the maintenance of a mistress.
Many men are covetous and greedy by nature. They must own costly things. ”

“ The enforcement of such reverence for husbands is quite foreign and contradictory to the conception of marriage among cultured women in the Western nations. It appears to cut at the very basis of sex-equality, and to undermine all our advanced principles of liberty for women, "freedom for wives to live their own lives," and the higher status of women generally. Dr. Coomaraswamy, anticipating this criticism, states shrewdly : "Let us at once acknowledge, with all competent observers, that the power of women over men is far greater in India than in any industrial state in the West." ”

“ A husband takes his wife's name when marrying an heiress; a wife assumes the name of an heir when she weds him. Husbands and wives stand as representa- tives of property.
Japanese marriage is undergoing changes, such as the granting of free choice to brides. But Mr. Douglas Sladen* tells us that women are far from sex- equality in Japan. Implicit obedience is enjoined upon women to fathers and husbands, and widows must obey the eldest son. The Japanese wife, in the view of this author, is simply a drudge for her spouse. ”

“ A measure of liberty is accorded to the women of the Egyptian harems. Once a year they may leave the Abode of Bliss for a few weeks, and, under a certain amount of supervision, mingle with the world. They are, of course bound to wear the veil, and to observe the ordinary conventions governing the conduct of their sex in public places.* Freed for a spell, and filled with a spirit of adventure, the girl walks the fashionable promenades of Cairo. ”

“ CHAPTER XVII WOMEN IN THE HAREM IN the poetry of Arabia the most loved and admired of maidens is lithe in body and " elegant as a twig of the Oriental willow." The beauty meet for the bride of a pasha must own luxuriant hair of the deepest black. Her cheeks should be rosy in the centre, and a mole, or beauty spot, is an added charm. Blue eyes are not usually prized; the eyes should be black, large, and almond-shaped, full of yearning softness, with long, drooping lashes. ”

“ CHAPTER XIV POLYGAMY IN TURKISH SOCIETY A TURKISH gentleman informs me that the serai may, in the near course of time, become quite rare and curious in his country. Monogamy is now considered " good form," and plural marriage is beginning to be regarded as old-fashioned. Turkey has always been very susceptible to alien influences. She has during later years, absorbed much of the spirit of the West; and Turks who have lived for some time in England or France, return to their land with a new perspective of social life and ideals. ”

“ There is no true intimacy between husband and wife. As in India, husbands and wives do not eat together, and in the streets the men walk in front of the woman. I have already alluded to the Hindu origin of the latter custom. It is doubtful whether it can be accepted as an indication of the inferiority of women. ”

“ Polygamy is not likely to give place rapidly to universal monogamy in Turkey. We might as well expect to banish polygny suddenly from Western societies. But the stricter rule of the seraglio is relaxing. Even doctors are allowed to enter the harems. Culture is invading the sacred precints of " the Abode of Bliss," and culture brings a longing for a freer life. The West of Europe is setting Turkey an example, for good or ill, and Turkey is at least heedful and interested. ”

“ CHAPTER XXVIII WESTERN POLYGYNY THE religion, laws, and customs of the West forbid plural marriage. Monogamy is the only recognised and permissible state of wedlock in the greater part of Europe, and in all the advanced civilisations of the American continent. Mormon polygamy is practised in spite of the law of the United States. There is no other conventional form of polygamous union in the highly-civilised Western societies. ”