Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (IA journalofstraits8386roya).pdf/204

 husband does not convey his rank or quality: vide, e.g. definitions of 'concubine and concubinage' in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary and in Wharton's Law Lexicon quoting John's Biblical Antiquities.

"If this view is true of the concubine of the Pentateuch it is certainly true of the t'sip. Abraham from motives of policy presented Sarai his wife, "a fair woman to look upon" as his sister to more than one royal suitor. The Pharaoh of the period met with great plagues in consequence—Ahimelech of Gerar received timely warning "in a dream by night."

"Under the Manchu Code Abraham would have received one hundred blows even for dealing by Hagar or Keturah his t'sips as he did by Sarai his wife.

"Again, if Staunton is right in his interpretation of section 116 of the Code, Abraham would have suffered castigation for his action in turning Hagar out into the wilderness merely to appease the jealousy of Sarai.

"Sentiment and the material feelings are doubtless often influences in the selection of a t'sip. The man's guardian chooses his t'sai. He chooses his t'sip for himself. There is a proverb to the effect that a t'sai is taken for her virtue, a t'sip for her beauty.

"But it seems to be fully accepted that the taking of a t'sip is authorised in order to the fulfilment of the dictates of filial piety which requires male issue for the purpose of ancestor worship.

"There does not seem to be any need to review what has been shown before the Courts on former occasions as to the status of the children of the t'sip. It is enough to say that in some respects there is no distinction drawn between them and the children of the t'sai while the sons of the t'sip have their place in the order of succession to the inheritance and to hereditary dignities. They also share, though not on equal terms, in the patrimony.

"Herr von Mollendorf has compared the unions of the t'sai and of the t'sip to connubium and concubinatus respectively. This may stand as a rough comparison. The union of the t'sai approaches justae nuptiae as nearly as the East can approach the West. But whereas the offspring of concubinatus did not come under the patria potestas except by process of legitimation, the offspring of the t'sip are subject to it as an incident of their birth.

"English law cannot conceive of varying degrees of legitimacy of birth or marriage. Birth can be either legitimate or illegitimate and the union between man and woman can be either lawful or illicit. There is no middle state. It does not seem possible to interpret the status of the children of the t'sip as anything but that of legitimate children. They are fully recognised. Nor does it seem possible to hold that children whom we must accept as legitimate can have sprung from an union which remains illicit.