Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/180

 modern times. In 1548, in Peru, when Pedro de la Gasca had defeated the party of Pizarro, he distributed amongst his followers the widows of the colonists who were killed.

At Asterabad, after a small local revolt, Hanway saw the Persian magistrates sell fifty women to the soldiers.

In Livonia, after the taking of Narva, Peter the Great coolly sold to the boyars the wives of the inhabitants. Bruce tells us also that in Abyssinia the victors habitually take possession of the wives of the vanquished.

But if captives serve or have served somewhat in all countries to supply the domestic concubinate, they were not the only ones reserved for this purpose; female slaves, however procured, were treated as such. The fact is so well known that I shall abstain from establishing it by examples. I only quote one observed at Sackatoo, in tropical Africa, for it proves clearly that in a barbarous country, concubinage, or the domestic and servile concubinate, does not outrage morality in any way, and is regarded merely from a commercial point of view. At Sackatoo, when a married man has intimate relations with one of the female slaves given as dowry to his wife, he need simply replace her the following day by another slave who is a virgin and of equal value. On this purely mercenary condition, the caprice of the husband never occasions any conflict with the legitimate wife.

The relative and so-called Christian civilisation of the Abyssinians accommodates itself very easily to such customs. By the side of the oizoro, the proud and indolent matron, all the great nobles have a troop of pretty servant girls with sprightly looks.

The king sets the example, and naturally he goes further still. If any woman has had the good luck to please him, he sends an envoy to invite her to live in the palace. This distinction is received as it should be: the lady adorns herself as quickly as possible, and obeys without a murmur; but above these concubines there is the wife or queen, the itighe.

As far as they can, ecclesiastical dignitaries imitate laic