Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/21

 pseudo-polygamy, lacking the sanctions and responsibilities of Mohammedan plurality. Side by side with monogamic marriage, concubinage has always existed. The system was plainly recognised in the ancient laws of Wales. In the Thirteenth Century, in England, the mistress, "the concubina legitima," was often the companion of the wife. There are, indeed, many facts in early Christian history that show an ecclesiastic recognition of the tendency of men towards variety or polygyny.

Even in Puritan times there was a measure of toleration for those who could not remain continent with one woman; for we find a writer, in 1658, asserting that it may be in "every way consistent with the principles of a man fearing God and loving holiness to have more women than one to his proper use."

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 complete owner-