Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/42

 slaves, the monarch lived a complete autocrat and the head of a large family.

Women were in constant attendance on the king. When he went out in the city, slaves bore him in a decorated palaquin, or he rode in a resplendent coach. Musicians, singers, and men and women dancers entertained the sovereign in his leisure hours. We read that the royal parents were much attached to their children, and that the king joined in the games of the nursery.

It is clear that when the Egyptians became pacific, women enjoyed the social, civic and domestic advantages which were denied to them during the militant period. The Greek travellers in Egypt were surprised at the independence of the women. It is doubtful whether, at the highest stage in their culture, the Greeks approached the Egyptian ideal of family life.

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?