Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/98

 The "sheltered life," so enthusiastically commended by my lady friend, is, of course, very alluring to many women when lived under such luxurious conditions as those related in Sir Edwin Arnold's poem. Numbers of women in the West would enjoy this indolent, secure, and voluptuous existence.

As a matter of fact, there are American women living in Indian zenanas. They have renounced the Christian faith, embraced Hinduism, and become entirely Oriental in their lives and practices. I know an English professional dancer, who informed me that several friends, in her profession, have entered Turkish harems. One of these girls describes the life as "delightful." She is richly fed, beautifully dressed, and has an ample income and her own apartments. This immunity from the strife of maintaining life appeals powerfully to women of a fairly numerous class. They desire neither "economic independence," nor "emancipation." In the West they marry for; comfort and ease in the East they welcome the chance of entering the harem.

Let us understand quite clearly that polygamous marriage in the Indian Empire is chiefly the practice of the influential and wealthy classes, and that it is far from general, even amongst the rich Mohammedans and Brahmins. The soudras (working class of low castes) and the poorer folk are almost entirely