Turkish Women's Views Of Polygamy

There are those who say that the women of the East are satisfied with polygamy and do not understand tho injustioe of it. To bclievo this one mus be gnorant not only of the East, but of the human soul itself. If it were true, that WOlild not happen ¦which (ioe happen - viz., that there is searcely any Turkish girl who, accepting the hand of a man, doos not íuako t a condition that hc shall not ïmrry iigain during her lifetimo; there would not be so many wives returning to their families beoause their husbamN Ikivc failed ia this promise, and the Turkish proverb would not be in existente wliich says: A house with four women is liko a ship in a tempest. Even if she is adorcd by her husband the Eastern women can but curse polygamj', wbich obligea her to live with the sword of Damocles above her head. Jt is impossible that she should not feel the injustice of such a law. She kuows that when her husband introduces a rival into her home he is but putting into practice the ri;ht given to him by the law of the Prophet. But in the bottora of her soul she feels that thero is a rnoi ancient and sacred law whioh condemns his act as traitorous and aa abuse of power; that the tie between thora is umlone: that her life i. ruitiud; that she has the right of rebellion. The Turkish women seek to know Fraukish women in order to learn trom them something of the gplendora and amusemcutsi of their worltl, but it is not only the vatied and fcvorish life of the gayety that attractíi them; moro often it is the doruestic life, the little world of an Europcanfaniily, the circle of frieuds, the table surrounded with children, the honovcd and bcloved old age; thesanctiiary f uil of memories, of coufidence, of tenderness, that can make the union of two persons good even without the passion of love; to whieh we turn even after a long life of aberration and faults, in whioh, even after the tempests of youth and the pangs of the present, the heart finds refuge and oomfort, as a promise of pcace for later years, the beauty of a serene sunset seen from the depths oí some dark valley. But there is one great thing to be said for tho comfort of those who lament the f ate of the Turkish woman; it is that polygamy is declining from day to day. It has alwaj's been considered by the Turks themselves rather as a tolerated abuse than as a natural right of man. Mahomet said, that man is to bo praiactl who Iiae but ft aingln wife - although he himsclf had several; and those who wish to set an example of honest and austero manners never in fact inarry but one wife. He who has more than ono is not openly blauied, but noither is hc approved. The Turks aro few who sustain polygamy, and still fewer thoso who annrovn il in their