o can afford to have more than one
wife. The Muhammadans themselves are beginning to stem the evil and
explain away the verses in the Quran which permit it, by saying that
there is the proviso that a man may only marry a plurality of wives if
he can be quite impartial to all of them; and as that is not possible,
monogamy must be considered the law for ordinary mortals.

The following, which was enacted under my eyes, shows the evil that
results from divorce and polygamy. There were three brothers, whom
we will call Abraham, Sandullah, and Fath, all happily married to one
wife each. Abraham, the eldest brother, died. The second brother was
now entitled to marry the widow; but she did not like him, while she
had a decided liking for the youngest brother, Fath. She had, however,
a hatred for Fath's wife, and was determined not to be junior wife
to her. Fath, carried away by the charms and cajolings of the widow,
consented to divorce his own wife on condition of the widow marrying
him. She agreed, vowing she would never marry Sandullah, and then Fath
divorced his wife. But meanwhile Sandullah insisted on his rights,
and forced the widow to marry him. She perforce submitted, but I think
he got some lively times at home, and the woman took opportunities
of meeting Fath. Then what does the insatiable and foolish Sandullah
do but marry the divorced wife of his younger brother. The widow was
now furious: she had refused to marry the man she fancied unless he
divorced that woman, and now she is married to the man she did not
want, and has got the hated woman as co-wife into the bargain.

There was a man of desperate character in the village who had
been captivated by the widow's charms. She had so far refused his
advances, but now, to have her way, she told him that if he desired
to gain his end he must first dispose of her present husband. That
was no obstacle to the lover, and, with the collusion of the woman,
he enticed the man out into his cornfield one day, and there strangled
him. The murder eventually was brought home to the unscrupulous lover,
and he got penal servitude, while the foul enchantress was left free
to marry the youngest brother, Fath, whom she originally desired.

Very few of the Afghan women can read the Quran; for the rest they
are absolutely ignorant of all learning, and often when we are trying
to explain some directions for treatment in the hospital, they excuse
their denseness by saying: "We are only