ons yourself. But
be honest, command respect, and make yourself attractive and worthy.

* * * * *

{162}

Former Customs and Peculiarities Among Men.

1. POLYGAMY.--There is a wide difference as regards the relations of the
sexes in different parts of the world. In some parts polygamy has prevailed
from time immemorial.

Most savage people are polygamists, and the Turks, though slowly departing
from the practice, still allow themselves a plurality of wives.

2. RULE REVERSED.--In Thibet the rule is reversed, and the females are
provided with two or more husbands. It is said that in many instances a
whole family of brothers have but one wife. The custom has at least one
advantageous feature, viz.: the possibility of leaving an unprotected widow
and a number of fatherless children is entirely obviated.

3. THE MORGANATIC MARRIAGE is a modification of polygamy. It sometimes
occurs among the royalty of Europe, and is regarded as perfectly
legitimate, but the morganatic wife is of lower rank than her royal
husband, and her children do not inherit his rank or fortune. The Queen
only is the consort of the sovereign, and entitled to share his rank.

4. DIFFERENT MANNERS OF OBTAINING WIVES.--Among the uncivilized almost any
envied possession is taken by brute force or superior strength. The same is
true in obtaining a wife. The strong take precedence of the weak. It is
said that among the North American Indians it was the custom for men to
wrestle for the choice of women. A weak man could seldom retain a wife that
a strong man coveted.

The law of contest was not confined to individuals alone. Women were
frequently the cause of whole tribes arraying themselves against each other
in battle. The effort to excel in physical power was a great incentive to
bodily development, and since the best of the men were preferred by the
most superior women, the custom was a good one in this, that the race was
improved.

5. THE ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN employed low cunning and heartless cruelty in
obtaining his wife. Laying in ambush, with club in hand, he would watch for
the coveted woman, {163} and, unawares, spring upon her. If simply disabled
he carried her off as his possession, but if the blow had been hard enough
to kill, he abandoned her to watch for another victim. There is here no
effort to attract or please, no contest of strength; his courtship, if
courtship it can be called, would compare ve