fe, some are divorced, some dead; to-morrow it may be my turn to go."

Polygamy is prevalent among the rich who can afford it, and is regarded
by many as highly meritorious. Some of the poor also practise it, but
most of them have but one wife at a time, and are comparatively faithful
to her. The percentage of men who live in polygamy is difficult to
arrive at, but a good judge has estimated it at thirty per cent. The
best men seem to be ashamed and to deprecate it. Some say it is
forbidden in the Koran, by the verse which allows only as many wives as
a man can treat with equity; as they say this is an impossibility, if a
man has more than one consort, to treat them alike. When asked about the
example of the Prophet, and the holy men, especially the Imams, they
say, as for Mohammed, he was allowed peculiar privileges, not granted to
other men. Some who consider the Imams sinless, explain their conduct in
the same way. Those who do not accept this solution say the Imams did
wrong in having a plurality of wives. When asked about the Shah, they
reply he does wrong in practising polygamy, but it is permitted to him
because he has the power in his hands.

No Moslem woman is supposed to have any right to require or expect that
her husband will be true to her in the marriage relation, though
fidelity to him is rigorously exacted of her, and her breach of it is
punishable with death.

There may be instances where the women of a polygamous household agree;
the casual stranger, who visits a harem without any knowledge of the
language, or personal acquaintance with the inmates, will often be
assured that they love each other fondly, and are more than sisters in
friendship; but the trusted family friend, or the lady doctor, can tell
a very different tale.

Our doctor told me once, she thought the two women of a certain house,
were an exception to the general rule, and that they really were
friends; but soon after, the older one being sick, she saw a good deal
of her in private, and was obliged sadly to confess she had been
mistaken.

I have myself known of one case, in which the rival wives were of the
same mind. One of our neighbors had two partners of his joys and
sorrows, who sometimes joined forces, and gave him a good beating, so
he would be seen flying in hot haste from his "happy" home. One man said
to one of us, "I don't need to die in order to go to hell; I have it in
my own house; I live there." Another, when told by