RESTRICTIONS IN MARRIAGE. 45 r
had that seemed necessary. Those who desire to investigate the subject further can easily do so by referring to standard works in anthropology, among the most useful of which, for the present purpose, are Frazer's Golden Bough, Westermarck's History of Marriage, Huth's Marriage of Near Kin, and Crawley's Mystic Rose.
i. MONOGAMY. It is impossible to label mankind by one general term, either as animals who instinctively take a plurality of mates, or who consort with only one, for history suggests the one condition as often as the other. Probably different races, like different individuals, vary considerably in their natural instincts. Polygamy may be understood either as having a plurality of wives ; or, as having one principal wife and many secondary but still legitimate wives, or any other recognised but less legitimate connections ; in one or other of these forms it is now permitted -by religion, customs, and law-to at least one-half of the population of the world, though its practice may be restricted to a few, on account of cost, domestic peace, and the insufficiency of females. Polygamy holds its ground firmly throughout the Moslem world. It exists throughout India and China in modified forms, and it is entirely in accord with the sentiments both of men and women in the larger part of negro Africa. It was regarded as a matter of course in the early Biblical days. Jacob's twelve children were born of four
