16.7. 7. Of an Equality of Treatment in case of many Wives.
From the law which permitted a plurality of wives followed that of an equal behaviour
to each. Mahomet, who allowed of four, would have everything, as
provisions, dress, and conjugal duty, equally divided between them. This
law is also in force in the Maldivian isles,
[14]
where they are at liberty to marry three wives.
The law of Moses
[15]
even declares that if any one has married his
son to a slave, and this son should afterwards espouse a free woman, her
food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. They
might give more to the new wife, but the first was not to have less than
she had before.
Footnotes
[14]
See Pirard, "Voyages," cap. 12.
