As concubines are _slaves_, some account of slaves in general may here be appropriately inserted, with a statement of the principal laws respecting concubines and their offspring, etc.—The slave is either a person taken captive in war, or carried off by force from a foreign hostile country, and being at the time of capture an infidel; or the offspring of a female slave by another slave, or by any man who is not her owner, or by her owner if he do not acknowledge himself to be the father; but a person cannot be the slave of a relation who is within the prohibited degrees of marriage. The power of the owner is such that he may even kill his slave with impunity for any offence; and he incurs but a slight punishment (as imprisonment for a period at the discretion of the judge) if he do so wantonly. He may give or sell his slaves, excepting in some cases which will be mentioned, and may marry them to whom he will, but not separate them when married. A slave, however, according to most of the doctors, cannot have more than two wives at the same time. As a slave enjoys less advantages than a free person, the law, in some cases, ordains that his punishment for an offence shall be half of that to which the free is liable for the same offence, or even less than half: if it be a fine, or pecuniary compensation, it must be paid by the owner, to the amount, if necessary, of the value of the slave, or the slave must be given in compensation. An unemancipated slave, at the death of the owner, becomes the property of the heirs of the latter; and when an emancipated slave dies, leaving no male descendant or collateral relation, the former owner is the heir; or, if he be dead, his heirs inherit the slave’s property. But an unemancipated slave can acquire no property without the permission of the owner. Complete and immediate emancipation is sometimes granted to a slave gratuitously, or for a future pecuniary compensation. It is conferred by means of a written document, or by a verbal declaration in the presence of two witnesses, or by presenting the slave with the certificate of sale obtained from the former owner. Future emancipation is sometimes covenanted to be granted on the fulfilment of certain conditions; and more frequently, to be conferred on the occasion of the owner’s death. In the latter case, the owner cannot sell the slave to whom he has made this promise; and as he cannot alienate by will more than one-third of the whole property that he leaves, the law ordains that, if the value of the said slave exceed that portion, the slave must obtain, and pay to the owner’s heirs, the additional sum.—A Muslim may take as his concubine any of his female slaves who is a Muslim’eh, or a Christian, or a Jewess, if he have not married her to another man; but he may not have as his concubines, at the same time, two or more who are sisters, or who are related to each other in any of the degrees which would