(_c_) Baha Ullah advised against child-marriages, yet, strange to say, seems to have tolerated child-betrothals. Among Persians it is a common custom to betroth children. Abbas was after this manner betrothed to his cousin in infancy. When the household of Baha thought the time had come for the marriage, Abbas thought differently and refused to agree to it. This incident[328] occurred before the one narrated above and is concerning a different girl. Curiously it was a girl named Moneera, who had been betrothed to another in infancy who finally became the wife of Abbas Effendi. She had been promised to her cousin Mohammed Tagi, and after she had reached the age of maturity, the youth urged on the marriage. The wedding was celebrated and the bride brought to the groom's house. Then, so the story goes, the husband refused to see his bride and continued in stubborn neglect and denial of marital rights till his death--six months afterwards. Later Baha Ullah persuaded Abbas to take the "sweet and amiable" virgin-widow for his wife and he is said to have attained to "a warm affection and regard" for the woman he was asked to marry.[329] Did I wish to assume the rôle of higher critic, I might suggest that the latter incident, like that in "When Knighthood was in Flower," is apocryphal, and intended to create a legend of her virginity up to the time she became the "leaf" of the "Greatest Branch of God." Another account I have gathered from a Syrian disciple of Baha. He reports that Abbas Effendi would not marry the girl his parents had betrothed him to, because he had a love affair with Moneera, the wife of Mohammed Tagi. The speedy demise of the husband was attributed to poison administered by his wife, who thereupon became the wife of Abbas Effendi. Her title among Bahais is "Holy Mother." (_d_) Another part of the marriage law gives directions as to the number of wives a man may take. The "Kitab-ul-Akdas" says: "God hath decreed you to marry. Beware of marrying more than two, and whosoever is content with one, attaineth peace for himself and her."[330] Mr. Phelps[331] calls attention to this fact that the Book of Laws permits of taking two wives. This limitation of the man to bigamy is deemed an improvement on the law of Islam allowing polygamy. But Bahai law does not permit a wife to have two husbands. This absolutely invalidates the claim and declaration of Bahaism concerning the equality of the sexes. It proclaims the woman the inferior, not the equal. No equality can exist in a household under such a license. Where is the boast of progress and superiority, when the most essential unit of human society is nullified? "Twain shall be one," says the Gospel of Christ. Can we believe that the "Incarnated Father of all" has revealed a new "Most Holy Book" in which bigamy is permitted? _Akstag fur Allah!_ God forbid! I will now give some details from the history of the Babi and Bahai "Manifestations" to show their practice in regard to marriage.