This _régime_ was already in force among the Melanesians of the Fiji Isles, where the chiefs, living in great state, acquired in one way or another three or four hundred women, of whom the greater number filled only the position of servants to the master, and at the same time of concubines, who were at the disposition of the warriors or of the guests. The wives whose children inherited were very few in number. They were daughters of chiefs, and their situation, although less degraded than that of the concubines, was still very humble. Not only did they resign themselves without difficulty to polygamy, but they were subjected to a singular duty--that of rearing for their husband a chosen concubine. The fact is curious, and worth the trouble of narrating. “The bride takes with her a young girl who is still a child, but who promises to be beautiful, and who has been carefully selected from the lower class of the people. It is a virgin destined for her husband. She brings her up with the tenderest solicitude, and when the girl is marriageable, the queen, on an appointed day, undresses her, washes her carefully, and even pours perfumed oil on her hair, crowns her with flowers, conducts her thus naked to her husband, presents her to him, and retires in silence.”[340] Excessive as it seems to us, this absolute resignation is quite natural among savages. In primitive countries the married woman--that is to say, the woman belonging to a man--has herself the conscience of being a thing, a property (it is proved to her often and severely enough), but she does not think of retaliating, especially in what concerns the conjugal relations. Moreover, as her condition is oftenest that of a slave over-burdened with work, not only does she not resent the introduction of other women in the house of the master, but she desires it, for the work will be so much the less for herself. Thus among the Zulus the wife first purchased strives and works with ardour in the hope of furnishing her husband with means to acquire a second wife--a companion in misery over whom, by right of seniority, she will have the upper hand.[341] In consequence of this the greater number of the men in Kaffirland have two or three wives, and hence a certain scarcity of feminine merchandise in the country; the young men have difficulty in providing for themselves, and many girls are sold from infancy.[342] The same customs prevail with the Hottentots; and both Kaffirs and Hottentots esteem the monogamic preaching of the Christian missionaries as very impertinent, and on this point both men and women are agreed.[343] Along the whole course of the Zambesi, says Livingstone, the number of wives are the measure of a man’s riches, and the women are the first to find this quite natural.