The relative and so-called Christian civilisation of the Abyssinians accommodates itself very easily to such customs. By the side of the _oizoro_, the proud and indolent matron, all the great nobles have a troop of pretty servant girls with sprightly looks.[472] The king sets the example, and naturally he goes further still. If any woman has had the good luck to please him, he sends an envoy to invite her to live in the palace. This distinction is received as it should be: the lady adorns herself as quickly as possible, and obeys without a murmur; but above these concubines there is the wife or queen, the _itighe_. As far as they can, ecclesiastical dignitaries imitate laic ones. Bruce found one, the Abba-Salam, guardian of the sacred fire, third personage in authority in the church, who forced women to yield to him by a threat at the same time pious and original--the fear of excommunication. I have already spoken of the Malagasy concubinage, of the chief wife (_vadi-be_) having her own apartment and privileges, and ruling over the “lesser wives” (_vadi-keli_), who live together in equal submission.[473] In short, the domestic concubinate is largely practised over all central or barbarous Africa. The ancient half-civilised nations of central America did not disdain it either. In Peru, as we shall see, the monogamic _régime_ was obligatory, but only for the poorer people. In the Maya nations, the rich and powerful practised the concubinate without any moderation.[474] At Guatemala, the parents were filled with solicitude on this point, and when a young noble married a girl of his own rank who had not yet attained puberty, they were careful to keep him patient by giving him a young slave as concubine, whose children, however, would not be his heirs.[475] In Mexico the were three kinds of concubines:-- 1. Young girls not yet arrived at a marriageable age, and whom the parents usually chose for their sons at the request of the latter. These unions required neither ceremony nor contract, but they were often legitimated later, when they became fruitful. 2. Partially legitimate wives, who were also partially married, retaining only the characteristic trait of the conjugal ceremony--that is, the tying together of the garments of the half-married ones. These wives could not be repudiated without a motive, but neither they nor their children could inherit. 3. Lastly, the third class comprehended simple concubines, largely kept by the nobles, and who ranked not only lower than the legitimate wives, but also than the half-legitimate ones.[476] All this system is ingenious, and it is certainly difficult to state the gradation better.