In this last verse the Koran bears witness to the custom of killing the girls, and it indicates the process in use, which actually consisted in burying them alive. This was done openly, and often the grave of the newly-born infant was dug by the side even of the couch of the mother who had just given birth to it. According to the morality of the primitive Arabs, these acts were not only very simple, but even virtuous and generous,[202] which seems to indicate that they were indeed only precautions against famine. An Arab legend, quoted by Mr. R. Smith, paints in lively colours these atrocious customs. It relates to a chief of Tamin, who became a constant practitioner of infanticide in consequence of a wound given to his pride. He was called Caïs, and was contemporary with Mahomet. The daughter of his sister was carried off in a razzia and given to the son of her captor, as was the usage in Arabia, where the captured women made part of the booty and were divided with it. This time, when Caïs came to reclaim his niece by offering to pay her ransom, the latter, being well pleased with the adventure, refused to quit her husband. Caïs, the uncle, was mortally offended, and from that moment he interred alive all his daughters, according to the ancient custom. But one day, during his absence, a daughter was born to him, whom the mother secretly sent to a relative to save her, and then declared to her husband that she had been delivered of a still-born child. Some years later, the girl, grown tall, came to pay a visit to her mother. Caïs discovered her, while her mother was plaiting her hair and ornamenting it with cowries. “I arrived,” the father is made to say, speaking to Mahomet, “and I said, ‘Who is this young girl?’ ‘She is yours,’ replied the mother, weeping, and she related how she had formerly saved her. I waited till the emotion of the mother was calmed; then one day I led away the girl; I dug a grave and I made her lie down in it. She cried, ‘Father, what do you intend to do with me?’ Then I covered her with earth. She cried again, ‘Father, do you wish to bury me? Are you going away, and will you abandon me?’ But I continued to heap earth on her until her cries were stifled. That was the only time it has happened to me to feel pity in burying a daughter.”[203] Such customs, combined with the sale to strangers of girls carried off in razzias, and the polygamy of the rich men, must assuredly have profoundly disturbed the numerical proportion of the sexes, and have rendered polyandry almost a necessity, which, besides, could not excite any scruple with the ancient Arabs, whose morals were very licentious. Thus the captured women often remained common to a group of relatives.[204] In the fifth century the Syrio-Roman law had even to forbid the contracts of fraternity, by which all was held in common, including the wives and children.[205]