Note 245-15 — Chapter II

Concerning Solomon's 700 wives and 300 concubines, see I Kings, 11, 3; according to the Canticle of Canticles, only 60 wives and 80 concubines. According to Mirkhond and Khondemir, there was in the place in which the Sassand shah resided, 3,000 women of the harem and 12,000 female slaves. Polygamy among the latter class is seldom possible or thought of. Of 2,800 Moslems in Bombay, only 100 lived in polygamy, and only 5 had three wives each. (Ritter, Erdkunde, 1088.) I lay no weight here on the assertion so frequently repeated of travelers in the east, that more girls than boys are born there; for the reason that there is there no real statistics, and that the infidel travelers can be permitted few glimpses into the secrecy of family life. Lady Sheil indeed assures us that in Persia itself the opinion prevails that there are a great many more women than men. Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, 1855. Similar pretense among the Mormons.