“you have none of the petty jealousies and quarrelling which distinguish the harems of the East, among the Zulu women, who, as a rule, are most friendly to each other, and the many wives of a great chief will live in a little colony of huts, each mistress in her own house and family, and interchanging friendly visits with the other ladies similarly situated.”

But in Africa, too, separation is not essential to secure a peaceful result.  Paulitschke (B.E.A.S., 30) reports that among the Somali polygamy is customary, two wives being frequent, and he adds that “the wives live together in harmony and have their household in common.”  Among the Abyssinian Arabs, Sir Samuel Baker found (127) that “concubinage is not considered a breach of morality; neither is it regarded by the legitimate wives with jealousy.”  Chillie (Centr.  Afr., 158), says of the Landamas and Nalous:  “It is very remarkable that good order and perfect harmony prevail among all these women who are called to share the same conjugal couch.”  The same writer says of the polygamous Foulahs (224): 

“In general the women appear very happy, and by no means jealous of each other, except when the husbands make a present to one without giving anything to the rest.”

Note the last sentence; it casts a strong light on our problem.  It suggests that even where a semblance of jealousy is manifested by such women it may often be an entirely different thing from the jealousy we associate with love; envy, greed, or rivalry being more accurate terms for it.  Here is another instance in point.  Drake, in his work on the Indians of the United States has the following (I., 178): 

“Where there is a plurality of wives, if one gets finer goods than the others, there is sure to be some quarrelling among the women; and if one or two of them are not driven off, it is because the others have not strength enough to do so.  The man sits and looks on, and lets the women fight it out.  If the one he loves most is driven off, he will go and stay with her, and leave the others to shift for themselves awhile, until they can behave better, as he says.”

The Rev. Peter Jones gives this description (81) of a fight he witnessed between the two wives of an Ojibway chief: 

“The quarrel arose from the unequal distribution of a loaf of bread between the children.  The husband being absent, the wife who had brought the bread to the wigwam gave a piece of it to each child, but the best and largest portion to her own.  Such partiality immediately led to a quarrel.  The woman who brought the bread threw the remainder in anger to the other; she as quickly cast it back again; in this foolish way they kept on for some time, till their fury rose to such a height that they at length sprang at one another, catching hold of the hair of the head; and when each had uprooted a handful their ire seemed satisfied.”