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the enjoyment of the offerings by the gods. An analogous stage of thought is reached in the relations between men and women when the immolation of widows changes into the observation of chastity during prolonged widowhood, or of perpetual virginity, as in China, when the affianced husband dies before the marriage. 7 Pertinent in this connection is the fact that in certain communi- ties where widow-marriage in general is not forbidden, marriage with the widows of hypotheosized chiefs or semi-divine person- ages is banned. For example : " It is not right for you to .... wed his [Mahomet's] wives after him ever; verily, that is with God a serious thing." 8
The practice of the Guinea Africans is a notable instance of the crudest form of the religious dedication of women. Most of the gods of the polygynous and polytheistic Ewe- and Tshi- speaking negroes of the Slave and Gold Coasts have women con- secrated to their service as wives. (This is the native term. It would be more proper to call the human wives concubines, as their god-masters also have divine mates.) In the kingdom of Dahomi, where it is estimated that every fourth woman is in the service of the gods, the god Khebioso alone is said to have fifteen hundred "wives." Danhgbi, another god of the Ewe- speaking peoples, has probably two thousand " wives." The mar- riages of these "wives" are consummated by the priests as representatives of the gods. The priests are allowed to marry, but the gods' wives or priestesses are not ; for they belong to the gods they serve. They are unrestricted, however, in sexual inter- course, and may send for any man they fancy to live with them. No man dare refuse, and some priestesses have as many as six men in their train at once. 9 We may note, in this description of the African priestesses, that divine conjugal proprietorship does not preclude sexual intercourse between the wife-priestess and
1 1n the imperial Chinese edict forbidding sutteeism the argument is used that faithful wives should continue to live because they can best serve their husbands by so doing. The custom then arose of widows dwelling near the graves of their husbands, and there observing the rites due to his spirit De Groot, The Reli- gious System of China, Vol. II, pp. 727-806.
Our-an, XXXIII, 54 ("Books of the East" series).
- Ellis, The Ewe-Speaking Peoples, pp. 38, 60, and chap, ix ; also Ellis, The
Tshi-Speaking Peoples, pp. 121, 122.
