An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

;TIBET. 349numerous party of husbands, as the despot of an Indian zennana, isofthe favours of his imprisoned fair.Under circumstances so unfavourable,it is no wonder that the business of increasing the species, is butcoldly carried on.Officers of state, as well as those who aspire to such distinctions,deem it, indeed, a business ill suited with their dignity, or duties, toattend to the propagation of their species ;and retire from this essentialcare, abandoning it entirely to mere plebeians. Marriage, in fact,amongst them, seems to be considered rather as an odium, a heavyburden, the weight and obloquy of which, u Avhole family are disposedto lessen, by sharing it among them.The number of husbands is not, as far as I covild learn, defined orrestricted within any limits ; it sometimes happens^ tiiat, in a smallfamily, there is but one male ; and the number may seldom perhapsexceed that, which a native of rank, during my residence at TeshooLoomboo, pointed out to me in a family resident in the neighbourhood,in which five brothers were then living together very happily, withone female, under tiie same connubial compact. Nor is this sort ofleague confined to the lower ranks of people alone; it is found alsofrequently in the most opulent families.However this custom, which as a traveller I am obliged to notice,may intrinsically deserve reprobation, yet it must at the same timebe allowed, that local laws very frequently result from local causesand that, in consequence of the peculiar prejudices and opinions ofone people, the same practice may be viewed in one country in theblackest light, which another people may not only see fit occasion