The Wife With Two Husbands

A WIFE WITH TWO HUSBANDS.

A poor man, who had an old mother and a young

wife, left them in his homestead and went to a

foreign land, in the hope of bettering his fortune.

He got lucrative employment, and every year he

sent home as much as would comfortably support

his wife and mother ; but the agent to whom he

entrusted the money for transmission kept it all, and

forged a return letter telling him of its reception and

of the welfare of his relatives. He invested wisely

all his savings, beyond what he thought sufficient

for the support of the two women, and by thrift and

industry, in the course of a few years, amassed a

competence.

Meanwhile, his mother and his wife never heard

from him, and thought themselves forsaken by him.

The wife earned what she could by sewing and

weaving, and took care of the aged mother. But

provisions grew dearer, the mother became helpless,

and the wife ill. Then the old woman died, and the

younger one had not money wherewith to buy a

coffin. She therefore went to a go-between and told

him to find for her an honest man who wanted a

wife, and who would at once advance a betrothal

present sufficient to meet the funeral expenses of her

A Wife with Two Husbands. 189

mother-in-law, and who would wait a hundred days

for the completion of the obsequies, before taking

home his bride. This being done, the old mother

was properly interred, the wife locked up the home-

stead, and was carried to the house of her new

partner. She was a good wife to him, and he

honored and loved her. Several years passed,

and the first husband returned, with his fortune,

to his native village. He had, as he thought,

recently heard from his home, and went to his

door expecting to be greeted by his mother and

wife. The door was locked, the house dilapi-

dated, and the yard weed-grown. He inquired

of a neighbor what had happened, and as

soon as he was recognized he was fiercely upbraided

for having abandoned his family. He told his story,

and heard for the first time of his mother's death, and

of his wife's marriage. He had always been fond of

his wife, and he was made more fond by her faithful-

ness to his mother through poverty and apparent

desertion. He sought her in her new abode, told

her how he had been deceived, and begged her to go

home with him. She said her new husband was kind

to her, and that she could not leave him to sorrow.

The first husband then conferred with the second,

declared his wrongs, and offered half his fortune for

190 The Strayed Arrow.

the restoration of his wife. The second affirmed

that he had not sought the wife, but had taken her at

her own request and in legal form ; that she was

rightly his, that he preferred her to a fortune, and

would never give her up. In the end the two claim-

ants of the wife went before a magistrate, and stated

each his case. The wife was summoned, with other

witnesses, and due investigation made. After all the

facts had been set forth, to the honor of all the three

principal actors, the magistrate decided that as each

of the two men had just reasons for considering the

woman his own, and as neither had knowingly violated

any law, the decision of the case should be left to the

wife, who might freely take her choice, between the

two contestants for her. The wife responded that

both men were upright and affectionate, and had

equally strong claims upon her regard ; were she to

choose one she should wrong and grieve the other.

They each deserved a good wife, and as she could

not be a wife of both, she would leave both wifeless.

She, who was the cause of their troubles would die

by her own hand. The magistrate commended her

judgment, ordered her to be shut up fasting in a cer-

tain cell overnight, and told the two claimants to

return the next morning and see whether she should

have changed her mind. When the two came into

1 .-^'"f ^

WORSHIPPING A

A Wife with Two Husbands. 193

court next day, a constable was sent to bring the

woman from her cell, to give her final decision before

the magistrate. The constable soon came back alone,

pale and shivering, and reported that she hung stark

and cold from a beam in the cell where she had been

put for the night. The two husbands went under

conduct of the constable, peered in, recognized her

figure and garments, and were brought back to be

interrogated by the magistrate concerning their

respective wishes. They were informed that the one

who wanted her could now have her, by paying to

the other a sum sufficient to meet the expense of

getting a new wife. The first husband thereupon

fell on his knees and besought the privilege of taking

away the corpse. The second preferred no request,

and when the magistrate inquired whether he also

wished to take part in the funeral rites, he replied

that his contest had been for a living, not for a dead

woman.

The magistrate, on dismissing the woman from the

court on the previous day, had secretly sent her to

his wife's apartments. There she was dressed in

borrowed garments, and concealed carefully, while

her own clothing was used in making an effigy which

was hung upon a beam in the cell she was supposed

to occupy. The constable saw the effigy, and in un-

194 The Strayed Arrow.

feigned terror reported the suicide of the wife to the

two husbands. The wife was placed where she heard

her first husband's plea for her corpse, and she then

made up her mind that she ought not to die. She

accompanied the husband, leal in death as well as in

life, to the old homestead, where she and he with

their children lived happily for many decades, and

worshipped at the graves of his ancestors. 

From the book A Chinese Night's Entertainment

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