some form of polyandry are found in polygamous and monogamous unions (not infrequent), in convents, and in the loose life. As the various forms of marriage operate to establish almost a balance of sex-numbers, it results that nuns and prostitutes are probably not more numerous than the corresponding classes in monastic Europe.
The withdrawal of men into monastic life does not affect the problem as directly as it would in a monogamous country, since in the typical polyandric family it merely results in a diminution, by one, of the number of husbands married to the wife or wives. It diminishes the number of women actually married under some form, only in so far as the monk may be considered as belonging to a family which might have enjoyed the luxury of monogamic or polygamic marriage. Such monks are not numerous. M. Grenard thinks that the various forms of marriage are seen, as to frequency, in the following order: Several husbands with several wives ; several husbands and one wife ; one husband and several wives ; one husband and one wife. Whether or not this be exact, it is obvious that by giving legal recognition to this variety of unions, the Tibetans have created an elastic system easily adjustable to the economic condition of individuals or communities. Relatively stable as are these average conditions in Tibet, it may well be supposed that, in so far as they may be disturbed by war or pestilence, there will be change in the position of any particular type of union, appearing in the above series, while the forces work toward the end of maintaining a fixed population in times of normal peace.
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