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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32418-8.txt b/32418-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4aeaa2 --- /dev/null +++ b/32418-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10578 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Oriental Women, by Edward Bagby Pollard + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Oriental Women + Woman: In All Ages and in All Countries, Volume 4 (of 10) + + +Author: Edward Bagby Pollard + + + +Release Date: May 18, 2010 [eBook #32418] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIENTAL WOMEN*** + + +E-text prepared by J. P. W. Fraser, Thierry Alberto, Rénald Lévesque, and +the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe +(http://dp.rastko.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 32418-h.htm or 32418-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32418/32418-h/32418-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32418/32418-h.zip) + + + + + +WOMAN + +VOLUME IV + +ORIENTAL WOMEN + +by + +EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph. D. +Of the George Washington University + + + + +[Illustration: 1: REBEKAH AND ISAAC'S AGENT, ELIEZER After the painting +by A. Cabanel Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of +so universal an interest as its marriage customs, and there is no +courtship, either ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the +imagination and awakened the interest of men than that between Isaac and +Rebekah..... It is a truly picturesque and even romantic story, which +never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether at the well or in her +household, will always present a unique picture of womanly grace and +beauty. + +The ancient wooing of Rebekah is Isaac, though it is by no means +typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental +weddings..... The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of +a stranger and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all +the apparent grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most +commendable.] + + + + +WOMAN + +In All Ages and In All Countries + +VOLUME IV + +ORIENTAL WOMEN + +by + +EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph.D. +Of the George Washington University + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +Philadelphia +George Barrie & Sons, Publishers + + + + +PREFACE + +The relative position which woman occupies in any country is an index to +the civilization which that country enjoys, and this test applied to the +Orient reveals many stages yet to be achieved. The frequent appearance +of woman in Holy Writ is sufficient evidence of the high position +accorded her in the Hebrew nation. Such characters as Ruth, Esther, and +Rebekah have become famous. Wicked women there were, such as Jezebel, +but happily their influence was not of lasting duration. No other +ancient people so highly prized chastity in woman; motherhood was +regarded as an evidence of divine favor, while barrenness was considered +a curse. The home life was one of singular purity and sweetness. +Idleness was deplored as a crime, and every child was taught to work +with his own hands. + +The deities of the Babylonians and Assyrians were feminine as well as +masculine. Ishtar was the Venus of classical mythology--the goddess of +love, and the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a feminine deity. +Rank, however, determined social freedom; the woman of the lowest class +might go and come at will, but the woman of the high class was condemned +to a life of isolation. Woman's position of honor in Egypt is evidenced +by the presence of temples and monuments erected to her memory. She +assisted her husband in the management of his affairs, and was granted a +part in religious worship. + +In the countries in which Brahmanism and Mohammedanism is the prevailing +religion, the position of woman is relatively low. The Hindoo woman has +no spiritual life apart from her husband; she can only hope for ultimate +happiness through a union with him. The harem prevails, and woman is the +slave of man. + +In contrast to the position of woman in these countries and in China is +the position she holds in Japan. While not yet occupying a place of +respect equal to that accorded her in the Occident, she is coming +gradually to be regarded as she deserves. There yet remain the loose +morals, characteristic of the Oriental nature, and it is still regarded +as right and proper that a good wife should barter her chastity if it is +necessary in order to save her husband the disgrace of imprisonment for +debt. The higher classes, however, are coming to treat woman with a +respect far higher than that usually accorded her in the Orient. The +process of her elevation must of necessity be slow, for no great reform +is accomplished by a _coup d'état_, but only through the ameliorating +effects of enlightenment and education, and this alone will accomplish +the final emancipation of the woman of the Orient from her present +condition of servitude. + E.B. POLLARD. + + + + +I + +WOMEN OF THE DAWN + + +The story of the first woman in the Hebrew Scriptures and Semitic myth +is as familiar as a household tale. Jewish and Christian literature +alike have frequent mention of the part she played in the race's +infancy, though in the sacred writings themselves she is but rarely +mentioned. + +What the Book of Genesis furnishes upon the creation of the first woman +may not be considered of great interest as a scientific treatise upon +the first appearance of feminine life on the earth, but it is of marked +importance as revealing the idea around which the life and character of +the Hebrew woman were developed. Here we find a pure monotheism (the +presence of no goddess at the birth of things), a high morality, the +dignity of marriage and of motherhood, that give to the Hebrew women +great advantage over their sisters of many another country. + +Very early was it discovered, say the Hebrew records, that it is "not +good for man to be alone." The method by which this fact was first made +manifest is of no little suggestiveness. Would it be possible from the +many creatures of earth, sky, and sea, already made, for man to find a +companion in whom he might confide, with whom the long hours might be +made more joyous? God tries the man whom he has made. Could he be +satisfied with a creature of a lower order as fellow and friend? Could +he, by subduing and having dominion, find in dog, camel, or favorite +steed a sufficient helpfulness, a satisfaction for his human longings? +No! As one by one the living creatures passed in solemn order before +him, it was soon realized by the names that Adam gave them, that he +found no true fellowship in all that earth-born throng. "And the man +gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast +of the field, but for man there was not found an helpmeet for him." + +The epoch-making "deep sleep" that fell upon Adam, the taking of the +rib, the making of the first woman, the closing again of the wound, and +the presentation of a helpmeet for the man--all this is a familiar +Scripture story. Whether it be intended to be literal history is of +little moment here. Very beautifully have Matthew Henry and others, +following the rabbis, commented upon the essential meaning of this +narrative in suggesting that woman is not represented as taken from the +head of man that she should rule over him; nor from his feet, to be +trampled under foot; but she was taken from his side that she might be +his equal; from under his arm that she might be protected by him; near +his heart that he might cherish and love her. "This is now bone of my +bone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called _Ishshah_"--that is, if +man is to be called _Ish_, woman shall be _Ishshah_, simply his equal. + +It is not strange that there should have arisen many legends about this +first Oriental woman. According to one of the Jewish stories contained +in the Talmud, Adam was at first very huge. When he stood, his head +reached to the very heavens; and when he reclined, he covered the earth +with his gigantic form. But in a deep sleep which God caused to fall +upon him, Eve was made from parts of all his members. After the creation +of Eve, therefore, Adam was never again quite so large. Some of the +Jewish rabbis taught that Adam, the first man, had in his body thirteen +ribs,--one more than was possessed by any of his descendants,--and that +this surplus bone became, in the hands of the Creator, the physical +basis for the creation of the mother of all. + +The thought has been suggested that as man was commissioned to subdue +and have dominion over the beasts of the field and all the forces of +Nature, the reason for woman's creation lies in her ability to _tame +man_. Whether this be true or not, the student of Hebrew history will +not lack ample evidence to show that to the women of Israel is due +largely the place that their people hold in history as teachers of +religion and morals; to them is due, also, that conservative quality +which has made the Hebrews a peculiar and permanent people. + +One of the old rabbis, commenting upon the Biblical account of woman's +creation from the rib of Adam, remarked: "It is as if Adam had changed a +pot of earth for a jewel." Good Dr. South, of pious memory, unaffected +by the modern views of development, is credited with the remark that +"Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam." If this be true, what must +Eve have been! + +About the beauty of the first woman, the Scriptures are silent, though, +in _Paradise Lost_, Milton finds no hesitancy in creating her with +surpassing physical grace, so that it was possible for her, like +Narcissus, to fall in love with her own charms. Poets have not been slow +to sing her praises: + + "The world was sad, the garden was a wild + And man the hermit sighed, till woman smiled." + +The Hebrews called the first woman Eve--that is, _living_ or +_expanded_, "the mother of all living." But these Oriental records +attribute to Eve the advent into the world of death and human woes. The +discord that came from the apple once tossed into a famous company of +frolicking Greeks cannot compare with that which grew out of the fatal +fruit, forbidden to the primal tenants of the Garden of Eden. + + "Earth felt the wound--And Nature from her seat + Sighing through all her works, gave sign of woe, + That all was lost." + +The French saying _cherchez la femme_ has been in some form upon the +lips of men from the earliest dawn of time. "The woman which thou gavest +me," is Adam's lame apology for his weakness, as in one brief sentence +he shifts the blame with dexterity upon God--the giver,--and woman--the +God-given. + +In marked contrast with this dark view of the first woman's legacy to +the world is the account of the first promise, the light that burst +forth suddenly as through a rift in the overshadowing cloud: "The seed +of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Thus Lamartine's remark +that "woman is at the beginning of all great things," becomes as +pertinent as it is true. It is impossible to estimate the effect upon +Israelitish motherhood of the belief in that ancient promise that some +mother's son should yet arise to crush the monster of evil that was +loosed in the world. Many a Hebrew mother came to feel that her own babe +might become the hero chosen to strangle the serpent. This thought made +motherhood the more prized, it became the aim of every Hebrew woman. + +What if we could reproduce the sensations of that mother-love when the +first woman enfolded in her bosom the first infant born, and heard its +first cry for a mother's care? Of much interest is the Hebrew narrative +here; for when Eve beheld her firstborn son she is said to have made an +exclamation which many Hebrew scholars interpret as meaning, "I have +obtained the promised One," believing that the pledge of Jehovah +concerning the woman's seed had even then been realized. But the first +son was to bring pangs to his mother's soul by slaying the first +brother. Who can adequately describe the effect which that first death +must have had upon the maternal heart? Instead of the lost Abel came a +new son to console the mother-heart, Seth, the good; and the struggle +between good and evil goes on throughout the Hebrew records, woman +usually taking her place with the forces that made for righteousness. + +Concerning the first bad woman, Lilith, held by some to have been the +wife of the first man, very curious are the legends. Later rabbinic +literature is rife with these stories. Among the Babylonians and +Assyrians, Lilith was a _night-fairy_, as the derivation of the name +would indicate, though some derive it from _lilu_, the wind. Popular +superstition among the Hebrews, either through inheritance from the +early days before Abraham, their father, lived in the Mesopotamian +valley, or through the contacts with this region during the Babylonian +exile, looked upon Lilith as a female demon of the night. She was +supposed to be especially hostile to children, and this is why the Latin +translations of the Vulgate version of the Scriptures rendered the word +as _lamia_, a hag or witch who was supposed to be harmful to the little +folk--though grown up people, also, might well beware of her baneful +power. She is mentioned but once in Scriptures, and then in that highly +graphic portrayal by the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming desolation +that should soon befall the land of Edom, which was to become a place +where "the wild beasts of the deserts meet with the wolves, and the +satyr cries to his fellows, and _Lilith_ (rendered in the accepted +version, _Screech Owl_, and in the later version, _Night Monster_) takes +up her abode." + +It is Lilith's earlier history that is of especial interest, for, as +runs the Jewish legend which one often meets in Talmudic literature, +Lilith was the first wife of Adam, but becoming angered, she flew away +and became a demon of the night. But the world will probably never +concede that the first woman was a wicked one. The subtlety of an evil +woman's charms is probably the underlying motive of the story of this +"sweet snake of Eden," of whom Rossetti, in his _Eden Bower_, affirms +consolingly, "not a drop of her blood was human." + +"Who was Cain's wife?" is one of the perplexing questions asked by those +who delight in hard sayings. The late Professor Winchell believed in a +race of pre-Adamites, and many persons are committed to the theory of +several centres of human origin. To those holding such views the +question of Cain's marriage does not present particular difficulties. +But those who hold to the theory that there was but one pair from whom +all the family of mankind has sprung find difficulty in reconciling +their theory with Biblical statements, and they are driven to +acknowledging the necessity for marital relations between near kindred +when the race was in its beginning--relations which would offend the +best moral sentiment of to-day. + +There is a curious passage in the Book of Genesis which tells of the +marriage of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men." Have we here +the echo of that ancient tradition that once the gods and men +intermarried and from the union the great heroes of the past were born? +The close position of this statement concerning the "sons of God" and +the "daughters of men" with the account of the great growth of evil in +the world has led some to hold that these "daughters of men" were women +from the unrighteous line of the murderous Cain, while the "sons of God" +were men from the more upright family of Seth. Others, however, seeing +also in close connection the statement that giants were on the earth in +those days, find here a remnant of a very general tradition that from +the gods had descended great heroes and giants who in past ages had +fallen in love with daughters of human parentage. Since the Hebrews, +however, were so strong in their monotheistic conceptions, this latter +theory loses a great part of its force. + +The state of society presented in the earliest Hebrew records indicates +that the practice of polygamy was general. There are some who see +indications among the Hebrew customs that there was a period, earlier +than that of which any Hebrew records tell, in which polyandry and not +polygamy was the fashion--when one woman had several husbands, rather +than one husband several wives. The so-called Levirate marriage which +was in vogue among the Hebrews is perhaps the strongest evidence that +the customs of polyandry and mother-right were practised among them. + +In common, then, with other peoples, the Hebrews practised polygamy; and +while the influence of the best thought and teaching was, except in the +earlier, patriarchal period, distinctly against it, the practice was +still customary even down to the Christian era. The law of Moses, while +not forbidding plurality of wives, discouraged the custom, and +especially forbade the king from "multiplying wives." + +The earliest example of polygamy of which the Hebrew records speak is +that involving one of the most unique and interesting families of this +early twilight of human existence. One Lamech, a descendant of Cain, is +said to have married two wives, who bore the rather musical names of +Adah and Zillah. And here we are introduced into the presence of a most +remarkable household. For not only is Lamech to be awarded the +distinction of having made the earliest attempt at verse which the +Hebrew tradition has recorded, but Adah and Zillah became the mothers of +a most talented family; the former of Jabel, "the father of such as +dwell in tents and have cattle," and of Jubal, the inventor and patron +saint of the harp and the pipe; while Zillah was the mother of +Tubal-Cain, the first forger of implements of brass and iron. Lamech, +the father, having doubtless received a sword from the forge of his son, +used it in revenge upon an enemy, and gave utterance to the first +recorded lines of poetry, which are possibly a fragment from what has +been called _The Lay of the Sword_. It is a crude poem, dedicated by +Lamech to his wives--for it was not uncommon among the early Semites to +call the women to witness a hero's deeds of prowess: + + "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, + Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech, + For I have slain a man for wounding me, + Even a young man for bruising me. + If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, + Truly Lamech, seventy and seven." + +It is not to be wondered at that in the very midst of dry genealogical +tables the writer of Genesis should have stopped for a moment to tell of +this epoch-making household. + +Whether the women of this unique family, Adah, Zillah, and her daughter +Naamah, were equally gifted with the men of the household, we are not +told; but surely there must have been some genius in those feminine +members of the home, who were so closely connected with the beginnings, +not only of the fine arts of poetry and music, but also of the +industrial pursuits of cattle raising and of metal working. + +The early Hebrews were nomads. At first glance it might appear that +woman's part in such an order of society would be scant, and her life +one of comparative inactivity. But this view would lead into error, for +in the nomadic life, while the men were guarding their flocks from the +depredations of hostile bands or from the ravages of wild beasts, the +women were the home makers and the home keepers. + +Mason, in his _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture_, commenting upon +Herbert Spencer's division of the life history of civilization into the +period of Militancy, and the later period of Industrialism, raises the +question whether it may not after all be more in accord with the +facts--at least in the early history of the race--to speak of a _sex_ of +militancy and a _sex_ of industrialism. The Hebrew woman, from her place +in the tent or seated about the tent door, not only tended the fire, but +invented, developed, and carried on many a handicraft into which not +until later the men themselves entered. + +For centuries the story of the lives of the patriarchs has thrilled and +edified many a young heart, but what of the credit due to the +_matriarchs_? What part do we find them playing in the early life of +these Oriental peoples! The patriarch was not only father of his family +or clan, but was their king and high priest. Yet it would be a mistake +to suppose that the mother of the family was not an important factor in +that early society, as the lives of many a Hebrew woman will easily +demonstrate. The names of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Miriam, Huldah, and a +host of others will readily occur to the mind of anyone at all familiar +with the literature of the Old Testament. + +A fair type of the life of the wife and partner of an ancient chief +(_sheik_) of the higher order is found in that of Sarah, wife of the +first and greatest Hebrew patriarch, "Abraham, the faithful." Living the +life of nomad and shepherd, this pioneer of a new monotheism took his +spouse away from the land of her fathers in the valley of Mesopotamia. +Sarah's reverence for her husband became proverbial, and her conduct has +been taken as the type of what was best in the domestic life of +Israel--chaste behavior coupled with reverence. And Peter, known as the +Apostle to the Hebrews, writing over two thousand years after the body +of Sarah had been laid in its last home in the cave of Machpelah, gives +a glimpse of the Hebrew conception of the ideal relation between husband +and wife typified in Abraham and Sarah. While enjoining upon the women +to whom he wrote the need of a "meek and quiet spirit," a spirit not +discoverable in jewels and elaborate apparel, but in what he terms "the +hidden man of the heart," he said: "For after this manner in the old +time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being +in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, +calling him lord; whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well." Thus +did the virtues of Sarah impress themselves upon later generations. +Sarah is not to be classed among the strong-minded women. Probably she +was not virile in any true sense of the term, since in the traditions of +her people she does not seem to have made for herself a place as leader +that at all corresponds to the rank of her husband. He was to all +Hebrews "Father Abraham," the first and foremost of his race; and no Jew +could esteem his future life as giving promise of happiness unless his +head might at length rest in Abraham's bosom. There is an ancient legend +which says that Sarah, hearing of the plan of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac +on the sacred spot of Moriah, died from the shock to her maternal heart. +The father returned, bringing his only son alive with him, but Sarah had +passed away. The narrative distinctly says that Abraham "_came_ to mourn +for Sarah and weep for her," as though the end had come during the +absence of her husband. The Hebrew respect for women is illustrated in +the costly burial accorded Sarah in a cave which was purchased from the +sons of Heth--a place reverenced by the people of Israel for many +centuries, because Sarah was buried there. + +There is but one blot upon the life of this first mother of the Hebrews. +Sarah was a faithful wife and devoted mother, but on at least one +occasion she revealed a character capable of hasty, jealous, and cruel +conduct. It is the time for the weaning of her only son--an occasion of +more than usual interest in a Hebrew home. The family feast is at its +height; Sarah discovers that her handmaid, an Egyptian woman, Hagar, +whom she herself had given to Abraham as wife, for thus we may call her, +was jesting at her expense. Quickly and hotly she demands that the +bondwoman and her son Ishmael be immediately driven from the home, to +which request Abraham reluctantly yields. Like most other women, Sarah, +though now aged, could brook no rival in her home, and her womanly +instinct at once discerned that only a step thus sharp and decisive +would prevent, in the circle of domestic life, endless friction, more +bitter than the sufferings occasioned by her cruel action. + +Hagar in the thirsty wilderness, laying her perishing child under a bit +of shrubbery and then departing a little distance that her mother-eyes +may not behold the end, has powerfully awakened the imagination of the +artist, as, indeed, she touched the heart of the Almighty, as the record +tells us. For although Hagar wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, +the region of "the seven wells," no water had she found--so far was she +from the life-giving draught; and yet was she so near--for lo! her eyes +now fell upon a well of water, from which she and the lad quenched their +mortal thirst. Thus was preserved him who was to become the father of +the Ishmaelites, a people whose hand was to be against every man, and +every man's hand against them. The breach that day in the tent of +Abraham, between his two wives, one bond and the other free, was to be +deep and abiding, as N. P. Willis, in describing Hagar's feelings in the +wilderness, has written: + + "May slighted woman turn + And, as a vine the oak hath shaken off, + Bend lightly to her leaning trust again? + O, no!" + +And an apostle versed in rabbinic lore uses the story of Sarah as +typical of the abiding difference between the principles of law and the +precepts of grace. + +Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of so universal an +interest as its marriage customs, and there is no courtship, either +ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the imagination and awakened +the interest of men than that between Isaac and Rebekah. The English +prayerbook, in its ceremony of marriage, has chosen Isaac and Rebekah as +the ideal pair to whose fidelity the young couples of the later years +are directed for inspiration and example. It is a truly picturesque and +even romantic story, which never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether +at the well or in her household, will always present a unique picture of +womanly grace and beauty. + +This ancient wooing of Rebekah by Isaac, though it is by no means +typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental +weddings. The prominence of the parents in the negotiations is +characteristic. It cannot be said, however, that the choice of either +Isaac or Rebekah was constrained. + +When Isaac and his parents have reached the conclusion to which Richter +has given voice--"No man can live piously or die righteously without a +wife"--the faithful Eliezer is made to thrust his hand under the thigh +of his master and swear that he will see that Isaac is wedded not to a +daughter of the people around, but to a woman of his own kindred living +in the regions of Aramea. This habit of marrying within one's own tribe +became firmly fixed in Hebrew custom. The use of marriage presents, here +so rich and costly, is almost as old as marriage itself; and how much +Rebekah and Laban, her brother, were influenced by this manifestation of +the riches of her wooer none can ever know. The part taken by Laban in +this marital transaction is by no means unusual. Brothers in the East +often played an important rôle on such occasions. When Shechem, the +Hivite, wished to marry Dinah, daughter of Jacob, he consulted not only +her father, but her brothers as well; and the brothers of the heroine of +the _Song of Songs_ are represented as saying: "What shall we do for our +sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?" + +The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of a stranger +and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all the apparent +grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most commendable. We +may say with Dickens: "When a young lady is as mild as she is game and +as game as she is mild, that's all I ask and more than I expect." But it +turned out to be but one of the many cases, since the world began, of +"love at first sight"; and affection strengthened with the years! The +frequent and cynical remark that marriage is after all but a lottery +will probably long survive. Isaac did not act upon the sentiment +expressed in the remark of Francesco Sforza: "Should one desire to take +unto himself a wife, to buy a horse, or to invest in a melon, the wise +man will recommend himself to Providence and draw his bonnet over his +eyes." The daughters of Heth and of Canaan around him were not to his +liking, and Providence seems greatly to have helped him in the +emergency, for in the unseen Rebekah (whose very name means "to tie" or +"to bind") Isaac found a lifelong blessing; and probably nothing could +better disclose the wisdom of his matrimonial choice than the words of +the Bible narrative, "and he loved her, and Isaac _was comforted_ after +his mother's death." + +There is one blot upon Rebekah's record as a wife and mother, which, +however, no less reveals a fault in Isaac's character as a father. It is +a defect that was doubtless inherent in the ancient Oriental system +itself. It was more usual than otherwise for mothers as well as for +fathers to have _favorite_ children. When both parents centred their +affection upon the same child, usually a boy, it was ill for the rest; +when mother and father were divided, it was ill for family felicity. +Rebekah loved Jacob, the younger; Isaac loved Esau, the elder. And it is +in this unfortunate distribution of parental affection that is to be +found the beginning of a violent fratricidal feud, a long separation, as +well as the causes which led to the bringing within the confines of +Hebrew history two of the most important women of ancient Israel,--Leah +and Rachel. Here again we find illustrated the fixed habit among the +Hebrews to seek wives among their own people. + +Among the Hebrews it was the custom that one who would acquire a wife +must pay for her, either in money or in service. Usually, the young +girl's consent was not thought to be a necessary part of the matrimonial +bargain, and a father delivered a daughter to the purchasing suitor, as +he might a slave that he had sold to the highest bidder. The woman +herself played but a secondary part. It is thus quite plain that in this +early day, marriage did not depend upon a contract entered into between +one man and one woman, but between two or more men. And yet, in ancient +Israel, while daughters were sold for wives,--or, to put it less +harshly, given away for a consideration,--there is no intimation that a +wife was in any sense regarded as a slave; nor are there instances of a +husband selling his wife for a consideration. Parents were usually the +parties to matrimonial bargains. In the case of Jacob and Rachel, +however, we do not find the parents making the match, for the parents of +the pair are widely separated. Jacob falls in love with Rachel at his +first sight of her, as she, at close of day, leads the flock of Laban, +her father, to drink from the open well hard by the dwelling. Laban +readily agrees to surrender his daughter to Jacob,--who doubtless had no +purchase money to procure a wife,--if the young man will serve him for +seven years. But at the close of the stipulated period, the wily Laban +falls back upon an unwritten law among the people of the day, that the +daughters must be taken in marriage in the order of their seniority. +Thus Leah, the elder sister, is accorded to Jacob, and seven years' +additional service is necessary for the possession of Rachel. +Persistence wins, and Jacob is at length in possession of both Laban's +daughters, but the victory was the beginning of a life of struggle. Some +one has remarked: "The music at a marriage always reminds me of the +music of soldiers entering upon a battle;" it was so with Jacob. There +must be a battle with Laban, the uncle and father-in-law, in which the +daughters both take the part of the husband against their father, and +agree to flee from that parent's house with the man to whom they had +linked their destinies. There must be a battle with Esau, when mothers +and little ones were to be exposed to great dangers and hardships; +indeed, a long life of vicissitudes awaited the women whose lives were +one with Jacob's, and contests between rival sons of rival mothers were +to follow. + +It has already been remarked that Sarah, wife of Abraham (whose name, +Sarah, means "the princess"), occupies no such place in the imagination +and tradition of the Hebrews as did Abraham, their _father_. It is +around Leah and Rachel that the tribes of Israel group themselves, and +the book of Ruth speaks of them as having built the house of Israel, and +Leah and Rachel were the mothers of the twelve patriarchs for whom the +tribes were subsequently named. Especially does Rachel occupy a high +place, not only because she was Jacob's most favorite wife, but because +of those personal qualities which more readily stirred the poetic and +religious imagination of the people. The poet-prophet, Jeremiah, writing +of the loss of life among the sons of Israel, because of the invasion +and cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, represents the people's +sadness at the terrible calamity as "Rachel weeping for her children +because they are not"--an expression which may have been suggested by +Rachel's early condition of childlessness, followed by the loss of both +her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, in the land of Egypt. The expression has +borrowed new force, because it is quoted as again exemplified in "the +slaughter of the innocents" by Herod the Great at the time of the birth +of Jesus. + + + + +II + +ISRAEL'S HEROIC AGE + + +In the early history of the Hebrews, the people followed the free, +roving life of the shepherd. In a climate where water supply was by no +means sure, where a flowing stream which gave drink to the flocks to-day +might be a rocky ravine to-morrow, families must needs have no certain +abiding place. Woman the homekeeper must of course be affected by this +Bedouin manner of life. Many daughters, like Rebekah and Rachel, were +shepherdesses of their father's flocks of sheep and goats. When the +Israelites went down into Egypt because the fertile valley of the Nile +made famines less frequent than in the land of Canaan, they were +somewhat ashamed, we are told, of the fact that they were shepherds, on +account of Egyptian prejudices against that occupation, but in their +native country they were proud of their occupation, and rather looked +down upon merchantmen. The hated "Canaanite" became the synonym for +"trafficker." It was the later exigencies of exile and dispersion that +forced the Jews to buy and sell, and right well did they learn the +lesson the world forced upon them. But in the beginning it was not so. +And hence we find Israel, even after the twelve patriarchs had settled +in the plains of Goshen, their Egyptian home, keeping their flocks and +developing their home life in their own way in the kingdom of the +Pharaohs. + +Among the many notable women of Israel's heroic age, Miriam must not be +forgotten. The romantic story of the hiding of her infant brother, in +the rushes of the Nile, when King Pharaoh would have destroyed every +Hebrew boy, is a familiar chapter. The sisterly tenderness and devotion +which stationed the girl of twelve years to watch what might happen to +the infant brother, to fight away wild beasts, and at length to direct +the living treasure to the bosom of its own mother, is one of the best +examples in literature of womanly tact and sisterly devotion. + +The daughter of Pharaoh, a child of the Nile, comes down to the sacred +stream to wash her garments or bathe her body in the saving water, and +quickly, indeed quite willingly, falls into the well-wrought plan of +Jokabed, the mother of the child Moses, and Miriam, the sister--a +counterplot to that of the princess's father, and so ancient history is +written with new headlines. + +It is Miriam who enjoys the distinction of being the first prophetess +in Israel, as her brother Moses is the first who was called a prophet, +and her brother Aaron the first high priest. The part she took in +leading the intractable people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage into +the land of the Canaanites, must have been considerable, though +according to the record she was nearing the century mark before the +journeying began. As a poetess and musician, also, Miriam holds no mean +place, for we are told that when her people had successfully crossed the +arm of the sea, and Pharaoh's pursuing hosts had been cut off in the +descending floods, Miriam organized the women into a chorus, and going +before them with timbrel in her hand she led in voicing the refrain sent +back in antiphonal strains to the song of the great camp, while her +companions followed with timbrels and dances. This aged woman had music +and patriotic fervor still present in her soul, as victory was assured +to her people. The Hebrew song that grew out of this incident which is +recorded in the Book of Exodus has been termed "Israel's Natal Hymn," a +sort of poetic Declaration of Independence, and is far more majestic in +its qualities than Moore's poem based upon the same event: + + "Sound the loud timbrel; O'er Egypt's dark sea + Jehovah hath triumphed--His people are free." + +By a singular confusion, the Koran identifies Miriam, sister of Moses, +with Mary, the mother of Jesus. This may be partly due to the fact that +the New Testament Scriptures as well as the Septuagint Greek translation +of the Old spell both names alike, "Miriam." + +But great women, like great men, sometimes make mistakes, and their +blunders are often just at the point where they have achieved greatness. +Miriam's distinction lay in her insight into the merits of her brother's +mission and in her unselfish devotion to the cause to which he had been +dedicated. Her greatest grief befell her by her unfortunate effort to +break that very influence and to destroy his leadership, because she was +displeased with a marriage he had contracted. She was smitten with +leprosy, but the esteem with which she was held may be discovered when +we read that the whole camp grieved at her calamity and consequent +isolation from the people, and "journeyed not till Miriam was brought in +again." + +Miriam, the first prophetess and one of the strongest women that Israel +ever produced, died during the wilderness wandering, and was buried in +the region west of the Jordan. For many generations her tomb was pointed +out in the land of Moab. Jerome, the Christian father, tells us that he +saw the reputed grave close to Petra in Arabia. But, like the place of +the entombment of her more distinguished brother, "no man knoweth it +unto this day." + +Among no people has the national consciousness been more thoroughly +developed or more deeply seated than among the Hebrews. It is not to be +wondered at, therefore, that among the women of Israel may be discovered +the most ardent spirit of patriotism. Miriam's part in the founding of +the Hebrew Commonwealth has already been noticed. When in the wanderings +of the wilderness it became necessary to erect a temporary structure for +the worship of Jehovah, the God of Israel, the women willingly tore +their jewels from their ears, their ornaments from their arms and +ankles, and devoted them to the rearing of the tabernacle. With their +own fingers they spun in blue, purple, and scarlet, and wrought fine +linen for the hangings and the service of their temple in the desert. In +a theocracy, piety and patriotism were one. Not even the Spartan mother, +who wished her son to return from the wars bringing his shield with him +or being borne upon it, nor the women of Carthage, who plucked out their +hair for bowstrings, could surpass the women of Israel in their +sacrifices for national independence and political glory. In the days of +Octavia, the ministers of Rome levied a tax upon Roman matrons to carry +on a foreign war, and demanded a sacrifice of their jewels; and the +Roman women thronged the public places, appealing to the high and +influential in their vigorous protest against this taxation, and thus +saved their ornaments. But the women of Israel did not need to be urged +to tear off their ornaments and devote them to the common welfare. It +was a woman who received the first recognition for services rendered the +victorious hosts of Joshua, after the first campaign against the +Canaanites had been waged. This was Rahab, a woman of Jericho, who, +though her past life had been far from exemplary, seemed to see in the +approaching Israelites a people of destiny. She therefore hid the Hebrew +spies who had come to inspect the land, and, letting them down over the +walls of the city, saved their lives. Thus did Rahab, the harlot of +Jericho, preserve her own life when Joshua entered the city a victor; +and, being admitted among the people of Israel, she became the +ancestress of their greatest king, David, and, through him, the +ancestress of Christ. + +During that era in Israel's life, when the people were no longer merely +an aggregation of shepherd clans, but had not yet been moulded into a +national existence by a strong feeling of unity or the recognition of a +common need, woman's life was exceptionally severe in its hardships and +dangers. The unorganized tribes, engaged in their agricultural and +pastoral pursuits, with hostile clans about them and hostile cities and +strongholds as yet unsubdued, were subject to frequent incursions from +bands of marauders and from armies of neighboring tribes, which would +suddenly swoop down upon them like vultures on their prey. It was under +such conditions as this that the women suffered untold indignities and +misery. Kidnappers sold the women and children to slave traders of the +coast, who carried them to Egyptian and Greek ports; so that even before +the great dispersion of the children of Jacob which the kings of Assyria +and of Babylonia brought about in the eighth and sixth centuries prior +to the Christian era, the Hebrews were being scattered throughout the +world. + +It was in the period of transition and chaos which immediately +followed the entrance of the people into the land of Palestine that +Israel's most manlike woman appears as a veritable savior of her people. +She is the second woman to whom the title of _prophetess_ is accorded. +The record reveals the fact that she was not only a woman strong in +deeds of valor, but a leader in the religious life of Israel. The days +were dark enough for the descendants of Abraham. For two decades now had +Jabin, with his "nine hundred chariots of iron," struck with terror the +ill-equipped, disorganized Hebrews. But there dwelt "under the palm +tree" between Ramah and Bethel among the hills of Ephraim a woman who, +by force of will and recognized wisdom, _judged_ the people of Israel. +"The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until +that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." It is from the +sanctuary of this woman's mind and heart that deliverance from the king +of the Canaanites is to break forth. She is called Deborah, _i.e._, +"woman of torches," or "flames," either because she made wicks for the +lamps of the sanctuary, or because of her fiery, ardent nature. +Certainly there was warmth in her heart and fire in her love of her +native land. She speedily sends for Barak, a chief man of Naphtali, and +enjoins upon him to prepare an army of ten thousand men to meet Jabin's +army, which is approaching under its captain Sisera, on the banks of the +river Kishon. Barak hesitates, but at length answers: "If thou wilt go +with me, I will go,"--so necessary did this strong, magnetic woman's +presence seem for the enlistment of the people in the holy order of the +enterprise. Deborah did not flinch in the presence of this challenge. +The army is raised. The battle is joined, and Sisera's host is +discomfited before Israel. The captain himself becomes a fugitive before +the victors. But the end is not yet. Another woman appears upon the +stage of this tragedy. The fleeing Sisera seeks shelter in the secret +place of Jael's tent. Weary to exhaustion, the captain of the enemies of +her people sinks down to sleep, the more profound because of the great +draught of buttermilk or curds which Jael gave the thirsty man; and then +with tent pin, a hammer, and an unquivering hand, Jael struck the sharp +instrument through the sleeping man's temple and pinned him swooning to +the dirt floor of her tent. + +It was this bloody, but daring, deed which gave rise to one of the +earliest of Israel's epic songs, the Song of Deborah. It is a remarkable +poem, given in full in the Book of Judges. It sets forth praises to +Jehovah for deliverance, and to Jael for the deadly stroke. A few lines +from this epic, which many consider the earliest piece of Old Testament +writing, will disclose the patriotic spirit of Israel's womanhood in +those days of social and political disorder. The people are represented +as crying out to the strong woman who lived under the solitary palm: + + "Awake, awake, Deborah, + Awake, awake, utter a song." + +Deborah comes at the call of distress. The people are rapidly marshalled +to her help. But some hold back: + + "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, + To hear the bleatings of the flocks? + ......................................... + Gilead abode beyond Jordan + And why did Dan remain in ships?" + +The battle is joined. Canaan is worsted before the followers of the +woman of the hour. + + "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. + The river Kishon swept them away, + That ancient river, the river Kishon. + O my soul, march on with strength." + +Then, turning upon the indifferent and laggard hosts that held back and +refused to strike the blow for liberty, the poetess exclaims: + + "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, + Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, + Because they came not to the help of the Lord, + To the help of the Lord against the mighty." + +Concerning the woman whose unfailing hand had struck the fatal blow, the +poetess sings: + + "Blessed above women shall Jael be, + The wife of Heber the Kenite. + Blessed shall she be above women in the tent. + + "He asked water + And she gave him milk, + She brought forth butter in a lordly dish." + +The tent pin has pierced the temples of the oppressor of Israel: + + "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down, + At her feet he bowed, he fell, + When he bowed, he fell down--dead." + +Very dramatic do the lines become when, imagining the mother of Sisera +waiting for her son to return victorious from the battle, and looking +out through the lattice of her dwelling wondering at his long delay, she +asks: + + "Why is his chariot so long in coming, + Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?" + +But Sisera never returns to his maternal roof. For forty years did the +people enjoy the freedom of Deborah's deliverance, the woman whose +influence went out from "the sanctuary of the palm." + +It is said of this period, commonly known as the Age of the Judges, +that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This would be +known in political theory as well as in practical government as nothing +short of anarchy. And indeed, it was, for while each man did that which +was right in his own eyes, the "right" of each was so frequently wrong, +that social chaos reigned with almost unbroken sway. And while one woman +of the period became a deliverer for four decades, for more than a +century many women suffered untold misery for lack of unity among the +tribes and leaders capable of bringing the life of the reign to rights. + +It is often affirmed that sons more frequently inherit characteristics +of their mothers, while to the daughters are bequeathed the traits of +their fathers. An unnamed woman of this period of the political chaos, +the wife of a certain Manoah, from the family of the Danites, was chosen +to be the mother of a giant. Now, giants were rare in Israel, though in +the earlier days of Palestinian occupation, _Nephelim_, and "the sons of +Anak," are mentioned as among those enemies of the Hebrews. Their huge +forms, it is written, were a menace to Israel's peace, and in comparison +with these monsters her sons were said to be "as grass-hoppers." One +day, as the story runs, an angel appears to this nameless, hitherto +childless, wife of Manoah, and informs her that a son who is to be born, +and nourished at her own bosom, is to have a remarkable history. She +herself is to take care neither to drink wine nor any strong drink, for +her son is to be dedicated to the abstemious life of the Nazarite. The +woman is obedient to the angelic voice; and she with her husband offers +up a burnt offering to Jehovah in grateful praise. The son is born. He +is taught that no intoxicating draught shall enter his lips, nor should +a razor touch his head, that his long-grown locks might speak outwardly +of his vows. But wine is not the only temptation that is to beset this +giant youth. The daughters of neighboring Philistia were to his eyes +more than passing fair. + +The influence of these young women, whose features, we may suppose, +bore some characteristics of Grecian beauty,--as their progenitors had +landed on the shores of Canaan from the island of Crete, gradually +adopting a Semitic language and civilization,--was very potent over the +heart of the muscular but susceptible young Hebrew. A love affair in +which the long-haired Nazarite plays a prominent rôle will introduce us, +somewhat at least, into woman's world of this disorganized period in the +early life of Western Palestine at a day more than a thousand years +before the Christian Era. + +This affair of the heart was brought to light when one day the young man +came in to tell his father and his mother that a fair damsel in Timnah, +a city of the Philistines, had captured the very citadel of his being. +Neither the protestations of his parents, nor their careful descanting +upon the virtues of the daughters of his own people could move the young +man. His heart was set. Neither parents at home nor the lion that met +him on the way to secure his bride could thwart his firm-set purpose. +Mother and father are for the moment forgotten, and the lion is torn +asunder by the strong arms of this young giant. Every obstacle is +surmounted and Delilah is in the arms of Samson. + +Now, George Sand was doubtless correct in the rather prosaic remark: "It +is not so easy to see through a woman as through a man." Samson did not +quite penetrate the wiles of his lady love. Her beauty hid all else, and +Samson fell. "The whisper of a beautiful woman," says Diana of Poitiers, +"can be heard further than the loudest call of duty." The Nazarite vow, +so strong and binding, became in Delilah's hands, as she held the +shears, weaker than the withes she bound about the arms of the captured +giant. Robert Burns has, in a characteristic fashion, given what might +well be inscribed to Samson's memory: + + "As Father Adam first was fooled, + A case that's still too common, + Here lies a man a woman ruled + The devil ruled the woman." + +Delilah, the Philistine, is to be contrasted with the typical Hebrew +women, not only in the matter of feminine chastity for which they stand +out among ancient women as preëminent, but also in that fidelity to +husband and to native land which made the Hebrews the most stable and +persistent race with which the world is acquainted. + +In marked contrast with this witch of the Philistine plains, stands out +the heroic daughter of Jephtha. Her purity, patriotism, and her deep +respect for the sacredness of a religious oath, place her at the very +opposite pole. "Great women," says Leigh Hunt, "belong to the history of +self-sacrifice." If this be true, Jephtha's daughter must be enrolled +among the great, as her heroic self-devotion shines through the dimness +of ancient history. Her father was one of Israel's deliverers in the +days of tribal division and political chaos. Returning from victory over +the hostile Ammonites, Jephtha purposes to give, as sacrifice to Jehovah +for bringing him success in arms, the first creature that comes forth to +meet him as he turns his face homeward. It is his own daughter, his only +child, going out to meet him with the timbrel and with dances. In his +eyes a "very daughter of the gods, divinely tall, and most divinely +fair." Will he break his vow? Will the young woman herself, this Hebrew +Alcestis, shrink from the sacrifice? "My father, thou hast opened thy +mouth unto the Lord, do unto me according to that which hath proceeded +out of thy mouth." + +For a woman to die childless in Israel was looked upon as a calamity, a +mark of divine displeasure, and the daughter of Jephtha was a virgin. It +is for this reason that she begged the coveted privilege of two months' +respite that, with her maidens, she might withdraw to the neighboring +mountain and there "bewail her virginity." At the end of the required +period, returning to her father's house, she yields herself a sacrifice +to the hasty but well-meant vow of her patriotic father. So deeply did +her pure devotion to filial and patriotic ideals impress the daughters +of Israel, that every year they went out to lament, four days, in honor +of the daughter of Jephtha, the Gileadite, of whom N. P. Willis has drawn +this appreciative picture: + + "Now she who was to die, the calmest one + In Israel at that hour, stood up alone + And waited for the sun to set. Her face + Was pale but very beautiful, her lip + Had a more delicate outline and the tint + Was deeper; but her countenance was like + The majesty of angels!" + +Among no ancient people was the love of chastity in women so thorough +and imperative. There is probably no better illustration of this fact +than in the very ingenious method by which the men of Benjamin obtained +their wives, at a time when total extinction of the tribe seemed to +stare them in the face. An aged Levite, with his wife, who had been +unfaithful to him, but by his efforts had been reclaimed and with him +was returning home, is passing through the land of Benjamin. When they +reach the city of Jebus, afterward named Jerusalem, the famous centre of +Israel's later life, no one offered the customary hospitality, so the +man and his wife were about to lodge in the street, a disgrace to the +city, according to the common customs of entertainment. It is then a +temporary resident of the city invites the homeless ones into his house. +When the Benjamites saw them go in, they took the woman from the house +and shamefully maltreated her, leaving her helpless upon the steps till +morning. The Levite, incensed at the terrible crime, took the woman, cut +her in pieces and sent the fragments throughout the tribes, telling the +story of the deed of some of the sons of Benjamin. It is pronounced by +all the worst blot upon the land since the sojourn in Egypt. The whole +people is aroused to anger. They collect men of war from the tribes, and +go up to battle against their brethren of Benjamin, till the entire +tribe seems about to be exterminated. Especially was the destruction of +their women grievous. What must be done when the dust of battle has +rolled away? Shall a tribe be lost to Israel? This must not be. The +sacred number must be preserved. How shall Benjamin obtain wives, for +all the rest of Israel had made a solemn oath that they would never give +their daughters to the sons of Benjamin because of this horrible crime +which had been so peremptorily punished. At length, the elders of all +the people devise a plan. Marriage with the Gentile peoples is, of +course, not sanctioned, and all the tribes of Israel have refused to +give their daughters to Benjamin--there is yet a way out of the dilemma. +Some one remembers that every year at harvest time there is given a +feast at Shiloh, where many Hebrew damsels come together to enjoy the +religious and festal dances. It is agreed that the sons of Benjamin +shall hide themselves in the adjacent vineyards, and while the maidens +are dancing, each man is to run out, seize a wife and make his way +swiftly homeward. But what say the fathers and brothers of the purloined +damsels to this high-handed procedure of the young men of Benjamin? The +elders agree to step in then and to advise all to acquiesce in +quietness, for the people had not violated their oaths. Their daughters +had not been given to Benjamin; they were stolen! So Benjamin obtained +wives and the tribal existence was preserved by the same method in which +Rome was repeopled at the expense of the Sabines. + +Israel holds a high place among the people of the earth because of the +prevalence of piety among its women. Religion is deeply grounded in the +intuitions and feelings of the race, and derives force, at least, from +the sense of dependence upon higher powers, as Schliermacher has taught. +Since women are far truer in their intuitions and feelings than men and +the sense of dependence is more highly developed, it is not strange that +women everywhere are more religious than men. Among the holy women of +old none can be accorded higher place than Hannah, the mother of Samuel. + +One may at first be astonished that childlessness is so frequently +mentioned as characteristic of women in the Scriptures. Among them, +Sarah, Rebekah, Rachael, the unnamed wife of Manoah, Hannah, and +Elisabeth,--mother of John the Forerunner,--are all familiar examples. +But barrenness was probably not more common among the Hebrews than among +other peoples. Only, in Israel, childlessness was accounted a calamity, +if not a direct visitation of the Almighty. Hence, every pious woman +wished to be released from the curse. The women themselves ridiculed and +ever despised those who were not blessed with offspring. Besides, every +man among the Hebrews wished to live in his descendants. To die without +children was to be "cut off" from the face of the earth, and to be +forgotten. There was a yearning to live forever in the land. + +The contrast between the great emphasis which the Egyptian laid upon +immortality, the large place it held not only in their religious +teachings, but in the development of their civilization, as modern +excavations have revealed it, and the lack of such emphasis in the +writings of the Hebrew Scriptures has frequently been noticed, and by +many greatly wondered at. But the Hebrews gave little thought to +immortality in the next world. Their prophets spent most of their time +stressing the importance of righteousness in this life, and the people +emphasized the earthward side of immortality--that is, one's power to +live forever in one's posterity. + +The writer in the one hundred and twenty-eighth Psalm expressed the +common Hebrew conception, as, in recounting the blessings of a truly +happy man, he said: "Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy +shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a +fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive +plants round about thy table." Or as another psalmist, in the same +spirit, prays: "That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; +that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude +of a palace." Many a time in the Hebrew Scriptures is this ideal +prominent. For a psalmist again writes: "As arrows in the hand of a +mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his +quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak +with the enemies in the gate." And when the prophet Zachariah foretells +the coming glory of Jerusalem, which should supersede the then present +distress, he gives as one item of blessing: "And the streets of the city +shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the streets thereof." + +It may therefore be readily surmised how a woman of Hannah's piety +might feel in the thought of her condition of childlessness. And while +the hardships of the barren woman in Israel could in no way compare with +those of some other peoples, as in Australia, where the childless woman +of the aborigines is driven out to a dire struggle for existence, yet +the feeling that her God was, for some cause, against her and that her +husband might in his secret heart despise her, must have been agony +indeed. "The brain-woman," says Oliver Wendell Holmes, "never interests +us like the heart-woman; white roses please us less than red." Hannah +was preëminently a heart woman; the red blood of warm devotion coursed +through her veins. When at length her prayers, made in bitterness of +suffering, were answered, and heaven gave her a son, she named him +Samuel, for, she said, "God hath heard," and dedicated him wholly to +Jehovah, placing him at the service of the tabernacle. When the time +came to wean the lad, she journeyed with him to Shiloh, the place of the +sanctuary, with her offering, as the custom was, and "lent him" forever +to Jehovah, her God. + +"I think it must somewhere be written that the virtues of the mothers +are occasionally visited upon their children, as well as the sins of the +fathers." These words of Dickens suggest one of the occasions in which +motherly virtues seem to have been visited upon the child, for Samuel +became the earliest representative of a long line of prophets who, for +many centuries, were the spiritual leaders of Israel. He was the father +and founder of a "school of the prophets," the earliest theological +seminary of which we have any record. The prayer of thanksgiving which +the records say Hannah uttered when God blessed her with this precious +gift of a son, influenced not only the famous _Magnificat_ of Mary, when +she was told of the birth of her greater Son, but also that of Zacharias +when the birth of John the Baptist was predicted by the angel who talked +with him in the temple. + +History records several famous cases of friendship between men; that +between David and Jonathan, and that between Damon and Pythias of +Syracuse, have become proverbial. Fewer have been the friendship among +women. Indeed, some have argued the impossibility of such friendships. +But there is probably no more attractive story of womanly devotion in +all the range of literature than that which tells of the love between +Ruth and Naomi. The Book of Ruth is a beautiful idyll of early Hebrew +life, and the heroine here stands the test. The scene is laid in the +time when judges ruled in Israel; and in this, as in many instances in +the early days of Palestine, an epoch was born out of a famine. +Elimelech, with his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, +hunger-driven, set out for the land of Moab. Death lays its claim to the +husband and father, and Naomi, with her boys, is left widowed in a +strange land. Mahlon and Chilion, now grown to manhood, marry two +daughters of Moab, by name Orpah and Ruth. A decade passes, and the sons +themselves die. Bereaved and broken in spirit, Naomi at length turns her +heart toward her native Judean hills. Finding her daughters-in-law +inclined to follow her into the uncertainty of her future subsistence in +her former home, Naomi counsels their return, each to her mother's +house. "And they lifted up their voice and wept." Orpah reluctantly +obeys, but Ruth cleaves to her mother-in-law, with those unsurpassed and +memorable words, which the author of the book of Ruth throws into Hebrew +measure: + + "Intreat me not to leave thee, + Or to return from following after thee; + For whither thou goest, I will go; + And where thou lodgest I will lodge; + Thy people shall be my people, + And thy God, my God. + Where thou diest, will I die, + And there will I be buried. + The Lord do so to me, and more also, + If aught but death part thee and me." + +"Some women's faces are in their brightness a prophecy, and some in +their sadness a history." As these two women stood with their faces set +toward Palestine, upon one was written a history of sorrow; upon the +other there fell the sunrise of a new day. In Ruth's determination to +follow Naomi, even to death,--for "a woman can die for her friend as +well as a Roman knight" when she has one, as Jeremy Taylor has +declared,--the young widow of Moab began a new life, which was destined +to make her the ancestress of Judah's royal house, the great grandmother +of David the king. + +As the poetic story of Ruth proceeds, it records several interesting +ancient marriage customs among the people of Israel. In marked contrast +with the Hindoo custom of condemning widows to a life of scarcely +bearable hardships, the Hebrew law was so framed as to make widowhood as +far as possible a temporary state. The custom of Levirate marriage +enforced upon the brother or nearest of kin to the deceased husband the +obligation of taking the widow of his brother to wife, in order that the +brother might not be without heir and memory in the land. Ruth's +deceased husband had rights in the ancestral estate, and the Hebrew law +was careful that estates should not pass out of the hands of the +original owners, if it were possible to prevent it. Ruth, the widow, +suddenly appears at Bethlehem, the old home of her husband's people. It +is the time of the barley harvest. Naomi plays the role of the scheming +mother. She would have her beautiful young daughter-in-law find a +husband among her kindred, that her lamented son might have an heir to +honor his memory and that the portion of the estate which was Elimelech +her husband's might be redeemed. The love plot sends Ruth into the field +of Boaz, a wealthy farmer and near kinsman of Elimelech, to glean after +the reapers, for no man was permitted by the law to deprive the poor of +whatever pickings they might find when the reapers had passed. The quick +success of the plot, the fascination that Boaz feels for the graceful +but unknown woman, the command given the reapers to leave behind by +purposeful accident a little more of the grain than was usual and be +gracious to the girl; the invitation at mealtime to come and partake of +the repast of parched corn with the reapers; the resolve of Boaz that +should there be found no nearer kinsman--whose duty it would first be to +take the young woman to wife--he himself would choose her. All these +incidents pass in rapid and romantic succession. The observation is +apparently true that "women are never stronger than when they arm +themselves with their own weakness." Boaz at once pledged himself to be +the damsel's friend and protector. The next of kin declines or waives +his right to the young widow, for he does not care to redeem Elimelech's +portion of the land, a necessary part of such a matrimonial transaction. +Boaz therefore summons the young man, next of kin, who has declined to +redeem the land of his deceased brother and raise up heirs for him, to +appear at the gate of the city as the law required. Here ten elders sit +to witness and make legal the transaction. The shoe of the refusing +kinsman is taken from his foot, in the presence of the assembled people, +and given to Boaz, symbolizing the relinquishment of all rights in the +premises. Then follows the custom of spitting in the face of the "man +with the loosed shoe," which became a term of reproach, and was applied +to the man who refused to fulfil toward a deceased kinsman the duties of +the Levirate marriage. Time passes and the aged Naomi, whose mother +named her "winsome," forgets the bitterness of her later years as she +holds in her arms the infant Obed, in whom she exultingly sees the +pledge that the house of her son shall live on, and a prophecy that his +name will become famous among his people. "And Obed begat Jesse and +Jesse begat David," the king. + + + + +III + +THE DAYS OF THE KINGS + + +As we pass out of the unsettled age of the judges into the period when +the commonwealth of Israel began to take definite shape, we come upon a +corresponding change in the life of the Hebrew woman. The heroism in +female virtue was perhaps no less frequent, but when the "heroic age" is +behind us there is less opportunity for women to stand out in so strong +a glare. And, indeed, all through this history the remark of Ruskin is +close to the truth when he says: "Woman's function is a guiding, not a +determining one." While epoch-making women occasionally appeared in the +earlier period, they became fewer and fewer as the social order became +more settled. + +It was not till the days of the kings that the Mosaic law, in the +broadest sense of the term, could exert any very potential influence +over the life and conduct of the people. In a disorganized condition of +society, of which it was said, "Every man did that which was right in +his own eyes," to enforce Mosaic precepts would have been an +impossibility, even had the people at large been acquainted with that +law. Now, the law of Moses became one of the most powerful factors in +giving to the women of Israel the high place they held in the +commonwealth. The fifth of the "Ten Words"--which commands were the very +nucleus about which the whole law was developed--reads: "Honor thy +father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the +Lord thy God giveth thee." Thus, in this, the very first law of the +Decalogue respecting duties to man, the duty of honoring the mother was +made equally imperative with that of showing honor to the father. And it +may be truly affirmed that Israel's remarkable permanence and +persistency as a people may be traced to its domestic health, and that +this vigorous domesticity is due largely to a better understanding of +the true relation of the sexes than is discoverable among any other +ancient nation. + +That honor for parents makes for the permanence of a people both reason +and history affirm. Any nation which honors its ancestry will hold +tenaciously to ancestral ideals. Notwithstanding China's limitations in +other directions, that nation, because of its worship of the fathers, +has lived through many centuries and seen more powerful nations rise and +fall. + +The position of Israel as a separate people abides in strength because +both father and mother have for ages been respected; and even though +most of her sons and daughters are no longer "upon the land which the +Lord their God gave them," they are still holding with wonderful +firmness to the faith and ideals of their fathers. The Mosaic teachings +concerning woman are not a little responsible for this remarkable state +of racial longevity. The Hebrew woman's standing before the law gave her +great advantage over her sisters of the other Semitic and Oriental +peoples. The Mosaic law tended greatly to lessen the inequalities and +mitigate the hardships of womankind. Even a woman captured in war was +protected against the caprice of her captors. Under the law, her life +was equally as precious as that of a man, and therefore the taking of a +woman's life was punishable with the same severity as was the murder of +a man. The law was especially solicitous of her welfare during the +period of child bearing, and greatly lessened the sorrows and isolation +of widowhood. + +While divorces were given almost at the will of the man, yet he could +not without formality at once eject the woman from his house. He must +give her a "writing of divorcement," which set forth the fact that she +had been his wife. Thus was she protected from subsequent suspicion that +she had lived with a man unlawfully. Wives of bond-servants were to go +out free with their husbands on the seventh year of service, unless the +master himself had given the wife to his manservant, in which case the +woman and her children still belonged to the master. + +Daughters were allowed inheritance as well as sons, though in earlier +times than those of the kings they did not inherit their father's +property except there were no sons. Fathers were not allowed to +discriminate against a firstborn son and pass the inheritance to another +because the mother of the oldest child happened to have lost favor in +his eyes. + +Laws forbidding unchastity and vice were explicit and severe. One who +had taken criminal advantage of another's daughter was to marry her and +pay the father the usual dowry; if not, he was to be amerced fifty +shekels of silver, the ordinary dowry of virgins. If a husband suspected +his wife of being unfaithful to him, an elaborate, but not severe, +ordeal was laid upon the woman, called "drinking the waters of +jealousy." If she passed this examination successfully, her husband had +no power further to punish her; if not, she was to suffer for her shame. + +The widow and the fatherless were given special consideration under the +law. In the feast days when the people's hearts were merry and they were +rejoicing in the increase of their lands, the widow was not to be +forgotten. In business transactions the people were to take heed that +the widow suffer not injustice. Her garments could never be taken in +pledge, and judges were enjoined to see that no violence was done to her +rights. The fallen sheaf in the harvest field, the forgotten gleanings +of the olive trees, the droppings of the vintage were not to be withheld +from her. + +How deep-seated this sense of obligation to the widow was in Israel may +be discovered in the Book of Job. The friends who visited Job in his +bewildering grief could find no more probable cause for so severe a +divine chastisement upon the arch-sufferer than that Job had neglected +the widow or taken her in pledge. One effect of the attitude of the +customary law toward widows is discovered in a most signal way in the +Second Book of Maccabees, which relates that in the period of which it +tells, about B.C. 150, it was customary to lay up large sums of money in +the temple treasury for the relief of widows and of fatherless children. + +Such women as Miriam and Deborah were factors to be reckoned with in the +political movements of their times. So it was with the prophetesses +generally, for just as the great prophets dealt with the politics of +state, so a prophetess could not always escape the problems of +statesmanship to which her time might give birth. Both prophet and +prophetess were looked upon as the chosen spokesmen for Jehovah. Because +of this, Huldah acted as a sort of prime minister and adviser of both +king and high priests in their Jehovistic reforms during the reign of +Josiah. + +That women generally took a deep interest in political matters may be +perceived in the way in which the exploits of David appealed to the +imaginations of the women when Saul's star was setting and David's +appearing above the horizon; for young women went out to meet the coming +hero and king with musical instruments, singing a song whose refrain +was: + + "Saul hath slain his thousands, + David his tens of thousands." + +The power of the feminine idea may be forcefully seen in the very common +conception of the nation itself as a young woman. Both prophet and +poet--and the prophets were usually poets--refer many times to the +"daughter of Zion," meaning the people of Israel. + +The prophet Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming destruction of the army of +Babylon, says: "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and +delicate woman" who is about to be ravaged by the invader. And Isaiah, +seeing the time at hand for the people to return from Babylonish exile, +cries out: "Loose thyself, O captive daughter of Zion." + +Affection for the native land was strong among the women as well as +among the men. Lot's wife did not turn because of curiosity, but by +reason of the strong attachment to locality; she looked back longingly +toward her forsaken and burning home. The little Hebrew maid, torn by an +invading army of Syrians from her native land, was quick to tell Naaman, +the leper,--her new master,--of the virtues of her country and impelled +him to seek out Elisha, the prophet of Israel. + +The social position of Hebrew women was exceptionally free and +independent. While a daughter's matrimonial plans were largely in the +hands of father and brother, and wives were expected to look up to their +husbands with all reverence, yet the recorded examples of independent +action and influence among the women reveal a place of social equality +and power, a lack of masculine restraint and domination that would do +credit to more modern times. + +Deborah accompanied, if she did not lead, the soldiers into battle and +cheered them on to victory. The daughters of Shiloh, unaccompanied, were +accustomed annually to attend festal dances in the vineyards of +Benjamin. Women often went without escorts upon difficult and dangerous +missions. Prophetesses frequently exerted not only a powerful but at +times a decisive influence. + +Marriage customs among the Hebrews in the days of the kings were not +greatly different from those of other Oriental people of the same era. +They differed but slightly from those of an earlier period. As a rule, +marriage was not born out of impulse of the heart; though there were +many marriages that surely ripened into love. If, as Jean Paul Richter +says, "Nature sent woman into the world with a bridal dower of love," we +have an explanation of the fact that there are many happy marriages in +Israel, notwithstanding the fact that the arrangements continued to be +largely in the hands of the parents. A daughter belonged to her father +till of age: after this she could not be betrothed except by her own +consent. Among the Hebrews betrothal was of the nature of an inviolable +contract, and could be annulled only by divorce. If not in early days, +yet in the later periods of Hebrew history there were writings of +betrothal which set forth the mutual agreements between the parties. +Later, there followed the marriage contract, also in writing. The amount +paid for a maiden came to be at least two hundred denars, and just +one-half as much for a widow. The father was to provide dowry according +to his ability, and an orphan girl's dowry was bestowed by the +community. + +The marriage ceremony consisted of leading the bride from her father's +house to that of the bridegroom. At which time there was a season of +festivity and rejoicing. The marriage of a maiden usually occurred on +Wednesday evening, that of a widow on Thursday. The "children of the +bride chamber," the name by which the invited guests were called, made +merry at the "marriage feast," which was always provided and lasted +several days. As the procession passed along, going from the bride's to +the bridegroom's house, people along the route might join in the +festivities. + +Grains of corn, nuts, and other edibles were the confetti tossed +good-humoredly at the bridal pair. It became the custom, which still +exists among Jews to-day, to break a glass bottle at Hymen's altar to +indicate that the former life is no more, and that the bride has entered +upon a new estate. Among the Hebrews the married woman was better +protected in her rights than among most people of ancient times. While +her property was usually under control of her husband, yet the dowry +came to be considered her own, whether it be money, property, or jewels. +A husband could not compel his wife to remove from the land of her +fathers; and in many ways her individual rights were protected. Woman's +inferior position in Greece was one element in the decline of that +remarkable country; the defilement of the womanhood of Rome hastened the +downfall of that city's power; but the protection given to Hebrew +wifehood and widowhood became an element of great strength in the life +of Israel. + +The Greek attitude toward woman could probably be reflected in the old +saying: "A woman who is never spoken of is praised most." In the period +of Rome's decay women became immodestly conspicuous in the social and +public functions of the day. As opposed to both these conditions the +Hebrew, the wise man in the Proverbs, calls her a virtuous woman whom +her husband can praise in the very gates. + +Edersheim calls attention to a suggestive custom which sprung up from +the slight difference of sound in the words for "find" in two passages +of Scripture concerning women, both of which occur in the wisdom +writings. The first of these reads: "Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a +good thing." (Proverbs 18: 22.) The other, "I find more bitter than +death the woman whose heart is snares and nets." Hence arose the habit +of saying to a newly married man, "_Maza_ or _Moze?_" "Have you found a +'good thing' or a 'bitter'?" + +The tendency in Israel continued to restrict marriage to one's own +tribe. The law of inheritance gave force to this custom. Those very near +of kin were thus regarded as most eligible for wedlock. Jacob married +two of his first cousins. A similar situation is seen in the marriage of +Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebecca. Each husband, under specially +trying circumstances, had claimed that his wife was his "sister," and so +she was,--for in the patriarchal form of society all who belonged to the +same family or clan were brother and sister,--but not in the strict +sense which the word was intended to convey. While brothers and sisters +of the whole blood might not marry, yet it would not have been regarded +as altogether out of place for half-brothers and sisters to marry, +especially if they had a different mother. + +The story of Amnon and Tamar not only throws light upon this point, but +illustrates how brother and sister by the same father as well as the +same mother stood in a greatly different relation, the one to the other, +in the matter of brotherly protection from that of half-brother and +half-sister. + +Amnon, son of David, fell desperately in love with his half-sister, +David's daughter, Tamar. By a cunningly devised plot Amnon succeeded in +bringing the beautiful damsel into his chamber. When Absalom, Tamar's +brother and half-brother to Amnon, heard that his sister had thus been +dealt with, he felt himself under obligation to defend her honor, by +slaying his half-brother, which he did at a feast given during the +season of sheep shearing, when the king's sons were all making merry. + +The remark of Frances Power Cobbe is as true in Israel as elsewhere. "A +man may build a castle or a palace, but poor creature! be he as wise as +Solomon or as rich as Croesus, he cannot turn it into a home. No +masculine mortal can do that. It is a woman, and only a woman,--a woman +all by herself if she must, or prefers, without any man to help +her,--who can turn a house into a home." It was the Hebrew wife and +mother who largely gave to the homes of the Israelites their peculiar +quality. But it may be said it was seldom her necessity or her +preference to set up a home without the presence of some son of Israel. + +The birth of children was always considered an occasion for rejoicing. +Hebrew women were, as a rule, active and strong, and natural in their +mode of life. There are but two cases in all the Hebrew Scriptures of +death at the time of childbirth. One is that of Rachel, who, when upon a +fatiguing journey with her husband and family, gave birth to Benjamin +and died; the other is the wife of Phineas, who, when she heard the sad +news of the victory of the Philistines over Israel, the capture of the +Ark of Jehovah, of her father Eli's and her husband's death in the +battle, gave birth to a child whom the nurse called Ichabod, for said +she: "The glory is departed from Israel." In the naming of her children +the Hebrew mother thus often revealed a poetic imagination that is of a +high order. In this the Hebrew language was helpful, for, as one has +remarked of it: "Every word is a picture." + +The bright eyes and graceful form of the gazelle suggested the name for +a daughter of Tabitha, of which Dorcas is the Greek. Zipporah was a +little bird; Deborah, the busy bee; Esther, a star; Tamar, a palm tree; +Zillah, a shadow; Sarah, the princess; Keturah, fragrance; Hadassah, the +myrtle. Thus, some resemblance or poetic association suggested to the +mother, either at the birth of the child, or because of some fact or +incident of later experience, the name the little one was to bear. Often +there is a tragedy or a mother's sorrowful life history crystallized in +a name. When Rachel, Jacob's favored wife, brought forth her second son +amidst the suffering which was to take away her life, the woman standing +by tried to comfort her in the fact that another son had been born to +bless her. The mother, with her last faint breath, replied: "Call his +name Benoni (son of my sorrow)." But the father, unwilling thus to +perpetuate his wife's anguish, called him Benjamin (son of my right +hand). When Naomi, the widow, bereft of her husband and sons, returns to +her native Bethlehem after many years of absence and of sorrow, the +women came out to meet her, saying: "Is this Naomi?" She answered them: +"Call me not Naomi (pleasant or winsome), call me Mara (bitter), for the +Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me." So, among the Hebrews, names +not only were given to both men and women at birth, but were frequently +changed at some critical moment or because of some extraordinary +experience in their life. Ordinarily, however, the favorite method of +naming sons connected the boy in some way with his God; as when Hannah +named her baby boy Samuel (God hath heard), and the name of Jacob (the +supplanter), was changed to Israel (the prince of God). The girls seldom +if ever bore names ending in _el_ (God), _ajah_ (Jehovah), but were +called by some name of poetic association or natal experience. In no +respect do the Hebrew mothers deserve greater praise than for their +share in the upbringing of children. While the Jewish law placed the +responsibility for the training of the Hebrew youth upon the father, a +very large share of the responsibility fell upon the mother. With the +Hebrew child, as with the children of all nations, it is impossible to +say exactly where its education begins. The famous dictum: "If you would +bring up a child in the way it should go, you must begin with its +great-grandmother," finds special force among the Israelites. The women +held an honored place in the education of the Jewish youth. Before the +child could walk or could lisp a syllable, while still in its mother's +arms, it would see her, as she passed from one room to another in the +house, stop and touch the _mesusah_ on the doorpost, and then kiss the +finger that had thus come in contact with the sacred words of the law +encased there. The little one would easily learn to put out its own tiny +finger and touch the aperture of the sacred box on the doorpost, and +then press it to the baby lips. + +Here was the first lesson in the law of its fathers. Very early the +mother took her babe to the temple, and offered a sacrifice for it. +Especially was the birth of the firstborn significant, for the firstborn +son belonged to Jehovah, just as the firstborn of the herd and the flock +and the first-fruits of the ground. These must be sacrificed on the +altar of the Lord. But, happily for the mother heart, the firstborn son +might be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb, or, if the mother were +poor, by a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. So the young +mother brought her boy to the altar, made her offering, and took her +babe back to her bosom. + +From the time of offering onward, the mother greatly aided in shaping +the life of the young Israelite. In this training the sacred Scriptures +played an important part. The rabbis, however, never regarded women as +becoming masters of the intricacies of the law. It was a saying among +them that "Women are of a light mind." This was doubtless an appropriate +remark, for it is certainly true that much of the rabbinic lore is +heavy, almost beyond expression. There were not a few women, though, who +were well versed in the Scriptures and also in rabbinical teaching. The +synagogues were open to the women, where they occupied seats partitioned +from those of the men. The attendance of women upon the great feasts, +where much could be learned of custom, tradition, and teaching, also +gave them opportunity to be instructed in the religion of their fathers. +The Christian apostle Paul congratulated his young friend Timothy, that +from a babe he had known the Hebrew Scriptures, which he had learned +from his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. These are typical +mothers of the higher order; and while probably only the richer homes +owned a copy of the entire Bible, most families possessed at least one +or more scrolls containing parts of the sacred writings. + +The strength of motherly devotion was nowhere stronger than among the +mothers of Israel. The spirit of Rizpah was the spirit of most of them. +For when seven of her sons, the sons of Saul, had been slain and their +bodies exposed, in the revolution which brought David to the throne, +Rizpah took a piece of sackcloth, and, spreading it upon a rock near by, +guarded the bodies of her offspring from the beginning of barley harvest +till the early rains: that neither birds might molest them by day nor +beasts of the field by night. + +Home life among the Hebrews of Palestine to-day is marked by much that +characterized that life ten or even twenty centuries ago; therefore a +few facts concerning the home life in the Jerusalem of to-day will teach +us much concerning that of the past. Probably nine-tenths of the native +homes of Jerusalem are unpretentious, unattractive, uncomfortable, and +show signs of poverty. The people have learned the fine art of economy +in house room. Father, mother, and the multitude of little ones with +which the Jewish home is usually blessed do not find it difficult to be +tucked snugly away in two or three rooms. These give ample space for +cooking, dining, sleeping, and performing the necessary labor of +domestic life; besides furnishing opportunity for the hospitality for +which the East is still justly noted. Call any time you will, on any +business bent, and your hostess, if there be no servant, will, before +you are permitted to mention the matter of your call, bring to you a +glass of wine or perhaps a cup of coffee to refresh you. This, too, +though the family be poor and it be deprivation for even this repast to +be served to the guest. And though you know of the sacrifice the hostess +makes, you must not refuse, lest you offend and wound the spirit of +hospitality at its very heart. + +The brunt of the work of the house falls, of course, upon the wife and +mother. And it is doubtful if the place of the woman of the Palestine of +to-day, even among the Jewish families, is as high as in the days of +Israel's independence and power. While great respect is shown the father +as head of the family, the mother is often scarcely more than the +servant of her children. The sons especially do not give her the respect +that was once her unquestioned due. The girl is from her birth looked +upon and treated as inferior to her brothers. Patiently, all women of +the Orient seem to bear this inferiority--a sort of penalty they must +pay because Heaven made them women and not men. The young girl's +matrimonial prospects are never in her own hands. She tamely submits to +arrangements made for her, and, without test or questioning, assumes +that her husband is her superior in all things. + +Education among the girls of modern Palestine has been almost hopelessly +neglected--except as teachers from England and America have been able to +supply the deficiency or overcome the indifference. There is little +wonder that home life is unattractive and the housekeeping miserable +with so little possibility for the women to catch even a glimpse of the +higher things that elevate and refine. Sometimes the Jewish girl is a +wife as early as ten or twelve, and frequently at the age of fourteen. +Thus home life is often rendered unhappy and divorce frequent. Physical, +mental, and moral anguish follow in the wake of many of these early +marriages. The young Jewish maiden's life is cheerless before her +wedlock, as she is shut out from the joys of social gatherings; and, +after marriage, cheerlessness gives way to impenetrable gloom. To say +that there are no happy marriages would be wide of the mark. But +divorces are sadly common among the Jews of Palestine to-day; the +husband having almost unlimited power to break, under very slight +provocation, the bond that binds him to his wife. The rabbi must of +course confirm the dissolution of the bond, and thirty piasters is the +price. The effect of this custom upon modern Jewish womanhood in the +venerated land of Rebekah and Rachel is most unhappy. + +Home life in ancient Israel was singularly sweet, pure, and industrious. +The family was both the social and the religious unit. Idleness was +considered a curse; and every child was taught to train his hands as +well as to cultivate his heart. + +The occupations of women were numerous and varied. Everywhere in the +East needlework was and is highly prized. Mothers set their children at +it at a very early age and great skill is often attained. The poorer +women frequently earn with their own fingers the amount of their +marriage portion; and in the hours of seclusion wives of the harem have +always found embroidery and other forms of rich needlework a common +pastime for the empty hours. + +While working in skins, clay, and in metals was reserved for the men, +the Hebrew women were very largely the producers of the food and the +wearing apparel. They assisted in the cultivation of the fields, were +the millers, grinding with their primitive stone mortar and pestle, the +bakers, the weavers and spinners, making use of the hand spindle which +may be seen in Syria and in Egypt to-day, though in the latter country +the men shared with the women the skill in this handicraft. Among the +Hebrews, as with the Greeks, Clotho is a woman. + +We find the virtuous woman, as ideally drawn in the Book of Proverbs, to +be one who finds good wool and flax and works willingly with her hands; +distaff and spindle fly at her finger's bidding, so that her whole +household sits doubly clothed in scarlet, and even fine linen is wrought +in her house, and rich girdles go out to the merchantmen. She makes the +field and vineyard turn out profitably and imports her food from afar. +Whether as shepherdess, gleaner, or the maker of food stuffs or +textiles, the Hebrew woman may justly hold a place of respect among her +sex. + +Among the amusements in which women specially engaged, those of music +and dancing should be given first place. These often had a religious or +semi-religious character. Women did not usually sit down, or rather +recline, at banquets with the opposite sex. Their songs and dances were +generally among themselves; dancing with the opposite sex was unknown. +Instrumental music frequently accompanied their singing, a sort of +tambourine or hand drum being a favorite instrument. Women played an +important part also in mourning customs. Professional female mourners +were hired to go up and down the highways, wailing piteously as part of +the funeral rites. The prophet Nahum in predicting the overthrow of +Nineveh uses a figure suggested by frequent observation of mourning: +"Her maids shall lead her, as with the voice of doves, tabering upon +their breasts." + +The religious status of woman is one of the most significant facts in +Israel's history. Passing out of the patriarchal stage of life, when the +father was high priest in his home, into a more complex existence, it is +not surprising that woman's place should become subordinated. Besides +this, the Hebrew worshipped no goddesses, except in times of religious +lapses. The women of Israel, however, are often found engaged in +sacrifices, prayers, and active service to their God Jehovah. + +While only the men were required to attend the annual feasts, the +attendance of women in large numbers is often recorded. Their presence +seems to be presupposed in the accounts of Hebrew worship; though for +them the annual religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem were not obligatory. + +In the temple worship they had a separate court, further removed from +the inner precincts of the holy altar than the court of the men. And +while they might join in the eating of some sacrificial meals, the sin +offering was only to be partaken of by males. The official duties of the +sanctuary were performed by men, but there were "serving women" who +performed certain menial tasks about the sacred enclosure. When the +temple ritual became elaborated, women were among the singers in the +temple choirs, and they often aided in the music and by singing and +dancing in times of great national rejoicing. And it is not without its +suggestiveness that the Hebrews spoke of a divine revelation as _Bath +Kol_, or "daughter voice." + +In the days when religious secretism became popular in Israel, and the +people began to divide the exclusive adoration they had hitherto given +to Jehovah and to worship other gods and even goddesses, women became +prominent in idolatrous rites. Jezebel, who was a worshipper of the +Phoenician goddess Ashtoreth, not only became the patron of the priests +and puppets of the Baal cult, but endeavored to break down Jehovah +worship by the destruction of his prophets. Maachah, the mother of King +Asa of the southern kingdom of Judah, introduced the worship of the +Assyrian goddess Astarte. Devotion to Ishtar, the chief goddess of +Babylon became the fashion in Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah the +prophet, who tells of Hebrew women kneading dough and baking cakes in +shape of the silvery moon in honor of the "queen of heaven," Ishtar, the +moon goddess; or perhaps, as some hold, this was the worship of the +planet Venus, for similar offerings were made in Arabia to the goddess +Al-Uzza, who was represented by the star Venus; and the Athenians too, +we are told, offered cakes of the shape of the full moon in honor of +Artemis. + +During the period of the Babylonish captivity, before the final fall of +Jerusalem, Ezekiel rebukes the women of Jerusalem for worshipping +Tammuz, the Babylonian Adonis, who had been taken to the under world; +for, says the prophet, "There sat the women weeping for Tammuz," the +departed husband of Ishtar. + +There was never among the Israelites that reverence for women, akin to +awe, which was manifested among the Teutonic tribes--a reverence which +made women natural oracles. Doubtless in Israel, as everywhere, the +instinctive, intuitive nature of women was discovered by the men of +Israel as in other parts of the world. But women as oracles are isolated +and exceptional. There were witches, who were under the ban. The highest +spiritual influence and leadership in Israel was that of the prophet, +for he was regarded as the mouthpiece of God, and, though of a far +higher order, corresponded to the oracle among heathen peoples. Could a +woman hold this place of dignity and power? The first person of this +class mentioned in the literature of Israel is Miriam the prophetess. In +the days of political confusion, before the time of the monarchy, +Deborah the prophetess arose; and it was Huldah the prophetess who +directed the reforms instituted by King Josiah, when the worship of +Jehovah was purified, the temple repaired, and Mosaism restored to +power. Just as there were false prophets in the days of religious +decline, so there arose false prophetesses, like Noadiah, who attempted +to thwart the reforms of Nehemiah and put his life in jeopardy. In the +early days, the counterfeit of the prophetess, namely, the witch and +sorceress, was not unknown in the land of Palestine. The law, however, +was very stringent against such persons, though King Saul himself once +went disguised to consult the Witch of Endor. Scripture says: "Thou +shalt not suffer a sorceress to live." These are the words which were +thought to give sanction to the burning of witches in New England a +century or more ago. + +In writing of the women in the days of the kings, one naturally turns +to the days of David, the first who brought Israel to a state of +political stability. The familiar saying, "The great men are not always +wise," is well illustrated in the matrimonial experiences of King David. +Many times was he married. Four of the wives of David are worthy of +note. The first may be called his wife of youthful romance, Michal, +Saul's daughter; the next, Abigail, the wife of manhood's admiration; +the third, Bathsheba, the wife of lustful passion; the fourth, Maachah, +the wife of old age's sorrow, for she bore unto him Absalom, the rebel. +It was a giddy and dangerous height to which David the youth had +suddenly arisen when the people were giving him, because of his prowess +in slaying Goliath of Gath, greater honor than the king. Even the young +Princess Michal could not disguise her admiration for the new and +youthful hero. But he must slay one hundred Philistines if he is to +possess Michal, says Saul, thinking David would lose his life in the +attempt. But the young man slew two hundred, and claimed his bride. +While her father was plotting the life of his young rival, Michal was +plotting more skilfully to save it; for, overhearing her father give +orders that her husband and lover should be slain, she let him down from +the window, substituting for her absent lord an image resting in her +bed, beneath the covering, in such wise as to support her statement to +the messengers, who came to take him before Saul, that David was sick. +Michal, having to make choice between her father and her husband, chose +the latter; and though she was long separated from him while David +warred with Saul, when at last David reigned he sent and recovered her, +his first love, and Michal became his wife again. + +But there were women of affairs in Israel, as well as women of +sentiment and devotion. The story of Abigail, wife of Nabal, and how she +became espoused to David, is a pleasing chapter of woman's power to +excite the admiration of a manly heart by combining the grace and the +tact of the womanly character with worldly wisdom and courage. It is one +of the finest illustrations recorded of woman's independence in the land +of the Hebrews. The story of Bathsheba's marriage to David is well +known. Falling in love with Bathsheba's beautiful form, the king plotted +the life of her husband, put him in the front rank in the battle, and, +when he fell, took her to his own house as wife. And while Maachah +became the mother of a son who was to be a very thorn in the heart of +his father, the wickedness which brought about the marriage to Bathsheba +became the cause of the bitterest expression of penitential anguish in +all the range of literature. For an ancient tradition, embodied in the +introduction to the fifty-first Psalm, affirms that that poem of +heart-stinging grief was written when Nathan the prophet had shown King +David the heinous blackness of his sin toward Uriah the Hittite. + +Diplomatic marriages were not uncommon in the ancient commonwealth of +Israel. They were not provided for in the law of Moses. Indeed, they +were distinctly prohibited both by the genius of that law and by its +positive enactments. And yet, no less influential a name than that of +Solomon might have been quoted as giving sanction to this method of +assuring national peace. + +Even modern governments might be cited--not only of the East, but of +the countries of Europe--as pernicious examples of the very ancient +custom of cementing political friendship by the interchange of +daughters. The Tel El Marna tablets present a number of illustrations of +diplomatic correspondence between Oriental kings concerning daughters +who had been given as wives to brother monarchs as a seal of friendship. +Now this well-nigh universal custom of diplomatic marriages, though +discouraged by the law of the Hebrews, spoken against by their prophets, +and forbidden by the very genius of their religion, was not uncommon in +the land of Israel. Saul, the first king, can scarcely be said to have +welded the tribes into a stable and recognized nationality. David, his +successor, was a warrior, who depended for his successes more upon +military prowess than upon the skill of diplomacy. The third King of +Israel fell heir to a nation made by the master hand of his father. The +Hebrews were now recognized by contemporary peoples as a great nation, +and, being respected for their power, peace reigned in Palestine. +Solomon, a man of peaceful temperament, resolved to sway the sceptre and +enhance his influence by the arts of diplomacy rather than by the +instruments of war. Among these arts was that of knowing how to be +wisely and numerously wed. He it was who introduced the harem, in the +modern meaning of the word, into Palestine. + +The living wives--in number seven hundred--that are said to have been +possessed by King Solomon shows that the prayer made by the people when +first they sought a king "like all the nations" had been answered. Here +was the beginning, as some of the prophets thought, of Israel's +subsequent disaster and final undoing as a kingdom. To them Jehovah was +the one unifying cause, the great power that was to preserve their +national integrity, their very existence as a people. To admit foreign +wives into the palace, bringing with them their gods, and becoming +perchance the mothers of their future kings was to defile the religion +of the realm at its heart, to undermine the worship of Jehovah in the +house of him who should be its main defender. In the life and reign of +King Solomon we have the strange contradiction which is not infrequently +discovered between theoretical wisdom and practical folly, between +private life and public conduct. No man of ancient days appears to have +understood woman better than Solomon, nor said more wise things +concerning them. His dealing with the rival claimants of a certain baby, +his wisdom in answering the hard questions of the Queen of Sheba have +made his name famous. And yet it was his lack of practical wisdom in +arranging his own household that sowed the seed of discord and +dissolution which were later to cause great distress and at last +disruption. + + + + +IV + +THE ERA OF POLITICAL DECLINE + + +Altogether the most glorious reign in all the history of the Hebrew +commonwealth was that of Solomon. David his father's military prowess +and his own skill in diplomacy had brought peace with foreign nations, +and rapid internal development. But even now germs of decay were +perceptible. The custom of diplomatic marriage with daughters of heathen +kings, the incoming of luxury, which was destined to undermine the +social, political, and religious hardihood which had previously +characterized the people, were destined powerfully to influence the life +and character of Hebrew women. For here, elements of weakness will often +first show themselves. It was inevitable that with the harem should come +immorality, luxury, effeminacy, and the encroachments of foreign +influence, through the women of many lands bringing their forms of +worship and also their deities with them. It was in anticipation of all +these dangers that the law forbade the king to "multiply wives to +himself." It will be remembered that it was the increased taxation +necessary to keep up such an establishment as that which Solomon brought +into being in Israel that led at his death to a disruption of the +kingdom into two antagonistic parts. It was the violation of this law +that later led the northern kingdom of Israel into one of the bitterest +struggles, one of the most cruel wars of extermination, ever enacted +among a people which has suffered many grievous national experiences. +King Ahab married a Princess of Phoenicia, the daughter of Eth-baal, +King of the Zidonians. With her came her worship of Baal, the very name +of which divinity was imbedded in the name of her father, Eth-baal. + +For force of character, Jezebel is probably unexcelled in the Scripture +records. But that character was, unfortunately, villainous. Molière +affirms that "It is more difficult to rule a wife than a kingdom." Ahab +must have found it so, and surrendered both enterprises to Jezebel. +When--like the famous miller of Potsdam who would not part with his mill +even to the great Frederick--Naboth refused to sell the vineyard which +was so coveted by the king, Jezebel says tauntingly to the disappointed, +fretting husband: "Dost thou rule over the Kingdom of Israel?" This Lady +Macbeth cries: "Give me the dagger." She prepares a great feast, invites +Naboth as a guest of honor, accuses him falsely and has him killed. +Triumphantly she now can present her husband with the much-coveted +vineyard. Her horrible death in the revolution which the fast-driving +Jehu led is held up by the prophets as a warning to subsequent +generations, for, unburied and eaten by dogs, Jezebel's body was cast +away, so that none could afterward honor her memory or say: "This is +Jezebel." And in the same revolution, by a Nemesis so common in history, +Jezebel's son Joram was slain in the field of Naboth. That her name made +a deep impression upon the Hebrew mind, however, may be seen in the fact +that in the book of Revelation, written nearly ten centuries afterward, +an heretical and idolatrous influence is referred to as "that woman +Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess to teach my servants to +commit fornification and to eat things sacrificed to idols." + +In marked contrast with the motherly devotion which generally +characterized the "daughters of Rachel" stands out the example of +Athaliah the unnatural; since she was the daughter of Jezebel, the fact +is not strange. To the truthfulness of the remark of La Bruyère that +"Women are ever extreme, they are better or they are worse than men," +history has often testified. The woman who is usually satisfied to sit +behind the throne has occasionally had ambitions to sit upon it. So it +was with Athaliah. The law of the Hebrews, while it made provision for +inheritance of daughters along with the sons, does not contemplate the +dominion of a queen. Only one woman ever sat upon the throne of the +Hebrews. + +When King Ahaziah, the reigning King of Judah, had been slain by Jehu in +a revolution directed against Joram, King of Israel, and all the seed +royal, Ahaziah's mother, seized with ambitions to be herself the +sovereign, proceeded to put to death all the possible heirs to the +throne. Fortunately for the Davidic dynasty, however, a sister of the +dead king rescued one of his sons, an infant, from the bloody massacre, +and hid him in one of the apartments of the temple. When the proper time +came, the high priest Jehoiada brought forth the lad, now seven years of +age, and with the aid of mighty men, proclaimed him king. Athaliah was +surprised and overwhelmed and was slain; but she had given Judah six +years of unrighteous government. + +The religious influence of Jezebel in the northern kingdom and of +Athaliah, her daughter, in the southern was of greater consequence in +the shaping of the history of the times than their lack of moral worth. +Jezebel was an ardent worshipper of Baal; indeed, she was the patroness +of Baal's prophets, the very bulwark of idolatrous practices in Israel. +Over against her stood the prophet Elijah, the representative of what +was apparently a lost hope. Jezebel had driven the prophets of Jehovah +into the dens and caves of the earth. It is commonly thought that while +men have more vices than women, women have stronger prejudices. But here +is a woman of whom it may be stated--altering a remark made concerning +Nero--"There is no better description of her than to say she +was--Jezebel." + +The Baal worship which she would foster, and did greatly succeed in +fastening upon Israel until its overthrow by Shalmaneser, King of +Assyria, was a debasing nature-worship, which tended to destroy manhood +and drag womanhood into shame. And while there was set up no material +monument of her power in Israel, yet it required generations for the +pernicious influence of her life to die away. If, as Dean Stanley +suggested, that Hebrew epithalamium, the forty-fifth Psalm, was written +in honor of Jezebel's marriage to Ahab, none of its ideals concerning +the new-made queen was ever realized in Israel. She must stand in the +history with Jeroboam whose constant literary monument is disclosed in +the oft-repeated words, "He made Israel to sin." + +In contrast with the proud and cruel queen whose aim had been to slay +Elijah and all who stood for Jehovah worship are certain obscure women +who protected and comforted the prophet. "You will find a tulip of a +woman," says Thackeray, "to be in fashion when a humble violet or daisy +of creation is passed over without remark." We shall not fall under the +implied condemnation by forgetting the nameless widow of Zarephath who, +though found gathering a few sticks to make a meal of the last handful +of flour and a little oil left in the cruse, yet when asked took the +fleeing Tishbite into her frugal home and shared with him her poor +repast. For fully a year did Elijah live under the widow's roof, and the +meal in the barrel wasted not, nor did the oil in the cruse fail, till +the famine was broken by the coming of the long delayed rains. + +A people's religion will register its mark quickly upon its women. A +most suggestive Semitic conception is found in the use of the figure of +marriage to describe the relationship between a people and their god, or +perhaps more accurately, between a land and its governing divinity. This +entire conception finds its best illustration in the term _Baal_, which +means husband, or lord. The god was conceived of as father and the land +as mother of the people and of all the products of the soil. + +The influence of the Baal cult upon Israelitish society, especially upon +woman, cannot be understood without reference to the nature of that +worship. Picture before your mind's eye the rustic prophet Amos, with +wandering staff in hand, impelled by a divine impulse, making his way +northward, and carrying a divine message to the people. He reaches +Bethel in the southern part of the kingdom of Israel--a city that from +time immemorial had been a sanctuary. He is shocked at the terrible +orgies practised about the altars there in the name of religion; at the +unbridled passion and lewdness in the name of the god and goddess of +fertility, Baal and Ashtoreth; at the men and women revelling in shame, +that the increase of the land might be celebrated and productiveness +symbolized. + +It is while looking upon such a scene of bestialized worship and +debauched womanhood that Amos cries out in prophetic grief: + + "The virgin of Israel is fallen, + She shall no more rise. + She is forsaken upon her land + There is none to raise her up." + +The domestic life of the prophet Hosea furnishes perhaps the best +illustration of the condition and dark possibilities of womanhood in +Israel during this era of religious lapse and of consequent moral decay. +When religion sanctions prostitution at the altar, profligacy is not +unnatural. Hosea had married one Gomer, daughter of Diblaim. Soon she +forgets her marriage vows and gives herself to a life of shame. Hosea, +not then a prophet, more than once tried to reclaim the erring wife of +his love; but she again falls into evil ways. His home is destroyed; and +as he thinks of the meaning of this fatal blow to his domestic +happiness, he can but see in it a divine call to go forth to correct a +condition of society which could foster such vice and make such sorrows +possible. The whole meaning of his ministry, as he starts out with his +children as object lessons of his and the people's great humiliation, is +but an enlarged reproduction of his own bitter experience. + +That the god and his land were related as husband and wife, was a very +familiar conception in Israel, as well as with the nations round about. +Even Isaiah proclaimed that the land of the Hebrew should be called +Beulah, that is, "married," a land wedded to Jehovah, in pure and +abiding love. But it remained for the worship of Baal, which means both +"lord" and "husband," to fasten upon Israel the basest practices between +the sexes, as a part of the worship of the god to whom the land was +married. + +Hosea sees in his own poignant grief an epitome of Israel's relation of +apostasy from Jehovah. She should have been a wife of purity, keeping +her covenant vows with her Lord, but instead, she had gone away to +consort with other gods and was playing the harlot against her first +love. Repeated efforts had failed to reclaim her, and now she is given +up to horrible vice as she sacrifices her virtue at the altar of Baal. +It is a fearful arraignment, hot with his own experiences and saturated +with tears. The words of Hosea are themselves the best representation of +society of the day, as we speak under the figure of his own bitter +grief: + +"Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife and I am not her +husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and +her adulteries from between her breasts." This is the earnest plea for a +purified Israel and a redeemed womanhood. + +The day is to come, says the prophet with the broken heart, when "she +shall follow after her lovers but she shall not overtake them. Then +shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it +better with me than now." "For she did not know," says Hosea for +Jehovah, "that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her +silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." And looking forward to a +day when the sensual worship of Baal which so debauched womanhood, +should be no longer known in Israel, the prophet, again as the +mouthpiece of Jehovah, still carrying out the same figure of wedlock, +says to Israel: "And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will +betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving +kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in +faithfulness; and thou shalt know Jehovah. And it shall come to pass in +that day that I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and +they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear (with) the corn, and +the wine, and the oil." + +It was only after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in B. +C. 586, and the consequent exile of the Hebrews, that this nature +worship which so endangered womanly virtue was exterminated. + +During the long, synchronous reign of Uzziah, King of Judah, and of +Jeroboam II., King of Israel, in the eighth century before the Christian +era, prosperity both at home and abroad had given the people of both +kingdoms great wealth. The Syrians had for a long series of years been a +breakwater against the growing power of Assyria. In the meantime, there +was unsurpassed opportunity for internal development, commercial +expansion, and the accumulation of wealth. Riches had led to luxury, and +commerce had made the people more hospitable to foreign ideals, both +social and religious. + +It was in the reign of Uzziah's successor, Jotham, that a new and +eloquent voice was lifted up on behalf of reform, calling the people +back to the ideals of the fathers and of the prophets. This new force in +Jerusalem was the young Isaiah, whose striking vision in the year King +Uzziah died caused him to give up a profane life for the prophet's +office; and upon none of the Hebrew prophets do the condition and +character of woman seem to have made so deep an impress. Among the very +earliest of his public utterances, so far as they have been preserved to +us, is that severe arraignment of the women of Jerusalem for their +wanton haughtiness, their wasteful extravagance, their love of show, +their self-indulgence and vice. Thus in detail does the prophet draw for +us the moving picture of female pride: "Moreover, the Lord saith: +Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth +necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing (or tripping delicately) as +they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: therefore, the Lord will +smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and +the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will +take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments (anklets) about their +feet, and their cauls (net works), and their round tires like the moon +(crescents), the chains (or ear pendants), and the bracelets, and the +mufflers, the bonnets (head tires), and the ornaments of the legs (ankle +chains), and the headbands, and the tablets (or smelling boxes), and the +earrings, the rings, and the nose jewels, the changeable suits of +apparel (festal robes), and the mantles, and the wimples (probably, +shawls), and the crisping pins, the glasses (hand mirrors), and the fine +linen, and the hoods (or turbans), and the vails. And it shall come to +pass that instead of sweet smell (of Oriental spices) there shall be +stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, +baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; and +burning instead of beauty. Thy husbands shall fall by the sword, and thy +mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being +desolate, shall sit upon the ground." + +In this period, the women as they went along scented the air with the +perfume from the boxes that hung at their girdles; they lolled idly and +luxuriantly upon ivory beds and silken cushions sprinkled with perfume, +and they gossiped to the sound of music. + +In predicting the great disaster and slaughter that were to come upon +the people through the Assyrian invasion, made successful by the +effeminacy of the people, the prophet discloses not only the dire +extremity to which the people were to be reduced, but reveals the +feminine ideal among the Hebrews, already alluded to in this volume, +namely, that which makes motherhood the aim of every Hebrew woman and +the absence of it a calamity. In that day seven women shall take hold +of one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel; +only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Widowhood +and celibacy were equally sources of deepest grief among the women of +Israel, and both were to be among the results of the luxury and vice of +the land. + +Woman, as well as man, in this era of decay, had fallen into the habit +of the most cruel covetousness, and, when occasion offered, the rich and +powerful women oppressed the poor. The herdsman-prophet Amos, coming +from his home in the rural districts of Judah, was shocked at the +corruption into which even the women of Samaria, the capital of the +northern kingdom of Israel, had fallen, and so, with a rustic boldness +that would not mince matters of such grave concern, he compared the +women to the fat cattle of the land of Bashan, saying to the wives and +mothers of the corrupt and luxury-loving city: "Hear this word, ye kine +of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, +which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring and let us +drink!" + +In the age of decline, it is a noteworthy fact that not a woman appears +to have lifted up prophetic voice against the moral and religious decay. +Prophets there were, but apparently no prophetesses, except those whom +Jeremiah rebukes with scathing earnestness,--women who prophesied +according to their own feelings and desires rather than in harmony with +the eternal principles as applied to the then present conditions. +Indeed, in the entire period of decline which preceded the fall of +Samaria in B.C. 722 and of Jerusalem in B.C. 586, no prophetess appears +in the record, except that Isaiah speaks of his wife as the prophetess. +This involves an entire change in the meaning of the word. + +But there were patriotic women, just as there were patriotic men, +during the days of decline. There was no greater suffering than that of +women when they saw the Babylonian soldiery laying Jerusalem in ashes. +Hugging their babes to their breasts, some were hewn in pieces, while +others suffered shameful indignities and were led away among the +captives, to sojourn in a strange land. The prophets had foreseen the +coming anguish of the women; and when Jeremiah foretold the restoration +of Israel to her land, he proclaimed that the eyes of Rachel, which had +wept for her children "because they were not," should at length be +dried, and her mourning turned into rejoicing. Thus the picture drawn in +that elegiac poem--the greatest of all Hebrew threnodies, known as the +Lamentations of Jeremiah--when he saw the sacred city in ruins, was +reversed: + + "How doth the city sit solitary + That was full of people! + How is she become as a widow! + She that was great among the nations, + And princess among the provinces, + How is she become tributary! + + "She weepeth sore in the night + And her tears are on her cheeks: + Among all her lovers + She hath none to comfort: + All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, + They have become her enemies." + +This was but the enlargement and national application of the distress +experienced by the women of Israel during the siege and final overthrow +of the city in which all Jewish hopes centred. + +Of the Hebrew women during the period of the exile, we know +comparatively little. And yet no woman of later Biblical Judaism made so +deep an impression upon the Jewish mind as did Esther. By her beauty and +the wise cunning of her uncle, she became the wife of King Ahasuerus, +the famous Persian who attempted to measure arms with the Greeks--an +effort which turned out so disastrously for the gigantic but +undisciplined Persian army. The story of Vashti's deposal, because she +refused to lend herself to the immodest proposal of the king, befuddled +by the wine of banqueting and revelry; of the subsequent selection of +Esther as queen; of her entreaty for her people, against whom a +deep-laid and cruel plot was soon to be executed,--is a familiar +narrative. + +That a Jewish woman should have been elevated to such a position in the +Persian palace seems so improbable that some have been inclined to doubt +the accuracy of the story which the Book of Esther records, especially +since profane history tells of but one wife of Ahasuerus, Amestris. But +the argument from silence is always precarious. Vashti and Esther may +easily have been extra-legal wives of the king, even though Amestris +were his only legally recognized wife. The well-known custom of Oriental +monarchies makes such a view highly probable. At all events, there +stands the well-known feast of Purim, the "festival of the Lots," as a +monument in Jewish religious life of the substantial accuracy of the +events recorded in the Book of Esther. + +The power of Esther's life and of her service to her people in exile +may be in a measure estimated by the fact that no book in all the Bible +was so much copied, or was so generally in possession of the Jewish +families as that of Esther. Indeed, it was asserted by Maimonides and +believed by many that when at the coming of Messiah all the rest of the +Old Testament should pass away, there would still remain the five books +of the law and the Book of Esther. Written as it was, upon separate +scrolls, it was in thousands of Jewish houses. Even at the present day +rolls containing Esther are the prized possession of Jewish families; +and these are sometimes even now passed down from parents to their +children upon the wedding day. On the day of Purim, the book is read in +public as a part of the service, that the way in which Esther became the +savior of her people may never be forgotten. The power of Esther's story +over the Jewish mind has seemed the more remarkable, since it is the +single book in the Hebrew Canon which does not contain the name of God. +But on the other hand, there is no Hebrew writing that is so intense in +its national spirit; none which breathes and burns so deeply with the +characteristic genius of "the peculiar people." + +There was perhaps no time in the history of the Hebrews when social +life received a more severe shock than during the days of the reforms +instituted by Nehemiah about the middle of the fifth century before +Christ. When the Jews returned from their exile in Babylonia many of +them married women of gentile blood and religion, daughters of those who +had peopled the land of Palestine during the exile. Children of Jews +were being born and taught heathen language and heathen worship by their +mothers. Nehemiah, under appointment as governor, when he saw that Jews +had married "wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab," commanded that all +foreign women be immediately divorced, and that only Jewish women should +be taken for wives. Great was the temporary suffering involved, to be +sure, but the aim in view, namely that of keeping the people henceforth +free from idolatry seemed to justify even so drastic a measure. A +grandson of the high priest, himself in priestly line, had married +Nicaso, daughter of Sanballat, the Horonite, the very crafty and +troublesome ruler of Samaria. When Nehemiah demanded of him that he give +up his wife he refused. The governor accordingly expelled him from +Jerusalem, chasing him out of his presence, as the Biblical narrative +informs us. Josephus says that when the people demanded that he give up +his alien wife or his priestly office,--as the law flatly forbade +priests from having foreign wives,--he decided first in favor of his +office. But when Sanballat, his father-in-law, heard of it, he told him +not to move hastily, but if he would keep Nicaso his wife, he, +Sanballat, would build him a temple of his own, so that he might be not +only a priest, but high priest, and Nicaso's husband at the same time. +This appealed to Manasseh's judgment, and he chose the plan of his +father-in-law. Thus was built the temple on Mount Gerizim, which became +thereafter the centre of Samaritan life and worship. It was concerning +Mount Gerizim that the Samaritan woman at the well spoke when she said +to Jesus: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in +Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." + +The suffering of the women during the grievous persecution of the Jews +under Antiochus Epiphanes, "the illustrious"--nicknamed Epimanes, "the +madman"--was frightful in the extreme. Some men, but fewer women, +yielded to the pressure of the effort to destroy the Jewish religion by +forcing the Greek pantheon, Greek games and theatre, and the Greek +culture upon the Jews. The struggle into which the people were plunged +brought the self-sacrifice of the women into prominence. A typical case +of suffering is given in the Second Book of Maccabees. King Antiochus +had laid hold of a mother and seven sons, and commanded that they +violate their law by eating swine's flesh. The eldest was first put to +the test. He refused to obey. The king commanded that the tongue of him +who spoke thus defiantly should be cut out, his limbs mutilated, and his +living body roasted in hot pans, and that his mother and her younger +sons should witness the awful sight. One after another the sons were +cruelly dealt with and slain. Each one was given opportunity to save his +life by eating the forbidden flesh, but each refused. At length the +youngest only remained. The king appealed to the mother, standing by, to +advise her boy to obey and save his life. But the sturdy Jewish mother +turned to this son and strengthened him in his determination to die +rather than prove faithless to the religion of his fathers by obeying +the merciless tyrant. He too was then murdered, even more cruelly than +the rest. And at length, the mother herself lost her life upon the same +altar of faithfulness, rather than transgress the law. Of such sturdy +stuff were the Jewish mothers of this awful period made. There is little +wonder that the sons of such women succeeded in winning their +independence and in setting up again a Jewish state, which had been +suppressed for more than four centuries. + +A look into this period would be incomplete without reference to one of +the apochryphal or deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament, highly +prized by the Jews as containing a picture of pious home life among the +Jews in the captivity. A devout Jew, as the story goes, with his wife +Anna and his son Tobias were among those whom Shalmaneser, King of +Assyria, had taken captive from the land of Israel and placed in the +city of Nineveh when Samaria fell about B. C. 722. Loyal to his religion, +Tobit, even in exile, refused to eat the bread of the Gentiles; but by +dint of hard work and fidelity he at length became purveyor to the king. +By the revolving wheel of fortune, Tobit is at length reduced to +poverty. Here Anna his wife, with devoted womanly faithfulness, comes to +the rescue with her skilful fingers, weaving and spinning for a +livelihood; for her husband was now both poor and blind. One day Anna, +wearied and provoked, reproaches her husband for his blindness--such +calamities were esteemed a divine curse in Israel, whereupon Tobit +prayed that he might die. On the self-same day, a young Jewess, Sara, +daughter of Raguel, a captive in Ecbatana of Media, was offering up a +similar prayer that the end of her life might come. For her father's +maid had charged her with killing her seven husbands, who had died one +after another, each on the very first night of the wedding feast, though +the strange deaths had been the work of Asmodeus, the evil spirit, who +was not willing that the maiden should wed. Now these two widely +separated and unrelated prayers were to be brought together into one +romantic story by the help of an angel, who becomes a guide to the son +of Tobit, young Tobias, who is about to start out in life in quest of a +fortune. The angel guides him to Ecbatana, bids him make the eighth to +offer marriage to Sara, whose seven husbands had perished on the nuptial +night. Though Tobias had never seen the young woman before, he was to +her the next of living kin and so should be (according to the Mosaic +law) the one to offer his hand to the youthful, much-married widow. +Would the young Tobias prove strong enough bravely to face the record of +the seven deaths? The angel here comes to the rescue, and calls Tobias's +attention to the heart and liver of a great fish which had been caught +in the Euphrates as the two had journeyed together from Nineveh to +Ecbatana. These, burned with perfumes in the bridal chamber, drove the +evil spirit Asmodeus away, and the marriage festivities went on merrily. +The life of Tobias had been saved. He takes his newly wedded wife back +to his father's house in joy and triumph, cures his father's blindness +by the same magic charm which had saved his own life in the bridal +chamber, and peace and wealth and long life follow in rich profusion. + +This story is chiefly of interest to us as it shows the continuation, +even into the period of exile, of the Levirate marriage custom. While +the story of the marriage of Sara, daughter of Raguel, is a Jewish +romance, the literature of the inter-biblical period is not without its +tragedies, in which woman plays an important rôle. Among these is the +well-known story of Judith and Holofernes. + +Many Jewish women have passed into literature and art. Rebekah at the +wellside, Miriam watching by the reeds or singing the pæan of victory +with timbrel, Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz, Delilah the +voluptuous, and Athaliah the monster, have exerted their influence both +upon the makers of art and writers of drama, but probably no Hebrew +woman before the birth of Jesus has made a deeper impress upon the +imagination of men than Judith, the beautiful woman and patriot of +Bethulia. A woman once saved the city of Rome from overthrow. Several +times in the history of Israel was it given to a woman to be the +deliverer of the people. The names of Deborah, Esther, and Judith have +come down the centuries as those of women who risked their lives for the +salvation of their people from the enemy, and succeeded because of their +tact and prowess. + +The story of Judith and Holofernes is told in the apocryphal Book of +Judith. The Assyrians are at war with Israel, whose cities are being +besieged and wasted in the merciless onslaught. Holofernes, the Assyrian +general, at length lays siege to Bethulia in his onward march to the +holy city of Jerusalem. The people are reduced to straits most direful +and bitter. Women and little ones perish in the streets, and the people +cry out to their leaders to sue Asshur for peace. The rulers, thus +urged, promise within five days to yield to their besiegers. It is then +that Judith, wealthy and pious, a widow of the city, comes forward to +strengthen the fainting heart of the governors and to bid them trust God +and stand firm. She promises, in the meantime, that she herself will aid +them. Praying earnestly that God will help her in her purpose, she lays +aside the habiliments of widowhood, and, arraying herself in garments of +gladness, goes forth with her maids to the camp of Holofernes. Charmed +with her beauty and grace, the Assyrian gives a feast, to which the +bewitching Judith is invited. Holofernes makes merry, and, drinking to +drowsiness, lies down in his tent to sleep. Others depart in the night, +leaving him and the Jewess alone. Seeing her opportunity, Judith seizes +the scimiter that hung on the pillar of Holofernes's bed, and, laying +hold upon the hair of the sleeping man's head, severed it from his body, +and made her way in the darkness back to the city. In the early morning +a sally was made from the city gates, and the Assyrians, finding their +captain headless, were thrown into utter confusion and completely +routed. Thus did Judith become the deliverer of Israel. The women of the +city ran together to see her who had been their savior, made a great +dance for her, sang her praises, and bestowed their benedictions, +placing garlands of olive upon her brow. + +Portia's shrewd dealing with Shylock, the Jewish money lender, called +forth the frequent applause of the onlookers: "A Daniel come to +judgment, yea, a Daniel!" It is in the _History of Susanna_, an +apocryphal addition to the canonical Book of Daniel, in which the great +prophet is presented in the rôle of arbiter. He appears in a cause +against a woman, Susanna, a Jewish lady of great beauty, the wife of a +wealthy and distinguished Hebrew whose home was in Babylon. Susanna +excited the amours of two judges, elders of the people, who were +frequently at her husband's home; but she spurned all their advances, +till, angered and resentful, they united in a plot to destroy her, and +accused her of unfaithfulness to Joachim, her husband. The penalty for +adultery was death, and the people crowded to the trial; for if there +was conviction, stoning would follow. The two elders, standing, with +their hands upon the innocent woman's head, tell the story agreed upon, +how they saw the wife of Joachim in the very shameful act of which they +accused her; and the assembly, believing the testimony of the two elders +and judges of the people, condemned Susanna to death. At this juncture, +the young man Daniel appears upon the scene, much as Portia in the trial +of Antonio, and, by adroitly cross-questioning the two witnesses +separately, involved them in contradictions, revealing the cowardly plot +against the virtuous woman and convicting them of false witnessing. And +since the law of Moses prescribed the same penalty for those who bore +false testimony as that which would have come to the accused, the elders +were put to death, and Susanna was given honor before all the people. +This is but one of the many examples in Hebrew history which reveal the +unusually high moral character and purity of life that prevailed among +the Hebrew women. + +It is one of the noteworthy and distressing facts of late Jewish +history that in the later teaching of the rabbis woman is placed upon a +distinctly lower plane. Her inferiority to man is frequently emphasized. +And yet there was one factor which came into the life of Judaism, after +the Babylonian exile, which gave to Jewish women an advantage which they +had not previously enjoyed. It was the establishment of the synagogue. +The secondary place given to women in the temple worship has already +been referred to. The man, as head of the family, was representative of +the family and responsible, therefore, for the performance of the +ceremonies required of every Hebrew household. With the destruction of +the temple and the dispersion of the Jews, the temple rites were +rendered impossible. When the synagogue arose to fill the vacancy made +by these conditions, women were given a place in attendance at the +instruction given in these new centres of Jewish life. And while they +were never strictly considered members of the congregation, yet, seated +in a separate part of the room, they heard the Scriptures read and +expounded; and it was not unknown for women even to read on the Sabbath +as among the seven appointees for the day. The _Torah_, or law, however, +was considered rather too sacred and important to be committed to their +exposition. + +Judging from a remark in the _Halacha_ it is just to infer that in the +days when the Jews had become dispersed throughout the Roman world, +there were two facts that had a very powerful influence upon Jewish +women, one of them of Hebraic, the other of Greco-Roman origin. For the +_Halacha_, in speaking of the women leaving their homes, said that there +were two causes which took the women away from their domestic duties: +one was the synagogue, the other, the baths,--not, indeed, an altogether +uncomplimentary comment upon the women of the times, for it would seem +they believed in the oft-coupled virtues of cleanliness and godliness. + +From the days of John Hyrcanus, the influence of the Jewish rulers had +been decidedly in favor of Hellenic culture. Thus the revolution brought +about by the Maccabean revolt seemed about to be undone by the +successors of the Maccabees. Jewish independence had been won in an +effort to resist Antiochus Epiphanes and others in their attempts to +destroy Judaism by making the Greek religion and customs prevalent +throughout Palestine. Would the sons and successors of the sturdy +Maccabeans give away the fruits of the hard-won victory? When to +Alexandra was bequeathed the government by her husband, she decided to +espouse the cause of the Pharisaic party, who hated the encroachments of +foreign influence. But, alas, for the queen's inability to cope with a +situation so strained! In her effort to appease the opposite party she +put weapons into their hands, which were soon turned against her. As an +old woman of seventy-three, she saw her two sons in bitter contest, at +the head of opposing forces, each trying to rule over a tumultuous, +faction-torn nation. She passed away, deploring a condition which she +was utterly unable to correct. It was not till Pompey brought his Roman +legions to the gates of Jerusalem, and set up the Roman eagles in the +holy city itself that intrigue and battling for the Jewish throne was +brought to a close. Then Jewish independence was no more. + +A great granddaughter of Alexandra was destined indirectly at least to +play a prominent rôle in later Jewish history. This was Mariamne. Herod, +afterward known as the Great, had hoped by marrying this descendant of +both the contending Jewish parties, to unite the influence of the two +branches of the Asmonean house. In this, however, Herod was +disappointed, and he proceeded to accomplish by force what he had hoped +to do by wiles. In the frightful war of extermination waged by Herod +against the whole Asmonean line, which he feared might endanger the +rulership secured to him by the Roman power and his own political +prowess, there figured a Jewish woman who, because of her sagacity, is +not to be passed over in silence. She was Alexandra, a granddaughter of +the queen of the same name. When Herod attempted to place in the office +of Jewish high priest a young man who would be simply a tool for him, +Alexandra advocated the candidature of Aristobulus,--her son and a +brother of Mariamne,--who by birthright was in line of official +succession. Alexandra shrewdly wrote to Cleopatra that the wily woman of +the Nile might use her influence with Antony to force Herod to terms. +Herod was compelled to yield and appointed Aristobulus, but determined +that Alexandra as well as the new high priest should be put out of the +way. One day after both Herod and Aristobulus had been enjoying a +banquet given by Alexandra, Herod successfully plotted the killing of +the high priest in a fishpond attached to the house of feasting, Herod's +minions holding him playfully under the water until he was drowned. But +Alexandra was not so stupid as to fail to take in the situation. Through +Cleopatra she again succeeded in forcing Herod upon the defensive. Being +summoned to appear before Antony, Herod succeeded, however, in again +ingratiating himself with the Roman, and he returned as strong as ever +to Jerusalem. + +But his return was not altogether happy; for on his departure, he had +given command that should his interview with Antony be ill-fated, +Mariamne, his Jewish wife, should be slain, that no other man might have +her for wife. The secret leaked out, and came to Mariamne's ears. She +violently resented the treatment of Herod and on his return reproached +him for his cruelty; but the insanely jealous and wily Herod was not to +be changed by reproaches. On his absence from home on the occasion when +he went to meet Octavius, the new star which arose on Antony's downfall, +Herod again commanded that both Mariamne and Alexandra be put to death +should he not return alive. Mariamne on his return received him with +cold resentment. With the help of Herod's mother and sister the +estrangement became more and more bitter. The king's cupbearer was +bribed by them to declare that Mariamne had attempted to poison her +husband. The jury, as well as the evidence, being well-arranged +before-hand, the unfortunate Mariamne was led away to execution in B.C. +29, to be followed next year by Alexandra, who had watched her +opportunity and, taking advantage of an illness of Herod, had attempted +to gain possession of Jerusalem and overthrow the reign of Herod. It was +a bold stroke for a woman. It failed, and she was executed. With her +death the line of Asmonean claimants to the throne was ended. + +But the end of this chapter in which womanly hate and intrigue played so +prominent a part was not yet. When Herod's sister, Salome, who had taken +so large a part in the death of Mariamne, saw Herod's sons return from +their studies in Rome, with the looks and royal bearing of their mother, +Mariamne; when she perceived the people's joy at their likeness to the +late Jewish queen who had been so cruelly murdered, her jealousy became +most bitter, and she began to plot against them as she had against their +mother. Herod for a time seemed unmoved and married one of them to +Berenice, Salome's own daughter. This only intensified Salome's hate; +and step after step of domestic hatred and unhappiness led at length to +the order by Herod that the two sons of his Jewish wife, Alexander and +Aristobulus, should be strangled at Sebaste, where years before their +mother Mariamne had become his bride. No wonder Augustus Cæsar could +utter his famous pun in the Greek language which may be reproduced in +the words: "I would rather be Herod's _swine_ than his _son_!" + +This was the same Herod who issued an edict that rent the heart of many +a mother "in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof," a command which +sent Mary, the mother of the infant Jesus, into exile with her newborn +Son, whose coming into the world was destined to open a new volume, as +the narrative passes from Hebrew to Christian womanhood. + +Among the Semitic peoples it is not usual, certainly in strictly +historic times, to find women holding the first place in the seat of +government. Semiramis in the prehistoric period of Assyria is a +noteworthy exception to the general custom; and queens sometimes ruled +among the Arabians, and "the Queen of Sheba" in southern Arabia became +famous. But the common Semitic conception that the king was son and +special representative of the deity made it more difficult for women to +hold the sceptre. Among the Hebrews there is no instance of a woman +being legally recognized as queen. Deborah, before the days of the +kingdom, "judged Israel" by virtue of her prophetic character and her +ability as a woman of affairs, and Athaliah was enabled to usurp the +throne through the murder and banishment of male heirs to the crown. In +speaking of her reign it was said that she was the only woman who ever +reigned over Israel. There is, however, one other woman who held the +Jewish sceptre. After the bloody struggle led by the Maccabees, the Jews +at length obtained their liberty from the yoke of the Seleucid kings. +Israel then enjoyed about a century of independence. During this period +there arose one woman who for nine years ruled the nation. This was +Alexandra, the widow of Alexander Janneus, whose unhappy reign came to +an end by strong drink, B. C. 78. The conception of the government as a +pure theocracy where the king reigned as representative of Jehovah +himself rendered it impossible for women to be recognized as lawful +sovereigns. The second Psalm, which seems to be a sort of coronation +ode, written at the time of the incoming of a new king, expresses the +relationship between Jehovah and the earthly ruler: + + "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son, + This day have I begotten thee." + +Even wives of the Kings of Israel, as a rule, are not called queens, +though Jezebel,--the Phoenician wife of Ahab,--king of the Ten Tribes, +is a notable exception. This may be accounted for, however, by the fact +that she was not an Israelite and worshipper of Jehovah, but a devotee +of Ashtoreth, the queen divinity of Phoenicia; and withal she was a far +stronger, more aggressive personality than her inefficient husband. It +is of interest to observe also that Jezebel is called queen only in +connection with her sons. The idea of queen-mother is far more common +among the Hebrews than that of queen-wife. Mothers of kings were given +especial honor. King Solomon takes his seat upon his throne and sends, +not for his wife to sit by his side, but for Bathsheba, his mother, +whose adjacent throne is set at the king's right hand. Asa, in his +religious reforms, removed his mother from being queen because she had +set up an image or sacred pillar in honor of Baal worship. Jeremiah the +prophet called upon the King of Israel and his queen-mother--who seems +to have been most active in opposing the prophet's proposed policy in +submitting to the Babylonians without a struggle--to humble themselves, +because their crowns were even then toppling from their heads. Thus the +semi-royal character of the mothers of the kings is evident. This will +account, at least in part, for the wording of the chronicles of the +kings of Israel and Judah, for this is the set formula: "And A----slept +with his fathers, and B----, his son, reigned in his stead. And his +mother's name was M----. And he did that which was right (or evil) in +the sight of the Lord." + +Thus is the importance of the queen-mother constantly emphasized in +the Hebrew records. + + + + +V + +THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN WOMEN + + +Archæology here puts on her apron, takes her pick and spade in hand to +help us uncover the story of the woman of Babylonia and Assyria. Skulls, +jewels, cylinders, tablets, monuments, mural decorations must be brought +to light after their long sleep beneath the surface of the ground. As +alive from the dead these come forth to tell, at least in broken story, +of those women who helped to make the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates +among the most noteworthy spots upon the face of the Eastern world. + +What we may know concerning the women of this early Assyro-Babylonian +civilization may be derived in part from the Greek annalists who taught +the world to write history, but chiefly from the discoveries in modern +excavations. And even with these sources at our command, we shall find +that many things which we would like to know about Assyrian and +Babylonian women are still obscure. + +The Sumer-Accadian question shall not disturb us here. That there was a +non-Semitic people living in the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris, +and that they developed a civilization from which the Babylonian and +Assyrians later borrowed, seems clearly established. What the Sumerian +and Accadian women left to their Semitic sisters who came at length into +the ancient heritage, it would now be impossible to say with any degree +of certainty. + +The ancient mythology and the epic poems of these people contain many +female characters, which may throw some light upon woman's place in +their civilization. A people's mythology is the dim daguerreotype of +their childhood thinking. Fortunately for us, the last fifty years have +brought to light a whole series of epic poems from early Babylonian +life, some of them in fragmentary form, others more or less well +preserved. In nearly all these the feminine character has its place. + +It will be remembered that in the Hebrew account of the creation no +female divinity plays a part. In the kindred Semitic accounts from +Babylonia and Assyria, however, Tihâmat, or Mummu Tohâmat, becomes the +primeval mother of all things. She was chaos--corresponding to the +Hebrew _Tehôm_, or "abyss." And thus, from the womb of dark chaos, with +the ocean as father, came the divinity, the sun, moon and stars, earth, +man, everything. But, strangely enough, after the birth of the first +gods from chaos, a strife arose between them and their mother Tihâmat. +It is, however, the old story of light's struggle with darkness. Anu +would decide the dispute, but Tihâmat declares that the war must go on. +Marduk, the god of light, becomes the special champion of the forces +arrayed against primeval darkness, and Tihâmat is vanquished and cut +asunder. From one part he makes the firmament of the heaven, to which +the gods of the heavenly lights, sun, moon, and stars, are assigned, and +from the other half he fashions the earth. + +So, also, in the story of the Deluge, the Babylonian Noah, called +Sît-Napishti, takes his wife with him into the ark; and when the floods +subside and the ship rests, stranded upon the land, Ishtar, the goddess +of the rainbow, greatly rejoices as she smells the sweet incense that +arises from the grateful altar of Sît-Napishti. The god Bel is persuaded +never again to destroy the earth with a flood, and so takes Sît-Napishti +and his faithful wife by the hand, blesses them, and at length +translates them to paradise. + +One of the most prominent heroines of early Babylonian epic is Ishtar. +Indeed, there are many variant stories concerning her. Ishtar's descent +into Hades is, in fact, one of the most important legends of Oriental +mythology. She is the goddess of love, corresponding to the Canaanite +and Phoenician divinities Ashtoreth and Astarte. She is the Aphrodite, +the Venus of classic myth. Earlier she did not hold power over men's +minds. She was a goddess of war, and the earlier warriors honored her as +their patroness. It was Esarhaddon who enlarged the honors paid her; and +he is said once to have interrupted his scribe, while reading of two +important expeditions of arms, to send and fetch _The Descent of Ishtar +into Hades_. + +This romantic story of adventure on the part of the goddess is well +set out in early Assyro-Babylonian literature. Tammuz, the young husband +of Ishtar, has been cut off by the boar's tusk (of winter). Ishtar +mourned incessantly for her lover, but in vain. She resolved to rescue +him if possible from the realm of shade, the kingdom of Allat, whence he +had gone; for, though god he was, he must keep company with all the rest +whom death claimed. Only one method of restoring him to the realm of +life was possible. There was a spring which issued from under the +threshold of Allat's own palace. One who could bathe in and drink of +these wonderful waters would live again. But, alas! they were zealously +guarded; for a stone lay upon the fountain, and seven spirits of earth +watched with assiduous care lest some might drink and live. Of these +waters Ishtar resolved to go and fetch a draught. But no one, not even a +goddess, can descend into this Hades alive. So we read: "To the land +from whence no traveller returns, to the regions of darkness, Ishtar, +the daughter of Sin, has directed her spirit to the house of darkness, +the seat of the God Iskala, to the house which those who enter can never +leave, by the road over which no one travels a second time, to the house +the inhabitants of which never again see the light, the place where +there is no bread, but only dust, no food, but wind. No one can see the +light there, ... upon the gate and the lock on all sides the dust lies +thick." But Ishtar, in her quest of love, is nothing daunted by the +difficulties or the forbidding aspects of her task. She descends to the +gates of Allat's abode and knocks upon them, calling commandingly to the +doorkeeper to unlock the bolts: "Guardian of life's waters, open thy +doors, open thy doors that I may go in. If thou do not open thy gate and +let me in, I will sound the knocker, I will break the lock, I will +strike the threshold and break through the portal. I will raise the dead +to devour the living, the dead shall be more numerous than the living." +The porter goes and tells his mistress, Allat, of the imperious demand +of Ishtar. "O goddess, thy sister Ishtar has come in search of the +living water; she has shaken the strong bolts, she threatens to break +down the doors." Allat treats her with contempt, but finally commands +her messenger: "Go, then, O guardian, open the gates to her, but unrobe +her according to the ancient laws." Since men come naked into the world, +they must go out unclad, and the older custom among the Babylonians was +to bury the dead without clothing. Ishtar is stripped of her garments +and jewels, and at each successive gate more of her ornaments were +appropriated. First went her crown, for Allat alone was queen in that +gloomy realm; then her earrings, her jewelled necklace; then her veil, +her belt, her bracelets, and her anklets. When through the seventh gate +she passed, all her garments were taken away; and Allat commanded her +demon Namtar--the plague devil--to take her from the queen's presence +and strike her down with disease of every sort. Meanwhile, in the upper +world all are mourning because of her absence; for, as goddess of love +and procreation, all nature was perishing, and there was no renewal. All +the forces of the upper world, therefore, united to bring her back to +light; for the world would be depopulated and barren, if some means were +not found to restore her. + +Here the supreme god Hea comes to the rescue, for he alone, as +controller of the universe, can violate the laws which he himself has +imposed thereon. Hea commands that Allat give life again to Ishtar by +the application of the water of life to her. She was informed that power +over the life of her consort Tammuz was given into her hands. The water +of life was poured upon him, he was anointed with precious perfumes and +clothed in purple. Thus "Nature revived with Tammuz: Ishtar had +conquered death." + +That the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a queen; that the real +sceptre in the underworld was swayed by a woman is a matter of some +significance. In the old Norse mythology the goddess Hel, without a +husband, ruled in the abode of Hell, or the place of death. Among the +Greeks, Persephone divided with her husband, Pluto, the control of the +underworld. With the Babylonians it is the goddess Allat whose power +controls the realm of the dead; and even her scribe, contrary to what we +might expect, was also a woman, whose name was Belit-Iseri. Allat, the +mistress of death, is not represented as an attractive woman, but ill +shaped, with the wings and claws of a bird of prey. She goes to and fro +in her realm, exploring the river which flows from the world to her own +abode. A huge serpent is brandished in each hand, with which, as "an +animated sceptre," she strikes and poisons those against whom her enmity +is directed. The boat in which she navigates the dark river has a fierce +bird's beak upon its prow, and a bull's head upon its stern. Her power +is irresistible; and even the gods cannot invade her realm except they +die like men, and graciously acknowledge her supremacy over them. Just +as the dead eat and drink and sleep, so does Allat. Her daily portion, +as with other divinities, comes from the table of the gods, brought by +her faithful messenger, Namtar. Libations poured out in sacrifice by the +living also trickle down to her through the earth. Thus Allat lives and +reigns in the land from which no traveller returns, a kingdom into which +twice seven gates open to receive the dead; but none opens for their +release. + +Professor Peter Jensen, of Marburg, Germany, has raised the question: +Why in the realm of the dead is the power of woman so important, and +even monarchical in character? He answers it by the very simple +explanation that just as the Hebrews personified their Sheol, and the +North Germanic nations their Hel, so the Assyrians and Babylonians +regarded their country of the dead as a person. And that since names of +places and lands are of feminine gender, in Assyrian thought as in the +Hebrew, the land of the dead was conceived of under the form of a woman. +Whether this be the true explanation or not, certain it is that the +female principle played an important part in the religious thinking of +the Assyro-Babylonian peoples. + +It is not difficult, therefore, to perceive that women would hold an +important place in Babylonian and Assyrian religious life, and in the +Phoenician cult. When the goddess plays an important part in religion, +especially when the renovative and procreative powers of nature are +worshipped, woman will naturally find a place. While the Hebrews have +their prophetesses, the religion of Babylonia and Assyria has its +priestesses as well as prophetesses. + +No account of the women of Assyria would seem complete without +reference to the legend of Semiramis and her wonderful exploits. And as +is the case with much of the history of the dawn of nations, we are +indebted to the Greeks for preserving for us the story of this +superlative queen. Ctesias, Diodorus, Herodotus, Strabo, and others tell +her story or mention her achievements. This remarkable woman was said to +be the daughter of Derceto, the goddess of reproductive nature and of a +youthful mortal with whom she had fallen in love. The babe was exposed +by its mother, but was found and cared for by a shepherd named Simmas. +Having developed into a very beautiful damsel, she won the hand of +Oannes, Governor of Syria. In the war against Bactria she so +distinguished herself for bravery, disguising herself as a soldier and +scaling the wall of the besieged capital, that the King Ninus, founder +of the city of Nineveh, took her to be his own queen. Soon Ninus died +and Semiramis became sole ruler of the realm. Unbounded ambition, +coupled with surpassing genius, caused her to undertake the labor of +eclipsing the glory of all her predecessors. She built cities, threw up +defences, conquered kings, and extended her territory in every +direction. She made the city of Babylon one of her capitals, fortifying +it with gigantic walls of sun-dried brick, cemented with asphalt. She +built wonderful bridges supported by huge pillars of stone. Diodorus +Siculus, quoting Ctesias, thus describes her work upon the walls of the +city of Babylon: "When the first part of the work was completed, +Semiramis fixed on the place where the Euphrates was narrowest, and +threw across it a bridge five stadia long. She contrived to build in the +bed of the stream pillars twelve feet apart, the stones of which were +joined with strong iron clamps, fixed into the mortises with melted +lead. The side of these pillars toward the run of the stream was built +at an angle, so as to divide the water and cause it to run smoothly past +and lessen the pressure against the massive pillars. On these pillars +were laid beams of cedar and cypress, with large trunks of palm trees, +so as to form a platform thirty feet wide. The queen then built at great +cost, on either bank of the river, a quay with a wall as broad as that +of the city and one hundred and sixty stadia long, that is, nearly +twenty miles. In front of each end of the bridge, she built a castle +flanked by towers, and surrounded by triple walls. Before the bricks +used in these buildings were baked, she modelled on them, figures of +animals of every kind, colored to represent living nature. Semiramis +then constructed another prodigious work: she had a huge basin, or +square reservoir, dug in some low ground. When it was finished the river +was directed into it, and she at once commenced building in the dry bed +of the river, a covered way leading from one castle to the other. This +work was completed in seven days, and the river was then allowed to +return to its bed, and Semiramis could then pass dry-shod under water +from one of her castles to the other. She placed at the two ends of the +tunnel, gates of bronze, said by Ctesias to be still in existence in the +time of the Persians. Lastly, she built in the midst of the city the +temple of the god Bel." + +It will be seen from such a paragraph as this just quoted how Semiramis +anticipated much of the best work of engineering of modern times. The +mountains and valleys yielded to her daring when highways were to be +built for the extension of her power and her commerce. In Armenia, +Media, and all the regions around she exhibited her genius and prowess. +Even Egypt and Ethiopia fell before her. Only when she undertook to +carry her arms into far-off India did she meet with reverses. +Stabrobatis, King of India, with the aid of elephants, utterly routed +the army of the valiant queen, and she never again attempted an +expedition to the Far East. As an example of what Semiramis thought of +herself, we may quote the words attributed to her: "Nature gave me the +body of a woman, but my deeds have equalled those of the most valiant +men. I ruled the empire of Ninus, which reaches eastward to the river +Hinaman (the Indus), southward to the land of incense and myrrh (Arabia +Felix), northward to the Saces and Sogdians. Before me no Assyrian had +seen a sea; I have seen four that no one had approached, so far were +they distant. I compelled the rivers to run where I wished, and directed +them to the places where they were required. I made barren land fertile +by watering it with my rivers; I built impregnable fortresses; with iron +tools I made roads across impassable rocks; I opened roads for my +chariots, where the very wild beasts were unable to pass. In the midst +of these occupations, I have found time for pleasure and love!" + +What are we to think of this story of the very wonderful lady of the +Orient of long ago? Did she ever live, move, and have her remarkable +being? It is needless to reply that the story is purely legendary, that +none of the modern excavations which have been so fruitful in character +have confirmed the story of Ctesias. On the contrary, the monuments have +as yet failed even to certify to the existence of such a woman. The fact +that her birth is given as from a goddess, that at her death she was +changed into a dove, and was thereafter herself worshipped as a goddess, +is some evidence of the unreliable character of the narrative. A queen +who bore the name of Sammuramat and lived between B.C. 812 and B.C. 783 +has been discovered as a historical personage, a name that may possibly +have influenced that given the great prehistoric queen. But the +marvellous achievements attributed to Semiramis are discovered to be the +work of man through a long series of years, and that, too, highly +idealized in the numerous details. + +That the imaginary queen, as the story goes, had a power over the minds +of the people is evident from the fact that many later achievements of +arms and of building were attributed to her. And yet, notwithstanding +the mythological character of the story of Semiramis, there is reflected +much truth concerning Assyro-Babylonian history in these legends. That +so great achievements should have been attributed to a woman is evidence +of a lack of that prejudice against woman which is discoverable among +many Oriental people. In the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris, +women had a noteworthy degree of independence, and in some respects a +recognized equality. The legend could have developed only in such an +atmosphere. The comparison of feminine and masculine virtues has been +made time out of mind; the following words from Plutarch are, in this +connection, of interest: "Neither can a man truly any better learn the +resemblance and difference between feminine and virile virtue than by +comparing together lives with lives, exploits with exploits, as the +product of some great art, duly considering whether the magnanimity of +Semiramis carries with it the same character and impression with that of +Sesostris, or the cunning of Tanaquil the same with that of King +Servius, or the discretion of Portia the same with that of Brutus, or +that of Pelopidas with that of Timoclea, regarding that quality of these +virtues wherein lie their chiefest point and force." + +It is certain that if early Assyrian myth is to be consulted, the +Assyrians had no hesitancy in recognizing the possibility of real +greatness in woman's accomplishments and womanly genius. + +While there are few queens of note among the prominent personages of +whom we read upon the monuments, and while the name of no woman occurs +in the Eponym Canon by which the chronology of the nation's life is +reckoned, yet the place of woman among the Assyrians and Babylonians was +one of greater privilege and honor than among most ancient nations. +Those unsurpassed walls that protected the great city of Babylon and the +hydraulic works which Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, was forced to +capture before the city fell into his hands are attributed by Herodotus +to a woman,--Queen Nitocris. + +In the Code of Hammurabi, who was King of Babylon about B. C. 2250, the +most ancient of all known codes of law, woman fares well for so early a +period. One of these quaint laws reads: "If a woman hates her husband +and says, 'Thou shalt not have me,' they shall inquire into her +antecedents for her defects. If she has been a careful mistress and +without reproach, and her husband has been going about and greatly +belittling her, that woman has no blame. She shall receive her presents, +and shall go to her father's house." "If she has not been a careful +mistress, has gadded about, has neglected her house and belittled her +husband, they shall throw that woman into the water!" Under this code, a +man might sell his wife to pay his debts. For three years she might work +in the house of the purchaser; after which she was to be given her +freedom. Where the law of Moses says: "He that smiteth his father _or +his mother_ shall be surely put to death," Hammurabi's code enjoins: +"Who smites his father, loses the offending limb." + +From the many contract tablets that have been exhumed much fresh light +has been thrown upon the social customs of the people in the valleys of +the Euphrates and the Tigris. In Babylonia the woman did not suffer +greatly before the law from the fact that she was the weaker vessel. +Indeed, the scales were held quite evenly as between the sexes. A woman +might hold her own property, appear in public, and attend to her own +business. Frequently, Assyrian women are depicted upon monuments riding +on the highways upon mules. Woman might even hold office and plead in a +court of justice--so far did Babylonia anticipate the progress of modern +Western ideas. Agreements have been discovered upon tablets by which it +was covenanted between a man and his wife that should the husband marry +another during the lifetime of the first wife, all the dowry of the +first shall be returned to her and she shall be allowed to go where she +pleases. The law concerning divorce, however, would seem to lack that +fairness which characterizes many other regulations of social life. A +man might divorce his wife by the payment of a pecuniary consideration; +but if a woman undertook the initiative in annulling the marriage +contract, she might be condemned to death by drowning. + +In the formula for the exorcism used by the priests to break the spell +the gods had sent upon one possessed or sick, we discover that despising +the mother was regarded as being as culpable as dishonoring the father. +"Has he perchance set his parents or relations at variance, sinned +against God, despised father or mother, lied, cheated, dishonored his +neighbor's wife, shed his neighbor's blood, etc. Indeed, an ancient law, +which is thought to go back even to Accadian precedents, even gives to +the woman, if she be a mother, greater honor than to the man for it is +prescribed that if a son denies his father he is to be fined; if he +denies his mother, he is to be banished." + +It must be said, however, that the social freedom of the women depended +much upon their social rank. The women of the lower walks of life were +singularly independent for an Oriental community. Indeed, their liberty +was practically unrestricted. They could be seen upon the public +highways, with both head and face uncovered. They could make their +purchases at the market place, attend to any business that they might +find necessary, and visit the homes of their friends without restraint. +While all women, whatever might be their rank, had the same standing +before the laws of the land, unbending custom kept women of the highest +plane of social life within the seclusion of the home. Even when allowed +the privilege of being seen in public, they must go attended by eunuchs +or pages, so that both seeing and being seen were difficult processes. +Of course, in the highest lady of the land, the queen, was found the +culmination of dignity and exclusiveness, and she was rarely seen by +anyone except her husband, members of the royal family, and her +servants. Thus rank, instead of giving freedom and enlarged powers, +tended only to bring monotony and seclusion. + +The women of the lower classes usually went with bare feet, as well as +bare heads. With their long shaggy garments they did not present a very +picturesque or attractive appearance. The truth is, the costumes of the +people of Babylonia and Assyria were wanting in that grace and beauty +which is discoverable among some other people of the Orient. The +garments lacked that lightness of effect which flowing robes and drapery +make possible. The designs and materials were stiff, and with the +profusion of borders and fringes presented a heavy aspect. The women did +not choose so to dress as to show their natural figure, but by +concealing themselves in heavy and sometimes padded garments, their +forms were far from beautiful, and contrast most unfavorably with the +Greek and Egyptian grace of womanly dress and carriage. The women as +well as the men used much embroidery, which was generally very heavy and +often elaborate. Some of the designs were highly ornate and beautiful. + +Of the education of women in Babylonia and Assyria little definite is +known, except that it was common for women as well as men to read and +write. Exercises and translations of school children have been exhumed +from the mounds of ancient Babylonian cities. Dolls and other playthings +of the children have also been brought to light, showing that the +children of all ages have much the same tastes and occupations. Music, +dancing, embroidery, besides reading and writing, were among the +accomplishments of the girls of these lands. + +Households were amply equipped religiously, for every home must be +provided with some method of keeping itself free from the power of evil +spirits. When all believe that the world is peopled with demons who are +perpetually trying to ensnare men and bring them to ruin if possible, we +might expect that the women would be especially superstitious and +punctilious to the last degree in order that all evil spirits may be +frightened from their dwellings. Hence, they hung amulets in almost +every conceivable place. Talismans, statuettes of the dreaded spirits +might be seen in every home. Every charm was used to thwart the enemies +of human happiness in their attempt to destroy domestic peace, estrange +husband from wife, drive the head of the family from his own roof, and +send barrenness and blight in every quarter. + +The ancient Babylonians had a queer way of marrying off their daughters, +if we may believe Herodotus--which we do not. Not any period in the year +might the maiden select as the time to become a matron, but only on one +occasion during the year, and that a public festival, was marriage +permitted. On this occasion, the daughters of marriageable age were put +up at public auction. The crier took his place, while the young men who +were looking for wives or the young men's parents who were to pay for +them, stood about watching their opportunity to exchange their money for +feminine values. It is said that the girls were put up for purchase, +according to their beauty--the prettiest first, and so on to the end of +the sale. Often the contest of buyers would run high in excitement, and +large prices were offered for the coveted prize. + +After the good-looking damsels were all sold at fair prices, then came +the less attractive maidens, who, we are informed, were not sold, but +offered as wives with a dowry, the proceeds of the beauties being used +to add to the value of their less fortunate sisters. When the auction +was over, the marriage followed, and the brides accompanied their +new-made husbands to their homes. There was no escape from this method +of wedlock. The procedure was not optional, but imperative. There was no +marriage ring or bracelet to commemorate the event, but each new wife +was given a bit of baked clay in the form of an olive. Through this +model a hole was pierced so that it might be worn continually about the +neck, and upon it were inscribed the names of the parties to the +transaction and the date of their marriage. Several of these clay +memorials have been found as mute witnesses of the days when girls were +put up at the annual sale of wives in the month of Sabat and knocked +down to the highest bidder. + +Later, however, this custom gave way to one more rational, when marriage +came to be considered both "an act of civil law and a rite of domestic +worship." It became a contract entered into by two parties. A scribe +must be called in to draw up the marriage bond. It is to be properly +witnessed and filed away with a public notary for future reference. +There is a long period of social evolution between these two methods of +conducting marriage. And it is not to be supposed that all trace of +bargain and sale have disappeared. Not at all. The following happy +effort has been made at reproducing a scene which might have easily +occurred between the father of a young man who seeks in marriage the +hand of a certain damsel and the father of the girl at the home of the +latter. + +"'Will you give your daughter Bilitsonnon in marriage to my son +Zamamanadin?' The father consents and without further delay the two men +arrange the dowry. Both fathers are generous and rich, but they are also +men of business habits. One begins by asking too much, the other replies +by offering too little; it is only after some hours of bargaining that +they finally agree and settle upon what each knew from the beginning was +a reasonable dowry--a mana of silver, three servants, a trousseau and +furniture, with permission for the father to substitute articles of +equal value for the cash." There being no further obstacles the marriage +is accordingly fixed for a day of the next week. + +But does not the young lady need a longer time to prepare for an event +of so great moment in her life? No, because she has been anticipating +for some time that such a transaction will be effected by her parents; +for has she not already arrived at the age of thirteen? She has +therefore not let the past months slip idly through her fingers. She has +been busy sewing, embroidering, and making other things of beauty and +usefulness for her expected home. But nothing has concerned her more +than to see that her own person shall be attractive to her new husband +when the veil is lifted on her wedding day. Odors and ornaments ample +have been provided. + +Early upon the appointed day the friends may be seen moving toward the +home of the bride-elect. The scribe who is to draw up the marriage +contract is present ready to perform his important task. With his +triangular stylus he indents the covenant in soft clay. This is to be +inserted in an envelope also of clay that there may be a double +impression of the words of the contract. This is to be carefully baked +and filed away for possible future use--it may be to be found thousands +of years afterward by some explorer digging in the ruins of a long +buried city. The day has dawned beautiful, for the astrologer has said +that all would be propitious. The hands of the bride and groom are tied +together with a thread of wool, the customary emblem of the union into +which they have now entered. The marriage contract is clearly read +before the assembled company, and the witnesses make their mark upon the +soft tablet, the dowry and other presents are given over. Prayer is made +to the proper gods for the happy pair, and curses are invited upon any +who shall undertake to annul the covenant or revoke the gifts. + +Next comes the banqueting, of which the Assyrians were so fond. Music +and dancing, jesting and telling happy tales, with eating and drinking, +make up the round of merriment. At length the time comes for the bridal +party to make its way to the home of the groom's parents. All along the +way are signs of rejoicing, in which all are expected to join. The +groom's house is reached, and here the festivities are resumed and +carried on for several days, till all are fatigued and sated with mirth +and quite ready to see the young couple settle down to their new life as +home makers. + +Polygamy was rare for the Orient, especially at so early a period; but +where polygamy was practised at all, the harem existed. In Assyria, the +king might have more than one legitimate wife, to say nothing of those +who were not so ranked. Sargon had three lawful wives, for each of whom +he erected a separate apartment in his royal palace of Dur-Sargina. Like +Oriental houses generally, the several apartments are entered from a +central court. The queen's apartments were usually rich in decoration +and furnishings. The harem of Sargon's palace, which may be taken as +typical, was entered by gates. One of these had upon the front two huge +bronze palm trees, on each side one. Since the palm tree is emblematic +of both grace and fecundity, the significance of its use is apparent. +There were anterooms and drawing rooms, as well as bedrooms, for the +use of the queen. These were plastered, and mural decorations were +abundant, the designs being sometimes conventional, sometimes depicting +religious ideas in symbolism. Of course, the winged bull and the winged +lion, watchful guardians of Assyrian interest, were often painted upon +the walls. The gods were favorite subjects. In the women's apartments +were chairs, stools, tables, and the floors of brick or stone were +covered with carpets and mats. The bed, more like a modern lounge, was +raised upon wooden legs, and held a mattress and appropriate coverings, +and placed in a highly ornamented alcove, gave to the bedroom an +attractive air. + +But how does the queen amuse herself? for long indeed must the hours +often have seemed as she lived out her life a comparative prisoner. G. +Maspero, the noted French assyriologist, has thus described the +occupation of the queens, as they try to fill the idle hours: "Dress, +embroidery, needlework, and housekeeping, long conversation with their +slaves, the exchange of visits, and the festivals, with dancing and +singing with which they entertained each other, serve for occupation and +amusement. From time to time the king passes some hours amongst them, or +invites them to dine with him and amuse themselves in the hanging +gardens of the palace. The wives of the princes and great nobles are +sometimes admitted to pay homage to them, but very rarely, for fear they +should serve as intermediaries between the recluses and the outer +world." + +The kings of both Assyria and Babylonia were, as a rule, kings of +insatiable conquest. Hence, much of the year was spent with the army in +some distant territory, or, it may be, in lion hunting, a sport which +had great attractiveness to a number of the kings. It will be thus seen +how little the wives of the monarch enjoyed his real companionship. +There was ample time for monotony, broken now and again by jealousies, +followed by bitter hatred and deadly plottings. One wife would almost +inevitably share more of the attention of the king than the rest. Those +who had reason to believe themselves neglected would certainly be +incensed against the more favored rival. The servants of the palace +would often be drawn into the disputes, which sometimes had a tragic +end. The whole harem, combining against a favorite, might, through the +use of poison or by some other clandestine means, end the life of her +who was so unfortunate as to be loved by the king beyond the measure +thought by her rivals to be her due. + +One happy effort tended to relieve at least a little the dull seclusion +of the ladies of the harem. This was the planting of a garden in a court +adjacent to the house of the women. Often these gardens would be most +elaborate and beautiful. The hanging gardens of Babylon, accounted as +among the Seven Wonders of the World, were built in honor of a favorite +queen. The garden of the harem consisted of trees, such as the sycamore, +the poplar, or the cypress, and other plants selected to please the eye +of those whose seclusion must have made this suggestion of the country +most grateful. + +Feasting played an important rôle in the heyday of Nineveh's grandeur, +as also in the Babylon of later days. The king has just returned from a +great triumph in the Westland. The whole city is agog. For days the +round of drinking and carousing has proceeded, till the whole city is +drunken. The queen wishes to have a part in the expressions of victory +and rejoicing. She, with some trepidation, invites the king to dine with +her in her apartments in the harem. At the appointed hour all is +arranged. The gorgeous couch the queen has prepared for the king to +recline upon while he sips his wine scented with aromatic spices, the +rich drapery of the couch, the small table near by, laden with golden +and silver vessels of costliness and elegance, the slaves who attend +upon the lord's wishes, the poet-laureate to sing the conqueror's +praises in elaborate lines of flattery--all conspire to make the +occasion one of great magnificence. Thus, from king and queen to the +lowliest of the great city, the spirit of revelry, the love of carousal, +and the habit of intoxication, took hold of the luxuriant capital. We +recognize the appropriateness of the familiar words of Nahum, the Hebrew +prophet of Elkosh, who had been an eyewitness of the growing effeminacy +of the great Assyrian capital, Nineveh, when he foretold the fall of the +once glorious city: "Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women, +the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thy enemies; the fire +shall devour thy bars." + +How did the ordinary housewife spend her time? M. Maspero attempts to +reproduce the daily life of the Assyrian woman of about the eighth +century before the Christian era in these graphic words: + +"The Assyrian women spend a great deal of time upon the roofs. They +remain there all the morning till driven away by the noonday heat, and +they go back as soon as the sun declines in the evening. There they +perform all their household duties, chatting from one terrace to the +other. They knead the bread, prepare the cooking, wash the linen and +hang it out to dry, or if they have slaves to relieve them from these +menial labors, they install themselves upon cushions, and chat or +embroider in the open air. During the hottest hours of the day they +descend and take refuge indoors. The coolest room in the house is often +below the level of the courtyard and receives very little light." Thus +the Assyrian lady adapts herself as well as she may to her surroundings, +which were usually very simple as to furnishings and such things as a +modern inhabitant of the West would classify under the head of +"comforts." An Assyrian housewife was usually satisfied with a few +chairs and stools of various heights and sizes. There were few beds, +except among the rich. The people generally slept upon mats, which could +be folded and put away during the daytime. Taking care of the house was +woman's work, unless the family was rich enough to own slaves to attend +to the menial work of domestic life. The women had the care of the oven, +which was usually built in one corner of the court, and the meats were +cooked by them at the open fireplace. Care of the culinary work of an +Assyrian home was no small task, for the Assyrians were good +feeders,--and as for drinking, here they surpassed even their powers at +eating. So the woman of the house would find it necessary to care for +the wine skins and water jars that might be seen hanging about the +porches to keep them cool. + +The people along the waterways lived largely upon fish. These were +caught in great numbers and dried. The industrious housewife would take +these dried fish, pound them in a crude mortar, and then make them into +cakes, which Herodotus tells us were almost the sole diet of those who +lived in the lower or marshy regions of the Mesopotamian valley. +Ordinarily, men and women partook together their daily repast from a +common dish, into which all dipped, but on the occasion of great +banquets it was customary for the women to be served separately. + + + + +VI + +THE LAND OF THE LOTUS + + +"Concerning the virtues of women, O Cleanthes, I am not of the same mind +with Thucydides, for he would prove that she is the best woman +concerning whom there is least discourse made by people abroad, either +to her praise or her dispraise; judging that, as the person, so the very +name of a good woman ought to be retired and not gad abroad. But to us +Gorgias seems more accurate, who requires that not only the face, but +the fame of a woman should be known to many. For the Roman law seems +exceedingly good, which permits due praise to be given publicly both to +men and to women after death." These words of Plutarch find application +in the life of the women of the land of the Nile. There is no lack of +praise for the Egyptian women both while living and after they had +passed away, as the testimony of the monuments amply prove. + +It should be remembered that the history of Egypt extends over a very +wide stretch of time, and that changes are to be reckoned with even in a +region where everything moves slowly. For this reason it is not always +possible to say that this or that was true of the Egyptian women. For +there were the ancient, middle and later kingdoms, with each of which +came new influences, and these differed in many respects from the period +of Greek or Macedonian power; and the Egypt of to-day is a very +different Egypt from that of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. + +There are many widely differing people in the land of the Nile to-day. +The traveller finds great diversity of scenery and of social conditions, +and one has said of this marvellous land as the great dramatist wrote of +one of her most notable daughters: + + "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale + Her infinite variety." + +The oldest book in the world is an ancient Egyptian papyrus discovered +by M. Prisse at Thebes. It goes back to a period probably not later than +B.C. 3580, being a collection of didactic sayings, or precepts, of +Phtahhotep, a prince of the fifth dynasty. What so early an Egyptian +sage has to say concerning women should be of no little interest. In +giving advice to husbands, he gives this counsel, which we might imagine +a wise man of to-day might easily have written: "If thou be wise, guard +thy house; honor thy wife, and love her exceedingly; feed her stomach +and clothe her back, for this is the duty of a husband. Give her +abundance of ointment, fail not each day to caress her, let the desire +of her heart be fulfilled, for verily he that is kind to his wife and +honoreth her, the same honoreth himself. Withhold thy hand from +violence, and thy heart from cruelty, softly entreat her and win her to +thy way, consider her desires and deny not the wish of her heart. Thus +shalt thou keep her heart from wandering; but if thou harden thyself +against her, she will turn from thee. Speak to her, yield her thy love, +she will have respect unto thee; open thy arms, she will come unto +thee." + +Ancient Egyptian literature does not lack its reference to women. One +of the most famous of the stories that have been presented to us from +Egyptian sources is _The Tale of the Two Brothers_. This goes back to +the day of Moses, and has suggested to many the Hebrew account of +Joseph. It reveals the charms of her whose beauty the sea leaped up to +embrace, and the acacia flowers envied. This romance, written for the +entertainment of Seti II. when he was yet crown prince, and considered, +by Mr. Flinders Petrie, to be connected with the ancient Phrygian of +Atys, gives us an early illustration of the fact that many ills and many +pleasures have been born to the race through love of a woman. + +The women of Babylonia and Assyria enjoyed a measure of freedom that was +exceptional for the Orient, and yet the Egyptian woman was more +independent still. Indeed, the respect that was paid to womankind by the +Egyptians is one of the fairest elements in the civilization of the +valley of the Nile. Motherhood also was highly respected. But one +illustration, referred to by Lenormant, will suffice to prove this +statement. A woman while _enceinte_, condemned to death for murder or +any other crime, could not be executed till after the birth of the +child; for it was considered the height of injustice to make the +innocent participate in the punishment of the guilty, and to visit the +crime of one person upon two. And he adds: "The judges who put to death +an innocent person were held as guilty as if they had acquitted a +murderer." + +Before the law woman's rights were respected. In the division of the +paternal estate, the daughters shared equally with the sons, and were +more responsible than the sons for the care of the parents. In worship, +the queen is sometimes depicted as standing near her husband in the +temple--behind him, to be sure, as the king was the head of the religion +and indeed "son of the Sun," but with him, like Isis behind Osiris, +lifting her hand in sympathetic protection and shaking the sistrum, or +beating the tambourine to dispel all evil spirits, or holding the +libation vase or bouquet. + +The Egyptian woman, of the lower or middle classes at least, suffered no +enforced seclusion. She came and went as her will led her, appearing in +public without covered face, and chatting with acquaintances whom she +met without having her conduct questioned or her modesty placed under +suspicion. She might enjoy a banquet with the opposite sex, and at its +close look upon the weird figure of a corpse carved in wood, placed in a +coffin, which Herodotus says was carried around by a servant. As he +shows the image to each guest in turn the servant says: "Gaze here and +drink and be merry; for when you die such you will be." Thus was +Epicurus anticipated in ancient Egypt. _Dum vivimus, vivamus._ The +Egyptians generally, however, kept the next world always in view, and +immortality played no small part in shaping the Egyptian life, both as +to its men and its women. The Greek influence, which, after the days of +Alexander, was destined to revolutionize Egyptian thought and custom, +notwithstanding the efforts of the Ptolemies to win favor of the +populace by revolutionizing the waning worship of Osiris, is illustrated +in a poem written about one hundred years before Christ, a _Lament for +the Dead Wife of Pasherenptah._ In this poem, the ancient hope of +immortality is overcast, and the weeping spouse is enjoined: + + "Love woman while you may + Make life a holiday, + Drive every care away + And earthly sadness." + +The first lady of the land was of course a queen. The queens of Egypt +not unfrequently had a wide outlook upon the material progress of the +people. This is well exemplified in the expedition of Queen Chuenemtamun +of which we know from discovered monuments, which represent the ship +being ladened with large and costly stores under her direction. Queen +Hatshepsu fitted out a fleet of five ships and sent them to the land of +Punt,--the southern coast of Arabia, or, as some suppose, the African +coast south of Abyssinia,--that they might bring back scented fig trees +which she would transplant in her gigantic orchard at Thebes. The +tallest monolith in the world, of reddish granite and one hundred and +eight feet high, said once to have been covered with a coating of gold, +was the work of this famous queen. + +In a few cases queens ruled in Egypt, wives of kings governed jointly +with their husbands, and there are instances in which pretenders to the +throne married women of royal lineage that their claims might have at +least the show of being legitimate. This was the case with Piankhi, one +of the Ethiopian dynasty of kings, whose wife Ameniritis is described as +a woman of rare intelligence and of superior merit; one who, because of +her rare strength of character and wisdom, exerted a powerful influence +in the government and won for herself great popularity in Thebes and the +entire region around. + +A modern traveller may easily be reminded of the honor paid to women in +ancient Egypt by visiting the sites where temples and tombs were erected +in honor of some beloved wife and queen. The temple of Hathor at the +modern Aboo Simbel, which was erected by the famous builder Rameses II. +in honor at once of Hathor the goddess of love, and of his wife +Nofreari. Six statues adorn the entrance to the temple. They are thirty +feet high, and represent Rameses and his beloved queen, who appears +under the favor of the goddess Hathor. On the brow of the goddess is the +crown--the moon resting within the horns of a cow; she wears also the +ostrich feathers, which are the sign of royalty. Their children, as +often portrayed upon Egyptian monuments, have their places beside their +parents: the daughters stand close to the queen; the sons, near to the +father. About the sculptured forms is recorded in hieroglyphic +characters the love which the king felt for his fair queen, whose name +meant "beautiful and good." The temple and statues are hewn out of the +living rock, and, on entering, there is the shrine of Hathor, "the +supreme type of divine maternity." + +There is a touch of romance here, for on the outer wall the inscriptions +tell us that this temple was reared "by Rameses the Strong in Faith, the +Beloved of Ammon, for his royal wife Nofreari, whom he loves"; while +within the doorway of this same temple may be read the legend, it was +for Rameses that "his royal wife who loves him, Nofreari the Beloved of +Maat, constructed for him this abode in the mountain of the Pure +Waters." Thus beautiful was the enduring love between this royal husband +and his wife. + +No period of ancient Egyptian history is entirely wanting in the names +of conspicuous women. There is a legend that comes down from the days of +the Ptolemies, to the effect that when King Ptolemy Euergetes started +out upon his expeditions against Syria, the strong rival of Egypt for +the supremacy over the East, his queen, the beautiful Berenice (a +favorite name for princesses for two centuries), made a vow that if her +husband should be permitted to return from his expedition in safety, she +would dedicate her hair to the gods. Her prayer was answered; and, +faithful to her solemn vow, she cut off her hair and hung "the beautiful +golden tresses that had adorned her head in the temple, whose ruins +still stand on the promontory of Zephyrium." But, alas! they were not +long allowed to adorn the walls of the holy place, for some sacrilegious +thief carried them away from the shrine. The priests were bewildered, +the king was wroth, no one knew what to do. At length the astronomers +came to the relief of all concerned by announcing that it could have +been no ordinary thief who plundered the temple for the beautiful +tresses, but that the gods themselves had taken them, and that the keen +eye had only to be turned heavenward to discover a new constellation +which they now separated from Leo. The king and all concerned were now +reconciled and happy. The constellation shines on. + +Among the most beautiful of ancient buildings is the temple of +Denderah. While magnificent in itself, much of its interest to us here +is due to the fact that it was erected and dedicated to the Egyptian +goddess of love and beauty, Hathor, nurse of Horus, the son of Osiris +and Isis; and further, that it was begun by that fascinator of kings, +the notorious Cleopatra. On the outside walls of the temple are figures +of this famous queen, and of Cæsarion, her son by Julius Cæsar. One +would judge from these representations that Cleopatra's beauty was of +the most voluptuous and sensual type, the features being not only full +but fat, though regular. On her head is placed the horned disc,--in +honor of Hathor,--the sacred vulture, and the horns of Isis. Thus have +been perpetuated the personal and religious features of the most +remarkable woman Egypt ever produced. Pascal's oft-quoted comment upon +the beauty of this Egyptian character doubtless contains a modicum of +truth: "If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the +earth would have been changed." Cleopatra, however, whose charms subdued +victors, was more a Greek than an Egyptian beauty. The women of the Nile +country, however, were not lacking in personal grace and physical charm. +Their complexions were dark, their features generally regular, and their +bodies athletic, though not large. + +One might judge from the paintings that have come down to us, which +depict the form and vesture of the Egyptian woman, that she was greatly +lacking both in grace of figure and in taste for arraying herself +attractively. But we are not to be misled by the elongated, wiry-looking +figures that the monuments portray for us. Some of the blame must, +without doubt, be laid upon the Egyptian artist, who had little idea +either of proportion or perspective. + +Egyptian women spent much time upon their toilettes. Great attention was +given to the care of the complexion. For this beautifying process a +powder was used consisting of antimony and charcoal, powdered fine and +applied with so much skill that the skin by contrast is made to stand +out in soft whiteness. For this cosmetic regimen a mirror of highly +polished metal was found to be of indispensable value. The finger nails +came in for a full share of attention, henna being used to stain them. +As for the feet, scarcely less care was given them, and anklets and toe +rings frequently adorned them. Shoes, or sandals, seem never to have +been in high favor in Egypt, and, even when clothed in the most costly +apparel, women preferred to go with bare feet. + +It would seem very difficult, to modern taste, to attain to real beauty +by means of tattooing. But we have grounds for asserting that the +Egyptian beauties, at least at a certain period of their national +history, covered their forehead, chin, and breasts, and sometimes the +arms, with indelible painting in color. They were fond of rouging their +faces, especially the lips, and the eye was a feature to which much time +and art were given. Large eyes were the fashion, as may be readily +judged from the many pictures of ox-eyed maids which have been +preserved. A band of black pigment almost entirely surrounded the eyes, +and extended across the temples to the roots of the hair. By painting +the eyebrows and eyelids, the eyes were made to appear not only larger +but more brilliant. + +The Egyptian woman was fond of the use of oil, which was rubbed +generously upon the body. Perfumes also played an important part in her +life. Women made and sold perfumes and used them profusely. They were +exceedingly fond of flowers, especially if they were new varieties. +Extracts and essences from sweet-scented plants were much sought after. +Favorite shrubs and flowers were transported from distant lands and +transplanted in the land of the Nile. This was often done upon a large +scale. Even the liquors drunk at banquets were scented with sweet +perfumes. + +The women usually dressed in a long, close-fitting smock-frock, clinging +closely to the body and reaching quite to the ankles. The shoulders and +upper part of the breast were left uncovered, the frock being held in +place by two straps running across the shoulders. But it is not to be +supposed that the women of Egypt knew nothing of fashion; though it must +be confessed that fashions changed slowly. And in this matter the men +were as fond of fashion as the women; for they wore linen skirts usually +reaching to the knees, although their length was regulated by the +prevailing style. + +Under the New Empire woman's dress did not leave both shoulders bare, +as formerly, but covered the left shoulder; the right shoulder and arm +being left free. At length drapery began to be more common, and instead +of the heavy, straight garment of earlier days, graceful folds appeared. +With the drapery came a lengthening of the skirt. When this change +occurred only the priests retained the simple skirt of former days. Most +men wore a double skirt, consisting of an inner short garment, and an +outer. Indeed, the men seemed quite as fond of their costume as the +women, and were more varied in their tastes, loving finery, and leaving +it to the women to be more conservative in matters of dress. + +From the paintings and the other representations that have come down to +us, both the peasant maid and the princess wore the same kind of +garments, so far as the cut of them is concerned. Mother, daughter, and +maid were dressed much alike and without much variety of color. The rich +often wore a profusion of beads. + +There was no part of the Egyptian woman's toilet upon which so much care +was bestowed as upon the hair. Indeed, the Egyptians prided themselves +upon their coiffure. Herodotus is authority for the statement that there +were fewer bald-headed people in Egypt than in any other country. +Civilization, in the valley of the Nile, at least, did not seem greatly +to increase the tendency to baldness. There were cases, but they were of +the nature of a calamity. Woe to the physician whose skill did not +succeed in checking the falling hair. Pomades of various ingredients +were common remedies for this ill. Oil, dog's feet, and date kernels +were considered of great virtue, as was also a donkey's tooth pulverized +and mixed with honey. And there was no more direful or more frequent +imprecation pronounced by an Egyptian lady upon her rival than that the +hair of her whom she hated might fall out! + +[Illustration 2: GHAWAZI _After the painting by C. L. Muller +The "dancing girls" known as_ ghawazi, _are often in evidence. They +clothe themselves in gay garments of various colors. Sometimes they are +pretty and attractive specimens of female grace, but, as might be +expected from their character and profession, they soon become coarse +and repulsive. They may be seen at the public places, and their dances +are indecorous and immodest. They play a leading rôle in those wild +orgies known as_ Fantasia.] + +Wigs were commonly used by women as well as by men of the Ancient +Empire. There was a coiffure of straight hair down to the shoulders or +to the breasts. Examples have been found, however, in which the wigs +reached not so far, as is the case in the statuette of the Lady Takusit, +which is now among the ancient ornaments in the Museum of Athens. She +wears a wig of stiff curly locks in rigidly regular lines plastered +closely to the head, reaching almost from the eyes in front to the nape +of the neck, and hiding the ears. The plaiting of the hair became common +in later times, the hair hanging stiffly over the shoulders. + +This piece of statuary, that of Lady Takusit, or Takoushet, as it is +sometimes spelled, one of the most perfect of its kind, shows a woman of +good form and regular features, standing erect with one foot in advance, +her right arm hanging gracefully by her side, her left pressed naturally +against her bosom. She is dressed in the closely fitting skirt already +described, supported by straps over the shoulders and reaching to a +point just above the ankles. Her robe is richly embroidered with scenes +of a religious character, and her wrists are adorned with bracelets. + +Besides the ordinary hair dress of the women, the queen enjoyed the +exceptional privilege of wearing a diadem or headdress, representing a +vulture, which was the sacred bird of Egypt and was accounted the +special protector of the king in battle. This royal bird is represented +as stretching out its strong wings over the head of the first lady of +the land. + +The women were great lovers of trinkets and jewelry of all kinds, and +the men were not far behind them in this. They put an ornament wherever +it could be appropriately worn. And this ruling passion was even strong +in death, for the dead were often literally loaded with jewels upon +their arms, fingers, ears, brow, neck, and ankles. Favorite jewels, +specially, were entombed with the dead. In the Boulak Museum has been +preserved probably the most complete collection of funeral jewelry, that +of Queen Aahhotep, mother of Ahmes, the first king of the eighteenth +dynasty. The following are some of the womanly belongings buried with +Queen Aahhotep: a fan handle plated with gold, a bronze-gilt mirror +mounted upon an ebony handle, on which was a lotus of chased gold, +bracelets of various designs, anklets, armlets, gold rings, ornaments +for the wrist made of small beads in "gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian and +green feldspar, strung on gold wire in a chequer pattern," and many +other ornaments of fine gold, of chased and repoussé work of great +value. + +The women of Egypt to-day are dark in complexion and generally slender. +The women of the poorer classes are ill kept and poorly clothed. They +generally wear long, and frequently tattered, garments of blue and black +cotton. Their feet are bare, but the love of decoration is manifest +still; for, though they be dirty and begrimed through lack of care and +suitable clothing, the silver anklets, the rings for their fingers and +even for their toes, and the bracelets for their arms, tell the tale of +their fondness for adornment. Mohammedanism has caused the universal use +of the veil. A narrow strip of black is caught by a brass or silver +spiral directly between the eyes. The falling veil, therefore, covers +all the face below the eyes. Ladies of the higher classes wear +transparent Turkish veils of costly material, and their costly silk +garments are loaded with embroideries. + +Mothers in Egypt carry their babes on their backs or shoulders. The +mother holds fast to the feet or the legs of her offspring, while the +child throws his hands about her head and seems well satisfied with his +position. The tattooing, which we have noted as existent in early Egypt, +is no longer general; it, however, may be seen to-day among the women of +Nubia. Some of the Berber women not only are tattooed, but place blue +lines on their under lip and on the cheeks and arms. The men, women, and +children of that region are very dark. The women plait their hair into +numerous tiny curls, which stay well in place, for the hair has first +been soaked in castor oil, partly because of the æsthetic effect, and +partly as a protection against the hot rays of the tropical sun. The +dress of the younger women is very scant; the older females are +generally clothed in long blue garments, which they gather about them in +folds. The younger girls, however, with much unadorned innocence, wear +simply a leathern girdle and a complacent smile, for the Berber women +appear good-humored and happy. This costume, a girdle of leather, soaked +well in castor oil and adorned with shells, worn by the younger belles +of Nubia, is known as "Madam Nubia." + +The "dancing girls," known as _ghawazi_, are often in evidence in the +towns of modern Egypt. They clothe themselves in gay garments of various +colors. Sometimes they are pretty and attractive specimens of female +grace, but, as might be expected from their character and profession, +they soon become coarse and repulsive. They may be seen at the public +cafés, and their dances are indecorous and immodest. They play a leading +rôle in those wild orgies known as _fantasia_. + +The modern Egyptian water girl is often an interesting bit of humanity. +Canon Bell thus describes her in his _Winter on the Nile_: "You may be +accompanied, if you like it, by a little girl clad in blue, adorned with +a necklace of beads, earrings and bracelets, and sometimes a nose-ring, +carrying a water jar on her head, from which she will supply you at +luncheon among the temples and tombs, for a small backsheesh. She will +run beside your donkey for miles, and never seem tired, and if you will +drink from her jar, of the same shape which you will see sculptured on +the temple walls, will reward you with a sweet smile from her coral +lips. And what teeth she and all the people have! I never saw teeth so +regular and so white. They are like a string of orient pearls; and it is +a pleasure when the lips part, and you see them gleaming white as driven +snow." + +In ancient Egypt the woman was queen of her own house, the real mistress +of domestic life. When the husband was at home, he was looked upon +rather in the light of a "privileged guest," and the housewife was the +respected hostess, holding everything beneath her undisputed sway. In +short, she was the very soul and centre of the domestic activity, rising +early and stirring the household into life and movement. + +Let us take a peep into an Egyptian home. Excavation has revealed that +the palaces of the kings of Babylonia were built in a much more +substantial and enduring fashion than were the temples of the gods. The +reverse is true of Egypt. Egyptian temples were built not for time, but +for eternity. The palaces, however, were of far lighter character, being +erected of brick or undressed freestone, but rarely of granite or the +more enduring materials. Eternity played an important part in the +religious thinking of the Egyptians. This will account in a measure for +the more enduring character of the houses of the gods. The dwellings of +members of the richer classes were made up of an aggregation of houses, +suggesting a miniature village. There were separate houses for the +various members of the family: the master, the chief wife, the harem +women, the visitors, and the several classes of servants. Storehouses +were separate from buildings designed for habitation, and the several +domestic offices had their individual buildings. The court, which every +villa had, was planted with trees and flowers, and frequently was +provided with a fountain and a pool. The women of the harem found +opportunity for amusement in these beautiful courts. During the day +these secluded beauties whiled away their time in gossiping, playing +upon instruments, and indulging in the games in vogue. When night came +they lay down to rest with their heads upon pillows consisting of a +piece of curved wood, upon which was usually carved an image of the god +Bisou, who guarded the sleeper. This little dwarf, a divinity with short +legs and rotund stomach, drives away the demons who infest the night and +are liable to injure the sleeping one, unless protected by this +well-disposed and well-armed deity. + +The wife in the average Egyptian home was the companion of her husband, +assisting him to manage his affairs. She encouraged him in his own daily +work, and there are pictures of wife and children, seemingly in a most +interested mood, standing by while the husband and father is busily +engaged in some engrossing occupation. Often the king will take his wife +fully into his life. The queen is frequently pictured by the king's side +in some public function. The wife of Amenophis IV., with the rest of the +royal family, is represented, probably on some important state occasion, +as standing upon the gallery of the royal residence and tossing golden +collars to the people. Indeed, Amenophis IV. is discovered to have been +most domestic in his tastes, giving his wife and daughters a place of +respect and honor in his kingdom. Some of his monuments represent him +riding in his chariot, followed by his seven daughters, who were his +companions even in battle. Sometimes the queen of the Pharaohs is found +riding in state processions in her own chariot behind that of her +husband. + +How did the average women of the Nile busy themselves during the long +days? While they were not the hewers of wood, women were usually the +drawers of water, as in Palestine and Syria. They were not idlers, +though men did the spinning, weaving, and laundry work. In truth, as we +have before stated, it was the daughter, or daughters, and not the sons +who were expected to provide for their parents in times of want and old +age. This did not permit women to be in any sense a dependent class. + +The relation of the Egyptian woman to the practical affairs of life is +significant and of great interest. It is in the matter of buying and +selling that we perhaps have most frequent representations upon the +monuments. And women as well as men are portrayed driving their bargains +with the venders of all sorts of wares. Women both buy and sell in the +public places. One has perfume of her own manufacture, upon the merits +of which she glibly descants, even in terms poetic, as she thrusts the +jars under the nostrils of the hoped-for purchaser. Women jewelers are +discovered attempting to dispose of their rings, bracelets, and +necklaces, while other women are trying to obtain goods at the lowest +possible prices. "Cheapening" was fashionable even among the women of +Egypt. Sometimes groups of women are represented as bargaining in the +shops. Herodotus in his travels observed what to him was a striking +contrast between the industrial and commercial customs of the Greeks and +those of the Egyptians in that the men of Egypt worked at the looms and +carried on the handicraft, while the women frequently transacted +business. But it should not be thought that women did not weave. They +often worked at the loom, and men as well as women bought and sold the +ordinary commodities of life. + +In the house Egyptian women not only engaged in weaving, spinning, and +the making of fabrics generally, but they assisted in the curing of +fowls, birds, and fish. Of this kind of food the Egyptians were very +fond. When the husband, who was very partial to hunting, returned with +the game he had killed or trapped, it was at once preserved for later +use upon the table. Strangely enough, the cooks are usually represented +as men, though the women were not strangers to the preparation of food +for family use. The Egyptians laid much stress upon their dietary. They +believe, Herodotus tells us, that the diseases men are heir to are all +caused by the materials upon which they feed. Swine's flesh was, as with +the Israelites, forbidden flesh, except upon certain extraordinary +occasions. Their staff of life was bread made of spelt. Their drink was +chiefly a beer made from barley. Salt fish, and dried fowls, such as +ducks, geese, and quail, were eaten with great relish. Some birds, as +well as some fish, were tabooed because of religious scruples. + +The recreations that were allowable to the Egyptian women were quite +numerous and varied. But dancing, singing, and performing upon musical +instruments were their favorite amusements. The kettle drum and the +castanet were in common use among them, and pictures of girls playing on +the lute are not infrequent. A wall painting in a Theban tomb discloses +the fact that dancing girls were often employed to afford merriment at +the feasts. It was not against Egyptian etiquette for women to attend +banquets, and they are often represented as drinking freely, even to +drunkenness, lying about with forms exposed, and vomiting from +overindulgence. + +In this connection it is curious to note the relation of the women of +Egypt to gymnastic feats. In the Turin Museum there is an example of a +female acrobat, who is in the very act of performing with wonderful +agility a very difficult feat. The young woman is nude, with the +exception of a double belt, one thong of which encircles the waist, the +other confines the hips. She is willowy in form and with great ease and +grace she throws herself backward, apparently about to turn a +somersault, but she keeps her feet upon the ground, and her hands almost +touch her heels. Her hair flows out loosely as she seems about to whirl +her lithe body through the air. + +That the Egyptian women were pleasure-loving may be learned by many a +monument. Portrayals of elaborate festivals have been unearthed, others +are recorded by early historians. Herodotus gives a description of one +of these in honor of the Egyptian Diana in the city of Bubastis. "They +hold public festival not only once in a year but several times.... Now +when they are being conveyed to the city of Bubastis they act as +follows; for men and women embark together, and great numbers of both +sexes in every barge; some of the women have castanets on which they +play, and the men play on the lute during the whole voyage, the rest of +the women sing and clap their hands together at the same time. When in +course of their passage they come to any town, they lay their barge near +to land, and do as follows: Some of the women do as I have described, +others shout and scoff at the women of the place; some dance, while +others stand and pull up their clothes; this they do at every town at +the river-side. When they arrive at Bubastis, they celebrate the feast, +offering up great sacrifices and more wine is consumed at this festival +than in all the rest of the year. What with men and women, besides +children, they congregate, as the inhabitants say, to the number of +seven hundred thousand." + +The law of Egypt prescribed that there should be in each family but one +legitimate wife. From numerous representations upon the monuments it +would seem that great affection usually existed between spouses. +Marriage was termed "founding for one's self a home." Temporary or +tentative marriages were often made for one year. After the expiration +of the trial period, by the payment of a certain sum, the man might +annul the agreement. + +The Tel-el-Amarna tablets brought to light in 1887, furnish some very +interesting and informing materials concerning diplomatic marriages. +Many letters passed between the kings of Egypt and the rulers of the +land of Mitanni, and other Asiatic provinces concerning the marriage of +royal daughters to the King of Egypt or to the king's son. Even +bargaining concerning dowry finds a place in this correspondence. +Inquiries respecting the treatment of a daughter who has been given in +marriage to a prince, complaints of the breaking of the marriage +contract, and all conceivable complications which might grow out of +these marital relations, are discussed. + +In the days of the Ptolemies and in the Roman period, it became very +common for men to marry their own sisters, especially in the royal +families. This was true of Cleopatra, the daughter of Ptolemy Epiphanes +and Cleopatra. She married first her brother Ptolemy Philometer, and +later, a second brother Ptolemy Physcon. This was the Cleopatra who +lived a century before the famous "witch of the Nile." She distinguished +herself by her signal favoritism toward the Jews, who had then become +very numerous in Egypt, giving great encouragement to Onias in his +undertaking of the erection of a Jewish temple at Leontopolis in Egypt. + +In modern Egypt, however, marriage with sisters has given way to +marriage between cousins, which in current opinion is by far the best +sort of wedding match. It is not strange that this custom of legalized +incest, the marrying of sisters should have sprung up in a land where +Osiris and Set were worshipped. For both of these gods were wedded to +their sisters, Isis and Nephthys. + +As among the Hebrews, it was a matter of congratulation and of great +domestic happiness to possess children, and much rejoicing took place at +the birth of a babe. The inscriptions of monuments and tombs would +indicate, too, a very beautiful family life in Egypt. There was nothing +that so tended to give domestic life this charm as the fact that the +mother took complete charge of the child's upbringing. She was its +nurse, feeding it from her own breast often till it reached the age of +three years. In Eastern countries it is not uncommon to see children of +considerable size thus taking nourishment. When the child was unable to +walk, or when the journey was too great for the yet undeveloped limbs, +the mothers carried their children upon their necks, as do the Egyptian +mothers to-day. + +Motherhood was much respected both by sons and daughters,--more than is +true of the children of modern Egypt,--and the wise men and poets of the +land wrote and spoke most tenderly and sympathetically of the maternal +love. As one of them said: "Thou shalt never forget what thy mother hath +done for thee. She has borne and nourished thee. If thou forgettest her, +she might blame thee, she might lift up her arms to God, and he would +surely hear her complaint." An utterance of an Egyptian sage, which +bears the spirit of the words of the Hebrew wise man, who said: "Forsake +not the law of thy mother. Bind it continually upon thy heart, and tie +it about thy neck. When thou goest it shall lead thee, and when thou +sleepest it shall keep thee. When thou awakest it shall talk with thee;" +and again: "Despise not thy mother when she is old." Affection between +mothers and their sons was very strong. Many of the inscriptions upon +tombs, with the accompanying pictures, reveal the dead son and his +mother, and not the son and his father. This is in accordance with the +very common fact in Eastern lands, especially in this part, that +brothers and sisters by the same mother were much closer to one another +than brothers and sisters by the same father. It is quite evident that +in early days in Egypt descent was always traced through the mother, and +not through the father. When, in a remote period, marriage ties were +loose or polyandry was practised, it was manifestly easier to trace the +family lineage through the mother. In ancient Egypt, it is interesting +to note that inheritance of property passed not from a father to his +son, but to the son of his sister, or sometimes to the son of his eldest +daughter. + +When children were named they did not receive a family or surname. All +names were individual, the gods coming in for their share of honor +in the selection, as was very common among ancient people, among +whom religion pervaded everything. The girls were frequently +named, for poetic or imaginative reasons, after trees, animals, +qualities of moral excellence, and the like. Such appellations as +"Daughter-of-the-crocodile, Kitten," etc., were not infrequent; and even +here we find a religious motive, for both the crocodile and the cat were +worshipped in Egypt. Mummied sacred cats have been exhumed in great +numbers in recent years, only to be ruthlessly turned into fertilizers +by the unappreciative and practical Westerner. "Beautiful Sycamore" is +also an example of a woman's name. "Darling" and "Beloved" were also +favorite names, and "My Queen" is also found. From the number of +instances discovered, it would seem--and not unnaturally--that women +liked to be called after Hathor, the goddess of love. + +How did the little girls amuse themselves in those far-off Egyptian +days? The girl nature is the same the world over, and has not undergone +any radical change since the very dawn of history. The girls, of course, +played with dolls. These were made from cloth and were usually stuffed. +Some of them had long hair. Figures resembling jumping-jacks, loosely +jointed and manipulated with a string, were a means of merriment for the +little ones. The nursery was also frequently brightened by the presence +of flowers; and birds, some free and some caged, were common pets; cats, +too, were everywhere, and the small donkey furnished much sport. + +It may seem somewhat strange that in a land to which has often been +attributed the invention of the art of writing, there should have come +down to us no literature from the hand and brain of a woman. The secret +of this is probably found in the fact that while women were respected +and even esteemed as the equals of men, yet it was not considered worth +while to educate them in a literary way. In some of the arts, however, +such as music, women were skilled. + +In modern Egypt the education of the women is sadly neglected. It does +not compare with that given them in ancient times. Indeed, in Mohammedan +countries, generally, woman is sternly thrust into a position of +inferiority, even of degradation. The school provided for the +instruction of the children in Egypt, as in all Mohammedan countries, is +the _kattub_, which is to be found in most towns and even in some of the +small villages. These schools are attached, when possible, to a mosque, +and the instruction is religious rather than literary, for the teaching +is limited to the Koran, and all instruction is in the Arabic language. +The schoolmaster, who usually has an assistant, is himself very ignorant +of all that the modern Western world would term "learning." Even the +elements of a modern education are strangers to him. There are said to +be about nine thousand five hundred of these kattubs in Egypt, and in +them are enrolled one hundred and eighty thousand pupils. But the kattub +is dark and unattractive. There are no seats or furniture of any kind. +To an Occidental eye, the schoolroom is inconvenient in every respect, +and withal quite unsanitary and forbidding. The teacher sits on a mat, +cross-legged. In front of him are ranged two rows of children, both boys +and girls, sitting sideways to the teacher. One would suppose, seated as +the children are, that the dreary humdrum of the daily instruction was +surely meant to go in at one ear and out at the other. But the pupils +learn to repeat passage after passage from the sacred book of Mohammed. +For the time is largely taken up reciting _sura_ after _sura_ from the +Koran, and the most lengthy passages are well memorized, the master +correcting the boy or girl whose tongue has slipped, or prompting one +whose memory has failed him. As the singsong of recitation is rolled out +in languid sweetness, the pupils sway their bodies back and forth, +keeping time to the rhythm. There is no casting of eyes at the girls, no +giggling, no crooked pins in use, in the kattubs. The pupils know the +stern master is on serious business bent. Besides, he makes use of the +principle of "the expulsive power" of preoccupation; for, while the +memorizing and reciting of texts goes on, there are no idle hands for +Satan to make busy. The teacher himself sets the example of industry, +for his hands are engaged in weaving a mat, while his ear watches to +detect the slightest lapse from correctness in the pupil's tongue. So, +too, the boys and girls must be busied at some useful handiwork, such as +plaiting straw. Thus, "technical training" goes hand in hand with the +mental in modern Egypt. The number of girls in these schools, however, +is comparatively small. There are hopeful signs in the matter of female +education in the Egypt of to-day, for the government, seeing the need, +has granted a double sum for every girl in attendance upon the kattubs. + +Women of all lands have had an important place in the time of sickness +and death. Egypt is no exception to the rule. There were doctors in this +cultured land. Specialism was in vogue even in ancient Egypt. As the +celebrated Greek historian again says: "Medicine is practised among them +on the plan of separation; each physician treats a single disorder and +no more." There were eye specialists, headache specialists, tooth +specialists, intestine specialists, and so on to the end of the category +of diseases. Some of their treatises, comments upon cases, diseases, +formulæ, methods of physicians, both of Egypt and of other lands, have +come down to us. And yet, it must be confessed that exorcism held an +important place in the Egyptian practice of medicine; and the women were +among the foremost believers in this magical method of effecting cures. +The Egyptian lady is suffering from a most violent attack of headache. +She sends for the physician. He presently arrives, with one or more +servants or assistants, bringing with them his book of incantations, and +a case containing his _materia medica_, which consists of a goodly +supply of clay, plants or dried roots of all sorts, cloths, models in +wax or clay, black or red ink, _et cætera_. A diagnosis of the case is +hurriedly made. Kneading some clay, with which various ingredients are +mixed, this disciple of Æsculapius, or rather of Imhotep, repeats the +appropriate incantation several times, places the ball of clay under the +head of the sick, and leaves, feeling sure that the inimical spirit +which torments her will not be able to gain possession against the +powerful charm. + +In case of death in any household, the mourning was pronounced and +pitiable. The part which women played in Egyptian funerals was not +unlike that among the Hebrews and other Oriental peoples. "They were," +says Maspero, in his _Struggle of the Nations_, "not like those to which +we are accustomed--mute ceremonies in which sorrow is barely expressed +by a fugitive tear. Noise, sobbings, and wild gestures were their +necessary concomitants. Not only was it customary to hire weeping women, +who tore their hair, filled the air with their lamentations, and +simulated by skilful actions the depths of despair, but the relations +and friends did not shrink from making an outward show of their grief +nor from disturbing the equanimity of the passers-by by the immoderate +expressions of their sorrow." "O my father!" "O my brother!" "O my +master!" "O my beloved!" would be heard from the female voices standing +around the dead. There was no superstition which prevented a fond +embracing of the body of the loved one who had just passed away. Tears +flow in great profusion, hair and garments are rent, and the women beat +their breasts, and then depart from the house of death. "With nude +bosoms, head sullied with dust, the hair dishevelled and feet bare, they +rush from the house into the still, deserted streets." Friends and +sympathizers join in their grief as they pass along, and follow the +procession of mourning. Since the Egyptian believes that the spirit can +survive only so long as the body lasts,--a sort of conditional +immortality,--the corpse must be embalmed. The method is determined by +the rank of the deceased. If it be a princess who has passed away, the +most elaborate and costly methods and materials must be used. Each toe +and finger must be carefully and separately wrapped and cared for. Next +comes the solemn funeral procession, with the noisy, heartrending hired +mourners, the libations and offerings, the catafalque drawn by oxen, and +at length the dead is laid away in the tombs. An important part of the +Egyptian funeral is the banquet, in which the dead, through his +representative, partakes; during the feasting, the _almehs_ execute +their death dances and sing their songs appealing to the living +concerning death and the dead. + +It is Nut, the goddess of heaven, who, during the journey of the soul, +after it leaves the tomb appears from the midst of a sycamore tree, +offering the spirit a dish containing loaves and a cruse of water, and +if the soul accepts the proffered gift, he becomes the guest of the +goddess. Beyond are dangers of every sort which only amulets and the +most powerful incantations can dispel. If the soul can pass +these--though many fall by the way--he is transported by the divine +ferryman to the presence of Osiris, the great god. Maat, the goddess of +Truth, stands by and whispers the proper confession into the ear of him +whom Osiris questions, and the soul is passed on to the "Field of +Beans," the place of the blessed, where feasts, dances, songs, and +conversation are thereafter enjoyed. + +Probably no Egyptian woman was ever more influential, for a period at +least, than Queen Tyi, the mother of King Chuen-Aten, who is better +known as Amenophis IV. His father, Amenophis III., was born, as the +story goes, under conditions most auspicious. Ra, the great Sun god, who +was considered to have been the father of all the Pharaohs, and the +first sovereign of Egypt, as well as the creator of the universe, +favored King Thothmes by giving to him the son for whom he prayed. Queen +Moutemouait, wife of Thothmes, as she lay sleeping in her palace was +suddenly aroused by seeing her husband by her side, and then immediately +afterward the form of the Theban Amen. In her alarm she heard a voice +telling her of the birth of a son, who should come to the throne in +Thebes, and then the apparition "vanished in a cloud of perfume sweeter +and more penetrating than all the perfumes of Arabia." The child whose +advent was predicted became King Amenophis III., one of the most +brilliant and successful kings of the eighteenth dynasty. + +King Amenophis III. was wedded to a foreign wife, more than one in fact. +Among the wives of his harem was Gilukhipa, or Kirgipa, a daughter of +the house of Mitanni, between which and the Pharaohs of this epoch the +Tel-El-Amarna tablets reveal so voluminous a correspondence. There was +also in his harem a Babylonian princess, and, most famous of all, a +lady, probably of Semitic extraction, whose name was Tyi. This Queen Tyi +became the mother of the successor to Amenophis III. Under the influence +of the queen-mother, the young King Amenophis IV. resolved on extensive +religious reforms. He determined to dethrone or degrade the former +deities of Egypt and exalt the "Sun Disc." Asiatic influence was +paramount. He changed his capital from Thebes to the site of +Tel-El-Amarna, and erected there both palace and temple. He changed his +name to Chuen-Aten (Glory of the Solar Disc). But during his activity as +a religious reformer, his empire was falling away by the sad neglect of +the foreign affairs to which his father gave so large and successful +attention. At his death his work fell to pieces, and his reformation +swung back. Even his sons who succeeded him undid his work, and his name +comes down to us as "The Heretic King," being caricatured by artists of +the period which followed his ephemeral undertakings. + +A modern Egyptian woman, or perhaps more accurately an Arab woman, +digging into a mound in Middle Egypt, not far from the Nile, for the +purpose of getting some material with which to patch her hut, pulled out +a piece of baked clay with some queer inscriptions upon it, which turned +out to be the cuneiform characters of the Assyro-Babylonian writing. +Further excavations revealed the record hall of Amenophis IV., long +buried under the ruins of his short-lived city. This collection of +documents and correspondence in the Assyrian language, which was the +Lingua Franca of those early days, are the source of our most accurate +knowledge of the marriages, domestic relations and diplomatic history of +this period in Egyptian history; indeed, of the history of the +surrounding peoples as far east as the Mesopotamian valley. + +At least two Egyptian women emerge in the Hebrew records, one of whom +would indicate a low degree of morals, if we may judge of Egyptian women +of high standing of the period by this one. It is Potiphar's wife who +fell so deeply in love with Joseph, the handsome young Hebrew slave whom +Potiphar had bought and made a servant in his own household, that she +sought to use her wiles to entice the youth from rectitude. At length +failing in her purpose, she charged him with attempting to use violence +upon her, and had him imprisoned, only to find that the young man was to +come forth stronger at last and find an honored place in the annals of +Hebrew life in the land of Egypt. + +The other Egyptian woman of whom Hebrew history speaks is Pharaoh's +daughter, who, bathing in the Nile, with her maidens, discovered the +infant who was destined to lead Israel out of Egypt and become the chief +power in moulding the Hebrew commonwealth. The young Egyptian woman who +became a mother to the child Moses, gave him all the advantages of +Egyptian culture, which for those days were by no means meagre, and so +played no insignificant part in the making of a lawgiver, and through +him, in the making of a nation, whose moral and religious influence was +to be second to none in the history of the past. + +Late Judaism came in contact with a number of Egyptian princesses, +especially in the age of the Ptolemies. Among these are the Cleopatras, +three of whom lived a whole century before the days when Mark Antony was +led astray by the most celebrated of all the women of this name. One of +these was daughter of Antiochus the Great and wife of Ptolemy Epiphanes. +She being attracted by the value of the balsam and other products of +Palestine, asked that the taxes of the land of the Jews be given her as +her dowry. A second Cleopatra, daughter of the last, greatly favored, as +we have already noted, the Jews in Egypt, according to Josephus, and was +in turn greatly beloved by the larger number of the Jews of the +Diraspora, or Dispersion, who had sought refuge and a livelihood in the +rich region of Egypt. + +The third Cleopatra, daughter of the last-mentioned and of Ptolemy +Philometer, was married in B.C. 150 to Alexander Bala. His checkered +career is given us by Josephus and in the First Book of Maccabees. Two +other women of this name also appear in the history of the Jews, one a +mother of Ptolemy Lathyrus, a woman of great force and determination, +who expelled her son from Egypt and caused him to take refuge in the +island of Cyprus. The last was wife of Herod the Great, and mother of +"Philip the Tetrarch." The story of Cleopatra, the beguiler of Mark +Antony, is too well known to need repeating here. The women of Egypt of +the Macedonian and Roman periods, let it suffice to say, were a power in +the affairs of those marvellous days. + +The moral code of the Egyptians, theoretically speaking, was relatively +high, though it cannot be said that the women well known in Egyptian +history or presented in romance bore an exceptionally elevated +character. But the best women of ancient days were not usually those +whose names were furthest known or most widely heralded. According to +the Greek legends, some of the queens were not slow to accomplish their +purposes, regardless of the method or the cost. Queen Nitocris, of the +fifth dynasty, the celebrated queen with the "rosy Cheeks," avenged the +murder of her brother by inviting the conspirators against his life to a +banquet hall lower than the Nile, and while they feasted turned in the +waters of the river upon them. + +The Egyptian religious life was shared in by priestesses. Their pantheon +contained goddesses, who were highly honored. Women were considered to +have souls as well as men, and as great honor was paid them in the rites +accorded to the dead. + +Sacred prostitution, which was so well known among the ancient Semites, +was also practised in Egypt. Anthropomorphism was common there as +elsewhere among early religionists. The gods were supposed to have their +generation in the same manner as men. The male and female divinities +therefore had their necessary part in the mysterious creations of +nature. The female function in generation, however, was a purely passive +one. Just as, according to the current ideas, the father was the sole +parent of the child, the mother only furnishing carriage and nourishment +for the infant, so the female principle in nature was receptive +matter--"the lifeless mass in which generation took place." + +"Women," says Frederick Shelden, "are compounds of plain sewing and +deception, daughters of Sham and Hem." This morsel of wit is not true of +the women of Egypt in ancient days. The women of the Nile were, as a +rule, remarkably faithful to their obligations to their gods, as they +conceived them, and often to their households and to society. They were +limited, to be sure, in their outlook upon life and service, yet +religious to a fault, and sometimes moral. It has not been long since +there was exhumed in Egypt,--which has proved indeed the most fruitful +of all fields for the archæologist,--a remarkable prayer engraved upon +the funeral shell of an Egyptian lady who lived in the age of the +Ptolemies. It is a prayer, the sentiments of which show how some of the +essential elements of a commonwealth life have been recognized by good +men and women of all lands and of all ages. The prayer is as follows: +"All my life since childhood I have walked in the path of God. I have +praised and adored Him, and ministered to the priests, His servants. My +heart was true. I have not thrust myself forward. I gave bread to the +hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked. My hand was open to +all men. I honored my father, and loved my mother; and my heart was at +one with my townsmen. I kept the hungry alive when the Nile was low." +Here godliness, support of religious ideals and services, truthfulness, +humility, charity for the distressed, honor to parents, and good +citizenship, are recognized as the true conduct and held worthy of the +consideration and reward of the gods. + +Among the Christian women of western Egypt of to-day are the Coptic +women. Christianity very early made wide conquests in Egypt, and while +the Christian religion has revolutionized ideals and modified customs, +it has never destroyed many of the social habits that have had racial +sanction for centuries. The Christian church of Egypt is the Coptic +Church, which has existed almost since the beginning of the Christian +era. The women of this fellowship are of course very different in many +respects from the other women of modern Egypt, notably the Mohammedans. +Close to Heliopolis is pointed out a sycamore fig tree called the _Tree +of the Virgin_. It is here, according to the Coptic legend, that Mary +and Joseph rested with their infant son when fleeing from Herod. Not far +away is a miraculous fountain, in which, as the story goes, Mary bathed +the feet of the child Jesus. Having once been salt, the spring now +became wholesome and sweet. + +The Copts have preserved their early traditions, and their customs are +in many respects in contrast with those of other people around them. It +is the mother of the young man, not the father who usually makes the +arrangements for their son's marriage. "She goes among her friends to +find a wife for her son, and when after inquiry she discovers a girl +whom she thinks in every way suitable, she informs her son, who is +influenced by her opinion and commits the arrangements to her judgment. +Sometimes the choice of the bride is left to women whose profession it +is to select a fitting bride for the man who employs them, and to open +the preliminary negotiations. There is naturally a good deal of risk in +this; but as women are so entirely secluded in the East, as they are +shut out from their legitimate place in society, such an arrangement +becomes necessary, and so husband and wife are married without having +looked into one another's face." But when once a Copt has chosen a wife, +she is his forever. No divorce is permissible. They are one till death. + +When the influences that had early gone out from Egypt and made for art +and learning in all the lands about the Mediterranean began to return +with compound interest from the shores of Greece to the land of the +Lotus, the women as well as the men were destined to feel their power. +Many a woman had her life lifted from the drudgery of the purely +physical life into the higher atmosphere of intellectual pursuits and +attainments. Especially marked was this in Alexandria where the great +library and university were exerting a powerful influence, and +Christianity was making its teachings felt in favor of equality of +opportunity. In that great university town, the first Christian +theological seminary was established, where both men and women might +study the teachings of the Nazarene. Theological discussions at length +became so general in Alexandria that some one has said that "Every +washer-woman in the city was arguing the merits of _homoousian_ and +_homoiousian_ in the streets." + +It was in this later period of Egypt's history that there arose one of +the most unique of all female figures. For, of all women who ever lived +in Egypt probably none can be given so high a place for various +attainments and virile powers as must be accorded to Hypatia. She was +born of intellectual ancestry, her father being the mathematician and +philosopher Theon, who lived in the fourth century of our era. She was a +disciple of her father, and had probably been a student in the cultured +city of Athens. Returning to her native city she became a lecturer on +philosophical subjects, and was recognized as a leader in the +neo-Platonic school of her day. She is said to have attracted students +far and wide to her classroom, not by her rare intellectual gifts alone, +but by her charm of manner, her beauty of person, her modesty combined +with real eloquence. Not only in the classroom did she exhibit her power +of persuasion and forceful speech, but in courts of law she proved a +powerful advocate. Her very eloquence, however, was her undoing, for +because of the strife that arose in Alexandria between Christian sects +and aroused them to the white heat of controversy and hate, the gifted +Hypatia lost her life in a manner most horrible. Torn from the chariot +in which she was riding she was dragged to the Cæsareum--which had been +converted into a Christian church--stripped naked in the presence of a +howling, fanatical mob, and then cut to pieces with oyster shells. A +horrible blot is this upon Alexandrian life and a fearful comment upon +the wild extravagances that were sometimes enacted while Christianity +was disentangling itself from paganism. + +Truly wonderful has been the life history of this land of the lotus +flower. Once the seat of the highest learning, by its fertilizing Nile +the feeder of the bodies as well as the minds of men; later, the home of +Greek philosophy and of Christian theology--it is to-day little reckoned +with, except as a prize for stronger powers. Some day its natural wealth +may redeem it, and its women put off their rags, or their veil, and +exert new power in the march of progress. + + + + +VII + +THE WOMEN OF THE HINDOOS + + +The mother of the primitive Aryan or Indo-European stock would surely +be an interesting character if we could with certainty reconstruct her +from her descendants of the several branches of that family which sent +out the Hindoo, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, the Slav, the +Scandinavian, the Teuton, and the Celt. The part these races have played +in the world's drama would indicate that the womanhood of ancient Iran +could not have been lacking in qualities that made both for endurance +and for progress. The ancient Hebrew tradition that Japheth should be +enlarged even to dwelling in the tents of Shem seems realized in this +far-spreading Aryan family. It is interesting to note that the word for +"daughter" in all the branches of this family of languages is the same; +the two roots of which it is composed signify to draw milk, attesting +not only to the primitive pastoral condition of the peoples, but also to +the common occupation of the girl as milkmaid in the days before the +several migrations took place. India is a populous country, there being +two hundred and fifty million people living in Hindoostan. These consist +of Hindoos, Mohammedans, Eurasians, Europeans, and Jews. There is +considerable variety, therefore, of custom and condition among these +millions. Among those who prefer this or that particular form of +religion there is a sameness of social condition, though local +peculiarities may be discovered. There is probably no country where the +details of life are performed with such scrupulous regard for the +prescriptions of custom and religion. The great religions to-day differ +among themselves upon many points; but so far as their teachings +concerning women are concerned, they are in wonderful agreement. The +sacred books of India, the Vedas, and other writings, the code of Manu, +for example, were vested with an authority that had untold influences in +the shaping of woman's destiny in the land of the Hindoos. Originally, +that is, in the earliest Aryan civilization,--for non-Aryan people +preceded the coming of the people of western Asia,--women were held in +esteem and exerted unusual influence. Some of the most beautiful hymns +of this ancient period are products of women's genius. The great epics +of _Mahabharata_ and _Ramayana_, with their wealth of female character, +belong to this early Aryan period. Considering her place in later Hindoo +history, the great attention given to woman in the Hindoo literature is +noteworthy. No country of the Orient can furnish a literature in which +woman is given a larger place, or to which women have contributed more +frequently. The names of Ahulya, Tara, Mandadari, Lita, Kunti, and +Draupadi are familiar to students of this Indian literature. The +_Mahabharata_ and the _Ramayana_ are the two most important of the +ancient epics of India. Both give a considerable place to women. The +chivalry of man and the virtue of women furnish here as elsewhere the +base of legendary literature. + +"The ideas of the human family are few," says Mr. E. Wilson, in +_Literature of the Orient_, "when the world's great epics are compared, +the same old story of human struggles and achievements are sung, though +with variations. The same heroes and heroines occur again and again +through the world's history; and although in literary merit, in the +points of artistic proportions and movement, the great Epics of Greece +and Rome, the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_, the _Æneid_, are found to surpass +the _Ramayana_ and the _Mahabharata_, yet the ideals of love, marriage, +conjugal fidelity, are no stronger in the Western classics, and indeed +the moral tone of the Eastern masterpieces is more elevated than that of +the classic writings of Greece and Rome." Like characters appear in the +great works. Not the least interesting of those in the Eastern epos is +Krishna, the faithful wife of Arjuna, the Hindoo Hector, a heroine who +may readily be compared with the devoted Andromache. The story of Arjuna +bringing home Draupadi as a prize, and of his mother bidding him share +her charms with his brothers, seems to point to a time when polyandry +was practised in India. The method by which Draupadi chose her husband +from among her five suitors reveals also an early Hindoo custom known as +the _Svayamvara_. Those who seek the young girl's hand are invited to be +present in some public place where the ceremonies may readily be carried +out. The company forms itself into a ring; and the maiden, making the +round of the circle, tosses a garland of flowers upon the head of the +one whom she prefers. The marriage rite is then performed. Much +bloodshed was wont to occur on such occasions, because of the +disappointment of the unsuccessful suitors. + +It is not to be supposed, however, that the choice was prompted by the +impulse of the moment or by some sudden fascination. The girl usually +knew the records of her suitors, and her selection was based upon +previous acquaintance and deliberate preference. + +Indeed, in marked contrast with the present customs of India, it seems +clear that in early times brides, especially of the higher classes, not +uncommonly made choice of their own spouses. This may be seen in the +Hindoo story of the faithful wife. An early ruler of Madra, Ashvapati, a +pious and virtuous king, was much beloved by his people. He was +childless. Many years did he spend in prayer for offspring. The gods +gave him a daughter, who grew up to be a woman of surpassing beauty; +but, strangely enough, no prince sought her hand in marriage. Her +father, therefore, according to the ancient Hindoo law, sent her forth +to choose her own husband. At length she returned with the man of her +love, Savitri: + + "Carried in a fair, soft litter mid the peoples' welcoming, + Came the queen and good Savitri to the city of the King." + +Among the choicest women of early Hindoo epics is Sita, heroine of the +_Ramayana_. The famous poet Valmiki is supposed to have been the author; +but the poem in its present form is supposed to contain additions made +even as late as the Christian era, though its earliest portions probably +go back to a period as early as the third century before Christ. The +_Ramayana_ is accounted among the sacred books of India, and special +spiritual considerations, such as forgiveness of sin and prosperity, are +thought to be the reward of those who diligently study it. Sita, the +heroine, is the wife of Rama, the son of Dasharatha, who had long +mourned his childlessness. This Dasharatha, a descendant of the sun, +lives in the city of Ayodhya, the modern Oudh, a place of beauty and +splendor: + + "In bygone ages built and planned + By sainted Manu's princely hand." + +But the line of the prince is threatened with extinction. He decides to +lay his plea before the gods by the sacrifice known as the _Asva-Medha_, +in which the victim is a horse. After the offering has been made with +extraordinary magnificence, the high priest in charge makes known to the +king that he shall have four sons to uphold his royal prerogatives and +maintain Dasharatha's line. One of these is Rama, whose wife Sita was a +woman of extraordinary beauty: + + "Rama's darling wife, + Loved was as he loved his life; + Whom happy marks combined to bless, + A miracle of loveliness." + +And Sita was deeply devoted to her lord. But the demon Ravana desires +ardently to possess the fair queen. He hits upon a plan to gain access +to her quarters. Assuming the form of a humble priest, an ascetic, he +gains possession of her by craft; and, taking her in his chariot, he +carries her away to Lanka, a "fair city built upon an island of the +sea." Thus Rama, like Menelaus of the classic myth, has lost the woman +of his love. Rama decides to make use of a large army of monkeys, with +which he will march against the city of Lanka. But the wide waters +stretch between him and the island where his fair Sita is in possession +of the vile Ravana. Rama invokes the goddess of the sea, and she comes +in radiant beauty, telling how a bridge may be built to cross the waters +that lie between the royal lovers. The monkeys--as busy as the little +imps that reared the temple of Solomon, according to the Mohammedan +legend--build a bridge of stones and timbers. Lanka is reached, and Rama +begins the fight for her possession. Indra looks down from heaven upon +the holy contest and decides to send his own chariot down, that Rama may +mount in it and ride to victory. In single combat, riding in Indra's +chariot, Rama vanquishes Ravana, and Sita, his wife, is restored to his +bosom. + +As evidence of the exalted nature of the early ideals of womanhood and +of man's faithfulness to the dictates of true love, we may turn to the +words of Prince Nala, who even when about to ingloriously forsake his +unprotected wife, sleeping in a dangerous wood, spoke thus: + + "Ah, sweetheart, whom not sun nor wind before, + Hath even rudely touched, thou to be couched + In this poor hut, its floor thy bed, and I, + Thy lord, deserting thee, stealing from thee + Thy last robe, O my love with bright smile, + My slender waisted queen. Will she not wake + To madness? Yea, and when she wanders lone + In the dark road, haunted with beasts and snakes, + How will it fare with Bhima's tender child-- + The bright and peerless? O my life, my wife, + May the great sun, may the Eight Powers of air, + Guard thee thou true and dear one on thy way." + +Woman occupies an interesting place in many of the early fables of +India. Sir Edwin Arnold has translated into English a number of the +stories from the _Hitopadesha_, which has been called "the father of all +fables," and may easily take rank with the illustrious Æsop. Stories +which present womanly traits, the tricks and wiles of love, are there, +and are graphically told. Such are the fables of _The Prince_ and the +_Wife of the Merchant's Son_, which illustrate how the darts of love, +even in ancient India, struck their mark without waiting upon reason or +social standing, as the handsome prince, son of Virasena, cries +concerning the beautiful Lavanyavati: "The god of the five shafts has +hit me; only her presence can cure my wound." + +An account of woman in Hindoo literature would be incomplete without +some allusion to the drama. This was developed after the Alexandrian +conquest and shows marks of Greek influence. In the drama we may discern +woman of Brahmanic India from an interesting viewpoint. Of all the +dramatic productions of the Hindoo poets, there is none so famous as +that of Shakuntala, by Kalidasa, the great court poet of Vikramaditya. +As is true of many of the earlier Hindoo masterpieces the exact date of +its composition is not known. Some students place this work as early as +the first, some as late as the fifth century of the Christian era. The +drama of Shakuntala is of interest as illustrating the effect of caste. +It is a drama in seven acts, and, because of its importance, its story +may be recounted. + +As King Dushyanta, King of India, is driving in his chariot through a +forest, armed with his bows and arrows, in hot pursuit of a black +antelope, a word forbids him to slay the innocent creature. It is the +word of a hermit and the antelope belongs to the hermitage. The king is +obedient to the request, and is conducted to the dwelling of the great +saint Kanva, who is absent upon a distant pilgrimage, and has left his +foster-daughter Shakuntala in charge of his companions. The king finds +himself in the midst of a secret grove. He stops his chariot and +alights. As he goes reverently through these holy woods "he feels a +sudden throb in his arm. This argues happy love and soon he sees the +maidens of the hermitage approaching to sprinkle the young shrubs with +watering pots suited to their strength." Among these beautiful maidens, +rare in form and grace, the king observes one especially; it is +Shakuntala, foster-daughter of the hermit, half concealed by the trees, +but standing "like a blooming bud enclosed within a sheath of yellow +leaves." A beautiful girl is she, but the king stands puzzled. For if she +be of purely Brahmanic birth, she is prohibited from marrying one of the +warrior class, even though he be the king. As Shakuntala moves about +watering the flowers of the wood, she starts a bee from one of the +jasmine flowers. The bee pursues her, as if to do her harm with its +sting, but Dushyanta comes to the rescue; and the fair girl of the +hermitage feels some strange thrill as she sees the king, an unusual +visitant in that hallowed neighborhood. Off she hurries with her two +companions, but a series of happy accidents enables her to cast side +glances at the king: a prickly Kusa-grass has stung her foot, she must +wait a moment, a bush has caught her robe, she must stop to disentangle +it. And love is born. In the second act, while Dushyanta is thinking of +his love, two hermits arrive who tell him that demons have taken +advantage of Kanva's absence from the sacred grove and are disturbing +the sacrifices, and requests that he come and defend the grove from +their intrusion. He consents with keen delight and he will not leave the +grove, even though his mother requests his presence at a sacrifice +offered in his own behalf. He sends his representative, but cautions him +to say nothing concerning his love for the fair Shakuntala. In the third +act, the king is discovered walking in the hermitage calling upon the +god of love "whose shafts are flowers, though the flowers' darts are +hard as steel." He tracks the object of his love by the broken stems of +the flowers she had plucked in her rambles, and at length finds her in +an arbor with her attendants. She reclines upon a stone bench strewn +with flowers, she looks pale and wasted. Her maidens seek to know the +cause of her sickness, and she tells her love in a poem, written on a +lotus leaf. Just here the king rushes in and avows his passion. He tries +to overcome her scruples against a marriage, so out of accord with the +regulations of caste. He hears a voice of ill omen telling of the demons +"swarming round the altar fires." He hastens to the rescue. In the +fourth act, Shakuntala is seen wearing the signet ring of the king, +which ring has the charm to restore the king's love, should it ever grow +cold. Kanva returns from his pilgrimage in time to see the preparations +being made for Shakuntala's departure. The old hermit submits resignedly +to her going and gives his blessing to the departing one. The fifth act +presents Dushyanta, like King Saul, overcome with a deep and stubborn +melancholy. He is under a curse of Durvasas, and this induces complete +forgetfulness of his wife Shakuntala. "Why has this strain," says the +king, "thrown over me so deep a melancholy, as though I am separated +from some loved one?" Here the hermit and Shakuntala, who is about to +become a mother, are ushered into the presence of the king. He does not +know her; denies he ever knew her. The Shakuntala is about to produce +from her finger the ring which should be proof of the marriage. But, +alas! she discovers it to be lost. "It must have slipped off, in the +holy lake when thou wast offering sacrifices," said Gantami, who had +accompanied her. The king laughs derisively. Despite her endeavors, the +king fails to recollect the marriage. The sad Shakuntala buries her +hands in her robes and sobs piteously. At length the ring is found by a +fisherman, in the belly of a carp. It is brought to the king, who places +it upon his finger, when he is overcome with a flood of recollections. +But his wife and little son have been carried away to a secret grove far +away from earth in the upper air. The king, conducted in the celestial +car Indra, at length joins them. There the royal pair are reconciled and +reunited, and the drama comes to a close with a prayer to Siva. + +Many of the Hindoo lyrics breathe of love and woman's graces, showing +now a high respect for womanly charms, now indulging in humor at her +frailties. "The God of Love," says the poet Bhartrihari, "sits fishing +on the ocean of the world, and on the end of his hook he has hung a +woman. When the little human fishes come they are not on their guard, +quickly he catches them and broils them in love's fire." Again, the poet +sings: "She whom I love, loves another, while another is pleased with +me." A song from the famous Kalidasa will illustrate the poet's attitude +toward a woman of beauty. + + "Thine eyes are blue like flowers; thy teeth + White jessamine; thy face is very like a lotus flower, + So thy body must be made of the leaves of + Most delicate flowers; how comes it then + That God hath given thee a heart of stone?" + +It would be impracticable to trace the history of the chief women of +the long line of kings in the several dynasties which successively ruled +in India. In fact, it would not be possible to do so, even though there +might be material important for our present purpose. It was probably in +the days of the Mogul dynasty that emerged the most influential female +characters in historic times. The brilliancy of the court of the Mogul +kings and the prominence of some of the queens and princesses give to +this period, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of our era, an +especial fascination. Akbar, known as the Great, was a religious +reformer, as well as a great sovereign. His favorite wife was a princess +of a Rajput family, and to her was due no little of Akbar's success. It +was through his influence that the earliest attempt was made to prohibit +the _suttee_, or self-immolation of widows, a religious custom which had +already begun to dot the hallowed places of the land with little white +pillars that commemorated such sacrifices. One of Akbar's wives is said +to have been a Christian woman. Akbar's son, Emperor Jahangir, was also +wedded to a woman of great force, one who is said indeed to have been +the power behind his throne. He called her Nur Mahal, or "Light of the +Harem," for she was his favorite wife. It was during Jahangir's reign +that the English first established themselves at Surat. Nur Mahal was a +woman who knew how, like Jezebel and Lady Macbeth, to take into her own +hands the reins of administration when a strong grasp became necessary. +Many of the intrigues that characterized the emperor's reign are +attributed to her. Coins of the realm were stamped in her name, and at +last she was buried by the side of her husband at Lahore. During the +period of the Mogul dynasty the queen lived in the midst of the greatest +splendor, which, indeed, is generally more or less true of the wives of +Indian kings. Jewels were theirs in extravagant abundance. Fountains +played for their enjoyment. Marble baths were provided for their +comfort, and numberless slaves waited on their bidding. The magnificence +of the royal houses greatly impressed the Persians when they conquered +the land, or they would not have said, as is illustrated by their +inscription upon one of the palaces they had taken: "If there be a +paradise on earth, it is this, it is this!" Among the best specimens of +architectural magnificence was that erected by Shah Jehan, son of +Jahangir. It was he who built the famous Taj Mahal at Agra, his favorite +residence. He also erected the costly peacock throne at Delhi. The Taj +Mahal was built as a mausoleum for the Empress Mumtazi Mahal, who died +while giving birth to the Princess Jehanava. Isa Mohammed designed the +building, and its erection was begun in the year 1630. After seventeen +years, the employment of twenty thousand workmen, and the expenditure of +millions of dollars, the Taj Mahal was finished. It is one of the most +magnificent public buildings in India, and one of the most famous in the +world. With its dome of two hundred and ten feet in height, its tropical +garden, its mosaics and inscriptions, its marble of white, black, and +yellow, its crystals, jaspers, garnets, amethysts, sapphires, and even +diamonds, it is the richest and most notable tribute of marital love +that has ever been erected. + +Another monument built in honor of a woman is the famous tower Kootab +Minar, the highest pillar in the world, being of red sandstone and two +hundred and thirty-eight feet high. It is said to have been built that +the king's daughter, from the vantage ground of its high turret, might +look out upon the mosque which could be discerned in the distance. + +Let us revert for a moment to the ancient Hindoo writings and their +influence upon the history of Hindoo women. To the religious books of +India woman has to-day no personal access. Her religious sacrifices and +ceremonies before marriage are with reference to the procuring of a +husband. After marriage she may approach the deity, but only in the name +of her husband. Him she must revere almost as if he himself were a god. +She hopes that in time she herself may be born a man. Anciently there +were in India virgins dedicated to the service of the temple and pledged +to a life of purity, like the vestal virgins of ancient Rome. In the +course of the centuries the custom was degraded; and young women in +large numbers became the dancing girls at the temples, and others openly +dedicated themselves to a life of shame at the shrines. They are +euphemistically termed "God's slaves," but might more properly be spoken +of as slaves to the bestial passions of the profligate Brahmans of the +temple to which they belong. Dedication of virginity to a popular deity, +through his priest, became common. The young woman was said to have been +married to the god, and was given over to a life of shame. + +Brahmanism, which has been defined as "the religion which exalts the +cow and degrades the woman," has been one of the most potent factors in +shaping the life of woman in India. Among the Hindoos, woman has no +independent spiritual life. Her hope is in being married to a man. +Through him must her fortune be secured, and only in obedience to him +can she hope for any ultimate happiness. Woman has been regarded by the +sages of India as a snare to man's rectitude and an obstacle to his best +interests. Buddha is said to have been seated one day in a grove near +the banks of the Ganges, with many about him who had come to do him +reverence. As he saw a woman, the lady Amra, circumspect and pious, +approaching in the distance, Buddha said to those about him: "This woman +is indeed exceedingly beautiful, able to fascinate the minds of the +religious: now, then, keep your recollection straight. Let wisdom keep +your mind in subjection. Better fall into the fierce tiger's mouth, or +under the sharp knife of the executioner, than to dwell with a woman and +excite in yourselves lustful thoughts. A woman is anxious to exhibit her +form and shape, whether walking, standing, sitting, or sleeping. Even +when represented as a picture, she desires most of all to set off the +blandishments of her beauty, and thus to rob men of their steadfast +heart. How, then, ought you to guard yourselves? By regarding her tears +and her smiles as enemies, her stooping form, her hanging arms, and all +her disentangled hair, as toils designed to trap man's heart." + +Caste, in India, dominates everything from the cradle to the grave, and +has greatly affected the life of woman. The lines of demarcation are +deep-drawn and inexorable. The social gulfs are impassable. As one has +remarked, the only tie between the castes is the cow, which is revered +by all. There are four castes. To quote Manu, "The Brahmana, the +Kshatriya, and the Vaishya castes are the twice born ones, but the +fourth, the Shudra, has one birth only; there is no fifth caste." But +there are the outcasts who, because of some violation of caste rule, +have lost their social status and are despised by all, even the lowest. +The highest caste, according to popular belief, descended from Brahma's +mouth, this is the priestly class. The second came from Brahma's arms, +this is the warrior class. The third from his thighs, this is the +merchant class; least of all are the Shudras people, born of Brahma's +feet. The highest caste influences, in a measure, the customs of the +lower castes. The women of the low caste are burdened with many outside +duties, caring for their children in the intervals. They therefore enjoy +no little freedom. The women of the high caste, however, are shut up in +the zenanas, and so know little of the outside world. + +[Illustration 3: _INTERIOR COURT OF A ZENANA From an Indo-Persian +painting The zenanas are the apartments of the women, and are quite +secluded, the windows invariably looking upon the inner quadrangle of +the house. The wives are closely confined to the house. In order to +enjoy a social visit, permission must be given by the husband, who is +rarely willing to grant the coveted freedom. There is not much gayety +about the zenanas, though sometimes there may be music, dancing, and +mirth. Petty duties, trivial acts, and idleness make up "the life behind +the curtain." The girls and boys are permitted to play together until +the girl is about ten years old, then she must begin to keep purdah; +that is, she must go behind the curtain._] + +The zenanas are the apartments of the women, and are quite secluded, +the windows invariably looking upon the inner quadrangle of the house. +The wives are closely confined to the house. In order to enjoy a social +visit, permission must be given by the husband, who is rarely willing to +grant the coveted freedom. There is not much gayety about the zenanas, +though sometimes there may be music, dancing, and mirth. Petty duties, +trivial acts, and idleness make up "the life behind the curtain." The +girls and boys are permitted to play together until the girl is about +ten years old, then she must begin to keep purdah; that is, she must go +behind the curtain. She must dwell in the seclusion of the women, not +allowing a man, not even her own brothers, to look upon her. The Hindoos +cannot believe that a woman may be good and free at the same time; she +may be good, she may be free, but both, never. The Mohammedan Hindoo +women are of course influenced by the teachings of the Koran, which +regards the best women as those who never see any man but their husbands +and sons, the next best those that have laid eyes only upon their +relatives. Very meagre is a girl's educational training. Besides the +domestic duties, in which she is instructed that she may be fitted for +her married life, the girl is taught a few prayers which may be of +service to her in winning the favor of the deities concerned with +marital relations, and some popular songs by means of which she may +while away the hours. The deference which members of the female sex are +always expected to show to those of the male manifests itself somewhat +differently in different sections of India. In the northern parts, where +the women uniformly wear veils, they can more readily cover their faces +at the unexpected appearance of a man, or they may run into another +apartment. In southern India, where veils are not common, the women are +not compelled to hide from the presence of men, but must always rise and +remain standing out of deference to them. The Hindoo woman will not call +her husband by name; she uses such terms as "Master, Chosen," and +"Husband," and the husband, on the other hand, never alludes to his +wife, nor does anyone inquire of him concerning her. The absorption of +the wife's identity into that of the husband is complete. After marriage +they become one and he is the one. There is little wonder at this when +Manu says: "By a girl, by a woman, or even by an aged one nothing must +be done." "In childhood, a female must be subject to the father, in +youth to her husband, and when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman +must never be independent." And the Vedas declare that he only is a +perfect man who consists of three persons united, his wife, himself, and +his offspring. + +The expense of a marriage ceremony is very heavy in India. It is the +most expensive of all the festivities of the Hindoos. Among the higher +caste the outlay is usually above two hundred dollars. This, for a +country where the people are so poor, is a large outlay. Since religion +makes it necessary for the girls to marry, two daughters may bankrupt a +family. When it is remembered that the father must not only support his +wives and children, but also his aged parents, his indigent or idle +brothers and their families, the nearest widowed relations, and numerous +other dependants, it may be seen that a breadwinner's life in this land +of recurring famines is not always a happy one. It is not an uncommon +thing in India for four generations of family life to be crowded into +one house. The occasion of a marriage is, of course, one of prime +interest. It is the only incident in which a woman may become the centre +of an event of great religious significance. Then Vedic prayers are +offered up and festivities run high. Men dancers or Nautch girls may be +seen singing the amours, the quarrels and reconciliations of Krishna and +his wives or his mistresses. These are not a whit elevating. The truth +is India is not lacking in obscenity, not even in the frescoes of its +temples. Though little be given to the Hindoo girl, much is expected of +her when she becomes a wife. For, says the laws of Manu, "She must +always be cheerful, clever in the management of household affairs, +careful in cleaning her utensils and economical in expenditure." + +The necessity of bringing forth sons and being a good loyal wife +generally may be discerned in the law of Manu, which says: "A barren +wife may be superseded in the eighth year; she whose children all die, +in the tenth; she who brings only daughters into the world, in the +eleventh; but she who is quarrelsome, without delay." + +Faithfulness of a wife to her husband and her husband's interests must +be unquestioned. Thus alone may a woman find her higher blessedness. "A +faithful wife," says Manu, "who desires to dwell after death with her +husband must never do anything that might displease him who took her +hand whether he be alive or dead. By violating her duty to her husband a +wife is disgraced in this world, after death she enters the womb of a +jackal and is tormented by diseases, the punishment of her sin." + +One of the most remarkable customs of a remarkable people is that of +child marriage. Since a woman attains her blessedness, if not her +spiritual entity by union with a man, marriage should be early. It is +regarded as a disgrace for a father to have an unmarried daughter upon +his hands. In Oriental lands generally the marriageable age of girls is +about twelve years, the period at which, in those countries, a young +girl usually attains to physical womanhood. But in India even infant +girls are married by their parents to other infants, or to older boys, +or to men. A woman is not esteemed at all till she is married and +becomes the mother of a son. Then she becomes at least worthy of a +certain respect. + +The history of the life of a Hindoo girl of high caste may be thus +drawn. Word comes from the zenana that it is a girl. Instead of +congratulations and joy at the little one's advent, the mother is +reviled by an angry husband because she brings him a daughter instead of +a son. In his reproaches all the household join. For has she not +disgraced her husband? And is she not accursed rather than blessed of +the gods? The little one is hid from the eyes of the father when he +enters the zenana, lest his anger burst forth anew. Two years roll +around, and the little girl hears sounds of rejoicing and of feasting in +the house. A boy is born, and the father's attitude is changed toward +the mother, and somewhat toward the daughter; but even yet she is a +negligible quantity. The mother loves and sometimes caresses the girl. +Occasionally the father, too, will notice her; and when the brother has +become old enough, the two little ones may play together. In a short +time, it may be between the ages of five and six, the little daughter is +arrayed in silk and costly gems. The day of her wedding has come, though +she herself knows little of what it all means, and timidly assents to +what her father in his unquestioned authority has done. She is brought +to the man whom the parent has chosen from his own caste. They look upon +each other for the first time, and the little girl scarcely sees him now +for her timidity. The ceremony is over, and the husband returns to his +own home. For the child wife must be taught the duties of housewifery. +Her mother is diligent in imparting the required knowledge. It consists +of proficiency in the arts of cooking, spinning, weaving, and waiting +upon her husband, more particularly when he is eating. The fundamental +duty of marital obedience is instilled with supreme care. At about +eleven years the girl wife is deemed ready to assume the serious duties +of wedded life. The husband comes and takes her to his own home. If his +circumstances permit he is royally seated, it may be, upon a gaudily +bedecked elephant, and she is conveyed in a closely covered palanquin. +The girl wife is now among strangers, she must make her way as best she +can. Life is not always easy for her. The Hindoo mother-in-law at once +becomes master of the new situation, and the daughter must be a willing +slave. Her apartments are not over cheerful, and the other women of the +zenana receive her with chilling indifference or with positive cruelty. +At twelve years of age the young wife is in all probability a mother. If +the child be a son, she is emancipated from her thraldom to the +husband's mother. She is now worthy in the sight of her husband, and if +all goes well, her life is lifted to a higher plane. + +Since a woman is bound to her husband as long as she lives,--even +though the husband himself be dead,--remarriage for her is out of the +question. Social ostracism would surely follow the woman who would dare +marry again. The man, however, may marry as often as he pleases and as +many wives as may be to his liking and convenience. The English +government attempted the impossible by the passage of a law--enacted in +1856--legalizing the remarriage of widows. Few, however, were able to +face the social hardships and loss of property which remarriage +involved. The widow who refuses to marry may often hold her property, +even though she live a life of shame. + +Financial conditions have much to do with the number of wives which each +husband acquires. The Brahmanic caste may marry almost without limit. +Indeed, it is permitted to them to make a business of marriage. +Sometimes an illustrious Brahman may go up and down the land, marrying +girls, always of course within his own caste, receiving presents from +the parents of the bride,--who esteem it an honor for their daughter to +be wed, especially to one so distinguished,--but passing on and never +returning to claim his wife. But the father is satisfied with the +bargain, for his daughter is at last free from the disgrace and ridicule +of being unmarried; and being the wife of a Brahman of a high caste, the +girl will be happy in the world to come. + +Since the members of the _kshatriyas_, or warrior class, are not +permitted to accept gifts as are the Brahmans, or priestly class, the +former cannot enjoy the privilege of enrichment by the process of +multi-marriage. They therefore have fewer wives, the number being +regulated by their power to support them. The same is also true of the +number of the daughters whom they are willing should survive, +infanticide being commonest among the people of this caste. + +It must not be thought that every utterance of the sacred books is on +the side of the woman's inferiority. A single passage from Manu +proclaims that "A daughter is the equal of a son," but the law proceeds +to let it be known that it is only through the husband or the son that +this equality is realized. This doctrine is true not of women only, for +even a man is made perfect only through his possession of a son or sons. +"Through a son he conquers the world, through a son's son he obtains +immortality, but through his son's grandson he gains the world of the +sun." Indeed, "there is no place in Heaven for a man," says Vasishtha, +"who is destitute of offspring." + +With the exception of child marriage, there is probably no fact +concerning the Hindoo woman's life that has received so much attention +as the customs which bear so hard upon widowhood. Beginning with the +assumption that the death of the husband was sent as a punishment for +the wickedness of the wife, in some previous state of existence it may +be, it is easy to conclude that the widow's life should be made as +miserable as possible. She is therefore maltreated, neglected, and at +times almost starved. When death takes away him in whom alone she had +any reason for being respected, her head must be shaved, all jewels and +wearing apparel are taken away, and instead the coarse weeds of the +widow are put on. One meal a day is permitted, and no more. Even the +women themselves are most harsh in the treatment of their bereft +sisters. For as soon as it is known that the husband is dead, the women +rush immediately upon the bewildered, grief-stricken wife, tear her +ornaments from her body, shave her hair from her head, and pronounce the +severest curses upon her whose sins in a bygone state had killed her +husband. They advise her to appease the wrath of the deity by throwing +herself with the husband upon the funeral pyre and thus as far as +possible wipe out the awful disgrace. Formerly, many yielded to +self-immolation, and immediately put an end to a life that otherwise +would be a prolonged misery, or at length, driven to frenzy by their +thousand deaths of torture, in some way cut short their terrible agony. + +There are about one hundred and forty million women in India. At the age +of fifteen, more often several years earlier, they are either wives or +widows. Since child marriage is so common in India, there are many +widows of very tender years. There are said to be twenty-three million +widows in India; at least two million of these became widows in early +childhood. Of these, eighty thousand are still under nine years of age, +and six hundred thousand have not yet reached the age of twenty. The +sorrows produced by religious belief concerning widowhood and by social +customs cause many very young girls to end their lives by +self-destruction. Pundita Ramabai, in her _High-Caste Hindu Woman_, says +of the widow: "She must never take part in the family feasts; is known +by the name of harlot; if she escapes from her home, no respectable +person will take her in; suicide, or a life of infamy is inevitable." + +Happily, the self-immolation of widows in India has now well-nigh passed +away. The English government has done much to break this awful custom, +which was thought to be the only means of destroying the force of a +widow's eternal misery and of bringing to her any future blessedness. +This horrible death, known as _suttee_, was made unlawful in 1830. But +"cold _suttee_," as some have called the living death which widows +suffer from social customs, is still maintained. + +From all that has been said, it is not strange that fathers may +sometimes be found who will be willing, for so many rupees, to sell +their daughters to a course of infamy, or that men may sometimes lend +their wives for a money consideration, or that the suicides of females +have been so numerous in India. + +There are above five million fewer women in India than men. This marked +discrepancy may be accounted for by the infanticide which prevails in +some parts and among some classes of the Hindoos, notwithstanding all +that the government can do to prevent it. Female infants are sometimes +strangled, sometimes exposed to wild beasts, or generally neglected. The +dark, unsanitary conditions of the women's quarters, and the +extraordinarily harsh and unintelligent treatment of women at the time +of childbirth, also play their part in the death rate of females. + +All this is in marked contrast to the position of women in Siam. Here +the seclusion of the Turkish harem and the Hindoo zenana does not exist, +and the women are probably the freest, most independent of the women of +the East. They openly attend to their duties, bringing their food to +market, buying, selling, aiding in the management of the house and +field. A man does not spend his money without consultation with the +wife, should he prize the family peace: the woman usually carries the +purse. Inheritance of house and lands is through the mother rather than +through the father--a survival of the ancient mother-right. Women even +in this comparatively favored land, however, are seldom educated, except +it be in schools established by Christian foreigners. If a woman wishes +to learn at all, it must be through her husband or brother at home. + +Woman in Burmah also is comparatively free, neither the zenana nor the +veil prevailing there. She too holds the purse strings; but in all other +respects she is distinctly inferior to her husband and must constantly +acknowledge it. A good wife will never say "I" in talking to her husband +concerning herself, but must speak of herself as "Your servant." In the +eyes of the man, the woman here is not only inferior, but vile, even to +the touch. Her garments are polluting to the passer-by; hence, she +always draws them more closely about herself as she passes a man upon +the streets. + +In Assam also woman holds a far higher place than in other parts of +India or in Burmah, even among the rude and warlike people. To the Nagas +of the hill country of Assam a girl is most welcome at birth and by many +preferred to a boy, for she is more docile, helpful, and obedient; she +is less expensive to rear and more filial in her attitude to her aged +parents. This last consideration is one that counts for very much in all +Oriental lands. Instead of the early child marriages of India, here we +find marriage at about thirteen, the bride not leaving the parental roof +till three or four years after. The wife is respected and consulted, the +husband often deferring to his wife. "I will come from the house and +tell you," means "I will ask my wife." + +At marriage an iron bracelet is placed on the wrist. This is sometimes +worn with gold circlets to lessen the sense of subjection. But the iron +bracelet does not thus lose its significance, for the woman has +everything to remind her of her secondary place in society. Sir Monier +Monier-Williams gives the following summary of woman's life in India: +"In regard to women, the general feeling is that they are the necessary +machines for producing children (Manu, lx: 96), and without children +there could be no due performance of the funeral rites essential to the +peace of a man's soul after death. This is secured by early marriage. If +the law required the consent of boys and girls before the marriage +ceremony they might decline to give it. Hence, girls are betrothed at +three or four years of age and go through the marriage ceremony at seven +to boys of whom they know nothing; and if these boy husbands die the +girls remain widows all their lives." + +Since the boys soon find out their superiority to their mothers, the +latter have little part in shaping the characters of the children, and +therefore comparatively small influence in moulding the destiny of the +people. Wherever the cow is exalted and the woman degraded a nation can +hope for little from its women. "We all believe," says a prominent +Hindoo, "in the sanctity of the cow and in the depravity of woman." +Unwelcomed at her arrival and often harassed and kept in subjection till +her death, she can contribute little to the welfare of her people. It +may be said, however, that the Hindoo woman is in the main satisfied +with her lot, and is the mainstay of Hindooism. + + + + +VIII + +BESIDE THE PERSIAN GULF + + +It is a familiar remark that the essential difference between the +civilization of the East and that of the West is disclosed in the status +of woman in each of these regions of the earth. Erman, in writing of the +women of Egypt, broadly remarks that in the West woman is "the companion +of man, while in the East she is his servant and toy. In the West at one +time, the esteem in which woman was held rose to a cult, while in the +East, the question has frequently been earnestly discussed whether woman +really belonged to the human race." But he justly adds, this is not +absolutely fair, either to the East or to the West. While in India woman +has been denied a soul, and among the Teutonic tribes she was honored +with a superstitious reverence, yet not all the veneration can be +accounted upon the one side, nor all the degradation upon the other. +Among the primitive Aryan peoples woman's place appears to have been no +mean one. The early traditions of the women of Bactria, ancient Iran, +and the region of the Oxus converge with those preserved in the Rigveda +of the Hindoos to indicate a high degree of respect for woman, for +marriage, and for the other domestic virtues. + +The science of comparative philology has helped us to discover some of +the primitive ideas attached to the names of the female members of the +household. The root _ma_, _matar_, "mother," signifies the _creatrix_, +"she who brings children into the world." The coming of a girl into the +countries bordering on the Persian Gulf does not seem to have been the +matter of regret that it was so frequently in the Orient; for the name +"sister" appears to be connected with _svasti_, "good," or "good +fortune"; while the daughter manifestly held the important place, in the +pastoral life of the times, of milkmaid, from _duhitar_, "she who brings +the milk from the cows." + +Lenormant, writing of this ancient period, says: "Marriage was a +consecrated and free act, preceded by betrothal and symbolized by the +joining of hands. The husband, in the presence of the priest, both while +the priestly office was invested in the head of the family, and also +after the priesthood became separate, took the right hand of the bride, +pronouncing certain sacred formulæ; the bride was then conducted on a +wagon drawn by two white oxen. The father of the bride presented a cow +to his son-in-law, this was intended originally for the wedding feast, +but in later times it was taken to the house of the bridegroom; this was +the dowry, an emblem of agricultural richness. The bride's hair was +parted with a dart; she was conducted around the domestic hearth and was +then received at the door of her new abode with a present of fire and +water." + +Many of these ancient customs which prevailed in the regions of Irania +in the earliest times existed in the various branches of the +Indo-European family in their scattered locations. There may be +mentioned the fire ordeal, such a trial as that through which the +virtuous Sita, heroine of the _Ramayana_, was compelled by her +suspicious husband King Rama to pass in order to destroy his suspicions. +There were two methods of testing a woman's virtue. By the first, she +must pass unharmed through a trench filled with live coals. In the +second, a succession of concentric circles, about ten inches apart, was +marked out. A red-hot lance head, or another piece of similarly heated +metal, must be carried by the accused woman without being burnt across +the first eight circles and thrown into the ninth, and it must even then +be sufficiently hot to scorch the grass within the last circle. If the +hand that bore the red-hot metal was not burnt, the innocence of the +accused was established. + +In the legendary period of Persia's history woman performs an honorable +and--it is needless to add--a romantic part. Indeed, there has been an +interest of romance attached to Persia from the early days when +Herodotus travelled and Xenophon gave the world his _Cyropædia_. +Persia's great epic poets, notably Firdausi in _Shahnamah_, have +preserved many of the early traditions of this land. More particularly +do the deeds which gather about the name of Shah Jamshid, one of the +earliest of Persian rulers, stand out in bold character. According to +the ancient legend, it was he who not only introduced the handicrafts of +weaving, of embroidering upon woollen, cotton, and silken stuffs, but +also it was he who divided the people into the four social +strata,--priests, warriors, traders, and husbandmen. Both these +contributions to Persia's early history may be said to be of prime +importance in the development of the womanhood of the country. Of this +king many interesting stories are related, episodes in which heroic +womanhood conspicuously figures. War and love, deeds of daring and of +chivalry hold a large place in the Persian legends. + +The thrilling stories of King Jamshid's meeting with the irresistible +daughter of Gureng, King of Zabulistan; of their love and marriage; the +legend of the fair Tahmimah, daughter of the King of Semangan, and how +she fascinated and led captive the love of the youthful warrior Rustam, +whose fame had come to her ears; the unhappy trick by which she deceived +her absent husband, saying that the infant born to them was a girl, so +that the child might be left with her,--a deception which ended in the +tragedy of young Suhrab's death at the hands of his own father; Rustam +and Tahmimah's death from grief; the romantic finding of a queen for +King Kai Kaus, a lady who was to become the mother of King Saiawush; the +story of Byzun and the fair Princess Manijeh--all these, and more, +render the Persian epic literature rich in tales of love and chivalry. + +It is out of the long and bloody struggles between the Iranians and the +Turanians, who for over ten centuries battled for supremacy, that the +early epic stories have largely sprung. There was no prejudice in the +ancient days of Persia against a strenuous as well as an amatory life +for womankind. + +In the chapter upon the women of the Assyro-Babylonian people, the story +of Semiramis, the illustrious queen, has been told. So widespread was +the legend, however, that it belongs to the Persians as well as to the +inhabitants of the Tigris-Euphrates basin. The story was well known in +the region of Armenia, and may have been introduced into Persian history +because of its political value. + +Among the early women of distinction must be named Homai, who has +indeed been identified with "the Persian Semiramis." She was a princess +of renown and daughter of Bahman, and to her has been given the credit +of being the author of a collection of tales known as _Hezar Afsane_, +which comprises about two hundred stories told upon a thousand nights. +It is from this collection by the Princess Homai that many suppose the +_Arabian Nights_ was constructed. How much of the material from the +former went to make up the latter is not capable of present proof, but +that the general idea and plan and some of the names, and the groundwork +of many of the tales, were borrowed from the work of the Persian +princess seems quite certain. Homai is mentioned in the Avesta, the +sacred book of the Persians; and the Persian poet Firdausi makes her the +daughter as well as wife of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Her mother is said to +have been a Jewess, Shahrazaad, among the captives brought from +Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. She is reported as having +delivered her nation from captivity, and has been identified with Esther +of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as with Shahrazaad the Jewess of the +_Arabian Nights_. Professor Gottheil thinks that the case here is well +made out by Kuenen and others. The period of Cyrus the Great brings us +upon the borderland between legend and history. Very romantic is the +story told by Herodotus concerning the mother of Cyrus. Astyages, the +Medean king, had a daughter named Mandane. This young woman was given in +marriage to Cambyses, son of Theispes. Shortly after this, King Astyages +had a dream in which there appeared a vine springing from his daughter +Mandane and spreading till it had overshadowed all Asia. Wishing to know +the meaning of this unusual dream, Astyages received from the Magi the +interpretation that a son of Mandane should some day reign in his place. +Alarmed at this, the king called a trusted servant, Harpagus, and +commanded that he make plans to put to death the infant to which Mandane +was soon to give birth; and the wife of Cambyses was closely guarded. +Harpagus, however, unwilling himself to be guilty of so bloody a crime, +directed that a herdsman of the king expose the infant son on a desert +mountain, where its death would be certain. The herdsman, however, +instead of leaving the little one to perish, reared him himself instead +of his own stillborn son. The child received the name of Agradates, but +later that of Cyrus, who by his achievements won the cognomen "The +Great." According to Ctesias, Cyrus, after defeating Astyages, married +his daughter Amytis, who had been the wife of a Mede named Spitaces, +whom Cyrus put to death. Herodotus, as we have seen, says that the +mother of Cyrus was a daughter of Astyages. The two statements may be +both correct, however, since an Oriental conqueror would not hesitate to +marry his mother's sister if the procedure gave him greater power over a +conquered territory. + +It was a woman, according to Herodotus, who at length brought the great +conqueror Cyrus to his end. Desiring to vanquish the Massagetæ, a +warlike tribe inhabiting the steppes north of the river Jaxartes, he +sent out his army, with the greater confidence of victory since this +people was then governed by a woman. When the Queen of the Massagetæ, +Tomyris, perceived the approach of the large army of Persians and the +work of building bridges across the Jaxartes, she sent a herald to +Cyrus, proposing a fair and open contest between the two forces, on +whichever side of the river Cyrus might select. Cyrus chose the side +of the river next the Massagetæ, but made use of a piece of strategy by +which the Massagetæ were defeated and the queen's son, who led in the +battle, was captured. Queen Tomyris, on hearing of the disaster, wrote a +bitter message to Cyrus, and threatened revenge that would be most +direful if her son were not returned alive. Cyrus gave no heed to the +threat. Thereupon, Tomyris mobilized all the forces of her kingdom +against the Persian army. "Of all the combats in which the barbarians +have ever engaged among themselves," says the ancient historian, "I +reckon this to have been the fiercest." First, the armies stood apart +and shot their deadly arrows. When the quivers were all emptied, the +forces joined in hand-to-hand encounter with lances and daggers, neither +yielding, till at length the army of the queen prevailed by the +destruction of the larger part of the Persian army. Cyrus himself was +slain; and as Tomyris passed his bloody corpse, she heaped insults upon +it, saying: "I live, and have conquered thee in fight; and yet by thee I +am ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I make good my +threat, and give thee thy fill of blood." + +The story of Araspes and Panthea, related by Xenophon, is one of the +earliest pieces of romantic fiction. It is told in the _Cyropædia_, and +is intended to illustrate the steadfastness and virtue of the great +Cyrus. Among the early gifts to the conqueror was a Susian lady, wife of +Abradates, King of the Susians, and regarded as the most beautiful woman +in Asia. Cyrus, never having yet seen her, committed her to the care of +Araspes till he might call for her. But the guardian fell so in love +with his fair ward that he feared the displeasure of Cyrus. The king, +however, astutely seizing upon his supposed anger toward Araspes, +decides to send him, as if a fugitive, to the enemy, that information +might be received by Araspes and communicated to him. Moreover, Panthea +now sends to Cyrus a message that her own husband Abradates would +himself become a fast friend to her lord, should he be allowed the +privilege of coming to him. Thus Cyrus, unlike many another king and +warrior, by supreme self-control in the matter of his loves gained +friends and subdued enemies. + +The kings of Persia, while usually marrying but one legal wife, enjoyed +the universal custom of supporting a vast harem, and of inviting into it +daughters of neighboring kings. Usually the purposes were peaceful, but +sometimes they were of a hostile character. This was the case when +Cambyses, having resolved to carry out his father's plan of making a +conquest of Egypt, demanded of Amasis, Egypt's king, his daughter in +marriage, hoping thereby to pick a quarrel. Amasis replied by sending, +not his own daughter, but another damsel of his realm, who, unable or +unwilling to keep the secret, divulged to Cambyses the deception that +had been practised upon him. The Persian king desired no better pretext +for war, and the marriage trick was avenged by Egypt's fall. + +The wives of the kings sometimes exerted much influence in the realm, +either for good or bad. Amestris, the only lawful wife of Xerxes, is +said to have been instrumental in the death of her husband by the hands +of two of his chief men. Amestris was his own cousin. That she +instigated this murder is not at all improbable, since there was ample +ground for jealousy on her part because of the notorious gallantries of +Xerxes. Indeed, the Hebrew Book of Esther draws a picture of the +corruptions of his court which in general outline is certainly true to +the facts. + +Royal personages sometimes married their own sisters. This, however, +was contrary to the ancient custom. Cambyses, who succeeded Cyrus upon +the throne, fell in love with Meroe, his youngest sister, and wished to +marry her. Not wishing to fly in the face of the custom of the Persians, +he called together the judges of the empire and inquired of them whether +there might not be a law which allowed the marriage of brother and +sister. The judges informed him that there was no such law among the +Persians, but that there was a law allowing the king to do whatever he +pleased. Disgusted and enraged, the king ordered his sister to be put to +death; so that if marriage with her was prohibited to him, it might not +be possible to a lesser man. This was no surprise, however, to a people +who had known of the cruelties of this tyrant, whose own brother Smerdis +had been brutally executed at his command. Cambyses having died of a +self-inflicted wound, his successor, known as the Pseudo-Smerdis, or +Gomates, married all his predecessor's wives--a common custom among +Oriental monarchs; for the harem might easily be regarded as a part of +the spoils of conquest, or of the inheritance, as the case might be. +Gomates kept his numerous wives confined in separate apartments, for the +intrigues of the seraglio were the bane of the Persian as of the other +Oriental dynasties. + +When Darius I. came into possession of the Persian throne he proceeded +to add dignity to his kingly claims by marrying Atossa, daughter of +Cyrus, who had already been successively the wife of her brother +Cambyses and of the false claimant Smerdis. Such political and +incestuous marriages became quite common in Persia. One might marry not +only a sister, but a daughter, and even a mother. At the instigation of +Parysatis, Artaxerxes II., her son, married his own daughter. + +Atossa figures in an interesting story, which may, however, lack +historic truthfulness. Democedes, a physician of Crotona, had healed the +injured foot of Darius, and was now called upon to visit Atossa in an +illness. Democedes, anxious to return to his native land, sees his +opportunity. Atossa, healed of her malady, is induced to appear before +Darius and reproach him for idly sitting still and not extending the +Persian dominion. "A man who is young," said she, "and lord of vast +kingdoms should do some great thing, that the Persians may know it is a +man who rules over them." Darius replied that he was even then preparing +an expedition against the Scythians. "Nay," answered his wife, "do not +fight against the Scythians, for I have heard of the beauty of the women +of Hellas and desire to have Athenian and Spartan maidens among my +slaves, and thou hast here one who above all men can show thee how thou +mayest do this--I mean he who hath healed thy foot." Atossa prevailed. +But the expedition was only a reconnoitring party sent out in ships to +Greece and Italy. Democedes reached his home, and sent Darius word that +he could not return, because he had married the daughter of Milon the +wrestler; but the expedition met only with disaster. + +That Persian women of royalty often took no inconsiderable part in +political and military activity is illustrated by many examples from the +days of Persia's strength. Xenophon has immortalized the zeal of +Parysatis in her efforts at placing her son Cyrus, the younger, upon the +throne, and her plottings in his behalf against his elder brother +Artaxerxes. Parysatis failed, but won no small power even in her +unsuccessful efforts. + +Alexander the Great, on his Eastern campaign, seemed as willing to +marry the daughters of conquered princes of the East as to be worshipped +as a god by his obedient followers. Indeed, he would frequently give +respite to a strenuous life of conquest by marrying an Oriental woman. +While Alexander was engaged in his Phoenician campaign, Darius wrote +Alexander a letter offering him not only all lands west of the Euphrates +River, but also his own daughter, Statira, as the price of peace. It was +on this occasion that the famous dialogue between Alexander and his +general Parmenion occurred. The latter had advised that the offer of +Darius be accepted and no further risk of battle be undertaken. "Were I +Alexander," said Parmenion, "I should take these terms." "So should I, +if I were Parmenion," said Alexander; "but as I am not Parmenion, but +Alexander, I cannot." Accordingly, he wrote to Darius in reply to his +offer: "You offer me a part of your possession, when I am lord of all; +and if I choose to marry your daughter, I shall do so whether you give +consent or not." Events justified Alexander's boast, for both the +territory and the daughter fell into the hands of the Macedonian victor. +It was not, however, till the conqueror reached the palace city of Susa, +on his return from India, that he celebrated his marriage with Statira, +a daughter of Darius and Parysatis, who herself was daughter of Ochus, +predecessor of Darius. Alexander wished to encourage such unions with +Persian women, and went so far as to offer to his soldiers a full +payment of all debts to those who would take to themselves Persian +wives--an argument which appealed powerfully to the extravagant +spendthrifts, but was of little force with the sober and provident of +his followers. Many of the former availed themselves of their general's +offer and followed his illustrious example. Ten thousand soldiers +received presents for marrying Eastern wives, and at least eighty of +Alexander's courtiers celebrated their marriage to Persian wives while +at Susa. + +The intermarriage of Greeks with Persian women was desired by Alexander +as one means of welding together the Greeks and the Persians into one +united empire. In the opinion of the Greeks, however, a union between +the sons of Hellas and the daughters of the East could not be regarded +as a regular marriage; and yet, Roxana, the Bactrian, was exalted to be +Alexander's queen. The spirit of the East, however, conquered the +conquerors, and polygamy was introduced among the Greek invaders, +Alexander himself having married three wives of the East, Roxana, +Statira, and Parysatis. The most noteworthy matrimonial coup of +Alexander during his Eastern conquest was, of course, that with Roxana. +Her son, born after Alexander's death, and called by the name of his +father, laid claim to the title of "the great king"; but Alexander's +Eastern plans, so far as they looked toward a universal empire, melted +away in the early morning of their conception. + +After the decline of the Græco-Persian power and the rise of Parthian +supremacy, we enter a new epoch in Persian history. The Parthians had +long been a rude, nomadic people. Their women were uncultured, and +played little part, except in a physical way, in the new era that dawned +upon the land of proud Persia. The Parthian women were, however, sturdy, +self-sacrificing, and brave, adapted well to the dashing character of +the Parthian warrior, whose tactics in battle struck terror to the +stoutest hearts, even among the brave Greeks and the well-nigh +invincible Romans. + +Following the downfall of the Parthians comes, under Ardeshir, the rise +of the Sassanian dynasty, which many suppose to be a revival of the once +glorious line of Achæmenian kings. It was not long before woman began to +figure prominently in the new history. Sapor I., son of Ardeshir, or the +Sassanian Artaxerxes, as he is called, finding difficulty in bringing +the province of Hatra under his sway, receives an overture from the +daughter of Manizen, the ruler of Hatra, an ambitious young +woman,--without moral scruples,--with intimation that if she were made +Queen of Persia she would promise to betray her father's forces into +Sapor's hands. The compact was faithfully carried out by the damsel; but +Sapor, when he came into possession of Hatra, ordered the traitress to +be put to death, instead of marrying her, for Sapor not unnaturally felt +that he could not be safe on his throne with such a wife. It was during +the reign of Sapor that a new element was injected into Persian social +and religious life which was destined somewhat later to influence almost +every home in Persia. This was the rise of Manicheism, named for its +founder Manes. + +This was a new form of Christianity--a syncretic faith into which +entered a little of Zoroastrianism, somewhat of Judaism, a modicum of +Buddhism, and some Christianity. Manes's teachings seemed so plausible +that many were swept away by them; they appeared to be destined to shake +the older faiths from their foundations, and they changed many of the +customs as well as portions of the worship of the people. Manes was a +zealous patron of the decorative arts. The art of weaving carpets of +silk and of wool, which has given employment to so many female fingers +from that day to this, and the fine embroideries which have made Persia +famous are to be attributed in no small degree to the influence of +Manes. + +The lives of the women of the Sassanidæ were not always to be envied. +The story, though it may have changed form and color somewhat by +transmission, is not an improbable one which tells of King Varahran's +anger at his queen. One day, seated with her in an open pavilion +overlooking the plain, he saw two wild asses approaching. With his bow +the strong man, skilled in the chase, transfixed both of the animals +with one well-aimed shot. Turning to his spouse to receive the applause +he thought due him, the wife replied: "Practice makes perfect." Angered +at the lightness with which his skilful feat was received, he ordered +her to be executed, but quickly repented, and simply divorced her from +the palace. In quiet moments, he repented of his haste. For years, he +had no trace of the former queen, but when hunting one day he beheld a +scene which quickly excited his curiosity and admiration. It was a woman +carrying upon her shoulders a cow, with which, indeed, she easily walked +up and down the stairs of the country house. On asking her concerning +the remarkable feat, she replied, as she dropped her veil: "Practice +makes perfect." The king recognized his wife, now no longer young, but +still possessing physical charms, and invited her to take her place +again in the palace. The woman had commenced to carry the cow when it +was but a tiny calf, and had shrewdly planned the feat in the hope that +some day she might win back her husband's respect. It has been suggested +that cows are small in Persia, as is indeed the case, but more probably +some small animal, such as a goat or a gazelle, first figured in the +story. + +Persian kings of the house of Sassan intermarried frequently with +Turkish women, and one of the best known of this dynasty, Hormisda, had +a Turkish mother. It was he who won the mortal enmity of one of Persia's +greatest generals by sending to the veteran a distaff, together with a +woman's costume, suggesting that he give up the art of war for that of +spinning. The suggestion cost the king his sceptre. The soldiery, +however, raised to the throne his son, the many-sided Chosroes Parveez, +whose name stands out prominently not only as a foster-father of the +arts among the people, but as preëminent in a long line of Persian kings +because of his unswerving love for his wife Shirin all through his long +and, in some respects, most honorable reign. His harem, however, was one +of the most extensive in all Persian annals. + +Modern Persia has, of course, lost much of the grandeur of the days of +Mandane or of the mother of Xerxes. Persia, being an inland as well as a +mountainous country, with scarcely any railway facilities in the entire +country, and no navigable waterways, has been very little influenced by +modern ideas or customs. As there are many tribes and nationalities in +the land, and many different religions as well, many differences are +found in manners, customs, and even in language. Each nationality and +each sect continues distinct from the other. Broad differences have +engendered social distinctions and sometimes enmity and strife. + +No single statement as to the relation of the sexes in Persia will apply +to all the peoples of the country. The large majority of the people +being Mohammedans, the customs are very similar to those of all other +countries where Islam rules. Among the Nestorian Christians and the +Catholic Christians women are unveiled and free to come and go. Among +the so-called "Fire Worshippers" of the Monsul mountains, men and women +associate in their great feasts, and the sexes dance and sing together. +The laws of the people fix the number of wives at not more than six, +and, of course, the girl may not choose her husband; but is sold by her +parents, though she may remain single by paying through hard labor a sum +to the father for the privilege of remaining under the parental roof. +Among the Parsees, the modern followers of Zoroaster, who number about +twenty-five thousand, woman is given a better opportunity for education +than among the Mohammedans. Obedience to her husband is, of course, her +first duty; and married life is looked upon as specially blessed, and +rich Parsees are known to aid in a pecuniary way those who are +marriageable, but lack the material means to make them happy. Polygamy +is prohibited among the Parsees, except that after nine years of +sterility, a wife may expect another woman to share the home of her +husband. Divorces are forbidden, and wives have comparative freedom. The +wealthier Persians, generally found in the towns, reside in large +dwellings having several apartments. The masses of the people, however, +live poorly in mud houses or huts from thirty to forty feet square, with +one room and a single door. + +Woman's work in Persia, as generally in the East, is multiform as well +as menial. The women, of course, do the baking. They use yeast in the +making of their bread. Having kneaded the dough, they set it aside to +rise, after which they divide the mass into small parts, and with a +rolling-pin they roll these pieces of dough very thin, and sometimes to +the size of two feet in length by a foot in width, and then stick them +to the side of the oven. The latter is a cylindrical hole in the ground, +lined with clay and located near the centre of the house. It is about +four feet deep, and approximately two and a half feet in diameter. The +women make fire in this oven but once a day. The wife bakes once or +twice a week, if the family be small, but if large, every day or every +other day. This oven, whose top is even with the floor, is also the +place around which in cool weather the family gather upon mats to keep +themselves warm. The fuel is not wood, which is very scarce, but manure. +At first both the smoke and the odor are very perceptible, but when once +the fire is burning freely, the impurities of the fuel are drawn up +through an opening in the roof, a window, just above the oven. Out of +this window, which remains open day and night, the smoke is supposed to +go, as indeed it will, if ample time be given. The Persian housewife is +thus enabled to keep her house ventilated, but its walls and ceilings +soon become very black with soot. In rainy weather the good housewife +must place a pan or other receptacle immediately under the window--for +this opening in the ceiling is both the avenue for light and for +ventilation, hence must not be closed. If a woman wishes to know her +neighbor's business, she will creep upon the top of her neighbor's +roof--for houses are very often close together, and eavesdrop through +the open window. + +Weaving is done both by women and by men. The weaving and spinning +apparatus, as well as the crude cotton-gins, are in the same room where +the family eats, sleeps, cooks, and converses. As a rule, the men weave +the light goods, such as cotton fabrics, while the women make the +carpets, rugs, and the like. The women are the spinsters, and, with +untiring energy, they rise early and spin all day. It is said that a +woman of ordinary skill can spin a pound of cotton a day, provided she +works very hard. For this she receives, if done for another, about +twenty cents. + +The women do the milking. In fact, it is regarded as beneath the dignity +of a man to milk, if not as a positive disgrace. The women milk cows, +buffaloes, sheep, and goats. Butter is made from buffalo milk, which is +given by the animals in large quantities and is exceedingly white. Since +clabber is more highly prized than fresh milk, the housewife, as soon as +she has finished her morning's milking,--they milk twice a day,--heats +the fresh milk almost to boiling, allows it to cool a little, and then +adds a table-spoonful of sour milk. Speedily the whole begins to +coagulate, and the next morning, with the addition of syrup, it forms +the customary breakfast. The good housewife finds it indispensable to +keep a little sour milk at hand in order to hasten the coagulation. +Women residing in towns do their churning in earthen vessels or +pitchers, called _meta_, always using sour milk. Among the nomadic +people of the country sheepskins are used for this purpose. These +sheepskin churns are filled, and suspended by means of cords from a +wooden frame. The churn is thus shaken back and forth by the women till +the butter comes. If butter in excess of the immediate need is +produced,--and the poorer classes use it sparingly,--it is converted +into oil, which keeps its quality for a year or two and is much used for +cooking. + +The women are also the millers, braying the corn in mortars in +primitive fashion, or beating it to meal upon a flat stone with a stone +hammer, or, in some advanced households, grinding it in hand mills. It +requires two or three women to use a hand mill, which consists of two +huge round stones, one revolving upon the other. Two or more women will +take hold of a handle attached to the upper stone and turn, while +another pours the grain, from an earthen jar, through a hole in the +upper millstone. As only a little wheat can be ground at a time, it +requires much patience, and the men generally give over the labor to the +women. + +Harvesting is also done by the women. The season between June and August +of each year is therefore peculiarly severe upon them. Their domestic +duties must be finished soon after sunrise; then, with their sickles, +they start out from the villages to the harvest fields, a mile or two +distant. One may often see the baby in its tiny cradle flung across the +shoulder of the mother on her way to the day's labor. She puts the +cradle down in the shade in view of the reapers, and performs her daily +task in the broiling sun. While the women reap, the men gather the +bundles and bind them for the threshing floor. At the close of the day, +homeward they trudge, tired and soiled by the day's work; the mothers +carrying their little ones back to their homes, where the domestic +duties of evening are to be performed before comes the opportunity for +rest. When grain harvest is over, the vineyards are to be gleaned, and +the women are to do most of the work of picking the ripe, luscious +branches of grapes, filling the huge baskets and carrying them to the +place where the fruit is to be spread out to be dried. In fifteen or +twenty days the grapes have become raisins, and they are again taken up +and piled away, ready for the market. Wine and molasses are also made +from grapes, the work being largely the task of the women. + +Just as Persia has its Ruths gleaning in the fields, so also Rebekah +with her water pot may be seen daily. In lieu of modern buckets, the +Persians are content to have their women take large earthen jars, +morning and night, to the public wells, springs, or streams outside the +village. There the women fill their pots, lift them first to the hips, +then to the back or shoulder, and trudge home with their burden, +chatting happily as they go, and becoming straight and strong by the +muscular exercise involved. Eight or ten trips may be necessary before +each woman has filled all her jars, and so procured the necessary amount +of water for the daily use. + +There is a saying in Persia: "When cousins marry they are never happy." +And yet, as a rule, marriages are within the religious sects. If a +Christian--Christians in Persia are of the ancient Nestorian +faith--should marry a Mohammedan woman, he would be compelled to +renounce his religion for the Mohammedan, as the ruling class would not +allow it to be otherwise. Christian parents, on the other hand, would +not give their consent to the union of their daughter with a worshipper +of Islam. Occasionally, however, attractive Nestorian girls are captured +and carried off, and compelled to accept the Mohammedan religion, and +married to a Persian or a Turk. Generally, girls marry within their own +villages, since each neighborhood is, as a rule, a community +uninfluenced and unvisited by people from other communities. Persia is +no exception to the ordinary Oriental rule, that marriage contracts are +made by the parents--the children accepting with unquestioning obedience +the conditions that have been prepared for them. + +A young man, being where isolation of the sexes does not prevail, may, +however, and often does, show unmistakably his preference for the girl +of his liking; and since the communities are often small, isolated +marriages of those who have known and loved one another from infancy are +not infrequent. The wise parent finds out if the two young people are +really in love, though both will often vehemently deny what is plainly +true, and tries to arrange matters in accordance with the eternal +fitness of things. The girl in question, however, is never consulted in +the matter. All girls are supposed to marry, and a youth who remains +long single is considered of all creatures the most miserable. As is +general throughout the East, Persian girls are ready for conjugal life +at twelve years of age, certainly at the age of fifteen. Betrothal often +takes place as early as infancy. Parents will sometimes undertake to +cement, or at least to express, their strong friendship by engaging +their infants, one to another. These two, growing up with the +understanding that they are finally to be husband and wife, often become +ardent lovers, and the match is a happy one. + +When a young man has become of age, which in many cases is very early in +life, especially among the rich classes, the parents will send two or +three male friends to act as mediators, who will go to the house of the +girl in question and ask her parents for her hand. After some +deliberation, with apparently great reluctance, the request is granted. +To seal the contract, one of the mediators rises and kisses the hand of +the father. The contracting parties return to their homes and report +their success to the parents of the young man. In accordance with the +affirmative report, his parents, within a few days, meet the parents of +the girl and conclude the arrangements for the wedding. + +The first in the order of preparation is the buying of the wedding +clothes for the bride; for these the father of the prospective +bridegroom pays. The father must make presents to the members of the +girl's family and to her friends. The chief officers of the town must +also be remembered. After this the parties make ready for the marriage. +While the bride is engaged in preparing for the wedding, there are +feasts and revels at the houses of both the bride and the groom. +Provision for these sumptuous feasts is made by the groom's father. This +feasting lasts from three to six days. The predominating features in it +are music and dancing, in a style peculiar to Persian life and custom. +Mirthful song is provided by professional singers, to the great delight +of those present. After two or three days of incessant preparation on +the part of the girl, and of festivity on the part of the ever mirthful +guests, the men and the boys, following a leader, go to bring the bride +home. As soon as the gay company has arrived, a feast is in readiness +for them. A dance in the house or in the yard follows. Meantime, the +bride is being prepared to take her journey to her future home. At last +it is announced that she is ready, and the musicians play a doleful +tune, while the girl kisses her parents good-bye; and bidding adieu to +all the friends of her childhood, she is soon mounted on the horse which +is to carry her. At that moment the musicians change their mournful tune +to one more lively, and off the whole company marches with the bride to +her destination. At the arrival of the bride, which is reported by a +young man, all the people of the community emerge from their huts and +come out to witness the festive scene. After some ceremony, the bride +dismounts before the house of the most prominent man in the town, into +which she is escorted, and there she is received and entertained with +honor. + +That night again the town in general enjoys hilarious feasting and +mirth, especially in the house of the groom. The next day the musicians +go to the different parts of the town where the guests are being +entertained, and summon them to the enjoyment of another feast. As soon +as this is over, they accompany the groom, led by the music and dancers, +to the place where the bride is being entertained; and thence, if they +be Catholic Christians, they at once proceed to the church, where the +priest performs the marriage rite. The husband and wife are now ready to +be escorted to their future home, which is the birthplace of the groom. +The rest of that day is spent in conversation and feasting. The female +friends of the groom look, for the first time, upon the unveiled bride; +and they examine the embroidered work, which the girl has made with her +own hands, and which constitutes a part of the bridal equipment. The day +being over, the friends depart and the bride and groom are launched on +their new life. + +The women of the Persian seraglio are more closely confined, if +possible, than the women of the Hindoo or of the Turkish harems. In +ancient days it was customary to put the women who entered the royal +harem under a strict regimen or course of preparation. A glimpse of this +purifying process is given in the Hebrew Book of Esther, the author of +which shows minute acquaintance with Persian life and customs. "Now when +every maid's turn was come, ... after that she had been twelve months, +according to the manner of the women (for so were the days of their +purification accomplished, to wit: six months with oil of myrrh, and six +months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the +women), then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she +desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto +the king's house." + +The custom of strict seclusion and oversight of the women, introduced +by the ancient kings to guard better a pure lineage and to exhibit +greater state, has had large influence in Persia, except among the +nomadic peoples. The arrangements of the house for obtaining privacy for +women are usually the same throughout the land. The first apartment of +the house is for the use of men; the second or interior apartment, +called the "anteroom," is for the women, and no men are allowed to +intrude into the "harem" or "forbidden place"; else the voice of the +eunuchs, or guardians, will be quickly heard crying out: "Women--away," +and every face in the harem will be at once veiled from the sight of the +intruder. + +"I am a woman" is frequently given and regarded as an ample reason why a +modern Persian girl need not learn to read. Every city or town has its +school for boys, but there are no schools for girls (unless they be +mission schools), since it is commonly believed that it is a prudent +policy to keep the female sex satisfied with their present position in +the economy of life. The wealthier parents may, however, sometimes +employ private tutors for their girls. The deep-seated line that marks a +woman as different from a man appears even in the method of capital +punishment meted out to women. While a man who is to be executed will +have his jugular vein cut, be nailed to a wall, or be blown from a +cannon's mouth, a woman will be sentenced to have her head shaved, her +face blackened, to take a bareback ride upon a donkey along the public +highway, and finally to be beaten to death in a bag. Or she may be +stripped of all clothing and placed in a bag full of cats, which will +soon scratch or bite the unfortunate victim to death. + +Domestic peace does not always hover like a white dove over Persian +homes. Even among the Nestorians, the ancient Christian sect, it is very +common for the husband to assert his lordship over his spouse by giving +her an occasional flogging. The women expect this as one of the +conditions of their position. The failure of this method of emphasizing +the husband's authority, however, would appear from the testimony that +"the number of women who revere their husbands is as small as the list +of husbands who do not beat their wives." + +In this land of the ancient Magi it is not strange that there should be +many superstitions connected with marriages and engagements. Sometimes +it is manifest that the husband does not love his wife. If this be the +case, the wife or her mother may consult a magician. He will write for +her a charm. This is to be sewed into some designated part of her daily +apparel; a like charm is prepared for direct effect upon the husband, +and this must be secretly sewed into his clothing. The hoped-for result +of these charms is the renewal of conjugal affection. Another charm, +which is highly regarded, directs the wife to cut off a few hairs from +both her own and her husband's head, to burn them together and from +their ashes make a potion which the husband is to be caused, +clandestinely, to drink. Some magicians will direct that the love +prescription be placed under the hinge of the door of the house, so that +as the door is constantly opened and shut, the husband's love will as +constantly grow toward his spouse. Sterility is uniformly regarded as a +misfortune, if not a curse. Incantations and charms are frequently +employed to induce fecundity. The Persian women and Orientals generally +have innumerable superstitions. For example, when a hen is heard to +crow, it is regarded either as a good or a bad omen. To ascertain +exactly which it may be, the crowing hen is blindfolded and carried to +the top of the flat roof. She is then dropped through the open window +into the centre of the room below. If the hen turns toward the corner of +the house, it is considered a good omen, and all is well. If on the +other hand, she starts toward the door, it is regarded as portending +evil, and the hen is killed at once. This odd custom suggests another, +somewhat similar, once in vogue in Persia. Suppose a woman has lost a +piece of money, and she suspects that some disloyal neighbor, she does +not know whom, has taken it. To prevent a public trial and to spare the +innocent the disgrace that may come upon those wrongly suspected, all +the neighbors agree that at a certain time every man and woman of the +vicinage shall go, one after the other, to the dwelling from which the +money was stolen, and in passing, each person shall throw a handful of +dirt into the window of the person whose money has been lost. One goes +and returns to his own house, and then another, till all have thrown in +a handful. When the last one has deposited the dirt he has brought, the +owner goes in and finds in the midst of the total deposit the lost +treasure; for the guilty party, fearing that he will at length be +detected and suffer punishment, and knowing that he cannot be detected +if he throws the money down into the house along with his handful of +dirt, avails himself of this means of escape from the charge which he +fears. + +There are no women who have a harder, and apparently a happier, life +than do the women of the Kurds. The men of the tribe deny that women are +possessed of souls. A woman must not, therefore, be present where a man +is at prayer. If she should touch him while performing this hallowed +duty, it is thought that she might get the benefit of the prayer. +Indeed, it is believed that if she touch him, she obtains his soul. +Should a woman be seen approaching, the man at prayer may rise, go out +from the prayer circle, take his gun and shoot the woman, and then +piously return to his devotions. + +The Kurdish women are very dark in complexion and picturesque in their +apparel. They use paints and other cosmetics in abundance, to please the +eye of their husbands. Their day of toil is a long one, for, after +finishing their household duties, they are expected to hasten to the +fields to tend the flocks, or to gather fuel for the winter. At night +they return with large packs upon their shoulders, enough for two +donkeys to carry. They may be seen spinning and singing on their way to +and fro, as though their lot were the happiest in the world. Little +thinking of the ordinary ailments of women, they trudge along over the +fields or the mountain heights; and frequently a Kurdish woman may be +seen returning home in the evening, happy, with her huge bundle of +sticks for the fire, and with the infant to which she has given birth +during the day! A Kurd usually thinks more of his steed than of his +wife, who may sometimes be compelled to vacate her place in the dwelling +to make room for the horse. + +Any account of Persian women is incomplete without some reference to +woman in the native poetry of the Persians. No poetry of the East has +been so generally admired, translated, and read as the Persian. In it +woman finds a large place. And yet, it cannot be said that she is +presented always in the light of the brightest ideals of virtuous +womanhood. + +The Persian poet Hafiz is said once to have been asked by the +philosopher Zenda what he was good for, and he replied: "Of what use is +a flower?" "A flower is good to smell," said the philosopher. "And I am +good to smell it," said the poet. Too often woman is shown as the +plaything of man's passion and fancy. Yet the virtue of heroic womanhood +in the early days is presented with great force and beauty. + +The Persian poets, in the treatment of love, leave little place for +reflection, still less for practical considerations. It is spontaneous +love, "love at first sight," which they deem alone worthy of their song. +"Love at first sight and of the most enthusiastic kind is the passion +described in all Persian poems, as if a whole life of love were +condensed into one moment. It is all wild and rapturous; it has nothing +of the rational cast. A casual glance from an unknown beauty often +affords the subject of a poem." These words well sum up the Persian +poets' most common attitude toward love and the female graces. The +following lines written concerning the beauty of the daughter of Gureng +King of Zabulistan, are typical: + + "So graceful in her movements and so sweet, + Her very look plucked from the breast of age + The root of sorrow;--her wine-sipping lips + And mouth like sugar, cheeks all dimpled over + With smiles and glowing as the summer rose-- + Won every heart." + +These words, too, were said of a damsel who had won fame as a warrior in +her father's army, and her skill, valor, and judgment had made enemies +fall at her feet. Indeed, one of the most romantic portions of the +_Shahnamah_ of Firdausi are the passages describing the meeting of the +gallant King Jamshid with the beautiful daughter of Gureng, whose father +had given her permission to marry, provided only it should be +spontaneous love which should guide her in the choice: + + "It must be love and love alone + That binds thee to another's throne, + In this thy father has no voice-- + Thine the election, thine the choice." + +One day, as by chance, the handsome young King Jamshid arrived at the +city, a fatigued stranger, and was not permitted by the keepers to pass +through King Gureng's rose garden. Weary, Jamshid sat down at the gate, +under a shade tree. The damsel sees him, and at once falls in love with +his manly form and demeanor. She brings him wine, by which he may be +refreshed, and pours out her tender soul to him. Presently a dove and +his cooing mate alight upon a bough above their heads. The damsel asks +which of the birds her bow and arrow must bring to the ground. Jamshid +replies: "Where a man is, a woman's aid is not required; give me the +bow." + + "However brave a woman may appear, + Whatever strength of arms she may possess, + She is but half a man." + +Blushing, the girl gives over the weapon, and Jamshid says: "Now for the +wager. If I hit the female, shall the lady whom I most admire in this +company be mine?" The damsel, her heart bounding with throbs of love, +assents. Jamshid drew the string and struck the female bird so skilfully +that both wings were transfixed with the body. The male bird flew away, +but presently returned and perched itself again upon the bough as if +unwilling to leave its stricken mate. The damsel grasped the bow and +arrow, and said: "The male bird has returned to his former place; if my +aim be successful shall the man whom I choose in this company be my +husband?" + +Just then the aged nurse of the princess appears, and recognizes in King +Jamshid him whom the oracles had predicted would be the young girl's +spouse. + + "... happy tidings, blissful to her heart, + Increased the ardor of her love for him." + +They are married. And the story of her father's displeasure and of his +treachery toward Jamshid, the latter's betrayal and death, the young +wife's inconsolable grief and sad self-slaughter move before the reader +in a most thrilling fashion. This Persian poem, setting forth the +romantic side of female character, is one of the greatest pieces of +literature ever written. + +The Persian romances delight in making the women do most of the loving +and the courting. The heroines are the first to feel passion and the +most rapturous in expressing it. They, however, like Saiawush in the +_Shahnamah_, are fond of coyness until they have determined to yield to +the force of love. But when the love of a Persian woman has once gone +out, the Persian poets usually depict it as strong and steadfast to the +end. It speaks like that of Manijeh, the unfortunate Byzun: + + "Can I be faithless then to thee, + The choice of this fond heart of mine, + Why sought I bonds when I was free, + But to be thine, forever thine?" + +Even the best poets, such as Firdausi, who was called the "poet of +Paradise," Persia's great national poet, often present woman's charms in +lines highly overdrawn. Such these are concerning the Princess Rudabah: + + "Screened from public view + Her countenance is brilliant as the sun; + From head to foot her lovely form is fair + As polished ivory. Like the spring, her cheek + Presents a radiant bloom--in stature tall, + And o'er her silvery brightness, richly flow + Dark musky ringlets clustering to her feet." + +Khakani, considered the most learned of Persia's lyric poets, wrote some +beautiful verses in which womanly charms find place. Such is his poem +_The Unknown Beauty_, in which occur the lines: + + "I saw thy form of waving grace! + I heard thy soft and gentle sighs; + I gazed on that enchanting face, + And looked in thy narcissus eyes; + Oh! by the hopes thy smiles allowed, + Bright soul-inspirer, who art thou?" + +The great price placed upon womanly beauty is clearly discerned in such +writers as Sadi, who died about A. D. 1292. In his _Gulistan_, or "Rose +Garden," he tells the story of a doctor of laws who had a daughter. She +was so extremely ugly that she reached the age of womanhood long before +anyone wished her in marriage, although her fortune and dowry were +large--for "Damask or brocade but add to deformity, when put upon a +bride void of symmetry," says Sadi. Finally, to avoid perpetual +maidenhood, the girl was given in wedlock to a blind man. Very soon a +physician who could restore sight to the blind happened to come that +way. "Why do you not get him to prescribe for your son-in-law?" the +father was asked. "Because," said he, "I am afraid he may recover his +sight and repudiate my daughter--for the husband of an ugly woman ought +to be blind." + +Few poets have written more of love and womanly grace than did Hafiz, +who died in A. D. 1388. In the _Diwan_, which has been compared to a +story of pearls, Hafiz says: + + "To me love's echo is the sweetest sound + Of all that 'neath the circling round + Hath staved." + +A story is told of Hafiz and Tamerlane, which is doubtless apocryphal. +Coming upon the poet one day, Tamerlane said: "Art thou not the insolent +versemonger who didst offer my two great cities Samarkand and Bokhara +for the black mole upon thy lady's cheek?" "It is true," replied Hafiz, +with much calmness; "and indeed, my munificence has been so great +throughout my life that it has left me destitute; so, hereafter I shall +be dependent on thy generosity for a livelihood." This apt reply of +Hafiz is said to have so pleased the conqueror that he sent the poet +away with a present. + +It may be said, as a rule, that the Persian poets emphasize almost +exclusively woman's physical charms. "Women, wine, and song" are, in +truth, the chief burden of the poems. The sensuous side of love is most +frequently disclosed. There are, however, some exceptions to this +general rule, as may be discovered in passages from the writings of +Jami. While it is the beauty of the unmarried woman which most +frequently and most naturally holds place in Persian song, yet the +married life is not forgotten. Firdausi, in his account of the beautiful +Rudabah, says of wedlock: + + "For marriage is a contract sealed by Heaven-- + How happy is the warrior's lot amidst + His smiling children." + +And Firdausi makes Kitabun say: + + "A mother's counsel is a golden treasure." + +Examples of the recognition of love that is deep and full of meaning are +not wanting among the Persian poets. + +Nizami, Persia's first great romantic poet, who lived in the twelfth +century of our era, wrote nothing better than his romance of Bedouin +love, the story of Laili and Majnun, which has been happily termed the +_Romeo and Juliet_ of the East. "France," says a recent writer, "has its +Abelard and Eloise, Italy its Petrarch and Laura, Persia and Arabia have +their pure pathetic romance." Many see in the story of Laili and Majnun +an allegorical or spiritual interpretation. At least, it illustrates the +stress which the Persian poets put upon a true, undying devotion, and +the Orientals consider it the very personification of faithful love. + +The higher ideals are often found in the dramatic literature. Many +consider Jami's celebrated _Yusuf and Zulaikha_, a dramatic poem +modelled after Firdausi, to be the finest poem in the Persian language. +Sir William Jones pronounces it "the finest poem he ever read." It gives +account of Yusuf--the Israelite Joseph--and Zulaikha, Potiphar's wife. +In this is disclosed how the human soul attains the love for the highest +beauty and goodness only when it has suffered and has been thoroughly +regenerated, purified, as was the life of Zulaikha. The poet, seeing the +emptiness of mere beauty, reaches the inevitable conclusion that + + "He who gives his heart to a lovely form + May look for no rest--but a life of storm + If the gold of union be still his quest, + With fond vain dream, love deludes his breast." + +The _Dabistan_ was first brought to public notice by that enthusiastic +Orientalist of more than a century ago--Sir William Jones. In it there +is a dissertation on the "Hundred Gates of Paradise," in which occur +directions for entering the place of blessedness. Sons and daughters are +to be given in early marriage. Milk must be given to a child as soon as +the mother gives it birth. Directions are given to women in sickness and +in childbearing. Implicit obedience to husbands is strictly enjoined, +and warning is carefully given against the woman of unchaste life. + +The Zend-Avesta, as well as the great body of Persian poetry, has +preserved much of the ancient life and flavor of Iran. There is scarcely +any feature in the literature of the religion of Zoroaster, which holds +a more emphatic place than that which enjoins purity of life. Domestic +virtues are accorded high place in these teachings. Says the +Zend-Avesta: "Purity is the best of all things; purity is the fairest of +all things, even as thou hast said, O righteous Zarathushtra,--Purity +is, next to life, the greatest good." Zoroaster inquires of Ormuzd which +is the second best place, when earth feels most happy? To which Ormuzd +makes reply: "It is the place whereon one of the faithful erects a house +with a priest within, with cattle, with a wife and with children and +good herds within, and wherein afterward the cattle continue to thrive, +virtue to thrive, fodder to thrive, the dog to thrive, the wife to +thrive, the child to thrive, the fire to thrive, and every blessing of +life to thrive." + + + + +IX + +THE WOMEN OF ARABIA + + +Woman's conservatism has already been referred to in these pages. There +is probably no people in the world, certainly no branch of the widely +scattered Semitic family, among whom ancient ideals and customs have +been more persistent than among the Arabians. Indeed, Arabia occupies a +unique position in the world's history. From her territory there +probably went out the different branches of the Semitic people, a part +of the human family which is second to none in its influence upon the +course of history. For one of its branches, the Assyro-Babylonian, +probably developed the earliest civilization which has come down to us; +another was the most powerful of all ancient faiths, the Hebrew, while +two other historic religions, the Christian and the Mohammedan, had +their origin in Semitic soil. + +Arabia is truly a land of mystery; but for this very reason the +interest in her people is yet the keener. She has but few ancient +monuments written upon tablets of stone and hardened clay--in palaces +and ancient temples--as have Egypt and Assyria. Her records are in +legend, story, tradition, and the persistent customs of her people. With +the exception of the influence of the birth and the death of a culture +which awakened the world and helped to scatter the Dark Ages, and of the +rise of Mohammed, there have been few changes in this remarkable land. + +Two forces stand out as most potential in the shaping of the Arab +woman's character. These may be summed up in the words, the desert and +the cult; the latter being in some sense the product of the former. To +these may possibly be added a third. That is the war spirit, without +which the lord as well as the lady of the Arabian peninsula would have +written out for themselves a far different, and perhaps a far less +romantic history. For there were those who, even like Khaled, spurn the +love of a noble maiden from his "pride of the passion of war." Even love +making, which holds an important place in Arabic literature, gives way +to what was regarded as the noblest of all occupations, the making of +war. + +Womanhood, in the so-called "time of ignorance,"--the days before Islam +wrought so marked a change in the life of Arabia,--enjoyed a freedom and +strength which spoke of the open air and the far-stretching plains. As +she followed the fortunes of her nomad chief, the woman was indelibly +writing her history. It is in religious ideals too that woman must +always find the key to her standing and influence among any people. + +Among the early Arabs the female idea held no small place in their +religious beliefs and practices, and this is true of the early Semites +generally. This is specially noteworthy, however, as Robertson Smith has +pointed out, in the olden Arabic cult. Gods and goddesses went in pairs, +and the goddess was usually the more important divinity. The jinn, which +held so conspicuous a place, were regarded as feminine. In the Minæan +pantheon, Wadd and Nikrah, "Love" and "Hate," female divinities, played +an important rôle in the religious life of this branch of the Arabic +people. Wherever the female divinity is prominent, woman enjoys +considerable privilege and influence in religion, and this was true in +ancient Arabia. + +The people believed in an inferior order of divine beings--emanations, +secondary spirits--compared to angels by some Mussulman writers. These +beings were of the female sex and known as _Benat Allah_ (daughters of +Allah). Mohammed in the Koran, however, strongly condemned this earlier +belief as not consonant with the unity of God, which is a doctrine so +emphatically preached in the religion of Islam. Each tribe not only had +its _Kahin_, or "diviner" (Hebrew, _Kohen_, "priest"), but its _Arrafa_, +or "sorceress." + +Woman's sphere in the olden days of Arabia was no mean one. Arabic women +have from time immemorial shown themselves, on occasion, to possess a +courage and hardihood unsurpassed in history. Arabia has had her +Amazons. In prehistoric times, armed heroines of invincible bravery have +left their record in the myths of this ancient people. And in the days +of authentic history, women have fought valiantly to advance the cause +for which their husbands and brothers waged war so fiercely. + +The high place held by women in the ancient wars of Araby still survives +in the thrilling custom of having some courageous woman accompany an +Arab force into the battle. The maiden is mounted upon the back of a +blackened camel, and placed in the front of the line as it makes its +onslaught upon the enemy. As the fighting men press forward to the +battle she sings verses of encouragement to her compatriots, and insults +are flung from her lips against the opposing force. It is around this +young woman and her camel that the fiercest battle rages. Should she be +so unfortunate as to be killed or captured, the calamity is unspeakable +and the rout utter. But should her friends be victorious, it is she who +heads the triumphal march. + +As we might expect, the spirit of chivalry is not lacking in Arabic +song and story. In the romance of _Antar_, the story of the hero's love +for Ibla, "fair as the full moon," and the account of her rescue, +breathe the spirit of genuine romance. Antar does not hesitate to strike +down the man who has "failed in respect to Arab women." The _Arabian +Nights_, though in less degree, has also preserved to us evidences of +ancient chivalry and romance. + +Hagar, of whose sad life the Hebrew narratives give us record, though +herself called an Egyptian woman, became ancestress of an Arab clan and +plays some part in Arabian tradition. She was the ancestress of the +restless, roving Ishmaelites--a typical Arabian tribe. Mohammed, in +explaining the preservation of an ancient idolatrous custom of visiting +in religious pilgrimages the hills of Safa and Marwa, where once were +worshipped two idols, one representing a man and the other a woman, +says, in the Koran, that it was between these two eminences that Hagar +wandered, distracted, running from one to the other, till the angel +showed her the miraculous spring which saved her boy's life. + +Indeed, the Arab legend says that when Hagar and Ishmael were driven +from Abraham's tent at Sarah's behest, she was conducted far into the +desert, at the place where Mecca now stands. When her provisions are +exhausted, laying the boy down, she runs to and fro in despair. In his +thirst and suffering, Ishmael strikes his head against the earth, and a +spring of sparkling water gushes out. Some members of an Arab tribe, +thirsty, and seeking their lost camels, come, guided by birds, to the +spot, seeking to quench their thirst. Never having known water to spring +in that locality before, they received Hagar and Ishmael with especial +reverence, and bade them take up their permanent abode with them, lest +because of their departure the spring might dry up. To Ishmael was given +in marriage one of their maidens, Amara, daughter of Saïd. This is but +one of the many instances of the overlapping of Hebraic and Arabic +legends. + +Many are the stories told by the Arabs concerning the famous Queen of +Sheba, who herself was an Arabian woman. She belonged to that southern +branch of the family known as the Sabeans. Her fame has gone into many +legends, both Arabic and Hebrew. Her visit to King Solomon of Israel +furnishes the basis of most of these. As a lover of wisdom, or the +philosophy of practical life, she was drawn to the ruler of the Hebrews, +whose reputation had extended far and wide. Solomon proved especially +successful in answering her favorite riddles and in untying for her the +most knotty questions. Among the many Talmudic legends is this +interesting one. The queen took groups of small boys and girls, dressed +them precisely alike, and demanded of Solomon that he distinguish the +boys from the girls. The king commanded that they all wash their hands. +The boys washed only to the wrists; the girls rolled up their sleeves +and bathed to their elbows. Thus the secret was disclosed. The +Mohammedan legends concerning this remarkable queen are full and minute. +Having with her own hand slain the reigning king, she herself, being of +royal lineage, was proclaimed queen, and "protectress of her sex." She +reigned with great wisdom and prudence, and administered justice +throughout her kingdom. According to these Arabian legends, the Queen of +Sheba, who was called Balkis, became one of Solomon's wives, though he +allowed her to continue her beneficent reign over her own people. + +The women of old Arabia, the dames of the desert, were comparatively +free, as their open-air life would naturally suggest. The Arabian poets, +in drawing the ancient life, so portray it. In the romance of _Antar_, +already mentioned, are found many delightful episodes, in which the +woman appears as the loving friend, partner, and counsellor of her +husband. These carry us back to the heroic age of Arabia. The custom +which permitted infanticide in case of female children seems in marked +contrast with the high place of woman in early Arabic literature. This +cruel custom is the motive of one of the most attractive of the early +romances, that of _Khaled and Djaida_. The latter, when a babe, that she +might not be known as a girl, was called by her mother by the name +Djonder, and given a prolonged feast such as is accorded only to boys at +their birth. About the same time, the chief of the tribe--and uncle to +Djonder--had born to him a son, who was called Khaled. The cousins grew +up, both learned in the arts of war, and both made for themselves names +for their high courage. Djonder was taught to ride and to fight, as +though she were a man, and the very name of Djonder became a terror to +his foes. Khaled heard of his cousin's exploits and rushed to see him, +that he might witness his skill at arms. But his father, being at enmity +with Zahir, his own brother and father of Djonder, would not permit +Khaled to know Djonder. At length the desire of Khaled was realized. He +was strangely enamored of his cousin, whom, however, he thought to be a +young man like himself. Djonder, too, fell desperately in love with the +valiant Khaled. The latter chooses the field and war instead of love, +however, and leaves Djonder in tears. Later, by the fortunes of war, +they meet on the field of battle in single combat. Djonder has so +concealed her identity that Khaled does not know with whom he fights. +After a long contest of marvellous prowess, neither is victor. Djonder +reveals herself. The old love returns. It is Djonder now who resists the +importunity of Khaled's love. After testing him by several difficult and +dangerous exploits, she becomes his wife. + +Of music and poetry the Arabs from the most ancient days have been +passionately fond. The nomad life tends to develop both poetry and song. +The most ancient bards in all lands were wanderers. David, "the sweet +singer of Israel," was a shepherd lad. Hesiod heard the call of the +Muses while leading his flock at Mount Helicon. Caedmon, England's +earliest poet, was watching his herd when the call came to sing. The +Arab bard sings freely of his camel, the antelope, the wild ass, the +gazelle, of his sword, his bow and arrows, of wine, and, above all, of +his ladylove. + +In the famous literary collection known as the _Muallakat_, made by +Hammad about A. D. 777, seven of the best poems of the early Arabs are +brought together. Those that most fitly set forth the love of woman are +the poems of Imr-al-kais and Antar. Sa'id ibn Judi, the true +representative of Arabian knighthood, must not be forgotten as the poet +most loved by the fair sex. The flavor of these lyrics may be discovered +in the brief poem of Antar upon _A Fair Lady_, "whose glittering pearls +and ruby lips enslaved the poet's heart: + + "Such an odor from her breath + Comes toward me, harbinger of her approach; + Or like an untouched meadow, where the rain + Hath fallen freshly on the fragrant herbs + That carpet all its pure untrodden soil." + +For variety of gifts and force of character there is no Arabian woman +who is comparable in fame to Zenobia. By birth she was a Palmyrene, and +without doubt, of Arab blood. The descriptions of her personal beauty +tell of her black, flashing eyes, her pearly teeth, and the grace of her +form and carriage. Her bodily strength and commanding manners gave her +influence over all with whom she came in contact. As wife of Odenathus, +King of Palmyra, she contributed much to her husband's success and +power. She was a woman of rare native qualities as well as of +extraordinary accomplishments. She was a linguist, being familiar with +the Coptic, the Syriac, and the Latin languages. She was skilled in the +arts of war, and gifted with remarkable political insight and sagacity. +After her husband's death she ruled as Queen of Palmyra, and personally +conducted successful conquests, causing the nations around to tremble +before her; and even Rome itself found her no mean antagonist in arms. +The high spirit of the queen would not permit her to account herself a +vassal even to the imperial city on the Tiber. She had won Egypt, Syria, +Mesopotamia, and parts of Asia Minor to her sovereignty, but in the +contest with Rome she was defeated, though many Romans had joined her +army. The battles of Antioch and Emesa were lost. Zenobia fled to the +Persians, but was captured. Those near her were put to death, but +Zenobia graced the triumph of Aurelian, the victorious general who led +her into the Roman capital in A. D. 271. For years she resided there with +gracious dignity and unconquered pride. She was essentially a woman of +affairs and as queen was mistress of every situation, giving all to +know, "I am queen, and while I live I will reign." As wife she is said +to have declined to cohabit with her husband, except so far as was +necessary to the raising up of an heir to the throne of Palmyra. The +brilliancy of her court was scarcely ever surpassed by any queen, while +her personal charms and almost marvellous achievements rendered her one +of the most remarkable, if not the greatest woman of ancient times. + +In the days of Mohammed a new influence is brought to bear upon Arab +life, and therefore upon female character. Mohammed's relation to woman +might be of itself lengthened into an interesting chapter. Abdullah, +Mohammed's father, was married to a woman of noble parentage, named +Aminah. She was a woman of sensitive, nervous temperament, and her son +doubtless inherited from his mother qualities which made his subsequent +religious ecstasies both physically and mentally possible. Aminah is +reported to have been miraculously free from the pangs of childbirth +when her son first saw the light. For several months she nursed the +infant, but sorrow is said to have soon dried up the fountain of her +breast, and Halimah, a woman of marked fidelity to her charge, became +Mohammed's foster-mother. A _kahin_, or sorcerer, is said once to have +met Halimah with the boy. "Kill this child," said he; "kill this child." +But Halimah, snatching up the child, made away in haste. The sorcerer +saw in the boy an enemy of the ancient idolatrous faith. + +It was not till the rich widow of Mecca, Khadijah, came into Mohammed's +life that he began to make himself felt in the world. Wishing someone to +attend to some business affairs for her, Khadijah secured Mohammed's +services. So well did he execute his task that the rich widow became +enamored of the young man. She asked him for his hand. At twenty-five +years of age, Mohammed married the woman who was destined to influence +his life so powerfully, she being at least fifteen years his senior. It +was not long before Mohammed turned his thoughts toward religion and set +himself to the task of reforming the religious ideas and practices of +his people. With what result the world knows. + +It is Mohammed's attitude toward woman and his teachings concerning her +that most concern us here. His love for Khadijah, his first wife, was +pure and constant; and his mother he always honored with a most devoted +spirit. It is with reference to Mohammed's personal bearing toward the +female sex that he has received the most scathing criticisms. How many +times he was married subsequently to his wedding with Khadijah is a +matter of dispute; but there were probably no less than fourteen other +wives, besides the widow of Mecca. Since Mohammed allowed his faithful +followers but four wives, it was necessary to explain why he himself +should have exceeded that meagre number. The prophet was ready with his +reply, that while men generally were to have no more than four, a +special revelation to himself had given him the right to go beyond that +number. + +Among those whom Mohammed espoused was his child wife Ayesha, who lived +long after the death of the prophet and took an active part in shaping +the political history of Islam immediately after Mohammed's demise. She +fostered a burning dislike toward Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, to whom +the prophet had given his daughter Fatima. Because of Ayesha's intrigues +Ali was unable to succeed Mohammed as kalif. Abubekr, Omar, and Othman +in turn held sway. But at length Ali was victorious, taking Ayesha a +prisoner and becoming the fourth of the line of the kalifate. Ayesha in +personal daring belonged to the heroic type of Arabian womanhood. In the +battle of the Camel, A. D. 656, she actually led the charge. Ali, like +his distinguished father-in-law, considered himself an exception to the +ordinary rule which accorded but four wives to the faithful, having +married eight others besides his loved Fatima. + +Among the kalifs there was none whose court was more magnificent than +that of Haroun al Raschid. So greatly did he dazzle the eyes of his +generation by his brilliancy, that his name became associated with many +romances. The account of the wives and favorites of Haroun borrow a halo +from their association with his illustrious name. The _Thousand and One +Nights_ are replete with the romantic adventures of the days of this +brilliant kalif. But the actual life of the women of the Arabian +peninsula cannot be accurately gauged by the appearance they made in the +stories of romantic adventure. + +Mohammed's attitude to woman has, of course, been the decisive religious +influence in shaping the history of woman's life among the followers of +Islam since his day. The Mohammedans have a legend that when Adam and +Eve sinned, God commanded that their lives should be purified by both +the culprits standing naked in the river Jordan for forty days. Adam +obeyed, and so became comparatively pure again; but Eve refused to be +thus washed, and, of course, her standing before God has been relatively +lower ever since. + +The Mohammedan woman does not worship upon an equality with the man. Not +that the prophet positively forbade the female sex from public +attendance upon worship at the mosque, but he counselled that they +should make their prayers in private. In some parts of the wide +territory under the prophet's power, neither women nor young boys are +allowed to enter the mosque at the time of prayer. At other places women +may come, but must place themselves apart from men, and always behind +them. "The Moslems are of the opinion," says Sale, "that the presence of +females inspired a different kind of devotion from that which is +requisite in a place dedicated to the worship of God," and adds that +very few women among the Arabs in Egypt even pray at home. + +The Koran has much to say of woman. One lengthy _sura_ is taken up +almost entirely by this theme. The ancient doctrine of woman's creation +from the man is accepted, and probably was derived from contact with the +Jews, the influence of which contact is marked throughout Mohammed's +teachings. Honor "for the woman who has borne you" is frequently taught; +justice and kindness toward female orphans is repeatedly enjoined. Women +should be given freely their just dowries, and should not be omitted +from the rights of inheritance; but a son may receive as much as two +daughters. The prohibited degrees for marriage are most carefully laid +down. Accusing a chaste woman of adultery is regarded as one of the +seven grievous sins. The prophet counsels that husband and wife adjust +their disputes amicably between themselves, "for a reconciliation is +better than a separation." Thus one after another, in a manner +altogether lacking in order or in systematic treatment, Mohammed gives +forth his commands concerning women. Matters of marriage, divorce, +dower, chastity, and the like are frequently before the prophet's mind; +but his precepts, while making concessions to human weakness, are far +higher than his example. The teachings of Mohammed, even at their best, +placed woman on a distinctly lower plane than man, rendered her a +subservient tool on the earth and painted a heaven where man's +sensuality was to be gratified to the limits of his capacity for +enjoyment. + +The Arabs, while sensual in their nature, have some strict laws +concerning chastity. If a woman be guilty of lewdness, she is summarily +put to death by her nearest relative. Unless this be done the family +will lose all social recognition and civil rights. If it appears that +she has been forced to the crime, the ravisher must flee or pay the +penalty with his life, or if not, the life of those next of kin is in +danger. If the malefactor be caught at once he is slain by the relatives +of the woman. If not he may escape death through negotiations by which +"the price of blood" is paid for the woman as if she had been killed. +Sometimes arrangements of marriage are effected, but even then "the +price of virginity" must be paid to the girl's parents. + +The method by which a family purifies itself of the unchastity of a +daughter is horrible enough. The family of the young woman assembles in +some public place; the sheiks and leading men are present in +considerable number. Some close relative stands with sword in hand, and +says: "My honor and that of my family shall be purified this day by +means of this sword which I hold in my hands." The guilty woman is then +led out, laid upon the ground, and her head severed from her body at the +hands of her father, brother, or some next of kin. The executioner then +walks dignifiedly about the bleeding form three times, passing between +the head and the trunk of the body, saying at each circuit: "Lo! thus +our honor is left unstained." All dip their handkerchiefs in the blood +of the culprit and take their leave, without any show of emotion. The +body is left unburied, or is hacked to pieces by the woman's relatives +and cast into a ditch. + +Often, however, it is possible to save the young girl's life. Someone +who is sufficiently kindly disposed toward her steps forward at the +critical moment when she is being led forth to death and intercedes to +save her life. This protector approaches the girl and says to her: "Wilt +thou repent of thy fall? If so, I will defend thee." She replies +affirmatively: "I will give thee the right to cut my throat if I commit +this crime again." The man is then required to strip off his clothing in +the presence of the multitude, declare that he has never seen this woman +commit any crime, that it must therefore be the power of an evil spirit +that took possession of her; "I therefore redeem her," says he. Then the +whole scene changes from one of tragic solemnity to one of intense joy. +The girl returns to the bosom of her family, reinstated; and no one +thereafter has the right to cast any reflections upon her past life. + +Pierrotti, in his _Customs and Traditions of Palestine_, tells of a +scene witnessed by him when architect-engineer to Surraya Pasha, of +Jerusalem. During a visit to Hebron in company with some Armenian +gentlemen, he found the whole community stirred. A youth of eighteen had +met in the fields a girl of fifteen, who was betrothed, and had tried to +kiss her without her consent. She told her parents of the young man's +misconduct. The families belonged to different clans or districts, and +so were enemies. Efforts on the part of the boy's parents, through the +sheiks of the two communities, were unavailing, though the father +entreated earnestly for his son, and even promised to give up all he had +as a ransom for his life. The girl's father demanded the boy's blood as +propitiation for the wrong. And so, in the presence of an assembled +crowd, the parent drew his sword and struck off his child's head, +without a tear, saying: "Thus wipe I away every stain from my family." +Overcome, he then instantly swooned away. His friends restored him to +life, but his reason had fled. A clan war at once commenced, and those +who had demanded the youth's destruction were slain in the strife. + +Concerning the slaying of a woman, there are certain customs which +sound strange to the Western ear, but are in keeping with the general +law of "the price of blood" which prevailed among the ancient Hebrews, +though in a somewhat modified form. If a man should be so unfortunate as +to kill a woman, the members of the family that is wronged seek revenge, +just as is the case should a man be slain, but "the price of blood" is +never so high in case of the woman, it being about two thousand +piastres, or about eighty dollars. This sum goes largely to the +relatives of the woman. If the woman be married, the husband's damage is +measured at eight hundred piastres and a silk dress. Should the murdered +woman be pregnant, the slayer is amerced as if he had killed two. If the +offspring would have been a boy, it is as though a woman and a man were +slain, and "the price of blood" is so measured. If it would have been a +daughter, the smaller price is charged, the father receiving the full +price for the child and his eight hundred piastres for the murdered +wife. Should it be a maiden, however, who has been slain, arrangement is +often made whereby a sister of the slayer is given by her family to the +brother of the slain as his wife; or if this arrangement is not +feasible, the price of a woman is paid as first described. + +A very curious custom exists among the Arabs in connection with the +ancient "law of asylum." They recognize the right of sanctuary for those +upon whom summary vengeance may be taken for some blood crime. But +flight is often exceedingly dangerous because of the possibility of +ambuscade along the way; and even when a village which owes protection +to a fugitive undertakes to give him safe escort, the defenders may be +overcome and the offender slain. Under such circumstances, it is +customary to give him over to the escort of two women, who are his +defenders. For it is a point of honor among Arabs not to attack or harm +anybody or anything that has been placed under the protection of a +woman. + +That the modern Arab sometimes, however, has great confidence in the +power of his wives, over others at least, may be illustrated by an +amusing incident told by Loftus. During his researches his party was +attacked by a company of Arabs, on account of which some of the +assaulting party had been seized and lodged in prison. One of the chief +sheiks of the country came to make friends with the explorer and to +entreat for the release of the culprits. This was refused. Later a coup +was conceived. Loftus looked out and saw the sheik's harem, in most +radiant costumes, approaching the tent in single file, led by the sheik +and a black eunuch. Thus the Arab hoped to appeal to Occidental chivalry +through the prayers of the masked beauties who surrounded the tent, +declaring they would not raise the siege till the occupant yielded to +their entreaties. + +The rich Mohammedan ladies are far less industrious than the poorer +classes. Entering the harem at the tender age of twelve to fourteen +years, the young woman is condemned to a life of sloth and sensuality. +There is little opportunity for self-improvement or for enjoyments of a +high order. They eat, drink, gossip, suckle their young, quarrel, plot, +and eke out a miserable existence--always under the control of their +masters. + +The country women have greater freedom and far more influence with +their husbands than do the women of the harem. Polygamy among the former +class is rare, and hence the women are more highly regarded than those +of the city. The peasant woman is industrious, engaged in some useful +employment about the house or in the field. She buys and sells and gets +gain for her husband and her home, and often is highly esteemed by him; +but he will not let you know it, if he can avoid doing so. In public he +always assumes the attitude of superiority. If but one can ride, it is +the man and the children who sit upon the beast; the woman walks along +at the side, carrying a bundle on her head or a baby at her +breast--sometimes jogging along with both. If Arab and wife must both +walk with burdens, the man carries the lighter load. And the woman must +prepare the meal at the journey's end, while her lord reposes--and +smokes. Excavators in the East have frequently found Arab girls who +desired work, and with their baskets they would for hours carry out the +earth with endurance apparently equal to that of the men. + +The Arab girls, as a rule, grow up in ignorance. It is not thought worth +while to educate the daughter; and, indeed, it is regarded by many as +destructive of the best order of society to give woman any opportunity +which may cause her to desire to usurp the power which heaven has placed +in the hands of men. There is, accordingly, little enlightened +housekeeping, little to stimulate a woman's mind, little opportunity +here for "the hand that rocks the cradle" to move the world. Sons grow +up with little respect for their mothers, for there is nothing to make +it otherwise. The husband, should he wish to divorce himself from his +wife, simply orders her to leave his house, and his will is law. Civil +government takes no cognizance of matrimonial affairs, and religious +authority allows the husband to do much as he may see fit in his own +house. + +[Illustration 4: _AN ORIENTAL WOMAN'S PASTIME After the painting by +Frederick A. Bridgman She is not a companion, but only a gilded toy, a +decorative object.... Among the higher class she is still kept in strict +seclusion, and her time is passed in luxurious idleness, save for the +hours she employs at her embroidery or tapestry. The garden, with its +heavily perfumed blossoms, pleases her; the ceaseless plash of the +fountain falls musically on her ear; all her physical needs are +ministered to. But everything conduces to the dreaminess of her nature, +to slothful habits; her activities are fettered by the law of Mohammed. +After all, her garden is but an exquisite prison._] + +The women of the Arabs, like the men, are fond of tattooing their +bodies, regarding the figures they stamp into their flesh as highly +ornamental, though perhaps originally there was a religious significance +in them. The figure to be imprinted is first drawn upon a block of wood +and blackened with charcoal. This is then impressed upon some part of +the body, and then the outlines are pricked with fine needles which have +been dipped into an ink made of gunpowder and ox-gall. The whole is +subsequently bathed with wine, and the figure is marked indelibly. + +Even the poor are very fond of personal ornaments. Chains, rings, +necklaces, gold thread, may be seen in abundance, if not in costliness. +It is not unusual for an Arab woman, though clothed in tattered raiment, +to wear several rings of silver. But if this metal be beyond her means, +then of iron or copper and sometimes of glass. Ornaments of variously +colored glass are very popular among Arab women; often they can afford +no other. Even bracelets are made of this material, and are much worn. +Some of the nomadic tribes still wear anklets. + +The women of the desert are often seen with nose-drops, or rings in one +or the other side of their nostrils, which in consequence tends to droop +like the ear. This custom prevails in other parts of the East, more +particularly among those whose occupation is thought to call for much +ornamentation, such as the dancing girls and odalisques. The ancient +Hebrews sometimes used to put rings in swines' snouts for practical +reasons, as indeed the Arabs do to-day in the noses of horses, mules, +and asses to aid in evaporating the moisture from the nostrils, but the +beauty or the utility of a ring in an Arab woman's nose has never been +satisfactorily determined. + +The Arab women of good quality do not, as a rule, wear their hair very +long. It usually reaches about to the neck, and is tied with a colored +ribbon. Many of the poorer and less cleanly among them, however, wear +their tresses long, ill-kempt, and filthy. The men often think more of +their beards than do the women of their locks. + +The favorite flower is that of the shrub called _Al henna._ It is the +plant from which is obtained a dye much used by Oriental ladies upon +their skin and nails as a cosmetic. The manner of preparation is thus +described: "The young leaves of the shrub are boiled in water, then +dried in the sun, and reduced to a powder which is of a dark orange +color. After this has been mixed with warm water, it is applied to the +skin." The use of henna is very old; and when the woman has finished the +work of art--she herself being the subject--she looks, as one has said, +like a vampire stained with the blood of its victim. The flower of +_Alhenna_, however, is beautiful and strongly fragrant--reminding one in +appearance of clusters of many-colored grapes. These blossoms are used +as ornaments for the hair and as decorations for the houses, the +fragrance often conquering the malodorous atmosphere of many ill-kept, +uncleanly homes. + +As is the custom with Oriental ladies generally, the women in riding +place themselves astride the beast, like a man, and seldom present a +graceful appearance to a Western eye. Loftus has thus described an Arab +lady as she sits astride the patient mule: "Enveloped in the ample folds +of a blue cotton cloak, her face (as required by the strict injunctions +of the Koran) concealed under a black or white mask, her feet encased in +wide yellow boots, and these in turn thrust into slippers of the same +color, her knees nearly on the level with her chin, and her hands +holding on to the scanty mane of the mule--an Eastern lady is the most +uncouth and inelegant form imaginable." + +Mohammedans are never seen walking with their wives in the street, and +are seldom seen in company with them or any other woman in any public +place. Should a man and his wife have occasion to go to any place at the +same time, he goes in advance and she follows on behind him. Jessup, in +_The Women of the Arabs_, gives the following explanation advanced by a +Syrian of the aversion which the men feel with reference to walking in +public with women: + +"You Franks can walk with your wives in public, because their faces are +unveiled, and it is known that they are your wives, but our women are so +closely veiled that if I should walk with my wife in the street, no one +would know whether I was walking with my own wife or another man's. You +cannot expect a respectable man to put himself in such an embarrassing +position." + +If inquiries are made by one man of another concerning his family, the +boys and the beasts are invariably mentioned first; the wife last of +all. Among the ancient Arabs the birth of a female infant was looked +upon as little short of a domestic calamity and sometimes the infant was +not allowed to live. The horrible custom, _wad-el-benat_, of burying +infant daughters alive grew out of an unwillingness of parents to share +the scant support of the home with the newcomer, or, as has been +suggested, from ferocious pride, or false sentiments of honor, fearing +the shame that might come should the girl be carried off and dishonored +by the enemies of their tribe. The birth of a son, however, was +considered the occasion of great rejoicing. The daughters of the modern +Arabs are usually well cared for, though apparently with little +affection. They are useful in agricultural pursuits, and they are for +sale as wives when they become of a marriageable age. Their marketable +value is determined by their rank, their fortune, or their beauty. Among +the Arabs marriage is seldom an affair of the heart, but is purely a +commercial transaction. Three thousand piastres, or about one hundred +and twenty dollars, is regarded as a good price to pay for a wife. The +price is generally less. The father of the young man pays the bill; his +wealth regulating somewhat the amount paid. The parents of the young +couple make all the arrangements, though generally assisted by relatives +and interested friends. Much bargaining and delay are often gone through +with as a matter of course. If the whole sum finally agreed upon cannot +be paid in a lump sum, the parties of the first and the second part fix +upon the size and frequency of the instalments; the bride being claimed +only when the last instalment has been paid. + +The time for the wedding is next settled upon, whether it be days, +weeks, months, or years in advance. When that event is at length +celebrated, the Arab love of feasting has full opportunity to give +itself rein. Days are spent in these rounds of pleasure before the young +couple settle down to the stern facts of practical copartnership. + +The Arab women have a number of folk songs which are sung by them at +weddings and at the birth of children. Some of these may be here quoted +as revealing the Arab woman's idea of physical grace and of womanly +virtue, and of those qualities which are desirable in the wife and the +mother. Here is a song to the bride: + + "Go thou, where thy destiny leads thee, O fair bride! + Tread delicately on the carpets. + Should thy spouse speak to thee, what wilt thou answer? + Tell him thou art his, thou lovest him and he is thy delight" + +Again, they sing: + + "Oh yes, she is welcome! + Let us hail the arrival of her whose eyes shine with beauty; + Whose form is graceful; tall as a young palm tree, + Who can shut the window without a stool!" + +The rejoicing in maternity, and especially in the birth of sons, is +notable among the Arabs. The women sing: + + "Behold the wife hath brought forth; + She has risen from the bed whereon she reposed, whereon she slept! + She hath brought into the world a child, the fairest of boys; + He will learn to play with the sword." + + "No sorrow or harm shall come to thee if thou hast sons. + God will give them to thee. He will make thee glad, + Esteemed and honored throughout the country; + Thou who art in the race as a gazelle." + +Between the verses of the songs, the women who are not singing will +repeat the refrain: + + "La, la, la, la," etc., + +to emphasize their sympathy with the sentiments just sung. + +Because of a deep reverence for the mystery of life, the Arabs give to +the woman a separate tent or hut during the period of childbirth, and +there she must remain for a period. There is a strong superstition +concerning the results that might come from seeing or touching her or +her belongings during the time of this separation. + +In the naming of children, family names are not given, but individual +names, to which is often added the name of the father, and sometimes +that of the mother. The latter is probably the older, and many +ethnologists believe it to have once been the universal custom among the +Arabs; pointing to a day when polyandry prevailed, when it was customary +for women to have several husbands, if they were not indeed the common +property of the tribe. + +The influence of the nomadic life of the ancient Arabians still has its +power over the modern Arab if he be true or a dweller in tents. These +desert roamers despise those Arabs who are engaged in the arts of +husbandry. Dr. A. H. Keane, quoting from Junker, gives the following +evidence of this prejudice: "In the eyes of his fellow tribesmen, the +humblest nomad would be degraded by marriage with the daughter of the +wealthiest bourgeois." But, as he adds: "Necessity knows no law, hunger +pinches, and so these proud and stubborn were fain ... to renounce the +free and lawless life of the solitude and at least partly turn to +agriculture for several months in the year." + +The Arabs are proverbially a hospitable people. Let a stranger once eat +with an Arab family and he is a friend; certainly so long as the food is +thought to remain a part of his body. But since the patriarchal idea +survives, man is absolutely lord of his own house. Hence, in the house, +the inequality of the sexes is most noticeable. The Moslem wife never +sits down to a meal with her husband if any male guest be present; and +should the husband be very strict and formal in his habits, she is not +permitted to eat with her lord, even when there is no guest. It is her +pleasure to serve. When the master of the house has finished his repast, +he allows what remains to go to the rest of the family. By this the +husband does not mean to be selfish at all; but customs which have +prevailed for time out of mind give to woman an inferior place as a +matter of course. But the guest is never turned away empty. Even in the +poorest houses, the Moslems will offer the visitor a cup of black +coffee, and it may be cigarettes. + +Polygamy was common in ancient Arabia. In earlier days every man might +marry as many wives as he could take care of, and the length of the +wifehood was solely in the husband's hand. The family possessions were +his property, and should he die, his widow was looked upon as a part of +the estate. Unions between mothers and step-sons were not infrequent. +Mohammed numbered this, however, among the "shameful marriages." + +Sir William Muir, in his _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, says: +"Polygamy and secret concubinage are still the privilege, or the curse +of Islam, the worm at its root, the secret of its fall. By these the +unity of the household is fatally broken, and the purity and virtue +weakened of the family tie; the vigor of the dominant classes is sapped; +the body politic becomes weak and languid excepting for intrigue; and +the throne itself liable to fall a prey to doubtful or contested +successors." "Hardly less injurious," says he, "is the power of divorce, +which can be exercised without the assignment of any reason whatever, at +the mere word and will of the husband. It not only hangs over each +individual household like the sword of Damocles, but affects the tone of +society at large; for even if not put in force, it cannot fail as a +potential influence, existing everywhere, to weaken the marriage bond, +and detract from the dignity and self-respect of the sex at large." + +Mohammed's complete misunderstanding of the true relation of the sexes +has had much to do with the degraded position of woman in Moslem lands, +and the complete failure of Islamic social life. It is woman that makes +or unmakes society. She is the keystone of the arch, not the mudsill. + +Mohammed's state of mind regarding woman is universal among his +followers, whether in Algeria, Tunis, or Morocco, in the land of the +Lotus, in the Ottoman Empire, or in the lesser Mohammedan dominions. The +customs springing from this state are, of course, modified among the +different peoples, as, for instance, among the Moors through the +admixture of Spanish and Moorish blood, which resulted in a somewhat +better appreciation of woman. Yet she is not a companion, but only a +gilded toy, a decorative object, to be fitfully enjoyed or waywardly put +aside. Among the higher class she is still kept in strict seclusion, and +her time is passed in luxurious idleness, save for the hours she employs +at her embroidery or tapestry. The garden, with its heavily perfumed +blossoms, pleases her; the ceaseless plash of the fountain falls +musically on her ear; all her physical needs are ministered to. But +everything conduces to the dreaminess of her nature, to slothful habits; +her activities are fettered by the law of Mohammed. After all, her +garden is but an exquisite prison. + +By placing women upon so far lower a plane of social and religious life +than man, Mohammedanism has not only degraded the female sex, but has +disrupted, if not destroyed, those healthy family relations which lie at +the very foundation of all social progress and national greatness. + + + + +X + +THE TURKISH WOMEN + + +Out of the ruins of the Seljuk domination arose the Turkish Empire, +founded by Ottoman, or Osman I., a nomad chieftain of great prowess, +after whom the Ottoman Empire derived its name. Among the very first +events narrated concerning the life of this important Turk was one of +romance, for Ottoman was not only a bold warrior, but a brave lover, and +withal, like the young Hebrew Joseph, a dreamer. In the little village +of Itburuni there lived a learned doctor of the law, a man of +aristocratic blood, one Edebali, with whom it is said Ottoman loved to +converse, not only because of the gentleman's fine personal qualities, +but because Edebali had a daughter, whom many named Kamariya, or +"Brightness of the Moon," because of her beauty; but most called her Mal +Khatum, or "Lady Treasure," on account of her pleasing personality. But +the learned sheik did not take kindly to Ottoman's advances, for he had +not yet "won his spurs," and his authority was not recognized by +neighboring princes. Fortunately, a timely dream--that potent argument +which is so effectual among the people of the East--came to Ottoman's +aid in the pursuit of his suit. The dream is thus recorded: "One night +Ottoman, as he slumbered, thought he saw himself and his host stretched +upon the ground, and from Edebali's breast there seemed to rise a moon +which waxing to the full, approached the prostrate form of Ottoman and +finally sank to rest on his bosom. Thereat from out his loins there +sprang forth a tree, which grew taller and taller, raised its head and +spread out its branches till the boughs overshadowed the earth and the +seas. Under the canopy of leaves towered forth mighty mountains, +Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus, and Hæmus, which held up the leafy vault like +four great tent poles, and from their sides flowed royal rivers, Nile, +Danube, Tigris, and Euphrates. Ships sailed upon the waters, harvests +waved upon the fields, the rose, and the cypress, flowers and fruits +delighted the eye, on the boughs birds sang their glad music. Cities +raised domes and minarets toward the green canopy; temples and obelisks, +towers and fortresses lifted their high heads, and on their pinnacles +shone the golden crescent. And behold as he looked, a great wind arose +and dashed the crescent against the crown of Constantine, that imperial +city which stood at the meeting of the two seas and two continents, like +a diamond between sapphires and emeralds, the centre jewel of the ring +of the Empire. Ottoman was about to put the dazzling ring upon his +finger when he awoke." The story of the wondrous dream was told to the +father of the fair Mal Khatum. He was at once convinced that the Fates +had marked Ottoman for future greatness and for wide dominion. The +moon-faced damsel fell a prize to the inevitable conqueror, son of +Ertoghrul. Another early incident in Ottoman's career may be of interest +in this volume upon the women of Turkey. Ottoman understood that a +number of his rivals at arms were to be present at a certain wedding to +be celebrated at Bilejik, in the year 1299; and that the event was to be +made the occasion of his being entrapped and slain. Learning of the +conspiracy against him, he secured for forty women of the Ottoman clan +admission to the festivities. When all present were engrossed in the +ceremonies of the hour, these forty sturdy warriors cast aside their +female attire and not only captured the entire garrison, but also the +fair maiden whose nuptials were being celebrated. She was a young Greek +lady named Nenuphar, or "the Lotus Blossom," who afterward became the +mother of Murad I. Ottoman now descended like an avalanche upon his +rivals and their territory, extending his dominion even to Mount +Olympus. + +It is to Arabia and to Persia that Turkey owes most of its civilization, +its religion, its literature, its laws, its manners, and its customs. +Beginning with a Tartar basis, Turkish life has been chiefly shaped +under the influence of a religion and a literature. As for the first, +the debt is chiefly to Arabia; for the second, Persia must have the +larger share of credit. Since these two forces, religion and literature, +are doubtless the most effective in shaping the ideals of womanhood, and +so in developing the female character among any people, we are compelled +to look to the ancient lands of Persia and Arabia for the springs of +Turkish life. + +Remembering the kinship of Turkish literature to the Arabic and Persian, +it would not be difficult to surmise that woman would hold no +insignificant place in the literature of Turkey. While there are as many +as twenty-five different written languages used in the Empire, the +literary language is a product of the original Tartaric tongue and +strong Persian and Arabic elements. Very much of the romantic material +that goes to make up the Turkish literature is drawn from such early +stories as the great Persian epic _Shahnamah_. + +The romance of _Laili and Majnun_ has made a deep impression in Turkish +literature. Fuzuli of Bagdad, one of the greatest of Turkish poets, has +reproduced the strong love of these characters of old Persian legend, +besides giving to the nation's literature many _ghazels_ in which +fondness for the virtue of woman is presented with characteristic +Eastern passion. + +The Persian lady also figures in the work of Kemal Bey, who was regarded +in his lifetime as "a shining star in the Turkish literary world," and +one who did much to arouse the Turks to enthusiasm for their native +country. He was the author of a trivial novel _Tzesmi_, of high repute +in Turkish literary circles, in which a Turkish warrior of poetic talent +and a Persian princess figure. + +There are numerous love ballads of Moorish origin that are highly prized +and have greatly influenced Turkish literature, such as _Fatima's Love, +Zaida's Love, Zaida's Inconstancy, Zaida's Lament, Guhala's Love_, and +the like; also much Moorish romance, as _The Zefri's Bride_. So we find +Turkish poems breathing of love and womanly charms. Among such +productions is that of Ghalib, whose _Husn-u-Ashk_, or _Beauty and +Love_, is regarded as one of the finest productions of Turkish genius. + +It must be remembered, however, in reading Turkish poetry of love that +there is often, if not indeed generally, beneath what seems to be a +sensuous and even voluptuous song or romance an allegorical or mystical +significance. God is the Fair One whose presence the heart craves, and +whose veil the suitor would see cast aside that his perfect beauty may +be revealed to the worshipper. Man, therefore, is the lover; the tresses +are the mystery of the divine character; the ruby lip is the sought-for +Word of God; wine is the divine love; the zephyr is the breathing of His +spirit; and so on. And yet, that many Turkish, as is true of many Arab +and Persian, poems are upon a low moral level of human passion, and are +revolting to the ethical sense of the more sensitive natures, is not to +be disputed. + +Fame in poetry has not been unknown to Turkish women. Notable among +these literary women of Turkey is Fatima Alie, daughter of the former +state historiographer Dzevdet Pacha, whose history of the Ottoman Empire +takes high rank. In Fatima Alie, Turkish womanhood finds one of its +staunchest champions. + +Zeyneb Effendi was a royal poetess in the days of Mohammed the +Conqueror. She recounted in glowing lines her hero's achievements. So +also Mirhi Hanum was a poetess of talent. She was born of a wealthy +father, a grand vizir. She was so unfortunate as to have had as a lover +one who did not reciprocate her passion. She, therefore, sung her young +life out in avowed virginity, wearing an amber necklace, symbolizing her +eternal choice of celibacy. Among other poetesses of note may be +mentioned Sidi, who died in the year 1707, the authoress of _Pleasures +of Sight_ and _The Divan_. Mirhi, who has been styled "the Ottoman +Sappho," was a poetess of Amasiya, full of the passion of love. She sang +boldly concerning the object of her devotion, but her virtue was never +questioned, nor her talent deprecated. + +But the women of Turkey have been affected less by the literary +influence of Persia than by the religious inheritance from the Arabs. +Before Mohammed polygamy flourished among the various Arabian tribes. +The prophet brought some order out of the chaos, and the harem became a +more or less well-defined system, with its definite laws and +regulations. Therein woman was somewhat advanced from the state in which +she earlier found herself. And yet, Mohammed manifestly wavered in his +treatment of women and in the ideals which underlay it. A certain +equality between man and woman is at one time taught in the Koran, as +when it said: "The women ought to behave to their husbands in like +manner as their husbands should behave towards them, according to what +is just." And again the prophet said: "Ye men have right over your wives +and your wives have right over you." This truly is reciprocity. And yet +he asserted that "woman is a field--a sort of property which her husband +may use or abuse as he thinks fit;" and again, that "a woman's happiness +in Paradise is beneath the sole of her husband's feet." Commercially, +the girl was of more value than the boy, because she could be sold and +made a wife, and perhaps she might be converted to the Mohammedan faith. + +It is, in truth, the Turkish slave woman's physical beauty, as she was +captured and came into the possession of Arab sheiks, which first +brought the Turkish woman into notice. But these superbly attractive, +dark-eyed slaves at length captured their captors, and the Turk became +master of the Arab and the most virile exponent of the Arabian faith and +civilization. + +Concerning his ideals as to woman, the Turk imbibed much from the Arab, +who valued woman mainly for her points of physical excellence--these +were tabulated in a standard of eight "fours" as follows: "A woman +should have four things black; namely, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and +the dark part of the eyes. Four things white; namely, the skin, the +white of the eyes, the teeth, and the legs. Four red; namely, the +tongue, the lips, the middle of the cheek, and the gums. Four round; +namely, the head, the neck, the forearm, and the ankle. Four long: the +back, the fingers, the arms, and the legs. Four wide: the forehead, the +eyes, the bosom, and the hips. Four thick: the lower part of the back, +the thighs, the calves, and the knees. Four small: the ears, the breast, +the hands, and the feet." + +Since Mohammed allowed four wives to all Mussulmans, the sultan as a +faithful follower of the prophet may have four official wives; and after +these he may take as many non-official wives as his fancy may desire. +The four favored ones are known as the _kadins_. First stands the Bach +Kadin, who is the "first lady of the land." Next her is the Skindij +Kadin, or "second lady." Then come the "middle lady" or Artanié Kadin, +and last of all the Kutchuk Kadin, or the "little lady." When a kadin +becomes the mother of a male child she is then entitled to be called +Khasseki-Sultan, or "royal princess." When a daughter is born to one of +them she is known as Khasseki-Kadin, or "royal lady." + +The mother of the reigning sultan always holds high place at court, yet +not because she is mother of the ruler, but because it is thought that +each of the four legitimate wives of the sultan must in every detail of +court life enjoy perfect equality with the others, from the services of +"the mistress of the robes down to the lowest scullion." Thus, the +mother, called the Valideh-Sultan, holds the rank that usually belongs +to the wife of a monogamous ruler. Should the sultan's mother be +deceased, his foster-mother holds this position of influence. The +present sultan's foster-mother has conducted herself with much +conservatism in her exalted position and, it is said, with strict +attention to the dignity and economy of the harem. The Valideh is +sometimes poetically known as Tatch-ul-Mestourat, that is, "the crown of +the veiled heads." This means that the Valideh is regarded as queen of +all the Mohammedan women, who are uniformly veiled, according to the +teaching of the prophet. The Valideh is in her dignity most august. No +woman, not even the Khasseki-Sultan, may dare come before her unless +sent for. All women when they appear in her presence must be clothed in +full court dress, and, whatever the weather may be, without mantles. +When she goes out she is entitled to a military escort similar to that +of the sultan. An ancient custom still prevails which demands that the +Valideh, once a year, on the night of Kurban Bairam, present a slave +girl of twelve years of age to the sultan. The slave damsel at once +becomes a member of the harem, and it is possible for her to rise to the +highest position a woman may attain at the Turkish court. It is now +customary, however, for the young girl to be sent as a pupil in the +institution at Scutari, which has been established by the sultan for the +higher education of Mohammedan women. She is now more frequently +married, with a dowry, to some officer of the court or member of the +sultan's household. + +The sultan is granted privileges not generally accorded others as to +marriage. He may marry a Christian or a Jewess, if he should see fit so +to do. As a rule, the women who thus marry are expected to become Moslem +in faith, though there have been notable exceptions. Theodora, wife of +Orkhan, was a Greek Christian woman, and with marked persistence held on +to her ancestral religion. But Orkhan was unlike Mohammed II. in +character; for the story is told of the latter's strong passion for the +beautiful Irene, who, however, refused to abjure her faith. The priests +of Islam reviled their ruler for loving one who would not accept the +religion of the prophet. This was too much for Mohammed. One day the +priests were assembled in one of the halls of the palace. Here, too, was +Irene, covered with a veil of dazzling whiteness. With great solemnity +the sultan lifted Irene's veil with one hand and revealed the young +woman's great beauty to all who were present. "You see," said the +Sultan, "she is more beautiful than any other woman you have ever +beheld; fairer than the houris of your dreams! I love her as I do my +life; but my life is nothing beside my love for Islam." With this, he +seized the long, golden tresses of the unfortunate woman, entwined them +in his fingers, and with one stroke of his sharp scimiter severed her +head from her body. + +A lady of imperial blood has the right to add "Sultan" to her own name. +This is her privilege, even though she should marry a subject, which is +sometimes the case. Her superior descent, however, is always recognized; +for her husband may not sit down before her, unless she should so +permit. + +Turkish rulers have taken a different view of the value of foreign +marriages from that which has usually prevailed in the East. Political +ties have been made and strengthened by royal marriages. In Turkey, +however, a custom, amounting to law, prevents the sultan from marrying a +free woman, one taken from the high families of his own people, or +princesses of foreign courts, that no tie of politics or affinity of +blood should alter the superior impartiality of the supreme master. +Thus, while he is above all his subjects so far as rank is concerned, he +is inferior, on his mother's side at least, in the matter of birth, +Hence, the meanest subject of the Empire of the Ottomans may here feel +himself on an equality with the sultan, since he is "the son of a slave +woman." + +It is not customary for a ceremony to be performed when the sultan +marries. Only three Turkish sultans are said to have undergone a +ceremony on the occasion of taking to themselves wives. When the Greek +Princess Theodora was wedded to Orkhan; when Roxelana became the wife of +Sultan Suleyman; and when Besma, an adopted daughter of a princess of +Egypt, was married to Abd-ul-Medjid, the marriage ceremony was +performed. + +As a mark of certain inferiority, the bride is expected to enter the +nuptial bed from the back, lifting the covering with much ceremony. It +is never good form for a gentleman to inquire concerning the health of +another's wife. + +Mothers of the harem are often compelled to live in mortal fear for +their infant sons, lest they be foully dealt with. For if a child have +any prospect of some day being the Turkish ruler, his life is never +regarded as altogether safe. The baby prince is brought up in the harem, +with his mother and nurse; but since brothers and even uncles come +before sons, the question of succession to the sultanate has often +caused great disorder and bloodshed. + +On the death of Mohammed, the great Arab leader, there was no mention +of a law of succession. This was partly due, doubtless, to the fact that +he left no son who might assume leadership of the hosts of Islam. At +length, the Seljuk Turks attained to power, after which the empire fell +into minor sovereignties, which were brought together at last into the +Ottoman Empire. And while of late the stability of the reigning dynasty +has been the most noteworthy of the East, yet the fact that there was +not early established the ordinary custom of transmitting the +sovereignty from father to son has been the cause of much intrigue, +crime, and uncertainty in the dominion of the Turk. Cases have not been +unknown in Turkish history where several hundred women of the seraglio +were drowned in the Bosphorus because of plottings to depose the sultan. +They were tied in the traditional sack and dropped into the sea. It was +Ibrahim I., known as the Madman, one of the very worst of Turkish +rulers, who first conceived the idea of thus disposing of the old women +of the seraglio. Surprised and seized in the night, the unfortunate +victims of the sultan's madness were tied in sacks and then sunk to the +bottom of the sea. Only one of the large company of the unfortunates +escaped, by the loosing of the sack, and was picked up by a passing ship +and conveyed to Paris to tell the story of the cruel death of her +companions. Among the many notable instances of the tragic end to which +the plottings of the harem have come may be mentioned that of Tarkhann, +mother of Mohammed IV. So desirous was she that her son should reign, +that she slew all the other possible male heirs to the throne. She met +her nemesis, however, by strangulation. It is upon her life and that of +her rival that Racine has constructed his _Bajazet_. + +Connected with the sultan's harem there are estimated to be about +fifteen hundred persons. The harem consists of a number of little +courts, or _dairas_; and the central figure of each of these courts is a +lady of the female hierarchy. + +In the royal household there are three classes of women. The kadins, of +whom we have spoken, who may be termed the legitimate wives of the +sultan, though they are never formally married. Next are the _ikbals_, +or "favorite women." From this class the kadins are usually chosen. Then +come the _gediklis_, "those pleasant to look upon." The ikbals may come +from the number of these. The women of the third class are usually of +slave origin, purchased or stolen perhaps from Georgian or Circassian +parents. Those who are stolen are usually taken so early from their +homes, and so clandestinely, that their origin is seldom known to them. +If, however, the lady comes of high station her identity usually becomes +known, and she not unfrequently succeeds in elevating her family to a +position of power and emolument, either by direct influence or by +intrigue. In addition to these three classes of women there are _ustas_, +or "mistresses," who are maids in the service of the sultan's mother; +_shagirds_, or "novices," who are children in training for the higher +positions in the harem; and _jariyas_, or "damsels," who do the more +menial work of the establishments. + +Captured slave girls have sometimes had a most interesting career. They +are brought in an almost continuous stream, but privately. In the +earliest days of their presence in the harem they are called _alaikés_, +and are placed under the care of elderly women, or _kalfas_, who bring +them up to suit the tastes of an Oriental court. They are instructed in +manners, in music, in drawing, and in embroidery. When later they reach +the proper age, they become attendants upon the kadins and the +princesses of the imperial household. There is no bar to their reaching +at length the highest station that it is possible for a woman to attain, +the favorite wife of the sultan. + +The female department of the Turkish household is called the Hareemlick, +the male apartments being named the Islamlick. The women's apartments +are, of course, secluded. A male physician may see only the hand and +tongue of the sick lady. A black curtain is stretched to separate her +from his inspection. A eunuch conducts the physician to a point where +the sick woman may thrust out her hand through a hole in the curtain so +that the doctor may diagnose her disease. + +Faithfulness in women is held in high esteem, restraint of the harem +being intended to insure it. In former days it was not a thing unknown +for unfaithful women to be drowned; but the custom has fallen into +disuse. Ladies of the harem, however, have a fair amount of liberty. On +certain occasions they go out driving and visiting; they frequent the +bazaars and the public promenades, always in vehicles, never afoot. They +enjoy entertainments among themselves. Theatricals are frequently +witnessed by them in the garden of the palace. Operas are also often +rendered for their enjoyment. When Turkish ladies visit one another in +the harem,--which they may do without permission or restraint from their +husbands,--it is customary to place their shoes outside the harem door +that their husbands may know guests are being entertained. + +The harem of one ruler is generally regarded as the property of his +successor. The women thus inherited, however, are not always sure of +favor. Sultan Mohammed II. killed, by drowning, all the women of his +brother's harem. Indeed, women of the harems generally cannot be said to +have ample protection; for no officer may enter any harem to inspect the +conduct there, or for any purpose whatever, unless the law of the house +admits him. The women, whether they be wives or slaves, are practically +at the mercy of their masters. Some women of the sultan's harem have +risen to positions of much influence and genuine power, though they have +generally been of foreign birth. The mother of the noted reforming +sultan, Mahmud II., who began to reign in 1808 when a mere child, was a +French woman. His stout resistance of the allied powers won for him a +certain admiration for doggedness, even if success did not crown his +efforts to keep Greece in subjection. It was into this struggle that +Lord Byron threw himself on behalf of Greece. Mahmud, it may be to some +extent through the influence of his French mother, introduced French +tactics into his army, but to no avail, and at length Grecian freedom +was assured. + +The wife of Mahmud, Besma, taken as a little girl from the life of a +peasant, rose to a position of supreme dignity and great influence. Her +beauty easily won the passion of Mahmud. She never lost sight of her +humble origin and was much beloved by the masses of the people, even +those of the most lowly classes. She was the mother of Abd-ul-Aziz, and +it was she who unsuspectingly gave to the sultan, her son, the scissors +with which he killed himself. At any rate, the unfortunate monarch was +found dead in his apartments. The mother pined away in seclusion, and +was seen only in her deeds of charity. It was Besma who built the mosque +Yeni Kalideh at Ak Serai, and it is here she rests in the midst of a +beautiful garden of flowers, of which, during her lifetime, she was so +fond. On her death, about fifteen years ago, she was accorded a funeral +of great magnificence, and she was generally mourned throughout the +empire. It is said that when Besma was building the mosque, her money +fell short of her purpose, so that she could build but one minaret +instead of two, as custom entitled. Her son, however, came forward, +offering the necessary funds, which she declined with the remark: "No, +one minaret is sufficient to call the people to prayers; another would +only glorify me; the poor need a fountain." So she built a fountain for +the people, and it is one of the most beautiful in Constantinople. + +One of the most celebrated--even if she be not one of the best--women +of Turkey history was Khurrem, the "Joyous," whom Europeans generally +knew as Roxelana. She was wife of the greatest figure in Turkish annals, +Suleyman the Magnificent, who reigned about the middle of the sixteenth +century. Roxelana, though her origin has not been clearly traced, was +probably of Russian descent. From the first this strong-minded woman +exerted great influence over Suleyman. In the first place, she forced +him to marry her publicly and with much ceremony, a proceeding which was +then without precedent. Usually to have it announced that a woman had +become mother of a male heir to the throne was regarded as sufficient +announcement of marriage with the sultan. But this woman, who had now +risen from the position of a slave woman to that of the highest dignity +possible for a woman in the empire, determined that her marriage with +the great monarch should be full of publicity and pomp. There was +feasting and, apparently, great rejoicing, though the people were +surprised and hardly understood what it all might mean. Roxelana was, +however, equal to the emergency, and with the sagacity and determination +which were native to her sent many slaves among the people as they +feasted, distributing presents of money and pieces of silk to the +masses. From this time, she not only held absolute sway over the sultan, +but evinced great skill in buying the friendship of the people by gifts +and acts of charity. Diplomacy was characteristic of her, and from +cruelty she would not shrink if it were necessary to carry out her +purposes, for she induced Suleyman, generally so just and prudent, to +destroy the oldest and most promising of his sons, since the young man, +Mustafa by name, stood in the way of her own son Selim as heir to the +throne. She succeeded in her designs, but placed on the throne one of +the weakest and most worthless of Turkish rulers, "Selim, the Sot." +Roxelana's beauty is described as that which "attests that mixture of +the Asiatic and Tartar blood, wherever the dark eyes, the silken lashes, +the creamy paleness of the tint, the languor of the attitude habitual to +the Persian beauties, contrast with the rounded outline of the face, +with the shortness of the nose, the thickness of the lips, and the warm +coloring of the skin, traits peculiar to the daughters of the Caucasus." +At fifteen, she is said to have been the marvel and even the mystery of +the harem. Her memory knew only the rearing of the seraglio; but her +remarkable alertness and force of mind as well as beauty of person made +her from the first one of a thousand. Taught in the arts of music and +dancing, versed in foreign languages, and the study of history and +poetry, Roxelana added to her exuberance of youth a power of mind which +marked her for preëminence. + +Rebia, wife of Mohammed IV., is another example of womanly power over +the head and heart of the supreme ruler of Turkey. Rebia was a Greek +girl from the island of Crete. Lamartine says of her: "The delicacy of +her lineaments, the brilliancy of her complexion, the ocean azure of her +eyes, the golden auburn of her hair, the caressing tone of her voice, +and the witchery of her wit made her to be dreaded still as the prison +companion of a fallen monarch, of whom she might amuse the languor and +reëstablish the intrigue from the depth of his captivity." Even in +Mohammed's dethronement, Rebia clung to the fortunes of her lord, over +whom, during his power, she had always exerted decisive influence. + +Italian women have also risen to a place of prominence in the royal +harem. This was notably true in the case of the beautiful Safia, a +Venetian captive girl, who had been brought into the seraglio of Sultan +Murad III., who succeeded Selim his father in the year 1574. Murad was +not strong, and was easily deceived by sycophants and ruled by women. +Among the latter was Safia, sometimes known as Baffo, belonging to the +family of Baffo of Venice. Baffo proceeded to rule her royal lord in the +interests of her native land. Venice, after Suleyman's death, had become +restless of Turkish rule, and proceeded successfully to throw it off. +Baffo never forgot her origin, and ruled with a high hand, not only as +Khasseki-Sultan, but also as Valideh. She set her son Mohammed III. on +the throne as successor to her husband, even though the consummation +could be reached only by the slaying of nineteen of the one hundred and +two sons of Murad. Foreign women will probably never again play so large +a rôle in Turkish affairs. The present sultan is said, however, to be +fond of the social attractions of European women. He is probably the +first Turkish sultan who has invited a European lady to dine with him. + +The Turkish sultans have long lived in much magnificence. The old +seraglio, or imperial residence (from the word _seray_, a palace), was +beautifully situated "among the groves of plane and cypress that clothe +the apex of the triangle upon which the ancient city of Constantinople +is built." Now, however, the sultans have left these precincts around +which clustered so many memories of the horrible tragedies enacted +there, memories which even the magnificence of the place could not +destroy, and established their present residence, equal in natural +beauty to the old, but removed from the dirt and the memories, which had +at length gathered about the old seraglio. + +The women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the +seraglio. Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there +are even more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards +and attendants of the palace are of foreign blood. The sultan and his +children are the only Turks dwelling in the inner departments of the +royal palaces; and both he and they are born of foreign mothers. The +women's departments are carefully guarded. There were specially +appointed officers in the old seraglio as guards of the queens and their +children. These were the Baltajis, or "halberdiers," who were four +hundred in number. They, however, really attended the royal women only +when the sultan took with him some members of his harem to bear him +company on a journey or a campaign. + +The Baltajis, on such occasions, walked by the side of the carriages of +the imperial ladies and guarded their camp at night. Ordinarily, the +sultan's harem was under the care of the black eunuchs, or about two +hundred Africans, who were specially entrusted with the imperial ladies. +Their chief was known as the Kislar Aghasi, or "master of the girls," +and was regarded as one of the chief men of the empire. + +The trade in captive boys and girls stolen from Europe, Asia, and +Africa was once very large; the pick of them being brought by purchase +into the sultan's palace, for one purpose or another. It was thought +that his imperial majesty's life was safer in the hands of foreigners +brought up almost from infancy in the palace, and knowing no other +allegiance than that to the will of the sultan. + +Times have changed, however, and it is not possible for the ruler of the +Turks to regard the best of the children of white and black parentage as +born to replenish his harem. Much of the old time mediæval splendor has +been swept away, not only through the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II., but +by modern conditions which make the old seraglio an impossibility. + +In the olden days the young princes were closely confined in a part of +the seraglio known as the Chimshirlick, or "boxwood shrubbery." It +contained twelve pavilions each surrounded by high walls which enclosed +a little garden. These were the residences of the sons of the sultan. +Each young prince was kept guarded in his pavilion enclosure, from which +he dared not emerge without his royal father's special permission. Thus +a prince's minority was spent in the _kafe_, or "cage." Each youth had +as attendants ten or twelve fair girls, besides a number of pages. These +and black eunuchs, who were his teachers, were his sole companions. As a +rule, the tongues of male attendants and of women unable to bear +children were slit. At the tenth year a young prince leaves his mother +and the harem for the guardianship of a _lalo_, or "male attendant," who +is his companion day and night; next a _mullah_, or "priest," takes the +youth in hand and gives him his schooling, which consists chiefly in +instruction in the teachings of the Koran. + +[Illustration 5: _THE MUTES After the painting by P. L. Bouchard The +women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the seraglio. +Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there are even +more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards and +attendants of the palace are of foreign blood..... The women's +departments are carefully guarded. + +Women who bear no children and the subaltern eunuchs have their tongues +slit. Whan an order of death is issued, these mutes, with the fatal +cords, enter and noiselessly fulfil their commands._] + +Among the female officials of the seraglio is the Hasnada Ousta, or +"grand mistress of the robes." She is usually an elderly woman of +respectability and of dignity. This lady acts as vice-Valideh, caring +for matters in the establishment to which it may not be possible for the +Valideh Sultan to give her own personal attention. She holds a place of +much honor, and women holding this position have been known to become +Valideh. There is also the Kyahya Kadin, or "lady comptroller," who is +generally selected by the sultan from among the oldest and most trusted +of the Gediklis. + +The dress of the ladies of the royal harem was formerly altogether +Oriental; so also were the furnishings of the women's apartments. These +last still consist largely of low divans, costly embroidery, couches, +and the like; but European customs have now made themselves felt, not +only in the furnishings of the rooms, but more particularly in the +matter of feminine attire. Costly robes from Paris and Vienna have +invaded the precincts of the harem; and these, added to the wealth of +jewelry of which Oriental ladies are so fond, make it possible for the +women of the rich Turkish households to be quite cosmopolitan in their +modes of dressing. + +Many of the lower ranks wear upon their head a sort of hood of black +silk, the Egyptian _chaf-chaf_. To this is attached a piece of black +netting, which can be dropped over the face of the wearer when she so +pleases. The women of Constantinople, however, are not so careful in the +matter of the veil as are the ladies living in cities under less +cosmopolitan influence. + +European ideas and habits have greatly modified Turkish customs. The +_yashmac_ is the face veil which the Turkish girl receives when she +attains to the marriageable age. The word is derived from a verb which +means, when fully interpreted, "May long life be granted you." The +material is thin, fine lawn or similar stuff. The older and less +attractive women, or ladies who do not wish to be recognized in a public +concourse, as when shopping, wear a veil of thicker material. + +The cloak used is the _feridjè_. It is usually of black material, and +its shape is intended to conceal the outlines of the figure. The +_feridjè_ is now much modified, however, by European tastes, and is not +greatly different from the opera cloak worn by the ladies of Paris. + +The once fashionable footgear, the yellow Turkish slipper, has given +place generally to the slipper of patent leather worn by European +ladies. Much of the beauty of color and picturesqueness of costume has +therefore passed away, as may be seen from the following description of +the Turkish woman's appearance at the middle of the sixteenth century: +When they (the women of Turkey) go abroad, the ladies wear the +_yashmac_ made of gold stuff, heavily fringed, and confined to the head +by a crown blazing with jewels. The figure is concealed by a cloak of +richest brocade or velvet. Sometimes you may have the charm of seeing as +many as one hundred _arabas_, or carts, very splendid and richly gilded, +drawn by gaily decorated bullocks, each containing a number of these +great ladies with their children and slaves. + +"The procession is a most gorgeous sight. Each cart has as many as four +mounted eunuchs to protect it from the curiosity of the public, who have +their faces almost to the earth, or avert them entirely, as the caravan +passes." So, also, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has left, in a letter to +the Duchess of Marlborough, written in 1717, a very graphic account of +the costume of the sultana. + +Lady Mary describes the _dolma_, or "vest of long sleeves," the +diamond-bedecked girdle, the long and costly chain about the neck, +reaching even to the knees, the earrings of diamonds shaped like pears, +the _talpoche_, the headdress covered with bodkins of emeralds and +diamonds, the diamond bracelets, the five rings upon her fingers, the +largest ring Lady Mary ever saw except that worn by Mr. Pitt. There was +also a pelisse of rich brocade brought to the royal Turkish lady when +she walked out into her garden. Fifty different kinds of meat were +served at her dinner, but one at a time; her golden knives were set with +diamonds in the hafts; gorgeously embroidered napkins were in abundance, +etc. Much of this magnificence and display has now passed away, but, as +Stanley Lane-Poole says in his _The History of Turkey_: "While the house +of the Ottoman monarch of to-day, if more in keeping with the spirit of +the time, is very commonplace beside that of last century ... +nevertheless, the modern seraglio is hardly an anchorite's cell." + +Cosmetics were once used in profusion. The painting of the eyebrows and +the dyeing of the finger tips with henna were considered marks of +beauty. The custom is dying out entirely in Constantinople, though in +the remoter regions of the empire the habit is still in vogue. The +attempts at beautifying the face are often referred to by the poets as +marks of beauty, as when Fuzuli dilates upon the + + "Eyes with antimony darkened, hands with henna crimson dyed. + Among these beauties vain and wanton, like to thee was ne'er a bride. + Bows of painted green thy eyebrows; thy glances shafts provide." + +Mohammedan countries of any culture have long held the bath in great +esteem. Turkish ladies of high rank once frequented the public baths +with regularity, but the modern improvements in the private houses have +made this custom far less general. + +The women of the Turkish empire present an almost infinite variety. +Under the dominion of the sultan the nationalities are many and +heterogeneous. So also it would be impossible to make any general +statement of the treatment of women among the Turks. In many parts of +Turkey there is but one wife in the household, and she is well treated +and highly respected; affection prevails in the harems of not a few; +while in others concubinage, neglect, harshness, ignorance, vice are +present with their deadly effect. + +Divorce may be readily obtained in Turkey; but parental influence often +protects the woman who otherwise might fare unjustly. Mohammed also gave +some protection to wives, since he considered a wife to have rights in +her own fortune even while married, and held that if divorced, +restitution of this fortune was to be made. + +Turkish women, except those of the richer families, generally nurse +their own children. Many children die in infancy through the ignorance +of mothers of the lower classes. Some mothers still swaddle their little +ones. In the event of illness, instead of a trained physician, many +mothers send for a "wise woman" or a wizard. In the harems, it is +suspected that many infants are actually killed. The Mohammedan +population increases more slowly, notwithstanding the practice of +polygamy, than the Christian population of the Turkish Empire. + +It is the custom among families of the better class to give the boys +over from infancy to the care of a _dadi_, or slave girl, whose business +it is to care for him during his youth, and it is not infrequent that +evil springs from this intimacy. Both boys and girls are under the care +of a _lalo_, or male slave, when the children are out of the precincts +of the harem. The influence of the slaves and menials, with whom so many +Turkish children are thrown, is, as a rule, far from elevating. + +Submission is a lesson that is very early taught to Turkish children. +This insures an obedient, tractable spirit, and is the cause of all that +is best in the Turkish character. + +There are almost thirty million Turkish women, the masses of whom move +upon a very low level of culture. This cannot, however, be said of all, +for many of the upper classes and of the court are well educated, though +the branches or subjects they are taught are not varied. Foreign +governesses are often employed to teach the girls French, German, and +English, which they can, in many cases, speak fluently. Language and +literature furnish a large part of their education. A change is +gradually coming over the Turkish people in this matter of the +development of its women, and this, notwithstanding, the fear in many +minds that a better educated woman will be a less manageable woman; a +creature dissatisfied with her lot. A recent writer of acute observation +of Turkish affairs has said of efforts on the part of American +philanthropists to instil the spirit of the American public school into +the minds of the Turks: "The general opinion seemed to be that the +female sex had no intellectual capacity. The first efforts of the +Americans to make the women sharers in intellectual progress and +refinement were met with opposition, and often with derisive laughter. +They created a new public sentiment in favor of the education of women. +This is shown by the interest taken in the schools established by +Americans for the education of girls. Pashas, civil and military +officers of high rank, the ecclesiastics and wealthy men of all the +different nationalities attend the examinations, and express their +hearty approval of the efforts made by the Americans for improving the +conditions of the women of Turkey." + +The tendency of these influences is to win for women a greater respect +from fathers, husbands, brothers; greater freedom in choice of their +life partners; to defer the marriageable age from twelve years to +fifteen or twenty; to secure for mothers greater respect from their +children; and to elevate womanhood in every relation of life. + +Turkish women who are still living under the patriarchal system--and in +no small part of the empire does this ancient system prevail--develop +under a different environment from that prevailing in the other parts of +the realm. Under a patriarchate the mother yields to the grandmother and +the great-grandmother. The wife holds not only a subservient place in +the family, which often contains as many as forty persons, but she is +often, literally, a slave to the mother-in-law, and her children are +trained by almost everybody else but herself. The patriarchal system is +gradually yielding, however; and more and more, even in the conservative +regions of the world, newly married people are forsaking father and +mother and cleaving to one another, setting up their own homes and +developing the parental character, and training their young in their own +sweet way. + +Under strict Moslem influence, motherhood has a place of honor; at +least in theory. For Mohammedanism gives to the woman who bears children +and trains them faithfully a rank in heaven with the martyrs. +Unfortunately, however, the light esteem in which women are held in +Moslem lands makes against woman's power, even in her noblest +opportunity,--that of moulding the children into character that is +noblest and best. Much work has been done by foreign philanthropists in +an effort to raise the standard of home training among the Turks. +Stanley Lane-Poole, in his _Studies in a Mosque_, a book not written +from the viewpoint of the modern missionary, but that of a candid and +diligent student of historic conditions, says: "It is quite certain that +there is no hope for the Turks, so long as Turkish women remain what +they are, and home training is the imitation of vice." This is surely a +dark picture. But the time may yet come when the Turkish woman will +assume a position more like that of her Western sisters and become an +elevating influence in the land whose present territory includes much of +the most renowned soil the sun ever shone upon, not only that which saw +the birth of the religion of the Jew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan, +but also much that is rich in classic and mediæval memories--the country +of which Byron wrote: + + "The land of the cedar and pine, + Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine; + Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume, + Wax faint in the gardens of Gul in her bloom. + ....................................................... + Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, + And all save the spirit of man is divine." + +Yes, even the land of the Turk may see such ideals of womanhood +realized as those which made the women of the ancient Hebrews and the +early Christians--who lived upon what is now Turkish soil--to be honored +throughout the ages. + + + + +XI + +THE MOORISH WOMEN + + +We are now to turn our attention to one of the most fascinating of all +the women of the world--the Moorish woman. Her fascination does not lie +altogether in her intrinsic charm, but in the atmosphere that romance +has cast about her. And while there is, of course, a very close kinship +between the Moorish women of Spain and Morocco and the women of the +Orient, especially the Mohammedan women, yet, the lady of Moorish +ancestry has a history and a life of her own which are well worthy of +consideration. + +The Moors brought culture to Spain, and it was not long after their +expulsion that learning began to decline, and with it Spain. It was +during the period of the Western movement of Mohammedanism that Islam +made its contribution to the world's progress. In its very work of +devastation, Arabian civilization was destined to render mankind great +service. Conquering the north of Africa and then coming across the +narrow Straits of Gibraltar, the Moors were destined to write out a +wonderful history in their European home. So deeply did the Moors +impress their life upon the Spaniards, that long after their expulsion +they continued to influence Spain by the power of their thought and the +impress of their customs. Even to-day, after the lapse of more than four +centuries, Moorish footprints are traceable in Spanish soil. While the +Moors brought culture into Spain, it cannot be said that they made any +direct attempt to educate or to elevate their women. But among a people +whose learning was relatively so high for its age, it was impossible to +prevent the women from receiving a certain refinement and at times an +elevation of mind which made them worthy of the respect and admiration +of not only the prouder sex, but of the world. The capacity for true +poetry and the gift of music were not uncommon accomplishments of these +women. There was ample leisure for these arts to be cultivated by them. +Charm of presence seemed to belong by nature and habit to the Moorish +woman, as + + "Some grace propitious on her steps attends, + Adjusts her charms by stealth and recommends." + +The Moorish women were pretty, as indeed their descendants are, +especially when young. Like the ancient Egyptians, they blackened their +eyelashes and eyebrows and used henna stains upon their finger tips. +Beauty was at a high premium, not because there was so little of it in +Moorish Spain, but because it was highly prized. Some of this peculiar +type of beauty persists even to-day in parts of the peninsula. As +Aranzadi (quoted by Ripley) says: "The very prevalent honey-brown eyes +of the southwest quarter of Spain, near Granada, is probably due to +strong Moorish influence." + +The respect for women among the Moors of Spain was higher than it would +be natural to expect in a land where Mohammed's influence was paramount. +It is a tradition that the Prophet once declared: "I stood at the gate +of Paradise and lo! most of its inmates were poor; and I stood at the +gate of Hell and lo! most of its inmates were women." The Arabian nature +was intuitive, ardent, impulsive. So the beauty of a beautiful woman +awakened the feeling of love and chivalry. On the other hand, the women +were warm-hearted, though custom required them to be dignified and +self-contained. Among a people where generosity, courage, hospitality, +and veneration for old age were conspicuous virtues, it is not strange +that women should have received more than ordinary respect. And yet +these very qualities, when abused, often degenerated into idleness, +pride, ignorance, bigotry, and even the grossest sensuality. + +Chivalry, however, had its better side, for "Here gallants held it +little thing for ladies' sake to die," as the old Spanish ballad tells +us. The Cid stories of valor--like that of Antar in Arabian literature, +Orlando in Italian, and Arthur in early English legend--brought this +powerful influence upon the imaginations and conduct of both men and +women: + + "For here did valor flourish and deeds of warlike might + Ennobled lordly palaces in which was our delight." + +Spain was for centuries known for its gallantry. Indeed, "the Spaniards +bore away the palm of gallantry from the French," and have in some +respects perpetuated the influence stamped upon them by the Moorish +women, even to this day. As Thomas Bourke says, in his _Moors in Spain_: +"Much of the chivalrous manner of the Granadians is no doubt to be +attributed to their women, who were exactly qualified to create and keep +alive this spirit of gallantry among their countrymen and to occasion +those excesses of love, of which so many examples, equally extraordinary +as pleasing, occur both in Spanish and in Arabian history." + +What is the secret of the alluring and overpowering charms with which +the Moorish women have fascinated the historian, enkindled the novelist +and poet, set the musician's heart to vibrating and stirred the +imagination of the world? A description of them which goes back to the +old Arabian days is of interest in finding the secret of their power +over the senses and the imaginations of men. "They are uncommonly +beautiful; their charms which very rarely fail to impress, even at first +sight, are further set off by a lightness and grace which gives them an +influence quite irresistible. They are rather below the middle stature; +their hair, which is of a beautiful black, descends almost to their +ankles. No vermilion can vie with their lips, which are continually +sending forth the most bewitching smiles, as if expressly to display +teeth as white as alabaster. They are profuse in the use of perfumes and +washes which, being exquisite in their kinds, give a freshness and +lustre to the skin rarely to be equalled by the women of other +countries. Their steps, their dances, all their movements display a +graceful softness, an easy negligence, that enhances their other charms, +and not only renders them irresistible, but exalts them beyond all power +of praise. Their conversation is lively and poignant; their wit refined +and penetrating, equally adapted to grave and abstruse discussions as to +the pleasantest and most lively sallies." + +The dresses of the Granadian women, not unlike those of the modern +Turks and Russians, consisted chiefly of a long tunic, which was held in +by a girdle. There was also an upper garment with straight sleeves. This +was called a _dolyman_. Large drawers upon the legs and Morocco slippers +upon the feet finished the costume, with the exception of their small +bonnets, to which were attached costly veils, richly embroidered and +descending to their knees, altogether presenting a picture which, at its +best, made the Moorish woman one of the most graceful and picturesque of +her day. The stuffs which went into a Moorish woman's dress were usually +of extraordinary fineness, and the trimmings were costly, gold and +silver edging being used without stint. + +Hairdressing was not an unimportant part of her toilette. The black +hair, befitting her complexion, was allowed to fall down in braids upon +the shoulders, but in front there was a fringe. Strings of coral beads +were often intertwined with the side locks; and the ornaments of the +hair, often costly pearls, were allowed to hang down, giving a delicate +tinkle as the woman moved her head. There were some little superstitions +about the hair. It was thought that a direful curse fell upon those who +joined another's hair to their own. To send a person a bit of hair, or +even, by metonymy, the silken string which bound it, was a token of +submission. Jewelry was used by the Moorish women in great profusion. +They are still passionately fond of ornaments. Even the poorest are well +supplied, and the shapely brown arms of the little girls are encircled +at the wrist and above the elbow with bands of brass or copper. As the +women walk they "make a tinkling with their feet, because of all the +rings and anklets and bangles which they wear with so much delight." +This jewelry is the woman's personal property, and in case her husband +should see fit to divorce her, it still remains her own. + +One of the most important parts of a Moorish lady's daily life was the +bath, a pastime which was both pleasurable and imperative, especially in +the homes of the wealthier classes. Coppée, in his _Conquest of Spain_, +has thus described the bathing equipment of a Moorish home: "Passing +from the centre of a luxurious court through a double archway into +another _patio_, similar in proportions and surroundings, and usually +lying at right angles to the first, in the centre is a great _estangue_, +or oblong basin, seventy-five feet long by thirty in width, and six feet +in depth in its deepest part, supplied with limpid waters, raised to a +pleasant temperature by heated metallic pipes. Here the indolent, the +warm, the weary, may bathe in luxurious languor. Here the women disport +themselves, while the entrances are guarded by eunuchs against +intrusion. The contented bather may then leave the court by a postern in +the gallery, which opens into a beautiful garden, with mazy walks and +blooming parterres, redolent with roses and violets. Water is +everywhere; one garden house is ingeniously walled in with fountain +columns, meant to bid defiance to the fiercest heats and droughts of +summer." + +From these ample and often luxurious arrangements, it might be surmised +that by the Moor water was regarded not as a luxury, but as an absolute +necessity to a happy life. All classes shared more or less in the habits +of cleanliness; for it is said that many of the poor would have spent +"their last _dirhem_ for soap, preferring rather to be dinnerless than +dirty," while the Moors of the higher order were so scrupulously cleanly +that they are said to have spent a very large part of their lives in the +bath. + +Strangely enough, the Catholics of Spain, determining to get as far +away as possible from the customs of their Mohammedan captors, eschewed +the bath because the Moors made so much of it; and men and women among +them were known to be strangers to the touch of water. So far from +cleanliness being regarded as next to godliness, dirt became the very +emblem of Christian society, "monks and nuns boasted of their +filthiness," and there is on record a female saint who boasted at the +age of sixty that no drop of water had ever touched her body, except +that the tips of her fingers had been dipped into the holy water at the +mass! + +Nine hundred well-equipped baths in the rich city of Cordova, and +thousands throughout Spain, were destroyed by Philip II., the husband of +Queen Mary of England, on the ground that they were but relics of +Spain's occupancy by the infidel. + +While Mohammed refused to Mohammedan women the right to marry any but a +Mohammedan, yet he granted to his male followers the right to marry +Christians or Jewesses if they saw fit. This privilege led to a +considerable admixture of blood in Moorish Spain. Spanish pride did not +suffice to prevent these intermarriages of Arab and Spaniard. Polygamy +also being in vogue,--for their religion allowed the Moors four +wives,--a blending of races went on rapidly, and the Moorish type of +beauty may be discovered to-day in any part of southern Spain. The +Christian influence in Spain tended to soften the almost necessary +asperities of a life where plural marriages are sanctioned. The +degradation incident to Mohammedan ideals concerning women was much +checked by a counter current of Christian feeling, by which the Moors +could not but be influenced. So, also, did poets and lovers in Moorish +Spain show a respect for womanly worth and grace, if not womanly virtue, +which marks an advance from the Mohammedan or even the earlier Arabian +days. + +As might be inferred from their Oriental antecedents, the Spanish Arabs +gave much time to eating and drinking. The chief meal followed the +evening prayer. The men ate alone, the women and children followed when +their lord had finished his repast. The tray containing the food was +placed upon an embroidered rug. Silver and fine earthenware were not +wanting. Bread and limes were expected with every meal. A dish made of +the flesh of a sheep or fowls stewed with vegetables was a common dish, +as, indeed, it is a favorite among the Moorish people to-day. "The diner +sat on a low cushion, with legs crossed. A servant poured water on his +hands before eating, from a basin and ewer, which formed a necessary +part of the table furniture. The meal then began with the +_Bismillah_--'In the name of the most merciful God'--for grace. The +right hand only was used in eating; and with it the host, if he had +guests, transferred choice pieces from his own plate to theirs, and +sometimes, as a mark of greater favor, to their very mouths. Ordinarily +there were soups, boiled meats, stuffed lambs, and all meats not +forbidden. Very little water was taken during the meal; in its place, +and especially after the meal, sherbets were drunk, those flavored with +violet and made very sweet being preferred." + +The contact between the Mohammedans and the Christians in Moorish +Spain inevitably brought conflict. Christians often unnecessarily threw +away their lives in courted martyrdom. Many were the staunch women who +thus willingly laid down their lives. The story of Flora, the beautiful +daughter of a Moorish father and a Christian mother, has in it elements +of the deepest pathos. The offspring of mixed marriages among the Moors +was universally regarded by them as of necessity Mohammedan in faith. +Flora's mother, however, had secretly instilled into her the beliefs of +the Christian religion, though outwardly she was a good follower of the +Prophet. At length, however, stirred by the sacrifices she saw the +Christian martyrs making for their cause, her father being now dead, she +fled from her home and took refuge among the Christians. Her Mohammedan +brother searched for her, but in vain. Priests were charged with her +abduction and were punished with imprisonment. Unwilling that they +should be thus punished on her account, Flora returned and gave herself +up, confessing that she was no longer a Moslem, but a Christian. All +efforts to make her recant proved fruitless. There remained nothing +except to bring her before the Mohammedan judge and try her for the +capital offence of apostasy. The judge, however, willing to show mercy, +sentenced Flora not to death as the law prescribed, but to a severe +flogging. Her brother was enjoined to take the girl home and instruct +her in the faith of Mohammed. It was not long, however, before she again +made good her escape and joined some Christian friends, among whom a new +experience awaited her. Here, Saint Eulogius, an enthusiast among the +Christians, met Flora and conceived for her a love that was pure and +tender, so admirable did he adjudge her steadfastness to the faith. It +was a day when martyrs willingly laid down their lives, accounting it a +proud distinction to die at the hands of the infidel. They courted +death. So with Flora. Appearing before the judge one day with a +Christian maiden who also sought a martyr's death, this girl of half +Moorish blood, but with staunch Christian faith, reviled that officer +and cursed his religion and the Prophet. The Mohammedan judge pitied the +young girls, but had them thrown into prison. Here they might have +weakened had not Eulogius urged them to stand fast in their holy faith. +The sentence of death was passed upon them; and the girls were led away +to execution. Eulogius, who loved Flora above all else on earth, and +hence desired her to win what he considered the most glorious of all +crowns, that of martyrdom, looked on in the hour of her death, and +wrote: "She seemed to me an angel. A celestial illumination surrounded +her; her face lightened with happiness; she seemed already to be tasting +the joys of the heavenly home.... When I heard the words of her sweet +mouth, I sought to establish her in her resolve, by showing her the crown +that awaited her. I worshipped her, I fell down before this angel, and +besought her to remember me in her prayers; and strengthened by her +speech, I returned less sad to my sombre cell." Thus did Moorish blood +and Christian faith unite to make a life of wonderful daring and +fortitude. + +To-day in Moorish states the strictest seclusion prevails for the +women. The love of idleness, ignorance, and sensuality are their +dominating traits. They are veiled when in public, and in the north of +Africa wear a striped white shawl, called a _haik_, of coarser or finer +material, according to the wealth or position of the wearer. This piece +of apparel is thrown over the head and conceals the person down to the +feet, the face being hidden by a white linen handkerchief, called the +_adjar_, tied tightly across the nose just under the eyes. Says Sequin, +in _Walks about Algiers_, in describing the Moorish women of that +region: "In the street they present the appearance of animated +clothes-bags, and walk with a curious shuffling gait, very far removed +from the unfettered dignity of their lords and masters. They are not +'emancipated'; and though in the houses of the richer Moors the slavery +of their women may be gilded, it is but slavery after all. The +Mohammedan invariably buys his wife--that is to say, he pays a price for +her to her family, large or small, according to her reputed beauty, or +accomplishments as a housewife; and though when a girl is born to him, +an Arab laments, a man with many daughters, if he knows how to dispose +of them well, in time becomes rich. Arab women, unlike the men, are +small in stature, and the wearing of the _adjar_ has flattened their +noses and made their faces colorless. It is a curious fact that this +disguise was unknown among Arab women until the time of Mahommed's +marriage with his young and beautiful wife Ayesha, as to whose conduct, +indeed, it became needful for the angel Gabriel to make a special +communication, before the Prophet's uneasiness could be removed. The +jealousy of one man has been powerful enough to cover the faces of all +Moslem wives and daughters for twelve hundred years." + +The Moorish women of the better class are rarely seen upon the streets +or in public places. Indeed, they are not expected to cross their +threshold for at least twelve months after their marriage; and when that +time has elapsed, it is seldom they are seen abroad. They go to the +baths, and sometimes on Fridays they visit the cemeteries. Other +recreations or amusements are not open to them, except that in the +marriage ceremonies women have peculiar privileges, since these +ceremonies are held in the women's apartments. "Marriage festivities +last a week, during which time the chief amusement is the eating of +sweetmeats and the dressing, bejewelling, dyeing, painting, and +generally adorning of the bride, who is, as a rule, a girl of some +thirteen or fourteen years old, and who is compelled to sit idle and +immovable the whole time without showing the slightest interest in +anything. She has probably never seen and has certainly never been seen +by the bridegroom. At the conclusion of the ceremonies the bridegroom is +introduced to the women's apartments, and permitted to raise his bride's +veil, but etiquette obliges the lady to keep her eyes tightly closed on +the occasion, and in some cases the unfortunate young woman's eyelashes +are gummed down to her cheeks, to save the possibility of an indiscreet +glance. If the face of the bride is displeasing to the bridegroom, he is +at liberty after this one glance to reject her. If, on the contrary, he +is satisfied, he drinks a few drops of scented water from the bride's +hand, offers her the same from his, and the marriage is concluded." + +In contrast with their once great enemies, the Spaniards, the Moors +have no kind of public spectacle. For the Moors of Africa, +story-telling, in which the Arabs have time out of mind delighted, the +recitation of poems, to which is usually added a dance of _almehs_, +generally negresses, expert in their art of pleasing the native +assemblies. These entertainments are held in the open courtyard of some +quaint old Moorish house; the centre of the court being reserved for the +dancers and the musicians. The men fill the space around, beneath the +arches, while in the galleries are the ghostly forms of veiled women. + +It cannot be said that the Moorish women of to-day still retain that +grace of form and charm of manner which the Moorish lady of five +centuries ago possessed. A prominent woman, who has travelled widely in +Moslem countries, has given this rather repellent description of the +women of the Moors of to-day. "They are huge puncheons of greasy flesh, +daubed with white and scarlet, strung with a barbaric wealth of jewels +and scented beads. They eat and sleep, and then for variety's sake they +sleep and eat. They gossip, scold, and intrigue; and are valued +according to their weight. They blacklead their eyes, and paint their +cheeks like Jezebel; beat their slaves, drink tea and chat and quarrel." +Not a very attractive picture is this,--and perhaps a little +gloomy,--but it is given as presenting a marked and altogether truthful +contrast between the Moorish women of the days when chivalry flourished +in southern Spain, and the women of the Morocco of to-day in their +poverty and degradation. Once the women exerted a strong influence over +the men; the truth is that frequently the "power behind the throne" was +to be located within the harem. This was probably true during the reign +of Hakam II., who was so fond of books that war and the practical +concerns of government had little charm for him. He was the son of the +great Kalif of Cordova, Abd-er-Rahman III. The latter had built a city +to please his Ez-Zahra, and called it "City of the Fairest," but he did +not turn over the government to his spouse. His son Hakam, however, +allowed the influence of the women of the court to become dominant, and +on his death the Sultana Aurora, mother of the young Kalif Hisham, +became the most important personage in the state. It was she who was +chiefly instrumental in introducing into power the young Almanzor. +Gifted in the fine art of flattery and being brilliant withal, the +princesses, and more particularly Aurora herself, fell in love with the +talented young man, and turned all the currents of influence and power +toward him. Thus did the women of the court succeed in developing one of +the most successful and unscrupulous of Moorish leaders. He made all +Spain tremble by his victories, and Christians sighed with relief when +death at last conquered the conqueror. + +The power of the wife of the Spanish Moor was by no means small. A fine +example of her influence at times may be illustrated by the history of +Muley Abul Hassan, the royal Moorish ruler of the Alhambra, who came to +the throne in A.D. 1465. "Though cruel by nature," says Washington +Irving, "he was prone to be ruled by his wives." He had married early in +life a young kinswoman, the daughter of the Sultan Mohammed VII., his +great-uncle. This Ayxa--or Ayesha, as she has been called--was, says the +historian, of almost masculine spirit and energy, and of such immaculate +and inaccessible virtue that she was generally called La Horra--"the +Chaste." To her there was born a son, who received the name of Abu +Abdallah; or as he is commonly known, by the abbreviation Boabdil. The +astrologers were called upon to cast the horoscope of the infant, as was +usual; and, to their great trepidation, it was found that it was +"written in the book of fate that this child will one day sit upon the +throne, but the downfall of the kingdom will be accomplished during his +reign." At once the young prince and heir began to be looked upon with +suspicion and even aversion by his father, who proceeded to persecute +the child over whom such a prediction hung. He was accordingly nicknamed +El Zogoybi--"the Unfortunate." It was a valiant and fond-hearted mother +whose constant care and protection enabled him to grow up to young +manhood; for she was a woman of strong character and of dominating will. +But, alas! growing somewhat old, and losing some of her personal charm +and influence, Ayesha must face a rival in the harem. Among the captives +taken by the Moors at this time, says Irving, was one Isabella, the +daughter of a Christian cavalier, Sancho Ximenes de Solis. Her Moorish +captors gave her the name of Fatima; but as she grew up, her surpassing +beauty gained her the surname of Zoraya, or "the Morning Star," by which +she has become known to history. Her charms at length attracted the +notice of Muley Abul Hassan, and, after being educated in the Moslem +faith, she became his wife. + +Zoraya soon acquired complete ascendency over the mind of Muley Abul +Hassan. "She was as ambitious as she was beautiful, and, having become +the mother of two sons, looked forward to the possibility of one of them +sitting on the throne of Granada." Zoraya succeeded in gathering about +her a faction, who were drawn to her by her foreign and Christian +descent. These were anxious to assist her in her ambition and that of +her sons, as they arrayed themselves against Boabdil and his mother. The +latter, however, were not without their ardent supporters. There were +engendered jealousies that were inveterate and hatreds that were deep. +Intriguing was the order of the day. Fearing that a plot would succeed +in deposing Muley Abul Hassan and in putting Boabdil upon the throne of +his father, the prince, together with his mother, was thrown into prison +and confined in the tower of Cimares. Hassan resolved not only to set +the stars at defiance and to prove the lying fallacy of the horoscope, +but to silence at once and for all, by the executioner's sword, the +ambitions of his son Boabdil. But here the versatility of Ayesha again +asserted itself. She at once began to make a way for Boabdil's escape. +"At the dead of night she gained access to his prison, and, tying +together the shawls and scarfs of herself and her female attendants, +lowered him down from a balcony of the Alhambra to the steep, rocky +hillside which sweeps down to the Darro. Here some of her devoted +adherents were waiting to receive him, who, mounting him upon a swift +horse, spirited him away." The young man, acting under the advice of +ambitious friends and relatives, began to make preparations for war; and +his own mother encouraged his heart and equipped him for the field, +giving him her fond benediction as she lovingly girded his scimiter to +his side. But his young bride wept, as she tried to fancy the ills that +might befall him in so uneven a conquest. "Why dost thou weep, daughter +of Ali Altar?" asked the invincible Ayesha; "these tears become not the +daughter of a warrior, nor the wife of a king. Believe me, there lurks +more danger for a monarch within the strong walls of a palace than +within the frail curtains of a tent. It is by perils in the field that +thy husband must purchase security on his throne." But Morayma, daughter +of Ali Altar, found it hard to be comforted; and as her husband, the +prince, departed from the Alhambra, she took her place at her _mirador_, +and then, overlooking the Vega, she watched the departing loved one, +whom she thought never to see again, as his forces vanished from her +sight, and "every burst of warlike melody that came swelling on the +breeze was answered by a gush of sorrow." + +This succession of fateful incidents connected with the career of one +who was destined to be the last to sit upon a Moorish throne in Spain is +here recounted because the events give at once an insight into the +strength and the weakness of the Moorish womanly character, with all its +ardent love and spiteful hate, with its loyalty and its trickery, its +hopes and its fears. + +It was Ferdinand, with his wife Isabella, who was destined to return to +the Spaniards the possession of their land, so long held by the Moors. +The story of the overthrow of Boabdil is a narrative of chivalry and +real pathos. Boabdil, standing on a spur of the Alpuxarras, with his +mother Ayesha by his side, looked back upon the glory of his lost +dominion. The towers of the Alhambra loomed up before him, and the rich +and fertile Vega stretched out before his eyes for the last time. +"_Allahu Akbar_," said he, sorrowfully, "God is most great," and burst +into tears. "Well may you weep like a woman," said Ayesha, "for that +which you were unable to defend like a man." This final standing place +of the last of the Moorish rulers in Spain is still known as El Ultimo +Sospiro del Moro--"the last sigh of the Moor." The standard of Castile +and Aragon by the side of the Cross has supplanted the crescent of +Islam; and Ferdinand, with Isabella, knelt in the Alhambra and gave +thanks to God, while the Spanish army knelt behind them, and the royal +choir chanted a _Te Deum_. Had Isabella been more gracious and kept +faith with the infidel, the lot of the vanquished had been less +sorrowful. + +When the Moors were driven out from the home that had been theirs for +more than seven eventful centuries, none suffered more than did the +proud Moorish ladies. It is creditable, however, to their Spanish +victors that they preserved as a part of their own national literature +many of the ballads of the vanquished Moors. Lines from the Moorish +_Lament for the Slain Celin_ are expressive of the wail of maid and +mother at the loss of their former glory and their expulsion from the +place they had so long held: + + "The Mooress at the lattice stands--the Moor stands at the door + One maid is wringing of her hands and one is weeping sore. + Down to the dust men bore their heads, and ashes black they strew + Upon their broidered garments of crimson, green and blue." + +The aged women also had their hopes stricken low by the downfall of +their people: + + "An old, old woman cometh forth, when she hears the people cry, + Her hair is white as silver, like horn her glazed eye." + +The fall of Granada brought bitterness to many a heart. The words of the +ballad, _Woe is Me_! translated from the Spanish by Lord Byron, might +well depict the feeling of the hour: + + "Sires have lost their children--wives, + Their lords,--and valiant men, their lives." + +The aged Moor, pacing to and fro before the king, pours out his plaint: + + "I lost a damsel in that hour, + Of all the land the loveliest flower; + Doubloons a hundred would I pay, + And think her ransom cheap that day. + Woe is me, Alhambra." + +As one has written: "Beautiful Granada, how is thy glory faded! The +flower of thy chivalry lies low in the land of the stranger; no longer +does the Bivarambla echo to the tramp of steed and the sound of trumpet; +no longer is it crowded with thy youthful nobles, gloriously arrayed for +the tilt and tourney. Beautiful Granada! The soft note of the lute no +longer floats through thy moonlit streets; the serenade is no more heard +beneath thy balconies; the lively castanet is silent upon thy hills; the +graceful dance of the Zambra is no more seen beneath thy bowers. +Beautiful Granada! why is the Alhambra so forlorn and desolate? The +orange and the myrtle still breathe their perfumes into its silken +chambers; the nightingale still sings within its groves; its marble +halls are still refreshed with the plash of fountains and the gush of +the limpid rills! Alas! the countenance of the king no longer shines +within those halls. The light of the Alhambra is set for ever!" + + "Farewell, farewell, Granada! thou city without peer! + Woe, woe, thou pride of heathendom! seven hundred years and more + Have gone since first the faithful thy royal sceptre bore! + Thou wert the happy mother of a high-renowned race; + Within thee dwelt a haughty line that now go from their place; + .............................................................. + Here gallants held it little thing for ladies' sake to die, + Or for the Prophet's honor and the pride of Soldanry; + For here did valor flourish and deeds of warlike might + Ennobled lordly palaces in which was our delight. + The gardens of thy Vega, its fields and blooming bowers, + Woe, woe! I see their beauty gone, and scattered all their flowers!" + + + + + +XII + +WOMEN OF CHINA AND COREA + + +China, once the country of perpetual calm, has in recent years become +the land of magnificent disturbances. Not an unimportant factor in the +changes that have lately taken place in the Flowery Kingdom has been +woman. The influence of the women of the nations is generally +centripetal. Of the peoples of the earth the Chinese would doubtless be +named as altogether the most conservative, and in this conservatism the +Chinese women play a most important part. + +Ancestry worship has marked this people from time immemorial, and if +there be one characteristic of Chinese life stronger than all the rest, +it is that of filial piety. This regard is not taught to end with +childhood, but is to be lasting even in mature manhood. From the +lowliest subject to the emperor himself the rule is imperative. The +latter is father of the people of the realm, and as such is to be +reverenced; he in turn is the son of Heaven. Confucius was careful to +instil into his pupils filial regard--a virtue which the sages before +him had urged upon the people. To such teachings is to be attributed +much that is best in Chinese life. + +Thus the Chinese system is a gigantic patriarchal system with its base +resting on the earth, its head penetrating heaven. Mencius spoke often +and in no uncertain words upon this theme. "Of all that a filial son can +attain to, there is nothing greater than his honoring his parents. Of +what can be attained to in honoring his parents, there is nothing +greater than nourishing them with the whole Empire. To be the father of +the son of Heaven is the highest nourishment." In this may be verified +the sentence in the _Book of Poetry_: + + "Ever thinking how to be filial, + His filial mind was the model which he supplied." + +Every department of life is reached by this trait. Someone once asked +Mencius how it was that Shun, an exemplary character of more ancient +days, had married without consulting his parents. For "if the rule be +thus (_i.e._, to inform the parents), no one ought to have illustrated +it so well as Shun." To which Mencius replied: "If he had informed them +he would not have been able to marry. That male and female should dwell +together is the greatest of human relations. If Shun had informed his +parents, he would have made void this greatest of human relations, and +incurred thereby their resentment. It was for this reason that he did +not inform them." Thus only did Mencius save the filial character of the +great and good Shun. + +Since social and religious ideals are the most potential in shaping +woman's life among any people, filial piety has naturally held a notable +place in the making of Chinese womanhood, from the earliest period of +Chinese history. Respect for age is, therefore, one of the most eminent +of Chinese virtues. This is shown in innumerable habits of everyday +life. Let a company be walking out together, the eldest will lead the +way, while the others follow on, paired according to their respective +ages. + +The teachings of Confucius have without doubt influenced the thinking +and the conduct of Chinese men in their relations with the female sex; +even though he said little directly about women or their conduct. His +loose ideas as to marriage and the admission of concubinage are among +the blots upon his social teachings. The body of early Chinese +literature gives a most suggestive insight into the ancient ideals +concerning woman; and because of the dreary conservatism of the people +these ideals are still potential. + +The _Li Ki_, or "Book of Ceremonies," has many bits of counsel which are +intended to regulate the everyday life of the people. Of course, there +is much there concerning the life of woman, of wives, of concubines, of +mothers; concerning betrothal, marriage, domestic and filial duties. + +The Chinese are not usually regarded as a people overflowing with +sentiment; and yet many of their ancient poems are not lacking in +romantic interest. From such effusions as that which exclaims: + + "O sweet maiden, so fair and retiring, + At the corner, I'm waiting for you,"-- + +to deeper meditations upon feminine worth and character, the early +poetry sweeps over quite a wide range of sentimental reflection. + +The _Shi King_, a collection of Chinese poetry gathered by Confucius, +an anthology of more than three hundred poems, contains some glowing +epithalamia setting forth at length the unmistakable virtues of the +bride. Others of them present the industry of a queen, the charming and +virtuous manners of an admired maiden, or the affection of a spouse. +While still others set forth the feelings of a wife who bewails the +absence of her husband, away in the performance of duty; or, it may be, +of a rejected wife giving forth her bitter plaint. A husband's cruelty +is bemoaned; a woman scorns the praises of an artless lover; or a wife +is consoled by her husband's home-coming. + +These songs, born in the early days of feudalism, when the dukes or +governors of the states would come together to consult with the king +concerning public matters, breathe of a period long past. Among the +officers in attendance on these occasions were the music masters. "Let +me write the songs of the people," one has said, "I care not who makes +their laws." To the music masters was assigned the duty of supervising +the songs in use among the subjects of the realm. The songs approved by +the king's music master were preserved as classics. It was from these +that Confucius selected; and he preserved many in which the Chinese +woman is the motive and inspiration. The ode celebrating the virtue of +King Wan's bride is but one of many such poems giving a good insight +into the ancient attitude of mind toward feminine beauty and virtue, as +well as preserving some of the older customs attending the festal +wedding day: + + "The maiden modest, virtuous, coy, is found; + Strike every lute, and joyous welcome sound. + Ours now the duckweed from the stream we bear + And cook to use the other viands rare. + He has the maiden, honest, virtuous bright, + Let drums and bells proclaim our great delight." + +The Chinese drama, a much more modern art--though nothing seems modern +in China--often depicts woman in her best as well as in her less +favorable light. There is present here the true spirit of romance. In +the _Sorrows of Han_, a historical tragedy setting forth conditions in +the days of effeminacy: + + "When love was all an easy monarch's care, + Seldom at council--never in a war," + +Lady Chaoukeun, a farmer's daughter, who has been raised to be +Princess of Han, has never yet seen the king's face. She was eighteen +years of age when brought into the royal palace, but by the intrigue of +the prime minister she had been ignored and neglected. Her picture has +been mutilated by the official, not only that he might destroy her +prospects in the royal eye, but also that he might extort money in +selecting other beauties for the palace. Her father, being poor, was +unable to pay the amount exacted. But by chance the king comes upon her +as she plays the lute in the darkness. He, enraptured by the music, asks +to see her. Her beauty at once charms him. He hears the story of her +sadness, and the plot of the minister is made known. The latter is at +once condemned to lose his head. Making his escape, however, he reaches +the camp of the Tartars, who are at this very juncture threatening the +land, and gives himself over to their assistance. Being shown a true +picture of Lady Chaoukeun in all her beauty, the prince of the Tartars +falls desperately in love, and is willing even to offer peace to the +king if he will but give up the beautiful princess. The king, sorrowful, +but unable otherwise to save his land from devastation, delivers over +his wife to the enemy, she herself consenting to be sacrificed that the +kingdom and her husband's dynasty may be preserved. But, faithful in her +love, she is not long in the hand of the Tartar prince. She seizes her +opportunity, and throws herself into the surging river, along which the +Tartar army was camped, and is drowned. When Khan, the Tartar prince, +saw his prize had escaped his grasp, he decides to give back the traitor +minister to King Han for punishment. That very night Han sees his martyr +wife in his dreams. He arises to embrace her, but she is gone again. The +play closes with the order for the beheading of him who has brought upon +the royal house such sorrow. + +Most of the romance in a Chinese woman's life, however, is found in the +books, which tell of the earlier days. The first event in the life of +most women in China, though she does not at the time realize it, is a +sad one. There is usually scant welcome for the girl. Certainly, amidst +the masses of the people, she enters upon a rough and weary way. She is +reared in seclusion and ignorance. Her little brothers, even, are not +her companions. If she should have any association with them, she is +little better than their servant. Her name does not appear upon the +family register, since she is expected to belong to another family when +she is old enough to wed. + +Does one ask of courtship in China? There is no such thing there, +unless bartering by go-betweens could be called by that name. Girls +spend their last days of maidenhood in loud wailing, and their girl +friends come to weep with them. Well may they do this. After marriage, +which is itself a bitter rather than a happy experience for the bride, +they continue a life of worse slavery--slavery abject and heartless--to +women who have been slaves to other women. The mother-in-law in China +rules her daughter-in-law with an iron hand, and the wife's future +depends much more upon the character of the husband's mother than upon +the husband himself. That the coming of girls into the home is not so +welcome an event as that of boys is quite natural, for it is expected +that at about sixteen years of age the girl will become a member of +another family, returning but occasionally to the house of her birth. So +that while a mother's hope of prestige lies in her sons, the ministering +cares which she might expect in duty from her daughter must be tendered +her by the wife of her son rather than by the sympathetic hands of her +daughter, whose attentions must be unremitting to the mother of her own +husband. + +Betrothals are sometimes made in infancy. But since such contracts are +regarded as being quite as binding as a marriage, wisdom usually +dictates a postponement. Girls are therefore usually betrothed a year or +two before marriage, which in most cases occurs at about fifteen years +of age. Among the poorer classes, in order to avoid the expense +ordinarily involved in betrothal, a mother will sometimes buy, or +receive as a gift, an infant girl, who is reared as a wife for her son. + +Marriage, however, in China as elsewhere, is always regarded as a matter +of deep concern in a woman's career. But in China she has little share +in the events which lead up to the wedding day. Proposals of marriage +and the acceptances are often made without either party to the life +union knowing about the transactions. Nor are the experiences of the +nuptial day always joyous to the timid young bride. Up to the time of +her marriage, the girl has spent her days in comparative seclusion. +Thrust now suddenly among strangers, she naturally shrinks with a +feeling almost akin to terror. This ordeal she must face with apparently +little sympathy. Audible comments are made concerning her when she is at +length in the home of her new-found parents, as they give their vivid +impressions of the newcomer. In parts of China at least, it is customary +for the unmarried girls along the route to throw at the passing bride +handfuls, not of rice, but of hayseed or chaff, which, striking upon her +well-oiled black hair, adheres readily and conspicuously. Not only must +the girl be given in marriage by the parents, but the man must let his +parents know of his desire to marry, and get counsel at their hands. In +the sacred _Book of Poetry_ it is expressly written: + + "How do we proceed in taking a wife? + Announcement must be first made to our parents." + +Married women seldom have names of their own. A wife may have two +surnames, that of her husband and that of her mother's family. If she +have a son, she may be called "Mother of So-and-So." Nor is she expected +to speak to others of her husband directly as her husband. She must use +some circumlocution which does not directly state her relation to him. + +Chinese economists might possibly defend polygamy and concubinage on the +ground that these tend to produce a sturdier race than would be +otherwise possible; for the concubines of the wealthier classes are +usually taken from among the stronger working people, whose superior +physical vigor is constantly adding fresh blood to the more delicate +classes. But the moral evils of the system undoubtedly more than +counterbalance any physical advantage that may accrue to society through +its existence. + +The birth of an infant works a marked transformation in a Chinese +woman's life. So long as she is childless, she is expected to serve. +When she becomes a mother, she at once takes up the sceptre. Wives, +therefore, pray to their deities for the coming of a son; and when the +object of their hearts' desire is realized, the delighted parents pay +their devotions to the god who has sent the new joy into their lives. +The sway of the woman over all the household, with the exception of her +liege lord and her sons, is complete. The _Shi King_ puts this in poetic +form in describing the bride's entrance upon her new estate: + + "Graceful and young the peach-tree stands, + Its foliage clustering green and full, + This bride to her new home repairs, + Her household will attend her rule." + +But remember that first she must become a mother. The brightest feature +in the life of Chinese women, the one thing that brings them most +comfort, is their boys. It is these which most surely lift women into a +position of respect. And this is true, even though, according to the +teaching of China's sages, the mother must be subject to her son as well +as to her husband. "The one bright spot in the lives of Chinese women," +an educated Chinaman has recently said, "is their resignation, their +willingness to endure, to make the best of their circumstances." Indeed, +of the Chinese as a race, this is true, though it is more emphatically +true of the women. Certainly their lot is far harder than that of the +men. From the cradle to the grave, in the view of one from the Occident, +the Chinese woman's way is a dark and cheerless one. Few of the outer +rays of the world's joy penetrate the seclusion of their lives. And +while Chinese girls and women are amply capable of being made the +intellectual and social equals of the opposite sex, the fact is they are +not in any true sense companions of their brothers and husbands. + +It is the lack of training that makes the Chinese woman, as a rule, +uncompanionable. There are exceptions, to be sure. In their present lack +of real preparation for the wider sphere of womanly usefulness, it is +doubtless well that the women have no larger freedom. Wherever the +Western school has gone, however, there has been given to the girls of +China an opportunity for a broader outlook upon life through education +and training. + +"Of all others," says Confucius, in the _Analects_, "women servants and +men servants are the most difficult people to have the care of. Approach +them in a familiar manner, and they take liberties; keep them at a +distance, and they grumble." These words throw some light, by way of +illustration at least, upon woman's place in China as respects freedom +to mingle with the outside world. The sex probably enjoys as much +liberty as conditions justify. And yet keeping them from the world +without does not tend to develop the most genial temperament; their +faces do not evince cheerfulness or hope. + +What is the attitude of a Chinese husband toward his wife? Of course, +she is regarded as his inferior; and, as a rule, she actually is. +Because of the limitations which from infancy have everywhere been +thrown about her life, it could not be otherwise. When the girls must be +married off to get rid of the craving of another mouth; and when wives +are largely looked upon as but a means of rearing children, that these +may do the pious duties in behalf of the ancestral dead, it could not be +expected that the idea of the equality of the sexes should ever be +conceived. + +In China, as elsewhere in the broad world, wives are often neglected. +From early Chinese literature, as well as from modern life, expressions +of the wife's sad lament are heard. As one of the poets puts it in the +mouth of a neglected spouse, whose husband comes not to her comfort: + + "Cloudy the sky and dark--the thunders roll; + Such outward signs well mark my troubled soul. + I wake, and sleep no more comes to my rest, + His cause I sad deplore, in anguished breast." + +Second marriages, though often made are not highly regarded in China. +Naturally love is less likely to spring up as in the earlier +affiliation. The _yengo_, a species of wild goose is, among the Chinese, +the emblem of love between the sexes. This bird especially stands for +strong and undying attachment. For it is said that when once its mate is +dead, it never pairs again. For this reason an image of it is worshipped +by the newly married couples of China. There is a popular saying among +the Chinese that a second husband to a second wife are husband and wife +so long as the poor supply holds out. When this fails the partners fly +apart, and self is the care of each. While it would be entirely unjust +not to recognize the presence of genuine love on the part of many a +husband, yet a wife may be handled severely by her spouse if for any +reason he may think her deserving of such treatment. This is more true +of concubines, whose lot is indeed a hard one. Whenever there is in the +household more than one wife, jealousy, bickering, strife, and plotting +are almost certain. The _Shi King_ sets these forth in a little poem on +the jealousy of a wife: + + "When the upper robe is green, + With a yellow lining seen, + There we have a certain token + Right is wronged and order broken." + +The Chinese have a saying that it is impossible to be more jealous than +a woman; and in the word for "jealous" there is an intended suggestion +of another word of the same sound, but of different intonation, meaning +"poisonous;" which play upon the word reminds one of the remark of the +Hebrew sage that "jealousy is cruel as the grave." + +The wife is not seen upon the streets with her husband. Nor does she, as +a rule, eat with him. After the men of the family have finished their +meals, the women take their turn at the board. Too little is the +sympathy they get in their ailments; for generally scant is the +attention paid to their suffering, and poverty often prevents a +physician's care. Much, too, that goes for healing is hideously cruel +and permeated with the wildest superstition. + +It must seem the grimmest irony in one of Goldsmith's Chinese letters +from his _Citizen of the World_, when he makes Lien Chi Altangi, while +writing of his purpose to open a school for young women, say: "In this I +intended to instruct the ladies in all the conjugal mysteries; wives +should be taught the art of managing their husbands, and maids the skill +of properly choosing them; I would teach a wife how far she might +venture to be sick without giving disgust; she should be acquainted with +the great benefits of cholic in the stomach, and all the thoroughbred +insolence of fashion; maids should learn the secret of nicely +distinguishing every competitor; they should be able to know the +difference between a pedlar and a scholar, a citizen and a prig, a +squire and his horse, a beau and his monkey; but chiefly they should be +taught the art of managing their smiles, from the contemptuous simper to +the long laborous laugh." + +One of the cornerstones of Confucius's teaching was "reciprocity." But +this doctrine he does not seem to apply to the practical relations of +married life, about which he had little or nothing to say. Suicides of +young wives would be far less frequent in China were this doctrine of +the great lawgiver applied to marital life. A cruel husband may, almost +with perfect impunity, greatly injure his wife, or even kill her, +especially if he can make good a claim before the authorities that she +had been unfilial to _his_ parents. + +The Chinese wife is, of course, not free from the evils of divorce. If +she be guilty of such faults as scolding, disobedience, lasciviousness, +or theft, which is next to murder in its heinousness, or if she be the +victim of such misfortune as leprosy or barrenness, she may be sent back +to her parents, if they be still alive. Among the causes for which +divorce is possible, the failure to bear sons is the first. Widows +sometimes remarry. In some parts of China the _suttee_, or +"self-immolation," of widows is not unknown, the unfortunate woman being +compelled to strangle herself, after which her body is burned. + +The maternal instincts are seldom stronger than in the attitude toward +the helplessness of infancy; yet, in China infanticide is of +extraordinary prevalence. The greatest danger that besets a Chinese +woman is at her birth. In an already overpopulated country, it is not +strange that the custom of killing the female infant, for whom it is +difficult to provide sustenance, should have gained ground. Besides, +while the congested condition of the population is somewhat relieved by +emigration of the men to other lands, the women do not leave; hence, +there is a tendency toward a surplus of women. It frequently happens +that if a Chinese mother has not yet been blessed with the birth of a +boy, she will destroy her female offspring, with the thought that in +this way she may hope the sooner to bear a son. If, on the other hand, +she has one or more sons, she may allow two or three daughters to live. +After this, many mothers will not hesitate to smother the girls at their +birth. "By the accident of sex," says a recent writer, "the infant is a +family divinity; by the accident of sex, she is a dreaded burden, liable +to be destroyed, and certain to be despised." The Chinese officials have +tried earnestly to break up this frightful custom of infanticide. Books +have been written and circulated condemning the practice. Foundling +hospitals have also been established, in order that this kind of murder +might be checked and the rejected little ones cared for. Stone tablets +have been erected on river banks, by pools, and in places at which the +killing of girls might probably occur, or where their dead bodies are +likely to be deposited. During a period of rebellion, and of dire +poverty, so many desperate mothers throw their babes by the roadside for +the dogs and birds of prey to devour, that "baby towers" were +constructed at certain points, where the tiny dead bodies might be +thrown, to avoid the dangerous offensiveness to the population. + +But if in infancy the girl is not killed, she is allowed to live. Should +pinching poverty come, she may be sold or given away. In some districts +baby merchants are not unknown. When the little girls grow up they +become serviceable in numerous ways in the domestic life; but many of +them are sold to a life of shame. + +A wise Chinese writer, Hwei Kwo, in discussing infanticide among his +people, says: "Before you drown the infants you ought to think, 'I thus +harshly violate propriety. But there are gods above; how can I deceive +them? My ancestors are beside me; how can I present myself before them?' +Before long the babe will call _kwa, kwa_, and want some nourishment; +before many months she will call _ya yah_, and begin to talk, first +calling _year-niang_ (father, mother), and walk carefully about your +knees. Before many years she will be helping you in all your hard work, +and when she is married and bears a son, how very pleased you will be. +If you get a good son-in-law, and their children are well to do, how +much admiration and glory. 'If I endure present trouble, I may by and by +eat my daughter's rice.'" But even these low and selfish motives are not +sufficient to destroy the prevalence of infanticide, which is more +particularly practised in southern China. It is almost, if not quite, +unknown in the north. + +Woman's standing before the law in China would not be regarded as high +in a country where woman's rights have been agitated. Her property +rights are practically _nil_, except as she enjoys them through male +relatives. And yet, with all her limitations, the woman of China is in +some respects in advance of her sisters of many other Oriental lands. +She is not shut up in a harem, as she is in Turkey; she is not bound +down by the harsh caste system, as in India; she is not looked upon as +devoid of spiritual existence, as in Burmah; she is not degraded by the +curse of polyandry, as in Thibet. In no Eastern land, with the exception +of Japan, has woman a better opportunity to exert power and develop +character than in China. + +The dress of Chinese women might be thought by women of some other +lands to be lacking in beauty and grace; and yet, it is in many respects +highly sensible, being at least modest, healthful, and economical. It +hides the contour of the person effectually, and this, among the +Chinese, is its chief design. Being loose, it gives full play to the +vital parts, as well as to the limbs, and the same thickness of +materials prevails over the whole body. There is no waste in the +cutting, and no unnecessary ornaments or appendages, eight yards of +yard-wide goods being sufficient for a complete set of winter garments. +The mental worry that comes to the woman of the West in selecting +patterns, in cutting, and in fitting, is all done away with in China, +since the Chinese lady always selects the same pattern,--or has had it +selected for her by her great-grandmother,--and there is little need for +fitting. Figures that would look unattractive in Western attire can wear +the Chinese dress without disadvantage. Some have attributed the great +age to which Chinese women so frequently attain--notwithstanding the +often unsanitary condition of their homes, often floorless and +windowless--to the hygienic character of their clothing. The winter +clothes in the more northerly sections are padded garments that appear, +to be sure, rather clumsy and uncomfortable. The use of woolen +underclothing does not prevail. These padded garments hang about the +body like bags; and sometimes when children fall down they are utterly +unable to rise without assistance. It is needless to say that woman's +winter attire is by no means graceful or convenient. If even the men do +not use pockets,--which conveniences seem to a Westerner so +indispensable,--it may be surmised that the women have no such +contrivances in their dress. The ordinary costume of a woman consists of +two garments. The upper one appears very much like an American lady's +dressing-sack, only somewhat longer, with flowing sleeves, and is quite +loose fitting, the fastenings being along a curve from the neck to +beneath the right arm, and then in a straight line down that side. The +lower garment is a pair of loose trousers. There is little or no +difference in the style of the outer and inner garments, more or fewer +being worn according to the state of the weather. A skirt is seldom worn +in the Canton section, except by a bride at the time of her marriage. +This custom, however, varies in different sections of China. In +Shanghai, women are seldom seen without skirts. Notwithstanding the +sameness and similarity of cut in Chinese costume, the quality of beauty +is not entirely forgotten. A Chinese gentleman, when asked what things +the Chinese women most delight in, replied: "First, beautiful clothes +and ornaments with which to make themselves attractive. Secondly, to +live in idleness. Thirdly, to have servants to wait upon them." The +remark would suggest moral weakness which is, alas! far too common. +Tsq-hia once asked Confucius what inference might be drawn from the +often quoted lines: + + "Dimples playing in witching smile, + Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright. + O, and her face may be thought the while, + Colored by art, red rose on white." + +To which the teacher replied: "Coloring requires a pure and clear +background." This was the great master's way of emphasizing character as +a necessary accompaniment of true beauty. But this ideal is largely +forgotten. + +The custom of binding the feet is not so common as is often supposed. +There are many localities in which the habit is almost universal; while +in many sections, especially in the agricultural districts, the feet of +the women are of normal growth. In the sections and among the classes in +which this fashion prevails, the early suffering, as well as the later +inconvenience, is intense. The Chinese woman, however, does not +emphasize the importance of convenience as would her practical sister of +the West; the suffering they bear with much resignation. Various +explanations are given of the origin of foot binding. Some accounts +state that it arose from a desire thereby to remove the reproach of the +club feet of a popular empress; others hold that it sprang from a great +admiration for delicate feet and an attempt to imitate them; others +claim that it was imposed by husbands to keep their wives from gadding. +Still other accounts say that the Emperor Hau Chu, of the Chan dynasty, +in A.D. 583, ordered his concubines to bind their feet small enough to +cover a golden lily at each step. He had golden lilies made and +scattered about for them to walk upon when they were playing before him. +The admirers of the ruler imitated the practice, and so it spread. This +seems to be the most probable explanation, as the expression _kam-lin_, +literally "golden lilies," meaning "ladies' small feet," and _lin-po_, +literally "a lily step," meaning "a lady's gait," are in common use +to-day. In the beginning, the feet were not bound so early nor so +tightly as to-day, and the custom now varies greatly in different parts +of the empire. The present, the Manchu government, has made efforts to +prevent the practice of foot binding among the people, but with little +or no success. The Manchus do not practise it themselves, and they are +powerless to prevent it. As the Chinese sometimes say: "Fashion is +stronger than the emperor." + +The Chinese find it difficult to understand the freedom of intercourse +which characterizes the sexes in the West. They regard such social +freedom as being difficult to harmonize with modesty and morality. As a +rule, Chinese women are modest and chaste. But it is thought that these +are best assured by restricting their social freedom. On the streets the +women, with the exception of the lewd, appear with becoming modesty and +decorum. Notwithstanding the advantage that must come from the limiting +of woman's sphere of influence, examples are not wanting in which +Chinese women have exerted their native powers to a conspicuous degree +in moulding the history of their times. + +Through the isolation of the women, they become naturally more +superstitious than the men; and, as might be surmised, the former are +the stronghold of the ancient religious faiths of the Chinese. And yet +none of the ancient religions nor the philosophies of the country have +done much to elevate the feminine half of the nation. The best the +Buddhist priest can hold out to the pious woman is the hope that in the +next transmigration her soul may be born a man's. + +Some women of the Celestial Empire have held commanding positions of +political influence. Whether a woman might occupy an influential place +in the management of Chinese public affairs has depended somewhat upon +the character of the ruling dynasty. And while queens are not possible +in China, because sons alone may hold the sceptre, women have been known +to exert such influence in the matter of government as to be practically +supreme. There have been a number of cases of empresses regent. There +were two such instances during the Ming dynasty which were quoted as +justifying a more recent regency that has been one of the most +remarkable on record in any land. When the Emperor Hien-fung died on +August 22, 1861, his son Chiseang, then but six years of age, was +proclaimed emperor in his stead, under a regency composed of eight men. +By a bold _coup d'état_, Prince Kung, brother of Hien-fung, succeeded, +by the aid of the army, in driving this regency from power and in +proclaiming a new one composed of two empresses: Tsi An, the principal +wife of the late Hien-fung, and Tszu-Hszi, the mother of the young +emperor. Neither of these royal women knew the Manchu language, and +Prince Kung was the power behind them, and was rewarded with the post of +prime minister under the two empresses. It was not long, however, before +an edict was issued degrading the prince, whose growing power and +arrogance the empresses feared. And just here emerges the evidence that +the prince was dealing with one of the most astute and aggressive women +of the world, Tszu-Hszi, a woman who has compelled the world to reckon +with her presence for half a century. + +It is true that when the young emperor had reached the age of sixteen, +and had been married about four months, the empresses, no longer able to +present excuses for not doing so, issued a decree bestowing upon +Chiseang, now called Tungche, the right to assume the management of the +affairs of state. But his reign was brief, for after about three years, +as it is said, he "ascended upon the Dragon to be a guest on high." Many +suspected foul play, but certain it is that the outcome inured to the +advantage of the two empresses. That which was more ugly still was the +treatment of the young Empress Ahluta, wife of the late ruler. On the +death of her husband she was about to give birth to a child. The +empresses, however, saw their opportunity as well as their danger. For +if Ahluta's child should be a son, not only would he be the legal ruler, +but the mother herself would at once assume a prominent place in the +government. Ahluta must be set aside. Soon she sickened--some said +because of her grief for her husband, while others knew of the +determination of the empresses to retain power at all hazards. Who then +should be chosen heir to the throne? The empresses selected Tsai Tien, a +son of Prince Chun, brother of the powerful Kung. The latter was again +in complete control, by the grace of the two astute and ambitious women +whose minds were firmly set upon retaining rule at whatever cost. The +fortunate, or unfortunate, young man who had been made nominal emperor, +not by inheritance, but by selection, was given the style of Kwang-su, +or "Illustrious Succession." The way in which Tszu-Hszi, empress +dowager, has been able to be the controlling factor in Chinese national +life, crushing rivals, winning the support of politicians, and carrying +out policies, is one of the wonders of modern political history. This +seems the more remarkable in a country where women are generally forced +to the background, and in an age in which tumultuous scenes and grave +upheavals have been many. + +The head of the army of the United States was not far from the truth +when he pronounced the Empress-dowager of China, not even excepting the +great and good Victoria, as altogether the ablest woman of the century. + +Contiguous in territory and closely related in manners and customs to +the Chinese are the Coreans. The Corean ruler, though in his own country +an absolute monarch, was for several centuries a vassal of the Chinese +Empire, and the educated class continue to employ the Chinese language +in literary and social intercourse. In 1894, Corea having repudiated the +suzerainty of China, war ensued between Japan and China, and as a result +Corea has since been largely under Japanese influence. + +The native Coreans fondly call their country "the Land of the Morning +Calm." Its people are of the Mongolian type, and are therefore closely +allied in sympathy to the Chinese and Japanese, with whom they have had +social and political kinship and contact from time out of mind. The +moral status of the women may be surmised when it is remembered that +woman is regarded as without moral existence. It is not to be +understood, however, that she has no name. When a very little girl, she +receives a temporary surname by which she is known to her relatives and +intimate friends. When she reaches the age of puberty, this appellation +is no longer used by her friends. When she marries, her parents cease to +call her by her childhood's name. She is now known to them by the name +of the district into which she has married. Her husband's parents, +however, speak of her as the woman of the place from which she came. + +In Corea there is no family life in our true sense of that term, for the +men and the women live in separate apartments. The husband is seldom +seen in conversation with his wife, whom he looks upon as absolutely +beneath him. The male and the female children are separated. When they +reach the age of nine or ten years the girls are sent to the women's +apartments; the boys take refuge with the men. The boys must not set +foot upon the territory assigned to the women, and the girls learn that +it is disgraceful to be looked upon by members of the opposite sex; so +they hide at the approach of a boy or a man. + +The Corean women have little or no legal standing. They are absolutely +in the power of their husbands, who may not sell them, however, nor +should their lords be _too_ brutal. Percival Lowell, in his _Land of the +Morning Calm_, puts it strongly when he says: "Mentally, morally, and +socially, she (the Corean woman) is a cipher." But there are exceptions. +In fact, we are not to infer that throughout the entire Orient the +subjection of women is universally so complete as it is sometimes +pictured by writers upon the social life of the East. Campbell, in his +_Journey through Corea_, gives the following incident, showing how women +may be very influential at times: "To make matters worse, the head man +upon whom I had relied for assistance in hiring the men I wanted was +absent, but his wife proved a capable substitute and seemed to fill her +husband's place with unquestioned authority. Between bullying and +coaxing, she rapidly pressed twenty reluctant men into service. The +subjection of women, which is probably the covenant of accepted theories +in the East, receives a fresh blow in my mind. Women in these parts of +the world, if the truth were known, fill a higher place and wield a +greater influence than they are credited with." Nor is it to be supposed +that there is no respect shown to the women of Corea. The men give them +at least an outward show of deference. They will step aside to allow a +woman to pass in the street, regardless of her social position, and the +ladies are often addressed in phrases of a most polite character. +Children are taught respect for their mother, though they are enjoined +to give more to the father. When a mother dies, her children are +expected to mourn at least two years; for the father the period is +longer. Someone has said that "there are three classes of Corean women; +first, there are the invisible,--those who are always in their +apartments, or, when out of them, ride in a closed palanquin. Second, +are the visible invisible, who, possessing less wealth, must walk when +they go out upon the streets, and yet are seen only as a mass of +clothing moving before the eye. Third, there are the invisible visible +class, the poor, who are seen, to be sure, but not noticed,--working +women, whom etiquette prevents one from seeing." + +The women's apartments do not greatly differ from the zenanas of India. +In the interior of their apartments, screened as far as possible from +publicity, the unmarried women may receive their parents and friends, +with whom they chat and gossip upon matters of common interest, or while +away the hours with games. After marriage, the confinement becomes still +more secure, and the woman is inaccessible. "So strict is the rule," +says Griffis, "that fathers have on occasions killed their daughters, +husbands, their wives, and wives have committed suicide, when strangers +have touched them even with their fingers." Woe unto the Corean wife who +is not above suspicion in the eyes of her husband. + +In the "Hermit Nation" one is accounted a boy until he is married, no +matter what his age may be; but public sentiment prevents a young man +from remaining long without a spouse to enrich, or at least to share, +his life. The woman is a child till she is married, and sometimes long +afterward. + +The women of Corea usually marry outside of the village in which they +are brought up. They have nothing whatever to do with the match that is +to be made. Negotiations are carried on by the parents and a middle man. +The bride, indeed, must be silent all through the nuptial ceremony. The +marriage festival and the funeral are the two great events in Corean +social life. When the festivities of the wedding are at an end the bride +is conducted to her husband's home--in a palanquin, if the parties be +well to do; on horseback, if they be poor. + +There is but one true, or legal wife, but often many concubines, the +number being determined largely by the wealth of the husband. Children +of the true wife are the legitimate heirs. The other children, though +not disgraced by their position, have no legal standing as regards the +matter of inheritance. Children of concubines, however, may be +legitimized, in case there are no lawful descendants. + +The following interesting story, taken from Ballet's _History of the +Church in Corea_, will not only illustrate certain customs in Corea, but +show upon what a low plane the marriage relation moves in the Hermit +Nation: "A noble wished to marry his own daughter and that of his +deceased brother to eligible young men. Both maidens were of the same +age. He wished to wed both well, but especially his own child. With this +idea in view he had already refused some good offers; finally he made a +proposal to a family noted alike for pedigree and riches. After +hesitating for some time which of the maidens he would dispose of first, +he finally decided in favor of his own child. Three days before the +ceremony he learned from the diviner that the young man chosen was +silly, exceedingly ugly and very ignorant. What should he do? He could +not retreat. He had given his word. In such a case the law is +inexorable. On the day of the marriage he appeared in the woman's +apartments and gave orders in the most imperative manner, that his niece +and not his daughter should don the marriage coiffure and the wedding +dress and mount the nuptial platform. His stupefied daughter could not +but acquiesce. The two cousins being about the same height, the +substitution was easy, and the ceremony proceeded according to the usual +forms. The new bridegroom passed the afternoon in the men's apartments, +where he met his supposed father-in-law. What was the amazement of the +old noble to find that far from being stupid and ugly, as depicted by +the diviner, that the young man was good-looking, well formed, +intelligent, highly connected, and amiable in manners. Bitterly +regretting the loss of so accomplished a son-in-law, he determined to +replace the girl. He secretly ordered that instead of his niece, his +daughter should be introduced as the bride. He knew well that the young +man would suspect nothing, for during the salutations the brides are +always so muffled up with dresses and loaded with ornaments that it is +impossible to distinguish their countenance. All happened as the old man +desired. During the two or three days which he passed with the new +family, he congratulated himself upon having so excellent a son-in-law. +The latter, on his part, showed himself more and more charming, and so +gained the heart of his supposed father-in-law, that in a burst of +confidence, the latter revealed to him all that had happened. He told of +the diviner's report concerning him, and the successive substitutions of +niece for daughter and daughter for niece. The young man was at first +speechless, then recovering his composure said: 'All right! and that is +a very smart trick on your part. But it is clear that both of the young +persons belong to me, and I claim them. Your niece is my lawful wife, +since she has made to me the legal salute, and your daughter, introduced +by yourself into my marriage, has become of right and law my concubine.' +The crafty old man caught in his own net had nothing to answer. The two +young women were conducted to the house of the new husband and master, +and the old noble was jeered by both parties for his folly and his bad +faith." + +As in other parts of the Far East, the life of widows is exceedingly +harsh. They may not marry again. Indeed, second marriages are never +looked upon with favor, except among people of the lower classes who +generally disregard the etiquette and ideas which prevail among the +nobles and the rich who imitate them. A widow of high standing is +expected to show grief for her husband not only by weeping over his +death, but by wearing mourning as long as she lives; and children of +widows born after widowhood are looked upon as illegitimate. Often, +however, being debarred from lawful marriage, widows become victims of +lust and violence. If, however, they are determined upon preserving +chastity, they will frequently resort to suicide if their virtue be +threatened. The method of self-slaughter among women is cutting their +throat, or piercing the heart. + +Like most women of the world, dress plays no unimportant part in the +Corean woman's life. There is probably no part of her toilet upon which +she bestows more zealous regard than upon her hair. Generally the +natural growth is insufficient to suit her ideals of beauty, and so +false hair is used in profusion. Corean women do not attend the +banquets. These are for men alone. + + + + +XIII + +UNDER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS + +THE WOMEN OF JAPAN + + +No woman of the Orient has in recent years enlisted so much of the +world's attention as the woman of Japan. This interest has bordered upon +real fascination. If the comparative alertness of mind has caused the +Japanese men to be called the "Oriental Yankees," the attractiveness of +the women might give them the right to be compared to the "Southern +Beauties." They have been much written about and the world has read of +them with keen appreciation. + +Japanese civilization is comparatively modern. The islands owe much to +Corea and China for the development of their letters and the refinement +of their social life. Their alertness of mind and receptivity of +character mark them among all the peoples of the Mongolian stock. This +flexibility of temperament is no less true of the women than of the men, +and it is partly these mental traits which give to the Japanese their +attractiveness. + +The women of the several strata of society present marked differences +in Japan, as in other countries. This was more true in the days of +feudalism, when the lines were more rigidly defined than now; though the +influences of the feudal system are still perceptible and will long +endure. But the women of court and castle, the women of the military +class, and the women of the shop and of the soil, with all that was +nationally common, lived a very different order of life. These +differences are inevitable and, of course, abiding. + +The chief glory of every Japanese woman is in becoming the mother of +sons. And while daughters are not unwelcome, as is the case among some +Oriental people, yet their birth is never so much the cause of rejoicing +as is the coming of boys into the world. On the occasion of such an +advent, messengers fly, notes are sent by friends, and all friends and +relatives must visit the new arrival in the home. The visitor who brings +his congratulations, must add to them toys, articles of dress, and the +like--besides the dried fish or the eggs for good luck. The poor mother +must well-nigh tax her already weakened strength to the very limit of +physical endurance in receiving visitors and their congratulations. It +is the father, or some chosen friend, who selects the newcomer's name, +and if it be a girl, that of some attractive object in nature is usually +chosen, it not being regarded as specially appropriate or as involving +any compliment to name a child for a friend or loved one. This duty of +naming the child occurs on the seventh day, and on the thirteenth, it is +carried to the temple and placed under the special guardianship of some +deity. After this the little one becomes accustomed to the ordinary +routine of eating, sleeping, and crying. Very soon it may be seen on the +streets and in public places strapped to the back of an older sister, or +it may be a brother; and it is not long before the babies themselves are +interested in the play of the older children, to whose backs they are +securely fastened. + +As our little girl emerges from babyhood she finds the life opening +before her a bright and happy one, but one hedged about by proprieties, +and one in which from babyhood to old age, she must expect to be always +under the control of one of the stronger sex. Her position will be an +honored and respected one only as she learns in her youth the lesson of +cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners, and of personal cleanliness and +neatness. Her duties must always be either within the house, or, if she +belongs to the peasant class, on the farm. There is no career or +vocation open to her: she must be always dependent upon either father, +husband, or son, and her greatest happiness is to be gained not by the +cultivation of the intellect, but by the early acquisition of the +self-control which is expected of all Japanese women to even a greater +degree than of the men. This self-control must consist not simply in the +concealment of all outward signs of any disagreeable emotion,--whether +of grief, anger, or pain,--but in the assumption of a cheerful smile and +an agreeable manner under even the most distressing circumstance. The +duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls of the family from +the tenderest years; it is their great moral lesson and is expatiated +upon at all times by their elders. The little girl must sink herself +entirely, must give up always to others, must never show emotions except +such as will be pleasing to others about her; this is the secret of true +politeness and must be mastered if the woman wishes to be well thought +of and to lead a happy life. The effect of this teaching is seen in the +attractive, but dignified manners of the Japanese women,--even of the +very little girls. They are not forward or pushing, neither are they +awkwardly bashful; there is no self-consciousness, neither is there any +lack of _savoir faire_; a childlike simplicity is united with a womanly +consideration for the comfort of those around them. A Japanese child +seems to come into the world with little savagery and barbarian bad +manners, and the first ten or fifteen years of its life do not seem to +be passed in one long struggle to acquire a coating of good manners that +will help to render it less obnoxious in polite society. How much of the +politeness of the Japanese is inherited from generations of civilized +ancestors, it is difficult to tell; but my impression is that babies are +born into the world with a good start in the matter of manners, and that +the uniformly gentle and courteous treatment they receive from those +about them, together with the continual verbal teaching of the principle +of self-restraint and thoughtfulness of others, produce with very little +difficulty the irresistibly attractive manners of the people. + +One curious thing in a Japanese household is to see the formalities that +pass between brothers and sisters, and the respect paid to age by every +member of the family. The grandmother and grandfather come first of all +in everything--no one at table must be helped before them in any case; +after them come father and mother; and lastly, the children according to +their ages. A young sister must always wait for the elder and pay her +due respect, even in the matter of walking into the room before her. The +wishes and convenience of the elder, rather than of the younger, are to +be consulted in everything, and this lesson must be learned early by +children. The difference in years may be slight, but the elder born has +the first right in all cases. Etiquette, procedure, and self-control +among the Japanese girls are the most important of the influences +shaping a Japanese woman's life. + +Considerable respect is shown to the girl of the family by her +brothers. The native and conventional politeness of the Japanese shows +itself even in the names by which the children address one another. The +parents may leave off the appellatives of respect, but brothers, +sisters, and servants must treat the young lady with dignity, especially +if she be the eldest daughter. + +What preparation does the Japanese girl have for her position in the +social fabric of her people? Fortunately for her, there is some effort +made to fit her for her future duties. Quite early the daughter of a +household begins to feel the responsibilities of home cares. Even those +families which are able to provide ample domestic service will give to +the daughter of the household the duty of making the tea and of serving +it to the guests with her own hands. This is regarded as of greater +honor to the visitor than if a servant had performed the task. The +eldest girl of the family must learn to act in the place of the parents, +should a visitor appear in their absence, or when the younger children +need the care and oversight of an elder. In such matters as sweeping the +rooms, preparing the meals, washing the dishes, purchasing viands, and +sewing, the Japanese girl finds ample scope for a practical education to +make her ready for the exactions of the life of a housekeeper when she +herself shall become a wife and mother. + +Besides these practical duties in which the girl is early trained, +there is education in simpler mathematics and, to a degree, in +literature and the art of poetry. She is expected to be familiar with +the classical poetry of her country, more particularly the choice short +poems, which are well known to both young and old Japanese. Education, +in the stricter sense of the term, is on the increase among the girls of +Japan, as well as among the boys and young men. Besides native schools, +schools for the education of Japanese girls have been established by +missionaries from Christian countries. And even higher education is +making rapid strides, as is seen in the Kobe College for Women. But the +advance of the state or public education during the past decade or more +renders the foreign schools less necessary; and the private teacher, to +whom the girls of the better families were formerly invariably sent, is +gradually yielding to the larger school. And it may be said that to-day +the girls are provided for, educationally, equally with the boys. Japan +has made wonderful strides in educational matters, being receptive of +new ideas concerning the common schools; but there are adjustments that +must be made to the social ideals and customs of the people, because of +the rise of the new education. Among these there is probably none more +difficult and perplexing than that which grows out of the need of +adapting the old ideas of early marriage for the daughter of a family to +the growing demands and the enlarged opportunities for female education. + +The Japanese girl has better opportunity to experience the pleasurable +side of life than have girls of most Oriental lands. Her recreations are +more numerous and varied. Among them are the annual festivals, such as +the Japanese New Year, the several flower fêtes, and, above all, the +Feast of Dolls, which has been thus interestingly described: "The feast +most loved in all the year is the Feast of Dolls, when on the third day +of the third month the great fireproof storehouse gives forth its +treasures of dolls--in an old family, many of them hundreds of years +old--and for three days, with all their belongings of tiny furnishings +in silver lacquer and porcelain, they reign supreme, arranged on +red-covered shelves in the finest room in the house. Most prominent +among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor and Empress in antique +court costume, seated in dignified calm, each on a lacquered dais. Near +them are the figures of the five court musicians, in their robes of +office, each with his instrument. Besides these dolls, which are always +present and form the central figures of the feast, numerous others more +plebeian, but more lovable, find places on the lower shelves, and the +array of dolls' furnishings which is brought out on these occasions is +something marvellous. Before Emperor and Empress is set an elegant +lacquered service, tray, bowls, cups, _saké_ pots, rice buckets, etc., +all complete, and in each utensil is placed the appropriate variety of +food. Fine silver and brass _hibachi_, or fire-boxes, are there with +their accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets--whole kitchens, with +everything required for cooking the finest of Japanese feasts, as finely +made as if for actual use; all the necessary toilet apparatus--combs, +mirrors, utensils for blackening the teeth, for shaving the eyebrows, +for reddening the lips and whitening the face--all these are there to +delight the souls of all the little girls who may have the opportunity +to behold them. For three days the imperial effigies are served +sumptuously at each meal, and the little girls of the family take +pleasure in serving the imperial majesties; but when the feast ends, the +dolls and their belongings are packed away in their boxes, and lodged in +the fireproof warehouse for another year." + +Besides the special festivals and holidays, there is opportunity all +the year round for the little girls to play their merry games of ball +and battledoor and shuttlecock, which they do with keen delight and with +much grace of movement. The tales of wonder which are told them are a +perpetual source of pleasure; for they have their _Jack, the Giant +Killer_, in _Momotaro, the Peach Boy_, with his wondrous conquests, and +many other tales to kindle their youthful imaginations. Among these are +the early ancestral exploits, which tend to keep alive love of country. +The Japanese girl may be seen occasionally in the theatre, seated on the +floor with her mother and sisters, taking into her memory impressions of +heroism and self-sacrifice, through the historical dramas which present +the early experiences of patriotism and passion which characterized the +fathers of old. Thus, the Japanese girl grows up to womanhood and is a +finished product five or six years earlier than is an English or +American girl. At sixteen or eighteen she is regarded as quite ready +herself to take up the active duties of life. + +The preparation given to the girls of Japan has been justly criticised +in that, while furnishing the future woman with remarkable powers of +observation and of memory, with much tactfulness and æsthetic taste, +with deftness and agility of the fingers, there is little to strengthen +the powers of reason and to cultivate the religious and spiritual side +of the nature. Music is almost the sole possession of women, and many of +them play the _koto_ (a stringed instrument with horizontal sounding +boards, not unlike the piano in principle) and the _samisen_, or +"Japanese guitar," with great grace of touch and manner, but with little +music, as adjudged by the Occidental ear;--however, standards differ. +So, too, the artistic arrangement of flowers is an art much loved by the +women of Japan. Their education and their daily occupation tend to +cultivate the emotional at the expense of the intellectual side of life. +Hence, much refinement but less strength, and the best and cleverest +women of Japan, therefore, are attractive rather than admirable. + +The diminutive size of the Japanese women, their pretty hands and feet, +their taste in ornamenting shapely bodies, give them a personal +attractiveness rarely surpassed. To what an extent the lowness of +stature among the Japanese is to be attributed to their habits cannot be +determined. It is the shortness of the lower limbs that is chiefly at +fault; and the habit, early contracted, of sitting upon the legs bent +horizontally at the knee, instead of vertically, inevitably arrests the +development of the lower limbs. + +The Japanese women have luxuriant, straight, black hair. The wavy hair +which Western women prize so highly is not beautiful in the eyes of the +ladies of Japan. Curly hair is to them positively ugly. They spend much +care upon the arrangement of their tresses, and their mode of +hairdressing is elaborate. Even the women of the poorer classes will +visit the hairdressers. The locks are first treated with a preparation +of oil, and then done up in the conventional style so familiar to all +from pictures of Japanese women. This is expected with many to remain +intact for six or eight days. + +At present the modes of dressing the hair of female children and growing +girls, as well as of married women, vary according to taste and +circumstances. In ancient days, however,--and the custom still prevails +in some of the more conservative regions,--the hair of the female +children was cut short at the neck and allowed to hang down loosely till +the girl reached the age of eight years. At about twelve or thirteen, +the hair was usually bound up, although frequently this was delayed till +the girl became a wife. In the romantic poem of Mushimaro, _The Maiden +of Unahi_, we find this custom referred to, as well as the custom of +secluding the young girl from the eyes of her would-be suitors: + + "For they locked her up as a child of eight, + When her hair hung loosely still; + And now her tresses were gathered up, + To float no more at will." + +As a rule, the women wear no head covering whatever, except that which +their luxuriant hair furnishes. In the coldest weather, however, they +wrap the head gracefully in a headgear of cloth. Gloves are rarely seen +upon the dainty hands of the women, and shoes are worn only when out of +doors. + +The costume of the Japanese women was, and in great measure still is, +marked by simplicity and sameness of cut. There is no variation of +style--fond as the women of the country are of dress. In the material +used and in the color, however, they have ample scope for the display of +their exquisite taste, their individuality, and their wealth. The age of +the woman may aiso be determined with considerable accuracy by her +manner of dress, for a Japanese woman has no sensitiveness on this +score. The girl baby is clothed "in the brightest colors, and largest of +patterns, and looks like a gay butterfly or a tropical bird. As she +grows older, colors become quieter, figures smaller, stripes narrower, +until in old age she becomes a little gray moth, or a plain-colored +sparrow." The hair and head ornaments also vary with the age of the +wearer; so that one who is acquainted with the Japanese mode can read +the age of his lady friend within a few years, at most. The V-neck is +the uniform fashion in Japan, and when a woman of the better classes is +properly clothed in her native costume she presents a most graceful and +attractive appearance. When appropriate, she wears a sort of cloak +fastened with a cord, and the familiar _kimono_ made without any plaits, +lapped over in front and confined with a broad sash which is looped in a +big bunch at the back to conceal the plainness of the _kimono_. This +sash, or _obi_, and the collar, or _eri_, are usually of the finest silk +the women can afford, and are altogether the gayest portion of the +habit. When a Japanese woman is at her best, she may be imagined to have +just stepped from a group painted upon some artistic fan, especially +when in the hands are the umbrella and the lantern. The women of the +poorer classes, however, are often meagrely clad--sometimes too scantily +so for decency. They peddle their wares or work in the fields, barefoot +and almost naked. The shoes of a Japanese lady are so constructed that +they may be easily taken off before entering the house, as is the +custom. There is first put on a short stocking, or _tabi_, which reaches +a little above the ankle and fastens in the back. This is made after the +fashion of a mitten, that the great toe may be separate from the others; +for a cord is to pass between the toes to hold in the _geta_, or +"shoes." There are several styles of these; some are partly of leather, +to cover the toes on rainy days; some are merely straw sandals; while +others are of wood, which are clumsy and lift the feet quite above the +ground, and when worn make much noise along the streets. + +In Japan, the disgrace of not being married does not arrive so early in +the young girl's life, as is the case in some countries of the East. And +yet, even here it will not do for a woman to wait until the age of +twenty-five without having made her peace with the god of matrimony. +Usually, however, marriage, which to a Japanese woman is almost as much +a matter of course as death itself, comes at the age of sixteen or +eighteen. Here, too, the girl of the land of the Cherry Blossom is given +more freedom of choice as respects the question who her life partner +shall be than is generally true in the East; but marry she must. The +inevitable Eastern "go-between" is of value here. The first steps in +Japanese courting are undertaken by him in consultation with the parents +of the girl who it is thought will make the inquiring young man happy. +Opportunity is given, at the home of some mutual friend, for the couple +to meet and pass upon each other's qualities. If there is mutual +admiration, or, indeed, if the young people find no reason why they +should not be joined in marriage, the engagement present, a piece of +silk, used for the girdle by the groomsman, is given, and finally +arrangements are made for the wedding. + +[Illustration 6:_WOMAN'S TASTE IN JAPAN After the water-color by +Charles E. Fripp There is no variation of style--fond as the women are +of dress. In the material used and in the color, however, they have +ample scope for the display of their exquisite taste, their +individuality, and their wealth. The age of the woman may also be +determined with considerable accuracy by her manner of dress, for a +Japanese woman has no sensitiveness on this score. The girl baby is "in +the brightest colors. As she grows older, colors become quieter, figures +smaller." The hair and head ornaments vary with the age of the wearer. +The V-neck is the uniform fashion in Japan, and when a woman of the +better classes is properly clothed in her native costume she presents a +most graceful and attractive appearance._] + +The marriage ceremony is not at the home of the bride, but at the house +of the groom, to which the bride is taken, her belongings, such as her +bureau, writing desk, bedding, trays, dining tables, chopsticks, etc., +having gone before. The giving of presents is often profuse. But it is +not the bride and groom alone who are remembered; the groom's family, +from the oldest to the youngest, the servants, even the humblest, are +presented with gifts by the members of the bride's family. The gifts to +the newly wedded pair are often very practical, consisting of silk for +clothing or of articles of household use; and it is not uncommon for a +bride to receive dress goods enough to last her her lifetime. The +ceremony itself is simple and impressive. Friends and relatives +generally are not present. The bride and groom are there, of course; +besides these are the go-betweens of the couple, and a young girl, whose +duty it is to take the cup of _saké_, or native wine of Japan, and press +it successively to the lips of the contracting parties, emblematic of +the coming joys and sorrows of their common married life. The wedding +guests, who have been waiting in the next room, now appear with their +congratulations, and merriment and feasting follow. On the third day +after the marriage, the bride's parents must give to the couple another +wedding feast. At this the bride's relatives receive presents in return +for the large number of gifts sent by them on the wedding day to the +household of the groom. Announcement of the marriage is not sent out +until two or three months later; it is then made in the form of an +invitation, sent out by the bride and groom, to an entertainment at +their house. Acknowledgments of the bridal presents sent by friends +must, of course, be made. This is done in sending to those who remember +the young pair gifts of _kawaméshi_, or "red rice." + +It will be seen that there is in the conduct of a wedding in Japan +neither legal nor religious sanction. The only prescribed formality is +the erasure of the bride's name from the register of her father's family +and its insertion in that of the husband's. She is no longer a part of +the genealogical tree. She lives with and is a part of the groom's +household. The exception to the custom is found in the _yoshii_, or +"young man," who becomes a part of his wife's family, taking her family +name and repudiating his own. This is done when in a family there are no +boys who may inherit the estate and name. Some youth is then found, +usually a younger member of a household, who can be induced to leave his +heritage and unite himself with a brotherless daughter of another house. +He cuts himself off absolutely from his own people and raises up heirs +for his wife's people. But he has not the standing and authority of the +woman's husband, for he becomes the servant of his mother-in-law, and +may be sent back to his people if he does not conduct himself in a way +acceptable to his wife's family; or if they should weary of his +presence. Ordinarily, children are scarcely regarded as of the mother at +all--the blood is all the father's. The low social standing of the +mother in no way impairs the rank or respectability of the children. The +past few decades have witnessed many notable changes in Japan, and there +is a reaching out after legislation that shall make the marriage +relation more satisfactory and permanent, for divorces have been the +frequent cause of great hardships, especially upon the women, who have +little opportunity to earn an honorable living when once the marriage +tie has been broken. Home life is kept comparatively pure in Japan, but +the price is enormous. The abandoned woman carries on her business or +has it carried on for her with shameless openness. The ideals of purity +are far higher among the women than among the men. And yet, chastity is +not regarded as the highest virtue among Japanese women as among +northwestern people. Obedience to the will of the husband stands first +in the list of virtues. Thus, Japanese women have often been known to +sell their chastity in order that they might save their husbands from +debt or disgrace, and they have received the plaudits of the public for +what is styled their fidelity to their husbands' interest. + +In few, if any, countries of the Orient do the women appear in public +as the equals of their husbands. The Japanese women of the lower social +classes, when they go out with their spouses, follow on behind, bearing +whatever burden is to be borne. In trains or crowded rooms it is the +women who stand, and not the men. Japanese gallantry is not shown in +such public courtesies as are commonly offered to women in the United +States. The wife does not begin her wedded life with the thought of +equality with her husband; and, in law, he is greatly her superior +unless, happily, her husband should be motherless. Next to her duties to +her parents-in-law, the wife's great concern is to be a good +housekeeper, rather than a companion for her husband. She must, with due +self-control and even with smiling face, humor the whims and the vices +of her lord and master, even though he bring another woman into the +home. But it may be said that the Japanese husband extends to a legal +wife comparative respect and even honor, if, as the mother of children, +she fulfils well her duties. Third in line of demand upon a wife's care, +stand the children. In them the Japanese mother takes delight; and here +the self-control which she has learned almost from the cradle stands her +in good stead and beautifully exhibits itself, for she seldom loses her +temper or scolds her children. Even the wealthy women come in contact +with their children and personally guide their lives. The training of +the girls is almost entirely in the hands of the mother; and the +domestic cares of routine life are under her skilful direction. In the +rural districts the activities of women are enlarged by the part they +take in the making of the crops, the running of the rice fields, the +production of tea, the harvesting of grain, and the care of the +silkworms, the bringing of products to market, and the like. But the +freedom they thus enjoy makes amends, in a measure, for the more +burdensome work of which their sisters of the city know nothing. + +The _geishas_, or singing girls of Japan, are, physically speaking, +among the most attractive examples of female grace. The word _geishas_ +means "accomplished persons," and these girls are trained in the art of +making themselves agreeable. They are accomplished in music, singing, +and playing the _samisen_, witty in conversation, and beautiful in +figure. Theirs is a regular occupation, their services being sought on +occasions when entertainment is the chief concern. While these girls do +not come from the higher social circles, some of them marry well and +become the mothers of reputable families, while many others, yielding to +the strong temptations incident to their employment, become the +concubines of some well-to-do citizen or lead lives even lower in the +moral scale. + +Among the special occupations of women may be mentioned that of acting; +for there are women's theatres in which all the parts are performed by +women. Men and women never appear on the same stage. In literature, two +Japanese women have gained the distinction of having written the two +greatest native works--works admittedly at the very acme of Japanese +classics. One of these is _Genji Monogatari_, or "Romance of Genji," and +the other _Makura Zoshi_, or "Book of the Pillow." The authoresses of +the two masterpieces, both court ladies living in the eleventh century +of our era, were Murasaki Shikibu and Seisho Nagon. To their names may +be added that of a brilliant female contemporary Isé no Taiyu. The +Emperor Ichijo, who reigned at that period, was a distinguished patron +of letters. He gathered about him men and women of culture, and the more +lasting literary monuments of his day are those written by women. The +work of these gifted women is marked by ease and grace of movement, +fluency of diction, and lightness of artistic touch. + +Murasaki Shikibu was a lady of noble birth. She was, in her youth, maid +of honor to the daughter of the prime minister of that day. This +daughter, Jioto Monin, became wife of the Emperor Ichijo, and from this +station of influence became a most valuable patroness of Murasaki, the +talented authoress. She herself married a noble, and their daughter also +became a writer of note, producing a work of fiction called _Sagoromo_, +or "Narrow Sleeves." + +The chief work of this noted Japanese authoress, Murasaki, is what may +be called a historic novel, _Genji Monogatari_, or "The Romance of +Genji." In this story the writer gives an accurate view of the +conditions which surrounded court life in the tenth century of our era. +From the romance of _Gengi_ it may be seen, as a native Japanese critic +has said, that "Society lost sight, to a great extent of true morality, +and the effeminacy of the people constituted the chief feature of the +age. Men were ready to carry on sentimental adventures whenever they +found opportunities, and the ladies of the times were not disposed to +discourage them. The court was the focus of society, the utmost ambition +of ladies was to be introduced there." + +In those early days of Japanese life, it was not an unknown occurrence +for a woman when plunged into the depths of some disappointment or +overwhelming grief to take the oath of a religious recluse. "Her +conscience," says Sama-no-Kami, "when she takes the fatal vow may be +pure and unsullied and nothing may seem able again to call her back to +the world which she forsook. But as time rolls on, some household +servant or aged nurse brings her tidings that the lover has been unable +to cast her out of his heart, and his tears drop silently when he hears +aught about her. Then, when she hears of his abiding affection and his +constant heart and thinks of the uselessness of the sacrifice she has +made voluntarily, she touches the hair on her forehead, and she becomes +regretful. She may indeed do her best to persevere in her resolve; but +if one single tear bedew her cheek, she is no longer strong in the +sanctity of her vow. Weakness of this kind would be in the life of +Buddha more sinful than those offences which are committed by those who +never leave the lay circle at all, and she would eventually return to +the world." + +There are many short Japanese poems which breathe of love, and tell of +womanly charm. These short poems are highly prized, and many of them are +familiar to the majority of the people. Among the women who won +distinction as writers of love poems was the Lady Sakanoe, who lived in +the eighth century. She was a woman of high position, being the daughter +of a prime minister and wife of the viceroy of the island of Skioku. Her +poems are among the most popular in Japanese literature, and some of +them reveal a high order of imaginative power. + +Japanese poetry, which has been described as "the one original product +of the Japanese mind," contains many references to woman, her loves, her +laments, her passions, her ills. Sometimes the loyalty of a maiden's +love is set forth--as in a poem by the Lady Sakanoe in the _Manyoshu_: + + "Full oft he swore with accents true and tender, + 'Though years roll by my love shall never wax old,' + And so to him my heart I did surrender, + Clear as a mirror of pure burnished gold." + +A large number of the love poems are sensual; yet, pure love breathes in +many others, as in _A Maiden's Lament_, a poem by the Lady Sakanoe, and +in the _Elegy_ written by Nibi upon his wife. The poet Sosei, also, has +written words that speak to the heart: + + "I asked my soul where springs the ill-crowned seed + That bears the herb of dull forgetfulness; + And answer straightway came; th' accursed weed, + Grows in that heart which knows no tenderness." + +The mutual regard of husband and wife in early Japanese life is +beautifully expressed in an anonymous poem in the _Manyoshu_. A wife +laments that while other women's husbands are seen riding along the road +in proud array, her own husband trudges along the weary way afoot: + + "Come, take the mirror and the veil, + My mother's parting gifts to me; + In barter they must sure avail, + To buy a horse to carry thee." + +To which self-denying love, the husband graciously replies: + + "And I should purchase me a horse, + Must not my wife still sadly walk? + No, no, though stony is our course, + We'll trudge along and sweetly talk." + +There have been many able women in this land of the Cherry Blossom, and +the Japanese people have not been blind to their claims to recognition +as controlling forces. This is shown by the fact that no less than nine +empresses have ruled the land. Some of them have been women of marked +sagacity and influence. On the dim borderland of the mythical, for +example, history shows us the heroic Empress Jingu Kogo, who, tradition +says, was the conqueror of Corea, and the embodiment of all that is good +and great in Japanese womanhood. + +Among the women of Japanese legend is the Maiden of Unahi, the story of +whose noble life and death has been often sung by the poets. Her tomb is +to-day pointed out in the province of Settsu, between Kobe and Osaka. +Such heroines of the earlier days have furnished inspiration for the +women of Japan for many generations; and the ideals of domestic life are +far higher than might be expected in a region of the world where women, +as a rule, live out their round of life upon a general plane that is +sorrowfully low. + +The present generation in Japan has been truly blessed by the influence +of an empress who is described as not only "charming, intellectual, +refined, and lovely," but also "noble and beautiful in character." Haru +Ko, born of noble parentage, became empress in the year 1868. Her +husband had just come to the throne at the age of seventeen. This was +the very year of the downfall of the Shogunate and the restoration of +the imperial power. Though reared in seclusion at Kioto, the young +empress began at once to measure up to the responsibilities which her +position had in store for her. She proceeded to exert her influence in +favor of the elevation of the women of her country. Without hesitancy, +she mingled personally among the people, administering charity to them. +Very early in her life as empress, in the year 1871, she gave a special +audience to five little girls of the military class who were about to +set out for America in order to study to prepare themselves for the +larger life of womanhood in the new Japan. From the beginning of the +school established for daughters of the nobility, who are expected to +play an important part in the Japan that is to be, she has taken great +interest in its progress. + +The religious side of a Japanese woman's life, as has been intimated, +is remarkably undeveloped. In the portico of a certain temple in the +interior of Japan is found this inscription: "Neither horses, cattle, +nor women admitted here." This may be taken as but one intimation of the +fact that little in the way of religion is expected of the female sex. +The introduction of Buddhism into Japan marked an epoch in the country's +history; but Buddhism has done little for woman, for she does not occupy +so exalted a position under it as under the more ancient religion. +Shintoism has its priestesses and Buddhism its nuns, but neither of +these religions has brought any noteworthy blessing to the women of the +kingdom. The ancient religions still influence their lives. The +multitude of temples still claim the veneration of the people. Kioto +retains its eminence as the chief seat of ecclesiastical learning, but +the Western spirit has found an entrance into the land of the Cherry +Blossom; traditional customs are yielding to its influence, and +inveterate prejudices are bending before it. + +The progress of Christian ideals has in recent years been rapid, and +Western religious teaching has advanced with giant strides. Recent +legislation has done something to increase the stability of the home by +making divorce less easy. The putting of concubinage under the ban by +not allowing the children of concubines to inherit a noble title, making +this law apply even to the son of the emperor himself, who must also +hereafter be son of the empress if he would inherit the throne, will +also mean much for the elevation of womanhood in the land of the cherry +and the japonica. + + + + +XIV + +WOMEN OF THE BACKWARD RACES OF THE EAST + + +No volume upon the women of the Orient could be deemed complete without +some account of those women whose lives have been developed remote from +the larger movements of civilization,--the women of the backward races, +and those whose sphere has been contracted, not by social ideals simply, +but by virtue of the lack of that larger opportunity of world contact +which has given to some peoples a far more powerful impulse to progress +than has been the privilege of others. As representatives of this class +we may choose the women of the South Seas and of some of the African +tribes. These will furnish us typical examples. + +George Eliot has declared that "the happiest women, like the happiest +nations, have no history." In the advance of the world's civilization +from crude savagery to high culture, woman's part, though of +incalculable value, has, generally speaking, been unheralded. Bearing +the brunt of the downward burden, while man's shoulder presses upward, +woman, from the beginning, has had a minor place in written history. But +even among the obscurer races she has managed to bear her part with +marked happiness. This seems to be notably true among the island women +of the world. The peoples of the seas, removed from many of the pressing +conditions and harsh frictions which are present in the larger countries +of the continent, exhibit a freedom, if the term may be justly applied +to undeveloped races, which is not the possession of many of the larger +and older nations of men. One is prepared, of course, for great variety +of blood, custom, and development among the peoples who inhabit the +islands and the lands that lie out of the beaten track of travel and +commerce. There is probably no part of the world where the races of +mankind have become more mixed than in the South Seas. + +The women of the Indo-Pacific area belong to certain great classes or +groups of humanity. First, the Australian, inhabiting the great island +continent that seems to be the southeastern extension of Asia; they are +considered the lowest among the races of mankind, have black skins, but +not woolly hair, and are looked upon as a distinct race. Second, come +the Papuan women, who are in every respect negroes, resembling their +kindred in Africa in the variety of their types, including the tall, +very woolly-headed people of New Guinea, who have black skins and comely +bodies. Of the same race, but differing greatly in ethnic +characteristics, are the pigmy people of the Andaman Islands, of the +Malay Peninsula, and of the Philippines. Third, the brown Polynesians, +who are among the finest looking people on the face of the earth; they +inhabit the groups of small islands all about the Pacific Ocean, from +Hawaii to New Zealand, and from Easter Island to Samoa. Fourth and +finally, the Malays proper, who are a small, wiry, energetic people of +southeastern Asia and the great islands lying around Java, Sumatra, +Borneo, and the Philippines. The eight million people (called Filipinos) +in the last-named islands are, as will be seen later, of mixed blood, a +compound of all the sub-species of humanity, brown, black, yellow, and +white, even a small sprinkling of American Indian blood being there. +Women of so great admixture of blood must necessarily exhibit wide +differences of personal appearance and of inherited as well as acquired +traits. + +It would be highly instructive to take up the women of these several +races and consider them one by one in the various experiences of their +lives, from birth to burial, in childhood and name, in girlhood and +marriage, in family life and social standing, in religion and the last +act; for interest in this study extends far beyond the lives and +activities of those to whom it is directed. The whole human species are +one, and it is not a violation of good reasoning to suppose that the +activities and social life of these lowly women may, in a certain +general way, represent the standing of members of our own race in the +early stages of their progress. It is true, however, that in the +Indo-Pacific area we are more or less in the suburbs of the world. +Caution, therefore, must be exercised in forming conclusions that the +abject conditions of the Australians, for instance, is a correct picture +of a previous condition of the Caucasian race. These races have lagged +in the progress of the world, and in all the centuries of their +isolation have rather retrograded than advanced. They are in possession +of arts and practise social customs that are evidently the survival of a +more advanced state, as will be seen in the separate study of each race. + +Further interest is added to the study of these tribes in that, despite +the fact that they are the lowest of the world's peoples, they each lead +a rounded existence. Industries, fine art, speech, social forms and +usages, the explanation of things, creed and cult, all fit together +harmoniously. To the civilized woman, almost every act in the life of +her sex among the people named would be intolerable, but to the woman +there, these actions are the things to be done and any contrary course +would never enter her thoughts. The joys of life come from obedience to +the present order and to the venerable customs and traditions that have +come down from mothers for many generations. + +In height, Australian women average about five feet two inches, the +tallest not exceeding five feet five inches. They have small feet and +hands, the widest span being six inches. The color of the skin is dark +chocolate, the lips are thick, the nose is broad and incurved, the head +long, the hair black, but not woolly, and is generally worn short. Some +of the young girls are pretty, and from carrying burdens on the head +they have an erect pose; the Australians, however, are an unhandsome +race, and at thirty, if she lives so long, the woman is an old hag, the +acme of indescribable ugliness intensified by following the habit of +knocking out the front teeth for the sake of fashion. + +The girl-child born in Australia has little care beyond what is +necessary to preserve her life. The almost deserted mother is placed +apart in a brush shelter and is attended by some old woman of her clan. +The birthplace of the little girl is amid the greatest squalor. On rare +occasions mothers practise infanticide. The child is killed as soon as +born, in the belief (in the words of Nicodemus) that it can enter a +second time into the mother's womb and be reborn. As infants are suckled +several years, the chief cause of this unnatural act is the inability of +the mother to add another ounce to life's burdens. Being considered +uncanny, twins are immediately killed; and once in a while a healthy +child meets with a like fate, in order that its vigor may go into a +weaker one. + +The baby's name is inherited from her mother, or perhaps from her +father. It is merely a class title, for every tribe in Australia is +separated into classes with names. If descent be in the female line, +then everyone in a class has the same name from the mothers; if it be in +the male line, all whose fathers are in the same class are named alike. +In all Australia there is no such title as "mother," in our sense of the +word. Of the girl-child here considered, there are as many mothers as +there are females in that class belonging to the same generation. If the +reader were an Australian girl, she would, then, have several or many +mothers; there would be her own mother, her maternal aunts, and all +collateral female kin of that generation and of the mother's class. For +example, suppose a tribe in which the two moieties were named Brown and +Smith. Every Brown man would have to marry a Smith woman and vice versa. +A Smith would not and dare not marry a Smith, or a Brown marry a Brown. +Now, if the mother-right prevailed, all the children of the Brown +mothers would be Browns, of the Smith mothers would be Smiths; but if +father-right prevailed, then all the children of Brown mothers would be +Smiths, and those of the Smith mothers would be Browns. The marriage tie +is so loose in Australia that the family exists only in the group, and +the little girl is not "Miss Brown," but a Brown--one of the Browns. The +principle is as here stated, but the practice in detail is most +bewildering. The little newborn girl is not merely "Miss S." or "Miss +B." Her tribe, with its two moieties or classes, may have six totems in +each. In that case, her father and her mother will have totem names. +Take the Urabrinna tribe with its two classes, Matthurie and Kirarwa. If +the father be a Dingo Matthurie and the mother be a Water Hen Kirarwa, +our little girl will bear her mother's name, so will all other girls of +Water Hen mothers and, also, their children to remotest posterity. + +The girls of this generation are, in fact, sisters and look upon the +whole generation that gave them birth as a class of mothers; it is the +best they can do. + +In some tribes the classification takes this quaint form: every man +belongs to one of a number of families or classes, which we may mark, +for convenience, A, B, C, and D. Every woman belongs, also, to one of a +number of named classes, which we may call E, F, G, and H. Now, all the +men in the A class are compelled to marry one of the four classes of +women, and their children are classified by rule under the other letters +in the most confusing but interesting fashion. The system is far more +intricate than that of the American Indians. + +Besides these class or totem names, each little Australian girl has a +personal name by which she is freely addressed by all excepting such of +the opposite sex as are tabooed by custom. She may also have nicknames +like the American Indian girls, and finally, every girl of the tribe has +her secret name which may be that of some celebrated woman handed down +by tradition. It is never uttered except upon most solemn occasions, and +is known to those only who are initiated. When mentioned at all, it is +in a whisper. If a stranger should know one's name, he would have a +special chance to work her ill by ways of magic. + +At a very early age, the Australian girl has graduated in all the +hardening processes which result in the survival of the fittest, and is +ready to take her place among women. The rites by which she is initiated +into womanhood lessen her vitality, if they do not destroy it. No sooner +does the little girl get upon her feet than her education begins. Her +play is imitation of her mother's labors and enjoyments. A group of +girls will amuse themselves by the hour, playing little dramas with the +hands. Many of these games are to be found among civilized peoples. Your +meaningless piling of fists in the play: "Take it off, or I'll knock it +off," is part of a game which represents the entire operation of finding +a honey tree, cutting it down, gathering the honey, mixing it with +water, and eating it. + +The marriage tie of Australian women cannot be likened to that existing +among Christian nations, nor is it similar to the polygamy of Mohammedan +peoples, but is a modified form of group marriage. + +The Australian man obtains his wife in one of four different ways. His +father secures her for him by an arrangement with the girl's father; he +charms his intended by magic; he captures her as he would an enemy in +battle; or she elopes with him. It is to be understood, of course, that +the woman belongs to the proper class by descent. The Australians are +very particular in this regard. The first and most usual method of +taking a wife is connected with the law which makes every woman the +possible wife of some man. There is little or no ceremony in connection +with the rite of matrimony. When a man has secured a wife, she becomes +his private property. + +Let us imagine, therefore, that a man has set his heart upon a woman of +the proper group. There are several ways of practising magic to procure +a wife. Spencer and Gillan, the greatest authorities in this line of +study, say, that when a man is desirous of securing a woman for his +wife,--it makes no difference whether or not she be already assigned to +some other man,--he takes a small strip of wood, attached at one end to +a string, and marks it with the design of his totem, and with this +instrument (called by the American boy a "buzzer") he goes into the bush +accompanied by his friends. All night long the men keep up a low singing +and chanting of amorous phrases. At daylight, the man stands up alone +and swings his roarer. The sound of the instrument and the singing of +the air is carried to the ear of the woman by magic, and it has the +power of compelling her affections. It is asserted that women have been +known to come fifty miles in order to marry the man who had bewitched +them. There are other ways of charming a woman upon whom the lover has +set his heart,--such as the charm of the gaudy headband worn on a public +occasion, the charm of blowing the horn, and more. Elopement is only +another form of magic. The third method of obtaining a wife, by capture, +has been described as universal among the Australians, but the latest +writers affirm that it is the rarest way in which the central Australian +secures his wife. + +Among the Australians, Polynesians, Malays, and many others of the +lower races, descent has been primarily and uniformly through the +mother. It was not until tribes became sedentary and property was held +by individuals that inheritance passed to the male members of the +family. The so-called mother-right is based upon the belief that +individuals forming a certain clan or group, by whatever name they may +be called, are the offspring of a woman who lived long ago. The term +_mutterrecht_, by which this custom is called, is of course a sort of +legal fiction; for men have always governed the world. Two benefits grew +out of this form of descent. One was the certainty of motherhood. The +other was the assurance, to every individual, of family support, as the +children of a number of sisters were not cousins to one another, but all +were brothers and sisters. So long as there were provisions with any one +of this group, the rest were sure of a meal. This plan of descent +through the mother has survived in many curious ways. It is found among +many African tribes. Even to-day the Spaniards, who have a great deal of +Moorish blood in their veins, have the custom of adding the mother's +name to the father's to show that the descent is legitimate. It may be +of interest to know, in passing, that James Smithson, the founder of the +Smithsonian Institution, was required by his father, the Duke of +Northumberland, to be known by his mother's name until he was of age, +when he was allowed to assume the family name of the duke, which was +Smithson. This is but a modern instance of how persistent the ancient +custom has been. As soon as sedentary life and settled ownership of +property took the place of nomadic life and communal ownership, +mother-right or matriarchy passed gradually into patriarchy. It is +curious to know that among the American Indians at the time they were +discovered one could find all degrees of this transition. We must be +careful, too, to discriminate between the tribe and the clan, or gens, +for all savage tribes are exogamous with respect to the clans and +endogamous with respect to the tribes. When the people develop the +tendency to marriage within the tribe, it is evident that they have +passed out of the earlier stages of clan grouping into the stage of +property grouping. Marrying in the tribes was necessary, in order, as we +might put it, to "keep the money in the family." Among many of the +lowest as well of the highest civilization, the practice is against +marrying a girl who is akin; and it is always a subject of humor when a +young woman in our own country marries without changing her name, a +quiet recognition of the old practice of the exogamous marriage between +clan members. + +Clothing for warmth or protection is not worn by Australian women; even +the apron is not universal. The sense of beauty, however, has been +awakened in these savage breasts, and expresses itself in pretty +headbands, necklaces, and breast ornaments of seeds, teeth, and strings +colored with ochre. The men, too, are but little better attired; but one +indispensable article of their costumes must not be omitted in this +connection, namely, the knout, or coil of twine, with which they thrash +the women. + +The home of the Australian woman, where she and her co-wives and their +children live, is nothing more than a brush shelter, so faced as to +protect the occupants from the prevailing wind. In front of this, or +under it, they work, eat, sleep, and hold social intercourse. In the +morning, they go forth with their digging sticks and wooden troughs to +gather small animals. They take no thought of what they shall eat, the +problem being to have anything to eat. When the men hunt the small +kangaroo, the women surround the game and drive it toward the ambush. +Every edible thing is known and is used for food. The women are the +gleaners also, gathering large quantities of seeds, throwing them from +one trough to another so that the wind may blow away the chaff, grinding +them on one stone with another, and cooking in hot ashes the dough made +from the meal. The cooking of flesh food is done by men, as that +prepared by females may not be eaten by them; the women attend to the +vegetable diet. In many places, females over a certain age take their +meals apart; this rule, however, is not uniform. + +Should the Australian woman allow her child to live past the earliest +stages of infancy, she is usually a devoted mother. She often bears her +child about on her shoulders as she attends upon her tasks, even after +the child has become five or six years old. And should the little one +die, she will continue to bear the dear body with her, apparently not +noting the decomposition, which soon sets in. Mothers have been known to +carry the body of a dead child for weeks. + +From earliest childhood, girls as well as boys are trained to note the +tracks of every living thing. For amusement, skilful women imitate, in +the sand, the tracks of animals; and they know one another's footsteps. +Spencer and Gillan say that every woman has her _pitchi_, or "wooden +trough," from one to three feet long, in which she carries everything, +even the baby, for she is both pack and passenger beast; when she is +hunting, it will very often be used as a scoop-shovel to clear out +earth. Her only other implement is her digging stick, the primitive +pick-plow excavator. It is a straight staff, pointed at the end. When at +work requiring its use, the owner loosens the earth with the digging +stick, held in the right hand, while her left hand plays the part of +shovel. Acre after acre of the soil wherein lives the honey ant is dug +over for this toothsome mite. Little girls go out with their mothers; +and while the latter are digging up vermin and insects, the toddlers, +with little picks, will be taking their first lesson in what will be +their chief lifework. + +Among savages, the textile art--woman's peculiar industry--is little +encouraged. The spindle used in Australia before the discovery of the +island-continent in 1606, and which is still in use among the wild +tribes, is the most primitive conceivable, for it is merely a little +switch with a hooked end. The women make string for tying, as well as +for bags and network, out of human, opossum, and kangaroo hair, from +sinew, like the Eskimo, and from vegetable fibre. They sit upon the +ground, use the left hand for a distaff, and with the right hand roll +the spindle dexterously on the naked thigh. When a foot or so of string +is finished, it is rolled about the hook of the spindle for a bobbin. +When two of these are completed, a stick is driven into the ground, and +a rude rope or twine walk is set up. The women know the dyes in many +plants and use them. With the strings they make basketry, nets, bags, +plaiting, and many ornamental forms of simple lacework and borders. +Indeed, the Australian aborigines are at the bottom of the textile +ladder, where human fingers perform all spinning, netting, and weaving. + +In lieu of the gaudy costumes and of the tattooed tooth patterns etched +upon the skin among other Indo-Pacific tribes, Australian women decorate +their breasts and other parts with horrid scars. They cut the skin with +flint or glass, and rub ashes or down into the open wounds in order that +the cicatrices may be large and prominent. They submit to these tortures +with the greatest satisfaction, and add more from time to time as +memorials of personal experiences or in honor of the dead. + +The Australian women are fond of games and sports. Dr. Roth, the +Northern Protector of Aborigines in Queensland, says that with a fair +length of twine adult women will amuse themselves for hours at a time. +The twine is used in the form of an endless string, known to Europeans +as "cat's cradle" or "catch cradle." Hundreds of the most intricate and +bewildering designs are made, in the formation of which the mouth, the +knees, and the toes coöperate with the hand. Some of the figures are +extremely complicated. Dr. Roth gives the plates of the finished +patterns, which certainly are as fascinating as any work of savage +hands. + +Australian women are described as cheerful and light-hearted, but, on +occasion, they fight with their digging sticks most furiously, giving +and taking blows like men. The testimony of the best observers is to the +effect that, in most tribes, women are not treated with excessive +cruelty, which would be quickly fatal to the tribe in longevity, +fecundity, and service. Women receive their share of the resources, be +they abundant or meagre. What seems to be cruelty is only custom or, as +one would say, fashion; and in Australia, even more so than in Paris, +you had as well be out of the world as out of the fashion. + +All her life, the Australian woman is in the most abject social state; +her connection with the rites and ceremonies of her tribes is only as an +assistant or attendant. She is charged with all the industrial +occupations of food getting, and is not allowed to venture near the +sacred places on in of death. She is bound hand and foot by custom. + +No Australian woman is believed to die a natural death. All are killed +by magic--it may be a personal enemy near at hand or by a great sorcerer +far away. Their life, so remote from ours, is, however, less sensitive, +and it would be untrue to say that they are a melancholy set, living in +perpetual dread. + +When an Australian woman dies, she is at once placed in a sitting +posture, with the knees doubled up against the chin. The body thus +prepared is deposited in a round hole at once or is placed on a +platform, made of boughs, until some of the flesh disappears, after +which the bones are put into a grave. Nothing whatever is deposited with +her, and the earth is piled directly upon the body so as to form a low +mound with a depression on the side toward the camp ground. As soon as +the burial is over, her camp is burnt utterly and her group remove to +another place. Those who stood in certain kinship to her may never +mention her name again or go near her grave after the last act of +quieting the spirit has been performed. This ceremony occurs about a +year after the death of a woman, and consists of trampling on her grave. +Her mother and the nearest clan kin paint themselves with kaolin and +visit her grave, accompanied by certain of her tribal brothers. On the +way, the actual mother throws herself on the ground and is only +prevented from frightfully cutting herself by watchful attendants. At +the grave, the blood flows copiously from self-inflicted wounds upon all +the mourners. After this blood letting, charms are planted upon the +grave mound, the blood stained pipe clay, with which the half dead +mother has smeared herself, is rubbed off and the grave is smoothed +over. All this is done cheerfully, as it is the custom of the country. + +The widow (or widows) of a deceased man smears her hair, face, and +breast with white pipe clay, and remains silent during a long time, +perhaps a year, communicating by means of gesture language. She remains +in camp, performing assiduously the ceremonies for the dead; indeed, +should she venture forth on her old avocations, a younger brother of her +husband, on meeting her, might run her through with his spear. When the +time comes to have the ban of silence removed, she smears herself afresh +with kaolin, prepares a large tray full of food, and accompanied by +female friends walks to the dividing line of her camp. They are joined +by the proper kindred of the deceased, who, after an elaborate ceremony, +release her from her vows, and certify to her having done her whole +widowly duties. At the ceremony of trampling on the grave of the dead +man, in which certain women take part, and especially the widow, who +scrapes the kaolin from her body, showing that her mourning is ended. + +When a child dies, not only does the actual _mia_, or "mother," cut +herself, but all the sisters of the latter perform a like ceremony. On +the death of relatives, women gash themselves. The scars thus made have +naught to do with the decorative cicatrices across the breast, before +mentioned. They are specially proud of these self-inflicted wounds, +since they are the permanent record of their faithfulness to their dead. + +Let us turn our attention to the smallest women of the world. History, +ethnology, and classic myth have united to make the Eastern pigmies the +most interesting people in the world. Though they are a little people, +and have been hard pressed by larger and stronger races, they have +survived for centuries. They are to be found in Asia, Africa, and the +islands of the sea. Africa was doubtless their aboriginal home; but this +negrito type has spread eastward, probably in their canoes in the early +days, till the islands of the South Seas have become their home. + +The women among these little people are even smaller than the men. The +Mincopies of the Andaman Islands are among the most interesting of the +negritos. Because of their roving nature, they live in huts which are +rather temporary in character. These are put up by the women, though +when a sojourn in a given locality is to be of longer duration the men +build huts that are more permanent. The boys and girls do not sleep in +the same huts with the married people, but in huts specially constructed +for them. The women often become quite expert in the manufacture of +pottery by hand, the vessels having rounded bottoms, and being decorated +with wavy lines, or lines made by a wooden style. + +Both boys and girls in the first few years of life are left entirely +nude. At about six years the little girl has placed upon her an apron of +leaves. This is her sole garment. Later in life, the womanly instinct +for ornament shows itself however, so that necklaces and girdles are +added. There is a certain kind of girdle, made from the pandanus leaves, +which is the peculiar possession of the married women. The women, as +well as the men, tattoo their entire bodies. This art of tattooing is +practised almost entirely by the women. They use a piece of quartz or +glass, making horizontal and vertical incisions in alternating series. +There was probably some religious significance originally in this +practice, since the men begin the process by making incisions with an +arrow used in hunting the wild pig, and while the wounds are still fresh +the man must refrain from using the flesh of this animal. The bodies of +the women are usually quite shapely, though their faces are not +beautiful. With the women as well as the men, the body is of nearly +uniform width, there being scarcely any enlargement at the hips. Since +the race is comparatively pure, marrying among themselves, the type is +very uniform; and since, as Quatrefages says, the occupations of men and +women vary little, the difference in the development of female as +contrasted with masculine characteristics is exceedingly small. + +The young girl enjoys equal freedom with her brother, but preserves her +modesty with commendable strictness. An official, "the guardian of +youth," scrutinizes the conduct of the young people with much care and +attempts to see that wrongs against modesty and chastity are, as far as +possible, righted. The marriage relation is well guarded; bigamy and +polygamy are rigidly prohibited; and betrothals, which are often made +for the little ones at a very tender age, are held as inviolate, a +betrothal being regarded as quite as binding as actual marriage. The +young couple to be married never take the initiative for themselves, +this duty falls to the "guardian of youth," whose watchful eye is +expected to discern the eternal fitness of things in this important +field of human interest. + +The marriage contract is a purely civil one, being celebrated at the +hut of the chieftain of the tribe. The bride remains seated. By her side +is one or more women; the groom stands surrounded by the young men. The +chief approaches him and leads him to the young girl, whose legs are +held by several women. After some pretended resistance on the part of +both, the groom sits down on the knees of his bride. The torches are +lighted so that all present can attest that the ceremony has been +regularly carried out. Finally the chief declares the young people duly +married, and they retire to a hut prepared in advance. Then they are +said to spend several days silently, without so much as looking at each +other, during which period they receive from friends presents of a very +practical nature, such as provisions and equipments for housekeeping. +After this silent but profitable function is over, a wedding dance is +given in which the whole community joins, except the two who are most +concerned in the festivities. + +"It is incorrect to say that among the Andamese marriage is nothing more +than taking a female slave, for one of the striking features of their +social relation is the marked equality and affection which subsists +between husband and wife. Careful observations extended over many years +prove that not only is the husband's authority more or less nominal, but +that it is not at all an uncommon occurrence for Andamese Benedicts to +be considerably at the beck and call of their better halves." + +A writer upon the Andamese islanders has this significant utterance +concerning woman's moral influence even among these uncivilized peoples: +"Experience has taught us that one of the most effective means of +inspiring confidence when endeavoring to make acquaintance with these +savages is to show that we are accompanied by women, for they at once +infer that, whatever may be our intentions, they are at least not +hostile." + +As a rule, marriage life among these Andamese islanders is said to be +very happy. The women are constant and faithful; the husbands also +exercise marked fidelity. The spirit of equality and reciprocity +prevails to an exceptional degree when compared with many other +uncivilized peoples, and indeed with many civilized people. + +Even before the mother gives birth to the child, the little one +receives a name with a qualitative, according to sex. This it bears for +two or three years. It is then replaced by another qualitative which the +boy bears till his initiation into the rites of manhood, and the girl +till the appearance of signs of puberty. This name corresponds to some +tree or flower. When the girl marries she drops her "flower name." + +Mothers, too, have great fondness for their children, nursing them as +long as there is milk for them, and it is not uncommon for three +children to feed at the same maternal breast. A peculiar custom +prevails, however, by which most of the children are by the fifth or +sixth year taken from their parents, and become parts of another +household. This custom of adoption is a method by which friends express +and cement their friendships for one another. As Quatrefages says: +"Every married man received into a family regards as an expression of +gratitude and proof of friendship, the privilege of adopting one of the +children of the family." The parents rarely see children that have been +adopted. They may pay them visits, but they never take them back +permanently to their homes, and temporarily only by permission. The +foster-father may, strangely enough, pass his adopted child on to some +friend of his, as freely as he might one of his own. + +The modesty of the scantily clothed women is noteworthy. Man, who has +written so minutely upon the Andamese, says that when a woman has +occasion to remove one of her girdles in order to make it a present to a +friend, she does so with a shyness that amounts almost to prudery; and +she never changes her apron before a companion, but retires to some +secret place. Even within the same family circle, the bearing of the +sexes toward each other is modest and delicate. The man will observe the +greatest care in his attitude toward the wife of a cousin or of a +younger brother, only addressing her through a third person. The wife of +an elder brother receives the respect accorded to a mother. + +The negritos of Luzon in the Philippines are also found to be very +correct in their ideas upon the relations of the sexes. Adultery is very +rare, and is punished, as are theft and murder, by death. The manners of +the young girls are very correct, for any suspicion of their chastity +might prevent their marriage, for the young men are particular that +their wives should be without stain or even an imputation of it. When a +young man is ready to marry and has found the girl of his choice, he +lets her parents know of his heart's wish. They are said never to +refuse. They do not turn her formally or informally over to her suitor, +however, but they send her out into the forest, where, early in the +morning, before even the sun has risen, she conceals herself. It is the +young man's business to find this pearl of great price, or else he +cannot claim to be worthy of her and must forever relinquish all right +in her. This, it will be readily seen, is but another way of leaving the +whole matter in the hands of the girl, who may not seek the thickest +jungles for a hiding place. The day for the marriage has come. The +lovers climb two young trees which are adjacent one to the other and may +be easily bent together. An aged man comes, and presses the boughs of +the trees toward each other till the heads of the young couple touch. +They are then husband and wife. Feasting and dancing follow, and then +the pair settle down to life's realities in earnest. The husband gives +his father-in-law a present, a custom surviving from a day when wives +were purchased; and the father presents his daughter with a present as +dowry, which becomes her own personal property. The Aëta has but one +wife. If he should die after his children are grown, the family home is +continued; should the children be yet very young, the mother usually +takes them and returns to the home of her own people. + +Among some of the negrito tribes there has been found an incipient +literature. The following are words of a love song which Montano found +among the Aëtas. It has thus been translated: + + "I leave, oh, my loved one, + Be very prudent, thou loved one. + Ah! I go very far, my loved one, + While thou remainest in dwelling thine, + Never the village will be forgotten by me." + +In contrast with these pigmies of probably African origin, there may +come to our minds the ancient tradition of African Amazons. For the +poetical allusions among the Greek authors to such a community of female +warriors there was doubtless some basis in fact, and this even when all +due allowance is made for the imaginative element in the tale. According +to the tradition, these African Amazons, an army of powerful women, +under the leadership of their Queen Myrina, marched against the Gorgons +and Atlantes and subdued them, and at last marched through Egypt and +Arabia and founded their capital on Lake Tritonis, where they were +finally annihilated by Hercules. The truth in these Amazon stories lies +doubtless in the fact that it is not an unknown custom for African +women, strong of body and brave of spirit, to enlist as soldiers in +companies or armies, commanded by officers of their own sex, and to +become very powerful in regulating the life of some communities. + +Among the Dahomeys, women captives are often enrolled in the king's +army of "amazons." These are said to have a perfect passion for +fighting. They are bound to perpetual celibacy and chastity, under the +penalty of death. They are described as famous in battle, but their +chief utility is to prevent rebellion among the male soldiers. They have +separate organizations and are commanded by officers of their own sex, +and are most loyal to their king. + +The world has long known of the Hottentots of South Africa. Their women +are taller and larger than those of the neighboring Bushmen, who are the +South African pigmies. Among these Hottentots woman often occupies a +place of considerable power; this is notably in the home, where she +reigns supreme. The husband may lord it over her outside of the house, +and often does, making almost a slave of his spouse; but when he enters +the house, he abdicates his authority. Without her permission, the +husband cannot take a bit of meat or a drop of milk. If he attempts to +infringe the law, the neighbors take up his case; he is amerced, often +to the extent of several sheep or cows, and these become the absolute +property of the wife. Should the chief of a tribe die, his wife takes +his place and authority and becomes "queen of the tribe," unless her son +is of age. And it is said that some of these women chieftains have left +for themselves names of honor in the traditions of their people. + +It is a custom among the Hottentots to call their children by the names +of their parents, but by a sort of exchange, the girls assuming that of +their father, the boys that of the mother--a syllabic suffix indicating +the sex. To the oldest daughter are accorded especial authority and +honor; for it is she who milks the cows and, in a way, has them under +her control. Requests for milk must be made to her, reminding us of the +Aryan _wood-daughter_, who was once the milkmaid. + +No extraordinary claims can be made for the beauty of the Hottentot +women. They have the knotty hair that characterizes the negro races, and +the flat noses, thick lips, and prominent cheekbones. While their faces +have no especial beauty, their figures, when maidens, are regular, plump +and attractive; but after the first years of womanhood are past, the +roundness of youth yields to the wrinkles of age, and all attractiveness +disappears, the woman either becoming withered and haggard, or +manifesting that peculiar development said to be so much admired among +the Hottentots, known to science as steatopyga. The famous "Hottentot +Venus" furnishes an example of this type of _beauty_. The back is given +a most remarkable contour by the enormous growth of fat about the hips, +which, though hard and firm, shakes like jelly when our Venus walks. +This extraordinary development has to the Hottentot lady not only an +æsthetic but also a utilitarian value, in case she cares to support her +infant upon it. + +The less cultured a people, the greater the place given by it to +ornament. Among many uncivilized peoples the men as well as the women +exhibit a fondness for decoration; but ornamentation is preëminently the +weakness of women. Although the savage lady regards clothing as +altogether an unnecessary burden, she must have her ornaments. One of +the methods of ornamentation is that of tattooing the body. Among some +tribes almost the whole body is covered with more or less artistic +designs, while others mark only parts of the body, as by rings around +the arms, or, as among the aboriginal New Zealand women, by puncture of +the lips. The use of shells, metal rings, bands, beads, feathers, mats, +and so on _ad infinitum_, is one of the marks of savagery. + +A traveller has given the following description of a Kaffir's marriage +ceremony witnessed by him. The occasion was the marriage of a Kaffir +chief to his fourteenth wife, "a fat good-natured girl--obesity is at a +premium among African tribes--wrapped round and round with black glazed +calico, and decked from head to foot with flowers, beads, and feathers. +Once within the kraal, the ladies formed two lines, with the bride in +the centre, and struck up a lively air; whereupon the whole body of +armed Kaffirs rushed from all parts of the kraal, beating their shields +and uttering demonic yells, as they charged headlong at the smiling +girls, who joined with the stalwart warriors in cutting capers, and +singing lustily, until the whole kraal was one confused mass of demons, +roaring out hoarse war songs and shrill love ditties. After an hour +dancing ceased and _joila_ (Kaffir beer) was served around, while the +lovely bride stood in the midst of the ring alone, stared at by all and +staring in turn at all, until she brought her eyes to bear upon her +admiring lord. When advancing leisurely, she danced before him amid the +shouts of the bystanders, singing at the top of her voice and +brandishing a huge _carving-knife_, with which she scraped big drops of +perspiration from her heated head, produced by the violent exercise she +was performing." + +Among African tribes, generally, the value of a woman is rated in terms +of the cow. While in India the cow is more sacred than the woman, in +Africa, a woman sometimes brings several cows in a trade. When a man +wishes a wife there is usually little trouble in obtaining her, either +by purchase, theft, or in some rather more sentimental manner. Among +some tribes female go-betweens are made use of, while genuine courtship +prevails among other tribes. The courtship, however, is seldom of long +duration. + +The matter of marriage is more completely guarded among the tribes of +Africa and the Indo-Pacific than we might expect of the people of their +grade of culture. While tribes vary much in marriage customs, purity of +life is, as a rule, rigidly expected of married women, and most women +marry at an early age. Lewdness, however, is not generally regarded as +so great a crime as marital infidelity, which is often punished with +death. Betrothals are looked upon as much more sacred and binding than +they are among more cultivated peoples. + +In Tahiti, so careful have been the natives in this matter of betrothal, +that the betrothed young lady was compelled to live upon a platform of +considerable elevation, built in her father's house. The parents or some +members of the family attended to her wants here, night and day, and she +never left her high abode without permission of her parents and +accompanied by them. + +In the Yomba country courtship is carried on usually through female +rather than male relatives, and either sex may make the first advances +toward a minor. Among all uncivilized peoples, as indeed among many that +are advanced in civilization, the early marriage is one of the most +important elements in the backward condition of the people, if not +indeed the most serious cause of deterioration. Women are forced into +the arduous duties of motherhood at an age when they are neither +physically nor in any other sense prepared for such an obligation. +Children born of immature mothers can scarcely expect to be robust +either in body or mind. + +The Kroomen, one of the native tribes of Liberia, hold marriage to be +the highest ambition of life. They will marry as many wives as they can +pay for, often leaving their homes in search of means whereby they may +accumulate wealth enough to buy another wife. Enjoying for a few months +the new relation, the ambitious husband goes off to seek again his +fortune, returns, buys another companion, the marriage is again +celebrated, and so the number of women who perform the drudgeries of +life increases. At about middle life, usually, the Krooman has +accumulated a sufficient fortune in the form of wives to enable him to +retire from active labor. He now settles down to live upon the labor of +his wives, who willingly support him. He is now known as a "big man," +and enjoys not only the ease, but also the reputation and honor of one +who has come into possession of a well-earned retirement. Another +characteristic which marks woman's career among the lower races is the +fact of her early and rapid physical deterioration after marriage. This +is true not only of the women of Polynesia, but of the African tribes, +with which they have much in common. At the age when European and +American women are at the prime of their vigor and physical beauty, +these women have not only seen their best days, but are broken, +unsightly, and withered. + +This deterioration is chiefly due to two causes; one is the uniform +early marriages among these races, and the other is the hard life which +is early thrust upon the woman. For she not only becomes the +childbearer, but the beast of burden, the farmer, too, it may be, and +the mechanic and the "general utility man." + +It is true, especially where polygamy prevails, that there is a division +of labor, but the labor is divided among the women; the men do only the +lighter work. The several wives of the household take their servitude as +a matter of course, and usually, especially in Kaffir land, they are so +brought up that they regard a husband as degraded and effeminate if he +takes any part in the ordinary labors of domestic life. The women are, +generally, quite reconciled also to the polygamous relation, because a +husband is regarded as possessing dignity and respectability in +proportion as he is much or little married. + +The less developed a race is, the less specialized is woman's sphere. +Among the barbarous and savage peoples woman is the "maid of all work." +She is weaver, potter, basketmaker, cook, agriculturist, water bearer, +beast of burden, everything. Men hunt and fish, eat and sleep. In +general, it may be said, that among the barbarous races there is a +greater relative disparity between the size and attractiveness of men +and women. This is doubtless to be accounted for by the fact that very +early the female is set to hard tasks of menial service and her body is +accordingly abused and stunted. + +While the physical and social status of woman is one of acknowledged +inferiority, there are not wanting among the African tribes instances in +which woman exerts no small influence and exhibits no little power. This +we have noted in mentioning the tribes dominated by warlike women. It is +more particularly true of her influence within the precints of her +domestic life, as was seen in the case of the pigmy women of the +Andamese Islands. Mothers, and more especially mothers-in-law, exert +noteworthy power, but this is always by virtue of station rather than of +any inherent respect due to the sex itself. There are isolated examples +of a more active power exerted by woman. + +As a rule, women of the inferior races have no part in the government of +their tribes. There are some exceptions, however. In the Sandwich +Islands, as is well-known, the hereditary right of rule might fall to a +woman as well as to a man, and there have been, in these islands, a +number of queens. Our own country took some part, as will be readily +remembered, in deposing the last of them from her throne. + +Every student of what has come to be called "woman's sphere," +especially among the uncultivated races, must be led to the conclusion +that the condition of the female sex, the sphere of her activity and +influence in any race, is one of the very best indexes of the +civilization of that people. The view of Havelock Ellis, in his _Man and +Woman_, is that it is the latter who is leading in the evolution of the +race, in the sense not only that the traits that more distinctively +belong to her are those that characterize the advance of society, but +that she registers more accurately the advances. "What is civilization?" +asked Emerson; and answers, "The power of good women." + +Among the deplorable traits of women of uncivilized races is that of +infanticide. Among some of the Pacific islanders and in some parts of +Africa, the regular and systematic sacrifice of children is among the +most remarkable and cruel features of the social life of the people. +This is more particularly true of female infants. + +War plays a very large part in the life of uncivilized races, and the +presence of women is a source of weakness rather than strength, since +usually they are not bearers of arms, and are among the most envied +prizes for which war is waged. + +Ellis, in his _Polynesian Researches_, draws this gloomy picture of +unnatural motherhood among peoples of the Pacific islands: "In Tahiti, +human victims were frequently immolated. Yet the amount of all these and +other murders did not equal that of infanticide alone. No sense of +irresolution or horror appeared to exist in the bosoms of those parents, +who deliberately resolved on the deed before the child was born. They +often visited the dwellings of the foreigners, and spoke with perfect +complacency of their cruel purpose. On these occasions the missionaries +employed every inducement to dissuade them from executing their +intention, warning them in the name of the living God, urging them by +every consideration of maternal tenderness, and always offering to +provide the little stranger with a home, and the means of education. The +only answer they generally received was, that it was the custom of the +country; and the only result of their efforts was the distressing +conviction of the inefficacy of their humane endeavors. The murderous +parents often came to their houses almost before their hands were +cleansed from their children's blood, and spoke of the deed with worse +than brutal insensibility, or with vaunting satisfaction at the triumph +of their customs over the persuasions of their teachers." It is thought +that not less than two-thirds of all the children born were murdered by +their own parents. + +"The first three infants," says Ellis, "were frequently killed; and in +the event of twins being born, both were rarely permitted to live. In +the largest families, more than two or three children were seldom +spared, while the numbers that were killed were incredible. The very +circumstance of their destroying, instead of nursing, their offspring +rendered their offspring more numerous than it would otherwise have +been. We have been acquainted with a number of parents, who, according +to their own confessions, or the united testimony of their friends and +neighbors, had inhumanly consigned to an untimely grave, four, or six, +or eight, or ten children, and some even a greater number." + +But changes have taken place since the writing of these lines; it seems +certain that a generation ago nearly if not quite two-thirds of the +children were slain by their mothers, and few mothers were guiltless of +the blood of their own offspring. The explanation of the prevalence of +this species of massacre is readily discernible in the following +paragraph from Ellis's _Researches_: "During the whole of their lives +the females were subject to the most abasing degradation; and their sex +was often, at their birth, the cause of their destruction. If the +purpose of the unnatural parents had not been fully matured before, the +circumstance of its being a female child was often sufficient to fix +their determination on its death. Whenever we have asked them what could +induce them to make a distinction so invidious, they have generally +answered,--that the fisheries, the service of the temple, and especially +war, were the only purposes for which they thought it desirable to rear +children; that in these pursuits women were comparatively useless; and +therefore female children were frequently not suffered to live. Facts +fully confirm these statements." + +Dense superstition, too, has sometimes played a part in this murder of +children. In Central Africa, for example, it is held with religious +scrupulosity that twin children should never be allowed to live. When +children are born with a deformity, they are despatched as a matter of +course. And yet, notwithstanding all these horrors, the instinct, even +of the most debased mothers, is toward the love and preservation of +their offspring. From the earliest days, this care for the infant, the +helpless, and the weak has been the most powerful counterpoise to +abnormal self-seeking. These two characteristics, self-giving and +self-seeking, are among the most potent factors in the development of +all the races of mankind. + +The Filipino woman has lately had for us fresh interest. Indeed, the +women of the Philippine Islands are among the most interesting in the +world. In the mountains of Luzon and in the other out-of-the-way places +are the negritos, or little negroes, of whom we have written in an +earlier portion of this chapter. These little people are shoved away +into the mountain regions, where the resources of life are as meagre as +they can be if existence is to endure. In the lower parts of the +archipelago, which are more accessible to the coast, will be found the +descendants of an old Malayo-Polynesian race; these are characterized by +their primitive industrial life. A later immigration of the same stock +brought people to the island who have developed alphabets, metallurgic +arts carried on by the men, and weaving and needlework done by the +women. Closely following these, and because there were opportunities for +commerce, came the more cultivated races of Eastern Asia, Chinese, +Japanese, Siamese, and even Hindoos, to mingle their blood with these +more primitive stocks. In the twelfth century of our era, Mohammedanized +Malays took possession of the southern part of the archipelago. These +people are called Moros, or Moors. Leaving out the negritos, who are +only a little mixed with the other races, the other peoples we have +mentioned have mingled their blood with the modern population, the +Spanish and Portuguese, who have come in since the sixteenth century. +The commingling of blood has been favorable to the modern Filipinos, and +many regard their women as worthy of being admired for their grace and +beauty. Notwithstanding their great variety of racial stocks, the women +of Manila have a certain common physiognomy, the Malay type being the +strongest element in their composite face. Features that mark the yellow +races are also quite prominent in many of the Filipino women. + +As in other races of the same grade of culture, the marriage tie is a +part of the social system. Clan relationship, by whatever name it may be +called, governs the selection of a spouse. The bond has been a very +loose one in the islands, and it has not been an uncommon thing for men +and women to break up their relationships unceremoniously and form new +ones. Among a people composed of so many elements, wide differences may +be expected in the matter of marriage. The Igorrotes, or wild +inhabitants of Luzon, though primitive in development, are monogamous. +The clan system is broken down and a young man is allowed to take the +woman of his choice with little ceremony, and they become man and wife. +Many astonishing customs are, of course, found among these people. For +example, Alfred Marche calls attention to a form of voluntary slavery. + +It is that of a young man who wants to marry. In many places, he is +bound to work for two or three years as a simple domestic in the house +of the father of his fiancée. During this time he is fed, but never +takes his place at the same table with the young girl. He is allowed to +walk with her and to sleep under the same roof, but he may not eat with +her. + +When the young man has passed this stage, he must, before the ceremony +of marriage, build a house and make certain indispensable purchases. He +must also pay all the expenses of the marriage. The affair does not +always terminate as regularly as one could wish. The father sometimes +seeks a quarrel with his future son-in-law at the moment when the +ceremony is about to take place, and admits a new aspirant for his +daughter's hand. The newcomer undertakes to work for him without any +scruples. The house, which is of little value, is all that remains to +the late fiancé as a consolation. + +De Morgan, who travelled in the Philippine Islands for the Spanish +government and published his account, in the City of Mexico, in 1609, +gives an account of the native women three hundred years ago. + +The women of Luzon are described as wearing sleeves of all colors which +they call _baros_. White cotton stuffs were wrapped or folded from the +waist downward to the feet, and over these sometimes was a thin cloak +folded gracefully. The people of the highest rank substituted silk or +fine native fabrics for the cotton, and added gold chains, bracelets, +and earrings, and rings on their fingers. Their hair, which is +exceedingly black, was tied gracefully in a knot on the back of their +head. Many of these characteristics noted by De Morgan may still be seen +among the women of the islands. The closer contact of the Philippine +Islands with the mainland and more particularly with western commerce +and civilization is destined to work many and possibly rapid changes +even in the customs and ideals of the women whose native conservatism +has held them for many centuries very much in the same groove of life +and daily routine. + +The women of Luzon have always been cleanly and elegant in their +persons, and they are attractive and graceful. Much time is spent on +their hair, which is frequently washed and anointed with the oil of +sesame prepared with musk. They spend much time on their teeth, and +formerly began at a tender age to file them into the shape demanded by +the customs of the country. They also dyed their teeth black. Like the +Moorish women, the Filipinos are fond of the bath; they frequent the +rivers and creeks and bathe throughout the entire year, the genial +climate allowing such pastime. + +As in other countries below the grade of civilization, the industrial +employments of the Philippines are largely for the women. To them is the +task of spinning and weaving the exceptionally delicate fabric of the +archipelago into the finest cloth. They also are the food purveyors, +assisting in gathering food material, pounding it in their simple mills +and serving it. In their cuisine are such vegetables as sweet potatoes, +beans, plantains, guavas, pineapples, and oranges. The women rear fowls +and domestic animals, and take upon themselves the entire care of the +family and household. + +While the women of all countries have always been the natural and most +persistent conservers of ancient ideals and racial customs, yet it may +be predicted that the throwing of the Filipino tribes into contact with +New World politics, trade, and customs will, at length, bring about +marked social changes. These must eventually give to the women of the +Filipinos a wider outlook upon life and a new power to carry its +burdens. + + + + + CONTENTS + + PREFACE + I WOMEN OF THE DAWN + II ISRAEL'S HEROIC AGE + III THE DAYS OF THE KINGS + IV THE ERA OF POLITICAL DECLINE + V THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN WOMEN + VI THE LAND OF THE LOTUS + VII THE WOMEN OF THE HINDOOS + VIII BESIDE THE PERSIAN GULF + IX THE WOMEN OF ARABIA + X THE TURKISH WOMEN + XI THE MOORISH WOMEN + XII WOMEN OF CHINA AND COREA + XIII UNDER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS--THE WOMEN OF JAPAN + XIV WOMEN OF THE BACKWARD RACES OF THE EAST + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATION + + + SUBJECT ARTIST + + Rebekah and Isaac's agent, Eliezer _A. Cabanel_ + + _Ghawazi C. L. Muller_ + + Interior court of a zenana _From an Indo-Persian painting_ + + An Oriental woman's pastime _Frederick A. Bridgman_ + + The mutes _P. L. Bouchard_ + + Woman's taste in Japan _Charles E. Fripp_ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIENTAL WOMEN*** + + +******* This file should be named 32418-8.txt or 32418-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/4/1/32418 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Oriental Women</p> +<p> Woman: In All Ages and in All Countries, Volume 4 (of 10)</p> +<p>Author: Edward Bagby Pollard</p> +<p>Release Date: May 18, 2010 [eBook #32418]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIENTAL WOMEN***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by J. P. W. Fraser, Thierry Alberto, Rénald Lévesque,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe<br> + (http://dp.rastko.net)</h3></center><br><br> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" noshade> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2><i>WOMAN</i></h2> + +<hr class="short"> + +<h5>VOLUME IV</h5> + +<h3><i>ORIENTAL WOMEN</i></h3> + +<h5>by</h5> + +<h4>EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph. D.</h4> + +<h5>OF THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY</h5> + +<br><br><br> +<a name="ill1" id="ill1"></a> + +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/001.png"><br> +<b><i>REBEKAH AND ISAAC'S AGENT, ELIEZER<br> +After the paintingby A. Cabanel</i></b> + +<blockquote> +<b><i>Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of +so universal an interest as its marriage customs, and there is no +courtship, either ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the +imagination and awakened the interest of men than that between Isaac and +Rebekah..... It is a truly picturesque and even romantic story, which +never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether at the well or in her +household, will always present a unique picture of womanly grace and +beauty.<br><br> + +The ancient wooing of Rebekah is Isaac, though it is by no means +typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental +weddings..... The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of +a stranger and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all +the apparent grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most +commendable.</i></b> +</blockquote> + +<br><br> + +<h1 class="red">WOMAN</h1> + +<h4><i>In all ages and in all countries</i></h4> + +<h4><i>VOLUME IV</i></h4> + +<br><br> + +<h2><i>ORIENTAL WOMEN</i></h2> + +<h5>by</h5> + +<h3>EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph.D.</h3> + +<h5><i>Of the George Washington University</i></h5> + +<br><br> + +<h2 class="red">Illustrated</h2> + +<br><br> + +<p class="mid"><i>PHILADELPHIA<br> +GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, PUBLISHERS</i></p> +<a name="pre" id="pre"></a> +<br><br><br> + + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> + +<p>The relative position which woman occupies in any country is an index to +the civilization which that country enjoys, and this test applied to the +Orient reveals many stages yet to be achieved. The frequent appearance +of woman in Holy Writ is sufficient evidence of the high position +accorded her in the Hebrew nation. Such characters as Ruth, Esther, and +Rebekah have become famous. Wicked women there were, such as Jezebel, +but happily their influence was not of lasting duration. No other +ancient people so highly prized chastity in woman; motherhood was +regarded as an evidence of divine favor, while barrenness was considered +a curse. The home life was one of singular purity and sweetness. +Idleness was deplored as a crime, and every child was taught to work +with his own hands.</p> + +<p>The deities of the Babylonians and Assyrians were feminine as well as +masculine. Ishtar was the Venus of classical mythology--the goddess of +love, and the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a feminine deity. +Rank, however, determined social freedom; the woman of the lowest class +might go and come at will, but the woman of the high class was condemned +to a life of isolation. Woman's position of honor in Egypt is evidenced +by the presence of temples and monuments erected to her memory. She +assisted her husband in the management of his affairs, and was granted a +part in religious worship.</p> + +<p>In the countries in which Brahmanism and Mohammedanism is the prevailing +religion, the position of woman is relatively low. The Hindoo woman has +no spiritual life apart from her husband; she can only hope for ultimate +happiness through a union with him. The harem prevails, and woman is the +slave of man.</p> + +<p>In contrast to the position of woman in these countries and in China is +the position she holds in Japan. While not yet occupying a place of +respect equal to that accorded her in the Occident, she is coming +gradually to be regarded as she deserves. There yet remain the loose +morals, characteristic of the Oriental nature, and it is still regarded +as right and proper that a good wife should barter her chastity if it is +necessary in order to save her husband the disgrace of imprisonment for +debt. The higher classes, however, are coming to treat woman with a +respect far higher than that usually accorded her in the Orient. The +process of her elevation must of necessity be slow, for no great reform +is accomplished by a <i>coup d'état</i>, but only through the ameliorating +effects of enlightenment and education, and this alone will accomplish +the final emancipation of the woman of the Orient from her present +condition of servitude.<br><span class="rig"> + +E. B. POLLARD.</span></p> + +<a name="c1" id="c1"></a> +<br><br><br> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<h3>WOMEN OF THE DAWN</h3> + +<p>The story of the first woman in the Hebrew Scriptures and Semitic myth +is as familiar as a household tale. Jewish and Christian literature +alike have frequent mention of the part she played in the race's +infancy, though in the sacred writings themselves she is but rarely +mentioned.</p> + +<p>What the Book of Genesis furnishes upon the creation of the first woman +may not be considered of great interest as a scientific treatise upon +the first appearance of feminine life on the earth, but it is of marked +importance as revealing the idea around which the life and character of +the Hebrew woman were developed. Here we find a pure monotheism (the +presence of no goddess at the birth of things), a high morality, the +dignity of marriage and of motherhood, that give to the Hebrew women +great advantage over their sisters of many another country.</p> + +<p>Very early was it discovered, say the Hebrew records, that it is "not +good for man to be alone." The method by which this fact was first made +manifest is of no little suggestiveness. Would it be possible from the +many creatures of earth, sky, and sea, already made, for man to find a +companion in whom he might confide, with whom the long hours might be +made more joyous? God tries the man whom he has made. Could he be +satisfied with a creature of a lower order as fellow and friend? Could +he, by subduing and having dominion, find in dog, camel, or favorite +steed a sufficient helpfulness, a satisfaction for his human longings? +No! As one by one the living creatures passed in solemn order before +him, it was soon realized by the names that Adam gave them, that he +found no true fellowship in all that earth-born throng. "And the man +gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast +of the field, but for man there was not found an helpmeet for him."</p> + +<p>The epoch-making "deep sleep" that fell upon Adam, the taking of the +rib, the making of the first woman, the closing again of the wound, and +the presentation of a helpmeet for the man--all this is a familiar +Scripture story. Whether it be intended to be literal history is of +little moment here. Very beautifully have Matthew Henry and others, +following the rabbis, commented upon the essential meaning of this +narrative in suggesting that woman is not represented as taken from the +head of man that she should rule over him; nor from his feet, to be +trampled under foot; but she was taken from his side that she might be +his equal; from under his arm that she might be protected by him; near +his heart that he might cherish and love her. "This is now bone of my +bone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called <i>Ishshah</i>"--that is, if +man is to be called <i>Ish</i>, woman shall be <i>Ishshah</i>, simply his equal.</p> + +<p>It is not strange that there should have arisen many legends about this +first Oriental woman. According to one of the Jewish stories contained +in the Talmud, Adam was at first very huge. When he stood, his head +reached to the very heavens; and when he reclined, he covered the earth +with his gigantic form. But in a deep sleep which God caused to fall +upon him, Eve was made from parts of all his members. After the creation +of Eve, therefore, Adam was never again quite so large. Some of the +Jewish rabbis taught that Adam, the first man, had in his body thirteen +ribs,--one more than was possessed by any of his descendants,--and that +this surplus bone became, in the hands of the Creator, the physical +basis for the creation of the mother of all.</p> + +<p>The thought has been suggested that as man was commissioned to subdue +and have dominion over the beasts of the field and all the forces of +Nature, the reason for woman's creation lies in her ability to <i>tame +man</i>. Whether this be true or not, the student of Hebrew history will +not lack ample evidence to show that to the women of Israel is due +largely the place that their people hold in history as teachers of +religion and morals; to them is due, also, that conservative quality +which has made the Hebrews a peculiar and permanent people.</p> + +<p>One of the old rabbis, commenting upon the Biblical account of woman's +creation from the rib of Adam, remarked: "It is as if Adam had changed a +pot of earth for a jewel." Good Dr. South, of pious memory, unaffected +by the modern views of development, is credited with the remark that +"Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam." If this be true, what must +Eve have been!</p> + +<p>About the beauty of the first woman, the Scriptures are silent, though, +in <i>Paradise Lost</i>, Milton finds no hesitancy in creating her with +surpassing physical grace, so that it was possible for her, like +Narcissus, to fall in love with her own charms. Poets have not been slow +to sing her praises:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "The world was sad, the garden was a wild</p> +<p class="i14"> And man the hermit sighed, till woman smiled."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The Hebrews called the first woman Eve--that is, <i>living</i> or +<i>expanded</i>, "the mother of all living." But these Oriental records +attribute to Eve the advent into the world of death and human woes. The +discord that came from the apple once tossed into a famous company of +frolicking Greeks cannot compare with that which grew out of the fatal +fruit, forbidden to the primal tenants of the Garden of Eden.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Earth felt the wound--And Nature from her seat</p> +<p class="i14"> Sighing through all her works, gave sign of woe,</p> +<p class="i14"> That all was lost."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The French saying <i>cherchez la femme</i> has been in some form upon the +lips of men from the earliest dawn of time. "The woman which thou gavest +me," is Adam's lame apology for his weakness, as in one brief sentence +he shifts the blame with dexterity upon God--the giver,--and woman--the +God-given.</p> + +<p>In marked contrast with this dark view of the first woman's legacy to +the world is the account of the first promise, the light that burst +forth suddenly as through a rift in the overshadowing cloud: "The seed +of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Thus Lamartine's remark +that "woman is at the beginning of all great things," becomes as +pertinent as it is true. It is impossible to estimate the effect upon +Israelitish motherhood of the belief in that ancient promise that some +mother's son should yet arise to crush the monster of evil that was +loosed in the world. Many a Hebrew mother came to feel that her own babe +might become the hero chosen to strangle the serpent. This thought made +motherhood the more prized, it became the aim of every Hebrew woman.</p> + +<p>What if we could reproduce the sensations of that mother-love when the +first woman enfolded in her bosom the first infant born, and heard its +first cry for a mother's care? Of much interest is the Hebrew narrative +here; for when Eve beheld her firstborn son she is said to have made an +exclamation which many Hebrew scholars interpret as meaning, "I have +obtained the promised One," believing that the pledge of Jehovah +concerning the woman's seed had even then been realized. But the first +son was to bring pangs to his mother's soul by slaying the first +brother. Who can adequately describe the effect which that first death +must have had upon the maternal heart? Instead of the lost Abel came a +new son to console the mother-heart, Seth, the good; and the struggle +between good and evil goes on throughout the Hebrew records, woman +usually taking her place with the forces that made for righteousness.</p> + +<p>Concerning the first bad woman, Lilith, held by some to have been the +wife of the first man, very curious are the legends. Later rabbinic +literature is rife with these stories. Among the Babylonians and +Assyrians, Lilith was a <i>night-fairy</i>, as the derivation of the name +would indicate, though some derive it from <i>lilu</i>, the wind. Popular +superstition among the Hebrews, either through inheritance from the +early days before Abraham, their father, lived in the Mesopotamian +valley, or through the contacts with this region during the Babylonian +exile, looked upon Lilith as a female demon of the night. She was +supposed to be especially hostile to children, and this is why the Latin +translations of the Vulgate version of the Scriptures rendered the word +as <i>lamia</i>, a hag or witch who was supposed to be harmful to the little +folk--though grown up people, also, might well beware of her baneful +power. She is mentioned but once in Scriptures, and then in that highly +graphic portrayal by the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming desolation +that should soon befall the land of Edom, which was to become a place +where "the wild beasts of the deserts meet with the wolves, and the +satyr cries to his fellows, and <i>Lilith</i> (rendered in the accepted +version, <i>Screech Owl</i>, and in the later version, <i>Night Monster</i>) takes +up her abode."</p> + +<p>It is Lilith's earlier history that is of especial interest, for, as +runs the Jewish legend which one often meets in Talmudic literature, +Lilith was the first wife of Adam, but becoming angered, she flew away +and became a demon of the night. But the world will probably never +concede that the first woman was a wicked one. The subtlety of an evil +woman's charms is probably the underlying motive of the story of this +"sweet snake of Eden," of whom Rossetti, in his <i>Eden Bower</i>, affirms +consolingly, "not a drop of her blood was human."</p> + +<p>"Who was Cain's wife?" is one of the perplexing questions asked by those +who delight in hard sayings. The late Professor Winchell believed in a +race of pre-Adamites, and many persons are committed to the theory of +several centres of human origin. To those holding such views the +question of Cain's marriage does not present particular difficulties. +But those who hold to the theory that there was but one pair from whom +all the family of mankind has sprung find difficulty in reconciling +their theory with Biblical statements, and they are driven to +acknowledging the necessity for marital relations between near kindred +when the race was in its beginning--relations which would offend the +best moral sentiment of to-day.</p> + +<p>There is a curious passage in the Book of Genesis which tells of the +marriage of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men." Have we here +the echo of that ancient tradition that once the gods and men +intermarried and from the union the great heroes of the past were born? +The close position of this statement concerning the "sons of God" and +the "daughters of men" with the account of the great growth of evil in +the world has led some to hold that these "daughters of men" were women +from the unrighteous line of the murderous Cain, while the "sons of God" +were men from the more upright family of Seth. Others, however, seeing +also in close connection the statement that giants were on the earth in +those days, find here a remnant of a very general tradition that from +the gods had descended great heroes and giants who in past ages had +fallen in love with daughters of human parentage. Since the Hebrews, +however, were so strong in their monotheistic conceptions, this latter +theory loses a great part of its force.</p> + +<p>The state of society presented in the earliest Hebrew records indicates +that the practice of polygamy was general. There are some who see +indications among the Hebrew customs that there was a period, earlier +than that of which any Hebrew records tell, in which polyandry and not +polygamy was the fashion--when one woman had several husbands, rather +than one husband several wives. The so-called Levirate marriage which +was in vogue among the Hebrews is perhaps the strongest evidence that +the customs of polyandry and mother-right were practised among them.</p> + +<p>In common, then, with other peoples, the Hebrews practised polygamy; and +while the influence of the best thought and teaching was, except in the +earlier, patriarchal period, distinctly against it, the practice was +still customary even down to the Christian era. The law of Moses, while +not forbidding plurality of wives, discouraged the custom, and +especially forbade the king from "multiplying wives."</p> + +<p>The earliest example of polygamy of which the Hebrew records speak is +that involving one of the most unique and interesting families of this +early twilight of human existence. One Lamech, a descendant of Cain, is +said to have married two wives, who bore the rather musical names of +Adah and Zillah. And here we are introduced into the presence of a most +remarkable household. For not only is Lamech to be awarded the +distinction of having made the earliest attempt at verse which the +Hebrew tradition has recorded, but Adah and Zillah became the mothers of +a most talented family; the former of Jabel, "the father of such as +dwell in tents and have cattle," and of Jubal, the inventor and patron +saint of the harp and the pipe; while Zillah was the mother of +Tubal-Cain, the first forger of implements of brass and iron. Lamech, +the father, having doubtless received a sword from the forge of his son, +used it in revenge upon an enemy, and gave utterance to the first +recorded lines of poetry, which are possibly a fragment from what has +been called <i>The Lay of the Sword</i>. It is a crude poem, dedicated by +Lamech to his wives--for it was not uncommon among the early Semites to +call the women to witness a hero's deeds of prowess:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice,</p> +<p class="i14"> Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech,</p> +<p class="i14"> For I have slain a man for wounding me,</p> +<p class="i14"> Even a young man for bruising me.</p> +<p class="i14"> If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,</p> +<p class="i14"> Truly Lamech, seventy and seven."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>It is not to be wondered at that in the very midst of dry genealogical +tables the writer of Genesis should have stopped for a moment to tell of +this epoch-making household.</p> + +<p>Whether the women of this unique family, Adah, Zillah, and her daughter +Naamah, were equally gifted with the men of the household, we are not +told; but surely there must have been some genius in those feminine +members of the home, who were so closely connected with the beginnings, +not only of the fine arts of poetry and music, but also of the +industrial pursuits of cattle raising and of metal working.</p> + +<p>The early Hebrews were nomads. At first glance it might appear that +woman's part in such an order of society would be scant, and her life +one of comparative inactivity. But this view would lead into error, for +in the nomadic life, while the men were guarding their flocks from the +depredations of hostile bands or from the ravages of wild beasts, the +women were the home makers and the home keepers.</p> + +<p>Mason, in his <i>Woman's Share in Primitive Culture</i>, commenting upon +Herbert Spencer's division of the life history of civilization into the +period of Militancy, and the later period of Industrialism, raises the +question whether it may not after all be more in accord with the +facts--at least in the early history of the race--to speak of a <i>sex</i> of +militancy and a <i>sex</i> of industrialism. The Hebrew woman, from her place +in the tent or seated about the tent door, not only tended the fire, but +invented, developed, and carried on many a handicraft into which not +until later the men themselves entered.</p> + +<p>For centuries the story of the lives of the patriarchs has thrilled and +edified many a young heart, but what of the credit due to the +<i>matriarchs</i>? What part do we find them playing in the early life of +these Oriental peoples! The patriarch was not only father of his family +or clan, but was their king and high priest. Yet it would be a mistake +to suppose that the mother of the family was not an important factor in +that early society, as the lives of many a Hebrew woman will easily +demonstrate. The names of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Miriam, Huldah, and a +host of others will readily occur to the mind of anyone at all familiar +with the literature of the Old Testament.</p> + +<p>A fair type of the life of the wife and partner of an ancient chief +(<i>sheik</i>) of the higher order is found in that of Sarah, wife of the +first and greatest Hebrew patriarch, "Abraham, the faithful." Living the +life of nomad and shepherd, this pioneer of a new monotheism took his +spouse away from the land of her fathers in the valley of Mesopotamia. +Sarah's reverence for her husband became proverbial, and her conduct has +been taken as the type of what was best in the domestic life of +Israel--chaste behavior coupled with reverence. And Peter, known as the +Apostle to the Hebrews, writing over two thousand years after the body +of Sarah had been laid in its last home in the cave of Machpelah, gives +a glimpse of the Hebrew conception of the ideal relation between husband +and wife typified in Abraham and Sarah. While enjoining upon the women +to whom he wrote the need of a "meek and quiet spirit," a spirit not +discoverable in jewels and elaborate apparel, but in what he terms "the +hidden man of the heart," he said: "For after this manner in the old +time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being +in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, +calling him lord; whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well." Thus +did the virtues of Sarah impress themselves upon later generations. +Sarah is not to be classed among the strong-minded women. Probably she +was not virile in any true sense of the term, since in the traditions of +her people she does not seem to have made for herself a place as leader +that at all corresponds to the rank of her husband. He was to all +Hebrews "Father Abraham," the first and foremost of his race; and no Jew +could esteem his future life as giving promise of happiness unless his +head might at length rest in Abraham's bosom. There is an ancient legend +which says that Sarah, hearing of the plan of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac +on the sacred spot of Moriah, died from the shock to her maternal heart. +The father returned, bringing his only son alive with him, but Sarah had +passed away. The narrative distinctly says that Abraham "<i>came</i> to mourn +for Sarah and weep for her," as though the end had come during the +absence of her husband. The Hebrew respect for women is illustrated in +the costly burial accorded Sarah in a cave which was purchased from the +sons of Heth--a place reverenced by the people of Israel for many +centuries, because Sarah was buried there.</p> + +<p>There is but one blot upon the life of this first mother of the Hebrews. +Sarah was a faithful wife and devoted mother, but on at least one +occasion she revealed a character capable of hasty, jealous, and cruel +conduct. It is the time for the weaning of her only son--an occasion of +more than usual interest in a Hebrew home. The family feast is at its +height; Sarah discovers that her handmaid, an Egyptian woman, Hagar, +whom she herself had given to Abraham as wife, for thus we may call her, +was jesting at her expense. Quickly and hotly she demands that the +bondwoman and her son Ishmael be immediately driven from the home, to +which request Abraham reluctantly yields. Like most other women, Sarah, +though now aged, could brook no rival in her home, and her womanly +instinct at once discerned that only a step thus sharp and decisive +would prevent, in the circle of domestic life, endless friction, more +bitter than the sufferings occasioned by her cruel action.</p> + +<p>Hagar in the thirsty wilderness, laying her perishing child under a bit +of shrubbery and then departing a little distance that her mother-eyes +may not behold the end, has powerfully awakened the imagination of the +artist, as, indeed, she touched the heart of the Almighty, as the record +tells us. For although Hagar wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, +the region of "the seven wells," no water had she found--so far was she +from the life-giving draught; and yet was she so near--for lo! her eyes +now fell upon a well of water, from which she and the lad quenched their +mortal thirst. Thus was preserved him who was to become the father of +the Ishmaelites, a people whose hand was to be against every man, and +every man's hand against them. The breach that day in the tent of +Abraham, between his two wives, one bond and the other free, was to be +deep and abiding, as N. P. Willis, in describing Hagar's feelings in the +wilderness, has written:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "May slighted woman turn</p> +<p class="i14"> And, as a vine the oak hath shaken off,</p> +<p class="i14"> Bend lightly to her leaning trust again?</p> +<p class="i14"> O, no!"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>And an apostle versed in rabbinic lore uses the story of Sarah as +typical of the abiding difference between the principles of law and the +precepts of grace.</p> + +<p>Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of so universal an +interest as its marriage customs, and there is no courtship, either +ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the imagination and awakened +the interest of men than that between Isaac and Rebekah. The English +prayerbook, in its ceremony of marriage, has chosen Isaac and Rebekah as +the ideal pair to whose fidelity the young couples of the later years +are directed for inspiration and example. It is a truly picturesque and +even romantic story, which never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether +at the well or in her household, will always present a unique picture of +womanly grace and beauty.</p> + +<p>This ancient wooing of Rebekah by Isaac, though it is by no means +typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental +weddings. The prominence of the parents in the negotiations is +characteristic. It cannot be said, however, that the choice of either +Isaac or Rebekah was constrained.</p> + +<p>When Isaac and his parents have reached the conclusion to which Richter +has given voice--"No man can live piously or die righteously without a +wife"--the faithful Eliezer is made to thrust his hand under the thigh +of his master and swear that he will see that Isaac is wedded not to a +daughter of the people around, but to a woman of his own kindred living +in the regions of Aramea. This habit of marrying within one's own tribe +became firmly fixed in Hebrew custom. The use of marriage presents, here +so rich and costly, is almost as old as marriage itself; and how much +Rebekah and Laban, her brother, were influenced by this manifestation of +the riches of her wooer none can ever know. The part taken by Laban in +this marital transaction is by no means unusual. Brothers in the East +often played an important rôle on such occasions. When Shechem, the +Hivite, wished to marry Dinah, daughter of Jacob, he consulted not only +her father, but her brothers as well; and the brothers of the heroine of +the <i>Song of Songs</i> are represented as saying: "What shall we do for our +sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?"</p> + +<p>The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of a stranger +and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all the apparent +grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most commendable. We +may say with Dickens: "When a young lady is as mild as she is game and +as game as she is mild, that's all I ask and more than I expect." But it +turned out to be but one of the many cases, since the world began, of +"love at first sight"; and affection strengthened with the years! The +frequent and cynical remark that marriage is after all but a lottery +will probably long survive. Isaac did not act upon the sentiment +expressed in the remark of Francesco Sforza: "Should one desire to take +unto himself a wife, to buy a horse, or to invest in a melon, the wise +man will recommend himself to Providence and draw his bonnet over his +eyes." The daughters of Heth and of Canaan around him were not to his +liking, and Providence seems greatly to have helped him in the +emergency, for in the unseen Rebekah (whose very name means "to tie" or +"to bind") Isaac found a lifelong blessing; and probably nothing could +better disclose the wisdom of his matrimonial choice than the words of +the Bible narrative, "and he loved her, and Isaac <i>was comforted</i> after +his mother's death."</p> + +<p>There is one blot upon Rebekah's record as a wife and mother, which, +however, no less reveals a fault in Isaac's character as a father. It is +a defect that was doubtless inherent in the ancient Oriental system +itself. It was more usual than otherwise for mothers as well as for +fathers to have <i>favorite</i> children. When both parents centred their +affection upon the same child, usually a boy, it was ill for the rest; +when mother and father were divided, it was ill for family felicity. +Rebekah loved Jacob, the younger; Isaac loved Esau, the elder. And it is +in this unfortunate distribution of parental affection that is to be +found the beginning of a violent fratricidal feud, a long separation, as +well as the causes which led to the bringing within the confines of +Hebrew history two of the most important women of ancient Israel,--Leah +and Rachel. Here again we find illustrated the fixed habit among the +Hebrews to seek wives among their own people.</p> + +<p>Among the Hebrews it was the custom that one who would acquire a wife +must pay for her, either in money or in service. Usually, the young +girl's consent was not thought to be a necessary part of the matrimonial +bargain, and a father delivered a daughter to the purchasing suitor, as +he might a slave that he had sold to the highest bidder. The woman +herself played but a secondary part. It is thus quite plain that in this +early day, marriage did not depend upon a contract entered into between +one man and one woman, but between two or more men. And yet, in ancient +Israel, while daughters were sold for wives,--or, to put it less +harshly, given away for a consideration,--there is no intimation that a +wife was in any sense regarded as a slave; nor are there instances of a +husband selling his wife for a consideration. Parents were usually the +parties to matrimonial bargains. In the case of Jacob and Rachel, +however, we do not find the parents making the match, for the parents of +the pair are widely separated. Jacob falls in love with Rachel at his +first sight of her, as she, at close of day, leads the flock of Laban, +her father, to drink from the open well hard by the dwelling. Laban +readily agrees to surrender his daughter to Jacob,--who doubtless had no +purchase money to procure a wife,--if the young man will serve him for +seven years. But at the close of the stipulated period, the wily Laban +falls back upon an unwritten law among the people of the day, that the +daughters must be taken in marriage in the order of their seniority. +Thus Leah, the elder sister, is accorded to Jacob, and seven years' +additional service is necessary for the possession of Rachel. +Persistence wins, and Jacob is at length in possession of both Laban's +daughters, but the victory was the beginning of a life of struggle. Some +one has remarked: "The music at a marriage always reminds me of the +music of soldiers entering upon a battle;" it was so with Jacob. There +must be a battle with Laban, the uncle and father-in-law, in which the +daughters both take the part of the husband against their father, and +agree to flee from that parent's house with the man to whom they had +linked their destinies. There must be a battle with Esau, when mothers +and little ones were to be exposed to great dangers and hardships; +indeed, a long life of vicissitudes awaited the women whose lives were +one with Jacob's, and contests between rival sons of rival mothers were +to follow.</p> + +<p>It has already been remarked that Sarah, wife of Abraham (whose name, +Sarah, means "the princess"), occupies no such place in the imagination +and tradition of the Hebrews as did Abraham, their <i>father</i>. It is +around Leah and Rachel that the tribes of Israel group themselves, and +the book of Ruth speaks of them as having built the house of Israel, and +Leah and Rachel were the mothers of the twelve patriarchs for whom the +tribes were subsequently named. Especially does Rachel occupy a high +place, not only because she was Jacob's most favorite wife, but because +of those personal qualities which more readily stirred the poetic and +religious imagination of the people. The poet-prophet, Jeremiah, writing +of the loss of life among the sons of Israel, because of the invasion +and cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, represents the people's +sadness at the terrible calamity as "Rachel weeping for her children +because they are not"--an expression which may have been suggested by +Rachel's early condition of childlessness, followed by the loss of both +her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, in the land of Egypt. The expression has +borrowed new force, because it is quoted as again exemplified in "the +slaughter of the innocents" by Herod the Great at the time of the birth +of Jesus.</p> +<a name="c2" id="c2"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<h3>ISRAEL'S HEROIC AGE</h3> + +<p>In the early history of the Hebrews, the people followed the free, +roving life of the shepherd. In a climate where water supply was by no +means sure, where a flowing stream which gave drink to the flocks to-day +might be a rocky ravine to-morrow, families must needs have no certain +abiding place. Woman the homekeeper must of course be affected by this +Bedouin manner of life. Many daughters, like Rebekah and Rachel, were +shepherdesses of their father's flocks of sheep and goats. When the +Israelites went down into Egypt because the fertile valley of the Nile +made famines less frequent than in the land of Canaan, they were +somewhat ashamed, we are told, of the fact that they were shepherds, on +account of Egyptian prejudices against that occupation, but in their +native country they were proud of their occupation, and rather looked +down upon merchantmen. The hated "Canaanite" became the synonym for +"trafficker." It was the later exigencies of exile and dispersion that +forced the Jews to buy and sell, and right well did they learn the +lesson the world forced upon them. But in the beginning it was not so. +And hence we find Israel, even after the twelve patriarchs had settled +in the plains of Goshen, their Egyptian home, keeping their flocks and +developing their home life in their own way in the kingdom of the +Pharaohs.</p> + +<p>Among the many notable women of Israel's heroic age, Miriam must not be +forgotten. The romantic story of the hiding of her infant brother, in +the rushes of the Nile, when King Pharaoh would have destroyed every +Hebrew boy, is a familiar chapter. The sisterly tenderness and devotion +which stationed the girl of twelve years to watch what might happen to +the infant brother, to fight away wild beasts, and at length to direct +the living treasure to the bosom of its own mother, is one of the best +examples in literature of womanly tact and sisterly devotion.</p> + +<p>The daughter of Pharaoh, a child of the Nile, comes down to the sacred +stream to wash her garments or bathe her body in the saving water, and +quickly, indeed quite willingly, falls into the well-wrought plan of +Jokabed, the mother of the child Moses, and Miriam, the sister--a +counterplot to that of the princess's father, and so ancient history is +written with new headlines.</p> + +<p>It is Miriam who enjoys the distinction of being the first prophetess +in Israel, as her brother Moses is the first who was called a prophet, +and her brother Aaron the first high priest. The part she took in +leading the intractable people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage into +the land of the Canaanites, must have been considerable, though +according to the record she was nearing the century mark before the +journeying began. As a poetess and musician, also, Miriam holds no mean +place, for we are told that when her people had successfully crossed the +arm of the sea, and Pharaoh's pursuing hosts had been cut off in the +descending floods, Miriam organized the women into a chorus, and going +before them with timbrel in her hand she led in voicing the refrain sent +back in antiphonal strains to the song of the great camp, while her +companions followed with timbrels and dances. This aged woman had music +and patriotic fervor still present in her soul, as victory was assured +to her people. The Hebrew song that grew out of this incident which is +recorded in the Book of Exodus has been termed "Israel's Natal Hymn," a +sort of poetic Declaration of Independence, and is far more majestic in +its qualities than Moore's poem based upon the same event:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Sound the loud timbrel; O'er Egypt's dark sea</p> +<p class="i14"> Jehovah hath triumphed--His people are free."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>By a singular confusion, the Koran identifies Miriam, sister of Moses, +with Mary, the mother of Jesus. This may be partly due to the fact that +the New Testament Scriptures as well as the Septuagint Greek translation +of the Old spell both names alike, "Miriam."</p> + +<p>But great women, like great men, sometimes make mistakes, and their +blunders are often just at the point where they have achieved greatness. +Miriam's distinction lay in her insight into the merits of her brother's +mission and in her unselfish devotion to the cause to which he had been +dedicated. Her greatest grief befell her by her unfortunate effort to +break that very influence and to destroy his leadership, because she was +displeased with a marriage he had contracted. She was smitten with +leprosy, but the esteem with which she was held may be discovered when +we read that the whole camp grieved at her calamity and consequent +isolation from the people, and "journeyed not till Miriam was brought in +again."</p> + +<p>Miriam, the first prophetess and one of the strongest women that Israel +ever produced, died during the wilderness wandering, and was buried in +the region west of the Jordan. For many generations her tomb was pointed +out in the land of Moab. Jerome, the Christian father, tells us that he +saw the reputed grave close to Petra in Arabia. But, like the place of +the entombment of her more distinguished brother, "no man knoweth it +unto this day."</p> + +<p>Among no people has the national consciousness been more thoroughly +developed or more deeply seated than among the Hebrews. It is not to be +wondered at, therefore, that among the women of Israel may be discovered +the most ardent spirit of patriotism. Miriam's part in the founding of +the Hebrew Commonwealth has already been noticed. When in the wanderings +of the wilderness it became necessary to erect a temporary structure for +the worship of Jehovah, the God of Israel, the women willingly tore +their jewels from their ears, their ornaments from their arms and +ankles, and devoted them to the rearing of the tabernacle. With their +own fingers they spun in blue, purple, and scarlet, and wrought fine +linen for the hangings and the service of their temple in the desert. In +a theocracy, piety and patriotism were one. Not even the Spartan mother, +who wished her son to return from the wars bringing his shield with him +or being borne upon it, nor the women of Carthage, who plucked out their +hair for bowstrings, could surpass the women of Israel in their +sacrifices for national independence and political glory. In the days of +Octavia, the ministers of Rome levied a tax upon Roman matrons to carry +on a foreign war, and demanded a sacrifice of their jewels; and the +Roman women thronged the public places, appealing to the high and +influential in their vigorous protest against this taxation, and thus +saved their ornaments. But the women of Israel did not need to be urged +to tear off their ornaments and devote them to the common welfare. It +was a woman who received the first recognition for services rendered the +victorious hosts of Joshua, after the first campaign against the +Canaanites had been waged. This was Rahab, a woman of Jericho, who, +though her past life had been far from exemplary, seemed to see in the +approaching Israelites a people of destiny. She therefore hid the Hebrew +spies who had come to inspect the land, and, letting them down over the +walls of the city, saved their lives. Thus did Rahab, the harlot of +Jericho, preserve her own life when Joshua entered the city a victor; +and, being admitted among the people of Israel, she became the +ancestress of their greatest king, David, and, through him, the +ancestress of Christ.</p> + +<p>During that era in Israel's life, when the people were no longer merely +an aggregation of shepherd clans, but had not yet been moulded into a +national existence by a strong feeling of unity or the recognition of a +common need, woman's life was exceptionally severe in its hardships and +dangers. The unorganized tribes, engaged in their agricultural and +pastoral pursuits, with hostile clans about them and hostile cities and +strongholds as yet unsubdued, were subject to frequent incursions from +bands of marauders and from armies of neighboring tribes, which would +suddenly swoop down upon them like vultures on their prey. It was under +such conditions as this that the women suffered untold indignities and +misery. Kidnappers sold the women and children to slave traders of the +coast, who carried them to Egyptian and Greek ports; so that even before +the great dispersion of the children of Jacob which the kings of Assyria +and of Babylonia brought about in the eighth and sixth centuries prior +to the Christian era, the Hebrews were being scattered throughout the +world.</p> + +<p>It was in the period of transition and chaos which immediately +followed the entrance of the people into the land of Palestine that +Israel's most manlike woman appears as a veritable savior of her people. +She is the second woman to whom the title of <i>prophetess</i> is accorded. +The record reveals the fact that she was not only a woman strong in +deeds of valor, but a leader in the religious life of Israel. The days +were dark enough for the descendants of Abraham. For two decades now had +Jabin, with his "nine hundred chariots of iron," struck with terror the +ill-equipped, disorganized Hebrews. But there dwelt "under the palm +tree" between Ramah and Bethel among the hills of Ephraim a woman who, +by force of will and recognized wisdom, <i>judged</i> the people of Israel. +"The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until +that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." It is from the +sanctuary of this woman's mind and heart that deliverance from the king +of the Canaanites is to break forth. She is called Deborah, <i>i.e.</i>, +"woman of torches," or "flames," either because she made wicks for the +lamps of the sanctuary, or because of her fiery, ardent nature. +Certainly there was warmth in her heart and fire in her love of her +native land. She speedily sends for Barak, a chief man of Naphtali, and +enjoins upon him to prepare an army of ten thousand men to meet Jabin's +army, which is approaching under its captain Sisera, on the banks of the +river Kishon. Barak hesitates, but at length answers: "If thou wilt go +with me, I will go,"--so necessary did this strong, magnetic woman's +presence seem for the enlistment of the people in the holy order of the +enterprise. Deborah did not flinch in the presence of this challenge. +The army is raised. The battle is joined, and Sisera's host is +discomfited before Israel. The captain himself becomes a fugitive before +the victors. But the end is not yet. Another woman appears upon the +stage of this tragedy. The fleeing Sisera seeks shelter in the secret +place of Jael's tent. Weary to exhaustion, the captain of the enemies of +her people sinks down to sleep, the more profound because of the great +draught of buttermilk or curds which Jael gave the thirsty man; and then +with tent pin, a hammer, and an unquivering hand, Jael struck the sharp +instrument through the sleeping man's temple and pinned him swooning to +the dirt floor of her tent.</p> + +<p>It was this bloody, but daring, deed which gave rise to one of the +earliest of Israel's epic songs, the Song of Deborah. It is a remarkable +poem, given in full in the Book of Judges. It sets forth praises to +Jehovah for deliverance, and to Jael for the deadly stroke. A few lines +from this epic, which many consider the earliest piece of Old Testament +writing, will disclose the patriotic spirit of Israel's womanhood in +those days of social and political disorder. The people are represented +as crying out to the strong woman who lived under the solitary palm:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Awake, awake, Deborah,</p> +<p class="i14"> Awake, awake, utter a song."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Deborah comes at the call of distress. The people are rapidly marshalled +to her help. But some hold back:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds,</p> +<p class="i14"> To hear the bleatings of the flocks?</p> +<p class="i14"> .........................................</p> +<p class="i14"> Gilead abode beyond Jordan</p> +<p class="i14"> And why did Dan remain in ships?"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The battle is joined. Canaan is worsted before the followers of the +woman of the hour.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.</p> +<p class="i14"> The river Kishon swept them away,</p> +<p class="i14"> That ancient river, the river Kishon.</p> +<p class="i14"> O my soul, march on with strength."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Then, turning upon the indifferent and laggard hosts that held back and +refused to strike the blow for liberty, the poetess exclaims:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord,</p> +<p class="i14"> Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof,</p> +<p class="i14"> Because they came not to the help of the Lord,</p> +<p class="i14"> To the help of the Lord against the mighty."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Concerning the woman whose unfailing hand had struck the fatal blow, the +poetess sings:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Blessed above women shall Jael be,</p> +<p class="i14"> The wife of Heber the Kenite.</p> +<p class="i14"> Blessed shall she be above women in the tent.</p> +<br> +<p class="i14"> "He asked water</p> +<p class="i14"> And she gave him milk,</p> +<p class="i14"> She brought forth butter in a lordly dish."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The tent pin has pierced the temples of the oppressor of Israel:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down,</p> +<p class="i14"> At her feet he bowed, he fell,</p> +<p class="i14"> When he bowed, he fell down--dead."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Very dramatic do the lines become when, imagining the mother of Sisera +waiting for her son to return victorious from the battle, and looking +out through the lattice of her dwelling wondering at his long delay, she +asks:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Why is his chariot so long in coming,</p> +<p class="i14"> Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>But Sisera never returns to his maternal roof. For forty years did the +people enjoy the freedom of Deborah's deliverance, the woman whose +influence went out from "the sanctuary of the palm."</p> + +<p>It is said of this period, commonly known as the Age of the Judges, +that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This would be +known in political theory as well as in practical government as nothing +short of anarchy. And indeed, it was, for while each man did that which +was right in his own eyes, the "right" of each was so frequently wrong, +that social chaos reigned with almost unbroken sway. And while one woman +of the period became a deliverer for four decades, for more than a +century many women suffered untold misery for lack of unity among the +tribes and leaders capable of bringing the life of the reign to rights.</p> + +<p>It is often affirmed that sons more frequently inherit characteristics +of their mothers, while to the daughters are bequeathed the traits of +their fathers. An unnamed woman of this period of the political chaos, +the wife of a certain Manoah, from the family of the Danites, was chosen +to be the mother of a giant. Now, giants were rare in Israel, though in +the earlier days of Palestinian occupation, <i>Nephelim</i>, and "the sons of +Anak," are mentioned as among those enemies of the Hebrews. Their huge +forms, it is written, were a menace to Israel's peace, and in comparison +with these monsters her sons were said to be "as grass-hoppers." One +day, as the story runs, an angel appears to this nameless, hitherto +childless, wife of Manoah, and informs her that a son who is to be born, +and nourished at her own bosom, is to have a remarkable history. She +herself is to take care neither to drink wine nor any strong drink, for +her son is to be dedicated to the abstemious life of the Nazarite. The +woman is obedient to the angelic voice; and she with her husband offers +up a burnt offering to Jehovah in grateful praise. The son is born. He +is taught that no intoxicating draught shall enter his lips, nor should +a razor touch his head, that his long-grown locks might speak outwardly +of his vows. But wine is not the only temptation that is to beset this +giant youth. The daughters of neighboring Philistia were to his eyes +more than passing fair.</p> + +<p>The influence of these young women, whose features, we may suppose, +bore some characteristics of Grecian beauty,--as their progenitors had +landed on the shores of Canaan from the island of Crete, gradually +adopting a Semitic language and civilization,--was very potent over the +heart of the muscular but susceptible young Hebrew. A love affair in +which the long-haired Nazarite plays a prominent rôle will introduce us, +somewhat at least, into woman's world of this disorganized period in the +early life of Western Palestine at a day more than a thousand years +before the Christian Era.</p> + +<p>This affair of the heart was brought to light when one day the young man +came in to tell his father and his mother that a fair damsel in Timnah, +a city of the Philistines, had captured the very citadel of his being. +Neither the protestations of his parents, nor their careful descanting +upon the virtues of the daughters of his own people could move the young +man. His heart was set. Neither parents at home nor the lion that met +him on the way to secure his bride could thwart his firm-set purpose. +Mother and father are for the moment forgotten, and the lion is torn +asunder by the strong arms of this young giant. Every obstacle is +surmounted and Delilah is in the arms of Samson.</p> + +<p>Now, George Sand was doubtless correct in the rather prosaic remark: "It +is not so easy to see through a woman as through a man." Samson did not +quite penetrate the wiles of his lady love. Her beauty hid all else, and +Samson fell. "The whisper of a beautiful woman," says Diana of Poitiers, +"can be heard further than the loudest call of duty." The Nazarite vow, +so strong and binding, became in Delilah's hands, as she held the +shears, weaker than the withes she bound about the arms of the captured +giant. Robert Burns has, in a characteristic fashion, given what might +well be inscribed to Samson's memory:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "As Father Adam first was fooled,</p> +<p class="i14"> A case that's still too common,</p> +<p class="i14"> Here lies a man a woman ruled</p> +<p class="i14"> The devil ruled the woman."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Delilah, the Philistine, is to be contrasted with the typical Hebrew +women, not only in the matter of feminine chastity for which they stand +out among ancient women as preëminent, but also in that fidelity to +husband and to native land which made the Hebrews the most stable and +persistent race with which the world is acquainted.</p> + +<p>In marked contrast with this witch of the Philistine plains, stands out +the heroic daughter of Jephtha. Her purity, patriotism, and her deep +respect for the sacredness of a religious oath, place her at the very +opposite pole. "Great women," says Leigh Hunt, "belong to the history of +self-sacrifice." If this be true, Jephtha's daughter must be enrolled +among the great, as her heroic self-devotion shines through the dimness +of ancient history. Her father was one of Israel's deliverers in the +days of tribal division and political chaos. Returning from victory over +the hostile Ammonites, Jephtha purposes to give, as sacrifice to Jehovah +for bringing him success in arms, the first creature that comes forth to +meet him as he turns his face homeward. It is his own daughter, his only +child, going out to meet him with the timbrel and with dances. In his +eyes a "very daughter of the gods, divinely tall, and most divinely +fair." Will he break his vow? Will the young woman herself, this Hebrew +Alcestis, shrink from the sacrifice? "My father, thou hast opened thy +mouth unto the Lord, do unto me according to that which hath proceeded +out of thy mouth."</p> + +<p>For a woman to die childless in Israel was looked upon as a calamity, a +mark of divine displeasure, and the daughter of Jephtha was a virgin. It +is for this reason that she begged the coveted privilege of two months' +respite that, with her maidens, she might withdraw to the neighboring +mountain and there "bewail her virginity." At the end of the required +period, returning to her father's house, she yields herself a sacrifice +to the hasty but well-meant vow of her patriotic father. So deeply did +her pure devotion to filial and patriotic ideals impress the daughters +of Israel, that every year they went out to lament, four days, in honor +of the daughter of Jephtha, the Gileadite, of whom N. P. Willis has drawn +this appreciative picture:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Now she who was to die, the calmest one</p> +<p class="i14"> In Israel at that hour, stood up alone</p> +<p class="i14"> And waited for the sun to set. Her face</p> +<p class="i14"> Was pale but very beautiful, her lip</p> +<p class="i14"> Had a more delicate outline and the tint</p> +<p class="i14"> Was deeper; but her countenance was like</p> +<p class="i14"> The majesty of angels!"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Among no ancient people was the love of chastity in women so thorough +and imperative. There is probably no better illustration of this fact +than in the very ingenious method by which the men of Benjamin obtained +their wives, at a time when total extinction of the tribe seemed to +stare them in the face. An aged Levite, with his wife, who had been +unfaithful to him, but by his efforts had been reclaimed and with him +was returning home, is passing through the land of Benjamin. When they +reach the city of Jebus, afterward named Jerusalem, the famous centre of +Israel's later life, no one offered the customary hospitality, so the +man and his wife were about to lodge in the street, a disgrace to the +city, according to the common customs of entertainment. It is then a +temporary resident of the city invites the homeless ones into his house. +When the Benjamites saw them go in, they took the woman from the house +and shamefully maltreated her, leaving her helpless upon the steps till +morning. The Levite, incensed at the terrible crime, took the woman, cut +her in pieces and sent the fragments throughout the tribes, telling the +story of the deed of some of the sons of Benjamin. It is pronounced by +all the worst blot upon the land since the sojourn in Egypt. The whole +people is aroused to anger. They collect men of war from the tribes, and +go up to battle against their brethren of Benjamin, till the entire +tribe seems about to be exterminated. Especially was the destruction of +their women grievous. What must be done when the dust of battle has +rolled away? Shall a tribe be lost to Israel? This must not be. The +sacred number must be preserved. How shall Benjamin obtain wives, for +all the rest of Israel had made a solemn oath that they would never give +their daughters to the sons of Benjamin because of this horrible crime +which had been so peremptorily punished. At length, the elders of all +the people devise a plan. Marriage with the Gentile peoples is, of +course, not sanctioned, and all the tribes of Israel have refused to +give their daughters to Benjamin--there is yet a way out of the dilemma. +Some one remembers that every year at harvest time there is given a +feast at Shiloh, where many Hebrew damsels come together to enjoy the +religious and festal dances. It is agreed that the sons of Benjamin +shall hide themselves in the adjacent vineyards, and while the maidens +are dancing, each man is to run out, seize a wife and make his way +swiftly homeward. But what say the fathers and brothers of the purloined +damsels to this high-handed procedure of the young men of Benjamin? The +elders agree to step in then and to advise all to acquiesce in +quietness, for the people had not violated their oaths. Their daughters +had not been given to Benjamin; they were stolen! So Benjamin obtained +wives and the tribal existence was preserved by the same method in which +Rome was repeopled at the expense of the Sabines.</p> + +<p>Israel holds a high place among the people of the earth because of the +prevalence of piety among its women. Religion is deeply grounded in the +intuitions and feelings of the race, and derives force, at least, from +the sense of dependence upon higher powers, as Schliermacher has taught. +Since women are far truer in their intuitions and feelings than men and +the sense of dependence is more highly developed, it is not strange that +women everywhere are more religious than men. Among the holy women of +old none can be accorded higher place than Hannah, the mother of Samuel.</p> + +<p>One may at first be astonished that childlessness is so frequently +mentioned as characteristic of women in the Scriptures. Among them, +Sarah, Rebekah, Rachael, the unnamed wife of Manoah, Hannah, and +Elisabeth,--mother of John the Forerunner,--are all familiar examples. +But barrenness was probably not more common among the Hebrews than among +other peoples. Only, in Israel, childlessness was accounted a calamity, +if not a direct visitation of the Almighty. Hence, every pious woman +wished to be released from the curse. The women themselves ridiculed and +ever despised those who were not blessed with offspring. Besides, every +man among the Hebrews wished to live in his descendants. To die without +children was to be "cut off" from the face of the earth, and to be +forgotten. There was a yearning to live forever in the land.</p> + +<p>The contrast between the great emphasis which the Egyptian laid upon +immortality, the large place it held not only in their religious +teachings, but in the development of their civilization, as modern +excavations have revealed it, and the lack of such emphasis in the +writings of the Hebrew Scriptures has frequently been noticed, and by +many greatly wondered at. But the Hebrews gave little thought to +immortality in the next world. Their prophets spent most of their time +stressing the importance of righteousness in this life, and the people +emphasized the earthward side of immortality--that is, one's power to +live forever in one's posterity.</p> + +<p>The writer in the one hundred and twenty-eighth Psalm expressed the +common Hebrew conception, as, in recounting the blessings of a truly +happy man, he said: "Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy +shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a +fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive +plants round about thy table." Or as another psalmist, in the same +spirit, prays: "That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; +that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude +of a palace." Many a time in the Hebrew Scriptures is this ideal +prominent. For a psalmist again writes: "As arrows in the hand of a +mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his +quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak +with the enemies in the gate." And when the prophet Zachariah foretells +the coming glory of Jerusalem, which should supersede the then present +distress, he gives as one item of blessing: "And the streets of the city +shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the streets thereof."</p> + +<p>It may therefore be readily surmised how a woman of Hannah's piety +might feel in the thought of her condition of childlessness. And while +the hardships of the barren woman in Israel could in no way compare with +those of some other peoples, as in Australia, where the childless woman +of the aborigines is driven out to a dire struggle for existence, yet +the feeling that her God was, for some cause, against her and that her +husband might in his secret heart despise her, must have been agony +indeed. "The brain-woman," says Oliver Wendell Holmes, "never interests +us like the heart-woman; white roses please us less than red." Hannah +was preëminently a heart woman; the red blood of warm devotion coursed +through her veins. When at length her prayers, made in bitterness of +suffering, were answered, and heaven gave her a son, she named him +Samuel, for, she said, "God hath heard," and dedicated him wholly to +Jehovah, placing him at the service of the tabernacle. When the time +came to wean the lad, she journeyed with him to Shiloh, the place of the +sanctuary, with her offering, as the custom was, and "lent him" forever +to Jehovah, her God.</p> + +<p>"I think it must somewhere be written that the virtues of the mothers +are occasionally visited upon their children, as well as the sins of the +fathers." These words of Dickens suggest one of the occasions in which +motherly virtues seem to have been visited upon the child, for Samuel +became the earliest representative of a long line of prophets who, for +many centuries, were the spiritual leaders of Israel. He was the father +and founder of a "school of the prophets," the earliest theological +seminary of which we have any record. The prayer of thanksgiving which +the records say Hannah uttered when God blessed her with this precious +gift of a son, influenced not only the famous <i>Magnificat</i> of Mary, when +she was told of the birth of her greater Son, but also that of Zacharias +when the birth of John the Baptist was predicted by the angel who talked +with him in the temple.</p> + +<p>History records several famous cases of friendship between men; that +between David and Jonathan, and that between Damon and Pythias of +Syracuse, have become proverbial. Fewer have been the friendship among +women. Indeed, some have argued the impossibility of such friendships. +But there is probably no more attractive story of womanly devotion in +all the range of literature than that which tells of the love between +Ruth and Naomi. The Book of Ruth is a beautiful idyll of early Hebrew +life, and the heroine here stands the test. The scene is laid in the +time when judges ruled in Israel; and in this, as in many instances in +the early days of Palestine, an epoch was born out of a famine. +Elimelech, with his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, +hunger-driven, set out for the land of Moab. Death lays its claim to the +husband and father, and Naomi, with her boys, is left widowed in a +strange land. Mahlon and Chilion, now grown to manhood, marry two +daughters of Moab, by name Orpah and Ruth. A decade passes, and the sons +themselves die. Bereaved and broken in spirit, Naomi at length turns her +heart toward her native Judean hills. Finding her daughters-in-law +inclined to follow her into the uncertainty of her future subsistence in +her former home, Naomi counsels their return, each to her mother's +house. "And they lifted up their voice and wept." Orpah reluctantly +obeys, but Ruth cleaves to her mother-in-law, with those unsurpassed and +memorable words, which the author of the book of Ruth throws into Hebrew +measure:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Intreat me not to leave thee,</p> +<p class="i14"> Or to return from following after thee;</p> +<p class="i14"> For whither thou goest, I will go;</p> +<p class="i14"> And where thou lodgest I will lodge;</p> +<p class="i14"> Thy people shall be my people,</p> +<p class="i16"> And thy God, my God.</p> +<p class="i14"> Where thou diest, will I die,</p> +<p class="i16"> And there will I be buried.</p> +<p class="i14"> The Lord do so to me, and more also,</p> +<p class="i14"> If aught but death part thee and me."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>"Some women's faces are in their brightness a prophecy, and some in +their sadness a history." As these two women stood with their faces set +toward Palestine, upon one was written a history of sorrow; upon the +other there fell the sunrise of a new day. In Ruth's determination to +follow Naomi, even to death,--for "a woman can die for her friend as +well as a Roman knight" when she has one, as Jeremy Taylor has +declared,--the young widow of Moab began a new life, which was destined +to make her the ancestress of Judah's royal house, the great grandmother +of David the king.</p> + +<p>As the poetic story of Ruth proceeds, it records several interesting +ancient marriage customs among the people of Israel. In marked contrast +with the Hindoo custom of condemning widows to a life of scarcely +bearable hardships, the Hebrew law was so framed as to make widowhood as +far as possible a temporary state. The custom of Levirate marriage +enforced upon the brother or nearest of kin to the deceased husband the +obligation of taking the widow of his brother to wife, in order that the +brother might not be without heir and memory in the land. Ruth's +deceased husband had rights in the ancestral estate, and the Hebrew law +was careful that estates should not pass out of the hands of the +original owners, if it were possible to prevent it. Ruth, the widow, +suddenly appears at Bethlehem, the old home of her husband's people. It +is the time of the barley harvest. Naomi plays the role of the scheming +mother. She would have her beautiful young daughter-in-law find a +husband among her kindred, that her lamented son might have an heir to +honor his memory and that the portion of the estate which was Elimelech +her husband's might be redeemed. The love plot sends Ruth into the field +of Boaz, a wealthy farmer and near kinsman of Elimelech, to glean after +the reapers, for no man was permitted by the law to deprive the poor of +whatever pickings they might find when the reapers had passed. The quick +success of the plot, the fascination that Boaz feels for the graceful +but unknown woman, the command given the reapers to leave behind by +purposeful accident a little more of the grain than was usual and be +gracious to the girl; the invitation at mealtime to come and partake of +the repast of parched corn with the reapers; the resolve of Boaz that +should there be found no nearer kinsman--whose duty it would first be to +take the young woman to wife--he himself would choose her. All these +incidents pass in rapid and romantic succession. The observation is +apparently true that "women are never stronger than when they arm +themselves with their own weakness." Boaz at once pledged himself to be +the damsel's friend and protector. The next of kin declines or waives +his right to the young widow, for he does not care to redeem Elimelech's +portion of the land, a necessary part of such a matrimonial transaction. +Boaz therefore summons the young man, next of kin, who has declined to +redeem the land of his deceased brother and raise up heirs for him, to +appear at the gate of the city as the law required. Here ten elders sit +to witness and make legal the transaction. The shoe of the refusing +kinsman is taken from his foot, in the presence of the assembled people, +and given to Boaz, symbolizing the relinquishment of all rights in the +premises. Then follows the custom of spitting in the face of the "man +with the loosed shoe," which became a term of reproach, and was applied +to the man who refused to fulfil toward a deceased kinsman the duties of +the Levirate marriage. Time passes and the aged Naomi, whose mother +named her "winsome," forgets the bitterness of her later years as she +holds in her arms the infant Obed, in whom she exultingly sees the +pledge that the house of her son shall live on, and a prophecy that his +name will become famous among his people. "And Obed begat Jesse and +Jesse begat David," the king.</p> +<a name="c3" id="c3"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>III</h3> + +<h3>THE DAYS OF THE KINGS</h3> + +<p>As we pass out of the unsettled age of the judges into the period when +the commonwealth of Israel began to take definite shape, we come upon a +corresponding change in the life of the Hebrew woman. The heroism in +female virtue was perhaps no less frequent, but when the "heroic age" is +behind us there is less opportunity for women to stand out in so strong +a glare. And, indeed, all through this history the remark of Ruskin is +close to the truth when he says: "Woman's function is a guiding, not a +determining one." While epoch-making women occasionally appeared in the +earlier period, they became fewer and fewer as the social order became +more settled.</p> + +<p>It was not till the days of the kings that the Mosaic law, in the +broadest sense of the term, could exert any very potential influence +over the life and conduct of the people. In a disorganized condition of +society, of which it was said, "Every man did that which was right in +his own eyes," to enforce Mosaic precepts would have been an +impossibility, even had the people at large been acquainted with that +law. Now, the law of Moses became one of the most powerful factors in +giving to the women of Israel the high place they held in the +commonwealth. The fifth of the "Ten Words"--which commands were the very +nucleus about which the whole law was developed--reads: "Honor thy +father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the +Lord thy God giveth thee." Thus, in this, the very first law of the +Decalogue respecting duties to man, the duty of honoring the mother was +made equally imperative with that of showing honor to the father. And it +may be truly affirmed that Israel's remarkable permanence and +persistency as a people may be traced to its domestic health, and that +this vigorous domesticity is due largely to a better understanding of +the true relation of the sexes than is discoverable among any other +ancient nation.</p> + +<p>That honor for parents makes for the permanence of a people both reason +and history affirm. Any nation which honors its ancestry will hold +tenaciously to ancestral ideals. Notwithstanding China's limitations in +other directions, that nation, because of its worship of the fathers, +has lived through many centuries and seen more powerful nations rise and +fall.</p> + +<p>The position of Israel as a separate people abides in strength because +both father and mother have for ages been respected; and even though +most of her sons and daughters are no longer "upon the land which the +Lord their God gave them," they are still holding with wonderful +firmness to the faith and ideals of their fathers. The Mosaic teachings +concerning woman are not a little responsible for this remarkable state +of racial longevity. The Hebrew woman's standing before the law gave her +great advantage over her sisters of the other Semitic and Oriental +peoples. The Mosaic law tended greatly to lessen the inequalities and +mitigate the hardships of womankind. Even a woman captured in war was +protected against the caprice of her captors. Under the law, her life +was equally as precious as that of a man, and therefore the taking of a +woman's life was punishable with the same severity as was the murder of +a man. The law was especially solicitous of her welfare during the +period of child bearing, and greatly lessened the sorrows and isolation +of widowhood.</p> + +<p>While divorces were given almost at the will of the man, yet he could +not without formality at once eject the woman from his house. He must +give her a "writing of divorcement," which set forth the fact that she +had been his wife. Thus was she protected from subsequent suspicion that +she had lived with a man unlawfully. Wives of bond-servants were to go +out free with their husbands on the seventh year of service, unless the +master himself had given the wife to his manservant, in which case the +woman and her children still belonged to the master.</p> + +<p>Daughters were allowed inheritance as well as sons, though in earlier +times than those of the kings they did not inherit their father's +property except there were no sons. Fathers were not allowed to +discriminate against a firstborn son and pass the inheritance to another +because the mother of the oldest child happened to have lost favor in +his eyes.</p> + +<p>Laws forbidding unchastity and vice were explicit and severe. One who +had taken criminal advantage of another's daughter was to marry her and +pay the father the usual dowry; if not, he was to be amerced fifty +shekels of silver, the ordinary dowry of virgins. If a husband suspected +his wife of being unfaithful to him, an elaborate, but not severe, +ordeal was laid upon the woman, called "drinking the waters of +jealousy." If she passed this examination successfully, her husband had +no power further to punish her; if not, she was to suffer for her shame.</p> + +<p>The widow and the fatherless were given special consideration under the +law. In the feast days when the people's hearts were merry and they were +rejoicing in the increase of their lands, the widow was not to be +forgotten. In business transactions the people were to take heed that +the widow suffer not injustice. Her garments could never be taken in +pledge, and judges were enjoined to see that no violence was done to her +rights. The fallen sheaf in the harvest field, the forgotten gleanings +of the olive trees, the droppings of the vintage were not to be withheld +from her.</p> + +<p>How deep-seated this sense of obligation to the widow was in Israel may +be discovered in the Book of Job. The friends who visited Job in his +bewildering grief could find no more probable cause for so severe a +divine chastisement upon the arch-sufferer than that Job had neglected +the widow or taken her in pledge. One effect of the attitude of the +customary law toward widows is discovered in a most signal way in the +Second Book of Maccabees, which relates that in the period of which it +tells, about B.C. 150, it was customary to lay up large sums of money in +the temple treasury for the relief of widows and of fatherless children.</p> + +<p>Such women as Miriam and Deborah were factors to be reckoned with in the +political movements of their times. So it was with the prophetesses +generally, for just as the great prophets dealt with the politics of +state, so a prophetess could not always escape the problems of +statesmanship to which her time might give birth. Both prophet and +prophetess were looked upon as the chosen spokesmen for Jehovah. Because +of this, Huldah acted as a sort of prime minister and adviser of both +king and high priests in their Jehovistic reforms during the reign of +Josiah.</p> + +<p>That women generally took a deep interest in political matters may be +perceived in the way in which the exploits of David appealed to the +imaginations of the women when Saul's star was setting and David's +appearing above the horizon; for young women went out to meet the coming +hero and king with musical instruments, singing a song whose refrain +was:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Saul hath slain his thousands,</p> +<p class="i14"> David his tens of thousands."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The power of the feminine idea may be forcefully seen in the very common +conception of the nation itself as a young woman. Both prophet and +poet--and the prophets were usually poets--refer many times to the +"daughter of Zion," meaning the people of Israel.</p> + +<p>The prophet Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming destruction of the army of +Babylon, says: "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and +delicate woman" who is about to be ravaged by the invader. And Isaiah, +seeing the time at hand for the people to return from Babylonish exile, +cries out: "Loose thyself, O captive daughter of Zion."</p> + +<p>Affection for the native land was strong among the women as well as +among the men. Lot's wife did not turn because of curiosity, but by +reason of the strong attachment to locality; she looked back longingly +toward her forsaken and burning home. The little Hebrew maid, torn by an +invading army of Syrians from her native land, was quick to tell Naaman, +the leper,--her new master,--of the virtues of her country and impelled +him to seek out Elisha, the prophet of Israel.</p> + +<p>The social position of Hebrew women was exceptionally free and +independent. While a daughter's matrimonial plans were largely in the +hands of father and brother, and wives were expected to look up to their +husbands with all reverence, yet the recorded examples of independent +action and influence among the women reveal a place of social equality +and power, a lack of masculine restraint and domination that would do +credit to more modern times.</p> + +<p>Deborah accompanied, if she did not lead, the soldiers into battle and +cheered them on to victory. The daughters of Shiloh, unaccompanied, were +accustomed annually to attend festal dances in the vineyards of +Benjamin. Women often went without escorts upon difficult and dangerous +missions. Prophetesses frequently exerted not only a powerful but at +times a decisive influence.</p> + +<p>Marriage customs among the Hebrews in the days of the kings were not +greatly different from those of other Oriental people of the same era. +They differed but slightly from those of an earlier period. As a rule, +marriage was not born out of impulse of the heart; though there were +many marriages that surely ripened into love. If, as Jean Paul Richter +says, "Nature sent woman into the world with a bridal dower of love," we +have an explanation of the fact that there are many happy marriages in +Israel, notwithstanding the fact that the arrangements continued to be +largely in the hands of the parents. A daughter belonged to her father +till of age: after this she could not be betrothed except by her own +consent. Among the Hebrews betrothal was of the nature of an inviolable +contract, and could be annulled only by divorce. If not in early days, +yet in the later periods of Hebrew history there were writings of +betrothal which set forth the mutual agreements between the parties. +Later, there followed the marriage contract, also in writing. The amount +paid for a maiden came to be at least two hundred denars, and just +one-half as much for a widow. The father was to provide dowry according +to his ability, and an orphan girl's dowry was bestowed by the +community.</p> + +<p>The marriage ceremony consisted of leading the bride from her father's +house to that of the bridegroom. At which time there was a season of +festivity and rejoicing. The marriage of a maiden usually occurred on +Wednesday evening, that of a widow on Thursday. The "children of the +bride chamber," the name by which the invited guests were called, made +merry at the "marriage feast," which was always provided and lasted +several days. As the procession passed along, going from the bride's to +the bridegroom's house, people along the route might join in the +festivities.</p> + +<p>Grains of corn, nuts, and other edibles were the confetti tossed +good-humoredly at the bridal pair. It became the custom, which still +exists among Jews to-day, to break a glass bottle at Hymen's altar to +indicate that the former life is no more, and that the bride has entered +upon a new estate. Among the Hebrews the married woman was better +protected in her rights than among most people of ancient times. While +her property was usually under control of her husband, yet the dowry +came to be considered her own, whether it be money, property, or jewels. +A husband could not compel his wife to remove from the land of her +fathers; and in many ways her individual rights were protected. Woman's +inferior position in Greece was one element in the decline of that +remarkable country; the defilement of the womanhood of Rome hastened the +downfall of that city's power; but the protection given to Hebrew +wifehood and widowhood became an element of great strength in the life +of Israel.</p> + +<p>The Greek attitude toward woman could probably be reflected in the old +saying: "A woman who is never spoken of is praised most." In the period +of Rome's decay women became immodestly conspicuous in the social and +public functions of the day. As opposed to both these conditions the +Hebrew, the wise man in the Proverbs, calls her a virtuous woman whom +her husband can praise in the very gates.</p> + +<p>Edersheim calls attention to a suggestive custom which sprung up from +the slight difference of sound in the words for "find" in two passages +of Scripture concerning women, both of which occur in the wisdom +writings. The first of these reads: "Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a +good thing." (Proverbs 18: 22.) The other, "I find more bitter than +death the woman whose heart is snares and nets." Hence arose the habit +of saying to a newly married man, "<i>Maza</i> or <i>Moze?</i>" "Have you found a +'good thing' or a 'bitter'?"</p> + +<p>The tendency in Israel continued to restrict marriage to one's own +tribe. The law of inheritance gave force to this custom. Those very near +of kin were thus regarded as most eligible for wedlock. Jacob married +two of his first cousins. A similar situation is seen in the marriage of +Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebecca. Each husband, under specially +trying circumstances, had claimed that his wife was his "sister," and so +she was,--for in the patriarchal form of society all who belonged to the +same family or clan were brother and sister,--but not in the strict +sense which the word was intended to convey. While brothers and sisters +of the whole blood might not marry, yet it would not have been regarded +as altogether out of place for half-brothers and sisters to marry, +especially if they had a different mother.</p> + +<p>The story of Amnon and Tamar not only throws light upon this point, but +illustrates how brother and sister by the same father as well as the +same mother stood in a greatly different relation, the one to the other, +in the matter of brotherly protection from that of half-brother and +half-sister.</p> + +<p>Amnon, son of David, fell desperately in love with his half-sister, +David's daughter, Tamar. By a cunningly devised plot Amnon succeeded in +bringing the beautiful damsel into his chamber. When Absalom, Tamar's +brother and half-brother to Amnon, heard that his sister had thus been +dealt with, he felt himself under obligation to defend her honor, by +slaying his half-brother, which he did at a feast given during the +season of sheep shearing, when the king's sons were all making merry.</p> + +<p>The remark of Frances Power Cobbe is as true in Israel as elsewhere. "A +man may build a castle or a palace, but poor creature! be he as wise as +Solomon or as rich as Croesus, he cannot turn it into a home. No +masculine mortal can do that. It is a woman, and only a woman,--a woman +all by herself if she must, or prefers, without any man to help +her,--who can turn a house into a home." It was the Hebrew wife and +mother who largely gave to the homes of the Israelites their peculiar +quality. But it may be said it was seldom her necessity or her +preference to set up a home without the presence of some son of Israel.</p> + +<p>The birth of children was always considered an occasion for rejoicing. +Hebrew women were, as a rule, active and strong, and natural in their +mode of life. There are but two cases in all the Hebrew Scriptures of +death at the time of childbirth. One is that of Rachel, who, when upon a +fatiguing journey with her husband and family, gave birth to Benjamin +and died; the other is the wife of Phineas, who, when she heard the sad +news of the victory of the Philistines over Israel, the capture of the +Ark of Jehovah, of her father Eli's and her husband's death in the +battle, gave birth to a child whom the nurse called Ichabod, for said +she: "The glory is departed from Israel." In the naming of her children +the Hebrew mother thus often revealed a poetic imagination that is of a +high order. In this the Hebrew language was helpful, for, as one has +remarked of it: "Every word is a picture."</p> + +<p>The bright eyes and graceful form of the gazelle suggested the name for +a daughter of Tabitha, of which Dorcas is the Greek. Zipporah was a +little bird; Deborah, the busy bee; Esther, a star; Tamar, a palm tree; +Zillah, a shadow; Sarah, the princess; Keturah, fragrance; Hadassah, the +myrtle. Thus, some resemblance or poetic association suggested to the +mother, either at the birth of the child, or because of some fact or +incident of later experience, the name the little one was to bear. Often +there is a tragedy or a mother's sorrowful life history crystallized in +a name. When Rachel, Jacob's favored wife, brought forth her second son +amidst the suffering which was to take away her life, the woman standing +by tried to comfort her in the fact that another son had been born to +bless her. The mother, with her last faint breath, replied: "Call his +name Benoni (son of my sorrow)." But the father, unwilling thus to +perpetuate his wife's anguish, called him Benjamin (son of my right +hand). When Naomi, the widow, bereft of her husband and sons, returns to +her native Bethlehem after many years of absence and of sorrow, the +women came out to meet her, saying: "Is this Naomi?" She answered them: +"Call me not Naomi (pleasant or winsome), call me Mara (bitter), for the +Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me." So, among the Hebrews, names +not only were given to both men and women at birth, but were frequently +changed at some critical moment or because of some extraordinary +experience in their life. Ordinarily, however, the favorite method of +naming sons connected the boy in some way with his God; as when Hannah +named her baby boy Samuel (God hath heard), and the name of Jacob (the +supplanter), was changed to Israel (the prince of God). The girls seldom +if ever bore names ending in <i>el</i> (God), <i>ajah</i> (Jehovah), but were +called by some name of poetic association or natal experience. In no +respect do the Hebrew mothers deserve greater praise than for their +share in the upbringing of children. While the Jewish law placed the +responsibility for the training of the Hebrew youth upon the father, a +very large share of the responsibility fell upon the mother. With the +Hebrew child, as with the children of all nations, it is impossible to +say exactly where its education begins. The famous dictum: "If you would +bring up a child in the way it should go, you must begin with its +great-grandmother," finds special force among the Israelites. The women +held an honored place in the education of the Jewish youth. Before the +child could walk or could lisp a syllable, while still in its mother's +arms, it would see her, as she passed from one room to another in the +house, stop and touch the <i>mesusah</i> on the doorpost, and then kiss the +finger that had thus come in contact with the sacred words of the law +encased there. The little one would easily learn to put out its own tiny +finger and touch the aperture of the sacred box on the doorpost, and +then press it to the baby lips.</p> + +<p>Here was the first lesson in the law of its fathers. Very early the +mother took her babe to the temple, and offered a sacrifice for it. +Especially was the birth of the firstborn significant, for the firstborn +son belonged to Jehovah, just as the firstborn of the herd and the flock +and the first-fruits of the ground. These must be sacrificed on the +altar of the Lord. But, happily for the mother heart, the firstborn son +might be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb, or, if the mother were +poor, by a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. So the young +mother brought her boy to the altar, made her offering, and took her +babe back to her bosom.</p> + +<p>From the time of offering onward, the mother greatly aided in shaping +the life of the young Israelite. In this training the sacred Scriptures +played an important part. The rabbis, however, never regarded women as +becoming masters of the intricacies of the law. It was a saying among +them that "Women are of a light mind." This was doubtless an appropriate +remark, for it is certainly true that much of the rabbinic lore is +heavy, almost beyond expression. There were not a few women, though, who +were well versed in the Scriptures and also in rabbinical teaching. The +synagogues were open to the women, where they occupied seats partitioned +from those of the men. The attendance of women upon the great feasts, +where much could be learned of custom, tradition, and teaching, also +gave them opportunity to be instructed in the religion of their fathers. +The Christian apostle Paul congratulated his young friend Timothy, that +from a babe he had known the Hebrew Scriptures, which he had learned +from his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. These are typical +mothers of the higher order; and while probably only the richer homes +owned a copy of the entire Bible, most families possessed at least one +or more scrolls containing parts of the sacred writings.</p> + +<p>The strength of motherly devotion was nowhere stronger than among the +mothers of Israel. The spirit of Rizpah was the spirit of most of them. +For when seven of her sons, the sons of Saul, had been slain and their +bodies exposed, in the revolution which brought David to the throne, +Rizpah took a piece of sackcloth, and, spreading it upon a rock near by, +guarded the bodies of her offspring from the beginning of barley harvest +till the early rains: that neither birds might molest them by day nor +beasts of the field by night.</p> + +<p>Home life among the Hebrews of Palestine to-day is marked by much that +characterized that life ten or even twenty centuries ago; therefore a +few facts concerning the home life in the Jerusalem of to-day will teach +us much concerning that of the past. Probably nine-tenths of the native +homes of Jerusalem are unpretentious, unattractive, uncomfortable, and +show signs of poverty. The people have learned the fine art of economy +in house room. Father, mother, and the multitude of little ones with +which the Jewish home is usually blessed do not find it difficult to be +tucked snugly away in two or three rooms. These give ample space for +cooking, dining, sleeping, and performing the necessary labor of +domestic life; besides furnishing opportunity for the hospitality for +which the East is still justly noted. Call any time you will, on any +business bent, and your hostess, if there be no servant, will, before +you are permitted to mention the matter of your call, bring to you a +glass of wine or perhaps a cup of coffee to refresh you. This, too, +though the family be poor and it be deprivation for even this repast to +be served to the guest. And though you know of the sacrifice the hostess +makes, you must not refuse, lest you offend and wound the spirit of +hospitality at its very heart.</p> + +<p>The brunt of the work of the house falls, of course, upon the wife and +mother. And it is doubtful if the place of the woman of the Palestine of +to-day, even among the Jewish families, is as high as in the days of +Israel's independence and power. While great respect is shown the father +as head of the family, the mother is often scarcely more than the +servant of her children. The sons especially do not give her the respect +that was once her unquestioned due. The girl is from her birth looked +upon and treated as inferior to her brothers. Patiently, all women of +the Orient seem to bear this inferiority--a sort of penalty they must +pay because Heaven made them women and not men. The young girl's +matrimonial prospects are never in her own hands. She tamely submits to +arrangements made for her, and, without test or questioning, assumes +that her husband is her superior in all things.</p> + +<p>Education among the girls of modern Palestine has been almost hopelessly +neglected--except as teachers from England and America have been able to +supply the deficiency or overcome the indifference. There is little +wonder that home life is unattractive and the housekeeping miserable +with so little possibility for the women to catch even a glimpse of the +higher things that elevate and refine. Sometimes the Jewish girl is a +wife as early as ten or twelve, and frequently at the age of fourteen. +Thus home life is often rendered unhappy and divorce frequent. Physical, +mental, and moral anguish follow in the wake of many of these early +marriages. The young Jewish maiden's life is cheerless before her +wedlock, as she is shut out from the joys of social gatherings; and, +after marriage, cheerlessness gives way to impenetrable gloom. To say +that there are no happy marriages would be wide of the mark. But +divorces are sadly common among the Jews of Palestine to-day; the +husband having almost unlimited power to break, under very slight +provocation, the bond that binds him to his wife. The rabbi must of +course confirm the dissolution of the bond, and thirty piasters is the +price. The effect of this custom upon modern Jewish womanhood in the +venerated land of Rebekah and Rachel is most unhappy.</p> + +<p>Home life in ancient Israel was singularly sweet, pure, and industrious. +The family was both the social and the religious unit. Idleness was +considered a curse; and every child was taught to train his hands as +well as to cultivate his heart.</p> + +<p>The occupations of women were numerous and varied. Everywhere in the +East needlework was and is highly prized. Mothers set their children at +it at a very early age and great skill is often attained. The poorer +women frequently earn with their own fingers the amount of their +marriage portion; and in the hours of seclusion wives of the harem have +always found embroidery and other forms of rich needlework a common +pastime for the empty hours.</p> + +<p>While working in skins, clay, and in metals was reserved for the men, +the Hebrew women were very largely the producers of the food and the +wearing apparel. They assisted in the cultivation of the fields, were +the millers, grinding with their primitive stone mortar and pestle, the +bakers, the weavers and spinners, making use of the hand spindle which +may be seen in Syria and in Egypt to-day, though in the latter country +the men shared with the women the skill in this handicraft. Among the +Hebrews, as with the Greeks, Clotho is a woman.</p> + +<p>We find the virtuous woman, as ideally drawn in the Book of Proverbs, to +be one who finds good wool and flax and works willingly with her hands; +distaff and spindle fly at her finger's bidding, so that her whole +household sits doubly clothed in scarlet, and even fine linen is wrought +in her house, and rich girdles go out to the merchantmen. She makes the +field and vineyard turn out profitably and imports her food from afar. +Whether as shepherdess, gleaner, or the maker of food stuffs or +textiles, the Hebrew woman may justly hold a place of respect among her +sex.</p> + +<p>Among the amusements in which women specially engaged, those of music +and dancing should be given first place. These often had a religious or +semi-religious character. Women did not usually sit down, or rather +recline, at banquets with the opposite sex. Their songs and dances were +generally among themselves; dancing with the opposite sex was unknown. +Instrumental music frequently accompanied their singing, a sort of +tambourine or hand drum being a favorite instrument. Women played an +important part also in mourning customs. Professional female mourners +were hired to go up and down the highways, wailing piteously as part of +the funeral rites. The prophet Nahum in predicting the overthrow of +Nineveh uses a figure suggested by frequent observation of mourning: +"Her maids shall lead her, as with the voice of doves, tabering upon +their breasts."</p> + +<p>The religious status of woman is one of the most significant facts in +Israel's history. Passing out of the patriarchal stage of life, when the +father was high priest in his home, into a more complex existence, it is +not surprising that woman's place should become subordinated. Besides +this, the Hebrew worshipped no goddesses, except in times of religious +lapses. The women of Israel, however, are often found engaged in +sacrifices, prayers, and active service to their God Jehovah.</p> + +<p>While only the men were required to attend the annual feasts, the +attendance of women in large numbers is often recorded. Their presence +seems to be presupposed in the accounts of Hebrew worship; though for +them the annual religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem were not obligatory.</p> + +<p>In the temple worship they had a separate court, further removed from +the inner precincts of the holy altar than the court of the men. And +while they might join in the eating of some sacrificial meals, the sin +offering was only to be partaken of by males. The official duties of the +sanctuary were performed by men, but there were "serving women" who +performed certain menial tasks about the sacred enclosure. When the +temple ritual became elaborated, women were among the singers in the +temple choirs, and they often aided in the music and by singing and +dancing in times of great national rejoicing. And it is not without its +suggestiveness that the Hebrews spoke of a divine revelation as <i>Bath +Kol</i>, or "daughter voice."</p> + +<p>In the days when religious secretism became popular in Israel, and the +people began to divide the exclusive adoration they had hitherto given +to Jehovah and to worship other gods and even goddesses, women became +prominent in idolatrous rites. Jezebel, who was a worshipper of the +Phoenician goddess Ashtoreth, not only became the patron of the priests +and puppets of the Baal cult, but endeavored to break down Jehovah +worship by the destruction of his prophets. Maachah, the mother of King +Asa of the southern kingdom of Judah, introduced the worship of the +Assyrian goddess Astarte. Devotion to Ishtar, the chief goddess of +Babylon became the fashion in Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah the +prophet, who tells of Hebrew women kneading dough and baking cakes in +shape of the silvery moon in honor of the "queen of heaven," Ishtar, the +moon goddess; or perhaps, as some hold, this was the worship of the +planet Venus, for similar offerings were made in Arabia to the goddess +Al-Uzza, who was represented by the star Venus; and the Athenians too, +we are told, offered cakes of the shape of the full moon in honor of +Artemis.</p> + +<p>During the period of the Babylonish captivity, before the final fall of +Jerusalem, Ezekiel rebukes the women of Jerusalem for worshipping +Tammuz, the Babylonian Adonis, who had been taken to the under world; +for, says the prophet, "There sat the women weeping for Tammuz," the +departed husband of Ishtar.</p> + +<p>There was never among the Israelites that reverence for women, akin to +awe, which was manifested among the Teutonic tribes--a reverence which +made women natural oracles. Doubtless in Israel, as everywhere, the +instinctive, intuitive nature of women was discovered by the men of +Israel as in other parts of the world. But women as oracles are isolated +and exceptional. There were witches, who were under the ban. The highest +spiritual influence and leadership in Israel was that of the prophet, +for he was regarded as the mouthpiece of God, and, though of a far +higher order, corresponded to the oracle among heathen peoples. Could a +woman hold this place of dignity and power? The first person of this +class mentioned in the literature of Israel is Miriam the prophetess. In +the days of political confusion, before the time of the monarchy, +Deborah the prophetess arose; and it was Huldah the prophetess who +directed the reforms instituted by King Josiah, when the worship of +Jehovah was purified, the temple repaired, and Mosaism restored to +power. Just as there were false prophets in the days of religious +decline, so there arose false prophetesses, like Noadiah, who attempted +to thwart the reforms of Nehemiah and put his life in jeopardy. In the +early days, the counterfeit of the prophetess, namely, the witch and +sorceress, was not unknown in the land of Palestine. The law, however, +was very stringent against such persons, though King Saul himself once +went disguised to consult the Witch of Endor. Scripture says: "Thou +shalt not suffer a sorceress to live." These are the words which were +thought to give sanction to the burning of witches in New England a +century or more ago.</p> + +<p>In writing of the women in the days of the kings, one naturally turns +to the days of David, the first who brought Israel to a state of +political stability. The familiar saying, "The great men are not always +wise," is well illustrated in the matrimonial experiences of King David. +Many times was he married. Four of the wives of David are worthy of +note. The first may be called his wife of youthful romance, Michal, +Saul's daughter; the next, Abigail, the wife of manhood's admiration; +the third, Bathsheba, the wife of lustful passion; the fourth, Maachah, +the wife of old age's sorrow, for she bore unto him Absalom, the rebel. +It was a giddy and dangerous height to which David the youth had +suddenly arisen when the people were giving him, because of his prowess +in slaying Goliath of Gath, greater honor than the king. Even the young +Princess Michal could not disguise her admiration for the new and +youthful hero. But he must slay one hundred Philistines if he is to +possess Michal, says Saul, thinking David would lose his life in the +attempt. But the young man slew two hundred, and claimed his bride. +While her father was plotting the life of his young rival, Michal was +plotting more skilfully to save it; for, overhearing her father give +orders that her husband and lover should be slain, she let him down from +the window, substituting for her absent lord an image resting in her +bed, beneath the covering, in such wise as to support her statement to +the messengers, who came to take him before Saul, that David was sick. +Michal, having to make choice between her father and her husband, chose +the latter; and though she was long separated from him while David +warred with Saul, when at last David reigned he sent and recovered her, +his first love, and Michal became his wife again.</p> + +<p>But there were women of affairs in Israel, as well as women of +sentiment and devotion. The story of Abigail, wife of Nabal, and how she +became espoused to David, is a pleasing chapter of woman's power to +excite the admiration of a manly heart by combining the grace and the +tact of the womanly character with worldly wisdom and courage. It is one +of the finest illustrations recorded of woman's independence in the land +of the Hebrews. The story of Bathsheba's marriage to David is well +known. Falling in love with Bathsheba's beautiful form, the king plotted +the life of her husband, put him in the front rank in the battle, and, +when he fell, took her to his own house as wife. And while Maachah +became the mother of a son who was to be a very thorn in the heart of +his father, the wickedness which brought about the marriage to Bathsheba +became the cause of the bitterest expression of penitential anguish in +all the range of literature. For an ancient tradition, embodied in the +introduction to the fifty-first Psalm, affirms that that poem of +heart-stinging grief was written when Nathan the prophet had shown King +David the heinous blackness of his sin toward Uriah the Hittite.</p> + +<p>Diplomatic marriages were not uncommon in the ancient commonwealth of +Israel. They were not provided for in the law of Moses. Indeed, they +were distinctly prohibited both by the genius of that law and by its +positive enactments. And yet, no less influential a name than that of +Solomon might have been quoted as giving sanction to this method of +assuring national peace.</p> + +<p>Even modern governments might be cited--not only of the East, but of +the countries of Europe--as pernicious examples of the very ancient +custom of cementing political friendship by the interchange of +daughters. The Tel El Marna tablets present a number of illustrations of +diplomatic correspondence between Oriental kings concerning daughters +who had been given as wives to brother monarchs as a seal of friendship. +Now this well-nigh universal custom of diplomatic marriages, though +discouraged by the law of the Hebrews, spoken against by their prophets, +and forbidden by the very genius of their religion, was not uncommon in +the land of Israel. Saul, the first king, can scarcely be said to have +welded the tribes into a stable and recognized nationality. David, his +successor, was a warrior, who depended for his successes more upon +military prowess than upon the skill of diplomacy. The third King of +Israel fell heir to a nation made by the master hand of his father. The +Hebrews were now recognized by contemporary peoples as a great nation, +and, being respected for their power, peace reigned in Palestine. +Solomon, a man of peaceful temperament, resolved to sway the sceptre and +enhance his influence by the arts of diplomacy rather than by the +instruments of war. Among these arts was that of knowing how to be +wisely and numerously wed. He it was who introduced the harem, in the +modern meaning of the word, into Palestine.</p> + +<p>The living wives--in number seven hundred--that are said to have been +possessed by King Solomon shows that the prayer made by the people when +first they sought a king "like all the nations" had been answered. Here +was the beginning, as some of the prophets thought, of Israel's +subsequent disaster and final undoing as a kingdom. To them Jehovah was +the one unifying cause, the great power that was to preserve their +national integrity, their very existence as a people. To admit foreign +wives into the palace, bringing with them their gods, and becoming +perchance the mothers of their future kings was to defile the religion +of the realm at its heart, to undermine the worship of Jehovah in the +house of him who should be its main defender. In the life and reign of +King Solomon we have the strange contradiction which is not infrequently +discovered between theoretical wisdom and practical folly, between +private life and public conduct. No man of ancient days appears to have +understood woman better than Solomon, nor said more wise things +concerning them. His dealing with the rival claimants of a certain baby, +his wisdom in answering the hard questions of the Queen of Sheba have +made his name famous. And yet it was his lack of practical wisdom in +arranging his own household that sowed the seed of discord and +dissolution which were later to cause great distress and at last +disruption.</p> +<a name="c4" id="c4"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<h3>THE ERA OF POLITICAL DECLINE</h3> + +<p>Altogether the most glorious reign in all the history of the Hebrew +commonwealth was that of Solomon. David his father's military prowess +and his own skill in diplomacy had brought peace with foreign nations, +and rapid internal development. But even now germs of decay were +perceptible. The custom of diplomatic marriage with daughters of heathen +kings, the incoming of luxury, which was destined to undermine the +social, political, and religious hardihood which had previously +characterized the people, were destined powerfully to influence the life +and character of Hebrew women. For here, elements of weakness will often +first show themselves. It was inevitable that with the harem should come +immorality, luxury, effeminacy, and the encroachments of foreign +influence, through the women of many lands bringing their forms of +worship and also their deities with them. It was in anticipation of all +these dangers that the law forbade the king to "multiply wives to +himself." It will be remembered that it was the increased taxation +necessary to keep up such an establishment as that which Solomon brought +into being in Israel that led at his death to a disruption of the +kingdom into two antagonistic parts. It was the violation of this law +that later led the northern kingdom of Israel into one of the bitterest +struggles, one of the most cruel wars of extermination, ever enacted +among a people which has suffered many grievous national experiences. +King Ahab married a Princess of Phoenicia, the daughter of Eth-baal, +King of the Zidonians. With her came her worship of Baal, the very name +of which divinity was imbedded in the name of her father, Eth-baal.</p> + +<p>For force of character, Jezebel is probably unexcelled in the Scripture +records. But that character was, unfortunately, villainous. Molière +affirms that "It is more difficult to rule a wife than a kingdom." Ahab +must have found it so, and surrendered both enterprises to Jezebel. +When--like the famous miller of Potsdam who would not part with his mill +even to the great Frederick--Naboth refused to sell the vineyard which +was so coveted by the king, Jezebel says tauntingly to the disappointed, +fretting husband: "Dost thou rule over the Kingdom of Israel?" This Lady +Macbeth cries: "Give me the dagger." She prepares a great feast, invites +Naboth as a guest of honor, accuses him falsely and has him killed. +Triumphantly she now can present her husband with the much-coveted +vineyard. Her horrible death in the revolution which the fast-driving +Jehu led is held up by the prophets as a warning to subsequent +generations, for, unburied and eaten by dogs, Jezebel's body was cast +away, so that none could afterward honor her memory or say: "This is +Jezebel." And in the same revolution, by a Nemesis so common in history, +Jezebel's son Joram was slain in the field of Naboth. That her name made +a deep impression upon the Hebrew mind, however, may be seen in the fact +that in the book of Revelation, written nearly ten centuries afterward, +an heretical and idolatrous influence is referred to as "that woman +Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess to teach my servants to +commit fornification and to eat things sacrificed to idols."</p> + +<p>In marked contrast with the motherly devotion which generally +characterized the "daughters of Rachel" stands out the example of +Athaliah the unnatural; since she was the daughter of Jezebel, the fact +is not strange. To the truthfulness of the remark of La Bruyère that +"Women are ever extreme, they are better or they are worse than men," +history has often testified. The woman who is usually satisfied to sit +behind the throne has occasionally had ambitions to sit upon it. So it +was with Athaliah. The law of the Hebrews, while it made provision for +inheritance of daughters along with the sons, does not contemplate the +dominion of a queen. Only one woman ever sat upon the throne of the +Hebrews.</p> + +<p>When King Ahaziah, the reigning King of Judah, had been slain by Jehu in +a revolution directed against Joram, King of Israel, and all the seed +royal, Ahaziah's mother, seized with ambitions to be herself the +sovereign, proceeded to put to death all the possible heirs to the +throne. Fortunately for the Davidic dynasty, however, a sister of the +dead king rescued one of his sons, an infant, from the bloody massacre, +and hid him in one of the apartments of the temple. When the proper time +came, the high priest Jehoiada brought forth the lad, now seven years of +age, and with the aid of mighty men, proclaimed him king. Athaliah was +surprised and overwhelmed and was slain; but she had given Judah six +years of unrighteous government.</p> + +<p>The religious influence of Jezebel in the northern kingdom and of +Athaliah, her daughter, in the southern was of greater consequence in +the shaping of the history of the times than their lack of moral worth. +Jezebel was an ardent worshipper of Baal; indeed, she was the patroness +of Baal's prophets, the very bulwark of idolatrous practices in Israel. +Over against her stood the prophet Elijah, the representative of what +was apparently a lost hope. Jezebel had driven the prophets of Jehovah +into the dens and caves of the earth. It is commonly thought that while +men have more vices than women, women have stronger prejudices. But here +is a woman of whom it may be stated--altering a remark made concerning +Nero--"There is no better description of her than to say she +was--Jezebel."</p> + +<p>The Baal worship which she would foster, and did greatly succeed in +fastening upon Israel until its overthrow by Shalmaneser, King of +Assyria, was a debasing nature-worship, which tended to destroy manhood +and drag womanhood into shame. And while there was set up no material +monument of her power in Israel, yet it required generations for the +pernicious influence of her life to die away. If, as Dean Stanley +suggested, that Hebrew epithalamium, the forty-fifth Psalm, was written +in honor of Jezebel's marriage to Ahab, none of its ideals concerning +the new-made queen was ever realized in Israel. She must stand in the +history with Jeroboam whose constant literary monument is disclosed in +the oft-repeated words, "He made Israel to sin."</p> + +<p>In contrast with the proud and cruel queen whose aim had been to slay +Elijah and all who stood for Jehovah worship are certain obscure women +who protected and comforted the prophet. "You will find a tulip of a +woman," says Thackeray, "to be in fashion when a humble violet or daisy +of creation is passed over without remark." We shall not fall under the +implied condemnation by forgetting the nameless widow of Zarephath who, +though found gathering a few sticks to make a meal of the last handful +of flour and a little oil left in the cruse, yet when asked took the +fleeing Tishbite into her frugal home and shared with him her poor +repast. For fully a year did Elijah live under the widow's roof, and the +meal in the barrel wasted not, nor did the oil in the cruse fail, till +the famine was broken by the coming of the long delayed rains.</p> + +<p>A people's religion will register its mark quickly upon its women. A +most suggestive Semitic conception is found in the use of the figure of +marriage to describe the relationship between a people and their god, or +perhaps more accurately, between a land and its governing divinity. This +entire conception finds its best illustration in the term <i>Baal</i>, which +means husband, or lord. The god was conceived of as father and the land +as mother of the people and of all the products of the soil.</p> + +<p>The influence of the Baal cult upon Israelitish society, especially upon +woman, cannot be understood without reference to the nature of that +worship. Picture before your mind's eye the rustic prophet Amos, with +wandering staff in hand, impelled by a divine impulse, making his way +northward, and carrying a divine message to the people. He reaches +Bethel in the southern part of the kingdom of Israel--a city that from +time immemorial had been a sanctuary. He is shocked at the terrible +orgies practised about the altars there in the name of religion; at the +unbridled passion and lewdness in the name of the god and goddess of +fertility, Baal and Ashtoreth; at the men and women revelling in shame, +that the increase of the land might be celebrated and productiveness +symbolized.</p> + +<p>It is while looking upon such a scene of bestialized worship and +debauched womanhood that Amos cries out in prophetic grief:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "The virgin of Israel is fallen,</p> +<p class="i14"> She shall no more rise.</p> +<p class="i14"> She is forsaken upon her land</p> +<p class="i14"> There is none to raise her up."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The domestic life of the prophet Hosea furnishes perhaps the best +illustration of the condition and dark possibilities of womanhood in +Israel during this era of religious lapse and of consequent moral decay. +When religion sanctions prostitution at the altar, profligacy is not +unnatural. Hosea had married one Gomer, daughter of Diblaim. Soon she +forgets her marriage vows and gives herself to a life of shame. Hosea, +not then a prophet, more than once tried to reclaim the erring wife of +his love; but she again falls into evil ways. His home is destroyed; and +as he thinks of the meaning of this fatal blow to his domestic +happiness, he can but see in it a divine call to go forth to correct a +condition of society which could foster such vice and make such sorrows +possible. The whole meaning of his ministry, as he starts out with his +children as object lessons of his and the people's great humiliation, is +but an enlarged reproduction of his own bitter experience.</p> + +<p>That the god and his land were related as husband and wife, was a very +familiar conception in Israel, as well as with the nations round about. +Even Isaiah proclaimed that the land of the Hebrew should be called +Beulah, that is, "married," a land wedded to Jehovah, in pure and +abiding love. But it remained for the worship of Baal, which means both +"lord" and "husband," to fasten upon Israel the basest practices between +the sexes, as a part of the worship of the god to whom the land was +married.</p> + +<p>Hosea sees in his own poignant grief an epitome of Israel's relation of +apostasy from Jehovah. She should have been a wife of purity, keeping +her covenant vows with her Lord, but instead, she had gone away to +consort with other gods and was playing the harlot against her first +love. Repeated efforts had failed to reclaim her, and now she is given +up to horrible vice as she sacrifices her virtue at the altar of Baal. +It is a fearful arraignment, hot with his own experiences and saturated +with tears. The words of Hosea are themselves the best representation of +society of the day, as we speak under the figure of his own bitter +grief:</p> + +<p>"Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife and I am not her +husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and +her adulteries from between her breasts." This is the earnest plea for a +purified Israel and a redeemed womanhood.</p> + +<p>The day is to come, says the prophet with the broken heart, when "she +shall follow after her lovers but she shall not overtake them. Then +shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it +better with me than now." "For she did not know," says Hosea for +Jehovah, "that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her +silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." And looking forward to a +day when the sensual worship of Baal which so debauched womanhood, +should be no longer known in Israel, the prophet, again as the +mouthpiece of Jehovah, still carrying out the same figure of wedlock, +says to Israel: "And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will +betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving +kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in +faithfulness; and thou shalt know Jehovah. And it shall come to pass in +that day that I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and +they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear (with) the corn, and +the wine, and the oil."</p> + +<p>It was only after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in B. +C. 586, and the consequent exile of the Hebrews, that this nature +worship which so endangered womanly virtue was exterminated.</p> + +<p>During the long, synchronous reign of Uzziah, King of Judah, and of +Jeroboam II., King of Israel, in the eighth century before the Christian +era, prosperity both at home and abroad had given the people of both +kingdoms great wealth. The Syrians had for a long series of years been a +breakwater against the growing power of Assyria. In the meantime, there +was unsurpassed opportunity for internal development, commercial +expansion, and the accumulation of wealth. Riches had led to luxury, and +commerce had made the people more hospitable to foreign ideals, both +social and religious.</p> + +<p>It was in the reign of Uzziah's successor, Jotham, that a new and +eloquent voice was lifted up on behalf of reform, calling the people +back to the ideals of the fathers and of the prophets. This new force in +Jerusalem was the young Isaiah, whose striking vision in the year King +Uzziah died caused him to give up a profane life for the prophet's +office; and upon none of the Hebrew prophets do the condition and +character of woman seem to have made so deep an impress. Among the very +earliest of his public utterances, so far as they have been preserved to +us, is that severe arraignment of the women of Jerusalem for their +wanton haughtiness, their wasteful extravagance, their love of show, +their self-indulgence and vice. Thus in detail does the prophet draw for +us the moving picture of female pride: "Moreover, the Lord saith: +Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth +necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing (or tripping delicately) as +they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: therefore, the Lord will +smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and +the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will +take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments (anklets) about their +feet, and their cauls (net works), and their round tires like the moon +(crescents), the chains (or ear pendants), and the bracelets, and the +mufflers, the bonnets (head tires), and the ornaments of the legs (ankle +chains), and the headbands, and the tablets (or smelling boxes), and the +earrings, the rings, and the nose jewels, the changeable suits of +apparel (festal robes), and the mantles, and the wimples (probably, +shawls), and the crisping pins, the glasses (hand mirrors), and the fine +linen, and the hoods (or turbans), and the vails. And it shall come to +pass that instead of sweet smell (of Oriental spices) there shall be +stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, +baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; and +burning instead of beauty. Thy husbands shall fall by the sword, and thy +mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being +desolate, shall sit upon the ground."</p> + +<p>In this period, the women as they went along scented the air with the +perfume from the boxes that hung at their girdles; they lolled idly and +luxuriantly upon ivory beds and silken cushions sprinkled with perfume, +and they gossiped to the sound of music.</p> + +<p>In predicting the great disaster and slaughter that were to come upon +the people through the Assyrian invasion, made successful by the +effeminacy of the people, the prophet discloses not only the dire +extremity to which the people were to be reduced, but reveals the +feminine ideal among the Hebrews, already alluded to in this volume, +namely, that which makes motherhood the aim of every Hebrew woman and +the absence of it a calamity. In that day seven women shall take hold +of one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel; +only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Widowhood +and celibacy were equally sources of deepest grief among the women of +Israel, and both were to be among the results of the luxury and vice of +the land.</p> + +<p>Woman, as well as man, in this era of decay, had fallen into the habit +of the most cruel covetousness, and, when occasion offered, the rich and +powerful women oppressed the poor. The herdsman-prophet Amos, coming +from his home in the rural districts of Judah, was shocked at the +corruption into which even the women of Samaria, the capital of the +northern kingdom of Israel, had fallen, and so, with a rustic boldness +that would not mince matters of such grave concern, he compared the +women to the fat cattle of the land of Bashan, saying to the wives and +mothers of the corrupt and luxury-loving city: "Hear this word, ye kine +of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, +which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring and let us +drink!"</p> + +<p>In the age of decline, it is a noteworthy fact that not a woman appears +to have lifted up prophetic voice against the moral and religious decay. +Prophets there were, but apparently no prophetesses, except those whom +Jeremiah rebukes with scathing earnestness,--women who prophesied +according to their own feelings and desires rather than in harmony with +the eternal principles as applied to the then present conditions. +Indeed, in the entire period of decline which preceded the fall of +Samaria in B.C. 722 and of Jerusalem in B.C. 586, no prophetess appears +in the record, except that Isaiah speaks of his wife as the prophetess. +This involves an entire change in the meaning of the word.</p> + +<p>But there were patriotic women, just as there were patriotic men, +during the days of decline. There was no greater suffering than that of +women when they saw the Babylonian soldiery laying Jerusalem in ashes. +Hugging their babes to their breasts, some were hewn in pieces, while +others suffered shameful indignities and were led away among the +captives, to sojourn in a strange land. The prophets had foreseen the +coming anguish of the women; and when Jeremiah foretold the restoration +of Israel to her land, he proclaimed that the eyes of Rachel, which had +wept for her children "because they were not," should at length be +dried, and her mourning turned into rejoicing. Thus the picture drawn in +that elegiac poem--the greatest of all Hebrew threnodies, known as the +Lamentations of Jeremiah--when he saw the sacred city in ruins, was +reversed:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "How doth the city sit solitary</p> +<p class="i16"> That was full of people!</p> +<p class="i14"> How is she become as a widow!</p> +<p class="i16"> She that was great among the nations,</p> +<p class="i14"> And princess among the provinces,</p> +<p class="i16"> How is she become tributary!</p> +<br> +<p class="i14"> "She weepeth sore in the night</p> +<p class="i16"> And her tears are on her cheeks:</p> +<p class="i14"> Among all her lovers</p> +<p class="i16"> She hath none to comfort:</p> +<p class="i14"> All her friends have dealt treacherously with her,</p> +<p class="i16"> They have become her enemies."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>This was but the enlargement and national application of the distress +experienced by the women of Israel during the siege and final overthrow +of the city in which all Jewish hopes centred.</p> + +<p>Of the Hebrew women during the period of the exile, we know +comparatively little. And yet no woman of later Biblical Judaism made so +deep an impression upon the Jewish mind as did Esther. By her beauty and +the wise cunning of her uncle, she became the wife of King Ahasuerus, +the famous Persian who attempted to measure arms with the Greeks--an +effort which turned out so disastrously for the gigantic but +undisciplined Persian army. The story of Vashti's deposal, because she +refused to lend herself to the immodest proposal of the king, befuddled +by the wine of banqueting and revelry; of the subsequent selection of +Esther as queen; of her entreaty for her people, against whom a +deep-laid and cruel plot was soon to be executed,--is a familiar +narrative.</p> + +<p>That a Jewish woman should have been elevated to such a position in the +Persian palace seems so improbable that some have been inclined to doubt +the accuracy of the story which the Book of Esther records, especially +since profane history tells of but one wife of Ahasuerus, Amestris. But +the argument from silence is always precarious. Vashti and Esther may +easily have been extra-legal wives of the king, even though Amestris +were his only legally recognized wife. The well-known custom of Oriental +monarchies makes such a view highly probable. At all events, there +stands the well-known feast of Purim, the "festival of the Lots," as a +monument in Jewish religious life of the substantial accuracy of the +events recorded in the Book of Esther.</p> + +<p>The power of Esther's life and of her service to her people in exile +may be in a measure estimated by the fact that no book in all the Bible +was so much copied, or was so generally in possession of the Jewish +families as that of Esther. Indeed, it was asserted by Maimonides and +believed by many that when at the coming of Messiah all the rest of the +Old Testament should pass away, there would still remain the five books +of the law and the Book of Esther. Written as it was, upon separate +scrolls, it was in thousands of Jewish houses. Even at the present day +rolls containing Esther are the prized possession of Jewish families; +and these are sometimes even now passed down from parents to their +children upon the wedding day. On the day of Purim, the book is read in +public as a part of the service, that the way in which Esther became the +savior of her people may never be forgotten. The power of Esther's story +over the Jewish mind has seemed the more remarkable, since it is the +single book in the Hebrew Canon which does not contain the name of God. +But on the other hand, there is no Hebrew writing that is so intense in +its national spirit; none which breathes and burns so deeply with the +characteristic genius of "the peculiar people."</p> + +<p>There was perhaps no time in the history of the Hebrews when social +life received a more severe shock than during the days of the reforms +instituted by Nehemiah about the middle of the fifth century before +Christ. When the Jews returned from their exile in Babylonia many of +them married women of gentile blood and religion, daughters of those who +had peopled the land of Palestine during the exile. Children of Jews +were being born and taught heathen language and heathen worship by their +mothers. Nehemiah, under appointment as governor, when he saw that Jews +had married "wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab," commanded that all +foreign women be immediately divorced, and that only Jewish women should +be taken for wives. Great was the temporary suffering involved, to be +sure, but the aim in view, namely that of keeping the people henceforth +free from idolatry seemed to justify even so drastic a measure. A +grandson of the high priest, himself in priestly line, had married +Nicaso, daughter of Sanballat, the Horonite, the very crafty and +troublesome ruler of Samaria. When Nehemiah demanded of him that he give +up his wife he refused. The governor accordingly expelled him from +Jerusalem, chasing him out of his presence, as the Biblical narrative +informs us. Josephus says that when the people demanded that he give up +his alien wife or his priestly office,--as the law flatly forbade +priests from having foreign wives,--he decided first in favor of his +office. But when Sanballat, his father-in-law, heard of it, he told him +not to move hastily, but if he would keep Nicaso his wife, he, +Sanballat, would build him a temple of his own, so that he might be not +only a priest, but high priest, and Nicaso's husband at the same time. +This appealed to Manasseh's judgment, and he chose the plan of his +father-in-law. Thus was built the temple on Mount Gerizim, which became +thereafter the centre of Samaritan life and worship. It was concerning +Mount Gerizim that the Samaritan woman at the well spoke when she said +to Jesus: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in +Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."</p> + +<p>The suffering of the women during the grievous persecution of the Jews +under Antiochus Epiphanes, "the illustrious"--nicknamed Epimanes, "the +madman"--was frightful in the extreme. Some men, but fewer women, +yielded to the pressure of the effort to destroy the Jewish religion by +forcing the Greek pantheon, Greek games and theatre, and the Greek +culture upon the Jews. The struggle into which the people were plunged +brought the self-sacrifice of the women into prominence. A typical case +of suffering is given in the Second Book of Maccabees. King Antiochus +had laid hold of a mother and seven sons, and commanded that they +violate their law by eating swine's flesh. The eldest was first put to +the test. He refused to obey. The king commanded that the tongue of him +who spoke thus defiantly should be cut out, his limbs mutilated, and his +living body roasted in hot pans, and that his mother and her younger +sons should witness the awful sight. One after another the sons were +cruelly dealt with and slain. Each one was given opportunity to save his +life by eating the forbidden flesh, but each refused. At length the +youngest only remained. The king appealed to the mother, standing by, to +advise her boy to obey and save his life. But the sturdy Jewish mother +turned to this son and strengthened him in his determination to die +rather than prove faithless to the religion of his fathers by obeying +the merciless tyrant. He too was then murdered, even more cruelly than +the rest. And at length, the mother herself lost her life upon the same +altar of faithfulness, rather than transgress the law. Of such sturdy +stuff were the Jewish mothers of this awful period made. There is little +wonder that the sons of such women succeeded in winning their +independence and in setting up again a Jewish state, which had been +suppressed for more than four centuries.</p> + +<p>A look into this period would be incomplete without reference to one of +the apochryphal or deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament, highly +prized by the Jews as containing a picture of pious home life among the +Jews in the captivity. A devout Jew, as the story goes, with his wife +Anna and his son Tobias were among those whom Shalmaneser, King of +Assyria, had taken captive from the land of Israel and placed in the +city of Nineveh when Samaria fell about B. C. 722. Loyal to his religion, +Tobit, even in exile, refused to eat the bread of the Gentiles; but by +dint of hard work and fidelity he at length became purveyor to the king. +By the revolving wheel of fortune, Tobit is at length reduced to +poverty. Here Anna his wife, with devoted womanly faithfulness, comes to +the rescue with her skilful fingers, weaving and spinning for a +livelihood; for her husband was now both poor and blind. One day Anna, +wearied and provoked, reproaches her husband for his blindness--such +calamities were esteemed a divine curse in Israel, whereupon Tobit +prayed that he might die. On the self-same day, a young Jewess, Sara, +daughter of Raguel, a captive in Ecbatana of Media, was offering up a +similar prayer that the end of her life might come. For her father's +maid had charged her with killing her seven husbands, who had died one +after another, each on the very first night of the wedding feast, though +the strange deaths had been the work of Asmodeus, the evil spirit, who +was not willing that the maiden should wed. Now these two widely +separated and unrelated prayers were to be brought together into one +romantic story by the help of an angel, who becomes a guide to the son +of Tobit, young Tobias, who is about to start out in life in quest of a +fortune. The angel guides him to Ecbatana, bids him make the eighth to +offer marriage to Sara, whose seven husbands had perished on the nuptial +night. Though Tobias had never seen the young woman before, he was to +her the next of living kin and so should be (according to the Mosaic +law) the one to offer his hand to the youthful, much-married widow. +Would the young Tobias prove strong enough bravely to face the record of +the seven deaths? The angel here comes to the rescue, and calls Tobias's +attention to the heart and liver of a great fish which had been caught +in the Euphrates as the two had journeyed together from Nineveh to +Ecbatana. These, burned with perfumes in the bridal chamber, drove the +evil spirit Asmodeus away, and the marriage festivities went on merrily. +The life of Tobias had been saved. He takes his newly wedded wife back +to his father's house in joy and triumph, cures his father's blindness +by the same magic charm which had saved his own life in the bridal +chamber, and peace and wealth and long life follow in rich profusion.</p> + +<p>This story is chiefly of interest to us as it shows the continuation, +even into the period of exile, of the Levirate marriage custom. While +the story of the marriage of Sara, daughter of Raguel, is a Jewish +romance, the literature of the inter-biblical period is not without its +tragedies, in which woman plays an important rôle. Among these is the +well-known story of Judith and Holofernes.</p> + +<p>Many Jewish women have passed into literature and art. Rebekah at the +wellside, Miriam watching by the reeds or singing the pæan of victory +with timbrel, Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz, Delilah the +voluptuous, and Athaliah the monster, have exerted their influence both +upon the makers of art and writers of drama, but probably no Hebrew +woman before the birth of Jesus has made a deeper impress upon the +imagination of men than Judith, the beautiful woman and patriot of +Bethulia. A woman once saved the city of Rome from overthrow. Several +times in the history of Israel was it given to a woman to be the +deliverer of the people. The names of Deborah, Esther, and Judith have +come down the centuries as those of women who risked their lives for the +salvation of their people from the enemy, and succeeded because of their +tact and prowess.</p> + +<p>The story of Judith and Holofernes is told in the apocryphal Book of +Judith. The Assyrians are at war with Israel, whose cities are being +besieged and wasted in the merciless onslaught. Holofernes, the Assyrian +general, at length lays siege to Bethulia in his onward march to the +holy city of Jerusalem. The people are reduced to straits most direful +and bitter. Women and little ones perish in the streets, and the people +cry out to their leaders to sue Asshur for peace. The rulers, thus +urged, promise within five days to yield to their besiegers. It is then +that Judith, wealthy and pious, a widow of the city, comes forward to +strengthen the fainting heart of the governors and to bid them trust God +and stand firm. She promises, in the meantime, that she herself will aid +them. Praying earnestly that God will help her in her purpose, she lays +aside the habiliments of widowhood, and, arraying herself in garments of +gladness, goes forth with her maids to the camp of Holofernes. Charmed +with her beauty and grace, the Assyrian gives a feast, to which the +bewitching Judith is invited. Holofernes makes merry, and, drinking to +drowsiness, lies down in his tent to sleep. Others depart in the night, +leaving him and the Jewess alone. Seeing her opportunity, Judith seizes +the scimiter that hung on the pillar of Holofernes's bed, and, laying +hold upon the hair of the sleeping man's head, severed it from his body, +and made her way in the darkness back to the city. In the early morning +a sally was made from the city gates, and the Assyrians, finding their +captain headless, were thrown into utter confusion and completely +routed. Thus did Judith become the deliverer of Israel. The women of the +city ran together to see her who had been their savior, made a great +dance for her, sang her praises, and bestowed their benedictions, +placing garlands of olive upon her brow.</p> + +<p>Portia's shrewd dealing with Shylock, the Jewish money lender, called +forth the frequent applause of the onlookers: "A Daniel come to +judgment, yea, a Daniel!" It is in the <i>History of Susanna</i>, an +apocryphal addition to the canonical Book of Daniel, in which the great +prophet is presented in the rôle of arbiter. He appears in a cause +against a woman, Susanna, a Jewish lady of great beauty, the wife of a +wealthy and distinguished Hebrew whose home was in Babylon. Susanna +excited the amours of two judges, elders of the people, who were +frequently at her husband's home; but she spurned all their advances, +till, angered and resentful, they united in a plot to destroy her, and +accused her of unfaithfulness to Joachim, her husband. The penalty for +adultery was death, and the people crowded to the trial; for if there +was conviction, stoning would follow. The two elders, standing, with +their hands upon the innocent woman's head, tell the story agreed upon, +how they saw the wife of Joachim in the very shameful act of which they +accused her; and the assembly, believing the testimony of the two elders +and judges of the people, condemned Susanna to death. At this juncture, +the young man Daniel appears upon the scene, much as Portia in the trial +of Antonio, and, by adroitly cross-questioning the two witnesses +separately, involved them in contradictions, revealing the cowardly plot +against the virtuous woman and convicting them of false witnessing. And +since the law of Moses prescribed the same penalty for those who bore +false testimony as that which would have come to the accused, the elders +were put to death, and Susanna was given honor before all the people. +This is but one of the many examples in Hebrew history which reveal the +unusually high moral character and purity of life that prevailed among +the Hebrew women.</p> + +<p>It is one of the noteworthy and distressing facts of late Jewish +history that in the later teaching of the rabbis woman is placed upon a +distinctly lower plane. Her inferiority to man is frequently emphasized. +And yet there was one factor which came into the life of Judaism, after +the Babylonian exile, which gave to Jewish women an advantage which they +had not previously enjoyed. It was the establishment of the synagogue. +The secondary place given to women in the temple worship has already +been referred to. The man, as head of the family, was representative of +the family and responsible, therefore, for the performance of the +ceremonies required of every Hebrew household. With the destruction of +the temple and the dispersion of the Jews, the temple rites were +rendered impossible. When the synagogue arose to fill the vacancy made +by these conditions, women were given a place in attendance at the +instruction given in these new centres of Jewish life. And while they +were never strictly considered members of the congregation, yet, seated +in a separate part of the room, they heard the Scriptures read and +expounded; and it was not unknown for women even to read on the Sabbath +as among the seven appointees for the day. The <i>Torah</i>, or law, however, +was considered rather too sacred and important to be committed to their +exposition.</p> + +<p>Judging from a remark in the <i>Halacha</i> it is just to infer that in the +days when the Jews had become dispersed throughout the Roman world, +there were two facts that had a very powerful influence upon Jewish +women, one of them of Hebraic, the other of Greco-Roman origin. For the +<i>Halacha</i>, in speaking of the women leaving their homes, said that there +were two causes which took the women away from their domestic duties: +one was the synagogue, the other, the baths,--not, indeed, an altogether +uncomplimentary comment upon the women of the times, for it would seem +they believed in the oft-coupled virtues of cleanliness and godliness.</p> + +<p>From the days of John Hyrcanus, the influence of the Jewish rulers had +been decidedly in favor of Hellenic culture. Thus the revolution brought +about by the Maccabean revolt seemed about to be undone by the +successors of the Maccabees. Jewish independence had been won in an +effort to resist Antiochus Epiphanes and others in their attempts to +destroy Judaism by making the Greek religion and customs prevalent +throughout Palestine. Would the sons and successors of the sturdy +Maccabeans give away the fruits of the hard-won victory? When to +Alexandra was bequeathed the government by her husband, she decided to +espouse the cause of the Pharisaic party, who hated the encroachments of +foreign influence. But, alas, for the queen's inability to cope with a +situation so strained! In her effort to appease the opposite party she +put weapons into their hands, which were soon turned against her. As an +old woman of seventy-three, she saw her two sons in bitter contest, at +the head of opposing forces, each trying to rule over a tumultuous, +faction-torn nation. She passed away, deploring a condition which she +was utterly unable to correct. It was not till Pompey brought his Roman +legions to the gates of Jerusalem, and set up the Roman eagles in the +holy city itself that intrigue and battling for the Jewish throne was +brought to a close. Then Jewish independence was no more.</p> + +<p>A great granddaughter of Alexandra was destined indirectly at least to +play a prominent rôle in later Jewish history. This was Mariamne. Herod, +afterward known as the Great, had hoped by marrying this descendant of +both the contending Jewish parties, to unite the influence of the two +branches of the Asmonean house. In this, however, Herod was +disappointed, and he proceeded to accomplish by force what he had hoped +to do by wiles. In the frightful war of extermination waged by Herod +against the whole Asmonean line, which he feared might endanger the +rulership secured to him by the Roman power and his own political +prowess, there figured a Jewish woman who, because of her sagacity, is +not to be passed over in silence. She was Alexandra, a granddaughter of +the queen of the same name. When Herod attempted to place in the office +of Jewish high priest a young man who would be simply a tool for him, +Alexandra advocated the candidature of Aristobulus,--her son and a +brother of Mariamne,--who by birthright was in line of official +succession. Alexandra shrewdly wrote to Cleopatra that the wily woman of +the Nile might use her influence with Antony to force Herod to terms. +Herod was compelled to yield and appointed Aristobulus, but determined +that Alexandra as well as the new high priest should be put out of the +way. One day after both Herod and Aristobulus had been enjoying a +banquet given by Alexandra, Herod successfully plotted the killing of +the high priest in a fishpond attached to the house of feasting, Herod's +minions holding him playfully under the water until he was drowned. But +Alexandra was not so stupid as to fail to take in the situation. Through +Cleopatra she again succeeded in forcing Herod upon the defensive. Being +summoned to appear before Antony, Herod succeeded, however, in again +ingratiating himself with the Roman, and he returned as strong as ever +to Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>But his return was not altogether happy; for on his departure, he had +given command that should his interview with Antony be ill-fated, +Mariamne, his Jewish wife, should be slain, that no other man might have +her for wife. The secret leaked out, and came to Mariamne's ears. She +violently resented the treatment of Herod and on his return reproached +him for his cruelty; but the insanely jealous and wily Herod was not to +be changed by reproaches. On his absence from home on the occasion when +he went to meet Octavius, the new star which arose on Antony's downfall, +Herod again commanded that both Mariamne and Alexandra be put to death +should he not return alive. Mariamne on his return received him with +cold resentment. With the help of Herod's mother and sister the +estrangement became more and more bitter. The king's cupbearer was +bribed by them to declare that Mariamne had attempted to poison her +husband. The jury, as well as the evidence, being well-arranged +before-hand, the unfortunate Mariamne was led away to execution in B.C. +29, to be followed next year by Alexandra, who had watched her +opportunity and, taking advantage of an illness of Herod, had attempted +to gain possession of Jerusalem and overthrow the reign of Herod. It was +a bold stroke for a woman. It failed, and she was executed. With her +death the line of Asmonean claimants to the throne was ended.</p> + +<p>But the end of this chapter in which womanly hate and intrigue played so +prominent a part was not yet. When Herod's sister, Salome, who had taken +so large a part in the death of Mariamne, saw Herod's sons return from +their studies in Rome, with the looks and royal bearing of their mother, +Mariamne; when she perceived the people's joy at their likeness to the +late Jewish queen who had been so cruelly murdered, her jealousy became +most bitter, and she began to plot against them as she had against their +mother. Herod for a time seemed unmoved and married one of them to +Berenice, Salome's own daughter. This only intensified Salome's hate; +and step after step of domestic hatred and unhappiness led at length to +the order by Herod that the two sons of his Jewish wife, Alexander and +Aristobulus, should be strangled at Sebaste, where years before their +mother Mariamne had become his bride. No wonder Augustus Cæsar could +utter his famous pun in the Greek language which may be reproduced in +the words: "I would rather be Herod's <i>swine</i> than his <i>son</i>!"</p> + +<p>This was the same Herod who issued an edict that rent the heart of many +a mother "in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof," a command which +sent Mary, the mother of the infant Jesus, into exile with her newborn +Son, whose coming into the world was destined to open a new volume, as +the narrative passes from Hebrew to Christian womanhood.</p> + +<p>Among the Semitic peoples it is not usual, certainly in strictly +historic times, to find women holding the first place in the seat of +government. Semiramis in the prehistoric period of Assyria is a +noteworthy exception to the general custom; and queens sometimes ruled +among the Arabians, and "the Queen of Sheba" in southern Arabia became +famous. But the common Semitic conception that the king was son and +special representative of the deity made it more difficult for women to +hold the sceptre. Among the Hebrews there is no instance of a woman +being legally recognized as queen. Deborah, before the days of the +kingdom, "judged Israel" by virtue of her prophetic character and her +ability as a woman of affairs, and Athaliah was enabled to usurp the +throne through the murder and banishment of male heirs to the crown. In +speaking of her reign it was said that she was the only woman who ever +reigned over Israel. There is, however, one other woman who held the +Jewish sceptre. After the bloody struggle led by the Maccabees, the Jews +at length obtained their liberty from the yoke of the Seleucid kings. +Israel then enjoyed about a century of independence. During this period +there arose one woman who for nine years ruled the nation. This was +Alexandra, the widow of Alexander Janneus, whose unhappy reign came to +an end by strong drink, B. C. 78. The conception of the government as a +pure theocracy where the king reigned as representative of Jehovah +himself rendered it impossible for women to be recognized as lawful +sovereigns. The second Psalm, which seems to be a sort of coronation +ode, written at the time of the incoming of a new king, expresses the +relationship between Jehovah and the earthly ruler:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son,</p> +<p class="i14"> This day have I begotten thee."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Even wives of the Kings of Israel, as a rule, are not called queens, +though Jezebel,--the Phoenician wife of Ahab,--king of the Ten Tribes, +is a notable exception. This may be accounted for, however, by the fact +that she was not an Israelite and worshipper of Jehovah, but a devotee +of Ashtoreth, the queen divinity of Phoenicia; and withal she was a far +stronger, more aggressive personality than her inefficient husband. It +is of interest to observe also that Jezebel is called queen only in +connection with her sons. The idea of queen-mother is far more common +among the Hebrews than that of queen-wife. Mothers of kings were given +especial honor. King Solomon takes his seat upon his throne and sends, +not for his wife to sit by his side, but for Bathsheba, his mother, +whose adjacent throne is set at the king's right hand. Asa, in his +religious reforms, removed his mother from being queen because she had +set up an image or sacred pillar in honor of Baal worship. Jeremiah the +prophet called upon the King of Israel and his queen-mother--who seems +to have been most active in opposing the prophet's proposed policy in +submitting to the Babylonians without a struggle--to humble themselves, +because their crowns were even then toppling from their heads. Thus the +semi-royal character of the mothers of the kings is evident. This will +account, at least in part, for the wording of the chronicles of the +kings of Israel and Judah, for this is the set formula: "And A----slept +with his fathers, and B----, his son, reigned in his stead. And his +mother's name was M----. And he did that which was right (or evil) in +the sight of the Lord."</p> + +<p>Thus is the importance of the queen-mother constantly emphasized in +the Hebrew records.</p> +<a name="c5" id="c5"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>V</h3> + +<h3>THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN WOMEN</h3> + +<p>Archæology here puts on her apron, takes her pick and spade in hand to +help us uncover the story of the woman of Babylonia and Assyria. Skulls, +jewels, cylinders, tablets, monuments, mural decorations must be brought +to light after their long sleep beneath the surface of the ground. As +alive from the dead these come forth to tell, at least in broken story, +of those women who helped to make the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates +among the most noteworthy spots upon the face of the Eastern world.</p> + +<p>What we may know concerning the women of this early Assyro-Babylonian +civilization may be derived in part from the Greek annalists who taught +the world to write history, but chiefly from the discoveries in modern +excavations. And even with these sources at our command, we shall find +that many things which we would like to know about Assyrian and +Babylonian women are still obscure.</p> + +<p>The Sumer-Accadian question shall not disturb us here. That there was a +non-Semitic people living in the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris, +and that they developed a civilization from which the Babylonian and +Assyrians later borrowed, seems clearly established. What the Sumerian +and Accadian women left to their Semitic sisters who came at length into +the ancient heritage, it would now be impossible to say with any degree +of certainty.</p> + +<p>The ancient mythology and the epic poems of these people contain many +female characters, which may throw some light upon woman's place in +their civilization. A people's mythology is the dim daguerreotype of +their childhood thinking. Fortunately for us, the last fifty years have +brought to light a whole series of epic poems from early Babylonian +life, some of them in fragmentary form, others more or less well +preserved. In nearly all these the feminine character has its place.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that in the Hebrew account of the creation no +female divinity plays a part. In the kindred Semitic accounts from +Babylonia and Assyria, however, Tihâmat, or Mummu Tohâmat, becomes the +primeval mother of all things. She was chaos--corresponding to the +Hebrew <i>Tehôm</i>, or "abyss." And thus, from the womb of dark chaos, with +the ocean as father, came the divinity, the sun, moon and stars, earth, +man, everything. But, strangely enough, after the birth of the first +gods from chaos, a strife arose between them and their mother Tihâmat. +It is, however, the old story of light's struggle with darkness. Anu +would decide the dispute, but Tihâmat declares that the war must go on. +Marduk, the god of light, becomes the special champion of the forces +arrayed against primeval darkness, and Tihâmat is vanquished and cut +asunder. From one part he makes the firmament of the heaven, to which +the gods of the heavenly lights, sun, moon, and stars, are assigned, and +from the other half he fashions the earth.</p> + +<p>So, also, in the story of the Deluge, the Babylonian Noah, called +Sît-Napishti, takes his wife with him into the ark; and when the floods +subside and the ship rests, stranded upon the land, Ishtar, the goddess +of the rainbow, greatly rejoices as she smells the sweet incense that +arises from the grateful altar of Sît-Napishti. The god Bel is persuaded +never again to destroy the earth with a flood, and so takes Sît-Napishti +and his faithful wife by the hand, blesses them, and at length +translates them to paradise.</p> + +<p>One of the most prominent heroines of early Babylonian epic is Ishtar. +Indeed, there are many variant stories concerning her. Ishtar's descent +into Hades is, in fact, one of the most important legends of Oriental +mythology. She is the goddess of love, corresponding to the Canaanite +and Phoenician divinities Ashtoreth and Astarte. She is the Aphrodite, +the Venus of classic myth. Earlier she did not hold power over men's +minds. She was a goddess of war, and the earlier warriors honored her as +their patroness. It was Esarhaddon who enlarged the honors paid her; and +he is said once to have interrupted his scribe, while reading of two +important expeditions of arms, to send and fetch <i>The Descent of Ishtar +into Hades</i>.</p> + +<p>This romantic story of adventure on the part of the goddess is well +set out in early Assyro-Babylonian literature. Tammuz, the young husband +of Ishtar, has been cut off by the boar's tusk (of winter). Ishtar +mourned incessantly for her lover, but in vain. She resolved to rescue +him if possible from the realm of shade, the kingdom of Allat, whence he +had gone; for, though god he was, he must keep company with all the rest +whom death claimed. Only one method of restoring him to the realm of +life was possible. There was a spring which issued from under the +threshold of Allat's own palace. One who could bathe in and drink of +these wonderful waters would live again. But, alas! they were zealously +guarded; for a stone lay upon the fountain, and seven spirits of earth +watched with assiduous care lest some might drink and live. Of these +waters Ishtar resolved to go and fetch a draught. But no one, not even a +goddess, can descend into this Hades alive. So we read: "To the land +from whence no traveller returns, to the regions of darkness, Ishtar, +the daughter of Sin, has directed her spirit to the house of darkness, +the seat of the God Iskala, to the house which those who enter can never +leave, by the road over which no one travels a second time, to the house +the inhabitants of which never again see the light, the place where +there is no bread, but only dust, no food, but wind. No one can see the +light there, ... upon the gate and the lock on all sides the dust lies +thick." But Ishtar, in her quest of love, is nothing daunted by the +difficulties or the forbidding aspects of her task. She descends to the +gates of Allat's abode and knocks upon them, calling commandingly to the +doorkeeper to unlock the bolts: "Guardian of life's waters, open thy +doors, open thy doors that I may go in. If thou do not open thy gate and +let me in, I will sound the knocker, I will break the lock, I will +strike the threshold and break through the portal. I will raise the dead +to devour the living, the dead shall be more numerous than the living." +The porter goes and tells his mistress, Allat, of the imperious demand +of Ishtar. "O goddess, thy sister Ishtar has come in search of the +living water; she has shaken the strong bolts, she threatens to break +down the doors." Allat treats her with contempt, but finally commands +her messenger: "Go, then, O guardian, open the gates to her, but unrobe +her according to the ancient laws." Since men come naked into the world, +they must go out unclad, and the older custom among the Babylonians was +to bury the dead without clothing. Ishtar is stripped of her garments +and jewels, and at each successive gate more of her ornaments were +appropriated. First went her crown, for Allat alone was queen in that +gloomy realm; then her earrings, her jewelled necklace; then her veil, +her belt, her bracelets, and her anklets. When through the seventh gate +she passed, all her garments were taken away; and Allat commanded her +demon Namtar--the plague devil--to take her from the queen's presence +and strike her down with disease of every sort. Meanwhile, in the upper +world all are mourning because of her absence; for, as goddess of love +and procreation, all nature was perishing, and there was no renewal. All +the forces of the upper world, therefore, united to bring her back to +light; for the world would be depopulated and barren, if some means were +not found to restore her.</p> + +<p>Here the supreme god Hea comes to the rescue, for he alone, as +controller of the universe, can violate the laws which he himself has +imposed thereon. Hea commands that Allat give life again to Ishtar by +the application of the water of life to her. She was informed that power +over the life of her consort Tammuz was given into her hands. The water +of life was poured upon him, he was anointed with precious perfumes and +clothed in purple. Thus "Nature revived with Tammuz: Ishtar had +conquered death."</p> + +<p>That the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a queen; that the real +sceptre in the underworld was swayed by a woman is a matter of some +significance. In the old Norse mythology the goddess Hel, without a +husband, ruled in the abode of Hell, or the place of death. Among the +Greeks, Persephone divided with her husband, Pluto, the control of the +underworld. With the Babylonians it is the goddess Allat whose power +controls the realm of the dead; and even her scribe, contrary to what we +might expect, was also a woman, whose name was Belit-Iseri. Allat, the +mistress of death, is not represented as an attractive woman, but ill +shaped, with the wings and claws of a bird of prey. She goes to and fro +in her realm, exploring the river which flows from the world to her own +abode. A huge serpent is brandished in each hand, with which, as "an +animated sceptre," she strikes and poisons those against whom her enmity +is directed. The boat in which she navigates the dark river has a fierce +bird's beak upon its prow, and a bull's head upon its stern. Her power +is irresistible; and even the gods cannot invade her realm except they +die like men, and graciously acknowledge her supremacy over them. Just +as the dead eat and drink and sleep, so does Allat. Her daily portion, +as with other divinities, comes from the table of the gods, brought by +her faithful messenger, Namtar. Libations poured out in sacrifice by the +living also trickle down to her through the earth. Thus Allat lives and +reigns in the land from which no traveller returns, a kingdom into which +twice seven gates open to receive the dead; but none opens for their +release.</p> + +<p>Professor Peter Jensen, of Marburg, Germany, has raised the question: +Why in the realm of the dead is the power of woman so important, and +even monarchical in character? He answers it by the very simple +explanation that just as the Hebrews personified their Sheol, and the +North Germanic nations their Hel, so the Assyrians and Babylonians +regarded their country of the dead as a person. And that since names of +places and lands are of feminine gender, in Assyrian thought as in the +Hebrew, the land of the dead was conceived of under the form of a woman. +Whether this be the true explanation or not, certain it is that the +female principle played an important part in the religious thinking of +the Assyro-Babylonian peoples.</p> + +<p>It is not difficult, therefore, to perceive that women would hold an +important place in Babylonian and Assyrian religious life, and in the +Phoenician cult. When the goddess plays an important part in religion, +especially when the renovative and procreative powers of nature are +worshipped, woman will naturally find a place. While the Hebrews have +their prophetesses, the religion of Babylonia and Assyria has its +priestesses as well as prophetesses.</p> + +<p>No account of the women of Assyria would seem complete without +reference to the legend of Semiramis and her wonderful exploits. And as +is the case with much of the history of the dawn of nations, we are +indebted to the Greeks for preserving for us the story of this +superlative queen. Ctesias, Diodorus, Herodotus, Strabo, and others tell +her story or mention her achievements. This remarkable woman was said to +be the daughter of Derceto, the goddess of reproductive nature and of a +youthful mortal with whom she had fallen in love. The babe was exposed +by its mother, but was found and cared for by a shepherd named Simmas. +Having developed into a very beautiful damsel, she won the hand of +Oannes, Governor of Syria. In the war against Bactria she so +distinguished herself for bravery, disguising herself as a soldier and +scaling the wall of the besieged capital, that the King Ninus, founder +of the city of Nineveh, took her to be his own queen. Soon Ninus died +and Semiramis became sole ruler of the realm. Unbounded ambition, +coupled with surpassing genius, caused her to undertake the labor of +eclipsing the glory of all her predecessors. She built cities, threw up +defences, conquered kings, and extended her territory in every +direction. She made the city of Babylon one of her capitals, fortifying +it with gigantic walls of sun-dried brick, cemented with asphalt. She +built wonderful bridges supported by huge pillars of stone. Diodorus +Siculus, quoting Ctesias, thus describes her work upon the walls of the +city of Babylon: "When the first part of the work was completed, +Semiramis fixed on the place where the Euphrates was narrowest, and +threw across it a bridge five stadia long. She contrived to build in the +bed of the stream pillars twelve feet apart, the stones of which were +joined with strong iron clamps, fixed into the mortises with melted +lead. The side of these pillars toward the run of the stream was built +at an angle, so as to divide the water and cause it to run smoothly past +and lessen the pressure against the massive pillars. On these pillars +were laid beams of cedar and cypress, with large trunks of palm trees, +so as to form a platform thirty feet wide. The queen then built at great +cost, on either bank of the river, a quay with a wall as broad as that +of the city and one hundred and sixty stadia long, that is, nearly +twenty miles. In front of each end of the bridge, she built a castle +flanked by towers, and surrounded by triple walls. Before the bricks +used in these buildings were baked, she modelled on them, figures of +animals of every kind, colored to represent living nature. Semiramis +then constructed another prodigious work: she had a huge basin, or +square reservoir, dug in some low ground. When it was finished the river +was directed into it, and she at once commenced building in the dry bed +of the river, a covered way leading from one castle to the other. This +work was completed in seven days, and the river was then allowed to +return to its bed, and Semiramis could then pass dry-shod under water +from one of her castles to the other. She placed at the two ends of the +tunnel, gates of bronze, said by Ctesias to be still in existence in the +time of the Persians. Lastly, she built in the midst of the city the +temple of the god Bel."</p> + +<p>It will be seen from such a paragraph as this just quoted how Semiramis +anticipated much of the best work of engineering of modern times. The +mountains and valleys yielded to her daring when highways were to be +built for the extension of her power and her commerce. In Armenia, +Media, and all the regions around she exhibited her genius and prowess. +Even Egypt and Ethiopia fell before her. Only when she undertook to +carry her arms into far-off India did she meet with reverses. +Stabrobatis, King of India, with the aid of elephants, utterly routed +the army of the valiant queen, and she never again attempted an +expedition to the Far East. As an example of what Semiramis thought of +herself, we may quote the words attributed to her: "Nature gave me the +body of a woman, but my deeds have equalled those of the most valiant +men. I ruled the empire of Ninus, which reaches eastward to the river +Hinaman (the Indus), southward to the land of incense and myrrh (Arabia +Felix), northward to the Saces and Sogdians. Before me no Assyrian had +seen a sea; I have seen four that no one had approached, so far were +they distant. I compelled the rivers to run where I wished, and directed +them to the places where they were required. I made barren land fertile +by watering it with my rivers; I built impregnable fortresses; with iron +tools I made roads across impassable rocks; I opened roads for my +chariots, where the very wild beasts were unable to pass. In the midst +of these occupations, I have found time for pleasure and love!"</p> + +<p>What are we to think of this story of the very wonderful lady of the +Orient of long ago? Did she ever live, move, and have her remarkable +being? It is needless to reply that the story is purely legendary, that +none of the modern excavations which have been so fruitful in character +have confirmed the story of Ctesias. On the contrary, the monuments have +as yet failed even to certify to the existence of such a woman. The fact +that her birth is given as from a goddess, that at her death she was +changed into a dove, and was thereafter herself worshipped as a goddess, +is some evidence of the unreliable character of the narrative. A queen +who bore the name of Sammuramat and lived between B.C. 812 and B.C. 783 +has been discovered as a historical personage, a name that may possibly +have influenced that given the great prehistoric queen. But the +marvellous achievements attributed to Semiramis are discovered to be the +work of man through a long series of years, and that, too, highly +idealized in the numerous details.</p> + +<p>That the imaginary queen, as the story goes, had a power over the minds +of the people is evident from the fact that many later achievements of +arms and of building were attributed to her. And yet, notwithstanding +the mythological character of the story of Semiramis, there is reflected +much truth concerning Assyro-Babylonian history in these legends. That +so great achievements should have been attributed to a woman is evidence +of a lack of that prejudice against woman which is discoverable among +many Oriental people. In the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris, +women had a noteworthy degree of independence, and in some respects a +recognized equality. The legend could have developed only in such an +atmosphere. The comparison of feminine and masculine virtues has been +made time out of mind; the following words from Plutarch are, in this +connection, of interest: "Neither can a man truly any better learn the +resemblance and difference between feminine and virile virtue than by +comparing together lives with lives, exploits with exploits, as the +product of some great art, duly considering whether the magnanimity of +Semiramis carries with it the same character and impression with that of +Sesostris, or the cunning of Tanaquil the same with that of King +Servius, or the discretion of Portia the same with that of Brutus, or +that of Pelopidas with that of Timoclea, regarding that quality of these +virtues wherein lie their chiefest point and force."</p> + +<p>It is certain that if early Assyrian myth is to be consulted, the +Assyrians had no hesitancy in recognizing the possibility of real +greatness in woman's accomplishments and womanly genius.</p> + +<p>While there are few queens of note among the prominent personages of +whom we read upon the monuments, and while the name of no woman occurs +in the Eponym Canon by which the chronology of the nation's life is +reckoned, yet the place of woman among the Assyrians and Babylonians was +one of greater privilege and honor than among most ancient nations. +Those unsurpassed walls that protected the great city of Babylon and the +hydraulic works which Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, was forced to +capture before the city fell into his hands are attributed by Herodotus +to a woman,--Queen Nitocris.</p> + +<p>In the Code of Hammurabi, who was King of Babylon about B. C. 2250, the +most ancient of all known codes of law, woman fares well for so early a +period. One of these quaint laws reads: "If a woman hates her husband +and says, 'Thou shalt not have me,' they shall inquire into her +antecedents for her defects. If she has been a careful mistress and +without reproach, and her husband has been going about and greatly +belittling her, that woman has no blame. She shall receive her presents, +and shall go to her father's house." "If she has not been a careful +mistress, has gadded about, has neglected her house and belittled her +husband, they shall throw that woman into the water!" Under this code, a +man might sell his wife to pay his debts. For three years she might work +in the house of the purchaser; after which she was to be given her +freedom. Where the law of Moses says: "He that smiteth his father <i>or +his mother</i> shall be surely put to death," Hammurabi's code enjoins: +"Who smites his father, loses the offending limb."</p> + +<p>From the many contract tablets that have been exhumed much fresh light +has been thrown upon the social customs of the people in the valleys of +the Euphrates and the Tigris. In Babylonia the woman did not suffer +greatly before the law from the fact that she was the weaker vessel. +Indeed, the scales were held quite evenly as between the sexes. A woman +might hold her own property, appear in public, and attend to her own +business. Frequently, Assyrian women are depicted upon monuments riding +on the highways upon mules. Woman might even hold office and plead in a +court of justice--so far did Babylonia anticipate the progress of modern +Western ideas. Agreements have been discovered upon tablets by which it +was covenanted between a man and his wife that should the husband marry +another during the lifetime of the first wife, all the dowry of the +first shall be returned to her and she shall be allowed to go where she +pleases. The law concerning divorce, however, would seem to lack that +fairness which characterizes many other regulations of social life. A +man might divorce his wife by the payment of a pecuniary consideration; +but if a woman undertook the initiative in annulling the marriage +contract, she might be condemned to death by drowning.</p> + +<p>In the formula for the exorcism used by the priests to break the spell +the gods had sent upon one possessed or sick, we discover that despising +the mother was regarded as being as culpable as dishonoring the father. +"Has he perchance set his parents or relations at variance, sinned +against God, despised father or mother, lied, cheated, dishonored his +neighbor's wife, shed his neighbor's blood, etc. Indeed, an ancient law, +which is thought to go back even to Accadian precedents, even gives to +the woman, if she be a mother, greater honor than to the man for it is +prescribed that if a son denies his father he is to be fined; if he +denies his mother, he is to be banished."</p> + +<p>It must be said, however, that the social freedom of the women depended +much upon their social rank. The women of the lower walks of life were +singularly independent for an Oriental community. Indeed, their liberty +was practically unrestricted. They could be seen upon the public +highways, with both head and face uncovered. They could make their +purchases at the market place, attend to any business that they might +find necessary, and visit the homes of their friends without restraint. +While all women, whatever might be their rank, had the same standing +before the laws of the land, unbending custom kept women of the highest +plane of social life within the seclusion of the home. Even when allowed +the privilege of being seen in public, they must go attended by eunuchs +or pages, so that both seeing and being seen were difficult processes. +Of course, in the highest lady of the land, the queen, was found the +culmination of dignity and exclusiveness, and she was rarely seen by +anyone except her husband, members of the royal family, and her +servants. Thus rank, instead of giving freedom and enlarged powers, +tended only to bring monotony and seclusion.</p> + +<p>The women of the lower classes usually went with bare feet, as well as +bare heads. With their long shaggy garments they did not present a very +picturesque or attractive appearance. The truth is, the costumes of the +people of Babylonia and Assyria were wanting in that grace and beauty +which is discoverable among some other people of the Orient. The +garments lacked that lightness of effect which flowing robes and drapery +make possible. The designs and materials were stiff, and with the +profusion of borders and fringes presented a heavy aspect. The women did +not choose so to dress as to show their natural figure, but by +concealing themselves in heavy and sometimes padded garments, their +forms were far from beautiful, and contrast most unfavorably with the +Greek and Egyptian grace of womanly dress and carriage. The women as +well as the men used much embroidery, which was generally very heavy and +often elaborate. Some of the designs were highly ornate and beautiful.</p> + +<p>Of the education of women in Babylonia and Assyria little definite is +known, except that it was common for women as well as men to read and +write. Exercises and translations of school children have been exhumed +from the mounds of ancient Babylonian cities. Dolls and other playthings +of the children have also been brought to light, showing that the +children of all ages have much the same tastes and occupations. Music, +dancing, embroidery, besides reading and writing, were among the +accomplishments of the girls of these lands.</p> + +<p>Households were amply equipped religiously, for every home must be +provided with some method of keeping itself free from the power of evil +spirits. When all believe that the world is peopled with demons who are +perpetually trying to ensnare men and bring them to ruin if possible, we +might expect that the women would be especially superstitious and +punctilious to the last degree in order that all evil spirits may be +frightened from their dwellings. Hence, they hung amulets in almost +every conceivable place. Talismans, statuettes of the dreaded spirits +might be seen in every home. Every charm was used to thwart the enemies +of human happiness in their attempt to destroy domestic peace, estrange +husband from wife, drive the head of the family from his own roof, and +send barrenness and blight in every quarter.</p> + +<p>The ancient Babylonians had a queer way of marrying off their daughters, +if we may believe Herodotus--which we do not. Not any period in the year +might the maiden select as the time to become a matron, but only on one +occasion during the year, and that a public festival, was marriage +permitted. On this occasion, the daughters of marriageable age were put +up at public auction. The crier took his place, while the young men who +were looking for wives or the young men's parents who were to pay for +them, stood about watching their opportunity to exchange their money for +feminine values. It is said that the girls were put up for purchase, +according to their beauty--the prettiest first, and so on to the end of +the sale. Often the contest of buyers would run high in excitement, and +large prices were offered for the coveted prize.</p> + +<p>After the good-looking damsels were all sold at fair prices, then came +the less attractive maidens, who, we are informed, were not sold, but +offered as wives with a dowry, the proceeds of the beauties being used +to add to the value of their less fortunate sisters. When the auction +was over, the marriage followed, and the brides accompanied their +new-made husbands to their homes. There was no escape from this method +of wedlock. The procedure was not optional, but imperative. There was no +marriage ring or bracelet to commemorate the event, but each new wife +was given a bit of baked clay in the form of an olive. Through this +model a hole was pierced so that it might be worn continually about the +neck, and upon it were inscribed the names of the parties to the +transaction and the date of their marriage. Several of these clay +memorials have been found as mute witnesses of the days when girls were +put up at the annual sale of wives in the month of Sabat and knocked +down to the highest bidder.</p> + +<p>Later, however, this custom gave way to one more rational, when marriage +came to be considered both "an act of civil law and a rite of domestic +worship." It became a contract entered into by two parties. A scribe +must be called in to draw up the marriage bond. It is to be properly +witnessed and filed away with a public notary for future reference. +There is a long period of social evolution between these two methods of +conducting marriage. And it is not to be supposed that all trace of +bargain and sale have disappeared. Not at all. The following happy +effort has been made at reproducing a scene which might have easily +occurred between the father of a young man who seeks in marriage the +hand of a certain damsel and the father of the girl at the home of the +latter.</p> + +<p>"'Will you give your daughter Bilitsonnon in marriage to my son +Zamamanadin?' The father consents and without further delay the two men +arrange the dowry. Both fathers are generous and rich, but they are also +men of business habits. One begins by asking too much, the other replies +by offering too little; it is only after some hours of bargaining that +they finally agree and settle upon what each knew from the beginning was +a reasonable dowry--a mana of silver, three servants, a trousseau and +furniture, with permission for the father to substitute articles of +equal value for the cash." There being no further obstacles the marriage +is accordingly fixed for a day of the next week.</p> + +<p>But does not the young lady need a longer time to prepare for an event +of so great moment in her life? No, because she has been anticipating +for some time that such a transaction will be effected by her parents; +for has she not already arrived at the age of thirteen? She has +therefore not let the past months slip idly through her fingers. She has +been busy sewing, embroidering, and making other things of beauty and +usefulness for her expected home. But nothing has concerned her more +than to see that her own person shall be attractive to her new husband +when the veil is lifted on her wedding day. Odors and ornaments ample +have been provided.</p> + +<p>Early upon the appointed day the friends may be seen moving toward the +home of the bride-elect. The scribe who is to draw up the marriage +contract is present ready to perform his important task. With his +triangular stylus he indents the covenant in soft clay. This is to be +inserted in an envelope also of clay that there may be a double +impression of the words of the contract. This is to be carefully baked +and filed away for possible future use--it may be to be found thousands +of years afterward by some explorer digging in the ruins of a long +buried city. The day has dawned beautiful, for the astrologer has said +that all would be propitious. The hands of the bride and groom are tied +together with a thread of wool, the customary emblem of the union into +which they have now entered. The marriage contract is clearly read +before the assembled company, and the witnesses make their mark upon the +soft tablet, the dowry and other presents are given over. Prayer is made +to the proper gods for the happy pair, and curses are invited upon any +who shall undertake to annul the covenant or revoke the gifts.</p> + +<p>Next comes the banqueting, of which the Assyrians were so fond. Music +and dancing, jesting and telling happy tales, with eating and drinking, +make up the round of merriment. At length the time comes for the bridal +party to make its way to the home of the groom's parents. All along the +way are signs of rejoicing, in which all are expected to join. The +groom's house is reached, and here the festivities are resumed and +carried on for several days, till all are fatigued and sated with mirth +and quite ready to see the young couple settle down to their new life as +home makers.</p> + +<p>Polygamy was rare for the Orient, especially at so early a period; but +where polygamy was practised at all, the harem existed. In Assyria, the +king might have more than one legitimate wife, to say nothing of those +who were not so ranked. Sargon had three lawful wives, for each of whom +he erected a separate apartment in his royal palace of Dur-Sargina. Like +Oriental houses generally, the several apartments are entered from a +central court. The queen's apartments were usually rich in decoration +and furnishings. The harem of Sargon's palace, which may be taken as +typical, was entered by gates. One of these had upon the front two huge +bronze palm trees, on each side one. Since the palm tree is emblematic +of both grace and fecundity, the significance of its use is apparent. +There were anterooms and drawing rooms, as well as bedrooms, for the +use of the queen. These were plastered, and mural decorations were +abundant, the designs being sometimes conventional, sometimes depicting +religious ideas in symbolism. Of course, the winged bull and the winged +lion, watchful guardians of Assyrian interest, were often painted upon +the walls. The gods were favorite subjects. In the women's apartments +were chairs, stools, tables, and the floors of brick or stone were +covered with carpets and mats. The bed, more like a modern lounge, was +raised upon wooden legs, and held a mattress and appropriate coverings, +and placed in a highly ornamented alcove, gave to the bedroom an +attractive air.</p> + +<p>But how does the queen amuse herself? for long indeed must the hours +often have seemed as she lived out her life a comparative prisoner. G. +Maspero, the noted French assyriologist, has thus described the +occupation of the queens, as they try to fill the idle hours: "Dress, +embroidery, needlework, and housekeeping, long conversation with their +slaves, the exchange of visits, and the festivals, with dancing and +singing with which they entertained each other, serve for occupation and +amusement. From time to time the king passes some hours amongst them, or +invites them to dine with him and amuse themselves in the hanging +gardens of the palace. The wives of the princes and great nobles are +sometimes admitted to pay homage to them, but very rarely, for fear they +should serve as intermediaries between the recluses and the outer +world."</p> + +<p>The kings of both Assyria and Babylonia were, as a rule, kings of +insatiable conquest. Hence, much of the year was spent with the army in +some distant territory, or, it may be, in lion hunting, a sport which +had great attractiveness to a number of the kings. It will be thus seen +how little the wives of the monarch enjoyed his real companionship. +There was ample time for monotony, broken now and again by jealousies, +followed by bitter hatred and deadly plottings. One wife would almost +inevitably share more of the attention of the king than the rest. Those +who had reason to believe themselves neglected would certainly be +incensed against the more favored rival. The servants of the palace +would often be drawn into the disputes, which sometimes had a tragic +end. The whole harem, combining against a favorite, might, through the +use of poison or by some other clandestine means, end the life of her +who was so unfortunate as to be loved by the king beyond the measure +thought by her rivals to be her due.</p> + +<p>One happy effort tended to relieve at least a little the dull seclusion +of the ladies of the harem. This was the planting of a garden in a court +adjacent to the house of the women. Often these gardens would be most +elaborate and beautiful. The hanging gardens of Babylon, accounted as +among the Seven Wonders of the World, were built in honor of a favorite +queen. The garden of the harem consisted of trees, such as the sycamore, +the poplar, or the cypress, and other plants selected to please the eye +of those whose seclusion must have made this suggestion of the country +most grateful.</p> + +<p>Feasting played an important rôle in the heyday of Nineveh's grandeur, +as also in the Babylon of later days. The king has just returned from a +great triumph in the Westland. The whole city is agog. For days the +round of drinking and carousing has proceeded, till the whole city is +drunken. The queen wishes to have a part in the expressions of victory +and rejoicing. She, with some trepidation, invites the king to dine with +her in her apartments in the harem. At the appointed hour all is +arranged. The gorgeous couch the queen has prepared for the king to +recline upon while he sips his wine scented with aromatic spices, the +rich drapery of the couch, the small table near by, laden with golden +and silver vessels of costliness and elegance, the slaves who attend +upon the lord's wishes, the poet-laureate to sing the conqueror's +praises in elaborate lines of flattery--all conspire to make the +occasion one of great magnificence. Thus, from king and queen to the +lowliest of the great city, the spirit of revelry, the love of carousal, +and the habit of intoxication, took hold of the luxuriant capital. We +recognize the appropriateness of the familiar words of Nahum, the Hebrew +prophet of Elkosh, who had been an eyewitness of the growing effeminacy +of the great Assyrian capital, Nineveh, when he foretold the fall of the +once glorious city: "Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women, +the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thy enemies; the fire +shall devour thy bars."</p> + +<p>How did the ordinary housewife spend her time? M. Maspero attempts to +reproduce the daily life of the Assyrian woman of about the eighth +century before the Christian era in these graphic words:</p> + +<p>"The Assyrian women spend a great deal of time upon the roofs. They +remain there all the morning till driven away by the noonday heat, and +they go back as soon as the sun declines in the evening. There they +perform all their household duties, chatting from one terrace to the +other. They knead the bread, prepare the cooking, wash the linen and +hang it out to dry, or if they have slaves to relieve them from these +menial labors, they install themselves upon cushions, and chat or +embroider in the open air. During the hottest hours of the day they +descend and take refuge indoors. The coolest room in the house is often +below the level of the courtyard and receives very little light." Thus +the Assyrian lady adapts herself as well as she may to her surroundings, +which were usually very simple as to furnishings and such things as a +modern inhabitant of the West would classify under the head of +"comforts." An Assyrian housewife was usually satisfied with a few +chairs and stools of various heights and sizes. There were few beds, +except among the rich. The people generally slept upon mats, which could +be folded and put away during the daytime. Taking care of the house was +woman's work, unless the family was rich enough to own slaves to attend +to the menial work of domestic life. The women had the care of the oven, +which was usually built in one corner of the court, and the meats were +cooked by them at the open fireplace. Care of the culinary work of an +Assyrian home was no small task, for the Assyrians were good +feeders,--and as for drinking, here they surpassed even their powers at +eating. So the woman of the house would find it necessary to care for +the wine skins and water jars that might be seen hanging about the +porches to keep them cool.</p> + +<p>The people along the waterways lived largely upon fish. These were +caught in great numbers and dried. The industrious housewife would take +these dried fish, pound them in a crude mortar, and then make them into +cakes, which Herodotus tells us were almost the sole diet of those who +lived in the lower or marshy regions of the Mesopotamian valley. +Ordinarily, men and women partook together their daily repast from a +common dish, into which all dipped, but on the occasion of great +banquets it was customary for the women to be served separately.</p> +<a name="c6" id="c6"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<h3>THE LAND OF THE LOTUS</h3> + +<p>"Concerning the virtues of women, O Cleanthes, I am not of the same mind +with Thucydides, for he would prove that she is the best woman +concerning whom there is least discourse made by people abroad, either +to her praise or her dispraise; judging that, as the person, so the very +name of a good woman ought to be retired and not gad abroad. But to us +Gorgias seems more accurate, who requires that not only the face, but +the fame of a woman should be known to many. For the Roman law seems +exceedingly good, which permits due praise to be given publicly both to +men and to women after death." These words of Plutarch find application +in the life of the women of the land of the Nile. There is no lack of +praise for the Egyptian women both while living and after they had +passed away, as the testimony of the monuments amply prove.</p> + +<p>It should be remembered that the history of Egypt extends over a very +wide stretch of time, and that changes are to be reckoned with even in a +region where everything moves slowly. For this reason it is not always +possible to say that this or that was true of the Egyptian women. For +there were the ancient, middle and later kingdoms, with each of which +came new influences, and these differed in many respects from the period +of Greek or Macedonian power; and the Egypt of to-day is a very +different Egypt from that of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies.</p> + +<p>There are many widely differing people in the land of the Nile to-day. +The traveller finds great diversity of scenery and of social conditions, +and one has said of this marvellous land as the great dramatist wrote of +one of her most notable daughters:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale</p> +<p class="i14"> Her infinite variety."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The oldest book in the world is an ancient Egyptian papyrus discovered +by M. Prisse at Thebes. It goes back to a period probably not later than +B.C. 3580, being a collection of didactic sayings, or precepts, of +Phtahhotep, a prince of the fifth dynasty. What so early an Egyptian +sage has to say concerning women should be of no little interest. In +giving advice to husbands, he gives this counsel, which we might imagine +a wise man of to-day might easily have written: "If thou be wise, guard +thy house; honor thy wife, and love her exceedingly; feed her stomach +and clothe her back, for this is the duty of a husband. Give her +abundance of ointment, fail not each day to caress her, let the desire +of her heart be fulfilled, for verily he that is kind to his wife and +honoreth her, the same honoreth himself. Withhold thy hand from +violence, and thy heart from cruelty, softly entreat her and win her to +thy way, consider her desires and deny not the wish of her heart. Thus +shalt thou keep her heart from wandering; but if thou harden thyself +against her, she will turn from thee. Speak to her, yield her thy love, +she will have respect unto thee; open thy arms, she will come unto +thee."</p> + +<p>Ancient Egyptian literature does not lack its reference to women. One +of the most famous of the stories that have been presented to us from +Egyptian sources is <i>The Tale of the Two Brothers</i>. This goes back to +the day of Moses, and has suggested to many the Hebrew account of +Joseph. It reveals the charms of her whose beauty the sea leaped up to +embrace, and the acacia flowers envied. This romance, written for the +entertainment of Seti II. when he was yet crown prince, and considered, +by Mr. Flinders Petrie, to be connected with the ancient Phrygian of +Atys, gives us an early illustration of the fact that many ills and many +pleasures have been born to the race through love of a woman.</p> + +<p>The women of Babylonia and Assyria enjoyed a measure of freedom that was +exceptional for the Orient, and yet the Egyptian woman was more +independent still. Indeed, the respect that was paid to womankind by the +Egyptians is one of the fairest elements in the civilization of the +valley of the Nile. Motherhood also was highly respected. But one +illustration, referred to by Lenormant, will suffice to prove this +statement. A woman while <i>enceinte</i>, condemned to death for murder or +any other crime, could not be executed till after the birth of the +child; for it was considered the height of injustice to make the +innocent participate in the punishment of the guilty, and to visit the +crime of one person upon two. And he adds: "The judges who put to death +an innocent person were held as guilty as if they had acquitted a +murderer."</p> + +<p>Before the law woman's rights were respected. In the division of the +paternal estate, the daughters shared equally with the sons, and were +more responsible than the sons for the care of the parents. In worship, +the queen is sometimes depicted as standing near her husband in the +temple--behind him, to be sure, as the king was the head of the religion +and indeed "son of the Sun," but with him, like Isis behind Osiris, +lifting her hand in sympathetic protection and shaking the sistrum, or +beating the tambourine to dispel all evil spirits, or holding the +libation vase or bouquet.</p> + +<p>The Egyptian woman, of the lower or middle classes at least, suffered no +enforced seclusion. She came and went as her will led her, appearing in +public without covered face, and chatting with acquaintances whom she +met without having her conduct questioned or her modesty placed under +suspicion. She might enjoy a banquet with the opposite sex, and at its +close look upon the weird figure of a corpse carved in wood, placed in a +coffin, which Herodotus says was carried around by a servant. As he +shows the image to each guest in turn the servant says: "Gaze here and +drink and be merry; for when you die such you will be." Thus was +Epicurus anticipated in ancient Egypt. <i>Dum vivimus, vivamus.</i> The +Egyptians generally, however, kept the next world always in view, and +immortality played no small part in shaping the Egyptian life, both as +to its men and its women. The Greek influence, which, after the days of +Alexander, was destined to revolutionize Egyptian thought and custom, +notwithstanding the efforts of the Ptolemies to win favor of the +populace by revolutionizing the waning worship of Osiris, is illustrated +in a poem written about one hundred years before Christ, a <i>Lament for +the Dead Wife of Pasherenptah.</i> In this poem, the ancient hope of +immortality is overcast, and the weeping spouse is enjoined:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Love woman while you may</p> +<p class="i14"> Make life a holiday,</p> +<p class="i14"> Drive every care away</p> +<p class="i14"> And earthly sadness."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The first lady of the land was of course a queen. The queens of Egypt +not unfrequently had a wide outlook upon the material progress of the +people. This is well exemplified in the expedition of Queen Chuenemtamun +of which we know from discovered monuments, which represent the ship +being ladened with large and costly stores under her direction. Queen +Hatshepsu fitted out a fleet of five ships and sent them to the land of +Punt,--the southern coast of Arabia, or, as some suppose, the African +coast south of Abyssinia,--that they might bring back scented fig trees +which she would transplant in her gigantic orchard at Thebes. The +tallest monolith in the world, of reddish granite and one hundred and +eight feet high, said once to have been covered with a coating of gold, +was the work of this famous queen.</p> + +<p>In a few cases queens ruled in Egypt, wives of kings governed jointly +with their husbands, and there are instances in which pretenders to the +throne married women of royal lineage that their claims might have at +least the show of being legitimate. This was the case with Piankhi, one +of the Ethiopian dynasty of kings, whose wife Ameniritis is described as +a woman of rare intelligence and of superior merit; one who, because of +her rare strength of character and wisdom, exerted a powerful influence +in the government and won for herself great popularity in Thebes and the +entire region around.</p> + +<p>A modern traveller may easily be reminded of the honor paid to women in +ancient Egypt by visiting the sites where temples and tombs were erected +in honor of some beloved wife and queen. The temple of Hathor at the +modern Aboo Simbel, which was erected by the famous builder Rameses II. +in honor at once of Hathor the goddess of love, and of his wife +Nofreari. Six statues adorn the entrance to the temple. They are thirty +feet high, and represent Rameses and his beloved queen, who appears +under the favor of the goddess Hathor. On the brow of the goddess is the +crown--the moon resting within the horns of a cow; she wears also the +ostrich feathers, which are the sign of royalty. Their children, as +often portrayed upon Egyptian monuments, have their places beside their +parents: the daughters stand close to the queen; the sons, near to the +father. About the sculptured forms is recorded in hieroglyphic +characters the love which the king felt for his fair queen, whose name +meant "beautiful and good." The temple and statues are hewn out of the +living rock, and, on entering, there is the shrine of Hathor, "the +supreme type of divine maternity."</p> + +<p>There is a touch of romance here, for on the outer wall the inscriptions +tell us that this temple was reared "by Rameses the Strong in Faith, the +Beloved of Ammon, for his royal wife Nofreari, whom he loves"; while +within the doorway of this same temple may be read the legend, it was +for Rameses that "his royal wife who loves him, Nofreari the Beloved of +Maat, constructed for him this abode in the mountain of the Pure +Waters." Thus beautiful was the enduring love between this royal husband +and his wife.</p> + +<p>No period of ancient Egyptian history is entirely wanting in the names +of conspicuous women. There is a legend that comes down from the days of +the Ptolemies, to the effect that when King Ptolemy Euergetes started +out upon his expeditions against Syria, the strong rival of Egypt for +the supremacy over the East, his queen, the beautiful Berenice (a +favorite name for princesses for two centuries), made a vow that if her +husband should be permitted to return from his expedition in safety, she +would dedicate her hair to the gods. Her prayer was answered; and, +faithful to her solemn vow, she cut off her hair and hung "the beautiful +golden tresses that had adorned her head in the temple, whose ruins +still stand on the promontory of Zephyrium." But, alas! they were not +long allowed to adorn the walls of the holy place, for some sacrilegious +thief carried them away from the shrine. The priests were bewildered, +the king was wroth, no one knew what to do. At length the astronomers +came to the relief of all concerned by announcing that it could have +been no ordinary thief who plundered the temple for the beautiful +tresses, but that the gods themselves had taken them, and that the keen +eye had only to be turned heavenward to discover a new constellation +which they now separated from Leo. The king and all concerned were now +reconciled and happy. The constellation shines on.</p> + +<p>Among the most beautiful of ancient buildings is the temple of +Denderah. While magnificent in itself, much of its interest to us here +is due to the fact that it was erected and dedicated to the Egyptian +goddess of love and beauty, Hathor, nurse of Horus, the son of Osiris +and Isis; and further, that it was begun by that fascinator of kings, +the notorious Cleopatra. On the outside walls of the temple are figures +of this famous queen, and of Cæsarion, her son by Julius Cæsar. One +would judge from these representations that Cleopatra's beauty was of +the most voluptuous and sensual type, the features being not only full +but fat, though regular. On her head is placed the horned disc,--in +honor of Hathor,--the sacred vulture, and the horns of Isis. Thus have +been perpetuated the personal and religious features of the most +remarkable woman Egypt ever produced. Pascal's oft-quoted comment upon +the beauty of this Egyptian character doubtless contains a modicum of +truth: "If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the +earth would have been changed." Cleopatra, however, whose charms subdued +victors, was more a Greek than an Egyptian beauty. The women of the Nile +country, however, were not lacking in personal grace and physical charm. +Their complexions were dark, their features generally regular, and their +bodies athletic, though not large.</p> + +<p>One might judge from the paintings that have come down to us, which +depict the form and vesture of the Egyptian woman, that she was greatly +lacking both in grace of figure and in taste for arraying herself +attractively. But we are not to be misled by the elongated, wiry-looking +figures that the monuments portray for us. Some of the blame must, +without doubt, be laid upon the Egyptian artist, who had little idea +either of proportion or perspective.</p> + +<p>Egyptian women spent much time upon their toilettes. Great attention was +given to the care of the complexion. For this beautifying process a +powder was used consisting of antimony and charcoal, powdered fine and +applied with so much skill that the skin by contrast is made to stand +out in soft whiteness. For this cosmetic regimen a mirror of highly +polished metal was found to be of indispensable value. The finger nails +came in for a full share of attention, henna being used to stain them. +As for the feet, scarcely less care was given them, and anklets and toe +rings frequently adorned them. Shoes, or sandals, seem never to have +been in high favor in Egypt, and, even when clothed in the most costly +apparel, women preferred to go with bare feet.</p> + +<p>It would seem very difficult, to modern taste, to attain to real beauty +by means of tattooing. But we have grounds for asserting that the +Egyptian beauties, at least at a certain period of their national +history, covered their forehead, chin, and breasts, and sometimes the +arms, with indelible painting in color. They were fond of rouging their +faces, especially the lips, and the eye was a feature to which much time +and art were given. Large eyes were the fashion, as may be readily +judged from the many pictures of ox-eyed maids which have been +preserved. A band of black pigment almost entirely surrounded the eyes, +and extended across the temples to the roots of the hair. By painting +the eyebrows and eyelids, the eyes were made to appear not only larger +but more brilliant.</p> + +<p>The Egyptian woman was fond of the use of oil, which was rubbed +generously upon the body. Perfumes also played an important part in her +life. Women made and sold perfumes and used them profusely. They were +exceedingly fond of flowers, especially if they were new varieties. +Extracts and essences from sweet-scented plants were much sought after. +Favorite shrubs and flowers were transported from distant lands and +transplanted in the land of the Nile. This was often done upon a large +scale. Even the liquors drunk at banquets were scented with sweet +perfumes.</p> + +<p>The women usually dressed in a long, close-fitting smock-frock, clinging +closely to the body and reaching quite to the ankles. The shoulders and +upper part of the breast were left uncovered, the frock being held in +place by two straps running across the shoulders. But it is not to be +supposed that the women of Egypt knew nothing of fashion; though it must +be confessed that fashions changed slowly. And in this matter the men +were as fond of fashion as the women; for they wore linen skirts usually +reaching to the knees, although their length was regulated by the +prevailing style.</p> + +<p>Under the New Empire woman's dress did not leave both shoulders bare, +as formerly, but covered the left shoulder; the right shoulder and arm +being left free. At length drapery began to be more common, and instead +of the heavy, straight garment of earlier days, graceful folds appeared. +With the drapery came a lengthening of the skirt. When this change +occurred only the priests retained the simple skirt of former days. Most +men wore a double skirt, consisting of an inner short garment, and an +outer. Indeed, the men seemed quite as fond of their costume as the +women, and were more varied in their tastes, loving finery, and leaving +it to the women to be more conservative in matters of dress.</p> + +<p>From the paintings and the other representations that have come down to +us, both the peasant maid and the princess wore the same kind of +garments, so far as the cut of them is concerned. Mother, daughter, and +maid were dressed much alike and without much variety of color. The rich +often wore a profusion of beads.</p> + +<p>There was no part of the Egyptian woman's toilet upon which so much care +was bestowed as upon the hair. Indeed, the Egyptians prided themselves +upon their coiffure. Herodotus is authority for the statement that there +were fewer bald-headed people in Egypt than in any other country. +Civilization, in the valley of the Nile, at least, did not seem greatly +to increase the tendency to baldness. There were cases, but they were of +the nature of a calamity. Woe to the physician whose skill did not +succeed in checking the falling hair. Pomades of various ingredients +were common remedies for this ill. Oil, dog's feet, and date kernels +were considered of great virtue, as was also a donkey's tooth pulverized +and mixed with honey. And there was no more direful or more frequent +imprecation pronounced by an Egyptian lady upon her rival than that the +hair of her whom she hated might fall out!</p> + +<a name="ill2" id="ill2"></a> +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/002.png"><br> +<b>GHAWAZI<br> +<i>After the painting by C. L. Muller</i></b> +<blockquote> +<b><i>The "dancing girls" known as</i> ghawazi, <i>are often in evidence. They +clothe themselves in gay garments of various colors. Sometimes they are +pretty and attractive specimens of female grace, but, as might be +expected from their character and profession, they soon become coarse +and repulsive. They may be seen at the public places, and their dances +are indecorous and immodest. They play a leading rôle in those wild +orgies known as</i> Fantasia.</b> +</blockquote> + +<p>Wigs were commonly used by women as well as by men of the Ancient +Empire. There was a coiffure of straight hair down to the shoulders or +to the breasts. Examples have been found, however, in which the wigs +reached not so far, as is the case in the statuette of the Lady Takusit, +which is now among the ancient ornaments in the Museum of Athens. She +wears a wig of stiff curly locks in rigidly regular lines plastered +closely to the head, reaching almost from the eyes in front to the nape +of the neck, and hiding the ears. The plaiting of the hair became common +in later times, the hair hanging stiffly over the shoulders.</p> + +<p>This piece of statuary, that of Lady Takusit, or Takoushet, as it is +sometimes spelled, one of the most perfect of its kind, shows a woman of +good form and regular features, standing erect with one foot in advance, +her right arm hanging gracefully by her side, her left pressed naturally +against her bosom. She is dressed in the closely fitting skirt already +described, supported by straps over the shoulders and reaching to a +point just above the ankles. Her robe is richly embroidered with scenes +of a religious character, and her wrists are adorned with bracelets.</p> + +<p>Besides the ordinary hair dress of the women, the queen enjoyed the +exceptional privilege of wearing a diadem or headdress, representing a +vulture, which was the sacred bird of Egypt and was accounted the +special protector of the king in battle. This royal bird is represented +as stretching out its strong wings over the head of the first lady of +the land.</p> + +<p>The women were great lovers of trinkets and jewelry of all kinds, and +the men were not far behind them in this. They put an ornament wherever +it could be appropriately worn. And this ruling passion was even strong +in death, for the dead were often literally loaded with jewels upon +their arms, fingers, ears, brow, neck, and ankles. Favorite jewels, +specially, were entombed with the dead. In the Boulak Museum has been +preserved probably the most complete collection of funeral jewelry, that +of Queen Aahhotep, mother of Ahmes, the first king of the eighteenth +dynasty. The following are some of the womanly belongings buried with +Queen Aahhotep: a fan handle plated with gold, a bronze-gilt mirror +mounted upon an ebony handle, on which was a lotus of chased gold, +bracelets of various designs, anklets, armlets, gold rings, ornaments +for the wrist made of small beads in "gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian and +green feldspar, strung on gold wire in a chequer pattern," and many +other ornaments of fine gold, of chased and repoussé work of great +value.</p> + +<p>The women of Egypt to-day are dark in complexion and generally slender. +The women of the poorer classes are ill kept and poorly clothed. They +generally wear long, and frequently tattered, garments of blue and black +cotton. Their feet are bare, but the love of decoration is manifest +still; for, though they be dirty and begrimed through lack of care and +suitable clothing, the silver anklets, the rings for their fingers and +even for their toes, and the bracelets for their arms, tell the tale of +their fondness for adornment. Mohammedanism has caused the universal use +of the veil. A narrow strip of black is caught by a brass or silver +spiral directly between the eyes. The falling veil, therefore, covers +all the face below the eyes. Ladies of the higher classes wear +transparent Turkish veils of costly material, and their costly silk +garments are loaded with embroideries.</p> + +<p>Mothers in Egypt carry their babes on their backs or shoulders. The +mother holds fast to the feet or the legs of her offspring, while the +child throws his hands about her head and seems well satisfied with his +position. The tattooing, which we have noted as existent in early Egypt, +is no longer general; it, however, may be seen to-day among the women of +Nubia. Some of the Berber women not only are tattooed, but place blue +lines on their under lip and on the cheeks and arms. The men, women, and +children of that region are very dark. The women plait their hair into +numerous tiny curls, which stay well in place, for the hair has first +been soaked in castor oil, partly because of the æsthetic effect, and +partly as a protection against the hot rays of the tropical sun. The +dress of the younger women is very scant; the older females are +generally clothed in long blue garments, which they gather about them in +folds. The younger girls, however, with much unadorned innocence, wear +simply a leathern girdle and a complacent smile, for the Berber women +appear good-humored and happy. This costume, a girdle of leather, soaked +well in castor oil and adorned with shells, worn by the younger belles +of Nubia, is known as "Madam Nubia."</p> + +<p>The "dancing girls," known as <i>ghawazi</i>, are often in evidence in the +towns of modern Egypt. They clothe themselves in gay garments of various +colors. Sometimes they are pretty and attractive specimens of female +grace, but, as might be expected from their character and profession, +they soon become coarse and repulsive. They may be seen at the public +cafés, and their dances are indecorous and immodest. They play a leading +rôle in those wild orgies known as <i>fantasia</i>.</p> + +<p>The modern Egyptian water girl is often an interesting bit of humanity. +Canon Bell thus describes her in his <i>Winter on the Nile</i>: "You may be +accompanied, if you like it, by a little girl clad in blue, adorned with +a necklace of beads, earrings and bracelets, and sometimes a nose-ring, +carrying a water jar on her head, from which she will supply you at +luncheon among the temples and tombs, for a small backsheesh. She will +run beside your donkey for miles, and never seem tired, and if you will +drink from her jar, of the same shape which you will see sculptured on +the temple walls, will reward you with a sweet smile from her coral +lips. And what teeth she and all the people have! I never saw teeth so +regular and so white. They are like a string of orient pearls; and it is +a pleasure when the lips part, and you see them gleaming white as driven +snow."</p> + +<p>In ancient Egypt the woman was queen of her own house, the real mistress +of domestic life. When the husband was at home, he was looked upon +rather in the light of a "privileged guest," and the housewife was the +respected hostess, holding everything beneath her undisputed sway. In +short, she was the very soul and centre of the domestic activity, rising +early and stirring the household into life and movement.</p> + +<p>Let us take a peep into an Egyptian home. Excavation has revealed that +the palaces of the kings of Babylonia were built in a much more +substantial and enduring fashion than were the temples of the gods. The +reverse is true of Egypt. Egyptian temples were built not for time, but +for eternity. The palaces, however, were of far lighter character, being +erected of brick or undressed freestone, but rarely of granite or the +more enduring materials. Eternity played an important part in the +religious thinking of the Egyptians. This will account in a measure for +the more enduring character of the houses of the gods. The dwellings of +members of the richer classes were made up of an aggregation of houses, +suggesting a miniature village. There were separate houses for the +various members of the family: the master, the chief wife, the harem +women, the visitors, and the several classes of servants. Storehouses +were separate from buildings designed for habitation, and the several +domestic offices had their individual buildings. The court, which every +villa had, was planted with trees and flowers, and frequently was +provided with a fountain and a pool. The women of the harem found +opportunity for amusement in these beautiful courts. During the day +these secluded beauties whiled away their time in gossiping, playing +upon instruments, and indulging in the games in vogue. When night came +they lay down to rest with their heads upon pillows consisting of a +piece of curved wood, upon which was usually carved an image of the god +Bisou, who guarded the sleeper. This little dwarf, a divinity with short +legs and rotund stomach, drives away the demons who infest the night and +are liable to injure the sleeping one, unless protected by this +well-disposed and well-armed deity.</p> + +<p>The wife in the average Egyptian home was the companion of her husband, +assisting him to manage his affairs. She encouraged him in his own daily +work, and there are pictures of wife and children, seemingly in a most +interested mood, standing by while the husband and father is busily +engaged in some engrossing occupation. Often the king will take his wife +fully into his life. The queen is frequently pictured by the king's side +in some public function. The wife of Amenophis IV., with the rest of the +royal family, is represented, probably on some important state occasion, +as standing upon the gallery of the royal residence and tossing golden +collars to the people. Indeed, Amenophis IV. is discovered to have been +most domestic in his tastes, giving his wife and daughters a place of +respect and honor in his kingdom. Some of his monuments represent him +riding in his chariot, followed by his seven daughters, who were his +companions even in battle. Sometimes the queen of the Pharaohs is found +riding in state processions in her own chariot behind that of her +husband.</p> + +<p>How did the average women of the Nile busy themselves during the long +days? While they were not the hewers of wood, women were usually the +drawers of water, as in Palestine and Syria. They were not idlers, +though men did the spinning, weaving, and laundry work. In truth, as we +have before stated, it was the daughter, or daughters, and not the sons +who were expected to provide for their parents in times of want and old +age. This did not permit women to be in any sense a dependent class.</p> + +<p>The relation of the Egyptian woman to the practical affairs of life is +significant and of great interest. It is in the matter of buying and +selling that we perhaps have most frequent representations upon the +monuments. And women as well as men are portrayed driving their bargains +with the venders of all sorts of wares. Women both buy and sell in the +public places. One has perfume of her own manufacture, upon the merits +of which she glibly descants, even in terms poetic, as she thrusts the +jars under the nostrils of the hoped-for purchaser. Women jewelers are +discovered attempting to dispose of their rings, bracelets, and +necklaces, while other women are trying to obtain goods at the lowest +possible prices. "Cheapening" was fashionable even among the women of +Egypt. Sometimes groups of women are represented as bargaining in the +shops. Herodotus in his travels observed what to him was a striking +contrast between the industrial and commercial customs of the Greeks and +those of the Egyptians in that the men of Egypt worked at the looms and +carried on the handicraft, while the women frequently transacted +business. But it should not be thought that women did not weave. They +often worked at the loom, and men as well as women bought and sold the +ordinary commodities of life.</p> + +<p>In the house Egyptian women not only engaged in weaving, spinning, and +the making of fabrics generally, but they assisted in the curing of +fowls, birds, and fish. Of this kind of food the Egyptians were very +fond. When the husband, who was very partial to hunting, returned with +the game he had killed or trapped, it was at once preserved for later +use upon the table. Strangely enough, the cooks are usually represented +as men, though the women were not strangers to the preparation of food +for family use. The Egyptians laid much stress upon their dietary. They +believe, Herodotus tells us, that the diseases men are heir to are all +caused by the materials upon which they feed. Swine's flesh was, as with +the Israelites, forbidden flesh, except upon certain extraordinary +occasions. Their staff of life was bread made of spelt. Their drink was +chiefly a beer made from barley. Salt fish, and dried fowls, such as +ducks, geese, and quail, were eaten with great relish. Some birds, as +well as some fish, were tabooed because of religious scruples.</p> + +<p>The recreations that were allowable to the Egyptian women were quite +numerous and varied. But dancing, singing, and performing upon musical +instruments were their favorite amusements. The kettle drum and the +castanet were in common use among them, and pictures of girls playing on +the lute are not infrequent. A wall painting in a Theban tomb discloses +the fact that dancing girls were often employed to afford merriment at +the feasts. It was not against Egyptian etiquette for women to attend +banquets, and they are often represented as drinking freely, even to +drunkenness, lying about with forms exposed, and vomiting from +overindulgence.</p> + +<p>In this connection it is curious to note the relation of the women of +Egypt to gymnastic feats. In the Turin Museum there is an example of a +female acrobat, who is in the very act of performing with wonderful +agility a very difficult feat. The young woman is nude, with the +exception of a double belt, one thong of which encircles the waist, the +other confines the hips. She is willowy in form and with great ease and +grace she throws herself backward, apparently about to turn a +somersault, but she keeps her feet upon the ground, and her hands almost +touch her heels. Her hair flows out loosely as she seems about to whirl +her lithe body through the air.</p> + +<p>That the Egyptian women were pleasure-loving may be learned by many a +monument. Portrayals of elaborate festivals have been unearthed, others +are recorded by early historians. Herodotus gives a description of one +of these in honor of the Egyptian Diana in the city of Bubastis. "They +hold public festival not only once in a year but several times.... Now +when they are being conveyed to the city of Bubastis they act as +follows; for men and women embark together, and great numbers of both +sexes in every barge; some of the women have castanets on which they +play, and the men play on the lute during the whole voyage, the rest of +the women sing and clap their hands together at the same time. When in +course of their passage they come to any town, they lay their barge near +to land, and do as follows: Some of the women do as I have described, +others shout and scoff at the women of the place; some dance, while +others stand and pull up their clothes; this they do at every town at +the river-side. When they arrive at Bubastis, they celebrate the feast, +offering up great sacrifices and more wine is consumed at this festival +than in all the rest of the year. What with men and women, besides +children, they congregate, as the inhabitants say, to the number of +seven hundred thousand."</p> + +<p>The law of Egypt prescribed that there should be in each family but one +legitimate wife. From numerous representations upon the monuments it +would seem that great affection usually existed between spouses. +Marriage was termed "founding for one's self a home." Temporary or +tentative marriages were often made for one year. After the expiration +of the trial period, by the payment of a certain sum, the man might +annul the agreement.</p> + +<p>The Tel-el-Amarna tablets brought to light in 1887, furnish some very +interesting and informing materials concerning diplomatic marriages. +Many letters passed between the kings of Egypt and the rulers of the +land of Mitanni, and other Asiatic provinces concerning the marriage of +royal daughters to the King of Egypt or to the king's son. Even +bargaining concerning dowry finds a place in this correspondence. +Inquiries respecting the treatment of a daughter who has been given in +marriage to a prince, complaints of the breaking of the marriage +contract, and all conceivable complications which might grow out of +these marital relations, are discussed.</p> + +<p>In the days of the Ptolemies and in the Roman period, it became very +common for men to marry their own sisters, especially in the royal +families. This was true of Cleopatra, the daughter of Ptolemy Epiphanes +and Cleopatra. She married first her brother Ptolemy Philometer, and +later, a second brother Ptolemy Physcon. This was the Cleopatra who +lived a century before the famous "witch of the Nile." She distinguished +herself by her signal favoritism toward the Jews, who had then become +very numerous in Egypt, giving great encouragement to Onias in his +undertaking of the erection of a Jewish temple at Leontopolis in Egypt.</p> + +<p>In modern Egypt, however, marriage with sisters has given way to +marriage between cousins, which in current opinion is by far the best +sort of wedding match. It is not strange that this custom of legalized +incest, the marrying of sisters should have sprung up in a land where +Osiris and Set were worshipped. For both of these gods were wedded to +their sisters, Isis and Nephthys.</p> + +<p>As among the Hebrews, it was a matter of congratulation and of great +domestic happiness to possess children, and much rejoicing took place at +the birth of a babe. The inscriptions of monuments and tombs would +indicate, too, a very beautiful family life in Egypt. There was nothing +that so tended to give domestic life this charm as the fact that the +mother took complete charge of the child's upbringing. She was its +nurse, feeding it from her own breast often till it reached the age of +three years. In Eastern countries it is not uncommon to see children of +considerable size thus taking nourishment. When the child was unable to +walk, or when the journey was too great for the yet undeveloped limbs, +the mothers carried their children upon their necks, as do the Egyptian +mothers to-day.</p> + +<p>Motherhood was much respected both by sons and daughters,--more than is +true of the children of modern Egypt,--and the wise men and poets of the +land wrote and spoke most tenderly and sympathetically of the maternal +love. As one of them said: "Thou shalt never forget what thy mother hath +done for thee. She has borne and nourished thee. If thou forgettest her, +she might blame thee, she might lift up her arms to God, and he would +surely hear her complaint." An utterance of an Egyptian sage, which +bears the spirit of the words of the Hebrew wise man, who said: "Forsake +not the law of thy mother. Bind it continually upon thy heart, and tie +it about thy neck. When thou goest it shall lead thee, and when thou +sleepest it shall keep thee. When thou awakest it shall talk with thee;" +and again: "Despise not thy mother when she is old." Affection between +mothers and their sons was very strong. Many of the inscriptions upon +tombs, with the accompanying pictures, reveal the dead son and his +mother, and not the son and his father. This is in accordance with the +very common fact in Eastern lands, especially in this part, that +brothers and sisters by the same mother were much closer to one another +than brothers and sisters by the same father. It is quite evident that +in early days in Egypt descent was always traced through the mother, and +not through the father. When, in a remote period, marriage ties were +loose or polyandry was practised, it was manifestly easier to trace the +family lineage through the mother. In ancient Egypt, it is interesting +to note that inheritance of property passed not from a father to his +son, but to the son of his sister, or sometimes to the son of his eldest +daughter.</p> + +<p>When children were named they did not receive a family or surname. All +names were individual, the gods coming in for their share of honor in +the selection, as was very common among ancient people, among whom +religion pervaded everything. The girls were frequently named, for +poetic or imaginative reasons, after trees, animals, qualities of moral +excellence, and the like. Such appellations as +"Daughter-of-the-crocodile, Kitten," etc., were not infrequent; and even +here we find a religious motive, for both the crocodile and the cat were +worshipped in Egypt. Mummied sacred cats have been exhumed in great +numbers in recent years, only to be ruthlessly turned into fertilizers +by the unappreciative and practical Westerner. "Beautiful Sycamore" is +also an example of a woman's name. "Darling" and "Beloved" were also +favorite names, and "My Queen" is also found. From the number of +instances discovered, it would seem--and not unnaturally--that women +liked to be called after Hathor, the goddess of love.</p> + +<p>How did the little girls amuse themselves in those far-off Egyptian +days? The girl nature is the same the world over, and has not undergone +any radical change since the very dawn of history. The girls, of course, +played with dolls. These were made from cloth and were usually stuffed. +Some of them had long hair. Figures resembling jumping-jacks, loosely +jointed and manipulated with a string, were a means of merriment for the +little ones. The nursery was also frequently brightened by the presence +of flowers; and birds, some free and some caged, were common pets; cats, +too, were everywhere, and the small donkey furnished much sport.</p> + +<p>It may seem somewhat strange that in a land to which has often been +attributed the invention of the art of writing, there should have come +down to us no literature from the hand and brain of a woman. The secret +of this is probably found in the fact that while women were respected +and even esteemed as the equals of men, yet it was not considered worth +while to educate them in a literary way. In some of the arts, however, +such as music, women were skilled.</p> + +<p>In modern Egypt the education of the women is sadly neglected. It does +not compare with that given them in ancient times. Indeed, in Mohammedan +countries, generally, woman is sternly thrust into a position of +inferiority, even of degradation. The school provided for the +instruction of the children in Egypt, as in all Mohammedan countries, is +the <i>kattub</i>, which is to be found in most towns and even in some of the +small villages. These schools are attached, when possible, to a mosque, +and the instruction is religious rather than literary, for the teaching +is limited to the Koran, and all instruction is in the Arabic language. +The schoolmaster, who usually has an assistant, is himself very ignorant +of all that the modern Western world would term "learning." Even the +elements of a modern education are strangers to him. There are said to +be about nine thousand five hundred of these kattubs in Egypt, and in +them are enrolled one hundred and eighty thousand pupils. But the kattub +is dark and unattractive. There are no seats or furniture of any kind. +To an Occidental eye, the schoolroom is inconvenient in every respect, +and withal quite unsanitary and forbidding. The teacher sits on a mat, +cross-legged. In front of him are ranged two rows of children, both boys +and girls, sitting sideways to the teacher. One would suppose, seated as +the children are, that the dreary humdrum of the daily instruction was +surely meant to go in at one ear and out at the other. But the pupils +learn to repeat passage after passage from the sacred book of Mohammed. +For the time is largely taken up reciting <i>sura</i> after <i>sura</i> from the +Koran, and the most lengthy passages are well memorized, the master +correcting the boy or girl whose tongue has slipped, or prompting one +whose memory has failed him. As the singsong of recitation is rolled out +in languid sweetness, the pupils sway their bodies back and forth, +keeping time to the rhythm. There is no casting of eyes at the girls, no +giggling, no crooked pins in use, in the kattubs. The pupils know the +stern master is on serious business bent. Besides, he makes use of the +principle of "the expulsive power" of preoccupation; for, while the +memorizing and reciting of texts goes on, there are no idle hands for +Satan to make busy. The teacher himself sets the example of industry, +for his hands are engaged in weaving a mat, while his ear watches to +detect the slightest lapse from correctness in the pupil's tongue. So, +too, the boys and girls must be busied at some useful handiwork, such as +plaiting straw. Thus, "technical training" goes hand in hand with the +mental in modern Egypt. The number of girls in these schools, however, +is comparatively small. There are hopeful signs in the matter of female +education in the Egypt of to-day, for the government, seeing the need, +has granted a double sum for every girl in attendance upon the kattubs.</p> + +<p>Women of all lands have had an important place in the time of sickness +and death. Egypt is no exception to the rule. There were doctors in this +cultured land. Specialism was in vogue even in ancient Egypt. As the +celebrated Greek historian again says: "Medicine is practised among them +on the plan of separation; each physician treats a single disorder and +no more." There were eye specialists, headache specialists, tooth +specialists, intestine specialists, and so on to the end of the category +of diseases. Some of their treatises, comments upon cases, diseases, +formulæ, methods of physicians, both of Egypt and of other lands, have +come down to us. And yet, it must be confessed that exorcism held an +important place in the Egyptian practice of medicine; and the women were +among the foremost believers in this magical method of effecting cures. +The Egyptian lady is suffering from a most violent attack of headache. +She sends for the physician. He presently arrives, with one or more +servants or assistants, bringing with them his book of incantations, and +a case containing his <i>materia medica</i>, which consists of a goodly +supply of clay, plants or dried roots of all sorts, cloths, models in +wax or clay, black or red ink, <i>et cætera</i>. A diagnosis of the case is +hurriedly made. Kneading some clay, with which various ingredients are +mixed, this disciple of Æsculapius, or rather of Imhotep, repeats the +appropriate incantation several times, places the ball of clay under the +head of the sick, and leaves, feeling sure that the inimical spirit +which torments her will not be able to gain possession against the +powerful charm.</p> + +<p>In case of death in any household, the mourning was pronounced and +pitiable. The part which women played in Egyptian funerals was not +unlike that among the Hebrews and other Oriental peoples. "They were," +says Maspero, in his <i>Struggle of the Nations</i>, "not like those to which +we are accustomed--mute ceremonies in which sorrow is barely expressed +by a fugitive tear. Noise, sobbings, and wild gestures were their +necessary concomitants. Not only was it customary to hire weeping women, +who tore their hair, filled the air with their lamentations, and +simulated by skilful actions the depths of despair, but the relations +and friends did not shrink from making an outward show of their grief +nor from disturbing the equanimity of the passers-by by the immoderate +expressions of their sorrow." "O my father!" "O my brother!" "O my +master!" "O my beloved!" would be heard from the female voices standing +around the dead. There was no superstition which prevented a fond +embracing of the body of the loved one who had just passed away. Tears +flow in great profusion, hair and garments are rent, and the women beat +their breasts, and then depart from the house of death. "With nude +bosoms, head sullied with dust, the hair dishevelled and feet bare, they +rush from the house into the still, deserted streets." Friends and +sympathizers join in their grief as they pass along, and follow the +procession of mourning. Since the Egyptian believes that the spirit can +survive only so long as the body lasts,--a sort of conditional +immortality,--the corpse must be embalmed. The method is determined by +the rank of the deceased. If it be a princess who has passed away, the +most elaborate and costly methods and materials must be used. Each toe +and finger must be carefully and separately wrapped and cared for. Next +comes the solemn funeral procession, with the noisy, heartrending hired +mourners, the libations and offerings, the catafalque drawn by oxen, and +at length the dead is laid away in the tombs. An important part of the +Egyptian funeral is the banquet, in which the dead, through his +representative, partakes; during the feasting, the <i>almehs</i> execute +their death dances and sing their songs appealing to the living +concerning death and the dead.</p> + +<p>It is Nut, the goddess of heaven, who, during the journey of the soul, +after it leaves the tomb appears from the midst of a sycamore tree, +offering the spirit a dish containing loaves and a cruse of water, and +if the soul accepts the proffered gift, he becomes the guest of the +goddess. Beyond are dangers of every sort which only amulets and the +most powerful incantations can dispel. If the soul can pass +these--though many fall by the way--he is transported by the divine +ferryman to the presence of Osiris, the great god. Maat, the goddess of +Truth, stands by and whispers the proper confession into the ear of him +whom Osiris questions, and the soul is passed on to the "Field of +Beans," the place of the blessed, where feasts, dances, songs, and +conversation are thereafter enjoyed.</p> + +<p>Probably no Egyptian woman was ever more influential, for a period at +least, than Queen Tyi, the mother of King Chuen-Aten, who is better +known as Amenophis IV. His father, Amenophis III., was born, as the +story goes, under conditions most auspicious. Ra, the great Sun god, who +was considered to have been the father of all the Pharaohs, and the +first sovereign of Egypt, as well as the creator of the universe, +favored King Thothmes by giving to him the son for whom he prayed. Queen +Moutemouait, wife of Thothmes, as she lay sleeping in her palace was +suddenly aroused by seeing her husband by her side, and then immediately +afterward the form of the Theban Amen. In her alarm she heard a voice +telling her of the birth of a son, who should come to the throne in +Thebes, and then the apparition "vanished in a cloud of perfume sweeter +and more penetrating than all the perfumes of Arabia." The child whose +advent was predicted became King Amenophis III., one of the most +brilliant and successful kings of the eighteenth dynasty.</p> + +<p>King Amenophis III. was wedded to a foreign wife, more than one in fact. +Among the wives of his harem was Gilukhipa, or Kirgipa, a daughter of +the house of Mitanni, between which and the Pharaohs of this epoch the +Tel-El-Amarna tablets reveal so voluminous a correspondence. There was +also in his harem a Babylonian princess, and, most famous of all, a +lady, probably of Semitic extraction, whose name was Tyi. This Queen Tyi +became the mother of the successor to Amenophis III. Under the influence +of the queen-mother, the young King Amenophis IV. resolved on extensive +religious reforms. He determined to dethrone or degrade the former +deities of Egypt and exalt the "Sun Disc." Asiatic influence was +paramount. He changed his capital from Thebes to the site of +Tel-El-Amarna, and erected there both palace and temple. He changed his +name to Chuen-Aten (Glory of the Solar Disc). But during his activity as +a religious reformer, his empire was falling away by the sad neglect of +the foreign affairs to which his father gave so large and successful +attention. At his death his work fell to pieces, and his reformation +swung back. Even his sons who succeeded him undid his work, and his name +comes down to us as "The Heretic King," being caricatured by artists of +the period which followed his ephemeral undertakings.</p> + +<p>A modern Egyptian woman, or perhaps more accurately an Arab woman, +digging into a mound in Middle Egypt, not far from the Nile, for the +purpose of getting some material with which to patch her hut, pulled out +a piece of baked clay with some queer inscriptions upon it, which turned +out to be the cuneiform characters of the Assyro-Babylonian writing. +Further excavations revealed the record hall of Amenophis IV., long +buried under the ruins of his short-lived city. This collection of +documents and correspondence in the Assyrian language, which was the +Lingua Franca of those early days, are the source of our most accurate +knowledge of the marriages, domestic relations and diplomatic history of +this period in Egyptian history; indeed, of the history of the +surrounding peoples as far east as the Mesopotamian valley.</p> + +<p>At least two Egyptian women emerge in the Hebrew records, one of whom +would indicate a low degree of morals, if we may judge of Egyptian women +of high standing of the period by this one. It is Potiphar's wife who +fell so deeply in love with Joseph, the handsome young Hebrew slave whom +Potiphar had bought and made a servant in his own household, that she +sought to use her wiles to entice the youth from rectitude. At length +failing in her purpose, she charged him with attempting to use violence +upon her, and had him imprisoned, only to find that the young man was to +come forth stronger at last and find an honored place in the annals of +Hebrew life in the land of Egypt.</p> + +<p>The other Egyptian woman of whom Hebrew history speaks is Pharaoh's +daughter, who, bathing in the Nile, with her maidens, discovered the +infant who was destined to lead Israel out of Egypt and become the chief +power in moulding the Hebrew commonwealth. The young Egyptian woman who +became a mother to the child Moses, gave him all the advantages of +Egyptian culture, which for those days were by no means meagre, and so +played no insignificant part in the making of a lawgiver, and through +him, in the making of a nation, whose moral and religious influence was +to be second to none in the history of the past.</p> + +<p>Late Judaism came in contact with a number of Egyptian princesses, +especially in the age of the Ptolemies. Among these are the Cleopatras, +three of whom lived a whole century before the days when Mark Antony was +led astray by the most celebrated of all the women of this name. One of +these was daughter of Antiochus the Great and wife of Ptolemy Epiphanes. +She being attracted by the value of the balsam and other products of +Palestine, asked that the taxes of the land of the Jews be given her as +her dowry. A second Cleopatra, daughter of the last, greatly favored, as +we have already noted, the Jews in Egypt, according to Josephus, and was +in turn greatly beloved by the larger number of the Jews of the +Diraspora, or Dispersion, who had sought refuge and a livelihood in the +rich region of Egypt.</p> + +<p>The third Cleopatra, daughter of the last-mentioned and of Ptolemy +Philometer, was married in B.C. 150 to Alexander Bala. His checkered +career is given us by Josephus and in the First Book of Maccabees. Two +other women of this name also appear in the history of the Jews, one a +mother of Ptolemy Lathyrus, a woman of great force and determination, +who expelled her son from Egypt and caused him to take refuge in the +island of Cyprus. The last was wife of Herod the Great, and mother of +"Philip the Tetrarch." The story of Cleopatra, the beguiler of Mark +Antony, is too well known to need repeating here. The women of Egypt of +the Macedonian and Roman periods, let it suffice to say, were a power in +the affairs of those marvellous days.</p> + +<p>The moral code of the Egyptians, theoretically speaking, was relatively +high, though it cannot be said that the women well known in Egyptian +history or presented in romance bore an exceptionally elevated +character. But the best women of ancient days were not usually those +whose names were furthest known or most widely heralded. According to +the Greek legends, some of the queens were not slow to accomplish their +purposes, regardless of the method or the cost. Queen Nitocris, of the +fifth dynasty, the celebrated queen with the "rosy Cheeks," avenged the +murder of her brother by inviting the conspirators against his life to a +banquet hall lower than the Nile, and while they feasted turned in the +waters of the river upon them.</p> + +<p>The Egyptian religious life was shared in by priestesses. Their pantheon +contained goddesses, who were highly honored. Women were considered to +have souls as well as men, and as great honor was paid them in the rites +accorded to the dead.</p> + +<p>Sacred prostitution, which was so well known among the ancient Semites, +was also practised in Egypt. Anthropomorphism was common there as +elsewhere among early religionists. The gods were supposed to have their +generation in the same manner as men. The male and female divinities +therefore had their necessary part in the mysterious creations of +nature. The female function in generation, however, was a purely passive +one. Just as, according to the current ideas, the father was the sole +parent of the child, the mother only furnishing carriage and nourishment +for the infant, so the female principle in nature was receptive +matter--"the lifeless mass in which generation took place."</p> + +<p>"Women," says Frederick Shelden, "are compounds of plain sewing and +deception, daughters of Sham and Hem." This morsel of wit is not true of +the women of Egypt in ancient days. The women of the Nile were, as a +rule, remarkably faithful to their obligations to their gods, as they +conceived them, and often to their households and to society. They were +limited, to be sure, in their outlook upon life and service, yet +religious to a fault, and sometimes moral. It has not been long since +there was exhumed in Egypt,--which has proved indeed the most fruitful +of all fields for the archæologist,--a remarkable prayer engraved upon +the funeral shell of an Egyptian lady who lived in the age of the +Ptolemies. It is a prayer, the sentiments of which show how some of the +essential elements of a commonwealth life have been recognized by good +men and women of all lands and of all ages. The prayer is as follows: +"All my life since childhood I have walked in the path of God. I have +praised and adored Him, and ministered to the priests, His servants. My +heart was true. I have not thrust myself forward. I gave bread to the +hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked. My hand was open to +all men. I honored my father, and loved my mother; and my heart was at +one with my townsmen. I kept the hungry alive when the Nile was low." +Here godliness, support of religious ideals and services, truthfulness, +humility, charity for the distressed, honor to parents, and good +citizenship, are recognized as the true conduct and held worthy of the +consideration and reward of the gods.</p> + +<p>Among the Christian women of western Egypt of to-day are the Coptic +women. Christianity very early made wide conquests in Egypt, and while +the Christian religion has revolutionized ideals and modified customs, +it has never destroyed many of the social habits that have had racial +sanction for centuries. The Christian church of Egypt is the Coptic +Church, which has existed almost since the beginning of the Christian +era. The women of this fellowship are of course very different in many +respects from the other women of modern Egypt, notably the Mohammedans. +Close to Heliopolis is pointed out a sycamore fig tree called the <i>Tree +of the Virgin</i>. It is here, according to the Coptic legend, that Mary +and Joseph rested with their infant son when fleeing from Herod. Not far +away is a miraculous fountain, in which, as the story goes, Mary bathed +the feet of the child Jesus. Having once been salt, the spring now +became wholesome and sweet.</p> + +<p>The Copts have preserved their early traditions, and their customs are +in many respects in contrast with those of other people around them. It +is the mother of the young man, not the father who usually makes the +arrangements for their son's marriage. "She goes among her friends to +find a wife for her son, and when after inquiry she discovers a girl +whom she thinks in every way suitable, she informs her son, who is +influenced by her opinion and commits the arrangements to her judgment. +Sometimes the choice of the bride is left to women whose profession it +is to select a fitting bride for the man who employs them, and to open +the preliminary negotiations. There is naturally a good deal of risk in +this; but as women are so entirely secluded in the East, as they are +shut out from their legitimate place in society, such an arrangement +becomes necessary, and so husband and wife are married without having +looked into one another's face." But when once a Copt has chosen a wife, +she is his forever. No divorce is permissible. They are one till death.</p> + +<p>When the influences that had early gone out from Egypt and made for art +and learning in all the lands about the Mediterranean began to return +with compound interest from the shores of Greece to the land of the +Lotus, the women as well as the men were destined to feel their power. +Many a woman had her life lifted from the drudgery of the purely +physical life into the higher atmosphere of intellectual pursuits and +attainments. Especially marked was this in Alexandria where the great +library and university were exerting a powerful influence, and +Christianity was making its teachings felt in favor of equality of +opportunity. In that great university town, the first Christian +theological seminary was established, where both men and women might +study the teachings of the Nazarene. Theological discussions at length +became so general in Alexandria that some one has said that "Every +washer-woman in the city was arguing the merits of <i>homoousian</i> and +<i>homoiousian</i> in the streets."</p> + +<p>It was in this later period of Egypt's history that there arose one of +the most unique of all female figures. For, of all women who ever lived +in Egypt probably none can be given so high a place for various +attainments and virile powers as must be accorded to Hypatia. She was +born of intellectual ancestry, her father being the mathematician and +philosopher Theon, who lived in the fourth century of our era. She was a +disciple of her father, and had probably been a student in the cultured +city of Athens. Returning to her native city she became a lecturer on +philosophical subjects, and was recognized as a leader in the +neo-Platonic school of her day. She is said to have attracted students +far and wide to her classroom, not by her rare intellectual gifts alone, +but by her charm of manner, her beauty of person, her modesty combined +with real eloquence. Not only in the classroom did she exhibit her power +of persuasion and forceful speech, but in courts of law she proved a +powerful advocate. Her very eloquence, however, was her undoing, for +because of the strife that arose in Alexandria between Christian sects +and aroused them to the white heat of controversy and hate, the gifted +Hypatia lost her life in a manner most horrible. Torn from the chariot +in which she was riding she was dragged to the Cæsareum--which had been +converted into a Christian church--stripped naked in the presence of a +howling, fanatical mob, and then cut to pieces with oyster shells. A +horrible blot is this upon Alexandrian life and a fearful comment upon +the wild extravagances that were sometimes enacted while Christianity +was disentangling itself from paganism.</p> + +<p>Truly wonderful has been the life history of this land of the lotus +flower. Once the seat of the highest learning, by its fertilizing Nile +the feeder of the bodies as well as the minds of men; later, the home of +Greek philosophy and of Christian theology--it is to-day little reckoned +with, except as a prize for stronger powers. Some day its natural wealth +may redeem it, and its women put off their rags, or their veil, and +exert new power in the march of progress.</p> +<a name="c7" id="c7"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<h3>THE WOMEN OF THE HINDOOS</h3> + +<p>The mother of the primitive Aryan or Indo-European stock would surely +be an interesting character if we could with certainty reconstruct her +from her descendants of the several branches of that family which sent +out the Hindoo, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, the Slav, the +Scandinavian, the Teuton, and the Celt. The part these races have played +in the world's drama would indicate that the womanhood of ancient Iran +could not have been lacking in qualities that made both for endurance +and for progress. The ancient Hebrew tradition that Japheth should be +enlarged even to dwelling in the tents of Shem seems realized in this +far-spreading Aryan family. It is interesting to note that the word for +"daughter" in all the branches of this family of languages is the same; +the two roots of which it is composed signify to draw milk, attesting +not only to the primitive pastoral condition of the peoples, but also to +the common occupation of the girl as milkmaid in the days before the +several migrations took place. India is a populous country, there being +two hundred and fifty million people living in Hindoostan. These consist +of Hindoos, Mohammedans, Eurasians, Europeans, and Jews. There is +considerable variety, therefore, of custom and condition among these +millions. Among those who prefer this or that particular form of +religion there is a sameness of social condition, though local +peculiarities may be discovered. There is probably no country where the +details of life are performed with such scrupulous regard for the +prescriptions of custom and religion. The great religions to-day differ +among themselves upon many points; but so far as their teachings +concerning women are concerned, they are in wonderful agreement. The +sacred books of India, the Vedas, and other writings, the code of Manu, +for example, were vested with an authority that had untold influences in +the shaping of woman's destiny in the land of the Hindoos. Originally, +that is, in the earliest Aryan civilization,--for non-Aryan people +preceded the coming of the people of western Asia,--women were held in +esteem and exerted unusual influence. Some of the most beautiful hymns +of this ancient period are products of women's genius. The great epics +of <i>Mahabharata</i> and <i>Ramayana</i>, with their wealth of female character, +belong to this early Aryan period. Considering her place in later Hindoo +history, the great attention given to woman in the Hindoo literature is +noteworthy. No country of the Orient can furnish a literature in which +woman is given a larger place, or to which women have contributed more +frequently. The names of Ahulya, Tara, Mandadari, Lita, Kunti, and +Draupadi are familiar to students of this Indian literature. The +<i>Mahabharata</i> and the <i>Ramayana</i> are the two most important of the +ancient epics of India. Both give a considerable place to women. The +chivalry of man and the virtue of women furnish here as elsewhere the +base of legendary literature.</p> + +<p>"The ideas of the human family are few," says Mr. E. Wilson, in +<i>Literature of the Orient</i>, "when the world's great epics are compared, +the same old story of human struggles and achievements are sung, though +with variations. The same heroes and heroines occur again and again +through the world's history; and although in literary merit, in the +points of artistic proportions and movement, the great Epics of Greece +and Rome, the <i>Iliad</i>, the <i>Odyssey</i>, the <i>Æneid</i>, are found to surpass +the <i>Ramayana</i> and the <i>Mahabharata</i>, yet the ideals of love, marriage, +conjugal fidelity, are no stronger in the Western classics, and indeed +the moral tone of the Eastern masterpieces is more elevated than that of +the classic writings of Greece and Rome." Like characters appear in the +great works. Not the least interesting of those in the Eastern epos is +Krishna, the faithful wife of Arjuna, the Hindoo Hector, a heroine who +may readily be compared with the devoted Andromache. The story of Arjuna +bringing home Draupadi as a prize, and of his mother bidding him share +her charms with his brothers, seems to point to a time when polyandry +was practised in India. The method by which Draupadi chose her husband +from among her five suitors reveals also an early Hindoo custom known as +the <i>Svayamvara</i>. Those who seek the young girl's hand are invited to be +present in some public place where the ceremonies may readily be carried +out. The company forms itself into a ring; and the maiden, making the +round of the circle, tosses a garland of flowers upon the head of the +one whom she prefers. The marriage rite is then performed. Much +bloodshed was wont to occur on such occasions, because of the +disappointment of the unsuccessful suitors.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed, however, that the choice was prompted by the +impulse of the moment or by some sudden fascination. The girl usually +knew the records of her suitors, and her selection was based upon +previous acquaintance and deliberate preference.</p> + +<p>Indeed, in marked contrast with the present customs of India, it seems +clear that in early times brides, especially of the higher classes, not +uncommonly made choice of their own spouses. This may be seen in the +Hindoo story of the faithful wife. An early ruler of Madra, Ashvapati, a +pious and virtuous king, was much beloved by his people. He was +childless. Many years did he spend in prayer for offspring. The gods +gave him a daughter, who grew up to be a woman of surpassing beauty; +but, strangely enough, no prince sought her hand in marriage. Her +father, therefore, according to the ancient Hindoo law, sent her forth +to choose her own husband. At length she returned with the man of her +love, Savitri:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Carried in a fair, soft litter mid the peoples' welcoming,</p> +<p class="i14"> Came the queen and good Savitri to the city of the King."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Among the choicest women of early Hindoo epics is Sita, heroine of the +<i>Ramayana</i>. The famous poet Valmiki is supposed to have been the author; +but the poem in its present form is supposed to contain additions made +even as late as the Christian era, though its earliest portions probably +go back to a period as early as the third century before Christ. The +<i>Ramayana</i> is accounted among the sacred books of India, and special +spiritual considerations, such as forgiveness of sin and prosperity, are +thought to be the reward of those who diligently study it. Sita, the +heroine, is the wife of Rama, the son of Dasharatha, who had long +mourned his childlessness. This Dasharatha, a descendant of the sun, +lives in the city of Ayodhya, the modern Oudh, a place of beauty and +splendor:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "In bygone ages built and planned</p> +<p class="i14"> By sainted Manu's princely hand."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>But the line of the prince is threatened with extinction. He decides to +lay his plea before the gods by the sacrifice known as the <i>Asva-Medha</i>, +in which the victim is a horse. After the offering has been made with +extraordinary magnificence, the high priest in charge makes known to the +king that he shall have four sons to uphold his royal prerogatives and +maintain Dasharatha's line. One of these is Rama, whose wife Sita was a +woman of extraordinary beauty:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Rama's darling wife,</p> +<p class="i14"> Loved was as he loved his life;</p> +<p class="i14"> Whom happy marks combined to bless,</p> +<p class="i14"> A miracle of loveliness."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>And Sita was deeply devoted to her lord. But the demon Ravana desires +ardently to possess the fair queen. He hits upon a plan to gain access +to her quarters. Assuming the form of a humble priest, an ascetic, he +gains possession of her by craft; and, taking her in his chariot, he +carries her away to Lanka, a "fair city built upon an island of the +sea." Thus Rama, like Menelaus of the classic myth, has lost the woman +of his love. Rama decides to make use of a large army of monkeys, with +which he will march against the city of Lanka. But the wide waters +stretch between him and the island where his fair Sita is in possession +of the vile Ravana. Rama invokes the goddess of the sea, and she comes +in radiant beauty, telling how a bridge may be built to cross the waters +that lie between the royal lovers. The monkeys--as busy as the little +imps that reared the temple of Solomon, according to the Mohammedan +legend--build a bridge of stones and timbers. Lanka is reached, and Rama +begins the fight for her possession. Indra looks down from heaven upon +the holy contest and decides to send his own chariot down, that Rama may +mount in it and ride to victory. In single combat, riding in Indra's +chariot, Rama vanquishes Ravana, and Sita, his wife, is restored to his +bosom.</p> + +<p>As evidence of the exalted nature of the early ideals of womanhood and +of man's faithfulness to the dictates of true love, we may turn to the +words of Prince Nala, who even when about to ingloriously forsake his +unprotected wife, sleeping in a dangerous wood, spoke thus:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Ah, sweetheart, whom not sun nor wind before,</p> +<p class="i14"> Hath even rudely touched, thou to be couched</p> +<p class="i14"> In this poor hut, its floor thy bed, and I,</p> +<p class="i14"> Thy lord, deserting thee, stealing from thee</p> +<p class="i14"> Thy last robe, O my love with bright smile,</p> +<p class="i14"> My slender waisted queen. Will she not wake</p> +<p class="i14"> To madness? Yea, and when she wanders lone</p> +<p class="i14"> In the dark road, haunted with beasts and snakes,</p> +<p class="i14"> How will it fare with Bhima's tender child--</p> +<p class="i14"> The bright and peerless? O my life, my wife,</p> +<p class="i14"> May the great sun, may the Eight Powers of air,</p> +<p class="i14"> Guard thee thou true and dear one on thy way."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Woman occupies an interesting place in many of the early fables of +India. Sir Edwin Arnold has translated into English a number of the +stories from the <i>Hitopadesha</i>, which has been called "the father of all +fables," and may easily take rank with the illustrious Æsop. Stories +which present womanly traits, the tricks and wiles of love, are there, +and are graphically told. Such are the fables of <i>The Prince</i> and the +<i>Wife of the Merchant's Son</i>, which illustrate how the darts of love, +even in ancient India, struck their mark without waiting upon reason or +social standing, as the handsome prince, son of Virasena, cries +concerning the beautiful Lavanyavati: "The god of the five shafts has +hit me; only her presence can cure my wound."</p> + +<p>An account of woman in Hindoo literature would be incomplete without +some allusion to the drama. This was developed after the Alexandrian +conquest and shows marks of Greek influence. In the drama we may discern +woman of Brahmanic India from an interesting viewpoint. Of all the +dramatic productions of the Hindoo poets, there is none so famous as +that of Shakuntala, by Kalidasa, the great court poet of Vikramaditya. +As is true of many of the earlier Hindoo masterpieces the exact date of +its composition is not known. Some students place this work as early as +the first, some as late as the fifth century of the Christian era. The +drama of Shakuntala is of interest as illustrating the effect of caste. +It is a drama in seven acts, and, because of its importance, its story +may be recounted.</p> + +<p>As King Dushyanta, King of India, is driving in his chariot through a +forest, armed with his bows and arrows, in hot pursuit of a black +antelope, a word forbids him to slay the innocent creature. It is the +word of a hermit and the antelope belongs to the hermitage. The king is +obedient to the request, and is conducted to the dwelling of the great +saint Kanva, who is absent upon a distant pilgrimage, and has left his +foster-daughter Shakuntala in charge of his companions. The king finds +himself in the midst of a secret grove. He stops his chariot and +alights. As he goes reverently through these holy woods "he feels a +sudden throb in his arm. This argues happy love and soon he sees the +maidens of the hermitage approaching to sprinkle the young shrubs with +watering pots suited to their strength." Among these beautiful maidens, +rare in form and grace, the king observes one especially; it is +Shakuntala, foster-daughter of the hermit, half concealed by the trees, +but standing "like a blooming bud enclosed within a sheath of yellow +leaves." A beautiful girl is she, but the king stands puzzled. For if she +be of purely Brahmanic birth, she is prohibited from marrying one of the +warrior class, even though he be the king. As Shakuntala moves about +watering the flowers of the wood, she starts a bee from one of the +jasmine flowers. The bee pursues her, as if to do her harm with its +sting, but Dushyanta comes to the rescue; and the fair girl of the +hermitage feels some strange thrill as she sees the king, an unusual +visitant in that hallowed neighborhood. Off she hurries with her two +companions, but a series of happy accidents enables her to cast side +glances at the king: a prickly Kusa-grass has stung her foot, she must +wait a moment, a bush has caught her robe, she must stop to disentangle +it. And love is born. In the second act, while Dushyanta is thinking of +his love, two hermits arrive who tell him that demons have taken +advantage of Kanva's absence from the sacred grove and are disturbing +the sacrifices, and requests that he come and defend the grove from +their intrusion. He consents with keen delight and he will not leave the +grove, even though his mother requests his presence at a sacrifice +offered in his own behalf. He sends his representative, but cautions him +to say nothing concerning his love for the fair Shakuntala. In the third +act, the king is discovered walking in the hermitage calling upon the +god of love "whose shafts are flowers, though the flowers' darts are +hard as steel." He tracks the object of his love by the broken stems of +the flowers she had plucked in her rambles, and at length finds her in +an arbor with her attendants. She reclines upon a stone bench strewn +with flowers, she looks pale and wasted. Her maidens seek to know the +cause of her sickness, and she tells her love in a poem, written on a +lotus leaf. Just here the king rushes in and avows his passion. He tries +to overcome her scruples against a marriage, so out of accord with the +regulations of caste. He hears a voice of ill omen telling of the demons +"swarming round the altar fires." He hastens to the rescue. In the +fourth act, Shakuntala is seen wearing the signet ring of the king, +which ring has the charm to restore the king's love, should it ever grow +cold. Kanva returns from his pilgrimage in time to see the preparations +being made for Shakuntala's departure. The old hermit submits resignedly +to her going and gives his blessing to the departing one. The fifth act +presents Dushyanta, like King Saul, overcome with a deep and stubborn +melancholy. He is under a curse of Durvasas, and this induces complete +forgetfulness of his wife Shakuntala. "Why has this strain," says the +king, "thrown over me so deep a melancholy, as though I am separated +from some loved one?" Here the hermit and Shakuntala, who is about to +become a mother, are ushered into the presence of the king. He does not +know her; denies he ever knew her. The Shakuntala is about to produce +from her finger the ring which should be proof of the marriage. But, +alas! she discovers it to be lost. "It must have slipped off, in the +holy lake when thou wast offering sacrifices," said Gantami, who had +accompanied her. The king laughs derisively. Despite her endeavors, the +king fails to recollect the marriage. The sad Shakuntala buries her +hands in her robes and sobs piteously. At length the ring is found by a +fisherman, in the belly of a carp. It is brought to the king, who places +it upon his finger, when he is overcome with a flood of recollections. +But his wife and little son have been carried away to a secret grove far +away from earth in the upper air. The king, conducted in the celestial +car Indra, at length joins them. There the royal pair are reconciled and +reunited, and the drama comes to a close with a prayer to Siva.</p> + +<p>Many of the Hindoo lyrics breathe of love and woman's graces, showing +now a high respect for womanly charms, now indulging in humor at her +frailties. "The God of Love," says the poet Bhartrihari, "sits fishing +on the ocean of the world, and on the end of his hook he has hung a +woman. When the little human fishes come they are not on their guard, +quickly he catches them and broils them in love's fire." Again, the poet +sings: "She whom I love, loves another, while another is pleased with +me." A song from the famous Kalidasa will illustrate the poet's attitude +toward a woman of beauty.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Thine eyes are blue like flowers; thy teeth</p> +<p class="i14"> White jessamine; thy face is very like a lotus flower,</p> +<p class="i14"> So thy body must be made of the leaves of</p> +<p class="i14"> Most delicate flowers; how comes it then</p> +<p class="i14"> That God hath given thee a heart of stone?"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>It would be impracticable to trace the history of the chief women of +the long line of kings in the several dynasties which successively ruled +in India. In fact, it would not be possible to do so, even though there +might be material important for our present purpose. It was probably in +the days of the Mogul dynasty that emerged the most influential female +characters in historic times. The brilliancy of the court of the Mogul +kings and the prominence of some of the queens and princesses give to +this period, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of our era, an +especial fascination. Akbar, known as the Great, was a religious +reformer, as well as a great sovereign. His favorite wife was a princess +of a Rajput family, and to her was due no little of Akbar's success. It +was through his influence that the earliest attempt was made to prohibit +the <i>suttee</i>, or self-immolation of widows, a religious custom which had +already begun to dot the hallowed places of the land with little white +pillars that commemorated such sacrifices. One of Akbar's wives is said +to have been a Christian woman. Akbar's son, Emperor Jahangir, was also +wedded to a woman of great force, one who is said indeed to have been +the power behind his throne. He called her Nur Mahal, or "Light of the +Harem," for she was his favorite wife. It was during Jahangir's reign +that the English first established themselves at Surat. Nur Mahal was a +woman who knew how, like Jezebel and Lady Macbeth, to take into her own +hands the reins of administration when a strong grasp became necessary. +Many of the intrigues that characterized the emperor's reign are +attributed to her. Coins of the realm were stamped in her name, and at +last she was buried by the side of her husband at Lahore. During the +period of the Mogul dynasty the queen lived in the midst of the greatest +splendor, which, indeed, is generally more or less true of the wives of +Indian kings. Jewels were theirs in extravagant abundance. Fountains +played for their enjoyment. Marble baths were provided for their +comfort, and numberless slaves waited on their bidding. The magnificence +of the royal houses greatly impressed the Persians when they conquered +the land, or they would not have said, as is illustrated by their +inscription upon one of the palaces they had taken: "If there be a +paradise on earth, it is this, it is this!" Among the best specimens of +architectural magnificence was that erected by Shah Jehan, son of +Jahangir. It was he who built the famous Taj Mahal at Agra, his favorite +residence. He also erected the costly peacock throne at Delhi. The Taj +Mahal was built as a mausoleum for the Empress Mumtazi Mahal, who died +while giving birth to the Princess Jehanava. Isa Mohammed designed the +building, and its erection was begun in the year 1630. After seventeen +years, the employment of twenty thousand workmen, and the expenditure of +millions of dollars, the Taj Mahal was finished. It is one of the most +magnificent public buildings in India, and one of the most famous in the +world. With its dome of two hundred and ten feet in height, its tropical +garden, its mosaics and inscriptions, its marble of white, black, and +yellow, its crystals, jaspers, garnets, amethysts, sapphires, and even +diamonds, it is the richest and most notable tribute of marital love +that has ever been erected.</p> + +<p>Another monument built in honor of a woman is the famous tower Kootab +Minar, the highest pillar in the world, being of red sandstone and two +hundred and thirty-eight feet high. It is said to have been built that +the king's daughter, from the vantage ground of its high turret, might +look out upon the mosque which could be discerned in the distance.</p> + +<p>Let us revert for a moment to the ancient Hindoo writings and their +influence upon the history of Hindoo women. To the religious books of +India woman has to-day no personal access. Her religious sacrifices and +ceremonies before marriage are with reference to the procuring of a +husband. After marriage she may approach the deity, but only in the name +of her husband. Him she must revere almost as if he himself were a god. +She hopes that in time she herself may be born a man. Anciently there +were in India virgins dedicated to the service of the temple and pledged +to a life of purity, like the vestal virgins of ancient Rome. In the +course of the centuries the custom was degraded; and young women in +large numbers became the dancing girls at the temples, and others openly +dedicated themselves to a life of shame at the shrines. They are +euphemistically termed "God's slaves," but might more properly be spoken +of as slaves to the bestial passions of the profligate Brahmans of the +temple to which they belong. Dedication of virginity to a popular deity, +through his priest, became common. The young woman was said to have been +married to the god, and was given over to a life of shame.</p> + +<p>Brahmanism, which has been defined as "the religion which exalts the +cow and degrades the woman," has been one of the most potent factors in +shaping the life of woman in India. Among the Hindoos, woman has no +independent spiritual life. Her hope is in being married to a man. +Through him must her fortune be secured, and only in obedience to him +can she hope for any ultimate happiness. Woman has been regarded by the +sages of India as a snare to man's rectitude and an obstacle to his best +interests. Buddha is said to have been seated one day in a grove near +the banks of the Ganges, with many about him who had come to do him +reverence. As he saw a woman, the lady Amra, circumspect and pious, +approaching in the distance, Buddha said to those about him: "This woman +is indeed exceedingly beautiful, able to fascinate the minds of the +religious: now, then, keep your recollection straight. Let wisdom keep +your mind in subjection. Better fall into the fierce tiger's mouth, or +under the sharp knife of the executioner, than to dwell with a woman and +excite in yourselves lustful thoughts. A woman is anxious to exhibit her +form and shape, whether walking, standing, sitting, or sleeping. Even +when represented as a picture, she desires most of all to set off the +blandishments of her beauty, and thus to rob men of their steadfast +heart. How, then, ought you to guard yourselves? By regarding her tears +and her smiles as enemies, her stooping form, her hanging arms, and all +her disentangled hair, as toils designed to trap man's heart."</p> + +<p>Caste, in India, dominates everything from the cradle to the grave, and +has greatly affected the life of woman. The lines of demarcation are +deep-drawn and inexorable. The social gulfs are impassable. As one has +remarked, the only tie between the castes is the cow, which is revered +by all. There are four castes. To quote Manu, "The Brahmana, the +Kshatriya, and the Vaishya castes are the twice born ones, but the +fourth, the Shudra, has one birth only; there is no fifth caste." But +there are the outcasts who, because of some violation of caste rule, +have lost their social status and are despised by all, even the lowest. +The highest caste, according to popular belief, descended from Brahma's +mouth, this is the priestly class. The second came from Brahma's arms, +this is the warrior class. The third from his thighs, this is the +merchant class; least of all are the Shudras people, born of Brahma's +feet. The highest caste influences, in a measure, the customs of the +lower castes. The women of the low caste are burdened with many outside +duties, caring for their children in the intervals. They therefore enjoy +no little freedom. The women of the high caste, however, are shut up in +the zenanas, and so know little of the outside world.</p> + +<a name="ill3" id="ill3"></a> +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/003.png"><br> +<b><i>INTERIOR COURT OF A ZENANA<br> +From an Indo-Persian painting</i></b></p> +<blockquote> +<b><i>The zenanas are the apartments of the women, and are quite +secluded, the windows invariably looking upon the inner quadrangle of +the house. The wives are closely confined to the house. In order to +enjoy a social visit, permission must be given by the husband, who is +rarely willing to grant the coveted freedom. There is not much gayety +about the zenanas, though sometimes there may be music, dancing, and +mirth. Petty duties, trivial acts, and idleness make up "the life behind +the curtain." The girls and boys are permitted to play together until +the girl is about ten years old, then she must begin to keep purdah; +that is, she must go behind the curtain.</i></b> +</blockquote> + +<p>The zenanas are the apartments of the women, and are quite secluded, +the windows invariably looking upon the inner quadrangle of the house. +The wives are closely confined to the house. In order to enjoy a social +visit, permission must be given by the husband, who is rarely willing to +grant the coveted freedom. There is not much gayety about the zenanas, +though sometimes there may be music, dancing, and mirth. Petty duties, +trivial acts, and idleness make up "the life behind the curtain." The +girls and boys are permitted to play together until the girl is about +ten years old, then she must begin to keep purdah; that is, she must go +behind the curtain. She must dwell in the seclusion of the women, not +allowing a man, not even her own brothers, to look upon her. The Hindoos +cannot believe that a woman may be good and free at the same time; she +may be good, she may be free, but both, never. The Mohammedan Hindoo +women are of course influenced by the teachings of the Koran, which +regards the best women as those who never see any man but their husbands +and sons, the next best those that have laid eyes only upon their +relatives. Very meagre is a girl's educational training. Besides the +domestic duties, in which she is instructed that she may be fitted for +her married life, the girl is taught a few prayers which may be of +service to her in winning the favor of the deities concerned with +marital relations, and some popular songs by means of which she may +while away the hours. The deference which members of the female sex are +always expected to show to those of the male manifests itself somewhat +differently in different sections of India. In the northern parts, where +the women uniformly wear veils, they can more readily cover their faces +at the unexpected appearance of a man, or they may run into another +apartment. In southern India, where veils are not common, the women are +not compelled to hide from the presence of men, but must always rise and +remain standing out of deference to them. The Hindoo woman will not call +her husband by name; she uses such terms as "Master, Chosen," and +"Husband," and the husband, on the other hand, never alludes to his +wife, nor does anyone inquire of him concerning her. The absorption of +the wife's identity into that of the husband is complete. After marriage +they become one and he is the one. There is little wonder at this when +Manu says: "By a girl, by a woman, or even by an aged one nothing must +be done." "In childhood, a female must be subject to the father, in +youth to her husband, and when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman +must never be independent." And the Vedas declare that he only is a +perfect man who consists of three persons united, his wife, himself, and +his offspring.</p> + +<p>The expense of a marriage ceremony is very heavy in India. It is the +most expensive of all the festivities of the Hindoos. Among the higher +caste the outlay is usually above two hundred dollars. This, for a +country where the people are so poor, is a large outlay. Since religion +makes it necessary for the girls to marry, two daughters may bankrupt a +family. When it is remembered that the father must not only support his +wives and children, but also his aged parents, his indigent or idle +brothers and their families, the nearest widowed relations, and numerous +other dependants, it may be seen that a breadwinner's life in this land +of recurring famines is not always a happy one. It is not an uncommon +thing in India for four generations of family life to be crowded into +one house. The occasion of a marriage is, of course, one of prime +interest. It is the only incident in which a woman may become the centre +of an event of great religious significance. Then Vedic prayers are +offered up and festivities run high. Men dancers or Nautch girls may be +seen singing the amours, the quarrels and reconciliations of Krishna and +his wives or his mistresses. These are not a whit elevating. The truth +is India is not lacking in obscenity, not even in the frescoes of its +temples. Though little be given to the Hindoo girl, much is expected of +her when she becomes a wife. For, says the laws of Manu, "She must +always be cheerful, clever in the management of household affairs, +careful in cleaning her utensils and economical in expenditure."</p> + +<p>The necessity of bringing forth sons and being a good loyal wife +generally may be discerned in the law of Manu, which says: "A barren +wife may be superseded in the eighth year; she whose children all die, +in the tenth; she who brings only daughters into the world, in the +eleventh; but she who is quarrelsome, without delay."</p> + +<p>Faithfulness of a wife to her husband and her husband's interests must +be unquestioned. Thus alone may a woman find her higher blessedness. "A +faithful wife," says Manu, "who desires to dwell after death with her +husband must never do anything that might displease him who took her +hand whether he be alive or dead. By violating her duty to her husband a +wife is disgraced in this world, after death she enters the womb of a +jackal and is tormented by diseases, the punishment of her sin."</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable customs of a remarkable people is that of +child marriage. Since a woman attains her blessedness, if not her +spiritual entity by union with a man, marriage should be early. It is +regarded as a disgrace for a father to have an unmarried daughter upon +his hands. In Oriental lands generally the marriageable age of girls is +about twelve years, the period at which, in those countries, a young +girl usually attains to physical womanhood. But in India even infant +girls are married by their parents to other infants, or to older boys, +or to men. A woman is not esteemed at all till she is married and +becomes the mother of a son. Then she becomes at least worthy of a +certain respect.</p> + +<p>The history of the life of a Hindoo girl of high caste may be thus +drawn. Word comes from the zenana that it is a girl. Instead of +congratulations and joy at the little one's advent, the mother is +reviled by an angry husband because she brings him a daughter instead of +a son. In his reproaches all the household join. For has she not +disgraced her husband? And is she not accursed rather than blessed of +the gods? The little one is hid from the eyes of the father when he +enters the zenana, lest his anger burst forth anew. Two years roll +around, and the little girl hears sounds of rejoicing and of feasting in +the house. A boy is born, and the father's attitude is changed toward +the mother, and somewhat toward the daughter; but even yet she is a +negligible quantity. The mother loves and sometimes caresses the girl. +Occasionally the father, too, will notice her; and when the brother has +become old enough, the two little ones may play together. In a short +time, it may be between the ages of five and six, the little daughter is +arrayed in silk and costly gems. The day of her wedding has come, though +she herself knows little of what it all means, and timidly assents to +what her father in his unquestioned authority has done. She is brought +to the man whom the parent has chosen from his own caste. They look upon +each other for the first time, and the little girl scarcely sees him now +for her timidity. The ceremony is over, and the husband returns to his +own home. For the child wife must be taught the duties of housewifery. +Her mother is diligent in imparting the required knowledge. It consists +of proficiency in the arts of cooking, spinning, weaving, and waiting +upon her husband, more particularly when he is eating. The fundamental +duty of marital obedience is instilled with supreme care. At about +eleven years the girl wife is deemed ready to assume the serious duties +of wedded life. The husband comes and takes her to his own home. If his +circumstances permit he is royally seated, it may be, upon a gaudily +bedecked elephant, and she is conveyed in a closely covered palanquin. +The girl wife is now among strangers, she must make her way as best she +can. Life is not always easy for her. The Hindoo mother-in-law at once +becomes master of the new situation, and the daughter must be a willing +slave. Her apartments are not over cheerful, and the other women of the +zenana receive her with chilling indifference or with positive cruelty. +At twelve years of age the young wife is in all probability a mother. If +the child be a son, she is emancipated from her thraldom to the +husband's mother. She is now worthy in the sight of her husband, and if +all goes well, her life is lifted to a higher plane.</p> + +<p>Since a woman is bound to her husband as long as she lives,--even +though the husband himself be dead,--remarriage for her is out of the +question. Social ostracism would surely follow the woman who would dare +marry again. The man, however, may marry as often as he pleases and as +many wives as may be to his liking and convenience. The English +government attempted the impossible by the passage of a law--enacted in +1856--legalizing the remarriage of widows. Few, however, were able to +face the social hardships and loss of property which remarriage +involved. The widow who refuses to marry may often hold her property, +even though she live a life of shame.</p> + +<p>Financial conditions have much to do with the number of wives which each +husband acquires. The Brahmanic caste may marry almost without limit. +Indeed, it is permitted to them to make a business of marriage. +Sometimes an illustrious Brahman may go up and down the land, marrying +girls, always of course within his own caste, receiving presents from +the parents of the bride,--who esteem it an honor for their daughter to +be wed, especially to one so distinguished,--but passing on and never +returning to claim his wife. But the father is satisfied with the +bargain, for his daughter is at last free from the disgrace and ridicule +of being unmarried; and being the wife of a Brahman of a high caste, the +girl will be happy in the world to come.</p> + +<p>Since the members of the <i>kshatriyas</i>, or warrior class, are not +permitted to accept gifts as are the Brahmans, or priestly class, the +former cannot enjoy the privilege of enrichment by the process of +multi-marriage. They therefore have fewer wives, the number being +regulated by their power to support them. The same is also true of the +number of the daughters whom they are willing should survive, +infanticide being commonest among the people of this caste.</p> + +<p>It must not be thought that every utterance of the sacred books is on +the side of the woman's inferiority. A single passage from Manu +proclaims that "A daughter is the equal of a son," but the law proceeds +to let it be known that it is only through the husband or the son that +this equality is realized. This doctrine is true not of women only, for +even a man is made perfect only through his possession of a son or sons. +"Through a son he conquers the world, through a son's son he obtains +immortality, but through his son's grandson he gains the world of the +sun." Indeed, "there is no place in Heaven for a man," says Vasishtha, +"who is destitute of offspring."</p> + +<p>With the exception of child marriage, there is probably no fact +concerning the Hindoo woman's life that has received so much attention +as the customs which bear so hard upon widowhood. Beginning with the +assumption that the death of the husband was sent as a punishment for +the wickedness of the wife, in some previous state of existence it may +be, it is easy to conclude that the widow's life should be made as +miserable as possible. She is therefore maltreated, neglected, and at +times almost starved. When death takes away him in whom alone she had +any reason for being respected, her head must be shaved, all jewels and +wearing apparel are taken away, and instead the coarse weeds of the +widow are put on. One meal a day is permitted, and no more. Even the +women themselves are most harsh in the treatment of their bereft +sisters. For as soon as it is known that the husband is dead, the women +rush immediately upon the bewildered, grief-stricken wife, tear her +ornaments from her body, shave her hair from her head, and pronounce the +severest curses upon her whose sins in a bygone state had killed her +husband. They advise her to appease the wrath of the deity by throwing +herself with the husband upon the funeral pyre and thus as far as +possible wipe out the awful disgrace. Formerly, many yielded to +self-immolation, and immediately put an end to a life that otherwise +would be a prolonged misery, or at length, driven to frenzy by their +thousand deaths of torture, in some way cut short their terrible agony.</p> + +<p>There are about one hundred and forty million women in India. At the age +of fifteen, more often several years earlier, they are either wives or +widows. Since child marriage is so common in India, there are many +widows of very tender years. There are said to be twenty-three million +widows in India; at least two million of these became widows in early +childhood. Of these, eighty thousand are still under nine years of age, +and six hundred thousand have not yet reached the age of twenty. The +sorrows produced by religious belief concerning widowhood and by social +customs cause many very young girls to end their lives by +self-destruction. Pundita Ramabai, in her <i>High-Caste Hindu Woman</i>, says +of the widow: "She must never take part in the family feasts; is known +by the name of harlot; if she escapes from her home, no respectable +person will take her in; suicide, or a life of infamy is inevitable."</p> + +<p>Happily, the self-immolation of widows in India has now well-nigh passed +away. The English government has done much to break this awful custom, +which was thought to be the only means of destroying the force of a +widow's eternal misery and of bringing to her any future blessedness. +This horrible death, known as <i>suttee</i>, was made unlawful in 1830. But +"cold <i>suttee</i>," as some have called the living death which widows +suffer from social customs, is still maintained.</p> + +<p>From all that has been said, it is not strange that fathers may +sometimes be found who will be willing, for so many rupees, to sell +their daughters to a course of infamy, or that men may sometimes lend +their wives for a money consideration, or that the suicides of females +have been so numerous in India.</p> + +<p>There are above five million fewer women in India than men. This marked +discrepancy may be accounted for by the infanticide which prevails in +some parts and among some classes of the Hindoos, notwithstanding all +that the government can do to prevent it. Female infants are sometimes +strangled, sometimes exposed to wild beasts, or generally neglected. The +dark, unsanitary conditions of the women's quarters, and the +extraordinarily harsh and unintelligent treatment of women at the time +of childbirth, also play their part in the death rate of females.</p> + +<p>All this is in marked contrast to the position of women in Siam. Here +the seclusion of the Turkish harem and the Hindoo zenana does not exist, +and the women are probably the freest, most independent of the women of +the East. They openly attend to their duties, bringing their food to +market, buying, selling, aiding in the management of the house and +field. A man does not spend his money without consultation with the +wife, should he prize the family peace: the woman usually carries the +purse. Inheritance of house and lands is through the mother rather than +through the father--a survival of the ancient mother-right. Women even +in this comparatively favored land, however, are seldom educated, except +it be in schools established by Christian foreigners. If a woman wishes +to learn at all, it must be through her husband or brother at home.</p> + +<p>Woman in Burmah also is comparatively free, neither the zenana nor the +veil prevailing there. She too holds the purse strings; but in all other +respects she is distinctly inferior to her husband and must constantly +acknowledge it. A good wife will never say "I" in talking to her husband +concerning herself, but must speak of herself as "Your servant." In the +eyes of the man, the woman here is not only inferior, but vile, even to +the touch. Her garments are polluting to the passer-by; hence, she +always draws them more closely about herself as she passes a man upon +the streets.</p> + +<p>In Assam also woman holds a far higher place than in other parts of +India or in Burmah, even among the rude and warlike people. To the Nagas +of the hill country of Assam a girl is most welcome at birth and by many +preferred to a boy, for she is more docile, helpful, and obedient; she +is less expensive to rear and more filial in her attitude to her aged +parents. This last consideration is one that counts for very much in all +Oriental lands. Instead of the early child marriages of India, here we +find marriage at about thirteen, the bride not leaving the parental roof +till three or four years after. The wife is respected and consulted, the +husband often deferring to his wife. "I will come from the house and +tell you," means "I will ask my wife."</p> + +<p>At marriage an iron bracelet is placed on the wrist. This is sometimes +worn with gold circlets to lessen the sense of subjection. But the iron +bracelet does not thus lose its significance, for the woman has +everything to remind her of her secondary place in society. Sir Monier +Monier-Williams gives the following summary of woman's life in India: +"In regard to women, the general feeling is that they are the necessary +machines for producing children (Manu, lx: 96), and without children +there could be no due performance of the funeral rites essential to the +peace of a man's soul after death. This is secured by early marriage. If +the law required the consent of boys and girls before the marriage +ceremony they might decline to give it. Hence, girls are betrothed at +three or four years of age and go through the marriage ceremony at seven +to boys of whom they know nothing; and if these boy husbands die the +girls remain widows all their lives."</p> + +<p>Since the boys soon find out their superiority to their mothers, the +latter have little part in shaping the characters of the children, and +therefore comparatively small influence in moulding the destiny of the +people. Wherever the cow is exalted and the woman degraded a nation can +hope for little from its women. "We all believe," says a prominent +Hindoo, "in the sanctity of the cow and in the depravity of woman." +Unwelcomed at her arrival and often harassed and kept in subjection till +her death, she can contribute little to the welfare of her people. It +may be said, however, that the Hindoo woman is in the main satisfied +with her lot, and is the mainstay of Hindooism.</p> +<a name="c8" id="c8"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<h3>BESIDE THE PERSIAN GULF</h3> + +<p>It is a familiar remark that the essential difference between the +civilization of the East and that of the West is disclosed in the status +of woman in each of these regions of the earth. Erman, in writing of the +women of Egypt, broadly remarks that in the West woman is "the companion +of man, while in the East she is his servant and toy. In the West at one +time, the esteem in which woman was held rose to a cult, while in the +East, the question has frequently been earnestly discussed whether woman +really belonged to the human race." But he justly adds, this is not +absolutely fair, either to the East or to the West. While in India woman +has been denied a soul, and among the Teutonic tribes she was honored +with a superstitious reverence, yet not all the veneration can be +accounted upon the one side, nor all the degradation upon the other. +Among the primitive Aryan peoples woman's place appears to have been no +mean one. The early traditions of the women of Bactria, ancient Iran, +and the region of the Oxus converge with those preserved in the Rigveda +of the Hindoos to indicate a high degree of respect for woman, for +marriage, and for the other domestic virtues.</p> + +<p>The science of comparative philology has helped us to discover some of +the primitive ideas attached to the names of the female members of the +household. The root <i>ma</i>, <i>matar</i>, "mother," signifies the <i>creatrix</i>, +"she who brings children into the world." The coming of a girl into the +countries bordering on the Persian Gulf does not seem to have been the +matter of regret that it was so frequently in the Orient; for the name +"sister" appears to be connected with <i>svasti</i>, "good," or "good +fortune"; while the daughter manifestly held the important place, in the +pastoral life of the times, of milkmaid, from <i>duhitar</i>, "she who brings +the milk from the cows."</p> + +<p>Lenormant, writing of this ancient period, says: "Marriage was a +consecrated and free act, preceded by betrothal and symbolized by the +joining of hands. The husband, in the presence of the priest, both while +the priestly office was invested in the head of the family, and also +after the priesthood became separate, took the right hand of the bride, +pronouncing certain sacred formulæ; the bride was then conducted on a +wagon drawn by two white oxen. The father of the bride presented a cow +to his son-in-law, this was intended originally for the wedding feast, +but in later times it was taken to the house of the bridegroom; this was +the dowry, an emblem of agricultural richness. The bride's hair was +parted with a dart; she was conducted around the domestic hearth and was +then received at the door of her new abode with a present of fire and +water."</p> + +<p>Many of these ancient customs which prevailed in the regions of Irania +in the earliest times existed in the various branches of the +Indo-European family in their scattered locations. There may be +mentioned the fire ordeal, such a trial as that through which the +virtuous Sita, heroine of the <i>Ramayana</i>, was compelled by her +suspicious husband King Rama to pass in order to destroy his suspicions. +There were two methods of testing a woman's virtue. By the first, she +must pass unharmed through a trench filled with live coals. In the +second, a succession of concentric circles, about ten inches apart, was +marked out. A red-hot lance head, or another piece of similarly heated +metal, must be carried by the accused woman without being burnt across +the first eight circles and thrown into the ninth, and it must even then +be sufficiently hot to scorch the grass within the last circle. If the +hand that bore the red-hot metal was not burnt, the innocence of the +accused was established.</p> + +<p>In the legendary period of Persia's history woman performs an honorable +and--it is needless to add--a romantic part. Indeed, there has been an +interest of romance attached to Persia from the early days when +Herodotus travelled and Xenophon gave the world his <i>Cyropædia</i>. +Persia's great epic poets, notably Firdausi in <i>Shahnamah</i>, have +preserved many of the early traditions of this land. More particularly +do the deeds which gather about the name of Shah Jamshid, one of the +earliest of Persian rulers, stand out in bold character. According to +the ancient legend, it was he who not only introduced the handicrafts of +weaving, of embroidering upon woollen, cotton, and silken stuffs, but +also it was he who divided the people into the four social +strata,--priests, warriors, traders, and husbandmen. Both these +contributions to Persia's early history may be said to be of prime +importance in the development of the womanhood of the country. Of this +king many interesting stories are related, episodes in which heroic +womanhood conspicuously figures. War and love, deeds of daring and of +chivalry hold a large place in the Persian legends.</p> + +<p>The thrilling stories of King Jamshid's meeting with the irresistible +daughter of Gureng, King of Zabulistan; of their love and marriage; the +legend of the fair Tahmimah, daughter of the King of Semangan, and how +she fascinated and led captive the love of the youthful warrior Rustam, +whose fame had come to her ears; the unhappy trick by which she deceived +her absent husband, saying that the infant born to them was a girl, so +that the child might be left with her,--a deception which ended in the +tragedy of young Suhrab's death at the hands of his own father; Rustam +and Tahmimah's death from grief; the romantic finding of a queen for +King Kai Kaus, a lady who was to become the mother of King Saiawush; the +story of Byzun and the fair Princess Manijeh--all these, and more, +render the Persian epic literature rich in tales of love and chivalry.</p> + +<p>It is out of the long and bloody struggles between the Iranians and the +Turanians, who for over ten centuries battled for supremacy, that the +early epic stories have largely sprung. There was no prejudice in the +ancient days of Persia against a strenuous as well as an amatory life +for womankind.</p> + +<p>In the chapter upon the women of the Assyro-Babylonian people, the story +of Semiramis, the illustrious queen, has been told. So widespread was +the legend, however, that it belongs to the Persians as well as to the +inhabitants of the Tigris-Euphrates basin. The story was well known in +the region of Armenia, and may have been introduced into Persian history +because of its political value.</p> + +<p>Among the early women of distinction must be named Homai, who has +indeed been identified with "the Persian Semiramis." She was a princess +of renown and daughter of Bahman, and to her has been given the credit +of being the author of a collection of tales known as <i>Hezar Afsane</i>, +which comprises about two hundred stories told upon a thousand nights. +It is from this collection by the Princess Homai that many suppose the +<i>Arabian Nights</i> was constructed. How much of the material from the +former went to make up the latter is not capable of present proof, but +that the general idea and plan and some of the names, and the groundwork +of many of the tales, were borrowed from the work of the Persian +princess seems quite certain. Homai is mentioned in the Avesta, the +sacred book of the Persians; and the Persian poet Firdausi makes her the +daughter as well as wife of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Her mother is said to +have been a Jewess, Shahrazaad, among the captives brought from +Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. She is reported as having +delivered her nation from captivity, and has been identified with Esther +of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as with Shahrazaad the Jewess of the +<i>Arabian Nights</i>. Professor Gottheil thinks that the case here is well +made out by Kuenen and others. The period of Cyrus the Great brings us +upon the borderland between legend and history. Very romantic is the +story told by Herodotus concerning the mother of Cyrus. Astyages, the +Medean king, had a daughter named Mandane. This young woman was given in +marriage to Cambyses, son of Theispes. Shortly after this, King Astyages +had a dream in which there appeared a vine springing from his daughter +Mandane and spreading till it had overshadowed all Asia. Wishing to know +the meaning of this unusual dream, Astyages received from the Magi the +interpretation that a son of Mandane should some day reign in his place. +Alarmed at this, the king called a trusted servant, Harpagus, and +commanded that he make plans to put to death the infant to which Mandane +was soon to give birth; and the wife of Cambyses was closely guarded. +Harpagus, however, unwilling himself to be guilty of so bloody a crime, +directed that a herdsman of the king expose the infant son on a desert +mountain, where its death would be certain. The herdsman, however, +instead of leaving the little one to perish, reared him himself instead +of his own stillborn son. The child received the name of Agradates, but +later that of Cyrus, who by his achievements won the cognomen "The +Great." According to Ctesias, Cyrus, after defeating Astyages, married +his daughter Amytis, who had been the wife of a Mede named Spitaces, +whom Cyrus put to death. Herodotus, as we have seen, says that the +mother of Cyrus was a daughter of Astyages. The two statements may be +both correct, however, since an Oriental conqueror would not hesitate to +marry his mother's sister if the procedure gave him greater power over a +conquered territory.</p> + +<p>It was a woman, according to Herodotus, who at length brought the great +conqueror Cyrus to his end. Desiring to vanquish the Massagetæ, a +warlike tribe inhabiting the steppes north of the river Jaxartes, he +sent out his army, with the greater confidence of victory since this +people was then governed by a woman. When the Queen of the Massagetæ, +Tomyris, perceived the approach of the large army of Persians and the +work of building bridges across the Jaxartes, she sent a herald to +Cyrus, proposing a fair and open contest between the two forces, on +whichever side of the river Cyrus might select. Cyrus chose the side +of the river next the Massagetæ, but made use of a piece of strategy by +which the Massagetæ were defeated and the queen's son, who led in the +battle, was captured. Queen Tomyris, on hearing of the disaster, wrote a +bitter message to Cyrus, and threatened revenge that would be most +direful if her son were not returned alive. Cyrus gave no heed to the +threat. Thereupon, Tomyris mobilized all the forces of her kingdom +against the Persian army. "Of all the combats in which the barbarians +have ever engaged among themselves," says the ancient historian, "I +reckon this to have been the fiercest." First, the armies stood apart +and shot their deadly arrows. When the quivers were all emptied, the +forces joined in hand-to-hand encounter with lances and daggers, neither +yielding, till at length the army of the queen prevailed by the +destruction of the larger part of the Persian army. Cyrus himself was +slain; and as Tomyris passed his bloody corpse, she heaped insults upon +it, saying: "I live, and have conquered thee in fight; and yet by thee I +am ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I make good my +threat, and give thee thy fill of blood."</p> + +<p>The story of Araspes and Panthea, related by Xenophon, is one of the +earliest pieces of romantic fiction. It is told in the <i>Cyropædia</i>, and +is intended to illustrate the steadfastness and virtue of the great +Cyrus. Among the early gifts to the conqueror was a Susian lady, wife of +Abradates, King of the Susians, and regarded as the most beautiful woman +in Asia. Cyrus, never having yet seen her, committed her to the care of +Araspes till he might call for her. But the guardian fell so in love +with his fair ward that he feared the displeasure of Cyrus. The king, +however, astutely seizing upon his supposed anger toward Araspes, +decides to send him, as if a fugitive, to the enemy, that information +might be received by Araspes and communicated to him. Moreover, Panthea +now sends to Cyrus a message that her own husband Abradates would +himself become a fast friend to her lord, should he be allowed the +privilege of coming to him. Thus Cyrus, unlike many another king and +warrior, by supreme self-control in the matter of his loves gained +friends and subdued enemies.</p> + +<p>The kings of Persia, while usually marrying but one legal wife, enjoyed +the universal custom of supporting a vast harem, and of inviting into it +daughters of neighboring kings. Usually the purposes were peaceful, but +sometimes they were of a hostile character. This was the case when +Cambyses, having resolved to carry out his father's plan of making a +conquest of Egypt, demanded of Amasis, Egypt's king, his daughter in +marriage, hoping thereby to pick a quarrel. Amasis replied by sending, +not his own daughter, but another damsel of his realm, who, unable or +unwilling to keep the secret, divulged to Cambyses the deception that +had been practised upon him. The Persian king desired no better pretext +for war, and the marriage trick was avenged by Egypt's fall.</p> + +<p>The wives of the kings sometimes exerted much influence in the realm, +either for good or bad. Amestris, the only lawful wife of Xerxes, is +said to have been instrumental in the death of her husband by the hands +of two of his chief men. Amestris was his own cousin. That she +instigated this murder is not at all improbable, since there was ample +ground for jealousy on her part because of the notorious gallantries of +Xerxes. Indeed, the Hebrew Book of Esther draws a picture of the +corruptions of his court which in general outline is certainly true to +the facts.</p> + +<p>Royal personages sometimes married their own sisters. This, however, +was contrary to the ancient custom. Cambyses, who succeeded Cyrus upon +the throne, fell in love with Meroe, his youngest sister, and wished to +marry her. Not wishing to fly in the face of the custom of the Persians, +he called together the judges of the empire and inquired of them whether +there might not be a law which allowed the marriage of brother and +sister. The judges informed him that there was no such law among the +Persians, but that there was a law allowing the king to do whatever he +pleased. Disgusted and enraged, the king ordered his sister to be put to +death; so that if marriage with her was prohibited to him, it might not +be possible to a lesser man. This was no surprise, however, to a people +who had known of the cruelties of this tyrant, whose own brother Smerdis +had been brutally executed at his command. Cambyses having died of a +self-inflicted wound, his successor, known as the Pseudo-Smerdis, or +Gomates, married all his predecessor's wives--a common custom among +Oriental monarchs; for the harem might easily be regarded as a part of +the spoils of conquest, or of the inheritance, as the case might be. +Gomates kept his numerous wives confined in separate apartments, for the +intrigues of the seraglio were the bane of the Persian as of the other +Oriental dynasties.</p> + +<p>When Darius I. came into possession of the Persian throne he proceeded +to add dignity to his kingly claims by marrying Atossa, daughter of +Cyrus, who had already been successively the wife of her brother +Cambyses and of the false claimant Smerdis. Such political and +incestuous marriages became quite common in Persia. One might marry not +only a sister, but a daughter, and even a mother. At the instigation of +Parysatis, Artaxerxes II., her son, married his own daughter.</p> + +<p>Atossa figures in an interesting story, which may, however, lack +historic truthfulness. Democedes, a physician of Crotona, had healed the +injured foot of Darius, and was now called upon to visit Atossa in an +illness. Democedes, anxious to return to his native land, sees his +opportunity. Atossa, healed of her malady, is induced to appear before +Darius and reproach him for idly sitting still and not extending the +Persian dominion. "A man who is young," said she, "and lord of vast +kingdoms should do some great thing, that the Persians may know it is a +man who rules over them." Darius replied that he was even then preparing +an expedition against the Scythians. "Nay," answered his wife, "do not +fight against the Scythians, for I have heard of the beauty of the women +of Hellas and desire to have Athenian and Spartan maidens among my +slaves, and thou hast here one who above all men can show thee how thou +mayest do this--I mean he who hath healed thy foot." Atossa prevailed. +But the expedition was only a reconnoitring party sent out in ships to +Greece and Italy. Democedes reached his home, and sent Darius word that +he could not return, because he had married the daughter of Milon the +wrestler; but the expedition met only with disaster.</p> + +<p>That Persian women of royalty often took no inconsiderable part in +political and military activity is illustrated by many examples from the +days of Persia's strength. Xenophon has immortalized the zeal of +Parysatis in her efforts at placing her son Cyrus, the younger, upon the +throne, and her plottings in his behalf against his elder brother +Artaxerxes. Parysatis failed, but won no small power even in her +unsuccessful efforts.</p> + +<p>Alexander the Great, on his Eastern campaign, seemed as willing to +marry the daughters of conquered princes of the East as to be worshipped +as a god by his obedient followers. Indeed, he would frequently give +respite to a strenuous life of conquest by marrying an Oriental woman. +While Alexander was engaged in his Phoenician campaign, Darius wrote +Alexander a letter offering him not only all lands west of the Euphrates +River, but also his own daughter, Statira, as the price of peace. It was +on this occasion that the famous dialogue between Alexander and his +general Parmenion occurred. The latter had advised that the offer of +Darius be accepted and no further risk of battle be undertaken. "Were I +Alexander," said Parmenion, "I should take these terms." "So should I, +if I were Parmenion," said Alexander; "but as I am not Parmenion, but +Alexander, I cannot." Accordingly, he wrote to Darius in reply to his +offer: "You offer me a part of your possession, when I am lord of all; +and if I choose to marry your daughter, I shall do so whether you give +consent or not." Events justified Alexander's boast, for both the +territory and the daughter fell into the hands of the Macedonian victor. +It was not, however, till the conqueror reached the palace city of Susa, +on his return from India, that he celebrated his marriage with Statira, +a daughter of Darius and Parysatis, who herself was daughter of Ochus, +predecessor of Darius. Alexander wished to encourage such unions with +Persian women, and went so far as to offer to his soldiers a full +payment of all debts to those who would take to themselves Persian +wives--an argument which appealed powerfully to the extravagant +spendthrifts, but was of little force with the sober and provident of +his followers. Many of the former availed themselves of their general's +offer and followed his illustrious example. Ten thousand soldiers +received presents for marrying Eastern wives, and at least eighty of +Alexander's courtiers celebrated their marriage to Persian wives while +at Susa.</p> + +<p>The intermarriage of Greeks with Persian women was desired by Alexander +as one means of welding together the Greeks and the Persians into one +united empire. In the opinion of the Greeks, however, a union between +the sons of Hellas and the daughters of the East could not be regarded +as a regular marriage; and yet, Roxana, the Bactrian, was exalted to be +Alexander's queen. The spirit of the East, however, conquered the +conquerors, and polygamy was introduced among the Greek invaders, +Alexander himself having married three wives of the East, Roxana, +Statira, and Parysatis. The most noteworthy matrimonial coup of +Alexander during his Eastern conquest was, of course, that with Roxana. +Her son, born after Alexander's death, and called by the name of his +father, laid claim to the title of "the great king"; but Alexander's +Eastern plans, so far as they looked toward a universal empire, melted +away in the early morning of their conception.</p> + +<p>After the decline of the Græco-Persian power and the rise of Parthian +supremacy, we enter a new epoch in Persian history. The Parthians had +long been a rude, nomadic people. Their women were uncultured, and +played little part, except in a physical way, in the new era that dawned +upon the land of proud Persia. The Parthian women were, however, sturdy, +self-sacrificing, and brave, adapted well to the dashing character of +the Parthian warrior, whose tactics in battle struck terror to the +stoutest hearts, even among the brave Greeks and the well-nigh +invincible Romans.</p> + +<p>Following the downfall of the Parthians comes, under Ardeshir, the rise +of the Sassanian dynasty, which many suppose to be a revival of the once +glorious line of Achæmenian kings. It was not long before woman began to +figure prominently in the new history. Sapor I., son of Ardeshir, or the +Sassanian Artaxerxes, as he is called, finding difficulty in bringing +the province of Hatra under his sway, receives an overture from the +daughter of Manizen, the ruler of Hatra, an ambitious young +woman,--without moral scruples,--with intimation that if she were made +Queen of Persia she would promise to betray her father's forces into +Sapor's hands. The compact was faithfully carried out by the damsel; but +Sapor, when he came into possession of Hatra, ordered the traitress to +be put to death, instead of marrying her, for Sapor not unnaturally felt +that he could not be safe on his throne with such a wife. It was during +the reign of Sapor that a new element was injected into Persian social +and religious life which was destined somewhat later to influence almost +every home in Persia. This was the rise of Manicheism, named for its +founder Manes.</p> + +<p>This was a new form of Christianity--a syncretic faith into which +entered a little of Zoroastrianism, somewhat of Judaism, a modicum of +Buddhism, and some Christianity. Manes's teachings seemed so plausible +that many were swept away by them; they appeared to be destined to shake +the older faiths from their foundations, and they changed many of the +customs as well as portions of the worship of the people. Manes was a +zealous patron of the decorative arts. The art of weaving carpets of +silk and of wool, which has given employment to so many female fingers +from that day to this, and the fine embroideries which have made Persia +famous are to be attributed in no small degree to the influence of +Manes.</p> + +<p>The lives of the women of the Sassanidæ were not always to be envied. +The story, though it may have changed form and color somewhat by +transmission, is not an improbable one which tells of King Varahran's +anger at his queen. One day, seated with her in an open pavilion +overlooking the plain, he saw two wild asses approaching. With his bow +the strong man, skilled in the chase, transfixed both of the animals +with one well-aimed shot. Turning to his spouse to receive the applause +he thought due him, the wife replied: "Practice makes perfect." Angered +at the lightness with which his skilful feat was received, he ordered +her to be executed, but quickly repented, and simply divorced her from +the palace. In quiet moments, he repented of his haste. For years, he +had no trace of the former queen, but when hunting one day he beheld a +scene which quickly excited his curiosity and admiration. It was a woman +carrying upon her shoulders a cow, with which, indeed, she easily walked +up and down the stairs of the country house. On asking her concerning +the remarkable feat, she replied, as she dropped her veil: "Practice +makes perfect." The king recognized his wife, now no longer young, but +still possessing physical charms, and invited her to take her place +again in the palace. The woman had commenced to carry the cow when it +was but a tiny calf, and had shrewdly planned the feat in the hope that +some day she might win back her husband's respect. It has been suggested +that cows are small in Persia, as is indeed the case, but more probably +some small animal, such as a goat or a gazelle, first figured in the +story.</p> + +<p>Persian kings of the house of Sassan intermarried frequently with +Turkish women, and one of the best known of this dynasty, Hormisda, had +a Turkish mother. It was he who won the mortal enmity of one of Persia's +greatest generals by sending to the veteran a distaff, together with a +woman's costume, suggesting that he give up the art of war for that of +spinning. The suggestion cost the king his sceptre. The soldiery, +however, raised to the throne his son, the many-sided Chosroes Parveez, +whose name stands out prominently not only as a foster-father of the +arts among the people, but as preëminent in a long line of Persian kings +because of his unswerving love for his wife Shirin all through his long +and, in some respects, most honorable reign. His harem, however, was one +of the most extensive in all Persian annals.</p> + +<p>Modern Persia has, of course, lost much of the grandeur of the days of +Mandane or of the mother of Xerxes. Persia, being an inland as well as a +mountainous country, with scarcely any railway facilities in the entire +country, and no navigable waterways, has been very little influenced by +modern ideas or customs. As there are many tribes and nationalities in +the land, and many different religions as well, many differences are +found in manners, customs, and even in language. Each nationality and +each sect continues distinct from the other. Broad differences have +engendered social distinctions and sometimes enmity and strife.</p> + +<p>No single statement as to the relation of the sexes in Persia will apply +to all the peoples of the country. The large majority of the people +being Mohammedans, the customs are very similar to those of all other +countries where Islam rules. Among the Nestorian Christians and the +Catholic Christians women are unveiled and free to come and go. Among +the so-called "Fire Worshippers" of the Monsul mountains, men and women +associate in their great feasts, and the sexes dance and sing together. +The laws of the people fix the number of wives at not more than six, +and, of course, the girl may not choose her husband; but is sold by her +parents, though she may remain single by paying through hard labor a sum +to the father for the privilege of remaining under the parental roof. +Among the Parsees, the modern followers of Zoroaster, who number about +twenty-five thousand, woman is given a better opportunity for education +than among the Mohammedans. Obedience to her husband is, of course, her +first duty; and married life is looked upon as specially blessed, and +rich Parsees are known to aid in a pecuniary way those who are +marriageable, but lack the material means to make them happy. Polygamy +is prohibited among the Parsees, except that after nine years of +sterility, a wife may expect another woman to share the home of her +husband. Divorces are forbidden, and wives have comparative freedom. The +wealthier Persians, generally found in the towns, reside in large +dwellings having several apartments. The masses of the people, however, +live poorly in mud houses or huts from thirty to forty feet square, with +one room and a single door.</p> + +<p>Woman's work in Persia, as generally in the East, is multiform as well +as menial. The women, of course, do the baking. They use yeast in the +making of their bread. Having kneaded the dough, they set it aside to +rise, after which they divide the mass into small parts, and with a +rolling-pin they roll these pieces of dough very thin, and sometimes to +the size of two feet in length by a foot in width, and then stick them +to the side of the oven. The latter is a cylindrical hole in the ground, +lined with clay and located near the centre of the house. It is about +four feet deep, and approximately two and a half feet in diameter. The +women make fire in this oven but once a day. The wife bakes once or +twice a week, if the family be small, but if large, every day or every +other day. This oven, whose top is even with the floor, is also the +place around which in cool weather the family gather upon mats to keep +themselves warm. The fuel is not wood, which is very scarce, but manure. +At first both the smoke and the odor are very perceptible, but when once +the fire is burning freely, the impurities of the fuel are drawn up +through an opening in the roof, a window, just above the oven. Out of +this window, which remains open day and night, the smoke is supposed to +go, as indeed it will, if ample time be given. The Persian housewife is +thus enabled to keep her house ventilated, but its walls and ceilings +soon become very black with soot. In rainy weather the good housewife +must place a pan or other receptacle immediately under the window--for +this opening in the ceiling is both the avenue for light and for +ventilation, hence must not be closed. If a woman wishes to know her +neighbor's business, she will creep upon the top of her neighbor's +roof--for houses are very often close together, and eavesdrop through +the open window.</p> + +<p>Weaving is done both by women and by men. The weaving and spinning +apparatus, as well as the crude cotton-gins, are in the same room where +the family eats, sleeps, cooks, and converses. As a rule, the men weave +the light goods, such as cotton fabrics, while the women make the +carpets, rugs, and the like. The women are the spinsters, and, with +untiring energy, they rise early and spin all day. It is said that a +woman of ordinary skill can spin a pound of cotton a day, provided she +works very hard. For this she receives, if done for another, about +twenty cents.</p> + +<p>The women do the milking. In fact, it is regarded as beneath the dignity +of a man to milk, if not as a positive disgrace. The women milk cows, +buffaloes, sheep, and goats. Butter is made from buffalo milk, which is +given by the animals in large quantities and is exceedingly white. Since +clabber is more highly prized than fresh milk, the housewife, as soon as +she has finished her morning's milking,--they milk twice a day,--heats +the fresh milk almost to boiling, allows it to cool a little, and then +adds a table-spoonful of sour milk. Speedily the whole begins to +coagulate, and the next morning, with the addition of syrup, it forms +the customary breakfast. The good housewife finds it indispensable to +keep a little sour milk at hand in order to hasten the coagulation. +Women residing in towns do their churning in earthen vessels or +pitchers, called <i>meta</i>, always using sour milk. Among the nomadic +people of the country sheepskins are used for this purpose. These +sheepskin churns are filled, and suspended by means of cords from a +wooden frame. The churn is thus shaken back and forth by the women till +the butter comes. If butter in excess of the immediate need is +produced,--and the poorer classes use it sparingly,--it is converted +into oil, which keeps its quality for a year or two and is much used for +cooking.</p> + +<p>The women are also the millers, braying the corn in mortars in +primitive fashion, or beating it to meal upon a flat stone with a stone +hammer, or, in some advanced households, grinding it in hand mills. It +requires two or three women to use a hand mill, which consists of two +huge round stones, one revolving upon the other. Two or more women will +take hold of a handle attached to the upper stone and turn, while +another pours the grain, from an earthen jar, through a hole in the +upper millstone. As only a little wheat can be ground at a time, it +requires much patience, and the men generally give over the labor to the +women.</p> + +<p>Harvesting is also done by the women. The season between June and August +of each year is therefore peculiarly severe upon them. Their domestic +duties must be finished soon after sunrise; then, with their sickles, +they start out from the villages to the harvest fields, a mile or two +distant. One may often see the baby in its tiny cradle flung across the +shoulder of the mother on her way to the day's labor. She puts the +cradle down in the shade in view of the reapers, and performs her daily +task in the broiling sun. While the women reap, the men gather the +bundles and bind them for the threshing floor. At the close of the day, +homeward they trudge, tired and soiled by the day's work; the mothers +carrying their little ones back to their homes, where the domestic +duties of evening are to be performed before comes the opportunity for +rest. When grain harvest is over, the vineyards are to be gleaned, and +the women are to do most of the work of picking the ripe, luscious +branches of grapes, filling the huge baskets and carrying them to the +place where the fruit is to be spread out to be dried. In fifteen or +twenty days the grapes have become raisins, and they are again taken up +and piled away, ready for the market. Wine and molasses are also made +from grapes, the work being largely the task of the women.</p> + +<p>Just as Persia has its Ruths gleaning in the fields, so also Rebekah +with her water pot may be seen daily. In lieu of modern buckets, the +Persians are content to have their women take large earthen jars, +morning and night, to the public wells, springs, or streams outside the +village. There the women fill their pots, lift them first to the hips, +then to the back or shoulder, and trudge home with their burden, +chatting happily as they go, and becoming straight and strong by the +muscular exercise involved. Eight or ten trips may be necessary before +each woman has filled all her jars, and so procured the necessary amount +of water for the daily use.</p> + +<p>There is a saying in Persia: "When cousins marry they are never happy." +And yet, as a rule, marriages are within the religious sects. If a +Christian--Christians in Persia are of the ancient Nestorian +faith--should marry a Mohammedan woman, he would be compelled to +renounce his religion for the Mohammedan, as the ruling class would not +allow it to be otherwise. Christian parents, on the other hand, would +not give their consent to the union of their daughter with a worshipper +of Islam. Occasionally, however, attractive Nestorian girls are captured +and carried off, and compelled to accept the Mohammedan religion, and +married to a Persian or a Turk. Generally, girls marry within their own +villages, since each neighborhood is, as a rule, a community +uninfluenced and unvisited by people from other communities. Persia is +no exception to the ordinary Oriental rule, that marriage contracts are +made by the parents--the children accepting with unquestioning obedience +the conditions that have been prepared for them.</p> + +<p>A young man, being where isolation of the sexes does not prevail, may, +however, and often does, show unmistakably his preference for the girl +of his liking; and since the communities are often small, isolated +marriages of those who have known and loved one another from infancy are +not infrequent. The wise parent finds out if the two young people are +really in love, though both will often vehemently deny what is plainly +true, and tries to arrange matters in accordance with the eternal +fitness of things. The girl in question, however, is never consulted in +the matter. All girls are supposed to marry, and a youth who remains +long single is considered of all creatures the most miserable. As is +general throughout the East, Persian girls are ready for conjugal life +at twelve years of age, certainly at the age of fifteen. Betrothal often +takes place as early as infancy. Parents will sometimes undertake to +cement, or at least to express, their strong friendship by engaging +their infants, one to another. These two, growing up with the +understanding that they are finally to be husband and wife, often become +ardent lovers, and the match is a happy one.</p> + +<p>When a young man has become of age, which in many cases is very early in +life, especially among the rich classes, the parents will send two or +three male friends to act as mediators, who will go to the house of the +girl in question and ask her parents for her hand. After some +deliberation, with apparently great reluctance, the request is granted. +To seal the contract, one of the mediators rises and kisses the hand of +the father. The contracting parties return to their homes and report +their success to the parents of the young man. In accordance with the +affirmative report, his parents, within a few days, meet the parents of +the girl and conclude the arrangements for the wedding.</p> + +<p>The first in the order of preparation is the buying of the wedding +clothes for the bride; for these the father of the prospective +bridegroom pays. The father must make presents to the members of the +girl's family and to her friends. The chief officers of the town must +also be remembered. After this the parties make ready for the marriage. +While the bride is engaged in preparing for the wedding, there are +feasts and revels at the houses of both the bride and the groom. +Provision for these sumptuous feasts is made by the groom's father. This +feasting lasts from three to six days. The predominating features in it +are music and dancing, in a style peculiar to Persian life and custom. +Mirthful song is provided by professional singers, to the great delight +of those present. After two or three days of incessant preparation on +the part of the girl, and of festivity on the part of the ever mirthful +guests, the men and the boys, following a leader, go to bring the bride +home. As soon as the gay company has arrived, a feast is in readiness +for them. A dance in the house or in the yard follows. Meantime, the +bride is being prepared to take her journey to her future home. At last +it is announced that she is ready, and the musicians play a doleful +tune, while the girl kisses her parents good-bye; and bidding adieu to +all the friends of her childhood, she is soon mounted on the horse which +is to carry her. At that moment the musicians change their mournful tune +to one more lively, and off the whole company marches with the bride to +her destination. At the arrival of the bride, which is reported by a +young man, all the people of the community emerge from their huts and +come out to witness the festive scene. After some ceremony, the bride +dismounts before the house of the most prominent man in the town, into +which she is escorted, and there she is received and entertained with +honor.</p> + +<p>That night again the town in general enjoys hilarious feasting and +mirth, especially in the house of the groom. The next day the musicians +go to the different parts of the town where the guests are being +entertained, and summon them to the enjoyment of another feast. As soon +as this is over, they accompany the groom, led by the music and dancers, +to the place where the bride is being entertained; and thence, if they +be Catholic Christians, they at once proceed to the church, where the +priest performs the marriage rite. The husband and wife are now ready to +be escorted to their future home, which is the birthplace of the groom. +The rest of that day is spent in conversation and feasting. The female +friends of the groom look, for the first time, upon the unveiled bride; +and they examine the embroidered work, which the girl has made with her +own hands, and which constitutes a part of the bridal equipment. The day +being over, the friends depart and the bride and groom are launched on +their new life.</p> + +<p>The women of the Persian seraglio are more closely confined, if +possible, than the women of the Hindoo or of the Turkish harems. In +ancient days it was customary to put the women who entered the royal +harem under a strict regimen or course of preparation. A glimpse of this +purifying process is given in the Hebrew Book of Esther, the author of +which shows minute acquaintance with Persian life and customs. "Now when +every maid's turn was come, ... after that she had been twelve months, +according to the manner of the women (for so were the days of their +purification accomplished, to wit: six months with oil of myrrh, and six +months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the +women), then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she +desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto +the king's house."</p> + +<p>The custom of strict seclusion and oversight of the women, introduced +by the ancient kings to guard better a pure lineage and to exhibit +greater state, has had large influence in Persia, except among the +nomadic peoples. The arrangements of the house for obtaining privacy for +women are usually the same throughout the land. The first apartment of +the house is for the use of men; the second or interior apartment, +called the "anteroom," is for the women, and no men are allowed to +intrude into the "harem" or "forbidden place"; else the voice of the +eunuchs, or guardians, will be quickly heard crying out: "Women--away," +and every face in the harem will be at once veiled from the sight of the +intruder.</p> + +<p>"I am a woman" is frequently given and regarded as an ample reason why a +modern Persian girl need not learn to read. Every city or town has its +school for boys, but there are no schools for girls (unless they be +mission schools), since it is commonly believed that it is a prudent +policy to keep the female sex satisfied with their present position in +the economy of life. The wealthier parents may, however, sometimes +employ private tutors for their girls. The deep-seated line that marks a +woman as different from a man appears even in the method of capital +punishment meted out to women. While a man who is to be executed will +have his jugular vein cut, be nailed to a wall, or be blown from a +cannon's mouth, a woman will be sentenced to have her head shaved, her +face blackened, to take a bareback ride upon a donkey along the public +highway, and finally to be beaten to death in a bag. Or she may be +stripped of all clothing and placed in a bag full of cats, which will +soon scratch or bite the unfortunate victim to death.</p> + +<p>Domestic peace does not always hover like a white dove over Persian +homes. Even among the Nestorians, the ancient Christian sect, it is very +common for the husband to assert his lordship over his spouse by giving +her an occasional flogging. The women expect this as one of the +conditions of their position. The failure of this method of emphasizing +the husband's authority, however, would appear from the testimony that +"the number of women who revere their husbands is as small as the list +of husbands who do not beat their wives."</p> + +<p>In this land of the ancient Magi it is not strange that there should be +many superstitions connected with marriages and engagements. Sometimes +it is manifest that the husband does not love his wife. If this be the +case, the wife or her mother may consult a magician. He will write for +her a charm. This is to be sewed into some designated part of her daily +apparel; a like charm is prepared for direct effect upon the husband, +and this must be secretly sewed into his clothing. The hoped-for result +of these charms is the renewal of conjugal affection. Another charm, +which is highly regarded, directs the wife to cut off a few hairs from +both her own and her husband's head, to burn them together and from +their ashes make a potion which the husband is to be caused, +clandestinely, to drink. Some magicians will direct that the love +prescription be placed under the hinge of the door of the house, so that +as the door is constantly opened and shut, the husband's love will as +constantly grow toward his spouse. Sterility is uniformly regarded as a +misfortune, if not a curse. Incantations and charms are frequently +employed to induce fecundity. The Persian women and Orientals generally +have innumerable superstitions. For example, when a hen is heard to +crow, it is regarded either as a good or a bad omen. To ascertain +exactly which it may be, the crowing hen is blindfolded and carried to +the top of the flat roof. She is then dropped through the open window +into the centre of the room below. If the hen turns toward the corner of +the house, it is considered a good omen, and all is well. If on the +other hand, she starts toward the door, it is regarded as portending +evil, and the hen is killed at once. This odd custom suggests another, +somewhat similar, once in vogue in Persia. Suppose a woman has lost a +piece of money, and she suspects that some disloyal neighbor, she does +not know whom, has taken it. To prevent a public trial and to spare the +innocent the disgrace that may come upon those wrongly suspected, all +the neighbors agree that at a certain time every man and woman of the +vicinage shall go, one after the other, to the dwelling from which the +money was stolen, and in passing, each person shall throw a handful of +dirt into the window of the person whose money has been lost. One goes +and returns to his own house, and then another, till all have thrown in +a handful. When the last one has deposited the dirt he has brought, the +owner goes in and finds in the midst of the total deposit the lost +treasure; for the guilty party, fearing that he will at length be +detected and suffer punishment, and knowing that he cannot be detected +if he throws the money down into the house along with his handful of +dirt, avails himself of this means of escape from the charge which he +fears.</p> + +<p>There are no women who have a harder, and apparently a happier, life +than do the women of the Kurds. The men of the tribe deny that women are +possessed of souls. A woman must not, therefore, be present where a man +is at prayer. If she should touch him while performing this hallowed +duty, it is thought that she might get the benefit of the prayer. +Indeed, it is believed that if she touch him, she obtains his soul. +Should a woman be seen approaching, the man at prayer may rise, go out +from the prayer circle, take his gun and shoot the woman, and then +piously return to his devotions.</p> + +<p>The Kurdish women are very dark in complexion and picturesque in their +apparel. They use paints and other cosmetics in abundance, to please the +eye of their husbands. Their day of toil is a long one, for, after +finishing their household duties, they are expected to hasten to the +fields to tend the flocks, or to gather fuel for the winter. At night +they return with large packs upon their shoulders, enough for two +donkeys to carry. They may be seen spinning and singing on their way to +and fro, as though their lot were the happiest in the world. Little +thinking of the ordinary ailments of women, they trudge along over the +fields or the mountain heights; and frequently a Kurdish woman may be +seen returning home in the evening, happy, with her huge bundle of +sticks for the fire, and with the infant to which she has given birth +during the day! A Kurd usually thinks more of his steed than of his +wife, who may sometimes be compelled to vacate her place in the dwelling +to make room for the horse.</p> + +<p>Any account of Persian women is incomplete without some reference to +woman in the native poetry of the Persians. No poetry of the East has +been so generally admired, translated, and read as the Persian. In it +woman finds a large place. And yet, it cannot be said that she is +presented always in the light of the brightest ideals of virtuous +womanhood.</p> + +<p>The Persian poet Hafiz is said once to have been asked by the +philosopher Zenda what he was good for, and he replied: "Of what use is +a flower?" "A flower is good to smell," said the philosopher. "And I am +good to smell it," said the poet. Too often woman is shown as the +plaything of man's passion and fancy. Yet the virtue of heroic womanhood +in the early days is presented with great force and beauty.</p> + +<p>The Persian poets, in the treatment of love, leave little place for +reflection, still less for practical considerations. It is spontaneous +love, "love at first sight," which they deem alone worthy of their song. +"Love at first sight and of the most enthusiastic kind is the passion +described in all Persian poems, as if a whole life of love were +condensed into one moment. It is all wild and rapturous; it has nothing +of the rational cast. A casual glance from an unknown beauty often +affords the subject of a poem." These words well sum up the Persian +poets' most common attitude toward love and the female graces. The +following lines written concerning the beauty of the daughter of Gureng +King of Zabulistan, are typical:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "So graceful in her movements and so sweet,</p> +<p class="i14"> Her very look plucked from the breast of age</p> +<p class="i14"> The root of sorrow;--her wine-sipping lips</p> +<p class="i14"> And mouth like sugar, cheeks all dimpled over</p> +<p class="i14"> With smiles and glowing as the summer rose--</p> +<p class="i14"> Won every heart."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>These words, too, were said of a damsel who had won fame as a warrior in +her father's army, and her skill, valor, and judgment had made enemies +fall at her feet. Indeed, one of the most romantic portions of the +<i>Shahnamah</i> of Firdausi are the passages describing the meeting of the +gallant King Jamshid with the beautiful daughter of Gureng, whose father +had given her permission to marry, provided only it should be +spontaneous love which should guide her in the choice:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "It must be love and love alone</p> +<p class="i14"> That binds thee to another's throne,</p> +<p class="i14"> In this thy father has no voice--</p> +<p class="i14"> Thine the election, thine the choice."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>One day, as by chance, the handsome young King Jamshid arrived at the +city, a fatigued stranger, and was not permitted by the keepers to pass +through King Gureng's rose garden. Weary, Jamshid sat down at the gate, +under a shade tree. The damsel sees him, and at once falls in love with +his manly form and demeanor. She brings him wine, by which he may be +refreshed, and pours out her tender soul to him. Presently a dove and +his cooing mate alight upon a bough above their heads. The damsel asks +which of the birds her bow and arrow must bring to the ground. Jamshid +replies: "Where a man is, a woman's aid is not required; give me the +bow."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "However brave a woman may appear,</p> +<p class="i14"> Whatever strength of arms she may possess,</p> +<p class="i14"> She is but half a man."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Blushing, the girl gives over the weapon, and Jamshid says: "Now for the +wager. If I hit the female, shall the lady whom I most admire in this +company be mine?" The damsel, her heart bounding with throbs of love, +assents. Jamshid drew the string and struck the female bird so skilfully +that both wings were transfixed with the body. The male bird flew away, +but presently returned and perched itself again upon the bough as if +unwilling to leave its stricken mate. The damsel grasped the bow and +arrow, and said: "The male bird has returned to his former place; if my +aim be successful shall the man whom I choose in this company be my +husband?"</p> + +<p>Just then the aged nurse of the princess appears, and recognizes in King +Jamshid him whom the oracles had predicted would be the young girl's +spouse.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "... happy tidings, blissful to her heart,</p> +<p class="i14"> Increased the ardor of her love for him."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>They are married. And the story of her father's displeasure and of his +treachery toward Jamshid, the latter's betrayal and death, the young +wife's inconsolable grief and sad self-slaughter move before the reader +in a most thrilling fashion. This Persian poem, setting forth the +romantic side of female character, is one of the greatest pieces of +literature ever written.</p> + +<p>The Persian romances delight in making the women do most of the loving +and the courting. The heroines are the first to feel passion and the +most rapturous in expressing it. They, however, like Saiawush in the +<i>Shahnamah</i>, are fond of coyness until they have determined to yield to +the force of love. But when the love of a Persian woman has once gone +out, the Persian poets usually depict it as strong and steadfast to the +end. It speaks like that of Manijeh, the unfortunate Byzun:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Can I be faithless then to thee,</p> +<p class="i14"> The choice of this fond heart of mine,</p> +<p class="i14"> Why sought I bonds when I was free,</p> +<p class="i14"> But to be thine, forever thine?"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Even the best poets, such as Firdausi, who was called the "poet of +Paradise," Persia's great national poet, often present woman's charms in +lines highly overdrawn. Such these are concerning the Princess Rudabah:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i20"> "Screened from public view</p> +<p class="i14"> Her countenance is brilliant as the sun;</p> +<p class="i14"> From head to foot her lovely form is fair</p> +<p class="i14"> As polished ivory. Like the spring, her cheek</p> +<p class="i14"> Presents a radiant bloom--in stature tall,</p> +<p class="i14"> And o'er her silvery brightness, richly flow</p> +<p class="i14"> Dark musky ringlets clustering to her feet."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Khakani, considered the most learned of Persia's lyric poets, wrote some +beautiful verses in which womanly charms find place. Such is his poem +<i>The Unknown Beauty</i>, in which occur the lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "I saw thy form of waving grace!</p> +<p class="i16"> I heard thy soft and gentle sighs;</p> +<p class="i14"> I gazed on that enchanting face,</p> +<p class="i16"> And looked in thy narcissus eyes;</p> +<p class="i14"> Oh! by the hopes thy smiles allowed,</p> +<p class="i14"> Bright soul-inspirer, who art thou?"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The great price placed upon womanly beauty is clearly discerned in such +writers as Sadi, who died about A. D. 1292. In his <i>Gulistan</i>, or "Rose +Garden," he tells the story of a doctor of laws who had a daughter. She +was so extremely ugly that she reached the age of womanhood long before +anyone wished her in marriage, although her fortune and dowry were +large--for "Damask or brocade but add to deformity, when put upon a +bride void of symmetry," says Sadi. Finally, to avoid perpetual +maidenhood, the girl was given in wedlock to a blind man. Very soon a +physician who could restore sight to the blind happened to come that +way. "Why do you not get him to prescribe for your son-in-law?" the +father was asked. "Because," said he, "I am afraid he may recover his +sight and repudiate my daughter--for the husband of an ugly woman ought +to be blind."</p> + +<p>Few poets have written more of love and womanly grace than did Hafiz, +who died in A. D. 1388. In the <i>Diwan</i>, which has been compared to a +story of pearls, Hafiz says:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "To me love's echo is the sweetest sound</p> +<p class="i14"> Of all that 'neath the circling round</p> +<p class="i30"> Hath staved."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>A story is told of Hafiz and Tamerlane, which is doubtless apocryphal. +Coming upon the poet one day, Tamerlane said: "Art thou not the insolent +versemonger who didst offer my two great cities Samarkand and Bokhara +for the black mole upon thy lady's cheek?" "It is true," replied Hafiz, +with much calmness; "and indeed, my munificence has been so great +throughout my life that it has left me destitute; so, hereafter I shall +be dependent on thy generosity for a livelihood." This apt reply of +Hafiz is said to have so pleased the conqueror that he sent the poet +away with a present.</p> + +<p>It may be said, as a rule, that the Persian poets emphasize almost +exclusively woman's physical charms. "Women, wine, and song" are, in +truth, the chief burden of the poems. The sensuous side of love is most +frequently disclosed. There are, however, some exceptions to this +general rule, as may be discovered in passages from the writings of +Jami. While it is the beauty of the unmarried woman which most +frequently and most naturally holds place in Persian song, yet the +married life is not forgotten. Firdausi, in his account of the beautiful +Rudabah, says of wedlock:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "For marriage is a contract sealed by Heaven--</p> +<p class="i14"> How happy is the warrior's lot amidst</p> +<p class="i14"> His smiling children."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>And Firdausi makes Kitabun say:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "A mother's counsel is a golden treasure."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Examples of the recognition of love that is deep and full of meaning are +not wanting among the Persian poets.</p> + +<p>Nizami, Persia's first great romantic poet, who lived in the twelfth +century of our era, wrote nothing better than his romance of Bedouin +love, the story of Laili and Majnun, which has been happily termed the +<i>Romeo and Juliet</i> of the East. "France," says a recent writer, "has its +Abelard and Eloise, Italy its Petrarch and Laura, Persia and Arabia have +their pure pathetic romance." Many see in the story of Laili and Majnun +an allegorical or spiritual interpretation. At least, it illustrates the +stress which the Persian poets put upon a true, undying devotion, and +the Orientals consider it the very personification of faithful love.</p> + +<p>The higher ideals are often found in the dramatic literature. Many +consider Jami's celebrated <i>Yusuf and Zulaikha</i>, a dramatic poem +modelled after Firdausi, to be the finest poem in the Persian language. +Sir William Jones pronounces it "the finest poem he ever read." It gives +account of Yusuf--the Israelite Joseph--and Zulaikha, Potiphar's wife. +In this is disclosed how the human soul attains the love for the highest +beauty and goodness only when it has suffered and has been thoroughly +regenerated, purified, as was the life of Zulaikha. The poet, seeing the +emptiness of mere beauty, reaches the inevitable conclusion that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "He who gives his heart to a lovely form</p> +<p class="i14"> May look for no rest--but a life of storm</p> +<p class="i14"> If the gold of union be still his quest,</p> +<p class="i14"> With fond vain dream, love deludes his breast."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The <i>Dabistan</i> was first brought to public notice by that enthusiastic +Orientalist of more than a century ago--Sir William Jones. In it there +is a dissertation on the "Hundred Gates of Paradise," in which occur +directions for entering the place of blessedness. Sons and daughters are +to be given in early marriage. Milk must be given to a child as soon as +the mother gives it birth. Directions are given to women in sickness and +in childbearing. Implicit obedience to husbands is strictly enjoined, +and warning is carefully given against the woman of unchaste life.</p> + +<p>The Zend-Avesta, as well as the great body of Persian poetry, has +preserved much of the ancient life and flavor of Iran. There is scarcely +any feature in the literature of the religion of Zoroaster, which holds +a more emphatic place than that which enjoins purity of life. Domestic +virtues are accorded high place in these teachings. Says the +Zend-Avesta: "Purity is the best of all things; purity is the fairest of +all things, even as thou hast said, O righteous Zarathushtra,--Purity +is, next to life, the greatest good." Zoroaster inquires of Ormuzd which +is the second best place, when earth feels most happy? To which Ormuzd +makes reply: "It is the place whereon one of the faithful erects a house +with a priest within, with cattle, with a wife and with children and +good herds within, and wherein afterward the cattle continue to thrive, +virtue to thrive, fodder to thrive, the dog to thrive, the wife to +thrive, the child to thrive, the fire to thrive, and every blessing of +life to thrive."</p> +<a name="c9" id="c9"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>IX</h3> + +<h3>THE WOMEN OF ARABIA</h3> + +<p>Woman's conservatism has already been referred to in these pages. There +is probably no people in the world, certainly no branch of the widely +scattered Semitic family, among whom ancient ideals and customs have +been more persistent than among the Arabians. Indeed, Arabia occupies a +unique position in the world's history. From her territory there +probably went out the different branches of the Semitic people, a part +of the human family which is second to none in its influence upon the +course of history. For one of its branches, the Assyro-Babylonian, +probably developed the earliest civilization which has come down to us; +another was the most powerful of all ancient faiths, the Hebrew, while +two other historic religions, the Christian and the Mohammedan, had +their origin in Semitic soil.</p> + +<p>Arabia is truly a land of mystery; but for this very reason the +interest in her people is yet the keener. She has but few ancient +monuments written upon tablets of stone and hardened clay--in palaces +and ancient temples--as have Egypt and Assyria. Her records are in +legend, story, tradition, and the persistent customs of her people. With +the exception of the influence of the birth and the death of a culture +which awakened the world and helped to scatter the Dark Ages, and of the +rise of Mohammed, there have been few changes in this remarkable land.</p> + +<p>Two forces stand out as most potential in the shaping of the Arab +woman's character. These may be summed up in the words, the desert and +the cult; the latter being in some sense the product of the former. To +these may possibly be added a third. That is the war spirit, without +which the lord as well as the lady of the Arabian peninsula would have +written out for themselves a far different, and perhaps a far less +romantic history. For there were those who, even like Khaled, spurn the +love of a noble maiden from his "pride of the passion of war." Even love +making, which holds an important place in Arabic literature, gives way +to what was regarded as the noblest of all occupations, the making of +war.</p> + +<p>Womanhood, in the so-called "time of ignorance,"--the days before Islam +wrought so marked a change in the life of Arabia,--enjoyed a freedom and +strength which spoke of the open air and the far-stretching plains. As +she followed the fortunes of her nomad chief, the woman was indelibly +writing her history. It is in religious ideals too that woman must +always find the key to her standing and influence among any people.</p> + +<p>Among the early Arabs the female idea held no small place in their +religious beliefs and practices, and this is true of the early Semites +generally. This is specially noteworthy, however, as Robertson Smith has +pointed out, in the olden Arabic cult. Gods and goddesses went in pairs, +and the goddess was usually the more important divinity. The jinn, which +held so conspicuous a place, were regarded as feminine. In the Minæan +pantheon, Wadd and Nikrah, "Love" and "Hate," female divinities, played +an important rôle in the religious life of this branch of the Arabic +people. Wherever the female divinity is prominent, woman enjoys +considerable privilege and influence in religion, and this was true in +ancient Arabia.</p> + +<p>The people believed in an inferior order of divine beings--emanations, +secondary spirits--compared to angels by some Mussulman writers. These +beings were of the female sex and known as <i>Benat Allah</i> (daughters of +Allah). Mohammed in the Koran, however, strongly condemned this earlier +belief as not consonant with the unity of God, which is a doctrine so +emphatically preached in the religion of Islam. Each tribe not only had +its <i>Kahin</i>, or "diviner" (Hebrew, <i>Kohen</i>, "priest"), but its <i>Arrafa</i>, +or "sorceress."</p> + +<p>Woman's sphere in the olden days of Arabia was no mean one. Arabic women +have from time immemorial shown themselves, on occasion, to possess a +courage and hardihood unsurpassed in history. Arabia has had her +Amazons. In prehistoric times, armed heroines of invincible bravery have +left their record in the myths of this ancient people. And in the days +of authentic history, women have fought valiantly to advance the cause +for which their husbands and brothers waged war so fiercely.</p> + +<p>The high place held by women in the ancient wars of Araby still survives +in the thrilling custom of having some courageous woman accompany an +Arab force into the battle. The maiden is mounted upon the back of a +blackened camel, and placed in the front of the line as it makes its +onslaught upon the enemy. As the fighting men press forward to the +battle she sings verses of encouragement to her compatriots, and insults +are flung from her lips against the opposing force. It is around this +young woman and her camel that the fiercest battle rages. Should she be +so unfortunate as to be killed or captured, the calamity is unspeakable +and the rout utter. But should her friends be victorious, it is she who +heads the triumphal march.</p> + +<p>As we might expect, the spirit of chivalry is not lacking in Arabic +song and story. In the romance of <i>Antar</i>, the story of the hero's love +for Ibla, "fair as the full moon," and the account of her rescue, +breathe the spirit of genuine romance. Antar does not hesitate to strike +down the man who has "failed in respect to Arab women." The <i>Arabian +Nights</i>, though in less degree, has also preserved to us evidences of +ancient chivalry and romance.</p> + +<p>Hagar, of whose sad life the Hebrew narratives give us record, though +herself called an Egyptian woman, became ancestress of an Arab clan and +plays some part in Arabian tradition. She was the ancestress of the +restless, roving Ishmaelites--a typical Arabian tribe. Mohammed, in +explaining the preservation of an ancient idolatrous custom of visiting +in religious pilgrimages the hills of Safa and Marwa, where once were +worshipped two idols, one representing a man and the other a woman, +says, in the Koran, that it was between these two eminences that Hagar +wandered, distracted, running from one to the other, till the angel +showed her the miraculous spring which saved her boy's life.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the Arab legend says that when Hagar and Ishmael were driven +from Abraham's tent at Sarah's behest, she was conducted far into the +desert, at the place where Mecca now stands. When her provisions are +exhausted, laying the boy down, she runs to and fro in despair. In his +thirst and suffering, Ishmael strikes his head against the earth, and a +spring of sparkling water gushes out. Some members of an Arab tribe, +thirsty, and seeking their lost camels, come, guided by birds, to the +spot, seeking to quench their thirst. Never having known water to spring +in that locality before, they received Hagar and Ishmael with especial +reverence, and bade them take up their permanent abode with them, lest +because of their departure the spring might dry up. To Ishmael was given +in marriage one of their maidens, Amara, daughter of Saïd. This is but +one of the many instances of the overlapping of Hebraic and Arabic +legends.</p> + +<p>Many are the stories told by the Arabs concerning the famous Queen of +Sheba, who herself was an Arabian woman. She belonged to that southern +branch of the family known as the Sabeans. Her fame has gone into many +legends, both Arabic and Hebrew. Her visit to King Solomon of Israel +furnishes the basis of most of these. As a lover of wisdom, or the +philosophy of practical life, she was drawn to the ruler of the Hebrews, +whose reputation had extended far and wide. Solomon proved especially +successful in answering her favorite riddles and in untying for her the +most knotty questions. Among the many Talmudic legends is this +interesting one. The queen took groups of small boys and girls, dressed +them precisely alike, and demanded of Solomon that he distinguish the +boys from the girls. The king commanded that they all wash their hands. +The boys washed only to the wrists; the girls rolled up their sleeves +and bathed to their elbows. Thus the secret was disclosed. The +Mohammedan legends concerning this remarkable queen are full and minute. +Having with her own hand slain the reigning king, she herself, being of +royal lineage, was proclaimed queen, and "protectress of her sex." She +reigned with great wisdom and prudence, and administered justice +throughout her kingdom. According to these Arabian legends, the Queen of +Sheba, who was called Balkis, became one of Solomon's wives, though he +allowed her to continue her beneficent reign over her own people.</p> + +<p>The women of old Arabia, the dames of the desert, were comparatively +free, as their open-air life would naturally suggest. The Arabian poets, +in drawing the ancient life, so portray it. In the romance of <i>Antar</i>, +already mentioned, are found many delightful episodes, in which the +woman appears as the loving friend, partner, and counsellor of her +husband. These carry us back to the heroic age of Arabia. The custom +which permitted infanticide in case of female children seems in marked +contrast with the high place of woman in early Arabic literature. This +cruel custom is the motive of one of the most attractive of the early +romances, that of <i>Khaled and Djaida</i>. The latter, when a babe, that she +might not be known as a girl, was called by her mother by the name +Djonder, and given a prolonged feast such as is accorded only to boys at +their birth. About the same time, the chief of the tribe--and uncle to +Djonder--had born to him a son, who was called Khaled. The cousins grew +up, both learned in the arts of war, and both made for themselves names +for their high courage. Djonder was taught to ride and to fight, as +though she were a man, and the very name of Djonder became a terror to +his foes. Khaled heard of his cousin's exploits and rushed to see him, +that he might witness his skill at arms. But his father, being at enmity +with Zahir, his own brother and father of Djonder, would not permit +Khaled to know Djonder. At length the desire of Khaled was realized. He +was strangely enamored of his cousin, whom, however, he thought to be a +young man like himself. Djonder, too, fell desperately in love with the +valiant Khaled. The latter chooses the field and war instead of love, +however, and leaves Djonder in tears. Later, by the fortunes of war, +they meet on the field of battle in single combat. Djonder has so +concealed her identity that Khaled does not know with whom he fights. +After a long contest of marvellous prowess, neither is victor. Djonder +reveals herself. The old love returns. It is Djonder now who resists the +importunity of Khaled's love. After testing him by several difficult and +dangerous exploits, she becomes his wife.</p> + +<p>Of music and poetry the Arabs from the most ancient days have been +passionately fond. The nomad life tends to develop both poetry and song. +The most ancient bards in all lands were wanderers. David, "the sweet +singer of Israel," was a shepherd lad. Hesiod heard the call of the +Muses while leading his flock at Mount Helicon. Caedmon, England's +earliest poet, was watching his herd when the call came to sing. The +Arab bard sings freely of his camel, the antelope, the wild ass, the +gazelle, of his sword, his bow and arrows, of wine, and, above all, of +his ladylove.</p> + +<p>In the famous literary collection known as the <i>Muallakat</i>, made by +Hammad about A. D. 777, seven of the best poems of the early Arabs are +brought together. Those that most fitly set forth the love of woman are +the poems of Imr-al-kais and Antar. Sa'id ibn Judi, the true +representative of Arabian knighthood, must not be forgotten as the poet +most loved by the fair sex. The flavor of these lyrics may be discovered +in the brief poem of Antar upon <i>A Fair Lady</i>, "whose glittering pearls +and ruby lips enslaved the poet's heart:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i16"> "Such an odor from her breath</p> +<p class="i14"> Comes toward me, harbinger of her approach;</p> +<p class="i14"> Or like an untouched meadow, where the rain</p> +<p class="i14"> Hath fallen freshly on the fragrant herbs</p> +<p class="i14"> That carpet all its pure untrodden soil."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>For variety of gifts and force of character there is no Arabian woman +who is comparable in fame to Zenobia. By birth she was a Palmyrene, and +without doubt, of Arab blood. The descriptions of her personal beauty +tell of her black, flashing eyes, her pearly teeth, and the grace of her +form and carriage. Her bodily strength and commanding manners gave her +influence over all with whom she came in contact. As wife of Odenathus, +King of Palmyra, she contributed much to her husband's success and +power. She was a woman of rare native qualities as well as of +extraordinary accomplishments. She was a linguist, being familiar with +the Coptic, the Syriac, and the Latin languages. She was skilled in the +arts of war, and gifted with remarkable political insight and sagacity. +After her husband's death she ruled as Queen of Palmyra, and personally +conducted successful conquests, causing the nations around to tremble +before her; and even Rome itself found her no mean antagonist in arms. +The high spirit of the queen would not permit her to account herself a +vassal even to the imperial city on the Tiber. She had won Egypt, Syria, +Mesopotamia, and parts of Asia Minor to her sovereignty, but in the +contest with Rome she was defeated, though many Romans had joined her +army. The battles of Antioch and Emesa were lost. Zenobia fled to the +Persians, but was captured. Those near her were put to death, but +Zenobia graced the triumph of Aurelian, the victorious general who led +her into the Roman capital in A. D. 271. For years she resided there with +gracious dignity and unconquered pride. She was essentially a woman of +affairs and as queen was mistress of every situation, giving all to +know, "I am queen, and while I live I will reign." As wife she is said +to have declined to cohabit with her husband, except so far as was +necessary to the raising up of an heir to the throne of Palmyra. The +brilliancy of her court was scarcely ever surpassed by any queen, while +her personal charms and almost marvellous achievements rendered her one +of the most remarkable, if not the greatest woman of ancient times.</p> + +<p>In the days of Mohammed a new influence is brought to bear upon Arab +life, and therefore upon female character. Mohammed's relation to woman +might be of itself lengthened into an interesting chapter. Abdullah, +Mohammed's father, was married to a woman of noble parentage, named +Aminah. She was a woman of sensitive, nervous temperament, and her son +doubtless inherited from his mother qualities which made his subsequent +religious ecstasies both physically and mentally possible. Aminah is +reported to have been miraculously free from the pangs of childbirth +when her son first saw the light. For several months she nursed the +infant, but sorrow is said to have soon dried up the fountain of her +breast, and Halimah, a woman of marked fidelity to her charge, became +Mohammed's foster-mother. A <i>kahin</i>, or sorcerer, is said once to have +met Halimah with the boy. "Kill this child," said he; "kill this child." +But Halimah, snatching up the child, made away in haste. The sorcerer +saw in the boy an enemy of the ancient idolatrous faith.</p> + +<p>It was not till the rich widow of Mecca, Khadijah, came into Mohammed's +life that he began to make himself felt in the world. Wishing someone to +attend to some business affairs for her, Khadijah secured Mohammed's +services. So well did he execute his task that the rich widow became +enamored of the young man. She asked him for his hand. At twenty-five +years of age, Mohammed married the woman who was destined to influence +his life so powerfully, she being at least fifteen years his senior. It +was not long before Mohammed turned his thoughts toward religion and set +himself to the task of reforming the religious ideas and practices of +his people. With what result the world knows.</p> + +<p>It is Mohammed's attitude toward woman and his teachings concerning her +that most concern us here. His love for Khadijah, his first wife, was +pure and constant; and his mother he always honored with a most devoted +spirit. It is with reference to Mohammed's personal bearing toward the +female sex that he has received the most scathing criticisms. How many +times he was married subsequently to his wedding with Khadijah is a +matter of dispute; but there were probably no less than fourteen other +wives, besides the widow of Mecca. Since Mohammed allowed his faithful +followers but four wives, it was necessary to explain why he himself +should have exceeded that meagre number. The prophet was ready with his +reply, that while men generally were to have no more than four, a +special revelation to himself had given him the right to go beyond that +number.</p> + +<p>Among those whom Mohammed espoused was his child wife Ayesha, who lived +long after the death of the prophet and took an active part in shaping +the political history of Islam immediately after Mohammed's demise. She +fostered a burning dislike toward Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, to whom +the prophet had given his daughter Fatima. Because of Ayesha's intrigues +Ali was unable to succeed Mohammed as kalif. Abubekr, Omar, and Othman +in turn held sway. But at length Ali was victorious, taking Ayesha a +prisoner and becoming the fourth of the line of the kalifate. Ayesha in +personal daring belonged to the heroic type of Arabian womanhood. In the +battle of the Camel, A. D. 656, she actually led the charge. Ali, like +his distinguished father-in-law, considered himself an exception to the +ordinary rule which accorded but four wives to the faithful, having +married eight others besides his loved Fatima.</p> + +<p>Among the kalifs there was none whose court was more magnificent than +that of Haroun al Raschid. So greatly did he dazzle the eyes of his +generation by his brilliancy, that his name became associated with many +romances. The account of the wives and favorites of Haroun borrow a halo +from their association with his illustrious name. The <i>Thousand and One +Nights</i> are replete with the romantic adventures of the days of this +brilliant kalif. But the actual life of the women of the Arabian +peninsula cannot be accurately gauged by the appearance they made in the +stories of romantic adventure.</p> + +<p>Mohammed's attitude to woman has, of course, been the decisive religious +influence in shaping the history of woman's life among the followers of +Islam since his day. The Mohammedans have a legend that when Adam and +Eve sinned, God commanded that their lives should be purified by both +the culprits standing naked in the river Jordan for forty days. Adam +obeyed, and so became comparatively pure again; but Eve refused to be +thus washed, and, of course, her standing before God has been relatively +lower ever since.</p> + +<p>The Mohammedan woman does not worship upon an equality with the man. Not +that the prophet positively forbade the female sex from public +attendance upon worship at the mosque, but he counselled that they +should make their prayers in private. In some parts of the wide +territory under the prophet's power, neither women nor young boys are +allowed to enter the mosque at the time of prayer. At other places women +may come, but must place themselves apart from men, and always behind +them. "The Moslems are of the opinion," says Sale, "that the presence of +females inspired a different kind of devotion from that which is +requisite in a place dedicated to the worship of God," and adds that +very few women among the Arabs in Egypt even pray at home.</p> + +<p>The Koran has much to say of woman. One lengthy <i>sura</i> is taken up +almost entirely by this theme. The ancient doctrine of woman's creation +from the man is accepted, and probably was derived from contact with the +Jews, the influence of which contact is marked throughout Mohammed's +teachings. Honor "for the woman who has borne you" is frequently taught; +justice and kindness toward female orphans is repeatedly enjoined. Women +should be given freely their just dowries, and should not be omitted +from the rights of inheritance; but a son may receive as much as two +daughters. The prohibited degrees for marriage are most carefully laid +down. Accusing a chaste woman of adultery is regarded as one of the +seven grievous sins. The prophet counsels that husband and wife adjust +their disputes amicably between themselves, "for a reconciliation is +better than a separation." Thus one after another, in a manner +altogether lacking in order or in systematic treatment, Mohammed gives +forth his commands concerning women. Matters of marriage, divorce, +dower, chastity, and the like are frequently before the prophet's mind; +but his precepts, while making concessions to human weakness, are far +higher than his example. The teachings of Mohammed, even at their best, +placed woman on a distinctly lower plane than man, rendered her a +subservient tool on the earth and painted a heaven where man's +sensuality was to be gratified to the limits of his capacity for +enjoyment.</p> + +<p>The Arabs, while sensual in their nature, have some strict laws +concerning chastity. If a woman be guilty of lewdness, she is summarily +put to death by her nearest relative. Unless this be done the family +will lose all social recognition and civil rights. If it appears that +she has been forced to the crime, the ravisher must flee or pay the +penalty with his life, or if not, the life of those next of kin is in +danger. If the malefactor be caught at once he is slain by the relatives +of the woman. If not he may escape death through negotiations by which +"the price of blood" is paid for the woman as if she had been killed. +Sometimes arrangements of marriage are effected, but even then "the +price of virginity" must be paid to the girl's parents.</p> + +<p>The method by which a family purifies itself of the unchastity of a +daughter is horrible enough. The family of the young woman assembles in +some public place; the sheiks and leading men are present in +considerable number. Some close relative stands with sword in hand, and +says: "My honor and that of my family shall be purified this day by +means of this sword which I hold in my hands." The guilty woman is then +led out, laid upon the ground, and her head severed from her body at the +hands of her father, brother, or some next of kin. The executioner then +walks dignifiedly about the bleeding form three times, passing between +the head and the trunk of the body, saying at each circuit: "Lo! thus +our honor is left unstained." All dip their handkerchiefs in the blood +of the culprit and take their leave, without any show of emotion. The +body is left unburied, or is hacked to pieces by the woman's relatives +and cast into a ditch.</p> + +<p>Often, however, it is possible to save the young girl's life. Someone +who is sufficiently kindly disposed toward her steps forward at the +critical moment when she is being led forth to death and intercedes to +save her life. This protector approaches the girl and says to her: "Wilt +thou repent of thy fall? If so, I will defend thee." She replies +affirmatively: "I will give thee the right to cut my throat if I commit +this crime again." The man is then required to strip off his clothing in +the presence of the multitude, declare that he has never seen this woman +commit any crime, that it must therefore be the power of an evil spirit +that took possession of her; "I therefore redeem her," says he. Then the +whole scene changes from one of tragic solemnity to one of intense joy. +The girl returns to the bosom of her family, reinstated; and no one +thereafter has the right to cast any reflections upon her past life.</p> + +<p>Pierrotti, in his <i>Customs and Traditions of Palestine</i>, tells of a +scene witnessed by him when architect-engineer to Surraya Pasha, of +Jerusalem. During a visit to Hebron in company with some Armenian +gentlemen, he found the whole community stirred. A youth of eighteen had +met in the fields a girl of fifteen, who was betrothed, and had tried to +kiss her without her consent. She told her parents of the young man's +misconduct. The families belonged to different clans or districts, and +so were enemies. Efforts on the part of the boy's parents, through the +sheiks of the two communities, were unavailing, though the father +entreated earnestly for his son, and even promised to give up all he had +as a ransom for his life. The girl's father demanded the boy's blood as +propitiation for the wrong. And so, in the presence of an assembled +crowd, the parent drew his sword and struck off his child's head, +without a tear, saying: "Thus wipe I away every stain from my family." +Overcome, he then instantly swooned away. His friends restored him to +life, but his reason had fled. A clan war at once commenced, and those +who had demanded the youth's destruction were slain in the strife.</p> + +<p>Concerning the slaying of a woman, there are certain customs which +sound strange to the Western ear, but are in keeping with the general +law of "the price of blood" which prevailed among the ancient Hebrews, +though in a somewhat modified form. If a man should be so unfortunate as +to kill a woman, the members of the family that is wronged seek revenge, +just as is the case should a man be slain, but "the price of blood" is +never so high in case of the woman, it being about two thousand +piastres, or about eighty dollars. This sum goes largely to the +relatives of the woman. If the woman be married, the husband's damage is +measured at eight hundred piastres and a silk dress. Should the murdered +woman be pregnant, the slayer is amerced as if he had killed two. If the +offspring would have been a boy, it is as though a woman and a man were +slain, and "the price of blood" is so measured. If it would have been a +daughter, the smaller price is charged, the father receiving the full +price for the child and his eight hundred piastres for the murdered +wife. Should it be a maiden, however, who has been slain, arrangement is +often made whereby a sister of the slayer is given by her family to the +brother of the slain as his wife; or if this arrangement is not +feasible, the price of a woman is paid as first described.</p> + +<p>A very curious custom exists among the Arabs in connection with the +ancient "law of asylum." They recognize the right of sanctuary for those +upon whom summary vengeance may be taken for some blood crime. But +flight is often exceedingly dangerous because of the possibility of +ambuscade along the way; and even when a village which owes protection +to a fugitive undertakes to give him safe escort, the defenders may be +overcome and the offender slain. Under such circumstances, it is +customary to give him over to the escort of two women, who are his +defenders. For it is a point of honor among Arabs not to attack or harm +anybody or anything that has been placed under the protection of a +woman.</p> + +<p>That the modern Arab sometimes, however, has great confidence in the +power of his wives, over others at least, may be illustrated by an +amusing incident told by Loftus. During his researches his party was +attacked by a company of Arabs, on account of which some of the +assaulting party had been seized and lodged in prison. One of the chief +sheiks of the country came to make friends with the explorer and to +entreat for the release of the culprits. This was refused. Later a coup +was conceived. Loftus looked out and saw the sheik's harem, in most +radiant costumes, approaching the tent in single file, led by the sheik +and a black eunuch. Thus the Arab hoped to appeal to Occidental chivalry +through the prayers of the masked beauties who surrounded the tent, +declaring they would not raise the siege till the occupant yielded to +their entreaties.</p> + +<p>The rich Mohammedan ladies are far less industrious than the poorer +classes. Entering the harem at the tender age of twelve to fourteen +years, the young woman is condemned to a life of sloth and sensuality. +There is little opportunity for self-improvement or for enjoyments of a +high order. They eat, drink, gossip, suckle their young, quarrel, plot, +and eke out a miserable existence--always under the control of their +masters.</p> + +<p>The country women have greater freedom and far more influence with +their husbands than do the women of the harem. Polygamy among the former +class is rare, and hence the women are more highly regarded than those +of the city. The peasant woman is industrious, engaged in some useful +employment about the house or in the field. She buys and sells and gets +gain for her husband and her home, and often is highly esteemed by him; +but he will not let you know it, if he can avoid doing so. In public he +always assumes the attitude of superiority. If but one can ride, it is +the man and the children who sit upon the beast; the woman walks along +at the side, carrying a bundle on her head or a baby at her +breast--sometimes jogging along with both. If Arab and wife must both +walk with burdens, the man carries the lighter load. And the woman must +prepare the meal at the journey's end, while her lord reposes--and +smokes. Excavators in the East have frequently found Arab girls who +desired work, and with their baskets they would for hours carry out the +earth with endurance apparently equal to that of the men.</p> + +<p>The Arab girls, as a rule, grow up in ignorance. It is not thought worth +while to educate the daughter; and, indeed, it is regarded by many as +destructive of the best order of society to give woman any opportunity +which may cause her to desire to usurp the power which heaven has placed +in the hands of men. There is, accordingly, little enlightened +housekeeping, little to stimulate a woman's mind, little opportunity +here for "the hand that rocks the cradle" to move the world. Sons grow +up with little respect for their mothers, for there is nothing to make +it otherwise. The husband, should he wish to divorce himself from his +wife, simply orders her to leave his house, and his will is law. Civil +government takes no cognizance of matrimonial affairs, and religious +authority allows the husband to do much as he may see fit in his own +house.</p> + +<a name="ill4" id="ill4"></a> +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/004.png"><br> +<b><i>AN ORIENTAL WOMAN'S PASTIME<br> +After the painting by Frederick A. Bridgman</i></b></p> + +<blockquote> +<b><i>She is not a companion, but only a gilded toy, a +decorative object.... Among the higher class she is still kept in strict +seclusion, and her time is passed in luxurious idleness, save for the +hours she employs at her embroidery or tapestry. The garden, with its +heavily perfumed blossoms, pleases her; the ceaseless plash of the +fountain falls musically on her ear; all her physical needs are +ministered to. But everything conduces to the dreaminess of her nature, +to slothful habits; her activities are fettered by the law of Mohammed. +After all, her garden is but an exquisite prison.</i></b></blockquote> + +<p>The women of the Arabs, like the men, are fond of tattooing their +bodies, regarding the figures they stamp into their flesh as highly +ornamental, though perhaps originally there was a religious significance +in them. The figure to be imprinted is first drawn upon a block of wood +and blackened with charcoal. This is then impressed upon some part of +the body, and then the outlines are pricked with fine needles which have +been dipped into an ink made of gunpowder and ox-gall. The whole is +subsequently bathed with wine, and the figure is marked indelibly.</p> + +<p>Even the poor are very fond of personal ornaments. Chains, rings, +necklaces, gold thread, may be seen in abundance, if not in costliness. +It is not unusual for an Arab woman, though clothed in tattered raiment, +to wear several rings of silver. But if this metal be beyond her means, +then of iron or copper and sometimes of glass. Ornaments of variously +colored glass are very popular among Arab women; often they can afford +no other. Even bracelets are made of this material, and are much worn. +Some of the nomadic tribes still wear anklets.</p> + +<p>The women of the desert are often seen with nose-drops, or rings in one +or the other side of their nostrils, which in consequence tends to droop +like the ear. This custom prevails in other parts of the East, more +particularly among those whose occupation is thought to call for much +ornamentation, such as the dancing girls and odalisques. The ancient +Hebrews sometimes used to put rings in swines' snouts for practical +reasons, as indeed the Arabs do to-day in the noses of horses, mules, +and asses to aid in evaporating the moisture from the nostrils, but the +beauty or the utility of a ring in an Arab woman's nose has never been +satisfactorily determined.</p> + +<p>The Arab women of good quality do not, as a rule, wear their hair very +long. It usually reaches about to the neck, and is tied with a colored +ribbon. Many of the poorer and less cleanly among them, however, wear +their tresses long, ill-kempt, and filthy. The men often think more of +their beards than do the women of their locks.</p> + +<p>The favorite flower is that of the shrub called <i>Al henna.</i> It is the +plant from which is obtained a dye much used by Oriental ladies upon +their skin and nails as a cosmetic. The manner of preparation is thus +described: "The young leaves of the shrub are boiled in water, then +dried in the sun, and reduced to a powder which is of a dark orange +color. After this has been mixed with warm water, it is applied to the +skin." The use of henna is very old; and when the woman has finished the +work of art--she herself being the subject--she looks, as one has said, +like a vampire stained with the blood of its victim. The flower of +<i>Alhenna</i>, however, is beautiful and strongly fragrant--reminding one in +appearance of clusters of many-colored grapes. These blossoms are used +as ornaments for the hair and as decorations for the houses, the +fragrance often conquering the malodorous atmosphere of many ill-kept, +uncleanly homes.</p> + +<p>As is the custom with Oriental ladies generally, the women in riding +place themselves astride the beast, like a man, and seldom present a +graceful appearance to a Western eye. Loftus has thus described an Arab +lady as she sits astride the patient mule: "Enveloped in the ample folds +of a blue cotton cloak, her face (as required by the strict injunctions +of the Koran) concealed under a black or white mask, her feet encased in +wide yellow boots, and these in turn thrust into slippers of the same +color, her knees nearly on the level with her chin, and her hands +holding on to the scanty mane of the mule--an Eastern lady is the most +uncouth and inelegant form imaginable."</p> + +<p>Mohammedans are never seen walking with their wives in the street, and +are seldom seen in company with them or any other woman in any public +place. Should a man and his wife have occasion to go to any place at the +same time, he goes in advance and she follows on behind him. Jessup, in +<i>The Women of the Arabs</i>, gives the following explanation advanced by a +Syrian of the aversion which the men feel with reference to walking in +public with women:</p> + +<p>"You Franks can walk with your wives in public, because their faces are +unveiled, and it is known that they are your wives, but our women are so +closely veiled that if I should walk with my wife in the street, no one +would know whether I was walking with my own wife or another man's. You +cannot expect a respectable man to put himself in such an embarrassing +position."</p> + +<p>If inquiries are made by one man of another concerning his family, the +boys and the beasts are invariably mentioned first; the wife last of +all. Among the ancient Arabs the birth of a female infant was looked +upon as little short of a domestic calamity and sometimes the infant was +not allowed to live. The horrible custom, <i>wad-el-benat</i>, of burying +infant daughters alive grew out of an unwillingness of parents to share +the scant support of the home with the newcomer, or, as has been +suggested, from ferocious pride, or false sentiments of honor, fearing +the shame that might come should the girl be carried off and dishonored +by the enemies of their tribe. The birth of a son, however, was +considered the occasion of great rejoicing. The daughters of the modern +Arabs are usually well cared for, though apparently with little +affection. They are useful in agricultural pursuits, and they are for +sale as wives when they become of a marriageable age. Their marketable +value is determined by their rank, their fortune, or their beauty. Among +the Arabs marriage is seldom an affair of the heart, but is purely a +commercial transaction. Three thousand piastres, or about one hundred +and twenty dollars, is regarded as a good price to pay for a wife. The +price is generally less. The father of the young man pays the bill; his +wealth regulating somewhat the amount paid. The parents of the young +couple make all the arrangements, though generally assisted by relatives +and interested friends. Much bargaining and delay are often gone through +with as a matter of course. If the whole sum finally agreed upon cannot +be paid in a lump sum, the parties of the first and the second part fix +upon the size and frequency of the instalments; the bride being claimed +only when the last instalment has been paid.</p> + +<p>The time for the wedding is next settled upon, whether it be days, +weeks, months, or years in advance. When that event is at length +celebrated, the Arab love of feasting has full opportunity to give +itself rein. Days are spent in these rounds of pleasure before the young +couple settle down to the stern facts of practical copartnership.</p> + +<p>The Arab women have a number of folk songs which are sung by them at +weddings and at the birth of children. Some of these may be here quoted +as revealing the Arab woman's idea of physical grace and of womanly +virtue, and of those qualities which are desirable in the wife and the +mother. Here is a song to the bride:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Go thou, where thy destiny leads thee, O fair bride!</p> +<p class="i14"> Tread delicately on the carpets.</p> +<p class="i14"> Should thy spouse speak to thee, what wilt thou answer?</p> +<p class="i14"> Tell him thou art his, thou lovest him and he is thy delight"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Again, they sing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Oh yes, she is welcome!</p> +<p class="i14"> Let us hail the arrival of her whose eyes shine with beauty;</p> +<p class="i14"> Whose form is graceful; tall as a young palm tree,</p> +<p class="i14"> Who can shut the window without a stool!"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The rejoicing in maternity, and especially in the birth of sons, is +notable among the Arabs. The women sing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10"> "Behold the wife hath brought forth;</p> +<p class="i10"> She has risen from the bed whereon she reposed, whereon she slept!</p> +<p class="i10"> She hath brought into the world a child, the fairest of boys;</p> +<p class="i10"> He will learn to play with the sword."</p> +<br> +<p class="i10"> "No sorrow or harm shall come to thee if thou hast sons.</p> +<p class="i10"> God will give them to thee. He will make thee glad,</p> +<p class="i10"> Esteemed and honored throughout the country;</p> +<p class="i10"> Thou who art in the race as a gazelle."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Between the verses of the songs, the women who are not singing will +repeat the refrain:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "La, la, la, la," etc.,</p> +</div></div> + +<p>to emphasize their sympathy with the sentiments just sung.</p> + +<p>Because of a deep reverence for the mystery of life, the Arabs give to +the woman a separate tent or hut during the period of childbirth, and +there she must remain for a period. There is a strong superstition +concerning the results that might come from seeing or touching her or +her belongings during the time of this separation.</p> + +<p>In the naming of children, family names are not given, but individual +names, to which is often added the name of the father, and sometimes +that of the mother. The latter is probably the older, and many +ethnologists believe it to have once been the universal custom among the +Arabs; pointing to a day when polyandry prevailed, when it was customary +for women to have several husbands, if they were not indeed the common +property of the tribe.</p> + +<p>The influence of the nomadic life of the ancient Arabians still has its +power over the modern Arab if he be true or a dweller in tents. These +desert roamers despise those Arabs who are engaged in the arts of +husbandry. Dr. A. H. Keane, quoting from Junker, gives the following +evidence of this prejudice: "In the eyes of his fellow tribesmen, the +humblest nomad would be degraded by marriage with the daughter of the +wealthiest bourgeois." But, as he adds: "Necessity knows no law, hunger +pinches, and so these proud and stubborn were fain ... to renounce the +free and lawless life of the solitude and at least partly turn to +agriculture for several months in the year."</p> + +<p>The Arabs are proverbially a hospitable people. Let a stranger once eat +with an Arab family and he is a friend; certainly so long as the food is +thought to remain a part of his body. But since the patriarchal idea +survives, man is absolutely lord of his own house. Hence, in the house, +the inequality of the sexes is most noticeable. The Moslem wife never +sits down to a meal with her husband if any male guest be present; and +should the husband be very strict and formal in his habits, she is not +permitted to eat with her lord, even when there is no guest. It is her +pleasure to serve. When the master of the house has finished his repast, +he allows what remains to go to the rest of the family. By this the +husband does not mean to be selfish at all; but customs which have +prevailed for time out of mind give to woman an inferior place as a +matter of course. But the guest is never turned away empty. Even in the +poorest houses, the Moslems will offer the visitor a cup of black +coffee, and it may be cigarettes.</p> + +<p>Polygamy was common in ancient Arabia. In earlier days every man might +marry as many wives as he could take care of, and the length of the +wifehood was solely in the husband's hand. The family possessions were +his property, and should he die, his widow was looked upon as a part of +the estate. Unions between mothers and step-sons were not infrequent. +Mohammed numbered this, however, among the "shameful marriages."</p> + +<p>Sir William Muir, in his <i>Annals of the Early Caliphate</i>, says: +"Polygamy and secret concubinage are still the privilege, or the curse +of Islam, the worm at its root, the secret of its fall. By these the +unity of the household is fatally broken, and the purity and virtue +weakened of the family tie; the vigor of the dominant classes is sapped; +the body politic becomes weak and languid excepting for intrigue; and +the throne itself liable to fall a prey to doubtful or contested +successors." "Hardly less injurious," says he, "is the power of divorce, +which can be exercised without the assignment of any reason whatever, at +the mere word and will of the husband. It not only hangs over each +individual household like the sword of Damocles, but affects the tone of +society at large; for even if not put in force, it cannot fail as a +potential influence, existing everywhere, to weaken the marriage bond, +and detract from the dignity and self-respect of the sex at large."</p> + +<p>Mohammed's complete misunderstanding of the true relation of the sexes +has had much to do with the degraded position of woman in Moslem lands, +and the complete failure of Islamic social life. It is woman that makes +or unmakes society. She is the keystone of the arch, not the mudsill.</p> + +<p>Mohammed's state of mind regarding woman is universal among his +followers, whether in Algeria, Tunis, or Morocco, in the land of the +Lotus, in the Ottoman Empire, or in the lesser Mohammedan dominions. The +customs springing from this state are, of course, modified among the +different peoples, as, for instance, among the Moors through the +admixture of Spanish and Moorish blood, which resulted in a somewhat +better appreciation of woman. Yet she is not a companion, but only a +gilded toy, a decorative object, to be fitfully enjoyed or waywardly put +aside. Among the higher class she is still kept in strict seclusion, and +her time is passed in luxurious idleness, save for the hours she employs +at her embroidery or tapestry. The garden, with its heavily perfumed +blossoms, pleases her; the ceaseless plash of the fountain falls +musically on her ear; all her physical needs are ministered to. But +everything conduces to the dreaminess of her nature, to slothful habits; +her activities are fettered by the law of Mohammed. After all, her +garden is but an exquisite prison.</p> + +<p>By placing women upon so far lower a plane of social and religious life +than man, Mohammedanism has not only degraded the female sex, but has +disrupted, if not destroyed, those healthy family relations which lie at +the very foundation of all social progress and national greatness.</p> +<a name="c10" id="c10"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>X</h3> + +<h3>THE TURKISH WOMEN</h3> + +<p>Out of the ruins of the Seljuk domination arose the Turkish Empire, +founded by Ottoman, or Osman I., a nomad chieftain of great prowess, +after whom the Ottoman Empire derived its name. Among the very first +events narrated concerning the life of this important Turk was one of +romance, for Ottoman was not only a bold warrior, but a brave lover, and +withal, like the young Hebrew Joseph, a dreamer. In the little village +of Itburuni there lived a learned doctor of the law, a man of +aristocratic blood, one Edebali, with whom it is said Ottoman loved to +converse, not only because of the gentleman's fine personal qualities, +but because Edebali had a daughter, whom many named Kamariya, or +"Brightness of the Moon," because of her beauty; but most called her Mal +Khatum, or "Lady Treasure," on account of her pleasing personality. But +the learned sheik did not take kindly to Ottoman's advances, for he had +not yet "won his spurs," and his authority was not recognized by +neighboring princes. Fortunately, a timely dream--that potent argument +which is so effectual among the people of the East--came to Ottoman's +aid in the pursuit of his suit. The dream is thus recorded: "One night +Ottoman, as he slumbered, thought he saw himself and his host stretched +upon the ground, and from Edebali's breast there seemed to rise a moon +which waxing to the full, approached the prostrate form of Ottoman and +finally sank to rest on his bosom. Thereat from out his loins there +sprang forth a tree, which grew taller and taller, raised its head and +spread out its branches till the boughs overshadowed the earth and the +seas. Under the canopy of leaves towered forth mighty mountains, +Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus, and Hæmus, which held up the leafy vault like +four great tent poles, and from their sides flowed royal rivers, Nile, +Danube, Tigris, and Euphrates. Ships sailed upon the waters, harvests +waved upon the fields, the rose, and the cypress, flowers and fruits +delighted the eye, on the boughs birds sang their glad music. Cities +raised domes and minarets toward the green canopy; temples and obelisks, +towers and fortresses lifted their high heads, and on their pinnacles +shone the golden crescent. And behold as he looked, a great wind arose +and dashed the crescent against the crown of Constantine, that imperial +city which stood at the meeting of the two seas and two continents, like +a diamond between sapphires and emeralds, the centre jewel of the ring +of the Empire. Ottoman was about to put the dazzling ring upon his +finger when he awoke." The story of the wondrous dream was told to the +father of the fair Mal Khatum. He was at once convinced that the Fates +had marked Ottoman for future greatness and for wide dominion. The +moon-faced damsel fell a prize to the inevitable conqueror, son of +Ertoghrul. Another early incident in Ottoman's career may be of interest +in this volume upon the women of Turkey. Ottoman understood that a +number of his rivals at arms were to be present at a certain wedding to +be celebrated at Bilejik, in the year 1299; and that the event was to be +made the occasion of his being entrapped and slain. Learning of the +conspiracy against him, he secured for forty women of the Ottoman clan +admission to the festivities. When all present were engrossed in the +ceremonies of the hour, these forty sturdy warriors cast aside their +female attire and not only captured the entire garrison, but also the +fair maiden whose nuptials were being celebrated. She was a young Greek +lady named Nenuphar, or "the Lotus Blossom," who afterward became the +mother of Murad I. Ottoman now descended like an avalanche upon his +rivals and their territory, extending his dominion even to Mount +Olympus.</p> + +<p>It is to Arabia and to Persia that Turkey owes most of its civilization, +its religion, its literature, its laws, its manners, and its customs. +Beginning with a Tartar basis, Turkish life has been chiefly shaped +under the influence of a religion and a literature. As for the first, +the debt is chiefly to Arabia; for the second, Persia must have the +larger share of credit. Since these two forces, religion and literature, +are doubtless the most effective in shaping the ideals of womanhood, and +so in developing the female character among any people, we are compelled +to look to the ancient lands of Persia and Arabia for the springs of +Turkish life.</p> + +<p>Remembering the kinship of Turkish literature to the Arabic and Persian, +it would not be difficult to surmise that woman would hold no +insignificant place in the literature of Turkey. While there are as many +as twenty-five different written languages used in the Empire, the +literary language is a product of the original Tartaric tongue and +strong Persian and Arabic elements. Very much of the romantic material +that goes to make up the Turkish literature is drawn from such early +stories as the great Persian epic <i>Shahnamah</i>.</p> + +<p>The romance of <i>Laili and Majnun</i> has made a deep impression in Turkish +literature. Fuzuli of Bagdad, one of the greatest of Turkish poets, has +reproduced the strong love of these characters of old Persian legend, +besides giving to the nation's literature many <i>ghazels</i> in which +fondness for the virtue of woman is presented with characteristic +Eastern passion.</p> + +<p>The Persian lady also figures in the work of Kemal Bey, who was regarded +in his lifetime as "a shining star in the Turkish literary world," and +one who did much to arouse the Turks to enthusiasm for their native +country. He was the author of a trivial novel <i>Tzesmi</i>, of high repute +in Turkish literary circles, in which a Turkish warrior of poetic talent +and a Persian princess figure.</p> + +<p>There are numerous love ballads of Moorish origin that are highly prized +and have greatly influenced Turkish literature, such as <i>Fatima's Love, +Zaida's Love, Zaida's Inconstancy, Zaida's Lament, Guhala's Love</i>, and +the like; also much Moorish romance, as <i>The Zefri's Bride</i>. So we find +Turkish poems breathing of love and womanly charms. Among such +productions is that of Ghalib, whose <i>Husn-u-Ashk</i>, or <i>Beauty and +Love</i>, is regarded as one of the finest productions of Turkish genius.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered, however, in reading Turkish poetry of love that +there is often, if not indeed generally, beneath what seems to be a +sensuous and even voluptuous song or romance an allegorical or mystical +significance. God is the Fair One whose presence the heart craves, and +whose veil the suitor would see cast aside that his perfect beauty may +be revealed to the worshipper. Man, therefore, is the lover; the tresses +are the mystery of the divine character; the ruby lip is the sought-for +Word of God; wine is the divine love; the zephyr is the breathing of His +spirit; and so on. And yet, that many Turkish, as is true of many Arab +and Persian, poems are upon a low moral level of human passion, and are +revolting to the ethical sense of the more sensitive natures, is not to +be disputed.</p> + +<p>Fame in poetry has not been unknown to Turkish women. Notable among +these literary women of Turkey is Fatima Alie, daughter of the former +state historiographer Dzevdet Pacha, whose history of the Ottoman Empire +takes high rank. In Fatima Alie, Turkish womanhood finds one of its +staunchest champions.</p> + +<p>Zeyneb Effendi was a royal poetess in the days of Mohammed the +Conqueror. She recounted in glowing lines her hero's achievements. So +also Mirhi Hanum was a poetess of talent. She was born of a wealthy +father, a grand vizir. She was so unfortunate as to have had as a lover +one who did not reciprocate her passion. She, therefore, sung her young +life out in avowed virginity, wearing an amber necklace, symbolizing her +eternal choice of celibacy. Among other poetesses of note may be +mentioned Sidi, who died in the year 1707, the authoress of <i>Pleasures +of Sight</i> and <i>The Divan</i>. Mirhi, who has been styled "the Ottoman +Sappho," was a poetess of Amasiya, full of the passion of love. She sang +boldly concerning the object of her devotion, but her virtue was never +questioned, nor her talent deprecated.</p> + +<p>But the women of Turkey have been affected less by the literary +influence of Persia than by the religious inheritance from the Arabs. +Before Mohammed polygamy flourished among the various Arabian tribes. +The prophet brought some order out of the chaos, and the harem became a +more or less well-defined system, with its definite laws and +regulations. Therein woman was somewhat advanced from the state in which +she earlier found herself. And yet, Mohammed manifestly wavered in his +treatment of women and in the ideals which underlay it. A certain +equality between man and woman is at one time taught in the Koran, as +when it said: "The women ought to behave to their husbands in like +manner as their husbands should behave towards them, according to what +is just." And again the prophet said: "Ye men have right over your wives +and your wives have right over you." This truly is reciprocity. And yet +he asserted that "woman is a field--a sort of property which her husband +may use or abuse as he thinks fit;" and again, that "a woman's happiness +in Paradise is beneath the sole of her husband's feet." Commercially, +the girl was of more value than the boy, because she could be sold and +made a wife, and perhaps she might be converted to the Mohammedan faith.</p> + +<p>It is, in truth, the Turkish slave woman's physical beauty, as she was +captured and came into the possession of Arab sheiks, which first +brought the Turkish woman into notice. But these superbly attractive, +dark-eyed slaves at length captured their captors, and the Turk became +master of the Arab and the most virile exponent of the Arabian faith and +civilization.</p> + +<p>Concerning his ideals as to woman, the Turk imbibed much from the Arab, +who valued woman mainly for her points of physical excellence--these +were tabulated in a standard of eight "fours" as follows: "A woman +should have four things black; namely, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and +the dark part of the eyes. Four things white; namely, the skin, the +white of the eyes, the teeth, and the legs. Four red; namely, the +tongue, the lips, the middle of the cheek, and the gums. Four round; +namely, the head, the neck, the forearm, and the ankle. Four long: the +back, the fingers, the arms, and the legs. Four wide: the forehead, the +eyes, the bosom, and the hips. Four thick: the lower part of the back, +the thighs, the calves, and the knees. Four small: the ears, the breast, +the hands, and the feet."</p> + +<p>Since Mohammed allowed four wives to all Mussulmans, the sultan as a +faithful follower of the prophet may have four official wives; and after +these he may take as many non-official wives as his fancy may desire. +The four favored ones are known as the <i>kadins</i>. First stands the Bach +Kadin, who is the "first lady of the land." Next her is the Skindij +Kadin, or "second lady." Then come the "middle lady" or Artanié Kadin, +and last of all the Kutchuk Kadin, or the "little lady." When a kadin +becomes the mother of a male child she is then entitled to be called +Khasseki-Sultan, or "royal princess." When a daughter is born to one of +them she is known as Khasseki-Kadin, or "royal lady."</p> + +<p>The mother of the reigning sultan always holds high place at court, yet +not because she is mother of the ruler, but because it is thought that +each of the four legitimate wives of the sultan must in every detail of +court life enjoy perfect equality with the others, from the services of +"the mistress of the robes down to the lowest scullion." Thus, the +mother, called the Valideh-Sultan, holds the rank that usually belongs +to the wife of a monogamous ruler. Should the sultan's mother be +deceased, his foster-mother holds this position of influence. The +present sultan's foster-mother has conducted herself with much +conservatism in her exalted position and, it is said, with strict +attention to the dignity and economy of the harem. The Valideh is +sometimes poetically known as Tatch-ul-Mestourat, that is, "the crown of +the veiled heads." This means that the Valideh is regarded as queen of +all the Mohammedan women, who are uniformly veiled, according to the +teaching of the prophet. The Valideh is in her dignity most august. No +woman, not even the Khasseki-Sultan, may dare come before her unless +sent for. All women when they appear in her presence must be clothed in +full court dress, and, whatever the weather may be, without mantles. +When she goes out she is entitled to a military escort similar to that +of the sultan. An ancient custom still prevails which demands that the +Valideh, once a year, on the night of Kurban Bairam, present a slave +girl of twelve years of age to the sultan. The slave damsel at once +becomes a member of the harem, and it is possible for her to rise to the +highest position a woman may attain at the Turkish court. It is now +customary, however, for the young girl to be sent as a pupil in the +institution at Scutari, which has been established by the sultan for the +higher education of Mohammedan women. She is now more frequently +married, with a dowry, to some officer of the court or member of the +sultan's household.</p> + +<p>The sultan is granted privileges not generally accorded others as to +marriage. He may marry a Christian or a Jewess, if he should see fit so +to do. As a rule, the women who thus marry are expected to become Moslem +in faith, though there have been notable exceptions. Theodora, wife of +Orkhan, was a Greek Christian woman, and with marked persistence held on +to her ancestral religion. But Orkhan was unlike Mohammed II. in +character; for the story is told of the latter's strong passion for the +beautiful Irene, who, however, refused to abjure her faith. The priests +of Islam reviled their ruler for loving one who would not accept the +religion of the prophet. This was too much for Mohammed. One day the +priests were assembled in one of the halls of the palace. Here, too, was +Irene, covered with a veil of dazzling whiteness. With great solemnity +the sultan lifted Irene's veil with one hand and revealed the young +woman's great beauty to all who were present. "You see," said the +Sultan, "she is more beautiful than any other woman you have ever +beheld; fairer than the houris of your dreams! I love her as I do my +life; but my life is nothing beside my love for Islam." With this, he +seized the long, golden tresses of the unfortunate woman, entwined them +in his fingers, and with one stroke of his sharp scimiter severed her +head from her body.</p> + +<p>A lady of imperial blood has the right to add "Sultan" to her own name. +This is her privilege, even though she should marry a subject, which is +sometimes the case. Her superior descent, however, is always recognized; +for her husband may not sit down before her, unless she should so +permit.</p> + +<p>Turkish rulers have taken a different view of the value of foreign +marriages from that which has usually prevailed in the East. Political +ties have been made and strengthened by royal marriages. In Turkey, +however, a custom, amounting to law, prevents the sultan from marrying a +free woman, one taken from the high families of his own people, or +princesses of foreign courts, that no tie of politics or affinity of +blood should alter the superior impartiality of the supreme master. +Thus, while he is above all his subjects so far as rank is concerned, he +is inferior, on his mother's side at least, in the matter of birth, +Hence, the meanest subject of the Empire of the Ottomans may here feel +himself on an equality with the sultan, since he is "the son of a slave +woman."</p> + +<p>It is not customary for a ceremony to be performed when the sultan +marries. Only three Turkish sultans are said to have undergone a +ceremony on the occasion of taking to themselves wives. When the Greek +Princess Theodora was wedded to Orkhan; when Roxelana became the wife of +Sultan Suleyman; and when Besma, an adopted daughter of a princess of +Egypt, was married to Abd-ul-Medjid, the marriage ceremony was +performed.</p> + +<p>As a mark of certain inferiority, the bride is expected to enter the +nuptial bed from the back, lifting the covering with much ceremony. It +is never good form for a gentleman to inquire concerning the health of +another's wife.</p> + +<p>Mothers of the harem are often compelled to live in mortal fear for +their infant sons, lest they be foully dealt with. For if a child have +any prospect of some day being the Turkish ruler, his life is never +regarded as altogether safe. The baby prince is brought up in the harem, +with his mother and nurse; but since brothers and even uncles come +before sons, the question of succession to the sultanate has often +caused great disorder and bloodshed.</p> + +<p>On the death of Mohammed, the great Arab leader, there was no mention +of a law of succession. This was partly due, doubtless, to the fact that +he left no son who might assume leadership of the hosts of Islam. At +length, the Seljuk Turks attained to power, after which the empire fell +into minor sovereignties, which were brought together at last into the +Ottoman Empire. And while of late the stability of the reigning dynasty +has been the most noteworthy of the East, yet the fact that there was +not early established the ordinary custom of transmitting the +sovereignty from father to son has been the cause of much intrigue, +crime, and uncertainty in the dominion of the Turk. Cases have not been +unknown in Turkish history where several hundred women of the seraglio +were drowned in the Bosphorus because of plottings to depose the sultan. +They were tied in the traditional sack and dropped into the sea. It was +Ibrahim I., known as the Madman, one of the very worst of Turkish +rulers, who first conceived the idea of thus disposing of the old women +of the seraglio. Surprised and seized in the night, the unfortunate +victims of the sultan's madness were tied in sacks and then sunk to the +bottom of the sea. Only one of the large company of the unfortunates +escaped, by the loosing of the sack, and was picked up by a passing ship +and conveyed to Paris to tell the story of the cruel death of her +companions. Among the many notable instances of the tragic end to which +the plottings of the harem have come may be mentioned that of Tarkhann, +mother of Mohammed IV. So desirous was she that her son should reign, +that she slew all the other possible male heirs to the throne. She met +her nemesis, however, by strangulation. It is upon her life and that of +her rival that Racine has constructed his <i>Bajazet</i>.</p> + +<p>Connected with the sultan's harem there are estimated to be about +fifteen hundred persons. The harem consists of a number of little +courts, or <i>dairas</i>; and the central figure of each of these courts is a +lady of the female hierarchy.</p> + +<p>In the royal household there are three classes of women. The kadins, of +whom we have spoken, who may be termed the legitimate wives of the +sultan, though they are never formally married. Next are the <i>ikbals</i>, +or "favorite women." From this class the kadins are usually chosen. Then +come the <i>gediklis</i>, "those pleasant to look upon." The ikbals may come +from the number of these. The women of the third class are usually of +slave origin, purchased or stolen perhaps from Georgian or Circassian +parents. Those who are stolen are usually taken so early from their +homes, and so clandestinely, that their origin is seldom known to them. +If, however, the lady comes of high station her identity usually becomes +known, and she not unfrequently succeeds in elevating her family to a +position of power and emolument, either by direct influence or by +intrigue. In addition to these three classes of women there are <i>ustas</i>, +or "mistresses," who are maids in the service of the sultan's mother; +<i>shagirds</i>, or "novices," who are children in training for the higher +positions in the harem; and <i>jariyas</i>, or "damsels," who do the more +menial work of the establishments.</p> + +<p>Captured slave girls have sometimes had a most interesting career. They +are brought in an almost continuous stream, but privately. In the +earliest days of their presence in the harem they are called <i>alaikés</i>, +and are placed under the care of elderly women, or <i>kalfas</i>, who bring +them up to suit the tastes of an Oriental court. They are instructed in +manners, in music, in drawing, and in embroidery. When later they reach +the proper age, they become attendants upon the kadins and the +princesses of the imperial household. There is no bar to their reaching +at length the highest station that it is possible for a woman to attain, +the favorite wife of the sultan.</p> + +<p>The female department of the Turkish household is called the Hareemlick, +the male apartments being named the Islamlick. The women's apartments +are, of course, secluded. A male physician may see only the hand and +tongue of the sick lady. A black curtain is stretched to separate her +from his inspection. A eunuch conducts the physician to a point where +the sick woman may thrust out her hand through a hole in the curtain so +that the doctor may diagnose her disease.</p> + +<p>Faithfulness in women is held in high esteem, restraint of the harem +being intended to insure it. In former days it was not a thing unknown +for unfaithful women to be drowned; but the custom has fallen into +disuse. Ladies of the harem, however, have a fair amount of liberty. On +certain occasions they go out driving and visiting; they frequent the +bazaars and the public promenades, always in vehicles, never afoot. They +enjoy entertainments among themselves. Theatricals are frequently +witnessed by them in the garden of the palace. Operas are also often +rendered for their enjoyment. When Turkish ladies visit one another in +the harem,--which they may do without permission or restraint from their +husbands,--it is customary to place their shoes outside the harem door +that their husbands may know guests are being entertained.</p> + +<p>The harem of one ruler is generally regarded as the property of his +successor. The women thus inherited, however, are not always sure of +favor. Sultan Mohammed II. killed, by drowning, all the women of his +brother's harem. Indeed, women of the harems generally cannot be said to +have ample protection; for no officer may enter any harem to inspect the +conduct there, or for any purpose whatever, unless the law of the house +admits him. The women, whether they be wives or slaves, are practically +at the mercy of their masters. Some women of the sultan's harem have +risen to positions of much influence and genuine power, though they have +generally been of foreign birth. The mother of the noted reforming +sultan, Mahmud II., who began to reign in 1808 when a mere child, was a +French woman. His stout resistance of the allied powers won for him a +certain admiration for doggedness, even if success did not crown his +efforts to keep Greece in subjection. It was into this struggle that +Lord Byron threw himself on behalf of Greece. Mahmud, it may be to some +extent through the influence of his French mother, introduced French +tactics into his army, but to no avail, and at length Grecian freedom +was assured.</p> + +<p>The wife of Mahmud, Besma, taken as a little girl from the life of a +peasant, rose to a position of supreme dignity and great influence. Her +beauty easily won the passion of Mahmud. She never lost sight of her +humble origin and was much beloved by the masses of the people, even +those of the most lowly classes. She was the mother of Abd-ul-Aziz, and +it was she who unsuspectingly gave to the sultan, her son, the scissors +with which he killed himself. At any rate, the unfortunate monarch was +found dead in his apartments. The mother pined away in seclusion, and +was seen only in her deeds of charity. It was Besma who built the mosque +Yeni Kalideh at Ak Serai, and it is here she rests in the midst of a +beautiful garden of flowers, of which, during her lifetime, she was so +fond. On her death, about fifteen years ago, she was accorded a funeral +of great magnificence, and she was generally mourned throughout the +empire. It is said that when Besma was building the mosque, her money +fell short of her purpose, so that she could build but one minaret +instead of two, as custom entitled. Her son, however, came forward, +offering the necessary funds, which she declined with the remark: "No, +one minaret is sufficient to call the people to prayers; another would +only glorify me; the poor need a fountain." So she built a fountain for +the people, and it is one of the most beautiful in Constantinople.</p> + +<p>One of the most celebrated--even if she be not one of the best--women +of Turkey history was Khurrem, the "Joyous," whom Europeans generally +knew as Roxelana. She was wife of the greatest figure in Turkish annals, +Suleyman the Magnificent, who reigned about the middle of the sixteenth +century. Roxelana, though her origin has not been clearly traced, was +probably of Russian descent. From the first this strong-minded woman +exerted great influence over Suleyman. In the first place, she forced +him to marry her publicly and with much ceremony, a proceeding which was +then without precedent. Usually to have it announced that a woman had +become mother of a male heir to the throne was regarded as sufficient +announcement of marriage with the sultan. But this woman, who had now +risen from the position of a slave woman to that of the highest dignity +possible for a woman in the empire, determined that her marriage with +the great monarch should be full of publicity and pomp. There was +feasting and, apparently, great rejoicing, though the people were +surprised and hardly understood what it all might mean. Roxelana was, +however, equal to the emergency, and with the sagacity and determination +which were native to her sent many slaves among the people as they +feasted, distributing presents of money and pieces of silk to the +masses. From this time, she not only held absolute sway over the sultan, +but evinced great skill in buying the friendship of the people by gifts +and acts of charity. Diplomacy was characteristic of her, and from +cruelty she would not shrink if it were necessary to carry out her +purposes, for she induced Suleyman, generally so just and prudent, to +destroy the oldest and most promising of his sons, since the young man, +Mustafa by name, stood in the way of her own son Selim as heir to the +throne. She succeeded in her designs, but placed on the throne one of +the weakest and most worthless of Turkish rulers, "Selim, the Sot." +Roxelana's beauty is described as that which "attests that mixture of +the Asiatic and Tartar blood, wherever the dark eyes, the silken lashes, +the creamy paleness of the tint, the languor of the attitude habitual to +the Persian beauties, contrast with the rounded outline of the face, +with the shortness of the nose, the thickness of the lips, and the warm +coloring of the skin, traits peculiar to the daughters of the Caucasus." +At fifteen, she is said to have been the marvel and even the mystery of +the harem. Her memory knew only the rearing of the seraglio; but her +remarkable alertness and force of mind as well as beauty of person made +her from the first one of a thousand. Taught in the arts of music and +dancing, versed in foreign languages, and the study of history and +poetry, Roxelana added to her exuberance of youth a power of mind which +marked her for preëminence.</p> + +<p>Rebia, wife of Mohammed IV., is another example of womanly power over +the head and heart of the supreme ruler of Turkey. Rebia was a Greek +girl from the island of Crete. Lamartine says of her: "The delicacy of +her lineaments, the brilliancy of her complexion, the ocean azure of her +eyes, the golden auburn of her hair, the caressing tone of her voice, +and the witchery of her wit made her to be dreaded still as the prison +companion of a fallen monarch, of whom she might amuse the languor and +reëstablish the intrigue from the depth of his captivity." Even in +Mohammed's dethronement, Rebia clung to the fortunes of her lord, over +whom, during his power, she had always exerted decisive influence.</p> + +<p>Italian women have also risen to a place of prominence in the royal +harem. This was notably true in the case of the beautiful Safia, a +Venetian captive girl, who had been brought into the seraglio of Sultan +Murad III., who succeeded Selim his father in the year 1574. Murad was +not strong, and was easily deceived by sycophants and ruled by women. +Among the latter was Safia, sometimes known as Baffo, belonging to the +family of Baffo of Venice. Baffo proceeded to rule her royal lord in the +interests of her native land. Venice, after Suleyman's death, had become +restless of Turkish rule, and proceeded successfully to throw it off. +Baffo never forgot her origin, and ruled with a high hand, not only as +Khasseki-Sultan, but also as Valideh. She set her son Mohammed III. on +the throne as successor to her husband, even though the consummation +could be reached only by the slaying of nineteen of the one hundred and +two sons of Murad. Foreign women will probably never again play so large +a rôle in Turkish affairs. The present sultan is said, however, to be +fond of the social attractions of European women. He is probably the +first Turkish sultan who has invited a European lady to dine with him.</p> + +<p>The Turkish sultans have long lived in much magnificence. The old +seraglio, or imperial residence (from the word <i>seray</i>, a palace), was +beautifully situated "among the groves of plane and cypress that clothe +the apex of the triangle upon which the ancient city of Constantinople +is built." Now, however, the sultans have left these precincts around +which clustered so many memories of the horrible tragedies enacted +there, memories which even the magnificence of the place could not +destroy, and established their present residence, equal in natural +beauty to the old, but removed from the dirt and the memories, which had +at length gathered about the old seraglio.</p> + +<p>The women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the +seraglio. Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there +are even more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards +and attendants of the palace are of foreign blood. The sultan and his +children are the only Turks dwelling in the inner departments of the +royal palaces; and both he and they are born of foreign mothers. The +women's departments are carefully guarded. There were specially +appointed officers in the old seraglio as guards of the queens and their +children. These were the Baltajis, or "halberdiers," who were four +hundred in number. They, however, really attended the royal women only +when the sultan took with him some members of his harem to bear him +company on a journey or a campaign.</p> + +<p>The Baltajis, on such occasions, walked by the side of the carriages of +the imperial ladies and guarded their camp at night. Ordinarily, the +sultan's harem was under the care of the black eunuchs, or about two +hundred Africans, who were specially entrusted with the imperial ladies. +Their chief was known as the Kislar Aghasi, or "master of the girls," +and was regarded as one of the chief men of the empire.</p> + +<p>The trade in captive boys and girls stolen from Europe, Asia, and +Africa was once very large; the pick of them being brought by purchase +into the sultan's palace, for one purpose or another. It was thought +that his imperial majesty's life was safer in the hands of foreigners +brought up almost from infancy in the palace, and knowing no other +allegiance than that to the will of the sultan.</p> + +<p>Times have changed, however, and it is not possible for the ruler of the +Turks to regard the best of the children of white and black parentage as +born to replenish his harem. Much of the old time mediæval splendor has +been swept away, not only through the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II., but +by modern conditions which make the old seraglio an impossibility.</p> + +<p>In the olden days the young princes were closely confined in a part of +the seraglio known as the Chimshirlick, or "boxwood shrubbery." It +contained twelve pavilions each surrounded by high walls which enclosed +a little garden. These were the residences of the sons of the sultan. +Each young prince was kept guarded in his pavilion enclosure, from which +he dared not emerge without his royal father's special permission. Thus +a prince's minority was spent in the <i>kafe</i>, or "cage." Each youth had +as attendants ten or twelve fair girls, besides a number of pages. These +and black eunuchs, who were his teachers, were his sole companions. As a +rule, the tongues of male attendants and of women unable to bear +children were slit. At the tenth year a young prince leaves his mother +and the harem for the guardianship of a <i>lalo</i>, or "male attendant," who +is his companion day and night; next a <i>mullah</i>, or "priest," takes the +youth in hand and gives him his schooling, which consists chiefly in +instruction in the teachings of the Koran.</p> + +<a name="ill5" id="ill5"></a> +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/005.png"><br> +<b><i>THE MUTES<br> +After the painting by P. L. Bouchard</i></b></p> +<blockquote> +<b><i>The women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the seraglio. +Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there are even +more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards and +attendants of the palace are of foreign blood..... The women's +departments are carefully guarded. +<br><br> +Women who bear no children and the subaltern eunuchs have their tongues +slit. Whan an order of death is issued, these mutes, with the fatal +cords, enter and noiselessly fulfil their commands.</i></b> +</blockquote> + +<p>Among the female officials of the seraglio is the Hasnada Ousta, or +"grand mistress of the robes." She is usually an elderly woman of +respectability and of dignity. This lady acts as vice-Valideh, caring +for matters in the establishment to which it may not be possible for the +Valideh Sultan to give her own personal attention. She holds a place of +much honor, and women holding this position have been known to become +Valideh. There is also the Kyahya Kadin, or "lady comptroller," who is +generally selected by the sultan from among the oldest and most trusted +of the Gediklis.</p> + +<p>The dress of the ladies of the royal harem was formerly altogether +Oriental; so also were the furnishings of the women's apartments. These +last still consist largely of low divans, costly embroidery, couches, +and the like; but European customs have now made themselves felt, not +only in the furnishings of the rooms, but more particularly in the +matter of feminine attire. Costly robes from Paris and Vienna have +invaded the precincts of the harem; and these, added to the wealth of +jewelry of which Oriental ladies are so fond, make it possible for the +women of the rich Turkish households to be quite cosmopolitan in their +modes of dressing.</p> + +<p>Many of the lower ranks wear upon their head a sort of hood of black +silk, the Egyptian <i>chaf-chaf</i>. To this is attached a piece of black +netting, which can be dropped over the face of the wearer when she so +pleases. The women of Constantinople, however, are not so careful in the +matter of the veil as are the ladies living in cities under less +cosmopolitan influence.</p> + +<p>European ideas and habits have greatly modified Turkish customs. The +<i>yashmac</i> is the face veil which the Turkish girl receives when she +attains to the marriageable age. The word is derived from a verb which +means, when fully interpreted, "May long life be granted you." The +material is thin, fine lawn or similar stuff. The older and less +attractive women, or ladies who do not wish to be recognized in a public +concourse, as when shopping, wear a veil of thicker material.</p> + +<p>The cloak used is the <i>feridjè</i>. It is usually of black material, and +its shape is intended to conceal the outlines of the figure. The +<i>feridjè</i> is now much modified, however, by European tastes, and is not +greatly different from the opera cloak worn by the ladies of Paris.</p> + +<p>The once fashionable footgear, the yellow Turkish slipper, has given +place generally to the slipper of patent leather worn by European +ladies. Much of the beauty of color and picturesqueness of costume has +therefore passed away, as may be seen from the following description of +the Turkish woman's appearance at the middle of the sixteenth century: +When they (the women of Turkey) go abroad, the ladies wear the +<i>yashmac</i> made of gold stuff, heavily fringed, and confined to the head +by a crown blazing with jewels. The figure is concealed by a cloak of +richest brocade or velvet. Sometimes you may have the charm of seeing as +many as one hundred <i>arabas</i>, or carts, very splendid and richly gilded, +drawn by gaily decorated bullocks, each containing a number of these +great ladies with their children and slaves.</p> + +<p>"The procession is a most gorgeous sight. Each cart has as many as four +mounted eunuchs to protect it from the curiosity of the public, who have +their faces almost to the earth, or avert them entirely, as the caravan +passes." So, also, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has left, in a letter to +the Duchess of Marlborough, written in 1717, a very graphic account of +the costume of the sultana.</p> + +<p>Lady Mary describes the <i>dolma</i>, or "vest of long sleeves," the +diamond-bedecked girdle, the long and costly chain about the neck, +reaching even to the knees, the earrings of diamonds shaped like pears, +the <i>talpoche</i>, the headdress covered with bodkins of emeralds and +diamonds, the diamond bracelets, the five rings upon her fingers, the +largest ring Lady Mary ever saw except that worn by Mr. Pitt. There was +also a pelisse of rich brocade brought to the royal Turkish lady when +she walked out into her garden. Fifty different kinds of meat were +served at her dinner, but one at a time; her golden knives were set with +diamonds in the hafts; gorgeously embroidered napkins were in abundance, +etc. Much of this magnificence and display has now passed away, but, as +Stanley Lane-Poole says in his <i>The History of Turkey</i>: "While the house +of the Ottoman monarch of to-day, if more in keeping with the spirit of +the time, is very commonplace beside that of last century ... +nevertheless, the modern seraglio is hardly an anchorite's cell."</p> + +<p>Cosmetics were once used in profusion. The painting of the eyebrows and +the dyeing of the finger tips with henna were considered marks of +beauty. The custom is dying out entirely in Constantinople, though in +the remoter regions of the empire the habit is still in vogue. The +attempts at beautifying the face are often referred to by the poets as +marks of beauty, as when Fuzuli dilates upon the</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i8"> "Eyes with antimony darkened, hands with henna crimson dyed.</p> +<p class="i8"> Among these beauties vain and wanton, like to thee was ne'er a bride.</p> +<p class="i8"> Bows of painted green thy eyebrows; thy glances shafts provide."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Mohammedan countries of any culture have long held the bath in great +esteem. Turkish ladies of high rank once frequented the public baths +with regularity, but the modern improvements in the private houses have +made this custom far less general.</p> + +<p>The women of the Turkish empire present an almost infinite variety. +Under the dominion of the sultan the nationalities are many and +heterogeneous. So also it would be impossible to make any general +statement of the treatment of women among the Turks. In many parts of +Turkey there is but one wife in the household, and she is well treated +and highly respected; affection prevails in the harems of not a few; +while in others concubinage, neglect, harshness, ignorance, vice are +present with their deadly effect.</p> + +<p>Divorce may be readily obtained in Turkey; but parental influence often +protects the woman who otherwise might fare unjustly. Mohammed also gave +some protection to wives, since he considered a wife to have rights in +her own fortune even while married, and held that if divorced, +restitution of this fortune was to be made.</p> + +<p>Turkish women, except those of the richer families, generally nurse +their own children. Many children die in infancy through the ignorance +of mothers of the lower classes. Some mothers still swaddle their little +ones. In the event of illness, instead of a trained physician, many +mothers send for a "wise woman" or a wizard. In the harems, it is +suspected that many infants are actually killed. The Mohammedan +population increases more slowly, notwithstanding the practice of +polygamy, than the Christian population of the Turkish Empire.</p> + +<p>It is the custom among families of the better class to give the boys +over from infancy to the care of a <i>dadi</i>, or slave girl, whose business +it is to care for him during his youth, and it is not infrequent that +evil springs from this intimacy. Both boys and girls are under the care +of a <i>lalo</i>, or male slave, when the children are out of the precincts +of the harem. The influence of the slaves and menials, with whom so many +Turkish children are thrown, is, as a rule, far from elevating.</p> + +<p>Submission is a lesson that is very early taught to Turkish children. +This insures an obedient, tractable spirit, and is the cause of all that +is best in the Turkish character.</p> + +<p>There are almost thirty million Turkish women, the masses of whom move +upon a very low level of culture. This cannot, however, be said of all, +for many of the upper classes and of the court are well educated, though +the branches or subjects they are taught are not varied. Foreign +governesses are often employed to teach the girls French, German, and +English, which they can, in many cases, speak fluently. Language and +literature furnish a large part of their education. A change is +gradually coming over the Turkish people in this matter of the +development of its women, and this, notwithstanding, the fear in many +minds that a better educated woman will be a less manageable woman; a +creature dissatisfied with her lot. A recent writer of acute observation +of Turkish affairs has said of efforts on the part of American +philanthropists to instil the spirit of the American public school into +the minds of the Turks: "The general opinion seemed to be that the +female sex had no intellectual capacity. The first efforts of the +Americans to make the women sharers in intellectual progress and +refinement were met with opposition, and often with derisive laughter. +They created a new public sentiment in favor of the education of women. +This is shown by the interest taken in the schools established by +Americans for the education of girls. Pashas, civil and military +officers of high rank, the ecclesiastics and wealthy men of all the +different nationalities attend the examinations, and express their +hearty approval of the efforts made by the Americans for improving the +conditions of the women of Turkey."</p> + +<p>The tendency of these influences is to win for women a greater respect +from fathers, husbands, brothers; greater freedom in choice of their +life partners; to defer the marriageable age from twelve years to +fifteen or twenty; to secure for mothers greater respect from their +children; and to elevate womanhood in every relation of life.</p> + +<p>Turkish women who are still living under the patriarchal system--and in +no small part of the empire does this ancient system prevail--develop +under a different environment from that prevailing in the other parts of +the realm. Under a patriarchate the mother yields to the grandmother and +the great-grandmother. The wife holds not only a subservient place in +the family, which often contains as many as forty persons, but she is +often, literally, a slave to the mother-in-law, and her children are +trained by almost everybody else but herself. The patriarchal system is +gradually yielding, however; and more and more, even in the conservative +regions of the world, newly married people are forsaking father and +mother and cleaving to one another, setting up their own homes and +developing the parental character, and training their young in their own +sweet way.</p> + +<p>Under strict Moslem influence, motherhood has a place of honor; at +least in theory. For Mohammedanism gives to the woman who bears children +and trains them faithfully a rank in heaven with the martyrs. +Unfortunately, however, the light esteem in which women are held in +Moslem lands makes against woman's power, even in her noblest +opportunity,--that of moulding the children into character that is +noblest and best. Much work has been done by foreign philanthropists in +an effort to raise the standard of home training among the Turks. +Stanley Lane-Poole, in his <i>Studies in a Mosque</i>, a book not written +from the viewpoint of the modern missionary, but that of a candid and +diligent student of historic conditions, says: "It is quite certain that +there is no hope for the Turks, so long as Turkish women remain what +they are, and home training is the imitation of vice." This is surely a +dark picture. But the time may yet come when the Turkish woman will +assume a position more like that of her Western sisters and become an +elevating influence in the land whose present territory includes much of +the most renowned soil the sun ever shone upon, not only that which saw +the birth of the religion of the Jew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan, +but also much that is rich in classic and mediæval memories--the country +of which Byron wrote:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i20"> "The land of the cedar and pine,</p> +<p class="i10"> Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine;</p> +<p class="i10"> Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume,</p> +<p class="i10"> Wax faint in the gardens of Gul in her bloom.</p> +<p class="i10"> .......................................................</p> +<p class="i10"> Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,</p> +<p class="i10"> And all save the spirit of man is divine."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Yes, even the land of the Turk may see such ideals of womanhood +realized as those which made the women of the ancient Hebrews and the +early Christians--who lived upon what is now Turkish soil--to be honored +throughout the ages.</p> +<a name="c11" id="c11"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>XI</h3> + +<h3>THE MOORISH WOMEN</h3> + +<p>We are now to turn our attention to one of the most fascinating of all +the women of the world--the Moorish woman. Her fascination does not lie +altogether in her intrinsic charm, but in the atmosphere that romance +has cast about her. And while there is, of course, a very close kinship +between the Moorish women of Spain and Morocco and the women of the +Orient, especially the Mohammedan women, yet, the lady of Moorish +ancestry has a history and a life of her own which are well worthy of +consideration.</p> + +<p>The Moors brought culture to Spain, and it was not long after their +expulsion that learning began to decline, and with it Spain. It was +during the period of the Western movement of Mohammedanism that Islam +made its contribution to the world's progress. In its very work of +devastation, Arabian civilization was destined to render mankind great +service. Conquering the north of Africa and then coming across the +narrow Straits of Gibraltar, the Moors were destined to write out a +wonderful history in their European home. So deeply did the Moors +impress their life upon the Spaniards, that long after their expulsion +they continued to influence Spain by the power of their thought and the +impress of their customs. Even to-day, after the lapse of more than four +centuries, Moorish footprints are traceable in Spanish soil. While the +Moors brought culture into Spain, it cannot be said that they made any +direct attempt to educate or to elevate their women. But among a people +whose learning was relatively so high for its age, it was impossible to +prevent the women from receiving a certain refinement and at times an +elevation of mind which made them worthy of the respect and admiration +of not only the prouder sex, but of the world. The capacity for true +poetry and the gift of music were not uncommon accomplishments of these +women. There was ample leisure for these arts to be cultivated by them. +Charm of presence seemed to belong by nature and habit to the Moorish +woman, as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Some grace propitious on her steps attends,</p> +<p class="i14"> Adjusts her charms by stealth and recommends."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The Moorish women were pretty, as indeed their descendants are, +especially when young. Like the ancient Egyptians, they blackened their +eyelashes and eyebrows and used henna stains upon their finger tips. +Beauty was at a high premium, not because there was so little of it in +Moorish Spain, but because it was highly prized. Some of this peculiar +type of beauty persists even to-day in parts of the peninsula. As +Aranzadi (quoted by Ripley) says: "The very prevalent honey-brown eyes +of the southwest quarter of Spain, near Granada, is probably due to +strong Moorish influence."</p> + +<p>The respect for women among the Moors of Spain was higher than it would +be natural to expect in a land where Mohammed's influence was paramount. +It is a tradition that the Prophet once declared: "I stood at the gate +of Paradise and lo! most of its inmates were poor; and I stood at the +gate of Hell and lo! most of its inmates were women." The Arabian nature +was intuitive, ardent, impulsive. So the beauty of a beautiful woman +awakened the feeling of love and chivalry. On the other hand, the women +were warm-hearted, though custom required them to be dignified and +self-contained. Among a people where generosity, courage, hospitality, +and veneration for old age were conspicuous virtues, it is not strange +that women should have received more than ordinary respect. And yet +these very qualities, when abused, often degenerated into idleness, +pride, ignorance, bigotry, and even the grossest sensuality.</p> + +<p>Chivalry, however, had its better side, for "Here gallants held it +little thing for ladies' sake to die," as the old Spanish ballad tells +us. The Cid stories of valor--like that of Antar in Arabian literature, +Orlando in Italian, and Arthur in early English legend--brought this +powerful influence upon the imaginations and conduct of both men and +women:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10"> "For here did valor flourish and deeds of warlike might</p> +<p class="i10"> Ennobled lordly palaces in which was our delight."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Spain was for centuries known for its gallantry. Indeed, "the Spaniards +bore away the palm of gallantry from the French," and have in some +respects perpetuated the influence stamped upon them by the Moorish +women, even to this day. As Thomas Bourke says, in his <i>Moors in Spain</i>: +"Much of the chivalrous manner of the Granadians is no doubt to be +attributed to their women, who were exactly qualified to create and keep +alive this spirit of gallantry among their countrymen and to occasion +those excesses of love, of which so many examples, equally extraordinary +as pleasing, occur both in Spanish and in Arabian history."</p> + +<p>What is the secret of the alluring and overpowering charms with which +the Moorish women have fascinated the historian, enkindled the novelist +and poet, set the musician's heart to vibrating and stirred the +imagination of the world? A description of them which goes back to the +old Arabian days is of interest in finding the secret of their power +over the senses and the imaginations of men. "They are uncommonly +beautiful; their charms which very rarely fail to impress, even at first +sight, are further set off by a lightness and grace which gives them an +influence quite irresistible. They are rather below the middle stature; +their hair, which is of a beautiful black, descends almost to their +ankles. No vermilion can vie with their lips, which are continually +sending forth the most bewitching smiles, as if expressly to display +teeth as white as alabaster. They are profuse in the use of perfumes and +washes which, being exquisite in their kinds, give a freshness and +lustre to the skin rarely to be equalled by the women of other +countries. Their steps, their dances, all their movements display a +graceful softness, an easy negligence, that enhances their other charms, +and not only renders them irresistible, but exalts them beyond all power +of praise. Their conversation is lively and poignant; their wit refined +and penetrating, equally adapted to grave and abstruse discussions as to +the pleasantest and most lively sallies."</p> + +<p>The dresses of the Granadian women, not unlike those of the modern +Turks and Russians, consisted chiefly of a long tunic, which was held in +by a girdle. There was also an upper garment with straight sleeves. This +was called a <i>dolyman</i>. Large drawers upon the legs and Morocco slippers +upon the feet finished the costume, with the exception of their small +bonnets, to which were attached costly veils, richly embroidered and +descending to their knees, altogether presenting a picture which, at its +best, made the Moorish woman one of the most graceful and picturesque of +her day. The stuffs which went into a Moorish woman's dress were usually +of extraordinary fineness, and the trimmings were costly, gold and +silver edging being used without stint.</p> + +<p>Hairdressing was not an unimportant part of her toilette. The black +hair, befitting her complexion, was allowed to fall down in braids upon +the shoulders, but in front there was a fringe. Strings of coral beads +were often intertwined with the side locks; and the ornaments of the +hair, often costly pearls, were allowed to hang down, giving a delicate +tinkle as the woman moved her head. There were some little superstitions +about the hair. It was thought that a direful curse fell upon those who +joined another's hair to their own. To send a person a bit of hair, or +even, by metonymy, the silken string which bound it, was a token of +submission. Jewelry was used by the Moorish women in great profusion. +They are still passionately fond of ornaments. Even the poorest are well +supplied, and the shapely brown arms of the little girls are encircled +at the wrist and above the elbow with bands of brass or copper. As the +women walk they "make a tinkling with their feet, because of all the +rings and anklets and bangles which they wear with so much delight." +This jewelry is the woman's personal property, and in case her husband +should see fit to divorce her, it still remains her own.</p> + +<p>One of the most important parts of a Moorish lady's daily life was the +bath, a pastime which was both pleasurable and imperative, especially in +the homes of the wealthier classes. Coppée, in his <i>Conquest of Spain</i>, +has thus described the bathing equipment of a Moorish home: "Passing +from the centre of a luxurious court through a double archway into +another <i>patio</i>, similar in proportions and surroundings, and usually +lying at right angles to the first, in the centre is a great <i>estangue</i>, +or oblong basin, seventy-five feet long by thirty in width, and six feet +in depth in its deepest part, supplied with limpid waters, raised to a +pleasant temperature by heated metallic pipes. Here the indolent, the +warm, the weary, may bathe in luxurious languor. Here the women disport +themselves, while the entrances are guarded by eunuchs against +intrusion. The contented bather may then leave the court by a postern in +the gallery, which opens into a beautiful garden, with mazy walks and +blooming parterres, redolent with roses and violets. Water is +everywhere; one garden house is ingeniously walled in with fountain +columns, meant to bid defiance to the fiercest heats and droughts of +summer."</p> + +<p>From these ample and often luxurious arrangements, it might be surmised +that by the Moor water was regarded not as a luxury, but as an absolute +necessity to a happy life. All classes shared more or less in the habits +of cleanliness; for it is said that many of the poor would have spent +"their last <i>dirhem</i> for soap, preferring rather to be dinnerless than +dirty," while the Moors of the higher order were so scrupulously cleanly +that they are said to have spent a very large part of their lives in the +bath.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, the Catholics of Spain, determining to get as far +away as possible from the customs of their Mohammedan captors, eschewed +the bath because the Moors made so much of it; and men and women among +them were known to be strangers to the touch of water. So far from +cleanliness being regarded as next to godliness, dirt became the very +emblem of Christian society, "monks and nuns boasted of their +filthiness," and there is on record a female saint who boasted at the +age of sixty that no drop of water had ever touched her body, except +that the tips of her fingers had been dipped into the holy water at the +mass!</p> + +<p>Nine hundred well-equipped baths in the rich city of Cordova, and +thousands throughout Spain, were destroyed by Philip II., the husband of +Queen Mary of England, on the ground that they were but relics of +Spain's occupancy by the infidel.</p> + +<p>While Mohammed refused to Mohammedan women the right to marry any but a +Mohammedan, yet he granted to his male followers the right to marry +Christians or Jewesses if they saw fit. This privilege led to a +considerable admixture of blood in Moorish Spain. Spanish pride did not +suffice to prevent these intermarriages of Arab and Spaniard. Polygamy +also being in vogue,--for their religion allowed the Moors four +wives,--a blending of races went on rapidly, and the Moorish type of +beauty may be discovered to-day in any part of southern Spain. The +Christian influence in Spain tended to soften the almost necessary +asperities of a life where plural marriages are sanctioned. The +degradation incident to Mohammedan ideals concerning women was much +checked by a counter current of Christian feeling, by which the Moors +could not but be influenced. So, also, did poets and lovers in Moorish +Spain show a respect for womanly worth and grace, if not womanly virtue, +which marks an advance from the Mohammedan or even the earlier Arabian +days.</p> + +<p>As might be inferred from their Oriental antecedents, the Spanish Arabs +gave much time to eating and drinking. The chief meal followed the +evening prayer. The men ate alone, the women and children followed when +their lord had finished his repast. The tray containing the food was +placed upon an embroidered rug. Silver and fine earthenware were not +wanting. Bread and limes were expected with every meal. A dish made of +the flesh of a sheep or fowls stewed with vegetables was a common dish, +as, indeed, it is a favorite among the Moorish people to-day. "The diner +sat on a low cushion, with legs crossed. A servant poured water on his +hands before eating, from a basin and ewer, which formed a necessary +part of the table furniture. The meal then began with the +<i>Bismillah</i>--'In the name of the most merciful God'--for grace. The +right hand only was used in eating; and with it the host, if he had +guests, transferred choice pieces from his own plate to theirs, and +sometimes, as a mark of greater favor, to their very mouths. Ordinarily +there were soups, boiled meats, stuffed lambs, and all meats not +forbidden. Very little water was taken during the meal; in its place, +and especially after the meal, sherbets were drunk, those flavored with +violet and made very sweet being preferred."</p> + +<p>The contact between the Mohammedans and the Christians in Moorish +Spain inevitably brought conflict. Christians often unnecessarily threw +away their lives in courted martyrdom. Many were the staunch women who +thus willingly laid down their lives. The story of Flora, the beautiful +daughter of a Moorish father and a Christian mother, has in it elements +of the deepest pathos. The offspring of mixed marriages among the Moors +was universally regarded by them as of necessity Mohammedan in faith. +Flora's mother, however, had secretly instilled into her the beliefs of +the Christian religion, though outwardly she was a good follower of the +Prophet. At length, however, stirred by the sacrifices she saw the +Christian martyrs making for their cause, her father being now dead, she +fled from her home and took refuge among the Christians. Her Mohammedan +brother searched for her, but in vain. Priests were charged with her +abduction and were punished with imprisonment. Unwilling that they +should be thus punished on her account, Flora returned and gave herself +up, confessing that she was no longer a Moslem, but a Christian. All +efforts to make her recant proved fruitless. There remained nothing +except to bring her before the Mohammedan judge and try her for the +capital offence of apostasy. The judge, however, willing to show mercy, +sentenced Flora not to death as the law prescribed, but to a severe +flogging. Her brother was enjoined to take the girl home and instruct +her in the faith of Mohammed. It was not long, however, before she again +made good her escape and joined some Christian friends, among whom a new +experience awaited her. Here, Saint Eulogius, an enthusiast among the +Christians, met Flora and conceived for her a love that was pure and +tender, so admirable did he adjudge her steadfastness to the faith. It +was a day when martyrs willingly laid down their lives, accounting it a +proud distinction to die at the hands of the infidel. They courted +death. So with Flora. Appearing before the judge one day with a +Christian maiden who also sought a martyr's death, this girl of half +Moorish blood, but with staunch Christian faith, reviled that officer +and cursed his religion and the Prophet. The Mohammedan judge pitied the +young girls, but had them thrown into prison. Here they might have +weakened had not Eulogius urged them to stand fast in their holy faith. +The sentence of death was passed upon them; and the girls were led away +to execution. Eulogius, who loved Flora above all else on earth, and +hence desired her to win what he considered the most glorious of all +crowns, that of martyrdom, looked on in the hour of her death, and +wrote: "She seemed to me an angel. A celestial illumination surrounded +her; her face lightened with happiness; she seemed already to be tasting +the joys of the heavenly home.... When I heard the words of her sweet +mouth, I sought to establish her in her resolve, by showing her the crown +that awaited her. I worshipped her, I fell down before this angel, and +besought her to remember me in her prayers; and strengthened by her +speech, I returned less sad to my sombre cell." Thus did Moorish blood +and Christian faith unite to make a life of wonderful daring and +fortitude.</p> + +<p>To-day in Moorish states the strictest seclusion prevails for the +women. The love of idleness, ignorance, and sensuality are their +dominating traits. They are veiled when in public, and in the north of +Africa wear a striped white shawl, called a <i>haik</i>, of coarser or finer +material, according to the wealth or position of the wearer. This piece +of apparel is thrown over the head and conceals the person down to the +feet, the face being hidden by a white linen handkerchief, called the +<i>adjar</i>, tied tightly across the nose just under the eyes. Says Sequin, +in <i>Walks about Algiers</i>, in describing the Moorish women of that +region: "In the street they present the appearance of animated +clothes-bags, and walk with a curious shuffling gait, very far removed +from the unfettered dignity of their lords and masters. They are not +'emancipated'; and though in the houses of the richer Moors the slavery +of their women may be gilded, it is but slavery after all. The +Mohammedan invariably buys his wife--that is to say, he pays a price for +her to her family, large or small, according to her reputed beauty, or +accomplishments as a housewife; and though when a girl is born to him, +an Arab laments, a man with many daughters, if he knows how to dispose +of them well, in time becomes rich. Arab women, unlike the men, are +small in stature, and the wearing of the <i>adjar</i> has flattened their +noses and made their faces colorless. It is a curious fact that this +disguise was unknown among Arab women until the time of Mahommed's +marriage with his young and beautiful wife Ayesha, as to whose conduct, +indeed, it became needful for the angel Gabriel to make a special +communication, before the Prophet's uneasiness could be removed. The +jealousy of one man has been powerful enough to cover the faces of all +Moslem wives and daughters for twelve hundred years."</p> + +<p>The Moorish women of the better class are rarely seen upon the streets +or in public places. Indeed, they are not expected to cross their +threshold for at least twelve months after their marriage; and when that +time has elapsed, it is seldom they are seen abroad. They go to the +baths, and sometimes on Fridays they visit the cemeteries. Other +recreations or amusements are not open to them, except that in the +marriage ceremonies women have peculiar privileges, since these +ceremonies are held in the women's apartments. "Marriage festivities +last a week, during which time the chief amusement is the eating of +sweetmeats and the dressing, bejewelling, dyeing, painting, and +generally adorning of the bride, who is, as a rule, a girl of some +thirteen or fourteen years old, and who is compelled to sit idle and +immovable the whole time without showing the slightest interest in +anything. She has probably never seen and has certainly never been seen +by the bridegroom. At the conclusion of the ceremonies the bridegroom is +introduced to the women's apartments, and permitted to raise his bride's +veil, but etiquette obliges the lady to keep her eyes tightly closed on +the occasion, and in some cases the unfortunate young woman's eyelashes +are gummed down to her cheeks, to save the possibility of an indiscreet +glance. If the face of the bride is displeasing to the bridegroom, he is +at liberty after this one glance to reject her. If, on the contrary, he +is satisfied, he drinks a few drops of scented water from the bride's +hand, offers her the same from his, and the marriage is concluded."</p> + +<p>In contrast with their once great enemies, the Spaniards, the Moors +have no kind of public spectacle. For the Moors of Africa, +story-telling, in which the Arabs have time out of mind delighted, the +recitation of poems, to which is usually added a dance of <i>almehs</i>, +generally negresses, expert in their art of pleasing the native +assemblies. These entertainments are held in the open courtyard of some +quaint old Moorish house; the centre of the court being reserved for the +dancers and the musicians. The men fill the space around, beneath the +arches, while in the galleries are the ghostly forms of veiled women.</p> + +<p>It cannot be said that the Moorish women of to-day still retain that +grace of form and charm of manner which the Moorish lady of five +centuries ago possessed. A prominent woman, who has travelled widely in +Moslem countries, has given this rather repellent description of the +women of the Moors of to-day. "They are huge puncheons of greasy flesh, +daubed with white and scarlet, strung with a barbaric wealth of jewels +and scented beads. They eat and sleep, and then for variety's sake they +sleep and eat. They gossip, scold, and intrigue; and are valued +according to their weight. They blacklead their eyes, and paint their +cheeks like Jezebel; beat their slaves, drink tea and chat and quarrel." +Not a very attractive picture is this,--and perhaps a little +gloomy,--but it is given as presenting a marked and altogether truthful +contrast between the Moorish women of the days when chivalry flourished +in southern Spain, and the women of the Morocco of to-day in their +poverty and degradation. Once the women exerted a strong influence over +the men; the truth is that frequently the "power behind the throne" was +to be located within the harem. This was probably true during the reign +of Hakam II., who was so fond of books that war and the practical +concerns of government had little charm for him. He was the son of the +great Kalif of Cordova, Abd-er-Rahman III. The latter had built a city +to please his Ez-Zahra, and called it "City of the Fairest," but he did +not turn over the government to his spouse. His son Hakam, however, +allowed the influence of the women of the court to become dominant, and +on his death the Sultana Aurora, mother of the young Kalif Hisham, +became the most important personage in the state. It was she who was +chiefly instrumental in introducing into power the young Almanzor. +Gifted in the fine art of flattery and being brilliant withal, the +princesses, and more particularly Aurora herself, fell in love with the +talented young man, and turned all the currents of influence and power +toward him. Thus did the women of the court succeed in developing one of +the most successful and unscrupulous of Moorish leaders. He made all +Spain tremble by his victories, and Christians sighed with relief when +death at last conquered the conqueror.</p> + +<p>The power of the wife of the Spanish Moor was by no means small. A fine +example of her influence at times may be illustrated by the history of +Muley Abul Hassan, the royal Moorish ruler of the Alhambra, who came to +the throne in A.D. 1465. "Though cruel by nature," says Washington +Irving, "he was prone to be ruled by his wives." He had married early in +life a young kinswoman, the daughter of the Sultan Mohammed VII., his +great-uncle. This Ayxa--or Ayesha, as she has been called--was, says the +historian, of almost masculine spirit and energy, and of such immaculate +and inaccessible virtue that she was generally called La Horra--"the +Chaste." To her there was born a son, who received the name of Abu +Abdallah; or as he is commonly known, by the abbreviation Boabdil. The +astrologers were called upon to cast the horoscope of the infant, as was +usual; and, to their great trepidation, it was found that it was +"written in the book of fate that this child will one day sit upon the +throne, but the downfall of the kingdom will be accomplished during his +reign." At once the young prince and heir began to be looked upon with +suspicion and even aversion by his father, who proceeded to persecute +the child over whom such a prediction hung. He was accordingly nicknamed +El Zogoybi--"the Unfortunate." It was a valiant and fond-hearted mother +whose constant care and protection enabled him to grow up to young +manhood; for she was a woman of strong character and of dominating will. +But, alas! growing somewhat old, and losing some of her personal charm +and influence, Ayesha must face a rival in the harem. Among the captives +taken by the Moors at this time, says Irving, was one Isabella, the +daughter of a Christian cavalier, Sancho Ximenes de Solis. Her Moorish +captors gave her the name of Fatima; but as she grew up, her surpassing +beauty gained her the surname of Zoraya, or "the Morning Star," by which +she has become known to history. Her charms at length attracted the +notice of Muley Abul Hassan, and, after being educated in the Moslem +faith, she became his wife.</p> + +<p>Zoraya soon acquired complete ascendency over the mind of Muley Abul +Hassan. "She was as ambitious as she was beautiful, and, having become +the mother of two sons, looked forward to the possibility of one of them +sitting on the throne of Granada." Zoraya succeeded in gathering about +her a faction, who were drawn to her by her foreign and Christian +descent. These were anxious to assist her in her ambition and that of +her sons, as they arrayed themselves against Boabdil and his mother. The +latter, however, were not without their ardent supporters. There were +engendered jealousies that were inveterate and hatreds that were deep. +Intriguing was the order of the day. Fearing that a plot would succeed +in deposing Muley Abul Hassan and in putting Boabdil upon the throne of +his father, the prince, together with his mother, was thrown into prison +and confined in the tower of Cimares. Hassan resolved not only to set +the stars at defiance and to prove the lying fallacy of the horoscope, +but to silence at once and for all, by the executioner's sword, the +ambitions of his son Boabdil. But here the versatility of Ayesha again +asserted itself. She at once began to make a way for Boabdil's escape. +"At the dead of night she gained access to his prison, and, tying +together the shawls and scarfs of herself and her female attendants, +lowered him down from a balcony of the Alhambra to the steep, rocky +hillside which sweeps down to the Darro. Here some of her devoted +adherents were waiting to receive him, who, mounting him upon a swift +horse, spirited him away." The young man, acting under the advice of +ambitious friends and relatives, began to make preparations for war; and +his own mother encouraged his heart and equipped him for the field, +giving him her fond benediction as she lovingly girded his scimiter to +his side. But his young bride wept, as she tried to fancy the ills that +might befall him in so uneven a conquest. "Why dost thou weep, daughter +of Ali Altar?" asked the invincible Ayesha; "these tears become not the +daughter of a warrior, nor the wife of a king. Believe me, there lurks +more danger for a monarch within the strong walls of a palace than +within the frail curtains of a tent. It is by perils in the field that +thy husband must purchase security on his throne." But Morayma, daughter +of Ali Altar, found it hard to be comforted; and as her husband, the +prince, departed from the Alhambra, she took her place at her <i>mirador</i>, +and then, overlooking the Vega, she watched the departing loved one, +whom she thought never to see again, as his forces vanished from her +sight, and "every burst of warlike melody that came swelling on the +breeze was answered by a gush of sorrow."</p> + +<p>This succession of fateful incidents connected with the career of one +who was destined to be the last to sit upon a Moorish throne in Spain is +here recounted because the events give at once an insight into the +strength and the weakness of the Moorish womanly character, with all its +ardent love and spiteful hate, with its loyalty and its trickery, its +hopes and its fears.</p> + +<p>It was Ferdinand, with his wife Isabella, who was destined to return to +the Spaniards the possession of their land, so long held by the Moors. +The story of the overthrow of Boabdil is a narrative of chivalry and +real pathos. Boabdil, standing on a spur of the Alpuxarras, with his +mother Ayesha by his side, looked back upon the glory of his lost +dominion. The towers of the Alhambra loomed up before him, and the rich +and fertile Vega stretched out before his eyes for the last time. +"<i>Allahu Akbar</i>," said he, sorrowfully, "God is most great," and burst +into tears. "Well may you weep like a woman," said Ayesha, "for that +which you were unable to defend like a man." This final standing place +of the last of the Moorish rulers in Spain is still known as El Ultimo +Sospiro del Moro--"the last sigh of the Moor." The standard of Castile +and Aragon by the side of the Cross has supplanted the crescent of +Islam; and Ferdinand, with Isabella, knelt in the Alhambra and gave +thanks to God, while the Spanish army knelt behind them, and the royal +choir chanted a <i>Te Deum</i>. Had Isabella been more gracious and kept +faith with the infidel, the lot of the vanquished had been less +sorrowful.</p> + +<p>When the Moors were driven out from the home that had been theirs for +more than seven eventful centuries, none suffered more than did the +proud Moorish ladies. It is creditable, however, to their Spanish +victors that they preserved as a part of their own national literature +many of the ballads of the vanquished Moors. Lines from the Moorish +<i>Lament for the Slain Celin</i> are expressive of the wail of maid and +mother at the loss of their former glory and their expulsion from the +place they had so long held:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i8"> "The Mooress at the lattice stands--the Moor stands at the door</p> +<p class="i8"> One maid is wringing of her hands and one is weeping sore.</p> +<p class="i8"> Down to the dust men bore their heads, and ashes black they strew</p> +<p class="i8"> Upon their broidered garments of crimson, green and blue." +</div></div> + +<p>The aged women also had their hopes stricken low by the downfall of +their people:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i8"> "An old, old woman cometh forth, when she hears the people cry,</p> +<p class="i8"> Her hair is white as silver, like horn her glazed eye."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The fall of Granada brought bitterness to many a heart. The words of the +ballad, <i>Woe is Me</i>! translated from the Spanish by Lord Byron, might +well depict the feeling of the hour:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Sires have lost their children--wives,</p> +<p class="i14"> Their lords,--and valiant men, their lives."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The aged Moor, pacing to and fro before the king, pours out his plaint:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "I lost a damsel in that hour,</p> +<p class="i14"> Of all the land the loveliest flower;</p> +<p class="i14"> Doubloons a hundred would I pay,</p> +<p class="i14"> And think her ransom cheap that day.</p> +<p class="i14"> Woe is me, Alhambra."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>As one has written: "Beautiful Granada, how is thy glory faded! The +flower of thy chivalry lies low in the land of the stranger; no longer +does the Bivarambla echo to the tramp of steed and the sound of trumpet; +no longer is it crowded with thy youthful nobles, gloriously arrayed for +the tilt and tourney. Beautiful Granada! The soft note of the lute no +longer floats through thy moonlit streets; the serenade is no more heard +beneath thy balconies; the lively castanet is silent upon thy hills; the +graceful dance of the Zambra is no more seen beneath thy bowers. +Beautiful Granada! why is the Alhambra so forlorn and desolate? The +orange and the myrtle still breathe their perfumes into its silken +chambers; the nightingale still sings within its groves; its marble +halls are still refreshed with the plash of fountains and the gush of +the limpid rills! Alas! the countenance of the king no longer shines +within those halls. The light of the Alhambra is set for ever!"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i8"> "Farewell, farewell, Granada! thou city without peer!</p> +<p class="i8"> Woe, woe, thou pride of heathendom! seven hundred years and more</p> +<p class="i8"> Have gone since first the faithful thy royal sceptre bore!</p> +<p class="i8"> Thou wert the happy mother of a high-renowned race;</p> +<p class="i8"> Within thee dwelt a haughty line that now go from their place;</p> +<p class="i8"> ..............................................................</p> +<p class="i8"> Here gallants held it little thing for ladies' sake to die, +<p class="i8"> Or for the Prophet's honor and the pride of Soldanry;</p> +<p class="i8"> For here did valor flourish and deeds of warlike might</p> +<p class="i8"> Ennobled lordly palaces in which was our delight.</p> +<p class="i8"> The gardens of thy Vega, its fields and blooming bowers, +<p class="i8"> Woe, woe! I see their beauty gone, and scattered all their flowers!"</p> +</div></div> + +<a name="c12" id="c12"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>XII</h3> + +<h3>WOMEN OF CHINA AND COREA</h3> + +<p>China, once the country of perpetual calm, has in recent years become +the land of magnificent disturbances. Not an unimportant factor in the +changes that have lately taken place in the Flowery Kingdom has been +woman. The influence of the women of the nations is generally +centripetal. Of the peoples of the earth the Chinese would doubtless be +named as altogether the most conservative, and in this conservatism the +Chinese women play a most important part.</p> + +<p>Ancestry worship has marked this people from time immemorial, and if +there be one characteristic of Chinese life stronger than all the rest, +it is that of filial piety. This regard is not taught to end with +childhood, but is to be lasting even in mature manhood. From the +lowliest subject to the emperor himself the rule is imperative. The +latter is father of the people of the realm, and as such is to be +reverenced; he in turn is the son of Heaven. Confucius was careful to +instil into his pupils filial regard--a virtue which the sages before +him had urged upon the people. To such teachings is to be attributed +much that is best in Chinese life.</p> + +<p>Thus the Chinese system is a gigantic patriarchal system with its base +resting on the earth, its head penetrating heaven. Mencius spoke often +and in no uncertain words upon this theme. "Of all that a filial son can +attain to, there is nothing greater than his honoring his parents. Of +what can be attained to in honoring his parents, there is nothing +greater than nourishing them with the whole Empire. To be the father of +the son of Heaven is the highest nourishment." In this may be verified +the sentence in the <i>Book of Poetry</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i20"> "Ever thinking how to be filial,</p> +<p class="i14"> His filial mind was the model which he supplied."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Every department of life is reached by this trait. Someone once asked +Mencius how it was that Shun, an exemplary character of more ancient +days, had married without consulting his parents. For "if the rule be +thus (<i>i.e.</i>, to inform the parents), no one ought to have illustrated +it so well as Shun." To which Mencius replied: "If he had informed them +he would not have been able to marry. That male and female should dwell +together is the greatest of human relations. If Shun had informed his +parents, he would have made void this greatest of human relations, and +incurred thereby their resentment. It was for this reason that he did +not inform them." Thus only did Mencius save the filial character of the +great and good Shun.</p> + +<p>Since social and religious ideals are the most potential in shaping +woman's life among any people, filial piety has naturally held a notable +place in the making of Chinese womanhood, from the earliest period of +Chinese history. Respect for age is, therefore, one of the most eminent +of Chinese virtues. This is shown in innumerable habits of everyday +life. Let a company be walking out together, the eldest will lead the +way, while the others follow on, paired according to their respective +ages.</p> + +<p>The teachings of Confucius have without doubt influenced the thinking +and the conduct of Chinese men in their relations with the female sex; +even though he said little directly about women or their conduct. His +loose ideas as to marriage and the admission of concubinage are among +the blots upon his social teachings. The body of early Chinese +literature gives a most suggestive insight into the ancient ideals +concerning woman; and because of the dreary conservatism of the people +these ideals are still potential.</p> + +<p>The <i>Li Ki</i>, or "Book of Ceremonies," has many bits of counsel which are +intended to regulate the everyday life of the people. Of course, there +is much there concerning the life of woman, of wives, of concubines, of +mothers; concerning betrothal, marriage, domestic and filial duties.</p> + +<p>The Chinese are not usually regarded as a people overflowing with +sentiment; and yet many of their ancient poems are not lacking in +romantic interest. From such effusions as that which exclaims:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "O sweet maiden, so fair and retiring,</p> +<p class="i14"> At the corner, I'm waiting for you,"--</p> +</div></div> + +<p>to deeper meditations upon feminine worth and character, the early +poetry sweeps over quite a wide range of sentimental reflection.</p> + +<p>The <i>Shi King</i>, a collection of Chinese poetry gathered by Confucius, +an anthology of more than three hundred poems, contains some glowing +epithalamia setting forth at length the unmistakable virtues of the +bride. Others of them present the industry of a queen, the charming and +virtuous manners of an admired maiden, or the affection of a spouse. +While still others set forth the feelings of a wife who bewails the +absence of her husband, away in the performance of duty; or, it may be, +of a rejected wife giving forth her bitter plaint. A husband's cruelty +is bemoaned; a woman scorns the praises of an artless lover; or a wife +is consoled by her husband's home-coming.</p> + +<p>These songs, born in the early days of feudalism, when the dukes or +governors of the states would come together to consult with the king +concerning public matters, breathe of a period long past. Among the +officers in attendance on these occasions were the music masters. "Let +me write the songs of the people," one has said, "I care not who makes +their laws." To the music masters was assigned the duty of supervising +the songs in use among the subjects of the realm. The songs approved by +the king's music master were preserved as classics. It was from these +that Confucius selected; and he preserved many in which the Chinese +woman is the motive and inspiration. The ode celebrating the virtue of +King Wan's bride is but one of many such poems giving a good insight +into the ancient attitude of mind toward feminine beauty and virtue, as +well as preserving some of the older customs attending the festal +wedding day:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "The maiden modest, virtuous, coy, is found;</p> +<p class="i14"> Strike every lute, and joyous welcome sound.</p> +<p class="i14"> Ours now the duckweed from the stream we bear</p> +<p class="i14"> And cook to use the other viands rare.</p> +<p class="i14"> He has the maiden, honest, virtuous bright,</p> +<p class="i14"> Let drums and bells proclaim our great delight."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The Chinese drama, a much more modern art--though nothing seems modern +in China--often depicts woman in her best as well as in her less +favorable light. There is present here the true spirit of romance. In +the <i>Sorrows of Han</i>, a historical tragedy setting forth conditions in +the days of effeminacy:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "When love was all an easy monarch's care,</p> +<p class="i14"> Seldom at council--never in a war,"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Lady Chaoukeun, a farmer's daughter, who has been raised to be +Princess of Han, has never yet seen the king's face. She was eighteen +years of age when brought into the royal palace, but by the intrigue of +the prime minister she had been ignored and neglected. Her picture has +been mutilated by the official, not only that he might destroy her +prospects in the royal eye, but also that he might extort money in +selecting other beauties for the palace. Her father, being poor, was +unable to pay the amount exacted. But by chance the king comes upon her +as she plays the lute in the darkness. He, enraptured by the music, asks +to see her. Her beauty at once charms him. He hears the story of her +sadness, and the plot of the minister is made known. The latter is at +once condemned to lose his head. Making his escape, however, he reaches +the camp of the Tartars, who are at this very juncture threatening the +land, and gives himself over to their assistance. Being shown a true +picture of Lady Chaoukeun in all her beauty, the prince of the Tartars +falls desperately in love, and is willing even to offer peace to the +king if he will but give up the beautiful princess. The king, sorrowful, +but unable otherwise to save his land from devastation, delivers over +his wife to the enemy, she herself consenting to be sacrificed that the +kingdom and her husband's dynasty may be preserved. But, faithful in her +love, she is not long in the hand of the Tartar prince. She seizes her +opportunity, and throws herself into the surging river, along which the +Tartar army was camped, and is drowned. When Khan, the Tartar prince, +saw his prize had escaped his grasp, he decides to give back the traitor +minister to King Han for punishment. That very night Han sees his martyr +wife in his dreams. He arises to embrace her, but she is gone again. The +play closes with the order for the beheading of him who has brought upon +the royal house such sorrow.</p> + +<p>Most of the romance in a Chinese woman's life, however, is found in the +books, which tell of the earlier days. The first event in the life of +most women in China, though she does not at the time realize it, is a +sad one. There is usually scant welcome for the girl. Certainly, amidst +the masses of the people, she enters upon a rough and weary way. She is +reared in seclusion and ignorance. Her little brothers, even, are not +her companions. If she should have any association with them, she is +little better than their servant. Her name does not appear upon the +family register, since she is expected to belong to another family when +she is old enough to wed.</p> + +<p>Does one ask of courtship in China? There is no such thing there, +unless bartering by go-betweens could be called by that name. Girls +spend their last days of maidenhood in loud wailing, and their girl +friends come to weep with them. Well may they do this. After marriage, +which is itself a bitter rather than a happy experience for the bride, +they continue a life of worse slavery--slavery abject and heartless--to +women who have been slaves to other women. The mother-in-law in China +rules her daughter-in-law with an iron hand, and the wife's future +depends much more upon the character of the husband's mother than upon +the husband himself. That the coming of girls into the home is not so +welcome an event as that of boys is quite natural, for it is expected +that at about sixteen years of age the girl will become a member of +another family, returning but occasionally to the house of her birth. So +that while a mother's hope of prestige lies in her sons, the ministering +cares which she might expect in duty from her daughter must be tendered +her by the wife of her son rather than by the sympathetic hands of her +daughter, whose attentions must be unremitting to the mother of her own +husband.</p> + +<p>Betrothals are sometimes made in infancy. But since such contracts are +regarded as being quite as binding as a marriage, wisdom usually +dictates a postponement. Girls are therefore usually betrothed a year or +two before marriage, which in most cases occurs at about fifteen years +of age. Among the poorer classes, in order to avoid the expense +ordinarily involved in betrothal, a mother will sometimes buy, or +receive as a gift, an infant girl, who is reared as a wife for her son.</p> + +<p>Marriage, however, in China as elsewhere, is always regarded as a matter +of deep concern in a woman's career. But in China she has little share +in the events which lead up to the wedding day. Proposals of marriage +and the acceptances are often made without either party to the life +union knowing about the transactions. Nor are the experiences of the +nuptial day always joyous to the timid young bride. Up to the time of +her marriage, the girl has spent her days in comparative seclusion. +Thrust now suddenly among strangers, she naturally shrinks with a +feeling almost akin to terror. This ordeal she must face with apparently +little sympathy. Audible comments are made concerning her when she is at +length in the home of her new-found parents, as they give their vivid +impressions of the newcomer. In parts of China at least, it is customary +for the unmarried girls along the route to throw at the passing bride +handfuls, not of rice, but of hayseed or chaff, which, striking upon her +well-oiled black hair, adheres readily and conspicuously. Not only must +the girl be given in marriage by the parents, but the man must let his +parents know of his desire to marry, and get counsel at their hands. In +the sacred <i>Book of Poetry</i> it is expressly written:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "How do we proceed in taking a wife?</p> +<p class="i14"> Announcement must be first made to our parents."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Married women seldom have names of their own. A wife may have two +surnames, that of her husband and that of her mother's family. If she +have a son, she may be called "Mother of So-and-So." Nor is she expected +to speak to others of her husband directly as her husband. She must use +some circumlocution which does not directly state her relation to him.</p> + +<p>Chinese economists might possibly defend polygamy and concubinage on the +ground that these tend to produce a sturdier race than would be +otherwise possible; for the concubines of the wealthier classes are +usually taken from among the stronger working people, whose superior +physical vigor is constantly adding fresh blood to the more delicate +classes. But the moral evils of the system undoubtedly more than +counterbalance any physical advantage that may accrue to society through +its existence.</p> + +<p>The birth of an infant works a marked transformation in a Chinese +woman's life. So long as she is childless, she is expected to serve. +When she becomes a mother, she at once takes up the sceptre. Wives, +therefore, pray to their deities for the coming of a son; and when the +object of their hearts' desire is realized, the delighted parents pay +their devotions to the god who has sent the new joy into their lives. +The sway of the woman over all the household, with the exception of her +liege lord and her sons, is complete. The <i>Shi King</i> puts this in poetic +form in describing the bride's entrance upon her new estate:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Graceful and young the peach-tree stands,</p> +<p class="i14"> Its foliage clustering green and full,</p> +<p class="i14"> This bride to her new home repairs,</p> +<p class="i14"> Her household will attend her rule."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>But remember that first she must become a mother. The brightest feature +in the life of Chinese women, the one thing that brings them most +comfort, is their boys. It is these which most surely lift women into a +position of respect. And this is true, even though, according to the +teaching of China's sages, the mother must be subject to her son as well +as to her husband. "The one bright spot in the lives of Chinese women," +an educated Chinaman has recently said, "is their resignation, their +willingness to endure, to make the best of their circumstances." Indeed, +of the Chinese as a race, this is true, though it is more emphatically +true of the women. Certainly their lot is far harder than that of the +men. From the cradle to the grave, in the view of one from the Occident, +the Chinese woman's way is a dark and cheerless one. Few of the outer +rays of the world's joy penetrate the seclusion of their lives. And +while Chinese girls and women are amply capable of being made the +intellectual and social equals of the opposite sex, the fact is they are +not in any true sense companions of their brothers and husbands.</p> + +<p>It is the lack of training that makes the Chinese woman, as a rule, +uncompanionable. There are exceptions, to be sure. In their present lack +of real preparation for the wider sphere of womanly usefulness, it is +doubtless well that the women have no larger freedom. Wherever the +Western school has gone, however, there has been given to the girls of +China an opportunity for a broader outlook upon life through education +and training.</p> + +<p>"Of all others," says Confucius, in the <i>Analects</i>, "women servants and +men servants are the most difficult people to have the care of. Approach +them in a familiar manner, and they take liberties; keep them at a +distance, and they grumble." These words throw some light, by way of +illustration at least, upon woman's place in China as respects freedom +to mingle with the outside world. The sex probably enjoys as much +liberty as conditions justify. And yet keeping them from the world +without does not tend to develop the most genial temperament; their +faces do not evince cheerfulness or hope.</p> + +<p>What is the attitude of a Chinese husband toward his wife? Of course, +she is regarded as his inferior; and, as a rule, she actually is. +Because of the limitations which from infancy have everywhere been +thrown about her life, it could not be otherwise. When the girls must be +married off to get rid of the craving of another mouth; and when wives +are largely looked upon as but a means of rearing children, that these +may do the pious duties in behalf of the ancestral dead, it could not be +expected that the idea of the equality of the sexes should ever be +conceived.</p> + +<p>In China, as elsewhere in the broad world, wives are often neglected. +From early Chinese literature, as well as from modern life, expressions +of the wife's sad lament are heard. As one of the poets puts it in the +mouth of a neglected spouse, whose husband comes not to her comfort:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Cloudy the sky and dark--the thunders roll;</p> +<p class="i14"> Such outward signs well mark my troubled soul.</p> +<p class="i14"> I wake, and sleep no more comes to my rest,</p> +<p class="i14"> His cause I sad deplore, in anguished breast."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Second marriages, though often made are not highly regarded in China. +Naturally love is less likely to spring up as in the earlier +affiliation. The <i>yengo</i>, a species of wild goose is, among the Chinese, +the emblem of love between the sexes. This bird especially stands for +strong and undying attachment. For it is said that when once its mate is +dead, it never pairs again. For this reason an image of it is worshipped +by the newly married couples of China. There is a popular saying among +the Chinese that a second husband to a second wife are husband and wife +so long as the poor supply holds out. When this fails the partners fly +apart, and self is the care of each. While it would be entirely unjust +not to recognize the presence of genuine love on the part of many a +husband, yet a wife may be handled severely by her spouse if for any +reason he may think her deserving of such treatment. This is more true +of concubines, whose lot is indeed a hard one. Whenever there is in the +household more than one wife, jealousy, bickering, strife, and plotting +are almost certain. The <i>Shi King</i> sets these forth in a little poem on +the jealousy of a wife:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "When the upper robe is green,</p> +<p class="i14"> With a yellow lining seen,</p> +<p class="i14"> There we have a certain token</p> +<p class="i14"> Right is wronged and order broken."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The Chinese have a saying that it is impossible to be more jealous than +a woman; and in the word for "jealous" there is an intended suggestion +of another word of the same sound, but of different intonation, meaning +"poisonous;" which play upon the word reminds one of the remark of the +Hebrew sage that "jealousy is cruel as the grave."</p> + +<p>The wife is not seen upon the streets with her husband. Nor does she, as +a rule, eat with him. After the men of the family have finished their +meals, the women take their turn at the board. Too little is the +sympathy they get in their ailments; for generally scant is the +attention paid to their suffering, and poverty often prevents a +physician's care. Much, too, that goes for healing is hideously cruel +and permeated with the wildest superstition.</p> + +<p>It must seem the grimmest irony in one of Goldsmith's Chinese letters +from his <i>Citizen of the World</i>, when he makes Lien Chi Altangi, while +writing of his purpose to open a school for young women, say: "In this I +intended to instruct the ladies in all the conjugal mysteries; wives +should be taught the art of managing their husbands, and maids the skill +of properly choosing them; I would teach a wife how far she might +venture to be sick without giving disgust; she should be acquainted with +the great benefits of cholic in the stomach, and all the thoroughbred +insolence of fashion; maids should learn the secret of nicely +distinguishing every competitor; they should be able to know the +difference between a pedlar and a scholar, a citizen and a prig, a +squire and his horse, a beau and his monkey; but chiefly they should be +taught the art of managing their smiles, from the contemptuous simper to +the long laborous laugh."</p> + +<p>One of the cornerstones of Confucius's teaching was "reciprocity." But +this doctrine he does not seem to apply to the practical relations of +married life, about which he had little or nothing to say. Suicides of +young wives would be far less frequent in China were this doctrine of +the great lawgiver applied to marital life. A cruel husband may, almost +with perfect impunity, greatly injure his wife, or even kill her, +especially if he can make good a claim before the authorities that she +had been unfilial to <i>his</i> parents.</p> + +<p>The Chinese wife is, of course, not free from the evils of divorce. If +she be guilty of such faults as scolding, disobedience, lasciviousness, +or theft, which is next to murder in its heinousness, or if she be the +victim of such misfortune as leprosy or barrenness, she may be sent back +to her parents, if they be still alive. Among the causes for which +divorce is possible, the failure to bear sons is the first. Widows +sometimes remarry. In some parts of China the <i>suttee</i>, or +"self-immolation," of widows is not unknown, the unfortunate woman being +compelled to strangle herself, after which her body is burned.</p> + +<p>The maternal instincts are seldom stronger than in the attitude toward +the helplessness of infancy; yet, in China infanticide is of +extraordinary prevalence. The greatest danger that besets a Chinese +woman is at her birth. In an already overpopulated country, it is not +strange that the custom of killing the female infant, for whom it is +difficult to provide sustenance, should have gained ground. Besides, +while the congested condition of the population is somewhat relieved by +emigration of the men to other lands, the women do not leave; hence, +there is a tendency toward a surplus of women. It frequently happens +that if a Chinese mother has not yet been blessed with the birth of a +boy, she will destroy her female offspring, with the thought that in +this way she may hope the sooner to bear a son. If, on the other hand, +she has one or more sons, she may allow two or three daughters to live. +After this, many mothers will not hesitate to smother the girls at their +birth. "By the accident of sex," says a recent writer, "the infant is a +family divinity; by the accident of sex, she is a dreaded burden, liable +to be destroyed, and certain to be despised." The Chinese officials have +tried earnestly to break up this frightful custom of infanticide. Books +have been written and circulated condemning the practice. Foundling +hospitals have also been established, in order that this kind of murder +might be checked and the rejected little ones cared for. Stone tablets +have been erected on river banks, by pools, and in places at which the +killing of girls might probably occur, or where their dead bodies are +likely to be deposited. During a period of rebellion, and of dire +poverty, so many desperate mothers throw their babes by the roadside for +the dogs and birds of prey to devour, that "baby towers" were +constructed at certain points, where the tiny dead bodies might be +thrown, to avoid the dangerous offensiveness to the population.</p> + +<p>But if in infancy the girl is not killed, she is allowed to live. Should +pinching poverty come, she may be sold or given away. In some districts +baby merchants are not unknown. When the little girls grow up they +become serviceable in numerous ways in the domestic life; but many of +them are sold to a life of shame.</p> + +<p>A wise Chinese writer, Hwei Kwo, in discussing infanticide among his +people, says: "Before you drown the infants you ought to think, 'I thus +harshly violate propriety. But there are gods above; how can I deceive +them? My ancestors are beside me; how can I present myself before them?' +Before long the babe will call <i>kwa, kwa</i>, and want some nourishment; +before many months she will call <i>ya yah</i>, and begin to talk, first +calling <i>year-niang</i> (father, mother), and walk carefully about your +knees. Before many years she will be helping you in all your hard work, +and when she is married and bears a son, how very pleased you will be. +If you get a good son-in-law, and their children are well to do, how +much admiration and glory. 'If I endure present trouble, I may by and by +eat my daughter's rice.'" But even these low and selfish motives are not +sufficient to destroy the prevalence of infanticide, which is more +particularly practised in southern China. It is almost, if not quite, +unknown in the north.</p> + +<p>Woman's standing before the law in China would not be regarded as high +in a country where woman's rights have been agitated. Her property +rights are practically <i>nil</i>, except as she enjoys them through male +relatives. And yet, with all her limitations, the woman of China is in +some respects in advance of her sisters of many other Oriental lands. +She is not shut up in a harem, as she is in Turkey; she is not bound +down by the harsh caste system, as in India; she is not looked upon as +devoid of spiritual existence, as in Burmah; she is not degraded by the +curse of polyandry, as in Thibet. In no Eastern land, with the exception +of Japan, has woman a better opportunity to exert power and develop +character than in China.</p> + +<p>The dress of Chinese women might be thought by women of some other +lands to be lacking in beauty and grace; and yet, it is in many respects +highly sensible, being at least modest, healthful, and economical. It +hides the contour of the person effectually, and this, among the +Chinese, is its chief design. Being loose, it gives full play to the +vital parts, as well as to the limbs, and the same thickness of +materials prevails over the whole body. There is no waste in the +cutting, and no unnecessary ornaments or appendages, eight yards of +yard-wide goods being sufficient for a complete set of winter garments. +The mental worry that comes to the woman of the West in selecting +patterns, in cutting, and in fitting, is all done away with in China, +since the Chinese lady always selects the same pattern,--or has had it +selected for her by her great-grandmother,--and there is little need for +fitting. Figures that would look unattractive in Western attire can wear +the Chinese dress without disadvantage. Some have attributed the great +age to which Chinese women so frequently attain--notwithstanding the +often unsanitary condition of their homes, often floorless and +windowless--to the hygienic character of their clothing. The winter +clothes in the more northerly sections are padded garments that appear, +to be sure, rather clumsy and uncomfortable. The use of woolen +underclothing does not prevail. These padded garments hang about the +body like bags; and sometimes when children fall down they are utterly +unable to rise without assistance. It is needless to say that woman's +winter attire is by no means graceful or convenient. If even the men do +not use pockets,--which conveniences seem to a Westerner so +indispensable,--it may be surmised that the women have no such +contrivances in their dress. The ordinary costume of a woman consists of +two garments. The upper one appears very much like an American lady's +dressing-sack, only somewhat longer, with flowing sleeves, and is quite +loose fitting, the fastenings being along a curve from the neck to +beneath the right arm, and then in a straight line down that side. The +lower garment is a pair of loose trousers. There is little or no +difference in the style of the outer and inner garments, more or fewer +being worn according to the state of the weather. A skirt is seldom worn +in the Canton section, except by a bride at the time of her marriage. +This custom, however, varies in different sections of China. In +Shanghai, women are seldom seen without skirts. Notwithstanding the +sameness and similarity of cut in Chinese costume, the quality of beauty +is not entirely forgotten. A Chinese gentleman, when asked what things +the Chinese women most delight in, replied: "First, beautiful clothes +and ornaments with which to make themselves attractive. Secondly, to +live in idleness. Thirdly, to have servants to wait upon them." The +remark would suggest moral weakness which is, alas! far too common. +Tsq-hia once asked Confucius what inference might be drawn from the +often quoted lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Dimples playing in witching smile,</p> +<p class="i16"> Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright.</p> +<p class="i14"> O, and her face may be thought the while,</p> +<p class="i16"> Colored by art, red rose on white."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>To which the teacher replied: "Coloring requires a pure and clear +background." This was the great master's way of emphasizing character as +a necessary accompaniment of true beauty. But this ideal is largely +forgotten.</p> + +<p>The custom of binding the feet is not so common as is often supposed. +There are many localities in which the habit is almost universal; while +in many sections, especially in the agricultural districts, the feet of +the women are of normal growth. In the sections and among the classes in +which this fashion prevails, the early suffering, as well as the later +inconvenience, is intense. The Chinese woman, however, does not +emphasize the importance of convenience as would her practical sister of +the West; the suffering they bear with much resignation. Various +explanations are given of the origin of foot binding. Some accounts +state that it arose from a desire thereby to remove the reproach of the +club feet of a popular empress; others hold that it sprang from a great +admiration for delicate feet and an attempt to imitate them; others +claim that it was imposed by husbands to keep their wives from gadding. +Still other accounts say that the Emperor Hau Chu, of the Chan dynasty, +in A.D. 583, ordered his concubines to bind their feet small enough to +cover a golden lily at each step. He had golden lilies made and +scattered about for them to walk upon when they were playing before him. +The admirers of the ruler imitated the practice, and so it spread. This +seems to be the most probable explanation, as the expression <i>kam-lin</i>, +literally "golden lilies," meaning "ladies' small feet," and <i>lin-po</i>, +literally "a lily step," meaning "a lady's gait," are in common use +to-day. In the beginning, the feet were not bound so early nor so +tightly as to-day, and the custom now varies greatly in different parts +of the empire. The present, the Manchu government, has made efforts to +prevent the practice of foot binding among the people, but with little +or no success. The Manchus do not practise it themselves, and they are +powerless to prevent it. As the Chinese sometimes say: "Fashion is +stronger than the emperor."</p> + +<p>The Chinese find it difficult to understand the freedom of intercourse +which characterizes the sexes in the West. They regard such social +freedom as being difficult to harmonize with modesty and morality. As a +rule, Chinese women are modest and chaste. But it is thought that these +are best assured by restricting their social freedom. On the streets the +women, with the exception of the lewd, appear with becoming modesty and +decorum. Notwithstanding the advantage that must come from the limiting +of woman's sphere of influence, examples are not wanting in which +Chinese women have exerted their native powers to a conspicuous degree +in moulding the history of their times.</p> + +<p>Through the isolation of the women, they become naturally more +superstitious than the men; and, as might be surmised, the former are +the stronghold of the ancient religious faiths of the Chinese. And yet +none of the ancient religions nor the philosophies of the country have +done much to elevate the feminine half of the nation. The best the +Buddhist priest can hold out to the pious woman is the hope that in the +next transmigration her soul may be born a man's.</p> + +<p>Some women of the Celestial Empire have held commanding positions of +political influence. Whether a woman might occupy an influential place +in the management of Chinese public affairs has depended somewhat upon +the character of the ruling dynasty. And while queens are not possible +in China, because sons alone may hold the sceptre, women have been known +to exert such influence in the matter of government as to be practically +supreme. There have been a number of cases of empresses regent. There +were two such instances during the Ming dynasty which were quoted as +justifying a more recent regency that has been one of the most +remarkable on record in any land. When the Emperor Hien-fung died on +August 22, 1861, his son Chiseang, then but six years of age, was +proclaimed emperor in his stead, under a regency composed of eight men. +By a bold <i>coup d'état</i>, Prince Kung, brother of Hien-fung, succeeded, +by the aid of the army, in driving this regency from power and in +proclaiming a new one composed of two empresses: Tsi An, the principal +wife of the late Hien-fung, and Tszu-Hszi, the mother of the young +emperor. Neither of these royal women knew the Manchu language, and +Prince Kung was the power behind them, and was rewarded with the post of +prime minister under the two empresses. It was not long, however, before +an edict was issued degrading the prince, whose growing power and +arrogance the empresses feared. And just here emerges the evidence that +the prince was dealing with one of the most astute and aggressive women +of the world, Tszu-Hszi, a woman who has compelled the world to reckon +with her presence for half a century.</p> + +<p>It is true that when the young emperor had reached the age of sixteen, +and had been married about four months, the empresses, no longer able to +present excuses for not doing so, issued a decree bestowing upon +Chiseang, now called Tungche, the right to assume the management of the +affairs of state. But his reign was brief, for after about three years, +as it is said, he "ascended upon the Dragon to be a guest on high." Many +suspected foul play, but certain it is that the outcome inured to the +advantage of the two empresses. That which was more ugly still was the +treatment of the young Empress Ahluta, wife of the late ruler. On the +death of her husband she was about to give birth to a child. The +empresses, however, saw their opportunity as well as their danger. For +if Ahluta's child should be a son, not only would he be the legal ruler, +but the mother herself would at once assume a prominent place in the +government. Ahluta must be set aside. Soon she sickened--some said +because of her grief for her husband, while others knew of the +determination of the empresses to retain power at all hazards. Who then +should be chosen heir to the throne? The empresses selected Tsai Tien, a +son of Prince Chun, brother of the powerful Kung. The latter was again +in complete control, by the grace of the two astute and ambitious women +whose minds were firmly set upon retaining rule at whatever cost. The +fortunate, or unfortunate, young man who had been made nominal emperor, +not by inheritance, but by selection, was given the style of Kwang-su, +or "Illustrious Succession." The way in which Tszu-Hszi, empress +dowager, has been able to be the controlling factor in Chinese national +life, crushing rivals, winning the support of politicians, and carrying +out policies, is one of the wonders of modern political history. This +seems the more remarkable in a country where women are generally forced +to the background, and in an age in which tumultuous scenes and grave +upheavals have been many.</p> + +<p>The head of the army of the United States was not far from the truth +when he pronounced the Empress-dowager of China, not even excepting the +great and good Victoria, as altogether the ablest woman of the century.</p> + +<p>Contiguous in territory and closely related in manners and customs to +the Chinese are the Coreans. The Corean ruler, though in his own country +an absolute monarch, was for several centuries a vassal of the Chinese +Empire, and the educated class continue to employ the Chinese language +in literary and social intercourse. In 1894, Corea having repudiated the +suzerainty of China, war ensued between Japan and China, and as a result +Corea has since been largely under Japanese influence.</p> + +<p>The native Coreans fondly call their country "the Land of the Morning +Calm." Its people are of the Mongolian type, and are therefore closely +allied in sympathy to the Chinese and Japanese, with whom they have had +social and political kinship and contact from time out of mind. The +moral status of the women may be surmised when it is remembered that +woman is regarded as without moral existence. It is not to be +understood, however, that she has no name. When a very little girl, she +receives a temporary surname by which she is known to her relatives and +intimate friends. When she reaches the age of puberty, this appellation +is no longer used by her friends. When she marries, her parents cease to +call her by her childhood's name. She is now known to them by the name +of the district into which she has married. Her husband's parents, +however, speak of her as the woman of the place from which she came.</p> + +<p>In Corea there is no family life in our true sense of that term, for the +men and the women live in separate apartments. The husband is seldom +seen in conversation with his wife, whom he looks upon as absolutely +beneath him. The male and the female children are separated. When they +reach the age of nine or ten years the girls are sent to the women's +apartments; the boys take refuge with the men. The boys must not set +foot upon the territory assigned to the women, and the girls learn that +it is disgraceful to be looked upon by members of the opposite sex; so +they hide at the approach of a boy or a man.</p> + +<p>The Corean women have little or no legal standing. They are absolutely +in the power of their husbands, who may not sell them, however, nor +should their lords be <i>too</i> brutal. Percival Lowell, in his <i>Land of the +Morning Calm</i>, puts it strongly when he says: "Mentally, morally, and +socially, she (the Corean woman) is a cipher." But there are exceptions. +In fact, we are not to infer that throughout the entire Orient the +subjection of women is universally so complete as it is sometimes +pictured by writers upon the social life of the East. Campbell, in his +<i>Journey through Corea</i>, gives the following incident, showing how women +may be very influential at times: "To make matters worse, the head man +upon whom I had relied for assistance in hiring the men I wanted was +absent, but his wife proved a capable substitute and seemed to fill her +husband's place with unquestioned authority. Between bullying and +coaxing, she rapidly pressed twenty reluctant men into service. The +subjection of women, which is probably the covenant of accepted theories +in the East, receives a fresh blow in my mind. Women in these parts of +the world, if the truth were known, fill a higher place and wield a +greater influence than they are credited with." Nor is it to be supposed +that there is no respect shown to the women of Corea. The men give them +at least an outward show of deference. They will step aside to allow a +woman to pass in the street, regardless of her social position, and the +ladies are often addressed in phrases of a most polite character. +Children are taught respect for their mother, though they are enjoined +to give more to the father. When a mother dies, her children are +expected to mourn at least two years; for the father the period is +longer. Someone has said that "there are three classes of Corean women; +first, there are the invisible,--those who are always in their +apartments, or, when out of them, ride in a closed palanquin. Second, +are the visible invisible, who, possessing less wealth, must walk when +they go out upon the streets, and yet are seen only as a mass of +clothing moving before the eye. Third, there are the invisible visible +class, the poor, who are seen, to be sure, but not noticed,--working +women, whom etiquette prevents one from seeing."</p> + +<p>The women's apartments do not greatly differ from the zenanas of India. +In the interior of their apartments, screened as far as possible from +publicity, the unmarried women may receive their parents and friends, +with whom they chat and gossip upon matters of common interest, or while +away the hours with games. After marriage, the confinement becomes still +more secure, and the woman is inaccessible. "So strict is the rule," +says Griffis, "that fathers have on occasions killed their daughters, +husbands, their wives, and wives have committed suicide, when strangers +have touched them even with their fingers." Woe unto the Corean wife who +is not above suspicion in the eyes of her husband.</p> + +<p>In the "Hermit Nation" one is accounted a boy until he is married, no +matter what his age may be; but public sentiment prevents a young man +from remaining long without a spouse to enrich, or at least to share, +his life. The woman is a child till she is married, and sometimes long +afterward.</p> + +<p>The women of Corea usually marry outside of the village in which they +are brought up. They have nothing whatever to do with the match that is +to be made. Negotiations are carried on by the parents and a middle man. +The bride, indeed, must be silent all through the nuptial ceremony. The +marriage festival and the funeral are the two great events in Corean +social life. When the festivities of the wedding are at an end the bride +is conducted to her husband's home--in a palanquin, if the parties be +well to do; on horseback, if they be poor.</p> + +<p>There is but one true, or legal wife, but often many concubines, the +number being determined largely by the wealth of the husband. Children +of the true wife are the legitimate heirs. The other children, though +not disgraced by their position, have no legal standing as regards the +matter of inheritance. Children of concubines, however, may be +legitimized, in case there are no lawful descendants.</p> + +<p>The following interesting story, taken from Ballet's <i>History of the +Church in Corea</i>, will not only illustrate certain customs in Corea, but +show upon what a low plane the marriage relation moves in the Hermit +Nation: "A noble wished to marry his own daughter and that of his +deceased brother to eligible young men. Both maidens were of the same +age. He wished to wed both well, but especially his own child. With this +idea in view he had already refused some good offers; finally he made a +proposal to a family noted alike for pedigree and riches. After +hesitating for some time which of the maidens he would dispose of first, +he finally decided in favor of his own child. Three days before the +ceremony he learned from the diviner that the young man chosen was +silly, exceedingly ugly and very ignorant. What should he do? He could +not retreat. He had given his word. In such a case the law is +inexorable. On the day of the marriage he appeared in the woman's +apartments and gave orders in the most imperative manner, that his niece +and not his daughter should don the marriage coiffure and the wedding +dress and mount the nuptial platform. His stupefied daughter could not +but acquiesce. The two cousins being about the same height, the +substitution was easy, and the ceremony proceeded according to the usual +forms. The new bridegroom passed the afternoon in the men's apartments, +where he met his supposed father-in-law. What was the amazement of the +old noble to find that far from being stupid and ugly, as depicted by +the diviner, that the young man was good-looking, well formed, +intelligent, highly connected, and amiable in manners. Bitterly +regretting the loss of so accomplished a son-in-law, he determined to +replace the girl. He secretly ordered that instead of his niece, his +daughter should be introduced as the bride. He knew well that the young +man would suspect nothing, for during the salutations the brides are +always so muffled up with dresses and loaded with ornaments that it is +impossible to distinguish their countenance. All happened as the old man +desired. During the two or three days which he passed with the new +family, he congratulated himself upon having so excellent a son-in-law. +The latter, on his part, showed himself more and more charming, and so +gained the heart of his supposed father-in-law, that in a burst of +confidence, the latter revealed to him all that had happened. He told of +the diviner's report concerning him, and the successive substitutions of +niece for daughter and daughter for niece. The young man was at first +speechless, then recovering his composure said: 'All right! and that is +a very smart trick on your part. But it is clear that both of the young +persons belong to me, and I claim them. Your niece is my lawful wife, +since she has made to me the legal salute, and your daughter, introduced +by yourself into my marriage, has become of right and law my concubine.' +The crafty old man caught in his own net had nothing to answer. The two +young women were conducted to the house of the new husband and master, +and the old noble was jeered by both parties for his folly and his bad +faith."</p> + +<p>As in other parts of the Far East, the life of widows is exceedingly +harsh. They may not marry again. Indeed, second marriages are never +looked upon with favor, except among people of the lower classes who +generally disregard the etiquette and ideas which prevail among the +nobles and the rich who imitate them. A widow of high standing is +expected to show grief for her husband not only by weeping over his +death, but by wearing mourning as long as she lives; and children of +widows born after widowhood are looked upon as illegitimate. Often, +however, being debarred from lawful marriage, widows become victims of +lust and violence. If, however, they are determined upon preserving +chastity, they will frequently resort to suicide if their virtue be +threatened. The method of self-slaughter among women is cutting their +throat, or piercing the heart.</p> + +<p>Like most women of the world, dress plays no unimportant part in the +Corean woman's life. There is probably no part of her toilet upon which +she bestows more zealous regard than upon her hair. Generally the +natural growth is insufficient to suit her ideals of beauty, and so +false hair is used in profusion. Corean women do not attend the +banquets. These are for men alone.</p> +<a name="c13" id="c13"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>XIII</h3> + +<h3>UNDER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS</h3> + +<h3>THE WOMEN OF JAPAN</h3> + +<p>No woman of the Orient has in recent years enlisted so much of the +world's attention as the woman of Japan. This interest has bordered upon +real fascination. If the comparative alertness of mind has caused the +Japanese men to be called the "Oriental Yankees," the attractiveness of +the women might give them the right to be compared to the "Southern +Beauties." They have been much written about and the world has read of +them with keen appreciation.</p> + +<p>Japanese civilization is comparatively modern. The islands owe much to +Corea and China for the development of their letters and the refinement +of their social life. Their alertness of mind and receptivity of +character mark them among all the peoples of the Mongolian stock. This +flexibility of temperament is no less true of the women than of the men, +and it is partly these mental traits which give to the Japanese their +attractiveness.</p> + +<p>The women of the several strata of society present marked differences +in Japan, as in other countries. This was more true in the days of +feudalism, when the lines were more rigidly defined than now; though the +influences of the feudal system are still perceptible and will long +endure. But the women of court and castle, the women of the military +class, and the women of the shop and of the soil, with all that was +nationally common, lived a very different order of life. These +differences are inevitable and, of course, abiding.</p> + +<p>The chief glory of every Japanese woman is in becoming the mother of +sons. And while daughters are not unwelcome, as is the case among some +Oriental people, yet their birth is never so much the cause of rejoicing +as is the coming of boys into the world. On the occasion of such an +advent, messengers fly, notes are sent by friends, and all friends and +relatives must visit the new arrival in the home. The visitor who brings +his congratulations, must add to them toys, articles of dress, and the +like--besides the dried fish or the eggs for good luck. The poor mother +must well-nigh tax her already weakened strength to the very limit of +physical endurance in receiving visitors and their congratulations. It +is the father, or some chosen friend, who selects the newcomer's name, +and if it be a girl, that of some attractive object in nature is usually +chosen, it not being regarded as specially appropriate or as involving +any compliment to name a child for a friend or loved one. This duty of +naming the child occurs on the seventh day, and on the thirteenth, it is +carried to the temple and placed under the special guardianship of some +deity. After this the little one becomes accustomed to the ordinary +routine of eating, sleeping, and crying. Very soon it may be seen on the +streets and in public places strapped to the back of an older sister, or +it may be a brother; and it is not long before the babies themselves are +interested in the play of the older children, to whose backs they are +securely fastened.</p> + +<p>As our little girl emerges from babyhood she finds the life opening +before her a bright and happy one, but one hedged about by proprieties, +and one in which from babyhood to old age, she must expect to be always +under the control of one of the stronger sex. Her position will be an +honored and respected one only as she learns in her youth the lesson of +cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners, and of personal cleanliness and +neatness. Her duties must always be either within the house, or, if she +belongs to the peasant class, on the farm. There is no career or +vocation open to her: she must be always dependent upon either father, +husband, or son, and her greatest happiness is to be gained not by the +cultivation of the intellect, but by the early acquisition of the +self-control which is expected of all Japanese women to even a greater +degree than of the men. This self-control must consist not simply in the +concealment of all outward signs of any disagreeable emotion,--whether +of grief, anger, or pain,--but in the assumption of a cheerful smile and +an agreeable manner under even the most distressing circumstance. The +duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls of the family from +the tenderest years; it is their great moral lesson and is expatiated +upon at all times by their elders. The little girl must sink herself +entirely, must give up always to others, must never show emotions except +such as will be pleasing to others about her; this is the secret of true +politeness and must be mastered if the woman wishes to be well thought +of and to lead a happy life. The effect of this teaching is seen in the +attractive, but dignified manners of the Japanese women,--even of the +very little girls. They are not forward or pushing, neither are they +awkwardly bashful; there is no self-consciousness, neither is there any +lack of <i>savoir faire</i>; a childlike simplicity is united with a womanly +consideration for the comfort of those around them. A Japanese child +seems to come into the world with little savagery and barbarian bad +manners, and the first ten or fifteen years of its life do not seem to +be passed in one long struggle to acquire a coating of good manners that +will help to render it less obnoxious in polite society. How much of the +politeness of the Japanese is inherited from generations of civilized +ancestors, it is difficult to tell; but my impression is that babies are +born into the world with a good start in the matter of manners, and that +the uniformly gentle and courteous treatment they receive from those +about them, together with the continual verbal teaching of the principle +of self-restraint and thoughtfulness of others, produce with very little +difficulty the irresistibly attractive manners of the people.</p> + +<p>One curious thing in a Japanese household is to see the formalities that +pass between brothers and sisters, and the respect paid to age by every +member of the family. The grandmother and grandfather come first of all +in everything--no one at table must be helped before them in any case; +after them come father and mother; and lastly, the children according to +their ages. A young sister must always wait for the elder and pay her +due respect, even in the matter of walking into the room before her. The +wishes and convenience of the elder, rather than of the younger, are to +be consulted in everything, and this lesson must be learned early by +children. The difference in years may be slight, but the elder born has +the first right in all cases. Etiquette, procedure, and self-control +among the Japanese girls are the most important of the influences +shaping a Japanese woman's life.</p> + +<p>Considerable respect is shown to the girl of the family by her +brothers. The native and conventional politeness of the Japanese shows +itself even in the names by which the children address one another. The +parents may leave off the appellatives of respect, but brothers, +sisters, and servants must treat the young lady with dignity, especially +if she be the eldest daughter.</p> + +<p>What preparation does the Japanese girl have for her position in the +social fabric of her people? Fortunately for her, there is some effort +made to fit her for her future duties. Quite early the daughter of a +household begins to feel the responsibilities of home cares. Even those +families which are able to provide ample domestic service will give to +the daughter of the household the duty of making the tea and of serving +it to the guests with her own hands. This is regarded as of greater +honor to the visitor than if a servant had performed the task. The +eldest girl of the family must learn to act in the place of the parents, +should a visitor appear in their absence, or when the younger children +need the care and oversight of an elder. In such matters as sweeping the +rooms, preparing the meals, washing the dishes, purchasing viands, and +sewing, the Japanese girl finds ample scope for a practical education to +make her ready for the exactions of the life of a housekeeper when she +herself shall become a wife and mother.</p> + +<p>Besides these practical duties in which the girl is early trained, +there is education in simpler mathematics and, to a degree, in +literature and the art of poetry. She is expected to be familiar with +the classical poetry of her country, more particularly the choice short +poems, which are well known to both young and old Japanese. Education, +in the stricter sense of the term, is on the increase among the girls of +Japan, as well as among the boys and young men. Besides native schools, +schools for the education of Japanese girls have been established by +missionaries from Christian countries. And even higher education is +making rapid strides, as is seen in the Kobe College for Women. But the +advance of the state or public education during the past decade or more +renders the foreign schools less necessary; and the private teacher, to +whom the girls of the better families were formerly invariably sent, is +gradually yielding to the larger school. And it may be said that to-day +the girls are provided for, educationally, equally with the boys. Japan +has made wonderful strides in educational matters, being receptive of +new ideas concerning the common schools; but there are adjustments that +must be made to the social ideals and customs of the people, because of +the rise of the new education. Among these there is probably none more +difficult and perplexing than that which grows out of the need of +adapting the old ideas of early marriage for the daughter of a family to +the growing demands and the enlarged opportunities for female education.</p> + +<p>The Japanese girl has better opportunity to experience the pleasurable +side of life than have girls of most Oriental lands. Her recreations are +more numerous and varied. Among them are the annual festivals, such as +the Japanese New Year, the several flower fêtes, and, above all, the +Feast of Dolls, which has been thus interestingly described: "The feast +most loved in all the year is the Feast of Dolls, when on the third day +of the third month the great fireproof storehouse gives forth its +treasures of dolls--in an old family, many of them hundreds of years +old--and for three days, with all their belongings of tiny furnishings +in silver lacquer and porcelain, they reign supreme, arranged on +red-covered shelves in the finest room in the house. Most prominent +among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor and Empress in antique +court costume, seated in dignified calm, each on a lacquered dais. Near +them are the figures of the five court musicians, in their robes of +office, each with his instrument. Besides these dolls, which are always +present and form the central figures of the feast, numerous others more +plebeian, but more lovable, find places on the lower shelves, and the +array of dolls' furnishings which is brought out on these occasions is +something marvellous. Before Emperor and Empress is set an elegant +lacquered service, tray, bowls, cups, <i>saké</i> pots, rice buckets, etc., +all complete, and in each utensil is placed the appropriate variety of +food. Fine silver and brass <i>hibachi</i>, or fire-boxes, are there with +their accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets--whole kitchens, with +everything required for cooking the finest of Japanese feasts, as finely +made as if for actual use; all the necessary toilet apparatus--combs, +mirrors, utensils for blackening the teeth, for shaving the eyebrows, +for reddening the lips and whitening the face--all these are there to +delight the souls of all the little girls who may have the opportunity +to behold them. For three days the imperial effigies are served +sumptuously at each meal, and the little girls of the family take +pleasure in serving the imperial majesties; but when the feast ends, the +dolls and their belongings are packed away in their boxes, and lodged in +the fireproof warehouse for another year."</p> + +<p>Besides the special festivals and holidays, there is opportunity all +the year round for the little girls to play their merry games of ball +and battledoor and shuttlecock, which they do with keen delight and with +much grace of movement. The tales of wonder which are told them are a +perpetual source of pleasure; for they have their <i>Jack, the Giant +Killer</i>, in <i>Momotaro, the Peach Boy</i>, with his wondrous conquests, and +many other tales to kindle their youthful imaginations. Among these are +the early ancestral exploits, which tend to keep alive love of country. +The Japanese girl may be seen occasionally in the theatre, seated on the +floor with her mother and sisters, taking into her memory impressions of +heroism and self-sacrifice, through the historical dramas which present +the early experiences of patriotism and passion which characterized the +fathers of old. Thus, the Japanese girl grows up to womanhood and is a +finished product five or six years earlier than is an English or +American girl. At sixteen or eighteen she is regarded as quite ready +herself to take up the active duties of life.</p> + +<p>The preparation given to the girls of Japan has been justly criticised +in that, while furnishing the future woman with remarkable powers of +observation and of memory, with much tactfulness and æsthetic taste, +with deftness and agility of the fingers, there is little to strengthen +the powers of reason and to cultivate the religious and spiritual side +of the nature. Music is almost the sole possession of women, and many of +them play the <i>koto</i> (a stringed instrument with horizontal sounding +boards, not unlike the piano in principle) and the <i>samisen</i>, or +"Japanese guitar," with great grace of touch and manner, but with little +music, as adjudged by the Occidental ear;--however, standards differ. +So, too, the artistic arrangement of flowers is an art much loved by the +women of Japan. Their education and their daily occupation tend to +cultivate the emotional at the expense of the intellectual side of life. +Hence, much refinement but less strength, and the best and cleverest +women of Japan, therefore, are attractive rather than admirable.</p> + +<p>The diminutive size of the Japanese women, their pretty hands and feet, +their taste in ornamenting shapely bodies, give them a personal +attractiveness rarely surpassed. To what an extent the lowness of +stature among the Japanese is to be attributed to their habits cannot be +determined. It is the shortness of the lower limbs that is chiefly at +fault; and the habit, early contracted, of sitting upon the legs bent +horizontally at the knee, instead of vertically, inevitably arrests the +development of the lower limbs.</p> + +<p>The Japanese women have luxuriant, straight, black hair. The wavy hair +which Western women prize so highly is not beautiful in the eyes of the +ladies of Japan. Curly hair is to them positively ugly. They spend much +care upon the arrangement of their tresses, and their mode of +hairdressing is elaborate. Even the women of the poorer classes will +visit the hairdressers. The locks are first treated with a preparation +of oil, and then done up in the conventional style so familiar to all +from pictures of Japanese women. This is expected with many to remain +intact for six or eight days.</p> + +<p>At present the modes of dressing the hair of female children and growing +girls, as well as of married women, vary according to taste and +circumstances. In ancient days, however,--and the custom still prevails +in some of the more conservative regions,--the hair of the female +children was cut short at the neck and allowed to hang down loosely till +the girl reached the age of eight years. At about twelve or thirteen, +the hair was usually bound up, although frequently this was delayed till +the girl became a wife. In the romantic poem of Mushimaro, <i>The Maiden +of Unahi</i>, we find this custom referred to, as well as the custom of +secluding the young girl from the eyes of her would-be suitors:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "For they locked her up as a child of eight,</p> +<p class="i16"> When her hair hung loosely still;</p> +<p class="i14"> And now her tresses were gathered up,</p> +<p class="i16"> To float no more at will."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>As a rule, the women wear no head covering whatever, except that which +their luxuriant hair furnishes. In the coldest weather, however, they +wrap the head gracefully in a headgear of cloth. Gloves are rarely seen +upon the dainty hands of the women, and shoes are worn only when out of +doors.</p> + +<p>The costume of the Japanese women was, and in great measure still is, +marked by simplicity and sameness of cut. There is no variation of +style--fond as the women of the country are of dress. In the material +used and in the color, however, they have ample scope for the display of +their exquisite taste, their individuality, and their wealth. The age of +the woman may aiso be determined with considerable accuracy by her +manner of dress, for a Japanese woman has no sensitiveness on this +score. The girl baby is clothed "in the brightest colors, and largest of +patterns, and looks like a gay butterfly or a tropical bird. As she +grows older, colors become quieter, figures smaller, stripes narrower, +until in old age she becomes a little gray moth, or a plain-colored +sparrow." The hair and head ornaments also vary with the age of the +wearer; so that one who is acquainted with the Japanese mode can read +the age of his lady friend within a few years, at most. The V-neck is +the uniform fashion in Japan, and when a woman of the better classes is +properly clothed in her native costume she presents a most graceful and +attractive appearance. When appropriate, she wears a sort of cloak +fastened with a cord, and the familiar <i>kimono</i> made without any plaits, +lapped over in front and confined with a broad sash which is looped in a +big bunch at the back to conceal the plainness of the <i>kimono</i>. This +sash, or <i>obi</i>, and the collar, or <i>eri</i>, are usually of the finest silk +the women can afford, and are altogether the gayest portion of the +habit. When a Japanese woman is at her best, she may be imagined to have +just stepped from a group painted upon some artistic fan, especially +when in the hands are the umbrella and the lantern. The women of the +poorer classes, however, are often meagrely clad--sometimes too scantily +so for decency. They peddle their wares or work in the fields, barefoot +and almost naked. The shoes of a Japanese lady are so constructed that +they may be easily taken off before entering the house, as is the +custom. There is first put on a short stocking, or <i>tabi</i>, which reaches +a little above the ankle and fastens in the back. This is made after the +fashion of a mitten, that the great toe may be separate from the others; +for a cord is to pass between the toes to hold in the <i>geta</i>, or +"shoes." There are several styles of these; some are partly of leather, +to cover the toes on rainy days; some are merely straw sandals; while +others are of wood, which are clumsy and lift the feet quite above the +ground, and when worn make much noise along the streets.</p> + +<p>In Japan, the disgrace of not being married does not arrive so early in +the young girl's life, as is the case in some countries of the East. And +yet, even here it will not do for a woman to wait until the age of +twenty-five without having made her peace with the god of matrimony. +Usually, however, marriage, which to a Japanese woman is almost as much +a matter of course as death itself, comes at the age of sixteen or +eighteen. Here, too, the girl of the land of the Cherry Blossom is given +more freedom of choice as respects the question who her life partner +shall be than is generally true in the East; but marry she must. The +inevitable Eastern "go-between" is of value here. The first steps in +Japanese courting are undertaken by him in consultation with the parents +of the girl who it is thought will make the inquiring young man happy. +Opportunity is given, at the home of some mutual friend, for the couple +to meet and pass upon each other's qualities. If there is mutual +admiration, or, indeed, if the young people find no reason why they +should not be joined in marriage, the engagement present, a piece of +silk, used for the girdle by the groomsman, is given, and finally +arrangements are made for the wedding.</p> + +<a name="ill6" id="ill6"></a> +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/006.png"><br> +<b><i>WOMAN'S TASTE IN JAPAN<br> +After the water-color by Charles E. Fripp</i></b></p> +<blockquote> +<b><i>There is no variation of style--fond as the women are +of dress. In the material used and in the color, however, they have +ample scope for the display of their exquisite taste, their +individuality, and their wealth. The age of the woman may also be +determined with considerable accuracy by her manner of dress, for a +Japanese woman has no sensitiveness on this score. The girl baby is "in +the brightest colors. As she grows older, colors become quieter, figures +smaller." The hair and head ornaments vary with the age of the wearer. +The V-neck is the uniform fashion in Japan, and when a woman of the +better classes is properly clothed in her native costume she presents a +most graceful and attractive appearance.</i></b></blockquote> + +<p>The marriage ceremony is not at the home of the bride, but at the house +of the groom, to which the bride is taken, her belongings, such as her +bureau, writing desk, bedding, trays, dining tables, chopsticks, etc., +having gone before. The giving of presents is often profuse. But it is +not the bride and groom alone who are remembered; the groom's family, +from the oldest to the youngest, the servants, even the humblest, are +presented with gifts by the members of the bride's family. The gifts to +the newly wedded pair are often very practical, consisting of silk for +clothing or of articles of household use; and it is not uncommon for a +bride to receive dress goods enough to last her her lifetime. The +ceremony itself is simple and impressive. Friends and relatives +generally are not present. The bride and groom are there, of course; +besides these are the go-betweens of the couple, and a young girl, whose +duty it is to take the cup of <i>saké</i>, or native wine of Japan, and press +it successively to the lips of the contracting parties, emblematic of +the coming joys and sorrows of their common married life. The wedding +guests, who have been waiting in the next room, now appear with their +congratulations, and merriment and feasting follow. On the third day +after the marriage, the bride's parents must give to the couple another +wedding feast. At this the bride's relatives receive presents in return +for the large number of gifts sent by them on the wedding day to the +household of the groom. Announcement of the marriage is not sent out +until two or three months later; it is then made in the form of an +invitation, sent out by the bride and groom, to an entertainment at +their house. Acknowledgments of the bridal presents sent by friends +must, of course, be made. This is done in sending to those who remember +the young pair gifts of <i>kawaméshi</i>, or "red rice."</p> + +<p>It will be seen that there is in the conduct of a wedding in Japan +neither legal nor religious sanction. The only prescribed formality is +the erasure of the bride's name from the register of her father's family +and its insertion in that of the husband's. She is no longer a part of +the genealogical tree. She lives with and is a part of the groom's +household. The exception to the custom is found in the <i>yoshii</i>, or +"young man," who becomes a part of his wife's family, taking her family +name and repudiating his own. This is done when in a family there are no +boys who may inherit the estate and name. Some youth is then found, +usually a younger member of a household, who can be induced to leave his +heritage and unite himself with a brotherless daughter of another house. +He cuts himself off absolutely from his own people and raises up heirs +for his wife's people. But he has not the standing and authority of the +woman's husband, for he becomes the servant of his mother-in-law, and +may be sent back to his people if he does not conduct himself in a way +acceptable to his wife's family; or if they should weary of his +presence. Ordinarily, children are scarcely regarded as of the mother at +all--the blood is all the father's. The low social standing of the +mother in no way impairs the rank or respectability of the children. The +past few decades have witnessed many notable changes in Japan, and there +is a reaching out after legislation that shall make the marriage +relation more satisfactory and permanent, for divorces have been the +frequent cause of great hardships, especially upon the women, who have +little opportunity to earn an honorable living when once the marriage +tie has been broken. Home life is kept comparatively pure in Japan, but +the price is enormous. The abandoned woman carries on her business or +has it carried on for her with shameless openness. The ideals of purity +are far higher among the women than among the men. And yet, chastity is +not regarded as the highest virtue among Japanese women as among +northwestern people. Obedience to the will of the husband stands first +in the list of virtues. Thus, Japanese women have often been known to +sell their chastity in order that they might save their husbands from +debt or disgrace, and they have received the plaudits of the public for +what is styled their fidelity to their husbands' interest.</p> + +<p>In few, if any, countries of the Orient do the women appear in public +as the equals of their husbands. The Japanese women of the lower social +classes, when they go out with their spouses, follow on behind, bearing +whatever burden is to be borne. In trains or crowded rooms it is the +women who stand, and not the men. Japanese gallantry is not shown in +such public courtesies as are commonly offered to women in the United +States. The wife does not begin her wedded life with the thought of +equality with her husband; and, in law, he is greatly her superior +unless, happily, her husband should be motherless. Next to her duties to +her parents-in-law, the wife's great concern is to be a good +housekeeper, rather than a companion for her husband. She must, with due +self-control and even with smiling face, humor the whims and the vices +of her lord and master, even though he bring another woman into the +home. But it may be said that the Japanese husband extends to a legal +wife comparative respect and even honor, if, as the mother of children, +she fulfils well her duties. Third in line of demand upon a wife's care, +stand the children. In them the Japanese mother takes delight; and here +the self-control which she has learned almost from the cradle stands her +in good stead and beautifully exhibits itself, for she seldom loses her +temper or scolds her children. Even the wealthy women come in contact +with their children and personally guide their lives. The training of +the girls is almost entirely in the hands of the mother; and the +domestic cares of routine life are under her skilful direction. In the +rural districts the activities of women are enlarged by the part they +take in the making of the crops, the running of the rice fields, the +production of tea, the harvesting of grain, and the care of the +silkworms, the bringing of products to market, and the like. But the +freedom they thus enjoy makes amends, in a measure, for the more +burdensome work of which their sisters of the city know nothing.</p> + +<p>The <i>geishas</i>, or singing girls of Japan, are, physically speaking, +among the most attractive examples of female grace. The word <i>geishas</i> +means "accomplished persons," and these girls are trained in the art of +making themselves agreeable. They are accomplished in music, singing, +and playing the <i>samisen</i>, witty in conversation, and beautiful in +figure. Theirs is a regular occupation, their services being sought on +occasions when entertainment is the chief concern. While these girls do +not come from the higher social circles, some of them marry well and +become the mothers of reputable families, while many others, yielding to +the strong temptations incident to their employment, become the +concubines of some well-to-do citizen or lead lives even lower in the +moral scale.</p> + +<p>Among the special occupations of women may be mentioned that of acting; +for there are women's theatres in which all the parts are performed by +women. Men and women never appear on the same stage. In literature, two +Japanese women have gained the distinction of having written the two +greatest native works--works admittedly at the very acme of Japanese +classics. One of these is <i>Genji Monogatari</i>, or "Romance of Genji," and +the other <i>Makura Zoshi</i>, or "Book of the Pillow." The authoresses of +the two masterpieces, both court ladies living in the eleventh century +of our era, were Murasaki Shikibu and Seisho Nagon. To their names may +be added that of a brilliant female contemporary Isé no Taiyu. The +Emperor Ichijo, who reigned at that period, was a distinguished patron +of letters. He gathered about him men and women of culture, and the more +lasting literary monuments of his day are those written by women. The +work of these gifted women is marked by ease and grace of movement, +fluency of diction, and lightness of artistic touch.</p> + +<p>Murasaki Shikibu was a lady of noble birth. She was, in her youth, maid +of honor to the daughter of the prime minister of that day. This +daughter, Jioto Monin, became wife of the Emperor Ichijo, and from this +station of influence became a most valuable patroness of Murasaki, the +talented authoress. She herself married a noble, and their daughter also +became a writer of note, producing a work of fiction called <i>Sagoromo</i>, +or "Narrow Sleeves."</p> + +<p>The chief work of this noted Japanese authoress, Murasaki, is what may +be called a historic novel, <i>Genji Monogatari</i>, or "The Romance of +Genji." In this story the writer gives an accurate view of the +conditions which surrounded court life in the tenth century of our era. +From the romance of <i>Gengi</i> it may be seen, as a native Japanese critic +has said, that "Society lost sight, to a great extent of true morality, +and the effeminacy of the people constituted the chief feature of the +age. Men were ready to carry on sentimental adventures whenever they +found opportunities, and the ladies of the times were not disposed to +discourage them. The court was the focus of society, the utmost ambition +of ladies was to be introduced there."</p> + +<p>In those early days of Japanese life, it was not an unknown occurrence +for a woman when plunged into the depths of some disappointment or +overwhelming grief to take the oath of a religious recluse. "Her +conscience," says Sama-no-Kami, "when she takes the fatal vow may be +pure and unsullied and nothing may seem able again to call her back to +the world which she forsook. But as time rolls on, some household +servant or aged nurse brings her tidings that the lover has been unable +to cast her out of his heart, and his tears drop silently when he hears +aught about her. Then, when she hears of his abiding affection and his +constant heart and thinks of the uselessness of the sacrifice she has +made voluntarily, she touches the hair on her forehead, and she becomes +regretful. She may indeed do her best to persevere in her resolve; but +if one single tear bedew her cheek, she is no longer strong in the +sanctity of her vow. Weakness of this kind would be in the life of +Buddha more sinful than those offences which are committed by those who +never leave the lay circle at all, and she would eventually return to +the world."</p> + +<p>There are many short Japanese poems which breathe of love, and tell of +womanly charm. These short poems are highly prized, and many of them are +familiar to the majority of the people. Among the women who won +distinction as writers of love poems was the Lady Sakanoe, who lived in +the eighth century. She was a woman of high position, being the daughter +of a prime minister and wife of the viceroy of the island of Skioku. Her +poems are among the most popular in Japanese literature, and some of +them reveal a high order of imaginative power.</p> + +<p>Japanese poetry, which has been described as "the one original product +of the Japanese mind," contains many references to woman, her loves, her +laments, her passions, her ills. Sometimes the loyalty of a maiden's +love is set forth--as in a poem by the Lady Sakanoe in the <i>Manyoshu</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Full oft he swore with accents true and tender,</p> +<p class="i16"> 'Though years roll by my love shall never wax old,'</p> +<p class="i14"> And so to him my heart I did surrender,</p> +<p class="i16"> Clear as a mirror of pure burnished gold."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>A large number of the love poems are sensual; yet, pure love breathes in +many others, as in <i>A Maiden's Lament</i>, a poem by the Lady Sakanoe, and +in the <i>Elegy</i> written by Nibi upon his wife. The poet Sosei, also, has +written words that speak to the heart:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "I asked my soul where springs the ill-crowned seed</p> +<p class="i18"> That bears the herb of dull forgetfulness;</p> +<p class="i14"> And answer straightway came; th' accursed weed,</p> +<p class="i18"> Grows in that heart which knows no tenderness."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The mutual regard of husband and wife in early Japanese life is +beautifully expressed in an anonymous poem in the <i>Manyoshu</i>. A wife +laments that while other women's husbands are seen riding along the road +in proud array, her own husband trudges along the weary way afoot:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Come, take the mirror and the veil,</p> +<p class="i16"> My mother's parting gifts to me;</p> +<p class="i14"> In barter they must sure avail,</p> +<p class="i16"> To buy a horse to carry thee."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>To which self-denying love, the husband graciously replies:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "And I should purchase me a horse,</p> +<p class="i16"> Must not my wife still sadly walk?</p> +<p class="i14"> No, no, though stony is our course,</p> +<p class="i16"> We'll trudge along and sweetly talk."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>There have been many able women in this land of the Cherry Blossom, and +the Japanese people have not been blind to their claims to recognition +as controlling forces. This is shown by the fact that no less than nine +empresses have ruled the land. Some of them have been women of marked +sagacity and influence. On the dim borderland of the mythical, for +example, history shows us the heroic Empress Jingu Kogo, who, tradition +says, was the conqueror of Corea, and the embodiment of all that is good +and great in Japanese womanhood.</p> + +<p>Among the women of Japanese legend is the Maiden of Unahi, the story of +whose noble life and death has been often sung by the poets. Her tomb is +to-day pointed out in the province of Settsu, between Kobe and Osaka. +Such heroines of the earlier days have furnished inspiration for the +women of Japan for many generations; and the ideals of domestic life are +far higher than might be expected in a region of the world where women, +as a rule, live out their round of life upon a general plane that is +sorrowfully low.</p> + +<p>The present generation in Japan has been truly blessed by the influence +of an empress who is described as not only "charming, intellectual, +refined, and lovely," but also "noble and beautiful in character." Haru +Ko, born of noble parentage, became empress in the year 1868. Her +husband had just come to the throne at the age of seventeen. This was +the very year of the downfall of the Shogunate and the restoration of +the imperial power. Though reared in seclusion at Kioto, the young +empress began at once to measure up to the responsibilities which her +position had in store for her. She proceeded to exert her influence in +favor of the elevation of the women of her country. Without hesitancy, +she mingled personally among the people, administering charity to them. +Very early in her life as empress, in the year 1871, she gave a special +audience to five little girls of the military class who were about to +set out for America in order to study to prepare themselves for the +larger life of womanhood in the new Japan. From the beginning of the +school established for daughters of the nobility, who are expected to +play an important part in the Japan that is to be, she has taken great +interest in its progress.</p> + +<p>The religious side of a Japanese woman's life, as has been intimated, +is remarkably undeveloped. In the portico of a certain temple in the +interior of Japan is found this inscription: "Neither horses, cattle, +nor women admitted here." This may be taken as but one intimation of the +fact that little in the way of religion is expected of the female sex. +The introduction of Buddhism into Japan marked an epoch in the country's +history; but Buddhism has done little for woman, for she does not occupy +so exalted a position under it as under the more ancient religion. +Shintoism has its priestesses and Buddhism its nuns, but neither of +these religions has brought any noteworthy blessing to the women of the +kingdom. The ancient religions still influence their lives. The +multitude of temples still claim the veneration of the people. Kioto +retains its eminence as the chief seat of ecclesiastical learning, but +the Western spirit has found an entrance into the land of the Cherry +Blossom; traditional customs are yielding to its influence, and +inveterate prejudices are bending before it.</p> + +<p>The progress of Christian ideals has in recent years been rapid, and +Western religious teaching has advanced with giant strides. Recent +legislation has done something to increase the stability of the home by +making divorce less easy. The putting of concubinage under the ban by +not allowing the children of concubines to inherit a noble title, making +this law apply even to the son of the emperor himself, who must also +hereafter be son of the empress if he would inherit the throne, will +also mean much for the elevation of womanhood in the land of the cherry +and the japonica.</p> +<a name="c14" id="c14"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>XIV</h3> + +<h3>WOMEN OF THE BACKWARD RACES OF THE EAST</h3> + +<p>No volume upon the women of the Orient could be deemed complete without +some account of those women whose lives have been developed remote from +the larger movements of civilization,--the women of the backward races, +and those whose sphere has been contracted, not by social ideals simply, +but by virtue of the lack of that larger opportunity of world contact +which has given to some peoples a far more powerful impulse to progress +than has been the privilege of others. As representatives of this class +we may choose the women of the South Seas and of some of the African +tribes. These will furnish us typical examples.</p> + +<p>George Eliot has declared that "the happiest women, like the happiest +nations, have no history." In the advance of the world's civilization +from crude savagery to high culture, woman's part, though of +incalculable value, has, generally speaking, been unheralded. Bearing +the brunt of the downward burden, while man's shoulder presses upward, +woman, from the beginning, has had a minor place in written history. But +even among the obscurer races she has managed to bear her part with +marked happiness. This seems to be notably true among the island women +of the world. The peoples of the seas, removed from many of the pressing +conditions and harsh frictions which are present in the larger countries +of the continent, exhibit a freedom, if the term may be justly applied +to undeveloped races, which is not the possession of many of the larger +and older nations of men. One is prepared, of course, for great variety +of blood, custom, and development among the peoples who inhabit the +islands and the lands that lie out of the beaten track of travel and +commerce. There is probably no part of the world where the races of +mankind have become more mixed than in the South Seas.</p> + +<p>The women of the Indo-Pacific area belong to certain great classes or +groups of humanity. First, the Australian, inhabiting the great island +continent that seems to be the southeastern extension of Asia; they are +considered the lowest among the races of mankind, have black skins, but +not woolly hair, and are looked upon as a distinct race. Second, come +the Papuan women, who are in every respect negroes, resembling their +kindred in Africa in the variety of their types, including the tall, +very woolly-headed people of New Guinea, who have black skins and comely +bodies. Of the same race, but differing greatly in ethnic +characteristics, are the pigmy people of the Andaman Islands, of the +Malay Peninsula, and of the Philippines. Third, the brown Polynesians, +who are among the finest looking people on the face of the earth; they +inhabit the groups of small islands all about the Pacific Ocean, from +Hawaii to New Zealand, and from Easter Island to Samoa. Fourth and +finally, the Malays proper, who are a small, wiry, energetic people of +southeastern Asia and the great islands lying around Java, Sumatra, +Borneo, and the Philippines. The eight million people (called Filipinos) +in the last-named islands are, as will be seen later, of mixed blood, a +compound of all the sub-species of humanity, brown, black, yellow, and +white, even a small sprinkling of American Indian blood being there. +Women of so great admixture of blood must necessarily exhibit wide +differences of personal appearance and of inherited as well as acquired +traits.</p> + +<p>It would be highly instructive to take up the women of these several +races and consider them one by one in the various experiences of their +lives, from birth to burial, in childhood and name, in girlhood and +marriage, in family life and social standing, in religion and the last +act; for interest in this study extends far beyond the lives and +activities of those to whom it is directed. The whole human species are +one, and it is not a violation of good reasoning to suppose that the +activities and social life of these lowly women may, in a certain +general way, represent the standing of members of our own race in the +early stages of their progress. It is true, however, that in the +Indo-Pacific area we are more or less in the suburbs of the world. +Caution, therefore, must be exercised in forming conclusions that the +abject conditions of the Australians, for instance, is a correct picture +of a previous condition of the Caucasian race. These races have lagged +in the progress of the world, and in all the centuries of their +isolation have rather retrograded than advanced. They are in possession +of arts and practise social customs that are evidently the survival of a +more advanced state, as will be seen in the separate study of each race.</p> + +<p>Further interest is added to the study of these tribes in that, despite +the fact that they are the lowest of the world's peoples, they each lead +a rounded existence. Industries, fine art, speech, social forms and +usages, the explanation of things, creed and cult, all fit together +harmoniously. To the civilized woman, almost every act in the life of +her sex among the people named would be intolerable, but to the woman +there, these actions are the things to be done and any contrary course +would never enter her thoughts. The joys of life come from obedience to +the present order and to the venerable customs and traditions that have +come down from mothers for many generations.</p> + +<p>In height, Australian women average about five feet two inches, the +tallest not exceeding five feet five inches. They have small feet and +hands, the widest span being six inches. The color of the skin is dark +chocolate, the lips are thick, the nose is broad and incurved, the head +long, the hair black, but not woolly, and is generally worn short. Some +of the young girls are pretty, and from carrying burdens on the head +they have an erect pose; the Australians, however, are an unhandsome +race, and at thirty, if she lives so long, the woman is an old hag, the +acme of indescribable ugliness intensified by following the habit of +knocking out the front teeth for the sake of fashion.</p> + +<p>The girl-child born in Australia has little care beyond what is +necessary to preserve her life. The almost deserted mother is placed +apart in a brush shelter and is attended by some old woman of her clan. +The birthplace of the little girl is amid the greatest squalor. On rare +occasions mothers practise infanticide. The child is killed as soon as +born, in the belief (in the words of Nicodemus) that it can enter a +second time into the mother's womb and be reborn. As infants are suckled +several years, the chief cause of this unnatural act is the inability of +the mother to add another ounce to life's burdens. Being considered +uncanny, twins are immediately killed; and once in a while a healthy +child meets with a like fate, in order that its vigor may go into a +weaker one.</p> + +<p>The baby's name is inherited from her mother, or perhaps from her +father. It is merely a class title, for every tribe in Australia is +separated into classes with names. If descent be in the female line, +then everyone in a class has the same name from the mothers; if it be in +the male line, all whose fathers are in the same class are named alike. +In all Australia there is no such title as "mother," in our sense of the +word. Of the girl-child here considered, there are as many mothers as +there are females in that class belonging to the same generation. If the +reader were an Australian girl, she would, then, have several or many +mothers; there would be her own mother, her maternal aunts, and all +collateral female kin of that generation and of the mother's class. For +example, suppose a tribe in which the two moieties were named Brown and +Smith. Every Brown man would have to marry a Smith woman and vice versa. +A Smith would not and dare not marry a Smith, or a Brown marry a Brown. +Now, if the mother-right prevailed, all the children of the Brown +mothers would be Browns, of the Smith mothers would be Smiths; but if +father-right prevailed, then all the children of Brown mothers would be +Smiths, and those of the Smith mothers would be Browns. The marriage tie +is so loose in Australia that the family exists only in the group, and +the little girl is not "Miss Brown," but a Brown--one of the Browns. The +principle is as here stated, but the practice in detail is most +bewildering. The little newborn girl is not merely "Miss S." or "Miss +B." Her tribe, with its two moieties or classes, may have six totems in +each. In that case, her father and her mother will have totem names. +Take the Urabrinna tribe with its two classes, Matthurie and Kirarwa. If +the father be a Dingo Matthurie and the mother be a Water Hen Kirarwa, +our little girl will bear her mother's name, so will all other girls of +Water Hen mothers and, also, their children to remotest posterity.</p> + +<p>The girls of this generation are, in fact, sisters and look upon the +whole generation that gave them birth as a class of mothers; it is the +best they can do.</p> + +<p>In some tribes the classification takes this quaint form: every man +belongs to one of a number of families or classes, which we may mark, +for convenience, A, B, C, and D. Every woman belongs, also, to one of a +number of named classes, which we may call E, F, G, and H. Now, all the +men in the A class are compelled to marry one of the four classes of +women, and their children are classified by rule under the other letters +in the most confusing but interesting fashion. The system is far more +intricate than that of the American Indians.</p> + +<p>Besides these class or totem names, each little Australian girl has a +personal name by which she is freely addressed by all excepting such of +the opposite sex as are tabooed by custom. She may also have nicknames +like the American Indian girls, and finally, every girl of the tribe has +her secret name which may be that of some celebrated woman handed down +by tradition. It is never uttered except upon most solemn occasions, and +is known to those only who are initiated. When mentioned at all, it is +in a whisper. If a stranger should know one's name, he would have a +special chance to work her ill by ways of magic.</p> + +<p>At a very early age, the Australian girl has graduated in all the +hardening processes which result in the survival of the fittest, and is +ready to take her place among women. The rites by which she is initiated +into womanhood lessen her vitality, if they do not destroy it. No sooner +does the little girl get upon her feet than her education begins. Her +play is imitation of her mother's labors and enjoyments. A group of +girls will amuse themselves by the hour, playing little dramas with the +hands. Many of these games are to be found among civilized peoples. Your +meaningless piling of fists in the play: "Take it off, or I'll knock it +off," is part of a game which represents the entire operation of finding +a honey tree, cutting it down, gathering the honey, mixing it with +water, and eating it.</p> + +<p>The marriage tie of Australian women cannot be likened to that existing +among Christian nations, nor is it similar to the polygamy of Mohammedan +peoples, but is a modified form of group marriage.</p> + +<p>The Australian man obtains his wife in one of four different ways. His +father secures her for him by an arrangement with the girl's father; he +charms his intended by magic; he captures her as he would an enemy in +battle; or she elopes with him. It is to be understood, of course, that +the woman belongs to the proper class by descent. The Australians are +very particular in this regard. The first and most usual method of +taking a wife is connected with the law which makes every woman the +possible wife of some man. There is little or no ceremony in connection +with the rite of matrimony. When a man has secured a wife, she becomes +his private property.</p> + +<p>Let us imagine, therefore, that a man has set his heart upon a woman of +the proper group. There are several ways of practising magic to procure +a wife. Spencer and Gillan, the greatest authorities in this line of +study, say, that when a man is desirous of securing a woman for his +wife,--it makes no difference whether or not she be already assigned to +some other man,--he takes a small strip of wood, attached at one end to +a string, and marks it with the design of his totem, and with this +instrument (called by the American boy a "buzzer") he goes into the bush +accompanied by his friends. All night long the men keep up a low singing +and chanting of amorous phrases. At daylight, the man stands up alone +and swings his roarer. The sound of the instrument and the singing of +the air is carried to the ear of the woman by magic, and it has the +power of compelling her affections. It is asserted that women have been +known to come fifty miles in order to marry the man who had bewitched +them. There are other ways of charming a woman upon whom the lover has +set his heart,--such as the charm of the gaudy headband worn on a public +occasion, the charm of blowing the horn, and more. Elopement is only +another form of magic. The third method of obtaining a wife, by capture, +has been described as universal among the Australians, but the latest +writers affirm that it is the rarest way in which the central Australian +secures his wife.</p> + +<p>Among the Australians, Polynesians, Malays, and many others of the +lower races, descent has been primarily and uniformly through the +mother. It was not until tribes became sedentary and property was held +by individuals that inheritance passed to the male members of the +family. The so-called mother-right is based upon the belief that +individuals forming a certain clan or group, by whatever name they may +be called, are the offspring of a woman who lived long ago. The term +<i>mutterrecht</i>, by which this custom is called, is of course a sort of +legal fiction; for men have always governed the world. Two benefits grew +out of this form of descent. One was the certainty of motherhood. The +other was the assurance, to every individual, of family support, as the +children of a number of sisters were not cousins to one another, but all +were brothers and sisters. So long as there were provisions with any one +of this group, the rest were sure of a meal. This plan of descent +through the mother has survived in many curious ways. It is found among +many African tribes. Even to-day the Spaniards, who have a great deal of +Moorish blood in their veins, have the custom of adding the mother's +name to the father's to show that the descent is legitimate. It may be +of interest to know, in passing, that James Smithson, the founder of the +Smithsonian Institution, was required by his father, the Duke of +Northumberland, to be known by his mother's name until he was of age, +when he was allowed to assume the family name of the duke, which was +Smithson. This is but a modern instance of how persistent the ancient +custom has been. As soon as sedentary life and settled ownership of +property took the place of nomadic life and communal ownership, +mother-right or matriarchy passed gradually into patriarchy. It is +curious to know that among the American Indians at the time they were +discovered one could find all degrees of this transition. We must be +careful, too, to discriminate between the tribe and the clan, or gens, +for all savage tribes are exogamous with respect to the clans and +endogamous with respect to the tribes. When the people develop the +tendency to marriage within the tribe, it is evident that they have +passed out of the earlier stages of clan grouping into the stage of +property grouping. Marrying in the tribes was necessary, in order, as we +might put it, to "keep the money in the family." Among many of the +lowest as well of the highest civilization, the practice is against +marrying a girl who is akin; and it is always a subject of humor when a +young woman in our own country marries without changing her name, a +quiet recognition of the old practice of the exogamous marriage between +clan members.</p> + +<p>Clothing for warmth or protection is not worn by Australian women; even +the apron is not universal. The sense of beauty, however, has been +awakened in these savage breasts, and expresses itself in pretty +headbands, necklaces, and breast ornaments of seeds, teeth, and strings +colored with ochre. The men, too, are but little better attired; but one +indispensable article of their costumes must not be omitted in this +connection, namely, the knout, or coil of twine, with which they thrash +the women.</p> + +<p>The home of the Australian woman, where she and her co-wives and their +children live, is nothing more than a brush shelter, so faced as to +protect the occupants from the prevailing wind. In front of this, or +under it, they work, eat, sleep, and hold social intercourse. In the +morning, they go forth with their digging sticks and wooden troughs to +gather small animals. They take no thought of what they shall eat, the +problem being to have anything to eat. When the men hunt the small +kangaroo, the women surround the game and drive it toward the ambush. +Every edible thing is known and is used for food. The women are the +gleaners also, gathering large quantities of seeds, throwing them from +one trough to another so that the wind may blow away the chaff, grinding +them on one stone with another, and cooking in hot ashes the dough made +from the meal. The cooking of flesh food is done by men, as that +prepared by females may not be eaten by them; the women attend to the +vegetable diet. In many places, females over a certain age take their +meals apart; this rule, however, is not uniform.</p> + +<p>Should the Australian woman allow her child to live past the earliest +stages of infancy, she is usually a devoted mother. She often bears her +child about on her shoulders as she attends upon her tasks, even after +the child has become five or six years old. And should the little one +die, she will continue to bear the dear body with her, apparently not +noting the decomposition, which soon sets in. Mothers have been known to +carry the body of a dead child for weeks.</p> + +<p>From earliest childhood, girls as well as boys are trained to note the +tracks of every living thing. For amusement, skilful women imitate, in +the sand, the tracks of animals; and they know one another's footsteps. +Spencer and Gillan say that every woman has her <i>pitchi</i>, or "wooden +trough," from one to three feet long, in which she carries everything, +even the baby, for she is both pack and passenger beast; when she is +hunting, it will very often be used as a scoop-shovel to clear out +earth. Her only other implement is her digging stick, the primitive +pick-plow excavator. It is a straight staff, pointed at the end. When at +work requiring its use, the owner loosens the earth with the digging +stick, held in the right hand, while her left hand plays the part of +shovel. Acre after acre of the soil wherein lives the honey ant is dug +over for this toothsome mite. Little girls go out with their mothers; +and while the latter are digging up vermin and insects, the toddlers, +with little picks, will be taking their first lesson in what will be +their chief lifework.</p> + +<p>Among savages, the textile art--woman's peculiar industry--is little +encouraged. The spindle used in Australia before the discovery of the +island-continent in 1606, and which is still in use among the wild +tribes, is the most primitive conceivable, for it is merely a little +switch with a hooked end. The women make string for tying, as well as +for bags and network, out of human, opossum, and kangaroo hair, from +sinew, like the Eskimo, and from vegetable fibre. They sit upon the +ground, use the left hand for a distaff, and with the right hand roll +the spindle dexterously on the naked thigh. When a foot or so of string +is finished, it is rolled about the hook of the spindle for a bobbin. +When two of these are completed, a stick is driven into the ground, and +a rude rope or twine walk is set up. The women know the dyes in many +plants and use them. With the strings they make basketry, nets, bags, +plaiting, and many ornamental forms of simple lacework and borders. +Indeed, the Australian aborigines are at the bottom of the textile +ladder, where human fingers perform all spinning, netting, and weaving.</p> + +<p>In lieu of the gaudy costumes and of the tattooed tooth patterns etched +upon the skin among other Indo-Pacific tribes, Australian women decorate +their breasts and other parts with horrid scars. They cut the skin with +flint or glass, and rub ashes or down into the open wounds in order that +the cicatrices may be large and prominent. They submit to these tortures +with the greatest satisfaction, and add more from time to time as +memorials of personal experiences or in honor of the dead.</p> + +<p>The Australian women are fond of games and sports. Dr. Roth, the +Northern Protector of Aborigines in Queensland, says that with a fair +length of twine adult women will amuse themselves for hours at a time. +The twine is used in the form of an endless string, known to Europeans +as "cat's cradle" or "catch cradle." Hundreds of the most intricate and +bewildering designs are made, in the formation of which the mouth, the +knees, and the toes coöperate with the hand. Some of the figures are +extremely complicated. Dr. Roth gives the plates of the finished +patterns, which certainly are as fascinating as any work of savage +hands.</p> + +<p>Australian women are described as cheerful and light-hearted, but, on +occasion, they fight with their digging sticks most furiously, giving +and taking blows like men. The testimony of the best observers is to the +effect that, in most tribes, women are not treated with excessive +cruelty, which would be quickly fatal to the tribe in longevity, +fecundity, and service. Women receive their share of the resources, be +they abundant or meagre. What seems to be cruelty is only custom or, as +one would say, fashion; and in Australia, even more so than in Paris, +you had as well be out of the world as out of the fashion.</p> + +<p>All her life, the Australian woman is in the most abject social state; +her connection with the rites and ceremonies of her tribes is only as an +assistant or attendant. She is charged with all the industrial +occupations of food getting, and is not allowed to venture near the +sacred places on in of death. She is bound hand and foot by custom.</p> + +<p>No Australian woman is believed to die a natural death. All are killed +by magic--it may be a personal enemy near at hand or by a great sorcerer +far away. Their life, so remote from ours, is, however, less sensitive, +and it would be untrue to say that they are a melancholy set, living in +perpetual dread.</p> + +<p>When an Australian woman dies, she is at once placed in a sitting +posture, with the knees doubled up against the chin. The body thus +prepared is deposited in a round hole at once or is placed on a +platform, made of boughs, until some of the flesh disappears, after +which the bones are put into a grave. Nothing whatever is deposited with +her, and the earth is piled directly upon the body so as to form a low +mound with a depression on the side toward the camp ground. As soon as +the burial is over, her camp is burnt utterly and her group remove to +another place. Those who stood in certain kinship to her may never +mention her name again or go near her grave after the last act of +quieting the spirit has been performed. This ceremony occurs about a +year after the death of a woman, and consists of trampling on her grave. +Her mother and the nearest clan kin paint themselves with kaolin and +visit her grave, accompanied by certain of her tribal brothers. On the +way, the actual mother throws herself on the ground and is only +prevented from frightfully cutting herself by watchful attendants. At +the grave, the blood flows copiously from self-inflicted wounds upon all +the mourners. After this blood letting, charms are planted upon the +grave mound, the blood stained pipe clay, with which the half dead +mother has smeared herself, is rubbed off and the grave is smoothed +over. All this is done cheerfully, as it is the custom of the country.</p> + +<p>The widow (or widows) of a deceased man smears her hair, face, and +breast with white pipe clay, and remains silent during a long time, +perhaps a year, communicating by means of gesture language. She remains +in camp, performing assiduously the ceremonies for the dead; indeed, +should she venture forth on her old avocations, a younger brother of her +husband, on meeting her, might run her through with his spear. When the +time comes to have the ban of silence removed, she smears herself afresh +with kaolin, prepares a large tray full of food, and accompanied by +female friends walks to the dividing line of her camp. They are joined +by the proper kindred of the deceased, who, after an elaborate ceremony, +release her from her vows, and certify to her having done her whole +widowly duties. At the ceremony of trampling on the grave of the dead +man, in which certain women take part, and especially the widow, who +scrapes the kaolin from her body, showing that her mourning is ended.</p> + +<p>When a child dies, not only does the actual <i>mia</i>, or "mother," cut +herself, but all the sisters of the latter perform a like ceremony. On +the death of relatives, women gash themselves. The scars thus made have +naught to do with the decorative cicatrices across the breast, before +mentioned. They are specially proud of these self-inflicted wounds, +since they are the permanent record of their faithfulness to their dead.</p> + +<p>Let us turn our attention to the smallest women of the world. History, +ethnology, and classic myth have united to make the Eastern pigmies the +most interesting people in the world. Though they are a little people, +and have been hard pressed by larger and stronger races, they have +survived for centuries. They are to be found in Asia, Africa, and the +islands of the sea. Africa was doubtless their aboriginal home; but this +negrito type has spread eastward, probably in their canoes in the early +days, till the islands of the South Seas have become their home.</p> + +<p>The women among these little people are even smaller than the men. The +Mincopies of the Andaman Islands are among the most interesting of the +negritos. Because of their roving nature, they live in huts which are +rather temporary in character. These are put up by the women, though +when a sojourn in a given locality is to be of longer duration the men +build huts that are more permanent. The boys and girls do not sleep in +the same huts with the married people, but in huts specially constructed +for them. The women often become quite expert in the manufacture of +pottery by hand, the vessels having rounded bottoms, and being decorated +with wavy lines, or lines made by a wooden style.</p> + +<p>Both boys and girls in the first few years of life are left entirely +nude. At about six years the little girl has placed upon her an apron of +leaves. This is her sole garment. Later in life, the womanly instinct +for ornament shows itself however, so that necklaces and girdles are +added. There is a certain kind of girdle, made from the pandanus leaves, +which is the peculiar possession of the married women. The women, as +well as the men, tattoo their entire bodies. This art of tattooing is +practised almost entirely by the women. They use a piece of quartz or +glass, making horizontal and vertical incisions in alternating series. +There was probably some religious significance originally in this +practice, since the men begin the process by making incisions with an +arrow used in hunting the wild pig, and while the wounds are still fresh +the man must refrain from using the flesh of this animal. The bodies of +the women are usually quite shapely, though their faces are not +beautiful. With the women as well as the men, the body is of nearly +uniform width, there being scarcely any enlargement at the hips. Since +the race is comparatively pure, marrying among themselves, the type is +very uniform; and since, as Quatrefages says, the occupations of men and +women vary little, the difference in the development of female as +contrasted with masculine characteristics is exceedingly small.</p> + +<p>The young girl enjoys equal freedom with her brother, but preserves her +modesty with commendable strictness. An official, "the guardian of +youth," scrutinizes the conduct of the young people with much care and +attempts to see that wrongs against modesty and chastity are, as far as +possible, righted. The marriage relation is well guarded; bigamy and +polygamy are rigidly prohibited; and betrothals, which are often made +for the little ones at a very tender age, are held as inviolate, a +betrothal being regarded as quite as binding as actual marriage. The +young couple to be married never take the initiative for themselves, +this duty falls to the "guardian of youth," whose watchful eye is +expected to discern the eternal fitness of things in this important +field of human interest.</p> + +<p>The marriage contract is a purely civil one, being celebrated at the +hut of the chieftain of the tribe. The bride remains seated. By her side +is one or more women; the groom stands surrounded by the young men. The +chief approaches him and leads him to the young girl, whose legs are +held by several women. After some pretended resistance on the part of +both, the groom sits down on the knees of his bride. The torches are +lighted so that all present can attest that the ceremony has been +regularly carried out. Finally the chief declares the young people duly +married, and they retire to a hut prepared in advance. Then they are +said to spend several days silently, without so much as looking at each +other, during which period they receive from friends presents of a very +practical nature, such as provisions and equipments for housekeeping. +After this silent but profitable function is over, a wedding dance is +given in which the whole community joins, except the two who are most +concerned in the festivities.</p> + +<p>"It is incorrect to say that among the Andamese marriage is nothing more +than taking a female slave, for one of the striking features of their +social relation is the marked equality and affection which subsists +between husband and wife. Careful observations extended over many years +prove that not only is the husband's authority more or less nominal, but +that it is not at all an uncommon occurrence for Andamese Benedicts to +be considerably at the beck and call of their better halves."</p> + +<p>A writer upon the Andamese islanders has this significant utterance +concerning woman's moral influence even among these uncivilized peoples: +"Experience has taught us that one of the most effective means of +inspiring confidence when endeavoring to make acquaintance with these +savages is to show that we are accompanied by women, for they at once +infer that, whatever may be our intentions, they are at least not +hostile."</p> + +<p>As a rule, marriage life among these Andamese islanders is said to be +very happy. The women are constant and faithful; the husbands also +exercise marked fidelity. The spirit of equality and reciprocity +prevails to an exceptional degree when compared with many other +uncivilized peoples, and indeed with many civilized people.</p> + +<p>Even before the mother gives birth to the child, the little one +receives a name with a qualitative, according to sex. This it bears for +two or three years. It is then replaced by another qualitative which the +boy bears till his initiation into the rites of manhood, and the girl +till the appearance of signs of puberty. This name corresponds to some +tree or flower. When the girl marries she drops her "flower name."</p> + +<p>Mothers, too, have great fondness for their children, nursing them as +long as there is milk for them, and it is not uncommon for three +children to feed at the same maternal breast. A peculiar custom +prevails, however, by which most of the children are by the fifth or +sixth year taken from their parents, and become parts of another +household. This custom of adoption is a method by which friends express +and cement their friendships for one another. As Quatrefages says: +"Every married man received into a family regards as an expression of +gratitude and proof of friendship, the privilege of adopting one of the +children of the family." The parents rarely see children that have been +adopted. They may pay them visits, but they never take them back +permanently to their homes, and temporarily only by permission. The +foster-father may, strangely enough, pass his adopted child on to some +friend of his, as freely as he might one of his own.</p> + +<p>The modesty of the scantily clothed women is noteworthy. Man, who has +written so minutely upon the Andamese, says that when a woman has +occasion to remove one of her girdles in order to make it a present to a +friend, she does so with a shyness that amounts almost to prudery; and +she never changes her apron before a companion, but retires to some +secret place. Even within the same family circle, the bearing of the +sexes toward each other is modest and delicate. The man will observe the +greatest care in his attitude toward the wife of a cousin or of a +younger brother, only addressing her through a third person. The wife of +an elder brother receives the respect accorded to a mother.</p> + +<p>The negritos of Luzon in the Philippines are also found to be very +correct in their ideas upon the relations of the sexes. Adultery is very +rare, and is punished, as are theft and murder, by death. The manners of +the young girls are very correct, for any suspicion of their chastity +might prevent their marriage, for the young men are particular that +their wives should be without stain or even an imputation of it. When a +young man is ready to marry and has found the girl of his choice, he +lets her parents know of his heart's wish. They are said never to +refuse. They do not turn her formally or informally over to her suitor, +however, but they send her out into the forest, where, early in the +morning, before even the sun has risen, she conceals herself. It is the +young man's business to find this pearl of great price, or else he +cannot claim to be worthy of her and must forever relinquish all right +in her. This, it will be readily seen, is but another way of leaving the +whole matter in the hands of the girl, who may not seek the thickest +jungles for a hiding place. The day for the marriage has come. The +lovers climb two young trees which are adjacent one to the other and may +be easily bent together. An aged man comes, and presses the boughs of +the trees toward each other till the heads of the young couple touch. +They are then husband and wife. Feasting and dancing follow, and then +the pair settle down to life's realities in earnest. The husband gives +his father-in-law a present, a custom surviving from a day when wives +were purchased; and the father presents his daughter with a present as +dowry, which becomes her own personal property. The Aëta has but one +wife. If he should die after his children are grown, the family home is +continued; should the children be yet very young, the mother usually +takes them and returns to the home of her own people.</p> + +<p>Among some of the negrito tribes there has been found an incipient +literature. The following are words of a love song which Montano found +among the Aëtas. It has thus been translated:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "I leave, oh, my loved one,</p> +<p class="i14"> Be very prudent, thou loved one.</p> +<p class="i14"> Ah! I go very far, my loved one,</p> +<p class="i14"> While thou remainest in dwelling thine,</p> +<p class="i14"> Never the village will be forgotten by me."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>In contrast with these pigmies of probably African origin, there may +come to our minds the ancient tradition of African Amazons. For the +poetical allusions among the Greek authors to such a community of female +warriors there was doubtless some basis in fact, and this even when all +due allowance is made for the imaginative element in the tale. According +to the tradition, these African Amazons, an army of powerful women, +under the leadership of their Queen Myrina, marched against the Gorgons +and Atlantes and subdued them, and at last marched through Egypt and +Arabia and founded their capital on Lake Tritonis, where they were +finally annihilated by Hercules. The truth in these Amazon stories lies +doubtless in the fact that it is not an unknown custom for African +women, strong of body and brave of spirit, to enlist as soldiers in +companies or armies, commanded by officers of their own sex, and to +become very powerful in regulating the life of some communities.</p> + +<p>Among the Dahomeys, women captives are often enrolled in the king's +army of "amazons." These are said to have a perfect passion for +fighting. They are bound to perpetual celibacy and chastity, under the +penalty of death. They are described as famous in battle, but their +chief utility is to prevent rebellion among the male soldiers. They have +separate organizations and are commanded by officers of their own sex, +and are most loyal to their king.</p> + +<p>The world has long known of the Hottentots of South Africa. Their women +are taller and larger than those of the neighboring Bushmen, who are the +South African pigmies. Among these Hottentots woman often occupies a +place of considerable power; this is notably in the home, where she +reigns supreme. The husband may lord it over her outside of the house, +and often does, making almost a slave of his spouse; but when he enters +the house, he abdicates his authority. Without her permission, the +husband cannot take a bit of meat or a drop of milk. If he attempts to +infringe the law, the neighbors take up his case; he is amerced, often +to the extent of several sheep or cows, and these become the absolute +property of the wife. Should the chief of a tribe die, his wife takes +his place and authority and becomes "queen of the tribe," unless her son +is of age. And it is said that some of these women chieftains have left +for themselves names of honor in the traditions of their people.</p> + +<p>It is a custom among the Hottentots to call their children by the names +of their parents, but by a sort of exchange, the girls assuming that of +their father, the boys that of the mother--a syllabic suffix indicating +the sex. To the oldest daughter are accorded especial authority and +honor; for it is she who milks the cows and, in a way, has them under +her control. Requests for milk must be made to her, reminding us of the +Aryan <i>wood-daughter</i>, who was once the milkmaid.</p> + +<p>No extraordinary claims can be made for the beauty of the Hottentot +women. They have the knotty hair that characterizes the negro races, and +the flat noses, thick lips, and prominent cheekbones. While their faces +have no especial beauty, their figures, when maidens, are regular, plump +and attractive; but after the first years of womanhood are past, the +roundness of youth yields to the wrinkles of age, and all attractiveness +disappears, the woman either becoming withered and haggard, or +manifesting that peculiar development said to be so much admired among +the Hottentots, known to science as steatopyga. The famous "Hottentot +Venus" furnishes an example of this type of <i>beauty</i>. The back is given +a most remarkable contour by the enormous growth of fat about the hips, +which, though hard and firm, shakes like jelly when our Venus walks. +This extraordinary development has to the Hottentot lady not only an +æsthetic but also a utilitarian value, in case she cares to support her +infant upon it.</p> + +<p>The less cultured a people, the greater the place given by it to +ornament. Among many uncivilized peoples the men as well as the women +exhibit a fondness for decoration; but ornamentation is preëminently the +weakness of women. Although the savage lady regards clothing as +altogether an unnecessary burden, she must have her ornaments. One of +the methods of ornamentation is that of tattooing the body. Among some +tribes almost the whole body is covered with more or less artistic +designs, while others mark only parts of the body, as by rings around +the arms, or, as among the aboriginal New Zealand women, by puncture of +the lips. The use of shells, metal rings, bands, beads, feathers, mats, +and so on <i>ad infinitum</i>, is one of the marks of savagery.</p> + +<p>A traveller has given the following description of a Kaffir's marriage +ceremony witnessed by him. The occasion was the marriage of a Kaffir +chief to his fourteenth wife, "a fat good-natured girl--obesity is at a +premium among African tribes--wrapped round and round with black glazed +calico, and decked from head to foot with flowers, beads, and feathers. +Once within the kraal, the ladies formed two lines, with the bride in +the centre, and struck up a lively air; whereupon the whole body of +armed Kaffirs rushed from all parts of the kraal, beating their shields +and uttering demonic yells, as they charged headlong at the smiling +girls, who joined with the stalwart warriors in cutting capers, and +singing lustily, until the whole kraal was one confused mass of demons, +roaring out hoarse war songs and shrill love ditties. After an hour +dancing ceased and <i>joila</i> (Kaffir beer) was served around, while the +lovely bride stood in the midst of the ring alone, stared at by all and +staring in turn at all, until she brought her eyes to bear upon her +admiring lord. When advancing leisurely, she danced before him amid the +shouts of the bystanders, singing at the top of her voice and +brandishing a huge <i>carving-knife</i>, with which she scraped big drops of +perspiration from her heated head, produced by the violent exercise she +was performing."</p> + +<p>Among African tribes, generally, the value of a woman is rated in terms +of the cow. While in India the cow is more sacred than the woman, in +Africa, a woman sometimes brings several cows in a trade. When a man +wishes a wife there is usually little trouble in obtaining her, either +by purchase, theft, or in some rather more sentimental manner. Among +some tribes female go-betweens are made use of, while genuine courtship +prevails among other tribes. The courtship, however, is seldom of long +duration.</p> + +<p>The matter of marriage is more completely guarded among the tribes of +Africa and the Indo-Pacific than we might expect of the people of their +grade of culture. While tribes vary much in marriage customs, purity of +life is, as a rule, rigidly expected of married women, and most women +marry at an early age. Lewdness, however, is not generally regarded as +so great a crime as marital infidelity, which is often punished with +death. Betrothals are looked upon as much more sacred and binding than +they are among more cultivated peoples.</p> + +<p>In Tahiti, so careful have been the natives in this matter of betrothal, +that the betrothed young lady was compelled to live upon a platform of +considerable elevation, built in her father's house. The parents or some +members of the family attended to her wants here, night and day, and she +never left her high abode without permission of her parents and +accompanied by them.</p> + +<p>In the Yomba country courtship is carried on usually through female +rather than male relatives, and either sex may make the first advances +toward a minor. Among all uncivilized peoples, as indeed among many that +are advanced in civilization, the early marriage is one of the most +important elements in the backward condition of the people, if not +indeed the most serious cause of deterioration. Women are forced into +the arduous duties of motherhood at an age when they are neither +physically nor in any other sense prepared for such an obligation. +Children born of immature mothers can scarcely expect to be robust +either in body or mind.</p> + +<p>The Kroomen, one of the native tribes of Liberia, hold marriage to be +the highest ambition of life. They will marry as many wives as they can +pay for, often leaving their homes in search of means whereby they may +accumulate wealth enough to buy another wife. Enjoying for a few months +the new relation, the ambitious husband goes off to seek again his +fortune, returns, buys another companion, the marriage is again +celebrated, and so the number of women who perform the drudgeries of +life increases. At about middle life, usually, the Krooman has +accumulated a sufficient fortune in the form of wives to enable him to +retire from active labor. He now settles down to live upon the labor of +his wives, who willingly support him. He is now known as a "big man," +and enjoys not only the ease, but also the reputation and honor of one +who has come into possession of a well-earned retirement. Another +characteristic which marks woman's career among the lower races is the +fact of her early and rapid physical deterioration after marriage. This +is true not only of the women of Polynesia, but of the African tribes, +with which they have much in common. At the age when European and +American women are at the prime of their vigor and physical beauty, +these women have not only seen their best days, but are broken, +unsightly, and withered.</p> + +<p>This deterioration is chiefly due to two causes; one is the uniform +early marriages among these races, and the other is the hard life which +is early thrust upon the woman. For she not only becomes the +childbearer, but the beast of burden, the farmer, too, it may be, and +the mechanic and the "general utility man."</p> + +<p>It is true, especially where polygamy prevails, that there is a division +of labor, but the labor is divided among the women; the men do only the +lighter work. The several wives of the household take their servitude as +a matter of course, and usually, especially in Kaffir land, they are so +brought up that they regard a husband as degraded and effeminate if he +takes any part in the ordinary labors of domestic life. The women are, +generally, quite reconciled also to the polygamous relation, because a +husband is regarded as possessing dignity and respectability in +proportion as he is much or little married.</p> + +<p>The less developed a race is, the less specialized is woman's sphere. +Among the barbarous and savage peoples woman is the "maid of all work." +She is weaver, potter, basketmaker, cook, agriculturist, water bearer, +beast of burden, everything. Men hunt and fish, eat and sleep. In +general, it may be said, that among the barbarous races there is a +greater relative disparity between the size and attractiveness of men +and women. This is doubtless to be accounted for by the fact that very +early the female is set to hard tasks of menial service and her body is +accordingly abused and stunted.</p> + +<p>While the physical and social status of woman is one of acknowledged +inferiority, there are not wanting among the African tribes instances in +which woman exerts no small influence and exhibits no little power. This +we have noted in mentioning the tribes dominated by warlike women. It is +more particularly true of her influence within the precints of her +domestic life, as was seen in the case of the pigmy women of the +Andamese Islands. Mothers, and more especially mothers-in-law, exert +noteworthy power, but this is always by virtue of station rather than of +any inherent respect due to the sex itself. There are isolated examples +of a more active power exerted by woman.</p> + +<p>As a rule, women of the inferior races have no part in the government of +their tribes. There are some exceptions, however. In the Sandwich +Islands, as is well-known, the hereditary right of rule might fall to a +woman as well as to a man, and there have been, in these islands, a +number of queens. Our own country took some part, as will be readily +remembered, in deposing the last of them from her throne.</p> + +<p>Every student of what has come to be called "woman's sphere," +especially among the uncultivated races, must be led to the conclusion +that the condition of the female sex, the sphere of her activity and +influence in any race, is one of the very best indexes of the +civilization of that people. The view of Havelock Ellis, in his <i>Man and +Woman</i>, is that it is the latter who is leading in the evolution of the +race, in the sense not only that the traits that more distinctively +belong to her are those that characterize the advance of society, but +that she registers more accurately the advances. "What is civilization?" +asked Emerson; and answers, "The power of good women."</p> + +<p>Among the deplorable traits of women of uncivilized races is that of +infanticide. Among some of the Pacific islanders and in some parts of +Africa, the regular and systematic sacrifice of children is among the +most remarkable and cruel features of the social life of the people. +This is more particularly true of female infants.</p> + +<p>War plays a very large part in the life of uncivilized races, and the +presence of women is a source of weakness rather than strength, since +usually they are not bearers of arms, and are among the most envied +prizes for which war is waged.</p> + +<p>Ellis, in his <i>Polynesian Researches</i>, draws this gloomy picture of +unnatural motherhood among peoples of the Pacific islands: "In Tahiti, +human victims were frequently immolated. Yet the amount of all these and +other murders did not equal that of infanticide alone. No sense of +irresolution or horror appeared to exist in the bosoms of those parents, +who deliberately resolved on the deed before the child was born. They +often visited the dwellings of the foreigners, and spoke with perfect +complacency of their cruel purpose. On these occasions the missionaries +employed every inducement to dissuade them from executing their +intention, warning them in the name of the living God, urging them by +every consideration of maternal tenderness, and always offering to +provide the little stranger with a home, and the means of education. The +only answer they generally received was, that it was the custom of the +country; and the only result of their efforts was the distressing +conviction of the inefficacy of their humane endeavors. The murderous +parents often came to their houses almost before their hands were +cleansed from their children's blood, and spoke of the deed with worse +than brutal insensibility, or with vaunting satisfaction at the triumph +of their customs over the persuasions of their teachers." It is thought +that not less than two-thirds of all the children born were murdered by +their own parents.</p> + +<p>"The first three infants," says Ellis, "were frequently killed; and in +the event of twins being born, both were rarely permitted to live. In +the largest families, more than two or three children were seldom +spared, while the numbers that were killed were incredible. The very +circumstance of their destroying, instead of nursing, their offspring +rendered their offspring more numerous than it would otherwise have +been. We have been acquainted with a number of parents, who, according +to their own confessions, or the united testimony of their friends and +neighbors, had inhumanly consigned to an untimely grave, four, or six, +or eight, or ten children, and some even a greater number."</p> + +<p>But changes have taken place since the writing of these lines; it seems +certain that a generation ago nearly if not quite two-thirds of the +children were slain by their mothers, and few mothers were guiltless of +the blood of their own offspring. The explanation of the prevalence of +this species of massacre is readily discernible in the following +paragraph from Ellis's <i>Researches</i>: "During the whole of their lives +the females were subject to the most abasing degradation; and their sex +was often, at their birth, the cause of their destruction. If the +purpose of the unnatural parents had not been fully matured before, the +circumstance of its being a female child was often sufficient to fix +their determination on its death. Whenever we have asked them what could +induce them to make a distinction so invidious, they have generally +answered,--that the fisheries, the service of the temple, and especially +war, were the only purposes for which they thought it desirable to rear +children; that in these pursuits women were comparatively useless; and +therefore female children were frequently not suffered to live. Facts +fully confirm these statements."</p> + +<p>Dense superstition, too, has sometimes played a part in this murder of +children. In Central Africa, for example, it is held with religious +scrupulosity that twin children should never be allowed to live. When +children are born with a deformity, they are despatched as a matter of +course. And yet, notwithstanding all these horrors, the instinct, even +of the most debased mothers, is toward the love and preservation of +their offspring. From the earliest days, this care for the infant, the +helpless, and the weak has been the most powerful counterpoise to +abnormal self-seeking. These two characteristics, self-giving and +self-seeking, are among the most potent factors in the development of +all the races of mankind.</p> + +<p>The Filipino woman has lately had for us fresh interest. Indeed, the +women of the Philippine Islands are among the most interesting in the +world. In the mountains of Luzon and in the other out-of-the-way places +are the negritos, or little negroes, of whom we have written in an +earlier portion of this chapter. These little people are shoved away +into the mountain regions, where the resources of life are as meagre as +they can be if existence is to endure. In the lower parts of the +archipelago, which are more accessible to the coast, will be found the +descendants of an old Malayo-Polynesian race; these are characterized by +their primitive industrial life. A later immigration of the same stock +brought people to the island who have developed alphabets, metallurgic +arts carried on by the men, and weaving and needlework done by the +women. Closely following these, and because there were opportunities for +commerce, came the more cultivated races of Eastern Asia, Chinese, +Japanese, Siamese, and even Hindoos, to mingle their blood with these +more primitive stocks. In the twelfth century of our era, Mohammedanized +Malays took possession of the southern part of the archipelago. These +people are called Moros, or Moors. Leaving out the negritos, who are +only a little mixed with the other races, the other peoples we have +mentioned have mingled their blood with the modern population, the +Spanish and Portuguese, who have come in since the sixteenth century. +The commingling of blood has been favorable to the modern Filipinos, and +many regard their women as worthy of being admired for their grace and +beauty. Notwithstanding their great variety of racial stocks, the women +of Manila have a certain common physiognomy, the Malay type being the +strongest element in their composite face. Features that mark the yellow +races are also quite prominent in many of the Filipino women.</p> + +<p>As in other races of the same grade of culture, the marriage tie is a +part of the social system. Clan relationship, by whatever name it may be +called, governs the selection of a spouse. The bond has been a very +loose one in the islands, and it has not been an uncommon thing for men +and women to break up their relationships unceremoniously and form new +ones. Among a people composed of so many elements, wide differences may +be expected in the matter of marriage. The Igorrotes, or wild +inhabitants of Luzon, though primitive in development, are monogamous. +The clan system is broken down and a young man is allowed to take the +woman of his choice with little ceremony, and they become man and wife. +Many astonishing customs are, of course, found among these people. For +example, Alfred Marche calls attention to a form of voluntary slavery.</p> + +<p>It is that of a young man who wants to marry. In many places, he is +bound to work for two or three years as a simple domestic in the house +of the father of his fiancée. During this time he is fed, but never +takes his place at the same table with the young girl. He is allowed to +walk with her and to sleep under the same roof, but he may not eat with +her.</p> + +<p>When the young man has passed this stage, he must, before the ceremony +of marriage, build a house and make certain indispensable purchases. He +must also pay all the expenses of the marriage. The affair does not +always terminate as regularly as one could wish. The father sometimes +seeks a quarrel with his future son-in-law at the moment when the +ceremony is about to take place, and admits a new aspirant for his +daughter's hand. The newcomer undertakes to work for him without any +scruples. The house, which is of little value, is all that remains to +the late fiancé as a consolation.</p> + +<p>De Morgan, who travelled in the Philippine Islands for the Spanish +government and published his account, in the City of Mexico, in 1609, +gives an account of the native women three hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>The women of Luzon are described as wearing sleeves of all colors which +they call <i>baros</i>. White cotton stuffs were wrapped or folded from the +waist downward to the feet, and over these sometimes was a thin cloak +folded gracefully. The people of the highest rank substituted silk or +fine native fabrics for the cotton, and added gold chains, bracelets, +and earrings, and rings on their fingers. Their hair, which is +exceedingly black, was tied gracefully in a knot on the back of their +head. Many of these characteristics noted by De Morgan may still be seen +among the women of the islands. The closer contact of the Philippine +Islands with the mainland and more particularly with western commerce +and civilization is destined to work many and possibly rapid changes +even in the customs and ideals of the women whose native conservatism +has held them for many centuries very much in the same groove of life +and daily routine.</p> + +<p>The women of Luzon have always been cleanly and elegant in their +persons, and they are attractive and graceful. Much time is spent on +their hair, which is frequently washed and anointed with the oil of +sesame prepared with musk. They spend much time on their teeth, and +formerly began at a tender age to file them into the shape demanded by +the customs of the country. They also dyed their teeth black. Like the +Moorish women, the Filipinos are fond of the bath; they frequent the +rivers and creeks and bathe throughout the entire year, the genial +climate allowing such pastime.</p> + +<p>As in other countries below the grade of civilization, the industrial +employments of the Philippines are largely for the women. To them is the +task of spinning and weaving the exceptionally delicate fabric of the +archipelago into the finest cloth. They also are the food purveyors, +assisting in gathering food material, pounding it in their simple mills +and serving it. In their cuisine are such vegetables as sweet potatoes, +beans, plantains, guavas, pineapples, and oranges. The women rear fowls +and domestic animals, and take upon themselves the entire care of the +family and household.</p> + +<p>While the women of all countries have always been the natural and most +persistent conservers of ancient ideals and racial customs, yet it may +be predicted that the throwing of the Filipino tribes into contact with +New World politics, trade, and customs will, at length, bring about +marked social changes. These must eventually give to the women of the +Filipinos a wider outlook upon life and a new power to carry its +burdens.</p> + +<br><br> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="0" + style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" summary="Contents"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 8%;"> + <br> + <a href="#c1">I</a><br> + <a href="#c2">II</a><br> + <a href="#c3">III</a><br> + <a href="#c4">IV</a><br> + <a href="#c5">V</a><br> + <a href="#c6">VI</a><br> + <a href="#c7">VII</a><br> + <a href="#c8">VIII</a><br> + <a href="#c9">IX</a><br> + <a href="#c10">X</a><br> + <a href="#c11">XI</a><br> + <a href="#c12">XII</a><br> + <a href="#c13">XIII</a><br> + <a href="#c14">XIV</a> + </td> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 92%;"> + <a href="#pre">PREFACE</a><br> + WOMEN OF THE DAWN<br> + ISRAEL'S HEROIC AGE<br> + THE DAYS OF THE KINGS<br> + THE ERA OF POLITICAL DECLINE<br> + THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN WOMEN<br> + THE LAND OF THE LOTUS<br> + THE WOMEN OF THE HINDOOS<br> + BESIDE THE PERSIAN GULF<br> + THE WOMEN OF ARABIA<br> + THE TURKISH WOMEN<br> + THE MOORISH WOMEN<br> + WOMEN OF CHINA AND COREA<br> + UNDER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS--THE WOMEN OF JAPAN<br> + WOMEN OF THE BACKWARD RACES OF THE EAST + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> + +<br><br> + +<h3> LIST OF ILLUSTRATION</h3> + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="0" + style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" summary="Contents"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> +SUBJECT + </td> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> +ARTIST + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> +<a href="#ill1">Rebekah and Isaac's agent, Eliezer</a><br> +<a href="#ill2"><i>Ghawazi</i></a><br> +<a href="#ill3">Interior court of a zenana</a><br> +<a href="#ill4">An Oriental woman's pastime</a><br> +<a href="#ill5">The mutes</a><br> +<a href="#ill6">Woman's taste in Japan</a><br> + </td> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> +<i>A. Cabanel</i><br> +<i>C. L. Muller</i><br> +<i>From an Indo-Persian painting</i><br> +<i>Frederick A. Bridgman</i><br> +<i>P. L. Bouchard</i><br> +<i>Charles E. Fripp</i><br> + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIENTAL WOMEN***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 32418-h.txt or 32418-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/4/1/32418">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/1/32418</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Oriental Women + Woman: In All Ages and in All Countries, Volume 4 (of 10) + + +Author: Edward Bagby Pollard + + + +Release Date: May 18, 2010 [eBook #32418] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIENTAL WOMEN*** + + +E-text prepared by J. P. W. Fraser, Thierry Alberto, Rénald Lévesque, and +the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe +(http://dp.rastko.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 32418-h.htm or 32418-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32418/32418-h/32418-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32418/32418-h.zip) + + + + + +WOMAN + +VOLUME IV + +ORIENTAL WOMEN + +by + +EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph. D. +Of the George Washington University + + + + +[Illustration: 1: REBEKAH AND ISAAC'S AGENT, ELIEZER After the painting +by A. Cabanel Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of +so universal an interest as its marriage customs, and there is no +courtship, either ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the +imagination and awakened the interest of men than that between Isaac and +Rebekah..... It is a truly picturesque and even romantic story, which +never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether at the well or in her +household, will always present a unique picture of womanly grace and +beauty. + +The ancient wooing of Rebekah is Isaac, though it is by no means +typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental +weddings..... The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of +a stranger and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all +the apparent grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most +commendable.] + + + + +WOMAN + +In All Ages and In All Countries + +VOLUME IV + +ORIENTAL WOMEN + +by + +EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph.D. +Of the George Washington University + + + + + +PREFACE + +The relative position which woman occupies in any country is an index to +the civilization which that country enjoys, and this test applied to the +Orient reveals many stages yet to be achieved. The frequent appearance +of woman in Holy Writ is sufficient evidence of the high position +accorded her in the Hebrew nation. Such characters as Ruth, Esther, and +Rebekah have become famous. Wicked women there were, such as Jezebel, +but happily their influence was not of lasting duration. No other +ancient people so highly prized chastity in woman; motherhood was +regarded as an evidence of divine favor, while barrenness was considered +a curse. The home life was one of singular purity and sweetness. +Idleness was deplored as a crime, and every child was taught to work +with his own hands. + +The deities of the Babylonians and Assyrians were feminine as well as +masculine. Ishtar was the Venus of classical mythology--the goddess of +love, and the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a feminine deity. +Rank, however, determined social freedom; the woman of the lowest class +might go and come at will, but the woman of the high class was condemned +to a life of isolation. Woman's position of honor in Egypt is evidenced +by the presence of temples and monuments erected to her memory. She +assisted her husband in the management of his affairs, and was granted a +part in religious worship. + +In the countries in which Brahmanism and Mohammedanism is the prevailing +religion, the position of woman is relatively low. The Hindoo woman has +no spiritual life apart from her husband; she can only hope for ultimate +happiness through a union with him. The harem prevails, and woman is the +slave of man. + +In contrast to the position of woman in these countries and in China is +the position she holds in Japan. While not yet occupying a place of +respect equal to that accorded her in the Occident, she is coming +gradually to be regarded as she deserves. There yet remain the loose +morals, characteristic of the Oriental nature, and it is still regarded +as right and proper that a good wife should barter her chastity if it is +necessary in order to save her husband the disgrace of imprisonment for +debt. The higher classes, however, are coming to treat woman with a +respect far higher than that usually accorded her in the Orient. The +process of her elevation must of necessity be slow, for no great reform +is accomplished by a _coup d'etat_, but only through the ameliorating +effects of enlightenment and education, and this alone will accomplish +the final emancipation of the woman of the Orient from her present +condition of servitude. + E.B. POLLARD. + + + + +I + +WOMEN OF THE DAWN + + +The story of the first woman in the Hebrew Scriptures and Semitic myth +is as familiar as a household tale. Jewish and Christian literature +alike have frequent mention of the part she played in the race's +infancy, though in the sacred writings themselves she is but rarely +mentioned. + +What the Book of Genesis furnishes upon the creation of the first woman +may not be considered of great interest as a scientific treatise upon +the first appearance of feminine life on the earth, but it is of marked +importance as revealing the idea around which the life and character of +the Hebrew woman were developed. Here we find a pure monotheism (the +presence of no goddess at the birth of things), a high morality, the +dignity of marriage and of motherhood, that give to the Hebrew women +great advantage over their sisters of many another country. + +Very early was it discovered, say the Hebrew records, that it is "not +good for man to be alone." The method by which this fact was first made +manifest is of no little suggestiveness. Would it be possible from the +many creatures of earth, sky, and sea, already made, for man to find a +companion in whom he might confide, with whom the long hours might be +made more joyous? God tries the man whom he has made. Could he be +satisfied with a creature of a lower order as fellow and friend? Could +he, by subduing and having dominion, find in dog, camel, or favorite +steed a sufficient helpfulness, a satisfaction for his human longings? +No! As one by one the living creatures passed in solemn order before +him, it was soon realized by the names that Adam gave them, that he +found no true fellowship in all that earth-born throng. "And the man +gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast +of the field, but for man there was not found an helpmeet for him." + +The epoch-making "deep sleep" that fell upon Adam, the taking of the +rib, the making of the first woman, the closing again of the wound, and +the presentation of a helpmeet for the man--all this is a familiar +Scripture story. Whether it be intended to be literal history is of +little moment here. Very beautifully have Matthew Henry and others, +following the rabbis, commented upon the essential meaning of this +narrative in suggesting that woman is not represented as taken from the +head of man that she should rule over him; nor from his feet, to be +trampled under foot; but she was taken from his side that she might be +his equal; from under his arm that she might be protected by him; near +his heart that he might cherish and love her. "This is now bone of my +bone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called _Ishshah_"--that is, if +man is to be called _Ish_, woman shall be _Ishshah_, simply his equal. + +It is not strange that there should have arisen many legends about this +first Oriental woman. According to one of the Jewish stories contained +in the Talmud, Adam was at first very huge. When he stood, his head +reached to the very heavens; and when he reclined, he covered the earth +with his gigantic form. But in a deep sleep which God caused to fall +upon him, Eve was made from parts of all his members. After the creation +of Eve, therefore, Adam was never again quite so large. Some of the +Jewish rabbis taught that Adam, the first man, had in his body thirteen +ribs,--one more than was possessed by any of his descendants,--and that +this surplus bone became, in the hands of the Creator, the physical +basis for the creation of the mother of all. + +The thought has been suggested that as man was commissioned to subdue +and have dominion over the beasts of the field and all the forces of +Nature, the reason for woman's creation lies in her ability to _tame +man_. Whether this be true or not, the student of Hebrew history will +not lack ample evidence to show that to the women of Israel is due +largely the place that their people hold in history as teachers of +religion and morals; to them is due, also, that conservative quality +which has made the Hebrews a peculiar and permanent people. + +One of the old rabbis, commenting upon the Biblical account of woman's +creation from the rib of Adam, remarked: "It is as if Adam had changed a +pot of earth for a jewel." Good Dr. South, of pious memory, unaffected +by the modern views of development, is credited with the remark that +"Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam." If this be true, what must +Eve have been! + +About the beauty of the first woman, the Scriptures are silent, though, +in _Paradise Lost_, Milton finds no hesitancy in creating her with +surpassing physical grace, so that it was possible for her, like +Narcissus, to fall in love with her own charms. Poets have not been slow +to sing her praises: + + "The world was sad, the garden was a wild + And man the hermit sighed, till woman smiled." + +The Hebrews called the first woman Eve--that is, _living_ or +_expanded_, "the mother of all living." But these Oriental records +attribute to Eve the advent into the world of death and human woes. The +discord that came from the apple once tossed into a famous company of +frolicking Greeks cannot compare with that which grew out of the fatal +fruit, forbidden to the primal tenants of the Garden of Eden. + + "Earth felt the wound--And Nature from her seat + Sighing through all her works, gave sign of woe, + That all was lost." + +The French saying _cherchez la femme_ has been in some form upon the +lips of men from the earliest dawn of time. "The woman which thou gavest +me," is Adam's lame apology for his weakness, as in one brief sentence +he shifts the blame with dexterity upon God--the giver,--and woman--the +God-given. + +In marked contrast with this dark view of the first woman's legacy to +the world is the account of the first promise, the light that burst +forth suddenly as through a rift in the overshadowing cloud: "The seed +of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Thus Lamartine's remark +that "woman is at the beginning of all great things," becomes as +pertinent as it is true. It is impossible to estimate the effect upon +Israelitish motherhood of the belief in that ancient promise that some +mother's son should yet arise to crush the monster of evil that was +loosed in the world. Many a Hebrew mother came to feel that her own babe +might become the hero chosen to strangle the serpent. This thought made +motherhood the more prized, it became the aim of every Hebrew woman. + +What if we could reproduce the sensations of that mother-love when the +first woman enfolded in her bosom the first infant born, and heard its +first cry for a mother's care? Of much interest is the Hebrew narrative +here; for when Eve beheld her firstborn son she is said to have made an +exclamation which many Hebrew scholars interpret as meaning, "I have +obtained the promised One," believing that the pledge of Jehovah +concerning the woman's seed had even then been realized. But the first +son was to bring pangs to his mother's soul by slaying the first +brother. Who can adequately describe the effect which that first death +must have had upon the maternal heart? Instead of the lost Abel came a +new son to console the mother-heart, Seth, the good; and the struggle +between good and evil goes on throughout the Hebrew records, woman +usually taking her place with the forces that made for righteousness. + +Concerning the first bad woman, Lilith, held by some to have been the +wife of the first man, very curious are the legends. Later rabbinic +literature is rife with these stories. Among the Babylonians and +Assyrians, Lilith was a _night-fairy_, as the derivation of the name +would indicate, though some derive it from _lilu_, the wind. Popular +superstition among the Hebrews, either through inheritance from the +early days before Abraham, their father, lived in the Mesopotamian +valley, or through the contacts with this region during the Babylonian +exile, looked upon Lilith as a female demon of the night. She was +supposed to be especially hostile to children, and this is why the Latin +translations of the Vulgate version of the Scriptures rendered the word +as _lamia_, a hag or witch who was supposed to be harmful to the little +folk--though grown up people, also, might well beware of her baneful +power. She is mentioned but once in Scriptures, and then in that highly +graphic portrayal by the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming desolation +that should soon befall the land of Edom, which was to become a place +where "the wild beasts of the deserts meet with the wolves, and the +satyr cries to his fellows, and _Lilith_ (rendered in the accepted +version, _Screech Owl_, and in the later version, _Night Monster_) takes +up her abode." + +It is Lilith's earlier history that is of especial interest, for, as +runs the Jewish legend which one often meets in Talmudic literature, +Lilith was the first wife of Adam, but becoming angered, she flew away +and became a demon of the night. But the world will probably never +concede that the first woman was a wicked one. The subtlety of an evil +woman's charms is probably the underlying motive of the story of this +"sweet snake of Eden," of whom Rossetti, in his _Eden Bower_, affirms +consolingly, "not a drop of her blood was human." + +"Who was Cain's wife?" is one of the perplexing questions asked by those +who delight in hard sayings. The late Professor Winchell believed in a +race of pre-Adamites, and many persons are committed to the theory of +several centres of human origin. To those holding such views the +question of Cain's marriage does not present particular difficulties. +But those who hold to the theory that there was but one pair from whom +all the family of mankind has sprung find difficulty in reconciling +their theory with Biblical statements, and they are driven to +acknowledging the necessity for marital relations between near kindred +when the race was in its beginning--relations which would offend the +best moral sentiment of to-day. + +There is a curious passage in the Book of Genesis which tells of the +marriage of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men." Have we here +the echo of that ancient tradition that once the gods and men +intermarried and from the union the great heroes of the past were born? +The close position of this statement concerning the "sons of God" and +the "daughters of men" with the account of the great growth of evil in +the world has led some to hold that these "daughters of men" were women +from the unrighteous line of the murderous Cain, while the "sons of God" +were men from the more upright family of Seth. Others, however, seeing +also in close connection the statement that giants were on the earth in +those days, find here a remnant of a very general tradition that from +the gods had descended great heroes and giants who in past ages had +fallen in love with daughters of human parentage. Since the Hebrews, +however, were so strong in their monotheistic conceptions, this latter +theory loses a great part of its force. + +The state of society presented in the earliest Hebrew records indicates +that the practice of polygamy was general. There are some who see +indications among the Hebrew customs that there was a period, earlier +than that of which any Hebrew records tell, in which polyandry and not +polygamy was the fashion--when one woman had several husbands, rather +than one husband several wives. The so-called Levirate marriage which +was in vogue among the Hebrews is perhaps the strongest evidence that +the customs of polyandry and mother-right were practised among them. + +In common, then, with other peoples, the Hebrews practised polygamy; and +while the influence of the best thought and teaching was, except in the +earlier, patriarchal period, distinctly against it, the practice was +still customary even down to the Christian era. The law of Moses, while +not forbidding plurality of wives, discouraged the custom, and +especially forbade the king from "multiplying wives." + +The earliest example of polygamy of which the Hebrew records speak is +that involving one of the most unique and interesting families of this +early twilight of human existence. One Lamech, a descendant of Cain, is +said to have married two wives, who bore the rather musical names of +Adah and Zillah. And here we are introduced into the presence of a most +remarkable household. For not only is Lamech to be awarded the +distinction of having made the earliest attempt at verse which the +Hebrew tradition has recorded, but Adah and Zillah became the mothers of +a most talented family; the former of Jabel, "the father of such as +dwell in tents and have cattle," and of Jubal, the inventor and patron +saint of the harp and the pipe; while Zillah was the mother of +Tubal-Cain, the first forger of implements of brass and iron. Lamech, +the father, having doubtless received a sword from the forge of his son, +used it in revenge upon an enemy, and gave utterance to the first +recorded lines of poetry, which are possibly a fragment from what has +been called _The Lay of the Sword_. It is a crude poem, dedicated by +Lamech to his wives--for it was not uncommon among the early Semites to +call the women to witness a hero's deeds of prowess: + + "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, + Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech, + For I have slain a man for wounding me, + Even a young man for bruising me. + If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, + Truly Lamech, seventy and seven." + +It is not to be wondered at that in the very midst of dry genealogical +tables the writer of Genesis should have stopped for a moment to tell of +this epoch-making household. + +Whether the women of this unique family, Adah, Zillah, and her daughter +Naamah, were equally gifted with the men of the household, we are not +told; but surely there must have been some genius in those feminine +members of the home, who were so closely connected with the beginnings, +not only of the fine arts of poetry and music, but also of the +industrial pursuits of cattle raising and of metal working. + +The early Hebrews were nomads. At first glance it might appear that +woman's part in such an order of society would be scant, and her life +one of comparative inactivity. But this view would lead into error, for +in the nomadic life, while the men were guarding their flocks from the +depredations of hostile bands or from the ravages of wild beasts, the +women were the home makers and the home keepers. + +Mason, in his _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture_, commenting upon +Herbert Spencer's division of the life history of civilization into the +period of Militancy, and the later period of Industrialism, raises the +question whether it may not after all be more in accord with the +facts--at least in the early history of the race--to speak of a _sex_ of +militancy and a _sex_ of industrialism. The Hebrew woman, from her place +in the tent or seated about the tent door, not only tended the fire, but +invented, developed, and carried on many a handicraft into which not +until later the men themselves entered. + +For centuries the story of the lives of the patriarchs has thrilled and +edified many a young heart, but what of the credit due to the +_matriarchs_? What part do we find them playing in the early life of +these Oriental peoples! The patriarch was not only father of his family +or clan, but was their king and high priest. Yet it would be a mistake +to suppose that the mother of the family was not an important factor in +that early society, as the lives of many a Hebrew woman will easily +demonstrate. The names of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Miriam, Huldah, and a +host of others will readily occur to the mind of anyone at all familiar +with the literature of the Old Testament. + +A fair type of the life of the wife and partner of an ancient chief +(_sheik_) of the higher order is found in that of Sarah, wife of the +first and greatest Hebrew patriarch, "Abraham, the faithful." Living the +life of nomad and shepherd, this pioneer of a new monotheism took his +spouse away from the land of her fathers in the valley of Mesopotamia. +Sarah's reverence for her husband became proverbial, and her conduct has +been taken as the type of what was best in the domestic life of +Israel--chaste behavior coupled with reverence. And Peter, known as the +Apostle to the Hebrews, writing over two thousand years after the body +of Sarah had been laid in its last home in the cave of Machpelah, gives +a glimpse of the Hebrew conception of the ideal relation between husband +and wife typified in Abraham and Sarah. While enjoining upon the women +to whom he wrote the need of a "meek and quiet spirit," a spirit not +discoverable in jewels and elaborate apparel, but in what he terms "the +hidden man of the heart," he said: "For after this manner in the old +time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being +in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, +calling him lord; whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well." Thus +did the virtues of Sarah impress themselves upon later generations. +Sarah is not to be classed among the strong-minded women. Probably she +was not virile in any true sense of the term, since in the traditions of +her people she does not seem to have made for herself a place as leader +that at all corresponds to the rank of her husband. He was to all +Hebrews "Father Abraham," the first and foremost of his race; and no Jew +could esteem his future life as giving promise of happiness unless his +head might at length rest in Abraham's bosom. There is an ancient legend +which says that Sarah, hearing of the plan of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac +on the sacred spot of Moriah, died from the shock to her maternal heart. +The father returned, bringing his only son alive with him, but Sarah had +passed away. The narrative distinctly says that Abraham "_came_ to mourn +for Sarah and weep for her," as though the end had come during the +absence of her husband. The Hebrew respect for women is illustrated in +the costly burial accorded Sarah in a cave which was purchased from the +sons of Heth--a place reverenced by the people of Israel for many +centuries, because Sarah was buried there. + +There is but one blot upon the life of this first mother of the Hebrews. +Sarah was a faithful wife and devoted mother, but on at least one +occasion she revealed a character capable of hasty, jealous, and cruel +conduct. It is the time for the weaning of her only son--an occasion of +more than usual interest in a Hebrew home. The family feast is at its +height; Sarah discovers that her handmaid, an Egyptian woman, Hagar, +whom she herself had given to Abraham as wife, for thus we may call her, +was jesting at her expense. Quickly and hotly she demands that the +bondwoman and her son Ishmael be immediately driven from the home, to +which request Abraham reluctantly yields. Like most other women, Sarah, +though now aged, could brook no rival in her home, and her womanly +instinct at once discerned that only a step thus sharp and decisive +would prevent, in the circle of domestic life, endless friction, more +bitter than the sufferings occasioned by her cruel action. + +Hagar in the thirsty wilderness, laying her perishing child under a bit +of shrubbery and then departing a little distance that her mother-eyes +may not behold the end, has powerfully awakened the imagination of the +artist, as, indeed, she touched the heart of the Almighty, as the record +tells us. For although Hagar wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, +the region of "the seven wells," no water had she found--so far was she +from the life-giving draught; and yet was she so near--for lo! her eyes +now fell upon a well of water, from which she and the lad quenched their +mortal thirst. Thus was preserved him who was to become the father of +the Ishmaelites, a people whose hand was to be against every man, and +every man's hand against them. The breach that day in the tent of +Abraham, between his two wives, one bond and the other free, was to be +deep and abiding, as N. P. Willis, in describing Hagar's feelings in the +wilderness, has written: + + "May slighted woman turn + And, as a vine the oak hath shaken off, + Bend lightly to her leaning trust again? + O, no!" + +And an apostle versed in rabbinic lore uses the story of Sarah as +typical of the abiding difference between the principles of law and the +precepts of grace. + +Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of so universal an +interest as its marriage customs, and there is no courtship, either +ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the imagination and awakened +the interest of men than that between Isaac and Rebekah. The English +prayerbook, in its ceremony of marriage, has chosen Isaac and Rebekah as +the ideal pair to whose fidelity the young couples of the later years +are directed for inspiration and example. It is a truly picturesque and +even romantic story, which never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether +at the well or in her household, will always present a unique picture of +womanly grace and beauty. + +This ancient wooing of Rebekah by Isaac, though it is by no means +typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental +weddings. The prominence of the parents in the negotiations is +characteristic. It cannot be said, however, that the choice of either +Isaac or Rebekah was constrained. + +When Isaac and his parents have reached the conclusion to which Richter +has given voice--"No man can live piously or die righteously without a +wife"--the faithful Eliezer is made to thrust his hand under the thigh +of his master and swear that he will see that Isaac is wedded not to a +daughter of the people around, but to a woman of his own kindred living +in the regions of Aramea. This habit of marrying within one's own tribe +became firmly fixed in Hebrew custom. The use of marriage presents, here +so rich and costly, is almost as old as marriage itself; and how much +Rebekah and Laban, her brother, were influenced by this manifestation of +the riches of her wooer none can ever know. The part taken by Laban in +this marital transaction is by no means unusual. Brothers in the East +often played an important role on such occasions. When Shechem, the +Hivite, wished to marry Dinah, daughter of Jacob, he consulted not only +her father, but her brothers as well; and the brothers of the heroine of +the _Song of Songs_ are represented as saying: "What shall we do for our +sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?" + +The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of a stranger +and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all the apparent +grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most commendable. We +may say with Dickens: "When a young lady is as mild as she is game and +as game as she is mild, that's all I ask and more than I expect." But it +turned out to be but one of the many cases, since the world began, of +"love at first sight"; and affection strengthened with the years! The +frequent and cynical remark that marriage is after all but a lottery +will probably long survive. Isaac did not act upon the sentiment +expressed in the remark of Francesco Sforza: "Should one desire to take +unto himself a wife, to buy a horse, or to invest in a melon, the wise +man will recommend himself to Providence and draw his bonnet over his +eyes." The daughters of Heth and of Canaan around him were not to his +liking, and Providence seems greatly to have helped him in the +emergency, for in the unseen Rebekah (whose very name means "to tie" or +"to bind") Isaac found a lifelong blessing; and probably nothing could +better disclose the wisdom of his matrimonial choice than the words of +the Bible narrative, "and he loved her, and Isaac _was comforted_ after +his mother's death." + +There is one blot upon Rebekah's record as a wife and mother, which, +however, no less reveals a fault in Isaac's character as a father. It is +a defect that was doubtless inherent in the ancient Oriental system +itself. It was more usual than otherwise for mothers as well as for +fathers to have _favorite_ children. When both parents centred their +affection upon the same child, usually a boy, it was ill for the rest; +when mother and father were divided, it was ill for family felicity. +Rebekah loved Jacob, the younger; Isaac loved Esau, the elder. And it is +in this unfortunate distribution of parental affection that is to be +found the beginning of a violent fratricidal feud, a long separation, as +well as the causes which led to the bringing within the confines of +Hebrew history two of the most important women of ancient Israel,--Leah +and Rachel. Here again we find illustrated the fixed habit among the +Hebrews to seek wives among their own people. + +Among the Hebrews it was the custom that one who would acquire a wife +must pay for her, either in money or in service. Usually, the young +girl's consent was not thought to be a necessary part of the matrimonial +bargain, and a father delivered a daughter to the purchasing suitor, as +he might a slave that he had sold to the highest bidder. The woman +herself played but a secondary part. It is thus quite plain that in this +early day, marriage did not depend upon a contract entered into between +one man and one woman, but between two or more men. And yet, in ancient +Israel, while daughters were sold for wives,--or, to put it less +harshly, given away for a consideration,--there is no intimation that a +wife was in any sense regarded as a slave; nor are there instances of a +husband selling his wife for a consideration. Parents were usually the +parties to matrimonial bargains. In the case of Jacob and Rachel, +however, we do not find the parents making the match, for the parents of +the pair are widely separated. Jacob falls in love with Rachel at his +first sight of her, as she, at close of day, leads the flock of Laban, +her father, to drink from the open well hard by the dwelling. Laban +readily agrees to surrender his daughter to Jacob,--who doubtless had no +purchase money to procure a wife,--if the young man will serve him for +seven years. But at the close of the stipulated period, the wily Laban +falls back upon an unwritten law among the people of the day, that the +daughters must be taken in marriage in the order of their seniority. +Thus Leah, the elder sister, is accorded to Jacob, and seven years' +additional service is necessary for the possession of Rachel. +Persistence wins, and Jacob is at length in possession of both Laban's +daughters, but the victory was the beginning of a life of struggle. Some +one has remarked: "The music at a marriage always reminds me of the +music of soldiers entering upon a battle;" it was so with Jacob. There +must be a battle with Laban, the uncle and father-in-law, in which the +daughters both take the part of the husband against their father, and +agree to flee from that parent's house with the man to whom they had +linked their destinies. There must be a battle with Esau, when mothers +and little ones were to be exposed to great dangers and hardships; +indeed, a long life of vicissitudes awaited the women whose lives were +one with Jacob's, and contests between rival sons of rival mothers were +to follow. + +It has already been remarked that Sarah, wife of Abraham (whose name, +Sarah, means "the princess"), occupies no such place in the imagination +and tradition of the Hebrews as did Abraham, their _father_. It is +around Leah and Rachel that the tribes of Israel group themselves, and +the book of Ruth speaks of them as having built the house of Israel, and +Leah and Rachel were the mothers of the twelve patriarchs for whom the +tribes were subsequently named. Especially does Rachel occupy a high +place, not only because she was Jacob's most favorite wife, but because +of those personal qualities which more readily stirred the poetic and +religious imagination of the people. The poet-prophet, Jeremiah, writing +of the loss of life among the sons of Israel, because of the invasion +and cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, represents the people's +sadness at the terrible calamity as "Rachel weeping for her children +because they are not"--an expression which may have been suggested by +Rachel's early condition of childlessness, followed by the loss of both +her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, in the land of Egypt. The expression has +borrowed new force, because it is quoted as again exemplified in "the +slaughter of the innocents" by Herod the Great at the time of the birth +of Jesus. + + + + +II + +ISRAEL'S HEROIC AGE + + +In the early history of the Hebrews, the people followed the free, +roving life of the shepherd. In a climate where water supply was by no +means sure, where a flowing stream which gave drink to the flocks to-day +might be a rocky ravine to-morrow, families must needs have no certain +abiding place. Woman the homekeeper must of course be affected by this +Bedouin manner of life. Many daughters, like Rebekah and Rachel, were +shepherdesses of their father's flocks of sheep and goats. When the +Israelites went down into Egypt because the fertile valley of the Nile +made famines less frequent than in the land of Canaan, they were +somewhat ashamed, we are told, of the fact that they were shepherds, on +account of Egyptian prejudices against that occupation, but in their +native country they were proud of their occupation, and rather looked +down upon merchantmen. The hated "Canaanite" became the synonym for +"trafficker." It was the later exigencies of exile and dispersion that +forced the Jews to buy and sell, and right well did they learn the +lesson the world forced upon them. But in the beginning it was not so. +And hence we find Israel, even after the twelve patriarchs had settled +in the plains of Goshen, their Egyptian home, keeping their flocks and +developing their home life in their own way in the kingdom of the +Pharaohs. + +Among the many notable women of Israel's heroic age, Miriam must not be +forgotten. The romantic story of the hiding of her infant brother, in +the rushes of the Nile, when King Pharaoh would have destroyed every +Hebrew boy, is a familiar chapter. The sisterly tenderness and devotion +which stationed the girl of twelve years to watch what might happen to +the infant brother, to fight away wild beasts, and at length to direct +the living treasure to the bosom of its own mother, is one of the best +examples in literature of womanly tact and sisterly devotion. + +The daughter of Pharaoh, a child of the Nile, comes down to the sacred +stream to wash her garments or bathe her body in the saving water, and +quickly, indeed quite willingly, falls into the well-wrought plan of +Jokabed, the mother of the child Moses, and Miriam, the sister--a +counterplot to that of the princess's father, and so ancient history is +written with new headlines. + +It is Miriam who enjoys the distinction of being the first prophetess +in Israel, as her brother Moses is the first who was called a prophet, +and her brother Aaron the first high priest. The part she took in +leading the intractable people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage into +the land of the Canaanites, must have been considerable, though +according to the record she was nearing the century mark before the +journeying began. As a poetess and musician, also, Miriam holds no mean +place, for we are told that when her people had successfully crossed the +arm of the sea, and Pharaoh's pursuing hosts had been cut off in the +descending floods, Miriam organized the women into a chorus, and going +before them with timbrel in her hand she led in voicing the refrain sent +back in antiphonal strains to the song of the great camp, while her +companions followed with timbrels and dances. This aged woman had music +and patriotic fervor still present in her soul, as victory was assured +to her people. The Hebrew song that grew out of this incident which is +recorded in the Book of Exodus has been termed "Israel's Natal Hymn," a +sort of poetic Declaration of Independence, and is far more majestic in +its qualities than Moore's poem based upon the same event: + + "Sound the loud timbrel; O'er Egypt's dark sea + Jehovah hath triumphed--His people are free." + +By a singular confusion, the Koran identifies Miriam, sister of Moses, +with Mary, the mother of Jesus. This may be partly due to the fact that +the New Testament Scriptures as well as the Septuagint Greek translation +of the Old spell both names alike, "Miriam." + +But great women, like great men, sometimes make mistakes, and their +blunders are often just at the point where they have achieved greatness. +Miriam's distinction lay in her insight into the merits of her brother's +mission and in her unselfish devotion to the cause to which he had been +dedicated. Her greatest grief befell her by her unfortunate effort to +break that very influence and to destroy his leadership, because she was +displeased with a marriage he had contracted. She was smitten with +leprosy, but the esteem with which she was held may be discovered when +we read that the whole camp grieved at her calamity and consequent +isolation from the people, and "journeyed not till Miriam was brought in +again." + +Miriam, the first prophetess and one of the strongest women that Israel +ever produced, died during the wilderness wandering, and was buried in +the region west of the Jordan. For many generations her tomb was pointed +out in the land of Moab. Jerome, the Christian father, tells us that he +saw the reputed grave close to Petra in Arabia. But, like the place of +the entombment of her more distinguished brother, "no man knoweth it +unto this day." + +Among no people has the national consciousness been more thoroughly +developed or more deeply seated than among the Hebrews. It is not to be +wondered at, therefore, that among the women of Israel may be discovered +the most ardent spirit of patriotism. Miriam's part in the founding of +the Hebrew Commonwealth has already been noticed. When in the wanderings +of the wilderness it became necessary to erect a temporary structure for +the worship of Jehovah, the God of Israel, the women willingly tore +their jewels from their ears, their ornaments from their arms and +ankles, and devoted them to the rearing of the tabernacle. With their +own fingers they spun in blue, purple, and scarlet, and wrought fine +linen for the hangings and the service of their temple in the desert. In +a theocracy, piety and patriotism were one. Not even the Spartan mother, +who wished her son to return from the wars bringing his shield with him +or being borne upon it, nor the women of Carthage, who plucked out their +hair for bowstrings, could surpass the women of Israel in their +sacrifices for national independence and political glory. In the days of +Octavia, the ministers of Rome levied a tax upon Roman matrons to carry +on a foreign war, and demanded a sacrifice of their jewels; and the +Roman women thronged the public places, appealing to the high and +influential in their vigorous protest against this taxation, and thus +saved their ornaments. But the women of Israel did not need to be urged +to tear off their ornaments and devote them to the common welfare. It +was a woman who received the first recognition for services rendered the +victorious hosts of Joshua, after the first campaign against the +Canaanites had been waged. This was Rahab, a woman of Jericho, who, +though her past life had been far from exemplary, seemed to see in the +approaching Israelites a people of destiny. She therefore hid the Hebrew +spies who had come to inspect the land, and, letting them down over the +walls of the city, saved their lives. Thus did Rahab, the harlot of +Jericho, preserve her own life when Joshua entered the city a victor; +and, being admitted among the people of Israel, she became the +ancestress of their greatest king, David, and, through him, the +ancestress of Christ. + +During that era in Israel's life, when the people were no longer merely +an aggregation of shepherd clans, but had not yet been moulded into a +national existence by a strong feeling of unity or the recognition of a +common need, woman's life was exceptionally severe in its hardships and +dangers. The unorganized tribes, engaged in their agricultural and +pastoral pursuits, with hostile clans about them and hostile cities and +strongholds as yet unsubdued, were subject to frequent incursions from +bands of marauders and from armies of neighboring tribes, which would +suddenly swoop down upon them like vultures on their prey. It was under +such conditions as this that the women suffered untold indignities and +misery. Kidnappers sold the women and children to slave traders of the +coast, who carried them to Egyptian and Greek ports; so that even before +the great dispersion of the children of Jacob which the kings of Assyria +and of Babylonia brought about in the eighth and sixth centuries prior +to the Christian era, the Hebrews were being scattered throughout the +world. + +It was in the period of transition and chaos which immediately +followed the entrance of the people into the land of Palestine that +Israel's most manlike woman appears as a veritable savior of her people. +She is the second woman to whom the title of _prophetess_ is accorded. +The record reveals the fact that she was not only a woman strong in +deeds of valor, but a leader in the religious life of Israel. The days +were dark enough for the descendants of Abraham. For two decades now had +Jabin, with his "nine hundred chariots of iron," struck with terror the +ill-equipped, disorganized Hebrews. But there dwelt "under the palm +tree" between Ramah and Bethel among the hills of Ephraim a woman who, +by force of will and recognized wisdom, _judged_ the people of Israel. +"The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until +that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." It is from the +sanctuary of this woman's mind and heart that deliverance from the king +of the Canaanites is to break forth. She is called Deborah, _i.e._, +"woman of torches," or "flames," either because she made wicks for the +lamps of the sanctuary, or because of her fiery, ardent nature. +Certainly there was warmth in her heart and fire in her love of her +native land. She speedily sends for Barak, a chief man of Naphtali, and +enjoins upon him to prepare an army of ten thousand men to meet Jabin's +army, which is approaching under its captain Sisera, on the banks of the +river Kishon. Barak hesitates, but at length answers: "If thou wilt go +with me, I will go,"--so necessary did this strong, magnetic woman's +presence seem for the enlistment of the people in the holy order of the +enterprise. Deborah did not flinch in the presence of this challenge. +The army is raised. The battle is joined, and Sisera's host is +discomfited before Israel. The captain himself becomes a fugitive before +the victors. But the end is not yet. Another woman appears upon the +stage of this tragedy. The fleeing Sisera seeks shelter in the secret +place of Jael's tent. Weary to exhaustion, the captain of the enemies of +her people sinks down to sleep, the more profound because of the great +draught of buttermilk or curds which Jael gave the thirsty man; and then +with tent pin, a hammer, and an unquivering hand, Jael struck the sharp +instrument through the sleeping man's temple and pinned him swooning to +the dirt floor of her tent. + +It was this bloody, but daring, deed which gave rise to one of the +earliest of Israel's epic songs, the Song of Deborah. It is a remarkable +poem, given in full in the Book of Judges. It sets forth praises to +Jehovah for deliverance, and to Jael for the deadly stroke. A few lines +from this epic, which many consider the earliest piece of Old Testament +writing, will disclose the patriotic spirit of Israel's womanhood in +those days of social and political disorder. The people are represented +as crying out to the strong woman who lived under the solitary palm: + + "Awake, awake, Deborah, + Awake, awake, utter a song." + +Deborah comes at the call of distress. The people are rapidly marshalled +to her help. But some hold back: + + "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, + To hear the bleatings of the flocks? + ......................................... + Gilead abode beyond Jordan + And why did Dan remain in ships?" + +The battle is joined. Canaan is worsted before the followers of the +woman of the hour. + + "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. + The river Kishon swept them away, + That ancient river, the river Kishon. + O my soul, march on with strength." + +Then, turning upon the indifferent and laggard hosts that held back and +refused to strike the blow for liberty, the poetess exclaims: + + "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, + Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, + Because they came not to the help of the Lord, + To the help of the Lord against the mighty." + +Concerning the woman whose unfailing hand had struck the fatal blow, the +poetess sings: + + "Blessed above women shall Jael be, + The wife of Heber the Kenite. + Blessed shall she be above women in the tent. + + "He asked water + And she gave him milk, + She brought forth butter in a lordly dish." + +The tent pin has pierced the temples of the oppressor of Israel: + + "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down, + At her feet he bowed, he fell, + When he bowed, he fell down--dead." + +Very dramatic do the lines become when, imagining the mother of Sisera +waiting for her son to return victorious from the battle, and looking +out through the lattice of her dwelling wondering at his long delay, she +asks: + + "Why is his chariot so long in coming, + Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?" + +But Sisera never returns to his maternal roof. For forty years did the +people enjoy the freedom of Deborah's deliverance, the woman whose +influence went out from "the sanctuary of the palm." + +It is said of this period, commonly known as the Age of the Judges, +that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This would be +known in political theory as well as in practical government as nothing +short of anarchy. And indeed, it was, for while each man did that which +was right in his own eyes, the "right" of each was so frequently wrong, +that social chaos reigned with almost unbroken sway. And while one woman +of the period became a deliverer for four decades, for more than a +century many women suffered untold misery for lack of unity among the +tribes and leaders capable of bringing the life of the reign to rights. + +It is often affirmed that sons more frequently inherit characteristics +of their mothers, while to the daughters are bequeathed the traits of +their fathers. An unnamed woman of this period of the political chaos, +the wife of a certain Manoah, from the family of the Danites, was chosen +to be the mother of a giant. Now, giants were rare in Israel, though in +the earlier days of Palestinian occupation, _Nephelim_, and "the sons of +Anak," are mentioned as among those enemies of the Hebrews. Their huge +forms, it is written, were a menace to Israel's peace, and in comparison +with these monsters her sons were said to be "as grass-hoppers." One +day, as the story runs, an angel appears to this nameless, hitherto +childless, wife of Manoah, and informs her that a son who is to be born, +and nourished at her own bosom, is to have a remarkable history. She +herself is to take care neither to drink wine nor any strong drink, for +her son is to be dedicated to the abstemious life of the Nazarite. The +woman is obedient to the angelic voice; and she with her husband offers +up a burnt offering to Jehovah in grateful praise. The son is born. He +is taught that no intoxicating draught shall enter his lips, nor should +a razor touch his head, that his long-grown locks might speak outwardly +of his vows. But wine is not the only temptation that is to beset this +giant youth. The daughters of neighboring Philistia were to his eyes +more than passing fair. + +The influence of these young women, whose features, we may suppose, +bore some characteristics of Grecian beauty,--as their progenitors had +landed on the shores of Canaan from the island of Crete, gradually +adopting a Semitic language and civilization,--was very potent over the +heart of the muscular but susceptible young Hebrew. A love affair in +which the long-haired Nazarite plays a prominent role will introduce us, +somewhat at least, into woman's world of this disorganized period in the +early life of Western Palestine at a day more than a thousand years +before the Christian Era. + +This affair of the heart was brought to light when one day the young man +came in to tell his father and his mother that a fair damsel in Timnah, +a city of the Philistines, had captured the very citadel of his being. +Neither the protestations of his parents, nor their careful descanting +upon the virtues of the daughters of his own people could move the young +man. His heart was set. Neither parents at home nor the lion that met +him on the way to secure his bride could thwart his firm-set purpose. +Mother and father are for the moment forgotten, and the lion is torn +asunder by the strong arms of this young giant. Every obstacle is +surmounted and Delilah is in the arms of Samson. + +Now, George Sand was doubtless correct in the rather prosaic remark: "It +is not so easy to see through a woman as through a man." Samson did not +quite penetrate the wiles of his lady love. Her beauty hid all else, and +Samson fell. "The whisper of a beautiful woman," says Diana of Poitiers, +"can be heard further than the loudest call of duty." The Nazarite vow, +so strong and binding, became in Delilah's hands, as she held the +shears, weaker than the withes she bound about the arms of the captured +giant. Robert Burns has, in a characteristic fashion, given what might +well be inscribed to Samson's memory: + + "As Father Adam first was fooled, + A case that's still too common, + Here lies a man a woman ruled + The devil ruled the woman." + +Delilah, the Philistine, is to be contrasted with the typical Hebrew +women, not only in the matter of feminine chastity for which they stand +out among ancient women as preeminent, but also in that fidelity to +husband and to native land which made the Hebrews the most stable and +persistent race with which the world is acquainted. + +In marked contrast with this witch of the Philistine plains, stands out +the heroic daughter of Jephtha. Her purity, patriotism, and her deep +respect for the sacredness of a religious oath, place her at the very +opposite pole. "Great women," says Leigh Hunt, "belong to the history of +self-sacrifice." If this be true, Jephtha's daughter must be enrolled +among the great, as her heroic self-devotion shines through the dimness +of ancient history. Her father was one of Israel's deliverers in the +days of tribal division and political chaos. Returning from victory over +the hostile Ammonites, Jephtha purposes to give, as sacrifice to Jehovah +for bringing him success in arms, the first creature that comes forth to +meet him as he turns his face homeward. It is his own daughter, his only +child, going out to meet him with the timbrel and with dances. In his +eyes a "very daughter of the gods, divinely tall, and most divinely +fair." Will he break his vow? Will the young woman herself, this Hebrew +Alcestis, shrink from the sacrifice? "My father, thou hast opened thy +mouth unto the Lord, do unto me according to that which hath proceeded +out of thy mouth." + +For a woman to die childless in Israel was looked upon as a calamity, a +mark of divine displeasure, and the daughter of Jephtha was a virgin. It +is for this reason that she begged the coveted privilege of two months' +respite that, with her maidens, she might withdraw to the neighboring +mountain and there "bewail her virginity." At the end of the required +period, returning to her father's house, she yields herself a sacrifice +to the hasty but well-meant vow of her patriotic father. So deeply did +her pure devotion to filial and patriotic ideals impress the daughters +of Israel, that every year they went out to lament, four days, in honor +of the daughter of Jephtha, the Gileadite, of whom N. P. Willis has drawn +this appreciative picture: + + "Now she who was to die, the calmest one + In Israel at that hour, stood up alone + And waited for the sun to set. Her face + Was pale but very beautiful, her lip + Had a more delicate outline and the tint + Was deeper; but her countenance was like + The majesty of angels!" + +Among no ancient people was the love of chastity in women so thorough +and imperative. There is probably no better illustration of this fact +than in the very ingenious method by which the men of Benjamin obtained +their wives, at a time when total extinction of the tribe seemed to +stare them in the face. An aged Levite, with his wife, who had been +unfaithful to him, but by his efforts had been reclaimed and with him +was returning home, is passing through the land of Benjamin. When they +reach the city of Jebus, afterward named Jerusalem, the famous centre of +Israel's later life, no one offered the customary hospitality, so the +man and his wife were about to lodge in the street, a disgrace to the +city, according to the common customs of entertainment. It is then a +temporary resident of the city invites the homeless ones into his house. +When the Benjamites saw them go in, they took the woman from the house +and shamefully maltreated her, leaving her helpless upon the steps till +morning. The Levite, incensed at the terrible crime, took the woman, cut +her in pieces and sent the fragments throughout the tribes, telling the +story of the deed of some of the sons of Benjamin. It is pronounced by +all the worst blot upon the land since the sojourn in Egypt. The whole +people is aroused to anger. They collect men of war from the tribes, and +go up to battle against their brethren of Benjamin, till the entire +tribe seems about to be exterminated. Especially was the destruction of +their women grievous. What must be done when the dust of battle has +rolled away? Shall a tribe be lost to Israel? This must not be. The +sacred number must be preserved. How shall Benjamin obtain wives, for +all the rest of Israel had made a solemn oath that they would never give +their daughters to the sons of Benjamin because of this horrible crime +which had been so peremptorily punished. At length, the elders of all +the people devise a plan. Marriage with the Gentile peoples is, of +course, not sanctioned, and all the tribes of Israel have refused to +give their daughters to Benjamin--there is yet a way out of the dilemma. +Some one remembers that every year at harvest time there is given a +feast at Shiloh, where many Hebrew damsels come together to enjoy the +religious and festal dances. It is agreed that the sons of Benjamin +shall hide themselves in the adjacent vineyards, and while the maidens +are dancing, each man is to run out, seize a wife and make his way +swiftly homeward. But what say the fathers and brothers of the purloined +damsels to this high-handed procedure of the young men of Benjamin? The +elders agree to step in then and to advise all to acquiesce in +quietness, for the people had not violated their oaths. Their daughters +had not been given to Benjamin; they were stolen! So Benjamin obtained +wives and the tribal existence was preserved by the same method in which +Rome was repeopled at the expense of the Sabines. + +Israel holds a high place among the people of the earth because of the +prevalence of piety among its women. Religion is deeply grounded in the +intuitions and feelings of the race, and derives force, at least, from +the sense of dependence upon higher powers, as Schliermacher has taught. +Since women are far truer in their intuitions and feelings than men and +the sense of dependence is more highly developed, it is not strange that +women everywhere are more religious than men. Among the holy women of +old none can be accorded higher place than Hannah, the mother of Samuel. + +One may at first be astonished that childlessness is so frequently +mentioned as characteristic of women in the Scriptures. Among them, +Sarah, Rebekah, Rachael, the unnamed wife of Manoah, Hannah, and +Elisabeth,--mother of John the Forerunner,--are all familiar examples. +But barrenness was probably not more common among the Hebrews than among +other peoples. Only, in Israel, childlessness was accounted a calamity, +if not a direct visitation of the Almighty. Hence, every pious woman +wished to be released from the curse. The women themselves ridiculed and +ever despised those who were not blessed with offspring. Besides, every +man among the Hebrews wished to live in his descendants. To die without +children was to be "cut off" from the face of the earth, and to be +forgotten. There was a yearning to live forever in the land. + +The contrast between the great emphasis which the Egyptian laid upon +immortality, the large place it held not only in their religious +teachings, but in the development of their civilization, as modern +excavations have revealed it, and the lack of such emphasis in the +writings of the Hebrew Scriptures has frequently been noticed, and by +many greatly wondered at. But the Hebrews gave little thought to +immortality in the next world. Their prophets spent most of their time +stressing the importance of righteousness in this life, and the people +emphasized the earthward side of immortality--that is, one's power to +live forever in one's posterity. + +The writer in the one hundred and twenty-eighth Psalm expressed the +common Hebrew conception, as, in recounting the blessings of a truly +happy man, he said: "Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy +shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a +fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive +plants round about thy table." Or as another psalmist, in the same +spirit, prays: "That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; +that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude +of a palace." Many a time in the Hebrew Scriptures is this ideal +prominent. For a psalmist again writes: "As arrows in the hand of a +mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his +quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak +with the enemies in the gate." And when the prophet Zachariah foretells +the coming glory of Jerusalem, which should supersede the then present +distress, he gives as one item of blessing: "And the streets of the city +shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the streets thereof." + +It may therefore be readily surmised how a woman of Hannah's piety +might feel in the thought of her condition of childlessness. And while +the hardships of the barren woman in Israel could in no way compare with +those of some other peoples, as in Australia, where the childless woman +of the aborigines is driven out to a dire struggle for existence, yet +the feeling that her God was, for some cause, against her and that her +husband might in his secret heart despise her, must have been agony +indeed. "The brain-woman," says Oliver Wendell Holmes, "never interests +us like the heart-woman; white roses please us less than red." Hannah +was preeminently a heart woman; the red blood of warm devotion coursed +through her veins. When at length her prayers, made in bitterness of +suffering, were answered, and heaven gave her a son, she named him +Samuel, for, she said, "God hath heard," and dedicated him wholly to +Jehovah, placing him at the service of the tabernacle. When the time +came to wean the lad, she journeyed with him to Shiloh, the place of the +sanctuary, with her offering, as the custom was, and "lent him" forever +to Jehovah, her God. + +"I think it must somewhere be written that the virtues of the mothers +are occasionally visited upon their children, as well as the sins of the +fathers." These words of Dickens suggest one of the occasions in which +motherly virtues seem to have been visited upon the child, for Samuel +became the earliest representative of a long line of prophets who, for +many centuries, were the spiritual leaders of Israel. He was the father +and founder of a "school of the prophets," the earliest theological +seminary of which we have any record. The prayer of thanksgiving which +the records say Hannah uttered when God blessed her with this precious +gift of a son, influenced not only the famous _Magnificat_ of Mary, when +she was told of the birth of her greater Son, but also that of Zacharias +when the birth of John the Baptist was predicted by the angel who talked +with him in the temple. + +History records several famous cases of friendship between men; that +between David and Jonathan, and that between Damon and Pythias of +Syracuse, have become proverbial. Fewer have been the friendship among +women. Indeed, some have argued the impossibility of such friendships. +But there is probably no more attractive story of womanly devotion in +all the range of literature than that which tells of the love between +Ruth and Naomi. The Book of Ruth is a beautiful idyll of early Hebrew +life, and the heroine here stands the test. The scene is laid in the +time when judges ruled in Israel; and in this, as in many instances in +the early days of Palestine, an epoch was born out of a famine. +Elimelech, with his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, +hunger-driven, set out for the land of Moab. Death lays its claim to the +husband and father, and Naomi, with her boys, is left widowed in a +strange land. Mahlon and Chilion, now grown to manhood, marry two +daughters of Moab, by name Orpah and Ruth. A decade passes, and the sons +themselves die. Bereaved and broken in spirit, Naomi at length turns her +heart toward her native Judean hills. Finding her daughters-in-law +inclined to follow her into the uncertainty of her future subsistence in +her former home, Naomi counsels their return, each to her mother's +house. "And they lifted up their voice and wept." Orpah reluctantly +obeys, but Ruth cleaves to her mother-in-law, with those unsurpassed and +memorable words, which the author of the book of Ruth throws into Hebrew +measure: + + "Intreat me not to leave thee, + Or to return from following after thee; + For whither thou goest, I will go; + And where thou lodgest I will lodge; + Thy people shall be my people, + And thy God, my God. + Where thou diest, will I die, + And there will I be buried. + The Lord do so to me, and more also, + If aught but death part thee and me." + +"Some women's faces are in their brightness a prophecy, and some in +their sadness a history." As these two women stood with their faces set +toward Palestine, upon one was written a history of sorrow; upon the +other there fell the sunrise of a new day. In Ruth's determination to +follow Naomi, even to death,--for "a woman can die for her friend as +well as a Roman knight" when she has one, as Jeremy Taylor has +declared,--the young widow of Moab began a new life, which was destined +to make her the ancestress of Judah's royal house, the great grandmother +of David the king. + +As the poetic story of Ruth proceeds, it records several interesting +ancient marriage customs among the people of Israel. In marked contrast +with the Hindoo custom of condemning widows to a life of scarcely +bearable hardships, the Hebrew law was so framed as to make widowhood as +far as possible a temporary state. The custom of Levirate marriage +enforced upon the brother or nearest of kin to the deceased husband the +obligation of taking the widow of his brother to wife, in order that the +brother might not be without heir and memory in the land. Ruth's +deceased husband had rights in the ancestral estate, and the Hebrew law +was careful that estates should not pass out of the hands of the +original owners, if it were possible to prevent it. Ruth, the widow, +suddenly appears at Bethlehem, the old home of her husband's people. It +is the time of the barley harvest. Naomi plays the role of the scheming +mother. She would have her beautiful young daughter-in-law find a +husband among her kindred, that her lamented son might have an heir to +honor his memory and that the portion of the estate which was Elimelech +her husband's might be redeemed. The love plot sends Ruth into the field +of Boaz, a wealthy farmer and near kinsman of Elimelech, to glean after +the reapers, for no man was permitted by the law to deprive the poor of +whatever pickings they might find when the reapers had passed. The quick +success of the plot, the fascination that Boaz feels for the graceful +but unknown woman, the command given the reapers to leave behind by +purposeful accident a little more of the grain than was usual and be +gracious to the girl; the invitation at mealtime to come and partake of +the repast of parched corn with the reapers; the resolve of Boaz that +should there be found no nearer kinsman--whose duty it would first be to +take the young woman to wife--he himself would choose her. All these +incidents pass in rapid and romantic succession. The observation is +apparently true that "women are never stronger than when they arm +themselves with their own weakness." Boaz at once pledged himself to be +the damsel's friend and protector. The next of kin declines or waives +his right to the young widow, for he does not care to redeem Elimelech's +portion of the land, a necessary part of such a matrimonial transaction. +Boaz therefore summons the young man, next of kin, who has declined to +redeem the land of his deceased brother and raise up heirs for him, to +appear at the gate of the city as the law required. Here ten elders sit +to witness and make legal the transaction. The shoe of the refusing +kinsman is taken from his foot, in the presence of the assembled people, +and given to Boaz, symbolizing the relinquishment of all rights in the +premises. Then follows the custom of spitting in the face of the "man +with the loosed shoe," which became a term of reproach, and was applied +to the man who refused to fulfil toward a deceased kinsman the duties of +the Levirate marriage. Time passes and the aged Naomi, whose mother +named her "winsome," forgets the bitterness of her later years as she +holds in her arms the infant Obed, in whom she exultingly sees the +pledge that the house of her son shall live on, and a prophecy that his +name will become famous among his people. "And Obed begat Jesse and +Jesse begat David," the king. + + + + +III + +THE DAYS OF THE KINGS + + +As we pass out of the unsettled age of the judges into the period when +the commonwealth of Israel began to take definite shape, we come upon a +corresponding change in the life of the Hebrew woman. The heroism in +female virtue was perhaps no less frequent, but when the "heroic age" is +behind us there is less opportunity for women to stand out in so strong +a glare. And, indeed, all through this history the remark of Ruskin is +close to the truth when he says: "Woman's function is a guiding, not a +determining one." While epoch-making women occasionally appeared in the +earlier period, they became fewer and fewer as the social order became +more settled. + +It was not till the days of the kings that the Mosaic law, in the +broadest sense of the term, could exert any very potential influence +over the life and conduct of the people. In a disorganized condition of +society, of which it was said, "Every man did that which was right in +his own eyes," to enforce Mosaic precepts would have been an +impossibility, even had the people at large been acquainted with that +law. Now, the law of Moses became one of the most powerful factors in +giving to the women of Israel the high place they held in the +commonwealth. The fifth of the "Ten Words"--which commands were the very +nucleus about which the whole law was developed--reads: "Honor thy +father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the +Lord thy God giveth thee." Thus, in this, the very first law of the +Decalogue respecting duties to man, the duty of honoring the mother was +made equally imperative with that of showing honor to the father. And it +may be truly affirmed that Israel's remarkable permanence and +persistency as a people may be traced to its domestic health, and that +this vigorous domesticity is due largely to a better understanding of +the true relation of the sexes than is discoverable among any other +ancient nation. + +That honor for parents makes for the permanence of a people both reason +and history affirm. Any nation which honors its ancestry will hold +tenaciously to ancestral ideals. Notwithstanding China's limitations in +other directions, that nation, because of its worship of the fathers, +has lived through many centuries and seen more powerful nations rise and +fall. + +The position of Israel as a separate people abides in strength because +both father and mother have for ages been respected; and even though +most of her sons and daughters are no longer "upon the land which the +Lord their God gave them," they are still holding with wonderful +firmness to the faith and ideals of their fathers. The Mosaic teachings +concerning woman are not a little responsible for this remarkable state +of racial longevity. The Hebrew woman's standing before the law gave her +great advantage over her sisters of the other Semitic and Oriental +peoples. The Mosaic law tended greatly to lessen the inequalities and +mitigate the hardships of womankind. Even a woman captured in war was +protected against the caprice of her captors. Under the law, her life +was equally as precious as that of a man, and therefore the taking of a +woman's life was punishable with the same severity as was the murder of +a man. The law was especially solicitous of her welfare during the +period of child bearing, and greatly lessened the sorrows and isolation +of widowhood. + +While divorces were given almost at the will of the man, yet he could +not without formality at once eject the woman from his house. He must +give her a "writing of divorcement," which set forth the fact that she +had been his wife. Thus was she protected from subsequent suspicion that +she had lived with a man unlawfully. Wives of bond-servants were to go +out free with their husbands on the seventh year of service, unless the +master himself had given the wife to his manservant, in which case the +woman and her children still belonged to the master. + +Daughters were allowed inheritance as well as sons, though in earlier +times than those of the kings they did not inherit their father's +property except there were no sons. Fathers were not allowed to +discriminate against a firstborn son and pass the inheritance to another +because the mother of the oldest child happened to have lost favor in +his eyes. + +Laws forbidding unchastity and vice were explicit and severe. One who +had taken criminal advantage of another's daughter was to marry her and +pay the father the usual dowry; if not, he was to be amerced fifty +shekels of silver, the ordinary dowry of virgins. If a husband suspected +his wife of being unfaithful to him, an elaborate, but not severe, +ordeal was laid upon the woman, called "drinking the waters of +jealousy." If she passed this examination successfully, her husband had +no power further to punish her; if not, she was to suffer for her shame. + +The widow and the fatherless were given special consideration under the +law. In the feast days when the people's hearts were merry and they were +rejoicing in the increase of their lands, the widow was not to be +forgotten. In business transactions the people were to take heed that +the widow suffer not injustice. Her garments could never be taken in +pledge, and judges were enjoined to see that no violence was done to her +rights. The fallen sheaf in the harvest field, the forgotten gleanings +of the olive trees, the droppings of the vintage were not to be withheld +from her. + +How deep-seated this sense of obligation to the widow was in Israel may +be discovered in the Book of Job. The friends who visited Job in his +bewildering grief could find no more probable cause for so severe a +divine chastisement upon the arch-sufferer than that Job had neglected +the widow or taken her in pledge. One effect of the attitude of the +customary law toward widows is discovered in a most signal way in the +Second Book of Maccabees, which relates that in the period of which it +tells, about B.C. 150, it was customary to lay up large sums of money in +the temple treasury for the relief of widows and of fatherless children. + +Such women as Miriam and Deborah were factors to be reckoned with in the +political movements of their times. So it was with the prophetesses +generally, for just as the great prophets dealt with the politics of +state, so a prophetess could not always escape the problems of +statesmanship to which her time might give birth. Both prophet and +prophetess were looked upon as the chosen spokesmen for Jehovah. Because +of this, Huldah acted as a sort of prime minister and adviser of both +king and high priests in their Jehovistic reforms during the reign of +Josiah. + +That women generally took a deep interest in political matters may be +perceived in the way in which the exploits of David appealed to the +imaginations of the women when Saul's star was setting and David's +appearing above the horizon; for young women went out to meet the coming +hero and king with musical instruments, singing a song whose refrain +was: + + "Saul hath slain his thousands, + David his tens of thousands." + +The power of the feminine idea may be forcefully seen in the very common +conception of the nation itself as a young woman. Both prophet and +poet--and the prophets were usually poets--refer many times to the +"daughter of Zion," meaning the people of Israel. + +The prophet Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming destruction of the army of +Babylon, says: "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and +delicate woman" who is about to be ravaged by the invader. And Isaiah, +seeing the time at hand for the people to return from Babylonish exile, +cries out: "Loose thyself, O captive daughter of Zion." + +Affection for the native land was strong among the women as well as +among the men. Lot's wife did not turn because of curiosity, but by +reason of the strong attachment to locality; she looked back longingly +toward her forsaken and burning home. The little Hebrew maid, torn by an +invading army of Syrians from her native land, was quick to tell Naaman, +the leper,--her new master,--of the virtues of her country and impelled +him to seek out Elisha, the prophet of Israel. + +The social position of Hebrew women was exceptionally free and +independent. While a daughter's matrimonial plans were largely in the +hands of father and brother, and wives were expected to look up to their +husbands with all reverence, yet the recorded examples of independent +action and influence among the women reveal a place of social equality +and power, a lack of masculine restraint and domination that would do +credit to more modern times. + +Deborah accompanied, if she did not lead, the soldiers into battle and +cheered them on to victory. The daughters of Shiloh, unaccompanied, were +accustomed annually to attend festal dances in the vineyards of +Benjamin. Women often went without escorts upon difficult and dangerous +missions. Prophetesses frequently exerted not only a powerful but at +times a decisive influence. + +Marriage customs among the Hebrews in the days of the kings were not +greatly different from those of other Oriental people of the same era. +They differed but slightly from those of an earlier period. As a rule, +marriage was not born out of impulse of the heart; though there were +many marriages that surely ripened into love. If, as Jean Paul Richter +says, "Nature sent woman into the world with a bridal dower of love," we +have an explanation of the fact that there are many happy marriages in +Israel, notwithstanding the fact that the arrangements continued to be +largely in the hands of the parents. A daughter belonged to her father +till of age: after this she could not be betrothed except by her own +consent. Among the Hebrews betrothal was of the nature of an inviolable +contract, and could be annulled only by divorce. If not in early days, +yet in the later periods of Hebrew history there were writings of +betrothal which set forth the mutual agreements between the parties. +Later, there followed the marriage contract, also in writing. The amount +paid for a maiden came to be at least two hundred denars, and just +one-half as much for a widow. The father was to provide dowry according +to his ability, and an orphan girl's dowry was bestowed by the +community. + +The marriage ceremony consisted of leading the bride from her father's +house to that of the bridegroom. At which time there was a season of +festivity and rejoicing. The marriage of a maiden usually occurred on +Wednesday evening, that of a widow on Thursday. The "children of the +bride chamber," the name by which the invited guests were called, made +merry at the "marriage feast," which was always provided and lasted +several days. As the procession passed along, going from the bride's to +the bridegroom's house, people along the route might join in the +festivities. + +Grains of corn, nuts, and other edibles were the confetti tossed +good-humoredly at the bridal pair. It became the custom, which still +exists among Jews to-day, to break a glass bottle at Hymen's altar to +indicate that the former life is no more, and that the bride has entered +upon a new estate. Among the Hebrews the married woman was better +protected in her rights than among most people of ancient times. While +her property was usually under control of her husband, yet the dowry +came to be considered her own, whether it be money, property, or jewels. +A husband could not compel his wife to remove from the land of her +fathers; and in many ways her individual rights were protected. Woman's +inferior position in Greece was one element in the decline of that +remarkable country; the defilement of the womanhood of Rome hastened the +downfall of that city's power; but the protection given to Hebrew +wifehood and widowhood became an element of great strength in the life +of Israel. + +The Greek attitude toward woman could probably be reflected in the old +saying: "A woman who is never spoken of is praised most." In the period +of Rome's decay women became immodestly conspicuous in the social and +public functions of the day. As opposed to both these conditions the +Hebrew, the wise man in the Proverbs, calls her a virtuous woman whom +her husband can praise in the very gates. + +Edersheim calls attention to a suggestive custom which sprung up from +the slight difference of sound in the words for "find" in two passages +of Scripture concerning women, both of which occur in the wisdom +writings. The first of these reads: "Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a +good thing." (Proverbs 18: 22.) The other, "I find more bitter than +death the woman whose heart is snares and nets." Hence arose the habit +of saying to a newly married man, "_Maza_ or _Moze?_" "Have you found a +'good thing' or a 'bitter'?" + +The tendency in Israel continued to restrict marriage to one's own +tribe. The law of inheritance gave force to this custom. Those very near +of kin were thus regarded as most eligible for wedlock. Jacob married +two of his first cousins. A similar situation is seen in the marriage of +Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebecca. Each husband, under specially +trying circumstances, had claimed that his wife was his "sister," and so +she was,--for in the patriarchal form of society all who belonged to the +same family or clan were brother and sister,--but not in the strict +sense which the word was intended to convey. While brothers and sisters +of the whole blood might not marry, yet it would not have been regarded +as altogether out of place for half-brothers and sisters to marry, +especially if they had a different mother. + +The story of Amnon and Tamar not only throws light upon this point, but +illustrates how brother and sister by the same father as well as the +same mother stood in a greatly different relation, the one to the other, +in the matter of brotherly protection from that of half-brother and +half-sister. + +Amnon, son of David, fell desperately in love with his half-sister, +David's daughter, Tamar. By a cunningly devised plot Amnon succeeded in +bringing the beautiful damsel into his chamber. When Absalom, Tamar's +brother and half-brother to Amnon, heard that his sister had thus been +dealt with, he felt himself under obligation to defend her honor, by +slaying his half-brother, which he did at a feast given during the +season of sheep shearing, when the king's sons were all making merry. + +The remark of Frances Power Cobbe is as true in Israel as elsewhere. "A +man may build a castle or a palace, but poor creature! be he as wise as +Solomon or as rich as Croesus, he cannot turn it into a home. No +masculine mortal can do that. It is a woman, and only a woman,--a woman +all by herself if she must, or prefers, without any man to help +her,--who can turn a house into a home." It was the Hebrew wife and +mother who largely gave to the homes of the Israelites their peculiar +quality. But it may be said it was seldom her necessity or her +preference to set up a home without the presence of some son of Israel. + +The birth of children was always considered an occasion for rejoicing. +Hebrew women were, as a rule, active and strong, and natural in their +mode of life. There are but two cases in all the Hebrew Scriptures of +death at the time of childbirth. One is that of Rachel, who, when upon a +fatiguing journey with her husband and family, gave birth to Benjamin +and died; the other is the wife of Phineas, who, when she heard the sad +news of the victory of the Philistines over Israel, the capture of the +Ark of Jehovah, of her father Eli's and her husband's death in the +battle, gave birth to a child whom the nurse called Ichabod, for said +she: "The glory is departed from Israel." In the naming of her children +the Hebrew mother thus often revealed a poetic imagination that is of a +high order. In this the Hebrew language was helpful, for, as one has +remarked of it: "Every word is a picture." + +The bright eyes and graceful form of the gazelle suggested the name for +a daughter of Tabitha, of which Dorcas is the Greek. Zipporah was a +little bird; Deborah, the busy bee; Esther, a star; Tamar, a palm tree; +Zillah, a shadow; Sarah, the princess; Keturah, fragrance; Hadassah, the +myrtle. Thus, some resemblance or poetic association suggested to the +mother, either at the birth of the child, or because of some fact or +incident of later experience, the name the little one was to bear. Often +there is a tragedy or a mother's sorrowful life history crystallized in +a name. When Rachel, Jacob's favored wife, brought forth her second son +amidst the suffering which was to take away her life, the woman standing +by tried to comfort her in the fact that another son had been born to +bless her. The mother, with her last faint breath, replied: "Call his +name Benoni (son of my sorrow)." But the father, unwilling thus to +perpetuate his wife's anguish, called him Benjamin (son of my right +hand). When Naomi, the widow, bereft of her husband and sons, returns to +her native Bethlehem after many years of absence and of sorrow, the +women came out to meet her, saying: "Is this Naomi?" She answered them: +"Call me not Naomi (pleasant or winsome), call me Mara (bitter), for the +Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me." So, among the Hebrews, names +not only were given to both men and women at birth, but were frequently +changed at some critical moment or because of some extraordinary +experience in their life. Ordinarily, however, the favorite method of +naming sons connected the boy in some way with his God; as when Hannah +named her baby boy Samuel (God hath heard), and the name of Jacob (the +supplanter), was changed to Israel (the prince of God). The girls seldom +if ever bore names ending in _el_ (God), _ajah_ (Jehovah), but were +called by some name of poetic association or natal experience. In no +respect do the Hebrew mothers deserve greater praise than for their +share in the upbringing of children. While the Jewish law placed the +responsibility for the training of the Hebrew youth upon the father, a +very large share of the responsibility fell upon the mother. With the +Hebrew child, as with the children of all nations, it is impossible to +say exactly where its education begins. The famous dictum: "If you would +bring up a child in the way it should go, you must begin with its +great-grandmother," finds special force among the Israelites. The women +held an honored place in the education of the Jewish youth. Before the +child could walk or could lisp a syllable, while still in its mother's +arms, it would see her, as she passed from one room to another in the +house, stop and touch the _mesusah_ on the doorpost, and then kiss the +finger that had thus come in contact with the sacred words of the law +encased there. The little one would easily learn to put out its own tiny +finger and touch the aperture of the sacred box on the doorpost, and +then press it to the baby lips. + +Here was the first lesson in the law of its fathers. Very early the +mother took her babe to the temple, and offered a sacrifice for it. +Especially was the birth of the firstborn significant, for the firstborn +son belonged to Jehovah, just as the firstborn of the herd and the flock +and the first-fruits of the ground. These must be sacrificed on the +altar of the Lord. But, happily for the mother heart, the firstborn son +might be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb, or, if the mother were +poor, by a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. So the young +mother brought her boy to the altar, made her offering, and took her +babe back to her bosom. + +From the time of offering onward, the mother greatly aided in shaping +the life of the young Israelite. In this training the sacred Scriptures +played an important part. The rabbis, however, never regarded women as +becoming masters of the intricacies of the law. It was a saying among +them that "Women are of a light mind." This was doubtless an appropriate +remark, for it is certainly true that much of the rabbinic lore is +heavy, almost beyond expression. There were not a few women, though, who +were well versed in the Scriptures and also in rabbinical teaching. The +synagogues were open to the women, where they occupied seats partitioned +from those of the men. The attendance of women upon the great feasts, +where much could be learned of custom, tradition, and teaching, also +gave them opportunity to be instructed in the religion of their fathers. +The Christian apostle Paul congratulated his young friend Timothy, that +from a babe he had known the Hebrew Scriptures, which he had learned +from his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. These are typical +mothers of the higher order; and while probably only the richer homes +owned a copy of the entire Bible, most families possessed at least one +or more scrolls containing parts of the sacred writings. + +The strength of motherly devotion was nowhere stronger than among the +mothers of Israel. The spirit of Rizpah was the spirit of most of them. +For when seven of her sons, the sons of Saul, had been slain and their +bodies exposed, in the revolution which brought David to the throne, +Rizpah took a piece of sackcloth, and, spreading it upon a rock near by, +guarded the bodies of her offspring from the beginning of barley harvest +till the early rains: that neither birds might molest them by day nor +beasts of the field by night. + +Home life among the Hebrews of Palestine to-day is marked by much that +characterized that life ten or even twenty centuries ago; therefore a +few facts concerning the home life in the Jerusalem of to-day will teach +us much concerning that of the past. Probably nine-tenths of the native +homes of Jerusalem are unpretentious, unattractive, uncomfortable, and +show signs of poverty. The people have learned the fine art of economy +in house room. Father, mother, and the multitude of little ones with +which the Jewish home is usually blessed do not find it difficult to be +tucked snugly away in two or three rooms. These give ample space for +cooking, dining, sleeping, and performing the necessary labor of +domestic life; besides furnishing opportunity for the hospitality for +which the East is still justly noted. Call any time you will, on any +business bent, and your hostess, if there be no servant, will, before +you are permitted to mention the matter of your call, bring to you a +glass of wine or perhaps a cup of coffee to refresh you. This, too, +though the family be poor and it be deprivation for even this repast to +be served to the guest. And though you know of the sacrifice the hostess +makes, you must not refuse, lest you offend and wound the spirit of +hospitality at its very heart. + +The brunt of the work of the house falls, of course, upon the wife and +mother. And it is doubtful if the place of the woman of the Palestine of +to-day, even among the Jewish families, is as high as in the days of +Israel's independence and power. While great respect is shown the father +as head of the family, the mother is often scarcely more than the +servant of her children. The sons especially do not give her the respect +that was once her unquestioned due. The girl is from her birth looked +upon and treated as inferior to her brothers. Patiently, all women of +the Orient seem to bear this inferiority--a sort of penalty they must +pay because Heaven made them women and not men. The young girl's +matrimonial prospects are never in her own hands. She tamely submits to +arrangements made for her, and, without test or questioning, assumes +that her husband is her superior in all things. + +Education among the girls of modern Palestine has been almost hopelessly +neglected--except as teachers from England and America have been able to +supply the deficiency or overcome the indifference. There is little +wonder that home life is unattractive and the housekeeping miserable +with so little possibility for the women to catch even a glimpse of the +higher things that elevate and refine. Sometimes the Jewish girl is a +wife as early as ten or twelve, and frequently at the age of fourteen. +Thus home life is often rendered unhappy and divorce frequent. Physical, +mental, and moral anguish follow in the wake of many of these early +marriages. The young Jewish maiden's life is cheerless before her +wedlock, as she is shut out from the joys of social gatherings; and, +after marriage, cheerlessness gives way to impenetrable gloom. To say +that there are no happy marriages would be wide of the mark. But +divorces are sadly common among the Jews of Palestine to-day; the +husband having almost unlimited power to break, under very slight +provocation, the bond that binds him to his wife. The rabbi must of +course confirm the dissolution of the bond, and thirty piasters is the +price. The effect of this custom upon modern Jewish womanhood in the +venerated land of Rebekah and Rachel is most unhappy. + +Home life in ancient Israel was singularly sweet, pure, and industrious. +The family was both the social and the religious unit. Idleness was +considered a curse; and every child was taught to train his hands as +well as to cultivate his heart. + +The occupations of women were numerous and varied. Everywhere in the +East needlework was and is highly prized. Mothers set their children at +it at a very early age and great skill is often attained. The poorer +women frequently earn with their own fingers the amount of their +marriage portion; and in the hours of seclusion wives of the harem have +always found embroidery and other forms of rich needlework a common +pastime for the empty hours. + +While working in skins, clay, and in metals was reserved for the men, +the Hebrew women were very largely the producers of the food and the +wearing apparel. They assisted in the cultivation of the fields, were +the millers, grinding with their primitive stone mortar and pestle, the +bakers, the weavers and spinners, making use of the hand spindle which +may be seen in Syria and in Egypt to-day, though in the latter country +the men shared with the women the skill in this handicraft. Among the +Hebrews, as with the Greeks, Clotho is a woman. + +We find the virtuous woman, as ideally drawn in the Book of Proverbs, to +be one who finds good wool and flax and works willingly with her hands; +distaff and spindle fly at her finger's bidding, so that her whole +household sits doubly clothed in scarlet, and even fine linen is wrought +in her house, and rich girdles go out to the merchantmen. She makes the +field and vineyard turn out profitably and imports her food from afar. +Whether as shepherdess, gleaner, or the maker of food stuffs or +textiles, the Hebrew woman may justly hold a place of respect among her +sex. + +Among the amusements in which women specially engaged, those of music +and dancing should be given first place. These often had a religious or +semi-religious character. Women did not usually sit down, or rather +recline, at banquets with the opposite sex. Their songs and dances were +generally among themselves; dancing with the opposite sex was unknown. +Instrumental music frequently accompanied their singing, a sort of +tambourine or hand drum being a favorite instrument. Women played an +important part also in mourning customs. Professional female mourners +were hired to go up and down the highways, wailing piteously as part of +the funeral rites. The prophet Nahum in predicting the overthrow of +Nineveh uses a figure suggested by frequent observation of mourning: +"Her maids shall lead her, as with the voice of doves, tabering upon +their breasts." + +The religious status of woman is one of the most significant facts in +Israel's history. Passing out of the patriarchal stage of life, when the +father was high priest in his home, into a more complex existence, it is +not surprising that woman's place should become subordinated. Besides +this, the Hebrew worshipped no goddesses, except in times of religious +lapses. The women of Israel, however, are often found engaged in +sacrifices, prayers, and active service to their God Jehovah. + +While only the men were required to attend the annual feasts, the +attendance of women in large numbers is often recorded. Their presence +seems to be presupposed in the accounts of Hebrew worship; though for +them the annual religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem were not obligatory. + +In the temple worship they had a separate court, further removed from +the inner precincts of the holy altar than the court of the men. And +while they might join in the eating of some sacrificial meals, the sin +offering was only to be partaken of by males. The official duties of the +sanctuary were performed by men, but there were "serving women" who +performed certain menial tasks about the sacred enclosure. When the +temple ritual became elaborated, women were among the singers in the +temple choirs, and they often aided in the music and by singing and +dancing in times of great national rejoicing. And it is not without its +suggestiveness that the Hebrews spoke of a divine revelation as _Bath +Kol_, or "daughter voice." + +In the days when religious secretism became popular in Israel, and the +people began to divide the exclusive adoration they had hitherto given +to Jehovah and to worship other gods and even goddesses, women became +prominent in idolatrous rites. Jezebel, who was a worshipper of the +Phoenician goddess Ashtoreth, not only became the patron of the priests +and puppets of the Baal cult, but endeavored to break down Jehovah +worship by the destruction of his prophets. Maachah, the mother of King +Asa of the southern kingdom of Judah, introduced the worship of the +Assyrian goddess Astarte. Devotion to Ishtar, the chief goddess of +Babylon became the fashion in Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah the +prophet, who tells of Hebrew women kneading dough and baking cakes in +shape of the silvery moon in honor of the "queen of heaven," Ishtar, the +moon goddess; or perhaps, as some hold, this was the worship of the +planet Venus, for similar offerings were made in Arabia to the goddess +Al-Uzza, who was represented by the star Venus; and the Athenians too, +we are told, offered cakes of the shape of the full moon in honor of +Artemis. + +During the period of the Babylonish captivity, before the final fall of +Jerusalem, Ezekiel rebukes the women of Jerusalem for worshipping +Tammuz, the Babylonian Adonis, who had been taken to the under world; +for, says the prophet, "There sat the women weeping for Tammuz," the +departed husband of Ishtar. + +There was never among the Israelites that reverence for women, akin to +awe, which was manifested among the Teutonic tribes--a reverence which +made women natural oracles. Doubtless in Israel, as everywhere, the +instinctive, intuitive nature of women was discovered by the men of +Israel as in other parts of the world. But women as oracles are isolated +and exceptional. There were witches, who were under the ban. The highest +spiritual influence and leadership in Israel was that of the prophet, +for he was regarded as the mouthpiece of God, and, though of a far +higher order, corresponded to the oracle among heathen peoples. Could a +woman hold this place of dignity and power? The first person of this +class mentioned in the literature of Israel is Miriam the prophetess. In +the days of political confusion, before the time of the monarchy, +Deborah the prophetess arose; and it was Huldah the prophetess who +directed the reforms instituted by King Josiah, when the worship of +Jehovah was purified, the temple repaired, and Mosaism restored to +power. Just as there were false prophets in the days of religious +decline, so there arose false prophetesses, like Noadiah, who attempted +to thwart the reforms of Nehemiah and put his life in jeopardy. In the +early days, the counterfeit of the prophetess, namely, the witch and +sorceress, was not unknown in the land of Palestine. The law, however, +was very stringent against such persons, though King Saul himself once +went disguised to consult the Witch of Endor. Scripture says: "Thou +shalt not suffer a sorceress to live." These are the words which were +thought to give sanction to the burning of witches in New England a +century or more ago. + +In writing of the women in the days of the kings, one naturally turns +to the days of David, the first who brought Israel to a state of +political stability. The familiar saying, "The great men are not always +wise," is well illustrated in the matrimonial experiences of King David. +Many times was he married. Four of the wives of David are worthy of +note. The first may be called his wife of youthful romance, Michal, +Saul's daughter; the next, Abigail, the wife of manhood's admiration; +the third, Bathsheba, the wife of lustful passion; the fourth, Maachah, +the wife of old age's sorrow, for she bore unto him Absalom, the rebel. +It was a giddy and dangerous height to which David the youth had +suddenly arisen when the people were giving him, because of his prowess +in slaying Goliath of Gath, greater honor than the king. Even the young +Princess Michal could not disguise her admiration for the new and +youthful hero. But he must slay one hundred Philistines if he is to +possess Michal, says Saul, thinking David would lose his life in the +attempt. But the young man slew two hundred, and claimed his bride. +While her father was plotting the life of his young rival, Michal was +plotting more skilfully to save it; for, overhearing her father give +orders that her husband and lover should be slain, she let him down from +the window, substituting for her absent lord an image resting in her +bed, beneath the covering, in such wise as to support her statement to +the messengers, who came to take him before Saul, that David was sick. +Michal, having to make choice between her father and her husband, chose +the latter; and though she was long separated from him while David +warred with Saul, when at last David reigned he sent and recovered her, +his first love, and Michal became his wife again. + +But there were women of affairs in Israel, as well as women of +sentiment and devotion. The story of Abigail, wife of Nabal, and how she +became espoused to David, is a pleasing chapter of woman's power to +excite the admiration of a manly heart by combining the grace and the +tact of the womanly character with worldly wisdom and courage. It is one +of the finest illustrations recorded of woman's independence in the land +of the Hebrews. The story of Bathsheba's marriage to David is well +known. Falling in love with Bathsheba's beautiful form, the king plotted +the life of her husband, put him in the front rank in the battle, and, +when he fell, took her to his own house as wife. And while Maachah +became the mother of a son who was to be a very thorn in the heart of +his father, the wickedness which brought about the marriage to Bathsheba +became the cause of the bitterest expression of penitential anguish in +all the range of literature. For an ancient tradition, embodied in the +introduction to the fifty-first Psalm, affirms that that poem of +heart-stinging grief was written when Nathan the prophet had shown King +David the heinous blackness of his sin toward Uriah the Hittite. + +Diplomatic marriages were not uncommon in the ancient commonwealth of +Israel. They were not provided for in the law of Moses. Indeed, they +were distinctly prohibited both by the genius of that law and by its +positive enactments. And yet, no less influential a name than that of +Solomon might have been quoted as giving sanction to this method of +assuring national peace. + +Even modern governments might be cited--not only of the East, but of +the countries of Europe--as pernicious examples of the very ancient +custom of cementing political friendship by the interchange of +daughters. The Tel El Marna tablets present a number of illustrations of +diplomatic correspondence between Oriental kings concerning daughters +who had been given as wives to brother monarchs as a seal of friendship. +Now this well-nigh universal custom of diplomatic marriages, though +discouraged by the law of the Hebrews, spoken against by their prophets, +and forbidden by the very genius of their religion, was not uncommon in +the land of Israel. Saul, the first king, can scarcely be said to have +welded the tribes into a stable and recognized nationality. David, his +successor, was a warrior, who depended for his successes more upon +military prowess than upon the skill of diplomacy. The third King of +Israel fell heir to a nation made by the master hand of his father. The +Hebrews were now recognized by contemporary peoples as a great nation, +and, being respected for their power, peace reigned in Palestine. +Solomon, a man of peaceful temperament, resolved to sway the sceptre and +enhance his influence by the arts of diplomacy rather than by the +instruments of war. Among these arts was that of knowing how to be +wisely and numerously wed. He it was who introduced the harem, in the +modern meaning of the word, into Palestine. + +The living wives--in number seven hundred--that are said to have been +possessed by King Solomon shows that the prayer made by the people when +first they sought a king "like all the nations" had been answered. Here +was the beginning, as some of the prophets thought, of Israel's +subsequent disaster and final undoing as a kingdom. To them Jehovah was +the one unifying cause, the great power that was to preserve their +national integrity, their very existence as a people. To admit foreign +wives into the palace, bringing with them their gods, and becoming +perchance the mothers of their future kings was to defile the religion +of the realm at its heart, to undermine the worship of Jehovah in the +house of him who should be its main defender. In the life and reign of +King Solomon we have the strange contradiction which is not infrequently +discovered between theoretical wisdom and practical folly, between +private life and public conduct. No man of ancient days appears to have +understood woman better than Solomon, nor said more wise things +concerning them. His dealing with the rival claimants of a certain baby, +his wisdom in answering the hard questions of the Queen of Sheba have +made his name famous. And yet it was his lack of practical wisdom in +arranging his own household that sowed the seed of discord and +dissolution which were later to cause great distress and at last +disruption. + + + + +IV + +THE ERA OF POLITICAL DECLINE + + +Altogether the most glorious reign in all the history of the Hebrew +commonwealth was that of Solomon. David his father's military prowess +and his own skill in diplomacy had brought peace with foreign nations, +and rapid internal development. But even now germs of decay were +perceptible. The custom of diplomatic marriage with daughters of heathen +kings, the incoming of luxury, which was destined to undermine the +social, political, and religious hardihood which had previously +characterized the people, were destined powerfully to influence the life +and character of Hebrew women. For here, elements of weakness will often +first show themselves. It was inevitable that with the harem should come +immorality, luxury, effeminacy, and the encroachments of foreign +influence, through the women of many lands bringing their forms of +worship and also their deities with them. It was in anticipation of all +these dangers that the law forbade the king to "multiply wives to +himself." It will be remembered that it was the increased taxation +necessary to keep up such an establishment as that which Solomon brought +into being in Israel that led at his death to a disruption of the +kingdom into two antagonistic parts. It was the violation of this law +that later led the northern kingdom of Israel into one of the bitterest +struggles, one of the most cruel wars of extermination, ever enacted +among a people which has suffered many grievous national experiences. +King Ahab married a Princess of Phoenicia, the daughter of Eth-baal, +King of the Zidonians. With her came her worship of Baal, the very name +of which divinity was imbedded in the name of her father, Eth-baal. + +For force of character, Jezebel is probably unexcelled in the Scripture +records. But that character was, unfortunately, villainous. Moliere +affirms that "It is more difficult to rule a wife than a kingdom." Ahab +must have found it so, and surrendered both enterprises to Jezebel. +When--like the famous miller of Potsdam who would not part with his mill +even to the great Frederick--Naboth refused to sell the vineyard which +was so coveted by the king, Jezebel says tauntingly to the disappointed, +fretting husband: "Dost thou rule over the Kingdom of Israel?" This Lady +Macbeth cries: "Give me the dagger." She prepares a great feast, invites +Naboth as a guest of honor, accuses him falsely and has him killed. +Triumphantly she now can present her husband with the much-coveted +vineyard. Her horrible death in the revolution which the fast-driving +Jehu led is held up by the prophets as a warning to subsequent +generations, for, unburied and eaten by dogs, Jezebel's body was cast +away, so that none could afterward honor her memory or say: "This is +Jezebel." And in the same revolution, by a Nemesis so common in history, +Jezebel's son Joram was slain in the field of Naboth. That her name made +a deep impression upon the Hebrew mind, however, may be seen in the fact +that in the book of Revelation, written nearly ten centuries afterward, +an heretical and idolatrous influence is referred to as "that woman +Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess to teach my servants to +commit fornification and to eat things sacrificed to idols." + +In marked contrast with the motherly devotion which generally +characterized the "daughters of Rachel" stands out the example of +Athaliah the unnatural; since she was the daughter of Jezebel, the fact +is not strange. To the truthfulness of the remark of La Bruyere that +"Women are ever extreme, they are better or they are worse than men," +history has often testified. The woman who is usually satisfied to sit +behind the throne has occasionally had ambitions to sit upon it. So it +was with Athaliah. The law of the Hebrews, while it made provision for +inheritance of daughters along with the sons, does not contemplate the +dominion of a queen. Only one woman ever sat upon the throne of the +Hebrews. + +When King Ahaziah, the reigning King of Judah, had been slain by Jehu in +a revolution directed against Joram, King of Israel, and all the seed +royal, Ahaziah's mother, seized with ambitions to be herself the +sovereign, proceeded to put to death all the possible heirs to the +throne. Fortunately for the Davidic dynasty, however, a sister of the +dead king rescued one of his sons, an infant, from the bloody massacre, +and hid him in one of the apartments of the temple. When the proper time +came, the high priest Jehoiada brought forth the lad, now seven years of +age, and with the aid of mighty men, proclaimed him king. Athaliah was +surprised and overwhelmed and was slain; but she had given Judah six +years of unrighteous government. + +The religious influence of Jezebel in the northern kingdom and of +Athaliah, her daughter, in the southern was of greater consequence in +the shaping of the history of the times than their lack of moral worth. +Jezebel was an ardent worshipper of Baal; indeed, she was the patroness +of Baal's prophets, the very bulwark of idolatrous practices in Israel. +Over against her stood the prophet Elijah, the representative of what +was apparently a lost hope. Jezebel had driven the prophets of Jehovah +into the dens and caves of the earth. It is commonly thought that while +men have more vices than women, women have stronger prejudices. But here +is a woman of whom it may be stated--altering a remark made concerning +Nero--"There is no better description of her than to say she +was--Jezebel." + +The Baal worship which she would foster, and did greatly succeed in +fastening upon Israel until its overthrow by Shalmaneser, King of +Assyria, was a debasing nature-worship, which tended to destroy manhood +and drag womanhood into shame. And while there was set up no material +monument of her power in Israel, yet it required generations for the +pernicious influence of her life to die away. If, as Dean Stanley +suggested, that Hebrew epithalamium, the forty-fifth Psalm, was written +in honor of Jezebel's marriage to Ahab, none of its ideals concerning +the new-made queen was ever realized in Israel. She must stand in the +history with Jeroboam whose constant literary monument is disclosed in +the oft-repeated words, "He made Israel to sin." + +In contrast with the proud and cruel queen whose aim had been to slay +Elijah and all who stood for Jehovah worship are certain obscure women +who protected and comforted the prophet. "You will find a tulip of a +woman," says Thackeray, "to be in fashion when a humble violet or daisy +of creation is passed over without remark." We shall not fall under the +implied condemnation by forgetting the nameless widow of Zarephath who, +though found gathering a few sticks to make a meal of the last handful +of flour and a little oil left in the cruse, yet when asked took the +fleeing Tishbite into her frugal home and shared with him her poor +repast. For fully a year did Elijah live under the widow's roof, and the +meal in the barrel wasted not, nor did the oil in the cruse fail, till +the famine was broken by the coming of the long delayed rains. + +A people's religion will register its mark quickly upon its women. A +most suggestive Semitic conception is found in the use of the figure of +marriage to describe the relationship between a people and their god, or +perhaps more accurately, between a land and its governing divinity. This +entire conception finds its best illustration in the term _Baal_, which +means husband, or lord. The god was conceived of as father and the land +as mother of the people and of all the products of the soil. + +The influence of the Baal cult upon Israelitish society, especially upon +woman, cannot be understood without reference to the nature of that +worship. Picture before your mind's eye the rustic prophet Amos, with +wandering staff in hand, impelled by a divine impulse, making his way +northward, and carrying a divine message to the people. He reaches +Bethel in the southern part of the kingdom of Israel--a city that from +time immemorial had been a sanctuary. He is shocked at the terrible +orgies practised about the altars there in the name of religion; at the +unbridled passion and lewdness in the name of the god and goddess of +fertility, Baal and Ashtoreth; at the men and women revelling in shame, +that the increase of the land might be celebrated and productiveness +symbolized. + +It is while looking upon such a scene of bestialized worship and +debauched womanhood that Amos cries out in prophetic grief: + + "The virgin of Israel is fallen, + She shall no more rise. + She is forsaken upon her land + There is none to raise her up." + +The domestic life of the prophet Hosea furnishes perhaps the best +illustration of the condition and dark possibilities of womanhood in +Israel during this era of religious lapse and of consequent moral decay. +When religion sanctions prostitution at the altar, profligacy is not +unnatural. Hosea had married one Gomer, daughter of Diblaim. Soon she +forgets her marriage vows and gives herself to a life of shame. Hosea, +not then a prophet, more than once tried to reclaim the erring wife of +his love; but she again falls into evil ways. His home is destroyed; and +as he thinks of the meaning of this fatal blow to his domestic +happiness, he can but see in it a divine call to go forth to correct a +condition of society which could foster such vice and make such sorrows +possible. The whole meaning of his ministry, as he starts out with his +children as object lessons of his and the people's great humiliation, is +but an enlarged reproduction of his own bitter experience. + +That the god and his land were related as husband and wife, was a very +familiar conception in Israel, as well as with the nations round about. +Even Isaiah proclaimed that the land of the Hebrew should be called +Beulah, that is, "married," a land wedded to Jehovah, in pure and +abiding love. But it remained for the worship of Baal, which means both +"lord" and "husband," to fasten upon Israel the basest practices between +the sexes, as a part of the worship of the god to whom the land was +married. + +Hosea sees in his own poignant grief an epitome of Israel's relation of +apostasy from Jehovah. She should have been a wife of purity, keeping +her covenant vows with her Lord, but instead, she had gone away to +consort with other gods and was playing the harlot against her first +love. Repeated efforts had failed to reclaim her, and now she is given +up to horrible vice as she sacrifices her virtue at the altar of Baal. +It is a fearful arraignment, hot with his own experiences and saturated +with tears. The words of Hosea are themselves the best representation of +society of the day, as we speak under the figure of his own bitter +grief: + +"Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife and I am not her +husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and +her adulteries from between her breasts." This is the earnest plea for a +purified Israel and a redeemed womanhood. + +The day is to come, says the prophet with the broken heart, when "she +shall follow after her lovers but she shall not overtake them. Then +shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it +better with me than now." "For she did not know," says Hosea for +Jehovah, "that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her +silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." And looking forward to a +day when the sensual worship of Baal which so debauched womanhood, +should be no longer known in Israel, the prophet, again as the +mouthpiece of Jehovah, still carrying out the same figure of wedlock, +says to Israel: "And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will +betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving +kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in +faithfulness; and thou shalt know Jehovah. And it shall come to pass in +that day that I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and +they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear (with) the corn, and +the wine, and the oil." + +It was only after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in B. +C. 586, and the consequent exile of the Hebrews, that this nature +worship which so endangered womanly virtue was exterminated. + +During the long, synchronous reign of Uzziah, King of Judah, and of +Jeroboam II., King of Israel, in the eighth century before the Christian +era, prosperity both at home and abroad had given the people of both +kingdoms great wealth. The Syrians had for a long series of years been a +breakwater against the growing power of Assyria. In the meantime, there +was unsurpassed opportunity for internal development, commercial +expansion, and the accumulation of wealth. Riches had led to luxury, and +commerce had made the people more hospitable to foreign ideals, both +social and religious. + +It was in the reign of Uzziah's successor, Jotham, that a new and +eloquent voice was lifted up on behalf of reform, calling the people +back to the ideals of the fathers and of the prophets. This new force in +Jerusalem was the young Isaiah, whose striking vision in the year King +Uzziah died caused him to give up a profane life for the prophet's +office; and upon none of the Hebrew prophets do the condition and +character of woman seem to have made so deep an impress. Among the very +earliest of his public utterances, so far as they have been preserved to +us, is that severe arraignment of the women of Jerusalem for their +wanton haughtiness, their wasteful extravagance, their love of show, +their self-indulgence and vice. Thus in detail does the prophet draw for +us the moving picture of female pride: "Moreover, the Lord saith: +Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth +necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing (or tripping delicately) as +they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: therefore, the Lord will +smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and +the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will +take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments (anklets) about their +feet, and their cauls (net works), and their round tires like the moon +(crescents), the chains (or ear pendants), and the bracelets, and the +mufflers, the bonnets (head tires), and the ornaments of the legs (ankle +chains), and the headbands, and the tablets (or smelling boxes), and the +earrings, the rings, and the nose jewels, the changeable suits of +apparel (festal robes), and the mantles, and the wimples (probably, +shawls), and the crisping pins, the glasses (hand mirrors), and the fine +linen, and the hoods (or turbans), and the vails. And it shall come to +pass that instead of sweet smell (of Oriental spices) there shall be +stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, +baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; and +burning instead of beauty. Thy husbands shall fall by the sword, and thy +mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being +desolate, shall sit upon the ground." + +In this period, the women as they went along scented the air with the +perfume from the boxes that hung at their girdles; they lolled idly and +luxuriantly upon ivory beds and silken cushions sprinkled with perfume, +and they gossiped to the sound of music. + +In predicting the great disaster and slaughter that were to come upon +the people through the Assyrian invasion, made successful by the +effeminacy of the people, the prophet discloses not only the dire +extremity to which the people were to be reduced, but reveals the +feminine ideal among the Hebrews, already alluded to in this volume, +namely, that which makes motherhood the aim of every Hebrew woman and +the absence of it a calamity. In that day seven women shall take hold +of one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel; +only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Widowhood +and celibacy were equally sources of deepest grief among the women of +Israel, and both were to be among the results of the luxury and vice of +the land. + +Woman, as well as man, in this era of decay, had fallen into the habit +of the most cruel covetousness, and, when occasion offered, the rich and +powerful women oppressed the poor. The herdsman-prophet Amos, coming +from his home in the rural districts of Judah, was shocked at the +corruption into which even the women of Samaria, the capital of the +northern kingdom of Israel, had fallen, and so, with a rustic boldness +that would not mince matters of such grave concern, he compared the +women to the fat cattle of the land of Bashan, saying to the wives and +mothers of the corrupt and luxury-loving city: "Hear this word, ye kine +of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, +which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring and let us +drink!" + +In the age of decline, it is a noteworthy fact that not a woman appears +to have lifted up prophetic voice against the moral and religious decay. +Prophets there were, but apparently no prophetesses, except those whom +Jeremiah rebukes with scathing earnestness,--women who prophesied +according to their own feelings and desires rather than in harmony with +the eternal principles as applied to the then present conditions. +Indeed, in the entire period of decline which preceded the fall of +Samaria in B.C. 722 and of Jerusalem in B.C. 586, no prophetess appears +in the record, except that Isaiah speaks of his wife as the prophetess. +This involves an entire change in the meaning of the word. + +But there were patriotic women, just as there were patriotic men, +during the days of decline. There was no greater suffering than that of +women when they saw the Babylonian soldiery laying Jerusalem in ashes. +Hugging their babes to their breasts, some were hewn in pieces, while +others suffered shameful indignities and were led away among the +captives, to sojourn in a strange land. The prophets had foreseen the +coming anguish of the women; and when Jeremiah foretold the restoration +of Israel to her land, he proclaimed that the eyes of Rachel, which had +wept for her children "because they were not," should at length be +dried, and her mourning turned into rejoicing. Thus the picture drawn in +that elegiac poem--the greatest of all Hebrew threnodies, known as the +Lamentations of Jeremiah--when he saw the sacred city in ruins, was +reversed: + + "How doth the city sit solitary + That was full of people! + How is she become as a widow! + She that was great among the nations, + And princess among the provinces, + How is she become tributary! + + "She weepeth sore in the night + And her tears are on her cheeks: + Among all her lovers + She hath none to comfort: + All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, + They have become her enemies." + +This was but the enlargement and national application of the distress +experienced by the women of Israel during the siege and final overthrow +of the city in which all Jewish hopes centred. + +Of the Hebrew women during the period of the exile, we know +comparatively little. And yet no woman of later Biblical Judaism made so +deep an impression upon the Jewish mind as did Esther. By her beauty and +the wise cunning of her uncle, she became the wife of King Ahasuerus, +the famous Persian who attempted to measure arms with the Greeks--an +effort which turned out so disastrously for the gigantic but +undisciplined Persian army. The story of Vashti's deposal, because she +refused to lend herself to the immodest proposal of the king, befuddled +by the wine of banqueting and revelry; of the subsequent selection of +Esther as queen; of her entreaty for her people, against whom a +deep-laid and cruel plot was soon to be executed,--is a familiar +narrative. + +That a Jewish woman should have been elevated to such a position in the +Persian palace seems so improbable that some have been inclined to doubt +the accuracy of the story which the Book of Esther records, especially +since profane history tells of but one wife of Ahasuerus, Amestris. But +the argument from silence is always precarious. Vashti and Esther may +easily have been extra-legal wives of the king, even though Amestris +were his only legally recognized wife. The well-known custom of Oriental +monarchies makes such a view highly probable. At all events, there +stands the well-known feast of Purim, the "festival of the Lots," as a +monument in Jewish religious life of the substantial accuracy of the +events recorded in the Book of Esther. + +The power of Esther's life and of her service to her people in exile +may be in a measure estimated by the fact that no book in all the Bible +was so much copied, or was so generally in possession of the Jewish +families as that of Esther. Indeed, it was asserted by Maimonides and +believed by many that when at the coming of Messiah all the rest of the +Old Testament should pass away, there would still remain the five books +of the law and the Book of Esther. Written as it was, upon separate +scrolls, it was in thousands of Jewish houses. Even at the present day +rolls containing Esther are the prized possession of Jewish families; +and these are sometimes even now passed down from parents to their +children upon the wedding day. On the day of Purim, the book is read in +public as a part of the service, that the way in which Esther became the +savior of her people may never be forgotten. The power of Esther's story +over the Jewish mind has seemed the more remarkable, since it is the +single book in the Hebrew Canon which does not contain the name of God. +But on the other hand, there is no Hebrew writing that is so intense in +its national spirit; none which breathes and burns so deeply with the +characteristic genius of "the peculiar people." + +There was perhaps no time in the history of the Hebrews when social +life received a more severe shock than during the days of the reforms +instituted by Nehemiah about the middle of the fifth century before +Christ. When the Jews returned from their exile in Babylonia many of +them married women of gentile blood and religion, daughters of those who +had peopled the land of Palestine during the exile. Children of Jews +were being born and taught heathen language and heathen worship by their +mothers. Nehemiah, under appointment as governor, when he saw that Jews +had married "wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab," commanded that all +foreign women be immediately divorced, and that only Jewish women should +be taken for wives. Great was the temporary suffering involved, to be +sure, but the aim in view, namely that of keeping the people henceforth +free from idolatry seemed to justify even so drastic a measure. A +grandson of the high priest, himself in priestly line, had married +Nicaso, daughter of Sanballat, the Horonite, the very crafty and +troublesome ruler of Samaria. When Nehemiah demanded of him that he give +up his wife he refused. The governor accordingly expelled him from +Jerusalem, chasing him out of his presence, as the Biblical narrative +informs us. Josephus says that when the people demanded that he give up +his alien wife or his priestly office,--as the law flatly forbade +priests from having foreign wives,--he decided first in favor of his +office. But when Sanballat, his father-in-law, heard of it, he told him +not to move hastily, but if he would keep Nicaso his wife, he, +Sanballat, would build him a temple of his own, so that he might be not +only a priest, but high priest, and Nicaso's husband at the same time. +This appealed to Manasseh's judgment, and he chose the plan of his +father-in-law. Thus was built the temple on Mount Gerizim, which became +thereafter the centre of Samaritan life and worship. It was concerning +Mount Gerizim that the Samaritan woman at the well spoke when she said +to Jesus: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in +Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." + +The suffering of the women during the grievous persecution of the Jews +under Antiochus Epiphanes, "the illustrious"--nicknamed Epimanes, "the +madman"--was frightful in the extreme. Some men, but fewer women, +yielded to the pressure of the effort to destroy the Jewish religion by +forcing the Greek pantheon, Greek games and theatre, and the Greek +culture upon the Jews. The struggle into which the people were plunged +brought the self-sacrifice of the women into prominence. A typical case +of suffering is given in the Second Book of Maccabees. King Antiochus +had laid hold of a mother and seven sons, and commanded that they +violate their law by eating swine's flesh. The eldest was first put to +the test. He refused to obey. The king commanded that the tongue of him +who spoke thus defiantly should be cut out, his limbs mutilated, and his +living body roasted in hot pans, and that his mother and her younger +sons should witness the awful sight. One after another the sons were +cruelly dealt with and slain. Each one was given opportunity to save his +life by eating the forbidden flesh, but each refused. At length the +youngest only remained. The king appealed to the mother, standing by, to +advise her boy to obey and save his life. But the sturdy Jewish mother +turned to this son and strengthened him in his determination to die +rather than prove faithless to the religion of his fathers by obeying +the merciless tyrant. He too was then murdered, even more cruelly than +the rest. And at length, the mother herself lost her life upon the same +altar of faithfulness, rather than transgress the law. Of such sturdy +stuff were the Jewish mothers of this awful period made. There is little +wonder that the sons of such women succeeded in winning their +independence and in setting up again a Jewish state, which had been +suppressed for more than four centuries. + +A look into this period would be incomplete without reference to one of +the apochryphal or deutero-canonical books of the Old Testament, highly +prized by the Jews as containing a picture of pious home life among the +Jews in the captivity. A devout Jew, as the story goes, with his wife +Anna and his son Tobias were among those whom Shalmaneser, King of +Assyria, had taken captive from the land of Israel and placed in the +city of Nineveh when Samaria fell about B. C. 722. Loyal to his religion, +Tobit, even in exile, refused to eat the bread of the Gentiles; but by +dint of hard work and fidelity he at length became purveyor to the king. +By the revolving wheel of fortune, Tobit is at length reduced to +poverty. Here Anna his wife, with devoted womanly faithfulness, comes to +the rescue with her skilful fingers, weaving and spinning for a +livelihood; for her husband was now both poor and blind. One day Anna, +wearied and provoked, reproaches her husband for his blindness--such +calamities were esteemed a divine curse in Israel, whereupon Tobit +prayed that he might die. On the self-same day, a young Jewess, Sara, +daughter of Raguel, a captive in Ecbatana of Media, was offering up a +similar prayer that the end of her life might come. For her father's +maid had charged her with killing her seven husbands, who had died one +after another, each on the very first night of the wedding feast, though +the strange deaths had been the work of Asmodeus, the evil spirit, who +was not willing that the maiden should wed. Now these two widely +separated and unrelated prayers were to be brought together into one +romantic story by the help of an angel, who becomes a guide to the son +of Tobit, young Tobias, who is about to start out in life in quest of a +fortune. The angel guides him to Ecbatana, bids him make the eighth to +offer marriage to Sara, whose seven husbands had perished on the nuptial +night. Though Tobias had never seen the young woman before, he was to +her the next of living kin and so should be (according to the Mosaic +law) the one to offer his hand to the youthful, much-married widow. +Would the young Tobias prove strong enough bravely to face the record of +the seven deaths? The angel here comes to the rescue, and calls Tobias's +attention to the heart and liver of a great fish which had been caught +in the Euphrates as the two had journeyed together from Nineveh to +Ecbatana. These, burned with perfumes in the bridal chamber, drove the +evil spirit Asmodeus away, and the marriage festivities went on merrily. +The life of Tobias had been saved. He takes his newly wedded wife back +to his father's house in joy and triumph, cures his father's blindness +by the same magic charm which had saved his own life in the bridal +chamber, and peace and wealth and long life follow in rich profusion. + +This story is chiefly of interest to us as it shows the continuation, +even into the period of exile, of the Levirate marriage custom. While +the story of the marriage of Sara, daughter of Raguel, is a Jewish +romance, the literature of the inter-biblical period is not without its +tragedies, in which woman plays an important role. Among these is the +well-known story of Judith and Holofernes. + +Many Jewish women have passed into literature and art. Rebekah at the +wellside, Miriam watching by the reeds or singing the paean of victory +with timbrel, Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz, Delilah the +voluptuous, and Athaliah the monster, have exerted their influence both +upon the makers of art and writers of drama, but probably no Hebrew +woman before the birth of Jesus has made a deeper impress upon the +imagination of men than Judith, the beautiful woman and patriot of +Bethulia. A woman once saved the city of Rome from overthrow. Several +times in the history of Israel was it given to a woman to be the +deliverer of the people. The names of Deborah, Esther, and Judith have +come down the centuries as those of women who risked their lives for the +salvation of their people from the enemy, and succeeded because of their +tact and prowess. + +The story of Judith and Holofernes is told in the apocryphal Book of +Judith. The Assyrians are at war with Israel, whose cities are being +besieged and wasted in the merciless onslaught. Holofernes, the Assyrian +general, at length lays siege to Bethulia in his onward march to the +holy city of Jerusalem. The people are reduced to straits most direful +and bitter. Women and little ones perish in the streets, and the people +cry out to their leaders to sue Asshur for peace. The rulers, thus +urged, promise within five days to yield to their besiegers. It is then +that Judith, wealthy and pious, a widow of the city, comes forward to +strengthen the fainting heart of the governors and to bid them trust God +and stand firm. She promises, in the meantime, that she herself will aid +them. Praying earnestly that God will help her in her purpose, she lays +aside the habiliments of widowhood, and, arraying herself in garments of +gladness, goes forth with her maids to the camp of Holofernes. Charmed +with her beauty and grace, the Assyrian gives a feast, to which the +bewitching Judith is invited. Holofernes makes merry, and, drinking to +drowsiness, lies down in his tent to sleep. Others depart in the night, +leaving him and the Jewess alone. Seeing her opportunity, Judith seizes +the scimiter that hung on the pillar of Holofernes's bed, and, laying +hold upon the hair of the sleeping man's head, severed it from his body, +and made her way in the darkness back to the city. In the early morning +a sally was made from the city gates, and the Assyrians, finding their +captain headless, were thrown into utter confusion and completely +routed. Thus did Judith become the deliverer of Israel. The women of the +city ran together to see her who had been their savior, made a great +dance for her, sang her praises, and bestowed their benedictions, +placing garlands of olive upon her brow. + +Portia's shrewd dealing with Shylock, the Jewish money lender, called +forth the frequent applause of the onlookers: "A Daniel come to +judgment, yea, a Daniel!" It is in the _History of Susanna_, an +apocryphal addition to the canonical Book of Daniel, in which the great +prophet is presented in the role of arbiter. He appears in a cause +against a woman, Susanna, a Jewish lady of great beauty, the wife of a +wealthy and distinguished Hebrew whose home was in Babylon. Susanna +excited the amours of two judges, elders of the people, who were +frequently at her husband's home; but she spurned all their advances, +till, angered and resentful, they united in a plot to destroy her, and +accused her of unfaithfulness to Joachim, her husband. The penalty for +adultery was death, and the people crowded to the trial; for if there +was conviction, stoning would follow. The two elders, standing, with +their hands upon the innocent woman's head, tell the story agreed upon, +how they saw the wife of Joachim in the very shameful act of which they +accused her; and the assembly, believing the testimony of the two elders +and judges of the people, condemned Susanna to death. At this juncture, +the young man Daniel appears upon the scene, much as Portia in the trial +of Antonio, and, by adroitly cross-questioning the two witnesses +separately, involved them in contradictions, revealing the cowardly plot +against the virtuous woman and convicting them of false witnessing. And +since the law of Moses prescribed the same penalty for those who bore +false testimony as that which would have come to the accused, the elders +were put to death, and Susanna was given honor before all the people. +This is but one of the many examples in Hebrew history which reveal the +unusually high moral character and purity of life that prevailed among +the Hebrew women. + +It is one of the noteworthy and distressing facts of late Jewish +history that in the later teaching of the rabbis woman is placed upon a +distinctly lower plane. Her inferiority to man is frequently emphasized. +And yet there was one factor which came into the life of Judaism, after +the Babylonian exile, which gave to Jewish women an advantage which they +had not previously enjoyed. It was the establishment of the synagogue. +The secondary place given to women in the temple worship has already +been referred to. The man, as head of the family, was representative of +the family and responsible, therefore, for the performance of the +ceremonies required of every Hebrew household. With the destruction of +the temple and the dispersion of the Jews, the temple rites were +rendered impossible. When the synagogue arose to fill the vacancy made +by these conditions, women were given a place in attendance at the +instruction given in these new centres of Jewish life. And while they +were never strictly considered members of the congregation, yet, seated +in a separate part of the room, they heard the Scriptures read and +expounded; and it was not unknown for women even to read on the Sabbath +as among the seven appointees for the day. The _Torah_, or law, however, +was considered rather too sacred and important to be committed to their +exposition. + +Judging from a remark in the _Halacha_ it is just to infer that in the +days when the Jews had become dispersed throughout the Roman world, +there were two facts that had a very powerful influence upon Jewish +women, one of them of Hebraic, the other of Greco-Roman origin. For the +_Halacha_, in speaking of the women leaving their homes, said that there +were two causes which took the women away from their domestic duties: +one was the synagogue, the other, the baths,--not, indeed, an altogether +uncomplimentary comment upon the women of the times, for it would seem +they believed in the oft-coupled virtues of cleanliness and godliness. + +From the days of John Hyrcanus, the influence of the Jewish rulers had +been decidedly in favor of Hellenic culture. Thus the revolution brought +about by the Maccabean revolt seemed about to be undone by the +successors of the Maccabees. Jewish independence had been won in an +effort to resist Antiochus Epiphanes and others in their attempts to +destroy Judaism by making the Greek religion and customs prevalent +throughout Palestine. Would the sons and successors of the sturdy +Maccabeans give away the fruits of the hard-won victory? When to +Alexandra was bequeathed the government by her husband, she decided to +espouse the cause of the Pharisaic party, who hated the encroachments of +foreign influence. But, alas, for the queen's inability to cope with a +situation so strained! In her effort to appease the opposite party she +put weapons into their hands, which were soon turned against her. As an +old woman of seventy-three, she saw her two sons in bitter contest, at +the head of opposing forces, each trying to rule over a tumultuous, +faction-torn nation. She passed away, deploring a condition which she +was utterly unable to correct. It was not till Pompey brought his Roman +legions to the gates of Jerusalem, and set up the Roman eagles in the +holy city itself that intrigue and battling for the Jewish throne was +brought to a close. Then Jewish independence was no more. + +A great granddaughter of Alexandra was destined indirectly at least to +play a prominent role in later Jewish history. This was Mariamne. Herod, +afterward known as the Great, had hoped by marrying this descendant of +both the contending Jewish parties, to unite the influence of the two +branches of the Asmonean house. In this, however, Herod was +disappointed, and he proceeded to accomplish by force what he had hoped +to do by wiles. In the frightful war of extermination waged by Herod +against the whole Asmonean line, which he feared might endanger the +rulership secured to him by the Roman power and his own political +prowess, there figured a Jewish woman who, because of her sagacity, is +not to be passed over in silence. She was Alexandra, a granddaughter of +the queen of the same name. When Herod attempted to place in the office +of Jewish high priest a young man who would be simply a tool for him, +Alexandra advocated the candidature of Aristobulus,--her son and a +brother of Mariamne,--who by birthright was in line of official +succession. Alexandra shrewdly wrote to Cleopatra that the wily woman of +the Nile might use her influence with Antony to force Herod to terms. +Herod was compelled to yield and appointed Aristobulus, but determined +that Alexandra as well as the new high priest should be put out of the +way. One day after both Herod and Aristobulus had been enjoying a +banquet given by Alexandra, Herod successfully plotted the killing of +the high priest in a fishpond attached to the house of feasting, Herod's +minions holding him playfully under the water until he was drowned. But +Alexandra was not so stupid as to fail to take in the situation. Through +Cleopatra she again succeeded in forcing Herod upon the defensive. Being +summoned to appear before Antony, Herod succeeded, however, in again +ingratiating himself with the Roman, and he returned as strong as ever +to Jerusalem. + +But his return was not altogether happy; for on his departure, he had +given command that should his interview with Antony be ill-fated, +Mariamne, his Jewish wife, should be slain, that no other man might have +her for wife. The secret leaked out, and came to Mariamne's ears. She +violently resented the treatment of Herod and on his return reproached +him for his cruelty; but the insanely jealous and wily Herod was not to +be changed by reproaches. On his absence from home on the occasion when +he went to meet Octavius, the new star which arose on Antony's downfall, +Herod again commanded that both Mariamne and Alexandra be put to death +should he not return alive. Mariamne on his return received him with +cold resentment. With the help of Herod's mother and sister the +estrangement became more and more bitter. The king's cupbearer was +bribed by them to declare that Mariamne had attempted to poison her +husband. The jury, as well as the evidence, being well-arranged +before-hand, the unfortunate Mariamne was led away to execution in B.C. +29, to be followed next year by Alexandra, who had watched her +opportunity and, taking advantage of an illness of Herod, had attempted +to gain possession of Jerusalem and overthrow the reign of Herod. It was +a bold stroke for a woman. It failed, and she was executed. With her +death the line of Asmonean claimants to the throne was ended. + +But the end of this chapter in which womanly hate and intrigue played so +prominent a part was not yet. When Herod's sister, Salome, who had taken +so large a part in the death of Mariamne, saw Herod's sons return from +their studies in Rome, with the looks and royal bearing of their mother, +Mariamne; when she perceived the people's joy at their likeness to the +late Jewish queen who had been so cruelly murdered, her jealousy became +most bitter, and she began to plot against them as she had against their +mother. Herod for a time seemed unmoved and married one of them to +Berenice, Salome's own daughter. This only intensified Salome's hate; +and step after step of domestic hatred and unhappiness led at length to +the order by Herod that the two sons of his Jewish wife, Alexander and +Aristobulus, should be strangled at Sebaste, where years before their +mother Mariamne had become his bride. No wonder Augustus Caesar could +utter his famous pun in the Greek language which may be reproduced in +the words: "I would rather be Herod's _swine_ than his _son_!" + +This was the same Herod who issued an edict that rent the heart of many +a mother "in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof," a command which +sent Mary, the mother of the infant Jesus, into exile with her newborn +Son, whose coming into the world was destined to open a new volume, as +the narrative passes from Hebrew to Christian womanhood. + +Among the Semitic peoples it is not usual, certainly in strictly +historic times, to find women holding the first place in the seat of +government. Semiramis in the prehistoric period of Assyria is a +noteworthy exception to the general custom; and queens sometimes ruled +among the Arabians, and "the Queen of Sheba" in southern Arabia became +famous. But the common Semitic conception that the king was son and +special representative of the deity made it more difficult for women to +hold the sceptre. Among the Hebrews there is no instance of a woman +being legally recognized as queen. Deborah, before the days of the +kingdom, "judged Israel" by virtue of her prophetic character and her +ability as a woman of affairs, and Athaliah was enabled to usurp the +throne through the murder and banishment of male heirs to the crown. In +speaking of her reign it was said that she was the only woman who ever +reigned over Israel. There is, however, one other woman who held the +Jewish sceptre. After the bloody struggle led by the Maccabees, the Jews +at length obtained their liberty from the yoke of the Seleucid kings. +Israel then enjoyed about a century of independence. During this period +there arose one woman who for nine years ruled the nation. This was +Alexandra, the widow of Alexander Janneus, whose unhappy reign came to +an end by strong drink, B. C. 78. The conception of the government as a +pure theocracy where the king reigned as representative of Jehovah +himself rendered it impossible for women to be recognized as lawful +sovereigns. The second Psalm, which seems to be a sort of coronation +ode, written at the time of the incoming of a new king, expresses the +relationship between Jehovah and the earthly ruler: + + "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son, + This day have I begotten thee." + +Even wives of the Kings of Israel, as a rule, are not called queens, +though Jezebel,--the Phoenician wife of Ahab,--king of the Ten Tribes, +is a notable exception. This may be accounted for, however, by the fact +that she was not an Israelite and worshipper of Jehovah, but a devotee +of Ashtoreth, the queen divinity of Phoenicia; and withal she was a far +stronger, more aggressive personality than her inefficient husband. It +is of interest to observe also that Jezebel is called queen only in +connection with her sons. The idea of queen-mother is far more common +among the Hebrews than that of queen-wife. Mothers of kings were given +especial honor. King Solomon takes his seat upon his throne and sends, +not for his wife to sit by his side, but for Bathsheba, his mother, +whose adjacent throne is set at the king's right hand. Asa, in his +religious reforms, removed his mother from being queen because she had +set up an image or sacred pillar in honor of Baal worship. Jeremiah the +prophet called upon the King of Israel and his queen-mother--who seems +to have been most active in opposing the prophet's proposed policy in +submitting to the Babylonians without a struggle--to humble themselves, +because their crowns were even then toppling from their heads. Thus the +semi-royal character of the mothers of the kings is evident. This will +account, at least in part, for the wording of the chronicles of the +kings of Israel and Judah, for this is the set formula: "And A----slept +with his fathers, and B----, his son, reigned in his stead. And his +mother's name was M----. And he did that which was right (or evil) in +the sight of the Lord." + +Thus is the importance of the queen-mother constantly emphasized in +the Hebrew records. + + + + +V + +THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN WOMEN + + +Archaeology here puts on her apron, takes her pick and spade in hand to +help us uncover the story of the woman of Babylonia and Assyria. Skulls, +jewels, cylinders, tablets, monuments, mural decorations must be brought +to light after their long sleep beneath the surface of the ground. As +alive from the dead these come forth to tell, at least in broken story, +of those women who helped to make the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates +among the most noteworthy spots upon the face of the Eastern world. + +What we may know concerning the women of this early Assyro-Babylonian +civilization may be derived in part from the Greek annalists who taught +the world to write history, but chiefly from the discoveries in modern +excavations. And even with these sources at our command, we shall find +that many things which we would like to know about Assyrian and +Babylonian women are still obscure. + +The Sumer-Accadian question shall not disturb us here. That there was a +non-Semitic people living in the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris, +and that they developed a civilization from which the Babylonian and +Assyrians later borrowed, seems clearly established. What the Sumerian +and Accadian women left to their Semitic sisters who came at length into +the ancient heritage, it would now be impossible to say with any degree +of certainty. + +The ancient mythology and the epic poems of these people contain many +female characters, which may throw some light upon woman's place in +their civilization. A people's mythology is the dim daguerreotype of +their childhood thinking. Fortunately for us, the last fifty years have +brought to light a whole series of epic poems from early Babylonian +life, some of them in fragmentary form, others more or less well +preserved. In nearly all these the feminine character has its place. + +It will be remembered that in the Hebrew account of the creation no +female divinity plays a part. In the kindred Semitic accounts from +Babylonia and Assyria, however, Tihamat, or Mummu Tohamat, becomes the +primeval mother of all things. She was chaos--corresponding to the +Hebrew _Tehom_, or "abyss." And thus, from the womb of dark chaos, with +the ocean as father, came the divinity, the sun, moon and stars, earth, +man, everything. But, strangely enough, after the birth of the first +gods from chaos, a strife arose between them and their mother Tihamat. +It is, however, the old story of light's struggle with darkness. Anu +would decide the dispute, but Tihamat declares that the war must go on. +Marduk, the god of light, becomes the special champion of the forces +arrayed against primeval darkness, and Tihamat is vanquished and cut +asunder. From one part he makes the firmament of the heaven, to which +the gods of the heavenly lights, sun, moon, and stars, are assigned, and +from the other half he fashions the earth. + +So, also, in the story of the Deluge, the Babylonian Noah, called +Sit-Napishti, takes his wife with him into the ark; and when the floods +subside and the ship rests, stranded upon the land, Ishtar, the goddess +of the rainbow, greatly rejoices as she smells the sweet incense that +arises from the grateful altar of Sit-Napishti. The god Bel is persuaded +never again to destroy the earth with a flood, and so takes Sit-Napishti +and his faithful wife by the hand, blesses them, and at length +translates them to paradise. + +One of the most prominent heroines of early Babylonian epic is Ishtar. +Indeed, there are many variant stories concerning her. Ishtar's descent +into Hades is, in fact, one of the most important legends of Oriental +mythology. She is the goddess of love, corresponding to the Canaanite +and Phoenician divinities Ashtoreth and Astarte. She is the Aphrodite, +the Venus of classic myth. Earlier she did not hold power over men's +minds. She was a goddess of war, and the earlier warriors honored her as +their patroness. It was Esarhaddon who enlarged the honors paid her; and +he is said once to have interrupted his scribe, while reading of two +important expeditions of arms, to send and fetch _The Descent of Ishtar +into Hades_. + +This romantic story of adventure on the part of the goddess is well +set out in early Assyro-Babylonian literature. Tammuz, the young husband +of Ishtar, has been cut off by the boar's tusk (of winter). Ishtar +mourned incessantly for her lover, but in vain. She resolved to rescue +him if possible from the realm of shade, the kingdom of Allat, whence he +had gone; for, though god he was, he must keep company with all the rest +whom death claimed. Only one method of restoring him to the realm of +life was possible. There was a spring which issued from under the +threshold of Allat's own palace. One who could bathe in and drink of +these wonderful waters would live again. But, alas! they were zealously +guarded; for a stone lay upon the fountain, and seven spirits of earth +watched with assiduous care lest some might drink and live. Of these +waters Ishtar resolved to go and fetch a draught. But no one, not even a +goddess, can descend into this Hades alive. So we read: "To the land +from whence no traveller returns, to the regions of darkness, Ishtar, +the daughter of Sin, has directed her spirit to the house of darkness, +the seat of the God Iskala, to the house which those who enter can never +leave, by the road over which no one travels a second time, to the house +the inhabitants of which never again see the light, the place where +there is no bread, but only dust, no food, but wind. No one can see the +light there, ... upon the gate and the lock on all sides the dust lies +thick." But Ishtar, in her quest of love, is nothing daunted by the +difficulties or the forbidding aspects of her task. She descends to the +gates of Allat's abode and knocks upon them, calling commandingly to the +doorkeeper to unlock the bolts: "Guardian of life's waters, open thy +doors, open thy doors that I may go in. If thou do not open thy gate and +let me in, I will sound the knocker, I will break the lock, I will +strike the threshold and break through the portal. I will raise the dead +to devour the living, the dead shall be more numerous than the living." +The porter goes and tells his mistress, Allat, of the imperious demand +of Ishtar. "O goddess, thy sister Ishtar has come in search of the +living water; she has shaken the strong bolts, she threatens to break +down the doors." Allat treats her with contempt, but finally commands +her messenger: "Go, then, O guardian, open the gates to her, but unrobe +her according to the ancient laws." Since men come naked into the world, +they must go out unclad, and the older custom among the Babylonians was +to bury the dead without clothing. Ishtar is stripped of her garments +and jewels, and at each successive gate more of her ornaments were +appropriated. First went her crown, for Allat alone was queen in that +gloomy realm; then her earrings, her jewelled necklace; then her veil, +her belt, her bracelets, and her anklets. When through the seventh gate +she passed, all her garments were taken away; and Allat commanded her +demon Namtar--the plague devil--to take her from the queen's presence +and strike her down with disease of every sort. Meanwhile, in the upper +world all are mourning because of her absence; for, as goddess of love +and procreation, all nature was perishing, and there was no renewal. All +the forces of the upper world, therefore, united to bring her back to +light; for the world would be depopulated and barren, if some means were +not found to restore her. + +Here the supreme god Hea comes to the rescue, for he alone, as +controller of the universe, can violate the laws which he himself has +imposed thereon. Hea commands that Allat give life again to Ishtar by +the application of the water of life to her. She was informed that power +over the life of her consort Tammuz was given into her hands. The water +of life was poured upon him, he was anointed with precious perfumes and +clothed in purple. Thus "Nature revived with Tammuz: Ishtar had +conquered death." + +That the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a queen; that the real +sceptre in the underworld was swayed by a woman is a matter of some +significance. In the old Norse mythology the goddess Hel, without a +husband, ruled in the abode of Hell, or the place of death. Among the +Greeks, Persephone divided with her husband, Pluto, the control of the +underworld. With the Babylonians it is the goddess Allat whose power +controls the realm of the dead; and even her scribe, contrary to what we +might expect, was also a woman, whose name was Belit-Iseri. Allat, the +mistress of death, is not represented as an attractive woman, but ill +shaped, with the wings and claws of a bird of prey. She goes to and fro +in her realm, exploring the river which flows from the world to her own +abode. A huge serpent is brandished in each hand, with which, as "an +animated sceptre," she strikes and poisons those against whom her enmity +is directed. The boat in which she navigates the dark river has a fierce +bird's beak upon its prow, and a bull's head upon its stern. Her power +is irresistible; and even the gods cannot invade her realm except they +die like men, and graciously acknowledge her supremacy over them. Just +as the dead eat and drink and sleep, so does Allat. Her daily portion, +as with other divinities, comes from the table of the gods, brought by +her faithful messenger, Namtar. Libations poured out in sacrifice by the +living also trickle down to her through the earth. Thus Allat lives and +reigns in the land from which no traveller returns, a kingdom into which +twice seven gates open to receive the dead; but none opens for their +release. + +Professor Peter Jensen, of Marburg, Germany, has raised the question: +Why in the realm of the dead is the power of woman so important, and +even monarchical in character? He answers it by the very simple +explanation that just as the Hebrews personified their Sheol, and the +North Germanic nations their Hel, so the Assyrians and Babylonians +regarded their country of the dead as a person. And that since names of +places and lands are of feminine gender, in Assyrian thought as in the +Hebrew, the land of the dead was conceived of under the form of a woman. +Whether this be the true explanation or not, certain it is that the +female principle played an important part in the religious thinking of +the Assyro-Babylonian peoples. + +It is not difficult, therefore, to perceive that women would hold an +important place in Babylonian and Assyrian religious life, and in the +Phoenician cult. When the goddess plays an important part in religion, +especially when the renovative and procreative powers of nature are +worshipped, woman will naturally find a place. While the Hebrews have +their prophetesses, the religion of Babylonia and Assyria has its +priestesses as well as prophetesses. + +No account of the women of Assyria would seem complete without +reference to the legend of Semiramis and her wonderful exploits. And as +is the case with much of the history of the dawn of nations, we are +indebted to the Greeks for preserving for us the story of this +superlative queen. Ctesias, Diodorus, Herodotus, Strabo, and others tell +her story or mention her achievements. This remarkable woman was said to +be the daughter of Derceto, the goddess of reproductive nature and of a +youthful mortal with whom she had fallen in love. The babe was exposed +by its mother, but was found and cared for by a shepherd named Simmas. +Having developed into a very beautiful damsel, she won the hand of +Oannes, Governor of Syria. In the war against Bactria she so +distinguished herself for bravery, disguising herself as a soldier and +scaling the wall of the besieged capital, that the King Ninus, founder +of the city of Nineveh, took her to be his own queen. Soon Ninus died +and Semiramis became sole ruler of the realm. Unbounded ambition, +coupled with surpassing genius, caused her to undertake the labor of +eclipsing the glory of all her predecessors. She built cities, threw up +defences, conquered kings, and extended her territory in every +direction. She made the city of Babylon one of her capitals, fortifying +it with gigantic walls of sun-dried brick, cemented with asphalt. She +built wonderful bridges supported by huge pillars of stone. Diodorus +Siculus, quoting Ctesias, thus describes her work upon the walls of the +city of Babylon: "When the first part of the work was completed, +Semiramis fixed on the place where the Euphrates was narrowest, and +threw across it a bridge five stadia long. She contrived to build in the +bed of the stream pillars twelve feet apart, the stones of which were +joined with strong iron clamps, fixed into the mortises with melted +lead. The side of these pillars toward the run of the stream was built +at an angle, so as to divide the water and cause it to run smoothly past +and lessen the pressure against the massive pillars. On these pillars +were laid beams of cedar and cypress, with large trunks of palm trees, +so as to form a platform thirty feet wide. The queen then built at great +cost, on either bank of the river, a quay with a wall as broad as that +of the city and one hundred and sixty stadia long, that is, nearly +twenty miles. In front of each end of the bridge, she built a castle +flanked by towers, and surrounded by triple walls. Before the bricks +used in these buildings were baked, she modelled on them, figures of +animals of every kind, colored to represent living nature. Semiramis +then constructed another prodigious work: she had a huge basin, or +square reservoir, dug in some low ground. When it was finished the river +was directed into it, and she at once commenced building in the dry bed +of the river, a covered way leading from one castle to the other. This +work was completed in seven days, and the river was then allowed to +return to its bed, and Semiramis could then pass dry-shod under water +from one of her castles to the other. She placed at the two ends of the +tunnel, gates of bronze, said by Ctesias to be still in existence in the +time of the Persians. Lastly, she built in the midst of the city the +temple of the god Bel." + +It will be seen from such a paragraph as this just quoted how Semiramis +anticipated much of the best work of engineering of modern times. The +mountains and valleys yielded to her daring when highways were to be +built for the extension of her power and her commerce. In Armenia, +Media, and all the regions around she exhibited her genius and prowess. +Even Egypt and Ethiopia fell before her. Only when she undertook to +carry her arms into far-off India did she meet with reverses. +Stabrobatis, King of India, with the aid of elephants, utterly routed +the army of the valiant queen, and she never again attempted an +expedition to the Far East. As an example of what Semiramis thought of +herself, we may quote the words attributed to her: "Nature gave me the +body of a woman, but my deeds have equalled those of the most valiant +men. I ruled the empire of Ninus, which reaches eastward to the river +Hinaman (the Indus), southward to the land of incense and myrrh (Arabia +Felix), northward to the Saces and Sogdians. Before me no Assyrian had +seen a sea; I have seen four that no one had approached, so far were +they distant. I compelled the rivers to run where I wished, and directed +them to the places where they were required. I made barren land fertile +by watering it with my rivers; I built impregnable fortresses; with iron +tools I made roads across impassable rocks; I opened roads for my +chariots, where the very wild beasts were unable to pass. In the midst +of these occupations, I have found time for pleasure and love!" + +What are we to think of this story of the very wonderful lady of the +Orient of long ago? Did she ever live, move, and have her remarkable +being? It is needless to reply that the story is purely legendary, that +none of the modern excavations which have been so fruitful in character +have confirmed the story of Ctesias. On the contrary, the monuments have +as yet failed even to certify to the existence of such a woman. The fact +that her birth is given as from a goddess, that at her death she was +changed into a dove, and was thereafter herself worshipped as a goddess, +is some evidence of the unreliable character of the narrative. A queen +who bore the name of Sammuramat and lived between B.C. 812 and B.C. 783 +has been discovered as a historical personage, a name that may possibly +have influenced that given the great prehistoric queen. But the +marvellous achievements attributed to Semiramis are discovered to be the +work of man through a long series of years, and that, too, highly +idealized in the numerous details. + +That the imaginary queen, as the story goes, had a power over the minds +of the people is evident from the fact that many later achievements of +arms and of building were attributed to her. And yet, notwithstanding +the mythological character of the story of Semiramis, there is reflected +much truth concerning Assyro-Babylonian history in these legends. That +so great achievements should have been attributed to a woman is evidence +of a lack of that prejudice against woman which is discoverable among +many Oriental people. In the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris, +women had a noteworthy degree of independence, and in some respects a +recognized equality. The legend could have developed only in such an +atmosphere. The comparison of feminine and masculine virtues has been +made time out of mind; the following words from Plutarch are, in this +connection, of interest: "Neither can a man truly any better learn the +resemblance and difference between feminine and virile virtue than by +comparing together lives with lives, exploits with exploits, as the +product of some great art, duly considering whether the magnanimity of +Semiramis carries with it the same character and impression with that of +Sesostris, or the cunning of Tanaquil the same with that of King +Servius, or the discretion of Portia the same with that of Brutus, or +that of Pelopidas with that of Timoclea, regarding that quality of these +virtues wherein lie their chiefest point and force." + +It is certain that if early Assyrian myth is to be consulted, the +Assyrians had no hesitancy in recognizing the possibility of real +greatness in woman's accomplishments and womanly genius. + +While there are few queens of note among the prominent personages of +whom we read upon the monuments, and while the name of no woman occurs +in the Eponym Canon by which the chronology of the nation's life is +reckoned, yet the place of woman among the Assyrians and Babylonians was +one of greater privilege and honor than among most ancient nations. +Those unsurpassed walls that protected the great city of Babylon and the +hydraulic works which Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, was forced to +capture before the city fell into his hands are attributed by Herodotus +to a woman,--Queen Nitocris. + +In the Code of Hammurabi, who was King of Babylon about B. C. 2250, the +most ancient of all known codes of law, woman fares well for so early a +period. One of these quaint laws reads: "If a woman hates her husband +and says, 'Thou shalt not have me,' they shall inquire into her +antecedents for her defects. If she has been a careful mistress and +without reproach, and her husband has been going about and greatly +belittling her, that woman has no blame. She shall receive her presents, +and shall go to her father's house." "If she has not been a careful +mistress, has gadded about, has neglected her house and belittled her +husband, they shall throw that woman into the water!" Under this code, a +man might sell his wife to pay his debts. For three years she might work +in the house of the purchaser; after which she was to be given her +freedom. Where the law of Moses says: "He that smiteth his father _or +his mother_ shall be surely put to death," Hammurabi's code enjoins: +"Who smites his father, loses the offending limb." + +From the many contract tablets that have been exhumed much fresh light +has been thrown upon the social customs of the people in the valleys of +the Euphrates and the Tigris. In Babylonia the woman did not suffer +greatly before the law from the fact that she was the weaker vessel. +Indeed, the scales were held quite evenly as between the sexes. A woman +might hold her own property, appear in public, and attend to her own +business. Frequently, Assyrian women are depicted upon monuments riding +on the highways upon mules. Woman might even hold office and plead in a +court of justice--so far did Babylonia anticipate the progress of modern +Western ideas. Agreements have been discovered upon tablets by which it +was covenanted between a man and his wife that should the husband marry +another during the lifetime of the first wife, all the dowry of the +first shall be returned to her and she shall be allowed to go where she +pleases. The law concerning divorce, however, would seem to lack that +fairness which characterizes many other regulations of social life. A +man might divorce his wife by the payment of a pecuniary consideration; +but if a woman undertook the initiative in annulling the marriage +contract, she might be condemned to death by drowning. + +In the formula for the exorcism used by the priests to break the spell +the gods had sent upon one possessed or sick, we discover that despising +the mother was regarded as being as culpable as dishonoring the father. +"Has he perchance set his parents or relations at variance, sinned +against God, despised father or mother, lied, cheated, dishonored his +neighbor's wife, shed his neighbor's blood, etc. Indeed, an ancient law, +which is thought to go back even to Accadian precedents, even gives to +the woman, if she be a mother, greater honor than to the man for it is +prescribed that if a son denies his father he is to be fined; if he +denies his mother, he is to be banished." + +It must be said, however, that the social freedom of the women depended +much upon their social rank. The women of the lower walks of life were +singularly independent for an Oriental community. Indeed, their liberty +was practically unrestricted. They could be seen upon the public +highways, with both head and face uncovered. They could make their +purchases at the market place, attend to any business that they might +find necessary, and visit the homes of their friends without restraint. +While all women, whatever might be their rank, had the same standing +before the laws of the land, unbending custom kept women of the highest +plane of social life within the seclusion of the home. Even when allowed +the privilege of being seen in public, they must go attended by eunuchs +or pages, so that both seeing and being seen were difficult processes. +Of course, in the highest lady of the land, the queen, was found the +culmination of dignity and exclusiveness, and she was rarely seen by +anyone except her husband, members of the royal family, and her +servants. Thus rank, instead of giving freedom and enlarged powers, +tended only to bring monotony and seclusion. + +The women of the lower classes usually went with bare feet, as well as +bare heads. With their long shaggy garments they did not present a very +picturesque or attractive appearance. The truth is, the costumes of the +people of Babylonia and Assyria were wanting in that grace and beauty +which is discoverable among some other people of the Orient. The +garments lacked that lightness of effect which flowing robes and drapery +make possible. The designs and materials were stiff, and with the +profusion of borders and fringes presented a heavy aspect. The women did +not choose so to dress as to show their natural figure, but by +concealing themselves in heavy and sometimes padded garments, their +forms were far from beautiful, and contrast most unfavorably with the +Greek and Egyptian grace of womanly dress and carriage. The women as +well as the men used much embroidery, which was generally very heavy and +often elaborate. Some of the designs were highly ornate and beautiful. + +Of the education of women in Babylonia and Assyria little definite is +known, except that it was common for women as well as men to read and +write. Exercises and translations of school children have been exhumed +from the mounds of ancient Babylonian cities. Dolls and other playthings +of the children have also been brought to light, showing that the +children of all ages have much the same tastes and occupations. Music, +dancing, embroidery, besides reading and writing, were among the +accomplishments of the girls of these lands. + +Households were amply equipped religiously, for every home must be +provided with some method of keeping itself free from the power of evil +spirits. When all believe that the world is peopled with demons who are +perpetually trying to ensnare men and bring them to ruin if possible, we +might expect that the women would be especially superstitious and +punctilious to the last degree in order that all evil spirits may be +frightened from their dwellings. Hence, they hung amulets in almost +every conceivable place. Talismans, statuettes of the dreaded spirits +might be seen in every home. Every charm was used to thwart the enemies +of human happiness in their attempt to destroy domestic peace, estrange +husband from wife, drive the head of the family from his own roof, and +send barrenness and blight in every quarter. + +The ancient Babylonians had a queer way of marrying off their daughters, +if we may believe Herodotus--which we do not. Not any period in the year +might the maiden select as the time to become a matron, but only on one +occasion during the year, and that a public festival, was marriage +permitted. On this occasion, the daughters of marriageable age were put +up at public auction. The crier took his place, while the young men who +were looking for wives or the young men's parents who were to pay for +them, stood about watching their opportunity to exchange their money for +feminine values. It is said that the girls were put up for purchase, +according to their beauty--the prettiest first, and so on to the end of +the sale. Often the contest of buyers would run high in excitement, and +large prices were offered for the coveted prize. + +After the good-looking damsels were all sold at fair prices, then came +the less attractive maidens, who, we are informed, were not sold, but +offered as wives with a dowry, the proceeds of the beauties being used +to add to the value of their less fortunate sisters. When the auction +was over, the marriage followed, and the brides accompanied their +new-made husbands to their homes. There was no escape from this method +of wedlock. The procedure was not optional, but imperative. There was no +marriage ring or bracelet to commemorate the event, but each new wife +was given a bit of baked clay in the form of an olive. Through this +model a hole was pierced so that it might be worn continually about the +neck, and upon it were inscribed the names of the parties to the +transaction and the date of their marriage. Several of these clay +memorials have been found as mute witnesses of the days when girls were +put up at the annual sale of wives in the month of Sabat and knocked +down to the highest bidder. + +Later, however, this custom gave way to one more rational, when marriage +came to be considered both "an act of civil law and a rite of domestic +worship." It became a contract entered into by two parties. A scribe +must be called in to draw up the marriage bond. It is to be properly +witnessed and filed away with a public notary for future reference. +There is a long period of social evolution between these two methods of +conducting marriage. And it is not to be supposed that all trace of +bargain and sale have disappeared. Not at all. The following happy +effort has been made at reproducing a scene which might have easily +occurred between the father of a young man who seeks in marriage the +hand of a certain damsel and the father of the girl at the home of the +latter. + +"'Will you give your daughter Bilitsonnon in marriage to my son +Zamamanadin?' The father consents and without further delay the two men +arrange the dowry. Both fathers are generous and rich, but they are also +men of business habits. One begins by asking too much, the other replies +by offering too little; it is only after some hours of bargaining that +they finally agree and settle upon what each knew from the beginning was +a reasonable dowry--a mana of silver, three servants, a trousseau and +furniture, with permission for the father to substitute articles of +equal value for the cash." There being no further obstacles the marriage +is accordingly fixed for a day of the next week. + +But does not the young lady need a longer time to prepare for an event +of so great moment in her life? No, because she has been anticipating +for some time that such a transaction will be effected by her parents; +for has she not already arrived at the age of thirteen? She has +therefore not let the past months slip idly through her fingers. She has +been busy sewing, embroidering, and making other things of beauty and +usefulness for her expected home. But nothing has concerned her more +than to see that her own person shall be attractive to her new husband +when the veil is lifted on her wedding day. Odors and ornaments ample +have been provided. + +Early upon the appointed day the friends may be seen moving toward the +home of the bride-elect. The scribe who is to draw up the marriage +contract is present ready to perform his important task. With his +triangular stylus he indents the covenant in soft clay. This is to be +inserted in an envelope also of clay that there may be a double +impression of the words of the contract. This is to be carefully baked +and filed away for possible future use--it may be to be found thousands +of years afterward by some explorer digging in the ruins of a long +buried city. The day has dawned beautiful, for the astrologer has said +that all would be propitious. The hands of the bride and groom are tied +together with a thread of wool, the customary emblem of the union into +which they have now entered. The marriage contract is clearly read +before the assembled company, and the witnesses make their mark upon the +soft tablet, the dowry and other presents are given over. Prayer is made +to the proper gods for the happy pair, and curses are invited upon any +who shall undertake to annul the covenant or revoke the gifts. + +Next comes the banqueting, of which the Assyrians were so fond. Music +and dancing, jesting and telling happy tales, with eating and drinking, +make up the round of merriment. At length the time comes for the bridal +party to make its way to the home of the groom's parents. All along the +way are signs of rejoicing, in which all are expected to join. The +groom's house is reached, and here the festivities are resumed and +carried on for several days, till all are fatigued and sated with mirth +and quite ready to see the young couple settle down to their new life as +home makers. + +Polygamy was rare for the Orient, especially at so early a period; but +where polygamy was practised at all, the harem existed. In Assyria, the +king might have more than one legitimate wife, to say nothing of those +who were not so ranked. Sargon had three lawful wives, for each of whom +he erected a separate apartment in his royal palace of Dur-Sargina. Like +Oriental houses generally, the several apartments are entered from a +central court. The queen's apartments were usually rich in decoration +and furnishings. The harem of Sargon's palace, which may be taken as +typical, was entered by gates. One of these had upon the front two huge +bronze palm trees, on each side one. Since the palm tree is emblematic +of both grace and fecundity, the significance of its use is apparent. +There were anterooms and drawing rooms, as well as bedrooms, for the +use of the queen. These were plastered, and mural decorations were +abundant, the designs being sometimes conventional, sometimes depicting +religious ideas in symbolism. Of course, the winged bull and the winged +lion, watchful guardians of Assyrian interest, were often painted upon +the walls. The gods were favorite subjects. In the women's apartments +were chairs, stools, tables, and the floors of brick or stone were +covered with carpets and mats. The bed, more like a modern lounge, was +raised upon wooden legs, and held a mattress and appropriate coverings, +and placed in a highly ornamented alcove, gave to the bedroom an +attractive air. + +But how does the queen amuse herself? for long indeed must the hours +often have seemed as she lived out her life a comparative prisoner. G. +Maspero, the noted French assyriologist, has thus described the +occupation of the queens, as they try to fill the idle hours: "Dress, +embroidery, needlework, and housekeeping, long conversation with their +slaves, the exchange of visits, and the festivals, with dancing and +singing with which they entertained each other, serve for occupation and +amusement. From time to time the king passes some hours amongst them, or +invites them to dine with him and amuse themselves in the hanging +gardens of the palace. The wives of the princes and great nobles are +sometimes admitted to pay homage to them, but very rarely, for fear they +should serve as intermediaries between the recluses and the outer +world." + +The kings of both Assyria and Babylonia were, as a rule, kings of +insatiable conquest. Hence, much of the year was spent with the army in +some distant territory, or, it may be, in lion hunting, a sport which +had great attractiveness to a number of the kings. It will be thus seen +how little the wives of the monarch enjoyed his real companionship. +There was ample time for monotony, broken now and again by jealousies, +followed by bitter hatred and deadly plottings. One wife would almost +inevitably share more of the attention of the king than the rest. Those +who had reason to believe themselves neglected would certainly be +incensed against the more favored rival. The servants of the palace +would often be drawn into the disputes, which sometimes had a tragic +end. The whole harem, combining against a favorite, might, through the +use of poison or by some other clandestine means, end the life of her +who was so unfortunate as to be loved by the king beyond the measure +thought by her rivals to be her due. + +One happy effort tended to relieve at least a little the dull seclusion +of the ladies of the harem. This was the planting of a garden in a court +adjacent to the house of the women. Often these gardens would be most +elaborate and beautiful. The hanging gardens of Babylon, accounted as +among the Seven Wonders of the World, were built in honor of a favorite +queen. The garden of the harem consisted of trees, such as the sycamore, +the poplar, or the cypress, and other plants selected to please the eye +of those whose seclusion must have made this suggestion of the country +most grateful. + +Feasting played an important role in the heyday of Nineveh's grandeur, +as also in the Babylon of later days. The king has just returned from a +great triumph in the Westland. The whole city is agog. For days the +round of drinking and carousing has proceeded, till the whole city is +drunken. The queen wishes to have a part in the expressions of victory +and rejoicing. She, with some trepidation, invites the king to dine with +her in her apartments in the harem. At the appointed hour all is +arranged. The gorgeous couch the queen has prepared for the king to +recline upon while he sips his wine scented with aromatic spices, the +rich drapery of the couch, the small table near by, laden with golden +and silver vessels of costliness and elegance, the slaves who attend +upon the lord's wishes, the poet-laureate to sing the conqueror's +praises in elaborate lines of flattery--all conspire to make the +occasion one of great magnificence. Thus, from king and queen to the +lowliest of the great city, the spirit of revelry, the love of carousal, +and the habit of intoxication, took hold of the luxuriant capital. We +recognize the appropriateness of the familiar words of Nahum, the Hebrew +prophet of Elkosh, who had been an eyewitness of the growing effeminacy +of the great Assyrian capital, Nineveh, when he foretold the fall of the +once glorious city: "Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women, +the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thy enemies; the fire +shall devour thy bars." + +How did the ordinary housewife spend her time? M. Maspero attempts to +reproduce the daily life of the Assyrian woman of about the eighth +century before the Christian era in these graphic words: + +"The Assyrian women spend a great deal of time upon the roofs. They +remain there all the morning till driven away by the noonday heat, and +they go back as soon as the sun declines in the evening. There they +perform all their household duties, chatting from one terrace to the +other. They knead the bread, prepare the cooking, wash the linen and +hang it out to dry, or if they have slaves to relieve them from these +menial labors, they install themselves upon cushions, and chat or +embroider in the open air. During the hottest hours of the day they +descend and take refuge indoors. The coolest room in the house is often +below the level of the courtyard and receives very little light." Thus +the Assyrian lady adapts herself as well as she may to her surroundings, +which were usually very simple as to furnishings and such things as a +modern inhabitant of the West would classify under the head of +"comforts." An Assyrian housewife was usually satisfied with a few +chairs and stools of various heights and sizes. There were few beds, +except among the rich. The people generally slept upon mats, which could +be folded and put away during the daytime. Taking care of the house was +woman's work, unless the family was rich enough to own slaves to attend +to the menial work of domestic life. The women had the care of the oven, +which was usually built in one corner of the court, and the meats were +cooked by them at the open fireplace. Care of the culinary work of an +Assyrian home was no small task, for the Assyrians were good +feeders,--and as for drinking, here they surpassed even their powers at +eating. So the woman of the house would find it necessary to care for +the wine skins and water jars that might be seen hanging about the +porches to keep them cool. + +The people along the waterways lived largely upon fish. These were +caught in great numbers and dried. The industrious housewife would take +these dried fish, pound them in a crude mortar, and then make them into +cakes, which Herodotus tells us were almost the sole diet of those who +lived in the lower or marshy regions of the Mesopotamian valley. +Ordinarily, men and women partook together their daily repast from a +common dish, into which all dipped, but on the occasion of great +banquets it was customary for the women to be served separately. + + + + +VI + +THE LAND OF THE LOTUS + + +"Concerning the virtues of women, O Cleanthes, I am not of the same mind +with Thucydides, for he would prove that she is the best woman +concerning whom there is least discourse made by people abroad, either +to her praise or her dispraise; judging that, as the person, so the very +name of a good woman ought to be retired and not gad abroad. But to us +Gorgias seems more accurate, who requires that not only the face, but +the fame of a woman should be known to many. For the Roman law seems +exceedingly good, which permits due praise to be given publicly both to +men and to women after death." These words of Plutarch find application +in the life of the women of the land of the Nile. There is no lack of +praise for the Egyptian women both while living and after they had +passed away, as the testimony of the monuments amply prove. + +It should be remembered that the history of Egypt extends over a very +wide stretch of time, and that changes are to be reckoned with even in a +region where everything moves slowly. For this reason it is not always +possible to say that this or that was true of the Egyptian women. For +there were the ancient, middle and later kingdoms, with each of which +came new influences, and these differed in many respects from the period +of Greek or Macedonian power; and the Egypt of to-day is a very +different Egypt from that of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. + +There are many widely differing people in the land of the Nile to-day. +The traveller finds great diversity of scenery and of social conditions, +and one has said of this marvellous land as the great dramatist wrote of +one of her most notable daughters: + + "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale + Her infinite variety." + +The oldest book in the world is an ancient Egyptian papyrus discovered +by M. Prisse at Thebes. It goes back to a period probably not later than +B.C. 3580, being a collection of didactic sayings, or precepts, of +Phtahhotep, a prince of the fifth dynasty. What so early an Egyptian +sage has to say concerning women should be of no little interest. In +giving advice to husbands, he gives this counsel, which we might imagine +a wise man of to-day might easily have written: "If thou be wise, guard +thy house; honor thy wife, and love her exceedingly; feed her stomach +and clothe her back, for this is the duty of a husband. Give her +abundance of ointment, fail not each day to caress her, let the desire +of her heart be fulfilled, for verily he that is kind to his wife and +honoreth her, the same honoreth himself. Withhold thy hand from +violence, and thy heart from cruelty, softly entreat her and win her to +thy way, consider her desires and deny not the wish of her heart. Thus +shalt thou keep her heart from wandering; but if thou harden thyself +against her, she will turn from thee. Speak to her, yield her thy love, +she will have respect unto thee; open thy arms, she will come unto +thee." + +Ancient Egyptian literature does not lack its reference to women. One +of the most famous of the stories that have been presented to us from +Egyptian sources is _The Tale of the Two Brothers_. This goes back to +the day of Moses, and has suggested to many the Hebrew account of +Joseph. It reveals the charms of her whose beauty the sea leaped up to +embrace, and the acacia flowers envied. This romance, written for the +entertainment of Seti II. when he was yet crown prince, and considered, +by Mr. Flinders Petrie, to be connected with the ancient Phrygian of +Atys, gives us an early illustration of the fact that many ills and many +pleasures have been born to the race through love of a woman. + +The women of Babylonia and Assyria enjoyed a measure of freedom that was +exceptional for the Orient, and yet the Egyptian woman was more +independent still. Indeed, the respect that was paid to womankind by the +Egyptians is one of the fairest elements in the civilization of the +valley of the Nile. Motherhood also was highly respected. But one +illustration, referred to by Lenormant, will suffice to prove this +statement. A woman while _enceinte_, condemned to death for murder or +any other crime, could not be executed till after the birth of the +child; for it was considered the height of injustice to make the +innocent participate in the punishment of the guilty, and to visit the +crime of one person upon two. And he adds: "The judges who put to death +an innocent person were held as guilty as if they had acquitted a +murderer." + +Before the law woman's rights were respected. In the division of the +paternal estate, the daughters shared equally with the sons, and were +more responsible than the sons for the care of the parents. In worship, +the queen is sometimes depicted as standing near her husband in the +temple--behind him, to be sure, as the king was the head of the religion +and indeed "son of the Sun," but with him, like Isis behind Osiris, +lifting her hand in sympathetic protection and shaking the sistrum, or +beating the tambourine to dispel all evil spirits, or holding the +libation vase or bouquet. + +The Egyptian woman, of the lower or middle classes at least, suffered no +enforced seclusion. She came and went as her will led her, appearing in +public without covered face, and chatting with acquaintances whom she +met without having her conduct questioned or her modesty placed under +suspicion. She might enjoy a banquet with the opposite sex, and at its +close look upon the weird figure of a corpse carved in wood, placed in a +coffin, which Herodotus says was carried around by a servant. As he +shows the image to each guest in turn the servant says: "Gaze here and +drink and be merry; for when you die such you will be." Thus was +Epicurus anticipated in ancient Egypt. _Dum vivimus, vivamus._ The +Egyptians generally, however, kept the next world always in view, and +immortality played no small part in shaping the Egyptian life, both as +to its men and its women. The Greek influence, which, after the days of +Alexander, was destined to revolutionize Egyptian thought and custom, +notwithstanding the efforts of the Ptolemies to win favor of the +populace by revolutionizing the waning worship of Osiris, is illustrated +in a poem written about one hundred years before Christ, a _Lament for +the Dead Wife of Pasherenptah._ In this poem, the ancient hope of +immortality is overcast, and the weeping spouse is enjoined: + + "Love woman while you may + Make life a holiday, + Drive every care away + And earthly sadness." + +The first lady of the land was of course a queen. The queens of Egypt +not unfrequently had a wide outlook upon the material progress of the +people. This is well exemplified in the expedition of Queen Chuenemtamun +of which we know from discovered monuments, which represent the ship +being ladened with large and costly stores under her direction. Queen +Hatshepsu fitted out a fleet of five ships and sent them to the land of +Punt,--the southern coast of Arabia, or, as some suppose, the African +coast south of Abyssinia,--that they might bring back scented fig trees +which she would transplant in her gigantic orchard at Thebes. The +tallest monolith in the world, of reddish granite and one hundred and +eight feet high, said once to have been covered with a coating of gold, +was the work of this famous queen. + +In a few cases queens ruled in Egypt, wives of kings governed jointly +with their husbands, and there are instances in which pretenders to the +throne married women of royal lineage that their claims might have at +least the show of being legitimate. This was the case with Piankhi, one +of the Ethiopian dynasty of kings, whose wife Ameniritis is described as +a woman of rare intelligence and of superior merit; one who, because of +her rare strength of character and wisdom, exerted a powerful influence +in the government and won for herself great popularity in Thebes and the +entire region around. + +A modern traveller may easily be reminded of the honor paid to women in +ancient Egypt by visiting the sites where temples and tombs were erected +in honor of some beloved wife and queen. The temple of Hathor at the +modern Aboo Simbel, which was erected by the famous builder Rameses II. +in honor at once of Hathor the goddess of love, and of his wife +Nofreari. Six statues adorn the entrance to the temple. They are thirty +feet high, and represent Rameses and his beloved queen, who appears +under the favor of the goddess Hathor. On the brow of the goddess is the +crown--the moon resting within the horns of a cow; she wears also the +ostrich feathers, which are the sign of royalty. Their children, as +often portrayed upon Egyptian monuments, have their places beside their +parents: the daughters stand close to the queen; the sons, near to the +father. About the sculptured forms is recorded in hieroglyphic +characters the love which the king felt for his fair queen, whose name +meant "beautiful and good." The temple and statues are hewn out of the +living rock, and, on entering, there is the shrine of Hathor, "the +supreme type of divine maternity." + +There is a touch of romance here, for on the outer wall the inscriptions +tell us that this temple was reared "by Rameses the Strong in Faith, the +Beloved of Ammon, for his royal wife Nofreari, whom he loves"; while +within the doorway of this same temple may be read the legend, it was +for Rameses that "his royal wife who loves him, Nofreari the Beloved of +Maat, constructed for him this abode in the mountain of the Pure +Waters." Thus beautiful was the enduring love between this royal husband +and his wife. + +No period of ancient Egyptian history is entirely wanting in the names +of conspicuous women. There is a legend that comes down from the days of +the Ptolemies, to the effect that when King Ptolemy Euergetes started +out upon his expeditions against Syria, the strong rival of Egypt for +the supremacy over the East, his queen, the beautiful Berenice (a +favorite name for princesses for two centuries), made a vow that if her +husband should be permitted to return from his expedition in safety, she +would dedicate her hair to the gods. Her prayer was answered; and, +faithful to her solemn vow, she cut off her hair and hung "the beautiful +golden tresses that had adorned her head in the temple, whose ruins +still stand on the promontory of Zephyrium." But, alas! they were not +long allowed to adorn the walls of the holy place, for some sacrilegious +thief carried them away from the shrine. The priests were bewildered, +the king was wroth, no one knew what to do. At length the astronomers +came to the relief of all concerned by announcing that it could have +been no ordinary thief who plundered the temple for the beautiful +tresses, but that the gods themselves had taken them, and that the keen +eye had only to be turned heavenward to discover a new constellation +which they now separated from Leo. The king and all concerned were now +reconciled and happy. The constellation shines on. + +Among the most beautiful of ancient buildings is the temple of +Denderah. While magnificent in itself, much of its interest to us here +is due to the fact that it was erected and dedicated to the Egyptian +goddess of love and beauty, Hathor, nurse of Horus, the son of Osiris +and Isis; and further, that it was begun by that fascinator of kings, +the notorious Cleopatra. On the outside walls of the temple are figures +of this famous queen, and of Caesarion, her son by Julius Caesar. One +would judge from these representations that Cleopatra's beauty was of +the most voluptuous and sensual type, the features being not only full +but fat, though regular. On her head is placed the horned disc,--in +honor of Hathor,--the sacred vulture, and the horns of Isis. Thus have +been perpetuated the personal and religious features of the most +remarkable woman Egypt ever produced. Pascal's oft-quoted comment upon +the beauty of this Egyptian character doubtless contains a modicum of +truth: "If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the +earth would have been changed." Cleopatra, however, whose charms subdued +victors, was more a Greek than an Egyptian beauty. The women of the Nile +country, however, were not lacking in personal grace and physical charm. +Their complexions were dark, their features generally regular, and their +bodies athletic, though not large. + +One might judge from the paintings that have come down to us, which +depict the form and vesture of the Egyptian woman, that she was greatly +lacking both in grace of figure and in taste for arraying herself +attractively. But we are not to be misled by the elongated, wiry-looking +figures that the monuments portray for us. Some of the blame must, +without doubt, be laid upon the Egyptian artist, who had little idea +either of proportion or perspective. + +Egyptian women spent much time upon their toilettes. Great attention was +given to the care of the complexion. For this beautifying process a +powder was used consisting of antimony and charcoal, powdered fine and +applied with so much skill that the skin by contrast is made to stand +out in soft whiteness. For this cosmetic regimen a mirror of highly +polished metal was found to be of indispensable value. The finger nails +came in for a full share of attention, henna being used to stain them. +As for the feet, scarcely less care was given them, and anklets and toe +rings frequently adorned them. Shoes, or sandals, seem never to have +been in high favor in Egypt, and, even when clothed in the most costly +apparel, women preferred to go with bare feet. + +It would seem very difficult, to modern taste, to attain to real beauty +by means of tattooing. But we have grounds for asserting that the +Egyptian beauties, at least at a certain period of their national +history, covered their forehead, chin, and breasts, and sometimes the +arms, with indelible painting in color. They were fond of rouging their +faces, especially the lips, and the eye was a feature to which much time +and art were given. Large eyes were the fashion, as may be readily +judged from the many pictures of ox-eyed maids which have been +preserved. A band of black pigment almost entirely surrounded the eyes, +and extended across the temples to the roots of the hair. By painting +the eyebrows and eyelids, the eyes were made to appear not only larger +but more brilliant. + +The Egyptian woman was fond of the use of oil, which was rubbed +generously upon the body. Perfumes also played an important part in her +life. Women made and sold perfumes and used them profusely. They were +exceedingly fond of flowers, especially if they were new varieties. +Extracts and essences from sweet-scented plants were much sought after. +Favorite shrubs and flowers were transported from distant lands and +transplanted in the land of the Nile. This was often done upon a large +scale. Even the liquors drunk at banquets were scented with sweet +perfumes. + +The women usually dressed in a long, close-fitting smock-frock, clinging +closely to the body and reaching quite to the ankles. The shoulders and +upper part of the breast were left uncovered, the frock being held in +place by two straps running across the shoulders. But it is not to be +supposed that the women of Egypt knew nothing of fashion; though it must +be confessed that fashions changed slowly. And in this matter the men +were as fond of fashion as the women; for they wore linen skirts usually +reaching to the knees, although their length was regulated by the +prevailing style. + +Under the New Empire woman's dress did not leave both shoulders bare, +as formerly, but covered the left shoulder; the right shoulder and arm +being left free. At length drapery began to be more common, and instead +of the heavy, straight garment of earlier days, graceful folds appeared. +With the drapery came a lengthening of the skirt. When this change +occurred only the priests retained the simple skirt of former days. Most +men wore a double skirt, consisting of an inner short garment, and an +outer. Indeed, the men seemed quite as fond of their costume as the +women, and were more varied in their tastes, loving finery, and leaving +it to the women to be more conservative in matters of dress. + +From the paintings and the other representations that have come down to +us, both the peasant maid and the princess wore the same kind of +garments, so far as the cut of them is concerned. Mother, daughter, and +maid were dressed much alike and without much variety of color. The rich +often wore a profusion of beads. + +There was no part of the Egyptian woman's toilet upon which so much care +was bestowed as upon the hair. Indeed, the Egyptians prided themselves +upon their coiffure. Herodotus is authority for the statement that there +were fewer bald-headed people in Egypt than in any other country. +Civilization, in the valley of the Nile, at least, did not seem greatly +to increase the tendency to baldness. There were cases, but they were of +the nature of a calamity. Woe to the physician whose skill did not +succeed in checking the falling hair. Pomades of various ingredients +were common remedies for this ill. Oil, dog's feet, and date kernels +were considered of great virtue, as was also a donkey's tooth pulverized +and mixed with honey. And there was no more direful or more frequent +imprecation pronounced by an Egyptian lady upon her rival than that the +hair of her whom she hated might fall out! + +[Illustration 2: GHAWAZI _After the painting by C. L. Muller +The "dancing girls" known as_ ghawazi, _are often in evidence. They +clothe themselves in gay garments of various colors. Sometimes they are +pretty and attractive specimens of female grace, but, as might be +expected from their character and profession, they soon become coarse +and repulsive. They may be seen at the public places, and their dances +are indecorous and immodest. They play a leading role in those wild +orgies known as_ Fantasia.] + +Wigs were commonly used by women as well as by men of the Ancient +Empire. There was a coiffure of straight hair down to the shoulders or +to the breasts. Examples have been found, however, in which the wigs +reached not so far, as is the case in the statuette of the Lady Takusit, +which is now among the ancient ornaments in the Museum of Athens. She +wears a wig of stiff curly locks in rigidly regular lines plastered +closely to the head, reaching almost from the eyes in front to the nape +of the neck, and hiding the ears. The plaiting of the hair became common +in later times, the hair hanging stiffly over the shoulders. + +This piece of statuary, that of Lady Takusit, or Takoushet, as it is +sometimes spelled, one of the most perfect of its kind, shows a woman of +good form and regular features, standing erect with one foot in advance, +her right arm hanging gracefully by her side, her left pressed naturally +against her bosom. She is dressed in the closely fitting skirt already +described, supported by straps over the shoulders and reaching to a +point just above the ankles. Her robe is richly embroidered with scenes +of a religious character, and her wrists are adorned with bracelets. + +Besides the ordinary hair dress of the women, the queen enjoyed the +exceptional privilege of wearing a diadem or headdress, representing a +vulture, which was the sacred bird of Egypt and was accounted the +special protector of the king in battle. This royal bird is represented +as stretching out its strong wings over the head of the first lady of +the land. + +The women were great lovers of trinkets and jewelry of all kinds, and +the men were not far behind them in this. They put an ornament wherever +it could be appropriately worn. And this ruling passion was even strong +in death, for the dead were often literally loaded with jewels upon +their arms, fingers, ears, brow, neck, and ankles. Favorite jewels, +specially, were entombed with the dead. In the Boulak Museum has been +preserved probably the most complete collection of funeral jewelry, that +of Queen Aahhotep, mother of Ahmes, the first king of the eighteenth +dynasty. The following are some of the womanly belongings buried with +Queen Aahhotep: a fan handle plated with gold, a bronze-gilt mirror +mounted upon an ebony handle, on which was a lotus of chased gold, +bracelets of various designs, anklets, armlets, gold rings, ornaments +for the wrist made of small beads in "gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian and +green feldspar, strung on gold wire in a chequer pattern," and many +other ornaments of fine gold, of chased and repousse work of great +value. + +The women of Egypt to-day are dark in complexion and generally slender. +The women of the poorer classes are ill kept and poorly clothed. They +generally wear long, and frequently tattered, garments of blue and black +cotton. Their feet are bare, but the love of decoration is manifest +still; for, though they be dirty and begrimed through lack of care and +suitable clothing, the silver anklets, the rings for their fingers and +even for their toes, and the bracelets for their arms, tell the tale of +their fondness for adornment. Mohammedanism has caused the universal use +of the veil. A narrow strip of black is caught by a brass or silver +spiral directly between the eyes. The falling veil, therefore, covers +all the face below the eyes. Ladies of the higher classes wear +transparent Turkish veils of costly material, and their costly silk +garments are loaded with embroideries. + +Mothers in Egypt carry their babes on their backs or shoulders. The +mother holds fast to the feet or the legs of her offspring, while the +child throws his hands about her head and seems well satisfied with his +position. The tattooing, which we have noted as existent in early Egypt, +is no longer general; it, however, may be seen to-day among the women of +Nubia. Some of the Berber women not only are tattooed, but place blue +lines on their under lip and on the cheeks and arms. The men, women, and +children of that region are very dark. The women plait their hair into +numerous tiny curls, which stay well in place, for the hair has first +been soaked in castor oil, partly because of the aesthetic effect, and +partly as a protection against the hot rays of the tropical sun. The +dress of the younger women is very scant; the older females are +generally clothed in long blue garments, which they gather about them in +folds. The younger girls, however, with much unadorned innocence, wear +simply a leathern girdle and a complacent smile, for the Berber women +appear good-humored and happy. This costume, a girdle of leather, soaked +well in castor oil and adorned with shells, worn by the younger belles +of Nubia, is known as "Madam Nubia." + +The "dancing girls," known as _ghawazi_, are often in evidence in the +towns of modern Egypt. They clothe themselves in gay garments of various +colors. Sometimes they are pretty and attractive specimens of female +grace, but, as might be expected from their character and profession, +they soon become coarse and repulsive. They may be seen at the public +cafes, and their dances are indecorous and immodest. They play a leading +role in those wild orgies known as _fantasia_. + +The modern Egyptian water girl is often an interesting bit of humanity. +Canon Bell thus describes her in his _Winter on the Nile_: "You may be +accompanied, if you like it, by a little girl clad in blue, adorned with +a necklace of beads, earrings and bracelets, and sometimes a nose-ring, +carrying a water jar on her head, from which she will supply you at +luncheon among the temples and tombs, for a small backsheesh. She will +run beside your donkey for miles, and never seem tired, and if you will +drink from her jar, of the same shape which you will see sculptured on +the temple walls, will reward you with a sweet smile from her coral +lips. And what teeth she and all the people have! I never saw teeth so +regular and so white. They are like a string of orient pearls; and it is +a pleasure when the lips part, and you see them gleaming white as driven +snow." + +In ancient Egypt the woman was queen of her own house, the real mistress +of domestic life. When the husband was at home, he was looked upon +rather in the light of a "privileged guest," and the housewife was the +respected hostess, holding everything beneath her undisputed sway. In +short, she was the very soul and centre of the domestic activity, rising +early and stirring the household into life and movement. + +Let us take a peep into an Egyptian home. Excavation has revealed that +the palaces of the kings of Babylonia were built in a much more +substantial and enduring fashion than were the temples of the gods. The +reverse is true of Egypt. Egyptian temples were built not for time, but +for eternity. The palaces, however, were of far lighter character, being +erected of brick or undressed freestone, but rarely of granite or the +more enduring materials. Eternity played an important part in the +religious thinking of the Egyptians. This will account in a measure for +the more enduring character of the houses of the gods. The dwellings of +members of the richer classes were made up of an aggregation of houses, +suggesting a miniature village. There were separate houses for the +various members of the family: the master, the chief wife, the harem +women, the visitors, and the several classes of servants. Storehouses +were separate from buildings designed for habitation, and the several +domestic offices had their individual buildings. The court, which every +villa had, was planted with trees and flowers, and frequently was +provided with a fountain and a pool. The women of the harem found +opportunity for amusement in these beautiful courts. During the day +these secluded beauties whiled away their time in gossiping, playing +upon instruments, and indulging in the games in vogue. When night came +they lay down to rest with their heads upon pillows consisting of a +piece of curved wood, upon which was usually carved an image of the god +Bisou, who guarded the sleeper. This little dwarf, a divinity with short +legs and rotund stomach, drives away the demons who infest the night and +are liable to injure the sleeping one, unless protected by this +well-disposed and well-armed deity. + +The wife in the average Egyptian home was the companion of her husband, +assisting him to manage his affairs. She encouraged him in his own daily +work, and there are pictures of wife and children, seemingly in a most +interested mood, standing by while the husband and father is busily +engaged in some engrossing occupation. Often the king will take his wife +fully into his life. The queen is frequently pictured by the king's side +in some public function. The wife of Amenophis IV., with the rest of the +royal family, is represented, probably on some important state occasion, +as standing upon the gallery of the royal residence and tossing golden +collars to the people. Indeed, Amenophis IV. is discovered to have been +most domestic in his tastes, giving his wife and daughters a place of +respect and honor in his kingdom. Some of his monuments represent him +riding in his chariot, followed by his seven daughters, who were his +companions even in battle. Sometimes the queen of the Pharaohs is found +riding in state processions in her own chariot behind that of her +husband. + +How did the average women of the Nile busy themselves during the long +days? While they were not the hewers of wood, women were usually the +drawers of water, as in Palestine and Syria. They were not idlers, +though men did the spinning, weaving, and laundry work. In truth, as we +have before stated, it was the daughter, or daughters, and not the sons +who were expected to provide for their parents in times of want and old +age. This did not permit women to be in any sense a dependent class. + +The relation of the Egyptian woman to the practical affairs of life is +significant and of great interest. It is in the matter of buying and +selling that we perhaps have most frequent representations upon the +monuments. And women as well as men are portrayed driving their bargains +with the venders of all sorts of wares. Women both buy and sell in the +public places. One has perfume of her own manufacture, upon the merits +of which she glibly descants, even in terms poetic, as she thrusts the +jars under the nostrils of the hoped-for purchaser. Women jewelers are +discovered attempting to dispose of their rings, bracelets, and +necklaces, while other women are trying to obtain goods at the lowest +possible prices. "Cheapening" was fashionable even among the women of +Egypt. Sometimes groups of women are represented as bargaining in the +shops. Herodotus in his travels observed what to him was a striking +contrast between the industrial and commercial customs of the Greeks and +those of the Egyptians in that the men of Egypt worked at the looms and +carried on the handicraft, while the women frequently transacted +business. But it should not be thought that women did not weave. They +often worked at the loom, and men as well as women bought and sold the +ordinary commodities of life. + +In the house Egyptian women not only engaged in weaving, spinning, and +the making of fabrics generally, but they assisted in the curing of +fowls, birds, and fish. Of this kind of food the Egyptians were very +fond. When the husband, who was very partial to hunting, returned with +the game he had killed or trapped, it was at once preserved for later +use upon the table. Strangely enough, the cooks are usually represented +as men, though the women were not strangers to the preparation of food +for family use. The Egyptians laid much stress upon their dietary. They +believe, Herodotus tells us, that the diseases men are heir to are all +caused by the materials upon which they feed. Swine's flesh was, as with +the Israelites, forbidden flesh, except upon certain extraordinary +occasions. Their staff of life was bread made of spelt. Their drink was +chiefly a beer made from barley. Salt fish, and dried fowls, such as +ducks, geese, and quail, were eaten with great relish. Some birds, as +well as some fish, were tabooed because of religious scruples. + +The recreations that were allowable to the Egyptian women were quite +numerous and varied. But dancing, singing, and performing upon musical +instruments were their favorite amusements. The kettle drum and the +castanet were in common use among them, and pictures of girls playing on +the lute are not infrequent. A wall painting in a Theban tomb discloses +the fact that dancing girls were often employed to afford merriment at +the feasts. It was not against Egyptian etiquette for women to attend +banquets, and they are often represented as drinking freely, even to +drunkenness, lying about with forms exposed, and vomiting from +overindulgence. + +In this connection it is curious to note the relation of the women of +Egypt to gymnastic feats. In the Turin Museum there is an example of a +female acrobat, who is in the very act of performing with wonderful +agility a very difficult feat. The young woman is nude, with the +exception of a double belt, one thong of which encircles the waist, the +other confines the hips. She is willowy in form and with great ease and +grace she throws herself backward, apparently about to turn a +somersault, but she keeps her feet upon the ground, and her hands almost +touch her heels. Her hair flows out loosely as she seems about to whirl +her lithe body through the air. + +That the Egyptian women were pleasure-loving may be learned by many a +monument. Portrayals of elaborate festivals have been unearthed, others +are recorded by early historians. Herodotus gives a description of one +of these in honor of the Egyptian Diana in the city of Bubastis. "They +hold public festival not only once in a year but several times.... Now +when they are being conveyed to the city of Bubastis they act as +follows; for men and women embark together, and great numbers of both +sexes in every barge; some of the women have castanets on which they +play, and the men play on the lute during the whole voyage, the rest of +the women sing and clap their hands together at the same time. When in +course of their passage they come to any town, they lay their barge near +to land, and do as follows: Some of the women do as I have described, +others shout and scoff at the women of the place; some dance, while +others stand and pull up their clothes; this they do at every town at +the river-side. When they arrive at Bubastis, they celebrate the feast, +offering up great sacrifices and more wine is consumed at this festival +than in all the rest of the year. What with men and women, besides +children, they congregate, as the inhabitants say, to the number of +seven hundred thousand." + +The law of Egypt prescribed that there should be in each family but one +legitimate wife. From numerous representations upon the monuments it +would seem that great affection usually existed between spouses. +Marriage was termed "founding for one's self a home." Temporary or +tentative marriages were often made for one year. After the expiration +of the trial period, by the payment of a certain sum, the man might +annul the agreement. + +The Tel-el-Amarna tablets brought to light in 1887, furnish some very +interesting and informing materials concerning diplomatic marriages. +Many letters passed between the kings of Egypt and the rulers of the +land of Mitanni, and other Asiatic provinces concerning the marriage of +royal daughters to the King of Egypt or to the king's son. Even +bargaining concerning dowry finds a place in this correspondence. +Inquiries respecting the treatment of a daughter who has been given in +marriage to a prince, complaints of the breaking of the marriage +contract, and all conceivable complications which might grow out of +these marital relations, are discussed. + +In the days of the Ptolemies and in the Roman period, it became very +common for men to marry their own sisters, especially in the royal +families. This was true of Cleopatra, the daughter of Ptolemy Epiphanes +and Cleopatra. She married first her brother Ptolemy Philometer, and +later, a second brother Ptolemy Physcon. This was the Cleopatra who +lived a century before the famous "witch of the Nile." She distinguished +herself by her signal favoritism toward the Jews, who had then become +very numerous in Egypt, giving great encouragement to Onias in his +undertaking of the erection of a Jewish temple at Leontopolis in Egypt. + +In modern Egypt, however, marriage with sisters has given way to +marriage between cousins, which in current opinion is by far the best +sort of wedding match. It is not strange that this custom of legalized +incest, the marrying of sisters should have sprung up in a land where +Osiris and Set were worshipped. For both of these gods were wedded to +their sisters, Isis and Nephthys. + +As among the Hebrews, it was a matter of congratulation and of great +domestic happiness to possess children, and much rejoicing took place at +the birth of a babe. The inscriptions of monuments and tombs would +indicate, too, a very beautiful family life in Egypt. There was nothing +that so tended to give domestic life this charm as the fact that the +mother took complete charge of the child's upbringing. She was its +nurse, feeding it from her own breast often till it reached the age of +three years. In Eastern countries it is not uncommon to see children of +considerable size thus taking nourishment. When the child was unable to +walk, or when the journey was too great for the yet undeveloped limbs, +the mothers carried their children upon their necks, as do the Egyptian +mothers to-day. + +Motherhood was much respected both by sons and daughters,--more than is +true of the children of modern Egypt,--and the wise men and poets of the +land wrote and spoke most tenderly and sympathetically of the maternal +love. As one of them said: "Thou shalt never forget what thy mother hath +done for thee. She has borne and nourished thee. If thou forgettest her, +she might blame thee, she might lift up her arms to God, and he would +surely hear her complaint." An utterance of an Egyptian sage, which +bears the spirit of the words of the Hebrew wise man, who said: "Forsake +not the law of thy mother. Bind it continually upon thy heart, and tie +it about thy neck. When thou goest it shall lead thee, and when thou +sleepest it shall keep thee. When thou awakest it shall talk with thee;" +and again: "Despise not thy mother when she is old." Affection between +mothers and their sons was very strong. Many of the inscriptions upon +tombs, with the accompanying pictures, reveal the dead son and his +mother, and not the son and his father. This is in accordance with the +very common fact in Eastern lands, especially in this part, that +brothers and sisters by the same mother were much closer to one another +than brothers and sisters by the same father. It is quite evident that +in early days in Egypt descent was always traced through the mother, and +not through the father. When, in a remote period, marriage ties were +loose or polyandry was practised, it was manifestly easier to trace the +family lineage through the mother. In ancient Egypt, it is interesting +to note that inheritance of property passed not from a father to his +son, but to the son of his sister, or sometimes to the son of his eldest +daughter. + +When children were named they did not receive a family or surname. All +names were individual, the gods coming in for their share of honor +in the selection, as was very common among ancient people, among +whom religion pervaded everything. The girls were frequently +named, for poetic or imaginative reasons, after trees, animals, +qualities of moral excellence, and the like. Such appellations as +"Daughter-of-the-crocodile, Kitten," etc., were not infrequent; and even +here we find a religious motive, for both the crocodile and the cat were +worshipped in Egypt. Mummied sacred cats have been exhumed in great +numbers in recent years, only to be ruthlessly turned into fertilizers +by the unappreciative and practical Westerner. "Beautiful Sycamore" is +also an example of a woman's name. "Darling" and "Beloved" were also +favorite names, and "My Queen" is also found. From the number of +instances discovered, it would seem--and not unnaturally--that women +liked to be called after Hathor, the goddess of love. + +How did the little girls amuse themselves in those far-off Egyptian +days? The girl nature is the same the world over, and has not undergone +any radical change since the very dawn of history. The girls, of course, +played with dolls. These were made from cloth and were usually stuffed. +Some of them had long hair. Figures resembling jumping-jacks, loosely +jointed and manipulated with a string, were a means of merriment for the +little ones. The nursery was also frequently brightened by the presence +of flowers; and birds, some free and some caged, were common pets; cats, +too, were everywhere, and the small donkey furnished much sport. + +It may seem somewhat strange that in a land to which has often been +attributed the invention of the art of writing, there should have come +down to us no literature from the hand and brain of a woman. The secret +of this is probably found in the fact that while women were respected +and even esteemed as the equals of men, yet it was not considered worth +while to educate them in a literary way. In some of the arts, however, +such as music, women were skilled. + +In modern Egypt the education of the women is sadly neglected. It does +not compare with that given them in ancient times. Indeed, in Mohammedan +countries, generally, woman is sternly thrust into a position of +inferiority, even of degradation. The school provided for the +instruction of the children in Egypt, as in all Mohammedan countries, is +the _kattub_, which is to be found in most towns and even in some of the +small villages. These schools are attached, when possible, to a mosque, +and the instruction is religious rather than literary, for the teaching +is limited to the Koran, and all instruction is in the Arabic language. +The schoolmaster, who usually has an assistant, is himself very ignorant +of all that the modern Western world would term "learning." Even the +elements of a modern education are strangers to him. There are said to +be about nine thousand five hundred of these kattubs in Egypt, and in +them are enrolled one hundred and eighty thousand pupils. But the kattub +is dark and unattractive. There are no seats or furniture of any kind. +To an Occidental eye, the schoolroom is inconvenient in every respect, +and withal quite unsanitary and forbidding. The teacher sits on a mat, +cross-legged. In front of him are ranged two rows of children, both boys +and girls, sitting sideways to the teacher. One would suppose, seated as +the children are, that the dreary humdrum of the daily instruction was +surely meant to go in at one ear and out at the other. But the pupils +learn to repeat passage after passage from the sacred book of Mohammed. +For the time is largely taken up reciting _sura_ after _sura_ from the +Koran, and the most lengthy passages are well memorized, the master +correcting the boy or girl whose tongue has slipped, or prompting one +whose memory has failed him. As the singsong of recitation is rolled out +in languid sweetness, the pupils sway their bodies back and forth, +keeping time to the rhythm. There is no casting of eyes at the girls, no +giggling, no crooked pins in use, in the kattubs. The pupils know the +stern master is on serious business bent. Besides, he makes use of the +principle of "the expulsive power" of preoccupation; for, while the +memorizing and reciting of texts goes on, there are no idle hands for +Satan to make busy. The teacher himself sets the example of industry, +for his hands are engaged in weaving a mat, while his ear watches to +detect the slightest lapse from correctness in the pupil's tongue. So, +too, the boys and girls must be busied at some useful handiwork, such as +plaiting straw. Thus, "technical training" goes hand in hand with the +mental in modern Egypt. The number of girls in these schools, however, +is comparatively small. There are hopeful signs in the matter of female +education in the Egypt of to-day, for the government, seeing the need, +has granted a double sum for every girl in attendance upon the kattubs. + +Women of all lands have had an important place in the time of sickness +and death. Egypt is no exception to the rule. There were doctors in this +cultured land. Specialism was in vogue even in ancient Egypt. As the +celebrated Greek historian again says: "Medicine is practised among them +on the plan of separation; each physician treats a single disorder and +no more." There were eye specialists, headache specialists, tooth +specialists, intestine specialists, and so on to the end of the category +of diseases. Some of their treatises, comments upon cases, diseases, +formulae, methods of physicians, both of Egypt and of other lands, have +come down to us. And yet, it must be confessed that exorcism held an +important place in the Egyptian practice of medicine; and the women were +among the foremost believers in this magical method of effecting cures. +The Egyptian lady is suffering from a most violent attack of headache. +She sends for the physician. He presently arrives, with one or more +servants or assistants, bringing with them his book of incantations, and +a case containing his _materia medica_, which consists of a goodly +supply of clay, plants or dried roots of all sorts, cloths, models in +wax or clay, black or red ink, _et caetera_. A diagnosis of the case is +hurriedly made. Kneading some clay, with which various ingredients are +mixed, this disciple of Aesculapius, or rather of Imhotep, repeats the +appropriate incantation several times, places the ball of clay under the +head of the sick, and leaves, feeling sure that the inimical spirit +which torments her will not be able to gain possession against the +powerful charm. + +In case of death in any household, the mourning was pronounced and +pitiable. The part which women played in Egyptian funerals was not +unlike that among the Hebrews and other Oriental peoples. "They were," +says Maspero, in his _Struggle of the Nations_, "not like those to which +we are accustomed--mute ceremonies in which sorrow is barely expressed +by a fugitive tear. Noise, sobbings, and wild gestures were their +necessary concomitants. Not only was it customary to hire weeping women, +who tore their hair, filled the air with their lamentations, and +simulated by skilful actions the depths of despair, but the relations +and friends did not shrink from making an outward show of their grief +nor from disturbing the equanimity of the passers-by by the immoderate +expressions of their sorrow." "O my father!" "O my brother!" "O my +master!" "O my beloved!" would be heard from the female voices standing +around the dead. There was no superstition which prevented a fond +embracing of the body of the loved one who had just passed away. Tears +flow in great profusion, hair and garments are rent, and the women beat +their breasts, and then depart from the house of death. "With nude +bosoms, head sullied with dust, the hair dishevelled and feet bare, they +rush from the house into the still, deserted streets." Friends and +sympathizers join in their grief as they pass along, and follow the +procession of mourning. Since the Egyptian believes that the spirit can +survive only so long as the body lasts,--a sort of conditional +immortality,--the corpse must be embalmed. The method is determined by +the rank of the deceased. If it be a princess who has passed away, the +most elaborate and costly methods and materials must be used. Each toe +and finger must be carefully and separately wrapped and cared for. Next +comes the solemn funeral procession, with the noisy, heartrending hired +mourners, the libations and offerings, the catafalque drawn by oxen, and +at length the dead is laid away in the tombs. An important part of the +Egyptian funeral is the banquet, in which the dead, through his +representative, partakes; during the feasting, the _almehs_ execute +their death dances and sing their songs appealing to the living +concerning death and the dead. + +It is Nut, the goddess of heaven, who, during the journey of the soul, +after it leaves the tomb appears from the midst of a sycamore tree, +offering the spirit a dish containing loaves and a cruse of water, and +if the soul accepts the proffered gift, he becomes the guest of the +goddess. Beyond are dangers of every sort which only amulets and the +most powerful incantations can dispel. If the soul can pass +these--though many fall by the way--he is transported by the divine +ferryman to the presence of Osiris, the great god. Maat, the goddess of +Truth, stands by and whispers the proper confession into the ear of him +whom Osiris questions, and the soul is passed on to the "Field of +Beans," the place of the blessed, where feasts, dances, songs, and +conversation are thereafter enjoyed. + +Probably no Egyptian woman was ever more influential, for a period at +least, than Queen Tyi, the mother of King Chuen-Aten, who is better +known as Amenophis IV. His father, Amenophis III., was born, as the +story goes, under conditions most auspicious. Ra, the great Sun god, who +was considered to have been the father of all the Pharaohs, and the +first sovereign of Egypt, as well as the creator of the universe, +favored King Thothmes by giving to him the son for whom he prayed. Queen +Moutemouait, wife of Thothmes, as she lay sleeping in her palace was +suddenly aroused by seeing her husband by her side, and then immediately +afterward the form of the Theban Amen. In her alarm she heard a voice +telling her of the birth of a son, who should come to the throne in +Thebes, and then the apparition "vanished in a cloud of perfume sweeter +and more penetrating than all the perfumes of Arabia." The child whose +advent was predicted became King Amenophis III., one of the most +brilliant and successful kings of the eighteenth dynasty. + +King Amenophis III. was wedded to a foreign wife, more than one in fact. +Among the wives of his harem was Gilukhipa, or Kirgipa, a daughter of +the house of Mitanni, between which and the Pharaohs of this epoch the +Tel-El-Amarna tablets reveal so voluminous a correspondence. There was +also in his harem a Babylonian princess, and, most famous of all, a +lady, probably of Semitic extraction, whose name was Tyi. This Queen Tyi +became the mother of the successor to Amenophis III. Under the influence +of the queen-mother, the young King Amenophis IV. resolved on extensive +religious reforms. He determined to dethrone or degrade the former +deities of Egypt and exalt the "Sun Disc." Asiatic influence was +paramount. He changed his capital from Thebes to the site of +Tel-El-Amarna, and erected there both palace and temple. He changed his +name to Chuen-Aten (Glory of the Solar Disc). But during his activity as +a religious reformer, his empire was falling away by the sad neglect of +the foreign affairs to which his father gave so large and successful +attention. At his death his work fell to pieces, and his reformation +swung back. Even his sons who succeeded him undid his work, and his name +comes down to us as "The Heretic King," being caricatured by artists of +the period which followed his ephemeral undertakings. + +A modern Egyptian woman, or perhaps more accurately an Arab woman, +digging into a mound in Middle Egypt, not far from the Nile, for the +purpose of getting some material with which to patch her hut, pulled out +a piece of baked clay with some queer inscriptions upon it, which turned +out to be the cuneiform characters of the Assyro-Babylonian writing. +Further excavations revealed the record hall of Amenophis IV., long +buried under the ruins of his short-lived city. This collection of +documents and correspondence in the Assyrian language, which was the +Lingua Franca of those early days, are the source of our most accurate +knowledge of the marriages, domestic relations and diplomatic history of +this period in Egyptian history; indeed, of the history of the +surrounding peoples as far east as the Mesopotamian valley. + +At least two Egyptian women emerge in the Hebrew records, one of whom +would indicate a low degree of morals, if we may judge of Egyptian women +of high standing of the period by this one. It is Potiphar's wife who +fell so deeply in love with Joseph, the handsome young Hebrew slave whom +Potiphar had bought and made a servant in his own household, that she +sought to use her wiles to entice the youth from rectitude. At length +failing in her purpose, she charged him with attempting to use violence +upon her, and had him imprisoned, only to find that the young man was to +come forth stronger at last and find an honored place in the annals of +Hebrew life in the land of Egypt. + +The other Egyptian woman of whom Hebrew history speaks is Pharaoh's +daughter, who, bathing in the Nile, with her maidens, discovered the +infant who was destined to lead Israel out of Egypt and become the chief +power in moulding the Hebrew commonwealth. The young Egyptian woman who +became a mother to the child Moses, gave him all the advantages of +Egyptian culture, which for those days were by no means meagre, and so +played no insignificant part in the making of a lawgiver, and through +him, in the making of a nation, whose moral and religious influence was +to be second to none in the history of the past. + +Late Judaism came in contact with a number of Egyptian princesses, +especially in the age of the Ptolemies. Among these are the Cleopatras, +three of whom lived a whole century before the days when Mark Antony was +led astray by the most celebrated of all the women of this name. One of +these was daughter of Antiochus the Great and wife of Ptolemy Epiphanes. +She being attracted by the value of the balsam and other products of +Palestine, asked that the taxes of the land of the Jews be given her as +her dowry. A second Cleopatra, daughter of the last, greatly favored, as +we have already noted, the Jews in Egypt, according to Josephus, and was +in turn greatly beloved by the larger number of the Jews of the +Diraspora, or Dispersion, who had sought refuge and a livelihood in the +rich region of Egypt. + +The third Cleopatra, daughter of the last-mentioned and of Ptolemy +Philometer, was married in B.C. 150 to Alexander Bala. His checkered +career is given us by Josephus and in the First Book of Maccabees. Two +other women of this name also appear in the history of the Jews, one a +mother of Ptolemy Lathyrus, a woman of great force and determination, +who expelled her son from Egypt and caused him to take refuge in the +island of Cyprus. The last was wife of Herod the Great, and mother of +"Philip the Tetrarch." The story of Cleopatra, the beguiler of Mark +Antony, is too well known to need repeating here. The women of Egypt of +the Macedonian and Roman periods, let it suffice to say, were a power in +the affairs of those marvellous days. + +The moral code of the Egyptians, theoretically speaking, was relatively +high, though it cannot be said that the women well known in Egyptian +history or presented in romance bore an exceptionally elevated +character. But the best women of ancient days were not usually those +whose names were furthest known or most widely heralded. According to +the Greek legends, some of the queens were not slow to accomplish their +purposes, regardless of the method or the cost. Queen Nitocris, of the +fifth dynasty, the celebrated queen with the "rosy Cheeks," avenged the +murder of her brother by inviting the conspirators against his life to a +banquet hall lower than the Nile, and while they feasted turned in the +waters of the river upon them. + +The Egyptian religious life was shared in by priestesses. Their pantheon +contained goddesses, who were highly honored. Women were considered to +have souls as well as men, and as great honor was paid them in the rites +accorded to the dead. + +Sacred prostitution, which was so well known among the ancient Semites, +was also practised in Egypt. Anthropomorphism was common there as +elsewhere among early religionists. The gods were supposed to have their +generation in the same manner as men. The male and female divinities +therefore had their necessary part in the mysterious creations of +nature. The female function in generation, however, was a purely passive +one. Just as, according to the current ideas, the father was the sole +parent of the child, the mother only furnishing carriage and nourishment +for the infant, so the female principle in nature was receptive +matter--"the lifeless mass in which generation took place." + +"Women," says Frederick Shelden, "are compounds of plain sewing and +deception, daughters of Sham and Hem." This morsel of wit is not true of +the women of Egypt in ancient days. The women of the Nile were, as a +rule, remarkably faithful to their obligations to their gods, as they +conceived them, and often to their households and to society. They were +limited, to be sure, in their outlook upon life and service, yet +religious to a fault, and sometimes moral. It has not been long since +there was exhumed in Egypt,--which has proved indeed the most fruitful +of all fields for the archaeologist,--a remarkable prayer engraved upon +the funeral shell of an Egyptian lady who lived in the age of the +Ptolemies. It is a prayer, the sentiments of which show how some of the +essential elements of a commonwealth life have been recognized by good +men and women of all lands and of all ages. The prayer is as follows: +"All my life since childhood I have walked in the path of God. I have +praised and adored Him, and ministered to the priests, His servants. My +heart was true. I have not thrust myself forward. I gave bread to the +hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked. My hand was open to +all men. I honored my father, and loved my mother; and my heart was at +one with my townsmen. I kept the hungry alive when the Nile was low." +Here godliness, support of religious ideals and services, truthfulness, +humility, charity for the distressed, honor to parents, and good +citizenship, are recognized as the true conduct and held worthy of the +consideration and reward of the gods. + +Among the Christian women of western Egypt of to-day are the Coptic +women. Christianity very early made wide conquests in Egypt, and while +the Christian religion has revolutionized ideals and modified customs, +it has never destroyed many of the social habits that have had racial +sanction for centuries. The Christian church of Egypt is the Coptic +Church, which has existed almost since the beginning of the Christian +era. The women of this fellowship are of course very different in many +respects from the other women of modern Egypt, notably the Mohammedans. +Close to Heliopolis is pointed out a sycamore fig tree called the _Tree +of the Virgin_. It is here, according to the Coptic legend, that Mary +and Joseph rested with their infant son when fleeing from Herod. Not far +away is a miraculous fountain, in which, as the story goes, Mary bathed +the feet of the child Jesus. Having once been salt, the spring now +became wholesome and sweet. + +The Copts have preserved their early traditions, and their customs are +in many respects in contrast with those of other people around them. It +is the mother of the young man, not the father who usually makes the +arrangements for their son's marriage. "She goes among her friends to +find a wife for her son, and when after inquiry she discovers a girl +whom she thinks in every way suitable, she informs her son, who is +influenced by her opinion and commits the arrangements to her judgment. +Sometimes the choice of the bride is left to women whose profession it +is to select a fitting bride for the man who employs them, and to open +the preliminary negotiations. There is naturally a good deal of risk in +this; but as women are so entirely secluded in the East, as they are +shut out from their legitimate place in society, such an arrangement +becomes necessary, and so husband and wife are married without having +looked into one another's face." But when once a Copt has chosen a wife, +she is his forever. No divorce is permissible. They are one till death. + +When the influences that had early gone out from Egypt and made for art +and learning in all the lands about the Mediterranean began to return +with compound interest from the shores of Greece to the land of the +Lotus, the women as well as the men were destined to feel their power. +Many a woman had her life lifted from the drudgery of the purely +physical life into the higher atmosphere of intellectual pursuits and +attainments. Especially marked was this in Alexandria where the great +library and university were exerting a powerful influence, and +Christianity was making its teachings felt in favor of equality of +opportunity. In that great university town, the first Christian +theological seminary was established, where both men and women might +study the teachings of the Nazarene. Theological discussions at length +became so general in Alexandria that some one has said that "Every +washer-woman in the city was arguing the merits of _homoousian_ and +_homoiousian_ in the streets." + +It was in this later period of Egypt's history that there arose one of +the most unique of all female figures. For, of all women who ever lived +in Egypt probably none can be given so high a place for various +attainments and virile powers as must be accorded to Hypatia. She was +born of intellectual ancestry, her father being the mathematician and +philosopher Theon, who lived in the fourth century of our era. She was a +disciple of her father, and had probably been a student in the cultured +city of Athens. Returning to her native city she became a lecturer on +philosophical subjects, and was recognized as a leader in the +neo-Platonic school of her day. She is said to have attracted students +far and wide to her classroom, not by her rare intellectual gifts alone, +but by her charm of manner, her beauty of person, her modesty combined +with real eloquence. Not only in the classroom did she exhibit her power +of persuasion and forceful speech, but in courts of law she proved a +powerful advocate. Her very eloquence, however, was her undoing, for +because of the strife that arose in Alexandria between Christian sects +and aroused them to the white heat of controversy and hate, the gifted +Hypatia lost her life in a manner most horrible. Torn from the chariot +in which she was riding she was dragged to the Caesareum--which had been +converted into a Christian church--stripped naked in the presence of a +howling, fanatical mob, and then cut to pieces with oyster shells. A +horrible blot is this upon Alexandrian life and a fearful comment upon +the wild extravagances that were sometimes enacted while Christianity +was disentangling itself from paganism. + +Truly wonderful has been the life history of this land of the lotus +flower. Once the seat of the highest learning, by its fertilizing Nile +the feeder of the bodies as well as the minds of men; later, the home of +Greek philosophy and of Christian theology--it is to-day little reckoned +with, except as a prize for stronger powers. Some day its natural wealth +may redeem it, and its women put off their rags, or their veil, and +exert new power in the march of progress. + + + + +VII + +THE WOMEN OF THE HINDOOS + + +The mother of the primitive Aryan or Indo-European stock would surely +be an interesting character if we could with certainty reconstruct her +from her descendants of the several branches of that family which sent +out the Hindoo, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, the Slav, the +Scandinavian, the Teuton, and the Celt. The part these races have played +in the world's drama would indicate that the womanhood of ancient Iran +could not have been lacking in qualities that made both for endurance +and for progress. The ancient Hebrew tradition that Japheth should be +enlarged even to dwelling in the tents of Shem seems realized in this +far-spreading Aryan family. It is interesting to note that the word for +"daughter" in all the branches of this family of languages is the same; +the two roots of which it is composed signify to draw milk, attesting +not only to the primitive pastoral condition of the peoples, but also to +the common occupation of the girl as milkmaid in the days before the +several migrations took place. India is a populous country, there being +two hundred and fifty million people living in Hindoostan. These consist +of Hindoos, Mohammedans, Eurasians, Europeans, and Jews. There is +considerable variety, therefore, of custom and condition among these +millions. Among those who prefer this or that particular form of +religion there is a sameness of social condition, though local +peculiarities may be discovered. There is probably no country where the +details of life are performed with such scrupulous regard for the +prescriptions of custom and religion. The great religions to-day differ +among themselves upon many points; but so far as their teachings +concerning women are concerned, they are in wonderful agreement. The +sacred books of India, the Vedas, and other writings, the code of Manu, +for example, were vested with an authority that had untold influences in +the shaping of woman's destiny in the land of the Hindoos. Originally, +that is, in the earliest Aryan civilization,--for non-Aryan people +preceded the coming of the people of western Asia,--women were held in +esteem and exerted unusual influence. Some of the most beautiful hymns +of this ancient period are products of women's genius. The great epics +of _Mahabharata_ and _Ramayana_, with their wealth of female character, +belong to this early Aryan period. Considering her place in later Hindoo +history, the great attention given to woman in the Hindoo literature is +noteworthy. No country of the Orient can furnish a literature in which +woman is given a larger place, or to which women have contributed more +frequently. The names of Ahulya, Tara, Mandadari, Lita, Kunti, and +Draupadi are familiar to students of this Indian literature. The +_Mahabharata_ and the _Ramayana_ are the two most important of the +ancient epics of India. Both give a considerable place to women. The +chivalry of man and the virtue of women furnish here as elsewhere the +base of legendary literature. + +"The ideas of the human family are few," says Mr. E. Wilson, in +_Literature of the Orient_, "when the world's great epics are compared, +the same old story of human struggles and achievements are sung, though +with variations. The same heroes and heroines occur again and again +through the world's history; and although in literary merit, in the +points of artistic proportions and movement, the great Epics of Greece +and Rome, the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_, the _Aeneid_, are found to surpass +the _Ramayana_ and the _Mahabharata_, yet the ideals of love, marriage, +conjugal fidelity, are no stronger in the Western classics, and indeed +the moral tone of the Eastern masterpieces is more elevated than that of +the classic writings of Greece and Rome." Like characters appear in the +great works. Not the least interesting of those in the Eastern epos is +Krishna, the faithful wife of Arjuna, the Hindoo Hector, a heroine who +may readily be compared with the devoted Andromache. The story of Arjuna +bringing home Draupadi as a prize, and of his mother bidding him share +her charms with his brothers, seems to point to a time when polyandry +was practised in India. The method by which Draupadi chose her husband +from among her five suitors reveals also an early Hindoo custom known as +the _Svayamvara_. Those who seek the young girl's hand are invited to be +present in some public place where the ceremonies may readily be carried +out. The company forms itself into a ring; and the maiden, making the +round of the circle, tosses a garland of flowers upon the head of the +one whom she prefers. The marriage rite is then performed. Much +bloodshed was wont to occur on such occasions, because of the +disappointment of the unsuccessful suitors. + +It is not to be supposed, however, that the choice was prompted by the +impulse of the moment or by some sudden fascination. The girl usually +knew the records of her suitors, and her selection was based upon +previous acquaintance and deliberate preference. + +Indeed, in marked contrast with the present customs of India, it seems +clear that in early times brides, especially of the higher classes, not +uncommonly made choice of their own spouses. This may be seen in the +Hindoo story of the faithful wife. An early ruler of Madra, Ashvapati, a +pious and virtuous king, was much beloved by his people. He was +childless. Many years did he spend in prayer for offspring. The gods +gave him a daughter, who grew up to be a woman of surpassing beauty; +but, strangely enough, no prince sought her hand in marriage. Her +father, therefore, according to the ancient Hindoo law, sent her forth +to choose her own husband. At length she returned with the man of her +love, Savitri: + + "Carried in a fair, soft litter mid the peoples' welcoming, + Came the queen and good Savitri to the city of the King." + +Among the choicest women of early Hindoo epics is Sita, heroine of the +_Ramayana_. The famous poet Valmiki is supposed to have been the author; +but the poem in its present form is supposed to contain additions made +even as late as the Christian era, though its earliest portions probably +go back to a period as early as the third century before Christ. The +_Ramayana_ is accounted among the sacred books of India, and special +spiritual considerations, such as forgiveness of sin and prosperity, are +thought to be the reward of those who diligently study it. Sita, the +heroine, is the wife of Rama, the son of Dasharatha, who had long +mourned his childlessness. This Dasharatha, a descendant of the sun, +lives in the city of Ayodhya, the modern Oudh, a place of beauty and +splendor: + + "In bygone ages built and planned + By sainted Manu's princely hand." + +But the line of the prince is threatened with extinction. He decides to +lay his plea before the gods by the sacrifice known as the _Asva-Medha_, +in which the victim is a horse. After the offering has been made with +extraordinary magnificence, the high priest in charge makes known to the +king that he shall have four sons to uphold his royal prerogatives and +maintain Dasharatha's line. One of these is Rama, whose wife Sita was a +woman of extraordinary beauty: + + "Rama's darling wife, + Loved was as he loved his life; + Whom happy marks combined to bless, + A miracle of loveliness." + +And Sita was deeply devoted to her lord. But the demon Ravana desires +ardently to possess the fair queen. He hits upon a plan to gain access +to her quarters. Assuming the form of a humble priest, an ascetic, he +gains possession of her by craft; and, taking her in his chariot, he +carries her away to Lanka, a "fair city built upon an island of the +sea." Thus Rama, like Menelaus of the classic myth, has lost the woman +of his love. Rama decides to make use of a large army of monkeys, with +which he will march against the city of Lanka. But the wide waters +stretch between him and the island where his fair Sita is in possession +of the vile Ravana. Rama invokes the goddess of the sea, and she comes +in radiant beauty, telling how a bridge may be built to cross the waters +that lie between the royal lovers. The monkeys--as busy as the little +imps that reared the temple of Solomon, according to the Mohammedan +legend--build a bridge of stones and timbers. Lanka is reached, and Rama +begins the fight for her possession. Indra looks down from heaven upon +the holy contest and decides to send his own chariot down, that Rama may +mount in it and ride to victory. In single combat, riding in Indra's +chariot, Rama vanquishes Ravana, and Sita, his wife, is restored to his +bosom. + +As evidence of the exalted nature of the early ideals of womanhood and +of man's faithfulness to the dictates of true love, we may turn to the +words of Prince Nala, who even when about to ingloriously forsake his +unprotected wife, sleeping in a dangerous wood, spoke thus: + + "Ah, sweetheart, whom not sun nor wind before, + Hath even rudely touched, thou to be couched + In this poor hut, its floor thy bed, and I, + Thy lord, deserting thee, stealing from thee + Thy last robe, O my love with bright smile, + My slender waisted queen. Will she not wake + To madness? Yea, and when she wanders lone + In the dark road, haunted with beasts and snakes, + How will it fare with Bhima's tender child-- + The bright and peerless? O my life, my wife, + May the great sun, may the Eight Powers of air, + Guard thee thou true and dear one on thy way." + +Woman occupies an interesting place in many of the early fables of +India. Sir Edwin Arnold has translated into English a number of the +stories from the _Hitopadesha_, which has been called "the father of all +fables," and may easily take rank with the illustrious Aesop. Stories +which present womanly traits, the tricks and wiles of love, are there, +and are graphically told. Such are the fables of _The Prince_ and the +_Wife of the Merchant's Son_, which illustrate how the darts of love, +even in ancient India, struck their mark without waiting upon reason or +social standing, as the handsome prince, son of Virasena, cries +concerning the beautiful Lavanyavati: "The god of the five shafts has +hit me; only her presence can cure my wound." + +An account of woman in Hindoo literature would be incomplete without +some allusion to the drama. This was developed after the Alexandrian +conquest and shows marks of Greek influence. In the drama we may discern +woman of Brahmanic India from an interesting viewpoint. Of all the +dramatic productions of the Hindoo poets, there is none so famous as +that of Shakuntala, by Kalidasa, the great court poet of Vikramaditya. +As is true of many of the earlier Hindoo masterpieces the exact date of +its composition is not known. Some students place this work as early as +the first, some as late as the fifth century of the Christian era. The +drama of Shakuntala is of interest as illustrating the effect of caste. +It is a drama in seven acts, and, because of its importance, its story +may be recounted. + +As King Dushyanta, King of India, is driving in his chariot through a +forest, armed with his bows and arrows, in hot pursuit of a black +antelope, a word forbids him to slay the innocent creature. It is the +word of a hermit and the antelope belongs to the hermitage. The king is +obedient to the request, and is conducted to the dwelling of the great +saint Kanva, who is absent upon a distant pilgrimage, and has left his +foster-daughter Shakuntala in charge of his companions. The king finds +himself in the midst of a secret grove. He stops his chariot and +alights. As he goes reverently through these holy woods "he feels a +sudden throb in his arm. This argues happy love and soon he sees the +maidens of the hermitage approaching to sprinkle the young shrubs with +watering pots suited to their strength." Among these beautiful maidens, +rare in form and grace, the king observes one especially; it is +Shakuntala, foster-daughter of the hermit, half concealed by the trees, +but standing "like a blooming bud enclosed within a sheath of yellow +leaves." A beautiful girl is she, but the king stands puzzled. For if she +be of purely Brahmanic birth, she is prohibited from marrying one of the +warrior class, even though he be the king. As Shakuntala moves about +watering the flowers of the wood, she starts a bee from one of the +jasmine flowers. The bee pursues her, as if to do her harm with its +sting, but Dushyanta comes to the rescue; and the fair girl of the +hermitage feels some strange thrill as she sees the king, an unusual +visitant in that hallowed neighborhood. Off she hurries with her two +companions, but a series of happy accidents enables her to cast side +glances at the king: a prickly Kusa-grass has stung her foot, she must +wait a moment, a bush has caught her robe, she must stop to disentangle +it. And love is born. In the second act, while Dushyanta is thinking of +his love, two hermits arrive who tell him that demons have taken +advantage of Kanva's absence from the sacred grove and are disturbing +the sacrifices, and requests that he come and defend the grove from +their intrusion. He consents with keen delight and he will not leave the +grove, even though his mother requests his presence at a sacrifice +offered in his own behalf. He sends his representative, but cautions him +to say nothing concerning his love for the fair Shakuntala. In the third +act, the king is discovered walking in the hermitage calling upon the +god of love "whose shafts are flowers, though the flowers' darts are +hard as steel." He tracks the object of his love by the broken stems of +the flowers she had plucked in her rambles, and at length finds her in +an arbor with her attendants. She reclines upon a stone bench strewn +with flowers, she looks pale and wasted. Her maidens seek to know the +cause of her sickness, and she tells her love in a poem, written on a +lotus leaf. Just here the king rushes in and avows his passion. He tries +to overcome her scruples against a marriage, so out of accord with the +regulations of caste. He hears a voice of ill omen telling of the demons +"swarming round the altar fires." He hastens to the rescue. In the +fourth act, Shakuntala is seen wearing the signet ring of the king, +which ring has the charm to restore the king's love, should it ever grow +cold. Kanva returns from his pilgrimage in time to see the preparations +being made for Shakuntala's departure. The old hermit submits resignedly +to her going and gives his blessing to the departing one. The fifth act +presents Dushyanta, like King Saul, overcome with a deep and stubborn +melancholy. He is under a curse of Durvasas, and this induces complete +forgetfulness of his wife Shakuntala. "Why has this strain," says the +king, "thrown over me so deep a melancholy, as though I am separated +from some loved one?" Here the hermit and Shakuntala, who is about to +become a mother, are ushered into the presence of the king. He does not +know her; denies he ever knew her. The Shakuntala is about to produce +from her finger the ring which should be proof of the marriage. But, +alas! she discovers it to be lost. "It must have slipped off, in the +holy lake when thou wast offering sacrifices," said Gantami, who had +accompanied her. The king laughs derisively. Despite her endeavors, the +king fails to recollect the marriage. The sad Shakuntala buries her +hands in her robes and sobs piteously. At length the ring is found by a +fisherman, in the belly of a carp. It is brought to the king, who places +it upon his finger, when he is overcome with a flood of recollections. +But his wife and little son have been carried away to a secret grove far +away from earth in the upper air. The king, conducted in the celestial +car Indra, at length joins them. There the royal pair are reconciled and +reunited, and the drama comes to a close with a prayer to Siva. + +Many of the Hindoo lyrics breathe of love and woman's graces, showing +now a high respect for womanly charms, now indulging in humor at her +frailties. "The God of Love," says the poet Bhartrihari, "sits fishing +on the ocean of the world, and on the end of his hook he has hung a +woman. When the little human fishes come they are not on their guard, +quickly he catches them and broils them in love's fire." Again, the poet +sings: "She whom I love, loves another, while another is pleased with +me." A song from the famous Kalidasa will illustrate the poet's attitude +toward a woman of beauty. + + "Thine eyes are blue like flowers; thy teeth + White jessamine; thy face is very like a lotus flower, + So thy body must be made of the leaves of + Most delicate flowers; how comes it then + That God hath given thee a heart of stone?" + +It would be impracticable to trace the history of the chief women of +the long line of kings in the several dynasties which successively ruled +in India. In fact, it would not be possible to do so, even though there +might be material important for our present purpose. It was probably in +the days of the Mogul dynasty that emerged the most influential female +characters in historic times. The brilliancy of the court of the Mogul +kings and the prominence of some of the queens and princesses give to +this period, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of our era, an +especial fascination. Akbar, known as the Great, was a religious +reformer, as well as a great sovereign. His favorite wife was a princess +of a Rajput family, and to her was due no little of Akbar's success. It +was through his influence that the earliest attempt was made to prohibit +the _suttee_, or self-immolation of widows, a religious custom which had +already begun to dot the hallowed places of the land with little white +pillars that commemorated such sacrifices. One of Akbar's wives is said +to have been a Christian woman. Akbar's son, Emperor Jahangir, was also +wedded to a woman of great force, one who is said indeed to have been +the power behind his throne. He called her Nur Mahal, or "Light of the +Harem," for she was his favorite wife. It was during Jahangir's reign +that the English first established themselves at Surat. Nur Mahal was a +woman who knew how, like Jezebel and Lady Macbeth, to take into her own +hands the reins of administration when a strong grasp became necessary. +Many of the intrigues that characterized the emperor's reign are +attributed to her. Coins of the realm were stamped in her name, and at +last she was buried by the side of her husband at Lahore. During the +period of the Mogul dynasty the queen lived in the midst of the greatest +splendor, which, indeed, is generally more or less true of the wives of +Indian kings. Jewels were theirs in extravagant abundance. Fountains +played for their enjoyment. Marble baths were provided for their +comfort, and numberless slaves waited on their bidding. The magnificence +of the royal houses greatly impressed the Persians when they conquered +the land, or they would not have said, as is illustrated by their +inscription upon one of the palaces they had taken: "If there be a +paradise on earth, it is this, it is this!" Among the best specimens of +architectural magnificence was that erected by Shah Jehan, son of +Jahangir. It was he who built the famous Taj Mahal at Agra, his favorite +residence. He also erected the costly peacock throne at Delhi. The Taj +Mahal was built as a mausoleum for the Empress Mumtazi Mahal, who died +while giving birth to the Princess Jehanava. Isa Mohammed designed the +building, and its erection was begun in the year 1630. After seventeen +years, the employment of twenty thousand workmen, and the expenditure of +millions of dollars, the Taj Mahal was finished. It is one of the most +magnificent public buildings in India, and one of the most famous in the +world. With its dome of two hundred and ten feet in height, its tropical +garden, its mosaics and inscriptions, its marble of white, black, and +yellow, its crystals, jaspers, garnets, amethysts, sapphires, and even +diamonds, it is the richest and most notable tribute of marital love +that has ever been erected. + +Another monument built in honor of a woman is the famous tower Kootab +Minar, the highest pillar in the world, being of red sandstone and two +hundred and thirty-eight feet high. It is said to have been built that +the king's daughter, from the vantage ground of its high turret, might +look out upon the mosque which could be discerned in the distance. + +Let us revert for a moment to the ancient Hindoo writings and their +influence upon the history of Hindoo women. To the religious books of +India woman has to-day no personal access. Her religious sacrifices and +ceremonies before marriage are with reference to the procuring of a +husband. After marriage she may approach the deity, but only in the name +of her husband. Him she must revere almost as if he himself were a god. +She hopes that in time she herself may be born a man. Anciently there +were in India virgins dedicated to the service of the temple and pledged +to a life of purity, like the vestal virgins of ancient Rome. In the +course of the centuries the custom was degraded; and young women in +large numbers became the dancing girls at the temples, and others openly +dedicated themselves to a life of shame at the shrines. They are +euphemistically termed "God's slaves," but might more properly be spoken +of as slaves to the bestial passions of the profligate Brahmans of the +temple to which they belong. Dedication of virginity to a popular deity, +through his priest, became common. The young woman was said to have been +married to the god, and was given over to a life of shame. + +Brahmanism, which has been defined as "the religion which exalts the +cow and degrades the woman," has been one of the most potent factors in +shaping the life of woman in India. Among the Hindoos, woman has no +independent spiritual life. Her hope is in being married to a man. +Through him must her fortune be secured, and only in obedience to him +can she hope for any ultimate happiness. Woman has been regarded by the +sages of India as a snare to man's rectitude and an obstacle to his best +interests. Buddha is said to have been seated one day in a grove near +the banks of the Ganges, with many about him who had come to do him +reverence. As he saw a woman, the lady Amra, circumspect and pious, +approaching in the distance, Buddha said to those about him: "This woman +is indeed exceedingly beautiful, able to fascinate the minds of the +religious: now, then, keep your recollection straight. Let wisdom keep +your mind in subjection. Better fall into the fierce tiger's mouth, or +under the sharp knife of the executioner, than to dwell with a woman and +excite in yourselves lustful thoughts. A woman is anxious to exhibit her +form and shape, whether walking, standing, sitting, or sleeping. Even +when represented as a picture, she desires most of all to set off the +blandishments of her beauty, and thus to rob men of their steadfast +heart. How, then, ought you to guard yourselves? By regarding her tears +and her smiles as enemies, her stooping form, her hanging arms, and all +her disentangled hair, as toils designed to trap man's heart." + +Caste, in India, dominates everything from the cradle to the grave, and +has greatly affected the life of woman. The lines of demarcation are +deep-drawn and inexorable. The social gulfs are impassable. As one has +remarked, the only tie between the castes is the cow, which is revered +by all. There are four castes. To quote Manu, "The Brahmana, the +Kshatriya, and the Vaishya castes are the twice born ones, but the +fourth, the Shudra, has one birth only; there is no fifth caste." But +there are the outcasts who, because of some violation of caste rule, +have lost their social status and are despised by all, even the lowest. +The highest caste, according to popular belief, descended from Brahma's +mouth, this is the priestly class. The second came from Brahma's arms, +this is the warrior class. The third from his thighs, this is the +merchant class; least of all are the Shudras people, born of Brahma's +feet. The highest caste influences, in a measure, the customs of the +lower castes. The women of the low caste are burdened with many outside +duties, caring for their children in the intervals. They therefore enjoy +no little freedom. The women of the high caste, however, are shut up in +the zenanas, and so know little of the outside world. + +[Illustration 3: _INTERIOR COURT OF A ZENANA From an Indo-Persian +painting The zenanas are the apartments of the women, and are quite +secluded, the windows invariably looking upon the inner quadrangle of +the house. The wives are closely confined to the house. In order to +enjoy a social visit, permission must be given by the husband, who is +rarely willing to grant the coveted freedom. There is not much gayety +about the zenanas, though sometimes there may be music, dancing, and +mirth. Petty duties, trivial acts, and idleness make up "the life behind +the curtain." The girls and boys are permitted to play together until +the girl is about ten years old, then she must begin to keep purdah; +that is, she must go behind the curtain._] + +The zenanas are the apartments of the women, and are quite secluded, +the windows invariably looking upon the inner quadrangle of the house. +The wives are closely confined to the house. In order to enjoy a social +visit, permission must be given by the husband, who is rarely willing to +grant the coveted freedom. There is not much gayety about the zenanas, +though sometimes there may be music, dancing, and mirth. Petty duties, +trivial acts, and idleness make up "the life behind the curtain." The +girls and boys are permitted to play together until the girl is about +ten years old, then she must begin to keep purdah; that is, she must go +behind the curtain. She must dwell in the seclusion of the women, not +allowing a man, not even her own brothers, to look upon her. The Hindoos +cannot believe that a woman may be good and free at the same time; she +may be good, she may be free, but both, never. The Mohammedan Hindoo +women are of course influenced by the teachings of the Koran, which +regards the best women as those who never see any man but their husbands +and sons, the next best those that have laid eyes only upon their +relatives. Very meagre is a girl's educational training. Besides the +domestic duties, in which she is instructed that she may be fitted for +her married life, the girl is taught a few prayers which may be of +service to her in winning the favor of the deities concerned with +marital relations, and some popular songs by means of which she may +while away the hours. The deference which members of the female sex are +always expected to show to those of the male manifests itself somewhat +differently in different sections of India. In the northern parts, where +the women uniformly wear veils, they can more readily cover their faces +at the unexpected appearance of a man, or they may run into another +apartment. In southern India, where veils are not common, the women are +not compelled to hide from the presence of men, but must always rise and +remain standing out of deference to them. The Hindoo woman will not call +her husband by name; she uses such terms as "Master, Chosen," and +"Husband," and the husband, on the other hand, never alludes to his +wife, nor does anyone inquire of him concerning her. The absorption of +the wife's identity into that of the husband is complete. After marriage +they become one and he is the one. There is little wonder at this when +Manu says: "By a girl, by a woman, or even by an aged one nothing must +be done." "In childhood, a female must be subject to the father, in +youth to her husband, and when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman +must never be independent." And the Vedas declare that he only is a +perfect man who consists of three persons united, his wife, himself, and +his offspring." + +The expense of a marriage ceremony is very heavy in India. It is the +most expensive of all the festivities of the Hindoos. Among the higher +caste the outlay is usually above two hundred dollars. This, for a +country where the people are so poor, is a large outlay. Since religion +makes it necessary for the girls to marry, two daughters may bankrupt a +family. When it is remembered that the father must not only support his +wives and children, but also his aged parents, his indigent or idle +brothers and their families, the nearest widowed relations, and numerous +other dependants, it may be seen that a breadwinner's life in this land +of recurring famines is not always a happy one. It is not an uncommon +thing in India for four generations of family life to be crowded into +one house. The occasion of a marriage is, of course, one of prime +interest. It is the only incident in which a woman may become the centre +of an event of great religious significance. Then Vedic prayers are +offered up and festivities run high. Men dancers or Nautch girls may be +seen singing the amours, the quarrels and reconciliations of Krishna and +his wives or his mistresses. These are not a whit elevating. The truth +is India is not lacking in obscenity, not even in the frescoes of its +temples. Though little be given to the Hindoo girl, much is expected of +her when she becomes a wife. For, says the laws of Manu, "She must +always be cheerful, clever in the management of household affairs, +careful in cleaning her utensils and economical in expenditure." + +The necessity of bringing forth sons and being a good loyal wife +generally may be discerned in the law of Manu, which says: "A barren +wife may be superseded in the eighth year; she whose children all die, +in the tenth; she who brings only daughters into the world, in the +eleventh; but she who is quarrelsome, without delay." + +Faithfulness of a wife to her husband and her husband's interests must +be unquestioned. Thus alone may a woman find her higher blessedness. "A +faithful wife," says Manu, "who desires to dwell after death with her +husband must never do anything that might displease him who took her +hand whether he be alive or dead. By violating her duty to her husband a +wife is disgraced in this world, after death she enters the womb of a +jackal and is tormented by diseases, the punishment of her sin." + +One of the most remarkable customs of a remarkable people is that of +child marriage. Since a woman attains her blessedness, if not her +spiritual entity by union with a man, marriage should be early. It is +regarded as a disgrace for a father to have an unmarried daughter upon +his hands. In Oriental lands generally the marriageable age of girls is +about twelve years, the period at which, in those countries, a young +girl usually attains to physical womanhood. But in India even infant +girls are married by their parents to other infants, or to older boys, +or to men. A woman is not esteemed at all till she is married and +becomes the mother of a son. Then she becomes at least worthy of a +certain respect. + +The history of the life of a Hindoo girl of high caste may be thus +drawn. Word comes from the zenana that it is a girl. Instead of +congratulations and joy at the little one's advent, the mother is +reviled by an angry husband because she brings him a daughter instead of +a son. In his reproaches all the household join. For has she not +disgraced her husband? And is she not accursed rather than blessed of +the gods? The little one is hid from the eyes of the father when he +enters the zenana, lest his anger burst forth anew. Two years roll +around, and the little girl hears sounds of rejoicing and of feasting in +the house. A boy is born, and the father's attitude is changed toward +the mother, and somewhat toward the daughter; but even yet she is a +negligible quantity. The mother loves and sometimes caresses the girl. +Occasionally the father, too, will notice her; and when the brother has +become old enough, the two little ones may play together. In a short +time, it may be between the ages of five and six, the little daughter is +arrayed in silk and costly gems. The day of her wedding has come, though +she herself knows little of what it all means, and timidly assents to +what her father in his unquestioned authority has done. She is brought +to the man whom the parent has chosen from his own caste. They look upon +each other for the first time, and the little girl scarcely sees him now +for her timidity. The ceremony is over, and the husband returns to his +own home. For the child wife must be taught the duties of housewifery. +Her mother is diligent in imparting the required knowledge. It consists +of proficiency in the arts of cooking, spinning, weaving, and waiting +upon her husband, more particularly when he is eating. The fundamental +duty of marital obedience is instilled with supreme care. At about +eleven years the girl wife is deemed ready to assume the serious duties +of wedded life. The husband comes and takes her to his own home. If his +circumstances permit he is royally seated, it may be, upon a gaudily +bedecked elephant, and she is conveyed in a closely covered palanquin. +The girl wife is now among strangers, she must make her way as best she +can. Life is not always easy for her. The Hindoo mother-in-law at once +becomes master of the new situation, and the daughter must be a willing +slave. Her apartments are not over cheerful, and the other women of the +zenana receive her with chilling indifference or with positive cruelty. +At twelve years of age the young wife is in all probability a mother. If +the child be a son, she is emancipated from her thraldom to the +husband's mother. She is now worthy in the sight of her husband, and if +all goes well, her life is lifted to a higher plane. + +Since a woman is bound to her husband as long as she lives,--even +though the husband himself be dead,--remarriage for her is out of the +question. Social ostracism would surely follow the woman who would dare +marry again. The man, however, may marry as often as he pleases and as +many wives as may be to his liking and convenience. The English +government attempted the impossible by the passage of a law--enacted in +1856--legalizing the remarriage of widows. Few, however, were able to +face the social hardships and loss of property which remarriage +involved. The widow who refuses to marry may often hold her property, +even though she live a life of shame. + +Financial conditions have much to do with the number of wives which each +husband acquires. The Brahmanic caste may marry almost without limit. +Indeed, it is permitted to them to make a business of marriage. +Sometimes an illustrious Brahman may go up and down the land, marrying +girls, always of course within his own caste, receiving presents from +the parents of the bride,--who esteem it an honor for their daughter to +be wed, especially to one so distinguished,--but passing on and never +returning to claim his wife. But the father is satisfied with the +bargain, for his daughter is at last free from the disgrace and ridicule +of being unmarried; and being the wife of a Brahman of a high caste, the +girl will be happy in the world to come. + +Since the members of the _kshatriyas_, or warrior class, are not +permitted to accept gifts as are the Brahmans, or priestly class, the +former cannot enjoy the privilege of enrichment by the process of +multi-marriage. They therefore have fewer wives, the number being +regulated by their power to support them. The same is also true of the +number of the daughters whom they are willing should survive, +infanticide being commonest among the people of this caste. + +It must not be thought that every utterance of the sacred books is on +the side of the woman's inferiority. A single passage from Manu +proclaims that "A daughter is the equal of a son," but the law proceeds +to let it be known that it is only through the husband or the son that +this equality is realized. This doctrine is true not of women only, for +even a man is made perfect only through his possession of a son or sons. +"Through a son he conquers the world, through a son's son he obtains +immortality, but through his son's grandson he gains the world of the +sun." Indeed, "there is no place in Heaven for a man," says Vasishtha, +"who is destitute of offspring." + +With the exception of child marriage, there is probably no fact +concerning the Hindoo woman's life that has received so much attention +as the customs which bear so hard upon widowhood. Beginning with the +assumption that the death of the husband was sent as a punishment for +the wickedness of the wife, in some previous state of existence it may +be, it is easy to conclude that the widow's life should be made as +miserable as possible. She is therefore maltreated, neglected, and at +times almost starved. When death takes away him in whom alone she had +any reason for being respected, her head must be shaved, all jewels and +wearing apparel are taken away, and instead the coarse weeds of the +widow are put on. One meal a day is permitted, and no more. Even the +women themselves are most harsh in the treatment of their bereft +sisters. For as soon as it is known that the husband is dead, the women +rush immediately upon the bewildered, grief-stricken wife, tear her +ornaments from her body, shave her hair from her head, and pronounce the +severest curses upon her whose sins in a bygone state had killed her +husband. They advise her to appease the wrath of the deity by throwing +herself with the husband upon the funeral pyre and thus as far as +possible wipe out the awful disgrace. Formerly, many yielded to +self-immolation, and immediately put an end to a life that otherwise +would be a prolonged misery, or at length, driven to frenzy by their +thousand deaths of torture, in some way cut short their terrible agony. + +There are about one hundred and forty million women in India. At the age +of fifteen, more often several years earlier, they are either wives or +widows. Since child marriage is so common in India, there are many +widows of very tender years. There are said to be twenty-three million +widows in India; at least two million of these became widows in early +childhood. Of these, eighty thousand are still under nine years of age, +and six hundred thousand have not yet reached the age of twenty. The +sorrows produced by religious belief concerning widowhood and by social +customs cause many very young girls to end their lives by +self-destruction. Pundita Ramabai, in her _High-Caste Hindu Woman_, says +of the widow: "She must never take part in the family feasts; is known +by the name of harlot; if she escapes from her home, no respectable +person will take her in; suicide, or a life of infamy is inevitable." + +Happily, the self-immolation of widows in India has now well-nigh passed +away. The English government has done much to break this awful custom, +which was thought to be the only means of destroying the force of a +widow's eternal misery and of bringing to her any future blessedness. +This horrible death, known as _suttee_, was made unlawful in 1830. But +"cold _suttee_," as some have called the living death which widows +suffer from social customs, is still maintained. + +From all that has been said, it is not strange that fathers may +sometimes be found who will be willing, for so many rupees, to sell +their daughters to a course of infamy, or that men may sometimes lend +their wives for a money consideration, or that the suicides of females +have been so numerous in India. + +There are above five million fewer women in India than men. This marked +discrepancy may be accounted for by the infanticide which prevails in +some parts and among some classes of the Hindoos, notwithstanding all +that the government can do to prevent it. Female infants are sometimes +strangled, sometimes exposed to wild beasts, or generally neglected. The +dark, unsanitary conditions of the women's quarters, and the +extraordinarily harsh and unintelligent treatment of women at the time +of childbirth, also play their part in the death rate of females. + +All this is in marked contrast to the position of women in Siam. Here +the seclusion of the Turkish harem and the Hindoo zenana does not exist, +and the women are probably the freest, most independent of the women of +the East. They openly attend to their duties, bringing their food to +market, buying, selling, aiding in the management of the house and +field. A man does not spend his money without consultation with the +wife, should he prize the family peace: the woman usually carries the +purse. Inheritance of house and lands is through the mother rather than +through the father--a survival of the ancient mother-right. Women even +in this comparatively favored land, however, are seldom educated, except +it be in schools established by Christian foreigners. If a woman wishes +to learn at all, it must be through her husband or brother at home. + +Woman in Burmah also is comparatively free, neither the zenana nor the +veil prevailing there. She too holds the purse strings; but in all other +respects she is distinctly inferior to her husband and must constantly +acknowledge it. A good wife will never say "I" in talking to her husband +concerning herself, but must speak of herself as "Your servant." In the +eyes of the man, the woman here is not only inferior, but vile, even to +the touch. Her garments are polluting to the passer-by; hence, she +always draws them more closely about herself as she passes a man upon +the streets. + +In Assam also woman holds a far higher place than in other parts of +India or in Burmah, even among the rude and warlike people. To the Nagas +of the hill country of Assam a girl is most welcome at birth and by many +preferred to a boy, for she is more docile, helpful, and obedient; she +is less expensive to rear and more filial in her attitude to her aged +parents. This last consideration is one that counts for very much in all +Oriental lands. Instead of the early child marriages of India, here we +find marriage at about thirteen, the bride not leaving the parental roof +till three or four years after. The wife is respected and consulted, the +husband often deferring to his wife. "I will come from the house and +tell you," means "I will ask my wife." + +At marriage an iron bracelet is placed on the wrist. This is sometimes +worn with gold circlets to lessen the sense of subjection. But the iron +bracelet does not thus lose its significance, for the woman has +everything to remind her of her secondary place in society. Sir Monier +Monier-Williams gives the following summary of woman's life in India: +"In regard to women, the general feeling is that they are the necessary +machines for producing children (Manu, lx: 96), and without children +there could be no due performance of the funeral rites essential to the +peace of a man's soul after death. This is secured by early marriage. If +the law required the consent of boys and girls before the marriage +ceremony they might decline to give it. Hence, girls are betrothed at +three or four years of age and go through the marriage ceremony at seven +to boys of whom they know nothing; and if these boy husbands die the +girls remain widows all their lives." + +Since the boys soon find out their superiority to their mothers, the +latter have little part in shaping the characters of the children, and +therefore comparatively small influence in moulding the destiny of the +people. Wherever the cow is exalted and the woman degraded a nation can +hope for little from its women. "We all believe," says a prominent +Hindoo, "in the sanctity of the cow and in the depravity of woman." +Unwelcomed at her arrival and often harassed and kept in subjection till +her death, she can contribute little to the welfare of her people. It +may be said, however, that the Hindoo woman is in the main satisfied +with her lot, and is the mainstay of Hindooism. + + + + +VIII + +BESIDE THE PERSIAN GULF + + +It is a familiar remark that the essential difference between the +civilization of the East and that of the West is disclosed in the status +of woman in each of these regions of the earth. Erman, in writing of the +women of Egypt, broadly remarks that in the West woman is "the companion +of man, while in the East she is his servant and toy. In the West at one +time, the esteem in which woman was held rose to a cult, while in the +East, the question has frequently been earnestly discussed whether woman +really belonged to the human race." But he justly adds, this is not +absolutely fair, either to the East or to the West. While in India woman +has been denied a soul, and among the Teutonic tribes she was honored +with a superstitious reverence, yet not all the veneration can be +accounted upon the one side, nor all the degradation upon the other. +Among the primitive Aryan peoples woman's place appears to have been no +mean one. The early traditions of the women of Bactria, ancient Iran, +and the region of the Oxus converge with those preserved in the Rigveda +of the Hindoos to indicate a high degree of respect for woman, for +marriage, and for the other domestic virtues. + +The science of comparative philology has helped us to discover some of +the primitive ideas attached to the names of the female members of the +household. The root _ma_, _matar_, "mother," signifies the _creatrix_, +"she who brings children into the world." The coming of a girl into the +countries bordering on the Persian Gulf does not seem to have been the +matter of regret that it was so frequently in the Orient; for the name +"sister" appears to be connected with _svasti_, "good," or "good +fortune"; while the daughter manifestly held the important place, in the +pastoral life of the times, of milkmaid, from _duhitar_, "she who brings +the milk from the cows." + +Lenormant, writing of this ancient period, says: "Marriage was a +consecrated and free act, preceded by betrothal and symbolized by the +joining of hands. The husband, in the presence of the priest, both while +the priestly office was invested in the head of the family, and also +after the priesthood became separate, took the right hand of the bride, +pronouncing certain sacred formulae; the bride was then conducted on a +wagon drawn by two white oxen. The father of the bride presented a cow +to his son-in-law, this was intended originally for the wedding feast, +but in later times it was taken to the house of the bridegroom; this was +the dowry, an emblem of agricultural richness. The bride's hair was +parted with a dart; she was conducted around the domestic hearth and was +then received at the door of her new abode with a present of fire and +water." + +Many of these ancient customs which prevailed in the regions of Irania +in the earliest times existed in the various branches of the +Indo-European family in their scattered locations. There may be +mentioned the fire ordeal, such a trial as that through which the +virtuous Sita, heroine of the _Ramayana_, was compelled by her +suspicious husband King Rama to pass in order to destroy his suspicions. +There were two methods of testing a woman's virtue. By the first, she +must pass unharmed through a trench filled with live coals. In the +second, a succession of concentric circles, about ten inches apart, was +marked out. A red-hot lance head, or another piece of similarly heated +metal, must be carried by the accused woman without being burnt across +the first eight circles and thrown into the ninth, and it must even then +be sufficiently hot to scorch the grass within the last circle. If the +hand that bore the red-hot metal was not burnt, the innocence of the +accused was established. + +In the legendary period of Persia's history woman performs an honorable +and--it is needless to add--a romantic part. Indeed, there has been an +interest of romance attached to Persia from the early days when +Herodotus travelled and Xenophon gave the world his _Cyropaedia_. +Persia's great epic poets, notably Firdausi in _Shahnamah_, have +preserved many of the early traditions of this land. More particularly +do the deeds which gather about the name of Shah Jamshid, one of the +earliest of Persian rulers, stand out in bold character. According to +the ancient legend, it was he who not only introduced the handicrafts of +weaving, of embroidering upon woollen, cotton, and silken stuffs, but +also it was he who divided the people into the four social +strata,--priests, warriors, traders, and husbandmen. Both these +contributions to Persia's early history may be said to be of prime +importance in the development of the womanhood of the country. Of this +king many interesting stories are related, episodes in which heroic +womanhood conspicuously figures. War and love, deeds of daring and of +chivalry hold a large place in the Persian legends. + +The thrilling stories of King Jamshid's meeting with the irresistible +daughter of Gureng, King of Zabulistan; of their love and marriage; the +legend of the fair Tahmimah, daughter of the King of Semangan, and how +she fascinated and led captive the love of the youthful warrior Rustam, +whose fame had come to her ears; the unhappy trick by which she deceived +her absent husband, saying that the infant born to them was a girl, so +that the child might be left with her,--a deception which ended in the +tragedy of young Suhrab's death at the hands of his own father; Rustam +and Tahmimah's death from grief; the romantic finding of a queen for +King Kai Kaus, a lady who was to become the mother of King Saiawush; the +story of Byzun and the fair Princess Manijeh--all these, and more, +render the Persian epic literature rich in tales of love and chivalry. + +It is out of the long and bloody struggles between the Iranians and the +Turanians, who for over ten centuries battled for supremacy, that the +early epic stories have largely sprung. There was no prejudice in the +ancient days of Persia against a strenuous as well as an amatory life +for womankind. + +In the chapter upon the women of the Assyro-Babylonian people, the story +of Semiramis, the illustrious queen, has been told. So widespread was +the legend, however, that it belongs to the Persians as well as to the +inhabitants of the Tigris-Euphrates basin. The story was well known in +the region of Armenia, and may have been introduced into Persian history +because of its political value. + +Among the early women of distinction must be named Homai, who has +indeed been identified with "the Persian Semiramis." She was a princess +of renown and daughter of Bahman, and to her has been given the credit +of being the author of a collection of tales known as _Hezar Afsane_, +which comprises about two hundred stories told upon a thousand nights. +It is from this collection by the Princess Homai that many suppose the +_Arabian Nights_ was constructed. How much of the material from the +former went to make up the latter is not capable of present proof, but +that the general idea and plan and some of the names, and the groundwork +of many of the tales, were borrowed from the work of the Persian +princess seems quite certain. Homai is mentioned in the Avesta, the +sacred book of the Persians; and the Persian poet Firdausi makes her the +daughter as well as wife of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Her mother is said to +have been a Jewess, Shahrazaad, among the captives brought from +Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. She is reported as having +delivered her nation from captivity, and has been identified with Esther +of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as with Shahrazaad the Jewess of the +_Arabian Nights_. Professor Gottheil thinks that the case here is well +made out by Kuenen and others. The period of Cyrus the Great brings us +upon the borderland between legend and history. Very romantic is the +story told by Herodotus concerning the mother of Cyrus. Astyages, the +Medean king, had a daughter named Mandane. This young woman was given in +marriage to Cambyses, son of Theispes. Shortly after this, King Astyages +had a dream in which there appeared a vine springing from his daughter +Mandane and spreading till it had overshadowed all Asia. Wishing to know +the meaning of this unusual dream, Astyages received from the Magi the +interpretation that a son of Mandane should some day reign in his place. +Alarmed at this, the king called a trusted servant, Harpagus, and +commanded that he make plans to put to death the infant to which Mandane +was soon to give birth; and the wife of Cambyses was closely guarded. +Harpagus, however, unwilling himself to be guilty of so bloody a crime, +directed that a herdsman of the king expose the infant son on a desert +mountain, where its death would be certain. The herdsman, however, +instead of leaving the little one to perish, reared him himself instead +of his own stillborn son. The child received the name of Agradates, but +later that of Cyrus, who by his achievements won the cognomen "The +Great." According to Ctesias, Cyrus, after defeating Astyages, married +his daughter Amytis, who had been the wife of a Mede named Spitaces, +whom Cyrus put to death. Herodotus, as we have seen, says that the +mother of Cyrus was a daughter of Astyages. The two statements may be +both correct, however, since an Oriental conqueror would not hesitate to +marry his mother's sister if the procedure gave him greater power over a +conquered territory. + +It was a woman, according to Herodotus, who at length brought the great +conqueror Cyrus to his end. Desiring to vanquish the Massagetae, a +warlike tribe inhabiting the steppes north of the river Jaxartes, he +sent out his army, with the greater confidence of victory since this +people was then governed by a woman. When the Queen of the Massagetae, +Tomyris, perceived the approach of the large army of Persians and the +work of building bridges across the Jaxartes, she sent a herald to +Cyrus, proposing a fair and open contest between the two forces, on +whichever side of the river Cyrus might select. Cyrus chose the side +of the river next the Massagetae, but made use of a piece of strategy by +which the Massagetae were defeated and the queen's son, who led in the +battle, was captured. Queen Tomyris, on hearing of the disaster, wrote a +bitter message to Cyrus, and threatened revenge that would be most +direful if her son were not returned alive. Cyrus gave no heed to the +threat. Thereupon, Tomyris mobilized all the forces of her kingdom +against the Persian army. "Of all the combats in which the barbarians +have ever engaged among themselves," says the ancient historian, "I +reckon this to have been the fiercest." First, the armies stood apart +and shot their deadly arrows. When the quivers were all emptied, the +forces joined in hand-to-hand encounter with lances and daggers, neither +yielding, till at length the army of the queen prevailed by the +destruction of the larger part of the Persian army. Cyrus himself was +slain; and as Tomyris passed his bloody corpse, she heaped insults upon +it, saying: "I live, and have conquered thee in fight; and yet by thee I +am ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I make good my +threat, and give thee thy fill of blood." + +The story of Araspes and Panthea, related by Xenophon, is one of the +earliest pieces of romantic fiction. It is told in the _Cyropaedia_, and +is intended to illustrate the steadfastness and virtue of the great +Cyrus. Among the early gifts to the conqueror was a Susian lady, wife of +Abradates, King of the Susians, and regarded as the most beautiful woman +in Asia. Cyrus, never having yet seen her, committed her to the care of +Araspes till he might call for her. But the guardian fell so in love +with his fair ward that he feared the displeasure of Cyrus. The king, +however, astutely seizing upon his supposed anger toward Araspes, +decides to send him, as if a fugitive, to the enemy, that information +might be received by Araspes and communicated to him. Moreover, Panthea +now sends to Cyrus a message that her own husband Abradates would +himself become a fast friend to her lord, should he be allowed the +privilege of coming to him. Thus Cyrus, unlike many another king and +warrior, by supreme self-control in the matter of his loves gained +friends and subdued enemies. + +The kings of Persia, while usually marrying but one legal wife, enjoyed +the universal custom of supporting a vast harem, and of inviting into it +daughters of neighboring kings. Usually the purposes were peaceful, but +sometimes they were of a hostile character. This was the case when +Cambyses, having resolved to carry out his father's plan of making a +conquest of Egypt, demanded of Amasis, Egypt's king, his daughter in +marriage, hoping thereby to pick a quarrel. Amasis replied by sending, +not his own daughter, but another damsel of his realm, who, unable or +unwilling to keep the secret, divulged to Cambyses the deception that +had been practised upon him. The Persian king desired no better pretext +for war, and the marriage trick was avenged by Egypt's fall. + +The wives of the kings sometimes exerted much influence in the realm, +either for good or bad. Amestris, the only lawful wife of Xerxes, is +said to have been instrumental in the death of her husband by the hands +of two of his chief men. Amestris was his own cousin. That she +instigated this murder is not at all improbable, since there was ample +ground for jealousy on her part because of the notorious gallantries of +Xerxes. Indeed, the Hebrew Book of Esther draws a picture of the +corruptions of his court which in general outline is certainly true to +the facts. + +Royal personages sometimes married their own sisters. This, however, +was contrary to the ancient custom. Cambyses, who succeeded Cyrus upon +the throne, fell in love with Meroe, his youngest sister, and wished to +marry her. Not wishing to fly in the face of the custom of the Persians, +he called together the judges of the empire and inquired of them whether +there might not be a law which allowed the marriage of brother and +sister. The judges informed him that there was no such law among the +Persians, but that there was a law allowing the king to do whatever he +pleased. Disgusted and enraged, the king ordered his sister to be put to +death; so that if marriage with her was prohibited to him, it might not +be possible to a lesser man. This was no surprise, however, to a people +who had known of the cruelties of this tyrant, whose own brother Smerdis +had been brutally executed at his command. Cambyses having died of a +self-inflicted wound, his successor, known as the Pseudo-Smerdis, or +Gomates, married all his predecessor's wives--a common custom among +Oriental monarchs; for the harem might easily be regarded as a part of +the spoils of conquest, or of the inheritance, as the case might be. +Gomates kept his numerous wives confined in separate apartments, for the +intrigues of the seraglio were the bane of the Persian as of the other +Oriental dynasties. + +When Darius I. came into possession of the Persian throne he proceeded +to add dignity to his kingly claims by marrying Atossa, daughter of +Cyrus, who had already been successively the wife of her brother +Cambyses and of the false claimant Smerdis. Such political and +incestuous marriages became quite common in Persia. One might marry not +only a sister, but a daughter, and even a mother. At the instigation of +Parysatis, Artaxerxes II., her son, married his own daughter. + +Atossa figures in an interesting story, which may, however, lack +historic truthfulness. Democedes, a physician of Crotona, had healed the +injured foot of Darius, and was now called upon to visit Atossa in an +illness. Democedes, anxious to return to his native land, sees his +opportunity. Atossa, healed of her malady, is induced to appear before +Darius and reproach him for idly sitting still and not extending the +Persian dominion. "A man who is young," said she, "and lord of vast +kingdoms should do some great thing, that the Persians may know it is a +man who rules over them." Darius replied that he was even then preparing +an expedition against the Scythians. "Nay," answered his wife, "do not +fight against the Scythians, for I have heard of the beauty of the women +of Hellas and desire to have Athenian and Spartan maidens among my +slaves, and thou hast here one who above all men can show thee how thou +mayest do this--I mean he who hath healed thy foot." Atossa prevailed. +But the expedition was only a reconnoitring party sent out in ships to +Greece and Italy. Democedes reached his home, and sent Darius word that +he could not return, because he had married the daughter of Milon the +wrestler; but the expedition met only with disaster. + +That Persian women of royalty often took no inconsiderable part in +political and military activity is illustrated by many examples from the +days of Persia's strength. Xenophon has immortalized the zeal of +Parysatis in her efforts at placing her son Cyrus, the younger, upon the +throne, and her plottings in his behalf against his elder brother +Artaxerxes. Parysatis failed, but won no small power even in her +unsuccessful efforts. + +Alexander the Great, on his Eastern campaign, seemed as willing to +marry the daughters of conquered princes of the East as to be worshipped +as a god by his obedient followers. Indeed, he would frequently give +respite to a strenuous life of conquest by marrying an Oriental woman. +While Alexander was engaged in his Phoenician campaign, Darius wrote +Alexander a letter offering him not only all lands west of the Euphrates +River, but also his own daughter, Statira, as the price of peace. It was +on this occasion that the famous dialogue between Alexander and his +general Parmenion occurred. The latter had advised that the offer of +Darius be accepted and no further risk of battle be undertaken. "Were I +Alexander," said Parmenion, "I should take these terms." "So should I, +if I were Parmenion," said Alexander; "but as I am not Parmenion, but +Alexander, I cannot." Accordingly, he wrote to Darius in reply to his +offer: "You offer me a part of your possession, when I am lord of all; +and if I choose to marry your daughter, I shall do so whether you give +consent or not." Events justified Alexander's boast, for both the +territory and the daughter fell into the hands of the Macedonian victor. +It was not, however, till the conqueror reached the palace city of Susa, +on his return from India, that he celebrated his marriage with Statira, +a daughter of Darius and Parysatis, who herself was daughter of Ochus, +predecessor of Darius. Alexander wished to encourage such unions with +Persian women, and went so far as to offer to his soldiers a full +payment of all debts to those who would take to themselves Persian +wives--an argument which appealed powerfully to the extravagant +spendthrifts, but was of little force with the sober and provident of +his followers. Many of the former availed themselves of their general's +offer and followed his illustrious example. Ten thousand soldiers +received presents for marrying Eastern wives, and at least eighty of +Alexander's courtiers celebrated their marriage to Persian wives while +at Susa. + +The intermarriage of Greeks with Persian women was desired by Alexander +as one means of welding together the Greeks and the Persians into one +united empire. In the opinion of the Greeks, however, a union between +the sons of Hellas and the daughters of the East could not be regarded +as a regular marriage; and yet, Roxana, the Bactrian, was exalted to be +Alexander's queen. The spirit of the East, however, conquered the +conquerors, and polygamy was introduced among the Greek invaders, +Alexander himself having married three wives of the East, Roxana, +Statira, and Parysatis. The most noteworthy matrimonial coup of +Alexander during his Eastern conquest was, of course, that with Roxana. +Her son, born after Alexander's death, and called by the name of his +father, laid claim to the title of "the great king"; but Alexander's +Eastern plans, so far as they looked toward a universal empire, melted +away in the early morning of their conception. + +After the decline of the Graeco-Persian power and the rise of Parthian +supremacy, we enter a new epoch in Persian history. The Parthians had +long been a rude, nomadic people. Their women were uncultured, and +played little part, except in a physical way, in the new era that dawned +upon the land of proud Persia. The Parthian women were, however, sturdy, +self-sacrificing, and brave, adapted well to the dashing character of +the Parthian warrior, whose tactics in battle struck terror to the +stoutest hearts, even among the brave Greeks and the well-nigh +invincible Romans. + +Following the downfall of the Parthians comes, under Ardeshir, the rise +of the Sassanian dynasty, which many suppose to be a revival of the once +glorious line of Achaemenian kings. It was not long before woman began to +figure prominently in the new history. Sapor I., son of Ardeshir, or the +Sassanian Artaxerxes, as he is called, finding difficulty in bringing +the province of Hatra under his sway, receives an overture from the +daughter of Manizen, the ruler of Hatra, an ambitious young +woman,--without moral scruples,--with intimation that if she were made +Queen of Persia she would promise to betray her father's forces into +Sapor's hands. The compact was faithfully carried out by the damsel; but +Sapor, when he came into possession of Hatra, ordered the traitress to +be put to death, instead of marrying her, for Sapor not unnaturally felt +that he could not be safe on his throne with such a wife. It was during +the reign of Sapor that a new element was injected into Persian social +and religious life which was destined somewhat later to influence almost +every home in Persia. This was the rise of Manicheism, named for its +founder Manes. + +This was a new form of Christianity--a syncretic faith into which +entered a little of Zoroastrianism, somewhat of Judaism, a modicum of +Buddhism, and some Christianity. Manes's teachings seemed so plausible +that many were swept away by them; they appeared to be destined to shake +the older faiths from their foundations, and they changed many of the +customs as well as portions of the worship of the people. Manes was a +zealous patron of the decorative arts. The art of weaving carpets of +silk and of wool, which has given employment to so many female fingers +from that day to this, and the fine embroideries which have made Persia +famous are to be attributed in no small degree to the influence of +Manes. + +The lives of the women of the Sassanidae were not always to be envied. +The story, though it may have changed form and color somewhat by +transmission, is not an improbable one which tells of King Varahran's +anger at his queen. One day, seated with her in an open pavilion +overlooking the plain, he saw two wild asses approaching. With his bow +the strong man, skilled in the chase, transfixed both of the animals +with one well-aimed shot. Turning to his spouse to receive the applause +he thought due him, the wife replied: "Practice makes perfect." Angered +at the lightness with which his skilful feat was received, he ordered +her to be executed, but quickly repented, and simply divorced her from +the palace. In quiet moments, he repented of his haste. For years, he +had no trace of the former queen, but when hunting one day he beheld a +scene which quickly excited his curiosity and admiration. It was a woman +carrying upon her shoulders a cow, with which, indeed, she easily walked +up and down the stairs of the country house. On asking her concerning +the remarkable feat, she replied, as she dropped her veil: "Practice +makes perfect." The king recognized his wife, now no longer young, but +still possessing physical charms, and invited her to take her place +again in the palace. The woman had commenced to carry the cow when it +was but a tiny calf, and had shrewdly planned the feat in the hope that +some day she might win back her husband's respect. It has been suggested +that cows are small in Persia, as is indeed the case, but more probably +some small animal, such as a goat or a gazelle, first figured in the +story. + +Persian kings of the house of Sassan intermarried frequently with +Turkish women, and one of the best known of this dynasty, Hormisda, had +a Turkish mother. It was he who won the mortal enmity of one of Persia's +greatest generals by sending to the veteran a distaff, together with a +woman's costume, suggesting that he give up the art of war for that of +spinning. The suggestion cost the king his sceptre. The soldiery, +however, raised to the throne his son, the many-sided Chosroes Parveez, +whose name stands out prominently not only as a foster-father of the +arts among the people, but as preeminent in a long line of Persian kings +because of his unswerving love for his wife Shirin all through his long +and, in some respects, most honorable reign. His harem, however, was one +of the most extensive in all Persian annals. + +Modern Persia has, of course, lost much of the grandeur of the days of +Mandane or of the mother of Xerxes. Persia, being an inland as well as a +mountainous country, with scarcely any railway facilities in the entire +country, and no navigable waterways, has been very little influenced by +modern ideas or customs. As there are many tribes and nationalities in +the land, and many different religions as well, many differences are +found in manners, customs, and even in language. Each nationality and +each sect continues distinct from the other. Broad differences have +engendered social distinctions and sometimes enmity and strife. + +No single statement as to the relation of the sexes in Persia will apply +to all the peoples of the country. The large majority of the people +being Mohammedans, the customs are very similar to those of all other +countries where Islam rules. Among the Nestorian Christians and the +Catholic Christians women are unveiled and free to come and go. Among +the so-called "Fire Worshippers" of the Monsul mountains, men and women +associate in their great feasts, and the sexes dance and sing together. +The laws of the people fix the number of wives at not more than six, +and, of course, the girl may not choose her husband; but is sold by her +parents, though she may remain single by paying through hard labor a sum +to the father for the privilege of remaining under the parental roof. +Among the Parsees, the modern followers of Zoroaster, who number about +twenty-five thousand, woman is given a better opportunity for education +than among the Mohammedans. Obedience to her husband is, of course, her +first duty; and married life is looked upon as specially blessed, and +rich Parsees are known to aid in a pecuniary way those who are +marriageable, but lack the material means to make them happy. Polygamy +is prohibited among the Parsees, except that after nine years of +sterility, a wife may expect another woman to share the home of her +husband. Divorces are forbidden, and wives have comparative freedom. The +wealthier Persians, generally found in the towns, reside in large +dwellings having several apartments. The masses of the people, however, +live poorly in mud houses or huts from thirty to forty feet square, with +one room and a single door. + +Woman's work in Persia, as generally in the East, is multiform as well +as menial. The women, of course, do the baking. They use yeast in the +making of their bread. Having kneaded the dough, they set it aside to +rise, after which they divide the mass into small parts, and with a +rolling-pin they roll these pieces of dough very thin, and sometimes to +the size of two feet in length by a foot in width, and then stick them +to the side of the oven. The latter is a cylindrical hole in the ground, +lined with clay and located near the centre of the house. It is about +four feet deep, and approximately two and a half feet in diameter. The +women make fire in this oven but once a day. The wife bakes once or +twice a week, if the family be small, but if large, every day or every +other day. This oven, whose top is even with the floor, is also the +place around which in cool weather the family gather upon mats to keep +themselves warm. The fuel is not wood, which is very scarce, but manure. +At first both the smoke and the odor are very perceptible, but when once +the fire is burning freely, the impurities of the fuel are drawn up +through an opening in the roof, a window, just above the oven. Out of +this window, which remains open day and night, the smoke is supposed to +go, as indeed it will, if ample time be given. The Persian housewife is +thus enabled to keep her house ventilated, but its walls and ceilings +soon become very black with soot. In rainy weather the good housewife +must place a pan or other receptacle immediately under the window--for +this opening in the ceiling is both the avenue for light and for +ventilation, hence must not be closed. If a woman wishes to know her +neighbor's business, she will creep upon the top of her neighbor's +roof--for houses are very often close together, and eavesdrop through +the open window. + +Weaving is done both by women and by men. The weaving and spinning +apparatus, as well as the crude cotton-gins, are in the same room where +the family eats, sleeps, cooks, and converses. As a rule, the men weave +the light goods, such as cotton fabrics, while the women make the +carpets, rugs, and the like. The women are the spinsters, and, with +untiring energy, they rise early and spin all day. It is said that a +woman of ordinary skill can spin a pound of cotton a day, provided she +works very hard. For this she receives, if done for another, about +twenty cents. + +The women do the milking. In fact, it is regarded as beneath the dignity +of a man to milk, if not as a positive disgrace. The women milk cows, +buffaloes, sheep, and goats. Butter is made from buffalo milk, which is +given by the animals in large quantities and is exceedingly white. Since +clabber is more highly prized than fresh milk, the housewife, as soon as +she has finished her morning's milking,--they milk twice a day,--heats +the fresh milk almost to boiling, allows it to cool a little, and then +adds a table-spoonful of sour milk. Speedily the whole begins to +coagulate, and the next morning, with the addition of syrup, it forms +the customary breakfast. The good housewife finds it indispensable to +keep a little sour milk at hand in order to hasten the coagulation. +Women residing in towns do their churning in earthen vessels or +pitchers, called _meta_, always using sour milk. Among the nomadic +people of the country sheepskins are used for this purpose. These +sheepskin churns are filled, and suspended by means of cords from a +wooden frame. The churn is thus shaken back and forth by the women till +the butter comes. If butter in excess of the immediate need is +produced,--and the poorer classes use it sparingly,--it is converted +into oil, which keeps its quality for a year or two and is much used for +cooking. + +The women are also the millers, braying the corn in mortars in +primitive fashion, or beating it to meal upon a flat stone with a stone +hammer, or, in some advanced households, grinding it in hand mills. It +requires two or three women to use a hand mill, which consists of two +huge round stones, one revolving upon the other. Two or more women will +take hold of a handle attached to the upper stone and turn, while +another pours the grain, from an earthen jar, through a hole in the +upper millstone. As only a little wheat can be ground at a time, it +requires much patience, and the men generally give over the labor to the +women. + +Harvesting is also done by the women. The season between June and August +of each year is therefore peculiarly severe upon them. Their domestic +duties must be finished soon after sunrise; then, with their sickles, +they start out from the villages to the harvest fields, a mile or two +distant. One may often see the baby in its tiny cradle flung across the +shoulder of the mother on her way to the day's labor. She puts the +cradle down in the shade in view of the reapers, and performs her daily +task in the broiling sun. While the women reap, the men gather the +bundles and bind them for the threshing floor. At the close of the day, +homeward they trudge, tired and soiled by the day's work; the mothers +carrying their little ones back to their homes, where the domestic +duties of evening are to be performed before comes the opportunity for +rest. When grain harvest is over, the vineyards are to be gleaned, and +the women are to do most of the work of picking the ripe, luscious +branches of grapes, filling the huge baskets and carrying them to the +place where the fruit is to be spread out to be dried. In fifteen or +twenty days the grapes have become raisins, and they are again taken up +and piled away, ready for the market. Wine and molasses are also made +from grapes, the work being largely the task of the women. + +Just as Persia has its Ruths gleaning in the fields, so also Rebekah +with her water pot may be seen daily. In lieu of modern buckets, the +Persians are content to have their women take large earthen jars, +morning and night, to the public wells, springs, or streams outside the +village. There the women fill their pots, lift them first to the hips, +then to the back or shoulder, and trudge home with their burden, +chatting happily as they go, and becoming straight and strong by the +muscular exercise involved. Eight or ten trips may be necessary before +each woman has filled all her jars, and so procured the necessary amount +of water for the daily use. + +There is a saying in Persia: "When cousins marry they are never happy." +And yet, as a rule, marriages are within the religious sects. If a +Christian--Christians in Persia are of the ancient Nestorian +faith--should marry a Mohammedan woman, he would be compelled to +renounce his religion for the Mohammedan, as the ruling class would not +allow it to be otherwise. Christian parents, on the other hand, would +not give their consent to the union of their daughter with a worshipper +of Islam. Occasionally, however, attractive Nestorian girls are captured +and carried off, and compelled to accept the Mohammedan religion, and +married to a Persian or a Turk. Generally, girls marry within their own +villages, since each neighborhood is, as a rule, a community +uninfluenced and unvisited by people from other communities. Persia is +no exception to the ordinary Oriental rule, that marriage contracts are +made by the parents--the children accepting with unquestioning obedience +the conditions that have been prepared for them. + +A young man, being where isolation of the sexes does not prevail, may, +however, and often does, show unmistakably his preference for the girl +of his liking; and since the communities are often small, isolated +marriages of those who have known and loved one another from infancy are +not infrequent. The wise parent finds out if the two young people are +really in love, though both will often vehemently deny what is plainly +true, and tries to arrange matters in accordance with the eternal +fitness of things. The girl in question, however, is never consulted in +the matter. All girls are supposed to marry, and a youth who remains +long single is considered of all creatures the most miserable. As is +general throughout the East, Persian girls are ready for conjugal life +at twelve years of age, certainly at the age of fifteen. Betrothal often +takes place as early as infancy. Parents will sometimes undertake to +cement, or at least to express, their strong friendship by engaging +their infants, one to another. These two, growing up with the +understanding that they are finally to be husband and wife, often become +ardent lovers, and the match is a happy one. + +When a young man has become of age, which in many cases is very early in +life, especially among the rich classes, the parents will send two or +three male friends to act as mediators, who will go to the house of the +girl in question and ask her parents for her hand. After some +deliberation, with apparently great reluctance, the request is granted. +To seal the contract, one of the mediators rises and kisses the hand of +the father. The contracting parties return to their homes and report +their success to the parents of the young man. In accordance with the +affirmative report, his parents, within a few days, meet the parents of +the girl and conclude the arrangements for the wedding. + +The first in the order of preparation is the buying of the wedding +clothes for the bride; for these the father of the prospective +bridegroom pays. The father must make presents to the members of the +girl's family and to her friends. The chief officers of the town must +also be remembered. After this the parties make ready for the marriage. +While the bride is engaged in preparing for the wedding, there are +feasts and revels at the houses of both the bride and the groom. +Provision for these sumptuous feasts is made by the groom's father. This +feasting lasts from three to six days. The predominating features in it +are music and dancing, in a style peculiar to Persian life and custom. +Mirthful song is provided by professional singers, to the great delight +of those present. After two or three days of incessant preparation on +the part of the girl, and of festivity on the part of the ever mirthful +guests, the men and the boys, following a leader, go to bring the bride +home. As soon as the gay company has arrived, a feast is in readiness +for them. A dance in the house or in the yard follows. Meantime, the +bride is being prepared to take her journey to her future home. At last +it is announced that she is ready, and the musicians play a doleful +tune, while the girl kisses her parents good-bye; and bidding adieu to +all the friends of her childhood, she is soon mounted on the horse which +is to carry her. At that moment the musicians change their mournful tune +to one more lively, and off the whole company marches with the bride to +her destination. At the arrival of the bride, which is reported by a +young man, all the people of the community emerge from their huts and +come out to witness the festive scene. After some ceremony, the bride +dismounts before the house of the most prominent man in the town, into +which she is escorted, and there she is received and entertained with +honor. + +That night again the town in general enjoys hilarious feasting and +mirth, especially in the house of the groom. The next day the musicians +go to the different parts of the town where the guests are being +entertained, and summon them to the enjoyment of another feast. As soon +as this is over, they accompany the groom, led by the music and dancers, +to the place where the bride is being entertained; and thence, if they +be Catholic Christians, they at once proceed to the church, where the +priest performs the marriage rite. The husband and wife are now ready to +be escorted to their future home, which is the birthplace of the groom. +The rest of that day is spent in conversation and feasting. The female +friends of the groom look, for the first time, upon the unveiled bride; +and they examine the embroidered work, which the girl has made with her +own hands, and which constitutes a part of the bridal equipment. The day +being over, the friends depart and the bride and groom are launched on +their new life. + +The women of the Persian seraglio are more closely confined, if +possible, than the women of the Hindoo or of the Turkish harems. In +ancient days it was customary to put the women who entered the royal +harem under a strict regimen or course of preparation. A glimpse of this +purifying process is given in the Hebrew Book of Esther, the author of +which shows minute acquaintance with Persian life and customs. "Now when +every maid's turn was come, ... after that she had been twelve months, +according to the manner of the women (for so were the days of their +purification accomplished, to wit: six months with oil of myrrh, and six +months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the +women), then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she +desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto +the king's house." + +The custom of strict seclusion and oversight of the women, introduced +by the ancient kings to guard better a pure lineage and to exhibit +greater state, has had large influence in Persia, except among the +nomadic peoples. The arrangements of the house for obtaining privacy for +women are usually the same throughout the land. The first apartment of +the house is for the use of men; the second or interior apartment, +called the "anteroom," is for the women, and no men are allowed to +intrude into the "harem" or "forbidden place"; else the voice of the +eunuchs, or guardians, will be quickly heard crying out: "Women--away," +and every face in the harem will be at once veiled from the sight of the +intruder. + +"I am a woman" is frequently given and regarded as an ample reason why a +modern Persian girl need not learn to read. Every city or town has its +school for boys, but there are no schools for girls (unless they be +mission schools), since it is commonly believed that it is a prudent +policy to keep the female sex satisfied with their present position in +the economy of life. The wealthier parents may, however, sometimes +employ private tutors for their girls. The deep-seated line that marks a +woman as different from a man appears even in the method of capital +punishment meted out to women. While a man who is to be executed will +have his jugular vein cut, be nailed to a wall, or be blown from a +cannon's mouth, a woman will be sentenced to have her head shaved, her +face blackened, to take a bareback ride upon a donkey along the public +highway, and finally to be beaten to death in a bag. Or she may be +stripped of all clothing and placed in a bag full of cats, which will +soon scratch or bite the unfortunate victim to death. + +Domestic peace does not always hover like a white dove over Persian +homes. Even among the Nestorians, the ancient Christian sect, it is very +common for the husband to assert his lordship over his spouse by giving +her an occasional flogging. The women expect this as one of the +conditions of their position. The failure of this method of emphasizing +the husband's authority, however, would appear from the testimony that +"the number of women who revere their husbands is as small as the list +of husbands who do not beat their wives." + +In this land of the ancient Magi it is not strange that there should be +many superstitions connected with marriages and engagements. Sometimes +it is manifest that the husband does not love his wife. If this be the +case, the wife or her mother may consult a magician. He will write for +her a charm. This is to be sewed into some designated part of her daily +apparel; a like charm is prepared for direct effect upon the husband, +and this must be secretly sewed into his clothing. The hoped-for result +of these charms is the renewal of conjugal affection. Another charm, +which is highly regarded, directs the wife to cut off a few hairs from +both her own and her husband's head, to burn them together and from +their ashes make a potion which the husband is to be caused, +clandestinely, to drink. Some magicians will direct that the love +prescription be placed under the hinge of the door of the house, so that +as the door is constantly opened and shut, the husband's love will as +constantly grow toward his spouse. Sterility is uniformly regarded as a +misfortune, if not a curse. Incantations and charms are frequently +employed to induce fecundity. The Persian women and Orientals generally +have innumerable superstitions. For example, when a hen is heard to +crow, it is regarded either as a good or a bad omen. To ascertain +exactly which it may be, the crowing hen is blindfolded and carried to +the top of the flat roof. She is then dropped through the open window +into the centre of the room below. If the hen turns toward the corner of +the house, it is considered a good omen, and all is well. If on the +other hand, she starts toward the door, it is regarded as portending +evil, and the hen is killed at once. This odd custom suggests another, +somewhat similar, once in vogue in Persia. Suppose a woman has lost a +piece of money, and she suspects that some disloyal neighbor, she does +not know whom, has taken it. To prevent a public trial and to spare the +innocent the disgrace that may come upon those wrongly suspected, all +the neighbors agree that at a certain time every man and woman of the +vicinage shall go, one after the other, to the dwelling from which the +money was stolen, and in passing, each person shall throw a handful of +dirt into the window of the person whose money has been lost. One goes +and returns to his own house, and then another, till all have thrown in +a handful. When the last one has deposited the dirt he has brought, the +owner goes in and finds in the midst of the total deposit the lost +treasure; for the guilty party, fearing that he will at length be +detected and suffer punishment, and knowing that he cannot be detected +if he throws the money down into the house along with his handful of +dirt, avails himself of this means of escape from the charge which he +fears. + +There are no women who have a harder, and apparently a happier, life +than do the women of the Kurds. The men of the tribe deny that women are +possessed of souls. A woman must not, therefore, be present where a man +is at prayer. If she should touch him while performing this hallowed +duty, it is thought that she might get the benefit of the prayer. +Indeed, it is believed that if she touch him, she obtains his soul. +Should a woman be seen approaching, the man at prayer may rise, go out +from the prayer circle, take his gun and shoot the woman, and then +piously return to his devotions. + +The Kurdish women are very dark in complexion and picturesque in their +apparel. They use paints and other cosmetics in abundance, to please the +eye of their husbands. Their day of toil is a long one, for, after +finishing their household duties, they are expected to hasten to the +fields to tend the flocks, or to gather fuel for the winter. At night +they return with large packs upon their shoulders, enough for two +donkeys to carry. They may be seen spinning and singing on their way to +and fro, as though their lot were the happiest in the world. Little +thinking of the ordinary ailments of women, they trudge along over the +fields or the mountain heights; and frequently a Kurdish woman may be +seen returning home in the evening, happy, with her huge bundle of +sticks for the fire, and with the infant to which she has given birth +during the day! A Kurd usually thinks more of his steed than of his +wife, who may sometimes be compelled to vacate her place in the dwelling +to make room for the horse. + +Any account of Persian women is incomplete without some reference to +woman in the native poetry of the Persians. No poetry of the East has +been so generally admired, translated, and read as the Persian. In it +woman finds a large place. And yet, it cannot be said that she is +presented always in the light of the brightest ideals of virtuous +womanhood. + +The Persian poet Hafiz is said once to have been asked by the +philosopher Zenda what he was good for, and he replied: "Of what use is +a flower?" "A flower is good to smell," said the philosopher. "And I am +good to smell it," said the poet. Too often woman is shown as the +plaything of man's passion and fancy. Yet the virtue of heroic womanhood +in the early days is presented with great force and beauty. + +The Persian poets, in the treatment of love, leave little place for +reflection, still less for practical considerations. It is spontaneous +love, "love at first sight," which they deem alone worthy of their song. +"Love at first sight and of the most enthusiastic kind is the passion +described in all Persian poems, as if a whole life of love were +condensed into one moment. It is all wild and rapturous; it has nothing +of the rational cast. A casual glance from an unknown beauty often +affords the subject of a poem." These words well sum up the Persian +poets' most common attitude toward love and the female graces. The +following lines written concerning the beauty of the daughter of Gureng +King of Zabulistan, are typical: + + "So graceful in her movements and so sweet, + Her very look plucked from the breast of age + The root of sorrow;--her wine-sipping lips + And mouth like sugar, cheeks all dimpled over + With smiles and glowing as the summer rose-- + Won every heart." + +These words, too, were said of a damsel who had won fame as a warrior in +her father's army, and her skill, valor, and judgment had made enemies +fall at her feet. Indeed, one of the most romantic portions of the +_Shahnamah_ of Firdausi are the passages describing the meeting of the +gallant King Jamshid with the beautiful daughter of Gureng, whose father +had given her permission to marry, provided only it should be +spontaneous love which should guide her in the choice: + + "It must be love and love alone + That binds thee to another's throne, + In this thy father has no voice-- + Thine the election, thine the choice." + +One day, as by chance, the handsome young King Jamshid arrived at the +city, a fatigued stranger, and was not permitted by the keepers to pass +through King Gureng's rose garden. Weary, Jamshid sat down at the gate, +under a shade tree. The damsel sees him, and at once falls in love with +his manly form and demeanor. She brings him wine, by which he may be +refreshed, and pours out her tender soul to him. Presently a dove and +his cooing mate alight upon a bough above their heads. The damsel asks +which of the birds her bow and arrow must bring to the ground. Jamshid +replies: "Where a man is, a woman's aid is not required; give me the +bow." + + "However brave a woman may appear, + Whatever strength of arms she may possess, + She is but half a man." + +Blushing, the girl gives over the weapon, and Jamshid says: "Now for the +wager. If I hit the female, shall the lady whom I most admire in this +company be mine?" The damsel, her heart bounding with throbs of love, +assents. Jamshid drew the string and struck the female bird so skilfully +that both wings were transfixed with the body. The male bird flew away, +but presently returned and perched itself again upon the bough as if +unwilling to leave its stricken mate. The damsel grasped the bow and +arrow, and said: "The male bird has returned to his former place; if my +aim be successful shall the man whom I choose in this company be my +husband?" + +Just then the aged nurse of the princess appears, and recognizes in King +Jamshid him whom the oracles had predicted would be the young girl's +spouse. + + "... happy tidings, blissful to her heart, + Increased the ardor of her love for him." + +They are married. And the story of her father's displeasure and of his +treachery toward Jamshid, the latter's betrayal and death, the young +wife's inconsolable grief and sad self-slaughter move before the reader +in a most thrilling fashion. This Persian poem, setting forth the +romantic side of female character, is one of the greatest pieces of +literature ever written. + +The Persian romances delight in making the women do most of the loving +and the courting. The heroines are the first to feel passion and the +most rapturous in expressing it. They, however, like Saiawush in the +_Shahnamah_, are fond of coyness until they have determined to yield to +the force of love. But when the love of a Persian woman has once gone +out, the Persian poets usually depict it as strong and steadfast to the +end. It speaks like that of Manijeh, the unfortunate Byzun: + + "Can I be faithless then to thee, + The choice of this fond heart of mine, + Why sought I bonds when I was free, + But to be thine, forever thine?" + +Even the best poets, such as Firdausi, who was called the "poet of +Paradise," Persia's great national poet, often present woman's charms in +lines highly overdrawn. Such these are concerning the Princess Rudabah: + + "Screened from public view + Her countenance is brilliant as the sun; + From head to foot her lovely form is fair + As polished ivory. Like the spring, her cheek + Presents a radiant bloom--in stature tall, + And o'er her silvery brightness, richly flow + Dark musky ringlets clustering to her feet." + +Khakani, considered the most learned of Persia's lyric poets, wrote some +beautiful verses in which womanly charms find place. Such is his poem +_The Unknown Beauty_, in which occur the lines: + + "I saw thy form of waving grace! + I heard thy soft and gentle sighs; + I gazed on that enchanting face, + And looked in thy narcissus eyes; + Oh! by the hopes thy smiles allowed, + Bright soul-inspirer, who art thou?" + +The great price placed upon womanly beauty is clearly discerned in such +writers as Sadi, who died about A. D. 1292. In his _Gulistan_, or "Rose +Garden," he tells the story of a doctor of laws who had a daughter. She +was so extremely ugly that she reached the age of womanhood long before +anyone wished her in marriage, although her fortune and dowry were +large--for "Damask or brocade but add to deformity, when put upon a +bride void of symmetry," says Sadi. Finally, to avoid perpetual +maidenhood, the girl was given in wedlock to a blind man. Very soon a +physician who could restore sight to the blind happened to come that +way. "Why do you not get him to prescribe for your son-in-law?" the +father was asked. "Because," said he, "I am afraid he may recover his +sight and repudiate my daughter--for the husband of an ugly woman ought +to be blind." + +Few poets have written more of love and womanly grace than did Hafiz, +who died in A. D. 1388. In the _Diwan_, which has been compared to a +story of pearls, Hafiz says: + + "To me love's echo is the sweetest sound + Of all that 'neath the circling round + Hath staved." + +A story is told of Hafiz and Tamerlane, which is doubtless apocryphal. +Coming upon the poet one day, Tamerlane said: "Art thou not the insolent +versemonger who didst offer my two great cities Samarkand and Bokhara +for the black mole upon thy lady's cheek?" "It is true," replied Hafiz, +with much calmness; "and indeed, my munificence has been so great +throughout my life that it has left me destitute; so, hereafter I shall +be dependent on thy generosity for a livelihood." This apt reply of +Hafiz is said to have so pleased the conqueror that he sent the poet +away with a present. + +It may be said, as a rule, that the Persian poets emphasize almost +exclusively woman's physical charms. "Women, wine, and song" are, in +truth, the chief burden of the poems. The sensuous side of love is most +frequently disclosed. There are, however, some exceptions to this +general rule, as may be discovered in passages from the writings of +Jami. While it is the beauty of the unmarried woman which most +frequently and most naturally holds place in Persian song, yet the +married life is not forgotten. Firdausi, in his account of the beautiful +Rudabah, says of wedlock: + + "For marriage is a contract sealed by Heaven-- + How happy is the warrior's lot amidst + His smiling children." + +And Firdausi makes Kitabun say: + + "A mother's counsel is a golden treasure." + +Examples of the recognition of love that is deep and full of meaning are +not wanting among the Persian poets. + +Nizami, Persia's first great romantic poet, who lived in the twelfth +century of our era, wrote nothing better than his romance of Bedouin +love, the story of Laili and Majnun, which has been happily termed the +_Romeo and Juliet_ of the East. "France," says a recent writer, "has its +Abelard and Eloise, Italy its Petrarch and Laura, Persia and Arabia have +their pure pathetic romance." Many see in the story of Laili and Majnun +an allegorical or spiritual interpretation. At least, it illustrates the +stress which the Persian poets put upon a true, undying devotion, and +the Orientals consider it the very personification of faithful love. + +The higher ideals are often found in the dramatic literature. Many +consider Jami's celebrated _Yusuf and Zulaikha_, a dramatic poem +modelled after Firdausi, to be the finest poem in the Persian language. +Sir William Jones pronounces it "the finest poem he ever read." It gives +account of Yusuf--the Israelite Joseph--and Zulaikha, Potiphar's wife. +In this is disclosed how the human soul attains the love for the highest +beauty and goodness only when it has suffered and has been thoroughly +regenerated, purified, as was the life of Zulaikha. The poet, seeing the +emptiness of mere beauty, reaches the inevitable conclusion that + + "He who gives his heart to a lovely form + May look for no rest--but a life of storm + If the gold of union be still his quest, + With fond vain dream, love deludes his breast." + +The _Dabistan_ was first brought to public notice by that enthusiastic +Orientalist of more than a century ago--Sir William Jones. In it there +is a dissertation on the "Hundred Gates of Paradise," in which occur +directions for entering the place of blessedness. Sons and daughters are +to be given in early marriage. Milk must be given to a child as soon as +the mother gives it birth. Directions are given to women in sickness and +in childbearing. Implicit obedience to husbands is strictly enjoined, +and warning is carefully given against the woman of unchaste life. + +The Zend-Avesta, as well as the great body of Persian poetry, has +preserved much of the ancient life and flavor of Iran. There is scarcely +any feature in the literature of the religion of Zoroaster, which holds +a more emphatic place than that which enjoins purity of life. Domestic +virtues are accorded high place in these teachings. Says the +Zend-Avesta: "Purity is the best of all things; purity is the fairest of +all things, even as thou hast said, O righteous Zarathushtra,--Purity +is, next to life, the greatest good." Zoroaster inquires of Ormuzd which +is the second best place, when earth feels most happy? To which Ormuzd +makes reply: "It is the place whereon one of the faithful erects a house +with a priest within, with cattle, with a wife and with children and +good herds within, and wherein afterward the cattle continue to thrive, +virtue to thrive, fodder to thrive, the dog to thrive, the wife to +thrive, the child to thrive, the fire to thrive, and every blessing of +life to thrive." + + + + +IX + +THE WOMEN OF ARABIA + + +Woman's conservatism has already been referred to in these pages. There +is probably no people in the world, certainly no branch of the widely +scattered Semitic family, among whom ancient ideals and customs have +been more persistent than among the Arabians. Indeed, Arabia occupies a +unique position in the world's history. From her territory there +probably went out the different branches of the Semitic people, a part +of the human family which is second to none in its influence upon the +course of history. For one of its branches, the Assyro-Babylonian, +probably developed the earliest civilization which has come down to us; +another was the most powerful of all ancient faiths, the Hebrew, while +two other historic religions, the Christian and the Mohammedan, had +their origin in Semitic soil. + +Arabia is truly a land of mystery; but for this very reason the +interest in her people is yet the keener. She has but few ancient +monuments written upon tablets of stone and hardened clay--in palaces +and ancient temples--as have Egypt and Assyria. Her records are in +legend, story, tradition, and the persistent customs of her people. With +the exception of the influence of the birth and the death of a culture +which awakened the world and helped to scatter the Dark Ages, and of the +rise of Mohammed, there have been few changes in this remarkable land. + +Two forces stand out as most potential in the shaping of the Arab +woman's character. These may be summed up in the words, the desert and +the cult; the latter being in some sense the product of the former. To +these may possibly be added a third. That is the war spirit, without +which the lord as well as the lady of the Arabian peninsula would have +written out for themselves a far different, and perhaps a far less +romantic history. For there were those who, even like Khaled, spurn the +love of a noble maiden from his "pride of the passion of war." Even love +making, which holds an important place in Arabic literature, gives way +to what was regarded as the noblest of all occupations, the making of +war. + +Womanhood, in the so-called "time of ignorance,"--the days before Islam +wrought so marked a change in the life of Arabia,--enjoyed a freedom and +strength which spoke of the open air and the far-stretching plains. As +she followed the fortunes of her nomad chief, the woman was indelibly +writing her history. It is in religious ideals too that woman must +always find the key to her standing and influence among any people. + +Among the early Arabs the female idea held no small place in their +religious beliefs and practices, and this is true of the early Semites +generally. This is specially noteworthy, however, as Robertson Smith has +pointed out, in the olden Arabic cult. Gods and goddesses went in pairs, +and the goddess was usually the more important divinity. The jinn, which +held so conspicuous a place, were regarded as feminine. In the Minaean +pantheon, Wadd and Nikrah, "Love" and "Hate," female divinities, played +an important role in the religious life of this branch of the Arabic +people. Wherever the female divinity is prominent, woman enjoys +considerable privilege and influence in religion, and this was true in +ancient Arabia. + +The people believed in an inferior order of divine beings--emanations, +secondary spirits--compared to angels by some Mussulman writers. These +beings were of the female sex and known as _Benat Allah_ (daughters of +Allah). Mohammed in the Koran, however, strongly condemned this earlier +belief as not consonant with the unity of God, which is a doctrine so +emphatically preached in the religion of Islam. Each tribe not only had +its _Kahin_, or "diviner" (Hebrew, _Kohen_, "priest"), but its _Arrafa_, +or "sorceress." + +Woman's sphere in the olden days of Arabia was no mean one. Arabic women +have from time immemorial shown themselves, on occasion, to possess a +courage and hardihood unsurpassed in history. Arabia has had her +Amazons. In prehistoric times, armed heroines of invincible bravery have +left their record in the myths of this ancient people. And in the days +of authentic history, women have fought valiantly to advance the cause +for which their husbands and brothers waged war so fiercely. + +The high place held by women in the ancient wars of Araby still survives +in the thrilling custom of having some courageous woman accompany an +Arab force into the battle. The maiden is mounted upon the back of a +blackened camel, and placed in the front of the line as it makes its +onslaught upon the enemy. As the fighting men press forward to the +battle she sings verses of encouragement to her compatriots, and insults +are flung from her lips against the opposing force. It is around this +young woman and her camel that the fiercest battle rages. Should she be +so unfortunate as to be killed or captured, the calamity is unspeakable +and the rout utter. But should her friends be victorious, it is she who +heads the triumphal march. + +As we might expect, the spirit of chivalry is not lacking in Arabic +song and story. In the romance of _Antar_, the story of the hero's love +for Ibla, "fair as the full moon," and the account of her rescue, +breathe the spirit of genuine romance. Antar does not hesitate to strike +down the man who has "failed in respect to Arab women." The _Arabian +Nights_, though in less degree, has also preserved to us evidences of +ancient chivalry and romance. + +Hagar, of whose sad life the Hebrew narratives give us record, though +herself called an Egyptian woman, became ancestress of an Arab clan and +plays some part in Arabian tradition. She was the ancestress of the +restless, roving Ishmaelites--a typical Arabian tribe. Mohammed, in +explaining the preservation of an ancient idolatrous custom of visiting +in religious pilgrimages the hills of Safa and Marwa, where once were +worshipped two idols, one representing a man and the other a woman, +says, in the Koran, that it was between these two eminences that Hagar +wandered, distracted, running from one to the other, till the angel +showed her the miraculous spring which saved her boy's life. + +Indeed, the Arab legend says that when Hagar and Ishmael were driven +from Abraham's tent at Sarah's behest, she was conducted far into the +desert, at the place where Mecca now stands. When her provisions are +exhausted, laying the boy down, she runs to and fro in despair. In his +thirst and suffering, Ishmael strikes his head against the earth, and a +spring of sparkling water gushes out. Some members of an Arab tribe, +thirsty, and seeking their lost camels, come, guided by birds, to the +spot, seeking to quench their thirst. Never having known water to spring +in that locality before, they received Hagar and Ishmael with especial +reverence, and bade them take up their permanent abode with them, lest +because of their departure the spring might dry up. To Ishmael was given +in marriage one of their maidens, Amara, daughter of Said. This is but +one of the many instances of the overlapping of Hebraic and Arabic +legends. + +Many are the stories told by the Arabs concerning the famous Queen of +Sheba, who herself was an Arabian woman. She belonged to that southern +branch of the family known as the Sabeans. Her fame has gone into many +legends, both Arabic and Hebrew. Her visit to King Solomon of Israel +furnishes the basis of most of these. As a lover of wisdom, or the +philosophy of practical life, she was drawn to the ruler of the Hebrews, +whose reputation had extended far and wide. Solomon proved especially +successful in answering her favorite riddles and in untying for her the +most knotty questions. Among the many Talmudic legends is this +interesting one. The queen took groups of small boys and girls, dressed +them precisely alike, and demanded of Solomon that he distinguish the +boys from the girls. The king commanded that they all wash their hands. +The boys washed only to the wrists; the girls rolled up their sleeves +and bathed to their elbows. Thus the secret was disclosed. The +Mohammedan legends concerning this remarkable queen are full and minute. +Having with her own hand slain the reigning king, she herself, being of +royal lineage, was proclaimed queen, and "protectress of her sex." She +reigned with great wisdom and prudence, and administered justice +throughout her kingdom. According to these Arabian legends, the Queen of +Sheba, who was called Balkis, became one of Solomon's wives, though he +allowed her to continue her beneficent reign over her own people. + +The women of old Arabia, the dames of the desert, were comparatively +free, as their open-air life would naturally suggest. The Arabian poets, +in drawing the ancient life, so portray it. In the romance of _Antar_, +already mentioned, are found many delightful episodes, in which the +woman appears as the loving friend, partner, and counsellor of her +husband. These carry us back to the heroic age of Arabia. The custom +which permitted infanticide in case of female children seems in marked +contrast with the high place of woman in early Arabic literature. This +cruel custom is the motive of one of the most attractive of the early +romances, that of _Khaled and Djaida_. The latter, when a babe, that she +might not be known as a girl, was called by her mother by the name +Djonder, and given a prolonged feast such as is accorded only to boys at +their birth. About the same time, the chief of the tribe--and uncle to +Djonder--had born to him a son, who was called Khaled. The cousins grew +up, both learned in the arts of war, and both made for themselves names +for their high courage. Djonder was taught to ride and to fight, as +though she were a man, and the very name of Djonder became a terror to +his foes. Khaled heard of his cousin's exploits and rushed to see him, +that he might witness his skill at arms. But his father, being at enmity +with Zahir, his own brother and father of Djonder, would not permit +Khaled to know Djonder. At length the desire of Khaled was realized. He +was strangely enamored of his cousin, whom, however, he thought to be a +young man like himself. Djonder, too, fell desperately in love with the +valiant Khaled. The latter chooses the field and war instead of love, +however, and leaves Djonder in tears. Later, by the fortunes of war, +they meet on the field of battle in single combat. Djonder has so +concealed her identity that Khaled does not know with whom he fights. +After a long contest of marvellous prowess, neither is victor. Djonder +reveals herself. The old love returns. It is Djonder now who resists the +importunity of Khaled's love. After testing him by several difficult and +dangerous exploits, she becomes his wife. + +Of music and poetry the Arabs from the most ancient days have been +passionately fond. The nomad life tends to develop both poetry and song. +The most ancient bards in all lands were wanderers. David, "the sweet +singer of Israel," was a shepherd lad. Hesiod heard the call of the +Muses while leading his flock at Mount Helicon. Caedmon, England's +earliest poet, was watching his herd when the call came to sing. The +Arab bard sings freely of his camel, the antelope, the wild ass, the +gazelle, of his sword, his bow and arrows, of wine, and, above all, of +his ladylove. + +In the famous literary collection known as the _Muallakat_, made by +Hammad about A. D. 777, seven of the best poems of the early Arabs are +brought together. Those that most fitly set forth the love of woman are +the poems of Imr-al-kais and Antar. Sa'id ibn Judi, the true +representative of Arabian knighthood, must not be forgotten as the poet +most loved by the fair sex. The flavor of these lyrics may be discovered +in the brief poem of Antar upon _A Fair Lady_, "whose glittering pearls +and ruby lips enslaved the poet's heart: + + "Such an odor from her breath + Comes toward me, harbinger of her approach; + Or like an untouched meadow, where the rain + Hath fallen freshly on the fragrant herbs + That carpet all its pure untrodden soil." + +For variety of gifts and force of character there is no Arabian woman +who is comparable in fame to Zenobia. By birth she was a Palmyrene, and +without doubt, of Arab blood. The descriptions of her personal beauty +tell of her black, flashing eyes, her pearly teeth, and the grace of her +form and carriage. Her bodily strength and commanding manners gave her +influence over all with whom she came in contact. As wife of Odenathus, +King of Palmyra, she contributed much to her husband's success and +power. She was a woman of rare native qualities as well as of +extraordinary accomplishments. She was a linguist, being familiar with +the Coptic, the Syriac, and the Latin languages. She was skilled in the +arts of war, and gifted with remarkable political insight and sagacity. +After her husband's death she ruled as Queen of Palmyra, and personally +conducted successful conquests, causing the nations around to tremble +before her; and even Rome itself found her no mean antagonist in arms. +The high spirit of the queen would not permit her to account herself a +vassal even to the imperial city on the Tiber. She had won Egypt, Syria, +Mesopotamia, and parts of Asia Minor to her sovereignty, but in the +contest with Rome she was defeated, though many Romans had joined her +army. The battles of Antioch and Emesa were lost. Zenobia fled to the +Persians, but was captured. Those near her were put to death, but +Zenobia graced the triumph of Aurelian, the victorious general who led +her into the Roman capital in A. D. 271. For years she resided there with +gracious dignity and unconquered pride. She was essentially a woman of +affairs and as queen was mistress of every situation, giving all to +know, "I am queen, and while I live I will reign." As wife she is said +to have declined to cohabit with her husband, except so far as was +necessary to the raising up of an heir to the throne of Palmyra. The +brilliancy of her court was scarcely ever surpassed by any queen, while +her personal charms and almost marvellous achievements rendered her one +of the most remarkable, if not the greatest woman of ancient times. + +In the days of Mohammed a new influence is brought to bear upon Arab +life, and therefore upon female character. Mohammed's relation to woman +might be of itself lengthened into an interesting chapter. Abdullah, +Mohammed's father, was married to a woman of noble parentage, named +Aminah. She was a woman of sensitive, nervous temperament, and her son +doubtless inherited from his mother qualities which made his subsequent +religious ecstasies both physically and mentally possible. Aminah is +reported to have been miraculously free from the pangs of childbirth +when her son first saw the light. For several months she nursed the +infant, but sorrow is said to have soon dried up the fountain of her +breast, and Halimah, a woman of marked fidelity to her charge, became +Mohammed's foster-mother. A _kahin_, or sorcerer, is said once to have +met Halimah with the boy. "Kill this child," said he; "kill this child." +But Halimah, snatching up the child, made away in haste. The sorcerer +saw in the boy an enemy of the ancient idolatrous faith. + +It was not till the rich widow of Mecca, Khadijah, came into Mohammed's +life that he began to make himself felt in the world. Wishing someone to +attend to some business affairs for her, Khadijah secured Mohammed's +services. So well did he execute his task that the rich widow became +enamored of the young man. She asked him for his hand. At twenty-five +years of age, Mohammed married the woman who was destined to influence +his life so powerfully, she being at least fifteen years his senior. It +was not long before Mohammed turned his thoughts toward religion and set +himself to the task of reforming the religious ideas and practices of +his people. With what result the world knows. + +It is Mohammed's attitude toward woman and his teachings concerning her +that most concern us here. His love for Khadijah, his first wife, was +pure and constant; and his mother he always honored with a most devoted +spirit. It is with reference to Mohammed's personal bearing toward the +female sex that he has received the most scathing criticisms. How many +times he was married subsequently to his wedding with Khadijah is a +matter of dispute; but there were probably no less than fourteen other +wives, besides the widow of Mecca. Since Mohammed allowed his faithful +followers but four wives, it was necessary to explain why he himself +should have exceeded that meagre number. The prophet was ready with his +reply, that while men generally were to have no more than four, a +special revelation to himself had given him the right to go beyond that +number. + +Among those whom Mohammed espoused was his child wife Ayesha, who lived +long after the death of the prophet and took an active part in shaping +the political history of Islam immediately after Mohammed's demise. She +fostered a burning dislike toward Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, to whom +the prophet had given his daughter Fatima. Because of Ayesha's intrigues +Ali was unable to succeed Mohammed as kalif. Abubekr, Omar, and Othman +in turn held sway. But at length Ali was victorious, taking Ayesha a +prisoner and becoming the fourth of the line of the kalifate. Ayesha in +personal daring belonged to the heroic type of Arabian womanhood. In the +battle of the Camel, A. D. 656, she actually led the charge. Ali, like +his distinguished father-in-law, considered himself an exception to the +ordinary rule which accorded but four wives to the faithful, having +married eight others besides his loved Fatima. + +Among the kalifs there was none whose court was more magnificent than +that of Haroun al Raschid. So greatly did he dazzle the eyes of his +generation by his brilliancy, that his name became associated with many +romances. The account of the wives and favorites of Haroun borrow a halo +from their association with his illustrious name. The _Thousand and One +Nights_ are replete with the romantic adventures of the days of this +brilliant kalif. But the actual life of the women of the Arabian +peninsula cannot be accurately gauged by the appearance they made in the +stories of romantic adventure. + +Mohammed's attitude to woman has, of course, been the decisive religious +influence in shaping the history of woman's life among the followers of +Islam since his day. The Mohammedans have a legend that when Adam and +Eve sinned, God commanded that their lives should be purified by both +the culprits standing naked in the river Jordan for forty days. Adam +obeyed, and so became comparatively pure again; but Eve refused to be +thus washed, and, of course, her standing before God has been relatively +lower ever since. + +The Mohammedan woman does not worship upon an equality with the man. Not +that the prophet positively forbade the female sex from public +attendance upon worship at the mosque, but he counselled that they +should make their prayers in private. In some parts of the wide +territory under the prophet's power, neither women nor young boys are +allowed to enter the mosque at the time of prayer. At other places women +may come, but must place themselves apart from men, and always behind +them. "The Moslems are of the opinion," says Sale, "that the presence of +females inspired a different kind of devotion from that which is +requisite in a place dedicated to the worship of God," and adds that +very few women among the Arabs in Egypt even pray at home. + +The Koran has much to say of woman. One lengthy _sura_ is taken up +almost entirely by this theme. The ancient doctrine of woman's creation +from the man is accepted, and probably was derived from contact with the +Jews, the influence of which contact is marked throughout Mohammed's +teachings. Honor "for the woman who has borne you" is frequently taught; +justice and kindness toward female orphans is repeatedly enjoined. Women +should be given freely their just dowries, and should not be omitted +from the rights of inheritance; but a son may receive as much as two +daughters. The prohibited degrees for marriage are most carefully laid +down. Accusing a chaste woman of adultery is regarded as one of the +seven grievous sins. The prophet counsels that husband and wife adjust +their disputes amicably between themselves, "for a reconciliation is +better than a separation." Thus one after another, in a manner +altogether lacking in order or in systematic treatment, Mohammed gives +forth his commands concerning women. Matters of marriage, divorce, +dower, chastity, and the like are frequently before the prophet's mind; +but his precepts, while making concessions to human weakness, are far +higher than his example. The teachings of Mohammed, even at their best, +placed woman on a distinctly lower plane than man, rendered her a +subservient tool on the earth and painted a heaven where man's +sensuality was to be gratified to the limits of his capacity for +enjoyment. + +The Arabs, while sensual in their nature, have some strict laws +concerning chastity. If a woman be guilty of lewdness, she is summarily +put to death by her nearest relative. Unless this be done the family +will lose all social recognition and civil rights. If it appears that +she has been forced to the crime, the ravisher must flee or pay the +penalty with his life, or if not, the life of those next of kin is in +danger. If the malefactor be caught at once he is slain by the relatives +of the woman. If not he may escape death through negotiations by which +"the price of blood" is paid for the woman as if she had been killed. +Sometimes arrangements of marriage are effected, but even then "the +price of virginity" must be paid to the girl's parents. + +The method by which a family purifies itself of the unchastity of a +daughter is horrible enough. The family of the young woman assembles in +some public place; the sheiks and leading men are present in +considerable number. Some close relative stands with sword in hand, and +says: "My honor and that of my family shall be purified this day by +means of this sword which I hold in my hands." The guilty woman is then +led out, laid upon the ground, and her head severed from her body at the +hands of her father, brother, or some next of kin. The executioner then +walks dignifiedly about the bleeding form three times, passing between +the head and the trunk of the body, saying at each circuit: "Lo! thus +our honor is left unstained." All dip their handkerchiefs in the blood +of the culprit and take their leave, without any show of emotion. The +body is left unburied, or is hacked to pieces by the woman's relatives +and cast into a ditch. + +Often, however, it is possible to save the young girl's life. Someone +who is sufficiently kindly disposed toward her steps forward at the +critical moment when she is being led forth to death and intercedes to +save her life. This protector approaches the girl and says to her: "Wilt +thou repent of thy fall? If so, I will defend thee." She replies +affirmatively: "I will give thee the right to cut my throat if I commit +this crime again." The man is then required to strip off his clothing in +the presence of the multitude, declare that he has never seen this woman +commit any crime, that it must therefore be the power of an evil spirit +that took possession of her; "I therefore redeem her," says he. Then the +whole scene changes from one of tragic solemnity to one of intense joy. +The girl returns to the bosom of her family, reinstated; and no one +thereafter has the right to cast any reflections upon her past life. + +Pierrotti, in his _Customs and Traditions of Palestine_, tells of a +scene witnessed by him when architect-engineer to Surraya Pasha, of +Jerusalem. During a visit to Hebron in company with some Armenian +gentlemen, he found the whole community stirred. A youth of eighteen had +met in the fields a girl of fifteen, who was betrothed, and had tried to +kiss her without her consent. She told her parents of the young man's +misconduct. The families belonged to different clans or districts, and +so were enemies. Efforts on the part of the boy's parents, through the +sheiks of the two communities, were unavailing, though the father +entreated earnestly for his son, and even promised to give up all he had +as a ransom for his life. The girl's father demanded the boy's blood as +propitiation for the wrong. And so, in the presence of an assembled +crowd, the parent drew his sword and struck off his child's head, +without a tear, saying: "Thus wipe I away every stain from my family." +Overcome, he then instantly swooned away. His friends restored him to +life, but his reason had fled. A clan war at once commenced, and those +who had demanded the youth's destruction were slain in the strife. + +Concerning the slaying of a woman, there are certain customs which +sound strange to the Western ear, but are in keeping with the general +law of "the price of blood" which prevailed among the ancient Hebrews, +though in a somewhat modified form. If a man should be so unfortunate as +to kill a woman, the members of the family that is wronged seek revenge, +just as is the case should a man be slain, but "the price of blood" is +never so high in case of the woman, it being about two thousand +piastres, or about eighty dollars. This sum goes largely to the +relatives of the woman. If the woman be married, the husband's damage is +measured at eight hundred piastres and a silk dress. Should the murdered +woman be pregnant, the slayer is amerced as if he had killed two. If the +offspring would have been a boy, it is as though a woman and a man were +slain, and "the price of blood" is so measured. If it would have been a +daughter, the smaller price is charged, the father receiving the full +price for the child and his eight hundred piastres for the murdered +wife. Should it be a maiden, however, who has been slain, arrangement is +often made whereby a sister of the slayer is given by her family to the +brother of the slain as his wife; or if this arrangement is not +feasible, the price of a woman is paid as first described. + +A very curious custom exists among the Arabs in connection with the +ancient "law of asylum." They recognize the right of sanctuary for those +upon whom summary vengeance may be taken for some blood crime. But +flight is often exceedingly dangerous because of the possibility of +ambuscade along the way; and even when a village which owes protection +to a fugitive undertakes to give him safe escort, the defenders may be +overcome and the offender slain. Under such circumstances, it is +customary to give him over to the escort of two women, who are his +defenders. For it is a point of honor among Arabs not to attack or harm +anybody or anything that has been placed under the protection of a +woman. + +That the modern Arab sometimes, however, has great confidence in the +power of his wives, over others at least, may be illustrated by an +amusing incident told by Loftus. During his researches his party was +attacked by a company of Arabs, on account of which some of the +assaulting party had been seized and lodged in prison. One of the chief +sheiks of the country came to make friends with the explorer and to +entreat for the release of the culprits. This was refused. Later a coup +was conceived. Loftus looked out and saw the sheik's harem, in most +radiant costumes, approaching the tent in single file, led by the sheik +and a black eunuch. Thus the Arab hoped to appeal to Occidental chivalry +through the prayers of the masked beauties who surrounded the tent, +declaring they would not raise the siege till the occupant yielded to +their entreaties. + +The rich Mohammedan ladies are far less industrious than the poorer +classes. Entering the harem at the tender age of twelve to fourteen +years, the young woman is condemned to a life of sloth and sensuality. +There is little opportunity for self-improvement or for enjoyments of a +high order. They eat, drink, gossip, suckle their young, quarrel, plot, +and eke out a miserable existence--always under the control of their +masters. + +The country women have greater freedom and far more influence with +their husbands than do the women of the harem. Polygamy among the former +class is rare, and hence the women are more highly regarded than those +of the city. The peasant woman is industrious, engaged in some useful +employment about the house or in the field. She buys and sells and gets +gain for her husband and her home, and often is highly esteemed by him; +but he will not let you know it, if he can avoid doing so. In public he +always assumes the attitude of superiority. If but one can ride, it is +the man and the children who sit upon the beast; the woman walks along +at the side, carrying a bundle on her head or a baby at her +breast--sometimes jogging along with both. If Arab and wife must both +walk with burdens, the man carries the lighter load. And the woman must +prepare the meal at the journey's end, while her lord reposes--and +smokes. Excavators in the East have frequently found Arab girls who +desired work, and with their baskets they would for hours carry out the +earth with endurance apparently equal to that of the men. + +The Arab girls, as a rule, grow up in ignorance. It is not thought worth +while to educate the daughter; and, indeed, it is regarded by many as +destructive of the best order of society to give woman any opportunity +which may cause her to desire to usurp the power which heaven has placed +in the hands of men. There is, accordingly, little enlightened +housekeeping, little to stimulate a woman's mind, little opportunity +here for "the hand that rocks the cradle" to move the world. Sons grow +up with little respect for their mothers, for there is nothing to make +it otherwise. The husband, should he wish to divorce himself from his +wife, simply orders her to leave his house, and his will is law. Civil +government takes no cognizance of matrimonial affairs, and religious +authority allows the husband to do much as he may see fit in his own +house. + +[Illustration 4: _AN ORIENTAL WOMAN'S PASTIME After the painting by +Frederick A. Bridgman She is not a companion, but only a gilded toy, a +decorative object.... Among the higher class she is still kept in strict +seclusion, and her time is passed in luxurious idleness, save for the +hours she employs at her embroidery or tapestry. The garden, with its +heavily perfumed blossoms, pleases her; the ceaseless plash of the +fountain falls musically on her ear; all her physical needs are +ministered to. But everything conduces to the dreaminess of her nature, +to slothful habits; her activities are fettered by the law of Mohammed. +After all, her garden is but an exquisite prison._] + +The women of the Arabs, like the men, are fond of tattooing their +bodies, regarding the figures they stamp into their flesh as highly +ornamental, though perhaps originally there was a religious significance +in them. The figure to be imprinted is first drawn upon a block of wood +and blackened with charcoal. This is then impressed upon some part of +the body, and then the outlines are pricked with fine needles which have +been dipped into an ink made of gunpowder and ox-gall. The whole is +subsequently bathed with wine, and the figure is marked indelibly. + +Even the poor are very fond of personal ornaments. Chains, rings, +necklaces, gold thread, may be seen in abundance, if not in costliness. +It is not unusual for an Arab woman, though clothed in tattered raiment, +to wear several rings of silver. But if this metal be beyond her means, +then of iron or copper and sometimes of glass. Ornaments of variously +colored glass are very popular among Arab women; often they can afford +no other. Even bracelets are made of this material, and are much worn. +Some of the nomadic tribes still wear anklets. + +The women of the desert are often seen with nose-drops, or rings in one +or the other side of their nostrils, which in consequence tends to droop +like the ear. This custom prevails in other parts of the East, more +particularly among those whose occupation is thought to call for much +ornamentation, such as the dancing girls and odalisques. The ancient +Hebrews sometimes used to put rings in swines' snouts for practical +reasons, as indeed the Arabs do to-day in the noses of horses, mules, +and asses to aid in evaporating the moisture from the nostrils, but the +beauty or the utility of a ring in an Arab woman's nose has never been +satisfactorily determined. + +The Arab women of good quality do not, as a rule, wear their hair very +long. It usually reaches about to the neck, and is tied with a colored +ribbon. Many of the poorer and less cleanly among them, however, wear +their tresses long, ill-kempt, and filthy. The men often think more of +their beards than do the women of their locks. + +The favorite flower is that of the shrub called _Al henna._ It is the +plant from which is obtained a dye much used by Oriental ladies upon +their skin and nails as a cosmetic. The manner of preparation is thus +described: "The young leaves of the shrub are boiled in water, then +dried in the sun, and reduced to a powder which is of a dark orange +color. After this has been mixed with warm water, it is applied to the +skin." The use of henna is very old; and when the woman has finished the +work of art--she herself being the subject--she looks, as one has said, +like a vampire stained with the blood of its victim. The flower of +_Alhenna_, however, is beautiful and strongly fragrant--reminding one in +appearance of clusters of many-colored grapes. These blossoms are used +as ornaments for the hair and as decorations for the houses, the +fragrance often conquering the malodorous atmosphere of many ill-kept, +uncleanly homes. + +As is the custom with Oriental ladies generally, the women in riding +place themselves astride the beast, like a man, and seldom present a +graceful appearance to a Western eye. Loftus has thus described an Arab +lady as she sits astride the patient mule: "Enveloped in the ample folds +of a blue cotton cloak, her face (as required by the strict injunctions +of the Koran) concealed under a black or white mask, her feet encased in +wide yellow boots, and these in turn thrust into slippers of the same +color, her knees nearly on the level with her chin, and her hands +holding on to the scanty mane of the mule--an Eastern lady is the most +uncouth and inelegant form imaginable." + +Mohammedans are never seen walking with their wives in the street, and +are seldom seen in company with them or any other woman in any public +place. Should a man and his wife have occasion to go to any place at the +same time, he goes in advance and she follows on behind him. Jessup, in +_The Women of the Arabs_, gives the following explanation advanced by a +Syrian of the aversion which the men feel with reference to walking in +public with women: + +"You Franks can walk with your wives in public, because their faces are +unveiled, and it is known that they are your wives, but our women are so +closely veiled that if I should walk with my wife in the street, no one +would know whether I was walking with my own wife or another man's. You +cannot expect a respectable man to put himself in such an embarrassing +position." + +If inquiries are made by one man of another concerning his family, the +boys and the beasts are invariably mentioned first; the wife last of +all. Among the ancient Arabs the birth of a female infant was looked +upon as little short of a domestic calamity and sometimes the infant was +not allowed to live. The horrible custom, _wad-el-benat_, of burying +infant daughters alive grew out of an unwillingness of parents to share +the scant support of the home with the newcomer, or, as has been +suggested, from ferocious pride, or false sentiments of honor, fearing +the shame that might come should the girl be carried off and dishonored +by the enemies of their tribe. The birth of a son, however, was +considered the occasion of great rejoicing. The daughters of the modern +Arabs are usually well cared for, though apparently with little +affection. They are useful in agricultural pursuits, and they are for +sale as wives when they become of a marriageable age. Their marketable +value is determined by their rank, their fortune, or their beauty. Among +the Arabs marriage is seldom an affair of the heart, but is purely a +commercial transaction. Three thousand piastres, or about one hundred +and twenty dollars, is regarded as a good price to pay for a wife. The +price is generally less. The father of the young man pays the bill; his +wealth regulating somewhat the amount paid. The parents of the young +couple make all the arrangements, though generally assisted by relatives +and interested friends. Much bargaining and delay are often gone through +with as a matter of course. If the whole sum finally agreed upon cannot +be paid in a lump sum, the parties of the first and the second part fix +upon the size and frequency of the instalments; the bride being claimed +only when the last instalment has been paid. + +The time for the wedding is next settled upon, whether it be days, +weeks, months, or years in advance. When that event is at length +celebrated, the Arab love of feasting has full opportunity to give +itself rein. Days are spent in these rounds of pleasure before the young +couple settle down to the stern facts of practical copartnership. + +The Arab women have a number of folk songs which are sung by them at +weddings and at the birth of children. Some of these may be here quoted +as revealing the Arab woman's idea of physical grace and of womanly +virtue, and of those qualities which are desirable in the wife and the +mother. Here is a song to the bride: + + "Go thou, where thy destiny leads thee, O fair bride! + Tread delicately on the carpets. + Should thy spouse speak to thee, what wilt thou answer? + Tell him thou art his, thou lovest him and he is thy delight" + +Again, they sing: + + "Oh yes, she is welcome! + Let us hail the arrival of her whose eyes shine with beauty; + Whose form is graceful; tall as a young palm tree, + Who can shut the window without a stool!" + +The rejoicing in maternity, and especially in the birth of sons, is +notable among the Arabs. The women sing: + + "Behold the wife hath brought forth; + She has risen from the bed whereon she reposed, whereon she slept! + She hath brought into the world a child, the fairest of boys; + He will learn to play with the sword." + + "No sorrow or harm shall come to thee if thou hast sons. + God will give them to thee. He will make thee glad, + Esteemed and honored throughout the country; + Thou who art in the race as a gazelle." + +Between the verses of the songs, the women who are not singing will +repeat the refrain: + + "La, la, la, la," etc., + +to emphasize their sympathy with the sentiments just sung. + +Because of a deep reverence for the mystery of life, the Arabs give to +the woman a separate tent or hut during the period of childbirth, and +there she must remain for a period. There is a strong superstition +concerning the results that might come from seeing or touching her or +her belongings during the time of this separation. + +In the naming of children, family names are not given, but individual +names, to which is often added the name of the father, and sometimes +that of the mother. The latter is probably the older, and many +ethnologists believe it to have once been the universal custom among the +Arabs; pointing to a day when polyandry prevailed, when it was customary +for women to have several husbands, if they were not indeed the common +property of the tribe. + +The influence of the nomadic life of the ancient Arabians still has its +power over the modern Arab if he be true or a dweller in tents. These +desert roamers despise those Arabs who are engaged in the arts of +husbandry. Dr. A. H. Keane, quoting from Junker, gives the following +evidence of this prejudice: "In the eyes of his fellow tribesmen, the +humblest nomad would be degraded by marriage with the daughter of the +wealthiest bourgeois." But, as he adds: "Necessity knows no law, hunger +pinches, and so these proud and stubborn were fain ... to renounce the +free and lawless life of the solitude and at least partly turn to +agriculture for several months in the year." + +The Arabs are proverbially a hospitable people. Let a stranger once eat +with an Arab family and he is a friend; certainly so long as the food is +thought to remain a part of his body. But since the patriarchal idea +survives, man is absolutely lord of his own house. Hence, in the house, +the inequality of the sexes is most noticeable. The Moslem wife never +sits down to a meal with her husband if any male guest be present; and +should the husband be very strict and formal in his habits, she is not +permitted to eat with her lord, even when there is no guest. It is her +pleasure to serve. When the master of the house has finished his repast, +he allows what remains to go to the rest of the family. By this the +husband does not mean to be selfish at all; but customs which have +prevailed for time out of mind give to woman an inferior place as a +matter of course. But the guest is never turned away empty. Even in the +poorest houses, the Moslems will offer the visitor a cup of black +coffee, and it may be cigarettes. + +Polygamy was common in ancient Arabia. In earlier days every man might +marry as many wives as he could take care of, and the length of the +wifehood was solely in the husband's hand. The family possessions were +his property, and should he die, his widow was looked upon as a part of +the estate. Unions between mothers and step-sons were not infrequent. +Mohammed numbered this, however, among the "shameful marriages." + +Sir William Muir, in his _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, says: +"Polygamy and secret concubinage are still the privilege, or the curse +of Islam, the worm at its root, the secret of its fall. By these the +unity of the household is fatally broken, and the purity and virtue +weakened of the family tie; the vigor of the dominant classes is sapped; +the body politic becomes weak and languid excepting for intrigue; and +the throne itself liable to fall a prey to doubtful or contested +successors." "Hardly less injurious," says he, "is the power of divorce, +which can be exercised without the assignment of any reason whatever, at +the mere word and will of the husband. It not only hangs over each +individual household like the sword of Damocles, but affects the tone of +society at large; for even if not put in force, it cannot fail as a +potential influence, existing everywhere, to weaken the marriage bond, +and detract from the dignity and self-respect of the sex at large." + +Mohammed's complete misunderstanding of the true relation of the sexes +has had much to do with the degraded position of woman in Moslem lands, +and the complete failure of Islamic social life. It is woman that makes +or unmakes society. She is the keystone of the arch, not the mudsill. + +Mohammed's state of mind regarding woman is universal among his +followers, whether in Algeria, Tunis, or Morocco, in the land of the +Lotus, in the Ottoman Empire, or in the lesser Mohammedan dominions. The +customs springing from this state are, of course, modified among the +different peoples, as, for instance, among the Moors through the +admixture of Spanish and Moorish blood, which resulted in a somewhat +better appreciation of woman. Yet she is not a companion, but only a +gilded toy, a decorative object, to be fitfully enjoyed or waywardly put +aside. Among the higher class she is still kept in strict seclusion, and +her time is passed in luxurious idleness, save for the hours she employs +at her embroidery or tapestry. The garden, with its heavily perfumed +blossoms, pleases her; the ceaseless plash of the fountain falls +musically on her ear; all her physical needs are ministered to. But +everything conduces to the dreaminess of her nature, to slothful habits; +her activities are fettered by the law of Mohammed. After all, her +garden is but an exquisite prison. + +By placing women upon so far lower a plane of social and religious life +than man, Mohammedanism has not only degraded the female sex, but has +disrupted, if not destroyed, those healthy family relations which lie at +the very foundation of all social progress and national greatness. + + + + +X + +THE TURKISH WOMEN + + +Out of the ruins of the Seljuk domination arose the Turkish Empire, +founded by Ottoman, or Osman I., a nomad chieftain of great prowess, +after whom the Ottoman Empire derived its name. Among the very first +events narrated concerning the life of this important Turk was one of +romance, for Ottoman was not only a bold warrior, but a brave lover, and +withal, like the young Hebrew Joseph, a dreamer. In the little village +of Itburuni there lived a learned doctor of the law, a man of +aristocratic blood, one Edebali, with whom it is said Ottoman loved to +converse, not only because of the gentleman's fine personal qualities, +but because Edebali had a daughter, whom many named Kamariya, or +"Brightness of the Moon," because of her beauty; but most called her Mal +Khatum, or "Lady Treasure," on account of her pleasing personality. But +the learned sheik did not take kindly to Ottoman's advances, for he had +not yet "won his spurs," and his authority was not recognized by +neighboring princes. Fortunately, a timely dream--that potent argument +which is so effectual among the people of the East--came to Ottoman's +aid in the pursuit of his suit. The dream is thus recorded: "One night +Ottoman, as he slumbered, thought he saw himself and his host stretched +upon the ground, and from Edebali's breast there seemed to rise a moon +which waxing to the full, approached the prostrate form of Ottoman and +finally sank to rest on his bosom. Thereat from out his loins there +sprang forth a tree, which grew taller and taller, raised its head and +spread out its branches till the boughs overshadowed the earth and the +seas. Under the canopy of leaves towered forth mighty mountains, +Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus, and Haemus, which held up the leafy vault like +four great tent poles, and from their sides flowed royal rivers, Nile, +Danube, Tigris, and Euphrates. Ships sailed upon the waters, harvests +waved upon the fields, the rose, and the cypress, flowers and fruits +delighted the eye, on the boughs birds sang their glad music. Cities +raised domes and minarets toward the green canopy; temples and obelisks, +towers and fortresses lifted their high heads, and on their pinnacles +shone the golden crescent. And behold as he looked, a great wind arose +and dashed the crescent against the crown of Constantine, that imperial +city which stood at the meeting of the two seas and two continents, like +a diamond between sapphires and emeralds, the centre jewel of the ring +of the Empire. Ottoman was about to put the dazzling ring upon his +finger when he awoke." The story of the wondrous dream was told to the +father of the fair Mal Khatum. He was at once convinced that the Fates +had marked Ottoman for future greatness and for wide dominion. The +moon-faced damsel fell a prize to the inevitable conqueror, son of +Ertoghrul. Another early incident in Ottoman's career may be of interest +in this volume upon the women of Turkey. Ottoman understood that a +number of his rivals at arms were to be present at a certain wedding to +be celebrated at Bilejik, in the year 1299; and that the event was to be +made the occasion of his being entrapped and slain. Learning of the +conspiracy against him, he secured for forty women of the Ottoman clan +admission to the festivities. When all present were engrossed in the +ceremonies of the hour, these forty sturdy warriors cast aside their +female attire and not only captured the entire garrison, but also the +fair maiden whose nuptials were being celebrated. She was a young Greek +lady named Nenuphar, or "the Lotus Blossom," who afterward became the +mother of Murad I. Ottoman now descended like an avalanche upon his +rivals and their territory, extending his dominion even to Mount +Olympus. + +It is to Arabia and to Persia that Turkey owes most of its civilization, +its religion, its literature, its laws, its manners, and its customs. +Beginning with a Tartar basis, Turkish life has been chiefly shaped +under the influence of a religion and a literature. As for the first, +the debt is chiefly to Arabia; for the second, Persia must have the +larger share of credit. Since these two forces, religion and literature, +are doubtless the most effective in shaping the ideals of womanhood, and +so in developing the female character among any people, we are compelled +to look to the ancient lands of Persia and Arabia for the springs of +Turkish life. + +Remembering the kinship of Turkish literature to the Arabic and Persian, +it would not be difficult to surmise that woman would hold no +insignificant place in the literature of Turkey. While there are as many +as twenty-five different written languages used in the Empire, the +literary language is a product of the original Tartaric tongue and +strong Persian and Arabic elements. Very much of the romantic material +that goes to make up the Turkish literature is drawn from such early +stories as the great Persian epic _Shahnamah_. + +The romance of _Laili and Majnun_ has made a deep impression in Turkish +literature. Fuzuli of Bagdad, one of the greatest of Turkish poets, has +reproduced the strong love of these characters of old Persian legend, +besides giving to the nation's literature many _ghazels_ in which +fondness for the virtue of woman is presented with characteristic +Eastern passion. + +The Persian lady also figures in the work of Kemal Bey, who was regarded +in his lifetime as "a shining star in the Turkish literary world," and +one who did much to arouse the Turks to enthusiasm for their native +country. He was the author of a trivial novel _Tzesmi_, of high repute +in Turkish literary circles, in which a Turkish warrior of poetic talent +and a Persian princess figure. + +There are numerous love ballads of Moorish origin that are highly prized +and have greatly influenced Turkish literature, such as _Fatima's Love, +Zaida's Love, Zaida's Inconstancy, Zaida's Lament, Guhala's Love_, and +the like; also much Moorish romance, as _The Zefri's Bride_. So we find +Turkish poems breathing of love and womanly charms. Among such +productions is that of Ghalib, whose _Husn-u-Ashk_, or _Beauty and +Love_, is regarded as one of the finest productions of Turkish genius. + +It must be remembered, however, in reading Turkish poetry of love that +there is often, if not indeed generally, beneath what seems to be a +sensuous and even voluptuous song or romance an allegorical or mystical +significance. God is the Fair One whose presence the heart craves, and +whose veil the suitor would see cast aside that his perfect beauty may +be revealed to the worshipper. Man, therefore, is the lover; the tresses +are the mystery of the divine character; the ruby lip is the sought-for +Word of God; wine is the divine love; the zephyr is the breathing of His +spirit; and so on. And yet, that many Turkish, as is true of many Arab +and Persian, poems are upon a low moral level of human passion, and are +revolting to the ethical sense of the more sensitive natures, is not to +be disputed. + +Fame in poetry has not been unknown to Turkish women. Notable among +these literary women of Turkey is Fatima Alie, daughter of the former +state historiographer Dzevdet Pacha, whose history of the Ottoman Empire +takes high rank. In Fatima Alie, Turkish womanhood finds one of its +staunchest champions. + +Zeyneb Effendi was a royal poetess in the days of Mohammed the +Conqueror. She recounted in glowing lines her hero's achievements. So +also Mirhi Hanum was a poetess of talent. She was born of a wealthy +father, a grand vizir. She was so unfortunate as to have had as a lover +one who did not reciprocate her passion. She, therefore, sung her young +life out in avowed virginity, wearing an amber necklace, symbolizing her +eternal choice of celibacy. Among other poetesses of note may be +mentioned Sidi, who died in the year 1707, the authoress of _Pleasures +of Sight_ and _The Divan_. Mirhi, who has been styled "the Ottoman +Sappho," was a poetess of Amasiya, full of the passion of love. She sang +boldly concerning the object of her devotion, but her virtue was never +questioned, nor her talent deprecated. + +But the women of Turkey have been affected less by the literary +influence of Persia than by the religious inheritance from the Arabs. +Before Mohammed polygamy flourished among the various Arabian tribes. +The prophet brought some order out of the chaos, and the harem became a +more or less well-defined system, with its definite laws and +regulations. Therein woman was somewhat advanced from the state in which +she earlier found herself. And yet, Mohammed manifestly wavered in his +treatment of women and in the ideals which underlay it. A certain +equality between man and woman is at one time taught in the Koran, as +when it said: "The women ought to behave to their husbands in like +manner as their husbands should behave towards them, according to what +is just." And again the prophet said: "Ye men have right over your wives +and your wives have right over you." This truly is reciprocity. And yet +he asserted that "woman is a field--a sort of property which her husband +may use or abuse as he thinks fit;" and again, that "a woman's happiness +in Paradise is beneath the sole of her husband's feet." Commercially, +the girl was of more value than the boy, because she could be sold and +made a wife, and perhaps she might be converted to the Mohammedan faith. + +It is, in truth, the Turkish slave woman's physical beauty, as she was +captured and came into the possession of Arab sheiks, which first +brought the Turkish woman into notice. But these superbly attractive, +dark-eyed slaves at length captured their captors, and the Turk became +master of the Arab and the most virile exponent of the Arabian faith and +civilization. + +Concerning his ideals as to woman, the Turk imbibed much from the Arab, +who valued woman mainly for her points of physical excellence--these +were tabulated in a standard of eight "fours" as follows: "A woman +should have four things black; namely, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and +the dark part of the eyes. Four things white; namely, the skin, the +white of the eyes, the teeth, and the legs. Four red; namely, the +tongue, the lips, the middle of the cheek, and the gums. Four round; +namely, the head, the neck, the forearm, and the ankle. Four long: the +back, the fingers, the arms, and the legs. Four wide: the forehead, the +eyes, the bosom, and the hips. Four thick: the lower part of the back, +the thighs, the calves, and the knees. Four small: the ears, the breast, +the hands, and the feet." + +Since Mohammed allowed four wives to all Mussulmans, the sultan as a +faithful follower of the prophet may have four official wives; and after +these he may take as many non-official wives as his fancy may desire. +The four favored ones are known as the _kadins_. First stands the Bach +Kadin, who is the "first lady of the land." Next her is the Skindij +Kadin, or "second lady." Then come the "middle lady" or Artanie Kadin, +and last of all the Kutchuk Kadin, or the "little lady." When a kadin +becomes the mother of a male child she is then entitled to be called +Khasseki-Sultan, or "royal princess." When a daughter is born to one of +them she is known as Khasseki-Kadin, or "royal lady." + +The mother of the reigning sultan always holds high place at court, yet +not because she is mother of the ruler, but because it is thought that +each of the four legitimate wives of the sultan must in every detail of +court life enjoy perfect equality with the others, from the services of +"the mistress of the robes down to the lowest scullion." Thus, the +mother, called the Valideh-Sultan, holds the rank that usually belongs +to the wife of a monogamous ruler. Should the sultan's mother be +deceased, his foster-mother holds this position of influence. The +present sultan's foster-mother has conducted herself with much +conservatism in her exalted position and, it is said, with strict +attention to the dignity and economy of the harem. The Valideh is +sometimes poetically known as Tatch-ul-Mestourat, that is, "the crown of +the veiled heads." This means that the Valideh is regarded as queen of +all the Mohammedan women, who are uniformly veiled, according to the +teaching of the prophet. The Valideh is in her dignity most august. No +woman, not even the Khasseki-Sultan, may dare come before her unless +sent for. All women when they appear in her presence must be clothed in +full court dress, and, whatever the weather may be, without mantles. +When she goes out she is entitled to a military escort similar to that +of the sultan. An ancient custom still prevails which demands that the +Valideh, once a year, on the night of Kurban Bairam, present a slave +girl of twelve years of age to the sultan. The slave damsel at once +becomes a member of the harem, and it is possible for her to rise to the +highest position a woman may attain at the Turkish court. It is now +customary, however, for the young girl to be sent as a pupil in the +institution at Scutari, which has been established by the sultan for the +higher education of Mohammedan women. She is now more frequently +married, with a dowry, to some officer of the court or member of the +sultan's household. + +The sultan is granted privileges not generally accorded others as to +marriage. He may marry a Christian or a Jewess, if he should see fit so +to do. As a rule, the women who thus marry are expected to become Moslem +in faith, though there have been notable exceptions. Theodora, wife of +Orkhan, was a Greek Christian woman, and with marked persistence held on +to her ancestral religion. But Orkhan was unlike Mohammed II. in +character; for the story is told of the latter's strong passion for the +beautiful Irene, who, however, refused to abjure her faith. The priests +of Islam reviled their ruler for loving one who would not accept the +religion of the prophet. This was too much for Mohammed. One day the +priests were assembled in one of the halls of the palace. Here, too, was +Irene, covered with a veil of dazzling whiteness. With great solemnity +the sultan lifted Irene's veil with one hand and revealed the young +woman's great beauty to all who were present. "You see," said the +Sultan, "she is more beautiful than any other woman you have ever +beheld; fairer than the houris of your dreams! I love her as I do my +life; but my life is nothing beside my love for Islam." With this, he +seized the long, golden tresses of the unfortunate woman, entwined them +in his fingers, and with one stroke of his sharp scimiter severed her +head from her body. + +A lady of imperial blood has the right to add "Sultan" to her own name. +This is her privilege, even though she should marry a subject, which is +sometimes the case. Her superior descent, however, is always recognized; +for her husband may not sit down before her, unless she should so +permit. + +Turkish rulers have taken a different view of the value of foreign +marriages from that which has usually prevailed in the East. Political +ties have been made and strengthened by royal marriages. In Turkey, +however, a custom, amounting to law, prevents the sultan from marrying a +free woman, one taken from the high families of his own people, or +princesses of foreign courts, that no tie of politics or affinity of +blood should alter the superior impartiality of the supreme master. +Thus, while he is above all his subjects so far as rank is concerned, he +is inferior, on his mother's side at least, in the matter of birth, +Hence, the meanest subject of the Empire of the Ottomans may here feel +himself on an equality with the sultan, since he is "the son of a slave +woman." + +It is not customary for a ceremony to be performed when the sultan +marries. Only three Turkish sultans are said to have undergone a +ceremony on the occasion of taking to themselves wives. When the Greek +Princess Theodora was wedded to Orkhan; when Roxelana became the wife of +Sultan Suleyman; and when Besma, an adopted daughter of a princess of +Egypt, was married to Abd-ul-Medjid, the marriage ceremony was +performed. + +As a mark of certain inferiority, the bride is expected to enter the +nuptial bed from the back, lifting the covering with much ceremony. It +is never good form for a gentleman to inquire concerning the health of +another's wife. + +Mothers of the harem are often compelled to live in mortal fear for +their infant sons, lest they be foully dealt with. For if a child have +any prospect of some day being the Turkish ruler, his life is never +regarded as altogether safe. The baby prince is brought up in the harem, +with his mother and nurse; but since brothers and even uncles come +before sons, the question of succession to the sultanate has often +caused great disorder and bloodshed. + +On the death of Mohammed, the great Arab leader, there was no mention +of a law of succession. This was partly due, doubtless, to the fact that +he left no son who might assume leadership of the hosts of Islam. At +length, the Seljuk Turks attained to power, after which the empire fell +into minor sovereignties, which were brought together at last into the +Ottoman Empire. And while of late the stability of the reigning dynasty +has been the most noteworthy of the East, yet the fact that there was +not early established the ordinary custom of transmitting the +sovereignty from father to son has been the cause of much intrigue, +crime, and uncertainty in the dominion of the Turk. Cases have not been +unknown in Turkish history where several hundred women of the seraglio +were drowned in the Bosphorus because of plottings to depose the sultan. +They were tied in the traditional sack and dropped into the sea. It was +Ibrahim I., known as the Madman, one of the very worst of Turkish +rulers, who first conceived the idea of thus disposing of the old women +of the seraglio. Surprised and seized in the night, the unfortunate +victims of the sultan's madness were tied in sacks and then sunk to the +bottom of the sea. Only one of the large company of the unfortunates +escaped, by the loosing of the sack, and was picked up by a passing ship +and conveyed to Paris to tell the story of the cruel death of her +companions. Among the many notable instances of the tragic end to which +the plottings of the harem have come may be mentioned that of Tarkhann, +mother of Mohammed IV. So desirous was she that her son should reign, +that she slew all the other possible male heirs to the throne. She met +her nemesis, however, by strangulation. It is upon her life and that of +her rival that Racine has constructed his _Bajazet_. + +Connected with the sultan's harem there are estimated to be about +fifteen hundred persons. The harem consists of a number of little +courts, or _dairas_; and the central figure of each of these courts is a +lady of the female hierarchy. + +In the royal household there are three classes of women. The kadins, of +whom we have spoken, who may be termed the legitimate wives of the +sultan, though they are never formally married. Next are the _ikbals_, +or "favorite women." From this class the kadins are usually chosen. Then +come the _gediklis_, "those pleasant to look upon." The ikbals may come +from the number of these. The women of the third class are usually of +slave origin, purchased or stolen perhaps from Georgian or Circassian +parents. Those who are stolen are usually taken so early from their +homes, and so clandestinely, that their origin is seldom known to them. +If, however, the lady comes of high station her identity usually becomes +known, and she not unfrequently succeeds in elevating her family to a +position of power and emolument, either by direct influence or by +intrigue. In addition to these three classes of women there are _ustas_, +or "mistresses," who are maids in the service of the sultan's mother; +_shagirds_, or "novices," who are children in training for the higher +positions in the harem; and _jariyas_, or "damsels," who do the more +menial work of the establishments. + +Captured slave girls have sometimes had a most interesting career. They +are brought in an almost continuous stream, but privately. In the +earliest days of their presence in the harem they are called _alaikes_, +and are placed under the care of elderly women, or _kalfas_, who bring +them up to suit the tastes of an Oriental court. They are instructed in +manners, in music, in drawing, and in embroidery. When later they reach +the proper age, they become attendants upon the kadins and the +princesses of the imperial household. There is no bar to their reaching +at length the highest station that it is possible for a woman to attain, +the favorite wife of the sultan. + +The female department of the Turkish household is called the Hareemlick, +the male apartments being named the Islamlick. The women's apartments +are, of course, secluded. A male physician may see only the hand and +tongue of the sick lady. A black curtain is stretched to separate her +from his inspection. A eunuch conducts the physician to a point where +the sick woman may thrust out her hand through a hole in the curtain so +that the doctor may diagnose her disease. + +Faithfulness in women is held in high esteem, restraint of the harem +being intended to insure it. In former days it was not a thing unknown +for unfaithful women to be drowned; but the custom has fallen into +disuse. Ladies of the harem, however, have a fair amount of liberty. On +certain occasions they go out driving and visiting; they frequent the +bazaars and the public promenades, always in vehicles, never afoot. They +enjoy entertainments among themselves. Theatricals are frequently +witnessed by them in the garden of the palace. Operas are also often +rendered for their enjoyment. When Turkish ladies visit one another in +the harem,--which they may do without permission or restraint from their +husbands,--it is customary to place their shoes outside the harem door +that their husbands may know guests are being entertained. + +The harem of one ruler is generally regarded as the property of his +successor. The women thus inherited, however, are not always sure of +favor. Sultan Mohammed II. killed, by drowning, all the women of his +brother's harem. Indeed, women of the harems generally cannot be said to +have ample protection; for no officer may enter any harem to inspect the +conduct there, or for any purpose whatever, unless the law of the house +admits him. The women, whether they be wives or slaves, are practically +at the mercy of their masters. Some women of the sultan's harem have +risen to positions of much influence and genuine power, though they have +generally been of foreign birth. The mother of the noted reforming +sultan, Mahmud II., who began to reign in 1808 when a mere child, was a +French woman. His stout resistance of the allied powers won for him a +certain admiration for doggedness, even if success did not crown his +efforts to keep Greece in subjection. It was into this struggle that +Lord Byron threw himself on behalf of Greece. Mahmud, it may be to some +extent through the influence of his French mother, introduced French +tactics into his army, but to no avail, and at length Grecian freedom +was assured. + +The wife of Mahmud, Besma, taken as a little girl from the life of a +peasant, rose to a position of supreme dignity and great influence. Her +beauty easily won the passion of Mahmud. She never lost sight of her +humble origin and was much beloved by the masses of the people, even +those of the most lowly classes. She was the mother of Abd-ul-Aziz, and +it was she who unsuspectingly gave to the sultan, her son, the scissors +with which he killed himself. At any rate, the unfortunate monarch was +found dead in his apartments. The mother pined away in seclusion, and +was seen only in her deeds of charity. It was Besma who built the mosque +Yeni Kalideh at Ak Serai, and it is here she rests in the midst of a +beautiful garden of flowers, of which, during her lifetime, she was so +fond. On her death, about fifteen years ago, she was accorded a funeral +of great magnificence, and she was generally mourned throughout the +empire. It is said that when Besma was building the mosque, her money +fell short of her purpose, so that she could build but one minaret +instead of two, as custom entitled. Her son, however, came forward, +offering the necessary funds, which she declined with the remark: "No, +one minaret is sufficient to call the people to prayers; another would +only glorify me; the poor need a fountain." So she built a fountain for +the people, and it is one of the most beautiful in Constantinople. + +One of the most celebrated--even if she be not one of the best--women +of Turkey history was Khurrem, the "Joyous," whom Europeans generally +knew as Roxelana. She was wife of the greatest figure in Turkish annals, +Suleyman the Magnificent, who reigned about the middle of the sixteenth +century. Roxelana, though her origin has not been clearly traced, was +probably of Russian descent. From the first this strong-minded woman +exerted great influence over Suleyman. In the first place, she forced +him to marry her publicly and with much ceremony, a proceeding which was +then without precedent. Usually to have it announced that a woman had +become mother of a male heir to the throne was regarded as sufficient +announcement of marriage with the sultan. But this woman, who had now +risen from the position of a slave woman to that of the highest dignity +possible for a woman in the empire, determined that her marriage with +the great monarch should be full of publicity and pomp. There was +feasting and, apparently, great rejoicing, though the people were +surprised and hardly understood what it all might mean. Roxelana was, +however, equal to the emergency, and with the sagacity and determination +which were native to her sent many slaves among the people as they +feasted, distributing presents of money and pieces of silk to the +masses. From this time, she not only held absolute sway over the sultan, +but evinced great skill in buying the friendship of the people by gifts +and acts of charity. Diplomacy was characteristic of her, and from +cruelty she would not shrink if it were necessary to carry out her +purposes, for she induced Suleyman, generally so just and prudent, to +destroy the oldest and most promising of his sons, since the young man, +Mustafa by name, stood in the way of her own son Selim as heir to the +throne. She succeeded in her designs, but placed on the throne one of +the weakest and most worthless of Turkish rulers, "Selim, the Sot." +Roxelana's beauty is described as that which "attests that mixture of +the Asiatic and Tartar blood, wherever the dark eyes, the silken lashes, +the creamy paleness of the tint, the languor of the attitude habitual to +the Persian beauties, contrast with the rounded outline of the face, +with the shortness of the nose, the thickness of the lips, and the warm +coloring of the skin, traits peculiar to the daughters of the Caucasus." +At fifteen, she is said to have been the marvel and even the mystery of +the harem. Her memory knew only the rearing of the seraglio; but her +remarkable alertness and force of mind as well as beauty of person made +her from the first one of a thousand. Taught in the arts of music and +dancing, versed in foreign languages, and the study of history and +poetry, Roxelana added to her exuberance of youth a power of mind which +marked her for preeminence. + +Rebia, wife of Mohammed IV., is another example of womanly power over +the head and heart of the supreme ruler of Turkey. Rebia was a Greek +girl from the island of Crete. Lamartine says of her: "The delicacy of +her lineaments, the brilliancy of her complexion, the ocean azure of her +eyes, the golden auburn of her hair, the caressing tone of her voice, +and the witchery of her wit made her to be dreaded still as the prison +companion of a fallen monarch, of whom she might amuse the languor and +reestablish the intrigue from the depth of his captivity." Even in +Mohammed's dethronement, Rebia clung to the fortunes of her lord, over +whom, during his power, she had always exerted decisive influence. + +Italian women have also risen to a place of prominence in the royal +harem. This was notably true in the case of the beautiful Safia, a +Venetian captive girl, who had been brought into the seraglio of Sultan +Murad III., who succeeded Selim his father in the year 1574. Murad was +not strong, and was easily deceived by sycophants and ruled by women. +Among the latter was Safia, sometimes known as Baffo, belonging to the +family of Baffo of Venice. Baffo proceeded to rule her royal lord in the +interests of her native land. Venice, after Suleyman's death, had become +restless of Turkish rule, and proceeded successfully to throw it off. +Baffo never forgot her origin, and ruled with a high hand, not only as +Khasseki-Sultan, but also as Valideh. She set her son Mohammed III. on +the throne as successor to her husband, even though the consummation +could be reached only by the slaying of nineteen of the one hundred and +two sons of Murad. Foreign women will probably never again play so large +a role in Turkish affairs. The present sultan is said, however, to be +fond of the social attractions of European women. He is probably the +first Turkish sultan who has invited a European lady to dine with him. + +The Turkish sultans have long lived in much magnificence. The old +seraglio, or imperial residence (from the word _seray_, a palace), was +beautifully situated "among the groves of plane and cypress that clothe +the apex of the triangle upon which the ancient city of Constantinople +is built." Now, however, the sultans have left these precincts around +which clustered so many memories of the horrible tragedies enacted +there, memories which even the magnificence of the place could not +destroy, and established their present residence, equal in natural +beauty to the old, but removed from the dirt and the memories, which had +at length gathered about the old seraglio. + +The women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the +seraglio. Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there +are even more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards +and attendants of the palace are of foreign blood. The sultan and his +children are the only Turks dwelling in the inner departments of the +royal palaces; and both he and they are born of foreign mothers. The +women's departments are carefully guarded. There were specially +appointed officers in the old seraglio as guards of the queens and their +children. These were the Baltajis, or "halberdiers," who were four +hundred in number. They, however, really attended the royal women only +when the sultan took with him some members of his harem to bear him +company on a journey or a campaign. + +The Baltajis, on such occasions, walked by the side of the carriages of +the imperial ladies and guarded their camp at night. Ordinarily, the +sultan's harem was under the care of the black eunuchs, or about two +hundred Africans, who were specially entrusted with the imperial ladies. +Their chief was known as the Kislar Aghasi, or "master of the girls," +and was regarded as one of the chief men of the empire. + +The trade in captive boys and girls stolen from Europe, Asia, and +Africa was once very large; the pick of them being brought by purchase +into the sultan's palace, for one purpose or another. It was thought +that his imperial majesty's life was safer in the hands of foreigners +brought up almost from infancy in the palace, and knowing no other +allegiance than that to the will of the sultan. + +Times have changed, however, and it is not possible for the ruler of the +Turks to regard the best of the children of white and black parentage as +born to replenish his harem. Much of the old time mediaeval splendor has +been swept away, not only through the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II., but +by modern conditions which make the old seraglio an impossibility. + +In the olden days the young princes were closely confined in a part of +the seraglio known as the Chimshirlick, or "boxwood shrubbery." It +contained twelve pavilions each surrounded by high walls which enclosed +a little garden. These were the residences of the sons of the sultan. +Each young prince was kept guarded in his pavilion enclosure, from which +he dared not emerge without his royal father's special permission. Thus +a prince's minority was spent in the _kafe_, or "cage." Each youth had +as attendants ten or twelve fair girls, besides a number of pages. These +and black eunuchs, who were his teachers, were his sole companions. As a +rule, the tongues of male attendants and of women unable to bear +children were slit. At the tenth year a young prince leaves his mother +and the harem for the guardianship of a _lalo_, or "male attendant," who +is his companion day and night; next a _mullah_, or "priest," takes the +youth in hand and gives him his schooling, which consists chiefly in +instruction in the teachings of the Koran. + +[Illustration 5: _THE MUTES After the painting by P. L. Bouchard The +women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the seraglio. +Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there are even +more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards and +attendants of the palace are of foreign blood..... The women's +departments are carefully guarded. + +Women who bear no children and the subaltern eunuchs have their tongues +slit. Whan an order of death is issued, these mutes, with the fatal +cords, enter and noiselessly fulfil their commands._] + +Among the female officials of the seraglio is the Hasnada Ousta, or +"grand mistress of the robes." She is usually an elderly woman of +respectability and of dignity. This lady acts as vice-Valideh, caring +for matters in the establishment to which it may not be possible for the +Valideh Sultan to give her own personal attention. She holds a place of +much honor, and women holding this position have been known to become +Valideh. There is also the Kyahya Kadin, or "lady comptroller," who is +generally selected by the sultan from among the oldest and most trusted +of the Gediklis. + +The dress of the ladies of the royal harem was formerly altogether +Oriental; so also were the furnishings of the women's apartments. These +last still consist largely of low divans, costly embroidery, couches, +and the like; but European customs have now made themselves felt, not +only in the furnishings of the rooms, but more particularly in the +matter of feminine attire. Costly robes from Paris and Vienna have +invaded the precincts of the harem; and these, added to the wealth of +jewelry of which Oriental ladies are so fond, make it possible for the +women of the rich Turkish households to be quite cosmopolitan in their +modes of dressing. + +Many of the lower ranks wear upon their head a sort of hood of black +silk, the Egyptian _chaf-chaf_. To this is attached a piece of black +netting, which can be dropped over the face of the wearer when she so +pleases. The women of Constantinople, however, are not so careful in the +matter of the veil as are the ladies living in cities under less +cosmopolitan influence. + +European ideas and habits have greatly modified Turkish customs. The +_yashmac_ is the face veil which the Turkish girl receives when she +attains to the marriageable age. The word is derived from a verb which +means, when fully interpreted, "May long life be granted you." The +material is thin, fine lawn or similar stuff. The older and less +attractive women, or ladies who do not wish to be recognized in a public +concourse, as when shopping, wear a veil of thicker material. + +The cloak used is the _feridje_. It is usually of black material, and +its shape is intended to conceal the outlines of the figure. The +_feridje_ is now much modified, however, by European tastes, and is not +greatly different from the opera cloak worn by the ladies of Paris. + +The once fashionable footgear, the yellow Turkish slipper, has given +place generally to the slipper of patent leather worn by European +ladies. Much of the beauty of color and picturesqueness of costume has +therefore passed away, as may be seen from the following description of +the Turkish woman's appearance at the middle of the sixteenth century: +When they (the women of Turkey) go abroad, the ladies wear the +_yashmac_ made of gold stuff, heavily fringed, and confined to the head +by a crown blazing with jewels. The figure is concealed by a cloak of +richest brocade or velvet. Sometimes you may have the charm of seeing as +many as one hundred _arabas_, or carts, very splendid and richly gilded, +drawn by gaily decorated bullocks, each containing a number of these +great ladies with their children and slaves. + +"The procession is a most gorgeous sight. Each cart has as many as four +mounted eunuchs to protect it from the curiosity of the public, who have +their faces almost to the earth, or avert them entirely, as the caravan +passes." So, also, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has left, in a letter to +the Duchess of Marlborough, written in 1717, a very graphic account of +the costume of the sultana. + +Lady Mary describes the _dolma_, or "vest of long sleeves," the +diamond-bedecked girdle, the long and costly chain about the neck, +reaching even to the knees, the earrings of diamonds shaped like pears, +the _talpoche_, the headdress covered with bodkins of emeralds and +diamonds, the diamond bracelets, the five rings upon her fingers, the +largest ring Lady Mary ever saw except that worn by Mr. Pitt. There was +also a pelisse of rich brocade brought to the royal Turkish lady when +she walked out into her garden. Fifty different kinds of meat were +served at her dinner, but one at a time; her golden knives were set with +diamonds in the hafts; gorgeously embroidered napkins were in abundance, +etc. Much of this magnificence and display has now passed away, but, as +Stanley Lane-Poole says in his _The History of Turkey_: "While the house +of the Ottoman monarch of to-day, if more in keeping with the spirit of +the time, is very commonplace beside that of last century ... +nevertheless, the modern seraglio is hardly an anchorite's cell." + +Cosmetics were once used in profusion. The painting of the eyebrows and +the dyeing of the finger tips with henna were considered marks of +beauty. The custom is dying out entirely in Constantinople, though in +the remoter regions of the empire the habit is still in vogue. The +attempts at beautifying the face are often referred to by the poets as +marks of beauty, as when Fuzuli dilates upon the + + "Eyes with antimony darkened, hands with henna crimson dyed. + Among these beauties vain and wanton, like to thee was ne'er a bride. + Bows of painted green thy eyebrows; thy glances shafts provide." + +Mohammedan countries of any culture have long held the bath in great +esteem. Turkish ladies of high rank once frequented the public baths +with regularity, but the modern improvements in the private houses have +made this custom far less general. + +The women of the Turkish empire present an almost infinite variety. +Under the dominion of the sultan the nationalities are many and +heterogeneous. So also it would be impossible to make any general +statement of the treatment of women among the Turks. In many parts of +Turkey there is but one wife in the household, and she is well treated +and highly respected; affection prevails in the harems of not a few; +while in others concubinage, neglect, harshness, ignorance, vice are +present with their deadly effect. + +Divorce may be readily obtained in Turkey; but parental influence often +protects the woman who otherwise might fare unjustly. Mohammed also gave +some protection to wives, since he considered a wife to have rights in +her own fortune even while married, and held that if divorced, +restitution of this fortune was to be made. + +Turkish women, except those of the richer families, generally nurse +their own children. Many children die in infancy through the ignorance +of mothers of the lower classes. Some mothers still swaddle their little +ones. In the event of illness, instead of a trained physician, many +mothers send for a "wise woman" or a wizard. In the harems, it is +suspected that many infants are actually killed. The Mohammedan +population increases more slowly, notwithstanding the practice of +polygamy, than the Christian population of the Turkish Empire. + +It is the custom among families of the better class to give the boys +over from infancy to the care of a _dadi_, or slave girl, whose business +it is to care for him during his youth, and it is not infrequent that +evil springs from this intimacy. Both boys and girls are under the care +of a _lalo_, or male slave, when the children are out of the precincts +of the harem. The influence of the slaves and menials, with whom so many +Turkish children are thrown, is, as a rule, far from elevating. + +Submission is a lesson that is very early taught to Turkish children. +This insures an obedient, tractable spirit, and is the cause of all that +is best in the Turkish character. + +There are almost thirty million Turkish women, the masses of whom move +upon a very low level of culture. This cannot, however, be said of all, +for many of the upper classes and of the court are well educated, though +the branches or subjects they are taught are not varied. Foreign +governesses are often employed to teach the girls French, German, and +English, which they can, in many cases, speak fluently. Language and +literature furnish a large part of their education. A change is +gradually coming over the Turkish people in this matter of the +development of its women, and this, notwithstanding, the fear in many +minds that a better educated woman will be a less manageable woman; a +creature dissatisfied with her lot. A recent writer of acute observation +of Turkish affairs has said of efforts on the part of American +philanthropists to instil the spirit of the American public school into +the minds of the Turks: "The general opinion seemed to be that the +female sex had no intellectual capacity. The first efforts of the +Americans to make the women sharers in intellectual progress and +refinement were met with opposition, and often with derisive laughter. +They created a new public sentiment in favor of the education of women. +This is shown by the interest taken in the schools established by +Americans for the education of girls. Pashas, civil and military +officers of high rank, the ecclesiastics and wealthy men of all the +different nationalities attend the examinations, and express their +hearty approval of the efforts made by the Americans for improving the +conditions of the women of Turkey." + +The tendency of these influences is to win for women a greater respect +from fathers, husbands, brothers; greater freedom in choice of their +life partners; to defer the marriageable age from twelve years to +fifteen or twenty; to secure for mothers greater respect from their +children; and to elevate womanhood in every relation of life. + +Turkish women who are still living under the patriarchal system--and in +no small part of the empire does this ancient system prevail--develop +under a different environment from that prevailing in the other parts of +the realm. Under a patriarchate the mother yields to the grandmother and +the great-grandmother. The wife holds not only a subservient place in +the family, which often contains as many as forty persons, but she is +often, literally, a slave to the mother-in-law, and her children are +trained by almost everybody else but herself. The patriarchal system is +gradually yielding, however; and more and more, even in the conservative +regions of the world, newly married people are forsaking father and +mother and cleaving to one another, setting up their own homes and +developing the parental character, and training their young in their own +sweet way. + +Under strict Moslem influence, motherhood has a place of honor; at +least in theory. For Mohammedanism gives to the woman who bears children +and trains them faithfully a rank in heaven with the martyrs. +Unfortunately, however, the light esteem in which women are held in +Moslem lands makes against woman's power, even in her noblest +opportunity,--that of moulding the children into character that is +noblest and best. Much work has been done by foreign philanthropists in +an effort to raise the standard of home training among the Turks. +Stanley Lane-Poole, in his _Studies in a Mosque_, a book not written +from the viewpoint of the modern missionary, but that of a candid and +diligent student of historic conditions, says: "It is quite certain that +there is no hope for the Turks, so long as Turkish women remain what +they are, and home training is the imitation of vice." This is surely a +dark picture. But the time may yet come when the Turkish woman will +assume a position more like that of her Western sisters and become an +elevating influence in the land whose present territory includes much of +the most renowned soil the sun ever shone upon, not only that which saw +the birth of the religion of the Jew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan, +but also much that is rich in classic and mediaeval memories--the country +of which Byron wrote: + + "The land of the cedar and pine, + Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine; + Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume, + Wax faint in the gardens of Gul in her bloom. + ....................................................... + Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, + And all save the spirit of man is divine." + +Yes, even the land of the Turk may see such ideals of womanhood +realized as those which made the women of the ancient Hebrews and the +early Christians--who lived upon what is now Turkish soil--to be honored +throughout the ages. + + + + +XI + +THE MOORISH WOMEN + + +We are now to turn our attention to one of the most fascinating of all +the women of the world--the Moorish woman. Her fascination does not lie +altogether in her intrinsic charm, but in the atmosphere that romance +has cast about her. And while there is, of course, a very close kinship +between the Moorish women of Spain and Morocco and the women of the +Orient, especially the Mohammedan women, yet, the lady of Moorish +ancestry has a history and a life of her own which are well worthy of +consideration. + +The Moors brought culture to Spain, and it was not long after their +expulsion that learning began to decline, and with it Spain. It was +during the period of the Western movement of Mohammedanism that Islam +made its contribution to the world's progress. In its very work of +devastation, Arabian civilization was destined to render mankind great +service. Conquering the north of Africa and then coming across the +narrow Straits of Gibraltar, the Moors were destined to write out a +wonderful history in their European home. So deeply did the Moors +impress their life upon the Spaniards, that long after their expulsion +they continued to influence Spain by the power of their thought and the +impress of their customs. Even to-day, after the lapse of more than four +centuries, Moorish footprints are traceable in Spanish soil. While the +Moors brought culture into Spain, it cannot be said that they made any +direct attempt to educate or to elevate their women. But among a people +whose learning was relatively so high for its age, it was impossible to +prevent the women from receiving a certain refinement and at times an +elevation of mind which made them worthy of the respect and admiration +of not only the prouder sex, but of the world. The capacity for true +poetry and the gift of music were not uncommon accomplishments of these +women. There was ample leisure for these arts to be cultivated by them. +Charm of presence seemed to belong by nature and habit to the Moorish +woman, as + + "Some grace propitious on her steps attends, + Adjusts her charms by stealth and recommends." + +The Moorish women were pretty, as indeed their descendants are, +especially when young. Like the ancient Egyptians, they blackened their +eyelashes and eyebrows and used henna stains upon their finger tips. +Beauty was at a high premium, not because there was so little of it in +Moorish Spain, but because it was highly prized. Some of this peculiar +type of beauty persists even to-day in parts of the peninsula. As +Aranzadi (quoted by Ripley) says: "The very prevalent honey-brown eyes +of the southwest quarter of Spain, near Granada, is probably due to +strong Moorish influence." + +The respect for women among the Moors of Spain was higher than it would +be natural to expect in a land where Mohammed's influence was paramount. +It is a tradition that the Prophet once declared: "I stood at the gate +of Paradise and lo! most of its inmates were poor; and I stood at the +gate of Hell and lo! most of its inmates were women." The Arabian nature +was intuitive, ardent, impulsive. So the beauty of a beautiful woman +awakened the feeling of love and chivalry. On the other hand, the women +were warm-hearted, though custom required them to be dignified and +self-contained. Among a people where generosity, courage, hospitality, +and veneration for old age were conspicuous virtues, it is not strange +that women should have received more than ordinary respect. And yet +these very qualities, when abused, often degenerated into idleness, +pride, ignorance, bigotry, and even the grossest sensuality. + +Chivalry, however, had its better side, for "Here gallants held it +little thing for ladies' sake to die," as the old Spanish ballad tells +us. The Cid stories of valor--like that of Antar in Arabian literature, +Orlando in Italian, and Arthur in early English legend--brought this +powerful influence upon the imaginations and conduct of both men and +women: + + "For here did valor flourish and deeds of warlike might + Ennobled lordly palaces in which was our delight." + +Spain was for centuries known for its gallantry. Indeed, "the Spaniards +bore away the palm of gallantry from the French," and have in some +respects perpetuated the influence stamped upon them by the Moorish +women, even to this day. As Thomas Bourke says, in his _Moors in Spain_: +"Much of the chivalrous manner of the Granadians is no doubt to be +attributed to their women, who were exactly qualified to create and keep +alive this spirit of gallantry among their countrymen and to occasion +those excesses of love, of which so many examples, equally extraordinary +as pleasing, occur both in Spanish and in Arabian history." + +What is the secret of the alluring and overpowering charms with which +the Moorish women have fascinated the historian, enkindled the novelist +and poet, set the musician's heart to vibrating and stirred the +imagination of the world? A description of them which goes back to the +old Arabian days is of interest in finding the secret of their power +over the senses and the imaginations of men. "They are uncommonly +beautiful; their charms which very rarely fail to impress, even at first +sight, are further set off by a lightness and grace which gives them an +influence quite irresistible. They are rather below the middle stature; +their hair, which is of a beautiful black, descends almost to their +ankles. No vermilion can vie with their lips, which are continually +sending forth the most bewitching smiles, as if expressly to display +teeth as white as alabaster. They are profuse in the use of perfumes and +washes which, being exquisite in their kinds, give a freshness and +lustre to the skin rarely to be equalled by the women of other +countries. Their steps, their dances, all their movements display a +graceful softness, an easy negligence, that enhances their other charms, +and not only renders them irresistible, but exalts them beyond all power +of praise. Their conversation is lively and poignant; their wit refined +and penetrating, equally adapted to grave and abstruse discussions as to +the pleasantest and most lively sallies." + +The dresses of the Granadian women, not unlike those of the modern +Turks and Russians, consisted chiefly of a long tunic, which was held in +by a girdle. There was also an upper garment with straight sleeves. This +was called a _dolyman_. Large drawers upon the legs and Morocco slippers +upon the feet finished the costume, with the exception of their small +bonnets, to which were attached costly veils, richly embroidered and +descending to their knees, altogether presenting a picture which, at its +best, made the Moorish woman one of the most graceful and picturesque of +her day. The stuffs which went into a Moorish woman's dress were usually +of extraordinary fineness, and the trimmings were costly, gold and +silver edging being used without stint. + +Hairdressing was not an unimportant part of her toilette. The black +hair, befitting her complexion, was allowed to fall down in braids upon +the shoulders, but in front there was a fringe. Strings of coral beads +were often intertwined with the side locks; and the ornaments of the +hair, often costly pearls, were allowed to hang down, giving a delicate +tinkle as the woman moved her head. There were some little superstitions +about the hair. It was thought that a direful curse fell upon those who +joined another's hair to their own. To send a person a bit of hair, or +even, by metonymy, the silken string which bound it, was a token of +submission. Jewelry was used by the Moorish women in great profusion. +They are still passionately fond of ornaments. Even the poorest are well +supplied, and the shapely brown arms of the little girls are encircled +at the wrist and above the elbow with bands of brass or copper. As the +women walk they "make a tinkling with their feet, because of all the +rings and anklets and bangles which they wear with so much delight." +This jewelry is the woman's personal property, and in case her husband +should see fit to divorce her, it still remains her own. + +One of the most important parts of a Moorish lady's daily life was the +bath, a pastime which was both pleasurable and imperative, especially in +the homes of the wealthier classes. Coppee, in his _Conquest of Spain_, +has thus described the bathing equipment of a Moorish home: "Passing +from the centre of a luxurious court through a double archway into +another _patio_, similar in proportions and surroundings, and usually +lying at right angles to the first, in the centre is a great _estangue_, +or oblong basin, seventy-five feet long by thirty in width, and six feet +in depth in its deepest part, supplied with limpid waters, raised to a +pleasant temperature by heated metallic pipes. Here the indolent, the +warm, the weary, may bathe in luxurious languor. Here the women disport +themselves, while the entrances are guarded by eunuchs against +intrusion. The contented bather may then leave the court by a postern in +the gallery, which opens into a beautiful garden, with mazy walks and +blooming parterres, redolent with roses and violets. Water is +everywhere; one garden house is ingeniously walled in with fountain +columns, meant to bid defiance to the fiercest heats and droughts of +summer." + +From these ample and often luxurious arrangements, it might be surmised +that by the Moor water was regarded not as a luxury, but as an absolute +necessity to a happy life. All classes shared more or less in the habits +of cleanliness; for it is said that many of the poor would have spent +"their last _dirhem_ for soap, preferring rather to be dinnerless than +dirty," while the Moors of the higher order were so scrupulously cleanly +that they are said to have spent a very large part of their lives in the +bath. + +Strangely enough, the Catholics of Spain, determining to get as far +away as possible from the customs of their Mohammedan captors, eschewed +the bath because the Moors made so much of it; and men and women among +them were known to be strangers to the touch of water. So far from +cleanliness being regarded as next to godliness, dirt became the very +emblem of Christian society, "monks and nuns boasted of their +filthiness," and there is on record a female saint who boasted at the +age of sixty that no drop of water had ever touched her body, except +that the tips of her fingers had been dipped into the holy water at the +mass! + +Nine hundred well-equipped baths in the rich city of Cordova, and +thousands throughout Spain, were destroyed by Philip II., the husband of +Queen Mary of England, on the ground that they were but relics of +Spain's occupancy by the infidel. + +While Mohammed refused to Mohammedan women the right to marry any but a +Mohammedan, yet he granted to his male followers the right to marry +Christians or Jewesses if they saw fit. This privilege led to a +considerable admixture of blood in Moorish Spain. Spanish pride did not +suffice to prevent these intermarriages of Arab and Spaniard. Polygamy +also being in vogue,--for their religion allowed the Moors four +wives,--a blending of races went on rapidly, and the Moorish type of +beauty may be discovered to-day in any part of southern Spain. The +Christian influence in Spain tended to soften the almost necessary +asperities of a life where plural marriages are sanctioned. The +degradation incident to Mohammedan ideals concerning women was much +checked by a counter current of Christian feeling, by which the Moors +could not but be influenced. So, also, did poets and lovers in Moorish +Spain show a respect for womanly worth and grace, if not womanly virtue, +which marks an advance from the Mohammedan or even the earlier Arabian +days. + +As might be inferred from their Oriental antecedents, the Spanish Arabs +gave much time to eating and drinking. The chief meal followed the +evening prayer. The men ate alone, the women and children followed when +their lord had finished his repast. The tray containing the food was +placed upon an embroidered rug. Silver and fine earthenware were not +wanting. Bread and limes were expected with every meal. A dish made of +the flesh of a sheep or fowls stewed with vegetables was a common dish, +as, indeed, it is a favorite among the Moorish people to-day. "The diner +sat on a low cushion, with legs crossed. A servant poured water on his +hands before eating, from a basin and ewer, which formed a necessary +part of the table furniture. The meal then began with the +_Bismillah_--'In the name of the most merciful God'--for grace. The +right hand only was used in eating; and with it the host, if he had +guests, transferred choice pieces from his own plate to theirs, and +sometimes, as a mark of greater favor, to their very mouths. Ordinarily +there were soups, boiled meats, stuffed lambs, and all meats not +forbidden. Very little water was taken during the meal; in its place, +and especially after the meal, sherbets were drunk, those flavored with +violet and made very sweet being preferred." + +The contact between the Mohammedans and the Christians in Moorish +Spain inevitably brought conflict. Christians often unnecessarily threw +away their lives in courted martyrdom. Many were the staunch women who +thus willingly laid down their lives. The story of Flora, the beautiful +daughter of a Moorish father and a Christian mother, has in it elements +of the deepest pathos. The offspring of mixed marriages among the Moors +was universally regarded by them as of necessity Mohammedan in faith. +Flora's mother, however, had secretly instilled into her the beliefs of +the Christian religion, though outwardly she was a good follower of the +Prophet. At length, however, stirred by the sacrifices she saw the +Christian martyrs making for their cause, her father being now dead, she +fled from her home and took refuge among the Christians. Her Mohammedan +brother searched for her, but in vain. Priests were charged with her +abduction and were punished with imprisonment. Unwilling that they +should be thus punished on her account, Flora returned and gave herself +up, confessing that she was no longer a Moslem, but a Christian. All +efforts to make her recant proved fruitless. There remained nothing +except to bring her before the Mohammedan judge and try her for the +capital offence of apostasy. The judge, however, willing to show mercy, +sentenced Flora not to death as the law prescribed, but to a severe +flogging. Her brother was enjoined to take the girl home and instruct +her in the faith of Mohammed. It was not long, however, before she again +made good her escape and joined some Christian friends, among whom a new +experience awaited her. Here, Saint Eulogius, an enthusiast among the +Christians, met Flora and conceived for her a love that was pure and +tender, so admirable did he adjudge her steadfastness to the faith. It +was a day when martyrs willingly laid down their lives, accounting it a +proud distinction to die at the hands of the infidel. They courted +death. So with Flora. Appearing before the judge one day with a +Christian maiden who also sought a martyr's death, this girl of half +Moorish blood, but with staunch Christian faith, reviled that officer +and cursed his religion and the Prophet. The Mohammedan judge pitied the +young girls, but had them thrown into prison. Here they might have +weakened had not Eulogius urged them to stand fast in their holy faith. +The sentence of death was passed upon them; and the girls were led away +to execution. Eulogius, who loved Flora above all else on earth, and +hence desired her to win what he considered the most glorious of all +crowns, that of martyrdom, looked on in the hour of her death, and +wrote: "She seemed to me an angel. A celestial illumination surrounded +her; her face lightened with happiness; she seemed already to be tasting +the joys of the heavenly home.... When I heard the words of her sweet +mouth, I sought to establish her in her resolve, by showing her the crown +that awaited her. I worshipped her, I fell down before this angel, and +besought her to remember me in her prayers; and strengthened by her +speech, I returned less sad to my sombre cell." Thus did Moorish blood +and Christian faith unite to make a life of wonderful daring and +fortitude. + +To-day in Moorish states the strictest seclusion prevails for the +women. The love of idleness, ignorance, and sensuality are their +dominating traits. They are veiled when in public, and in the north of +Africa wear a striped white shawl, called a _haik_, of coarser or finer +material, according to the wealth or position of the wearer. This piece +of apparel is thrown over the head and conceals the person down to the +feet, the face being hidden by a white linen handkerchief, called the +_adjar_, tied tightly across the nose just under the eyes. Says Sequin, +in _Walks about Algiers_, in describing the Moorish women of that +region: "In the street they present the appearance of animated +clothes-bags, and walk with a curious shuffling gait, very far removed +from the unfettered dignity of their lords and masters. They are not +'emancipated'; and though in the houses of the richer Moors the slavery +of their women may be gilded, it is but slavery after all. The +Mohammedan invariably buys his wife--that is to say, he pays a price for +her to her family, large or small, according to her reputed beauty, or +accomplishments as a housewife; and though when a girl is born to him, +an Arab laments, a man with many daughters, if he knows how to dispose +of them well, in time becomes rich. Arab women, unlike the men, are +small in stature, and the wearing of the _adjar_ has flattened their +noses and made their faces colorless. It is a curious fact that this +disguise was unknown among Arab women until the time of Mahommed's +marriage with his young and beautiful wife Ayesha, as to whose conduct, +indeed, it became needful for the angel Gabriel to make a special +communication, before the Prophet's uneasiness could be removed. The +jealousy of one man has been powerful enough to cover the faces of all +Moslem wives and daughters for twelve hundred years." + +The Moorish women of the better class are rarely seen upon the streets +or in public places. Indeed, they are not expected to cross their +threshold for at least twelve months after their marriage; and when that +time has elapsed, it is seldom they are seen abroad. They go to the +baths, and sometimes on Fridays they visit the cemeteries. Other +recreations or amusements are not open to them, except that in the +marriage ceremonies women have peculiar privileges, since these +ceremonies are held in the women's apartments. "Marriage festivities +last a week, during which time the chief amusement is the eating of +sweetmeats and the dressing, bejewelling, dyeing, painting, and +generally adorning of the bride, who is, as a rule, a girl of some +thirteen or fourteen years old, and who is compelled to sit idle and +immovable the whole time without showing the slightest interest in +anything. She has probably never seen and has certainly never been seen +by the bridegroom. At the conclusion of the ceremonies the bridegroom is +introduced to the women's apartments, and permitted to raise his bride's +veil, but etiquette obliges the lady to keep her eyes tightly closed on +the occasion, and in some cases the unfortunate young woman's eyelashes +are gummed down to her cheeks, to save the possibility of an indiscreet +glance. If the face of the bride is displeasing to the bridegroom, he is +at liberty after this one glance to reject her. If, on the contrary, he +is satisfied, he drinks a few drops of scented water from the bride's +hand, offers her the same from his, and the marriage is concluded." + +In contrast with their once great enemies, the Spaniards, the Moors +have no kind of public spectacle. For the Moors of Africa, +story-telling, in which the Arabs have time out of mind delighted, the +recitation of poems, to which is usually added a dance of _almehs_, +generally negresses, expert in their art of pleasing the native +assemblies. These entertainments are held in the open courtyard of some +quaint old Moorish house; the centre of the court being reserved for the +dancers and the musicians. The men fill the space around, beneath the +arches, while in the galleries are the ghostly forms of veiled women. + +It cannot be said that the Moorish women of to-day still retain that +grace of form and charm of manner which the Moorish lady of five +centuries ago possessed. A prominent woman, who has travelled widely in +Moslem countries, has given this rather repellent description of the +women of the Moors of to-day. "They are huge puncheons of greasy flesh, +daubed with white and scarlet, strung with a barbaric wealth of jewels +and scented beads. They eat and sleep, and then for variety's sake they +sleep and eat. They gossip, scold, and intrigue; and are valued +according to their weight. They blacklead their eyes, and paint their +cheeks like Jezebel; beat their slaves, drink tea and chat and quarrel." +Not a very attractive picture is this,--and perhaps a little +gloomy,--but it is given as presenting a marked and altogether truthful +contrast between the Moorish women of the days when chivalry flourished +in southern Spain, and the women of the Morocco of to-day in their +poverty and degradation. Once the women exerted a strong influence over +the men; the truth is that frequently the "power behind the throne" was +to be located within the harem. This was probably true during the reign +of Hakam II., who was so fond of books that war and the practical +concerns of government had little charm for him. He was the son of the +great Kalif of Cordova, Abd-er-Rahman III. The latter had built a city +to please his Ez-Zahra, and called it "City of the Fairest," but he did +not turn over the government to his spouse. His son Hakam, however, +allowed the influence of the women of the court to become dominant, and +on his death the Sultana Aurora, mother of the young Kalif Hisham, +became the most important personage in the state. It was she who was +chiefly instrumental in introducing into power the young Almanzor. +Gifted in the fine art of flattery and being brilliant withal, the +princesses, and more particularly Aurora herself, fell in love with the +talented young man, and turned all the currents of influence and power +toward him. Thus did the women of the court succeed in developing one of +the most successful and unscrupulous of Moorish leaders. He made all +Spain tremble by his victories, and Christians sighed with relief when +death at last conquered the conqueror. + +The power of the wife of the Spanish Moor was by no means small. A fine +example of her influence at times may be illustrated by the history of +Muley Abul Hassan, the royal Moorish ruler of the Alhambra, who came to +the throne in A.D. 1465. "Though cruel by nature," says Washington +Irving, "he was prone to be ruled by his wives." He had married early in +life a young kinswoman, the daughter of the Sultan Mohammed VII., his +great-uncle. This Ayxa--or Ayesha, as she has been called--was, says the +historian, of almost masculine spirit and energy, and of such immaculate +and inaccessible virtue that she was generally called La Horra--"the +Chaste." To her there was born a son, who received the name of Abu +Abdallah; or as he is commonly known, by the abbreviation Boabdil. The +astrologers were called upon to cast the horoscope of the infant, as was +usual; and, to their great trepidation, it was found that it was +"written in the book of fate that this child will one day sit upon the +throne, but the downfall of the kingdom will be accomplished during his +reign." At once the young prince and heir began to be looked upon with +suspicion and even aversion by his father, who proceeded to persecute +the child over whom such a prediction hung. He was accordingly nicknamed +El Zogoybi--"the Unfortunate." It was a valiant and fond-hearted mother +whose constant care and protection enabled him to grow up to young +manhood; for she was a woman of strong character and of dominating will. +But, alas! growing somewhat old, and losing some of her personal charm +and influence, Ayesha must face a rival in the harem. Among the captives +taken by the Moors at this time, says Irving, was one Isabella, the +daughter of a Christian cavalier, Sancho Ximenes de Solis. Her Moorish +captors gave her the name of Fatima; but as she grew up, her surpassing +beauty gained her the surname of Zoraya, or "the Morning Star," by which +she has become known to history. Her charms at length attracted the +notice of Muley Abul Hassan, and, after being educated in the Moslem +faith, she became his wife. + +Zoraya soon acquired complete ascendency over the mind of Muley Abul +Hassan. "She was as ambitious as she was beautiful, and, having become +the mother of two sons, looked forward to the possibility of one of them +sitting on the throne of Granada." Zoraya succeeded in gathering about +her a faction, who were drawn to her by her foreign and Christian +descent. These were anxious to assist her in her ambition and that of +her sons, as they arrayed themselves against Boabdil and his mother. The +latter, however, were not without their ardent supporters. There were +engendered jealousies that were inveterate and hatreds that were deep. +Intriguing was the order of the day. Fearing that a plot would succeed +in deposing Muley Abul Hassan and in putting Boabdil upon the throne of +his father, the prince, together with his mother, was thrown into prison +and confined in the tower of Cimares. Hassan resolved not only to set +the stars at defiance and to prove the lying fallacy of the horoscope, +but to silence at once and for all, by the executioner's sword, the +ambitions of his son Boabdil. But here the versatility of Ayesha again +asserted itself. She at once began to make a way for Boabdil's escape. +"At the dead of night she gained access to his prison, and, tying +together the shawls and scarfs of herself and her female attendants, +lowered him down from a balcony of the Alhambra to the steep, rocky +hillside which sweeps down to the Darro. Here some of her devoted +adherents were waiting to receive him, who, mounting him upon a swift +horse, spirited him away." The young man, acting under the advice of +ambitious friends and relatives, began to make preparations for war; and +his own mother encouraged his heart and equipped him for the field, +giving him her fond benediction as she lovingly girded his scimiter to +his side. But his young bride wept, as she tried to fancy the ills that +might befall him in so uneven a conquest. "Why dost thou weep, daughter +of Ali Altar?" asked the invincible Ayesha; "these tears become not the +daughter of a warrior, nor the wife of a king. Believe me, there lurks +more danger for a monarch within the strong walls of a palace than +within the frail curtains of a tent. It is by perils in the field that +thy husband must purchase security on his throne." But Morayma, daughter +of Ali Altar, found it hard to be comforted; and as her husband, the +prince, departed from the Alhambra, she took her place at her _mirador_, +and then, overlooking the Vega, she watched the departing loved one, +whom she thought never to see again, as his forces vanished from her +sight, and "every burst of warlike melody that came swelling on the +breeze was answered by a gush of sorrow." + +This succession of fateful incidents connected with the career of one +who was destined to be the last to sit upon a Moorish throne in Spain is +here recounted because the events give at once an insight into the +strength and the weakness of the Moorish womanly character, with all its +ardent love and spiteful hate, with its loyalty and its trickery, its +hopes and its fears. + +It was Ferdinand, with his wife Isabella, who was destined to return to +the Spaniards the possession of their land, so long held by the Moors. +The story of the overthrow of Boabdil is a narrative of chivalry and +real pathos. Boabdil, standing on a spur of the Alpuxarras, with his +mother Ayesha by his side, looked back upon the glory of his lost +dominion. The towers of the Alhambra loomed up before him, and the rich +and fertile Vega stretched out before his eyes for the last time. +"_Allahu Akbar_," said he, sorrowfully, "God is most great," and burst +into tears. "Well may you weep like a woman," said Ayesha, "for that +which you were unable to defend like a man." This final standing place +of the last of the Moorish rulers in Spain is still known as El Ultimo +Sospiro del Moro--"the last sigh of the Moor." The standard of Castile +and Aragon by the side of the Cross has supplanted the crescent of +Islam; and Ferdinand, with Isabella, knelt in the Alhambra and gave +thanks to God, while the Spanish army knelt behind them, and the royal +choir chanted a _Te Deum_. Had Isabella been more gracious and kept +faith with the infidel, the lot of the vanquished had been less +sorrowful. + +When the Moors were driven out from the home that had been theirs for +more than seven eventful centuries, none suffered more than did the +proud Moorish ladies. It is creditable, however, to their Spanish +victors that they preserved as a part of their own national literature +many of the ballads of the vanquished Moors. Lines from the Moorish +_Lament for the Slain Celin_ are expressive of the wail of maid and +mother at the loss of their former glory and their expulsion from the +place they had so long held: + + "The Mooress at the lattice stands--the Moor stands at the door + One maid is wringing of her hands and one is weeping sore. + Down to the dust men bore their heads, and ashes black they strew + Upon their broidered garments of crimson, green and blue." + +The aged women also had their hopes stricken low by the downfall of +their people: + + "An old, old woman cometh forth, when she hears the people cry, + Her hair is white as silver, like horn her glazed eye." + +The fall of Granada brought bitterness to many a heart. The words of the +ballad, _Woe is Me_! translated from the Spanish by Lord Byron, might +well depict the feeling of the hour: + + "Sires have lost their children--wives, + Their lords,--and valiant men, their lives." + +The aged Moor, pacing to and fro before the king, pours out his plaint: + + "I lost a damsel in that hour, + Of all the land the loveliest flower; + Doubloons a hundred would I pay, + And think her ransom cheap that day. + Woe is me, Alhambra." + +As one has written: "Beautiful Granada, how is thy glory faded! The +flower of thy chivalry lies low in the land of the stranger; no longer +does the Bivarambla echo to the tramp of steed and the sound of trumpet; +no longer is it crowded with thy youthful nobles, gloriously arrayed for +the tilt and tourney. Beautiful Granada! The soft note of the lute no +longer floats through thy moonlit streets; the serenade is no more heard +beneath thy balconies; the lively castanet is silent upon thy hills; the +graceful dance of the Zambra is no more seen beneath thy bowers. +Beautiful Granada! why is the Alhambra so forlorn and desolate? The +orange and the myrtle still breathe their perfumes into its silken +chambers; the nightingale still sings within its groves; its marble +halls are still refreshed with the plash of fountains and the gush of +the limpid rills! Alas! the countenance of the king no longer shines +within those halls. The light of the Alhambra is set for ever!" + + "Farewell, farewell, Granada! thou city without peer! + Woe, woe, thou pride of heathendom! seven hundred years and more + Have gone since first the faithful thy royal sceptre bore! + Thou wert the happy mother of a high-renowned race; + Within thee dwelt a haughty line that now go from their place; + .............................................................. + Here gallants held it little thing for ladies' sake to die, + Or for the Prophet's honor and the pride of Soldanry; + For here did valor flourish and deeds of warlike might + Ennobled lordly palaces in which was our delight. + The gardens of thy Vega, its fields and blooming bowers, + Woe, woe! I see their beauty gone, and scattered all their flowers!" + + + + + +XII + +WOMEN OF CHINA AND COREA + + +China, once the country of perpetual calm, has in recent years become +the land of magnificent disturbances. Not an unimportant factor in the +changes that have lately taken place in the Flowery Kingdom has been +woman. The influence of the women of the nations is generally +centripetal. Of the peoples of the earth the Chinese would doubtless be +named as altogether the most conservative, and in this conservatism the +Chinese women play a most important part. + +Ancestry worship has marked this people from time immemorial, and if +there be one characteristic of Chinese life stronger than all the rest, +it is that of filial piety. This regard is not taught to end with +childhood, but is to be lasting even in mature manhood. From the +lowliest subject to the emperor himself the rule is imperative. The +latter is father of the people of the realm, and as such is to be +reverenced; he in turn is the son of Heaven. Confucius was careful to +instil into his pupils filial regard--a virtue which the sages before +him had urged upon the people. To such teachings is to be attributed +much that is best in Chinese life. + +Thus the Chinese system is a gigantic patriarchal system with its base +resting on the earth, its head penetrating heaven. Mencius spoke often +and in no uncertain words upon this theme. "Of all that a filial son can +attain to, there is nothing greater than his honoring his parents. Of +what can be attained to in honoring his parents, there is nothing +greater than nourishing them with the whole Empire. To be the father of +the son of Heaven is the highest nourishment." In this may be verified +the sentence in the _Book of Poetry_: + + "Ever thinking how to be filial, + His filial mind was the model which he supplied." + +Every department of life is reached by this trait. Someone once asked +Mencius how it was that Shun, an exemplary character of more ancient +days, had married without consulting his parents. For "if the rule be +thus (_i.e._, to inform the parents), no one ought to have illustrated +it so well as Shun." To which Mencius replied: "If he had informed them +he would not have been able to marry. That male and female should dwell +together is the greatest of human relations. If Shun had informed his +parents, he would have made void this greatest of human relations, and +incurred thereby their resentment. It was for this reason that he did +not inform them." Thus only did Mencius save the filial character of the +great and good Shun. + +Since social and religious ideals are the most potential in shaping +woman's life among any people, filial piety has naturally held a notable +place in the making of Chinese womanhood, from the earliest period of +Chinese history. Respect for age is, therefore, one of the most eminent +of Chinese virtues. This is shown in innumerable habits of everyday +life. Let a company be walking out together, the eldest will lead the +way, while the others follow on, paired according to their respective +ages. + +The teachings of Confucius have without doubt influenced the thinking +and the conduct of Chinese men in their relations with the female sex; +even though he said little directly about women or their conduct. His +loose ideas as to marriage and the admission of concubinage are among +the blots upon his social teachings. The body of early Chinese +literature gives a most suggestive insight into the ancient ideals +concerning woman; and because of the dreary conservatism of the people +these ideals are still potential. + +The _Li Ki_, or "Book of Ceremonies," has many bits of counsel which are +intended to regulate the everyday life of the people. Of course, there +is much there concerning the life of woman, of wives, of concubines, of +mothers; concerning betrothal, marriage, domestic and filial duties. + +The Chinese are not usually regarded as a people overflowing with +sentiment; and yet many of their ancient poems are not lacking in +romantic interest. From such effusions as that which exclaims: + + "O sweet maiden, so fair and retiring, + At the corner, I'm waiting for you,"-- + +to deeper meditations upon feminine worth and character, the early +poetry sweeps over quite a wide range of sentimental reflection. + +The _Shi King_, a collection of Chinese poetry gathered by Confucius, +an anthology of more than three hundred poems, contains some glowing +epithalamia setting forth at length the unmistakable virtues of the +bride. Others of them present the industry of a queen, the charming and +virtuous manners of an admired maiden, or the affection of a spouse. +While still others set forth the feelings of a wife who bewails the +absence of her husband, away in the performance of duty; or, it may be, +of a rejected wife giving forth her bitter plaint. A husband's cruelty +is bemoaned; a woman scorns the praises of an artless lover; or a wife +is consoled by her husband's home-coming. + +These songs, born in the early days of feudalism, when the dukes or +governors of the states would come together to consult with the king +concerning public matters, breathe of a period long past. Among the +officers in attendance on these occasions were the music masters. "Let +me write the songs of the people," one has said, "I care not who makes +their laws." To the music masters was assigned the duty of supervising +the songs in use among the subjects of the realm. The songs approved by +the king's music master were preserved as classics. It was from these +that Confucius selected; and he preserved many in which the Chinese +woman is the motive and inspiration. The ode celebrating the virtue of +King Wan's bride is but one of many such poems giving a good insight +into the ancient attitude of mind toward feminine beauty and virtue, as +well as preserving some of the older customs attending the festal +wedding day: + + "The maiden modest, virtuous, coy, is found; + Strike every lute, and joyous welcome sound. + Ours now the duckweed from the stream we bear + And cook to use the other viands rare. + He has the maiden, honest, virtuous bright, + Let drums and bells proclaim our great delight." + +The Chinese drama, a much more modern art--though nothing seems modern +in China--often depicts woman in her best as well as in her less +favorable light. There is present here the true spirit of romance. In +the _Sorrows of Han_, a historical tragedy setting forth conditions in +the days of effeminacy: + + "When love was all an easy monarch's care, + Seldom at council--never in a war," + +Lady Chaoukeun, a farmer's daughter, who has been raised to be +Princess of Han, has never yet seen the king's face. She was eighteen +years of age when brought into the royal palace, but by the intrigue of +the prime minister she had been ignored and neglected. Her picture has +been mutilated by the official, not only that he might destroy her +prospects in the royal eye, but also that he might extort money in +selecting other beauties for the palace. Her father, being poor, was +unable to pay the amount exacted. But by chance the king comes upon her +as she plays the lute in the darkness. He, enraptured by the music, asks +to see her. Her beauty at once charms him. He hears the story of her +sadness, and the plot of the minister is made known. The latter is at +once condemned to lose his head. Making his escape, however, he reaches +the camp of the Tartars, who are at this very juncture threatening the +land, and gives himself over to their assistance. Being shown a true +picture of Lady Chaoukeun in all her beauty, the prince of the Tartars +falls desperately in love, and is willing even to offer peace to the +king if he will but give up the beautiful princess. The king, sorrowful, +but unable otherwise to save his land from devastation, delivers over +his wife to the enemy, she herself consenting to be sacrificed that the +kingdom and her husband's dynasty may be preserved. But, faithful in her +love, she is not long in the hand of the Tartar prince. She seizes her +opportunity, and throws herself into the surging river, along which the +Tartar army was camped, and is drowned. When Khan, the Tartar prince, +saw his prize had escaped his grasp, he decides to give back the traitor +minister to King Han for punishment. That very night Han sees his martyr +wife in his dreams. He arises to embrace her, but she is gone again. The +play closes with the order for the beheading of him who has brought upon +the royal house such sorrow. + +Most of the romance in a Chinese woman's life, however, is found in the +books, which tell of the earlier days. The first event in the life of +most women in China, though she does not at the time realize it, is a +sad one. There is usually scant welcome for the girl. Certainly, amidst +the masses of the people, she enters upon a rough and weary way. She is +reared in seclusion and ignorance. Her little brothers, even, are not +her companions. If she should have any association with them, she is +little better than their servant. Her name does not appear upon the +family register, since she is expected to belong to another family when +she is old enough to wed. + +Does one ask of courtship in China? There is no such thing there, +unless bartering by go-betweens could be called by that name. Girls +spend their last days of maidenhood in loud wailing, and their girl +friends come to weep with them. Well may they do this. After marriage, +which is itself a bitter rather than a happy experience for the bride, +they continue a life of worse slavery--slavery abject and heartless--to +women who have been slaves to other women. The mother-in-law in China +rules her daughter-in-law with an iron hand, and the wife's future +depends much more upon the character of the husband's mother than upon +the husband himself. That the coming of girls into the home is not so +welcome an event as that of boys is quite natural, for it is expected +that at about sixteen years of age the girl will become a member of +another family, returning but occasionally to the house of her birth. So +that while a mother's hope of prestige lies in her sons, the ministering +cares which she might expect in duty from her daughter must be tendered +her by the wife of her son rather than by the sympathetic hands of her +daughter, whose attentions must be unremitting to the mother of her own +husband. + +Betrothals are sometimes made in infancy. But since such contracts are +regarded as being quite as binding as a marriage, wisdom usually +dictates a postponement. Girls are therefore usually betrothed a year or +two before marriage, which in most cases occurs at about fifteen years +of age. Among the poorer classes, in order to avoid the expense +ordinarily involved in betrothal, a mother will sometimes buy, or +receive as a gift, an infant girl, who is reared as a wife for her son. + +Marriage, however, in China as elsewhere, is always regarded as a matter +of deep concern in a woman's career. But in China she has little share +in the events which lead up to the wedding day. Proposals of marriage +and the acceptances are often made without either party to the life +union knowing about the transactions. Nor are the experiences of the +nuptial day always joyous to the timid young bride. Up to the time of +her marriage, the girl has spent her days in comparative seclusion. +Thrust now suddenly among strangers, she naturally shrinks with a +feeling almost akin to terror. This ordeal she must face with apparently +little sympathy. Audible comments are made concerning her when she is at +length in the home of her new-found parents, as they give their vivid +impressions of the newcomer. In parts of China at least, it is customary +for the unmarried girls along the route to throw at the passing bride +handfuls, not of rice, but of hayseed or chaff, which, striking upon her +well-oiled black hair, adheres readily and conspicuously. Not only must +the girl be given in marriage by the parents, but the man must let his +parents know of his desire to marry, and get counsel at their hands. In +the sacred _Book of Poetry_ it is expressly written: + + "How do we proceed in taking a wife? + Announcement must be first made to our parents." + +Married women seldom have names of their own. A wife may have two +surnames, that of her husband and that of her mother's family. If she +have a son, she may be called "Mother of So-and-So." Nor is she expected +to speak to others of her husband directly as her husband. She must use +some circumlocution which does not directly state her relation to him. + +Chinese economists might possibly defend polygamy and concubinage on the +ground that these tend to produce a sturdier race than would be +otherwise possible; for the concubines of the wealthier classes are +usually taken from among the stronger working people, whose superior +physical vigor is constantly adding fresh blood to the more delicate +classes. But the moral evils of the system undoubtedly more than +counterbalance any physical advantage that may accrue to society through +its existence. + +The birth of an infant works a marked transformation in a Chinese +woman's life. So long as she is childless, she is expected to serve. +When she becomes a mother, she at once takes up the sceptre. Wives, +therefore, pray to their deities for the coming of a son; and when the +object of their hearts' desire is realized, the delighted parents pay +their devotions to the god who has sent the new joy into their lives. +The sway of the woman over all the household, with the exception of her +liege lord and her sons, is complete. The _Shi King_ puts this in poetic +form in describing the bride's entrance upon her new estate: + + "Graceful and young the peach-tree stands, + Its foliage clustering green and full, + This bride to her new home repairs, + Her household will attend her rule." + +But remember that first she must become a mother. The brightest feature +in the life of Chinese women, the one thing that brings them most +comfort, is their boys. It is these which most surely lift women into a +position of respect. And this is true, even though, according to the +teaching of China's sages, the mother must be subject to her son as well +as to her husband. "The one bright spot in the lives of Chinese women," +an educated Chinaman has recently said, "is their resignation, their +willingness to endure, to make the best of their circumstances." Indeed, +of the Chinese as a race, this is true, though it is more emphatically +true of the women. Certainly their lot is far harder than that of the +men. From the cradle to the grave, in the view of one from the Occident, +the Chinese woman's way is a dark and cheerless one. Few of the outer +rays of the world's joy penetrate the seclusion of their lives. And +while Chinese girls and women are amply capable of being made the +intellectual and social equals of the opposite sex, the fact is they are +not in any true sense companions of their brothers and husbands. + +It is the lack of training that makes the Chinese woman, as a rule, +uncompanionable. There are exceptions, to be sure. In their present lack +of real preparation for the wider sphere of womanly usefulness, it is +doubtless well that the women have no larger freedom. Wherever the +Western school has gone, however, there has been given to the girls of +China an opportunity for a broader outlook upon life through education +and training. + +"Of all others," says Confucius, in the _Analects_, "women servants and +men servants are the most difficult people to have the care of. Approach +them in a familiar manner, and they take liberties; keep them at a +distance, and they grumble." These words throw some light, by way of +illustration at least, upon woman's place in China as respects freedom +to mingle with the outside world. The sex probably enjoys as much +liberty as conditions justify. And yet keeping them from the world +without does not tend to develop the most genial temperament; their +faces do not evince cheerfulness or hope. + +What is the attitude of a Chinese husband toward his wife? Of course, +she is regarded as his inferior; and, as a rule, she actually is. +Because of the limitations which from infancy have everywhere been +thrown about her life, it could not be otherwise. When the girls must be +married off to get rid of the craving of another mouth; and when wives +are largely looked upon as but a means of rearing children, that these +may do the pious duties in behalf of the ancestral dead, it could not be +expected that the idea of the equality of the sexes should ever be +conceived. + +In China, as elsewhere in the broad world, wives are often neglected. +From early Chinese literature, as well as from modern life, expressions +of the wife's sad lament are heard. As one of the poets puts it in the +mouth of a neglected spouse, whose husband comes not to her comfort: + + "Cloudy the sky and dark--the thunders roll; + Such outward signs well mark my troubled soul. + I wake, and sleep no more comes to my rest, + His cause I sad deplore, in anguished breast." + +Second marriages, though often made are not highly regarded in China. +Naturally love is less likely to spring up as in the earlier +affiliation. The _yengo_, a species of wild goose is, among the Chinese, +the emblem of love between the sexes. This bird especially stands for +strong and undying attachment. For it is said that when once its mate is +dead, it never pairs again. For this reason an image of it is worshipped +by the newly married couples of China. There is a popular saying among +the Chinese that a second husband to a second wife are husband and wife +so long as the poor supply holds out. When this fails the partners fly +apart, and self is the care of each. While it would be entirely unjust +not to recognize the presence of genuine love on the part of many a +husband, yet a wife may be handled severely by her spouse if for any +reason he may think her deserving of such treatment. This is more true +of concubines, whose lot is indeed a hard one. Whenever there is in the +household more than one wife, jealousy, bickering, strife, and plotting +are almost certain. The _Shi King_ sets these forth in a little poem on +the jealousy of a wife: + + "When the upper robe is green, + With a yellow lining seen, + There we have a certain token + Right is wronged and order broken." + +The Chinese have a saying that it is impossible to be more jealous than +a woman; and in the word for "jealous" there is an intended suggestion +of another word of the same sound, but of different intonation, meaning +"poisonous;" which play upon the word reminds one of the remark of the +Hebrew sage that "jealousy is cruel as the grave." + +The wife is not seen upon the streets with her husband. Nor does she, as +a rule, eat with him. After the men of the family have finished their +meals, the women take their turn at the board. Too little is the +sympathy they get in their ailments; for generally scant is the +attention paid to their suffering, and poverty often prevents a +physician's care. Much, too, that goes for healing is hideously cruel +and permeated with the wildest superstition. + +It must seem the grimmest irony in one of Goldsmith's Chinese letters +from his _Citizen of the World_, when he makes Lien Chi Altangi, while +writing of his purpose to open a school for young women, say: "In this I +intended to instruct the ladies in all the conjugal mysteries; wives +should be taught the art of managing their husbands, and maids the skill +of properly choosing them; I would teach a wife how far she might +venture to be sick without giving disgust; she should be acquainted with +the great benefits of cholic in the stomach, and all the thoroughbred +insolence of fashion; maids should learn the secret of nicely +distinguishing every competitor; they should be able to know the +difference between a pedlar and a scholar, a citizen and a prig, a +squire and his horse, a beau and his monkey; but chiefly they should be +taught the art of managing their smiles, from the contemptuous simper to +the long laborous laugh." + +One of the cornerstones of Confucius's teaching was "reciprocity." But +this doctrine he does not seem to apply to the practical relations of +married life, about which he had little or nothing to say. Suicides of +young wives would be far less frequent in China were this doctrine of +the great lawgiver applied to marital life. A cruel husband may, almost +with perfect impunity, greatly injure his wife, or even kill her, +especially if he can make good a claim before the authorities that she +had been unfilial to _his_ parents. + +The Chinese wife is, of course, not free from the evils of divorce. If +she be guilty of such faults as scolding, disobedience, lasciviousness, +or theft, which is next to murder in its heinousness, or if she be the +victim of such misfortune as leprosy or barrenness, she may be sent back +to her parents, if they be still alive. Among the causes for which +divorce is possible, the failure to bear sons is the first. Widows +sometimes remarry. In some parts of China the _suttee_, or +"self-immolation," of widows is not unknown, the unfortunate woman being +compelled to strangle herself, after which her body is burned. + +The maternal instincts are seldom stronger than in the attitude toward +the helplessness of infancy; yet, in China infanticide is of +extraordinary prevalence. The greatest danger that besets a Chinese +woman is at her birth. In an already overpopulated country, it is not +strange that the custom of killing the female infant, for whom it is +difficult to provide sustenance, should have gained ground. Besides, +while the congested condition of the population is somewhat relieved by +emigration of the men to other lands, the women do not leave; hence, +there is a tendency toward a surplus of women. It frequently happens +that if a Chinese mother has not yet been blessed with the birth of a +boy, she will destroy her female offspring, with the thought that in +this way she may hope the sooner to bear a son. If, on the other hand, +she has one or more sons, she may allow two or three daughters to live. +After this, many mothers will not hesitate to smother the girls at their +birth. "By the accident of sex," says a recent writer, "the infant is a +family divinity; by the accident of sex, she is a dreaded burden, liable +to be destroyed, and certain to be despised." The Chinese officials have +tried earnestly to break up this frightful custom of infanticide. Books +have been written and circulated condemning the practice. Foundling +hospitals have also been established, in order that this kind of murder +might be checked and the rejected little ones cared for. Stone tablets +have been erected on river banks, by pools, and in places at which the +killing of girls might probably occur, or where their dead bodies are +likely to be deposited. During a period of rebellion, and of dire +poverty, so many desperate mothers throw their babes by the roadside for +the dogs and birds of prey to devour, that "baby towers" were +constructed at certain points, where the tiny dead bodies might be +thrown, to avoid the dangerous offensiveness to the population. + +But if in infancy the girl is not killed, she is allowed to live. Should +pinching poverty come, she may be sold or given away. In some districts +baby merchants are not unknown. When the little girls grow up they +become serviceable in numerous ways in the domestic life; but many of +them are sold to a life of shame. + +A wise Chinese writer, Hwei Kwo, in discussing infanticide among his +people, says: "Before you drown the infants you ought to think, 'I thus +harshly violate propriety. But there are gods above; how can I deceive +them? My ancestors are beside me; how can I present myself before them?' +Before long the babe will call _kwa, kwa_, and want some nourishment; +before many months she will call _ya yah_, and begin to talk, first +calling _year-niang_ (father, mother), and walk carefully about your +knees. Before many years she will be helping you in all your hard work, +and when she is married and bears a son, how very pleased you will be. +If you get a good son-in-law, and their children are well to do, how +much admiration and glory. 'If I endure present trouble, I may by and by +eat my daughter's rice.'" But even these low and selfish motives are not +sufficient to destroy the prevalence of infanticide, which is more +particularly practised in southern China. It is almost, if not quite, +unknown in the north. + +Woman's standing before the law in China would not be regarded as high +in a country where woman's rights have been agitated. Her property +rights are practically _nil_, except as she enjoys them through male +relatives. And yet, with all her limitations, the woman of China is in +some respects in advance of her sisters of many other Oriental lands. +She is not shut up in a harem, as she is in Turkey; she is not bound +down by the harsh caste system, as in India; she is not looked upon as +devoid of spiritual existence, as in Burmah; she is not degraded by the +curse of polyandry, as in Thibet. In no Eastern land, with the exception +of Japan, has woman a better opportunity to exert power and develop +character than in China. + +The dress of Chinese women might be thought by women of some other +lands to be lacking in beauty and grace; and yet, it is in many respects +highly sensible, being at least modest, healthful, and economical. It +hides the contour of the person effectually, and this, among the +Chinese, is its chief design. Being loose, it gives full play to the +vital parts, as well as to the limbs, and the same thickness of +materials prevails over the whole body. There is no waste in the +cutting, and no unnecessary ornaments or appendages, eight yards of +yard-wide goods being sufficient for a complete set of winter garments. +The mental worry that comes to the woman of the West in selecting +patterns, in cutting, and in fitting, is all done away with in China, +since the Chinese lady always selects the same pattern,--or has had it +selected for her by her great-grandmother,--and there is little need for +fitting. Figures that would look unattractive in Western attire can wear +the Chinese dress without disadvantage. Some have attributed the great +age to which Chinese women so frequently attain--notwithstanding the +often unsanitary condition of their homes, often floorless and +windowless--to the hygienic character of their clothing. The winter +clothes in the more northerly sections are padded garments that appear, +to be sure, rather clumsy and uncomfortable. The use of woolen +underclothing does not prevail. These padded garments hang about the +body like bags; and sometimes when children fall down they are utterly +unable to rise without assistance. It is needless to say that woman's +winter attire is by no means graceful or convenient. If even the men do +not use pockets,--which conveniences seem to a Westerner so +indispensable,--it may be surmised that the women have no such +contrivances in their dress. The ordinary costume of a woman consists of +two garments. The upper one appears very much like an American lady's +dressing-sack, only somewhat longer, with flowing sleeves, and is quite +loose fitting, the fastenings being along a curve from the neck to +beneath the right arm, and then in a straight line down that side. The +lower garment is a pair of loose trousers. There is little or no +difference in the style of the outer and inner garments, more or fewer +being worn according to the state of the weather. A skirt is seldom worn +in the Canton section, except by a bride at the time of her marriage. +This custom, however, varies in different sections of China. In +Shanghai, women are seldom seen without skirts. Notwithstanding the +sameness and similarity of cut in Chinese costume, the quality of beauty +is not entirely forgotten. A Chinese gentleman, when asked what things +the Chinese women most delight in, replied: "First, beautiful clothes +and ornaments with which to make themselves attractive. Secondly, to +live in idleness. Thirdly, to have servants to wait upon them." The +remark would suggest moral weakness which is, alas! far too common. +Tsq-hia once asked Confucius what inference might be drawn from the +often quoted lines: + + "Dimples playing in witching smile, + Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright. + O, and her face may be thought the while, + Colored by art, red rose on white." + +To which the teacher replied: "Coloring requires a pure and clear +background." This was the great master's way of emphasizing character as +a necessary accompaniment of true beauty. But this ideal is largely +forgotten. + +The custom of binding the feet is not so common as is often supposed. +There are many localities in which the habit is almost universal; while +in many sections, especially in the agricultural districts, the feet of +the women are of normal growth. In the sections and among the classes in +which this fashion prevails, the early suffering, as well as the later +inconvenience, is intense. The Chinese woman, however, does not +emphasize the importance of convenience as would her practical sister of +the West; the suffering they bear with much resignation. Various +explanations are given of the origin of foot binding. Some accounts +state that it arose from a desire thereby to remove the reproach of the +club feet of a popular empress; others hold that it sprang from a great +admiration for delicate feet and an attempt to imitate them; others +claim that it was imposed by husbands to keep their wives from gadding. +Still other accounts say that the Emperor Hau Chu, of the Chan dynasty, +in A.D. 583, ordered his concubines to bind their feet small enough to +cover a golden lily at each step. He had golden lilies made and +scattered about for them to walk upon when they were playing before him. +The admirers of the ruler imitated the practice, and so it spread. This +seems to be the most probable explanation, as the expression _kam-lin_, +literally "golden lilies," meaning "ladies' small feet," and _lin-po_, +literally "a lily step," meaning "a lady's gait," are in common use +to-day. In the beginning, the feet were not bound so early nor so +tightly as to-day, and the custom now varies greatly in different parts +of the empire. The present, the Manchu government, has made efforts to +prevent the practice of foot binding among the people, but with little +or no success. The Manchus do not practise it themselves, and they are +powerless to prevent it. As the Chinese sometimes say: "Fashion is +stronger than the emperor." + +The Chinese find it difficult to understand the freedom of intercourse +which characterizes the sexes in the West. They regard such social +freedom as being difficult to harmonize with modesty and morality. As a +rule, Chinese women are modest and chaste. But it is thought that these +are best assured by restricting their social freedom. On the streets the +women, with the exception of the lewd, appear with becoming modesty and +decorum. Notwithstanding the advantage that must come from the limiting +of woman's sphere of influence, examples are not wanting in which +Chinese women have exerted their native powers to a conspicuous degree +in moulding the history of their times. + +Through the isolation of the women, they become naturally more +superstitious than the men; and, as might be surmised, the former are +the stronghold of the ancient religious faiths of the Chinese. And yet +none of the ancient religions nor the philosophies of the country have +done much to elevate the feminine half of the nation. The best the +Buddhist priest can hold out to the pious woman is the hope that in the +next transmigration her soul may be born a man's. + +Some women of the Celestial Empire have held commanding positions of +political influence. Whether a woman might occupy an influential place +in the management of Chinese public affairs has depended somewhat upon +the character of the ruling dynasty. And while queens are not possible +in China, because sons alone may hold the sceptre, women have been known +to exert such influence in the matter of government as to be practically +supreme. There have been a number of cases of empresses regent. There +were two such instances during the Ming dynasty which were quoted as +justifying a more recent regency that has been one of the most +remarkable on record in any land. When the Emperor Hien-fung died on +August 22, 1861, his son Chiseang, then but six years of age, was +proclaimed emperor in his stead, under a regency composed of eight men. +By a bold _coup d'etat_, Prince Kung, brother of Hien-fung, succeeded, +by the aid of the army, in driving this regency from power and in +proclaiming a new one composed of two empresses: Tsi An, the principal +wife of the late Hien-fung, and Tszu-Hszi, the mother of the young +emperor. Neither of these royal women knew the Manchu language, and +Prince Kung was the power behind them, and was rewarded with the post of +prime minister under the two empresses. It was not long, however, before +an edict was issued degrading the prince, whose growing power and +arrogance the empresses feared. And just here emerges the evidence that +the prince was dealing with one of the most astute and aggressive women +of the world, Tszu-Hszi, a woman who has compelled the world to reckon +with her presence for half a century. + +It is true that when the young emperor had reached the age of sixteen, +and had been married about four months, the empresses, no longer able to +present excuses for not doing so, issued a decree bestowing upon +Chiseang, now called Tungche, the right to assume the management of the +affairs of state. But his reign was brief, for after about three years, +as it is said, he "ascended upon the Dragon to be a guest on high." Many +suspected foul play, but certain it is that the outcome inured to the +advantage of the two empresses. That which was more ugly still was the +treatment of the young Empress Ahluta, wife of the late ruler. On the +death of her husband she was about to give birth to a child. The +empresses, however, saw their opportunity as well as their danger. For +if Ahluta's child should be a son, not only would he be the legal ruler, +but the mother herself would at once assume a prominent place in the +government. Ahluta must be set aside. Soon she sickened--some said +because of her grief for her husband, while others knew of the +determination of the empresses to retain power at all hazards. Who then +should be chosen heir to the throne? The empresses selected Tsai Tien, a +son of Prince Chun, brother of the powerful Kung. The latter was again +in complete control, by the grace of the two astute and ambitious women +whose minds were firmly set upon retaining rule at whatever cost. The +fortunate, or unfortunate, young man who had been made nominal emperor, +not by inheritance, but by selection, was given the style of Kwang-su, +or "Illustrious Succession." The way in which Tszu-Hszi, empress +dowager, has been able to be the controlling factor in Chinese national +life, crushing rivals, winning the support of politicians, and carrying +out policies, is one of the wonders of modern political history. This +seems the more remarkable in a country where women are generally forced +to the background, and in an age in which tumultuous scenes and grave +upheavals have been many. + +The head of the army of the United States was not far from the truth +when he pronounced the Empress-dowager of China, not even excepting the +great and good Victoria, as altogether the ablest woman of the century. + +Contiguous in territory and closely related in manners and customs to +the Chinese are the Coreans. The Corean ruler, though in his own country +an absolute monarch, was for several centuries a vassal of the Chinese +Empire, and the educated class continue to employ the Chinese language +in literary and social intercourse. In 1894, Corea having repudiated the +suzerainty of China, war ensued between Japan and China, and as a result +Corea has since been largely under Japanese influence. + +The native Coreans fondly call their country "the Land of the Morning +Calm." Its people are of the Mongolian type, and are therefore closely +allied in sympathy to the Chinese and Japanese, with whom they have had +social and political kinship and contact from time out of mind. The +moral status of the women may be surmised when it is remembered that +woman is regarded as without moral existence. It is not to be +understood, however, that she has no name. When a very little girl, she +receives a temporary surname by which she is known to her relatives and +intimate friends. When she reaches the age of puberty, this appellation +is no longer used by her friends. When she marries, her parents cease to +call her by her childhood's name. She is now known to them by the name +of the district into which she has married. Her husband's parents, +however, speak of her as the woman of the place from which she came. + +In Corea there is no family life in our true sense of that term, for the +men and the women live in separate apartments. The husband is seldom +seen in conversation with his wife, whom he looks upon as absolutely +beneath him. The male and the female children are separated. When they +reach the age of nine or ten years the girls are sent to the women's +apartments; the boys take refuge with the men. The boys must not set +foot upon the territory assigned to the women, and the girls learn that +it is disgraceful to be looked upon by members of the opposite sex; so +they hide at the approach of a boy or a man. + +The Corean women have little or no legal standing. They are absolutely +in the power of their husbands, who may not sell them, however, nor +should their lords be _too_ brutal. Percival Lowell, in his _Land of the +Morning Calm_, puts it strongly when he says: "Mentally, morally, and +socially, she (the Corean woman) is a cipher." But there are exceptions. +In fact, we are not to infer that throughout the entire Orient the +subjection of women is universally so complete as it is sometimes +pictured by writers upon the social life of the East. Campbell, in his +_Journey through Corea_, gives the following incident, showing how women +may be very influential at times: "To make matters worse, the head man +upon whom I had relied for assistance in hiring the men I wanted was +absent, but his wife proved a capable substitute and seemed to fill her +husband's place with unquestioned authority. Between bullying and +coaxing, she rapidly pressed twenty reluctant men into service. The +subjection of women, which is probably the covenant of accepted theories +in the East, receives a fresh blow in my mind. Women in these parts of +the world, if the truth were known, fill a higher place and wield a +greater influence than they are credited with." Nor is it to be supposed +that there is no respect shown to the women of Corea. The men give them +at least an outward show of deference. They will step aside to allow a +woman to pass in the street, regardless of her social position, and the +ladies are often addressed in phrases of a most polite character. +Children are taught respect for their mother, though they are enjoined +to give more to the father. When a mother dies, her children are +expected to mourn at least two years; for the father the period is +longer. Someone has said that "there are three classes of Corean women; +first, there are the invisible,--those who are always in their +apartments, or, when out of them, ride in a closed palanquin. Second, +are the visible invisible, who, possessing less wealth, must walk when +they go out upon the streets, and yet are seen only as a mass of +clothing moving before the eye. Third, there are the invisible visible +class, the poor, who are seen, to be sure, but not noticed,--working +women, whom etiquette prevents one from seeing." + +The women's apartments do not greatly differ from the zenanas of India. +In the interior of their apartments, screened as far as possible from +publicity, the unmarried women may receive their parents and friends, +with whom they chat and gossip upon matters of common interest, or while +away the hours with games. After marriage, the confinement becomes still +more secure, and the woman is inaccessible. "So strict is the rule," +says Griffis, "that fathers have on occasions killed their daughters, +husbands, their wives, and wives have committed suicide, when strangers +have touched them even with their fingers." Woe unto the Corean wife who +is not above suspicion in the eyes of her husband. + +In the "Hermit Nation" one is accounted a boy until he is married, no +matter what his age may be; but public sentiment prevents a young man +from remaining long without a spouse to enrich, or at least to share, +his life. The woman is a child till she is married, and sometimes long +afterward. + +The women of Corea usually marry outside of the village in which they +are brought up. They have nothing whatever to do with the match that is +to be made. Negotiations are carried on by the parents and a middle man. +The bride, indeed, must be silent all through the nuptial ceremony. The +marriage festival and the funeral are the two great events in Corean +social life. When the festivities of the wedding are at an end the bride +is conducted to her husband's home--in a palanquin, if the parties be +well to do; on horseback, if they be poor. + +There is but one true, or legal wife, but often many concubines, the +number being determined largely by the wealth of the husband. Children +of the true wife are the legitimate heirs. The other children, though +not disgraced by their position, have no legal standing as regards the +matter of inheritance. Children of concubines, however, may be +legitimized, in case there are no lawful descendants. + +The following interesting story, taken from Ballet's _History of the +Church in Corea_, will not only illustrate certain customs in Corea, but +show upon what a low plane the marriage relation moves in the Hermit +Nation: "A noble wished to marry his own daughter and that of his +deceased brother to eligible young men. Both maidens were of the same +age. He wished to wed both well, but especially his own child. With this +idea in view he had already refused some good offers; finally he made a +proposal to a family noted alike for pedigree and riches. After +hesitating for some time which of the maidens he would dispose of first, +he finally decided in favor of his own child. Three days before the +ceremony he learned from the diviner that the young man chosen was +silly, exceedingly ugly and very ignorant. What should he do? He could +not retreat. He had given his word. In such a case the law is +inexorable. On the day of the marriage he appeared in the woman's +apartments and gave orders in the most imperative manner, that his niece +and not his daughter should don the marriage coiffure and the wedding +dress and mount the nuptial platform. His stupefied daughter could not +but acquiesce. The two cousins being about the same height, the +substitution was easy, and the ceremony proceeded according to the usual +forms. The new bridegroom passed the afternoon in the men's apartments, +where he met his supposed father-in-law. What was the amazement of the +old noble to find that far from being stupid and ugly, as depicted by +the diviner, that the young man was good-looking, well formed, +intelligent, highly connected, and amiable in manners. Bitterly +regretting the loss of so accomplished a son-in-law, he determined to +replace the girl. He secretly ordered that instead of his niece, his +daughter should be introduced as the bride. He knew well that the young +man would suspect nothing, for during the salutations the brides are +always so muffled up with dresses and loaded with ornaments that it is +impossible to distinguish their countenance. All happened as the old man +desired. During the two or three days which he passed with the new +family, he congratulated himself upon having so excellent a son-in-law. +The latter, on his part, showed himself more and more charming, and so +gained the heart of his supposed father-in-law, that in a burst of +confidence, the latter revealed to him all that had happened. He told of +the diviner's report concerning him, and the successive substitutions of +niece for daughter and daughter for niece. The young man was at first +speechless, then recovering his composure said: 'All right! and that is +a very smart trick on your part. But it is clear that both of the young +persons belong to me, and I claim them. Your niece is my lawful wife, +since she has made to me the legal salute, and your daughter, introduced +by yourself into my marriage, has become of right and law my concubine.' +The crafty old man caught in his own net had nothing to answer. The two +young women were conducted to the house of the new husband and master, +and the old noble was jeered by both parties for his folly and his bad +faith." + +As in other parts of the Far East, the life of widows is exceedingly +harsh. They may not marry again. Indeed, second marriages are never +looked upon with favor, except among people of the lower classes who +generally disregard the etiquette and ideas which prevail among the +nobles and the rich who imitate them. A widow of high standing is +expected to show grief for her husband not only by weeping over his +death, but by wearing mourning as long as she lives; and children of +widows born after widowhood are looked upon as illegitimate. Often, +however, being debarred from lawful marriage, widows become victims of +lust and violence. If, however, they are determined upon preserving +chastity, they will frequently resort to suicide if their virtue be +threatened. The method of self-slaughter among women is cutting their +throat, or piercing the heart. + +Like most women of the world, dress plays no unimportant part in the +Corean woman's life. There is probably no part of her toilet upon which +she bestows more zealous regard than upon her hair. Generally the +natural growth is insufficient to suit her ideals of beauty, and so +false hair is used in profusion. Corean women do not attend the +banquets. These are for men alone. + + + + +XIII + +UNDER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS + +THE WOMEN OF JAPAN + + +No woman of the Orient has in recent years enlisted so much of the +world's attention as the woman of Japan. This interest has bordered upon +real fascination. If the comparative alertness of mind has caused the +Japanese men to be called the "Oriental Yankees," the attractiveness of +the women might give them the right to be compared to the "Southern +Beauties." They have been much written about and the world has read of +them with keen appreciation. + +Japanese civilization is comparatively modern. The islands owe much to +Corea and China for the development of their letters and the refinement +of their social life. Their alertness of mind and receptivity of +character mark them among all the peoples of the Mongolian stock. This +flexibility of temperament is no less true of the women than of the men, +and it is partly these mental traits which give to the Japanese their +attractiveness. + +The women of the several strata of society present marked differences +in Japan, as in other countries. This was more true in the days of +feudalism, when the lines were more rigidly defined than now; though the +influences of the feudal system are still perceptible and will long +endure. But the women of court and castle, the women of the military +class, and the women of the shop and of the soil, with all that was +nationally common, lived a very different order of life. These +differences are inevitable and, of course, abiding. + +The chief glory of every Japanese woman is in becoming the mother of +sons. And while daughters are not unwelcome, as is the case among some +Oriental people, yet their birth is never so much the cause of rejoicing +as is the coming of boys into the world. On the occasion of such an +advent, messengers fly, notes are sent by friends, and all friends and +relatives must visit the new arrival in the home. The visitor who brings +his congratulations, must add to them toys, articles of dress, and the +like--besides the dried fish or the eggs for good luck. The poor mother +must well-nigh tax her already weakened strength to the very limit of +physical endurance in receiving visitors and their congratulations. It +is the father, or some chosen friend, who selects the newcomer's name, +and if it be a girl, that of some attractive object in nature is usually +chosen, it not being regarded as specially appropriate or as involving +any compliment to name a child for a friend or loved one. This duty of +naming the child occurs on the seventh day, and on the thirteenth, it is +carried to the temple and placed under the special guardianship of some +deity. After this the little one becomes accustomed to the ordinary +routine of eating, sleeping, and crying. Very soon it may be seen on the +streets and in public places strapped to the back of an older sister, or +it may be a brother; and it is not long before the babies themselves are +interested in the play of the older children, to whose backs they are +securely fastened. + +As our little girl emerges from babyhood she finds the life opening +before her a bright and happy one, but one hedged about by proprieties, +and one in which from babyhood to old age, she must expect to be always +under the control of one of the stronger sex. Her position will be an +honored and respected one only as she learns in her youth the lesson of +cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners, and of personal cleanliness and +neatness. Her duties must always be either within the house, or, if she +belongs to the peasant class, on the farm. There is no career or +vocation open to her: she must be always dependent upon either father, +husband, or son, and her greatest happiness is to be gained not by the +cultivation of the intellect, but by the early acquisition of the +self-control which is expected of all Japanese women to even a greater +degree than of the men. This self-control must consist not simply in the +concealment of all outward signs of any disagreeable emotion,--whether +of grief, anger, or pain,--but in the assumption of a cheerful smile and +an agreeable manner under even the most distressing circumstance. The +duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls of the family from +the tenderest years; it is their great moral lesson and is expatiated +upon at all times by their elders. The little girl must sink herself +entirely, must give up always to others, must never show emotions except +such as will be pleasing to others about her; this is the secret of true +politeness and must be mastered if the woman wishes to be well thought +of and to lead a happy life. The effect of this teaching is seen in the +attractive, but dignified manners of the Japanese women,--even of the +very little girls. They are not forward or pushing, neither are they +awkwardly bashful; there is no self-consciousness, neither is there any +lack of _savoir faire_; a childlike simplicity is united with a womanly +consideration for the comfort of those around them. A Japanese child +seems to come into the world with little savagery and barbarian bad +manners, and the first ten or fifteen years of its life do not seem to +be passed in one long struggle to acquire a coating of good manners that +will help to render it less obnoxious in polite society. How much of the +politeness of the Japanese is inherited from generations of civilized +ancestors, it is difficult to tell; but my impression is that babies are +born into the world with a good start in the matter of manners, and that +the uniformly gentle and courteous treatment they receive from those +about them, together with the continual verbal teaching of the principle +of self-restraint and thoughtfulness of others, produce with very little +difficulty the irresistibly attractive manners of the people. + +One curious thing in a Japanese household is to see the formalities that +pass between brothers and sisters, and the respect paid to age by every +member of the family. The grandmother and grandfather come first of all +in everything--no one at table must be helped before them in any case; +after them come father and mother; and lastly, the children according to +their ages. A young sister must always wait for the elder and pay her +due respect, even in the matter of walking into the room before her. The +wishes and convenience of the elder, rather than of the younger, are to +be consulted in everything, and this lesson must be learned early by +children. The difference in years may be slight, but the elder born has +the first right in all cases. Etiquette, procedure, and self-control +among the Japanese girls are the most important of the influences +shaping a Japanese woman's life. + +Considerable respect is shown to the girl of the family by her +brothers. The native and conventional politeness of the Japanese shows +itself even in the names by which the children address one another. The +parents may leave off the appellatives of respect, but brothers, +sisters, and servants must treat the young lady with dignity, especially +if she be the eldest daughter. + +What preparation does the Japanese girl have for her position in the +social fabric of her people? Fortunately for her, there is some effort +made to fit her for her future duties. Quite early the daughter of a +household begins to feel the responsibilities of home cares. Even those +families which are able to provide ample domestic service will give to +the daughter of the household the duty of making the tea and of serving +it to the guests with her own hands. This is regarded as of greater +honor to the visitor than if a servant had performed the task. The +eldest girl of the family must learn to act in the place of the parents, +should a visitor appear in their absence, or when the younger children +need the care and oversight of an elder. In such matters as sweeping the +rooms, preparing the meals, washing the dishes, purchasing viands, and +sewing, the Japanese girl finds ample scope for a practical education to +make her ready for the exactions of the life of a housekeeper when she +herself shall become a wife and mother. + +Besides these practical duties in which the girl is early trained, +there is education in simpler mathematics and, to a degree, in +literature and the art of poetry. She is expected to be familiar with +the classical poetry of her country, more particularly the choice short +poems, which are well known to both young and old Japanese. Education, +in the stricter sense of the term, is on the increase among the girls of +Japan, as well as among the boys and young men. Besides native schools, +schools for the education of Japanese girls have been established by +missionaries from Christian countries. And even higher education is +making rapid strides, as is seen in the Kobe College for Women. But the +advance of the state or public education during the past decade or more +renders the foreign schools less necessary; and the private teacher, to +whom the girls of the better families were formerly invariably sent, is +gradually yielding to the larger school. And it may be said that to-day +the girls are provided for, educationally, equally with the boys. Japan +has made wonderful strides in educational matters, being receptive of +new ideas concerning the common schools; but there are adjustments that +must be made to the social ideals and customs of the people, because of +the rise of the new education. Among these there is probably none more +difficult and perplexing than that which grows out of the need of +adapting the old ideas of early marriage for the daughter of a family to +the growing demands and the enlarged opportunities for female education. + +The Japanese girl has better opportunity to experience the pleasurable +side of life than have girls of most Oriental lands. Her recreations are +more numerous and varied. Among them are the annual festivals, such as +the Japanese New Year, the several flower fetes, and, above all, the +Feast of Dolls, which has been thus interestingly described: "The feast +most loved in all the year is the Feast of Dolls, when on the third day +of the third month the great fireproof storehouse gives forth its +treasures of dolls--in an old family, many of them hundreds of years +old--and for three days, with all their belongings of tiny furnishings +in silver lacquer and porcelain, they reign supreme, arranged on +red-covered shelves in the finest room in the house. Most prominent +among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor and Empress in antique +court costume, seated in dignified calm, each on a lacquered dais. Near +them are the figures of the five court musicians, in their robes of +office, each with his instrument. Besides these dolls, which are always +present and form the central figures of the feast, numerous others more +plebeian, but more lovable, find places on the lower shelves, and the +array of dolls' furnishings which is brought out on these occasions is +something marvellous. Before Emperor and Empress is set an elegant +lacquered service, tray, bowls, cups, _sake_ pots, rice buckets, etc., +all complete, and in each utensil is placed the appropriate variety of +food. Fine silver and brass _hibachi_, or fire-boxes, are there with +their accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets--whole kitchens, with +everything required for cooking the finest of Japanese feasts, as finely +made as if for actual use; all the necessary toilet apparatus--combs, +mirrors, utensils for blackening the teeth, for shaving the eyebrows, +for reddening the lips and whitening the face--all these are there to +delight the souls of all the little girls who may have the opportunity +to behold them. For three days the imperial effigies are served +sumptuously at each meal, and the little girls of the family take +pleasure in serving the imperial majesties; but when the feast ends, the +dolls and their belongings are packed away in their boxes, and lodged in +the fireproof warehouse for another year." + +Besides the special festivals and holidays, there is opportunity all +the year round for the little girls to play their merry games of ball +and battledoor and shuttlecock, which they do with keen delight and with +much grace of movement. The tales of wonder which are told them are a +perpetual source of pleasure; for they have their _Jack, the Giant +Killer_, in _Momotaro, the Peach Boy_, with his wondrous conquests, and +many other tales to kindle their youthful imaginations. Among these are +the early ancestral exploits, which tend to keep alive love of country. +The Japanese girl may be seen occasionally in the theatre, seated on the +floor with her mother and sisters, taking into her memory impressions of +heroism and self-sacrifice, through the historical dramas which present +the early experiences of patriotism and passion which characterized the +fathers of old. Thus, the Japanese girl grows up to womanhood and is a +finished product five or six years earlier than is an English or +American girl. At sixteen or eighteen she is regarded as quite ready +herself to take up the active duties of life. + +The preparation given to the girls of Japan has been justly criticised +in that, while furnishing the future woman with remarkable powers of +observation and of memory, with much tactfulness and aesthetic taste, +with deftness and agility of the fingers, there is little to strengthen +the powers of reason and to cultivate the religious and spiritual side +of the nature. Music is almost the sole possession of women, and many of +them play the _koto_ (a stringed instrument with horizontal sounding +boards, not unlike the piano in principle) and the _samisen_, or +"Japanese guitar," with great grace of touch and manner, but with little +music, as adjudged by the Occidental ear;--however, standards differ. +So, too, the artistic arrangement of flowers is an art much loved by the +women of Japan. Their education and their daily occupation tend to +cultivate the emotional at the expense of the intellectual side of life. +Hence, much refinement but less strength, and the best and cleverest +women of Japan, therefore, are attractive rather than admirable. + +The diminutive size of the Japanese women, their pretty hands and feet, +their taste in ornamenting shapely bodies, give them a personal +attractiveness rarely surpassed. To what an extent the lowness of +stature among the Japanese is to be attributed to their habits cannot be +determined. It is the shortness of the lower limbs that is chiefly at +fault; and the habit, early contracted, of sitting upon the legs bent +horizontally at the knee, instead of vertically, inevitably arrests the +development of the lower limbs. + +The Japanese women have luxuriant, straight, black hair. The wavy hair +which Western women prize so highly is not beautiful in the eyes of the +ladies of Japan. Curly hair is to them positively ugly. They spend much +care upon the arrangement of their tresses, and their mode of +hairdressing is elaborate. Even the women of the poorer classes will +visit the hairdressers. The locks are first treated with a preparation +of oil, and then done up in the conventional style so familiar to all +from pictures of Japanese women. This is expected with many to remain +intact for six or eight days. + +At present the modes of dressing the hair of female children and growing +girls, as well as of married women, vary according to taste and +circumstances. In ancient days, however,--and the custom still prevails +in some of the more conservative regions,--the hair of the female +children was cut short at the neck and allowed to hang down loosely till +the girl reached the age of eight years. At about twelve or thirteen, +the hair was usually bound up, although frequently this was delayed till +the girl became a wife. In the romantic poem of Mushimaro, _The Maiden +of Unahi_, we find this custom referred to, as well as the custom of +secluding the young girl from the eyes of her would-be suitors: + + "For they locked her up as a child of eight, + When her hair hung loosely still; + And now her tresses were gathered up, + To float no more at will." + +As a rule, the women wear no head covering whatever, except that which +their luxuriant hair furnishes. In the coldest weather, however, they +wrap the head gracefully in a headgear of cloth. Gloves are rarely seen +upon the dainty hands of the women, and shoes are worn only when out of +doors. + +The costume of the Japanese women was, and in great measure still is, +marked by simplicity and sameness of cut. There is no variation of +style--fond as the women of the country are of dress. In the material +used and in the color, however, they have ample scope for the display of +their exquisite taste, their individuality, and their wealth. The age of +the woman may aiso be determined with considerable accuracy by her +manner of dress, for a Japanese woman has no sensitiveness on this +score. The girl baby is clothed "in the brightest colors, and largest of +patterns, and looks like a gay butterfly or a tropical bird. As she +grows older, colors become quieter, figures smaller, stripes narrower, +until in old age she becomes a little gray moth, or a plain-colored +sparrow." The hair and head ornaments also vary with the age of the +wearer; so that one who is acquainted with the Japanese mode can read +the age of his lady friend within a few years, at most. The V-neck is +the uniform fashion in Japan, and when a woman of the better classes is +properly clothed in her native costume she presents a most graceful and +attractive appearance. When appropriate, she wears a sort of cloak +fastened with a cord, and the familiar _kimono_ made without any plaits, +lapped over in front and confined with a broad sash which is looped in a +big bunch at the back to conceal the plainness of the _kimono_. This +sash, or _obi_, and the collar, or _eri_, are usually of the finest silk +the women can afford, and are altogether the gayest portion of the +habit. When a Japanese woman is at her best, she may be imagined to have +just stepped from a group painted upon some artistic fan, especially +when in the hands are the umbrella and the lantern. The women of the +poorer classes, however, are often meagrely clad--sometimes too scantily +so for decency. They peddle their wares or work in the fields, barefoot +and almost naked. The shoes of a Japanese lady are so constructed that +they may be easily taken off before entering the house, as is the +custom. There is first put on a short stocking, or _tabi_, which reaches +a little above the ankle and fastens in the back. This is made after the +fashion of a mitten, that the great toe may be separate from the others; +for a cord is to pass between the toes to hold in the _geta_, or +"shoes." There are several styles of these; some are partly of leather, +to cover the toes on rainy days; some are merely straw sandals; while +others are of wood, which are clumsy and lift the feet quite above the +ground, and when worn make much noise along the streets. + +In Japan, the disgrace of not being married does not arrive so early in +the young girl's life, as is the case in some countries of the East. And +yet, even here it will not do for a woman to wait until the age of +twenty-five without having made her peace with the god of matrimony. +Usually, however, marriage, which to a Japanese woman is almost as much +a matter of course as death itself, comes at the age of sixteen or +eighteen. Here, too, the girl of the land of the Cherry Blossom is given +more freedom of choice as respects the question who her life partner +shall be than is generally true in the East; but marry she must. The +inevitable Eastern "go-between" is of value here. The first steps in +Japanese courting are undertaken by him in consultation with the parents +of the girl who it is thought will make the inquiring young man happy. +Opportunity is given, at the home of some mutual friend, for the couple +to meet and pass upon each other's qualities. If there is mutual +admiration, or, indeed, if the young people find no reason why they +should not be joined in marriage, the engagement present, a piece of +silk, used for the girdle by the groomsman, is given, and finally +arrangements are made for the wedding. + +[Illustration 6:_WOMAN'S TASTE IN JAPAN After the water-color by +Charles E. Fripp There is no variation of style--fond as the women are +of dress. In the material used and in the color, however, they have +ample scope for the display of their exquisite taste, their +individuality, and their wealth. The age of the woman may also be +determined with considerable accuracy by her manner of dress, for a +Japanese woman has no sensitiveness on this score. The girl baby is "in +the brightest colors. As she grows older, colors become quieter, figures +smaller." The hair and head ornaments vary with the age of the wearer. +The V-neck is the uniform fashion in Japan, and when a woman of the +better classes is properly clothed in her native costume she presents a +most graceful and attractive appearance._] + +The marriage ceremony is not at the home of the bride, but at the house +of the groom, to which the bride is taken, her belongings, such as her +bureau, writing desk, bedding, trays, dining tables, chopsticks, etc., +having gone before. The giving of presents is often profuse. But it is +not the bride and groom alone who are remembered; the groom's family, +from the oldest to the youngest, the servants, even the humblest, are +presented with gifts by the members of the bride's family. The gifts to +the newly wedded pair are often very practical, consisting of silk for +clothing or of articles of household use; and it is not uncommon for a +bride to receive dress goods enough to last her her lifetime. The +ceremony itself is simple and impressive. Friends and relatives +generally are not present. The bride and groom are there, of course; +besides these are the go-betweens of the couple, and a young girl, whose +duty it is to take the cup of _sake_, or native wine of Japan, and press +it successively to the lips of the contracting parties, emblematic of +the coming joys and sorrows of their common married life. The wedding +guests, who have been waiting in the next room, now appear with their +congratulations, and merriment and feasting follow. On the third day +after the marriage, the bride's parents must give to the couple another +wedding feast. At this the bride's relatives receive presents in return +for the large number of gifts sent by them on the wedding day to the +household of the groom. Announcement of the marriage is not sent out +until two or three months later; it is then made in the form of an +invitation, sent out by the bride and groom, to an entertainment at +their house. Acknowledgments of the bridal presents sent by friends +must, of course, be made. This is done in sending to those who remember +the young pair gifts of _kawameshi_, or "red rice." + +It will be seen that there is in the conduct of a wedding in Japan +neither legal nor religious sanction. The only prescribed formality is +the erasure of the bride's name from the register of her father's family +and its insertion in that of the husband's. She is no longer a part of +the genealogical tree. She lives with and is a part of the groom's +household. The exception to the custom is found in the _yoshii_, or +"young man," who becomes a part of his wife's family, taking her family +name and repudiating his own. This is done when in a family there are no +boys who may inherit the estate and name. Some youth is then found, +usually a younger member of a household, who can be induced to leave his +heritage and unite himself with a brotherless daughter of another house. +He cuts himself off absolutely from his own people and raises up heirs +for his wife's people. But he has not the standing and authority of the +woman's husband, for he becomes the servant of his mother-in-law, and +may be sent back to his people if he does not conduct himself in a way +acceptable to his wife's family; or if they should weary of his +presence. Ordinarily, children are scarcely regarded as of the mother at +all--the blood is all the father's. The low social standing of the +mother in no way impairs the rank or respectability of the children. The +past few decades have witnessed many notable changes in Japan, and there +is a reaching out after legislation that shall make the marriage +relation more satisfactory and permanent, for divorces have been the +frequent cause of great hardships, especially upon the women, who have +little opportunity to earn an honorable living when once the marriage +tie has been broken. Home life is kept comparatively pure in Japan, but +the price is enormous. The abandoned woman carries on her business or +has it carried on for her with shameless openness. The ideals of purity +are far higher among the women than among the men. And yet, chastity is +not regarded as the highest virtue among Japanese women as among +northwestern people. Obedience to the will of the husband stands first +in the list of virtues. Thus, Japanese women have often been known to +sell their chastity in order that they might save their husbands from +debt or disgrace, and they have received the plaudits of the public for +what is styled their fidelity to their husbands' interest. + +In few, if any, countries of the Orient do the women appear in public +as the equals of their husbands. The Japanese women of the lower social +classes, when they go out with their spouses, follow on behind, bearing +whatever burden is to be borne. In trains or crowded rooms it is the +women who stand, and not the men. Japanese gallantry is not shown in +such public courtesies as are commonly offered to women in the United +States. The wife does not begin her wedded life with the thought of +equality with her husband; and, in law, he is greatly her superior +unless, happily, her husband should be motherless. Next to her duties to +her parents-in-law, the wife's great concern is to be a good +housekeeper, rather than a companion for her husband. She must, with due +self-control and even with smiling face, humor the whims and the vices +of her lord and master, even though he bring another woman into the +home. But it may be said that the Japanese husband extends to a legal +wife comparative respect and even honor, if, as the mother of children, +she fulfils well her duties. Third in line of demand upon a wife's care, +stand the children. In them the Japanese mother takes delight; and here +the self-control which she has learned almost from the cradle stands her +in good stead and beautifully exhibits itself, for she seldom loses her +temper or scolds her children. Even the wealthy women come in contact +with their children and personally guide their lives. The training of +the girls is almost entirely in the hands of the mother; and the +domestic cares of routine life are under her skilful direction. In the +rural districts the activities of women are enlarged by the part they +take in the making of the crops, the running of the rice fields, the +production of tea, the harvesting of grain, and the care of the +silkworms, the bringing of products to market, and the like. But the +freedom they thus enjoy makes amends, in a measure, for the more +burdensome work of which their sisters of the city know nothing. + +The _geishas_, or singing girls of Japan, are, physically speaking, +among the most attractive examples of female grace. The word _geishas_ +means "accomplished persons," and these girls are trained in the art of +making themselves agreeable. They are accomplished in music, singing, +and playing the _samisen_, witty in conversation, and beautiful in +figure. Theirs is a regular occupation, their services being sought on +occasions when entertainment is the chief concern. While these girls do +not come from the higher social circles, some of them marry well and +become the mothers of reputable families, while many others, yielding to +the strong temptations incident to their employment, become the +concubines of some well-to-do citizen or lead lives even lower in the +moral scale. + +Among the special occupations of women may be mentioned that of acting; +for there are women's theatres in which all the parts are performed by +women. Men and women never appear on the same stage. In literature, two +Japanese women have gained the distinction of having written the two +greatest native works--works admittedly at the very acme of Japanese +classics. One of these is _Genji Monogatari_, or "Romance of Genji," and +the other _Makura Zoshi_, or "Book of the Pillow." The authoresses of +the two masterpieces, both court ladies living in the eleventh century +of our era, were Murasaki Shikibu and Seisho Nagon. To their names may +be added that of a brilliant female contemporary Ise no Taiyu. The +Emperor Ichijo, who reigned at that period, was a distinguished patron +of letters. He gathered about him men and women of culture, and the more +lasting literary monuments of his day are those written by women. The +work of these gifted women is marked by ease and grace of movement, +fluency of diction, and lightness of artistic touch. + +Murasaki Shikibu was a lady of noble birth. She was, in her youth, maid +of honor to the daughter of the prime minister of that day. This +daughter, Jioto Monin, became wife of the Emperor Ichijo, and from this +station of influence became a most valuable patroness of Murasaki, the +talented authoress. She herself married a noble, and their daughter also +became a writer of note, producing a work of fiction called _Sagoromo_, +or "Narrow Sleeves." + +The chief work of this noted Japanese authoress, Murasaki, is what may +be called a historic novel, _Genji Monogatari_, or "The Romance of +Genji." In this story the writer gives an accurate view of the +conditions which surrounded court life in the tenth century of our era. +From the romance of _Gengi_ it may be seen, as a native Japanese critic +has said, that "Society lost sight, to a great extent of true morality, +and the effeminacy of the people constituted the chief feature of the +age. Men were ready to carry on sentimental adventures whenever they +found opportunities, and the ladies of the times were not disposed to +discourage them. The court was the focus of society, the utmost ambition +of ladies was to be introduced there." + +In those early days of Japanese life, it was not an unknown occurrence +for a woman when plunged into the depths of some disappointment or +overwhelming grief to take the oath of a religious recluse. "Her +conscience," says Sama-no-Kami, "when she takes the fatal vow may be +pure and unsullied and nothing may seem able again to call her back to +the world which she forsook. But as time rolls on, some household +servant or aged nurse brings her tidings that the lover has been unable +to cast her out of his heart, and his tears drop silently when he hears +aught about her. Then, when she hears of his abiding affection and his +constant heart and thinks of the uselessness of the sacrifice she has +made voluntarily, she touches the hair on her forehead, and she becomes +regretful. She may indeed do her best to persevere in her resolve; but +if one single tear bedew her cheek, she is no longer strong in the +sanctity of her vow. Weakness of this kind would be in the life of +Buddha more sinful than those offences which are committed by those who +never leave the lay circle at all, and she would eventually return to +the world." + +There are many short Japanese poems which breathe of love, and tell of +womanly charm. These short poems are highly prized, and many of them are +familiar to the majority of the people. Among the women who won +distinction as writers of love poems was the Lady Sakanoe, who lived in +the eighth century. She was a woman of high position, being the daughter +of a prime minister and wife of the viceroy of the island of Skioku. Her +poems are among the most popular in Japanese literature, and some of +them reveal a high order of imaginative power. + +Japanese poetry, which has been described as "the one original product +of the Japanese mind," contains many references to woman, her loves, her +laments, her passions, her ills. Sometimes the loyalty of a maiden's +love is set forth--as in a poem by the Lady Sakanoe in the _Manyoshu_: + + "Full oft he swore with accents true and tender, + 'Though years roll by my love shall never wax old,' + And so to him my heart I did surrender, + Clear as a mirror of pure burnished gold." + +A large number of the love poems are sensual; yet, pure love breathes in +many others, as in _A Maiden's Lament_, a poem by the Lady Sakanoe, and +in the _Elegy_ written by Nibi upon his wife. The poet Sosei, also, has +written words that speak to the heart: + + "I asked my soul where springs the ill-crowned seed + That bears the herb of dull forgetfulness; + And answer straightway came; th' accursed weed, + Grows in that heart which knows no tenderness." + +The mutual regard of husband and wife in early Japanese life is +beautifully expressed in an anonymous poem in the _Manyoshu_. A wife +laments that while other women's husbands are seen riding along the road +in proud array, her own husband trudges along the weary way afoot: + + "Come, take the mirror and the veil, + My mother's parting gifts to me; + In barter they must sure avail, + To buy a horse to carry thee." + +To which self-denying love, the husband graciously replies: + + "And I should purchase me a horse, + Must not my wife still sadly walk? + No, no, though stony is our course, + We'll trudge along and sweetly talk." + +There have been many able women in this land of the Cherry Blossom, and +the Japanese people have not been blind to their claims to recognition +as controlling forces. This is shown by the fact that no less than nine +empresses have ruled the land. Some of them have been women of marked +sagacity and influence. On the dim borderland of the mythical, for +example, history shows us the heroic Empress Jingu Kogo, who, tradition +says, was the conqueror of Corea, and the embodiment of all that is good +and great in Japanese womanhood. + +Among the women of Japanese legend is the Maiden of Unahi, the story of +whose noble life and death has been often sung by the poets. Her tomb is +to-day pointed out in the province of Settsu, between Kobe and Osaka. +Such heroines of the earlier days have furnished inspiration for the +women of Japan for many generations; and the ideals of domestic life are +far higher than might be expected in a region of the world where women, +as a rule, live out their round of life upon a general plane that is +sorrowfully low. + +The present generation in Japan has been truly blessed by the influence +of an empress who is described as not only "charming, intellectual, +refined, and lovely," but also "noble and beautiful in character." Haru +Ko, born of noble parentage, became empress in the year 1868. Her +husband had just come to the throne at the age of seventeen. This was +the very year of the downfall of the Shogunate and the restoration of +the imperial power. Though reared in seclusion at Kioto, the young +empress began at once to measure up to the responsibilities which her +position had in store for her. She proceeded to exert her influence in +favor of the elevation of the women of her country. Without hesitancy, +she mingled personally among the people, administering charity to them. +Very early in her life as empress, in the year 1871, she gave a special +audience to five little girls of the military class who were about to +set out for America in order to study to prepare themselves for the +larger life of womanhood in the new Japan. From the beginning of the +school established for daughters of the nobility, who are expected to +play an important part in the Japan that is to be, she has taken great +interest in its progress. + +The religious side of a Japanese woman's life, as has been intimated, +is remarkably undeveloped. In the portico of a certain temple in the +interior of Japan is found this inscription: "Neither horses, cattle, +nor women admitted here." This may be taken as but one intimation of the +fact that little in the way of religion is expected of the female sex. +The introduction of Buddhism into Japan marked an epoch in the country's +history; but Buddhism has done little for woman, for she does not occupy +so exalted a position under it as under the more ancient religion. +Shintoism has its priestesses and Buddhism its nuns, but neither of +these religions has brought any noteworthy blessing to the women of the +kingdom. The ancient religions still influence their lives. The +multitude of temples still claim the veneration of the people. Kioto +retains its eminence as the chief seat of ecclesiastical learning, but +the Western spirit has found an entrance into the land of the Cherry +Blossom; traditional customs are yielding to its influence, and +inveterate prejudices are bending before it. + +The progress of Christian ideals has in recent years been rapid, and +Western religious teaching has advanced with giant strides. Recent +legislation has done something to increase the stability of the home by +making divorce less easy. The putting of concubinage under the ban by +not allowing the children of concubines to inherit a noble title, making +this law apply even to the son of the emperor himself, who must also +hereafter be son of the empress if he would inherit the throne, will +also mean much for the elevation of womanhood in the land of the cherry +and the japonica. + + + + +XIV + +WOMEN OF THE BACKWARD RACES OF THE EAST + + +No volume upon the women of the Orient could be deemed complete without +some account of those women whose lives have been developed remote from +the larger movements of civilization,--the women of the backward races, +and those whose sphere has been contracted, not by social ideals simply, +but by virtue of the lack of that larger opportunity of world contact +which has given to some peoples a far more powerful impulse to progress +than has been the privilege of others. As representatives of this class +we may choose the women of the South Seas and of some of the African +tribes. These will furnish us typical examples. + +George Eliot has declared that "the happiest women, like the happiest +nations, have no history." In the advance of the world's civilization +from crude savagery to high culture, woman's part, though of +incalculable value, has, generally speaking, been unheralded. Bearing +the brunt of the downward burden, while man's shoulder presses upward, +woman, from the beginning, has had a minor place in written history. But +even among the obscurer races she has managed to bear her part with +marked happiness. This seems to be notably true among the island women +of the world. The peoples of the seas, removed from many of the pressing +conditions and harsh frictions which are present in the larger countries +of the continent, exhibit a freedom, if the term may be justly applied +to undeveloped races, which is not the possession of many of the larger +and older nations of men. One is prepared, of course, for great variety +of blood, custom, and development among the peoples who inhabit the +islands and the lands that lie out of the beaten track of travel and +commerce. There is probably no part of the world where the races of +mankind have become more mixed than in the South Seas. + +The women of the Indo-Pacific area belong to certain great classes or +groups of humanity. First, the Australian, inhabiting the great island +continent that seems to be the southeastern extension of Asia; they are +considered the lowest among the races of mankind, have black skins, but +not woolly hair, and are looked upon as a distinct race. Second, come +the Papuan women, who are in every respect negroes, resembling their +kindred in Africa in the variety of their types, including the tall, +very woolly-headed people of New Guinea, who have black skins and comely +bodies. Of the same race, but differing greatly in ethnic +characteristics, are the pigmy people of the Andaman Islands, of the +Malay Peninsula, and of the Philippines. Third, the brown Polynesians, +who are among the finest looking people on the face of the earth; they +inhabit the groups of small islands all about the Pacific Ocean, from +Hawaii to New Zealand, and from Easter Island to Samoa. Fourth and +finally, the Malays proper, who are a small, wiry, energetic people of +southeastern Asia and the great islands lying around Java, Sumatra, +Borneo, and the Philippines. The eight million people (called Filipinos) +in the last-named islands are, as will be seen later, of mixed blood, a +compound of all the sub-species of humanity, brown, black, yellow, and +white, even a small sprinkling of American Indian blood being there. +Women of so great admixture of blood must necessarily exhibit wide +differences of personal appearance and of inherited as well as acquired +traits. + +It would be highly instructive to take up the women of these several +races and consider them one by one in the various experiences of their +lives, from birth to burial, in childhood and name, in girlhood and +marriage, in family life and social standing, in religion and the last +act; for interest in this study extends far beyond the lives and +activities of those to whom it is directed. The whole human species are +one, and it is not a violation of good reasoning to suppose that the +activities and social life of these lowly women may, in a certain +general way, represent the standing of members of our own race in the +early stages of their progress. It is true, however, that in the +Indo-Pacific area we are more or less in the suburbs of the world. +Caution, therefore, must be exercised in forming conclusions that the +abject conditions of the Australians, for instance, is a correct picture +of a previous condition of the Caucasian race. These races have lagged +in the progress of the world, and in all the centuries of their +isolation have rather retrograded than advanced. They are in possession +of arts and practise social customs that are evidently the survival of a +more advanced state, as will be seen in the separate study of each race. + +Further interest is added to the study of these tribes in that, despite +the fact that they are the lowest of the world's peoples, they each lead +a rounded existence. Industries, fine art, speech, social forms and +usages, the explanation of things, creed and cult, all fit together +harmoniously. To the civilized woman, almost every act in the life of +her sex among the people named would be intolerable, but to the woman +there, these actions are the things to be done and any contrary course +would never enter her thoughts. The joys of life come from obedience to +the present order and to the venerable customs and traditions that have +come down from mothers for many generations. + +In height, Australian women average about five feet two inches, the +tallest not exceeding five feet five inches. They have small feet and +hands, the widest span being six inches. The color of the skin is dark +chocolate, the lips are thick, the nose is broad and incurved, the head +long, the hair black, but not woolly, and is generally worn short. Some +of the young girls are pretty, and from carrying burdens on the head +they have an erect pose; the Australians, however, are an unhandsome +race, and at thirty, if she lives so long, the woman is an old hag, the +acme of indescribable ugliness intensified by following the habit of +knocking out the front teeth for the sake of fashion. + +The girl-child born in Australia has little care beyond what is +necessary to preserve her life. The almost deserted mother is placed +apart in a brush shelter and is attended by some old woman of her clan. +The birthplace of the little girl is amid the greatest squalor. On rare +occasions mothers practise infanticide. The child is killed as soon as +born, in the belief (in the words of Nicodemus) that it can enter a +second time into the mother's womb and be reborn. As infants are suckled +several years, the chief cause of this unnatural act is the inability of +the mother to add another ounce to life's burdens. Being considered +uncanny, twins are immediately killed; and once in a while a healthy +child meets with a like fate, in order that its vigor may go into a +weaker one. + +The baby's name is inherited from her mother, or perhaps from her +father. It is merely a class title, for every tribe in Australia is +separated into classes with names. If descent be in the female line, +then everyone in a class has the same name from the mothers; if it be in +the male line, all whose fathers are in the same class are named alike. +In all Australia there is no such title as "mother," in our sense of the +word. Of the girl-child here considered, there are as many mothers as +there are females in that class belonging to the same generation. If the +reader were an Australian girl, she would, then, have several or many +mothers; there would be her own mother, her maternal aunts, and all +collateral female kin of that generation and of the mother's class. For +example, suppose a tribe in which the two moieties were named Brown and +Smith. Every Brown man would have to marry a Smith woman and vice versa. +A Smith would not and dare not marry a Smith, or a Brown marry a Brown. +Now, if the mother-right prevailed, all the children of the Brown +mothers would be Browns, of the Smith mothers would be Smiths; but if +father-right prevailed, then all the children of Brown mothers would be +Smiths, and those of the Smith mothers would be Browns. The marriage tie +is so loose in Australia that the family exists only in the group, and +the little girl is not "Miss Brown," but a Brown--one of the Browns. The +principle is as here stated, but the practice in detail is most +bewildering. The little newborn girl is not merely "Miss S." or "Miss +B." Her tribe, with its two moieties or classes, may have six totems in +each. In that case, her father and her mother will have totem names. +Take the Urabrinna tribe with its two classes, Matthurie and Kirarwa. If +the father be a Dingo Matthurie and the mother be a Water Hen Kirarwa, +our little girl will bear her mother's name, so will all other girls of +Water Hen mothers and, also, their children to remotest posterity. + +The girls of this generation are, in fact, sisters and look upon the +whole generation that gave them birth as a class of mothers; it is the +best they can do. + +In some tribes the classification takes this quaint form: every man +belongs to one of a number of families or classes, which we may mark, +for convenience, A, B, C, and D. Every woman belongs, also, to one of a +number of named classes, which we may call E, F, G, and H. Now, all the +men in the A class are compelled to marry one of the four classes of +women, and their children are classified by rule under the other letters +in the most confusing but interesting fashion. The system is far more +intricate than that of the American Indians. + +Besides these class or totem names, each little Australian girl has a +personal name by which she is freely addressed by all excepting such of +the opposite sex as are tabooed by custom. She may also have nicknames +like the American Indian girls, and finally, every girl of the tribe has +her secret name which may be that of some celebrated woman handed down +by tradition. It is never uttered except upon most solemn occasions, and +is known to those only who are initiated. When mentioned at all, it is +in a whisper. If a stranger should know one's name, he would have a +special chance to work her ill by ways of magic. + +At a very early age, the Australian girl has graduated in all the +hardening processes which result in the survival of the fittest, and is +ready to take her place among women. The rites by which she is initiated +into womanhood lessen her vitality, if they do not destroy it. No sooner +does the little girl get upon her feet than her education begins. Her +play is imitation of her mother's labors and enjoyments. A group of +girls will amuse themselves by the hour, playing little dramas with the +hands. Many of these games are to be found among civilized peoples. Your +meaningless piling of fists in the play: "Take it off, or I'll knock it +off," is part of a game which represents the entire operation of finding +a honey tree, cutting it down, gathering the honey, mixing it with +water, and eating it. + +The marriage tie of Australian women cannot be likened to that existing +among Christian nations, nor is it similar to the polygamy of Mohammedan +peoples, but is a modified form of group marriage. + +The Australian man obtains his wife in one of four different ways. His +father secures her for him by an arrangement with the girl's father; he +charms his intended by magic; he captures her as he would an enemy in +battle; or she elopes with him. It is to be understood, of course, that +the woman belongs to the proper class by descent. The Australians are +very particular in this regard. The first and most usual method of +taking a wife is connected with the law which makes every woman the +possible wife of some man. There is little or no ceremony in connection +with the rite of matrimony. When a man has secured a wife, she becomes +his private property. + +Let us imagine, therefore, that a man has set his heart upon a woman of +the proper group. There are several ways of practising magic to procure +a wife. Spencer and Gillan, the greatest authorities in this line of +study, say, that when a man is desirous of securing a woman for his +wife,--it makes no difference whether or not she be already assigned to +some other man,--he takes a small strip of wood, attached at one end to +a string, and marks it with the design of his totem, and with this +instrument (called by the American boy a "buzzer") he goes into the bush +accompanied by his friends. All night long the men keep up a low singing +and chanting of amorous phrases. At daylight, the man stands up alone +and swings his roarer. The sound of the instrument and the singing of +the air is carried to the ear of the woman by magic, and it has the +power of compelling her affections. It is asserted that women have been +known to come fifty miles in order to marry the man who had bewitched +them. There are other ways of charming a woman upon whom the lover has +set his heart,--such as the charm of the gaudy headband worn on a public +occasion, the charm of blowing the horn, and more. Elopement is only +another form of magic. The third method of obtaining a wife, by capture, +has been described as universal among the Australians, but the latest +writers affirm that it is the rarest way in which the central Australian +secures his wife. + +Among the Australians, Polynesians, Malays, and many others of the +lower races, descent has been primarily and uniformly through the +mother. It was not until tribes became sedentary and property was held +by individuals that inheritance passed to the male members of the +family. The so-called mother-right is based upon the belief that +individuals forming a certain clan or group, by whatever name they may +be called, are the offspring of a woman who lived long ago. The term +_mutterrecht_, by which this custom is called, is of course a sort of +legal fiction; for men have always governed the world. Two benefits grew +out of this form of descent. One was the certainty of motherhood. The +other was the assurance, to every individual, of family support, as the +children of a number of sisters were not cousins to one another, but all +were brothers and sisters. So long as there were provisions with any one +of this group, the rest were sure of a meal. This plan of descent +through the mother has survived in many curious ways. It is found among +many African tribes. Even to-day the Spaniards, who have a great deal of +Moorish blood in their veins, have the custom of adding the mother's +name to the father's to show that the descent is legitimate. It may be +of interest to know, in passing, that James Smithson, the founder of the +Smithsonian Institution, was required by his father, the Duke of +Northumberland, to be known by his mother's name until he was of age, +when he was allowed to assume the family name of the duke, which was +Smithson. This is but a modern instance of how persistent the ancient +custom has been. As soon as sedentary life and settled ownership of +property took the place of nomadic life and communal ownership, +mother-right or matriarchy passed gradually into patriarchy. It is +curious to know that among the American Indians at the time they were +discovered one could find all degrees of this transition. We must be +careful, too, to discriminate between the tribe and the clan, or gens, +for all savage tribes are exogamous with respect to the clans and +endogamous with respect to the tribes. When the people develop the +tendency to marriage within the tribe, it is evident that they have +passed out of the earlier stages of clan grouping into the stage of +property grouping. Marrying in the tribes was necessary, in order, as we +might put it, to "keep the money in the family." Among many of the +lowest as well of the highest civilization, the practice is against +marrying a girl who is akin; and it is always a subject of humor when a +young woman in our own country marries without changing her name, a +quiet recognition of the old practice of the exogamous marriage between +clan members. + +Clothing for warmth or protection is not worn by Australian women; even +the apron is not universal. The sense of beauty, however, has been +awakened in these savage breasts, and expresses itself in pretty +headbands, necklaces, and breast ornaments of seeds, teeth, and strings +colored with ochre. The men, too, are but little better attired; but one +indispensable article of their costumes must not be omitted in this +connection, namely, the knout, or coil of twine, with which they thrash +the women. + +The home of the Australian woman, where she and her co-wives and their +children live, is nothing more than a brush shelter, so faced as to +protect the occupants from the prevailing wind. In front of this, or +under it, they work, eat, sleep, and hold social intercourse. In the +morning, they go forth with their digging sticks and wooden troughs to +gather small animals. They take no thought of what they shall eat, the +problem being to have anything to eat. When the men hunt the small +kangaroo, the women surround the game and drive it toward the ambush. +Every edible thing is known and is used for food. The women are the +gleaners also, gathering large quantities of seeds, throwing them from +one trough to another so that the wind may blow away the chaff, grinding +them on one stone with another, and cooking in hot ashes the dough made +from the meal. The cooking of flesh food is done by men, as that +prepared by females may not be eaten by them; the women attend to the +vegetable diet. In many places, females over a certain age take their +meals apart; this rule, however, is not uniform. + +Should the Australian woman allow her child to live past the earliest +stages of infancy, she is usually a devoted mother. She often bears her +child about on her shoulders as she attends upon her tasks, even after +the child has become five or six years old. And should the little one +die, she will continue to bear the dear body with her, apparently not +noting the decomposition, which soon sets in. Mothers have been known to +carry the body of a dead child for weeks. + +From earliest childhood, girls as well as boys are trained to note the +tracks of every living thing. For amusement, skilful women imitate, in +the sand, the tracks of animals; and they know one another's footsteps. +Spencer and Gillan say that every woman has her _pitchi_, or "wooden +trough," from one to three feet long, in which she carries everything, +even the baby, for she is both pack and passenger beast; when she is +hunting, it will very often be used as a scoop-shovel to clear out +earth. Her only other implement is her digging stick, the primitive +pick-plow excavator. It is a straight staff, pointed at the end. When at +work requiring its use, the owner loosens the earth with the digging +stick, held in the right hand, while her left hand plays the part of +shovel. Acre after acre of the soil wherein lives the honey ant is dug +over for this toothsome mite. Little girls go out with their mothers; +and while the latter are digging up vermin and insects, the toddlers, +with little picks, will be taking their first lesson in what will be +their chief lifework. + +Among savages, the textile art--woman's peculiar industry--is little +encouraged. The spindle used in Australia before the discovery of the +island-continent in 1606, and which is still in use among the wild +tribes, is the most primitive conceivable, for it is merely a little +switch with a hooked end. The women make string for tying, as well as +for bags and network, out of human, opossum, and kangaroo hair, from +sinew, like the Eskimo, and from vegetable fibre. They sit upon the +ground, use the left hand for a distaff, and with the right hand roll +the spindle dexterously on the naked thigh. When a foot or so of string +is finished, it is rolled about the hook of the spindle for a bobbin. +When two of these are completed, a stick is driven into the ground, and +a rude rope or twine walk is set up. The women know the dyes in many +plants and use them. With the strings they make basketry, nets, bags, +plaiting, and many ornamental forms of simple lacework and borders. +Indeed, the Australian aborigines are at the bottom of the textile +ladder, where human fingers perform all spinning, netting, and weaving. + +In lieu of the gaudy costumes and of the tattooed tooth patterns etched +upon the skin among other Indo-Pacific tribes, Australian women decorate +their breasts and other parts with horrid scars. They cut the skin with +flint or glass, and rub ashes or down into the open wounds in order that +the cicatrices may be large and prominent. They submit to these tortures +with the greatest satisfaction, and add more from time to time as +memorials of personal experiences or in honor of the dead. + +The Australian women are fond of games and sports. Dr. Roth, the +Northern Protector of Aborigines in Queensland, says that with a fair +length of twine adult women will amuse themselves for hours at a time. +The twine is used in the form of an endless string, known to Europeans +as "cat's cradle" or "catch cradle." Hundreds of the most intricate and +bewildering designs are made, in the formation of which the mouth, the +knees, and the toes cooperate with the hand. Some of the figures are +extremely complicated. Dr. Roth gives the plates of the finished +patterns, which certainly are as fascinating as any work of savage +hands. + +Australian women are described as cheerful and light-hearted, but, on +occasion, they fight with their digging sticks most furiously, giving +and taking blows like men. The testimony of the best observers is to the +effect that, in most tribes, women are not treated with excessive +cruelty, which would be quickly fatal to the tribe in longevity, +fecundity, and service. Women receive their share of the resources, be +they abundant or meagre. What seems to be cruelty is only custom or, as +one would say, fashion; and in Australia, even more so than in Paris, +you had as well be out of the world as out of the fashion. + +All her life, the Australian woman is in the most abject social state; +her connection with the rites and ceremonies of her tribes is only as an +assistant or attendant. She is charged with all the industrial +occupations of food getting, and is not allowed to venture near the +sacred places on in of death. She is bound hand and foot by custom. + +No Australian woman is believed to die a natural death. All are killed +by magic--it may be a personal enemy near at hand or by a great sorcerer +far away. Their life, so remote from ours, is, however, less sensitive, +and it would be untrue to say that they are a melancholy set, living in +perpetual dread. + +When an Australian woman dies, she is at once placed in a sitting +posture, with the knees doubled up against the chin. The body thus +prepared is deposited in a round hole at once or is placed on a +platform, made of boughs, until some of the flesh disappears, after +which the bones are put into a grave. Nothing whatever is deposited with +her, and the earth is piled directly upon the body so as to form a low +mound with a depression on the side toward the camp ground. As soon as +the burial is over, her camp is burnt utterly and her group remove to +another place. Those who stood in certain kinship to her may never +mention her name again or go near her grave after the last act of +quieting the spirit has been performed. This ceremony occurs about a +year after the death of a woman, and consists of trampling on her grave. +Her mother and the nearest clan kin paint themselves with kaolin and +visit her grave, accompanied by certain of her tribal brothers. On the +way, the actual mother throws herself on the ground and is only +prevented from frightfully cutting herself by watchful attendants. At +the grave, the blood flows copiously from self-inflicted wounds upon all +the mourners. After this blood letting, charms are planted upon the +grave mound, the blood stained pipe clay, with which the half dead +mother has smeared herself, is rubbed off and the grave is smoothed +over. All this is done cheerfully, as it is the custom of the country. + +The widow (or widows) of a deceased man smears her hair, face, and +breast with white pipe clay, and remains silent during a long time, +perhaps a year, communicating by means of gesture language. She remains +in camp, performing assiduously the ceremonies for the dead; indeed, +should she venture forth on her old avocations, a younger brother of her +husband, on meeting her, might run her through with his spear. When the +time comes to have the ban of silence removed, she smears herself afresh +with kaolin, prepares a large tray full of food, and accompanied by +female friends walks to the dividing line of her camp. They are joined +by the proper kindred of the deceased, who, after an elaborate ceremony, +release her from her vows, and certify to her having done her whole +widowly duties. At the ceremony of trampling on the grave of the dead +man, in which certain women take part, and especially the widow, who +scrapes the kaolin from her body, showing that her mourning is ended. + +When a child dies, not only does the actual _mia_, or "mother," cut +herself, but all the sisters of the latter perform a like ceremony. On +the death of relatives, women gash themselves. The scars thus made have +naught to do with the decorative cicatrices across the breast, before +mentioned. They are specially proud of these self-inflicted wounds, +since they are the permanent record of their faithfulness to their dead. + +Let us turn our attention to the smallest women of the world. History, +ethnology, and classic myth have united to make the Eastern pigmies the +most interesting people in the world. Though they are a little people, +and have been hard pressed by larger and stronger races, they have +survived for centuries. They are to be found in Asia, Africa, and the +islands of the sea. Africa was doubtless their aboriginal home; but this +negrito type has spread eastward, probably in their canoes in the early +days, till the islands of the South Seas have become their home. + +The women among these little people are even smaller than the men. The +Mincopies of the Andaman Islands are among the most interesting of the +negritos. Because of their roving nature, they live in huts which are +rather temporary in character. These are put up by the women, though +when a sojourn in a given locality is to be of longer duration the men +build huts that are more permanent. The boys and girls do not sleep in +the same huts with the married people, but in huts specially constructed +for them. The women often become quite expert in the manufacture of +pottery by hand, the vessels having rounded bottoms, and being decorated +with wavy lines, or lines made by a wooden style. + +Both boys and girls in the first few years of life are left entirely +nude. At about six years the little girl has placed upon her an apron of +leaves. This is her sole garment. Later in life, the womanly instinct +for ornament shows itself however, so that necklaces and girdles are +added. There is a certain kind of girdle, made from the pandanus leaves, +which is the peculiar possession of the married women. The women, as +well as the men, tattoo their entire bodies. This art of tattooing is +practised almost entirely by the women. They use a piece of quartz or +glass, making horizontal and vertical incisions in alternating series. +There was probably some religious significance originally in this +practice, since the men begin the process by making incisions with an +arrow used in hunting the wild pig, and while the wounds are still fresh +the man must refrain from using the flesh of this animal. The bodies of +the women are usually quite shapely, though their faces are not +beautiful. With the women as well as the men, the body is of nearly +uniform width, there being scarcely any enlargement at the hips. Since +the race is comparatively pure, marrying among themselves, the type is +very uniform; and since, as Quatrefages says, the occupations of men and +women vary little, the difference in the development of female as +contrasted with masculine characteristics is exceedingly small. + +The young girl enjoys equal freedom with her brother, but preserves her +modesty with commendable strictness. An official, "the guardian of +youth," scrutinizes the conduct of the young people with much care and +attempts to see that wrongs against modesty and chastity are, as far as +possible, righted. The marriage relation is well guarded; bigamy and +polygamy are rigidly prohibited; and betrothals, which are often made +for the little ones at a very tender age, are held as inviolate, a +betrothal being regarded as quite as binding as actual marriage. The +young couple to be married never take the initiative for themselves, +this duty falls to the "guardian of youth," whose watchful eye is +expected to discern the eternal fitness of things in this important +field of human interest. + +The marriage contract is a purely civil one, being celebrated at the +hut of the chieftain of the tribe. The bride remains seated. By her side +is one or more women; the groom stands surrounded by the young men. The +chief approaches him and leads him to the young girl, whose legs are +held by several women. After some pretended resistance on the part of +both, the groom sits down on the knees of his bride. The torches are +lighted so that all present can attest that the ceremony has been +regularly carried out. Finally the chief declares the young people duly +married, and they retire to a hut prepared in advance. Then they are +said to spend several days silently, without so much as looking at each +other, during which period they receive from friends presents of a very +practical nature, such as provisions and equipments for housekeeping. +After this silent but profitable function is over, a wedding dance is +given in which the whole community joins, except the two who are most +concerned in the festivities. + +"It is incorrect to say that among the Andamese marriage is nothing more +than taking a female slave, for one of the striking features of their +social relation is the marked equality and affection which subsists +between husband and wife. Careful observations extended over many years +prove that not only is the husband's authority more or less nominal, but +that it is not at all an uncommon occurrence for Andamese Benedicts to +be considerably at the beck and call of their better halves." + +A writer upon the Andamese islanders has this significant utterance +concerning woman's moral influence even among these uncivilized peoples: +"Experience has taught us that one of the most effective means of +inspiring confidence when endeavoring to make acquaintance with these +savages is to show that we are accompanied by women, for they at once +infer that, whatever may be our intentions, they are at least not +hostile." + +As a rule, marriage life among these Andamese islanders is said to be +very happy. The women are constant and faithful; the husbands also +exercise marked fidelity. The spirit of equality and reciprocity +prevails to an exceptional degree when compared with many other +uncivilized peoples, and indeed with many civilized people. + +Even before the mother gives birth to the child, the little one +receives a name with a qualitative, according to sex. This it bears for +two or three years. It is then replaced by another qualitative which the +boy bears till his initiation into the rites of manhood, and the girl +till the appearance of signs of puberty. This name corresponds to some +tree or flower. When the girl marries she drops her "flower name." + +Mothers, too, have great fondness for their children, nursing them as +long as there is milk for them, and it is not uncommon for three +children to feed at the same maternal breast. A peculiar custom +prevails, however, by which most of the children are by the fifth or +sixth year taken from their parents, and become parts of another +household. This custom of adoption is a method by which friends express +and cement their friendships for one another. As Quatrefages says: +"Every married man received into a family regards as an expression of +gratitude and proof of friendship, the privilege of adopting one of the +children of the family." The parents rarely see children that have been +adopted. They may pay them visits, but they never take them back +permanently to their homes, and temporarily only by permission. The +foster-father may, strangely enough, pass his adopted child on to some +friend of his, as freely as he might one of his own. + +The modesty of the scantily clothed women is noteworthy. Man, who has +written so minutely upon the Andamese, says that when a woman has +occasion to remove one of her girdles in order to make it a present to a +friend, she does so with a shyness that amounts almost to prudery; and +she never changes her apron before a companion, but retires to some +secret place. Even within the same family circle, the bearing of the +sexes toward each other is modest and delicate. The man will observe the +greatest care in his attitude toward the wife of a cousin or of a +younger brother, only addressing her through a third person. The wife of +an elder brother receives the respect accorded to a mother. + +The negritos of Luzon in the Philippines are also found to be very +correct in their ideas upon the relations of the sexes. Adultery is very +rare, and is punished, as are theft and murder, by death. The manners of +the young girls are very correct, for any suspicion of their chastity +might prevent their marriage, for the young men are particular that +their wives should be without stain or even an imputation of it. When a +young man is ready to marry and has found the girl of his choice, he +lets her parents know of his heart's wish. They are said never to +refuse. They do not turn her formally or informally over to her suitor, +however, but they send her out into the forest, where, early in the +morning, before even the sun has risen, she conceals herself. It is the +young man's business to find this pearl of great price, or else he +cannot claim to be worthy of her and must forever relinquish all right +in her. This, it will be readily seen, is but another way of leaving the +whole matter in the hands of the girl, who may not seek the thickest +jungles for a hiding place. The day for the marriage has come. The +lovers climb two young trees which are adjacent one to the other and may +be easily bent together. An aged man comes, and presses the boughs of +the trees toward each other till the heads of the young couple touch. +They are then husband and wife. Feasting and dancing follow, and then +the pair settle down to life's realities in earnest. The husband gives +his father-in-law a present, a custom surviving from a day when wives +were purchased; and the father presents his daughter with a present as +dowry, which becomes her own personal property. The Aeta has but one +wife. If he should die after his children are grown, the family home is +continued; should the children be yet very young, the mother usually +takes them and returns to the home of her own people. + +Among some of the negrito tribes there has been found an incipient +literature. The following are words of a love song which Montano found +among the Aetas. It has thus been translated: + + "I leave, oh, my loved one, + Be very prudent, thou loved one. + Ah! I go very far, my loved one, + While thou remainest in dwelling thine, + Never the village will be forgotten by me." + +In contrast with these pigmies of probably African origin, there may +come to our minds the ancient tradition of African Amazons. For the +poetical allusions among the Greek authors to such a community of female +warriors there was doubtless some basis in fact, and this even when all +due allowance is made for the imaginative element in the tale. According +to the tradition, these African Amazons, an army of powerful women, +under the leadership of their Queen Myrina, marched against the Gorgons +and Atlantes and subdued them, and at last marched through Egypt and +Arabia and founded their capital on Lake Tritonis, where they were +finally annihilated by Hercules. The truth in these Amazon stories lies +doubtless in the fact that it is not an unknown custom for African +women, strong of body and brave of spirit, to enlist as soldiers in +companies or armies, commanded by officers of their own sex, and to +become very powerful in regulating the life of some communities. + +Among the Dahomeys, women captives are often enrolled in the king's +army of "amazons." These are said to have a perfect passion for +fighting. They are bound to perpetual celibacy and chastity, under the +penalty of death. They are described as famous in battle, but their +chief utility is to prevent rebellion among the male soldiers. They have +separate organizations and are commanded by officers of their own sex, +and are most loyal to their king. + +The world has long known of the Hottentots of South Africa. Their women +are taller and larger than those of the neighboring Bushmen, who are the +South African pigmies. Among these Hottentots woman often occupies a +place of considerable power; this is notably in the home, where she +reigns supreme. The husband may lord it over her outside of the house, +and often does, making almost a slave of his spouse; but when he enters +the house, he abdicates his authority. Without her permission, the +husband cannot take a bit of meat or a drop of milk. If he attempts to +infringe the law, the neighbors take up his case; he is amerced, often +to the extent of several sheep or cows, and these become the absolute +property of the wife. Should the chief of a tribe die, his wife takes +his place and authority and becomes "queen of the tribe," unless her son +is of age. And it is said that some of these women chieftains have left +for themselves names of honor in the traditions of their people. + +It is a custom among the Hottentots to call their children by the names +of their parents, but by a sort of exchange, the girls assuming that of +their father, the boys that of the mother--a syllabic suffix indicating +the sex. To the oldest daughter are accorded especial authority and +honor; for it is she who milks the cows and, in a way, has them under +her control. Requests for milk must be made to her, reminding us of the +Aryan _wood-daughter_, who was once the milkmaid. + +No extraordinary claims can be made for the beauty of the Hottentot +women. They have the knotty hair that characterizes the negro races, and +the flat noses, thick lips, and prominent cheekbones. While their faces +have no especial beauty, their figures, when maidens, are regular, plump +and attractive; but after the first years of womanhood are past, the +roundness of youth yields to the wrinkles of age, and all attractiveness +disappears, the woman either becoming withered and haggard, or +manifesting that peculiar development said to be so much admired among +the Hottentots, known to science as steatopyga. The famous "Hottentot +Venus" furnishes an example of this type of _beauty_. The back is given +a most remarkable contour by the enormous growth of fat about the hips, +which, though hard and firm, shakes like jelly when our Venus walks. +This extraordinary development has to the Hottentot lady not only an +aesthetic but also a utilitarian value, in case she cares to support her +infant upon it. + +The less cultured a people, the greater the place given by it to +ornament. Among many uncivilized peoples the men as well as the women +exhibit a fondness for decoration; but ornamentation is preeminently the +weakness of women. Although the savage lady regards clothing as +altogether an unnecessary burden, she must have her ornaments. One of +the methods of ornamentation is that of tattooing the body. Among some +tribes almost the whole body is covered with more or less artistic +designs, while others mark only parts of the body, as by rings around +the arms, or, as among the aboriginal New Zealand women, by puncture of +the lips. The use of shells, metal rings, bands, beads, feathers, mats, +and so on _ad infinitum_, is one of the marks of savagery. + +A traveller has given the following description of a Kaffir's marriage +ceremony witnessed by him. The occasion was the marriage of a Kaffir +chief to his fourteenth wife, "a fat good-natured girl--obesity is at a +premium among African tribes--wrapped round and round with black glazed +calico, and decked from head to foot with flowers, beads, and feathers. +Once within the kraal, the ladies formed two lines, with the bride in +the centre, and struck up a lively air; whereupon the whole body of +armed Kaffirs rushed from all parts of the kraal, beating their shields +and uttering demonic yells, as they charged headlong at the smiling +girls, who joined with the stalwart warriors in cutting capers, and +singing lustily, until the whole kraal was one confused mass of demons, +roaring out hoarse war songs and shrill love ditties. After an hour +dancing ceased and _joila_ (Kaffir beer) was served around, while the +lovely bride stood in the midst of the ring alone, stared at by all and +staring in turn at all, until she brought her eyes to bear upon her +admiring lord. When advancing leisurely, she danced before him amid the +shouts of the bystanders, singing at the top of her voice and +brandishing a huge _carving-knife_, with which she scraped big drops of +perspiration from her heated head, produced by the violent exercise she +was performing." + +Among African tribes, generally, the value of a woman is rated in terms +of the cow. While in India the cow is more sacred than the woman, in +Africa, a woman sometimes brings several cows in a trade. When a man +wishes a wife there is usually little trouble in obtaining her, either +by purchase, theft, or in some rather more sentimental manner. Among +some tribes female go-betweens are made use of, while genuine courtship +prevails among other tribes. The courtship, however, is seldom of long +duration. + +The matter of marriage is more completely guarded among the tribes of +Africa and the Indo-Pacific than we might expect of the people of their +grade of culture. While tribes vary much in marriage customs, purity of +life is, as a rule, rigidly expected of married women, and most women +marry at an early age. Lewdness, however, is not generally regarded as +so great a crime as marital infidelity, which is often punished with +death. Betrothals are looked upon as much more sacred and binding than +they are among more cultivated peoples. + +In Tahiti, so careful have been the natives in this matter of betrothal, +that the betrothed young lady was compelled to live upon a platform of +considerable elevation, built in her father's house. The parents or some +members of the family attended to her wants here, night and day, and she +never left her high abode without permission of her parents and +accompanied by them. + +In the Yomba country courtship is carried on usually through female +rather than male relatives, and either sex may make the first advances +toward a minor. Among all uncivilized peoples, as indeed among many that +are advanced in civilization, the early marriage is one of the most +important elements in the backward condition of the people, if not +indeed the most serious cause of deterioration. Women are forced into +the arduous duties of motherhood at an age when they are neither +physically nor in any other sense prepared for such an obligation. +Children born of immature mothers can scarcely expect to be robust +either in body or mind. + +The Kroomen, one of the native tribes of Liberia, hold marriage to be +the highest ambition of life. They will marry as many wives as they can +pay for, often leaving their homes in search of means whereby they may +accumulate wealth enough to buy another wife. Enjoying for a few months +the new relation, the ambitious husband goes off to seek again his +fortune, returns, buys another companion, the marriage is again +celebrated, and so the number of women who perform the drudgeries of +life increases. At about middle life, usually, the Krooman has +accumulated a sufficient fortune in the form of wives to enable him to +retire from active labor. He now settles down to live upon the labor of +his wives, who willingly support him. He is now known as a "big man," +and enjoys not only the ease, but also the reputation and honor of one +who has come into possession of a well-earned retirement. Another +characteristic which marks woman's career among the lower races is the +fact of her early and rapid physical deterioration after marriage. This +is true not only of the women of Polynesia, but of the African tribes, +with which they have much in common. At the age when European and +American women are at the prime of their vigor and physical beauty, +these women have not only seen their best days, but are broken, +unsightly, and withered. + +This deterioration is chiefly due to two causes; one is the uniform +early marriages among these races, and the other is the hard life which +is early thrust upon the woman. For she not only becomes the +childbearer, but the beast of burden, the farmer, too, it may be, and +the mechanic and the "general utility man." + +It is true, especially where polygamy prevails, that there is a division +of labor, but the labor is divided among the women; the men do only the +lighter work. The several wives of the household take their servitude as +a matter of course, and usually, especially in Kaffir land, they are so +brought up that they regard a husband as degraded and effeminate if he +takes any part in the ordinary labors of domestic life. The women are, +generally, quite reconciled also to the polygamous relation, because a +husband is regarded as possessing dignity and respectability in +proportion as he is much or little married. + +The less developed a race is, the less specialized is woman's sphere. +Among the barbarous and savage peoples woman is the "maid of all work." +She is weaver, potter, basketmaker, cook, agriculturist, water bearer, +beast of burden, everything. Men hunt and fish, eat and sleep. In +general, it may be said, that among the barbarous races there is a +greater relative disparity between the size and attractiveness of men +and women. This is doubtless to be accounted for by the fact that very +early the female is set to hard tasks of menial service and her body is +accordingly abused and stunted. + +While the physical and social status of woman is one of acknowledged +inferiority, there are not wanting among the African tribes instances in +which woman exerts no small influence and exhibits no little power. This +we have noted in mentioning the tribes dominated by warlike women. It is +more particularly true of her influence within the precints of her +domestic life, as was seen in the case of the pigmy women of the +Andamese Islands. Mothers, and more especially mothers-in-law, exert +noteworthy power, but this is always by virtue of station rather than of +any inherent respect due to the sex itself. There are isolated examples +of a more active power exerted by woman. + +As a rule, women of the inferior races have no part in the government of +their tribes. There are some exceptions, however. In the Sandwich +Islands, as is well-known, the hereditary right of rule might fall to a +woman as well as to a man, and there have been, in these islands, a +number of queens. Our own country took some part, as will be readily +remembered, in deposing the last of them from her throne. + +Every student of what has come to be called "woman's sphere," +especially among the uncultivated races, must be led to the conclusion +that the condition of the female sex, the sphere of her activity and +influence in any race, is one of the very best indexes of the +civilization of that people. The view of Havelock Ellis, in his _Man and +Woman_, is that it is the latter who is leading in the evolution of the +race, in the sense not only that the traits that more distinctively +belong to her are those that characterize the advance of society, but +that she registers more accurately the advances. "What is civilization?" +asked Emerson; and answers, "The power of good women." + +Among the deplorable traits of women of uncivilized races is that of +infanticide. Among some of the Pacific islanders and in some parts of +Africa, the regular and systematic sacrifice of children is among the +most remarkable and cruel features of the social life of the people. +This is more particularly true of female infants. + +War plays a very large part in the life of uncivilized races, and the +presence of women is a source of weakness rather than strength, since +usually they are not bearers of arms, and are among the most envied +prizes for which war is waged. + +Ellis, in his _Polynesian Researches_, draws this gloomy picture of +unnatural motherhood among peoples of the Pacific islands: "In Tahiti, +human victims were frequently immolated. Yet the amount of all these and +other murders did not equal that of infanticide alone. No sense of +irresolution or horror appeared to exist in the bosoms of those parents, +who deliberately resolved on the deed before the child was born. They +often visited the dwellings of the foreigners, and spoke with perfect +complacency of their cruel purpose. On these occasions the missionaries +employed every inducement to dissuade them from executing their +intention, warning them in the name of the living God, urging them by +every consideration of maternal tenderness, and always offering to +provide the little stranger with a home, and the means of education. The +only answer they generally received was, that it was the custom of the +country; and the only result of their efforts was the distressing +conviction of the inefficacy of their humane endeavors. The murderous +parents often came to their houses almost before their hands were +cleansed from their children's blood, and spoke of the deed with worse +than brutal insensibility, or with vaunting satisfaction at the triumph +of their customs over the persuasions of their teachers." It is thought +that not less than two-thirds of all the children born were murdered by +their own parents. + +"The first three infants," says Ellis, "were frequently killed; and in +the event of twins being born, both were rarely permitted to live. In +the largest families, more than two or three children were seldom +spared, while the numbers that were killed were incredible. The very +circumstance of their destroying, instead of nursing, their offspring +rendered their offspring more numerous than it would otherwise have +been. We have been acquainted with a number of parents, who, according +to their own confessions, or the united testimony of their friends and +neighbors, had inhumanly consigned to an untimely grave, four, or six, +or eight, or ten children, and some even a greater number." + +But changes have taken place since the writing of these lines; it seems +certain that a generation ago nearly if not quite two-thirds of the +children were slain by their mothers, and few mothers were guiltless of +the blood of their own offspring. The explanation of the prevalence of +this species of massacre is readily discernible in the following +paragraph from Ellis's _Researches_: "During the whole of their lives +the females were subject to the most abasing degradation; and their sex +was often, at their birth, the cause of their destruction. If the +purpose of the unnatural parents had not been fully matured before, the +circumstance of its being a female child was often sufficient to fix +their determination on its death. Whenever we have asked them what could +induce them to make a distinction so invidious, they have generally +answered,--that the fisheries, the service of the temple, and especially +war, were the only purposes for which they thought it desirable to rear +children; that in these pursuits women were comparatively useless; and +therefore female children were frequently not suffered to live. Facts +fully confirm these statements." + +Dense superstition, too, has sometimes played a part in this murder of +children. In Central Africa, for example, it is held with religious +scrupulosity that twin children should never be allowed to live. When +children are born with a deformity, they are despatched as a matter of +course. And yet, notwithstanding all these horrors, the instinct, even +of the most debased mothers, is toward the love and preservation of +their offspring. From the earliest days, this care for the infant, the +helpless, and the weak has been the most powerful counterpoise to +abnormal self-seeking. These two characteristics, self-giving and +self-seeking, are among the most potent factors in the development of +all the races of mankind. + +The Filipino woman has lately had for us fresh interest. Indeed, the +women of the Philippine Islands are among the most interesting in the +world. In the mountains of Luzon and in the other out-of-the-way places +are the negritos, or little negroes, of whom we have written in an +earlier portion of this chapter. These little people are shoved away +into the mountain regions, where the resources of life are as meagre as +they can be if existence is to endure. In the lower parts of the +archipelago, which are more accessible to the coast, will be found the +descendants of an old Malayo-Polynesian race; these are characterized by +their primitive industrial life. A later immigration of the same stock +brought people to the island who have developed alphabets, metallurgic +arts carried on by the men, and weaving and needlework done by the +women. Closely following these, and because there were opportunities for +commerce, came the more cultivated races of Eastern Asia, Chinese, +Japanese, Siamese, and even Hindoos, to mingle their blood with these +more primitive stocks. In the twelfth century of our era, Mohammedanized +Malays took possession of the southern part of the archipelago. These +people are called Moros, or Moors. Leaving out the negritos, who are +only a little mixed with the other races, the other peoples we have +mentioned have mingled their blood with the modern population, the +Spanish and Portuguese, who have come in since the sixteenth century. +The commingling of blood has been favorable to the modern Filipinos, and +many regard their women as worthy of being admired for their grace and +beauty. Notwithstanding their great variety of racial stocks, the women +of Manila have a certain common physiognomy, the Malay type being the +strongest element in their composite face. Features that mark the yellow +races are also quite prominent in many of the Filipino women. + +As in other races of the same grade of culture, the marriage tie is a +part of the social system. Clan relationship, by whatever name it may be +called, governs the selection of a spouse. The bond has been a very +loose one in the islands, and it has not been an uncommon thing for men +and women to break up their relationships unceremoniously and form new +ones. Among a people composed of so many elements, wide differences may +be expected in the matter of marriage. The Igorrotes, or wild +inhabitants of Luzon, though primitive in development, are monogamous. +The clan system is broken down and a young man is allowed to take the +woman of his choice with little ceremony, and they become man and wife. +Many astonishing customs are, of course, found among these people. For +example, Alfred Marche calls attention to a form of voluntary slavery. + +It is that of a young man who wants to marry. In many places, he is +bound to work for two or three years as a simple domestic in the house +of the father of his fiancee. During this time he is fed, but never +takes his place at the same table with the young girl. He is allowed to +walk with her and to sleep under the same roof, but he may not eat with +her. + +When the young man has passed this stage, he must, before the ceremony +of marriage, build a house and make certain indispensable purchases. He +must also pay all the expenses of the marriage. The affair does not +always terminate as regularly as one could wish. The father sometimes +seeks a quarrel with his future son-in-law at the moment when the +ceremony is about to take place, and admits a new aspirant for his +daughter's hand. The newcomer undertakes to work for him without any +scruples. The house, which is of little value, is all that remains to +the late fiance as a consolation. + +De Morgan, who travelled in the Philippine Islands for the Spanish +government and published his account, in the City of Mexico, in 1609, +gives an account of the native women three hundred years ago. + +The women of Luzon are described as wearing sleeves of all colors which +they call _baros_. White cotton stuffs were wrapped or folded from the +waist downward to the feet, and over these sometimes was a thin cloak +folded gracefully. The people of the highest rank substituted silk or +fine native fabrics for the cotton, and added gold chains, bracelets, +and earrings, and rings on their fingers. Their hair, which is +exceedingly black, was tied gracefully in a knot on the back of their +head. Many of these characteristics noted by De Morgan may still be seen +among the women of the islands. The closer contact of the Philippine +Islands with the mainland and more particularly with western commerce +and civilization is destined to work many and possibly rapid changes +even in the customs and ideals of the women whose native conservatism +has held them for many centuries very much in the same groove of life +and daily routine. + +The women of Luzon have always been cleanly and elegant in their +persons, and they are attractive and graceful. Much time is spent on +their hair, which is frequently washed and anointed with the oil of +sesame prepared with musk. They spend much time on their teeth, and +formerly began at a tender age to file them into the shape demanded by +the customs of the country. They also dyed their teeth black. Like the +Moorish women, the Filipinos are fond of the bath; they frequent the +rivers and creeks and bathe throughout the entire year, the genial +climate allowing such pastime. + +As in other countries below the grade of civilization, the industrial +employments of the Philippines are largely for the women. To them is the +task of spinning and weaving the exceptionally delicate fabric of the +archipelago into the finest cloth. They also are the food purveyors, +assisting in gathering food material, pounding it in their simple mills +and serving it. In their cuisine are such vegetables as sweet potatoes, +beans, plantains, guavas, pineapples, and oranges. The women rear fowls +and domestic animals, and take upon themselves the entire care of the +family and household. + +While the women of all countries have always been the natural and most +persistent conservers of ancient ideals and racial customs, yet it may +be predicted that the throwing of the Filipino tribes into contact with +New World politics, trade, and customs will, at length, bring about +marked social changes. These must eventually give to the women of the +Filipinos a wider outlook upon life and a new power to carry its +burdens. + + + + + CONTENTS + + PREFACE + I WOMEN OF THE DAWN + II ISRAEL'S HEROIC AGE + III THE DAYS OF THE KINGS + IV THE ERA OF POLITICAL DECLINE + V THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN WOMEN + VI THE LAND OF THE LOTUS + VII THE WOMEN OF THE HINDOOS + VIII BESIDE THE PERSIAN GULF + IX THE WOMEN OF ARABIA + X THE TURKISH WOMEN + XI THE MOORISH WOMEN + XII WOMEN OF CHINA AND COREA + XIII UNDER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS--THE WOMEN OF JAPAN + XIV WOMEN OF THE BACKWARD RACES OF THE EAST + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATION + + + SUBJECT ARTIST + + Rebekah and Isaac's agent, Eliezer _A. Cabanel_ + + _Ghawazi C. L. Muller_ + + Interior court of a zenana _From an Indo-Persian painting_ + + An Oriental woman's pastime _Frederick A. Bridgman_ + + The mutes _P. L. Bouchard_ + + Woman's taste in Japan _Charles E. Fripp_ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIENTAL WOMEN*** + + +******* This file should be named 32418.txt or 32418.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/4/1/32418 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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