Walter Matthew Gallichan

“ This writer says that at twenty the women look past forty. Many have fine eyes and shining black hair. The women of the wilder districts are healthy in appear- ance. Their hands are stained with henna, and they wear amulets. According to Miss Bird, Persian peasants keep as many women as they can afford, and even poor men own more than one wife. Polygyny is said to be common in the rural districts. The average family is large, and there is little infant mortality. In this matter Persia appears to contrast with India, where the infant death-rate is very high. ”

“ These writers say that crimes and intrigues are not infrequent in the harems.
Their testimony as to the position of women con- tradicts, on the whole, the views of authors already cited. ' Polygamy is less general in Persia than one would believe "; but the practice is not very un- common in the country districts. Here the men find that more than one helpmate proves useful in tillage and industry. Wife-beating is not unknown amongst the rural population, but it is not a common practice in the upper classes. ”

“ M. E. Hume Griffith has only condemnation for the harem: ll There is no hope for the children of Mohammedan lands until the mothers have learnt a little of the meaning of pure life and conversation. There is no hope for the women while the men are what they are. The whole system is one of degradation and
vice.'
<{ The longer I live amongst Moslem women the more my heart yearns with love and pity for them, and the more thankful I am that their lot is not mine. ”

“ A woman must know how to please and humour a man. She should be trained by her mother from childhood in the art of love and endearment. A girl must " store, enrich, and dignify the mind/' She is instructed to maintain her beauty, her charm of dis- position, and to preserve good sense. ”

“ A husband must think always of his wife's welfare, and strive to please her in all things great and small. When he goes to the market he should buy her a gift of fruit and carry it home to her to show that he thinks of her pleasure. When the wife goes on a journey the husband must escort her. If she wishes her women visitors to remain in the house all night, she may give them couches in her chamber, and the husband must sleep alone.
Infractions of this somewhat exacting code for hus- bands can be remedied by the woman suing for separa-
230 ”

“ The very dark negroes are much less valuable.
The separate apartment system prevails in the harems, each beauty possessing sole rights over her quarters and her attendants. Only a few eunuchs are kept in this country, which goes to prove a greater freedom than most women enjoy in the life of the seraglio. The women are often excellent friends of each other, and on the authority of English writers, discord is infrequent.
The proportion of polygamous marriages in Persia
" In the Land of the Lion and the Sun." 229
has been set down as five per cent., or even two per cent., of the population. ”

“ The capital, Teheran, has a population of 210,000.
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The Shah maintains a harem here, and also in other towns, containing a host of concubines, but he has only one legal wife.
Dr. Wills tells us that slavery in the Persian harems is an easy existence, and that the women rarely yearn for freedom. They are very well fed and clothed, and have but little work to perform. Many of the women of the anderun live to a ripe old age, and have no wish to leave the establishment. Kind treatment of harem, women and servants is the general rule. ”

“ One of the men remarked that " women have no religion, for women won't live again." This belief is con- trary to the teaching of the Koran. Polygamy pre- vails among these people, and Miss Bird regards the institution as degrading to women.
The harem system in Persia was probably adopted in ancient times through the example of Egypt. Her- bert Spencer, in " Sociology," holds this view, and says that the sovereigns had three or four wives and a number of concubines. The favourite legal wife was the queen. ”

“ Since the Fifteenth Century the country has been ruled by Shahs, who have lived in high state and grandeur. Most of the rulers in recent times have been friendly towards England, and one monarch visited our country some years ago. The religion of Persia is a form of Mohammedanism, but there are a considerable number of Armenian residents professing Christianity. ”

“ This author hints at tragedies in the harems of the two countries visited by her. She refers to poison being placed by jealous women in a rival's coffee. In her view, " love has no part in the life of a Moslem woman," and she regards the whole system of polygamy as one of " degradation and vice." ”

“ The women most valued as servants are Abyssinians and Somalis. According to Dr. Wills* girls of from twelve to fourteen years of age are worth about 40 in purchase money; while damsels of lighter colour are often worth from So to 100. ”

“ The authors refer to the dominance of mothers in the home-life, and corroborate the state- ments that I have quoted concerning the respect shown by sons. Mothers are the chief counsellors of their children, even in manhood. ”

“ Monarchs have caused all the women, married and single, in a village, to assemble in the streets in long lines, and they have selected some of the more attrac- tive for the royal anderun. The women are never un- willing ”