rofitable to purchase women, on the same principle that any other kind
of merchandise was bought. Prices were regulated according to the supply
in the market and the beauty or the muscular strength of the hapless
creatures exposed for sale. Fathers sold or exchanged their daughters,
brothers their sisters, without the slightest shame or remorse. Among
the Tambanks, in exchanging the women for stock, a woman, full-grown and
of ordinary strength, was considered equal in value to two cows or one
ox.

As the settlements became more permanent, assuming by degrees the
character of established nations, and the centers of enterprise grew
into populous cities, the barter and exchange traffic naturally
declined; but in its place were established regular markets for the sale
of female slaves. Civilization was beginning to make some slight
progress; and fathers began to entertain doubts regarding the propriety
of _selling_ their own flesh and blood, though they did not hesitate to
_buy_ their wives.

The slaves who were exposed in the marketplaces, therefore, were
generally the overplus not desired in the harems of those who had
captured them in war; and as the most beautiful brought the highest
market-price, the public exhibitions of the poor unfortunates drew
thither crowds of gaping people--some merely curious, some intent on
business. Even in more modern days, the slave-markets of the East, and
in the Southern States of the American Republic, have attracted crowds
of spectators--some to condemn the horrible practice, some to
compassionate the unhappy victims, but most to engage in the monstrous
traffic.

It is not necessary to review further, in detail, the condition of women
in the various nations as they sprang into existence, or through the
successive periods of their history to the commencement of the Christian
era. Various causes brought about a partial liberty for women, in both
the Jewish and Roman nations, prior to the birth of Christ; but for
those of other lands the blackness of darkness still remained. It was
but a partial liberty, it is true, even for the Hebrew or Roman women,
but their condition was much improved. Concessions had been made slowly.
They had come in shreds, and had not amounted to much in ameliorating
their situation when they came; but slight as were the privileges
yielded, they were yet indications of the dawning of a brighter day for
Eve's poor daughters.

The reformations effected were like