ers-in-law even in England have not always a good name,
but what may they be to a young girl completely under their power? Many
are the sad stories I have heard of constant quarrelling, followed on
the part of the little bride by attempts to run away to her old home,
and the advent of her relations on the scene of strife, to patch up a
reconciliation and induce the girl to submit to her fate.

Perhaps you say, "Why does her husband not protect his wife from
unkindness, does he not care for her?" There you strike upon the root of
a Moslem woman's unhappiness. The boy husband has no choice in his
bride, has probably never set eyes on her until the marriage day. He
seems to care little about her beyond making use of her. She is to be
his attendant to serve him and provide him with sons. As to the first, I
have watched one of these girls in a merchant's house in Jerusalem
standing in attendance on her young husband's toilet, handing him
whatever he wanted, and folding up his thrown-off clothes. But I looked
in vain for the least sign of kindly recognition of her attentions from
him in look or word or deed. The Moslem thinks it beneath his dignity to
speak to his wife except to give orders, and does not answer her
questions. It is not customary for them to sit down to meals together,
and as for going for a walk together it would be scandalous! One must
not even ask a man after his wife in public and she may not go out to
visit friends without his permission, and then veiled so thickly as to
be unrecognizable. The higher her social rank the greater the seclusion
for a Moslem woman.

Then, as to her motherhood. The young wife's thoughts are continually
directed to the importance of pleasing her husband and avoiding the
corporal punishment which accompanies his anger. If she does not bear
him a son she is in danger of divorce or of the arrival of a co-wife
brought to the house. It is strange that the latter trial seems to be
faced preferably to the former, which is a great disgrace.

A Moslem wife has no title until she has a son, and then she is called
the "mother of so-and-so," instead of being called by the name of her
husband. But she soon regrets the day he was born, for he defies her
authority and repulses her embraces. I have seen a boy of four years old
go into the street to bring a big stone to throw at his mother with
curses! The mothers soon age. Their chief pleasures are smoking and
gossip.

Their religion is ve