ad as telling lies, and saying
unkind things about each other; and they begged me to come again and
read to them from our Great Teacher's Book.

XVII

DARKNESS AND DAYBREAK IN PERSIA

One can never forget the first sight of a Moslem woman--that veiled
figure, moving silently through the streets, so enshrouded that face and
form are completely concealed. Men and women pass each other with no
greeting or token of recognition, and if a wife accompanies her husband,
she never walks beside him, but at a respectful distance behind, and
neither gives a sign that they belong together.

A woman's first instinct is to efface herself. Even the poor, washing
clothes in the street at the water-course, pull their tattered rags over
their faces. The Persian expression for women, "those who sit behind the
curtain," shows that their place is silence and seclusion. When the
closed carriage of a princess passes, her servants, galloping before,
order all men to turn their faces to the wall, though all they could
possibly see would be carefully veiled figures. The beggar sitting on
the ground at the street corner is equally invisible under her cotton
_chader_, as with lamentable voice she calls for mercy on the baby in
her arms.

During the month of mourning, we often pass a brilliantly lighted
mosque, where men sit sipping tea or smoking, listening to the tale of
the death of their martyrs, but crouching on the stony street outside in
the darkness, a crowd of women are straining their ears to catch what
they can. Such are the passing glimpses one gets of the Persian woman in
public.

Her real life is lived in the "harem." We realize its meaning, "the
forbidden," when after passing through the imposing street gate, and the
outer court where are the men's apartments, we are conducted to a
curtained door, guarded by a sentinel, who summons an old eunuch to lead
us through a dark, narrow passage into the inner court, or _andaroon_.
Here no man may enter but the very nearest relatives of the inmates, and
they under severe restrictions. As women, we have free access, and this
privilege is shared by the Christian physician, who is welcomed and
trusted. One such gives us this picture.

The _andaroon_ is usually very far from being an abode of luxury, even
in wealthy families, unless the number of wives is limited to one or
two. The favorite wife has many advantages over her rivals, but she is
usually encouraged to set an example o