cter. Being distrusted, she has
become untrustworthy; being abused, she has become abusive; and every
evil passion is given free rein.

The bad wife is described by a Moslem writer as "a rebel for contumacy
and unruliness; as a foe for contemptuousness and reproach; and as a
thief for treacherous designs upon her husband's purse." She becomes an
adept in the use of woman's weapon, the tongue; "an unruly evil full of
deadly poison." "An angry woman in a passion of rage, pouring forth
torrents of curses and invectives, is a fury incarnate." The jealousy of
rival wives often leads to dreadful crimes. One woman became blind from
vitriol thrown in her face by another wife; an only son, most precious
and of high rank, was poisoned in his innocent babyhood by his mother's
rival; a young bride attempted suicide in her despair.

These are but instances; every harem has its unwritten tragedies.

Not the least feature of the moral ruin into which they have fallen, is
the impurity which seems to permeate every thought; so that they delight
in obscene songs, vile allusions, and impure narratives. A missionary
lady visiting at the home of a highborn Moslem woman, very religious and
devout according to their standards, was so shocked by the character of
the conversation with which her hostess was trying to entertain her, as
to be forced to say, "If you talk to me like this, I shall be obliged to
excuse myself and leave your house."

Saddest of all, they often become so depraved that they not only connive
at the evils of the system, but actively promote them. A lady going on a
long pilgrimage herself chose and brought two young girls, to be her
husband's concubines in her absence. A mother cultivates in her son the
passions she should teach him to subdue. The present mode of life is
supposed to be perpetuated in Paradise, where every true believer is to
have "seventy-two wives, and eighty thousand slaves," all Houris
specially created for him. The place for Moslem woman is not definitely
specified.

The religion that robs them of happiness in this life, and gives no hope
of it in the next, lays the same obligations upon them as on men, viz.,
the five foundations of practice: the witnessing to the Unity of God and
the apostleship of the Prophet; observing the five daily seasons of
prayer; alms-giving; the fast of Ramazan; and the pilgrimage to Mecca.

In Persia is added the mourning for a month, for Hassan and Hossein, the
martyre