me her
arm all covered with cuts which she said her husband had done to her
because she had been fighting with the other wife. We, with our ideas of
freedom and liberty, may think these women unhappy, but _they_ do not
seem to be more so than our own women. They are quite used to their own
life and look down upon us poor things, who are so degraded that we
allow men to see us freely with no shame! They see no privation in not
being allowed to go out, or to see the world, and yet it is a suicidal
system. For the women have not the least idea of what the men and boys
are doing.

Many a time have I seen a mother try to chastize her boy, but he had
only to get to the door and slip out and she could not go after him.
Since the girls can never go out they do not need much education of any
sort, and the husband knows the wife has no knowledge whatever of the
world outside, so what is the use of talking to her? So amongst
Mussulmans there is stagnation, and they of nearly all the people in
India make least progress. Ninety-five per cent. of them are classed as
illiterate in the last census!

Still progress is being made, we feel quite sure, and one thing seems to
prove this. Though the Mohammedans in South India are backward and full
of things to be deplored, yet they are innocent of many things which are
evidently carried on in other Mohammedan countries. We, in South India,
who have for years worked amongst Moslems never heard of the customs
which seem to prevail in Egypt. Divorce is rarely heard of. Possibly it
is too expensive, as the husband must return the dower. A woman being
married to half a dozen husbands in succession is unheard of. Surely
this shows that where education spreads and where Christianity,
unconsciously perhaps, permeates the whole, there is a brighter day
dawning for Islam. What is wanted is more teachers, more helpers to take
up the work of spreading the knowledge of the Lord in Moslem lands.

XXI

THE MOHAMMEDAN WOMEN OF TURKESTAN

Among the numerous nations and tribes which adhere to the doctrine of
Mohammed, the condition of women is of course not everywhere the same.
In the vicinity of Europe, e. g., in European Turkey, the influence of
European morality and customs has become more and more prevailing in
spite of the resistance of Moslem priests. Another difference in the
condition of women, which can be observed everywhere and which we shall
occasionally refer to, arises from their