the scandal-mongers of the
neighborhood, go round to retail their news. (And it will be allowed
that even in England there are many who take a deeper interest in the
doings of their neighbors than in more elevated topics of
conversation.)

Here Jewesses, spreading out their pretty, silken goods to tempt
purchasers, or neighbors who had "dropped in" by way of the roof for a
gossip, not over a dish of tea, but a cup of black coffee. There Arab
women, much like children, quickly shaking off little troubles and
meeting greater trials with the resignation of fatalism, which finds
comfort in the magic word, "Maktoob" (It is decreed), in a manner
incomprehensible to the Western mind.

Is it surprising that I almost accused my fellow-missionaries of
misrepresenting the home life of the people? But I only saw the surface
and had not yet probed the deep sore of Mohammedanism nor realized the
heavy burdens which its system entails.

Let me tell you of three of the heaviest of these burdens: _Polygamy_,
_Divorce_, and the _Ignorance_ which results from complete lack of
education and walks hand-in-hand with its twin-sister, _Superstition_.

_Polygamy_ shall be placed first, although it is not the greatest bane
of Tunisian home life. By Mohammedan law a man is allowed four wives,
but in Tunisia, though it is by no means rare for a man to have two, he
seldom takes more than that number at one time. Occasionally they live
in separate houses, sometimes in different towns, and may be quite
unknown to each other. A Moslem will frequently take a second wife in
the hope of having children, or it may be a son, the first wife being
childless.

In other houses one finds under the same roof two wives of one husband,
each having a large number of children. Each wife will have two or three
maid-servants who sit with their mistresses and mingle freely in the
conversation, and, if the family be wealthy, the elder daughters have
their own special attendants. Thus a household may contain a large
number of women who live together more or less harmoniously, and whose
numerous quarrels do not conduce to the tranquillity of the master of
the house. But what does he care as long as he _is_ master and reigns
supreme? There is probably not much affection between him and the wife
whom he never saw before the wedding-day, but he loves his children,
being specially fond of the little ones and showing all a father's pride
in his sons. His hours of recreat