lculated to prevent even innocent familiarity,
such as nest-hiding, to say nothing of greater evils.

In the "Les Femmes, Les Eunuchs, et Les Guerrieres du Soudan," Col. Du
Bisson mentions a very peculiar custom invented by the careful jealousy
that is inseparable from harem life. He had noticed that many of the
harem inmates, contrary to the general Oriental custom, were allowed to
go about unattended by the usual guard of eunuchs, but that they walked
in a painful, hesitating, and impeded manner. This walk was not the
conventional, short, shuffling step that peculiarity of dress and
shoe-wear imposes on the Japanese beauty, nor the willowy, swaying gait
produced in the Chinese beauty by the lack of a sufficiency of foot;
neither could it be ascribed to the presence of the ancient jingling
chain of bells which induced the mincing steps of the virgins of
Judea,--an invention which confined the lower limbs within certain
limits by being worn just below the knees, and calculated to prevent the
rupture of the hymen by any undue length of step or violent exercise;
hence a tinkling noise and a mincing step always denoted a virgin. In Du
Bisson's cases, however, virgins were out of the question; they might be
the victims of enforced continence, but a Soudanese harem contains no
virgins. On inquiry he learned that the very peculiar and unmistakably
painful gait was due to the fact that each woman carried a bamboo stick,
about eight inches in length, three inches or more being inserted in the
vagina so as to effectually fill the opening, the balance projecting
beyond, between the thighs of the person; this bamboo stick, or guardian
of female virtue, was held in place by a strap with a shield that
covered the vulva, the whole apparatus being strapped about the hips and
waist, and the whole being held in an undisplaceable position by a
padlock. This was affixed to the woman whenever she was allowed outside
the harem grounds, being placed in position by the eunuch, who carried
the key at his girdle. In such a harness virtue can be considered
perfectly safe; even safe from any mental depredation or revolution, as,
with the plug causing such uncomfortable sensations, it is perfectly
safe to infer that the imagination could not be seduced by any Don
Juanic or other Byronic unvirtuous revelry. The physical ills that this
contrivance must cause are necessarily without number, as the instrument
is not as lightly constructed as our modern