e should be intermeddling;
nor by the feet, lest she should be a gadder; nor by the heart, lest she
should be jealous;--but she was taken out from the side: yet, in spite
of all these precautions, she had every one of the faults so carefully
guarded against!

[57] Commentators on the Kuran say that Adam's beard did not
grow till after his fall, and it was the result of his
excessive sorrow and penitence. Strange to say, he was
ashamed of his beard, till he heard a voice from heaven
calling to him and saying: "The beard is man's ornament
on earth; it distinguishes him from the feeble woman."
Thus we ought to--should we not?--regard our beards as
the offshoots of what divines term "original sin"; and
cherish them as mementoes of the Fall of Man. Think of
this, ye effeminate ones who use the razor!

[58] The notion of man being at first androgynous, or
man-woman, was prevalent in most of the countries of
antiquity. Mr. Baring-Gould says that "the idea, that
man without woman and woman without man are imperfect
beings, was the cause of the great repugnance with which
the Jews and other nations of the East regarded
celibacy." (_Legends of the Old Testament_, vol. i, p.
22.) But this, I think, is not very probable. The
aversion of Asiatics from celibacy is rather to be
ascribed to their surroundings in primitive times, when
neighbouring clans were almost constantly at war with
each other, and those chiefs and notables who had the
greatest number of sturdy and valiant sons and grandsons
would naturally be best able to hold their own against
an enemy. The system of concubinage, which seems to have
existed in the East from very remote times, is not
matrimony, and undoubtedly had its origin in the
passionate desire which, even at the present day, every
Asiatic has for male offspring. By far the most common
opening of an Eastern tale is the statement that there
was a certain king, wise, wealthy, and powerful, but
though he had many beautiful wives and handmaidens,
Heaven had not yet blest him with a son, and in
consequence of this all his life was embittered, and he
knew no peace day or night.

[59] Professor Charles Marelle, of Berlin, in an interesting