still, in kind words and gentle acts, and show to two worlds, to heaven and to earth, that she has been, is, and still intends to be, the glory of the man.

CHAPTER II.

THE PAST AND PRESENT.

"As for you, I shall advise you in a few words: Aspire only to those virtues that are peculiar to your sex: follow your natural modesty, and think it your greatest commendation not to be talked of one way or the other." -Pericles-Oration to the Athenian Women.

The history of woman has its centre and its circumference, as well for the past as for the present. In both instances man seems to have taken out a license, whether paid for or not is another question, to treat woman in any way that may appear the best to him. In selling, beating,* worrying, and killing women, men in various countries and in divers manners, have passed through a lengthened apprenticeship, and carried on a wholesale trade.

MAN AND HIS DOINGS IN THE HISTORY OF WOMAN.

The women of Babylon were put up to auction by the public crier, while the magistrates presided over the sales.† The most beautiful were sold first, and the rich contended eagerly for a choice. The Bedouins regard their wives as slaves, and exercise arbitrary power in inflicting punishment for any fault. The inhabitants of Afghanistan being Mohammedans, the women are of course considered as property, and the higher classes are kept scrupujously concealed. If an European were to ask a

At this present time, March 1, 1855, in one of the London prisons, there are no fewer than forty men undergoing punishment for wifebeating!

+ Child's History of Women.

Circassian concerning the health of his wife, he would turn away in an angry mood, without condescending to reply. Among these people, if a bridegroom can prove anything against the former character of his bride, he sends her back to her parents, who generally sell her as a slave. An

nfaithful wife has her hair shaved, ears clipped, and the sleeves of her robe cut off, and in this state sent home to her father on horseback, to be sold as a slave. The Turks, as Mahommedans, may, if they please, have four wives. How does it come to pass that the women have never determined to have, if they please, four husbands? In the case of an intrigue being discovered in Turkey, the woman is tied up in a sack, and drowned in the Bosphorus, or hung from her own window. The Turkish proverb, that "A woman causes the ruin or pros perity of an house," implies that female influence is not quite extinct. Jests, at woman's expense, prevail here as they do in every other country. Nassred-dyn, the Turkish Esop, wishing to obtain the favour of the conqueror, Tamerlane, thought of carrying him some fruit. "Hold," said he, two heads are better than one; I will ask my wife whether I had better carry quinces or figs." His wife said, "Quinces will please him best, because they are larger and finer." "However useful the advice of others may be," answered Nass-red-dyn, "it is never well to follow that of a woman; I am determined to take figs." When he came to the camp, Tamerlane amused himself by throwing the figs at his head. At each blow Nass-red-dyn cried out, "God be praised!" Tamerlane inquired what it meant. "I am thanking God that I did not follow my wife's advice," said Nass-red-dyn, "for if I had brought quinces instead of figs, I should certainly have a broken head."

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Among the ancient nations the Persians seem to have been noted for a savage jealousy" of their

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women, and kept them guarded with a perpetual imprisonment. Their severity is recorded by Plutarch, who wrote at a time when the most enlightened nations permitted little freedom to their women. Cyrus, however, is an exception to the rule, his character is the brightest chapter of Persian history. When female captives were taken in war, and treated with the greatest indignity, and sometimes with cruel barbarity, he is characterized for such a degree of respectful bearing, which would do credit to the most refined monarch of the present day. A Persian woman is treated much in the same way as a favourite animal, even under the dominion of the kindest of masters. The little regard for a woman's word is derived from a Persian law, which requires the testimony of four of them, where the same thing from two men would be taken as sufficient.

According to the old poets of India, their women formerly were esteemed to a very high degree, and enjoyed an amount of personal freedom, to which the modern Asiatic women are strangers. Malabar boasts of her seven sages, and four of them were women. The Mohammedan creed, which always produces a miserable effect on the condition of women, has considerably changed their state in Hindoostan. No Hindoo woman is permitted to give evidence in a court of justice. Nature, here, is not quite extinct, for the greatest insult that can be offered to a Hindoo, is to speak contemptuously of his mother.

Hindoo wives never call their husbands by name, but always say, "the master." The Shaster, or Hindoo Bible, allows the husband to divorce the wife, if she has no sons, injures his property, scolds him, quarrels with another, or presumes to eat before he has finished his meal. The arbitrary power of a father disposes of his daughters in childhood; if the boy to whom they are betrothed dies before the completion of the marriage, they are con

demned to perpetual celibacy; if married, their husbands have despotic control over them; in the Hindoo rage for gambling, wives and children are often staked and lost; if they survive their husbands they must pay implicit obedience to the eldest son. The immolation of widows was formerly the custom, but within the last few years the British government have mercifully abolished the practice. In September, 1818, the following advertisement appeared in the Calcutta Advertiser: "Females raffled for. Be it known that six fair, pretty young ladies, with two sweet engaging children, lately imported from Europe, having the roses of health blooming on their cheeks, and joy sparkling in their eyes, possessing amiable tempers, and highly accomplished, whom the most indifferent cannot behold without rapture, are to be raffled for next door to the British Gallery. Twelve tickets, at twelve rupees each; the highest of the three doubtless takes the most fascinating."

In Thibet marriage is a very extraordinary affair. One woman is the wife of a whole family of brothers, however numerous. Such a custom is not confined to the lower classes, but prevails among the most opulent. The right of choice is with the oldest brother. When captain Turner was at Teshoo Loomboo, he knew five brothers, who lived together in harmony and affection with one wife among them. The first-born child belongs to the oldest brother, the second to the next of age, and in like manner in continuation. The women among the labouring classes are accustomed to a great amount of toil. They plant, weed, reap, and thresh grain, and are exposed to all kinds of weather, while lazy husbands are frequently living at their ease. Although Birmese ladies enjoy more of freedom and confidence than their neighbours, yet something of the degradation, imposed upon all Asiatic women, is seen among them. The evidence of a woman is not

deemed equal to that of a man, and she is not allowed to ascend the steps of a court of justice, but she must give her testimony outside the building. If a man cannot pay his debts, he is subject to be sold, with his wife and children. When a criminal is condemned to death, the helpless wife and children sometimes share his punishment. When subject to extreme poverty, the lower class of Birmans do not hesitate to sell their wives and daughters to foreign residents.

The women of Cochin China are regarded as an inferior race, and are sold when their husbands please. In China, if a bridegroom is dissatisfied with a female when brought home for his bride, he can shut the palanquin, and send her back to her relations. Divorce is allowed for even too much loquacity on the part of a wife, The women here are reputed to answer in a very concise way, and as seldom speaking unless spoken to. A Chinese proverb, however, says, "What women have lost in their feet they have gained in their tongues." A wife, among the lower classes, sometimes drags the plough in the rice fields, with an infant tied to her back, while her husband performs the easier task of holding the plough. Infanticide prevails in some parts of China, as well as in some parts of Hindos

tan.

The children thus cruelly exposed are usually girls, because they are less likely to be profitable to poor parents than boys. The Tartar women, in most cases, perform a greater amount of labour than the men, as it is the common opinion that they were sent into the world for no better purpose than to be useful and convenient slaves to the stronger sex. Among the Buraits, on the frontiers of China, owing to the general contempt in which women are held, the boys show more respect to the father than to the mother. The Amazons were, no doubt, something like the women of some of the Tartar tribes of the present day, expert in the management of a horse,