few of the women pray. If they prefer to work, the Prophet has excused them from prayer, and from taxing their untutored memories with the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah.

The Koran does not exclude women from Paradise, but the invitation is not cordial, and there is little promised to her there. The meanest man is to have eighty thousand servants, and can select seventy-two wives from the countless company of heavenly maidens who will have large black eyes, and be of a height equal to his own, that of a tall palm tree, about sixty feet; the man expects to enjoy himself according to his size. If this big, much-married husband wishes the company of his little earth-wife, she can come in after the Paradise girls.

The mother who loses children in infancy, is honored and has a promise of immortality, if she be a believer; for the child will have the gates of heaven open to her when the husband is ready to enter. Apostacy, even in women, is a heinous sin, by the Koran to be punished with death, and in these later years the Koran has been obeyed in the most brutal way, and without the interference of the law. Women may go on pilgrimage to Mecca with their husbands and families, but the blessing is greater if the husband go without women, and the wife with her son; the pilgrim, and indeed any Muslim, must purify himself after he has been in the society of women, before he can pray. This is by express command of the Prophet who says: "Women are pollution." Our kind old consular agent at Luxor, Alee Moorad, was to go to Mecca this month; his son Ahmed will go with his mother next year.

When a fowl, or sheep, or any domestic animal is killed, there is a short prayer uttered, which is in substance: "If any evil be coming to me, or any harm be wished me, may I cut them off with this knife." Many such forms are observed which are counted to be religious duties and ceremonies, as among the Jews, but they should be performed by males.

WOMEN IN SOCIETY.

Levantine, Armenian, Syrian, and some of the Coptic women, receive male visitors with the men of the family, and they shop, ride and visit, and eat with male relatives and intimate friends. At a Coptic wedding which I attended in Cairo, there were many of these foreign women present, but not one Coptic woman, except a young

girl of the family of the bridegroom. The families of both bride and groom were wealthy and important, and the affair was grand and expensive; but it was for men and foreign women. The young girl of the family did the arduous duties of hostess charmingly, with the support of another, a schoolmate of her own age. In visiting the native consuls, governors, village sheykhs and other public men, I have never seen the women of the hareem, except by special invitation from the master of the house. But one meets in Cairo native women of all classes, in the shops, in the bazaars, in the gardens, on donkeys and in carriages, and their evident intention is to enjoy themselves. I know the wife of a pacha, a Copt, who receives gentlemen with ladies, but never alone. Among the noble families there is much visiting, and gossiping, and display of jewelry, and too much freedom in conversation. It is in Egypt now as it was in the past ages; in society, lively, interesting conversation becomes the cream of the entertainment; the native women I have seen, are amiable and engaging, and seem keenly to enjoy the visit of the stranger. But from entertainments where men are present, virtuous women are excluded.

The ancient Egyptians were far advanced in their recognition of woman's place in society; there are numerous old bas-reliefs representing the master and mistress of the home receiving their guests together seated side by side, the dancers, singers and musicians presenting themselves to the couple and making their salutations. Greece was in this, far behind Egypt, as the words of Cornelius Nepos prove. He, the Roman, says to the Greeks :- "What mistress of a house can here be shown, that has not the chief part in the house, and what man is there of us who is ashamed to bring his wife to an entertainment? Then Greek women appeared at none but family entertainments; they were relegated to the upper and most retired part of the house. Centuries of foreign rule have degraded the old Egyptian custom to the Greek level. Among the poor, the filling of water jars, gossip on the street, squatting outside the mud enclosure of the home with dirty children, chickens and sheep, bathing in the Nile, and washing clothing and domestic animals; these are the chief opportunities for woman's social enjoyment. And the keenness with which they relish this part of their daily life, tells the story of its poverty. Morning and evening, along the banks of the river we met the irregular processions of women and young girls, reproducing the ancient picture, with their water jars gracefully and jauntily poised on their

veiled heads. Often a baby sat astride its mother's shoulder sucking a bit of sugar cane, the emblem of a sweet content. A near view inspired sympathy, for some of the figures in the moving picture carried jars which, filled, were to heavy for the delicate necks of the carriers. But the straight slender girl, or elder woman, smiled upon us as she lifted it to its place, and easily bore it away. Many a hasty sketch was made of these nymphs of the water jars, and their matchless grace of motion made us ashamed of our awkward gait. Later in the day they came with the family work, and much visiting and amusement made the tasks light and the hours short. Then it was that our few Arabic sentences, expressing our admiration for their ornaments, or their small animals, or other pleasant nothings, opened their hearts to us, and lively conversation, with delicately turned compliments and ill concealed curiosity, revealed to us what years of reading could not. The various articles of our dress, and their price, were a constant interest to them, and the timid boldness of the young girls, was bewitching. They stood before us and quietly exhibited their anklets, bracelets, amulets, necklaces, ear, nose and finger rings, and they eagerly looked under our gloves and cloaks for our ornaments, and were disappointed if they found none. The bank of the Nile is their reception room and recreation ground. Their knowledge of our family affairs was surprising. They knew who of us were married and what was our relationship, where we had been, what we had seen, what antiquities we had bought, where we were going and how long we were to stay, and always what we paid for chickens. In all upper Egypt I saw but one woman on a donkey, and not one on a camel; everywhere the man rode, sometimes with a child before him, while the woman walked, often carrying a baby. In the streets of the cities it is not good usage for the man to recognize his wife, or any female member of the family old enough to be veiled, as his recognition would betray her to his male friends.

WOMEN IN THE FAMILY.

One word of the hareem itself, the home of the family. The house of a well-to-do man is large, and the rooms many, with ample courts and halls. In those I have visited, the reception room for the men was furnished with European furniture and usually with big, awkward bent-wood rocking chairs; articles of the toilette, closet and office, were lying about the room and the long curtains were frequently

tied up in knots. The apartments of the women were furnished with eastern rugs, low inlaid tables, divans, cushions, shelves and cornices in meshrebeeyeh work, with French ornaments in china and glass. There are no bed rooms, during the day the mattress, if there be any, is rolled up and placed against the wall; it is put down at night wherever desired, on the house top, in the court, or on the floor of the sitting room. Most of the people do not undress at night, even

among the rich.

The poor have no change of garment for the night. All classes bathe, in the house, at the public baths, or in the Nile. In good houses the food is served in courses to the women in their apartments, on small, low tables placed beside the divans, and without knife or fork; a spoon is often used, though solid food is eaten with the fingers.

In upper Egypt, the homes of the ordinary people, from our standpoint, are utterly comfortless. Many of them are but partially covered, and do not contain a dozen articles of housekeeping. They are dark, unclean sheds. In the stone and brick houses of the villages, owned by men who possess lands and flocks, the women's rooms are devoid of comfort, ornament and neatness. Visiting collections of antiquities with the master of a house, I have passed the chambers of the women, and seen women, children, slaves, sheep, fowls and cats scattered through the disorderly rooms. Many villages are built of the Nile mud, which readily hardens in that dry climate. The house floors are also of mud, but firm and covered in spots with palm matting. The wives and daughters in poor families, do not eat with the men. The wife usually cooks the food for the husband, serves him and afterwards eats what remains. Even where there are house slaves, the wife very often waits upon the husband and sons at the mid-day meal. From the pylons of Edfoo, I have looked down into a hundred homes and seen the working of the domestic machinery, invented ages ago, each home the representative of the whole village, men, women, children and animals, in the same little enclosure, without the simplest provision for cleanliness or privacy. Popular writers on modern Egyptians represent the hareem as the abode of indolence, intrigue, immorality and crime, and to a large extent have made their representation from the hareems of the cities and of the titled classes. Emeline Lott, Mr. Lane, Mrs. Poole, sister of Mr. Lane, Mr. Bayle St. John, and others whose names are familiar, have written only on the upper class of hareems. Miss Lott, who was

governess to the son of the late Khedive, Ismaël Pacha, filled her volume with the discomfort, selfishness, treachery, intrigue and crime she discovered in the viceregal hareem, though one is astonished to find on the title page that the book is dedicated to this very viceroy whom she found so mercenary and immoral. No doubt the habit of idleness is confirmed in the older women of a rich hareem. When an Egyptian woman is twenty-five years old, she receives the reverence of her children as a middle-aged matron, and she curls herself up on a divan, gossips, smokes her cigarettes, and thinks herself occupied. The healthy girl of 12 or 14 years who may not leave the hareem until a year after her marriage, finds confinement irksome, but habit and custom are tyrants; she must obey, and the child woman after twelve months of inaction and appearing to be, what she is not, a matron, comes to accept bathing, combing her hair and plaiting it with oil, brightening her jewelry, smoking and gossiping, with a little carriageriding and embroidery, as the natural circle of her woman's life. During the year of seclusion the new wife may receive visits and sit in the court and on the terrace, and is excused from prayers or pretentions to piety, as that does not increase her charms for her husband.

In houses which do not afford eunuchs, when the husband is to enter with a man, not a relation, he warns the women to conceal themselves, by clapping his hands, and on opening the door shouts to them if in sight, to veil themselves. If a guest arrives in the absence of the husband, he is entertained in the name of the wife, though she may not see him. While the man is saying his morning prayers, the wife makes his coffee, fills his pipe, gives it to him when his devotions are ended, and turns the water over his hands before he eats. I am told of Muslims who sometimes eat with their families, but it is not the custom among those I know. At the dinners given by native consuls and official men, to which foreign ladies are invited with their husbands and male friends, the women of the family do not appear; but they entertain in the hareem with great pleasure and hospitality.

It is customary for the mother of the husband to reside with the wife for some time after marriage, that the honor of the man may be preserved and the wife taught by example the duties she owes the husband; but it often happens that the demure mother-in-law teaches the wife many tricks of deception and cunning. Male slaves must not enter the women's rooms, and the women may not unveil to any