Chapter XI (2)

"To support the character which the British and Foreign Bible Society has assumed, to realize the hopes which it has excited, to foster and enlarge the zeal which it has inspired, are obligations of no common magnitude, and which cannot be discharged without correspondent exertions. 'As a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid,' the eyes of nations look up to it with expectation. Immense portions of the globe, now the domains of idolatry and superstition; regions where the light of Christianity once shone, but is now dim or extinguished; and countries where the heavenly manna is so scarce, that thousands live and die without the means of tasting it,--point out the existing claims on the benevolence of the Society.

"To supply these wants, fill up these voids, and display the light of revelation amidst the realms of darkness, will long require a continuance of that support which the British and Foreign Bible Society has derived from the public piety and liberality, and perhaps the persevering efforts of succeeding generations. Let us not, however, be weary in well doing; 'for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.'

"Whatever may be the extent of the existing or increasing claims on the British and Foreign Bible Society, it has ample encouragement to proceed in its sacred duty of disseminating the Word of Life.

"'I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight.'

"These are the words of the Almighty himself. Let the British and Foreign Bible Society, uniting its prayers with those that are daily offered up at home and abroad for the blessing of God on its proceedings, humbly hope that it may become the instrument of his providence, for accomplishing his gracious promises; and that, by means of the Scriptures distributed through its exertions, or by its influence and encouragement, nations now ignorant of the true, God, may learn 'to draw water from the wells of salvation.' The prospect is animating, the object holy, its accomplishment glorious; for the prospective efforts of the Society are directed to a consummation, (whether attainable by them or not, is only known to Him who knoweth all things,) when all the ends of the earth, adopting the language of inspiration, shall unite their voices in the sublime strains of heavenly adoration: 'Blessing and honour, and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever: Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!"' [50]

Essay on What Christianity Has Done for Women.

At this distance of time, and possessing only the very brief information with which it has pleased Infinite Wisdom to furnish us in the commencing chapters of the book of Genesis, it is impossible to ascertain with precision the nature of that disparity which originally subsisted between the first parents of mankind. The evidence does not seem to be decisive, whether their characteristic differences were merely corporeal or mental, exterior or internal, natural and essential, or accidental. It is questionable whether the superiority of Adam arose out of the revelations he received, and the priority of his existence to his "fair partner Eve," or from an innate pre-eminence which marked him, not only as the head of the inferior creation, but as the appointed lord of the woman. A close examination of the subject, perhaps, would lead us to infer, that an equality subsisted in all those respects which are not strictly classed under the epithet _constitutional_; and that the authority which revelation has conceded to the man, results from his present fallen condition.

It is indeed observable, that when God determined upon the creation of the woman, because it was not deemed good that the man should be alone, she is represented as the intended "help meet _for_ him;" but this expression is not perhaps to be understood, as referring so much to subserviency as to suitability. The capacity of one being to promote the happiness of another, depends on its adaptation. The virtuous and the vicious, the feeble and the strong, the majestic and the mean, cannot be associated together to any advantage, and a general equality appears requisite, to render any being capable of becoming the _help meet_ to a perfect creature. This idea of his new-formed companion pervades the language of Adam, when she was first brought to him by her Almighty Creator: "This," said he, "is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and _they shall be one flesh_."

To this it may be added, that subjection to the man is expressly enjoined as a part of the original curse upon the female. This infliction necessarily implies a previous equality in rank and station. There was evidently before, no competition, no struggle for dominion, and no sense of inferiority or pre-eminence. The language of Jehovah in denouncing the respective destinies of these transgressors, unquestionably conferred a power or claim upon man, which he did not originally possess, and which was intended as a perpetual memento of the woman having been the first to disobey her Maker. "Unto the woman" he said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shall bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and _he shall ride over thee_."

But, whatever were the original equalities or inequalities of the human race, this, at least, is certain, that the influence of depraved passions since the fall, is sufficiently conspicuous in rendering the claims and duties of both sexes more and more ambiguous, and disarranging the harmonies of the first creation. In proportion to the degree in which society is corrupt, power will assume an authority over weakness, and they who ought to be help meets will become competitors. Opposition generates dislike, and dislike, when associated with power, will produce oppression. It is in vain to plead the principle of right, to solicit attention to the voice of reason, or to attempt to define the boundaries of influence, when no means exist of enforcing the attention of him who can command obedience. There is no alternative but submission or punishment. Upon this principle, the female sex may be expected to become the sport of human caprice, folly, and guilt. But Christianity tends to rectify the disorders which sin has introduced into the universe, and both in a natural and moral sense, to restore a lost paradise. Like that mighty Spirit, which in the beginning moved upon the surface of the waters, when the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, it corrects the confusion of the moral system, pervades and reorganizes the formless mass of depraved society, and pacifies the turbulence of human passions. With a majesty that overawes, a voice that will be heard, an influence that cannot be resisted, it renews the world, and will eventually diffuse its unsetting glory through every part of the habitual globe.

The subject before us presents a large field of research, and it would well repay the labour to walk with a deliberate step around its spacious borders and throughout its ample extent; but we must content ourselves with tracing out some of its principal varieties, and collecting comparatively a few of its productions.

Our plan will require the induction _of facts_, as the necessary basis of argument or illustration; and these refer to the state of women, in countries and during periods in which the religion of the Bible was wholly unknown, as in the nations of Pagan antiquity, in Greece and Rome; in savage, superstitious, and Mahometan regions; and their condition previously to the establishment of Christianity, in patriarchal time and places, or during the Jewish theocracy.

I. The Pagan Nations of Antiquity demand the first consideration.

Our knowledge of the _ancient Egyptians_ is extremely limited, being derived from the Greek writers, whose accounts are often contradictory. Their testimony, however, is sufficiently precise respecting the prevalence of domestic servitude. The Egyptians were a people remarkable for jealousy, which was carried to such an extreme, that after the death of their wives, they even entertained apprehensions respecting the embalmers. [51] Having decreed it to be indecent in women to go abroad without shoes, they deprived them of the means of wearing them, by threatening with death any one who should make shoes for a woman. They were forbidden music, probably with a view of preventing their possessing so dangerous an attraction as that of an elegant accomplishment.

With regard to the _Celtic nations_, it is true, that the Romans were surprised at the degree of estimation in which these barbarous tribes held their women, and the privileges which they conceded to them; and it must be admitted that certain stern virtues characterized those who were addicted to military achievements, resulting partly from their incessant occupation as warriors, and partly from some indefinite but splendid ideas of fame and glory. Seduction and adultery were vices of rare occurrence; the bridegroom bestowed a dowery upon the bride, consisting of flocks, a horse ready bridled and saddled, a shield, a lance, and a sword; [52] and they were often stimulated by their presence and excitement in their warlike expeditions. But though generally contented with one wife, the nobles were allowed a plurality, either for _pleasure_ or _show_; the labours of the field, as well as domestic toil, devolved on the women; which, though practised in very ancient times, even by females of the most exalted rank, evidently originated in the general impression of their inferiority in the scale of existence. Their great Odin, or Odinus, excluded from his paradise all who did not by some violent death follow their deceased husbands; and in time they were so degraded, that by an old Saxon law, he that hurt or killed a woman was to pay only half the fine exacted for injuring or killing a man. But the argument in favour of Christianity, as assigning women their _proper place_ in society, is corroborated by observing the extremes of oppression and adulation, to which the Scandinavian nations alternately veered. While polygamy and infanticide prevailed, the practice of raising into heroines, prophetesses, and goddesses, some of their women, was no less indicative of a very imperfect sense of the true character of the female sex. [53] The public and domestic life of the _Greeks_ exhibit unquestionable evidences of barbarity in the treatment of women. Homer, and all their subsequent writers, show that they were subjected to those restrictions, which infallibly indicate their being regarded only as the property of men, to be disposed of according to their will. Hence they were bought and sold, made to perform the most menial offices, and exposed to all the miseries and degradation of concubinage. The daughters, even of persons of distinction, were married without any consultation of their wishes, to men whom, frequently, they had never seen, and at the early age of fourteen or fifteen; previous to which period, the Athenian females were kept in a state of as great seclusion as possible. Their study was dress; and slaves, their mothers excepted, were their only companions. The duties of a good wife were, in the opinion of the wisest of the Greeks, comprised in going abroad to expose herself as little as possible to strangers, taking care of what her husband acquired, superintending the younger children, and maintaining a perpetual vigilance over the adult daughters. After marriage, some time elapsed before they ventured to speak to their husbands, or the latter entered into conversation with them. At no time were wives intrusted with any knowledge of their husbands' affairs, much less was their opinion or advice solicited; and they were totally excluded from mixed society. One of the most excellent of the Athenians admitted, there were few friends with whom, he conversed so seldom as with his wife. [54]

Solon, in his laws, is silent with regard to the education of girls, though he gave very precise regulations for that of boys. That legislator imagined that women were not sufficiently secluded, and therefore directed that they should not go abroad in the daytime, except it were in full dress; or at night, but with torches and in a chariot. He prohibited their taking eatables out of the houses of their husbands of more value than an obolus, or carrying a basket more than a cubit in length. [55] The Athenians had previously possessed the power of selling their children and sisters; and even Solon allowed fathers, brothers, and guardians, this right, if their daughters, sisters, and wards, had lost their innocence. From various enactments, it appears that adultery was extremely common, and female modesty could not be preserved even by legislative restraint. Most of the Greeks, and even their philosophers, concurred with the Eastern nations in general in associating with courtesans; who were, indeed, honoured with the highest distinctions. The Corinthians ascribed their deliverance, and that of the rest of Greece, from the power of Xerxes, to the intercession of the priestess of Venus, and the protection of the goddess. At all the festivals of Venus, the people applied to the courtesans as the most efficacious intercessors; and Solon deemed it advantageous to Athens, to introduce the worship of that goddess, and to constitute them her priestesses. In the age of Pericles, and still more afterward, prostitution, thus yoked with superstition, and sanctioned by its solemnities, produced the most baneful effects upon public morals. From idolatrous temples, the great reservoirs of pollution, a thousand streams poured into every condition of life, and rolling over the whole of this cultivated region, deposited the black sediment of impurity upon the once polished surface of society, despoiling its beauty, discolouring its character, and ruining its glory.

The Athenians did not hesitate to take their wives and daughters to visit the notorious Aspasia in the house of Pericles, though she was the teacher of intrigue, and the destroyer of morals. The most celebrated men lived in celibacy, only to secure the better opportunities of practising vice, which however did not conceal her hideous deformity in the shades, but stalked forth at noonday, emblazoned by the eloquence of a Demosthenes, and enriched by treasuries of opulence.

In many respects the Spartans differed from the other Greeks in their treatment of the female sex. The women were as shamefully exposed as those of the other states were secluded; being introduced to all the exercises of the public gymnasium at an early age, no less than the other sex, and taught the most shameless practices. The laws of Lycurgus were in many instances utterly subversive of morality, and too outrageous for citation. The depravity of the sex was extreme even at an early period, and Xenophon, Plutarch, and Aristotle, impute to this cause the ultimate subversion of the Spartan state.

The _Romans_ differed materially from the Greeks and the oriental nations in one point with regard to their treatment of women; namely, in never keeping them in a state of seclusion from the society of men: but the husbands were very incommunicative: and it seems at least to have been an _understood_, if not a written law, that they should avoid all inquisitiveness, and speak only in the presence of their husbands. In the second Punic war, the Oppian law prohibited the women, from riding in carriages and wearing certain articles of dress; which was, however, afterward repealed. The ancient laws considered children as slaves, and women as children who ought to remain in a state of perpetual tutelage. According to the laws of Romulus and Numa, a husband's authority over his wife was equal to that of a father over his children, excepting only that he could not sell her. The wife was stated to be in servitude, though she had in name the rights of a Roman citizen. From the moment of her marriage she was looked upon as the daughter of her husband and heir of his property, if he had no children; otherwise she was considered as his sister, and shared an equal portion with the children. Wives had no right to make wills, nor durst they prefer complaints against their husbands; and the power of the latter over them was as unrestricted as that which they possessed over their children: in fact, the husband could even put his wife to death, not only for gross immoralities, but for excess in wine. [56]

Considerable changes took place in the laws after the period of the destruction of Carthage, some of which allowed greater privileges to females; but as divorces became more frequent, crimes multiplied. In the latter periods of the republic women had the principal share in public plots and private assassinations, and practised the worst of sins with the most barefaced audacity.

The morals of women are indicative of the state of society in general, and of the estimation in which they are held in particular. If the other sex treat them as slaves, they will become servile and contemptible, a certain degree of self-respect being essential to the preservation of real dignity of character. The way to render human beings of any class despicable is to undervalue them; for disesteem will superinduce degeneracy. If this be the case, then the state of women in any age or country is a criterion of public opinion, since the vices of their lives indicate their condition; upon which principle, Greece and Rome exhibit wretched specimens of female degradation.

But there is one circumstance in the history of the Romans which must not be wholly overlooked. Their conduct was marked by _capriciousness._ Though the usual treatment of their women resembled that of other Pagan nations in barbarity, like some of them, too, they frequently rendered them extraordinary honours. On some occasions they even transferred to their principal slaves the right of chastising their wives; and yet, on others they paid them distinguished deference: as in the case of vestals, and the privileges conceded to them after the negotiation between the Romans and Sabines. Various individual exceptions to a barbarous usage might be adduced; sufficient, however, only to evince the general debasement of the female sex, and the total absence of all fixed principles of moral action in unchristianized man.

II. Next to the nations of antiquity, the state of women in SAVAGE, SUPERSTITIOUS, AND MAHOMETAN COUNTRIES, comes under review.

In treating this part of the subject, it will be necessary to make a rapid circumnavigation of the globe, touching at least at the most remarkable places.

EUROPE.

GREENLAND. The situation of females in this country might well justify the exclamation of an ancient philosopher, who thanked God that _he was born a man and not a woman_. The only employment of girls, till their fourteenth year, is singing, dancing, amusements, attending on children, and fetching water; [57] after which they are taught, by their mothers, to sew, cook, tan the skins of animals, construct houses, and navigate boats. It is common for the men to stand by as idle spectators, while the women are carrying the heaviest materials for building; the former never attempting to do any thing but the carpenter's work. Parents frequently betroth their daughters in infancy, and never consult their wishes respecting marriage; if no previous pledge be given, they are disposed of to the first suiter that chances to make the application. From their twentieth year, the usual period of marriage, the lives of the women, says Cranz, are a continued series of hardships and misery. The occupations of the men solely consist in hunting and fishing; but so far from giving themselves the trouble to carry home the fish they have caught, they would think themselves eternally disgraced by such a condescension.

The Greenlanders have two kinds of boats, adapted to procure subsistence. One of them is the great woman's boat called the _umiak_, from twelve to eighteen yards in length, and four or five in width. These boats are rowed by four women, and steered by a fifth, without any assistance from the men, excepting in cases of emergency. If the coast will not allow them to pass, six or eight women take the boat upon their heads, and carry it over land to a navigable place.

Mothers-in-law are absolute mistresses in the houses of their married sons, who frequently ill-treat them; and the poor women are sometimes obliged to live with quarrelsome favourites, and may be corrected or divorced at pleasure. Widows who have no friends, are commonly robbed of a considerable portion of their property by those who come to sympathize with them by an affected condolence; and can obtain no redress,--on the contrary, they are obliged to conciliate their kindness by the utmost obsequiousness. After a precarious subsistence in different families, and being driven from one hut to another, they are suffered to expire without help or notice. When widows have grown-up sons, their condition is much superior to that in which they formerly lived with their husbands. When aged women pretend to practise, or are suspected of witchcraft--if the wife or child of a Greenlander happen to die--if his fowling piece miss fire, or his arrow the mark at which it was shot--the supposed sorceress is instantly stoned, thrown into the sea, or cut in pieces by the _angekoks_ or male magicians. There have even been instances of sons killing their mothers, and brothers their sisters. The infirmities of age expose women to violent deaths, being sometimes with their own consent, and sometimes forcibly, interred alive by their own offspring.

RUSSIA. Over this extensive empire, including sixteen different nations, the condition of women is such as equally to evince the degraded character of the men. Among the Siberians, an opinion is entertained that they are impure beings, and odious to the gods; in consequence of which, they are not permitted to approach the sacred fire, or the places of sacrifice. In the eastern islands, in particular, there exists tribes to whom the nuptial ceremony is unknown; and in cases where the daughters are purchased by goods, money, or services, their fathers never consult their children, and their husbands treat them as slaves or beasts of burden. In Siberia, conjugal fidelity is bartered for gain, or sacrificed at the shrine of imaginary hospitality. The sale of their wives is by no means uncommon, for a little train oil, or other paltry considerations. To this the women offer no objection, and at an advanced age frequently seek younger wives for their husbands, and devote themselves to domestic drudgery. [58] The same degrading facts apply to the Tungusians and other tribes. In some respects the Kamtschadales differ from the rest, but the extreme debasement arising from their libidinous brutality must not be described, and can scarcely be credited. [59]

Among all the Slavon nations of Europe, wives and daughters have ever been kept in a state of exclusion. Brides are purchased, and instantly become slaves. Formerly sons were compelled by blows to marry, and daughters dragged by their hair to the altars; and the paternal authority is still unbounded. The lower classes are doomed to incessant labour, and are obliged to submit to the utmost indignities. [60]

The picture of Russian manners varies little with reference to the prince or the peasant.... They are all, high and low, rich and poor, alike servile to superiors; haughty and cruel to their dependants, ignorant, superstitions, cunning, brutal, barbarous, dirty, mean. The emperor canes the first of his grandees; princes and nobles cane their slaves; and the slaves their _wives_ and _daughters_. [61]

ITALY AND SPAIN. These two countries may be classed together, because the condition of the female sex is very similar in both: the education of woman is totally neglected, and they are not ashamed of committing the grossest blunders in common conversation. Such is their situation that they cannot intermeddle with the concerns of their husbands, without exciting their jealousy. Girls are in early years left to the care of servants who are both ill educated and immoral; the same may be said of their mothers, whose conversation and public conduct tend to perfect the growth of licentiousness in their uncultivated children.

PORTUGAL. Young women in this kingdom are not instructed in any thing truly useful or ornamental; and even those who belong to respectable families, are often ignorant of reading and writing. Parents keep their daughters in the most rigid confinement, frequently not allowing them even to go abroad to church to hear mass, and never unattended. They are secluded from all young persons of the other sex, who are not permitted to visit families where there are unmarried females. The consequence of this austerity is an extended system of intrigue, for the purpose of evading all this circumspection--by which means they are full of cunning and deceit.

TURKEY. Women, in Constantinople, are confined in seraglios for life, or shut up in their apartments. They are not permitted to appear in public without a vail, and can only obtain their freedom by devoting themselves to prostitution.

"The slave market," says Mr. Thornton, "is a quadrangle, surrounded by a covered gallery, and ranges of small and separate apartments. The manner of purchasing slaves is described in the plain and unaffected narrative of a German merchant, which, as I have been able to ascertain its general authenticity, may be relied on as correct in this particular. He arrived at Kaffa, in the Crimea, which was formerly the principal mart of slaves; and hearing that an Armenian had a Georgian and two Circassian girls to dispose of, feigned an intention of purchasing them, in order to gratify his curiosity, and to ascertain the mode of conducting such bargains. A Circassian maiden, eighteen years old, was the first who presented herself; she was well dressed, and her face was covered with a vail. She advanced towards the German, bowed down, and kissed his hand: by order of her master, she walked backwards and forwards in the chamber to show her shape, and the easiness of her gait and carriage: her foot was small, and her gesture agreeable. When she took off her vail, she displayed a bust of the most attractive beauty. She rubbed her cheeks with a wet napkin, to prove that she had not used art to heighten her complexion; and she opened her inviting lips, to show a regular set of teeth of pearly whiteness. The German was permitted to feel her pulse, that he might be convinced of the good state of her health and constitution. She was then ordered to retire, while the merchants deliberated upon the bargain. The price of this beautiful girl was four thousand piastres, [equal to four thousand five hundred florins of Vienna."] [62]

GREECE. The condition of females, in Modern Greece, may be inferred from an anecdote or two related by _Lieutenant Collins_. He and his friends were approaching _Macri_, on the coast of Asia Minor. "Encouraged to proceed," he remarks, "we approached the second groupe, which we passed in a similar manner; but some woman, who were near them, appeared to fly at our approach, and view us at a distance with astonishment and fear. But no sooner had we advanced, than, as with general consent, they all caught their children in their arms, and with the fears of a mother apprehensive for the safety of a beloved child, flew to their houses, and shut themselves in, and we saw no more of them till our return.

"Our company during dinner consisted of Greeks only--it was served up by the women, attended by one of her children, who with all the family appeared in an abject state; for on offering her a little of the wine, which they so kindly furnished us with, she shrunk back, with an expression of surprise at our condescension, which excited ours also; and the man understanding a little Italian, we inquired the reason; 'Such,' says he, is the inferiority and oppression we labour under, that it is in general thought too great honour for a Turk to present a person of this description with, any token of respect, and forward in her to accept it, which is the reason of her timidity, in not accepting the wine from you.'" [63]

In Greece, the women are closely confined at home; they do not even appear at church till they are married. The female slaves are not Greeks, but such as are either taken in war or stolen by the Tartars from Russia, Circassia, or Georgia. Many thousands were formerly taken in the Morea, but most of them have been redeemed by the charitable contributions of the Christians, or ransomed by their own relations. The fine slaves that wait upon great ladies, are bought at the age of eight or nine years, and educated with great care to accomplish them in singing, dancing, embroidery, &c. They are commonly Circassian, and their patron rarely ever sells them, but if they grow weary of them, they either present them to a friend, or give them their freedom.

ASIA.

TARTARY. This immense country, in its utmost limits, reaches from the Eastern Ocean to the Caspian Sea; and from Corea, China, Thibet, Hindoostan, and Persia, to Russia, and Siberia; including a space of three thousand six hundred miles in length, and nine hundred and sixty in width, and comprehending all the middle region of Asia. Its two great divisions are into Eastern and Western; the former chiefly belongs to the emperor of China, the latter to Russia.

The Mahometan Tartars are continually waging war against their neighbours for the purpose of procuring slaves. When they cannot obtain adults, they steal children to sell, and even make no scruple of selling their own, especially daughters. In case of any disgust, their wives share a similar fate. Among the pagan Tartars incestuous practices are prevalent, and their wives are generally dismissed at, or previous to, the age of forty. The mothers of sultans, among the Crim Tartars, neither eat with their sons, nor sit in their presence. They are, in fact, the slaves of their caprice, often ill-treated by them, and sometimes even put to death. [64]

The _Calmucks_ are considered as remarkably lenient in their conduct to the women: but fathers dispose of their daughters without their consent, and even antecedently to their birth. Their chiefs and princes have, besides, large harems or seraglios where domestic rivalship imbitters existence. They are, moreover, regarded in general as servants, and infidelity is compensated by a trifling offering to their mercenary rapacity.

The _Georgians and Circassians_ are celebrated for their surpassing beauty, and their young women are brought up to some industrious habits. The daughters of slaves receive a similar education, and are sold according to their beauty, at from twenty to a hundred pounds each, or upwards. They consider all their children in the light of property, exposing them to sale as they would their cattle, and too often obtain large sums from the agents of despotism and depravity.

CHINA. In this, and almost all the countries of Southern Asia, the condition of women is truly deplorable. Forced marriages and sales are universal, and the Chinese are so excessively jealous, that they do not permit their wives to receive any visitors of the other sex, and transport them from place to place in vehicles secured by iron bars. Their concubines are not only treated with the most degrading inhumanity, but are slaves to the wives, who never fail to sway a despotic sceptre; they are besides liable at any time to be sold. The children of concubines are regarded as the offspring of the legitimate wife; hence they manifest no affection for their real mothers, but often treat them with the most marked disrespect. The laws of China and Siam allow the lawful wives and sons, after the death of their husbands and fathers, to exclude concubines and their children from all share in the property of the deceased, and to dispose of their persons by public or private sale.

The wives of people of rank are always confined to their apartments from motives of jealousy; those of a middle class are a kind of upper servants deprived of liberty; and the wives of the lower orders are mere domestic drudges. The handsomest women are usually purchased for the courts and principal mandarins.

"We can readily," says a respectable writer, "give credit to the custom of a landlord taking the wife of a ryat or peasant, as a pledge for rent, and keeping her till the debt is discharged (in the kingdom of Nepaul;) since we know, on the best authority, that their wise polished neighbours, the Chinese, have found it necessary to enact a prohibitory statute against lending wives and daughters on hire." [65]

Another writer observes, "Since the philosophical inquiry into the condition of the weaker sex, in the different stages of society, published by Millar, [66] it has been universally considered as an infallible criterion of barbarous society, to find the women in a state of great degradation. Scarcely among savages themselves is the condition of women more wretched and humiliating than among the Chinese. A very striking picture of the slavery and oppression to which they are doomed, but too long for insertion in this place, is drawn by M. Vanbraam. [67] Mr. Barrow informs us, that among the rich, the women are imprisoned slaves; among the poor, drudges; 'many being,' says he, 'compelled to work with an infant upon the back, while the husband, in all probability, is gaming,--I have frequently seen women,' he adds, 'assisting to drag a sort of light plough, and the harrow. The easier task, that of directing the machine, is left to the husband.' [68] The Chinese value their daughters so little, that when they have more children than they can easily maintain, they hire the midwives to stifle the females in a basin of water as soon as they are born.' [69] Nothing can exceed the contempt towards women which the maxims of the most celebrated of their lawgivers express. 'It is very difficult,' said Confucius himself, 'to govern women and servants; for if you treat them with gentleness and familiarity, they lose all respect; if with rigour, you will have continual disturbance.'

"Women are debarred almost entirely from the rights of property; and they never inherit. Among the worst savage nations, their daughters are sold to their husbands, and are received and treated as slaves. [70] When society has made a little progress, the purchase-money is received only as a present, and the wife, nominally at least, is not received as a slave. Among the Chinese, the daughter, with whom no dowry is given, it uniformly exchanged for a present; and so little is the transaction, even on a purchase, disguised, that Mr. Barrow has no scruple to say, 'the daughters may be said to be invariably sold.' [71] He assures us, that 'it is even a common practice among the Chinese to sell their daughters, that they may he brought up as prostitutes.' [72] [73]

BIRMAN EMPIRE. This extensive dominion comprehends the state of Pegu, Ava, Arracan, and Siam. Women are not secluded from the society of men, but they are held in great contempt. Their evidence is undervalued in judicial proceedings. The lower classes sell their women to strangers, who do not, however, seem to feel themselves degraded. In Pegu, Siam, Cochin China, and other districts, adultery is regarded as honourable. Herodotus mentions a people called Gendanes, where the debasement of the female character is such, that their misconduct is an occasion of boasting and a source of distinction.

HINDOOSTAN. The following extracts, from the letters of the Baptist missionaries, in India, will speak volumes, and might, if it were necessary, be corroborated by a thousand similar citations.

At an early period of the Baptist mission to India, Dr. Carey communicated the following interesting account to a friend:--"As the burning of women with their husbands is one of the most singular and striking customs of this people, and also very ancient, as you will see by the _Reek Bede_, which contains a law relating to it, I shall begin with this. Having just read a Shanscrit book, called _Soordhee Sungraha_, which is a collection of laws from the various Shasters, arranged under their proper heads, I shall give you an extract from it, omitting some sentences, which are mere verbal repetitions. Otherwise, the translation may be depended on as exact. The words prefixed to some of the sentences are the names of the original books from which the extracts are made.

"_Angeera._ After the husband's death, the virtuous wife who burns herself with him, [74] is like an Asoondhatee, [75] and will go to bliss.--If she be within one day's journey of the place where he dies, and indeed virtuous, the burning of his corpse shall be deferred one day for her arrival.

"_Brahma Pooran_. If the husband die in another country, the virtuous wife shall take any of his effects; for instance, a sandal, and binding it on her thigh, shall enter the fire with it. [76]

"_Reek, Bede._ If a wife thus burn with her husband, it is not suicide; and her relations shall observe three days' uncleanness for her; after which her _Shraddha_ [77] must he properly performed.--If she cannot come to the place, or does not receive an account of her husband's death, she shall wait the appointed ten days of uncleanness, [78] and may afterwards die in a separate fire.--If she die in a separate fire, three days' uncleanness will be observed; after which the _Pinda_ must be performed.--After the uncleanness on account of the husband is over, the _Shraddha_ must be performed according to the commandment.--Three days after his death, the _Dospinda_ [79] must be made, and after ten days the regular _Shraddha_.

"_Goutam. Brahmmanee_ can only die with her husband, on which account she cannot burn in another fire. When a woman dies with her husband, the eldest son, or nearest relation, shall set fire to the pile; whose office also it is to perform the _Dospinda_, and all the obsequies. He who kindles the fire shall perform the _Dospinda_: [80] but her own son, or nearest relations, must perform the _Shraddha_.--If a woman burn separately, only three days' uncleanness will be observed for her; but if in the same fire ten days.

"_Asouch Shunkar_. If another person die before the last day of uncleanness for a death or birth, then the uncleanness on account of the second person's death will be included in the first, and the time not lengthened out.

"_Bishnoo Pooran_. If the husband die in war, only present uncleanness, or till bathing, will be observed for him: if, therefore, the wife burn with him only one night's uncleanness will be observed for her; but, if in a separate fire, three days; and in that case the husband's _Pinda_ will be at the end of three days.--If the husband and wife burn in one fire, they will obtain separate offerings of the _Shraddha_.--If a woman die with her husband voluntarily, the offerings to her, and all her obsequies will be equal to his.--If they die within a _Tithee_, or lunar day, the offerings will be made to both at the same time.--If the person be _Potect_, or sinful; that is, has killed a _Brahmman_, or drinks spirituous liquors, or has committed some sin in his former life, on account of which he is afflicted with elephantiasis, consumption, leprosy, &c. [81] all will be blotted out by his wife burning with him, after proper atonement has been made. [82]--A woman with a young child, or being pregnant, cannot burn with her husband.--If there be a proper person to educate the infant, she may be permitted to burn.--If any woman ascend the pile, and should afterward decline to burn, through love of life or earthly things, she shall perform the penance _Prazapatya_, and will then be free from sin.'" [83]

The following statement is taken from the more recent communication of another of the Baptist missionaries to India:--

"Jan. 9, 1807. A person informing us that a woman was about to be burnt with the corpse of her husband near our house, I, with several of our brethren, hastened to the place; but, before we could arrive, the pile was in flames. It was a horrible sight. The most shocking indifference and levity appeared among those who were present: I never saw anything more brutal than their behaviour. The dreadful scene had not the least appearance of a religious ceremony, It resembled an abandoned rabble of boys in England, collected for the purpose of worrying to death a cat or a dog. A bamboo, perhaps twenty feet long, had been fastened at one end to a stake driven in the ground, and held down over the fire by men at the other. Such were the confusion, the levity, the bursts of brutal laughter, while the poor woman was burning alive before their eyes, that it seemed as if every spark of humanity was extinguished by this cruel superstition. That which added to the cruelty was, the smallness of the fire. It did not consist of so much wood as we consume in dressing a dinner: no, not this fire that was to consume the living and the dead! I saw the legs of the poor creature hanging out of the fire, while her body was in flames. After a while they took a bamboo, ten or twelve feet long, and stirred it, pushing and beating the half-consumed corpse, as you would repair a fire of green wood, by throwing the unconsumed pieces into the middle. Perceiving the legs hanging out, they beat them with the bamboo for some time, in order to break the ligatures which fastened them at the knees; (for they would not have come near to touch them for the world.) At length, they succeeded in binding them upwards into the fire; the skin and muscles giving way, and discovering the knee-sockets bare, with the balls of the leg bones; a sight this, which, I need not say, made me thrill with horror; especially when I recollected that this hopeless victim of superstition was alive but a few minutes before. To have seen savage wolves thus tearing a human body limb from limb, would have been shocking; but to see relations and neighbours do this to one with whom they had familiarly conversed not an hour before, and to do it with an air of levity, was almost too much for me to bear! Turning to the Brahmman who was the chief actor in this horrid tragedy, a young fellow of about twenty-two, and one of the most hardened that ever I accosted, I told him that the system which allowed of these cruelties, could no more proceed from God than darkness from the sun; and warned him, that he must appear at the judgment-seat of God, to answer for this murder. He, with a grin, full of savage contempt, told me that 'he gloried in it, and felt the highest pleasure in performing the deed.' I replied, 'that his pleasure might be less than that of his Master; but seeing it was in vain to reason with him, I turned to the people, and expostulated with them. One of them answered, that 'the woman had burnt herself of her own free choice, and that she went to the pile as a matter of pleasure.'--'Why, then, did you confine her down with that large bamboo?'--'If we had not, she would have run away'--'What, run away from pleasure!' I then addressed the poor lad, who had been thus induced to set fire to his mother. He appeared about nineteen. 'You have murdered your mother! your sin is great. The sin of the Brahmman, who urged you to it, is greater; but yours is very great.'--'What could I do? It is the custom.'--'True, but this custom is not of God; but proceedeth from the devil, who wishes to destroy mankind. How will you bear the reflection that you have murdered your only surviving parent?' He seemed to feel what was said to him; but, just at this instant, that hardened wretch, the Brahmman, rushed in, and drew him away, while the tears were standing in his eyes. After reasoning with some others, and telling them of the Saviour of the world, I returned home with a mind full of horror and disgust.

"You expect, perhaps, to hear that this unhappy victim was the wife of some Brahmman of high cast. She was the wife of a barber who dwelt at Serampore, and had died that morning, leaving the son I have mentioned, and a daughter about eleven years of age. Thus has this infernal superstition aggravated the common miseries of life, and left these children stripped of both their parents in one day! Nor is this an uncommon case. It often happens to children far more helpless than these; sometimes to children possessed of property, which is then left, as well as themselves, to the mercy of those who have decoyed their mother to their father's funeral pile." [84]

CEYLON. "Idolatrous procession. Each carriage has four wheels of solid wood, and requires two hundred men to drag it. When they are dragged along the streets, on occasions of great solemnity, women, in the phrensy of false devotion, throw themselves down before the wheels, and are crushed to death by their tremendous weight; the same superstitious madness preventing the ignorant crowd from making any attempt to save them." [85]

SUMATRA. "The modes of marriage," says Mr. Marsden, "according to the original institutions of these people, are by _jujur_, by _arnbel anak_, or by _Semando_. The jujur is a certain sum of money, given by one man to another, as a consideration for the person of his daughter, whose situation, in this case, differs not much from that of a slave to the man she marries, and to his family; his absolute property in her depends, however, upon some nice circumstances. Besides the _botang jupu,_ (or main sum,) there are certain appendages, or branches, one of which, the _tali kulo_, or five dollars, is usually, from motives of delicacy or friendship, left unpaid; and so long as that is the case, a relationship is understood to subsist between the two families, and the parents of the woman have a right to interfere on occasions of ill treatment; the husband is also liable to be fined for wounding her: with other limitations of absolute right. When that sum is finally paid, which seldom happens but in cases of violent quarrel, the _tali kulo_, (tie of relationship,) is said to be _putus_, (broken,) and the woman becomes to all intents the slave of her lord. She has then no title to claim a divorce in any predicament; and he may sell her, making only the first offer to her relations."

Speaking of another part of the _country_, (Batta,) he says, "the men are allowed to marry as many wives as they please or can afford, and to have half a dozen is not uncommon. The condition of the women appears to be no other than that of slaves, the husbands having the power of selling their wives and children." [86]

JAVA. At Bantam, and in other parts of the island, fathers betroth their children at a very early age, lest they should be taken from them to supply the harems of kings, or be sold for slaves on the death of the fathers by the monarch, who is heir of all his subjects. [87]

Among all the nations of Southern Asia, and the East Indian and South Sea Islands, the women are despised and oppressed; the wives and daughters of every class are offered to strangers, and compelled to prostitute themselves. They are moreover used with the utmost cruelty by their husbands, and not permitted to eat, or even to sit down, in the presence of the men; and yet, with marvellous inconsistency, many nations allow themselves to be governed by women, who sometimes reign with despotic authority.

NEW HOLLAND. "The aboriginal inhabitants of this distant region are, indeed, beyond comparison, the most barbarous on the surface of the globe. The residence of Europeans has been wholly ineffectual; the natives are still in the same state as at our first settlement. Every day are men and women to be seen in the streets of Sydney and Paramatta naked as in the moment of their birth. In vain have the more humane of the officers of the colony endeavoured to improve their condition: they still persist in the enjoyment of their ease and liberty in their own way, and turn a deaf ear to any advice upon this subject." [88]

"They observe no particular ceremony in their marriages, though their mode of courtship is not without its singularity. When a young man sees a female to his fancy, he informs her she must accompany him home; the lady refuses; he not only enforces compliance with threats, but blows; thus the gallant, according to the custom, never fails to gain the victory, and bears off the willing, though struggling pugilist. The colonists, for some time, entertained the idea that the women were compelled, and forced away against their inclinations; but the young ladies informed them, that this mode of gallantry was the custom, and perfectly to their taste." [89]

PERSIA. "Women are not allowed to join in the public prayers at the mosques. They are directed to offer up their devotions at home, or if they attend the place of public worship, it must be at a period when the male sex are not there. This practice is founded upon the authority of the traditionary sayings of the prophet, and is calculated to confirm that inferiority and seclusion, to which the female sex are doomed by the laws of Mahomed.

"In Persia, women are seldom publicly executed; nor can their crimes, from their condition in society, be often of a nature to demand such examples; but they are exposed to all the violence and injustice of domestic tyranny; and innocent females are too often included in the punishment of their husbands and fathers, particularly where those are of high rank. Instances frequently occur where women are tortured, to make them reveal the concealed wealth of which they are supposed to have a knowledge; and when a nobleman or minister is put to death, it is not unusual to give away his wives and daughters as slaves; and sometimes (though rarely) they are bestowed on the lowest classes in the community. There are instances of the wives of men of high rank being given to mule-drivers." [90]

ARABIA. The ancient Arabs considered the birth of a daughter as a misfortune, and they frequently buried daughters alive as soon as they were born, lest they should be impoverished by having to provide for them, or should suffer disgrace on their account. [91]

"The horrid practice of female infanticide has been an usage of many nations. Among the ancient Arabs, as among the Rajpoots of the present day, it proceeded as much from a jealous sense of honour, as the pressure of want." [92]

Of eastern manners, in general, it has been remarked, that "excepting the Chinese and Javanese, all the nations of the south of Asia, and all the inhabitants of the East Indian and South Sea islands, offer the Europeans their wives and daughters, or compel them to prostitute themselves to strangers." [93]

"A man, in the East, dares not inquire concerning the health of the wife or daughter of his most intimate friend, because this would instantly excite suspicion of illicit views and connections; neither does etiquette permit him to make mention himself of his own wife or daughter. They are included among the domestic animals, or comprehended in the general denomination of the house or the family. When, however, an Oriental is obliged to mention his wife or his daughter, in conversation with a physician, or any other person whom he wishes to treat with deference and respect, he always introduces the subject with some such apology as we make in Europe, when we are obliged to speak of things which are regarded as disgusting or obscene. Conformably with this Asiatic prejudice, Tamerlane was highly affronted with the vanquished Turkish emperor Bajazet, for mentioning, in his presence, such impure creatures as women are considered by the Orientals." [94]

AMERICA.

NORTHERN INDIANS.

Here all the gentle morals, such as play
Through life's more cultur'd walks, and charm the way;
These far dispers'd, on tim'rous pinions fly,
To sport and flutter in a kinder sky.

GOLDSMITH.

The women cook the victuals, but though of the highest rank, they are never permitted to partake of it, till all the males, even the servants, have eaten what they think proper; and in times of scarcity, it is frequently their lot to be left without a single morsel; and should they be detected in helping themselves during the business of cookery, they would be subject to a severe beating; and be considered afterward, through life, as having forfeited their character.