CONDITION OF WOMEN IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES CONTRASTED.-FACES OF WOMEN EXPOSED TO VIEW.-LIBERTY OF CONVERSATION. - PRESENCE AT MEALS. - OCCUPATIONS.-IN

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FLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE POSITION OF WOMEN.

THE Social condition of women has gone backward rather than forward in Eastern countries within the last two thousand years. This is owing, as we have already hinted, to the influence of the Mohammedan religion, which enjoins the most rigid seclusion of the women, shutting them out from ordinary society, and enforcing a concealment even of their features in any public place. As far as the duties and employments of women are concerned, the change is not so

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great, an undue share of laborious offices having been in all ages assigned to them.

We shall illustrate these points by a comparison of passages in Scripture with the descriptions of modern writers. In the first place we may notice that the women in old times went about with their features exposed. This might be inferred, of course, from what we have already said about the use of the veil in the chapter on dress: but it also appears from the following passages:- "It came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair" (Gen. xii. 14);— "And it came that, behold, Rebekah came out . . . and the damsel was very fair to look upon" (Gen. xxiv. 15, 16); "And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, Jacob kissed Rachel " (Gen. xxix. 10, 11). In the present day we are told that: "the women of Egypt deem it more requisite to conceal the face than most other parts of the person."-LANE's Modern Egyptians, i. 80.

to pass.

The narratives of Rebekah's interview with Abraham's servant, and of Rachel's with Jacob, as recorded in the 24th and 29th chapters of Genesis, show that it was not regarded unseemly for even an unmarried woman to converse with strangers. But now we are told that: "The Bedouin women, seeing a man pass on the road, sit down and turn their backs towards him : nor will they ever receive anything from the hands of a stranger (who is not a relation) into their own hands, unless some friend be present. I have frequently passed women on the road, who asked for biscuit or flour to make bread: this was set near them upon the ground, while their backs were turned towards us: and they took it up when we had retired a few paces. It has always appeared to me that the more a tribe is connected with the inhabitants of towns, the stricter they are with respect to the seclusion of women. In the Mekka and Sinai mountains, a woman, if addressed

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by any stranger, will seldom return an answer; on the contrary, in the distant plains I have freely conversed with the women (of several tribes)."-BURCKHARDT'S Notes on the Bedouins, &c., i. 352, 353.

In ancient times women probably took their meals with the male members of the family. We read of Ruth that "she sat beside the reapers: and he (Boaz) reached her parched corn, and she did eat" (Ruth ii. 14). Elkanah's wives received their portions of food from him, and therefore took their meals with him (1 Sam. i. 4, 5). Job's sons "sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them (Job i. 4). In Babylon the king's wives took part in the festivities (Dan. v. 2), and the same intermixture of the sexes at feasts appears to have taken place at Shushan (Esth. vii. 2, 8). The modern custom is very different, as the following passages show:

"The wives, as well as the female slaves, are not only often debarred from the privilege of eating with the master of the family, but also required to wait upon him when he dines or sups, or even takes his pipe and coffee in the harem. They frequently serve him as menials; fill and light his pipe, make coffee for him, and prepare his food."-LANE'S Modern Egyptians, i. 245.

Mr. Carne mentions, in his "Recollections of the East," that having been hospitably received in the house of a Syrian family, living in a large town in Syria, and the repast being now ready, "We would fain have shared it with the fair preparers, who had so well received the houseless stranger; but they declined, and stood calmly and silently gazing at the good-will with which their viands were devoured."Recollections, p. 25.

"When meat is served up, it is the duty of one of the guests to demand a portion for the women, by calling out, 'The meat for the apartment of the women ;' and a part of it is then set aside, or he is answered

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that this has been already done."

Syria, &c., pp. 484, 485.

BURCKHARDT'S

"The (Arab) women eat in the harem what is left of the men's dinner; they seldom have the good fortune to taste any meat except the head, feet, and liver of the lambs. While the men of the camp resort to the tent in which a stranger is entertained, and participate in the supper, their women steal into the harem of the hostess to beg a foot, or some other trifling portion of the animal killed for the occasion."-BURCKHARDT'S Notes on the Bedouins, i. 64, 65.

The occupations of the Israelitish women have been already in part described. We have shown that the preparation of food, such as grinding corn, baking, and cooking, fell to their lot: as also did other household duties, such as fetching water from the well, taking care of the children. We shall hereafter show that they were further occupied in the manufacture of the clothes of the family, and that they occasionally tended the flocks in the neighbourhood of their own homes. The duties above described must have exposed the women to considerable hardships similar to those undergone by their modern representatives.

Writing of the wives of the Arabs employed by him in the excavations of Nineveh, Mr. Layard observes: "These poor creatures, like all Arab women, were exposed to constant hardships. They were obliged to look after the children, to make bread, to fetch water, and to cut wood, which they brought home from afar on their heads. Moreover, they were intrusted with all the domestic duties, wove their wool and goats' hair into clothes, carpets, and tent-canvas; and were left to strike and raise the tents, and to load and unload the beasts of burden when they change their encamping-ground. If their husbands possessed sheep or cows, they had to drive them away to the pastures, and to milk them at night. When moving, they carried their children at their backs during the march,

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and were even troubled with this burden when employed in their domestic occupations, if the children were too young to be left alone. The men sat indolently by, smoking their pipes, or listening to a trifling story from some stray Arab of the desert, who was always there to collect a group around him. At first the women whose husbands encamped on the mound brought water from the river; but I released them from this labour by employing horses and donkeys in the work. The weight of a large sheep or goat's skin filled with water is not inconsiderable. This is hung on the back by cords strapped over the shoulders, and upon it, in addition, was frequently seated the child, who could not be left in the tent or was unable to follow its mother on foot. The bundles of fire-wood, brought from a considerable distance, were enormous, completely concealing the head and shoulders of those who tottered beneath them. And yet the women worked cheerfully, and it was seldom that their husbands had to complain of their idleness. Some were more active than others. There was a young girl named Hadla, who particularly distinguished herself, and was consequently sought in marriage by all the men. Her features were handsome, and her form erect, and exceedingly graceful. She carried the largest burdens, was never unemployed, and was accustomed, when she had finished the work imposed upon her by her mother, to assist her neighbours in completing theirs."-LAYARD's Nineveh, i. 560.

So again we are informed, in respect to the lower orders in Egypt, that the women "seldom pass a life of inactivity. Some of them are even condemned to greater drudgery than the men. Their chief occupations are the preparing of the husband's food, fetching water, spinning cotton, linen, or woollen yarn, and making the fuel, which is composed of the dung of cattle, kneaded with chopped straw, and formed into round flat cakes. When a poor woman goes out with