lasts for some time, during which compliments and presents are exchanged on festive occasions, and the conduct of the young, man and the young lady are watched. When the marriage time arrives great preparations are made to solemnise the occasion. The religious ceremony is very simple. It consists of only two essentials: (1) Ijab (the offer), and (2) Quabool (the acceptance), in the presence of two witnesses; accompanied with the settlement of a certain sum of money or property by the husband on his wife, as a provision for a rainy day. The details of marriage festivities vary with different countries and also with the positions of the people.

To the people in western countries it would sound strange that two persons who have had no previous personal acquaintance should be thus brought together to live as man and wife. The very thought of marriage by proxy would condemn it as a failure. But it is a curious thing that the unions thus effected prove in the majority of cases happy enough. The Eastern couples commence their courtship after the honeymoon, somewhat as they do in France. Perhaps the wife having had no opportunity of bestowing her affection upon any other man than her husband thinks him to be her prince and her king. For the same reason the man considers his consort to be the paragon of womanhood and his queen. So they, by trying to please each other, and overlooking one another's faults, manage to stick to each other very well as long as their lives last.

If they happen to be of irreconcilable disposition, and the union of hearts proves to be impossible, then they get separated without creating any sensation in society. If not in all, at least in the majority of Muslim countries, divorce is of rare occurrence, notwithstanding its facility. Divorce, being condemned both socially and religiously, is avoided as far as possible. "Divorce, though permitted for necessity, is

most odious in the sight of God," is the tradition of the Prophet. The Quran is full of advice upon the reconciliation between man and wife; and orders the appointment of two representatives of both parties to remove the causes of friction, if the man and wife cannot manage to come to terms by themselves. Religious divorce affords a great many opportunities for reconciliation. The word Talaq (divorce) is to be pronounced in the presence of witnesses three times at intervals, each interval being about a month, under certain conditions. All this while the woman dwells in the same house with her husband. If they are reconciled after the first or the second pronouncement, the whole performance becomes null and void, and they are still man and wife. But when the third ceremony is gone through the Quran forbids their reunion; except under the circumstances of the woman becoming married with some other man, and then being left a widow, a reunion of the former couple would then be permissible. If the man has a right to Talaq (divorce), the woman has a similar right to Khulă (release).

Islam has often been found fault with for allowing polygamy, as degrading to womankind. But the real students of history who are intimately familiar with the early progress of Islam, will never lay such a charge at its door. Polygamy of the worst kind was prevalent in Arabia before the advent of Islam. Islam not only put a check upon it, but morally abolished it, at least in theory. The Quran, it is true, permits marriage with more than one wife, but immediately adds a conditional clause: "And if you are afraid that you could not treat (the wives) with justice and equality, then, marry only one;"1 which clause, to conscientious people, amounts to indirect prohibition, because to love two women equally and treat them with impartiality is, humanly speaking, impossible. 1 Chapter iii.-Women, "Quran."

Moreover, the Prophet says: "If a man proves to be partial to one of his two wives, even to the extent of a hair's-breadth, he will rise on the day of judgment with half of his body lifeless." The example of the Prophet, in this respect, has been forbidden to be followed, simply because his action was based on the interest of the common weal, for all his wives, with the exception of one, were widows pretty well advanced in age. Hence the general practice among Muslims is monogamy, excepting with the aristocracy, which in every land has been, more or less, notorious for its transgression of the laws of morality.

POLITICS

Islamic history bears testimony to the fact that Muslim women have played from time to time a prominent part in the government of their country. But, as a rule, they seldom meddle with politics. Even now, the influence of the wives and the mothers of ruling sovereigns is often visible in the management of public affairs. As regards the management of state affairs by Muslim ladies, we cannot find a better example than that of the present Begum of Bhopal, India. Her Highness Shah-jehan Begum is the only Muslim queen under her Majesty the Queen-Empress. The Begum has been reigning for about a quarter of a century, and many improvements have been made during her reign in the Bhopal state. Shah-jehan Begum possesses a head as well as a heart. As a proof of the first, she weathered the storms during the grave crisis which resulted in the degradation of her late husband, Nawwab Siddeeq Hasan Khan, about thirteen years ago, and acted with remarkable sagacity, to the credit of herself and her state; and as for the second, she has endeared herself to her subjects, and stood by her husband through thick and thin. It is a curious thing

that the Bhopal state has been, for three generations, governed by successive queens, and the present heirapparent to the throne of Bhopal is also a lady-Sultanjehan Begum. Seconder Begum, the mother of Shahjehan Begum, was a woman of great abilities, and was considered as one of the wisest rulers in her time. She rendered great services to the Indian Government at the time of the Mutiny, and saved many Europeans' lives, and therefore received the district of Bairusya, from the Indian Government, as a reward for her services. The Viceroy of the time eulogised Seconder Begum in the presence of all the ruling princes of India, in a durbar held at Jabalpoore.

There is another peculiarity of Muslim ladies, that they have, up to this time, preferred social happiness to organising societies for the political rights of women. Nor have they yet entered into competition with men, in the fields of public service, industries, or labour. But in the evolution of time, which works such miracles in its own mysterious ways, who knows what surprises may yet be in store for the world among the generations yet unborn.

PARSEE WOMEN

BY ZULIRKA SORALJI CAVALIER

PARSEES are Zoroastrians. They are not only theists, but monotheists; they tolerate no other worship than that of the Supreme Being. Parsees are not idolaters; Zoroaster was successful in putting down idol-worship for his followers.

The charge of worshipping the elements has oftener than once been brought against the Parsees, but it is a false charge entirely. God, according to the Parsee faith, is the emblem of glory; refulgence, and light; and in this view a Parsee, while engaged in prayer, is directed to stand before the fire, or to turn his face towards the sun, because they appear to be the most proper symbols of the Almighty.

All Eastern historians agree that the Persians, from the earliest times, were not idolaters, and that they worshipped one God, the creator of the world, under the symbol of fire. This is still the practice of their descendants in India.

A Parsee worships fire or through fire-(1) Because it is the most perfect symbol of the Deity, on account of its purity, brightness, activity, subtilty, fecundity, and incorruptibility. (2) Fire is the noblest, the most excellent of God's creations. (3) Because in the fire temples of the Parsees, having undergone several ceremonies, it has added a new element of purity to itself, and for this reason is most sacred.

While the Parsee loves his religion dearly, he is not a bigot, and he never thinks ill of the religion

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