prayers and formal devotions, and various observances, often occupy most part of their time; and thus, according to the simple faith of their fathers and the instructions of priests, old Hindu women prepare themselves from day to day for the life to come, in which her Sastras teach her to believe. The object of life in the West is quite different from that in the East. In the West, men live for temporal happiness, while in the East, life is looked upon as simply preparatory to a higher state of bliss hereafter. Hence it is that every act of daily life among the Hindus is intermixed with religion, and women are more devoted to religion than men. It is true the religion of the Hindu woman consists in various vows, practices, prayers, and observances, often requiring great self-abnegation and even endurance. She believes in various gods and goddesses, offers worship through priests in temples, makes pilgrimages to distant shrines. But for all this her faith is firm, and above all gods and goddesses she believes in the Great Bhagavan, the Ruler of the universe. The materialistic and agnostic theories which are slowly creeping into the minds of young educated men in India have not yet found acceptance amongst women; the Hindu woman is a sincere believer in her ancient faith. Physically the Hindu woman is smaller than her sister in the West, and bigger than the woman of China and Japan. Her complexion is dark brown; it however varies in the different provinces. In Bengal and Madras women are darker than in Northern India, Gujrat, and the Deccan. The Punjab and Kashmere boast of tall, handsome, and beautiful women. The Hindu woman, as a rule, has beautiful dark eyes, luxuriant hair, and well-shaped limbs. Among the lower classes women are strong and able to do much hard work, such as fetching water from a distance of two or three miles, drawing it from wells and tanks many feet deep, turning the flour-mill, or husking the rice. Among higher castes, however, Hindu women are not strong, and early marriage and early motherhood often bring on early old age and feebleness. In her domestic virtues the Hindu woman is a model for the whole world. She is a loving wife, mother, daughter, and sister. She is obedient, sympathetic, and charitable; she does not indulge in the habits of drinking or smoking; she is less given to the frivolities of life than her Western sister. If she receives due intellectual culture, the Hindu woman is an ideal woman. For the rest, progress among Hindu women is only possible along the lines indicated by the conditions of their social life, and such progress is being effected. High education is confined to a very limited number of Hindu women in Bombay and Bengal; some elementary education is now common among all Hindu women of the upper classes. The remarriage of widows has been sanctioned by law, but is not yet popular. Polygamy is rare, and is dying out, even among those special classes among whom it was in vogue. Many theistic creeds, like those of the Brahina Samaj and the Arya Samaj, are directing the attention of all Hindus to the religion of one God; social progress goes hand in hand with these religious movements; and there has been perceptible progress and improvement in the general condition and status of Hindu women within the present century. MOHAMEDAN WOMEN BY MOHAMMAD BARAKATULLAH NATIONS grow under the influence of particular environments, which really form their natural characteristics. The conceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, refined or vulgar manners, are to a certain extent conventional. Absolute goodness has never been in the possession of any single nation. Still every nation thinks that its social institutions and ethical canons-written or unwritten-are the best. Hence it is no wonder if European writers, who seldom have real insight into Muslim harems, present to the public a terrible picture of the state of woman in Islam. No one can claim that all Islamic institutions are perfect. But, on the other hand, to say that a Muslim harem is a pandemonium of misery, where women are caged, like wild beasts, to toil and be tortured, is an assertion no less imaginary than any freak of fiction. There is no doubt that the Mohamedan women do not have the pleasure of free intercourse with men, outside the family circle, as women do in western countries; yet their lot is far from being one of anxiety and misery. On the contrary, they enjoy themselves just as much as any women in the world can do. The means of acquiring happiness in different countries may be different, yet the end arrived at, in such cases, will be almost always the same. It is just like a family, whose members have different tastes, and pass their lives in various ways. SECLUSION Seclusion of women from the society of men is universally observed in Muslim countries all over the globe, varying only in its details, which are governed by local requirements. In some places it is less rigorous, and in others, it is strict and complete. In Arabia, for example, women go out, of course veiled, for purposes of shopping, or of praying in the mosque with men, while in India it is considered disrespectful for a Muslim lady to walk in the streets, unless she is advanced in years. It would not, perhaps, be out of place to give a brief account of the origin of this institution. The moral status of pre-Islamic Arabs was exceedingly low, and the results of free intercourse between the two sexes were really shocking. The leaders of thought among the followers of the Prophet repeatedly urged upon him to put an end to the shameful state of society. But the great reformer was biding his time. He waited till he saw that the ethical teachings of Islam took a firm root in the minds of the newly formed community. He then introduced gradual reforms to remove the abuses and to put a wholesome check upon unbridled lawlessness. The first step in this direction was an injunction to faithful women to observe proper clothing and not to disclose any limbs except the face and hands up to the wrists, and also not to expose their charms and ornaments to the public gaze,' but to cover themselves with extra sheets whenever they might go out, so that they might be known as respectable ladies and saved from the insults of street ruffians. Then the Prophet, practical in all his affairs, set a good example by dis couraging the practice of unnecessary wandering about, and by encouraging among the women of his own house the habit of staying at home, saying to them, "Remain in your own homes and do not go about making a demonstration of yourselves, as they used to do in former times of ignorance." The believers were ordered not to speak to the ladies in the Prophet's harem, or to ask anything of them except from behind the curtain. The example thus set was followed by the community at large, and a sort of salutary limitation was placed upon the freedom of intercourse between the sexes. In the lifetime of the Prophet, there never existed any entire isolation of women from the society of men. On the contrary, women used to go out freely, decently dressed, without covering even their faces. But as time went on, and the Arabs came in contact with other nations more subtle and punctilious on matters connected with family virtues, the laws of purity and feminine dignity became hard and fast, and observance of seclusion by women received the stamp of austerity. The climatic influences, the conservatism and the proverbial laziness of the East all tended in the same direction. DOMESTIC FELICITY If a Muslim lady, by force of habit ingrafted into her nature by the practice of centuries, has given up the pleasures of mixing with the people of the outside world, her life is not altogether monotonous nor by any means intolerable. She is the queen of her home, whose authority extends over all domestic affairs. The government of the household is entirely committed to her charge. Her voice is supreme there. In no department of household government is anything done without her consent. If anything is required for her children, her husband, or anybody in the house, her |