“Et soleâ pulsare nates,”
And doubtless many of the rising generation can testify to its abuse, even in these days of modern improvement.
The very whims and caprices which seem indigenous to the fair sex, are tolerated as a matter of course with philosophic resignation, as they are instructed by the Koran, “If ye be kind towards women and fear to wrong them, God is well acquainted with what ye do.” They have a proverb also which supplants all reasoning on such occasions.
“Satchi-ouzoun, Akli-Kissa.”
Long hair, short brains.
To salute a lady, or in any way accost her, in public would be an act of consummate rudeness; even a husband would pass by his wife and family with an air of affected indifference. Certainly such a neglect of the fair sex would be unpardonable in Europe and this country, but on the contrary, in the East, it only evinces the greatest deference and respect.
Nevertheless, the Mohammedans have been most maliciously reported by ignorant writers on the East, to hold that women have no souls; or if they have, that they will perish like those of brute beasts.
This assumption is founded upon the promise of the Prophet, that the faithful shall be provided with black-eyed Houris in Paradise.
If this excludes the Mussulman women from Paradise, we may reasonably place the Christian ladies in the same category, for they are assured in the Gospel that “there will be no marrying nor giving in marriage in Heaven.”