[265] Donaldson, in Contemporary Review, lvi. 438.
[266] Zscharnack, Der Dienst der Frau in den ersten Jahrhunderten der christlichen Kirche, p. 99 sqq. Robinson, Ministry of Deaconesses, passim.
[267] Ibid. pp. 113, 114, 125.
[268] Bingham, Works, iv. 45. Zscharnack, op. cit. p. 93.
[269] Bingham, op. cit. v. 107 sqq. Zscharnack, op. cit. p. 73 sqq.
[270] Tertullian, De præscriptionibus adversus hæreticos, 41 (Migne, op. cit. ii. 56). Cf. Tertullian, De baptismo, 17 (Migne, op. cit. i. 1219).
[271] Concilium Autisiodorense, A.D. 578, can. 36 (Labbe-Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum collectio, ix. 915).
[272] Canones Concilii Laodiceni, 44 (Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. ii. 581, 589). ‘Epitome canonum, quam Hadrianus I. Carolo Magno obtulit, A.D. DCCLXXIII.,’ in Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. xii. 868. Canons enacted under King Edgar, 44 (Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, p. 399).
[273] Cf. Gage, Woman, Church and State, p. 57.
But the notion that woman is either temporarily or permanently unclean, that she is a mysterious being charged with supernatural energy, is not only a cause of her degradation; it also gives her a secret power over her husband, which may be very considerable. During my stay among the country people of Morocco, Arabs and Berbers alike, I was often struck by the superstitious fear with which the women imbued the men. They are supposed to be much better versed in magic, and have also splendid opportunities to practise it to the detriment of their husbands, as they may easily bewitch the food they prepare for them. For instance, the wife only needs to cut off a little piece of a donkey’s ear and put it into the husband’s food. What happens? By eating that little piece the husband will, in his relations to his wife, become just like a donkey; he will always listen to what she says, and the wife will become the ruler of the house. I also believe that the men on purpose abstain from teaching the women prayers, so as not to increase their supernatural power.[274] In the Arabian Desert men are likewise afraid of their women “with their sly philters and maleficent drinks.”[275] In Dahomey “the husband may not chastise or interfere with his wife whilst the fetish is ‘upon’ her, and even at other times the use of the rod might be dangerous.”[276] Women, and especially old ones, are very frequently regarded as experts in magic. [277] Among the ancient Arabs,[278] Babylonians,[279] and Peruvians,[280] as in Europe during the Middle Ages and later, the witch appeared more frequently than the male sorcerer. So, also, in the Government of Tomsk in Southern Siberia, native sorceresses are much more numerous than wizards;[281] and among the Californian Shastika all, or nearly all, of the shamans are women.[282] The curses of women are greatly feared. In Morocco it is considered even a greater calamity to be cursed by a Shereefa, or female descendant of the Prophet, than to be cursed by a Shereef. According to the Talmud, the anger of a wife destroys the house;[283] but, on the other hand, it is also through woman that God’s blessings are vouchsafed to it.[284] We read in the Laws of Manu:—“Women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire their own welfare. Where women are honoured, there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields rewards. Where the female relations live in grief, the family soon wholly perishes; but that family where they are not unhappy ever prospers. The houses on which female relations, not being duly honoured, pronounce a curse, perish completely as if destroyed by magic. Hence men who seek their own welfare should always honour women on holidays and festivals with gifts of ornaments, clothes, and dainty food.”[285] A Gaelic proverb says, “A wicked woman will get her wish, though her soul may not see salvation.”[286] Closely connected with the belief in the magic power of women, and especially, I think, in the great efficacy of their curses, is the custom according to which a woman may serve as an asylum.[287] In various tribes of Morocco, especially among the Berbers and Jbâla, a person who takes refuge with a woman by touching her is safe from his persecutor. Among the Arabs of the plains this custom is dying out, probably owing to their subjection under the Sultan’s government; but amongst certain Asiatic Bedouins, the tribe of Shammar, “a woman can protect any number of persons, or even of tents.”[288] Among the Circassians “a stranger who intrusts himself to the patronage of a woman, or is able to touch with his mouth the breast of a wife, is spared and protected as a relation of the blood, though he were the enemy, nay even the murderer of a similar relative.”[289] The inhabitants of Bareges in Bigorre have, up to recent times, preserved the old custom of pardoning a criminal who has sought refuge with a woman.[290]