The history of the condition of women in various ages and nations

by Lydia Maria Child

Among the Yakutes, it is customary for the bridegroom to remain with his father-in-law several days after the wedding, and entertain his friends there. When his wife is conducted to her new habitation, she is led by female relatives, her own face being closely covered with ermine. The door is barred by a slender piece of wood, which she pushes against and breaks. When she has entered, seven small sticks with bits of butter are put into her hands, and she throws them in the fire, while the priest pronounces a blessing. On this occasion, feasts are again given for two days to relations and friends.

Married women of this tribe wear an odd kind of cap, made of the skin of some animal, in such a manner that the ears stand upright and resemble horns.

The Yakutes and Baschkirs, unlike most of the neighboring nations and tribes, always consult the inclinations of their daughters, before they agree to a marriage contract. Where there is more than one wife, the first, provided she has borne children, always retains a certain degree of pre-eminence over the others. When a husband dies, such of his wives as have had no children return to their parents, with the clothes and presents they have received; if they have no paternal home, they can remain subordinate to the oldest wife, and are entitled to a tenth part of the cattle.

The occupations of the wealthy classes are similar to those of other Asiatic women of rank. The love of smoking is universal. Tartar women, besides cooking, tending their children, making garments, and milking the flocks, tan the skins of water-fowl, with the feathers on, for caps and other articles; weave cloth from common nettles; spin cotton of extraordinary fineness; make felt coverings for the tents; dye cloth; tan leather by means of sour milk and chalk; and manufacture water-bottles, as transparent as horn, from the hides of horses and camels. While they are busy at these various avocations, the men take care of the flocks, hunt, fish, or lie stretched at their ease beside the kumiss bottle.

Few Tartars marry more than one wife. They seldom take a second while they live in peace with the first. They expend a great deal in wedding entertainments; even the peasantry sometimes lavish a thousand roubles on such occasions. The higher classes will never bestow a younger daughter in marriage before the elder is disposed of, though a much higher price should be offered for the junior sister. When a murza, or Tartar noble, enters the apartments of his women, they all rise up respectfully, and repeat the same ceremony when he leaves the room, though he may come and go very frequently. Very aged women are, by permission, excused from this inconvenient homage, on account of their infirmities.

But though the women are kept in a state of such complete subjection, personal abuse is considered very dishonorable, and the Tartars are seldom guilty of it. In case of ill usage, a wife may complain to magistrates, who, attended by some of the principal people of the village, go to the house, pronounce a formal divorce, and give the woman permission to return to her own relations.

Tartar mothers nurse their infants till they are two or three years old, and think Christian women very cruel to wean them so early.

There is little variety in amusements. The men and women generally have separate dances. Those of the men are lively and martial; but the female dances consist principally in slow motions and changing attitudes, while the face is covered by the hands. The women in general have no share in the amusements of men; because this could not be without violating Mohammedan ideas of decorum. The day when any tribe removes to fresh pastures is always a day of festivity. The women, sure of being seen by all the men, decorate themselves in their best style, and put on all their store of ornaments.

The Mohammedan Tartars often make war on their neighbors, for the purpose of obtaining slaves to sell. They frequently steal children for this purpose; and if their own daughters are beautiful, or their wives give them the least offence, they do not hesitate to sell them to the Jewish slave merchants, who are always traversing the country.

In former times nearly the whole of Asia was tributary to the powerful Mogul empire. Traces of ancient wealth and refinement are occasionally dug up from the ruins of edifices built by Zinghis Khan and Tamerlane. In 1720, there were found, in Calmuck Tartary, urns, lamps, ear-rings, an equestrian statue, the image of a prince wearing a diadem, and two women seated on thrones. It is said the Mogul women sometimes inherited the crown, but always issued their decrees from behind a screen. They were sometimes admitted to the apartments of men after supper, where they conversed and partook of the refreshments offered them. On such occasions they always remained veiled, and the slightest rudeness toward them would have been revenged even unto death. When present at any public entertainments, the Mogul women were screened from observation by galleries of close lattice-work.