fault. One of them is said to have beat his wife to death merely because she had lent his knife without permission, though she begged pardon and offered in the humblest manner to go and bring it for him. Being called before a council of the chief men of the tribe, he acknowledged the offence; saying he had told the deceased never to meddle with any thing of his, and he was determined to have a wife who would obey him better. The chief reproved him for not first making a complaint to him; adding that if his wife should, after such a step, be guilty of disobedience, he had a right to kill her if he pleased. The murderer was ordered to pay four sheep, as a penalty for not making application to the sheik or chief; and soon after he married another woman.

They are married by a priest, who joins their hands, and reads certain verses from the Koran. The bride is blindfolded by the priest, and the bridegroom leads her into his tent, on the top of which a white flag is displayed; he seats her on a mat, saying, "You are at home." He then returns to the assembled company and joins with them in feasting, singing, shouting, firing guns, and performing rival feats on horseback, until after midnight. The bride remains blindfolded during an entire week, her husband merely removing the bandage from her eyes for a moment, the first time he enters the tent, that she may be assured of his identity. Some female friend cooks the food, and performs other domestic duties for her, until she is allowed to see the light of day. The Arabs have many superstitious obser

vances respecting marriage. On such occasions they apply to old women skilful in sorcery, who are supposed to have the art of tying and untying the knots of fate. In cities, the Arabian women cover their faces with a cloth, with two holes worked for the eyes, which are almost always bright and beautiful. Their complexion is lemon-colored. They stain their fingers and toes a yellowish red, and blacken the joints of the latter. The eyebrows are stained black, and the lips blue; and a small flower or spot is often painted or stained on each cheek, the forehead, and the chin.

The following is a picture of an Arab beauty:"Her eyes are black, large, and soft, like the antelope; her look is melancholy and impassioned; her eyebrows are curved like two arches of ebony; her figure is straight and supple as a lance; her step is like a young colt; her eyelids are blackened with kahol, her lips painted blue, her nails stained a gold color with henneh, and her words are sweet as honey."

The Arab women are said to be generally graceful in their motions, and in the adjustment of their drapery. On entering an apartment, they carelessly fling off their slippers, and show a naked foot peeping from beneath the loose ample drawers, which fall below the ankle. Mr. Madox, who visited the grand sheik, says: "His daughters sat on a sofa with him; not after the Turkish fashion, but with feet to the ground. They were rather pretty, gaily dressed, with coins suspended on gold chains by the sides of

their faces. One of them, seeing I had some difficulty in detaching a piece of meat from the bone, offered me another piece with her stained and jewelled fingers. After dinner, when they washed their hands, they made a great lather with the soap offered by the attendants, which they put in their mouths, and cleansed their teeth with their fingers. After this they smoked."

When the wives of Arab chiefs accompany their husbands in devout pilgrimages to Mecca, they are carried in a litter borne by two camels. Fifteen miles from Mecca is a small hill, much resorted to by the devout, called Djebel Arafat, or the Mountain of Gratitude. On this spot, according to Mohammedan belief, Adam and Eve met, were reconciled, built a house, and lived together, after a separation of forty, or, as some say, five hundred years. The women of Mecca are said to be free in their manners, even to boldness. This may be partly owing to the constant sight of strangers, who visit the city as pilgrims, and partly to the dullness and indifference of the men, induced by their abject poverty and ignorance.

But the Arabs are in general extremely jealous of the honor of their women. They would immediately stab a wife or daughter, who was supposed to have disgraced herself. A single life is considered so disrespectable, that a woman, in order to avoid it, will marry a man very much her inferior, or even consent to be the second wife of one already married.

The poor Arabs live in small thatched huts, and sleep on straw mats. Those who are richer have

low houses of stone with terrace roofs; and here and there may be found an extraordinary individual, who has sofas, carpets, mirrors, and fountains. Those whose circumstances do not admit of their having separate apartments for women, are careful, when they invite any one to the house, to enter before him, and cry aloud, Tarick! Tarick! (Retire! Retire!) At this warning all the females immediately hide themselves.

If the wife of a Bedouin is seduced, the laws allow him to kill any of the offender's family whom he may happen to meet. Sometimes the affair is settled by the seducer's father giving the injured husband three or four of his daughters to sell, for as high a price as he can obtain.

The Kereks are not so kind to their wives as the Bedouins, with whom they often intermarry. A woman cannot inherit the merest trifle of her husband's property. Even during his lifetime he does not supply her with necessary clothing; she is obliged to beg of her father, or steal her husband's wheat, and sell it clandestinely. No greater insult can be offered to a Kerek than to tell him he sleeps under the same blanket with his wife; for they do not allow the women to share their apartments. When a wife is ill, they send her back to her parents, saying they paid for a healthy woman, and cannot have the expense of an invalid. Butter is used very freely by this tribe, and they consider it the height of meanness to sell it. A butter-seller is a most contemptuous epithet; and the daughters of

such a parsimonious person would have no chance to get husbands.

The Courds, who dwell in the mountains between Turkey and Persia, live in tents, and subsist by plunder, like the Bedouin Arabs. Their women are of a pale mahogany hue, with very fine features. The nose is generally aquiline, the eyes bright and mild, and the whole countenance expressive of kindness and frankness. The Courds have the utmost confidence in their wives and daughters. They may be seen at the tent-doors and in the fields, without veils, and always ready to answer a civil question, or pay a stranger the simple duties of hospitality. Both as maidens and matrons they are very virtuous and modest. These women are active, vigorous, and fearless, and they educate their children in the same way. "Our boys will be soldiers," say they; "and they must learn to bear and dare every thing. We show them the way."

The Courds, like most people of similar habits, receive a certain price for the daughters they dispose of in marriage.

The inhabitants of Afghanistan are Mohammedans; of course women are considered as property, and the higher classes are kept scrupulously concealed. But they are an active, romantic people, and have more gallantry than usually characterizes he Moslem religion. The women are industrious in household avocations, and the labors of the distaff