the Greeks and Romans the latter prevails, especially at funerals. « Οἱ δε τρὶς περὶ νεκρὸν ἐύτριχας ἤλασαν ἵππους HOMER, 23. B. They drive their horses thrice about the dead "Ter circum accensos cincti fulgentibus armis VIRG. Well-arm'd, thrice round the pile they march'd on foot, Survey'd the rolling flames. The character and conduct of the young Hindoo widow excites our admiration and claims our pity; for, although we may admire the heroism, we must pity a female, biassed by a wrong education, and influenced by a false religion, to make this dreadful sacrifice. Christianity would have regulated her affections, have taught her the delights of resignation, the necessity of fulfilling her relative duties to society, and especially those implanted in the maternal bosom. "Woman, the sweet enchantress! given to cheer When the world-wearied spirit longs to rest Woman, whose tear, whose glance, whose touch, whose sigh, ASIATIC WOMEN. With untold hope, and passion's nameless thrill, 323 ANON. The Indian women, especially the high castes of Hindoos, have their peculiar virtues; delicate, retired, and feminine. On the present journey, as well as on the preceding one, not only in the English districts, but those belonging to other governments, the women drew water at the public wells for ourselves, our servants, and cattle, while others presented us with butter, milk, vegetables, fruit, and flowers. However shy they may be reckoned in their general deportment to strangers, in my purgunnas my purgunnas I have often known them to exceed these stated duties of hospitality; and have seen a woman of no mean rank, literally illustrate the conduct of an unfortunate princess in the Jewish history: "So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and she took flour and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight; and did bake the cakes; and she took a pan, and poured them out before him.”2 Samuel, ch. xiii. ver. 8. - However decidedly some travellers may write on the Asiatic women, it is difficult to form a correct portrait of the high Mogul or Hindoo female character; especially among the former. I have known English physicians sent for to the durbar at Cambay, and the palaces of other Mahomedans. The princes openly consulted them on their real and imaginary complaints ; they generally entertain a high opinion of their medical skill, are fond of conversing upon the subject, and 324 SECLUSION OF WOMEN. Their attendance was enumerating their disorders. not confined to the male sex; the ladies often requested a visit (for an interview it cannot be called) in the harem; whither the physician was conducted by eunuchs and duennas, and attended a patient for many days, without ever seeing her. On entering the ladies' apartments, he was led into a saloon, separated from the interior chambers by a thick curtain, falling from the ceiling to the floor, the whole breadth of the room; this curtain had a small aperture in the centre, like those in front of a theatre, through which the patient put her arm, that the physician might feel the pulse, and form some sort of conclusion for a prescription: but he was not permitted any further intercourse with the secluded ladies. In describing the Indian Mahomedans on another occasion, I gave the sentiments of a very intelligent writer on those in the Nizam's country: what he says on the female character in that class of oriental society, is too pertinent to be omitted. "In retracing the various subjects of a cursory sketch of Mahomedan manners, there is one circumstance likely to strike the curious reader, namely, that refinement of manners should be found among a people whose customs entirely preclude women from any participation in society. A popular opinion has long prevailed in Europe that mankind are chiefly indebted for the improvement of ferocious and uncouth manners to the endearing society of the more amiable sex, as well as to the refinement arising from the introduction of chivalry; yet, in contradiction to this supposition, we learn from history that the institutions of chivalry are unknown in India, or in the countries from whence MAHOMEDAN PARADISE. 325 the Mahomedan conquerors of India originated. We also know from the same source, that the exclusion of women from the mixed society of men, obtained more or less in Asia prior to the introduction of the Mahomedan religion. Indeed, though the Mahomedan doctrine has been supposed extremely adverse to the fair sex by Europeans, it will be found that the women of Arabia are peculiarly indebted to the precepts of the Koran for the abolition of a horrid custom, then prevalent among the Arabs, of frequently condemning to death their female offspring, as useless for the purposes of war. And here it may not be extraneous to make some mention of a religion whose dictates have caused so extraordinary a separation in society between the two sexes; an institution the more singular, as arising from the lucubrations of a man whose devotion to the sex placed the eternal happiness of the Faithful in the perpetual enjoyment of bliss in the arms of celestial beauties; who, like their mortal sisters, are equally condemned to retirement in the next world; where Mahomed represents the charming black-eyed girls of Paradise to be created of pure musk, and possessing the most rigid sentiments of modesty, as secluded from the rest of the heavenly host in sacred groves, or enshrined in pavilions of hollow pearl of vast extent. Though this indeed particularly alludes to the Hur Al Ayun, or Houree, an immortal race created for the solace of true believers; yet to prove, with many other passages of the Koran, that women have not been banished these celestial abodes, the Faithful are permitted to send for their former loves; who, clothed in robes of heavenly texture, and crowned with resplendent pearls, will wander in the fragrant bowers of 326 DOCTRINE OF MAHOMET. Paradise, enjoying the unfading bloom of eternal youth. But, to descend from the extatic raptures of the amorous prophet to his earthly institutions, we may, in the Mahomedan mode of life, partly trace the views of its ambitious founder. Designing his disciples for the founders of a new and splendid empire, he wished the whole energy of the human soul to be collected in that one great design; and that, inspired with enthusiasm, his followers might, without interruption, pursue a steady course in the arduous and dangerous paths of politics and war. Yet the strong impulse of nature warned the Prophet, like a secret monitor, that intellectual food alone was insufficient for beings compounded of soul and body. Convinced of this, he only followed, without knowing it, the example of Zeno, Epicurus, and Aristotle, by adapting his system and religion to his own temperament and inclinations. Love and dominion were the passions of the Prophet, so he determined they should go hand in hand; and resolved that the diet and beverage of his disciples should neither impair the vigour of the body nor the faculties of the mind. But, as the frailty of human nature had ordained repose both to the statesman and hero, he contrived that the allurements of pleasure should not interrupt the hours of business, and that women should be the solace of mankind only in the hours of retirement and relaxation, without superadding to the toils of public life the anxiety and perturbation of the absent lover. For, however dull and inanimate society may appear to the votaries of pleasure, deprived of this genial source of all our delights, yet the philosopher and statesman, viewing pleasure as a secondary motive, may think |