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pilgrimages, can a woman be admitted into the paradise reserved for her sex, which is a very inferior place of residence to that which her male relatives will inhabit, with apparently but little trouble on their part.

There is certainly a good deal of wifely submission in Persia, and only once did I hear of a hen-pecked man. On one occasion, I remember calling on a lady when her husband was present, and the latter asked me whether I thought his wife was pretty, much in the way that he would have discussed the points of a horse or a dog. I noticed how ill at ease the poor woman was, and he actually pointed this out to me, adding that if they were at table together, she would tremble in every limb from fear of her lord and master. After this experience, I was not surprised that nearly every native lady I met advised me earnestly not to wed a Persian, assuring me that they made very bad husbands. This was quite a spontaneous warning on their part, because I always made a point of never comparing their lives with my own, fearing to stir up discontent, for which I could offer no remedy.

However, I was by no means so reticent with the men when they compared European and Persian women to the disadvantage of the latter, and I soon saw that the more thoughtful were by no means content with the status of their womenkind. I remember one man exclaiming in a burst of indignation, "It is all the fault of our cursed religion, which binds us in chains, as well as our poor women!" This is neither the time nor the place to discuss Mahommedanism, but it always appeared to me to be one of the most petrifying of religions, seeming to hold its devotees in a grip that admitted of no progress or expansion.

In Persia, Friday, as in all Mahommedan countries, is the great day of the week, every pious son of the Prophet repairing to the bath, and then to the Mosque.

The ladies, however, spend their time in the former place, and, indeed, we cannot blame them, for the only accommodation provided for them in the House of Prayer is an enclosure screened off from the rest of the building by a closely barred lattice, through which they can get glimpses of the proceedings, while remaining unseen themselves.

They use the bath as a kind of club. There they meet their friends, show off their new dresses and best cushions, and are particular as to the embroidered cases in which they carry their toilet requisites. Accompanied by their children and servants, who are admitted free

of charge, they pass the entire day in the hot, steamy atmosphere, gossiping while their hair and finger-nails are dyed with henna, and their eyes and eyebrows decorated with antimony.

There is a good deal of sociability among these ladies, and they are fond of having their friends to stay with them-indeed an acquaintance told me that, by skilful use of lucky and unlucky days, a lady would inflict visitors upon her husband, who is obliged to make himself invisible on these occasions, for longer periods than he liked. For example, those who were in a house on Saturday must stay there on the Sunday night, while any who arrived on the Tuesday or the Thursday were forced to spend the Wednesday or the Friday under the same roof, an earlier move bringing ill luck to all concerned.

Persian women frequently give parties, and on these occasions wear their best dresses and jewellery, a man being looked upon as a good husband according to his capacity of providing finery for his wife.

At Tehran, a lady will pay a large sum at the European shops for a piece of brocade, and will wear it ostentatiously in order to excite the envy of her guests. Retribution however, may overtake her, for one of her visitors will perhaps buy more of the same material, and have it made up for her slavegirl. She will then invite all her acquaintances, and tea and water-pipes will be handed round by the slave dressed in the rich silk in which the quondam hostess is probably arrayed. Later on the same girl will dance before the assembled guests to the intense mortification of the one and the keen amusement of all the others!

When a Persian woman is advanced in years, she often thinks of that inferior paradise to which she can so hardly attain, and she will persuade her husband to let her go on a pilgrimage. If possible, Mecca or Kerbela will be her goal, though if lack of means put these shrines out of her reach, Mecca in particular requiring a long purse, she will perforce renounce the coveted titles of Haji and Kerbelai, and be content with that of Mashtadi.

But even the journey to the famous shrine of Imaum Reza at Meshed is a serious affair for a woman. She must travel in the jolting kajaven or pannier strapped on to a mule, and in which she must sit in a very cramped position, unless she can afford the expensive swaying takht-iravan or litter.

We must also remember that her outer garment is a black silk shroud in which she is covered from head to foot with the exception of a strip of lacework over the eyes, and that however hot the weather may be, she cannot uncover her face, and however ill she may be she has no better hotel than the miserable caravanserai, with only recesses innocent of doors and windows opening off from the courtyard. Her servants will sweep out one of these cells, lay felts and her bed-. ding on the mud floor, and hang a carpet across the opening, and here she must pass the night in close proximity to the camels and mules, and probably be kept awake by the conversation of the muleteers lying just outside.

When the goal of her journey is reached after many weary days if not weeks of travel, she will probably settle down for a year, visiting the Mosque daily, and presenting offerings of gold and jewellery to the shrine. She will pay a priest to recite portions of the Koran to her, as it is improbable that she can read the sacred book herself, and she will pass much of her time chatting with friends from her native city who meet her in the screened-off part of the Mosque.

She does not trouble herself about the husband and children whom she has left, for she has never seen much of the one, and the others are safe in the care of a faithful slave. As for the house, she has never been its real mistress, her husband having always managed the servants and paid for everything; therefore, it will goon just as well without as with her.

We must now turn for a few moments to the Persian children. For some time after birth they are kept tightly bandaged, and I fear are often dosed with opium if fretful or sleepless. Their mothers and nurses are constantly occupied in their endeavours to ward the evil eye from their charges. Blue is supposed to be the best colour for this purpose, and many children wear an amulet made of a sheep's eye brought from Mecca, into which a turquoise is stuck. Another plan is for rich parents to dress their children in very shabby clothes, lest anyone admiring the young folk and omitting to add the saving word Mashallah (God is great) to their remarks should bring disaster upon them.

. Most childish and, indeed, most adult illnesses are put down to the evil eye, and the cures are all more or less a question of charms. For instance, a poor baby suffering from water on the brain was brought to a Persian doctor

who assured the parents that it was possessed, by a demon. His prescription was as follows.) The father was to lay his child in a newly dug grave and leave it there for the night. In the morning it would either be cured or made away with by the demon. The parents followed the doctor's advice, and next day great was, their surprise to find their baby sleeping in; its strange bed neither better nor worse from this novel cure.

But there is no end to the remedies to which Persians will resort. Some are extremely un-, pleasant, and others have a touch of the

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gorgeous East" about them, such being the ground-up pearl, which is administered as a powerful restorative to anyone at the point of death, and the powdered rubies and emeralds which are supposed to act as tonics.

If the Persian boy does not succumb to any illness he is taken from his mother at an early age, and handed over to the care of the servants, by whom he is trained to be an exact copy of his father.

No romping or running is allowed, such being considered undignified proceedings on the part of a gentleman, and the poor child is always treated as if he were grown up. He is made to sit still when with his elders, is dressed exactly like them in miniature, is instructed in an elaborate code of manners, and shares in the Persian dinner, which often begins at midnight.

No Persian of position ever sends his sons to school, but engages a priest to come daily to the house to teach them to read the Koran, Sadi, and Hafiz, and to instruct them in writing.

The education of the boys begins at five years of age; and if they decline to learn, two ferashes, kept in readiness outside the schoolroom door, are called in by the tutor to apply the bastinado to the soles of any unruly pupil. As the teacher is only paid about £1 a month, it is hardly to be expected that he can be a profound Arabic scholar, and the result of his training is that most boys can read the Koran glibly, but have not the least idea of its meaning.

As to general information, I hardly think that there is such a thing in Persia. One gentleman, who had been to England, told me that his priest had taught him that the Atlantic Ocean was a large city in France, and the rest of his instruction was on the same level.

Even when the boys are free or their tutor, they are placed under the care of a lala, an

old man who performs the functions of the Greek pedagogue, taking his charges out for walks, and keeping a keen eye on their movements.

This restricted life, so devoid of freedom and healthy exertion, has probably much to do with the poor physique of the upper classes, and helps to account for the enormous mortality among Persian children, it being stated that only two out of every six survive.

are often manners of

Europeans coming to Persia delighted with the finished any little boy they may meet. A child of seven will receive them with the aplomb of a man of the world, ordering the servants to bring tea and sweetmeats, and entertaining his guests with conversation or with a recitation from some poet, but such accomplishments are acquired at a heavy cost.

Fathers often show but scanty affection for their children. One gentleman told me that his son was hardly more intelligent than an animal, because the youth could not master French. The young fellow did not resent this remark in the least. He said that he was his father's servant, and must submit to any kind of treatment from him, because his parent performed the seemingly obvious duties of feeding and clothing him. Another Persian described to me his home-coming from a successful career at the military college at Tehran. He hastened to greet his father, who sat surrounded by his servants, and hardly deigned to notice his son, telling him to retire at the end of a few moments. The young man was so overcome with mortification that he rushed from the room, and would have made away with himself had not an old retainer followed him and prevented the rash act.

Persian boys are instructed in the tenets of their religion by the priests, and though I am far from saying that there are no convinced Mohammedans in Persia, yet I only came across one in the upper classes, and was told more than once by acquaintances that they performed their devotions solely to impress

the servants!

Almsgiving seems to be looked upon as a kind of insurance against the evils of this life. No Persian would think it quite safe to go on a journey without giving money to the poor, and if he were saved from any accident the numerous beggars would benefit, not so much from a sense of gratitude as from the idea of guarding against a future disaster.

Lying is looked upon as a fine art, and the

man who takes another in successfully is applauded, while he who deceives clumsily is regarded as a fool. Patriotism and bravery are decidedly at a discount, and the youthful Persian of to-day is very unlike his ancestor as depicted by Herodotus. During my stay in Persia, I was often asked at what date the English army was to land on the shores of the Persian Gulf and proceed to take the country, this idea of a foreign occupation being highly approved by all.

On one occasion two officers, whom I knew, were discussing an expedition that they had undertaken against a turbulent nomad chieftain. A cloud of dust had been seen in the distance, and one of my acquaintances believing that the enemy was approaching in force, turned to fly, with all his soldiers following closely in his wake.

This incident was related by his brother officer to an amused group of Persians, and the narrator was not in the least abashed when his colleague turned the tables upon him with, "Yes, that was the time when you were so frightened that you stopped a riding-camel and crept into one of its saddle-bags!”

The point of the story was that the cloud of dust had been caused by a stampede of mares, and after the foregoing conversation, I was not surprised to hear that the nomad chieftain was still at large.

Time fails me, und I must not talk longer about Persian life, though I feel that I have only touched the fringe of my subject. I do not, however, wish to leave the impression that I take a gloomy view of the Persian character, for I confess to having a strong liking for the kindly, quick-witted, courteous sons of Iran. I have tried, as far as I have gone, to give a true picture of Persian upper-class life, and my paper is the result of over two years' residence in the country and somewhat unusual opportunities of mixing with its inhabitants. Yet, much as I sympathise with Persians, and grateful as I am for the unvarying kindness shown to me by high and low alike throughout my visit, it is almost impossible not to judge Orientals by a Western standard.

"For East is East and West is West,
And never the twain shall meet."

is a true saying, and it requires a penetration almost approaching to genius before a European can be quite fair to the Oriental point of view. There are such people as Orientalized Europeans, but they remind us of the Persian pro

verb coined for such cases :-"The crow tried to walk like the pheasant, but he merely spoilt his own gait and became ridiculous for his pains."

DISCUSSION.

The CHAIRMAN thought those present would agree with him that they were deeply indebted to Miss Sykes for a most interesting and instructive paper. Although he had only been a casual visitor to Persia, he could more than endorse all she had said as to the fascination of its people and the country itself, and if anybody had the spare time he strongly advised them to make a trip to the country. It was rather a remarkable fact that of the authors who had written about the less well-known parts of Persia during the last quarter of a century, two of them, Mrs. Bishop and the reader of the paper, were ladies. The subject which Miss Sykes had chosen for the paper reminded him that there was no part of the world in which women had so great an advantage over men as in the East, where the domestic life of a large section of the inhabitants, at all events of the upper classes of society, was so strictly veiled from the gaze of all Europeans who did not happen to belong to the fair sex. He thought that that contrast, perhaps even more than any difference of race and religion, was what made the great gulf which existed between European and Western nations, to which Rudyard Kipling alluded in the lines quoted by Miss Sykes. For that reason he thought they were apt to forget that many such customs and habits were relics of a system which at one time was almost universal. Just as, for instance, the methods of Government which were very often called Turkish were, as every student knew, a survival of the old Byzantine system of Government, so many domestic customs in the East were very much what they were long before the tide of Arab invasion and conquest swept over the countries, and, unless they were assumed to be borrowed, at a very early period, they were not more distinctive of the East than of the West. Many of the characteristics mentioned by Miss Sykes, such as the prominent part assigned to slaves in the education of youths and the intimate relations which subsisted between servants and masters in Persia, were quite as familiar traits in the ancient life of classical Rome and Athens. Many of the superstitions mentioned, such as the ill-omened importance attached to the act of sneezing, and the evil eye, which he supposed was the explanation of the importance attached to the first person's face one saw on waking—unless he happened to be an executioner, in which case there was a more obvious explanation; both these superstitions were familiar among the lower classes on the continents of Europe at the present moment. As for the

Persians, belief that spectres and bogies would not reveal themselves to unbelievers, that was a conviction which, if it could only be imparted to the members of the Psychical Society, would save them a considerable amount of trouble. Taking another point mentioned, the indulgence with which the Persian regarded the art of ingenious deception-which in this country was called by the more polite phrase of diplomacy— the most consummate master of that art, who was for ever held up to posterity for emulation, was a Greek and was portrayed by an ancient Greek poet. In connection with the status and position of women in the East, it must be remembered that polygamy had practically ceased in the West long before the Roman empire came to a close, and when we prided ourselves upon our liberal ideas with regard to women at the present time, he thought we ought to remember there was a period of time during the Middle Ages when the position of women was far less free than it was in the later days of that empire. Again, in the East, the practice of seclusion had certainly continued uninterruptedly from a period a great deal anterior to the reign of King Darius; and at the present moment the practice in the East," that a man never saw his wife until after he had married her, was just as common among the Nestorian Christian tribes, among whom he had travelled, as among the upper classes of society in Kerman. On the other hand, he disagreed with Miss Sykes in her statement that the tendency towards the adoption of monogamy in Eastern countries at the present day, as much among the richer classes as among the poorer classes, was to be attributed entirely to the prudential motives dictated by poverty. He strongly suspected that the adoption of monogamy in the East, as in the West, was very largely due to motives of practical convenience. As nations adopted monogamous customs so they abandoned the system of seclusion, because if a man had only one wife he wanted her to be more of a companion and more intellectually trained, and an educational system did not flourish under the system of seclusion. If that was the case, one might expect to find in times to come, in countries like Persia, that female seclusion would more and more be abandoned, and perhaps even the proverbial unchangeability of the East might alter when they allowed freer scope to what was, he thought, admittedly the more inquisitive and changeable of the sexes. That was a line of investigation which, however interesting in itself, was perhaps hardly profitable to pursue on the present occasion, but he hoped before the discussion concluded, the audience would have the advantage of hearing more details with regard to the domestic life of Persia, modern and ancient, from those who had made a special study of the subject, and who had travelled more widely in the country than he had himself.

Sir GEORGE BIRDWOOD, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., said he was greatly honoured in being called upon to move the

vote of thanks to Miss Sykes; and he only wished the duty had been entrusted to some one who would have discharged it in a manner more worthy, than was possible in his case, of the valuable paper that had just been read to them, and its distinguished authoress. The paper was unusually instructive, for, as the Chairman had said, it presented them with many quite novel scenes of Persian life, owing to the privilege that had been so courteously and freely extened to Miss Sykes of admission to the secluded society of Persian ladies of the highest birth and position. The paper was also one of marked merit on account of Miss Sykes's clear and comprehensive grasp of her subject, and the intuitive sympathy with which she treated it in all its aspects and phases; and, again, for the ease, with which,-using the simplest words, she had conjured up so a vivid picture of each of the scenes in succession described by her. Her brother, Major Sykes, was the most scholarly explorer of Persia they had ever sent into that country; where from the head of the Persian Gulf down to Bunder Abas the secrets of the very beginnings of the civilisation of Anterior and Southern Asia have yet to be unearthed. He had rendered invaluable services to his -countrymen in these researches, so far as he had already dealt with them; and it was evident that Miss Sykes was herself endowed with a full share of the family ability, courage, and graciousness, which had made her brother so successful a traveller. There was really nothing to criticise in a stringent spirit in the paper. By a slip of the pen Miss Sykes had qualified Friday as one of the unlucky days of the Mahometans of Persia. This must be corrected, for Friday is the luckiest, if only because the holiest day of the Mahometan week. Everywhere the Mahometan auspicious days were Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; while Sunday, Tuesday, and Saturday were inauspicious; Saturday and Sunday being particularly unlucky, and altogether evil. This attribution of good and ill-luck to certain days goes back to the very earliest known civilisations of the Old World; while the interchange of luck between the days of the week is due to the secular reaction of Eastern Paganism, Judaism, Western Paganism, Christianity, and (the religion of) Islam on one another. The week (i.e., "turn") of seven days originated in archaic Mesopotamia with the worship of the seven planets; and the general luck of each day of 24 hours was determined by the character of the planet to which it was from that planet falling on its first hour-consecrated as a complete day. In the seven staged planetary temples of Babylonia, Assyria, and Media [Ecbatana], and among the Paropamisadae [Ghazni], as also far later [A.D. 420] in the palatine temple of Varahran V, the 1st or ground stage was consecrated to the planet the Romans called Saturn, the planet farthest from the earth, and of the greatest orbit, the 2nd to Jupiter, the 3rd to Mars, the 4th to Sol, the 5th to Venus, the 6th to Mercury, and the 7th to Luna. But the Babylonians and Assyrians, &c., did not count the days of the week in the order of the stages

of these planetary temples; that is Saturday, Thurs-day [Jove-Thor], Tuesday [Mars-Tuisco], Sunday, Friday [Venus-Friya, compare fri-end], Wednesday [Mercury-Woden] and Monday; but counted them Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The true reason, as he found in Bombay [for the Pythagorean Greeks explained it by some hypothesis of mystic "quarternions"] was that, not only each day of the week, but each hour of every day of twenty-four hours, was consecrated to one or other of the seven planets. Beginning with Saturday, the 1st hour was consecrated to Saturn, and the 8th, 15th, and 22nd hours. The 23rd hour was sacred to Jupiter, and the 24th to Mars. The hour following was the first hour of the next day, and Sol falling in his turn on that hour, the whole day was consecrated to Sol, and called Sunday. For the like reason the following day was called Monday; and so on through Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, to Friday. Friday was sacred to Ishtar [Astoreth, Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus, Friya], and was the Sabbath [i.e. “rest”] of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and wholly given up to pleasure and dissipation. The Hebrews, to differentiate themselves from the surrounding Gentiles, made Saturday their Sabbath; and again the Christians, in a similar spirit, changed it to Sunday; which, in celebration of the Resurrection, they called "the Lord's Day." Friday they made an especially unlucky day, and not only because of its dissolute associations, but because the Crucifixion is recorded to have been on that day, and because it is said Eve eat "the forbidden fruit" on that day, and died on that day. We say 'Black Friday" simply because the Pretender reached Derby on that day, December 6th, 1745. Mahomet, however, went back to the immemorial Sabbath of Anterior Asia, but he made it not a popular ritualistic festival, but a day of the most solemn dedication and consecration of the Believer to Almighty God. The propagation of the Mesopotamian week, and of the Latinised names of its days, over Europe, was a very slow process. It began possibly 2000 B.C., and it was not completed in France, Germany and Britain until about the 8th century; and that was the reason of the contradictions existing in Western and Northern Europe as to lucky and unlucky days. The Greeks early recognised the hebdomas (i.e., "septenary") of Anterior Asia, but never, until Christian times, adopted the planetary names of the week. In Rome, also the "hebdomas" superseded the "nundina" (i.e., "nine days") long before the Romans named the days after the seven planets. This began in the time of Julius Cæsar, and was completed by the time of Valentinian [see Ausonius, Eclogues, "De nominibus Septem Dierum," Amsterdam, 1671, PP. 550-52]. This gradual transfer accounts for such facts as that in Scotland Friday is still a most lucky day for marriages: and that in America also Friday is still largely regarded as a lucky day. There is a North of England doggerel, probably known both to the Chairman and Miss Sykes, which strangely mixes up

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