In addition to the usual Mohammedan veils the wealthy ladies of Tunis also cover their heads with long embroidered scarfs, which they hold out far enough to enable them to watch their steps.

famous. I was especially interested in the jewellery and other things which once belonged to the gay girls of the Carthage of twenty-five hundred years ago. There is a lock of hair from the head of a fair Punic maiden, there is a box of rouge with some of the paint still in the bottom, and there are alabaster cases holding perfume and also pins, mirrors, trinkets, and other gewgaws.

There are golden necklaces of beautiful workmanship and hundreds of gold rings of all sizes, from one small enough for a two-year-old baby to some which may have been wedding rings for twelve-year-old brides. Many of these rings are set with cameos and stones. There are gold earrings by the hundreds, and beautiful they are. As I looked at them I asked the Catholic White Father beside me about the maidens who wore them so many centuries ago, mentioning the mortality of all things earthly. In reply he pointed to the shelves under the cases. I looked and saw skulls and bones in great quantities; remains of men, women, and children all mixed together. Then, taking me to a marble sarcophagus near by, he showed me the bones of a young Punic beau who lived centuries since. I measured his skeleton and found it was six feet two inches in length. On the finger of one hand there was a beautiful ring, evidencing the vanity of its owner. He may have been a friend of Hanno or Hannibal, or perhaps only some newly rich man of the time! Who knows?

CHAPTER XXII

WHERE THE WOMEN WEAR TROUSERS

CCORDING to the Koran, every Moslem has

A

the right to four wives upon earth, and when

he goes to heaven he will receive in addition seventy-two black-eyed houris, ever beautiful and ever young. There he will have children or not, according to his wish, and the offspring will grow in an hour to the stature of their parents. The Prophet himself is said to have had about twenty wives while on earth. When he died he left nine, each of whom had her own house not far from the mosque at Medina. Mohammed started out by marrying a widow named Cadijah, whose money gave him his first boost into prominence. He was about twenty-five years old at the time and one of the finest looking young beaux of Arabia. Cadijah was forty, and it is alleged that it was she who popped the question. He lived with her for twenty-five years, during which time he took no other wife. A month after she died, however, he was betrothed to a girl of seven who became his wife two or three years later. This second wife was the beautiful Ayesha, whom to the day of his death he preferred above all others.

These facts form the basis of the Mohammedan's idea of marriage. He believes that the Prophet had the right to more wives than his followers, because he was favoured of God and there was a chance that he might generate a

race of prophets to succeed him, though this chance failed. The Moslem still sticks to the limit of only four wives, and the Arab judges of Tunisia and Algeria will not recognize as legal any more than that number.

The French in Algeria, who are now trying to cut down the size of the harem, will not allow such of the Arabs as become naturalized to have more than one legal helpmate. I heard of a young man in Oran, the son of a sheik, who thought that it would be fine to be a French citizen. He took out his papers and shortly thereafter wanted to marry. As he already had one wife, the license was refused. Upon this, he became disgusted and said he wanted to be a pure Arab once more.

Down in Figig, on the edge of Morocco, I was told that it is the custom for the Moor of that region to marry at eighteen or twenty years of age, taking a wife of thirteen or fourteen. About ten years later he adds another young maiden of the same age to his household. When he gets to be forty he takes a third spouse and at fifty a fourth, so that he has always one young wife to wait upon him throughout his earthly career. As the new wives come, the older ones step back and act as their servants.

But with the advancement of modern civilization these plural marriages are steadily decreasing in number. This is true in all Mohammedan cities. Here in Tunis most of the natives have but one wife, while in all the cities of Algeria monogamy is becoming the rule. One reason for this is the fact that the cost of living is always increasing and the women demand more and more. They are patterning after the French ladies in their tastes, until now it is only the rich man who can keep more than one wife. Moreover, where several wives are thrown together

under the same roof and in the same quarters, there is sure to be discord, so that it means both peace and economy to have only one. The Arab women of the better classes are a dead load on their husbands, for they are seldom more than children in character. They have no real education and they must have servants or slaves to wait upon them. The husband is expected to furnish a dower for each wife, and if he is rich he must give from two to ten thousand dollars to get her. This money goes to the girl's family, and a quartet of wives thus paid for requires a large sum. With people less rich, the dowries are smaller; but every husband must pay something for his wife, even down to the porter, although the latter may get his bride for five or ten dollars.

As a rule, the Mohammedan husband makes his matrimonial investments after the old fashion of buying a pig in a poke. Marriages are made at an early age. Girls wed at fifteen or sixteen and young men at twenty or twenty-five. There is no such thing as courtship, the matches being usually arranged by the parents of the respective families. In a marriage among wealthy families there are always preliminary presents and rites. The groom sends dates and other fruits to his sweetheart, and the prospective bride puts herself into training in order that she may look her best at the wedding. She takes frequent steam baths, and for a week before the marriage has one every day. At the same time her cheeks are painted with rouge, and her fingernails, toenails, and even her feet and the lower parts of her arms and legs, are decorated with henna, a red colouring matter in common use throughout the Orient.

While I was in Tangier I saw a number of wedding