Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/312

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aggrieved, as that she is obliged to seek redress, the proceeds thus:

1. She goes to the proper Officer, and demands a Summons for her Husband to appear before the Grand Vizier, to answer to her Complaint.

2. When he appears, and she is call'd in to justify her Charge, she says not a Word; nor is her Face, unveiled till she comes to what we call taking her Oath: But then, unveiling her Face, the stoops down, takes off her Slipper in the Face of the Court, and holds it up to the Judge (the Grand Vizier) turning it the wrong Side upward.

This is enough to the Court, who understand her distinctly, namely, that the swears upon the Alchoran that her Husband offers unnatural Violences to her, and that the cannot live with him upon that Account. She needs say no more; but upon this Process she obtains a Divorce against him, unless he can do one or both of the following Things:

1. Clear himself of the Charge; or,

2. Give sufficient Security for not offering the like to her again.

There is no need to demand a farther Explanation of these Things, or to ask me, what is meant by offering unnatural Violences to a Wife? Those Questions aim evidently at what I have from the Beginning protested against; and any just and modest Reader will understand what I mean by that.

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