yet a husband must constantly be revered as a god by a virtuous woman. A faithful wife who wishes to attain in heaven the mansion of her husband must do nothing unkind to him, be he living or dead. When the hus band has performed the nuptial rights, with texts of the Veda, he gives bliss continually to his wife here below, both in season and out of season, and he will give her happiness in the next world. No woman can sacrifice apart from her husband, nor can she per form any religious rite, or fasting; as far only as a woman honors her lord, so far is she exalted in heaven. A woman is never fit for independence: let the husbands con sider this as the supreme law ordained for all classes, and let them, how weak soever, dili gently keep their wives under lawful restric tions. Let the husband keep his wife em ployed in the collection ... of wealth, in purification and female duty, in the prepara tion of daily food, and the superintendence of household utensils. Women have no business with the texts of the Veda : this is the law fully settled. Day and night must women be held by their protectors in a state of dependence; but in lawful and innocent recreations, though rather addicted to them, they may be left to their own disposal." 1 For the fair sex these laws must have been what Huckleberry Finn considered the statements in " Pilgrim's Progress," — "interesting but tough." According to Solon, no married woman could go out at night without a lighted torch before her chariot, nor leave home with more than three garments. (This present commentator does not know whether this means, clad in three articles, or with three changes of raiment.) Greek wives were guarded and watched in doors and out by duennas and old men. Among the Kaffirs a married woman is cut off from all intercourse, not only with her father-in-law, but with all her husband's male relations in the ascending line. She is not allowed to pronounce their names, even 1 Laws of Menu, ch. ii. §§ 149-1 ch. ix. §§ 2, 3, 6, ii, 18.
mentally; and whenever the emphatic sylla ble of either of their names occurs in any word, she must avoid it, by either substitut ing an entirely new word, or at least another syllable, in its place.1 Per contra, according to Diodorus,2 in Egypt the ladies had great privileges, and at the time of the marriage an agreement was entered into to the effect that the wife should have control over her husband, and that no objection should be made to her commands whatever they might be. But when Diodorus lived the fate of Ananias and Sapphira was not generally known. Possibly, however, the women were supreme in the management of the house and in the regula tion of domestic affairs. Even in this en lightened century, among the Arab tribes of Upper Egypt, at the marriage-feast, the un fortunate groom undergoes the ordeal of whipping by the relatives of his bride. This is sometimes exceedingly severe, being ad ministered with a lash of hippopotamus hide; and if the bridegroom wishes to be considered a man of gallantry, he must receive the chas tisement with an expression of enjoyment.3 The Welsh laws of Howel the Good paid particular attention to women, both married and unmarried; under them the ladies were not allowed to squander their substance. But to a certain extent one might be neigh borly. We read that the wife of a privi leged man could lend her shift, her mantle, her head-cloth, and her shoes, without the consent of her husband, and might give away her food and drink, and lend the furni ture of the house unrestrictedly. The wife of a taeog (a churl) could not give anything, nor lend it without the consent of her hus band, excepting her bonnet, her sieve, and her riddle, and those only to the distance she could be heard calling with her foot upon the threshold:4 The Vendotian Code differs slightly on this latter point, saying : " She 1 1 3 4
Maclean, Kaffir Laws and Customs. Diodorus, i. 37. Sir S. Baker, Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, p. 125. Gwent. ('. B. II ch. 29
