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WOMAN
VOLUME IV
ORIENTAL WOMEN
by
EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph. D.
Of the George Washington University
[Illustration: 1: REBEKAH AND ISAAC'S AGENT, ELIEZER After the painting
by A. Cabanel Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of
so universal an interest as its marriage customs, and there is no
courtship, either ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the
imagination and awakened the interest of men than that between Isaac and
Rebekah..... It is a truly picturesque and even romantic story, which
never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether at the well or in her
household, will always present a unique picture of womanly grace and
beauty.
The ancient wooing of Rebekah is Isaac, though it is by no means
typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental
weddings..... The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of
a stranger and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all
the apparent grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most
commendable.]
WOMAN
In All Ages and In All Countries
VOLUME IV
ORIENTAL WOMEN
by
EDWARD B. POLLARD, Ph.D.
Of the George Washington University
PREFACE
The relative position which woman occupies in any country is an index to
the civilization which that country enjoys, and this test applied to the
Orient reveals many stages yet to be achieved. The frequent appearance
of woman in Holy Writ is sufficient evidence of the high position
accorded her in the Hebrew nation. Such characters as Ruth, Esther, and
Rebekah have become famous. Wicked women there were, such as Jezebel,
but happily their influence was not of lasting duration. No other
ancient people so highly prized chastity in woman; motherhood was
regarded as an evidence of divine favor, while barrenness was considered
a curse. The home life was one of singular purity and sweetness.
Idleness was deplored as a crime, and every child was taught to work
with his own hands.
The deities of the Babylonians and Assyrians were feminine as well as
masculine. Ishtar was the Venus of classical mythology--the goddess of
love, and the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a feminine deity.
Rank, however, determined social freedom; the woman of the lowest class
might go and come at will, but the woman of the high class was condemned
to a life of isolation. Woman's position of honor in Egypt is evidenced
by the presence of temples and monuments erected to her memory. She
assisted her husband in the management of his affairs, and was granted a
part in religious worship.
In the countries in which Brahmanism and Mohammedanism is the prevailing
religion, the position of woman is relatively low. The Hindoo woman has
no spiritual life apart from her husband; she can only hope for ultimate
happiness through a union with him. The harem prevails, and woman is the
slave of man.
In contrast to the position of woman in these countries and in China is
the position she holds in Japan. While not yet occupying a place of
respect equal to that accorded her in the Occident, she is coming
gradually to be regarded as she deserves. There yet remain the loose
morals, characteristic of the Oriental nature, and it is still regarded
as right and proper that a good wife should barter her chastity if it is
necessary in order to save her husband the disgrace of imprisonment for
debt. The higher classes, however, are coming to treat woman with a
respect far higher than that usually accorded her in the Orient. The
process of her elevation must of necessity be slow, for no great reform
is accomplished by a _coup d'etat_, but only through the ameliorating
effects of enlightenment and education, and this alone will accomplish
the final emancipation of the woman of the Orient from her present
condition of servitude.
E.B. POLLARD.
I
WOMEN OF THE DAWN
The story of the first woman in the Hebrew Scriptures and Semitic myth
is as familiar as a household tale. Jewish and Christian literature
alike have frequent mention of the part she played in the race's
infancy, though in the sacred writings themselves she is but rarely
mentioned.
What the Book of Genesis furnishes upon the creation of the first woman
may not be considered of great interest as a scientific treatise upon
the first appearance of feminine life on the earth, but it is of marked
importance as revealing the idea around which the life and character of
the Hebrew woman were developed. Here we find a pure monotheism (the
presence of no goddess at the birth of things), a high morality, the
dignity of marriage and of motherhood, that give to the Hebrew women
great advantage over their sisters of many another country.
Very early was it discovered, say the Hebrew records, that it is "not
good for man to be alone." The method by which this fact was first made
manifest is of no little suggestiveness. Would it be possible from the
many creatures of earth, sky, and sea, already made, for man to find a
companion in whom he might confide, with whom the long hours might be
made more joyous? God tries the man whom he has made. Could he be
satisfied with a creature of a lower order as fellow and friend? Could
he, by subduing and having dominion, find in dog, camel, or favorite
steed a sufficient helpfulness, a satisfaction for his human longings?
No! As one by one the living creatures passed in solemn order before
him, it was soon realized by the names that Adam gave them, that he
found no true fellowship in all that earth-born throng. "And the man
gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast
of the field, but for man there was not found an helpmeet for him."
The epoch-making "deep sleep" that fell upon Adam, the taking of the
rib, the making of the first woman, the closing again of the wound, and
the presentation of a helpmeet for the man--all this is a familiar
Scripture story. Whether it be intended to be literal history is of
little moment here. Very beautifully have Matthew Henry and others,
following the rabbis, commented upon the essential meaning of this
narrative in suggesting that woman is not represented as taken from the
head of man that she should rule over him; nor from his feet, to be
trampled under foot; but she was taken from his side that she might be
his equal; from under his arm that she might be protected by him; near
his heart that he might cherish and love her. "This is now bone of my
bone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called _Ishshah_"--that is, if
man is to be called _Ish_, woman shall be _Ishshah_, simply his equal.
It is not strange that there should have arisen many legends about this
first Oriental woman. According to one of the Jewish stories contained
in the Talmud, Adam was at first very huge. When he stood, his head
reached to the very heavens; and when he reclined, he covered the earth
with his gigantic form. But in a deep sleep which God caused to fall
upon him, Eve was made from parts of all his members. After the creation
of Eve, therefore, Adam was never again quite so large. Some of the
Jewish rabbis taught that Adam, the first man, had in his body thirteen
ribs,--one more than was possessed by any of his descendants,--and that
this surplus bone became, in the hands of the Creator, the physical
basis for the creation of the mother of all.
The thought has been suggested that as man was commissioned to subdue
and have dominion over the beasts of the field and all the forces of
Nature, the reason for woman's creation lies in her ability to _tame
man_. Whether this be true or not, the student of Hebrew history will
not lack ample evidence to show that to the women of Israel is due
largely the place that their people hold in history as teachers of
religion and morals; to them is due, also, that conservative quality
which has made the Hebrews a peculiar and permanent people.
One of the old rabbis, commenting upon the Biblical account of woman's
creation from the rib of Adam, remarked: "It is as if Adam had changed a
pot of earth for a jewel." Good Dr. South, of pious memory, unaffected
by the modern views of development, is credited with the remark that
"Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam." If this be true, what must
Eve have been!
About the beauty of the first woman, the Scriptures are silent, though,
in _Paradise Lost_, Milton finds no hesitancy in creating her with
surpassing physical grace, so that it was possible for her, like
Narcissus, to fall in love with her own charms. Poets have not been slow
to sing her praises:
"The world was sad, the garden was a wild
And man the hermit sighed, till woman smiled."
The Hebrews called the first woman Eve--that is, _living_ or
_expanded_, "the mother of all living." But these Oriental records
attribute to Eve the advent into the world of death and human woes. The
discord that came from the apple once tossed into a famous company of
frolicking Greeks cannot compare with that which grew out of the fatal
fruit, forbidden to the primal tenants of the Garden of Eden.
"Earth felt the wound--And Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works, gave sign of woe,
That all was lost."
The French saying _cherchez la femme_ has been in some form upon the
lips of men from the earliest dawn of time. "The woman which thou gavest
me," is Adam's lame apology for his weakness, as in one brief sentence
he shifts the blame with dexterity upon God--the giver,--and woman--the
God-given.
In marked contrast with this dark view of the first woman's legacy to
the world is the account of the first promise, the light that burst
forth suddenly as through a rift in the overshadowing cloud: "The seed
of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Thus Lamartine's remark
that "woman is at the beginning of all great things," becomes as
pertinent as it is true. It is impossible to estimate the effect upon
Israelitish motherhood of the belief in that ancient promise that some
mother's son should yet arise to crush the monster of evil that was
loosed in the world. Many a Hebrew mother came to feel that her own babe
might become the hero chosen to strangle the serpent. This thought made
motherhood the more prized, it became the aim of every Hebrew woman.
What if we could reproduce the sensations of that mother-love when the
first woman enfolded in her bosom the first infant born, and heard its
first cry for a mother's care? Of much interest is the Hebrew narrative
here; for when Eve beheld her firstborn son she is said to have made an
exclamation which many Hebrew scholars interpret as meaning, "I have
obtained the promised One," believing that the pledge of Jehovah
concerning the woman's seed had even then been realized. But the first
son was to bring pangs to his mother's soul by slaying the first
brother. Who can adequately describe the effect which that first death
must have had upon the maternal heart? Instead of the lost Abel came a
new son to console the mother-heart, Seth, the good; and the struggle
between good and evil goes on throughout the Hebrew records, woman
usually taking her place with the forces that made for righteousness.
Concerning the first bad woman, Lilith, held by some to have been the
wife of the first man, very curious are the legends. Later rabbinic
literature is rife with these stories. Among the Babylonians and
Assyrians, Lilith was a _night-fairy_, as the derivation of the name
would indicate, though some derive it from _lilu_, the wind. Popular
superstition among the Hebrews, either through inheritance from the
early days before Abraham, their father, lived in the Mesopotamian
valley, or through the contacts with this region during the Babylonian
exile, looked upon Lilith as a female demon of the night. She was
supposed to be especially hostile to children, and this is why the Latin
translations of the Vulgate version of the Scriptures rendered the word
as _lamia_, a hag or witch who was supposed to be harmful to the little
folk--though grown up people, also, might well beware of her baneful
power. She is mentioned but once in Scriptures, and then in that highly
graphic portrayal by the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming desolation
that should soon befall the land of Edom, which was to become a place
where "the wild beasts of the deserts meet with the wolves, and the
satyr cries to his fellows, and _Lilith_ (rendered in the accepted
version, _Screech Owl_, and in the later version, _Night Monster_) takes
up her abode."
It is Lilith's earlier history that is of especial interest, for, as
runs the Jewish legend which one often meets in Talmudic literature,
Lilith was the first wife of Adam, but becoming angered, she flew away
and became a demon of the night. But the world will probably never
concede that the first woman was a wicked one. The subtlety of an evil
woman's charms is probably the underlying motive of the story of this
"sweet snake of Eden," of whom Rossetti, in his _Eden Bower_, affirms
consolingly, "not a drop of her blood was human."
"Who was Cain's wife?" is one of the perplexing questions asked by those
who delight in hard sayings. The late Professor Winchell believed in a
race of pre-Adamites, and many persons are committed to the theory of
several centres of human origin. To those holding such views the
question of Cain's marriage does not present particular difficulties.
But those who hold to the theory that there was but one pair from whom
all the family of mankind has sprung find difficulty in reconciling
their theory with Biblical statements, and they are driven to
acknowledging the necessity for marital relations between near kindred
when the race was in its beginning--relations which would offend the
best moral sentiment of to-day.
There is a curious passage in the Book of Genesis which tells of the
marriage of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men." Have we here
the echo of that ancient tradition that once the gods and men
intermarried and from the union the great heroes of the past were born?
The close position of this statement concerning the "sons of God" and
the "daughters of men" with the account of the great growth of evil in
the world has led some to hold that these "daughters of men" were women
from the unrighteous line of the murderous Cain, while the "sons of God"
were men from the more upright family of Seth. Others, however, seeing
also in close connection the statement that giants were on the earth in
those days, find here a remnant of a very general tradition that from
the gods had descended great heroes and giants who in past ages had
fallen in love with daughters of human parentage. Since the Hebrews,
however, were so strong in their monotheistic conceptions, this latter
theory loses a great part of its force.
The state of society presented in the earliest Hebrew records indicates
that the practice of polygamy was general. There are some who see
indications among the Hebrew customs that there was a period, earlier
than that of which any Hebrew records tell, in which polyandry and not
polygamy was the fashion--when one woman had several husbands, rather
than one husband several wives. The so-called Levirate marriage which
was in vogue among the Hebrews is perhaps the strongest evidence that
the customs of polyandry and mother-right were practised among them.
In common, then, with other peoples, the Hebrews practised polygamy; and
while the influence of the best thought and teaching was, except in the
earlier, patriarchal period, distinctly against it, the practice was
still customary even down to the Christian era. The law of Moses, while
not forbidding plurality of wives, discouraged the custom, and
especially forbade the king from "multiplying wives."
The earliest example of polygamy of which the Hebrew records speak is
that involving one of the most unique and interesting families of this
early twilight of human existence. One Lamech, a descendant of Cain, is
said to have married two wives, who bore the rather musical names of
Adah and Zillah. And here we are introduced into the presence of a most
remarkable household. For not only is Lamech to be awarded the
distinction of having made the earliest attempt at verse which the
Hebrew tradition has recorded, but Adah and Zillah became the mothers of
a most talented family; the former of Jabel, "the father of such as
dwell in tents and have cattle," and of Jubal, the inventor and patron
saint of the harp and the pipe; while Zillah was the mother of
Tubal-Cain, the first forger of implements of brass and iron. Lamech,
the father, having doubtless received a sword from the forge of his son,
used it in revenge upon an enemy, and gave utterance to the first
recorded lines of poetry, which are possibly a fragment from what has
been called _The Lay of the Sword_. It is a crude poem, dedicated by
Lamech to his wives--for it was not uncommon among the early Semites to
call the women to witness a hero's deeds of prowess:
"Adah and Zillah, hear my voice,
Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech,
For I have slain a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for bruising me.
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Truly Lamech, seventy and seven."
It is not to be wondered at that in the very midst of dry genealogical
tables the writer of Genesis should have stopped for a moment to tell of
this epoch-making household.
Whether the women of this unique family, Adah, Zillah, and her daughter
Naamah, were equally gifted with the men of the household, we are not
told; but surely there must have been some genius in those feminine
members of the home, who were so closely connected with the beginnings,
not only of the fine arts of poetry and music, but also of the
industrial pursuits of cattle raising and of metal working.
The early Hebrews were nomads. At first glance it might appear that
woman's part in such an order of society would be scant, and her life
one of comparative inactivity. But this view would lead into error, for
in the nomadic life, while the men were guarding their flocks from the
depredations of hostile bands or from the ravages of wild beasts, the
women were the home makers and the home keepers.
Mason, in his _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture_, commenting upon
Herbert Spencer's division of the life history of civilization into the
period of Militancy, and the later period of Industrialism, raises the
question whether it may not after all be more in accord with the
facts--at least in the early history of the race--to speak of a _sex_ of
militancy and a _sex_ of industrialism. The Hebrew woman, from her place
in the tent or seated about the tent door, not only tended the fire, but
invented, developed, and carried on many a handicraft into which not
until later the men themselves entered.
For centuries the story of the lives of the patriarchs has thrilled and
edified many a young heart, but what of the credit due to the
_matriarchs_? What part do we find them playing in the early life of
these Oriental peoples! The patriarch was not only father of his family
or clan, but was their king and high priest. Yet it would be a mistake
to suppose that the mother of the family was not an important factor in
that early society, as the lives of many a Hebrew woman will easily
demonstrate. The names of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Miriam, Huldah, and a
host of others will readily occur to the mind of anyone at all familiar
with the literature of the Old Testament.
A fair type of the life of the wife and partner of an ancient chief
(_sheik_) of the higher order is found in that of Sarah, wife of the
first and greatest Hebrew patriarch, "Abraham, the faithful." Living the
life of nomad and shepherd, this pioneer of a new monotheism took his
spouse away from the land of her fathers in the valley of Mesopotamia.
Sarah's reverence for her husband became proverbial, and her conduct has
been taken as the type of what was best in the domestic life of
Israel--chaste behavior coupled with reverence. And Peter, known as the
Apostle to the Hebrews, writing over two thousand years after the body
of Sarah had been laid in its last home in the cave of Machpelah, gives
a glimpse of the Hebrew conception of the ideal relation between husband
and wife typified in Abraham and Sarah. While enjoining upon the women
to whom he wrote the need of a "meek and quiet spirit," a spirit not
discoverable in jewels and elaborate apparel, but in what he terms "the
hidden man of the heart," he said: "For after this manner in the old
time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being
in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
calling him lord; whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well." Thus
did the virtues of Sarah impress themselves upon later generations.
Sarah is not to be classed among the strong-minded women. Probably she
was not virile in any true sense of the term, since in the traditions of
her people she does not seem to have made for herself a place as leader
that at all corresponds to the rank of her husband. He was to all
Hebrews "Father Abraham," the first and foremost of his race; and no Jew
could esteem his future life as giving promise of happiness unless his
head might at length rest in Abraham's bosom. There is an ancient legend
which says that Sarah, hearing of the plan of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac
on the sacred spot of Moriah, died from the shock to her maternal heart.
The father returned, bringing his only son alive with him, but Sarah had
passed away. The narrative distinctly says that Abraham "_came_ to mourn
for Sarah and weep for her," as though the end had come during the
absence of her husband. The Hebrew respect for women is illustrated in
the costly burial accorded Sarah in a cave which was purchased from the
sons of Heth--a place reverenced by the people of Israel for many
centuries, because Sarah was buried there.
There is but one blot upon the life of this first mother of the Hebrews.
Sarah was a faithful wife and devoted mother, but on at least one
occasion she revealed a character capable of hasty, jealous, and cruel
conduct. It is the time for the weaning of her only son--an occasion of
more than usual interest in a Hebrew home. The family feast is at its
height; Sarah discovers that her handmaid, an Egyptian woman, Hagar,
whom she herself had given to Abraham as wife, for thus we may call her,
was jesting at her expense. Quickly and hotly she demands that the
bondwoman and her son Ishmael be immediately driven from the home, to
which request Abraham reluctantly yields. Like most other women, Sarah,
though now aged, could brook no rival in her home, and her womanly
instinct at once discerned that only a step thus sharp and decisive
would prevent, in the circle of domestic life, endless friction, more
bitter than the sufferings occasioned by her cruel action.
Hagar in the thirsty wilderness, laying her perishing child under a bit
of shrubbery and then departing a little distance that her mother-eyes
may not behold the end, has powerfully awakened the imagination of the
artist, as, indeed, she touched the heart of the Almighty, as the record
tells us. For although Hagar wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba,
the region of "the seven wells," no water had she found--so far was she
from the life-giving draught; and yet was she so near--for lo! her eyes
now fell upon a well of water, from which she and the lad quenched their
mortal thirst. Thus was preserved him who was to become the father of
the Ishmaelites, a people whose hand was to be against every man, and
every man's hand against them. The breach that day in the tent of
Abraham, between his two wives, one bond and the other free, was to be
deep and abiding, as N. P. Willis, in describing Hagar's feelings in the
wilderness, has written:
"May slighted woman turn
And, as a vine the oak hath shaken off,
Bend lightly to her leaning trust again?
O, no!"
And an apostle versed in rabbinic lore uses the story of Sarah as
typical of the abiding difference between the principles of law and the
precepts of grace.
Probably no feature in the social life of a people is of so universal an
interest as its marriage customs, and there is no courtship, either
ancient or modern, which has more enkindled the imagination and awakened
the interest of men than that between Isaac and Rebekah. The English
prayerbook, in its ceremony of marriage, has chosen Isaac and Rebekah as
the ideal pair to whose fidelity the young couples of the later years
are directed for inspiration and example. It is a truly picturesque and
even romantic story, which never loses its charm; and Rebekah, whether
at the well or in her household, will always present a unique picture of
womanly grace and beauty.
This ancient wooing of Rebekah by Isaac, though it is by no means
typical in all its details, contains many elements that mark Oriental
weddings. The prominence of the parents in the negotiations is
characteristic. It cannot be said, however, that the choice of either
Isaac or Rebekah was constrained.
When Isaac and his parents have reached the conclusion to which Richter
has given voice--"No man can live piously or die righteously without a
wife"--the faithful Eliezer is made to thrust his hand under the thigh
of his master and swear that he will see that Isaac is wedded not to a
daughter of the people around, but to a woman of his own kindred living
in the regions of Aramea. This habit of marrying within one's own tribe
became firmly fixed in Hebrew custom. The use of marriage presents, here
so rich and costly, is almost as old as marriage itself; and how much
Rebekah and Laban, her brother, were influenced by this manifestation of
the riches of her wooer none can ever know. The part taken by Laban in
this marital transaction is by no means unusual. Brothers in the East
often played an important role on such occasions. When Shechem, the
Hivite, wished to marry Dinah, daughter of Jacob, he consulted not only
her father, but her brothers as well; and the brothers of the heroine of
the _Song of Songs_ are represented as saying: "What shall we do for our
sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?"
The courage of Rebekah in consenting to mount the camel of a stranger
and go into a far country to be wed is noteworthy. With all the apparent
grace and gentleness of Rebekah, here was a pluck most commendable. We
may say with Dickens: "When a young lady is as mild as she is game and
as game as she is mild, that's all I ask and more than I expect." But it
turned out to be but one of the many cases, since the world began, of
"love at first sight"; and affection strengthened with the years! The
frequent and cynical remark that marriage is after all but a lottery
will probably long survive. Isaac did not act upon the sentiment
expressed in the remark of Francesco Sforza: "Should one desire to take
unto himself a wife, to buy a horse, or to invest in a melon, the wise
man will recommend himself to Providence and draw his bonnet over his
eyes." The daughters of Heth and of Canaan around him were not to his
liking, and Providence seems greatly to have helped him in the
emergency, for in the unseen Rebekah (whose very name means "to tie" or
"to bind") Isaac found a lifelong blessing; and probably nothing could
better disclose the wisdom of his matrimonial choice than the words of
the Bible narrative, "and he loved her, and Isaac _was comforted_ after
his mother's death."
There is one blot upon Rebekah's record as a wife and mother, which,
however, no less reveals a fault in Isaac's character as a father. It is
a defect that was doubtless inherent in the ancient Oriental system
itself. It was more usual than otherwise for mothers as well as for
fathers to have _favorite_ children. When both parents centred their
affection upon the same child, usually a boy, it was ill for the rest;
when mother and father were divided, it was ill for family felicity.
Rebekah loved Jacob, the younger; Isaac loved Esau, the elder. And it is
in this unfortunate distribution of parental affection that is to be
found the beginning of a violent fratricidal feud, a long separation, as
well as the causes which led to the bringing within the confines of
Hebrew history two of the most important women of ancient Israel,--Leah
and Rachel. Here again we find illustrated the fixed habit among the
Hebrews to seek wives among their own people.
Among the Hebrews it was the custom that one who would acquire a wife
must pay for her, either in money or in service. Usually, the young
girl's consent was not thought to be a necessary part of the matrimonial
bargain, and a father delivered a daughter to the purchasing suitor, as
he might a slave that he had sold to the highest bidder. The woman
herself played but a secondary part. It is thus quite plain that in this
early day, marriage did not depend upon a contract entered into between
one man and one woman, but between two or more men. And yet, in ancient
Israel, while daughters were sold for wives,--or, to put it less
harshly, given away for a consideration,--there is no intimation that a
wife was in any sense regarded as a slave; nor are there instances of a
husband selling his wife for a consideration. Parents were usually the
parties to matrimonial bargains. In the case of Jacob and Rachel,
however, we do not find the parents making the match, for the parents of
the pair are widely separated. Jacob falls in love with Rachel at his
first sight of her, as she, at close of day, leads the flock of Laban,
her father, to drink from the open well hard by the dwelling. Laban
readily agrees to surrender his daughter to Jacob,--who doubtless had no
purchase money to procure a wife,--if the young man will serve him for
seven years. But at the close of the stipulated period, the wily Laban
falls back upon an unwritten law among the people of the day, that the
daughters must be taken in marriage in the order of their seniority.
Thus Leah, the elder sister, is accorded to Jacob, and seven years'
additional service is necessary for the possession of Rachel.
Persistence wins, and Jacob is at length in possession of both Laban's
daughters, but the victory was the beginning of a life of struggle. Some
one has remarked: "The music at a marriage always reminds me of the
music of soldiers entering upon a battle;" it was so with Jacob. There
must be a battle with Laban, the uncle and father-in-law, in which the
daughters both take the part of the husband against their father, and
agree to flee from that parent's house with the man to whom they had
linked their destinies. There must be a battle with Esau, when mothers
and little ones were to be exposed to great dangers and hardships;
indeed, a long life of vicissitudes awaited the women whose lives were
one with Jacob's, and contests between rival sons of rival mothers were
to follow.
It has already been remarked that Sarah, wife of Abraham (whose name,
Sarah, means "the princess"), occupies no such place in the imagination
and tradition of the Hebrews as did Abraham, their _father_. It is
around Leah and Rachel that the tribes of Israel group themselves, and
the book of Ruth speaks of them as having built the house of Israel, and
Leah and Rachel were the mothers of the twelve patriarchs for whom the
tribes were subsequently named. Especially does Rachel occupy a high
place, not only because she was Jacob's most favorite wife, but because
of those personal qualities which more readily stirred the poetic and
religious imagination of the people. The poet-prophet, Jeremiah, writing
of the loss of life among the sons of Israel, because of the invasion
and cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, represents the people's
sadness at the terrible calamity as "Rachel weeping for her children
because they are not"--an expression which may have been suggested by
Rachel's early condition of childlessness, followed by the loss of both
her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, in the land of Egypt. The expression has
borrowed new force, because it is quoted as again exemplified in "the
slaughter of the innocents" by Herod the Great at the time of the birth
of Jesus.
II
ISRAEL'S HEROIC AGE
In the early history of the Hebrews, the people followed the free,
roving life of the shepherd. In a climate where water supply was by no
means sure, where a flowing stream which gave drink to the flocks to-day
might be a rocky ravine to-morrow, families must needs have no certain
abiding place. Woman the homekeeper must of course be affected by this
Bedouin manner of life. Many daughters, like Rebekah and Rachel, were
shepherdesses of their father's flocks of sheep and goats. When the
Israelites went down into Egypt because the fertile valley of the Nile
made famines less frequent than in the land of Canaan, they were
somewhat ashamed, we are told, of the fact that they were shepherds, on
account of Egyptian prejudices against that occupation, but in their
native country they were proud of their occupation, and rather looked
down upon merchantmen. The hated "Canaanite" became the synonym for
"trafficker." It was the later exigencies of exile and dispersion that
forced the Jews to buy and sell, and right well did they learn the
lesson the world forced upon them. But in the beginning it was not so.
And hence we find Israel, even after the twelve patriarchs had settled
in the plains of Goshen, their Egyptian home, keeping their flocks and
developing their home life in their own way in the kingdom of the
Pharaohs.
Among the many notable women of Israel's heroic age, Miriam must not be
forgotten. The romantic story of the hiding of her infant brother, in
the rushes of the Nile, when King Pharaoh would have destroyed every
Hebrew boy, is a familiar chapter. The sisterly tenderness and devotion
which stationed the girl of twelve years to watch what might happen to
the infant brother, to fight away wild beasts, and at length to direct
the living treasure to the bosom of its own mother, is one of the best
examples in literature of womanly tact and sisterly devotion.
The daughter of Pharaoh, a child of the Nile, comes down to the sacred
stream to wash her garments or bathe her body in the saving water, and
quickly, indeed quite willingly, falls into the well-wrought plan of
Jokabed, the mother of the child Moses, and Miriam, the sister--a
counterplot to that of the princess's father, and so ancient history is
written with new headlines.
It is Miriam who enjoys the distinction of being the first prophetess
in Israel, as her brother Moses is the first who was called a prophet,
and her brother Aaron the first high priest. The part she took in
leading the intractable people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage into
the land of the Canaanites, must have been considerable, though
according to the record she was nearing the century mark before the
journeying began. As a poetess and musician, also, Miriam holds no mean
place, for we are told that when her people had successfully crossed the
arm of the sea, and Pharaoh's pursuing hosts had been cut off in the
descending floods, Miriam organized the women into a chorus, and going
before them with timbrel in her hand she led in voicing the refrain sent
back in antiphonal strains to the song of the great camp, while her
companions followed with timbrels and dances. This aged woman had music
and patriotic fervor still present in her soul, as victory was assured
to her people. The Hebrew song that grew out of this incident which is
recorded in the Book of Exodus has been termed "Israel's Natal Hymn," a
sort of poetic Declaration of Independence, and is far more majestic in
its qualities than Moore's poem based upon the same event:
"Sound the loud timbrel; O'er Egypt's dark sea
Jehovah hath triumphed--His people are free."
By a singular confusion, the Koran identifies Miriam, sister of Moses,
with Mary, the mother of Jesus. This may be partly due to the fact that
the New Testament Scriptures as well as the Septuagint Greek translation
of the Old spell both names alike, "Miriam."
But great women, like great men, sometimes make mistakes, and their
blunders are often just at the point where they have achieved greatness.
Miriam's distinction lay in her insight into the merits of her brother's
mission and in her unselfish devotion to the cause to which he had been
dedicated. Her greatest grief befell her by her unfortunate effort to
break that very influence and to destroy his leadership, because she was
displeased with a marriage he had contracted. She was smitten with
leprosy, but the esteem with which she was held may be discovered when
we read that the whole camp grieved at her calamity and consequent
isolation from the people, and "journeyed not till Miriam was brought in
again."
Miriam, the first prophetess and one of the strongest women that Israel
ever produced, died during the wilderness wandering, and was buried in
the region west of the Jordan. For many generations her tomb was pointed
out in the land of Moab. Jerome, the Christian father, tells us that he
saw the reputed grave close to Petra in Arabia. But, like the place of
the entombment of her more distinguished brother, "no man knoweth it
unto this day."
Among no people has the national consciousness been more thoroughly
developed or more deeply seated than among the Hebrews. It is not to be
wondered at, therefore, that among the women of Israel may be discovered
the most ardent spirit of patriotism. Miriam's part in the founding of
the Hebrew Commonwealth has already been noticed. When in the wanderings
of the wilderness it became necessary to erect a temporary structure for
the worship of Jehovah, the God of Israel, the women willingly tore
their jewels from their ears, their ornaments from their arms and
ankles, and devoted them to the rearing of the tabernacle. With their
own fingers they spun in blue, purple, and scarlet, and wrought fine
linen for the hangings and the service of their temple in the desert. In
a theocracy, piety and patriotism were one. Not even the Spartan mother,
who wished her son to return from the wars bringing his shield with him
or being borne upon it, nor the women of Carthage, who plucked out their
hair for bowstrings, could surpass the women of Israel in their
sacrifices for national independence and political glory. In the days of
Octavia, the ministers of Rome levied a tax upon Roman matrons to carry
on a foreign war, and demanded a sacrifice of their jewels; and the
Roman women thronged the public places, appealing to the high and
influential in their vigorous protest against this taxation, and thus
saved their ornaments. But the women of Israel did not need to be urged
to tear off their ornaments and devote them to the common welfare. It
was a woman who received the first recognition for services rendered the
victorious hosts of Joshua, after the first campaign against the
Canaanites had been waged. This was Rahab, a woman of Jericho, who,
though her past life had been far from exemplary, seemed to see in the
approaching Israelites a people of destiny. She therefore hid the Hebrew
spies who had come to inspect the land, and, letting them down over the
walls of the city, saved their lives. Thus did Rahab, the harlot of
Jericho, preserve her own life when Joshua entered the city a victor;
and, being admitted among the people of Israel, she became the
ancestress of their greatest king, David, and, through him, the
ancestress of Christ.
During that era in Israel's life, when the people were no longer merely
an aggregation of shepherd clans, but had not yet been moulded into a
national existence by a strong feeling of unity or the recognition of a
common need, woman's life was exceptionally severe in its hardships and
dangers. The unorganized tribes, engaged in their agricultural and
pastoral pursuits, with hostile clans about them and hostile cities and
strongholds as yet unsubdued, were subject to frequent incursions from
bands of marauders and from armies of neighboring tribes, which would
suddenly swoop down upon them like vultures on their prey. It was under
such conditions as this that the women suffered untold indignities and
misery. Kidnappers sold the women and children to slave traders of the
coast, who carried them to Egyptian and Greek ports; so that even before
the great dispersion of the children of Jacob which the kings of Assyria
and of Babylonia brought about in the eighth and sixth centuries prior
to the Christian era, the Hebrews were being scattered throughout the
world.
It was in the period of transition and chaos which immediately
followed the entrance of the people into the land of Palestine that
Israel's most manlike woman appears as a veritable savior of her people.
She is the second woman to whom the title of _prophetess_ is accorded.
The record reveals the fact that she was not only a woman strong in
deeds of valor, but a leader in the religious life of Israel. The days
were dark enough for the descendants of Abraham. For two decades now had
Jabin, with his "nine hundred chariots of iron," struck with terror the
ill-equipped, disorganized Hebrews. But there dwelt "under the palm
tree" between Ramah and Bethel among the hills of Ephraim a woman who,
by force of will and recognized wisdom, _judged_ the people of Israel.
"The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until
that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." It is from the
sanctuary of this woman's mind and heart that deliverance from the king
of the Canaanites is to break forth. She is called Deborah, _i.e._,
"woman of torches," or "flames," either because she made wicks for the
lamps of the sanctuary, or because of her fiery, ardent nature.
Certainly there was warmth in her heart and fire in her love of her
native land. She speedily sends for Barak, a chief man of Naphtali, and
enjoins upon him to prepare an army of ten thousand men to meet Jabin's
army, which is approaching under its captain Sisera, on the banks of the
river Kishon. Barak hesitates, but at length answers: "If thou wilt go
with me, I will go,"--so necessary did this strong, magnetic woman's
presence seem for the enlistment of the people in the holy order of the
enterprise. Deborah did not flinch in the presence of this challenge.
The army is raised. The battle is joined, and Sisera's host is
discomfited before Israel. The captain himself becomes a fugitive before
the victors. But the end is not yet. Another woman appears upon the
stage of this tragedy. The fleeing Sisera seeks shelter in the secret
place of Jael's tent. Weary to exhaustion, the captain of the enemies of
her people sinks down to sleep, the more profound because of the great
draught of buttermilk or curds which Jael gave the thirsty man; and then
with tent pin, a hammer, and an unquivering hand, Jael struck the sharp
instrument through the sleeping man's temple and pinned him swooning to
the dirt floor of her tent.
It was this bloody, but daring, deed which gave rise to one of the
earliest of Israel's epic songs, the Song of Deborah. It is a remarkable
poem, given in full in the Book of Judges. It sets forth praises to
Jehovah for deliverance, and to Jael for the deadly stroke. A few lines
from this epic, which many consider the earliest piece of Old Testament
writing, will disclose the patriotic spirit of Israel's womanhood in
those days of social and political disorder. The people are represented
as crying out to the strong woman who lived under the solitary palm:
"Awake, awake, Deborah,
Awake, awake, utter a song."
Deborah comes at the call of distress. The people are rapidly marshalled
to her help. But some hold back:
"Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds,
To hear the bleatings of the flocks?
.........................................
Gilead abode beyond Jordan
And why did Dan remain in ships?"
The battle is joined. Canaan is worsted before the followers of the
woman of the hour.
"The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
The river Kishon swept them away,
That ancient river, the river Kishon.
O my soul, march on with strength."
Then, turning upon the indifferent and laggard hosts that held back and
refused to strike the blow for liberty, the poetess exclaims:
"Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord,
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof,
Because they came not to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty."
Concerning the woman whose unfailing hand had struck the fatal blow, the
poetess sings:
"Blessed above women shall Jael be,
The wife of Heber the Kenite.
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
"He asked water
And she gave him milk,
She brought forth butter in a lordly dish."
The tent pin has pierced the temples of the oppressor of Israel:
"At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down,
At her feet he bowed, he fell,
When he bowed, he fell down--dead."
Very dramatic do the lines become when, imagining the mother of Sisera
waiting for her son to return victorious from the battle, and looking
out through the lattice of her dwelling wondering at his long delay, she
asks:
"Why is his chariot so long in coming,
Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?"
But Sisera never returns to his maternal roof. For forty years did the
people enjoy the freedom of Deborah's deliverance, the woman whose
influence went out from "the sanctuary of the palm."
It is said of this period, commonly known as the Age of the Judges,
that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This would be
known in political theory as well as in practical government as nothing
short of anarchy. And indeed, it was, for while each man did that which
was right in his own eyes, the "right" of each was so frequently wrong,
that social chaos reigned with almost unbroken sway. And while one woman
of the period became a deliverer for four decades, for more than a
century many women suffered untold misery for lack of unity among the
tribes and leaders capable of bringing the life of the reign to rights.
It is often affirmed that sons more frequently inherit characteristics
of their mothers, while to the daughters are bequeathed the traits of
their fathers. An unnamed woman of this period of the political chaos,
the wife of a certain Manoah, from the family of the Danites, was chosen
to be the mother of a giant. Now, giants were rare in Israel, though in
the earlier days of Palestinian occupation, _Nephelim_, and "the sons of
Anak," are mentioned as among those enemies of the Hebrews. Their huge
forms, it is written, were a menace to Israel's peace, and in comparison
with these monsters her sons were said to be "as grass-hoppers." One
day, as the story runs, an angel appears to this nameless, hitherto
childless, wife of Manoah, and informs her that a son who is to be born,
and nourished at her own bosom, is to have a remarkable history. She
herself is to take care neither to drink wine nor any strong drink, for
her son is to be dedicated to the abstemious life of the Nazarite. The
woman is obedient to the angelic voice; and she with her husband offers
up a burnt offering to Jehovah in grateful praise. The son is born. He
is taught that no intoxicating draught shall enter his lips, nor should
a razor touch his head, that his long-grown locks might speak outwardly
of his vows. But wine is not the only temptation that is to beset this
giant youth. The daughters of neighboring Philistia were to his eyes
more than passing fair.
The influence of these young women, whose features, we may suppose,
bore some characteristics of Grecian beauty,--as their progenitors had
landed on the shores of Canaan from the island of Crete, gradually
adopting a Semitic language and civilization,--was very potent over the
heart of the muscular but susceptible young Hebrew. A love affair in
which the long-haired Nazarite plays a prominent role will introduce us,
somewhat at least, into woman's world of this disorganized period in the
early life of Western Palestine at a day more than a thousand years
before the Christian Era.