certain restrictions, unknown in other Mohammedan countries, attach to
the privilege. Two wives seldom inhabit the same house, and for three
or four to do so is an extremely rare circumstance. Usually each has
a separate dwelling, and in this private establishment she generally
supports herself, with occasional assistance from her husband. The men
can easily procure a divorce, and when the consent is mutual nothing
remains but to separate as quickly as possible. If the woman only,
however, desire to be set free, she must produce some reasonable ground
of complaint, for the mere neglect of conjugal duties is not considered
a sufficient cause. Many years pass sometimes without any intercourse
taking place between man and wife. Nevertheless, though many of them
indulge in polygamy, concubinage, or the keeping of female slaves for
sensual purposes, is rarely practised. Many of the rajahs, however,
take women of inferior rank to be their companions until they marry a
woman of equal birth, when their old partners are divorced.
In Wajo, the marriage state, though characterised by these
extraordinary customs, is decently preserved, and more honourable than
with any other Eastern nation. So equal, indeed, is the proportion of
the sexes, that not only is the throne, or rather president’s chair,
given to them, but also the great offices of state. Four out of six of
the great councillors are sometimes women. They ride about, transact
business, and visit even foreigners as they please, and enjoy every
advantage. Their manners are easy and self-possessed, though too
listless and slow to be fascinating to an European. Their morals, as
well as those of the men, are far superior to that of any other race in
Eastern or Western Asia, and prostitution is all but unknown. Far from
modest, in the English sense of the term, they are yet very chaste;
and, though they maintain little reserve in their conduct towards
strangers, never exhibit the inclination to be indecent or licentious.
Even the dancing girls, though of loose virtue, dress with the utmost
modesty, but their performances are occasionally lascivious.
Throughout the beautiful and interesting island of Celebes the same
state of things prevails, and wherever the women are most free, they
are least licentious. The intercourse of the sexes is unrestrained;
the youth meet without hindrance; and chastity is guarded more by
the sense of honour and by the pride of virtue, than by the jealousy
of husbands or the rigid surveillance of parents. On the whole,
therefore, the condition of the sex in Celebes is elevated. That women
are there perverted in some of their manners, and that they do not
approach that exalted state which was accorded to them in the Attic
states of Greece, is true, because the people are barbarians. It is
necessary always, in considering the state and character of women in
any country, to hold in view the state and character of the men also.
We are to apply no unvarying standard to measure the condition of one
sex, for it is only by viewing it relatively to the other that we can
arrive at a sound conclusion. The Bugis of Celebes are among the most
manly, enterprising, and virtuous nations of Asia; and their women are
proportionably free, chaste, and happy[69].
OF PROSTITUTION IN PERSIA.
In Persia the Oriental idea of the female sex is completely developed.
Women are there the property of men and their enjoyment of life
is circumscribed to suit the pleasure of their masters; among the
wandering tribes, indeed, they go unveiled, and breathe the air
of partial freedom; but among the fixed inhabitants of cities and
villages, their lot is one of seclusion and servitude. Subservient as
they are to the will and caprice of the supreme sex, the estimation
in which they are held is extremely low. The lower classes consider
them, indeed, valuable in proportion to the amount of household labour
they perform; the higher classes look on them as the means of sensual
gratification. We find, it is true, in Persian romance and poetry,
eulogiums on the beauty of their women, and songs of devotion to them;
but they are the objects of barter, and are consequently in a despised
condition.
There is actually no station assigned to women in Persia; they are
recognised only as ministers to the wants or pleasures of the male
sex. They are what their husbands choose to make them. Instances occur
where a favourite wife or concubine is ruler of the house, or a mother
exercises strong influence over her son, but these are rare examples;
women, in total seclusion, are submissive slaves. The wives of the
Shah, especially, vegetate within the walls of a splendid prison;
occasionally one of them is permitted to walk abroad, but then all must
fly from the route she takes, and no one dare look upon her on pain of
death. She is paraded in stately procession, and eunuchs run in front
to clear the way, firing guns loaded with ball to frighten any bold
adventurer who may be reckless enough to remain on the line of the
cortege. This isolation of the sex pervades all the wealthier orders
of Persian society; even brothers are not allowed to see their sisters
after a certain age.
Polygamy is practised in Persia. The palace especially has a crowded
harem; numbers of female officers and attendants wait on the Shah.
The wives and concubines are arranged with the most rigid regard to
the rules of precedence; none but those of the highest rank and most
distinguished favour dare sit down in the presence of their royal lord;
over all the rest the strictest discipline is preserved. The king
is said sometimes to have a thousand women in his palace, and much
skill is required to preserve decorum among them; some he has given
away to his principal officers. The chief of them lives in splendour,
wearing garments so thickly embroidered with pearls that they impede
her movements; but the others are subject to much rigour, especially
under the savage eunuchs whose favourite mode of chastising the female
slaves is to strike them on the mouth with the heel of a slipper.
However, large numbers of them lead a pleasant, while all enjoy an
indolent life, lounging for hours in the warm bath, whence they emerge,
with enervated frames, to spend an equal time in the coquetry of the
toilette. All the arts which vanity can devise are exhausted to render
their persons attractive to the Shah, whose favours are courted as much
as his displeasure is feared. In the one case, the fortunate woman is
elevated, for a brief period at least, to the very ideal of her hopes,
while, in the other, she may be fastened in a sack and hurled from the
top of a lofty tower.
The Persians generally believe themselves entitled to unlimited
indulgence in the delights of the harem. Their religious law confines
them to four wives, but they may have as many concubines or other
female companions as they can support. The priests are expected to be
the most chaste, but are usually the most licentious; it is remarked as
an extraordinary circumstance of one celebrated spiritual leader, that
it was affirmed that he never had connection with any other woman than
his four legitimate wives.
A Persian is permitted, as well by the enactments of the law as by
common usage, to take a female, not within the prohibited degrees of
affinity, in three different ways: he may marry, he may purchase, or
he may hire her. Persons are frequently betrothed during infancy; but
the engagement is not considered binding unless contracted by both the
actual parents. The girl, indeed, may, even under these circumstances,
refuse her consent, but this privilege is rather nominal than real. If
she resolutely refuse, she may be taken back to the recesses of her
parent’s harem, and there chastened until she chooses to submit; and it
is not long before she is whipped into compliance. The nuptial ceremony
must be witnessed by at least two men, or one man and two women. An
officer of the law attends to attest the contract. The written document
is delivered to the wife, who carefully preserves it, for it is the
deed that entitles her to the amount of her dower, which is part of her
provision in case of being left a widow, and her sole dependence in
case of being divorced. Her right in this respect is strictly guarded
by law, and by her male friends, and it is one of which the women of
Persia are extremely jealous. The marriage festival is usually very
expensive, for the reputation of the husband is supposed to be measured
by the splendour of his nuptials.
Though a man may, when he pleases, put away his wife, the expense and
scandal attending such a proceeding make it rare. It seldom occurs,
indeed, except among the poorer classes, who do not so rigidly seclude
their females; among the wealthier and prouder, a man would be ashamed
to expose a woman, with whom he had once associated, to be seen by
others, unless in the case, of course, of a common woman. Divorce never
takes place on account of adultery, which is punished with death. Bad
temper and extravagance on the woman’s side, and neglect or cruel usage
on the husband’s, may be urged by either as reasons for separation. If
the husband sues for a divorce, he pays back the dowry he received
with his bride; if the wife commences the proceeding, she loses
her claim. In this, as in all other respects, the male sex has the
advantage. A man who desires to be relieved of a disagreeable partner,
sometimes uses her so cruelly that she is compelled to open the suit,
by which means he gets rid of her, but keeps her money.
The Persian may have as many female slaves as he desires or is able to
maintain. They earn no advantage of position by becoming his concubines
instead of the sweepers of his house. They are still in slavery, and
may at any time be sold again if they displease their masters. A woman
so cast off is in a bad position, for she must then sink into worse
degradation than before. Mohammedan jealousy, however, serves, in some
respects, as a kind of protection for the woman; for a man, having once
cohabited with her, will seldom allow her to fall into the hands of any
other.
One very extraordinary custom prevails in Persia, and seems now
peculiar to that country, though it is said to have existed in
Arabia at the time of the prophet’s appearance there. Mohammed
tolerated it; but his successor, Omar, abolished it, as a species of
legal prostitution injurious to the morals of the people. All the
Turks and others, therefore, who hold his precepts in veneration,
abhor and condemn the practice, but it still obtains. It is that of
hiring a companion. A man and a woman agree to cohabit for a certain
period--some for a few days, others for 99 years. In the one case it is
simply an act of prostitution; in the other it is morally equivalent to
marriage, though the woman acquires no right to property of any kind,
except the price of her hire. This sum is agreed upon at the first
compact; and though the man may discard his companion when he pleases,
he must pay her the whole amount promised. If both are willing, the
arrangement may be renewed at the expiration of the term, which is
generally short. This kind of intercourse usually takes place among
persons of very unequal stations. The women are generally of a low
class, and are, for the most part, a peculiar sort of prostitutes, if
prostitution mean the hiring out of a woman’s person for money. The
children springing from such a union are supported by the father. In
one circumstance the custom differs from the ordinary prostitution of
other countries. When a man has parted from a woman of this class, she
is forbidden to form any new connection until a sufficient time has
elapsed to prove whether or not she is pregnant from the last. This
precaution is to hinder the chance of a man’s being burdened with the
support of a child of which he is not actually the father.
The characteristics of women in Persia agree with this picture of their
treatment. They are degraded down to the level of their condition.
Leaving a few exceptions out of sight, we find the rich and idle vain,
sensual, and absorbed by animal desires; the poorer classes, licentious
and intriguing.
The peculiar customs of the country cause strange occurrences to take
place. A man is sometimes deceived into marrying the wrong woman,
under cover of the inviolable drapery which veils her face. He is
usually content to stow her away in his harem, and solace himself
with a concubine, or the company of prostitutes; for though he may
hold that his own wife and daughter would be polluted by the eye of a
strange man, and though he may be able to fill his harem with beautiful
slaves, the Persian voluptuary is not content. He must associate with
the more brilliant and lively beauties, who are ready to receive him
in various retired houses of the city. These houses are generally in
obscure places, dull and uninviting on the outside, but fitted up in
the interior with much elegance and luxury.
Formerly there was a numerous class of public dancing girls in Persia,
and the beauty of their persons, and the melody of their voices, were
celebrated by the most famous poets of the country. They were wealthy
and popular, continuing to figure prominently at the entertainments
of the people until the family of Futteh Ali Khan rose to the throne;
they were then discouraged by a monarch who crowded his harem with a
thousand women, and, in the midst of this multitude of concubines,
issued edicts for the suppression of immorality. The dancing girls
were prohibited from approaching the court, and compelled to seek a
livelihood in the distant provinces of the empire. It is not to be
denied that considerable reform has taken place in the manners of the
people; but profligacy is still a marked characteristic of the cities
in Persia.
Under the Sefi dynasty morals reached the last stage of depravity.
The royal treasury was filled with the proceeds of immorality. Public
brothels were licensed and became extremely numerous. A large revenue
was drawn from them. In Ispahan alone no less than 30,000 prostitutes
paid an annual sum to government. The governors of provinces and
cities also granted the same privileges for sums of money, and there
was scarcely a town of any size in Persia which had not at least one
large brothel, crowded with inmates. The prostitutes were all licensed,
and known by the appellation of _cahbeha_, or _the worthless_. An old
traveller, whose authority is accepted by the best writers, describes
the system then prevailing; it displays the corruption of manners
in the open and systematic character of profligacy. As soon as the
merchants’ shops were closed in the cities the brothels were opened;
the prostitutes then issued into the streets, dispersed themselves, and
repaired to particular localities. There they sat down in rows, closely
veiled; behind each company stood an old woman holding an extinguished
candle in her hand. When any man approached with a sign that he desired
to make a bargain, this harridan lit her taper, and led him down the
line of women, removing the veil of each in her turn until he made his
choice. The girl was then dispatched with him, under the guidance of
a slave, to the house, which usually stood close by the way-side. All
payments were made to the old woman or “_mother_” of the company.
Under the reigning family this open system has been checked,
and prostitution, not being licensed, is a more secret system.
Nevertheless, there abound in the cities of Persia numerous brothels,
to which the men proceed after dark, and where they are entertained as
they desire; numbers of women are always ready to hire themselves out
to any who desire to associate with them.
The females of the wandering tribes are far more virtuous than those of
the cities; they are also more happy and free, for if they share the
labours of the men, they share also their pleasures and hopes; far from
being secluded, they are allowed to converse even with strangers, and
grace the hospitality of the tents with modest but polite attention.
The men seldom have more than one wife, and abhor the practice of
hiring women, though their priests have made attempts to introduce
it among them. Still, even the women of these tribes are below their
proper condition, and the men as they become wealthier become more
corrupt; when, also, they sojourn for a while in the cities, they
speedily contribute to the general profligacy, and often exceed the
regular inhabitants in vice. Among those, however, in the nomade state,
rape and adultery are rare, and when committed the woman suffers a
cruel death at the hands of her nearest kindred. In the cities females
are seldom publicly executed, but are put to death in private, or given
as slaves to men of infamous occupation[70].
OF PROSTITUTION AMONG THE AFGHANS.
Women in Afghanistan are sold to the men. A marriage is a commercial
transaction. The practice is recognised by the Moslem law, and is here,
as in most parts of Asia, universally adopted. The price varies, of
course, according to the condition of the bridegroom or his friends.
Females, consequently, are in some measure regarded as property. They
are in absolute subjection to the other sex. A husband may at any time,
from mere caprice, and without assigning any reason, divorce his wife;
but a woman cannot, unless she have good grounds, and sue for the
separation before a magistrate. Even this is seldom done. When a widow
marries, the friends of her first husband may claim the price that
was originally paid for her; but usually the brother of the deceased
inherits this property, and any one else usurping his privilege becomes
a mortal enemy. However, the widow is not forced to take a new partner
against her will. Indeed, if she have children with claims upon her
care, it is considered more respectable to lead a single life.
In the lower regions of India, on the warm plains, we find marriage
contracts fulfilled at a very early age. In the colder climate of Kabul
they are left to a later period in life--men being wedded at twenty,
women at about fifteen years of age. The time varies, however, with
different classes. Among the poor, with whom the price of a wife is not
easily to be amassed, the men often remain unmarried until forty, and
the women till twenty-five. On the other hand, the rich frequently take
brides of twelve to bridegrooms of fifteen, or even earlier, before
either of them has attained puberty. Those living in towns and in
Western Afghanistan marry earlier than those dwelling in the pastoral
districts and in the eastern parts. These often wait until twenty-five,
until the chin is thoroughly covered with beard, and the man is in all
respects mature. The Ghiljies are still more prudent in this respect.
In most parts of the country, nevertheless, the date of marriage is
determined by the individual’s ability to purchase a wife, provide
a home, and support a family. Usually men form alliances within the
blood of their own tribe; but many Afghans take also Tavjik and Persian
women. It is not considered disreputable to take a wife from those
nations; but it is held below the dignity of the Durani race to bestow
a wife on a stranger, and this, consequently, is seldom or never done.
The intercourse of the sexes is regulated by various circumstances,
many of them accidental. In the crowded towns, where the men have
little opportunity of converse with the women, matches are generally
made with views of family policy, and contracted through the agency of
a go-between. When a man has fixed on any particular girl to be his
wife, he sends some female relation or neighbour to see her and report
to him upon her qualifications. If the account be satisfactory, the
same agent ascertains from the girl’s mother whether her family are
favourable to the match; should all this prove well, arrangements are
made for a public proposal. On an appointed day the suitor’s father
goes with a party of male relations to the young woman’s father, while
a similar deputation of females waits on her mother, and the offer is
made in customary form. Various presents are also sent, the dowry is
settled, a feast is prepared, and the betrothal takes place. Some time
after, when both man and woman have mutually, by free consent, signed
the articles of agreement--which stipulate for a provision for the wife
in case of divorce--the union is completed at a festival, and the bride
is delivered, on payment of her price, at the dwelling of her future
master.
In the country, formalities very similar take place; but, as women
there go unveiled, and the intercourse of the sexes is less restricted,
the marriage generally originates in a personal attachment between the
wedded pair, and the negotiations are only matters of etiquette. An
enterprising lover may also obtain his mistress, without gaining the
consent of her parents, by tearing away her veil, cutting off a lock
of her hair, or throwing a large white cloth over her, and declaring
her to be his lawful and affianced wife. After this no other suitor
would propose for her, and she is usually bestowed on the bold lover,
though he cannot escape paying some price for his wife. Such expedients
are, therefore, seldom resorted to. When a man desires a girl for whom
he cannot pay, and who reciprocates his affection, the common plan is
to elope. This is, indeed, considered by her family as an outrage
equivalent to the murder of one of its members, and pursued with
equally rancorous revenge, but the possession of the wife is at least
secured. The fugitive couple take refuge in the territories of some
other tribe, and find the hospitable protection which is accorded by
the Afghans to every guest, and still more to every suppliant.
Among the Eusufzies different customs prevail. A man never sees his
bride until the marriage rites are completed. The Beduranis, also,
maintain great reserve between the youth and the girl betrothed one to
another. Sometimes a man goes to the house of his future father-in-law,
and labours, as Jacob laboured for Rachael, without being allowed to
see his destined wife until the day for the ceremony has arrived. With
many of the Afghan tribes a similar rule is nominally laid down, but a
secret intercourse is countenanced between the bridegroom and future
bride. It is called Naumzud bauzee, or the sport of the betrothed. The
young man steals by night to the house of his affianced, pretending
to conceal his presence altogether from the knowledge of the men, who
would affect to consider it a great scandal. He is favoured by the
girl’s mother, who privately conducts him to an interior apartment,
where he is left alone with his beloved until the approach of morning.
He is allowed the freest intercourse with her, he may converse with
her as he pleases, he may kiss her, and indulge in all other innocent
freedoms; but the young people are under the strongest cautions and
prohibitions to refrain from anticipating the nuptial night. “Nature,
however,” says Mountstuart Elphinstone, “is too strong for such
injunctions, and the marriage begins with all the difficulty and
interest of an illicit amour.” Cases have not unfrequently occurred
in which the bride has been delivered of two or three children before
being formally received into her husband’s house. This, however, is
regarded as extremely scandalous, and seldom happens among the more
respectable Afghans. However, the custom of Naumzud bauzee prevails
with men of the highest rank, and the king himself sometimes enjoys its
midnight pleasures.
Though polygamy is allowed by the Mohammedan laws, it is too expensive
to be practised by the bulk of the people. The legal number of wives
is four; but many of the rich exceed this, and maintain a crowd of
concubines besides. Two wives and two female slaves form a liberal
establishment for a man of the middle class; while the poor are
obliged to be content with one companion.
The social condition of the female sex in Afghanistan is low, as it
must be in all countries where women are bought and sold. The wives of
the rich, indeed, secluded in the recesses of the harem, are allowed
to enjoy all the comforts and luxuries within reach of their husband’s
wealth. This, however, is more to please the man, than indulge the
women, though many husbands really love their wives, and are influenced
to a considerable degree by their desires. In general, however, it is
to enjoy the pride of having a beautiful wife in his zenana, with all
the appliances of opulence to render her gracious and dainty.