and loud talking habitual to Europeans, and think
them signs of a lack of breeding and of the low level of European
culture. Some tribes allow no singing, which they consider a sign
of drunkenness.[1572] An Ossetin (Caucasus) will never take his
child on his arm or caress it in the presence of another,
especially of an older person, or his own father or mother. If he
did do so, no one would shake hands with him, and any one might
with impunity spit in his face. Propriety forbids the Tushins (of
the same region) to manifest tenderness, even when old, towards
husband or wife, parent or child, in the presence of others;
especially is it improper to show tenderness towards sons.[1573]
An Ossetin man may see his betrothed only in secret and
incidentally, or in the house of one of his own relatives. It is
a gross insult to ask him about her health, or when the wedding
will be. A married woman may not address her husband or male
relatives by their names. If she does so, the other women will
ridicule her. Other people in the same region have similar
excessive rules. An Armenian woman, after marriage, is veiled.
She must not talk with any one but her husband, sisters, or
little children. She answers her parents-in-law by signs. Her
husband ought not to call her by her name before others. A
Cherkess wife may talk with her husband only at night. His
presence in her room by day is thought improper, and it is
improper for man and wife to be seen together outside the house,
or to be seen talking together. A newly married woman, among the
Grusians, must not speak to her husband's father, mother, or
brothers until she has borne a child. A childless wife is not
treated with respect by her husband, or his family, or even by
outsiders.[1574] Darinsky explains that the community used to buy
the wives, who were costly, and not equal in number to the men.
Now, if a man gets a wife and children of his own, he commits a
crime against the old order. He must be well off, and he leaves
his poorer brethren in the lurch. They envy and annoy him. To
escape this he conceals or ignores his relation to his wife and
children.

+482. Moslem rules of propriety.+ To a great extent the legislation of
Mohammed consisted in accomplishing reforms and innovations for which
the Arabs were almost ready. When he tried to introduce ideas of his
own, changing the