mores, he failed. He tried many times to put a stop to
the usages of mourning which were violent and excessive,--loud outcries,
destruction of clothes and furniture, blackening the walls of the house
and one's face, and shearing the beard. He did not succeed. These were
ancient and popular customs and they were maintained.[1575] It is
improper for any Moslem, male or female, to uncover the head.[1576] They
uncover the feet to show respect. This was Semitic and is
Oriental.[1577] Robertson Smith[1578] thinks that the reason was that
the shoes could not be washed, unless they were mere linen socks, such
as were used in the Phoenician sacred dress. By Moslem rules strangers
should never see or hear a man's wives. Physicians may see only the
affected parts of a woman. A traveler returning home may not enter his
own house at night. Two persons of the same sex must never bare the body
between the waist and the knee in presence of each other. The
Koran[1579] contains elaborate rules for women as to the concealment of
parts of the body, and as to movements of the body and gestures as
limited by propriety. Neatness, care, and order are religious duties;
also devices to preserve and enhance beauty.[1580] To an Arab, a blow on
the back of the neck is more insulting than one on the face.[1581] It is
not proper for a man to look any Moslem woman in the face. When Vambery,
talking to a lady, raised his eyes to her face she sternly told him to
behave with propriety.[1582]

+483. Hatless women.+ In contrast with the Moslem rule not to uncover
the head is the Christian rule that men should uncover the head in
church but that women should cover it. In 1905 Cranstock church in
Newquay, Cornwall, England, was closed on account of the "irreverence of
numbers of women, who, walking uncovered, presume to enter God's house
with no sign of reverence or modesty upon their heads." A rule was
adopted at Canterbury, in the same year, that no hatless women should be
allowed in the cathedral. A reason or authority for this rule is said to
be found in 1 Cor. xi. 4-7. An American church paper said that such a
rule would half empty some American churches in the warmer
latitudes.[1583] A rector at Asbury Park, August 17, 1905, rebuked women
for coming to church without hats, and said that the bishop of the
diocese had asked the clergy to enforce the rule that "women should not
enter the consecrated building with uncovered heads." Russian Jewish
women at