re the counterparts of these--the wives, sisters,
and daughters of these grim warriors and sturdy huntsmen, or of these
dreaming idlers? In existence they certainly are; but they exist only to
drudge and suffer. While their masters are employing or non-employing
themselves, according to the bent of their inclination, they are
cultivating the fields or watering and herding the flocks, bearing heavy
burdens, carrying the luggage of their husbands to facilitate progress
on the war-path; or at home rearing up children, who rarely rise up to
call them blessed; or they are waiting, in submissive obedience, at the
feet of their reclining lords, to be petted and caressed or cursed and
kicked, as passion or caprice may dictate--subjected alike to neglect,
contempt, and abuse. Exceptions to this general rule doubtless occurred
occasionally; for irresponsible power does not of necessity convert
every man into an unfeeling tyrant, just as under other systems of
slavery, some were fortunate enough to fall into the hands of kind,
considerate owners, whose hearts they inspired with love and
tenderness; but neither bound wife nor bond slave was treated with
kindness, respect, or common justice, because their inherent right to be
so treated was recognized. It mattered little to the women of this
period whether they were held as wives or concubines; their actual
condition was that of slavery.

In none of the countries of antiquity had women more liberty than in
Egypt; and yet what was her real condition there? Alexander remarked, it
is true, that though "the women promised obedience, men often yielded
it;" and, in many instances, it is equally true that the laws respecting
women were immeasurably in advance of those of neighboring nations; as,
for instance: Each wife had entire control of her own house. Among the
princes nearest the throne, women might take their places, and even
reign as sovereigns (a regency was frequently committed to their care);
or they might rule as joint sovereigns with another party; and as Isis
took rank above Osiris, so in such a case the woman might take rank
above the man.[A]

But notwithstanding this advance beyond other nations, they were still
spoken of, and in many instances not only treated as inferiors, but held
in hopeless bondage.

Among the Greeks, the wife was at times permitted to take part in public
assemblies, but never as the equal of her husband. She neither went with
him to dinner, when he