aggerated by the absence of all
English or French influence. In Morocco we have the rugged path Mohammed
allotted their sex painfully adhered to, and any European influence of
other lands conspicuous by its absence. The lack of education, inability
to read, undeveloped powers of thought handed through the generations of
thirteen centuries, are at least not lessened by time or weakened by
heredity.

The families in which daughters are allowed to read are few and far
between: just an occasional one among high-class government officials,
or a favorite daughter here and there who is destined to support herself
and relatives by teaching the few privileged to learn among the rising
generation. The little girl is seldom welcomed at birth. It is a
calamity she was not a boy. A few years of half-freedom for the
town-child and hasty neglect for the village maiden. Many a better-class
woman enters her home as a bride, in the carriage which so carefully
conceals her, and sees but four whitewashed walls for the remainder of
her days, nor leaves their monotony until carried out in her coffin.
What uplifting or educating influences does the bare windowless abode
(opening only to the central court of the home) exercise? We hear
betimes of the wish to remove the veil and allow more liberty to woman.
In Morocco she is hardly ready for the change, but needs educating and
preparing, ere, with propriety and true modesty, she can take her
rightful place.

Divorce is fearfully common and easy. Plurality of wives is an awful
curse. The chief features of home-life are quarrels, intrigues,
attempted poisonings, and rankling bitternesses.

Slavery is more common than in other countries so near the borders of
civilization, and the possession of these human chattels denotes the
measure of worldly prosperity. Occasionally they find a kindly master,
but, more often, are inhumanly treated and regarded as so much property.
We are frequently urged to treat the slave for illness and so increase
her market value, while the wife, or wives, may suffer unnoticed and
unassisted.

The Moorish woman has little part in religious life. She has no merits
or opportunity of attaining such, unless she be a well-known lineal
descendant of their prophet. Very few learn the prescribed form of
Moslem prayers and fewer still use them. Once and again we find one
going through the positions of prayer and accompanying set phrases.
These women are usually the most diffic