ung girl who, we know, was convinced of the
truth of the Gospel: "Oh, Bibi, if I confess Christ openly I shall be
turned out of my home, I shall have neither food nor clothing, and [with
a shudder] perhaps they will kill me." We knew this was only too true.

She was a beautiful girl with sweet, gentle manners, living in those
days with her sister in a dark, ill-ventilated room which opened on to a
small courtyard where all the rubbish of the house seemed to be thrown,
and where goats, hens, and miserable-looking cats seemed thoroughly at
home amongst the refuse.

Yet, in spite of these surroundings and in spite of her knowledge of all
manner of evil (alas! how early these children learn things which we
would think impossible to teach a little child), in spite of all this
she was pure and good. Now she seems to have no desire at all to hear or
read the Gospel. When we do see her, her manner is always flippant and
worldly. We don't want to give her up, we keep on praying for her, but
there have been so many hardening influences since those early days, and
she never took the definite step of openly confessing Christ. She was
soon married to a man much older than herself who already had a wife;
probably more than one. We suppose he was a higher bidder!

She had one little baby that soon pined away and died. How can women,
brought up as she was, have healthy children? Amongst all the Mohammedan
women I have visited here I have never known one to have more than two
children. The majority have no living child.

I believe the husband was kind to her, but he did not live long, and
very soon she was married again. If she bears no children he will
probably tire of her and leave her. I have been told by one of the women
that if a wife does not cook his food properly he may get a divorce. One
old woman I saw to-day told me that her daughter is now married to her
third husband; the other two left her for some trivial reason. When I
asked, "What will become of her when she is old and perhaps cast off
again?"

"Ah, Bibi!" she said, "what _has_ become of me? I am weak and ill and
old, and yet I have to cook and work for others." This is just what does
happen unless they have a house and property of their own. They become
household drudges to those relations who take them in, and there is
rejoicing at their death.

The rule here is for each man to have four wives, if he can afford it.
The number of concubines is, I believe, unlimit