hat I offered her husband, who was out
of work, a subordinate place in our dispensary. Yet less than a month
later I heard that he had divorced his wife and turned her out of doors.

The following case will, I think, illustrate the usual attitude of the
Arabs in the Yemen towards womankind:

A man whose wife had been in labor two days came asking for medicine to
make her well. My reply was that it was necessary to see the woman
before I could give such a drug as he wished. "Well," said he, "she will
die before I allow you or any other man to see her," and two days after
I heard of her death.

I have often remonstrated with the men for keeping their wives so
closely confined and for not delighting in their company, and making
them companions and friends. But almost invariably I have been answered
thus, "The Prophet (upon whom be blessing and peace) said, 'Do not
trouble them with what they cannot bear, for they are prisoners in your
hands whom you took in trust from God.'" And therefore as prisoners they
are to be kept and treated as being of inferior intellect.

I have known cases where a man gave his daughter in marriage on
condition that the bridegroom would never marry another wife; but the
man broke his word and married a second wife, whereupon he was summoned
before the kadi, who ruled that, "When a man marries a woman on
condition that he would not marry another at the same time with her, the
contract is valid and the condition void because it makes unlawful what
is lawful, and God knoweth all."

The consequence of such laws is that the women become prone to criminal
intrigues, and I have known dozens of cases where mothers have helped
their daughters and even acted as procuresses for them to avenge some
slight upon them or injury done to them. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Heaven to them is little better than a place of
prostitution. Why, then, should they desire it? Here they know the
bitterness of being one of two or three wives, why then should they wish
to be "one of seventy"?

XII

PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES IN PALESTINE

Sir William Muir, who lived for forty years in India, says: "The sword
of Islam and the Koran are the most obstinate foes to civilization,
liberty, and truth the world has yet known." After a residence of nearly
twenty years in Palestine and much intercourse among all classes, both
in city and village life, the writer of this chapter can confirm the
statement.

Is