a marriage for her fourteen-year-old son. Her
excuse was, "I do it to keep him from learning the bad habit of visiting
prostitutes." The sensual nature has been trained in the Egyptian to an
indescribable degree of disgusting perfection. As some one has said,
"Mohammedans have added a refinement of sensuousness to pagan
sensuality." As a result of this training men and women have sunk to
depths of degradation unconsciously manifested in their customs, in
their speech, and in their life.

For twelve centuries the blight of Islam has fallen over the fortunes of
Egypt. Politics, commerce, learning, all have felt its withering blast,
but that which has most keenly felt the blast and blight of Islam is
society. There is no word in the Arabic language for home, the nearest
approach to it being "beit," which means "house" or "a place in which to
spend the night." To quote from an interesting writer on this
thought--"The word is lacking because the idea is lacking." "Home, sweet
Home" with all its wealth of meaning is a conception foreign to the
average Oriental. An educated young Moslem with advanced ideas in many
respects was asked if the members of his family took their meals
together. He said they did not, each one when he became hungry told the
servant to bring food. "Would it not be better to eat together?" "Yes,
it would be much cheaper," he replied, showing that the first ray of the
beauty of the home circle had not penetrated his active mind. How can it
be otherwise when woman, the heart and life of the family circle, was in
his mind because of inherited ideas relegated to the position of
prisoner and slave rather than to that of companion and helpmeet? "It
was Islam that forever withdrew from Oriental society the bright,
refining, elevating influence of woman by burying her alive behind the
veil and lattice of the Harem."

Arabic poetry and literature is generally very uncomplimentary to woman,
characterizing her as a donkey, or even a snake. The majority of the men
hoot at the gallantry and courtesy which Anglo-Saxon etiquette demands
of men towards women. Says an Egyptian, "Our women must be beaten in
order to be made to walk straight." And beaten they are for trifling
offence by father, husband, brother, or son as occasion demands. This
custom is so common that the women themselves expect a whipping
occasionally.

It has been said that the theology of Islam does not give woman a place
in heaven, but that stateme