would have enjoined the
worship of husbands. It seems strange to calculate a woman's value
arithmetically, but in Moslem law the testimony of two women is equal to
that of one man, a daughter gets half a son's inheritance, and a wife
only an eighth of her husband's property, if there are children;
otherwise a fourth. A husband does not speak of his wife as such, but
uses some circumlocution as "My house, my child, or the mother of such a
boy." A villager asked the doctor to come and treat his mother. "How old
is she?" "Thirty." "And how old are you?" "Forty." "How can she be your
mother?" A bystander, filled with contempt for such obtuseness,
whispered, "It is his wife, but he doesn't like to say so." In like
manner, the children are not taught to say father and mother, but the
master, the older brother, the mistress, the lady sister, the older
sister.

A comic paper published by Mohammedans in Russia, and in their own
language, has recently had some amusing pictures bearing on the position
of women. In the first, two women and several men are coming before the
Mullahs for marriage or divorce; large heads of sugar carried into the
presence hint at bribery as a factor in the case. The women, who stand
mute and submissive, with their mouths tied up, as is literally the case
with many of them, have evidently nothing to say in the matter. The
second scene shows a man and three boys sitting around a large bowl of
rice, which is rapidly disappearing before their vigorous onset. The cat
is crunching a bone, but the wife and mother sits at one side while even
the baby in her arms is given a portion; but she waits till all are
satisfied, and she may come in for the leavings. Again, the lord and
master of the house, stretched upon a divan, smokes his pipe, a crying
child beside him on the floor. His wife enters, staggering under a heavy
stone water jar on her shoulder, another in her hand, and a child tied
on her back. He exclaims, "Oh, woman, may God curse you! this child
gives me the headache! come, take it also on your back."

A full two-page colored cartoon depicts the carriage of a most exalted
personage, with the veiled wife in it rolling through the street, while
all men and boys are turning their backs, and some even shutting their
eyes in obedience to officers armed with long whips. A dog also has
duteously and humbly turned his back to the forbidden sight, and is
crouched down with the most virtuous air you could imag