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THE 
 
 HISTORY OF WOMAN, 
 
 AND HEE CONKBXION 
 
 WITH 
 
 RELIGION, CIVILIZATION, AND DOMESTIC MANNERS, 
 FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD. 
 
 BY S. W. FULLOM, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE MABVELS OF SCIENCE," " THE GREAT HIGHWAY," 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 iBinuit iBtiim, Efuiseh. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 Vol. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 
 1855. 
 
/\. Gafjs-J 
 
 LOKDOK : PEIKTED BY W. CLOWES AND SOKS, STAMFOBD STEEET. 
 
 r 
 
HER MAJESTY, 
 
 THE QUEEN OF HANOVER, 
 
 THIS WORK IS, 
 WITH HEE MAJESTY'S MOST GRACIOUS PERMISSION. 
 
 RESPECTFtfLLY DEDICATED, 
 
 BY HER majesty's MOST HUMBLE, MOST DEVOTED, AND 
 MOST GBATEFUL SERVANT, 
 
 STEPHEN WATSON FULLOM. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Within a few weeks, this work has reached 
 a second edition ; and thus I have been 
 afforded an opportunity of going carefally 
 over the sheets, and making such corrections 
 as, on reconsideration, have seemed desirable. 
 These, however, have been purely verbal; 
 and, in all essential respects, the book re- 
 mains wholly the same. 
 
 The plan of the work has received the 
 warm approval of the press, which has again 
 awarded me a distinguished reception ; and 
 I cannot but express, in this place, how 
 much I am gratified by its verdict. 
 
 S. W. F. 
 
 20 Ohaicot Terrace, Primrose Hill, 
 March 17, 1855. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 At a moment when the social position of 
 woman is daily becoming a question of 
 greater and more general interest, it seems 
 not inopportune to look back at her past 
 history, and ascertain what has been the 
 effect of the female character on human 
 progress at particular periods, and under 
 different degrees of civilization. This is the 
 principal object of the following pages ; but 
 I have, at the same time, connected with 
 the narrative a glance at the prevailing laws, 
 religions, and systems of government of the 
 various leading races, with the design of 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 affording a rapid view of the history of 
 society from the earliest epoch. 
 
 In a book aiming at popular circulation, 
 notes would be an incumbrance, serving to 
 harass and perjjlex, without instructing the 
 reader. I have, therefore, when it has ap- 
 peared necessary, mentioned the authorities 
 for my statements in the text, but, should 
 it be thought desirable, they can be given 
 more fully in foot notes in a fature edition. 
 
 S. W. F. 
 
 20 Chakot Terrace, Primrose HiU, 
 January 1855. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE ANTEDIIitTTIAB' AftES . 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PATEIABCHAL PBEIOD . 
 
 III. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT . 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE HEBEEWS . 
 
 PAGE 
 . 1 
 
 19 
 
 40 
 
 77 
 
 V. 
 
 ASSTEIA — NIKETEH AND BABYLON , . . 109 
 
 VI. 
 
 PEESIA AND CENTEAL ASIA .... 154 
 
 b 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 VII 
 
 . 206 
 
 INDIA 
 
 VIII. 
 
 239 
 
 THE MONttOLIAN TAillLT . • • ' 
 
 IX. 
 
 274 
 
 GEBECE . . ■ • 
 
 HOME 
 
 X. 
 
 . 316 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF WOMAN. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE ANTEDILUVIAN AGES. 
 
 Of the earliest period of human history, 
 the only knowledge we possess is comprised 
 in five chapters of the Book of Genesis ; 
 and, with this brief narrative before us, it 
 is difficult to realise the fact that the time 
 thus embraced is two thousand years, or 
 more than a third of the whole interval 
 since the creation of man. If we consider 
 what events have happened in the world 
 during the eighteen centuries which have 
 elapsed since the coming of our Saviour — 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
I THE ANTEDXLUVIAX WORLD. 
 
 how empires have risen and fallen, religions 
 disappeared, and entire races been swept 
 away — we shall Ijetter understand how 
 very faintly this slight record represents 
 the annals of the antediluvian nations. 
 Colossal monarchies must have grown up, 
 wars and conflicts have raged, great cha- 
 racters have flourished, religious creeds, 
 differing from any of which we have cog- 
 nizance, enslaved the hearts of supersti- 
 tious millions ; yet of all not a memorial 
 remains, to indicate that they have ever 
 existed. What progress had been made in 
 civilization — whether mankind yet possessed 
 any literature, and how far they were 
 acquainted with the arts and sciences, must 
 for ever remain a mystery, baffling even 
 conjecture; but it cannot be doubted that 
 the great longevity of the antediluvian 
 patriarchs, extending their lives over many 
 centuries, was eminently favourable to the 
 diffusion of knowledge. Astronomy espe- 
 cially must soon have attracted the atten- 
 tion of wandering tribes, as they made their 
 way into the unexplored wilderness, with no 
 
CONDITION OF AVOMAlSr. 3 
 
 guides but the stars of heaven ; and the 
 twelve constellations, which still serve as 
 landmarks on the map of the firmament, 
 were, if tradition may be relied on, first 
 traced out by antediluvian sages. We are 
 told in Genesis of the invention of music, 
 for which we are indebted to Jubal, son of 
 Lamech, and of the skill of Tubal as an 
 artificer in brass ; while Josephus mentions 
 that the children of Seth, learning from Adam 
 that the world was to be destroyed by a 
 flood, erected two pillars, one of stone, and 
 the other of brick, as a memorial of their 
 achievements, and which, by their structure 
 and form, would seem to augur no slight 
 acquaintance with architecture. 
 
 If so much uncertainty attaches to the 
 condition of man during this long round of 
 ages, that of woman is involved in far 
 greater obscurity. Of her, little mention is 
 made beyond two or three passing allusions, 
 which, however, intimate, if vaguely, that 
 she sometimes played no mean part in the 
 transactions of the time. On more than one 
 occasion indeed she became the agent of 
 
 B 2 
 
4 CREATION OF WOMAN. 
 
 incidents, which still influence the destinies 
 of the world. 
 
 It would be worse than idle to inquire 
 whether the account given by Moses of the 
 creation of woman is to be received in a 
 literal sense, or merely as a parable, typi- 
 fying, by imagery as striking as it is apt, 
 the character of her relations with man. 
 Josephus, it is true, observes that the sacred 
 historian now began "to talk philosophi- 
 cally," whence some may infer that the 
 ancient sages of Israel inclined to the latter 
 opinion ; but this, while it is immaterial as 
 a matter of fact, will always be open to 
 dispute. One thing is clear — that the 
 creation of woman was posterior to that of 
 man, although, in truth, it was designed 
 and predetermined at the same time ; for 
 we are expressly told that "Grod created 
 man in his own image : in the image of G-od 
 created he him — male and female created 
 he THEM." And though Eve was placed in 
 the world at a later period, it is hence 
 apparent, and obviously intended to be 
 understood, that her nature and mission 
 
EVE. 5 
 
 were already defined by the Almighty, who 
 waited only the proper moment to associate 
 her indissolubly with man. 
 
 That time had arrived when Adam, with 
 every enjoyment at his command, found 
 even the blest shades of Eden were weari- 
 some, without the sympathy of a companion. 
 He had passed in review every living 
 creature, and, in all this variety of beings, 
 saw none qualified to cheer his solitude or 
 engage his affections. Then it was that, 
 pitying his loneliness — perhaps, yielding to 
 his prayers, the Almighty presented him 
 his predestined associate, in whom he beheld 
 a striking and beautiful reflection of himself, 
 softened by the delicate lines of female 
 loveliness. 
 
 The emotions of Eve in her first sense of 
 existence could only be conceived by the 
 sublime muse of Milton : — 
 
 " That day I oft remember, when from sleep 
 I first awaked, and found myself reposed 
 Under a shade on flowers, much wondering where 
 And what I was, whence thither brought, and how !" 
 
 The abode of the chosen pair was designed 
 
b GARDEN OF EDEJf. 
 
 expressly with a view to their peculiar con- 
 dition and requirements. Planted by the 
 hand of God, the garden of Eden contained, 
 we are told, " every tree that was pleasant 
 to the sight and good for food." Groves 
 and sylvan glades, affording a grateful refuge 
 from the heats of noon, margined a gentle 
 and limpid stream, which flowed through the 
 midst of this Paradise, here laving slopes of 
 velvet turf, there almost meeting the flowers 
 that drooped over its waters. Gold sparkled 
 in its depths, and its banks were strewn 
 with precious gems, described by Moses as 
 the bdellium and the onyx. Birds of 
 every plumage, yet undaunted by the pre- 
 sence of man, flitted from tree to tree, while 
 others made the woods resound with their 
 melody; and so mild and genial was the 
 climate, that our first parents walked at 
 will through every part of the garden, robed 
 only in their own innocence. Plato, in his 
 Symposiacs, which embody the heathen 
 tradition of Eden, on this point confirms the 
 testimony of Moses, stating that the happy 
 parents of man went uncovered, and exposed 
 
SITE OF EDEN. 7 
 
 to the seasons, which, indeed, bringing 
 neither cold nor storms, they had no reason 
 to fear. 
 
 There has been much useless speculation 
 as to the site of Eden, which some place in 
 the mxJon, and others in the mid-air, like Mo- 
 hammed's coffin ; but which, in fact, was spe- 
 cifically marked out by Moses, according to 
 boundaries then perfectly understood, and 
 no doubt handed down from the elder world. 
 All trace of its existence was, of course, 
 completely effaced by the Deluge, and even 
 the four rivers of Moses now baffle identity, 
 but Sir William Jones, the eminent Eastern 
 scholar and antiquary, locates the terrestrial 
 paradise in Persia ; and the hypothesis 
 derives a sanction from the phrase "east- 
 ward of Assyria," which appears to have 
 hitherto escaped observation. The Garden 
 of Adonis and the Elysian Fields of the hea- 
 thens preserved an imperfect tradition of 
 its beauty and its pleasures. 
 
 The happy retreat was too soon invaded 
 by the power of evil, which taking a visible 
 form, inaugurated the history of mankind 
 
THE TEMPTATION. 
 
 with a triumph over woman's weakness. 
 Here again we are met by a narrative, which 
 different critics receive both in a figurative 
 and literal sense, but which, viewed in either 
 way, is a sad memorial of our frailty and 
 infirmity. Eve fell — as woman usually falls 
 — a victim to treachery, falsehood, and 
 fraud. Yet even then, there appears to be 
 no warrant for casting on her the whole 
 burden of the fatal transgression ; and it 
 may reasonably be questioned whether our 
 sterner sex, which has so long exonerated 
 itself from blame, is really entitled to such a 
 verdict. Though, the Tempter addressed 
 himself to Eve, Adam seems to have been 
 present, and to have lent by his silence a 
 tacit sanction to the discussion. The words 
 are — " she took of the fi"uit, and did eat, and 
 gave also unto her husband with her." 
 What more likely indeed than that they 
 should be together! — reclining under the 
 shadow of that tree so " pleasant to the sight," 
 in the midst of the garden, and, perhaps, on 
 the bank of the peaceful stream by which it 
 was watered. And where could Adam be, if 
 
EXPULSION FROM PARADISE. 9 
 
 not with his sole companion, with whom he 
 shared, not only every pursuit, but every 
 moment of his life? From Eve's hands, 
 however, he received the fatal fruit, and on 
 her he endeavoured to throw the responsi- 
 bility and the punishment. 
 
 It was " in the cool of the day " — in the 
 evening, as gathering shadows spread over 
 the earth, that the awful sentence was pro- 
 nounced; Woman was degraded from her 
 first mission, and made, instead of an equal, 
 a slave, while both she and the man were 
 driven from the home of their innocence, 
 which they had violated by their fall. 
 Amidst the terrors of night they entered a 
 vast and unknown world, to hide their un- 
 sheltered heads in some dismal cave, or 
 gloomy forest. Morning dawned only to 
 expose their wretchedness, and contrast it 
 with the blessings they had lost. 
 
 The first story of human trial was a sad 
 earnest of what was to follow. . Unwilling- 
 ness to linger near the scene of their former 
 happiness, or, perhaps, a fear of the flaming 
 sword at the entrance of the garden, remind- 
 
 B 3 
 
10 CAIN AND ABEL. 
 
 ing them of the terrible denunciation that 
 they should "surely die," may have urged 
 the wretched exiles to wander far in quest 
 of a new home, and they are supposed to 
 have finally settled in India. Here, while 
 Adam tilled the ungrateful ground, obtaining 
 from its produce a precarious and perhaps a 
 scanty subsistence. Eve was overtaken by 
 the pangs of maternity, in her case un- 
 alleviated by the soothing ministrations of 
 later times. The children born in sorrow, 
 were reared in suffering ; and if the mother 
 felt joy in her new ties, could she forget, in 
 her brightest moments, the fate predicted for 
 her offspring? In the fulness of maternal 
 love she had given her first-born the name 
 of Cain, or possession, as if this new treasure 
 consoled her for every bereavement ; but 
 she appears to have been quickly undeceived, 
 and the name of Abel, or taxitt, the desig- 
 nation of her second son, emphatically pro- 
 claims its own moral. Often, indeed, must 
 her mind have been haunted by the most 
 anxious forebodings, painting the future in 
 the darkest colours, yet surely her worst 
 
FAMILY OF EVE. 11 
 
 fears could never have anticipated the event, 
 that one of those sons she had so tenderly- 
 cherished and so carefully reared — that a 
 being so gentle as Abel, whose blameless 
 nature her partial eye surveyed only too 
 fondly, should perish by the hand of the 
 dark and rugged Cain, was a blow by which 
 any parent might have been crushed, but 
 which fell with peculiar force on the mother 
 of mankind. 
 
 From the Scripture account we learn that 
 Eve had afterwards a numerous family, and 
 Josephus mentions that she gave birth to 
 "many other children," while an old tra- 
 dition asserts that she was the mother of 
 thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters. 
 It is rather signiiicant of the degraded con- 
 dition of woman after the fall, that no 
 allusion is made in the Scriptures to the 
 birth of Eve's daughters, and although Cain's 
 wife, who must have been one of his sisters, 
 is referred to more than once, her name is 
 never mentioned. So completely was the 
 sex ignored in the ascendancy of man, that 
 Eve herself, except on the occasion of the 
 
12 THE FIRST CENSUS. 
 
 birth of Seth, is passed over in silence, and 
 we are not even told of her death. 
 
 Abel appears to have left a numerous 
 family, since Cain, in his interview with the 
 Almighty, expresses a fear for his life, as if 
 apprehending the vengeance of his brother's 
 children ; and from the incidental allusions 
 to the erection of cities, we are justified 
 in believing that the world now contained 
 a considerable population. An ingenious 
 French author, writing in the Jownal de 
 Paris, calculates that if Adam and Eve pos- 
 sessed 8 children in their 25th year, in their 
 50th these 8 might have given birth to 64, 
 which in their 74th year would yield 583, 
 in their 98th 4096, and in their 120th their 
 descendants would amount to 32,800. Cain 
 probably murdered Abel just before the 
 birth of Seth, as Eve, in naming the latter, 
 observes — "G-od hath appointed me another 
 seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew," and 
 this was in the 130th year of Adam's life. 
 
 The brief allusion to Adah and Zillah, the 
 wives of Lamech, would appear to afford us 
 but little, if any, information as to the pro- 
 
WIVES OF LAMECH, 13 
 
 gress made by woman in lightening or relax- 
 ing the yoke which had been placed upon 
 her, yet we may gather that the endearing 
 ties of nature were beginning to soften the 
 rigour and the ignominy of her .position. 
 Man had learnt that it was to her he must 
 turn when, in the wild paroxysms of sorrow 
 or remorse, his heart craved for consolation, 
 and Lamech confided to the sympathy of his 
 wives the sad tale of his rashness and his 
 crime. Yet we discover, at the same time, 
 that another element had been introduced 
 into the social fabric, which, while it could 
 not but prove a germ of domestic discord, 
 must have tended materially to lessen, and 
 ultimately to arrest the growing influence of 
 the sex. Within a thousand years from the 
 creation — perhaps while the mother of man- 
 kind was yet living — polygamy, the fruitful 
 source of so many ills, had become an esta- 
 blished practice, and man had already con- 
 verted the most sacred institution of nature 
 into a reproach and an abuse. The effect 
 of this proceeding was soon apparent in the 
 general corruption of morals, which, at 
 
14 FEMALE BEAUTY. 
 
 length, attained a pitch of debasement sur- 
 passing the imagination of modern times. 
 Heathen writers, no less than the inspired 
 historian, bear testimony to this melancholy- 
 truth, and the fabulous pages of Catullus 
 and the Metamorphoses of Ovid might 
 almost have borrowed their assertions from 
 Holy Writ. The violence which over- 
 spread the earth had made woman at once 
 its provocation and its victim. But a 
 beauty almost seraphic, while it excited and 
 invited attack, invested her weakness with 
 irresistible charms, and there is reason to 
 believe that she numbered even angels 
 among her suitors. Our degenerate concep- 
 tions fail to realise the matchless graces of 
 person and feature which could effect such a 
 prodigious result. We may, indeed, con- 
 clude, without extravagance, that the human 
 form divine then possessed a nobler organi- 
 zation, proportioned in vigour to its more 
 extended term of existence ; and the beauty 
 which retained its freshness through the 
 lapse of centuries, must assuredly have 
 been of a higher and more ethereal character. 
 
THE GIANTS, 15 
 
 " There were giants in those days," and 
 perhaps the stature of mankind generally, 
 like the mould in which they were cast, was 
 much in advaince of the present standard. 
 The original type of our first parents must 
 still have been universal ; and, as the ante- 
 diluvian races occupied comparatively only 
 a small portion of the globe, they were not 
 subjected to the same influences of climate 
 which have operated with baneful effect in 
 later times. The very face of the earth was 
 differently constituted, and the curse of 
 sterility called for all man's energy to deve- 
 lop its fruits. From the time of Cain, who 
 is said to have invented the plough, the 
 manual employments of agriculture must 
 have made a material impression on the 
 human frame, and to these were too soon 
 added the arduous exercises of war. Yet the 
 posterity of Seth probably still followed the 
 calling of shepherds, and, in their long and 
 solitary night watches, drew out the first 
 rude outlines of astronomy. 
 
 Pausanias, Philostratus, Ovid, and Pliny, 
 differing on other mythological points, all 
 
16 MARRIAGES WITH AjSTGELS. 
 
 preserve a tradition relative to the giants ; 
 and if we recognise the incarnation of Satan 
 in the serpent, at the temptation, we cannot 
 repudiate the de-spiritualization of angels — 
 " the sons of Grod," or, perhaps, spirits 
 already fallen, on the occasion of the 
 evidently-sacrilegious union with " the 
 daughters of men." Indeed, so late as the 
 time of the Apostles, St. Paul admonishes 
 his female disciples to keep their heads 
 covered — that is, to wear a veil, " for fear 
 of the angels," which seems to warrant the 
 same interpretation; and, in the Apocry- 
 pha, Tobit's niece is represented as being 
 loved by an evil spirit, who successively 
 killed her husbands on the nuptial day, till, 
 by prayer and sacrifice, she was delivered 
 from his toils. The promulgation of the 
 Christian dispensation finally put an end to 
 such spiritual manifestations. 
 
 It was to his wives that the prophet 
 Lamech is said to have first revealed the 
 intention of God to destroy the world by a 
 flood ; and he is stated in G-enesis to have 
 predicted, at the birth of Noah, that his 
 
CHILDREN OF LAMECH. 17 
 
 new-born son would be made an instrument 
 to restore the fertility of the soil. " This 
 same shall comfort us," he exclaims, "con- 
 cerning the work and toil of our hands, be- 
 cause of the ground which the Lord hath 
 cursed." Josephus asserts that Lamech was 
 the father, by his two wives, of seventy- 
 ■seven children, of whose names only five 
 have been preserved, and but one of these — 
 Naamah — is claimed by a woman. The 
 gentle shepherd Jabal, who loved the peace- 
 ful solitude of his tent, and the minstrel 
 Jubal, whose invention of the trumpet we 
 still record in the word jubilee, were the 
 children of his wife Ada; and the fierce 
 warrior Tubal, who " excelled in strength," 
 and was the first to fashion arms and instru- 
 ments of metal, was the son of Zillah. We 
 are not told who was the mother of Noah, 
 but doubtless it was one of these favoured 
 women. 
 
 As Noah was six hundred years old at 
 the time of the Deluge, it is probable that his 
 brothers and sisters, numerous as they were, 
 had all died before that epoch, but certain 
 
18 THE DELUGE. 
 
 it is that none accompanied him into the 
 Ark. His warnings and admonitions seemed 
 indeed but idle words to a world given np 
 to every wickedness that universal depravity- 
 could suggest. " There were marriages and 
 giving in marriage," up to the very morn- 
 ing of the Flood, when the inspired Patri- 
 arch, obeying the Divine injunction, took 
 'his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, — 
 in all four women, and entered the Ark. 
 The shore they were next to behold was in a 
 new world. 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD. 
 
 Of the second foundress of the human race — 
 the wife of Noah — the Scriptures do not so 
 much as mention the name, though the hea- 
 thens, in their myth of Deucalion, give her 
 that of Pyrrha. From the moment she 
 quitted the ark, neither she nor the wives of 
 her three sons, by whose offspring " the 
 whole earth was overspread," are once re- 
 ferred to ; and women still held so subordi- 
 nate a place, that it is not till many years 
 after the Deluge, when we learn that Ar- 
 phaxad, the son of Shem, had sons and 
 daughters^ that there is even any specific 
 acknowledgment of their existence. About 
 three hundred and fifty years after the 
 Flood, the names of Sarai and Milcah are 
 preserved, making five women during some 
 twenty centuries, reckoning from the crea- 
 tion, who have been admitted to that dis- 
 
20 PLAIN OF NAKSHIVAN. 
 
 tinction — namely, Eve, our first motlier, Ada 
 and Zillah, the wives of Lamech, and lastly 
 Sarai and Milcah themselves. 
 
 It is at the foot of Mount Ararat, the last 
 link in the Caucasian chain, and on the 
 fruitful plain of Nakshivan, which, in its Ar- 
 menian appellation, still commemorates " the 
 first resting-place," that tradition has laid 
 the cradle of the human race. For a time 
 the patriarchal family clung tenaciously to 
 this favoured spot, where the melon and the 
 vine, whose juice was first compressed by 
 Noah, still attain unequalled excellence. 
 The enriched soil no longer demanded in- 
 cessant tillage; the herbage of the moun- 
 tains afforded abundant pasture for their 
 flocks ; and they naturally lingered 'in a 
 locality memorable as the scene of their de- 
 liverance, and endeared by the most tender 
 associations. 
 
 But increased numbers, while it weakened 
 these ties, created the necessity of disper- 
 sion. In the third generation from Noah, 
 we find Nimrod, the son of Cush, building 
 a city, afterwards renowned l)y its name of 
 
FAMILY IXTBRMARRIAGES. 21 
 
 Babel ; and in the time of Peleg, two gene- 
 rations later, mankind had become so nume- 
 rous, that land, hitherto appropriated at 
 will, began to be divided, or parcelled out 
 to tribes and families as their special pro- 
 perty. More serious innovations followed ; 
 Kings established despotic power ; wars 
 and forays, terminating in the captivity of 
 vanquished tribes, introduced the unnatural 
 custom of slavery; and violence began to 
 resume its ancient sway over the sons of 
 men. 
 
 Not till the time of Abraham have we 
 any information as to the position of woman 
 in this advancing civilization. Then we 
 find, from isolated incidents, that her con- 
 dition, except in the highest grade, was still 
 one of subjection and servitude ; and, in 
 another point of view, the domestic history 
 of the patriarch evinces a strange miscon- 
 ception, among all ranks, of the sacred 
 nature of matrimony. That the ties of 
 consanguinity were not yet considered a bar 
 to marriage, we have proof in the case of 
 Sarah, who was the half sister of her hus- 
 
22 POLYGAMY. 
 
 band Abraham ; and Nahor, their brother, 
 by marrying Milcah, the daughter of his 
 brother Haran, became the husband of his 
 own niece. Indeed, long afterwards we find 
 these family marriages persevered in, with 
 the avowed object of preserving purity of 
 race, though experience has proved, in the 
 lapse of ages, that the effect invariably tends 
 to produce physical and mental degeneracy, 
 incapacity, and sterility. 
 
 There is reason to believe that the wor- 
 ship of one supreme God, though not uni- 
 versal, was still very general among men ; 
 and a code of morals similar to that em- 
 bodied in the Decalogue, was taught and 
 enforced by the Seven Precepts of Noah. 
 Polygamy, however, does not appear to 
 have been actually forbidden, though there 
 are examples of holy men who offered in 
 their lives a silent protest against its con- 
 tinuance -, and it is a remarkable circum- 
 stance that the domestic happiness of Abra- 
 ham knew no interruption, till he violated 
 the sanctity of the marriage tie. T^^e must 
 consider it a strange inversion of natural 
 
BONDWOMEN. 23 
 
 feelings that he should have been prompted 
 to this step by Sarah herself; and as she 
 would seem, from the subsequent conduct of 
 Leah and Eachel, to have been only follow- 
 ing a general and authorized custom, the 
 incident becomes a melancholy testimony 
 to the degraded condition of the sex in those 
 primitive ages. 
 
 In all these cases we behold the "bond- 
 woman" placed absolutely at the disposal 
 of her mistress, even in that relation of life 
 which most deeply interests the will, the 
 sympathies, and the feelings. Snatched 
 from their home, perhaps from the roof of a 
 wealthy and indulgent parent by some pre- 
 datory band, young girls were sold into 
 slavery, severed from their kindred and 
 friends, transported into a distant land, and 
 given over, body and soul, to the arbitrary 
 rule of a foreign master. Can we imagine a 
 more touching picture of human wrong? 
 Yet such was the institution already esta- 
 blished in the world, and recognized even in 
 the household of Abraham. 
 
 Though the story of the patriarch's life is 
 
24 SARAH AND HAGAR. 
 
 SO familiar, it may be worth pausing on the 
 episode of Hagar, to educe, from its sug- 
 gestive incidents, another feature in the 
 condition of her class. The birth of a son 
 had undoubtedly added to the importance, 
 if it had not enhanced the dignity of her 
 equivocal position; but the very event 
 whence Sarah had expected to derive an 
 accession of felicity, was converted by hu- 
 man weakness into a source of discord. 
 Abraham, by yielding to her indiscreet sug- 
 gestions, which could only have sprung 
 from a want of faith in the Divine promise, 
 had made his once-peaceful tent the scene 
 of constant bickerings, subversive alike of 
 his happiness and his authority. In such a 
 tissue of recriminations, the sage was unable 
 to pronounce a just verdict ; and while affec- 
 tion and a sense of right inclined him to 
 the side of his wife, the weakness of Hagar 
 eloquently claimed his protection. It was 
 God who, after promising to secure the 
 future welfare of Hagar, directed him to 
 expel the imprudent bondwoman from his 
 household. Thus we see that the female 
 
BEAUTY OF SARAH. 25 
 
 captive, after submitting to the last indig- 
 nity and the last oppression, could be cast 
 with her offspring, destitute and friendless 
 on the world, and doubtless often perished 
 in the desert, when there was no benefi- 
 cent angel, as in Hagar's case, to soothe, 
 counsel, and save. 
 
 The sacred historian clearly intimates that 
 the sex were still endowed, as before the 
 Flood, with a wonderful power of retaining 
 their beauty, and Sarah's personal charms 
 were unimpaired at what we should now 
 consider a very advanced age. Even on the 
 plain of Canaan, where, under the shadow of 
 the oak Ogyges, Abraham had pitched his 
 tent, " the fame of his wife's beauty," says 
 Josephus, " was greatly talked of," and she 
 was in her ninetieth year when, on the occa- 
 sion of Abraham's second visit to Egypt, 
 she made so dangerous an impression on 
 King Abimelech. This incident serves to 
 illustrate how little security was then en- 
 joyed even by women of the highest rank. 
 An Arabian emir, or prince, travelling with 
 a powerful retinue, is afraid to acknowledge 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
26 ESTIMATE OF WOMEN. 
 
 himself the husband of a beautiful woman, 
 lest, on some specious pretext, he should be 
 put to death, and his wife seized by the 
 reigning despot. His apprehensions were 
 in part realized, and Sarah, as soon as she 
 had set foot in Egypt, was carried ofif from 
 the midst of her family, in defiance alike 
 of the usages of hospitality and the common 
 laws of society. Such was the boasted virtue 
 of patriarchal times ! 
 
 The book of Job seems to establish that, 
 in pastoral communities, it was not from 
 want of knowing what was just and right 
 that men perpetuated this bondage of the 
 feebler creation. In the midst of his sorrows 
 and sufferings, the stricken prince, undoubt- 
 edly the most beautiful character which the 
 whole history of mankind can furnish, touch- 
 ingly alludes to his honourable treatment of 
 the sex, in a strain not the less chivalrous 
 from its simplicity and pathos. Modern 
 civilization can add nothing to the refined 
 gold of his sentiments, or to his delicate 
 appreciation of woman's helplessness and 
 weakness. And it is important to observe, 
 
CIVILIZATION AJSTD RELIGION. 27 
 
 in connexion with this subject, that Job 
 lived in the native country of Abraham, 
 almost within the same distance from Egypt, 
 and in a subsequent, and, consequently, less 
 virtuous, because less religious age. The 
 land of Idumaea, or Edom, where the vene- 
 rable emir resided, was the first refuge of 
 philosophy, learning, and the arts. Even in 
 those early days, its city of Teman was famed 
 for the wisdom of her sons : its opulent mer- 
 chants, as Job himself tells us, travelled far 
 and near on their adventurous errands of 
 traffic; it had its mint, its monuments, its 
 public inscriptions, and its hoohs ! If many 
 were " secretly enticed," when " they beheld 
 the sun as it shone, or the moon walking in 
 brightness," to worship the heavenly lumi- 
 naries. Job and his friends still acknow- 
 ledged but the one true God. Polygamy, 
 sanctioned by the practice of neighbouring 
 nations, appears to have been discoun- 
 tenanced here. Job had but one wife, and 
 to her he tenderly clung, even when, in the 
 depth of her anguish, she loaded him with 
 bitter taunts and reproaches. His sons and 
 
 c 2 
 
28 DAUGHTERS OF JOB. 
 
 daughters were brought up on an equal 
 footing ; they shared the same indulgences •, 
 and when the young men commemorated 
 their birthdays with a feast, they sent, we 
 are told, " for their sisters, to eat and drink 
 with them." After Job's restoration to 
 prosperity, the daughters of his second 
 family, described as excelling aU others in 
 grace and beauty, were admitted to an equal 
 share in the family patrimony. Their very 
 names are an evidence of the tender affec- 
 tion of their father ; and Jemima, " fair as 
 the day," Kezia, "precious as cassia," and 
 Kerenhappuch, "splendid as the emerald," 
 though appellations sufficiently expressive, 
 say not more for the personal charms of the 
 damsels than for the refined feelings of their 
 parent. 
 
 In the pastoral ages, it was customary for 
 women, even of the highest rank, to engage 
 in employments which would now be con- 
 sidered derogatory, if not menial, and which, 
 indeed, the humblest of the sex have long 
 ceased to follow. So late as the time of 
 Moses, we find the daughters of Raguel, or 
 
MIDIANITE SHEPHERDESSES. 29 
 
 Jethro, the priest of Midian, a man " thought 
 worthy by the people of the country of great 
 honour," taking care of their father's flocks, 
 " which sort of work," says Josephus, " it 
 was customary and very familiar for the 
 women of Midian to do." Some portion of 
 their task appears to have required no light 
 hands ; and on bringing their flocks to 
 water they are described as first drawing 
 the limpid element from the well, and then 
 pouring it into deep troughs, from which 
 the parched herds quenched their thirst. 
 In this employment they were frequently 
 interrupted by shepherds having charge of 
 rival droves, and who, after Raguel's daugh- 
 ters had drawn the water, seized the over- 
 flowing troughs, and compelled the terrified 
 maidens to retire. It was on one of these 
 occasions that they were befriended by 
 Moses, who happened to be passing, and 
 with a gallantry not lost upon Zipporah, 
 the eldest of the sisters, came to their assist- 
 ance, and put their unmanly assailants to 
 flight. 
 Another employment of women in the pas- 
 
30 OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN. 
 
 toral ages was needlework, wHcli is referred 
 to at a very early period by the mother of 
 Sisera (Judges iv. 30) as she sat with her 
 "wise ladies" awaiting the return of her 
 son. The distaff, probably a relic of the 
 antediluvian world, preserved with other 
 useful implements in the Ark, may also 
 have been common, as even the loom and 
 shuttle are alluded to in the book of Job. 
 
 The task of drawing water for the supply 
 of the household appears to have been uni- 
 versally assigned to women ; and, indeed, it 
 is, with other early burdens, still imposed on 
 the ses in many parts of the East. When 
 Abraham's servant approached Haran, to 
 which he had been sent by his master to 
 procure a wife for Isaac, he met the maidens 
 of the city coming to draw water at a neigh- 
 bouring well, and foremost in the train was 
 Rebekah, whose brother, Laban, was one of 
 the magnates of the country. Nearly two 
 thousand years later, we find the woman of 
 Samaria — who, however, occupied a far in- 
 ferior station — engaged in a similar employ- 
 ment, and met by the Redeemer with the 
 
REBEKAH. 31 
 
 same request which Abraham's jaded servant 
 so confidently addressed to Rebekah. 
 
 Rebekah's conversation at the well with 
 her uncle's messenger shows that the social 
 intercourse of the sexes was not fettered in 
 those days by the restraints, which now, as 
 for many generations past, form the most 
 arbitrary institution of the East. While 
 the old man appeared to her in the light of 
 a perfect stranger, a traveller of humble 
 rank, who gave no clear account of himself, 
 she freely answered all his questions respect- 
 ing her family, communicating the most 
 minute particulars of their circumstances 
 and condition ; and she even did not hesitate 
 to receive from him, according to Josephus, 
 who perfectly accords with Moses, a pair of 
 costly bracelets, and " some other orna- 
 ments esteemed decent for virgins to wear," 
 amongst which, perhaps, were earrings, 
 fillets of gold for the ankles, and the more 
 fantastic trinket called the nose-jewel, one 
 of the first acquisitions of the female toilet. 
 
 Among other articles of apparel, the veil, 
 now so universal among Eastern ladies, was 
 
32 USE OP VEILS. 
 
 already partially adopted, particularly by 
 women remarkable for their beauty, and 
 King Abimelech recommends Sarah to 
 adopt " a covering to the eyes," by which 
 she will be preserved from the danger of the 
 public gaze. For many ages afterwards, 
 however, the veil was only worn on grand 
 occasions, or by a maiden in the presence of 
 her betrothed. Thus Rebekah, on first dis- 
 cerning Isaac, as she approached the re- 
 sidence of Abraham, is described as assum- 
 ing this modest adornment (G-enesis xxiv. 
 65). " For she had said unto the servant. 
 What man is 'this that walketh in the field to 
 meet us ? And the servant had said it is 
 my master. Therefore, she took a veil, and 
 covered herself." After an interval of five 
 or six centuries, Ruth, having been enjoined 
 by her mother-in-law to " anoint herself and 
 put her raiment upon her" — that is, to 
 assume her gayest apparel, is mentioned as 
 wearing a veil ; and Boaz desires her " to 
 bring hither thy veil which is upon thee, and 
 hold it." 
 
 Women lived in separate lodgings from 
 
THE women's tents. 33 
 
 the male portion of a family, and probably 
 each occupied a distinct apartment or tent, 
 as we read of " Sarah's tent," " Eebekah's 
 tent," and " the tent of Sarah's maid- 
 servant." Sisera, flying from the field of 
 battle, considered that he would be safe in 
 the tent of Jael, which, being the women's 
 apartment, or harem, his pursuers, who were 
 at peace with her husband Heber, would 
 not venture to invade. 
 
 The arrangements for the union of Eebekah 
 and Isaac show how marriages were con- 
 tracted in that remote era. Abraham had 
 forwarded some costly presents to the 
 maiden's family, " such things as were there 
 in esteem, on account that they either rarelj^ 
 or never were seen in that country ;" an^ as 
 the servant afterwards produces "precious 
 ornaments for women," which he wishes 
 Eebekah to take under her special charge, 
 we may conclude that in providing the pro- 
 pitiatory gifts, due consideration was evinced 
 for the bride. The presents to her family, 
 or rather to her brother, formed her dowry, 
 which was received as an offering from the 
 
 c 3 
 
34 MARRIAGES. 
 
 bridegroom, who thus, as it were, made a 
 settlement on his betrothed. Jacob served 
 seven years for each of his wives, and She- 
 chem, son of King Hamor, when he sought 
 the hand of Dinah from her father, is re- 
 ported to have said, "Ask me never so 
 much dowry and gift, and I will give 
 according as ye shall say unto me ; but give 
 me the damsel to wife." As to the exist- 
 ence of any affection between the plighted 
 couple, no one gave a thought to such a 
 romantic subject ; nor, indeed, could it weU 
 enter into their calculations, as the young 
 persons were rarely permitted to see each 
 other till the irrevocable engagement was 
 contracted. Rebekah, in her conversation 
 with Abraham's servant, holds herself com- 
 pletely at the disposal of her brother, as 
 the representative of her deceased father, 
 emphatically describing him as " the guar- 
 dian of her maidenhood ;" and, to say truth, 
 she seems eager to resign country, kindred, 
 and friends, to bid an eternal farewell to the 
 ancestral roof, for the sake of the unknown 
 Isaac. But women appear to have been 
 
NUPTIAL FESTIVITIES. 35 
 
 reared in that age with these feelings, re- 
 garding marriage as their first object in life, 
 and considering that their hand was to be 
 given, not from inclination or affection, but 
 as the will of their father might dictate. 
 
 Music was from a very early time a 
 favourite addition to the marriage entertain- 
 ment, as to any other festivity ; and Laban 
 reproaches Jacob that, by stealing away, he 
 had prevented him from celebrating his 
 departure " with mirth and songs, with the 
 tabaret and harp." Musical instruments 
 were no doubt among the articles preserved 
 in the Ark, as a great variety are found to 
 exist within two or three centuries from the 
 Flood. In the book of Job reference is made 
 to the harp, lute, tabor, and pipe ; and the 
 line " they trip merrily to the sound of the 
 pipe," shows that women, by their natural 
 instinct for the graceful and beautiful, had 
 already mastered the bewitching movements 
 of the dance. 
 
 The family of Laban, after an interval of 
 about half a century from the marriage of 
 his sister Eebekah, furnishes us with another 
 
30 DOMESTIC TJNHAPPINESS. 
 
 glimpse of the nuptial customs of the day, 
 when the patriarch urges as a reason for not 
 giving Jacob the hand of Eachel, that such 
 a thing was impossible while Leah, her 
 elder sister, remained unmarried, as it would 
 be an infringment of the established custom 
 of the country. The marriage-festivities 
 lasted seven days, as we learn from Laban 
 desiring, in his colloquy with Jacob, 
 that Leah should " fulfil her week." Poly- 
 gamy appears by this time to have become 
 an orthodox institution. Of the two sons of 
 Isaac, Esau had married two wives, Adah and 
 Aholibamah ; and Jacob, at the instigation of 
 his father-in-law, married two sisters, in 
 whom the instincts of natui-al affection were 
 thus violated and destroyed. The peace of 
 the domestic hearth was the cruel penalty 
 of this impious union, and in the bad passions 
 aroused, Rachel and Leah, sacrificing love 
 itself to the purposes of revenge, introduced, 
 by means of their two handmaids, another 
 element of discord into their unhappy and 
 divided household. 
 
 But though polygamy received the high 
 
THE TROGLODYTES. 37 
 
 countenance of Abraham and Jacob, and 
 was afterwards sanctioned by the example, 
 though not by the laws of Moses, it was not 
 unfrequently repudiated by the strong 
 impulse of human affection, evincing that 
 love when sincere, must also be pure. In a 
 much later, but still a pastoral agey the 
 kinsman of Euth is represented as refusing 
 her hand, on the plea that he already had a 
 wife ; and he relinquishes a rich inheritance 
 rather than contract a second engagement 
 with a young and beautiful woman. Indeed, 
 it is but too apparent that men were fully 
 sensible of the injustice and baneful effects 
 of polygamy from the earliest times; but 
 then, as in after ages, they were accustomed 
 to follow the bent of their own inclinations, 
 in preference to the holy dictates of religion 
 and morality. 
 
 Female depravity exhibited its lowest 
 depth among the Troglodytes, who are 
 described so early as the time of Job as but 
 little removed from the brutes of the field. 
 " They were driven forth," says the vene- 
 rable mourner, "from among men, to dwell 
 
38 LOST RACE. 
 
 in the caves of the earth and in the rocks. 
 Among the bushes they are born ; under 
 the nettles they were gathered together: 
 they are viler than the earth," The 
 Troglodytes appear to be the same people 
 who are referred to by Herodotus, as living 
 in the Egyptian desert, and whose treatment 
 of women, here degraded even lower than 
 themselves, he mentions with indignant 
 horror. Josephus calls the region between 
 Egypt and Midian " the country of the 
 Troglodytes ;" and Strabo locates them " on 
 that side of the Arabian Grulf next to Egypt 
 ind Ethiopia." They are alluded to by 
 Homer under the name of the Erembi. 
 
 In striking contrast with the Troglodytes, 
 or " dwellers in caverns," the early Egyptian 
 monuments have preserved to us a vestige 
 of another primitive people, who, though 
 doubtless a pastoral community of the East, 
 had apparently attained a high degree of 
 civilization. This lost race differed not only 
 in feature, but in complexion, from other 
 nations of Oriental origin, their colour being 
 light, while their noses were straighter, 
 
SOCIAL USAGES. 39 
 
 their hair brown, and their eyes blue. The 
 women had made considerable progress in 
 the arts of the toilet, and a lady's flowing 
 robe, girded by a zone round the waist, was 
 now graced by three flounces ! The hair of 
 the matrons was worn under a cap, decorated i 
 with a tassel, and among young women, it 
 was simply inclosed by a band, and fell in ' 
 long ringlets on the shoulders. 
 
 On the whole, the condition of woman in 
 the pastoral ages may be considered an 
 insecure, if not an unhappy one. Exposed 
 to the horrors of slavery ; liable like Sarah 
 to be snatched from the side of her husband 
 by any unscrupulous tyrant ; or, like Dinah, 
 to be subjected to still greater violence, she 
 was, on the other hand, neither permitted to 
 consult her affections on the important 
 question of marriage, nor secure, after 
 entering that state, of a proper position in 
 her husband's household. High birth did 
 not exempt her from the most menial 
 employments, and her social training was 
 marked by the absence of all those delicate 
 perceptions, which constitute one of the best 
 safeguards of innocence and virtue. 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 III. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 The cradle of civilization was Egypt. As 
 far back as human records and human art 
 extend — from the earliest dawn of tradition, 
 her name is lisped forth by the infant world 
 in familiar accents, as that of a famous 
 kingdom ; and though the term "first of the 
 nations " is applied in Scripture to Idumsea, 
 or Edom, there is no ground for believing 
 that the civilization of the Edomites could 
 compare with that of the Egyptians, however 
 they may have excelled them in antiquity. 
 Of Hamite origin, the Egyptians may have 
 separated from the other descendants of 
 Noah about the time of the building of 
 
MON-UMENTS OF EGYPT. 41 
 
 Babel, when perhaps the feebler tribes of 
 mankind, unable to offer any active resist- 
 ance to their oppressors, sought to escape by 
 flight from the labour and dangers of that 
 undertaking. This hypothesis, indeed, is 
 hardly reconcilable with the passion of the 
 Egyptians for building, to which they 
 gave such free rein in their new country, 
 and to which, indeed, we are indebted for the 
 most minute details of their social, domestic, 
 and personal history. As they deemed 
 nothing too small, or too mean, for enrol- 
 ment on their monuments, these venerable 
 relics constitute as complete a key to their 
 manners, customs, and institutions, their 
 attainments and their resources, as the most 
 ardent antiquary could desire, and, in fact, 
 we have dug up from their tombs all the 
 domestic usages and religious rites, the war- 
 like exercises, the courtly pomp and circum- 
 stance, and even the population of the 
 ancient world. 
 
 The Egyptians dated their history from 
 an era as remote as the fabulous chronicles 
 of the Chinese ; and Herodotus mentions, in 
 
42 ORIGIN OF EGYPTIANS. 
 
 his second book, that they placed the 
 introduction of Hercules among their gods 
 as far back as seventeen thousand years 
 before the reign of Amasis. Their nu- 
 merous alleged dynasties would hardly 
 cover so vast a period ; and even these 
 are inadmissible as any evidence of the 
 lapse of time, since it was not till the 
 Shepherd invasion that the whole of Egypt 
 was united under one sovereign, and, from 
 the confused accounts, it may now be in- 
 ferred that the various dynasties represented 
 a succession, not of different families, but 
 of contemporaneous rulers. Tradition, in 
 this instance a reliable witness, assigns 
 the foundation of the kingdom to Misraim, 
 the son of Ham, 59 years after the disper- 
 sion of Babel, and 193 years before the 
 birth of Abraham ; and it is a singular cir- 
 cumstance that the earliest Egyptian remains 
 go no further back than the era of Abraham. 
 Nor is it likely that Moses, who was skilled 
 in "all the learning of the Egyptians," 
 would have so lost sight of their chronology 
 in his computation of time, had it rested on 
 
RELIGION OF EGYPT. 43 
 
 correct data ; and, from his silence, we may 
 conclude that it was not then promulgated, 
 but was one of the weak inventions of a 
 later age. 
 
 Error and delusion, indeed, were the 
 natural offspring of a system which confined 
 all knowledge to the priests, investing them 
 with a trust susceptible of the grossest 
 abuse, and by which, in course of time, they 
 contrived to arrest the civilization, while 
 they enslaved the minds and perverted the 
 character of their countrymen. Their first 
 conquest was the national religion, which 
 originally was pure and holy, inculcating 
 the worship of a Supreme and Universal 
 Lord, and divinely foreshadowing, as we 
 may be permitted to think, the blessed dis- 
 pensation of the Messiah. Osiris, a son of 
 the deities Seb and Netpe, supposed to be 
 Saturn and Rhea, was represented as ap- 
 pearing on earth for the emancipation of 
 mankind from the dominion of the Evil 
 One, through whose machinations he was 
 subsequently put to death, but after his 
 burial, he returned to life, and became 
 
44 RELIGIOlSr OF EGYPT, 
 
 the Judge of the dead. An equally sug- 
 gestive myth is presented by the triads, 
 into which the priests divided the creative 
 attributes of the Almighty, and in which 
 the third idea, arising as a sequence, was 
 said to proceed from the other two. Such 
 resemblances strike us as more than acci- 
 dental •, and as the whole career of the future 
 Saviour was allowed to transpire in the pro- 
 phecies of Isaiah, it is not difficult to believe, 
 from the tenor of these ancient mysteries, 
 that it maj^ have been made known, toge- 
 ther with the doctrine of the Trinity, at a 
 much earlier period, though it was wisely 
 excluded from the teaching of Moses lest 
 the Israelites, from old association, should 
 fall under the yoke of the Egyptian super- 
 stition. Hence their lawgiver's allusion 
 to the Messiah, though distinct, was guarded 
 and imperfect, tending more to raise expec- 
 tation than to recall obscure and corrupt 
 traditions. 
 
 Looking at the proficiency of the Egyp- 
 tians in the arts and sciences within a few 
 centuries of the Flood — a proficiency which 
 
POLYGAMY FORBIDDEN-. 45 
 
 the skill and invention of modern times are 
 in some things unable to equal, we can 
 account for it in no other way than by sup- 
 posing, what indeed seems rational enough, 
 that it was a legacy from the old world, 
 carefully handed down to posterity by Noah 
 and his sons. In the book of Job, which 
 also indicates a high state of civilization, 
 the fact seems to be plainly stated, and the 
 patriarch gratefully acknowledges his obliga- 
 tions to past races. 
 
 " The wisdom of the Egyptians," at least 
 in the first ages, till their religion became 
 corrupted and perverted, was favourable to 
 the emancipation and elevation of woman ; 
 and hence the sex enjoyed more consider- 
 ation in Egypt than among any other peo- 
 ple of antiquity. The code of Hermes per- 
 mitted but one wife, and though we learn 
 from the Greek writers that female slaves 
 were frequently introduced into families on 
 the same footing as Hagar in the household 
 of Abraham, there is reason to believe that 
 this was not an ancient custom, but an in- 
 novation of a degenerate race. In the bright 
 
46 THE QL'EEN-CONSORT. 
 
 morning of Egypt's renown, woman was 
 treated with more respect, and held in more 
 just estimation. 
 
 By the laws of Hermes, even the regal 
 authority was intrusted to women, equally 
 with men, when it was their right of suc- 
 cession ; and the descendants of an Egyp- 
 tian princess, though themselves born in a 
 foreign country, could claija, and on several 
 occasions actually succeeded to, the Egyptian 
 throne. The queen-consort always shared 
 the glory, if not the power of her husband, 
 and was allowed a munificent revenue for 
 her private expenses. This was derived 
 from a tax on the fisheries and the vintage, 
 the former of which alone amounted to nearly 
 £100,000 a-year, and the whole of this 
 enormous sum was appropriated by the 
 queen to the purchase of jewels and articles 
 of the toilet, without any deduction for the 
 cost of an establishment. The illustrious 
 lady also took part in the ceremony of the 
 coronation ; and a goddess was supposed to 
 place on her head the royal insignia, con- 
 sisting of a globe plumed with feathers. 
 
THE PRINCESS THERMXJTHIS. 47 
 
 drooping over the horns of Athor. A 
 sceptre was placed in her hand, and she 
 was probably anointed with oil in the same 
 manner as the king. 
 
 The pages of Josephus, and the sacred 
 narration of Moses, show us, in their account 
 of Thermuthis, the daughter of Rameses the 
 Great, what privileges and influence were 
 enjoyed by the Egyptian princesses, and 
 we have already seen that they transmitted 
 their rights to their remote descendants. 
 Great pains were bestowed on their educa- 
 tion from their earliest years, and a sculpture 
 in a tomb at Thebes, discovered by recent 
 explorers, represents a learned scribe in- 
 structing a youthfal princess, while his little 
 pupil sits on his knee. Thermuthis appears 
 to have been the only child of the king, and 
 hence, as heir to the crown, may have pos- 
 sessed more than ordinary power, but, even 
 under this aspect, the influence she exer- 
 cised excites our surprise. The Egyptian 
 sages had foretold the birth of a Hebrew 
 child, whose fature career would be highly 
 injurious to their country; and this pre- 
 
48 DISCOVERY OF MOSES. 
 
 diction, like the more memorable incident 
 at Jerusalem, had prompted a royal order 
 for the destruction of all the male children 
 of the Israelites. Yet such was the power 
 of Pharaoh's daughter that she did not he- 
 sitate openly to violate this decree, and, at 
 the instigation of Miriam, even sent for a 
 Hebrew woman — the infant's mother — to 
 take charge of the little foundling, declaring 
 to all present that she adopted him as her son. 
 The princess is described as going down 
 to the river to bathe, ablutions forming a 
 very important, and, in fact, a religious 
 custom with the ancient Egyptians. From 
 the ease with which she is approached by 
 Miriam, there is reason to suppose that the 
 spot was not inclosed, and that no precau- 
 tions were taken, by the posting of guards" 
 or other attendants, to prevent such intru- 
 sions. Thermuthis is accompanied only by 
 " her maids," or ladies of honour, and when 
 the fragile ark of Moses is descried among 
 the bulrushes, " some that could swim," 
 Josephus tells us, were ordered to bring it 
 to the shore. The sacred narrative gives us. 
 
INFLTJENCB OF THERMUTHIS. 49 
 
 in a few words, a beautiful glimpse of the 
 princess's emotions on discovering the freight 
 of the little vessel. "And behold the babe 
 wept, and she had compassion on him, and 
 said, ' this is one of the Hebrews' children.'' " 
 Her woman's heart, uninfluenced by the 
 cruel dictates of policy, instantly yielded to 
 the soft impulses of nature and her sex : 
 Miriam's suggestion was eagerly adopted, 
 and though the decree respecting the Hebrew 
 children was necessarily known to all around, 
 it is worthy of remark that no one presumed 
 to question the decision, or the sovereign 
 authority, of Pharaoh's daughter. 
 
 The lawgiver of Israel modestly describes 
 himself as having been " a goodly child," 
 but we are told by Josephus, who furnishes 
 many additional particulars of his life, that 
 his beauty was of a "divine" character, and 
 St. Stephen speaks of him as " beautiful in 
 the sight of Grod." While he was still in 
 his infancy, Thermuthis presented him to 
 Rameses, and made the potent monarch 
 acquainted with his history. — "I have 
 brought up a child who is of a divine form 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
50 SCENE IN THE PALACE. 
 
 and generous mind," she observed, as she 
 placed the future prophet in the King's arms, 
 " and as I hare received him from the 
 bounty of the river, in a wonderful manner, 
 I thought proper to adopt him for my son, 
 and the heir of thy kingdom." Thereupon, 
 we are told, Rameses embraced the child, 
 pressing him close to his bosom, as if, by 
 this act, he sanctioned the design of his 
 daughter. To gratify the princess, he even 
 took off his diadem, and placed it on the 
 head of the child, but Moses, in a sudden fit 
 of passion, snatched it from his brow, threw 
 it on the floor, and trampled it under foot. 
 Jannes, or Jambres, one of the scribes who 
 had foretold his nativity, was present at 
 this scene, and immediately recognising the 
 future enemy of his country, sprang on 
 Moses to kill him. But Thermuthis inter- 
 posed, and such was her ascendancy over the 
 King — such her influence as a woman and as 
 heir to the throne — that her adopted son 
 escaped unpunished. 
 
 Remembering how jealously the native 
 priests reserved to their own body the trea- 
 
FEMALE ASCENDANCY. 51 
 
 sures of their occult learning, the power of 
 Thermuthis indeed appears unbounded, when 
 we behold Moses, one of an enslaved race, 
 instructed, through her favour, in " all the 
 wisdom of the Egyptians," and even admitted 
 into the exclusive ranks of the military 
 order. His beneficent protectress continued 
 to shield him from the enmity and machina- 
 tions of an implacable faction, till, in obedi- 
 ence to an oracle, he was appointed General 
 of the Egyptians in the war with Ethiopia, 
 when Tharbis, the Ethiopian princess, at the 
 siege of Saba, was so dazzled by his beauty, 
 that she sent to him to propose marriage, 
 and on his promising to become her husband, 
 delivered the besieged city into his hands. 
 Probably Thermuthis died about this time, 
 as the next thing reported of Moses is his 
 flight. 
 
 That Thermuthis does not afford a soli- 
 tary example of. female ascendancy in the 
 royal councils of Egypt, we have evidence 
 in the pages of Herodotus, who commemo- 
 rates the affection of King Mycerinus, the 
 son of Cheops, for his daughter, on which 
 
 D 2 
 
52 DAUGHTER OF MTCERmUS. 
 
 tlie priests founded one of their unnatural 
 myths. Like Thermuthis, she was the only 
 child of the monarch, and his reputation for 
 wisdom and justice, which entitle him to be 
 considered the Egyptian Solomon, may owe 
 something to her influence. Unfortunately 
 history has handed down no particulars of 
 her life, but her virtues are manifested in 
 the general sorrow at her death, and Myce- 
 rinus, with the approbation of his people, 
 adopted a singular mode of evincing his 
 grief, entombing the deceased princess in a 
 wooden sarcophagus, encased with gold and 
 shaped as a cow, one of the sacred symbols 
 of their religion. " This cow," says Hero- 
 dotus, " was not interred in the ground, but 
 even in my time was exposed to view, being 
 in the city of Sais, placed in the royal 
 palace, in a richly furnished chamber, and 
 they burn near it all kinds *of aromaties 
 every day, and a lamp is kept burning hj it 
 throughout the night." 
 
 Whether any ceremony was practised at 
 the marriages of the Egyptians is doubt- 
 ful, no representation of such an occur- 
 
MARRIED LIFE. 53 
 
 rence having been discovered ; but as their 
 women, from the earliest times, recognised 
 a ring finger, it is not unlikely that a wife 
 was indicated by a wedding ring. Accord- 
 ing to Diodorus, the marriage contract se- 
 cured the wife peculiar rights, amongst 
 which was the control over her husband, who 
 promised implicit obedience to her injunc- 
 tions ; and there is, on the other hand, good 
 authority for believing that it was customary 
 for the wife, as a return for this deference, 
 to give at all times the first consideration to 
 her husband, even to the prejudice or the 
 ruin of her children. Herodotus relates a 
 curious incident in illustration of this prac- 
 tice. " The priests," observes the historian, 
 " said of this Egyptian Sesostris, that re- 
 turning and bringing with him many men 
 from the nations whose territories he had 
 subdued, when he arrived at the Pelusian 
 Daphnse, his brother, to whom he had com- 
 mitted the government of Egypt, invited him 
 to an entertainment, and his sons with him, 
 and ordered wood to be brought round the 
 house, and having caused it to be piled up, 
 
54 SEPARATION OF CLASSES. 
 
 set it on fire ; but Sesostris being informed of 
 this, immediately consulted with his wife — 
 for he took his wife with him, and she advised 
 him to extend two of his six sons across the 
 fire, and form a bridge over the burning 
 mass, and that the rest should step on them 
 and make their escape. Sesostris did so, and 
 two of his sons were in this manner burnt 
 to death; but the rest, together with their 
 father, were saved. Sesostris having re- 
 turned to Egypt, then took revenge on his 
 brother." 
 
 The ties of consanguinity, as in the ear- 
 lier world, were wholly disregarded in the 
 marriages of the Egyptians, and a union 
 between brother and sister was common. 
 The community naturally broke itself into 
 distinct classes, according to the rank or 
 occupation of the individual, but families 
 were not obliged to marry in their own 
 class, and a nobleman might take a wife 
 from the lower orders. There was but one 
 grade debarred from this privilege, the race 
 of swineherds ; and as it was deemed infamous 
 to be connected with the followers of this 
 
FEMALE COSTUME. 55' 
 
 occupation, their daughters, from necessity 
 as well as custom, married exclusively in 
 their own tribe. 
 
 The women of Egypt early paid consi- 
 derable attention to the toilet. Their dress, 
 according to Herodotus, consisted usually of 
 but one garment, though a second was often 
 added. Among the upper orders, the fa- 
 vourite attire was a petticoat, tied round 
 the waist with a gay sash, and worn under 
 a robe of fine linen, or a sort of chintz, 
 variously coloured, and made large and 
 loose, with wide sleeves, the band being 
 fastened in front just under the bust. 
 Their feet were encased in sandals, the 
 rudiment of the present Eastern slipper, 
 which they resembled also in their embroi- 
 dery and design. Their persons and appa- 
 rel, in conformity with Oriental taste in all 
 ages, were profusely decked with ornaments, 
 "jewels of silver and jewels of gold," with 
 precious gems of extraordinary size, of 
 which imitations, hardly distinguishable from 
 the real stones, were within the reach of the 
 humblest classes, whose passion for finery 
 
56 HEAD-DRESS. 
 
 could not be surpassed by their superiors. 
 The richly carved and embroidered sandals, 
 tied over the instep with tassels of gold, 
 were surmounted by gold anklets or bangles, 
 which, as well as the bracelets encircling the 
 wrist, sparkled with rare gems ; and neck- 
 laces of gold, or of beautiful beads, with a 
 pendant of amethysts or pearls, hung from 
 the neck. Almost every finger was jewelled, 
 and the ring finger, in particular, was 
 usually allotted several rings, while massive 
 earrings, shaped like hoops, or sometimes 
 taking the form of a jewelled asp, or of a 
 dragon, adorned the ears. Grloves were 
 used at a very early date : and among the 
 other imperishable relics of that olden time, 
 the tombs of Egypt have rendered up to us 
 a pair of striped linen mittens, which once 
 covered the hands of a Theban lady. 
 
 Women of quality inclosed their hair with 
 a band of gold, from which a flower drooped 
 over the forehead, while the hair fell in long 
 plaits to the bosom, and behind streamed 
 down the back to the waist. The side hair 
 was secured by combs, made of polished 
 
EGYPTIAN TOILET. 57 
 
 wood, or by a gold pin, and perhaps was 
 sometimes adorned, like the brow, with a 
 favourite flower. 
 
 The toilet was furnished with a brazen 
 mirror, polished to such a degree as to reflect 
 every lineament of the face ; and the belles 
 of Egypt, as ladies of the present day may 
 imagine, spent no small portion of their time 
 with this faithful counsellor. Their bou- 
 doirs were not devoid of an air of luxury 
 and refinement, particularly congenial to a 
 modern imagination. A stand near the 
 unglazed window supported vases of flowers, 
 which filled the room with delicious odours ; 
 a soft carpet overspread the floor ; two or 
 three richly-carved chairs, and an embroi- 
 dered fauteuil, afforded easy and inviting 
 seats; and the lotus and papyrus were 
 frescoed on the walls. Besides the brazen 
 mirror, other accessories of the toilet were 
 arranged on the ebony table, and boxes and 
 caskets grotesquely carved, some containing 
 jewels,- others furnished with oils and oint- 
 ments, took their place with quaintly cut 
 smelling bottles, wooden combs, silver or 
 
 D 3 
 
58 USE OP COSMETICS. 
 
 bronze bodkins, and lastly pins and 
 needles. 
 
 Seated at this shrine, the Egyptian beauty, 
 with her dark glance fixed on the brazen 
 mirror, sought to heighten those charms 
 which are always most potent in their native 
 simplicity. A touch of colly rium gave illusive 
 magnitude to her voluptuous eyes ; another 
 cosmetic stained their lids ; a delicate brush 
 pencilled her brows — sometimes, alas ! im- 
 parted a deceitful bloom to her cheeks ; and 
 her taper fingers were coloured with the 
 juice of henneh. Precious ointments were 
 poured on her hair, and enveloped her in an 
 atmosphere of perfume, while the jeweller's 
 and milliner's arts combined to decorate her 
 person. 
 
 In Sir Gardner Wilkinson's admirable 
 work on Ancient Egypt, to which I am in- 
 debted for some valuable information, there 
 is a plate representing a lady in a bath with 
 her attendants, drawn from a sculpture in a 
 tomb at Thebes, whence we may derive 
 some faint idea of the elaborate character 
 of an Egyptian toilet. The lady is seated 
 
FEMALE ORNAMENTS. 59 
 
 in a sort of pan, with her long hair streaming 
 over her shoulders, and is supported by the 
 arm of an attendant, who, with her other 
 hand, holds a flower to her hose, while another 
 damsel pours water over her head, and a third 
 washes and rubs down her delicate arms. A 
 fourth maiden receives her jewels, and depo- 
 sits them on a stand, where she awaits the 
 moment when they will be again required. 
 
 Women of the humbler classes, as already 
 intimated, were as susceptible as their supe- 
 riors to the attractions of dress, though they 
 could not devote so much time to the seduc- 
 tive labours of the toilet. Over their stuff 
 petticoat, they wore a capacious linen robe, 
 which reached to their sandals, yet never 
 hid from view a pretty ankle, or its glitter- 
 ing metal bangles, studded with glass eme- 
 ralds. Slaves were obliged to adopt a 
 simpler costume, except on occasions of 
 rejoicing, when these poor children of mis- 
 fortune, wreathing their faces with forced 
 smiles, danced for the amusement of their 
 masters' guests. 
 
 Women, whether wives or spinsters, were 
 
60 SOCIAL I^TTERCOrRSB. 
 
 not debarred from the pleasures of social 
 intercourse, or placed under any of the 
 restraints imposed by the Orientals of mo- 
 dern days. The wife accompanied her hus- 
 band into society ; and when he received 
 company at home — a frequent occurrence, 
 as the Egyptians were a very sociable 
 people — occupied the same seat with him- 
 self, generally a double chair, while the 
 youngest of their children gambolled at 
 their feet. At a conversazione, the ladies 
 usually sat together, but at the banquet, 
 they seem, from some of the sculptures, to 
 be alternated with the sterner sex, as at a 
 dinner-table of the present day. Unlike the 
 women of other ancient nations, they were 
 allowed to diink wine, which, at a party, 
 was presented to them on their arrival by a 
 female slave, who, at the same time, ex- 
 pressed a wish that it might prove agreeable 
 and refreshing, while another attendant, 
 following immediately behind, politely of- 
 fered a napkin to wipe the lips. The privi- 
 lege of drinking is said to have been some- 
 times abused, and a satirical artist has 
 
DAiSrClNa GIRLS. 61 
 
 represented a lady suffering from an excess 
 of this kind, to the utter confusion of her 
 astonished maidens — but we may well be- 
 lieve, as the Egyptian sculptors were noto- 
 riously given to caricature, that this is a 
 libel, or, at least, a solitary instance of female 
 intemperance. 
 
 The Egyptians cherished a great admira- 
 tion of flowers, to the cultivation of which, 
 in the garden attached to the house, the 
 women of the family paid especial attention, 
 and when a festivity was celebrated, these 
 furnished them with bouquets, which it was 
 customary for the hostess and her maids to 
 present to the guests as they arrived. While 
 the banquet was preparing, or after it had 
 been discussed, the company were enter- 
 tained with music, dancing, and tumbling, 
 in all which performances, as in the other 
 arrangements, women took a prominent part. 
 The dancers were generally young girls, 
 selected for their grace or agility, and per- 
 haps their beauty. A light gauzy robe, 
 secured at the wrists and waist, enveloped 
 their forms, which, as they moved through 
 
62 FEMALE MUSICIANS. 
 
 the dance, were distinctly seen, giving an 
 ethereal character to the spectacle. They 
 sometimes accompanied their movements 
 with music, from an instrument resembling a 
 guitar, played by themselves as they danced, 
 or by clashing cymbals, or, where they de- 
 pended more on their own vivacity, they 
 kept time by snapping their fingers. The 
 dance was chiefly remarkable for its grace- 
 ful postures and rapid movements, though 
 expressive gestures, now sentimental, now 
 ludicrous, added to its effect, and elicited 
 the applause of the spectators. In the 
 tumbling performances, women, rendered 
 supple by a severe training, revolved over 
 and over like a wheel, while others were 
 extended on the floor, with their hands held 
 up by men, who, bending down, swung them 
 round and round with incredible velocity. 
 Egypt also boasted its cantatrices, some of 
 Avhom, as among ourselves, were of foreign 
 extraction, and hence were no doubt more 
 popular. As musicians, their Avomen ex- 
 celled, it would seem, on the instrument 
 resembling the guitar, though they also 
 
WOMEN" AT FESTIVALS. 63 
 
 played the harp, lyre, tambourine, and cym- 
 bals. It does not appear that they per- 
 formed on the flute and pipe, which were in 
 early use among the Egyptians, though pro- 
 bably played only by men. 
 
 Women regularly participated in the 
 public festivals ; and Herodotus describes, 
 with his usual quaint brevity, their share in 
 the festival of Diana, at the city of Bubas- 
 tis, which, however, does not apply to the 
 day of Egypt's prime. " Now when they 
 are being conveyed to the city Bubastis," 
 says the historian, "they act as follows; 
 for men and women embark together, and 
 great numbers of both sexes in every barge : 
 some of the women have castanets on which 
 they play, and the men play on the flute 
 during the whole voyage : the rest of the 
 women and men sing, and clap their hands 
 together at the same time. When in the 
 course of the passage they come to any town 
 they lay their barge near to land, and do as 
 follows : some of the women do as I have 
 described : others shout and scoff at the 
 women of the place : some dance, and others 
 
64 RELIGIOUS SISTERHOOD. 
 
 stand up . . . this they do at every town by 
 the river side." 
 
 Like most of the old religions, the creed 
 of Egypt, while reserving the hierarchical 
 functions to men, admitted women to sacred 
 ofiQces, and the Pallacides were selected 
 from the families of the highest nobles, 
 and even of Kings. The sistra was only 
 intrusted to the wives and daughters of 
 the chief pontiff, or to ladies of royal ex- 
 traction, and, indeed, was frequently carried 
 by the queen herself. A place of retire- 
 'ment for women, in some degree resembling 
 a Roman Catholic convent, but not entailing 
 a vow of celibacy, was attached to the prin- 
 cipal religious edifices, and formed a sort of 
 school, at which women were instructed in 
 the duties of the temple. "When their edu- 
 cation was completed, they ofBciated as 
 priestesses and minstrels, took part in the 
 sacred processions, and filled other and less 
 important ofBces connected with the celebra- 
 tion of public worship. 
 
 The amusements of women were various, 
 and give a favourable idea of the character 
 
FEMALE DIVERSIONS. 65 
 
 of the people, which, far from being of the 
 gloomy cast usually supposed, was extremely 
 gay and sprightly. Besides the resources of 
 music, singing, and dancing, the two last of 
 which were undoubtedly cultivated by ladies 
 of the highest rank, they enjoyed, as we 
 have seen, the greatest relaxations of social 
 intercourse, indulged in calls and parties, 
 partook of banquets, drove out in their 
 chariots, joined in pleasure-excursions on 
 the Nile, and shared in public festivities. 
 At home, their favourite diversion was the 
 game at ball, which, from the play and sup- 
 pleness which it gave to the limbs, and the 
 activity it required — for it embraced both 
 running and leaping,, promoted a freedom of 
 carriage especially captivating in the female 
 form. Dice, though a popular game with 
 the Egyptians, were chiefly appropriated to 
 men, but ladies often amused themselves at 
 draughts, and a sculpture in a royal tomb 
 represents a King playing at draughts with 
 the dames of the court. 
 
 Embroidery, stringing of beads, needle- 
 work, and the flower-garden, afforded, as in 
 
66 EMPLOYMENTS OP WOMEN. 
 
 our own day, attractive occupations to ladies 
 of rank, when they could spare time from 
 the pleasures of society, or the enticing calls 
 of the toilet. Their needles, some speci- 
 mens of which have been discovered, were 
 of bronze, and were evidently used with 
 great dexterity. Women of the humbler 
 classes occupied themselves with the spindle, 
 but, according to Herodotus, were not sub- 
 jected to the severer labour of the loom, 
 which was undertaken entirely by men. A 
 portion of the day, the same authority in- 
 forms us, was devoted by the mistress of 
 the house to marketing, and in the evening, 
 it was customary for the women of the 
 family to sit on the roof, and converse with 
 their neighbours. The only professional 
 calling assigned to women was that of the 
 accoucheur, which the prejudice of ancient 
 times pronounced their exclusive oflBce. 
 
 In rural districts women were still em- 
 ployed in the unsuitable occupations of pas- 
 toral days — the tending of sheep and cattle, 
 and the carrying of water ; and to these 
 were gradually added other duties of the 
 
WOMEN AT FUNERALS. 67 
 
 farm, such as weeding, sheafing, and glean- 
 ing. During a period of many ages, how- 
 ever, all heavy and laborious tasks were 
 assigned by Egyptian usage to the more 
 vigorous hands of man. 
 
 As woman presided over the birth, so she 
 was appointed a special mourner at the 
 death, and at the imposing funeral, of the 
 ancient Egyptian. When a soul had de- 
 parted, women, hired for the occasion, 
 poured forth, in a mournful train, from the 
 house, throwing dust on their heads, and 
 vehemently lamenting the deceased, whose 
 virtues they proclaimed in a sorrowful and 
 passionate chant. This ceremony was re- 
 peated daily during the ten weeks that the 
 body remained in the hands of the embalm- 
 ers, when the women of the family, having 
 their hair bound up with fillets, and their 
 busts exposed, followed it to the tomb, in 
 company with the other relatives, beating 
 their naked bosoms as they walked along, 
 and singing a dirge suitable to the melan- 
 choly occasion. 
 
 Sepulture did not always follow imme- 
 
68 EMEALMENT OP WOMEN. 
 
 diately on embalming ; and an instance is 
 recorded, in a sepulchral inscription, of a 
 woman remaining unburied for a whole year, 
 intimating the unwillingness of her sur- 
 viving relatives, perhaps of an attached hus- 
 band, to part with her remains. Bodies 
 were usually* given to the embalmers as 
 soon as life expired •, but this was not in- 
 variably the case, and Herodotus mentions 
 that those of women of rank, or who had 
 been remarkable for their beauty, were re- 
 tained for several days — a dangerous usage 
 in the warm climate of Egypt. 
 
 It was natural that a people who treated 
 the softer sex with so ^much consideration, 
 should place a high value on virtue ; and we 
 find that the seventh commandment of the 
 Hebrews was a statutory law with the Egyp- 
 tians, who punished its violation with great 
 severity. Yet as death was the penalty 
 enforced by some contemporary nations, we 
 can recognise even here the influence of a 
 superior civilization, which, though cruel, 
 refrained from the last rigour. The law of 
 Egypt deprived the offender, not of her 
 
DECLINE OF VIRTITE. 69 
 
 life, but of her beauty ; and by condemning 
 her to lose her nose, made her, at the same 
 time, a perpetual witness to her own degra- 
 dation. 
 
 But the wise institutions which obtained 
 for woman the place of honour in Egypt, 
 and, as a consequence, secure(l that favoured 
 land all the blessings of her refining in- 
 fluence, were gradually corrupted : the craft 
 of the priest converted religion into an 
 extravagant superstition ; and the evil na- 
 ture of man, no longer restrained by re- 
 ligious scruples, consummated the national 
 ruin. The practice of polygamy, in the 
 form already described, lowered the dignity, 
 as well as vitiated the character of the sex, 
 and woman oppressed became woman de- 
 based. It is impossible to turn over the 
 pages of Herodotus, to read his account of 
 the Bacchanalian procession, and the episode 
 of King Ehampsinitus, without becoming 
 painfully sensible of the low condition to 
 which the women of Egypt were ultimately 
 reduced. Their treatment, indeed, grew 
 every day worse, keeping pace with the 
 
70 PUNTSHMENTS OF WOMEN. 
 
 decline and corruption of the nation, till, at 
 last, we behold her enduring cruel punish- 
 ments, which modern justice withholds from 
 the vilest female criminals. At one time 
 she is publicly beaten with a stick; at 
 another, loaded with overwhelming burdens, 
 buried in a dungeon, or sent to work at the 
 mines — not, as might be supposed, for 
 any guilt of her own, but in expiation of 
 the crime of a brother, a husband, or a 
 father. Diodorus has drawn a touching 
 picture of their sufferings at the mines. — 
 " No attention," he observes, " is paid to 
 their persons ; they have not even a piece 
 of rag to cover themselves ; and so wretched 
 is their condition, that every one who wit- 
 nesses it deplores the excessive misery they 
 endure. They are allowed no rest or inter- 
 mission from toil: neither the weakness of 
 age nor woman's infirmities are considered ; 
 all are driven to their work with the lash, 
 till, at length, overcome by the insupport- 
 able weight of their afflictions, they die in 
 the midst of their tasks : so that they long 
 for death as far preferable to life." 
 
JEALOUSY OF CASSAJSTDANE. 71 
 
 The beauty and personal graces of Egyp- 
 tian women, celebrated alike by historians 
 and by poets, were pre-eminent in the East 
 from the days of Hagar, and on two occa- 
 sions, were an indirect cause of great na- 
 tional calamities. According to an old 
 tradition, the charms of the Egyptian wife 
 of Cyrus, by estranging him from Cassan- 
 dane, the mother of his children, provoked 
 the invasion of Cambyses. A Persian lady 
 of rank attached to the court, having com- 
 plimented Cassandane on the loveliness of 
 her offspring, the Queen, with some bitter- 
 ness, replied, " Though I am the mother of 
 such children, Cyrus holds me in disdain, 
 and honours her whom he has obtained from 
 Egypt ;" on which Cambyses, then only ten 
 years of age, is reported to have said, 
 " Therefore,' mother, when I am a man, I 
 will turn all Egypt upside down." 
 
 Another account attributes the invasion 
 of the Persian conqueror to the influence 
 Of Mtatis, daughter of Apries, a deposed 
 King of Egypt. Cambyses, on ascending 
 the throne of Persia, sent to Amasis, who 
 
72 STORY OF NITATIS. 
 
 had recently usurped the Egyptian sceptre, 
 to demand his daughter in marriage, a re- 
 quisition with which the tyrant was unwill- 
 ing to comply, as Cambyses being already 
 married, his daughter, entitled by her rank 
 to share a crown, would enter the Persian's 
 family on an inferior footing. But dreading 
 the resentment of Cambyses, he sent Xitatis 
 — who, as the heir of Apries, ought to have 
 succeeded to the throne — to the great Ring's 
 court, representing her as his own child ; 
 and Cambyses would have been cajoled by 
 the artifice, if the princess herself, anxious 
 to be revenged on the destroyer of her 
 family, had not undeceived him. " When 
 the monarch," observes Herodotus, " sa- 
 luted her, addressing her by her father's 
 name, she said to him, ' 0, King ! you do 
 not perceive that you have been imposed 
 upon by Amasis, who, having dressed me 
 in rich attire, sent me to you, presenting me 
 as his own daughter ; whereas, in truth, -I 
 am the daughter of Apries, whom he, though 
 he was his own master, put to death, after 
 he had incited the Egyptians to revolt.'" 
 
DAUGHTER OF PSAMMENITUS. 73 
 
 Such a treacherous action, involving so 
 gross an affront, greatly irritated Cambyses, 
 and led to the sanguinary battle at the 
 mouth of the Pelusian Nile, in which he 
 completely vanquished Psammenitus, who 
 had succeeded his father Amasis, and over- 
 threw the ancient monarchy of Egypt. 
 
 A forcible illustration of the barbarity of 
 those times is afforded by the cruel treat- 
 ment inflicted on the daughter of Psam- 
 menitus, who, when the conqueror had cap- 
 tured Memphis, was dressed in the garb of 
 a slave, and compelled, with other maidens 
 of rank, to carry a pitcher of water through 
 the principal strets o f the city, while her 
 father and his court, seated on a high plat- 
 form, were condemned to witness her humi- 
 liation, and listen to the lamentations of her 
 afflicted companions. The fallen King is 
 said to have borne this calamity, as well as 
 the execution of his son, with a mournful 
 dignity, which surprised and touched his 
 conqueror, but when a venerable courtier, 
 who had long been his friend, and had lost 
 everything he possessed in his service, was 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
74 CLEOPATRA. 
 
 led by in the rags of a beggar, lie burst into 
 tears, exclaiming to Cambyses, who de- 
 manded the reason of this sudden outburst, 
 " Son of Cyrus, the calamities of my family 
 are too great to be expressed by lamenta- 
 tion ; but the griefs of my friend are worthy 
 of tears ; for he has fallen from abundance 
 and prosperity into beggary and want" — a 
 noble reply, which for a time induced the 
 victor to spare the life of his captive, though 
 it was afterwards forfeited to his jealousy 
 and suspicion. 
 
 The beauty and blandishments of Cleopatra 
 will remain a proverb to latest ages, and her 
 mental acquirements attest, by their extent 
 and variety, that the degraded condition 
 to which woman had been reduced, in her 
 moral and social relations, though it had 
 destroyed her sense of virtue, had not im- 
 paired her natural capacity. Such was the 
 learning of this princess, that, like our own 
 Elizabeth, she could give audience to the 
 ambassadors of seven different nations in 
 rheir native tongues, and, in the midst of 
 her vicious excesses, the love of literature 
 
HER MODE OP LIFE, 75 
 
 maintained such an ascendancy over her, 
 that at a great cost, she enriched the library 
 of Alexandria with the manuscript treasures 
 of Pergamus. She made art the minister to 
 her pleasures as well as the handmaid of 
 taste ; and luxury exhausted its devices to 
 pander to her caprice. A bark resplendent 
 with gold bore her couch of down over the 
 summer waves of the Nile ; precious odours 
 perfamed the refreshing breeze, which 
 swelled its silken sails, and the strokes of the 
 rowers, as they glided through the stream, 
 kept time to instruments of music. At her 
 sumptuous banquets, she surpassed the prodi- 
 gality of LucuUus, and in the goblets handed 
 to her guests, melted pearls gave a doubtful 
 flavour to the wine. Her irresistible charms, 
 aided by the spell of her conversation, made 
 a prey of Caesar, who, after subjugating the 
 world, suffered himself to be enslaved by a 
 woman ; and Antony, maddened by her love, 
 and ruined by her treachery, had his pant- 
 ing frame drawn up by a cord into a tower, 
 that he might breathe his last at her feet. 
 There, bidding a reluctant adieu to the 
 
 E 2 
 
76 
 
 DEATH OF CLEOPATRA. 
 
 pomps and vanities which had been the bane 
 of her life — with her favourite maidens 
 already lying dead at her side — the last 
 monarch of Egypt, pressing a venomous asp 
 to her bosom, perished by her own hand — a 
 notable example of the mutability of human 
 fortune. 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE HEBREWS. 
 
 The history of the Jews is inextricably 
 associated with that of Egypt — iu the ad- 
 ventures of their ancestors, in their first 
 migration, their settlement in Goshen, their 
 long bondage, and their deliverance, and, 
 subsequently, in their wars, their alliances, 
 and their disasters. It might be expected, 
 therefore, that they should be sensibly im- 
 pressed with many of the customs of the 
 ascendant people, particularly in domestic 
 life, and in the moral relations of woman ; 
 but their usages, except in some trifling 
 instances, were really wholly different, and, 
 under the Mosaic code, the position of woman 
 especially was peculiar and distinct. 
 
78 HEBREW WOMEN. 
 
 But it was not only in reference to the law 
 that the sex in Israel stood alone. The long- 
 promised Deliverer of mankind was to be of 
 the Jewish race, the offspring of a Jewish 
 woman ; and as every one, from the chil- 
 dren of the chief men to the humblest hand- 
 maid, might hope to be the mother of the 
 mighty child, such an expectation exercised 
 a permanent influence on the beauty, as well 
 as on the character, feelings, and aspirations 
 of the daughters of Israel. It is not among 
 the existing descendants of Abraham that 
 we are to look for the Hebrew type of 
 antiquity ; for though it may still be 
 detected in the Oriental Jew, the Israelites 
 of the West retain, in their skiister features, 
 no trace of their origin. Centuries of op- 
 pression, engendering an abject servility, 
 and inveterate habits of sordid dealing, have 
 completely changed their once handsome 
 physiognomy ; and we look in vain for the 
 Arab brow, the blue eye, the dazzling com- 
 plexion, which, as history affirms, character- 
 ized the Esthers and Judiths of old, and 
 which still meet the eye of the traveller in 
 
CODE OF MOSES. 79 
 
 the deserted streets of Bethlehem. This 
 beauty of the Jewish woman was, as ah'eady 
 observed, heightened by her constant recol- 
 lection of the destiny reserved for her — 
 which was kept before her from her earliest 
 years, introduced into the sacred canticles, 
 and preached in the tabernacle, the syna- 
 gogue, and the temple. The reflections thus 
 inspired in her mind, became a source of 
 moral elevation, fruitful of every virtue, 
 because they created and insured self-respect. 
 The laws relating to women were severe, 
 but were couched in a just, considerate, and 
 protecting spirit. Enforcing a high standard 
 of public virtue, and punishing with death 
 the infringement of the marriage tie, they 
 yet, as in Exodus xxi. 16, 17, showed com- 
 passion for human infirmity, while in Levi- ' 
 ticus xix. 20, they threw a kindly mantle 
 over the weakness of the bondwoman. The 
 widow, left peculiarly defenceless in a 
 pastoral community, was protected by the 
 most stringent enactments, and God repeat- 
 edly proclaimed himself her guardian and 
 avenger. " Thou shalt not afflict any 
 
80 LEVITE WOMEN". 
 
 widow," was the emphatic language of the 
 statute. Exodus xxii. 22. "If thou afflict 
 them in any wise, and they cry at all unto 
 me, I will surely hear their cry. And my 
 wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you 
 with the sword, and your wives shall be 
 widows, and your children fatherless." Nor 
 is it accounted the least of the offences of 
 the Israelites, whenever they fall away from 
 the path of duty, that they persecuted and 
 oppressed the widow, thus violating the law 
 both of Grod and man. 
 
 The women of the tribe of Levi bore a 
 part in the ministrations of religion, and 
 the holy mantle of prophecy devolved on 
 Miriam, Deborah, and other venerable ma- 
 trons, the oracles and sybils of the early 
 world. Maidens of priestly extraction, espe- 
 cially trained for the purpose, officiated in 
 the religious services of the tabernacle and 
 temple, as musicians, dancers, and choristers. 
 In the 15th chapter of Exodus, after the pas- 
 sage of the Eed Sea, we are told that "Miriam 
 the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a 
 timbrel in her hand, and all the women went 
 
BAND OF SINGERS. 81 
 
 out after her with timbrels and with dances. 
 And Miriam answered them, ' Sing ye to the 
 Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.' " 
 Music and singing entered largely into the 
 religious, as into the social and domestic, 
 rejoicings of the Jews. For the first, the 
 book of Psalms, embracing such a variety 
 of themes, and the numerous canticles of 
 Holy Writ, afforded the priestesses a wide 
 range of subjects ; and when a domestic 
 festivity was celebrated, songs were com- 
 posed expressly for the occasion. When 
 David arranged the services of the Temple, 
 the Levite women, including both the wives 
 and daughters of priests, were formed into 
 the seventh band of singers, and placed 
 under the direction of Shemiramoth ; and 
 Ezra, on re-establishing public worship at 
 Jerusalem, attached to the restored Temple 
 a train of two hundred ' singing women." 
 
 The manner in which the musicians 
 entered the sanctuary, in the solemn pro- 
 essions, is described in the Psalms — "The 
 singers go before, the n^instrels follow after, 
 in the midst are the damsels playing the 
 
 E 3 
 
82 DAUGHTEES OP PRIESTS. 
 
 timbrels." Of the instruments of music, the 
 harp, if we may judge from the precedence 
 assigned to it, was the most usual and the 
 most popular ; but the Scriptures enumerate 
 also the nabel, psaltery, lute, dulcimer, and 
 timbrels. Women are only mentioned as 
 playing the timbrels and harp ; and the 
 daughters of Sion, during their captivity at 
 Babylon, are represented as hanging their 
 " harps upon the willows." Probably the 
 lute also was played by women. 
 
 The wives and daughters of priests, occu- 
 pying a position calculated to attach great 
 weight to their example, were required to 
 be particularly blameless in their morals and 
 conduct, and the law visited their derelictions 
 with inexorable severity. For the crime 
 overlooked in ordinary cases, the daughter 
 of a priest was to be burnt aJive, a punish- 
 ment assigned by the Mosaic code to no 
 other offender. A. priest could not wed a 
 divorced woman ; and the high-priest, hold- 
 ing the ofiBce of greatest sanctity, was 
 prohibited from contracting a union with a 
 widow. 
 
LAW OF DIVORCE. 83 
 
 The Israelites were forbidden to inter- 
 marry with other nations, as it was foreseen 
 by Grod, and even foretold, that if they 
 formed such alliances, they would be se- 
 duced by their wives into the idolatrous 
 usages prevalent in surrounding countries. 
 Moses himself was reproached by Miriam 
 (Numbers xii. 1) " because of the Ethiopian 
 woman he had married," and who was no 
 doubt the Princess Tharbis mentioned by 
 Josephus ; and Balaam, after finding his 
 sacrifices and enchantments in the camp of 
 Moab had no effect, counselled Balak to 
 decoy the Israelites to their ruin through the 
 Midianitish damsels : so early did man con- 
 vert woman into an instrument of evil, though 
 he remained insensible of her far greater 
 influence, under proper tuition, for good. 
 
 The great hardship of the Mosaic statutes 
 as they affected woman, was the facility 
 afforded to divorce, which Divine authority, 
 while ignoring the practice, declared to be 
 intended as a punishment — " because of the 
 hardness of your hearts;" and if all its 
 effects are maturely considered, no one will 
 
84 MAIDEN LIFE. 
 
 doubt that it worked out its own retribution, 
 contributing not a little, as time rolled on, 
 to the eventual degeneracy of the race. 
 Such being the result naturally to he ex- 
 pected, it may be asked why Moses sanc- 
 tioned so unjust, and so pernicious a statute; 
 but if this were a suitable place to discuss 
 the subject, reasons might be advanced why 
 mankind should be taught, in the history of 
 a chosen nation, that every blessing which 
 Providence can bestow, whether of territory, 
 government, or religion, will fail to preserve 
 a people unmindful of the rights of nature, 
 and who, in the outraged name of law, 
 trample on the weakness of woman. 
 
 Marriages are contracted in the East at a 
 very early age, and the Jewish maidens, 
 like those of the neighbouring nations, were 
 often betrothed in their twelfth year. Up 
 to that time, they received the name of 
 Alma, virgin or shut up, in reference to the 
 strict seclusion in which they lived, and 
 their tender years are denoted in the phrase 
 "spouse of one's youth." At the betrothal, 
 the amount of the dowry, a settlement made 
 
MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. 85 
 
 on the bride by the bridegroom, was agreed 
 upon, and the conditions of the union were 
 often committed to writing. The bride- 
 groom also presented the bride with a piece 
 of silver, exclaiming " Eeceive this piece of 
 silver as a pledge that you shall become my 
 spouse." For a spinster, the marriage 
 ceremonies, as in the time of the Patriarchs, 
 extended over seven days, but in the case of 
 a widow, they were limited to three. The 
 wedding of Samson (Judges xiv.), and 
 that of Tobias (Tobit vii.) with the Can- 
 ticle of Solomon, and, lastly, the Parables 
 of our Lord, illustrate most fully the form 
 and character of the nuptial festivities. In 
 the Canticle of Solomon, celebrating the 
 monarch's espousals with the daughter of 
 Pharaoh, the proceedings of each day are 
 minutely related, and the varied emotions of 
 the lovers described. It was not till the 
 third morning, we learn from this epitha- 
 lamium, that the impatient bridegroom was 
 permitted to see the face of his mistress, and 
 then she coquettishly drops her veil, as if 
 unconsciously, to allow him a glimpse of her 
 
86 BRIDE OF SOLOMON. 
 
 features. This was tlie most eventful in- 
 cident in the life of an Eastern woman, for, 
 whatever her charms, she could not be 
 certain, while they remained concealed, that 
 she should secure the admiration or the 
 love of her husband, and hence would either 
 have before her the cruel prospect of divorce, 
 or at the last moment, when her engagement 
 and betrothal had become public, might be 
 exposed to the insult of rejection. The 
 royal poet has delicately touched on the 
 misgivings of his bride, at this interesting 
 moment, when, in her modest estimate of 
 her attractions, she doubted the efifect of her 
 dark complexion. "Look not upon me," 
 she exclaims: "because lam black, because 
 the sun hath looked upon me my mother's 
 children were angry with me: they made 
 me keeper of the vineyards, but mine own 
 vineyards have I not kept." 
 
 On the evening of the seventh day, the 
 bride was escorted from the residence of 
 her father to her future home by a grand 
 procession, composed of the bridegroom 
 and his friends, who, as they proceeded, 
 
THE WBDDIN& FEAST. 87 
 
 uttered exclamations of joy, proclaiming 
 the approach of their favoured companion : 
 and on nearing the dwelling, the train was 
 met by the maiden friends of the bride, 
 carrying lanterns and joining in the festal 
 shout. They all entered the house together, 
 when the door was closed : and each indi- 
 vidual, throwing over his shoulder a kerchief 
 or scarf — a wedding garment — followed the 
 bridal pair to the banquet, which was pre- 
 sided over by the most intimate friend of 
 the bridegroom, the governor of the feast. 
 Riddles were then proposed, as at the 
 nuptials of Samson; and the bridegroom, 
 as on that occasion, presented orna- 
 ments and trinkets to their successful ex- 
 pounders. 
 
 These customs, which prevailed from time 
 immemorial among the Jews, were followed 
 by most of the Oriental nations, and, indeed, 
 are stiU practised in many parts of the East. 
 Ward, in his " View of the History of the 
 Hindoos," gives the following corresponding 
 account of a Hindoo marrriage. — "The 
 bridegroom came from a distance, and the 
 bride lived at Serampore, to which place the 
 
88 MARRIAGE PROCESSION, 
 
 bridegroom was to come by water. After 
 waiting two or three hours, at length near 
 midnight it was announced as if in the very 
 words of Scripture, ' Behold, the bride- 
 groom Cometh: go ye out to meet him.' 
 AU the persons employed now lighted their 
 lamps, and ran with them in their hands to 
 fill up their stations in the procession : some 
 of them had lost their lights, and were un- 
 prepared, but it was then too late to seek 
 them, and the cavalcade moved forward to 
 the house of the bride .... The bridegroom 
 was carried in the arms of a friend and 
 placed in a superb seat in the midst of the 
 company, where he sat a short time, and 
 then went into the house, the door of which 
 was immediately shut, and guarded by 
 Sepoys. I and others expostulated with 
 the doorkeepers, but in vain. Never was I 
 so struck with our Lord's beautiful parable 
 as at this moment : the door was shut ! " 
 
 On the death of her husband, the Jewish 
 woman, if left childless, offered herself in 
 marriage to his eldest brother, or to his next 
 of kin ; and if the successive relatives of 
 the deceased declined the overture, she 
 
JEWISH LABIES, 89 
 
 retained her husband's estate. An instance 
 of this custom, and the ceremonies attending 
 it, is recorded in the 4th chapter of Euth, 
 and affords a curious glimpse of the moral 
 perceptions of the day. 
 
 The bridal dress of a Princess, or Jewish 
 lady of rank, whose parents possessed suffi- 
 cient means, was of the most sumptuous 
 description, as may be seen from the account 
 given of that worn by the bride of Solomon, 
 in the Canticles ; and the various articles 
 enumerated show the additions which femi- 
 nine taste had already made to the toilet. 
 The body was now clothed in a bodice, 
 ascending to the net-work which inclosed, 
 rather than concealed, the swelling bust; 
 and jewelled clasps and earrings, with 
 strings of pearls and chains of gold, gave a 
 dazzling effect to Oriental beauty. In Solo- 
 mon's reign, silk is said to have been added 
 to the resources of the toilet ; and the sex 
 owe to a sister — Pamphyla, the daughter 
 of Patous — the discovery of this exquisite 
 material, in which woman wrested from 
 nature a dress worthy of her charms. 
 
90 COSTUME OP JUDITH. 
 
 The ordinary attire of Jewish women was 
 made of linen, usually white, without any 
 intermixture of colours, though, in accord- 
 ance with the injunction in Numbers xv. 38, 
 they made " fringes in the border of their 
 garments," and "put upon the fringe of the 
 borders a riband of blue." Judith, when 
 she sought to captivate Holo femes, "put on 
 her garments of gladness, wherewith she was 
 clad during the life of Manasses her husband : 
 and she took sandals upon her feet, and put 
 about her her bracelets and her chains and 
 her rings and her earrings, and all her orna- 
 ments, and decked herself bravely to allure 
 the eyes of all men that should see her." 
 G-emmed bangles encircled her ankles, at- 
 tracting the glance to her delicate white feet ; 
 and Holofernes, by an Oriental figure of 
 speech, is said to have been "ravished by 
 the beauty of her sandals." Like the belles 
 of Egypt, she did not disdain, in setting off 
 her charms, to have recourse to perfumes 
 and cosmetics, and, previously to setting 
 out, she "anointed herself with precious 
 ointment." In another place, Jezebel is 
 
JEWISH TOILET. 91 
 
 said to "paint her eyelids," and Solomon, 
 in the Proverbs, in describing the deceitful 
 woman, adjures his son not to be " taken 
 with her eyelids," evidently alluding to the 
 use of coUyrium. The Jewish beauty owed 
 no slight obligation to her luxuriant tresses, 
 which were decorated with waving plumes 
 and strings of pearls; and in allusion to 
 this custom, followed among the tribes from 
 time immemorial, St. Paul affirms that " a 
 woman's ornament is her hair." Judith 
 " braided the hair of her head, and put a tire 
 upon it •," and the head-dress of Pharaoh's 
 daughter, in the Canticles, is compared by 
 Solomon to Carmel. No mention is made 
 of Judith's mirror, but it was undoubtedly 
 made of brass, like those described in Exo- 
 dus xxxviii. 8, as "the looking-glasses of 
 the women which Assembled at the door of 
 the congregation." 
 
 The garments of a widow, as of mourners 
 generally, were made of sackcloth; and 
 Judith wore also " a shirt of hair." The 
 term of mourning depended on the feelings 
 of the bereaved woman, or, perhaps, in 
 
92 WIDOWS AND MOUKNEES. 
 
 some measure, on her means, and the widow 
 of Manasses mourned Ms death " three years 
 and four months." Nor was this grief a 
 mere form; for "she fasted all the days of 
 her widowhood, save the eves of the sab- 
 baths, and the sabbaths, and the eves of the 
 new moons, and the new moons, and the 
 feasts and solemn days of the house of 
 Israel." As in Egypt, and. indeed most 
 Eastern countries, women attended the 
 family of a deceased Jew as hired mourners, 
 and after the funeral, his female relatives 
 frequently resorted to the grave to shed 
 their tears over his last resting-place. Thus 
 Mary repaired to the sepulchre of Lazarus, 
 while Martha, confining herself to the house, 
 received the condolence of her friends ; and, 
 on a more memorable occasion, Mary Mag- 
 dalen and other women attended at the 
 grave of the Eedeemer. 
 
 The employments of women varied with 
 their station, and, among the higher classes, 
 needlework and embroidery, bestowed pro- 
 fusely on their own apparel, were favourite 
 occupations. The mother of Samuel made 
 
A JEWISH HOUSEWIFE. 93 
 
 him a coat, which she took with her 
 every year to Jerusalem ; and, in later 
 times, Dorcas prepared clothes for the 
 poor. Spinning was also considered a 
 feminine employment; and Moses records 
 (Exodus XXXV.) that "all the women who 
 were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, 
 and brought that which they had spun, both 
 of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of 
 fine linen. And all the women whose heart 
 stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair." 
 The virtuous matron in the Proverbs, though 
 mistress of a large household, and having 
 servants "clothed in scarlet," is represented 
 as seeking "wool and flax, and working 
 willingly with her hands. . . . She riseth 
 also while it is yet night, and giveth meat 
 to her household, and a portion to her 
 maidens. She considereth a field, and 
 buyeth it : with the fruit of her hands she 
 planteth a vineyard. . . . She layeth her 
 hands to the spindle, and her hand holdeth 
 the distaff. . . . She maketh herself cover- 
 ings of tapestry : her clothing is silk and 
 purple. . . . She maketh fine linen and 
 
94 WIPE OF TOBIT. 
 
 selleth it, and delivereth girdles unto the 
 merchant." That it was customary for 
 women to sell the produce of their spindles 
 we learn also from Tolnt, who, during the 
 period of his distress, was supported by the 
 labours of his wife. " And my wife Anna," 
 says the suffering prophet, " did take 
 women's work to do. And when she sent 
 them home to their owners, they paid her 
 wages, and gave her also besides a kid." 
 Another occupation of the Jewish housewife 
 was grinding corn, which is referred to in 
 the memorable prophecy of our Saviour — 
 "two women shall be grinding at a mill: 
 the one shall be taken, and the other left." 
 And in rural districts, carrying water, as in 
 the days of the Patriarchs, continued, and 
 still continues, to be one of the principal 
 duties of the female members of the 
 Jewish household; and is brought forcibly 
 before us in the case of the woman of 
 Samaria. 
 
 Of the accomplishments of Hebrew women, 
 dancing, next to music, was the most popular, 
 and perhaps the most usual. The charming 
 
FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 95 
 
 art was cultivated by both sexes, and by 
 ladies of rank as well as by the poor ; and 
 the Princess Salome, the daughter of He- 
 rodias, who claimed the cruel guerdon of John 
 the Baptist's head, was the Taglioni of her 
 time. Dancing was associated by the Jews 
 with the holy festivals, and introduced into 
 the public rejoicings ; thus, in the passage 
 in Exodus already quoted, describing the 
 exultation of the Israelites at their escape 
 from Pharaoh, it is said that Miriam and 
 the other women danced to the music of 
 timbrels ; the ill-fated daughter of Jephthah 
 went to meet the returning hero " with tim- 
 brels and with dances;" and, lastly, Judith, 
 on the success of her project for destroying 
 the Assyrians, was received with similar 
 honours. "All the women of Israel," we 
 are told, "made a dance among them for 
 her, and she took branches in her hand, and 
 gave also to the women that were with her. 
 And they put a garland of olive upon her 
 head, and upon her maid that was with her, 
 and she went before all the people in the 
 dance." 
 
96 FEMALE CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 The part assigned to woman in the Jewish 
 commonwealth was a most important one, 
 extending from the sacred offices of religion 
 to the most menial employments ; and their 
 character and intellect rendered them equal 
 to any position. In the domestic virtues 
 they were excelled by none ; and Michal 
 shielding David from the anger of her father, 
 Abigail interceding with him for her morose 
 husband, Hannah making a coat for her little 
 son, and the two sisters mourning for Lazar 
 rus, with other Scriptural incidents, afford 
 us touching examples of their tenderness 
 and goodness. In times of public danger, 
 their patriotism and love of country were 
 equally conspicuous ; and who can read the 
 pathetic lamentation of the daughters of 
 Zion, as they sat on the distant banks of 
 the Euphrates, without emotion ? Nov were 
 they wanting in bolder qualities, and on no 
 less than four occasions, women were the 
 deliverers of Israel. The names of Jael, 
 Deborah, Esther, and Judith, reverenced 
 in their own day, claim the respect and 
 veneration of all posterity. 
 
DEMORALIZATION OF WOMEN. 97 
 
 Yet it was in this land that, by the evasion 
 and the abuse of the laws, woman was held 
 in rigorous, if not cruel subjection, and her 
 very name made a term of reproach. Even 
 in those cases where her heroic devotion 
 saved the commonwealth, it was disdainfully 
 said that Israel was " delivered by the hands 
 of a woman," as if this fact, instead of being 
 a disgrace to the Hebrews themselves, added 
 to the humiliation of the enemy. Marriage 
 soon became a mere form, and, at length, 
 was degraded into a bargain. What can we 
 say to such a contract as that described in 
 the third chapter of Hosea, which is stigma- 
 tized, in the most opprobrious terms, as a 
 prevailing usage of the time ? Yet this de- 
 moralization of woman was not only tolerated, 
 but sanctioned, by the corrupt and misguided 
 authorities, who, deaf alike to the remon- 
 strances of Heaven and the voice of nature, 
 could not be persuaded that they were, by 
 this complicity, fostering the germ of na- 
 tional decay. 
 
 The marriage-tie could not only be severed 
 at the will of the husband, but a parent was 
 
 VOL. I. p 
 
98 REPUDIATION OF HUSBANDS. 
 
 at liberty, if the connexion became dis- 
 tasteful to him, to reclaim his married 
 daughter, and even to give her to another 
 consort. Several instances of this custom 
 are on record ; and the case of Michal, the 
 daughter of Saul, whom the King took away 
 from David, and gave to the more courtly 
 Adriel, will suggest itself to the feeblest 
 memory. The practice was a vestige of the 
 ancient Canaanitish code, which was still 
 recognised among that race, from whom it 
 was borrowed, with other barbarous usages, 
 by their conquerors. Thus the Timnite 
 father-in-law of Samson disposed of his 
 daughter to one of his own countrymen, 
 after the Jewish hero, having celebrated the 
 wedding festivities, had been received as 
 her husband, though in this instance both 
 father and daughter incurred a cruel retri- 
 iDution. 
 
 The history of Herod affords us a sad 
 picture of the helpless condition of woman 
 in the families of the Jewish Kings. Alex- 
 andra, daughter of Hyrcanus, and widow of 
 Alexander, of the august house of Aristo- 
 
QUEEN" MARIAMNE. 99 
 
 bulus, herself a princess of extraordinary 
 beauty and capacity, was the mother of two 
 lovely children, a son and daughter, who, 
 next to Hyrcanus, were the lawful heirs of 
 the Hebrew crown. The sceptre of Israel, 
 however, had been seized by Herod, whosQ 
 usurpation was legalized by the unscrupulous 
 cupidity of Marc Antony, the ruling autho- 
 rity in the East ; and the venerable Hyr- 
 canus and his grandchildren were left to 
 the mercy of the usurper, who had waded to 
 the throne through blood. But woman, 
 with all her weakness, possesses a mightier 
 power than armies, to which the proudest 
 conquerors must succumb ; and the infamous 
 Herod, who stopped at no crime, and no 
 obstacle, was subdued by the soft eyes and 
 dazzling brow of Alexandra's daughter, the 
 peerless Mariamne. The enslaver of her 
 country became a suitor at the feet of this 
 defenceless maiden, and — for, in a woman's 
 eye, valour covers a multitude of defects — 
 won her favour, her hand, and her love. 
 
 The marriage was solemnized at Samaria, 
 whence the royal pair proceeded to Jeru- 
 
 f2 
 
100 mariamxe's brothee. 
 
 salem ; and here, at the earnest request of 
 Mariamne, and as a gratification to the Jews, 
 the monarch conferred the sacred dignity of 
 High-Priest on the youthful brother of his 
 bride, the Prince Aristobulus, who, on 
 account of his descent from their fallen 
 Kings and his rare personal attractions, was 
 regarded with secret hope and pride by the 
 Hebrew nation. 
 
 It was at the feast of the tabernacles that 
 the young pontiff first ofiiciated in the 
 temple, in the presence of the King and court, 
 and of worshippers from every part of Israel. 
 The scene and the occasion were equally 
 adapted to awaken the national instincts of 
 the Jews, and to deepen their sympathy for 
 the last representative of their ancient 
 monarchs. Between the cherubim of the 
 altar were spread, in costly array, those 
 hallowed vessels of gold and silver which 
 had caused such a terrible interruption at 
 Belshazzar's feast ; and flowers of every 
 hue were hung in festoons round the gilded 
 columns, or strewn over the tesselated pave- 
 ment, mingling their perfumes with the 
 
IMPOSING CEREMONY. 101 
 
 sanctified odours of the censer. Through 
 arch and aisle came the swelling chorus of 
 five hundred voices, in which the soft, full 
 tones of woman were predominant, while 
 harp, lute, and timbrels added their notes 
 to the thrilling concert. The ceiling of 
 azure and gold, reflecting the dazzling sun- 
 light, looked like a canopy of glory over- 
 head, while Herod and his men of war, in 
 their panoply of steel, the fair daughters of 
 Israel, with their charms scarcely shaded 
 by the dim veil, yet all yielding in beauty 
 to the queenly Mariamne, the gorgeously- 
 clad courtiers, the venerable sages of the 
 Sanhedrim, the throng of priests and holy 
 women, in vestments of spotless white, and 
 the motley crowd of worshippers, combined 
 to produce an imposing effect below. Aris- 
 tobulus, arrayed in the magnificent costume 
 of his office, stood in front of the altar ; and 
 wearing on his breast the oracle conse- 
 crated by Moses, and on his head the mitre 
 of Aaron, his tall form and seraphic counte- 
 nance enraptured the people, who gave 
 utterance to their feelings in a manner that 
 
102 DESPAIR OF ALEXAISTDKA. 
 
 could not but displease, as well as alarm 
 the usurper. From that moment the Prince's 
 doom was sealed, though Herod, shrinking 
 from open violence, resolved to make it 
 appear the result of accident. Towards the 
 close of a sultry day, Aristobulus was 
 decoyed to the banks of the Jordan, whose 
 cool waters, overshadowed by the graceful 
 sycamore, offered the tempting luxury of a 
 bath ; and his murderous attendants sprang 
 into the stream, urging the Prince to follow. 
 Too readily he yielded to their solicitations ; 
 and plunging beneath the waves, was forcibly 
 kept down by the others, and lirought to the 
 shore a corpse. 
 
 All Herod's subtlety could not blind 
 Alexandra to the real character of this cruel 
 murder. When the lifeless body of her son 
 was borne into the palace, she threw herself 
 on his bier, imprinted passionate kisses on 
 his still beautiful face, and. gave utterance 
 to her sorrow in vehement ejaculations. 
 With dishevelled hair and wild outcries, she 
 rushed into the presence of the tyrant, and 
 demanded the apprehension and punishment 
 
FAMILY OF HEROD. 103 
 
 of his ruthless myrmidons. The scowl on 
 Herod's brow, more than the honeyed words 
 from his lips, subdued and pacified her; 
 and, after the first ebullition of grief, fears 
 for her personal safety induced her to 
 remain silent till she could obtain some 
 opportunity of revenge. But it is seldom 
 given to the feeble to overcome and punish 
 the strong, and Alexandra's nature was 
 wanting in that decision, which alone could 
 insure her success. Dissimulation, if par- 
 donable in particular exigencies, is not the 
 quality of a great mind, and rarely accom- 
 panies great actions ; but it was the ruling 
 sentiment of this unfortunate princess, and 
 characterized all her proceedings. 
 
 Cypros and Salome, the mother and sister 
 of Herod, had from the first regarded the 
 family of his wife with distrust and aversion, 
 and subsequent events tended to embitter 
 these feelings. With the proud confidence 
 of beauty and genius, Mariamne treated 
 their enmity with disdain, and, herself de- 
 scended from the ancient Asmonsean race, 
 scoffed at their ignoble and vulgar origin. 
 
104 JEALOUSY OF HEROD. 
 
 But the vacillation and imprudence of Alex- 
 andra, though she never ventured on such 
 affronts, exposed her to the malice of these 
 vindictive women, and more than once, their 
 vigilance detected her in a clandestine cor- 
 respondence with Cleopatra, at that time 
 the enemy of Herod, and the mistress of 
 the all-powerful Antony. It was the influ- 
 ence of Mariamne that preserved her mother 
 from the consequence of these discoveries, 
 but, although she escaped unpunished, the 
 effect, when combined with other circum- 
 stances, was to diminish the ascendancy of 
 the Queen, and to strengthen the hands of 
 her enemies. Herod's ear was now opened 
 to the whispers of suspicion, and the more 
 malignant suggestions of slander ; and he 
 began to look on his wife, whom he had 
 hitherto considered spotless, with the dis- 
 tempered eye of jealousy. In his mad love 
 he could not endure the thought that she 
 should even survive him, lest her hand 
 should be given to another ; and being sum- 
 moned to Egypt by Antony, he directed 
 his brother Joseph to put her to death, if, as 
 
estrajstgembnt prom makiamne, 105 
 
 there was some reason to fear, the Roman 
 despot should adjudge his own head to the 
 block. Herod's triumphant return pre- 
 vented the execution of the sanguinary 
 order ; but, in the meantime, Joseph had 
 revealed it to Mariamne, and this indis- 
 cretion cost him his life. 
 
 Though an estrangement between the 
 royal pair resulted from this incident — 
 an estrangement which Cypros and Salome 
 exhausted their arts to confirm, and which 
 the abortive intrigues of Alexandra contri- 
 buted to prolong — so irresistible was the 
 spell of Mariamne's beauty, that the King, 
 after a faint struggle, again submitted to 
 her ascendancy, but the same burning 
 jealousy remained in his breast, blighting 
 the happiness of the present and reviving 
 his apprehensions of the future ; and these, 
 aggravated by the evil suggestions of his 
 mother and sister, worked him up to an 
 ungovernable pitch, when, quitting Judasa 
 a second time, he proceeded to offer his 
 homage to the victorious Augustus, after 
 the memorable battle of Actium. Haunted 
 
 P 3 
 
106 IMPRUDENCE OP MARIAMXE. 
 
 by his former misgivings, he once more 
 secretly gave orders that Mariamne should 
 be put to death if a similar fate befell him- 
 self; and once more his orders were di- 
 vulged. 
 
 Herod returned, as before, successful; 
 and his first act was to fly to the presence of 
 the Queen, and dazzle her with his triumph. 
 The friend of Augustus, confirmed in the regal 
 inheritance of David, a warrior and a hero, he 
 came, flushed with pride, to command rather 
 than to sue, little expecting a repulse from 
 woman's lips. But Mariamne, armed in 
 the power of her beauty, felt no dread of 
 his resentment: sensible of his inherent 
 turpitude, she scorned his gems and purple. 
 The eyes which had once looked upon him 
 in love, kindling his black soul with their 
 melting glances, now met him with undis- 
 guised aversion, while, in answer to his pro- 
 testations of affection, she unmasked and 
 denounced his perfidy. The King, already 
 the prey of suspicions, was maddened by 
 this discovery, believing it could only have 
 been made by a favoured lover, and tearing 
 
MARIAMNE CONDEMIfED. 107 
 
 his hair and smiting his breast, he threat- 
 ened to execute both the Queen and her in- 
 formant. His menaces had no effect on 
 Mariamne, who, disdaining to control her 
 arger, replied in a tone of defiance, bidding 
 him, as he had already killed her father and 
 her brother, to add this fresh murder to the 
 catalogue of his crimes ; and finally drove 
 him from her presence by her taunts and 
 reproaches. 
 
 Such was the critical moment chosen by 
 Salome for accusing the Queen, by the 
 mouth of her tire-woman, of an attempt to 
 poison her incensed husband, who, blinded 
 alike by jealousy and passion, eagerly 
 credited the charge. A council was sum- 
 moned; the formality of an examination 
 gone through ; and the innocent Mariamne, 
 without being permitted to answer her 
 accuser, was condemned to the block. 
 
 On her way to the scaffold a new indignity 
 awaited the Queen. The miserable Alex- 
 andra, fearing that the next victim of Herod's 
 cruelty might be herself, and hoping to avert 
 his wrath, appeared at a window of the palace, 
 
108 EXECUTION OF MARIAMXE^ 
 
 and regardless of the dignity of her station, 
 and the tender claims of nature, publicly up- 
 braided her daughter for her ingratitude to 
 so indulgent a husband, the generous pro- 
 tector of her family, the spouse of her youth, 
 and the father of her children. Even the 
 obdurate hearts of the soldiers were moved 
 to indignation by this unnatural act, but 
 their murmurs were silenced by Mariamne, 
 who, while she bore her own wrongs with 
 majestic dignity, wept over the sorrows and 
 unhappy fate of her mother, protesting her 
 own innocence with her last breath. 
 
 This is but a solitary examj)le of the in- 
 justice inflicted on women even of the highest 
 rank, on the soil of Palestine ; but were we 
 to descend into the humbler grades, a picture 
 might be drawn of her sufferings, her degra- 
 dation, and her bondage, at which humanity 
 would shudder. From the same spot, how- 
 ever, a new dispensation was now preached ; 
 the sentence pronounced on Eve was re- 
 scinded ; and the long slavery of the sex was 
 finally terminated by the advent of the 
 Redeemer. 
 
( 109 ) 
 
 Y. 
 
 ASSYRIA — NINEVEH AND BABYLON. 
 
 To whatever age we may assign tlie founda- 
 tion of the monarchy of Egypt, that of 
 Assyria, its contemporary and rival in power, 
 was at least as ancient, if not of anterior 
 date. It is almost universally attributed 
 to Nimrod, that mighty hunter before the 
 Lord, whose name became a proverb in the 
 mouths of men, and who was the first rudi- 
 ment of hero worship. Under the primi- 
 tive appellation of Bar-chus (son of Cush), 
 easily corrupted into Bacchus, he was in- 
 eluded among the deities of the heathen 
 mythology: history preserves his identitj^ 
 in the more striking designation of Ninus ; 
 
110 ANTIQUITY OF XIXEVEH. 
 
 and the ingenuity of modern times, which 
 stops at no difficulty, has recognised him in 
 the Asshur of Genesis. Tradition, in such 
 cases a credible witness, points him out with 
 equal precision as the builder of Xineveh 
 and Babylon. 
 
 Of Nineveh, the people we are accustomed 
 to call the ancients, and who are the founders 
 of history, knew nothing. Homer makes a 
 brief allusion to Assyria, when he includes 
 Memnon, then an Assyrian captain, among 
 the auxiliaries of Troy, but Nineveh had 
 absolutely perished before G-reece emerged 
 from barbarism. It is to the sacred pages of 
 the Bible that we must turn for information 
 respecting the first of cities ; and so com- 
 pletely were the denunciations pronounced 
 against it by the Jewish prophets fulfilled, 
 that it might almost have been supposed, 
 from the silence of all other annals, that such 
 a place had never existed. Destiny reserved 
 it for the present age, and for the genius of 
 an Englishman, to disinter the mighty ruin, 
 and thus to confirm by its fragments the 
 unerring verity of Holy "Writ. 
 
NIMROD AND SEMIRAMIS. Ill 
 
 As men began to multiply on the earth, 
 Nimrod, fourth in descent from Noah, whose 
 life of nine centuries had not yet terminated, 
 acquired his great pre-eminence and renown, 
 signalising his courage by seeking wild 
 beasts in pathless solitudes, never before 
 entered by man. His intrepidity, his pos- 
 sessions, and his illustrious extraction, with 
 a natural disposition for command, soon 
 marked him out as a protector to the feeble, 
 a leader to the adventurous, and a chief to 
 the servile and ignorant ; or, relying on his 
 own might, he most likely seized the autho- 
 rity few were inclined to dispute. To this 
 step, indeed, he may have been, and pro- 
 bably was, instigated by a woman — for we 
 may believe that the wife of Nimrod was 
 Semiramis. 
 
 The father of monarchs established the 
 seat of his power at Nineveh, — described 
 by Jonah, who visited it under the Kings of 
 the second dynasty, as " an exceeding great 
 city of three days' journey," which, esti- 
 mated by the Jewish standard, has been set 
 down as including a circumference of sixty 
 
112 NINEVEH. 
 
 miles. It was surrounded by walls of a 
 hundred feet in height, and of proportionate 
 breadth, so that, according to Diodorus, 
 three chariots could be driven abreast on the 
 ramparts. Below, round the whole front of 
 this inclosure, yawned a deep ditch, which 
 had furnished the materials of the builders 
 — sun-burnt bricks, composed of the exca- 
 vated clay ; and at every angle rose battle- 
 mented towers, in which alert sentinels kept 
 watch and ward. The population, in the 
 zenith of Assyrian greatness, has been esti- 
 mated at 600,000, on the supposition that 
 the declaration of the Almighty to Jonah, 
 that the city contained six score thousand 
 persons who knew not their right hand from 
 their left, referred to children ; but it ap- 
 pears more reasonable to conclude, from the 
 context, that it was used to denote the 
 number of ignorant adults, whose benighted 
 condition, rendering them incapable of dis- 
 tinguishing good from evil, claimed forbear- 
 ance from the G-od of mercy. Tiewed in 
 this sense — regarding the six score thousand 
 as applied to the scum of the people — the 
 
BABYLON. 113 
 
 population must be reckoned as at least a 
 million, whicli accords more with the .extent 
 of the city, and the power and greatness of 
 its Kings. 
 
 Babylon was a twin sister of this vener- 
 able capital. Its circumference, measured by 
 Herodotus, was the same, covering an area 
 of sixty miles. The walls, three in number, 
 one within the other, were of corresponding 
 dimensions, and appear to have been sur- 
 rounded by a brazen parapet, while gates of 
 brass, flanked by huge towers, defended all 
 the entrances. Like Nineveh, it was erected 
 on a plain ; and as the elder city crowned 
 the banks of the Tigris, so the rushing 
 waters of the Euphrates flowed through 
 the other. The river indeed, besides sup- 
 plying the aqueducts and conduits of the 
 city, poured a copious stream into innu- 
 merable artificial channels, which, by aiding 
 the bountiful hand of nature, ministered to 
 the requirements and the luxury of the 
 inhabitants. The far-famed "waters of 
 Babylon" meandered through the garden of 
 willows, where the disconsolate daughters of 
 
114 ASSYRIAIf DAVELLIXGS. 
 
 Zion hung their harps on the trees, and 
 irrigated the fields and parks, inclosed, 
 with more than one royal chase, by the 
 embattled walls. On the banks of these 
 tranquil streams, the nobles and wealthy 
 merchants took refuge from the heats of 
 summer ; and the numerous islets in the 
 mid-channel were dotted with pavilions, 
 where the Izaak Waltons of primeval days 
 pursued their pensive sport. One of these 
 retreats has been recovered by Mr. Layard, 
 who, in his first account of Assyria, has 
 preserved a drawing of it ; and it is 
 remarkable that this minor relic shows, by 
 the presence of columns, a greater advance 
 in architecture than the ruins of the royal 
 palace. 
 
 The houses of Nineveh and Babylon were 
 built of sun-burnt brick, but the interiors, 
 after being coated over with plaster, were 
 decorated with paintings, or panelled with 
 alabaster, and the palaces and temples, 
 which afforded more room for the display of 
 art, were adorned with elaborate sculptures, 
 representing historical, allegorical, and reli- 
 
CHAMBER OP DANIEL. 115 
 
 gious subjects. As no trace of windows 
 has been discovered, Mr. Layard conjectures 
 that, in regal edifices, light was admitted at 
 the roof, but that veritable windows were 
 constructed in ordinary dwellings ; and, in 
 fact, this is attested by the statement in 
 Daniel — " Now when Daniel knew the 
 writing was signed, he went into his house, 
 and his window being open in his chamber 
 toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his 
 knees three times a day and prayed." 
 Through this window, when the shutters 
 were unclosed, he was seen by his enemies, 
 which proves that it could not have been a 
 skylight, and the probability is that it was 
 but a few feet from the ground. The Assy- 
 rians were acquainted with glass, but seem 
 to have had but a dim perception of its 
 uses, as its beautiful quality of transmitting 
 light, which renders it so important a mate- 
 rial in modern dwellings, appears to have 
 been unknown to them. 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel, who was in captivity 
 on the banks of the Chebar, in the upper 
 part of Mesopotamia, describes the decora- 
 
116 SEMIRAMIS. 
 
 tions of an Assyrian palace with great 
 minuteness and fidelity. They included— 
 and Layard's marvellous discoveries rise 
 from their grave of three thousand years to 
 establish the fact — " men pourtrayed on the 
 wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed 
 with vermilion: Grirded with girdles upon 
 their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon 
 their heads, all of them princes to look to, 
 after the manner of the Babylonians of 
 Chaldea, the land of their nativity." A 
 carpet covered the floor; chairs, cushioned 
 with down, but not yet furnished with the 
 luxurious support of a back, were ranged 
 around ; and a basket of flowers in the 
 spacious doorway filled the room ^^•ith an 
 agreeable and welcome odour. 
 
 Such, even in remote times, was the 
 opulence of those cities which owed their 
 earliest development to Semiramis. But that 
 mighty Queen, as the first sovereign of her 
 sex, is entitled to a more particular notice 
 of her works, and of her great exploits, in 
 these pages. 
 
 The origin of Semiramis is enveloped in 
 
BIRTH AND ORIGIN. 117 
 
 one of those fables which throw a doubt 
 over the annals of antiquity, and, while 
 they claim for their hero a descent from the 
 gods, most probably veil an obscure, if not 
 a dishonourable parentage. In her infancy 
 she is said to have been nurtured by doves, 
 till, by a fortunate accident, she was dis- 
 covered by Sisona, the shepherd of the 
 King of Assyria, and by him brought up as 
 his own child. This weak invention can 
 hardly disguise from posterity that Sisona 
 was actually her father, though she thought 
 it more becoming her subsequent regal 
 fortunes, to account for their connexion in 
 another way. 
 
 Semiramis had perhaps reached her 
 thirteenth year, a marriageable age in the 
 East, when Menon, a great officer of the 
 court, was sent from Nineveh to inspect the 
 King's flocks, and, for this purpose, pre- 
 sented himself at the house of Sisona. The 
 young damsel took care to throw herself in 
 his way, and if he was instantly smitten 
 by her beauty, he was dazzled, on address- 
 ing her, by the witchery of her demeanour. 
 
118 BEAUTY OF SEMIRAMIS. 
 
 which, as all writers agree, invested her 
 with more than human attractions. Her 
 manners, indeed, were even more fascinating 
 than her personal loveliness, surrounding 
 her with an atmosphere of grace, particu- 
 larly captivating to an Eastern imagina- 
 tion. After her elevation to a throne, it 
 was sufiBcient for her to show herself at a 
 window of the palace, to still the raging 
 waves of popular tumult ; and Yalerius 
 Maximus relates that on one occasion, being 
 summoned from her toilet to quell an insur- 
 rection, she rode half dressed through the 
 streets of Babylon, and presenting herself 
 to the people, every one eagerly returned to 
 his allegiance, and the revolt was queUed. 
 To commemorate this incident, the Baby- 
 lonians erected a brazen statue of Semi- 
 ramis, representing her in the act of con- 
 fronting the populace, with her hair stream- 
 ing loose over her shoulders, and her bust 
 exposed, as she actually appeared at the 
 time. 
 
 Menon, the courtier, after inspecting the 
 vast flocks of the King, still lingered in the 
 
RESIDEIS^CE AT NINEVEH. 119 
 
 hut of Sisona, enchained by the syren 
 accents of his daughter, but at length, dis- 
 covering that he could never endure a sepa- 
 ration, he persuaded Semiramis to become 
 his wife, and accompany him back to 
 Nineveh. There he immured her in his 
 palace, more as a captive than a bride, 
 fearing that her beauty might make too 
 deep an impression on the susceptible heart 
 of the King, but her vigorous intellect, 
 aided by the influence of her charms, soon 
 acquired such an ascendancy over him, that 
 all restraint on her actions was removed. 
 The magnificence of her lordly abode, indeed, 
 could as little content her ambition as the 
 mud hovel of her father, and she waited 
 impatiently for an occasion of signalizing 
 herself in the eyes of the world, by some 
 great, heroic, and unparalleled achievement. 
 When the Assyrians invaded Media, she 
 insisted on accompanying Menon in the 
 train of the King ; but, to lull his misgivings, 
 remained perfectly secluded till the army, 
 after an uninterrupted series of successes, was 
 arrested by the massive walls of Bactria, 
 
120 COURAGE OF SEMIRAMIS. 
 
 which were defended with such obstinacy, 
 that the whole expedition was threatened 
 with ruin. Then this daring woman pre- 
 sented herself before the council, at which 
 her amazed husband was conferring with 
 the King, and suggested, as the waUs of the 
 town were impregnable, that an assault 
 should be made on the citadel. She indi- 
 cated the best mode of carrying out the de- 
 sign ; and while she admitted that it involved 
 great hazard, claimed the honour of leading 
 the troops to the attack — a post which the 
 King, though unwilling to expose her to so 
 much peril, could not but concede to so 
 lovely a warrior, and for which, indeed, few 
 of the bewildered council were inclined to 
 contend. 
 
 The whole army mustered to see the 
 beautiful wife of Menon place herself at the 
 head of this forlorn hope, every man of which, 
 we may well believe, was fired by the ex- 
 ample of such a leader, advancing amidst the 
 clash of timbrels and the waving of banners, 
 towards the trenches of the enemy. For a 
 few moments the issue was doubtful. A 
 
CAPTURE OF BACTRIA. 121 
 
 cloud of arrows, and a dense shower of mis- 
 siles, hurled from the lofty battlements, 
 broke the ranks of the assailants, and per- 
 haps damped their ardour, but Semiramis, 
 undismayed by danger, still pushed on, and 
 none could refuse to follow where a woman 
 led. The scaling-ladders were raised against 
 the walls ; the intrepid Amazon was the first 
 to gain their summit, and, while the hosts of 
 Assyria still looked wondering on, the golden 
 standard of Ninus was planted on the roof 
 of the citadel. 
 
 Accustomed to gratify every wish and 
 every passion, and possessing absolute and 
 irresponsible power, the Assyrian monarch 
 could ill brook that such a woman should 
 remain the wife of a subject ; and, as 
 soon as he entered the captured city, he 
 demanded from Menon the surrender of 
 Semiramis. The sacrifice was more than 
 the unhappy husband could be prevailed 
 upon to make, and he ventured to oppose 
 the royal will. At the Assyrian court, 
 opposition was treason; and vengeance, 
 unrestrained by law, quickly overtook the 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
122 USURPATION OF SEMIRAMIS. 
 
 disobedient. The next day Menon was 
 cast into a dungeon, and, to reconcile 
 him to the loss of his wife, Ninus deprived 
 him of his eyes, on which the wretched 
 man gave himself up to despair, and put 
 an end to his existence. 
 
 Semiramis now shared the imperial throne 
 of Assyria, to which, fortunate in every rela- 
 tion of life, she soon brought an heir, the 
 father of a line of kings. But this 
 aspiring woman looked with contempt 
 on the half of a diadem, though the 
 partner of her power was content to be 
 her slave. In a moment of confidence, 
 Ninus was persuaded to decree that for 
 five days she should possess supreme autho- 
 rity, and having assigned the offices of 
 trust to men devoted to her interests, her 
 first act, on assuming the regal functions, 
 was to strike off the head of her besotted 
 husband, when she became the sole occupant 
 of the throne, and no longer placed a bound 
 to her ambition. 
 
 Never since has woman been placed in 
 a situation so eminently adapted for regene- 
 
HER REIGN. ] 23 
 
 rating and permanently influencing the 
 morals of mankind, as well as asserting the 
 natural rights of her sex. It would almost 
 appear that, while the curse of Eden was in 
 full operation, Heaven had mercifully in- 
 trusted to herself the task of effecting her 
 own redemption, and of throwing off the iron 
 yoke which had been cast upon her. The 
 time — for the new world was yet in its in- 
 fancy — the means, and the instrument, a 
 woman of matchless beauty, genius, and reso- 
 lution, a queen, and a heroine, seem to be all 
 especially suited for this great purpose. But 
 Divine Intelligence had foreseen, from the 
 beginning of time, that human depravity 
 was incapable of elevating itself from its 
 depths, let circumstances be ever so pro- 
 pitious ; and none but a celestial Eeformer 
 could restore the equality of the sexes. The 
 evil passions of man had so long been in the 
 ascendant, that they had infected and cor- 
 rupted woman, and nature was poisoned at 
 its source. It is impossible to look back at 
 the cruelties, the barbarities, and the revolt- 
 ing crimes perpetrated in those days — at the 
 
 a 2 
 
124 CHARACTER OF SEMIRAMIS. 
 
 utter subversion of right by might, the 
 spoliation and oppression of the weak by the 
 strong, and the perverted sentiments which 
 animated the mass of mankind, without a 
 mingled feeling of wonder and indignation. 
 Nor would it be difficult to prove that this 
 universal barbarism was the result and 
 natural consequence of the long subjugation 
 of the weaker sex, the gentle influence of 
 which is a necessary element of civilization, 
 and cannot be ignored without ruin to 
 man. 
 
 Semiramis, endowed with every faculty 
 for achieving greatness, which she regarded 
 as the first object of life, expended her 
 efforts in undertakings flattering only to her 
 own vanity. Taking her tone from the 
 complexion of the times, she pursued the 
 shadow of a false glory, instead of seeking, 
 by her example and laws, to reform and 
 elevate her sex and species. The injustice 
 and wicked licence of man were thus visited 
 with signal retribution ; and a woman, who 
 should naturally have been a dispenser of 
 peace, rose up as a tyrant and oppressor. 
 
THE HANGING GARDENS. 125 
 
 Still posterity is dazzled by the achieve- 
 ments and genius of this great queen. In 
 the midst of a guilty and foul life, she car- 
 ried out her purposes with unremitted deter- 
 mination and unwearied diligence. The 
 hanging gardens of Babylon, long one of the 
 wonders of the world, were a splendid roonu- 
 ment of her taste, if they were also a 
 memorial of her extravagance. A wall, 
 twenty-two feet in thickness, inclosed this 
 magnificent pleasure-ground, which rose in 
 successive terraces, supported by arches of 
 gigantic height, to the level of the walls of 
 the city, each terrace having a sufficient 
 depth of mould to afford root to the largest 
 trees, while plants and flowers, all of the 
 rarest kind, grew in rich profusion, display- 
 ing the varied hues of Eastern vegetation. 
 The uppermost terrace contained a reservoir 
 of water, which, by means of an ingenious 
 mechanical contrivance, drew its supplies 
 from the Euphrates, and hence refreshing 
 streams were conveyed, through meandering 
 channels, to every part of the garden. Com- 
 manding spots were crowned with elegant 
 
126 PALACES or SEMIRAMIS. 
 
 pavilions, embracing a view of dififerent 
 quarters of the vast city, and the boundless 
 plain beyond. 
 
 In the midst of her capital, on the brink 
 of the deep and rapid river, Semiramis 
 erected two palaces, one of which extended 
 for nearly eight miles along the bank, while 
 the other, on the opposite shore, occupied 
 three and three-quarters. The two build- 
 ings were connected above by a bridge, 
 spanning the broad Euphrates ; and below, 
 a tunnel, the work of a patriarchal Brunei, 
 afforded a covert passage through the bed of 
 the river. Among the countless apartments 
 of the larger edifice were three rooms of 
 brass, which, like the mystic chamber of 
 Bluebeard, were hermetically closed to 
 ordinary eyes, and could only be opened by 
 a spring, known to none but the Queen and 
 her confidantes. The other apartments were 
 furnished in the most sumptuous manner, 
 and profusely decorated with sculptures and 
 paintings, in some of which, to perpetuate 
 the character of her recreations, the intrepid 
 Queen was depicted with her husband at a 
 
TEMPLE OP BELUS. 127 
 
 lion hunt, transfixing the king of the forest 
 with a spear. 
 
 Another of the works of Semiramis 
 was the temple of Belus, a structure so 
 colossal, that' it has been set down by 
 Bochart as the veritable tower of Babel. 
 If we may rely on the account of 
 Strabo, eight towers, each six hundred 
 feet high, rose consecutively, one over the 
 other, from the centre of the building, 
 which thus obtained the incredible alti- 
 tude of a mile ; and on the summit of 
 this architectural Alps was an observatory, 
 surmounted by three statues of gold, 
 representing Jupiter, Juno, and Ehea. The 
 figure of the fabled Thunderer, who stood 
 erect, a marvel of primeval art, was forty 
 feet high, and those of the goddesses were of 
 corresponding dimensions, and equal beauty. 
 In front of the images was a huge table 
 of gold ; and two goblets of the same metal, 
 receiving the copious dews of heaven, offered 
 an appropriate draught to the inanimate 
 deities. Six thousand three hundred Baby- 
 lonian talents were expended on the shrine 
 
128 MONSTER OBELISK. 
 
 — a sum equivalent to considerably more 
 than two millions of our money, and con- 
 stituting a prodigious amount in those early 
 times. 
 
 Semiramis adorned the centre of her capi- 
 tal with an obelisk, hewn in a mass from the 
 mountains of Armenia, and conveyed by 
 men and asses to the river, down which it 
 was floated, on a vast and massive raft, 
 supported by inflated skins, to its appointed 
 site. This column of solid rock rose to the 
 height of a hundred and thirty feet, tapering 
 from a square of five feet in breadth, and 
 could be seen at a great distance on the 
 plain, over the lofty walls of the city. 
 
 But the genius of Semiramis could not 
 find sufficient scope for its conceptions in 
 the limited circuit of Babylon, and, far and 
 near, she paraded her arms and her taste 
 before the astonished world. Marching into 
 Media, she encamped her vast host at the 
 foot of a mountain, rising fi:'om the sandy 
 plain of Bughistan •, and here, in mere 
 caprice, turned the arid desert into a beautiful 
 garden, placing in the midst of it a colossal 
 
PRODIGIOUS WORKS. 129 
 
 statue of herself, surrounded by a hundred 
 of her guards. From this Yersailles she 
 ascended to the inaccessible heights above, 
 on the packs and burdens of her soldiers 
 and of the animals attached to the army, 
 delighted to appear where no foot had ever 
 trod but her own. 
 
 On the summit of a rock, overlooking the 
 Median city of Chaon, she constructed an- 
 other garden, surpassing in beauty that of 
 Bughistan ; and here she erected a palace, 
 an eagle's eyrie, from every part of which 
 she could observe the tented array of her 
 troops below, as Balak and Balaam viewed 
 that of Israel. While her victorious sol- 
 diers spread carnage and desolation before 
 her, her track was marked, as she passed on, 
 by the healing finger of art, apparent in 
 every captured city. At Ecbatana she built 
 another stately palace, and embellished the 
 town with aqueducts and conduits, furnish- 
 ing an inexhaustible supply of water ; and, 
 to facilitate communication, she cut a road 
 through a neighbouring mountain, over 
 which she marched her whole army. Ad- 
 
 G 3 
 
130 INVASION OF EGYPT 
 
 vancing into Persia, she added its rich pro- 
 vinces to her dominions, and then, reverting 
 to her passion for the arts, studded them 
 with cities and palaces, levelled mountains, 
 and in other places raised artificial heights, 
 as imperishable monuments of her power. 
 Again in motion, she overcame Egypt, 
 and entering the parched deserts of Libya, 
 paused only where, at the sacred fountain of 
 Hercules, the oracle of Jupiter Ammon met 
 her with the words of fate. Then she learnt 
 that, whatever dangers might threaten her, 
 her reign would continue till Ninvas, her 
 son, conspired against her life, when she 
 would disappear from the sight of man, 
 though she would receive divine honours 
 after death. 
 
 Semiramis returned to Babylon a victor 
 and a heroine, but her restless spirit, instead 
 of being fatigued with conquest, thirsted for 
 fresh glory, and she soon cast her eyes 
 towards the golden soil of India. That 
 land was then, as in after ages, regarded as 
 an inexhaustible mine of wealth, abounding 
 in gold and silver, and stored with every 
 
AND INDIA, 131 
 
 precious gem ; and the population, though 
 more warlike than their descendants, pro- 
 mised, as far as concerned their own prowess, 
 an easy prey to a resolute adventurer. But 
 India drew from her matted forests more 
 formidable defenders than her eneryated 
 sons ; and the King relied less on his sol- 
 diers than on a countless host of elephants, 
 trained to war, and ready at any moment 
 to repel every invader. Semiramis, whose 
 judgment equalled her courage, well under- 
 stood the effect which these terrible antago- 
 nists produced on the troops of more north- 
 erly nations, and, to avert such a casualty, 
 she devised an expedient worthy of an age 
 when war was but an infant science. The 
 hides of three hundred thousand oxen, slaugh- 
 tered by her command, furnished a covering 
 for wicker elephants, placed on the backs of 
 camels, each of which, to give further 
 colouring to the deception, was led by a 
 keeper, in accordance with the Indian usage. 
 A million of infantry, and five hundred 
 thousand horse, if the testimony of anti- 
 quity may be credited, supported this other- 
 
132 SEMIRAMIS IN BATTLE. 
 
 wise impotent armament •, and the expedi- 
 tion was accompanied by a corps of ship- 
 wrights, charged, as their exclusive duty, 
 with the conveyance overland of portable 
 boats, for the purpose of transporting the 
 army across the Indus. 
 
 On the banks of this magnificent river, 
 Shabrohates, King of India, had assembled 
 a mighty and countless host to defend the 
 frontier of his empire. Four thousand ves- 
 sels of bamboo guarded the passage, and 
 seven thousand of the dreaded elephants, 
 each carrying a battalion on his back, formed 
 an impenetrable phalanx along the shore. 
 But nothing could withstand the onslaught 
 of Semiramis, who, indifferent to danger, 
 threw herself into the midst of the fight, 
 and, by her presence and example, fired her 
 soldiers with unconquerable ardour. A 
 thousand of the Indian boats were sunk; 
 the vaunted line of elephants was broken ; 
 and, placing herself at the head of her 
 guards, Semiramis took possession of the 
 gate of India. 
 
 But the rout of the Indians was not so 
 
HER DEFEAT AND FLIGHT. 133 
 
 complete as the Assyrians supposed. Learn- 
 ing from a deserter tlie secret of the coun- 
 terfeit elephants, which had greatly aggra- 
 vated their panic, they faced about, driving 
 their own huge beasts before them ; and the 
 King, with an overwhelming force of in- 
 fantry, himself encountered Semiramis, en- 
 gaging the warrior Queen in single combat. 
 For a time the conflict was equal, but, in an 
 unguarded moment, Semiramis was severely 
 wounded, and flying from the field, owed 
 her life to the swiftness of her horse. With 
 difficulty she reached the river, where a 
 bridge of boats, which she had taken the 
 precaution to construct, secured a passage 
 across ; and gaining the opposite bank with 
 a remnant of her forces, she ordered the 
 bridge to be destroyed, thus arresting pur- 
 suit, though, at the same time, she cut off 
 the retreat of the bravest of her soldiers. 
 
 The tide of the great Queen's fortune had 
 now turned, and the moment had arrived 
 when, perhaps at the suggestion of some 
 wily priest, the prediction of the Libyan 
 oracle was to be fulfilled. Justin accuses 
 
134 QUEESr NITOCRIS. 
 
 her of entertaining too tender an attachment 
 for her son, Ninyas, who was remarkable 
 for his personal beauty, and alleges that 
 this circumstance provoked the youthful 
 prince to take her life ; but, whatever the 
 cause, it is generally allowed that Ninyas, 
 weary of her usurpation, did conspire with 
 the chief eunuch to destroy his mother, 
 though it is said that she discovered their 
 design, and quietly resigned the crown, con- 
 sidering that her son was but the blind in- 
 strument of fate. But the ruling passion 
 was strong in death : she was still the vic- 
 tim of a false ambition ; and, while abdi- 
 cating the throne, asserted a right to divine 
 honours. No longer ruling as a Queen, this 
 arrogant and guilty woman claimed to be 
 worshipped as a goddess. 
 
 The throne of Babylon was destined to be 
 ascended by another woman, whose genius 
 was scarcely inferior to that of Semiramis. 
 Nitocris — such was this great Queen's name 
 — was the most formidable opponent of the 
 growing power of the Medes; and, while 
 renowned in arms, was not unmindful of the 
 
HER USEFUL REIGN. 135 
 
 arts. Her public structures had this ad- 
 vantage over those of Semiramis — that they 
 were generally dedicated to some useful 
 object. To strengthen the defences of her 
 capital, she diverted the Euphrates from its 
 bed, pouring its waters into a vast artificial 
 basin, while workmen, engaged in the empty 
 channel of the river, raised massive walls on 
 either bank, inclosing the divided sections 
 of the city, which, for the convenience of 
 the inhabitants, she made to communicate 
 by a drawbridge. The stream was then 
 permitted to return to its bed ; and em- 
 bankments on either side, for a considerable 
 distance beyond Babylon, prevented it from 
 inundating the surrounding country, when 
 the melted snows of Armenia raised the 
 level of the water. 
 
 Nitocris emblazoned her sepulchre with a 
 severe reproof of the avarice of mankind, 
 which, in the sentiment conveyed, inspires a 
 favourable impression of her understanding 
 and character. The mausoleum of the de- 
 parted Queen was erected over the principal 
 gate of the city, at a considerable height 
 
136 TOMB OF NITOCKIS. 
 
 from the ground, and a slab in its face was 
 inscribed in conspicuous characters with these 
 words — "Should ant one of my succes- 
 sors, Kings of Babylon, fino himself 
 in want op money, let him open this 
 sepulchre, and take as much as he 
 chooses ; but if he be not in want, let 
 him not open it ; for that were not 
 WELL." The tomb remained unopened till, 
 after the capture of Babylon by the Medes, 
 the crown fell to Darius, when it was sacri- 
 legiously entered by that monarch, who, as 
 a stranger and alien, was not restrained by 
 those feelings of reverence cherished by the 
 descendants of Nitocris. To his disgust, 
 however, he found within nothing but the 
 mouldering corpse of the Queen, surmounted 
 by this inscription — " Hadst thou not 
 
 BEEN INSATIABLY COVETOUS, AND GREEDY 
 OF THE MOST SORDID GAIN, THOU WOULDST 
 NOT HAVE SOUGHT GOLD IN THE CHAMBERS 
 OF THE DEAD." 
 
 A third Queen of Babylon, Amytis, wife 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, disputes with Semira- 
 mis the honour of having originated the 
 
WIFE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 137 
 
 hanging gardens. She was the daughter of 
 Astyages, King of Media, and the story 
 affirms that on reaching Babylon, she 
 so deeply regretted the beautiful moun- 
 tainous scenery of her native land, that 
 Nebuchadnezzar constructed these magni- 
 ficent pleasure-grounds to dissipate her 
 melancholy. Little else is known of this 
 illustrious woman, except that she was en- 
 dowed with extraordinary personal attrac- 
 tions, and possessed great influence with 
 her eccentric consort. 
 
 The prophet Daniel leads us to conclude 
 that the regal dignity was not bestowed on 
 all the wives of the kings of Babylon ; and, 
 in the account of Belshazzar's' feast, only 
 one of the monarch's spouses is distinguished 
 by the title of Queen. This record also 
 shows that it was customary for the Baby- 
 lonian women to take part with their 
 husbands in the public festivities, and its 
 testimony is corroborated by other authori- 
 ties. On such occasions, indeed, they were 
 released from the restraints of ordinary life, 
 encouraged to partake freety of the wine 
 
138 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 cu p, and to divert and exhilarate the com- 
 pany. It is a melancholy proof of the low 
 social condition of the Assyrians that this 
 object was often achieved at the expense of 
 modesty, and held superior to sach a con- 
 sideration. Dancing, still the favourite 
 spectacle of Eastern voluptuaries, was the 
 most attractive feature at thes entertain- 
 ments ; and ladies of the court, as well as 
 hired dancing-girls, veiled, rather than 
 attired, in thin transparent garments, 
 tripped through their too light measures 
 before the guests, to the sound of the harp 
 and drum. Women of all ranks dressed as 
 expensively as their means would permit, 
 and flowing robes, said to have been first 
 designed by Semiramis, probably on her 
 elevation to the throne, were invariably the 
 prevailing fashion. So early as the time of 
 Joshua, the Assyrians were noted for their 
 costly attire ; and Achan, the son of Carmi, 
 when questioned as to the spoil he had 
 secreted, (Joshua vii. 19 to 21,) includes in 
 his booty " a goodly Babylonish garment." 
 Ladies, and the wives of opulent merchants, 
 
BABYLONIAN TOILET. 139 
 
 who traded with Egypt and the rich depen- 
 dency of Tyre, were profusely decked with 
 jewels; and few deemed their elaborate 
 toilet complete without a pair of lustrous 
 earrings, bracelets studded with gems, and 
 armlets and anklets of the purest gold. 
 Black sandals, slightly bordered with red, 
 contrasted well with their delicate white 
 feet, over which they were secured, at the 
 instep, by a fringed loop, clasped by a 
 jewel. The eyebrows and hair were dyed 
 black, and the long tresses, w^hich often 
 descended to the waist, were elaborately 
 braided, and bound with a fillet. Mr. 
 Layard conjectures that cosmetics were used 
 to beautify the complexion ; and relates a 
 story from Nicolaus of Damascus, in which 
 Parsondes, a young Assyrian noble, 'accuses 
 Nanarus, viceroy of Babylon, of imitating 
 the practices of women, by underlining his 
 eyes with stibium, and painting his face 
 with white lead. When Parsondes falls 
 into the power of Nanarus, the latter, in 
 revenge, determines to make his traducer 
 so effeminate that he shall not be easily dis- 
 
140 BABYLONIAN MARRIAGES. 
 
 tinguisliecl from a lady, and, with this view, 
 he commands his myrmidons to " shave and 
 rub with a pumice-stone the whole of his 
 body except his head ; bathe him twice 
 a-day and anoint him ; let him underline his 
 eyes and plait his hair ; let him learn to 
 sing and play on the harp •, and accompany 
 it with his voice, that he may be amongst 
 the female musicians." The tyrant's in- 
 junctions were fulfilled ; and by constant 
 restriction to the employments and little 
 arts of the softer sex, Parsondes, from being 
 the most manly character at the Assyrian 
 court, became a miracle of effeminacy. 
 
 Marriage, instead of being a lottery, was 
 a mere investment of money among the 
 Assyrians. Herodotus relates that, once 
 a-year the damsels of marriageable age 
 were brought in a body to one place, and 
 severally disposed of to the highest bidders, 
 who, as a condition of purchase, were bound 
 to make them their wives. The venerable 
 historian describes the scene with more than 
 his usual naivete. The most beautiful, as 
 might be expected, had precedence at the 
 
AUCTION OP WIVES. 141 
 
 rostrum ; and was put up for sale by a crier, 
 when, says our authority, " such men among 
 the Babylonians as were rich, and desirous 
 of marrying, used to bid against one ano- 
 ther, and purchase the handsomest. But 
 such of the lower classes as were anxious 
 to wed, did not require a beautiful form, 
 but were willing to take the plainest 
 damsels with a sum of money. For when 
 the crier had finished selling the handsomest 
 of the maidens, he made the ugliest stand 
 up, or one that was a cripple, and put her 
 up to auction for the person who would 
 marry her with the least money, until she 
 was adjudged to the man who offered to 
 take the smallest sum. The fimd for this 
 dowry was obtained from the sale of the 
 handsomest maidens, who thus portioned 
 out the ugly and the crippled." 
 
 The happy purchasers of the beauties, as 
 well as the mercenary bargainers for the 
 plain (not always, perhaps, the least for- 
 tunate), were obliged to give security that 
 the contract of marriage should be duly and 
 legally performed, and the newly-acquired 
 
142 TEMPLE OF VENUS. 
 
 wife publicly acknowledged. If the parties, 
 however, on coming together, could not live 
 in harmony, the transaction was annulled, 
 and the disappointed purchaser received 
 back his money. A maiden, however, had 
 no voice in the disposal of her hand pre- 
 vious to this betrothal, nor could a man give 
 his daughter to whom he pleased; but all 
 must be brought to the auction, and hear 
 their fate from the lips of the crier. 
 
 As might be inferred from such a regu- 
 lation, female virtue, the source of every 
 noble aspiration, was regarded with con- 
 tempt by the Babylonians, and, indeed, was 
 absolutely discountenanced by their laws. 
 Women were held in the most cruel subjec- 
 tion, and, as if to rivet their chains, com- 
 pelled to take part in their own debasement. 
 This principle was even introduced into 
 religious observances, and the practices 
 enforced- at the temple of ^"enus, which are 
 described in the vivid pages of Herodotus, 
 represent a depravity scarcely human. The 
 national religion, like most of the Eastern 
 creeds, was originally pure, and entirely 
 
WORSHIP OF FIRE. 143 
 
 opposed to such orgies, being confined to 
 the worship of a supreme and beneficent 
 Creator, represented by the sun; but, as 
 time rolled on, the Magians, or fire-wor- 
 shippers, who became the guardians of the 
 Assyrian faith, established innovations, which 
 gradually paved the way for the worst forms 
 of idolatry ; and hence arose the general 
 demoralization. 
 
 It is doubtful whether women were ad- 
 mitted to the functions of the priesthood by 
 the Magians, though in later times, fire was 
 typified as a goddess. One of their modes 
 of worship is mentioned by Job, when he 
 declares in his address to his friends, that he 
 has never been enticed to kiss his hand to 
 the sun, or to adore the serene brightness 
 of the moon ; and the prophet Ezekiel 
 (Ezek. viii. 16) records that, on entering 
 the inner court of the Temple, " behold, at 
 the door of the Temple of the Lord, between 
 the porch and the altar, were about five 
 and twenty men with their backs toward 
 the Temple of the Lord, and their faces 
 toward the east, and they worshipped the 
 
144 PYRAMUS AND THISBE. 
 
 sun toward the east." Fire was considered 
 to represent the sun ; and Xenophon, in his 
 account of a sacred procession of the Per- 
 sian Sabians, describes Cyrus as following 
 censers of fire, carried through the city for 
 popular adoration. 
 
 Under such a religion, soon deteriorated 
 by the corruption of hero-worship, and aU 
 the abuses of paganism, woman, as a weak 
 and defenceless being, became a legitimate 
 prey to the stronger sex, whose evil passions 
 recognized no restraint, human or divine. 
 Even her life was deemed of little value, 
 and too often fell a sacrifice to unscrupulous 
 violence. 
 
 The episode of Pyramus and Thisbe. which 
 must not be set down as a fiction of the poet's, 
 offers an illustration of the melancholy con- 
 sequences which sometimes arose from their 
 disregard of the natural affections. This 
 ill-fated pair, who were both remarkable 
 for their great personal beauty, had con- 
 ceived for each other a romantic passion, 
 which their parents refused to sanction, but 
 a chink in the wall separating their dwellings 
 
THEIR MELANCHOLY PATE. 145 
 
 enabled them to interchange their vows, 
 and these stolen meetings deepened and 
 confirmed their attachment. At length, 
 they concerted an elopement, engaging to 
 meet at a well-known mulberry tree, near the 
 tomb of Ninus, and beyond the walls of the 
 city, whence, secure from pursuit, they could 
 fly to another province, and pass their lives 
 together. Thisbe arrived first at the spot, 
 when she was terrified by the approach of a 
 lion, and, winged by terror, took refuge in 
 a neighbouring cave, inadvertently dropping 
 her veil as she fled. Soon afterwards, 
 Pyramus, who had experienced some diffi- 
 culty in quitting the city, came in breathless 
 haste to the tomb, discovered the veil, 
 which had become dabbled with blood, and 
 supposing Thisbe had been devoured by 
 wild beasts, threw himself on his sword, and 
 instantly expired. Thisbe now made her ap- 
 pearance, and discovering his bleeding corpse, 
 snatched up the sword, and completed the 
 tragedy by plunging it in her heart. 
 
 But whatever rigour the Babylonians 
 exercised towards their own countrywomen, 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
146 TREATMENT OF WOMEN. 
 
 it could not be compared with their inhu- 
 manity towards the women of conquered 
 nations ; and Holy Writ refers, in the ter- 
 rible denunciations of Ezekiel, to their cruel 
 treatment of female captives. The proud 
 city of Tyre, when threatened with the army 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, is told "her daughters 
 which are in the field shall be slain by the 
 sword ;" and again, " he shall slay with the 
 sword thy daughters in the field," as if such 
 ferocity was so unnatural and so incredible, 
 that it called for this emphatic repetition. 
 Egypt is warned that the Assyrians shall 
 cast her down, " even her, and the daughters 
 of the famous nations, unto the nether parts 
 of the earth, with them that go down into 
 the pit;" and similar predictions are ad- 
 dressed to the Jews. In one of the sculptures 
 discovered at ' Nineveh, women are repre- 
 sented on the battlements of a besieged 
 town imploring quarter ; in others, they are 
 depicted, by the savage and exulting artist, 
 as tearing their hair, and throwing dust on 
 their heads, in all the agony of despair. It 
 is conjectured that the figures of one of 
 
MASSACRE OP WOMEiS\ 147 
 
 these granite tableaux represent the women 
 of Tyre. They wear the flowing robes of 
 Assyria, of which their native city was a 
 dependency — the fashions of the mother- 
 country not being so easily renounced as its 
 authority. Thus the sacred narrative is 
 corroborated and illustrated »by these tombs 
 of history. 
 
 The revolt of the Babylonians from the 
 Persians, during the usurpation of Otanes 
 the impostor, was stained by a revolting 
 massacre of Assyrian women, thousands of 
 whom, without distinction of rank or age, 
 were slain by their own nearest rela- 
 tives, solely to save the provisions which 
 they might otherwise have consumed. The 
 Babylonians had been long preparing for an 
 outbreak; and the confusion arising from 
 the assassination of Otanes, whose history 
 is given in our next chapter, seemed to 
 offer a favourable moment for executing 
 their design. Their chief difficulty was the 
 scarcity of provisions ; and, on raising the 
 standard of rebellion, they determined, as 
 the best mode of eking out their scanty 
 
 H 2 
 
148 SIEOE OF BABYLOX 
 
 supplies, that all the women should be put 
 to death, each man being permitted to pre- 
 serve one wife and his mother. "Without 
 delay, the cruel resolution was put in force ; 
 the tender claims of youth, the melting looks 
 of beauty, the moving appeals of helpless 
 and venerable age, all the ties of kindred 
 and nature, were alike disregarded by the 
 ruthless executioners ; and in a few hours, 
 there was no house in Babylon in which 
 there was not a woman dead. 
 
 The Persians, headed by Darius, who had 
 succeeded to the vacant throne, soon encom- 
 passed the city ; but the Babylonians felt con- 
 fident in the strength of their walls, their 
 varied means of defence, and the unsuitable- 
 ness of the surrounding plain for the support 
 of the besiegers. Day after day they ap- 
 peared on the ramparts, insolently taunting 
 Darius and his soldiers, and treating their 
 assaults on the massive fortifications with 
 derision and contempt. On one occasion, a 
 popular chief, amidst the applauding laughter 
 of his companions, called out to the King 
 and his courtiers — " Why sit ye there, 0, 
 
STRATAGEM OF ZOPYRUS. 149 
 
 Persian ? will ye not be off? for ye will not 
 capture our city till a mule brings forth a 
 foal !" He spoke in derision, but his words 
 were afterwards set down as the language of 
 prophecy. 
 
 In the camp of Darius was a Persian noble, 
 named Zopyrus, one of the seven conspirators 
 against Otanes, whose adventures are re- 
 corded hereafter ; and this great officer was 
 meditating in his tent how to advance the 
 siege, when his groom brought him the sur- 
 prising intelligence that his favourite mule 
 had cast a foal. Zopyrus instantly recollected 
 the taunt of the Babylonian chief, and sup- 
 posing that the man, without being conscious 
 of the fact, spoke under divine inspiration, 
 he regarded the incident as betokening that 
 he was to be the captor of the city. After 
 long deliberation, he thought that this 
 result could only be attained by stratagem ; 
 and hearing that the King would deem 
 no reward too great for such a service, he 
 resolved to effect it at any cost. In this 
 mood he cut off his nose and ears, and shaved 
 his face, a mark of the greatest ignominy 
 
150 ZOPYEUS AND DARIUS. 
 
 among the ancients ; and then presented 
 himself before Darius. The King, hardly- 
 recognising his counsellor and friend, and 
 supposing that he had been treated thus 
 barbarously by an enemy, burst into a pas- 
 sion of grief on his appearance, when, to his 
 amazement, Zopyrus informed him that the 
 mutilation he beheld had been inflicted by 
 his own hand, and acquainted him with the 
 design he had in view. It was therefore 
 arranged, with the consent of the monarch, 
 that Zopyrus should desert to the enemy, 
 and lead them to believe these injuries had 
 been inflicted by Darius, by which means he 
 might obtain the command of the army, and 
 then, in accordance with a concerted plan, 
 deliver up the city to the Persians. 
 
 The stratagem succeeded admirably. Zo- 
 pyrus, presenting himself at the gates, was 
 admitted into the city, and conducted before 
 the council of Babylonian chiefs, whom, 
 after calling their attention to his mutilated 
 and bleeding condition, and inveighing 
 bitterly against Darius, he addressed as 
 follows — "Now, therefore, I come to you, 
 
ASSAULT OF BABYLON, 151 
 
 0, Babylonians ! the greatest blessing ; and 
 to Darius, his army, and the Persian nation, 
 the greatest curse : for 1 know all their 
 plans, and they, who have subjected me 
 to this infamous treatment, shall find I 
 can frustrate them." This harangue was 
 received with acclamations by the council ; 
 his appearance bore testimony to his sin- 
 cerity, and on his claiming the command 
 of a sortie, it was readily conceded to him. 
 These favourable impressions were confirmed 
 when he returned a victor, Darius, agree- 
 ably to their arrangement, having planted 
 a division in such a situation that he 
 could easily cut it in pieces : and three suc- 
 cessive sallies being attended with the same 
 result, his influence and authority, from the 
 first very great, became paramount. The 
 moment now approached when his secret 
 object was to be accomplished. On an 
 appointed day, the Persian monarch in- 
 vested every side of the city, and the 
 Babylonians as eagerly manned the walls, 
 and impatiently awaited the attack. Arrows 
 and missiles flew in mingled clouds from 
 
152 LEVY OF "WOMEN". 
 
 the ramparts, and "were returned from 
 the trenches, or from moveable to"wers, 
 raised to the level of the parapet, while 
 huge battering rams "were brought into 
 operation belo"w. But valour is no safe- 
 guard against treachery, and, at the very 
 moment that the Babylonians "were shout- 
 ing with triumph, Zopyrus, clandestinely 
 opening the gates, admitted the Persians 
 into the city, and thus put an end to the 
 straggle. 
 
 It would appear that the women whose 
 lives had been spared on the outbreak of 
 the revolt, were, like the others, barba- 
 rously massacred during the progress of the 
 siege, with the same view of eking out the 
 provisions ; for Herodotus, at the close of 
 the narrative from which these facts are 
 gleaned, leads us to conclude that none sur- 
 vived. What was the number thus sacri- 
 ficed it is impossible to conjecture : but as 
 Darius, on restoring order, levied a contri- 
 bution of fifty thousand women on the neigh- 
 bouring provinces, expressly to supply wives 
 for the adults, the extent to which the 
 
FALL OF BABYLON. 153 
 
 butchery was carried cannot be questioned. 
 Well might such an act bring down on the 
 accursed spot the full measure of Divine 
 vengeance, and no thrill of sympathy is 
 awakened in the breast, when we read that 
 Babylon, the Golden City, the Grlory of 
 Kingdoms, the Beauty of the Chaldees, the 
 Tender and Delicate, a Lady, a Queen for 
 ever — for by all these designations, and 
 many similar ones, it is especially distin- 
 guished in the sacred pages of Holy Writ — 
 Babylon the Great had fallen, fallen to rise 
 no more ! 
 
 H 3 
 
( 154 ) 
 
 YI. 
 
 PERSIA AND CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Although the empires of Egypt and As- 
 syria, from being mentioned in the first 
 annals of mankind, are usually regarded as 
 the earliest kingdoms of the earth, it is 
 doubtful whether they can claim priority 
 over that of Persia, which for ages swayed 
 the sceptre of the East. Sir William Jones 
 considers the Persian monarchy to have 
 been the oldest in the world; and has 
 ascertained, from the half faded pages of 
 the Dubistan, a record of great weight, that 
 it existed under its original name of Iran 
 before the foundation of Mneveh. Its anti- 
 quity is attested also by the structure of the 
 
EXTENT OP PEESIA. 155 
 
 language, which Sir William found to l)e 
 the mother of the Sanscrit, and, conse- 
 quently of the Zend and Parsi, as well as 
 the Grreek, Latin and Gothic ; and the cha- 
 racter of the original population, which 
 comprised three distinct races of men, inha- 
 biting the vast expanse of India, Arabia 
 and Tartary, affords further evidence of the 
 fact. In the time of Esther (Esther i. 1), 
 the Persian dominions, which are described 
 as reaching from India even unto Ethiopia, 
 comprised "an hundred and seven and 
 twenty provinces ;" and it is afterwards 
 mentioned by Daniel, under Darius the 
 Mede, the Cyaxares II. of profane history, 
 as being divided into the same number of 
 principalities, each governed by its own 
 satrap. This was subsequent to the acquisi- 
 tion of Babylon, as related at the close of 
 the preceding chapter. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain precisely 
 what was the first religion of the ancient 
 Persians, but it was no doubt a form of the 
 Sabian creed, which was very early estab- 
 lished in the Bast. Mankind, having lost 
 
156 ZOROASTER. 
 
 the knowledge of the true G-od, naturally- 
 looked with veneration on the sun, the 
 moon, and the planets, to which they as- 
 cribed the guardianship of the world ; and 
 the Magi soon added the worship of fire, 
 as their symbol, emblem, and type. But 
 this system, after enduring for ages, was 
 modified and reformed by Zoroaster, an 
 eminent and learned Magus, who, by in- 
 venting magic, was able to work miracles, 
 and thus imposed himself on the Persians 
 as a messenger from Heaven. He is by 
 some confounded with Moses ; and Plu- 
 tarch, adopting the fabulous chronology of 
 his contemporaries, represents him to have 
 lived about five thousand years before the 
 siege of Troy. But it appears that his real 
 era was about six centuries l^efore the 
 birth of Christ — that he was, if not of 
 Jewish extraction, at least born in Palestine, 
 and was there servant to a Jewish prophet, 
 who for an act of disobedience, smote him 
 with an incurable leprosy. Hence he is 
 supposed to be G-ehazi, the servant of 
 Elijah, and many circumstances concur in 
 
HIS MYSTIC RELIGION-. 157 
 
 support of this conjecture. Dismissed by 
 his master from Judsea, he secluded himself 
 for a time at Aderbayagan, where he con- 
 ceived his .religious system ; and then, 
 through the instrumentality of the Magi, 
 obtained an introduction to Darius, at Per- 
 sepolis, and easily converted him to his 
 doctrines. These embraced the two great 
 principles of good and evil — the first repre- 
 sented by Oromazes, or Grod, and typified 
 by light; the other by Aramanus, or the 
 Demon, typified by darkness ; and between 
 these powers, Mithras, or the sun, acted as 
 mediator. God was to be worshipped with 
 thanks and praise ; the demon appeased and 
 propitiated by sacrifice; and the majestic 
 orb still exacted the adoration of the devout 
 Moral precepts, pilfered from the Hebrew 
 Testament, a tiresome series of ablutions, 
 and the practice of vows, were enjoined as 
 solemn religious duties, but had little, if any, 
 real influence on the character of the 
 people. 
 
 The first Persian King of whom we have 
 any credible account, is the elder Oyaxares, 
 
158 HORRIBLE INCIDENT. 
 
 the father of Astyages, who, under the name 
 of Ahasueras, appears in the Sacred Writ- 
 ings as the husband of Esther. Aryenis, a 
 Lydian princess, of great talent and beauty, 
 connected these monarchs with the ancient 
 kingdom of Lydia, and became a bond of 
 alliance between her native country and 
 Persia. It is possible that she was the 
 Vashti of Scripture, mentioned in the book 
 of Esther ; but this is mere conjecture. Her 
 marriage with Astyages, or Ahasuerus, at 
 that time only heir to the crown, was brought 
 about in a singular manner, illustrating 
 both the barbarous practices and the supersti- 
 tion of those remote times. King Cyaxares 
 maintained in his household some Scythian 
 hunters, to whom, on a particular occasion, 
 he confided several youths of distinction, 
 with directions that they should be trained 
 in the use of the bow and javelin, and the 
 various exercises of the chase. Shortly after- 
 wards, the Scythians fell under the displea- 
 sure of the monarch, in consequence of their 
 having failed to procure the usual supply 
 of game ; and being severely reproved for 
 
INVASION OF LYDIA. 159 
 
 their inattention, they resolved, in revenge, 
 to kill one of the youths entrusted to their 
 charge, and serve his corpse up in a pasty to 
 the King, as the produce of their day's sport. 
 Cyaxares partook without suspicion of the 
 horrible dish, when its real character was 
 discovered, and search being made for the 
 Scythians, it was found they had fled to 
 Lydia. Alyates, the monarch of that 
 country, instead of driving such monsters 
 from his dominions, afforded them a ready 
 asylum, and refused to surrender them to 
 the ambassadors of Cyaxares. A bloody 
 war was the consequence, and the Persian 
 sovereign, having gained some advantages, 
 pushed forward, at the head of a mighty 
 host, towards the capital of his adversary. 
 The two armies met on the way, at a spot 
 well suited for an engagement ; but the 
 battle had scarcely begun, when a thick 
 darkness fell over the field, and the 
 hostile troops became mingled in a pro- 
 miscuous and undistinguishable mass. Re- 
 garding this interruption as a direct inter- 
 position of the gods, the two monarchs, in 
 
160 QUEEN VASHTI. 
 
 the midst of tlie awful pause that ensued, 
 mutually concluded a peace, and, to cement 
 their amity, arranged a marriage between 
 the Persian prince Astyages and the prin- 
 cess Aryenis, which was celebrated with 
 great pomp a few days afterwards. 
 
 The history of Yashti, whether she were 
 Aryenis or not, furnishes, in the simple, but 
 precise and "emphatic language of the Bible, 
 some very material facts in reference to the 
 position and social influence of the ancient 
 queens of Persia. As at Babylon, so in 
 Persia, but one of the wives of the King 
 was distinguished by the regal title ; and 
 we are told (Esther i. 9), that while her 
 consort entertained his lords, "Yashti the 
 Queen made a feast for the women in the 
 royal house which belonged to King Ahasu- 
 erus," implying, not only that she was the 
 sole partner of the throne, but that the 
 other wives of the King were subject to her 
 authority, and partly contributed to her 
 state. At the banquet of Belshazzar, in 
 Babylon, the royal table was graced by 
 the ladies of the court, but here they are 
 
DISOBEYS THE KING. 161 
 
 described as feasting by themselves, in a 
 separate apartment of the palace, and the 
 seclusion in which they are kept evinces 
 how differently they were treated in the 
 two kingdoms. It was not till the seventh 
 day of the great feast in the garden, " when 
 the heart of the king was merry with wine," 
 that the seven chamberlains of his palace 
 were commanded to "bring Vashti the 
 Queen before the King with the crown royal 
 on, to show the people and princes her 
 beauty, for she was fair to look on." The 
 royal lady heard of the wishes of her lord 
 with unmingled astonishment. Such a pro- 
 ceeding was at variance both with etiquette 
 and decorum, as they were practised at the 
 Persian court ; and, relying on the influence 
 she possessed with Ahasuerus, " Yashti 
 refused to come at the King's commandment 
 by his chamberlains : therefore was the 
 King very wroth, and his anger burned 
 within him." 
 
 The incidents which followed show how 
 complete was the subjection of the wife to 
 the husband, as well in the humbler house- 
 
162 ALARM OF HUSBANDS. 
 
 holds of his subjects as in that of the King ; 
 and how implicit was the obedience exacted 
 from her. In the case of "\'ashti, her little 
 wilfulness was deemed sufiBcient ground for 
 a divorce, as her example, in the opinion of 
 the very wise men of the King's council, 
 was calculated, if she escaped punishment, 
 to excite a rebellious spirit in every woman 
 in the kingdom. Ahasuerus particularly de- 
 sires that the sentence passed upon her shall 
 be "according to law;" and " Memucan 
 answered before the King and the Princes, 
 Yashti the Queen hath not done wrong to 
 the King onlj, but also to all the Princes, 
 and to all the people that are in all the pro- 
 vinces of the King Ahasuerus. For this 
 deed of the Queen shall come abroad unto 
 all women, so that they shall despise their 
 husbands in their eyes, when it is reported 
 the King Ahasuerus commanded Yashti the 
 Queen to be brought in before him, but she 
 came not : Likewise shall the ladies of Per- 
 sia and Media say this day unto all the 
 King's princes, which have heard of the 
 deed of the Queen. Thus shall arise too 
 
THE king's remorse. 163 
 
 much contempt and wrath." In fact, these 
 eastern sages were afraid to face their 
 wives under the influence of such an event ; 
 and even after they had effected the ruin 
 of the misguided Queen, they were not 
 content till Ahasuerus was persuaded to 
 make a solemn proclamation throughout 
 the empire that "all the wives shall give 
 to their husbands honour, both great and 
 small." 
 
 The poor Queen was in some measure 
 avenged by the remorse which seized upon 
 her husband, when his enervated mind reco- 
 vered from his protracted orgies ; for in the 
 words of the Sacred Volume, " he remem- 
 bered Vashti, and what was decreed against 
 her." Though the parasites of his depraved 
 court assembled, by public proclamation, all 
 the most beautiful women of his vast empire, 
 in the hope of dispelling his melancholy, it 
 was not till he beheld the innocent face of 
 Esther that he deigned to accept consolation. 
 Her transcendant attractions enchained his 
 admiration, and procured her speedy eleva- 
 tion to the regal dignity. This step, when 
 
164 CORONATION OF ESTHER. 
 
 once resolved on, was carried out with some 
 formality, evidently in accordance with 
 established usage; and, to mark that no 
 ceremony was omitted, it is recorded that 
 Ahasuerus " set the royal crown upon her 
 head, and made her Queen instead of 
 Yashti." The coronation, or investiture, was 
 succeeded by a banquet, the nuptial feast, 
 which the royal bridegroom threw open 
 "to all his princes, and his servants, even 
 Esther's feast, and he made a release to the 
 provinces, and gave gifts, according to the 
 estate of the King." 
 
 The queenly crown, though it might daz- 
 zle her ambition, by no means secured for 
 its possessor a share in the government, or 
 even the precarious advantage of the royal 
 ear; and, when first importuned by Mor- 
 decai, Esther had been thirty days without 
 once seeing the King. Nor, indeed, could 
 she present herself before him unbidden, ex- 
 cept at the risk of her life ; and in excus- 
 ing her inaction on this great occasion, she 
 reminded Mordecai "That whosoever, whe- 
 ther man or woman, shall come unto the 
 
THE PRINCESS MANDANE. 165 
 
 King in the inner court, who is not called, 
 there is one law of his to put him to death, 
 except such to whom the King shall hold 
 out the golden sceptre, that he may live." 
 Ahasuerus, who usually acted more like a 
 wild beast than a man, condescended to 
 exercise his clemency, when the trembling 
 Queen appeared before his throne, and thus, 
 more fortunate than her predecessor, she 
 escaped the cruel rigour of the law. The 
 heart of the ruthless monarch was tamed by 
 her beauty; at her request his barbarous 
 design of slaughtering the Jews was aban- 
 doned ; and the melting plea of a woman, 
 more persuasive than the eloquence of 
 wicked counsellors, saved a whole people 
 from destruction. 
 
 Aryenis, or, as it seems more proper to 
 call her, Vashti, was the mother of two 
 royal children — Cyaxares the Second, men- 
 tioned in the Bible as Darius the Mede, who 
 succeeded his father on the throne, and a 
 daughter, named Mandane. The latter, on 
 approaching the critical age of womanhood, 
 became a source of uneasiness to her jealous 
 
166 WIFE OF HARPAGUS. 
 
 father, whose slumbers had been disturbed 
 by a dream, which, being submitted to the 
 Magi, was interpreted as denoting that she 
 should become the mother of a son, who 
 would subvert the throne of Persia, and 
 subdue by his prowess the whole Asiatic 
 continent. To prevent such a result, the 
 King gave her in marriage to a Persian of 
 inferior ranlc, whose humble means, he ima- 
 gined, would prevent their offspring from 
 executing, if not- from entertaining, any am- 
 bitious projects ; but a second dream having 
 revived his alarm, just as his daughter gave 
 birth to a son, he tore the helpless infant 
 from his mother's arms, and gave secret 
 orders for his destruction. The task was 
 confided to Harpagus, his principal min- 
 ister, whose devotion and fidelity had won 
 his confidence ; but it was more easily 
 conceived than executed. Harpagus re- 
 vealed his instructions to his wife ; and the 
 tender instincts of woman, ever shrinking 
 from violence, and especially aroused by 
 the sight of guileless infancy, urged her 
 to intercede for the little innocent, and 
 
CYNO NURSES CYRUS. 167 
 
 iuduce her ferocious husband to spare 
 his life. Though she did not completely 
 succeed, her entreaties and representations 
 made such an impression on Harpagus, that 
 he determined not to dip his own hands in 
 the child's blood ; but in order to carry out 
 the King's command, he sent for one of the 
 royal herdsmen, named Mitradates, and en- 
 joined him, on pain of death, to convey the 
 infant into Media, and there leave him ex- 
 posed on the bleakest part of a desolate 
 mountain. This heartless design, however, 
 was prevented by another woman — Cyno, 
 or Spaco, the herdsman's wife, who, on her 
 husband's return home, discovered the child, 
 was won by his beauty and endearing looks, 
 and, worming from Mitradates the secret of 
 his birth, prevailed on him by her tears and 
 supplications to evade the orders of Harpa- 
 gus, and bring up the royal infant as their 
 own son. 
 
 Thus two women preserved to history and 
 to mankind the great Cyrus, who, if his 
 exploits conferred little real benefit on his 
 species, was yet the most august of Asiatic 
 
168 PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 
 
 despots, and ranks with the most illustrious 
 and renowned conquerors. His name pos- 
 sesses a peculiar interest for posterity, from 
 its association with the sublime denuncia- 
 tions of the Prophets, particularly with 
 those of Isaiah (Isaiah xlv.), more than a 
 century before his birth ; and, in his won- 
 derful preservation as an infant, we may 
 recognize the overruling providence of the 
 Almighty, which had so long predestined 
 him for an instrument of His wiU and His 
 vengeance. It is said that Cyrus himself 
 was forcibly struck by the language of 
 Isaiah, when, after the capture of Babylon, 
 the prophetic verse was pointed out to him 
 by his Jewish officers, and he saw his very 
 name recorded on the ancient scroll. 
 
 Singular it is that a monarch who owed 
 his deliverance from an early death to the 
 gentle sympathies of woman, should, after a 
 career of unequalled glory, receive from a 
 woman's hand the most signal overthrow. 
 The richest territories of Asia, subdued by 
 his arms, could not satisfy the rapacious 
 ambition of Cyrus, and, in an inauspicious 
 
QUEEN TOMYRIS. 169 
 
 moment, he cast his eyes on the territory of the 
 Massagetse, which extended from the borders 
 of his extensive dominions, where the broad 
 stream of the Araxes formed a natural 
 boundary, to the towering mountains of the 
 Caucasus. This immense plain was inha- 
 bited by a hardy and savage race, living in 
 a state of nature, but who, uncorrupted by 
 Asiatic luxury, preferred death to the loss 
 of their freedom. The government was 
 held by a Queen — Tomyris, a woman of in- 
 domitable spirit, but who felt no interest in 
 the elevation of her sex ; and the women of 
 the Massagetse, if we may credit the state- j 
 ment of Herodotus^ had lost every better 
 instinct of the human heart. Cyrus, aware \ 
 of the difficulty of entering the country, 
 sent an embassy to Tomyris with a proposal 
 of marriage : but the shrewd Queen pene- 
 trated his object, and rejected the overture 
 with disdain. He then advanced rapidly 
 ,with his army, and was preparing to throw 
 a bridge over the river, when a message 
 from Tomyris, who was calmly awaiting the 
 attack, interrupted his proceedings, and 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
170 MESSAGE OF TOMTRIS. 
 
 placed the contest on a new footing. " King 
 of the Medes," said the warrior Queen, by 
 the mouth of her envoy, " desist from your 
 great exertions ; for you cannot be certain 
 that they will succeed ; and having desisted, 
 be content with your own dominions, and 
 suffer me to reign over mine. But if you 
 will not attend to my advice, and prefer 
 everything before peace — in a word, if you 
 are very anxious to make trial of the Mas- 
 sagetffi, toil no longer in throwing a bridge 
 over the river, but do you cross to our 
 side, while we retire three days' march, 
 or if you had rather receive us at youi* 
 side ,do you the like." Cyrus, who believed 
 himself to be under the special protection 
 of Heaven, accepted this bold challenge, 
 in opposition to the advice and remon- 
 strances of his counsellors, and crossed the 
 river. In the first conflict, he feigned a 
 retreat, leaving his camp to the Massagetse, 
 who, unaccustomed to so much luxury, were 
 speedily overcome by the Persian wines, 
 and, while in this condition, were again 
 attacked by Cyrus, and put completely to 
 
HER BARBAROUS REVEWaE. 171 
 
 the rout. The base stratagem greatly exas- 
 perated Tomyris, particularly as her son was 
 among its victims ; and she sent another 
 message to Cyrus, threatening if he did not 
 immediately quit her territories, that she 
 would glut him with blood. Cyrus still ad- 
 vancing, the two armies met in a sanguinary 
 battle, which Herodotus, who took great 
 pains to arrive at the facts, describes as the 
 most obstinate that ever was fought between 
 barbarians. It terminated in the total defeat 
 of the Persians, Cyrus himself falling on the 
 field. Tomyris, who retained no character- 
 istic of her sex, inhumanly exulted over his 
 corpse, and filling a skin with blood, thrust 
 his head into the pool, exclaiming "Thou 
 hast indeed ruined me, though I am victo- 
 rious in battle, but T sui'vive to keep my 
 word, and glut thee with blood." 
 
 Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cambyses, 
 the conqueror of Egypt, a barbarous and 
 despicable tyrant, who introduced the cus- 
 tom of intermarrying with sisters, which 
 afterwards became so common in Persia. 
 Being desirous of marrying his sister Meroc, 
 
 \ 2 
 
172 THE PRINCESS MEROC. 
 
 he consulted the Persian judges as to the 
 legality of the union, and, afraid to oppose 
 his wishes, they informed him, after a long 
 conference, that though they could find no 
 statute which sanctioned such a match, there 
 was a law that the King of Persia could do 
 whatever he pleased, and, therefore, if he 
 chose to make Meroc his wife, the marriage 
 must be perfectly legal; But the queenly 
 diadem could not reconcile Meroc to a fate 
 so lamentable, particularly as Cambyses, in 
 a fit of jealousy, had recently put her 
 favourite brother, the brave Smerdis, to 
 death, and the splendours of a barbaric 
 court failed to soothe her suffering mind. 
 One day, she was present at a fight between 
 a lion and a whelp, contrived for the 
 entertainment of Cambyses, when a second 
 whelp, seeing the lion gain the advantage, 
 flew to the assistance of its mate, on which 
 Meroc burst into tears, and being asked by 
 the King the reason of her emotion, replied 
 that the spectacle reminded her forcibly of 
 the fate of Smerdis, who had been slain, not 
 by a stranger, but by his own brother, while 
 
DAUGHTER OF OTAjSTES. 173 
 
 here the very beasts of the forest remem- 
 bered the tie of affinity, and nobly stood by 
 each other. This answer so enraged Cam- 
 byses, that he rushed on the unhappy Queen 
 before the court, and, by an inhuman kick, 
 put an end at once to her sorrows and her 
 life. 
 
 Cambyses perished miserably, by an 
 accident which, from its resemblance to an 
 outrage he had committed on the Egyptian 
 Apis, was regarded by a superstitious age 
 as a judgment of the gods ; and his last 
 agonies were aggravated by the intelligence 
 that one of the Magi, bearing the same 
 name as his murdered brother, and claiming 
 to be the real Smerdis, had taken advantage 
 of his absence from Persia to usurp the 
 throne. This imposture, which baffled the 
 scrutiny of the wisest of the Persians, was 
 destined to be unmasked by a woman. One 
 of the seven princes of Persia, Otanes, a 
 man of invincible spirit, had a daughter in 
 the royal household, who had been married 
 to the late King, and now fell to his suc- 
 cessor ; and, being assured by Cambyses that 
 
174 WIVES OF SMERDIS. 
 
 his brother Smerdis was dead, he conceived 
 a suspicion that the occupant of the throne 
 was Smerdis the magus, particularly as the 
 new monarch shut himself up in the citadel, 
 never showing himself to the people, or 
 summoning the great nobles to his presence. 
 By bribing a chamberlain, Otanes contrived 
 to send a message to Phasdyma, his daugh- 
 ter, acquainting her with his surmise, and 
 desiring to know if it were a fact, at the 
 same time instructing her, if she had no 
 personal knowledge of Smerdis the prince, 
 to make inquiries on the subject of the 
 Princess Atossa, his sister, who was also an 
 inmate of the palace. The reply of Phse- 
 dyma confirmed the suspicions of her father ; 
 for she informed him that having never 
 seen Smerdis the prince, she was unable to 
 speak to his identity; and as to commu- 
 nicating with Atossa, it was impossible, 
 as the ladies of the palace were now 
 all kept in separate apartments, and un- 
 able to hold any intercourae with each 
 other. Otanes then remembered that Smer- 
 dis the magus, when a young man, had 
 
ph^dtma's discovery, 175 
 
 had his ears cut off by Cambyses, as a 
 punishment for some grave offence ; and, 
 by a second message, he apprised Phte- 
 dyma of the circumstance, and adjured 
 her to ascertain, on the first opportunity, 
 whether the King had ears or not, a.s 
 if not, there could be no doubt that 
 he was Smerdis the magus. Phaedyma 
 undertook the task ; and one night, when 
 the magus was asleep, cautiously raised his 
 tresses of false hair, and feeling for his 
 ears, found that her father's suspicions were 
 correct. She speedily made him acquainted 
 with her discovery, and he lost no time, 
 after taking the advice of his wife, in 
 summoning the other six princes, and in- 
 forming them of the- imposture. His con- 
 federates were no less astonished than en- 
 raged ; but, at first, they hesitated how to 
 proceed, in an exigency so unparalleled, 
 till Darius, who was distinguished for his 
 great resolution, recommended that they 
 should force their way at once into the 
 palace, and put the usurper to death. The 
 proposal was warmly seconded by Grobryas, 
 
176 FATE OF PREXASPE8. 
 
 who concluded by saying, "Friends, shall 
 we ever have a better opportuniny to re- 
 cover the sovereign power, or if we shall be 
 unable to do so, to die ? seeing we who are 
 Persians are governed by a Medic magus, 
 and one without ears. I therefore give my 
 voice that we yield to Darius, and that on 
 breaking up this conference, we go nowhere 
 else than straight to the magus." 
 
 Meanwhile, the magi, fearing discovery, 
 sought, hj gifts and promises, to gain over 
 Prexaspes, who had been employed by 
 Cambyses to superintend the execution of 
 Smerdis, and, pretending to fall into their 
 desigil, he suffered them to lead him to the 
 top of a high tower, whence he was to 
 harangue the people, and declare that Smer- 
 dis was still alive, and now reigned over 
 them. But Prexaspes, instead of carrying 
 out their wishes, loudly proclaimed from the 
 tower that he had really killed the brother 
 of Cambyses, and that the throne was 
 usurped by one of the magi ; and then, im- 
 precating a malediction on the Persians if 
 they submitted to such an imposture, threw 
 
SLAUGHTER OF MAGI. 177 
 
 himself headlong from the height, perishing 
 on the spot. In the confusion that ensued, 
 the seven conspirators gained access to the 
 citadel, reached the presence-chamber, and 
 slew both the impostor and his brother. 
 The people, stimulated by their example, 
 made a general attack on the magi, many of 
 whom fell victims to their fury, and the day 
 was afterwards commemorated by an annual 
 festival, called "The Slaughter of the 
 Magi," during which it was dangerous for 
 a magus to appear in the streets, or cross 
 the threshold of his own dwelling. 
 
 On the death of the pretended King, the 
 seven conspirators assembled to consider 
 who should take his place on the vacant 
 throne, when Darius, by an ingenious trick, 
 secured the prize for himself, and became 
 the husband both of Phsedyma and Atossa. 
 
 Atossa, as the daughter of Cyrus, and a 
 woman of great beauty, was the favourite 
 of Darius, and to her it was owing that 
 Persian ambition was first directed to 
 Grreece. At this time, there lived at the 
 court of Persia a Greek physician, who, 
 
 1 3 
 
178 QUEEK AT08SA. 
 
 having performed a remarkable cure on the 
 King, was rewarded with a large revenue, 
 and a seat at the royal table, but strictly 
 prohibited from returning to G-reece ; and, 
 amidst the luxuries of his splendid captivity, 
 he pined for the free air of his native land. 
 While thus dejected, he was privately in- 
 formed by Atossa that she was suffering 
 severely from a cancer, the existence of 
 which she desired to conceal from Darius ; 
 and he undertook to effect a complete cure 
 of the disease, on a promise that, when this 
 was accomplished, she should obtain the 
 King's consent to his leaving Persia. Demo- 
 cedes — such was the physician's name — soon 
 fulfilled his task, and it remained for the 
 obliged Queen to redeem her word. Con- 
 sidering how this could be done, one da}', 
 when entertaining Darius, she broke out 
 into an eloquent commendation of great 
 actions, admonishing the King that they 
 should be the first object with a powerful 
 monarch, and that, instead of consuming his 
 life in idleness, he should now be leading 
 his army on a career of conquest, adding 
 
ATOSSA AND DARIUS. 179 
 
 new territories to tlie Persian empire. 
 Darius acknowledged the justice of her 
 observations, and, to show his thirst for 
 glory, assured her that at that very moment 
 he was making the most extensive prepara- 
 tions for the invasion of Scythia, which he 
 determined to conduct in person, and hoped 
 to bring to a triumphant issue. "Give 
 up the thought, King," replied Atossa, 
 " of marching first against the Scythians, for 
 they will be in your power whenever you 
 choose, but take my advice, and lead an 
 army into Greece, for from the account I 
 have heard, I am anxious to have Lacedae- 
 monian, Argive, Athenian, and Corinthian 
 attendants, and you have in your court the 
 fittest man to inform you of everything con- 
 cerning Greece. I mean Democedes." The 
 answer of Darius was just what she wished. 
 "Lady," said the King, "since you think 
 it better that I should first reduce Greece, I 
 will send Democedes there, in company with 
 some Persians,, to report, on the condition of 
 the country, and act accordingly." Thus the 
 Queen obtained permission for Democedes 
 
180 INTRIGUES OF ATOSSA. 
 
 to repair to Greece, but, by the King's 
 command, lie was so jealously watched by 
 his companions, that it was not till he 
 reached Crotona, his native city, that he 
 found means to escape from their custody 
 and claim the protection of his countrymen. 
 Darius was greatly enraged at his escape ; 
 but was unable, from the operations he had 
 commenced against Scythia, to carry out his 
 purpose of invading Greece, and he be- 
 queathed this project to his son Xerxes, who 
 miserably failed in the attempt. 
 
 Xerxes, whose name has become a proverb 
 for arrogance and folly, was not the eldest 
 son of Darius, although, contrary to Persian 
 custom, he was appointed his heir, claiming 
 this priority in right of his mother Atossa, 
 who was the daughter of Cyrus, while the 
 mothers of the other sons of the King were 
 only daughters of nobles. Herodotus inti- 
 mates, however, that such a plea would 
 hardly have been admitted, if it had not 
 been seconded by the intrigues of Atossa, 
 whose influence over the King was un- 
 bounded ; and we may suppose that Darius 
 
WIVES OF XERXES. 181 
 
 was also won by the personal appearance of 
 Xerxes; for, of the five millions who are 
 said to .have followed his standard into 
 G-reece, the Hellenic historian assures us 
 that none could compare in stature or beauty 
 with their barbaric leader. Still, his eleva- 
 tion, by which his elder brothers were put 
 aside, was undoubtedly owing mainly to 
 Atossa, who was so loved by Darius that he 
 caused her image to be made of beaten gold, 
 and possibly placed it in the temple. Hero- 
 dotus, indeed, mentions Arlystone as the 
 person who received this affectionate tribute, 
 but Atossa appears to have been the only 
 surviving daughter of Cyrus, and Arlystone 
 may have been but another name of the 
 same princess. 
 
 It was usual for the wives of the Kings, 
 and even of the nobles, to accompany them 
 in their warlike expeditions, and thus share 
 the hazards, if not the fatigues of the cam- 
 paign. Xerxes was accompanied in his 
 march to Grreece by his favourite wives, 
 amongst whom was Queen Amestris, who, 
 
182 CRUELTY OP AMESTRIS. 
 
 many years afterwards, in her old age, com- 
 manded fourteen noble children to be buried 
 alive at the Nine Ways, near the city of 
 Bion, to evince her gratitude to the gods for 
 granting her so long a life. JEion, desecrated 
 by this barbarous sacrifice, was the city so 
 resolutely defended by Boges, the Persian 
 governor, on the flight of Xerxes fi'om 
 G-reece, when, rather than surrender, he put 
 his wives to death, consumed their bodies on 
 a funeral pile, and then threw himself into 
 the flames. 
 
 At the battle of Issus, the wife, mother, 
 and daughter of Darius the Second, the son 
 and successor of Xerxes, were captured, with 
 the Persian camp, by Alexander the G-reat, 
 and his treatment of the royal prisoners 
 ranks among the noblest actions of that 
 renowned warrior. The chariot of Darius 
 having been taken on the field, with his bow, 
 shield, and cloak lying within, it was thought 
 that the monarch himself had fallen, and 
 this unfounded rumour was quickly reported 
 to the captive ladies, and threw them into 
 
THE QUEEN- AND ALEXANDER. 183 
 
 transports of grief. Their wailings and 
 lamentations, breaking forth in the silence 
 of night, reached the ear of Alexander, and 
 he sent one of his principal officers with a 
 message of condolence to the Queen, assuring 
 her that Darius had neither been slain nor 
 captured, but had, on quitting the field, 
 outstripped pursuit, and must then be in 
 safety. Next day, he went personally to 
 the tent of his fair prisoners, accompanied by 
 his favourite general Hephsestion. On their 
 entry, the mother of Darius fell at the feet 
 of Hephgestion, supposing, from his majestic 
 appearance, that he was the great hero, 
 but Hephsestion drew back, and pointed to 
 Alexander, who, advancing, raised the em- 
 barrassed lady from the ground, exclaiming 
 that she had made no mistake, as Hephsestion 
 was indeed his other self, and worthy to be 
 accounted his equal. He then turned to the 
 trembling Queen, who was bathed in tears, 
 and endeavoured, by a few well-timed words, 
 to soothe and reassure her, declaring that he 
 had no personal quarrel with Darius, but 
 was contending only for the empire of Asia, 
 
184 QUEEN ARTEMISIA. 
 
 and that she and her daughters, while they 
 remained under his care, should be treated 
 with all the consideration due to their sex, 
 character, and exalted station. Darius, 
 when informed of his conduct on this occa- 
 sion, burst into tears, and passionately ex- 
 claimed — " 0, great Grod ! who disposest of 
 the affairs of Kings among men, preserve to 
 me the empire of the Persians and Medes as 
 thou gavest it ; but if it be thy will that I 
 am to be no longer King of Asia, let 
 Alexander, in preference to all others, suc- 
 ceed to my power." 
 
 But it was not always as mere camp fol- 
 lowers that the Queens and Princesses of 
 Persia accompanied the royal armies. Queen 
 Artemisia, an ally and tributary of Persia, 
 sailed in the fleet of Xerxes, when he invaded 
 Greece, as commander of a squadron; and 
 " of the whole fleet," says Herodotus, " she 
 furnished the most renowned ships, next to 
 the Sidonians •, and of all the allies, gave the 
 best advice to the King." She was strongly 
 opposed to a naval attack on the G-reeks, 
 whom she considered invincible on the 
 
HER COIirDUCT IJ^ BATTLE. 185 
 
 waves; and it was hoped by her enemies 
 that her opposition would give mortal 
 offence to Xerxes, who, relying on his supe- 
 rior numbers, was eager to measure his 
 strength with the famous triremes of 
 Athens. But the monarch, who had the 
 highest opinion of her sagacity, appreciated 
 the sentiments by which she was actuated ; 
 and the event was equally demonstrative of 
 her courage and her wisdom. In the 
 memorable naval engagement at Salamis, 
 her ship was seen in the thick of the fight ; 
 and being hard pressed by the enemy, and 
 seeing no other way of escape, she adopted 
 the bold manoeuvre of running down the 
 ship of Damasithymus, King of the Calyn- 
 dians, and thus extricated herself from her 
 perilous situation. Xerxes, who was a 
 spectator of the conflict from a commanding 
 point on the shore, could not repress his 
 admiration at this dexterous feat, and loudly 
 exclaimed — " My men have become women, 
 and my women, men." The Athenians were 
 no less mortified at her escape, considering 
 it a great indignity to be baffled by a 
 
186 WIFE OF PHARANDATES. 
 
 woman ; and the senate proclaimed a reward 
 of ten thousand drachmas to whoever should 
 effect her capture. Artemisia, however, was 
 not destined to fall into their hands, as on 
 the King's departure from the army, he 
 directed her to proceed to Ephesus, in charge 
 of his sons, and she did not again engage in 
 the war. 
 
 We have seen that the wives of the Bongs 
 were sometimes made prisoners by the 
 enemy; and those of the nobles, who also 
 accompanied their husbands, were subject to 
 the same casualty. At the sanguinary en- 
 gagement at Platsea, the wife of Pharandates, 
 the Persian commander, was found on the 
 field of battle, covered with gold and gems ; 
 and threw herself on her knees before Pau- 
 sanias, exclaiming, " King of Sparta, deliver 
 me, your supplicant, from captive servitude ; 
 for you have thus far benefited me, by de- 
 stroying those men, who pay no regard 
 either to gods or heroes. I am by birth a 
 Coan, daughter to Hegetarides ; and the 
 Persians having taken me away by force 
 from Cos, kept me." The reply of Pausa- 
 
ALEXANDER AND ROXANA. 187 
 
 uias instantly dispelled her apprehensions. 
 " Lady," he said, "be of good heart, both 
 as a suppliant, and moreover, if you have 
 spoken the truth, and are indeed the daughter 
 of Hegetarides of Cos, he is the best friend 
 of all I have in those parts." And he de- 
 livered her into the charge of the ephori, and 
 afterwards, when he had completely routed 
 the Persians, saw her conducted in safety to 
 her native place. 
 
 The beautiful Roxana, who shared the 
 diadem and ruled the heart of Alexander, 
 was a prize of war, having fallen into the 
 hero's hands at the capture of the Bactrian 
 stronghold of the Rock ; and it serves to 
 illustrate the miserable social position of 
 woman in that age, that Alexander was 
 considered to have acted with great mag- 
 nanimity, or perhaps folly, in raising her to 
 the rank of his wife, since the right of con- 
 quest had made her his slave. She enjoyed 
 her elevation but a few months, when the 
 Macedonian King was snatched away by 
 death, but her expectant condition preserved 
 to her the name, though not the authority of 
 
188 FATE OF ROXANA. 
 
 Queen, for some time longer. This ascen- 
 dancy, however, could not reconcile her to 
 the degrading usages of the time, and of her 
 country, which admitted inferior wives to a 
 humble share of her privileges, as well as of 
 the affections of her husband ; and the re- 
 mains of Alexander were still lying unburied, 
 when in a paroxysm of jealous hate, she 
 seized his mistress Statira, stabbed both her 
 and her sister, and then threw their bodies 
 into a well, which she immediately filled up. 
 Her violence and her guilt, aggravated by 
 such horrible circumstances, drew down upon 
 her a terrible, though deferred retribution ; 
 and having fallen into the power of Cas- 
 sander, she was thrown into a dungeon in 
 the citadel of Amphipolis, and there, with 
 her youthful son, murdered by the unscru- 
 pulous Glaucias. 
 
 Such barbarous institutions as prevailed 
 among the Persians in reference to women, 
 naturally destroyed, in course of time, all 
 those gentle feelings which we have been 
 brought to consider as the characteristics of 
 the sex ; and Persian women are represented 
 
THE PRINCESS ARTANYTE. 189 
 
 as constantly committing the most frightful 
 atrocities. The unnatural cruelty of Queen 
 Amestris, the favourite consort of Xerxes, 
 at the Nine "Ways, in G-reece, has already 
 been mentioned, and her treatment of the 
 wife of Masistes was, if possible, still more 
 revolting. This ill-fated woman had had 
 the misfortune to excite the admiration of 
 Xerxes, but she firmly rejected his disgrace- 
 ful overtures, and, being the wife of his 
 brother, he shrank from carrying her off by 
 force. To bring himself more in her way, 
 which he thought would advance his de- 
 signs, he gave her daughter in marriage to 
 his son, thus uniting the two families by 
 closer ties, and removing those barriers which 
 Eastern jealousy opposed to familiar inter- 
 course. But Artanyte — such was the name 
 of the younger princess — was not animated 
 by the virtuous principles of her mother, 
 and she soon contrived to attract the atten- 
 tion of Xerxes to herself, though the busy 
 scandal of the court persisted in giving them 
 to the wife of Masistes. At this critical 
 juncture, Queen Amestris presented Xerxes 
 
190 BARBARITY OF AMESTRIS. 
 
 wieh a large, various-coloured, and sump- 
 tuous mantle, which she had woven with her 
 own hands ; the fatal garment was seen by 
 Artanyte, who, to annoy Amestris, begged 
 it as a gift from the King, and imprudently 
 appeared with it in public. The Queen, not 
 suspecting any ill-will on the part of Arta- 
 nyte, supposed that this unprovoked insult 
 had been contrived by her mother, to show 
 her power over Xerxes ; but, concealing her 
 resentment, she waited patiently till the 
 King gave his birthday feast, at which it 
 was customary for him to grant any request 
 she might make, and then, to his horror, 
 asked him to give her the wife of Masistes. 
 In vain the monarch tried to evade her 
 request, offering, like Herod, whatever other 
 gift she might choose, even to the half of his 
 kingdom : the inexorable Queen coveted 
 nothing so much as vengeance, and that was 
 now in her power. Having seized the 
 virtuous and innocent princess, she had her 
 conveyed into the interior of the palace ; 
 and there, summoning the royal guards, sub- 
 jected her to the most cruel mutilation, 
 
SISTER OF MITHRIDATES. 191 
 
 chopping ofif her nose and her breasts, and 
 cutting out her tongue, which she threw to 
 the dogs, and then sent the wretched lady 
 home to her husband. Masistes, maddened 
 by the treatment she had received, sought 
 redress by arms, and endeavouring to excite 
 an insurrection against the King, was killed 
 in the attempt. 
 
 These intermarriages of the royal family 
 continued to foster domestic unhappiness, 
 and great social crimes, in every generation ; 
 and so late as the time of the great Mithri- 
 dates, we find that monarch, whose arms had 
 advanced him to the empire of Asia, strug- 
 gling with similar influences, and finally 
 perishing through the infamous disloyalty of 
 one of his children. 
 
 Besides his renowned son, Mithridates the 
 First left two daughters, both of whom, 
 according to a custom very prevalent in 
 Asia, bore the name of Laodice. One be- 
 came the wife of her brother, the great 
 warrior ; the other, shortly after the acces- 
 sion of the latter to the throne, was given 
 in marriage to the King of Cappadocia. 
 
192 THE SISTER QUEENS. 
 
 The career of each furnished melancholy 
 evidence of the impolicy and infelicity of 
 such compulsory unions. Mithridates soon 
 left his young wife to go on a tour in 
 disguise through Asia Minor ; but after 
 an absence of some months, returned in 
 time to share in the great public festi- 
 vities on the birth of an heir to his 
 crown. His Queen, however, had in the 
 meantime tasted the sweets of power^ and 
 secretly formed other connexions, by which 
 she was now urged to engage in a con- 
 spiracy for the assassination of her husband, 
 and the usurpation of his throne. A similar 
 design was conceived by her sister, the 
 Queen of Cappadocia^ who, aided by the 
 cabals of an Eastern palace, successfully 
 carried out her object, and, for a time, re- 
 tained the government. But the wife of 
 Mithridates, though not wanting in sup- 
 porters, had to contend with more formidable 
 obstacles : the conspiracy was discovered, 
 the guilt of the miserable Queen established, 
 and, after a formal examination, she was 
 condemned to death. 
 
COURT OF MITHRIDATES. 193 
 
 It was some time after these tragic events 
 that Mithridates, while holding his court at 
 Stratonica, contracted a marriage with the 
 beautiful and accomplished Hypsicrates^ a 
 spouse worthy of his virtues, and who offers 
 an eminent example of what can be effected 
 by a noble and magnanimous woman. This 
 gifted princess possessed the entire affection 
 of her husband, to whom she was roman- 
 tically attached, insomuch that she cheer- 
 fully shared the dangers and fatigues of his 
 hazardous expeditions, and no doubt influ- 
 enced him, by her example and aspirations, 
 in his heroic struggles with Rome. On the 
 defeat of Mithridates by LucuUus, in the 
 mountain passes of the Crimea, she showed 
 her love for him in a signal manner, proving 
 how well she deserved, by her superior 
 qualities, the preference he uniformly dis- 
 played for her. The ruined monarch had 
 sent a message to the ladies of the court 
 from the field of battle, enjoining them 
 rather to die than fall into the hands of the 
 Romans and so completely were they fas- 
 cinated by his splendid character, that only 
 
 VOL. T. K 
 
194 ESCAPE OF HYPSICRATES. 
 
 one of the number^ probably a stranger, 
 repined at her fate. The others desired 
 the messenger, if he should ever again see 
 the King, to thank him for his care of them, 
 and then put an end to their existence — a 
 shocking proof of the barbarity exercised 
 towards their sex in those days, and which 
 they expected to experience from the Bo- 
 mans. But HypsicrateSj though not fear- 
 ing death, could not reconcile herself to a 
 separation from Mithridates ; and, mounting 
 a fleet horse, she succeeded, after incredible 
 exertions, and a narrow escape from the 
 enemy, in overtaking him, when her pre- 
 sence restored his hopes and his energy. 
 In a subsequent engagement on the banks 
 of the Euphrates, she appeared in arms, 
 dressed as a soldier, and mounted on a 
 superb Persian charger, in the ranks of his 
 guards, and fought by his side through the 
 whole of the bloody day. When the royal 
 army was seized with a panic, she placed 
 herself with her undaunted husband at the 
 head of eight hundred chosen men, and cut 
 her way through the heavy-armed legions 
 
HER ROMANTIC DEVOTION. 195 
 
 of Pompey. But the power of Mithridates 
 was now for a time broken, and he was 
 obliged to tear himself from his faithful fol- 
 lowers, and seek safety in an obscure retreat. 
 Accompanied only by his lovely wife, he pur- 
 sued his way over rugged mountain paths, 
 or across inhospitable deserts, an outcast 
 and a fugitive, receiving from the devoted 
 Hypsicrates more attention and consideration 
 than when he sat on his throne. In his ser- 
 vice the incomparable Queen could undergo 
 any hardship, or perform the most menial 
 office, and every night she carefully groomed 
 his horse, and accoutred it for his use in the 
 morning. Such was her devotion that, even 
 in this depth of his adversity, Mithridates 
 exclaimed that he should never cease to be a 
 King, so long as he possessed Hypsicrates. 
 
 Hypsicrates was not destined to be present 
 at his death ; but in that bitter hour, when he 
 was betrayed by those whom he most trusted, 
 under circumstances of the blackest trea- 
 chery, two of his daughters, Mithradata 
 and Nissa, evinced the fidelity and devoted- 
 ness of woman, and, by the voluntary sacri- 
 
 K 2 
 
196 DAUGHTERS OF MITHRIDATES. 
 
 fice of their lives, shared his last agonies. 
 The great monarch, by one of those pro- 
 digious efforts which astonished and con- 
 founded his enemies, had again assembled a 
 numerous army, and was marching into 
 Europe, intending to cross the Alps into 
 Italy, when his son Pharnaces raised a 
 sedition among the troops, and persuaded 
 them to revolt. In the middle of the night, 
 Mithridates was aroused by a cry of " Phar- 
 naces is King," and hardly had time to fly 
 with his daughters from the camp, and take 
 refuge in the neighbouring mountains. Then 
 he perceived that the crisis of his fortunes 
 had arrived, and drawing from his vest a 
 vial of poison, with which he was always 
 provided, he would have drunk off the 
 deadly potion, but was prevented by his 
 daughters, who, with tears and entreaties, 
 claimed the right of dying first. Their re- 
 quest was granted, and the princesses soon 
 expired, while Mithridates, becoming im- 
 patient at the slow operation of the poison, 
 threw himself on the sword of his freedman, 
 and thus closed his career. 
 
PUNISHMENT OF WOMEN. 197 
 
 These incidents serve to illustrate the 
 light value which the Persians, and the 
 nations dependent on, and in alliance with 
 them, set on the lives of women ; and the 
 same sentiments still prevail in many parts 
 of the East. When the Persian army sacked 
 a town, the women were often inhumanly 
 butchered; and the horrible atrocities per- 
 petrated by Chosroes and Sapor, who sat on 
 the throne of Cyrus during the inglorious 
 decline of the Roman empire, make us blush 
 for our species. From time immemorial, if 
 a Persian of any rank committed a crime, 
 his punishment was inflicted equally on 
 his wives ; and Daniel mentions that the 
 innocent wives of his enemies were thrown, 
 together with their husbands and children, 
 into the lions' den, by the special com- 
 mand of Darius. That great King, how- 
 ever, occasionally relaxed the rigour oi 
 the law, and an instance of his clemency 
 is recorded in the case of the wife oi 
 Intaphernes, one of the seven princes, 
 who, by their conspiracy against Smerdis 
 the Impostor, seated Darius on the throne. 
 Intaphernes, presuming on this great ser- 
 
198 ^VlFE OP INTAPHERNES. 
 
 vice, presented himself at the palace, and 
 insisted on entering the royal presence un- 
 announced, but was prevented by the door- 
 keepers, and, enraged at their opposition, 
 he drew his scimitar, and cut off their noses 
 and ears, which he strung on the bridle of 
 his horse, and then tied in derision round 
 their necks. The mutilated domestics has- 
 tened to implore vengeance from the King, 
 who was exasperated alike by the outrage 
 and the insult, and, without further inquiry, 
 commanded Intaphernes and his wife, with 
 their children and all their relations, to 
 be instantly led to execution. But the 
 agonizing cries of the innocent lady, as she 
 passed the gates of the palace, reached the ear 
 of the monarch ; and, touched by her miser- 
 able fate, he sent a reprieve for herself, at 
 the same time granting a pardon to any one 
 of the others whom she should select. She 
 gave the preference to her brother, which 
 so surprised Darius, that on learning the 
 fact, he sent a chamberlain to her with the 
 following message — " Lady, the King in- 
 quires the reason why, leaving your husband 
 and children, you have chosen that your 
 
TRIBUTE OP WOMEN. 199 
 
 brother should survive, as he is not so near 
 related to you as your children, and less 
 endeared to you than your husband." To 
 which the unhappy woman replied — " 0, 
 King ! I may have another husband, if Grod 
 will, and other children if I lose these ; but 
 as my father and mother are no more, I can- 
 not have another brother, and, therefore, I 
 have chosen him before them all"^ — a speech, 
 we are told, which so pleased the despot, that 
 he granted her also the life of her eldest son. 
 In all ages the Persians regarded women 
 in the light of chattels, without rights, with- 
 out natural sympathies, without feelings. 
 In a treaty concluded by Chosroes with the 
 Romans, it was stipulated that he should re- 
 ceive from Byzantium the annual tribute of a 
 thousand virgins, and this imperious tyrant 
 imprisoned within the walls of his palace no 
 less than three thousand wives. But nature, 
 insulted and outraged, defied his power, and 
 made his very passions minister to her 
 revenge. Woman he might enslave, trample 
 upon, sacrifice — her hand and person he 
 might secure — but the sanctuary of her 
 
200 SHIRENE. 
 
 heart, the holy refuge of her affections, was 
 beyond his reach. Rome had presented 
 him with the lovely and pious Shirene, who, 
 by her matchless beauty, her rare graces, 
 talents, and accomplishments, Ijrought even 
 him to understand that there is a spirituality 
 in woman's nature, more potent and more 
 captivating than mere personal attractions, 
 let these be ever so striking. But Shirene, 
 while she was forced to share his throne, re- 
 jected his love : the great King grasped her 
 hand, but her heart was given to a slave : 
 and all the devotion of Chosroes, all the 
 diversions and pleasures his ingenuity could 
 contrive, or power and treasures command, 
 never tempted her to smile. 
 
 Nor was this the worst evil brought upon 
 him by his utter disregard of the ties and natu- 
 ral instincts of humanity. Conjugal affection 
 is the fruitful germ of filial duty ; and when 
 we despise the one, we virtually relinquish 
 the other. The sons of the tyrant's different 
 wives viewed each other with the bitterest 
 hatred, and, as they grew up, their mutual 
 jealousies found a new object in their father, 
 
HER TERRIBLE DEATH. 201 
 
 who, at length, was seized and deposed by 
 his son Siroes, thrown into a dungeon, 
 starved, tortured, and finally put to death, 
 after eighteen of his children had been mur- 
 dered before his eyes. The usurper, having 
 thus sated his cruelty, rushed into the pre- 
 sence of Shirene, for whom he had conceived 
 a guilty passion, and claimed her as his 
 bride and Queen. The ill-fated beauty asked 
 first to be shown the corpse of Chosroes, 
 which still lay, gashed and bloody, in an 
 obscure apartment of the palace, and being 
 conducted to the spot, she plunged a dagger 
 into her breast, and fell lifeless on the same 
 bier. 
 
 Polygamy, which the ancient laws of the 
 Medes not only permitted to every class, 
 but actually enforced, was undoubtedly, as 
 in the case of Shirene, the unvarying cause 
 of the misery of Persian women, and of the 
 dissensions and internal discords of families. 
 Marriages were also contracted at a tender 
 age, before the mind had acquired any per- 
 ception of the moral nature or the obliga- 
 tions of such a union, and this was a 
 
 K 3 
 
202 MARRIAGES OF MEDES. 
 
 fertile source of domestic unhappiness. The 
 children of one wife were arrayed in enmity 
 against the children of another, and fre- 
 quently conspired to effect the ruin of a 
 favoured consort, or even to take the life of 
 their father. Nor could the sternest autho- 
 rity smother the resentments and rivalries 
 which continually grew out of a system 
 wholly at variance with the fundamental 
 laws of nature. 
 
 The marriages of the Medes were conse- 
 crated by a curious ceremony. The plighted 
 pair, in the presence of their mutual rela- 
 tives and friends, made an incision in each 
 other's arms, and mingled their blood, which 
 was received into a goblet, and drunk as 
 a pledge of harmony, by the bride and 
 bridegroom. The nuptials were then regis- 
 tered, and celebrated by a feast, extending 
 over several days. 
 
 Divorce, considered but a trifling punish- 
 ment among the ancients, could be obtained 
 on the slightest grounds. Sometimes it was 
 dictated by mere caprice, or by personal dis- 
 like, and any unprincipled reprobate could 
 
PERSIAN MARRIAGES. 203 
 
 discard his wife at pleasure. A custom pre- 
 vails to this day among the Persians, when 
 they are going to battle, of conditionally 
 divorcing their wives, numbers declaring 
 that the divorce shall take effect unless they 
 return victorious. 
 
 The marriages of the modern Persians 
 retain many of the usages practised by their 
 earliest forefathers. When the union is 
 agreed on, the intended husband, or his 
 father — if he has not arrived at an inde- 
 pendent age, settles a dower upon the lady, 
 proportioned to her rank in life ; and the 
 ring is sent in due form, and presents inter- 
 changed between the two families. The day 
 before the wedding the bride anoints herself, 
 and stains her hands with a red dye, made 
 of hennah; and the next morning she is 
 bathed, perfumed, and dressed in her most 
 sumptuous apparel. She then sits in state, 
 on a rich cushion, and receives offerings from 
 her family and her female acquaintance. 
 This ceremony concluded, she is enveloped 
 in a scarlet veil, and mounted on horseback, 
 when a procession of horsemen, with the 
 young girls and women of the family, and 
 
204 NOMADIC BRIDE. 
 
 their friends, convey her, with joyous shouts 
 and music, to the dwelling of the bridegroom. 
 The happy swain, attired in all the finery 
 he can buy or borrow, receives her at the 
 threshold, and conducts her into the house, 
 where he has already assembled his friends, 
 two of whom, if he is either very young or 
 very bashful, act as his deputies, and divert 
 the company with a thousand tricks, often 
 played off at the expense of some of their 
 guests, but which, on such occasions, no one 
 is disposed to resent. The proceedings close 
 with a feast, and, when the parties are 
 wealth)', this is often protracted over thirty 
 or forty days, and always continues for three. 
 The ceremonies, strictly followed in towns, 
 slightly vary among the wandering nomade 
 tribes, who dwell in tents, and celebrate 
 their nuptials in the dreary solitudes of the 
 desert. As the bride is being conducted in 
 solemn silence from the tent of her mother 
 to her future home, she is met about midway 
 by the bridegroom, who carries in his hand 
 an orange or an apple, and, when sufficiently 
 near to make sure of his aim, throws it at 
 the veiled maiden with all his force, as the 
 
CURIOUS CUSTOM. 205 
 
 harder lie hits her, the more fortunate she 
 will be esteemed. Instantly the lady's 
 friends raise a great outcry, and make a rush 
 at the ungallant bridegroom, who spurs off, 
 and, being mounted on the fleetest horse of 
 his tribe, generally contrives to outstrip his 
 pursuers, and arrive first at his tent. Should 
 he, however, be overtaken, his horse becomes 
 the prize of his captor, though, if he is in 
 poor circumstances, it may be redeemed for 
 two or three pieces of silver. When the 
 bride reaches the tent of the sham recreant, 
 the girls and women of her party, clinging 
 round her horse, implore her not to alight, 
 while the friends of the bridegroom are 
 equally importunate on the other side, 
 though they blend their invitations with 
 urgent entreaties that she will relinquish a 
 portion of her dower. To this she seldom 
 consents, as it is her only safeguard from 
 ill-usage ; but sometimes, with the confiding 
 weakness of her sex, she readily complies. 
 Then she descends from her horse, and, 
 amidst the renewed opposition of her friends, 
 takes the fatal step of entering the tent — 
 to her indeed the house of bondage. 
 
( 206 ) 
 
 YII. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 India — the land of the enervated Hindoo — 
 has in all ages been considered the gem of 
 Asia. Poetry and fiction have united with 
 history to celebrate the fertility of her soil, 
 the endless variety of her productions, the 
 profusion of her mineral wealth, and the 
 diversity, grandeur, and beauty of her 
 scenery. Traversed by mighty rivers — the 
 Indus, the Ganges, and the Hoogley — 
 flanked by the cloud-capped chain of the 
 Himalayas, whose awful peaks are swept 
 by perpetual tempests — embracing immense 
 valleys, and vast plains, which, if not 
 clothed with primeval forests, teem with 
 
DESCRIPTION OP INDIA. 207 
 
 rich and varied produce — and paved, 
 beneath the fruitful ground, with the 
 precious metals, or still more precious 
 jewels, it might justly be pronounced 
 the garden of the earth. Here Nature 
 had scattered her bounty around with a 
 prodigal and unsparing hand. Far from its 
 shores the mariner inhaled the balmy odour 
 of its spices ; and the merchants of Tyre and 
 Tarshish, descending the Arabian Gulf, or 
 crossing the arid deserts of Persia, dispersed 
 over the world, from the earliest times, the 
 multifarious fruits and products of its soil, 
 with the gold of its rivers and the delicate 
 silk of its looms. Nor were stranger 
 features wanting to heighten the effect of the 
 picture. The wide frontier of India, where 
 nature had placed the Indus as a moat, or 
 the inaccessible Himalayas as a rampart, 
 was guarded by a host of elephants, each 
 bearing on his huge back a tower, gar- 
 risoned by armed men ; its cities extended 
 for miles, and enclosed within their walls of 
 jasper and granite, marble palaces, and 
 temples endowed with fabulous treasures; 
 
208 TRADITION OF THE FLOOD. 
 
 and, to this day, the fiercest beasts of the 
 forest roam at will through its wilds, its 
 jungles, and its mountains. 
 
 The early history of this great peninsula, 
 like that of most countries, is enshrouded in 
 the mists of fable, and no reliance can be 
 placed on the archives of such celestial 
 potentates as the Kings of the Sun and the 
 Kings of the Moon. These, however, yield 
 us, amidst heaps of fiction, some grains of 
 truth, and the Scriptural student is interested 
 to find, in the maze of Indian history, a tra- 
 dition that the whole earth was once sub- 
 merged by a deluge, by which every living 
 thing was destroyed. The world is said to 
 have been repeopled by the god Brumhas, 
 who divided himself into two parts, one of 
 which became Swayumbhoovi, the Hindoo 
 Noah, and the other his wife. The ve'des, 
 which records these facts, is the earliest 
 chronicle of the Hindoos, and is supposed to 
 have been commenced in the time of King 
 David, or about a thousand years before the 
 Christian era. But our first authentic in- 
 formation respecting Hindoostan commences 
 
MAHOMMEDAN- CONQUEST. 209 
 
 with the reign of Mahmid, Sultan of Grhuzni, 
 who hurled the bolt of Mohammedan con- 
 quest at its tottering thrones. The penin- 
 sula, extending from the extremity of Persia 
 to the Southern Ocean, was then divided 
 among tribes of Eaiputs, who held their 
 fiefs by feudal tenure, involving military 
 service at the call of the sovereign ; but such 
 undisciplined and inexperienced forces were 
 ill adapted to repel the warlike Affghans, 
 animated as they were by religious zeal, 
 burning with the hopes of plunder, and 
 marching under the banner of a victorious 
 leader. They were speedily routed; and 
 Mahmid, eager to extend the Mohammedan 
 sway, next invaded the territories of Jeipal, 
 the Brahmin ruler of Lahore. Jeipal was 
 vanquished, and, conscious that his fortunes 
 were irretrievable, erected a funeral pile, 
 and threw himself into the flames. Mahmid, 
 by disarming and decimating the people, 
 secured his conquest, and then turned his 
 arms against the neighbouring kingdoms. 
 But it would be tedious, as well as irrele- 
 vant, to enumerate his successive expedi- 
 tions, which were all marked by the same 
 
210 TEMPLE OF SOMXATH. 
 
 revolting barbarity, and wherever he ad- 
 vanced, ' towns were sackedj temples 
 destroyed, women and children butchered, 
 and, in his last campaign, the numVjer of his 
 captives was so great, that the price of a 
 strong man, sold into slavery, was only ten 
 drachms, or about five English shillings. 
 
 The great achievement of Mahmid was 
 the capture of the temple of Somnath, one 
 of the twelve Singas or Phalli, esteemed 
 the holiest sanctuaries of India. It was 
 situated in Grujarik, and water was brought 
 to this place, which was far in the interior, 
 from the distant Granges, that the idols 
 might have the satisfaction of being dipped 
 daily in their favourite stream. The tem- 
 ple, though a Pantheon in principle, con- 
 taining all the gods of the Hindoo calendar, 
 was especially dedicated to Siva, by his 
 title of Swayam Nath, or Self-Existent, and 
 was endowed with the revenues of ten thou- 
 sand villages. It Avas held in the greatest 
 reverence by the superstitious Hindoos, and 
 priests devoted their daughters to the 
 abominable service of the shrine. Mahmid, 
 undaunted by the difficulties and dangers of 
 
HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 211 
 
 the enterprise, made his way over moun- 
 tains, and across inhospitable deserts, to the 
 sacred precincts ; and after a faint struggle, 
 became .master of the pile, as well as of its 
 untold treasures, said to surpass the wildest 
 dreams of fiction. With this spoil, he 
 carried off the massive gates of the edifice, 
 the recovery of which by General Nott, in 
 1842, elicited from Lord EUenborough, then 
 Governor-G-eneral of India, the celebrated 
 manifesto, which was so severely censured 
 in England. 
 
 The dark mythology of the Hindoos in- 
 cludes whole legions of gods ; and the Rev. 
 W. Ward, from whose account of the national 
 customs, before they were affected by Euro- 
 pean intercourse, I have derived much in- 
 formation, estimates their total number at 
 three hundred and thirty millions, though all 
 these are resolvable, in some way or other, 
 into three principal idols, Vishnoo, Shiva, 
 and Brumha — into the three goddesses, 
 Doorgu, Lukohmee, and Suruswu, and into 
 the elements. Monkeys, trees, and logs of 
 wood, distinguished by special peculiarities, 
 have also been made objects of worship ; and 
 
212 IMMOLATION OF WOMEN. 
 
 received the senseless prayers of this be- 
 nighted and besotted people. 
 
 Women, ever the first prey of idolatry, 
 largely participate in the religious cere- 
 monies. At the temple of Juggernaut, they 
 enact all the horrible atrocities which the 
 Holy Scriptures describe as the ancient 
 ritual of Moloch ; and when the monstrous 
 idol is brought out of its den, to proceed in 
 triumph through the streets, they are en- 
 couraged by the Brahmins to throw them- 
 selves under the huge wheels of his car, where 
 they are crushed to pieces. Numbers 
 annually devote themselves to Brumha, by 
 plunging into the sacred waters of the 
 Granges. AUahabad, on the banks of that 
 river, is a consecrated spot, and has been 
 polluted by these suicidal sacrifices from 
 time immemorial. A bevy of women here 
 enter a boat accompanied by a Brahmin, 
 who, as they shove off from the shore, 
 slings over the shoulder of each an earthen 
 pan, and then assists them into the stream, 
 holding them up till the pan, being turned 
 aside, fills with water, when he relinquishes 
 his grasp, and the poor victims speedily 
 
ZAPFIR KHAN. 213 
 
 sink. Formerly tliousands of women 
 perished annually through these revolting 
 superstitions. 
 
 The Mohammedan power, introduced by 
 Mahmid of Ghuzni, was ultimately estab- 
 lished at Delhi, the capital of Hindostan, a 
 city of great extent and magnificence ; but 
 the descendants of Mahmid were not allowed 
 to remain in quiet possession of their ill- 
 acquired empire; and, during the reign of 
 AUah-ed-din-Khilji, hordes of Moguls, fired 
 by the exploits of Zenghis Khan, poured 
 over the frontier, advancing their dreaded 
 banner to the very gates of Delhi. Here, 
 however, they were met and defeated by the 
 Emperor's general, the celebrated Zaffir 
 Khan, who himself fell in the moment of 
 victory, after slaying with his own hand a 
 prodigious number of the enemy. The 
 latter, indeed, were so impressed with his 
 prowess, that they made it the subject of a 
 proverb ; and, for ages after the battle, if 
 the horse of a Mogul started, or evinced any 
 alarm, its master would exclaim — " How 
 now! do you see Zaf&r Khan ?" 
 
214 INVASION OP TAMERLANE. 
 
 The invasion of Tamerlane, or Timour 
 the Lame — so called from a personal defect 
 — inundated India with the blood of her 
 children. This sanguinary monster, who has 
 been depicted by the poets as a paragon of 
 clemency, laid Delhi in ruins, levelled cities 
 and temples with the ground, turned the 
 fairest provinces of the empire into deserts, 
 and, on one occasion, slaughtered no less 
 than a hundred thousand captives. From 
 India he swept like a whirlwind over the 
 neighbouring territories, and in every direc- 
 tion, left the same fell traces of desolation 
 and blood. 
 
 The women of Hindostan suffered se- 
 verely from the invasion of Tamerlane ; but 
 that of Nadir Shah, King of Persia, justly 
 called the Scourge of India, almost swept 
 them from the earth. The march of the 
 haughty conqueror was checked for a 
 moment liy the walls of Cabul, the gate of 
 the peninsula, where Shirza Khan, an officer 
 of great resolution and experience, com- 
 manded the forces of the Emperor of Delhi, 
 but Nadir, having bought over Xazir Khan, 
 
NADIR SHAH. 215 
 
 Shirza's nephew, who was encamped without 
 the walls, succeeded by a stratagem in 
 entering the city. Nazir represented to his 
 uncle that his movements were embarrassed 
 by the women attached to the army, from a 
 fear of their being captured by the enemy, 
 and desired Shirza, for the sake of humanit}', 
 as well as for the relief of his troops, to 
 afiford them an asylum within the walls. 
 This was readily agreed to by the Khan, 
 and Nazir escorted the women into Cabul, 
 just as the Shah, pursuant to a preconcerted 
 arrangement, sent a message to Shirza, 
 inviting him to a conference. While the 
 unsuspecting general was thus engaged, 
 Nazir threw open the gates to the invading 
 army, and thus laid the whole of India at 
 the feet of the perfidious Shah. 
 
 The treatment experienced by the sex 
 during this irruption threw the ordinary 
 horrors of war into the shade. Every 
 instinct of humanity was outraged ; every 
 tie of nature rent ; and the blood of woman, 
 of old and young alike, flowed like water. 
 At the capture of Delhi, the Hindoos them- 
 selves destroyed their wives and daughters, 
 
216 THE GREAT MOGrL. 
 
 to prevent their falling into the hands of the 
 Persians, and these ill-fated women were 
 burnt alive in their apartments, their hus- 
 bands, as soon as they had kindled the fire, 
 perishing with them in the flames. 
 
 The empire of Hindostan was first con- 
 sohdated by Zehir-ed-din Mohammed, sur- 
 named Baber the Tiger, King of Samarcand 
 and Bokhara. This intrepid prince, left an 
 orphan in his youth, was ignominiously 
 driven from the throne of his ancestors, and 
 after a life of the most romantic adventures, 
 succeeded in gathering round him a band of 
 daring freebooters, at whose head he marched 
 five times over the frontiers of India. Ulti- 
 mately he established himself at Delhi, and, 
 subduing the adjacent provinces, founded 
 the djmasty of the Great Mogul, which 
 derived that name from a tradition, long 
 since refuted, that one of the remote 
 ancestors of Baber was a Mongolian chief. 
 
 Delhi, for ages - the seat of empire, stood 
 on the precipitous banks of the Jumna. Its 
 stately palaces and lofty towers, its mosques 
 and temples, interspersed with gardens and 
 groves of trees, extended over an area of 
 
PALACE OP DELHI. 217 
 
 thitry miles, and the whole was surrounded 
 by a battlemented wall, pierced by nume- 
 rous gates. Imagination fails to conyey an 
 adequate idea of this magnificent city, as it ap- 
 peared in the zenith of its fame, when the full 
 glory of an Indian sun, there not without wor- 
 shippers, looked down on its thousand mina- 
 rets and gilded cupolas, just rising above the 
 walls ; and shed a glad radiance on the mighty 
 obelisks of red granite, the graceful columns 
 of marble, and the fresh, clear fountains 
 which presented themselves on every side. 
 The palace of the great Emperor in the centre 
 of the city, realized the descriptions of Ori- 
 ental romance. Floors of mosaic, columns 
 of spotless marble, walls inlaid with silver 
 and gold, ceilings emblazoned with all the 
 hues of the rainbow, or disappearing, at an 
 incredible height, in an expansive aerial 
 dome, exhibited the beau ideal of Eastern 
 art, in aU its diversity of aspects, and the 
 spectator concurred eagerly in the inscrip- 
 tion on the frieze — 
 
 " If there be an Elysium on earth, 
 It is this, it is this !" 
 VOL. I. L 
 
218 IMPERIAL GARDENS. 
 
 Such was the structure in which the 
 potent Akhbar Khan immured his five 
 thousand wives, selected from all the great- 
 est famihes of Asia, and condemned, by the 
 inexorable cruelty of man, to pass their 
 lives in this superb prison. It was sur- 
 rounded by extensive gardens and pleasure 
 grounds, traversed by avenues of acacias, 
 and labyrinthine walks, overshadowed by 
 the dark salvadora, the exuberant banyan, 
 or intertwining date trees ; and every rare 
 plant and flower lent its attractions to the 
 scene. An artificial lake diffused itself in 
 numberless little channels through every 
 part of the garden, here flowing tranquilly 
 on, there falling in a cascade, or rising in a 
 fountain, while a majestic plantain flung its 
 shade over the bank, where a pavilion of 
 enamelled tiles, or a secluded grotto, invited 
 the rambler to repose. Nature, indeed, 
 conspired with art to reconcile the fair cap- 
 tives to their fate ; but in this barbaric Eden 
 the very garlands were chains, and doubtless 
 many a lovely prisoner felt the same emo- 
 tions as Easselas in the Happy Valley. 
 
LALLA ROOKH. 219 
 
 Here it was tha.t the beautiful daughter of 
 Aurungzebe, the Lalla Rookh of Moore, 
 spent the sunny years of her youth, jealously 
 watched by that most vigilant of chamber- 
 lains, the Argus-eyed Fadladeen. To this 
 sacred retreat came the gallant young 
 King of Bokhara, when he sought the 
 princess's hand, proclaiming, by his words 
 and presence, that neither walls nor cham- 
 berlains could shut in the fame of her 
 beauty, while no distance could deter him 
 from offering his love. And it was from the 
 gate of these enchanting gardens that the 
 innocent Lalla, now a betrothed bride, 
 departed in grand state, for the blissful vale 
 of Kashmere, surrounded by her bevy of 
 maidens in their rose-coloured veils and 
 flowing silks, and escorted by all the beauty 
 and all the chivalry of the imperial city. 
 
 The strict seclusion in which Hindoo 
 ladies were kept, as well by the laws of 
 caste as by the jealousy of their husbands, 
 and their utter separation from all the affairs 
 of life, necessarily opposed an almost insur- 
 mountable barrier to their appearance on 
 
 L 2 
 
220 QUEEX DURGAUTTI. 
 
 the field of history. Their influence, when 
 they possessed any, was exerted in private, 
 in the recesses of the palace, or the sealed 
 chambers of the harem ; and we are told of 
 a Begum, or widowed Queen, haranguing 
 the courtiers from behind a curtain in fa- 
 vour of her infant son. Nevertheless, the 
 mind and heart of woman, rising above the 
 difficulties of her situation, more than once 
 overcame every obstacle, and advanced her 
 to the summit of power. Durgautti, Queen 
 of Grurrah, a state comprising the richest 
 portion of the Decern, succeeded to the 
 throne of her husband, and, by her wise 
 government, raised her people and kingdom 
 to the highest pitch of prosperity. Seventy 
 thousand towns acknowledged the benign 
 sway of this lovely and accomplished woman, 
 who personally superintended the direction 
 of affairs, the management of the finances, 
 and the administration of justice. At length, 
 her growing power excited the apprehen- 
 sions of Akhbar Khan, as her wealth, and 
 that of her subjects, fostered and protected 
 by just laws, provoked the cupidity of his 
 
SANGUINARY BATTLE. 221 
 
 generals ; and Asaph Khan was despatched 
 with a large army to subdue her dominions. 
 The heroic Queen placed herself at the head 
 of her warriors ; and exchanging her diadem 
 for a helmet, and her sceptre for a lance, 
 hastened to meet him in the field. Her 
 eager soldiers were so stimulated by her ex- 
 ample, that they advanced too hastily to the 
 attack ; and were falling out of line, when 
 Durgautti, perceiving their disorder, with 
 the greatest coolness ordered a halt, re- 
 formed her ranks, and enjoined the impa- 
 tient troops to march on slowly, and await 
 the signal to engage from the royal howdah. 
 The battle was long and obstinate, but ulti- 
 mately the intrepidity and genius of the 
 Queen, who threw herself into the front of 
 the conflict, was signally victorious; and 
 Asaph was repulsed with great slaughter. 
 The number of the slain, indeed, actually 
 struck a panic into the .victors, and Dur- 
 gautti was prevented by their fears from 
 following up her success, and in the night 
 was deserted by her vizier and principal 
 oflScers. Still she maintained her ground ; 
 
222 THE queen's heroism. 
 
 and when Asaph, reinforced by his artillery, 
 and apprized Qf her weakened condition, 
 advanced in the morning to renew the bat- 
 tle, she was the first to rush upon the enemy. 
 At the same time, her son, Raja Reir Shaw, 
 made a gallant charge by her side, and fell 
 mortally wounded, which the Queen per- 
 ceiving, was giving orders for his removal 
 to the rear, when her soldiers, dismayed by 
 his fate, fled in a body, leaving her almost 
 alone. Her eye was now pierced by 
 an arrow, which she tried to draw out, 
 but the shaft, instead of yielding to her 
 efforts, broke off at the end, leaving the 
 steel barb in the wound, and at this moment 
 another arrow passed through her neck, 
 which she succeeded in extracting, but a mist 
 seemed to gather round her, her brain 
 whirled, and she dropped fainting into the 
 bottom of the howdah. Her elephant was 
 driven by Adlar, a brave officer, who, while 
 she lay insensible, singly repulsed numbers 
 of the enemy, but perceiving that the day 
 was irretrievable, he urged the Queen, as 
 she rallied, to permit him to secure her 
 
HER DEATH. 223 
 
 safety by flight. Durgautti, however, in- 
 dignantly rejected the proposal. "It is 
 true," she exclaimed, in resolute accents, 
 " we are overcome in war, but shall we ever 
 be vanquished in honour? No! Let your 
 dagger save me from the crime of putting a 
 period to my own existence !" Adlar, with 
 tears,^ besought her to change her resolution, 
 but the desperate Queen seized his weapon, 
 and plunged it into her bosom. 
 
 The great obstacles to the development of 
 the female character among the Hindoos, as 
 well in the present age as in times past, 
 are idolatrous rites, the utter neglect of 
 education, early marriages, polygamy, seclu- 
 sion from social life, and the stringent laws 
 of caste. These last have ever been, and 
 are still, the bane of India. The castes are 
 four in number — namely, the Brahmin, the 
 Kshuktriyu, the Yoishyu, and the Shoodru ; 
 but all these are again divided, and each 
 subdivision, while it increases the confusion, 
 is still distinct. Hindoo mythology regards 
 the Brahmins as an emanation from the 
 mouth of Brumha ; the Kshuktriyus it traces 
 
224 HIIfDOO CASTES. 
 
 to his arms ; the Yoishyus to his thigh ; and 
 the unfortunate Shoodrus, comprehending the 
 meanest of the people, to his feet. The Brah- 
 mins, as the inventors of the system, naturally 
 claim the most honourable origin ; and they 
 have also appropriated to themselves every 
 honourable and every profitable function. 
 
 These crafty and wicked priests have con- 
 trived to fasten their withering influence on 
 the whole fabric of Hindoo society, so as to 
 make a prey of every individual and every 
 incident. A birth, a marriage, or a funeral, 
 a feast or a wake, calamities or successes, 
 sicknesses, recovery, or death, the changes of 
 the weather, droughts or inundations — all 
 are pronounced occasions for the intrusion 
 of a Brahmin, for the recital of his prayers, 
 and the imposition of his fee. Fortunate 
 the man whose name is odorous in the 
 nostrils of a Brahmin ; and the poor Shoo- 
 dru, instead of coveting luxuries for him- 
 self, envies his rich neighbour more for his 
 power to feed so many Brahmins, exclaiming 
 "Blessed kshuktriyu ! he can regale three 
 or five Brahmins," as the case may be. 
 
SUPERSTITIOUS OBSERVANCES. 225 
 
 A Brahmin's child becomes the object of 
 superstitious observances even before he 
 enters the world. On an appointed day, 
 the mother expectant, attended by her 
 female relations, anoints herself with tur- 
 meric, braids her long tresses, pares her 
 nails, paints the sides of her feet, and then 
 takes a bath. Meanwhile the husband offers 
 a burnt sacrifice to Brumha ; and on his 
 wife's reappearance, they seat themselves 
 side by side, on a bench which the women of 
 the family, conformably to an immemorial 
 custom, have decorated for the occasion. 
 The household idol is now produced, and 
 the officiating Brahmin utters incantations, 
 which are repeated by the husband, who, as 
 a testimony of his devotion, makes the 
 senseless image an offering of water and 
 butter. He then resumes his seat, and, mur- 
 muring a prayer, feeds his wife with milk, 
 and some sprouts of vatu, and the ceremony 
 concludes with an oblation to the idol, which 
 is poured on the ground by a woman. 
 
 The Brahmins, after remaining for ages an 
 entire caste, were divided by BuUalsendi, a 
 
 L 3 
 
226 EFFECT OF CASTE. 
 
 Voidi King, into three orders— namely, 
 koolenus, shrotryus, and vungokujus ; and a 
 glance at the regulations of these several 
 subdivisions will show what effect such a 
 system must have on the social position of 
 woman. A koolenu, or Brahmin of the first 
 class, can only marry his daughter in his 
 own order, and if no suitable husband can 
 be procured, she must remain unmarried. 
 To prevent this result, which is considered 
 a reproach, one koolenu usually marries a 
 number of young women in his own order, 
 some of whom he never removes from their 
 father's house. The sons of koolenus, 
 indeed, are in such request as husbands, 
 that they are usually pre-engaged from 
 infancy, while their daughters, however 
 richly endowed, can procure only a share of 
 a husband as an extraordinary favour. A 
 koolenu who has one daughter is esteemed 
 both fortunate and distinguished ; but a 
 family of daughters is considered a dis- 
 honour; and hence, even in the most 
 civilized parts of India, infanticide prevails 
 to an awful extent. But though a koolenu 
 
CLASSIFICATION OF MARRIAGES. 227 
 
 lady may not marry out of her class, the 
 men are at liberty to form what alliances 
 they please, and a koolenu Lothario, after 
 playing havoc among the ladies of his own 
 order, may sell his precious remains at a 
 high premium to the daughter of a shrotryu, 
 who deems herself highly honoured by such 
 an illustrious connexion. The same arbi- 
 trary rules extend to the other subdivisions, 
 and in an equal degree, to the three lay 
 castes, which have their bounds fixed with 
 undiminished precision. 
 
 The Oodwahu-tutuvri, a work on the civil 
 and canon law of the Hindoos, enumerates 
 eight kinds of espousals as legitimate. The 
 first is called Bramha, when the maiden is 
 presented as a free gift to a Brahmin, which, 
 of course, is esteemed the most auspicious 
 and most desirable union ; Doivii ranks next, 
 and indicates a marriage with a Brahmin at 
 the termination of a sacrifice; the third, 
 styled Arshii, refers to a bride purchased 
 from her father for two cows — certainly not 
 an exorbitant price ; Prajaplityi, the fourth 
 in order, describes a bridegroom who ha? 
 
228 CHOICE OF A WIFE. 
 
 been so fortunate as to secure the recom- 
 mendation of a Brahmin ; the fifth, Asvoru, is 
 a money transaction ; the sixth, Graudhurvu, 
 intimates that the contract has been brought 
 about by the mutual agreement of the two 
 families concerned ; Rakshiasu, the seventh, 
 stigmatizes the bride as a slave ; and Poi- 
 shushu, the eighth and last, pronounces her 
 to have been a victim. 
 
 The advice given in the sacred pages of 
 the Shastru, as to the selection of a wife, 
 breathes the national sentiment on this im- 
 portant subject. " Let a person choose for 
 his wife," says the reverend scribe, " a maid, 
 whose form has no defect, who has an agree- 
 able name, who walks gracefully like a 
 young elephant, whose hair is moderate in 
 quantity, and whose teeth are of reasonable 
 size." Not a word is said of mental endow- 
 ments; and, indeed, a Hindoo has yet to 
 discover, by his own elevation, those most 
 potent attractions of woman. 
 
 The Hindoo notion of beauty differs ma- 
 terally, as well as morally, from the Euro- 
 pean standard, and evinces the same dis- 
 
A HliSTDOO BEAUTY. 229 
 
 tortion and perversion of nature. All tlie 
 points are dexterously summed up in a 
 description of Shurida, the daughter of 
 Brumha. "This girl," says the Hindoo 
 chronicler, " was of a yellow colour, and had 
 a nose like the flower of resamum, her legs 
 were taper like the plantain tree; her 
 eyes large like the principal leaf of the 
 lotus ; her eyebrows extended to her ears ; 
 her lips were red and like the young leaves 
 of the mango tree ; her face was like the 
 full moon •, her voice like the sound of the 
 cuckoo ; her arms reached to her knees ; her 
 throat was like that of a pigeon ; her loins 
 narrow like those of a lion ; her hair hung in 
 curls down to her feet ; her teeth were like 
 the seeds of the pomegranate ; and her walk 
 like that of a drunken elephant or a goose !" 
 The women of Hindoostan, like those of 
 most Eastern countries, paint the eyelids, 
 and dye and pencil the eyebrows. These 
 are considered essential characteristics of 
 beauty. The practice of anointing, too, of 
 which such frequent mention is made in the 
 Holy Scriptures, prevails anjong all classes. 
 
230 PROFESSIONAL MATCHMAKERS. 
 
 At domestic festivals and gatherings, the 
 women of the house anoint their female 
 gaests, and even braid their hair, pencil 
 their brows, and sprinkle them with costly- 
 perfumes, while barbers of their own sex, 
 found in every hamlet, pare and trim their 
 nails. On other occasions, they go the 
 round of the village, bearing alternately 
 lamps and empty basins, in which they 
 receive oil for the Brahmin ; and returning 
 home, they are entertained with music, and 
 the evening concludes with a religious cere- 
 mony. 
 
 Hindoo marriages are usually negociated 
 by a professional matchmaker, called a 
 ghutuku, who is regularly trained for the 
 ofBce. The principal qualifications seem to 
 consist of the arts of flattering and lying, as 
 the chief object of a ghutuku, when engaged 
 in bringing about a marriage, is to impose 
 on both his employers. Sometimes he pro- 
 poses a match himself, before the parents of 
 the implicated parties have given the sub- 
 ject a thought ; and the overture is rarely 
 ill received. A girl, if born of wealthy 
 
TREATMENT OF BRIDES. 231 
 
 parents, is often married in infancy, but tlie 
 ordinary age 'of a bride is eight, ten, or 
 twelve years. After the ceremony has been 
 performed, she continues to reside with her 
 father for two or three years, during which 
 time, as frequently happens, her betrothed 
 husband may die, and in that case she is 
 condemned to perpetual widowhood. At best, 
 she may never be claimed by her husband, 
 or be allowed to remain under the paternal 
 roof; and, indeed, a koolenu lady never 
 leaves the house of her father. 
 
 Three days before the nuptials, the bride 
 is anointed, and her female relations present 
 her with a small box of dye, used for tinging 
 the eyes, which she retains in her hand, day 
 and night, till the ceremony is completed. 
 The evening before the marriage she is 
 visited by the bridegroom, who sets out 
 from the house of his father in a palan- 
 quin, preceded by coolies, bearing long rods, 
 often of massive silver ; and surrounded by 
 attendants, who ventilate the luxurious 
 vehicle with a fan, made of the tail of a 
 Tartar cow. Flags and music follow, with 
 
232 NUPTIAL CEREMONY. 
 
 open carriages, containing dancing-girls and 
 singers ; and fireworks are discharged, while 
 attendants illuminate the street with links 
 and flambeaux. As the procession approaches 
 the abode of the bride's father, it is met by 
 her family, who, with joyous shouts, conduct 
 the bridegroom into the house, where he is 
 stripped of his ordinary attire, and dressed 
 in sumptuous clothes, adorned for the occa- 
 sion. The bride, who has been waiting in 
 an inner room, is then brought forth, and 
 the old garments of the bridegroom are 
 thrown over her own, when they both stand 
 up on stools, opposite to each other, and the 
 bridegroom is permitted to look for the first 
 time at the face of his bride. This is the 
 prelude to several childish ceremonies, after 
 which the officiating Brahmin, amidst the 
 profound silence of the company, holds 
 the hand of the bridegroom over a pan 
 of water, and places on it the hand of 
 the bride, linking them together with a 
 wreath of flowers. At the same time, 
 the father of the bride, exclaims — "Of 
 the family of A (or whatever the patro- 
 
WEDDING FEAST. 233 
 
 nymic may be), the great-grand-daughter 
 of B, the grand-daughter of C, the daughter 
 of D, wearing such and such clothes and 
 jewels, I, F, give to thee G, as thy wife." 
 The bridegroom replies — " I have received 
 her." On this acknowledgment, the Brah- 
 min, stepping before the others, ties the 
 wedded pair together by their garments, 
 and the ghutuku recites passages from the 
 Mishra, thus concluding the solemnity. 
 
 The next day is devoted to the wedding 
 feast. In the morning, both families, from 
 the first break of dawn, alarm the neighbour- 
 hood with discordant noises, and a drum is 
 beaten without intermission, summoning all 
 their relatives and acquaintance. As the 
 day advances, the bridegroom sends the 
 bride a present of eatables, usually such 
 delicacies as fish, birds, clarified butter and 
 betel, and in some cases plantain and sweet- 
 meats, which the lady receives through her 
 friends, as a pledge of his affection. In the 
 afternoon they have to submit to the operation 
 of having their heads shaved, and night 
 witnesses the grand procession, in which the 
 
234 CHARACTER OF HINDOO WOMEN. 
 
 bridegroom, dressed in sumptuous apparel, is 
 escorted to the nuptial banquet. This, as 
 already described, forcibly illustrates the 
 beautiful parables of Our Saviour and the 
 description of the marriage at Cana of Ga- 
 lilee, the guests, like the governor of the 
 Grospel feast, who cavilled at the mira- 
 culous supply of wine, being permitted 
 to complain of whatever is set before 
 them, and frequently stretching this pri- 
 vilege so far, that the banquet ends in a 
 pitched battle. 
 
 • Notwithstanding the brutality with which 
 Hindoo women are treated, and the iniquitous 
 and debasing character of the marriage laws, 
 in no country have the sex evinced more 
 devoted affection for their husbands, or a 
 higher sense of conjugal duty. The horrid 
 rites of idolatry, the wicked devices of super- 
 stition, the monotony of a secluded life, and 
 a long course of barbarous usage, have, in 
 their case, failed to deface, however they 
 might distort, the beautiful lineaments of the 
 female character, and almost every action of 
 their lives attests an abnegation of self. It 
 
SUICIDES. 235 
 
 is indeed lamentable to reflect that in them 
 the best feelings of nature, designed by the 
 Divine Hand in beneficence and love, have 
 been perverted to the worst purposes ; and, 
 instead of proving a blessing to others, have 
 operated as a curse on themselves. 
 
 The protecting arm of the Bast India 
 Company, gradually extending its influence, 
 has interposed with effect to ameliorate this 
 system, and the wholesale slaughter of female 
 infants has now received a severe check, 
 while the revolting custom of suttee, though 
 still practised in the native kingdoms, is 
 altogether forbidden in British India. This 
 is one of the most diabolical inventions of 
 the Brahmins, and exhibits fanaticism in its 
 most shocking phase. The stricken and 
 desolate widow, often in the flower of her 
 youth, and the first blush of 'her beauty, is 
 the self-devoted victim of the sacrifice — 
 blindly condemning herself to a dreadful 
 and lingering death. The Brahmin seizes 
 the moment of her distraction, when grief 
 and superstition show everything in the 
 darkest colours, to incite her to share the 
 
236 WOMEN BURNT 
 
 funeral pile of her husband, and she perishes 
 in the flames which consume his corpse. To 
 add, if possible, to the horror of the spectacle, 
 the hand that kindles the fire must be her 
 own son's. 
 
 Captain Kemp, an Officer in the service 
 of the Company, describes a touching in- 
 stance of suttee, of which he was an eye- 
 witness, and which occurred at Grondui-paru, 
 about twenty miles from Calcutta, in March, 
 1813. In this case, the victim, who was 
 the widow of a young Hindoo artificer, and 
 only in her sixteenth year, was instigated 
 to bury herself alive with the decaying 
 corpse, and all the entreaties of the Euro- 
 pean residents could not shake her purpose. 
 Her mother was humanely urged to inter- 
 pose ; but so completely were the feelings 
 of nature silenced by the voice of supersti- 
 tion, that she resigned herself, without an 
 effort, to the revolting sacrifice, exclaiming 
 that it was her daughter's own choice, and 
 that she was determined to follow the spirit 
 of her husband. Next morning, the corpse 
 was conveyed on a bier to the bank of the 
 
AKD BUKIED ALIVE. 237 
 
 sacred river, where a circular grave, fifteen 
 feet in circumference, and six in depth, was 
 prepared for its reception. The dead man 
 was placed in the bottom of the grave in a 
 sitting posture ; and the young widow, with 
 the impress of girlhood still fresh on her 
 face, her eyes beaming with enthusiasm, her 
 features glowing with supernatural light, 
 stepped from among her friends, and walked 
 slowly round the pit, uttering a wild cry of 
 "Huree-bul, Huree-bul." The words were 
 caiight up by the crowd, who repeated them 
 in the same tone, while the infatuated 
 woman proceeded seven times round the 
 sepulchre, and then, amidst breathless 
 silence, descended into it, sitting down 
 behind the corpse, with her face towards the 
 dead man's back, her left arm entwined 
 round his neck, and her head reclining on 
 his shoulder. Her right hand was raised in 
 the air, over her head, with the forefinger 
 erect, and moving in a circle, which it con- 
 tinued to do while the grave was being 
 filled up, and the earth rammed deliberately 
 round the living and the dead. Her body. 
 
238 AWFUL RESOLUTION. 
 
 up to the chin, was already entombed, but 
 her raised face continued visible, and beamed 
 with the same rapt look, the same unearthly 
 decision. But the splashing earth rose 
 higher and higher ; the face disappeared ; 
 the rounded arm was covered ; and one last 
 look, as the sickening spectator turned hor- 
 ror-stricken from the spot, showed that the 
 point of the finger was still erect, and still 
 turning round ! 
 
( 239 ) 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE MONGOLIAN FAMILY. 
 
 Chi]S'a, Tartary, Thibet, and Japan, all 
 countries equally averse to intercourse with 
 foreigners, are the principal seats of a large 
 tribe of the human family, classed together 
 as Mongols. They have peopled the greater 
 part of Asia from a very remote age, and 
 hence claim precedence over the ancient 
 nations of Europe. 
 
 The most important of these states is 
 China, a vast empire, occupied by a race in 
 every respect unique, and numbering nearly 
 four hundred millions of souls. China 
 Proper, or the Central Kingdom, called 
 Chang-kwi, was known to the. ancients, and 
 
240 PALACE OF PEKIN. 
 
 its inhabitants are mentioned by Ptolemy, 
 under the name of the Sinse. This province 
 contains the capital, Pekin, which covers 
 within the walls an area of twelve miles, 
 but is not remarkable for architectural 
 beauty. Its principal structure is the royal 
 palace, said to be a mile in length, and 
 three-quarters of a mile in breadth, but the 
 only attractive feature in this huge pile 
 seems to be its roof, which is composed 
 of yellow tiles, highly glazed, and thus, 
 when they reflect the sunbeams, appearing 
 like a mass of gold. Extensive gardens 
 surround the imperial residence, and an arti- 
 ficial lake, studded with rock-girt islets, 
 pours a number of little rivulets through 
 the ground, which Chinese art has furnished 
 with all the diversities of hill and dale, 
 grove, cascade, and fountain. The city is 
 divided into two towns, Chinese and Tartar, 
 but the streets in both are narrow, and 
 the principal thoroughfares, besides being 
 densely thronged, are encumbered with iti- 
 nerant stalls, and with hawkers and traders 
 of all kinds, rendering progress a difficult 
 
CHINESE CITIES. 241 
 
 feat. Mr. Elwes, in his highly interesting 
 work, A Sketcher's Tour Round the Wo7-ld, 
 gives a ludicrous description of the streets 
 of Canton, which will equally apply to 
 those of Pekin, where Mr. Barrow saw 
 booths standing in the middle of the road, 
 while great officers of state, attended by 
 long trains of servants, with flags and 
 streamers, on their way to the imperial 
 palace, added to the confusioa of the scene, 
 The shops, which are open in front, are 
 gaily decorated with flags and ribbons, with 
 scraps of paper bearing some motto or pro- 
 verb, and with all the radiant colours of the 
 Chinese easel. 
 
 Nankin, the ancient capital of the empire, 
 is of greater extent than Pekin, but has now 
 fallen into decay. The province, however, 
 retains in its broken diadem the gem of 
 Su-cheu, so 'famous in Chinese story, and 
 which has given rise to the proverb of 
 "Paradise is in heaven, but Su-cheu on 
 earth." This beautiful city is the favourite 
 residence of the Chinese noblesse, and is 
 celebrated, before all the other cities of the 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
242 WOMEN OF SU-CHEU. 
 
 empire, for its rich brocades, its jugglers, 
 dancers, and pretty women. Thither the 
 daughters of the chief mandarins are sent, 
 as to a university, to be instructed in the 
 arts of politeness, the science of etiquette, 
 and the less important accomplishments of 
 music and dancing ; and it is generally 
 acknowledged, that the women of Su- 
 cheu are as distinguished for their 
 refined manners as they are for their 
 beauty. 
 
 The Chinese, who consider themselves the 
 oldest people of the earth, carry back their 
 chronicles for some thirty thousand years ; 
 but Sir William Jones could not trace them 
 higher than the Cheu dynasty, which was 
 contemporary with the later Judges of 
 Israel, about 1100 years before Christ. 
 Their form of government, however, which 
 retains the patriarchal character of the 
 earliest times, fully establishes the antiquity 
 of their origin, and it is probable that these 
 eccentric descendants of Shem were the first 
 settlers in the far East. 
 
 The Chinese appear to have been but 
 
TARTAR INVASIOXS. 243 
 
 little disturbed by foreigners till the reign 
 of Zenghis Khan, the great Tartar chief, 
 who, sweeping down like an avalanche 
 from the vast mountain plateaux of central 
 Asia, extended his sanguinary sway over 
 the whole Eastern world. Even Europe 
 trembled at the name of the Mongol con- 
 queror, and felt the presence of his savage 
 hordes. China, with an energy worthy of 
 her ancient traditions, stoutly opposed his 
 progress, but in the end, was subjugated by 
 his grandson, Khan-Khoubilai, who founded 
 the Tartar dynasty of the Youen. This, 
 after existing a century, was overthrown, in 
 the feeble reign of Chun-Ti, by Tchou-Youen- 
 Tchang, the son of a labourer ; and from 
 this successful rebel sprung the celebrated 
 dynasty of the Ming, which in 1368 ascended 
 the imperial throne under the name of 
 Houng-wou. The Ming revolution led to 
 the expulsion of the Tartars, or, rather, to 
 their extermination, as every Tartar found 
 within the bounds of the empire was put to 
 death; but towards the commencement of 
 the seventeenth century, the powerful nation 
 
 M 2 
 
244 THE GREAT WALL. 
 
 of the Mantchous, fired by the example of 
 their ancestors, again burst into China, and 
 speedily reduced it to subjection. Their 
 success consigned the throne of China to the 
 dynasty of Ta-ts'hing, which stiU retains the 
 precarious inheritance, though the formidable 
 movement now on foot, combining the two 
 forces of nationality and fanaticism, will 
 probably ere long wrest the now feeble 
 sceptre from its grasp. 
 
 The Tartars, in whom warlike propensities 
 are inherent, hare, indeed, been the here- 
 ditary enemies of the empire from time im- 
 memorial ; but, in the early ages, they were 
 kept in check by the Great Wall, erected 
 by the Emperor Thsiu-Chi-Koang-Ti, about 
 200 years before Christ. This renowned 
 fortification is undoubtedly, in point of 
 extent, the greatest work ever executed by 
 man, and incloses the whole country from 
 the westernmost point of Chau-kioi to the 
 Eastern Sea. But, viewed as a defence, the 
 character usually ascribed to it is wholly 
 undeserved; and Hue, who crossed the 
 vaunted bulwark at fifteen different points, 
 
RELIGION IN CHINA. 245 
 
 travelling for days together in a parallel 
 line, describes it as being generally no more 
 than a low wall, often formed entirely oi 
 earth. To the fearful engines of modern 
 warfare, such a barrier could oppose no 
 obstacle, and European soldiers would only 
 regard it with contempt. 
 
 As the temperament and habits of a 
 people are always deeply influenced by the 
 national religion, it hardly excites surprise, 
 after a careful study of the Chinese charac- 
 ter, to find that the religious element is 
 very lightly esteemed by the flowery nation. 
 I was informed by Mr. Elwes, whose ob- 
 servant eye is accustomed to look deeper 
 than the surface, that the majority of the 
 educated Chinese are atheists ; and though 
 there are three authorised religious sects, 
 Dr. Morrison considers that they are tole- 
 rated rather than supported by the imperial 
 government. The ancient religion was a 
 gross idolatry, stained with the most revolt- 
 ing rites ; but this was very early abro- 
 gated by Confucius, and a pure theism esta- 
 blished on its ruined and deserted altars. 
 
246 DOCTRINES OF CONFUCIUS. 
 
 The heathen Apostle, who made his appear- 
 ance about 600 years before the Christian era, 
 was the author of the Shu-king, a collection 
 of Sacred Odes, probably suggested by the 
 Old Testament, since they teach, what was 
 then only known to the Jews, that there 
 is but one God, and that He is eternal, 
 omnipresent, and omniscient, the supreme 
 ruler of the world, and the dispenser both of 
 rewards and punishments. The sky was 
 said to be the visible emblem of this bene- 
 ficent Being, and this was to be worshipped, 
 with humble prayers and offerings, on the 
 tops of mountains — a practice evidently 
 borrowed from the prevailing corruptions of 
 the Jews. But Mongolian superstition soon 
 interpolated this creed with the deification 
 of the elements, and a cumbrous machinery 
 of genii and spirits, which obscured its 
 original features, and threw a darker veil 
 over the majesty of the Deity. The elo- 
 quence of the great reformer, Lantse, b.c. 
 550, and of the illustrious Kong-fu-tu, who 
 flourished about a century later, failed to 
 check the reviving spirit of idolatry, and it 
 
BUDDHISM, 247 
 
 has since struck its roots deeper and deeper 
 through successive ages, though from the 
 reign of Ming-ti, a.d. 63, it has had to con- 
 tend with the more subtle juggleries of 
 Buddhism. 
 
 Buddhism, which prevails over a great 
 part of China, Tartary, Hindostan, and the 
 Indian Archipelago, has its root in Thibet. 
 The appellation is derived from Buddha, the 
 Deity, who, according to this creed, is per- 
 petually incarnate, reappearing in a succes- 
 sion of bodies, so that on the demise of one, 
 he is presently discovered in another. The 
 religious orders generally seclude themselves 
 in convents, or lamaseries, each of which 
 has its own living Buddha, but these are all 
 subject to the chief deity, called the Tale- 
 Lama, who resides at Lha-Ssa, the capital, 
 and is invested with the supreme authority, 
 spiritual and temporal. Buddhism incul- 
 cates the practice of many of the moral 
 virtues, and, above all, humanity to the 
 whole animal creation, a natural provision 
 in a religion which, as an explanation of the 
 constant reappearance of Buddha, has for its 
 
248 THE LAMAS. 
 
 basis the Pythagorean doctrine of the trans- 
 migration of souls. When a Tale-Lama dies, 
 the hierarchy expect his return in every 
 new-born infant, and he is sought for by 
 certain marks, in a manner that forcibly 
 calls to mind the inquisitions of the 
 Egyptian priests for the Apis. The minor 
 Buddhas, however, are occasionally required 
 to support their divine pretensions by a 
 miracle, and one of their favourite tricks is 
 to cut open their abdomen, in the presence 
 of a large assemblage of adorers, and then, 
 by a touch of the finger, heal it up again. 
 But such juggleries, though they may impose 
 on the ignorant and the credulous, excite no 
 surprise in those who are acquainted with 
 the clever performances of Chinese conjurors, 
 which may be seen in any of the places of 
 public resort, and far surpass the pseudo 
 miracles ascribed to Buddha. 
 
 The extraordinary figured tree, called the 
 Tree of the Ten Thousand Images, which 
 grows in the sacred garden of the far-famed 
 Lamasery of Kounbourn, is the one inscrut- 
 able marvel of Buddhism. Hue, who visited 
 
MIRACULOUS TREE. 249 
 
 the spot, gives a minute description of this 
 floral prodigy, wliicli he examined with care ; 
 but the statement of the reverend traveller 
 must be received with caution, as he evinces, 
 in all matters of a superstitious cast, a 
 strange eagerness of belief. " Upon entering 
 the inclosure'of the temple," he says, " we 
 were able to examine at leisure this marvel- 
 lous tree, some of the branches of which 
 already appeared above the wall. Our eyes 
 were first directed with earnest curiosity to 
 the leaves, and we were struck with abso- 
 lute consternation at finding that, in point 
 of fact, there were upon each of the leaves 
 well-formed Thibetan characters, all of a 
 green colour, some darker, some lighter than 
 the leaf itself. The characters all appeared 
 to be portions of the leaf, equally with its 
 veins and nerves ; the position was not the 
 same in all ; and the younger leaves repre 
 sented the characters in a partial state of 
 formation. The bark of the tree, and its 
 branches, which resemble those of the plane 
 tree, are also covered with these characters. 
 When you remove a piece of the bark, the 
 
 M 3 
 
250 EFFECT OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 young bark beneatli represents the characters 
 in a germinating state, and they are often 
 different from those they replace." Such is 
 the wonderful tree of Kounbourn, which has 
 for many ages been an object of veneration 
 to the superstitious, and has even been 
 honoured with a visit from a Chinese Em- 
 peror, the devout Khang-Hi, who, with the 
 liberality natural to a royal pilgrim, covered 
 it over with a dome of silver, in token of his 
 devotion to Buddha. 
 
 Buddhism exercises a very pernicious in- 
 fluence on the social and moral position of 
 woman ; but this effect is especially appa- 
 rent in Thibet, where, in obedience to long- 
 established custom, nearly half the male 
 population assume the idle functions and the 
 vows of the priesthood. Such a practice, 
 continued through every generation, neces- 
 sarily leads to a depreciation of the ties of 
 marriage, which, both in Thibet and China, 
 are of the loosest kind, and the married 
 women of these countries are completely at 
 the mercy of their insensate husbands. 
 
 The antiquated and unwieldy laws of 
 
CHINESE WOMEISr, 251 
 
 China afford the sex but little protection, 
 though they visit its derelictions, and even 
 its weaknesses, with unpitying severity. A 
 wife, from the first day of her marriage, is 
 bound in the most degrading servitude ; 
 and, among the lower orders, it is she who 
 undertakes the difficult and laborious work, 
 while the lighter duties are assigned to the 
 husband. In rural districts, women fulfil 
 the most arduous employments of agricul- 
 ture, toiling all the day in the field, while 
 men look idly on ; and the patient and in- 
 dustrious wife, often when harassed by the 
 cares of maternity, drives the cumbrous 
 plough, leaving to her husband the easy 
 task of sowing the ground. The women of 
 the middle and higher classes are condemned 
 to a seclusion tantamount to imprisonment. 
 They occupy distinct sets of apartments, 
 are shut up from all society, and are not 
 even permitted — what indeed would be no 
 great privilege — to take their meals with 
 their husbands. The only place they are 
 suffered to visit is the temple, to which 
 they are conveyed at stated times, in a 
 
252 DAUGHTERS OF JIAXDARINS. 
 
 covered chair, or a wheelbarrow, jealously 
 enveloped with curtains. As everything is 
 done from their infancy to suppress the no- 
 bler emotions of nature — as they receive no 
 intellectual culture, and their only educa- 
 tion consists of a few useless accomplish- 
 ments — they pass their existence in endless 
 ennui, so uninfluenced by all the sensa- 
 tions of life that they must eagerlj' welcome 
 death. The daughters of the chief manda- 
 rins learn nothing but dancing and music ; 
 and, in the misery of their solitude, seek 
 relief in smoking, or in the deadly fumes of 
 opium. Ladies of inferior rank, whom it is 
 not considered so necessary to train in idle- 
 ness, are taught embroidery and painting; 
 and to the cunning hands of these fair artistes 
 we owe the painted gauzes, fans, and fire- 
 screens of China, the brilliant and exquisite 
 colouring of which is so universally admired. 
 The inhuman custom of crippling the feet 
 of Chinese ladies is well known ; but, as it 
 is not referred to h\ Marco Polo, we may 
 reasonably set it down, with manj^ other bar- 
 barisms, as an invention of comparatively 
 
CUSTOMS RESPBCTIJSTG WOMEN. 25^ 
 
 modern times. The feet are seized almost 
 at the moment of birth, and the heel and all 
 the toes, with the exception of the large 
 ones, are compressed by hoops into the shape 
 of an inverted cone, the foot being reduced 
 to the size of a doll's, not exceeding four 
 inches in length, and in breadth seldom 
 more than two. Hence Chinese ladies are 
 unable to walk any distance ; and the more 
 they hobble in their gait, the more courtly 
 and graceful they are thought. Long finger- 
 nails are also considered a distinguishing 
 characteristic of noble dames, and some of 
 the ladies of the court, who are looked upon 
 as the very pink of fashion, cultivate this 
 grace with such success, that their nails are 
 said to extend twelve inches beyond the tips 
 of their fingers. The practice of crippling 
 the feet is not followed in the province of 
 Kiang-si ; and as the women of that district 
 are able to move freely about, they are very 
 serviceable in field work, for which they 
 have acquired such a reputation that farmers 
 usually purchase their wives in Kiang-si. 
 The wives of the Emperors, and the prin- 
 
254 CHIKESE PRINCESSES. 
 
 cesses of the blood royal, who fonn a 
 community of themselves, are not always 
 condemned to the same rigorous seclusion 
 which mantles the wretched families of the 
 mandarins, and, in the huge palace of the 
 great Khan, these favoured ladies exchange 
 visits, attend fetes and parties, and discuss 
 scandal over their tea. For the princesses, 
 however, this is but a short respite, as on 
 attaining a marriageable age, they are con- 
 demned to wed some hideous Mongol chief, 
 and are hurried off to the gloomy steppes 
 and deserts of Tartary. Here they sigh for 
 the happy and beautiful gardens of Pekin, 
 where they passed the years of their youth ; 
 and at one time, they returned so frequently 
 to the capital, in search of its innocent 
 gaieties, that it was found necessary to issue 
 a severe edict, by which it was decreed that 
 they should only make their appearance at 
 court once in ten years. 
 
 The matrimonial alliances with Tartar 
 chiefs have prevailed from the time of the 
 Emperor Kaoti, when the Tanjons, or Huns, 
 after a succession of sanguinary inroads, 
 
CHIlfESE MARRIAGES. 255 
 
 exacted from the Chinese ruler, as the first 
 condition of peace, an annual tribute of 
 the fairest of his daughters. At that an- 
 cient date, a royal Sappho, looking back at 
 her early years in the flowery land, bewails, 
 in pathetic verses, the miserable fate to 
 which she had thus been doomed, and con- 
 trasts the rugged life of her Tartar tent, 
 where she lives on raw flesh and sour milk, 
 exposed to all the caprices of a brutal hus- 
 band, with the pleasures of her native Pekin, 
 the luxuries of the imperial palace, and the 
 fond caresses of her indulgent parents. 
 
 Marriage is obligatory in China, and is 
 regulated by specific laws. The first spouse, 
 who receives the title of " Mother of the 
 House," and enjoys privileges not extended 
 to the other wives, is chosen by the parents 
 of the bridegroom, who arrange the union 
 with those of the lady, without reference to 
 the feelings or the wishes of the young peo- 
 ple. The bride is obtained by purchase, 
 and should there be competitors for her 
 hand, she is awarded to the highest bidder. 
 All, however, engage in the contest without 
 
256 BRIDE IN A WHEELBARROW. 
 
 any knowledge of the particular attractions 
 of the lady, whose charms are never dis- 
 closed till she reaches the residence of her 
 intended; but the intrepid speculator, if 
 dissatisfied with his bargain, may then re- 
 turn her to her parents, and dissolve the 
 contract, provided he is content to forfeit 
 the purchase-money. On the terms being 
 arranged, the bride is locked up in a latticed 
 chair or wheelbarrow, the key of which is 
 handed over to the bridegroom, who, accom- 
 panied by his parents and friends, conveys 
 the precious deposit to his house, when the 
 casket is opened, and the living gem dis- 
 played. The marriage ceremony is simple 
 and brief. All the preliminaries settled, the 
 happy pair, in presence of their family and 
 friends, go through the performance of eat- 
 ing together, and exchange cups, when they 
 rise from their seats, and prostrating them- 
 selves before their parents, the union is as 
 indissoluble and complete as Chinese in- 
 genuity can make it. The public betrothal 
 is usually followed by an entertainment, 
 varying in splendour with the means and 
 
A CHINESE BEAUTY. 257 
 
 disposition of the two families, and tlie 
 social rank of tlie bridegroom. A month 
 afterwards, the parents of the bride, who 
 have been only too glad to get her off their 
 hands, honour her with a visit of ceremony, 
 and she is then permitted herself to pay a 
 similar compliment to her near relations. 
 
 Although the privilege enjoyed by a 
 Chinese of rejecting his purchased bride if 
 her attractions do not equal his expecta- 
 tions, may be invidious and vexatious, it 
 must be confessed that the popular estimate 
 of beauty is not an extravagant one, or one 
 difficult to be met. A snub nose, thick 
 lips, small dark eyes carefully bereft of 
 every lash, and jet black tresses, form the 
 principal beauties of the face ; and corpu- 
 lence, though not indispensable, gives an 
 irresistible grace to the figure. Deformed 
 feet, and finger nails longer than talons, 
 rendering the hands perfectly useless, com- 
 plete the catalogue of charms, which, when 
 they are all possessed by one person, go 
 far to constitute a Chinese Tenus. 
 
 A man is permitted to have as many wives 
 
258 CHASTISEMENT OF WIVES. 
 
 as he can purchase ; and as women of the 
 humbler classes are very industrious, and 
 undertake every employment, they do not 
 entail a heavy expense for their main- 
 tenance. The husband is authorized to 
 chastise his wife with a bamboo \ but the 
 thickness of the stick, as well as the exact 
 number of blows for each offence, and the 
 circumstances under which they may and 
 may not be administered, are carefiilly 
 adjusted by law, and a blow more or less 
 than the legitimate number will expose the 
 husband to the avenging lash of the magis- 
 trate. Every incident of domestic life and 
 every word spoken being regulated by 
 etiquette, it is very easy to transgress, and 
 the inexorable law insists that no trans- 
 gression shall be passed over. For volun- 
 tary desertion of her family, to which a 
 woman may be driven by unremitted ill- 
 usage, the offender, on her apprehension, is 
 reduced to the condition of a slave, and 
 such she virtually becomes. But a man may 
 commit the same act with impunity, though 
 an absence of more than three vears secures 
 
CHINESE COSTIJME. 259 
 
 to his wife, on appealing to a magistrate, 
 the privilege of contracting another alliance. 
 Wives are very frequently deserted by 
 their capricious consorts ; and they may be 
 divorced, if such is the wish of the husband, 
 for the most trivial causes, such as loquacity, 
 pilfering, a fretful or jealous temper, or 
 even for being afflicted with disease. Thus, 
 after a woman has given her youth, health, 
 strength, and the flower of her life to some 
 despicable tyrant; and perhaps helped to 
 maintain him in idleness by her labour and 
 industry, she may be cast off, in the dreary 
 time of sickness or age, to perish of want — 
 a death by no means uncommon in China, 
 where the poor sometimes lie down in the 
 public road to pay the last sad debt of 
 nature. 
 
 The dress of Chinese women exhibits such 
 a degree of taste as might naturally be 
 expected from their neglected education. 
 Among the lower classes, it is vulgar,^ and 
 tawdry, evincing neither fertility of resource 
 nor harmony of colour. A straw hat, stuck 
 with gaudy flowers, completely hides the 
 
260 CHINESE TOILET. 
 
 well-dyed hair, which is turned in a top- 
 knot over the head, and secured by a 
 bodkin, while a strip of black velvet falls in 
 front to the nose. Trousers of pink or 
 yellow meet a blue cotton frock, and fit 
 close and tight to the calf of the leg, so as 
 to give due prominence to the overgrown 
 ankle, the dimensions of which, though 
 requiring no exaggeration, are magnified by 
 rolls of bandage, of various colours, and 
 besprinkled with beads and spangles, to 
 attract and rivet the fascinated eye. Feet 
 small as a doll's are encased in tinselled and 
 embroidered shoes, which it has taxed the 
 utmost ingenuity of the owner to render 
 sufficiently ornamental, and nothing is 
 needed but the limping gait to produce an 
 irresistible effect. The dress of ladies dif- 
 fers only in the material, which is often of 
 the most costly description ; and gold and 
 jewels, very profusely used, take the place 
 of spangles and tinsel. When all this deco- 
 ration is heightened by the blandishments of 
 the toilet, such as tinging the teeth with 
 betel and tobacco, which gives them a beau- 
 
A TARTAR BEAUTY. 261 
 
 tiful green and yellow appearance, and other 
 similar devices, it will readily be acknow- 
 ledged that a Chinese lady in full costume 
 is calculated to produce a decided impres- 
 sion in a crowd. 
 
 The Tartar standard of beauty is some- 
 what different from that established in the 
 celestial empire. A genuine Mongol belle, 
 living on the desolate steppes of the Ortons, 
 in a village of scattered and ragged tents, 
 plumes herself on her olive complexion, 
 black hair, and small black eyes, the latter 
 elliptical in shape, forming an acute angle 
 with the ridge of the nose, and inclined 
 obliquely from the temples. Her head has 
 been carefully flattened; her forehead is 
 wide, her chin peaked, and she rejoices in a 
 flat nose, and ears that a jack-ass might 
 envy. A broad, square, full figure, all bone 
 and muscle, is preferred to the embonpoint 
 of the Chinese, and, indeed, is absolutely 
 required by a life of hardship and labour, 
 in an ungenial, variable, and trying 
 climate. 
 
 Tartars are proverbial for their skill in 
 
262 TARTAR WOMEX. 
 
 horsemanship ; and a Tartar girl, from mere 
 instinct — for it forms no part of her voca- 
 tions — is as much at home on horseback as 
 the best man in her tribe. There is no 
 feat of equitation that she will scruple to 
 perform ; and a steed which would have 
 daunted Mazeppa — a Bucephalus which 
 Alexander might have hesitated to mount — 
 wild, fiery, swift as the wind, is to her but 
 an ordinary palfrey, and carries her safely 
 over arid desert and mountain steep, with- 
 out occasioning a moment's uneasiness. 
 
 Tartar women, while thus rough and 
 ready, do not neglect those employments 
 which are the natural province of the sex — 
 the domestic duties, the preparation of their 
 humble meals, and the use of the needle, in 
 which, indeed, they are especially dexterous. 
 With very rude implements they make all 
 the wearing apparel of the men, as well as 
 their own ; and at the same time, excel in 
 the more delicate arts of embroidery and 
 colouring. Their ingenious designs exhibit 
 a natural taste for the beautiful, wholly irre- 
 concilable with their actual social condition, 
 
FACILITY OF DIVORCE. 263 
 
 and proving that, whatever other effects 
 may ensue, the most disadvantageous circum- 
 stances cannot always overrule the rooted 
 innate refinement of the female mind. 
 
 The Tartars differ from other Eastern 
 nations in allowing women a certain liberty 
 of action; and their wives and daughters, 
 instead of being secluded in close apartments, 
 or pent-up tents, surrounded by the usual 
 guards of such abodes, move freely about, 
 visiting from tent to tent, and mingling even 
 in the society of the other sex. But the 
 laws relating to marriage are as invidious 
 and unjust as those of China. Divorce, an 
 institution so susceptible of abuse, is even 
 more easy, and a man can cast off his wives 
 at pleasure, without so much as alleging a 
 reason. Hence the ties elsewhere esteemed 
 the most endearing in nature are in Tartary 
 held but lightly, and rent without scruple or 
 compunction. 
 
 The wife, as in China, is obtained by 
 purchase ; a deed being drawn up between 
 the two contracting parties, in which the 
 father of the bridegroom, acting in his behalf. 
 
264 TARTAR NUPTIALS. 
 
 agrees to present the friends of the lady with 
 a certain number of sheep and horses, and, 
 what is more to the point, a liberal donation 
 of brandy, in exchange for their fair kins- 
 woman. This covenant being duly con- 
 cluded, the fact is solemnly announced to the 
 bride's family, who, in the fulness of their 
 joy, offer up a savoury sheep's-head to the 
 household Buddha, and the lady's father 
 quaffs a goblet of sour milk, not to the 
 health of the plighted couple, but as a crown- 
 ing formality, essential to the legalization 
 of the union. The cup, indeed, contains a 
 piece of money, dropped into it by the father 
 of the bridegroom; and this is quietly 
 pocketed by the other parent, who is thus 
 said to complete and ratify the bargain. 
 
 The ceremonies of the nuptial day recal 
 those in vogue among the wild nomadic 
 tribes of Persia. There is the same proces- 
 sion of equestrians to the tent of the bride's 
 father, but it is not accompanied by the 
 apathetic bridegroom. The latter, who 
 perhaps has never seen the lady's face, con- 
 tents himself with sending a party of his 
 
ABDUCTION OF THE BRIDE. 265 
 
 relatives to escort her home, and patiently 
 awaits her arrival. On reaching the tent of 
 her father, his friends are met by those of 
 the bride, who surround the tent, and oppose 
 their entrance. But, after a brief struggle, 
 the bridal party force their way in, seize the 
 bride, who is eager to depart, and sweeping 
 in a circle round the dwelling of her father, 
 triumphantly carry her off to that of her 
 future husband. Here, in presence of the 
 two families, and the assembled neighbours, 
 who flock in uninvited, she makes an obei- 
 sance to her new kindred, to the bridegroom, 
 and the household hearth ; and all are then 
 entertained with a feast, protracted over 
 seven or eight days, and for which the bride- 
 groom's father is recompensed by sumptuous 
 donations from his kindred and connexions. 
 
 In Thibet, the grand centre of Buddhist 
 influences, on which the code of the Mongo- 
 lian deserts is founded, women are in much 
 the same position as in Tartary. They 
 enjoy an equal degree of freedom, and are 
 permitted to associate openly with men. 
 The law, however, in granting this liberty, 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
266 WOMEN OF THIBET. 
 
 requires that they shall make themselves as 
 ugly as possible before they appear in public ; 
 and whenever they present themselves in the 
 streets, their faces must be encased in a 
 thick, spotted varnish, which effectually 
 screens every charm. This is the veil of the 
 Thibetan lady, and to neglect such an es- 
 sential part of her toilet, and show her face 
 in its natural aspect, would be not only a 
 violation of the law, but would subject the 
 offender to arrest and punishment. The 
 Thibetan women, however, groan under the 
 odious usage, and sometimes run every risk 
 to indulge the beaux with a glimpse of their 
 faces. Like their Tartar neighbours, they 
 possess considerable taste, and are particu: 
 larly skilful in painting. Their dress, though 
 it differs but little from that of the men, is 
 becoming, and admits of much variation in 
 point of colour. The hair is worn long, 
 parted in the centre of the head, and thrown 
 in two wavy tresses over the shoulders. It is 
 generally adorned with a band of pearls, or, 
 if such a costly decoration is not to be had, 
 bv a string of beads ; and the bonnet of the 
 
THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. 267 
 
 European dame is represented by a cap of 
 red cloth, worn rather jantily on the head. 
 Altogether their appearance is such as 
 almost to afford the Lamas an excuse, if one 
 were demanded, for insisting that they should 
 disguise and disfigure their faces. 
 
 The Thibetan women are very indus- 
 trious, and, in addition to the ordinary 
 duties of the sex, carry on all the traffic 
 and petty commerce of the country. They 
 convey their commodities to market over 
 rugged and impracticable roads, without 
 assistance from the men, and visit distant 
 villages as hawkers and pedlars, displaying 
 their wares at every house. They are 
 naturally gay, courteous, and, of course, 
 gentle and affectionate, and require only the 
 beneficent influence of Christianity, and of 
 mild and just laws, to raise them to a high 
 standard of moral excellence. 
 
 A large branch of the Mongolian family 
 is located in Japan, which, indeed, may 
 compare with China in density of po- 
 pulation ; and Jeddo, the capital, is said to 
 contain more than ten millions of inha- 
 
 N 2 
 
268 EMPIRE OF JAPAN. 
 
 l)itants. This vast empire, rising in the 
 midst of the Indian Ocean, at a point con- 
 stantly approached by the argosies of our 
 merchants, is hermetically sealed to the rest 
 of mankind, though the American govern- 
 ment has recently received a promise that, 
 after a certain time, its citizens shall be ad- 
 mitted to a limited intercourse. The mea- 
 sure of exclusion was first adopted in con- 
 sequence of the intrigues of the Jesuits, 
 who, after being hospitably received and 
 entertained by the Emperor, stirred up 
 their adherents in the islands to revolt, and 
 hence led to very serious disorders. On the 
 suppression of the insurrection, Christianity, 
 to which all the mischief was attributed, 
 fell under a ban, and it was pronoimced a 
 capital offence to hold any intercourse with 
 foreigners. A slight exception was made 
 in favour of the Dutch, who are suffered, 
 under great restrictions, to send two ships 
 every year to the principal island, to supply 
 the court and nobility with articles of Eu- 
 ropean luxury. 
 
 Thus Japan, with its mountains and 
 
ITS GOVERJSTMENT. 269 
 
 forests, its rich and teeming valleys, its 
 bustling, crowded cities, is to its inhabitants 
 an absolute prison, and to the world a- 
 land unknown— in it, but not of it. Still 
 Europeans, thrown by shipwreck or other _ 
 accidents on its inhospitable shores, have 
 penetrated the cordon so jealously esta- 
 blished, and acquired some knowledge of 
 the government and people. 
 
 The sovereign power is vested in two 
 Emperors, one of whom is the supreme tem- 
 poral authority, and bears the title of 
 Kumbo-Sana, while the other, called the 
 Kiu-Rey, devotes himself to spiritual affairs, 
 and presides over the idolatrous religion of 
 the country. Nominally, indeed, he is 
 entitled to admonish, or even to restrain, the 
 more potent lay Emperor, should he over- 
 step the bounds of justice or decorum ; but 
 his influence, when he ventures to exer- 
 cise it, has but little real effect, and the 
 strong arm of his temporal brother always 
 prevails. The nobles and dignitaries, not a 
 few of whom govern separate principalities 
 with the attributes and prerogatives of 
 
270 WOMEN OF JAPAN. 
 
 kings, are subject to the temporal Emperor, 
 and are occasionally obliged to appear at 
 his court, when they present themselves 
 with thousands of attendants, and sur- 
 rounded by all the insignia and all the 
 splendour of royalty. 
 
 As might be imagined from the character 
 of the government, woman plays no part in 
 the history of Japan, though, allowing for 
 Oriental usages, she is treated, on the 
 whole, with tolerable leniency. She occu- 
 pies a better position in the family, from 
 not entailing any charge at her marriage, as 
 a bride receives no dowry, but, on the con- 
 trary, is presented by her husband with a 
 handsome donation, which is invariably 
 appropriated by her father. In Japan, 
 therefore, it is considered more fortunate to 
 have daughters than sons, as the former 
 ultimately prove a very profitable invest- 
 ment. 
 
 On the birth of a son, the event is com- 
 memorated by planting a tree, which, if the 
 little stranger lives, is carefally tended till 
 the day of his marriage, when it is cut 
 
JAPANNINa THE BRIDE. 271 
 
 down, and furnislies material for a chest, 
 designed expressly to hold the wardrobe of 
 the newly-wedded couple. The marriage, as 
 in China and Tartary, is an affair between 
 the parents, and the wishes of the young 
 people themselves are never consulted. 
 The bride is usually in her fifteenth year, 
 but maturity being early developed, wedlock 
 may be contracted at a still younger age, 
 and the mother is often a child herself. 
 Marriage is a religious ceremony, and is 
 celebrated with great pomp, and many 
 forms, in a public temple, in presence of the 
 priests and idols, and the friends and kin- 
 dred of both families. The priest blackens 
 the pearly teeth of the bride, using for this 
 purpose the same indelible lacquer applied to 
 coal-scuttles, and other similar japan ware ; 
 and this serves, from that time to her death, 
 to notify, like the wedding ring of Europe, 
 that she has entered the married state. 
 
 A man's wives all live together in one 
 household. The first wife, however, enjoys 
 a superior rank, and exercises the greatest 
 authority, the others being, to a certain ex- 
 tent, subject to her control. 
 
272 JAPANESE LADIES. 
 
 Ladies of rank live in strict seclusion, 
 and are hardly permitted even to stir from 
 their apartments, though on special oc- 
 casions, they appear, under the sacred pro- 
 tection of the veil, in public thoroughfares, 
 closely attended by their jealous and wary 
 husbands. Women of the humbler classes 
 present themselves in the streets unveiled, 
 but they are not allowed to speak to a man, 
 unless their fastidious spouse, who perhaps 
 has half-a-dozen other wives under lock and 
 key at home, is present. 
 
 The costume of the Japanese has a cha- 
 racteristic common to the whole Mongolian 
 race, inasmuch as the dress of the woman 
 assimilates closely to that of the man. It is 
 very simple, consisting solely of a loose 
 dressing-gown, called a chiramono, worn 
 over long wide trousers, and fastened at the 
 waist by a band. Ladies in affluent circum- 
 stances wear as many as twenty of these 
 garments at once, one over the other, and if 
 they become too warm, deliberately throw 
 a gown or two off, and let it hang down 
 over the girdle, gradually stripping them- 
 
JAPAJfESE TOILET. 27:! 
 
 selves of their redundant wardrobe, much in 
 the same manner as the clown at Astley's, in 
 his famous ride to Brentford. The hair of 
 the Japanese women, whether rich or poor, 
 is their most effective ornament. It i^^ 
 glossy and luxuriant, and is tastefully 
 adorned with flowers and ribbons, adding 
 materially to their charms. 
 
 In Japan, China, Tartary, and ThiJjet, 
 where the Mongolian family has so long 
 been settled, women, and even men, have 
 for centuries remained in the same condition, 
 bound, cramped, stationary. We are al)out 
 to open a new page in their history and 
 their destiny; but if it is to enregister 
 such incidents as have hitherto marked the 
 track of the Caucasian, better it were for 
 themselves — for the honour of Christianity 
 and of civilization — that that yet hidden 
 page were never turned. Let us hope for a 
 happier and brighter result. , 
 
 :s 3 
 
( 274 ) 
 
 IX. 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 Greece is a land endeared to our sympa- 
 thies and sensibilities from the moment that 
 they are first developed. The most ancient 
 temple of the arts, the nursery of poetry and 
 IDhilosophy, and the earliest home of freedom, 
 it is associated with every sentiment that 
 can charm the eye, animate the breast, or 
 engage the understanding. No excellence 
 seems too great to attribute to her children ; 
 and her familiar history, a household book 
 for all time, claims ready belief for its most 
 marvellous episodes. We can recall the 
 fabled statue of Pygmalion, as it stood 
 before his own rapt eyes, swelling with the 
 first gentle tide of life and motion : we can 
 
CLASSIC ASSOCIATIONS. 275 
 
 see the cold marble take form and expression 
 from the Promethean chisel of Phidias ; we 
 can imagine, though not realise, the ex- 
 quisite grace and matchless symmetry of the 
 Delphian Apollo. The mind still responds 
 to the thrilling cadences of Homer, fires at 
 the eloquence of Demosthenes, and lingers, 
 a wondering pupil, at the charmed feet of 
 Aristotle. We bleed with Leonidas at the 
 pass of Thermopylae ; we read with throb- 
 bing hearts the glorious story of Marathon : 
 we kindle at the great names of Alcibiades, 
 Themistocles, Pericles, and Oimon. Is it 
 possible, then, that even barbarism can have 
 trodden down the hallowed groves of the 
 Academy, where, under the shadow of the 
 classic portico, the immortal Plato taught, 
 and crowds listened to the almost inspired 
 lips of Socrates ? The circus, the theatre, 
 and the temple, the Areopagus and the 
 Agora, have equally paid the debt of time ; 
 but mighty vestiges attest their ancient 
 grandeur, and Greece is still holy ground to 
 the poet, the antiquary, the sculptor, and 
 the patriot. 
 
276 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 
 
 Througli these associations and these illu- 
 sions WG must grope our way to the real 
 character and actual social condition of this 
 remarkable people. The picture, alas ! alters 
 as we near it, and reveals the usual fallible 
 touches of human infirmity. The favoured 
 children of the gods, whom history has en- 
 shrined for our idolatry, were indeed but 
 indifferent beings ; their heroes were without 
 generosity, their maidens without tenderness, 
 and their matrons without virtue. It was 
 they who condemned and destroyed Mil- 
 tiades, who banished the just Aristides, and 
 who put Socrates to death. They it was 
 who, jealous o their own freedom, enslaved 
 the miserable Helots, and annually com- 
 pelled those helpless serfs to mangle and 
 slaughter each other, from a craven fear of 
 their growing numbers. And finally, with 
 all their poetry, refinement, and boasted 
 chivalry, they remained to the last wholly 
 unconscious of the true characteristics 
 and innate natural susceptibilities of 
 woman. 
 
 This renowned nation sprang from various 
 
AJ^CIEXT GOVBRlirMENT. 277 
 
 tribes of robbers and pirates, who, in remote 
 times, fixed tlieir haunts in the masked har- 
 bours of the ^gean ; and Thucydides, with 
 manly candour, mentions that, even in an 
 age comparatively enlightened, the Greeks 
 considered piracy an honourable calling. 
 Such it was undoubtedly esteemed in the 
 days of Homer, who — and not Herodotus- 
 was the father, or rather the patriarch of 
 history, as well as of poetry, and who 
 flourished about 850 years before Christ. 
 At this time the Greeks are represented as 
 a family of tribes, united by the ties of a 
 common origin and a common language, 
 though the latter, as a natural consequence 
 of their subdivision, was corrupted by dif- 
 ferent dialects. The government was 
 vested in the several chiefs, who, however, 
 were subject, in all important points, to the 
 superior authority of the Basileus, or King 
 — a dignity conferred by their suffrages on 
 the warrior most distinguished for wisdom, 
 virtue, undaunted courage, and personal 
 strength. This position was an object of 
 ambition to the greatest heroes, though the 
 
278 DISSOLUTE MANNERS. 
 
 royal diadem imposed only additional cares, 
 and did not relieve its possessor or his 
 family from the humblest employments. 
 Paris, a prince of the blood royal of Troy, 
 assisted in the erection of his own palace ; 
 and Ulysses publicly made it a boast that 
 he was an admirable ploughman. The 
 King, however, usually possessed great 
 treasures, and was allotted the largest share 
 of the spoil during war, and, what he was 
 envied more, the most beautiful female 
 captive. 
 
 General dissoluteness of manners is the 
 most prominent characteristic of the Homeric 
 era ; and woman, instead of being an instru- 
 ment of civilization, is made the active 
 agent of social corruption. The very sub- 
 ject of the Iliad shows, in a striking light, 
 how little value was placed by the ancients 
 on the precious influence of female virtue. 
 Helen, the heroine of the immortal epic, was 
 not more distinguished for her personal 
 beauty, though it is described as divine, than 
 for her frailty and perfidy. Even in the 
 tender period of childhood, her dawning 
 
ELOPEMENT OP HELEX. 279 
 
 charms attracted the eye of violence, and 
 the lovely princess was only in her tenth 
 year, when she became the prey of Theseus. 
 Recovered by the prowess of her brothers, 
 her hand was sought by all the princes of 
 Greece, who, for this purpose, repaired in a 
 body to the splendid court of her father — 
 Tyndarus, King of Sparta. The monarch, 
 bewildered by so many suitors, was relieved 
 from the perplexity their rivalry occasioned 
 by the advice of Ulysses ; and the favour 
 of Helen herself secured the prize for Me- 
 nelaus. Yet, in a few years, the young 
 Queen, surrounded by every enjoyment that 
 affection could prompt, or wealth and power 
 command, abandoned the husband of her 
 choice, and her infant children, to elope with 
 a stranger, who, in the guise of a friend 
 and a guest, outraged at once the laws of 
 hospitality and of nature. 
 
 Such was the degraded character for 
 whom the infatuated Trojans took up arms, 
 and whom the princesses of Troy, far from 
 repudiating, openly received as a sister. 
 Nor was it esteemed discreditable to Helen 
 
280 FATE OP HELEX. 
 
 that, while she was thus sheltered and pro- 
 tected in Troy, she maintained a clandestine 
 correspondence with the leaders of G-reece, 
 in which she divulged, without scruple or 
 remorse, the military plans of her defenders. 
 On the death of Paris, she married his 
 brother Deiphobus, and finally betrayed 
 that prince, with whom she had pretended 
 to be enamoured, to the G-reeks, sealing her 
 treachery with his blood. 
 
 The fate of Helen involved a termination 
 not unsuitable to so profligate a career. 
 Retiring to Rhodes, she fell a victim to the 
 unscrupulous vengeance of another woman, 
 Polyxa, widow of Tlepolemus, who, dis- 
 covering her retreat, caused her to be seized 
 by her female slaves disguised as furies, 
 and, to these pitiless wretches, a tree fur- 
 nished a gibbet for the fairest of her sex. 
 What was the G-reek estimate of virtue 
 may be inferred from the fact, that, after her 
 death, the frail Helen was awarded di^dne 
 honours, and she who in life had been 
 weaker than a woman, in the grave was 
 exalted into a goddess. 
 
SAPPHO. 281 
 
 Sappho is a more signal, because a more 
 brilliant, example of the corruption of the 
 female character among the early Greeks ; 
 and fragments of her own deathless lyrics 
 survive to attest her depravity. To in- 
 comparable beauty, this gifted woman added 
 every rare endowment of the mind, and 
 some of the most engaging qualities of the 
 heart. For her immortal lays, she received 
 from her countrymen, in a later age, the 
 flattering appellation of the Tenth Muse, 
 and their plaudits have been approved by 
 the candid judgment of posterity. But 
 while we are struck by the fire of her words, 
 and the melting tenderness of her melodious 
 notes — while we kindle at the glow of her 
 genius and her imagination, we turn in 
 disgust from her indelicacy, her levity, and 
 her crimes. Painful it is to reflect, what 
 the ancients have not sought to disguise, 
 that these were the characteristics, not of an 
 individual, but of the whole female com- 
 munity — that they were held up for admi- 
 ration, and for universal imitation, and 
 were even stamped with the solemn ap- 
 proval of the gods. 
 
282 RELIGION OF GREECE. 
 
 Sappho, one of the earliest poets, is, at 
 the same time, the first woman who is re- 
 corded to have died for love. Transported 
 by her passion for Phaon, she became in- 
 different to her divine gifts, to the ties of 
 nature, and to the pleasures of life, and, in 
 a moment of frenzy, put an end to her own 
 existence. To such a mind, even suicide 
 must be made sublime, and the memorable 
 spot which was the scene of her death is 
 still pointed out to the voyager along the 
 shores of Greece. It bears the significant 
 name of " Sappho's Leap." 
 
 The religion of the Greeks was eminently 
 calculated to induce and foster a corrupt sys- 
 tem of morals, which, indeed, was but too con- 
 sonant with the natural disposition of the 
 people. Their mythology was essentially 
 material, and the gods were represented with 
 all the passions and all the infirmities of men. 
 Newgate, peopled with the blackest crimi- 
 nals, could hardly have matched the Grecian 
 pantheon ; and women were taught to adore 
 deities, whom men, had they possessed any 
 of the higher or nobler impulses of humanity, 
 should have blushed to name. Materiality 
 
ORACLE OF DELPHI. 283 
 
 was carried to such an extent, that every 
 passion, every sentiment, every emotion, 
 almost every natural object, was physi- 
 cally embodied ; and anger, despair, sleep, 
 woods and rivers, fountains, rocks, and 
 whirlpools, were converted into divinities, 
 and became the arbiters and ministers of 
 fate. 
 
 The far-famed oracle of Delphi, shrined in 
 the temple of Apollo, at the foot of Mount 
 Parnassus, exercised a leading influence on 
 the religious and social, and even on the 
 political government of the Greeks. Delphi 
 was supposed to be the centre of the earth, 
 and the stately temple was erected over a 
 hole, which, as the legend affirms, continually 
 emitted a steam-like exhalation, infused with 
 the prophetic breath of Apollo. The oracu- 
 lar responses were pronounced by a woman, 
 who derived from her office the high name 
 of Pythia •, and the prophecies, which soon 
 acquired a world-wide reputation, and still 
 remain among the puzzles of history, were 
 originally delivered in verse, but on its being 
 sarcastically observed that the god of poetry 
 
284 PYTHIAN VESTALS. 
 
 was a very indifferent poet, prose, always 
 closely mantled in a veil of mystery, was 
 substituted. When required to discharge 
 this function, Pythia, attended hj a train of 
 five priests, arrayed in sacerdotal vestments, 
 dipped her head in the fountain of Castalis, 
 on the rise of Mount Parnassus, and then, 
 wreathing her brow with the sacred laurel, 
 entered the gloomy subterraneous cavity of 
 the temple, and seated herself on a three- 
 legged stool, called a tripod, which was per- 
 forated beneath, and placed over the focus 
 of the sulphurous vapour. Inspiration some- 
 times developed itself in a gentle manner, 
 and the oracle was then uttered in accents 
 soft as music ; at others, the Pythia, as 
 soon as she inhaled the vapour, was seized 
 with convulsive throes, burst into wild cries 
 and howlings, and pronounced the response, 
 when questioned, in broken and frantic 
 words, with difficulty taken down by the 
 attendant priests. Plutarch mentions one 
 occasion when the cries of Pythia were so 
 piercing, and her throes so horrifying, that 
 the priests fled in dismaj' from the temple, 
 
HERO AND LEAXDER. 285 
 
 and the miserable victim of superstition ex- 
 pired herself on the following day. 
 
 The oracle, as may be imagined, often 
 drew its inspiration from other sources than 
 the Castalian fountain, or the prophetic 
 vapour ; and Pythia, like Danse, was vul- 
 nerable to a shower of gold. Originally the 
 office was filled by beautiful maidens, still in 
 the flower of youth ; but Echecrates, a 
 Thessalian, having attempted the abduction 
 of one of these fair priestesses, none were 
 afterwards advanced to the tripod till they 
 had reached their fiftieth year. The Pythias 
 were bound to a life of virtue, a rule not 
 always followed by the G-recian priestesses, 
 as the case of Hero, priestess of Sestus, suf- 
 ficiently attests. Hero held up a beacon to 
 her lover Leander, as he swam across the 
 Hellespont to her feet, from the very turret 
 of the temple, and from that spot she pre- 
 cipitated herself into the sea, when in the 
 midst of a terrific storm, she saw the sturdy 
 swimmer ingulfed by the waves. 
 
 Such a religion as that of G-reece neces- 
 sarily weakened and perverted, but could 
 
286 FEMALE CAPTIVES. 
 
 not wholly destroy, the beautiful moral 
 influence of woman ; for the poetic tempera- 
 ment of the Greeks never failed to acknow- 
 ledge and recognise an element so fruitful of 
 passion and feeling. The poems which recite 
 their early history, are chiefly interesting 
 from their various female characters ; and 
 conflicting sentiments, now of sympathy or 
 pity, now of indignant wonder, throw a halo, 
 as we read, round the immortal names of 
 Penelope, Andromache, Helen, and Hecuba. 
 Yet no consideration was shown for the 
 weakness and tender instincts of the sex, 
 which appeal so eloquently to man for pro- 
 tection. It was a common occurrence for 
 the women of one tribe to be carried off by 
 a ruthless foray from another, when they 
 were reduced to slavery, without regard to 
 rank or age, and could only be recovered by 
 a heavy ransom. How harshly these poor 
 captives were treated, we are but too clearly 
 informed in the vivid pages of Homer ; and, 
 on one occasion, Telemacus, for a slight 
 offence, orders some unfortunate slaves to be 
 hanged on the spot. The female captives 
 
GRECIAN WOMEN. 287 
 
 were charged with all the hard work and 
 drudgery of the household, and It was their 
 especial task to grind the corn, an arduous 
 operation, performed by a clumsy and cum- 
 brous handmill. Weaving and spinning, 
 their other occupations, were undertaken also 
 by the women of the family, from the mis- 
 tress to her youngest daughter, and the 
 highest rank did not exempt a woman from 
 a share of the domestic duties. Both Helen 
 and Penelope were skilful sempstresses ; and 
 Nausikaa, daughter of Alcinous, King of 
 Phseacia, is represented at the river-side, 
 assisting her female slaves to wash the linen 
 of the family. This equal participation of 
 labour imparts a softer tint to the dark 
 complexion of the time. It is pleasant to 
 follow Herodotus, with his ever-tripping 
 step, into the simple hut of the King of 
 Macedon, and behold the Queen engaged in 
 the humble task of kneading flour, and 
 baking bread. Not less striking is the pic- 
 ture given by Thucydides of the dweUing 
 of Admetus, King of the Molossians. Here 
 it was that Themistocles, on his flight from 
 
288 ADVEXTrEE OF THEMISTOCLES. 
 
 Greece, found shelter and food, protected, 
 though under the roof of a foe, by the sacred 
 laws of hospitality. Weary and exhausted, 
 the fallen statesman reached at night the 
 well-known abode of the King : before him 
 was darkness and a desert; behind, eager 
 pursuers close on his track. But a glimmer- 
 ing hght shows him the form of a woman, 
 and in her breast he knows full well that the 
 wretched may ever claim, if not a pro- 
 tectress, at least a friend. He enters the 
 house, and, announcing his name, throws 
 himself at the feet of the Queen, the wife of 
 his sworn enemy. A step, too familiar to 
 be mistaken, is heard without : it is the 
 King's ; but the ready tact of woman, never 
 wanting at the call of humanity, is quick to 
 interpose ; and the Queen snatches her 
 sleeping infant from its couch, and places it 
 in the arms of the fugitive. The King is 
 instantly disarmed by the spectacle ; and 
 Themistocles, detested as an enemy, is shel- 
 tered and succoured as a guest. 
 
 At an earlier period, the historian intro- 
 duces us to the residence of the Kings of 
 
nOUSEHOLD AVOCATIOKS. 289 
 
 Sparta, where Argia, the Queen, widow of 
 Aristodemus, is seen washing and dressing 
 her twin sons. These princes afterwards 
 became joint kings of Sparta, and from the 
 time of their accession, the Lacedemonian 
 throne was always shared by two monarchs. 
 
 Previously to the historic period, the 
 G-reeks, like other primitive nations, obtained 
 their wives by purchase from their parents ; 
 but, according to Aristotle, the price was 
 sometimes relinquished in favour of a dis- 
 tinguished suitor. Polygamy, as the case of 
 Priam shows, was allowed, but not uni- 
 versally practised ; and the Odyssey relates 
 that Laertes, King of Ithaca, declined to take 
 a second wife, from a generous consideration 
 for the feelings of Anticleia. 
 
 Among the Spartans, the position of 
 woman was somewhat altered by the iron 
 laws of Lycurgus. Aristotle, indeed, affirms 
 that the Delphian missionary, bent on uni- 
 versal reformation, endeavoured to throw his 
 heavy yoke over both sexes alike ; but was 
 so vehemently opposed by the fairer portion 
 of the community, that, at length, he con- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
290 SPARTAN MOTHERS. 
 
 sented, as a compromise, to exempt them 
 Iroih his most severe restrictions. Hence a 
 Spartan lady kept a sumptuous and liberal 
 table at home, while her husband, as a 
 patriotic citizen, was bound to drink black 
 soup at the public refectory. Spartan women 
 were famed for their beauty, and, by the 
 code of Lycurgus, those who excelled in per- 
 sonal attractions, were, on public groimds, 
 permitted to have two or even three hus- 
 bands, so that it was not rare for the same 
 woman to be mistress of two households and 
 mother of two families. Such a practice 
 necessarily involved great corruption of 
 morals, insensibility to the natural conjugal 
 ties, and even indifference to the claims of 
 maternity. It was more obduracy, than 
 patriotism, that dictated the Spartan mother's 
 injunction to her son as he departed for 
 battle, " Return either with your shield, or 
 upon it!" 
 
 So loose was the nuptial connexion in 
 Sparta, that it was not unlawful, or even 
 unusual, for a man to give away his wife ; 
 and without any scruple, form, or legal pro- 
 
DONATION OP WIVES. 291 
 
 cess, totally to dissolve their union. By 
 this means King Ariston obtained the beau- 
 tiful spouse of his friend Agetus, with whom 
 he entered into a formal contract, ratified by 
 oath, and solemnlj'- referred to the gods, that 
 each should give the other whatever he 
 might desire of his worldly possessions. 
 Ariston having performed his part of the 
 agreement, by the sacrifice of a large sum 
 of gold, claimed the more precious treasure 
 of Agetus, and the overreached subject, 
 obliged to comply with his demand, pre- 
 sented the King with his wife, who after- 
 wards became the mother of Demaratus. 
 
 The Spartans, however, were not univer- 
 sally insensible to the domestic affections, 
 and the strong ties of nature occasionally 
 asserted their ascendancy, in spite of cor- 
 rupt habits and vicious conventional usages. 
 King Anaxerdrides could not be induced by 
 the supposed infirmity of his Queen to resort 
 to the cruel expedient of divorce, although, 
 as the royal stock was in danger of extinc- 
 tion, it was repeatedly urged upon him by 
 the Ephori ; and to the remonstrances of 
 
 2 
 
292 SPARTAN WIVES. 
 
 his subjects, he mildly replied that "they 
 (lid not act justly, in urging him to dismiss 
 his wife, when she had done nothing wrong, 
 and take another in her place, and therefore 
 he would not comply with their request." At 
 last, indeed, as a compromise, he consented 
 to contract a second marriage, without dis- 
 solving the first ; but this arrangement was 
 made with the consent of his Queen, who 
 afterwards became " the joyftd mother of 
 children." 
 
 ISTor are there wanting examples of con- 
 jugal tenderness and devotion among the 
 Spartan women. The Minyae, a tribe allied 
 to the Lacedemonians, having been driven 
 from their settlements at Lemnos by an 
 irruption of the Pelasgians, were received 
 and sheltered by the Spartans, who allotted 
 them lands in their narrow territory, and 
 gave them their daughters in marriage. But 
 the Minyae were not content to be guests, 
 and gradual]}' assumed the airs and arrogance 
 of masters, on which the Lacedemonians, 
 who valued nothing so much as their inde- 
 pendence, fell upon them unexpectedly, and 
 
AFFECTING SCENE. 293 
 
 seizing the whole tribe, threw them into 
 prison, waiting only for night, when alone 
 criminals could be executed, to put them to 
 death. In the meantime, however, they 
 allowed the wives of the Minyse to enter 
 their dungeons, to bid them a last adieu, 
 and these devoted women availed themselves 
 of the opportunity to exchange clothes with 
 their husbands, who thus passed out unmo- 
 lested ; and when the Spartans came to slay 
 their prisoners, they found, not the detested 
 Minyse, but their own daughters. A wild 
 though sublime scene ensued ; and in the 
 end the punishment of the M.injx was com- 
 muted to banishment, as a tribute to the 
 pious affection of their wives. 
 
 The Lacedemonians gave large dowries 
 with their daughters, often to the complete 
 spoliation of their sons ; and it was a com- 
 mon occurrence for a Spartan, at his death, 
 to leave all his property exclusively to his 
 daughters. By law and custom wealth was 
 allowed to accumulate in the hands of wo- 
 men ; but a rich man, however innocent and 
 blameless his conduct, was looked upon with 
 
294 HABITS OF SPARTAiSr WOMEN". 
 
 suspicion. Women, moreover, instead of 
 being shut up in secluded chambers, as in 
 other parts of G-reece, were, from their 
 earliest youth, allowed the utmost liberty ; 
 and Xenophon and Plutarch describe them 
 as taking part in the public games at the 
 theatre — boxing, wrestling, and running 
 races, in presence of the King, the state 
 functionaries, and the young men of the 
 city. Their costume was not unsuited to 
 these athletic exercises, consisting simply of 
 a light tunic, divided at the skirt, so as to 
 leave the limbs, which were exposed to view, 
 perfectly free from restraint. In this attire, 
 and with their flowing hair wreathed with 
 flowers, they took part in the religious cere- 
 monies, sang and danced at the national 
 festivals, and attended, in their turn, at the 
 theatre, to witness the rigorous training 
 of the young men. On the death of a King 
 it was their duty to go in solemn procession 
 through the city, attired in mourning, and 
 beating a cauldron, and, at this ominous 
 sound, a man and woman of every family 
 were obliged to assume the same melan- 
 choly garb. 
 
THEIR MARRIAGES. 295 
 
 The Spartan damsel married at an early, 
 though not an imprudent age, and the per- 
 sonal appearance, rather than the rank or 
 means of the suitor, decided her election. 
 Heiresses were at the disposal of the King, 
 who, as a rule, bestowed them,' without con- 
 sulting either themselves or their parents, 
 on the poorest citizens, so that the wealth of 
 the nation might be distributed equally 
 among all classes. When accepted, the 
 suitor carried off his bride by force ; but in 
 a few days she returned to the house of her 
 father, and continued to reside under the 
 parental roof for two or three years, only 
 seeing her husband by stealth, and disguised 
 in man's apparel. Usually she was mother 
 of a family before she became mistress of a 
 household. 
 
 The faith of a Spartan woman was 
 plighted, not to her husband, but to the 
 state, and this sentiment was impressed 
 upon her in the first years of childhood. 
 Herodotus describes it as a ruling principle 
 in G-orgo, daughter of King Cleomenes, 
 when only in her ninth year. The young 
 
29G THE PRINCESS GORGO. 
 
 princess was accidentally present at an inter- 
 view between her father and xV^ristagoras, 
 Tyrant of Miletus, when the latter, anxious 
 to engage the monarch in the Ionian war, 
 oifered an enormous sum for his services, 
 gradually increasing the amount tiU it 
 reached fifty talents. At this point he was 
 interrupted by the little princess, who ex- 
 claimed to Cleomenes — " Father, this 
 stranger will corrupt you, unless you de- 
 part r" — on which the King, who had begun 
 to waver, and felt the truth of the child's 
 remark, was reminded of his duty, and 
 rushed out of the room. Gorgo afterwards 
 became the wife of Leonidas, who fell at 
 the head of the immortal three hundred, 
 in the pass of Thermopylfe; and it was 
 through her instrumentality that the Greeks 
 were first apprised of the approaching 
 invasion of Xerxes. The intention of the 
 Eastern tyrant had been discovered by 
 Demaratus, who, together with many other 
 Greeks, was then at Shushan, the Persian 
 capital, and, though surrounded by spies, 
 he contrived to inscribe the important in- 
 
TUMULT OF ATHENIAN "WOMElSr. 297 
 
 formation on a slab of wood, carefully 
 coated with wax, which he sent to Sparta. 
 The object of such a present, however, quite 
 baffled the comprehension of the Spartans, 
 till it was shown to Grorgo, who penetrated 
 the mystery, and, by her advice, the wax 
 was scraped away, and the latent writing 
 revealed. 
 
 But patriotism was an inherent senti- 
 ment in the women of Greece ; and the 
 fair daughters of Athens, though reared 
 under a totally different code, could be as 
 stern in the public cause as the more fa- 
 voured matrons of Sparta. On the defeat 
 of the Athenians by the Argives in iEgina, 
 the only survivor of their little band, on his 
 return to the classic city, was seized iu the 
 street by the wives of those who had fallen, 
 and beaten to death with the clasps of their 
 girdles, each woman demanding, as she 
 struck the wretched man, where he had left 
 her husband. But their conduct was far 
 from being applauded by the Athenians, 
 who, instead of awarding the victor furie? 
 an olive crown, took alarm at such an 
 
298 STORY OF THE CLASPS. 
 
 insurrection of the sex, and this exhi- 
 bition of their prowess was made the pre- 
 text for an alteration in their costume. 
 It was decreed that, from that time, the 
 dress of the women should consist solely of 
 a linen tunic, worn loose, so that there might 
 be no need for a clasp, which, as the recent 
 event showed, could, while it served to 
 adorn a woman's waist, be applied very 
 effectually over a man's shoulders. On the 
 other hand, the Ji]ginian and Argive women, 
 whose husbands had been the victors in the 
 battle at ^giua, as a memorial of the na- 
 tional triumph, and in derision of the Athe- 
 nians, now made the clasp a more conspicu- 
 ous feature in their dress, and gradually 
 enlarged it to double the original size. 
 
 The Athenian women were not singu- 
 lar in their partiality for physical force, 
 under the influence of national feelings or 
 resentment. Thucydides, in his account of 
 the Peloponnesian war, describes the women 
 of Platasa as rising with their husbands to 
 drive the Theban garrison from their city, 
 and while the fugitives were pursued through 
 
MADNESS OF ARGIVE WOMEN. 299 
 
 the narrow streets by the men, the fairer 
 portion of the population pelted them with 
 tiles from ,the roofs of the houses. But 
 pity melted the heart of one of these 
 Amazons, when she saw the Thebans hard 
 pressed by their enemies, and handing them 
 a hatchet, she enabled them to sever the 
 bar of the city gate, and thus effect their 
 escape. 
 
 Their violent passions often urged the 
 Glreek women to the verge of frenzy, and 
 sometimes to actual madness. At one 
 period, insanity assumed an epidemic cha- 
 racter among the women of Argos, and 
 every family had its female maniac. Ter- 
 rified at such a visitation, the Argives had 
 recourse to tjie skill of Melampus, who, 
 after a time, succeeded in arresting the 
 plague, but demanded their liberties as his 
 reward. Even this hard penalty the. Ar- 
 gives considered preferable to the disease. 
 
 The memorable clasp affray was not the 
 only occasion on which the Athenian women 
 signalized their resolution and their cruelty. 
 Athens being reduced to great extremities 
 
300 CRUELTY OF ATHENIAN WOMEN. 
 
 by the invasion of Mardonius, Lycidas, one 
 of the senators, in a solemn assembly of the 
 citizens, recommended that the state should 
 send in its submission to the invader, on 
 which he was adjudged to be stoned ; and 
 the women of Athens, hearing what had 
 happened, determined that his innocent 
 wife should share his fate. Accordingly 
 they went in a body to his house, seized 
 the terrified lady and her children, and 
 drove them with frightful yells and impre- 
 cations through the city, every fair hand 
 hurling a stone at their victims, till the 
 sacrifice was complete. 
 
 Nor were the Athenian women less fe- 
 rocious in their acts of private vengeance. 
 At one of the festivals of Diana, the Pelas- 
 gians, in revenge for their expulsion from 
 Attica, forcibly carried off fifty Athenian 
 women as captives to Lemnos, and com- 
 pelled them to become their wives. But 
 these heroines, though subjected to every 
 indignity and humiliation, could not be 
 subdued by captivity. They trained up 
 their children as bitter enemies to their 
 
THEIR LOVE OP REVEJ^GE. 301 
 
 fathers, teaching them only the loved 
 dialect of their native city, with the cus- 
 toms, principles, and religion of their coun- 
 trymen, and their lessons were so effective, 
 that the boys, as they grew up, scorned to 
 associate with the Pelasgians. A horrid 
 and sweeping tragedy was the climax of this 
 unnatural discord. The women, unable any 
 longer to suppress their resentment, delibe- 
 rately murdered their husbands, and both 
 they and their children were then put to 
 death by the Pelasgians, who made no 
 allowance for the cruel provocation they 
 had received. 
 
 The national games and festivals of 
 Greece, one of which had afforded the 
 Pelasgians an opportunity of effecting this 
 abduction, were eagerly attended by women, 
 and were often chosen as auspicious occa- 
 sions for marriage. Cliothenes, Tyrant of 
 Sicyon, being victorious in the chariot 
 race at the Olympic games, made a pro- 
 clamation that "whoever of the G-reeks 
 deemed himself worthy to become the 
 son-in-law of Cliothenes, should present 
 
302 DIVERTING SCENE. 
 
 himself at Sicyon within sixty days, and 
 submit to a year's trial of his capabilities 
 and character, when the most deserving 
 should be rewarded with his daughter's 
 hand." Such a promise naturally attracted 
 a number of competitors, not from Greece 
 alone, but from all the surrounding coun- 
 tries, and even from Sicily and Italy, but 
 among the whole of the assembled suitors, 
 none found such permanent favour with 
 Cliothenes himself as a young Athenian 
 named Hippoclides, for whom he secretly 
 destined the prize. Fate, however, was 
 adverse to his intentions. On the day 
 fixed for the momentous award, when the 
 columned hall was crowded with the expec- 
 tant suitors and noble guests, there was a 
 vehement call for music, and Hippoclides, 
 to the horror of the decorous father, leaped 
 on the table and began to dance, finally 
 turning over on his head, and kicking his 
 heels in the air. At this unwonted spectacle, 
 Cliothenes could no longer restrain his 
 indignation, and angrily exclaimed, " Son 
 of Tisander, you have danced away your 
 
DAUGHTERS OF CALLIAS. 303 
 
 marriage." " No matter," cried the indif- 
 ferent lover, "no matter to Hippoclides." 
 And he continued to amuse the company 
 with his antics, till Oliothenes commanding- 
 silence, assigned the hand of his daughter to 
 another Athenian, Megades, sonof Alcmseon. 
 From this union sprang, in the second 
 generation, the peerless Agarista, who, 
 marrying Xanthippus, became the mother 
 of Pericles. 
 
 An Athenian millionaire named Callias, 
 who had been victor in the horse race in 
 the Olympian games, and second in that of 
 the chariots, resolved, under the influence of 
 the popular applause, to bestow his three 
 daughters in marriage in honour of his 
 triumph. Accordingly, giving each of the 
 maidens a magnificent dowry, he authorized 
 them to choose a husband to their own taste, 
 from their assembled countrymen, and then 
 solemnized their respective nuptials in the 
 most sumptuous and costly manner. 
 
 The institution of marriage, so lightly 
 regarded by the Spartans, was revered by 
 the G-reek women generally, and they gave 
 
304 ADVENTURE OF LABDA. 
 
 innumerable proofs, both as wives and 
 daughters, of their deep and earnest venera- 
 tion of the domestic ties. What can be more 
 touching than the conduct of Blpinice, who 
 voluntarily gave her hand to secure the 
 liberation of her father, the great Miltiades ? 
 or can fiction depict a scene more tender 
 or sublime than the spectacle of Euphrasia 
 giving nurture from her bosom to her 
 famishing parent? The love of Labda 
 for her infant son, afterwards Tj-rant of 
 Corinth, nerved her to defy a gang of 
 armed desperadoes bent on his destruction. 
 The Delphian oracle having declared that 
 the child would ultimately become King of 
 Corinth, his relatives, who had usurped the 
 government, and wished to keep the sove- 
 reign power in their own hands, determined 
 to prevent such a result by putting him to 
 death. With this view, a band of conspira- 
 tors presented themselves at the house of 
 Labda, and requested to see the boy, all 
 having previously bound themselves, under 
 a solemn oath, that he who first received 
 him should plunge a knife in his heart. But 
 
HER MATERNAL DEVOTIOK. 305 
 
 the trusting infant, as he left the arms of his 
 mother, met his intended murderer with a 
 smile, and the man's heart being touched, 
 he passed him on to one of his accomplices, 
 Who proved equally compassionate, and the 
 infant was handed successively to each of 
 the party with the same happy result. The 
 whole gang then hastily left the house ; but 
 the mother had now become alarmed, and 
 listening at the door, she heard them 
 abusing and deriding each other without, 
 and finally agreeing to return, and, by 
 striking together, all take an equal share in 
 the murder. Alone, and out of reach of help, 
 whether of friends or neighbours, Labda 
 might have looked on the event as certain ; 
 but she retained her presence of mind, and, 
 regardless of her own safety, noiselessly se- 
 creted the child in an adjacent chest of meal. 
 Hardly had she done so, when the ruffians 
 burst again into her presence, and, no longer 
 concealing their object, searched every part of 
 the house for the infant, without once glancing 
 at his covert. Baffled and enraged, they then 
 
306 XANTIPPB AND SOCRATES. 
 
 turned in a fury on Labda -, but no threats 
 could move the devoted mother to divulge 
 her secret, and, at length, they were obliged 
 to abandon their design, and leave the issue 
 to destiny. So nearly did fate snatch from 
 fame Cypselus, Tyrant of Corinth. 
 
 The love of Xantippe gives additional 
 pathos to the last moments of Socrates ; and 
 it was the more striking, because it seemed, 
 to those who had no perception of the often- 
 hidden depths of woman's heart, to be 
 wholly inconsistent with her natural disposi- 
 tion. Xantippe was the scold of Athens. 
 Socrates, indeed, as he once avowed, had 
 made her his wife solely that he might be 
 continually subjected to the discipline of her 
 temper, a probation which, in his opinion, 
 would enable him to bear patiently the bitter- 
 est taunts and abuse of his enemies. We try 
 in vain to conceive a shrew, compared with 
 whom the Katherine of Petruchio was in- 
 sipid and tame. Yet, under her intractable 
 temper, this woman masked, in sullen dis- 
 dain, a warm and loving heart. Her son 
 
DEATH OP SOCRATES. 307 
 
 Lamprocles, in describing her to Xenophon, 
 emphatically declares that she exceeds in 
 fierceness the wild beasts of the forest, but, 
 in the same breath, acknowledges her to be 
 a kindj indulgent, and anxious parent. In 
 the thirty days that intervened between the 
 condemnation of Socrates and his death, she 
 could not be induced to leave his side. 
 After an interval of two thousand years, we 
 still look back with sympathy at the memo- 
 rable scene, in which this Athenian virago, 
 now melted in tears, was one of the principal 
 figures. The venerable philosopher sits 
 calm and majestic, in the midst of his weep- 
 ing friends, who are scarcely afiected more by 
 his almost divine words than by the emotion 
 and touching sorrow of his wife. At that 
 moment she seems to participate the sublime 
 greatness of his spirit — to follow his eye, so 
 soon to be sealed by death, through the thick 
 veil of Pagam superstition, to the realm of a 
 second existence — to the glorious throne of 
 the Unknown G-od. His friends urge him to 
 escape, and proffer the means of effecting 
 and securing his flight; she listens in 
 
308 FEMALE SOCIETY IN" ATHENS. 
 
 silence while the philosopher, true to his 
 mission, gently reminds them that he has 
 often braved death in the service of his 
 country, and that he cannot prolong, by a 
 breach of the laws, a life so near its natural 
 close. He then receives the deadly cup, 
 and with a smile, bids adieu to his wife, to 
 his sorrowing friends and disciples, and to a 
 corrupt, obdurate, and besotted world. 
 
 The Greek nation, and especially the 
 community of Athens, were indeed ill pre- 
 pared to receive that ethereal philosophy 
 which was taught and preached by Socrates. 
 The disposition of the people of Attica was 
 essentially vicious and dissolute ; and this 
 was mainly owing, in the first instance, to 
 the complete repudiation and renouncement 
 of the influence of woman. Great wrongs 
 work out their own retribution ; and the 
 oppression of the weak, in the end, recoils, 
 in some way or other, on the insolent and 
 strong. The demoralization of female society 
 in Athens, which at first was confined to the 
 slaves, gradually worked up, through suc- 
 cessive grades, to the highest rank, and 
 
LAWS OF DRACO. 309 
 
 tainted the whole fabric. In one age we 
 behold even a princess of the royal house of 
 Codrus publicly convicted of vice. Her 
 trespass was fearfully punished by her in- 
 censed father, Hippomenes, the Archon, 
 who, regardless of the entreaties of his 
 friends and kindred, shut her up in a dun- 
 geon with a wild horse, without food or 
 water, while her lover, in cruel derision, 
 was yoked to a chariot, and driven through 
 the streets till he expired. 
 
 Such excesses paved the way for the 
 severe laws of Draco, which Demades, with 
 his usual felicity of expression, forcibly de- 
 scribes as written, not in ink, but blood. 
 Draco, indeed, is said to have observed that 
 the least offences merited death, and that 
 he could devise no greater punishment for 
 the worst. The volatile Athenians could 
 not long submit to a yoke too heavy to be 
 borne ; and, after a troublous interval, they 
 referred the task of carefully revising the 
 laws to Solon, son of Execestides, justly 
 surnamed " the Wise." This illustrious 
 sage, aided by the genius and influence of 
 
310 LAWS OF SOLON. 
 
 Pisistratus, who was now in the zenith 
 of his fame, succeeded in establishing a 
 code suited alike to the peculiar tempera- 
 ment of the people, and the purposes of mo- 
 rality. He seems to have directed especial 
 attention to the reformation of the female 
 portion of the community, and framed many 
 laws relating exclusively to women, which, 
 though quite unintelligible to a modern un- 
 derstanding, doubtless had reference to some 
 particular circumstances of their condition, 
 not preserved by the careless hand of his- 
 tory. Thus they were prohibited from leav- 
 ing home with more than three changes of 
 apparel, and a specified allowance of pro- 
 visions; and at night, they were only suf- 
 fered to appear in the streets in a carriage, 
 and preceded by flambeaux. They usually 
 married at fifteen, and the hand of a maiden, 
 whether rich or poor, was at the disposal of 
 her parents, or rather of her father, who 
 gave her a portion, or exacted a dower, ai 
 his own will and pleasure. Women of all 
 ages lived in strict seclusion, and could not 
 attend even funerals except under certain 
 
THE HET^.R^. 311 
 
 restrictions, which officers, deriving their 
 authority from the Areopagi, were appointed 
 to watch and enforce. Their employments, 
 when the ordinary domestic duties were 
 discharged, consisted of spinning, weaving, 
 and embroidering ; and women were regu- 
 larly trained as accoucheurs, a profession 
 which was followed by Phsenarete, the mo- 
 ther of Socrates. 
 
 But the laws of Solon failed to oppose a 
 check to the inherent depravity of the Athe- 
 nians, and, by degrees, they relapsed into 
 their original social corruption, which grew 
 more and more inveterate as they began to 
 mingle with the Persians. The domestic 
 relations were poisoned at their source ; and 
 a number of foreign women, called Hetserae, 
 or companions, were introduced by the 
 Greeks into their houses, and made the 
 associates of their wives. Athenian matrons 
 did not scruple to accompany their dissolute 
 husbands to the house of Aspasia, the mis- 
 tress of Pericles, who avowedly maintained a 
 number of the Hetserse under her roof, and 
 shared both their guilt and their spoil. 
 
312 GOLDEN AGE OP ATHENS, 
 
 This was the golden age of Athenian 
 splendour, luxury, refinement, and vice. 
 The glowing colours of Agatharcas and 
 Zeuxis embellished the public buildings of 
 the city, Phidias adorned the Parthenon 
 with its classic columns, its sculptured 
 tracery, its statues of marble, brass, and 
 gold ; and the combined skill of Mnesicles, 
 Callicrates, and Ictinus, directed by the 
 taste and judgment of Pericles, could be 
 traced in the spacious vestibule of the Cita- 
 del. The streets were thronged with orators, 
 philosophers, artists, and students ; music 
 was heard in every house, and riot in every 
 tavern ; and, more than all, Socrates, stand- 
 ing out from the brightest points of the pic- 
 ture, instructed rapt crowds in the garden 
 of the Academy, in the busy precincts of 
 the Agora, and on the consecrated summit 
 of the hill of Mars. 
 
 Such was the city in which Aspasia, a 
 foreigner and a slave, held a more than 
 regal court. This gifted woman, who was 
 the daughter of Axiochus, the Milesian, as 
 greatty excelled all her contemporaries in 
 
ASPASIA AND PERICLES. 313 
 
 her rare mental endowments, as in personal 
 beauty, and, notwithstanding her depraved 
 course of life, was bound to Pericles by a ro- 
 mantic passion. The attachment was mu- 
 tual, and for Aspasia the Athenian magnate 
 abandoned his wife and children, though his 
 incorrigible parsimony, which contrasted 
 strangely with his brilliant intellectual qua 
 lities, withheld him from contributing to her 
 maintenance. So miserly, indeed, was the 
 great Pericles, that his son was compelled 
 to sue him for the means of subsistence, 
 and, ia providing for his household, his 
 steward was expressly charged to buy at 
 the lowest prices the cheapest commodities 
 in the market. But this did not check the 
 fervid love of Aspasia, or prevent her from 
 living in luxury and splendour ; and Peri- 
 cles, while he denied her his purse, so en- 
 tirely reciprocated her affection, that he 
 never entered or quitted her house without 
 saluting her. When she was prosecuted for 
 impiety by Hermippus, he personally con- 
 ducted her defence ; and the appeal he mad^ 
 in her behalf was so moving, that, while it 
 
 VOL. I. P 
 
314 INFLUENCE OF ASPASIA. 
 
 raelted his audience, it filled his own eyes 
 with tears. It was to Aspasia, indeed, he 
 owed the high character, if not the actual 
 gift of his eloquence, and she is even said 
 to have been the author of his celebrated 
 oration on the victims of the Samian war. 
 Plato affirms that the Athenians learnt from 
 her the art of oratory, and that her beauty 
 was less attractive than her wisdom and wit. 
 Fame, with its brazen trumpet, spread her re- 
 putation over Asia, and King Cyrus gave the 
 name of Aspasia to Melto, his favourite wife, 
 in compliment to the courtezan of Athens. 
 
 We can nowhere find a woman occupying 
 so anomalous a position, and so powerfully 
 influencing the tone of society. Her gor- 
 geous saloon, enriched with the paintings of 
 Zeuxis, was the favourite resort, not of 
 Pericles alone, but of Socrates, the wisest 
 and most virtuous of men — of statesmen, 
 warriors, poets, sophists, who, forgetting 
 their animosities, jealousies, and bickerings, 
 here came with their wives to mingle with 
 the frail Het^ere, and listen to the bewitch- 
 ing accents of Aspasia. And at this time 
 
DEATH OP PERICLES. 315 
 
 war raged without, and pestilence walked 
 unchecked through the streets, smiting rich 
 and poor alike. Suddenly a cry rang through 
 the house, through the city, through Greece. 
 The fell disease, which baffled the utmost skill 
 of the physician, had struck down Pericles. 
 Supported by the arm of Aspasia, he received 
 on his couch the sad adieus of his friends, 
 and calmly awaited the approach of death. 
 Meanwhile, an orator, as if inspired by the 
 spectacle, eloquently recounted the illus 
 trious deeds of his life, and reminded him 
 that they would survive, when he himsel. 
 should be no more. " My friend," ex 
 claimed the dying man, " you describe and 
 extol acts of mine, which have been equalled 
 by other generals and statesmen ; but you 
 omit to mention the most honourable testi- 
 mony to my character — that no Athenian 
 through my means ever put on mourning." 
 And with these words, the last great light 
 of Grreece expired. 
 
( 316 ) 
 
 X. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 The name of Rome is the most precious 
 bequest of history. Cradled iu fables, 
 nurtured in superstition, trained amidst the 
 turmoil and the horrors of war, the charac- 
 ter of the Eoman people developed itself 
 under every difficulty ; and the citizen of that 
 great republic is still the standard by which 
 we measure our liberties, our prerogatives, 
 and our virtues. All that is heroic and 
 glorious is contained in the venerable annals 
 of Rome, commanding alike the admiration, 
 the interest, and the sj^mpathy of mankind ; 
 and in contemplating the sad spectacle of 
 her decrepitude and decline, or reading the 
 disgraceful story of her fall, we are con- 
 soled by reminiscences of her infancy, youth. 
 
GOVERNMENT OF HOME. 317 
 
 hardy and vigorous prime, and splendid 
 meridian. The Eternal City, equally of the 
 past and the future, is the proud appellation 
 yet assumed by a town on the banks of the 
 Tiber, the corpse of what once was Rome ; 
 and so hallowed is the spot by associations 
 and ruins, that the whole world has accepted 
 and adopted the title. 
 
 The original government of Rome was in 
 principle similar to that now existing in 
 England, consisting of a King, an aristocracy, 
 and a commonalty, the one material dif- 
 ference being — what indeed was productive 
 of serious disorder — that the monarchy was 
 elective. The legal enactments were framed 
 by the King, who submitted them to the 
 senate, an assembly composed of the heredi- 
 tary nobility, or patricians ; and they only 
 became law, when, having passed this 
 ordeal, they were ultimately approved by a 
 convention of the commons. At first, the 
 popular constituency comprised thirty tribes, 
 corresponding to the parishes of the city, 
 but it afterwards received successive aug- 
 mentations, till, in the reign of Augustus, 
 
318 THE ROMAN CONSTITUENCY. 
 
 it numbered sixty thousand voters. The 
 plebeian, as he approached the elective urn, 
 passed over a narrow platform, called the 
 vons, or bridge, and here he announced aloud 
 the side which he supported, and publicly 
 recorded his vote. As he was often watched 
 to the poll by a jealous patron, an employer, 
 or a creditor, it was thought that this open 
 mode of voting was incompatible with purity 
 of election, and it was ultimately superseded 
 by the ballot ; which, however, instead of 
 securing the object desired, exercised a very 
 pernicious effect on the national character, 
 and, from that moment, the Roman citizen 
 declined in virtue. Meanwhile, the govern- 
 ment had undergone various other changes. 
 Tarquin, supported by the equestrian order, 
 had rendered the regal authority despotic, 
 and on his expulsion from Rome, and the 
 abolition of royalty, his usurped prerogatives 
 were seized by the patricians, Avho for a 
 considerable period kept the ignorant com- 
 monalty in subjection, without admitting 
 them to the honours of office. But these 
 were gradually wrested from the senate, 
 
SUPREMACY OF THE EMPEROR. 319 
 
 and certain political dignities, which even- 
 tually became the highest prizes of am- 
 bition, were placed at the annual disposal 
 of the plebeians. Such a constitution 
 seemed unwieldy in the eyes of a tyrant ; 
 and Augustus, while he professed the greatest 
 deference for popular institutions, substi- 
 tuted for the democratic element a council of 
 six hundred nobles, who retained the name 
 and rank of senators, but were dependent 
 for their honours and their fortune on the 
 will of the Emperor. The latter now 
 wanted nothing, for the consolidation of his 
 power, but the removal, as far as regarded 
 his own acts, of all legal restrictions ; and 
 this was speedily conceded by the obse- 
 quious senate, who, by a solemn decree, de- 
 clared the Emperor " released from the 
 law," and thus broke down the last defen- 
 sible bulwark of liberty and order. 
 
 The laws of Eome, on which the existing 
 codes of several European nations are 
 founded, opposed, in their original form, a 
 salutary check to magisterial power, though, 
 at the same time, they pressed with severity 
 
320 THE TWELVE TABLES. 
 
 and rigour on the community. Originated 
 by Romulus, they were successively aug- 
 mented by the piety and wisdom of Numa, 
 and the more practical experience of Servius 
 TuUus, who, though not the founder, may 
 claim to be considered the moulder of the 
 Roman statutes. The entire code was care- 
 fully inscribed on tablets of brass, called 
 from their number the Twelve Tables, and it 
 commanded for ages the veneration and the 
 implicit obedience of the people. By its 
 stern enactments, which have been forcibly 
 compared with those of Draco, capital 
 punishment wais adjudged to no less than 
 eight offences, and one mode of execution 
 was the cruel and agonizing death of the 
 cross. But, as society advanced, the pro- 
 visions of the Twelve Tables were found 
 inadequate for the altered requirements of 
 the times, and the prfetors and tribunes, in 
 the exercise of their judicial functions, were 
 authorized to meet particular cases by 
 edicts of their own ; which, however, had no 
 permanent authority, and were even re- 
 peatedly abrogated by the framer himself. 
 
ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE. 321 
 
 The miscMef arising from sucli precarious 
 and capricious legislation was ultimately 
 corrected by Sulvius Julian, who, in the 
 reign of Adrian, collected, by command of 
 the Emperor, the whole body of edicts, and 
 digested them into one complete code, 
 which, under the name of the Perpetual 
 Edict, became the statutory law of the 
 empire. Finally, Justinian, aided by the 
 genius and profound legal knowledge of 
 Tribonian, produced his celebrated Code, 
 Institutes, and Pandects, which entirely 
 rescinded all previous legislation, and must 
 remain the basis of civil jurisprudence to 
 the latest times. 
 
 Before considering the effect of these 
 successive systems on woman, in connexion 
 with her moral, social, and domestic rela- 
 tions, it may be well to glance at the 
 religious institutions of Eome, with which 
 the sex were closely associated, and which 
 necessarily exercised a leading influence on 
 society. 
 
 The Romans were early remarkable for 
 their deep religious feeling, their veneration 
 
 p 3 
 
322 RELIGION OF ROME. 
 
 of the forms, ceremonies, and consecrated 
 rites of religion, and their jealous attention 
 to the celebration of public worship. Romu- 
 lus, whose comprehensive genius let nothing 
 escape, was the originator of this national 
 characteristic, and it was further developed 
 by the institutions, the laws, and the 
 example of Numa. All the gods, with the 
 ample calendar of inferior -divinities, were 
 the objects of Roman idolatry ; but especial 
 homage was rendered to the three guar- 
 dians of the city, Jupiter, Juno, and Yesta. 
 The pagan King of Deities was throned 
 in the Capitolium, a superb structure, on 
 the Tarpeian rock, covering four acres of 
 ground, and answering the double pur- 
 pose of a temple and a citadel. A hun- 
 dred steps conducted the devotee to the 
 magnificent vestibule of the edifice, and 
 three rows of columns, of purest marble, 
 admitted him to the brazen threshold, where 
 the spacious and stately interior burst 
 on the charmed eye. All that taste and 
 devotion could conceive, art execute, or 
 unbounded treasures procure, was lavished 
 
SOOTHSAYERS. 323 
 
 on its adornment ; and its roof of burnished 
 gold looked down on swelling statues, 
 drapery of every hue, goblets and shields 
 glittering with gems — arms, standards, and 
 chariots, the untold spoil of conquered 
 nations. Priests and priestesses were ap- 
 pointed for the service of the shrine, and 
 the sacrifices were solemnly consecrated by 
 the supreme pontiff. 
 
 Superstition looked into the entrails of 
 the offered victim for the oracles and 
 decisions of fate. This was the province of 
 the Harispex, or soothsayer, who, when the 
 body of the animal was opened, , examined 
 every part, and drew his inferences from 
 the tone of the whole. If the entrails fell 
 from his hand, were gorged with blood, 
 or exhibited any natural defect, the gods 
 were unpropitious ; but when the eager 
 flame rose pure and bright round the altar, 
 and devoured the mangled victim, a favour- 
 able result was expected. The Augurs, 
 another order of prophets, drew their omens 
 from the appearances of nature, or from 
 incidents occurring at the critical moment 
 
324 JUNO AND VESTA. 
 
 of divination. Standing on the summit of 
 a tower, with his face to the east, the south 
 on his right, and the chilly north on his 
 left, the augur raised aloft his crooked staff, 
 divided the frowning sky into four parts, 
 and read the awful messages of destiny in 
 the aspect of the heavenly bodies, heard 
 them pronounced by thunder, or saw them 
 gleam in the flashing lightning. The idea, 
 though dictated by superstition, was not 
 wanting in sublimity, but the step to the 
 ridiculous was inevitable ; and it provokes a 
 smile when we hear of a great nation being 
 intimidated by the sudden appearance of a 
 flight of birds, or by the casual overturning 
 of the salt. 
 
 Juno was a favourite deity of the Eoman 
 people, and particularly of the Roman 
 matrons, who once a year held a festival in 
 her honour. But Yesta, her sister, the 
 goddess of fire, enjoyed the largest share of 
 popularity, and was provided by the state 
 with- the most liberal foundation. A circular 
 temple enshrined her image, and here, in a 
 secret recess, tradition deposited the vene- 
 
THE SIX VESTALS. 325 
 
 rable palladium of Troy, wliile the sacred 
 flame yielded the goddess continual incense 
 from a neighbouring altar. Six maiden 
 priestesses, called the Yestales, or Yestals, 
 were intrusted with the custody of the 
 building, which, by the laws of Numa, no 
 male was permitted to enter. The Yestals 
 were selected for the office in their sixth or 
 seventh year, and comprised both plebeian 
 and patrician maidens, without reference to 
 caste, though it was essential, as a condition 
 of election, that they should be members of 
 a respectable family, and be personally free 
 from blemish. On their consecration, they 
 took a vow of celibacy for thirty years, 
 which was divided into three decades — the 
 first, while they were yet children, being 
 devoted to their initiation in the mysteries 
 and duties of the priesthood ; the second to 
 the public discharge of the sacerdotal 
 functions ; and the third to the instruction 
 of those rising Yestals who were to be their 
 successors. After the thirtieth year, they 
 were released from the yoke of office, and 
 permitted to marry. 
 
326 PRIVILEGES OP VESTALS. 
 
 One of the principal duties of the Vestals 
 was to keep the hallowed fire of the god- 
 dess perpetually burning. When this, from 
 want of timely attention, was suffered to 
 expire, grief and terror were depicted on 
 every countenance in Rome ; and, while the 
 responsible priestess underwent the punish- 
 ment of the scourge, the flame was solemnly 
 rekindled by the rays of the sun, attracted 
 through a consecrated lens. Such a casualty 
 was, however, of rare occurrence, and the 
 fire burnt with but few interruptions for a 
 thousand years, when it was finally ex- 
 tinguished by Theodosius, and the worship 
 of Yesta abolished. 
 
 The Yestals were held in high respect by 
 the Romans, and were endowed with peculiar 
 privileges. The iron thraldom of parental 
 control, so oppressive in Rome, was shaken 
 off by the dedicated child the moment she 
 entered the sisterhood, in token of which 
 the officiating priestess shaved her head, and 
 crowned her with the liberating infula. 
 Vestals were at liberty to dispose of their 
 property and possessions as they pleased : 
 
THEIR COSTUME. 327 
 
 their evidence was received in courts of jus- 
 tice without the formality of an oath ; and 
 in difficult cases, they were often chosen as 
 judges and arbitrators. They had the power 
 of pardoning criminals whom they met acci- 
 dentally in the streets ; the chief places were 
 assigned them at the public games ; and all 
 classes, from the highest magistrate to the 
 slave, fell back at their approach, the very 
 lictors of the consul turning their fasces as 
 they passed. 
 
 The dress of the Yestals, who were all re- 
 markable for their beauty, was well adapted 
 to set off their charms, while it was not un- 
 suited to their office. A surplice of white 
 linen hung loosely over a vest of the same 
 colour, bordered with purple, and a purple 
 mantle fell from the shoulders over the back, 
 and swept the ground. Their recovered 
 hair was inclosed in the infula, from which 
 gay ribbons, called vittse, streamed down to 
 the mantle, forming a head-dress as elegant 
 as it was unique. Even this costume, 
 however, did not satisfy the taste, or the 
 caprice, of some of the fair priestesses, and 
 
328 VESTALS BURIED ALIVE. 
 
 Livy records that the Vestal Postunian, in 
 the fourth century of the republic, was 
 brought to trial for wearing robes of too 
 sumptuous a character, as well as for the 
 freedom and levity of her manners; and 
 narrowly escaped condemnation. Entomb- 
 ment alive was the penalty entailed by a 
 single infringement of the vestal vow. The 
 place of sepulture, where the last expiation 
 was enacted, was at a spot called " the field 
 of wickedness," in a low small cavity, at the 
 bottom of a pit, constructed by Tarquin. 
 Into this hole the condemned Vestal was 
 thrust ; a dim lamp, kindled from the fire 
 of the outraged goddess, showed the narrow 
 dimensions of her grave ; a flask of water 
 was placed at her feet ; and the tomb was 
 then closed on its living tenant. Eighteen 
 young and beautifal women, some the victims 
 of perjury, all of perfidy, perished in this 
 revolting and horrible manner ; so refined 
 and so implacable isthe cruelty of man ! 
 
 While the Romans intrusted the highest 
 ofiSces of religion to the Vestals, the State 
 preserved, as a sacred deposit, on which its 
 
TARQTJIN AND THE SIBYL. 329 
 
 safety and welfare depended, the mystic 
 writings of another woman, a prophetess, 
 whom it regarded as the infallible arbitress 
 of its destiny. The Sibylline verses were 
 brought to Tarquin the Second by an old 
 and venerable matron, who, making her 
 way into the King's presence, produced 
 nine antique volumes, for which she asked 
 an exorbitant price. Tarquin refused to 
 become the purchaser, and she withdrew, 
 but presently returned, having burnt three 
 of the books, and demanded the same sum 
 for the remaining six. A second refusal, 
 more decided than the first, again drove 
 her away, when three more of the precious 
 tomes were sacrificed, and she presented her- 
 self a third time before the King, still in- 
 sisting on the same price for the three that 
 were left. The amazed monarch was struck 
 by her pertinacity, which, in the super- 
 stitious spirit of the times, he attributed to 
 a divine impulse, and after a vain attempt to 
 abate her demands, he tendered the money 
 required, and thus became the possessor of 
 these renowned oracles. No sooner had the 
 
330 THE SIBYLLINE VERSES. 
 
 payment been made, than the aged vendor 
 mysteriously disappeared, nor could any 
 trace of her ever be discovered. 
 
 The Sibylline verses were placed by 
 Tarquin under the watchful care of a college 
 of priests, and were only consulted on 
 extraordinary occasions, when circumstances 
 threatened the very existence of the common- 
 wealth. They were lost in the great confla- 
 gration of Rome, during the troubles of Sylla; 
 but some passages of other Sibylline prophe- 
 cies were collected in Greece, whither com- 
 missioners were despatched by the senate for 
 the purpose, and these venerated fragments 
 were carefully preserved in the priestly 
 archives. The verses were written on the 
 leaves of plants, probably of the papyinis, 
 and were placed by the Sibyls at the en- 
 trance of their caves, whence, if not imme- 
 diately removed, they were swept away by 
 the wind, and the occult writing became 
 effaced. There may be an allusion to this 
 fact in the beautiful simile of Isaiah — " "We 
 all do fade as the leaf, and our iniquities, 
 like the wind, do carry us away." 
 
THE SIBYLS. 331 
 
 The first of the holy sisterhood of whom 
 we haye any account, apart from the records 
 of fable, is Miriam, the sister of Moses. 
 Deborah is the only other Sibyl who is 
 especially mentioned in the pages of Scrip- 
 ture ; and the heathen writers, as might be 
 expected, differ, according to their age or 
 country, as to the precise number who have 
 received or inherited the Sibylline mantle. 
 Plato instances but one ; three are men- 
 tioned by Pliny; jElian speaks of four, 
 and Varro of ten, the number usually 
 adopted by the learned. Eight volumes of 
 Sibylline prophecies are still extant; but 
 the minuteness with which they describe 
 the character and sufferings of our Saviour, 
 so much more literally than the sublime 
 prophecies of Isaiah, excites a suspicion that 
 they were composed after the event, pro- 
 bably by some zealous monk, and they are 
 now universally regarded as spurious. 
 
 Between the predictions of the Sibyl, and 
 the functions of the Vestals, it must be con- 
 fessed that women exercised, in a religious 
 point of view, considerable influence on the 
 
332 PAEENTAL AUTHORITY. 
 
 government of Rome. Nevertheless, their 
 social position, whether as wives or daugh- 
 ters, was a painful and ignominious one, 
 and gradually corrupted their own character, 
 while it vitiated that of the whole Roman 
 race. Their servitude began with their 
 birth, and ended only in the grave. The 
 early laws of the republic armed every 
 father with the authority of a despot ; and 
 liberty or bondage, life or death, were the 
 terrible prerogatives of the Roman patriarch. 
 A man could, at his own will, under the 
 sanction and protection of the law, throw his 
 daughter into a dungeon, withhold her food, 
 cover her with stripes, or sell her as a slave. 
 Even so late as the reign of Augustus, 
 Erixo, a Roman magnate, deliberately 
 scourged his son till he expired ; Arixas 
 sentenced his heir to perpetual banishment ; 
 and, in the reigu of Adrian, a jealous father 
 punished his child with the assassin's dagger. 
 Another yoke was imposed on woman by 
 the stringent law of classes. Apart from 
 the two primitive orders of patricians and 
 plebeians, there were the wide distinctions of 
 
ROMAN WOMEN. 333 
 
 ingenuous and servile birth, which, whatever 
 the rank of the father, was fixed by the 
 actual grade of the mother. An intermediate 
 class was composed of libertines, or freedmen 
 — slaves who had been emancipated by their 
 masters, but who, by a strange anomaly, 
 remained in a sort of semi-bondage, till they 
 were invested by Justinian with the privi- 
 leges of the ingenuous rank. Intermar- 
 riages of these grades, which could not but 
 be frequent, exposed the woman to new 
 degradation, and often made her the misera- 
 ble parent of slaves. 
 
 The law invariably pressed upon her, in 
 all her relations, with peculiar hardship. 
 From the moment of her birth, she was 
 supposed to have no capacity and no feeling ; 
 and both in her father's and her husband's 
 house, she was treated, not as a living 
 being, but as a mere piece of furniture. In 
 the distribution of property, the agnats, or 
 descendants of males, took precedence, to 
 the most remote degree, of the nearest 
 cognats, or representatives of females, even 
 to the exclusion of a wife or mother ; and 
 
334 ROMAX MAERIAGES. 
 
 by the Voconian statutes the right of 
 female inheritance was altogether sup- 
 pressed. This new code debarred a woman 
 from receiving a legacy, if it amounted to 
 more than a hundred thousand sesterces ; 
 and an only daughter, the last scion of a 
 race, was rendered incapable of inheriting 
 the property of her father. The Tertul- 
 lian and Orphitian edicts annulled this 
 abominable enactment ; and the laws of 
 Justinian, while they purified the polluted 
 seat of judgment, restored to women the 
 rights of inheritance and of nature. 
 
 The Eoman maiden became a wife at the 
 early age of twelve. In accordance with an 
 ancient usage, she was regularly purchased, 
 like any other slave, by her husband, and 
 the terms were registered in a formal 
 written deed, which might be regarded as 
 the marriage certificate. The bride em- 
 phatically renounced the endearing ties of 
 kindred^t declared herself the daughter and 
 the servant of the bridegroom, and ex- 
 changed the stern discipline of her paternal 
 home for the bondage of matrimony. By a 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE IN ROME. 335 
 
 present of three pieces of copper, she signi- 
 fied her subjection to her husband, and her 
 obligation to surrender unreservedly to him 
 all she possessed, when, after a sacrifice of 
 fruits to the tutelary gods, the officiating 
 priest symbolised their union by the mystic 
 elements of fire and water, and then, in the 
 presence of ten witnesses, placed on her 
 finger the nuptial pledge, or ring, threw 
 over her head the flaming veil, invested her 
 with the household keys, and gave to both 
 bride and bridegroom a piece of the bridal 
 cake, composed of salt and meal, which they 
 ate together, seated on a sheepskin. From 
 this moment the husband assumed over his 
 wife the jurisdiction of life and death ; he 
 could lash her with the scourge, load her 
 with chains, or slay her with his sword. 
 All her property, everything she might 
 ever inherit, became his ; and he could at 
 any time, without reason or pretext, snatch 
 the keys from her girdle, expel her from his 
 house, and publicly deprive her of the 
 wretched dignity of a wife. To what an 
 extent divorce and murder were ultimately 
 
336 SOCIAL DEMORALIZATION. 
 
 carried we may learn in the. pages of 
 Juvenal ; and that brilliant poet mentions, 
 as no extraordinary facts, a man who had 
 buried his twenty-first wife, and a woman 
 who had just been divorced from her 
 eighth husband. A system so innately 
 corrupt naturally led to general social 
 demoralization : what is tainted at the core, 
 becomes in a little time rotten throughout ; 
 and the days of the empire, when tyranny 
 and vice were leagued with luxury, and 
 disdained even the flimsiest mask, exhibit 
 such a pitch of depravity, as now awakens 
 in every mind a thrill of pious horror. The 
 women of this time were indeed bad, but the 
 men were demons. 
 
 From such a period, it is a relief to look 
 back, through ages of strife and disorder, to 
 the first dawn of Rome, though the scene 
 that presents itself is one of violence and 
 tumult. The city has just risen, like a 
 young plant — almost like a weed, from the 
 marsh of the Tiber : already it has put forth 
 its buds and leaves, yet none who beheld it 
 then, in its early promise, could dream that 
 
EOMAN^ FESTIVAL. 337 
 
 its mighty and majestic boughs "vvould one 
 day overshadow the earth. A joyous 
 festival has brought crowds of strangers to 
 its gates, all clad in holiday attire, all 
 beaming with content, hilarity, and glad- 
 ness, making the air ring with their merry 
 voices. Old men are there, leaning on a 
 trusty staff, or perhaps the arm of a sturdy 
 youth, the hope and support of their waning 
 years -, happy mothers lead on their smiling 
 children ; young and lovely maidens, though 
 watched by eyes that never slack their 
 vigilance, contrive, as they walk along, to 
 give such play to the jealous veil, that it 
 shall not wholly conceal their charms. The 
 jocund throngs pour in a stream through 
 the streets, which, arched with verdant 
 branches, and festooned with garlands, 
 present a strangely picturesque appear- 
 ance. The massive ramparts, manned with 
 noble striplings — the simple yet tasteful 
 temples — the palace of the King — the 
 rising greatness of infant Rome, in turn 
 excite their surprise, their admiration, and 
 their applause. As they proceed, they are 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
338 ABDUCTION OF THE SABINE8. 
 
 met by a horseman of imposing mien, 
 Romulus, the founder of the city — who, 
 amidst hearty shouts, and strains of rude 
 but stirring music, leads the way, with 
 his guards and courtiers, to the spacious 
 circus, expressly constructed for the games 
 of the day. But a wild cry interrupts and 
 terminates the peaceful spectacle. The 
 Eoman youths have seized on the stranger 
 maidens, and, regardless of the threats and 
 remonstrances of their parents, and their 
 own moving entreaties, sweep them in 
 a body from the arena. One damsel of 
 surpassing beauty, whose veil had been 
 torn from her face, becomes an object 
 of fierce contention ; and the enamoured 
 Romans strive with each other for the 
 prize, till a warrior more daring than 
 the rest, waving aloft his naked sword, 
 spurs into the midst of the throng, snatches 
 the terrified girl in his arms, and shout- 
 ing his name of Thalassius, triumphantly 
 bears her off. He is pursued by a hun- 
 dred competitors; but a troop of armed 
 horsemen, his kinsmen and adherents, gather 
 
THEIR CONJUGAL DEVOTION. 339 
 
 round him, and till crying "Thalassius! 
 Thalassius ! " secure his flight. 
 
 Another scene quickly succeeds, when the 
 incensed Sabines, after a solemn invocation 
 of the gods, appeal for justice and for 
 revenge to the stern fiat of the sword. The 
 two armies are already engaged, the arrows 
 fly in clouds through the air, shields ring 
 with the clash of arms, and the shock of 
 mortal strife ; but such sounds and such 
 terrors, accompanied by the groans of the 
 wounded and the dying, cannot overcome 
 the holy devotion of woman. The two hosts 
 are suddenly arrested by a third but far dif- 
 ferent party, who rush between the hostile 
 ranks, their garments rent and soiled, their 
 long hair falling in dishevelled tresses, their 
 hands clasped in mute supplication, their 
 eyes streaming with tears. On one side, in- 
 stead of enemies, they behold their husbands : 
 the other claims from them the dutiful love 
 of children. They passionately adjure them 
 to recognise these ties, and sheathe their 
 angry weapons ; and, touched by their 
 heroism, the contending legions become at 
 
 Q 2 
 
340 LUCEETIA AND VIRGIXIA. 
 
 once brotliers and allies on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 We might linger for a moment by the 
 mournful bier of Lucretia, when, bending 
 over her bleeding corpse, Brutus swore to 
 avenge the outrage committed on Rome. Or 
 stand between the columns of the Forum, and 
 watch the discomfiture and dismay of 
 Appius, as the beautiful Virginia, in the 
 first glow of her youth and bloom, in the 
 presence of her betrothed lover, and in front 
 of the tribunal of judgment, fell beneath the 
 knife of her distracted father. But these 
 incidents are too familiar to call for descrip- 
 tion. They are the earliest lessons of every 
 mind ; and show us, by examples too awful 
 to be forgotten, how highly female purity 
 was regarded in Rome, at a time when virtue 
 was the proud, almost the distinguishing 
 characteristic of the Roman citizen. 
 
 Women were encouraged to pursue an 
 unblemished life, and to evince zeal and 
 devotion for their country, by pu])lic re- 
 wards, or by some special mark of popular 
 favour. The festival of the Matronalia was 
 
ROMAIC MATRONS. 341 
 
 instituted in honour of the Sabine matrons, 
 and the names of the patriotic women who 
 presented their trinkets for the use of the 
 Commonwealth, in a time of universal dis- 
 tress, were, by order of the senate, inscribed 
 on cups of gold, placed on the altar of the 
 Capitol. Those who were conspicuous for 
 their virtues became enshrined in the memory 
 of the people : funeral orations, reciting and 
 commending their excellent qualities, were 
 pronounced over their graves, their names 
 were perpetuated as household words, and 
 are still preserved for the veneration of 
 posterity. 
 
 The early generations of matrons, the 
 mothers of Rome, partook largely of the 
 deep religious spirit which then characterised 
 the whole nation. The most pleasing duty 
 of the young maiden was to walk in the 
 sacred processions, to join in the chorus of 
 female minstrels, to strew flowers on the 
 marble floor of the temple, or to hang gar- 
 lands round the altar. At the festival of 
 Bacchus, a band of young girls, selected 
 from the most honourable families of Rome, 
 
342 "WORSHIP OP GODDESSES. 
 
 traversed the principal streets, bearing in 
 baskets of gold' the mysterious emblems of 
 the divinity, concealed beneath clustering 
 wreaths of vine, ivy, and myrtle. The ma- 
 trons, with touching ingenuousness, confided 
 their inmost thoughts and dearest wishes to 
 the ear of their tutelary goddess. To Testa 
 they prayed for life and health ; to Juno for 
 prosperity; to Yenus, their especial bene- 
 factress, for the blessings and the gifts of 
 domestic life. It was in Cytherea's temple, 
 according to Juvenal, that the Eoman matron 
 besought the goddess, in orthodox whispers, 
 as the ancient formulary prescribed, to 
 endow her children with grace, symmetry, 
 and beauty. She made offerings of flowers 
 at the shrine of Juno, and repeated her daily 
 vows and orisons before the guardian G-enius 
 of the family. 
 
 But this religion, instead of elevating, 
 corrupted or perverted the minds of its dis- 
 ciples. The morals of the early Romans 
 were severe, but they were based on a false 
 and pernicious principle. "Woman was taught 
 to consider herself a slave, and to act as one ; 
 
PREVALENCE OF SUICIDE. 343 
 
 for iu the hour of conscious weakness, when 
 nature arms her with an innate strength, it 
 was deemed honourable and heroic, instead 
 of bravely facing calamity, to seek a coward's 
 refuge in death. Thus, under certain cir- 
 ctimstances, suicide was absolutely held to 
 be a duty ; and Portia swallowing fire, So- 
 phonisba receiving from her lover the cup of 
 poison, Arria gashing her breast with her 
 husband's dagger, though rendered more 
 striking by the halo of history, were, in fact, 
 but common incidents in the domestic life of 
 Rome. 
 
 Happy had it been for the imperial city 
 if the perversion of their daughters had 
 stopped here ; but what is wrong in prin- 
 ciple, even when prompted by a feeling of 
 rectitude, must, in the end, pervade the 
 whole mind with its evil influence. Brought 
 up with the belief that it was proper and 
 becoming, in particular situations, to cast off 
 by suicide the sacred obligations of life, 
 woman, familiarized with death, began to 
 seek relief from oppression, or a hateful 
 union, by murder. During the consulates 
 
344 POISONING OF HUSBANDS 
 
 of Marcellus and Valerius, a virulent dis- 
 temper made its appearance in Kome, which, 
 baffling every precaution, carried off a num- 
 ber of the principal citizens in a manner 
 singularly mysterious. While the city was 
 overwhelmed with consternation, a maid- 
 servant presented herself before Fabius 
 Maximus, the curile sedile, and offered, if- 
 secured from personal harm, and the ven- 
 geance of those she would have to denounce, 
 to disclose the cause of the mortality. The 
 public faith being pledged for her pro- 
 tection, she asserted that all who had died 
 so mysteriously were the victims of poison ; 
 and, through her means, a number of women, 
 including twenty respectable matrons, and 
 two of high patrician rank, named Cornelia 
 and Sergia, were detected in the very act of 
 compounding drugs for the purpose she 
 stated. They were instantly conveyed to 
 the Forum : and, on their examination, 
 alleging that the drugs were wholesome, 
 they were urged to demonstrate the fact by 
 partaking of the preparation, which, after a 
 consultation, they agreed to do, and deli- 
 
AlfD CHILDREjST. 345 
 
 berately quaffing the poisoned draught, ex- 
 pired where they stood. These, however, 
 were not the only persons implicated, and, 
 further inquiries being instituted, the guilty 
 practice was traced to a hundred and seventy 
 matrons of the best families of Rome, who 
 were all condemned to death, and under- 
 went the ignominy of a public execution. 
 
 But the evil was not eradicated; and 
 the art of poisoning, at first confined to a 
 few, soon became a fashionable study, and 
 its practice a popular vice. Juvenal warns 
 the parents of Rome that their daughters 
 will speedily be presented with the death- 
 cup, or perhaps strangled in the night, if 
 their husbands, who are bound to them by 
 such slender ties, are to gain a legacy at 
 their decease. He admonishes the husband 
 to be careful how he partakes of the meats 
 dressed by his wife, the son to refrain, if 
 possible, from the dainties prepared by his 
 mother. The removal of stepsons by poi- 
 son was an every-day occurrence ; and 
 Pontia, the wife of Drymis, deliberately 
 poisoned her own children, and then com- 
 
 Q 3 
 
346 LOVE PHILTERS. 
 
 initted suicide. The Empress Cesonia ad- 
 ministered a deadly potion to her uncle, and 
 successively poisoned all who incurred her 
 enmity, including many senators and 
 knights. The crime pervaded every rank, 
 from the crowned head to the slave ; and 
 the palace and the hovel were equally in- 
 fected, and equally the scenes of danger. 
 
 Poison was sometimes given uninten- 
 tionally in a love-philter. These potions, 
 even when most innocuous, produced a ter- 
 rible effect on the frame, which, indeed, be- 
 came permanently debilitated from their 
 use. They were prepared with magical in- 
 cantations ; and consisted of extraordinary, 
 though usually most potent and most 
 noxious ingredients. The philter presented 
 by Cesonia to the uncle of Xero con- 
 tained an infusion from the forehead of a 
 foal. The wretched man, after enduring 
 intolerable agonies, became raving mad. 
 Dotage, mental oblivion, dizziness of the 
 brain, delirium, with convulsions and para- 
 lysis, were the results ultimately produced 
 by these fearful distillations ; and fortunate 
 
SORCERESSES. 347 
 
 indeed was the recipient who escaped with 
 his senses. 
 
 This was not the only means by which 
 the Eoman lady, instead of trusting to the 
 influence of her charms, sought to inspire 
 the tender passion. Incantations and su- 
 perstitious observances were a still more 
 common resource ; and the Phrygian or In- 
 dian soothsayer, who could discern the 
 course of true love in the stars, or the Jew- 
 ish sorceress, who could read a lady's fate 
 in her face — decidedly the safest criterion, 
 were only too frequently consulted. Women 
 of humbler means learnt their destiny from 
 the fortune-teller of the circus, who, after 
 they had walked slowly round the whole 
 circumference of the arena, between the 
 double row of columns, was able to elicit the 
 required information from the inequalities of 
 their foreheads, or the lines of their hands. 
 
 Ladies who had recourse to such mystic 
 agencies were particularly careful to carry 
 out, in every detail, the suggestions and in- 
 junctions of their occult adviser. Before 
 proceeding on a journey, they looked into 
 
348 SACRIFICE OF IXFAXTS. 
 
 the calendar of Thrasyllus, the teacher and 
 astrologer of Tiberius ; they dared not anoint 
 their eyes till they had referred to their 
 horoscope, and only rose from their couch 
 in the morning at a lucky hour. Wretched 
 indeed was their plight, if, from accident or 
 forgetfulness, they put forth their left foot 
 first, and a single look cast behind, utterly 
 destroyed the spell. 
 
 These harmless, though ridiculous prac- 
 tices, were chiefly annoying to their ob- 
 servers ; but superstition begins with trifles, 
 and invariably ends with enormities. From 
 the darkened closet of the astrologer, the 
 Roman lady, growing bolder in error, de- 
 scended to the cave of the sorceress, who, 
 disdaining the entrails of a bird, drew her 
 auguries from the reeking heart of a child, 
 offered as a sacrifice to the infernal gods. 
 
 Children were easily procured for these 
 abominable and horrible rites. Infanticide, 
 the usual result of imperfect marriage ties, 
 which are not more subversive of conjugal 
 than of parental affection, was fearfully pre- 
 valent, and, till a late period, was not for- 
 
CEUELTY OP MOTHERS. 349 
 
 bidden by the laws. But many who, in the 
 worst times, shrank from imbruing their 
 hands in blood, unscrupulously abandoned 
 their children at night, in some lonely part 
 of the city. The spot ordinarily chosen was 
 the Herb Market, at the foot of the Aven- 
 tine, and here infants could be purchased 
 for any purpose, or carried off by the first 
 comers. A mother, dissatisfied with the 
 personal appearance of her child, selected 
 here one more suited to her taste, and whose 
 beauty, set off by gems and purple, would 
 sustain the credit of her lineage, while her 
 own despised infant shared, as a foundling, 
 the chain of the slave. 
 
 But we can glance but briefly at the guilt 
 and turpitude of the empire, and must draw 
 a veil over the wickedness of Agrippina, the 
 incredible vice of Messalina, and the profli- 
 gacy of Statilia. Marriage, anciently a 
 solemn religious ceremony, however it might 
 have been abused, had now become a mere 
 name. Frequently even the deed of cove- 
 nant and the ten witnesses were dispensed 
 with, and the venerable usages of antiquity 
 
350 FEMALE OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 were treated with contempt and ridicule. 
 Both parties were invested with the prero- 
 gative of divorce, and could dissolve by a 
 word, a stroke of the pen, or a wave of 
 the hand, the most precious institution of 
 society and of religion. 
 
 The habits, employments, and even the 
 amusements of the Roman matrons, of the 
 highest as well as the lowest grades, had 
 originally been of the simplest kind. Livy 
 describes Lucretia as sitting in the midst of 
 her maidens, busily engaged with her spindle, 
 when she was surprised at a late hour of the 
 night, by the appearance of her husband 
 and his friends, Juvenal reminds the ladies 
 of the empire that the matrons of the olden 
 time had hardened their delicate hands with 
 spinning, weaving, and carding wool. In 
 his day, the only spinning-women, he mourn- 
 fully observes, are the lowest poor, who 
 earn a scanty subsistence under the shelter 
 of the ramparts. Women had thrown aside 
 the housewife's distaff for the dumb-bells, 
 the boxing-gloveSj and the foils. Some 
 noble ladies, it is true, still condescended to 
 
PATRICIAN TOILET. 351 
 
 superintend their households : they carefully- 
 noted the domestic expenses of the day in a 
 private diary, kept a vigilant watch over the 
 steward and the cook, and sentenced every 
 offending servant to the lash of the flagel- 
 lator. At her toilet, the patrician dame, 
 sitting before her brazen mirror, was gene- 
 rally provided with a whip made of cow- 
 hide, which she applied over the naked 
 shoulders of her trembling tire-woman, if a 
 single hair were turned awry. She prac- 
 tised singing, and gaily struck the lyre, 
 while her slaves, by her order, were, for 
 some petty fault, writhing under the scourge 
 of the tormentor, and their cries and her 
 measured cadences rose discordantly to- 
 gether. The powerful carried these out- 
 rages to still greater lengths ; and their 
 poorer neighbours, unprotected by the laws, 
 which recognized might as right, were seized 
 by their obedient slaves, dragged into the 
 streets, beaten with rods and clubs, and 
 sometimes fatally injured, for the mere gra- 
 tification of their spleen. 
 
 By the statutes of the Twelve Tables, 
 
'352 USE OF WIXE. 
 
 wine, as an intoxicating drink, whicli led to 
 tlie most dangerous excesses, was wholly- 
 forbidden to women ; and, in the first days 
 of the commonwealth, the favourite draught 
 of the Eoman matron was milk. This was 
 succeeded by a medium bevei-age, called 
 passum, which was extracted from raisins, 
 and drunk at festivals, or at household merry- 
 makings, as an extraordinary treat. Ulti- 
 mately the senate enacted a law permitting 
 a moderate indulgence of the juice of the 
 grape to women past their thirtieth year ; 
 but the licence once granted, wine was par- 
 taken of openly by ladies who were far from 
 claiming that venerable age. The use was 
 soon converted into abuse ; and Roman ma- 
 trons were accused by the spiteful Juvenal 
 of imbibing such deep draughts of Faler- 
 nian that their delicate mouths, urged irre- 
 sistibly from within, discharged the surplus 
 quantity in a cascade on the floor, something 
 after the manner of the ancient Eg^-ptian 
 dames, as depicted in the tableaux on their 
 tombs. A flagon of old wine before dinner, 
 was a small measure for one of these fair 
 
LADIES IN TRAINING. 353 
 
 bacchanals, and frequently a second pint 
 was drained, not to quench her thirst, but 
 to give a little gentle stimulus to her appe- 
 tite, that she might discuss her repast with 
 more decided relish-. 
 
 While the men of Rome were universally 
 tainted with effeminacy, insomuch that even 
 the great Pompey recoiled from touching his 
 flowing hair with his finger for fear of de- 
 ranging a curl, the women, as before ob- 
 served, delighted in manly exercises and 
 games. Fencing was an ordinary accom- 
 plishment of the leading fashionable ladies 
 of the empire. With their legs sheathed in 
 half-armour, a corslet of steel over their too 
 tender bosoms, a sword-belt round their 
 waists, a helmet on their heads, and gaunt- 
 lets drawn over their small white hands, 
 they received every morning a lesson from 
 a practised gladiator, who taught them the 
 guard, the lounge, and all the other postures 
 of the martial science. Before them stood 
 a plastron, or wooden figure, which was the 
 object of their hostility, and which, by the 
 time their daily lesson was finished, pre 
 sented more gashes than the body of Caesar 
 
354 LADIES IX THE AKEXA. 
 
 At length they threw down the sword, and, 
 weary and jaded, drew over their melting 
 frames a woollen cloak, called an endromis ; 
 and retired exhausted to their boudoirs. 
 
 But ladies did not always confine these 
 athletic performances to the practice-room. 
 After a careful training, they made their 
 appearance in public, in the circus or the 
 amphitheatre, as competitors for the prize ; 
 and contended with each other, or even 
 with men, in mortal strife. In the reign of 
 Domitian, ladies actually fought in the 
 arena with wild beasts, and the custom 
 remained in vogue for many years, till the 
 emperor Severus, among other wise reforms 
 of the public morals, enacted a law prohi- 
 biting such unseemly spectacles. Matrons, 
 however, were still permitted to box and 
 wrestle, and a lady's black eyes were then 
 understood in a sense • very - different from 
 what is now expressed by the term. 
 
 The toilet of a Roman lady involved an 
 elaborate and very costly process. It com- 
 menced at night, when the face, supposed 
 to have been tarnished by exposure, was 
 overlaid with a poultice, composed of boiled 
 
USE OF COSMETICS. 355 
 
 or moistened flour, spread on with the fingers. 
 Poppaean unguents sealed the lips, and the 
 body was profusely rubbed with Cerona 
 ointment. In the morning the poultice and 
 unguents were washed off: a bath of asses 
 milk imparted a delicate whiteness to the 
 skin ; and the pale face was freshened and 
 revived with enamel. The full eyelids, 
 which the Roman lady still knows so well 
 how to use — now suddenly raising them, to 
 reveal a glance of surprise, or of melting 
 tenderness, now letting them drop, like a 
 veil, over the lustrous eyes — the full, 
 rounded eyelids were coloured within, and a 
 needle dipped in jetty dye gave length and 
 sphericity to the eyebrows. The forehead 
 was encircled by a wreath, or fillet, fastened 
 in the luxuriant hair, which rose in front in 
 a pyramidal pile, formed of successive ranges 
 of curls, and giving the appearance of more 
 than ordinary height : — 
 
 " So high she builds her head, she seems to be, 
 View her in front, a tall Andromache ; 
 But walk all round her, and you'll quickly find. 
 She's not so great a personage behind." 
 
356 FACTIONS OF THE CIRCUS. 
 
 Eoman ladies frequented the public baths, 
 and it was not unusual for dames of the 
 highest rank to resort to these lavatories in 
 the dead hour of the night. Seated in a 
 palanquin, or sedan, borne by sturdy chair- 
 men, and preceded by slaves bearing flam- 
 beaux, they made their way through the 
 deserted streets, delighted to arouse and 
 alarm their neighbours. A close chair con- 
 veyed the patrician matron to the spectacles 
 and shows, to which she always repaired in 
 great state, surrounded by her servants and 
 slaves, the dependents of her husband, and 
 the clients of her house, all wearing the 
 badge of the particular faction she espoused. 
 The factions of the circus were four in 
 number, and were distinguished by their 
 respective colours of Blue, Green, TThite, 
 and Eed, to which Domitian, who was a 
 zealous patron of the Circensian games, 
 added the less popular hues of G-old and 
 Purple. But the spectators generally at- 
 tached themselves either to the Blue or the 
 G-reen, and the latter ^Y as the chief favourite, 
 numbering among its adherents Emperors 
 
ROMAN COSTUME. 357 
 
 and Empresses, senators, knights, and noble 
 dames, as well as the great mass of the 
 people, who, when their champions were 
 defeated, carried their partizanship to such 
 an extreme, that the streets were repeatedly 
 deluged with the blood of the Blues, and 
 more than once, the safety of the state was 
 emperilled by these disgraceful commotions. 
 
 The public walks and gardens were a 
 fashionable resort of the Roman ladies. 
 Here they presented themselves in rich cos- 
 tume, which bore testimony alike to the 
 wealth of their husbands, and their own 
 taste. A yellow tie, or hood, partly covered, 
 but did not conceal, their piled hair ; their 
 vest of muslin, or sarcenet, clasped with 
 gems, was draped with a murry-coloured 
 robe, descending to their high-heeled G-reek 
 boots ; necklaces of emerald hung from their 
 swan-like necks, and jewelled ear-rings from 
 their ears. Diamonds glittered on their 
 fingers, and their dazzling complexions were 
 shielded from the sun by a parasol. 
 
 Etiquette did not prohibit ladies from 
 stopping in their promenade, and entering 
 
358 ladies' conversation 
 
 into conversation ; and the incidents of the 
 day, the latest performance at the circus or 
 the amphitheatre, the newest ode of Horace, 
 or the last satire of the wicked story-telling 
 Juvenal, the caustic Persius, or the bitter 
 Lucilius, furnished abundant topics for dis- 
 course. Evermore, too, there was some 
 new, and, alas ! some dreadful scandal on 
 the town, which loosened the tongues of 
 both rich and poor. Then there were 
 fashions to discuss, costumes to examine and 
 criticise, ladies' charms to survey, and — 
 task too easy for experienced matrons ! — 
 to pull to pieces. Themes of a more ab- 
 struse character were selected by some of the 
 sex — the blue-stockings of the age, who were 
 especially singled out for the poet's ire : — 
 
 " She is more intolerable yet, 
 
 Who plays the critic when at table set ; 
 
 CaUs Virgil charming, and attempts to prove 
 
 Poor Dido right, in venturing aU for love. 
 
 From Maro and Meeonides she quotes 
 
 The striking passages, and, while she notes 
 
 Their beauties and defects, adjusts her scales, 
 
 And accurately weighs which bard prevails. 
 
 Th' astonished guests sit mute : grammarians yield, 
 
 Loud rhetoricians, baffled, quit the field." 
 
AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 359 
 
 But the social meetings of the Eomans 
 were not strange to the gifts and accom- 
 plishments which more particularly apper- 
 tain to women ; and the high-born maiden, 
 as a part of her education, was carefully 
 instructed in music, singing, and dancing, 
 and required to display her grace and her 
 efficiency on festive occasions. Horace 
 mentions the flute as one of the instruments 
 played by women ; but their performances 
 were usually confined to the lyre and harp. 
 Women of the humbler class, after a regular 
 course of instruction, could obtain a live- 
 lihood on the stage, and in the time of 
 Horace, three famous and accomplished 
 actresses — Origo, Cytheris, and Arbascula, 
 all remarkable for their charms and their 
 genius, were the reigning toasts of Eome. 
 
 Amidst the follies, the vices, and the 
 crimes of the empire, one figure stands out, 
 in bright relief, from the universal social 
 demoralization, and exhibits the character of 
 woman in a beautiful and sublime light. 
 Zenobia, wife of Odenathus, King of PaU 
 myra, united to singular personal beauty all 
 
360 ZENOBIA. 
 
 the high and engaging qualities of the heart — 
 the virtues of the wife and mother with the 
 stern chivalry of the heroine. Her dark 
 complexion was tinged with a warm red, 
 softened by the light of her beaming eyes ; 
 her teeth glistened like pearls ; and the ear 
 was enchained by the melting sweetness of 
 her voice. The city of Palmyra, an oasis 
 amidst the sands of Arabia — a gem in the 
 desert, was the favourite residence of Zenobia 
 and her husband, the seat of their govern- 
 ment, and the capital of their dominions. 
 Groves of stately palms overshadowed the 
 streets of this delightful town ; and cool 
 fountains, fed by springs, threw up their 
 waters in perpetual jets, which at once sup- 
 plied the necessities of the residents, and 
 quenched the thirst of the jaded traveller. 
 Palaces and temples, adorned by the hand of 
 Grrecian art, presented themselves at con- 
 spicuous points ; a theatre was provided for 
 the dramas of Sophocles ; and baths for the 
 health and comfort of the people. Deprived 
 by assassination of the consort she so ten- 
 derly loved, Zenobia here assumed the 
 
HER CHARACTER AND HABITS. 361 
 
 sceptre of the East, seized and executed 
 the assassin, reduced the disobedient to 
 order, and, though surrounded by difficul- 
 ties, guided the shattered bark of the State 
 through every danger. In this task she was 
 assisted by the advice and influence of the 
 gifted Longinus, her friend and preceptor, 
 under whose tutelage she had become niis- 
 tress of several languages, and acquired a 
 profound knowledge of the philosophy of 
 Greece. But such pursuits, while they re- 
 fined, did not relax or enervate her character, 
 and, after spending an allotted portion of the 
 day in literary studies, she threw bj^ the pen 
 for the sword, and underwent the rude 
 training of a soldier. The very habiliments 
 of her sex were discarded, and, attired in a 
 military costume, she appeared on her Arab 
 charger in the midst of her troops, or 
 marched on foot at their head. She per- 
 sonally encountered the Emperor Aurelian 
 in two pitched battles, fought respectively at 
 Antioch and Emessa, and in both was vic- 
 torious, till her soldiers, carried away by 
 their ardour, were destroyed by a masterly 
 VOL. I. R 
 
362 FLIGHT OF ZENOBIA. 
 
 ambuscade. Driven from the field, she took 
 refuge in Palmyra, and scornfully rejecting 
 an offer of terms, defended her desert city 
 with inflexible courage. But reduced to the 
 last ebb, and finding that Aurelian, instead 
 of losing strength, had received large rein- 
 forcements, and an inexhaustible store of 
 supplies, the intrepid Queen resolved to seek 
 safety in flight. The step, however, was not 
 destined to be fortunate. Sixty miles from 
 Palmyra, as she was about to ford the broad 
 channel of the Euphrates, she was surrounded 
 by the light cavalry of Aurelian, and the 
 fair sovereign of the East became the captive 
 of Rome. 
 
 Would that the story of her life might 
 end here, but to the tale of woman's heroism, 
 we must add the moral of woman's weak- 
 ness. In the presence of the Emperor, 
 surrounded by his scowling myrmidons, and 
 with the tumultuous cries and threats of the 
 soldiers ringing in her ear, the trembling 
 Zenobia forgot that she was herself a Queen. 
 After a moment of dignified firmness, she 
 no longer concealed her terror, but sought 
 
THE PRINCESS HONORIA. 363 
 
 to excuse her own temerity by denouncing 
 her friends. Longinus; who had so zealously 
 devoted himself to her cause, was among 
 the number thus accused, and, condemned hj 
 Aurelian, died majestically on the scaffold, 
 while his unhappy pupil was reserved to 
 walk in the Emperor's triumph, a chained 
 and degraded captive, through the streets 
 of Eome. 
 
 So fallen was the character of the Eomans, 
 that they could contemplate and applaud an 
 ovation, in which the principal figure was a 
 vanquished Queen, whose only crime was 
 her heroism and her virtues. But this 
 incident was not forgotten by fate, when 
 achieving a tardy revenge ; and the ascend- 
 ancy of the imperial city, so long on the 
 decline, was ultimately assailed by a more 
 formidable enemy, whom an injured and 
 oppressed woman called to its gates. 
 
 Honoria, the sister of Valentinian, a 
 princess endowed with every personal attrac- 
 tion, was educated in the citadel palace of 
 Ravenna, where the fears of the craven 
 Emperor had provided for himself and his 
 
 R 2 
 
364 CHARACTER OF ATTILA. 
 
 family an inaccessible retreat. Promoted 
 while a child to the rank of Augusta, it was 
 thought that her exalted position would 
 raise her above the solicitations, or even the 
 ambition, of the highest subject, and so 
 prevent her forming an alliance which, in 
 her royal brother's estimation, would be 
 dangerous to the peace and security of the 
 crown. But these hopes were frustrated by 
 the discovery, through her maternal position, 
 of her attachment for Eugenius, her chamber- 
 lain ; and the unhappy princess was hurried 
 away, in her sixteenth year, to the distant 
 shores of the Bosphorus, and there immured 
 in the cell of a nun. For fourteen years 
 she remained in this situation, when she 
 conceived the bold design of dispatching 
 a messenger to Attila, King of the Huns, 
 with an offer of her hand, her patrimony, 
 and her imperial rights, which she invited 
 him to claim from the Emperor and senate 
 of Rome. The lover she thus invoked was 
 the most odious and cruel of the barbarian 
 enemies of her country. " Scourge of Grod " 
 was the impious title which this monster in 
 
THE FIVE CONQUERORS. 365 
 
 human form delighted to bear, and it was 
 his constant boast that the grass never grew 
 where his horse had trod. His personal 
 appearance, while it indicated his Tartar 
 origin, bespoke the savage ferocity of his 
 habits and disposition. His dark, tanned 
 complexion kindled under the flash of his 
 small, fierce, indented eyes, which, he failed 
 not to observe, struck terror into the 
 beholder; his nose was broad and flat; 
 his mouth large, and a bunch of stunted 
 hairs, sprinkled over his chin, offered a 
 poor apology for a beard. The murder of 
 his brother Bleda inaugurated the long series 
 of atrocities which have stamped his name on 
 the page of history in characters of blood, 
 and lead us to the awful conclusion, ac- 
 cepted and believed by himself, that he was 
 one of the five conquerors so emphatically 
 foretold in the prophecies of the Revelation. 
 The terrible names of Alaric, Genseric, 
 Tamerlane, and Zenghis may assuredly be 
 received as denoting the others. 
 
 Humanity, indeed, after an interval of 
 a thousand years, looks back with a shudder 
 at the fearful ravages of these bloojiy-minded 
 
366 UNIVERSAL DESOLATION. 
 
 men, and we may truly exclaim that " except 
 the Lord had shortened those days, no 
 flesh should be saved." The fate of woman 
 during this period surpassed anything that 
 we can now imagine, and was such as, 
 though it could not soften man, might almost 
 have moved iiends to pity. It is difficult 
 to realise the devastation and destruction 
 which was spread over the fairest and most 
 fraitful regions of Asia, Africa, and Europe. 
 "In those desert countries," says St. Jerome, 
 " nothing was left except the sky and the earth ; 
 and after the destruction of cities and the 
 extirpation of the human race, the land was 
 overgrown with thick forests and inex- 
 tricable brambles, and the universal desola- 
 tion announced by the prophet Zephaniah, 
 was accomplished in the scarcity of the beasts, 
 the birds, and even of the fish." 
 
 Alaric, King of the G-oths, was the first 
 to overrun and devastate the classic soil of 
 Italy. His irruption was repelled, after 
 several fierce battles, by the intrepid Stili- 
 cho, who still supported the renown of the 
 Roman name. The Burgundians, the Suevi, 
 and the Vandals, aided by the savage 
 
INROADS OP BARBARIANS. 367 
 
 horsemen of the Alani, and ruthless swarms 
 from the shores of the Baltic, next made 
 their appearance in the passes of the Alps, 
 and followed the banner of their brutal chief,' 
 Rhadagast, to the gates of Florence. Here 
 they were assailed by Stilicho, who, after a 
 sanguinary engagement, cut their proudest 
 battalions in pieces, and captured and be- 
 headed their King. But the death of the 
 Roman general removed the great barrier to 
 the subjugation of his country ; and Alaric, 
 reinforced by auxiliary and dependent 
 tribes, marched in irresistible strength 
 through the desolated peninsula, and pitched 
 his tent on the banks of the Tiber. His 
 lines were soon extended round the whole 
 circumference of the city, which covered an 
 area of twenty-one miles, and the miserable 
 inhabitants, twelve hundred thousand in 
 number, cut off from all communication with 
 the surrounding country, and but ill-supplied 
 with provisions, were doomed to sustain a 
 protracted siege. The ordinary articles ot 
 food were quickly exhausted ; horse-flesh rose 
 into a sumptuous delicacy, only obtainable by 
 the rich, and so frightful was the famine. 
 
368 MURDER OF SERENA. 
 
 that human beings fed on the bodies of their 
 fellow-creatures. A still darker crime, fore- 
 told as a special incident of the siege of 
 Jerusalem, is attributed to this fatal epoch ; 
 and Roman mothers are accused of having 
 outraged the first laws of nature, by feast- 
 ing on the bodies of their murdered children. 
 Nor were the barbarities and impious ex- 
 cesses of the time confined to individuals. 
 A sudden rumour that the venerable Se- 
 rena, a princess of the royal house of Theo- 
 dosius, and the widow of Stilicho, who had 
 been twice saluted as the Deliverer of Italy, 
 was in secret correspondence with the 
 enemy, exasperated and maddened both 
 the soldiery and the populace. While the 
 unhappy lady was yet unconscious of her 
 danger, her palace was surrounded by 
 the clamorous multitude ; the emissaries of 
 the senate burst into her chamber •, and 
 without listening to her defence, without 
 inquiring into her guilt, consigned her to 
 the hands of the public executioner. The 
 mob learnt, with a yell of triumph, that the 
 innocent object of their hostility had been 
 strangled. 
 
SACK OF ROME 369 
 
 We must pass by the horrors of the sack, 
 when the pitiless army of Alaric gained 
 possession of the city ; for though the 
 narrative is not untinctured with woman's 
 heroism, it is too deeply coloured by her 
 wrongs. Many, indeed, perished by their 
 own hand, to escape a fate still more terrible, 
 and not a few fell in a wholesale and indis- 
 criminate massacre. Yet the Groths were 
 not inaccessible to gentler impulses ; and an 
 instance is recorded of a barbarian youth, 
 who, in the height of the sack, was so 
 touched by the heroism of a Roman lady, 
 that he generously took her under his pro- 
 tection, conveyed her to a place of refuge, 
 and afterwards delivered her uninjured to 
 her husband. 
 
 The invasion of Attila found a specious 
 pretext in the peremptory refusal of the 
 hand of Honoria, for which a forced mar- 
 riage with a nominal husband was urged as 
 an excuse. But the pusillanimous Emperor 
 and abject senate, while they clung to the 
 tradition of past greatness, abdicated their 
 functions at the first approach of the in- 
 vader. Terrible indeed was the warning 
 
370 PACIFICATION OP ATTILA. 
 
 which every breeze wafted before his blood, 
 stained banner ; and, on the very threshold 
 of Italy, the proud cities of Aquileia, Ti- 
 cenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were con- 
 verted by his hordes into heaps of stones. 
 But as he came in sight of the veneral^le 
 walls of Eome, his march was arrested, not 
 by an army, but by a Christian bishop, who, 
 with words of peace and amity, backed by 
 rich gifts from the altars of the church, 
 and a promise of the hand of Honoria, ad- 
 jured the self-dubbed Scourge of God to 
 abandon the threatened assault. The saga- 
 cious Leo touched at once the chords of 
 superstition, the feelings of ambition and 
 vanity, and the more sordid impulses of 
 avarice in the steel breast of the Hun ; and 
 Attila furled his standard, when he was 
 reminded that Alaric, in the plenitude of 
 his power, expiated by a premature death 
 his desecration of Rome. Soon he was 
 on his way to the frontier, though vehe- 
 mently declaring that he would exact a fear- 
 ful revenge, if he were not speedily recog- 
 nised as the husband of Honoria. 
 
 Another bride awaited the conqueror at 
 
HIS NUPTIALS. 371 
 
 his rude palace on the Danube. Ildico, a 
 Roman maiden of enchanting beauty, torn 
 from her home and her betrothed lover, was 
 here united to the savage enemy of her 
 country and her sex. A night of intem- 
 perance and brutal riot was succeeded by a 
 serene day, which, to the superstitious 
 Huns, had something awful in its im- 
 passive calm. The King's chamber, to 
 which he had been conducted with such 
 noisy shouts, remained closed, darkened, 
 and silent. At length, his impatient chiefs 
 began to clamour without ; the unguarded 
 door was flung open ; and they beheld 
 on the gorgeous nuptial couch the lifeless 
 body of him, who, but the day before, 
 had made the world tremble. A blood- 
 vessel had broken on his lungs, and the 
 fierce Attila had reached the marriage- 
 chamber only to fall dead at the feet of his 
 bride. 
 
 While the chief of the Huns had been 
 urged to invade Italy by the entreaties and 
 attractions of the princess Honoria, Gren- 
 seric, King of the Vandals — a barbarian, if 
 possible, more cruel and more implacable— 
 
372 THE EMPRESS EUDOXIA. 
 
 received a similar invitation from the 
 Empress Eudoxia. The weak and guilty 
 Valentinian had conceived a violent passion 
 for the wife of Petronius Maximus, a lady 
 not more distinguished for her beauty than 
 her virtue, and who, unmoved by the splen- 
 did rank of her lover, treated his overtures 
 with indignant scorn. In an unfortunate 
 moment, Maximus, indulging in the pre- 
 vailing rage for play, lost a considerable 
 sum to Valentinian, and, with a rude jest, 
 the Emperor demanded his signet ring 
 as a pledge for its payment. This he 
 despatched to the lady in the name of her 
 husband, requiring her immediate attendance 
 at the palace, and the wretched Maximus, on 
 his return home, learnt the full extent of 
 his misfortune. Smothering his resentment, 
 he waited patiently for an opportunity of 
 revenge, and an occasion soon presented 
 itself, when Valentinian, stained with the 
 blood of the illustrious ^tius, and branded 
 with a thousand crimes, was assassinated on 
 the field of Mars. The clamorous shouts of 
 the soldiery bestowed the vacant diadem on 
 Maximus, who, bearing an irreproachable 
 
HER FORCED MARRIAGE. 373 
 
 character, was equally acceptable to the 
 senate and the people. His injured wife, 
 whose fate had impelled him to such a 
 bloody course, did not live to witness his 
 elevation, and he was no sooner invested 
 with the purple, than he forcibly espoused 
 the Empress Eudoxia, the widow of the 
 murdered Valentinian. This was the out- 
 rage that provoked Eudoxia to appeal to 
 the doubtful magnanimity of Genseric, who, 
 after ravaging the fairest provinces of 
 Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediter- 
 ranean, had waded through a sea of blood 
 to the throne of Carthage. The Yandal 
 tyrant had before cast a longing eye towards 
 Italy, and now hastened to obey a summons 
 which enrolled him as the champion and 
 defender of a woman and an Empress. 
 Maximus would not idly have awaited his 
 approach, could he have commanded the 
 adhesion and support of a loyal people, but 
 his appearance in public was the signal for 
 an insurrection, in which, through the 
 treachery of his attendants, the partisans 
 and creatures of Eudoxia, he fell a victim 
 to the fury of the populace. Eudoxia 
 
374 PALL OP ROME. 
 
 herself, accompanied by her two youthful 
 daughters, advanced to meet the invader, 
 while the city, in spite of the mediation of 
 the great Leo, who again endeavoured to 
 appease and conciliate the conqueror, was 
 given up to the unsparing pillage of the 
 Yandals. The riches of Rome were hastily 
 accumulated ; the churches were stripped 
 of their treasures, including the sacred 
 vessels of the temple 'of Jerusalem, which, 
 in a prouder and brighter age, had been 
 deposited in the capital by Titus ; and the 
 whole was immediately embarked in the 
 crowded transports of G-enseric. A still 
 more humiliating portion of the spoil was a 
 mournful throng of women, the wives and 
 daughters of the degenerate Romans, con- 
 veyed in shameful bondage to the shores of 
 Africa ; and among these miserable captives 
 were Eudoxia and her daughters, the 
 descendants of the great Theodosius, and the 
 empress and coheirs of the civilized world. 
 
 EXD OF VOL. 1. 
 
 LONDON ; PRINTED BT W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET. 
 
By the same Author. 
 Eighth and Cheapeb Edition oi" 
 
 THE MARVELS OF SCIENCE, 
 
 AND THEIR TESTIMONY TO HOLY WRIT ; 
 
 A POPULAR STSTEM OF THE SCIENCES. 
 
 BY S. W. PULLOM, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE HISTORY OF WOMAN," ETC. ETC, 
 
 DEDICATED BT PESMISSION TO THE KINe OE HAKOVEE. 
 In one Volume, with Numerous Illustrations, 5s. bound. 
 
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 science of the Scriptures. He then comes back to the origin of the Earth, 
 visits the Magnetic Poles, gets among Thunder and Lightning, makes the 
 acquaintance of Magnetism and Electricity, dips into Rivers, draws 
 science from Springs, goes into Volcanoes, through which he is drawn 
 into a knot of Earthquakes, comes to the surface with Gaseous Emana- 
 tions, and sliding down a Landslip, renews his journey on a ray of Light, 
 goes through a Prism, sees a Mirage, meets with the Flying Dutchman, 
 observes an Optical Illusion, steps over the Rainbow, enjoys a dance with 
 the Northern Aurora, takes a little Polarized Light, boils some Water, 
 sets a Steam-Engine in motion, witnesses the expansion of Metals, looks 
 at the Thermometer, and refreshes himself with Ice. Soon he is at Sea, 
 examining the Tides, tumbling on the Waves, swimming, diving, and 
 ascertaining the pressure of Fluids. We meet him next in the Air, run- 
 ning through all its properties. Having remarked on the propagation of 
 Sounds, he pauses for a bit. of Music, and goes off into the Vegetable 
 Kingdom, then travels through the Animal Kingdom, and having visited 
 the various races of the human family, winds up with a demonstration of 
 the Anatomy of Man." — Examiner.