{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_74879/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_74879","id":"gutenberg_74879","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74879","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Women -- Religious life","Women and religion"],"text":"Woman under the\n                           Ethnic Religions.\n\n                                  BY\n                           MRS. MOSES SMITH.\n\n                             CHICAGO, ILL.\n              Woman\u2019s Board of Missions of the Interior.\n                                 1898.\n\n\n\n\n                   Woman Under the Ethnic Religions.\n\n                         BY MRS. MOSES SMITH.\n\n    (_A paper read before the World\u2019s Congress of Missions, in Art\n                Institute, Chicago, October 4, 1893._)\n\n\nFor two weeks we have been listening to the presentation of religions.\nWe have heard philosophies of religion profound and subtile, to some\nminds fascinating in their grace and mysticism. It may be wholesome,\nif not so agreeable to have our attention now called to the practical\nworkings of some of these religions and their effect on the life and\ndestiny of man. Moreover, as missionary workers, it is wise for us to\nknow not only the present needs of the people, but the religious forces\nwhich long centuries have wrought into every tissue of their thought,\nfeeling and action.\n\nWithout question religion is the supreme force in history. Religion\ncreates the ideals and aspirations, and so chisels the character of\nmankind. In the order of nature the worshiper becomes like the being\nworshiped. \u201cAs a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.\u201d\n\nThe world has known many religions, some of them eminent for the\ntremendous power with which they have held millions in their sway over\ncenturies of time; eminent also for profound philosophy, lofty ideals,\nand sometimes a high morality. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the test\nfor Himself and His teaching: \u201cBy their fruits ye shall know them.\u201d The\nconditions of society, temporal and spiritual, are the fruits by which\nany religious system may be known.\n\nIn the nature of things the factor that most universally moulds society\nis woman. The boy is father of the man, but the woman is mother of\nthe boy, hence the study of the teaching of any religion concerning\nwoman, and of her character and place in society as the result of that\nreligion, is vital both to the correct understanding of the system and\nof what it has wrought for the world.\n\nThe most venerable and possibly the most powerful Ethnic religion\nis Brahmanism. Rising in India when that was the land of literature\nand art, the home of the cultured Aryans, for fifteen centuries this\nreligion wrought unhindered on the people. At first a simple nature\nworship, it degenerated into a pantheon in which all the powers of\nnature were gods. On this was built a sacerdotalism with caste and\nidol worship. It became an oppressive tyranny. At this juncture, 500\nyears before Christ, a new and forcible factor entered the life of\nthe people in the birth of a king\u2019s son, Gautama Buddha, known in\nhistory as the great Reformer of Brahmanism. I have not time to speak\nof the fierce theological war that ensued (400 years), or of the bright\n_coup d\u2019etat_ of the Brahmans in finally accepting Buddha as the\nninth incarnation of Vishnu.\n\nEach of these systems evinces profound thought and lofty ideals,\nBuddhism a high morality. Each contains elements of truth, and each\nhas been a tremendous power in the history of the race. Striving for\nsupremacy on the same field, the result was a coalition. Together\nthey enter the stream of history under the name of Hinduism. The time\nhas been long enough, the field favorable and broad enough for the\ncompletest results, and the present condition of society in India\naffords an opportunity to see the results.\n\nSir Monier Williams, the distinguished Sanscrit scholar of Oxford,\nsays: \u201cAlthough India in the early periods of Brahmanism was a land\nof literature and science, the present characteristics are poverty,\nignorance and superstition. Whatever profound thoughts lay about the\nroots of Hinduism, it held and still holds the 280,000,000 of India\nin the bondage of degradation, cruelty and immorality.\u201d \u201cThe average\nincome per individual is less than that of any other civilized country,\nbarely $13.50 per year, against $20 even for the Turks, $165 for every\nEnglishman, and $200 for every man, woman and child in the United\nStates.\u201d[1] Dr. John Short, Surgeon General of India, long resident\namong the people says: \u201cWherever the Hindu religion predominates, there\nimmorality and debauchery run riot.\u201d\n\n  [1] Rev. N. G. Clark, D. D.\n\n[Sidenote: Teachings.]\n\nThe Code of Manu is the highest religious authority among the Hindus.\nYou ask a Hindu about the date and age of his great law-giver and he\nquickly replies, \u201cHe was son of the self-existent Brahm.\u201d Manu\u2019s whole\nteaching about woman is based on the assumption of her impurity. For\ninstance, a Brahman is enjoined \u201cto suspend reading the Veda if a woman\ncomes in sight.\u201d Her ear is not pure enough to hear what the vilest\nman may read. \u201cThough unobservant of approved usage, or enamoured\nof another woman, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must\nconstantly be revered as a god by a virtuous wife.\u201d[2]\n\n  [2] Dharma Sastra, chap. 5, page 154.\n\n\u201cLet the wife who wishes to perform sacred oblation wash the feet of\nher husband and drink the water, for the husband is to the wife greater\nthan Vishnu.\u201d Again, \u201cWomen have no business with the text of a sacred\nbook, and having no evidence of law, and no knowledge of expiatory\ntexts, sinful women must be foul as falsehood itself, and this is a\nfixed rule.\u201d[3] And it has remained fixed for forty-three centuries.\n\n  [3] Dharma Sastra, chap. 5, page 155, 156.\n\n[Sidenote: Seclusion.]\n\nThe modern Brahmans like to claim that the present custom of immuring\ntheir wives in prison-like rooms had its origin in Mohammedan invasion.\nThis is certainly not the whole truth, for in the unalterable law of\nManu, written 900 years before Christ, we read, \u201cA woman is not allowed\nto go out of the house without the consent of her husband, she may not\nlaugh without a veil over her face or look out of a door or a window.\u201d\n\u201cIt may be that when the Mohammedans came, some fifteen centuries after\nthese laws had been in force, they put the crown on the arch already\nwaiting for them. They may have tightened the chains by which woman\nwas already enslaved,\u201d[4] but the teachings of Manu are sufficient to\naccount for all we see in India to-day.\n\n  [4] Wilkins\u2019 Modern Hinduism, page 326.\n\n[Sidenote: Child Marriage.]\n\nThe people of the Western World have long wondered why the Hindus were\nso tenacious of their, to us, revolting customs of child marriage.\nIt is only when we learn that it is not simply a custom but a part\nof their religion that we apprehend the reason. The sacred laws of\nthe Hindu declare: \u201cIf a daughter is married at the age of six, the\nfather is certain to ascend to the highest heaven. If the daughter\nis not married before seven, the father will only reach the second\nheaven. If a daughter is not married until the age of ten, the father\ncan only attain the lowest place assigned the blest. If a girl is not\nmarried until she is eleven years of age, all her progenitors for six\ngenerations will suffer pain and penalties.\u201d[5] When recently an effort\nwas made to induce the Government to raise the legal age of marriage to\ntwelve years, great excitement prevailed. The Brahmans set apart days\nof fasting and prayer. Multitudes came in processions to the temples,\nin some cases beating their breasts and calling aloud to the gods to\nspare them from such calamity.\n\n  [5] Women of the Orient, page 135.\n\nThe worst feature of the system of child marriage is seen among the\nKulin Brahmans, the highest of all. Girls in these families must not\nmarry into a lower caste, and the supply of Kulins is limited, so\nfathers who have not money to induce some young men to marry their\ndaughters, are compelled to give their little girls to those who make a\nliving by being husbands. Thus a child of twelve may be given as the\nfortieth or fiftieth wife of some old man. Although it is certain she\nwill soon be a widow, even that is preferable to allowing her to remain\nunmarried.\n\n[Sidenote: Infanticide.]\n\n\u201cThe code of Manu forbids a woman to read the scripture or offer\nprayer by herself. She is to have no individuality. She exists only in\nher father or her husband; without a husband she is soulless.\u201d This\ndoctrine bears its legitimate fruit in the custom of murdering infant\ngirls. It is easy reasoning, that it is better to murder a soulless\nchild than not to be able to betroth her and so bring disgrace on the\nwhole family.\n\n[Sidenote: Widows.]\n\n\u201cThe Hindu sacred books reach their climax of cruelty in the\nrequirements concerning the widow. She may have only been a betrothed\ninfant or a child of a few years. It makes no difference.\u201d The Shasters\nteach that if the widow burns herself alive on the funeral pile of\nher husband, even though he had killed a Brahman, that most heinous\nof deeds, she expiates the crime. For long centuries widows have\nbeen a literal burnt offering for the redemption of husbands. The\nEnglish Government has prohibited the suttee, but being considered\nby the family as one rejected of the gods, the widow\u2019s life is such\na degradation, such a sorrow, it would seem merciful to let her die.\nManu wrote, \u201cLet not a widow ever pronounce the name of another man,\nfor by remarriage she brings disgrace on herself here below, and\nshall be excluded from the seat of her Lord.\u201d To-day in India under\nthe Hindu religion the widow may not take food more than once in the\nday. She must go without food and water for forty-eight hours twice\nin the month. At a meeting of the highest religious court a few years\nago it was gravely decreed that, if acting on medical advice, a widow\ndid sometimes take a little water on fast day, the offense might be\ncondoned. O, the burning pathos of the Hindu widow\u2019s prayer: \u201cO God,\nlet no more women be born in this land.\u201d India has now 21,000,000 of\nwidows, nearly 100,000 of them under nine years.\n\n[Sidenote: The Nautch Girl.]\n\nHinduism touches its lowest depths in the degradation of woman in what\nthe enlightened Hindu, Mr. Mozoomdar, called in the Parliament of\nReligions \u201cconsecrated prostitution\u201d of the Nautch or dancing girls in\nthe temples. The subject is too delicate and too horrible for me to\nspeak of in detail, but as it is a much honored part of this religion\nit cannot be omitted. The Brahmans claim that it is a most sacred\nservice, having its origin in prehistoric ages in a promise made by\nVishnu himself. In a few words the reason and method is this: Parents\nwho have a son very ill will vow to some god that if the son\u2019s life is\nspared they will consecrate a little girl to the temple; or the parents\nbelieving that honor or wealth will be the result, consecrate a girl to\nthe god; or the Brahmans select the most beautiful little girls, the\nparents rejoicing in the religious honor.\n\nFrom the hour of consecration the little thing is treated with peculiar\nrespect. She alone of the girls of the family is taught to read. When\nshe becomes ten or twelve years old, her father, mother and nearest\nrelatives take her to the great temple. They go with the priest into\nthe inner shrine. The girl places her hand into the god\u2019s hand, the\npriest repeats certain prayers and charms. He then hangs a string of\ncowrie shells around the girl\u2019s neck and the poor little thing repeats\nafter him her marriage vow, which vow is to prostitute herself to\nany pilgrim to the shrine who demands it.[6] The position of these\nreligious prostitutes in Hindu society is so highly respectable that\nno festival or wedding is celebrated without their presence. They are\nasked to tie the wifely ornaments on the neck of the bride. They being\nmarried to a god can never be widowed and their touch is lucky. In\nelegant attire with costly jewels and perfumes, charmingly graceful,\nthey lead their wretched lives, bring great sums into the treasury of\nthe temple, and, as they are religiously taught, accumulate a store of\nblessing for themselves in a future state. John Short, M. D., Surgeon\nGeneral of India, Member of Anthropological Society, London, says: \u201cThe\nNautch girl is recognized and patronized by the Hindu religion.\u201d\n\n  [6] Prof. T. M. Lindsay, University of Glasgow.\n\nThere was a time in this fair eastern land when women were in a\nposition of respect similar to that among the ancient Hebrews. Husband\nand wife were equal in all domestic, social and religious life. \u201cThe\nBrahmans have themselves preserved the record of women engaging in\nphilosophical discussions, and disconcerting their most celebrated\ndoctors by the depths of their objections.\u201d[7] Some of the Vedic\nhymns were composed by women. By degrees the condition of woman has\ndeteriorated until by the law of their religion she is \u201cnow consigned\nto a degradation probably without a parallel in the history of the\nrace.\u201d It is true, Buddha, in the sixth century before Christ, taught\nthat men and women were equal, but even his influence has never been\nstrong enough to reform the Brahmanical laws about women. The Hindus\nhave a saying: \u201cEducation is good, as milk is good, but milk given to a\nsnake becomes venom, and education given to a woman becomes poison.\u201d\n\n  [7] J. Murray Mitchell, LL. D.\n\nA quotation from the personal experience of Prof. T. M. Lindsay, D. D.,\nso pertinently sums up the Hindu creed about women that I quote it. \u201cI\nremember asking a learned Vedantist, who had spent two days in teaching\nme something about his belief\u2015\u2015a man who had read Spinoza, Berkeley\nand Hegel\u2015\u2015whether he could give me any definite proposition which all\nthe people who were Hindus could accept. He very readily said, \u2018That\nwoman is a wicked animal. That the cow is a holy animal.\u2019\u201d No brilliant\npresentation of Vedic learning, no poetic picture of Brahman or\nBuddhist philosophy so recently heard in the Parliament of Religions,\nwill prevent the world from arraigning Hinduism for cherishing, in the\nsacred name of religion, the grossest vices, and basely degrading woman\nand all society. \u201cBy their fruits ye shall know them.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: Religions of China.]\n\nIn the Empire of China, under a government distinguished for its\nstability and justness, among a people spoken of before Christ as\n\u201cThose who dwell apart,\u201d and known from the time of Ptolemy as just,\nmild, frugal and industrious, comprising one-fourth the human race;\nthree religions of confessed power, not as rivals, but as co-ordinate\nand supplemental, have for many centuries sought to solve the problem\nof life, death and immortality. The time has been long enough, the\nconditions favorable for a perfect experiment. Confucianism, the\noldest of the three, gave what is probably the best code of morals man\never gave to men. Confucius was himself an earnest reformer. The late\nDr. Legge, professor of Chinese in the University of Oxford, says:\n\u201cConfucius saw the terrible wretchedness of his people and set himself\nto find a remedy. Yet to the one principal cause of the misery of the\nmasses, polygamy and the low social condition of women, he gave no\nthought.\u201d In his treatise on human relations, in that of husband and\nwife, he regards the wife as the servant of the husband and enjoins\nabsolute obedience. During all these forty-three centuries, while\nConfucius has done much for good government and has set some high moral\nstandards for men, women have reaped no benefit from the teachings of\nthe sage.\n\n[Sidenote: Taoism.]\n\nLao-tsze, the founder of Taoism, a religion of no little power in\nChina, made no effort to elevate the people, and his religious system\ndoes not recognize the existence of woman. In the beginning, the work\nof Taoism, was to repress the passions.\n\n\u201c_Not to act_ is the source of all power,\u201d[8] was an ever present\nthesis. To-day Taoism is a system of magic and spiritism.\n\n  [8] Ten Great Religions. James Freeman Clark.\n\n[Sidenote: Buddhism.]\n\nMuch vaunted, \u201cgentle Buddha,\u201d gives to the women of China one only\nhope. Through its doctrine of transmigration of souls, it is possible\nthat through obedience to her husband and his relatives, and the\nbirth of a son, she may in some future aeon have the happiness of\nbeing returned to this world a man. If a man commits a crime he may\nbe returned to earth a woman. The one fervent prayer of the women as\nthey crowd the Buddhist temple is, that they may be returned to earth\nas men. When the women apply to the priests for instruction they are\ntold \u201cWhen you die your soul will pass into the land of spirits where\nit may remain ages before it is allowed to return to earth and inhabit\nthe body of a man. You will need money to pay toll on the bridges,\nand you must fee the ferrymen, especially the lily boat to cross the\nlake of blood.\u201d[9] (This fee is $30.) The priests claim to have opened\ncommunication with the spirit land and their drafts are honored there.\nIn one part of the temple these drafts are sold, the priests placing\nthe seal of the Temple on them. Of the $400,000,000 annually given for\nidol worship in China, at least seven-eighths is given by women and\nthree-fourths of that by women too poor to obtain enough of even the\ncoarsest food.\n\n  [9] China and the Chinese. Rev. J. L. Nevius.\n\n[Sidenote: Marriage.]\n\nThe customs and principles of marriage among any people are the\nexponents of woman\u2019s place in the social scale. Chinese women are\nbought and sold in marriage. The wife is forever subject to her husband\nand his parents; only when she becomes the mother of sons does she\nreceive the respect of the family. Divorce is practically at the\npleasure of the husband, or he may sell her to another man. Undesired\nat birth, liable to be sold while a child for prostitution, never\neducated, her low estate naturally leads to the crime of infanticide.\nLittle wonder that they innocently ask, \u201cWhy save the life of a girl?\u201d\n\nWhat to-day is the place of this vast Empire among the nations? The\ncombined forces of these three religions working for twenty-three\ncenturies upon one-fourth of the human race has shed no light on the\ntwo great foci, the family into which every human being is born, and\nthat immortality to which every mortal soul aspires. Nor has any single\nray of light emanated for the enlightenment of the other three-fourths\nof mankind? Alas, _a nation cannot rise higher than its mothers_.\n\n[Sidenote: Religions of Japan.]\n\nShintoism the primal cult of the Japanese, has no system of morals and\ntakes little or no notice of woman\u2019s existence.\n\nAbout the year 552 of the Christian era, Buddhism entered the Mikado\u2019s\nempire, and after a thousand years of struggle with Shintoism, gained\nsupremacy.\n\nWhile Japanese women are not so pitiably degraded as in India or\nChina, we read in their book of \u201cInstruction for Woman,\u201d \u201cWoman is the\ncreature of man.\u201d \u201cA woman\u2019s husband is her God.\u201d Concubinage, \u201cdivorce\nif the wife is not obedient to her husband\u2019s parents\u201d or is unkind to\na concubine, and the selling of young daughters for prostitution, tell\nthe story.\n\nThe Japanese Buddhist Bible teaches that \u201cthe sins of three thousand\nof the worst men all together do not equal the sins of one woman.\u201d\nEven in \u201cBuddhism\u2019s best Gospel\u201d among the articles given by Buddha\nhimself we find only this negative hope. \u201cAlthough a woman may not be\nborn into My Country, yet the woman who hears the name of Amida Buddha,\nand is excited thereby to the hatred of the condition of woman, and an\nearnest longing for the salvation of others, shall not be re-born as a\nwoman.\u201d[10]\n\n  [10] Muripapiu Byo. Luhhavati Sutrasl\n\nFor this crumb of comfort Japanese women are devoted to the worship of\nBuddha. The timbers of the great Buddhist temple building in Kyoto said\nto cost three million dollars, are all hauled to the ground and raised\ninto the structure by ropes made of hair which devoted women have cut\noff and sent for this purpose.\n\nAmong the Ainu, the aboriginal inhabitants of the island of Yesso, the\nwomen do not worship the gods, even separately. \u201cThe reason commonly\ngiven among them is, that the men fear the prayers of the women in\ngeneral, and of their wives in particular.\u201d[11]\n\n  [11] Rev. John Bachelor, Church Missionary Society.\n\n[Sidenote: Mohammedanism.]\n\nThere are few more pathetic scenes in history than the casting out of\nHagar and Ishmael from the polygamous home of Abraham. \u201cAbraham rose\nup early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water\u201d and\ngave it unto Hagar and her child \u201cand sent them away.\u201d The picture\nis realistic; that erect, well poised figure, with the bottle on her\nshoulder, that dark Egyptian face with chiseled lines of sorrow,\nilluminated now with righteous anger, as she gives one last haughty\nlook toward Sarah\u2019s tent and turns toward the wilderness of Beersheba.\nVery soon the curtain lifts upon the desert scene. The water is spent.\nHagar places the child under the scant shade of a shrub and lifting up\nher voice, weeping cries out, \u201cLet me not see the death of the child.\u201d\nAt this crisis a voice is heard from heaven: \u201cLift up the lad, I will\nmake of him a great nation.\u201d And they dwelt in the wilderness of Paran,\nand his mother took him a wife out of the land of the Egyptians.\n\nThe years go by and centuries are numbered. We find the fulfilled\npromise of a \u201cgreat nation\u201d in a people in whose veins on the one\nside is filtering the blood of the great Abraham, mingling with the\nlarger proportion of the idolatrous Egyptian, nomadic in habit, with\na genius for conquest, with a language distinguished for softness and\ncopiousness, with a literature of great antiquity and high poetical\nmerit, dwelling in the Peninsula of Arabia. Of these people, in the\nfifth century of the Christian era, Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was\nborn. A youth of great sincerity and purity, his domestic life with his\nwife, Khadija, is as beautiful as could be found among a non-Christian\npeople. But when at the age of fifty-two he sets himself up as a\nprophet, and becomes the husband of eleven wives, we find him guilty\nof the grossest crimes, robbery, murder, and butchery which rival the\nEmperor Nero.\n\n\u201cJudged by the smallness of the means at his disposal, and the extent\nand permanence of his work, his name is illustrious. By his will\nhe abolished a cherished idolatry and bowed to himself the hearts\nof his countrymen, and gave to the world a creed which has been a\ntremendous force on the destinies of the nations. To the impulse he\ngave, numberless dynasties owe their existence. Fair cities, stately\npalaces and temples have arisen. At a thousand shrines the voice of\nthe faithful invokes blessings on him.\u201d[12] \u201cHe saw with a correct\nspiritual vision the elemental truth of all religion. There is only one\nGod.\u201d[13] For twelve centuries the teachings of Mohammed have borne\nfruit in human lives. Not only in the land of its birth, but in many\nlands.\n\n  [12] Marcus Dodd.\n\n  [13] Dean Milman.\n\n[Sidenote: Koran.]\n\nWe turn the pages of the Koran with eager hope that we may find in the\nwritings of this man some teaching that shall lead to the uplifting\nof woman. The most hopeful word the Koran has for woman is in the\nsecond chapter: \u201cWhoso doeth good works and is a believer, whether\nmale or female, shall be admitted to Paradise.\u201d The practical exegesis\nof a woman\u2019s \u201cgood works\u201d is, obedience to the husband. Without that\ngood work she can not enter Paradise. Again in the fourth chapter,\nentitled \u201cWomen,\u201d we read, \u201cMen shall have pre-eminence above women,\nbecause of those advantages wherein God hath caused the one to excel\nthe other, and for that which they expend of their _substance in\nmaintaining their wives_. The honest women are obedient, careful in\nthe absence of their husbands, for that God preserveth them by\n_committing them to the care and protection of the men_. But those,\nwhose perverseness ye shall be apprehensive of, rebuke and remove them\ninto separate apartments and chastise them.\u201d The degraded and degrading\npractice of scourging and beating wives, having the sanction of the\nKoran, will be, in the words of Dr. Jessup, \u201cindulged in so long as\nIslam as a faith prevails.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: Polygamy.]\n\nNote the polygamous teaching of the Koran. \u201cEvery Moslem is allowed\nfour free wives and as many concubines as his right hand possess;\u201d and\nthe faithful are positively promised that in Paradise they shall have\nseventy-two houris for wives, besides the wives they have here.\n\n[Sidenote: Divorce.]\n\nAccording to the Koran, the husband may divorce a wife without\nwarning or assigning a reason. The husband has only to say, \u201cThou art\ndivorced.\u201d Even life may be taken at the will of the husband. Woman is\npractically a chattel. A Mohammedan being asked, \u201cWhat is the price you\npay for a good wife,\u201d replied; \u201cAbout the same as for a mule, twelve or\nfourteen pounds.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: Estimate.]\n\nA polite Mohammedan would not speak of his wife without using the\nsame apologetic formula he would use if he were speaking of a donkey\nor a hog. Indeed so degrading is the orthodox Mohammedan\u2019s idea of\nwomanhood, we cannot mention it here. The Koran says nothing about a\nwoman\u2019s praying, therefore she is excluded from the Mosques at the\nhours of prayer. Behold a religion that practically excludes one-half\nthe human race! It was not until Mohammed was fifty-eight years of age,\nand the husband of many wives, and had under his own roof experienced\nwhat the Moslem women of to-day declare, when there is more than one\nwife \u201cthere is fire in the house,\u201d that he wrote in the Koran the\n\u201cordinance of veil,\u201d that badge of jealous subjugation, which marks\nan era in the degradation of women in all the Orient. The regulation\ncostume shrouds the women from the head to the ankle in a cotton or\nsilk sheet of black or white. Around the head is tied a yard long linen\nor cotton veil in which before the eyes is a piece of open work about\nthe size of a finger which is the only look out and ventilator. No\npart, not even a hand or an eye, can be seen.\n\nSee the picture; with fearful foot-steps, with no hope in man, with\nlittle knowledge of the \u201cAll Father,\u201d no knowledge of Him who said,\n\u201cCome unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,\u201d for twelve\ncycling centuries, an unceasing ghostly procession has marched from\nbirth to death.\n\nTheckla, a Christian martyr of the first century, standing in the\narena at Antioch, bemoans in her prayer the shame of all women in her\nunclothing. The clothing of woman in the veil of the false prophet is\na shame to all womanhood. \u201cThe whole life of a Mohammedan woman is\nmirrored in that pathetic Arabic proverb \u2018The threshold weeps for forty\ndays whenever a girl is born.\u2019\u201d The spider\u2019s web which once saved the\nlife of Mohammed has, as by the hand of a Vulcan, been forged into a\nchain which in this nineteenth century in the name of religion dares\nhold woman, and through her, 200,000,000 of mankind in a singularly\nhopeless degradation.\n\n[Sidenote: Persia.]\n\nThe sacred books of Zoroaster give women a higher place than any\nother Ethnic religion. Women are given the same religious rites as\nmen, yet even here \u201cwoman\u2019s first duty is obedience to her husband,\nand disobedience is a crime so heinous as to receive punishment after\ndeath.\u201d[14]\n\n  [14] The Vendidas.\n\nOn the death of a chief in Central Africa hundreds of his wives are\nburied alive,[15] a sacrifice for his convenience in the spirit land.\n\n  [15] Cameron.\n\nMiss Mary C. Collins, who has lived many years among the North American\nIndians, says, \u201cThe Indian is a religious man, and it is his religion\nthat makes him cruel.\u201d\n\nThe story becomes monotonous. All non-Christian religions degrade\nwomen, and as woman is, so is all society.\n\nTo-day the all-sufficient Christian evidence, is the immeasurable\ncontrast between heathen and Christian society.\n\n\u201cTHE WORKS THAT I DO BEAR WITNESS OF ME, THAT THE FATHER HATH SENT\nME.\u201d\u2015\u2015_John 5:36._\n\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n \u2015\u2015Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).\n\n \u2015\u2015Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.\n\n \u2015\u2015Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.","title":"Woman under the ethnic religions","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":4823}