The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-19
WHAT ARE WOMEN MADE oFY

WHA1 Ahh w OMbN MADE UT
FFOpa Once Week
In the palmy days Of childhood, we were
taught in nursery jingle and we implicitly be-
heved, that little girls were made Of
"sugar and spice
And all that's NICE"
But, growing older, we learned to our disap-
pOintment that they were produced from
Adams rib and when we asked why woman
was made of that particular bone, we were told
because it was the most crooked in Adams
body.
"Observe the result, " preached Jean Raulin,
in the beginning Of the sixteenth century:
'man, composed of clay, is silent and ponde-
rous, but woman gives evidence Of her osseous
origin by the rattle she keeps up. Move
sack of earth and it makes no noise; touch
bag of bones and you are deafened with the
tter-clatter"
This observation did not fall to the ground;
il was repeated by Gratian de Drusac in his
Controversies des Sexes Masculin ct Femi-
min, " 1888. The learned in medieval times
did not spare women Jean Nevisan, profess
sor of law at Turin, who died in l540, is harder
still on them in his "Sylva Nuptialis." Therein
he audaciously asserts that woman was formed
by the Author of Good till the head had to be
made, and that was production of the great
enemy of mankind. 'Permisit Deus illud
facere d@monio."
But the Rabbis are equally unsparing. They
assert that when Eve had to be drawn from
the side of Adam she was not extracted by the
head, lest she should be vain; nor by the eyes,
lest they should be wanton; nor by the mouth
lest she should be given to tittle-tattle; nor by
the ears, lest she should be inquisitive by the
hands, lest she should be meddlesome; nor by
the heart lest she should be Jealous; but she
was drawn forth by the side; yet notwith
standing these precautions, she has every
faultspecially guarded against, because, being
extracted sideways, she was perverse.
Another Rabbinical gloss on the text Of Meses
asserts that Adam was created double; that he
and Eve were made back to back, united at
the shoulders, and that they were severed with
a hatchet Eugubinus says that their bodies
were united at the side.
Antoinette Bouiignon, that extraordinary
mystic of the seventeenth century, had some
strange visions of the primeval man aud the
birth of Eve. The body of Adam, she says,
was more pure, translucent, and transparent
than crystal, light and buOyant as air. In it
were vessels and streams of light, which en-
tered and exuded through the pores. The
vessels were charged with liquors Of various
colOrs of intense brillianoy and transparency
some of these fluids were water, milk, wine,
fire, etc. Every motion of Adams body pro-
duced inefable harmonies. Every creature
Obeyed him; nothing could resist or iniure
him. He was taller than men of his time;
his hair was short, curled, and approaching to
black. He had little down on his lower lip.
In his stomach was a clear fluid, like water in
a crystal bowl, in which tiny eggs developed
themselves, like bubbles in wine, as he gloWed
with the ardor of Divine charity; and when he
strongly desired that others should unite with
him in the work of praise, he deposited some
OF these eggs which Matched, and from one of
them emerged his consort, Eve.
The inhabitants of Madagascar have a
strange myth touching the origin of woman.
They say that the first man was created of the
dust of the earth, and was placed in a garden,
where he was subject to none of the ills which
now afiict mortality; he was also free from all
bodily appetites, and though surrounded by
delicious fruit and limpid streams yet felt no
desire to taste of the fruit or quaf the water.
The Creator had, moreover, strictly forbidden
him either to eat or to drink. The great enemy,
however, came to him, and painted to him in
glowing color5 the sweetness of the apple the
lusoiousness of the date, and the succulence
of the orange. In vain: the first man re-
membered the command laid upon him by his
Maker. Then the fend assumed the appear
ance of an effulgent spirit, and pretended to
be messenger from Heaven commanding him
to eat and drink. The man at once obeyed.
Shortly after, pimple appeared on his leg;
the spot enlarged into a tumor, which in
creased in size and caused him considerable
annoyance. at the end of six months it
burst, and there emerged from the limb
beautiful girl.
The father of all living turned her this way
and that way, sorely perplexed, and uncertain
whether to pitch her into the water or give her
to the pigs, when messenger from Heaven
appeared, and told him to let her run about
the garden till she was of manageable age,
and then take her to himself as a wife. He
Obeyed. He called her Bahouna, and she
became the mother of all races of men.
There seems to be some uncertainty as to
hn Gfv rf m "a
0rientalist Henrion, member of the Academy,
however, fixed it with precision satisfactory,
at least, to himself. He gives the following
table Of the relative heights of several eminent
historical personages.
Adam was precisely. ..........l23 feet inches high