Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1877-03-24
Women of the East.

, daughter OF OmU, sat on throne
, six years; and Alexandria, Hebrew
woman, reigned over them.
, Semiranis, woman in Assyria1
, slavery, became queen and made
her name great by the building oi
Babylon in single year.
Though the Turks had power OF
life and death over their wives, and
if they rebelled under the terrible
tortures and punishments of theil
lot, the very inexpensive power OF
divorce by simply answering, when
they asked permission to go out,
&C., without adding, "But come
back again" yet in 1880, the actual
power in Turkey was Sultana Val
ydeh.
Persian women of the lower classes
are servile slaves, supporting mas
ters of unlimited power, who do alb
solutely nothing themselves, and the
upper classes rarely leave the harem
from the cradle to the grave. Yet
CaSsandana, wife OF Cyrus, "ruled
Cyrus and Persia as she would" and
ruled SO we'll that at her death
the nation mourned twenty days.
" Mourned for woman!'
The worst effect of Mohammedan-
ism has been its degrading of women,
hu. the wife of" The Prophet, Kadi-
jah, was the first to embrace his re-
li%ion, and, as he afterwards said,
d" tie greatest, best and the most
powerful of all who accepted it,"
Brahmin women never see the face
of man, except those of their hus-
bands, nor any walls but those of
their own harem, and while their
husbands are away are hardly allowed
the necessaries of life. Yet the
world is indebted to Mherul Nisa for
the first of its beautiful cashmere
shawls, and the existence of that
beautiful perfume attar-properly
spelled atyr-of roses. Her name
was stamped upon the coin of India,
and the title given her of Noon Jehan,
Light of the world.
All the cotton and silk used in
Birnah is the work of her women,
and those exquisite fabrics and deli
cate designs displayed at the Cen
tennial might well have been placed
in woman's pavilion, for they were
all the work of gentlewomen of
Burmah, for which they probably
received blows that they had not
worked faster, and for that Endurance
and perseverance, cheered by the
proverb, Woman has many lives
and bears much killing"
Siamese women fight beside their
husbands, and often in front of them,
who at home are beaten like beasts
to all sorts of drudgeries. They,
however, have the uncommon privi-
leSe of refusing an offered husband
if they choose, and take their re-
venge in advance by refusing any
one who comes without a number of
human skulls he has taken in battle.
Chinese woman, are, perhaps of
all, the most secluded in the upper
classes. The bride is not even seen
by the bridegroom till, in a close
palanquin, she is brought to his door,
where, in full dress, with the key of
the palanquin, that has been sent
him in advance, he awaits her. He
has the one alternative of refusing
her, if she displeases him, at the cost
of double the amount paid for her.
She is slave complete, except that
he cannot sell her until he has gained
divorce, and is subject to such mot
toes as first dressed and last un-
dressed all the year round" and the
like, and, in some parts of China, to
a divorce that consists in simply
breaking "chop-sticks" before wit
nesses. Many writer's, however,
ascribe the first spinning to the wife
of the Emperor Yao, and the discov-
cry of the silk-worm was by the wife
of Hoang III. Silk-worms, until
lately, were cared for entirely by wo-
men, called Tsam-Mow.
In Liberia, where the marriage
ceremony consists of the brides
taking off the bride-groom's shoes as
n sign of subjection, and being laid
at his feet with the expression,
"Wolf, take thy lamb" The physi-
clans and sorcerers feared and obeyed
by men are chiefly women.
In Java, before Mohammedanism
found the island, women were con-
sidered equal with men, and the
Celebes, where there is an elective
government, the throne is oftener
held by women than men.
Notwithstanding the general de-
gradation of the sex, energetic, pow
erful women have made their power
felt in Egypt. The wife of Moham-
med Ali was made judge by the peo-
pie, who appealed to the Pasha, and
when they did, received the reply:
"By my two eyes! if she require it, it
must be done, though it be through
fire, water, and stone"
Dido, sister of Pygmalion, King of
T. L An'