Two forces stand out as most potential in the shaping of the Arab woman's character. These may be summed up in the words, the desert and the cult; the latter being in some sense the product of the former. To these may possibly be added a third. That is the war spirit, without which the lord as well as the lady of the Arabian peninsula would have written out for themselves a far different, and perhaps a far less romantic history. For there were those who, even like Khaled, spurn the love of a noble maiden from his "pride of the passion of war." Even love making, which holds an important place in Arabic literature, gives way to what was regarded as the noblest of all occupations, the making of war. Womanhood, in the so-called "time of ignorance,"--the days before Islam wrought so marked a change in the life of Arabia,--enjoyed a freedom and strength which spoke of the open air and the far-stretching plains. As she followed the fortunes of her nomad chief, the woman was indelibly writing her history. It is in religious ideals too that woman must always find the key to her standing and influence among any people. Among the early Arabs the female idea held no small place in their religious beliefs and practices, and this is true of the early Semites generally. This is specially noteworthy, however, as Robertson Smith has pointed out, in the olden Arabic cult. Gods and goddesses went in pairs, and the goddess was usually the more important divinity. The jinn, which held so conspicuous a place, were regarded as feminine. In the Minæan pantheon, Wadd and Nikrah, "Love" and "Hate," female divinities, played an important rôle in the religious life of this branch of the Arabic people. Wherever the female divinity is prominent, woman enjoys considerable privilege and influence in religion, and this was true in ancient Arabia. The people believed in an inferior order of divine beings--emanations, secondary spirits--compared to angels by some Mussulman writers. These beings were of the female sex and known as _Benat Allah_ (daughters of Allah). Mohammed in the Koran, however, strongly condemned this earlier belief as not consonant with the unity of God, which is a doctrine so emphatically preached in the religion of Islam. Each tribe not only had its _Kahin_, or "diviner" (Hebrew, _Kohen_, "priest"), but its _Arrafa_, or "sorceress." Woman's sphere in the olden days of Arabia was no mean one. Arabic women have from time immemorial shown themselves, on occasion, to possess a courage and hardihood unsurpassed in history. Arabia has had her Amazons. In prehistoric times, armed heroines of invincible bravery have left their record in the myths of this ancient people. And in the days of authentic history, women have fought valiantly to advance the cause for which their husbands and brothers waged war so fiercely.