No Moslem woman is supposed to have any right to require or expect that her husband will be true to her in the marriage relation, though fidelity to him is rigorously exacted of her, and her breach of it is punishable with death. There may be instances where the women of a polygamous household agree; the casual stranger, who visits a harem without any knowledge of the language, or personal acquaintance with the inmates, will often be assured that they love each other fondly, and are more than sisters in friendship; but the trusted family friend, or the lady doctor, can tell a very different tale. Our doctor told me once, she thought the two women of a certain house, were an exception to the general rule, and that they really were friends; but soon after, the older one being sick, she saw a good deal of her in private, and was obliged sadly to confess she had been mistaken. I have myself known of one case, in which the rival wives were of the same mind. One of our neighbors had two partners of his joys and sorrows, who sometimes joined forces, and gave him a good beating, so he would be seen flying in hot haste from his "happy" home. One man said to one of us, "I don't need to die in order to go to hell; I have it in my own house; I live there." Another, when told by the indignant doctor, "Your mode of life is beastly," replied, "I know it; compared with me the beasts are decent." If the wives are in the same house, it is filled with bitterness and jealousy; if they are in separate houses or even in different towns, the case is not much better. If the women were not taught by their religious leaders that their sufferings are the will of God, and that it is very meritorious to accept them, and if they believed any other fate possible, I do not think they would endure it. They say "Christian women have their heaven now, but afterwards they will inherit endless suffering; we have hell in this life, but hereafter shall come eternal bliss." "Do we love our husbands?" said one in answer to a question, "Yes, as much as a sieve holds water." One of our friends, the third of three wives in one house, was found by us at her mother's. "Oh, yes," she said, "I have come home to stay; I simply could not bear it any longer; so I hired a woman to take my place with my husband and came here." These are regularly married wives, with dowry rights and the protection of law. What of the poor temporary hired ones, who come for a longer or shorter period, and a specified wage? This is the peculiar shame and blot of the Shiah sect of Islam, which not only tolerates the vile institution of _muti_, but takes it under the sanction of law and custom, and even permits the ministers of religion to be the chief promoters of it, many of them accumulating wealth by this base means.