Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World.: To which are added rules for determining the precise figure, the degree of beauty, the habits, and the age of women, notwithstanding the aids and disguise of dress. — John Shaqi
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World.: To which are added rules for determining the precise figure, the degree of beauty, the habits, and the age of women, notwithstanding the aids and disguise of dress.Anonymous
History
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World.: To which are added rules for determining the precise figure, the degree of beauty, the habits, and the age of women, notwithstanding the aids and disguise of dress.
Anonymous
Women
When Mahomet, the great legislator of the modern Persians, was just
expiring, the last advice that he gave to his faithful adherents, was,
"Be watchful of your religion, and your wives." Hence they pretend to
derive not only the power of confining, but also of persuading them,
that they hazard their salvation, if they look upon any other man
besides their husbands. The Christian religion informs us, that in the
other world they neither marry, nor are given in marriage. The religion
of Mahomet teaches us a different doctrine, which the Persians
believing, carry the jealousy of Asia to the fields of Elysium, and the
groves of Paradise; where, according to them, the blessed inhabitants
have their eyes placed on the crown of their heads, lest they should see
the wives of their neighbors.
To offer the least violence to a Persian woman, was to incur certain
death from her husband or guardian. Even their kings, though the most
absolute in the universe, could not alter the manners or customs of the
country, which related to the fair sex.
Widely different from this is the present state of Persia. By a law of
that country, their monarch is now authorized to go, whenever he
pleases, into the harem of any of his subjects; and the subject, on
whose prerogative he thus encroaches, so far from exerting his usual
jealousy, thinks himself highly honored by such a visit.
A laughable story, on this subject, is told of Shah Abbas, who having
got drunk at the house of one of his favorites, and intending to go into
the apartment of his wives, was stopped by the door-keeper, who bluntly
told him, "Not a man, sir, besides my master, shall put a mustachio
here, so long as I am porter." "What," said the king, "dost thou not
know me?" "Yes," answered the fellow, "I know that you are king of the
men, but not of the women."
GRECIAN WOMEN.
Woman, in ancient Greece, seems to have been regarded merely in the
light of an instrument for raising up members of the state. And surely
it may be said of them that they nobly fulfilled this duty. The
catalogue of heroes and sages which shine in Grecian history bright and
numerous as stars in the firmament, are so many testimonials to the
faithfulness of Grecian women in this respect.
The sexes were but little society for each other. Even husbands were, in
Sparta, limited as to the time and duration of the visits made to their
wives.
That women in ancient Greece did not enjoy that delicate consideration
which other refined nations accord to their sex, may be inferred from
the inferiority of the apartments allotted to them. The famous Helen is
said to have had her chamber in the attic; and Penelope, the queen of
Ulysses, descended from hers by a ladder.
GRECIAN COURTEZANS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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