last, and often the only book."[135] LITERATURE 1. ----, Manners and customs of the Japanese. _Family library_, No. 142 (1841). 2. Bacon, Alice Mabel, Japanese girls and women. 3. Griffis, William Elliott, Japan in history, folk lore, and art. 4. Griffis, William Elliott, The Mikado's empire. 5. Gulick, Sidney L., Evolution of the Japanese. 6. Hearn, Lafcadio, Glimpses of unfamiliar Japan. 7. Kikuchi, Baron Dairoku, Japanese education. 8. Knapp, Arthur May, Feudal and modern Japan. 9. Lloyd, Arthur, Every-day Japan. 10. Lombard, Frank Alanson, Pre-Meiji education in Japan. 11. Mitford, A. B., Tales of Old Japan. 12. Murray, David, Japan. 13. Nitobé, Inazo, The Japanese nation. 14. Scherer, James A. B., Young Japan. 15. Taylor, Bayard, Japan in our day. CHAPTER VII THE CHILD IN PERSIA =Characteristics.= Persia proper was a table-land, lying between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, with deep valleys and rapid rivers. It was such a country, with such a climate, as required a constant struggle by mankind for existence. Thus was produced a vigorous race, a race of our own blood, Aryans, that had one great wave of emigration to the West, peopling Europe, and a later wave into India. The Persians were quick, keen-witted, lovers of art and poetry, filled with energy and courage, and having a very high regard for truth. "He was free and open in speech, bold in act, generous, warm-hearted, hospitable. His chief faults were an addiction to self-indulgence and luxury, a passionate _abandon_ to the feeling of the hour, whatever that might happen to be; and a tameness and subservience in all his relations towards his prince, which seem to moderns almost incompatible with real self-respect and manliness."[136] =Women and Marriage.= As in other oriental countries, the parties to a marriage were often betrothed in infancy, and they had never seen one another till on their wedding-day. Boys sometimes married at the age of fifteen and girls at twelve, but as a rule men were between the ages of twenty-five and thirty and women from fourteen to nineteen. Parents usually arranged for the marriage of their children, but sometimes the men would get a female friend to select a partner for them. When the consent of all had been obtained, then a formal betrothal took place and gifts were exchanged.