Parsi life presents, therefore, the picture of a society in which woman have many seeming and some actual advantages, but in which, on the other hand, they are more and more rapidly plunging into unforeseen but very real evils. They have great liberty, a liberty greater, or at least less restrained, than is enjoyed by the women of the better classes in England or in France. They can have education and the pleasures of a liberal mind. In accepting a husband they are ostensibly allowed full freedom of choice, though in practice they are of course limited by the usual considerations, by the importance attached to wealth, and, especially, by the great difficulty of securing any husband at all. They have the advantage of being trained to mix without shyness in all societies. But, even apart from a certain self-assertiveness which at times distresses their best admirers, they have to suffer from the growing probability of a life-long spinsterhood. Only too many will have to face the final misfortune of a wasted and infructuous life. The community is distinguished by its loyalty and its generosity; and Parsi women, as well as men, play their part in that lavish distribution of charity for which their race has become famous. It could be hoped that, without foregoing what they have gained in education and position, they should also preserve fresh the emotional values of sweet and disciplined womanhood and be able to secure those timely and assured conjugal relations which must be its fulfilment and best reward. Working and Aboriginal Classes “Sweetly the drum is beaten and Sweetly the girl comes to draw water: Sweet is the ochre on her forehead: Sweet is her bodice of silk: Sweet is her charming footstep. Ohé! the cakes baked by the girl: Sweet is the girl with her infant child. Lo, her dress is wet and clinging from the water And she is adorned with tassels of jewels: On her hands are bracelets And her feet are enriched with anklets.” _Rowing Song of the Fisher Kolis._ “A palmer came over the mountains and sat down under a barren tamarind tree Then he got him three stones and placed a pot upon them. He went to the midst of the town to ask alms and played his pipe as he went. The sound of his pipe reached the ear of Rádha. She ran towards her father and towards her mother: ‘You are my father and my mother: I am going off with this palmer for my man.’ ‘Do not go, my dearest daughter, I will give you all you want. Cows and buffaloes will I give and for your service four hand-maidens.’ ‘What should I do with your cows and buffaloes? What should I do with your four maid-servants? For such a man have I prayed to God for full twelve years.’”