is very rare; theft is not frequent; assaults on women and children are practically unknown. So far as my observations tend, I can sum up without hesitation by saying that the proletariat of Meleager is a remarkably happy, healthy, well-behaved, industrious and sober body under what I may call the benign despotism of councillors who have not only been educated to command by years of special training, but also possess a natural gift for such functions. X I should not like the reader from anything I have written hitherto to carry away the impression that, because I am myself debarred from their society, the women of Meleager own a status at all similar to that prevailing in Mohammedan countries. On the contrary, setting aside the exceptional case of their semi-divine monarch, the sex has little to lament on the score of inferior or unfair treatment. The Council of Seventy, it is true, contains no female element, but to balance this, the college of the priestesses of the Sun, which I shall describe presently, wields considerable powers in the government of the state. Moreover, the severe restrictions concerning their relations with the King rest, at least nominally, on religious grounds and would therefore naturally be less likely to cause resentment. I think therefore I had better first discuss the existing attitude of my female subjects towards myself, for on this point I can at least offer some correct and detailed information, both from personal knowledge and as the result of inquiries I have from time to time cautiously ventured to make of the older women, with whom alone I am permitted to hold social intercourse.