Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/165

 vicious women bears a much less proportion than in Spain, in some parts of Italy, or even in Turkey, where their whole study, and all their ingenuity, is employed to deceive and betray their husbands, whom they look upon rather as severe masters or jailers, than as the partners of their hearts.

"However, as I before observed, I never interfere in established customs; I am obliged to you for your confidence, and am glad to find that you have such objects with you, as may sooth your solitary hours in a place which appears so distant from all social converse."

"I thank you," returned Heli; "but I have at least as much plague as pleasure with them; and had our prophet exterminated them from the world, mankind would have been no losers."

"And yet," replied Ferdinand, "your prophet has made your chief happiness in paradise to consist of beautiful virgins."