Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/205

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"What are the faults of women?" Moarbeda replied to this question, "The worst of women is she who immediately cries out loud as soon as her husband wants to touch the smallest amount of her property for his necessities. In the same line stands she who divulges matters which her husband wants to be kept secret."—"Are there any more?" she is asked. She adds, "The woman of a jealous disposition and the woman who raises her voice so as to drown that of her husband; she who disseminates scandal; the woman that scowls, the one who is always burning to let men see her beauty, and cannot stay at home; and with respect to this last let me add that a woman who laughs much, and is constantly seen at the street door, may be taken to be an arrant prostitute.

"Bad also are those women who mind other people's affairs; those who are always complaining; those who steal things belonging to their husbands; those of a disagreeable and imperious temper; those who are not grateful for kindness received; those that will not share the conjugal couch, or who incommode their husbands, by the uncomfortable positions they take in it; those who are inclined to deceit, treachery, calumny and ruse.

"Then there are still women who are unlucky in whatever they undertake; those who are always inclined to blame and censure; those who invite their husbands to fulfil their conjugal duty only when it is convenient for them; those that make noises in bed; and lastly those who are shameless, without intelligence, tattlers and curious. "Here you have the worst specimens amongst women."