Page:The Song of Songs (1857).djvu/33

 teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. "The lust of a woman," says the pundits, "is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals." And again: "Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person's good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions."[1] The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. "I stood," said the Prophet, "at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women." In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, "Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise," which Moore has thus paraphrased:—

"Whene'er you're in doubt, said a sage I once knew, 'Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue, Ask a woman's advice, and whate'er she advise, Do the very reverse, and you're sure to be wise."

When woman was created, "the devil," we are told, "was delighted, and said, 'Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.'"[2] They were made so much to feel their

1 Alexander, History of Women, Introd. p. vii.

2 Lane, Arabian Nights, Vol. I. pp. 38, 39.