Infinitely better daughters and prospective mothers come each year from the Government and mission schools, if for no other reason than that they are intelligently trained in domestic economy and in the laws of hygiene. The frightful waste of infant life which heretofore has been caused by the ignorance of mothers will stop. The present training of the young girl strikes directly at this huge infant mortality and in the coming mother, educated and equipped for her duties, lies the hope of Egypt.
The Koran enjoins marriage on all and calls bachelors the worst of mankind. Consequently there are few spinsters or bachelors in any Moslem land, and a woman who is divorced or widowed must have another husband found for her as soon as possible.
Although Mohammed believed that all men should be married, there were four classes of women against whom he warned his fellows:—
A _Yearner_—that is, a woman who has children by a former husband and wishes to get everything possible for them from her present husband.
A _Deplorer_.—One who is constantly deploring the loss of her first husband and stating his virtues to the disparagement of the present incumbent.
A _Backbiter_.—One who is kind to her husband’s face and behind his back accuses him of cruelty, miserliness, and ill-treatment.
A _Toadstool_.—A beauty who is lazy and tyrannical and uses all the substance of her husband to buy silks, jewels, and perfumes with which to adorn herself.
There is no courtship as we know it. The marriage is made by the parents or by a “go-between,” and the parties most interested do not see each other until the night of the marriage, although they may have exchanged photographs and have heard eulogistic descriptions of each other. But there are no shy meetings, no gazing into the eyes of the loved one. A girl would be considered as lacking in modesty and maidenly reserve if it were known that she attempted to see the man to whom she will be compelled to owe all allegiance and who will practically own her, body and soul, as soon as she is his wife.
During the time before the marriage the bridegroom, if a man of wealth, sends his bride-to-be many costly presents, generally in the shape of jewelry, silks, fans, slippers, and boxes of sweets. Her gifts to him are cigarette cases, embroidered sleeping suits, a rich fez, or some other practical evidence of her affection.
