WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
eat sweetmeats, and smoke. One of the chief diversions is drawing figures and devices upon the body with a kind of pencil. Hours are spent in this recreation. The moon, the stars, shapes of animals and birds, and the forms of trees are drawn on the bosom and the upper part of the abdomen.[1]
Music, singing and dancing are favourite amusements of Persian women. Many of them excel in relating romances of love and adventure, and in reciting the old poems and amorous songs. There is much gaiety and childish light-heartedness among the women of the harems.
Dr. C. J. Wills says that Persian women are virtuous, economical, and cleanly in their persons and in the home. They "do all they can to make home happy," and as a consequence the wife is idolised by her husband and adored by her children.[2] Their chief faults are, perhaps, a love of tittle-tattle, a tendency to quarrel among themselves, and jealousy. But the average family lives happily in an atmosphere of affection, and often extreme devotion.
The ritual of union is instructive, as showing the power of the wife. On the bridal night the husband is seated by the side of the bride. The right leg of the bride is placed on the left leg of the husband, and her
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