selves in conquest and rapine, the women were confined more through prudence than jealousy; for they could not venture abroad without dreading some outrage. As soon as a woman had a lover or a husband, she went out without any apprehension, under the care of her protector. Hence sprung the first notions of chivalry, by which bravery was devoted to the cause of beauty,

The women did not, among hardly any of the nations of the North, inherit the right of succession. It seems that in those times of barbarism they imagined that a feeble being should not possess that which it could not defend. Nevertheless, the Bourguignons and some others gave way to this custom.

Among the Francks, when a father wished to treat his daughter like a son, he carried her before the judge, and said to her; " My dear child, an ancient and barbarous custom excludes the daughters from the inheritance of their fathers; but as I hold all my children equally from Providence, I ought to love them equally; I declare, therefore, my dear child, that it is my will that thou share my inheritance equally with thy brother."

The manners of the Scythians were less corrupt than those of any other people; nevertheless, having, during a military expedition, tarried a long while in Asia, their wives, tired of their absence, connected themselves with the slaves left to guard them. The Scythians being on their return, the slaves wished to dispute with their masters both

The battle was

their property and their wives. begun, and was for a long time of uncertain issue. The Scythians, indignant at this resistance, attacked the slaves unarmed, but with whips and sticks. The very sight of these instruments, the badges of their slavery, intimidated these vile rivals, and they threw down their arms, and took the consequence.

THE WOMEN OF ASIA.

EVERYWHERE, except in Asia, the condition of women has undergone some changes. But in this country they have been, and will doubtless ever continue to be, slaves.

The Persians are, of all the Asiatics, the most jealous people, and those who treat their wives with the greatest severity, in not allowing them a moment of liberty.

The Tartars grant them, at least, some hours for bathing; and, according to their rank, they allow them the jewels and the ornaments which they desire. But in Persia their slavery is carried to the extreme; it is true that the women have not, in other respects, any thing to complain of.

In China, the emperor may marry the daughter of the most obscure of his subjects, and the empress enjoys equally with himself all the honours due to her rank. The women in this country can

not, according to some, possess any property. The object of this law is, that the choice of a wife should proceed from the attractions of love, and not from those of wealth.

It appears, from the accounts of some travellers, that the Chinese conceal much gallantry under a modest exterior.

Although the Brahmins confine their wives to a strict seclusion, they treat them with so much respect and tenderness, that they imitate the purity of their manners.

A navigator asserts, that in the island of Otaheite, polygamy being allowed, the men have established a society under the name of Darreoy. All the women are here in common. When a child is born, it is immediately stifled, that the pleasures of the mother may not be interrupted. If her tenderness for her child should induce her, to wish to save it, one of the men must declare himself to be its father; but the man and the woman are both in such case driven from the society

An ancient law in Persia allowed the queen to obtain from the king any request which she should think proper to make him on the day of her birth. Amestris required her husband to deliver up to her a woman whom she detested; she cut off her nose, her breasts, her ears, her lips, and her tongue, which dogs devoured in the presence of the unfortunate victim. In few countries have the manners of the women been more dissolute than in Persia. The reign of Ahasuerus exceed

ed, in this respect, all that is most vile in debauchery.

The noted dancers of India have the precaution to secure their breasts in a kind of boxes, made of a wood so fine as to yield to the undulations of their breasts, and thus prevent them from sinking, without injuring their delicacy.

AGRIPPINA.

C. WHITTINGHAM, Printer, Dean Street, Fetter Lane.