most striking illustration of its retrograde and deteriorating character. Whilst in the law of Moses it is expressly forbidden for a man who has once divorced his wife to take her back again, under any circumstance, the Qur'an allows him to do so, not only after a first, but also after a second, and, on a most singular condition, even after a third divorce. In the Suratu'l-Baqara (ii) 230 we read: 'But if the husband divorce her a third time, it is not lawful for him to take her again, until she shall have married another husband; and if he also divorce her, then shall no blame attach to them if they return to each other, thinking that they can keep within the bounds fixed by God: He maketh them clear to those who have knowledge.' Upon this verse a Muhammadan custom is founded altogether opposed to the chaste spirit of both the Old and New Testament, and which cannot be pronounced otherwise than revolting to every feeling of common delicacy. It consists in this, that if a man, after having thrice divorced his wife, wishes to take her back again, he can only do so by first marrying her to what is called a Mustahill, i.e. a man generally of the lowest character, coarsest manners, and most forbidding appearance, hired for the purpose of going through the marriage-ceremony with the woman, living with her as her husband for one night, and divorcing her again the next day. Whatever the original end of so odious an enactment may have been, it cannot be justified from any

possible point of view, and is doubtless considered by every sober judge as both a most flagrant profanation of the sacred rite of marriage, and a degrading cruelty to the woman, who may possibly be quite innocent, and owe her repeated divorce solely to the angry passion of her husband.

The disability and ignominy of woman's position under Islam has nothing accidental in it, but is founded on the doctrine openly propounded in the Qur'an, of an essential inferiority of woman to man. It is thus expressed: 'Men are superior to women on account of the qualities with which God has gifted the one above the other, and on account of the outlay they make of their substance for them. Virtuous women are obedient, careful during the husband's absence, because God has of them been careful. But chide those for whose refractoriness ye have cause to fear; remove them into beds apart, and scourge them: but if they are obedient to you, then seek not occasion against them: verily God is high and great' [Suratu'n-Nisa (iv) 38]. The subordinate and degrading position of woman in Muhammadan society is therefore a natural and inevitable deduction from the Qur'an. We have already referred to the fact, that, according to the same authority, two, three, or even four wives go to form the conjugal equivalent of one husband; and also to the other that it leaves the power of divorce entirely to the will or whim of the husband, independent of the