a man may keep no limit is set; he may have "as many as his right hand
can possess." Then, too, these do the work of the house, and if
they bear their master no children, they may be sold like any other
chattels.

The consequence of such a system is that she reigns who for the time
stands highest in her lord's favour, so that the strife and jealousies
which disturb the peace of the household are continual. This rivalry
is naturally inherited by the children, who side with their several
mothers, which is especially the case with the boys. Very often the
legal wife has no children, or only daughters, while quite a little
troop of step-children play about her house. In these cases it is
not uncommon for at least the best-looking of these youngsters to be
taught to call her "mother," and their real parent "Dadda M'barkah,"
or whatever her name may be. The offspring of wives and bondwomen
stand on an equal footing before the law, in which Islám is still
ahead of us.

Such is the sad lot of women in Morocco. Religion itself being all but
denied them in practice, whatever precept provides, it is with blank
astonishment that the majority of them hear the message of those noble
foreign sisters of theirs who have devoted their lives to showing them
a better way. The greatest difficulty is experienced in arousing
in them any sense of individuality, any feeling of personal
responsibility, or any aspiration after good. They are so accustomed
to be treated as cattle, that their higher powers are altogether
dormant, all possibilities of character repressed. The welfare of
their souls is supposed to be assured by union with a Muslim, and few
know even how to pray. Instead of religion, their minds are saturated
with the grossest superstition. If this be the condition of the free