To argue the question is hopeless, and it may be allowed at once that no bolder or more radical reform could be proposed, or one more likely to entail hatred and contempt upon its proposer. The women themselves are at least as bitterly opposed to such reforms as the men. Nor indeed do they suffer such restraint as is generally supposed to result from the custom. It does not occur to a well-conducted Persian woman that anyone but her husband should see her face; and should she stray from the straight path, what costume so favourable for assignation and intrigue as the loose trouser, long blue baggy robe and veil, clothed in which she can pass her husband or anyone else in the street without fear of discovery, walk to the bath with a female attendant, or gossip with her friends all day, making known her identity only when she desires to do so?

The commission which Bab asserted he had received to expound the nature of the Godhead included no power of lucid composition, but thus much is clear: that God is held to be one, unchangeable, and that the last revelation was more complete than those of previous prophets which it superseded. The prophets themselves were emanations from the Deity:

Ætherios.

partem divinæ mentis et haustus

The revelation of Bab was not one of the individual, but was made to the mystic nineteen, of whom one at a time was necessarily the guiding spirit and spiritual chief, but whose acts and deed were those of a corporate body.

Though more complete than that of former prophets, the revelation of Bab was not itself complete, and his bible comprises but eleven chapters of an inevitable total of nineteen. The next revelation after Bab was, however, like that of Christ at His second coming, like that of the Imam Mahdi when he reveals himself, to be the last. An intermediate day of judgment was provided for the termination of the penultimate prophetic period, but the dead were all to reappear at the last day, the good to be reunited with God and the wicked to be annihilated.

So much for the outlines of the doctrines of Bab. A few details must be supplied. Society and government were to be constituted on a basis something like that existing in Persia, and included a king, a sacred college, pontiffs, priests, and all the paraphernalia of patriarchal government.

Unlike Mahomet, Bab preferred silken hangings and decorations for the house of prayer, and music and singing, and all the pomp and circumstance of priestly celebration. He was a great believer in talismans and the virtues of particular stones. This fits in well with the temper of the modern Persians, who to this day will tell you solemnly that the great volcano Demavend is talismanic, who

believe implicitly in the virtues of a turquoise ring inscribed with the name of Allah. Unbelievers might legally be deprived of all their possessions, which, however, should be returned to them on their professing the true faith. They were on no account to be put to death. Business and other relations with infidels were not forbidden, and, as a matter of fact, the Babees entertain very friendly relations with Jews, fire-worshippers, and Christians, while in their hearts they hate the Mussulman, much as among Mussulmans the Shiahs hate the Sunis, from whom, however, they differ on a merely dynastic and historical question.

The Babees only pray on formal occasions like the Christians. A Babee will not roll out his prayer-carpet and bow his head in prayer on the deck of a steamer, in the public street and on the sands of a desert, as will the devout Mussulman. Nor does the Babee admit the doctrine of legal impurity. Indeed amongst them, ablutions have no religious significance whatever. This doctrine of impurity is said to be a great impediment to free intercourse amongst Asiatics. As understood by the Brahmins and high-caste Hindus it may be; but as amongst Mahomedans, it merely prescribes ablution before prayer and on certain other occasions. I do not see how this can prove the obstruction it is represented to be. However, it is one of the many refinements of the law which Bab hoped to sweep away. In regard to alms-giving, his doctrines are much those of the Mussulmans. Torture and death are entirely excluded from his penal code. He punished every offence by fines calculated, of course, in nineteens. He held that the rich were only depositories of the bounty of God, and were bound to provide liberally for their less fortunate brethren; at the same time he altogether forbade mendicancy, which is recognised and encouraged in Islam. Those who have been tormented by sturdy beggars demanding money as a right, and supported by public opinion, will understand what a blessed innovation this was. He exhibited the same favour towards trade as is displayed in the present day everywhere in the East, where there is no suspicion of social inferiority attached to its pursuit, whether in its retail or wholesale aspect. The practical Asiatic mind cannot fathom European ideas on this subject. Everywhere the merchant is held in high esteem and no calling is superior to his. Bab was as sound on this point as are the most despotic Eastern governors, who generally grasp the fact that the oppression of merchants means the ruin of a province. I have dwelt for a moment on the practical nature of the Eastern mind. One may emphasise this, remembering how generally romance is looked upon as the attribute of the East, and how the Asian mystery has become proverbial. It is difficult to imagine whence this belief sprung. I think the Arabian Nights may have had something to say to it; but surely the Thousand and One Nights are full of imagination,

but not of romance. Everything is practical, nothing more so than love-making, most romantic of occupations. When the king's son becomes enamoured of the moon-faced beauty, he goes to bed and refuses food until she marries him. He becomes so ill and woebegone that all his female relations make a point of bringing his wishes to accomplishment. This is very practical, and quite unlike the knights and troubadours of the West, who went to the crusades trusting to the constancy of their mistresses, and found them on their return married, and the mothers of large families. In the East men do not greatly strive to arrive at 'self-reverence, selfknowledge, self-control,' nor will they eat their hearts away from hopeless love. They make known their passions and endeavour to gratify them, be the object who she may and the consequences to her what they may. Of imagination there is enough and to spare in the East, but for romance one must go to the Celts, the Saxons, and the Scandinavians:

To the bountiful infinite West, to the happy memorial places

Full of stately repose, and the lordly delight of the dead,

Where the fortunate islands are lit with the light of ineffable faces,

And the sound of a sea without wind is about them, and sunset is red.

Sunset is still redder in the East, but let that pass. in the lines.

There is sense

To return to our subject. The new prophet's mild and gentle disposition prescribed politeness as a counsel of necessity, but exhibited something of the narrowness of mind which induced the Caliph Omar to destroy the library of Alexandria, for he held that such books as disagreed with the Word of God were pernicious, and ought to be destroyed. He 'commended mirth,' however, and precious stones were not forbidden to the Babees, who were positively encouraged on festival days to clothe themselves in purple and fine linen, and to ' rejoice in their youth and walk in the ways of their heart,' remembering only that for all these things God would bring them to judgment.' In regard to marriage Bab departed in many respects from the precepts of Islam. He allowed a second wife. In this respect he seems to me to fall short of Mahomet, who in a time of unbridled licentiousness allowed but four for the frailty of human nature, and because it was the only means of legalising in Bedouin life an inevitable liaison. No excuse can be found for Bab, unless he would urge the exigencies of modern society,' any more than for the Mormons, whose hideous polygamy the United States Government has happily suppressed with a strong hand. If it is necessary to quote others in support of my assertion that polygamy is the exception among the Musulmans, I will quote M. de Gobineau, who says, 'en réalité les gens qui ont plusieurs femmes constituent l'exception même parmi les musulmans. La majorité se contente d'un unique mariage. The Sheikh-ul-Islam at Constantinople, and Dr. Leitner

have testified to the same effect, but there is in fact a cloud of witnesses. In another respect also Bab improved greatly upon Musulman law in regard to women. Besides the abolition of the veil already spoken of, he abolished the existing law of divorce. The facility with which women are divorced is perhaps the greatest blot in the religion of Mahomet. It will suffice here to say that Bab removed the legal obstacles which exist to prompt reconciliation between husband and wife, when the simple formula of divorce has been hastily and inconsiderately pronounced. For their weakness, Bab prescribed for women short and easy prayers, and he discouraged pilgrimages, saying that wives and mothers were better at home. Other innovations, which, so far as my inquiries went, are at all times honoured in the breach, were his decrees that beards should be shaven, circumcision abandoned, and pipes put out. He was no timeserver and attacked some of the most cherished institutions of the country, amongst which I would certainly include pipes, beards, and circumcision. To the sharers in the property of a deceased believer, Bab added the family tutor-a benevolent addition.

To come to any conclusions as to the extent to which Babees now exist in Persia is most difficult. At Kazneen a Georgian who had been many years in the country, and was at that time in the service of a high official there, told me that he thought that amongst the rich and educated perhaps one-third were followers of Bab. This is probably an over-estimate, but that among the classes named there is a large proportion which is dissatisfied with the Islam of the priests is well known. Among the nomads of the Hills, the Turki tribes and others, there are no Babees, and these tribes form a large proportion of the population of Persia. One' old White Beard '-to use the phrase of the country-with whom I breakfasted one day, assured me that such a thing as a Babee had never been seen amongst the wandering tribes. He added, however, that he had seven daughters who ate and slept, and that he did not trouble himself much about religion, beyond saying his prayers regularly and observing all due conventionalities. Near Kermanshah one day I met a Seyyad, or a descendant of the Prophet, who was collecting fleeces-suggestive tribute from the faithful-and he said that there was not a Babee left in all Persia. They had been a polyandrous and immoral set of unbelievers, but their fathers were all burnt, that is to say, consumed in hell, and there was an end of them. In Hamadan-one of the largest towns in Persia-I have reason to believe, from inquiries made on the spot, that there are very large numbers who in secret hold to the faith of the young and martyred prophet. At Abadeh there certainly are many such, though gruesome pits full of Babees' skulls exist within the walls of the town.

In Khorassan and the western provinces of Persia I have not travelled, but my inquiries went to show that in the holy city of

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Mashad, around the shrine of the Imam Reza itself, Babees abound. It will be obvious from what I have said that I can give no reliable numerical estimate; but this need not be considered a serious omission, as no one knows whether the population of Persia at this day is five or, as I think, nearer eight millions. It will suffice to say that Babees abound, and chiefly among the richer and more educated classes.