"But our time's coming," he added cheerfully. "These women have
never been mastered, you see--" This, as one who had made a discovery.
"You'd better not try to do any mastering if you value your
chances," I told him seriously; but he only laughed, and said,
"Every man to his trade!"
We couldn't do anything with him. He had to take his own medicine.
If the lack of tradition of courtship left us much at sea in our
wooing, we found ourselves still more bewildered by lack of
tradition of matrimony.
And here again, I have to draw on later experience, and as
deep an acquaintance with their culture as I could achieve, to
explain the gulfs of difference between us.
Two thousand years of one continuous culture with no men.
Back of that, only traditions of the harem. They had no exact
analogue for our word HOME, any more than they had for our
Roman-based FAMILY.
They loved one another with a practically universal affection,
rising to exquisite and unbroken friendships, and broadening to
a devotion to their country and people for which our word PATRIOTISM
is no definition at all.
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