Our Beloved Master - His Early Life — Page 149
•oUR BELoVED MASTER• 149 One extremely shameful custom of the time was that if a father had numerous wives and the father died, then apart from their blood mother, the son could marry whichever of their step mothers they wanted to. When a woman’s husband would die, she would remain secluded at home for one year. The conditions of the seclusion period were spent in the strangest of ways. Old, dirty and smelly clothes would be worn and the woman would sit in the smallest and darkest room in the house with an extremely low ceiling. During this period of a full year she would neither wash, nor change clothes, nor cut her nails, nor put on any perfume. After a year had passed, a donkey would be brought to her with which she would scrub her body. After that camel’s dung would be brought to her. The lady would stand and hold out her hands, upon which the camel dung would be placed. The woman would throw the dung over her shoulders. With this event, the period of isolation would come to an end. The property of a son’s parents would only go to those who excelled in robbery and murder and were able to compete without fear against their enemies! Women, girls, and little children wouldn’t inherit anything from their fathers. They would drink