They must not so much as look out. And if they be great persons, they have Eunuchs to keep them, as the Grand Seignior amongst the Turks, the Sophies of Persia, those Tartarian Mogors, and Kings of China. Infantes masculos castrant innumeros ut regi serviant, saith Riccius, they geld innumerable infants to this purpose; the King of China maintains 10000 Eunuchs in his family to keep his wives.

The Xeriffes of Barbary keep their Curtezans in such strict manner, that if any man come but in sight of them he dies for it; and if they chance to see a man, and do not instantly cry out, though from their windows, they must be put to death.

The Turks have I know not how many black deformed Eunuchs (for the white serve for other ministeries) to this purpose sent commonly from Ægypt, deprived in their childhood of all their privities, and brought up in the Seraglio at Constantinople to keep their wives; which are so penned up they may not confer with any living man, or converse with younger women, have a Cucumber or Carret sent in to them for their diet, but sliced, for fear, &c. and so live and are left alone to their unchaste thoughts all the dayes of their lives.

The vulgar sort of women, if at any time they come abroad, which is very seldome, to visit one another, or to go to their Bathes, are so covered, that no man can see them, as the matrons were in old Rome, lecticâ aut sellâ tectâ vectæ, so Dion and Seneca record, Velatæ totæ incedunt, which Alexander ab Alexandro relates of the Parthians, lib.5.cap.24. which with Andreas Tiraquellus his Commentator, I rather think should be understood of Persians.

I have not yet said all, they do not onely lock them up, sed & pudendis seras adhibent: hear what Bembus relates lib.6. of his Venetian History, of those inhabitants that dwell about Quiloa in Africk. Lusitani, inquit, quorumdam civitates adierunt, qui natis statim fœminis naturam consuunt, quoad urinæ exitus ne impediatur, easque quum adoleverint sic consutas in matrimonium collocant, ut sponsi prima cura sit conglutinatas puellæ oras ferro interscindere.

In some parts of Greece at this day, like those old Jews, they will not beleeve their wives are honest, nisi pannum menstruatum prima nocte videant: our Countryman Sands in his peregrination, saith it is severely observed in Zazynthus, or Zante; and Leo Afer in his time at Fez in Africke, non credant virginem esse nisi videant sanguineam mappam; si non, ad parentes pudore rejicitur. Those sheets are publikely shewed by their parents, and kept as a signe of incorrupt virginity.

The Jews of old examined their maids ex tenui membrana, called Hymen, which Laurentius in his Anatomy, Columbus lib.12.cap.16. Capivaccius lib.4.cap.11. de uteri affectibus, Vincent. Alsarus Genuensis quæst. med. cent.4. Hieronymus Mercurialis consult. Ambros. Pareus, Julius Cæsar Claudinus Respons.4. as that also de ruptura venarum ut sanguis fluat, copiously confute ’tis no sufficient triall, they contend.

And yet others again defend it, Gaspar Bartholinus Institut. Anat. lib.1.cap.31. Pineus of Paris, Albertus Magnus de secret. mulier. cap.9. & 10. &c. and think they speak too much in favour of women.

Ludovicus Boncialus, lib.2.cap.2. muliebr. naturalem illam uteri labiorum constrictionem, in qua virginitatem consistere volunt, astringentibus medicinis fieri posse vendicat, & si defloratæ sint, astutæ mulieres (inquit) nos fallunt in his. Idem Alsarius Crucius Genuensis iisdem ferè verbis. Idem Avicenna lib.3.Fen.20.tract.1.cap.47. Rhasis Continent. lib.24. Rodericus à Castro de nat. mul. lib.1.cap.3.

An old bawdy nurse in Aristænetus, (like that Spanish Cælestina, quæ quinque mille virgines fecit mulieres, totidemque mulieres arte sua virgines) when a fair maid of her acquaintance wept and made her moan to her, how she had been deflowred, and now ready to be married, was afraid it would be perceived, comfortably replyed, Noli vereri filia, &c. Fear not daughter, I’le teach thee a trick to help it. Sed hæc extra callem.

To what end are all those Astrologicall questions, an sit virgo, an sit casta, an sit mulier? and such strange absurd trials in Albertus Magnus, Bap. Porta, Mag. lib.2.cap.21. in Wecker. lib.5. de secret. by Stones, perfumes, to make them pisse, and confess I know not what in their sleep; some jealous brain was the first founder of them.

And to what passion may we ascribe those severe laws against jealousie, Num.5.14. Adulterers Deut. cap.22.v.22. as amongst the Hebrewes, amongst the Ægyptians (reade Boemus l.1.c.5. de mor. gen. of the Carthaginians, cap.6. of Turks, lib.2.cap.11.) amongst the Athenians of old, Italians at this day, wherein they are to be severely punished, cut in peeces, burned, vivi-comburio, buried alive, with severall expurgations, &c. are they not as so many symptomes of incredible jealousie?

we may say the same of those Vestall virgins that fetched water in a Sive, as Tatia did in Rome, anno ab urb. condita 800. before the Senators; and Æmilia, virgo innocens, that ran over hot irons, as Emma, Edward the Confessors mother did, the King himself being a spectator, with the like.

We reade in Nicephorus that Chunegunda the wife of Henricus Bavarus Emperour, suspected of adultery, insimulata adulterii per ignitos vomeres illæsa transiit, trod upon red hot coulters, and had no harm: such another story we finde in Regino lib.2. In Aventinus and Sigonius of Charles the third and his wife Richarda, An.887. that was so purged with hot irons.

Pausanias saith that he was once an eye-witness of such a miracle at Diana’s temple, a maid without any harm at all walked upon burning coals. Pius secund. in his description of Europe, c.46. relates as much, that it was commonly practised at Diana’s Temple, for women to go barefoot over hot coals, to try their honesties;

Plinius, Solinus, and many writers make mention of Feronias Temple, and Dionysius Halicarnasseus, lib.3. of Memnons statue, which were used to this purpose.

Tatius lib.6. of Pan his Cave, (much like old, St. Wilfrides needle in Yorkshire) wherein they did use to try maids, whether they were honest: when Leucippe went in, suavissimus exaudiri sonus cœpit.

Austin. de civ. Dei lib.10.c.16. relates many such examples, all which Lavater de spectr. part.1.cap.19. contends to be done by the illusion of Devils; though Thomas quæst.6. de potentia, &c. ascribe it to good Angels. Some, saith Austin, compell their wives to swear they be honest, as if perjury were a lesser sin than adultery; some consult Oracles, as Phærus that blinde King of Ægypt.

Others reward, as those old Romanes used to do; If a woman were contented with one man, Coronâ pudicitiæ donabatur, she had a crown of chastity bestowed on her.

When all this will not serve, saith Alexander Gaguinus, cap.5 descript. Muscoviæ, the Muscovites, if they suspect their wives, will beat them till they confess, and if that will not avail, like those wilde Irish, be divorced at their pleasures, or else knock them on the heads, as the old Gaules have done in former ages.

Of this tyranny of Jealousie reade more in Parthenius Erot. cap.10. Camerarius cap.53. hor. subcis. & cent.2.cap.34. Cælias Epistles, Tho. Chaloner de repub. Ang. lib.9. Ariosto lib.31 staffe 1. Felix Platerus observat. lib.1. &c.