628 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the matter of honors and distinctions. When a man, in consideration 

 of his having rendered great services to the Government, or done a 

 good to the people, obtains a decoration, like insignia are conferred 

 upon his wife. The legislator appears to have thought that a husband 

 would not have had leisure to consecrate himself so closely to the de- 

 fense of the public interests, if his wife had not been faithful and 

 devoted ; if by attending to the orderly direction of his household, 

 she had not relieved him from the care of his personal interests, and 

 left him in full liberty of mind. Women can also obtain official re- 

 wards, when, having become widows, they keep faithfully the name 

 of their husbands, and distinguish themselves by the manner in which 

 they bring up their children and administer the estate which the father 

 has left them. The emperor then decrees them a framed diploma, 

 which they hang in their house, and on which, by the side of their 

 name, figures the mention of their virtues. 



The duties of the married woman consist in the cares required for 

 the well-being of her husband and children, and the becoming recep- 

 tion of relatives and friends. She has the preparation of the festivals 

 for the ancestral anniversaries, taking precedence in this case of her 

 husband's sisters, by virtue of the rights which her title of legitimate 

 wife, member of the family right, gives her upon the administration 

 of the domestic cult. The interior management of the house belongs 

 to her exclusively. She has full control over the servants, and super- 

 vision of the expenditures and receipts. Although invested with such 

 extended powers, the Annamite women have the additional merit of 

 being submissive, patient, and little inclined to coquetry. They spend 

 but little for dress, and the caprices of fashion are unknown to them. 

 When they attend any ceremony or visit relatives or friends, they wear 

 the dress and jewels which their husbands gave them as marriage pres- 

 ents. When jewels are bought in rich families, they are not intended 

 to be worn by the purchasers, but to be reserved for the marriage 

 presents of the children. 



Balls are regarded by the Annamites as scandalous affairs. It is 

 contrary to the rites for men and women to take one another's hands 

 unless they are relatives or friends. According to the philosophers, 

 the male element tends to seduction and the female element to levity ; 

 their contact in familiar interviews could therefore be only a tempta- 

 tion to innocence. It is for this reason that the affianced man is not 

 allowed to make his court to the woman. Although the theatre is sup- 

 posed by the Annamites to exhibit good manners in action, it is usually 

 attended only by men and elderly people. Girls go occasionally, but 

 always accompanied by a member of their family. 



The education of the children begins even before they come into 

 the world. The prospective mother is at once submitted to a kind of 

 material and moral regime sanctioned by custom. Gross viands are 

 removed from her table, and her slightest movements are regarded, 



