of Benten, the queen of the heaven and mistress of the seas. The angels
of Buddhism are always feminine, and, as in the unscriptural and pagan
conception of Christian angels, have wings.[58] So also in the legends
of Gautama, in the Buddhist lives of the saints, and in legendary lore
as well as in glyptic and pictorial art, the female being transfigured
in loveliness is a striking figure. Nevertheless, after all is summed up
that can possibly be said in favor of Buddhism, the position it accords
to woman is not only immeasurably beneath that given by Christianity,
but is below that conceded by Shint[=o], which knows not only goddesses
and heroines, but also priestesses and empresses.[59]

According to the popular ethical view as photographed in language,
literature and art, jealousy is always represented by a female demon.
Indeed, most of the tempters, devils, and transformations of humanity
into malign beings, whether pretas, asuras, oni, foxes, badgers, or
cats, are females. As the Chinese ideographs associate all things weak
or vile with women, so the tell-tale words of Japanese daily speech are
but reflections of the dogmas coined in the Buddhist mint. In Japanese,
chastity means not moral cleanliness without regard to sex, but only
womanly duties. For, while the man is allowed a loose foot, the woman is
expected not only to be absolutely spotless, but also never to show any
jealousy, however wide the husband may roam, or however numerous may be
the concubines in his family. In a word, there is the double standard of
morals, not only of priest and laity, but of man and woman. The position
of the Japanese woman even of to-day, despite that eagerness once shown
to educate her--an eagerness which soon cooled in the government
schools, but which keeps an even pulse in the Christian home and
college--is still relatively one of degradation as compared with that of
her sister in Christendom. For this, the mid-Asian religion is not
wholly responsible, yet it is largely so.