Wives of this description in the spiritual world have forbidden me to speak openly about these marriages. For they are afraid of the skills which enable them to gain power over their husbands being revealed at the same time, when they want nothing more than to keep them concealed. But since I am encouraged by men in that world to disclose the reasons for their peculiar hatred, I might almost say the rage introduced into their hearts against their wives as the result of their secret skills, I should like simply to present the following remarks.

The men said that without being aware of it they had acquired a terrifying fear of their wives. This made them unable to do anything but submissively obey their orders, deferring to their whims more humbly than the meanest servants, so that they became as it were nobodies. They said that it was not only those who hold no important position who took this attitude to their wives, but also men of high rank, even powerful and distinguished leaders. After being reduced to such terror, they dare not talk with their wives in any but friendly fashion, or do anything which did not please them, despite the intense hatred they felt for them in their hearts. They added that their wives still talked and behaved politely to them, and meekly gave in to some of their requests.

[2] Now since the men themselves were very puzzled about the source of such a strong antipathy on the part of the women* at the inner levels, while they showed almost sympathy at the outer levels, they went to women expert in that secret skill to investigate it. They told me that they had it from the women's own lips, that females keep very deeply hidden the skill that enables them to subject men, if they wish, to the yoke of their control. Uneducated wives do this by alternately scolding and being nice. In other cases they do it by keeping constantly a stern and severe expression on their faces, in other similar cases by other means. Wives of the educated classes do it by keeping up obstinate demands without a break, and by stubborn resistance to their husbands, if they treat them badly, insisting on the equal rights conferred by law, to which they cling determinedly. In fact, they claim that even if they are thrown out of their homes, they will come back as soon as they please and continue to make similar demands. For they know that men's nature does not allow them to resist their wives' obstinacy, and that once they have given in they submit to their control. Then the wives when in control put on a show of politeness and flattery to their husbands.

The real reason for wives establishing their control by this trickery is that a man's actions are directed by his intellect, a woman's by her will. The will can be obstinate, but not the intellect. I was told that the worst women of this sort, who are totally hooked on the pursuit of domination, can keep up their obstinacy to the point of risking their lives.

[3] I have also heard the defence women put up, to explain why they resorted to using this skill. They claimed that they would never have started, had they not foreseen that if they became subject to their husbands, they would have been utterly despised, rejected and ruined. It was therefore necessity which made them take up arms. They added this warning to men, to leave wives their rights, and when at intervals they are cold to them, not to consider them as more worthless than servant-girls. They also said that many of their sex are by nature too timid to pursue such a course; but I interjected that they were by nature too modest.

These experiences have now made me aware what sort of marriages are meant by hellish marriages in the world, between couples who are inwardly out-and-out enemies and outwardly the best of friends. * Reading illarum for illorum.

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