Word: customs
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...vice. Its wide-open red-light district runs for block after block through the center of town, and heavily mascaraed male and female prostitutes try to entice passers by into their "cages"-narrow stalls with wooden barred doors and a single bed. The cage dwellers charge only 42? per customer, but there are also upper-class brothels where Anglo-Indian girls receive patrons in high-ceilinged boudoirs with brilliant red curtains. Many of Bombay's estimated 70,000 whores are Devadasis, who practice prostitution in the name of religion. The custom dates back to the 3rd century...
...related to the Phoenicians, write with an ancient alphabet called tifinagh that can be read from right to left, left to right, up or down. But they use it often to compose erotic poetry or scrawl obscenities on lonely desert rocks. Lukewarm Moslems, the Tuaregs twist the usual Islamic custom by insisting that their men go veiled while the women's faces remain bare. It is not a bad idea, since most Tuareg women are handsome-at least before marriage. Obesity is a sign of beauty among the Tuaregs, and many tribesmen force-feed their wives on macaroni...
...nine members of the Council are eligible for election, although the custom in recent years has been to rotate the job among veteran members of the Council...
...orders, he went on the wagon, began housecleaning Thailand from top to bottom. He banned opium smoking, and when a rash of fires broke out in Bangkok's business district one winter, he ordered four Chinese merchants shot-a brutal but effective reminder that the annual custom of burning shops to collect insurance for the Chinese New Year was now taboo...
...congregation. To emphasize congregational participation in the sacrifice, laymen would carry to the altar the wine and the hosts to be consecrated. The Canon, the most ancient prayer of the Mass, would remain in Latin; but rather than being recited silently, it would be said aloud, as is the custom in the ancient Eastern liturgies. On certain solemn occasions, such as Nuptial Masses, laymen would be able to receive Communion in the form of wine as well as bread. And the Mass would conclude not with the reading of the beginning of St. John's Gospel, a late Renaissance...