The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-02-04
A NAN OF WIVES.
Graphic sketch Of Tarkl.h Pashu


| of the passengers on board the Min
ich. (writes q correspondent IF th
London Daily Ielcgraph,) is Pasha
who is escorting his harem from Con
stantinople to Alexandria. OF tn,
eightsaloons, the doors Of which oper
upon our narrow cabin, six are occu
| pied by the Pasha and family or t,
speak more accurately, his family, fo
they are many. The Irishman, whel
he was carried in sedan chair will
no bottom in it, remarked, but for til,
honor of the thing lie might as wei
have walked. / might almost sa,
that though L have had the privilege
Of berth in separate saloon,
might as well, but for the honor o
the thing, have been an inmate of tn;
Pasha's harem.
As l sit in the cabin writing, the
door of each of the various saloon:
opens i'll turn, and, with the utmos
wish not to see. L cannot help becOm
ing acquainted with the most init
mate details of the inner life of tho
seraglio. In every pantOmime there
is a stock scene in which house il
shown upon the stage with number
of doors in the facade, and as fast a:
one shuts another opens. l often
fancy that am the solitary spectator
of a pantomime in which clown and
columbine, harlequin and pantaloon
have attired themselves q la IUrqut
for my especial entertainment. The
dyamatis IpersOa9, as far as l have
been able to grasp the play, are as fol:
lows: The chief actor, manager and
director, is the Pasha himself.
don't think L ever saw man so fat
for his height, or SO short in stature
for his girth.
When he is Gen dishabillc," lie
looks for all the world like one of the
Chinese mandarin figures which are
placed upon the pieces, and nod per-
petually. Dressed ip chintz bed
gown, festooned round his waist-or
what was once his waist-with red
sash, the lower half Of his round fig
ure is twice the bulk of his upper
When in full attire, he wears a green
robe lined with. fur, green turban,
and a diamond ring, with a stone so
large that I cannot but doubt its gen
uineness. His face would be hand
some if it were not SO distented with
fat; his eyes are bright; his skin
white and l should question wheth-
er, unwieldly as he is. he is much
over forty. He looks intelligent. and
as goOd-humOred as man well can
be who lives quiet life and is wor-
ried all day long by any number of
wives. They tell me on the boat
that he has four legitimate spouses !:
but, beside them, what with concu-
bines, slaves and servants, he has at
least dozen women who have a YES
ted right to his attention. The four
wives-the lawful ones l mean-are
of various ages. There is an old
wrinkled bedlame,-whO has cracked
voice and terrible tongue, and who
spends her time in trOtting about
with her vail all awry over her face,
chattering perpetuaDly and scolding
everybody she comes across. The
second wife is woman well on TO
forty, with a face already assuming
the nut-cracker shape, with sour
look, which years are sure to develop.
Wife number three is a dark, sallow
brunette, with bold flashing eyes, and
the look of a woman able to hold her
own in any position in which she
may be placed while the better half
or better eighth L suppose ought
to say-No. 4 is a young, sprightly,
dark-eyed damsel of 10 or 20, who
wears lavender kid gloves with four
buttons, and has white silk parasol
lined with black lace, and veil so
tightly tied round her straw sailors
hat that YOU might take her for a Eu-
ropean lady. Each of these four danes
has her own separate suite of servants
and most of them have children and
nurses, though to whom the families
belong ] have not been able to dis
cover. There are two pretty fair lit
tie children--a boy and girl--of
whom the Pasha is very fond. He
is always feeding them cakes, sweets
and fruit, and they have their abode
in the largest saloon, where is also a
baby in arms. But, besides, there is
a dark little boy, somewhat older, to
whom nobody pays much attention,
and who is more or less in every
bOdy's way, and evinccs disposition
to be friendly with the Giaou which
is not to be observed in his more IA
vored playmates. 1t is easy enough
to guess that he is the Ishmael of the
though who is the Hagar
cannot tell. Ii may be the pretty
soft-eyed woman | sometimes catch a
glimpse ofpeeping through the chicks
of the doorway, and who, for some
reason or other, never appears OH
deck. But this is surmise only. There
are any number of female servants:
one of them being tall negress dress
ed in white the other women who
are perpetually trOtting to and fro
from one saloon to another, and
whose faces can scarcely be seen un-
der the blue cotton shawls, which,
they keep folded close over their ia
ces. The service between the harem
and the outer world is conducted by
three body servants. The highrst
dignity is black eanech--very tall
and hideousIy ugly, with prOtruding
under jaw, a nose flattened to his face !
and immense blubber lips, who spends
his time perpetually in one saloon or
in another. but only waits upon The
ladies, in the way of bringing food or
] ghting their pipes, as amatter of ia
vOr or cOndescensiOn. Next in rank |
comes good looking young fellow
with trim moustache, who acts as a |
sort of majOr-domo and valet TO the !
Pasha, who is OH the best of terms !
with all the ladies, and is always |
with them through the doors,
and fetching and carrying for them,
though he nevcrenters the saloons
at any rate, when anybody is looking,
and last, not least, there is Il wretched
little scrub of any age bctw cen 10 and !
30. sort of Turkish '.S,r:ke, who /
acts as nursemaid to all the children. /
is bullied by all the nurses. cuffed by
the eunech, and run off his legs by
everybody. till wonder sometimes
that he does not make hole in the
water and betakc himself to Il hetter
world. Possibly on shore his life is
not so hard as it is OIL board ship.
where all his mistresses are cross,
bored and out of temper. hope so,
at any rate, for the credit of human
nature. But, even with the assistance
Of his male attendants. The life Of the
Pasha is by no means an easy one.
There is always samething going
wrong in some of the cabins, and the
podgy little man has TO puff down
from the deck scores of times during
l.. Il, 1rl,f I,oI |