Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-01-11
Sights In Algirrs.

A writer in the Gentlenlai1's ) Magazine
chats pleasantly about what he saw in
Algiers: Any of the streets ascending
which may almost be considered as the
extreme limit of the European town.
will lead Immediately to the Mahometan
quarter. Here will be found obscure
and frequently vaulted narrow thorough
fares, resembling alleys, bordered by
houses, where the monotony of the bare
plaster walls is only broken at wide in
tervals by quite small easements crossed
with iron bars, and low arched doorways.
There are no gardens or verdure, and
hardly foot of even sickly-looking vine
or fig tree dying amidst the rubbish of
its cross-ways there are mosques so
surrounded by buildings that they can
hardly be seen, vapor baths whittier
people go mysteriously, the men at
night, the women in the daytime. In a
word, the Mahometan quarter of Algiers
is compact and confused mass of ma
sonry, where almost every vestige of life
is hidden, and where it seems as if it
were forbidden that gaiety should be
heard. The doors of the houses are
never opened but half way, and they
then close again by their own weight.
Every thing looks suspicious about these
curious buildings, which are admirably
adapted for their masters love of secre-
cy. The small easements looking on to
the street are barred, and every kind of
precaution is taken against curiosity
from without and indiscretion from
within.
Inside these bare, dismal-Iooking
walls and massive doors, resemble the
gates of citadels, and the two great
mysteries of the country---namely, the
personal fortune of its inhabitants, and
its women, of either of which much is
known. Money hardly circulates. 1t
is only seen passing from the hand of
an Arab to an Arab hand, and is only
used to purchase the ordinary daily
necessities of life, and jewelry. The
women go ont but seldom. In public
they are invariably yelled, and the baths,
which are their usual places of resort,
are inviolable. Passing along these
lonely alleys, beside these silent dwell.
ings, one hears noise which are almost
imperceptible to the human ear, and
Whispers which might be mistaken fol-
sighs. At times it is the sound of @
voice coming through an aperture il
the wall, or descending from the terrace
on the roof of the house at others it is
the whimpering of a child complaining
in strange tongue, whose lisp mingled
with sobs has no Specification for {
foreign ear at others again it is the
strain of an instrument whose unique
note, slowly marking the measure of al
unheard song, seems to accompany {
dream. 1t is thus that the captive con
soles himself, dreaming of O liberty
which she has never had, and which she
cannot understand. There is an Aral
proverb which says, "When q woman
has seen the guest, she cares no more
for her husband, " andupon this precep
the whole system of conjugal life among
Mahometans is based. Their houses
whether they be agreeable or not t.
those by whom they are inhabited
whether their interiors be luxurious O.
poor, are prisons. They are like irol
safes, of which the avaricious masters
have the keys, and within which the,
lock up all their secrets, so that no ont
may know what they possess.