Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1873-05-06
Arab Women.

Arab Women.
| have only yet alluded slightly to that
which makes one of the great charms of AL
cicrs. mean the picturesqueness and variety
uf the costumes, especially 10 the old town.
At first it was impossible to distinguish the
different nationaties of the wearers But by
degrees we learned to tell them almost at first
sight The most picturesque are the Arabs
pur ct simple, with their tall, erect figures,
straight features, magnificent carriage, and
dark eyes. There is one pecularlty about
them, and that is that they always have their
heads covered, the whole head-dress or capote
of their burnouses being bound round the head
with thick cord or camels hair wound round
six or seven times. Their wives are shrouded
from head to foot in white haiks aud burnouses,
the only sign of difference of rank being shown
in the exceeding fneness Of the stuff worn by
the ladies, which covers them completely, only
une eye being allowed to be shown.
These poor women are looked upon as
beasts of burden in the tents and among the
lower classes willie among the upper they are
simply pampered slaves, whose one idea in life
Is to minister to the pleasure of their lords.
Various attempts have been made by the
French to emancipate them from this unhappy
condition, but as yet in vain. On this sub
ice, E. Chcrbonneau uhe head of the Ara
bic French school and learned archeooglst,
with whose labors we afterward became bet
ter acquainted at Constantine) tells the fol-
lowing anecdote, which was related to him by
the famous Mussulman lawyer, 81 Chadli
chief of the tribe of Haracta, between Ain
Bcida and Tebessa, went on some business to
Constantine A few days later he returned to
his tribe, and, calling his wife, desired her to
fetch four posts and some cord. She obeyed,
when, to her horror the chief threw her down
on the ground, lashed her to the four stakes,
and taking q stick, commenced beating her
with all his might
Her cries brought all the inhabitants of the
tents to their doors, who endeavored, though in
vain, to stop her husbands arm. But what
has she done u they exclaimed. "She Is the
pearl of the tribe, the best of mothers. the
model of wives I" 'What has she done p re-
heving my mind" At last, being exhausted
by his own fury. he condescended to stop and
explain that, at Constantine, he had seen an
Arab woman, backed upb the French authori-
ties, drag her husband before the court to COM
plain of his i-usage, and the kadi had actually
given judgment in her favor So monstrous an
iniraction Of Arab usages had infuriated the
chief to such degree that be had forgotten the
object of bis journey, and only hurried home to
wrcak his vengeance, for the insult offered to
the male sex Oh the body of his unhappywlie
-Laey HuJat's algeria"
"EARTu's DESTINY time is coming
when there will be no more shipwrecks; when
ocean steamers will not sink CT disappear, and
when coasters need no longer fear the dread
Ice shore. 1t will not be this year or next, but
it sometime will be, if we can credit recent
article by Professor Winchell, of Michigan. 1t
appears-or rather it is, though it does not yet
appear-that the waters of the earth are dry
ing up. The earth is COOLING the water works
its way deeper and deeper into the crust each
year, and io the course of time 1t will DE soaked
up without evaporation; ocean and atmosphere
alike will be drawn into the cold embrace OF
the earth, which will be left frozen desert,
floating through space throughout all time,
like an empty ship in the Arctic seas. His
theory is that, as order came out of chaos by
the cooling of the exterior of the melted mass
cs, 80 this same process is to continue to the
end. He finds confirmation for this in the pres
ent condition of the moon, which, undoubtedly,
once was what the earth was, but it has gradu-
ally cooled off to be "a fossil world, an ancient
ciuder suspended in the heavens once the seat
of all the varied and intense activities which
now characterize the surface of our earth, but
in the present period realm of silence and
stagnation." Other heavenly bodies show
other stages of the process Saturn in its ring
condition is the freshest; then Jupiter, where
watery mists are beginning to gather IN va
porous envelope, producing rain; then the
earth as it Isl and then Mars, which is enter
ing upon the decline of the organic phase and
where rains are infrcquent and cold is encroach-
lug. Last Of all is the earth's moon, as already
described. The reason why the moon has be-
come desert before the earth, is that it Is
mtly-nlnc times smaller and hence cools forty
S'ne Sne times quicker. If any one, there
oDoi ,".J' can Just fnd when the moon began to
uoS rEoiI Iao I how long time the operation occu-
oI' tho lo ne Can make an easy calculation as to
,"os "o .Glgtn CT our future and the value of 500
s, seas ieases. The theory does not precisely
'J "J'pio win the idea that we are to be destroy
w W neat unless that be interpreted in the
S neSa'LVe NV sense OF destroying us by leaving us,
o. uo .ne present condition of the Atlantic ocean,
W., W. even nearer home, of Connecticut river, does
os 80. secm TO imply imminent danger of lack
" u, "ater. Snl, with such prospect, even in
;n e ienote future, men can laugh at the rag
fs hMmers--especiany since many of them,
aJItcS.ailng the disappearance, have already
auopted substitute for it as an article of con-
sumption and daily need.
G. EXrANs1oN' IN THE DRUG TRADE
oome recent examinations of q few of the most
important articles in the drug trade show
surprising, facility and extent of adulteration
;;auong other features in this line is the mix
,"s OF olive oil with lard oil or cotton seed oil,
s, Illeh IS very commonly done. The article of