The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-03-08
The Women of the Harem
These women enioy a much greater

Joy all the pleasures of gossip and scandal
which their freer sisters can do. AS they
never read and never work, and have no
household duties to occupy their leisure,
talk, eating and drinking, and unlimited
smoking are their only resources for killing
time At home they vary these amusements
by calling in the aid of the singing and dane
ing girls, as they do not consider it digniGed
to practice or possess these accomplishments
themselves. The singing and dancing wom-
en- are professionals, and generally of very
unequivocal character-in fact, are almost
universally disreputable class. Then, too,
on Fridays the ladies go to the bath, and
spend the day there, chatting and gossiping
with each other. This is their club, and
they enjoy it thoroughly once week. Shop
ping, too, is another of their pastimes.
In the bazar you meet them in great num-
bers, either on foot or perched on small
donkeys, muff1ed up and covered with large
silk cloaks, with only bright pair of wick
ed looking eyes visible, and guarded by an
old woman or sable eunucb They are quite
as eager and as animated in shopping as any
Western woman can be. The richer ladies
have also goods brought to their houses
by female traders, who make very profita-
BILE trade out of their fanciful customers
who are entirely regardless of expense in
gratifying any whim or caprice.
z The expenses of a mans harem in Tur-
key far surpass those for the rest of his
household. They are his most expensive
luxury.
The best trait of these lazy, idle, and un-
educated women is their devotion to their
offspring. They are good mothers, and
their love and devotion is reciprocated
by their children. The strongest sentiment
Turk has ishis reverence for his moth
er. However exalted his position, he al
ways stands up in her presence until in
vlted to sit down, a compliment he pays
to none besides.
1t is related of the famous Ibrahim Pa
sha, of Egypt, that on one occasion, having
offended his mother, the old lady intention
ally omitted asking him to sit down, and
compelled him to stand for an hour, a severe
punishment for an Oriental. Yet he, at the
time, was actual arbiter of life and death
throughout Egypt, and still slave to the
whim of an old woman, because she was
his mother. Women who can command
this surely must deserve it.
The practice of purchasing Georgian wom-
en- and also Circassians for the harems is
still kept up, Constantinople being the great
mart or central depot of these willing vic
tins.
They prefer the gilded slavery of the har-
ems, where they soon become despots, to
the life of hardship and privation which
would be their lot at home. On all the
steamers coming from Constantinople you
may meet some sensual looking Turkish or
Egyptian magnate in charge of bevy of
velled females, whom he is bringing back to
replenish his stock of wives or slaves. They
are carefully secluded in private cabins, and
when permitted to breathe the fresh air on
deck, they resemble walking bundles of black
silk; so carefully are they enveloped. neither
face nor figure to be seen.
The surprise of foreign visitors to these
Gagged birds is very great when they are con-
doled with on the little care their husbands
take of them, and the Indifference they must
ieel towards them, in permitting their un-
yelled faces to be seen by every eye. The
Eastern woman is proud of the precautions
her husband takes to secure her fidelity,
conceiving it to be a mark of his interest in
her. At the same time they consider them
selves perfectly at liberty to battle that Wig
lance II they can, and intrigue is passion
with them, although the punishment, if de-
tected, is sure and instant death.
As to what we regard as the pleasures of
home and society, they are neither known
nor priced in these regions. They live an
animal existence, and enjoy life in that sense
only. An educated and cultivated women
IS rare sight with them. Such a one was
the princess of Said Pasha, former Viceroy
OF Egypt. She was not only musician, but
poetess as well, and impressed all foreign
ladies who saw her by the grace and elegance
OF her manner and speech.
While very young the Eastern women
may be very charming, but they become
prematurely old at an age when Western
women are in their prime. Early develop
ment (they are marriageble at ten years of
ageQ and the indolent life they lead, stuffing
themselves with unwholesome food. tend to
produce this effect, together with the ener
waiting effect of climate and early maternity.
Such is the true picture of the life of an
Eastern woman, who is the petted and PAM
pered and petted plaything, not the compan-
ion, counselor and friend of her husband, and
whose code of morality is so lax as to justi
fy the restraints placed upon her, unless, in
deed, it may be argued that the effect is pro-
duced by that very cause, and the system
which seeks to prevent produces the univer-
sal laxity of morals, which no one can deny.
Magazine.
drinking wire is q habit so is drink.