Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-03-18
The Women of the Harem.

These ladies enjoy much greater
degree of liberty than is generally
supposed. They visit each other a
great deal, and enjoy all the pleasures
OF gossip and scandal which their
freer sisters can do. As they never
read. and never work, and have no
househeld duties to occupy their leis.
ure, talk, and eating ana drinking,
and unlimited smoking, are their on
~ resources for killing time. AT
home they vary these amusements,
by calling in the aid of the singing
and dancing girls, as they do not
consider it digrified 10 practice or
possess those accomplishments them
selves. The singing aud dancing
women are professionals, and gener-
ally OF very uneQuivocal character
in fact, are almost universally dis
reputable class. Then, too, on Fri,
days he ladies 60 to the bath, and
spend the day there chatting anu
gossiping with each other. This is
their club, and they enjoy it thor
oughly once a week
Shopping. too, is another of their
pastimes. In the bazars, you meet
them 10 great numbers, either on
foot or perched on small doukeys,
muffi'ed up and covered with large
'ilk cicaks. with only a bright pair
II wick looking eyes visible, and
guarded by an old woman or sable
eunuch. They are quite as eager
and as animated in shopping as any
Western woma can be. The richer
ladies have also goods brought to
their houses by female traders, who
make very profitable trade out of
their fanciful customers, who are en-
tirely regardless of expense in graft
tying any whim or caprice that seq,
es them.
The expenses of mans harem in
Turkey far surpassee all those for the
rest of his household. 1t is his most
expensive luxury.
The best trait of these lazy, idle,
and uneducated women is their devo.
ton to the offspring They are good
mothers, and their love and devo
lion are reciprocated by their child
rem. The strongest sentiment the
Turk has is his reverence for his
mother. However elev ated his pc.
sluon, DC always stands up in her
presence until invited &c sit down, a
compliment he pays TO none besides
1t is related OF the famous Ibrahim
Pasha, OF Egypt, that on one occa-
sion, having Offended bis mother, the
old lady Intentionally omitted asking
him to sit down, and compelled him
to stand up for an hour--o severe
punishment for an Oriental. Yet be
at the time was absolute arhiter of
life and dea' b throughout Egypt and
still a slave to the within of an old
""'"---, %-~~.'e~ ohio mas his mother.
Women who can command revero
ence and obedience as unqualified
as this surely must deserve it.
The practice of purchasing Geor-
gian aud Circassian women for the
harems is still kept up, Constantine
pie being the great mart or central
depot of these willing victims.
They prefer the gilded slavery of
he harems, where they soon become
deposits, to the life of hardship aud
privalion which would be their lot at
home. On all the steamers coming
from Constantinople you may meet
some sensual-loOking Turkish or
Egyptian msgnate in charge of a
beVy of yelled females, whom he ia
bringing back to replsnish his stock
of wives or slaves. They are care
fully secluded in private cabins, and
when permitted TO breathe fresh air
on deck, 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 contemporary eondoled
with on the little care their husbands
take of them, and the Indifference
they must feel towards them, in per-
hitting their unveiled faces TO be
seen by every eye. The woman is
proud of the precautions her bus
band takes TO Insure her fidelity cor
eeiviug it TO be mark of his inter-
est ia her. AT the same time they
conceive themselves perfectly at Ii
berty to battle that vigilance il they
can, and intrigue is a passion with
them, although the punishment, il
detected, is sure and sudden death.
As 10 what we regard as the pleas
ures of home and society, they are
neither known nor priced 10 those
regions. They live an animal exist,
ance, and enjoy life 10 that sense on
ly. An educated and cultivated
woman is rdra dviS among them.
Such one was princess of Said
Pashs, formerly Viceroy of Egypt
She not only was musician, but a
poe css as well, and impressed all
forelgu ladies who saw her by the
grace aud elegance of her manners
and speech.
While very young the Eastern
women may be charming, but they
become prematurely old at an age
when Western women are in their
prime. Early development Obey
are manageable 1T ten years of age)r
and the INDECENT life they lead, stuf-
fng themselves with urwholesome
food, tend TO produce this effect, to-
gether with the enervatiDg effects OF
climate and early maternity.
Snch il a true picture of the life OF
an Eastern woman, who is The pam
pered anG petted play thing, not the
companion, coui selor and friend, Of
her husband, and whose code OF NOR
atty is so lax as TO justify the re-
straints placed upon her, unless, in
deed, it may be argued that the eff
feet is produced By that very cause
ard the system which seeks TO pre-
vent produces the universal laxity o.
morals, which DO one can deny
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