Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-07-26
GLIMPSES OF HkREM LIFE.
How Gentle Woman Is Loved and Potted
In Pharaoh's Old Land.

IN VI" .<fs'
Gen. Loring's New Book.
The ladies constituting the families of
the late khedive, Ishmail Pasha, and of
his numerous sons, are, in many respects,
an exception to a general rule in their
accomplishments, education and man.
ners. While they have, in many res
poets, European customs and habits, yet
these are modified by restraints of Sc
clusion and they share with their sis
tiers of all classes the odious law of the
prophet that they should be held pris-
oners under rigid surveillance of guar
dams especially prepared for the unholy
office.
Statements are made that serious mis-
understandings often occur among them
in consequence ofthis oppression. There
is no doubt that the beautiful young
daughter of the khedive, who was accus-
toned until thirteen years of age to visit
the opera without veil, rebelled when
the time came for incarceration, and that
she lamented in tears her unfortunate
fate. Marrying soon after seclusion, she
lived but a few months. Universally
the Moslem women know nothing of
life, being simply pieces of furniture in
their homes. With no education, they
are strangers to the interests and affairs
of their masters decked on. with fine
dresses and jewelry, they are sensuously
content.
They amuse themselves in crlncbing
melon seeds, eating candy, smoking Gig
arettes and showing their jewelry and
fine toilets TO their friends. Living a
life of case and Incidence, they are never
supposed to soil their hands with labor
or rack their brains with thought. When
they tot, their sole occupation is to beau
tify themselves. When young they are
well made; their extremities are fine
and their hands soft, white and supple,
and they might be likened to the bud
ding flower which opens at the first rays
of the morning sun. Their compilations
are white and their cheeks tinted with
rose their eyes are sometimes blue, but
that is exceptional; they are generally
black as jet, and when fully open are
almond form and full of sensibllity and
delicate sweetness. They never conceal
them, and gallant men often confess
that they have intertered with their re-
pose of mind. 1t is pleasing to speak of
these beauties, for they have few to ad-
mire even this much of their comeliness.
The houses, many of them, are elegant
and 80 constructed as to completely con-
ceal the hidden glances of the fair who
are doomed to eternal isolation when
without veil, as no woman can be seen
lawfully by any other man than her hus-
band. She is forbidden the homage
that all nature demands Controlled by
powerful hand an bound irrevocably
by custom, she is compelled not only to
kiss the hand of her tyrant but to hug
the chain which manacles her.
This despotism is the more extraordi-
nary on the part of the men, inasmuch
as they pretend to feel delight in beauti-
jul objects of nature; they will watch
he play of birds for hours, and think it
crime to disturb or deprive them of
inc free air they breathe. Yet they in
Iarcerate the loveliest and most beauti-
hui of all the Creators works, and think
h a great favor to permit woman's en-
oyment of Towering shrub in some
hidden recess.
In tearing aside the impenetrable cur
lain of the harem, it is only to see its in
mates, like the flower which the heated
Khamsin touches, whitening under a
zeal Gus despot whom the law arms with
complete power and whose cruel suspic.
| is the rule aud custom, which alone reg
ulates society among Mohammedans, If
intercourse between the sexes there can
he dignified with 50 exalted aterm. The
women rarely leave their homes, or even
enjoy the beauties of nature, as do the
men, who profess great love for rare ex-
otics and beautiful flowers. They are
employed in preserving their complex
ions, the delicate tint of which is never
blemished by the light of the sun, and
enhancing their beauty by every means
that long-studied art can effect only 10
please one whose delight is assured when
he knows that his prisoner is safely con-
fined. 1t seems incredible to men used
TO our Western civilization that in the
nineteenth century, among so large a
portion ofthe human family there should
be an impassable barrier drawn between
the two sexes, when every manly inspir-
alton dictates generous sympathy for
the delicate and graceful woman whose
instincts prompt her TO trust in man as
the natural protector of her sex. Here
she finds in him, on the contrary, vio-
lator of great law of nature, who as
sumes the right not only TO shackle her
mind, but also to cenfine her person by
a law of his own operation.
So binding is the law that no man
shall see the face of a woman rot his
property, that in case of a violation of its
sanctity il looks with favor on the action
of the injured husband should he solace
his jealousy with the life of the intruder.
1t is not even permitted to recognize a
woman outside of the harem. In spite
of strenuous precautions and the difficult
ties which environ them. Moslem wo-
men, eluding the greatest watchfilness,
are fond of coquetting Like their Western
sisters. Though entirely uncultivated,
they have delicate and pretty ways, and
show, as if by accident, their beautiful |
iresses and jewelry in opening the black
,;ll- bobo "a N that envelOnes them when