St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-08-28
IN THEPERSIAN HAREM
Beauty and Youth the Only Qualifications
Required-The Amusements Of
the Ladies.
Much Coveted demonstrating In
Glass Coaches--Those Who Have
Ceased to Please.
How Fresh Acquisitions for the Sc
raglfo Are Obtained
and Bepainted.

| was that 10 male person over 10 years OF
age should be found on the line of route of
royal wife or daughter. 1t was death to
disobey this order. Even now Europeans
wisely avoid unpleaSantneSs by turning
down side street when they hear the
shouts of ''gitchen" ii. e., 'begone" in
TurkiSh) from the eunuchs who accompany
the palace ladies.
The late American minister Mr.. Benja-
min, made a great mistake OH one occasion
by neglecting this plan. With true Ameri-
can simplicity he was accustomed to ride
! through the streets with only one servant.
Meeting the procession one day, he failed
to turn out of its path. The result was
that his servant was beaten and he himself
was hustled into byroad. Next day he
duly lodged a complaint of this treatment
and had to put up with the apology ''that,
naturally, the royal servants could not
recognize q 'one-horse minister"
| Gen. Gersteiger Kahn, an Austrian officer
| OF engineers, many years in the service of
the shah, was wiser in his generation. He
met the late queen-mother and the royal
ladies when he was on foot, turned his face
| to the wall like native, and as each car
| rage passed deliberately saluted from the
back of his head.
THE LADIES SCREAMED
with laughter and told the shah, who per-
| Suaded him to repeat his novel Salutes, and
| then congratulated him on his discretion.
A good deal is known of the royal seraglio
from those who have had opportunities of
seeing it; but these persons are few. A
French pianiste, Nine. Hadii Abbas, an
| aged French woman who passed forty years
In the royal palace as interpreter to the
royal ladies, and all Italian lady, the wife
of the Mustaufiul- Mamalek, were the only
| persons in Persia who could really
| speak on this subject with authority.
| During my long residence in Persia only
knew of one harem tragedy; in that case a
| black slave was pistoled and lady died.
| But these accidents did not occur in the
kings palace. / remember an unfortunate
who, while he was engaged in excavating a
water course, suddenly found himself in
the royal harem and nearly died of fright.
But the king, seeing how the matter stood,
pardoned him. Fresh acquisitions for
THE sERAGLIo
arrive frequently, at times in patches. The
| mode OF getting rid of those who have
| ceased to please is simple and yet ingen-
ious. There is no sewing up in sacks, no
casting from towers, no bowstring, no
| poisoning. Some provincial general is in
formed that he will be favored with wife
from the royal harem. To refuse is i'm
| possible; the disguised lady arrives and
| is placed at the head of her new husbands
| household. She usually insists on his inn
mediately divorcing his other wives, and in
any case treats them as interiors. One of
my Persian friends was Gen. F-Khan.
He became the recipient of one of these
royal favOrs. She led him a sad life, and
he never alluded to her but Tin whisper)
as 1.-The old camel"
| Beauty and youth are the few and simple
| qualifications for entering the royal harem.
Various accomplishments, such as singing,
| playing on the hand-drum, the tambourine
| or the harmonica, are often acquired after
| the lady has been received into the seragIio.
Every lady who becomes
A ROYAL WIFE ~
has separate establishment and servants
of her own in the harem Enclosure. Only
| the fresh arrivals, and those who have
failed to please, live together in sort of
| barrack, under the supervision of the
Amin-i-Akdas, an old favorite who acts
as sort of ''mother of the maids" Every
| Thursday there is kind of review, the
Shah personally inspecting the whole es
tablishment other than the recognized wives
and favorites. The throwing of the hand
kerchief is no invention, and has not gone
out of practice.
The number of legitimate wives Tor akdi)
for ever Mussulman is four. The
head wife, the cousin of the Shah,
having the Q title of Shukues-Sul-
tana, is the great-granddaughter of Futteh
Ali Shah, a monarch whose family was so
large that ITO of his descendants were alive
at his death. This lady is mother of the
crown prince of Valiad. Her marriage
with the king was one of policy. The next
wife in seniority is the daughter of a son of
| Futteh Ali Shah. She is only known to
| rumOr as having a somewhat sharp temper.
| The third wife and the actual favorite is
| the AnyS-n-Dowlet She has been legiti-
mate wife nearly ten years, is very fat.
| fairly good-looking, and is said to be very
| goOd-tempered and attractive. She actually
accompanied the Shah as far as Moscow on
his first journey to Europe, but the at
tempts to see her by the
RUSSIANS OF ALL CLASSES
| were so pertinacious that to her great
disappointment she was sent back to
Teheran. The Anys-u-Dowlet has
| immense influence, and yet she
| never takes bride. But her own family
is well cared for Three of her relatives
| fill important positions at the court, where
their reputation is not that of their royal
| kinswoman. The whole family were the
children of village miller who lived near
| Dimarvend, a nearly extinct Volcano which,
| capped with eternal snow, towers over
Teheran, and may be seen at distance of
| 200 miles.
| Of the Seegahs, the mother of the Zil-es-
| Sultan, the kings eldest son. is the senior.
| She looks well after the interests of her
| q TX nd Crir har
brother, who occupies the Office OF master
of the horse to his nephew, is an extremely
rude and rough kind of a parsonage. The
mother of Naib-u-Sultaneh, a favorite son
! OF the shah (WhOm he much resembleS),
ranks next. This lady also is not of royal
blood, being the daughter Of the maimar-
bashi, or head architect.
THE ADJUSTMENTS
of the ladies are tea parties. music story
telling, the bath-in which they spend
many hours-picnics, excursions in the
royal carriages, smoking and the eating
and making of sweetmeatS and confection-
cry and pickles. The honor of being Sc
lected to accompany the king on his hunt
ing excursions is much coveted and jeal-
ouSly intrigued for. When in the large
glass coaches of the king the ladies are not
cruelty careful to conceal their charms
from the casual European. Most of those
who were in the habit of driving on the
Gulahak road, the drive outside Teheran.
have caught many glimpses of
the royal ladies as their car
riages passed the vehicles of the
Feringhis at gallop. These lights of the
harem are much bedizened and much
painted, and as rule-and except for their
magnificent eyes-ugly. Possibly the ladies
dosnot go out till they have become little
passees; or not perhaps, till increasing
obesity renders carriage exercise a ne
cessity. 1t must not be supposed that all
or even most Persian ladies are fat and
ugly; that would be quite mistake. Life
i'll the royal harem tends to fairness per-
haps.
Formerly the kings harem was governed
by the shah's mother, who had immense in
fuence with her son. She was stern
mOnltreSS, and harem executions under her