Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-12-16
CIRCAssIAN SLAVE GIRLS.
Their Lot Is IA Happy One, and They
Are Invariably COnlented.

We have wasted good deal of sym
pathy upon the Circaseian girls who are
sold to the highest bidder in the Turkish
slave market. They have been brought
up with an eye to this fate from baby.
hood. They are expected to make the
family fortune; are given the daintiesi
food, and their health and beauty are
matters of constant solicitude. Warm,
perfumed baths and silken clothing keep
their skins soft and fresh. and they are
allowed to do no work. The rest of the
family usually fare hard, eat coarse food
and do rough labor.
When the future slave girl has reached
budding womanhood she is disposed of
to dealer in slaves, who let's his best
customers know that he possesses a
treasure almost priceless, and all her
virtues and beauties are detailed with
the usual Oriental eXaggeration. Finally
some royal Princess or rich Paeha's wife
expresses wish to see her, and extra
care having been taken with her bath
and dress, she is presented for inspec-
ton.
From long preparation and jealous
guarding from the sun she has skin as
white as milk, and her naturally beauti-
full type OF face is adorned with the
usual tints of kohl to the eyebrows and
eyelashes and rouge to the full red lips
Her exquisitely shaped nails glow with
henna, and her own luxurious hair is
intertwined with meshes of silk (for the
Prophet curses women who join their
own hair to that of another) till it
reaches her ankles in an uneven mum ber
of trails, an even number being forbid
den.
She gives samples OF her accomplish
ments, musical, gymnastic and other
wise. Accepted, she is at once clothed
with rich silk dress and receives pre-
sent of a necklace or bracelet as an
earnest of favor before she Joins her
feilow-slaves. Beyond assisting her mis-
tress in the toilet, accompanying her in
her drives and handing her coffee and
cigarettes, she has little to do. She is
an ornamental appendage rather than
a servant. When the time comes for her
to be married her owner chooses hus-
band and gives rich dover, and many
OF the marriages of slave girls eclipse in
magnificence, even those OF the wealthier
classes.
The erstwhile barefooted, ragged little
Circassian from Turcoman's land is now
q ilASCoo, vi l. d5lId o WIG, Will SLAVES
of her own, but she would laugh if you
suggested to her that there was anything
degrading in their position or bad been
in her own. The degradation and the
hardships are simply ideas formed in
ignorance of the facts and conditions of
Oriental domestic life and have no place
in reality. Of course there is another
side to the picture. but even that is not a
very dark one. The girl may fall under
the displeasure of either the master or
mistress, and will then get punished.
She may be locked up for a few hours,
or, if her mistress is hot.tempered, have
her hair pulled and receive sounding
box on the ear. Perhaps in very rare
and extreme cases a severe beating may
be administered, but the same might
and would often happen in the case OF
paid servant. A reconciliation, however,
shortly takes place and the peace is
cemented with present of new dress
or trinket Il Fashion Bazaar