National Republican., 1888-05-13
THE WOMEN OF MOROCCO.
They Have Lustrous Eyes, Shapcly
Forms, and Clear Skins.
[Boston Trayeler.1

Boston Traveller
In the cities throughout Morocco found
it impossible to get more than passing
view of woman's face, so jealousy are
they veiled and guarded, and especially
among the higher classes, where the women,
possessing no more intelligence than n
child, are taught that all men but their
lords and owners are fends. Occa-
sionally, however, by accident or de-
sign, the face covering would be
dropped for an instant Just as woman
passed me, and at the same time an arm
and shoulder would be presented to my
gaze. The women Of Morocco are of all
shades and colors and must say that some
of the handsomest women ever saw, both
in feature and form, were full-blooded
negresses. Another surprise was to notice
that many of the Moorish beauties
would show snowy, rounded arm and
a clear pink and white skin that the
most beautiful woman in Boston would
have been glad to possess, but where they
got this skin and complexion could never
find out, for the men, perhaps from their
constant exposure to the sun, are tanned
and blackened to the color almost of the
negroes. In thecountry all is different, and
little attempt is made by the women to be
stingy with their charms, unless from some
religious motives, and to this freedom of
the country many poor, simple girl owes
hSr Pooa'Sn 90 rr'nGe ,1,,; aSHarita IN the har"m
perfections while travelling by her fathers
tent or hut.
The principal figure among the washers
was a Comely young woman of perhaps 20.
with bright, intelligent face and form
that could not be criticised, and as she
swung her ltthe body around could not
but fancy her in pink silk tights and satin
slippers. Jacob selected this young person
to exercise his Oriental imagination upon
by telling her tall yarns about my
Importance, and l soon found myself
in for more attention than a man of
retiring tastes would know what to do
with. 1t was all right when she felt
of my boots to see what they were made of,
and by a determined effort of the will kept
quiet when she took my hat off and ran her
fingers through my hair; for while, of course,
l did not like II at all, at the same time
was afraid of lacerating the feelings of this
tender daughter Of the desert, and submit
ted; but when she found had pockets and
commenced to 90 through them to see what
what they contained, i felt the time had come
for me to tell her there was only one woman
in the world who had right to 90 through
mypockets for keeps, and so tried to change
the subject. Then she pulled one of my
gloves off and put my hand on her arm to
Il
Jacob with gasp if he did not think the
mules were loaded by this time, but he was
so busy sneezing Arabic at n little brown
skinned maiden that he paid no attention to
me. Then my companion ran over to Jacob
and talked to him with great animation,
pointing the meanwhile with many gesticu-
latiOns, and Jacob interpreted that she had
n small sister Of fourteen whose marriage
pice was a certain weight Of silver equal to
| nf Cn Ul n
wife could have her.
| may say here that the marriage price is
always paid to the parents of the bride at
the wedding, and the moncyis held in sacred
trust for the bride, us the laws of Morocco
on the divorce question are so free and gen
erous that all man has to do is to open his
door and put his wife out into the street, In
which case she goes back to her parents and
lives in dizzy luxury on the income of - or
$40. The horror andindignation with which
heard this proposition will leave my poor
innocent fellowman to imagine, but re-
Trained from reading her lecture on the
enormity of trying to inveigle an innocent
man into bigamy for fear she would bring
down her cousins and aunts, and should
find myself the possessor of Il ready-made
harem before / had been Il week in the in
terror; so called Jacob and retreated in a
hurry, first giving her three empty glass bot
ties, which seemed to be of tremendous
value in her eyes, and an empty tin can to
a little girl who was playing with half
dozen other little savages as naked
as when they came into the world, By the
way, their play was the one bit of nature
that makes the whole world kin, for as
watched them il did not take long to see
that they We're making long rows of mud
pies and putting them into a little Moorish
oven of their own manufacture to bake,
only instead of the dear familiar nightmare
creator of New England, they took the
shape of Moorish bread and koos-koos,
which last, to the Arab, is what the holy
bean is to Boston.