Bent County register., 1888-12-29
Life Among the Arabs.

Fed by the eternal SHOWS of the Atlas
the Oued Draa river gives life to one of the
most charming oases Of the Sahara, with
circumference of 40 miles and popula-
ton of~250.000. We are now near the
borders of the Great Desert as it is called
This is not such desert as is pictured by
the imagination of the civilized American
sands, and nothing but sand to the end
of the chapter. The desert is, in reality,
composed of immense plains an llogous to
the steppes of Russia, the pampa.- of South
America, OF the Great American Desert of
our Western plains. There is no wood ;
the water isconfined % a few favored spots,
which necessarily become the halting
places of travellers, such as the great oasis
of Tronlatt. Even in the Sahara it is only
where running water il present that lux
uriant vegetation and productive fruit trees
spring forth.
Some of the smaller oases are pocket
editions of Paradise. After travelling all
day over dry and almost barren country
with only palm trees and stunted vegeta-
ton, the sight of one of these, with its
bright green foliage and brilliant flowers,
is refreshing indeed. The Arabs have
legend that Adam was once permitted to
reyisit the earth and landed in England,
but he did not know the place. Passing
over into France, Italy and Spain, Che
country began to look better but when hs
came to the Sahara he recognized his for
ner home, and exclaimed, with enthus-
iasn '.Ah, here is Eden, where | was created,
aud first saw my beauteous Eve; here l
could live forever l
In our journeyings we Travelled through
a mountain pass different from anything
t-.at ! had ever seen before. 1t was five
paces in width, with perpendicular natural
marble walls on either side, veined ami
polished, and glistened with various colors
N the sun. Through 1t rims little strear1
with lovely green banks aud outside u
trance, which efTervesces in ones mouth
like champagne. Anthony is also founi
in the pass, and gives rise to an oases call :,
Tesna. A carbonic acid spring bubbles up
close to its southern vicinity. A peculiar va
Iioty os sheep without WOOD abounds.
quail are plentiful, the sparrow family are
found in every house south of the Atlas
They are of the capsa variety, and have
@eet note, superior to the nightingale, buss
annot bear exile to the North.
Negroes are plenty in the Draa, ana are
on an equal with the other races Here we
begin to see the institution of slavery.
Slave women eau be bought from $40 to
$40, i,;t a good looking yoan2 girl is more
expensive, reaching sometimes as high as
500. Wives are not purchased, as has
band pays to the parents of his intended
the amount of the bridal outfit OF trous-
seau, which is always returned if the par
ties are divorced. No oowry is ever ex-
pected with tho wife, SO that marriage de
conveyance are unknown The women
often marry at from 10 TO IA. The young
people never meet till the wedding day,
the negotiations being made through other
parties, there being a regular market like
Saratoga or London season. l attended
a Moorish wedding, and found the young
bridegroom seated upon q platform alone
at one end of the room, and looking very
foolish, while his friends and those of the
bride frolicked and regaled themselves be-
low. After about "a hours the bride was
brought in, and the whole company es-
corted them with lamps and music to the
husbands hcme- No priest was present
,,ad no ceremony seemed necessary except
fhat the man, in the language of Scripture
Ghould take" the woman, and when not
satisfied he puts her away The position
Of woman is the key TO a nations social
State. Hard is the life and sad the slavery
Of Arab women. like all females in the pas
toTal phase of society. No spiritual tics
and no tender 7egard FOR women. Polyga-
my, the great hugbear of our mes, is
here, like our for1nei negro slavery, "a do
mestic institution 10 Arab, howeve,
mean, permits his daughter to enter the
service of another. The only way to OBJ
tain female servants is TO take another
wife. As 10 the famous eastern haremr
that is an exclusive :End fashionable insti-
tuition, kept up only by the Grand SULTAN,
the shereefs or other quite rich and in
fuential personages, as q matter OF show
and pride. The inmates are genersilly very
young girls, from to IL years of sge, and
are carefully protected and educated, and
given for wives to the favorite officers Of
The Sultan or other high dignity