Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-11-16
WOMEN IN THE EAST.
\ Graphic Description of Moorish Brids
 and Harems.

Ker in Harper's Bazar, l had to change | trains at nightfal on the new African rail- 1 way from Gran to Blidah, and on entering l my new car was startled tC find it tenanted l by eight silent, motionless fgures-four on | each side-shrouded from head to foot in | long white robes which hid their faces as well as their forms, and made them look, in l that ghostly twilight, disagreeably like l risen corpses Hardly had I squeezed my self into a corner at the far end of this spec tral file, when, just as the train started, in | leaped tall Arab Sheik, whose snowy | tunic, crimson girdle, silver-hilted dagger and d-fringed turban overhanging his swarthy, black-bearded face and dark, lus- trous eyes, seen by Q passing gleam of lamp-light, made picture worthy of Meis- sonier himself.
 There could be no doubt about it-I had intruded upon a native hareml At sight of nc the Sheik's face darkened, and his strong brown fingers clutched in- stinctively at his dagger hilt; but l at once held out my hand to him with tho usual Arabic salutation, announcing myself at the same time as "hadji' (pilgrim), tho title given to those who have visited tho holy places of Arabia. This seemed to pacify him, and having satisfied himself that my intrusion was purely accidental, he became friendly enough. But during the whole journey tho spectres around us never spoke or moved, and their ghostly figures haunted my dreams for many . night after.
 Such was my first glimpse of an Eastern ! harem; but my later travels introduced mo 1 to other harems of all cresds and races, l from that of the Afghan Ameer's father-in- | law in the Himalaya, down to that of John Dunn, "the White Chief of Zululand," on
 tho sunny hills of tho Tugela How much custom as well as sentiment has to do with l this strange institution, was proved to mo l by the fact that the Boy of Tunis, when I
 visited his palace, shortly before the French
 annexation, was actually keeping up at an
 enormous cost, merely in deference to Mos
 lem usage, harem which he never entered,
 and the ladies ot which he did not even 1 know by sight.
 Nor is an Eastern lady's entrance upon 1 her married hfo one whit less barbaric than
 that life itself, as l had a good chance of | seeing tho other day Tn Morocco. Return-
 ing from a visit to some of those wonderful | ruins with which tho country abounds, 1
 was startled by sound of distant firing,
 now in dropping shots and now in sharp, 1 crashing volleys, as if a great battle was 1 raging beyond the low, curving ridge on my | right. forced my way up it through
 dense jungle of tall, spiky grass and looked down from it's crest upon very striking l spectacle.
 Around a fine, brown horse, bearing one
 
 l Eastern women are carried, ring of 1 white-robed red-capped Moors stood ranged l behind their horses, firing over them at a cloud of herce-looking horsemen who kept 1 whirling round them, yelling and firing,
 while their griw faces and brandished
 weapons, streaming white mantels and flashing eyes, ftfully seen through billowy
 smoke, made a perfect picture of desert
 war. But suddenly the dismountcd men,
 ceased firing, and began to move in Q kind
 of wild dance, to the shrill note of a pipe
 and the deep boom of native drum, throw
 ing up and catching their long rifles, while
 the horsemen kept flashing past them at
 full gallop, with ear-piercing war-cries, dis
 charging their pieces in the air
 The sham fight was in honor of the fair inmate of the litter, the forty-first bride of
 a fine old Moorish gentleman thrice her age,
 who was revcrenced as a saint on the
 strength of his being stupider, dirtier and
 moro useless than any one else. And now
 came fling down the slope a long train of
 men from the brides village, laden with
 presents for her, each of which cost the giver moro than months hard-earned
 wages.
 Three days later stood in the inner court
 ef Moorish harem, such as that to which
 she had been consigned. and fancied myself
 once more in the palaces of Agra or Samar
 cand. Here, as there, all was purely Ori- ental, unmarred by any hoof-mark of that
 utilitarian civilization which has turned the , King of Oudes palace at Lucknow into a l, hotel, his audience hall into Q dining room, and his harem into suite of bedrooms. : Through the open roof was seen the cloud blue of the sky, but the dazzling sunshine,
 as 1t streamed down into the shadowy : court, was subdued to a rich summer gloom of purple twilight, such as that which steals through the windows of some vast cathe- dral. All around the four sides of the quadrangle ran broad shady cloister formed by stately file of key-shaped Sar. !, acenic arches of snow-white marble, the edges of which, fretted as dehcately as those of sea-shell, stood out in pictur esque relief against the deep shadow o1 the backC round.
 l This cloister Cthe allotted promenade of the caged beauties) was paved with black-and white slabs, and had ceiling of splendidly p carved wood work. Along the upper part a of the wall-which, like the ceiling itself :, was painted with a profusion of those U bright tints which give so much life ant | color to the dusky lanes of Tripoli, Fez ol ' Tetuan-were engraved, in strange, arrowy Eastern letters, sundry texts of the Koran
 supposed to have & magical as well as
 religious virtue. At tho far end of the cour !. rose low, deep archway of sinister aspect y rendered doubly gloomy by tho black tile '' 1 with WnlCn It was 10Ceu, GG WHICH buS gray
 bearded Moorish veteran who guided m Q cast @ glance of somber meaning, whicl d was his sole answer to my questions con 0 cerning it. The whole open space in tn Q middle of the quadrangle was a perfec miracle of tessellated pavement, and in it It center sprayed and tinkled tiny fountai Il of polished white marble.
 't Once within these fatal walls, the high ? bred Circassan beauty, the bold, brigh h Persian maiden, tho free Soudanese girl c It the desert, are alike dwarfed into spoile 10 children, tricked out with jewels and fnery d lolling on couches, eating sweetmeats an 10 slipping sherbet and finding in small picker a' ings and petty jealousies tho sole excite ls ments of that weak and pulseless vegets n tion which they call life.
 ,a Ike Cats of Coylon.
 r. Ceylon cats arc a curions instance of whs ,e evolution has accomplished in the way ( ss adapting creatures to environments. The % have no tails, and arc able, by lack of ths 10 nppendage, to initiate rabbits, and so ge ,e them into their clutches. They are gres
 rabbit catchers, and as such are valuab
 beyond all other cats in Australia. They hay
 been introduced into this country, bl