The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-05-24
WOMEN OF ARABIA.
Their Heavy Street Dress and
Gauxy Street Attire.

Gauxy street ACC1re.
The Arab women, seve in rare
and pleasant exception, is hardly
what the poets and painters have
shown us. If she be graceful or
beautiful it is extremely difficult to
discover II, and she possesses nei.
ther Of these attractions after she
is 25, for she is "wife" at from II
to IA years of age, whatever that
station or condition means among
the Arabs. All there is about this
being to become ecstatic over is that
subtle prompting of poetic fancy
which ever, to the male mind pecu-
liarly, blooms like the rose in any
soil of apparent coyishness and
mystery in the gentler sex. The
Arab woman is simply vacuous,
insensate, voiceless and dreamless
human animal, sheeted like the
dead in the streets and dead to the
world when within the four window
less walls where the majestic being
who owns her keeps her penned.
The dress Of the Arab women is
all-concealing upon the street and
all-revealing in her home. The
outer garment is the haik, white,
usually of wool, sometimes of silk,
often of cotton. 1t is frequently
twenty feet in length and nearly
two yards wide. Beneath this are
precisely four articles of apparel, a
gauze chemise, and unstiffened cor
set or bodice, frequently massively
embroidered and bejeweled, panta-
looms reaching to the feet and COM
prising countless yards of material,
and the tantalizing adjur tied tight
ly around the face and falling about
twelve inches below. Most women
not satisfied with this retirement,
or perhaps more strictly speaking,
most women whose husbands are
not satisfied with this observation,
further hide the face by bringing
the haik down over one side of the
forehead, so that but one eye, a
dark eyebrow and tiny patch of
the forehead are visible.
Their feet are usually incased in
brown or yellow slippers; danglets
and banglets of indescribable jew
elry tinkle and chime from wrists,
ankles and concealed portions of
the figure; and, in this swathing
and ghostly haik, with bumped
bodies and mincing steps, those
who are allowed upon the street at
all wriggle, glide and scurry along,
like bevy Of escaped wraiths from
among the silent graves upon the
heights. But this privilege of wad.
ding about like a lot of sheeted
spooks is by no means universal
one. The young and fair see the
sunlight only through the open
courts of their dwellings, or from
the white terraces for brief hour
toward sunset. Only the aged and
safe are ever permitted to visit the
mosques, with the exception that on
Fridays, in company with servants
or elders, little excursions are al
lowed to the suburban marabouts,
or sacred temples, and the khoubas
at the cemeteries as at Belcour,
where they are allowed the cheering
diversion of filling with water the
little cups resting at the head of the
tombs; for the birds drink from
these and fly to heaven with greet
ing from the souls at rest beneath.
Indoors the dress of these women
is ETHEREAL enough for the most fer
vid artists fancy. They never see
in their homes any male but their
husbands and children. The eli
mate, like that of Cuba in winter,
and excessively hot from May until
October, has also much to do with
this. There are really but two gar
ments for everyday home wear.
One is a gauze chemise, through
which the olive-hued form is clearly
revealed. The other is the wide,
ample trousers, terminating just
below the knees, and almost as heecy
and gauzy in effect. The lowlier
women are bare-legged, bare-footed
and bare-headed at home. Wives
of the wealthier Arabs will don pink,
yellow or blue gauze silk hose and
dainty yellow babouches or slippers.
Their hair will be coiled in SIM
pie Grecian knot and fastened with
some huge jeweled ornament, and
perhaps a tiny skull cap, richly en-
broidered, will rest coquettishly on
one side of the head.
But all are bedecked with jewelry
The poorer are fond Of FURNISHED
copper bands about the arms, wrists
and ankles, or brilliant quartz and
glass cubes aud crystals strung or
pack thread, encircle their necks
The rich are ablaze with jewels
principally pearls, emeralds and
sapphires, badly set but always
genuine and of great value. There
is a legend in Algiers that the hid
den riches of the wealthier Arabs
principally comprising jewels, ex
ceeds the sum total in value of al
coin, plate and jewels otherwise