Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-29
A PEEP AT ALGIERS.
Oriental Magnifcence Displayed in
Arabian Costumes
ABLAZE WITH THE RARESTJEWELS.
Women Who Walk the City Streets Wear
ing White Shrouds.
THE MOSQUE SID ABD-EL-RHAMAN


of Algiers are by no means the wierd, un-
couth and ferocious Arabs of the desert.
They are as body as different in appear
ance, dress, customs, and what may be at
least called an Oriental refinement, as are
the splendidlv-formed, intellectual and cul-
tivated people of our American cities differ
ent from the roughest cowboys of the plains,
or the "poor whites" of the mountain re-
gions of the South. Their manner is at all
times of the most polished dignity and
austere gravity. This is perhaps more true
of Arao men than Arab women; and 1t is
possible that his interesting costume ADDS
mreh to his impressiveness III this regard.
The CITY Arab, or Moor, as he is often
termed, of good circumstances, is always
well-dressed man and is invariably one OF the
cleanest beings on earth. do not know
lust how many doors OF heaven are opened"
forcleanliness by Islam; but the Koran makes
it part of, rather than "neIt to, F" godliness.
The city Arab pure and simple, as we'll as
the Algerian Moor, who, for distinction,
should be fixed in the mind as the Arab
who has intermarried with other, chiefly Ori-
entail, races, alike wear richly embroidered
waistcoats, with bright-colored and often
jeweled sashes, baggy, zouave-like white
trousers, which stop short just below the
knees, exposing bare, brown legs to the
feet. The feet are encased in slippers or
sandals, which can be removed instantly.
Some, like the Algerian Jews, wear the
richest of silk stockings.
AN ARABIAN DUDE.
The outer garment is the white burnous, a
wrap often of the most delicate wooden text
ure, frequently seven yards in length, which
is gracefully draped from the shoulders, or
head and shoulders. With the pure Arab
the burnous becomes part OF the headgear,
q sort of hood, bound round and round with
q silk or hempen cord; but the Moor, who
is a greater dandy, may always be distin-
cuished by his turban, piece of spotless
muslin wound about q bright red skull cap,
called a shashea. Either the Arab or Moor
is ludicrous figure bumped on the back of
the diminutive donkey, which seems to have
reached an extreme OF littleness in Algiers,
for here it is scarcely larger than healthy
goat But astride his white or, dsppled,
Arab horse-although the idea OF the
Arab steed" being a wonderful animal is
all a mistake, as it simply possesses the
hardy and lively qualities OF spirited mus
tang-or striding with measured tread and
flowing robes along these quaint old streets,
or still standing against some Moresque
gateway, he is always a majestic and i'm
pressive figure.
The Arab woman, save in rare and pleas
ant exceptions, is hardly what the poets and
painters have shown us. Ii she be graceful
or beautiful, it is extremely difficult to dis
cover it; and she possesses neither of these
attractions after she is %, for she is a
"wiie" at from u to IA years of age, what
ever that station or condition means among
the Arabs. All there is about this being to
become ecstatic over is that subtle prompt
ing of the poetic fancy which ever, to the
male mind peculiarly, blooms like the rose
in any soil of apparent coyishness and mys-
terry in the gentler sex.
NOT A woMAN's RICHTER.
The Arab woman is simply vacuous, in
sensate, voiceless and dreamless human ami
NAL, Sheeted like the dead, in the streets,
and dead to the world when within the four
windowless walls where the majestic being
who owns her keeps her penned. You can
make nothing more or less of her. And
while upon the subject the thought invol-
UNFAIRLY comes that the relation of woman
to society in this Oriental existence affords
curious ethical study, in its striking simili-
tude to that tendency toward extremes,
which is so marked 4 feminine characteristic
of our own civilization.
Our female agitators are in constant
state of wonder and resentment that Oriental
woman is satisfied with her condition of
ncnentity. Missionary zeal, which insists
upon the introduction by hook or by crook
oil the element of disaffection and aspiration,
is largely born of this sentiment. However
this may be, Oriental custom the result of
Mohammedanism has forced the Eastern
woman to the opposite extraordinary e1-
treme of accepting her degraded" position
" 18th the same sense of superior satisfaction
as that exhibited by the enlightened and
cultured woman, who, to further establish
her rights" endlessly resents, opposes and
asserts in defense of her personal Importance,
however little the same may be questioned
The dress of this Arab woman is all-conceal-
ing upon the street, and all-reveaIing in her
home. The outer garment is the haik,
white, usually OF wool, sometimes of silk,
often of cotton. 1t is frequently 20 feet in
length and nearly two yards wide. Beneath
this are precisely four articles of apparel. a
gauze ehemise, an unstiffened corset or
bodice, frequently massively embroidered
and bejeweled, pantaloons reaching to the
feet and compromising countless wards of
material, and the tantalizing adjar tied
tightly around the face and falling about
II inches below.
CHASTITY FIGURES.
Most women not satisfied with this retire.
ment, or perhaps, more strictly speaking,
most women whose husbands are not satisfied
with this obscuration, further hide the face
BY bringing the haik down over one side of
the forehead so that but one eve, a dark,
eyebrow and tiny patch of the forehead
are visible. Their feet are usually encased
in brown or yellow slippers; danglets and
bsnglets of indescribable iewelry tinkle and
chime from waists, ankles and concealed
portions of the figure; and, in this swathing
Of ghostly haik, with bumped bodies and
mincing steps, those who are allowed upon
the streets at all, wriggle, glide and scurry
along, like bevy OF escaped wraiths from
among the as silent graves upon the heights.
But this privilege of waddling about like
lot OF sheeted spooks is by no means an uni
versal one. The young and fair see the sun
light only through the open courts of their
dwellings, or from the white terraces
for brief hour towards 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
allowed to the suburban marabouts, or sa-
cred temples, and the khoubas at the ceme-
teries, as at Belcour, where they are allowed
the cheering diversion of filling with water
the little cups resting at the heads of abs;
for the birds drink from these and fly to
heaven with greetings from the souls at rest
beneath.
Indoors the dress of these women is ethe-
real enough for the most fervid artists fancy
They never see in their own homes any male
but their husbands and children. The
climate, like that of Cuba in winter, and ex-
nacziv ivolv hnt fro.,, Nov Yptil Oorobar bo