The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-04
In An Egygtian Harem.

! trees, orange groves with melon and
/ gourd-beds running among them. On ar
| irving at the harem garden we were adj
mitted into its paradise of shade and rest
/. by a heavy doorway and a venerable old
potentate who had headed our procession
| on an ass, and at this juncture our body
| guard abandoned US, remaining without
| the walls, while we were left to make our
way alone toward the group of women
whom we saw approaching by the stone
| tagged walk that led to the house. They
were evidently the wives of our friend
whose invitation to visit his harem had
| given US an opportunity satisfying in
slight degree the interest we had long
! felt as to private life in eastern coun-
/ tries.
! These ladies were dressed in loose
gowns of figured cotton, red and yellow
! shoes without heels. and scarfs of all
colors. Some of the younger ones were
| handsome, being not much browner in
the face than those of Spanish origin,
while their marvellously erect figures
gave them an appearance of great dig
nifty. One of the ladies present, Mira
| by name { a niece of the Turks, who
had been born in Constantinople. was
much more highly educated than the 9TH
ers, and able to talk French, and when
preliminary greetings were over we fol-
| lowed her and our new friends through
| an archway into a square court, from
whence we proceeded on a tour OF in
spection through many large rooms on
| the ground floor, all of which were empty
except the innermost chamber.
On seeing our interest in their costumes
they became very friendly, and allowed
US to examine their ornaments. generally
| necklets made Of gold zequims strung
| together, and bracelets worn much larger
and heavier than 1t is ordinary to see in
our country. Mira, our interpreter, told
us she was engaged to be married to her
cousin Arten. her uncle's son, and show
| ed us a ring that he had given her. 1t
was large dull red stone in the shape
OF cartouche worn by her on the first
finger, and it bore the inscription writ
ten in Persian characters: There's a
flower in the garden of Arten, and her
name is Mira"
| Some of the other Jewels were intended
to keep off the influence of demons and
night monsters, as a remedy against dis
ease, curses, sorcery, and vengence. A
young lady, daughter-in-law of the Pa
sha's, insisted on our retaining an anu
let of hers as a present. 1t was a small
of a first and second finger extended 90
if to bless. and its special property was
| to keep off the evil eye We were sorry
by accepting it to expose our friend TO
any risk in depriving her of the benefit
of its operation, although glad to re-
ceive so crgious an example of a super
stition almost too absurd to believe pos
sible. They are a strange mixture of
credulity and devoutness, though one
would have both to understand their Ian
guage and live with them before being
able to know how far these superstitions
emanate from their convictions, or arise
simply from long-descended habits.
AS hour after hour of the afternoon
passed in conversation, sightseeing, and
undisturbed starvation, our joy may be
imagined when shortly before sundOwn
we were requested to condescend to wash
our hands in preparation for the princi-
pal meal of the day. We entered a room
with tapes round the wall; this whole
apartment was the bathhouse, for the
water fell from the pipes stroight to the
floor, and the fashionable harem way of
dressing for dinner was to remove all
clothes, and sit, stand, or lie under a
spout of running water. It was lengthy
business, as, in addition to their own alb
lutions, two or three dozen children had
to be caught and scrubbed, though this
operation after their capture was at
tended with less difficulty than at first
would be supposed, for there IS practjc-
ally little trouble in dressing and I'M
dressing children that have nothing on.
These preparations concluded, we follow
ed our hostess into a room IN the oppc-
site side Of the court with a long low
Va
selves around it on cushions, and each
took possession OF the fiat piece CT scone
which supplied the place of a plate dar-
ing the meal, those articles not being
considered a necessary luxury. II the
centre of the table stood a large bowl
full of white soup, from which every
body ate, taking as many spoonfuis as
they chose from the common tureen With
the long-handled wooden ladies provi led
for each guest When this was removed
a large piece Of meat boiled TO rags took
its place, and was speedily diminished
under the violent treatment it received
from us ALL each one pulling a lump of
meat from the joint with the fingers, and
eating 1t off her own fiat scone. We then
had a curry of vegetables, followed by
the Zagazig pudding, fruit and rice, call
ed 50 from a native of that village hav-
ing brought the receipt to the harem.
Our meal was concluded by coffee, made
in a corner OF the room over red-hot
charcoal in copper pot and poured
thick into small glasses fitted in gold
fiiligree cups.
When we had washed our hands IN the
basin handed round for that purpose,
everybody went to bed, some to the roof,
others OF the court, garden, or house. It
- :, -rT- -kr.Yu- g.
moon, and we asked to have our beds
placed outside at a short distance from
the harem buildings, the stones Of which
seemed never to cool day or night There
was such a luxuriance of growth around:
the very shadows were weighted with
fruit, and looked in their immovable
blackness as If glued to the ground. In
accountable varieties of insect life NOV
ed on the surface of the earth. fat beetles
ploded ponderously along, a scorpion
working its tail in rotary motion disap-
peared behind a broken wall.
We stretched ourselves on the wicker
beds. resolved to close our eyes to these
fascinating distractions, but were asssil-
ed by whirl OF midges. gnats. mos
quitoes-goodness knows what-that at
tackled from below. above, In every con-
ceiyable direction, and angrily drove US
to the house. We climbed TO the roof OF
the building 10 other wicker beds, but
the countless millions Of ants creeping
ever the stone work, round the wicker
beds. UP their legs and ours. without re-
spect OF person. reduced Us 70 q state CO
mind bordering on distraction, and forced
US Il descend TO the house and the COM
monplace expedfent OF sleeping IN q room
The chamber which they kindly put at
our disposal was large room, and We
slept till Lily in the Desert came 20
rouse Us with the words, There is no