News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-09-11
VSITTNGATURKS HAREM.
This Turk Has Only Nine Wives but Tie
cIsn't Through Marrying YETI =

slsn't Through MARRYING he' - -
Mrs. M. A. Crosley of this city, wife
of the pastor of the Central Universal
list Church, while in Turkey recently
a country which she has visited TWEEN
ty times and more-enJoyed the fale
experience of being admitted to the
luxurious harem of wealthy of1clal'
THE first thing to do" said MIS-
Crosley, ''if one wishes to see the IN
side of a harem, is to secure permit
or, as foreigners like to call 1t, an IN
vitation. Knowing that we would De
welcomed to the home of the ofhclal
our whole party went there IN car
riages. l sent in my card by the serV-
ant at the door and it was carried TO
the first wife, who is really the head
of the household. By and by WORD
was sent back by the servants to ad-
nit us and we were brought into a
reception room. Our party consisted
only of women, as, of course, no men
are allowed to enter the harems. In
some homes eunuchs are employed to
take charge, but only female servants
were used in this home. While we
were admiring the beautiful furniture,
the coverings of which were OF silk,
heavily embroidered, the officials
wives came in to meet us. There were
nine of them and they ranged from a
woman apparently so years old to the
last wife, beautiful dark girl of 16.
They were dressed in the loose flowing
robes of their country, the lower part
of the costume consisting of wide
trousers gathered at the ankle. The
trousers were so full, however, as to
have almost the appearance of skirts.
Our clothes at once attracted the
attention of the women, as we were, 1
believe, the first party of foreigners
they had ever really come in contact
with, although they must have seen
others as they passed through the
streets in their closed carriages.
"They took off our bonnets and ex-
amined them curiously and we had to
explain how all our garments were
made and worn. Any piece of jewelry
at once caught their attention and in
return they showed us their orna-
ments, many of them of great value.
Through an Interpreter, lady
had remembered to take with us, we
conversed quite freely and pleasantly.
1t is the custom whenever foreigners
call on the native women to take them
presents and we had come prepared
in this respect. We gave them beau
tiful flowers, bright Colored ribbons
and other gay presents we knew wo-
men would like to have, for strangely
enough feminine likes in regard to
pretty things seem to be the same the
world over. Our gifts made them hap
by and they treated us with the great
est courtesy.
at is the Turkish custom to offer
every one cigarettes and of course
they were pretsented to us. We all
took one, for to have refused would
have been a serious breach of ETH
quette. We were also tasked to smoke
the naghlich, a kind of pipe where
the smoke is drawn through a glass
bowl filled with water into the mouth
by means of a long rubber tube. The
Turkish women divide their time be-
LWttu IIlSll nCCul6 WI anu IhC nag
Itch, or bubble bubble, as the Eng
lish call it. We declined the treat,
saying we much preferred the cigaret-
ties, which made excellent souvenirs
anyway.
"One of the wives, a beautiful Cau-
casian woman, could speak French
fluently, and this made our visit more
interesting, as several of the party
could thus talk to her. She invited us
to go over the house and pointed out
all rooms including the dining rooms
of the wives and also of the master of
the house. This latter room was fixed
up so that the husband might enter
tain great many of his friends at
once. All of the lives never gather
with him in the dining room, however,
as Turkish custom DEGREES that not
more than one wife shall share the
husbands meal at a time with him.
Just as we were leaving the har-
en- the Caucasian woman took me to
one side and asked confdentially if I
knew some beautiful girls who would
likely suit her husband as he desired
another wife. l told her | had seen
so few Turkish women | could not
make a selection and that I feared no
American girl would wish to become
the tenth wife. This answer, although
intended as a jest, was taken serious,
ly by the wife, who was not able to
understand this aversion to being
chosen so late.
Girls in Turkey are married very
young-between IL and Is being the
usual ages. The girl who is not mar
ried by the time she is 16 is looked
upon with wonder. In our party were
two girls, each little over 20. The
inmates of the harem discovered they
were not married and were surprised
beyond utterance. why, how old are
you? they inquired. And not mar
ried? they would say when told the
girls ages. Nor could they under
stands how such a thing as a Eirl liv-
ing to be 20 years without ing
married could come to pass"
Little Etiquette Points.