The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-26
WOMEN OF THE ORIENT.
No Place in all the World so 0ooo
 As Cairo to Study Them.


 In no other city of the orient has one so good an opportunity to study the wo- men of the East as in Cairo. In thls' the "smelting pot of the Moslem races, Fer sians, Arabs, Turks and Greeks. together with half dozen other races. dWen sloe by side. mixing with the native Esyp- tians. Women of all these races are oh parade every afternoon on the Mousky or Mohammed-Aii Street, the snoppins street for the rich residents. All these women walk abroad heavily yelled, eacn one closely accompanied by eunucn. III these afternoon promenades flor snop- ping Is with them mainly an excuse TOT sort of half-fresdom-they show by tneir eyes, which are the only parts or thelr faces not hidden by their veils, that they would not be averse to little hlrtaton' but the alert, scowling eunuch keeps them moving on. The masculine acquaintance of the Mohammedan woman of Cairo Is limited to her husband and her attendant eunuch.
 The promenade Is their one glimpse or freedom. Otherwise they dream their lives away in vacuity. None of them can read. Education is not permitted to East ern women. They have no part, prac- tically, in the Mohammedan religion which is a mans faith. This ignorance and vacuity of life belongs to all classes high and low. Their life Is an amman one.' Under these circumstances, It IS not strange that the women of the Orient are usually better and finer physical speci- mems than their men. They have notn- ing to do but to cultivate their bodies.
 The Copts are exceptions They are Christians, and, while the men hem their women about to an extent unknown in the West, they are still free as eagles as compared to the Moslem women. Even among the Copts, however. there is S cer- tain amount of polygamy.
 If the life of the aristocratic woman Is one of vacuity, that of the low caste wo- man Is one of absolute slavery They are made burden bearers from the age of 10 or F. They, too, are fine animals.
 l have often watched a group of these women sitting at rest along the rIver banks. There they sat, staring at noth- ing and doubtless thinking of the same thiRg. As is usual in Egypt, the flies are thick and venomous l myself had to keep a small horse hair wisp busy ward ing them from my head and eyes. But there these women sat with the flies swarming over their eyes, their lips their throats, and never so much as lifted a hand. A COW or horse would have lashed out vigorously, but they made no move.
 What is the use?"-that was their thought, if they thought of the matter at all-'they would only come back again."
 High and low, rich and poor, their lot Is one of legal slavery. Marriage is pur- chase. The market price of girls has been falling steadily. until, in the lower classes. a girl without exceptional charms Is a drug on the market. Fifty dollars, or even less. will purchase a good animal, sound in wind and limb. I was much amused by a talk which l held with a young Arab of fashion, man of excep- tional intelligence. He was about to be married. His father had just brought him a wife. whom he had seen for the first time. He was tremendously elated over the fact that she was a large fine spec imen of a woman, and was correspond ingly grateful to his father for the lib- erality of the gift.