The Topeka state journal., 1903-06-06
WOMEN OF THE ORIENT.
No Place in All the World So Good as
Cairo to Study Them.

In no other city of the Orient has one
SO good an opportunity to study the
women of the east as in Cairo In this,
the smelling pot of the Moslem
races, Persians. Arabs, Turks and
Greeks. together with a half dozen
other races. dwell side by side, mixing
with the native Egyptians Women of
all these races are on parade every
med-AH street. the shopping street for
the rich residents. All these women
walk abroad heavily yelled. each one
closely accompanied by a eunuch Ifs
these afternoon promenades-for shop
ping is with them mainly an excuse for
a sort OF half-freedom-they may show
by their eyes,. which are the only parts
of their faces not hidden by their wells.
that they would not be averse to a lit
tie Irritation, but the alert, scowling
eunuehs keep them moving on. Tho
masculine acquaintance of the Moham-
medan woman of Cairo is limited to her
husband and her attendant eunuch.
The promenade is their one glimpse
of freedom. Otherwise they dream their
lives away in vacuity. None of them
can read. Education is not permitted
to eastern women. They have no part,
practically, in the Mohammedan relsg-
ion, which is a mans faith. This ignor-
ance and vacuity of life belong to all
classes, high and low. Their life is an
animal one. Under these circumstan-
ces it is not strange that the women of
physical specimens than their men.
They have nothing to do but cultivate
their bodies.
The Copts are exceptions. They are
Christians, and. While the men hem
their women about to an extent un-
known in the west. they are still free
as eagles as compared to the Moslem
women. Even among the Copts, how
ever. there is a certain amount of po-
lygamy.
IF t17a life of the a,iefocratfc woman
is one of vacuity. that of the low caste
woman is one of absolute slavery. They
are made burden bearers from the age
of 10 or u. They, too. are fine animals
I have often watched a group OF these
women sitting at rest along the river
banks. There they sat. staring at moth
ing and doubtless thinking of the same
thing. AS is usual in Egypt the flies
We're thick and venomous. 1 myself had
to kee3 a small horse hair wisp busy
warding 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 2''-that was their
thought, if they thought of the matter
at all-.They would only come back
again.
one of legal slavery, Marriage is q 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 good animal, sound in
wind and limb. I was much amused by a
talk which I held with a young Arab of
fashion. man of exceptional intelligence.
He was about to be married. His father
had just bought him wife. whom he had
seen for the first time. He was tremen-
dously elated over the fact that she was
large fine specimen Of a woman. and was
correspondingiy grateful to lis father for
the liberality of the gift.-BroOlzlyn Eagle.