Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-08

speaking fna the iec ha of ,d IS
dle-claSs seminarieS and there is as
little romance about it.
There is a great deal of placid
common sense among the women of the Arab
East, but the only romance is in their religion,
or in their passionate attachment to the race
whose continuity they guard as an undying
flame.
Once, in Yemen, spent some time in mer-
chants harem, waiting for a caravan that was
delayed by sickness and drought. There were
three wives and a number of feminine relations
of all ages, with the usual quota of Abyssinian
slaves.
The Arab women were very small, of scarcely
more than child's stature, PALE small-boned,
slender, with the most exquisite feet and hands.
All were expressionleSs and wore the same kind
of clotheS-a bright orange cotton shirt to the
knees, over a red-and-white striped waistcoat,
and long fringed kilt twisted round the hips
and fastened, apparently, by magic. Their
silver jewelry was so heavy that it made grooves
in their wrists and ankles.
We all slept in the same room huge, bare,
mud-walled apartment on the roof. wide
bench ran round three sides of it, and on
this we spread carpets and the hard little
holsters that serve as pillows in the East.
THE SUN woke us before am, and we
trooped to the bathroom, a mud-walled
chamber, empty but for a vat of water in one
corner and a groove in the floor to carry away
the waste. We stood in line, scrubbing each
others backs with paste that smelt of mari
colds. Then there was breakfast to prepare.
1t consisted of goats milk, honey, very thin
unleavened bread that could be folded up like
a sheet of paper, and rice.
It is discourteous to use more than the thumb
and first two fingers of the right hand in eat
ing. so henna-tinted fingers, that looked abso-
lutely fragile, had, by constant practice,
acquired the strength of talons.
Then there were children to tend; clothes to
mend and wash; prayers to be said, perfuncto-
rily for the Arab woman is not so devout as
her lord; some ones hair to be dyed bright
pink in q herbal paste; hands to be painted
with lacy mitten of black by means of a
sharpened quill; toenails to be Redeemed, and
SO on.
All too soon the days great work began
dSNnerl
It appeared to be a simple meal and it was
always the Same-mutton, rice, and unleavened
bread-but it took twenty women most of the
morning to prepare it. To each one of us was
intrusted q special task. For instance one
woman would blow the fire. her head flat on
the ground Another would mix the dough- A
third would pour relays of it on to a flat PAN
fourth would stir this into shape. And a
fifth would lift off each sheet in turn, pulling
it while still warm into the necessary thin
ness. The food was piled on huge leather trays
and sent to the mems quarters. We ate the
remnants that returned, or trimmings Shorn
from the original mountains of flesh and grain
Afterwards there was a general relaxing.
Most of the women went to sleep, their turbans
pulled over their faces to keep away the flies
Some just sat, completely motionless, their
minds, am convinced. as blank as their ex-
pressionS. I once asked a Yemen woman:
What do you do with yourselves all day?"
She answered: I'VE eat, We sleep, We talk.
What else is there?"
The whole of an Arab womans day is punctu-
ated by her children. They are with her in
while she cooks, on her knees while she talks
leaning against her while she does her hair
There is no jealousy among co-wives. They
devote as much love and care to each others
children as they do to their own,
We used to say our sunset prayers on the
reSf, before descending to prepare the mer-
Grants supper and our own. The babies were
Slung in cotton scarves, like hammocks under
meath the benches and, when the evening meal
was finished, more mutton, rice, and pumpkin
Sprinkled with red pepper-we would sit above
them, our bare feet turned outward knees
flat OH the rug
long-stemmed water-pipe would be handed
round. With handful of melon seeds to
crack and an occasional pull at the pipe we
wlnld sit interminably, scarcely talking never
moving. One by one, the women would take
their heavy turbans off their heads and wrap
them around their feet curling up like animals
to sleep among the cracked seeds.