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MADAME IiTJ-CB , OF ALGIERS- 163
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
A Short Account Of The Life And Labors O...
In the work ; and one Muphti , a Mohammedan ecclesiastic _^ was actualldeported to the lie St . Marguerite for contumacy upon this
subject y . As to the girls , nobody ever thought of them ; and , indeed , . European who came to know the ways and customs of the
. Moresques any , the religious and social tyranny under which they suffer , and their own utter debased ignorancemight well despair of
, effecting any sort of good among * them . The lower ranks walk about the streets closely veiledexcepting a narrow slit for the eyes ;;
but the upper class of Moorish , women rarely stir out except to the bath or the cemetery . Three or four times a year to the niosque
Koran completes . They their have part very of the little reli to gious do with ceremonies religion ; enj active oined charit by y the is
Impossible under the multitude of restrictions amidst which they exist ; they can neither read nor write , and they are not taught any
manual art by which women deprived of other means of subsistence housewives might gain their The simp daily le bread maniere . cV Neither Hre of the can Eastern they be nations said to their be
. , fine climates , their scanty furniture , their idle , slovenly existence _^ give no sort of scope to the virtues of a farmer's or mothers of a mechanic all the ' s
world wife . over To ; " suckle but the fools corresponding " is indeed the occupation duty of of " chronicling small beer is no part of the vocation of a Moresque . To wash
their linen and hang it out to dry either on the rails of their court or on the terrace-roof which is possessed by every house ; to clamber
over the said roof and its partition on to their neighbor ' s , ( the received of ing calls in Algiers ) there to drink coffee and to offer
the way same pay in requital ; to dress , up very fine upon occasion—gauze > silkribbonsand jewels—and very shabbily paid dirtily on other
occasions , in the , debris of former splendor ; such seems to be the idea of life entertained by , or permitted to , these poor creatures . In
sickness It is still worse ; they refuse to take the commonest precautions , preferring the '" will of Allah to any of the alleviations
of science and skill . They object to being visited by French medical inert ; because the intruder is of the other sex ; and , even
if they did not object , it would probably bring them into great trouble with their husbands . Whole families die off for want of
vaccination , or proper separation of sick and well in fever . They do not know their own agesin which they are no worse
procured than the men the regular ; for it reg is onl istration y of , late of years children that , male the French and female have ;
whilefor the crowning affliction and degradation of their lives , they are , liable to be sold in . marriage at the age of eleven or twelve
, while yet mere children : they assume the veil when eight years old . We read in Mr . MoreU's book upon Algiers that " Moorish
women are valued by weight I" —a somewhat singular standard of feminine elegance ; and that " marriages among * the Moorsas with
, most gossips ' other —the Mussulmans young peop , le are never contracted meeting throug till the h third wedding parties -day . ' and
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Madame Iitj-Cb , Of Algiers- 163
MADAME _IiTJ-CB , OF ALGIERS- 163
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1861, page 163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051861/page/19/
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