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50 WOMEN IN TURKEY,
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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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.
-«Gp- • - The Word Harem Has A Very Vari...
his wives tlian usual . He silences them every time they open their liand ' sends thein away on any pretext ; he casts side glances on
the ps , European woman , full of fear and mistrust , and he repeats every moment" Pay no attention to what they saythey are only
Turkish , women I" or " You think me very harsh to , these women , do you not : what would you have ? They are Turks ! " . Yes , yes ,.
indeed , so they are , poor creatures ! in the sense you give this word , that is to say , being's at once foolish and degraded ; but who has
made them so ? You have willed that woman should submit to you as Perhaps a slave ; I what have but alread a slave y prolonged can she these be ? general reflections too far .
One knows now what the word Harem means in the East . Miistuk Bey , the Prince of Djaour Daghda , has passed the limits of
youth . He is about forty , tall and well made , his countenance would be rather common-place were it not lighted up hy fine light
blue eyes , clear , smiling , and piercing as a sword . He does not afiect the Oriental luxury of the pachas and chiefs of his tribe .
His costume , house , and table , all indicate extreme simplicity . Behind the bey ' s house is a little square court-yard , surrounded by
low buildings forming only one story . The yard being long , the two side buildings cover a surface about double that occupied by
the constructions placed at the extremities . One of these is nothing _biit the connecting wall , which separates the harem from the house
of the bey , and in which there is an entrance . Two small doors , with a window on each sidecommunicate with each of these side
buildings . It is impossible , to enter this silent cloister without thinking of a convent . You are at first introduced into a tolerable
sized room , furnished with mattresses and pillows , on which opens another which serves as a garret or lumber-room . In each of the
cells disposed around the principal chamber , reigns and governs one of the wives of the bey . Hierarchy is always respected in the
harem , and whether Mustuk Bey be more or less charmed with one or the other of his wives , never , but in the dwelling of the first in
date , does he deign to hold his levees . It was there he conducted mewhenafter having seen my establishment for the night made
, , ready in a large hall outside the sacred spot , I declared myself prepared to pay my respects to these ladies .
The aspect of the chief sultana appeared very strange to me . I could not help thinking of a retired rope-dancer when I looked at
her . She had been _vexy handsome , and her beauty had not yet completely disappearedher skin presented a curious mixture of
sun-, burns and a series of layers of paint , beneath which the primitive tissue was scarcely visible . Her large sea-green eyes were
remarkably hollow ; one would have said they were reservoirs placed below the lachrymal land to receive the torrents destined to flow .
Pier mouth , large and g well modelled , showed teeth still white , but too wide apart , which seemed to shake in gums whose too deep red
and diseased swelling * aroused unpleasing thoughts . Apparently
50 Women In Turkey,
50 _WOMEN IN TURKEY ,
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1859, page 50, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091859/page/50/
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