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408 Cleopatra's daughter, ste , marciana...
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.
• #? On Easter Monday We Left Our House,...
mirable , that lie was determined to keep tliem In his hospital ; and , when their Superior sent for them to go back to Algiershe refused
, to let them go , saying they were much too valuable to the community . Again and again , and again , they were sent for , but he
determined to keep them , placed guards of soldiers at the doors of the hospitaland absolutely detained them there by force !
We went with , this resolute Commandant to visit his hospital . It Is a range of low buildings , a square of trees and garden ground ,
not quite so big as Dorset Square . All the buildings were white-Trashedand looked clean and pretty . We were introduced to
JuSl Mere , , a strong , healthy , young woman , with a pleasant , happy , intelligent face . She took us into the wards , kitchens , & c . They
have two wards especially for the Arabs , and men and women come there willingly . Now this astonished us immensely , for we know
"well the strong dislike the Arabs have to being doctored at all , fatalists as they are ; and that Arab women should go to the
hospital , was really more than strange—astounding quite . " Yes , " said the good Sister" they come most willinglymore than we can
take in ; and it is often , a difficulty to get them to , leave the hospital _. We have strange scenes sometimes ; the poor women , who call me
_* Mama Marabout / say , we will not go , we will stay always with you . " These poor women learn to sew , and to dress and wash
themselves in a more Christian manner , and if they do not learn any more Christianity than they see acted by these devoted Sisters
, that is a great lesson . It made some of the gentlemen exclaim , that the influence of these Sisters was doing more to break down
the terrible hatred between the Mohammedan and his Christian ? conqueror than any other power .
Mama Marabout ! is it not a beautiful and touching title ? How much these women express by these two words ! Shall we
translate it ? poor Neither " Mother-Saint" nor " Holy Mother" gives the exact meaning , for Mama is more familiar than Mother , and
Marabout has been always to the Arab a masculine noun entirely , and is a word of great force and power .
The Sisters would' not let us enter the Arab women ' s ward , . because there was srnallrpox in it . Two of the Sisters had caught
it , and been dangerously ill . If any one will persuade the Arabs _, to vaccinate their childrenit will be these good women . As yet
the French have made no , impression , not even enough to make them guard against infection . The Arabs will let us call on
them and bring children into their houses when the small-pox is in the housenin the very room where they receive us .
The Pharmacy , ay , , where the Sisters give out their medicines , was beautifully arranged , quite a _joicture of order and cleanliness ; I
think some of our party longed to have the knowledge and thepower to undertake this branch of the Sisters' business .
We were shown the garden , which is entirely cultivated by the *
patients as they are recovering . Mama Marabout said the Arabs
408 Cleopatra's Daughter, Ste , Marciana...
408 Cleopatra ' s daughter , ste _, marciana ,
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 2, 1863, page 408, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02021863/page/48/
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