HAREM LIFE AS IT IS

Dunstan Times, Issue 2483, 31 May 1909, Page 8

HAREM LIFE AS IT IS

A recent writer says that with very rare exceptions the woman of the Orient does not consider herself a victim _ and: would not change places with her sisters of Europe. For one cultivated woman among them there are a thousand whose intellectual level docs not rise above that of a Western girl of twelve years old. Accustomed exclusively to association with their own sex, the society of men is irksome to them. Naturally they _ lack the charms of Western women, which comes from the mingling of sexes in society. They are loquacious, gourmandising, and indolent. They enjoy intensely little pleasures by which we, in our feverish civilisation, 4 set small store. Their dainty collations of confections, of fruits, of cakes, of tea and, coffee, served on little tablesi covered with gold-embroidered cloths, give them an exquisite pleasure. Then there are tho visits which afford a delicious abstraction for their idle life. The stream of agreeable visitors coming and going is regular and constant. Their drives on the Bosphorus, their .shopping in the bazaars of Stamboul and of Pera are not among the least of their pleasures. Becoming freer and freer every day, some of the present generation have advanced so far that they go out without veils, like tho women of the Christian nations. But none of these pleasures of outing are permitted to the favorites of tho Sultan. They may go out with tho permission of the Sultan-mother; but when they do, the smallest details of the drive are regulated beforehand, and no change in the older is permissible. Tho greatest license allowed them is that of spendinga few weeks with a small retinue of their own selection at one of the charming villas on the Bosphorus, where they may indulge for a while in the illusion that they are free. These, excursions, which were frequent under the reign of tho late Sultan, .almost entirely discontinued under Abdul Hamid, who lived in constant dread of assassination. Ho feared that some of his women might get poison or a deadly weapon during these excursions and cut short his days.—Recent cable messages state that tho Sultans harem has been destroyed, and that Abdul himself accompanied by eight of his ladies, has been transferred to Salonika.