CHANGELESS EAST CHANGES.

Gisborne Times, Volume LII, Issue 5476, 11 May 1920, Page 2

CHANGELESS EAST CHANGES.

HAREM WO (MEN IN EVENING TANGO ON THE BOSP'HOROUS. ] You reach Yalova by steamer from Gaiata Quay in five hours nowaday o, instead of the three v/hicli were taken by the journey before the war, for you must travel in a tiny steamer ; . which can do seven knots -when it is p' very calm, and when tho engineer ( .is not quarrelling with the skipper (writes the Constantinople 'correspon- , dent of the Times). If the south I wind blows, either you do not start, j or, if you start, you arrive soaking, j and probably seasick as well. I Five years ago the veil had grown transparently thin, but a Turk i an. lady would never have doffed veil aiid “charcliaf” in the public rooms of any hotel, if, indeed, she had entered them. Now the “Harem” come in to dine in evening frocks', which only differ from those worn by their non-Moslem sisters in being J-S3 decollctees. VARIETIES OF TYPES. They have a pretty head-dress-, the silk handkerchief, generally embroidered, tied behind in bows and falling over the nape and shoulders, which the Hanum wears indoors. Their taste, is generally good. The type varies amazingly, for if some are s.mply Mediterraneans and some are indistinguishable from Greeks, others show a strongly Asiatic profile, and one often notices a “piquante” face which one might best describe asMongol eve and cheekbone, Jewish nose and mouth. Arab slimness, and carriage of t-hc head a thrpwback, perhaps, to some early cross between Tartar and Armenian or Arab. Some are on their honeymoon and wear the plain goldi ring on the third finger of the left and as do a ncw r custom this among Turkish folk. After dinner an orchestra strikes up, and tile Ha-nhimis crowd into the ] drawingroom where some Russian and Rumanian girls are dancing. A brown-faced ultra smart little Turk; a sort of master of ceremonies, darts in. and begins to one-step with a Rumanian. Next a Russian couple dance some Russian peasant dance, and the Turkish ladies clap their hands and discuss eveiy point in the dancing with much animation. So far no Hn-nuin has danced. But tho door from the verandah opens, and three women enter, tall, excessively well dressed, bejewelled, and followed by a male nondescript. The tallest and most expensively dressed and- one of her companions are Turks —the third may be a Greek; all have that faint suggestion of coarseness and foxiness on otherwise handsome faces that betrays their calling, A young Turkish bride and her girl friend sitting near me are intensely amused and just a little scandalised—"My lamb, if mother knew that people like that came here!” “But, Feride, look at her jewels, that necklace must be worth .!” “But, niy dear, who is she?” “Do I know the names of persons of that class ?” Another Hnnum supplies the informntion, “Oh. she is Z—, a great dancer, so well known in Peru, n dreadful woman, and do you see that low person with her?” MILADYS ’ SECRETA 11V. Here tlie lady points out the toi sly and vulgar individual rf the ramhiied Apache type who follows in Z Hamim’s train. “Well, Z can’t rea 1 or write, and .she u;-.s quite uneducated. Comes from Anatolia somewhere, where no one reads a book, and having made money out of the Unionist profiteers, she trots this youth about, to answer her billetdoux, write to tradesmen and jewellers, and give her notions about geography and science .and music in tier spare time. Otherwise the men, even those parvenus, would' find her too dull!”

The orchestra struck up a tango and (strange portent of Turkey’s -new ago) Z.’s Turkish companion dances, and presently the master of ceremonies pilots Z. herself, who is obviously unlearned in European dances, through a few steps. Feride and her friends pretend to look shocked at the spectacle, but they are really vastly interested and would net have missed it for worlds. ONE OF THE OLD SCHOOL.

By the doorway stands an old Turkish general—still straight hacked and sturdy—a man who has fought with good fortune and evil in the Hedjas, in Yemen, in the Balkans, who has' been a Seraskier in his day; one of the old school. He should be looking sternly on this frivolous scene, for has lie not always passed as a stern and somewhat austere Old Turk and a reactionary at heart? Should he indfeed be looking at all? But though it would be more artistic .to introduce him as a grim and protesting figure, a symbol of Islamic Conservatism, truth compels me to state that so far from being shocked he looked like a genial grandpa watching the nursery romps with benevolent indulgence, though I think he did not quite admire Z. Hanum. Decidedly the Unchanging East is changing more and more raphlly. A little more of this and we Western dwellers at Constantinople will begin to feel old-fashioned.