DISPERSION OF A HAREM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 14003, 11 September 1909, Page 3

DISPERSION OF A HAREM.

What is to become of the Solomonian llOUacIlOKl ot the uoposed Biutun '1 There, lias bei»n much curiosity expressed on tins point. The «j«.rman cartoonist represents Abdxil riannd at isalonica as .' wringing Jus lianas and weepihg because no ice Is lie is a widower indeed —for his enemies Have deprived liim of > all but eight wives, it is a question '■ whether those women who are denied the privilege of sharing his exile 111 Sialottica. ieei particularly widowed. bi" spite o: the, gorgeous and sentimental , pictures ot such French artists as -Vjcroine, ; it. seems that the harem- has never been quite a Garden of Eden. J'rofessor Arminius Vainbery, the eminent Hungarian Orientalist and traveller, who for some time was on terms .of intimacy with the deposed ,Sultan, lias very ciecided views about the ' seraglio at lildiz Kiosk, and thus writes of it in the ••Nineteenth Century and" After " •• tew Turks, a lid stilK less foreigners and Christians, can have any idea oi the Jiornble life, carried oil by tin: inmates ot the harem. Originally uneducated and barbarous Circassian girls, who were either bought dir reetly lroin the slave-dealers at To? phane or from the ladies of the chief dignitaries, these members of, th<« Imperial household live in constant.'enmity and jealousy, with each .other; 'each of them is ready to calumniate the others,, to diminish; their beauty, and to lower their value iri' the eyas of the Sultan. Anybody who lends assistance as a sneak to these female rivals is most welcome, and young Haiuid Eifendi -having been the foremost of these . informers, his services were much appreciated, and it was in this way that lie. became the, favourite of Pertevala Kadih, the Sultan-Valida of' Abdul Aziz, an uneducated' woman well known for her fanaticism suid belief in sorcery and magic power." The deposition of Abdul .means emancipation to these Circassian slave .girls, and an alfecting account is given in the '•'Turquie," a French daily published;in Constantinople, of their restoration to their famines and friends. The first step of the new. Government was to summon the relatives of these odalisks, and we read: — - - ••The Government. sent .telegrams into all the regions- of- Anatolia in which were to*... -be found Circassian refugees or' colonists likely to have daughters, sisters, or; relations in the liarem of Abdul Hamid.. They were summoned immediately to Constantinople in order to take back into "their own country the; ladies of the harem who belonged to them. For several days these Circassian-villagers have been arriving in the city wearing their picturesque costume, with dagger . ,;in girdle." • The reunion of 'the long-separated kinsfolk is thus described:—

, "Tho meeting was a ' touching scene. Tears, caresses, : and cries of enthusiasm and excitement- prevailed. The girls. recognised fathers, brothers, uncles, or cousins; tliey kissed, they wept, tliev uttered exclamations of joy at the recovery of tho dear rela-

tives from x whom they liad been separated for so iriany years. They asked for news of'their mothers .their lusters, their brothers, and their friends. Some there were who did not know* their relatives, from whom they had beeil taken away in early childhood. The recognition was only made by a reference to family names, and nnmcs-of the vilayets from which they had been exiled."

The young women are described as being heartily glad to leave tlie perpetual seclusion of the harem- for the liberty of peasant life, and the " Tur;iuie" continues:— . .. ; "These ladies, who lived like princesses of fairyland in a sumptuous palace, who wore bewitching arcsses, and ate off plate, who floated-in gilded shallops on enchanted lakes,' and still were unhappy, are suddenly snatched by a social revolution from, the paradisical shores of- the Bosphorus and sent back to., the isolated villages of Asia Minor. Here, their only dwelling will be a thatched cottage, their only pastimes the cultivation of th° soli, tho milking of cows, the herding of cattle. Their evening meal will be a piece of maize bread and a bowl of skim milk. But they will have health, death bv consumption or. the tuberculous diseases of the harem will not be theirs. Thev will live hapny lives, surrounded by love and aflection.-'