THE TURKISH HOUSEWIFE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10684, 3 February 1913, Page 3

THE TURKISH HOUSEWIFE.

("Everybody's Journal.")

More work is done in the ordinary Turkish'household than is customary among ourselves. Bread is usually baked in the house, and the washing is always done there. A good housewife, no matter what her station, will always wash her.husban's linens. Though she may not do the actual cooking, sho will superintend the kitchen and inspect the provisions as they come in. She rarely entrusts the pickling and preserving to any hands but her own. She sees to the drying of plums and apricots, the preparation of molasses and the numerous fruit syrups which are offered to every visitor. She looks after the 'pantry, with its jars of olive oil and honey, its bags of flour, and stores of grain and nuts. The embroidering of linen, usually very elaborate, falls, as a general rule, to the share of the daughters of the house, if there are any. The housewife also attends to the cutting out and making of the servants' clothes, and servants are considerably moro numerous than they are with us. In a country house she superintends the garden. The Hanum Effendi's time is, therefore, pretty fully occupied, and the popular conception that her life is passed lolling on luxurious cushions and lounges, with a cigarette between her lips, requires some degree of modification.