Walter Matthew Gallichan

“ A measure of liberty is accorded to the women of the Egyptian harems. Once a year they may leave the Abode of Bliss for a few weeks, and, under a certain amount of supervision, mingle with the world. They are, of course bound to wear the veil, and to observe the ordinary conventions governing the conduct of their sex in public places.* Freed for a spell, and filled with a spirit of adventure, the girl walks the fashionable promenades of Cairo. ”

“ For the present we are concerned with the life of the women of the harem, and their specific temptations to inconstancy. Let it be remembered that, from racial causes, and the sensuous atmosphere in which they are reared, these women are peculiarly susceptible to passion. Their whole thought is concentrated upon love and its pleasures. ”

“ Does not every ardent woman yearn for a great passion? Polygamy does not expel the polyandrous instinct from a woman's breast. A psychic craving for a true heart-mate may dominate an inmate of the harem. ”

“ At all events, the woman of a mono- gamous nation is able to exercise very considerable free choice, and even before the strictest marriage of convenience, arranged as in France, the plighted girl is allowed to meet her future husband in society. The maiden destined for the harem has not this opportunity. She goes to an union with an utterly unknown man, who may be morally and physically repulsive to her.
The wife of the average shopkeeper and artisan in Egypt has, of course, rather more freedom of selec- tion. ”

“ In the cosmopolitan throng, ever going and coming in the glaring thoroughfares, the beauty from the harem paces, observed for her grace and the irresistible challenge of her deep eyes. It is not difficult to find an excuse for a sudden uplifting of the veil. A mos- quito may have stung her cheek; a fly may tickle her nose. At the instant when the veil is swiftly raised,
A friend just returned from Egypt informs me that the upper class women now wear transparent veils, and that some have discarded them entirely.
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a handsome young Englishman, American, or French- man may chance to pass. ”

“ Whatever happens, no matter how strange or staggering on the senses, do not say anything. Pass on as though nothing had happened out of the common course of daily affairs. Men go into the alleys. They are seen no more. ”

“ Again he encounters the fair Georgian, and may be this time her eyes subtly express the agitation of her heart. She, too, is fascinated. It is not the first time that she has glanced covertly at the broad-shouldered, attractive young tourist.
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The spell is cast. These two are secretly enamoured. They wish to converse; they long to be alone. But a whisper in Cairo is heard a mile away. Spies lurk everywhere; they seem to hover invisibly in the air. One is never safe from them. The crafty eunuchs do not lose sight of their charge. She is watched by vigilant eyes ”

“ It is, of course, a mere acci- dent that a man should pass by at that moment. The glance is enough; the flame from those languishing eyes, the witching smile of the curved, ruddy lips, showing a treasure of pearly teeth, and the delicate ivory of the complexion, touched with a rosy pink, have aroused throbbing emotions in the breast of the young man. ”

“ The kidnapping of men into the harem is contrived by the eunuchs at the instigation, and through the heavy bribery, of intrepid ladies suffering from extreme boredom. Wise persons in the East do not ask ques- tions. ”

“ She is explicit in her charge that the eunuchs conspire to introduce men to the harems, and she relates how she witnessed a saturnalia of men and slave girls after dark on a moonlight night.
I had heard much and read a great deal about the impossibility of men entering the harems of the East, considered as 'sacred' by all Moslems; that not a true believer has ever been known to visit the 'Abode of Bliss ' of a true Mussulman. ”

“ She is not brought from a foreign country, and condemned to a kind of gilded durance amid a number of women. We must not forget that a large propor- tion of the population of the East are practically, if not always, quite strictly monogamous. ”