The Turks are calumniated, my friend, there's no doubt about it. It is
not enough for us to say and to believe, with the vulgar herd, that
these turbaned people are wallowing in materialism and are not
civilised; we must do more than this, and convict them of their errors.
We, fortified with a singular infatuation in our ideas, our habits, and
our personal associations, venture to settle by our sovereign decrees
the loftiest questions of sentiment. The rules to be observed by the
perfect lover in the courtship and treatment of his lady-love, have been
settled at tournaments, by the Courts of Love of Isaure, and by the
College of the Gay Science. Our pretensions to troubadourism have never
been abandoned. The affectations of "L'Astrée" have been erected into a
code of Love, and we have succeeded in establishing the French cavalier
as the paragon of excellence in love matters, and the perfect type of
gallantry. The saying "to die for one's lady-love" rises so naturally to
our lips that the most insignificant cornet might warble it to his
Célimène without causing her to smile.
You will nevertheless admit, I hope, that we ought to discard a few of
these absurd expressions. That we know how to make love is not much to
boast about, after all. The only important point for us as philosophers
is to know whether our ideal is really the higher ideal--whether our
treatment of woman is really more worthy both of her and of ourselves
than the pagan treatment which prevails among the Eastern nations? Here
at once crops up the elementary dispute between the votaries of polygamy
and monogamy. Both these institutions are based upon divine and human
laws, both are written down and defined in moral codes, and in sacred
books. One takes its origin in the Bible, and remains faithful to its
traditions; the other has developed at some period, from the simple
conventions of a new social order. We must not conclude that we alone
possess the knowledge of absolute truth, merely because our conceit
postulates for us the superiority of our time-honoured civilisation. All
wisdom proceeds from God alone, and truth is for us only relative to
place, time, and habit. Was not Jacob, when he married at the same time
Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, nearer than we are now to the
primitive sentiment of the laws of nature and of revelation? Do you
presume to blame him, insignificant being that you are, because yielding
to the supplication of his beloved Rachel he espoused--somewhat
superfluously it may be--her handmaid Bala, with the simple object of
having a son by her? In presence of this idyl of the patriarchal age,
what becomes of all our theories, our ideas, and our prejudices, the
fruits after all of a hollow and worthless education?
You will not, I trust, do me the wrong of believing that I, wavering in
my faith, intend forthwith to abandon the principles in which I was
brought up. But a subject so serious as the one I have been devoting
myself to, demands the most frank and honest examination. I will not
deliver a judgment; I will merely state the facts. Now it is an
established fact that the people who permit by their laws a plurality of
wives are, even at the present time, far more numerous than the
monogamists. Statistics prove that out of the thousand million
inhabitants of this globe, Christianity with all its sects, and Judaism
thrown in, does not number more than two hundred and sixty millions
according to Balbi, or two hundred and forty millions according to the
London Bible Society.
Since the remainder, consisting of Mahometans, Buddhists,
Fire-worshippers, and Idolaters, all practise polygamy more or less, it
follows that on this globe of ours, the monogamists constitute
one-fourth only of the whole population. Such is the naked, unadorned
truth!
Are we wrong? Are they right? It is not my business to decide this
point. Philosophers and theologians far more patient than I am, have
given it up as a bad job. Voltaire, with his subtle genius, settled the
question in his own characteristic fashion, by supposing that an
imaginary God had from the beginning decreed an inequality in this
matter, regulated by geographical situation, in these words:--
"I shall draw a line from Mount Caucasus to Egypt, and from Egypt to
Mount Atlas; all men dwelling to the east of this line shall be
permitted to marry several wives, while those to the west of it shall
have one only."
And, as a matter of fact, it is so.
But having disposed of this important point, there remains a loftier
question for us to elucidate--one consisting entirely of sentiment. The
treatment of woman being our only objective, our present business is to
decide on which side of the line its character is the most respectful,
the most worthy and the most flattering towards her. Certainly our
doctrine is purer, our law more divine. Nevertheless, as sincere judges,
we ought, perhaps, to examine and see whether we do not transgress
against our absolute principles. And I must confess that I cannot now
approach this delicate question without some misgiving. In the judgment
of every tribunal, the case of polygamy is a hopelessly bad one. That I
am ready to admit; but might it not be urged against the other side that
in practice the court knows very well that the law is not observed? What
judge can be found, however austere, who has never offended against it?
To sum the matter up briefly (whispering low our confessions, if you
like), what man is there among us--I am not talking of Don Juans, who
catalogue their amours, nor of Lovelaces, but of ordinary men of say
thirty years old--who can remember how many mistresses he has had? What,
is this the monogamy we have been making such a flourish about?
Perhaps you will say that we need not see in these irregularities
anything more than a sort of licensed depravity, tolerated for the sake
of maintaining a virtuous ideal. But consider the fatal consequences of
this hypocrisy. What becomes of our aspirations of the age of twenty, of
our dreams and poetic fancies, after we have plunged into these wretched
connections, these degrading, promiscuous attachments which form the
current of our present habits, and from which we emerge at the age of
thirty, sceptics, and with hearts and souls tarnished? What do we reap
from these frenzies of unhealthy passion, but contempt for woman, and
disbelief in anything virtuous?
For the Turk there is no such thing as illegitimate love, and woman is
the object of absolute respect. Never having more than one master, she
cannot fall in his esteem. Having been bought as a slave, she becomes a
wife directly she sets foot in the harem; her rights are sacred, and she
cannot any more be abandoned. The laws protect her; she has a recognised
position, a title; her children are legitimate, and if by chance--
I suspend this philosophical digression, in order to inform you of a
momentous occurrence. El-Nouzha has just been the scene of a sanguinary
drama. A rebellion has broken out among my sultanas.
My harem is on strike.
You will ask me how this storm came to break upon me just as I was
settling down into the most innocent and tranquil frame of mind? It can
only be explained by a retrospective survey of certain domestic
circumstances, which the changes that have been going on at Férouzat had
caused me to overlook.
You will not have forgotten the terrible commotion caused in my harem by
the news of my uncle's resurrection. My poor houris, dreading some fatal
drama of the usual Turkish character, had indeed passed through a cruel
time of distress and anguish. When their alarms were dissipated, a
revival of animation soon manifested itself in their spirits; but, as
ill-luck would have it, and as I have told you, one little detail of
this day's proceedings, unimportant as it appeared at the time, was
destined to disturb their harmony, so perfect hitherto, and to arouse
their jealousies. Kondjé-Gul had been to the château, and a silly
ambition to attempt the same freak had got into the heads of Nazli and
Zouhra. I at once expressed a decided opposition to this childish
scheme; but, of course, from the moment it met with opposition, it
developed into a fixed purpose.
Within the limited circle of ideas in which they move, their
imaginations had been excited--curiosity, the attractions of forbidden
fruit. The long and the short of it was that, at the sight of their
genuine disappointment--a disappointment aggravated by continual and
jealous suspicions of a preference on my part for Kondjé-Gul--I had
almost made up my mind to yield for one occasion, when my aunt arrived,
which at once put an end to any thought of such good-natured but weak
concessions.
I imagined myself to be armed now with an overwhelming reason for
refusing their request, but it turned out quite otherwise. When they
heard that my uncle's wife was at the château, they asked to be allowed
to make her acquaintance. They said that they were really bound as
_cadines_, according to Turkish custom, to pay their respects to my
uncle's wife, "whom her position as legitimate spouse places
hierarchically above us." I got over this difficulty by telling them
that my aunt, being a Christian, was forbidden by her creed to have any
intercourse with Mussulmans.
What especially distinguishes the Turkish woman, my dear Louis, from the
woman whose character has been fashioned by our own remarkable
civilisation, is the instinctive, inborn respect which she always
preserves and observes towards man. Man is the master and the lord, she
is his servant, and she would never dream of setting herself up as his
equal. The Koran on this point has hardly at all modified the biblical
traditions. Unfortunately for me, I must confess that in my household I
have disregarded the law of Islam. Inspired by a higher ideal, you will
understand, without my mentioning it, that my first object has been to
abolish slavery from my harem, by inculcating into the minds of my
houris principles more in conformity with the Christianity which I
profess. I wished, like a modern Prometheus, to kindle the divine spark
in these young and beautiful barbarians, whose minds are still wrapped
up in their oriental superstitions. I wished to elevate their souls, to
cultivate their minds, and in short, to make them my free companions
and no longer my helots.
I may assert with pride that I have been partially successful in my
task. Three months of this treatment had hardly elapsed before all
traces of servile subordination had disappeared. With this faculty for
metamorphosis existing in them, which all women possess, but which is
for ever denied to us men, and thanks above all to the revelations of
our customs and habits contained in novels of my selection, which
Kondjé-Gul read to them during my hours of absence, and to which they
listened with admiration (for they were eager to know all about this
world of ours, which was as yet unknown to them), I soon obtained a
charming combination. Their strange exotic mixture of oriental graces,
blending happily with efforts to imitate the refinements of our
civilisation, their artless tokens of ignorance, their coquettish and
feline instincts, their voluptuous bearing in process of attempted
transformation into bashful reserve, all these phenomena afforded me the
most delightful subject for study ever entered on by a philosopher.
Nevertheless, I must admit that the education of their intellects did
not keep pace with the cultivation of their ideas, but rendered them
still liable to commit a number of solecisms. I had an interest,
moreover, in keeping them in a certain degree of ignorance of the actual
laws of our own world. Imbued with their native ideas, their credulity
accepted without hesitation, everything which I chose to tell them about
"the customs of the harems of France," and they conformed to them
without making any pretence to further knowledge of them. None the less,
there began to grow up in their minds ideas of independence and
self-will, the natural consequences of the elevation effected in their
sentiments. The notion of a truer and more tender love was used by them
henceforth as a weapon against my absolute authority. Only too happy to
be treated as a lover rather than a master, I did not feel any loss in
this respect: love is kept alive by these numberless little stratagems
of a woman, who loves and desires--yet desires not--and so forth. And
then, you must remember, I had four wives.
They on their part, having no aims, no ambitions, but to please me, the
sole object of their common love, each tried to effect my conquest in
order to obtain the advantage over her rivals--an emulation of which I
experienced all the charms. Notwithstanding the fact that I distributed
my affections with a rare impartiality, I could not always prevent the
occurrence of jealous quarrels among them. Afterwards ensued regrets
tender reproaches, and clouds of sadness melting into tears. Peace was
restored amid foolish outbursts of mirth. But you cannot realise what a
task it has been for me to preserve the harmony of a well-regulated
household among creatures with their impulsive imaginations, which have
ripened under the heat of their native oriental sun. They have mixed up
their superstitions with those higher principles of which I have
endeavoured to inculcate a notion into their minds, and which they often
interpret in quite a different sense. All this has been the occasion for
the display of charming eccentricities. My little animals have grown
into women, and along with the development of a more intelligent love, I
have seen manifestations of a coquettish mutinous spirit, upon the
slightest evidence of partiality on my part, which they have thought to
detect in me.
I must tell you that Kondjé-Gul, who is really a very intelligent girl,
had begun to study with great ardour, and it naturally followed that she
benefited more from her lessons than the others, who treated them rather
as an amusement. In three months she learnt French tolerably well--she
it was who translated the novels to them. Hence arose a superiority on
her side, which must in any case have produced a good deal of envy among
the others. On the top of this came her famous excursion to the château,
concerning which the silly creature gave them marvellous accounts, in
order to pose as favourite. I should add that Kondjé-Gul, being of an
extremely jealous nature, often gave way to violent fits of passion.
Hadidjé, for some reason or other, more especially excited her
suspicions. Hadidjé has an excitable temperament. Between them,
consequently, a considerable coolness arose: this, however, created
nothing worse than a few clouds on my fine sky. For the passive
domesticities of the harem, I had substituted love; for its obedience,
the free expansions and impulses of the heart.
I must add, however, that while rising to purer conceptions of truth, my
houris retained too much of their native instincts not to get their
heads turned somewhat by the novelty of their situation. Having equal
rights, they claimed the same rank in my esteem. From this it resulted
that Hadidjé, Nazli, and Zouhra at last took umbrage at the success of
Kondjé-Gul, who was wrong in trying to outstrip them. "Kondjé-Gul," they
proclaimed, "wishes to act the _savante_. Kondjé-Gul gives herself the
airs of a legitimate Sultana." I must confess that the said little
coquette was only too careful to impress them with her successes, of
which she was rather proud. One evening she sat down to the piano, and,
with a careless air, played part of a waltz, which she had learnt on the
sly in order to surprise me. You may guess what the effect was. This
triumph put the finishing touch to their provocation, and the evening
was spent in sulky murmurs.
Finally, one day when I arrived at the harem I found Kondjé-Gul shut up
in her own room, bathed in tears. The storm which had been impending so
long had burst over her proud head--Hadidjé, Zouhra, and Nazli had
beaten her.
Once more I appeased their discords, by recourse to a new declaration of
principles. The reconciliation was celebrated by a general display of
cordiality; but a faction had been formed within the ranks. At the very
time that I least expected it, Nazli, Hadidjé, and Zouhra returned to
their idea of a secret visit to the château. This project, which so far
had only been carried on by detached skirmishes, was still cherished by
them, and was now pursued by a compact body of troops, combining their
siege-manoeuvres with a rare concentration of boldness and courage.
Their weapons were tender caresses and those innumerable cajoleries of
women, which nearly always compel us to surrender in desperation to
their most unreasonable whims. My oriental _ménage_ was still walking on
a flowery path, but a snare was hidden under the dead leaves.... A few
weeks later, when I was completely entangled in the subtle meshes of
their cunning, the whole line changed their tactics. They said no more
about Férouzat, but I soon saw exhibitions on every side of frivolous
caprices, sudden fits of sulkiness, unexpected refusals, and so forth.
My odalisques had become civilised.
I was too good a tactician to allow myself to be outflanked by this
artful little game, the concerted object of which I pretended not to
perceive. Whenever they fancied they had obtained a success over me, I
immediately transferred my attentions to Kondjé-Gul, and the attacking
party disbanded, surrendering unconditionally.
Unfortunately Kondjé-Gul, relying upon my weakness for her, tried to
carry off a decisive victory by a sudden charge. The other evening,
having accompanied me up to the secret door, she rushed through it with
a laugh, and made off for the château, right through the grounds of
Férouzat. I ran after her and soon caught her, encumbered as she was by
her oriental slippers and her long train. I took her back to the harem,
where the others seemed to be awaiting, in a great state of excitement,
the result of this most audacious attempt. Then I learnt that "she had
boasted she would obtain this fresh triumph over them." This was a
flagrant offence. After such an act of rebellion it was necessary to
make an example: I spoke severely, and there was a tremendous scene.
Kondjé-Gul had too much pride to humiliate herself before her rivals,
who were rejoicing over her defeat. Distracted with vexation and carried
away by her foolish impulses, she made the breach between us complete.
For three days she remained haughty and arrogant, accepting her
disgrace, but too proud to make any advances for a reconciliation.
Needless to say, Nazli, Hadidjé, and Zouhra were more affectionate and
attentive to me than ever.
Such was the condition of affairs when the critical incident took place
which I undertook to describe to you.
The other evening, I was in the harem, and Nazli and Zouhra were playing
Turkish airs on the zither, while Hadidjé, seated at my feet, with her
head resting upon her hands, which were crossed on my knees, was singing
in a low murmur the words of each tune.
Kondjé-Gul stayed near the verandah, looking cool and dignified, and
smoking a cigarette in the defiant, and at the same time resigned
attitude of a hardened rebel; but the furtive glances which she cast at
Hadidjé gave the lie to her affected calmness. For two evenings past we
had not exchanged a word with each other. She had dressed herself that
day with remarkable care, as if to impress me with the splendours of the
paradise I had lost: her glorious hair streamed down in long tresses,
somewhat disorderly, from under her pearl-embroidered cap.
Notwithstanding a great gauze veil with which she pretended to enshroud
herself in order to conceal her charms from my profane eyes, her bodice
was so slightly fastened that it dropped down just low enough to expose
to view the charming little pits under her arms and the snowy-whiteness
of her breasts. Like a wrathful Venus, the expression on her face was
both mutinous and resolute. She had put _kohl_ under her eyes (a thing
which I forbid), and had blackened and lengthened her eyebrows so that
they met together, in Turkish fashion. In this get-up the little sinner
looked ravishing!
Now you can picture to yourself the scene, and guess my state of mind.
The weird tones of the zither, with their penetrating and singularly
melancholy vibrations, the strange yet graceful costumes, the scent of
those flowers with which the daughters of the East always adorn
themselves, the all-pervading voluptuous atmosphere the enchantment of
which I cannot explain to you; finally, the fair rebel gloomy and
jealous, in the corner of the picture! All this, without my being any
longer surprised by it, kept me in a sort of happy contentment, like
that of a well satisfied vizir, which defies all analysis, but which you
will understand.
All at once the music ceased.
"André," said Hadidjé to me, "won't you come into the garden for a
little while?"
"Come along!" I replied, and rose up to go.
She took my arm. Zouhra and Nazli followed us. As I went out by the
verandah, I passed close to Kondjé-Gul; she drew back with a superb air
of dignity, as if she feared lest her dress should be ruffled by me.
Then darting a look of withering scorn at Hadidjé, she wrapped herself
up in her veil and leant against the balustrade, watching us go off. It
was a delicious autumn evening, the air was soft and the sky clear and
starry. Under our feet the dry leaves crackled. Hadidjé wanted to have a
row in the boat, so we went towards the lake. As we rowed along we
caught glimpses of Kondjé-Gul from time to time, through the openings
between the trees; her motionless figure stood out like a solitary
shadow in front of the illuminated window of the drawing-room.
"That's capital!" said Hadidjé, who was rowing with Nazli; "How dismal
she looks! But then why does she try to get privileges over us? Let us
stay here."
"Oh!" answered Zouhra in an indifferent tone, as she lay back on the
cushions, "Not the whole evening, I hope, for it's rather cold."
"Why didn't you bring your _feridjié_ then," said Nazli; "you poor
sensitive creature?"
"I will go and fetch it if you like," I said to Zouhra.
"Oh, no!" she answered quickly; "if you leave us we shall be afraid."
"Very well then, _I'll_ go," said Hadidjé, who wanted to carry out her
plan. "Let us row to the bank."
We pulled up to the point nearest to the château, and Hadidjé, not
without some nervousness after all, left us and ran off.
"Keep your eye on me all the time, won't you?" she said to me as she
picked up her long skirt.
Soon we saw her reach the verandah without any adventure. She ascended
the steps and passed in front of Kondjé-Gul. It seemed to us that
Kondjé-Gul spoke very passionately to her, and that she answered her in
the same tones. At last they both had gone in, when all at once we heard
piercing shrieks. Apprehending some skirmishing between my two jealous
houris, I rushed off, followed at a distance by Zouhra and Nazli, who
were frightened at the thought of being left alone. As I entered the
harem I found Hadidjé and Kondjé-Gul, with their hair dishevelled and
their clothes torn, struggling together. Kondjé-Gul was armed with a
little golden dagger, which she wore in her hair, and was striking
Hadidjé with it. When she saw me she fled and ran to her room to shut
herself in.
We hastened to the assistance of poor Hadidjé. She had been wounded on
the shoulder, and blood was flowing. Happily the weapon, too harmless to
wound seriously, had not penetrated the flesh; but, breaking with the
blow, it had scratched her rather severely. I soon felt reassured, and
quieted her cries, but not without some trouble.
Mohammed and the servants had run up to the rescue; I sent them all
back, and after calming Nazli and Zouhra, I staunched the wound with
some water. In a few minutes, Hadidjé, who had fancied herself murdered,
regained her tranquillity of mind, and only complained just enough to
keep alive our interest in her grievance.
Then I questioned her, and she told us that as soon as she had entered
the drawing-room, Kondjé-Gul followed her, and giving vent there and
then to an outburst of passion, accused her of being the cause of her
disgrace, reproaching her with hypocritical devices for getting over me.
Hadidjé, according to her version of the affair, had only replied with
extreme moderation, when Kondjé-Gul, exasperated all of a sudden, rushed
at her with her dagger.
I knew Hadidjé's character too well to place an implicit belief in the
whole of this account; still it was important to put an end to such
escapades. The happiness of my household, which had hitherto been so
peaceful, was endangered if I failed to act like a just but strict
husband. After this outrage committed by Kondjé-Gul, my houris, in their
indignation, insisted upon a signal vengeance, and demanded forthwith
that I should deliver her up to the _cadi_. The _cadi!_ that was coming
it strong. I had some difficulty, however, in overcoming their
persistency; at last they agreed to a less tragic form of punishment,
which went no further than the expulsion of this unworthy companion from
the harem.
Such escapades might, I feared, get wind outside, and cause a scandal.
However much allowance I might make for the tempers of my houris in
these demands for a somewhat summary punishment, I could not conceal
from myself that, taking everything into consideration, it was really
necessary for me to punish the offence severely, into whatever
difficulties this adventure might lead me. I promised to give
satisfaction to their legitimate indignation. Then, leaving Hadidjé to
the care of Zouhra and Nazli, I proclaimed that I was going at once to
subject the culprit to an examination, after which I should pronounce
sentence upon her.
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