The women’s quarters were a rambling place, with three small courtyards
all on different levels, tunnels, staircases inside and out, and
passages which ran in all directions. Besides the ladies Fitnah and
Murjânah and their households, a widowed sister of the Pasha, and a
former slave who had enjoyed his favour, kept separate state, with
children and attendants. Freed slaves and poor relations, recognized
go-betweens and sycophants came in and out, and slept there when
they chose--a privilege extending to their offspring. Old women with
a secret, knowing look edged through the corridors; untidy children
sprawled upon the stairs; outside the door of each of the great ladies
stood rows of coloured slippers, signifying humble callers. The place
seemed always populous and full of noise. In a sense, good order
reigned there; but it was the order of a township rather than a private
residence, including all degrees of cleanliness, of wealth and squalor.
The corps of eunuchs, ten in all, were the police.
This little world of women had its liberties. From the third hour of
the day until the sunset call to prayer, the lord of the harîm was
absent. If he happened to return, it was his duty to announce the fact
beforehand, allowing time for visitors to veil and slip away. The
inmates had their private interests, their games and jokes. The clash
of tambourines, the quick soft beat of darabukkahs made a pulse of
glee. They all seemed happy and in love with life, although they hardly
ever saw the sun or breathed free air; for when they drove abroad it
was in shuttered carriages; and the family mausoleum, where they went
for picnics, was a second palace with its own haramlik.
But what surprised the Englishwoman more than anything was the charm of
majesty--the exquisite prestige--which certain of these Eastern women
radiated; making her feel small. They called her “Barakah”; it was her
name thenceforward, and meant a Godsend, so the courtly Pasha told her.
That name increased her awkwardness at first, sounding sarcastic from
the lips of queenly women.
On the morning after she had written her indignant letter to the
Consul, she was awakened by soft singing. A beautiful and stately girl
sat by her bed, who, seeing her at last awake, sprang up and kissed
her. Murjânah Khânum, claiming Yûsuf’s bride as her own guest until
the wedding, had sent her slave Gulbeyzah to attend her to the bath,
attire her in a robe of honour (which was shown), and then escort her
to Murjânah Khânum’s rooms, where Barakah was asked to breakfast and
to spend the day. It was useless to resist. Gulbeyzah knew her duties,
and performed them scrupulously. By the time they left the bathhouse,
Barakah arrayed in gorgeous silk, her fingers hennaed and her eyes
enlarged with kohl, they were laughing friends.
Murjânah Khânum took the Englishwoman in her arms and kissed her; then
sitting down beside her, subjected her to a prolonged inspection, none
the less embarrassing for being tender.
“Ma sh´Allah!” she exclaimed, and added some soft words in Turkish,
looking to Gulbeyzah, who translated:
“Madame says you are more beautiful than she was told. Your beauty is
more excellent than the rose. Your eyes remind her of the Bosphorus.
You make her think of her own country. The desire which you inspire is
like home-sickness.”
Barakah could only blush and hang her head--a posture which drew down
fresh compliments upon her modesty.
Slaves brought in trays of fruit and set them down, retiring silently.
Then an old negress came in with a brazier and made coffee, with which
was served a kind of fritter smeared with honey. Then a young girl
appeared with ewer and basin and fine towels, going first to Barakah,
who rinsed her hands. Murjânah and Gulbeyzah, she saw afterwards, used
soap and washed their teeth as well--a cause of spluttering.
Murjânah Khânum rolled a cigarette. She lounged at ease with eyes
intent on Barakah, and while she smoked, gave vent to her reflections,
which Gulbeyzah rendered into French as best she could.
“It is a great distress to me not to be able to convey my loving
thoughts directly to the mind of one so near. Ask the dear one if she
speaks Romaic, or a little Persian. No? A pity! She is learning Arabic?
In sh´Allah, she will soon acquire that tongue and Turkish too....
“I fear she must feel strange and lonely in a life so different: I
wish I could expound its beauty to her. Ask her whether she has read
the tragedies of Sophocles, an ancient Greek. No? That surprises. I
had thought them known among the Franks. Say, I have read them in the
Turkish version and admired them greatly.... At least, she knows that,
in old times, before the prophets, there were priestesses who guarded
mysteries of the false gods?... Well, we secluded women of the East are
the guardians of the mysteries of God Most High--the verities of life
and death, of birth and growth and of decay--of all those things which
come directly from the hand of God. These are the sense of life; though
much obscured by all the surface agitation which disturbs the life of
men. We, in our calm retirement, always view them ...
“And then, when one regards the strife of tribes, the tumults and
rebellion in this world, is it not well that womanhood should be kept
sacred and aloof, respected in the strife of Muslims--the ark which
bears the future of the Faith?... Then, even as it is, much crime is
caused by love and jealousy. What would it be if women went unveiled?
I say not, in her land where men’s blood may be more equable; but
here.... Just Allah! Youth would be a curse. If marriageable girls were
barefaced, what could preserve them from atrocious accidents? We guard
their youth and train them to be lovers, child-bearers; we send forth
healthy boys to serve the Faith....
“Tell her that I myself, by Allah’s visitation, have lost all my
children; yet, thanks to El Islâm, I am not desolate. I have her Yûsuf
and a score of others for delight.”
Hearing these words translated by Gulbeyzah, Barakah felt abashed to
insignificance. The habit of confronting the brute facts of life, which
Europeans cover over, clothed this old woman in a tragic grandeur which
was almost terrifying. She was relieved when other ladies came and talk
grew shallow. Silks and fine linen fabrics were spread out before her.
Hearing that she was required to choose among them for her trousseau,
she implored Gulbeyzah with despairing gestures to say that she
resigned selection to the ladies. The answer caused relief. The ladies
set to work methodically, feeling, stroking, comparing the materials
in the best light, discoursing all the while like happy birds. Fitnah
Khânum was less forward than the others in politeness, and kept her
face averted from the gaze of Barakah. She took her leave before the
service of the midday meal.
The Pasha’s widowed sister begged of Barakah to spend the following day
with her in her apartments. Murjânah was approached and gave consent.
“I can give you dinner on a proper table with chairs and knives and
forks,” the widow said in broken French.
Murjânah Khânum’s tables were brass trays on little stands, and
everybody ate with fingers from the dish.
The day with Leylah Khânum was less serious. The widow’s talk was all
of love and lovers. A perfect host of go-betweens was kept employed to
find her a fresh husband; but, though ageing fast, she was fastidious
and asked perfection.
“God grant she may not die a widow,” sighed Gulbeyzah, who explained
the case to Barakah.
Leylah Khânum was much exercised to know whether Barakah had had much
love-experience in England. Hearing “No,” she raised her hands in
marvel. One so beautiful! The mistress of so much charm! And unveiled
among men! She asked the reason.
“I was poor,” said Barakah.
At that there was loud outcry; Leylah Khânum and Gulbeyzah called on
God for pity.
“But you are beautiful! Men pay for beauty, need no bribe with it.
And you mean to say they would have let you die a virgin--with that
loveliness? O Lord of Heaven! What a wicked waste!”
Their dread of dying in virginity appealed to Barakah as something
comical when she remembered the ideals preached in Christendom.
Leylah Khânum told her stories of true love, all far from proper judged
by English taste; and shocked her by the cool assertion that poison
was a woman’s natural weapon. In the afternoon they were invited to
Murjânah Khânum’s rooms, where the business of the trousseau still
proceeded. It went on for days. Each morning when she woke, the
bride-elect found some fresh present from the Pasha in her room,
which Gulbeyzah made her carry forth and show to every one. The whole
haramlik frolicked round her in excitement.
Gulbeyzah’s status in the household puzzled her. The Circassian seemed
the equal of the ladies, yet was called a slave.
She said to her one day:
“You are as white as I am. How can you bear to be a slave like Wardah
or Fatûmah?”
“Not like Wardah or Fatûmah, if you please!” was the superb rejoinder.
“They or their fathers were captured in a warlike raid and made to
islam, I, God be praised, was born in the Faith. Look!” she cried, and
with a splendid gesture bared her bosom. “This is the paste of which
they make sultanas. My parents sold me--they were poor--that I might
come to honour, as others of the family have done before me.”
“But what chance have you here? Do you expect to captivate the Pasha?”
“God forbid! I never even see him. Here I serve the sweetest of all
ladies, who will one day find me a rich husband. It is a famed harîm,
and my lady is renowned for goodness and refinement. The greatest in
the land would not disdain a fair Circassian girl of her instructing.”
“But do you never miss your freedom? You can form no projects, being,
it seems, entirely in the hands of others. Surely your thoughts are not
so ruly? You must sometimes dream?”
Gulbeyzah fixed her great eyes on the questioner as though debating
whether she were to be trusted. Then, with a smile, she grasped her
hand and whispered, “Come!”
She led the English girl across the court where grew the orange trees,
down a foul-smelling passage towards the kitchens, and up a flight
of stairs into a corridor which served the chambers of the humblest
servants. In its wall was a recess with a small window neither barred
nor latticed. Here Gulbeyzah stopped.
The reason why that window had been left uncaged was plain, since it
looked out upon blind walls and distant housetops. But one small angle
of a terraced roof appeared within clear seeing range, and on that
angle sat a man. When Gulbeyzah leaned her elbows on the window-sill,
he sprang to his feet and made despairing gestures. She watched his
antics for a moment, then drew in her head.
“It is a secret, mind!” she cautioned Barakah. “I spent an afternoon
here once, when I was sulky, and he was walking on that roof by chance.
Ever since then I see him every day. He always sits there. I sign to
him to climb up, but I know he cannot.” She laughed scornfully. “I make
romances in my mind about him. It is evident he dies of love. He has
grown thinner.”
“How cruel! How can you torment him so?”
“He is a man, you understand. One does not feel compassion as one would
for girls. Perhaps if he could climb up here I should reward him, but,
thanks to God, he cannot, poor young man!”
“But are you not ashamed to think such thoughts--you, the pupil of
Murjânah Khânum? So immoral!”
“It is my fancy, there! Morality is not our business. We are strictly
guarded. One gets a conscience--what you call a soul--when one has
children. How droll you are! You talk just like a man. God knows I love
you, and should like to be your durrah.” (The word means colleague in
the married state.)
Gulbeyzah flung her arms round Barakah. A sound of footsteps in the
passage made them turn and peep.
“It is a eunuch!” the Circassian whispered. “He has been there all the
time. He attends you like your shadow, have you noticed? How sweet to
be so precious; and so respected, for he keeps his distance!”
Barakah preferred these confidences with Gulbeyzah to the endless fuss
and noise about the trousseau. The hive was in commotion over the
approaching marriage; angry, Gulbeyzah told her, with the Pasha for
his wish to shear the festival of ancient ceremonies regarded as the
woman’s right. When approached upon this subject in a crowded conclave,
she said that she was anxious to conform to all their customs--an
answer which was hailed with cries of triumph.
Mrs. Cameron appeared one afternoon, the Consul’s envoy, to ascertain
that all was well with the perverted girl. She was shown to the
state-room, and there regaled with tea in glasses and sweet biscuits,
in what was thought to be the English manner. The ladies pestered her
with eager questions, persisting, despite frank denials, in regarding
her as a near and dear relation of the bride. She glanced reproachfully
at Barakah from time to time. “You’re quite at home with them, I see,”
she said at parting. “It sounds unkind, but I must say I wish you
weren’t. It is a fall for any woman bred as you were. How can you put
that kohl round your eyes?... Good-bye, my dear, and don’t forget our
compact.”
The visit leaving an unpleasant, sad impression, Barakah withdrew to
her own room, alleging headache. She was lying on her bed with eyes
half closed, endeavouring to lay the ghost of former days, when some
one entered without knocking, shut the door with care, and crept
towards her. It was a strange old woman. She sidled up with much
grimacing; whispered “Yûsuf,” laid her shrivelled cheek upon her hand;
“Yûsuf,” again, and smacked her lips delectably; “Yûsuf Bey, thy
bridegroom,” and made the motion of embracing with ecstatic grins.
Barakah grew interested. She longed to see the man she was to marry
and, fresh from Mrs. Cameron’s reproach, was feeling reckless. She
tried to question the old woman, but without result. The crone kept
nodding, “Yûsuf Bey” and “Come.” She had brought with her a habbarah
and mouth-veil, which Barakah put on by her direction. Then they stole
forth, the temptress in high glee.
But they had not made ten steps in the hall before two eunuchs pounced
on them and stared into their eyes. One beat the hag, whose screams
were frightful. The other, smiling, dragged back Barakah, pushed her
inside her room and locked the door.
The meaning of the whole adventure remained dark to her. Gulbeyzah,
when informed of it, declared that the old woman could not have been
employed by Yûsuf, who was much too honourable and obedient to his
father to indulge in such low games. She ascribed the incident to
machinations of the lady Fitnah, beheld a plot to lure the English
girl to some lone place, there to be ravished if not slain. Barakah
laughed at such wild fancies. That Yûsuf’s mother did not like her much
was plain to see; she had doubtless cherished other projects for her
first-born; but to impute the thought of crime to her was too absurd.
“I bring good news,” Gulbeyzah said to change the subject. “The Pasha
has granted us the visit to the bath with you. He has engaged the best
musicians and some famous dancers, and all the maidens of good houses
are to be invited Oh, what joy!”