ARAB LOVE AND THE WOMEN OF THE RESERVED QUARTER
By bracketing these two subjects together I do not wish it to be
supposed that in Algeria the two are synonymous, though curiously
enough there is none of that sordid atmosphere which is associated
with women of easy morals in Europe. It is generally believed that
the Arab man is a brute who uses women only for his pleasure,
and that the Arab woman is a piece of furniture and accepts the
situation. It is another legend.
There are few men in the world who are such ardent lovers as the
Arabs, and few women who know as well the art of holding a man
and making him dance to her tune. The Arab goes quite mad when he
is in love, and forsakes his home and his people to lead the life
of a lone savage. In the meanwhile the object of his adoration is
laughing at him coldly, without the smallest emotion and without
any encouragement. The lover can continue performing the utmost
follies—the woman won’t flinch if she doesn’t love him.
The moment she does it is quite a different matter. Her love
dominates all, and she becomes the adorer of her man. And yet in
the midst of all this adoration her woman’s instinct never leaves
her, and if she feels that the man is taking her as a habit she
just slips off and leaves him to wonder if he is standing on his
head or on his heels. Many succeed by this method in keeping their
husbands for ever. If a man has a mistress she will in no way mix
up in his family life, but at the same time she will be respected by
him and by his friends as if she were his wife, provided she remains
shut up. Generally speaking, however, this is rare, and a man’s
mistress either lives in the reserved quarter or keeps open house
at her lover’s expense. Under these circumstances, though she may
have a few women friends, they are not of the best class, and even
the men who visit her house will only do so under cover of darkness.
The reader will at once ask:
“With polygamy, why is there any necessity for mistresses?”
I suppose it is the spirit of adventure, the desire for forbidden
fruit, which characterizes all intrigues of this kind, but it is
also the attitude of the woman who does not want to bind herself
and prefers her free life until the day she is too old to enjoy
it. Arab women are very capricious, and they love to have the man
dancing attendance on them, bringing them presents, and never really
the master of his own reason.
This atmosphere can only be created in an irregular situation, for
once she is his wife she has certain obligations and his authority
counts. Arab women are more than capricious, they are heartless
as long as they do not love. Certain European women are too, but
never to the extent of the Arabs. They will keep some infatuated man
hanging about them with just the hope of favors for months, even for
years. If they see that he is taking a pull at himself they will
give him just sufficient encouragement to haul him back, and then
drop him again into the depths of despair. And if the poor chap goes
mad or ruins himself it is treated as a triumph—another conquest.
But once in love the Arab woman is quite a different being, and
her devotion is without end. I have known a woman who had riches,
houses, position, adulation by men of note, everything a lovely
woman could desire, give up everything she had for a man she loved
and live with him in a state of complete poverty, with just enough
but no more. Before that man came into her life all were fair play
to her, and her moral scruples did not exist. After she had met that
man all the millions in the world would not take her from his side.
Women all the world through are capricious, and swayed by their
whims, and it is by these traits that the skilful ones cause men
to make fools of themselves. The art is dying out in England,
and is on the wane in France, but in Algeria it is at its height,
and sorry is the lot of the unwary one who inadvertently falls in
love with an Arab girl who does not return his love.
Though the same characteristics apply to the women of the reserved
quarter, it is not quite the same thing.
First of all, a few words about this part of the Arab town. It is,
of course, a creation of the French, as it is against all the laws
of the Koran for a man to live with any woman who is not married to
him legally or who is not a recognized concubine. In fact, it is to
avoid this that polygamy was instituted. However, with the French
conquest French civilization had to come too, and the _Quartier_
was created, primarily for the troops.
It is usually walled in, and entered by a single door which is
guarded by a sentry. Inside there is quite a little city—shops,
cafés, miniature squares, where the dancing takes place in the
summer. The women have their little apartments, where they receive
their friends to drink tea and give little dinner-parties. It is
an atmosphere of frank gaiety quite impossible to realize without
seeing it. Some of them have their babies with them, others live
with their mothers. The majority of the inmates are of the tribe of
the Ouled Naïl, but there are, of course, many girls from the local
tribes too, the great difference being that those who come from the
Ouled Naïl are not in any way lowering their prestige by living
this life. They have come with the full consent of their parents,
and one day they may leave and honorably marry. It depends a great
deal on the dowry. In the old days the girls always tried to collect
gold pieces, which they strung into necklaces, and one saw a woman
all dressed up and her neck weighed down with hundred-franc and
twenty-franc pieces. Now that gold is no longer current in France
the women convert all the notes they have into bits of gold, which
they have beaten into bracelets and ear-rings and tiaras. Some of
them manage to buy hoarded collections of gold pieces to make into
necklaces, while others have inherited them from their mothers.
However, the main point is to have the dowry in gold actually on the
person, so that there is no danger of its depreciating in value, and
when the girls leave the quarter to go to some private party in order
to dance, they are accompanied by a constable and by a soldier with
a rifle. The result of this system of buying gold has, of course,
made the girls very rich. Paper currency has depreciated, so that a
hundred-franc piece sells for a high price, and the money, though
not fructifying in actual interest, is a capital ever increasing
in value.
Of course these jewels are not common only to the girls of the
Quarter; all Arab women strive to have as much jewelry as possible,
but naturally they have other expenses to consider, whereas a girl
of the Quarter invests all she has in jewels, and keeps only a
small proportion of her earnings to buy her frocks.
[Illustration: An Arab Type]
[Illustration: Arab Women Veiled]
[Illustration: Girl of the Quarter]
The frocks of the Arab women of all classes are the same, and they
are disappointing. In fact, they are almost grotesque, and do not in
the least show off the wearer to her advantage. For daily use they
employ calico or print, tied round the waist with a ribbon, while on
the head there is a colored scarf. When they are all dressed up for
a party their outer garment is of silk or of taffeta, sometimes of
velvet, sewed about with ribbons and embroidery, and of all shades
of brilliant colors. The hair is long and smeared in unguents, and
plaited round the head, about which they wear two scarfs bound one
above the other, also of very striking hues. Those who have golden
tiaras fix them in front of the scarf head-dress, with golden chains
hanging down from the sides, passing under the chin and up the other
side. Round the neck are the necklaces of gold pieces, in the center
of the breast a round golden brooch, and about the waist a silver
or golden belt. Their arms are covered with bracelets, which are
rarely beautiful because they are too heavy; the same applies to the
anklets. What strikes one first as a jarring contrast are the feet.
In the first place, Arab women’s ankles are rather thick,
but, instead of wearing attractive Arab slippers associated with
the illustrations of the _Arabian Nights_, they buy themselves
cheap French shoes and encase their fat legs in cotton or woolen
stockings, which have no connection at all with the color-scheme
of the dress. They also spoil their figures by wearing layers
of coarse underclothing. A group of Arab girls a few yards away,
about to dance, is a picturesque spectacle, but their individual
appearance in those gaudy clothes is not attractive. And yet some of
the girls when young are lovely, their big black eyes especially,
and their mouths full of fun and inconsequent gaiety. With the
exception of the hair they keep themselves clean, and they attend
the Turkish bath regularly.
It is most amusing to stroll into the cafés of the Quarter at
night and sit down on one of the benches among the Arabs under
the flickering light of the oil-lamp or the hiss of the acetylene,
and watch the girls in their semi-party dresses dancing slowly up
and down the center. The _raïta_ squeals and the _tam-tam_ beats
in regular cadence while the dance proceeds.
There are all kinds of different steps and figures, and though
the _danse du ventre_, which is a hideous muscular distortion of
the abdomen, is always carried through, there are many other dances
which are pleasing to the eye, and the movements of the hands remind
one of the wings of a butterfly. Moreover, simple as these dances
may seem, there is a tremendous amount of technique about them,
and the poise of the body, and the movements of the feet, quite
apart from the hands, take long years to learn. A little girl will
begin her apprenticeship at the age of twelve, and at seventeen she
will be proficient. Some of the dancers become famous, and are as
well known among the Arabs as European stars.
There are also some Arab women who sing and play the mandolin.
Their voices are, on the whole, rather harsh, except in the sad
ballads of the South, which drone out into the plaintive notes so
hard to copy.
Since the introduction of the gramophone into Arab life the girls
who are known to be appreciated are paid large sums to make records,
and the result is deplorable, as the harshness of the voice is only
accentuated by the needle.
The saddest part about Arab women is the rapidity with which they
grow old, or, rather, mature. They attain the status of womanhood
between the ages of twelve and fourteen, and between fifteen and
twenty they are at their best. After that they suddenly seem to fade,
and all at once look near to thirty-five. But there it stops, and
they don’t get any older for ten or fifteen years; then another
sudden leap forward and a woman of fifty is a wrinkled old lady.
Such is the Arab woman of to-day, and such she will remain until
civilization finds its way in and destroys all the good traditions of
the past. The task will be a hard one, but the action of Mustapha
Kemal in Turkey, though it has probably shocked the Arabs, has
given them much to think about. However, for the time being the
life goes on as it has done for the past twelve hundred years,
and long may it do so.