The Secrets Of The Harem
Anonymous
7 chapters
11 minute read
Selected Chapters
7 chapters
The Secrets of The Harem.
The Secrets of The Harem.
By one who has been there. Smallest Magazine in the World. Subscription price, 50 cts. per year. Single copies, 5 cents each. PUBLISHED BY A. B. COURTNEY, Boston....
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In the Harem.
In the Harem.
Many people have an idea that Turkish women absolutely do nothing that is either useful or ornamental aside from the decoration of their own persons, but that is not altogether true, as my residence of over a year in their country taught me, for they are really dextrous with the needle and do work which is as fine as that done by the sisters in the convents, or that of the wives of the feudal noblemen of olden times. The favorite pastime of the Turkish women is the bath, which brings together th
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Secrets of the Harem.
Secrets of the Harem.
The harem is that part of a polygamist’s house which is set apart for the use of his wives and their attendants; it also denotes this collective body of women. In all Mohammedan countries it is customary for wealthy men to keep a harem; for, though four is the number of wives to which the faithful are restricted by the Koran, there is no limit to the number of concubines a man may have, except his ability to maintain them. The mention of a harem naturally suggests to most people the female porti
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The Sultan’s Seraglio.
The Sultan’s Seraglio.
Seraglio is the palace of the sultan at Constantinople. It stands in a beautiful situation on a head of land projecting into the sea, known as the Golden Horn, and is enclosed by walls seven and one-half miles in circuit. Within the walls are a variety of mosques, gardens and large edifices, capable of containing 20,000 people, though the whole number of the inhabitants scarcely ever reaches the half of this. The principal entrance is a kind of pavilion, which is constantly guarded by capidjis,
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Dervishes.
Dervishes.
A Dervish, in Mohammedan countries, is a class of people resembling in many respects the monks of Christendom. The dervishes are divided into many different brotherhoods and orders. They live mostly in well endowed convents, called Tekkije or Changah, and are under a chief with the title of a Sheik. Some of the monks are married, and allowed to live out of the monastery, but must sleep there some nights weekly. Their devotional exercises consist in meetings for worship, prayers, religious dances
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The Life of Popular Songs.
The Life of Popular Songs.
In the end, a popular song is killed by its own success; it is sung, played, and whistled to death. The hand-organs hasten the catastrophe. It is doubtful whether any popular song of to-day will have other than an ephemeral existence, there are so many more people than there used to be to wear it out. Some of the songs of forty years ago—notably, “Swanee River,” “Old Folks at Home,” and the “Mocking Bird”—are still frequently heard, which cannot be said of the popular songs of more recent years.
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What He Did.
What He Did.
The idea of refusing water to fever patients is, we are glad to say, nearly a thing of the past. The following incident, related by a sailor, serves as an illustration of the water treatment. “Some years ago, when we were in Jamaica, several of us were sick with the fever, and among the rest the second mate. The doctor had been giving him brandy to keep him up, but I thought it was a queer kind of ‘keeping up.’ Why, you see, it stands to reason that if you heap fuel on a fire, it will burn the f
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