Of Prostitution among the States of Northern Africa.
A very brief notice is all that is required by the other States of northern Africa. They are distinguished from the barbarous communities of that region by having assumed the forms of regular society, which places them under a separate head, but, in relation to our subject, they present little that is characteristic. In describing the condition and morality of the female sex in other Mohammedan countries we shall meet with nearly all the features offered by Algiers, Barca, Morocco, Tunis, and Tripoli. Nevertheless, on account of the extraordinary mixture of the population, some curious details are observed. Turks, Christians, Arabs, Jews, Berbers, and Moors mingle in the cities of those States. The last, however, form the mass, and it is to them our remarks must apply.
The Moors of northern Africa possess all the vices, and scarcely any of the virtues, of the Mohammedans of the East. They are proud, ignorant, sensual, and depraved, without any of that high spirit of honour which often, in the oriental Muslim, half redeems his character.
The treatment of women among the Moors answers exactly to this view. They are regarded as the mere material instruments of man’s gratification. Accordingly their whole education is modelled so as to render them fit to serve the lust of a gross sensualist. Among the more elevated nations of Asia, men sometimes tire of their wives’ company, because they are simple beauties, without animation of mind, seeking the society of educated courtezans, more for their wit and vivacity than for their meaner and more material accomplishments. But, with the Moors, the animal appetite is all that they seek to satisfy. A woman with daughters does not train them in seductive arts; she feeds them into a seductive appearance—as pigeons and doves are fed in certain parts of Italy. They are made to swallow daily a number of balls of paste, dipped in oil, and the rod enforces their compliance. This practice is adopted as well by the inmate of the rich man’s harem as by the courtezan; for to be plump, sleek, and fair, are the objects of their common ambition. A girl who is a camel’s load is the perfection of Moorish beauty. Thus intellect and sentiment are not the possessions to recommend her, but fat.
It is strange that the woman’s character does not correspond altogether with her mode of life. Heavy, corpulent, and sensual, she is, nevertheless, alive to the keenest feeling. Hot impulses, untameable in their outbreak, characterize her sex. Rivarol once said, that in Paris the veins of the women were full of milk; but in Berlin, of pure blood. Pananti says that in the Moorish woman fire is the circulating fluid. Fiery hearts, indeed, are general among the women of the East; and are as remarkable in Egypt as in Morocco, where Oriental passions seem to spring from African soil.
Immured as the wives of rich men are in splendid harems, and rigidly excluded from intercourse with the other sex, they seek their whole enjoyment in the gratification of their passions or their senses. Their time is spent at home, or at the bath, lounging on cushions, sipping coffee, smoking, gossiping, or multiplying the devices of the toilette.
The Moors are extravagantly jealous. Some have been known to slay their women before proceeding on a long journey; others have forbidden them to name even an animal of the masculine gender. They are, therefore, entirely shut up within the walls of the harem; muffled under mountains of ungraceful black drapery as they move along the streets; or secluded from the sight of the world in the impenetrable recesses of the bath. There they exhaust all the ingenuity they can command in the perfuming and decoration of their persons.
Many have wondered why women thus prevented from displaying themselves should be so untiring in the offices of vanity. The reason, however, is clear. In the Moorish harem all that a wife or concubine has to look to is the favour of her lord. If she succeed in charming him, her lot is far more happy than under any other circumstances. Besides, it is not only to please him that she labours. The mortification of her rivals is an additional source of triumph, for in the narrow sphere of the harem, where the nobler qualities of the mind have no room for development, the meanest naturally flourish most profusely.
The marriage laws of Mohammedan countries in general prevail in the Barbary States, with slight modifications. The husband has more absolute control over the wife. Few take more than one, though polygamy is universally allowed. Opulent men, however, sometimes indulge in the full complement of four, besides a number of concubines. Though the betrothal usually takes place at an extremely early age, the actual union seldom takes place until the bride is twelve or thirteen, when, as a poet of Barbary expresses it, “The rose-bud expands to imbibe the vivifying rays of love.”
An extensive system of professional prostitution prevails in all the cities of these States. In Algiers and Morocco they are particularly numerous. The low drinking shops are crowded with men, and the loose characters of the town have each a companion who is a harlot. The public dancers all belong to this sisterhood. They exist in large numbers and are very much encouraged by both sexes. The women in the baths, after steeping their bodies in warm water until every nerve is relaxed, and all their limbs are softened into a voluptuous languor, lie on cushions and sip coffee, while dancers, attired in a slight costume, display their licentious arts, and Almeh sing songs equally lascivious. These prostitutes are of various classes, from the low vulgar wretches, encouraged by the French soldiers in Algiers, to the wealthy courtezans who live amid luxury and splendour.
A late traveller was introduced by a friend to “a Moorish lady.” She occupied a fine house, situated, however, in a narrow and retired street. Its architecture was rich, and on the door being opened, signs of wealth became everywhere apparent. The visitor was ushered into a spacious apartment, roofed with graceful arches, and hung with rich-coloured silks. A lamp burning amid piles of freshly-gathered flowers, stood on the table. Reclining on a luxurious divan, with a tiger-skin spread at her feet, was a woman of extreme loveliness, attired in a superb costume. Though of a fair and brilliant complexion, her hair was jet black, braided with curious art and bound up with strings of pearl. Its heavy tresses were partly concealed by a tiara of crimson, figured with gold. Diamond drops hung from her ears; corals and gems sparkled round her neck.
A garment, of a fabric almost transparent, was folded over her bosom, and fastened with a golden ornament. A loose pelisse of blue brocade, confined at the waist with a cymar of embroidered silk, displayed the contour of her figure, and full trousers of muslin were furled about her limbs. Her cheek was tattooed with a blue star, and her nails were stained pink with henna. She was waited upon by a negro girl wearing a white muslin turban ornamented with a rose, the leaves and stem of which were gilded. Elegant in her manners, easy in her mode of address, this woman appeared to the uninitiated traveller the model of feminine grace. When he took his leave, however, his friend undeceived him, with an apology, and he discovered that he had been conversing with a Moorish prostitute.
This sketch of a woman, belonging to the class, may serve to show the extent to which some of them are encouraged. Indeed the society of the dancers, who are all prostitutes, is a favourite recreation with the Moors of all classes. The women, as we have said, belong to various grades, from those who debase themselves by their obscene postures in the low coffee-houses, to those who display their more elegant licentiousness to amuse the wealthy. A man, entertaining a party of friends, sends for a company of dancers to enliven them in his kiosk or pavilion. There, amid the fumes of tobacco, and sometimes of strong liquors (for the precepts of the Koran are often disregarded), these unhappy women descend from ordinary immodesty to the most degrading obscenity, until the orgies become such as no pen could describe. When the master of the feast is particularly delighted with the beauty or the dexterity of any girl, he performs a favourite act of gallantry by dropping a few golden coins into her bosom. The whole company is liberally rewarded[78].