As the Osmanlis enshrine the objects of their affection in the recesses of their own hearts, so they love to guard them from all contact of a selfish world. Indeed, Moore has beautifully expressed their feelings in the warblings of the Peri,
“No pearl ever lay under Oman’s green water,
More pure in its shell, than thy spirit in thee.”
They feel so sensitive on this score, that they do not make their Harems a subject of conversation. Even the most distant allusion to this part of their establishment would consequently be, not only indelicate, but also an infringement of etiquette—so that the ordinary questions, such as “how are madam and the ladies,” or according to Irish vocabulary, “how’s yer wife and the gals,” would cause the lord of the house to redden with astonishment.
As a further proof of the respect a man is supposed to feel for his family, his enemy, when wishing to touch him to the quick, in cursing him, only utters maledictions against his wife, mother, or sister.
A man may be publicly executed, but a woman is sacked, entirely out of respect.
A Turkish lady is eminently queen of her own dominions, sometimes even a despot—and most independent on all occasions, both public and private.
It is not necessary for ladies to be attended by their husband or any other gentleman when they go out; public sentiment entirely protects them; for, if any one should accost them rudely, the commonest citizen would immediately turn avenger. When the ladies are attended by servants and eunuchs, they are only appendages of rank and distinction.
They seem, indeed, to be a privileged class. Wherever they appear the men must retire—and woe to the man who ventures upon a warfare of words with a Turkish woman; for her tongue has no bounds, and her slipper is a ready weapon of chastisement; and no man would dare to repel the attack.
The convenience of the slipper as a ready means of self-defence, seems to have been familiar in the days of the old classics, for, the Roman poet says: