CHAPTER V
WE AND THEY
IT was a patriarchal home, this first harem into which I entered. It consisted of the old hanoum, who was the first wife, and head of the women’s part of the household, six other wives, whom she called her sisters, several married daughters, the wives of some of the sons, and two married grand-daughters. Among them they were the mothers of numerous babies—indeed, there were babies all over the house; and since each lady had several slaves there must have been at least a hundred women and children.
Djimlah happened to be the only child of her age. They were all sorry for her, and said so constantly while doing their best to amuse her.
There was little furniture in the house, just rugs and hard sofas, and small tables upon which were always sorbets or sweets, and cushions of all colours piled up on the rugs, where babies or grown-ups were always lying slumbering. Various small musical instruments were also among the cushions, and at any time some person would pick one of these up to play and sing, so that most of the time, on the floor, there were both people slumbering, and people playing and singing. And since the long, curtainless windows were latticed, and the upper part entirely hidden by creeping vines growing from pots, the whole place seemed to me like a play-box, transformed into a fairy house, from which discipline, like a wicked fairy, was banished.
All the cooking was done in the men’s part of the house, and brought in by eunuchs. At mealtimes we sat around small, low tables, on cushions, and ate most of the things with our fingers, except rice and soup, which we ate with pretty wooden spoons.
The amount they permitted me to eat was incredible. Even to this day I wonder what prevented me from becoming ill.
Djimlah and I practically owned the house. We slid on the banisters; we climbed on the backs of the slaves, who, at any time, were ready to play horse with us; and we ate candy whenever and in whatever quantities we pleased.
No one said “No” to us, whatever we did, and the old hanoum let us ruffle her beautiful clothes and disturb her even when she was asleep. We slept on a little bed, made up at the foot of hers, in her own room, and it was she who said our prayer, which we repeated, and then kissed us good-night.
The day had passed so rapidly, and had been so crowded with events and candy that I had had no time to think. Once in bed, after Djimlah put her arms around me and kissed me and then sweetly fell asleep, I had plenty of time to review the day. It seemed preposterous that I, my uncle’s grand-niece, should be here in a Turkish household, and in the same bed with a Turkish little girl—a little girl I liked and should hate to kill. Yet my uncle’s teachings were strongly with me and his dark, fiery eyes seemed to pierce my heart. I tried to focus my mind on the bad side of this household. There was the fact of the several wives, and if it was bad for Arif Bey to have two wives, it must be terribly bad to have seven, as had Djimlah’s grandfather, who did not even have the excuse, to my thinking, of being young, handsome and Olympian. On the other hand, the old hanoum liked those other wives, and called them Sister, and Djimlah spoke of them lovingly. Impelled by my uncle’s eyes I tried to dislike the Turks. I felt disloyal to him, whom I could feel very close that night; but when I fell asleep at last, my rest was not troubled, and on awakening again Djimlah was leaning over me, cooing and laughing, and I began to laugh too.
The tears, which I had had the courage not to shed when my father said that I might stay with Djimlah, flowed copiously when the time came to leave her. I cried hard and loud, and so did Djimlah and because we two cried some of the slaves joined in, and then the old hanoum said: