There are, however, many instances of sincere affection existing in the hearts of fellow-wives. The following story of two wives of the father of El-Jabartee, the modern Egyptian historian, related by himself, and of undoubted truth, is a pleasing example.—Speaking of the first of these two wives, the historian says,—
"Among her acts of conjugal piety and submission was this, that she used to buy for her husband beautiful slave girls, with her own wealth, and deck them with ornaments and apparel, and so present them to him, confidently looking to the reward and recompense which she should receive [in Paradise] for such conduct. He took, in addition to her, many other wives from among free women, and bought female slaves; but she did not in consequence conceive any of that jealousy which commonly affects women. Among other strange events which happened was the following. When the subject of this memoir [the author's father] performed the pilgrimage in the year 1156 [A.D. 1743-44], he became acquainted at Mekkeh with the sheykh ´Omar El-Ḥalabee who commissioned him to purchase for him a white female slave, having such and such qualifications. So when he returned from the pilgrimage, he searched for female slaves among the slave-dealers, to choose from them such a one as was wanted, and ceased not until he found the object of his desire, and bought her. He brought her to his wife, to remain with her until he should send her with a person to whom he was commissioned to entrust her for the journey; and when the period at which she was to depart arrived, he informed his wife of it, that she might prepare the provisions for the way, and other necessaries. But she said to him, 'I have conceived a great love for this maid, and I cannot endure separation from her: I have no children, and I have taken her as a daughter.' The girl Zeleekhá also wept, and said, 'I will not part from my mistress, nor ever leave her.' 'Then what is to be done?' he asked. She answered, 'I will pay her price from my own property, and do thou buy another.' He did so. She then emancipated the girl, gave her to him by a marriage-contract, prepared her paraphernalia, and furnished for her a separate apartment; and he took her as his wife in the year 1165. The former wife could not bear to be separated from her even for an hour, although she had become her fellow-wife, and borne him children. In the year 1182, the [emancipated] slave fell sick, and she [the first wife] fell sick on account of her [friend's] sickness. The illness increased upon both of them; and in the morning the slave arose, and looked at her mistress when she seemed about to die, and wept, and said, 'O my God and my Lord, if Thou hast decreed the death of my mistress, make my day to be before her day.' Then she lay down, and her disease increased, and she died the next night; and they wrapped her up by the side of her mistress. And her mistress awoke at the close of the night, and felt her with her hand, and began to say, 'Zeleekhá! Zeleekhá!' They said to her, 'She is asleep.' But she replied, 'My heart telleth me that she is dead: and I saw in my sleep what indicated this event.' They then said to her, 'May thy life be prolonged!'[282] And when she had thus ascertained the event, she raised herself, and sat up, and said, 'No life remaineth to me after her.' And she wept and wailed until the day appeared, when they began to prepare for the speedy burial of the slave; and they washed the corpse before her, and carried it to the grave. Then she returned to her bed, and fell into the agonies of death, and died at the close of the day; and on the following day they carried her corpse to the grave in like manner."[283]
FOOTNOTES:
[236] I may suffer in public estimation for my differing in opinion from this accomplished traveller and most estimable man; but I cannot, on that account, abstain from the expression of my dissent. Our difference, I think, may be thus explained. He conformed, in a great degree, to the habits of the Arabs; but not to such an extent as I consider necessary to obtain from them that confidence in his sympathy which would induce them to lay open to him their character; and when a man is often treated with coldness and reserve, I doubt whether the people from whom he experiences such treatment can be judged by him with strict impartiality. To be received on terms of equality by Arabs of the more polished classes, an undeviating observance of their code of etiquette is absolutely indispensable: but Burckhardt, I have been assured, often violated this code by practices harmless enough to our notions and probably also in the opinion of the Arabs of the Desert, but extremely offensive to the people who enjoyed the least share of his esteem: his most intimate acquaintances in Cairo generally refused, in speaking of him, to designate him by the title of "sheykh" which he had adopted; and yet the heaviest charge that I heard brought against him was his frequent habit of whistling!—This fact has been mentioned, as corroborating an observation of the same kind, by Mr. Urquhart ("Spirit of the East," i. 417, 418), all of whose opinions relating to the East, expressed in that work, and especially those regarding the characteristics of the Eastern mind, are entitled to the highest respect.
[237] Kitáb el-´Onwán fee Mekáïd en-Niswán, a work on the stratagems of women (MS.).
[238] This word slightly varied (changed to Ḍa´eefih) bears another meaning, namely, "his weak one:" the final vowel being suppressed by the rule of waḳf.
[239] Kitáb el-´Onwán.
[240] The Arabs in general entertain a prejudice against blue eyes; a prejudice said to have arisen from the great number of blue-eyed persons among certain of their northern enemies.
[241] In another analysis of the same kind, it is said that four should be short,—the hands, the feet, the tongue, and the teeth—but this is metaphorically speaking; the meaning is, that these members should be kept within their proper bounds. (Kitáb el-´Onwán.)
[242] An unnamed author quoted by El-Isḥáḳee, in his account of the ´Abbásee Khaleefeh El-Mutawekkil.