The Druses divorce their wives on the slightest pretext. If a wife ask her husband’s permission to go out, and he says, “Go,” without adding, “but come back again,” she is divorced. Though both should wish it, they cannot live together again, without being re-married according to Turkish forms. These people are very jealous, but rarely punish a criminal wife with death; divorce is the usual penalty.
The Turks in Syria, as well as in other parts of their empire, kill a woman as soon as they suspect her; and the fine incurred by a seducer is enormously heavy.
The Turkomans are a wandering tribe, living in tents like Bedouins. They are peculiar for giving a dowry with their daughters, instead of receiving a price for them. They are exceedingly scrupulous about the honor of their women. If a brother should see his sister receiving a kiss even from her betrothed lover, he would shoot the poor girl on the spot; yet, with the usual inconsistency of mankind, they are themselves extremely fond of intrigues, and pride themselves not a little on success.
The Turkoman women are very industrious and ingenious. They make the tent-coverings of goat hair, and weave carpets scarcely inferior to those of Persia. They use no shuttle, but pass the thread with their fingers. They have peculiar skill in dying various brilliant colors. Nearly all the labor falls upon them. The men do nothing but feed the horses and camels at sunset.
Syria is a part of the Turkish empire, and of course governed by Mohammedan rulers.
Dr. Clarke gives the following account of a pacha whom he visited at Acre. “The harem of the seraglio is accessible only to himself. Early every evening he regularly retired to this place, through three massive doors, every one of which he closed and barred with his own hand. Even to have knocked at the outer gate after he had retired would have been punished with death. No person in Acre knew the number of his women, but from the circumstance of a certain number of covers being daily placed in a kind of wheel or turning cylinder, so contrived as to convey dishes to the interior, without any possibility of observing the person who took them. He had from time to time received presents of female slaves; but after they entered his harem, none but himself knew whether they were alive or dead. If any of them were ill, he brought a physician to a hole in the wall, through which the sick person was allowed to thrust her arm, the pacha himself holding the hand of the physician while the pulse was examined. He put seven of his wives to death with his own hand, after his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca, during which the janizaries had obtained admittance to the harem. From all the information we could obtain, he treated the tenants of his harem like the children of his family. When he retired, he carried with him a number of watch-papers he had amused himself by cutting with scissors during the day, as toys to distribute among them.”
The same traveller says: “In the evening we took some coffee in the house of the imperial consul, and were introduced to the ladies of his family. We were amused by seeing his wife, a very beautiful woman, sitting cross-legged by us on the divan, and smoking tobacco with a pipe six feet long. Her eyelashes, as well as those of the other women, were tinged with the black powder made of sulphuret of antimony. Although this has by no means a cleanly appearance, it is considered as essential to the decoration of a woman of rank in Syria as her ear-rings, or the golden cinctures of her ankles. Dark streaks were likewise pencilled from the corners of her eyes along the temples. This reminded us of certain passages of Scripture wherein mention is made of ‘putting the eyes in painting.’ English translators, unable to reconcile this with their ideas of a lady’s toilet, have rendered it ‘painting the face.’”
The Arabs, though Mohammedans, seldom have more than one wife. Divorces rarely take place, unless for misconduct, or for not being the mother of children. If the Arabian women are fortunate enough to have several sons, they are almost idolized by their husbands. The little girls are fair, but they are almost universally exposed to hardships, which soon spoil the complexion. When young they are very lively and agreeable, and sing almost perpetually. In cities the marriage ceremonies are similar to the Turkish. The processions are gay according to the wealth of the parties, and blessings are invoked on the bride as she passes.
The Bedouins live in tents, divided into three apartments, one for the men, one for the women, and one for the cattle. Though often ragged and half clothed, the Bedouin women generally manage to have jewels of some kind or other, for the neck, ears, nose, and arms. Those who cannot afford gold or silver, wear a nose ring of iron, sometimes two or three inches in diameter. The wives of sheiks, and other men of rank, generally wear rows of sequins across their foreheads, and fastened in bunches to the ends of their long braided hair. Rings in the nose, and very large clumsy glass bracelets about the wrist, are common. Their manner of churning butter is curious. They put the milk into a goat-skin with the hair all on. This is suspended by strong cords to the branch of a tree, and a woman shakes it with all her might, until butter is produced. These skins are seldom washed, and the butter, of course, is none of the sweetest.