So much for the indoor dress—the “at home” costume. Let us follow our lady out of the house and into the street.
Outside of what we have seen her wearing, she puts on a loose gown with very wide sleeves, and of rose, pink, or violet silk. Then she dons her veil, a strip of white muslin covering the face below the eyes and reaching almost to the ground. The corners are attached to a band that passes round the head, and the middle is kept well up over the nose by a narrow strip that goes over the forehead and is fastened to the encircling band. Then she puts on, if she is married, an outer covering of black silk that conceals everything but the white veil and the eyes above it. An unmarried lady wears a similar garment of white, not black silk, or she may wear a shawl instead of it. This outer garment is exceedingly inconvenient for a pedestrian excursion, and its use is obligatory only when the promenade is not to be made on foot.
For an out-door excursion the shoes give way to morocco boots, at least in. theory. But the customs of Europe are gaining ground in the Orient to the extent that many ladies of Cairo and Constantinople have adopted the French boot and discarded the Oriental one altogether. Even in Damascus, the centre of Islam, and far more fanatical than the other cities of the Orient, the French boot has found a foot-hold, (joke, poor and not intentional,) and its popularity is increasing. And this may be a good place to remark that the ladies of the Khedive’s family get a great many of their fashions from Paris, and very often the yashmak, or veil, is the only thing about them of a truly Oriental type. And this veil is not the muslin one that I have described, but the light Turkish veil, descending only a little below the chin and wound loosely about the face. Very many of the women of the lower order never conceal their faces, and many of the water-carriers and those who sell bread, oranges, and other edibles, in the streets of Cairo, go barefoot, their dress consisting only of a long gown reaching to the ankles, and a loose cloak thrown over the head and shoulders.
When our lady whose costume we have been examining goes out for a promenade, she generally rides upon a donkey. Of late years carriages have intruded upon the donkey’s domain, and the natives use them considerably, but the patient animal is still regarded with respect, and is a fashionable beast of burden. The saddle for Egyptian ladies’ use is high and broad, and covered with a small carpet, and our heroine is seated astride with both feet in the stirrups. She appears to sit very high above the animal’s back, and to be in danger of falling off, but is really quite safe and secure.
The donkeys are trained to their work, and move along very easily, with a motion that inspires confidence in the rider. There is always a man on one, and frequently on each side of the beast, and he is very watchful, knowing the trouble that would come to him should any accident befall his precious charge.
Generally all the ladies of a single harem go out together, so that the sight of two, three, or four persons thus equipped is more frequent than that of one alone. I do not mean that all the women of a single group are necessarily wives of one man; they may be his wife’s sisters, or mother; in fact, the same relation may exist as among the feminine members of an English or American family.
Many Mohammedans are monogamous, and the notions of the Occident in regard to plurality of wives are every year becoming more and more in vogue through the Orient. Many of the Cairene gentlemen have their mothers and sisters in their families, and some few have their mothers-in-law. It is proper to remark that the views of the Orient on the mother-in-law question do not differ materially from those of the Occident.