A lady in her out-of-door dress, and mounted on a donkey, appears far more like a bale of goods than like a human being. Especially is this the case if a slight wind is blowing and she is riding against it, or if the air is still and she rides faster than a walk. The silken wrapper is puffed out like a balloon, and sometimes appears to be three or four feet in diameter.
At my first view of a private harem taking its promenade, I asked a friend what those donkeys were laden with.
“The most valuable goods in Cairo,” he replied. “Without them Egypt would soon cease to exist.”
“Really!” I said. “And what are they?”
Before he could answer, one of the bundles turned in my direction, and I saw a pair of lustrous black eyes above a veil. I was enlightened, and had no more questions to ask.
A stranger in a Mohammedan city is sure to have his curiosity aroused, before he has been there many days, on the subject of marriage. Wedding processions are quite numerous; in a single afternoon’s promenade in Cairo I have seen as many as half a dozen. Naturally, the sight of such a procession leads one to ask about the marriage customs.
Among the Moslems, marriages are generally arranged by brokers, though not always so. There are some love-matches in which the parties become attached to each other without the introduction of a third party, but they are by no means common. When a man has reached the marrying age he is expected to enter the matrimonial state, unless prevented by poverty or some other impediment, and it is considered improper, and even dishonorable, for him to refrain from so doing.
If a marriageable youth has a mother, she describes to him the girls of her acquaintance, and enables him to decide whom to take to his house and home. If he has no mother, and frequently when he has one, he engages a woman whose profession is that of Khat-beh, or marriage-broker; she has access to harems where there are marriageable women, and is employed by them quite as often as by the men. She receives fees from one party and frequently from both.
Observe the superiority of Christendom over Islam. In our own country feminine match-makers are numerous, but they work without pay. The only reward they expect or desire is the satisfaction of having made two people happy—or miserable. For the result of the marriages they cause, they generally care as little as do their Moslem sisters.
The Moslem broker goes to the harems, accompanied by the mother or other feminine relations of the young man; she introduces them as ordinary visitors, but gives a sly hint as to the object of their call. If they do not like the appearance of the maiden they plead many calls to make, and cut short their stay, but if satisfied, they come to business at once, and ask how much property, personal or otherwise, the young lady possesses. When these facts are ascertained, they depart, with the intimation that they may call again.