Proud, sensual, and depraved in his tastes, the Turk is too indolent to acquire even the means of gratifying his most powerful cravings. Satisfying his pride with the memory of former glories, his lust looks forward to the enjoyment of a paradise crowded with beautiful ministers of pleasure, and he passes his time in an atmosphere of Epicurean speculation, lounging on cushions and sipping coffee with a dreamy indifference to all external objects. Even the poor indulge in this idleness. They measure the amount of labor necessary to keep them from positive want, and spend the rest of their time waiting the sensual heaven promised by their prophet. In such a lethargy the most violent passions are fostered, and when these become excited the Turk can not be surpassed in brutal fury. All his fancies are gross; moral power is an incomprehensible idea, and he can conceive no authority not enforced by whip or sword.
The Turkish character thus exhibited corresponds with their estimate of the female sex. The person alone is loved; intellect in a Turkish woman is rarely developed and never prized. She finds her chief employment in decorating her person, her sole enjoyment in lounging on a pile of cushions, and admiring the elegance of her costume. Turkey is literally the empire of the senses.
Polygamy is now growing into disrepute there. Recent laws have conferred many privileges upon women in matters of property, and their comparative independence has rendered them averse to a position in which they only acquire secondary rank. Men who marry wives of equal rank to themselves frequently engage in their marriage contracts not to form a second alliance, and this stipulation is very seldom violated.
The customs of the country do not permit a man to see his wife before marriage. She may gratify her curiosity by a stealthy glance at him, but this privilege is seldom used. In consequence of the separation of the sexes, a race of professional match-makers has arisen, as in China, who realize considerable profits from their calling. Children of three or four years old are sometimes betrothed, marriage taking place about fourteen. When a wedding is contemplated, each family deputes an agent to arrange preliminaries, the terms of the contract are embodied in a legal document, and the woman is then called “a wife by writing.” This is concluded some days before the actual wedding, but the interval is occupied with rejoicings and hospitality, on which the bridegroom generally expends a year’s income. The union is a mere civil contract blessed by religious rites. All concubines are slaves, even in the harem of the sultan, since no free Turkish woman can occupy that position.
The morals of Turkish women are generally described as very loose. Their veils favor an intrigue, the most jealous husband passing his wife in the street without knowing her. The places of assignation are usually the Jews’ shops, where they meet their lovers, but preserve their incognito even to them. Lady Mary Wortley Montague imagined “the number of faithful wives to be very small in a country where they have nothing to fear from a lover’s indiscretion.”
The dancing girls of Turkey are prostitutes by profession. Their performances are much enjoyed by all classes, and they dance as lasciviously in the harem, where they are often invited to amuse the wives and concubines, as before a party of convivialists in the kiosks. Their costume is exceedingly rich, both in color and material. During the day they resort to coffee-houses, where they attach themselves to companions whom they entertain with songs, tales, or caresses until night, when their orgies are transferred to houses belonging to their chiefs. Many of these habitations are furnished with every possible luxury.
Another form of prostitution is temporary marriage. For instance, a man on a journey will arrive in a strange city, where he desires to remain some time. He immediately bargains for a female companion, a regular agreement is drawn up, and he supports her and remunerates her friends while he remains. When he is tired of her, or wishes to leave the place, she returns to her friends, and patiently waits for another engagement of the same kind.
NORTHERN AFRICA.
A very brief notice only is required of the semi-barbarous states of Northern Africa, particularly as an account of Algeria under the French has already been given. The mass of the population are Moors, and therefore our remarks will mainly apply to them. Like the Turks, they are proud, ignorant, sensual, and depraved, and their treatment of women exactly accords with this character. They regard the female sex but as material instruments of man’s gratification; and this idea is become so generally received, that the sole education of a girl is such as will render her acceptable to some gross sensualist. Intellect and sentiment are not the possessions which will recommend her: to be attractive, she must be fat. A girl of such bulk as to be a good load for a camel is considered a perfect beauty, and, accordingly, the mother does not train her daughter in seductive arts, but feeds her into a seductive appearance, as pigeons are fed in some parts of Italy. She is made to swallow every day a certain number of balls of paste saturated with oil, and the rod overcomes any reluctance she may have to the diet.
The Moors are extremely jealous of their enormous wives. Some have been known to kill their women before proceeding on a journey; others have forbidden them to name an animal of the masculine gender. They are entirely shut up within the walls of the harem, where they pass their time perfuming and decorating their persons, to attract the favor of their lords.