Turkish ladies are richly dressed

It should not be supposed, however, that ladies of rich families who have plenty of servants make themselves quite such guys in the hours before custom requires them to dress for the afternoon. But the circumstance that they may wander about the premises unprepared for observation of others, is what makes the Turk fortify his house against outside eyes by truly ingenious contrivances. When they are dressed, Turkish ladies are richly dressed. In the street what one sees is a voluminous silken sheet thrown over the head and falling to the feet. This gives the woman the form of an inflated pillow tied in the middle with a string. But, in Constantinople at least, the lady after she has entered the house and has thrown off her outer shell is quite a different creature. True she sometimes still inclines to wear her hair cut straight across at the nape of the neck. She loves big figures and startling colour schemes in her dress. She has not yet found her taste oppressed by die jostling of scarlet and magenta which she uses in the same costume. But in the main her dress is cut after Western patterns when at last she dresses herself for the social functions of the afternoon.

But neither the tardy dressing, nor the social function which is like a Western Woman’s Club, nor the house that she lives in makes a home for the woman of Constantinople. A wealthy Turk’s best house is commonly a showy palace on the Bosphorus. Its front, after the fashion of Venetian palaces, is lapped by the water of the sea. Behind it delicious groves and brilliant gardens rise terrace on terrace in magnificent spaciousness. Both land and placid sea promise sweet content to all who enjoy the privileges of the place. To the men, so long as they pursue their separate pleasure in their part of the premises, the promise may be fulfilled. But rarely to the women. In one such house of which I know, there arc sixty women private tours istanbul. Place as wife or favourite or servant is assigned to each. Each has abundant food and clothing, with jewels and other adornments befitting her special station. The great rooms of the house are divided among the women according to their rank. Housekeeping arrangements and responsibilities rest upon servants alone. The ladies have time enough on their hands to make the finding of ways to get rid of it a tax upon their ingenuity.

Splendid mirrors

Books, papers, pictures there are not. Musical instruments there are, singers there are, and one can kill time with these for a while. One can dress oneself up in new costumes, and admire the effect in splendid mirrors, and then undress and don some new combination of costly robes. But this disposes of but an hour or two. One may lounge by the window and watch passing steamers and sailing vessels and fishing craft and caiques, and wonder how much Bessim Bey paid for his new boat, and note the handsome boatmen that Nazli Khanum has picked up somewhere. If a steamer passes very near the shore, the distress of the caiques thrashed about in its wake gives momentary excitement. But the wish for power to make the long days go faster—the longing for something to do, is the burden of life to every lady in that house. Quarreling with the other ladies is the sure recourse under such circumstances. When a quarrel begins it may last for days and develop into a feud that ranges the whole household—mistress or maid—in factions.

Another diversion which makes time fly is the advent of the master of the house. He is a noble looking gray-bearded man who has a past but not much future. He spends most of his time on the other side of the high stone wall which separates the house of the men from that of the women. Announcement of his arrival makes a wild flurry of excitement. There is a general rush to provide for his entertainment. There is visible expectancy of being permitted to receive him or at least of being called to hear a kind word from him. And then there is the hitter, inconsolable disappointment of the unlucky ones. But all these emotions serve after all to cause the time to pass.