A Pasha and His Harem.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 22, 13 April 1870, Page 7

A Pasha and His Harem.

The most illustrious and important of the passengers on board the Minich (writes a correspondent of the Daily Telegraph) is a pasha, who is escorting his harem from Constantinople to Alexandra Of the eight saloons, the doors of which open upon narrow cabin, six ai’e occupied by the pasha and his family—or, to speak more accurately, his families, for they are many, The Irishman, when he was carried in a sedan chair with no bottom to it, remarked that but for the honor of the thing he might as well have walked. I might almost say that, though I have the privilege of a berth in a separate saloon, I might as well, but for the honour of the thing, have been an inmate of the pasha’s harem. As I sit in the cabin writing, the door of each of the various saloons opens in turn* arid, with the utmost wish not to see, I cannot help becoming acquainted with the most intimate details of the inner life of the seraglio. In every pantomime there is a stock scene in which a house is shown upon the stage with any number of doors in the facade, and as fast as one shuts another opens I often fancy that lam the solitary spectator of a pantomime in which clown and columbine, harlequin and pantaloon, have attired themselves a In Turqm for my special entertainment. The dramatis persona;, as far as I have been able to grasp the plot of the pi vy are as follows ;

The chief actor, manager, and director is the pasha himself. I don’t think I ever saw a man so fat for his height, or so short in stature for his girth. When lie is en dishabille, he looks for all the world like one of the Chinese mandarin figures which are placed upon chimney pieces, and nod perpetually. Attired in a chintz bedgown, festooned round his waist—or what was once his waist—with a red sash, the lower half of his round figure is twice the bulk of his upper. When in full attire, he wears a green robe lined with fur, a green turban, and a diamond ring with a stone so large that I cannot but doubt its genuineness. His face would be handsome if it Wei's not so distended with fat; his. eyes are bright, his skin white; and' I should question whether, unwieldy as he is, he is much over forty. 1 [e looks intelligent, and as good-humored as a man well can, be who lives a quiet life and is worried all day long by any number of wives. They toll me on the boat that he has four legitimate spouses ; but, beside them, what with concubines, slaves, and servants, he has at least a dozen women who have a vested right to his attention. The four wives—the lawful ones, I me in—are of various ages. There is an old wrinkled beldame, who has a cracked voice and a terrible tongue, and who spends her time trotting about with her ve 1 all awry over her fa -e, chattering perpetually, and scolding everybody she comes across. The second wife is a woman well on towards forty, with a face already assuming the nut-cracker shape, and with a sharp, sour look, which years are sure to develop. Wife number three is a dark, sallow brunette, with bold flashing eyes, and the look of a woman able to hold her own in any position in which she may be placed : while the better half —or better eighth, I suppose I should say —number four, is a young, sprightly, darkeyed damsel of nineteen or twenty, who wears lavender kid gloves with four buttons, and has a white silk parasol lined with black lace, and a Veil so tightly bound round her straw sailor hat that you might take her for a European lady. Each of these four dames has her own separate suite of servants, and most of them have children and nurses, although to whom the families belong I have not been able to discover. There are two pretty fair children—a boy and a girl—of whom the pasha is extremely fond. , He is always feeding them with cakes, sweets, and fruit, and they have their abode in the largest saloon, where there is also a baby in arms. But, besides, there is a little dark boy, somewhat older, to whom nobody pays ■ much attention, and who is more or less in everybody’s way, and who evinces a disposition to be friendly with the Giaour which is not to be observed in more favoured playmates. It is very easy to guess that he is the Tshmael of the household, though who is the Hagar I cannot tell; It may be the pretty soft-eyed woman I sometimes catch a glimpse of peeping through the chinks of the doorway, and who, for some reason or other, never appears on deck. But this is snr mise only. There are any number of female servants—one of them being a tall negress, dressed in white; the others are the women who are perpetually trotting from one saloon to another, and whose features can scarcely be seen under their blue cotton shawls, which they keep close folded over their faces. The service between the harem and the outer world is ’ conducted by three body servants. The highest in dignity ia a black eunuch—very tall, and hideously Ugly, with protruding under jaw, a nose flattened to his face, and immense blubber lips, who spends his time perpetually in one saloon or another, but only waits upon the ladies, in the way of bringing food or lighting their pipes, as a matter of favour and condescension. Next in rank comes a good-looking young fellow, with a trim moustache, who acts as a sort of major domo and valet to'the pasha, who is on the best cf terms with the ladies. 7

and is always talking with thorn through the doors, and fetching and carrying for thonl, though he never enters the saloons —-at least, when anybody is looking. And last, hot least, there is a wretched little scrub, of any age between toil aiid twenty, a sort of Turkish “ Sihike," who acts as nursemaid to all the children, is bullied by the nurses, cuffed by the eunuch, and run off Ilia legs by everybody, till I wonder sometimes that lie does not make a hole in the water, and betake himself to a better world. Possibly on shore his life is not so hard as it is on board ship, whore all his mistresses are cross, bored, and out of temper, I hope so, at any rate' for the credit of human nature, But, even with the assistance of Ids male attendants, the life of the pasha is by no means an easy one. There is always something going wrong in some one of the cabins, and the podgy little man has to puff down from the deck scores of times during tile day to set things right below stairs, The steward tells me that during all his voyages in the Levant he has never travelled with a party of Turkish ladies who were quieter well behaved. Rely upon it, the days are not always halcyon days even for a pasha of many tails. All through the morning the cabin is in a state of perpetual worry and confusion. Some article of toilet is wanted, or an excursion has to be made to somebody else’s cabin, or the pipe has gone out) or the beds have to be made, or the contents of the water .jilg is exhausted, or the b-eakfast has not appeared indue order, or the children ai‘e crying; and for one 0 luse or another there is a perpetual rapp:ng at the doors, a jibbering and rustling all the midday hours. There is an end to everything, even to a scolding woman’s tongue ; towards midday, when the heat is stifling, there is a sort of siesta on board the boat; and when the noonday sleep is over, the pasha quits the saloon where the chief wives are assembled, and comes forth in the glory of his green robes and turban, has his narghile brought up on deck, and smokes placidly. Then after a little time s the ladies of the harem come up, escorted by servants, laden with folds and shawls ; and, after much arranging and re-arranging of pillows and cushions, they, too, seat themselves aprtrt in a sort of circle, within the range of the pasha’s eyes, and Smoko cigarettes, or even chibouks,, and drink coffee, and use their eyes freely.