THE TURKS AT HOME.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 941, 30 June 1877, Page 3

THE TURKS AT HOME.

[Constantinople correspondent London Times.2 There is no Turkish home life. By hom e life I understand the frequent gathering together under the same roof and in the same room of the members of a family, and all the influences and attendant circumstances which such frequent gatherings imply. The Turkish house consists of two parts, one for men, called the selamlik, and the other for women, called the haremlik. These are usually the two wings of the house, and are commonly altogether separated from each other by a central hall. Thus the men have their part of the house and the women theirs. Neither is allowed, without permission, to enter the territory of the other. In a Turkish house the men and ■women do not take their meals together, do not sit around a table, and can hardly be said to feed decently. It is quite possible for men and women who do not know the use of a fork to be very clean about their food, but the use of a fork is a great step towards cleanliness in eating. A Turk holding a considerable position in the State will take a handful of boiled rice from the common dish, and after having squeezed all the water out by working it well in his hand, put the lump into the mouth of a guest, as a mark of peculiar favor. There is a slovenliness about Turks at their meals which is probably due to the fact that men and women do not take their meals together. The object of the meal is solely to cat. Small tables,' usually without cloths, the dishes ready for everyone’s fingers, and the absence of a score of small conveniences which every European table furnishes, could only be tolerated by people who get their meals anyhow. What is said of breakfast applies equally to the other meals during the day. The civilising effect upon a household of requiring all the members to meet together, the attention which has to be given to dress, and to certain proprieties of life, the conversation which takes place, are all so many influences which the Turkish house is entirely without. The truth is that the separation of the women from the men absolutely destroys everything worth speaking of as home life, and causes the life of a Turk in his own house to be utterly wearisome and stupid.