SHATTERED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 203, 20 April 1932, Page 2

SHATTERED

HAREM ROMANCE PRINCESS SAYS WOMEN ONLY INFERIOR SERYANTS. VERY DRAB EXISTENCE. Perfumed beauties reclining on great silk divans . . . gorgeous rohes ahout the sensuons setting . . exotic loveliness! Who has not shared these sweet illusions of life in Eastern harems? lln a hook, which might well be entitled, "Oh, Yeah," but which is merely called "Harem Life," Princess Djavidan Hanum, ex-wife of the exKhedive of Egypt, shatters some illusions with the hard facts of her own ■ experiences. She writes as one who knows! To the uninitiated, she says, the very word "harem" speaks of wanton dances, music and perfume, exeitement, ecstasy and satisfied desires. . . and, of course, of pretty girls ■ in thin clothes. As a matter of fact, : the harem woman is just a poor, primitive creature, and her life extremely boring. She is seldom heantiful. Her clothing is puritanic in its simplicity and offers ahout as much sexual allure as a pillarbox. In every harem there are hanums, who see to it, for their own salces, that the kalfas (unofficial wives) are dull and unattractive. If the master of the harem, the bey or pasha, is unmarried, and believe it or not, such things do happen, the whole household is governed by his mother or a near relative, and if not by the bash-kalfa, head woman. Whoever has the job makes it her business to guard the master against loving, and especially marrying, a kalfa. Should he be already married, discipline is maintained by his hanums' jealousy. Like Servant Girls. According to Princess Djavidan, harem women look like inferior servant girls. Their status also is that of a menial, but with no power to give notice. The average harem is an ugly place, says the Princess. Beautiful flowers are carelessly throwri, into cheap imitation vases, Rare pieces of porcelain are filled with dnsty artificial flowers. Everywhere there is lack of good taste. On the walls hang endless rows of mirrors. Fixed between their tiresome surfaces are chandeliers without candles. Amidst antiqne damask curtains are hangings of c'oarse, stiff material, straight from a warehouse. There are no soft, billowy conches. The surroundings, in fact, are as un~ comfortable and unattractive as a railway waiting-room. According to the law of Ismail all womenfolk of the harem are entitled to a salary until dcad or divorced. Hanum-effendis, bash-k fl "as. and kalfas receive a monthiy stipend which compares quite favourably with the Christian wife's honsekeeping money. So, although the kalfas are sometimes referred to as slaves, really they are beneficiaries under a religious unemployment scheme for surplus women. In exchange for a life of captxvity they are assured of money, clothes, board and being bored. Each woxnan is paid a stipend as soon as she enters the harem, and she can spend it as she pleases. It begins at £1 a month, for children, and rises according to the nature and years of serviee to between £5 and £15. A head woman, or bash-kalfas receives from £20 to £100. In the harem of Abdul Haxnid (exSultan of Turkey), a kalfa received up to £300 a month. In some cases, instead of money, the women are given an issue of garxnents. In an ordinary harem they are entitled to a black silk veil, a silk coat and mantilla, two silk robes to be worn when callers are received, and six washing frocks for wear about the house; in addition, under linen, shoes and stockings. A kalfa uses her salary only to buy perfume, cosmetics, powder and sweets. They are all very foxxd of sickly, sticky sweets. Trivial Ceremonies. Under the jealous rule of the Ha-num-effendi, self-portraiture with the rouge and lipstick is strictly limited. The hanum reserves this right for herself; but fortune sometimes favours others. A kalfa might have the chance to escort the pasha without other attendants; then she rushes to her cosmetics and feverishly applies the transforxning colours. The work of the kalfas consists of trivial eeremonial services. Everything has to be done to rule. Even a glass of water must he presented according to cnstom; one kalfa holding it and three in attendance. The inxnates of the harexn are classed in groups; the handmaids, who lay tahle and wait at meals; the eoffee servers, whose'sole taslc is the coffee eeremonial, and the chamashirdji-kal-fas, or body women, whose duties are in the bathroom, dressing rooxn, and in the xnaster's 'bedchamber. Most of the harexn women are faxniliar with the history of the harems — they never cease to quote the doings of former Caliphs and Sultans. For instance, Ayesha kalfa will tell how Fatima Haxium, in the harexn round the corner, is ont of favour because her master likes his ladies slixn, after the European mode. Then an alder kalfa will tell the tale of the Caliph Ibrahim I, who, when riding in the eity, one evening, became so fascinated by the noble proportions of a bazaar woman, that he had the city searched for the girl with the largest hips and xnade her his favourite. She was- given the governorship of Damascus. But her good fortune, more xinexpected than a win in an art union, did not last. The Sultana mother grew jealons ahd, during a private little dinner party, sh'e had her strangled between eourses.Such happenings were the spice of life in the old harems. These Strange Men! Men were men in those times, another kalfa would say. There was the Caliph Walid II. Ai, he was a man! If a strong peg was firmly driven into the ground and then fastened to his foot, he would

pul it out as he leaped on a horse. He would wrestle three or four eunuchs at a time, oftexi killing them all. And was not the reign of Yazid II controlled by a beautiful dancer? Bisxnillah, it was! Yazid, when a Prince, hought a * slave, narned Habaabah. She was a beautiful dancer; but the Caliph foreed hixn to give her away. However, when Yazid became Caliph himself, his wife Saada — what a wife! — wishing to please him, had a search xnade for the girl and brought her back to hixn. Later, in a garden by the Jordan, while the Caliph was making love to the dancer, she swallowed a grape and choked to death. For seven days the Caliph refused to permit her burial, and even after she was interred he gave orders to have the grave opened, so that he might see her again. A week later he died of regret for her. But not all Caliphs loved like that, Bissmillah, no! Some were cruel. What about Murad IV, Caliph when only twelve, who forbade his wives to nse their voices. When he heard some of them. singing in the garden, he had thexn all drowned. He was a fine lad! His favourite wife, "Glowing Star," presented him with seven daughters, and he wished to .xnake her his Sultana; but according to custom female children furnished no claim to respect and "Glowing Star" faded. Then there was Osman III, who hated women so much, perhaps because he had 500 in his harem, that he had his boots studded with large silver nails to give signal for flight whenever his ringing steps were heard. He also hastened the departure of his wives by administering the silver nails to retreating portions of their anatomies. No wife was allowed to cross his path. The penalty was divOrce — by drowning. Even in modern times the harems have their fun. Did not the ex-Sxil-tan Abdul EEamid carry a revolver in his hand day and night and shoot at anything that startled him. Evexi if it were only a gardener bowing to him. This is an exception, though! In the modern harem the plottings and intrigues of the past, with all their excitement, their material for gossip and reli'ef from boredom, have departed.