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Show . Among Turkish Women, Constantinople, Sepf. 10. Thes dress of the Turkish woman is peculiar and ' the style never changes materially, though once in a while sleeves will be tight instead of loose or some trifling chango will be made. The colors are always al-ways of the most brilliant, and the most startling contrasts are much sought. No woman can seek or ask the society of her husband out of her turn on any pretext. Wlwre there is a large harem " the wives are called Lady Monday, Lady Tuesday and 00 on. x ; 1 Turkish housed of any pretension have a courtyard, or at least a large hall, where the men servants and visitors sit while awaiting the signal to enter the hiiremhic or room wnere tne master or the house receives his friends and eats his meals and attends to all business connected with the household. His little boys, after they aro 6 years old, live there with him iu care of a tutor. The girls romain with their mothers.- The rooms of tho harem, or "sacred place," aro placed on the other side of the hall or court, and generally consist of a suite of many rooms. The largo living room is in tho middle, with a long hall opening open-ing out of it, on each side of which are the wives' separate suites of rooms. The number of attendants arid servants considered necessary for a Turkish household house-hold could never be accommodated in buildings of reasonable size if each had to have a bedroom, but they sleep on the divans and, on the floor in every room. The bitter cold is very hard to bear in Turkey, as there are no stoves or grates or other means of heating than little braziers, with less than a quart of glowing glow-ing charcoal partially covered by ashes to keep a great bare room warm. Women Wom-en and children are muffled in furs to the very eyes, and they eat, smoke and sleep away their time. In the summer the women can go to the Sweet Waters, a pretty creek with some fifty or sixty plane trees, and here they sit on the ground and listen to the wandering minstrels, eat, drink and amuse themselves like children. They go out in caiques, and they have picnics at several points on the shores of the Bosporus. Most of them go to their country homes in sumnr and return to tho city for winter. They do not go to the mosque often, but wherever they go they are followed by one or more great black eunuchs. - Girls marry very young, and are old at 25. Poor and aged widows are cared for by the imam or priest of the district - in benevolent homes, all except the widows of a sultan, who, no matter what their age, must go to the retreat t Seraglio Point, for they are sacred forever, having had the 'felicity of seeing see-ing the sultan. . M-13- |