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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



been better, or some of the women had 

 known more French, this story would be 

 much longer. 



When I finally rose to go, I asked 

 them, though I knew they would not 

 comply, to come and visit me. In this 

 part of the Moslem world upper-class 

 women go about but little. In Constanti- 

 nople, where reform germs are working, 

 the women have begun to clamor for per- 

 mission to attend public entertainments, 

 theaters, etc. But it's thirty days by 

 caravan from Bagdad to Constantinople, 

 and the modern spirit of the capital is 

 felt not at all in the secluded harems of 

 the old home of Harun-al-Rashid. 



The sudden reappearance of the old 

 Pasha, as he came to conduct me to my 

 carriage, threw the whole fourteen into a 

 noisy panic of giggles. One of the 

 younger women, dropping to all fours, 

 hid her face behind her arms and acci- 

 dentally burned a hole in the rug with her 

 fallen cigarette. Think of a high-spirited 

 American girl kneeling or hiding her face 

 just because a mere man entered the 

 room ! 



i the; de;se;rt women are: different 



Among the Bedouin women of the 

 nomad Arabs the ease and indolence of 

 harem life is unknown. 



From early childhood she must serve, 

 first her father and then her nomad hus- 

 band. Arab maids of eight and ten years 

 tend the sheep and goats, wandering 

 alone out on the desert miles from the 

 camp ; but they are safe. 



Bedouins, as a rule, have but one wife. 

 Being Moslems, they are allowed four, 

 but few avail themselves of the privilege. 

 Perhaps one wife is all the average Bed- 

 ouin can support. In all the Moham- 

 medan world no man takes more than 

 one wife, unless his means permit him to 

 keep the extra women in comfort. It has 

 been said, too, that one desert woman is 

 all the average Bedouin can manage. 



In a way, these nomad women have 

 been suffragettes for centuries. From 

 our point of view, the Bedouin woman 

 is a mere slave, with no rights at all ; yet 

 tribal customs accord her certain con- 

 siderations, and if her husband mistreat 



her, she is able to make it very lively for 

 him. All the lusty-lunged women of the 

 camp leave off milking the camels and 

 join with the aggrieved wife in a joint 

 assault on the offending husband. They 

 gather about his tent, screaming out abuse 

 and heaping on his helpless head all the 

 invective and vilification in which the 

 Arab tongue is so copiously rich. 



I have seen such a man, humiliated 

 under the stinging jeers of half a hun- 

 dred angry women and taunted by the 

 derisive shouts of the amused male spec- 

 tators, flee from his tent, mount his horse, 

 and gallop away, utterly routed by the 

 women. 



woman's peace in the tribe 



For years war has been waged inter- 

 mittently between the Jebbel Shammar 

 and TEneza. tribes west of the Euphrates, 

 and it is said that in many of these desert 

 conflicts, when hundreds of spearmen 

 have perished, the combatants on either 

 side were encouraged by Bedouin maids 

 mounted on swift camels, who kept to 

 the front, shouting cheering words to the 

 brave and reviling the laggards with 

 withering Arab sarcasm. 



The fortitude of Bedouin women on 

 the march is traditional. On the long 

 "hajj," or march, to Mecca, over the hot 

 sands, their suffering is intense ; yet they 

 keep the pace, do all the work, bear chil- 

 dren on the way, and arrive when the 

 "brave" men do. So great is the phys- 

 ical courage of these women that they 

 have often been known, as their hour for 

 delivery approached, to halt beside the 

 trail, bring a child into the world, and 

 then overtake the marching caravan be- 

 fore nightfall. 



Tady Anne Blunt, who traveled among 

 the Euphrates Arabs with her husband, 

 speaks thus of the Bedouin women : "As 

 girls, they are pretty in a wild, pictur- 

 esque way, with cheerful, good-natured 

 faces. Some of them get real influence 

 over their husbands, and, through them, 

 over the tribe. In more than one sheik's 

 tent it is in the woman's half of it that 

 the politics of the tribe are settled. They 

 live apart from the men, but are in no 

 way under restraint." A Bedouin tent 



