464

THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

diately made arrangements for a separation, and took charge of the education of her children. She is bringing them up as Mohammedans, as their lot is cast in Tangiers, and is giving them every advantage of an European education, joined with the learn­ing of the Arabs. She is to be seen very often on horseback in and about Tangiers.

The first good look one has at the women is in the market place. There is a market for vegetables and one for grain, and outside of these a wide plain, where, amid horses, donkeys, camels, snake charmers, etc., crowds of natives wander about or squat down in groups. Of course the women met here are of the lower classes, those of the higher rarely walking abroad, save to go to the bath, and then are muffled from head to feet. The general costume of the multitude is made of coarse cotton cloth, white or unbleached being most common. Yellow is sometimes seen, but I do not remember seeing any vivid colors; the men reserve the bright colors for their own use. The dress consists of drawers, loose, but not flowing, scarcely perceptible beneath the long, cloak-like garment, lapped in front and bound with a girdle of folds of the same material, the girdle being used as a pocket. Over the whole is a mantle, sheet-like in form, that is wrapped about until the person is completely disguised. One edge comes down over the forehead to the eyes, and the other is brought across the lower part of the face up to the bridge of the nose, leaving only the eyes exposed. The lowest as well as the highest drapes herself thus, of course in finer or coarser material, according to the rank and wealth, but even the most abandoned affect the disguise. A favorite material for the drapery among the lower classes is the soft bath­ing sheet we use. The little girls use large bathing towels, and gravely imitate their elders in concealing their faces and form. The women seemed to be buying and sell­ing and gossiping in the market, just as our own women do. Sometimes they forget themselves and let the drapery drop from their faces, but as soon as they notice a man looking their way, they draw it up around them again. The young women are quite pretty, some light brunettes and others as dark as negroes. The old women are hide­ous—veritable hags. There is much disease among them, and so little medical care that they are great sufferers. Male physicians are not allowed to attend them, and skilled female physicians are not yet sufficiently numerous to do much good. There is an American Presbyterian mission established in Tangiers. The American women missionaries are generally doctors. They learn Arabic quickly, and give their medical services to introduce Christianity.

Near the Kaaba, or pasha’s palace, is another palace, where the pasha’s ladies reside. I thought at first that this was the pasha’s harem, but found it was a palace where relatives of the pasha, “ his sisters, his cousins and his aunts” reside, the young ones until husbands were found for them, the old ones until their death. The pasha (governor of the town under the emperor), quite a young man, who had succeeded his father, had but one wife, to whom he was devotedly attached. His home was a beau­tiful country seat near the town where his wife and children resided, he himself com­ing into the Kaaba for the transaction of business, remaining one or several days at a time.

The pasha’s ladies I saw were three or four quite pretty young ones and one very old one, the widow of a former pasha. Of course in the house they wore no drapery. They seemed gay and amiable girls, delighted to see strangers and to show their house. The rooms were built around a marble paved court and contained no furniture but a brass bed and cushions around the wall or scattered on the floor. Some had no beds, but little round tables about six inches high, to hold work or a cup of tea or coffee, as the occupants sat upon the floor. All the floors were covered with rugs. Here and there around the court were light tables, bearing sweets, which they offered us. They showed us their costumes, consisting of three or more long coat-like garments over sev­eral skirts. These skirts and coats, all nearly of the same length, were of thin, soft mate­rial, a kind of muslin, of different delicate colors with gold and silver interwoven, and were worn one over the other until all blended and formed an airy drapery. They were lapped in front and bound at the waist with a wide sash of soft silk, the folds of