Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/124

Rh The Moslem guests were at first rather shy, and hardly ventured to address,me; for they are not in the habit of seeing any women except their wives, slaves, and servants, and they never see any Christian women. I had been advised to avoid meeting my brother's Moslem guests for the sole reason that they seclude their female relatives; but we did not wish to imitate Oriental exclusiveness unnecessarily, and I found much to interest me in my intercourse with them. They always behaved to me with respectful and chivalrous kindness.

The Levantine ladies, who hide themselves from Moslems almost as scrupulously as the native Arabs do, were rather surprised, and they explained to me that it was quite contrary to custom for Moslems to see females out of their own families, and that the laws of their religion forbade them to do so. I took the first opportunity to make inquiry on the subject, and when two or three of the most intelligent and learned of our Moslem friends were assembled one evening at our house, I told them that I had an important question to ask them. I first reminded them that neither the customs of my country nor the voice of my conscience forbade me to see any of my fellow creatures. On the contrary, I was taught to love every one, knowing that we are all of one family, the children of one God, and created by his will. Then I said, "Is there,any law, which you regard as sacred and binding, forbidding you to see and converse with women out of your own individual families ? If there is such a law, I will not cause you to disobey it, but will help you to keep it by hiding myself from you."

They seemed to be taken by surprise; but they clearly explained and proved to me that there is no law of the kind, and it is the law of custom only which immures the women in their harems. Mohammed Bek said that their women are now quite unfitted for society, and would not know how to conduct themselves in the presence of strangers. "If we gave them liberty they would not know