Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/153

Rh by doctors, stretching out their arms through a hole in the partition between the two departments. The internal management of the harem is sometimes left to colored eunuchs, but commonly the mother-in-law, or in her absence, the chief hahum (lady of the harem) has its charge. Cooking is done in the harem, and the dishes are sent to the men's department through a revolving closet in the partition wall and served by male waiters. The inside of the harem yard must not be seen from any house near or far; hence the law for buildings, especially for windows, is very strict, and the exterior of the houses have the appearance of an ancient castle wall. As the minarets upon which the muezzin crier calls the believers to worship are always higher than the neighboring houses, the women must conceal themselves in the house until the crier makes his brief tour around the minaret. Very often blind men or children are employed in this service, and men of ugly voice are preferred by many pious Moslems that their wives may not be attracted and tempted to come out of their inner apartments. Some exceedingly fanatic Turks do not allow even the Christian women to enter their harems. Blind men, idiots, eunuchs, and sometimes the old domestic stewards, are allowed in harems.

2. Polygamy Among the Turks. Any Moslem who can afford may have four wives in legal marriage, and may have as many concubines as he can purchase or capture. The present Sultan—not the most intemperate of the Ottoman rulers—is said to