Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/185

 Are we happier in our pseudo-monogamic, jostling, commercial, spiritually-deadening civilisation? The answer is doubtful to all but the unreflective.

Pierre Loti, who feels, like a true artist, the strange enchantment of the Orient, has interested himself very closely in the affairs of Turkey. He has many friends in the country, and his penetrating mind discerns all the signs and symptoms of impending changes in the position of Turkish women.

Loti's novel "Disenchanted" reveals the soul of a woman in the haremlik. He tells us in his preface that the volume is one of fiction. But the author insists that it is entirely true, in so far as it demonstrates the advance in culture among the women of Turkey secluded in the seraglios. This spread of knowledge is yielding the inevitable dissatisfaction that the repressed sex naturally experience when they begin to reflect. The Woman Movement and Labour Unrest spring everywhere from education.

Sober-minded and thoughtful Turks are beginning to ponder on the Woman Question. They foresee that educated women will rebel sooner or later against many of the old traditions of religion and society. The spirit of England and France is permeating the harems. Women dress in the English and French fashions; they demand English furniture and pianos. They are learning foreign languages, and reading the