Women Under Polygamy/Chapter 25

CHAPTER XXV MOROCCO AND TUNIS
EARLY in the Eighth Century the great victorious horde of Saracens, or " Easterns," carried their conquests through almost the whole of North Africa to the Strait dividing the continent from Spain. The fierce Berber hosts were subdued by the less ferocious, but equally brave, invaders. Islam triumphed, and Moorish sultans reigned in splendour.

Spain was wrested from the Visigoths, and the old Roman cities of Andalusia were transformed and made glorious by Morisco art.

The modern descendants of these warriors, sages, philosophers, and marvellous artists and craftsmen are still known as Moors. Strictly speaking, as Sir Richard Burton points out, the modern inhabitants of Morocco, or Marocco, are of three distinct races, the Arabs, the true Moors, and the Berbers.* The Moors of to-day are half Arab and half Spanish, preserving the traditions of both nations. There are many thousands of Jews in Morocco. The army is chiefly composed of negroes.


 * " Morocco and the Moors."

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Polygamy and the concubinate flourish among the well-to-do Moors. The wealthy provide themselves with a number of concubines, who are mostly purchased slaves. Sir Richard Burton was offered a slave-girl of twelve for the sum of 4.

The ancient splendour of this race has departed. According to Mr. John Foster Fraser, in " The Land of Veiled Women," ' the rejuvenation of such a race seems an impossibility." The Moors are inert and imp regressive; the rich are luxurious and sensual, and pass most of their time in lounging and smoking. Only among the hill-folks and the peasants are men active and industrious.

The harem of the Sultan is filled with women of various nationalities. Mr. Foster Fraser says that from time to time the royal seraglio " needs thinning," so a bunch of ladies are sent off to Tafilet, in the Atlas Mountains, to adorn the harems of descendants of Moorish kings. Usually, the Moor marries one wife, and keeps as many mistresses as he can afford. c They are cheaper than wives, and can more easily be got rid of. The women are in prisons; though, on the whole, not ill-treated, according to Oriental ideas." (" The Land of Veiled Women.")

European girls are preferred for the harems of the rich men of Fez. (f Ill-treatment is exceptional,"

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writes Mr. J. Foster Eraser, <{ for good-looking damsels cost money, and expensive possessions are not to be injured." This writer continues that the Moors prefer a number of concubines to several wives, because they can see slave-girls, but not brides, before buying them.

Apparently, in Morocco, there is no provision made for cast-off concubines. The freed women are turned adrift. In spite of the alleged callous treatment of women, the author quoted states that the Moors are extremely kind and forbearing towards their children. As elsewhere under Moslem tradition, the sons are more petted than the daughters.

Thomas Roscoe, who wandered in Morocco, was impressed by the beauty of some of the harem women whom he chanced to see. Early one morning this adventurous traveller ascended to the roof of the house in which he was lodging, and found that he could cross from roof to roof of the dwellings. While exploring the town in this manner, he saw several houris unveiled and sitting in a courtyard. They were very glad for the opportunity of conversation with him.

During a visit to Hajji Hassan Entifa, Roscoe was admitted to his hospitable host's harem, and consulted concerning the maladies of three of the girls. One of the damsels was extremely lovely. The Englishman discovered that over-eating and indolence had given

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these ladies a rather severe attack of indigestion, and he allayed their husband's fears.

This writer visited the slave-market where negresses were offered for sale. None of the women seemed in the least degree unhappy. They chatted and smiled vivaciously. Roscoe says that their features were not comely, but the women had beautiful forms and small hands and feet.* The slave-mart still exists in Morocco.

Disproportionate births in the sexes is, no doubt, a cause of polygamy in Morocco. Westermarck was told by a friend acquainted with the country that three females are born to one male. In the Monbuttu country, according to Emin Pasha, far more females than males are born.

Divorce is obtainable by men on the slightest pretext, and many husbands repudiate their wives again and again. It is considered fashionable to divorce one woman after another, and such repudiations are common among the Moors of the Sahara. f

Polygamy is the exception and not the rule in Northern Africa. It is not common among the Berbers. Mr. Foster Eraser found little polygamy among the Kabyles; but husbands often repudiate their

f Westermarck. Op. cit.
 * " Spain and Morocco," T. Roscoe.

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wives when they begin to fade, and marry younger women who are more attractive.

The Moors of the cities are more inclined to polygamic unions than those of the country regions. But many rich Moors refrain from plural marriage, and maintain one wife and several concubines. Discarded wives are often compelled to live as courtesans. Mr. Foster Fraser describes the disorderly houses of Fez as " dens of crime."

The aesthetic standard of beauty in women is plumpness, both in Morocco and Tunis. It is every Moorish and Tunisian woman's ambition to be fat. The stouter a woman is, the more she is desired as a wife; and to attain the necessary embonpoint, girls are fattened from infancy by their mothers. They are almost forcibly fed. In Tunis the women are often extremely ungainly through this induced adiposity.* Unlike the roving Arabs, who admire lithe and slightly-built women, the Moors and the Tunisians are attracted by unwieldy forms.

Tunis is chiefly Mohammedan, but there is a large Jewish population. The Bey keeps a resplendent harem, and sets the fashion to a number of his wealthier

flesh-producing."
 * Mr. Foster Fraser writes : " A Tunisian girl is slim like other girls. As she reaches the marriageable age she takes no exercise. She gorges on kous-kous, which is farinaceous and

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Photo

MOORISH WOMEN, ALGIERS.

Underwood

subjects; but polygamy is not within the means of the mass of the people. Frequently a rich man has one chief wife and a number of secondary wives.

I am acquainted with an English lady who married a wealthy Tunisian after he had repudiated his native wife. She found the secluded life irksome, though she was surrounded with every luxury. This lady remained for a few years in the harem.

Mungo Park, one of the pioneer explorers in Africa, noted closely the marriage customs of the Moors. He refers to the stoutness of the women as constituting the ideal of feminine physical perfection.

' Corpulence and beauty appear to be terms almost synonymous. A woman, of even moderate pretensions, must be one who cannot walk without a slave under each arm to support her, and a perfect beauty is a load for a camel."

Park describes the dieting of young Moorish girls by their parents to induce extreme fatness. Kous- kous and camel's milk are literally forced down the girls' throats to produce corpulence, and to render them attractive to men.

The explorer found the Moorish women vain, loquacious, and very irritable. They were often cruel to their slaves. The women were entirely un- educated, and the lack of " mental accomplishments " was not deemed a defect.