But all those who really take to heart the unfortunate lot of woman in Turkey can find comfort in one undeniable fact--the daily increasing disfavor with which polygamy is regarded there. The Turks themselves have always considered it rather in the light of a permitted abuse than man’s natural right. Mohammed says: “He who marries but one wife does well,” although he himself married several; and, as a matter of fact, all those Turks who wish to be looked up to as models in the community do have but one; those with more, while they are not blamed exactly, are certainly not commended. Comparatively few Turks openly advocate polygamy, and fewer still approve of it in their own consciences, being, for the most part, fully alive to its injustice and the unfortunate consequences resulting therefrom. There is a party strongly opposed to its practice at all, while the higher officials of state, officers of the army, magistrates, and religious dignitaries--all those, in short, whose social position requires them to adopt a certain respectability and dignity in their mode of life--have but one wife; and this being of necessity the case among the poor and persons of moderate means as well, four-fifths of the entire Mussulman population of Constantinople are no longer polygamists. This, it is true, is largely due to the craze for European manners and customs, while many of them have _odalisques_ in addition to the one wife; but the European mania itself is the result of a growing, if confused, idea that some change in the social conditions of Mussulman society is imperatively demanded, while the custom of having odalisques, already openly denounced as a vice, is sure to disappear with the suppression of slavery--an abuse still tolerated--and become merged into that form of corruption common to all European countries. Will a still greater corruption be the result? Let others be the judges; but here are the facts. To transform Turkish into European society the position of woman must be established; that can only be done through the death of polygamy, and polygamy is dying. Possibly were the Sultan to issue a decree suppressing it outright to-morrow, not one dissentient voice would be raised. The edifice has crumbled to pieces, and nothing now remains to be done but to cart away the débris. Already the light of a new day is tingeing the balconies of the harems with rose color. Take heart, beautiful _hanums_! Soon the doors of the selamlik will swing open; the bars will fall from the windows, the _ferajeh_ be relegated to the museum of the Great Bazâr, and the word “eunuch” mean no more than a dark memory of your youth. Then the whole world will be free to admire your charms of mind and person. When the “pearls of the Orient” are spoken of in Europe, the words will refer to the charming Mussulman women, beautiful, refined, and witty, not to those useless stones which adorn your foreheads amid the cold, wearisome splendors of the harem. Be of good cheer.