Mohammedan countries of any culture have long held the bath in great esteem. Turkish ladies of high rank once frequented the public baths with regularity, but the modern improvements in the private houses have made this custom far less general. The women of the Turkish empire present an almost infinite variety. Under the dominion of the sultan the nationalities are many and heterogeneous. So also it would be impossible to make any general statement of the treatment of women among the Turks. In many parts of Turkey there is but one wife in the household, and she is well treated and highly respected; affection prevails in the harems of not a few; while in others concubinage, neglect, harshness, ignorance, vice are present with their deadly effect. Divorce may be readily obtained in Turkey; but parental influence often protects the woman who otherwise might fare unjustly. Mohammed also gave some protection to wives, since he considered a wife to have rights in her own fortune even while married, and held that if divorced, restitution of this fortune was to be made. Turkish women, except those of the richer families, generally nurse their own children. Many children die in infancy through the ignorance of mothers of the lower classes. Some mothers still swaddle their little ones. In the event of illness, instead of a trained physician, many mothers send for a "wise woman" or a wizard. In the harems, it is suspected that many infants are actually killed. The Mohammedan population increases more slowly, notwithstanding the practice of polygamy, than the Christian population of the Turkish Empire. It is the custom among families of the better class to give the boys over from infancy to the care of a _dadi_, or slave girl, whose business it is to care for him during his youth, and it is not infrequent that evil springs from this intimacy. Both boys and girls are under the care of a _lalo_, or male slave, when the children are out of the precincts of the harem. The influence of the slaves and menials, with whom so many Turkish children are thrown, is, as a rule, far from elevating. Submission is a lesson that is very early taught to Turkish children. This insures an obedient, tractable spirit, and is the cause of all that is best in the Turkish character.