They have frames made on which their embroidery is worked, and on
velvet, satin or that beautiful and durable Broussa gauze they
embroider with exquisite fineness and taste. The most of their
embroidery is done in durable and admirably-arranged colors, in
subdued tones, which seem to me remarkable in women who are so fond
of brilliant primary colors and ill-assorted contrasts. They have no
patterns, but work out graceful and beautiful fantasies, and all done
with the most extreme care and fineness, requiring patience and extra
good eyesight.
We might suppose that these women would take pleasure in making and
embroidering their babies’ clothes as do other women, but as babies
are simply swathed in endless rollers, like a mummy, until they are
six months old, ornament is unnecessary. At the end of six months boy
babies are put into pantaloons and girls into loose trousers, both
being usually made of large flowered chintz.
About the only thing I ever noticed the Turkish women do for their
little children was to make toys for them, and they make the most
grotesque-looking dogs, lions, cows, rabbits, elephants, camels and
doll babies out of rags for their amusement. They never nurse their
babies for fear of spoiling the shape of the bust. They are very poor
mothers, as they are too ignorant themselves to understand their
responsibilities or to teach their children. They alternately slap them
or caress and indulge them just as their own humor happens to be good
or bad.
The little girls are taught to sew and embroider, how to walk
gracefully, and recline in the most negligent manner upon the divans,
how to play by ear a little on the lute, and to sing their interminable
love songs. Their songs are like Barbara Allen, Lovely Young Caroline
of Edinboro Town, the Brown Girl, or Gipsy Dave--all long, and telling
a whole romance to a plaintive chant.
I never learned to speak Turkish, but I got so that I could seize upon
the meaning of these songs. The singer always puts all the life and
sentiment she can into her music, and often sheds tears as she sings,
as do her listeners. I have even seen one or two of them faint away
at the most pathetic part. This is a very common trait among Turkish
women, and I have not yet been able to decide whether it is the result
of a weak will or extreme sensibility, but they faint on every possible
occasion.
The Turkish women love music passionately, and nearly all of them can
play some instrument with taste and feeling, though almost always by
ear. Their native music is always sad and plaintive, and often full
of such a piercing sorrow that it is no wonder it brings tears. They
love flowers, too, and you rarely see one without a flower in her hand
when it is possible to get them, and they are fond of birds, and raise
a great many themselves. Many of the Turkish women show considerable
talent in drawing and painting, though the poor things never have any
chance to learn. They simply “pick it up.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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