As I found the Turkish women--and I happened to have obtained, by a fortunate circumstance, a chance to know them in their homes accorded to very few foreign women, and to absolutely no foreign man--they are gentle, submissive, loving, and with many natural gifts in addition to their beauty. If they were educated they would be the equal of any women in Europe. It does not seem to me that they are unhappy in their peculiar marriage relations. They reminded me of a lot of irresponsible young girls in a boarding-school, and the only jealousy such as might be felt of the “teacher’s pet.” Instead of the poisoned and vindictive murder I supposed always ready to be inflicted upon each other, the worst they ever do is to pull each other’s hair occasionally or box each other’s ears. Girls reach their majority at nine and are frequently married a year later, though not usually until fifteen. By that time all the education they get is acquired. Instead of being taught all the abstruse sciences she is taught all the caressing words and gestures possible to imagine--how to walk, sit, look and speak so as to appear the most seductive in the eyes of the husband who gets her. No Turkish wife of the better class is ever expected to do any domestic labor whatever, nor to make any of the household linen, nor any garments for herself or members of the household, nor to sew any buttons on, nor, above all, to make her husband’s shirts; therefore it can be seen at once that almost every source of domestic disagreement is done away with, and the Turkish husband never expects his wife to get on her knees to hunt for his collar button, nor scold her if the dinner is badly cooked; so that in many respects life in a harem is not so very bad after all, and one-tenth of a good husband is better than the whole of a bad one. Secrets of the Harem. The harem is that part of a polygamist’s house which is set apart for the use of his wives and their attendants; it also denotes this collective body of women. In all Mohammedan countries it is customary for wealthy men to keep a harem; for, though four is the number of wives to which the faithful are restricted by the Koran, there is no limit to the number of concubines a man may have, except his ability to maintain them. The mention of a harem naturally suggests to most people the female portion of the royal households of Turkey and Persia and Egypt. In the sultan’s harem each wife--he alone can have seven--has a separate suite of apartments, and a separate troop of female slaves to wait upon her and do her bidding.