turn, for the space of a few days or a week. The honored one is said to be "holder of the keys," for during her temporary sway she is always in full dress—the mistress of the reception-room—and the favored one of the lord of the harem, while the rest attend to the cooking and household matters. This family seemed to be very well regulated, and I never saw any signs of ill-feeling between the wives, although the youngest and prettiest had no children, while the eldest, a lady of Nablûs, had three sons, and the two others, who came respectively from Saida and Damascus, had each a son and daughter.
The sheikh always sought for wives in various and far distant towns. After marriage the women rarely, if ever, came in contact with their relatives; thus, having no connections in Hâifa, they naturally sympathized with each other as strangers in a strange place. There were no old quarrels or jealousies to revive; on the contrary, there must have been subjects of novelty and interest to communicate. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Abdallah's harem was more homelike and harmonious than any other which I visited.[1]
The chief room is long and narrow, with unglazed, wooden, latticed windows on three sides of it. A raised divan at the end of the room is regarded as the seat of honor, where the sheikh always sits. Narrow mattresses, carpeted and cushioned, are arranged on the floor close to the walls.
- ↑ It seems to me that Sheikh Abdallah thus carried out, in its most extreme sense, the spirit of the injunction of Moses, not to take a woman's sister to wife "to vex her in her lifetime."
Abdallah would not even run the risk of marrying any two members of one family, or even two girls from the same town or village. He was shrewd and clever, and understood the disadvantages of such unions. When Moses gave the above law he was legislating for a people who, like the Moslems, practiced polygamy and recognized it as lawful. He in his wisdom may not have approved of it, but he tried to mitigate its evils and make the best of it. He had no doubt often witnessed, as I have done, the quarrels, disputes, and jealousies which arise in harems where the several wives of one man are nearly related to each other. The more remote the connection or relationship among the women in a harem, the more chance there appears to be of peace within its walls.
