Of course, this habit of inaction prevails equally with the female sex:
a Turkish lady would not think of picking up a fallen handkerchief, so
long as she had an attendant to do it for her. As may be supposed, the
number of slaves in a Turkish household of any importance is very great.
[Illustration: TURKISH FEMALE SLAVE.]
The position of women in Eastern countries is so totally unlike that
which they hold in our own happy land, that we must refer expressly to
it, in order that the picture of domestic life presented to us in the
writings of all travellers in the East may be understood. Amongst all
ranks, the wife is not the friend and companion, but the slave of her
husband; and even when treated with kindness and affection, her state is
still far below that of her sisters in Christian lands. Even in the
humblest rank of life, the meal which the wife prepares with her own
hands for her husband, she must not partake of with him. The
hard-working Eastern peasant, and the fine lady who spends most of her
time in eating sweet-meats, or in embroidery, are both alike dark and
ignorant; for it would be accounted a folly, if not a sin, to teach them
even to read.
Numerous carriers, or sellers of water, obtain their living in the East
by supplying the inhabitants with it.
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