WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
and swallowed them. If they chance to be personages of small importance there is no hue and cry, no quest. "East is East."
Miss Emmeline Lott, who dedicates her book on "Harem Life," written in 1865, to "His Highness Ismael Pacha, Viceroy of Egypt," makes some astounding statements concerning the mysterious poisonings, sudden deaths, and tragedies that happened in the harems in which she lived as a governess. I have no desire to make over-statements; on the contrary, I wish to approach the question of the status of women under polygamy with an open and impartial mind. I imagine, however, that Miss Lott would scarcely have dedicated her book to the Viceroy had it contained questionable statements or exaggerations.
This lady recounts several instances of cruelty practised upon slaves and women. She is explicit in her charge that the eunuchs conspire to introduce men to the harems, and she relates how she witnessed a saturnalia of men and slave girls after dark on a moonlight night.
"I had heard much and read a great deal about the impossibility of men entering the harems of the East, considered as 'sacred' by all Moslems; that not a true believer has ever been known to visit the 'Abode of Bliss' of a true Mussulman. But now that I had seen
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