with a real desire to raise the position the outer law is abolished, of becoming of women. With regard to his own household, she says: a law unto themselves. Miss Chennels's pages abound in illustrations of the difficulties that all reformers in Egypt have had to contend with the vis inertice of custom, the unprincipled greed that too often manifests itself in high places, the apathy, prejudice, and jealousy of foreign interference which mark the mass of the population. Her account of the following piece of sharp practice on the part of the Ottoman government, which came under her notice in Constantinople, has its distinctively humorous side: The Turkish Government, as is well known, has always been in difficulties through profuse expenditure, and it was suggested to them that a monopoly in tobacco would be a profitable speculation. Several merchants bid for it, and it was finally made over to a Greek for a term of five years; the Greek agreeing to pay the Government £20,000 (Turkish pounds) monthly. The Greek then formed a com Miss Chennels gives a lively account of her journey to Constantinople in the suite of the khedive, and lays special stress on the indignation she felt at being deprived of the world-famous view of Stamboul and the Golden Horn. As the vessel entered the harbor the shutters of the ladies' saloon were jealously closed, lest any member of the inferior sex should offend the proprieties by allowing herself to be visible at the windows. Miss Chennels protested in vain. Though her status and na-pany, and the shares were promptly taken tionality gave her many privileges, she had on this occasion to share the disabilities of her Mohammedan sisters. She seems to have been somewhat troubled occasionally as to the unsettling influence which familiarity with English manners might exert upon their moral standard and tone of thought. "They must either," she says, "consider us most abandoned creatures, or they must think that what is right in us cannot be so very wrong in them." The author here indicates one of the greatest practical difficulties in the way of the emancipation of women not only in Egypt, but throughout the East. The destructive part of a reform is always infinitely easier to accomplish than the construction that should follow; it is a much simpler thing to discredit a faith or to destroy an institution than to put a higher faith or a more perfect institution in its place. And it is of little use to break the yoke which the custom of ages has laid on the inmate of the harem and the zenana, unless they are made capable, when up. All the tobacco brought into Constan- "If they hang you," said the vizier, "I'll have them all hanged." "But that will not bring me to life again,” said the Greek ; “can't you protect me now?" "No," said the vizier, "we can only punish after the crime has been committed." In this he exaggerated a little, but he felt that the Government was in an untenable position, and if the Greek could be worked upon by his fears to break the contract, it would be less undignified than for the Government to recede from the position it had taken... Time passed on, smuggled | first about half past eleven and the second tobacco was met with everywhere . . . and at about six or seven. If any one was the company, with ruin staring them in the face, were glad to compromise the matter by forfeiting to the Government £T130,000 to be released from their contract. Nobody pitied them, and the tobacco shops resumed their old trade amid universal satisfaction. hungry between these meals, she might, perhaps, get a little fruit, sweets, or a tiny cup of coffee. His Highness, of course, lived in the European style, and when he was there, his three wives and their children all breakfasted, lunched, and dined with him. But his Highness was away, and the regular harem habits went on. The ladies had never been taught that it was unwholesome to eaflets or fruit all day long, and having very little to employ them, they generally did so. It is evident from these volumes that the privilege of instructing an Egyptian princess was not without its drawbacks. On several occasions, owing to some hitch in the unwieldy domestic arrangements of the khedive's houseThere is a touch of sincere pathos in hold, Miss Chennels was left without Miss Chennels's picture of the Princess proper attendance, and once or twice Zeyneb at this time. The gay, bright actually without food. During her girl, who appreciated so thoroughly the stay at Constantinople the khedive rational freedom of her English trainreturned to Egypt, taking his son, ing was rapidly approaching the period Ibrahim Pasha, with him. His suite, when that freedom was to be withincluding Mr. Michell and the Freeland drawn from her. The prospect of lifefamily, followed as a matter of course, long seclusion within the high walls of and Miss Chennels was left alone in the harem was infinitely more painful the house they had occupied. She suc- to her than it could have been to one ceeded in inducing one of the servants who had known nothing of a wider attached to the harem to bring her a sphere. For herself alone it would little bread and coffee, and on the next doubtless have been happier if the exCay luncheon was sent up to her from periment of a Western training had the palace, but dinner was not to be never been tried. But every step in had. The day after, her pupils, the social progress demands its victims, and princess and Kopsès, came up from the the poor child had to suffer and submit, hare, expecting to breakfast with her that the next generation of her counan expectation that was doomed to try women might enjoy the advantages disappointment. which only her example could secure I told the princess [says Miss Chennels] She was not unaware of the to them. how I had been situated for the last two responsibility that rested upon her. days, begging her to go back and speak to The princess would ask me all sorts of her mother on the subject, adding that she questions about England, and whether I had better have breakfast in the harem, as thought society would ever be the same in there was no prospect of any in the house. Egypt as it was with us. I told her I The princess and Kopsès heard me quietly thought much would depend upon herself ; and then went away without making any she was in a high position and would be comment. I was amazed at their reticence; looked up to as an example. If she, by her for, knowing nothing then of harem habits conduct, could show that liberty was not except what could be gleaned from occa- incompatible with modesty and innocence, sional visits, I was not at all aware that my there was no doubt but a few years would pupil, though the khedive's daughter, had bring about an entire revolution in the not the power to give any orders, except to present system with regard to women. her own immediate attendants. I had told Their seclusion was not a Mohammedan her to go and breakfast in the harem, not doctrine; it had existed in the East long knowing there was no such meal there. before Mohammed; but in all countries, She had been accustomed for some years to the more civilized a State became, the an English breakfast, and therefore missed higher did women rise in the social scale. as much as I did. . . . Twice a day reg-She used to moralize upon all this, and ir meals were brought into the harem Civalent to our luncheon and dinner, the ... speak of her past life of liberty much as an elderly lady might do of her youth; but one thing was very certain, that she dreaded the life of retirement that lay before her. 66 66 madam! take me with you!" I turned back directly, and went up to the couch on She might well dread it. It is diffi- which she was sitting. Are you then so cult to imagine anything more depress-she replied, it is so very sad here; nothing anxious to go out?" said I. "Oh, yes," ing, more monotonous, more stultifying to live for, day after day, nothing to live to all the higher activities of mind and for!" I was moved, for I saw how much spirit, than harem life as it appears in she felt it. "Sleep," said she, making the the studiously exact, but by no means gesture of laying her head on her hand. unfriendly, records of this English lady. Nothing else to look forward to." She On the marriage of the Princess Zeyneb was not very young, and I believe for some to her cousin Ibrahim Pasha, Miss years past they had talked of marrying her ; Chennels, at her pupil's request, took but I doubt whether she looked forward to up her abode with her in the harem that even, she seemed so thoroughly ima large block of buildings entirely pressed by her melancholy lot, and she was separate from the selamlik or residence by no means the only one who produced that effect upon me. of the pasha and his suite. With its grated windows, and the high walls that cut off all communication with the outer world, it had very much the aspect of a prison. The gates were guarded by eunuchs who allowed no one to pass in or out without a proper authorization. One's notions of Oriental palace life are apt to be tinged with reminiscences of "Lalla Rookh" and the "Arabian Nights," and all the glamour of the golden prime Of good Haroun Al Raschid. The enormous number of slaves attached to opulent households is one of the most curious features in Eastern life. The conditions of their lot are entirely different from those which prevailed in America before the Civil War; and indeed, if the life were not more than meat and the body than raiment, many a poor freeman of Europe, toiling for a mere pittance, might envy the fate of a Circassian slave, well fed, sumptuously clothed, with the run of a palace, and practically nothing to do. To this class belonged Kopsès There is little enough of charm or Hanem, whose name occurs so often poetry in the real thing as Miss Chen- in Miss Chennels's recollections, and nels saw it. Occupation was scouted, whose rare beauty and intelligence had privacy was impossible, the inmates, obtained for her the advantage of being who were all slaves with the exception educated almost on a footing of equalof the princess and her governess, passed the impracticable hours" in sleeping, eating sweetmeats, and playing practical jokes on one another for the amusement of their mistress; while at night our author assures us that the noise in the "hushed seraglio" Tennyson calls it with a poetic license far removed from fact was so great that she found it impossible to sleep. The following anecdote does something to help one to conceive the hopeless monotony of the life to which Eastern women are doomed by the habits of their class and the prejudices of their country: ity with the young princess, whose legal property she was. She seems to have been singularly exempt from the faults of her class, and Miss Chennels speaks in the highest terms of her truth, conscientiousness, and self-reas spect. The term of slave, so cruel a stigma with us, does not, of course, convey the same reproach in the ear of an Oriental, who is a stranger to those highly wrought sentiments of personal independence which are only to be developed by a long experience of freedom. One day, as I was going out of the harem door to drive into Cairo, one of the upper slaves, whom I had often noticed for her gentle manners, called out to me, "Oh, She had [says Miss Chennels] great vivacity and wonderful tact for so young a person. She never obtruded her opinions, but when required she expressed them with a free and independent bearing, which, to our preconceived ideas, was totally incon sistent with slavery. Her manner to us be under cover of the band playing, when was quite different from her behavior in the harem. With us she was the free outspoken member of a free community — outspoken, that is to say, in what concerned exclusively English manners and habits; in the harem she was the quiet, dignified Oriental, receiving notice from her superiors with profound respect, but without a tinge of servility. The slaves belonging to the viceregal household may consider themselves as provided for throughout life. They are never sold again, and are frequently sought in marriage by men of high official position; but in any event, whether married or single, they receive the same monthly allowance until their death. It is easy to see how heavy a tax on the community must be involved in the maintenance in idleness and luxury of this crowd of useless beings. The menial work of the palace was done, we are told, almost entirely by black slaves under the orders of the privileged Georgians and Circassians. The head slaves of the household, such as the calfa or housekeeper, and the dada or princess's nurse, had slaves under them, who attended to all their requirements. Miss Chennels was not so fortunate. The princess did indeed depute a maid to attend upon her; but the girl considered it derogatory to wait upon a Giaour, and Miss Chennels found that she should best consult her own comfort and the peace of the household by doing the necessary work of her apartments herself. A worse affliction than scanty attendance was the ubiquitous presence of a mob of idle women, even in the private apart ments of the princess. I had often heard people talk of the mystery in the harem, and the difficulty there was in knowing what went on within the walls. This was true enough; but I soon observed there was no mystery amongst each other. What one knew (as a rule) everybody knew. The mistress was never alone; there was no place, however private, where her attendants could not penetrate. When visitors came, the chief slaves waited in the room, forming a semicircle at a slight distance, but within earshot. The only way to speak in private appeared to me to the noise was deafening and the voice could only be heard by the next neighbor. When a foreign language was spoken privacy was always ensured, and my dear little princess was not a little pleased at being able to talk to her husband, to Kopsès, and to me in French, which no one else understood; and to Kopsès and me also in English, which the prince did not understand. A European lady oe, when on a visit to another married daughter of the khedive, ventured, as respectfully as possible, to express her surprise that an Egyptian princess should "submit to such slavery as never to hear or speak anything without the same being carried through the whole household." The remonstrance produced a certain effect, for the princess gave orders that in future when she received any European visitor the slaves should remain in the ante-room. Miss Chennels's efforts to induce her pupil to continue the habits of useful activity in which she had been trained were viewed with great disfavor by the officials of the household. When any visitor was announced, the calfa would hasten to remove all traces of needlework or other occupation, that the princess might be discovered, with her hands folded before her in the helpless attitude supposed to be appropriate to her rank. This woman and the other head slaves seem to have done their utmost to win the princess to their side; and it is not surprising that a mere child (she was only fifteen at the time of her marriage), surrounded by an atmosphere of servile adulation, and having no other prospect than that of passing her life in the seclusion of the harem, should have yielded at first to the enervating influences with which she was encompassed. For some time she seemed to be entirely under the sway of her principal domestics, and the extent to which she conformed to of those about her caused a good deal the slothful and self-indulgent habits of anxiety to her English friend. Fortunately, soon after her marriage, she went to visit her sister-in-law, the wife of Hussein Pasha. She found her active-minded, cultured, full of intel- that Miss Chennels should have her lectual and social interests, and capable of entering intelligently into her husband's pursuits. She heard her brother express his great satisfaction that his father had bestowed upon him an educated wife, and not a mere doll. Her ambition was aroused; she resumed her reading and habits of occupation, much to her own benefit and the satisfaction of her structress. Fridays to herself, "O, je m'ennuie, je m'ennuie, mais je ne m'ennuie pas autant quand vous êtes avec moi." This outcry of the poor girl, in which one hears the voice of nature itself protesting against the tyranny which compelled her to a hopeless imprisonment, touched Miss Chennels so much that she at once offered to sacrifice her holiday in order to keep the princess Miss Chennels draws a very winning company. The offer was gratefully picture of the girl-wife gradually awak- accepted, and on the following Thursening to her responsibilities and duties: day Miss Chennels renewed her proposal. This time, however, the princess decidedly refused. "No," she said; "you are accustomed to liberty, and have no recreation but what you meet with among friends on Fridays and Sundays. It would not do for you to miss that." It was not long after this incident that the harem gates opened to let her pass upon that journey from which there is no returning. Miss Chennels fell ill with the fever incident to the climate, and had left the harem a few days for change of air, when she heard that the princess was attacked with an affection of the throat to which she was subject. She went to see her and found her suffering much, but not as she imagined dangerously ill. The disfever and in a terribly short time all ease, however, developed into typhoid Her character was becoming more formed; there was more decision, and she was beginning to assert herself as mistress, but no further than was just and right. She had at first been so much under the influence of her head slaves and eunuchs that her orders were not obeyed, unless entirely in accordance with their wishes. Gradually, however, this began to change. I remember one day the wife of the English consulgeneral told me that she had been to call on the princess, that at the outer gate the eunuchs had rudely told her servant to get down from the box, without coming in themselves to announce her and assist her out of the carriage; that she had got out and gone into the harem alone; and had then been told that the princess was out. I repeated this to the princess, and at the same time mentioned two or three instances of disrespect to myself, which I said, in the position in which I then was, reflected on her. We were walking about in the garden then, and she immediately sent for all the eunuchs, and repeated to them what I had The princess was only sixteen when told her. The head eunuch was about to she died. Her young husband, who interrupt, but she held up her hand, and, idolized her, was travelling in Europe with great dignity, proceeded to tell them at the time. The news was kept from that every visitor who came to her was to him till his return, and when he heard be treated with respect; that she was mis- it at last the shock to him was so great tress, and the sole judge of who was to be that his attendants feared for his reaadmitted, and that they were there to re-son. Kopsès, her life-long companion ceive orders, and not to give them. We are informed that this assertion of rightful prerogative was attended with the best effects. was over. and friend, remained in close attendance on the bereaved mother, who retired after the princess's death into the strictest seclusion. Ismail Pasha, who, whatever may be thought of him in other respects, seems to have been a fond and careful father, was deeply She had the charm of an unselfishness, rare at all times, but almost phenomenal in her circumstances. Her anxiety to do right was very marked," affected by her loss. "He was often her friend tells us. One Thursday seen in the intervals of business with evening the princess said, referring to his eyes full of tears and fixed on the the stipulation which had been made ground." He said once to a friend : |