Ho! Ye bold, bright-eyed, fair-skinned girls of America! Forget the infinity of changing styles with which you are free to please us every year and take a look at your sisters of Damascus in far-away Syria.

How would you like to exchange your life for theirs? How would you like to spend your days without showing your face to the light of the sun? How would you like to go about in a great bag of black silk tied in at the waist so that it covers your form from the head to the feet except for a short, thick veil of black through the meshes of which you can just feel your way along the street?

How would you like to be penned up in the back of your house, or to have your front windows so latticed that you could see out only through holes as big around as a lead pencil? Aye, more, how would you like never to talk to any man but one of your own family, and worse, never even to be seen by any other man or boy?

This is the condition of the girls of this fanatical city of Damascus. It is the fate of millions of other women of the Mohammedan world.

Within the past thirty years I have visited every Moslem country on earth, and have worn out my eyes trying to see through the veils which hide the fair sex. In Morocco their faces are covered with cotton, and they peep out through the crack made by pulling the cloth slightly apart in front of the face. In Kairouan the girls cover their faces with black crêpe so thick that you cannot tell whether they are negroes or whites; and in Tunis they are so shrouded in balloon-like robes as hardly to be able to walk. In Zanzibar the girls wear bags which cover them to the feet, and their only view of the world is through peepholes as big as a fifty-cent piece hedged across with lace netting so that no man shall see in. In Egypt the headdress comes down to the eyebrows, and a veil extends from there to the knees, with the exception of a crack for the eyes, the crack being kept open by a gold or brass spool resting on the bridge of the nose. In Constantinople the fashionable Turks are doing away with the veil or using thin white gauze through which the face can be plainly seen. It is thus that the ladies of the harem of the Sultan are dressed, and thus the wives of all the rich men.

Here in Damascus the women stick to veils of flowered muslin or black crêpe and wrap themselves in great billowy cloaks of black silk or calico. These bulge out above and below where they are tied at the waist, making each maiden look like two huge lumps of sausages. Every time I go through the city I see hundreds of them waddling along. They throng the bazaars, where they bob back and forth as they talk with the merchants. They may be seen picking their way through the side streets or sitting on the floors of the mosques reading the Koran and watching the men go through their prayers. Many of the shrouded figures are those of small girls. They take the veil at eleven or twelve and keep it on after marriage and indeed until death.

And then the houses! All of the Mohammedans have homes so latticed that the women cannot be seen from the streets. In some cases the windows are built over the sidewalks, hanging out like cages of wooden network. This is true even in the new apartment houses which are now going up, as well as in the huts of the poor, although the latter seldom have windows except at the back. The ordinary lattice is made of canelike rushes or sticks, and preparing them is a special trade followed by many. The rushes are brought in to Damascus on the backs of donkeys, which as they go fill the streets with their loads.

It behooves the Mohammedan woman to be strict in her conduct. The husband here has most of the rights, and can divorce his wife, or wives, whenever he will. He sometimes does so without thinking, and that to his sorrow. I heard of such a case yesterday. According to the laws of Damascus, if a man wishes to get rid of his wife he has only to say, “I divorce you! I divorce you! I divorce you!” and the woman must leave. Once she has gone she cannot come back as a wife until after she has been married to someone else. To get around this, an angry husband, relenting and longing for the dear departed, arranges to marry her to a friend, a dervish, or some half-crazy man, who for a sum will go through the ceremony of a wedding and immediately divorce the woman, who can then be married again to her former husband. In the case referred to the man had a petty quarrel with his wife, and angrily muttered the words of divorce. As soon as she had gone he repented, and thereupon brought about her marriage with an alleged friend, with the understanding that a divorce was to follow right after the ceremony. The friend, however, refused to utter the words of divorce, saying, “I like the woman and will keep her myself,” and so it is at this writing.

Such divorces are always on the part of the husband. As for the women, they have more difficulty in getting rid of the marriage tie, although they can do so provided the husband does not perform his duty to them or give them an equal amount of attention with the other wives of the family. According to Mohammed every man had the right to four wives, but the Koran provides that he must spend an equal time with each of them, and in some places he is required to give each a separate establishment.

During my travels in the Holy Land I have picked up some interesting stories of marriage and divorce. Every sect has its own customs. The Jews can divorce easily, and after that they can marry again. The orthodox Greeks can marry only three times, and some of the Christians are not allowed a divorce without cause.

In all of the Jewish weddings the girl brings a dowry, the amount of the dot being mentioned in the contract of marriage. This contract is always signed in the presence of the rabbi, and the wedding ceremony takes place under a tent in the court of the synagogue. Before marriage the orthodox bride is shaved from her head to her feet, after which her head is always kept covered. At the ceremony and after it they have music, with drums, cymbals, and harps; and many of the old-fashioned customs of Bible times are observed. The Jews marry young, and a girl is an old maid at twenty.

The Mohammedans of the villages usually take wives in their early teens, marriages at twelve years being not uncommon. This is the case only with the girls. The men are usually older, and it is customary for mature men to marry young girls and to add to their harems as the first wives grow older. In such cases the groom pays money to the father of the bride. This is the reverse of the Jewish marriages, where the money goes to the groom. The price for a Moslem wife ranges from one hundred dollars upward, according to the financial condition of the contracting parties. The contracts are made by the older people of the family. If there is a father he decides upon the marriage. If the father is dead the eldest brother may act, or in some cases the mother.

The customs as to the right of the family to dictate the marriage are rigid. The other day a peasant living near Jerusalem had a sister who ran away with her lover and married him. This was after the family had objected to the match. The peasant took a revolver and went after the bridal couple. He caught up with his brother-in-law in Jerusalem and shot him dead on the street. When arrested he justified the crime and he is now imprisoned awaiting trial. I am told he will get off with a slight punishment, as he has acted within his rights according to the Koran.

Among the city Mohammedans the bridegroom makes a present of a dowry sufficient to enable his bride to purchase her trousseau and household furniture. He may give her six or eight hundred dollars, the greater part of which will be paid to her nearest male relative before the wedding takes place. On the other hand, he and that relative may buy the outfit together, making items of the various things and their cost. Often the whole dowry is not paid at once, 25 or 30 per cent. being left until after the wedding. This is not demanded except in case of divorce, and it is considered a premium that will insure good treatment from the husband.

The bride seldom even sees the groom before the wedding, and the couple never meet until that time. The investigations of both families are carried on by the fathers and mothers independent of the real parties to the marriage.

When a boy is old enough to have a wife, let us say at seventeen, his parents begin to look about for a suitable girl. The mother goes to the harems of her acquaintances, and asks about the daughters. She also visits the girls’ schools, and when she has found a maiden who she thinks may suit she invites the mother of the girl to meet her at the bath. This is one of the chief places of gossip and pleasure and it is not uncommon for ladies to meet there. To the bath comes the prospective bride with her mother for her first interview with her would-be mother-in-law. The two talk and gossip together. After the bath is over they have something to eat.

There is more talking, and the girl is sized up mentally and physically. Upon her return home the mother of the groom tells her husband the result of her investigations, and if he is pleased, negotiations are begun with the parents of the bride. If agreeable, the dowry is fixed and the betrothal is made. Neither the marriage nor the betrothal can be consummated without the consent of the girl. The man, or a Mohammedan priest, appears at the door of the harem of the bride’s mother. The girl, who is behind the door, is asked if she will consent to the match. She has to answer “I will!” three separate times, after which the amount of the dowry may be paid over in the presence of witnesses.

In all oriental countries the wedding ceremonies are very important. The marriage is always an occasion of protracted festivities, and not to be invited is to suffer a grave insult. One of the proverbs here is, “He who does not invite me to his marriage will not have me at his funeral.” Among the Mohammedans the wedding ceremonies often last a week, during which there is feasting on the part of both families. The dinners are given before the wedding, and at the time of the ceremony sums of money are thrown to the beggars. The wedding feasts usually begin Monday. Tuesday the bride is taken to the bath where there is a feast, the bridegroom paying the expenses of the bathing and eating.

Wednesday the bridegroom’s women friends go to the house of the bride where they have a concert and dinner. The fingernails and toenails of the bride are stained red with henna and they begin to deck her out for the wedding. Thursday a great procession escorts the bride to the groom’s house where the two eat candy, exchanging mouthfuls or bites, the idea being that nothing but sweetness is hereafter to pass from the lips of one to the other. The bridegroom has not seen the bride until this time. He says a prayer in her presence, kneeling on her bridal veil as he does so.

Among the Mohammedans of Palestine, says my guide Shammas, the wedding usually takes place at the mosque, and the bridegroom meets his bride when she is on the way thither. Dressed and veiled in white, she is carried under a canopy on the shoulders of four men. At the mosque the wedding sermon is preached, and at the end of this the bride goes to the house of her husband. As she steps over the threshold she bends down and passes under two crossed swords upheld by his friends. This means that if she is not true to her husband he will kill her. She is taken first to the women’s apartment or harem over the door of which has been placed a piece of leavened dough, thus signifying that the home into which she has come will flourish. In some cases the bride breaks a piece of leavened bread and gives it to the young people to eat.

After she has entered her own apartment in the groom’s house there is a feast, the guests sitting on the floor and eating course after course of meats and vegetables interspersed with candies and sirups. In some cases the groom has to make the bride speak before the dinner will be served, and it is a virtue with her to keep silent just as long as she can.

It is the general idea among Christians that Mohammedan wives have no rights which their husbands are bound to respect. I am told this is not so, and that the women here not infrequently rule their husbands. The cost of living has increased so much within recent years that it is only a rich Mohammedan who can afford several wives. Public sentiment as to the rights of women has risen, and the man who abuses his wives is not considered respectable. No man dares address a strange woman on the streets of any Turkish city, and in the best-regulated houses the husband does not enter the women’s apartments when he knows he is not wanted, although he has the legal right to go there at any time.

The Mohammedan wife has the entire right and control of her own property, and if she brings money into the family she does not hesitate to say so. She has about as much power in the courts as our women have. She can sue and be sued and can even enter a suit against her husband in regard to her own property. She can make a will and leave her property as she pleases, and she can force him to pay the dowry agreed upon. When she marries he has to buy the wedding gown, and if he divorces her she gets back her trousseau.

It is said that women are still bought and sold in the Turkish possessions. Not long ago there was a regular trade in the black girls who were brought across the Sahara from Central Africa and shipped through Tripoli into Syria and other parts of Turkey. Before the English took hold of Egypt this traffic was carried on through the Nile Valley and was winked at by the officials.

According to the law of the Koran marriages with slaves are legal. The wives of the Sultans have usually been slaves brought in from Georgia and Circassia, plump girls with fair complexions and red hair bringing the highest prices, perhaps as much as the cost of half a dozen fine white horses. I hear that Circassian girls often welcomed being sold, as they thus escaped the hardships of their own country. Such as could play on the zither and other musical instruments always brought more than the ignorant. In the past, five thousand dollars was not a high price for a Circassian girl, while any good-looking Georgian maiden of twelve would bring two hundred dollars and upward. The children of such slave wives are legitimate.