The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 9, 1901, Page 1

In constant Dan Rer Life, 1 Made =2 R. AND MRS MULLINS have just p thro route to Australia Mrs. Mullins are globe-trotte bave penetratsd nooks and corners dinary “guide-book™ wventures. Mrs. Mullins vaned over the shift studied the manners and customs of the desert women. She s written the following interesti ount of her adventures for t i vgh San Sunday Call: Indeed, we we aid that sun-p; fested wi ficuities mot trade c Sehara for of the Natu m condition of the womer ous tribes other you * gOes unve 1 A are pract “shut in as free as Anthony escor party, t formly « with the founded by tr mortal Omar K T s the e that almo:st had pitc and were pr camel’s mé milk and water—an sC; ely a fare. We as from com: among whistle of bul head my noti a ¢ their knee t palm trunks a camel n we ground its eyes knew cnough of the “resout’s” methods to feel sure they would not rush us until they were sure of their prey. A bullet passed through a pan of barley water, making a tremendous noise, and then the first shout came from the rocks above. / 1 lay there hind a mel, more fas- cinated than fearful here was some- thing weird -and uncanny to. know that up there among the rocks were the rob- bers, who minute by minute were drag- ing closer to us, though as yet we had not caught a glimpse of them. The firing had begun at a distance of some hundred yards, for which put it out of the guestion with lighter to Had our antago- nists cont keep would have been hopel tunately the desert us, our weapons, make any reply to it i to that range we ly. lost, but for- Assassin has never taken kindly to the rifie, and it is his primitive instnct to close with his en- emy. Slowly they drew in and -now for the first time 1 caught sight of a face peering over a rock. . It was the huge head of a black ruffian with silver trin- kets gleaming in his ears. From behind the Desert Women. — Ger OF | Yet She Study oF | 1 saw a fine fe; beard his he: nes eves ag: stretched a w the out green my eves and wh could sumimon ge to look up my husband was moistening my parched lips and cooling my fevered brow Four of our men had lost their lives while only three of the had been killed. The had fl to to capt smaller skirmishes: with the As sins but no lives were Tost. T return to the women of the Sahara. tarried among the tribes of the rboa, Said Otba, Olued-Nizi lbetés. And the farther we went the more advanced were in their emancipation frem the contrel of men. Tk plac where 1 was most roughly treated the women was among the M'Zabetes. ¥ resent the lowes! rung Saha ladder of emanci pated women, in fact thy on the Ly are praeti shut-in-women. Most of them are tall stout and rather good looking. The well to Go among them simply cat, sleep and vegetate. They consider themselves toc dignified to sing and dance, those plea ures being reser for their slave: Treir husbands are the speculators of the desert and ‘never take their wives along on their trading but - ieave them “shut In” iu their windowless etuffy houses. The women never dare venture forth during their husbands’ absence, un- léss if is to visit the house of a dying rel- ative or 1o 80 to the cemetery. Oh such occasions they swathe themselves in_a thick woolen vell, through which it impossible to see or be seem. leads them. b They live at home calmly, peaceably, ané in loneliness and isolation like Kadija, the venerille mother of Believers. The expedjtions is A slave conjugal saying most dinned-into their. ears is “Reémain virfuous 1fKe’ 3 She was the famous’fjrst wife' of Mohammed. And’as the Prophet left' Khadija In seclusion’ at home; while he’ ‘went off to conquer the world: with the sword und Islam so. do the MZabetes leave their spouses while ‘they go off on’ thelr trading trips. 'When the husband fe- turns, there is a great feast,' but in a few days he"departs on another edition, so the Tives of the women are spent in al- most complete isolation. 2 In stréng contrast with the lifeless ex- istenee-of - thése women are the lives of the women of Touareg, the most émanci- pated women I have met in my travels around the world, Their moral, mental P —— This Paper not | 16 ba taken from | the Libravy.t+¢+ and physical freedom lift them far above the women-.of -the—adjacent trilies. ,On first meeting them you are most struck by the fact that they are vastly to their desert sisters, being clean, care- ful, intelligent and eddcated. They bathe, and if you.have traveled among the Ori- superior entals, you know that that fact in itself is a very distinguishing mark. They afe not only tidy about their persc but their houses' are kept fresh and cléan—in fact, cleankiness is one of the cardinal virtues of their tribe. The women can read, a talent unheard’al among . the ve reg we rodst elsewher ) we n: 1gh on_ the Ap- the blistered side .~ of her fac 1 eard the Toua- fegs sing a song.every line of which shows their Tove st the won= derful a ¥ 1d datural r food It mainly of ro ables, un- leavened bredd and v sh foods. Plain living, they a stroag race. . “ANd e “To strong—especially ~ could giveé hints wemen of m A queer act 1751 cannot recover for laquor n of 2 y'more th neighboring ' :ribes. They = study , thel house, and based a refusal to pay upon Koran, the poetry. songs and legends of 'the validify of this agt. As the statute their people and teach their daughters. was still on the books the Judge was ‘Strangely enough, it is not considered obliged to acknowledge its foree. necessary to leach the sens, so - they are s 0 et 2 B 1 left to grow up in igncrénce, “The most récent trium e French postak administration fs an ingenious little iachine ‘which nqt only automatically weighs letters and samples, but records on an indicator’ at the side the amount re- duired for-stamps. When the article de- posited on the balance exceedsethe regula~ tion weight the indicator promptiy heists the sign, “Too heavy.” L wondereq if there was astute fore- thought. in this—if - the womén rcalized their power: would wahe with, the ‘educas ‘tien cf ‘the men: I asked severali'of the Women, buf they only smifed and-adroltiy . turied my questicn. But when I spoke x of their condition they ap- ‘Ab, the women. are so quick to