Daily Life in Our House
From Memoirs of an Arabian Princess: An Autobiography by Emily Ruete, 1888.
From: 1844 C.E. To: 1888 C.E.
Location: Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Memoirs of an Arabian Princess: An Autobiography by Emily Ruete, 1888.
How many times have I been asked: "Do please tell me how can people in your country manage to live, with nothing to do?" I had the pleasure of answering this question six or eight times over at a large party, and I need not say how amusing and interesting it was to me to give the same reply so many times over.
Coming from a person inhabiting a Northern country, the question is quite a natural one I admit, for it is hard for such to fancy a life without work, being firmly convinced, moreover, that women in the East do nothing all day but dream away their time in a shut-up harem, or, for a change, play with some luxurious toy.
The ways of life differ everywhere; all our views, our habits, and customs are shaped to suit our surroundings. Men and women work in the North either for an existence or for enjoyment. It is not so with people in our blessed South. I use the word "blessed" advisedly, as I look upon the contentedness of a people as a great and priceless boon; and because the Arab, so frequently described in books as idle and lazy, is accustomed to an abstemiousness in which perhaps a Chinaman only equals him. The climate itself brings it about that the Southerner may work if he likes, while the Northerner is obliged to.
Northern people are inclined somewhat to form opinions and prejudices in their own favour; they are accustomed to look down upon their antipodes proudly and contemptuously, which, to my taste at least, is not a very commendable quality to possess. It is but too often overlooked in this country how indispensable industry and activity are to the North to save hundreds of thousands from starvation. Are Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese not a great deal less industrious than Englishmen or Germans? And for what reason? Simply because their summer time lasts so much longer than their winter, and because they have not to struggle so hard for existence. In the cold season so many things of the direst necessity are required, the mere name and existence of which are beyond the comprehension of people in the South.
Extravagant habits may be met with in every country. Those who possess both inclination and means will never lack the opportunity of gratifying the one and spending the other to the fullest, wherever they may be. Indeed, I do not intend to enlarge on this subject, but merely draw comparisons between the respective requirements of different countries.
Countless objects are needed in this country to protect the frail life of a newborn child against the effects of an ever-changing temperature, while the Southern baby is left almost naked, and sleeps in a draught of warm air. Here a child of two years—from the richest to the poorest—cannot do without shoes, stockings, drawers, a dress, petticoats, gloves, bonnet, ties, gaiters, fur muff, and muffatees—their sole difference being quality; whilst there, all the clothing the son of a prince requires consists of two articles—a shirt and the kofije.
Now, I ask, is the Arab mother, who wants so very little for herself and for her child, to work as hard as the European housewife? She has not the slightest idea what is meant by darning stockings or mending gloves, or of any of those numerous trifles that a nursery entails; and as for that important and troublesome domestic item, a washing-day, it is a thing to us unknown; our linen is washed daily, and dried in little more than half an hour, smoothed flat (not ironed), and put away. We do not use, and are therefore spared the anxiety of those useless ornaments called muslin curtains. The garments of an Eastern woman, those of the greatest lady included, require an incredibly small amount of attention and mending: this is easily explained, as women move very little either indoors or out, and have fewer dresses.
All this helps to render life to Eastern women, without distinction of station and rank, much less complicated. But to become properly acquainted with, and to get initiated into all these minor details of household life, it is necessary to have been in the East, and to have lived there for a considerable time. No reliance is to be placed on the reports of travellers, who stop for a short time only, who are unable to gain an insight into all these details, and maybe obtain all their information from hotel waiters. Foreign ladies even, supposing they have actually entered a harem either at Constantinople or Cairo, have never seen the inside of a real harem at all, but only its outside, represented by the state rooms decorated and furnished in European style.
Our climate, moreover, is so splendid and productive that it is hardly necessary to provide for the coming day. I do not deny that our people, taken as a whole, are averse to "flurry;" but it will be easier to realize the effects of a tropical sun, if one only considers how very trying a hot July or August in Europe can be sometimes.
I repeat it—Arabs are by no means inclined to be industrious; they only value two things, the art of war and husbandry, and but very few settle down to a trade. Though they are obliged to do much barter trade, they are poor merchants on the whole, and have but little of the Semitic talent for trading. Very little suffices for their few wants, and the future is left to provide for itself. An Arab never thinks of making plans for the morrow, as he may expect to be called away any day. He never plants but that which he can reap himself; and he considers him who acts otherwise to be "like the rich man who set up greater barns" (Luke XII.).
In this way life in the East is less laborious and more peaceful: it was this that I wanted particularly to point out and to prove before entering on a more minute description of the daily life in an Arab household. Let me, however, state expressly that I am only speaking here of things referring to Oman and Zanzibar, which, in many respects, differ from those in other Eastern countries.
The hours of prayer regulate the daily life of every Mahometan; they are said five times a day, and if this be strictly observed, as is ordained by the holy book, including ablution and changing of dress, they take up three hours at the very least.
Persons of rank are roused between four and half-past five o'clock a.m. for the first prayer, and return to sleep afterwards; devout people wait for sunrise at six o'clock a.m. before doing so; the lower classes begin their daily task immediately after the first prayer. All persons in our house could live just as they pleased, provided they followed the regulations set down for devotions and for the attendance at the two principal meals.
The majority slept till eight o'clock, when the women and girls are gently roused by a slave, who begins to rub and knead them all over, which produces a very agreeable sensation. In the meantime the bath has been filled with fresh spring water, and the garments—on which jessamine and orange blossoms have been strewn during night—are fumigated with amber and musk before they are put on.
About an hour is spent with the toilet, after which everybody has to wish our father good morning before sitting down to breakfast, the first of our two daily meals. Though a very copious and abundant repast, it took us very little time to get it over, as all the dishes had been prepared and placed on the table in readiness.
After breakfast everybody is at liberty to employ his leisure as lie likes. The gentlemen get ready to go to the audience-chamber; the women, who have no work on hand, sit down at the windows to look out into the animated streets, or watch for a stealthy glance from the flashing eye of a belated noble hurrying to the Ievée, until, alas! the voice of an apprehensive mother or aunt calls the unhappy girl away from the gay scene below.
Two or three hours are thus rapidly passed away. Meanwhile the gentlemen call upon each other and send word to the ladies whom they wish to visit in the evening. The older women, who take no pleasure in all this lively stir, retire to their rooms, alone or in company, to take up some fancy work, to embroider their veils, shirts, or drawers with gold thread, or cambric shirts for their husbands and sons with red and white silk—an art which requires considerable skill. Others, again, read novels, visit the sick in their rooms, or employ themselves with their own private affairs.
At one o'clock the servants announce that it is time for the second prayer. The sun is now in full blaze, and after prayer all escape gladly to some cool place to dream away an hour or two upon handsomely plaited soft mats, into which sacred mottoes are woven, or to chat and eat cakes and fruit.
The third prayer is said at four o'clock p.m., and then we dress in our more elaborate afternoon costumes. Again we call upon our father, wishing him "good afternoon"—our grown-up brothers and sisters are allowed to call him father, the little children and their mothers only address him as hbâbi (sir).
Now followed the liveliest time of the day: we sat down to our principal meal, at which all members of our large family met together for the second time. After the meal the eunuchs placed European chairs on the grand piazza in front of my father's apartments for the grown-up people, whilst we little children remained standing in deference to old age, which is, I believe, nowhere honoured to that degree. The numerous family grouped round our usually grave father, the trim and well-armed eunuchs being ranged at some distance in rank and file along the gallery. Coffee and all kinds of French fruit-syrups were handed round, of which we children partook freely. Conversation was carried on accompanied by the tunes of a mighty barrel-organ (the largest I have ever seen), or, for a change, by some large musical box; sometimes a blind Arab woman, called Amra, who possessed an exquisite voice, was called in to sing.
An hour and a half later we all separated, and employed ourselves as we liked. Some chewed betel-nut, which is a Suahely habit, and not liked on that account by Arabs born in Arabia proper. Those, however, among us who had been born on the East coast of Africa, and were brought up together with negroes and mulattoes, rather fancied this habit, not-withstanding the disapproval of our Asiatic relations, though we never indulged in it in our father's presence.
Not long afterwards, gunshots and the beat of drums of the Indian guard announced sunset and the time for the fourth prayer. Not one of our daily devotions was performed faster, everybody seemed in a hurry to get it over. For those who did not wish to go out themselves (we and our mothers always required a special permission from our father or from his representative, which was rarely refused), or those who did not expect visitors, were sure to be invited by some one in the house, or received visits from brothers and sisters, stepmothers, stepchildren, or from other people. Coffee and lemonade, fruits and cakes were freely partaken of There was a great deal of merry joking and laughing going on; some read aloud, others played at cards (never for money however), or sang, or listened to negroes playing the sese, or sewed, embroidered, and made lace.
It is, therefore, quite a mistake to suppose that a great lady in the East does absolutely nothing. It is true she does not paint, nor play, nor dance (according to Western notions). But are there no other amusements to divert oneself with? People in our country are very temperate, and they are not given to a feverish pursuit of everchanging amusements and pleasures, though from the European point of view Oriental life may appear somewhat monotonous.
Our own personal attendants were, of course, all women; the menservants were dismissed every evening to their homes and families, and the eunuchs slept also outside the house.
Oil lamps are kept burning all night in the rooms and passages, but no candles are allowed after bed-time. Children above the age of two are no longer put to bed at a certain hour, they are left to themselves until they are tired. It frequently occurs that the children, overcome by fatigue, lie down anywhere and fall asleep, and then they are generally picked up carefully by some slaves and carried to their couches, sometimes a long way, without awaking to the fact.
Those people who have not gone out or received visitors generally retire about ten o'clock. On moonlight nights many take a walk on the flat housetops, which was a very delightful airing.
The fifth and last prayer ought to be said at 7.30 p.m., but as many are prevented at this time, it may be left unsaid until midnight or bedtime.
At bedtime all ladies of rank are waited upon by their female slaves, whose business it is to watch the falling asleep of their mistresses. One of them repeats the kneading process of the morning, while another fans gently, until they too may retire. I have mentioned already that all women go to bed fully dressed, and with all their jewels.
Ruete, Emily. Memoirs of an Arabian Princess: An Autobiography. D. Appleton & Company, 1888.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
