Memoirs of an Arabian Princess | Page 6

Custom demanded that all of my brothers and sisters should go and
wish her a "good morning" every day; but we detested her so cordially
that scarcely one of us ever went before breakfast, which was served in
her apartments, and in this way she lost a lot of the deference she was
so fond of exacting.
Of my senior brothers and sisters some were old enough to have been
my grandparents, and one of my sisters had a son with a grey beard. In
our home no preference was shown to the sons above the daughters, as
seems to be imagined in Germany. I do not know of a single case in
which a father or mother cared more for a son than for a daughter
simply because he was a son. All that is quite a mistake. If the law
allows the male offspring certain privileges and advantages - for
example, in the matter of inheritance - no distinction is made in the
home treatment given to children. It is natural enough, and human too,
that sometimes one child should be preferred to another, whether here
in this country or in that far southern land, even though the fact may
not be openly acknowledged. So with my father; only it happened that
his favourite children were not boys, but two of my sisters, Sharife and
Chole. One day my lively young brother Hamdan - we were both about
nine years old at the time - accidentally shot an arrow into my side,
without, however, doing me much injury. The affair coming to my
father's ears, he said to me: "Salamah, send Hamdan here"; and he
scolded the offender in such terms as to make his ears tingle for many a
day after.
The pleasantest spot at Bet il Mtoni was the benjile - close to the sea, in
front of the main building - a huge, circular, open structure where a ball
could have been given, had such a custom been in vogue with our
people. This benjile somewhat resembled a merry-go-round, since the
roof, too, was circular; the tent-shaped roof, the flooring, the

balustrades, all were of painted wood. Here my dear father was wont to
pace up and down by the hour with bent brow, sunk in deep reflection.
He limped slightly; during a battle a ball had struck his thigh, where it
was now permanently lodged, hindering his gait, and occasionally
giving him pains. A great many cane chairs - several dozen, I am sure -
stood about the benjile, but besides these, and an enormous telescope
for general use, it contained nothing else. The view from our circular
look-out was splendid. The Sultan was in the habit of taking coffee
here two or three times a day with Azze bint Sef and all of his adult
offspring. Whoever wanted to speak to my father in private would be
apt to find him alone in this place at certain hours. Opposite the benjile
the warship Il Ramahni lay at anchor the year round, her purpose being
to wake us up early by a discharge of cannon during the month of
fasting, and to man the rowboats we so often employed. A tall mast
was planted before the benjile, intended for the hoisting of the signal
flags which ordered the desired boats and sailors ashore.
As for our culinary department, Arabian cooking, and Persian and
Turkish as well, prevailed both at Bet il Mtoni and Bet il Sahel. For
both establishments harboured persons of various races, with
bewitching loveliness and the other extreme fully represented. But only
Arabian dress was allowed to us, while the blacks wore the Suahili
costume. If a Circassian arrived in her flapping garments or an
Abyssinian in her fantastic draperies, either was obliged to change
within three days, and to wear the Arabian clothes provided her. As in
this country every woman of good standing considers a hat and a pair
of gloves indispensable articles, in the East ornaments are essential. In
fact ornaments are so imperative that one even sees beggar-women
wearing them while plying their trade.
At his Zanzibar residences and at his palace of Muscat, in Oman, my
father kept treasuries full of Spanish gold coins, English guineas, and
French louis; but they contained as well all sorts of jewellery and
kindred female adornments, from the simplest trifles to coronets set in
diamonds, all acquired with the object of being given away. Whenever
the family was increased, through the purchase of another secondary
wife or the birth - a very frequent event - of a new prince or princess,

the door of the treasury was opened, so that the newcomer might be
suitably endowed according to his, or her rank and position. In case of a
child being born, the