A Bazaar In Algiers

A bazaar in Algiers, 1881. 'Here the visitor may linger, discreetly observant, and may perhaps see a native lady wearing the "yashmak" or veil of light gauze over the lower part of her face, and shrouding her figure in an upper garment that seems to be one white sheet, not to speak of her ample trouser-bags, enter the shop of a goldsmith or silversmith to ask the price of a bracelet. She is probably attended by a trusty servant of her parents' or of her husband's house, if not by some gentleman of her family, when she comes to the bazaar. The skilful tradesman, a Mussulman whose grand white beard has a most venerable appearance, receives his fair customer with the gravest politeness, and soon persuades her to let him try the bracelet on her slender wrist. And we may feel quite sure that, having got so far, Zuleika or Fatima will complete the purchase, whoever has to pay for it, and there will be good temper in the harem of her lord until she takes a fancy to some other toy or trinket. How much better, to our thinking, if she had been taught to read, and had been enabled to go to the Algerine Mudie's library for the last published three-volume novel! But the Mussulman husbands and fathers are not of this opinion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881. Creator: Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images)