man, except the master of the house, is allowed to go into it. All
rich Mohammedans have a separate part of their house for the women. A
poor woman in all countries has plenty of work to do, but a rich lady
in Egypt has many servants, or slaves, to do the work, and, as she is
kept shut up in the "hareem" from the time she is ten or eleven years
old, she can learn very little, except how to do beautiful needlework.
She cannot help her husband and her sons to be wise and good, because
she does not know enough about life and work outside the "hareem." So
the Egyptian ladies have little to do and little to think about all
the day while their husbands are away, and they are often very dull.
But the town-people love their children very much, and Egyptian
children are taught always to love, honour, and obey their father and
mother. An Egyptian man may have four wives, but generally he has
only one.

Until a few years ago, all Egyptians who had enough money used to buy
slaves to do their work. Slaves could be bought or sold, or married
or given away, as if they were things instead of people. Masters
could illtreat or even kill their slaves and not be punished, because
it was only as if they had broken their water-jar in a temper, and
that was no one else's business. Often slaves were happy if they had
good masters, but it is a bad custom to take away a person's freedom
and treat him as if he had no soul. During the last few years many
Europeans have been helping the Egyptians to improve their country,
and one of the changes has been to do away gradually with slavery. No
one is now allowed to buy a slave, and anyone born in slavery can
become free if he wishes to do so. Instead of slaves, people now have
servants who receive wages for their work. These are free to leave
their master if he does not treat them well. Although slavery is
dying out of Egypt, there are other parts of North Africa where the