The Camden Weekly Journal

Taming of an Egyptian Shrew.

They perform this feat in Egypt in a far more simple and expeditious way than Shakespeare dreamed of. The modus operandi is thus described in Mr. St. John's "Village Life in Egypt:"

The fellah named Faroun said that when he came of age to marry—which was when the barber's wife began to throw date-stones at him from behind a wall, and then "betray herself by an affected giggle"—not finding a suitable match in his own village, he travelled through the neighbouring districts, until he met with a very poor couple who had an only daughter. He made his propositions, was accepted, and after the necessary delays, found himself possessed of a wife. A detail of all his comic tribulations need not be given. Suffice it to say that the bride was too young to have a witness within her of the propriety of her being handed over to the rough tenderness of a stranger—was as restive as a colt ignorant of the halter. During the first half of the honeymoon, Haroun's face became so ornamented with scratches that no friend could recognise him. He gravely applied for redress to the parents, who promised to scold and intercede. If they did so it was without effect: and the bridegroom returned to his native village with a new father and mother, and a wife whom it was as dangerous to approach as a hedgehog tied in a bag. Had he been alone with her, matters might have been smothered at the expense of a few tears; but in the midst of his remonstrances the old people would invariably rush to the rescue, and accuse the poor bewildered man of assassinating their daughter. Under these circumstances, he consulted the Kadee of the village, who was esteemed of good counsel. "The matter is easy, O Haroun," said the Kadee, having heard an unvarnished statement of the case. "Pretend thou to give up the matter as a bad job, and go out as if to work. The old people will soon grow weary of staying at home, having all their new relations to visit. Watch the opportunity, and slip back armed with a good stick as soon as they are out. Let the stick be at least two fingers in thickness and when thou hast locked thyself in, fall to, in the name of the Prophet, and beat thy wife well beat her till she shrieks for mercy, beat her till thou drawest blood—zing zong, Wallah! Billah and by my beard, she will become as amiable as a young buffalo that feedeth out of its master's hand." The bridegroom did as he was advised, and, having nearly committed murder, was acknowledged as lord paramount; so that when the parents came back they found their daughter humble as a dove just fluttering after capture with one eye beaming love and the other bound up by a rag.