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THE PLAGUE IN EGYPT 31
wind up in the hospital. The " pimp " and
his " missus " play for these young fools,
and nearly always catch them. When the
"pimp" and his "missus" have finished
" "
doing Egypt, the "missus," in a motherly
sort of way, chooses a good-looking Greek
maiden or two, sometimes a Greek girl with
a plentiful dash of Ara.b blood in her veins,
large lustrous eyes, and well-formed limbs.
Such girls are engaged as handmaids to the
"
missus," and are taken abroad in the most
open manner sometimes to the Par East,
sometimes even to the Argentine. Once away
from their own dreamy
land of romance and
idleness, these wretched children of a wretched
country become slaves ; indeed, as soon as
they are out at sea, on the high waterway
to disease and death, the children of Egypt or
of Greece are " broken in " to the plague of
immorality, and are generally forced to earn
their expenses en route to the home of their
complete destruction. On landing in the
Par East or the Argentine they are sold, as
a rule, outright to brothel-keepers. Sometimes
the girls are merely rented on the hire
system, so much of their wages being allocated
to provide their board, so much to the
" "
missus of the house of ill-fame, and so
much to the " pimp." They get nothing at
all for themselves beyond scanty clothing,
((
meagre food, and a good hiding " occasion-
((
ally to knock the nonsense out of them."
Excepting pure white Greeks, very few of
these girls find their way to the Par East.