Little Princess Nouma-Hawa came to the United States in 1902 with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, having already made a name for herself in Europe as "The Smallest Woman in the World". Where the name Nouma-Hawa came from is unknown, for in real life she was Mathilda Cajdos from the small village of Baraolt on the Hungarian-Romanian border. She sang and danced and was fluent in English, French, Hungarian and Italian. In 1904 the Princess married fellow performer Maurice Andrew Gowdy in Los Angeles, California. Although only 6'4" tall, Gowdy, a native of Shelbyville, Indiana, was billed as a giant. After five years of marriage Mrs. Gowdy became pregnant. She died in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on December 18, 1909, after giving birth to an average-sized child that was "expected to live".
Photo: Printed postcard of Mathilda Gowdy as Princess Nouma-Hawa, ca. 1902, by Scheidegger, Berwick Street (London?).