requested me to visit them, that I might be able to tell the
prince that I had seen them and left them well. The doctor
conducted me into their presence. He had been the friend and
physician of the prince, who was not one of the fanatic class, and
allowed him the entree to the females.

Nothing very worthy of notice took place at this visit. The house
and garden were plain, and the women had wrapped themselves in large
mantles, as the doctor was present, some, indeed, covered a part of
their faces while speaking with him. Several of them were young,
although they all appeared older than they really were. One, who
was twenty-two, I should have taken to be at least thirty. A rather
plump dark beauty of sixteen was also introduced to me as the latest
addition to the harem. She had been bought at Constantinople only a
short time since. The women appeared to treat her with great good-
nature; they told me that they took considerable pains to teach her
Persian.

Among the children there was a remarkably beautiful girl of six,
whose pure and delicate countenance was fortunately not yet
disfigured by paint. This child, as well as the others, was dressed
in the same way as the women; and I remarked that the Persian dress
was really, as I had been told, rather indecorous. The corset fell
back at every quick movement; the silk or gauze chemise, which
scarcely reached over the breast, dragged up so high that the whole
body might be seen as far as the loins. I observed the same with
the female servants, who were engaged in making tea or other
occupations; every motion disarranged their dress.

My visit to Haggi-Chefa-Hanoum, one of the principal and most-
cultivated women in Tebris, was far more interesting. Even at the
entrance of the court-yard and house, the presence of a well-
regulating mind might be perceived. I had never seen so much
cleanliness and taste in any Oriental house. I should have taken
the court-yard for the garden, if I had not afterwards seen the
latter from the windows. The gardens here are, indeed, inferior to
ours, but are magnificent when compared with those at Baghdad. They
have flowers, rows of vines and shrubs, and between the fruit-trees
pleasant basins of water and luxuriant grass-plots.

The reception-room was very large and lofty; the front and back (of
which the former looked out into the court-yard, the latter into the
garden), consisted of windows, the panes of which were in v