handle of Gold, Emeralds, and Agate, that would have
driven a Duke's-Place Jew crazy to look at; and in the other,--well, you
know that Oriental Fashions are different from ours, and that the Paynim
nations have the strangest of Manners and Customs,--I declare that in
the other Hand--the dexter one--the Lady held the Tube of a
Tobacco-pipe, the which she was smoking with great Deliberation and
apparent Relish. But 'twas a very different Pipe to what we are in the
habit of seeing in England--having a Bowl of fine Red Clay encrusted
with Gems, a long straight tube of Cherry-wood, and a Mouthpiece of
Amber studded with Precious Stones. This Pipe they call a Chibook, and
they smoke it much as we do our common Clay things; but there's another,
which they call a Nargilly, like the Hubble-bubble smoked by the proud
Planters in the Dutch East Indies. With the Nargilly, the Smoke passes
first through Rose-water, to purify it; and after passing through many
snake-like coils of silk and wire tubing, the Smoker gulps it down
bodily; so that it goes into his Lungs, and must make them as sooty as a
foul Chimney. Many of the Turks are so handy at this nasty trick, that
they can make the Smoke they have swallowed come out of their ears,
eyes, and nostrils; but I envy them not such Mountebankery, and when I
smoke my Pipe, am content to Blow a Cloud in a moderate and Christian
manner.

I have kept you so long describing this Eastern Lady's Dress, that you
must be growing impatient to know whether her Face matched in
handsomeness with her Apparel; but there was the Deuce of it; for while
I stood before her, staring and Wondering over her splendid Habiliments,
I could catch ne'er a glimpse of her Countenance, which was entirely
concealed from view by the Veil they call a _Formah_, which is made of
a very fine gauzy stuff, but painted in body-colour in a pattern so as
to make it Opaque, and so artfully disposed as to hide the Face without
shading any of the splendour of the Dress. And though I could not make
out so much as the tip of the Lady's Nose, I had a queer sensation that
she was looking at _me_, nay, even that her eyes were twinkling in a
merry manner under her Veil. And so I remained Dumbfoundered, quite
uncertain as to the kind of Adventure that had befallen me. Had some
Moorish or Turkish Dame designed only to Divert herself at the expense
of a poor Christian Slave? or was the Veiled Lady only some artful
Adventuress of the Jewi