nauts.

She came into my father's possession when quite a child, probably at
the tender age of seven or eight years, as she cast her first tooth in
our house. She was at once adopted as playmate by two of my sisters,
her own age, with whom she was educated and brought up. Together with
them she learnt to read, which raised her a good deal above her
equals, who, as a rule, became members of our family at the age of
sixteen or eighteen years, or older still, when they had outgrown
whatever taste they might once have had for schooling. She could
scarcely be called pretty; but she was tall and shapely, had black
eyes, and hair down to her knees. Of a very gentle disposition, her
greatest pleasure consisted in assisting other people, in looking
after and nursing any sick person in the house; and I well remember
her going about with her books from one patient to another, reading
prayers to them.

She was in great favour with my father, who never refused her
anything, though she interceded mostly for others; and when she came
to see him, he always rose to meet her half-way--a distinction he
conferred but very rarely. She was as kind and pious as she was
modest, and in all her dealings frank and open. She had another
daughter besides myself, who had died quite young. Her mental powers
were not great, but she was very clever at needlework. She had always
been a tender and loving mother to me, but this did not hinder her
from punishing me severely when she deemed it necessary.

She had many friends at Bet-il-Mtoni, which is rarely to be met with
in an Arab harem. She had the most unshaken and firmest trust in God.
When I was about five years old, I remember a fire breaking out in the
stables close by, one night while my father was at his city residence.
A false alarm spread over the house that we, too, were in imminent
danger; upon which the good woman hastened to take me on her arm, and
her big kuran (we pronounce the word thus) on the other, and hurried
into the open air. On the rest of her possessions she set no value in
this hour of danger.

Here is a description of Schesade, the Sultan's second legitimate wife:

She was a Persian Princess of entrancing beauty, and of inordinate
extravagance. Her little retinue was composed of one hundred and
fifty cavaliers, all Persians, who lived on the ground floor; with