other, on the other hand,
looks continually after her children. She watches and nurses them
with the greatest affection, and never leaves them as long as they may
stand in need of her motherly care, for which she is rewarded by the
fondest filial love.

If foreigners had more frequent opportunities to observe the
cheerfulness, the exuberance of spirits even, of Eastern women, they
would soon and more easily be convinced of the untruth of all those
stories afloat about the degraded, oppressed, and listless state of
their life. It is impossible to gain a true insight into the actual
domesticity in a few moments' visit; and the conversation carried on,
on those formal occasions, hardly deserves that name; there is barely
more than the exchange of a few commonplace remarks--and it is
questionable if even these have been correctly interpreted.

Notwithstanding his innate hospitality, the Arab has the greatest
possible objection to having his home pried into by those of another
land and creed. Whenever, therefore, a European lady called on us,
the enormous circumference of her hoops (which were the fashion then,
and took up the entire width of the stairs) was the first thing to
strike us dumb with wonder; after which, the very meagre conversation
generally confined itself on both sides to the mysteries of different
costumes; and the lady retired as wise as she was when she came, after
having been sprinkled over with attar of roses, and being the richer
for some parting presents. It is true she had entered a harem; she
had seen the much-pitied Oriental ladies (though only through their
veils); she had with her own eyes seen our dresses, our jewellery, the
nimbleness with which we sat down on the floor--and that was all. She
could not boast of having seen more than any other foreign lady who
had called before her. She is conducted upstairs and downstairs, and
is watched all the time. Rarely she sees more than the
reception-room, and more rarely still can she guess or find out who
the veiled lady is with whom she conversed. In short, she has had no
opportunity whatsoever of learning anything of domestic life, or the
position of Eastern women.

No one who is interested in the social position of women in the East
should fail to read these pleasantly-written memoirs. The Princess is
herself a woman of high culture, and the