any one who has seen
the Bedouin horsemen, with their commodious saddles and flowing robes,
must have given them his entire approbation in point of contrasted
beauty.

As yet the Oriental has made no innovation in his domestic life and
habits, or if any, it is that his ladies wear the slender _botine_ of
the Christian lady in place of the loose slipper of former years. As yet
there is no commingling of the sexes, no excursions by land and sea in
boats or carriages together, in undisturbed and unrestricted familiar
intercourse. The lady of the house has not yet met her husband's friends
at the dinner-table, at the social _soiree_, or in the ball-room. He is
quite willing to go to these, at the house of his Frank friend, but he
has not been convinced of the propriety of the change, and his sovereign
has not carried his reforms into harem life. It will require some years
yet to fit the Oriental for witnessing the displays of female beauty at
such places with the calm indifference of the more accustomed native of
Frankistan. He is willing, however, to commingle with the females of his
European neighbors' household, even to embrace them in the mysteries of
the mazy polka or waltz; but he hesitates admitting that such are the
advantages or benefits of civilization. Indeed, it may be doubted
whether his own wife and daughters would suffer such, were they told
that they might do so without fear of reproach; for it is mostly to the
mothers and wives that the Eastern world owes its tardy progress in the
civilization of the West. Some time since, during the late Carnival,
there was a Persian ambassador present at a ball given by the Italian
minister, attended by the ambassador extraordinary of the Shah of
Persia, who had never been to Europe or in a 'civilized European'
society. Being asked by a foreign gentleman how he was, and how he liked
the ball, he frankly replied, that such an exhibition as that of the
beautiful ladies assembled there _decolle_, etc., had taken him quite by
surprise; that it was more than his nerves could stand, and he felt so
bad that he thought of leaving the ball and retiring to his own
quarters. The same gentleman, to induce him to remain, jocosely told him
that it was the paradise of the Christian, whilst his (that of
Mussulmans) was in the life to come. At this he smiled, and turning
toward a bevy of very handsome young ladies, dressed in the hight of the
fashion, his eyes gloating on the fair scene,