omplexion, called
white, was of an unhealthy yellow; indeed, not a healthy complexion was
to be seen among the whole company. How should it be otherwise among
women secluded from exercise, and pampered with all the luxuries of
Oriental life.

Besides the seven wives, a number of attendants came in to look at the
European visitors, and serve the pipes and sherbet; also a few ladies
from a neighbouring harem; and a party of Jewesses, with whom Miss
Martineau and her friends had some previous acquaintance. Mrs. G., we
are told, was compelled to withdraw her lace veil, and then to remove
her bonnet; the street, she was informed, was the place where the veil
should be worn, and not the interior of the house. Then her bonnet went
round, and was tried on many heads; one merry girl wearing it long
enough to surprise many new comers with the joke. Miss Martineau's
gloves were stretched and pulled in a variety of ways, in their attempts
to thrust their large, broad brown hands into them, one after another.
But it was the ear-trumpet, rendered necessary by her deafness, which
afforded the greatest entertainment. The eldest widow, who sat near her,
asked for it and put it to her ear; whereupon Miss Martineau exclaimed,
"Bo!" When she had done laughing, the lady of the harem placed it to her
next neighbour's ear, and shouted "Bo!" and in this way it returned to
its possessor. But in two minutes it was asked for again, and went round
a second time; everybody laughing as loud as ever at each "Bo!" so that
the joke was repeated a third time.

The next joke was connected with the Jewesses, four or five of whom sat
in a row in the diwan. Almost everybody else was puffing away at a
tchibouque or nargileh, and the place was one cloud of smoke. The poor
Jewesses were obliged to decline joining us, for it happened to be
Saturday, and they must not smoke on their Sabbath. They were naturally
much pitied, and some of the young wives did what was possible for them.
Drawing in a long breath of smoke, they puffed it forth in the faces of
the Jewesses, who opened mouth and nostrils eagerly to receive it. Thus
was the Sabbath observed, to shouts of laughter.

"A pretty little blue-eyed girl of seven was the only child," says Miss
Martineau, "we saw. She nestled against her mother, and the mother
clasped her closely, lest we should carry her off to London. She begged
we would not wish to take her child to London, and said, 'she would not
sell her