d to be writing in my journal, men, women, and children would
gather round me, and gaze upon me and my book with many signs and
gestures expressive of astonishment.

The ladies of the harem seemed to look with contempt upon employment
and work of every kind; for neither here nor elsewhere did I see
them do any thing but sit cross-legged on carpets and cushions,
drinking coffee, smoking nargile, and gossiping with one another.
They pressed me to sit down on a cushion, and then immediately
surrounded me, endeavouring, by signs, to ask many questions. First
they took my straw hat and put it upon their heads; then they felt
the stuff of my travelling robe; but they seemed most of all
astonished at my short hair, {165} the sight of which seemed to
impress these poor ignorant women with the idea that nature had
denied long hair to the Europeans. They asked me by signs how this
came to pass, and every lady came up and felt my hair. They seemed
also very much surprised that I was so thin, and offered me their
nargile, besides sherbet and cakes. On the whole, our conversation
was not very animated, for we had no dragoman to act as interpreter,
so that we were obliged to guess at what was meant, and at length I
sat silently among these Orientals, and was heartily glad when, at
the expiration of an hour, my friends sent to fetch me away. At a
later period of my journey I frequently visited harems, and
sometimes considerable ones; but I found them all alike. The only
difference lay in the fact that some harems contained more beautiful
women and slaves, and that in others the inmates were more richly
clad; but every where I found the same idle curiosity, ignorance,
and apathy. Perhaps they may be more happy than European women; I
should suppose they were, to judge from their comfortable figures
and their contented features. Corpulence is said frequently to
proceed from a good-natured and quiet disposition; and their
features are so entirely without any fixed character and expression,
that I do not think these women capable of deep passions or feeling
either for good or evil. Exceptions are of course to be found even
among the Turkish women; I only report what I observed on the
average.

This day we rode altogether for seven hours. We passed a beautiful
orange-grove; for the greater part of the way our road led through
deep sand, close by the sea-shore; but once we had to pass a
dreadfully dangerous place called the "Whi