CHAPTER XVII. 'Tis said they use no better than a hog any ВЕРРО. THE time of our friends, being thus employed in receiving the kindness of their royal host, passed very pleasantly, and as Seyd Abderrimin came often, and, when alone, took his grog as kindly as his mother's milk, to use the simile of Jim Bell, Fitzjohn ventured, the day before his departure, to ask the said Seyd to let himself and friend see the inside of his harem, to which Abderrimin most kindly consented. An order was accordingly sent to the chief of the eunuchs to have everything prepared for their reception. Jim felt some qualms as to his accompanying Fitzjohn, since, he said, he did not want to be made a Signor Squallini; and, as Fitz did not press the matter, he ultimately remained at home. Fitzjohn, accompanied by Seyd, arrived at the house of the latter, after the heat of the sun had abated, and passing through the chamber, which adjoined that in which the dancing had been exhibited, Seyd took from the folds of his girdle, a key of the middle size, which opened his own private door into the immediate anteroom of the harem. This room was of an octagonal shape, with silk divans ranged round it, and looking-glass let in, above the cushions of the divans, the height of the head. In the centre was a marble bath, coffin-shaped, of double size, and filled with rose-water. Around the room were eight niches, and in each niche was a large china vase, in which grew flowers. These shed a kind of nutmeg, spicy odour. VOL. II. K The most beautiful Persian carpets, of peculiar thickness, were spread along the floor so as to fill up the space between the bath and the divans, while the whole was lighted from above by a skylight of coloured glass. On opening the door which led direct from the bath-room into the harem itself, and with the key of which no one was entrusted, two black eunuchs of most athletic form, took their stations, one on each side of Fitzjohn, each holding in his hand a naked dagger, in form almost exactly similar to the Malay crease. The harem was of a long oblong form, having four tiers of bed-places, one over the other like the cabin of a packet, and on each side of the door of entrance were the names of the inhabitants, amounting to two hundred and seventy: opposite to each name were marks like our numeral 7 and some Turkish writing, which Fitzjohn afterwards learnt to have been certain dates. The two hundred and seventy fair ones in question, were thus composed; one hundred and twenty were Circassians, eighty-four were Geor gians, twenty-six Hindostanee women, nineteen Persians, and two French women, while the rest came from Abyssinia and the neighbouring nations. Besides this moderate collection, Seyd also had four Turkish wives; but these did not reside in the harem. As the tenants of the last were all made to turn into their bed-places before the Giaour was admitted, poor Fitz, to his great disappointment, saw nothing but their faces peeping between the muslin curtains of their little pigeonholes; and, as the Seyd led the way in rather a quicker step than Fitzjohn desired, he occasionally dropped a glove, and then a pocket handkerchief, that the delay might give him time to make further observations. The room was particularly clean and odoriferous, and after passing through the harem he was shown into the robing or dressing-room, in which were the two French ladies, who had belonged to the theatre Bonaparte had established at Cairo. On the retreat of the French army, they had, most unfortunately for them, as they said, been made prisoners, and sold in the public market. It was indeed no slight mitigation of their lot that they had been purchased by Seyd Abderrimin, who treated them with the greatest kindness, and employed them in superintending this department of his establishment. Opposite to the dressing-room, was the apartment of the eunuchs, of whom he retained ten, together with a chief, and they were, without exception, the finest-formed men Fitzjohn had ever beheld. They seemed in every respect perfectly happy and contented. Fitzjohn next visited the kitchen, and found that the ladies of the seraglio scarcely ever tasted meat, but were nourished chiefly on fruit and vegetables; and one of the duties of the aga, or chief eunuch, was to see that the parsnips, carrots, &c. were cut into such small pieces that the ladies of the harem could not easily choke themselves. As the French women did not form a part, as their countrymen would have said, of the matériel of the harem, Fitzjohn obtained permission from the Seyd, to have an hour's conversa |