Star.
London, England, 1829-07-08 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
Extracted from Madden's Travels in

14 A Turkish Lady of fashion is wooed by an invi-
sible lover: in the progress of the courtship a hyacinth
is occasionally dropt in her path, by an unknown hand,
and the female attendant at the bath does the office of
a Mercury, and talks of a certain Effendi demanding
a Lady's love, as a nightingale aspiring to the affections
of a rose!

" A clove, Wrapped up in an embroidered handker-
chief, is the least token of condescension the nightingale
can expect; but a written billet doux is an implement
of love which the gentle rose is unable to manufacture.
The father of the Lady at length is solicited for her
hand, and he orders her to give it, and to love, !moue,
and obey her husband: in short, they are married by
proxy, before the Cedi, and the light of her lord's
countenance first beams on her in the nuptial chamber.
This change in her condition is one which evety spinstei
envies: if she be the only wife, she reigns in the harem
over a host of slaves; if there be two or three more,
she shares with them in .the delights of domestic sway.
Every week, at least, she is blessed with a periodical
return of her husband's love; he enters the harem at
noonday, and at sunset, after the fatigue of sauntering
from one bazaar to another, and from the public divan
to the private chambers,—he performs his evening
ablutions,—one obsequious Lady fetches a vial of rcoe-
water to perfume his head, another beats a looking-
glass,. with a mother of pearl handle, another carries
an embroidered napkin; and supper is brought in by a
host of slaves and servants; for in most hat ems the
ordinary attendants have access to the women's apart-
ments. The women stand before him *bile he eats#
and when he finishes, a number of additiorial dishes are
brought in for the Ladies, whose breeding consists in
eating with the finger and thumb only, and in not
devouring indecorously the sweetmeats, of which they
are exceedingly fond.
4‘ When supper is removed, and the servants disap-
pear, there are few harems where small bottles of ro-
soglio are not produced; and of this liqueur, I have
seen the Ladies take so many as three or four little
glasses in the course of ten minutes. One of the female
slaves generally presents the pipe on one knee; and
sometimes one of the wives brings the coffee, and kisses
the hand of her lord at the same time; this ceremony
every wife goes through in the morning, none daring to
sit down in his presence but such as have the honour
of being mothers; but, in the evening, there is very
little etiquette, and very little truth in the assertion of
Pauqueville, that the Turks retire to their harems
without relaxing the least particle of their gravity.'
The reverse of this statement is near the truth; the
orgies of the evening, in most harem►, are conducted
'with all the levity of licentiousness, and the gravity of
the Mcislems totally disappears: their roars of laughter
are to be heard in the adjoining houses ; and, in my
opinion, the gravity of the Turk during the day is only
the exhaustion of his spirits from previous excitement.
I have seen him reclining on the divans, smoking his
long chibouque, one of his wives, and generally the
favourite, shampooing his feet with her soft fingers,
and performing this operation for hours together.
" This is accounted one of the. greatest luxuries of
the harem; and an opium eater Assured me, the most
delightful of his reveries was imagining himself sham-
pooed by the dark-eyed houris f Paradise.

"The women vie with each other in eliciting the smiles
of their common lord; one shows the rich silk she has
been embroidering for his vest, another plays an instru-
ment resembling a spinet, and another displays her ele-
gant form in the voluptuous :mixes of the dance. No
handkerchief is thrown, but a smile is sufficient to
,'speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul ; and
from that moment. to the period when another fa-
vourite supplants the former, she is salaamed with
additional respect by the slaves, and treated with greater
honour by all the harem. When she goes to the bath
she is to be distinguished by the importance of her air ;
•the waddling of her gait attests her quality ; she' dis-
poses her white robe over her fair arms so as to present
the largest possible surface en face, and GOD help the
unlucky Christian who crosses her path. I have had
the honour of being insulted by Ladies of rank far more
frequently than by any other women. The fanaticism
of females is in a ratio with their quality, and hence it
is Dom them, chiefly, a Frank passenger has to expect
'such gentle maledictions as, ' May the plague tall on
your house!' May the •foul birds defile your beard.
loss Chia May she who would marry you be childless!'

44 In fact. education in Turkey has no other object
abet tti` toitei fanaticism, and inculcate intolerance
•
',When the tady •isits her female friends, notice is pre.
'icoafry sent of her intention. that the men may have
time to get out of the way ; the moment she enters the
harem ►he takes off her veil, receiv.ng a thousand
, salaams, smokes a pipe or two, ani is regaled with fruit,
',sweetmeats, and luaip sugar. The conversation com.
• ',family turns on dresi ;'sbe discusses various topics con-

:nested with silks and scandal, narrates how a fair neigh-
tbmir of hers bras suspected of embroidering a silk pm se