"W HEN I WAS A GIRL in Constantinople," Eliza said, "I one day worked up the nerve to venture out from the harim of the Topkapi Palace and to explore certain reaches of that motley Pile that ought to have been forbidden to me. This I did by climbing up grape-vines, clambering over rooftops, and the like. And after a while I arrived at a place whence I could look down into a court-yard. This place was occupied by men of a mystickal sect called Darwayshes, who wore costumes, and observed rites, setting them apart from the rest of al-Islam . I lurked there for a few minutes, watching them, and then, having had my fill of strange sights, crept back to the harim ."