European and Askiiic Turkey. 117 



cian is admitted with more facility. Still it is not m the power 

 of any husband to prevent the visits of the physician, for let his 

 jealousy be ever so vigilant, it will be eluded, and as a last re- 

 source, the lady has nothing to do but fall sick during her visit 

 to the bath, and send for a physician ; at certain periods the 

 use of the bath is inculcated by the Mahommedan ritual, and 

 no husband dare, therefore, debar his wives from this enjoy- 

 ment. When a physician has a patient in a harem, it is his 

 duty to send every morning to inquire how her ladyship (chan- 

 nem) has slept, &c. In answering this inquiry, the lady in- 

 forms him at what hour it is her wish to see him. This cere- 

 mony goes on until the patient recovers, when the physician 

 receives, in token that his services are no longer required, a 

 present of a silk shirt, a pair of silk trowsers, an embroidered 

 girdle and handkerchief, and a pair of knit socks. This pre- 

 sent is a mark of the lady's gratitude. The Turks have a very 

 different taste with regard to female beauty, from the inhabit- 

 ants of the more northern parts of Europe. An excessive en. 

 hon poirit is an essential ingredient in the composition of a 

 Turkish beauty, and in general, by means of taking little ex- 

 ercise, frequent bathing, and over eating, they attain at a very 

 early age a rotundity of figure, which to a German eye appears 

 any thing but attractive ; black hair and black eyes, with black 

 eyebrows running together over the nose, are highly valued, 

 and when nature has not conferred these attractions, the aid of 

 art is invoked, the eyebrows are stained, and the skin between 

 them painted of an appropriate colour. A Turkish beauty 

 must not have a single hair on any part of the body, except 

 the scalp and brow. In the baths, their female attendants 

 spend hours in destroying the forbidden hairs, not by eradica- 

 tion or shaving, but by means of a composition which softens, 

 corrodes, and destroys them, after which the whole surface of 

 the body is rubbed and polished by means of a powder, con- 

 sisting of alum and other ingredients. When this process has 

 been successfully and skilfully performed, and when the nails of 

 the fingers and toes have been stained orange by means of the 

 leaves of henna (Lawsonia incrmis,) then the Turkish beauty is 

 irresistible in the eyes of all true Moslems."' 



3 



