re desired to sit down, or they re- 
ire. This, however, is to be un- 
erstood of the grandees; for in or- 
inary life, both wives and daugh- 
ers minister servilely to the men: 
e two sexes never sitting at table 
together. 
Tr is seldom that all the ladies of 
a Harem are, by the great man, 
seen assembled, unless they happen, 
in the summer, to be surprised sit- 
ting in the divan, where they meet 
to enjoy the cool air. At his ap- 
proach, they all rise up, but, if de- 
sired, resume their places, (some of 
the slaves excepted) and return to 
their ~work. However loquacious 
they may have been before he en- 
tered, a respectful silence ensues the 
moment he appears< a restraint 
which they feel the less, from their 
being accustomed to it almost from 
their infancy. It is surprising how 
suddenly the clamour of children is 
hushed on the approach of the fa- 
ther; but the women often lament 
their want of power, in his absence, 
of quieting the children either by 
threats or soothing. 
Though the presence of the great 
man may impose silence on the 
younger ladies, he always finds 
some of the elderly matrons ready 
enough to entertain him, should he 
be disposed for conversation. In 
this manner he learns the domestic 
news of the town, which, though 
rarely a topic of discourse among: 
the men, being in great request at 
the public baths, is circulated by 
the female pedlars, and the Bidoween 
women attached to the harem. 
The former, who are chiefly Jewish 
or Christian women of a certain age, 
supply the ladies with gauzes, 
mushins, embroidery, and trinkets, 
and moreover have the art of col- 
Jecting and embellishing all kinds of 
CHARACTERS. 
r*11 
private history ; the latter are not 
less talkative, nor more secret, but 
possess also a licensed privilege of 
speaking freely to the men, which 
they perfectly know how to exercise. 
Their licence is derived from being 
often retained as nurses, by which 
they gain a permanent establishment 
in the family ; the foster sister re- 
maining atiached to the harem, and 
in time succeeding her mother. The 
grandees, in these indolent hours, 
converse also on their own domestic 
affairs, and amuse themselves with 
their children. When they wish to 
be more retired, they withdraw to 
another apartment, into which no 
person, except the lady to whom it 
belongs, presumes to enter uncalled. 
The Turks, in presence of their 
women, appear to affect a more 
haughty, reserved air, than usual, 
and in their manner of speaking to 
them, are less courteous, and more 
abrupt, than they are to one ano- 
ther, or evento men who are much 
their .inferiors. As this was fre- 
quently observed in persons remark- 
‘able for an affable deportment to 
men, it may be considered rather as 
their usual manner than ascribed to 
the accidental preference of an Euro- 
pean ; and is farther confirmed by 
the ordinary behaviour of the boys, 
who talk to the women in an impe- 
rious manner, which they could only 
have learned from exainple. The 
men perhaps judge it politic to as- 
sume this demeanour, in a situation 
where dominion may be supposed to 
be maintained with more difficulty, 
than among their male dependants ; 
and therefore venture only, in hours 
of retirement, to avow that gentle- 
ness, which, as 1f derogatory from 
their dignity, they think prudent, in 
their general conduct, to conceal, 
from persons whose obedience they 
; believe 
