HER DRESS, ATTENDANTS, &C. 207 



ducing me as the captain of the newly-arrived 

 Russian frigate. The apartment was furnished 

 in the European fashion, with chairs, tables, and 

 looking-glasses. In one corner stood an im 

 mensely large bed with silk curtains ; the floor 

 was covered with fine mats, and on these, in the 

 middle of the room, lay Nomahanna, extended 

 on her stomach, her head turned towards the 

 door, and her arms supported on a silk pillow. 

 Two young girls lightly dressed, sat cross-legged 

 by the side of the Queen, flapping away the flies 

 with bunches of feathers. Nomahanna, who ap 

 peared at the utmost not more than forty years 

 old, was exactly six feet two inches high, and 

 rather more than two ells in circumference. She 

 wore an old-fashioned European dress of blue 

 silk ; her coal-black hair was neatly plaited, at 

 the top of a head as round as a ball ; her flat 

 nose and thick projecting lips were certainly 

 not very handsome, yet was her countenance on 

 the whole prepossessing and agreeable. On see 

 ing me, she laid down the psalm-book in which 

 she had been reading, and having, with the help 

 of her attendants, changed her lying for a sitting 

 posture, she held out her hand to me in a very 



