TURKISH ROOM. 31 



the reception we had met with, and admiring 

 much the extreme afFabihty and pohteness of 

 Mustafa Pasha. 



A Turkish room is so pecuHar, its form and 

 arrangement are so totally different from what we 

 are accustomed to, that I must attempt, at the 

 risk of prolixity, to describe one. 



The entrance to a Turkish room is always at 

 the lower end; a few paces from the entrance, a 

 step of about three or four inches in depth extends 

 transversely across the room, dividing it into two 

 parts, of which the most elevated is that furthest 

 from the door. The raised part, or that above the 

 step, has almost the appearance of a different room. 

 There are windows on the three sides of it, and in 

 front of these windows are divans or very com- 

 fortable couches, well covered with Turkey rugs, 

 the whole of the floor of the raised part of the 

 room being likewise well carpeted. This is the 

 privileged part of the room for persons of equal 

 or superior rank to the owner, the lower level 

 being for inferiors, attendants, &c., every person, 

 of however low degree, having a right to a free 

 admittance as a matter of course to the presence 

 of a superior ; indeed, I always observed a con- 



