﻿OF HINZUAN, OR JOHANNA. 83 



tan is not unalterably fixed in one line, but requires 

 confirmation by the chiefs of the island, it is not im- 

 probable that they may hereafter be conferred on 

 prince Hamdullali. 



A little beyond the hole in which Salim received 

 us, was his haram\ or the apartment of 'his women, 

 which he permitted us all to see, not through polite- 

 ness to strangers, as we believed at first, but as I 

 learned afterwards from his own lips, in expectation 

 of a present. We saw only two or three miserable 

 creatures with their heads covered, while the favour- 

 ite, as we supposed, stood behind a coatse curtain, 

 and showed her ankles under it, loaded with silver 

 rings; which, if she was capable of reflection, she 

 must have considered as glittering fetters rather than 

 ornaments ; but a rational being would have preferred 

 the condition of a wild beast, exposed to perils and 

 hunger in a forest, to the splendid misery of being 

 wife or mistress to Salim. 



Before we returned, Alwi was desirous of mowing: 

 me his books ; but the day was too far advanced, 

 and I promised to visit him some other morning. 

 The governor however prevailed on us to see his place 

 in the country, where he invited us to dine the next 

 day. The walk was extremely pleasant from the town 

 to the side of a rivulet, which formed in one part a 

 small pool very convenient for bathing, and thence 

 through groves and alleys to the foot of a hill; but 

 the dining-room was little better than an open barn, 

 and was recommended only by the coolness of its 

 shade. Abdullah would accompany us on our return 

 to the ship, together with two Muftis who spoke Ara- 

 bic indifferently, and seemed eager to see ail my ma- 

 nuscripts ; but they were very moderately learned, 

 and gazed with stupid wonder on a fine copy of the 

 Hamasah) and on other collections of ancient poetry. 



G 2 



