GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN THE DISTMCX. 161 



display her Tartaric charms, but she invites notice. They 

 are not very elegant, those Tartar ladies, with their legs 

 dangling over one side of their black four-wheeled bier. 

 As the Irishman said when he was in a sedan without a 

 bottom— "If it were not for the honour of riding, I should 

 prefer walking." 



' One day I was glad to have an invitation to tea with 

 a Mahommedan gentleman from Bokara ; for you may 

 depend upon it that amongst these Asiatics you find more 

 true gentility, genuine courtesy, politeness, and refinement 

 of manners, than you do among all the tailor-made snobs 

 and swells in London and Paris put together. The house 

 was rather stuffy and stifling in its looks, as there were so 

 many eider down pillows about. The lady of the house 

 and her daughter, after a shaking of hands, went and stood 

 near the door, just inside the drawing-room, dressed in 

 rich silk velvets, lined and trimmed with the sable fur, the 

 best of beaver caps, and long lace veils down to their heels. 

 They then bowed and retired, but shortly reappeared in 

 another costume of another colour, but equally extravagant 

 in costliness ; and this was done I don't know how many 

 times, till all their best finery was shown off, I suppose. But 

 their hospitality was overwhelming, even sickening — what 

 with fruits, jams, confectionery, nuts, and what not, served 

 up in honey. All you have to do, if you would please your 

 host, is to eat and drink, and drink and eat incessantly ; 

 but no wines, nothing but delicious tea and coffee. I had the 

 impertinence to ask the gentleman how many wives he 

 had, or might have ? " Might have four ; had only one. 

 Many of us have only one now — better one than more." 

 " Indeed, why ? " " Well, when you have one wife her 

 fingers are hooked, and she sticks to your money, but when 

 you have above one they have all got straight, open hands ; 

 it is nobody's interest to hold fast. They won't save for 

 one another ; they all try to cost you as much as they can. 

 So all your money slips right through, and there is none 

 left for the children." I am afraid this Mahommedan was 



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