80 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
Teeth white as jasmine blossoms ; silky curls 
Luxuriant shade her cheeks, and every limb 
Of slightest texture moves with natural grace, 
Like moonbeams gliding through the yielding air.* 
Here she reclines in oblivious repose upon a rich em- 
broidered carpet from the most celebrated looms of 
Persia. Through an atmosphere of the richest in- 
cense she breathes the choicest perfumes of Arabia the 
happy, and has everything around her that can ad- 
minister to sensual delight ; still she is generally an 
unhappy being. She dwells in the midst of splendid 
misery and ungratifying profusion, while all within 
herself is desolation and hopelessness. Her sympa- 
thies are either warped or stifled ; her heart is blighted 
and her mind degraded. She cannot join in the en- 
thusiasm of the inimitable Hafiz t — fC the breath of 
the western gale will soon shed musk around;— the 
old world will again be young ; ” but languishes as 
the seasons return in the most debasing captivity 
and feels that the western gale breathes not upon 
her either the freshness of freedom or of joy. 
A description of the haram of the celebrated Mogul 
Emperor Akbar, by the no less celebrated Abul Fazel 
Mobarek, his minister, will, I trust, be not unwelcome 
to the reader. “ The haram is an enclosure of such 
an immense extent, as to contain a separate room for 
every one of the women, whose number exceeds five 
thousand. They are divided into companies, and a 
* Uttara Rama Cheritra, a Hindoo drama, translated by Ho- 
race Hayman Wilson, Esq. from the original Sanscrit. 
t Hafiz was a lyric poet, called by way of pre-eminent distinc- 
tion, the Anacreon of Persia. 
