CYPRUS. (U 
displaying the highest degree of Oriental chat. 
magnificence. The apartments were not only 
spacious, but they were adorned with studied 
elegance; the floors being furnished with the 
finest mats brought from Grand Cairo, and the 
divans covered with satin, set round with em- 
broidered cushions. The windows of the 
rooms, as in all Oriental houses, were near 
the roof, and small, although numerous, and 
placed close to each other. They had double 
casements, one being of painted glass, sur- 
rounded by carved work, as in the old Gothic 
palaces of England, which, perhaps, derived 
their original form from the East, during the 
Crusades. So many instances occur to confirm 
tills opinion, that we may be liable to unneces- 
sary repetition, by too frequent allusion to this 
style of building. The custom of having the 
floor raised in the upper part of a chamber, 
where the superiors sit, as in our old halls, is 
strictly Oriental: it is the same in the tents of 
the Tahtars. We were permitted to view the 
Charem. This always consists of a summer and 
a winter apartment. The first was a large 
square room, surrounded by a divan; the last 
an oblong chamber, where the divans were 
placed parallel to each other, one being on either 
side, lengthways : at the upper extremity was the 
fire-place, resembling our QxitientEnglish hearths. 
