. DEVOTIONS OF THE LADIES. 
c 2 71 
of the dancers, or the subject of the singers’ madrigals. But no 
respite is given to the entertainers; and, during so long a stretch 
of merriment, should any of the happy guests feel a sudden 
desire for temporary repose, without the least apology, she lies 
down to sleep on the luxurious carpet that is her seat; and thus 
she remains, sunk in as deep an oblivion as if the nummud were 
spread in her own chamber. Others speedily follow her example, 
sleeping as sound; notwithstanding that the bawling of the sing¬ 
ers, the horrid jangling of the guittars, the thumping on the 
jar-like double-drum, the ringing and loud clangor of the metal 
bells and castanets of the dancers, with an eternal talking in all 
keys, abrupt laughter, and vociferous expressions of gratification, 
making, in all, a full concert of distracting sounds, sufficient, one 
might suppose, to awaken the dead. But the merry tumult, 
and joyful strains of this conviviality, gradually become fainter 
and fainter; first one, and then another of the visitors, (while 
even the performers are not spared by the soporific god,) sink 
down under the drowsy influence ; till, at length, the whole 
carpet is covered with the sleeping beauties, mixed indiscri¬ 
minately with hand-maids, dancers, and musicians, as fast asleep 
as themselves. The business, however, is not thus quietly ended. 
“ As soon as the sun begins to call forth the blushes of the 
morn, by lifting the veil that shades her slumbering eye-lids,” 
the faithful slaves rub their own clear of any lurking drowsi¬ 
ness ; and then tug their respective mistresses by the toe or the 
shoulder, to rouse them up to perform the devotional ablutions 
usual at the dawn of day. All start mechanically, as if touched 
by a spell; and then commences the splashing of water, and the 
muttering of prayers ; presenting a singular contrast to the vi¬ 
vacious scene of a few hours before. This duty over, the fair 
