230 ANDEROON, OR ROYAL FEMALE APARTMENTS. 
and never have heard the voice of admiration but from one 
man, yet the mere idea of giving them more liberty, would 
fill them with misery. In short, they would regard the freedom 
of the most delicate woman in Europe, as a contempt from their 
husbands, and an exposure altogether too degrading to be 
thought on. To satisfy my curiosity I was conducted to the 
quadrangle of the Prince’s palace, which is called the an- 
deroon, or private apartment, where the ladies and female 
slaves are lodged. Of course it was then vacant. I found this 
place, as it ought to be, all couleur de rose. A very large and 
magnificent room, occupied nearly the whole length of one of the 
sides of the square. The windows had a particularly splendid 
effect; their frames being subdivided into a variety of fanciful 
forms or patterns, such as stars, circles, points, and a thousand 
serpentine conceits, flowing gracefully into each other, while 
the separations were filled with the most brilliant stained glass 
of every possible colour. 
In one corner of the court was a small door, leading to the 
bath. Having entered by it, we went along an extremely 
narrow passage ; and after making an angle or two, were 
brought into a spacious saloon of an octagon shape. Its dome 
was supported by four columns, which terminated at their base 
in a stone bench or rather platform, which runs round the room, 
and on which the carpets are spread when the place is to be 
occupied by the fair bathers. The light comes in from above, 
through a circular opening, covered by a thin slab of Tabreez 
marble, perfectly transparent. A door on the left of the saloon, 
conducted us through another narrow way, to the great bath ; 
close to the entrance of which, is a small dressing-chamber for 
the use of His Royal Highness, when he chooses to bathe. The 
apartment denominated the great bath, is one immense marbled 
