oo small to shade a
grasshopper. Here, finally, was a bowl of solid gold, another work
of the great Samian metallurgist, more precious for its artistic
workmanship than even for its material.

[Illustration: PLATE XXXV.]

Nothing has hitherto been said of the Royal harem or seraglio, which,
however, as a feature of the Court always important, and ultimately
preponderating over all others, claims a share of our attention. In the
early times, it would appear that the Persian kings were content with
three or four wives, and a moderate number of concubines. Of the wives
there was always one who held the most exalted place, to whom alone
appertained the title of "Queen," and who was regarded as "wife" in a
different sense from the others. Such was Atossa to Darius Hystaspis,
Amestris to Xerxes, Statira to Darius Codomannus. Such, too, were Vashti
and Esther to the prince, whoever he was, whose deeds are recorded in
Scripture under the name of Ahasuerus. The chief wife, or Queen-Consort,
was privileged to wear on her head a royal tiara or crown. She was
the acknowledged head of the female apartments or Gynaeceum, and the
concubines recognized her dignity by actual prostration. On great
occasions, when the king entertained the male part of the Court, she
feasted all the females in her own part of the palace. She had a
large revenue of her own, assigned her, not so much by the will of her
husband, as by an established law or custom. Her dress was splendid,
and she was able to indulge freely that love of ornament of which few
Oriental women are devoid. Though legally subject to her husband as much
as the meanest of his slaves, she could venture on liberties which would
have been fatal to almost any one else, and often, by her influence over
the monarch, possessed a very considerable share of power.

The status of the other wives was very inferior to this; and it is
difficult to see how such persons were really in a position much
superior to that of the concubines. As daughters of the chief
nobles--for the king could only choose a wife within a narrow
circle--they had, of course, a rank and dignity independent of that
acquired by marriage; but otherwise they must have been almost on a par
with those fair inmates of the Gynaeceum who had no claim even to
the name of consort. Each wife had probably a suite of apartments to
herself, and a certain number of attendants--eunuchs, and tirewomen--at
her disposal; but the inferior