s
the privileges of the _haram_, (or womens apartment) which remains
unsearched and entire to the widow. They are queens of their slaves,
whom the husband has no permission so much as to look upon, except it
be an old woman or two that his lady chuses. 'Tis true, their law
permits them four wives; but there is no instance of a man of quality
that makes use of this liberty, or of a woman of rank that would
suffer it. When a husband happens to be inconstant, (as those things
will happen) he keeps his mistress in a house apart, and visits her
as privately as he can, just as it is with you. Amongst all the
great men here, I only know the _testerdar_, (i.e. a treasurer) that
keeps a number of she slaves, for his own use, (that is, on his own
side of the house; for a slave once given to serve a lady, is
entirely at her disposal) and he is spoke of as a libertine, or what
we should call a rake, and his wife won't see him, though she
continues to live in his house. Thus you see, dear sister, the
manners of mankind do not differ so Widely, as our voyage-writers
would make us believe. Perhaps, it would be more entertaining to add
a few surprising customs of my own invention; but nothing seems to me
so agreeable as truth, and I believe nothing so acceptable to you. I
conclude therefore with repeating the great truth of my being,
Dear sister, &c.

LET. XXX.

TO MR POPE.

_Adrianople, April_ 1. O. S. 1717.

I DARE say you expect, at least, something very new in this letter,
after I have gone a journey, not undertaken by any Christian for some
hundred years. The most remarkable accident that happened to me, was
my being very near overturned into the Hebrus; and, if I had much
regard for the glories that one's name enjoys after death, I should
certainly be sorry for having missed the romantic conclusion of
swimming down the same river in which the musical head of Orpheus
repeated verses so many ages since:

"_Caput a cervice revulsum,
"Gurgite cum medio, portans Oeagrius Hebrus,
"Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa, et frigida lingua,
"Ah! miseram Eurydicen! anima fugiente vocabat,
"Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae_"

Who knows but some of your bright wits might have found it a subject
affording many poetical turns, and have told the world, in an heroic
elegy, that,

_As equal were our souls, so equal