me,
where I was desired to repose, till the sultana appeared, who had
contrived this manner of reception, to avoid rising up at my
entrance, though she made me an inclination of her head, when I rose
up to her. I was very glad to observe a lady that had been
distinguished by the favour of an emperor, to whom beauties were,
every day, presented from all parts of the world. But she did not
seem to me, to have ever been half so beautiful as the fair Fatima I
saw at Adrianople; though she had the remains of a fine face, more
decayed by sorrow than time. But her dress was something so
surprisingly rich, that I cannot forbear describing it to you. She
wore a vest called _dualma_, which differs from a _caftan_ by longer
sleeves, and folding over at the bottom. It was of purple cloth,
strait to her shape, and thick set, on each side, down to her feet,
and round the sleeves, with pearls of the best water, of the same
size as their buttons commonly are. You must not suppose, that I
mean as large as those of my Lord ----, but about the bigness of a
pea; and to these buttons large loops of diamonds, in the form of
those gold loops, so common on birth-day coats. This habit was tied,
at the waist, with two large tassels of smaller pearls, and round the
arms embroidered with large diamonds. Her shift was fastened at the
bottom with a great diamond, shaped like a lozenge; her girdle as
broad as the broadest English ribband, entirely covered with
diamonds. Round her neck she wore three chains, which reached to her
knees; one of large pearl, at the bottom of which hung a fine
coloured emerald, as big as a turkey-egg; another, consisting of two
hundred emeralds, close joined together, of the most lively green,
perfectly matched, every one as large as a half-crown piece, and as
thick as three crown pieces, and another of small emeralds, perfectly
round. But her ear-rings eclipsed all the rest. They were two
diamonds, shaped exactly like pears, as large as a big hazle-nut
(sic). Round her _talpoche_ she had four strings of pearl--the
whitest and most perfect in the world, at least enough to make four
necklaces, every one as large as the duchess of Marlborough's, and of
the same shape, fastened with two roses, consisting of a large ruby
for the middle stone, and round them twenty drops of clean diamonds
to each. Besides this, her head-dress was covered with bodkins of
emeralds and diamonds. She wore large diamond bracelets, and