he clapped his hands, and immediately a negro page appeared, dressed
in scarlet or in white, and, learning his pleasure, returned in a few
moments, and bowing presented him with a fresh and illumined chibouque.
At intervals, these attendants appeared without a summons, and offered
cups of Mocha coffee or vases of sherbet.

The lord of this divan, who was seated at the upper end of the room,
reclining on embroidered cushions of various colours, and using a
nargileh of fine workmanship, was a man much above the common height,
being at least six feet two without his red cap of Fez, though so well
proportioned, that you would not at the first glance give him credit for
such a stature. He was extremely handsome, retaining ample remains of
one of those countenances of blended regularity and lustre which are
found only in the cradle of the human race. Though he was fifty years
of age, time had scarcely brought a wrinkle to his still brilliant
complexion, while his large, soft, dark eyes, his arched brow, his
well-proportioned nose, his small mouth and oval cheek presented
altogether one of those faces which, in spite of long centuries of
physical suffering and moral degradation, still haunt the cities of Asia
Minor, the isles of Greece, and the Syrian coasts. It is the archetype
of manly beauty, the tradition of those races who have wandered the
least from Paradise; and who, notwithstanding many vicissitudes and
much misery, are still acted upon by the same elemental agencies as
influenced the Patriarchs; are warmed by the same sun, freshened by the
same air, and nourished by the same earth as cheered and invigorated
and sustained the earlier generations. The costume of the East certainly
does not exaggerate the fatal progress of time; if a figure becomes too
portly, the flowing robe conceals the incumbrance which is aggravated
by a western dress; he, too, who wears a turban has little dread of grey
hairs; a grizzly beard indeed has few charms, but whether it were the
lenity of time or the skill of his barber in those arts in which Asia
is as experienced as Europe, the beard of the master of the divan became
the rest of his appearance, and flowed to his waist in rich dark curls,
lending additional dignity to a countenance of which the expression was
at the same time grand and benignant.

Upon the right of the master of the divan was, smoking a jasmine pipe,
Scheriff Effendi, an Egyptian merchant, of Arab race, a dark face in