e his horses; but he dwells and he
sleeps, according to the season, in one or other of the saloons. The
good fellow understood that if long habit had not rendered the
inconveniences of the harem tolerable to himself, it would be still
worse for me, freshly disembarked from that land of enchantments and
refinements which men here call 'Franguistan.' So at the outset he
informed me that he would not relegate me to that region of obscurity
and confusion, smoke and infection, named the harem, but would give up
to me his own apartment. I accepted it with gratitude. As for himself,
he took up his abode in the summer-saloon. Though it was the end of
January, and snow was deep on the ground, both in town and country, he
preferred his frozen fountain, his damp pavement and draughts of air, to
the hot, but unwholesome, atmosphere of the harem.

"Perhaps I destroy a few illusions, in speaking of the harem with so
little respect. We have all read of it in 'The Thousand and One Nights,'
and other Oriental stories; we have been told that it is the
dwelling-place of Love and Beauty; we are authorized to believe that the
written descriptions, though exaggerated and embellished, are
nevertheless founded upon reality, and that in this mysterious retreat
are to be found all the marvels of luxury, art, magnificence and
pleasure. How far from the truth! Picture to yourself walls black and
full of chinks, wooden ceilings, split in many places and dark with dust
and spiders' webs, sofas torn and greasy, door-hangings in tatters,
traces of oil and candle-grease everywhere. When for the first time I
set foot in one of these supposed charming nooks, I was shocked; but the
mistresses of the house detected nothing. Their persons are in harmony
with the surroundings. Mirrors being very rare, the women bedizen
themselves with tinsel, the bizarre effect of which they have no means
of appreciating.

"They stick a number of diamond pins and other precious stones in the
handkerchiefs of printed cotton which they twist around their head. To
their hair they pay no attention, and none but the great ladies who have
resided in the capital have any combs. As for the many-coloured ointment
which they use so immoderately, they can regulate its application only
by consulting one another, and as the women occupying the same house are
all rivals, they willingly encourage one another in the most grotesque
daubs of colouring. They put vermilion on the lips, rouge o