presence, but so
far as to admit us into in apartment adjoining it, where the women would
be summoned to attend us.

Accordingly, we passed through a long suite of rooms, and at last found
ourselves in a chamber lofty and large, fanned by a breeze from the
Bosphorus, over which its lattices were suspended, skirted by a low
divan, covered with carpets and cushions, and "invested with purpureal
gleams" by the splendid hangings through which the light feebly strove.
Among a confused heap of crimson pillows and orange drapery, at the
remote end of the apartment, sat, or rather reclined, the mother of our
reluctant host. I could observe only that she was aged, and lay there as
still as if she had belonged to the vegetable, not the human world.
Usually she was half-vailed by the smoke of her long pipe; but when its
wreaths chanced to float aside or grow thin, her dark eyes were fixed
upon us with an expression half indifferent and half averse.

Presently a murmur of light feet was heard in an adjoining chamber: on
it moved along the floor of the gallery; and in trooped the company of
wives and female slaves. They laughed softly and musically as they
entered, but seemed frightened also; and at once raising their shawls
and drawing down their vails, they glided simultaneously into a
semicircle, and stood there with hands folded on their breasts. I sat
opposite to them, drinking coffee and smoking, or pretending to smoke a
pipe eight feet long: at one side stood the Mollah and some male members
of the household: at the other stood the handsome husband, apparently
but little contented with the course matters had taken; and my friend,
the magician, moved about among the implements of his art clad in a
black gown spangled with flame-colored devices, strange enough to strike
a bold heart with awe. Beyond the semicircle stood two children, a boy
and a girl, holding in their hands twisted rods of barley-sugar about a
yard long each, which they sucked assiduously the whole time of our
visit. There they stood, mute and still as statues, with dark eyes
fixed, now on us, and now on the extremity of their sugar wands.

My companion commenced operations by displaying a number of conjuring
tricks intended to impress all present with the loftiest opinion of his
powers, and stopped every now and then to make his dragoman explain that
it would prove in vain to endeavor to deceive a being endowed with such
gifts. To these expositions the wome