bands clasped round the ankles. The eldest
lady wore a pale green robe of a fine but very light silken-seeming
fabric. Three younger ones wore a similar material of pink, with
silver head-dresses and veils hiding everything but the eyes. All
these had sleeves reaching to the wrist, ending in gloves of the same
fabric. Two young girls were robed in white gauze, with gauze veils
attached over either ear to a very slight silver coronal; their arms
bare till the sleeve of the under-robe appeared, a couple of inches
below the shoulder; their bright soft faces and their long hair (which
fell freely down the back, kept in graceful order here and there by
almost invisible silver clasps or bands) were totally uncovered. "A
maiden," says the Martialist, "may make the most of her charms; a
wife's beauty is her lord's exclusive right." One of the girls, my
host's daughters, might almost have veiled her entire form above the
knees in the masses of rich soft brown hair inherited from her father,
but mingled with tresses of another tinge, shimmering like gold under
certain lights. Her eyes, of deepest violet, were shaded by dark thick
lashes, so long that when the lids were closed they traced a clear
black curve on either cheek. The other maiden had, like their mother,
and, I believe, like the younger matrons, the bright hair--flaxen in
early childhood, pale gold in maturer years--and the blue or grey eyes
characteristic of the race. My host spoke two or three words to the
chief of the party, indicating me by a graceful and courteous wave of
the hand, upon which the person addressed slightly bent her head,
laying her hand at the same time upon her heart. The others
acknowledged the introduction by a similar but slighter inclination,
and all resumed their places as soon as my host, seating himself
between us, signed to me to occupy some pillows which one of the young
ladies arranged on his left hand, I had observed by this time that the
left hand was used by preference, as we use the right, for all
purposes, and therefore was naturally extended in courtesy; and the
left side was, for similar reasons, the place of honour.

Three or four children were playing in another part of the court. All,
with one exception, were remarkably beautiful and healthy-looking,
certainly not less graceful in form and movement than the happiest and
prettiest in our own world. Their tones were soft and gentle, and
their bearing towards each other notably ki