o attend the
ceremony.

When the night closed in, the old woman called upon me, with a
countenance full of joy, and said, "Dear lady, the relations of my
son-in-law, who are the principal ladies of the city, are now met
together. You may come when you please; I am ready to conduct you."

We immediately set out; she walked before me, and I was followed by a
number of my women and slaves, richly robed for the occasion. We
stopped in a wide street, newly swept and watered, at a spacious gate
with a lamp, by the light of which I read this inscription, in golden
letters, over the entrance: "This is the continual abode of pleasure
and joy."

The old woman knocked, and the gate was opened immediately.

I was conducted toward the lower end of the court, into a large hall,
where I was received by a young lady of exceeding beauty. She drew
near, and after having embraced me, made me sit down by her upon a
sofa, on which was raised a throne of precious wood set with diamonds.

"Madam," said she, "you are brought hither to assist at a wedding; but
I hope it will be a different wedding from what you expected. I have a
brother, one of the handsomest men in the world. His fate depends
wholly upon you, and he will be the unhappiest of men if you do not
take pity on him. If my prayers, madam, can prevail, I shall join them
with his, and humbly beg you will not refuse the proposal of being his
wife."

After the death of my husband I had not thought of marrying again; but
I had no power to refuse the solicitation of so charming a lady. As
soon as I had given consent by my silence, accompanied with a blush,
the young lady clapped her hands, and immediately a curtain was
withdrawn, from behind which came a young man of so majestic an air,
and so graceful a countenance, that I thought myself happy to have
made such a choice. He sat down by me, and I found from his
conversation that his merits far exceeded the account of him given by
his sister.

When she perceived that we were satisfied with one another, she
clapped her hands a second time, and a cadi[35] with four witnesses,
entered, who wrote and signed our contract of marriage.

[Footnote 35: Marriage among the Mohammedans is an exclusively civil
ceremony; and therefore the cadi, a civil judge, and not an imaun, or
minister of religion, was summoned.]

There was only one condition that my new husband imposed upon me, that
I should not be seen by nor speak to any other man but