The ladies’ garden resembles a churchyard.  Funeral monuments peer forth at intervals between the cypresses, beneath which the visitors sit talking and joking cheerfully.  Every now and then one would suddenly start up, spread a carpet beside her companions, and kneel down to perform her devotions.

As no one of the male sex was allowed to be present, all were unveiled.  I noticed many pretty faces among them, but not a single instance of rare or striking beauty.  Fancy large brilliant eyes, pale cheeks, broad faces, and an occasional tendency to corpulence, and you have the ladies’ portrait.  Small-pox must still be rather prevalent in these parts, for I saw marks of it on many faces.

The Turkish ladies’ costume is not very tasteful.  When they go abroad, they are completely swathed in an upper garment, generally made of dark merino.  In the harem, or in any place where men are not admitted, they doff this garment, and also the white cloth in which they wrap their heads and faces.  Their costume consists, properly speaking, of very wide trousers drawn together below the ancle, a petticoat with large wide sleeves, and a broad sash round the waist.  Over this sash some wear a caftan, others only a spencer, generally of silk.  On their feet they wear delicate boots, and over these slippers of yellow morocco; on their heads a small fez-cap, from beneath which their hair falls on their shoulders in a number of thin plaits.  Those Turks, male and female, who are descended from Mahomet, have either a green caftan or a green turban.  This colour is here held so sacred, that scarcely any one may wear it.  I would even advise the Franks to avoid green in their dresses, as they may expose themselves to annoyance by using it.

After I had had more than an hour’s leisure to notice all these circumstances, a noise suddenly arose in the courtyard, which produced a stir among the women.  I considered from these appearances that it was time to go to the temple, and hastened to join my party.  A great crowd was waiting in the courtyard, for the Sultan was expected.  I was glad to have the good fortune to behold him on the very day of my arrival.  As a stranger, I was allowed, without opposition, a place in the front ranks,—­a trait of good breeding on the part of the Turks which many a Frank would do well to imitate.  In a Turk, moreover, this politeness is doubly praiseworthy, from the fact that he looks upon my poor sex with great disrespect; indeed, according to his creed, we have not even a soul.

I had only stood a few moments, when the Sultan appeared on horseback, surrounded by his train.  He alone rode into the courtyard; the others all dismounted at the gate, and entered on foot.  The horse on which the Sultan rode was of rare beauty, and, as they told me, of the true Arabian breed; the saddle-cloth was richly embroidered with gold, and the stirrups, of the same precious metal, were in the form of shoes, covered with the finest chased work.