possess herself of. This lady, who was evidently an
authority in the harem, and who was more like
a good-looking young man than a woman, began,
with a determined rapid enunciation very
unusual in Eastern women, to talk to my friend:
the old lady, meanwhile, subsiding into silence
and tranquillity.

Like all the East, her talk consisted almost
entirely of a series of questions, while she leaned
forward with her elbows on her knees, scanning
us with her handsome insolent eyes in
a manner that was really disconcerting. I
thought, as I looked at her, here was another
to whom harem discipline could not always have
come easy!

At last, feeling that we were beginning to
have enough of this, and shrewdly conjecturing
that the bride must be having a deal too much
of it—once while we sat, one of the women
had arranged the pillows, the better to support
her: she merely bending forward a little, and
in no other way changing her position—we
made a move to go. But the resolute lady and
one or two others declared that we must
positively stay to dine, and would take no refusal.
Curious to see a Turkish dinner, we consented;
and, after sitting a little while longer, the meal
was announced, and we were taken back to the
first room. The bride seemed no more cognisant
of our departure than she had been of our
arrival or of our presence, though I have little
doubt she was heartily glad to get rid of us.
She was, I trust, soon released from her durance
vile.

On entering the room where we were to dine,
we were placed on chairs at the cotton-covered
table, and at the same time an immense tray was
brought in and laid on it. In the centre was
a huge turkey, dressed plain, though it looked
too sodden to be roasted, and around were ranged
little dishes of pickles, salt, sugar, and other
condiments. We had plates, and were, moreover,
favoured with knives and forks: respecting
the necessity of which my friend had overheard
a murmured conversation while we had been in
the bride's room. All the spoons were of
tortoiseshell or ivory, with rather flat bowls; and
we had each a large napkin, worked at the ends
with gold; and a small one more like an
embroidered pocket-handkerchief. There was also
Turkish bread: a sort of flat, soft, tough roll,
cut into morsels, but not separated. Having
taken our plates before us, a slave grasped the
wing-bone of the turkey, nicked the joint very
neatly with a knife, took off the wing, and then
with her fingers tearing off long strips of the
breast, put them on our plates. As we held
it wise to follow as far as might be at Rome the
customs of the Romans, we ate, and instantly
another dish took the turkey's place, and then
another, and then another, ad infinitum, with
the most extraordinary rapidity. What the
dishes were, or of what they consisted, it
was impossible to say; and no order was
observed as to the succession of meat and sweet
dishes, the one replacing the other apparently
at hazard. A tempting-looking white dish, we
were told, was made of chicken, but on tasting
it, it proved to be sweet and very sickly. It
appeared to be considered a peculiar delicacy,
and was composed of the white meat of chicken
cut up very small, brayed in a mortar, and then
mixed up with a variety of other ingredients,
sweetened and perfumed.

One or two dishes were rather good, but as,
from their number and rapid succession, we could
barely taste them (of some, indeed, we only took
morsels on our plates, which we pretended to
take for courtesy's sake), we carried away a
highly confused idea of the component parts of
the feast. At last, to our great relief, dessert,
and a huge glass bowl, not unlike a globe for
gold fish but more open at the top, were brought
in, and we were invited to drink. As neither
glass, nor cup, nor any other convenience for
drinking was supplied, we felt puzzled how
to accede to the invitation, until large ivory
and tortoiseshell spoons, or rather ladles, being
produced, we were instructed to dip these into
the bowl. This we did, and found the drink,
which was clear and almost colourless, a sweet
mawkish perfumed compound, in which were
floating small slices of banana, and little stoneless
raisins, or dried cherries. A very few sips
were enough. We wound up with some morsels
of apple, which the slave who chiefly served us
had peeled and cut into little bits.

So singular and embarrassing a repast I
never sat down to. The bold-eyed lady took
her place beside me, and, quietly removing my
bracelet—a chain with a diamond and enamelled
locket—she, after examining it, folded her
arms on the table and folded it in with them.
On the other side, the old lady who had so
distinguished herself in the dance and song,
kept helping herself with her fingers from all the
dishes; and as she had neither plate, spoon, nor
napkin, the proceedings were not pleasant to
witness. Only these two sat; but round the
table crowded innumerable standing women,
evidently curious to behold the spectacle of
Europeans at feeding-time.

All this while, my bracelet was in the hands
of my determined-looking neighbour; and how
it was to be got out of those hands was a question
my friend and I debated in brief sentences
while we ate. At last, seeing the locket peeping
out of the closed palm, I ventured, with the
most insinuating smile I could command, to
hold out my wrist, indicating the bracelet with
my eye, the while. But the lady was little
disposed to surrender her prize so easily. She
asked if there were hair in the locket? And on
being answered in the negative, she calmly
expressed a wish to have a lock of mine to put in
it and keep for a keepsake and tender
souvenir! What excuse my friend gave for not
acceding to this sentimental request I hardly
know, but the result was that, with a very ill
grace, the lady restored the bracelet, and, a
moment afterwards, got up and walked off in
extreme dudgeon.

Just as we were deliberating how to take our
departure in a proper manner, a eunuch came to