Then it is that the odalisks of one harem go forth to call
upon the odalisks of another. Rows upon rows of brightly variegated
tents appear in the midst of the streets and market-places, in which
sherbet and other beverages made of violets, cane-sugar, rose-water,
pressed raisins, and citron juice, together with sweetmeats,
honey-cakes, and such-like delicacies, to which women are so partial,
are sold openly, and all the sellers are also women.
Ah! what a spectacle that would be for the eyes of a man! Every street
is swarming with thousands and thousands of bewitching shapes. These
women, released from their prisons, are like so many gay and thoughtless
children. Group after group, singing to the notes of the cithern,
saunter along the public ways, decked out in gorgeous butterfly apparel,
which flutter around their limbs like gaily coloured wings. The suns and
stars of every climate flash and sparkle in those eyes. The whole
gigantic city resounds with merry songs and musical chatter, and any man
who could have seen them tripping along in whole lines might have
exclaimed in despair: "Why have I not a hundred, why have I not a
thousand hearts to give away!"
And then when the harem of the Sultan proudly paces forth! Half a
thousand odalisks, the lovelinesses of every province in the Empire, for
whom the youths of whole districts have raved in vain, in garments
radiant with pearls and precious stones, mounted on splendid prancing
steeds gaily caparisoned.
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