teller.

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