of the Sultana, who was surrounded by two hundred other slave-girls, and
was playing with a tiny dwarf. They were singing and dancing all around
her and swinging censers. Above her head was a large fruit-tree made
entirely of sugar, and covered with sugar-fruit of every shape and hue,
and from time to time the Sultana would pluck off one of these fruits
and taste a little bit of it and give the remainder to the tiny dwarf,
who ate up everything greedily. Here Irene was seized by a black
eunuch--a horrid, pockmarked man, whose upper lip was split right down
so that all his teeth could be seen."

"Just like the present Kizlar-Aga!" cried Musli laughing, "I fancy I can
see him standing before me now!"

"The Moor commanded Irene to fall on her face before the Sultana. Irene
fell on her face accordingly, and while her forehead beat the ground
before the Sultana she muttered to herself the words: 'Holy Mother of
God! protectress of virgins, thou seest me in this place, when I call
upon thee, deliver me!' The Sultana, meanwhile, had commanded her
handmaidens to let down Irene's tresses, and as she stood before her
there covered by her own hair from head to heel, she bade them paint her
face red because it was so pale, and her eyelashes brown. She commanded
them also to salve her hair with fragrant unguents, and to hang chains
of real pearls about her arms and neck. Irene knew not the meaning of
these things. She knew not what they meant to do with her till the
Kizlar-Aga approached her, and said these words to her in a reassuring
tone: 'Rejoice, fortunate damsel! for a great felicity awaits thee. In a
week's time it will be the Feast of Bairam, and the favourite Sultana
has chosen thee from among the other odalisks as a gift for the
Padishah. Rejoice, therefore, I say.' But Irene at these words would
fain have died. And in the meantime the Sultana had placed a large fan