tattooed. The whole operation takes about four hours. It is often
said by the ignorant that people can get as good a hammam in London
or Paris as in the East. I have tried all, and they bear about as
much relation to one another as a puddle of dirty water does to a
pellucid lake. And the pellucid lake is in the East.

Then the harims. I often spent an evening in them, and I found them
very pleasant; only at first the women used to ask me such a lot of
inconvenient questions that I became quite confused. They were always
puzzled because I had no children. One cannot generalize on the subject
of harims; they differ in degree just as much as families in London. A
first-class harim at Constantinople is one thing, at Damascus one of the
same rank is another, while those of the middle and lower classes are
different still. As a rule I met with nothing but courtesy in the
harims, and much hospitality, cordiality, and refinement. I only
twice met with bad manners, and that was in a middle-class harim.
Twice only the conversation displeased me, and that was amongst the
lower class. One of the first harims I visited in Damascus was that
of the famous Abd el Kadir (of whom more anon), which of course was
one of the best class. He had five wives: one of them was very pretty.
I asked them how they could bear to live together and pet each other's
children. I told them that in England, if a woman thought her husband
had another wife or mistress, she would be ready to kill her and strangle
the children if they were not her own. They all laughed heartily at me,
and seemed to think it a great joke. I am afraid that Abd el Kadir was
a bit of a Tartar in his harim, for they were very prim and pious.

So much for the city of Damascus.

In the environs there were many beautiful little roads, leading through