A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

THE HAREEM. 325
hemet, the East India Company's Agent, and
their several children ; the wife of his second
son, Ali Seid, who has no family ; and the wife
of Mehemet Husseyn's eldest son, a youth of
eighteen, and their child ; and, strange to say,
the old great-grandfather, Seid* Hnsseyn, who is
seventy>^five, has the youngest and prettiest wife
of them all
!
I arrived there at noon and Avas received at the
entrance of the house by Seid Husseyn himself;
who lifted me from my donkey, kissed me on both
cheeks, and consigned me to the care of his chief
eunuch, by whom I was handed across the court
to the back part of the building and up stairs to
the hareem. At the foot of the last flight of
stairs I was met by the Kadun, or chief lady
of the hareem, Seid Husseyn's young Circassian
wife, and was introduced by her into the inner-
most apartment, and placed in the corner of cere-
mony of the low sofa that runs round two sides
of the room. This young woman has pretty
features and a sweet countenance, but her face
falls very short of English ideas of Circassian
beauty ; and her figure is already out of all man-
* Seid is not a name but a title, (signifying in Arabic,
Lord) which is adopted by every Shereef, or descendant of tlie
Prophet.