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

ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE. 347
residence handsomely furnished, he felt no further
anxiety on the subject, save to testify his sense of
the honour bestowed upon him by rendering the
marriage-gifts to be presented to his bride on the
day when she entered his hareem as magnificent
as possible.
The seclusion in which the Turkish and Egyp-
tian women live, confined in the hareem, wholly
apart from the male part of the community, and
never quitting it to take the air, unless they are
so muffled up as to render it impossible for them
to be recognized even by their husbands and
fathers, does not, however, preclude the possibi-
lity of some knowledge of their personal appear-
ance being obtained by those interested in ascer-
taining whether the exterior of their future wives
is attractive, or the reverse, and who have no
opportunity of judging for themselves, until the
marriage ceremony has been performed, and that
it is too late to retract, even although 1)itter dis-
ai)pointment should follow the critical moment of
unveiling their bride's face for the first time. In
Cairo, as well as in Constantinople, certain old
Jewish and Armenian women, whose trade it is to
purchase the cast-off finery of the great hareems*
are privileged to see and converse with the beau-
ties immured therein ; and in the most decorous