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

348 ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE.
houses in Cairo, from the Viceroy's establishment
do^vnward, the Gliawazees are permitted to ex-
hibit their talents in the hareem whenever a Fan-
tasia (the Arab designation for an entertainment)
is given. Both of these classes of women are
accessible to the single men of the place, and are
never loth to communicate to them all they are
•curious to ascertain about the fair prisoners.
Selim Bey had contrived to learn through one or
other of those sources that his intended wife was
beautiful in face and form, young, gentle, and ac-
complished,—that she wrote like an EfTendi, sung
like an Alme, and danced—not like a Ghawazee
—but in the more graceful and less immodest
fashion of Stamboul, where she had been edu-
cated. This was more than enough to inflame
the imaginatioD of the young man, and he be-
came enamoured of the image described to him,
and sighed for the moment that was to render
him the possessor of such a treasure.
At last it arrived. The lengthened preliminary
ceremonies of Egyptian marriages, which gene-
rally consume several days, commenced and ap-
peared eternal to the impatient bridegroom. The
day of the bath, when the bride, accompanied by
all her female friends, made her ablutions ; the
day of the henna, when her hands were dyed, and