whose occupation through eternity is only to comtribute to her amusement.

Mahomet, knowing the influence of women over men, exhorted his followers not to marry unconverted polytheists; but he provided for the connubial happiness of the female believers, by impressing on the husband the sanctity of the conjugal embrace, and the sin of neglecting it. They are strictly prohibited from forming alliances with idolaters. The faithful may marry Jewish or Christian women, and their children must be Mussulmans; but the female believer is forbidden to unite herself with an infidel.

Smoking is an universal custom in the Turkish harem; but Lady Mary Wortley Montagu prudently excludes so disgusting a particular from her portrait of the Turkish ladies. We cannot assert from experience that the most offensive consequence of this custom is corrected by the chewing of mastic, which, it is supposed, whitens and preserves the teeth, and, by stimulating the salival glands, assists digestion. Coffee and confections, which in Turkey are delicious, are taken as elegant and necessary refreshments, and are always presented to visitors. Sherbet and perfumes are more ceremoniously introduced, as denoting greater respect.

The more elegant occupations of the harem are working in embroidery, and superintending the

education of young ladies, who are taught to express themselves with the greatest purity and correctness of language, to read, and to write a neat and legible hand. These qualifications are indispensable to the education of a lady of fashion; and singing, dancing, and music, are also considered as polite accomplishments. Whether their dances be of the same character as those of the professed actresses, we cannot pretend to determine: they certainly are not all so, and we should think they rather resemble the ramaika, or choral dances of the Greek women.

Such are the studies and qualifications of young ladies of the superior ranks, whose leisure and fortune enable them to acquire those elegant arts which constitute the distinguishing characteristics of polished society, or render them delightful companions in retirement. They are also most carefully instructed in the decorum of manners, and every thing belonging to the dignity of their rank in life, as well as in those arts which add poignancy to their personal attractions. The amiable character of their sex is not perverted by their institutions; and if their soft and voluptuous caresses excite desire, the flame is cherished and refined by their native delicacy, their gentleness, their modesty, and engaging sensibility. They are endeared to their husbands by the exercise of all the conjugal and parental duties, and the charm

which they diffuse over every circumstance and change of life.

In the early state of Turkish society, while the men were employed in the labors of the field or the exercise of the chace, the women were devoted exclusively to domestic occupations. The same habits of separation continued when their modes of life, in other respects, were changed; and the precepts of their new religion defined with rigor the duties to be observed by either sex. But the precautions used in Turkey to conceal the women from the public view, whether the custom origi nated with themselves, or was adopted from other nations, are less to be attributed to jealousy and suspicion than to respect for the persons, and reverence for the modesty, of women; and they are perhaps to be considered as an homage to female beauty, which the Turks think that no man can behold with physical indifference, or with mental purity. In their houses the women are screened from intrusive curiosity; and their dress, when abroad, without any pretensions to elegance, muffles their bodies, and seems purposely designed for concealment. The thin covering of muslin, which veils only a part of their faces, leaves them, however, perfectly free to observe the persons of the men. If jealousy dictated such a disguse, it could not more effectually have defeated its own purposes for the spirit of intrigue could scarcely

suggest a more happy expedient to elude vigilance, and to deceive, without alarming, suspicion. The means of preventing indiscretion, by watching over the conduct of the women, must necessarily be limited to the idle or the rich; so that if there be equal virtue in Turkey as in Christendom, there is at least equal merit.

In a general survey of the Turkish empire, there are, perhaps, as few unmarried persons of either sex as in other countries; so that the seclusion of women does not appear to operate as an impediment to matrimony: for, though ambitious men defer their domestic establishments till they have advanced or secured their fortunes, yet the husbandman, the artisan, and the tradesman, generally contract marriage as a preliminary to their settling themselves in business. Indeed it would not be allowed to an unmarried man, or, which is considered as the same thing, to a person who has no woman in his family, to keep a house and an independent establishment in Constantinople.The evil then extends no further than to restrain girls from general conversation, and to confine the attention of wives to their conjugal duties. It cannot by any means be complained of as a hardship upon the women, or as a favor to the other

sex.

"The morality of Turkish women,” says Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, "is as with us, and

they do not commit one crime the less for not being Christians." But intrigues, except among the indigent, who are not overlooked by servants or duennas, are attended with obstacles not easily surmounted. Some authors mention the bath as a rendezvous of lovers: but we do not hesitate to assert, that no assignation was ever made at a public bath. Others mention Jewessess and Armenian women as the conductors of intrigues; and they allege, that correspondence is carried on between the lovers by means of the flowers of a noségay. Such means are indeed possible, and so are a thousand others, which have been, and no doubt are, daily resorted to in Constantinople, as well as in every populous and luxurious capital.

If a Christian be detected in a criminal intercourse with a Turkish woman, he is obliged not only to marry her, but to espouse her religion, otherwise he is irremissibly condemned to death. The only intrigue with a foreigner that we recollect, and which is recorded on undoubted authority, and with circumstances analagous to Turkish customs, was with an English officer, employed in the Turkish service at Ruschiuk, on the Danube, during the last Russian war; and nothing could be more simple than its contrivance. The lady, who knew no language but the Turkish, came to the house of the officer, whose knowledge of the language did not facilitate communication