The reception-room was in a different style: sombre, magnificent, and almost cloistral in its decorations; heavy with gilding, and gloomy with cornices; while the sleeping chamber, hung with crimson and blue satin, and scattered over with perfumes and objects of taste, had an air of comfort and inhabitation almost English.
But the most elegant suite of rooms was that appropriated to the Sultan. A saloon whose thirty windows were hung with purple velvet fringed with gold; whose sofa cushions were formed of glittering tissue; and whose walls were rich with plate-glass and gilding; whose floor was crowded with objects of vertù, and whose every table was scattered over with gems, opened into the Imperial sleeping-room, whose European bed, hung with flowered muslin, and decorated with knots of coloured ribbon, contrasted cheerfully with the heavy magnificence of the saloon and its elaborate draperies; while the mangal of wrought silver, richly gilt, and the collection of jewelled toys which filled the two recesses at the end of the apartment, brought back the imagination to the gorgeous East.
Incense-burners of gold, studded with precious stones; ring-trays wreathed with rubies; a miniature of the Sultan himself in a frame thickly set with diamonds, and resting upon a cushion of white satin; a toilette of fillagreed silver; a chocolate cup of enamel studded with pearls: and a gilt salver, covered with watches of all sizes and shapes, were part of the tempting array. But I was more delighted by a Koràn, and a manuscript collection of prayers, written by the Sultan, and splendidly illuminated. Both were bound in gold, with the Imperial cipher wrought upon each corner in brilliants, while a border was formed round the outer edges of the volumes, of passages from the holy writings, indifferent coloured jewels.
The private withdrawing-room was not remarkable in any respect, if, indeed, I except the circumstance of its sofa and curtains being trimmed with fluted gauze ribbon, which, to an European eye, produced a most extraordinary effect. But, upon the whole, I saw less inconsistency and bad taste exhibited in the arrangements of the numerous apartments that I traversed, than I had prepared myself to expect.
While we were making our tour of the palace, orders had been given by the Princess that the dancing girls should prepare themselves to exhibit their skill for our amusement; but, unfortunately, in the excess of her graciousness, she had resolved on treating us with a view of their new dresses and their new dances, both intended to be European; and assuredly such costumes were never before imagined. I will give the description of one—it will suffice to afford an idea of the whole. A dress of blue muslin, elaborately ornamented with bows of pink and scarlet ribbon, was drawn round the throat with a cord of green silk, which hung down the back and terminated in two heavy tassels; the petticoat was long and scanty, and was trimmed with two narrow flounces, edged with white satin; black leather shoes of the coarsest description, gloveless hands, a sash of pink and silver that swept the floor; a necklace of pearl; and a head-dress at least a yard across, where a mass of false hair was smothered in flowers enough to decorate a supper table, and carefully selected of all the colours of the rainbow, completed the costume; and I need not expatiate on its effect. But the admiration which it excited in the harem was immense; and the really beautiful girl who was the fortunate wearer of the motley garb appeared to consider herself raised above mortality, as she listened to the comments of the throng by whom she was surrounded.
The male dresses were in perfect keeping with that which I have endeavoured to describe; and the whole had found such favour in the eyes of the Sultana, that she only tolerated the Turkish costume on ordinary occasions.
As the day was waning to a close, and the distance to Pera was considerable, I was reluctantly obliged to decline the honour of dining in the palace, and awaiting until evening the appearance of the Princess, whose continued indisposition still confined her to her apartment; and accordingly, despite the remonstrances of our kind and courteous entertainers, I took my leave of the fair favourite and her talented friend; bearing with me an invitation from Her Imperial Highness to repeat my visit at no distant period, when she might be able to receive and converse with me; and I then returned to Pera with an aching head and dazzled eyes.
I subjoin the little ballad of Peroussè Hanoum, which I have rendered almost literally into English verse. I could have wished that it had been somewhat more Oriental in its character, but its quaintness is at least sufficiently characteristic.
BALLAD.