But Devlehäi Hanoum left every individual of the Imperial Seraï of Ortakeuÿ immeasurably behind her. And as she welcomed us without rising from her sofa, I felt, woman though I was, as though I could have knelt in homage to such surpassing loveliness!
The sofa on which she was seated, occupied the deep bay of a window overlooking the Bosphorus, at the upper end of a saloon which terminated in a flight of steps leading upwards to a second apartment, that, in its turn, afforded similar access to a third: and this long perspective was bounded by the distant view of a vine-o’ercanopied kiosk, beneath which a fine fountain of white marble was flinging its cool waters on the air, from the midst of clustering vases, filled with rare and beautiful flowering plants.
Groups of slaves were standing about the sofa; and gilded cages, filled with birds, were arranged in its immediate vicinity. I was much amused by a superb parrot, evidently the favourite of the harem, which had become so imbued with its high-bred tranquillity, as to speak almost in a whisper: and which kept up a perpetual murmur of such phrases as the following: “My heart!—My life!—My Sultan, the light of my eyes!—Am I pretty?—Do you love to look upon me?” and similar sentimentalities.
Devlehäi Hanoum was dressed in an antery of white silk, embroidered all over with groups of flowers in pale green; her salva, or trowsers, were of satin of the Stuart tartan, and her jacket light blue; the gauze that composed her chemisette was almost impalpable, and the cachemire about her waist was of a rich crimson. Her hair, of which several tresses had been allowed to escape from beneath the embroidered handkerchief, was as black as the plumage of a raven; and her complexion was a clear, transparent brown. But the great charm of the beautiful Georgian was her figure. I never beheld any thing more lovely; to the smoothly-moulded graces of eighteen she joined the majesty and stateliness of middle life; and you forgot as you looked upon her, that she had ever been bought at a price, to remember only that she was the wife of one of the great officers of the Empire.
Nothing could exceed the courtesy of her welcome, except, perhaps, its gracefulness; and the charming smile with which she told me how anxious were the Buyuk Hanoum, herself, and Conjefèm Hanoum, to testify by every means in their power, the delight they felt in having me for a guest. For a moment I was bewildered; I had made no inquiries relatively to the domestic economy of the harem previous to my visit, and had imagined that, as a matter of course, the lovely Georgian had become Buyuk Hanoum by the death of the children’s mother. But this was far from being the case; the Pasha having married in early life a Constantinopolitan lady of high family, who had retained her supremacy in the harem, although the affections of the Reiss Effendi had been transferred to the parent of his sons. The fair Georgian proving also childless, the fortunate mother had never forfeited her hold upon his heart, and had continued until the hour of her death to be the first object of his favour. But my astonishment did not end even here; for, when all this had been explained to me, another question yet remained to be answered:—Who was Conjefèm Hanoum?
Conjefèm Hanoum, who was in the bath when we arrived, was a beautiful young Circassian, who had been purchased twelve months previously by the Minister, in the excess of his disappointment that the Georgian did not make him a father; and whom, in the first rush of his delight on discovering that she was likely to become a mother, he had also married. Unfortunately for her, the child died in the hour of its birth, and once more the anxious husband found himself disappointed in his hopes.
These domestic details, which were given with a sang froid and composure evincing how little the heart of Devlehäi Hanoum was interested in the recital, were succeeded by coffee, which was served with great ceremony by about a dozen slaves; the salver being overlaid with gold tissue, as on occasions of state. A stroll in the garden followed, where we wandered up and down the shady walks, among the flowers and fountains; and where we encountered the three sons of the Minister.
Emin Bey, the elder of the brothers, was barely eleven years of age; and had I not seen him, I should never have been able to picture to myself any thing at all like the object on which I then looked. So extraordinary and unwieldy a being as this unhappy boy I never before met with: and I am moderate in declaring that he must have measured at least two yards round the body. His jacket of Broussa silk striped with gold, lay in large folds about his shoulders and waist; his head appeared to have been attached to his chest without the intervention of a throat; his hands, his feet, all were proportionably bulky; and when I looked at the unfortunate child, I could not help thinking how much he was to be pitied, despite the rank and riches which surrounded him. The younger boys were fine, noble-looking youths, without the slightest tendency to corpulency; but Emin Bey is the favourite of the Minister, who gratifies his every whim; and from the extreme amiability of his disposition, he is generally popular in the harem.
The sons of Turkish families always inhabit the women’s apartments until they marry; when, however young they may be, they are immediately shut out; but, by an extraordinary and apparently inexplicable arrangement, they are not permitted, as soon as they have ceased to be children, to intrude themselves on the Buyuk Hanoum without her express permission, although they have free access to every other apartment in the harem. Thus Emin Bey, unless summoned by her express desire, could not visit the elder wife of his father, a venerable old person of at least seventy years of age, although he was constantly in the society of the two younger and lovelier ladies; while the other boys, yet mere children, came and went as they listed, unchidden and almost unnoticed.
As soon as the Buyuk Hanoum had left the bath, we were invited to her apartment; and as I looked from the withered and feeble woman who lay stretched on the sofa before me, propped with cushions, glittering with diamonds, and busied with her chibouk, to the stately and gorgeous Georgian in all the glow of her proud youth, I had difficulty in believing that they could indeed be the wives of one man!