Though thus tattooed, in the Asiatic fashion, Baïla was none the less beautiful. Her costume consisted simply of a velvet caftan, muslin pantaloons, embroidered with silver, and a cashmere girdle; but all the knicknackeries of Oriental luxuriousness were displayed in her toilet. The double row of sequins which swung on her head, the large golden bracelets which covered her arms and graced her ankles, the chains, the precious stones which shone on her hands and her corsage, and which shook on the extremities of her long flowing hair and glittered on her very pipe stem, graced in a singular manner her youthful charms.
The better to understand what kind of astonished admiration her appearance might at this time produce, we should add that of the old black slave, who, from her age as well as color, her short, thick figure, her dull and heavy look, formed so striking a contrast with the fresh beauty of Baïla, her fine and supple figure and her glance, still lively and penetrating, notwithstanding the deep thought which then half veiled it.
The better to lighten up this picture we must suspend over the heads of these two females, so dissimilar, the beautiful blue sky of Asia, and describe some incidents of the land, some singularities of the local vegetation which surrounded them.
Some paces in advance of the plantain against which Baïla was reclining, was a small circular basin of Cipolin marble, from which sprang a jet, in the form of a sheaf, causing a delicious freshness to reign around. A little farther on were two palm trees, which, springing up on either hand and mingling their tops, presented the appearance of two columns, forming an arcade of verdure. But before this entrance, judging from appearances, the shadow even of a man should never appear. Baïla belonged to a jealous master; her beauty, heightened by so much art and coquetry, was to grow, blossom and flower for him alone.
From the foot of the palm trees parted a double hedge of purple beeches, of silvery willows, of nopals of strange forms with saffron tints, and of various shrubs with their many colored flowers and fruits. The dog-shades, with their stars of violet colored velvet, the night-shades, with their scarlet clusters involved amidst the mimosas, out of which sprang the golden features of the cassia. Mingling their branches with the lower branches of the plantain, the mangroves hung like garlands above the head of Baïla, their large leaves hollowed into cups, and so strangely bordered with flowers and fruits of orange color mixed with crimson.
Farther back, behind the plantain, on a reddish, sandy spot, grew large numbers of the ice plant, presenting to the deceived vision the appearance of plants caught by the frost during the winter in our northern climes, and the glass work covered the ground with crystalized plates.
The picture was soon to become animated.
The magnificent eastern sun, sinking toward the horizon and throwing his last flames beneath the verdant pediment of the palm trees, caused the earth to sparkle as if covered with diamonds. His rays, broken by the glittering sheaf in the basin, spread across those masses of flower and foliage, rainbows, superb in golden and violet tints; they flashed from the plantain to the variegated cups of the mangrove, and lighted up the whole form of Baïla, from her brow, crowned with sequins, to her spangled slippers; they even mingled with the smoke of her narghila, and with the vapor of the Mocha, which arose like a perfume from the porcelain cup, and glistening on the skin of the tiger on which she was seated, appeared to roll about in small vague circles.
When the night breeze, rising, gently agitated the flowers and the herbage, mingling in soft harmony all those zones of light and shade, was it not a subject of regret that a human eye could not gaze upon the beautiful odalisk, in the midst of those magical illusions, shining in the triple splendor of her jewels, her youth, and her beauty?
And, yet, a man was to enjoy this bewitching scene, and that man not her master.