466

THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

gold and muslin tissue, twisted with gold beads and fastened in place with jeweled pins. She had four children, the youngest a pretty little girl about two years old. Among the Moors girl children are not much valued, but as her three elder children were fine boys, the little girl seemed a pet of both father and mother.

The boys were dressed in long robes of embroidered muslin over colored silks, with sashes of silk about their waists. They told me with a great deal of pride that the material of their dress was French. They looked not unlike altar boys in a Catho­lic Church. At their side, hung by silver chains, were antique wrought silver boxes, supposed to carry prayers or bits of the Koran, but the boys had nothing as yet in theirs. They were admirably behaved children, neither shy nor forward, trying to talk to us and make us understand the use of the different parts of their dress. They wore a red fez with a long blue tassel on their heads, and plain red or yellow babouches. When we came in, my two companions, younger women than I, were invited to a seat upon the divan, the host gave me a chair and took one himself, and also gave one to our guide. There seemed nothing unusual in the lady meeting her husband’s friends unveiled. She conversed with the guide just as we would with a male friend. The nurse brought in the baby girl, who cried at the sight of strangers, and stretched out her arms crying, “ Mamma, mamma.” The mother took her for a moment, when the father relieved her, coaxing the child, cooing to it, telling it to come to “ Baba” and be a good girl.” She nestled down in his arms and soon became quiet, when the nurse carried her away.

Our conversation was carried on through the guide by means of the little Spanish he understood, and also by signs. I made him compliment the lady on having done her duty to her husband in bearing him three fine boys. She and her husband both smiled and nodded pleasantly. There was, as usual, no furniture in the room save a very handsome brass bed at one end, draped with embroidered muslin curtains; the walls were hung with gold embroidered satin panel hangings. After a short visit we made a motion to leave, but our host insisted on our staying longer. A very hand­somely hand-wrought brass vase or bottle was brought, with a corresponding saucer or basin. Our host directed me by signs to hold out my hands, and he poured over them orange-flower perfumed water, giving me a fine damask napkin to dry them; then he passed on to my companions, doing the same for them. A servant relieved him of the vase and basin and handed him a pierced brass vase standing in a brazier saucer. These pieces were marvels of delicate workmanship in brass. From the holes in the vase came forth a cloud of odoriferous smoke. I was in deep mourning at the time, and wore, thrown back over my bonnet, a long black veil. He gathered the veil around the vase so as if to confine the smoke, and bade me bend low over it; after thor­oughly fumigating me he passed on to the others.

This ceremony over, a very handsome tea-service of beaten silver was brought in with a silver box of lump sugar. The spirit lamp was lighted under the silver tea-ketfle, and w r hile the water boiled the lady proceeded to put some tea and sugar in to the tea-pot then she poured on the boiling water and tasted the mixture. It was all done quietly and naturally, without a shade of embarrassment or self-consciousness. Here was a woman brought up her whole life within the four walls of her own house, rarely seeing an outsider, with all the self-possession, all the grace and dignity of the proudest duchess of Mayfair or Belgravia. I was invited to take a seat beside her on the cushion, where a space had been left for me by the boys. They were four, six and eight years old, and had taken complete charge of my younger friends, entertaining them to the best of their ability. The seat afforded me was evidently the seat of honor, and though I had my doubts about my beingable to rise without great difficulty from so low a seat, I accepted it as a matter of course. Two immense round brass trays were brought in and deposited on the floor before us. One contained fine little baccarat glass tumblers and a set of royal Worcester cups and saucers, and the other a pile of cakes, a kind of thick cookey about the size of our after-dinner coffee saucer, in the center of which different kinds of fruits had been baked. The tea was served