When, on the contrary, a girl
does not please the regent at first sight, her family are very much
disappointed, and consider themselves unfortunate. She is, in this
case, sent home again immediately, her reputation for beauty is
lost, and she has not, after this, much chance of making a good
match.
The princess is already a mother, but, unfortunately, only of a
daughter. She is, for the present, the chief wife of the prince,
because no other female has given birth to a son; but whoever brings
the first son into the world will then take her place: she will be
honoured as the mother of the heir to the throne. In consequence of
this custom, the children are unfortunately liable to the danger of
being poisoned; for any woman who has a child excites the envy of
all those who are childless; and this is more particularly the case
when the child is a boy. When the princess accompanied her husband
to Tebris, she left her little daughter behind, under the protection
of its grandfather, the Schach of Persia, in order to secure it from
her rivals.
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