I observed the same with
the female servants, who were engaged in making tea or other
occupations; every motion disarranged their dress.
My visit to Haggi-Chefa-Hanoum, one of the principal and most-
cultivated women in Tebris, was far more interesting. Even at the
entrance of the court-yard and house, the presence of a well-
regulating mind might be perceived. I had never seen so much
cleanliness and taste in any Oriental house. I should have taken
the court-yard for the garden, if I had not afterwards seen the
latter from the windows. The gardens here are, indeed, inferior to
ours, but are magnificent when compared with those at Baghdad. They
have flowers, rows of vines and shrubs, and between the fruit-trees
pleasant basins of water and luxuriant grass-plots.
The reception-room was very large and lofty; the front and back (of
which the former looked out into the court-yard, the latter into the
garden), consisted of windows, the panes of which were in very small
six and eight-sided pieces, framed in gilded wood; on the door-posts
there was also some gilding.
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