THE SULTAN'S HAREM.
The harem into which the dumb Circassian girl was conducted by the
woman to whom the old Turk delivered his message, was a place of
such luxuriant splendor as to puzzle her, and she stood like one
amazed for some moments.--The costly and grateful lounges, the heavy
and downy carpets, the rich velvet and silken hangings about the
walls, the picturesque and lovely groups of female slaves that
laughed and toyed with each other, mingling in pleasant games, the
rich though scanty dress of these favorites of the Sultan, all were
confusing and dazzling to her untutored eye, and when, after a few
moments' minutes, a dozen of these lovely girls crowded about her
with curious eyes to know who was the new comer that was to be their
companion, the poor girl shrunk back half abashed, for she could not
speak to them.
They too were puzzled that she made no reply to them, and stood
there in wonder.
It was only for a moment, however, when the beautiful stranger
pointed to her mouth and ears significantly, and gently shook her
head with a sadness of expression that was electrical, for each one
instantly understood her meaning, and pitied her. Some little
feeling of envy might have been ready to burst forth in the breasts
of those about her, but gentle pity loves to linger by beauty's
side, and so they all loved and condoled with the fair stranger. One
took her hand and led her to a cushion in the centre of the little
circle that had just been formed, another unloosed the wealth of
beautiful hair that astonished them by its dark richness and
profusion as it fell about her fair neck. She who had unloosed the
new comer's hair, now fell to braiding it in solid masses and
plaiting it about her head.
A second one taking a rare bracelet of pearls off her own fair arms,
placed it upon the Circassian's, and sealed it there with a
kiss!--Another removed the leather shoes she wore, and replaced them
with satin ones of curious workmanship and richly wrought with
thread of gold, and still another loosened the coarse mantle that
enshrouded her shoulders, and covered her with a shawl that had come
across the desert from the far east, rich in texture and beautiful
as costly. And as another tossed a handful of fresh flowers into her
lap, the poor girl's cheeks became wet with tears, for their
unselfish kindness and generous tenderness had touched heart.
But these tokens were quickly brushed away and kisses took their
place, while fair and delicate hands were busy upon her, until the
poor slave who had so lately stood exposed in the open bazaar of the
capital, now saw among this family of the Turkish monarch, literally
as a star of the harem. In beauty, she did indeed outshine them all,
but they forgot this in the memory of her misfortune, and envied not
the dumb slave. They touched her fingers with henna dye, and
anointed her with rare and costly perfumes, seeming to vie with each
other in their interesting efforts to deck and beautify one who had
only the voluptuous softness of her dark eyes to thank them with,
for those lovely lips, of such tempting freshness in their coral
hue, could utter no sound.
They brought to her all their jewels and rich ornaments to amuse
her, and each one contributed to give her from out their store some
becoming ornament, now a diamond broach, and now a ruby ring, next a
necklace of emeralds, interspersed with glowing opals, a fourth
added a girdle of golden chain braced at every link by close and
richly cut garnets, and other rings of sapphire and amethysts, until
the lovely stranger was dazzling with the combined brilliancy and
reflection of so many rare and beautiful jewels about her person.
It was not the jewels that so gratified the young Circassian, but
the good will they represented. She cared little for them
intrinsically, beautiful and rich as they were, but she grew very
fast to love the donors.
Days passed on in this manner, and the Sultan was no less surprised
than delighted to witness this voluntary kindness and affection that
was so freely rendered to the lovely girl. Her affliction seemed to
render her sacred in his eyes, and there was no kindness on his part
that was forgotten. Her manners and intelligent bearing showed her
to belong to the better class of her own nation, and her gentle
dignity commanded respect as well as love. She had already come to a
degree of understanding with those about her that was sufficient as
it regarded her ordinary wishes and wants, but of the past or future
she had not means to communicate, her tongue was sealed, and for
this reason her history must remain a hidden mystery to those about
her whom she loved, and would gladly have confided in.
One occupation seemed to delight her above all else, it was so
simple and beautiful, besides which it enabled her to convey her
feelings by means of an agency that, as far as it went, supplied to
her the loss of her speech. It was the arranging of flowers so as to
make them speak the language of her heart to another, a means of
communication in which the women of the East excel. Indeed it is the
only mode in which they can hold silent converse, since they know
not the cunning of the pen. Engaged in this gentle and pleasing
occupation, the Circassian passed hours and days in the study and
practice of the sweet language of flowers.
For hours together, while she was thus occupied, the idiot boy would
sit and watch her movements, and now and then receive some kindly
token of consideration from her hand that seemed to delight him
beyond measure. He followed her every movement with his eye, and
seemed only content when close by her side, sitting near her,
patient and silent; in fact he could utter but few audible sounds,
and no one had ever taught the poor idiot how to talk.
One afternoon, in the gardens that opened from the harem, the
Circassian had been engaged thus, sitting beneath the projecting
roof of a lattice-work summer house. The sun as it crept down
towards the western horizon threw lengthened shadows across the soft
green sward where minaret, cypress, or projecting angle of the
palace intervened. The boy would pick out one of those dark shadows,
and sitting down where it terminated, seem to think that he could
keep it there, but when the shadow lengthened every moment more and
more, and seemed to his untutored and simple comprehension to creep
out from under him, he would look amazed to see how it was done
while he sat upon it.
In following up a projecting shadow thus, he had come at last almost
to the very side of the dumb slave just as a gaudy winged parrot lit
upon the eve of the summer house on a large piece of the picket work
that had been used as an ornament for its top, but which having been
broken from its position, had slid down to the very eaves and now
hung but half suspended upon the roof. Even the lighting of the
parrot upon its edge was sufficient to balance it from the fragile
support that retained it on the roof, and then it slid off
immediately above the head of the Circassian girl.
The boy was on his feet as quick as thought itself, and springing to
the spot, with both hands outspread above her head, he canted the
heavy frame work away from her so that it came upon the ground,
sinking deep into the earth from its sharp points and considerable
weight. Had the falling mass come upon her head, as it would most
inevitably have done but for the boy, its effect must have been
instantly fatal. The Circassian saw the imminent service the boy had
rendered her, but he was sitting on the end of another shadow in a
moment after!
Was it reason or instinct that had caused him to make that
successful effort with such wonderful speed and accuracy? The slave
looked at him in wonder. It was very evident that he had already
forgotten the service which he had rendered, and the same listless,
childlike, and almost idiotic expression was in his face. This event
endeared the boy very much to the Circassian, and she never failed
to show him every kindness in her power. She would arrange his
straggling dress, and part his hair, smoothly away from his handsome
forehead, and give him always of each delicacy provided for herself,
until the boy seemed to feel himself almost solely dependent upon
her, and to seek her side as a faithful hound might have done.
Thus had time passed with the dumb slave in the Sultan's palace on
the Barbyses.
At times she would stroll among the rare beds of plants, and culling
fresh chaplets for her head, wreathe herself a fragrant garland,
ever finding some familiar scent that recalled her far off home in
all its freshness. Wearied of this she wandered among the jasper
fountains, and watched the play of those waters, the soft and
rippling music of which she might not hear, or still further on in
the many labyrinths of the garden and harem walks, would throw
herself upon some rich cushions beside a silver urn, where burnt
sweet aloes and sandal wood and rods of spice to perfume the air. At
early morn she loved to pet the blue pigeons that had been brought
from far off Mecca, held so sacred by the faithful, to feed them
from her own hands, and to toy with the golden thrushes from
Hindostan, and the gaudy birds of Paradise that flew about with
other rare and beautiful songsters in this fairy palace of the
Sultan.
Her companions watching her with loving eyes, never faltered in
their kindness and love for her. Indeed it seemed as though they
could not avoid tendering her this affection, she was so very
beautiful and gentle in all things. They had named her Lalla, or the
tulip, because of her love for that beautiful and delicate flower.
The Sultan looked upon the young Circassian--she had numbered hardly
seventeen summers--more in the light of a daughter than a slave, and
she who could have feared him else, even looked with pleasure for
his coming, and sought in a thousand earnest but silent ways to
please him. There was no spirit of sycophancy in this, no coquetry,
or false pretense; she was all simpleness and truth, and her conduct
towards her master sprang alone from a sense of gratitude. Thus too
did the monarch translate her behaviour to him, for he was well
versed in human nature, young as he was, and could appreciate the
promptings of a young and trusting spirit, such as she exhibited in
all her intercourse with him.
As exhibited in our illustration, the Sultan would often seek her
side in the harem, his tall, manly form contrasting strongly with
her gentle and delicate proportions, and he would regard her thus
with tender solicitude, too fully realizing her misfortune not to
pity and respect her, and he felt too that these frequent meetings
were binding his heart in a tender bondage to her. Sultan Mahomet
was a fine specimen of a Turk; in features he was markedly handsome,
and his long, flowing beard gave to him the appearance of more age
than was rightfully his. His physical developments were manly, and
to look upon he was "every inch a king." Lalla was no less beautiful
as a female; indeed she was far handsomer as it related to such a
comparison, and those who saw them so often together in the harem
could not but think what a noble pair they were, and seemingly
worthy of each other.
She possessed all that soft delicacy of appearance that reminds the
sterner sex how frail and dependent is woman, while she bore in her
face that sweet and winning expression of intellect, that, in other
climes more favored by civilization, and where cultivation adds so
much to the charms of her sex, would alone have marked her as
beautiful. Her eyes, which were surpassing in their dreamy
loveliness, were enhanced in beauty by a languid plaintiveness that
a realizing sense of her misfortunes had imparted to the expression
of her face, while her whole manner bore that subdued and quiet air
that sorrow ever imparts. Those of her companions who knew her best,
could easily understand that her heart was far away from her present
home; for her actions spoke this as plainly as might have ever been
done by words, and poor Lalla, wherever she had come from, and under
whatever circumstances, had evidently left her heart behind her
among her childhood's scenes.
The Sultan was earnestly interested in his dumb but beautiful slave,
and instituted a series of inquiries as to her history. His agents
were instructed to find out, if possible, the mode in which she had
been brought hither, and also to learn, if possible, the manner and
cause of her leaving her native hills in the Caucasus; for of these
things the fair girl had no means of communicating. The monarch and
all Constantinople knew that her people generally looked forward
with joy to the time when they should be old enough to be taken to
the Turkish capital, and seek their fortunes there, and the fact of
this being so different apparently with Lalla, created the more
curiosity to ferret out her story.
But all their efforts were useless in the pursuit of this purpose.
Since the Sultan's object in the inquiry was announced, much time
had transpired; but had his proclamation met the eye or ear of those
who transported the fair Circassian hither, they would hardly have
responded to it, as it might, for aught they knew, cost them their
heads. And thus the gentle slave lived on, a mystery to those about
her which even she was unable to solve.
"You made all inquiries at the bazaar, good Mustapha?" asked the
Sultan.
"Most rigid inquiries, excellency."
"And could learn nothing of the history of this beautiful slave?"
continued the Sultan.
"Nothing, excellency."
"It is very strange that no one can be found who knows aught about
her. Did you trace her back to those who sold her to the salesman of
the bazaar?"
"Yes, excellency, and two sales beyond that; but it seemed that
although so beautiful, the fact of her being dumb had caused her to
be very much undervalued, and she had passed through the hands of a
number of irresponsible slave merchants, who took but little heed of
her before she came to the bazaar."
"Doubtless, then, we may hardly expect to hear more concerning her."
"The reward you offered was munificent, excellency, but has brought
no response."
"You have not yet purchased for me those Georgians, good Mustapha,"
continued the monarch, after a few moments' pause, and probably
desiring to change a subject in which he felt that he was only too
much interested.
"Excellency, they are held at so high a price that I have refused to
pay it."
"Well, well, be discreet, and purchase shrewdly," said the Sultan,
resuming his pipe.
And in this manner the Sultan forgot his lovely slave, and removing
the mouth-piece of his pipe now and then, continued to question his
slave touching the matters that seemed to pertain to his department
of the household.
Poor Lalla! she had only her own unhappiness to brood upon as she
sat by some rippling fountain and watched its silvery jets and
sparkling drops, at times forgetting for a moment her sadness of
heart in the beauty that completely surrounded her; and then again,
perhaps mingling her tears with the fragrant blossoms that strewed
her lap and filled her hands. Alas! poor child! how it would have
eased the quick beating of thy heart if thou couldst have told the
story of thy unhappiness to some other confiding spirit.
The idiot boy would watch these tears, and at times he would wear a
fixed, vacant stare, as though he took no note of their meaning; and
at others, he would seem to comprehend their sorrowful import. When
this was the case, he would creep close to her side and lay his head
by her feet, and closing his eyes, remain as motionless as death.
This would at length arouse her from her unhappy mood, and she would
turn and gently caress the poor boy. Once when she had done this,
she saw a large tear drop steal out from beneath his closed eyelids,
and fall across his check. She rejoiced at this, for, while all
others set him down as without feeling, she saw that kindness at
least would awaken his heart.
Lalla had been weeping, and now sat alone by a bed of fragrant
flowers, when one of those fairy-like children of the harem,
scarcely older than herself, came tripping with light and
thoughtless steps towards her, and detecting her saddened mood,
kissed way the tears that still lingered upon her cheeks, and
binding a wreath of fresh and beautiful flowers about her head, lay
down in Lalla's lap and toyed with the stray buds, looking up into
her eyes with gentle love and tenderness.
How grateful were these delicate and beautiful manifestations of
feeling to the lonely-hearted slave.