French and Oriental Love in a Harem

Of course Kondjé-Gul's educational programme, as fixed by me, is

confined within very modest limits. It consists of music, history, and a

slight and general acquaintance with literature. But above all she is

expected to acquire that indispensable familiarity with our ideas, and

those feminine graces and refinements which can only be learnt by

contact with women and girls brought up in good society. A few months at

Madame Montier's will be sufficient for this purpose, and the

cultivation of her mind can be completed later on by private lessons.

My harem in the Faubourg St. Germain retains its Oriental aspect; it is

a corner of the world described in the "Arabian Nights," where I indulge

from time to time, in the midst of Paris, in the distractions of a

vizier of Samarcand or Bagdad. There, when the shutters are closed, in

my gynæceum (or women's apartment), illuminated by lamps which shed a

soft lustre upon us, while the bluish-grey smoke from my narguilé

perfumes the atmosphere, my houris lull me to sleep to the music of

their taraboucks.

With all this I am not quite so satisfied, as I would have liked to

describe myself, with certain incidents which have occurred in

connection with my harem. Certainly, they are all the natural

consequences of our life in Paris; for I don't suppose you imagine that

I had not foreseen the psychological effect which entirely new ideas

would unavoidably produce upon the profoundly ignorant minds of my

houris. Besides, a progressive and judicious emancipation from their

previous restraints formed part of my programme for them. But the

introduction into the harem of certain high-class lady's-maids,

indispensable for initiating my little animals into the subtle mysteries

of Parisian toilets, has of necessity led to their making a number of

discoveries, which have contributed in a remarkable degree to their

civilization:--hardly, however, in those elements which I could have

most desired. They have all of them got to know a great deal more than

was necessary for them about those famous "customs of our harems in

France," the principles of which I had endeavoured to teach them. Thus I

even noticed the other day that I set Zouhra and Nazli laughing when I

reminded them of some point of etiquette. Although they are still imbued

with the good principles of their native education, it is evident they

are being corrupted by the poison of Liberalism. This I am convinced of

by certain airs of assurance which they have put on, by their

coquetries, and by novel and unexpected caprices which they now display.