Under the canopy of leaves towered forth mighty mountains, Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus, and Hæmus, which held up the leafy vault like four great tent poles, and from their sides flowed royal rivers, Nile, Danube, Tigris, and Euphrates. Ships sailed upon the waters, harvests waved upon the fields, the rose, and the cypress, flowers and fruits delighted the eye, on the boughs birds sang their glad music. Cities raised domes and minarets toward the green canopy; temples and obelisks, towers and fortresses lifted their high heads, and on their pinnacles shone the golden crescent. And behold as he looked, a great wind arose and dashed the crescent against the crown of Constantine, that imperial city which stood at the meeting of the two seas and two continents, like a diamond between sapphires and emeralds, the centre jewel of the ring of the Empire. Ottoman was about to put the dazzling ring upon his finger when he awoke." The story of the wondrous dream was told to the father of the fair Mal Khatum. He was at once convinced that the Fates had marked Ottoman for future greatness and for wide dominion. The moon-faced damsel fell a prize to the inevitable conqueror, son of Ertoghrul. Another early incident in Ottoman's career may be of interest in this volume upon the women of Turkey. Ottoman understood that a number of his rivals at arms were to be present at a certain wedding to be celebrated at Bilejik, in the year 1299; and that the event was to be made the occasion of his being entrapped and slain. Learning of the conspiracy against him, he secured for forty women of the Ottoman clan admission to the festivities. When all present were engrossed in the ceremonies of the hour, these forty sturdy warriors cast aside their female attire and not only captured the entire garrison, but also the fair maiden whose nuptials were being celebrated. She was a young Greek lady named Nenuphar, or "the Lotus Blossom," who afterward became the mother of Murad I. Ottoman now descended like an avalanche upon his rivals and their territory, extending his dominion even to Mount Olympus. It is to Arabia and to Persia that Turkey owes most of its civilization, its religion, its literature, its laws, its manners, and its customs. Beginning with a Tartar basis, Turkish life has been chiefly shaped under the influence of a religion and a literature. As for the first, the debt is chiefly to Arabia; for the second, Persia must have the larger share of credit. Since these two forces, religion and literature, are doubtless the most effective in shaping the ideals of womanhood, and so in developing the female character among any people, we are compelled to look to the ancient lands of Persia and Arabia for the springs of Turkish life.