An erroneous impression has obtained in Europe that females do not attend, or rather, I should perhaps say, are not permitted to enter, the mosques; this, as I have just shewn, is by no means the case; the entrance is forbidden to them only during the midnight prayer. And, in like manner, I had been taught to believe, before I visited the country, that the Turks denied to their women the possession of souls: this is as false a position as the other. It is true that the lordly Moslem claims a paradise apart; where Hourii are to wreathe his brow with ever-blooming flowers—pour his sherbet in streams of perfume into its crystal vase—and fill his chibouk with fragrance.[5] But, amid these voluptuous dreams, he does not quite overlook the eternal interests of his mere earthly partner; I do not believe that her future enjoyments are as clearly defined as those which he arrogates to himself—there is a little harem-like mystery flung over the destiny that awaits her; but, meanwhile, he does not altogether shut her out from the promise of a hereafter, from which he himself anticipates so full a portion of felicity. The Turkish women are intuitively pious; the exercises of religion are admirably suited to their style of existence. In the seclusion of the harem the hour of prayer is an epoch of unwearying interest to the whole of its inhabitants; and there is something touching and beautiful in the humility with which, when they have spread their prayer-carpets, they veil themselves with a scarf of white muslin, ere they intrude into the immediate presence of their Maker. Being aware of all this, the appearance of females in the mosque of St. Sophia did not produce the same effect upon me as upon many of the party. Those who were lately from Europe could scarcely believe their eyes; and when, in reply to the remark of a person who stood near me, expressing his astonishment at such an apparition, I explained to him that the presence of females in the different mosques was of constant and hourly occurrence, he looked so exceedingly annoyed at the sweeping away of his ancient prejudices, that I verily believe he thought the deficiency of the whole female Empire of Turkey must be transferred to my own little person, and that I, at least, could have no soul. Upon the whole, the first view of St. Sophia disappointed me; I had carried away an idea of much greater extent; spacious as it was, I could now see from one extremity of the wide edifice to the other—I was no longer bewildered by the blaze of innumerable lights—and I know not wherefore, but I regretted the mysterious indistinctness of outline which had thralled me during my midnight visit.