The Turkish conquerors have carried into Egypt the enervating despotism and luxurious voluptuousness, which characterize their own land. The favorite residence of the pacha’s harem is at Shoubra, three miles below Cairo. In the garden are groves of fruit-trees, and walks shaded by evergreens, paved with pebbles in mosaic. A most splendid bath is inclosed by a quadrangular platform of white sand-stone, on which rests a handsome corridor. At each corner of the bath is a dressing room, and between each of these a magnificent divan, the canopy of which is supported by white marble pillars beautifully sculptured. In the centre of the bath is a seat for the pacha himself, from which he may behold his innumerable wives floating in the water around him. A highly sculptured gallery extends all around in front of the divans, resting upon the heads of four large crocodiles of white marble, from whose mouths the bath is partly supplied with water. In the centre is a grand _jet d’eau_; marble vases filled with flowers are dispersed about; and large statues of lions guard the doors. Water for this enormous bath is brought from the Nile by Persian wheels. The interior of this palace is rich with gilding, carved work, embroidery, and velvet hangings. The dress of the pacha’s favorites corresponds to the splendor of their residence. Some American ladies, who recently obtained permission to visit his harem, say that even the attendants wore head-dresses covered with diamonds. No glass windows are seen in Egypt, except in a few houses built by Christian residents. A very close wooden lattice-work conceals the inmates of the house, excludes the air, and gives rather a dismal appearance to the streets. The quadrangular court in the centre (always formed by the eastern manner of arranging the walls of their buildings) is, however, open to the breezes, and generally kept wet and cool by a fountain playing on marble or stone pavements. This, as in other Mohammedan countries, is the usual place where the women sit at their weaving and embroidery, and are amused by the gambols of their children, or the dances of their attendants. The Arabs who live in cities keep their wives in very close seclusion. In the large towns of Egypt these women rarely have more than one apartment, in which they eat, drink, and sleep. At night a piece of carpet is spread on the floor, and they lie down to rest, generally without changing their clothes. No male stranger is ever allowed to set his foot within the _harem_, and the ladies are not suffered to go out of it without being guarded and screened. The Arabs always decorate these bird cages with as much gilding, painting, carving, mosaic, and silk hangings, as their wealth will possibly allow; and they indulge their captives, to the utmost of their power, in rich shawls, muslins, silks, pearls, emeralds, and diamonds. In summer the common people often sleep on the flat roofs of their dwellings.