Mrs. Graham, in her very entertaining account of India, gives the following description of a visit to the harem of a Mohammedan chief: “My sister and I were allowed to enter, but we could by no means persuade the cazy to admit any of the gentlemen of our family. We ascended to the women’s apartment by a ladder, which is removed when not in immediate use, to prevent the ladies from escaping. We were received by the cazy’s wife’s mother, a fine old woman dressed in white, and without ornaments, as becomes a widow. The cazy’s mother, and the rest of his father’s widows, were first presented; then Fatima, his wife, to whom our visit was paid; and afterward his sisters, some of them fine, lively young women. They all crowded round us to examine our dress, and the materials of which it was composed. They were surprised at our wearing so few ornaments; but we told them it was the custom of our country, and they replied that it was good. I was not sorry they so openly expressed their curiosity, as it gave us a better opportunity of gratifying our own. The apartment in which we were received was about twenty feet square, and rather low. Round it were smaller rooms, most of them crowded with small beds, with white muslin curtains; these were not particularly clean, and the whole suit seemed close and disagreeable. Most of the women were becomingly dressed. Fatima’s arms, feet, and neck were covered with rings and chains; her fingers and toes were loaded with rings; her head was surrounded with a fillet of pearls, some strings of which crossed it several ways, and confined her hair, which was knotted up behind. On her forehead hung a cluster of colored stones, from which depended a large pearl, and round her face small strings of pearl hung at equal distances. Her ear-rings were very beautiful; but I do not like the custom of boring the hem of the ear, and studding it all round with _joys_, or jewels; and not even Fatima’s beautiful face could reconcile me to the nose jewel. Her large black eyes (the _chesme ahoo_, or stag eyes, of the eastern poets) were rendered more striking by the black streaks with which they were adorned, and lengthened out at the corners. The palms of her hands, the soles of her feet, and her nails, were stained with henna, a plant, the juice of whose seeds is of a deep-red color.”