The queen having dismissed all these attendants, retires to her bathing-room, which is hung with curtains of cloth of gold; and having bathed, her handmaidens anoint her with costly perfumes, and arrange her hair with the highest art; for in the style of the hair the Egyptian ladies of all ranks display great taste, and expend in dressing and beautifying it a large proportion of their time; and I must acknowledge they display perfect skill in making most attractive this glorious adornment of your sex, dear mother. The young wear it in numerous braids, mingled with natural tresses; others shape it into a sort of a helmet, with a crest of curls falling around; others fasten it behind in a rich knot, and let what is free flow upon the shoulders. Some cover the head with a braided tiara sparkling with gold and jewels; and others, especially at banquets, wear rich caps of embroidered cloth, of beautiful shape, terminating behind in a cape enriched with needle-work, and ornamented with fringe of floss of gold,--a peculiar filament I have seen fabricated only in Egypt. Indeed, an Egyptian lady seems to regard her hair as her crown of beauty by nature, and she tries by art to make it also a diadem of glory. As if its natural brilliancy were not enough, after pouring upon it fragrant perfume, her maid, from a small ivory box, the convex lid of which is filled with minute perforations, sprinkles its smooth surface with powder of gold. The dressing-room of the queen opens upon gardens, is furnished with luxury, and is encircled by columns of alabaster; its intercolumnar panels glitter with foreign marbles, and paintings of the highest art; the tables are resplendent with gold and silver, electrum, and variegated stones; while before its doors hang drapery of Tyrian purple wrought with gold, and representing scenes of the chase. More or less resembling this, are the dressing-rooms of all the ladies of rank. The lords of Egypt covet gorgeous and expensively adorned "halls of books," or libraries; but the ladies beautify and enrich their dressing-saloons, in which they spend so much of their time, and where they often receive their very intimate female acquaintances: and as a great favor, gentlemen, on familiar footing with the family, are sometimes admitted into this beautiful adytum, where the goddess of beauty is adored by homage the most religious.