These ladies are not allowed to go abroad as freely as Turkish hanums in general, on account of the restrictions of court etiquette; this confinement is also very injurious to their health, and their ennui is often insupportable. Sometimes, after a due warning to all the gardeners and other gentlemen to quit the premises, they are allowed to stroll in the palace gardens, and occasionally the Validé Sultan takes pity on some of them, and permits them to enjoy a promenade in her own train, when the exuberance of their spirits often tempts them to the most childish acts of coquetry. Indeed, so great is their longing to encounter the lords of creation, that a feigned sickness affords an occasion of seeing a doctor, and their favorite remedy for all ailments is bleeding, or the bleeder! These beautiful girls having no other ambition than to be as fascinating as possible, and such aspirations sometimes seem to be felt in more enlightened bosoms, they do not like to waste their sweetness on the desert air; as they are consequently a little mischievous, the practice of locking up each one in her own apartments has been deemed advisable. When the muezzin proclaims the hour of evening prayer, the disconsolate ladies are severally consigned to a state of security by the sable turnkeys of the palace. This is not, however, so dismal a fate, when we remember that a short time ago, all the inhabitants of Stamboul were obliged to be within their own domiciles, about two hours after sunset; and awhile since, there was the curfew bell even in good old England. CHAPTER XXX. CIRCASSIAN SLAVES. Although the slave trade has been nominally abolished in Turkey, and the public mart formally closed to this traffic, yet the practice of buying and selling has not been, nor will it ever be altogether abandoned, because the slave constitutes an essential element in the composition of their domestic institutions. There are two kinds of servitude in every house; one, the ordinary labor of domestic service; the other that of personal attendance; neither of which the free Mussulman women are willing to perform, because they will thereby be more or less brought in contact with men, which is proscribed by the Koran. The slave service, therefore, becomes necessarily indispensable with the Mussulmans, whose houses have hitherto been supplied with Circassian and Nubian slaves, the former being a species of ladies in waiting, and the latter performing the menial services of the household. The average price of the slaves is, according to the tariff of the Custom-house, $500 for the white, and $100 for the black. They bring these prices when they arrive fresh from their native lands. Those of the Circassian, who are, however, brought into the country in childhood, and carefully educated and trained in accomplishments, attain so rare a style of beauty and delicacy of appearance that they are frequently sold for $6,000 or $8,000.