During the following summer, the first time I got admission to him, he was holding a diwan in the outer court. He was then mounted on a white mule, clothed with a scarlet _Benish_, and had on his head a white turban; which however, together with part of his face, was covered with a thick muslin. On his feet were yellow boots, and the saddle on which he was seated was of crimson velvet, without any ornament of gold or silver. His sword, which was broad and straight, and adorned with an hilt of massy gold, was held horizontally in his right hand. A small canopy of muslin was supported over his head. Amid the noise and hurry of above a thousand persons who were there assembled, I was unable to make myself heard, which the nature of my situation obliged me to attempt, though not exactly conformable to the etiquette of the court, that, almost to the exclusion of strangers, had appropriated the diwan to the troops, the Arabs, and others connected with the government. On another occasion I contrived to gain admittance to the interior court by a bribe. The Sultan was hearing a cause of a private nature, the proceedings on which were only in the Fûrian language. He was seated on a kind of chair, كورسي, which was covered with a Turkey carpet, and wore a red silk turban; his face was then uncovered: the Imperial sword was placed across his knees, and his hands were engaged with a chaplet of red coral. Being near him I fixed my eyes on him, in order to have a perfect idea of his countenance, which, being short-sighted, and not thinking it very decent to use a glass in his presence, I had hitherto scarcely found an opportunity of acquiring. He seemed evidently discomposed at my having observed him thus, and the moment the cause was at an end, he retired very abruptly. Some persons to whom I afterwards remarked the circumstance seemed to think that his attendants had taught him to fear the magic of the Franks, to the operation of which their habit of taking likenesses is imagined by some of the Orientals to conduce. He is a man rather under the middle size, of a complexion adust or dry, with eyes full of fire, and features abounding in expression. His beard is short but full, and his countenance, though perfectly black, materially differing from the negro; though fifty or fifty-five years of age, he possesses much alertness and activity.