Note 454 — PART I. (continued 2)

Explanation of Plate XV. The windows are represented as opening on the outer court-yards of a great house, where the colonade, or gallery, and stair-case, are easily distinguished. In the front of the picture, the Turkish method of decorating their rooms with Arab inscriptions, painting and carving, is exhibited. The carpet, matrass, and cushions, denote the divan properly furnished; in the nearest corner of which sits a kadee, smoking the nargeery after the Persian manner. He is dressed in what they call a ferragee, which is lined with fur, and has wide sleeves. This dress, though most commonly worn by the lawyers, is also sometimes wore by other persons of distinction: but the turbant is of that sort which is peculiar to that profession. In the centre sits a sardar, or aga of the Janizaries. The form of his turbant is that which belongs to the officers of that body; but that of his robe is what is wore indiscriminately by all well-dressed people, only peculiar to such vests as are lined with short-haired furs, as sable, ermin, squirrel, &c. which they wear in the spring and autumn. He is drinking coffee; and before him stands a servant to receive the coffee-cup, in that dress, and humble, submissive attitude in which they are accustomed to wait upon their masters. In the farther corner sits a bashaw, smoking a pipe after the manner of the Turks. His turbant is in the form that all the people of fashion in that country wear, and his robe that which constitutes a full dress in the winter; when it is lined with long-haired fur, such as is taken from the ounce, foxes of different kinds, &c. The whole forms a scene of a Turkish entertainment.

Plate XVI. represents a Turkish lady of condition in the proper dress of Aleppo. She is represented as sitting carelessly on a divan, smoking a pipe, and her servant presenting a dish of coffee in the usual manner.