IN A PERSIAN HAREM.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2642, 14 January 1908, Page 7

IN A PERSIAN HAREM.

Princess Lucien Murat, who has just completed a long series of wanderings through India and Persia, can claim to be the first Frenchwoman to set foot in the Palace of the Shah. In an account of her visit to Shiraz, the city of minerets and glittering cupolas, she says : "As we rode into the city everyone stared at me—the unveiled woman. The streets of the City of Roses are narrow and hard to navigate. It was with difficulty that we reached the palace of Abdul ud Sultan. RECEIVED BY THE SHAH. "As the gates opened a whole flock of servants dashed out. They surrounded me at once and led me along a marvellous alley shaded with cypress trees. We crossed a ture canal whose limpid waters flowed through a channel lined with blue tiles. Wonderful flowers, from peonies to irises, bordered it, and the breath of wild almond filled the air. Abdul ul Sultan received me in a room set apart for women. He poured a flood of compliments over me like a rain of flowers. He said he could not refrain from distinguishing by a personal reception the first Frenchwoman who had ever set foot in his palace. MELANCHOLY LIVES. "We walked through a beautiful colonnade which connected the palace with the women's pavilion. This led to a great room, the roof of which was supported by beautifullysculptured marble pillars. The walls wefc adorned with great mirrors, and the floor was a mosaic of glazed tiles. Here were gathered all the women of the harem, ladies and slaves alike. All were clad iii the sable draperies which Persians still wear in mourning for Hussein, the son of Ali. The dark stuff threw the fresh rosy fuces of the girls into relief and added to their beauty. But the costly jewels which glittered in their garments seemed to me to weigh heavily on them, and the darkening of their eyebrows with kohl seemed to ine to give their childish faces a hard and obstinate expression. Only their dark, melting eyes, reflected their melancholy lives of repression.

PERSIAN DAINTIES. ''We were seated 011 beaut if uttly carved wooden settles, and coppercoloured slaves distributed Persian dainties. There were ices and sherbet, and in front of each of the ladies an exquisite tea machine of silver was placed. These had models of Persepolis moulded on them in high relief. Delicious bonbons were passed around, which left a delicate, faint flavour of roses on the lips. There were also splendid purple grapes and pomegranates, which seemed to be filled with rubies when cut. THE TRAGEDY OF PRINCESS MAIi-SULTAN. "On a visit to the Princess MahSultan 1 noticed that she was lame. Later I inquired as to the cause. I was told that some years before she had asked her husband's permission to attend the marriage of a friend of her childhood. He refused it, but she went surreptitiously. Unfortunately herr husband made an unexpected visit to the harem and discovered her absence. On her return there was a terrible scene, which her husband ended by firing a pistol at her. The bullet broke her thigh Jwne. I thought these Persian women's lot was most tragic. But as I tried to condole with some of theni in their guilded cages the answer was always one of commiseration for me. One of them put it this way : 'You poor European sisters, how we pity you that you have to see men the whole day long. How much happier are we in Persia since we see them only a little while.' "P.T.0."