The family of the princess are descended from the Brahmins, and many hundred years ago embraced Christianity in the church of Travancore, said traditionally to have been planted by St. Thomas, the Apostle. From India, her ancestors removed some centuries past into Persia, and finally settled at Bagdad, all this while strictly adhering to their religious creed, and, perhaps, all the more jealous of it in consequence of the dangers to which it exposed them. They were people of great wealth and consideration. Her father's house was an asylum for the unfortunate of every denomination, and the primitive virtues of Christianity appear to have been practised in it with all the earnestness and devotion of the primitive ages. The breaking out of the plague at Bagdad in 1804, compelled the family to retire to a country residence they possessed amongst the ruins of Nineveh; and here, surrounded by the relics of the old world, the author of this autobiography was born. She first saw light in a tent in the desert.

The religious associations, in the midst of which her infancy was past, confirmed the faith she inherited. Agreeably to the customs of the East, she was betrothed almost in her childhood; but her disposition led her to celibacy. She had been in the habit of reading the lives of the Fathers from the age of six, and she was determined to follow their example. She communicated her determination to her lover, who was so impressed with similar feelings, that he resolved to take the vows of the Trappists. The lovers accordingly separated, and the young sheikh, who had been selected for the husband of the princess, is now a monk of the order of La Trappe, and lives in a hermitage on Mount Lebanon, at the foot of the cedar mountain, "on a ledge so precipitous, that a bird would hardly dare to make her nest on it."

The firmness and enthusiasm which enabled her to make this sacrifice, encouraged her to make still greater efforts for the glory of her faith. She resolved to attempt the conversion of the people in her neighbourhood, and used to collect hundreds together on the Sabbath evenings to listen to her discourses. In these spiritual labours she was assisted by a female friend, whose beauty was no less admirable than the constancy of her purpose. It is worthy of note that the princess was the first woman in that country who devoted herself to celibacy. Her friend was the

second.

Your thoroughbred Mussulman pacha is not a person, however, to be easily moved by the truths of Christianity. He is much more likely to be touched by the charms of its lady professors; as happened in this particular instance. The Pacha of Mosul, in Persia, where our princess was resident at this period, entertained a solid aversion to the Christian religion, and was resolved to put an end to the mission of the princess and her beautiful friend, Mariam. With this view, and with a decision worthy of his design, he commanded all Christians to repair on a certain day, to a certain spot, there to renounce their faith. They assembled with the resolution of martyrs, singing hymns, and persisting in the maintenance of the truth. This "obstinacy" would have cost them their lives, but for the beauty of Mariam, which stayed the hand of the furious pacha. They were all thrown into prison and bastinadoed daily, except the princess and her friend, who were lodged in the palace. The torture to which these poor people were condemned was so severe, that one of them, an uncle of the princess's, died under it. At last, her father and the rest

were released, but only upon the payment of almost ruinous sums to the rapacious pacha.

The princess now retired to the solitude of a convent, where she formed a project for the establishment of a female school, with a view to the elevation of the female character-so much wanted in the East. Here she was visited by several ladies of rank, and amongst the rest, by the sister of the pacha, who repeatedly invited her to dine with her at the zenana. After having frequently declined the invitation, she at last accepted it-with a secret hope, no doubt, of being able to persuade her to embrace Christianity. Let us now gaze upon this Babylonian princess going forth upon her glad mission in the morning of life, to the magnificent residence of a pacha's sister.

I was superbly dressed. My ghombaz, or dress, was of white gold tissue, open in front, after the manner of the East, with ample sleeves of the same material descending to the knees, and confined at the waist by a girdle richly embroidered in gold. My sherwals, or trousers, were of crimson silk. Around my ankles were fastened anklets of silver gilt, richly chased, and babouches, or slippers, covered with gold embroidery, were on my feet. These with a turban of white muslin, (embroidered with gold, and a Persian shawl thrown round my waist, completed the costume in which I went to pay my first visit to the Amira.

We hardly know whether it will spoil the interest of this gorgeous vision to add the lines which immediately follow, in which the writer compares her present condition, with the bounding and elastic promise of that happy period; but if it affect others as it affected us, to be brought on the sudden face to face with the contrast, it is due to the writer to let it have its full weight with the reader.

Alas! who would recognise in the forlorn and wretched being who now pens these lines, the lively, gay, free-hearted, and enthusiastic creature of that hour -with a heart full of susceptibility and joyous frankness-breathing life with the hope of leading my wandering fellow-mortals into the way of truth? When in the darkness of adversity, with failing faculties, I look back on that day, and think of the wreck which sorrow and bitter calamity have made me, my soul recoils with horror, and I sink into the abyss of sadness.

The two phases of her melancholy history are revealed in these two passages. Her life opened joyously in the lap of prosperity and powerbut it has passed into misery and destitution, the annihilation of kindred, the total loss of property, and finally, a dependence upon the sympathy of strangers. We cannot venture to follow closely this painfully interesting career, for our space is narrow; but we will mark its principal stages as we proceed.

First let us glance at the zenana of the Amira :-here we have a perfect Persian interior, drawn by a familiar hand. At the door of the harem, the visitor is met by an eunuch, who comes to conduct her. They pass three or four doors, fastened with padlocks, of which the guide carries the keys, and then across a spacious court, paved with highly polished marble, in the midst a superb fountain, and on the left the Iwan, a chamber open the entire length of the side. The walls of this chamber are richly decorated in coloured arabesque devices-a Persian carpet covers the floor-and a brilliant scarlet velvet cushion, or "takht" occupies the centre. But this is only the anti-chamber. Suspend your admiration till you reach the inner saloon, which transcends all power of description.

The carpet is still more exquisite, and the musnud is covered with red and green velvet, and embroidered in the most costly manner. Here the Amira receives her guest most courteously. And while they are sitting together on the musnud, three beautiful girls, with skins of dazzling whiteness, large black eyes, and luxuriant raven hair, approach and kneel with silver-gilt vases for ablution. These girls are succeeded by two others with censers, to shed a perfume through the apartment-then three more with silver-gilt trays, containing sherbet, and napkins embroidered with gold, followed by three more with a tray of gold inlaid with diamonds and emeralds, carrying small china cups of coffee, with holders of gold, embossed and jewelled. After this, two eunuchs enter with pipes, which are commonly used by the ladies of Mesopotamia. The picture is now complete. The ladies are under the soothing influence of the "nerghilah," the fragrance of the burning aloe fills the chamber, the rose-water in the reservoir is murmuring in their ears, a musical snuffbox from Europe is pouring forth clusters of tiny notes, and ten of these exquisitely beautiful girls are standing before them in an attitude of respect, with their arms reverentially folded across their bosoms. Truly these easterns have most luxurious notions of life; and if an European were to be suddenly dropped into a scene of this intoxicating kind, it would go hard with him to keep his head cool, and his hands from doing mischief.

After half an hour's enjoyment in this way, the ladies proceed to visit the bed-rooms. They are magnificent. The pacha's chief wife has a bed of five mattresses, each covered with silk of a different colour from the rest, and the whole stuffed with peacocks' feathers. There are no less than thirty of these rooms. From the dormitories they ascend to the terrace on the roof, from whence they have a charming view of the country, which they are enabled to enjoy under the shade of magnificent tents of oil-cloth. Next they visit the garden. It is of immense space-say three-quarters of a mile-intersected on all sides by rivulets of water, embanked with marble and fringed with flowers. They now visit the pacha's wives, in a saloon opening on the garden. There are twentyfive of them-from Georgia, Circassia, Kurdistan. In the midst of the visit, enters the pacha, a man of commanding stature, with a black and copious beard, sumptuously dressed, as befits the lord of this palace of delight. A brief conversation, all courtesy, ensues; and now the mollah calls to prayer from the minaret-a ceremony religiously repeated five times a day; the ladies of the harem drop devoutly on their knees; and the Amira and her guest go to dinner in one of the cool saloons opening on the marble court.

The dinner is the wonderful part of the whole entertainment. First, there is a tray of about twenty dishes brought in, amongst them a soup made of green corn and chickens, a favourite dish with the present Pacha of Egypt. These are succeeded by an infinite variety of gastronomical delicacies, such as a lamb served up whole, stuffed with herbs, rice, and pistachios, and covered with saffron; stuffed gourds; veal hash enveloped with vine leaves; "coobba," a crust of green corn and hashed meat, filled with beef and herbs, called old woman's hair, of delicious flavour, and made up into globes as large as a man's head; and a multitude of other recondite preparations, which our princess fairly confesses have escaped her memory. These solid dishes are followed by a profusion of