Nothing can exceed the beautiful cleanliness of a Turkish harem, save its order: not a grain of dust, nor a footmark, sullies the surface of the Indian matting that covers the large halls whence the several apartments branch off in every direction; while the furniture of the rooms themselves is always fresh, and scrupulously arranged.The ceilings are elaborately ornamented; and in the houses of the rich, where the apartments are of great size, a curtain of tapestry is frequently used as a mean of reducing their extent. The windows are always closely set together, and very numerous; and where the room chances to be situated in an angle of the building, the three unconnected sides have very much the appearance of a lantern. The interior chosen by the artist as the subject of his sketch is a fair specimen of the higher order of domestic architecture, and belongs to a house once inhabited by one of the Greek princes, which will account for the ample hearth, an accessory never found in an apartment originally designed by a Turk; in every other respect it is precisely the description of room common to every handsome harem. At the lower end of each apartment are large closets for the reception of the bedding (for none are appropriated exclusively as sleeping chambers), and the slaves of the household no sooner ascertain that the visitor has risen, than half a dozen of them commence removing every vestige of the couch, and depositing within the closet the mattrasses of embroidered satin, the sheet of gauze, or worked muslin, the half dozen pillows of brocaded silk, and the wadded coverlets, rich with silver fringe, and gay with party-coloured needle work, whicli have formed the bed. A low sofa or divan runs round the other three sides of the apartment, luxuriously supplied \vith cusliions, and richly covered with cut velvet or embroidered satin ; and the floor is invariably spread with soft and handsome carpets. It is an amusing fact, that an idea of impropriety is attached by Europeans who have never visited the East, to the very name of a harem; while it is not less laughable, that they can never give a reason for the prejudice! How little foundation exists for so unaccountable a fancy must be evident at once, when it is stated that the harem, or women's apartments, are held so sacred by the Turks themselves, that they remain inviolate even in cases of popular disturbance, or individual delinquency; the mob never suffering their \'iolence to betray them into an intrusion on the wives of their victims; and the search after a fugitive ceasing the moment that the door of the harem separates him from his pursuers. It is also a fact, that although a Turk has an undoubted right to enter the apartments of his wives at all hours, it is a privilege of which he rarely, if ever, avails himself. One room in the harem is appropriated to the master of the house, and therein he awaits the appearance of the individual with whom he wishes to converse, and who is summoned to his presence by a slave. Should he, on passing to this apartment, see slippers at the foot of the stairs (a token that a female visitor is in the harem), he cannot, under any pretence whatever, intrude liimself into her presence; it is a liberty which every woman in the empire would resent; and when guests are on a visit of some days, he sends a slave forward to announce his approach, and thus gives them time and opportunity to withdraw. Every good harem has a commodious bath, and a garden gay with flowers and fountains attached to it, where the women may wander at will among the leaves and birds, or dream away the sultry hours in their pretty kiosques overhanging the Bosphorus; where from behind the shade of their latticed casements they can breathe the cool air from the water, and mark the arrowy speed of the graceful caiques, as they fly along the channel. The amusements of the harem are few and simple ; the bath is its greatest luxury, the remainder of the day being spent in lounging on the divan, listening to the music of the zebec, played by one of the slaves, and accompanied by the voices of others ; in the arrangement of the jewels worn upon the turban ; in playing with the birds whose gilded cages glitter upon the walls ; in spoiling all the children within reach ; in eating sweetmeats, and drinking water ; or amid the cool shadows of the garden, hearkening to the fall of the fountains and the whisperings of the leaves, or listening to the wondrous tales of the Massaldjhc, ever a welcome guest in the harem, where lier marvellous narrations are received with a deep attention and a perfect faith eminently inspiring. Then there is the namaz, or prayer, five times a day, never neglected by Turkish women; when deeply veiled, as unworthy to appear before Allah with a bare brow, they spread their prayer-carpet, and turning their faces Mecca-ward, they humbly and earnestly perform their devotions. These are their home-occupations; but it is a great fallacy to imagine that Turkish females are like birds in a cage, or captives in a cell ;—far from it ; there is not a public festival, be it Turk, Frank, Armenian, or Greek, where they are not to be seen in numbers, sitting upon their carpets, or in their carriages, surrounded by slaves and attendants, eager and delighted spectators of the revel. Then they have their gilded and glittering caiques on the Bosphorus, where, protected by their veils, their ample mantles, and their negro guard, they spend long hours in passing from house to house, visiting their acquaintance, and gathering and dispensing the gossip of the city.