At a later period of my journey I frequently visited harems, and sometimes considerable ones; but I found them all alike.

The only difference lay in the fact that some harems contained more beautiful women and slaves, and that in others the inmates were more richly clad; but every where I found the same idle curiosity, ignorance, and apathy.

Perhaps they may be more happy than European women; I should suppose they were, to judge from their comfortable figures and their contented features.

Corpulence is said frequently to proceed from a good-natured and quiet disposition; and their features are so entirely without any fixed character and expression, that I do not think these women capable of deep passions or feeling either for good or evil.

Exceptions are of course to be found even among the Turkish women; I only report what I observed on the average.
This day we rode altogether for seven hours.