“I do not,” answered Mirzoza, “relish compliments which are addressed to me at the expense of my sex. When anyone takes it into his head to praise me, I could wish that nobody suffered by it. Most of the fine speeches which are offered to us, are like the sumptuous entertainments which your highness receives from your Pacha’s: they are always at the expense of the public.”

“Let us pass that by,” said Mangogul. “But sincerely, are you not convinced that the virtue of the women of Congo is but a mere chimaera? Pray observe, my soul’s delight, what the present fashionable education is, what examples mothers set to their daughters, and how the head of a pretty woman is filled with the notion, that to confine herself to domestic affairs, to manage her family, and keep to her husband, is to lead a dismal life, to be eat up with vapors, and to bury herself alive. And at the same time we men are so forward, and a young unexperienced girl is so raptured with being attack’d. I have said that virtuous women were rare, excessively rare; and far from changing my sentiment, I might add freely, that ’tis surprising they are not more so. Ask Selim what he thinks of the matter.”