IN A PERSIAN HAREM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8401, 17 April 1907, Page 3

IN A PERSIAN HAREM.

ENGLISH DOCTOR'S EXPERIENCES. An entertaining description is given in the Daily Graphic of the experiences of an English doctor who was for some time attached to the late Shah's harem in an official capacity. His debut was difficult, for the other Persian doctors, jealous of his science, and fearing to see him grow at their expense, leagued against him. The doctor, called Solyman, to hide his real identity, in spite of his appointment, was not consulted hy any of the Royal wives. Only servants and slaves had recourse to his services. However, on a hot spring afternoon, when lie was retained to attend a slave of the Favourite, whose grave state necessitated his constant presence, someone came to tell him that the Princess, who was having her siesta, had started out of her sleep screaming, being a prey to terrible pains. As there was no other doctor within call he was asked to come and attend her. The Favourite was in the Zirzamin, the underground chamber with a low, vaulted ceiling, paved with white marble, and with richly-tiled walls, which i 3 the favourite refuge of Persian women in summer. Sunk in the centre was a fomidtain with a jet of water which distributed a refreshing coolness. A crowd of women surrounded the Princess. She was lying on a thin mattress spread on the marble in one of the arched recesses, between the two doorways, facing each other to create a continual draught. These are the characteristics of the Zirzamin. On the arrival of Dr. Solyman the women drew their veils over their faces, and the eunuch rushed to the gate and stopped him while a curtain was erected in front of the recess to allow the doctor to approach the Princess without seeing her. When the doctor was at her side he could at first only elicit moans in reply to j his questions; but the patient at last i gave him to understand, in sentences I broken by lamentations, that after I her lunch she had fallen asleep as usual, and that she had seen her- j self, in her sleep, surrounded by bad djinns, who had pierced her chest with invisible darts which gave her horrible pains. Upon that, to this astonishment of the people present, Dr. Solyman turned to, the eunuch and asked, without paying any attention to the djinns, what the Princess had eaten for lunch. When he learned that her menu consisted of iced "mast-Khyar" (cucumber and curds), he understood that nothing was the matter except indigestion. However, being a conventional man, he wanted to draw an exact diagnosis of the case. She consented to let him feel her pulse, but when he desired to see the tongue he had to enter into a lengthy parley before the curtain opened far enough to let the Princess, closely veiled, show him the tip of her tongue. Dr. Solyman wrote his prescription, and the mother of the Princess, a very superstitious person, performed the "Estekhareh," seized her beads at a chance place, and then began to tell them off to the end as we count cherry stoned on a plate. But at the same moment the regular doctor of the Princess, who had been sent for, arrived. Everybody turned from Dr. Solyman and his prescription, as if he had never been ♦'here. When the regular doctor had prescribed in his turn, the "Estekhareh" was performed again, and this time the result was unfavourable. Heaven had declared itself; Dr. Solyman triumphed. His prescription produced such a good and prompt effect that the delighted Princess would not have any other doctor from that day forward.