Baïla was seventeen years old; her black and lustrous hair, parted over her temples, resembled the raven’s wing; her eye-brows thin, and forming a perfect arch, though of the same color as her hair, were, as well as her long eye-lashes and the edge of the lids, covered with a preparation of antimony, called _sourmah_. Still other colors had been employed to heighten the lustre of her beauty; the carnation of her lips had disappeared beneath a light touch of indigo; and, by way of contrary effect, beneath her eyes, where the fine net work of her veins naturally produced a light blue tint, the purple of the henna shone out. The henna, a kind of vegetable carmine, much used in the east, also blushed upon the nails of her hands and feet, and even upon her heels, which peeped out, naked, from her small, beautiful sandals, embroidered with gold and pearls.
Though thus tattooed, in the Asiatic fashion, Baïla was none the less beautiful. Her costume consisted simply of a velvet caftan, muslin pantaloons, embroidered with silver, and a cashmere girdle; but all the knicknackeries of Oriental luxuriousness were displayed in her toilet. The double row of sequins which swung on her head, the large golden bracelets which covered her arms and graced her ankles, the chains, the precious stones which shone on her hands and her corsage, and which shook on the extremities of her long flowing hair and glittered on her very pipe stem, graced in a singular manner her youthful charms.
The better to understand what kind of astonished admiration her appearance might at this time produce, we should add that of the old black slave, who, from her age as well as color, her short, thick figure, her dull and heavy look, formed so striking a contrast with the fresh beauty of Baïla, her fine and supple figure and her glance, still lively and penetrating, notwithstanding the deep thought which then half veiled it.
The better to lighten up this picture we must suspend over the heads of these two females, so dissimilar, the beautiful blue sky of Asia, and describe some incidents of the land, some singularities of the local vegetation which surrounded them.
Some paces in advance of the plantain against which Baïla was reclining, was a small circular basin of Cipolin marble, from which sprang a jet, in the form of a sheaf, causing a delicious freshness to reign around. A little farther on were two palm trees, which, springing up on either hand and mingling their tops, presented the appearance of two columns, forming an arcade of verdure. But before this entrance, judging from appearances, the shadow even of a man should never appear. Baïla belonged to a jealous master; her beauty, heightened by so much art and coquetry, was to grow, blossom and flower for him alone.