Page:Beckford - Vathek (1816).djvu/270

(260) jessamine; but the unguent here mentioned was preferred to every other. Lady M. W. Montagu, desirous to try its effects, seems to have suffered materially from having improperly applied it.

In this manner the apartments of the ladies were constantly guarded. Thus, in the story of the enchanted horse, Firouz Schah, traversing a strange palace by night, entered a room, "and, by the light of a lanthorn, saw that the persons he had heard snoring, were black eunuchs with naked sabres by them; which was enough to inform him that this was the guard-chamber of some queen or princess." Arabian Nights, vol. IV. p. 189.

The swing was an exercise much used in the apartments of the Eastern ladies, and not only contributed to their amusement, but also to their health. Tales of Inatulla, vol. I. p. 259.

The passion of the nightingale for the rose is