Anniversary DelightsChapter 8 Visible Pleasures
While the audience drank coffee and ate small sweetmeats distributed by attendant eunuchs, screens were brought in to surround the contestants' dais and behind them the women stripped off their abayas. When all was in readiness the Major Domo banged his mace on the ground and the audience resumed their seats. "The next stage of the competition requires each candidate to parade round the room again, with the abaya removed. The woman will be adorned in anything her sponsor may choose, or...