i

manner: Advantage is taken of a natural situa- | no further attention is bestowed upon his body Lion, such as a narrow valley or a gorge between and soul. wo mountains, and a strong and substantial work of masonry is carried across, sufficiently nigh to give the water its required level. Four of these bendts were visited and examined, but There are several others which we did not see.

The funeral of a Greek, affords the following instance of the writer's happy manner:

"I was witnessing, this morning, the operation of house-cleaning, which is performed by deluging the floors with water, and then the servants dance backwards and forwards on small bundles of heath-twigs; when a low chant, interrupted occasionally by a loud shriek in the streets of our little village, summoned me to the window. It was the funeral of a Greek. The deceased was dressed in his best clothes, and the body was entirely exposed to view. This practice, which is universal among the Greeks, is at all times disagreeable; but when death has ensued from small-pox, or any other loathsome disease, the spectacle becomes truly revolting. A poor woman, apparently the widow of the deceased, walked alongside of the coffin, tearing her hair, which hung dishevelled about her shoulders, and exhibiting other manifestations of the deepest wo. One was reminded of Ariadne's

Aspice demissos lugentis more capillos,

Et tunicas lacrymis sicut ab imbre graves.

As the procession moved slowly onward, the poor mourner would frequently bend over the corpse, kiss its pallid features, address it in the tenderest manner, and then break out into a wild shriek which completely drowned the dismal funeral dirge. With mingled sensations of pity and disgust I turned away from the scene; when a friend, who happened to be present, dryly inquired whether this was the first Greek funeral I had ever seen, and then furnished me with the following explanation. The death of a Greek is, in some respects, celebrated like an Irish wake; as it is always the signal for a regular frolic, and the φυ! φ! of the mourners is the undoubted prototype of the Irish ululu! The poor bereaved widow, as I had considered her, whose passionate grief had made such an impression upon my feelings, was, in all probability, an utter stranger to the deceased, and had been engaged for the occasion at the rate of five piastres a day, with bread and rakee at discretion. I had frequent opportunities of verifying the accuracy of this information, and the practice seems to be of the highest antiquity. This custom also prevailed extensively in Rome; and was carried to such lengths by the real mourners, that women were forbidden by the laws of the Twelve Tables to scratch their cheeks or tear their flesh with their nails. When a Greek

The practice of the Turks differs from this in several particulars. The body is scrupulously washed and cleansed after death; and conformably to their well-known resignation to the decrees of Providence, all outward demonstrations of sorrow are abstained from, as not only unmanly, but impious. The corpse is buried within a few hours after death; the imaum, or parish clerk, and a few only of the nearest friends or relatives accompany it to the grave. I have frequently on the Bosphorus met with boats transporting corpses to the Asiatic side, to be interred at Scutari; and the poetic fable of Charon and Styx appeared to be realized in the noiseless progress of the solitary boatman, and the very form of the caik, which seemed to be an exact copy of the identical skiff of old Charon himself, as it has reached us on antique vases."

The present Sultan is of course the great lion of Constantinople. The author says

"We were sitting this evening in the court of our palace, inhaling the perfume of the orange and myrtles around us, and watching the progress of the full-orbed moon as she threw her rays over the gently-roughened waves of the Bosphorus, when the regular plunge of many oars announced the approach of a barge belonging to some personage of distinction. We were not left long in doubt as to the personage in question; for immediately a band of music struck up a spirit-stirring air, and from our little coterie the exclamation arose in various tongues, 'The sultan is coming.' The first boat, rowed by ten oars, contained, in fact, the sultan, accompanied by one or two of the officers of his court; and the second, which was larger, bore a full band of musicians, and was brilliantly lit up, in order to enable them to see their notes. I may take this occasion to remark that all the military bands are now upon a footing with those of Europe. There is a very extensive school, under the direction of an Italian musician, where young lads are carefully instructed, and from a natural aptitude become excellent performers. Sultan Mahmoud's Grand March is known throughout the empire, and as it is in fact a composition of much merit, will in a few years doubtless become as national an air as the Parisienne, or God save the King.

"As the gay cortege approached, the imperial caik suddenly diverged from its course, and steered directly for the court in which our party were assembled. For a moment we imagined that we were to be honoured by a royal visit-a circumstance of no unusual occurrence, and great was the consequent bustle and flutter among the ladies of our party at the idea of such an unexpected honour. The imperial barge

dies, his body is sewed up in a coarse cotton approached so near that we could readily dissheet, over which are placed his finest clothes. cern the person of the sultan, half-reclined upon When it reaches the place of interment, the a sumptuous cushion; although the indistinctness clothes are stripped off, and the body is launch- of the moonlight prevented us from examining ed into the grave without any further ceremony. his features. As he approached, a slight move

If wealthy, a marble slab with the customary words, 'Here lies the servant of God,' &c., is placed over his grave, and masses are said for the repose of his soul. If the deceased be poor,

ment of the helm sent the caik almost grazing the marble steps of our court, and his majesty surveyed us, or, perhaps I should rather say, the ladies of our party, with apparently as much 556

SKETCHES OF TURKEY.

earnestness as we endeavoured to trace the fea- | present day, had they not undertaken to meddle | are supposed to have been the last tures of the absolute monarch of so many mil- with the acts of the government. These eastern lions of human beings. The procession passed dervishes on, sweeping along the crowded quay of Buyuk- of the idolatrous priests of Baal, alluded to in the dery; and the last seen of it was near Therapia, scriptures, and the ministers of that heathen. where for two or three weeks past the sultan idolatry which Mohammed declared himself sent has taken up his residence. In these excursions to destroy. They were finally extinguished by

it is always understood that he is incognito, as it would be considered a great breach of decorum to recognise him by look or gesture.

"Like all his subjects, the sultan is extremely temperate in eating, and his establishment is far from being on that expensive and magnificent scale which we are accustomed to attribute to oriental courts. I have been assured by an officer of his household, that the expenses of his table rarely exceed ten piastres, or about fifty cents, a day; and from various anecdotes which I have elsewhere heard, I should not be disposed to believe that his annual expenses exceed those of the President of the United States."

The population of Constantinople has never been accurately ascertained, but is estimated by this author too low; he thinks it cannot exceed 250,000, of whom 160,000 are Turks, 30,0000 Greeks, 30,000 Armenians, and 30,000 Jews. Other authors rate it much higher. He says that the tales of travellers who state that the Franks and strangers are not allowed to reside in the city, is all a fiction, and is of opinion that opium eating is now almost discarded, being unfashionable and contrary to law. The plague affords the following sketch of manners and cus

noms:

"To-day, however, we have undoubted evidence of the existence of plague. A house next to us is shut up, and the Franks who are obliged to pass it, cross over cautiously to the other side of the street. Two persons have already died, and three others are said to be at the point of death. An Armenian physician, who is known here under the name of the plague doctor, and is in the service of government, has made an official visit, and his declaration that it is plague in its worst form, leaves no room for skepticism. From my window, this day, I noticed a man in the street struggling between two others who were endeavoring to drag him along. In this they were assisted by a Turkish officer of police, who quickened his pace by the occasional application of a horsewhip over his head and shoulders. It was one of the persons who had been employed in burying the plague corpses; and in consequence of his services on that occasion, they were thus unceremoniously thrusting him out of the village. This reminds me of a cumstance which occurred at Kadikeui, when the plague broke out there a few weeks ago. The persons attacked were forcibly removed out of the village into the adjoining fields, the house was carefully fumigated and drenched with water, and all the contagious and infectible articles of furniture or dress were destroyed by fire. When this operation had been performed, the persons employed in it were driven pell-mell into the sea, and there compelled to remain until it was supposed that they were sufficiently puri

fied.

similar cir

The howling dervishes it appears are extinct.
They might have been permitted to howl to

the

the janisaries, who in turn are no more.

If the howling dervishes are extinct, the darcing ones appear to retain their full vigour :Carefully taking off our boots and shoes at

the door of the chapel, and carrying them in m
der our arms, we entered just as the exercises
had begun. Within a large area in the centre
of the chapel, and railed off from the spectators
five dervises were spinning round like tops
while an instrument like a flageolet, but blown
through the nose, poured forth
lugubrious air. The heads of the dervises were
covered with a high conical cap, a tight short
jacket enveloped the body, and a coarse loose
gown completed their attire.

a monotonous and

"An aged dervise stood at the eastern side of the enclosure, and appeared to be at the same time the master of ceremonies, and the chief ob ject of the adoration of the others. While they were performing their gyrations their eyes were closed, their hands steadfastly extended, and their gowns opened out by their revolutions in Gradually the mu the manner of making cheeses,' as practised by our little folks at home. sic assumed a louder tone, and a tambourine and kettledrum struck in with the wild and plaintive strain. At the expiration of about five minutes the music and the spinning ceased, and then commenced a series of bows, which would have been deemed graceful even in a Parisian salon. After performing several of these salaams, with divers ad libitum variations, and the perspiration oozing from every pore, they again began spinning upon the carefully waxed floor, while several male voices now joined in the plaintive chorus. At two o'clock the music, the spinning the singing, and the bowing ceased; the waltzers dropped on their knees with their faces on the ground, while their attendants threw over them thick cloaks to prevent their cooling too suddenly. We left the chapel with mingled feelings of contempt at witnessing such monstrous absurdities, practised under the name of to consider them in the light religion; and pity for the audience, who seemed disposed to co

inspirations."

of divine

That a great change in the habits of the peo250, where the author asserts, from his ple has taken place, is inferred from the passage at page 250 own experience, that a person may now travel in any part of Turkey without peril of life or limb, except as endangered by the ordinary casualties of a journey.

"This excellent order and public tranquillity is to be attributed to the energetie measures of the present sultan, and, for the purpose of curbing still further the natural insolence of an ignorant soldiery, they are not permitted to wear arms, except when on duty. Indeed, the rule has become a general one for all classes, and if by chance you meet with one armed, he is either a traveller just arrived from the interior, or one of the scarlet showmen attached to each European

SKETCHES OF TURKEY.

embassy. These kavasses, as they are termed, are, as far as costume is concerned, the last remains of the Janizaries, but are, in fact, livery servants of the ambassadors. They certainly make a most formidable appearance, and, as they approach, appear to be bristling with swords, daggers, yataghans, pistols, and other deadly weapons, which stick out of their belts in the most threatening manner. I had the curiosity one day to stop one of these Turkish noli-metangeres, and to examine his armory. In this I was good-naturedly assisted by the man himself. It consisted of a hanjar, the handle of which was studded with cornelians, but the blade was wanting; a tastefully decorated dagger could not be unsheathed; a pair of silvermounted pistols had no flints; and, in fact, the only really offensive or defensive weapon was an ivory-handled pair of tongues, used to place a coal of fire to his tobacco-pipe. Let us rejoice that these things are so, for there can be no surer sign of the precarious nature of a government, and the inefficacy of its laws, than where individuals are obliged to carry weapons for self-protection.

"The soldiers of the garrison examined my fowling-piece with much minuteness, and when I snapped off several percussion caps, great was their astonishment, and copious the showers of Mashallahs! and Ollah Kayrims! When the gun was put into their hands to repeat the experiment, it was remarked that, like the militia of a country which shall be nameless, they shut their eyes or turned away the head when they pulled the trigger. This, of course, will be corrected by dint of practice. In explaining to them that we were Americans, they appeared to have very vague ideas of our country, but the mention of the New World cleared up the mystery immediately; and it is not unlikely that hereafter the idea of an American and a percussion cap will be intimately associated in the minds of these simple-minded Asiatics."

557

asks her company to take a ride out to Belgrade, or to an excursion on the Bosphorus. Instead of being bored to death like Mrs. White, who hopes half her dear friends will stay away, and, between the grumbling of husband and remissness of servants, is in a feverish flutter for a week or fortnight, the Turkish lady manages the business in a different manner. The fair Fatimah orders provisions to be put up for a day's excursion, and leaving enough for her complaisant husband, steps into her caik and calls upon her friend the Lady Zaylilah. From thence the party proceed up the Golden Horn, or, breasting the Bosphorus, select some lovely valley bordering upon that 'ocean stream.' Here the friends spend the day surrounded by their household, and continuing their customary avocatious, while the young people are sporting under the shade of the lofty trees, and the party return home in the evening in high spirits, and with their health improved by exercise in the open air. It may be doubted whether our young women are equally benefited by spending an evening in a heated and crowded room, and vitiated atmosphere; but we fear the comparison may be thought Gothic."

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*

*

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In no article do the Turks display more ostentation and extravagance than in their pipes. This is carried so far, that a single amber head has been known to sell for $300. The amber is supposed to possess the peculiar property of not conveying infection as it passes from one mouth to another. Of the state of the mechanic arts, our author gives a poor account. The blacksmith's work is extremely coarse and imperfect; the cabinet maker would deem it absurd to attempt to make a perfect joint; the turner works with an ordinary hand bow, while his toes afford him no inconsiderable assistance; and the shoemaker supplies by means of paste, gum, and plaster, the deficiencies of his thread. So badly are the houses built, that a story is told of a child being lost through the cracks of the floor, and, on a visit to a Penote nobleman, an umbrella actually disappeared through a crevice, and Every person who has been in Turkey, and not recovered, as was recovered the owner did not like to is not afraid of of speaking out his real sentiments, be so impolite as to request the floor to be ripped instead of timidly acquiescing in the loose re-up. The mildness of the climate prevents the

It appears from the following passage that we have long been in error respecting the state of liberty enjoyed by the Turkish women:

66

ports of ignorant or prejudiced travellers who have preceded him, will agree with us when we state that women in Turkey actually enjoy more liberty than in the other countries of Europe or in America. We do not speak of the higher classes, for we know nothing about them, although our opportunities have been equal to those of most of our predecessors, and in many cases superior. We allude to the middle classes, by which alone every country is to be judged, if judged fairly or correctly. No stronger proof of the liberty they enjoy is necessary than the numerous parties of ladies which one meets with in the environs of Constantinople, which excursions, from their frequency, appear to forın almost the sole business of their lives. It is in fact a pleasant way of passing time, and resembles our practice, except that it differs in its details. Instead of a formal card from Mrs. White to Mrs. Green and the Misses Green, the Turkish lady sends her servant to a friend, and

necessity of having tight houses.

But we must let our author speak for himself. Of the honesty of the people he says:

"Returning home this evening at a late hour, I observed many persons asleep on mats, in the open air, before their respective shops, which were lit up, and apparently ready to receive customers. This affords a pleasing evidence of the good faith and honesty of the people. I have noticed a similar circumstance in the bazaars and shops of the metropolis. In these places, during the day, if the shopman wishes to step out, or to indulge himself in a nap, he ties a string across the door, or throws a cloth over a few articles near the street, and this signifies that the shop is shut, a hint which is universally understood and respected. If you purchase an article, the seller of course endeavours to obtain the highest price; but the Turkish dealer shows much more conscience than his Jewish or Christian neighbours. When a piece of money is put into his

hands to change, he returns the whole amount, several officers of government, from the sultan and leaves it to the purchaser to deduct the price downwards, with the amount in money which

of the article. When it is recollected that the money of this empire is counterfeited to a great extent, the honesty of this procedure is apparent; he not only confides in your good faith, but exhibits his own in no small degree.

TURKISH MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS.- "The general character of the Turkish monumental inscriptions, as they have been translated to me, is extremely simple. They consist of the name of the deceased, his occupation, or the offices which he filled, and conclude by recommending his soul to the only living and true God. Panegyric, or even a simple notice of the qualities of the deceased, is never dreamed of by these queer people, who would perhaps consider it as a mortal sin to tell a falsehood in conversation, much less to perpetuate one on marble."

SLAVES.-"The chief supply of male and female white slaves has hitherto been from Georgia and Circassia, where they were sold by their parents or relatives. The condition of these nominal slaves is in point of fact rather enviable than otherwise, for the females become the respected heads of families, and the males are carefully educated and trained to occupy the most important stations in the empire. It is a curious fact, to which we have already adverted, that it is from this class that we see selected to fill some of the most elevated stations in the realm, persons who in other countries would be, from the circumstance of their origin, necessarily excluded from any office whatsoever. From whatever cause this singular practice may have originated, there can be little doubt that its direct tendency has been to free the country from

each expects to receive. The presents them selves are merely intended to disguise the transaction; but they have each a marked value, and find their way immediately into the jeweller's hands, to serve for another occasion. This identical snuff-box, for example, has no doubt passed through the hands of the sultan, the bro kers, and the foreign ministers, upon a dozen different occasions.

"We have mentioned that when a minister is presented, a treaty ratified, or any other public act performed, an exchange takes place of presents of equal value. The Turkish government had, however, been informed of the seizure and sale of the horses which had been presented to a former American agent, Mr. Rhind, and d course will make no return to our minister. This system of making presents appears to us highly absurd, but it is one of those oriental cus toms which will propably never be eradicated."

The account of a wedding is too graphic to be omitted here. The author formed an acquain-> tance with the father of the groom, and his house being open to all comers on the occasion, the Americans with others entered the premises. "We were shown into the upper part of the house, but the attendants would not allow us to take off our shoes, as we wished to do, in order to comply with their customs. We were then introduced into the chief apartment where the old man was in readiness to receive company, and who presented us to the bridegroom, a young inan about eighteen years of age. He was dressed of course in his best, and a turban of spotless white shaded features which were re

the shackles of an hereditary aristocracy, inde-markably regular and agreeable. The bride

pendent of the equalizing effect of its religious code. Whether it may not be more than counterbalanced by the absolute authority vested in the sultan, which is unrestrained by a proud and formidable nobility, is a question which, with our ideas of government, we must frankly answer in the affirmative.

herself could hardly have displayed more difidence than this young man; and we may in general observe, that young Turks are more quiet and orderly in their deportment, and more respectful to their parents, and to their elders in years, than the youth of any country we have ever seen. The room was filled with articles of dress, piled oiled up on shelves, and their quantity and variety gave it the appearance of a well-stocked

By the late treaty with Turkey this traffic was formally abolished, on the plea of humanity; but its inevitable effect has been to annoy the shop in the bazar. These were from the young Turks exceedingly. It does not appear, howev-lady and her friends, all of whom contribute er, to be acted upon, or rather, we should say, something towards housekeeping upon such octhe business has changed hands. In August casions. These articles all belong to the wife in last a Russian vessel arrived here with seventy case of the death of her husband, or of being dislaves from Georgia. They were all immediate-vorced from him. The Franks here in their

ly purchased up at prices varying from three to eight hundred dollars a piece.

PRESENTS." It is an ancient oriental custom to accompany the transaction of all important business by an interchange of presents. We were favoured yesterday with a sight of the presents which are intended to be presented by our minister to this government as soon as the treaty shall be ratified: they consisted of snuff-boxes, fans, spy-glasses, watches, coffee-cup stands, and other knicknacks, all glittering with diamonds and precious stones. One snuff-box alone, which was intended for the sultan himself, cost $10,000; and the total value of all the presents amounted to nearly $40,000. Previous to the distribution of presents there is a list handed in to the minister containing the names of the

marriage contracts, which are always drawn up in writing with great formality, have a practice somewhat similar, but which is carried to an extent the most ridiculous and absurd imaginable. In the outer hall our attention was called to a formidable collection of pots, kettle, stewpans, and all the numerous et ceteras of a complete kitchen. After partaking of sweetmeats, pipes, and coffee, we were permitted to depart, but Mustafa requested us to witness the religious ceremony, which would take place in the village mosque that evening.

We found at the door five arabahs, drawn by oxen, which were decorated with ribands, flowers, &c., and the arabahs were filled with the female relatives of the young man, about to go in search of the bride, whe resided in a village just