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on excellent horses, so superbly caparisoned with gold and silver embroidery, inlaid with pearls and jewels of every kind, as to surprise every stranger who sees them. The janisaries and spahis, on those days, wear their best accoutrements, and make a noble appearance.

Between the seraglio and arsenal is a great square, called the Meydan: on the side near the walls of the arsenal the horses are trained and exercised at one end is one of the gates of the city, on the other a high wall, which reaches from the walls of the seraglio to those of the arsenal, along the banks of the river, without any aperture. On the side next the city, and opposite the arsenal, are shops of all kinds, with many coffee houses, and in coffee houses, and in the open space a continual fair is kept in booths, built with boards, and covered, but open all round. The goods are brought in the morning, and carried home in the evening The rent of these booths is considerable, and is the property of the Kyah (the pasha's lieutenant,) who is always governor of the arsenal.

Within the walls is a spacious palace, which extends the whole length of the city. On the one side is the town wall, with flights of steps in many places, to mount up to the ramparts: on the other side are the walls of the gardens of those houses which lie contiguous to the town-wall. These houses are mostly large, and the upper rooms overlooking the walls, being very pleasant, are consequently inhabited by people of fortune. In going round the town through this street, you pass by all the gates: the second gate from the arsenal is walled up, so that there are only three which are made use of. The bazars, or marts, for all kinds of goods and merchandise, are many, and well filled the two principal are each above half a mile long, but not arched like those at Aleppo; instead of which there are sheds made of boards, which project

from the walls on each side so far, as only to leave an opening of about 3 feet in the middle, which is sufficient to give light, and to shade the shops from the sun, as they have but little rain in this country. Here are only two bazars arched with brick. The principal merchants who are inhabitants, and all foreign merchants, carry on their business in khans, (called by Europeans Caravanseras,) as being more secure from fire and thieves, having only one entrance from the street, with strong gates, which lead into an area generally square. On the sides are magazines for goods, strongly arched and above, a gallery, which extends quite round, well covered, in which are lodging rooms, arched in the same manner. The roofs are flat, and terraced over, (as indeed all the houses are ;) there is a fountain of water in them all, and I am informed that there are upwards of eighty such khans in Bagdad; which is by no means surprising, when it is considered that this is the grand mart for the produce of India and Persia, Constantinople, Aleppo, and Damascus: in short, it is the grand oriental depository, there being a continual intercourse by caravans between these ports, excepting the communication with Bassora, which is carried on by water on the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

The mosques in this city are innumerable, ornamented with handsome domes and lofty columns; with the exception of the dome of the great mosque, which is covered with lead, they are all cased with painted and glazed tiles, which have a pretty effect; though, when the sun shines bright, the glare is hurtful to the eyes, The mosques, excepting the great one, which is of stone, as well as every house in the city, are built of excellent bricks, which are well burnt.

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cipal houses have all large outlets, either yards or gardens, or both, in which many trees are planted, the loftiest of which are the palm or date

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trees, which are so numerous, that in July, August, and September, dates are sold at about a halfpenny a pound; all other kind of fruit are indeed exceedingly cheap. The water melons are much coveted for their excellence, and are sent by water as presents as far as Bussora, which is near seven hundred miles distant, either by the Tigris or Euphrates. The streets are all built in a strait line, and paved, excepting the bazars. The houses make no appearance on the outside, as nothing is to be seen except brick walls and lattice windows; yet the principal ones are very commodious, and have all subterraneous apartments arched, and ornamented with handsome stucco-work, to which the families retire about ten in the morning, where they dine, and remain until about an hour before sun-set.

In the months of June, July, and August, to avoid the excessive hot weather, every one sleeps at night on the terrace on the tops of the houses, as the subterranean apartments are at that time very hot, although they are cool in the heat of the day. The air at Bagdad is so hot in these three months, that the mutton and fowls, which are killed early in the morning, if not eaten by noon become putrid. The butchers and poulterers kill their meat twice a day, so that it has hardly time to cool before it is dressed: yet notwithstanding, this hot wind is not sickly, but the reverse, as there is not a more healthy place in any part of the world. In March last the plague, which they had been strangers to for more than sixty years, was brought to this city by a caravan from Ezroom, and raged so violently, that of near five hundred thousand inhabitants, which both sides of the city are said to have contained before the plague commenced, not one hundred thousand remained alive when it ceased, besides the fifty thousand which had fled away to avoid it, and afterwards returned again; of which num

ber was the pasha, and every person belonging to the seraglio, which was then shut up. The pasha and his suite retired to a country palace, with spacious gardens, about three miles from the city, where forbidding all intercourse, they avoided the disease. The account seemed so surprising, that when it was observed I doubted the truth of it, I was referred to the register offices, which are two, one being kept on each side. The officers who kept the books were so civil as to shew them; by them it appeared that upwards of three hundred thousand had been carried out to be buried, who had died of the plague, in the space of little more than four months.

The officer on this side said that they could not be mistaken, as the dead were all ordered, without distinction, to be carried out of one gate only, and the number amounted to two hundred and eleven thousand three hundred and fifty-four; adding, that after the plague had ceased, and the people began to return home again, the gate through which these people had been carried out to be buried was, by order of the pasha and his divan assembled, shut up with a strong brick wall,as it now is, the occasion of which I had not learned before.

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Bagdad is the cheapest place for provisions that I had ever heard of or seen. They are all good in their kind, and the price of all sorts of grain, bread, butcher's meat, and fish is regulated once in every month by the pasha and his divan (council.) the space of five months mutton has been at two or three paras the oka, that is, from three halfpence to twopence farthing for forty-six ounces, English averdupoise weight, the Bagdad oka exceeding the Turkish four ounces; lamb at one para the oka more than mutton. Beef is not killed in the warm weather. The reason why the price increased from two to three paras in so short a time, was the

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great increase of inhabitants, as from the middle of July last year (at which time the plague had entirely ceased,) to the middle of May this year; it was computed that the increase of the inhabitants was one hundred thousand; and from the middle of May to the middle of this preseat month of October, it is computed that the number of inhabitants has increased in the same proportion; so that according to the computation made at those two periods, there has been as great an increase in the last five, as there was in the ten preceding months.

the oka; they sometimes weigh from four to six pounds Besides, here are many different kinds of small fish, the prices of which are not regulated; but they are as cheap in proportion as the others.

The water of the Tigris is most excellent, so much superior to spring or well water, that the poorest person in the city will not deign to taste of either, although there are wells in the yards of most houses. At gentlemen's houses and in public khans are fountains of water continually playing, which are conducted by earthen pipes into this part of the city, from springs on a hill about five miles distant. Åt all these places they have well water, the Turks giving it the preference in making their ablutions, as it is clear, and the river water turbid. The river water is carried to every house in skins upon horses and asses. Some families agrée at a certain sum annually, others by the load. A horse load sells from two to three paras, according to the distance from the river to the house; an ass's load for half the price. It is asserted that there are a bove twenty thousand asses employed in this work, and at least half as many horses.

On inquiry I found that they made their computation by the number of empty houses which were rented by the new comers, and observing of how many the family of such persons consisted. Lodgers are a description of persons unknown among the Turks; as when once a man is married, neither father, mother, brother, nor sister, (excepting they happen to be children,) live in the same house with him. From all these circumstances I imagine that they cannot be much out in their computation. Bread in the last five months has been from one to one and a half paras per oka, exactly half the price of mutton. Here are Coffee-houses are so numerous, that three sorts of fish in the river, the it excited my curiosity to enquire if prices of which are from one to three there was any method of knowing the paras per oka, and which have not real number. I was told nothing deviated in five months. For exam- was more easy, as they were all regisple, the largest sort are from six to 'tered, paying an annual sum for their twenty pounds weight, their scales and licence. A friend' was so kind as to form resemble salmon, excepting their go with me to the office, when I nose, which is flat, and not unlike a found the number then occupied to be a swine's snout; their flesh is well nine hundred and fifty-five, and of tasted, but not firm; these are sold those untenanted four hundred and at one para the oka. The next sort, ninety, which the officer hoped to see resembling nearly our grey mullet, all opened within a year, as he exare exceedingly good, with firm flesh; pected that in that time the number these are sold at two paras the oka. of inhabitants would increase so as to The third sort are shads, exactly the equal the population before the plague; same as those in England in shape and he added, that more than half the pretaste, and were in high season all June, sent number have been tenanted within July, and most of the month of Au-six months. Those coffee houses gust; these were sold at three paras which are in the skirts of the town, Feb. 1809. and

and in all the open situations, place awnings before their houses, to allure customers to a cool retreat in summer, whilst those which are on the banks of the river, and many others, have either large yards or gardens, in which there are arbors and trees for shade. It is not uncommon to see from two to three hundred people at a time at these coffee-houses, some playing at chess, others smoking and drinking coffee, and others engaged in conversation. I am told that on the Mesopotamian side there are not three hundred coffee-houses, nor did they ever amount to four hundred, before the commencement of the plague.

Besides the Meydan, there are several large void spaces which we should call squares, although all are not really so, in two of which there is an immensely high building of stone, the only structure of that material, except the great mosque, in the town. The

Jew rabbies relate a tradition, that they were temples in the time of the Persians, long before this place was conquered by the caliphs; the gates, which are folding, are more than twenty feet high and six inches thick, plated with brass on both sides, which is so very strong as to be still entire; the inside is one immense room without any division, and the largest I ever saw. I went into both of them through a wicket in the gate, and observed that they are now used as depositaries for grain. The roofs are arched, having no other support but the two walls on which they rest.The buildings are forty-eight paces long and seventeen broad, and are the only two structures of any antiquity in the city. This city has not any suburb, nor are there any houses to be seen in the neighbourhood nearer than a mile, and those are small country residences. On the Mesopotamian side there are not any farms, as the hordes of Arabs supply all the provisions, excepting grain, which all grows on this side the river.

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The storks come here about the middle of March in great abundance, and return again sometime, in July with their young, which are hatched here. They make their nests on the tops of the highest buildings, such as the columns of the mosques, notwithstanding they are covered with glazed tiles; yet, as every column has a ball and a crescent on the top, it facilitates their fastening their nests by long twigs and other materials placed on the crescent, and so let down, and secured with some glutinous substance to make them secure.

About the middle of June they begin to teach their young to fly, the parents always attending; and about the end of the month they begin to lengthen their flights, and are seen to go away in the morning early, and not return until evening; this they always perform in three or four squadrons or divisions, in a very regular manner. They continue afterwards to fly to places near the city, and are seen to alight and feed daily on the banks of the river.

About the middle of July they all combine about two hours before sunset, in three or four divisions; they then soar higher than usual, and make several circuits about the city and adjacent country; this they repeat daily, with such regularity and seeming o bedience to their chief (who always is single and foremost) that it delights and surprizes every beholder.

At length the 25th day of July arrived, the day on which they took their final departure for this year.Early in the morning they all collected and formed themselves into four divisions, and flew, or rather sailed, round the city very leisurely, and not very high, then continued some time hovering near together, as if in consultation, and about eight in the morning they flew straight away very swiftly to the north-west.

During the time of the plague, many families were entirely destroyed, in

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consequence of several villains, either separately or in partnership, taking advantage to enter and despoil such houses as were left defenceless, which caused the ruin of many of those surviving relations, whose whole dependence was on the deceased. Hence it was common to see many men and women (who heretofore had been in good circumstances) walking the streets with dejected appearances, seeking alms; they never begged, but would accost those whom they thought capable of affording them relief, with a down-cast look, and an air that pleaded more strongly than words; and at the same time presenting them with an orange, a lemon, or an apple, or something equivalent; which, if excepted, alms were given; if not, it was civilly returned.

Another sort of distressed and pitiful objects were frequently met with, some of which were merry, and others melancholy mad, occasioned by the loss of parents or children, their dearest friends, or their fortune, during the plague. I have many times seen welldisposed people bring one or two into a coffee-house, give them victuals, and afterwards sherbet and coffee. The merry would eat and drink, look round and laugh at every body the whole time, and go away laughing without speaking a word to any one. On the contrary, the melancholy, although pressed to sit down, would receive every thing with indifference, and whether they ate or drank, or refused, they never spoke, although often intreated; but would, after seeing every thing around with a silent indifference, rise and walk slowly away.

During the months of June, July, and August, there have been four of ficers, and twenty-seven privates of the corps of janisaries put to death, which is done by decapitation at the arsenal, and always at two hours after sun-setting. The public know nothing about it until the moment their heads are struck off, which is announ

ced by the firing a cannon at the arsenal, if a private man; but if an officer, two cannon are fired at his death. People are not at all surprised when such things happen, it being so common; nor do any trouble themselves so far as to enquire the cause of their death.

The pasha of Bagdad's dominions reach westward in Mesopotamia upwards of three hundred miles from the city, and are confined by the eastern part of the province of Diarbeker, which is under the government of the pasha of Urfa, the capital of Diarbeker, who is appointed by the Porte. About midway between Bagdad and Diarbeker, is the city of Mosul, situate on the banks of the Tigris, and supposed to be the ancient Nineveh ; that is, the ruins of Nineveh are near it; from which ruins Mosul is said to have been built. This place supplies Bagdad (and most of the dominions dependant on it, as well as the Hither Persia) with tobacco, which is carried down the Tigris on floats to Bagdad, and there resold. These floats are composed of bundles of reeds dexterously fastened together, over which is laid straw; they are buoyed up by many hundreds of goat-skins filled with air and fastened underneath. Some of them are so large as to carry one hundred tons of tobacco, that is, four hundred bales of five hundred pounds each, and upwards. I have seen such a float arrive at the banks near the custom-house, and in one hour after not the least appearance of it remaining. The bales are rolled on shore, the reeds are cut loose and tossed on the banks, then the skins are untied to let out the air, and all is removed so expeditiously, that not the least remains are to be seen in one hour after arrival. The skins are an article of trade here, and bought up immediately by the sakars, or those who carry and sell water.

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The pasha's dominions eastward in Mesopotamia reach to the extreme

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