Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

question about price, a pipe is handed, and the parties sit down to smoke, and consider the difference between them; this has often happened to me in making bargains for horses. But the Turks in their dealings are generally fair, and their claims for increased price seem always made with reason and justice.

It was my intention to have started hence yesterday, the 15th of March, but a new commander-in-chief and head of police having been just appointed, it was necessary to obtain the signatures of the new officers to my firman, which is just sent home,—a prodigious document, for ensuring to me every personal accommodation and assistance on my journey. There is another for obtaining horses, and a third to be used on a new road opened only a few months ago.

I have seen the Sultan today: he is certainly, considering the people whom he governs, one of the most wonderful men of the age. That reform should be carried into effect, with even dangerous rapidity, among a people ten years ago considered incapable of change, and whose religious habits, education, ideas, and very nature were all opposed to change, and that the whole of these reforms should have been introduced so quickly, show that the Sultan has not only a powerful mind to plan, but an equal energy to effect, such astonishing changes. Within these five or six years, upon his going publicly to mosque, as is always the custom, he was shaded by plumes and dressed in all the cumbrous robes and jewels associated with eastern pomp. At that time it was scarcely safe to look up as he passed; the offence of pointing at him was repressed by summary punishment, and report says that the scimitar was seldom long idle in its scabbard. Now, on the contrary, he wears a red cap, or fez, with a star in front, and a military European blue cloak over a plain blue uniform. He rides on an European saddle, and retains none of his

E

former state, except the fumes of incense rising from a censer swung by a page who precedes him. When I saw him he was attended by thirty or forty officers on horseback, all in the same plain uniform, and he rode for about three-quarters of a mile along the street lined on either side by soldiers: a band played as he approached. In fact no feature of the ceremony would have appeared extraordinary in any European capital; and there was scarcely an individual among the thousands that attended, who had not completely changed costume, manners, and almost opinions, during the last few years. In the seraglio the ladies show their faces when attended by their music, drawing, and French masters; and in so doing at least three offences against the Mahometan law are committed; —that a man should be admitted into the harem, that women should be unveiled before men, and that Mahometans should be taught to imitate natural objects and to speak a foreign tongue.

Curious instances are shown, however, of the difficulty of subduing the prejudices of an ignorant people. One very unpopular reform which the Sultan had to effect, in the formation of his troops, was that of their wearing braces, ―a necessary accompaniment to the trousers: and why? because these form a cross, the badge of the infidel, upon the back: many indeed will submit to severe punishment, and even death, for disobedience to military orders, rather than bear upon their persons this sign, hostile to their religion. No one can appreciate the difficulty of making the first change among this people, without knowing their character: succeeding changes will follow with comparatively little opposition. It is amusing to see the longing after old habits, which have become in fact the very nature of the older people: their beards are rather concealed than cut off; and, in spite of the plain blue frock-coat, I often see beneath it costly embroidered vests. This habitual indulgence in

variety and extravagance of dress, it will require time to subdue.

The Sultan does not appear to be above fifty years of age; he has a short, trim, black beard, sits extremely well and upright on his horse, and looks as if he would in the natural course of life see many more years of change. He is suspected of being a Christian; and certainly his exertions are doing far more than any other means now at work to remove the superstitions of Mahometanism; and these reforms may perhaps prepare the way for further changes in the religion of the people. Here the barriers of the Mahometan law are falling fast, and there is now as much religious freedom in this as in any city in the world. There are many pictureshops, and portraits of the Sultan are seen exposed in all of them, and this by his command. The devices on the embroidered clothes and the painted ceilings and fronts of houses now represent flowers, guns, and flags,—objects in nature or art,-which is a direct violation of the laws of the Koran; but it would be endless to relate the changes in progress here. It is for this reason that the villages and interior of the country are more interesting to the traveller; there the change is scarcely perceptible, the natural manners and character of the people remaining undisturbed. In Constantinople the turban and the variety of head-dresses, which I have before described, are comparatively unseen, every one wearing the red cap; and the character of the people is changing as quickly as the costume.

The weather is now very fine, but still bitterly cold. I cannot face the north-east wind, to make an excursion up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. The straits, as far as I have seen them, are exceedingly beautiful; the continued ravines. or sheltered dells on either side, with palaces and villas down to the water's edge, are rich and picturesque, and present a contrast to the bare hills above them.

The natural situation of Constantinople is lovely, and

appears designed for the site of a great city. I know no capital which covers so many and such steep hills, and to this peculiar character it owes the whole of its beauty; indeed I have never seen a city so picturesque, viewed from every point around. The activity among the people, both on land and water, is amusing; they seem like bees, and their city somewhat resembles a hive. The boats completely speckle the water, and as I have watched them at a distance, they appeared to me stationary; but hundreds succeed to hundreds, moving in all directions, yet from their similarity producing the effect of fixed objects. In London the tides and the stream of the Thames influence the course of vessels upon it, but these waters have more the appearance of a lake, with equal traffic from all sides. I can frequently count from my window six or seven steamboats; their introduction is recent, as is also the opening of a bridge, built to unite Pera with Constantinople; it was to form a drive for the Sultan from one palace to another. The bridge is already passable, but the streets leading to it are not yet formed.

It is said that few persons remain a week in this city without witnessing a fire; one broke out yesterday, but before I could reach the spot it was subdued. The largest houses are frequently burnt down in the space of ten minutes, being entirely constructed of a very inflammable wood. The fireengines are numerous, but, having to be transported on men's shoulders, they are small. The English, French, and Dutch ambassadors' palaces, all in Pera (the district of the city where the Franks live), are in ruins, and their respective governments are tardy in rebuilding them. The ambassadors reside at their country-houses, twelve miles distant.

77

CHAPTER IV.

BITHYNIA.

REMAINS.-DISCOVERY

DEPARTURE FROM CONSTANTINOPLE.—BURIAL-GROUND.—NEW ROAD.DIL FERRY.-MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE.THE COUNTRY.-NATURAL HISTORY.-ARRIVAL AT NICEA. — ITS REMAINS. OF INSCRIPTION.-PASS OF THE MOUNTAIN LEFKY.—VIZIER KHAN. — POWER OF THE FIRMAN.-SOHOÓT.

Saturday, March 17th.-We left Constantinople this morning at seven o'clock, but were detained at Oóscooda, the opposite town on the Asiatic side, waiting for horses, until ten.

These Turks are luxurious fellows; the post-master left word that he had waited for us until past eight, and was then at his bath; and as he had to sign my post firman, I was obliged to wait patiently till he had completed his toilet. A governor is never to be seen until after eleven in the morning, being in his harem, which, with his bath and mosque, occupy much of his day.

For some miles on the way, after leaving Oóscooda, on either side of the road were burial-grounds, whose groves of cypress-trees give a striking feature to hills otherwise uninteresting; but the view from them of the city, and its splendid situation, will always reward the traveller who may visit them. The whole line of our journey skirted the eastern shores of the Sea of Marmora, and passed the series of

« ZurückWeiter »