Travels and Researches in Asia Minor

GREEK CHURCH.-ANTIQUITIES.EGYPTIAN CUSTOMS.-DEPARTURE FOR MAGNESIA.-CARAVAN BRIDGE. NATURAL HISTORY ON THE WAY.-KHAN AT MAGNESIA.—JOURNEY TO THYATIRA, ONE OF THE SEVEN CHURCHES.-ITS ANTIQUITIES.

February 12th, 1838.-I am now in the Frank town of Smyrna, having this evening set foot for the first time in Asia Minor. The whole of the Greek islands which I have passed since leaving Syra appeared barren and uncultivated, with scarcely a tree to be seen. As we drew near the coast of Asia Minor, the Bay of Smyrna came in sight, bounded by mountains and woods, all green, rich, and beautiful. The approach to the city is very imposing, and the multitude of little boats scudding about, though not so picturesque as those of the Italian or Greek isles, have a striking and characteristic effect; the boats being gaily painted, the men all wearing turbans, and the women concealed in white drapery.

I can scarcely believe that I am in Asia Minor, for my inn (the Navy Hotel) is just like an English public-house. I have heard the guns firing and drums beating on board the

different men-of-war stationed opposite to my window; and the band of the Sapphire frigate has been playing "God save the Queen," and "Home, sweet Home."

February 13th.-On looking out of my window this morning, I found that I was really in the East. I beheld a whole city of Turks, a very gay scene; but the people struck me as being disgustingly fat. The variety of costume, occasioned by the different orders or sects of the Turks, is quite curious. It would be an endless task to describe the varieties, all very unlike the European; and nothing but the pencil could convey an idea of the various head-dresses. I have just seen a man with a turban, which I took for a small sack of flour placed upon his head. The women, although they contrive to have a good view of strangers at a distance, cover up all but one eye as they approach; and some are always thus ensconced, having a horse-hair mask or cowl over the upper part of the face, and the lower part concealed in the same white sheet which covers the rest of the body. The dresses are splendidly embroidered, a Turk thinking it nothing extraordinary to give fifteen or twenty pounds. for a jacket. I saw a child whose clothes must have cost sixty or seventy pounds, the embroidery being a mass of gold, and one set of clothes was put over another: the child was not above eight years old, but was probably the pet of some wealthy merchant. The expenditure of the Turks in dress is enormous, and of the Greeks also; at Syra I saw a celebrated Albanian chief of great wealth in his full dress, which I heard, independently of the jewels, was worth many hundred pounds.

Smyrna is a thickly inhabited town, and the streets are extremely narrow and dirty. The appearance of the people generally seems to me not pleasing; there is no trace of simplicity of manners, but they look as if they had always. lived in the bustle of commerce. I do not like any trait in the character of the Turks which I have yet seen; what a

« Zurück Weiter »

Books

Travels and Researches in Asia Minor: More Particularly in the Province of Lycia