skull of his own collecting, meaning to turn it into a drinking cup for private use but the Pasha severely censured an idea so disgraceful,' he observed, 'to a civilized nation like the Turks; and was near making its author, in punishment of his offence, contribute to the building materials from his own stock." Reluctantly passing over various spirited passages in the early part of his first volume, in which the talents of this writer are very strikingly manifested, we give his account of the approach to Stambool,orConstantinople,as seen from the grand vizier's ship, a three-decker. "At last we entered the Boghaz !* Stunned by the incessant thundering of an almost uninterrupted succession of batteries, lining the shore right and left all the way, I felt not the less as if sharing all the honours of their salutes, and could scarce repress my joy and exultation. In a few hours, I was to behold that celebrated city, whose origia lay bid in the obscurity of ages, whose ancient greatness had often been the theme of my infant wonder, and whose humiliation under the Othoman yoke I had, in concert with my didaskalost of Chio, frequently lamented with tears; but which, even in its present degraded state, and groaning under the despotism of the Turks-had, from a child, been the final object of all my views and wishes. "A most favourable wind continued to swell our sails. Our mighty keel shot rapidly through the waves of the Propoutis, foaming at our prow. Every instant the vessel seemed to advance with accelerated speed; as if become animated-it felt the near approach to its place of rest; and at last Constantinople rose,in all its grandeur, before us. "With eyes rivetted on the opening splendours I watched, as they rose out of the bosom of the surrounding waters, the pointed minarets, the swelling cupolas, and the innumerable habitations, which, either stretched away along the winding shore, reflecting their image in the the wave, or creeping up the steep sides of the mountains, traced The Boghaz: generic Turkish name for streights; here applied to those of the Dardanelles. + Didaskalos: a teacher. their outline on the sky. At first ag glomerated in a single confused mass, the lesser parts of this immense whole seemed, as we advanced, by degrees to unfold, to disengage themselves from each other, and to grow into various groups, divided by wide chasms and deep indentures,—until at last the clusters, thus far still distantly connected, became transformed as if by magic into three entirely different cities,+ each individually of prodigious extent, and each separated from the others by a wide arm of that sea, whose silver tide encompassed their stupendous base, and made it rest half on Europe and half on Asia. Entranced by the magnificent spectacle, I felt as if all the faculties of my soul were insufficient fully to embrace its glories: I hardly retained power to breathe; and almost apprehended that in doing so, I might dispel the gorgeous vision, and find its whole vast fabric only a delusive dream?" We must now accompany our hero to Constantinople, in the suite of the Greek drogueman," the Lord Mavroyeni." His approach to the Greek Quarter affords an example of the accuracy of his descriptions. 66 It was with difficulty I could collect my scattered senses, when the time came to step down into the nut-shell, all azure and gold, which waited to convey the Drogueman's suite to the Fanar, where, with the other principal Greeks, Mavroyeni had his residence. Each stroke of the oar, after we had pushed off from the ship, made our light caick (wherry) glide by some new palace, more splendid than those which preceded it; and every fresh edifice I beheld, grander in its appearance than the former, was immediately set down in my mind as my master's habitation. I began to feel uneasy when I perceived that we had passed the handsomest district, and were advancing towards a less showy quarter; I suffered increasing pangs as we were made to step ashore on a mean looking quay, and to turn into a narrow dirty lane; and I attained the acme of my dismay, when arrived Three entirely different cities: namely, Constantinople, Galata, and Seutari. opposite a house of a dark and dingy hue, apparently crumbling to pieces with age and neglect, I was told that there lived the lord Mavroyeni. At first I tried to persuade myself that my companions were joking; but too soon assured they only spoke the truth, I entered with a fainting heart. A new surprise awaited me within. That de.spised fir-wood case of dusky brown, the regular uniform of all the Fanariote palaces, and which seemed so much out of repair, that the very blinds were dropping off of their hinges, contained rooms furnished in all the splendour of Eastern magnificence. Persian carpets covered the floors, Genoa velvets clothed the walls, and gilt trellice work overcast the lofty ceilings. Clouds of rich perfumes rose on all sides from silver censers. And soon I found that this dismal exterior was an homage, paid by the cunning of the Greek gentry, to the fanaticism of the Turkish mob, impatient of whatever may, in Christians, savour of ostentation or parade. The persons of the Fanaorite grandees were of a piece with their habitations. Within doors sinking under the weight of rich furs, costly shawls, jewels, and trinkets, they went out into the streets wrapped in coarse, and dingy, and often thread-bare clothing." Nothing can be better than the definition of the Greek character, which is put into the mouth of the drogueman. "The complexion of the modern Greek may receive a different cast from different surrounding objects; the core still is the same as in the days of Pericles. Credulity, versatility, and thirst of distinctions from the earliest periods formed, still form, and ever will continue to form the basis of the Greek character; and the dissimilarity in the external appearance of the nation arises, not from any radical change in its temper and disposition, but only from the incidental variation in the means through which the same propensities are to be gratified. The ancient Greeks worshipped an hundred Gods, the modern Greeks adore as many saints. The ancient Greeks believed in oracles and prodigies, in incantations and spells; the modern Greeks have faith in relics and 2 miracles, in amulets and divinations. The ancient Greeks brought rich offerings and gifts to the shrines of their deities for the purpose of obtaining success in war, and pre-eminence in peace: the modern Greeks hang up dirty rags round the sanctuaries of their saints, to shake off an ague, or to propitiate a mistress. The former were staunch patriots at home, and subtle courtiers in Persia; the latter defy the Turks in Mayno, and fawn upon them at the Fanar. Besides, was not every common-wealth of ancient Greece as much a prey to cabals and factions as every community of modern Greece? Does not every modern Greek preserve the same desire for supremacy, the same readiness to undermine by every means, fair or foul, bis competitors, which was displayed by his ancestors? Do not the Turks of the present day resemble the Romans of past ages in their respect for the ingenuity, and at the same time, in their contempt for the character of their Greek subjects? And does the Greek of the Fanar shew the least inferiority to the Greek of the Piraeus in quickness of perception, in fluency of tongue, and in fondness for quibbles, for disputation,and for sophistry ?-Believe me, the very difference between the Greeks of time past and of the present day arises only from their thorough resemblance, from that equal pliability of temper and of faculties in both, which has ever made them receive with equal readiness the impression of every mould, and the impulse of every agent. When patriotism, public spirit, and pre-eminence in arts, science, literature, and warfare were the road to distinction, the Greeks shone the first of patriots, of heroes, of painters, of poets,and of philosophers. Now that craft and subtlety, adulation and intrigue are the only path to greatness, these same Greeks are—what you see them!" Having by his irregularities, for he also partakes a little of Don Juan, worn out the patience of his master Mavroyeni, Anastasius is, un beau matin, as our French neighbours would say, very coolly ordered to "walk out of his house, and never to walk in again!" This event gives rise to a new series of adventures in the Turkish capital of these the reader will be enabled to form some notion, from a short paragraph detailing his mode of treatment while associated with a Jewish quack doctor, who had abandoned the less profitable calling of an old clothesman, for that lucrative and well stocked profession. "The Jew (says our hero) was to carry his own Galen in the shape of the best half of an old missal, stolen from a Capuchin; I undertook the medicine chest, with all its pills of starch, and all its powders of pipe-clay. The only thing I insisted upon as a sine qua non in the treaty, was not to appear in my new character in any of the streets I had before frequented; and to this ultimatum the Jew readily enough agreed. Matters thus settled between us, I somewhat dolefully exchanged my apparel for a dress in unison with that of my principal, and, after vainly begging, in gratitude for my friend Vasili's advice, to have the honour of making upon him my first experiment in this new profession, walked away with my grotesque patron. Immediately we began stalking thro' all the lanes and by-streets of the capital; I, with a pace exactly regulated by that of my master who walked before me, and both of us turning our heads constantly from right to left and from left to right, like weather cocks, to watch every call from a door or signal from a window; but full as much on the alert to avoid old faces as to court the notice of new ones. "Ours was an off-hand method of practice. As all cases were pretty much alike to our skill, a single feel of the pulse generally decided the most difficult treatments. Our patients, chiefly of the industrious class, could not afford long illnesses; and these we certainly prevented. What most annoyed us was the headstrong obstinacy of some individuals, who sometimes insisted they still felt disordered, when we positively assured them they were cured. Had they been killed instead, they would not have complained. Still more disagreeable incidents now and then occurred. Called in one day to a woman in convulsions, Yacoob, I know not why, prescribed a remedy which the Turks regard as an insult. In her rage, the woman flew at him, and bit off half his ear. It was all I could do to save the other half. Another day (a Mohammedan festival) a set of merry-making Osmanlees insisted on Yacoob's putting on an European dress, which they carried about on a pole, that they might kick him through the streets as a Frank; and though he actually refused a fee for gratifying their whim, he nevertheless was made to go thro' the whole ceremony." 66 One evening, as we were returning from the Blacquernes, an old woman threw herself in our way, and taking hold on my master's garment, dragged him almost by main force after her into a mean looking habitation just by, where lay on a couch, apparently at the last gasp, a man of foreign features. I have brought a physician,' said the female to the patient, who perhaps may relieve you. Why will you,' answered he faintly, still persist to feed idle hopes! I have lived an outcast suffer me at least to die in peace; nor disturb my last moments by vain illusions! My soul pants to rejoin the Supreme Spirit; arrest not its joys it would only be delaying my eternal bliss!' As he spoke these words, which even struck Yacoob sufficiently to make him suspend his professional grimace, the last beams of the setting sun darted across the casement of the window upon his pale yet swarthy features. Thus visited, he seemed for a moment to revive. 'I have always,' aid he,' considered my fate as connected with the great luminary that rules the creation, I have always paid it due worship, and firmly believed I could not breathe my last whilst its rays shone upon me. Therefore carry me out, that I may take my last farewell of the heavenly ruler of my earthly destinies!' "We all rushed forward to obey the mandate. But the stairs being too narrow, the woman only opened the window, and placed the dying man before it, so as to enjoy the full view of the glorious orb, just in the act of dropping beneath the horizon. He remained a few moments in silent adoration; and mechanically we all joined him in fixing our eyes on the object of his worship. It set in all its splendour; and when its golden disk had entirely disappeared, we looked round at the Parsee. He too had sunk into everlasting rest!" The description of the Bagnio powerful and original : is "The vast and high enclosure of the Bagnio, situated contiguously to the arsenal and the docks, contains a little world of its own, but a world of wailing! One part is tenanted by the prisoners made on board the enemy's ships, who, with an iron ring round their legs, await in this dismal repository their transference on board the Turkish fleet. This part may only be called a sort of purgatory.. The other is hell in perfection. It is the larger division, filled with the natural subjects of the Grand Signior, whom their real or supposed misdemeanors have brought to this abode of unavailing tears. Here are confined alike the ragged beggar urged by famine to steal a loaf, and the rich banker instigated by avarice to deny a deposit; the bandit who uses open violence, and the baker who employs false weights; the land robber and the pirate of the seas, the assassin and the cheat. Here,as in the infernal regions, are mingled natives of every country-Turks Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Gipsies; and here are confounded individuals of every creed-the Mohamedan, theChristian, the Hebrew and the Heathen, Here the proud and the humble, the opulent and the necessitous,are reduced to the direst of equalities, the equality of torture. But I err: for should some hapless victim-perhaps guilty of no other crime but that of having excited the Sultan's cupidity, still wear on bis first entrance the livery of better days, his more decent appearance will only expose him to harsher treatment. Loaded with the heaviest fetters, linked to the most loathsome of malefac tors, he is compelled to purchase every alleviation of his burthen, every mitigation of his pain, at the most exorbitant price; until the total exhaustion of his slender store has acquired him the privilege of being at least on a level with the lowest of his fellow sufferers; and spared additional torments, no longer lucrative to their inflictors. "Every day a capital fertile in crimes pours new offenders into this dread receptacle; and its high wall and deep recesses resound every instant with imprecations and curses, uttered in all the various idioms of the Othoman Empire. Deep moans and dismal yelis leave not its dismal echoes a moment's repose. From morning until night, and from night until morning, the ear is stunned with the clang of chains, which the galley-slaves drag about while confined in their cells, and which they still drag about when toiling at their tasks. Linked together two and two for life, should they sink under their sufferings, they still continue thus linked after the death of either; and the man doomed to live on, drags after him the corpse of his dead companion. In no direction can the eye escape the spectacle of atrocious punishments, and of indescribable agonies. Here perhaps you see a wretch whose stiffened limbs refuse their office, stop suddenly short in the midst of his labour, and, as if already impassible, defy the stripes that lay open his flesh, and wait in total immobility the last merciful blow that is to end his misery; while, there, you view his companion foaming with rage and madness, turn against his own person his desperate hands, tear his clotted hair, rend his bleeding bosom, and dash to pieces his head against the wall of his dungeon. "A long unpunished pirate, a liberated galley-slave, Achmet-reïs by name, was the fiend of hell who, by his ingenuity in contriving new tortures,and his infernal delight in beholding new sufferings, had deserved to become the chief inspector of this place, and the chief minister of its terrors. His joys were great, but they were not yet complete. Only permitted thus far to exercise his craft on mortals, he still was obliged to calculate what degree of agony the human frame could bear, and to proportion the pain he inflicted to the powers of suffering which man possessed, lest, by despatching his victims too soon, he should defeat his own aim. He was not yet received among his brother dæmons, in the blissful abodes where torments do not kill, and where the sufferer's pains might be increased in an infinite ratio. "Of this truth, the very hour of my arrival has afforded him a sorely lamented proof! An Armenian cashier, suspected of withholding from the Sultan-sole heir to all his officers-the deposit of a deceased Pasha, had just been delivered over into Achmet's hands; and many were the days of bliss to which the executioner looked forward in the diligent performance of bis office. On the very first application of the rack, out of sheer malice, the Seraff expired! "Two days later, the whole of Achmet's prospects of sublunary happiness were near coming to a close. Some wretches, driven by his cruelty to a state of madness, had sworn his destruction. Their bands, tied behind their backs, could be of no use to them in effecting their purpose. They determined to crush him with their bodies. All at the same instant fell with their whole weight upon the executioner, or upon their own companions already pressing to the ground the prostrate monster, in hopes of burying his corpse under a living tumulus. But Achmet's good star prevailed :—ere yet his suffocation was completed, soldiers rescued the miscreant. He recovered, to wreak on his disappointed enemies his fiercest vengeance. Their punishment was dreadful! Sanguinary but not cruel, prone to ched blood in anger, yet shuddering at torture, I was horror-struck at the scene, and the yells of the victims still ring in my ears." The horrors of this scene are dreadfully aggravated by the introduction of the plague; and we proceed to quote another example of deeply affecting composition D 66 "The scourge had been expected for some time. By several of the prisoners had the frightful hag, its harbinger, been distinctly seen hovering with her bat's-wings over our drear abode, and with her hooked talons numbering one by one her intended but still unsuspecting victims. In the silence of the night she had been heard leisurely calling them by their names, knocking at their several doors, and marking with livid spots the damp walls of their cells*. Nothing but the visitation of this destructive monster seemed wanting to complete the horrors which surrounded me: for if even, when only stalking forth among men free to fly from its approach, and to shrink from its contact, the gaunt spectre mows down whole nations like the ripe corn in the fields, it may be imagined what havoc ensues when it is permitted to burst forth from the inmost bowels of hell, in the midst of wretches close-wedged in their dungeons, or linked together at their tasks, whom it must trample down to the last, ere it can find a vent in space. It is there that, with a focus of infection ready formed, a train of miasma ready laid on every side,though this prime minister of death strike at random, it never misses its aim, and its progress outstrips the quickness of lightning or of thought. It is there that even those who thus far retain full possession of health, already calculate the hours they still may live; that those who to day drag to their last abode their lifeless companions, to morrow are laid beside them; and that those who are dying, make themselves pillows of the bodies not yet cold of those already dead. It is there that finally we may behold the grim destroyer, in one place awaited in gloomy silence, in another encountered with fell imprecations, here implored with anxious cries, there welcomed with eager thanks, and now perhaps received with convulsive laughter, and mockery, by such as, trying to drink away its terrors, totter on the brink of the grave,from drunkenness as well as from disease. * This description of the plague is conformable to the form in which Greek superstition embodies that disease. |