If the object to be conveyed is a very heavy one, it is suspended on a long pole, and carried between twohamals, the rounded ends of the poles resting on their shoulders, with perhaps a leather pad between to protect the bone.
Should the weight be heavier still, say a large bale of merchandise or a pig of lead, four, six, or eighthamalscombine, each pair carrying a separate pole. As they march swinging and staggering along, with their right hand resting on their neighbours' left shoulder, and occupying half the street, they shoutVarda!which means "Make room!" and everybody has to clear out and rush to the sidewalk, or run the risk of being thrown over.
Hamalsform themselves into Guilds, allotting themselves special spheres of work or districts, and are very jealous of interference by outsiders in what they consider their monopoly.
In addition to the porterage of goods they also undertake the hewing of wood, such as is used for warming purposes in the East. They begin by conveying it on their backs in lengths of 5 or 6 feet, in which it arrives from the forests, and, throwing it in a heap in front of your door, they proceed forthwith to chop it with their axes into lengths of 12 to 14 inches, and then store it. In the meanwhile half the street is occupied by the hewers, and chips fly right and left, endangering the eyes and faces of passers-by.
Up to the time of the Armenian massacres, Armenianhamalshad nearly the entire monopoly of the Constantinople Custom-house porterage, but the majority were slaughtered in cold blood or had to flee, and Kurds (many of whom were their murderers) were engaged in their place.
But the latter had neither the experience, nor the skill, nor the obliging manners of the Armenians, and for a long time business was disorganized, and merchants were discontented.
Before dismissing the subject of thehamals, reference may be made to a peculiar contrivance they adopt for preventing water conveyed in open barrels from spilling, through the vibration. It simply consists in floating a disc of wood on the surface, and this seems as effectual as the sailors' device of throwing oil over the troubled waters. Anyone may try it and see the result.
It is difficult to depict the habits of a people in a country so widespread as Armenia, but I may briefly allude to the houses they inhabit in Erzerum, the principal town of Armenia, and one which, according to Armenian tradition, stands on the site of the Garden of Eden! In any case, the climate has changed since those blissful days, for owing to its high latitude of 5,000 feet above the sea, that district is bitterly cold during the winter and hot during the summer. Indeed, for six months of the year, and more, snow is said to lie in the streets of Erzerum. The houses are in consequence low and small, consisting generally of a ground-floor only, with a flat roof over it. They are built of stone against the sides of a hill, and each room stands with a separate roof. As these roofs or terraces are connected with steps, one can walk a very considerable way over them. During the summer they are overgrown with grass, and are the favourite resort of women and children, the latter taking with them their lambs to browse over the grass and flowers. Each room of these houses has a fireplace, where cow-dung fuel is consumed. The furniture is very simple, and consists of a raised divan round three sides of the room, on which the family sit during the day, and often sleep at night. Only few houses possess chairs and tables. Meals are served on a round tray placed on a stool, around which the family squat and partake from a common dish. The characteristic feature of the house is the stable for oxen, one portion of which has a raised platform, with divans and carpets, and is used as the men's reception-room. The breath of the cattle helps to keep it warm and cosy, and underneath the platform the dogs lie and sleep, while on the divan, resting along with the men, are lovely silken-haired cats, many of which have their tails dyed red with henna.
In winter the houses can hardly be distinguished under the snow, and the town is described as a great rabbit-warren, with the passages leading to the doors of the houses like so many burrows.
In our account of the races ruled over by the Turks we must not forget the Greeks, those enterprising colonists who, long before the Christian era, settled along the coast of the Black Sea, and all along the sea-line which now fringes the Ottoman Empire, as well as in its islands, and who also founded commercial stations in the interior. In earliest times we find them connected with such expeditions as the Argonautic, in quest of the Golden Fleece, and returning, not only with rich trophies, but with wonderful legends regarding the lands they visited. I could entertain you at great length on their adventures in the countries I am describing, but this is not the object of this book, and my reference to the past must only be to show you that the present Greeks in Turkey are much the same people as their ancestors, with the same love for commerce, the same love for the beautiful and the same glowing imagination. Yet they differ in this respect, that they are now a subject instead of an independent people. They also differ in not calling themselves Hellenes, but Romei—i.e., Romans—an appellation which, strange to say, applies only to members of the Greek Church. Roman Catholics contemptuously refuse to be called Romei, and style themselves Latins.
Intermarriages have somewhat tainted the purity of their blood, and in many cases they have lost the use of their mother-tongue, and can only speak Turkish, but still they are Greeks to all intents and purposes, and mostly members of the Greek or Orthodox Church.
The Greek type of face is much the same as what we see in the statuary in our museums. The forehead is broad but rather low, the nose and profile straight, the eyes large, the lips full, the chin firm, and the neck rounded. They are tall and stately, and graceful in their movements, and have small hands and feet.
In character they are highly imaginative, superficial, and shrewd, but make excellent husbands and wives, and inspire their children with a love for home and respect for their parents.
In education the wealthier classes are advanced, but the peasantry are still backward. The Greek spoken by the latter is very corrupt, and has a large admixture of Turkish and Italian, but the efforts of School Boards and of the local newspapers are tending to purify and elevate it. At present even the New Testament Greek is above the average man's comprehension.
The Greeks, as of yore, have much of the heroic in their character, and their ballads are full of the noble deeds, both of men and of women, in their defence against their oppressors.
Their usual method of vindicating their rights and protecting themselves consisted in forming bands ofArmatolæ, orKleptæ, and occupying strongholds in the mountains, from which they would sweep down unexpectedly and avenge themselves, or carry away some wealthy Pacha as captive until he was ransomed.
These bands were looked up to by the people as heroes and deliverers—the Jephthas and Gideons of their captivity.
But unfortunately their exploits were not resorted to for the cause of freedom and justice alone, and have often degenerated into sheer acts of brigandage. A series of them were recently enacted in Macedonia, and on one occasion an Englishman was surprised, surrounded, and carried to the mountains. A messenger was sent down with a demand for his ransom, and with a threat that unless this was produced within a stated time, or if pursuit was made, his life would be forfeited. The sum fixed upon was the captives' weight in gold, and as he unfortunately happened to be a heavy man, the amount represented £12,000. The ransom was duly paid, but the money afterwards recovered from the Turkish Government.
As an instance of the strange mixture of superstition and depravity among some of these brigand bands, it is related that on one occasion a band plundered a church, and then, seizing the priest, theKleptæput a sword to his throat until he absolved them from the offence.
Acts of brigandage are not, however, limited to Greeks, though they are the chief offenders, but are shared with Albanians and Turks. Nor have Macedonia and Greece had the monopoly, but Smyrna and the hill-country near Constantinople have given scope for their activities. Their spies and agents in these towns supplied them with information, and the villagers and shepherds about their districts being in full sympathy, kept them in supplies and ammunition.
From the bandit it is pleasant to turn to the agricultural and pastoral life of the Greeks in Turkey, and describe the assistance that boys and girls give to their parents.
When the wheat or barley has been harvested, the sheaves are spread on the threshing-floor, which has previously been carefully prepared with clay and stones beaten down into a smooth surface. A broad wooden sledge is then provided, with sharp flint-stones firmly embedded into the under portion. One or two horses are attached to the sledge and a boy or girl, seated on a stool on the sledge, seizes the reins, and whip in hand, drives the horses at full gallop round and round the threshing-floor. The sharp flints, acting as knives, soon cut up the long stalks into straw, and separate the grain. Then a windy day is selected, and with long wooden forks the straw is tossed up into the air, the wind carrying the chaff and straw to a short distance, and leaving the heavier grain at the winnower's feet. The winnowed grain is then shovelled up into a heap, and there it must remain until the tax-gatherer has come and removed one-tenth on behalf of the Government. The harvest-festival follows, when, attired in their best clothes and with flowers on their heads and sheaves of golden grain in their hands, the harvesters proceed to the towns, and dance and sing before the doors of their patrons.
One of their favourite dances is the old classicalsyrto, or long-drawn dance, performed on the village green. The youths and maidens don their picturesque gala costumes, and prepare for the dance, while the elderly men group themselves round the coffee-house, smoking their pipes and sipping coffee, and the matrons, with little ones, sit under the trees and gossip. A musician, with fiddle, pipe, or viol, sits on a barrel, while each youth produces his coloured handkerchief, and, holding it by one corner, presents the other to the girl at his side. She in her turn presents her own to the dancer next to her; a long line or circle is formed, and the dance is proceeded with, the youths and maidens responding to each other in the words of a song.
The dress of the girls differs very much according to the locality where they reside. That of the villages near Constantinople consists of a loose, bright-coloured bodice, worn over a blouse open at the neck, and a coloured kerchief twisted round the head, from under the folds of which the hair hangs down the back in rich plaited tresses. The trousers are loose, baggy, and voluminous, and are fastened with a cord round the waist.
Over the bodice a bright zouave is worn, richly embroidered in gold or silver, and strings of gold or silver coins hang round the head, or as a necklace round the throat, while on the wrists are heavy bracelets.
In other places it is described as consisting of "a skirt woven in stripes of silk and woollen, reaching to the ankles, with a tight-fitting bodice of the same, a cloth jacket braided or embroidered round the borders in gold thread and lined with fur, and in some districts a bright-coloured apron ornamented with needlework" (L. Garnett, "Women in Turkey").
The same writer reports that in the islands a favourite amusement on these occasions is for the girls to suspend a rope across a narrow street from the wall of their own house to that of a neighbour, and every youth who wishes to pass by must pay toll in the form of a small coin, and give one of the girls a swing, while he sings the following verse:
"O swing the clove-carnation red,The gold and silver shining:And swing the girl with golden hair,For love of her I'm pining."
"O swing the clove-carnation red,The gold and silver shining:And swing the girl with golden hair,For love of her I'm pining."
To which the maiden replies:
"O say what youth is swinging me,What do you call him, girls?For I a fez will broider him,With fairest, whitest pearls."
"O say what youth is swinging me,What do you call him, girls?For I a fez will broider him,With fairest, whitest pearls."
The Vlachs that inhabit Macedonia follow principally pastoral and agricultural pursuits. They spend the winter in their mountain villages, but during the summer they lead a nomadic life in quest of pastures, and move about, gipsy-like, in caravans.
The care of their father's flock is committed to the charge of the daughters, whose beauty has often been extolled in many an amorous folklore song. Their duties are to milk the sheep and goats, churn the milk into butter, or convert it into cheese, bleach and spin the wool, and weave garments for the use of the family. A loom occupies the corner of every dwelling, and every spare moment is given to twisting thread with a spindle.
There is considerable dislike among the Greeks to let their daughters go out to service, but this feeling is not shared by the inhabitants of the Greek islands. On the contrary, they supply the main stock of domestic servants, and recognized agents sail to and from the islands to find them occupation and attend to their interests. These Greek servants are generally very ignorant, can seldom write, and depend on the agent or some kind friend both for reading and writing their letters. They do not draw their pay monthly or quarterly, but prefer to allow it to accumulate with their masters, and withdraw it in a lump sum. After having stayed for some years in service, the girls are greatly in demand with their countrymen, and return to their islands and marry, but only to go back to service when their lazy husbands have expended their savings. Many of them return in the capacity of wet-nurses, a vocation greatly in demand in the East, where children are seldom brought up on the bottle. They are highly paid, and, moreover, receive presents on such important occasions as the child's cutting its first tooth and the like.
Their social position is also different from that of other servants, for as foster-mothers they have a say in the child's upbringing, and their own children can claim kinship as foster-brothers or foster-sisters. Strange and incongruous connections are often the result, as, for instance, in the case of an acquaintance of mine in Smyrna, a British subject and manager of a bank. His foster-brother, a Greek, took to the mountains, and was known as the famous brigand, Caterdjee Yiani, and many a time the latter escaped detection and arrest by hiding in the house of his British milk-kinsman.
Wet-nurses in the Sultan's palace are, it is stated, invariably Circassians, and their own children become playmates with the Crown Princes, and are not forgotten in after life. The foster-mother enjoys a title of courtesy, and often her influence in the palace comes next to that of the reigning Sultan's mother. In the case of the wet-nurse of Sultan Abdul Aziz, her power was such that frequently the appointment or dismissal of Governors and other State officials depended on her good-will.
Greek servants are as a rule honest, but very slovenly, and at first very raw and unused to the ways of civilized life. They love to go about barefooted, or shuffle in slippers. Their hair is seldom combed, and their garments hang loosely about them. Their head-dress is a printed kerchief, called afakiol, which they wear both indoors and out of doors, but the more advanced wear hats, and consider it such a distinction, that a man-servant of mine, who wanted to get married, could not describe his intended to me in more flattering terms than by saying that "she wears thecapello" (hat).
On Sundays they put on their finery and are very keen to go to church, and gossip with their fellow-servants in the women's gallery. It was probably to similar tittle-tattling, so common in Eastern churches, that St. Paul referred when forbidding women to "speak in the churches."
Factories are so seldom to be seen in Turkey that women have few opportunities of employment as factory-girls, but in the silk-spinning factories in Brusa Greek, Armenian, and Turkish girls work side by side. Their great ambition is to be possessed of and wear gold coins about their persons, but specially a five-lira piece, representing about £4 10s. of our money. Too eager to wait until their savings enable them to buy that coin, they go to a money-changer and receive one immediately on credit, paying him weekly a stipulated instalment, and interest at 12 per cent. a year in addition. The result is that when they have paid off the debt they find that the coin has cost them at least £6 or £7; but in the meanwhile their feminine vanity has been gratified, and the coin displayed three or four years earlier than otherwise.
A curious class of people to be found in nearly every village in Turkey, and even in the interior of Arabia, Egypt, and Khartoum, is that of thebakals, or grocers, who are Greeks from Kaisarieh, in Karamania (Asia Minor). Fat, dumpy, and oily, with dirty, baggy trousers, greasy vests and shining countenances, they are as like one another as two peas. They have practically the monopoly of the retail grocery business, and their shops contain everything you can imagine in the way of Eastern articles of diet—bread, cheese, black olives, salted anchovies, sardines, curdled milk calledyiaourt, oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, rice, sausages, and dried meats, honey, butter, dried fruits, tallow candles, matches, etc.
Their little boys—chips of the old block—go round every house, calling out "Bakalis" and catering for orders, or bringing them back in conical bags of brown paper. Nearly everybody buys on credit, and an account is run up (not always too honestly) which, after a short time, becomes formidable, and credit is stopped till an instalment is paid.
Thebakals'book-keeping is of the most primitive type, and will baffle the sharpest chartered accountant; but mistakes are seldom on the wrong side.
A peculiar method for recording the number of loaves of bread distributed in each house is that of thetchetoula, and consists in cutting a notch on a piece of stick for every loaf taken. The householder retains the stick, and receives a new one when the amount is paid. Another method is to make a chalk-mark on the door, and efface it on payment.
With a community living from hand to mouth like the Eastern, it is difficult to know what they would do without the ubiquitousbakal. Besides making himself useful in the catering-line, he frequently is the only man in his village who can read, and is resorted to both for reading and writing letters. His correspondence is carried on in Turkish words, but with Greek characters, full of conventional signs and contractions, and is next to impossible to decipher.
Stray newspapers sometimes reach him, and the news of the day is conveyed by him to clients; and should there be a Christian church in his village, he is sure to be one of its dignitaries, and aspsaltis, or precentor, preside over the singing.
Another curious product, if I may so call it, of the Greek market is a class of beggars known as theVolitziani. They come from villages in Thessaly, and are young women who put aside their best garments, and don an old black skirt and black jacket, so as to assume an air of abject poverty. When about to start they receive from their community a beggar's staff, as a badge or passport of their functions, and they proceed to Constantinople, or any other town where begging offers advantageous prospects. On their arrival they borrow or hire two or three children, one of which is an infant, and which they drug and cause to sleep on a handkerchief spread out in a corner of the street. The beggar sits beside it, putting on her most tearful looks, and when any likely passer-by approaches, she raises her voice in supplication, and sends the other children to pull at his coat-tails. TheseVolitzianifrequent the neighbourhood of churches, and their appeal is: "Give for the sake of the souls of the departed." The result is a plentiful harvest of coins, which enables them to return with a bagful to their country. The beggar's staff is then hung behind the door as a trophy. Should they desire to proceed on another begging expedition, a second staff is given them, and so on, and at each successive return the staff that has done service is deposited behind the door. Sometimes as many as seven make up the trophy. Young men desiring to find wives with money pry behind the door, and form an approximate idea of the fortune of the owner, the one with seven staffs taking, of course, the palm.
Constantinople was once the great resort of beggars of all descriptions, and lines of them used to exhibit on the Galata Bridge (see frontispiece) all manners of deformities to elicit sympathy, but one of the reforming measures of the Young Turks was to expel them from the city. In illustration facing Chapter III. you will see one of these wayside beggars.
We read in the New Testament of Jews scattered all over the Roman Empire. The same is true of them to-day in Turkey. Their principal resorts are Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica, and the other great towns.
Some are original colonists, principally from Palestine; others are exiles from Spain in 1493. Common vicissitudes with the Moors, who had also been ejected from Spain, created sympathy for them in the Moslem world, and, to the honour of the Turk let it be told, they were offered a shelter and a home. These immigrants introduced with them the jargon which they had employed in Spain, and which consists of a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish, and is known as Judeo-Spanish. To it have been grafted a number of Italian and Turkish words, and it has been adopted as the common vernacular of both classes of Jews above mentioned.
Another division is that of Hebrews from Russia, Poland, and Austria. These do not understand Judeo-Spanish, but speak corrupt Russian and German, and differ from their southern brethren in features and customs; they all adhere to the law of Moses, and accept the teaching of the Prophets. There exists also a sect of Jews calledDunmés, or turncoats, who are both Mahomedans and Jews. Ostensibly they are the former, and observe all Moslem rites, but secretly they practise those of the Hebrews also.
The Dunmés give their children two names, one a Turkish, such as Mustapha, and the other a Hebrew, such as Jacob.
They reside chiefly in Salonica, and are very fanatical, and were the ringleaders of a riot against the Christians in 1870. On the other hand, several have distinguished themselves recently by joining the Reform Party in Turkey, known as Young Turks, who overthrew Sultan Hamid, and introduced the Constitution.
Perhaps they are the only class of Jews who are seamen, and it is interesting to watch their flotilla of small boats board the steamers that arrive in Salonica. From their screams and shouts, you would think yourself in pandemonium. The originator of the sect was a certain Sabbatai Levy, who proclaimed himself the Messiah in 1648, but afterwards accepted Mahomedanism to save his life. His adherents believe in his return, and it is stated that one of their number always awaits the arrival of the railway-train in Salonica to offer him a welcome.
Jews in Turkey are not relegated to ghettos, as in several European cities, but all the same they live in separate quarters, as, indeed, do all the other nationalities. Their quarters may be recognized by their malodorous smells, their filth, and the numerous families residing in the houses, and also from the babel of tongues, and the shrill, discordant voices of women or children shouting to each other or quarrelling.
Jews in the East engage principally in commerce, banking, money-changing, pawnbrokerage, dealings on the Stock Exchange, watchmaking, and shopkeeping.
A feature among them is the early age at which boys commence earning their daily bread. As young as six or seven you may see them going about with trays containing cigarette-papers, pins, matches, and similar cheap articles. Boys in this country will marvel at the ease and rapidity with which mere tots can work calculations mentally in the course of their business.
When they grow up to manhood many engage in window-cleaning, an occupation which has come to be a Jewish speciality, and which an Eastern servant will resent if called upon to undertake. Others go about riveting or cementing broken china, or, with a small charcoal brazier and soldering irons, as tinkers; others sell a special kind of sand for cleaning pots and pans, which they hawk about under its Latin name ofarena. Some make a speciality of buying, washing, and sorting empty bottles, which they afterwards re-sell with profit; others, of course, buy up old clothes, or, with a capacious wooden box slung over their back, go about selling all those little articles which are indispensable to ladies. When called to a house they spread out all their paraphernalia, and the bargaining, which Easterns take such a delight in, begins—buyer and seller trying to outwit and deceive each other—the housewife feeling happy and virtuous all day if she has beaten down the Jew to one-third of his demands, and the Jew unhappy because he had not charged more.
Hebrew marriages in the East occur at an early period of life, fifteen with girls and eighteen with boys, and even earlier in Palestine. The result is large families and much destitution, but with all that one seldom sees any Jewish beggars, their system for relief of poverty being so admirable. They are frugal in their habits, living largely on bread, salt-fish, leeks, and onions, and, during the season, on fruits. The produce sold in their shambles is, moreover, of the cheapest and most inferior quality, yet, notwithstanding all this, the Jews are the longest lived and healthiest of the Eastern races.
The dress of those in Constantinople consists of two or three long gowns, open below the knees; the sleeves are long. Their head-dress is the Turkish fez. In winter they wear long furs over their gowns. Married women cover their hair with a sort of bag-like embroidered kerchief, calledyemeni, which is painted with flowers and ornamented with lace and seed-pearls.
Within recent years much has been done, both by the Jewish Alliance and the Scottish and English Mission Schools, to educate boys and girls, and there is certainly a great improvement.
Jews are fatalists, and are convinced that the decrees of fate are unalterable, yet they imagine that Providence may be cheated and thus deterred from its purposes. Accordingly, if Joseph happens to fall ill, and there is a likelihood of his dying, they forthwith change his name into, we will say, Benjamin, and they expect that when the Angel of Death arrives to fulfil his mission he will think he has made a mistake, and gone to the wrong house. So everyone in the room keeps addressing the invalid as Benjamin, and, should he recover, they all congratulate themselves on their masterly deception.
Another expedient, but principally connected with children's ailments, is to trap the malevolent demon who has induced the sickness, and this they profess to do by laying a trail of sugar from the child's sick-bed to a well. The greedy demon follows the track, and gets drowned!
Dread of the evil-eye is as prevalent with the Jews as with the other races in Turkey. They believe that there are certain malignant spirits in existence who are envious of men's happiness and do all they can to destroy it, especially when any self-praise or praise by others has been expressed by the lips. This power, it is further believed, is not restricted to demons, but is also shared by individuals, especially those possessing blue eyes. Quite an elaborate series of antidotes or prophylactics are adopted as a preservative against such influence, the most potent of which is to prefix to each commendation the magic spell-wordMashalla—i.e., "In the name of God." To this may be added the power of the blue bead, the evil spirit having a great predilection for that colour. Hence, if you praise a child for its beauty, and it happens to wear blue beads, the spirit's attention will be so absorbed with the bead that it will not hear your remarks. Another preservative is garlic, which has a repellent effect on the evil spirit.
As a consequence, everything in Turkey that has to be protected from the evil-eye is decorated either with the one or the other, and you seldom see a horse, a draught ox, or even a donkey, that has not a string of blue beads about its neck. Children wear these charms on their caps; and the prows of boats, the roofs of houses, cages of birds, and even hovels have a bunch of garlic suspended with strings. It is even stated that bouquets of flowers formed of spices, and in the centre of which garlic is nestled, are sent as a present to the mother of a new-born infant, as a safeguard both to herself and the child.
Suspended along with the garlic on the gables of Turkish houses framed texts from the Koran are often to be seen, and on the doorposts of Hebrew houses a small tablet with the wordShadai(the Almighty). Jewish houses have also imprinted on the walls the impress of a man's hand, with the five fingers outstretched. In Christian houses the prophylactic takes the form of a cross, which frequently is nailed on the eaves during the process of building.
A people resembling the Jews in that, like them, they are "found scattered toward all the four winds of heaven, and there is no nation whither these outcasts have not come," are the gipsies. They are to be met with in every part of the Sultan's dominions, and in physical appearance, manners, and character they are very similar to those in our country.
Moslems and Christians vie with each other in holding them in execration, and they are branded by the former as theKitabsis, or "bookless" nation, because of the unwritten form of their beliefs and worship. Yet the presence of gipsy-girls at weddings and other ceremonies is much in demand, in order to amuse the guests with their dancing and singing, to the accompaniment of the tambourine or the flute.
The men are frequently blacksmiths, or they rear horses and donkeys (besides stealing them), and frequently earn something by the sale of asses' milk, which is considered beneficial for chest complaints. The she-ass is led early in the morning to the patient's door, and the newly-drawn milk taken while quite warm and frothy.
The children, of course, beg and steal, but the most fruitful occupation of the women is that of fortune-telling, the usual methods employed being the reading of the palm of the hand and cards. A little mirror placed in the bottom of a small box is also consulted.
But divination and fortune-telling is not limited to gipsies; tall negro-women, with great rolling eyes, may be seen seated on the ground in public squares, with groups of inquirers of both sexes around them. They divine by means of beans or black pebbles (see illustration facing Chapter VII.).
There is another class of soothsayers who profess to recover lost property, and see or show the face of the thief reflected in the water of a deep well. A valuable ring was once lost in a house, and no clue or evidence could be obtained as to the culprit, so the services of a diviner were requisitioned. He arrived at night, bringing in a bag a red cock, which he professed would crow the instant the guilty party touched it. The inmates of the house were all ordered to squat in a circle on the ground; the cock was placed in their midst, and all lights were extinguished. "Now," said the diviner, "let everybody rest their hands on the cock." They all apparently did so, and lights were called for, and an exhibition of hands was demanded. A red stain was visible on every hand except one—that of the guilty maid-servant, who had not touched the cock for fear of being betrayed.
Residents in Turkey have inherited many of the superstitions of the Greeks and Romans, such as augury from the flight of birds, and the entrails of newly-slaughtered animals, and faith in astrology. The Sultan keeps a royal astrologer, who publishes yearly a list of the lucky and unlucky days, and no one will think of undertaking a journey, marrying a wife, or commencing business without consulting it.
At the birth of a child a horoscope is made out for his benefit, indicating under what constellation he was born, and laying down rules accordingly for his guidance.
On a certain day in March a peculiar kind of sweet, resembling and tasting like spiced toffy, but coloured red and with a sheet of gold-leaf stuck on it, is sent round to all palace officials. The elegant bowl that contains it is fastened in bright muslin, and is tied with coloured ribbons and sealed, and has to be opened and the contents eaten at the specified moment indicated by the astrologer, in order to secure wealth and felicity during the year.
When troubled with dreams or otherwise apprehensive of impending misfortune, Turks believe that by hanging shreds of rags on the railings of the tomb of an old saint the danger may be averted. The consequence is that some of these shrines are literally covered and disfigured with rags.
Dogs are also considered excellent subjects to which disease may be transferred. The patient can effect this by feeding them.
A popular remedy for illness of any kind is to obtain from theimam, or priest, a written text of the Koran and swallow it, and I have known of doctors' prescriptions being taken the same way, and doubtless with similar effect.
Another superstition is that, if a person has had a fall, water poured on the spot will prevent its repetition.
A curious method for arresting the spread of infectious disease is to surround the patient with a circle of some disinfectant, and during a cholera scare I saw it applied to a man on the Galata bridge who had an apoplectic stroke. The case was considered suspicious, and his body was removed, but a circle of whitewash, like the markings of a tennis-court, was drawn round the place where he had fallen, and the infection thus imprisoned!
Scraps of paper thrown in the street are held in reverence and removed by pious Moslems, because the Name of God may be written on them and profaned if trodden upon; but another version is that all scraps not thus collected by the Moslem will be scattered over the burning soil through which he is to pass, after death, on the way to Paradise, and will make his passage more painful.
An account of Palestine having been given in "Peeps at the Holy Land," I will not allude specially to it, although it belongs to Turkey. Arabic is the language also spoken in Syria, which lies north of Palestine, and in Mesopotamia, which is to the east.
Of the ancient towns of Tyre and Sidon, once famous as the capitals of Phœnicia, nothing now remains but ruins on which fishermen dry their nets. The inhabitants in the surrounding regions, however, still keep up many of their ancient customs and superstitions, and, in a modified way, Baal and Astarte are still worshipped.
The slopes of the Lebanon adjoining Beyrout are inhabited by the Druses and the Maronites, who, since the year 1860, have obtained semi-independence, and are ruled by a Christian Governor appointed by the Sultan.
The Lebanon Ranges are very beautiful; they abound in aromatic flowers, and bees yield an enormous production of excellent honey. They are also the home of the cedar.
As already stated, a railway, starting from Beyrout, crosses the Lebanon and connects it with Damascus, one of the most ancient cities of the world. Damascus is also one of the most beautiful, the plain on which it stands being a continuous garden, over fifty miles in circuit, rich in oranges, lemons, pomegranates, mulberries, figs, plums, apricots, walnuts, pears, quinces, etc. The town, through which flows a river, contains several magnificent structures, including a splendid mosque, which was once a Christian church, but the streets of the city are squalid and dirty. One of the most interesting is that called Straight, which St. Paul traversed.
Damascus has a large manufacturing industry, and among other articles produces beautiful silks. It formerly produced those remarkable Damascus swords, inimitable for hardness, elasticity, sharpness, and tenacity, as well as for the beauty of their ornamentation. It gives its name to the plums which we call "damsons."
Damascus is a great centre for the conveyance of merchandise to Bagdad and Persia by means of camel caravans—those fleets of the desert. They are accompanied by armed escorts, as their journey lies through a long stretch of desert, inhabited by numerous Bedouins or Arab tribes, ever ready to blackmail the caravan.
These tribes inhabit the Hauran during the spring, and move to the desert in autumn. They own camels, asses, and sheep, and rear magnificent horses, which are justly considered the most beautiful in the world.
The Bedouins live in tents made of black goat's-hair, and their camp looks from a distance like a number of grazing cattle. The tent of theirsheik, or chief, is distinguished by its greater size, and round it are those of the members of the family. Before the tent-doors the horses are tethered.
Family life among them is patriarchal, the sheik being priest, judge, and ruler. With some tribes women occupy a high social position, and menial work is done mostly by the men.
The Arabs subsist chiefly on dates, which they gather and store in October, but when in the desert they live to some extent on the produce of the chase, which comprises an abundance of gazelles, hares, and quails.
These they hunt with greyhounds or with trained hawks. The latter, when they see their quarry, swoop upon it, and pick at its eyes until the hunter arrives.
The Bedouins live also on bread, which they bake in thin flat cakes, and on milk, specially in its fermented condition, which they callleben. Their butter they have to keep in summer in jars, as, owing to the heat, it is then as liquid as oil.
The great province of Mesopotamia, where formerly stood Babylon and Nineveh, forms the south-eastern limit of the Turkish Empire. Watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris, it was once a magnificent agricultural district, but the incompetency of its rulers has allowed the network of canals, which distributed the waters of these rivers, to dry up, and the country is now largely a wilderness.
Its population, the remnant of the Chaldeans, has also decreased, and is poor. The houses are made with sun-dried bricks, cemented with bitumen. The roofs are flat, and the lower rooms are underground, and are used during the summer months as bedrooms, owing to the excessive heat.
The navigation of the upper reaches of the Euphrates is by means of rafts, underneath which are inflated skins of oxen. On this raft the traveller's tent is pitched, and he drifts leisurely down the river, while the boatmen help it along with long poles.
Having summarized the customs of some of the people under Ottoman rule, I must say something of the Turks themselves.
When a Turkish baby comes to this world no dainty embroidered linen and warm bath await it, but it is dressed in a plain cotton shirt and a cotton, quilted dressing-gown. Its limbs are then tightly wrapped in a long shroud, so that it cannot move them. Frequently a cushion is put between its legs before shrouding, and this probably accounts for so many children being bandy-legged. The child is then rolled into a quilted blanket, which is strapped up into a shapeless bundle, from which a little head appears, wearing a red cap, copiously studded with blue beads and seed pearls, as a protection from the evil-eye. The baby is then laid in a wooden rocking-cradle, which has a bar connecting its two raised ends, by means of which the cradle is lifted. Some of these cradles are very beautiful, and are inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, and they bear appropriate inscriptions, carved in Arabic characters on the woodwork, such as "Under the Shadow of the Almighty," etc.
Among poorer people a canvas hammock takes the place of the cradle, and in it the baby is carried out of doors, and the hammock swung between two trees, while the mother attends to her duties.
On the third day after birth it is washed and presented to its father, who shouts thrice in its ear the name by which it is to be known.
A festive reception is then held by the mother in her room, and streams of women-visitors come to compliment her and peep at the infant. But the poor little thing does not receive the baby-worship and adulation bestowed in this country. On the contrary, it is addressed in insulting language, and called ugly, and a wretch, and a monster, and is deliberately spat upon—and all this in order to ward off the influence of the evil-eye.
It is quite exceptional for a babe to be brought up in the East on the bottle; should its mother be unable to nurse it a wet-nurse is procured.
Both mothers and nurses are singularly ignorant in the question of upbringing, and many an infant dies through injudicious feeding after it is weaned.
The love of Turkish parents for their children is excessive to a fault. A characteristic story is related of a Turk who was so distressed at the indisposition of his grandchild that he would neglect his business and hasten constantly to the patient's room to inquire as to his condition; and when the doctor ordered strict diet for a fortnight the anxious grandfather compelled his whole household, including himself, to submit to the same fare, for fear that the patient might be disappointed in not sharing the food of the family.
To such extent do Turks carry their love for children that they will adopt those of others, and bring them up with the same tenderness as their own, and will provide for them in after-life.
Children, on the other hand, are exemplary in their respect for their parents, and kiss their hands, and will not sit down, unless invited, in their presence. Even when they have reached mature age their mother is consulted, confided in, and listened to with respect. "My wives die," says the Osmanlee, "and I replace them; my children perish, and others are born to me; but who shall restore to me the mother who has passed away?"
Nor is this regard limited to the humbler classes; it is conspicuous in the case of the Sultan, who, on his accession to the throne, elevates his mother to the rank of Valide Sultana, or Queen-Mother, and requires all persons belonging to his harem to swear allegiance to her. Her rule is absolute, and even the Sultan's wives cannot leave their apartments, or go out for drives, or shopping, without her permission.
The early childhood of both boys and girls among Turks is spent in the harem—that is, the section of the house reserved for the women—but until the age of twelve, girls are not subject to the restraints of grown-up women, nor required to wear the veil, and they often accompany their fathers in excursions or join the boys in their play. They even attend the same elementary school, and, sitting cross-legged with them on a mat, repeat the alphabet, or recite texts from the Koran given out to them by theimam, or priest, of the mosque with which the school is connected. These recitations are carried on in a monotonous drawling tone, and the body is swung forwards and backwards, theimamhimself setting the time by his own rhythmical nodding.
On their return home they frequently join their mothers and other inmates of the harem in an afternoon's stroll. The Turks are great lovers of Nature, and have a keen appreciation of the beautiful, but prefer sitting down to walking, and generally spend their afternoons resting under the shade of a great tree, or near the water's edge, makingkef, or, in other words, doing nothing.
They invariably carry with them aboktcha, or bundle, containing a rug and picnic requisites, while one of the party carries a red clay pitcher, with water. Water is an indispensable requisite with Turks, and they will enjoy drinking it from the pitcher as much as from a glass.