Excursions in Albania; comprising a description of the wild boar, deer, and woodcock shooting in that country; and a journey from thence to Thessalonica & Constantinople, and up the Danube to Pest

Front matter

EXCURSIONS IN ALBANIA; COMPRISING A DESCRIPTION OE. THE WILD BOAR, DEER, AND WOODCOCK SHOOTING IN THAT COUNTRY ; AND A JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO THESSALONICA & CONSTANTINOPLE, AND UP THE DANUBE TO PEST. By CAPT. J. J. BEST, 34th Regt. LONDON: Wm. H. ALLEN and CO., 7, LEADENHALL STREET. 1842. Printed by J. L. Cox & Sons, 75, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields. TO LIEUT.-GEN. SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS, Bart., G.C.B. & G.C.M.G., AS A TOKEN OF SINCERE REGARD AND ESTEEM, THIS WORK IS, WITH HIS PERMISSION, INSCRIBED BY HIS MOST OBLIGED, MOST OBEDIENT, AND VERY FAITHFUL SERVANT, THE AUTHOR.

Preface

. During a residence of nearly six years at Corfu, I was enabled, through the kindness of Lieut. - General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart., on whose military staff I had the honour of holding the post of aide-de-camp, to make two very interesting tours in Albania — a magnificent, but almost un known country. In the first, I visited Janina, the celebrated but now nearly ruined capital of the renowned Ali Pasha ; and in the second, I pene trated still further into the interior of the coun try, and making my way to Thessalonica, passed on to Constantinople, and by the way of the VI

PREFACE.

. Danube to Pest and Vienna, returning to Corfu by Trieste. Finding, on my arrival in England a few months since, that the notes which I had hastily thrown together during these excursions were more voluminous than I had anticipated, it occurred to me that I could not better employ my leisure time during my leave of absence than in revising them, and I now give them to the public with no other pretension than that of an attempt on my part faithfully to depict some very interesting scenes it fell to my lot to witness. The observations in the following pages on the countries through which I passed were suggested to me — an impartial observer — by the actual state in which those countries appeared to me to be. The tottering condition of the Ottoman empire — the very evident waning of the Turkish moon — cannot fail to strike forcibly any one who pene trates into the interior of any of the unhappy provinces whose Christian populations are still under the rule of the Musselmaun despot — Great Britain's ally.

PREFACE.

. VII I have been rather particular as to dates, time, and distances, because I found it a great incon venience not to be able, when travelling, to calcu late how long I might expect to be on my journey. Many persons will say that it can be of no possi ble consequer, e to a reader whether the tra veller arrived at a particular place, at a particular day and hour, or no. It may be of no consequence to the casual reader, but to one who wishes to make the same journey, it is of the utmost im portance. Whilst endeavouring to amuse, I have been careful to confine myself strictly to matters of fact ; and I must take this opportunity of stating, that in describing the barbarities that were practised upon the unfortunate Albanians at Thessalonica, I have been obliged to suppress some which were not fit to meet the public eye.

As connected with Albania generally, I have devoted two chapter's to an attempt at describing the magnificent shooting in that country during the winter season ; and if I shall have succeeded in recalling in a pleasing manner to the recollec-

PREFACE.

. tion of any of my sporting friends the happy days we have spent there together, I shall not regret having stept forward before the world as an author. Maidstone, Jan., 1842. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Preparations for Journey — Prince Pierre Napoleon — Sayades — Philates — Turkish Soldier at prayers — Khan — Fighting before dinner disagreeable — Greek marriage party — Enter Janina — Taken prisoners — Release from durance vile — Signor Clerici — Fort — Bazaars — Dress of Albanians — Women carry immense loads Page 1

Chapter II

Ali Pasha's Island — Ramazan — Mustafa Pasha — Description of a Turkish room — Visiting — Palace of the Pasha — Instrument of torture — Turkish baths — Barracks — Journey to Arta — Prevesa — Nicopolis — Battle of Actium — Santa Maura — Return to Corfu Page 27

Chapter III

Shooting in Albania — Description of a large party — Wild boar, deer, and woodcocks, begin to feel the destructive effect of well-directed percussions — Altercation with an Albanian — Attack from shepherds' dogs — A boar at bay — Return towards the shore — Bay described — Embark — Dinner — Disadvantage of a shadow Page X CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

A day's shooting with a small party — Leave the Ditch of Corfu — Passage across the Channel — Whether a gun should be carried at half-cock — Land at Kataito — Shooting commences — Albanians troublesome — Attempt at highway robbery — Adventure — Quarrel about a lamb — One of the sportsmen taken prisoner — Lose a dog — Return to Corfu — Observations — Description of a snowy day — Death of the dogs Page 74

Chapter V

Departure from Corfu for Constantinople — Delvino — Delvinaki — Altercation with guides — Englishmen generally obstinate — Zitza — Caloyers — Convents generally — Anecdote — St. George and the Dragon — Janina — Barracks — Letter of credit — Lakes of Janina and Ladchistas Page 105

Chapter VI

Mode of travelling — -Post horses — Tatars — Ali Pasha — Mezzovo — Khan of Zigos — Pindus — Descent — Assurance the best passport — River Peneus — Reflections on Albania generally — Decline of Ottoman power — Policy of Great Britain Page 125

Chapter VII

Convents of Meteora — Ascent in a net — Tricala — Khans — Horses — Plain of Thessaly — Desolated and depopulated state of the country — Might makes right — Corn fields and pasture land — Kravariots — Larissa Page 145

Chapter VIII

Tempe — Anecdotes of Surrigee — Ambelakia — Plurality of wives — Turk's idea of education — Platamona — Turk selling wine — Inconvenience of superfluous articles of dress Page CONTENTS. XI

Chapter IX

Caterina — Kidros — Advantages of being a Christian — Conduct of Turks towards Greeks — Riding in the water — " Desirable residence at a watering-place" — Reach dry land — Cows never milked — Khan — Arrive at Thessalonica — General observations on travelling in Albania Page 184

Chapter X

Thessalonica — Plague — Extraordinary review of artillery — Colonel of artillery obliged to turn ship-builder — Visit to the Pasha — St. Paul's Chair — Interior of mosques — Barracks — Prison — Horrible tortures inflicted on five Albanians — Representation to Pasha — Obtain their release — Indignation of Mustafa Pasha , Page 201

CHAPTER XL

Female fashions at Salonica — Anecdote of an Ionian — Observations on Salonica — Embark for Constantinople — Smoking intolerable to those not addicted to it — Dardanelles — Illumination — Anchor in the Golden Horn — Quarantine — Pera — Tower of Galata — How to see Constantinople to perfection — Dancing dervishes — Danger of ladies wearing green dresses ...Page 226

Chapter XII

How to see a mosque — Mausoleums — Mustafa the chouash — Slave-market — Condition of slaves — Seven Towers — Turkish saddles — Adventure with a Turkish sentry — ■ Advantage of wearing uniform — The bagnio — Arsenal — Take care of your money — Bazaars Page CONTENTS.

Chapter XIII

Therapia — Unkiar Skelessi — Fire — Sultan Mahmoud — Constantinople intolerable as a permanent residence — Ferdinando Primo steam-vessel- — Motley assemblage on board — Anecdote of a plum-pudding — Varna — Horse's antipathy to medicine — Works of Varna — Siege in 1829 — Dismay of a Swiss at missing his way Page 264

Chapter XIV

Mouths of the Danube — Anecdote of a daring pilot — Musquitoes — Bavarian doctor's infallible remedy proved useless — Ismail — Tuldcha — Galatz — Moldavians — Brahilow — Wallachian soldier's dress — Galatea steamer — Silistria — Rustchuch — Nicopolis — Sigismund and Bajazet — Iron Cage — Servia — Observations — Eccentric costume of washerwomen Page 283

Chapter XV

Trajan's bridge — Skela Gladova— Passage of rapids — Alt Orsova — Quarantine — Mehadia — Miseries of a German wagen — Hungarian peasant's dress — Temesvar — Administration of justice — Amusing quarrel — Hungarian inns — Arrive at Pest — Conclusion 313

Appendix

Page EXCURSIONS IN ALBANIA, Sfc.

Chapter I. Preparations For Journey Prince Pierre Napoleon Sayades Philates

— -TURKISH SOLDIER AT PRAYERS KHAN FIGHTING BEFORE DINNER DISAGREEABLE GREEK MARRIAGE PARTY ENTER JANINA TAKEN PRISONERS RELEASE FROM DURANCE VILE SIGNOR CLERICI FORT BAZAARS DRESS OF ALBANIANS WOMEN CARRY IMMENSE LOADS. In the month of November, 1838, Captains Murray and Cunynghame, of the 60th Rifles, Lieutenant Shaw, of the 5th Fusiliers, and my self, agreed to make a short tour in Albania ; and, arranging to pass the seven days' quarantine, to which we should be subject on our return to Cor fu, on board Captain Cunynghame's yacht, we found that we could, by taking on board a guardn SAYADES. ian from the Health Office, relieve the tedium of our imprisonment by cruizing to the coast of Albania, and, under the eye of the guardian, shooting woodcocks and other game with which that country at that season abounds.

Having accordingly made our arrangements, and hired as a travelling servant Giovanni Zaru chi, a native of Suli, in Albania, well acquainted with the country we wished to visit, and speaking both Greek and Albanian, as well as the Italian and English languages, we sailed from Corfu at night, and landed the next morning at Sayades, a small village, or rather a collection of dirty hovels, on the coast nearly opposite to the citadel of Corfu. Here we procured, without much de lay, a sufficient number of common pack-horses to carry ourselves and our baggage, and, having agreed with the guides to reach Janina on the evening of the second day, proceeded on our way, at the slow but sure rate of about two miles an hour. About eight months previous to this, an affray had taken place between some Albanians and Prince Pierre Napoleon, son of Lucien Bona parte.

The prince, in company with some other PRINCE PIERRE NAPOLEON. persons, was shooting on the coast of Albania, not far from the place where we landed, and some misunderstanding having arisen between him and some Albanians who were near the spot, shots were exchanged, in which two Albanians were severely wounded. Considerable exasperation on the part of the Albanians towards all persons, especially Franks, who might land from the Ionian Islands was for a long time the consequence of this unfortunate adventure ; and the English officers of the garrison, who had for years been in the habit of frequenting the coast of Albania for the purpose of shooting, and who had always con trived to keep clear of hostile collisions with the half-savage people that are found near the coast, were for a time prohibited from landing there, the Ionian government judging it expedient to suspend the granting of the indulgence of a guardian of the Corfu Health Office to accom pany them ; without which guardian all per sons communicating with the inhabitants of Al bania are subject to a quarantine at Corfu, of from seven to twenty-one days, according to the less or greater prevalence of the plague in the Ottoman dominions.

All shooting was accorb DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. dingly put an end to for that season; but an arrangement having been made with the persons who had been wounded, the Ionian government granting them a compensation of a few hundred dollars, communication, under the sanitory regu lation of being accompanied in shooting excursions by a guardian, was again to be allowed. On starting, therefore, on our expedition, as we were the first English who had entered Albania since Prince Pierre had met with his adventure, we all felt somewhat doubtful as to the reception we might meet with from the inhabitants, who might very possibly be disposed to avenge them selves upon any Englishman who might land in their territory for the injury inflicted upon their countrymen by Prince Pierre Napoleon ; and therefore, after consideration, we thought it ad visable to travel well armed, in order to be pre pared to defend ourselves in case of an attack.

To this end each carried a double-barrelled gun and a brace of pistols, besides a sword strapped on to his saddle. The event, however, proved that there was no need of these precautions ; we never, during the whole of this or of my second journey in Albania, in which I penetrated much PHILATES. 5 further into the interior of the country, met with the least difficulty or the slightest molestation from any of the inhabitants. We were accom panied from Sayades by what was supposed to be a soldier, who acted as our guard, if a badly armed Albanian, with a wretched firelock, could be considered to be any protection to four En glishmen, well armed with swords, pistols, and double-barrelled guns. However, the appearance was all that was required, it shewed that we were persons of consequence, and that the shield of the authorities was held over us, but whether that shield was capable of sheltering us or not did not very much signify.

Arrived at the khan at Philates, where we were to rest ourselves and horses for a short time, our first care was to get something to eat, but the Moslem soldier's thoughts were turned to a more spiritual occupation. Whilst we sat down cross legged to devour cold meat and eggs, and drink wine-and-water, the pious Turk, at a little dis tance from us, on the same verandah, a very old wooden one, which extended all the way along the first floor, and from which were the entrances to the different rooms of the khan, was on his TURKISH SOLDIER AT PRAYERS. knees, with his face turned, as nearly as he could guess, in the direction of Mecca, going through his mid-day prayers and prostrations. A Turk does not like to be looked at whilst he is praying. He does not mind a casual observer, and seems rather gratified than otherwise at shewing that he is praying; but he will avoid, if he possibly can, being closely observed by a Frank, and I have known other Turks stand in the way, so as to prevent his movements from being too narrowly watched.

As it happened, we were much too hun gry to cause the least uneasiness to our friend ; and the sight of a Moslem at his prayers not being a novelty to any one of us, he was allowed to pursue his devotions, unmolested by look or act as far as we were concerned. We had hardly satisfied the first and most urgent demands of hunger, when our attention was aroused by a violent altercation, and on looking up, we found the Turk in serious, loud, and earnest conversation with another, apparently influential, person, and much better dressed than himself. We listened, although at the time we had not the good fortune to be aware of the subject of their conversation; but at last the soldier, apparently with TURKISH SOLDIER AT PRAYERS. 7 great unwillingness, was seen to retire slowly to the spot where he had been going through his devotions, and kneel down again.

Again the other Turk spoke to him in an authoritative tone, again he slightly changed his position, till at last being fixed with his head fairly towards Mecca, he went through the same prostrations as he had done before. On inquiry, we found that the unfortunate soldier had gone through the ceremony wrong, and that his superior had obliged him to commence and do it all over again, be cause he had said his first prayers with his face, by some mistake, slightly averted from the di rection of the holy city. Having finished our frugal repast, we began to think of mounting our horses and proceeding on our journey, when, to our surprise and dismay, the guides, with the greatest imaginable coolness, said we must remain at Philates for the night. " Not proceed ! !" We were by turns indignant, furious, and inclined to treat it as a joke.

Did the guides really mean to force us to obey them ? We soon saw that they had made up their minds that they had travelled quite far enough for that day, and that, right or wrong, proceed they would not. ALTERCATION WITH GUIDES. We argued with them, then tried persuasions, then threats. At last they explained, and fairly told us that it was utterly impossible for us to pro ceed, because one of the horses which we had hired belonged to another person, who had taken him away because he was lame, and that another horse could not be procured to supply his place until the next morning. They thought this reason would satisfy us of the impossibility of proceeding, and that we should quietly resign ourselves to our fate. We coolly asked them if they would pro ceed if another horse was procured. " Oh ! certainly," they replied (knowing well that we should not be able to get one).

" Very well, then," said we, " we will put the baggage which the horse carried on one of the other horses, and we will take it by turns to walk." To shift the baggage was the work of a few minutes, and the guides, with downcast countenances and evident feelings of reluctance, left the town in which they had made up their minds to pass the night. We had not proceeded half-a-mile before the missing horse, with no signs whatever of lameness, came trotting up to us with his owner on his back, who was in evident dismay at the probability of our APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. rejecting him, and that he would thereby lose his job of going with us to Janina. We however for gave him, and they, after so signal a failure of their scheme to detain us, did not attempt to give us any further trouble. Leaving then Philates, which is the only Turkish town of any size on the road between Corfu and Janina, we took up our abode for the night, after a ride of nine hours, at a khan or public lodging-house, situated in a barren, uninhabited country, having on our way thither ascended sides of almost perpendicular mountains, where the bold and romantic scenery, becoming if possible more striking at each turn of the rugged path, which has been so appropriately called the Scala (or steps), was beautifully illumined by the silvery rays of a brilliant moon.

These mountains are all wild-looking, rocky, and barren; there is a little cultivation in the valleys and plains ; but the whole country generally has a most deserted appearance, and hour after hour did we ride without meeting a human creature. Villages are very thinly scattered throughout the country, and the want of population generally cannot fail to strike with astonishment any person coming from b KHANS the more thickly inhabited parts of Western Europe. The khans are buildings erected by the government for the accommodation of travellers, and are very plentiful on all the main roads. They are entirely unfurnished; in some there are a good many rooms, and the building itself is surrounded by a wall enclosing a court-yard, in which the horses are turned for the night. The gate of the khan is kept carefully locked, lest a marauding party of Albanians should carry off the animals whilst their owners are asleep.

The khangee, as the keeper of the khan is called, generally sells wine and Indian corn-cake or bread. There are khans in the towns likewise, but these are inha bited generally by the lowest and dirtiest rabble, consequently cleanliness must not be looked for in them. After taking the precaution of sweeping the floor, we used to place our quilts to sit cross legged upon whilst we ate our frugal meal, and then in a short time forgot our cares. The khans are seldom water-tight, and travellers may have opportunities of star-gazing occasionally through the roof; but these are minor inconveniences, not worth mentioning. Vermin are certainly abun- EXPECTED ATTACK. dant, but to this, too, a good ride of from twelve to sixteen hours renders a traveller astonishingly callous. The second day of our journey we were on horseback for about sixteen hours, the greater part of this time in as pouring a rain as can be imagined, much more heavy than is ever seen in England.

After about eight hours' riding, finding ourselves very cold and very wet, we began to think that some cold mutton we carried in a pannier would console us, in some small degree, for our misfortunes. We came accordingly to the determination to halt for a short time in an open space on the side of a hill, where there was grass for the horses to eat. Scarcely, however, had we commenced to unpack the provision bas ket, when we observed, at a little distance, twenty or thirty Albanians coming towards us with considerable rapidity, shouting, and firing their guns, like riflemen skirmishing. As they continued to ap proach us fast, we quickly stood to our arms, and made up our minds to shew as good a fight as we could. The numbers were on the side of the Al banians, but our guns were double-barrelled, and not so likely to miss fire as theirs.

Still we should FIGHTING BEFORE DINNER DISAGREEABLE. have a hard fight, and none of us relished the idea of fighting before dinner. I believe we should have laughed at them, if we could only have had time to get something to eat; but to find oneself, after a ride of eight hours and drenched to the skin, obliged to stand up to be shot at, instead of cutting into a cold shoulder of mutton, which was at that instant most invitingly paraded before us by our provident servant, is, I can assure any one who has not experienced it, a very provoking, somewhat annoying, and certainly not an " agreeable thing." However, it was of no use talking, or wishing the Albanians anywhere but where they were ; on they came, in spite of our hearty good wishes that they were in a place it would not be polite to mention ; and as to all appearances fight we must, even with empty stomachs, we shewed a bold front, and waited patiently for the bullets, which we expected every minute to whiz past our ears.

In the meantime, the shouting and discharge of fire-arms continued, the Albanians neared us fast, and we were watching them closely, though, at the same time, casting many wistful glances to wards the shoulder of mutton, when on a sudden ALBANIAN MARRIAGE PARTY. 13 one of our party observed a female on horseback in the midst of the attacking body of skirmishers. "Very odd," thought we all. In an instant we perceived another walking by her side. " More and more unintelligible." We had heard that the Albanians were a curious race, but for our lives we could not comprehend what two females could possibly have to do with so warlike a looking party. As soon as Giovanni saw the women, he began to laugh. We stared, and for a few moments he could hardly recover his gravity sufficiently to explain to us, that, so far from having any hostile designs upon us, the apparently belligerent host of Albanians was a peaceable Greek marriage party, escorting home the bride and bridegroom to their own village, and, according to their custom, testifying their glee and delight by shouting and discharging their guns and pistols.

They stopped when they came to the spot where we were resting, and we soon became great friends. The bride was well covered with a thick veil, sufficiently transparent, however, to let us see that she was very young, I should say not more than fifteen years old, and rather ENTER JANINA. good-looking. She was riding on a donkey, and attended by only one female, an old woman on foot, probably her mother, who walked by her side. The bridegroom, a man of perhaps five and twenty, came and kissed our hands, and we wished him good luck. His friends were all in their holiday costume, and the whole proces sion, divested of the disagreeable impression it had first occasioned in us, was really most pic turesque, and a pleasing sight. We reached Janina very late at night, after having been on horseback about sixteen hours.

In tolerable weather we ought to have performed the distance in twelve hours ; but the roads were very heavy, and the rains had caused the rivers to swell so as to occasion us some trouble in fording them. We had entered the town, and were wending our way in a most peaceable man ner towards the house of one of our guides, who had offered us lodging for the night, in order that we might not take up our abode in the common khan, when I (who was leading, and on foot to keep myself warm, as the rain was falling in torrents) was most disagreeably surprised at finding a bayonet close to my breast, and a fellow talking TAKEN PRISONERS. 15 to me in a language of which I did not comprehend a syllable. I called to our servant, but he could not help me, because it was a Turkish soldier that had stopped me, who understood no thing but his mother tongue (Turkish), a language not spoken by either Greeks or Albanians.

A respectable Greek, attracted to the spot by the altercation, came and interpreted for us, when it appeared, that by a municipal regulation, no per son whatever is allowed to stir out of his house at night in the streets of Janina without a lantern in his hand, and that we, for having transgressed the rule, had been taken prisoners by a Turkish guard. It was in vain for us to offer to go quietly to the guide's house, and promise to appear in the morning to answer for our offence. The guard had caught us, and there we were prisoners ; but at last, as a favour, we were escorted to the com mon khan, and, a guard being placed over us, we were left there for the night. It is no small luxury to find oneself under cover of a roof, however bad an one it may be, after a long exposure to torrents of heavy rain; but really the khan of which we were thus most provokingly compelled to be the unwilling tenants, was so detestably dirty, so perfectly horrible, DESCRIPTION OF THE that, glad as we all were to find shelter, we could scarcely make up our minds to lie down on the floor of the exceedingly miserable-looking hole, about twelve feet square, and dignified with the appellation of a room, where a ragged, beggar like Albanian boy was in his first slumbers, and out of which he was aroused to make way for us.

The room was covered with a few worn-out mats, which had served as couches for years for the most ragged and wretched of the Albanian population ; beneath these mats were boards which could never have been scrubbed, and on which an almost inconceivably thick layer of dust shewed the marks of the mats which had for many years lain upon it, whilst every movement made in the room would force the dust through the interstices of the mats, and affect, in any thing but an agree able manner, the olfactory nerves of the unfor tunate tenants. I shall not easily forget our countenances of horror and disgust when we found ourselves compelled to occupy for the night, under the guard of a Turkish sentry, this vastly disagreeable abode. We were wet to the skin, and yet were too much excited to unpack our small al lowance of baggage and change our clothes ; we COMMON KHAN AT JANINA. 17 were hungry, and yet we were too indignant to eat; we were most superlatively miserable, and yet we could make no attempts to better our condition; until at last, after we had worked ourselves up to the highest state of excitement, indignation, and misery, on a sudden one of the party, struck with the exceedingly ridiculous ap pearance and rueful countenances of his com panions, became alive to the absurdity of the scene, and burst into a long and loud laugh.

The others were for an instant disposed to look more grave, if such were possible, and to consider it no laughing matter, but "Momus" having once gained a footing amongst us, very soon drove away " melancholy," and we proceeded, first to eat a few mouthfuls of what remained of our travelling stock of provisions, next to console ourselves with some brandy-and-water, and lastly two of us soon found ourselves indulging in a rest on the floor, disturbed, however, by horrible visions of plague, which word seemed to flit eternally before our faces, and appeared written in legible, but bloated and distorted, characters on every spot in the room on which our half closed and wandering eyes chanced to rest. RELEASE. SIGNOR CLERICI. The next morning, however, brought our release from durance vile ; and having sent a letter we had brought from Corfu to Signor Clerici, the Ionian agent, we soon found ourselves in very good quarters under his roof.

He lodged and boarded us during our stay, and we made him a present of twenty dollars on our departure, which I have no doubt was an ample remuneration to him. The accommodation he gave us was very good. His house, one of the best in Janina, is remarkably clean, and we enjoyed not a little many a good laugh at the expense of our host, who appeared to be a most original character. He had been a medical man in the French army, had served in Napoleon's army in Italy, was present at the battle of Marengo, and had never returned to his native country, Italy, from the time of his taking up his abode at Janina, a period of twenty seven years. His hours did not exactly suit us, but we conformed to them as well as we could. His practice appeared to be to eat no breakfast, dine at one o'clock, and go to bed at seven ; or, as he would call it, dine at seven, and go to bed at one o'clock, because in Turkey seven o'clock, or one hour after sunrise, is one o'clock, or the DESCRIPTION OF JANINA. 19 first hour of the day, as seven o'clock in the evening, or one hour after sunset, is the first hour of the night.