Constantinople in 1828 ... Second edition. To which is added an appendix, containing remarks and observations to the autumn of 1829

Chapter I

Netherland Ambassador — Achmet-Papooshji — Low spirit of the Turks — March of Troops for the Russian Campaign — Sultan Mahmood — Curious Anecdotes — The Basis of Victory; a Turkish Treatise — Greek Bastinadoed — Turkish Fanaticism — Melancholy Aspect of the Interior of Constantinople — Views — Suppression of Coffee-houses — Story- Tellers, &c 1

Chapter II

State of the Public Mind at Constantinople on the commencement of the Russian Campaign — Letters of the Porte inviting the Ambassadors of England and France to return — Deposition of the Sheik-Islam or Mufti — Prisoners of War, and Ears — The Hatti-Sheriff — Greeks ordered to pray for the success of the Sultan — Greeks ordered to suppress their favourite Christian Name of Constantine — Solitary ride in the wild, uncultivated Neighbourhood of Constantinople — Ennui I, VOL. VI CONTENTS. of Pera, with a glimpse of its Society — Sultan Mahmood's fine new Barracks at Daut-Pasha, &c. — Superior new Bar racks at Scutari, &c. — Barracks at Levend-ChifUick — Thc Seymens and Janissaries — The Oulemas — Curious ren counter with the Sultan ...... 36

Chapter III

Brief Sketch of the History of the present Sultan Mahmood II, Sultans Selim and Mustapha — Sketches of the Three Revolutions of Constantinople in 1807-8 — Character of Mustapha-Bairactar — Chelibi-Effendi — Halet-Elfendi, and his Politics — Long-prepared Plans for the Suppression of the Janissaries — Abrogation of the Rights of the Ayans, &c. — Destruction ot Robbers — Uninterrupted Successes of Mahmood — His Triumph over the Wahhabees — Effects of the Russian War favourable to him — Revolt of the Janissaries — Their History and Overthrow — Mahmood's Treachery — Death of Halet Effendi — His Character — New Regulations — Rights of Property — Reforms in Courts of Justice — Armenian Intrigues — Privileges of the Caliphs and Oulemas — Reigning Dynasty — Mahmood's Domestic Character. 75

Chapter IV

Sultan's New Troops — The Imperial Guard — A Turkish idea of Dress — Exercising, &c. — Number of Regular Troops in the Turkish Empire at the beginning of the Campaign of 1828— Russian Policy — The New Bands — Effect of hearing an old English Air played by the Band of the Sultan's Guards — Thoughts on Music, and the character of the Turks — Regular Cavalry of the Imperial Guard — Calosso, the Italian instructing Officer, and favourite of Sultan Mahmood — Anecdote of the Sultan — Uniforms, &c. &c. . . CONTENTS. VII

Chapter V

A Foreign Minister's Audience of the Grand Vizir — Strange Scene at the House of a Perote diplomate — Mode of proceeding to the Porte — An angry Drogoman — Sultan's Guards — Reception by the Vizir — Distribution of Pelisses, &c. — Character of Mehemet, Grand Vizir — Reflections — Baron Strogonoff, the Russian Ambassador — Eve of the Courbann Bairam, &c. — Sultan's magnificent Procession at the Courbann-Bairam from the Serraglio — The Seraskier Ursef-Pasha, &c. &c 192

Chapter VI

Turkish Navy — Capitan Pasha at Buyukdere — Turkish Seamen — The English Steam-Boat — An imaginary Exploit — The Fortifications of the Bosphorus, from the Boghas to the Golden Horn — State of Defence of Constantinople at the time of Admiral Duckworth's Expedition — Nature of the Country between the Black Sea and the Forts on the Bosphorus — Anecdotes of the Capitan-Pasha, the Defender of Varna — Asiatic Cavaliers — General peaceful Conduct ofthe Troops on their March — Fortifications hastily thrown up in the Neighbourhood of Constantinople — Departure of the Grand Vizir — Proceedings of the Caimacan — Egress of the Sultan with the Sangiac-Sheriff — Encampment of Daut-Pasha — Improvement in Martial Spirit — The Prison of the Bagnio— Russian Prisoners, &c. . . . 226

Chapter VII

Scenery — View of Constantinople — The Gallery of Galata Tower — Views of Constantinople compared with those oi CONTENTS. Naples — A bright Remark — Pera Society — The Drogo maneri — Armenians — Anecdotes — The Turks of the Ca pital — The Greeks — Project for the Improvement of the Greek People — Greek Literature, &c. — Illness and private Affairs — Climate of Constantinople — A Persian Gentle man — Departure from Constantinople, and return to England 260 Appendix TRAVELS, <§*•■ <-_r-

Chapter I

Netherland Ambassador — Achmet-Papooshji — Turks Dejected — March of Troops for the Russian Campaign — Sultan Mahmood — Curious Anecdotes — The Basis of Victory ; a Turkish Treatise — Greek Bastinadoed — Turkish Fanaticism — Melancholy Aspect of the Interior of Constantinople — Views — Suppression of Coffee-houses — Story Tellers, &c. At Smyrna I had been furnished with a Dutch passport for my journey. At Constantinople I might consider myself under the immediate protection of the Netherland ambassador, to whom I was particularly recommended by my friend Mr. E. When I waited on the Baron de Zuylen, I was most kindly received, and during the whole stay I made at Pera, I was constantly indebted to the hospitality and ami able attentions of himself and lady. By the Vol. ii. b UECOMMEN I. ATIONS. ambassador's advice I called on Mr. S , an English merchant, who had not considered it necessary to leave Constantinople with Mr. Stratford Canning, and who had been nomi nated by the Turkish authorities as a sort of deputy, or representative ofthe British subjects that had remained, like himself.

It was consi dered necessary that he should present me to the governor of the Christian suburbs of Pera and Galata. To Mr. S I was also kindly recommended by my friend E. as to an upright and hospitable Englishman, whose society could hardly fail to be agreeable in a place where there were only two other Englishmen besides himself. He conducted me at once to the Bey, who was no less a personage than Achmet Pa pooshji, a few years before a maker of slippers (as his name implies) at Galata, where he was now governor, and a few months after capitan pascha, or high admiral of the Ottoman em pire. I have already, I believe, more than once alluded to the rapidity of promotions like the present, and to the facility with which the Turks generally assume manners and dignity adapted to their altered circumstances ; I have hinted too, that much of this may depend on the adventitious aid of dress, and flowing robes.

With this great set-off Achmet Papooshji was ARRESTS. unprovided ; he wore the simple dress of a tactico officer, which hung shabbily on him, and did nothing to conceal a low, vulgar person, and a more vulgar face, on which canaille was written in characters so pronounced and legible, that " those that run might read." We found him seated in a small room at the Turkish can celleria, or general police office, &c. at Galata. He was on a sofa, covered with scarlet cloth, and was of course smoking. His chibookji sat on the floor, with his eye fixed on the important pipe-bowl ; and some half dozen of fellows in gilt jackets, and armed to the teeth, stood in the corners of the room, or by the door. Ach met received us very uncourteously, and when Mr. S presented me as an Ingliz, a traveller who had come to pass a few weeks at Stam bool, he merely said, that I remained under the responsibility of Mr. S , and dismissed us.

The secret, the motive of this incivility, I was soon informed of. After the departure of the English ambassador, the Porte had thought proper to meddle with our subjects, the Maltese and Ionians,- who here, as at Smyrna, live in great numbers, and who, to tell the plain truth of them, are not always the most orderly and respectable of men. Hundreds of these fellows had been arrested by the Bey's guards in the b ANECDOTES OF THE SULTAN. streets of Pera and Galata, and without any time being allowed them for preparation, were heaped on board of small and unsafe ships, and sent down to the Dardanelles. The professed object of government was to clear the capital of a set of vagabonds, and not to molest any respectable persons ; but the measure, like all others, was varied in its application by the offi cers entrusted with its execution, and Achmet Papooshji, who was at the head of it, caused many respectable men to be seized in the streets.

This could be turned to his advantage in two manners; he could sell his protection and a permission to remain, to the persons thus seized, or by sending them off instanter, he could put his seal on their property, and help himself with impunity. He had in this manner disposed of the person of a respectable Ionian doctor, who had at the time of his arrest a certain small box containing 20,000 piastres, carefully deposited at his lodgings. This box had fallen into the hands of Achmet, who had shown a strong disposition to keep it, and had been much enraged at my friend S. for bestirring himself in the matter, as he had done on receiv ing a letter from the poor Ionian. When I afterwards had occasion to visit Achmet with a gentleman who had no subject of dispute with him, 1 found him much more polite.

HIS ATTACHMENT TO WINE. I was told some curious stories of sultan Mahmood. The hostile invasion of his do minions did not as yet appear to give him much inquietude ; he busied himself with his new troops, as heretofore, and even made numerous parties of pleasure, which neither he nor his predecessors for a long time had been accustomed to. One of the most singular of these, was an excursion in boats to Princes' islands in the sea of Marmora, where he had macle the Greeks, the only inhabitants of the place, dance and sing before him, and the festivity of the day was concluded late in the even ing by the explosion of a fire-ship — his highness being curious to witness the partial effect of that dreadful engine of war, which he has of late had occasion to hear so much of, and to pay so dearly for.

Some of the discontented Os manlis (who then evidently formed a considerable body at the capital, as well as in Asia Minor, where I had recently listened to their complaints) said he must be mad, whilst certain rayahs whispered he was only drunk. The latter opinion, that the sultan drank wine, and occasionally to excess, I may mention in pass ing, was pretty generally entertained at Con stantinople. These assertions it is of course difficult to prove or disprove, but they < were DEPAKTUKE OF TROOPS. countenanced to a certain degree, by an irregu larity of purpose, and by the emanation of violent measures, conceived in the night, and sometimes, though not always, abrogated in the morning ; and confirmed (if my informant told the truth) by the fragments of certain long necked bottles, which are never seen to contain any thing but good French wines, that were now and then espied thrown in heaps in the garden of a small lonely kiosk on the hills of Asia, close behind the beautiful village of Kan derli, to which the sultan was wont to resort nearly every evening during the summer of 1828.

The usual associate in these convivial moments, was said to be his selictar or sword bearer. To judge from what I saw and heard, the Turkish spirit was at this moment decidedly low. The mass seemed to wait the events of fate with cold indifference ; but those who really interested themselves for the honour of their prince and country expressed a conviction, that if England and France would but keep out of the quarrel they could cope with the Rus sians. Although the empire was threatened, and, indeed, already invaded at two of its ex tremities, in Europe and in Asia, few reinforce ments had been sent to support the troops of THE SERASKIER. the Pashas on the spot ; and so slowly were these reinforcements furnished on the most im portant, or European side, that had the Russians made a rapid march, instead of losing their time on the Danube, they would have found the Balkan mountains comparatively without defence, and Varna might have been taken by a coup-de-main.

Even so late as the middle of July there were not ten thousand Turks at Shumla, and the redoubts were yet to be put in order, or made, as well as other dispositions, which, when completed, and added to the natural strength of that mountain hollow, merited for the place its Turkish appellation of " The Gates of Iron." On the morning of my arrival (the twenty first of May) the Seraskier, the celebrated Husseim Pasha, the destroyer of the Janissaries, left Constantinople at the head of ten thousand men, all irregulars, and a great part of them horsemen. Nourhi Pasha marched three days after with an inconsiderable body, mixed with which were two weak battalions of the new or regular troops. I saw the last-mentioned body start from Daut-pasha, an elevated spot over looking the walls of Constantinople and the holy suburb of Eyoob, whence the armies of the sultan take their departure ; and certainly no TURKISH ARMS. military exhibition could be less imposing.

The zebecks, or levies from Asia Minor, armed and equipped, as I have described them in chapter thirteenth, were the most numerous part of this motley corps d'armee, and mixed with these were above five hundred irregulars, on horseback, mounted generally on miserable hacks, not at all superior to the common run of the caravan or post horses of the country, and armed in the strangest and most varied manner. The scime tar, which they were once so famed for, was a rare weapon ; but twenty or thirty of them bore long spears in their hands, similar, and not superior, to those I had seen used by the Tur comans to drive their cattle. The tacticoes were for the greater part mere striplings, and so ragged and dirty that they looked as if they were returning from a campaign instead of starting for one ; their muskets, of inferior French manufacture, like those of the tacticoes at Smyrna, were dirtily kept, furnished with bayonets of different lengths, and not rarely unprovided with any such weapon.

All those on foot, regulars or irregulars, seemed to eye with peculiar envy their companions on horse back. I saw no field-pieces : and three arabas, and about a dozen mules and horses, driven by katerdjis, could have carried but an insufficient sultan's superstition. 9 commissariat. The sight of Christians at the departure of Osmanlis for a war has been considered ill-ominous, and has seldom failed insuring to the Ghiaours thus showing them selves much abuse, if nothing worse. But the sultan may say, and the fact is honourable to him, " Nous avons change tout cela : " for now (I speak of Constantinople, and not of the pro vinces) Franks may be present by dozens without molestation. At Daut-pasha, on the contrary, I received civility; for an officer made me a sign to ride to an elevation near the barracks, whence he and others (all of the im perial guard) were observing the hasty review of the troops that preceded their marching, the auspicious moment for which had been calcu lated by a munedjim or astrologer of high repu tation.

A man who has shown the strength and superiority of mind that Sultan Mahmood has unquestionably done, might be supposed to have emancipated himself from the trammels of a degrading superstition ; but be it remem bered he is still a Turk, his superiority is elicited only by comparison with his own barbarous race and predecessors ; and we should be guilty of folly if, in our admiration of the good qualities he may possess, we give him ASTROLOGER. credit for others which, from education and situation, he can have no conception of : if we make of him, as too many have done, a miracle of intelligence and talent — the regenerator of a countless people ; the creator of armies com pared to whom the great Czar Peter is an unenlightened savage, and Frederic of Prussia nothing but a drill-serjeant. Mahmood retains near his person, as his predecessors have done, though astrology is denounced by the Koran* as a crime only inferior to idolatry, a munedjim bashi or head astrologer ; and it has been said, in circumstances of extraordinary hazard and difficulty, he has had also recourse to other seers and conjurors, of whom he had learned extraordinary things from his courtiers and officers, who are just as superstitious as the mob.

The following story was current at Con stantinople a short time after my arrival. I pretend not to have penetrated the recesses of the imperial kiosks, or to have had opportunities » According to the Koran it is an act of positive infidelity to believe in the predictions of fortune-tellers. D'Ohhson adds, " Dans cette proscription de l'astrologie judiciare et des divinations, les docteurs comprennent encore la magie, la cabale, les augures, les songes, le calcul de nombres — en un mot tout ce qui a rapport aux sciences theurgiques." And yet in spite of text and commentary, there is not per haps a set of people on the face ofthe earth more addicted than the Turks to the practices denounced. TURKISH SEERS. 11 of observing a sultan's private amusements or occupations : I can hardly vouch for the truth of the ridiculous tale, but it was in the mouth of all the Turks.

It is strikingly in character, and may amuse as a specimen of Osmanli ingenuity. The story is this : — The sultan sent for a conjuror of repute, to learn from him what would be the result of the war in which he was already engaged with Russia, and of the prospective difficulties with England and France. The conjuror brought into his presence four cocks: each of these cocks he selected to represent a nation — thus, one was England, another France, one Russia, and one Turkey. He placed Turkey in the centre of the kiosk, and then threw England, France, and Russia upon him. But the three cocks, instead of falling upon Turkey, presently began to fight among themselves ; the combat was indeed general, but in pairs : — Turkey had most bottom — he fought the longest, and re mained conqueror of the field, while Russia was severely treated, and had one of his wings broken.

The inference was plain, — the sultan was to be more confident of success than ever — his army must beat the Muscovites, and the French and English would cry out, aivala* * Aivala, a common Turkish expression, equivalent to bravo ! bravo ! TYPICAL REPRESENTATIONS. The typical representation might do honour at least to the necromancer's quickness of per ception and knowledge of human nature, under political modifications. The three allies being thrown on Turkey, and then fighting among themselves, is a good idea; and as his object was to flatter, he would have been a fool not to choose the gamest cock of the four for the emblem of the Moslemin empire. Other pro fessors, however, were less favourable and auspicious: they practised among the vulgar, and not in the serrais of the great. The effect produced on a credulous people might be bad, and it was not thought beneath the care of government to check or suppress them : the sultan would have no seers nor prophets but such as saw and predicted in his way.

In the month of April, a certain Turk of Constantinople asserted that a sainted hadji, long since defunct, had appeared to him several times on the point of a minaret of the mosque nearest to the spot where his ashes reposed, and had announced in solemn terms the calamities of the empire, which would result from the sultan's subversion of the law and usages of the people of the prophet. As this voice from the other world coincided with the opinions and prejudices of thousands of BOOKS, PRINTING, &C. 13 Turks in this, it rapidly circulated through the city, and could hardly fail of reaching ears to which it was disagreeable; it came to those of the sultan, who, declaring the Stambooli seer to be a child of the devil, had him severely bastinadoed ; a process which was said to have completely destroyed his supernatural percep tions for the future.

To explain the nature and tendency of his numerous reforms, military and civil, already in operation, or projected, and to conciliate the minds of the Moslemins, Sultan Mahmood had recourse to a measure extraordinary in an oriental despotism; he addressed public opi nion! A work, entitled "The Basis of Vic tory," was composed, under his superintendence, by the most enlightened of the few pretenders to literature, that still illuminate the Turkish capital. The prejudice for manuscript copies was despised:* it was desired that the work should circulate widely and rapidly, and it was elegantly printed at the * The Turks do not like printed books. Among their objections to them is the childish one, that the letters are not tied together with flourishes, &c. When Selim established his printing-presses, so great was the clamour raised against the innovation by the numerous body of katibs or scribes, who live by copying the Koran, that the sultan saw himself constrained to apply BOOKS, PRINTING, &C. press established by the unfortunate Sultan Selim, at the Asiatic suburb of Scutari.

I was much surprised at the elegance of the volume: it was about the size of our larger octavo, but broader, and still more resembled the form of the small quarto impressions ofthe Spaniards.* The types were set, and the sheets drawn by Armenians: a portion of the rayahs that I have already described as possessing considerable mechanical dexterity. Christendom had fur nished the paper; for of the two manufactories established by the same ill-starred reformer, one, at the bottom of the port of Constantinople, near " Les Eaux Douces," had been abandoned: and the other, on the Asiatic bank of the Bosphorus, opposite to Therapia, can furnish but a coarse, thick article, which, though used by the Turks in their common writing with reeds, could not be adapted to printing. I saw some copies of this book very prettily bound in Morocco.

This popular measure of the sultan, which I have designated as extraordinary, has however one solitary precedent. In the time of Sultan to the mufti. Afetwa came from the head of the church and law, declaring the new mode of impression lawful, — all books might be printed except the Koran, i. e. the only book the Turks ever read. * It contained about four hundred pages. CHEL1BI-EFFENDI. 15 Selim, Chelibi-Effencli,* one of the principal dignitaries of the empire, and a man revered for his age and reputed wisdom, drew up a * This Chelibi-Effendi was a most extraordinary old man, and in the estimation of some of my friends of Con stantinople, who had known him well, by far the most enlightened and most moral Turkish grandee of modern times. He had occupied nearly all his life, and under different administrations, posts of the greatest distinction ; and miraculously surviving the fall of his beloved master, Sultan Selim, and the short reign of the imbecile Musta pha, on the accession of the present Sultan Mahmood, Chelibi-Effendi became his bosom-friend and counsellor.

The Osmanli Nestor died a few years ago, and his me mory is held in admiration and affection by all classes. The reader may remember the horrors that were com mitted by the Janissaries on the deposition of Sultan Selim. The streets of Constantinople ran with blood. Not only all those who had been actively engaged in the Nizam-Djedid, but all those who were known or supposed to be favourable to it, were remorselessly butchered ; and as Chelibi-Effendi was most distinguished among the former class, and as the publication of his work in defence of reform, in which he even treated the whole body of the Janissaries with contempt and galling derision, must have rendered him peculiarly amenable to their revenge, his escape was indeed miraculous. It is eloquently and cor rectly described by M. T. Juchereau.

" Deux hommes seuls entre les proscrits echapperent a leur condamnation. L'un d'entre eux (the other was' Achmed-Bey, intendant of the regular troops) Tcheleby- Effendi, qui avait toujours occupe les plus hautes dignites et qui jouit encore en ce moment de 1' entiere confiance du sultan regnant, s'etait sauve dans la maison d'un jardinier THE BASIS OF VICTORY. defence and explication of the reforms of the day, and applying more particularly to the institution of the Nizam-Djedid, the reform of the Janissaries, and the formation of disciplined troops on the European model. And indeed to judge from copious translations I had made to me from the volume, " The Basis of Victory" seemed but a repetition and extension of the grec. La mort etait le chatiment certain de tous ceux qui donnaient asile aux proscrrts.

(And this poor man was a rayah moreover!) Une recompense considerable a prendre sur les biens des victimes etait assuree aux vils denoncia teurs, qui les livreraient a la vengeance du peuple. Rien n'avait pu tenter cet honnete jardinier; les recherches, a l'egard de Tcheleby-Efendi, avaient dure vingt-quatre heures. La fureur du peuple commencait a se calmer, lorsque cet ancien ministre ennuye de vivre dans les alarmes continuelles, sortit volontairement de son asile et alia s'offrir avec calme devant Cabakchy-Oglu (a savage who headed the mob). Sa resignation, sa barbe blanche, son air de douceur, son attitude noble et son silence firent une vive impression ser les spectateurs. Les assassins eux memes se sentirent emus. Cabakchy voyant sur tous les visages les signes du respect et de l'attendrissement, s'ecria, &c. "•Qu'il vive, qu'il vive!' s'ecrierent mille voix, 'c'est un honnete homme; il merite d'etre sauve.' Ce meme ministre qu'on avait cherehe la veille avec zele et acharne ment, sevit entoure a l'instant d'un nombreuxcortege dans lequel se trouvaient des hommes dont les habits etaient teints du sang de ses collegues, et fut ramene en triomphe dans sa maison." — Revolutions du Constantinople.

Paris. 1819. THE BASIS OF VICTORY'. 17 work of Chelibi-Effendi. Like its predecessor and its model, it exposes, that the empire of the Crescent, once so glorious, has been shorn of its beams; and now, instead of inspiring terror to the infidel nations, is reduced to feel it in its own bosom. This change is attributed to the demoralization of the Janissaries, and to the ridiculous prejudices of the Moslemins, — prejudices falsely pretended to have their origin in religion, and in the institutions of the prophet, — against adopting the discipline and military improvements of their enemies. The original formation of the body of Janissaries is described, and praise bestowed on their subordination and gallantry, and on the glorious exploits that marked their career, as long as they retained their original virtue, as long as they were the foremost band under the Sangiac of Islamism, for defence or for conquest.

This they had long ceased to be; and it is shown how, from dutiful subjects, they had become turbulent traitors, how the Odas or Barracks, which they were bound to live in, by their law, were deserted for their private shops and houses, and the resorts of the idle and vicious ; how from soldiers they had become mere baccals or trucksters, keepers of coffee-houses, porters, and boatmen ; and how they had been Vol. ii. c NIZAM-OJEDID. brought to consider the only part of military duty an attendance on pay-days, and to com pensate for their shameful deficiences when in the field, and in the face of the enemy, by their brawling, their insults, and commotions, when restored to the capital.* In short, they were no longer what they had been, and a mere name could not entitle them to the privileges and immunities, the respect and honour, accorded to an invincible body, the heroes of the Crescent, the most faithful slaves of the Vice- * In the treatise on the Nizam-Djedid, the difference between the ignorant, disorderly armies of Turkey and the armies of the Franks, is admirably drawn, and in a man ner calculated to touch the Turks.

Some of old Chelibi- Effendi's sallies on the ineptitude, the vanity, and boastings of his countrymen, are extremely piquant. The following may be found amusing. " It is a certain fact we have often witnessed at the war, that many persons who, in the whole course of their lives, had never had a gun in their hands, but had passed their time in the exercise of some trade or peaceful calling, not know ing what to do, put their balls in their muskets first, and the powder on the top of the balls. It has often been shown by experience, that as these individuals do not know how to fire a gun, it would be much better for them to quit the army altogether, as their presence is an injury rather than a use, from the confusion they occasion. — Again, some of these undisciplined soldiers, not knowing the proper charge, ram down too much powder, burst their guns, and wound or kill not merely themselves, but their neighbours.

And again, many of our unpractised cavaliers who, when mounted on their coursers, believe themselves NIZAM-DJEDID. gerent of the Prophet, whose obedience was equal to their valour. Sultan Selim said as much as this, to justify the reform premeditated on the redoubted corps. and now that the Janissaries had not been re formed, but destroyed, the repetition might be available to Sultan Mahmood, to give a colour to the measure he had pursued with so much the heroes of the age, and will not deign to salute their very fathers, when they come to draw their sabres in battle they flourish them about so unskilfully, that they wound the heads of their own horses, and cover with blood them selves and their beasts." The effendi, however, is not always so jocose ; and enlightened as he was, having the Turkish leaven with him, he tells the following barbarous story, proposing it as an example, and evidently regretting that it could not be re-enacted on the discontented murmurers in coffee-houses, taverns, and barbers' shops of his day.