199 VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN SARDINIA, SICILY, MALTA, &c. IN 1811. BY JOHN GALT. CONSTANTINOPLE. THE extent and grandeur of this famous metropolis bave been greatly exaggerated. In-. stead of being, according to some travellers, twenty English miles in circumference, 1 doubt if it be near twelve. Were the port, with the channel of the Bosphorus, reduced to the breadth of the Thames, perhaps, with all Galata, Pera, and Scutari, Constantinople would not be equal to two-thirds of London; and it is not, like London, surrounded with a radiance of villages. Population. The population of Constanti nople has been as much over rated as the dimensions. Those who visit only the bazars must fall into a great error; for the appear. ance in them fully answers the ideas that are commonly entertained of the population. In the upper part of the town, and in the streets not leading immediately to the markets for merchandize and provisions, there is no bustle, but, in many places, an air of desolation. In southern climates, as the handicraftsmen work in open shops, a greater proportion of the inhabitants are visible than with us. In Constantinople, the workshops are generally open to the streets. Considering the stir in Palermo, the height of the buildings, and the huddling manuer in which the major part of the inhabitants live there, and comparing them with the appearance, generally, of Constantinople, the structure of the houses, and the domestic economy of the Turks, I am inclined to think that the capital of Sicily contains ten times the number, to the square mile, that Constantinople does. If there be a million in London and its suburbs, there certainly is not half that number in the whole of the Ottoman metropolis, including Scutari, as well as Galata and Pera, with all the other little dependencies connected with them, but known to the inhabitants by other names. Appearance of the City.-The superb distant prospect of Constantinople only serves to render more acute the disappointment which The arises from its interior wretchedness. Constantinople, seen from the harbour, greatly resembles Lordon, seen from the Thames. If it has no single feature comparable to St. Paul's Cathedral, the great moschs are splendid edifices; and the effect of the whole view is greatly superior to any that can be taken of London. Seraglios-The grand seraglio of the Sultan presents a confused assemblage of objects, houses, domes, trees, and pavilions. Many f the domes are surmounted with gilded ornaments, and the view is very elegant; but there' is no central point of grandeur to rest on. The spectacle, however, tends to fill the mind with the fictitious images of Oriental pomp. I had not an opportunity of seeing the state apartments; and the ladies having come in from the summer-palace, permission to see the other chambers of the inner court could not be procured. But a gentleman, who once obtained access into the interior of the se raglio, has described the harem to me as consisting of very ordinary apartments. The floor of the principal room was covered with four English Bru sels carpets, of different patterns; and, in another, he saw a number of English engravings. Bat nothing either rich or strange seemed to have struck his fancy. The pavilion in which the Sultan receives the public visits of the Captain Pashaw, is not difficult of access. It is a neat little square edifice, surrounded with a colonnade of unpolished marble, and crowned with a dome. It stands on the outside of the ancient embattled wall of the gardens, looking towards Pera. The ceiling, between the pillars and the inner building, is divided into quadratures, | painted dark blue. The divisions are gilded, and the walls are encrusted with porcelain and marble. Here the Sultan reposes on a throne of silver, lulled by the murmur of the sea, the hum of the cities, and sound of a fountain that plays at his feet. Notwithstanding all the glitter, and the costly splendour of the throne, few persons would prefer this pavilion to the temples in the gardens of Stowe. Nevertheless, it is a work of taste, for it is consistent in all its parts, and the subordination of parts is well preserved; but there is no object presented to the imagination. There are several summez palaces on the banks of the Bosphorus. Taken altogether, the residences of the Sultan form a truly im perial establishment: but the art of the laudscape-gardener is unknown at Constantinople; and the finest scenery in the world is neither valued nor admired. Buildings. The chief moschs are the great ornaments of this capital; but, though stately structures, it is impossible to look at them long without being disposed to think of oldfashioned cupboards, where punch-bowls, turned upside-down, are surrounded with inverted || tea-cups, pepper-boxes, and candlesticks. Mr. Canning having precured a firman, to allow the British travellers to visit the moschs, we assembled early in the morning, and, followed by a crowd of other curious strangers who availed themselves of the opportunity, proceeded to the celebrated St. Sophia. The present exterior of this building has no architectural symmetry; it consists of clumsy buttresses, raised to preserve it from the effects of the earthquakes that have so often threatened it with total ruin; and they conceal the whole of its original form. The interior, however, is very grand; the dome being shallower than that of St. Paul's, has the appearance of being larger. The supporters of the dome are so arranged, as to make the general effect resemble, in some degree, a vast pavilion; but, as a work of scientific art, St. Sophia must be considered as a very clumsy structure. The ornaments of the capitals of the columns seem designed rather to imitate feathers than the acanthus, and the native beauty of the marbles is not euriched by any shew of taste or skill. In point of workmanship it is immensely inferior to Westminster Abbey. Ten thousand men are said to have been employed in the construction of the St. Sophia, and nearly six years were consumed in completing it. The most remarkable of its ornaments are eight columns of red porphyry, which Aurelian placed originally in the Temple of the Sun, and eight others of green porphyry, a gift from the magistrates of Ephesus. It is two hundred and sixty-nine feet long, and two hundred and fortythree broad. Schools. As in Christendom during the dark ages, asy learning that exists among the Turks is possessed by the priesthood. The schools attached to the moschs founded by the sultans, may be regarded as institutions similar to the colleges which were formerly connected with the Roman Catholic cathedrals. Several are supported by revenues arising from certain villages or territorial endowments; but they chiefly d pend on allowances from the public income of the state. Hospitals-There are two hospitals in Pera for the plague; and in Constantinople several for ordinary invalids. Except one for the insane, I believe that all the others are supported by the Christians. I visited the Turkish bedlam. The building, on the outside, is plain and simple; but the court, around which the cells are constructed, is built of marble, and the arcades resemble those of the Royal Exchange of London. Never having seen the interior of a mad-house, I was greatly shocked. Several of the patients, almost entirely naked, were fastened by chains fixed to iron collars round their necks, and sat at the grating of their windows, like savage anima's in cages. The rooms were cleanly enough; and I could not avoid noticing, that all the patients had learned to ask money, except one, who appeared to be depraved beyond the power of description to delineate. In one of the cells a young man, who was in a state of stupid melancholy, held out his hand instinctively. His face was pale, and his features assumed a slight cast of curiosity when we entered; but there was no speculation in bis eyes. One of his friends, who had come to see him, was using a number of artifices to attract his attention; but he continued regardlessly to glare. In another cell, we met several ladies, with their slaves and children, diverting themselves at the expence of a merry madman. A young Turk, who was with them, collected paras for the entertainment. A more facetious lunatic, as we passed the door of his room, invited us to enter. His countenance was cheerful, and he professed to be contended. The physician of this hospital was an old, and, as far as beard served, a venerable personage. He told us, that there were four great classes of insanity, distinguished by their causes: First, madness, which came from fevers. Second, melancholy, which came from the fires in the city, or other great misfortunes. Third, phantasy, which came from wrong conceptions of the imagination. Fourth, fits of delirium, which were produced by the magical devices of enemies. The first kind of insanity, he assured us, was rarely cured; but the second and third, often and easily. The fourth, however, was incurable, unless the enchanter could he discovered, and obliged to break up his spell! but it is a mistake to suppose that the patient after recovery, is not again liable to the dis ease. The great preventive of the contagion, is the interruption of the intercourse; but there is a species of vinegar, which, when drawn up in the nostrils, is supposed to afford no small degree of security. It is called the vinegar of the four thieves, having been invented by four wretches of Marseilles, who, during the great plague there, entered and plundered the infected houses with impunity. This fact seems to be universally admitted, that strong odours are of great utility in the prevention of the disease; the obvious inference from which is, that proper fumigations would reduce its violence. Fruits and humid substances, do not retain or communicate the infection; but all dry substances, and living animals, convey it; and the latter are liable, themselves, to the disease, the symptoms and progress of which are similar to those which take place on the human subject. In the course of the malady, the patient must carefully abstain from gross food of every kind, and also from crude fruits, living sparingly, on the most meagre diet. Barracks -The barracks of the janizaries, and of the sailors, are large and handsome buildings, equal, both in appearance and neatness, to any in England. The arsenals are also worth seeing, although they do not furnish any thing for a descriptive pen. The dry dock was constructed, in the reign of the late Selim, by a Swedish engineer, who was, at the time, liberally encouraged; but has since been neglected. The Plague. When the great population of this town is considered, the narrowness of the streets, the quantity of putrid matter constantly lying in them, and the covered bazars excluding the fresh air, it is not surprizing, in a cl.mate subject, occasionally, to extreme heats, that the inhabitants should often be visited by pestilence. The substance of the information that I collected from a person who had endured the disease, and attended the infected for some time, in one of the hospitals, is as follows:-The symptom first perceived by the patient, is a painful sensation, resembling the pricking of a lancet, or the sting of an Bazars-The bazars are of great length, insect. The sensation is so sharp, that, if it commonly about twenty feet in width, lighted takes place in sleep, it never fails to awaken from the roof, with recesses on each side, in the person. Soon after, an obtuse pain is feit which the merchandize is displayed. Each in the head, a fever ensues, and, in the course recess is a shop, and the handsomest are surof four and twenty hours, tumours make their mounted with little domes. The shopkeepers appearance in the groin and armpits. If the sit cross-legged, on platforms, in front of their disease is to prove fatal, the patient never goods. The platforms serve also for counters. again falls asleep, but the fever and tumours In many of the bazars the shops have small increase till he dies: otherwise, the head-ache ware-rooms behind. The Greek and Armenian and fever abate at the end of the four-and- merchants retire to their private houses before twenty hours, and he enjoys repose. Death sunset; the Turks generally earlier; and the generally takes place before the suppuration of gates are closed before dark. The bazars, for the tumours: when the suppuration has ar- the most part, are the property of companies, rived at maturity, death is not apprehended; "who let out the shops to the merchants. No. XXXI. Vol. V.-N. S. Сс the Circus, in St. George's Fields, London. I have seen two of the great cisterns constructed for supplying the city antiently with water. The one, which the Turks call by a name descriptive of a thousand and one pillars, is dry, and occupied by silk twisters. It is a vast subterranean building. The roof is sustained by a triple tier of pillars, as I was told; but only the third, and part of the second tiers, are above the earth. The other cistern is more magnificent, but not so easy of access, as it is under the house and gardens of a Pashaw. Although the vaulting, in several places, has fallen in, it still serves to collect the water from the aqueduct. The aqueduct, which brings the main supply of water to Constantinople, is a solid and stately fabric. It passes through the city like a great artery, from which the pipes of the public fountains procead in ramifications like veins. It was ori ginally planned by Adrian, for the use of By Several belong to the government, and are farmed by individuals and companies. Strangers, from the appearance in the bozars, are apt to be as much deceived with respect to the riches of this capital, as with the population. A vast quantity of opened merchandize is at once presented to the eye; for a bazar is a great ware-room, in which the stocks of many appear as the property of one. People accustomed to the detached shops of London, large and opulent as they are, cannet pass, for the first time, through the bazers of Constanti nople, without an emotion of surprize; but, when, in subsequent visits, the shops are considered individually, and the probable value of their contents is estimated, with the nun.ber of persons apparently interested in them, the stock will be found comparatively very small. Antiquities. In so great a city as Constantinople, and which has suffered less from its conquerors than is generally thought, there cannot but be many curious remains, that tra-zantium, and bore his name till repaired by vellers neither hear of nor have an opportunity of seeing. Of the hippodrome, only three of the ornaments that decorated the middle of the area remain. The most eminent is the obelisk of granite, which still rests on four blocks of bronze, on a pedestal of white marble, adorned with bas reliefs. The hierogly phics on the obelisk, who shall explain? The bas reliefs seem to represent, or rather, as it might be expressed, to reflect the appearance of the theatre when filled with spectators. On the basement of the pediment, there is the representation of a spectacle of the circus. Near the obelisk stands the column of the brazen serpents, which anciently supported the golden tripod consecrated to the Oracle of Delphos after the defeat of Xerxes. When Mahomet the Second made his triumphal entry into Constantinople, it is said that as he passed along under this well-authenticated fragmeht of antiquity, he shattered, with his battle-axe, the jaw of one of the serpents. All their heads have since been broken off. About as far from the serpents as they are distant from the Egyptian obelisk, stands another obelisk, which was formerly covered with bas-reliefs in bronze. The apex overhangs the base; and it is evidently doomed to fall soon. In height and appearauce it resembles the obelisk, near Valens. Justinian took away part of the lead Arts and Manufactures.-I have not been their feedom; and the uniformity with which they dress, when they go abroad, furnishes the licentious with abundant opportunities of indulgence. No restriction is laid on their intercourse with each other; and I question if Scandal be less eloquently worshipped in the harams of Constantinople than in the boudoirs and drawing rooms of Paris and London. The Turkish ladies freely frequent the shops, and chat with the mercers, undervaluing the gaudy commodities on which their hearts and eyes are set, with as many contemptuous tosses and accents as the best bargain-makers in Christendom. Nor are they without their due share of individual consequence and dignity, not able to learn that the Turks have any arts or manufactures which may be considered as peculiarly their own; but, as every separate civilized community generally excel in the manipulation of some one particular thing at least, the Turks have, no doubt, also, their masterpiece. In the making of tobacco-pipes they certainly as much excel us as they exceed us in the use of them; but this is an excellence rather granted than the result of superior skill. The boring of a straight stick never can be considered as a difficult process; far less as one that our mechanics would conceive it necessary to study. The Turks perform their handicraft operations sitting. Their machinery is very rude; but they make up, in knack || withstanding the polygamy which the bus. and dexterity, for the want of more ingenious aids. At their turning lathes they employ their toes to guide the chissel; and in these pedipulations, shew to Europeans a diverting degree of address. The tints of the colours produced by the dyers of Constantinople, have long been justly admired, and never yet excelled by ours. They have one colour which is not yet known, at least not made, by any of our dyers. It resembles, in brightness and beauty, the scarlet extracted from the cochi neal. It Women. The state of the women in Turkey is one of the greatest curiosities which the empire affords. Accustomed to hear and to read of their secluded apartments, and the dinger and difficulty of obtaining access to them, I was rather surprized to find, in fact, much less difference in their condition from that of our own females than I thought reconcilable to the doctrines of Mahomet. must always be held in mind, that the Turks are a singularly grave people; that they have no public amusements which the women frequent, and that even their meals are regarded in some sort, with religious solemnity. This sedate decorum is not favourable to the liberty of the lighter sex; and the institutes of their religion, by prescribing limits to those with whom the women may unveil their faces, imposes a restraint apparently as strong as that which seems to be the result of the natural taciturnity of the men. Still, however, considering the state of society in the country, the women cannot be regarded as stiuted in bands are allowed. The second person in the state, corresponding in rank to the Christian Queens, is the Sultana mother. Her public officers are grandecs of the first class; and her annual revenue is fully eighty thousand pounds sterling. Turks may marry the sisters of their wives, but not more than one at a time. Younger brothers may marry the widows of their elder, but the elder are not permitted to marry those of the younger. Elder brothers enjoy a superior rank, approximating to that of fathers. They are permitted to see the faces of the wives of the younger. Divorces in Turkey may take place, at any time, by mutual consent; but whenever the husband repudiates the wife, he is obliged to bestow on her a provision proportioned to his circumstances. Divorces are recorded in the same Chancery in which marriages are registered. Adultery is a capital offence. The women are not permitted to frequent the public moschs; but there are priestesses who go from house to house on the purposes of religion, and who serve, in all respects, the duties of male ecclesiastics; an arrangement more delicate than that of the Roman and Greek churches. The custom of allotting to women a separate part of the house, though now pe culiar only to the professors of the principles of Mahomet, was general over all Europe till the middle of the fifteenth century; and the ancient domestic arrangement of the Greeks differed in nothing from that of their present masters. Society-The habits and modes of the Turks |