408 VISIT TO THE CAPOUDAN PACflA. 



" What is the matter ?" said I, as soon as I could speak. 



" You put upon the back of a man a load that would squeeze the 

 hump of a dromedary into paras.* You may carry your yoke your- 

 self I will go no further with it." 



" My good friend," said I, " you mistake ; the chest is not so 

 heavy or you could not have mounted the hill so fast with it ; but 

 come, I am in a hurry, an extra grush will lighten the load." 



" Gently, gently," said he, waving his hand to and fro, to stay 

 my impatience, " there is no hurry. If it please Allah there is 

 time enough. The Deurt Yol is but a five minute piece from hence." 

 I thought this was cool enough; but so it is in Turkey. A Mussul- 

 man when serving an infidel always does it at his leisure ; and so my 

 Hamal, after taking some powdered coffee, t which he washed down 

 with a draught of water from the fountain, drew forth his tchibouque, 

 and striking a light with a chakmak and a piece of kav, J an appa- 

 ratus the Turks always carry about with them, sat himself down on 

 the marble basin of the fountain, and with an air of most imperturb- 

 able gravity, began to ply his pipe. He was a grim-looking well- 

 made vagabond, with huge naked legs, bearing a dolphin saillant vert, 

 which shewed him to have been a Galionghi a sailor in the Ottoman 

 fleet. As I saw there was no chance of frightening him into com- 

 pliance, I had recourse to a ruse " Come," said I, C( you must be 

 quick I am the bearer of despatches for the English ambassador." 



" Mashallah," said he, " will you throw dirt in my eyes ? Is the 

 Inghilis Eltgee like this saccal that he should rise at this hour ?" 

 The individual to whom he pointed was toiling up the hill with a 

 curiously shaped leather-bottle on his back, capable of containing four 

 or five gallons of water. 



" Salam al hakim," said the Hamal as the water-carrier arrived ; 

 to whom the latter responded, " Al hakim salam." 



The Turks have almost invariably fine voices, and they are never 

 heard to better effect than in the deep tones in which they are accus- 

 tomed to pronounce their salutation. Whenever the vowel a occurs, 

 it is produced a gorge deployee, rich, deep, full, and harmonious ; and 

 amongst the causes of the contempt which the Turks feel from the 

 Soldan to the meanest of his subjects and seldom fail to express for 

 the " Freuk kepecllcrri," that is to say, Frank dogs may be reckoned 

 next perhaps to our dress, which puts them in mind of a pair of 

 scissors the hissing, whistling, and fizzing of our pronunciation. I 

 have heard the vaunted " lingua Tuscana in bocca Romana," and 

 from a very pretty " bocca Romana" too, but the Turkish, with the 



" Para is a small copper coin so thin that the lightest wind will blow it 

 away. 



f Coffee to a Turk is absolutely indispensable rather than not have it at 

 all he will take it in powder. The Turks have a saying, that a cup of coffee 

 and a pipe form a complete entertainment. Some of the religious contend 

 that both are constructively forbidden by the Koran as coming under the ban 

 pronounced against intoxicating drugs. 



J Chakmak and kav, a flint and steel, and a very peculiar kind of touchwood. 



A water-carrier. The water-carriers, as do also the porters, form a very 

 numerous class in Constantinople. Each has its Bashi, or chief, and in cases of 

 emergency is called upon to act as police under his orders. 



