FROM '' CONSTANTINOPLE/' 



Edmondo de Amicis. 



iONSTANTINOPLE has one 

 grace and gayety peculiar to 

 itself, that comes from an 

 infinite number of birds 

 of every kind, for 

 which the Turks nourish a warm 

 sentiment and regard. Mosques, groves, 

 old walls, gardens, palaces all resound 

 with song, the whistling and twitter- 

 ing of birds ; everywhere wings are 

 fluttering and life and harmony abound. 

 The sparrows enter the houses boldly, 

 and eat out of women's and children's 

 hands. Swallows nest over the cafe 

 doors, and under the arches of the 

 bazaars ; Pigeons in innumerable 

 swarms, maintained by legacies from 

 sultans and private individuals, form 

 garlands of black and white along the 

 cornices of the cupolas and around the 

 terraces of the minarets; Sea-gulls dart 

 and play over the water ; thousands of 

 Turtle-doves coo amorously among the 



cypresses m the cemeteries ; Crows 

 croak about the Castle of the Seven 

 Towers; Halcyons come and go in long 

 files between the Black Sea and the 

 Sea of Marmora ; and Storks sit upon 

 the cupolas of the mausoleums. For 

 the Turk, each one of these birds has 

 a gentle meaning, or a benignant 

 virtue : Turtle-doves are favorable to 

 lovers. Swallows keep away fire from 

 the roofs where they build their nests. 

 Storks make yearly pilgrimage to 

 Mecca, Halcyons carry the souls of the 

 faithful to Paradise. Thus he protects 

 and feeds them, through a sentiment 

 of gratitude and piety ; and they 

 enliven the house, the sea, and the 

 sepulchre. Every quarter of Stamboul 

 is full of the noise of them, bringing 

 to the city a sense of the pleasures of 

 country life, and continually relishing 

 the soul with a reminder of nature. 



There are several kinds of animals, 

 points out Cosmos, that have never 

 swallowed water. Among these are 

 the Lamas of Patagonia and certain 

 Gazelles of the far east, and a consider- 

 able number of reptiles — Serpents, 

 Lizards, and certain Batrachians — that 

 live and flourish where there is no 

 moisture. A kind of Mouse of the arid 

 plains of western America also exists 

 where moisture is said to be unknown. 



In the London Zoological Gardens a 

 Paroquet lived fifty-two years without 

 drinking a drop, and some naturalists 

 believe that Hares take no liquid 

 except the dew that sometimes forms 

 on the grass they eat. Even Cows and 

 Goats in France, in the neighborhood 

 of the Lozere, almost never drink, yet 

 they produce the milk from which is 

 made the famous Roquefort cheese. 



15S 



