1822.] 
and accepted the command of a regi- 
ment of bombardiers : he was succeeded 
by a Scotchman, named Campbell, who 
also deserted Christianity for Mahome- 
dism, and who is buried in the same 
place. 
A’palace built by Lord Elgin, at the 
expence of thle Levant Company, is de- 
seribed at page 127 as agreeably sitn- 
ate; and the Bujukdere is thus charac- 
terized at page 244. 
Bujuk, great, and Dere, valley, is the 
name given to a village on the western 
shore of the Bosphorus, where the Chris- 
tian ambassadors from Europe have gene- 
rally planted their country-houses, or sum- 
mer residences; it is the continuationland- 
ward of a great bay, and terminates in a 
woody height crowned by the aqueduct of 
Baghje.. The bay was called by the an- 
eients, Bathykolpos, which name is still 
given to the streamlet which there rns into 
the sea. The bay was also named by the 
ancients the Saronic, from Saron, a mari- 
time hero, to whom the people of Megara 
had on this spot erected an altar. 
The great valley, which, as a continua. 
tion of the bay, stretches inland nearly two 
leagnes, might as justly be called the beau- 
tiful valley ; and, indeed, it was formerly 
named xadoz aypos ; and, at a later period, 
the meadows, or Libadia, which simple de- 
nomiaation is still applied to the public 
walk. ‘The meadow at Bujukdere is uot 
less frequented than the cemeteries of 
Pera; and here, as well as there, Greeks 
and Armenians, Turks and Franks, meet 
in-a common walk, without therefore 
mingling with each other. On the lower 
part of the meadow, which for its beauty 
deserves this name by excellence, arises 
one. of the finest groups of trees along the 
Bosphorus, cousisting of seven planes, 
ealled Jedi Kardash, or the seven brethren, 
It is pretended that Godfrey of Bouillon 
encamped on this meadow with his cru- 
saders in 1096 ; but, itis not likely that they 
should have stationed themselves so incon- 
veniently, as they had determined to cross 
from Kosmidion to Chalcedon. 
The village of Bujukdere consists of a 
lower and an upper town; in the former 
are houses of Greeks, Armenians, and 
Turks ; and, ia the latter, the villas of Eu- 
ropean envoys, surrounded by spacious gar- 
dens. Among these may especially be 
distinguished that of the Russian ambas- 
sador, for its symmetric structure and 
lovely position. The garden of Baron 
Grossthal, perhaps, deserves the preference 
even over that of the Russian resident. 
‘These palaces and villas encircle a beauti- 
ful quay, to walk on which isa favourite 
pastime of the dwellers at Bujukdere. In 
clear moonlight nights, when the dark blue 
of the heayens confonnds itself with that 
of the Bosphorus, when the twinkling re- 
1 
Hammer’s Constantinople and the Bosphorus. 
335 
flection of the stars bespangles the phos- 
phorescent lustre of the sea, when boats 
laden with Greek singers and guitar play- 
ers are gliding along the coast, and the 
tepid night-wind wafts ashore the Tonian 
melodies, when the silence of the listeners 
is often attracted, or interrupted, by 
lenesque sub noctem susurros, the quay of 
Bujukdere deserves that enthusiasm of 
admiration with which it has so often been 
hailed. ‘ 
Bulgurlu is also described as a finc 
point of view; but objects interesting to 
the seuses and to the reminiscence 
abound atevery turn. After completing 
the description of Constantineple and 
its environs Mr. Hammer divides tho 
several curiosities into contiguous groups, 
and sketches a plan for sceing them in 
six days, allotting to the first days pere- 
grination one sct, to the second another, 
and so forth, The work closes with a 
sketch of the living phenomena: here 
is a portion of it. 
THE TURKS. _ 
Of pure Tartar descent, the Turks'still 
wear traces of the nomadic habits of their 
ancestors, which have not wholly given way 
to half a millennium of culture. Notneg- 
lected by nature as to heart or understand- 
ing, they are wholly so as to taste; in so 
much, that the fairest blossoms of Persian 
or Arabian poetry, when adopted or trans- 
planted by them, wither, or degenerate 
into extravagant sprawlings. Simple, up- 
right, temperate, grateful, but also rude, 
unpolished, rapacious, and indolent, the 
Turks unite some of the good properties of 
the nomade, with some of the imperfec- 
tions of semi-civilization, and are only cor- 
rupt when they are connected with the go- 
vernment, and vitiated by it. They form 
the greater half of the population of Con- 
stantinople. 
‘ THE ARABS. ; 
Mostly born in Egypt, the Arabs com- 
pose but a small portion of the population 
of Constantinople, and have chiefly settled 
there as ostlers, porters, or sellers of 
sherbet. By their thin meagre figure, by 
the violence of their motions, by the viva- 
city of thei: muscular action, they are dis- 
tinguished from all other nations of the 
east advantageously, as the mostlively, irri- 
table, and fiery, unmistakable sons of the 
desert, whose language, like the burning 
simoom, snorts from the throat, and hisses 
like a sword quitting its scabbard. Always 
talkative and noisy, their common conver- 
sation seems to be a continual strife and 
quarrel. Of the three principal virtues of 
the Arab, bounty, bravery, and eloquence, 
the last at least has become scarce amon 
them, and even'the two former often yiel 
to the spirit of great cities, to the selfish- 
ness of commence, and to the expediencies 
of advancement. To the ‘Turks they ap- 
r pear 
* 
