IGO Tnrlcey, Constantinoptc, Egypt, £AuG. 



of his sword. A learned Ulcmn, a theologian and a lawyer (for here chicanery 

 and relif^ion go hand in hand), at length talks of astronomy and politics, how 

 the sun shines in the east and in the west, and, every where he shines, how he 

 beams on a land of jMussidmans ; how all the Padi shaws of Europe pay 

 tribute to the Sultan; and how the giaours of England are greater people than 

 the infidels of France, because they make better penknives and finer pistols ; 

 How the Dey of Algiers made a prisoner of the English admiral, in the late 

 engagement ; and, after destroying his fleet, consented to release him, on con- 

 dition of paying an annual tribute ; and how the Christian ambassadors came, 

 like dogs, to the footstool of the Sultan, to feed on his imperial bounty. After 

 this edifying piece of history, the Effendi takes his leave, with the pious ejacu- 

 lation of ' Maslialki,' how wonderful is God ; the waiter bows him out, over- 

 powered with gratitude for the third part of an English farthing, and the 

 proud EfFendi returns to his harem: he walks with becoming dignity along; 

 perhaps a merry-andrew, playing off his buffooneries, catches his eye, — he 

 looks, but his spirit smiles not, neither do his lips ; his gravity is invincible, 

 and he waddles onward, like a porpoise cast on shore : it is evident that nature 

 intended him not for a pedestrian animal, and that he looks with contempt on 

 his locomotive organs. This, my lord, though apparently a ridiculous por- 

 trait, is not surcharged, and is, indeed, rather a general picture, than an indi- 

 vidual likeness." 



Unfavourable as is this account of the Turks, the author is not a whit 

 more civil to the Greeks ; for " although," he says, he " never 

 found a Turk who kept his word when it was his interest to break it," 

 he adds, " but then I never knew a Greek who was not unnecessarily 

 and habitually a liar." Having determined to experience the effects of 

 that pestilent practice of eating opium, which is so common in Turkey, 

 he repaired to the market of Theriaki Tchachissy, where he seated 

 himself among the persons who were in the habit of resorting thither for 

 the purpose of enjoying (.^) this fatal pleasure. His description of those 

 victims to sensuality is very striking, and is enough to cure any man of 

 common sense of wishing to become an opium eater. 



" Their gestures were frightful ; those who were completely under the 

 influence of the opium talked incoherently, their features were flushed, their 

 eyes had an unnatural brilliancy, and the general expression of their counte- 

 nances was horribly wild. The effect is usually produced in two hours, and 

 lasts four or five : the dose varies from three grains to a drachm. I saw one 

 old man take four pills, of six grains each, in the course of tvro hours ; I was 

 told he had been using opium for five-and-twenty years ; but this is a very 

 rare example of an opium eater passing thirty years of age, if he commence 

 the practice early. The debility, both moral and physical, attendant on its 

 excitement, is terrible ; the appetite is soon destroyed, every fibre in the body 

 trembles, the nerves of the neck become affected, and the muscles get rigid ; 

 several of these I have seen, in this place, at various times, who had wry 

 necks and contracted fingers ; but still they cannot abandon the custom : they 

 are miserable till the hour arrives for taking their daily dose ; and when its 

 delightful influence begin i, they are all fire and animation. Some of them 

 compose excellent verses, and others addressed the bystanders in the most 

 eloquent discourses, imagining themselves to.be emperors, and to have all the 

 harems in the world at their command. I commenced with one grain ; in the 

 course of an hour and a half it produced no perceptible effect, the coffee-house 

 keeper was very anxious to give me an additional pill of two grains, but I was 

 contented with half a one ; and another half hour, feeling nothing of the 

 expected reverie, I took half a grain more, making in all two grains in the 

 course of two hours. After two hours and a half from the first dose, I took 

 two grains more ; and shortly after this dose, my spirits became sensibly 

 excited : the pleasure of the sensation seemed to depend on a universal expan- 



