| CHARACTERS. 
pliant and prevaricating, praifes his 
commodity beyond meafure, and 
has generally to congratulate him- 
felf upon having outwitted the mof 
cautious dealer. The Arminian, 
heavy and placid, is roufed to ani- 
mation only by the fight of money, 
which he cannot withftand., As for 
the Jew, everywherea Jew, he is 
more frequently employed as a bro- 
ker, a bufinefs which that people 
have had addrefs enough to engrofs ; 
and fome acquit themfelves with 
honefty and credit. Thofe of the 
lower fort are walking auctioneers, 
who tramp over the bazars, carry 
the goods with them, vociferating 
’ the price laft offered. | Each of 
thefe nations, which conftitute the 
vat population of Conftantinople, 
has a different mode of covering the 
head: a circumftance foon learned, 
and which renders the groupes of 
figures fufficiently amufing, as it 
breaks the famenefs of their other 
drefs. The Armenians, Jews, and 
the mechanical Greeks, ufually 
wear blue, which the Turks con- 
fider as a difhonourable colour, and 
have their flippers of a dirty red lea- 
ther... = . ; 
_ The common trades are difpofed 
all of one kind in fingle ftreets. 
Shoe-makers, farriers, and pipe- 
‘makers, with many others, occupy 
each their diftinét diitrict, and are 
feldom found difperfed as in our 
éities. 
A room of very confiderable di- 
menfions, is called the bezeftin, or 
public exchange, where are colleét- 
ed fecond-hand goods, which are 
hawked about by the auctioneers. 
In another part are the farraffs, or 
money changers, Armenians, and 
ews. r 
I regret my incompetency to de- 
{eribe the various, mechanic arts 
1 
367 
which are pratifed in the eaft, and 
particularly by the Turks, fo diffe- 
rent from our own; and leave it to 
fome future vifitant well qualified. 
to give the hiftory of their manu- 
factures and the divers modes by 
which the fame effect is produced, 
and the fame utenfils are made. 
The neceffaries of life are welb 
managed, and the fhops of cooks, 
confectioners, and fruiterers are ex- 
cellently ftored,.and ferved with’ 
neatneis. For the greater part of 
the year, fherbets with ice are cried 
about the ftreeis at a very cheap 
rate. 
tive, but a dangerous trade, if they 
are not proof againft temptation to 
fraud. Their weights are examin- 
ed at uncertain times, and a com~ 
mon punifhment on detection is 
nailing their ear to the door-poft. 
Upon a complaint made to the late 
Vizier Mehmet Meilik, againft a no-~ 
torious cheat, he ordered him to be 
inftantly hanged. The mafter ef- 
caped, but the fervant, apoor Greek, 
perfeGly innocent, was executed. 
It was remarked to a Turk that this 
injuitice was foreign to the charac- 
ter for clemency which Melik bore? 
when he farcaftically replied “‘ The 
Vizjer had not yet breakfafted.” 
The coffee-houfes, whichabound, 
are fitted up in an airy Chinefe tafte, 
and curioufly painted. Within, they 
are divided into partitions or ftages 
without feats, for the Turks fit as 
the taylors in England. The re- 
fort of all ranks to them is univer- 
fal and conftant; and fome during 
the greater: part of the day which ° 
paffes, confume thirty or forty pipes, 
and as many cups of coffee, boiling 
hot, thick, and without fugar. 
Befides thefe, near the Ofmanic, 
areteriakhana, where (afioni) opi- 
um is fold; and. taken in gradation 
from 
The bakers exercife a lucra~ - 
