of Central European TurTcey. 249 



proper encouragement being given to companies to work 



For the discovery of new mines, engmeers should be ap- 

 pointed to examine the principal chains of mountains in Tur- 

 key ; and the mines should be worked by paid mmers, in 

 order to allay the fears of the Christians ; who are afraid to 

 give information about mines, in case the Turks should obhge 

 them to work, and thus add a new burden to their oppressive 



load of taxes. 



I may now add a few remarks on the moral and sanitary 

 state of the population. It is very remarkable, that, through- 

 out the whole of Turkey, the traveller meets with scarcely any 

 beo-c.ars : indeed, almost the only ones we saw were a very few 

 poor Turkish women. There certainly are poor, for misfor- 

 tune and improvidence exist every where in a greater or less 

 degree, but they are in much smaller numbers than in the rest 

 of Europe ; as living is very cheap, and it is very easy to get 

 sufficient money for purchasing the necessaries of life: besides, 

 for this reason, the poor can be more easily assisted by their 

 relations or by other people. In general the men are too proud 

 to beg on the roads ; but, if forced by absolute necessity, they 

 would rather become Haiduks or highway robbers, and ask 

 money pistol in hand. At present there are no robbers ex- 

 ceptino-'on the borders of the kingdom of Greece and of Mon- 

 leneo-ro • and even there a very few stations of gendarmes are 

 sufficient to secure safe travelling for the merchants, indeed, if 

 twelve or fifteen men are enough to protect twenty leagues of 

 hilly country, one may safely say that the country is quite secure. 

 The soldiers at the stations do not even always demand a 

 BaclMsh or pourboire ; but the payment of a few paras is not 

 much for a traveller when it secures his safety. One circum- 

 stance which struck me forcibly was, that I nowhere saw pec 

 pie employed gleaning in the fields after the crops had been 

 cut down When one establishes his bivouac at a distance 

 from a village, he occasionally commits the trifling theft, when 

 the maize is nearly ripe, of taking a few ears of it to be roasted 

 at the fire; great quantities of maize next the roads are also 

 eat by the horses in traveUing along, as the fields have no m- 

 closures. 



