216 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



comes from the hill-sides of Latakia, a seaport town of 

 Syria. It is a little singular that smoking, introduced into the 

 East not earlier than the seventeenth century, should have 

 taken such deep root that the Turks and the Persians are 

 now looked upon as the greatest smokers in the world. Men, 

 women, and children, with consummate skill, roll their lit- 

 tle cigarettes, — for they are never purchased ready made ; 

 and the yellow stain on the finger-tips is as characteristic 

 a mark as the black on the hand of a printer's devil. 



Coming now to the farm-yard, we find it abundantly pro- 

 vided with animal life. In every part of Turkey domestic 

 fowls are met with, and the traveler always finds eggs and 

 chickens, if nothing more. In European Turkey large flocks 

 of geese and turkeys are raised for the Constantinople mar- 

 ket, and are driven down from the inland farms, a distance 

 even of one hundred and fifty miles. This task is usually 

 performed by gypsies; and we have often wondered at the 

 unerring precision with which, with their hooked sticks, 

 they would suddenly arrest some lunatic goose in full career 

 of wings and feet. The hens are transported in crates on 

 the backs of horses. 



The Turkish horse is a smaller, hardier animal than ours. 

 It is more tractable, less nervous, has a better disposition, 

 and rarely runs away. It is broken only to be ridden, and 

 not driven; for, outside of the city of Constantinople, there 

 is not a pleasure carriage to be found in the whole empire. 

 In the cities all loads are carried on the backs of the porters, 

 or, suspended on poles, are carried by two or more of the 

 same class. In the country are to be found only the rudest 

 kinds of carts, drawn by bullocks or buffaloes, — the wheels 

 cut out of a solid piece of wood four or five inches thick; and 



